Heading into this past Sunday’s slate of games, the Patriots didn’t get much help when it came to another team potentially playing the role of spoiler during Week 14.
The Bengals, who New England disposed of two weeks ago, were in Buffalo and took the Bills down to the wire, but a fourth-quarter interception by Joe Burrow that was returned for a touchdown ended up being the difference during a 39-34 win by the Bills.
That allowed Buffalo (9-4) to stay in the AFC East race a little longer behind the Patriots, with a head-to-head battle now up next at Gillette Stadium on Sunday with the Division title on the line.
Meanwhile, the Broncos were in Las Vegas against the Raiders, and Geno Smith couldn’t do enough against Bo Nix to pull off an upset there, either. Nix didn’t do anything spectacular, but he simply kept doing enough to keep the ball moving, never letting up as Denver kept the pressure on Las Vegas all afternoon before ending up with a 24-17 win. Smith faced a tenacious Broncos defense and just couldn’t make enough plays, with an injury forcing him off the field late. Kenny Pickett then came in and finished the game, but they ultimately fell short.
The victory improved Denver to 11-2, while also giving them the edge on the top seed over the Patriots as they hold the tiebreaker over New England heading into Week 15. Up next on the Broncos schedule is a visit from the Green Bay Packers in the Mile High City, which should be a tough match-up. The Packers took care of the Bears 28-21 on Sunday, with Green Bay currently playing well while riding a four-game win streak.
That makes New England’s game against the Bills even that much more important in the race for the top seed.
With Kansas City falling to Houston on Sunday, the Conference has evened out significantly this season. The Chiefs fell even further after dropping below .500 at 6-7, which has their playoff hopes looking pretty bleak at this point with just four games left.
Their drop off, along with Cincinnati’s woes and other surprising turns around the AFC this season have certainly changed the landscape. It’s opened the door for New England, largely because it’s become filled with plenty of good teams but not really any “great” clubs who Vrabel’s team wouldn’t be able to match up against.
The Patriots themselves have just been really “good” all year. They’ve done a good job of taking advantage of bad football and playing clean enough to end up on the right side of things during their current 10-game win streak.
However, history has certainly shown that the teams playing the best football in December are usually the ones who tend to have the most success down the stretch. The Patriots currently have two back-to-back games against two of the best teams in the conference, with a chance to make a statement.
After Buffalo is a trip to Baltimore against the Ravens, which the league recently flexed to a Sunday Night showdown on December 21st. That one will also likely have implications, especially with New England chasing that all important postseason bye with Denver.
For now, head coach Mike Vrabel is focused on the task at hand, with their final meeting against the Bills giving them the opportunity to accomplish the first goal he laid out back when he was hired, which was winning their division.
While previously it was referred to as a “hat and T-shirt game”, he looks at it differently knowing it won’t be easy.
“No, I don’t use a hat and T-shirt,” said Vrabel Monday when it came to that reference. “We’re just trying to play for the Championship that we have available this week. I think it’s a great testament to our players that have put us in this position to be able to do that.”
“Again, that’s not going to be easy. This is a very good football team. There’s a reason that they’ve won this division five years in a row. A lot of respect for them. They’re never out of it, never down. They may be down, and just like last week, it’s a football team that understands that somebody’s going to make a play, and then the quarterback is going to give them a chance to the very end.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
Bills…. they are hot. Seemingly hot. If you look at the Bills box scores the last 3 weeks (PIT, HOU, CIN) they’ve solved their run-D woes, wherein they had erratic spurts of weakness and strength on run-D most of the season. Their pass D stats are very good all year despite an average pass rush. Their offense is running the ball (#1 in the league). And for those that claim BUF lacks WR speed/skill (they do a bit), their overall offense has better stats than NE in most all categories. Yardage, ball possesion time etc. A key stat being the… Read more »