Patriots have the NFL's easiest schedule 3rd year in a row??

[venecol]

19-0

 

[SBLIII]

so? I see this as a positive. Easier road to the #1 seed and homefield in the playoffs.

 

[tasmlab]

The title and conclusion are misleading. He bases the “easiest schedule” on the fact they are favored to win in every game except for one.

Which game/team are they not favored in? Looking at the opponents I'd guess the Patriots would be favored in every one.

(The article is behind a paywall for me)

 

[catent]

They actually pay people to write this tripe.

Well, presumably sports journalists get paid for writing things besides this, but I agree that this article is monumentally stupid, and anyone with a slight amount of critical thinking ability would have shot down the algorithm fairly quickly.

The author was fishing for a metric to demonstrate that the Patriots are beneficiaries of an inherent advantage beyond their play/preparation, in some attempt to undermine their successes and achievements.

 

[SBLIII]

The title and conclusion are misleading. He bases the “easiest schedule” on the fact they are favored to win in every game except for one. There are two factors that lead Vegas to think a team will win. How weak the opponent is and how strong your team is. If the Jets switched schedules with the pats they would not be favored to win every game. Plus let’s face it, the pats will be favored to beat any team in the league at home and all but two or three on the road.

it would be much smarter to do this based on projected win totals not point spreads.

But I assume even on the POWER RATINGS by vegas which makes a ranking of the strongest teams regardless of record and schedule, the Patriots would be at worst the 3rd best team.

So even if the Patriots would be in a different division, I assume they might only be projected to win 0.5 games less if at all.

 

[PatsDeb]

The Patriots are awesome and always beat everybody, so they have the easiest schedule, year after year. It's all good.

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

it would be much smarter to do this based on projected win totals not point spreads.

But I assume even on the POWER RATINGS by vegas which makes a ranking of the strongest teams regardless of record and schedule, the Patriots would be at worst the 3rd best team.

So even if the Patriots would be in a different division, I assume they might only be projected to win 0.5 games less if at all.

My guess is Patriots have the top power rating (or at least shared with the final 4 from last year), and you are pretty much spot on in your reasoning.

So, it would take a road game against a team that’s only 3 points or less away from them in the power ratings for a pick em or for Pats to be underdogs. @Philadelphia would likely be an underdog game (Eagles projected win total at 10.). @Houston and @Baltimore would be pretty close to even, with both teams at 8.5 win totals. Probably Patriots by less than 3 in both those games.

 

[Pat the Pats Fan]

Easy explanation: they play us; we play them.

That doesn’t cover the writers premise though. The bills and jets also play us, and the same conferences and their schedules didn’t make list of easiest or toughest. Just further highlights the writers lame rationale

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

I was shocked that Young didn’t make the NFL All-Decade Team (First or Second) for the 90s.

The panel voted Elway (1st Team) and Favre (2nd Team). It seems like rings/SB appearances are a huge factor, but Aikman won three. In addition, Fouts was the 2nd Team QB of the 80s behind Montana.

I would have ranked them with 1980s as Montana (1) and Elway (2) with Marino just missing out. For 1990s I’d go with Young (1) and Favre (2) with Elway just missing out.

 

[IllegalContact]

in the playoffs last year (3 games against 3 of the 4 best records in the league)
Pats rushing: 485 Opponent Rushing: 122
Pats sacks: 10.0 Opponents sacks 0.0

any questions?

 

[SBLIII]

in the playoffs last year (3 games against 3 of the 4 best records in the league)
Pats rushing: 485 Opponent Rushing: 122
Pats sacks: 10.0 Opponents sacks 0.0

any questions?

I think that was one of the most impressive postseasons I have seen in over a decade for sure. Beating 3 12+ win teams in a row was special.

 

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

From the article:

Pats with easiest path: 0.470
Texans with hardest path: 0.520

So...a 0.05 delta from easiest to hardest merits an article?

Regards,
Chris

 

[scott99]

I feel this is the worst stat. It's so subjective. I'll give you an example. 2003 season, Steelers went 6-10. They were on the 2004 schedule for the Pats. Boom, easy schedule. BUT, the Steelers go 15-1, including beating the Pats. So, now, was the 2004 schedule easy or difficult ?

Look at Jacksonville, they go to the AFCCG in 2017. So they are on the Pat's 2018 schedule, and the Pat's schedule seems more difficult. Jacksonville goes 5-11, therefore seemingly making someone's 2019 schedule seem easier.

I'm sure you all get why I'm saying it's a useless stat.

 

[TheRainMaker]

I was shocked that Young didn’t make the NFL All-Decade Team (First or Second) for the 90s.

The panel voted Elway (1st Team) and Favre (2nd Team). It seems like rings/SB appearances are a huge factor, but Aikman won three. In addition, Fouts was the 2nd Team QB of the 80s behind Montana.

I would have ranked them with 1980s as Montana (1) and Elway (2) with Marino just missing out. For 1990s I’d go with Young (1) and Favre (2) with Elway just missing out.

I would’ve swapped Aikman for Elway or Elway for Favre. Young doesn’t make it because he kept getting beat by Favre’s teams and only beat Aikman once with Deon Sanders. Favre blew an opportunity for a back to back in ‘96-‘97. Still have no idea how Denver beat them.

 

[PatsDeb]

in the playoffs last year (3 games against 3 of the 4 best records in the league)
Pats rushing: 485 Opponent Rushing: 122
Pats sacks: 10.0 Opponents sacks 0.0

any questions?

No.

 

[farn]

I am so sick n tired of this crap argument.

If the Patriots were a paper tiger they would have always crashed n burned in the playoffs vs better teams home or on the road.

Good teams win in the playoffs. Pretenders don't.

This.

The 2014 Seahawks were strong, especially on D. Before running into NE, the 2018 Rams were an epic O. Ditto the 2016 Falcons.

In the end, champions win and losers whine. So what do these loser franchises want ? Let’s give them easier schedules. Will they win any more SBs ? Are they playing football “for a good showing in the Fall” ? That is such loser talk.

 

[jmt57]

The frustrating part of this is that we are long past the point when something gets repeated so often that it becomes accepted as fact. A perusal of the comments following the article confirms this. Explaining why is futile since it would take more than eight words to do so. Sorry; tl;dr.



The common major fallacy in this debate is that it tends to be an apples to oranges comparison. All four teams from whichever division is being discussed are being compared to only the bottom three in the other division. Might as well say that the Patriots are weak at QB once you exclude TB12.



The other issue is that there seems to be this assumption that all teams should have an equal strength of schedule, or that teams with poorer records should have an easier schedule than good teams. How exactly is that possible?

Let's say that the Brattleboro Bombers and the Sandusky Sluggers are in a league with identical schedules. Final standings in the league ranged perfectly from 10-0 to 0-10. The sorry Sluggers finished 0-10. Their opponent's cumulative record will be 55-45. Coming off an undefeated season, the cumulative record of the Bombers' opponents is 45-55.

How can that be fair?!!! Waaaah!!!! ... Why can't the Sluggers play an 0-10 team the way the Bombers do? Why do the Sluggers have to play a 10-0 team when the Bombers don't? Not fair! Waaahhhh!!!!!!​

 

[supafly]

Which game/team are they not favored in? Looking at the opponents I'd guess the Patriots would be favored in every one.

At Philly.

 

[DarrylS]

"On any given Sunday", sometimes on Monday and Thursday as well.....







Crap happens..

 

[IllegalContact]

No.

good.........class dismissed