The Patriots have to play their second game in five days against the Dolphins on Thursday Night Football and will be looking to start 7-0 and open up a big lead in the AFC East.
So with a short week with little prep time for the team as well as media members we put together some interesting numbers before the game this week. Thanks to the Patriots media staff for putting these out.
6: Number of straight division titles won by the Patriots during their current streak. They can tie the 1973-79 Rams with a seventh straight division title in 2015. The Patriots have won 11 of 12 straight AFC East crowns. The only year 2008, they finished tied for the lead but lost on a tie breaker. That was the year Tom Brady missed 15 games.
8: Tom Brady’s record on Thursday Night Football. Brady has already won a Thursday night matchup this season in the opening night win over Pittsburgh.
12: Wins by Brady against the Dolphins at home; his record vs Miami in New England is a stellar 12-1. His only loss was a 2005 season finale loss where he was removed after the first quarter.
18: Wins by Brady against Miami; overall his record vs the Dolphins is a solid 18-8.
23: The magic number; when scoring 23+ points the Patriots have won 28 straight games. The team was 14-0 in 2014 and overall under Bill Belichick the team is 166-12 when scoring 23 points or more. (Thanks to WEEI’s Ryan Hannable for that stat)
24: Number of straight field goals by Stephen Gostkowski, one shy of the franchise record set by Adam Vinatieri (11/96 – 11/97). The NFL record is 42 set by Mike Vanderjagt.
28: Home wins by the Patriots in the month of October since 2000, their home record is a stellar 28-4 under Bill Belichick in October and are an NFL best 48-16 in the month.
29: The number of winning seasons by the Patriots since the 1970 merger of the AFL/NFL; third most in the league behind Pittsburgh (32) and Dallas (30).
69: Wins by the Patriots in the division since 2001. The Patriots record of 69-19 shows the dominance they’ve held in the Belichick era. No other team is over .500.
77: Number of regular season straight wins when leading at halftime for the Patriots. It speaks volumes about the preparedness of Belichick’s teams that they put a stamp on things when in the lead. BTW fact; the last time a Belichick team lost when leading at halftime? Against the Miami Dolphins on December 24,2000.
87.5: Stephen Gostkowski’s career field goal percentage, best in Patriots franchise history. Second place goes to Adam Vinatieri with 81.9.
94.6: Gostkowski’s field goal percentage of 2014 where he went 35 of 37. Since the beginning of 2014, he’s been a remarkable 50 of 52 when attempting a field goal.
166: Regular season wins by Tom Brady; his regular season record of 166-47 needs to be looked at closely here. Kerry Byrne from the Boston Herald and CHFF posted this to Facebook on Wednesday night:
The brilliant Joe Montana widely regarded as the greatest QB in history. I won’t argue. Joe Montana’s Hall of Fame career record is a very impressive 117-47. If the great Joe Montana played three more NFL seasons, and went undefeated in every single one of them (48-0), his career record would be 165-47. Tom Brady’s career record right now is 166-47.
219: The number of rushing touchdowns by the Patriots since 2003, the most in the NFL. The next closest team is San Diego far behind with 198. So while we hear that the New England offense is always passing and passing only, they score more on the ground than anyone.
229: The number of tackles by Patriots linebacker Clayton Weishuhn in 1983 a franchise record. Weishuhn was one of my personal favorite players to watch before injuries knocked him out of the game. He and Steve Nelson were quite the tandem inside with Andre Tippett providing the outside edge rushing presence.
Weishuhn’s record seems safe for this season, to put it in perspective, the Patriots leading tackler this season is Dont’a Hightower with 36, is on pace for about 100 tackles in 2015.
435: The number of straight PATs that Gostowski has kicked an NFL record that increases with each one he booms thru. He had a close call on Sunday as he had one that doinked off the upright and went thru. His last miss was in the season finale of 2006 on Dec. 31 which was his rookie season.
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A former US Army Special Forces NCO and Officer, Steve has been following the Patriots since their days at Fenway Park. Steve has worked in the film industry and wrote as an Military Editor at SpecialOperations.com, 1945.com as a reporter for the Millbury Daily Voice, Millbury-Sutton Chronicle, and the Grafton News. He's also a member of the Pro Football Writers of America (PFWA)
