Are we legit? We have had 4th easiest schedule in league so far...

[Haley]

No we are not legit. Please tell the press to report on us as not legit and rank us as low as possible. Please also tell all our opponents that we are not legit and they have nothing to worry about.

Much Thanks,
BB

 

[primetime]

If you look at SOS from a mid-season perspective, the worse teams always have the higher SOS because they lose more; therefore, the Bills have a high SOS because their opponents have 7 wins against them, while the Patriots have only one opponent with a win against them. This is despite the Bills having a technically 'easier' schedule due to finishing last in the division the previous year. It's just the way math works; teams with a lot of wins will torpedo their own SOS. This is why common opponents is a better gauge of a team.

 

[Fencer]

20-23 is not a bizarre record for opponents to have. The bizarre one is the Steelers' 29-15. That's impressive.

Also, among the Pats' opponents, it's generally accepted that SD and BUF are a little better than their records. I'm not sure that anybody is a little worse than their record to offset that.

 

[patsfan13]

We play the Steeler and Colts back to back that will resolve whether or not we are legit.

 

[BSR]

20-23 is not a bizarre record for opponents to have. The bizarre one is the Steelers' 29-15. That's impressive.

Also, among the Pats' opponents, it's generally accepted that SD and BUF are a little better than their records. I'm not sure that anybody is a little worse than their record to offset that.

The Steelers have beaten Atlanta, Tennessee, Tampa Bay, Cleavland and Miami.

They have lost to Baltimore and New Orleans.

They have beaten one high quality opponent, and who knows if the Titans are for real yet, and have lost two other quality opponents. I don't think their results are all that impressive yet.

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Hmm.

We won.

We lead the AFCE.

We lead the AFC.

We lead the NFL.

We have almost as many draft picks in the next draft as the rest of the AFCE combined.

Our rookies are doing much better than most folks expected.

Some one had to work damn hard to find something negative to discuss....but like always the chickenlittles found a way. Kudos. I know this must be hard time for you guys. But you are resilient.

 

[borg]

Having a zero win team on your schedule is a crusher. But the numbers will improve when the Pats play Pitt, Indy, GB, and the Jets again.

 

[Dutchmaster617]

We play the Steeler and Colts back to back that will resolve whether or not we are legit.

You think we have to beat them both? I know ESPN is still saying Pittsburgh is better because of yardage and not points scored or wins, hopefully we beat them both for homefield and respect (though who cares).

 

[patsfan13]

You think we have to beat them both? I know ESPN is still saying Pittsburgh is better because of yardage and not points scored or wins, hopefully we beat them both for homefield and respect (though who cares).

If 1 & 1 and we are competitive in the loss we can be considered title contenders. I think we can win both games. I predicted 17-2 and a SB win before the season started and see no reason to change that prediction.

 

[jmt57]

I'm assuming the visitor is a fan of the Steelers, since that is the team he attempted to make a case of being so much better based on a "tougher" schedule. Aside from the obvious (0-7 skews SOS dramatically; beating a team makes that opponent's record worse, and therefore lowers your SOS), you can't make a valid argument that Team A is better than Team B by cherry-picking one stat and not digging beneath the surface.

First of all the sample size is way too small. Does anybody really think the current league-wide standings will be the same in January?

As far as SOS and the Steelers go, let's consider one of the teams they beat which beefed up their SOS: the 5-2 Tampa Bay Bucs, who lost to Pittsburgh. Tampa Bay has lost the only two games they have played to teams with winning records by a combined score of 69 to 19. Their five victories are against teams who have a combined record of 13-24. The best team they have beaten is the Rams, a gift-wrapped last minute comeback one point victory at home. Yet based on W-L a victory over Tampa Bay would count just as much in SOS as a win over the Ravens, Giants, Jets or - interestingly enough, the Steelers.

If you say I can't question the Bucs 5-2 record based on their SOS, then you can't uses SOS as an argument that Team A is better than Team B at all - which is the only piece evidence SammyB has used to support his claim.


So now let's compare common opponents.
Baltimore: Ravens 17, Steelers 14; Pats 23, Ravens 20
Miami: Steelers (& refs) 23, Dolphins 22; Pats 41, Dolphins 14
Sure looks to me like the Pats have done better.


If you want to make an argument that despite the Pats having a better record Pittsburgh is a better team right now, fine; maybe Kordell Stewart can you help you; I think he's still telling that to anyone who will listen. There are surely some valid and logical arguments to make such a case that Pittsburgh is the better team. But to make that claim based on nothing but SOS is just plain dumb - and frankly very trollish, in a hit-and run kind of way. Everyone in this forum is now dumber for having read it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul.

