Patriots face a season long gauntlet after week #3.

[Uncle Rico]

The most interesting game of week 3 to me is the Chargers vs. Bills. Are the 2014 Bills for real, ...

yesterday was the first time I can remember actually looking ahead on the schedule to see who the Bills played. Intriguing team. That game is in Buffalo and SD is coming across the country after a big game.

This is a very favorable schedule, a cakewalk schedule will get you nowhere....

You never know. I thought the 2010 team had tremendous success against a very tough schedule. I thought they went into the playoffs battle-tested. That didn't go so well. That said, yeah,I like the mix of teams ahead for the '14 Pats.

 

[luuked]

The next few weeks will tell us everything we need to know about this year's Patriots. All parts of the team will be tested and I think that going into the BYE we will have a good idea of who this team is.

I am not sure if it makes sense to look ahead past the BYE.. who knows who stays healthy until then. Also there is a lot of time for improvement for everyone.

Finally, it is true that it will be interesting to see how the Bills will do against SD this weekend and against the Texans next week. They are the only team I can't really put my finger on in our division so far.

As always I hope that all of the AFC east teams will do well enough to draft late but not well enough to be a danger to us.

 

[Kontradiction]

The Pats are going to need the offense to be much better when we hit the NFC North portion of the schedule.

 

[Rob0729]

I am not impressed with the NFC North, the Colts, or the Chiefs right now. The Pats' schedule isn't all that hard. It isn't a cake walk, but after two weeks I do not see a lot of killer games right now.

 

[Rob0729]

The Bengals O-line will also pose a problem.

Through 2 weeks, Dalton; 0 sacks, 0 knockdowns

I don't know if that is really because of the Bengals o-line. In the first two weeks, the Bengals have faced the Ravens and the Falcons. Those two teams have two sacks combined for the season. The Ravens got two sacks against the Steelers (which is low because Roethlisberger takes a lot of sacks because he holds onto the ball so long) and the Falcons have yet to record their first sack of the season.

So far, the Bengals have faced two of the worst pass rushes in the league. The Pats are fourth in the league in sacks thus far with 7.

 

[Nikolai]

I am not impressed with the NFC North, the Colts, or the Chiefs right now. The Pats' schedule isn't all that hard. It isn't a cake walk, but after two weeks I do not see a lot of killer games right now.

I'm kinda with you here. The toughest teams are mostly being hosted in Foxboro. The Colts could squeak in at 10-6, but I'm wondering if they're a playoff team at this point. San Diego is one to watch, but I think our D might match up well against the Chargers' strengths.

I'm also not as impressed with Green Bay as I thought I'd be.

 

[Rob0729]

The Pats are going to need the offense to be much better when we hit the NFC North portion of the schedule.

The Pats only face the Bengals from the AFC North. They play the AFC West this year. Granted I agree with your point about being better on offense with the Bengals.

But Adam Jones went through it last night. It seems it is a common trend with the Pats in recent years to have an anemic offense the first few games of the year even when they have good offenses. Even the year the Pats had Gronk and Hernandez explode in production, they had a clunker week two against Cardinals (losing 20-18).

 

[Kontradiction]

The Pats only face the Bengals from the AFC North. They play the AFC West this year. Granted I agree with your point about being better on offense with the Bengals.

But Adam Jones went through it last night. It seems it is a common trend with the Pats in recent years to have an anemic offense the first few games of the year even when they have good offenses. Even the year the Pats had Gronk and Hernandez explode in production, they had a clunker week two against Cardinals (losing 20-18).

Might want to re-read the post.

 

[skspikex2]

The San Diego game will be tough, Rivers is a gamer. Tough s.o.b. that guy.

 

[Kontradiction]

I'm kinda with you here. The toughest teams are mostly being hosted in Foxboro. The Colts could squeak in at 10-6, but I'm wondering if they're a playoff team at this point. San Diego is one to watch, but I think our D might match up well against the Chargers' strengths.

