FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Trent Edwards, unshaven and unsmiling, turned to the horde of media in front of his locker and tried to put the best face on the situation. For the second week in a row, someone asked if his confidence had begun to waver.

"I ... I'm still going to be confident either way," Edwards said after the Bills' 20-10 loss to the Patriots here Sunday.

Edwards can't betray any loss of confidence. He's the quarterback for an NFL team. His teammates are elevated by his successes, and deflated by his failures. It comes with the territory. No matter how bleak the circumstances, it's the QB's job to put on the brave front.

But Edwards was shaken Sunday. You could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. He looked like a kid who had just had his baseball card collection stolen away from him by the schoolyard bully.

He had prepared his hardest for this game, and hoped for the best. But after two difficult outings, the Patriots were the last team Edwards needed to see. It did not go well. Bill Belichick, the biggest bully on the block, wiped the floor with him. Belichick made him look like, well, a second-year player still trying to find his way in the NFL.

There is plenty of blame to go around for this loss. Dick Jauron matched wits with Belichick and, as usual, wasn't up to it. Jauron couldn't get a challenge flag out of his pocket in time. He wasted a timeout late in the first half, costing the Bills a possible field goal chance.

Stop me if you've heard this before: They didn't get a pass rush. They couldn't get the ball to Lee Evans. The running game was pathetic, though I'm sure Jason Peters thinks he was dominant. The defense folded at the end again and allowed a 19-play — yes, 19! — drive.

But in the NFL (even in New England), it always gets back to the quarterback, and Edwards is the big issue right now. His rapid development was the main reason the Bills shot out to a 5-1 start, and his poor play is the primary reason that they've slipped to 5-4.

It goes both ways. Three weeks ago, Edwards was the talk of the NFL, the shiny new thing. Everybody wanted a piece of him. It seemed he had a whirl with every national media outlet except "The View." There were credible voices plugging him as an MVP candidate.

Well, you can put that talk on hold for now. Edwards is going to be a star in the league. But over the last three weeks, it's become evident that we were a little too quick to anoint him.

Edwards has come crashing to earth during the Bills' three-week stumble through the AFC East. Sunday's game was the worst of all. He completed 13 of 23 passes for 120 yards, the fewest yards he has thrown for in a complete NFL game. He threw two more horrible interceptions. Edwards was thoroughly outplayed by Matt Cassel, who might as well have been Tom Brady.

During his three-week division ordeal, Edwards threw two TD passes and five interceptions. He lost two fumbles. His longest completion was 42 yards. Maybe it was silly to think a second-year QB could carry an offense with one top receiver and no running game.

Maybe the league simply caught up to him.

"I've said all along, this is a team sport," Edwards said. "The media likes to focus on individuals. That's their job. I don't like accepting individual accolades or the criticism. It's tough on the quarterback position, because you're going to get all the credit when you win and all the blame when you lose."

It's small consolation, but he's not alone. Belichick has undressed some of the game's best quarterbacks. He owned Peyton Manning for years. It's become an annual Bills custom for quarterbacks to leave Foxborough with stricken expressions on their faces. I'll spare you the names.

You thought this year might be different. This wasn't the same Patriots, right? They didn't have Tom Brady. They had key injuries in the defensive backfield. Edwards was struggling, but he had the smarts and the skill to hold his own against Belichick, right?

Uh, no. Edwards admitted there were times when the Patriots' defensive schemes confused him. The players were singing the same old refrain in the locker room. The Patriots did a lot of things they didn't expect. As usual, it sounds like Belichick and his minions were a step ahead.

Now the Bills are 5-4 and on a three-game losing skid. They've played like a last-place team for three weeks, and that's where they are today. Last in the division, if you take the tiebreaker into account. The AFC East went 3-1 Sunday. Everybody gained a game on Buffalo.

They're only one game out of first, but it sure seems like a crisis. The Bills soared to the top of the division on the arm and intellect of their young QB. Now they're reeling.

Someone asked Jauron if he was concerned about Edwards' recent play. Jauron said he didn't understand the question. He didn't know what the reporter meant by "concerned." He sounded like Bill Clinton at his worst, quibbling about the connotation of "is."

Concern? He ought to be concerned. The season is quickly going to pieces. The kid quarterback is looking very ordinary. Just like the team. Edwards said he's still confident, but he admitted he has a lot to work on.

"I think a little bit of everything, honestly," Edwards said. "Underneath throws, deep throws, footwork, pocket presence, turnovers — everything. I think that all that can be looked into, and I need to fix it soon. We play a week from tomorrow, and we're going to have our hands full again."

If the last three weeks are any indication, he's dead-on.