Single Stat Proves How Much Fans Are Overreacting to 1 Bad Patriots Defensive Performance

After the New England's 37-20 loss to the Baltimore Ravens last week, Patriots fans were legitimately crying in the stands.

Easy there, Mark Wahlberg. It was just one bad defensive performance against a torrid Ravens offense led by Lamar Jackson, who might be the best dual-threat quarterback we've seen in a while. Stuff like this is bound to happen, as this one stat illustrates.

That's what happens when you face a good football team. As much as Patriots fans want to think that their defense is impenetrable, no unit is perfect.

Not even the famed 1985 Bears defense could stop Dan Marino from putting up 38 points against them. Including that outlier, the Bears defense gave up an average of 12.4 points per game, which is pretty aligned with what the Patriots defense has been allowing per game thus far.

It also helped that before Jackson, the best quarterback the Patriots faced all season might've been Ben Roethlisberger or Josh Allen.

Sure, the Patriots' 33-3 annihilation of the Steelers was legitimate and fair, but they proceeded to face the likes of Sam Darnold, Ryan Fitzpatrick and Colt McCoy. Those names don't exactly instill fear in the hearts of defenses.

Patriots fans, your defense is going to be okay. They'll eventually have to face off against Deshaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes in back-to-back weeks, but it's still not the end of the world.