Both nationally and here in New England, everyone is seemingly down on the Patriots. From Vegas to the media to fantasy football experts, everyone predicts another year of below-.500 football.
That is everyone except Hall of Fame cornerback Ty Law, who brought out a hot take Tuesday on the Greg Hill Show.
“I would like to see at least .500. I mean, you got to go .500,” said the three-time Super Bowl champion.
Nearly everyone on the show was taken aback by this prediction.
“How could you possibly think this team is going to go .500?” Greg Hill asked.
Law’s answer was simple: sheer willpower.
“You’ve got to will them to win, Greg. You got to will yourself to win sometimes,” he said.
Jermaine Wiggins, Law’s former Patriots teammate, disagreed.
“Sometimes you ain’t got that much talent, you can will all you want,” Wiggy said.
Law then put his idea in other terms.
“If you get 10 free throws, you can’t make half of them?” Law asked.
“If you can’t shoot, there’s a good chance you ain’t going to make half,” Wiggy responded.
Law acknowledged, though, that his outlook was going against the league-wide expectations for this team.
“.500 is not a great season. It’d be a great season for this team,” Law said.
The oddsmakers in Vegas would disagree with the Patriots legend. Currently, DraftKings has the Patriots at -350 to have under 6.5 wins this season. Additionally, they’ve set the odds on the team making the playoffs at +900.
“I’m just saying you’ve got to be able to will your team to get .500,” Law said.
“I understand with the Vegas and what the odds are, but as a competitor and as a man, come on man, you can’t get eight games?”
Law found an ally in Chris Curtis, who agreed that this Patriots team could get over .500.
“As long as they’re not handing the ball to the other team and giving the Patriots defense and the opposition the ball at the 20-yard line, they have a better shot than last year,” Curtis said.
Law also addressed how losing a player like linebacker Matthew Judon, who was traded to the Atlanta Falcons in the preseason, affects the outlook of the Patriots season.
“When you lose a player like Judon, I wanted to ask Jerod that right there: ‘What the hell was y’all thinking about with Judon?’ Because that was one of your best players on top of [Christian] Gonzalez,” Law said.
“Mayo said he wanted a new contract,” Wiggy said. “They weren’t willing to give it to him so they shipped him on out.”
“OK, but what’s the reason that you don’t want to give somebody like that [a contract] that can really be a game changer and help your team?” Law asked.
We’ll all be able to reset our expectations for the Patriots soon enough when they travel to Cincinnati to take on the Bengals this Sunday at 1 p.m.