Pats strength of schedule. Could this be right?

[Patsguy05]

:singing:That the Pats rank last in strength of schedule for next season?

http://community.foxsports.com/blogs/Dwindy1/2008/01/02/2008_NFL_Schedule_Dissection

 

[BelichickFan]

We have a very easy schedule - on paper, that can change quickly - but also have 4 west coast trips which could be 5 if that game in Edmonton happens.

 

[pheenix11]

This is skewed. The only reason the Bills, Jets and Fins have a higher SOS than the Pats is because they each have to play the Pats twice (with their 1.000 winning percentage).

The rest is attributed to the luck of the draw of having the AFC West and NFC West in the same year.

 

[SeymourTrophies]

We can't have the easiest schedule. Even if everyone else in our division has to play us, we have to play the steelers, colts, and chargers while the phins have to play the raiders, texans, and .....ravens? thats three suck teams to counteract the patriots' two game against the phins.

It probably won't end up being the easiest schedule. The NFC west only has one team that really shouldn't be in the playoff race in San Fran. There's always unexpected contenders, so I wouldn't say we have the easiest yet. It certainly helps though. We know our team can compete with the best, having less games where they exhaust themselves could help in the long run.

 

[SammyBlueCat]

There were a couple of threads about a game in Edmonton. I hope they drop that. No offense to anyone that lives in Edmonton but why the heck should they play a game there?

 

[patsfan-1982]

we do play in the AFC EAST the worst div in football but the bills are a 10 or 11 win team in the makeing and the fins will win more then one game the jets will be better the NFC WEST will be a lot better this yer and every team in the AFC is hard to beat that being said i hope we go 19 and 0 this yer so that can stop talking to the 72 fins every time a team gets to 5 and 0

 

[Chuck.U.Farley]

How is the schedule going to change with magic? It is all ready set who you are playing but the west coast trips will have some effect on the team that is a long flight.

 

[JoePats]

We can't have the easiest schedule. Even if everyone else in our division has to play us, we have to play the steelers, colts, and chargers while the phins have to play the raiders, texans, and .....ravens? thats three suck teams to counteract the patriots' two game against the phins.

It probably won't end up being the easiest schedule. The NFC west only has one team that really shouldn't be in the playoff race in San Fran. There's always unexpected contenders, so I wouldn't say we have the easiest yet. It certainly helps though. We know our team can compete with the best, having less games where they exhaust themselves could help in the long run.

I agree it won't end up being the easiest schedule, but in terms of just the opponents, it's pretty good. Even though we have to play pitt, indy, san diego, all the AFC east teams have to play san diego, and indy and pitt are just two games. Those are more than offset by the two games that we get against Miami, Buffalo, and the Jets. And those teams have 16-0 factored in twice. We have 1-15 and 4-12 twice each.

Anyone else feeling something like:

Monday night home game
At Indy
At Seattle

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

I agree it won't end up being the easiest schedule, but in terms of just the opponents, it's pretty good. Even though we have to play pitt, indy, san diego, all the AFC east teams have to play san diego, and indy and pitt are just two games. Those are more than offset by the two games that we get against Miami, Buffalo, and the Jets. And those teams have 16-0 factored in twice. We have 1-15 and 4-12 twice each.

Anyone else feeling something like:

Monday night home game
At Indy
At Seattle

I'm expecting a Monday Night game at Indy, followed by a west coast game.
Or a west coast game on Sunday followed by a Thursday night game.....
Of vice versa, a Sunday game at home followed by a Thursday game on the West Coast.
Somehow a short week and a west coast trip are going to be put in the same week.......

Just expecting the schedule god's to screw us somehow.......

 

[fair catch fryar]

How is the schedule going to change with magic? It is all ready set who you are playing but the west coast trips will have some effect on the team that is a long flight.

Please translate into a more coherent form in which readers can actually understand what it is your trying to point out or ask?

 

[ctpatsfan77]

I'm expecting a Monday Night game at Indy, followed by a west coast game.
Or a west coast game on Sunday followed by a Thursday night game.....
Of vice versa, a Sunday game at home followed by a Thursday game on the West Coast.
Somehow a short week and a west coast trip are going to be put in the same week.......

Just expecting the schedule god's to screw us somehow.......

There is no way that NBC or CBS will allow ESPN to get Pats-Colts. Not going to happen.

As for a short week + Thanksgiving . . . that's theoretically possible, although, IIRC, teams currently can make requests regarding their schedule, and I do think it would be reasonable for the Pats to make a request to prevent that.

 

[Rob0729]

We can't have the easiest schedule. Even if everyone else in our division has to play us, we have to play the steelers, colts, and chargers while the phins have to play the raiders, texans, and .....ravens? thats three suck teams to counteract the patriots' two game against the phins.

It probably won't end up being the easiest schedule. The NFC west only has one team that really shouldn't be in the playoff race in San Fran. There's always unexpected contenders, so I wouldn't say we have the easiest yet. It certainly helps though. We know our team can compete with the best, having less games where they exhaust themselves could help in the long run.

Although I do agree that the Pats probably won't have the easiest schedule, but everyone for the NFL West in the playoff race except for San Fran? Yeah, I guess they all will be in the hunt for the AFC West, but the team who wins the AFC West may barely have a winning record. The only team with a winning record this past season was Seattle and they look to be a team on the decline. I can see the winner of that division having a 9-7 record.

As for SOS in general, it means nothing at this point in the year. Last year at this time, you would have had harder strength of schedule than you really would have if you had the Bears, Saints, and Jets on your schedule since all took decent falls this year.

 

[BelichickFan]

Although I do agree that the Pats probably won't have the easiest schedule, but everyone for the NFL West in the playoff race except for San Fran? Yeah, I guess they all will be in the hunt for the AFC West, but the team who wins the AFC West may barely have a winning record. The only team with a winning record this past season was Seattle and they look to be a team on the decline. I can see the winner of that division having a 9-7 record.

I agree with you right now but I think his point probably is that Arizona was playing better last year and St. Louis was so banged up that they could be decent if everyone were healthy. I don't expect that division to make a huge jump forward but it's not impossible. Even SF could be interesting if Martz can wave his magic want with one of the QB.

 

[fumbrunner]

You can't look at SOS until the season is underway. Remember the Pats had I believe third toughest schedule based on SOS last season. That is before teams like the Jets and Dolphins tanked. The schedule may look easy, but it is skewed if any of the "poor" teams come out and play well.

 

[nittanylions52]

Yeah, I don't put any stock in strength of schedules that are based on LAST year's numbers. Some teams tank (Jets), some teams improve quite a bit (Browns, Saints from 2005 to 2006). Strength of schedule based on last year's numbers mean nothing to me. It's actually only an indicator of if we played this year again, but ended up with next year's schedules, here's how easy your schedule would be.

 

[VOODOOZF]

It is a pretty easy schedule.

 

[Dino 6 Rings]

SWEET!

Steelers have the toughest (on paper) schedule in the NFL...Effing Right...Bring it on!

 

[JoePats]

There is no way that NBC or CBS will allow ESPN to get Pats-Colts. Not going to happen.

I don't know. In '05 it was on Monday night. 06 on Sunday night, and this year on CBS. It's ESPN's turn, and they pay more money than the other guys.