As the New England Patriots pulled into MetLife Stadium on Sunday morning for their post-Christmas Day showdown against the New York Jets, the warning signs were everywhere.

Trap game. Injuries on the offensive side of the ball. Injuries on the defensive side of the ball.

And then the game began. Though nobody could have known it at the time, New England’s opening drive, which culminated with Drake Maye flicking a 2-yard pass to tight end Austin Hooper in the back of the end zone, would turn out to be the party starter on the wildest day the Patriots and their fans have experienced in the post-Tom Brady era.

It wasn’t just what took place at the Meadowlands, where the Patriots rolled to a 42-10 victory over the doomed-to-be-forever-tortured Jets. Out at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, N.Y., where the Buffalo Bills were hosting the Philadelphia Eagles in the 4:25 p.m. Fox national game — which means Brady was in the house in his role as the network’s lead NFL analyst — a loss by the Bills would clinch the AFC East for the Patriots. By now you know, the Bills lost 13-12, ending their five-year reign as AFC East champs.

But it wasn’t that the “Patriots won” and the “Bills lost.” For those who watched both games, and common sense tells us that hundreds of thousands of Patriots fans did exactly that, the day ended with Bills quarterback and 2024 Most Valuable Player Josh Allen missing an open Khalil Shakir in the end zone on a two-point conversion try that would have put the Bills ahead with five seconds remaining in regulation.

Brady, who seemed stunned by the errant throw by one of the game’s top passers, minced no words: “Three or four yards, and just tugged it left. Ohhhhh, he’s gotta put it on his body! Kinda drifting left, the tendency is to pull it left … he knows it.”

BILLS GO FOR TWO! EAGLES SAY NO! pic.twitter.com/SA2z2TzA0D

— NFL (@NFL) December 29, 2025

It’s precisely the kind of been-there-done-that analysis that Brady is handsomely paid to deliver. Who better to break down a play in which an MVP quarterback is on the cusp of leading this team to a nationally televised, come-from-behind victory? In this case, however, Brady served the dual role of Fox analyst as well as on-the-scene reporter at a game whose outcome resulted in the Patriots winning their first AFC East title since 2019 — when he was their quarterback.

Bills Mafia will spend the next couple of days coming up with its own analysis of Buffalo’s loss to the Eagles, a discussion that no doubt will include coach Sean McDermott’s decision to go for the win on the conversion try rather than kick the extra point and take matters to overtime.

Pats fans, meanwhile, can use that time to celebrate something nobody thought possible on the first day of training camp: a 13-3 record with one game to go, and the AFC East title already in the bank.