37.9 million watched Texans-Patriots on Sunday afternoon

The Patriots have become a great team again, and they helped create a great number during Sunday afternoon’s division-round game against the Texans.

An average audience of 37.9 million tuned in for the game between Houston and New England on ESPN and ABC.

It’s the biggest number for any ABC sporting event, other than a Super Bowl. It was also the best for any show televised by ABC since 2014.

The 37.9 million figure matches the audience from last year’s Rams-Eagles Sunday afternoon game. Which makes it, essentially, a drop; the new Nielsen Big Data + Panel has been contributing to a goosing of NFL audience measurements.

The four divisional-round games (39.597 million for Broncos-Bills, 32 million for 49ers-Seahawks, 37.9 million for Texans-Patriots, 45.4 million for Rams-Bears) had an average audience of 38.7 million.