The New England Patriots entered their Week 14 bye in early December as arguably the hottest team in the NFL. They had won seven straight games to climb from 2-4 to the top of the standings in both their division and their conference, beating fellow competitors such as the Tennessee Titans and Buffalo Bills along the way.
New England seemed destined for a deep playoff run, but that never happened. Coming out of its bye week, the team ended up losing three of its final four regular season games. It eventually was bounced from the playoffs by the Bills on wild card weekend.