Joomla and non-Joomla subfolders - .htaccess

Question

I have a Joomla installation with search-friendly-urls at the root level of the domain, but my host is giving me access to my website stats (which requires authentication) in domain.com/stats, and I cannot see it, just a Joomla generated 404 error.
I thought this might be due to the .htaccess so I tried adding this line to the top:
RewriteRule ^(/stats) - [L]
but I still get the 404. This is what the rest of the .htaccess: looks like
## Can be commented out if causes errors, see notes above.
Options +FollowSymLinks
#
# mod_rewrite in use
RewriteEngine On
########## Begin - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits
## If you experience problems on your site block out the operations listed below
## This attempts to block the most common type of exploit `attempts` to Joomla!
#
# Block out any script trying to set a mosConfig value through the URL
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} mosConfig_[a-zA-Z_]{1,21}(=|\%3D) [OR]
# Block out any script trying to base64_encode crap to send via URL
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} base64_encode.*\(.*\) [OR]
# Block out any script that includes a <script> tag in URL
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} (\<|%3C).*script.*(\>|%3E) [NC,OR]
# Block out any script trying to set a PHP GLOBALS variable via URL
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} GLOBALS(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2}) [OR]
# Block out any script trying to modify a _REQUEST variable via URL
RewriteCond %{QUERY_STRING} _REQUEST(=|\[|\%[0-9A-Z]{0,2})
# Send all blocked request to homepage with 403 Forbidden error!
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/stats
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [F,L]
#
########## End - Rewrite rules to block out some common exploits
# Uncomment following line if your webserver's URL
# is not directly related to physical file paths.
# Update Your Joomla! Directory (just / for root)
# RewriteBase /
########## Begin - Joomla! core SEF Section
#
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/index.php
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (/|\.php|\.html|\.htm|\.feed|\.pdf|\.raw|/[^.]*)$ [NC]
RewriteRule (.*) index.php
RewriteRule .* - [E=HTTP_AUTHORIZATION:%{HTTP:Authorization},L]
#
########## End - Joomla! core SEF Section

Answer 1

EDIT: does any of these (directly after RewriteEngine On) help?:
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} ^/stats/.* [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [L]
or
RewriteCond %{ENV:REDIRECT_STATUS} 200 RewriteRule .* - [L]
also, try enabling the
RewriteBase /
if it still doesn't work, and if you are able to change to server / virtual host config, try logging the rewrite process.
EDIT END
try adding a
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} !^/stats
before the
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ index.php [F,L]