Rich’s Son Cooper Predicts the New England Patriots’ Record This Season Will Be…?

The Patriots are 3-2. Cooper is not worried.

Rich closed the show by bringing in his youngest son, a die-hard Patriots fan, cueing up some music and walking him through the rest of New England's schedule one game at a time. Cooper did not hedge much.

First up, the Jets. Cooper's answer was a question: "What do you think I'm going to say?" Win. Then the Bears on a short week. "I think they'll win." The Dolphins on the road. "I think they'll win, too." The Packers at home. "I think we'll get it done, yeah." The Lions in Germany drew a brief pause, "In Germany?", before Cooper picked the Patriots again.

That made it 8-2 heading to the Chargers, a game Cooper is attending in person. "Yeah, I'll be there, for sure," he said. Another win.

The first loss came next, at home against the Bills. "I think what happened last is going to happen again," Cooper said. "We'll lose that." He bounced right back with the Vikings on a Thursday night, then took the Patriots' second loss at Kansas City on a Monday night. The return trip to the Jets drew an "Oh my gosh" and another win. Then wins over the Broncos, "Yeah, we're winning that one," and the Dolphins to close it out.

Final tally: 13-4.

What makes it fun is that Cooper didn't just pick his team to win everything. He backed the number with real reasoning. "Even though people might think I'm like a biased fan," he said, "I feel like with the matchups that are given and how teams have performed this year, I feel like that could possibly go correct."

The games that gave him pause were the three NFC North matchups with the Packers, Lions and Vikings. The Vikings defense is very, very good, he said, and if Drake plays the way he did against the Seahawks, "I don't think that's going to go very well." The Lions and Packers both have really, really good offenses.

On the other side of the ball, Cooper likes what he sees. New England has been doing well on defense even without good players like Gonzalez, Carlton Davis and Barmore.

That is a better breakdown than plenty of grown adults give on Sunday morning television.

Rich wrapped by noting they would see what happens against the Jets. Not that anyone in the room believed Rich was picking the Jets. "I don't know why you're pretending," came the reply when he tried.