The group that writes the team off more than anyone else is the group on patriot message boards.
The power ranking has the team as 8th best.
The bettors have them as the 4th most likely to win the SB.
I suppose some could call this "writing the patriots off". I would disagree.
Odds to Win Super Bowl LIII: Entering Week 17, Playoff Landscape is Wide Open
As far as the mediots, I don't see patriots being written off. I'm sure there are some.
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There ARE INDEED some who think that the current run is close to coming to an end, but that is a different analysis entirely.
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IMHO, as far as this Super Bowl, we have a better chance than all but 3 (NO, LAR and KC). Some would put as 5th ahead of the chargers. Perhaps, more reasonable is to say that the patriots are 4th and whoever wins the AFCWest is 3rdmost likely to win it all.
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To be very likely to have a bye, and to be relatively healthy, means (to me) that we are very much in the hunt.
This year would be one of the sweetest ones if it were to happen. They were written off by so many after the Pittsburgh game and Gordon leaving, I know there was similar talk in early 2014 but not to this degree.