The Kansas City Chiefs’ destruction of the New England Patriots on Monday Night Football has fueled the speculation that the Tom Brady-Bill Belichick dynasty may be over.

The consistent fear is that Brady is on an irreversible decline in ability that (in hindsight for many) began last year and continued through his disastrous performance Monday.

Brady’s 11.6 Total QBR ranks as the seventh-worst game by a quarterback this season - and this is a season in which both Chad Henne and Matt McGloin have played quarterback.

Brady’s supposed decline however probably has less to do with him losing a step or making poor decisions than it does with the cast of characters around him.

Specifically, based on Brady’s career, there is reason to believe that he has not taken a major step down in ability, but rather that his offensive line has. And even with the decline in the line play, we may see the Patriots rise again in the next few weeks.

Brady has been highly dependent upon his offensive line throughout his career, particularly when compared to other top flight quarterbacks.

When looking at the relationship between how often a quarterback is pressured (percent of dropbacks a quarterback is sacked, hit or under duress) and their overall performance as determined by Total QBR, Brady is more reliant on line play than some other notable top quarterbacks since 2006.

For Brady, 35 percent of the changes in his Total QBR from game to game are related to the amount of pressure he faces. Philip Rivers is at only 19 percent with Aaron Rodgers, Peyton Manning and Drew Brees all below 10 percent.

Couple Brady’s dependence on not being pressured with the significant decline in his line’s ability to keep him from being pressured.

In 2006 and 2007, the Patriots allowed a pressure rate under five percent and they have been under 20 percent every season of Brady’s career except the last two.

And during the last eight years, Brady’s average time to throw the ball has been between 2.5 and 2.3 seconds, so the problem is not that Brady is suddenly slowing down.

The question for the Patriots now though is about what to do next? Is the season lost? Has Belichick’s refusal to draft offensive linemen and develop them (one drafted in the first three rounds over the last five drafts – while taking two quarterbacks in the same time frame) doomed Brady to subpar performances? Probably not.

While the Patriots’ line is certainly not what it was – no longer dominant for sure -- it's not a disaster, either.

This season Brady has been under pressure on 25.3 percent of his dropbacks, which ranks New England 17th in the league (Geno Smith has been under pressure on 35 percent of his dropbacks).

Additionally, they are heading into games against the Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills that have not had success pressuring QBs.

While the Bengals defense has generally been outstanding, they have only pressured quarterbacks on 20.5 percent of dropbacks (25th in the league) and the Bills only 24.4 percent (19th).

All of the Patriots’ opponents so far this season rank higher than the next two on pressuring the quarterback, so these are prime games for the Brady and his line to turn it around and demonstrate that, once you take the pressure off, Brady can still perform at a high level.