Raheem Mostert, of the San Francisco 49ers, scores a touchdown in the win against the Seattle Seahawks to help his team earn a first-round play-off bye and home-field advantage as the NFC’s top seed. Seattle will play in Philadelphia on Sunday ABBIE PARR/GETTY IMAGESTom Brady’s tilt at winning a seventh Super Bowl was made harder on Sunday after his New England Patriots side were consigned to the wild-card play-off round for the first time in ten seasons. The Patriots had already clinched the AFC East, but a shock 27-24 defeat by the Miami Dolphins in the last game of the regular season allowed the Kansas City Chiefs and their star quarterback Patrick Mahomes to take the second seeding in the AFC and a bye this weekend. In each of Brady’s six championship seasons the Patriots have gone straight through to the divisional round, while the four times he has played in the wild-card round they have failed to progress to the Super Bowl. “It was a great chance…

Source: The Times December 31, 2019 00:33 UTC