Your favorite Patriots non playoff seasons

[TomPatriot]

2008 really grew on me. No expectations and it felt like the team was starting to get hot at the right time. Just ran out of games. Obviously the offense was significantly worse without the GOAT and injuries didn't help but they did play some good football at the end and if they got in the playoffs who knows?

Feels like 2020 should have also been one of these seasons but the team was just bad. But I liked Cam anyway...don't tell anyone

2022 and 23 had the Mac Jones/Bailey Zappe "controversy"

I can't do anything for the 2024 season once the players are between the white lines... nuff said about that

Don't know why but I liked the 95 and 99 teams.

Yours?

2008. They might have been the third best team in the NFL by the end of the regular season.

 

[TinhWoodhead]

This coming season… j/k

 

[farn]

2008. The season looked like it was over when Cassel took over for Tom Brady, but he had a fantastic year given that he hasn't played since High School. Defense was terrible, but played better later in the year. An abnormal amount of teams in the AFC won 11 games or more that season (6). Since then, it's been around 4. 10 year prior (since 1998), there were only two years 5 teams won at least 11 games or more in the AFC. Most years it was 4. Some years had 2-3.

2002 comes in a close second. The Pats were now the hunted and it was a roller coaster season. They struggled, but again missed the playoffs because of so much parity. The AFC was beating up on each other as 10 teams had at least 9 wins - that's 62% of the conference.

Exactly this for me.

 

[bresna]

I would say 1988, when Flutie finally got to play. It was great getting to see Flutie work his magic. Too bad coach Barry didn't play him until he had to.

 

[sb1]

Brett Favre had a terrible game when the 02 Patriots needed him to win to get in the playoffs. Exact same thing happened in 08.

 

[stephens44]

1988, they started 2-4, got blown out in Green Bay by a bad team (last game ever played by Craig James btw), turned it around and were 9-6 going into Denver with the playoffs on the line. Raymond Berry of course went with Tony Eason over Flutie, the guy that had brought them back from 2-4 to win 6 out of the next 8 games he started... The ran the ball more than anyone in the league that year, had the number 5 defense, and just managed to find ways to win. They lost 2 games to the Bills because of atrocious kicking (Tedy Garcia) and could have won 11 games and been Div champs that year. They beat the Bengals that year, and they went to the SB.
A really good season that could have been great.
Edit: A great memory from that season, a minor redemption from the SB XX debacle -

 

[TheRainMaker]

Brett Favre had a terrible game when the 02 Patriots needed him to win to get in the playoffs. Exact same thing happened in 08.

Favre become that QB that folded in big moments starting in 1997. He only won 3 playoff games and only reached the NFCCG twice since then. Lost both to game carless INT's. He also took a few ass kickings in the playoffs from 2001-2004.

 

[InRodWeRust]

2008 is the easy answer for me. 1991 was nice because that was my first full year as a Patriots fan and I really loved **** McPherson's enthusiastic coaching style; it was a breath of fresh air after a catastrophic season before it. However the 1993 season was the one that gave me butterflies because they hired Bill Parcells and drafted Drew Bledsoe and it gave me hope that this team could actually be a realistic contender again.