Every year people complain about the Patriots having an easy schedule and how the AFC East is soft (tomato cans according to someone). Well, that talk always drives me crazy. For one thing the only reason some of the teams in the AFC East don't have great records is because they beat each other. Besides the good possibility that a team might get swept by the Patriots more often than not, if they split with the other teams in the conference, they are 12-4 at best. Throw in a bad game, call, or injuries and now you are lucky to get 10 wins. Right now the worst team in the AFC East is the Miami Dolphins with a 3-4 record. If you take away their division record they are 3-1.
The other thing people seem to forget when whining about easiness of schedule is that you end up playing your other conference games against the team that finished in the same position in their division. In other words since the Patriots typically win the AFC East, they always get to play the winners of the North, South and West. If we would like to point fingers at a team who's conference is a joke (at least this year), look at Indianapolis. They are 3-5 on the year and 3-0 in their division. For the mathematically challenged, they haven't won a game out of their division yet and they've had 5 opportunities. By the way, that 3-5 record has them sitting in first place currently.
So, what is the "Patriot Effect" and why am I writing about it? Well, it's the fact that teams get a great reputation of being a team that is tough to beat. Enter the Patriots. The great team plays the Patriots and loses that game and many to follow. They quickly go from being the team who would challenge the Patriots to not being a very good team.
This year the Cincinnati Bengals are undefeated and getting an awful lot of accolades. Let me roll you back to last season when the same Bengals started off the season 3-0 and were considered the team to beat and the Patriots got their butts handed to them by Kansas City. Well, we all remember that Belichick saying of "we're on to Cincinnati". The Patriots throttled the Bengals by a score of 41-17 and the Bengals tied Carolina and lost to Indianapolis before notching their next win. The ended up finishing the season with a 10-5-1 record. Here are some more recent examples:
This year the Cincinnati Bengals are undefeated and getting an awful lot of accolades. Let me roll you back to last season when the same Bengals started off the season 3-0 and were considered the team to beat and the Patriots got their butts handed to them by Kansas City. Well, we all remember that Belichick saying of "we're on to Cincinnati". The Patriots throttled the Bengals by a score of 41-17 and the Bengals tied Carolina and lost to Indianapolis before notching their next win. The ended up finishing the season with a 10-5-1 record. Here are some more recent examples:
- Last year in the playoffs the Patriots squeaked by Baltimore on their way to the Superbowl. This season the Ravens lost their first 3 games and are currently 2-6.
- Indy was also taken down by the Patriots in the playoffs. They started the 2015 season at 0-2 and are currently 3-4.
- Seattle had their repeat dreams crushed by Malcolm Butler and then started the season 0-2. They are now 4-4.
While I've called this fall from grace the "Patriot Effect", it isn't a new phenomena specific to the Patriots. In 2013 the Broncos defeated the 9-0 Chiefs. Kansas City then lost two in a row and finished the season 11-5.
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