Odds Patriots Will Win Every Game Improve

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 6, 2:40AM EST · Published Sep 9, 1:06PM EDT

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Odds Patriots Will Win Every Game Improve — © Billie Weiss / Getty Images

Prior to the start of this NFL season, oddsmakers had the New England Patriots as underdogs in only a single game. Based on the team’s performance in the season opener, as well as the addition of superstar receiver Antonio Brown to the Patriot’s lineup, New England becomes ever more likely to run the table in 2019 the way it did 2007. The team lost to the New York Giants in the Super Bowl that year.

When CG Technology, one of the largest bookmakers in Las Vegas, released its forecast for the NFL season, according to NBC Sports, “The lone game in which New England is an underdog is a Week 11 matchup on the road against the Philadelphia Eagles.” The Eagles, at that time, were favored by one point.

Philadelphia nearly lost its first game against the Washington Redskins. Recently, oddsmakers named the Redskins as one of the four teams least likely to reach the Super Bowl this year, slightly ahead of the Miami Dolphins, Cincinnati Bengals and Buffalo Bills. The same oddsmakers have the Patriots the most likely team to take Super Bowl 54.

Philadelphia needed a furious rally to come from 17 points behind the Redskins and win 32 to 27. Philadelphia’s two star running backs each ran for under 20 yards.

On the other hand, Pittsburgh is still considered one of the NFL’s elite teams, and oddsmakers generally put it in the top 11 or 12 teams likely to take home the Lombardi Trophy. The Patriots dismantled them in the first game of the season, by a score of 33 to 3. It was not just a testament to Tom Brady’s enduring skill and the strength of the offense. The defense held elite quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and his teammates to one field goal

The Patriots have added a star wide receiver in Antonio Brown. If he behaves, which was a problem at his prior two teams, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Oakland Raiders, he could be the best receiver Brady has had since Randy Moss, who was just selected for the Pro Football Hall of Fame. At 31, Brown already has remarkable statistics. In his career, he has 837 receptions for 11,207 yards and 74 receiving touchdowns. Patriots coach Bill Belichick has a habit of turning troublemakers into huge contributors.

Will the Patriots go undefeated? It looks a lot more like that after Week 1 results and the Brown pickup.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.