Pats 2006 Opponents Are Set

[AStack75]

From Reiss' Blog:

Home
Denver
Indianapolis
Houston
Detroit
Chicago
New York Jets
Miami
Buffalo

Away
Jacksonville
Tennessee
Cincinnati
Minnesota
Green Bay
New York Jets
Miami
Buffalo

 

[MoLewisrocks]

Nice....

Bears, Denver and Indy at home

Bengals on the road

If we can have a healthy season (sub double digit injury reports) and the scheduling Gods don't feel the need to punish us again, I smell a return to 14-2 territory.

 

[NovaScotiaPatsFan]

Home
Denver (Woo Hoo)
Indianapolis (Yikes)
Houston (WOOOOOOOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO)
Detroit (Woo Hoo)
Chicago (Yikes)
New York Jets (Wooo Hooo)
Miami (Wooo Hoooo)
Buffalo (Wooo Hooo)

Away
Jacksonville (Yikes)
Tennessee (Wooo Hooo)
Cincinnati (Yikes)
Minnesota (Wooo Hooo)
Green Bay (Wooo Hooo)
New York Jets (Wooo Hooo)
Miami (Wooo Hooo)
Buffalo (Wooo Hooo)

 

[DarrylS]

I hope Bret Favre retires by then, do not want him to be facing our front seven. He has lost so much, walk away with what dignity you have left.

 

[patsfaninpa]

Who do we kick off the NFL season with next year? I say we
rest everybody against Miami and treat it like the last pre-season
game. Where we usually get smashed. We go in as 4 seed and beat
Denver in AFC Championship game. We win Super Bowl against
Seattle. Bears or Broncos to kick off next year? I say Bears.
We didn't come looking for trouble. We just came to do our
3rd straight Super Bowl Shuffle.

 

[tombonneau]

If those home and away games are correct, we got a real break from this season.

Our two "non-set" games vs. other divisional champs are Denver & Cincy, and we (thankfully) get Denver in NE. And yeah, Cincy is good this year, but they could be set up for a classic let down next year.

And then we pull the AFC South & NFC North as divisions. I think besides the East, the South is the weakest division in the AFC (I dont care if Jax is 13-2), with Houston & Tenn likely to improve much next year.

In the NFC North, we get to play the division champs at home (nice break playing both interdivisional champs at home), and again, the rest of the division is pretty weak, so we lucked out again.

Looks good on paper so far, but again, if you saw games vs. Chicago & Giants at the end of last season, you would have pencilled them in as Ws, so who knows, teams can turn it on (and off) at the flick of a switch in the NFL.

 

[Box_O_Rocks]

Fantasy time: Beating Indy en route to our threepeat, and opening next season with them in 2006 - can you see Polian's face?

 

[Chevy]

At JAX ... I may have to road-trip for that one ....

 

[JoeSixPat]

Did Indy never leave the AFC East? Seems to me like we've been playing them year after year in the regular season... then beating their ***** in the playoffs as well

Is this just "random luck" or does the NFL have some say in such decisions

Most Colts fans say that Indy's cupcake early schedule this year was random luck as well but I still have my doubts - especially if the NFL is deciding who plays at home and who away.

 

[pats1]

Since we played the AFC South in 2003, we played Indy.

We played Indy in the January 2004 playoffs.

Since Indy was a division leader (as with the Pats, in 2003), we played Indy in 2004.

We played Indy in the January 2005 playoffs.

Since Indy was a division leader (as with the Pats, in 2004), we played Indy in 2005.

We'll probably play Indy in the January 2006 playoffs.

Since we are playing the AFC South in 2006, we'll play Indy.

 

[pats1]

The NFL has little say, if any, in who plays who and where. I'm not sure about the dating though.

Ever since 2002, here's the format:

Division team 2 home
Division team 2 away
Division team 3 home
Division team 3 away
Division team 4 home
Division team 4 away

That's every year.

Each year, one division will play another division in their conference...

For the Pats:

2002- West
2003- South
2004- North
2005- West
2006- South
2007- North

Since we played in Indy and in Houston in 2003, we'll play Indy at home and Houston at home in 2006.

Each year, one division will play another division in the other conference...

For the Pats:

2002- NFC North
2003- NFC East
2004- NFC West
2005- NFC South
2006- NFC North

Since we played in Detriot and in Chicago in 2002, we'll play Detriot and Chicago at home in 2006.

The final two games are decided by your divisional finish in the previous year:

2002- Because of a 1st place division finish in 2001, we played 2 of the 3 other divisional winners, but the 3rd was played as part of the in-conference matchups

(i.e. in 2005 the Pats played the 2004 divisional winners Indy and Pittsburgh, but not San Diego twice because we already played San Diego as part of the AFC West matchup. You won't play any non-division opponents twice in the regular season)

2003 - Because of a 2nd place division finish in 2002, we played the 2nd place divisional finishers

2004 - Because of a 1st place division finish in 2003, we played the 1st place divisional finishers

2005 - Because of a 1st place division finish in 2004, we played the 1st place divisional finishers.

I'm not sure how these final 2 games are decided to be home/away.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Definately a middle of the road type of schedule. Not the brutal schedule (3rd toughest) that we faced this year. Houston, Detroit, Tennessee & GB look like the creampuffs of that schedule, but that's the interesting thing about difficulty of schedule. It's all a guestimate. Who's to say those 4 teams won't be greatly improved next year. Just like the Jets went from 11-5 to possibly 3-13, thus making our brutal schedule look a little easier. Strength of schedule is really an enigma, we had Pittsburgh last year coming off a 6-10 record, looked like an easy game, yet they were 7-0 when they faced us, and crushed us, so ya never know.

 

[godef]

I'm not sure how these final 2 games are decided to be home/away.

These are indefinitely predetermined by division, ie in 2004 and 2005 the prior season's South Division champ was scheduled to play at the East Division champs. In 2007 and 2008, it's the reverse. If the Pats and Colts continue to win their divisions, the Pats will play in Indy in 2007, 2008 and 2009 (the next round-robin vs the South), making up for three consecutive regular Indy games at Foxboro in 2004-2006. It just seems like forever that Indy has played at Foxboro cuz of those additional play-off games in New England.

 

[AStack75]

At JAX ... I may have to road-trip for that one ....

I went to SB39...Jacksonville isn't worth going to IMHO. Stadium isn't anything great and there's really nothing around there. I'd recommend Miami over Jacksonville. I think other people who went to SB39 will agree with me.