The New England Patriots, fresh off a 38-3 drubbing at the hands of the Dallas Cowboys, laid another stinker on Sunday, this time a 34-0 beat-down by the New Orleans Saints, the worst home loss in franchise history. Here's a look at all teams since 2000 that have lost back-to-back games by 30 or more (courtesy of stathead.com):
It's surprising how not awful some of these teams were. The 2000 Browns finished with the second-worst point differential since 2000, but eight of these 13 teams won at least seven games (though none more than nine). There were even two playoff teams, the 2017 Bills and 2010 Seahawks. That Seattle team limped into the playoffs at 7-9 in a lousy division, but they won their first round matchup in the infamous "Beast Quake" game.
Seven of these teams had their streaks at the very beginning or very end of the season. The 2019 Dolphins were in the midst of an absolutely brutal 0-7 start. The Panthers, that same season, lost their final eight, capping it off with the two eviscerations that appear here.
My read is that these blowouts do somewhat reflect these teams' true skill, at least during those games. Will Grier started those last two Panthers games, and Nathan Peterman started one of the Bills losses in 2017. Brian Brohm (Bills 2010) and Charlie Whitehurst (Seahawks 2010) each got a start; that's four fringe depth quarterbacks factoring in here. The 2001 Washington team and 2015 Colts featured the last gasps of the careers of Jeff George and Matt Hasselbeck. Carson Palmer nursed an elbow injury in 2008, forcing the Bengals to turn to an early-career Ryan Fitzpatrick (who appeared on two of the other teams in this list as well).
So teams come by back-to-back blowout defeats honestly ... but they can turn things around. Where does that leave the Patriots? They don't really have a viable backup behind Mac Jones, as Bailey Zappe has struggled in limited work and played so poorly in the preseason that the team waived him at the end of camp. They can keep mixing and matching on the offensive line or in the skill group; perhaps they will find a combination that can lift them out of the rut they're in. History shows things can get better; at least, they can't get much worse.