New England's quest for the #1 seed.

[stinkypete]

What a difference a week makes. Eight days ago, the Pats/Colts game was the game that would decide it all. The winner would surely get home field throughout, take the AFC championship, and cruise through the Super Bowl.

Now that the Colts have faltered, we're suddenly looking at a 3 game lead over Indy (2 games in the loss column, plus the tiebreaker). A 3 game lead over our stiffest challenger, and it is still midseason!

Assuming we take care of Buffalo, Philly and Baltimore (and I'm shocked to say that Buffalo looks like the toughest of those 3 games), we may have an opportunity to chinch home field December 9 against the Steelers. Pittsburgh should roll through their next 3 games (Miami, NY Jets, Cincy). It is likely to be the 12-0 Patriots against the 10-2 Steelers. A New England victory clinches it.

 

[Kdo5]

The Steelers are #2 seed now. I didn't see that coming two weeks ago. Hopefully we just continue to win and the Steelers lose before coming to Foxboro.

 

[patriot lifer]

it'll be interesting seeing Colts fans rooting for the Patriots when they face the Steelers.

 

[QuiGon]

Assuming we take care of Buffalo, Philly and Baltimore (and I'm shocked to say that Buffalo looks like the toughest of those 3 games), we may have an opportunity to chinch home field December 9 against the Steelers. Pittsburgh should roll through their next 3 games (Miami, NY Jets, Cincy). It is likely to be the 12-0 Patriots against the 10-2 Steelers. A New England victory clinches it.

If we assume the Patriots keep winning, then we would need one more loss by Indy to have a situation where we clinch HFA throughout on 12/9 during the Pittsburgh game. They play KC, Atl, Jax and Baltimore, so an Indy loss is not looking terribly likely.