Yes, there will be scoreboard watching going on.
FOXBOROUGH – Even he Patriots can't pretend that the circumstances surrounding Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins are meaningless.
New England has to win to have a chance at earning a playoff bye, so that will be the top priority, but it admits that it will be watching the scoreboard throughout the afternoon to see if that goal is within reach. Houston plays the Colts earlier Sunday, and if the Texans lose the Patriots can rest easy knowing that they control their own destiny.
But if Houston wins, the Pats have to hope the Kansas City Chiefs drop the Denver Broncos at 4:25 p.m., which also happens to be the time the New England game kicks off.
"We'll all be aware of that, no question," quarterback Tom Brady said. "I don't think that changes what our goal is for this weekend. We're trying to win this game regardless. That could be different if some other teams win, but that's out of our control."
The Patriots played Miami three weeks ago on the road and picked up a 23-16 victory. In the time since, New England says little has changed with the Dolphins and that schematically everything looks the same.
That should help in preparation this week since the contest is still fresh in everyone's mind, which could be a good thing since the Pats are looking to tune things up after losing to San Francisco (41-34) and narrowly beating Jacksonville (23-16) over the last two weeks.
Coming off a seven-game winning streak, the letdown in both weeks was a little jarring, though there was a silver lining in both experiences.
"You have experiences. For example, the San Francisco game, we were down 28 points," Brady said. "If we're down 28 points again, which I hope we're not, we can say, 'We came back from this before.' I think you can draw on those experiences."