New England Patriots - NESN.com
The New England Patriots notched their eighth straight win with a 27-14 victory over the New York Jets on “Thursday Night Football.” It’s not the only notable streak they extended.
NFL+ noted that the Patriots also became just the third team ever to score 23 or more points and allow 23 or fewer points in eight straight games during the same season. The other two squads each ended those seasons by capturing a championship.
The 1961 Houston Oilers were the first team to achieve this feat, and they claimed the AFL championship that year. Joe Montana’s San Francisco 49ers last earned this streak while going 15-1 in 1984 before winning the Super Bowl.
New England didn’t reach 23 points in its Week 1 and 3 losses to the Las Vegas Raiders and Pittsburgh Steelers, and the Pats ceded 27 to the Miami Dolphins in a Week 2 triumph. Mike Vrabel’s squad has since scored 29 points per game while allowing 17.3 per game over eight straight wins.
NFL+ had to choose those parameters carefully, as the Patriots produced 23 points in a seismic road win over the Buffalo Bills and allowed 23 in back-to-back NFC South wins over the Atlanta Falcons and Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yet Thursday night also marked the team’s fourth double-digit triumph of the season.
New England exited the primetime affair ranked eighth in scoring (26.5) and fifth in points allowed (18.7). The Patriots wield the AFC’s second-best point differential (+86) behind the Indianapolis Colts.
Time will tell if the Patriots follow the Oilers and 49ers with a championship victory, but it’d take a late collapse to keep them out of the playoffs. They can extend this impressive milestone when playing the Cincinnati Bengals in Week 12.
