Looking to improve on two consecutive winning seasons under head coach Ron Erhardt, including a 10–6 mark in 1980, the Patriots instead regressed significantly and ended the season with a record of two wins and fourteen losses, and finished tied for last in the AFC East Division with the Baltimore Colts, with whom they also tied for the worst record in the league.
A porous defensive line and linebacking corps[1] was the chief weakness: in one game against the Steelers the Patriot secondary made 27 of the team's 33 tackles.
[2] The 2–14 record resulted in Erhardt losing his job at the end of the season.
It was known that the loser of that last game would have the first pick in the 1982 NFL draft, and the game was nicknamed “The Stupor Bowl.”[4] With the Patriots’ defeat, the team had the first pick, choosing University of Texas defensive end Kenneth Sims, an eventual “draft bust” as first overall pick in the NFL draft.
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