Krause: Bye week just might be what doctor ordered for Pats

FOXBOROUGH ? What the New England Patriots have done through the regular season is nothing short of outstanding.They make you nervous. They leave you talking to yourself. You want to go outside and walk around the block a few hundred times to calm down. They turn normally placid people into deranged, nail-biting zombies.But despite all that, they win.The Patriots won for the 12th time Sunday, defeating the Buffalo Bills, 34-20, and wrapping up the No. 2 seed in the AFC heading into the playoffs. This gives them a week off, and if ever a team needed one, it?s the Patriots.Despite all the other injuries they?ve suffered this year, a few more players got dinged, including guard Logan Mankins, cornerback Kyle Arrington, wide receiver Aaron Dobson (who had just returned to the lineup) and linebacker Brandon Spikes. Shane Vereen and Rob Ninkovich had hurts coming into the game, but they suited up and played. And Devin McCourty was still feeling the effects of a concussion he suffered last week in Baltimore.The Patriots would have a pretty competitive Pro Bowl team just with the players who have missed significant action. So while there?s a growing number of people who don?t see having a bye as having any significance at all, don?t put the Patriots in that category. They couldn?t mask their happiness over how things worked out for them.?I?m very happy for them,” said coach Bill Belichick — who, in comparison to his usual demeanor after games, was downright giddy with glee.?They earned this one, no question about it,” he said. “Nobody gave us anything. We had to earn it.”For some reason, the whole season seemed to be a taffy pull, starting with the off-season news that Rob Gronkowski had to have surgery not only on his broken arm, but his back, too. He missed the first six games, and then the last four after tearing up his knee in the Cleveland Browns game.It went downhill from there. Wes Welker signed as a free agent with the Denver Broncos, Aaron Hernandez ? well ? we don?t need to get into that, except to say that had Belichick been clairvoyant and known that his big tight end was going to be charged with murder, he may have paid Welker the money to keep him here.Once the season started, quarterback Tom Brady was left with two rookie receivers who took forever to get in any kind of rhythm with the offense, Welker?s supposed replacement (Danny Amendola) fighting injuries, and the feature third-down back (Shane Vereen) out with a broken wrist.Then, like the Ancient Mariner, players began dropping one by one. Vince Wilfork. Jerod Mayo. Tommy Kelly. Sebastian Vollmer. Gronkowski ? right there is an all-star team in and of itself.And if that wasn?t bad enough, one of the team?s most reliable backs (coming into the season, at least), Stevan Ridley, got the dropsies ? and it got so bad he had to sit out the Houston game and stand on the sidelines with a football in his hand.Games were won and lost by razor-thin margins (who could ever forget the memorable Sunday when the Patriots beat the New Orleans Saints on the last play of the game, only to have the Red Sox one-up them with David Ortiz?s grand slam against the Detroit Tigers?), and turned on quirky calls and quirkier plays. There was the call in New York, where one Patriot pushed the other into the pile on a failed field goal attempt in overtime. The call gave the Jets new life and this time, the field goal was good.There was the non-call on Gronkowski in Carolina. And the bizarre punt fumble that allowed the Patriots to complete a comeback from a 24-0 first-half deficit against the Denver Broncos.There were last-gasp wins over the Texans and the Cleveland Browns ? a hiccup in Miami against the Dolphins when another comeback try fell short, and then last week?s blowout in Baltimore.It was one of those years where the Patriots could have been 15-1 as easily as they could have been 8-8. The only game they lost where they didn?t play well from wire to wire was in Cincinnati.Through it a