Patriots Set 2019 Schedule

The Patriots’ 2019 schedule was released last night, always a nice point in the offseason when we can start making our gameplans for the fall.

Let’s take a dive in and break down the key parts of the slate and how things stack up for the Pats.

Bye Week

Another season, another late bye. This year it comes in Week 10, an ideal location to give the Pats a rest right in the middle of the season. The bye is especially useful as the Pats will face two NFC East teams — at Philly and Dallas, coming off the bye week. The Eagles will be coming off their own bye.

Primetime Games

As always the Patriots will play a central role in the NFL’s national game coverage, playing in three Sunday Night Football games and one each on Monday and Thursday nights.

The Pats will host the Steelers in their opener on national TV, but the other two will both be on the road, at Baltimore (Week 9) and Houston (Week 13). Those should be important conference games and the Ravens will have their bye week to prepare.

All three games are AFC power matchups.

Short Weeks and Travel

The Pats will play at Washington on Sunday at 1pm, then face the Giants at Gillette four days later. Having two out-of-conference foes back-to-back like that can be a challenge. Lot of new information in a compacted timeframe.

Overall the road games are spread out pretty nicely, with back-to-back away games just once early in the season. Having the final two divisional games at home is ideal as always.

AFC East

The road to the playoffs starts with winning the division and this year’s slate of games is pretty well distributed. The Week 2 trip to Miami seems like a pencil-in loss considering how they looked on the road in Florida recently.

That kicks off three-straight in the division, an early stretch that could really define the new-look Pats’ season. Last year they had their early season road struggles and if the rest of the AFC East wants a shot at the king they’ll all have their chances in September.

The re-match with the Jets on the road four weeks after first seeing them is the last division game until the final two of the year. Putting a firm grasp on the division by October 1st would be ideal, but with major new pieces in place at left tackle and tight end, and likely wide receiver, the offense might still be looking for an identity.

The AFC East defenses have been built with Tom Brady in mind and right now other than Edelman and White we’re not sure who he’ll be throwing the ball to in these games.

Power Matchups

The Patriots will host host the Chiefs in a re-match of last year’s series. Playing Kansas City again so soon will only help fan the flames of this rivalry that has been developing since 2014. The trips to Baltimore and Houston will be other big games with playoff implications.

Perhaps the most exciting will come at 4:25 on October 27th with the Pats hosting the upstart Browns. Many thought this would be a national matchup, but for now it remains a late game in the prime of the season.

The NFC East always provides some memorable opponents, including perhaps a final game against Eli Manning. All three of the Pats’ Super Bowl losses came to this division and it’s a chance for Brady to exact a little revenge one last time.

On to 2019

Now that the 2019 season is a reality it’s a reminder of how different things will look since Super Bowl 53. Names like Gronk, Flowers and Brown are gone.

What we do know is that no matter who he’s got, Bill Belichick will craft a tough competitive football team by December. But sometimes it only takes a couple missteps early in the year to cost a divisional title. It’s happened just twice, the last coming a decade ago, both times on a tiebreaker.

The Dolphins, Jets and Bills will all have their early shot, putting the pressure on the Pats to get off to a better start than they did last year. Divisional losses are not as forgiving as losing to the Jags and Lions.