Patriots Season Outlook

The Patriots will have a much clearer image of where there season is going 10 days from now.
Two big matchups, this sunday against the 6-4 Dolphins, and next sunday against the Steelers are two big tests for the Matt Cassel led team from Boston.

Exiting these games at 6-6 would almost guarantee needing a sweep the final four games to even have a shot at the post-season. The general consensus is that one AFC East team will get to 11-5 and win the division outright, and at 7-3 the Jets appear on their way, which leaves a lot of teams fighting for the wildcard.

If the Patriots can get a split from these two games, and the way Pitsburg is playing I suggest beating the Dolphins, then they have games at Seattle and at Oakland, tough places to play, but very winnable games.

The Bills shouldn't have much to play for come week 17, but eliminating New England's playoff hopes is probably enough of a reason, so no gimme there.

That leaves week 16 against the Cardinals as a very decisive game, and to be honest, that passing game worries me, with MVP favorite Kurt Warner under centre, (or in shotgun, whatever) throwing to Boldin and Fitzgerald is a scary thing when the Patriots are starting names like Jonathon Wilhite and Terrence Wheatly in the secondary some weeks.

Patriots record when they win the coin toss in overtime 6-0.

Patriots record when they lose the coin toss in overtime 0-4.

This stat is absurd.

The NFL is a league where every game really does matter. In other sports there are so many games that a loss here and there does not affect your team very much, as you see teams sometimes even resting players in games when they have a back to back etc. even though a miracle comeback may still be possible.

The NFL has 16 games, and the playoff race almost always not only comes down to a very close amount of games won by teams, but tiebreakers are involved, and yet the NFL swears by there bubble-gum overtime rule.

Teams practice all week, they battle hard for 60 minutes, and then the NFL flips a coin that heavily influences the winner.

The fact that a team can win a coin toss, have a decent run back and two good plays and kick a field goal to end the game is ridiculous. There has to be a rule where both teams get both their offenses and defenses on the field. Some say the college system wouldn't work because low scoring games can end up 48-43 at the end because teams wouldn't stop scoring and the game went on forever, but the NFL has superior athletes and is much lower scoring and those games would be few and far between.

If you are a Tennesee, or a Baltimore, maybe the coin toss system isn't that terrible for your team as you have a very strong defense and a run-heavy offense that the game might go back and forth a few times. But if you are an offensive win-in-a-shootout type team such as the Denver Broncos, you have to figure that 75% of the time that coin is deciding your fate.

Many teams pride themselves on one side of the ball or the other, and if that happens to be the offensive side, I don't know how the NFL can decide by a coin that they don't get to go on the field to try and win the game. Offense and Defense should be looked at evenly by the NFL.

It's time for the NFL to step up and realize its fault and make a change for the better and bring Integrity back to overtime games.