My Thoughts on the Patriots Schedule After the Schedule Reveal
- Why do we always open against the Dolphins?
It feels like every year we open against Miami and usually in Miami. It’s like the NFL wants us to start 0–1 as they know this is our house of horrors, especially at the beginning (or end) of the season. Having to deal with the heat and humidity of Miami in September is awful as well.
2. We have five primetime games!
I am surprised we still have five primetime games this year tied for the most in NFL with twelve other teams and is the maximum allowed. The Titans, Raiders, and Ravens are not among them which is surprising. The five primetime games will be against the Bears, Vikings, Bills, Cardinals, and Raiders. The last four primetime games will be consecutive starting with a game on Thanksgiving against the Vikings.
3. We MUST start STRONG!
Our strength of schedule (based on last season’s record) is .496 which is the 16th hardest out of 32 but we have our last SIX games against teams that had winning records last season. Two of which are against the AFC (and likely Super Bowl) favorite Bills and another against the AFC Champion Bengals. If we want to reach the postseason, we probably have to start 8–3 or at worst 7–4 if we want to make the postseason. This will be hard as we still have the; Dolphins, Steelers, Packers, and Colts who all finished with winning records, as well as the Browns, Ravens, and Vikings who won’t be easy.
4. We actually got somewhat lucky with the scheduling rotations
It could have been worse in terms of what divisions we play. Instead of the tough AFC North, it could have been the BRUTAL AFC West (although we still have to play the Raiders in the second-place scheduling rotation) and instead of the NFC North, we could have played the much tougher NFC West (although we still have to play the Cardinals in the second-place scheduling rotation). We also could have played the Browns after Deshaun Watson’s likely suspension for his allegations and civil suits would probably be over (we are playing them in Week 6 when the standard suspension for sexual assault/domestic violence is six games).
Overall
Overall I feel we have a very tough schedule despite the strength of schedule listings as we have few “easy” opponents and most of them are at home. This is feeling like an 8–9 kind of season for us but I hope it is better but I am not confident in our ability to manage this schedule after what I feel was an extremely underwhelming draft and offseason.
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