The New England Patriots head into their Week 14 bye playing possibly their best football of the season. With the extra week to prepare, one would expect Bill Belichick–possibly the greatest football coach of all time– to take advantage of that and have an outstanding record after a bye. While he does have a winning record, Belichick has actually gone just 13-9 after the bye week as a head coach.
Regardless of his record, he definitely has the experience in coaching off of a bye so that gives him the advantage over the Patriots' next opponent, the Indianapolis Colts. That is because Colts head coach, Frank Reich, while he may seem like a grizzled coaching veteran, is actually in just his fourth year as a head coach. He did, however, beat Bill in the Super Bowl when he was the offensive coordinator of the Philadelphia Eagles so the two have some history that each team can study film on.
Indianapolis is also going into their bye week, making this two weeks for each team to prepare, just like a Super Bowl matchup. Here are three things that the Patriots can do during the bye week that will help them get past the Colts on December 18th.
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Three Patriots Bye Week Storylines
3. Get Damien Harris healthy and Rhamondre Stevenson ready just in case
Harris, New England's top back on the year, pulled up early on a run just before the half of Monday's win in Buffalo and ended up playing just a few more snaps due to a hamstring strain. On the year, Harris has 164 rushes for 754 yards and nine touchdowns. With two weeks to rest up, it is expected that Harris will be able to return to the field against the Colts.
If not, it will be up to rookie Rhamondre Stevenson to carry the load just as he did for the second half of the Bills game. Stevenson, for the year, has 100 carries for 429 yards and three touchdowns. The only other healthy back that the Patriots have used this season is Brandon Bolden, who is the team's primary pass-catching back and does not see many carries.
2. Keep Mac Jones' focused
After a game in which his team ran the ball 46 times and passed just three, Jones must keep his head focused on the Colts and not on his diminished role. The Colts like to play a similar style of football where they run the ball and defend the run. So, if the Patriots are the first team to flinch and start to pass heavily, it could be to the Colts' benefit. The Colts are better against the pass (10th) than they are against the run (16th;) so, if this Week 15's game plan will be similar to Week 13's– Jones may get a little complacent in knowing his job will be limited once again.
1. Get ready to defend the run
As mentioned earlier, the Colts will be wanting to run the ball so the Patriots had better be ready for that. Indianapolis has superstar running back Jonathan Taylor healthy and running behind a dominant offensive line. For the season, Taylor already has 1,684 total yards, including 1,348 just on the ground to go along with 18 touchdowns. To put Taylor's season into a little context, he has just more 140-yard games in 2021 (5) as he does lost fumbles (2). If your running back is more than twice as likely to pop off for 140 as he is to lose a fumble, he is on his way to an MVP season…unless the Patriots can slow him up.
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