NFL Week 4 late games: Patriots rooting guide, how to watch, open thread

With the New England Patriots playing an early game against the Buffalo Bills today, their fans can sit back and relax during the late slate of games. There are five on the menu today, so let’s quickly go through the contests to find out who will face off today, and who Patriots fans should be rooting for.

4:05 pm ET

Seattle Seahawks (2-1) at Arizona Cardinals (0-2-1): FOX

Go Cardinals! With the Seahawks having sent their seventh-round draft pick in next year’s draft to New England for tight end Jacob Hollister, Patriots fans should root for the winless Cardinals to come away victoriously — the worse Seattle’s record at the end of the year, the better New England’s pick.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (1-2) at Los Angeles Rams (3-0): FOX

Go injury-free game! The Patriots have nothing at stake here, so you can root whoever you want to root for. The underdog — the Buccaneers — is an easy choice, but even a Rams win won’t have too big an impact on New England.

4:25 pm ET

Minnesota Vikings (2-1) at Chicago Bears (2-1): CBS

Go Vikings! This game follows the same rules as Seahawks versus Cardinals. The Bears sent their fourth-round pick in the 2020 draft to the Patriots via trade, which means that a Chicago loss could help improve the position of that pick.

Jacksonville Jaguars (1-2) at Denver Broncos (0-3): CBS

Go Jaguars! Rooting for the Jaguars has one simple reason: the Broncos are in the same division as New England’s top rival for the number one seed in the AFC playoffs, the Kansas City Chiefs. The worse the teams on Kansas City’s schedule are, the worse become the tiebreakers for strength of schedule and possibly strength of victory.

8:20 pm ET

Dallas Cowboys (3-0) at New Orleans Saints (2-1): NBC

Go Cowboys! The Patriots will play Dallas later this year, so the team winning against the Saints will improve New England’s strength of schedule and possibly strength of victory — two tiebreakers that might come into play when the postseason seeding starts to form.