From glitz to grind; Pats do big and small perfectly

Again, this could change, people close to Belichick caution. If Belichick looks at his team on Monday and sees a tired and beat up group, he might give them more rest against the Giants. But the Patriots are mostly healthy.

The season itself gives some insight into what Belichick will probably do in their final contest. The Patriots have pushed the pedal hard all year and it seems unlikely Belichick would change that.

There are other indicators. Clearly, the Patriots, close to several significant and historical records, are going for them. Actually, to say they are going for them is an understatement. They are chasing them with the gleeful exuberance of a five-year-old running after an ice cream truck.

At the end of the Miami contest, up 28-7, with six minutes to go, Brady and Moss were still in the game. Not only that, Brady was throwing deep to Moss which will again draw complaints that New England was trying to run up the score.

Once, with the ball on their own one-yard line, the Patriots went to an open backfield and threw deep out of it. It was both a grand show of disrespect to the Dolphins and an attempt to get some big plays.

That tells you all you need to know about what Belichick is going to do against the Giants.

Belichick will try and annihilate them the way he does every team he plays.

Behind Brady, the Patriots set the league record for most touchdowns in a season at 71. Against Miami, all in the first half, Brady tossed three touchdown passes giving him 48 this season. That ties him with Dan Marino and leaves Brady just one score behind Manning's record (Manning has as many touchdowns in a season as he does commercials).

So against the Giants, you can expect lots of deep balls to Moss particularly since Moss's 21 touchdowns this season put him in second place behind the great Jerry Rice's 22 scores.

When asked if he was going for records, Belichick stated: "Trying to run our offense. That's all we did. We didn't really have much of a tight end offense. We eliminated that going into the game and so we went with what we had. That's really all we did the whole game other than a few short-yardage plays but the rest of it was some type of mainly four receivers, a little bit of three receivers but that was it. That's all we had. We planned to go into the game with that and that's what we did."

Translation: If you think I'm going to admit we're trying to break records, you're nuttier than I am."

The Patriots are a gem but they're not flawless. It's just there are only one or two teams capable of taking advantage of those flaws and those teams -- Indianapolis mainly -- have even larger blemishes the Patriots can themselves attack.

The next time you see the Patriots their stars will play a bunch and they'll be 16-0.

They'll be perfect. Then again, with them, that's nothing new.