Toughness of schedule
 

I just finished reading that the Pats schedual is considered maybe the third toughest in the league. For a team that didn't make the playoffs how could that be?

re: Toughness of schedule
 

Schedules are determined way in advance, the only 2 games that go by the finish of the previous season for us are the Ravens, who were a playoff team, and the Broncos.

re: Toughness of schedule
 

Thanks, I thought it went by your record, the better your record the tougher the schedual

re: Toughness of schedule
 

Only for 2 games. If you finish 2nd you play the second place teams from the year before of the intra conference divisions that you don't already have on your schedule that year. We play the whole South this year, so we play the 2nd place finishers from the West and North, or the Broncos and Ravens.

re: Toughness of schedule
 

Part of it is because of the divisions the AFC East faces this year. If you notice, every team from our division is in the top 7 for strength of schedule. The Jets have an easier schedule than the Bills because they play each other twice, and the Bills had a worse record last year.

If you notice, the Dolphins supposedly have the most difficult schedule. They had the same record as the Pats, only they won the tiebreaker...so all things being equal, their schedule should be harder.

The Bills had one of the hardest if not the hardest schedule for years. Sometimes bad teams end up with the hardest schedules because they are in a good division, where they have to play every team twice.

Strength of schedule based on the previous year isn't an exactly air-tight evaluation on who has the hardest schedule anyway. I'd rather wait until the end of the year to judge how hard a team's schedule is. Good teams from last year will be bad this year...bad teams from last year will be good, etc.

re: Toughness of schedule
 

Just to add to the other comment, it's basically a harder schedule because we're up for the Afc South and Nfc South divisions this yr.

Since the teams in those respective divisions are better than average, we get the harder schedule, a la CAR,ATL,NEW ORL,TAM and IND,TEN,HOU,JAX.

When you throw in the 2 second place teams, DEN and BAL + the parity of the Afc East, you get the 3rd toughest schedule in the league.

Last yr, when we played the Afc/Nfc West divisions, we lucked out somewhat.

re: Toughness of schedule
 

On paper, it's ranked as one of the toughest. However, I see it as a pretty easy schedule. No team scares me. None! In fact, I'd be shocked if they lost a game. Because Tom Brady didn't play last year, the Pats became a normal NFL team. But, now that he's back, it puts the Pats at another level. In fact, I'd be shocked if they lost a game.

re: Toughness of schedule
 

Is this every other leap year :D

re: Toughness of schedule
 

I didn't think it so bad myself until i read it was the 3rd toughest. Now days with free agency the stregth of schedual mean what it use to. It was the principle.

re: Toughness of schedule
 

i agree except indy and baltimore will be tough. the other games to watch out for are the following:

atlanta - no D.

Miami - LOL

carolina - they have some talent but not enough.

new orleans - explosive

Tennesee - no haynsworth