New England Patriots running back Damien Harris (37) is congratulated by quarterback Mac Jones (10) after his touchdown against the Jacksonville Jaguars during the first half of Sunday's win at Gillette Stadium. (AP photo)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. – Everyone should have a Jacksonville Jaguars team in their lives to help ease the rocky times.

The New England Patriots were downright giddy after Sunday’s 40-point win, a decked out Matt Judon making fun of Mac Jones’ simple jeans-T-shirt look, etc. There was all sorts of love in the room, teammates idolizing teammates, etc.

That’s what one would expect after playing not only a bad football team in Jacksonville, but one that was missing several from the regular roster due to COVID. Any breakdown of what we saw on Sunday would be worthless – the Patriots righted the ship in terms of gaining confidence. The best thing is they won decisively, as good teams should do. Make no mistake, the New England Patriots are a good team.

Jones could sit back and pick apart the Jaguar secondary. We saw the difference between his advancement and the coaching he’s received compared to the ultra talented Trevor Lawrence, who looks lost. Jones would likely have the same look were he playing for his hometown team.

It’s also a shame that the Patriots-Dolphins won’t have the sense of urgency one might like,more on the Miami end. The Patriots are already in the playoffs, but instead of playing for a berth the Dolphins enter the week knowing Sunday’s 4:25 p.m. game in South Florida is their last one of the season. At some point, a seven-game losing streak catches up with you.

However, for the Patriots, there is meaning in terms of seeding. Were the season to end today, they’d likely be at Buffalo for Wild Card Weekend in a highly intriguing matchup of the four-five seeds. They could also end up at Cincinnati or Kansas City.

How about Gillette Stadium? Or even better, none at all? The Patriots have an outside shot at the top seed but they’d have to win and have Kansas City (at Denver Saturday), Tennessee (at Houson Sunday) and Cincinnati (at Cleveland Sunday) to all lose. Their better shot is the AFC East, if the Bills lose at home vs. the Jets and New England wins.

“When you start the year, you want to be in the postseason,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said on Monday. “The fact that we’re one of the playoff teams is, obviously, part of the goal. Long way to go. We’ll see what happens, but you certainly want to be playing in the postseason, that’s the idea.”

Offensively the Patriots will need to stay true to who they are: Their running game has continued to flourish with Trent Brown’s return to right tackle. “He’s changed a lot of things, offensively, for the better,” Belichick said.

For all the accolades impressive rookie Rhamondre Stevenson gets, the train’s major engine is Damien Harris. He needs 108 yards for 1,000, and although he left Sunday’s game with what was announced as a hamstring injury, the fact he appeared on the podium post-game showed he was probably taken out as merely a precaution.

“We’ve got more games to play, it’s as simple as that,” Harris said. “Like I said, we’ve got a lot of good things to build on – obviously things to correct…”

The Patriots will need to take care of business first, ensure they can get as high a seed as possible. In this wild and whacky season, with all sorts of pandemic interruptions returning and teams that are all bunched up in the AFC, anything is possible. Even though they are basically a better road team than at home, the Patriots can use whatever edge they can get. For a team that runs the football well, playing at home in January one would think is just that edge.

The Patriots won’t have a problem focusing, but there was an interesting comment by newly re-signed safety Adrian Phillips after Sunday’s game, when he said during the two-game slide “We kind of forgot about football and we re focused on the outside noise.”

In other words, the praise of the seven-game winning streak gave New England a false sense of security.

They need to make sure Sunday’s win doesn’t do that same thing. If you’re a Patriots fan, root for a 4-5 matchup at Buffalo, because the Bills, despite winning on Sunday in the snow and cold, are not a very good weather team.

The expectations for the Patriots may be lowered somewhat, but it should still be an interesting ride ahead.

“Just need to keep grinding it out day by day,” Belichick said. “Hopefully we’ll do that and see where it takes us.”

POWER RANKINGS

AFC

1. Kansas City (11-5). 2.Tennessee (11-5). 3.Cincinnati (10-6) 4.Buffalo (10-6). 5.New England (10-6)

NFC

1.Green Bay (13-3). 2.Tampa Bay (12-4). 3.L.A. Rams (12-4). 4.Arizona (11-5). Dallas (11-5).