LONDON – They could play in Tampa or Foxboro, in London, England; London, Ontario; New London, Connecticut; or Timbuktu.

The place names would change, the results would be the same.

Wherever they play, the Patriots still are the Patriots, and the Bucs still are the Bucs.

And so now, fans of American football in Great Britain know what football fans across America know: The Patriots are very good; the Bucs aren’t very good at all.

If this were English football, Tampa Bay would be in danger of being relegated from the Premier League to the First Division.

Speaking of English football, it was a tough day for Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer, who also owns British soccer power Manchester United.

Before the Pats and Bucs kicked off at Wembley Stadium, “Man-U” already had lost at Liverpool, which had lost four straight, prompting speculation that coach Rafael Benitez was in danger of being, as they say in the U.K., “sacked.”

After which, the overmatched Bucs fell to 0-7 Sunday night by the lopsided score of 35-7, as Tampa Bay’s young quarterbacks were sacked three times and threw three interceptions.

What’s the equivalent of that 35-7 score in soccer? 5-nil? 6-1? Whatever it is, it’s a rout.

Let this be fair warning to Brits who are hopeful of someday seeing an NFL expansion franchise in London: For the first few years, it probably will look a lot like the Bucs. Or, gulp, perhaps even worse. So be careful what you wish for.

Tampa Bay fans, on the other hand – assuming there still are Tampa Bay fans – might very well wish to have the Bucs play the remainder of their home games in London.

Or some place even more distant.

Technically, the Bucs are in the same league as the Patriots. But they’re not really in the same league, if you get my drift.

They are in a galaxy far, far away. One with, apparently, no stars.

The star-studded Patriots, on the other hand, lived up to advance billing as one of the NFL’s premier teams.

Tom Brady threw for three touchdowns, Wes Welker had 10 receptions for 107 yards and a TD, and New England’s defense harassed Tampa Bay’s youthful QBs – first Josh Johnson, then Josh Freeman – into ineffectiveness.

Johnson, in just his second year out of San Diego, was 9-for-26, with a sack and three interceptions when he was – mercifully – pulled in the fourth quarter in favor of Freeman, a rookie from Kansas State, who managed to complete 2 of 4 attempts, but was sacked twice.

“I thought we pressured them a decent amount,” Pats coach Bill Belichick understated.

It probably didn’t help that Tampa Bay’s coach, Raheem Morris, isn’t all that much older than his quarterbacks. At the age of 33, he got the job without ever having been a coordinator in the NFL and never having been a head coach anywhere.

He has neither the experience, nor the talent on hand, to match X’s and O’s with Belichick.

While Belichick has won three Super Bowls and four conference championships, Morris has yet to win his first NFL game.

“When you score 35 points, you should be able to win in this league,” Belichick pointed out afterward, presumably trying to enlighten the British media, whose knowledge of the intricacies of the game may be somewhat lacking.

New England fans know that Belichick would have preferred not to have to fly across the Atlantic to play this game. But he was diplomatic about it last night, not wanting to spoil the sweet glow of victory by irritating either his British hosts, or the powers-that-be in the commissioner’s office.

“The experience was good,” he said. “But it’s a long haul.”

It could have seemed like an endless flight home for the Patriots had they lost to the lowly Bucs.

But the Pats quickly made sure that wasn’t going to happen.

New England jumped out to a 7-0 lead just 2:34 into the game when Brandon Meriweather intercepted Johnson’s second pass of the game and returned it 39 yards for a touchdown. That lead grew to 14-0 before the quarter was over, Brady connecting with Welker for 14 yards and a TD. And, when Sam Aiken broke a tackle after taking a short pass from Brady and sprinted 54 yards down the sideline for the first TD of his 7-year NFL career, it was 21-0 and obvious even to someone watching their first NFL game that the Bucs weren’t a threat to stage a comeback.

For all the hoopla, once the opening whistle blew, it was, as Belichick said: “Pretty much like a regular game.”

In fact, it was very much like a regular game.

Which is why, because the Patriots are the Patriots, and the Bucs are the Bucs, the Pats won easily. And would have anywhere.

jdonalds@projo.com