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Five Things to Watch This Week - Week 16 (Game 15)

The Patriots play their fifteenth game of the season at Gillette against the Miami Dolphins on Saturday December 24th at 1:00 PM.

Yay!  Saturday football.

Don't look now, but the Pats are on track to have the number one seed in the AFC.

Really.

With that defense.

Really.


Aaron Hernandez makes it rain against the Broncos.

Dear Santa - I want a pass rush for Patriots this year for Christmas in these last few games.  Please?  What's that?  We lost Andre Carter last week?  Oh... OK.

Here's five guys in the secondary I'll be hoping can pick things up a bit in the next few weeks:

1) Patrick Chung - Will Chung be back this week?  Maybe! 

2) Devin McCourty - Is he getting slightly less terrible as the year goes on?  Kinda.  Not a great sophomore year for #32.

3) Kyle Arrington - Also questionable.  I see a lot of "questionables" on the injury report this week.  Outlook not good.

4) James Ihedigbo - I think he got hurt six times last week.  Dude, just stay down.

5) Matthew Slater / Julian Edelman - The converted WRs / Special Teams guys haven't been that bad in the secondary.  Seriously.  But it's really not a good sign that they've been on the field with the defense so much this year.  General Manager Belichick has really let down Coach Belichick with the defensive draft picks the last few years.


Did Chad Ochocinco have a catch last week?

YES.

(And a touchdown, too!)

My prediction: Pats 31, Dolphins 24

Stay hydrated, my friends.


*****

This year, we're going to have regular contributions from Fake Bill Belichick for your reading pleasure.  Here's this week's selection from Fake Bill Belichick's "Tales From a Life in Football":

It's Christmas 1991. It's my first year as a head coach in Cleveland.  The PR department thinks it would be a good idea for me to dress up like Santa Claus and hang out in the stadium parking lot handing out footballs to the local kids.

I reluctantly go along with it.  I put the Santa suit on and head on out.  I'm trying to be a good guy.

I thought they were going to just have me throwing balls to the crowd.  I didn't realize until I was actually out there that they wanted to have kids sitting on my lap.

The first two kids sit on my lap and get their footballs without any problems.  Then I can see the third kid is going to be trouble.

He's maybe 10 or 12.  Kinda thick.  He staggers over to me.  There's a strong smell coming off him.

"Is that beer I smell?" I ask him.  "Kid, it's 10:15 in the morning."

And then he barfs on me.

Then he looks up at me says, "Welcome to Cleveland, dick."

The beer barf goes right through the Santa suit.  I'm soaked.

Ever since that day, I wear the hooded sweatshirt at all times as a protective layer.

Even to bed.

True story.

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