FOXBORO — It doesn’t appear that the band is breaking up after all.

On Monday, Bill Belichick called last week’s ESPN report, which depicted a fractured relationship inside Gillette Stadium, "baseless." Belichick also said he plans to be back as the Patriots coach next season.

The story reported that Belichick was issued a mandate by Patriots owner Robert Kraft to trade backup [...]

FOXBORO — It doesn’t appear that the band is breaking up after all.

On Monday, Bill Belichick called last week’s ESPN report, which depicted a fractured relationship inside Gillette Stadium, “baseless.” Belichick also said he plans to be back as the Patriots coach next season.

The story reported that Belichick was issued a mandate by Patriots owner Robert Kraft to trade backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. The report states the coach was demoralized and furious. Asked about it on Monday, Belichick refused to comment directly, but didn’t back down from the Patriots joint statement (from himself, Kraft and Tom Brady) that said the story was exaggerated and inaccurate.

“First of all, I don’t know really what you’re talking about,” Belichick said when asked if he was demoralized. “Again, I haven’t read the article. I don’t know what that refers to. We’ve been through this before. I know you want to report on things that are inaccurate and unattributable and I’m not really interested in responding to all those random, and I would say in a lot of cases baseless, comments.”

When asked if he had a mandate to trade Garoppolo, Belichick responded, “I haven’t read the article. I’ve already commented at length about the situation. Nothing’s happened since then. I don’t have anything to add to it.”

To add to the drama, there was a report in the New York Daily News that Belichick had interest in becoming the head coach of the New York Giants.

“Right now, my interest is trying to do the best I can for our football team to get ready for Saturday night against Tennessee,” Belichick said.

The ESPN story’s headline read: “For Kraft, Brady and Belichick, is this the beginning of the end?”

When asked if he intends to coach the Patriots next season, Belichick responded using one word.

“Absolutely.”

Execution over experience

The top-seeded Patriots will have a decided edge in postseason experience when they meet the No. 5 Tennessee Titans at 8:15 p.m. Saturday in the AFC divisional round at Gillette Stadium.

When it comes to players who have been in postseason (41) and the combined playoff games they've played (317), the Patriots have the most postseason experience among the 12 teams that qualified for the playoffs. The Pittsburgh Steelers are next with 40 players playing a combined 207 games.

In addition, the Patriots have 14 players who have appeared in at least 10 playoff games. That’s one more than the other 11 postseason invitees combined.

But there are also 14 members of the Patriots who have never played in the playoffs. They include receiver Brandin Cooks, running back Mike Gillislee, cornerback Stephon Gilmore, and defensive lineman Adam Butler, Eric Lee and Deatrich Wise Jr.

“Well, Coach (Bill) Belichick always says, ‘It’s not about playoff experience. It’s about playoff execution,’ ” center David Andrews, an offensive captain, said Monday. “And you look at it time and time again, every year there seems to be a guy with not a great deal of playoff experience as far as games appeared in that’s making a huge play. The examples are countless here in this locker room.”

To buttress that thought, Andrews brought up the Titans.

The Titans had 18 players with a combined 81 games of playoff experience prior to upsetting the Chiefs, 22-21, in the wildcard round on Saturday at Kansas City.

Cornerback Logan Ryan, who played for the Patriots from 2013 to 2016 before signing with the Titans in the offseason, accounted for 10 of those games.

“You look at Tennessee and those guys are playing their first playoff game and, yeah, guys are all over the field making plays,” Andrews said. “They were inexperienced heading in but they found a way to execute going into the game. Our message this week is just to go out there, make sure that you prepare at a high level all week long and then Saturday it’s about execution.

“It’s not about how many games you’ve played in. It’s not about what you’ve accomplished in the regular season or over the course of your career. It’s about executing Saturday night, Foxboro Stadium, Gillette, fans loud, cold. It’s about executing.”

Focus on Titans

The Patriots returned to work after getting the past three days off, one of the benefits of earning a first-round bye.

The mood was upbeat and the approach intense as the defending Super Bowl champions turned their attention to the Titans, who are 13½-point underdogs.

“Well, obviously, we feel very fortunate to be in the position that we’re in,” special-teams captain Matthew Slater said. “We’re excited about the opportunity that we have on Saturday and I think there’s a great sense of urgency throughout the building, understanding that our whole season comes down to this week and this is the best football team that we will have faced all season long.”

The Titans finished 9-7 and defeated the Jacksonville Jaguars in a must-win situation in Week 17 to earn their first postseason berth since 2008. Then they went out rallied from 18 points down to win their first playoff game since 2003.

“They’re playing well,” Slater said. “They’ve really won two playoff games when you think about the situation that they’ve been in. Everyone’s really focused in. There’s a great sense of urgency and we’ve got to have a great week of preparation and see where that gets us.”

A good run

When the Patriots open their postseason on Saturday, the team will be playing in its NFL-best 42nd playoff game since 1994 — the year Kraft bought the franchise. In that span, the Green Bay Packers are second (36 games) and the Pittsburgh Steelers are third (33).

The Kraft-owned Patriots have won 28 of those games — third most by an NFL owner all-time. The Rooney family (Steelers) has the most — 36 postseason wins over 85 years of ownership; the Packers (shareholders) are second with 34 wins over 99 years of ownership. The Mara family (Giants) ranks fourth with 24 postseason wins over 93 years.