 

[TBradyOwnsYou]

What matters:
Going back to pre-season, if you looked at every team's predicted records for this week, I would guess the Patriots being 6-1 at this point would be towards the very bottom of predictions.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

SOS is always wrong, even statistically. Let's take an example. Suppose the Buffalo Bills are 0-8, while the Patriots are 8-0 (for argument's sake.) Let's say they've played the exact same schedule, and the teams they've played have a .500 record, all at 4-4.

It would appear that both teams have a .500 strength of schedule, but you can't factor in the actual game where they've impacted the outcome, as that skews the stats.

In reality, the Bills' opponent record here is 32-32, but actually it is 24-32 (with Buffalo's games being taken out.) .423, not .500.

The Patriots' opponent record is 32-32, but in reality it is 32-24 (with New England's games being taken out.) .571, not .500.

That's why when teams are 10-1, everyone is always saying their schedule was easy. Because their opponents winning percentage is diluted by playing against them.

 

[Kontradiction]

We'll know more about this team after the next three games. Do they keep their attention on Cleveland this weekend or turn their attention toward next weekend and the Steelers? After that, we have an extremely tough game against an extremely tough team at an extremely tough stadium to play at. To be honest, I'm chalking the Steelers game up as a loss. After that, we get a usually tough game against Peyton Manning and the Colts. We SHOULD be able to beat them if we're really the team that most people are saying we are. The Colts are extremely banged up and we're playing them at home. If we go 2-1 against that schedule, we are the team that everyone thinks we are. If we go 3-0, we might be better than the team that everyone thinks we are. If we go 1-2 or less, we might be in trouble... and the SoS argument that the troll just brought up because a very valid point.

 

[SONS_OF_BELICHICK]

Don't forget ....the game against Cleveland is a trap game....one week at a time ...boys....:bricks:

 

[captain stone]

I hadn't really thought this at all until seeing the SOS stats in this ESPN article, but it appears we have had the 4th easiest schedule in the league so far with our strength of schedule being only .420 (only KC, Seattle and JAX have had easier). We're 6-1, but what does this weak SOS say about us.

For comparison the Steelers have the third hardest schedule so far based on SOS -- at .608.

So, raises my question... are we legit? Or are we 6-1 b/c we've been playing bad teams? Our opponents are apparently 21-29, whereas Pitt's opponents are 31-20. I know/get that by beating teams you pile up some losses on them which hurts your SOS number but still, the comparison to the Steelers is crazy in this sense -- teams they've played have won 50% more games almost, despite Pitt usually beating them.

If we lose to both the Squealers & the Clots, then we'll have our answer: No.
Legit enough to make the POs? Yes.
But unless the offense becomes much, much more consistent (a healthy Fragile Fred & Deion Branch is imperative), and the defense somehow miraculously develops a better, more consistent pass rush,
then one round, maybe two, of the POs will be as far as it goes.

 

[TheGodInAGreyHoodie]

Don't forget ....the game against Cleveland is a trap game....one week at a time ...boys....:bricks:

Not only that...but once we play them and add in there 2-6 record we will likely have the 1st easiest schedule in the NFL.

 

[Jackson 2]

The immortal Peter King tweeted yesterday that the Patriots are "the worst 6-1 team ever", according to Dale and Holley. We all know how this works: every team sucks as soon as we beat them and every team sucks as soon as we lose to them.

 

[Brady_12]

The immortal Peter King tweeted yesterday that the Patriots are "the worst 6-1 team ever", according to Dale and Holley. We all know how this works: every team sucks as soon as we beat them and every team sucks as soon as we lose to them.

That's not entirely true. He responded to someone else who tweeted that, asking if they were nuts.

 

[godef]

I hadn't really thought this at all until seeing the SOS stats in this ESPN article, but it appears we have had the 4th easiest schedule in the league so far with our strength of schedule being only .420 (only KC, Seattle and JAX have had easier). We're 6-1, but what does this weak SOS say about us.

For comparison the Steelers have the third hardest schedule so far based on SOS -- at .608.

So, raises my question... are we legit? Or are we 6-1 b/c we've been playing bad teams? Our opponents are apparently 21-29, whereas Pitt's opponents are 31-20. I know/get that by beating teams you pile up some losses on them which hurts your SOS number but still, the comparison to the Steelers is crazy in this sense -- teams they've played have won 50% more games almost, despite Pitt usually beating them.

So what? This is a "rebuilding" season. Our defense started off like crap but is steadily improving, as we hoped. Mankins is back. So we got some breaks in the first half of the season while the defense builds up its mojo, this only helps with play-off positioning by December into January, when the Pats hit their peak.

 

[patsfaninpittsburgh]

SOS

The Pats go to 3-5 San Diego and beat a team that then beats the 5-3 Titans who lost to the Steelers.

SOS then says based on this component, our schedule is "easier" compared to Pittsburgh?

It's simply amazing anyone who has an IQ reaching into double digits would give any credibility to this male bovine dung.