Bill Belichick is focused on the Titans, of course

[Pat Patriot]

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Time and again, Patriots coach Bill Belichick has maintained a laser focus on the task at hand, declining to address during press conferences topics unrelated to the effort to prepare for and defeat the next opponent. And he still gets opportunities to demonstrate his reluctance to deviate in any way from getting ready for the next game.

Belichick on Thursday was asked whether it’s strange to think that Saturday’s game against Tennessee could be his last ever with quarterback Tom Brady.

“Yeah, we’re focused on the Titans,” Belichick said. “That’s all I’m focused on, so we’ll do everything we can to get ready to go and play the best game we can play Saturday night.”

The Patriots are playing on Saturday night because they ended the season with a loss to the Dolphins. Belichick was asked whether it feels like the Patriots are underdogs because of that.

“I mean, I don’t know what we are or aren’t,” Belichick said. “It doesn’t matter. We’re just trying to get ready for the Titans, play our best game on Saturday night. That’s it.” (The Patriots aren’t underdogs; they’re favored to win by 5.5 points.)

Asked whether the loss to Miami can in any way be a motivating factor, there was more classic Belichick.

“We’re past last week,” Belichick said. “We’re past every week. This is a one-week season. That’s it.”

He’s right, and the Patriots have demonstrated better than any NFL team in 100 seasons the ability to forget what has happened — good or bad — and focus only on what’s next, one week at a time until the season becomes literally one week at a time. While it’s the first time since 2009 that the one-week season includes the wild-card round, the mindset is the same. And the Patriots continue to be very dangerous because of that.

And of course they’re aware of the talk that it’s over. They find such slights wherever they can, and they use them however they can. Remember last year’s win over the Chargers, when Tom Brady told CBS that “no one believes” in the Patriots? Everyone believed in them.

This year, fail to believe at your own risk. Because even though the Titans on paper seem to be the better team, the Patriots, especially of the past five years, are the best team football has ever seen. And they’ve been written off like they were in the “on to Cincinnati” moment of September 2014.

So they’re on to Tennessee. Win, and they’ll be on to Kansas City. Lose, and they’ll be on to 2020. Regardless, their approach will never change, and that’s the best way to get the most out of the roster available to Belichick at any given year and in any given week.