New England Patriots: How worried should fans be?

With the New England Patriots losing two games in a row going into Week 15, is it time to officially start to worry about the defending champions?

The New England Patriots come into Week 15 in somewhat unfamiliar territory following a dominant start to the 2019 NFL season. Following a loss at home to the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday in Week 14, the Patriots go into a new wee having lost two games in a row for the first time this season while also experiencing their first loss at home in 22 games.

With the loss at home to the Chiefs, New England fell to 10-3 overall, still sitting atop the AFC East ahead of the Buffalo Bills, New York Jets and Miami Dolphins. They also are now solely in the No. 2 spot in the AFC standings behind the Baltimore Ravens.

They are still in a good position in the standings, but the Patriots have now fallen in three of their last five games after beginning the 2019 campaign 8-0 overall. It’s clear that New England is struggling right now, but is it time to worry about the defending Super Bowl Champions at a point in the regular season when we normally see them start to pick things up and hit their stride?

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There are certainly some issues surrounding the Patriots when you look at where they are at the current moment and how it stacks up against what we have seen from Tom Brady, Bill Belichick and company in past seasons.

One of the biggest concerns with this New England squad right now comes on the offensive end of the field, which has been an area that we haven’t had to look too far into since Brady broke into the league about 20 years ago. On offense this season, New England is coming into Week 15 as a team kind of sitting in the middle of the pack in the NFL in offensive performance.

Through 14 weeks of action, the Patriots rank 15th the league in total yards per game, averaging 354.4 yards per contest. They also rank 25th in the NFL with an average of 5.1 yards per game on offense, while ranking ninth in passing yards (3,357), 23rd in rushing yards (1,250) and eighth in points per game (26.0).

One area, however, that New England has thrived in has come on defense and the fact that the Patriots have one of the best defensive units in the entire league three-fourths of the way through the year.

The Patriots currently rank first in the NFL in total yards given up on average, allowing opponents to average just 264.8 total yards per contest, while also ranking atop the league in points given up per game on average at 12.9 per game.

They also come into Week 15 having given up a total of 2,233 yards in the passing game (ranks second in the NFL), while allowing opponents to record a total of 1,209 yards rushing (fourth in the league) and have recorded a total of 21 interceptions, which is the most in the NFL.

There certainly are some concerns when it comes to analyzing this Patriots team and their struggles as of late, but it might be too early to push the panic button just yet. After all, when you have Brady on your team and the postseason is just around the corner, you have to figure that New England will figure things out quickly and will return to form just in time for the playoffs to begin.

Or at least the Patriots and their fans hope so as they try to repeat as Super Bowl Champions once again here in 2019.