So this is how the other half lives.

Never knowing what version of your favorite team is going to show up on any given Sunday, or whether you will have a semblance of a running game, or if your quarterback will run hot or cold.

Frankly, I’ve enjoyed the lifestyle we had become accustomed to over the last few years. We would howl in laughter at Division Champs t-shirts being sold for 9-7 teams, smirk at defenses that had a hard time getting to the quarterback and laugh at multiple turnover performances.

“Not our Patriots,” we would shout out.

In other words, I don’t want to drive a Chevy when I used to a Lexus.

Don’t get me wrong about the 2005 New England Patriots. I feel, like many of you, a sense of obligation to see this season through for better or for worse. That’s the least we owe this group of men who have forever placed this franchise in the elite tier of historical performances. “Through good times and bad, sickness and health…”

Sunday’s game against the Chiefs was a lot like trying to undo that old Phillips screw head from an appliance. You work it, twist it like mad and then end up stripping away the head of the screw because of your stubborn desire to loosen it. Suddenly, you now have two problems instead of one.

How else can you explain Tom Brady’s four-interception performance against a mediocre Chiefs defense? George Bush had a better week than Brady. Down 19-3 at the half, any semblance of a running game was junked and the game was thrust upon #12’s shoulders. And with a hodge-podge squad to work with in a tough Arrowhead Stadium environment, the results were predictable.

What continues to be even more alarming is the continued embarrassing play of the defense. With the exception of the injured Randall Gay and Rodney Harrison, this is essentially the same defense personnel-wise that nearly pitched a shutout against the Colts, cancelled the Steelers coronation and silenced those rowdy Eagles fans earlier this year.

So what’s changed? The easy answer to that question is coaching the Browns in Cleveland.

Or how about the inability of the truly-depleted offense to provide a decent amount of breathers in the form of long, successful drives.

Yet maybe the more complex answer is that in the 10 months since that night in Jacksonville, an experienced, stellar defense has become an aged, slower, weaker version of itself. Dogs don’t age nearly as quickly as NotForLong defensive players do.

Suddenly, a linebacking corps that came up with turnovers and stops on third down can’t stop anybody this side of third-and-12. What used to be an adequate pass rush has withered to a nuisance at best. And the secondary – enough said. You can slice up the defensive blame pie any way you want, but it still doesn’t taste all that well.

Now all we can hope for is a 10-6 or (gasp) 9-7 acquittal and a non-embarrassing performance on Wild Card Weekend against the Bengals or Chargers. That’s it. If we get that, it will be a “successful” season and we can move on with some semblance of bragging rights to dish out in the NFL schoolyard.

In the grand scheme of things, is that such a bad thing? Of course not. A run like we have witnessed over the last four years knows no comparison in the post free-agency era of the NFL. If you could offer a fan of the Lions, Chiefs, Bills, Packers three Super Bowl championships sandwiched around two 9-7 seasons (this one and 2002), they would snap it up quicker than a bratwurst in the parking lot of Lambeau Field. It’s all about perspective, my friends.

I could continue to rationalize this wayward season seven ways to Super Bowl Sunday but it isn’t going to make you feel any better, will it? Didn’t think so.

“Geez, I know how economical it is, but this Chevy just doesn’t ride the same.”