I knew the Pats had a cupcake schedule, but I don't think I realized it was HISTORICALY easy like this. Good lord.
The 2025 Patriots played the easiest schedule (in terms of opponent combined win percentage) by ANY team since 1999. Third easiest schedule in the last 50 years. They only beat one winning team in the regular season lol
Not to mention they played 11 games vs teams who aren't returning their head coach. Most ever in history.
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The Patriots went through the Chargers, Texans and Broncos this postseason. All solid opponents. But check out the players those teams were missing:
They played the Chargers without both their starting offensive tackles, Rashawn Slater and Joe Alt. Slater missed the entire season to be fair. Only 4.6% of teams in the last 20 postseasons played a playoff game without both of their starting offensive tackles.
They played the Texans without Nico Collins. Only 2.5% of teams have played a playoff game since 1970 without their leading receiver. Houston's second-leading receiver, Dalton Schultz, also left the game in the first half with a calf injury (and did not return).
They played the Broncos without Bo Nix. Jarrett Stidham became the seventh quarterback to make his first start of the season in the playoffs. That amounts to 0.6% of playoff games since 1950 when QB starts were first tracked.
Okay, that's not just a stroke of injury luck. That's very fortunate.
Ooof