Patriots back Rhamondre Stevenson bulls his way toward the end zone during the Patriots' win over the Ravens Sunday night in Baltimore. (AP photo)

The New England Patriots are in familiar territory in more ways than one this week.

First, after a disastrous stretch of three seasons, they’re back in the playoffs, big picture.

Immediate picture? They’ll be playing bad football teams the next two weeks, which other than two Buffalo games they’ve been playing all season. They end the regular season against two teams, the Jets and the Miami Dolphins, who are an absolute mess in every way possible.

Just like the Patriots were a year ago.

They were going to be a big help to the Patriots whether or not they pulled off their gritty, solid, gotta-love-this-team comeback win over the Baltimore Ravens Sunday night. They’ll very very likely finish the season 14-3, and if you had that on your Bingo card when the season began, get out there and grab some Powerball tix.

You saw in one quarter – the most important one, the fourth – Sunday night why the Patriots are a team that anything less than an AFC Title game appearance will be a huge disappearance. They will win the AFC East, and they may still get the No. 1 seed depending on how things go as the Broncos looked like mere mortals vs perhaps the new hot team in the AFC, the Jacksonville Jaguars.

“We’re going to try to wn the division, focus on that,” Patriots coach Mike Vrabel said. “We just take t one day at a time and figure out what’s best for the team.”

Everything that’s best for the team has happened this season. Lamar Jackson breaking down in the second quarter last Sunday, not to return. That feeling that everyone had before the Buffalo loss was returning.

Could it work out any better? The Patriots had lost their way for a stretch of about five quarters, the last two in Buffalo and the first three in last Sunday’s game vs. Baltimore. But then they woke up, and it seemed the more players they lost, the better and more determined they got.

So now the key is to get healthy.

“This is the league that we operate in and it’s tough every week,” Vrabel said after the Ravens win.

We needed to pack two things. We needed to pack our belief, and our identity. And I think we did … It was a resiliency not to fold.”

“It’s awesome to make the playoffs, but we want to win the division,” Patriots QB Drake Maye said. “That’s what we’re shooting for. …

“I care about winning, whatever it takes is what I want to do for this team.”

And Vrabel gave may a huge tribute when, after the officials completely blew an obvious pass interference call Sunday, Maye still led them to the game-winning score.

“Drake Maye showed he’s a franchise QB by putting that play behind him and leading us to the playoffs,” Vrabel said.

Vrabel and Maye may be the best coach-QB combination in the league. Maye didn’t let the constant injuries around the team bother him Sunday, as players were dropping like flies, and he’s had a week to adjust to some new faces.

“Guys left and right a lot of new faces in the huddle,” Maye said with a chuckle last week. “It’s mental. That’s what this laegue is. It’s mental, especially my position.”

It’s a much better coach-QB combo than the Ravens. Lamar Jackson is broken, he just can’t handle the physicality any longer thanks to years of taking hits. Let that be a warning to young running QBs, because the injury but will get you as time goes on. And John Harbaugh? He took stupid to a new level by not having Derrick Henry in the game after he gave the Ravens a 24-13 lead. The Patriots were sagging defensively up front, without their best run stopper in Milton Williams, and the game screamed for a steady dose of Henry, especially given all the circumstance. What an incredible mistake.

The Patriots will continue to learn how to win big games, but it’s hard to imagine them having the “Us against the world” mentality these next couple of weeks, although they’ll try. But they were able to get smacked around and did a little smacking back.

“There’s a lot of underdogs in there,” tight end Hunter Henry said, referring to the locker room “A lot of guys with chip on their shoulder. We kind of feed off that.”

Well, they will have a feast. And then the real season will start, and you can bet it will start in Foxborough.

“The playoffs are fun,” Rhamondre Stevenson said. “We’re a competitive team, I think we’re ready for it.

“It’s pretty cool, I feel like it’s been some time coming. It’s nice to clinch, but we’re far from done. … We’re on to the Jets.”

And another win. Not the same as last year. Not the same at all.

This weeks rankings:

AFC

1. New England (12-3). Denver (12-3). 3. Buffalo (11-4). 4. Jacksonville (11-4). 5. Houston (10-5)

NFC

1. Seattle (12-3) 2.L.A. Rams (11-4). 3. Chicago (11-4). 4.San Francisco (10-

5. Philadelphia (10-5).