New England Patriots Schedule 2015: A Few Early Thoughts
By Cyrus Geller
The 2015 regular season schedule has been released for the New England Patriots. The Pats open at home against the Steelers, and have five primetime games for the year. Their bye week is week four, which is just before they have to go on the road against the Cowboys and the Colts.
Here are are a few early thoughts on the schedule:
1. Bye Week Placement
A week four bye is generally awful, and while it is still not ideal this year for the Patriots, their opponents surrounding the bye week makes it tolerable. After a relativity easy three game start to the year, the Pats will get a week off to study for their toughest game of the season: going to Dallas to take on the Cowboys. If everything were perfect, I’d want the bye week to be in the middle of the year, but having two weeks to prepare for your toughest opponent is good as well.
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2. Toughest Stretch
If I had to pick one stretch of games to deem the toughest, it would have to be the week 10-13 stretch. The Pats have the Giants, Bills, Broncos, and Eagles all in a row, with two of them on the road. The Bills game is kind of an exception, but the Broncos, Eagles, and even the Giants are (kind of) worthy opponents. New York might sneak up on the Pats a little bit, but I am sure they will be ready to go for the Broncos and Eagles.
3. The Colts
I cannot wait for Sunday Night Football on October 18th. The Colts are going to get a beatdown that will put all other beatdowns to shame. Do you remember that 52-7 win the Patriots had over Washington back in 2007? That will seem like a close contest compared to this. What Indianapolis did after the AFC Championship game regarding deflate-gate is going to have Tom Brady and Bill Belichick so fired up, they will want to hang 100 on this pathetic defense.
4. Weird Finish
New England’s schedule gets tough in the middle of the year, and then it gets weird to finish the season. On the one hand, they get four straight 1:00 games, but three of the four are on the road. The opponents are the Texans, Titans, Jets, and Dolphins. On paper, that looks like four easy wins, but they will all be tough. Late season divisional games are usually battles, and Houston has quietly been building a solid squad over the last few seasons. I expect the Patriots to win them all (assuming they don’t rest their starters), but it won’t be a cake-walk.
5. Prediction
I am predicting the Patriots will go 13-3, and that is honestly lowballing it. There is always at least one division stinker, and always a few games that they lose that we never expect. Barring any huge injuries, this should be another extremely successful season in New England, that will end up in yet another one seed in the AFC.