Gap grows between Patriots and Dolphins; they meet Sunday

Amendola did not play last week because he aggravated his knee injury a bit in his team’s win over the Tennessee Titans. The last time the two teams met, the Patriots destroyed the Dolphins 36-7 in Foxborough, Mass. on October 29. He has 104 on the season, extending his single-season franchise record.

New England kept the pressure and scored 14 more points in the final frame to eventually take the game going away.

Bryan Salmond will be live tweeting from the game with other members of the FOX25 sports team joining in.

The Houston Texans would have to go through a very unfortunate set of events to miss out on the AFC South title, but if they beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, they clinch the banner and get to rest for the remainder of the day.

HEADS OR TAILS?: Also credit Belichick for making the coin toss worth watching Sunday. The Patriots suffered a 26-20 OT loss to the NY Jets last week.

Belichick’s focus is more basic than clinching any particular seed.

That’s why you have Tom Brady saying Wednesday: “I think it’s better to win this game than to lose this game because you obviously love to always play at home because of communication and so forth”. If Mankins wants to return in 2016, the Buccaneers would be thrilled to have him based on the combination of leadership he’s shown and the play he’s provided, but as they say, the football is in his hands.

Edelman has been out with a broken foot since his Pats played the New York Giants. The Patriots matched a season low for points and had their fewest total yards (284). The Patriots do have something to play for in home field advantage throughout the playoffs.

Running backs James White and Brandon Bolden continue to make impacts in the passing game with five catches apiece last week, but their contributions on the ground have been limited. Yeah, that 2.1 yards per carry was rather ’94 Marion Butts-ian of him, but he did seem to hit the hole on his latter carries more decisively and with more of a burst than LeGarrette Blount did at times this year. It’s unsurprisingly not at the forefront of his thoughts as the team tries to work through its recent circumstances. “You only have three opportunities a week”. Further, with 364 passing yards today (he’s had at least 355 yards four times this season, including Week 8 vs. the Dolphins), Brady would join Drew Brees as the only quarterbacks with multiple 5,000-yard seasons.

But there’s only so much he and Brady can team up on, and a more consistent rushing attack could be the key to sustaining drives. Landry has caught 70.4 percent of the passes throw his direction since the start of 2014 (31 games), including nine touchdowns.