Bedard: It's the end of November and the Patriots are rolling again. Good luck, NFL

Notice to the rest of the NFL: The Patriots have it figured out now. Good luck.

It took a lot longer than usual, but we’re finally at the point where the Patriots always seem to wind up: It’s late November and they’re playing their best football of the season after Sunday’s 33-8 dismantling of the Raiders in Mexico City.

Early in the season, this two-game stretch coming out of the bye week looked daunting. There was the visit to Mile High, which almost never goes well, followed up with a trip to Mexico to take on the latest version of “The Next Team To Topple the Patriots’ AFC Dynasty,” the Oakland Raiders.

The result? Patriots 74, Opponents 24.

The Patriots are now 8-2 and winners of six straight. They're tied with the Steelers for the top spot in the AFC entering Week 12. The two teams meet in Week 15 at Heinz Field (we’ll get to that in a minute).

But let’s go back first. Even the most passionate “In Bill We Trust” Patriots fans would be hard-pressed to admit they saw this coming. There was the embarrassing 42-27 loss to the Chiefs at home to open the season. Then, New England survived a three-point win over the Texans. After that, there was the uncomfortable 33-30 loss at home (again) to the Panthers to start the season 2-2. Things didn’t get a whole lot better in the next two games as the Patriots survived visits to the Buccaneers and Jets.

The defense, finally, showed up in Week 7 to shut down Matt Ryan and Julio Jones in the fog. But the offense, which averaged 32.3 points the first four weeks, averaged “just” 21.3 points before the bye week.

You were beginning to wonder if this team would ever put it together on either both sides of the ball.

Then the bye week happened, and the Patriots have looked like the Patriots again. How did that happen?

Coaching: The Patriots dug themselves a hole of their own doing. For whatever reason, they were completely outcoached — with an entire offseason to prepare — by Andy Reid and the Chiefs in Week 1. They committed what’s viewed as almost the Cardinal Sin among Patriots coaches: they didn’t put their players in a position to succeed on offense (pass sets for offensive line), but mostly on defense. The coaches should have at least known about the Stephon Gilmore communication problems and figured out a way to mitigate them, but they didn’t. At times, Patrick Chung was being asked to play in space in zone coverage, and that’s long been his weakness. Elandon Roberts was being given a lot of responsibility, but he had yet to earn it. With Alan Branch going through something, rookie Adam Butler was playing snaps in base and sub, and he was getting exposed against the run. But as we said after the loss to the Panthers, the problems with the defense were fixable because the unit, overall, was talented enough to get the job done. The Patriots’ coaches just had to figure out a way to coach their way out of it, like they have done so often in the past. They have, and the biggest area being…

Role-playing: This goes mostly for the defense, but also the offense as well. On the defensive side of the ball, the Patriots have chopped up the defensive snaps deeper than before. Against the Raiders (and some of this was due to altitude, but it happened the previous week as well), the Patriots used linebackers Van Noy, Roberts, Trevor Reilly, David Harris and Marquis Flowers in specific roles on a down-to-down basis. The safeties were treated in the same fashion. Offensively, it appears the Patriots are going to Rob Gronkowski and Danny Amendola mostly on got-to-have-it downs, instead of running them into the ground. The running backs have become a much larger part of the passing offense, and the Patriots have figured out the routes that make Brandin Cooks click on a consistent basis.

Speeding up Tommy: The offensive line was exposed in the early going as Tom Brady held the ball longer than ever and threw a lot of deep passes. It took a physical toll, as Brady dealt with a non-throwing shoulder injury and seemed to be taking a beating. He was. Through the Tampa Bay game, Brady was averaging 8.2 hits (sacks and QB hits combined) in the first five games. Since that point (before Sunday), Brady was being hit an average of 4.8 times per games — almost half. The Patriots seemed to make a concerted effort since the “mini-bye” after the Thursday night game vs. the Bucs to get Brady back to getting rid of the ball quickly. It wasn’t always perfect, but they seem to have found the best balance coming out of the bye. At times, showing an emphasis on the running game has also helped keep defenses honest and off Brady, and also given the line some confidence.

All of this means the Patriots are humming with confidence entering a stretch run that couldn’t be easier: the Dolphins (twice), Bills (twice) and Jets. Those teams have lost a combined 11 of their last 12 games, and eight straight overall.

The only outliers are the Steelers, who have won five-straight. Besides the Patriots, the Steelers play vs. the Packers, at Cincinnati, and vs. Baltimore before hosting the Patriots and then finish at Houston and vs. the Browns.

We’ve all watched these Mike Tomlin-led Steelers over the years. Is there anyone out there that thinks the Steelers won’t lose and/or sustain a major injury before the showdown with the Patriots? Of course not.

It’s the end of November. The Patriots are rising, as expected. Good luck to the rest of the league.