Through first half of 2018, Patriots have (mostly) avoided Super Bowl hangover

FOXBOROUGH -- There’s a variety of reasons why teams struggle the year after losing the Super Bowl. Bad contracts. Injuries. And a nasty aftertaste from an (occasionally) epic defeat on the big stage can set the tone for a bad year and doom them right out of the gate.

But with the understanding there’s a lot of football left to play, it appears the 2018 Patriots have at least started to flip the script. If New England wins Monday, it’ll have a 6-2 mark after eight games. It’ll be tied for the best eight-game start for any team that lost the Super Bowl the year before since the 2000 Titans started 7-1. (The 2014 Broncos, 2013 Niners and 2011 Steelers all also started 6-2.)

The truth of the matter is if there was any team that appeared destined for a post-Super Bowl struggle this year, it was New England. There were plenty of reasons to be down on the Patriots’ chances from the start. The fallout from the decision to sit Malcolm Butler. The several free-agent departures. And the reports of tension between the coach, quarterback and tight end all made them a likely candidate to suffer some slippage in 2018.

However, keeping in mind that it hasn’t been a perfect season, they’ve managed to avoid most of the potholes that have derailed many of the other Super Bowl losers through the first half of the following year.

(For what it’s worth, it appears the likelier candidate for Super Bowl hangover this time around is Philly, the team that won the whole thing. The Eagles have started the year 3-4, and have struggled in a number of different areas. According to this piece, even in a relatively down year for the NFC East, Philly has just a 45 percent chance of just making it back to the playoffs, let alone going back-to-back. In the Super Bowl era, 52 teams have defended a championship, and just four of them started their season with a record worse than the 3-4 mark the Eagles have posted over their first seven games.)

Of course, the ultimate barometer is still winning the Super Bowl, and the 2018 Patriots still have a few obstacles to clear before we even talk about them really breaking some historical barriers. The last Super Bowl loser to even get back to the big game the next year were the 1993 Bills, who were at the tail end of the four Super Bowl appearances in four years. Since then, no team that has lost the Super Bowl has even reached the Super Bowl the following year, much less win the thing. The last time a Super Bowl loser won the whole thing the following year? The Dolphins, who lost Super Bowl VI to the Cowboys in early 1972 but put together a perfect season and beat the Vikings in Super Bowl VII the following year.

In the end, it’s important to remember a lot of things could change over the second half of the season. But a strong opening act has certainly allowed the 2018 Patriots to start to think about changing the conventional wisdom around Super Bowl hangover. How they navigate the second half will ultimately determine if they have what it takes to really break new ground.