The 1990 New England Patriots season was the team's 31st, and 21st in the National Football League (NFL). It was the first year for head coach Rod Rust, who was looking to improve on the 5–11 mark from the year before that cost Raymond Berry his job, despite the fact that Berry led the Patriots to the playoffs twice in his tenure.
The Patriots instead finished the season with a record of 1–15, the worst record in franchise history. They finished last in the AFC East Division and last in the NFL. The roster still had a number of All-Pros and regular contributors from their successful teams of the 1980s, but many of them were past the peak of their career, and the team lacked any young talent to replace them. After the team started 1–1, they would go on to lose their next fourteen games, many in humiliating fashion. Off the field, the team and its management were embarrassed by the harassment of a reporter during a locker room interview.
The 1990 Patriots scored a meager 181 points the entire season, the seventh-lowest of any NFL team in the 16-game season era, and recorded a -265 point differential, the third-worst of any NFL team since the AFL–NFL merger, bettering only the 1981 Baltimore Colts, and the winless 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
17 years later, the Patriots won all 16 regular season games, becoming one of two teams since the AFL-NFL merger to have both a one-win season and an undefeated season (the Miami Dolphins were 1–15 in 2007, 35 years after their historic 17–0 campaign).
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Offseason
After several successful seasons in the mid-1980s, the 1989 season had been a disappointment, as the Patriots finished 5–11 and fired head coach Raymond Berry. To replace him, the team hired Rod Rust, a long-time defensive coach who had served as defensive coordinator for several NFL teams, including a 5-season tenure with the Patriots that included their (to that point) only Super Bowl appearance following the 1985 season. The team also traded wide receiver Stanley Morgan, at that point the best receiver in team history, to Indianapolis. Most of the team returned from the 1989 team, however many of the key starters from most of the 1980s such as future Pro Football Hall of Fame linebacker Andre Tippett, quarterback Steve Grogan (who would finish his career with the most games in a Patriots uniform), cornerback Ronnie Lippett, and defensive end Garin Veris were all in the twilight of their careers. Among former Pro Bowlers returning to the team were offensive lineman Bruce Armstrong and wide receiver Irving Fryar.
Season recap
The team opened with a close-played loss to Miami in week 1 in which quarterback Steve Grogan outplayed his Miami counterpart, future Hall-of-Famer Dan Marino. Marino threw three interceptions during the game, while Grogan had none, however Miami running back Sammie Smith made up the difference, rushing for 159 on the ground and a third quarter touchdown that kept Miami in the game. After harassing Marino all game, the defense gave up a crucial fourth quarter touchdown from Marino to running back Tony Paige for the go-ahead score late in the fourth quarter.
They rebounded in week 2 with a win over the Indianapolis Colts in a defensive struggle in which the Patriots picked off Colts quarterback Jeff George four times. Kicker Jason Staurovsky was the hero of the game, hitting three field goals in a 16–14 win. After two games, the team was 1–1, and the defense had intercepted the opposing quarterbacks seven times in just two games, as well as forcing three fumbles and recovering two of these. That gave the Patriots a 9–1 turnover differential, with the offense playing well enough to keep the teams in games. The day after the victory over the Colts, after the conclusion of the Monday practice, tight end Zeke Mowatt, running back Robert Perryman and wide receiver Michael Timpson allegedly stood in front of Boston Herald reporter Lisa Olson semi-naked and sexually harassed her in the Patriots locker room at Foxboro Stadium. The incident proved a major embarrassment for the franchise. The media firestorm surrounding the event proved a major distraction to the team in preparation for their next game.
Steve Grogan had been suffering nagging injuries for most of the previous several games, and with Marc Wilson, a former starter for the Oakland Raiders, healthy, Rust decided to start him. The decision proved disastrous, as the team was blown out in week 3 by the Bengals 41–7, with the defense failing to live up to the form they showed in the first two games, and the offense entirely ineffective. Wilson himself was benched late in the game for Tommy Hodson, who completed four passes once the game was already out of control.
Rust would stay with Marc Wilson for the next three games, probably owing to Grogan's failing health and Hodson's lack of game experience. Wilson would lose the next three games in succession, including a three-interception, zero-touchdown performance against division rival New York Jets in week 4, a 33–20 loss to the Seahawks in Week 5, and following a bye in week 6, a 17–10 loss to the Dolphins in week 7.