It wasn’t your typical New England Patriots season, but Week 17 concluded with Bill Belichick’s team sitting where they normally do: with a first-round bye in the AFC playoffs.
The Patriots opened the season 1-2 with losses to the Jacksonville Jaguars and Detroit Lions before reeling off six wins in a row. New England’s win streak was halted by a 34-10 shellacking at the hands of the Tennessee Titans. The Patriots won four out of their final six games to finish the season at 11-5, which is the franchise’s worst record since 2009.
Despite New England having a subpar regular season by its standards, Belichick believes the 2018 Patriots’ story has yet to be written. The Patriots coach explained his thinking Monday on WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni and Fauria.”
“I think that is what will be answered in the coming weeks,” Belichick said, via WEEI. “Our season is in front of us, not behind us, so whatever it is, it is. Whatever it was, it was. It is about what is going to happen here moving forward. That is what we need to do. We need to make the most of these opportunities and we need to be ready to play our best football a week from Sunday at 1 o’clock. We are going to be playing a good team. We’re going to have to play our best game of the year to beat them. We know that. It doesn’t matter who it is. You don’t play this time of year if you’re not a good football team. That is what it will be and that is where we need to be, so we’ll do everything we can to get there. We’ll see what the story is on this year’s team.”
The Patriots will sit and rest this weekend while they wait to see if the No. 3 seed Houston Texans, No. 4 seed Baltimore Ravens or No. 5 seed Los Angeles Chargers will travel to Foxboro for the AFC Divisional Round.
