Finally, we have arrived to the AFC’s top gun.

Tom Brady and the New England Patriots are three wins away from the team’s fourth Super Bowl victory in franchise history.

#1 Seed – New England Patriots

Second Round Opponent: New York Jets

Best Case Scenario: New England’s offense continues its roll through opposing defenses by using their precision passing offense and surprisingly effective running game. Meanwhile, the defense utilizes the strong play of Vince Wilfork along the defensive front and rookie cornerback Devin McCourty to stabilize a young but vastly improving unit. Also, extending their trend of not turning over the football will help too. The Patriots set an NFL record in 2010 by committing the fewest turnovers in a season with just 10.

Worst Case Scenario: An opposing running game keeps New England’s offense off the field. Also, the defense’s lack of a pass rush and third down defense does not improve in the postseason. Meanwhile, Tom Brady is knocked off “the spot” by an opponent and has his timing disrupted. That concept is likely to lead to Brady making mistakes. 

Patriot Player of Note: Vince Wilfork. Along with the linebackers, Wilfork must set the tone for stopping the run. One of the goals of any defense is to make the opposing offense one dimensional. It’s a big key for the Pats because most teams will try to limit the opportunities of New England’s offense by virtue of running the ball. Wilfork has to be a tone setter when traffic heads his way.

Notable Foxborough, Massachusetts Native: The late John F. Kennedy. Not many famous folks populate Foxborough. Thus, we’ll take a generic view with looking at the state of Massachusetts.

Video game owners of Call of Duty: Black Ops, probably noticed the appearance of President Kennedy in the game.

The game is set during the Bay of Pigs invasion and Kennedy plays a prominent role.

Got to say that hearing his voice in a video game… is definitely creepy.

Bizarre Note Regarding Foxborough, Massachusetts: For some reason, the town allows for two alternative spellings of its name. You can use either Foxboro or the official Foxborough. Also, Foxborough was once the site world’s largest straw hat factory.

A Reason Why The Patriots Should Be Worried: Third down defense! Should someone figure out New England’s high-powered offense, this will be a glaring issue. Enemy offenses successfully converted on third downs at a 47 percent clip versus New England’s defense. That number ranked dead last in the league. Should the Patriots face Ben Roethlisberger or Aaron Rodgers later on, they must win on third downs.

Bad Moment In Patriots Postseason History: I’m probably in the minority on this but I think the ’06 AFC title game loss is worse than Super Bowl XLII. Ultimately, Super Bowl XLII’s decisive play (David Tyree’s Helmet Catch) was a fluke.

The ’06 championship game saw New England blow a 21-3 lead. Bill Belichick teams leading by 18 in a conference championship game should not falter.

This one did.

Just to think, a date with Rex Grossman was waiting in the wings for New England.