Before last year’s Super Bowl, I wrote that Carolina led the NFL in points scored in a unique way. What made the Panthers scoring success so unusual? Most notably were these two facts:

Carolina ranked only 11th in yards, the worst-ever ranking for the top-scoring team; and

Carolina ranked only 9th in NY/A, the worst-ever ranking for the top-scoring team.

With the Patriots, you may be surprised to learn that while New England finished 1st in points allowed, the defense ranked just 16th in DVOA. There are a few explanations here:

The Patriots faced by far the easiest schedule of any defense in the NFL. New England’s SOS was -7.1%, while Tennessee was 31st at -4.2%, and the Bills were 30th at -3.0%. The Patriots would be tied for 8th in DVOA if that metric was not adjusted for strength of schedule, which is why the defense falls to 16th with those adjustments.

New England had just 11 turnovers, tied with the Falcons for fewest in the league. Combined with a generally good offense, and the average opponent’s drive against New England started inside the 25-yard line, the best in the league. That means the Patriots defense had a lot of turf behind them, making life much easier for the defense.

Opposing kickers missed 8 of 29 attempts, including three from within 45 yards. In addition, the Patriots were 8th in red zone defense and 3rd in goal-to-go defense, which helps the points allowed numbers.

New England’s defense was hardly bad by traditional numbers: the Patriots ranked 8th in total yards allowed, 6th in Net Yards per pass Attempt allowed, and 3rd and 4th in yards per carry allowed and rush defense DVOA. That’s a good defense, but again, is boosted by the very easy schedule.

How easy? Well, Russell Wilson threw for 348 yards, 3 TDs, and 0 INTs against the Patriots, averaging 9.6 ANY/A. And Ryan Fitzpatrick averaged 6.6 ANY/A against New England, which is really good considering he was at 5.00 overall. Carson Palmer and Andy Dalton both averaged 1.3 more ANY/A against the Patriots than they did during the entire 2016 season.

On average, the 16 quarterbacks the Patriots faced (including Ryan Fitzpatrick and Tyrod Taylor two times) averaged 5.85 ANY/A against New England, a hair better than they did against the rest of the NFL (5.75). Take a look:

And that 0.10 difference is arguably inflated by facing Matt Moore, who had a great game against the Jets which inflated his regular season numbers. Take out Moore, and the Patriots defense’s average opposing QB averaged 5.52 ANY/A against New England, and just 5.27 ANY/A against the rest of the NFL. So when it comes to Matt Ryan in Super Bowl LI, if he does very well against “the #1 scoring defense in the NFL”, we really shouldn’t be surprised. Ryan, of course, averaged 9.03 ANY/A during the regular season; if he averages a quarter ANY/A more than that in 10 days, the Patriots will be in significant trouble.

Perhaps most telling on the above list is the lack of any high-end caliber quarterbacks. Excluding Moore, Wilson and Dalton were the two best passers the Patriots faced; they ranked 12th and 13th in ANY/A during the regular season. New England did face Ben Roethlisberger in the AFC Championship Game, of course, and Roethlisberger (6.15 ANY/A) was held slightly below his regular-season average (6.98). But as far as “number one scoring defenses” go, this is a pretty nonthreatening defense to face for the top quarterback in the NFL in 2016.