New England Patriots fans certainly have enjoyed some good times, but how many can identify the team’s highest and lowest points?
ESPN’s Bill Barnwell helped achieve that task in an article he published Thursday on the subject of each NFL team’s best- and worst- ever seasons. Instead of using the teams’ record in a respective season to gauge highs and lows, he took the point differential from each game played to determine which season was the best, worst and everything in between.
Excluding the present, these Patriots’ results, per ESPN, mark important moments in team history:
Current season: 8-3 (23rd best of 59 seasons in franchise history since 1960)
Best season: 2007 (16-0)
Worst season: 1990 (1-15)
“The 2007 Patriots rank as the best team since 1960 by this metric, outscoring opponents by 19.7 points per game,” Barnwell writes. “By contrast, this year’s Patriots are beating teams by 5.3 points per contest and have the point differential, essentially, of a 7-4 team.”
Barnwell didn’t indicate the 1990 team’s point differential, but we’re sure it was terrible.
Following their undefeated regular season, the 2007 Patriots advanced to the Super Bowl XLII, where they lost to the New York Giants 17-14. The heights the Patriots reached that season were overshadowed, however, by the disappointment of its ending.
