This statistic about Patriots' offense is difficult to fathom
BOSTON -- The Patriots' offense is, well ... it's bad. Really bad.
The Patriots lost on Sunday by a final score of 6-0. That comes a week after they lost 10-7. The game before that, they lost 10-6.
That's three games where the opponents scored a grand total of 26 points, yet they all went down as losses for the Patriots, who are now 2-10.
On its surface, this is quite bad. But it turns out this type of offensive ineptitude -- combined with strong defensive play -- has not been seen in the NFL in a long, long, long time.
According to NFL senior researcher Tony Holzman-Escareno, a team hasn't lost three straight games while holding opponents to 10 or fewer points since ... the 1938 Chicago Cardinals.
The Patriots are the first team to lose three straight games despite allowing 10 or fewer points since the Chicago Cardinals, who lost an NFL record 4 straight such games in 1938. #ForeverNE @NFLResearch
— Tony Holzman-Escareno (@FrontOfficeNFL) December 3, 2023
Those Cardinals scored just 111 points in their 12 games that season, scoring seven or fewer points seven times. Their passers threw four touchdowns and 26 interceptions.
The Patriots have a chance to match the Chicago Cardinals when they face the offensively inept Steelers on Thursday night in Pittsburgh.
In the meantime, the Patriots have the league's worst offense, and they're making a case to be the worst team in the NFL. It's something none of us have seen, unless we were showing up to watch the Chicago Cardinals in October and November of 1938.