Patriots break a long-standing NFL record going into Week 2

Perhaps the most shocking part from Week 1 of the NFL's 2024 season surrounded the New England Patriots' unexpected win over the Cincinnati Bengals at Paycor Stadium. Most analysts had the rebuilding team losing every game in the first month of the season, with straight losses across the board regarding their fate against a perennial Super Bowl contender.

While that made it an even more satisfying win for Patriots fans, as it always is in proving the doubters wrong, other reasons made the victory more brag-worthy regardless of the countless takes discounting the win.

One of the main reasons for celebration was the Patriots' finally breaking a four-year curse that became the new normal for a team that traditionally won double-digit games every season during the Bill Belichick and Tom Brady era.

Their Week 1 win last Sunday was their first time since the legendary quarterback left the team in 2020 that they began the season 1-0, which might sound silly to be excited about. But given how poorly the team has fared over the last four years, it's a small victory worthy of mentioning.

Fortunately, even more records were broken from their win, too.

ESPN's Mike Reiss shared the good news earlier this week, crediting ESPN Stats Info on Twitter/X for the heads-up. He revealed that the Patriots' Week 1 win was the biggest upset the NFL had seen since the 2018 season when the Bucs went into their matchup against the Saints as 10-point underdogs.

The Patriots were 7.5-point underdogs at the start of the game, with the lead being 8.5 points at the beginning of the week.

This is expected to continue for the rest of the season, as the Patriots are not favorites to win a single game on their 2024 schedule. That might change if they can rack up more wins, starting with the Seattle Seahawks in Week 2.

More Patriots news and analysis: