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For a team on the verge of their record-setting eleventh straight playoff appearance and their tenth-straight AFC East crown, you’d think it’d be happier days up in New England.
But, with the latest potential cheating scandal, Tom Brady’s increasingly worsening play, and the lack of game-changing receivers on their offense, the Patriots are currently in the midst of a relative rough-patch, as they previously lost two straight games (which is a rarity under Bill Belichick) prior to their get-right win over lowly Cincinnati.
At yesterday’s press conference in advance of their Week 16 game against the Bills, a brave journalist in the room asked Belichick about one of those factors — Brady’s poor play, specifically, his career-low completion percentage, and needless to say, Darth Belichikious was having none of it.
“We’re really focused on the Buffalo game and trying to get ready and play our best in this game. So going back and analyzing stuff from other games this year and all that is really not where we’re at,” Belichick said.
Asked if he wanted to see Brady bring that number up, Belichick again didn’t answer.
“We call passes to complete them, we call runs to gain yardage, we call defenses to stop our opponents, we call returns to gain yardage on a return,” Belichick said. “So that’s why we call those plays, so we want to make all of them as good as we can. Try to make every play productive.” [via Pro Football Talk]
The Patriots, who may be the most unnecessarily fraught 11-3 team in the history of the NFL, close out their 2019 regular season with a crucial AFC East home matchup against the Buffalo Bills on Saturday before heading down to Miami to take on Ryan Fitzpatrick and the Dolphins in Week 17.
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Eric is a New York City-based writer who still isn’t quite sure how he’s allowed to have this much fun for a living and will tell anyone who listens that Gotham City is canonically in New Jersey. Follow him on Twitter @eric_ital for movie and soccer takes or email him eric@brobible.com.