The New England Patriots have been to three straight AFC title games, five Super Bowls since 2001 and were the post-season party 12 of the last 14 years.
But this is nothing they take for granted.
So while Bill Belichick and Tom Brady will be doing the same thing this winter they do almost every January for more than a decade, the New England coach will spend the bye week making sure his team knows exactly what to expect when it returns to action Jan. 10 for a divisional matchup at Gillette Stadium.
“I think the message is pretty much the same for everybody,” Belichick said Monday. “We all know, no matter how many times we’ve done it — single elimination, you put everything you have into it. There’s nothing to save it for, nothing to hold back. You compete with all you’ve got. I think that’s true for everybody.
“I don’t take it for granted. I’ve seen plenty of times young players go out there and sometimes they step up to the competition better than guys who are more experienced. I’ve seen it the other way too. I don’t know that there’s any set formula. I think we’re all in the same boat.”
As the No. 1 seed, the Patriots (12-4) will face the lowest remaining seed in the AFC when they return to the field in two weeks. That could mean a rematch with either the Bengals or Colts, teams New England blew out in the regular season, or playoff rematch with a Ravens squad that has traveled to Foxborough in the postseason three times since 2010, winning two of those battles.
A portion of the bye week in New England will be spent laying the scouting foundation of preparation for each of the three would-be opponents. But there will also be a focus on self-scouting and cleaning up any issues Belichick sees with his team after 17 weeks of regular season action.
New England finished the year with the NFL’s No. 11 offense and No. 13 defense in terms of yards. Based on scoring, the Patriots ranked No. 4 on offense and No. 8 on defense, while leading the league in point differential. The team also tied for second in the league with a plus-12 turnover differential.
Still, the Patriots offense struggled at times down the stretch, especially early in games.
That’s one of the areas the team could look to upgrade with the extra time it has, in addition to simply enjoying the week off and getting healthy.
“In the short run, we’ve got to try to balance the looking at ourselves with looking ahead at what we’ll need to do, no matter who we play and then specifically once we know who we’ll play, how we want to play them,” Belichick said. “I’d say that’s really the emphasis for us this week, is to figure out certainly a condensed version of self-scouting and self-evaluation; projecting that going forward on a general term and then projecting it specifically once we know who we’re playing.
“Just from our standpoint, no matter who we play, there are things that we’re going to need to work on and need to do and want to improve on.”
While the Patriots offense will hope to be more productive and more of a fast-starter when playoff action kicks off in a couple weeks, the New England defense will be looking to maintain some of the momentum it’s built in recent weeks.
The defense hasn’t allowed a second-half touchdown in the last six games and has held the opposition to 17 or less in the last four contests.
“Well obviously you know we are going to take a look at ourselves and see where we’ve got to improve and try to get better first and foremost,” Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia said. “We are going to try to divide our time up in a reasonable manner to make sure we have our avenues covered for the potentials that lie ahead. We’ll try to clean up and improve ourselves first and then take a look at the potentials that could come and put ourselves in position to be able to handle that situation when it declares itself.”
The playoffs may be old hat in New England but a decade without a Lombardi Trophy being added to owner Robert Kraft’s trophy room creates a hunger. And with the team utilizing a well-deserved week off, Belichick will be pounding home the importance of what’s to come on Jan. 10.
“This should be the best we all have,” Belichick concluded.
Belichick says he’s fine
Belichick did not hold his usual post-game press conference following Sunday’s season finale loss to the Bills at Gillette Stadium. That was because the coach was meeting with his team’s medical staff due to his own health issue. Later in the evening Belichick held a conference call with the Patriots media to shed some light on his status, although he did not go into detail.
“I just want to apologize to everybody. I didn’t want to hold anybody up here today,” Belichick said to open the conference call. “I had to spend a few minutes in the training room after the game — nothing serious, just a little thing to look at with the trainers and a doctor.
Asked to expand on his health status, the usually tight-lipped coach remained just that.
“It’s no big deal. I don’t want to get into it,” Belichick said. “I’ll be all right.”
Belichick was asked on his Monday morning conference call with the local media if he was feeling better.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” he said.