Like, for instance, Tennessee or Green Bay.
That’s more than any rational human can be expected to handle.
Sure, I remember times like this in the past.
I’m an old.
But your memories have to go back to the Bush Administration to recall what that was like.
The first Bush Administration.
As in George HW Bush.
I’m going to refuse to let this break me though.
My heart and soul are being tested for sure.
Every Masshole will tell you the same.
But my brain is refusing to give in to despair.
Instead, I’m going to lean into the situation.
To steer into this skid.
eStare into the void and see if it stares back.
There’s a technique in Psychology referred to as Exposure Therapy.
Supposed you’re treating someone with social anxiety.
You put them in social situations until they can develop the mechanisms they need to solve their own problems.
Or if someone has a fear of snakes, you have them handle snakes.
Jordan Peterson has tolda story of a patient he treatedwho was afraid of pretty much everything.
So he took her to an embalming to gradually expose her to her fears to overcome them.
And says she’s much better off than she was.
And I don’t think I’m alone.
In no particular order, but sort of saving the worst for last, here are the facts.
Sunday’s loss wasn’t simply terrible; it was historically bad.
Holding a team to 15 or less.
Rushing for 150 yards.
Not turning the ball over, but forcing turnovers.
That is a guaranteed recipe for victory every time you’re fielding a team of professional football players.
Picket line-crossing scab workers.
That is, until now.
And the Patriots managed to pull it off against the (still) lowest scoring team in the NFL.
This much losing is impossible for people with our history to get used to.
Ten regular season losses at Gillette over a span of 13 years.
And 10 just since the start of last year.
But then fell right down the basement stairs.
The Patriots best pass protection is still worse than almost anyone else’s.
But still worse than 30 other teams.
So the ceiling for O-line coach Scott Peters' squad is below everybody else’s floor.
They hit even more historic benchmarks.
This one speaks for itself.
Score less than 62 points.
I’ll save you the trouble of looking up the 1976-77 Buccaneers.
The ‘75 Chargers were 2-12.
And the ‘76 Falcons somehow triumphed over adversity all the way to 4-10.
So every pass play was essentiallyThe Purgeby today’s standards.
Yet that’s the company we’re keeping right now.
We all owe deep, heartfelt, sincere apologies to Matt Patricia.
Yes, that was down around 100 points from the Wild Card team of the previous season.
But that 364 was still good for 17th in the league.
And the combined record of the four teams with fewer than 211 is 8-52, or 2-13 per season.
hey forgive us, Matty P. It was sheer arrogance to think it was your fault.
The very thought of 364 points right now is the stuff nocturnal emissions are made of.
Thanks for joining me on this little therapy session.
I hope it helped.
If nothing else, it’s good to think that things can’t get any worse.
Even if we don’t believe it.
