On July 15, at the dawn of training camp, I predicted the Patriots would go 7-10 in Mike Vrabel’s first year with them. I felt — at the time — it was a generous assessment.
Turns out, as we know now, it wasn’t generous enough.
I still don’t know how they did it, but when the Patriots walked off the field this past Sunday, they were 14-3 and second seed in the AFC as playoffs are set to begin. I thought it would be a great idea if we went back. And I looked for you, as I was pretty interested myself.
In Week 1, I had the Patriots defeating the Raiders. Well, the Raiders finished the whole season with only three wins — the Patriots game being one of them. Ugh. The Patriots turned the ball over more often than an amateur chef at a barbeque flipping burgers. Terrible. Yours truly set a record for stuff thrown around the room.
Week 2: Had the Dolphins over the Pats in Miami. Pretty reasonable as the Patriots never win down there. Except this year, they did. Pats, 1-1; Krause 0-2.
Week 3: Butterfingers Stevenson (Rhamondre) displayed a fumbling clinic and, as predicted, the Steelers won. One for me. P&K: 1-2.
Week 4: This one I got right, too. The Patriots pounded the Panthers. Of note, though, I must admit I said the Panthers had nowhere to go but up. Well, up they went — to an NFC South title (though with a sub-.500 record). P&K: 2-2
Week 5: This is the week the season went off the rails — for me. Certainly not for the Patriots. In what had to be one of the better in-season games on record, the Patriots hung on and beat the Bills — in Buffalo no less. P: 3-2; K 2-3.
Week 6: A victory all-around, though it should have been easier than it was, coming, as it did, over the Saints. P: 4-2; K 3-3.
Week 7: I’d love to know how I mangled this one. I had the Titans. The Patriots won 31-13. Sometimes, these things just go horribly wrong. P: 5-2; K: 3-4.
Week 8: The slump goes on. Quarterback carousel notwithstanding, I had the Browns. And despite the fact that Cleveland’s Myles Garrett was all over the field — something I took into consideration — the Patriots somehow won and Drake Maye escaped with his life. P: 6-2; K 3-5.
Week 9: Another bad one. I had Atlanta, but the Patriots won and improved to 7-2. I, on the other hand, was now 3-6.
Week 10: It didn’t seem to be a terrible mistake to pick the Buccaneers in this game, though it turned out to be. The Pats won and had room to breathe at the end. P: 8-2; K: 3-7. And Tampa Bay cratered from there until the end of the season.
Week 11: My losing streak ended, but their winning streak kept going on. Thank the Lord for the Jets. P: 9-2; K: 4-7.
Week 12: No Burrow, no Bungles. So, once again, I’m on the losing side of the ledger. Not the Patriots though. P: 10-2; K: 4-8.
Week 13: I love New York. I had the Patriots, and they killed the Giants on Monday night. P:11-2; K: 5-8.
Week 15: Fourteen was the bye. This is the only game I got right that I wish I’d gotten wrong. A win would have given them top seed. And the Patriots a) fell asleep in the second half and b) fell victim to Josh Allen and all his powers. P: 11-3; K: 6-8.
Week 16: Once again, the Patriots found a way to win. And I found a way to lose. I thought the Ravens were supposed to be good. How’d I know Lamar Jackson would hurt his back during the game? P: 12-3; K: 6-9.
Week 17: Can’t go wrong picking against the Jets. P: 13-3; K 7-9.
Week 18: The Dolphins stink. How else did the Patriots ever sweep them? We both got this one right, which leaves me with a much more respectable record than I deserve. They end up 14-3 while I finish 8-9.
I have no feelings about Sunday other than I would probably root for Vladimir Putin over either Jim or John Harbaugh.
Does it matter if the Chargers win? It’s been an absolute gift of a season. Nothing’s going to change that.
Steve Krause is the Item’s writer-at-large. He joined paper in 1979 as a copy editor and later created a music column, called Midnight Ramblings, which ran through 1985. After leaving the paper for a year, he returned in 1988 as a reporter and editor in sports. He became sports editor in 1998; and was named writer-at-large in 2018.
Krause won awards for writing in 1985 from United Press International; in 2001 from the Associated Press; and again in 2020 from the New England Newspaper & Press Association. He is a member of the Harry Agganis Foundation Hall of Fame, a past winner of the Moynihan Lumber Scholar-Athlete Community Service Award, and was the 2012 recipient of the Jack Grinold Media Award for MasterSports, an organization that conducts high school and college coaches’ clinics. He lives in Lynn, is active on Facebook, and can be found on Twitter @itemkrause.