Patriots.com writers being SARCASTIC?

http://www.patriots.com/search/index.cfm?ac=searchdetail&pid=31647&pcid=41&rss=1

"Back-to-back West Coast trips, another Week 9 date with Indy, and several prime time games make the Patriots’ 2008 schedule one of the toughest in recent memory.


Consider this payback.

After last season’s favorable schedule – with a bye week after the Indy game in November and three straight home games in December – the New England Patriots are in for some tough sledding (and lots of frequent-flier mileage) in 2008."

What? The west coast trips aside, Look at the teams on this schedule.......

I don't think it's sarcasm. It's more likely ridiculous homerism.

Considering teams don't perform the same year after year they are making a point about home games, travel and the bye week.

BTW, what is up with Patriots.com's mediocre draft coverage? The past few years they posted detailed breakdowns by position, and this season they half-@$$ed it. Disappointing, because I liked Casale's POV on prospects.

RayClay said:

Considering teams don't perform the same year after year they are making a point about home games, travel and the bye week.

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Yes some schedules are more taxing due to the West/East setup, but come on.. This is not one of the "toughest schedules in recent memory", I don't care if we had to fly to London every other week, we have the softest opponent line up in the league.....

MRBLAZE said:

Yes some schedules are more taxing due to the West/East setup, but come on.. This is not one of the "toughest schedules in recent memory", I don't care if we had to fly to London every other week, we have the softest opponent line up in the league.....

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I wouldn't be so confident with what you would call soft teams like
who Oakland? Yeah the Pats should win but that is the Black Hole and we
historically haven't done well there. San Fran might be able to give us trouble
if they're healthy and we're not. Who's left San Diego? Seattle? Yeah right real soft.
We should also beat Denver, right? Denver has historically been a thorn in this
franchises side. Don't trust that game to be an auto W either.
Even some of our division rivals are going to be tough with Parcells joining up with
Miami who will surely improve that football team. Jets and Bill have made some moves too.
Don't kid yourself, MRBLAZE. This is no cupcake schedule.

JoePats said:

I don't think it's sarcasm. It's more likely ridiculous homerism.

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Anyone who reads that site or listens to the radio show knows that there is FAR less homerism there on this site or any other Patriots fan-boy site. Try again.

patsox23 said:

Anyone who reads that site or listens to the radio show knows that there is FAR less homerism there on this site or any other Patriots fan-boy site. Try again.

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Saying the Patriots 2008 schedule is one of the toughest in recent memory is not being accurate.

MRBLAZE said:

Yes some schedules are more taxing due to the West/East setup, but come on.. This is not one of the "toughest schedules in recent memory", I don't care if we had to fly to London every other week, we have the softest opponent line up in the league.....

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I'm aware we have the softest by percentage, but they don't mention teams, they only mentioned west coast, prime time and the bye week.

I don't have an opinion, but it seems they're basing it on those factors.

Playing the Dolphins twice has to skew the data too.

Not playing ourselves...ditto

I'm pretty much a "let's play the schedule" type of guy, no matter what it is.

MRBLAZE said:

Yes some schedules are more taxing due to the West/East setup, but come on.. This is not one of the "toughest schedules in recent memory", I don't care if we had to fly to London every other week, we have the softest opponent line up in the league.....

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Organizations, especially ones like the Patriots, probably don't asses schedules on the basis of how good or bad the teams are. I'm sure in BB's mind the Phins are a "tough matchup" for them. When fans talk about how tough a schedule their team has they base it on how shitty they think the teams are. I think the Pats only look at purely tangible things like travel, bye week, game times etc. when assessing how "tough" or "easy" a schedule is. Otherwise they'd be openly saying that certain opponents are good or bad which I doubt any smart organization would do. So from that standpoint, it is one of the toughest.

Wildo7 said:

Organizations, especially ones like the Patriots, probably don't asses schedules on the basis of how good or bad the teams are. I'm sure in BB's mind the Phins are a "tough matchup" for them. When fans talk about how tough a schedule their team has they base it on how shitty they think the teams are. I think the Pats only look at purely tangible things like travel, bye week, game times etc. when assessing how "tough" or "easy" a schedule is. Otherwise they'd be openly saying that certain opponents are good or bad which I doubt any smart organization would do. So from that standpoint, it is one of the toughest.

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Yeah I know. And of course BB will always speak of it that way.

But if you are a fly on the wall at his home, and he's talking to his son, there's no way he could look him in the eye with his pajamas on away from all the media, and say that's one of the toughest schedules he's ever had to take on.

