Looking Ahead Six Weeks

[BigKen]

The first thing that the Patriots have to deal with is their schedule.

Philadelphia at Home, Houston Away, Tennessee at Home, Jets Away, Dolphins Away. From the cheap seats, the biggest threat for a loss is definitely the Jets.

The Bengals and Broncos are the main competition for a Bye and home field advantage.

The Broncos have the Chargers Away, Oakland at Home, Steelers Away, Bengals at Home and the Chargers at home. The Chargers have historically given the Broncos a tough games because if the long time rivalry and of division bragging rights. The Steelers are fighting for a playoff spot and could be a really miserable game especially in Pittsburgh. The Bengals won't be a soft game either.

The Bengals play at Cleveland, Pittsburgh at Home, at San Francisco, at Denver, home against Baltimore

It would appear that the Patriots have the easiest schedule but they need to get some bodies back healthy if they want to run the table.

The Broncos spear to have the toughest of the three and could lose as many three games if things don't go their way. Those three could be the Chargers, Steelers and Bengals.

The Bengals could lose two to Pittsburgh and Denver.

No question that I'll be watching NFL Sunday Ticket.

 

[redseat]

on paper yes it is the easiest schedule but we all know how tough the Jets and Dolphins play the Patriots and it's no gimmie that they will win those games even IF they get healthy people back.

 

[cdumler7]

Hard to tell how the season will end. For the Broncos 3 of the final 5 are at home. Until the loss to the Chiefs the Broncos had the longest home winning streak in the NFL. Now while I will agree the Chargers have usually played the Broncos pretty tough they have also never been this bad over the last 10 years. Throw in their greatest weaknesses are against some of the Broncos top strengths. While I do expect the games to be closer than what the records show I would be very shocked to see the Chargers win either game. Right now I would say the one game the Broncos might not be favored is the road game in Pittsburgh. With Roethlisberger so beat up this year going to be interesting to see what they have at that point.

Now I do still expect that the Patriots will get home field advantage I do think they are susceptible to a loss. 3 road games with 2 of those being divisional games is never easy. Houston is beginning to show they are a tough out as well playing some of the better football of the past month honestly. I think the Houston game is actually your toughest remaining game with it being on the road.

I would say for Cincinnati I see them going 4-1 to close out the season. They have Pitt at home so I think they can win that one and then the other games outside of Denver are against some of the worst teams in the league. So for them it really comes down to that Broncos game on the road.

 

[TP76]

If a loss could be good, this one would be it... a game that should have been won. There are a bunch of angry Players in that locker room. Bodes well for the rest of the stretch. Hoping to get Denver again... I really, really want to see the Pats end them in post season. AFCCG would do nicely...

 

[BigKen]

Just reading some interesti8ng facts. Since 2001, the five best teams from Thanksgiving to the end of the season are as follows.......

(1) New England Patriots 86-22 .796
(2) Pittsburgh Steelers 67-33 .670
(3) Green Bay Packers 62-38 .620
(4) San Diego Chargers 56-34 .622
(5) Philadelphia Eagles 59-39 .602

According to the article, the Steelers are probably the most dangerous team right now because they are sitting outside of the playoffs and are starting to get things together. The Author thinks that the Chargers can be a problem if the teams that they play don't take them seriously. They're a bit banged up, but Philip Rivers has been known to pull more than one rabbit from his hat.

 

[TP76]

Chargers shouldn't pose a problem for Denver - their run defense blows.

 

[BigKen]

.....................any team on any given Sunday.

 

[cdumler7]

.....................any team on any given Sunday.

You are right it is any given Sunday. At the same time this isn't the same Chargers team. A great example is last year they were 7-4 heading into the final 5 games of the season. They went 2-3 to close out the year missing the playoffs. This year they are showing to be one of the worst teams in the league with all of their wins coming against teams with losing records. The Jaguars are the best team they have won a game against this year.

 

[TP76]

Chargers just fired their Special Teams coach - like that will fix them. Goodell just came out and said that he doesn't see any way the Chargers stay in SD. So they have a situation like Belichick had in Cleveland in his final year.

This team has mailed it in.

Most Charger fans I know are fed up, will become Rams fans if the Chargers move. So, if the Chargers and Rams move, the Rams will likely have a giant boost of former Charger fans.... while the Chargers will probably struggle to fill the new stadium.

Any given Sunday, just not this Sunday.

 

[PatsFan2003]

I just hope Philadelphia doesn't do something crazy and actually play well or something. The radio show this morning had a Philly sports writer and he was just hilarious on how dysfunctional the Eagles are right now.
This player "sucks", that player plays like a "bitch". It was great.

They really do "Hate their coach" to steal from Tom Jackson... It's amazing how over-rated Chip Kelly is. He shouldn't be back next year.

To me the two toughest remaining games for the Patriots are Houston and the Jets. Depending on who's available they can win those but if the worse case scenario is that they lose both that would likely give them a record of 13-3.

Both Denver and the Bengals are 9-2 now and since they play each other one of those will end up with a 3rd loss.

I'm not sure if any of these teams win out the remainder of the game.

I think if all three end up 13-3, the ranking would be

(assuming the Bengals > Denver)
Bengals
Denver
New England

(assuming the Denver > Bengals)
Denver
Bengals
New England

It could be interesting.

