I mentioned the same thing on another thread: this offense has nowhere to go but up, right?
At the end of the day, one thing remains abundantly clear:
After hitting rock bottom in 2023, there’s nowhere to go but up.
This is a club that finished at the bottom of the scoring rankings in the NFL last season, tying with the Carolina Panthers with just 236 points scored in 2023, along with the worst point differential in the league (-130).
Think about that. They scored just three first-quarter offensive touchdowns in 17 games. That’s absolutely staggering.
Their inability to move the ball and the turnovers often put the team in a hole they couldn’t dig out of. Add in the fact opponents scored 89 first-quarter points against them last season (eighth most in the league), and it was certainly a recipe for disaster as they spent much of the season playing from behind.
They managed to score an average of 13.9 points per contest for all of 2023, including losing three straight games where their defense allowed 10, 10, and 6 points, respectively. That remains another mind-blowing number to come out of last season.
While there’s no question they were in rough shape due to injuries, it’s still hard to believe things were really that bad.
In regards to the bolded portion above, when you look closely that points allowed stat is much more of an indictment of the offense than of the defense. The D was placed in an unacceptable number of predicaments thanks to Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe and the WRs.
Back-to-back top-5 outcomes for the defense will be difficult to achieve. Opponents were content to play conservatively since they knew the Patriots couln't score. But right now that unit is still light years ahead of the offense.
