Patriots schedule. Why?

[TRH]

Can someone tell me how.........with the Patriots excelling with ridiculous W/L records....year after year after year......how in the HELL they keep getting REALLY soft schedules?
When i looked at their 2nd half shedule this year, 1st thing i thought was "wow, no matter how average, good, or even bad they could be....they're easily going to wind up with something like a 3-loss season"
I'm aware of all the "Kraft" and "Goodell" theories wanting them to win and being a bit too close personally and all that but i'm starting to buy into that.

[mikegrimey]

Originally Posted by TRH

Can someone tell me how.........with the Patriots excelling with ridiculous W/L records....year after year after year......how in the HELL they keep getting REALLY soft schedules?
When i looked at their 2nd half shedule this year, 1st thing i thought was "wow, no matter how average, good, or even bad they could be....they're easily going to wind up with something like a 3-loss season"
I'm aware of all the "Kraft" and "Goodell" theories wanting them to win and being a bit too close personally and all that but i'm starting to buy into that.

A rudimentaryunderstandig of how NFL schedules are made could quell your paranoid concerns of a conspiracy.

[harrison'samonster]

their schedule looks like it was a pretty tough one this year. Besides their division (teams that always stay in the game against them but end up losing) they had SD, DAL, PIT, NYG, and IND.

I'm sure NE wasn't happy to see their schedule before the season began.

[harrison'samonster]

Actually, as I look closer at their schedule, none of these games would have looked like easy wins before the season began. WAS and DEN can always play up to the level of their opponents, and KC had been in the playoffs the year before (or was that two years ago?)

[4xSBChamps]

Originally Posted by mikegrimey

A rudimentary understandig of how NFL schedules are made could quell your paranoid concerns of a conspiracy.

[TRH]

well, i thought, and still do, that they would coast through half 2 of the season. It was more of a comical post of "buying into the conspiracy theories that abound about NE".

[Bayz101]

Goodell's favorite team's get soft treatment. Look at the packers.

[sharkweek]

because they always get 6 games from the Dolphins/Bills/Jets

outside of that the schedule always has a rhyme and reason to it with each division playing another division from its own conference and from the other conference, as well as matchups with position from another conference

look at our schedule this year

16 games

6 games vs. AFC North

4 games vs. AFC South

4 games vs. NFC West

1 game vs. AFC West team that finished at the same spot in their division as we did ours

1 game vs. AFC East team that finished at the same spot in their division as we did ours

so really that's only 2 games that are purposefully scheduled to try and toughen things up, but noting how KC was kind of a fluke last season, that doesn't really hold true all the time.

it is always like this, and the entire AFC/NFC divisions each team plays gets rotated every year, so each team plays every team from the AFC in 3 years time, and the NFC in 4 years time

if a schedule is ever that much easier for a particular team its typically because their division is easy (6 games) other than that its luck of the draw. That being said, the AFC East has been horrid the past decade+ outside of the Pats, even with the Jets making some noise it still wasn't enough.