NFL Week 7 early games: Patriots rooting guide, how to watch, open thread

The New England Patriots and their Week 7 opponent, the San Francisco 49ers, will not take the field until 4:25 pm today. That said, there is plenty of football for their fans to watch so let’s go through the early slate of games to find out who is playing and who you should be rooting for.

If you want to stream today’s games, make sure to give fuboTV a try.

1:00 pm ET

Detroit Lions (2-3) at Atlanta Falcons (1-5): FOX

Go good game! While you could root for Detroit based on the fact that the organization has plenty of ties to New England, the game itself has no real implications on the Patriots this year.

Cleveland Browns (4-2) at Cincinnati Bengals (1-4-1): CBS

Go Bengals! There are few regular season traditions like rooting for the team with the fewer wins in an all-AFC matchup. The Battle for Ohio is no different.

Green Bay Packers (4-1) at Houston Texans (1-5): FOX

Go Texans! The Texans are in a pretty bad position six weeks into the season, but Patriots fans should root for them for two reasons: 1.) A win would help keep an AFC team further away from the first overall draft pick; 2.) A win would improve New England’s strength of schedule and possibly strength of victory tiebreakers.

Carolina Panthers (3-3) at New Orleans Saints (3-2): FOX

Go good game! This game is essentially in the same boat as Detroit-Atlanta above. It has no real impact on New England, which is why you should just root for an entertaining contest.

Buffalo Bills (4-2) at New York Jets (0-6): CBS

Go Jets! This one is pretty obvious. A New York win would hurt the team’s chances at earning the number one overall draft pick next year, while a Buffalo loss would help the Patriots stay close to the top of the division. That’s a classic win-win.

Pittsburgh Steelers (5-0) at Tennessee Titans (5-0): CBS

Go Titans! While it does not really matter from the Patriots’ perspective whether or not the Steelers or Titans improve to 6-0, rooting for the team led by Mike Vrabel that is also featuring ex-Patriots like Malcolm Butler is the way to go. Also, rooting against Pittsburgh is fun.

4:05 pm ET

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (4-2) at Las Vegas Raiders (3-2): FOX

Go Raiders! Rooting against Tom Brady’s team may be seen as heresy, but there is a reason behind this madness. A Las Vegas victory would improve the Patriots’ strength of schedule and strength of victory — two tiebreakers that could become important further down the line.