Historical Hole: Patriots Desperate to Avoid First 0-2 Start Since 2001

The New England Patriots enter Sunday night's showdown with the Miami Dolphins trying to avoid losing the first two games of the season at home for the first time in almost 50 years.

Seems silly to call any NFL game played in mid-September a "must-win." But there's nothing funny about the harsh reality should the New England Patriots lose Sunday night in Foxboro to the Miami Dolphins.

The 0-1 Pats - coming off an encouraging-yet-heartbreaking loss to the defending NFC champion Philadelphia Eagles at Gillette Stadium last week - have played 21 consecutive seasons without starting 0-2. More daunting, the last time they began a season with back-to-back home losses they played at Schaefer Stadium, were coached by Chuck Fairbanks, quarterbacked by Neil Graf and finished 3-11.

That was almost 50 years ago, in 1975. The Patriots never began 0-2 with Tom Brady as their starting quarterback.

Granted, beginning the season against consecutive 2022 playoff opponents is a tall task. But history doesn't have sympathy for 0-2 teams. Only statistical proof that it's a difficult - almost impossible - hole to dig out of.

The grave gravity of starting 0-2 is real. Only about 10 percent of teams losing their first two games go on to make the playoffs. Even with the NFL's expanded postseason field, last season only one (Cincinnati Bengals) of the five teams that lost their first two games qualified for the postseason.

More sobering stats: Less than one percent make it to the Super Bowl. It is possible, but it usually takes an asterisk such as Emmitt Smith holding out the first two games for the Dallas Cowboys in 1993 or New England's Drew Bledsoe getting injured in Week 2 in 2001.

Bledsoe, of course, was knocked out of that game by Jets linebacker Mo Lewis, prompting coach Bill Belichick to insert Brady and ... launch a six-Super Bowl dynasty. The Pats lost that game to New York to fall to 0-2, but went 11-3 the rest of the season with Brady as the starter and - with an assist from the infamous Tuck Rule in the AFC playoffs - went on to upset the Rams in Super Bowl XXXVI.

Even when Brady suffered a torn ACL in the opener in 2008, the Pats started 2-0 behind backup quarterback Matt Cassel. Under Mac Jones the Pats lost their 2021 and 2022 openers to the Dolphins, but rebounded both times with wins in Week 2.

The Patriots enter Sunday night as three-point underdogs to the 1-0 Dolphins.

---