Todd Bowles thinks Patriots look as tough as ever

When asked about his reaction of the Pittsburgh Steelers beating the Denver Broncos, he said “Good for them (laughter)”.

Now for the worst-case scenario: The Broncos lose to the Chargers in the final while the Jets, Chiefs and Steelers all win.

I can’t believe I’m about to write a story about the Kansas City Chiefs clinching a playoff spot in Week 16. Accordingly, Denver simply needs to stay ahead of the Chiefs to secure a home playoff game. The Chiefs are 8-2 in the AFC while the Jets are 6-4 so the Chiefs would own that tiebreaker with a Jets loss to the Patriots and a Chiefs win.

The Patriots are 0-4-1 ATS in their last five games against the Jets. Asked specifically about the Steelers’ comeback win, Bowles offered a slight chuckle. “We’ve grown some”, Bowles said. “So, we’ve got to give ourselves a chance, it doesn’t matter who we were playing this week, it would be an important game, it would be a big game for that reason”.

But as things have gone with the clip-board boys at the controls both Denver’s Gary Kubiak and Cincinnati’s Marvin Lewis might say, ‘Embrace the fear!’ as their teams have been fairing pretty well since their stars-under-center exited the field to heal those hurts. New England abandoned the run against the Jets in the first meeting, totaling only nine rushing attempts. But in order to make the postseason, even if the team were to win out and finish the year 11-5, the Jets are going to need a little help.

If Kansas City wins out, they are guaranteed at least the No. 5 seed with a chance to win the division, and they own tiebreakers over all of their competition. Only two wildcard teams will make the playoffs and right now, the Jets would miss the cut if the playoffs started today, according to the league’s website. They almost got that Steelers loss on Sunday, but Pittsburgh battled back to beat the Broncos.

Even if Cincinnati wins its final game – home against Baltimore – the Broncos would have head-to-head tiebreakers against both the Patriots and Bengals.

It once looked like the Broncos might be the No. 1 seed in the AFC, but now they are no guarantee to make the playoffs. The Steelers and Jets would get them based on a better in conference record.

Do the Jets have a realistic shot of making the playoffs? The organization has followed in Coach Bowles footsteps, and as avoided most of the highs and lows that plagued them in the past. Back then, it was just another game.

Against the Cowboys, Fitzpatrick overcame a sloppy game by orchestrating an eight-play, 58-yard drive to set up Randy Bullock’s game-winning field goal.

-PASSING OFFENSE: A. Ben Roethlisberger and Antonio Brown continued their assault on the team’s record books. RB Bilal Powell (seven catches for 54 yards) has quickly turned into an indispensable piece out of the backfield.

The Steelers who showed up for the first half seemed to have forgotten that the season was, for all intents and purposes, on the line. But more importantly, it might be the best chance at seeing two Super Bowl contenders square off in the opening weekend of the postseason. The last pick, in the final minute by CB Marcus Williams, came on an underthrown Hail Mary by QB Kellen Moore. The Steelers also forced a Hillman fumble in the first quarter that led to the Steelers’ first touchdown. “I can’t control what Pittsburgh or Denver does, so we’ve just got to get ready for New England this week and however it plays out, it plays out”.

“The biggest thing, we cut down on the penalties in the second half”, coach Todd Bowles said.