psychoPat

Schedule makers this year have blessed the Pats.
No more playing Indy as the Colts come off their bye week.
It may be only a marginal factor, but we get almost all the scheduling advantages.

Here is what each of our opponents will be doing doing the week before they play us:

@NYJ ..... season opener
SD ..... fly x-country after playing Bears
BUF ..... at Steelers
@CIN (Mon) ..... back from playing Seahawks x-country
CLE ..... back from Ravens
@DAL ..... long flight from BUF after MNF game
@ MIA ..... was at CLE
WSH ..... home vs ARZ
@IND ..... played at Panthers
bye
@BUF ..... was at MIA
PHI ..... played MIA
@BAL (Mon) ..... return x-country after playing at Chargers
PIT ..... played Bengals Sunday night
NYJ ..... played CLE
MIA ..... played Ravens
@NYG (Sat) ..... was at BUF


All of the long-distance trips ... tough (sometimes tough divisional) foes ... and unbalanced short weeks are in red.
Those are all occasions which can favor the other team.

Patriots have 5 away games against tough teams.
We do not travel farther than Dallas.
We are home both before and after each of our MNF tilts.

But examination reveals that, say, Baltimore gets the Pats at home for MNF
... after a cross-country return from a predictably rugged outing against the Chargers.

Earlier, Cincinnati hosts us Monday night
... after flying cross-country from a game with the Seahawks.

Big logistical and scheduling edge to us.

Metaphors

I had a similar post a couple of weeks back and I generally agree with you. Couple of other interesting dynamics:

• Miami heads to London the week after the Pats visit
• The Indy game is in the middle of a killer stretch for them (@JAX, @CAR, NE, @SD if I remember correctly)

The only real schedule downer that I found was with the Monday night games. Playing primetime on the road can be tough and the Pats do MNF twice. But that balances out with 2 SNF games at home. Also have the Giants on Sat night on the road, but hopefully the Pats have the division and HFA sewn up and Cassel can start a game under the lights.

denverpatsfan

Great post. This is an important factor that most of the media fails to recognize.

Next year the Pats are screwed with 4 west coast games I believe.

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psychoPat

Drat ! Missed it.

I would have been content for you to do my work for me.

Metaphors

Don't sweat it. Same idea but different analysis. I'm a big believer in how the schedule affects the success of a team. Lots on this board that think the premise is a steaming load, but to each his own. Would the Pats have died in the 2nd half in Indy if it wasn't the 4th road game in 5 weeks, coming off a west coast trip the week before? We'll never know, but I find it hard to discount the effects.