#New England Patriots

#New England Patriots

While wearing a Seattle Seahawks jersey during a recent appearance on his 4th-and-1 podcast, Newton said the Patriots' path through these playoffs hasn't been very challenging. "The New England Patriots have had the easiest road to the Super Bowl in NFL history. Go argue with your mama," said Newton. The No. 2-seeded Patriots are one win away from appearing in Super Bowl LX after a pair of victories at Gillette Stadium over the past two weeks.

As the official airline of the New England Patriots, we're responding to strong demand from the region's amazing fans by adding flights between Boston and Denver," said Marty St. George, president of JetBlue, in a statement.

The Bills have obviously been one of the NFL's best and most successful teams over the last eight years, going toe-to-toe with Patrick Mahomes and the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC. But even though they've had a ton of regular season success, and Josh Allen has even taken home some significant hardware as the reigning MVP, they haven't been able to get over the proverbial playoff hump.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. Drake Maye threw three touchdown passes, Marcus Jones returned one of C.J. Stroud's four interceptions for a score and the New England Patriots defeated the Houston Texans 28-16 on Sunday to advance to the AFC championship game for the first time in seven years. In Mike Vrabel's first season as coach, the Patriots will make their 16th conference championship game appearance and first since their run to their sixth Super Bowl title under Bill Belichick in the 2018 season. New England has won its last nine divisional round games.

That has stirred up plenty of drama for those outside New England, such as accusations that their schedule is so easy it explains why they're in their current position, or certain players, like Drake Maye, aren't actually that good. Those kinds of conversations became even more heated after their win over the Chargers, particularly regarding a few rookies who struggled, like left tackle Will Campbell. But he, like most of his teammates, is not interested in what anyone has to say, especially since they got the win.

After watching the Texans' defense dismantle the Steelers on Monday night, it's clear the Patriots are in for a challenge when they host Houston in the divisional round. They just went against another formidable defensive opponent in the Chargers, but this is a different breed Drake Maye hasn't faced in his young career. It is already being projected to be the best defensive group the Patriots will face this season, and fortunately, they have some experience in that area during the 10-game win streak.

"Super excited that they've all had opportunities to move forward and do different things in their career," McDaniels said of facing the former Patriots staffers. "They've obviously done a nice job of the things they're responsible for. Looking forward to the competition part of it, but you know, you have friends on every team."