I'm also not as impressed with Green Bay as I thought I'd be.

Green Bay is missing James Jones (who I would have loved to see us sign) badly so far, even though he isn't exactly setting the world on fire this year. The sheer ability to take the top off the defense opened things up more for Cobb and Nelson. Still, they can score on anybody when they're at the top of their game, as can the Lions and the Bears. Like I said, the offense will need to be performing much better during that portion of their schedule because the Pats may need to ring up some points and sustain some drives to help the defense.

 

[tasmlab]

The most interesting game of week 3 to me is the Chargers vs. Bills. Are the 2014 Bills for real, and with two divisional games vs. the Pats, how much more difficult does this season get if they keep winning?

The Bills have pulled this routine more than a few times, where they collapse mid season after a promising start but so far this year have looked much improved.

I really don't know for sure, but after 15 consecutive bad seasons, a bunch of different players, a bunch of different coaches, the only consistent thing about their perpetual losing was the owner. Now that they have a new one, maybe they'll be able to pull something together.

 

[Kontradiction]

I really don't know for sure, but after 15 consecutive bad seasons, a bunch of different players, a bunch of different coaches, the only consistent thing about their perpetual losing was the owner. Now that they have a new one, maybe they'll be able to pull something together.

I doubt it. It's only a matter of time before EJ Manuel becomes EJ Manuel again. I think they'll get their asses thoroughly handed to them this weekend unless San Diego is still way too high coming off that win against Seattle.

 

[Nikolai]

Green Bay is missing James Jones (who I would have loved to see us sign) badly so far, even though he isn't exactly setting the world on fire this year. The sheer ability to take the top off the defense opened things up more for Cobb and Nelson. Still, they can score on anybody when they're at the top of their game, as can the Lions and the Bears. Like I said, the offense will need to be performing much better during that portion of their schedule because the Pats may need to ring up some points and sustain some drives to help the defense.

That makes some sense to me. I'll be interested to see how our defense evolves as the season progresses, and what kind of personnel we put out there against various teams. I could see having a lot more Browner against the Bears, but how do we account for Megatron against Detroit?

I agree that the safe bet is to have an offense that can comfortable put up 25+ points a game and keep the TOP somewhere in the 35+ minute range. At this stage though, it's easier to look to the defense. Unfortunately, I don't think the Oakland game is really going to be a measuring stick, unless things go completely **** up.

 

[Rob0729]

Might want to re-read the post.

My bad. Sorry

 

[Kontradiction]

My bad. Sorry

I do agree that the offense has to get better for the Bengals though. If they play as they have in the first two weeks, the Bengals may hold us to 3.

 

[ALP]

The Bengals O-line will also pose a problem.

Through 2 weeks, Dalton; 0 sacks, 0 knockdowns

Wow

 

[JMC00]

Green Bay is missing James Jones (who I would have loved to see us sign) badly so far, even though he isn't exactly setting the world on fire this year. The sheer ability to take the top off the defense opened things up more for Cobb and Nelson. Still, they can score on anybody when they're at the top of their game, as can the Lions and the Bears. Like I said, the offense will need to be performing much better during that portion of their schedule because the Pats may need to ring up some points and sustain some drives to help the defense.

Lions are garbage on the road.

 

[JMC00]

Wow

Let me refer you to post #25 of this thread

 

[ensoul]

The defense seems to be fixed. I have no idea where the improvement will come from but the offense has to get better if this team does not want to go 9-7 or 8-8. What is scary is that the offense had great field position all game because of the defense and the pats were only able to get one running TD (on the one yard line because of the D) and one passing TD. Yeah the pats scored 30 points but only 12 were because of the offense.

12 points=offense
6 points= defense
12 points special teams.

This isn't good enough.

 

[PatCat]

The Pats are going to need the offense to be much better when we hit the NFC North portion of the schedule.

yup