I was around rooting in 1978 (I was 17)... that was a fun season to watch the Patriots... right up until game 16, when Fairbanks announced he was leaving for Colorado and the Sullivans suspended him. Loss... then playoff loss. Done.
There's a reason that record doesn't get more credit... it didn't amount to anything. Not even a solitary playoff win.
That's what you had to look forward to as a Pats fan in those days... some highlights during the season... usually a Jet beatdown (heh)... but then... inexorably... invariably... a bad ending... every year. It was kind of a bummer...
...but it got better.
After 1976, it was understood by all of us that the Patriots were owed at least one World Championship.
We'd have liked it in '77, but Hannah/Gray holdout delay caused some early losses that proved to be fatal...plus, the defense wasn't as good as the previous season.
In '78, we lost Darryl Stingley in the preseason, and Julius Adams in Week One, and John Smith later, and so, with not quite as good a defense and receiving corps, we just ran that rock down everybody's throats. Steve Grogan was hurt by the end of the season, and that was enough to kill us.
We kept pouring on the offense in '79 & '80, but the substandard training facilities under the Sullivans and some personnel losses kept us out of it. We didn't have a championship level defense like we did in '76.
But we developed a title-contending defense in the early 80's, along with enough young offensive talent to win. We had a legit shot in '85, '86, and '88 but coach Raymond Berry was enamored with Tony Eason like Bob Kraft is with Drew Bledsoe and the flying elvis.
So, it was harder to make the playoffs in the 70's...plus, the Pats were playing the iron of the league as opposed to the cream puff NFC. The margin for error, under the Sullivans, was zero.