FOXBORO — Rhamondre Stevenson gimped off the field with 4:25 left in the first quarter Sunday, anguished by a fresh ankle injury that caused him to fumble and could soon cause him to miss games.

Lucky him.

Stevenson missed the rest of another miserable loss, another D-minus offensive performance, another is-this-rock-bottom moment for the Patriots.

Somehow, we’re still asking, and they’re still sinking.

Bailey Zappe, of course, was no savior. He completed 13 passes over 11 scoreless drives in the 6-0 loss, his first start of the season. Not that Zappe had much help.

Until late in the third quarter, Stevenson still led all Patriots in all-purpose yards. Meanwhile, Tyquan Thornton dropped a pinpoint deep ball, DeVante Parker stepped out of bounds on another bomb, Ezekiel Elliott fumbled and JuJu Smith-Schuster finished with one catch for the fourth time this season.

Credit to them for fighting through a miserably cold rain Sunday. But all credit stops there.

How do Bill Belichick’s Patriots get shut out by one of the league’s worst defenses? How do they drop the NFL’s lowest-scoring game in five years? How do they fail to score more than seven points for a third straight game, a franchise first in 30 years?

And how does any team lose three straight games, despite allowing 10 points or fewer in each of those outings? Because the only other NFL franchise of the last 85 years that can answer that question is the 1938 Chicago Cardinals.

This is the company the historically putrid Patriots keep now. Sunday was a full-blown disaster in a rising pile of them. How much worse can they get?

If you want to dispute the Patriots are the worst team in football – with lesser top-end talent than the Panthers and Cardinals, who both boast better turnover margins – go ahead. But there is no debating they are the NFL’s most boring.

Sunday showcased every reason why they became the first home team in NFL history to get flexed out of a Monday Night Football. Fans feel it, like the rain droplets that soaked their jerseys and sweatshirts Sunday; tears from the Foxboro football gods above. Tickets sold for as low as $19 before kickoff.

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Even Belichick’s lame, mumbly and defensive press conferences are scoring more points with a ticked-off fan base than his offense is. This was the latest from Belichick on Sunday: “I don’t know,” he said when asked about his surprise over the offense’s struggles.

Here are more of those struggles in context: the Patriots have been shut out in multiple home games for the first time since 1992. Sunday marked the first time they’ve failed to score in the first half of back-to-back games since 1993.

By comparison, the Chargers only scored on two short fields and couldn’t run the ball. Their receivers had more drops than a Little League right fielder. And their offense, averaging a measly four yards per play – four! – still out-classed the Patriots.

Meanwhile, the Patriots’ defense feels like it can’t allow any points. We know this because players are now open about it, violating Belichick’s longstanding media policy of treating reporters like mushrooms: keep them in the dark and feed them (expletive).

Source: Patriots RB Rhamondre Stevenson to undergo MRI to confirm ankle sprain

“We gave up 10 points, and lost the game two weeks in a row. So now, we’ve gotta give up zero,” Pats safety Adrian Phillips told the Herald last week. “If 10 ain’t enough, then we gotta bat 1.000, and give up zero.”

After Sunday’s loss, defensive tackle Davon Godchaux vented to the Herald about next week’s game at Pittsburgh.

“We can’t even afford to let (the Steelers) kick a field goal — we’ve gotta hold them to zero. It’s going to be interesting next week,” he said.

Phillips and Godchaux recognize their defense has become football’s Sisyphus; a unit fated to hopelessly roll the same boulder up the same hill knowing it will roll back down before they ever reach the top Sunday. This is the life they’ve known for weeks, and the life they will lead until a competent quarterback and set of pass-catchers emerge.

At least they’ve found peace in resignation.

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Sunday’s post-game locker room hardly resembled the morgue-like climate found after certain losses. Some defenders smiled, others joked. Players have breezed through the stages of grief over their lost season.

Shock and denial passed around the time the Patriots were first shut out at home in Week 5. Anger and bargaining followed soon after. It’s full-blown acceptance now in Foxboro.

The good news?

There’s only five games left.

The bad news?

There’s still five games to play and find out how far away rock bottom really is.