For the Broncos, the toughest games look to be Pittsburgh and Cinci. Oakland could upset but that would be an big upset. the Chargers are particularly bad this year but they aren't playing Peyton Manning, so two losses by them.

For the Bengals, the toughest games look to be Pittsburgh and Denver. Cleveland plays Cinci well but that would be a shocker.

Are the Steelers as dangerous as everyone is painting them?

 

[cdumler7]

I just hope Philadelphia doesn't do something crazy and actually play well or something. The radio show this morning had a Philly sports writer and he was just hilarious on how dysfunctional the Eagles are right now.
This player "sucks", that player plays like a "bitch". It was great.

They really do "Hate their coach" to steal from Tom Jackson... It's amazing how over-rated Chip Kelly is. He shouldn't be back next year.

To me the two toughest remaining games for the Patriots are Houston and the Jets. Depending on who's available they can win those but if the worse case scenario is that they lose both that would likely give them a record of 13-3.

Both Denver and the Bengals are 9-2 now and since they play each other one of those will end up with a 3rd loss.

I'm not sure if any of these teams win out the remainder of the game.

I think if all three end up 13-3, the ranking would be

(assuming the Bengals > Denver)
Bengals
Denver
New England

(assuming the Denver > Bengals)
Denver
Bengals
New England

It could be interesting.

For the Broncos, the toughest games look to be Pittsburgh and Cinci. Oakland could upset but that would be an big upset. the Chargers are particularly bad this year but they aren't playing Peyton Manning, so two losses by them.

For the Bengals, the toughest games look to be Pittsburgh and Denver. Cleveland plays Cinci well but that would be a shocker.

Are the Steelers as dangerous as everyone is painting them?

I would say the Steelers are good enough to make the playoffs in a bad year where beyond the top-3 teams or so there is not much. They have a decent but not great defense and a good but not great offense. They have a lot of youth that if they could put it all together could be a very dangerous team but I think they just are not quite ready for the big time. Throw in Big Ben being banged up really changes how people view that team. A healthy Big Ben and they become one of the dark horses to win the Super Bowl. A banged up Big Ben means barely squeaking into the playoffs. I'm honestly not even sure they do make the playoffs. They are trending in the wrong direction with some very tough games left on their schedule.

 

[PatsFan2003]

I would say the Steelers are good enough to make the playoffs in a bad year where beyond the top-3 teams or so there is not much. They have a decent but not great defense and a good but not great offense. They have a lot of youth that if they could put it all together could be a very dangerous team but I think they just are not quite ready for the big time. Throw in Big Ben being banged up really changes how people view that team. A healthy Big Ben and they become one of the dark horses to win the Super Bowl. A banged up Big Ben means barely squeaking into the playoffs. I'm honestly not even sure they do make the playoffs. They are trending in the wrong direction with some very tough games left on their schedule.

They play both the Bengals and Denver, so they certainly matter to the top 3 AFC teams.

 

[cdumler7]

They play both the Bengals and Denver, so they certainly matter to the top 3 AFC teams.

That they do. They are definitely good enough to beat either of those two teams. Honestly that is probably the one game I really do see the Broncos struggling possibly and probably the one I give the highest probability of the Broncos losing in the next 5. I'm sure Cincy is viewing them as the toughest remaining game as well considering it is a divisional game. Going to be a fun final 5 weeks to see how this all shakes out. To me it looks like we will have 3 teams finish with a 13-3 or better record in the AFC with one of those getting bumped to the Wild Card weekend.

 

[BigKen]

any team on any given Sunday..........Philly bent BB over the table gave him 35 right up the old poop shoot.

 

[NEhomer]

The bright side is that we got about as bitch slapped as possible and still could have won the game.

 

[redseat]

The bright side is that we got about as bitch slapped as possible and still could have won the game.

never should have happened though. BB talks about how every team brings their A game and is good at every aspect of the game yet he have them play like that last night? (Minus getting back into the game in the 4th)

 

[TP76]

Based on remaining schedules. The Pats will likely have to run the remaining slate to get a bye... not sure they can after what I witnessed yesterday. Totally uncharacteristic for a post November Patriots team.

 

[Yankee Traveler]

Based on remaining schedules. The Pats will likely have to run the remaining slate to get a bye... not sure they can after what I witnessed yesterday. Totally uncharacteristic for a post November Patriots team.

Early bye week throw them off maybe? I can't remember the last time the bye was so early in the year.

 

[cdumler7]

Early bye week throw them off maybe? I can't remember the last time the bye was so early in the year.

We had that last year and yeah it was about this time in the year that injuries and just being down right beat up from so many weeks in a row really caught up. Just ran out of gas or at least became very inconsistent. I wish the league would change it to where they get the Bye Weeks all done in about a 4 week window. Just have 8 teams each week rest. Then there isn't this huge gap of week 4 to week 11.

 

[TP76]

We had that last year and yeah it was about this time in the year that injuries and just being down right beat up from so many weeks in a row really caught up. Just ran out of gas or at least became very inconsistent. I wish the league would change it to where they get the Bye Weeks all done in about a 4 week window. Just have 8 teams each week rest. Then there isn't this huge gap of week 4 to week 11.

There's no reason they can't start the byes at week 7 and end week 10 - They would lose 4 games a week, for 4 weeks. Then do a rotation policy for each team to make it fair.