At the end of the day, I don’t give a sh*t were they “rank”, but rather the type of players they have, how they could match up against contending teams and what happens vs these contending teams.
The 2021 Pats were a front running team where they needed to control the game via run and have the defense keep them in the game. When the defense couldn’t hold, the offense was dead to rights majority of the time, which is why they were 3-7 vs teams above .500. I don’t care if they ranked 1st in PPG, they were not a good enough offense to respond after getting punched in the mouth.
This is why Bill traded for Parker and traded up in the 2nd round for Thornton. It’s not rocket science putting these two together that the passing game has to get better to contend.
And the 2014 Pats aren’t a good example as they were clearly the best team in the AFC, had a winning record vs teams above .500 and eventually won the Super Bowl.