Remaining Schedule

[TheBostonStraggler]

I'm just gonna leave this here.....

I tell you what CEO, if the Patriots go 16-0 this year I may feel better about the SB than 07. In 07, IMHO, the Patriots were trending just a tad downward as the POs started. Not saying they weren't clearly favored, they were, however, I am one of those that believes the team that is trending upward/playing their very best ball as January arrives just seems to persevere when it matters most. This year certain factors lead me to believe the Patriots will be playing their best in December and January.

With that said, making scumbag Goodell have to hand the trophy to the Patriots is paramount. So given the added pressure that comes with the perfect season as well as it could cause starters to play longer in the last week or maybe two (and a bit of a chicken little moment for me ), I may just prefer the team has one loss to end that specific fanfare/pressure on BB/TB/Team. But even with the one loss, the good news is in 2016 we will then go 19-0/threepeat, the perfect season!, and make scumbag Goodell hand over #3 trophy in a row with a look on his disturbing face of someone who has given up on life

 

[Angelpats]

After the search and seizure during the jets game it's a lock we are winning the next showdown.

 

[LJRomanoff]

So your answer to my question is no.

Yes, that's correct.

 

[FCB02062]

I honestly think we're going to have a 14-2 or 13-3 team playing wild card weekend in the AFC. Its going to take 15 wins to get home field....
And to think the 01 Pats had the #2 seed with 11 wins...

 

[RayClay]

Maybe I'm missing something about Denver but I do not understand the concern with that game. They have a tough defense but Brady has been carving up tough defenses dating back to the Super Bowl. Their Oline is mediocre at best and the Pats Dline pass rush is top 10 if not better. Peyton is going feel the pressure.

GB is going to hand Denver its first loss tomorrow and I think Denver will be lucky to finish the year 11-5. (Depending on how Peyton plays we may start hearing louder chants of , "We want Brock....we want Brock..." )

Bengals - Played well against the Seahawks and Dalton made some really sweet passes in that game. I am going to pay close attention to how they handle some of the tougher defenses coming up such as the Rams, Cardinals, Steelers and the Broncos. But what I have seen from them so far they are a solid team. We'll see how that will work into the HFA plans.


Of course the jets have improved, but their play, and coaching, down the stretch was really loser like.

My concerned games are :

@ Giants. The Giants have been playing a lot better since their rough start and the defense has been creating a lot of turnovers. +10 in the turnover differential. (or 16 takeaways for @Oswlek ) and the whole Eli Manning thing. (This maybe a game I'm concerned about for mental reasons thought)

@ Jets - This game just BUGS me. Seriously though, I think its a definitely winnable game but cannot have the same mistakes as in the first game. 11 drops probably won't get it done. I do expect Fritzy to toss the Pats a turnover or two. Still playing in MetLife stadium against a tough defense is somewhat concerning.

vs Eagles - Eagles also have a decent defense and their offense is Bi-polar. Some weeks they look like last weeks Phins vs Texans and the others they look like Phins vs Pats. Not too concerned with them as the Pats will be at home.

Other than that I don't see any significant challenges.

Good post. As far as the jets, our run defense has gotten much better with the awakened Branch and Hicks. I can't believe the Belichick isn't drilling the pats on containing Fitz in the pocket that week.

 

[Tony2046]

Am I the only one that thinks this would be a little anti climactic? I mean it's like someone is going to be 19-0 by default.

Not by default but this year has some bizarre strength of schedule alignments. Seems like some strong teams have extremely weak schedules such as Green Bay. Pats have a slightly stronger schedule but they look like they are on a mission and probably have 3 tough games ahead of them.

Everyone understands that "any given Sunday" can happen and that going undefeated is historically a low percentage possibility but given the way these teams have played it's understandable that we are entertaining the possibility.

I don't think anyone puts it in a must do category rather it would be just a nice additional accomplishment to shove in Roger's face if it happened. IMO

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Yep, especially since the Bengals only have 3 remaining games against winning teams too:

Browns
Texans
@Cardinals
Rams
@Browns
Steelers
@49ers
@Broncos
Ravens

Good point PChick and one I had missed. No doubt Cincy is currently good. IMHO they are the second best team in the AFC based on being more well rounded than Denver.
So assuming for argument sake we lose our game against Denver, if Cincy beats Denver our margin of error for HFA is shaky. If we lose just one additional game to go with the Denver loss, we must have Cincy go 5-3 in the rest of their games to get HFA. And as Cincy is playing right now I don't like the odds of them going 5-3.
But I italicized 'right now' because I believe, based solely on history, a temporary swoon will come to Cincy. Marvin Lewis/Andy Dalton/the team in general always find a way to stall/trip themselves up for part of the season. We will see what we see.....

It is a tough question: if the Cincy v Denver game was tomorrow, who would we want to win??

 

[Tony2046]

Good post. As far as the jets, our run defense has gotten much better with the awakened Branch and Hicks. I can't believe the Belichick isn't drilling the pats on containing Fitz in the pocket that week.

Thanks. They held Miami to 15 yards rushing. hahaha

This defense is solid. They have the ability to stop the run and/or get pressure on the QB.

They are a little slow getting off the field but I think that is somewhat by design. Allow the QB to throw downfield and wait for and capitalize on a mistake. Sack > 3rd and long > incompletion/interception etc or Pressure >bad throw > interception/incompletion etc..

That's my novice take anyways.