Yes every year there are a few surprises, but even if there are two really break out teams this year, and add that onto the teams we know already are capable of contending with us, we still have 12+ games that we KNOW (unlike being Jets or Dolphins fans) we should win. Yes it's spoiled and unrealistic to sustain, but we're winning 12 or more games this year easily. And likely more toward 13-14.

Oh, they'd nevvvveeerrrrr be sarcastic.

(See what I did there? Awesome.)

Including the travel, it seems that this schedule is on par with last year's.

One year they had an absolutely brutal schedule. When was that, 2005?

i don't mind a tough schedule. it prepares teams for the playoffs.

PonyExpress said:

BTW, what is up with Patriots.com's mediocre draft coverage? The past few years they posted detailed breakdowns by position, and this season they half-@$$ed it. Disappointing, because I liked Casale's POV on prospects.

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He does it on Patriots Today.

The Pats have 4 long flights (Sea, SD, SF, and Oak) plus Indy as their non-division road game. There is no team that would choose that.

The "easiest schedule" argument is based on the same logic that would have had games last year with the Jets, Saints, and Bears as tougher than the Browns, Packers, and Giants. The first 3 teams won a combined 18 games in 2007, the latter 3 won 33 regular season games, 4 playoff games, and 1 Super Bowl.

Nothing in the NFL these days is more meaningless than last year's winning percentages.

Well, I thought it was a tough schedule when I realized there would be so many left coast games. I think the bye is too early. left coast, left coast then denver at home is tough. indy at indy with all that piped in noise. at seahawks, at raiders at the end of the season is tough too.

I know the teams *were* bad, but things change in a year.

good luck pats!

dhamz said:

The Pats have 4 long flights (Sea, SD, SF, and Oak) plus Indy as their non-division road game. There is no team that would choose that.

The "easiest schedule" argument is based on the same logic that would have had games last year with the Jets, Saints, and Bears as tougher than the Browns, Packers, and Giants. The first 3 teams won a combined 18 games in 2007, the latter 3 won 33 regular season games, 4 playoff games, and 1 Super Bowl.

Nothing in the NFL these days is more meaningless than last year's winning percentages.

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I agree. This time last year, the Jets game looked tough.

Patjew said:

Oh, they'd nevvvveeerrrrr be sarcastic.

(See what I did there? Awesome.)

Including the travel, it seems that this schedule is on par with last year's.

One year they had an absolutely brutal schedule. When was that, 2005?

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Oh yeah, 2005 was murderous... After Oakland at home, their next 5 games were:

@ Carolina
@ Pittsburgh
San Diego
@ Atlanta
@ Denver

Atlanta was in the 2004 NFCC, Pitt the AFCC, San Diego and Denver were playoff teams, and Carolina went on the 2005 NFCC... most brutal 5 game stretch I've ever seen...

363839 said:

I wouldn't be so confident with what you would call soft teams like
who Oakland? Yeah the Pats should win but that is the Black Hole and we
historically haven't done well there. San Fran might be able to give us trouble
if they're healthy and we're not. Who's left San Diego? Seattle? Yeah right real soft.
We should also beat Denver, right? Denver has historically been a thorn in this
franchises side. Don't trust that game to be an auto W either.
Even some of our division rivals are going to be tough with Parcells joining up with
Miami who will surely improve that football team. Jets and Bill have made some moves too.
Don't kid yourself, MRBLAZE. This is no cupcake schedule.

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I second this notion. Denver and Oakland had bad records last year, but both should be tough this year. Ditto Buffalo and NYJ. SF IMO is a playoff team if it can get any consistent QB play. Obviously San Diego and Indy will be barnburners. A lot of our ease of schedule is attributable to the putrid 2007 records of our division rivals. Throw in an early bye and 2 back to back west coast trips, and this is a difficult schedule.

MRBLAZE said:

http://www.patriots.com/search/index.cfm?ac=searchdetail&pid=31647&pcid=41&rss=1

"Back-to-back West Coast trips, another Week 9 date with Indy, and several prime time games make the Patriots’ 2008 schedule one of the toughest in recent memory.


Consider this payback.

After last season’s favorable schedule – with a bye week after the Indy game in November and three straight home games in December – the New England Patriots are in for some tough sledding (and lots of frequent-flier mileage) in 2008."

What? The west coast trips aside, Look at the teams on this schedule.......

Click to expand...

He might be emphasizing all the travel as in "the Sox had a long, tough road trip to start the season" even though it was only 5 games that counted. Although mentioning the Indy game doesn't fit.