It doesn’t matter whether the New England Patriots secure the AFC’s No. 2 seed and a first-round bye or wind up with the No. 3 seed and need to play in the wild-card round of the NFL playoffs.
Nick Wright believes the defending Super Bowl champions are going down in the divisional round either way.
“I believe this Patriots season, with or without the bye, ends in the divisional round against Kansas City. The only question is where the game’s played,” Wright said on Friday’s episode of “First Things First” on FS1. ” … It doesn’t happen very often, but I am occasionally wrong. And if I’m going to be wrong about the Patriots, it’s going to be because they get the bye, they take on a Chiefs team in Round 2 that got beat up somehow in Round 1 or maybe gets upset by Tennessee. (Maybe) Tennessee just runs the ball and all of a sudden the Patriots are not playing the Chiefs in Round 2; they’re playing the Texans or the Bills — teams they’ve already played this year obviously; beaten the Bills twice, lost to the Texans — (or it’s a) bad weather game (or) one more vintage (Tom) Brady performance.”
The Patriots can lock up the No. 2 seed this Sunday with a win over the Miami Dolphins or a Kansas City Chiefs loss. If New England loses to Miami and Kansas City defeats the Los Angeles Chargers, then the Chiefs — not the Patriots — would land the No. 2 seed, a first-round bye and the luxury of hosting their first playoff game in the divisional round.
Obviously, the second scenario would create a far more difficult path to the Super Bowl for New England. And for Wright, who has been skeptical of the Patriots for most of the season, it’s hard to imagine them overcoming such an obstacle.
“There’s so many things that have to happen, but it has to (be a bye) for this Patriots team — with as anemic as an offense as it’s had over the course of the season, last week notwithstanding,” Wright said. “There is no way it’s going to happen in three consecutive weeks, including having to go on the road in the second and in what would be the AFC Championship Game. I don’t think they make the Super Bowl either way, but they’ve never made a Super Bowl without a bye and there’s a reason for that: It’s not just the home field. The one fewer playoff game is such an enormous edge, they absolutely need it this year when it’s the least talented Patriots team we’ve seen in a decade.”
The Baltimore Ravens, who defeated the Patriots in Week 9, clinched the AFC’s No. 1 seed this past Sunday with a win over the Cleveland Browns. They’ll have home-field advantage for as long as they’re alive in the NFL playoffs.
