New England Patriots: Road playoff games haven’t treated team well

The New England Patriots have dominated the NFL since the dawn of this century, but they’ll need to conquer a common roadblock to continue this season.

Tom Brady is, without question, the greatest quarterback to ever suit up in NFL history based on overall achievements. His career with the New England Patriots has been unheralded by many of his contemporaries or idols of old.

Last Sunday, he picked up his 28th postseason victory – an absolutely amazing accomplishment for one signal-caller to do over a span of nearly two decades.

But there’s still one monster under the bed in Tom Brady’s playoff résumé with the New England Patriots: they haven’t performed well on the road in January.

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If you take away games on a neutral field like the Super Bowl, and obviously games in Foxboro, Tom Brady has won just three playoff games on the road. In fact he has a record of 3-4 on the road in the playoffs.

The victories included wins at Pittsburgh in the AFC Championship in both 2001 and 2004 as well as a defeat of the San Diego Chargers at Qualcomm Stadium in the 2006 Divisional Round.

It’s been twelve years since the New England Patriots won a true road playoff game. When that game in San Diego occurred: Barack Obama hadn’t even announced his candidacy for president, the iPhone wouldn’t be released for another six months, and Ben Stiller’s first Night at the Museum was leading the box office.

The last movie in that trilogy came out five years ago.

It’s been awhile.

Although to be fair, if you take out the loss at Denver in the 2005 Divisional Round since it was before their last victory, all three losses since have come to Peyton Manning led teams. The first was the epic collapse at Indianapolis following the San Diego victory in 2006. The next two were both at Denver in the AFC Championship in 2013 and 2015 respectively. Both of those later games were ugly losses and eerily similar.

So really, other than the 2006 season, Brady only wins games on the road in Pittsburgh and only loses games on the road at Mile High. I guess only playing seven road games and eight neutral games out of 38 total games means he rarely plays away from Foxboro.

But since this upcoming game is in Kansas City, the fortunes will need to shift for the New England Patriots. Though given their 3-5 record away from Gillette Stadium this season, Pats fans shouldn’t expect them to set the world on fire. The weather calls for frigid temperatures and even some winter precipitation.

If Tom Brady wants to erase the only blemish on his playoff record, he’ll need to perform exceptionally well (like he usually does) to keep pace with the Chiefs’ historic offense.

Additionally, he’ll need his defense to make the stops on third down consistently. I believe those are the simplest pathways to victory for the Patriots – and the best way for them to rewrite history.