Will!? I can’t say “will”, but I will say “could”. If the stinky early season Patriots show up to any of these games I could see them going down:
@ Colts: This is not what any Patriots fan wants to hear but the Colts are always tough at home even if they’ve stunk to start this year I think they’re better than they’ve shone. Their rookie DL are playing well against the run. They have talent. And they’ve put together a lot of comebacks. So I’m definitely not writing off the Colts yet as much as I want to hang 60 on them.
Jets: If this game was in New York at this point I’d be more worried about it. It will be closer than many might expect. But I think this one is a near-lock for the Pats. Not a total lock though with that Jets defense. Fitzpatrick would just have to have a mistake-free game in him.
@ Giants: Hard to believe we haven’t beaten the Giants since the 2007 16-0 game. So I can’t just writing them off as another win. Eli always has some magic against us somehow.
@ Broncos: Forget what we think we know about Peyton Manning and instead focus on a team with maybe the best defense in the league and a smart quarterback who might not be as unstoppable as he once was but is more than capable of putting together a winning game on offense.
Eagles: This one will be fascinating from a scheme aspect, but I think the Patriots’ defense is well-equipped to match the pace of the Eagles offense. Still, they’ll have a unique way to attack the Pats.
@ Jets/ @ Dolphins – These games might mean nothing (and probably the Dolphins one will) but there’s always a chance the Pats need at least one of them and neither place is ever a total slam dunk. Hopefully they mean nothing and it doesn’t matter. But I wouldn’t want to need two wins the last two weeks.
I’ll also add that really any week they “could” lose. We’ve seen it plenty of times over the years that teams like the 2013 Browns or 2009 Dolphins just come in on fire and getting all the bounces and the game goes down to the end. The ones above are just the obvious ones that could give the Patriots matchup problems.
