Regular-season finale means something to Patriots, Dolphins (Jan 01, 2017)
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Both teams are headed for the playoffs and both still have something to play for when the New England Patriots visit the Miami Dolphins on Sunday.
For the Patriots, who have won six straight games to go to 13-2, a win means home-field advantage for the entire AFC playoffs.
For the Dolphins, a win could move them from the No. 6 to the No. 5 seed, which would send them to Houston instead of Pittsburgh. That would happen with a Miami win and a loss by the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Patriots are trying to become the ninth team dating to the 1972 Dolphins to finish a perfect road season. But they face a team that is 6-1 and has won the last five at home. Last year, a New England loss at Miami
cost the Patriots home-field advantage in the playoffs.
"Going in there and getting a win I think would be big for us and overall it'd be a great accomplishment," defensive co-captain Devin McCourty said Wednesday.
"But I think, for us, this is a really tough test. We haven't won down there in three years. It's even bigger than just this year. It's trying to go down there and play well, because not winning shows we just haven't played well down there."
The Patriots defeated the Dolphins 31-24 at Gillette Stadium in the second game of the season -- New England winning Game 2 of Tom Brady's four-game suspension and the Dolphins falling to 0-2 en route to a 1-4 start.
Brady, of course, is back and has been brilliant in his 10-1 run (25 touchdowns, two interceptions). Miami lost quarterback Ryan Tannehill in Week 14 and veteran Matt Moore is now the starter.
"They've been the best team in the second half," New England coach Bill Belichick said. "There's got to be something to it."
Brady, who sat out Wednesday's practice nursing a sore thigh, has lost his last three games in Miami but enters this game 70-18 all time against the AFC East. Last week, he had his 50th career game with at least three touchdown passes and no interceptions.
The Patriots have adjusted to life without injured Rob Gronkowski, with offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels still dialing up a potent offense.
"It's not surprising. It has been consistent over his whole career," Miami coach Adam Gase said of McDaniels, his boss when McDaniels was the head man in Denver in 2009-10. "He figures out what the guys that he has available to him can do, and he really puts an emphasis on that and doesn't try to go outside that ability that those players have. He really focuses on, 'What can I get this guy to do to help us win the game?'"
Last week, tight end Matt Lengel caught the first pass of his NFL career and became the 64th player to catch a touchdown pass for Brady.
Moore has stepped in for Tannehill and gone 28 of 48 for 471 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions in officially leading the Dolphins back to the playoffs for the first time since 2008.
"Veteran guy," McCourty said. "We played him a couple years ago when he was a starting quarterback for Miami. (He's) a guy that's not in a situation that is unknown to him. He's started and led that football team.
"I would imagine that that team has tremendous trust in him player-wise for his leadership and what he brings and I think the biggest thing is he's 2-0. He has taken over and he's doing everything that the offense needs him to do."
Asked Wednesday about Tannehill perhaps returning from his knee injury for the playoffs, Gase said, "I've purposefully avoided our doctors. I haven't asked.
"I told them, 'If something changes, let me know.' I just know that he's working hard to try to get as healthy as he can. I have no idea what our timetable is.
"Right now, we're playing it every week of saying, 'att (Moore) is our quarterback until somebody tells us different.' That's, really, the take I've been coming into each week as."
Moore will face a defense that has surprised people with its stinginess. The Patriots have not allowed a touchdown in more than nine quarters and have yielded 17 points or less in 10 of their 15 games.
Earlier this week, Belichick bristled at a question concerning resting his players if this game didn't mean anything.
"I mean look, I don't really understand that question," he said. "We have -- I don't know how many starters we have -- but we have a lot more than -- we can only inactivate seven players. This isn't like a preseason game where you have 75 guys on your roster. This is a regular-season game.
"I don't really understand that whole line of questioning. I'm not saying I'm a great mathematician or anything, but the numbers just don't add up for that type of conversation, so there's no point in even getting involved in it."
