in a shocking development, the patriots lost to the lowly dolphins today in the last game of the regular season. it was a home game no less. maybe the players believed in the hype, that there was no way miami could win in foxborough, and were already looking forward to their bye week before facing whomever remained from the wild card matches. but the loss dropped new england down to the 3rd seed while the kansas city chiefs - with their win today over pittsburgh (ravens even using backup players) - advanced to the 2nd seed and the 1st round bye. sloppy lackluster play like today, the patriots didn't deserve to be the 1st or 2nd seed. it sucks there will just only be one game in new england before the pats have to go on the road for the rest of the playoffs (if they even advance that far). the only good i can take out of this an extra game will give new england some additional practice to solidify their offense and shore up their defense (and pray to the gods of football that nobody gets injured). but given what we saw today, and the overall play this season, it may not be the patriots' year. new england will face off against the titans, and should they advance, they will meet the chiefs in kansas city then afterwards the ravens in baltimore. that's a pretty steep challenge. of course anything can happen in the playoffs, and what new england lacks in raw talent they make up for in experience.