Patriots begin preparing for all scenarios during bye week

With no opponent to prepare for this week, the Patriots are focused on tuning up a few areas of concern and have begun to take a look at each of the three teams they could be hosting next week.

With no one specific to prepare for, Bill Belichick has begun getting ready for everyone. (AP)

The New England Patriots are currently in a holding pattern. With no opponent to prepare for this week, the team is focused on tuning up a few areas of concern and has begun preparing for each of the three teams that could come to town next week.

If Houston wins, its ticket for a Jan. 13 date in Foxborough will immediately be punched. But if the Texans lose to Cincinnati on Saturday, New England will play the winner of Sunday’s game between Indianapolis and Baltimore.

Instead of just zeroing in on Houston, coach Bill Belichick said that the coaching staff is preparing for all possible outcomes.

“After the Houston game, we’ll either be full speed ahead on Houston or we’ll put that in the drawer and wait and see what happens in the next game,” he said. “We have to be prepared for all three of them.”

New England has already faced its three potential opponents, logging decisive wins over Houston (42-14) and the Colts (59-24). The Patriots lost to the Ravens, 31-30, on a last-second field goal in Week 3.

Many players said they will keep a close eye on each of the playoff games so they can get a jump on preparations.

“I’ll probably watch [the Texans game] pretty closely, as I will all the games,” WR Wes Welker said. “I’m trying to stay on top of it all.”

The players may not have a choice. Belichick was asked about his decision to give his team three days off after Thursday’s practice, and he took offense to the suggestion that there may be some downtime this weekend.

“Nobody said it was a week off except for you," he said. "That’s the first time I’ve heard it. We’re here, there are things we can accomplish, things that we can do, things that we’re doing.”

After being pushed further, he continued: “Even those days [without practice], there are things that … there are not team things we can work on but there are things individually that we can work on. We’ll certainly talk to the players about those.”

In other words, the Patriots are hard at work even when they're not at work.

Nick Underhill covers the Patriots for MassLive.com. Follow him on Twitter @CBSPats or @Nick_Underhill.