Patriots' Plan: Continue Pursuing Perfection

Belichick Shows No Inclination to Bench His Stars

Coach Bill Belichick said Tom Brady, left, is expected to take most of the snaps at quarterback in the Patriots' final two games, against the Dolphins and Giants. Backup Matt Cassel, right, has attempted seven passes in six games, Brady has 503 attempts in 14 games. (By Elsa -- Getty Images)

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Tom Brady wasted no time beginning his public lobbying effort to remain in the New England Patriots' lineup the next two weekends. Soon after the unbeaten team secured home-field advantage throughout the AFC playoffs by beating the New York Jets on Sunday, the quarterback said he hoped to play "every snap" of the Patriots' final two regular season games.

The feeling was the same inside the Patriots' locker room.

"Why?" cornerback Ellis Hobbs said when asked about the possibility of some of the club's key starters being sat down to avoid injuries in the final two regular season games. "So we can lose our edge?"

The man that Brady and Hobbs would have had to persuade to allow the Patriots to continue playing the way they've been playing all season, Coach Bill Belichick, didn't seem to need any convincing. He said the Patriots would "do what we always do" in their final two games of the regular season, beginning Sunday at Gillette Stadium against the Miami Dolphins.

Belichick is not one to make his game-day intentions public knowledge beforehand, so it's possible that he is secretly making plans to withhold Brady, wide receiver Randy Moss and others from portions of the last two games to try to ensure that they're healthy for the playoffs. Moss, in particular, has had injury issues in the past. But there's no indication that's the case, and it would be a departure from the full-speed-ahead approach that Belichick and the Patriots have used all season while becoming only the second NFL team ever to post a record of 14-0.

"We haven't talked about it," Moss said. "Just by your questions that you all are asking, Coach Belichick is not letting up. If you all think there's any chance he is going to let up and give us a break, he's not. From Week 1, all the way to training camp, you heard about the humble pie. There's no telling how much we're going to eat this week, but Coach Belichick would never let a team like this" let up.

Since midseason, it has been clear that one of the possible impediments to the Patriots joining the 1972 Dolphins as the only undefeated teams in NFL history could be the final few weeks of the regular season. It was evident that the Patriots would wrap up the top seed in the AFC playoffs and home field advantage through the conference championship game with a few weeks left in the regular season. The question became: How would Belichick handle games rendered all but meaningless, other than their effect on the chase of history?

Pro football is a game of attrition and the teams that succeed in January and early February often are those that make it through the regular season with the fewest significant injuries. Most coaches live in fear of injuries and do whatever they can to avoid having a key player get hurt in a game that cannot affect playoff positioning.

On the final weekend last season, the Philadelphia Eagles were lining up for a field goal against the Atlanta Falcons when they clinched the NFC East title because of the Dallas Cowboys' loss to the Detroit Lions in an earlier game. Cheers filled Lincoln Financial Field and, right in the middle of the game, Coach Andy Reid implemented a plan to yank his key starters from the lineup. The next time the Eagles' offense took the field, it was without quarterback Jeff Garcia, tailback Brian Westbrook and others.

Earlier this season, former Oakland Raiders coach and longtime broadcaster John Madden said he couldn't envision Belichick exposing Brady and other important Patriots players to the risk of getting hurt in regular season games played after home-field advantage was ensured, even if that meant putting a blemish on the team's record.

"If they lose, I think that's when it's going to happen and how it's going to happen," Madden said.

But others point to the on-field ruthlessness that Belichick and the Patriots have demonstrated this season, and say there's no way that Belichick will take his foot off the accelerator. He left Brady on the field late in lopsided games this season, even while some observers were wondering if he was exposing Brady to the risk of receiving a cheap shot from a defensive player irritated by the thought that the Patriots were running up the score unnecessarily. Brady and others have talked about the need to play full games of solid football for the Patriots to stay sharp and keep opponents -- both the one they're playing at the time and future foes -- from gaining a foothold of confidence against them.

The Indianapolis Colts won their first 13 games in the 2005 season, and eased into the playoffs after losing their 14th game. By the time they played their first playoff game, an AFC semifinal at home against the Pittsburgh Steelers, they hadn't had a meaningful game in nearly a month. It showed. They started slow and lost, 21-18. That's the cautionary tale for Belichick and the Patriots. When Reid pulled the Eagles starters in the final game of last season, he was facing a first-round playoff game the following weekend. These Patriots long ago secured a first-round playoff bye, so any ailing players would have two weeks to heal between the Dec. 29 regular season finale on the road against the New York Giants and the playoff opener.

Even so, Belichick always leaves himself some wiggle room. After making his initial pronouncement that the Patriots would continue to do what they do, he was asked to clarify what that meant.

"It means we'll prepare for the game," Belichick said. "We'll break down the film. We'll prepare for the game. The players will come in. We'll give them the game plan. We'll get ready to go and we'll play on Sunday, same thing we always do."

And does that mean keeping the same players in the lineup?

"That's what we always do," Belichick said. "We'll play the same way. We'll do what we always do. We'll come in. We'll prepare and we'll play the game on Sunday. That's what we do."