Patriots rooting guide: Who New England fans should root for in the Week 9 Sunday games

Week 9 is in full swing, with the New England Patriots (4-4) set to take on the Indianapolis Colts (3-4-1) at 1 p.m. ET. All our eyes will be on that game, naturally, but there is a lot of other football that will be played.

With a total of 10 other contests on the menu, let’s find out who Patriots fans should be cheering for. Welcome to the latest edition of our Patriots Rooting Guide.

1 p.m. ET

Los Angeles Chargers (4-3) at Atlanta Falcons (4-4): Go Falcons! This is the classic AFC vs. NFC battle, meaning that it is no surprise that the NFC representative Falcons are our pick in this one. | FOX, fuboTV

Miami Dolphins (5-3) at Chicago Bears (3-5): Go Bears! The Dolphins are ahead of the Patriots in the AFC East standings, and they own the head-to-head tiebreaker right now. Every additional loss they suffer is good news for New England in its quest to jump ahead of its division rivals from Miami. | CBS, fuboTV, Paramount+

Carolina Panthers (2-6) at Cincinnati Bengals (4-4): Go Panthers! While the Patriots own two of the Panthers’ draft picks next year — one in the third round and one in the sixth — Carolina is our team of choice here. Some things such as playoff seeding are bigger than future draft picks. | FOX, fuboTV

Green Bay Packers (3-5) at Detroit Lions (1-6): Go Lions! A Detroit win is the preferred outcome here for two reasons: it would improve New England’s strength of victory tiebreaker, and it would help the Panthers in the race for the first overall draft pick (which as noted above would be a welcome development from a Patriots perspective). | FOX, fuboTV

Buffalo Bills (6-1) at New York Jets (5-3): Go Jets! Both teams are in the AFC East, but to keep things close in the division let’s go with New York here. | CBS, fuboTV, Paramount+

Las Vegas Raiders (2-5) at Jacksonville Jaguars (2-6): Go Raiders! The Patriots play only one of those teams, meaning that it will impact their strength of schedule and potentially victory. So with that in mind, go Las Vegas. | CBS, fuboTV, Paramount+

Minnesota Vikings (6-1) at Washington Commanders (4-4): Go Vikings! You can essentially copy-paste the Raiders-Jaguars paragraph in here. | FOX, fuboTV

4:05 p.m. ET

Seattle Seahawks (5-3) at Arizona Cardinals (3-5): Go Cardinals! You can essentially copy-paste the Raiders-Jaguars paragraph in here, again. | FOX, fuboTV

4:25 p.m. ET

Los Angeles Rams (3-4) at Tampa Bay Buccaneers (3-5): Go Bucs! Not only is Tom Brady still the Buccaneers’ quarterback, a Tampa Bay win would also help New England’s draft capital in 2023: the Patriots own the Rams’ fourth-round pick courtesy of the Sony Michel trade. | CBS, fuboTV, Paramount+

8:20 p.m. ET

Tennessee Titans (5-2) at Kansas City Chiefs (5-2): Go Titans! That game really does not have an impact on the Patriots, despite both teams being in the AFC. So, with that said: why not root for Mike Vrabel’s boys? | NBC, fuboTV, Peacock

Make sure to head down to the comment section to discuss the game, and take a look at this story stream for all our Patriots-Colts coverage.