Do The Patriots Have Anything To Play For This Sunday? In A Word, YES!

So the Pats have clinched a playoff spot and a first round bye after their shellacking of the lowly New York Jets on Christmas Eve. So does this Sunday's game against the Miami Dolphins mean anything? A Patriots win or an Oakland Raider loss would mean the Pats have home field advantage throughout the playoffs. Which could be big.

If you remember last year, the Pats stumbled to the finish line and ended up losing the final 2 regular season games, and in part, lost home field advantage and had to play the AFC championship game in Denver. The Bronco's ended up beating the Pats 20-18 and went on to play and win the Superbowl against the Carolina Panthers.

Oakland took a major hit Saturday when star quarterback David Carr was lost for the season with a broken leg.

All six teams have been decided for the AFC playoffs and the only thing to be determined are the seedings.

If you think coach Belichick has any thoughts about sitting Tom Brady, Julian Edleman, and a few of the other Patriot stars this Sunday, think again.

In a press conference call, when asked about sitting or resting players, Belichick said:

"Right. Look, I don't really understand that question," Belichick responded when the topic was approached by a reporter in the final question of the conference call. "We have…I don't even know how many starters we have…but we have a lot more than…we can only inactivate seven players. This isn't like a preseason game where you have 75 guys on your roster. This is a regular season game. So I don't really understand that whole line of questioning. I'm not saying I'm a great mathematician or anything, but the numbers just don't add up for that type of conversation. So there is no point in getting involved in it."

You can read more of Belichick's meeting with the media on the New England Patriots website.