While Sunday was a good day for the 6-7 Patriots’ playoff hopes with the Dolphins and Raiders both losing, Monday night was a near-fatal blow.
The Ravens beat the Browns in a thrilling 47-42 game, improving to 8-5 and greatly increasing their own playoff chances while crushing the Patriots’ in the process.
According to FiveThirtyEight’s model, the Patriots are now down to a 2% chance to make the playoffs. While the Dolphins are technically still ahead of Baltimore on a tiebreaker, the Ravens (88%) now join the 9-4 Colts (90%) and 9-4 Browns (87%) as clear favorites to at least get a wild card spot over Miami (25%).
That’s because the Ravens’ schedule the rest of the way has them facing the 1-12 Jaguars, the 5-8 Giants and the 2-10-1 Bengals. So while the Patriots could potentially still catch the Dolphins and Raiders, and also own a head-to-head tiebreaker over Baltimore, the chances of the Ravens losing two of their final three games to open the door for the Patriots are extremely slim.
The Patriots are officially out of the AFC East race as well, with the 10-3 Bills out of reach for them.
Jermaine Wiggins, co-host of The Greg Hill Show, clung to hope for Cam Newton and the Patriots longer than most, but as of Tuesday morning even he now acknowledges that the dream is over.
“Their playoff hope, the playoff light at the end of the tunnel, the playoff window, whatever we are calling it, in the words of my man Christian Fauria, are doneski,” Wiggy said. “After last night’s Baltimore game … if you look at [the Ravens’] schedule, they’ve got the Cincinnati Bengals, they have the New York Football Giants, and they have the Jacksonville Jaguars. There’s no way they lose two games out of their last three, so playoff hopes are done.”
Wiggy has been Newton’s No. 1 fan all season and weighed in on whether it’s time to give Jarrett Stidham a chance, saying he’d now have no problem with giving Stidham some playing time, but that he still doesn’t think Stidham will be better than Newton.
“If you want your boy Stidham," Wiggy said, "put him in so I can say I told you so."
