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BOSTON -- So much for Deflategate having a lasting impact on the Patriots this season.New England has reached the halfway point of its 2016 season and enters its bye week -- surprise -- with the best record in the AFC.The Patriots battled through some early injuries and performed above expectations to go 3-1 with quarterback Tom Brady serving his four-game suspension at the start the season.But theyve quickly climbed back into championship form since his return, posting a 4-0 record and getting even for their lone setback of the season with a dominating 41-25 win over the Bills on Sunday.The numbers speak for themselves.Without Tom Terrific, the Patriots averaged 20.25 points and suffered their first shutout loss at Gillette Stadium -- 16-0 to Buffalo -- on Oct. 2.With Brady the offense is cruising, averaging 34 points and beating opponents by an average of 16.25 points.But Brady thinks his team can play even better.Its pretty early still. Weve got a long way to go, Brady said. I think 7-1 is good, but coach always says seven wins wont get you anything in this league and hes right. So we have a lot of football ahead. This is when it starts to get to feeling like football season.What is undeniable to this point is that New England is without peer in the AFC East where it is 2-1 against division foes. Second-place Buffalo (4-4) is three games behind with a 1/3 division record.Bills coach Rex Ryan said he thinks that anybody outside of the Patriots winning the division is already a longshot.That teams three games up on us and I think at the halfway point theyve lost one game. And No. 12 is back. So, yeah, I dont see that happening, Ryan said. I hope Im wrong.What might be even scarier for opposing AFC teams is that Brady already seems to have gelled with new additions such as Martellus Bennett and Chris Hogan, who are both excelling in their first year in offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels offense.Bennett has four touchdown catches and has caught six passes of at least 20 yards. His 50.2 yards per game average is also just shy of the 57.2 per game he averaged when he was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2014.Meanwhile, Hogan (two touchdowns, 391 yards receiving) is on pace to set career highs in both receiving yards and touchdowns.That doesnt even include the play of tight end Rob Gronkowski, who has posted three 100-yard receiving games and all three of his touchdowns this season since Bradys return.Its all helped to mask the shortcomings of a Patriots defense that has had to battle through injuries and uncharacteristic inconsistency.But that, too, is starting to subside with captain Donta Hightower starting to get into more of a groove after being slowed early by a knee injury.Improving on the defensive side of the ball will be a priority with a post-bye schedule that includes matchups with three NFC West teams, beginning with Seattle on Nov. 13.Well get a lot of teams were not very familiar with, coach Bill Belichick said. Obviously Seattle, Ive got a lot of respect for coach (Pete) Carroll and the Seahawks program, so thats a big test for us.---AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and http://twitter.com/AP-NFL---Follow Kyle Hightower on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/khightower Cheap Adidas Superstar Supercolor . The Australian is competing in his final season in Formula One and still looking for his first win this year. He will look to end Vettels run of six straight race wins on Sunday. Webber, who is fifth in the championship, earned his second pole from the past three races and 13th of his career. Cheap Adidas Shoes Wholesale . Hamelin, who triumphed in the 500 on Saturday, edged out Victor An of Russia by 0.021 seconds to maintain his lead in the World Cup standings. Russias Vladimir Grigorev was third. In the relay, Canada took control six laps from the finish line to beat Russia and the Netherlands. http://www.wholesalefashionsuperstar.com/cheap-adidas-superstar-white.html . Pedro scored from a pass by Lionel Messi in the 33rd minute and added two more goals in the 47th and 72nd after Valdes saved his second penalty in four days following his stop in Wednesdays 4-0 over Ajax in the Champions League. Cheap Adidas Superstar China Wholesale .ca! Kerry, Two nights after the Scott-Eriksson incident in Buffalo, the Bruins returned home to play San Jose. In that game, Zdeno Chara put a check on Tommy Wingels that clearly targeted his head. Cheap Adidas Superstar Shoes . Gather a group of friends, or find a league to join online, draft your team, set your lineup and compete in a number of different formats. Jerami Grant has been with the Oklahoma City Thunder since Nov. 1. Since then, he has played in three games but only took part in one practice, which came Sunday afternoon.Despite his lack of knowledge and experience with the Thunder, Grant has been a diamond in the rough for the team, averaging 6.4 points and three rebounds coming off the bench.In Grants first home game on Friday night against Minnesota, he blocked four shots and came up with a monster dunk over Cole Aldrich that got the fans out of their seats.As Grant gets more accustomed to his new team, Thunder coach Billy Donovan sees the versatile forward becoming a bigger factor as the season goes on.Its been a little bit of a challenge offensively, just being honest, Donovan said. Its not his fault or anybodys fault. We just havent had any practice time yet. Because of his versatility, the hard part for him has been that the last two games he has played two different positions -- the small forward spot and the power forward spot.Grant will most likely see time at power forward on Monday night when the Thunder (5-1) play host to Miami (2-3) at Chesapeake Energy Arena.The Heats Hassan Whiteside has been on a tear, despite his team not playing particularly well.The Heat are coming off a 96-87 loss to Toronto on Friday night. Whiteside led Miami with 21 points on 10-of-18 shooting from the field. He also grabbed 16 rebounds.He was tremendous, really impact. Hes playing hard and hes making better reads on both eends of the court, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.dddddddddddd He just has to keep building and hes doing that in big minutes, too.But it will be the play of another Miami player that should catch the attention of Oklahoma City fans. Guard Dion Waiters will be playing his first game in Oklahoma City since leaving the team in the offseason when the two sides were unable to come together on a new contract.However, Waiters told The Palm Beach Post that if Kevin Durant had decided to stay with the Thunder, he wouldnt be wearing a different uniform right now.At the end of the day, if they would have kept it together, Im pretty sure I would have went back one more year to see what we could do because we were 24 minutes away from the finals, Waiters told the Post. Once things went the way it went I kind of knew.Waiters went on to sign a two-year, $5.9 million deal with the Heat. He is averaging 11 points on 35 percent shooting from the field through five games as he replaces former Miami legend Dwyane Wade.Waiters former teammates know what he will bring to the game for Miami.When he got here, the ball would stop when he would get in, Oklahoma Citys Nick Collison said. By the end, he was really good at shooting open shots, driving and moving it. Defensively, I was really impressed with him. He was probably one of our best two-way wing players. ' ' '