"Pats don't play anyone in the regular season"

[Pat the Pats Fan]

Wow, 20 games over .500...that’s kicking some serious ass

 

[TB_Helmet]

Uh, you pretty much just reinforced my point. Thanks.

You're welcome

 

[mgteich]

No one here is questioning that the 2001-2017 patriots are at very minus one of the 3 best franchises in NFL history.

And yes, one of the very best franchises in history also beat playoff teams more than anyone else. And yes, how much better the patriots are is truly astonishing. That occurs because there are no other teams that have been great of the whole period.

One factor that effects that anomaly is that the Patriots are always one of the Playoff teams. Since 12 teams make the playoffs and the Patriots can't play themselves, there are only 11 possible playoff opponents for the Pats. Every other team in the league has enjoyed far more down seasons where they didn't make the playoffs.

Our division also contributes to that. The Bills have never been to the playoffs in that time period and even when our 2nd/3rd place teams finish with winning records, they usually lose tie breakers and miss playoffs. Part of that is influenced by how badly AFC East teams are dominated by Pats. Teams that are 9-5 or 8-6 vs rest of NFL only finish 9-7 or 8-8 in AFCE bc they play Pats twice. In other divisions they might finish 10-6 or 11-5 in some years.

Whenever one team DOMINATES, that means the others are dominated. Put the Patriots in any division over the past 16 years, and the story would be the same.

 

[FCB02062]

And don't forget the NFL annually ****s the pats w **** like 5/6 on the road like this year or 2 stretches of 3/4 games on the road, like playing their chief rival on short rest or playing their chief rival with them Coming off a bye....

 

[XLIX]

I am going to go out on a limb and say that no matter how you parse games into various categories (December road games.... games against playoff teams.... November games played west of the Mississippi under a full moon... etc), the NE Patriots since 2001 will be at or near the top.