New England Patriots: Lack of fans could be hurting team

The New England Patriots are having their worse season in almost 20 years, but could part of their struggles be attributed to the lack of fans at Gillette Stadium?

2020 couldn’t have gone worse for the New England Patriots. They aren’t just playing poorly, they are getting blown out by opposing teams.

It’s stunning that Patriots fans had any optimism headed into the season. After Tom Brady left things couldn’t have gone well. An organization doesn’t recover from losing their best player in franchise history.

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But the Patriots didn’t perform too bad to start the season. Cam Newton seemed like he was a capable quarterback and that he would be able to lead New England to the playoffs.

Now fast forward to Week 7, and the Patriots are 2-4 for the first time in nearly 20 years. The dynasty has fallen apart. It’s all over Pats fans.

The offense has been absolutely terrible. Newton has struggled throwing the ball and has gifted interceptions to opposing defenses. In New England’s last two games he has thrown five interceptions while failing to reach the end zone.

New England’s defense hasn’t been lighting things up either. So far this season, the Patriots defense has allowed 300 yards four times this season. This included two games where they allowed more than 400 yards.

Clearly, New England isn’t playing well, but could something else be behind their poor performance?

One has to wonder how the lack of fans is affecting the team. It almost seems like you are watching a pop warner game instead of a pro game (especially with New England playing so poorly).

The stadium seems lifeless without the fans. As much as it might seem like something that players say to make fans feel good, they do make a difference.

When Gillette Stadium is rocking it is one of the loudest stadiums in the NFL. That has to get players pumped and ready to take on any opponent.

Now some teams around the NFL are allowed to have fans and even at a reduced capacity, you can see how loud they can get. Could this have made the Patriots even just a little bit more competitive?

It seems as though the NFL should have had a more uniform policy. It appears as though teams who have their home fans are at a slight advantage compared to the ones who are playing in empty stadiums.

Having fans in stadiums wouldn’t turn New England into the best team in the NFL, but it’s hard to think that they would be playing this poorly. They would at least be in the running for the AFC East.

So the fact that the Patriots aren’t playing in front of fans might seem like a non-factor, but it could actually be hurting the team.