2010 New England Patriots Schedule Released

The National Football League released the schedule for the New England Patriots on Tuesday. The Patriots will take on the the AFC and NFC North this season and will have to deal with the league's sixth toughest schedule. Here is a week by week look.

Week 1 vs. Cincinnati Bengals: New England's defense will have to try and stop Carson Palmer and the Bengals offense. The Bengals are coming off a tough season in which they had to deal with the death of wide receiver Chris Henry, yet still managed to go 10-6.

Week 2 at New York Jets: The Jets have signed and traded for many new players including LaDainian Tomlinson, Santonio Holmes, and Antonio Cromartie. It is likely the Patriots will be battling the Jets, along with the Dolphins, for first place in the AFC East , so this week two match up is big.

Week 3 vs. Buffalo Bills: There is no nice way to put it the Bills are just bad. With that said never take a division game lightly, and sandwiched between the Jets and Dolphins it's the definition of a trap game.

Week 4 at Miami Dolphins: Just like the New York Jets, the Miami Dolphins have made a few changes. The biggest and riskiest of these moves was trading for wide receiver Brandon Marshall. There is little doubt he has a ton of talent, but he also has a penchant for being around trouble. The Patriots will need to find someone that can cover Marshall, something that didn't happen when he scored twice on them last year while playing with the Denver Broncos.

Week 5 Bye week:

Week 6 vs. Baltimore Ravens: The Patriots will probably be looking for some revenge after get thoroughly pummeled by Baltimore in the playoffs last season. The Ravens offense will be more dangerous with the addition of wide receiver Anquan Boldin. Tom Brady will need to do a better job of figuring out the Ravens aging defense than he did in January, when he made them look speedy and young.

Week 7 at San Diego Chargers: The Patriots will head out to the West Coast to take on the Chargers, who no longer have the aforementioned Tomlinson and Cromartie. It is currently unclear who the Chargers will have as a starting running back and that could be a huge problem for the Chargers.

Week 8 vs. Minnesota Vikings: This is another game that is hard to put into focus, because who knows if Brett Favre will be back or not. Adrian Peterson is a force and the defense, led by Jared Allen, can be smothering, but without Favre they are vulnerable.

Week 9 at Cleveland Browns: The Browns have a new president in Mike Holmgrem and that is good news. the bad news is it will take more than one year to turn this team around. This is the kind of game the Patriots will need to win to make the playoffs again.

Week 10 at Pittsburgh Steelers: It has been a tough off season for the Steelers between dealing with and then dealing away Santonio Holmes and the whole Ben Roethlisnerger mess. The Steelers may be on there way to a down year.

Week 11 vs. Indianapolis Colts: New England gets to face off against their rivals again this year. They will try and wash away the bad taste that has to be left in their mouth after the debacle that took place in last November. I'm sure it will be another Peyton Manning and Tom Brady shootout.

Week 12 at Detroit Lions: The Patriots are playing on Thanksgiving Day and they get the Lions to boot.. It should be a happy turkey day for all Patriots fans.

Week 13 vs New York Jets: Back to the all important division play and a date with Rex Ryan's Jets. It is at this point in the season that Patriots fans hope that the mixture of troubled players the Jets have brought in this off-season begins to blow up.

Week 14 at Chicago Bears: The Bears made a big splash in free agency by landing Julius Peppers. They also brought in Mike Martz to shake up the offense. This could be a close game if Jay Cutler doesn't throw interceptions, but I wouldn't count on that.

Week 15 vs Green Bay Packers: It is good that this game is at home, because the Packers can be a tough team, especially at Lambeau Field. This will probably be a huge game for both teams, so it should be an exciting one.

Week 16 at Buffalo Bills: A must win for New England. Playing in Buffalo in December is no picnic, but the Patriots need to come out of here with a win. In my opinion whichever team in the AFC East that drops a game to Buffalo could find itself out of the playoffs.

Week 17 vs. Miami Dolphins: This could be for the last playoff spot in the AFC. If two teams don't come out of the East I will be shocked. Advantage New England for they are at home in December.

There you have it a game by game breakdown of the Patriots schedule. Now we wait for September to roll around and see what happens.

Week 17