Bill Belichick’s message was clear to the players all week: without a win, the Patriots couldn’t improve their playoff positioning. It kept the focus on the game at hand, and helped to prevent a second-straight “What is going on here?” game, following last week’s debacle in Jacksonville. Oh, and the icing on the cake for the coaches? Having backup quarterback Ryan Mallett make like Jets quarterback Tim Tebow and line up on the punt unit, forcing the Dolphins to burn a timeout in confusion. Brilliant.