They have been disappointing and inconsistent this season.
They play Sunday’s season finale miles from the playoff battle.
They were injured before the season even started by key players opting out of the 2020 schedule over concerns about COVID-19.
They suffered a number of debilitating injuries during the season.
Their quarterback play was hugely inconsistent with the future in the position in question.
They played the season with a severe lack of explosive skill position players.
These are of course the Jets …
… And the patriots too.
Riding a two-game, feel-good winning streak, the 2-13 Jets will play the 6-9 Tom Brady-less Patriots, losers from their past three games, in Sunday’s season finale for both teams at Gillette Stadium.
While the Jets are fresh off the Rams, who were 9-4 at the time, and the Browns, who were 10-4 last week, the Patriots lost 24-3 to the Rams and 22-12 to the Dolphins. and 38-9 for the AFC East champion Bills in their past three games.
“It is definitely different. … It’s weird not seeing them go to the playoffs, ” said Henry Anderson, the Jets defending team, Wednesday of the Patriots – who earlier this season defeated the Jets 30-27 on a field goal from the last seconds.
“It’s bizarre, because you’ve gotten used to seeing them play games in January and February,” said Jets guard Greg Van Roten on Wednesday. “Yes, it’s different, but these things happen in the NFL. They are a team like us that has suffered a lot of injuries, a lot of guys have signed out, it’s no excuse, but it makes it harder, it makes obstacles harder to overcome.
“It has been one of those years for many teams.”
However, the patriots have turned it into an art form by avoiding “ one of those years ” for years.
This will be the first season since 2008 that they will not play in the playoffs and only the second time since 2002. Their run of 11 consecutive AFC East titles was halted this year. Since Bill Belichick took over as coach in 2000, the Patriots have attended nine Super Bowls, six of which they won.
Of course, they all did with Tom Brady as the quarterback.
This Brady-less season was a revelation, a testament to Brady’s incredible ability to uplift the players around him. The lack of it has turned the patriots from extraordinary to ordinary.
The Patriots tried to replace Brady with Cam Newton, whose 2015 season MVP powers seem to be long gone.
Basically, it hasn’t worked, turning the Patriots from a team that worked for nearly 20 years without worrying about the quarterback position into one of the many in the league who don’t have a trustworthy one.
Newton, who has thrown just five touchdown passes this season in 338 attempts to go with 10 interceptions this season, has thrown just one TD pass in the past four games. He was benched and replaced by Jarrett Stidham in Monday night’s blowout loss against the Bills after completing 5 of 10 passes for 34 yards.
Asked this week how the transition has been without Brady, Belichick replied after a long pause: “Well… our record is disappointing. Obviously, we do things differently from the way we have done them in the past. We just have to perform at a higher level. All of us. [We] keep working on doing that. ”
Belichick has shown a curious unwavering support for Newton this season despite some spotty performances. Rather than playing the younger Stidham to see him as a possible starter in the future, Belichick stubbornly continues to drift away from Newton – as he is expected to do against the Jets on Sunday.
“Cam worked hard,” Belichick said. “He has done everything we asked him to do. He has given us great leadership and toughness and competitiveness. I have a huge amount of respect for what he has done for us this year. ”
But just as Belichick has “a lot of respect” for Newton, the Jets have the same respect for Darnold, who at the age of 23 has shown tremendous resilience despite all the losses.
However, the problem for Belichick with Newton is the same as it was for the Jets and Darnold: Both quarterbacks’ play was not conducive to winning football.
So that leaves the Jets and Patriots in very similar places when this season ends: with a lot of questions about the future of the quarterback position.
That too leaves New England in the astonishing position of being essentially one and the same as the Jets, who have been the Patriots’ personal punching bag for the past 20 years.
And that should annoy Belichick, whose disdain for the Jets is as transparent as a squeaky clean sliding glass door.