Tom Brady on ankle: I’ve had worse injuries than this

He seemingly chose the latter, and it wasn’t quite enough during the Patriots 20-10 loss to the Dolphins.

As the AFC’s No. 2 seed, the Patriots have a bye this weekend before the divisional round January 16-17. It was hard to tell if Brady’s performance was hampered by the injury because the Pats used a scaled-back passing plan, but Brady was in obvious pain after the game. Plus, any team’s preference is always to play at home. The main thing keeping the Texans from greater success is their quarterback situation – four different players have started at that position this season. With Edelman back in and lighter boxes, Jackson could be an unexpected force in these next three games. It was only his third miss of the season and second under 50 yards, but he did hit from 34 yards. Brady’s offensive line failed to give him much time to throw, and he appeared to suffer a minor ankle injury when Miami defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh landed on the back of Brady’s legs. But the Patriots can use this time to work on the little communications errors that can go a long way in protecting Tom Brady and opening up rushing lanes. Gronkowski, meanwhile, wasn’t targeted at all. If one didn’t know any better it seemed the Patriots were playing conservative and to stay healthy, rather to win.

Brady, again, denied that notion.

“We have to play well going forward if we want to make anything of our season”, Brady said. “I’m very pleased with that and I think when you look at it and the players we have, in 2016, hopefully we can stay undefeated”. Julian Edelman should be ready to go, and it can’t be understated how important he is to Brady and the offense.

Whatever the motivations might’ve been, the performance part of Brady’s answer was inarguable Sunday.

Of his 21 pass attempts, 12 took less than two seconds from snap-to-throw, but some of that could have been because he was unable to create more time for himself because of his ankle injury, as well as some shovel pass plays, which impact the numbers.

Tom Brady is down but not out in New England. Only seven picked up at least six. He said he “didn’t know” why the first half included so few passes. The injury did not keep him out of the game, although the Patriots replaced him with backup Jimmy Garoppolo on their final drive with 1 minute, 56 seconds remaining when they were trailing 20-10.

But fear not, Pats fans. The offensive line is a massive problem at this point, and Sebastian Vollmer’s return from an ankle sprain can only stabilize things so much. The Steelers are the No. 6 seed and will play the top seeded Denver Broncos if they advance.

The Bengals aren’t sure whether starting QB Andy Dalton will be available.

Riding a 10-game winning streak, the Kansas City Chiefs are the hottest team in the NFL.

Something doesn’t feel right about this Patriots team right now. We didn’€™t execute right there when we got to the red area. “That’s all that really matters”, Brady said. I mean, whatever it is, it is and wherever we play, we play.

“Nothing over the last six weeks is going to matter”, Brady said.