Will the Patriots take back the division next season?

[ralmat55]

In their last two meetings against the Bills, the Patriots defense did not force 1 punt. In between those games, they lost to the Dolphins allowing 190 yards rushing to the 31st ranked run O entering the game.

The biggest problem is Belichick. Things are just going to continue going downhill until either he or Bob realize time has passed him by.

I’ve been a Patriots fan for 50 years. I’ve not been this despondent as to their competitive future since James Orthwein hired Bill Parcells.

I hope I’m wrong as I want them to win more than to be right, but I saw this day coming, and I think I see where it’s going.

 

[Pape]

I voted yes.

Because why the eff not?

10-7 with a new team last year. I am expecting that the coaches will work hard addressing those stupid mistakes that seemed to plague us all year. I am expecting/hoping we get contributions from some of the second year players who didnt get a chance to play in 2021 for whatever reason... ronnie perkins, cam mcgrone ... red shirt rookie season leads to contributions? will have to wait and see... raekwon mcmillen, time to step up... Patience has paid off in the past with the defensive side of the ball... I am expecting dead weight to be cut (See ya Harry!) etc... Time to get those competitive fires burning...

Can't worry about that the other guy is doing, can only address our own issues. We get better, they stay the same? Hell yes. It may be trite, or even pie in the sky, but I like our chances.

 

[Hyped]

Yall bunch of Negative Nancies!!! It's embarassing...stop watching football and take up knitting....

We will win the division. The defensive collapse was a FLUKE. ****, the D did not just "collapse"....they had a collapse of HISTORICAL PROPORTIONS!!! Not.One.Punt in 13 consecutive drives?!?! WTF was that? And I would argue that we have a better D than the Bengals outside of the D-Line...and the Bengal D did fine in the post-season...especially the 2nd half at Arrowhead. Say had the Pats put forth an "average" defensive effort in the last 5 weeks...we likely would have won in Miami and lost on wildcard weekend by a score of 27-17 or something similar woth forcing 2-3 punts.

We are not that far away. We need some of our homegrown talent to step up like Uche, Wino, Jennings, and etc... We also have some more guys in the pipeline like Bledsoe in the secondary and McGrone at LB. The D just needs 1-2 more guys to step up, IMO. If we can have a solid D, I love our chances.

And the Jete and the Fish will also be better....Buffalo isn't sweeping everyone in the division next year, IMO. 4-2 at best.

 

[50-yard-line]

New England Patriots

Home
Buffalo - L
Miami - W
NYJ - W
Baltimore - L
Cincinnati - L
Indianapolis - ? Who is at QB
Chicago - W
Detroit - W

Away
Buffalo - L
Miami - L
NYJ - W
Pittsburgh - ? Who is at QB
Cleveland - W
Las Vegas - ? Could go either way
Green Bay - ? Who is at QB
Minnesota - W
Arizona - ? Who is at QB

lots of questions at QB for teams we play next year.

I don't think Baltimore or Cinci in Foxborough are sure-fire L's.

Cinci isn't that good and rely on two players, and will have that SB loser hangover.

Baltimore isn't that good.

 

[Boston Boxer]

I don't think Baltimore or Cinci in Foxborough are sure-fire L's.

Cinci isn't that good and rely on two players, and will have that SB loser hangover.

Baltimore isn't that good.

I think Cinc will be better next year especially if they fix the OLine and I don't think NE can defend a running mobile QB like Lamar

 

[50-yard-line]

I think Cinc will be better next year especially if they fix the OLine and I don't think NE can defend a running mobile QB like Lamar

I don't think Jackson will ever get near his 2019 numbers again. Bumps and injuries take their toll, and I've never thought he was all that great except when running.

Cinci could become a player for the next few years with a top QB and top WR on rookie deals, sure, but I didn't think they were all that good this year, to be honest. I don't put them in a category with Buffalo or KC (who should have run them out of the stadium and inexplicably fell apart).

 

[sb1]

New England Patriots

Home
Buffalo - L
Miami - W
NYJ - W
Baltimore - L
Cincinnati - L
Indianapolis - ? Who is at QB
Chicago - W
Detroit - W

Away
Buffalo - L
Miami - L
NYJ - W
Pittsburgh - ? Who is at QB
Cleveland - W
Las Vegas - ? Could go either way
Green Bay - ? Who is at QB
Minnesota - W
Arizona - ? Who is at QB

lots of questions at QB for teams we play next year.

Extremely early but for now I'll go with

Home wins:
Miami, Jets, Bengals, Bears, Lions

Road wins:
Pitt, Browns, GB(!), Minn

9-8. 7 losses in the conference keep us out of the playoffs.

 

[venecol]

Extremely early but for now I'll go with

Home wins:
Miami, Jets, Bengals, Bears, Lions

Road wins:
Pitt, Browns, GB(!), Minn

9-8. 7 losses in the conference keep us out of the playoffs.

You've got them losing to the NYJ on the road? No way.

 

[Patnation21]

Yall bunch of Negative Nancies!!! It's embarassing...stop watching football and take up knitting....

We will win the division. The defensive collapse was a FLUKE. ****, the D did not just "collapse"....they had a collapse of HISTORICAL PROPORTIONS!!! Not.One.Punt in 13 consecutive drives?!?! WTF was that? And I would argue that we have a better D than the Bengals outside of the D-Line...and the Bengal D did fine in the post-season...especially the 2nd half at Arrowhead. Say had the Pats put forth an "average" defensive effort in the last 5 weeks...we likely would have won in Miami and lost on wildcard weekend by a score of 27-17 or something similar woth forcing 2-3 punts.

