FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The silence coming out of Gillette Stadium these days is deafening.
The New England Patriots will travel to Indianapolis to play the Colts in the most anticipated Sunday Night Football game of all time. Really. All time.
UP NEXT
WHO: Patriots (4-0) at Colts (3-2)
WHEN: 8:30 p.m. Sunday
TELEVISION: NBC
After all, it was the virtuous Colts who called out the Patriots for using underinflated footballs in January’s AFC championship game – jump-starting Deflategate and all that followed, including the vilification of Tom Brady.
People around the country want to see the Colts slap some comeuppance on the Patriots, who this year have bullied and beaten four NFL teams by averaging 37.3 points per game.
New England fans, on the other hand, want the Patriots to continue their scorched-earth campaign and roll up about a kazillion points against the Colts.
There is no gray area. You’re either for the Patriots. Or you’re against them.
The fans in Indianapolis are certainly ramping things up. They plan on renting a blimp to fly over Lucas Oil Stadium challenging Brady to “Deflate This.”
Funny, considering the roof might be closed Sunday night.
Anyway, the Patriots aren’t biting.
From Bill Belichick and Brady to linebacker Rob Ninkovich and offensive lineman Ryan Wendell, the Patriots don’t care – or say they don’t care – about any of the stuff swirling around the game.
In his Wednesday morning news conference, Belichick was asked if anyone had talked to him in the grocery store and asked him “to kick Indy’s butt.”
“I haven’t been to the grocery store in a couple years,” Belichick deadpanned.
Surely, he was asked, your friends and family have talked to you about what this game is about, right?
“I mean, look, it’s the same questions every week,” said Belichick. “We’re getting ready to play a game on Sunday. We’re going to do the best we can to prepare for it and be ready to go, and perform well on Sunday night. That’s what we do.”
The Colts are doing the same. Coach Chuck Pagano said in his conference call that the “game is big because it’s the next game.”
He’s not dumb. The Colts don’t want to get the Patriots any more riled up than they already are – even if the Patriots won’t admit they are.
Brady spoke to the media for 4 minutes and 2 seconds Wednesday, and every question had a Deflategate angle.
Brady ducked and dodged. Asked if he had any extra motivation for the Colts, he said, “I’m always pretty motivated.” One reporter asked him if there was “any human part” in him that wanted the game a little more.
“I’m a human,” said Brady, drawing a laugh. “There’s no doubt. I’m definitely human.”
Translation: Yes, I know every single thing the Colts did and said, and I will make them pay.
Brady is having perhaps his best season, which at 38 years of age is remarkable. He has completed 116 of his 160 passes (72.5 percent) to 12 different receivers for 1,387 yards and 11 touchdowns without an interception.
Facing a Colts pass defense that ranks 28th among the 32 NFL teams must have him salivating. The Colts give up an average of 286.8 passing yards per game. The Patriots’ passing offense is ranked first, averaging 331.1 yards per game. New England has bludgeoned the Colts the last three times they’ve played by an average of 23 points.
But no one in the Patriots’ locker room will admit that there is any extra incentive in beating the Colts.
This game is all about business, not Deflategate, not settling personal scores.
Wendell said the Colts’ front seven presents enough of a challenge.
“It’s going to take all our effort just focusing on them,” he said. “You don’t have to block anything out when you’re focusing on what your job is.”
Ninkovich has been around here long enough to know the drill. No matter what’s swirling around the airwaves or being written in the newspapers, he has a job to do.
“It’s really just understanding that nothing is going to help you outside of this building other than preparing well and putting in the work,” he said. “We have to understand that the harder we work here and the more time we put in here, the better we’ll be Sunday.”
So go ahead, ask the questions. You’re going to get the same non-answers every time. The Patriots are single-minded on this topic.
“If other people bring it up, it’s nothing I can control,” said offensive tackle Sebastian Vollmer. “It’s nothing that helps me for this game.”
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