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Dynasty Dead? Patriots Go on Losing Streak Not Seen in 16 Years with Ugly Steelers Loss

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The last time the New England Patriots were this bad in December, Tom Brady was dating Tara Reid, Tim Couch was leading the Cleveland Browns to their only playoff appearance since the franchise’s rebirth, Rich Gannon was the league’s MVP, and Jon Gruden was about to ruin the Oakland Raiders.

The year was 2002, and Gruden coached the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to a 48-21 win in the Super Bowl over his old team.

With an ugly 17-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Patriots have now lost two in a row in December for the first time in 16 years.

The first loss was even uglier, the “Miracle in Miami” where the Dolphins made the prevent defense (featuring Rob Gronkowski at safety for reasons known only to God and Bill Belichick) look foolish.

In 2002, the Patriots missed the playoffs thanks to a pair of losses to the Titans and Jets in which they dropped from 8-5 to 8-7, ultimately losing the division tiebreaker to New York and the wildcard tiebreaker to Cleveland, the only time in the Brady/Belichick era the team has failed to win 10 games.

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This year, the AFC East is such a complete Dumpster fire that the 9-5 Patriots would have to be actively trying — their last two games are at home against the 5-9 Bills and 4-10 Jets — to go 9-7, but if they do, the Dolphins would own the tiebreaker if they won at home against Jacksonville and then at Buffalo in their last two outings.

As for the wild card, that would depend on the Ravens, Titans, and Colts — 8-6 teams all. If any of them went 9-7, the Titans own the tiebreaker on head-to-head, but the Patriots beat the Colts and would so have the edge on them. The Ravens, if they went 9-7, would be 7-5 in-conference and have the tiebreak on the 6-6 Patriots.

And, of course, if any of those three teams won both games, they’d be 10-6 and get in that way; the 11-3 Chiefs and Chargers are both playoff teams fighting solely for the division title and likely hosting of the AFC Championship Game that would come with it if either squad went 13-3.

The point is, things aren’t as bad for the Pats this year as they were 16 years ago.

Will the Patriots win a game in the playoffs this year?

Still, the Patriots look nothing like the team that came within eight points of winning the Super Bowl last season.

As Samer Kalaf of Deadspin put it, “Some might call it ‘uncharacteristic,’ but ‘toilet water’ would also be apt.”

If there is a silver lining to all this, the Patriots’ defense only gave up 17 points. They have surrendered 17 or less in five of their last seven games and look a lot better than they did early in the season.

The offense, meanwhile, has scored only 10 points in three of New England’s five losses, and they are 9-1 when scoring at least 24 points, something that Brady-led teams do often in the playoffs.

Still, except for a home tilt against a wild card team, the Patriots will have to win two games on the road to reach the Super Bowl, because the 10-4 Texans (who the Patriots beat 27-20 in Week 1) or 11-3 Chargers and Chiefs (and New England beat Kansas City 43-40) aren’t going to be nearly as easy outs at home as Houston and Kansas City were at Gillette Stadium.

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As for Pittsburgh, rising to 8-5-1 still has them as the 4 seed if the season ended today, but it keeps them half a game ahead of Baltimore for the division title in the AFC North.

Pittsburgh has a brutal road game next week in New Orleans before facing the moribund 6-8 Bengals, who have been eliminated from playoff contention. Even though Cincinnati could still go 8-8, the Colts and Titans play each other in a game that even if it ends in a tie will leave those teams 8-7-1; a winner would go 9-7.

For the Steelers, they could still miss the playoffs, but they are still in the coveted “control of their own destiny” after dunking the Patriots’ offense in the toilet and giving them a swirlie.

It’s shaping up to be a fun playoff race … but it’d be a lot more fun for Patriots fans if they stopped playing like they did when Brady was a doughy young 25-year-old having the worst season of his career.

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Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Boston born and raised, Fox has been writing about sports since 2011. He covered ESPN Friday Night Fights shows for The Boxing Tribune before shifting focus and launching Pace and Space, the home of "Smart NBA Talk for Smart NBA Fans", in 2015. He can often be found advocating for various NBA teams to pack up and move to his adopted hometown of Seattle.
Birthplace
Boston, Massachusetts
Education
Bachelor of Science in Accounting from University of Nevada-Reno
Location
Seattle, Washington
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Sports




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