When I was younger, I used to wonder what it’s like to watch a football team that is bad. In a more specific sense, I wondered what it would be like to watch a team with no hope for the playoffs that just gets beaten (soundly) time and time again. Now I have my answer: predictably, it sucks.
Since my birth, the Patriots have won six (!) Super Bowls, went to nine (!) Super Bowls, and between the 2001 season (that first Super Bowl season) and 2019 (Brady leaves), they made the playoffs (and won the division) every year except 2002 and 2008 (Brady’s injury year). In those two playoff-missing seasons, they were still over .500, posting a 9-7 record in 2002 and an 11-5 record in 2008. I could go on and on about how spectacular the Patriots dynasty was, but you get the point.
In 2020, the Patriots had a pretty depleted roster in the wake of Tom Brady’s departure, but they still managed to go 7-9 under an older Cam Newton, and were fun to watch much of the time.
In 2021, after drafting a QB in the first round and spending big in free agency, the Patriots went 10-7 and made the playoffs as a wildcard team. The new look Patriots seemed prime for a bright future.
In 2022, they took a step back, going 8-9 with some regression in performance from Mac Jones in his sophomore season. This setback wasn’t the end of the world, though. One could have argued that the Patriots were a few unfortunate plays away from being a playoff team, and that they were being held back by things like bad coaching from guys like Matt Patricia. Yes, the division looked much tougher, but there was hope the Patriots would bounce back.
Although they had not been at their former glory for these 3 years, they were competitive pretty much all season.
Now they’re simply ass.
Legitimately terrible.
Borderline unwatchable.
Shit.
Completely hopeless.
Barely NFL quality.
Cataclysmically horrible.
I think you get the idea.
There are no excuses for their performance this year. In weeks one and two, I actually had hope. They suffered narrow losses to two powerhouse teams in the Eagles and Dolphins, but were competitive into the last minute of each game. I thought, “Well, they seem to be able to hang with the league’s best. This team might be pretty good.”
After they won Week Three, I felt worse about the team. They narrowly beat a Jets team still reeling from the loss of Aaron Rodgers, and while they held their offense to pretty much nothing all game, I wasn’t impressed by the Pats. I had hoped for a convincing win, but I couldn’t complain too much about a victory.
The following three games went as follows:
@ Dallas: L, 38-3. Mac was horrible and the loss was the worst loss I’d ever seen for the Pats.
vs. New Orleans: L, 34-0. The new worst loss I’d ever seen for the Pats.
@ Las Vegas: L, 21-17. So many mistakes and bad football against a pretty bad Raiders team who had lost their starting QB to injury, and now had your former backup at QB.
This is easily the worst three game stretch of Patriots football that I have ever seen. It’s not close. Not only were they losing big, they were playing bad football that was boring to watch. They’re even racking up injuries in the process. They couldn’t do anything other than shoot themselves in the foot. Because of the nature of these losses, I have no hope. The media agrees, ranking them consistently as a bottom 3 team.
But back to my first paragraph. Rooting for a team this bad sucks, but it’s also okay. First of all, I got to spend all of my formative childhood years with my family and friends cheering for one of the best teams in the league every season, and everyone came together over the Patriots. That was really cool. Them being bad doesn’t take away from that.
If we’re staying in the present, though, the games are much less interesting, and I find that while I’m still rooting for the Patriots (maybe I’ll want them to lose more for draft position later in the season, but I’m not sure; I’ve never been in that situation before), I care much less about the results of both the Patriots games and other games around the league (unless I bet on them). So while I don’t get the same satisfaction from deep diving into analysis on the Patriots’ situation every week, I do find myself casually enjoying seeing good football around the league without regard for where it comes from. I always figured there would be something nice about not expecting wins and just relaxing and seeing who else around the league is fun, and there’s some truth to that.
I will say, though, it’s a more fun experience to be part of a fan community that’s all still rooting for a championship.
The Patriots are bad. I have accepted it. I’ve grieved the loss of the dynasty I loved. Now, it’s time to be a Rob Lowe-esque NFL fan for the rest of this season. I just want good football.
