Actually the Pats '75-80 had pretty good teams, and if not for getting boned by Ben Dreith may have won a SB.
The 74 team was pretty good too, started out 6-1, ended up 7-7, then in 75 they went 3-11, then in 76 they turned it around and went 11-3 thanks largely to the players they drafted with the picks they got in the Plunkett trade.
That 76 team was loaded and yes, they got fucked by Dreith; had they won that game (and they should have), they woud have beaten a banged up Steelers team and then won their first Super Bowl vs the Vikings. Had that happened, have to wonder if Fairbanks would have stayed here. They were a good team in 78 too, but the nonsense that went on at the end of the year when Fairbanks was going to leave torpedoed that team.
Between the 75 World Series, the 76 Dreith game, the 78 collapse and the playoff game loss to the MFYs and the 79 too many men on the ice Bruins game vs the Canadiens, it's a miracle I survived being a Boston sports fan.