The Patriots might be NFL's worst team and it only gets tougher
There is nothing positive to say about the 2023 New England Patriots through six weeks of the season and after Sunday's 21-17 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders, it is very reasonable to start wondering if they are the worst team in the NFL.
Sunday's loss dropped them to 1-5, with their only win an ugly 15-10 victory over the Zach Wilson-led New York Jets in Week 3 of the campaign.
Since then it has been embarrassing loss after embarrassing loss. That stretch continued on Sunday, with the Patriots falling to a Raiders team that lost its starting quarterback halfway through the game.
The problems are many and they somehow keep growing. It is also not likely to get better anytime soon.
On offense, everything is a dysfunctional mess. The system, the play design and the play-calling all seem stale and stagnant, while there are are almost no difference-makers at any position.
Quarterback Mac Jones has regressed to a shocking level from where he was as a rookie and it is starting to become indefensible from a coaching staff perspective to keep running him out there.
The offensive line has been crushed by injuries and ineffective play and at no point was that more evident on Sunday than on Maxx Crosby's game-clinching safety when the Raiders got home with only a four-man rush against six pass protectors.
Statistically speaking, theirs is the lowest-scoring offense in football and has managed just 35 points over the past four games, including a 12-quarter stretch with zero touchdowns.
Defensively, the Patriots have lost two of their most significant players in pass-rusher Matthew Judon and rookie cornerback Christian Gonzalez. The team has also been outscored by 80 points on the season. As of Sunday evening, that is the second-worst margin in the NFL ahead of only the New York Giants (minus-91).
As if all of that is not bad enough, the Patriots' next two games are against the Buffalo Bills and Miami Dolphins. Those are two of the best teams in the NFL and will almost certainly make the Patriots heavy underdogs in both games. It is not out of the question to think that New England could be 1-7 on the season following those games. If they are and if those games go as poorly as the first six have, we might have to start wondering if and when owner Bob Kraft might consider what was previously unthinkable and think about a coaching change.
That would have seemed like an absurd thought just a few years ago. But a lot changes in the NFL in a short period of time. This Patriots team is so bad that is now a realistic possibility.
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