The Patriots did what they’ve done all season on Thursday night: They won easily.
New England won by 21 on Thursday, following five games that they won by 26, 6, 16, 43 and 30 points. Add it all up and through six games this season, they’ve outscored their opponents by 142 points this season.
And if they keep up this pace through the entire season, they’ll outscore their opponents by 379 points over the course of 16 games. That would be the NFL record for point differential in a season -- previously set by the 2007 Patriots, who outscored their opponents by 315 points.
The Patriots have been aided, of course, by playing an easy schedule. But the Patriots’ remaining 10 games have plenty of weak opponents, too. They still get the Jets and Dolphins again, a Browns team that’s been blown out twice this year, and the winless Bengals.
Matching the point differential of that 16-0 Patriots team in 2007 won’t be easy, but this team is playing well enough, and playing a schedule bad enough, that it’s not impossible.