Back-to-Back Geography

The 2020 Patriots played back-to-back to games on the road in the same city for the first time in history when playing the Los Angeles Chargers (Dec. 6, 2020) and the Los Angeles Rams (Dec. 10, 2020). While that makes sense given that Los Angeles and New York are the only NFL markets that have been home to two teams simultaneously, the Pats have played back-to-back games on the road in the same state 13 times.

One could argue that San Francisco and Oakland share a market, but the Patriots have never played back-to-back games on the road against teams in those cities (Raiders and 49ers). Dallas was actually home to an NFL and AFL franchise – Cowboys and Texans – from 1960-1962 before the Texans relocated to Kansas City and became the Chiefs, but those two teams competed in different leagues.

Back-to-back games at Oakland and LA/San Diego were common during the early days of the American Football League in the 1960s. It became more rare in the decades after. Before playing at San Francisco and at San Diego back-to-back in 2008, the team had not played consecutive games on the road in the same state since 1974. This season is the first time they have done it since 2008.

The Patriots are 8-5 in the first game of such a road swing and 5-8 in the second game. They have gone 2-0 in these situations just twice, 0-2 twice and 1-1  on nine occasions.

So we looked back at how frequently the Patriots played back-to-back games on the road in the same state. Here are the results:

1960 – W 35-0 at Los Angeles Chargers on Oct. 8; L 27-14 at Oakland Raiders on Oct. 16
1960 – L 34-0 at Dallas Texans on Dec. 11; L 37-21 at Houston Oilers on Dec. 18
1961 – W 23-21 at Buffalo Bills on Sept. 23; L 37-30 at New York Titans on Oct. 1
1961 – W 35-21 at Oakland Raiders on Dec. 9; W 41-0 at San Diego Chargers on Dec. 17
1962 – W 20-14 at San Diego Chargers on Dec. 9; L 20-0 at Oakland Raiders on Dec. 16
1963 – L 17-13 at San Diego Chargers on Sept. 14; W 20-14 at Oakland Raiders on Sept. 22
1964 – W 17-14 at Oakland Raiders on Sept. 13; W 33-28 at San Diego Chargers on Sept. 20
1965 – L 30-21 at Oakland Raiders on Oct. 24; W 22-6 at San Diego Chargers on Oct. 31
1967 – L 28-14 at San Diego Chargers on Sept. 9; L 35-7 at Oakland Raiders on Sept. 17
1970 – L 17-3 at New York Jets on Nov. 22; W14-10 at Buffalo Bills on Nov. 29
1974 – W 24-0 at New York Jets on Oct. 13; L 30-28 at Buffalo Bills on Oct. 20
2008 – W 30-21 at San Francisco 49ers on Oct. 5; L 30-10 at San Diego Chargers on Oct. 12
2020 – W 45-0 at Los Angeles Chargers on Dec. 6; L 24-3 at Los Angeles Rams on Dec. 10

Note: The Patriots also played the Bills and Jets back-to-back on the road in 2020, but the Jets moved from Shea Stadium in New York to Giants Stadium (now the new Met Life Stadium) in New Jersey in 1984 and have played in New Jersey ever since.