As the New England Patriots sat idle in Week 14, they slipped out of the No. 1 seed in the AFC.
That’s because Sean Payton and the Denver Broncos, like Mike Vrabel’s Pats, just keep on winning themselves. They pulled even with New England in both games played and total wins on Sunday, topping the Raiders by a 24-17 final. With the win, the Broncos (11-2) officially clinched the “common opponents” tiebreaker over the Patriots (also 11-2) in the AFC playoff picture. This is where the Pats’ Week 1 loss to the Raiders comes back to bite them. Other than that game, the teams are even in common opponents, and the Patriots have run out of games to come back in that department.
The common opponent roadblock means that the Patriots’ only way to beat the Broncos in a tiebreaker is to finish with a better conference record. But Denver enters Week 15 with a slight edge in that tiebreaker as well, at 7-2 against AFC teams, compared to 6-2 for New England. So, ultimately, the Broncos control their own destiny in the race for the No. 1 seed, and the Patriots are going to need them to stumble at some point down the stretch.
That may be a tall order, especially considering the Pats would also need to take care of their own business. They have a home date with the Buffalo Bills coming out of their bye, then hit the road to take on the Baltimore Ravens, before some end-of-season mop-up duty against the Jets and Dolphins. The Broncos, meanwhile, will have to lose to at least one of the Chiefs, Jaguars, and Chargers. It’s certainly possible, but for the Patriots it’s a necessity.
As it stands Monday morning, the Patriots would be the No. 2 seed and have to host the surging Houston Texans (8-5) in the wild card round. Houston has recovered from a slow start to win its last five in a row, and six out of seven, to claw firmly into the playoff hunt. The Patriots may want to avoid them, and their tough-as-hell defense. Thus, it would behoove them to simply win as many games as possible the rest of the season. That’s all!
The Patriots should only worry about themselves and take it one week at a time. Vrabel seems to be doing a great job of that with his locker room this season. So for now, they need to figure out how to sweep the Bills season series and win the AFC East, then go from there.
Matt, a North Andover, Massachusetts native, has been with The Sports Hub since 2010. Growing up the son of Boston University All-American and Melrose High School hall-of-fame hockey player Steve Dolloff, sports was always a part of his life. After attending Northeastern University, Matt focused his love of sports on writing, extensively writing about all four major Boston teams. He also is a co-host of the Sports Hub Underground podcast and is a regular on-air contributor on the Sports Hub. Matt writes about all New England sports from Patriots football to Boston Celtics and Boston Bruins.