On December 19th, 1993, the Bill Parcels coached Patriots beat the Bill Belichick coached Browns 20-17, when Pats RB Leonard Russell plunged in from 4 yards out in the 4th quarter to ice the game and move the Patriots to 3-11 on the season, and 3-14 over their last 17 games. This is the last time the Patriots had a worse record over 17 games than they do right now at 4-13.
10,919 days ago, the average Reddit user wasn’t born. We were only two years into the internet being used in homes, and the first Smart Phone, the Simon Personal Communicator (SPC) was a year away from hitting the market. That is the last time the Patriots were worse than they are today.
The astonishing low of 4-13 over 17 games reached by New England after putting up only 6 points against the Colts in Germany and facing their third consecutive loss, is reaching new territory for that they haven’t seen in 30 years. The chart below shows the entire history of the Patriots on a rolling 17-game basis. The unprecedented success from 2001-2019 with wins hovering between 12-14 regularly is an incredible run, that we are not likely to see again in our lifetimes. Included in this are seven different times where they had a rolling 17-0 record. The steep increase and steep decrease pre- and post-Brady isn’t anything football fans aren’t already aware of anecdotally, but it’s striking to see how this looks visually.
