Patriots in rare territory with no first-round bye
NEW YORK — Tom Brady and the New England Patriots will be playing in the post-season a week earlier than usual this year.
The defending Super Bowl champs open the playoffs during wild-card weekend for the first time since 2009 after they lost 27-24 to Miami on Sunday and Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs beat the Los Angeles Chargers 31-21 to earn a firstround bye.
“We didn’t play the way we’re capable of playing and it ended up costing us,” Brady said. “Just too many bad mistakes.”
The Patriots (12-4) are the No. 3 overall seed in the AFC and will have to fix things in a hurry as they host Tennessee (9-7) on Saturday night.
“We’ve got a game next week, we’ve got to get ready to go,” Patriots safety Devin McCourty said. “Nobody should feel sorry for us, we shouldn’t feel sorry for ourselves. Our goal is to play in the playoffs. We got a shot next week at all of that.”
San Francisco earned the No. 1 seed and home-field advantage in the NFC playoffs with a 26-21 victory at Seattle. Jimmy Garoppolo and the NFC West champion 49ers (13-3) held on and sent Russell Wilson and the Seahawks (11-5) on the road to open the playoffs in the wild-card round on Sunday at Philadelphia.
“It’s a good step in the right direction,” Garoppolo said. “We’ve got a long way to go, though.”
The Titans clinched their spot by beating Houston 35-14, eliminating both Pittsburgh and Oakland in the process. All three teams had a chance at the playoffs, but Tennessee had the easiest path by needing to win — and got it against a Texans squad that rested several starters, including quarterback Deshaun Watson.
“I think it’s great when you can determine whether you get to continue to play football,” Titans coach Mike Vrabel said. “There was some great effort, but we’re going to have to improve and play better. Everything gets harder from here on out.”
The last time New England played on wild-card weekend, it lost at home to the Ravens. The Patriots have never made it to the Super Bowl with Brady and coach Bill Belichick while playing in the opening round.
Meanwhile, the Chiefs (12-4) are the No. 2 seed and will be able to watch the opening round, along with the top-seeded Baltimore Ravens (14-2).
Kansas City’s victory also locked Houston into the No. 4 seed, and the Texans (10-6) will host the Buffalo Bills (10-6) on Saturday.
Despite resting several starters, including quarterback Lamar Jackson, running back Mark Ingram, guard Marshal Yanda and safety Earl Thomas, Baltimore cruised past Pittsburgh 28-10 to ride into the playoffs on a 12-game winning streak.
“It’s the best team in football in the regular season this year, but that doesn’t count for anything in the next season,” coach John Harbaugh said. “In the next season, we have to obviously go to work this week and become a better football team.”
Green Bay earned a first-round bye in the NFC playoffs with a 23-20 victory at Detroit, the Packers’ fifth straight win.
“We’re hot,” quarterback Aaron Rodgers said. “But you’ve got to start all over in the playoffs and it’s all great football teams now, so the margin of error is even smaller.”
Rodgers and the Packers (13-3) lost out on home-field advantage with San Francisco’s win, but have the No. 2 seed in the conference.
New Orleans routed Carolina 42-10 to finish 13-3 in the regular season, but Drew Brees and Co. then had to wait for the result of the 49ers-Seahawks game to see what their playoff path would be.
The NFC South champions will be the No. 3 seed and will host Minnesota (10-6) in the wild-card round on Sunday.
Injury-ravaged Philadelphia (9-7) won the NFC East with a 34-17 win over the New York Giants, eliminating Dallas.