It's silly to argue that our season is done if we start 0-2. But starting the season with back-to-back losses would be dramatic for this franchise, considering Brady and Belichick (since 2001) have never started the season 0-2 or been under .500 at any point in the season.
Mike Reiss does a great job explaining why avoiding 0-2 is seemingly more of a concern for the Patriots, than most others teams around the league
Bill Belichick sets tone as Patriots look to avoid first 0-2 start since 2001
"If they don’t [win] Sunday in New Orleans, one of the more impressive early-season marks in the NFL will be in jeopardy of ending.
The Patriots haven’t started a season 0-2 since 2001, which was when Drew Bledsoe was still the team’s starting quarterback. Only the Denver Broncos have a longer active streak of seasons without an 0-2 start (since 1999). So it’s no surprise that the urgency is rising at Patriots headquarters, with the team’s fourth-quarter fade against the Chiefs a point of emphasis.
In addition to attempting to avoid an 0-2 start for the first time since 2001, the Patriots are also hoping to avoid falling two games below .500 at any point in any season since they were 1-3 on Oct. 13, 2001. At that point, quarterback Tom Brady had only two career NFL starts and Belichick had just completed his 100th game as an NFL head coach."
Also, found this pretty amusing. Reiss lists all the things from the last time (5,812 days ago) the Patriots were two games below .500 in a season. Here are just a couple that stood out:
- The Red Sox hadn't won a World Series since 1918.
- Jim O’Brien was the head coach of the Boston Celtics.
- The average price of gas was $1.31 per gallon.