The New England Patriots’ win streak was short-lived: after winning back-to-back games over the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens, the team was defeated 27-20 by the Houston Texans last Sunday to fall to 4-6 on the season. With the Arizona Cardinals coming to town in Week 12, the Patriots are under considerable pressure to return to the win column or else their playoff hopes will shrink even further.
We here at Pats Pulpit are torn about the team’s outlook, with the majority of our writers participating in this week’s round of picks choosing to go with the Cardinals instead of the Patriots — despite the latter playing at home.
“Now that my objective of ‘execute a competent NFL drive’ has been accomplished, let’s try “play offense and defense at the same time,” wrote Matthew Rewinski about the upcoming matchup.
“I can’t pick the Pats right this year, but I’m going Cards here. I don’t see how they beat Arizona this week, especially when they’ve had 10 days off,” added Pat Lane.
The Patriots’ game against Arizona will obviously be watched closely, but it is not the only high-profile game to come up this weekend. Whether it is the Tennessee Titans’ game versus the Indianapolis Colts, the Kansas City Chiefs’ matchup with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers or the Baltimore Ravens’ contest in Pittsburgh — whenever it will eventually take place — there is a lot of quality football on the schedule in Week 12.
In the meantime, we will continue to aim for our ambitious goal of correctly trying pick each game regardless of when it is played.
SB Nation has partnered with Tallysight this year, after all, so we are gladly trying our best to a) use their game picking tool, and b) find out who of us is best at this. So without any further ado, here is this week’s round-up which is totally not biased in the Patriots’ direction whatsoever. And please let us know what you think in the comments below!