Brady, Patriots Want To End Regular Season 'On High Note' vs. Bills
BOSTON (CBS) -- The New England Patriots received an early Christmas gift on Monday night, with the Cincinnati Bengals wrapping up the top seed in the AFC for them with a win over the Denver Broncos.
While quarterback Tom Brady will gladly accept that present, that isn't his favorite part of the holiday season.
"It's better to give than to receive," Brady said to open his Tuesday morning press conference at Gillette Stadium.
With their playoff seeding now set in stone, the 12-3 Patriots don't have much to play for in Sunday's regular season finale against the Buffalo Bills at Gillette. There has been some talk that maybe Bill Belichick should rest some of his veteran players, basically giving them an extended rest before their first playoff game, which will come in the divisional round on January 10 or 11.
But Brady and his teammates aren't ready to look into the postseason just yet.
"There is plenty of time to think of things down the road down the road; this isn't the time for that," said Brady. "We have to go play well this week -- that's the attitude and what all the leaders on the team have to make sure everyone is on the same page."
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Despite a slow start to the game, the Patriots didn't have many issues with the Bills back in their 37-22 Week 6 win in Buffalo. Brady completed 27 of his 37 passes for 361 yards and four touchdown passes that day.
But he was also sacked twice and hit four other times by an impressive Buffalo pass rush that ranks first in the NFL with 50 sacks on the season. The Bills have also forced their share of turnovers with 19 interceptions and 11 fumble recoveries, all numbers that are fresh in Brady's mind.
"Between the turnovers and the punts [they force], you just don't score many points. They have a lot good players at every level of the defense and are a very mentally and physically tough team. We're going to have to match that and bring our own intensity and some emotion to try to execute well," said Brady. "This defense challenges you. They have a good front and are one of the best defenses in the league. They're in the tops in the league of a lot of categories. We've played a lot of good defenses this year, and this one takes a backseat to nobody.
"We still have one really important game left, and we're going to try to go out and play hard against a team who is a very good team," added Brady. "We'd like to end on a high note and go out and play a really good game for 60 minutes. That would be great for our offense.
"This is a big game for us in it gives us an opportunity to improve on last week's performance. With the week off, you realize we'll have some time to rest. We just want to go out and play well, see if we can string together as many good plays as possible," he said.
Brady normally has his weekly chat with the media on Wednesday, but with the Christmas holiday on Thursday, this final week of the regular season will be a little different. The Patriots will have Thursday off, usually one of their most important days of practice.
But the team will make sure a little change in their weekly plans has no effect come Sunday afternoon.
"Every week is different, but you just try to approach it the same way. It could be weeks like this, with Christmas right in the middle and New Year's around the corner. You might have a lot of other things going on, but for us it's football season," said Brady. "We worked pretty hard to get to this point, and I think this is the time to put the pedal to the metal and not the other direction."
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