Patriots rooting guide: Who New England fans should root for on Sunday

Nov 27, 2022 - 5:45 PM

Week 12 ended in disappointment for the New England Patriots, with the team losing its Thanksgiving night game to the Minnesota Vikings 33-26. The show must and will go on, however, with 12 more games on the menu on Sunday.

Let’s find out who Patriots fans should be cheering for in those contests. Welcome to the latest edition of our Patriots Rooting Guide.

1 p.m. ET

Denver Broncos (3-7) at Carolina Panthers (3-8): Go Panthers! While the third- and sixth-round draft picks acquired from Carolina would take a hit in that scenario, the Broncos dropping to 3-8 and staying far out of the AFC playoff race would be the best-case outcome. | FOX, fuboTV

Tampa Bay Buccaneers (5-5) at Cleveland Browns (3-7): Go Buccaneers! A Cleveland win would improve the Patriots’ strength of victory tiebreaker, but with Deshaun Watson set to reenter the picture a loss would be the preferred outcome from a New England perspective. | FOX, fuboTV

Baltimore Ravens (7-3) at Jacksonville Jaguars (3-7): Go Jaguars! A bad AFC team versus a good AFC team? Go bad AFC team all the way! | CBS, Paramount+, fuboTV

Houston Texans (1-8-1) at Miami Dolphins (7-3): Go Texans! This one is pretty self-explanatory. The Patriots need the Dolphins to take some losses if they want to overtake them in the standings at one point. | CBS, Paramount+, fuboTV

Chicago Bears (3-8) at New York Jets (6-4): Go Bears! The Jets would leapfrog the Patriots in the standings in case of a win, so it is not hard to see why Chicago is our team to root for here. | FOX, fuboTV

Cincinnati Bengals (6-4) at Tennessee Titans (7-3): Go Titans! Whereas the Titans are virtually uncontested in the AFC South, the Bengals are competing for playoff positioning against New England. A Cincinnati loss would therefore be the best-case outcome, and allow the Patriots to stay ahead of the reigning AFC champions. | CBS, Paramount+, fuboTV

Atlanta Falcons (5-6) at Washington Commanders (6-5): Go Commanders! There is no team to root for here, if we’re being honest. However, the Indianapolis Colts will get a draft pick from Washington courtesy of the Carson Wentz trade. The better the Commanders’ record, the worse the position of the second- or, more realistically, third-round pick. | FOX, fuboTV

4:05 p.m. ET

Los Angeles Chargers (5-5) at Arizona Cardinals (4-7): Go Cardinals! The Chargers are a direct competitor of the Patriots in the playoff race, so seeing them drop below .500 would be a positive for New England. | CBS, Paramount+, fuboTV

Las Vegas Raiders (3-7) at Seattle Seahawks (6-4): Go Seahawks! Despite strength of schedule and victory tiebreakers being in play here, Seattle is the team to cheer for in this one. Why? Because the Raiders are too talented, in particular on offense, to be allowed back into the AFC playoff race. | CBS, Paramount+, fuboTV

4:25 p.m. ET

Los Angeles Rams (3-7) at Kansas City Chiefs (8-2): Go Rams! At least in theory the top of the AFC staying close would be preferable from a Patriots perspective. So, L.A. is our team to root for here. | FOX, fuboTV

New Orleans Saints (4-7) at San Francisco 49ers (6-4): Go good game! There is literally no reason to root for or against either team here. | FOX, fuboTV

8:20 p.m. ET

Green Bay Packers (4-7) at Philadelphia Eagles (9-1): Go Packers! New England already played the Packers, and despite a loss this game will have an impact on the strength of schedule tiebreaker. | NBC, Peacock, fuboTV

Make sure to head down to the comment section to discuss the game, and to take a look at this story stream for all of our Patriots-Vikings coverage.