Heading into Sunday evening’s trip to Miami, the Patriots have already qualified for the playoffs while the Dolphins have already been eliminated.
Following the team’s first-ever Week 18 action, New England will return to the playoffs a week later after a one-year absence.
There is still a somewhat unlikely possibility that the Patriots could win the AFC East – the Jets would need to upset the Bills in Buffalo – and even a longshot that New England could secure the No. 1 seed in the conference if upsets erupt across Week 18 action.
While it might be unfair to call Sunday’s battle with the Dolphins meaningless, it’s also not a critical game by any means.
So there has to be some consideration for exactly how Bill Belichick will approach the trip to Miami. Play it like a normal game, focused solely on victory? Sit some players – like maybe Damien Harris – who’ve been dealing with a lingering injury? Rest key starters either from the first snap or as the game wears on?
During his Wednesday morning Zoom call with local reporters, Belichick was asked what goes into the decision as to how he will approach the final game of the regular season.
“To try to just stay on track with what we’ve been doing,” Belichick said. “I think when we’ve had good weeks of preparation, good…preparation, practice, energy into the game, mindset, whatever all that or however that all comes together that we’ve been a lot better than when we haven’t. So, we’re just going to try to build that consistency and this is a good opportunity.
Obviously Miami is a good football team. We know them well. They know us well. We haven’t play each other all year, but it’s been overall a lot of familiarity between the two teams. And so this will be a good opportunity for us to really hone in on our fundamentals, our execution, our communication and worry about next week next week.”
Now, nowhere in that answer did Belichick say he was playing to win the game at all costs. He certainly left the door open to interpretation with his focus on the preparation and other aspects that lead up to the game.
But Belichick also alluded to a key factor – staying on track. Sure the Patriots are feeling good coming off the momentum of a 40-point win, but the team is also only a game removed from consecutive ugly December losses. To build “some consistency” the Patriots need to play well and get the job Sunday evening in Miami, otherwise the get-right, feel-good game against the Jags would be an outlier in the midst of three losses to close out the regular season.
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