FOXBORO –Next weekend’s kickoff at Buffalo isn’t a must-win for the Patriots, who may nonetheless clinch the AFC’s third and ultimate Wild Card spot in the event that they lose and fall to 8-9.
But it’s shut. So naturally, gamers are treating their regular-season finale like a playoff recreation.
“The urgency, the preparation, the focus, the attention to detail, it all needs to be there,” Slater stated.
Before they host the Patriots, the Bills will shut the street portion of their schedule at Cincinnati on Monday Night Football. The date and time of the Pats-Bills finale shall be decided after the conclusion of that recreation. Back on Dec. 1, Buffalo dealt with the Patriots in a 24-10 win that marked their third straight in Foxboro.
Overall, the Pats have misplaced 5 of their final six to the Bills.
“It’s really for all the marbles right now. For us to stay alive … you’ve got to put everything on the line,” stated Patriots security Adrian Phillips. “I really feel prefer it’s form of ironic. Just for us to have the ability to get into the postseason, it’s a divisional opponent that’s actually good and going to be a significant check for us to see the place we’re at as a result of we all know they’re not going to lie down.
“They’re going to be playing for playoff implications, too. So it’s going to be a dogfight.”
Slater famous how Buffalo has flipped the script on the Patriots, who dominated them within the division for many of his profession.
“Right now, they’re the beasts of the east,” Slater stated. “So we’ve got to find a way to go in there and represent ourselves as best as we can and see if we can find a way to win.”
The Patriots’ 37-year-old captain additionally shared that earlier than Sunday’s win over Miami, he spoke along with his father, Hall of Fame offensive sort out Jackie Slater, who famous it’s common for groups to catch fireplace late and make a playoff run. Slater’s 1979 Rams workforce completed 9-7, however reached the Super Bowl. The youthful Slater additionally confronted a 9-7 workforce in Super Bowl XLVI, when the Giants toppled the Patriots after profitable the NFC East.
“It’s never too late to start playing well, especially since we’re still alive,” Slater stated. “I hope our best football’s ahead of us. I think we have a lot of belief in this locker room. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t have come out and competed the way that we did.”
Source: www.bostonherald.com