New England Patriots: A history of team’s domination on Sunday Night Football

The New England Patriots victory over the Denver Broncos Sunday night continued their SNF domination.

Going into Sunday Night, the New England Patriots had struggled in Denver, losing three of their past four games there.

On the other hand, however, the Pats have absolutely dominated when playing in NBC’s Sunday Night Football prime time. Prior to this Sunday, they were 9-2 on Sunday Night. They had outscored opponents 327-227 with an average victory of 30-21 while seven of the eleven games were on the road.

Tom Brady and Co. returned to complete normalcy with an absolute pounding of the Denver Broncos 41-16. In all three phases, New England executed to near perfection.

So as the Patriots head into the “flex” part of the season, where NFL games are often moved around to fit primetime, let’s take a quick look back to see how often that Patriots dominate in “the best game of the week.”

September 29th, 2013 – New England 30, Atlanta 23

In the dying seconds of the game, Aquib Talib broke up what would be a game-tying touchdown pass to give the New England Patriots an early season signature win at the Georgia Dome.

November 24th, 2013 – New England 34, Denver 31 (OT)

Arguably one of the greatest Tom Brady comebacks of all-time. Down 24-0 at the half, the Pats stormed back to force the game into overtime, where a muffed punt by the Broncos gave the Stephen Gostowski an easy game-winning field goal with the nasty Foxborough wind at his back.

October 5th, 2014 – New England 43, Cincinnati 17

Known as the “On to Cincinnati” game, the Patriots re-established their dominance and beat the favored Bengals at Gillette Stadium, a week after being embarrassed by the Chiefs. This game ignited what would be an incredible stretch run to a title.

November 16th, 2014 – New England 42, Indianapolis 20

Jonas Gray rushed for 201 yards, and a franchise-record four touchdowns on 38 carries in his fourth NFL game to lead the Pats to an absolute rout of the Colts. Rob Gronkowski also threw some guys “out of the club.”

December 7th, 2014 – New England 24, San Diego 13

In a “flex” game, the Patriots traveled to the defunct Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego and got a crucial road win over the Chargers. Brandon Bolden blocked a punt and Julian Edelman caught the game-sealing touchdown.

October 18th, 2015 – New England 34, Indianapolis 27

The New England Patriots traveled to Indy once again on SNF to play the Colts for the first time since Deflategate. Despite a rare interception from Tom Brady, the Colts let the Patriots pull away in the second half thanks to the worst fake punt attempt of all time.

November 29th, 2015 – Denver 30, New England 24 (OT)

The first loss on SNF since December of 2012 came at Mile High in overtime, as CJ Anderson scampered into the end zone and ruined the Patriots perfect season. This was the best game of Brock Osweiler’s career and the infamous date of Chris Harper’s muff.

December 13th, 2015 – New England 27, Houston 6

Two weeks later, the Patriots got a sound road win over JJ Watt’s Texans. Remember Keyshawn Martin? Yeah, he caught a touchdown in this game.

September 11th, 2016 – New England 23, Arizona 21

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The greatest game of Jimmy Garoppolo’s young career came in the desert on Opening Night. He completed 24 of his 33 passes for 264 yards and a touchdown. He also led the 13-play, 61-yard drive in the fourth quarter that set up a 32-yard field goal by Stephen Gostkowski to give the Patriots their two-point lead with 3:44 to play. The game was almost lost, but Chandler Catanzaro missed wide left on a 47-yard field goal attempt with 33 seconds remaining.

November 13th, 2016 – Seattle 31, New England 24

In Brady’s only loss of the 2016 season, the Patriots failed to get off the field on third down nor protect the quarterback and thus needed a game-tying touchdown with under a minute to go. And while Brady led them to the goal line, he couldn’t connect with Gronk on a blatant “no call” and Seattle escaped with a win.

October 22nd, 2014 – New England 23, Atlanta 7

The hyped Super Bowl rematch earlier this year failed to meet expectations and the New England Patriots held Matt Ryan to just over 150 passing yards. The game felt closer than it really was at any point and was sort of a dud.

Next: Patriots gridiron news: Rex Burkhead enjoying expanded role

November 12th, 2017 – New England 41, Denver 16

On Sunday night, the Pats took advantage of terrible special teams and lack of discipline in Denver and turned it into a game which got out of hand quick. A blocked punt, a muffed punt recovery, and a kickoff return touchdown by Dion Lewis gave New England all they needed.