All the New England Patriots needed to do in order to secure a bye next week was beat the visiting New York Jets today. This is exactly what happened: the Patriots defeated their opponent with a final score of 38-3 to finish the regular season with an 11-5 record and a top-two seed in the AFC. All in all, the conference’s playoff picture looks like this after the first round of Sunday’s games:
2. New England Patriots (11-5)
*games not yet finished
Even though six of the AFC’s top eight teams have not yet finished their games we already know that the Patriots will not lose a top-two seed in the conference.