The Patriots

[chargers1316]

Fact is that aren't in the AFC West and considering they beat us and KC twice last season I'd say that is false. Surely they would beat the Raiders twice a year.
You don't want to give them credit, fine but you can't argue they keep winning in the playoffs and winning 6 super bowls is no accident.

The past 20 years they have played 10 road playoff games and were 5-5 including wins against us and KC on the road. They lost twice to Denver and Peyton Manning

Exactly. 5-5 on the road. You made my point.

[richpjr]

Exactly. 5-5 on the road. You made my point.

5-5 on the road against playoff teams seeded higher than you in a given year is a lot different than 5-5 on the road record in the regular season and is quite impressive.

[Boltjolt]

Exactly. 5-5 on the road. You made my point.

They won 3 super bowls after road playoff wins including this past season. What was your point again?

[Bolts223]

Stable organizations win:

Yeah I totally get that. I'm not saying that they aren't incompetent organizations.

I'm just saying that they all play the Pats tough. (Well not really the Bills, but the Jets/Dolphins do)

They've only actually gotten 6 wins from their own division one time in 18 seasons when they went 16-0.

The Patriots by and large own every team in the league, not just their own division.

[Steve]

Exactly. 5-5 on the road. You made my point.

2019 playoff records (http://www.nfl.com/schedules/2018/POST)
Pats 3-0
Rams 2-1
Eagles 1-1
Saints 1-1
Chiefs 1-1
Cowboys 1-1
Colts 1-1
Chargers 1-1
Bears 0-1
Ravens 0-1
Seahawks 0-1
Texans 0-1

Only one team every year has a record that looks even somewhat impressive. It's the nature of the tournament. One and done makes it extremely difficult to put up a very good record.

The only 2 teams with a "winning" record in the playoffs were the SB teams, so even the conference champions look pretty weak by playoff record.

The point is playoff winning percentages are much worse than the regular season ones. It's just the nature of the tournament. 5-5 is a very, very good playoff record. You just have to see the context to understand it.

[Bolts223]

Of course, it matters. If they were in the AFC West, they wouldn't win the division and wouldn't have home field. How many road games have the Patriots had to play in the playoffs the past 20 years, Sir?

The Patriots won on the road during the postseason in 2001, 2004 and 2018 - all seasons in which they won the Super Bowl. The Brady/Belichick Pats are also 6-3 in Super Bowls that are played on a neutral field against the Champion of the NFC, including games versus historic juggernauts such as the GSOT Rams and the LOB Seahawks. As far as the division matter goes - the Patriots went 3-0 against us and the Chiefs, not really sure how you can say they for sure don't win our division. Yes they won less regular season games, but with an entirely different schedule. We know that they went 3-0 against the top 2 teams in our division, so it's very likely that they would win it.

[Formula 21]

This is the year Brady's arm falls off. It happens to all the qbs eventually.

[Steve]

I don't know if his arm falls off, but I think we match up better this year than last.

Two of the biggest reasons that we didn't do well against NE were because of Gronk's blocking and Trent Brown getting movement in the run game. Now, Isaiah Wynn is a pretty good prospect, and I expect him to do a decent job this year. I just think that our DE are not going to get abused by him like they did against Brown. And there is not TE as complete as Gronk. In fact, all the TE the Pats have are basically blockers, although Watson has some wiggle as a receiver.

I know everyone points to how badly our front 7 played against NE last year, but NE is not going to go 21 Personnel next year and ram the ball down our throats. Devlin is only a threat if they have a blocker to go along with him, and the only guy who is close is Austin Sefarian-Jenkins, and he is really not nearly as good a block. Also, NE did a good job of mixing their runs and passes in their 21 personnel, and Sefarian-Jenkins is not much of a receiver either, certainly not a real threat because of his lack of speed. Our dime personnel is not nearly as big a disadvantage as it was, just because they would know what was coming against them, and that they don't match up as badly vs the run.

[Formula 21]

There's no guarantee Wynn makes it back in one year either. See Lamp, Forest.

[chargers1316]

Yeah I totally get that. I'm not saying that they aren't incompetent organizations.

I'm just saying that they all play the Pats tough. (Well not really the Bills, but the Jets/Dolphins do)

They've only actually gotten 6 wins from their own division one time in 18 seasons when they went 16-0.

The Patriots by and large own every team in the league, not just their own division.

The AFC East has easily been the worst division in football the past 20 years. Arguably, the worst three front offices in the league are all AFC East. Every division in the NFL except the AFC East has had at least two different franchises represent in the Superbowl during the past 20 years (if Tennessee is included from the 1999 season). You say the Dolphins play the Patriots "tough." The Patriots are 13-5 vs them since 2010. And the Dolphins play them the best of those three garbage teams.

[Charged4Life]

The Pats are the best coached team in the NFL. Belicheck is a cheater but he's also a genius. While he is around the pats are going to be a tough out. They also have a really good home field advantage (fans and refs) which combined with their coaching makes them extremely tough in the playoffs.

We need to get home field advanatage if want to want to have a good chance to beat them. That means each game is going to be important. Our team as constructed is good enough to do it and I think with some veteran depth to the ok we have a really good chance to be the number 1 seed.

I really admire the Patriots. They just get it done. While everyone else talks about getting it done the Patriots just do it. It must be heaven being a fan of theirs. Fuckin heaven.

[powderblueboy]

I just got through watching the first Pat drive against the Chargers - tough to watch.

Pats kept on converting on 3rd down - 4 times.
#1. Gronk effectively screens out Phillips from getting to White on a route out of the backfield (if Phillips over committed - White would have cut inside)
#2. Gronk gets away with pass interference - blocking too soon for White who was lined out as a flanker
#3. It was White out of the backfield catching a pass over the middle - just barely getting enough yardage. It was Brady's only decent play.
#4. Gronk getting a marginal pass interference call in the endzone - should have been a non call, especially considering how physical that guy plays.

It was White, Gronk & the refs.

Run defense made some stops for negative yardage, but gave up a 15+ yard run.

tough to watch.