The Patriots have been among the NFL's best for a really, really long time -- 20 years basically.
Sometimes in these parts that gets overlooked and when looking into the matchup Sunday night against the Ravens, one stat relating to the point spread magnifies just how dominant the Patriots have been.
As of Thursday morning, the Patriots are currently seven-point underdogs, which would be the first time they are seven-point or more dogs at home since 2001 when they were 8.5-point underdogs against the Rams.
Overall, this will be just the fourth time they have been seven-point or more underdogs since that 2001 season. The previous games were at Houston in the final week of the 2009 season, Week 1 of 2016 in Arizona when Tom Brady was suspended and then earlier this season in Kansas City.
For what it's worth, the Patriots covered two of those three games.
In Bill Belichick's career with the Patriots, he's been a seven-point or more underdog 12 times (includes playoffs) and he's covered the spread in nine of those games and won straight up in six of them.
To be seven-point or more underdogs this few times in 20 years is remarkable and shows just how dominant the team has been.
