NFL Playoff Picture: Patriots on Track to Lock Up Home Field Throughout

The New England Patriots are in the driver’s seat for home field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs.

They can clinch the No. 1 seed with a win on Saturday against the Dolphins, coupled with Texans, Ravens and Steelers losses.

Ok so that probably doesn’t happen, but as long as they win the following week against the Bills, it won’t matter. Right now Football Outsiders has the Patriots with an 83.3 percent chance of securing the one seed.

That’s the luxury a team has when they sport a full game advantage over the entire conference.

It means everything for the Patriots; they are 5-1 at home this season and 22-2 in their last 24 at Gillette Stadium.

Assuming they take care of business at home against the Dolphins and Bills, the Pats won’t have to leave the Northeast region until early February. That means almost six weeks straight of home cooking. In all likelihood the Pats have played their last road game of the season.

This is great news when you consider some of the road records of teams they’ll be facing in the postseason. The Jets are 2-5, with one of those losses being against the Pats, and the Ravens are 3-4 and are extremely volatile. The Steelers are 4-3.

It’s hard to imagine a scenario where a team goes to Foxboro and beats the Pats in January.

The Ravens are a different team on the road, the Texans aren’t winning with TJ Yates, the Steelers have a horrific offensive line and a one-legged quarterback and the Jets/Bengals just don’t’ have enough talent. The Pats showed last week how far the Broncos still have to go.

The Patriots haven’t won a playoff game since 2007 and don’t bet for a second Tom Brady isn’t aware of this. At the age of 34, he isn’t going to have that many opportunities like this.

The time is now for the Patriots and they’ll be at home to ensure they don’t screw it up.