New England Patriots Win On Thursday Night Football

The New England Patriots were only forced to play one Thursday night game this season, and that came a few weeks ago at home against the Jets. However last night, when the Oakland Raiders took down the Kansas City Chiefs, the Patriots won once again.

New England currently stands at 8-2. They have the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Bengals, Broncos, and Colts, which is in addition to the actual lead they have in the standings over them. But coming into week 12, the Chiefs were only one game back of the Patriots, and held the tiebreaker over them. That means if the Chiefs had won out, and the Pats had only slipped up once, the road to the Super Bowl would have gone through Arrowhead instead of Gillette.

Thankfully, the Raiders managed to overcome the most moronic football play I have ever seen, and pulled out a huge win for our Patriots. Now, if the Pats beat Detroit on Sunday, they will hold a two-game lead over the only team that has the head-to-head tiebreaker over them.

I am not scared of the Chiefs in the postseason, as I am taking Tom Brady over Alex Smith in a revenge game every day of the week. But I am terrified of that stadium, and if New England had to go back there, I would probably pass out. That is why this Oakland win was so huge for the Pats.

So looking ahead, the road to nabbing the number one seed has gotten a whole lot easier for Tom Brady and company. If Denver wins out, which is a big if, the Pats can lose one game, and still own home-field advantage. If the Broncos slip up once, let’s say against the Chiefs, the Patriots can lose two of their final six games, and the playoffs will still come through Gillette.

Basically, Bill Belichick’s group would really have to screw up to let home-field advantage slip through their grasps. The Patriots have a brutal schedule remaining, but going 5-1, or 4-2 at the very worst is doable.

(Here is the video of that awful Raiders play I was talking about. I apologize for the quality of the video)