The defining characteristics of the Bill Belichick era in New England, aside from all the championships, is attention to detail, near-perfect execution and dominant situational football. In a time of year when they always start peaking, New England instead finds itself looking fallible and falling further away from securing a bye in the playoffs. More Pats-Steelers This is a big deal: New England's had a lot of succe s with Belichick and , but since 2001, they have never advanced to the without having a bye. The last time the didn't have a bye? 2009, when the Pats lost to the after opened things up with a long touchdown run. tore his ACL in a final meaningle s Week 17 game against the ; it feels like that's when Belichick changed his approach to resting players.Only once have the Patriots even made it to the AFC Championship Game without having a bye, back in 2006 when they were the fourth seed in the AFC. We are not dealing with a huge sample size here. The Patriots have mi sed the playoffs twice in 17 years with the Brady/Belichick combo (once when Brady tore his ACL in 2008) and not secured a bye three other times.In the 12 years where New England locked up one of the top two seeds in the AFC, they went to the Super Bowl a ridiculous eight times. Three of the other four years they lost in the AFC Championship Game. Only once with a bye has New England failed to advance to the conference championship.
Elfrid Payton Jersey It's simply remarkable. And a bye could happen this year. New England has two home games
Derrick Favors Jersey remaining against the and . They're likely winning both and just need one to secure the AFC East title. 1-1 probably gets them the third seed -- the still have to head to New Orleans next week. Me s around though, and the Patriots could be hosting the or in the first playoff weekend. That's no prize.There's reason to believe the Patriots might me s around a little bit too, what with the their struggles against the Steelers, which come off the heels of a lo s in Miami. New England lost back-to-back games in December for the first time since 2002. This was just since Brady took over.But they're not just slumping, they're playing bad football. The Patriots were penalized 14 times on Sunday against the Steelers, their most in a game since 2014. Say what you will about whether each penalty should have been called, but the Patriots kept making bad mistakes at inopportune times. With the Pats trailing 14-10, Brady hit for a big gain to get in the red zone. Everyone knew what was coming, but the opposite happened. ran for two yards and was bailed out by a whistle on a should-have-been fumble. The next play was a Patriots false start, followed by a short pa s to to set up a third-and-8. After used his superpowers to pick up a first down, got tagged for holding. Two plays later, Brady was pre sured and pre sing and, while trying to throw a ball away, managed to throw a red zone pick, his first since 2016.You never see the Pats produce that sequence of plays -- it almost always goes the other way -- but we've seen it happen in multiple spots over the last two weeks.
Jarrod Uthoff Jersey At the end of the first half against Miami, Brady took a sack when the Pats didn't have a timeout, and the result was New England failing to get a field goal attempt. This mattered, because the Patriots gave up a game winning touchdown play on a hook-and-ladder move by the and lost by two points. Yes, it should be concerning that Gronk was in that game as a safety, which is the exact sort of thing Belichick doesn't let happen on his watch.New England got another look in the Steelers game, too. Down 17-10, having barely held the Steelers to a field goal, the Patriots stormed down the field again, looking to tie things up and force overtime. New England got to the 11-yard line with a second-and-5 and promptly had another holding call on . Three mi sed throws from Brady later, and the Steelers were celebrating their playoff rebirth on their home field. All told New England ended up being penalized 14 times, the most for the Patriots since 2014. It was a sloppy game, just like their lo s in Miami.I don't know how you explain it. Belichick didn't magically lose his fastball overnight. Brady is 41 and there are signs of aging, even if they're subtle. He's still very good. Gronk is definitely not the same guy right now -- he looks like he's laboring out here.Road games are hard. The Steelers are good. They'll probably come back and blow out the Jets and Bills, get a win over the Texans and steal a bye anyway. But there is something just off about the Patriots over the last two weeks. And right now it merits watching, because they could end up facing their most difficult playoff path in nearly a decade. ZimmerBallSpeaking of the , boy did they do exactly what Mike Zimmer promised on Sunday. After firing OC John DeFilippo, Minnesota jumped all over Miami, getting out to a 21-0 lead on the Dolphins, smothering them defensively and pounding the ball with and . It was exactly what Zimmer wanted to see: a balanced offense that
Darius Miller Jersey ground out the game and let his defense destroy the other team.Cook, finally healthy, lit up the Dolphins offense. And the Vikings, sufficiently angry, lit up , sacking him a Bueller-esque . Minnesota gave up a pick-six from and did allow the Dolphins to get back in the game, with Miami climbing towards 21-17. But then the Vikings put foot on gas and pulled away for an easy 41-17 victory.Let's see how the offensive line holds up over the next two weeks, but on Sunday, they were certainly good enough to run the ball effectively, which helped to set up Cousins in the play-action game. Unfortunately for the Vikings, they have the (road) and (home) left on the docket. The Lions are certainly a beatable team, and you can expect the Vikings will be favored. But that's a road division game. The real stinger is the losing on Sunday night, which opens up the Bears to earn a bye if they can win out and the Rams stumble again.Chicago should be giving max effort in Week 17, provided things don't go south for them next week. And that makes the Vikings' path to the playoffs that much more difficult.Bear down (or up?), but the Chicago Bears clinching the NFC North at home against , on a day when Vic Fangio's defense had its way with the all-world quarterback, is incredibly symbolic. Colleague Sean Wagner-McGough, who happens to be a Bears fan, predicted this outcome, claiming we would see a changing of the guard on Sunday. He wasn't wrong: Rodgers got knocked down quickly, and then got punched right back onto the canvas. Chicago answered the bell in excellent fashion, and Matt Nagy faced some adversity that had Bears fans starting to get a
Frank Jackson Jersey little nervous. Rodgers was 8-2 in Chicago since being drafted before Sunday. Whenever he needed a big game in Chicago, he had one. Until now. Like Brady, maybe there's a little bit of aging going on here? That feels dangerous to say, but this has been a roug
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