Homework to be done
With loss, it could be goodbye to bye
PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK
The Patriots cleared a major roadblock in their pursuit of the top overall seed in the AFC playoffs with Sunday’s 27-24 win in Pittsburgh against the Steelers.
However, they clinched nothing other than an AFC East title.
There is still work to be done if the Pats want to earn a playoff bye for the eighth straight year or gain home-field advantage again and force the rest of the AFC to travel through Gillette Stadium on the way to Super Bowl LII in Minnesota.
The Patriots control their destiny for the No.1 seed if they win the final two regular-season games, both at home, against the Buffalo Bills and New York Jets.
If the 11-3 Pats falter in either one of those games, it’s possible for the Steelers (113) and Jacksonville Jaguars (10-4) to pass them and earn the two playoff byes for wild card weekend.
The Steelers play at the Houston Texans (4-10), then host the Cleveland Browns (0-14) to end the season. The Jaguars face a tougher road with trips to the resurgent San Francisco 49ers (4-10) and the Tennessee Titans (8-6), who are still alive for an AFC playoff berth.
In the event of a threeway tie at 12-4, the Jaguars, by virtue of the top winning percentage in the conference, would take the No. 1 seed. The Pats would be second after beating the Steelers.
The Jaguars would also earn the top seed if they finish in a head-to-head tie with the Patriots.
Keep it real
Both quarterback Tom Brady and coach Bill Belichick broke down the Steelers’ fake-spike play that resulted in a game-clinching interception by safety Duron Harmon, who secured the deflection from cornerback Eric Rowe.
The crux of the argument against the pass by Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger had to do with the decision to throw into the middle of the field, as wide receiver Eli Rogers was surrounded by defensive backs. It was a low-percentage play, but Brady, on his weekly WEEI appearance yesterday, admired the decision to not settle for a tie in that situation.
“It’s a risk-reward play,” Brady said. “They’re trying to win the game. Ben’s trying to fit it into a tight space. I thought Eric made a great play. He got his hand in there, deflecting the ball. When you have zone defense, any time there’s deflections, the ball can get into an opponent’s hands. . . . Ben was trying to win the game and fire it in there. Eric just made a spectacular play. Duron came up with the interception.”
As Belichick noted, during a conference call, the ability to defend against the fake-spike play is essentially like stopping any other in that circumstance.
“As a spike, we really can’t do anything about that play but we can play the fake spike if they throw it,” Belichick said. “That’s what we try to do, is defend what really can hurt us which is the fake-spike play. If they spike it then that’s really, I mean, not a play that we can affect too much.”
In the running
If the reports of his being out until the postseason are true, a natural replacement for injured running back Rex Burkhead (knee) would be Mike Gillislee, who has played a very limited role after the Pats signed him as a restricted free agent from the Bills.
A healthy inactive over the past four weeks, Gillislee started the season strong with four touchdowns in the first two games. Dion Lewis, Burkhead and James White have dominated the snaps at the position since.
“Well, Mike’s very consistent. He works hard all of the time,” Belichick said. “We’ll see how it goes with Rex. I’m not sure exactly what the extent of his injury is. We’ll see how that goes. I think at this point all of our players have been told and need to know that they need to be ready to go every week.”