1972 New England Patriots season

The 1972 New England Patriots season was the franchise's third season in the National Football League and 13th overall. The Patriots ended the season with a record of three wins and eleven losses and finished last in the AFC East Division. The Patriots continued their period of futility as they slumped to another horrendous record of 3–11, and missed the playoffs for the ninth straight season. After being embarrassed 31–7 in their home opener against Cincinnati, the Patriots would win their next two games against Atlanta and Washington. However, the Patriots would continue their mid-season misery, as they would lose nine consecutive games to slide to 2–10 before winning their first (and only) road game against the New Orleans Saints. New England went winless against AFC opponents. Besides their embarrassing home-opening loss, the Patriots had plenty of other bad moments during the season. One good example was a 52–0 thrashing given to them by the powerful Miami Dolphins. The loss went down as the worst loss in Patriots history and the most points ever allowed in a game in franchise history.

1972 New England Patriots season
Head coachJohn Mazur (fired)
Phil Bengtson (interim)
General managerUpton Bell (fired)
Peter Hadhazy (interim)
OwnerBilly Sullivan
Home fieldSchaefer Stadium
Results
Record3–11
Division place5th AFC East
Playoff finishdid not qualify
Pro Bowlersnone
AP All-Prosnone
Uniform

Although they won three games, the 1972 Patriots had the second-worst point differential (minus-254) of any team in a 14-game NFL season, ahead of only the expansion 1976 Buccaneers. The 1972 Patriots had the franchise’s worst point differential until the 1990 team was outscored by 265 points (181–446) in a 1–15 season.[1] They lost eight of their fourteen games by three touchdowns or more, and their first two wins were by a single point. Pro Football Reference argues that the 1970 and 1972 Patriots were, owing to the tough schedule of the 1990 team, the weakest Patriot teams ever,[2] and rivalled only by the 1991 Colts and 2009 Rams[3] as the weakest team by an established franchise since the NFL–AFL merger.

Staff
New England Patriots 1972 staff
Front Office

Head Coaches

Offensive Coaches

  • Offensive Backs/Receivers – Sam Rutigliano
  • Receivers – Jerry Stoltz
  • Offensive Line – Bruce Beatty
  

Defensive Coaches

  • Defensive Line – Dick Evans
  • Linebackers – John Meyer
  • Defensive Backfield – Tom Fletcher

Special Teams Coaches

Roster
1972 New England Patriots roster
Quarterbacks

Running backs

Wide receivers

Tight ends

 Offensive linemen

Defensive linemen

 Linebackers

Defensive backs

Special teams

 Reserve lists

{{{reserve_lists}}}


Practice squad



Rookies in italics

Regular season

Schedule
Week Date Opponent Result Attendance
1 September 17, 1972 Cincinnati Bengals L 31–7
60,999
2 September 24, 1972 Atlanta Falcons W 21–20
60,999
3 October 1, 1972 Washington Redskins W 24–23
60,999
4 October 8, 1972 at Buffalo Bills L 38–14
41,749
5 October 15, 1972 New York Jets L 41–13
60,999
6 October 22, 1972 at Pittsburgh Steelers L 33–3
46,081
7 October 29, 1972 at New York Jets L 34–10
62,867
8 November 6, 1972 Baltimore Colts L 24–17
60,999
9 November 12, 1972 at Miami Dolphins L 52–0
80,010
10 November 19, 1972 Buffalo Bills L 27–24
60,999
11 November 26, 1972 at Baltimore Colts L 31–0
54,907
12 December 3, 1972 Miami Dolphins L 37–21
60,999
13 December 10, 1972 at New Orleans Saints W 17–10
64,889
14 December 17, 1972 at Denver Broncos L 45–21
51,656

Game summaries

Week 1 vs Bengals
See also: 1972 Cincinnati Bengals season
Week One: Cincinnati Bengals (0–0) at New England Patriots (0–0)
1 2 34Total
Bengals 7 3 71431
Patriots 0 7 007

at Schaefer Stadium, Foxboro, Massachusetts

  • Date: September 17, 1972
  • Game time: 1:00 p.m. EST
  • Game weather: 74 °F (23 °C) • Wind 19 miles per hour (31 km/h; 17 kn)
  • Game attendance: 60,999
  • Box Score

Week 3
1 234Total
Redskins 0 1409 23
• Patriots 0 7107 24
  • Date: October 1
  • Location: Schaefer Stadium, Foxboro, Massachusetts
  • Game start: 1:00 p.m.
  • Game weather: 54 °F (12.2 °C); wind 14 miles per hour (23 km/h; 12 kn)

[4]

Standings
AFC East
W L T PCT DIV CONF PF PA STK
Miami Dolphins 14 0 0 1.000 8–0 11–0 385 171 W14
New York Jets 7 7 0 .500 6–2 6–5 367 324 L2
Baltimore Colts 5 9 0 .357 4–4 5–6 235 252 L2
Buffalo Bills 4 9 1 .321 2–6 2–9 257 377 W1
New England Patriots 3 11 0 .214 0–8 0–11 192 446 L1

References
  1. All NFL teams sorted by point differential from 1961 to 1977
  2. Pro Football Reference; Boston/New England Patriots Team Encyclopedia
  3. Pro Football Reference; Rams Franchise Encyclopedia
  4. Pro-Football-Reference.com. Retrieved 2014-May-04.
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