{"id":655044,"date":"2026-01-05T04:52:19","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:52:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/655044\/"},"modified":"2026-01-05T04:52:19","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T04:52:19","slug":"patriots-dominate-dolphins-secure-no-2-seed-in-afc-playoffs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/655044\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots dominate Dolphins, secure No. 2 seed in AFC playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThe New England Patriots defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-10 at Gillette Stadium Sunday, finishing the regular season 14-3. The Patriots secured the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs after the Denver Broncos beat the Los Angeles Chargers 19-3 in Week 18. New England ran for four touchdowns, tying a franchise record for rushing touchdowns in a game. Running back Rhamondre Stevenson ran for 131 yards and two scores. &gt;&gt; Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go: Apple | Google Play &lt;<a chargers=\"\" win=\"\" would=\"\" have=\"\" given=\"\" new=\"\" england=\"\" the=\"\" no.=\"\" seed=\"\" a=\"\" first-round=\"\" bye=\"\" and=\"\" home-field=\"\" advantage=\"\" throughout=\"\" postseason.=\"\" patriots=\"\" will=\"\" face=\"\" los=\"\" angeles=\"\" in=\"\" first=\"\" round=\"\" of=\"\" afc=\"\" playoffs=\"\" foxborough=\"\" on=\"\" sunday=\"\" january=\"\" at=\"\" p.m.=\"\">&gt; Subscribe to WMUR&#8217;s YouTube channel &lt;&lt;<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMANCHESTER, N.H. \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>The New England Patriots defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-10 at Gillette Stadium Sunday, finishing the regular season 14-3. <\/p>\n<p>The Patriots secured the No. 2 seed in the AFC playoffs after the Denver Broncos beat the Los Angeles Chargers 19-3 in Week 18. <\/p>\n<p>New England ran for four touchdowns, tying a franchise record for rushing touchdowns in a game. Running back Rhamondre Stevenson ran for 131 yards and two scores. <\/p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go: <a href=\"https:\/\/go.skimresources.com\/?id=109350X1567034&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fapps.apple.com%2Fus%2Fapp%2Fwmur-news-9-breaking-news%2Fid504646663%3Fign-mpt%3Duo%253D6&amp;sref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wmur.com%2Farticle%2Fnew-england-patriots-beat-miami-dolphins-38-10%2F69911960&amp;xcust=undefined\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Apple<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/play.google.com\/store\/apps\/details?id=com.hearst.android.wmur&amp;hl=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Google Play<\/a> &lt;&lt;<\/p>\n<p>A Chargers win would have given New England the No. 1 seed, a first-round bye and home-field advantage throughout the postseason. <\/p>\n<p>The Patriots will face the Los Angeles Chargers in the first round of the AFC Playoffs in Foxborough on Sunday, January 11 at 8 p.m.   <\/p>\n<p>&gt;&gt; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/wmurtv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Subscribe to WMUR&#8217;s YouTube channel<\/a> &lt;&lt;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New England Patriots defeated the Miami Dolphins 38-10 at Gillette Stadium Sunday, finishing the regular season 14-3.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":655045,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2050],"tags":[115,95038,22238,9305,258,217,22242,833,7,18106,9205,14229,262,251,1167,249,2326,2094,6,883,208,359,4120,10074,1672,9,22237,1287,5870,95037,51455],"class_list":["post-655044","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-england-patriots","tag-afc","tag-afc-playoff","tag-app","tag-apple","tag-denver-broncos","tag-dolphins","tag-download","tag-drake-maye","tag-football","tag-gillette-stadium","tag-go","tag-google","tag-los-angeles-chargers","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-new-england","tag-new-england-patriots","tag-newengland","tag-newenglandpatriots","tag-nfl","tag-no","tag-patriots","tag-playoffs","tag-rhamondre-stevenson","tag-score","tag-seed","tag-sports","tag-subscribe","tag-touchdown","tag-update","tag-wild-card-weekend","tag-wmur"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115840702456880716","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655044","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=655044"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/655044\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/655045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=655044"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=655044"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=655044"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}