NE faced and beat most of the top defenses in the league, even though some of those teams didn’t have winning records. They beat Buffalo and Tampa on the road when both of those teams were playing well. They’re 3-0 in the playoffs and 9-0 on the road. They’re top 5 in just about everything. But yeah, some of the teams they beat had very poor winning percentages so the SOS is low.
3-0 in the playoffs and undefeated on the road are both solid accomplishments. Both our teams should be extremely proud of the seasons they have had and both have bright bright futures so cheers to that!
A few things you stated I'd like to dig into. Those teams that helped the Pat's rank top 5 in "just about everything" had very poor winning percentages......... because they weren't good football teams. When you play bad teams constantly your statistical rank will tend to be better overall. It's not the Pat's fault by any means but the statistical rankings of your team and quality of opponents those stats were against are mathematically related so you can't really claim one and not acknowledge the other.
Taking the Texans game as a case study in "beating a top defense"
NE scored 3 offensive TD's vs the Texans: (They had one pick 6)
17 total plays, 176 yards total (not counting a 17 yard PI)
1) 6 plays, 66 yards
2) 5 plays, 56 yards
3) 6 plays, 71 yards (17 yard PI on the drive)
There were some solid explosive plays in those drives to be sure so I'm not taking anything away from these. Pat's have some playmakers and Maye has some raw talent that is hard to game plan against. Not denying that.
However,
The rest of the Pat's offensive drives that "beat" the Texans great defense?
11 drives, 45 plays, 74 total yards, 3 turn overs, and zero points.................
To me that really isn't "beating" a top defense? Texans turned it over 5 times. That's why they lost. If this is the measure of beating a great defense and I keep hearing about NE's great defense then doesn't the fact that the Texans with 5 TO's still had more first downs and only 7 less total yards than NE in that game mean that your defense is also very beatable?
There are some other trends I'd be very worried about such as 15 sacks allowed in the playoffs facing the NFL leader in pressure rate but there's too much to get into for one post. Just a few of my thoughts on the game. It should be a fun one!