We are not that far away. We need some of our homegrown talent to step up like Uche, Wino, Jennings, and etc... We also have some more guys in the pipeline like Bledsoe in the secondary and McGrone at LB. The D just needs 1-2 more guys to step up, IMO. If we can have a solid D, I love our chances.

And the Jete and the Fish will also be better....Buffalo isn't sweeping everyone in the division next year, IMO. 4-2 at best.

I don't know man, I hope you're right but they're 11-1 in the last two years against division and only loss was the really close wind game that we won. They've pretty much blown the division out the last two years and Allen seems to get better.

 

[Zuma]

 

[Hyped]

I don't know man, I hope you're right but they're 11-1 in the last two years against division and only loss was the really close wind game that we won. They've pretty much blown the division out the last two years and Allen seems to get better.

C'mon man.... Cam ALMOST won @Buffalo last year!!! If we had won that game..we would be 2-3 against the Bills in the non-Brady years...

And the Bills blowing us out at Gillette just ain't right....gonna be a course correction right there....

And the Jets have been terrible recently...we SWEPT them the last two years...

This is the same Bills team that lost to the Jags and gave up a score in 13 freaking seconds...

 

[sb1]

You've got them losing to the NYJ on the road? No way.

Yeah. Feels like they’re due for one. We’ll see

 

[Nikolai]

Possible, but not as probable as finishing 2nd again. At least the Lolphins and Jest look incompetent....still....

Let's see what 2023 brings. The rebuild goes on...

 

[cmasspatsfan]

I think once things shake out and they address the weak spots and Mac will be on his second year, 11 wins but not enough to take first, might take a couple years to overtake the Bills.,

 

[PatsFanInVa]

I will say they're good enough to keep us in it the whole season (technically, like this season; I hope w/better results.) The team's character this year was wafer-thin. After the bye, they could not deal. And they did not deal well with adversity. They also managed to make Josh Allen look legendary, which based on our interaction with him, maybe he is. But I don't think so. We all know from experience that we don't know squat yet about who will be on next year's team. Hope for upgrades.

 

[Patnation21]

C'mon man.... Cam ALMOST won @Buffalo last year!!! If we had won that game..we would be 2-3 against the Bills in the non-Brady years...

And the Bills blowing us out at Gillette just ain't right....gonna be a course correction right there....

And the Jets have been terrible recently...we SWEPT them the last two years...

This is the same Bills team that lost to the Jags and gave up a score in 13 freaking seconds...

Either way we didn't beat Buffalo with Cam in 2020 and our only win in two years was the wind game. Allen has only gotten better since 2020. I know anything is possible but they're 11-1 in two years and probably would be 12-0 if not for the wind game. They've blown out the Jets and Miami badly and have blown us out in half of the games.

The Jets will be better for sure as they have two top 10 picks with number 4 and number 10 overall. They have 9 total draft picks. They still have a few years to go IMO but they won't be as easy as an out as last year IMO. They could butcher the draft as well which wouldn't be a shocker lol

Miami won't be an easy out either as we saw last year. They've got some really good young pieces, if Tua can find a way to improve from last year they'll be a decent team.

I think were going to be a few years away from really contending for the division which is fine. At least we don't have to go through a long rebuild like some teams. Drafting well will be key and getting the right free agents.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

Also, this thread title is like a Friends cliff-hanger about Ross and Rachel

Ross: "If she'll still have us."
Rachel: (Gazing lovingly at his face) "Oh my gawd."

 

[NormZauchin]

Nope, and probably not even 2023 barring a Josh Allen injury

As some have said:

Many coaching staff departures and new OC/No OC for a 2nd year QB isn't exactly pretty.

I don't trust Joe Judge and potentially Adam Gase on offense

Our defense is flawed


And beyond that, our roster on offense is alright, but not good enough to do any deep playoff damage barring some type of insane 2nd year leap from Mac Jones. Mac would have to be elite (top 3ish) for this offensive supporting cast to be Super Bowl level.

Jc Jackson might not get resigned... *sigh*

Our cap isn't small, but it's not exactly free. And we haven't had 2 good drafts in a row that often.

I think some best case scenario is 10-7 and we finish 2nd in the division, but the more likely scenario imo is only 7-8 wins.

Worst case is 6-11.

So, after Mac's good rookie season leading to ten wins and a playoff berth, you see his sophomore season as most likely ending in a Cam-like seven or eight wins.

 

[Hyped]

Either way we didn't beat Buffalo with Cam in 2020 and our only win in two years was the wind game. Allen has only gotten better since 2020. I know anything is possible but they're 11-1 in two years and probably would be 12-0 if not for the wind game. They've blown out the Jets and Miami badly and have blown us out in half of the games.

The Jets will be better for sure as they have two top 10 picks with number 4 and number 10 overall. They have 9 total draft picks. They still have a few years to go IMO but they won't be as easy as an out as last year IMO. They could butcher the draft as well which wouldn't be a shocker lol

Miami won't be an easy out either as we saw last year. They've got some really good young pieces, if Tua can find a way to improve from last year they'll be a decent team.

I think were going to be a few years away from really contending for the division which is fine. At least we don't have to go through a long rebuild like some teams. Drafting well will be key and getting the right free agents.

Fair enough, but agree to disagree!!!

Are you willing to make a wager? If they win the east...you send me $29.99 so I can buy an AFC East locker room cap? And if they don't, I send you $29.99 so you can buy a Bills cap?

 

[Patnation21]

Fair enough, but agree to disagree!!!

Are you willing to make a wager? If they win the east...you send me $29.99 so I can buy an AFC East locker room cap? And if they don't, I send you $29.99 so you can buy a Bills cap?

Hahahahaha I love this!

You got a deal!