With all honesty, the Patriots have benefited from a weak AFC East for the last decade.
Actually, it’s still caught up with the Patriots, I don’t think their defense is doing that well either, #24 total defense: http://www.nfl.com/stats/categorystats?tabSeq=2&defensiveStatisticCategory=GAME_STATS&conference=ALL&role=OPP&season=2013&seasonType=REG&d-447263-s=TOTAL_YARDS_GAME_AVG&d-447263-o=1&d-447263-n=1 and without Gronk, they could really struggle. Colts have come down to earth, class of the AFC definitely looks to be out West.
The rest here is a bit meandering:
I’ve looked at that Defensive Table for about the past 2 months, Texans are at #3, not that long ago, despite the dire year Houston is having, they were still the top defense as far as giving up the least yards per game but that is only one statistic.
Panthers have given up the fewest points, 188, only team still under 200 and they took it on the chin vs. N.O.
I also saw a table where at least for this year, you have a number of “worst to firsts” and “first to worsts”, case in point, the Chiefs from worse to well, okay, they are 2nd but you get the idea, Texans, bad year, so it goes.