The New England Patriots have earned home-field advantage throughout the playoffs in the AFC. Besides a few bumps in the road along the way it’s been a pretty smooth sailing for the Patriots up to this point. They’ve had some injuries but for the most part the machine has kept rolling with Tom Brady and Bill Belichick at the helm.
The Patriots started and ended the first quarter of the season with a loss. They opened up their season in Miami against the Dolphins and lost 33-20. This came as a bit of a surprise to a lot of people and had just about the whole world questioning the Patriots right out of the gate. They followed this loss with two wins and then they went into Kansas City in a primetime game and got beat 41-14 (the score made it seem closer than it was). This was the point in the season people started to question if Brady and Belichick were done in New England.
However, this was the point of the season where everything seemed to turn for the Patriots. After that demoralizing loss to the Chiefs the Patriots went on to win ten out of their last twelve games, beating the likes of the Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions, Indianapolis Colts, and Cincinnati Bengals. This incredible win streak just happened to coincide with a certain key player starting to get healthy and be more incorporated in their offense.
Tight end Rob Gronkowski only played in 51% of the Patriots’ offensive snaps through the first four games when they went 2-2. In the next eleven games he played in almost 86% of the offensive snaps. This is not coincidence. Gronkowski is what makes this offense incredibly difficult to defend and with a healthy Rob Gronkowski, it’s hard for even two defenders to stop him from getting the ball.
Something else that has made this team different from other Patriots teams in the past is their defense. Their most valuable player on defense has to be their new addition, shutdown cornerback Darrelle Revis. He has changed how their defense is able to operate and the roles of all other players on defense.
The Patriots have now earned home-field advantage throughout the playoffs with a record of 12-4. This is incredibly important because their biggest threat and the defending AFC champion Denver Broncos will be forced to come to New England if these two teams should end up meeting. We all know how Denver’s quarterback, Peyton Manning, performs in the playoffs in New England. This Patriots team is, without a doubt, one of the top three teams in the playoffs this season and I fully expect them to get to the Super Bowl one more time. It’s been a great regular season for them, but in New England they know the regular season doesn’t mean anything in January and February.