The New England Patriots’ playoff aspirations had to take a major hit last Thursday, with the team being beaten 24-3 by the Los Angeles Rams to fall below .500 again. As a result of that game and others over the weekend, Bill Belichick’s team has only a 2 percent chance of eventually sneaking into the postseason as a wild card team.
Before being able to do that, however, a lot of things have to go right — including this Sunday’s road contest again the Miami Dolphins.
Pats Pulpit’s staff does feel confident about that game, though, despite the Dolphins currently being listed as 2-point favorites. There is one exception, though, and he explained his hesitation to pick the Patriots as follows:
“Please sir, just a crumb of offense....,” wrote Matthew Rewinski when discussing New England’s outlook heading into a game against the number three scoring defense in football.
Before the two AFC East rivals will clash, however, another game that the Patriots will closely take an eye on is set to kick off Week 15: the Los Angeles Chargers will visit the Las Vegas Raiders, with the latter also competing for a spot in the tournament. That game is just one of many that could have an impact on New England’s outlook, with the other competitors — the Baltimore Ravens, Tennessee Titans and Indianapolis Colts — also all fighting for playoff positioning.
This weekend could therefore have a major impact on the AFC’s playoff picture once again.
Before getting ahead of ourselves, however, let’s return to our ambitious goal of correctly picking each game this season.
SB Nation has partnered with Tallysight this year, after all, so we are gladly trying our best to a) use their game picking tool, and b) find out who of us is best at this. So without any further ado, here is this week’s round-up which is totally not biased in the Patriots’ direction whatsoever. And please let us know what you think in the comments below!