The Patriots look a lot different than at this point last season, and here’s a few reasons why

Detailed summary

Instead of riding a wave of midseason wins, the Patriots are trying to regroup after losing two of their last three games.

A year ago at this this time, the seed was at least planted that the Patriots might be a Super Bowl dark horse, even if the idea was still difficult for some to embrace. They were six games into what would become a 10-game winning streak that erased their 1-2 start and catapulted them to the No. 2 seed in the AFC.

Their surprise Super Bowl run not only reestablished the franchise as a contender, it reframed expectations for this season.

This year’s team, while firmly in postseason contention, looks different through nine weeks than the one from a year ago.

Instead of riding a wave of midseason wins, the Patriots are trying to regroup after losing two of their last three games. Their 45-27 loss to the Packers dropped them to 5-4 going into a Sunday morning (New England time) matchup against the Lions in Munich before heading into their bye.

Last year, the Patriots won seven of their last eight regular-season games, taking advantage of the easiest schedule in the league.

This season, they’re favored in all but one of their final eight games, according to projections from The Margin, an independent sports analytics service.

How they fare will depend on some key differences between this year and last year.

Between Packers quarterback Jordan Love torching the Patriots for 372 passing yards and Bears quarterback Caleb Williams throwing for 308 two weeks prior, the Patriots’ pass defense has allowed two 300-yard passers in the past three weeks.

They hadn’t allowed two 300-yard passers in such a short span since the start of the 2025 season, when Geno Smith threw for 362 yards in Week 1 and Tua Tagovailoa had 315 yards in Week 2.

Opening of the article, excerpted from The Boston Globe. To read the rest, open the article on the publisher's site.