FOXBORO -- In the NFL, immediacy matters. Nobody cares what you've done lately. They care what you will do next.
We tested that theory yesterday. Thanks to some Sunday stinkbombs around the AFC, the Patriots' "magic number" in the AFC East is now six. So any combination of New England wins and Miami losses adding up to six clinches the AFC East. To eliminate Buffalo, the magic number is five. To bury the Jets, it's four.
Apprised of this news, Patriots head coach Bill Belichick said through gritted teeth, "Don't even talk about that."
Wow. And we thought it was good news.
(Aside: How great would it have been if Belichick responded, "Six? That's amazing! We can tank the next two weeks and -- as long as the Dolphins annual meltdown continues -- we can still win the division and have what amounts to three weeks off! Wanna play Scrabble?")
The trouble is, Belichick -- like most NFL coaches -- is Mr. Magoo in sweatpants. He sees what's immediately in front of him. The havoc in his wake, the danger ahead, peripheral issues all go unnoticed. Which explains why he didn't get a kick out of the magic number talk.
"It's all about Dallas and New England (this week)," he warned. "We go out there and can't score against Cleveland (two weeks ago), then score 30 points against Denver (last week). We go out and have three penalties against Cleveland and . . . whatever it was, 18 against Denver."
So consistency isn't a strong suit right now.
"I'm not sure how many of you picked Jacksonville over Indianapolis (a 28-23 upset win by the Jags)," Belichick chided. "It's all about one-week matchups. It's not about anything more than that. The only thing that matters is how the Patriots match up against the Cowboys and how the Cowboys match up against the Patriots. No more, no less. I know you don't want to hear that, but. . ."
No, no. It's fine. And not unexpected.
But of course we're going to talk about it. It's what we -- people who give a hoot about football -- do in November and December. And even though the Patriots didn't play this week, things went well for them.
First off, the Dolphins lost to Tennessee and are now 5-4 and two full games behind the Patriots in the East. In the next four weeks, Miami hosts Baltimore and Washington, then travels to Dallas and New England. There's defense vs. offense snippiness in the Dolphins' locker room, the coaching staff is hanging by its fingernails (owner Wayne Huizenga met with Dave Wannstedt yesterday for a 1-on-1) and the Dolphins go together with cold weather like brass knuckles and Gandhi.
But the Dolphins are in good shape compared to the Bills. The staff in western New York is more sitting duck than lame duck. Buffalo fans are being subjected to the Full Metal Bledsoe and nobody wants to know what Sam Gash thinks of the Patriots anymore. The Bills are 4-5 and have Houston, Indy and at the Giants over the next three weeks.
Good luck in the draft.
It will be hard for the Patriots to blow the division lead. And even if they do, they are in almost rock-solid position to still clinch one of the two wild cards. In fact, they could go 2-5 down the stretch and still have a very reasonable shot at getting in because Denver and Tennessee, two teams the Pats beat, are in the wild card mix right now.
But Belichick will still spend the week saying that -- right here, right now -- the Cowboys game is more important than any Patriots game ever contested. He's wrong. It's not a big deal. It is the proverbial pimple on a rhino's backside. Of the seven remaining games, it carries the least weight in the standings. The other six are all AFC games. Three of them are division games. One of them -- at Indianapolis -- is against a potential division winner. It could come down to tiedbreakers between the Pats and the Colts regarding home-field advantage in the playoffs.
This week will be a blast -- great theater on the sidelines, excellent defenses on the field, one of the most intriguing matchups in the NFL all season. But if the Pats had to pick one game to lose, it would be this one.
So despite everything you'll read, hear and see this week about Dallas and the Tuna, remember this: When it comes to the big playoff picture, the Patriots have bigger fish to fry.
