After the 202 regular season is over, the Patriots will be playing the following weekend. It's obviously ideal when the team can dominate the regular season but when filtered down to the bare essence, the runaway critical element is playing a meaningful game after the regular season is over. The Brady years made that seem routine but it actually never was.
On a side note: IMHO the AFC is wide open for the team that gets hot and gets a few bounces. The Bills, Chiefs, Titans, Indy, Cincy - all teams capable of winning but none have achieved that 'oh damn, how can the patriots beat them'. OTOH the NFC has a few teams that are much closer to that 'hard to see beating them' status.