RolStoppable said:
MTZehvor said:
Not gonna lie, it surprises me to see this much confidence in New England winning at Denver, especially without both Amendola and Gronk. Patriots went 0-2 in Mile High last year with Amendola both times and Gronk once, and...yeah Denver's offense is shit, but it was shit then too (we lost to fucking Brock Osweiler). Another tidbid; New England hasn't won in Denver against any QB not named Tim Tebow since 2003.
Not that the Pats have no chance; New England winning certainly wouldn't surprise me. I am surprised though that nearly everyone else has picked the Patriots.
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Well yes, Brady has a 2-7 career record in Denver. And yes, New England is missing a WR and the best TE in the league. But the more important thing that a team needs against Denver is a solid ground game, that's why I picked the Titans last week. The Patriots have Blount who has had a very good season so far and Lewis has returned to the lineup. The Broncos' pass defense may be scary, but their run defense is among the worst in the league.
On the flipside, the Patriots have something like the second-best defense when it comes to points allowed while the Broncos offense, unlike last year, has a completely defunct ground game. So when you weigh all of the strengths and weaknesses that both teams have right now, it's clearly a more favorable matchup for New England than it was in either game last season.
Those are my reasons for picking the Patriots, but I assume that most other people simply do not trust a team that couldn't beat the Titans. Nobody here (except alternine who isn't in the prediction league) thinks of the Titans as a playoff caliber team despite their 7-6 record.
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With no offense meant towards Blount, his numbers don't reflect the quality of New England's ground game; it's not significantly better than last year. Blount's increased production is largely a reflection of Brady missing four games (two of his four 100+ yard games came during Brady's suspension) and injuries to other running backs. On top of that, while New England does have the 7th best rushing attack in the league if you look at yards per game, they are tied for 21st in the league by yards per attempt.
Running with Blount is largely a question of "which line is tougher," which works fine when the defense is spread out and there are fewer big bodies close to the LoS in order to try and deal with the mixture of crossing routes, but if the defense is consistently able to get pressure on Brady, then running with Blount adds nothing new to the equation. New England needs to pass in order to set up the run, which is partially why the first game against Buffalo was such a disaster.
Lewis could bring something new to the mix, although the Pats have been pretty hesitant to actually run the ball with him.
