Full Patriots, NFL 2017 Schedule released

[ForThoseAboutToRock]

I am on the phone with BB right now telling him about your practical suggestion.

Hey, anything I can do to help. Maybe have Robert give me a call, would you? I have a whole bunch of ideas (and would like a job with the NEP)

 

[everlong]

I think the league stacked the schedule against the Pats as much as they could but other teams have some difficult stretches as well.

Falcons: at Patriots, at Jets, at Panthers
Dolphins: at Chargers, at NYJ (Two teams that shouldn't be good but that travel blows)
Broncos: at Chargers, at Chiefs, at Eagles
Raiders: at Bills, at Dolphins, Pats in Mexico

 

[PatsFan2]

That Charger Team is going to Stink ditto the Jets playing those Teams is equivalent to a bye-week.

 

[PatsFan2]

Hey, anything I can do to help. Maybe have Robert give me a call, would you? I have a whole bunch of ideas (and would like a job with the NEP)

Get in line I'm still on hold.

 

[scott99]

Not sure if this was posted, but Rich Hill on twitter just posted this:

2 teams over past decade have played 5 of 6 on the road.

3 teams over past decade closed 5 of 6 vs division.

Patriots doing both in 2017.

 

[TB_Helmet]

Another slap in the face to Oakland fans, they lose the Patriots game.

Yeah, as someone who lives there, I'm pretty bummed out!

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

OK. I've added all the bye weeks to the schedule and highlighted the Away Games. The bye weeks are in red. I will add TNF games tomorrow if I get a chance.

In my opinion there is plenty to complain about for many teams. No schedule is perfect.

A few things I hate in a schedule are:

1. A MNF > Sun game > TNF or 3 games in Ten Days.
2. Two Away games to open the season. I think home field advantage is far greater during the first three or four games.
3. Two Away games to close the season. Home field advantage is easier to wrap up HFA if necessary.
4. Playing in Denver on short rest or if Denver is coming off of a Bye week.
5. East Coast > West Coast > East Coast games.

Looks like they've bypassed most of those obstacles. But to do so it looks like they've landed a 5 road game in 6 weeks scenario. Yikes.

I am curious about the two high altitude games in a row. I'm not sure if it's beneficial to play those games consecutively or if it would be better split apart. IOW: Is Bye week > High Altitude Denver > High Altitude Mexico > Miami Home better than a Bye week > High Alt > Home > High Alt type schedule.


Anyways if you see something that needs cleaning up or added please let me know.

Keep up the great work.

Regards,
Chris

 

[pwes]

Jesus this schedule is complete trash. After the bye its a complete cluster****. Can't believe our first divisional game isn't until week 6.

 

[Tony2046]

Jesus this schedule is complete trash. After the bye its a complete cluster****. Can't believe our first divisional game isn't until week 6.

It isn't that bad. Yes that is a tough stretch but if you look at it a little closer it really isn't that bad.

BYE - A 9th week bye before playing at Denver is the best case scenario when having to play at Denver.
@DEN - will be coming off a 3 game road stretch before playing NE. @LAC @KC @PHI
@OAK - Played in a neutral stadium and both teams will have to play in the higher Altitude.
MIA - At home but Miami is coming off of their bye week. Could be tough.
@BUF - Will be coming off of a 3 road games in 4 weeks stretch.
@Mia - Miami's second half schedule : @BAL OAK @CAR BYE @NE DEN NE @BUF @KC - They're probably toast at this point.
@PIT - Could be a tough game. We'll see.
BUF - Home
NYJ -Home - If they need the last two games for HFA or whatever at least they are at home.

Every schedule has tough stretches and this is definitely the Pats but it's not as bad as people are making it out to be. imo.

2015 was a much tougher schedule.

1. Week 4 bye week. (BTW: No team has a week 4 bye week this year)
2. Played four teams coming off of 10-14 days rest. (Either after their bye week or after their TNF game) @Indy , Was, Buf, Phi.
3. Closed the season with 2 Away games. @NYJ @Mia

Plus the injuries had piled up by week 10.

I also look at "rest days" between games between two opponents. That year the Pats played teams that had an additional accumulative total of 15 days. The average was 9. Worst was 25 (SEA and WAS). Best was 0 and 1 days (ARIZ, TB, CAR, ATL).

I'll check it again this year but initially it doesn't look too bad.

Key games will be @Denver, KC and Raiders in Mexico. If they can win those there will be less pressure during the tough stretch. 13-3 or 12-4 could lock up HFA if they win those games.

But all of that is a long way off so I'm basically thinking out loud.

 

[Dexter]

Don't forget that most years Pats are playing much better in the second part of the season and our slip ups usually come early. So unless we have a big injury prone season like 2015, I'm not worried too much. I bet when BB saw that 5 from 6 on the road stretch, he just said to himself 'challenge accepted' and moved on.

Btw, by the time we have to play all those divisional games, the football souls of Bills, Jets and Dolphins will be crushed already.

 

[jmt57]

I am wondering now if Belichick requested the Broncos and Raiders games to be back-to-back. If I recall he did something similar in 2008 with the idea of having the team stay out west, and therefore avoid two long flights west. If he did do so though, I doubt he envisioned the team playing five out of six on the road (especially with a short week leading up to Pittsburgh).

