The New England Patriots play the Green Bay Packers for Sunday Night Football, but there’s plenty of action to take place ahead of the game! We have our pregame show and Patriots rooting guide below.

Pregame Show

Patriots Rooting Guide

1:00 PM ET

Jets at Dolphins: The Patriots will root for the Jets to win on the road to make both teams 4-5 on the year. It will set the Dolphins back in the divisional record category and Miami has a stronger overall team with greater veteran presence. A Jets win would give the Patriots a strong hold in the division.

Bears at Bills: The Bills are out of the playoff picture so I think it would actually benefit the Patriots for Buffalo to win this game to 1) boost the Patriots strength of schedule and strength of victory; and 2) sabotage the Bills draft position. Go Buffalo! Go all the way to 6-10 and a pick outside of the top 10!

Chiefs at Browns: The Patriots want the Browns to pull off the upset. Pretty simple.

Steelers at Ravens: Root for a tie! Honestly, though, probably root for Baltimore to win this one to further complicate the AFC North. The Steelers would fall to 4-3-1, with Baltimore 5-4. Any additional mess in the AFC North benefits the Patriots in the conference rankings.

Lions at Vikings: This game doesn’t really matter to the Patriots. Might as well root for Matt Patricia, LeGarrette Blount, and the Lions.

Falcons at Washington: This game doesn’t matter at all to the Patriots.

4:05 PM ET

Texans at Broncos: Do you believe in the Jacksonville Jaguars? If so, root for the Texans to win to stay atop the division. If not, root for the Broncos to win to give the Patriots some extra space ahead of the suddenly-hot Houston Texans.

Chargers at Seahawks: Root for Seattle. The Los Angeles Chargers are arguably the third-best team in the AFC and it would benefit the Patriots to see some holes poked in their success for scouting reasons.

4:25 PM ET

Rams at Saints: This is going to be a gooooooood game. It doesn’t affect the Patriots, but might as well root for New Orleans to hand Los Angeles their first loss of the season.

Use this as the open thread for discussion.