The 1-6 Patriots are not a good team. While they have shown flashes of competence and have made some terrific stand-out plays, any feel-good momentum during a game gets immediately stiff-armed by penalties and mistakes.
As a graduate of 20 years at Belichick University’s Foxborough campus, a few things have been drilled into my brain. The first is, “Don’t be a team that beats themselves.” The early Patriots in that era committed league-low egregious penalties. Receivers knew where the first-down marker was and how much time was on the clock. They weren’t matriculating their opponents down the field while making their own offense regularly have to deal with 3rd and longs.