Regarding five games out of six on the road I was surprised to find it has not been historically as bad as I thought it would be. The data below is for all AFC teams going back through 2005 (I'll add the NFC when I get around to it).

Five out of six games on the road (AFC, 2005-2016)
How often: four instances.
Cumulative record: 9-15 (.375)
- Dolphins, 2011: 1-5 in those six games (5-5 in all others). EDIT: bye in middle
- Bills, 2015: 2-4 in those six games (6-4 in all others).
- Ravens, 2008: 4-2 in those six games (7-3 in all others).
- Texans, 2006: 2-4 in those six games (4-6 in all others).

Of course the caveat is that this is a very small sample size and really needs to be further scrutinized by the quality of the opponents. Bottom line is that five out of six on the road is highly unusual.


In regards to three consecutive road games, here is the data for the same time frame (AFC from 2005-2016). I was surprised it happens as often as it does.
How often: 22 instances.
Cumulative record: 22-44 (.333)
- (2) times teams went 3-0
- (4) times teams went 2-1
- (8) times teams went 1-2
- (8) times teams went 0-3

In case you are wondering who the two teams were that swept, it was the 2014 Bengals and 2005 Jaguars. Both teams lost in the wild card round of the playoffs.

Just to update I now have the same data for the NFC.

Going back to at least 2005, zero NFC teams have been scheduled to play five out of six consecutive games on the road.

One of the four AFC teams mentioned above (2011 Dolphins) gets thrown out because there was a bye in the midst of those six games.

From 2009-2016, 256 team schedules were created. During that time only one team schedule included five road games in six weeks. That is less than 0.4% chance of having to play 5-of-6 consecutive games on the road.

Now the NFL not only hands the Patriots that very same rare 5-of-6 in their schedule, but they also include in that stretch opponents who went a combined 59-37 (.615) last year.

 

[XLIX]

I think the league stacked the schedule against the Pats as much as they could but other teams have some difficult stretches as well.

Falcons: at Patriots, at Jets, at Panthers
Dolphins: at Chargers, at NYJ (Two teams that shouldn't be good but that travel blows)
Broncos: at Chargers, at Chiefs, at Eagles
Raiders: at Bills, at Dolphins, Pats in Mexico

The Rams have a very brutal stretch. Keeping in mind they are a west coast team, they have a 6 game stretch of:

at San Francisco
at Dallas
home against Seattle
at Jacksonville
in London against Arizona
at NY Giants

There's a bye in there after the London game, but that's a 5-of-6 stretch even more brutal than our own. They'll probably stay east after Jax. I'd almost rather have the bye after the NYG game so they can stay in the east after London.

If they go LA to Jax to London to LA to NY to LA, that's almost 17,000 miles in the air in a 23 day period.

 

[PATSYLICIOUS]

I like the late bye. Sure, some negatives with the road games clustered in but the team will be well rested with 3 byes over the last 12 games- if all goes to plan

 

[Ross12]

I am actually a little surprised there's so much complaining... Yeah, the excess of away games and divisional games late is rough, but the divisional opponents generally have less to play for late in the season, so that may make it easier, too. Beyond that, they're getting extra rest prior to that first game (playing @ NYJ after playing a Thursday game the week prior), they get the Chargers from the west coast flying east for a 1:00 PM game which is killer, a week 9 bye (I think that's a great spot), PLUS they get 2 weeks' rest before facing Denver since the bye is the week before Denver. Then the Mexico City game (high altitude, like Denver) is happening the week after Denver, so they'll probably still be acclimated to the altitude, while Oakland will not be. Plus, it's a neutral field and counts as OAKLAND'S home game instead of NE's which is a good break too.

Then they get Miami at home, "travel" to Buffalo (not very much travel at all), travel to Miami, "travel" to Pitt (again not very far), then Bills and Jets at home the last two weeks. So it's 6 of 8 at home (with the two travel weeks back to back), a bye week, two high-altitude games back-to-back that they can hopefully do lots of prep for on the bye week, then 3 of 6 at home, with the 3 travel games being in-a-row, and only 1 of which involving a flight longer than an hour and a half. And largely against divisional teams who will be nearly or totally eliminated by then.

All-in-all, it's not really that bad when you analyze it.

 

[Bradyking12]

16-0
BLITZ FOR 6
19-0 CAMPAIGN '17 EDITION

LETSS GOOOOO!!!!!

 

[Tony2046]

I borrowed an Excel schedule from Football Perspective. FootballPerspective.com

I compared the amount of rest days for each opponent for each week. In the chart I've added and highlighted the additional rest days for each team's opponent per week. I added up all the additional each team's opponent would have compared to their own for the season.

If you rated it as easiest to hardest, LAR has the easiest schedule with 0 and NYG having the toughest with 25 days.
NYG will face 3 teams coming off their Bye weeks (DEN, SEA, KC) and 1 team coming off of a TNF game (Dal).

The Patriots would have the 5th toughest rest day schedule with 17 days.

For example: New England will play Oakland in week 11. New England is coming off of a Sunday game and Oakland is coming off of a Bye week which means Oakland had 7 additional rest days than New England. I noted the 7 days on the NE row next to the Oak cell.


I've sorted this chart by which team faced teams with the least additional rest days.