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Patriots Gameplan: Week 17 at Miami Dolphins

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The end (of the 2016 regular season) is here! Let’s face it, for Patriots fans the 16-game regular season is really more of a preseason. We pray to the Football Gods that no one gets hurt and rest assured that we’ll be one of the top two seeds in the AFC. Of course everyone gets worked up over who’s breaking out and who stinks, but really, does any of that matter before January?

Now this 16th game is not without meaning. The Patriots still need a win (or an Oakland loss in Denver) to lock up the top seed in the conference. A win for the Dolphins would be the difference from facing Houston (the fourth seed) or Pittsburgh (the third seed). It’s obvious which is preferable there.

So expect this to be a good game and one that both teams play to win, at least initially.

What the Pats need to do to close out a 14-2 season with the road to the Super Bowl going through Gillette Stadium in the gameplan…

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Patriots Thursday 10 Pack

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Greetings from vacationland! No film review of the Jets game this week, but after catching up on LeGarrette Blount wired for sound, it’s time to weigh in on all things Pats.

Hard to believe another regular season is going to wrap up this weekend and then another chapter in the Bill Belichick/Tom Brady playoff history books will be written.

1. Congrats to our old pal Fitzy who will be heading to WAAF in the New Year! It’s always fun seeing amazing things happen to great people. But in other media news it sucked reading that Christopher Price might no longer be covering the Pats beat for WEEI. I can’t really imagine Patriots coverage without Price, who has a great sense of Patriots/New England sports history. Wishing all the best to him and hopefully he’ll stick around the Pats. His coverage is vital, along with Mike Reiss, Tom E. Curran and Jeff Howe, my must-read Pats crew.

2. Seemed like a mad dash this week to either minimize the Patriots success this year or find a way they might be beatable. Who are the Patriots AFRAID to play!? Obviously the unfortunate injury to Derek Carr transformed the AFC landscape with homefield still up for grabs. That leaves the Steelers and the Chiefs as the major threats. Making those two play each other in the divisional round is ideal. Of course there are ways that either could beat the Patriots in Foxborough. The Chiefs played them tough in last year’s AFCDG. The Steelers have the two best weapons in conference and the second-best quarterback. The real question — do the Chiefs/Steelers have the perfect game in them that it would take to knock then Pats off at home? I’m not sure. While I am sure the Pats offense will put up some points.

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The Beginning of the End: Regular Season Finale Scouting Report: Miami Dolphins

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The time has come to retire to our favorite spot on the couch for the last time until the post season is upon us. Now everyone should start dusting off their lucky jerseys, hats, and other superstitious aids for the team. Remember, they need us. But for now, we need to finish out the season. Brady and Co. have been talking about how unhappy they were no finishing out the season strong. This is their chance to make another statement win against the clearly inferior AFC before their guaranteed bye to rest and scout the rest of the league from the couch. The Patriots also could end up playing the Dolphins again in the post season so this will be a good chance to see what they can and can’t get away with against the Matt Moore led team.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Miami Dolphins, aka, “The Only Other Playoff Team in the AFC East since 2002.”

Week 17 at Miami Dolphins 

Sunday January 1st

1pm EST, CBS

Sunny, High 70’s

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A Look Back at Belichick’s Masterful 2016 Offseason

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It was yet another game in which the Patriots were able to cruise from start to finish, as they racked up their 13th win and moved one step closer to acquiring the #1 seed in the AFC. A 14-2 record and the #1 seed appears very likely, which is an incredible achievement for any team, yet the accomplishment probably won’t elicit more than a casual shrug of approval out of the majority of Patriot Nation, along with some snide remark about how they really should have been 15-1. We have been blessed as Patriot fans to witness the greatest run of any team in the history of the NFL, yet it is still important to appreciate just how they are able to reach the level of play we have seen this year. With that being said, let’s take a look back at the (masterful) 2016 offseason and how it managed to rebuild and retool the Patriots, setting them up for the success they are currently achieving.

Belichick the GM was nearly perfect on his moves this offseason, with his first acquisition being the signing of Chris Hogan away from the Buffalo Bills on a front-loaded 3 year, 12 million dollar offer sheet that the Bills were simply unable to match. Hogan, who never had more than 450 yards in this first three seasons in the NFL, has racked up 653 yards on 34 catches to go along with a league-leading 19.2 yards per catch in 2016. Hogan has brought a viable, consistent deep threat to a Patriot offense that had lacked one since the day Randy Moss last put on a Patriot uniform. That is not to say Hogan in anyway resembles Moss and his capabilities, but what Hogan is able to do for the offense by stretching the field and not allowing the opposing secondary to key on the underneath crossing routes fills a role the Patriots have not had since the Moss days.

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Pats Posits: Peaking Pats Dispatch Overmatched Jets

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Merry Christmas!! The Patriots wiped out the Jets 41-3 on Christmas Eve, moving to 13-2 with just one win in Miami next weekend standing between them and homefield advantage in the AFC. If there was any worry about a repeat of 2015, when the Pats lost to the Jets and Dolphins to close out there season, it was quickly apparent Bill Belichick’s squad came to prove a point on Saturday.

There’s plenty of praise to go around — Malcolm Butler had two interceptions and a recovered fumble, LeGarrette Blount put up his team-record 16th and 17th touchdowns and the defense was once again near impossible to score on. Tom Brady was, well, Tom Brady and, perhaps most importantly, NO ONE GOT INJURED!

The 13th win of the year only cemented what we had learned the last two weeks, that the Patriots are now firing on all cylinders and are peaking at the perfect time.

Here’s the Christmas edition of the Pats Posits…

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Best/Worst in Weekly Patriots Links-12/24

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“Just ’cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town.”

Bye Bye Denver. See you next year. (Roughly) Same time, same place. Mile High demons are officially exorcised. Between last season’s regular season collapse, and the thorough beatdown (see above) at the hands of that Bronco defense in Denver for the AFC title, this “monkey” was real and needed to be conquered. That being said, the job is not done. Far from it. The road to the Super Bowl must run through route 1 and the Pats are in control of their own destiny. Before we move along that road, let’s talk about last Sunday afternoon.

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Patriots Gameplan: Week 16 vs. New York Jets

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The 12-2 New England Patriots look to take another step toward securing homefield advantage as they welcome the 3-8 New York Jets. The Jets beat the Pats in Week 16 of 2015, helping to knock them from the first overall seed. This time the Pats are at home and against Bryce Petty they’ll look to dispense with the recent spat of close games with the green and white.

Just four weeks ago in the Meadowlands, the Pats overcame a 17-13 hole with nine straight points to win 22-17. But now the Jets are already focusing on the offseason and the Pats are looking to prevent a repeat of last year’s collapse that allowed the AFC Championship to be played in Denver instead of New England.

Here’s the gameplan for a Christmas Eve edition of Patriots-Jets…

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