Even though the Patriots’ loss to the Bills on Sunday likely ends their hopes of winning the AFC East — FiveThirtyEight gives Buffalo a 89% chance of winning it — they are still virtually a lock to make the postseason.
FiveThirtyEight has them with a 96% chance of making the playoffs and they can clinch as early as next week against the Jaguars. All they need is a win combined with a Raiders loss, or a win with a Dolphins loss either Monday night or next week.
If the Bills win the division (needs to beat Atlanta and New York at home), the Patriots would be the No. 5-7 seed and play a road game on Wild Card Weekend.
"There's still a lot of football left to play," Bill Belichick said Monday on The Greg Hill Show. "We'll see how things go here. Hopefully we can play our best football in January. That's what we need to do, and that's what we're planning to do. We're going to work hard and try and do that. As you said, the last couple of weeks have been disappointing, but we’ll turn the page here and move on to Jacksonville this week and the last game and see where things are at that point. There’s still a lot in our control. I think before we write the finale to the season, we’ll see how we finish playing. These are the most important games of the year.”
Normally a team with a rookie quarterback and coming off two December losses would be written off come the postseason, but this is a different year. There are no real dominant teams and it could be a case of who gets hot at the right time when it comes to who represents the AFC in the Super Bowl.
Specific to the Patriots, even with the two straight losses they would play at Cincinnati on Wild Card Weekend if the season ended today. Are the Bengals really a team that is super feared? Sure, they are having a great season and have some talented players, but it wouldn’t be a shock to see the Patriots, or any other playoff team, beat them in the playoffs.
While there are just two games left in the regular season, Belichick is right: there’s still a lot of football left to play.
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