Even when the New England Patriots were capturing three Super Bowls during the four-year span of 2001-2004, it was said the team only would be really scary if the talent ever reached the coaching level.

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Now it has.

How good are these 2007 Patriots? They are so good bookmakers couldn’t be faulted if they made a Tiger Woods type future book line on them: New England 2-1 to win the Super Bowl; everybody else even money.

It’s not just that New England beat two playoff foes from last year, the New York Jets and San Diego Chargers, by a combined margin of 76-28. It’s the ease in which the Patriots accomplished the feat.

Tom Brady is 47-for-59 with six touchdown passes. Does that answer your question how good Brady can be when he has professional wide receivers?

Yeah, Donte Stallworth may be a stiff. But the up-tempo, multi-dimensional attack of Randy Moss deep, Wes Welker and tight end Benjamin Watson underneath and a ground game spearheaded by Laurence Maroney, is way too much for defenses to handle, even ones as good as San Diego.

Brady has targeted the rejuvenated Moss 18 times. Moss has caught 17 passes for 288 yards. That’s the third-highest yardage total after two games for a New England player in 30 years.

The Patriots may clinch their division before the Boston Red Sox win theirs, provided they hang on. That’s the Red Sox, not the Patriots.

Here’s where it gets really frightful – the Patriots should only get better. Richard Seymour, their best defensive player, hasn’t suited up yet. Neither has suspended star safety Rodney Harrison. He’s 34, but remains a hard-hitter and team leader. He’s eligible to return to the Patriots’ active roster following the team’s Oct. 1 game against Cincinnati.

Wait to you see Bill Belichick’s defensive game plans once he has the versatile lineman Seymour back. Seymour is recovering from off-season knee surgery and is due back after Week 6.

The ramifications of the Patriots dismantling the visiting Chargers on Sunday night in front of a national TV audience reverberate both on a betting scale and at the fantasy football level, too.

Every year there are a couple of teams oddsmakers have to shade higher because they know bettors are going to play them. It was Indianapolis last season. This year it’s New England, which despite its Super Bowl victories, never has been fully embraced as a true public team comparable to the Colts, Chicago Bears and Dallas Cowboys.

The Patriots are now.

“The Patriots are absolutely at the head of that list,” said Dan O’Brien, a senior linesmaker for Las Vegas Sports Consultants.

O’Brien said every week bookmakers are going to be rooting against the Patriots because he anticipates heavy New England money.

So it’s no surprise the Patriots are whooping 17-point favorites against division rival Buffalo in just the third week of the season.

The only person it seems who can derail the Patriots is NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who could suspend Belichick if he finds any more evidence of signal stealing or other forms of cheating.

Goodell fined Belichick half a million and took away a high draft choice from New England. But instead of bothering the Patriots’ concentration and focus, it made New England more fired-up to bury San Diego. Now Belichick has a chip on his shoulder. He just may keep his foot on the gas the entire way.

If the Patriots do indeed clinch their division early and gain home-field advantage throughout the playoffs, it would affect those fantasy football leagues holding their playoff games during the final three weeks.

Belichick would have the luxury of resting his starters. Those fantasy football owners who have Brady, Moss, Maroney and the New England defense would then be in big trouble.

Maybe the rest of the NFL can catch up to the Patriots. Don’t count on it, though.