Patriots grinding through most intense stretch of regular-season schedule

It's still early, but the 2017 Patriots find themselves in the midst of the most unforgiving portion of their regular-season slate.

In addition to the current personnel questions and health issues facing the franchise, compounding things is the fact that New England’s game against the Bucs on Thursday will be its third contest in 11-plus days. It’s part of a scheduling quirk mostly attributable to Thursday Night Football, one that usually sees teams have to run a similar gauntlet of three games in either an 11- or 12-day stretch.

Now, it’s the Patriots turn.


“Right now, it just kind of feels like we're in the routine, because it was just back to back. We're just pushing through, we really are,” quarterback Tom Brady said when asked about the current scheduling run. “I really care about the wins and losses, and not when we play or how we play. I really do. I'd be feeling a lot better up here if we had won last week and I'll be feeling a lot better on Friday if we win.”

“You've got to turn the page,” said tight end Rob Gronkowski of the short week. “You've got to be prepared, you've got to lock it in and just do overtime right now.”

The Patriots have been here before — last year, New England had two similarly intense stretches and swept through both of them. They had three games in 11 days to start of the season, a series that included a road win over the Cardinals in the opener (Sept. 11), as well as home victories against the Dolphins (Sept. 18) and Texans (Sept. 22), all three of which came without Brady. Later in the year, they blazed through three games in 12 days, posting wins over the Ravens (Dec. 12), Broncos (Dec. 18) and Jets (Dec. 24). Those wins helped burnish their championship credentials, and veteran safety Devin McCourty would later credit that second run as serving as something of a springboard to the team on the way to the title.

(Overall in 2016, more than half the teams in the league faced the challenge of three games in 12 days, and only the Patriots, Chiefs and Cowboys came through that stretch undefeated, with New England turning the trick in December. Kansas City did it in a period from late November to early December, while Dallas did it in November. It’s worth mentioning here that there were also several teams that had to play three games in 11 days last season. However, no team other than the Patriots were able to go unbeaten through that stretch.)

Now, the 2017 team faces a similar challenge. Passing the three-game test with a perfect mark isn’t a possibility this year; the 33-30 loss to the Panthers last Sunday insured that wouldn’t happen. But a bounceback win would allow them to erase the bad taste of Sunday’s loss. In addition, it would allow the Patriots to extend their road winning streak — New England hasn’t lost in nine straight regular-season games away from home. (For the record, the all-time mark is 19, set by the Niners from 1988-90.)

Extending an already impressive road winning streak would be a positive accomplishment for a team that is still struggling to find its identity just over a month into the regular season.

“It just requires a great level of commitment and attention to detail and obviously listening to coaches, taking the coaching, bringing it to the field, performing well and then stringing those weeks together,” Brady said of the secret to succeeding on a short rest.

“But we just haven't done it well on a consistent basis. That really reflects in our record. It's not great, but it's also early. There's a lot of football left, and hopefully we can take all the things that have happened, learn from them and try to build on them. That's what we're going to try to do this week.”