Patriots Playoff Schedule 2019: Who & When Does New England Play?

Tom Brady

Getty New England Patriots QB Tom Brady

The New England Patriots locked up the No. 2 seed in the AFC thanks to back-to-back victories to finish the 2018 NFL regular season. In turn, they held the tiebreaker over the Houston Texans due to a head-to-head win, giving them a first-round bye in the NFL playoffs.

So while the final playoff schedule for the Patriots isn’t completely known just yet, we do have an outlook of how their path to the Super Bowl looks. Tom Brady and company have the first weekend off and will get rolling during the divisional round with a matchup that depends on how the opening week plays out.

We’re going to take a look at the full scope of the NFL playoff schedule from the Patriots’ perspective, including everything we know on dates, times and potential matchups.


Patriots Playoff Scenarios

Due to the fact that New England holds the second seed in the conference, it means the worst-seeded team who advances from the opening weekend will face the Kansas City Chiefs. In turn, this means there are three potential teams the Patriots could wind up facing.

The AFC wild-card round features the No. 3 Houston Texans against No. 6 Indianapolis Colts and No. 4 Baltimore Ravens against No. 5 Los Angeles Chargers. If the Texans win, they’ll automatically be the team heading to Foxborough, but a loss by Houston would mean a matchup with either the Ravens or Chargers.

The Patriots can’t face the Colts and the Chargers are a longshot, so the most likely matchups are the Texans or Ravens.


When Do the Patriots Play?

The full playoff schedule for the opening rounds has been released, and even though the Patriots don’t know who they’ll face yet, they do know when it’ll take place. As NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero revealed, New England’s first playoff game will be on Sunday, January 13 and is the early matchup of the day. They’ll kick off at 1:05 p.m. EST with the game being aired on CBS.

The Patriots are the first game on Sunday of the divisional round and will be followed by the New Orleans Saints’ playoff opener. This also means that entering Sunday, the Patriots will know who they could face in the AFC Championship with a victory.

While it’s not the most game-changing aspect, the fact that the Patriots will receive an additional day off prior to their first game can be beneficial. Then again, if they advance out of the divisional round, it leaves them with one less day of preparation for whoever emerges along with them in the AFC.

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