The Patriots have the best record in the NFL at 7-1 and will face a 5-2-1 Seattle Seahawks team at home. With the bye week perfectly splitting the season in half, the Patriots are in good shape to win Home Field, needing only 6 wins to outright clinch it. The Patriots only face two teams with legitimate playoff aspirations, although they do face some cupcake teams like San Francisco and Los Angeles.
No recap of the last game because State of the Patriots observed its bye week.
Injuries: The only injury situation to really monitor is if RB Dion Lewis will be returning this week. The Patriots have until the 17th to activate him off PUP. Considering how Buffalo utilized their RBs to keep the Seahawks defense honest, I think Lewis will be back on Sunday.
“Jim, I have only one thing to say. We’re on to Seattle”: The Patriots will be playing the Seattle Seahawks for the first time since Super Bowl XLIX. Malcolm Butler has gone from Super Bowl hero to Pro Bowl corner. The Patriots offense is very much the same now as it was back then in terms of matchups and maybe even better. The Seahawks have some very exploitable flaws that the Patriots can take advantage of. The Patriots game plan for Super Bowl XLIX was very successful overall and I think they will be integrating parts of it into their game plan on Sunday.