New England Patriots: Redoing team’s 2021 game-by-game predictions
New England Patriots begin with a Week 14 Bye
Week 15: @ Indianapolis Colts, Dec. 19, TBD
The Colts new quarterback experiment with Carson Wentz has gotten off to a rough start, as Wentz missed a considerable amount of training camp. Despite that, Indianapolis has a solid defense and will rely on their ground game to win them games. Two teams with similar gameplans leads to a tight contest, but the Patriots defense will force Wentz into a turnover late in the fourth to help secure a hard fought victory. Patriots: 24 Colts: 20
Week 16: vs. Buffalo Bills, Dec. 26, 1:00 PM
It’s tough to beat a Bill Belichick coached team twice in one season, but the Bills manage to pull off this tough feat this season. Despite slowing down the Allen-Diggs combination this time around, Allen finds his secondary targets for three touchdowns in this one to help lead Buffalo to a win. Jones gets New England in the red zone on the last drive with a chance to win the game, but the Bills defense forces a turnover on downs to close out this one. Bills: 21 Patriots: 17
Week 17: vs. Jacksonville Jaguars, Jan. 2, 1:00 PM
The Patriots will welcome in the top overall pick in this year’s draft, Trevor Lawrence, for a Week 17 visit in Foxboro. Belichick has a history of slowing down rookie quarterbacks, and while Lawrence has a good day, it isn’t enough to pull out a win, as he is outplayed by Jones on the other side. The Jaguars defense gets picked apart by Jones and the offense, as the Jaguars head back to the drawing board on his to fix their defensive unit. Patriots: 35 Jaguars: 24
Week 18: @ Miami Dolphins, Jan. 9, 1:00 PM
The Patriots will end their season against the same opponent they started it against, and they will get a similar result this time around. Jones shows how far he has progressed on the season, and will throw four touchdowns for the second game in a row. Tagovailoa has a better outing this time around, but the Dolphins lack of weapons makes things too easy for the Patriots defense. Patriots: 32 Dolphins: 23
Next. 3 players Belichick praised this past week. dark
Final Record: 10-7
This may be a bit optimistic considering we don’t know how Jones will perform, but there are a lot of winnable games on the New England Patriots schedule this season. It will be important to get off to a good start in the first half of the season, as the second half has some much more daunting contests that could derail the team’s season. Despite the change in quarterback, it wouldn’t be surprising to see New England in contention for a wild card spot by the season’s end.