 

[Tony2046]

Good point PChick and one I had missed. No doubt Cincy is currently good. IMHO they are the second best team in the AFC based on being more well rounded than Denver.
So assuming for argument sake we lose our game against Denver, if Cincy beats Denver our margin of error for HFA is shaky. If we lose just one additional game to go with the Denver loss, we must have Cincy go 5-3 in the rest of their games to get HFA. And as Cincy is playing right now I don't like the odds of them going 5-3.
But I italicized 'right now' because I believe, based solely on history, a temporary swoon will come to Cincy. Marvin Lewis/Andy Dalton/the team in general always find a way to stall/trip themselves up for part of the season. We will see what we see.....

It is a tough question: if the Cincy v Denver game was tomorrow, who would we want to win??

I say Denver. They have scraped by some poor teams because of their offensive struggles while Cincy has been playing solid football. Chances are IMO that Denver will start losing a few of the close ones and Peyton's noodle arm in November becomes more of a liability.

 

[Soul_Survivor88]

I tell you what CEO, if the Patriots go 16-0 this year I may feel better about the SB than 07. In 07, IMHO, the Patriots were trending just a tad downward as the POs started. Not saying they weren't clearly favored, they were, however, I am one of those that believes the team that is trending upward/playing their very best ball as January arrives just seems to persevere when it matters most. This year certain factors lead me to believe the Patriots will be playing their best in December and January.

With that said, making scumbag Goodell have to hand the trophy to the Patriots is paramount. So given the added pressure that comes with the perfect season as well as it could cause starters to play longer in the last week or maybe two (and a bit of a chicken little moment for me ), I may just prefer the team has one loss to end that specific fanfare/pressure on BB/TB/Team. But even with the one loss, the good news is in 2016 we will then go 19-0/threepeat, the perfect season!, and make scumbag Goodell hand over #3 trophy in a row with a look on his disturbing face of someone who has given up on life

Agree on all points. I really want the Pats to go 16-0 again. It's more pressure but it gives us a chance to pull off the greatest redemption in sports history.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

I say Denver. They have scraped by some poor teams because of their offensive struggles while Cincy has been playing solid football. Chances are IMO that Denver will start losing a few of the close ones and Peyton's noodle arm in November becomes more of a liability.

Agreed. As of right now Cincy is playing better football. And if the offensive woes of Denver are due to Manning retiring one year too late, I think Denver will start to fade as the passing (due to the arm) gets even less effective.
For Cincy, if Lewis has finally put together a team that doesn't eventually beat itself and if Dalton has finally turned the corner on consistency (though two big ifs), Denver is clearly our competition for HFA and probably the AFFCG

 

[Tony2046]

Agreed. As of right now Cincy is playing better football. And if the offensive woes of Denver are due to Manning retiring one year too late, I think Denver will start to fade as the passing (due to the arm) gets even less effective.
For Cincy, if Lewis has finally put together a team that doesn't eventually beat itself and if Dalton has finally turned the corner on consistency (though two big ifs), Denver is clearly our competition for HFA and probably the AFFCG

I think you meant Cincy and I agree.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

Agree on all points. I really want the Pats to go 16-0 again. It's more pressure but it gives us a chance to pull off the greatest redemption in sports history.

Didn't even think of in those terms CEO. The greatest redemption in sports history has a damn fine ring to it. George Bailey, Andy Dufresne, Edward Dontes, and Tom Brady. Yep, I like it .

But I still prefer every proverbial duck that is out there lines up as optimal as possible for SB victory. Ending up with one loss will still, very likely, get us HFA and it probably lines up a duck. So I'm for it.

 

[TheBostonStraggler]

I think you meant Cincy and I agree.

Thanks for the correction. It's 11pm on Friday night - I've tied a few on

 

[juny]

I went to fivethirtyeight.com and looked up patriot win percentages for remaining schedule using whatever formula they have. They are favored in every game with the lowest one being the denver game at 52%. Multiplying the win percentage for each game results in about a 10% chance (according to them), pats go 16-0.

 

[Tony2046]

I went to fivethirtyeight.com and looked up patriot win percentages for remaining schedule using whatever formula they have. They are favored in every game with the lowest one being the denver game at 52%. Multiplying the win percentage for each game results in about a 10% chance (according to them), pats go 16-0.

I think that Denver percentage will change after tomorrow. Denver is not as good as their ELO dictates. IMO

 

[VectorPrime]

The Patriots MIGHT go 16-0. Maybe. The Packers will not. And the idea that two teams will do it in the same season is laughable.

 

[moejr]

The Patriots MIGHT go 16-0. Maybe. The Packers will not. And the idea that two teams will do it in the same season is laughable.

What makes you think the packers won't? Just curious to the logic. I don't think they will either. They have Denver,Carolina and Arizona left to play and all on the road. Plus if Dallas is healthy that could be a tough one for them.

 

[VectorPrime]

Because there is absolutely no chance that Mike McCarthy can will a team through the chaos and stress of perfect season.

 

[supafly]

I honestly think we're going to have a 14-2 or 13-3 team playing wild card weekend in the AFC. Its going to take 15 wins to get home field....
And to think the 01 Pats had the #2 seed with 11 wins...

I'd have a very difficult time envisioning two teams with HFA that are 14-2 and better, which is what occurred in 2004 with NE and PIT.

I don't know about 13-3, but you may be correct that 12-4 will get you a #3 seed in the AFC this year.

I think it's safe to assume that CIN and DEN are going to lose a few games, and we may end up losing at least a couple as well, particularly if we're able to rest starters for week #17 after dropping one prior to the last game.

--------------


DENVER potential losses

Green Bay
Indy
KC
New England
SD (x2)
Pittsburgh
Cincinnati
Oakland


NEW ENGLAND potential losses

NYG
Denver
any of the 3 remaining divisional games, 2 of which are back to back road games
Philly


CINCINNATI potential losses

Pittsburgh (x2)
Arizona
Denver on the back end of a road-road west coast trip
any of the divisional games can be tricky, which they have FIVE remaining