Patriots experience terrible week in terms of playoff positioning

BOSTON -- The Patriots lost on Thursday night, which wasn't great. But things got worse for them after that.

The loss moved the Patriots out of one of the three wild-card spots in the AFC. But they had the chance to maintain some solid positioning on Sunday if some of the other teams in the wild-card mix took some losses. But things in that department went about as poorly as possible for New England.

In the AFC East, the Dolphins moved into first place, improving to 8-3 with a win over the lowly Texans. That much was expected, as the Texans are a bit of a disaster this year. But it moved the Bills down into the wild-card picture, at 8-3.

Behind Buffalo in the standings is Cincinnati. And though the Bengals had a much tougher opponent lined up for Sunday in Tennessee, the Bengals grinded out a 20-16 win over the Titans to improve to 7-4 on the year.

The Jets also had a marvelous Sunday, shaking off their loss to New England by starting Mike White at quarterback and rolling to a 31-10 victory over the Bears. The win improved the Jets to 7-4 on the season.

That means the Patriots are at the No. 8 seed, but they're not alone on the tight periphery of the playoff picture. 

With a last-minute touchdown and a gutsy two-point conversion, the Chargers beat the Cardinals by a single point on Sunday. In doing so, the Chargers improved to 6-5, matching the Patriots' record on the year. The Patriots currently own the tiebreaker, with a one-game advantage in conference competition, but the Chargers remained tight on New England's heels with Sunday's win.

All told, Sunday couldn't have gone much worse for New England. After Thursday's painful loss, the Patriots might have enjoyed catching one break, or maybe even two on Sunday. But that didn't happen.

The Patriots get back to action on Thursday night, against the Buffalo Bills, who beat the Lions on Thanksgiving and have won four of their last five games against the Patriots. The Bengals host the Chiefs, the Dolphins visit the 49ers, and the Jets will visit the well-rested Vikings. The Chargers will also visit the Raiders, who now have won two straight and might be figuring a few things out. So some losses for the competition may be coming.

Yet for now, Week 12 officially goes down as a rough one for the New England Patriots.