Great quote by Heath Evans from Patriots.com

[SeanBruschi54]

PATRIOTS LINK............

Patriots Keys to Victory against the Jets

Avoid mental errors and penalties
The Patriots enter this game having not given the football away in their last three contests. Prior to that point in the season, however, fumbles were a bit of a concern. The Patriots lost three of them and the game at Miami, and two more in each of the two games before that. Prior to the Detroit game, fullback Heath Evans shared a John Heisman quote from the wall of his head coach’s office at Auburn University. It said: "Gentlemen, it is better to have died as a small boy than to fumble this football." That line is truer in the playoffs than any other time of the year....

Play tough third-down defense
The Jets finished the year ranked fourth in the NFL at converting third downs, producing a first down on 43.8 percent of their third downs this season....

"Even on a regular day, that's pretty much unheard of," said cornerback Ellis Hobbs on Thursday of the Jets 16-play drive that burned 9:12 off the clock. "The key to those guys is third-down efficiency, how they're able to stay in manageable down and distances and are able to convert those.

"I don't want to give our tendencies away, but we do have things we want to change in the third-down passing game and short routes," Hobbs said. Whatever the Patriots defense has planned to stop the Jets from ending up in third-and-short situations this week, let’s hope it works, or the Pats defense may have trouble getting off the field.

...
Stop Jerricho Cotchery
Although Laveranues Coles is Pennington’s favorite target, Cotchery has become Patriots poison this season. In two games against the Pats, he snared 12 passes for 191 yards and two touchdowns. He finished just behind Coles’ 1,098 receiving yards with 961, and both of them averaged over 11.5 yards per catch.

...
Notes:
The Patriots held practice inside the Dana Farber Field House today wearing shorts/sweats, shells and helmets. The only player not seen on the field during the portion of practice available for viewing by the local press was safety Rodney Harrison, who’s been declared “Out” for this game. … In the locker room, injured reserve safety Tebucky Jones made an appearance. Also on injured reserve, linebacker Don Davis was seen at Gillette Stadium today. … Nose tackle Vince Wilfork held court with the media for a long while today. He could be returning to the field this week after sitting out the last three games with an ankle injury. … Asked about the regular season by a member of the New York media, Kevin Faulk epitomized the Patriots focus in preparing for the playoffs when he said, “No matter how you got here, it doesn’t matter. It’s what’s going to happen from this point on.”

A really great read if you have the time.

 

[unoriginal]

Cotcherry is a good player, but the only reason people think we need to "stop" him is that it is tacitally accepted that Lauverneus Coles is unstopable, and that completions to him should be taken for granted. I'll be happy if the Pats cover both wide receivers, instead of stopping Jerricho.

That John Heisman quote is one of the best I've heard. Heath Evans is also one of the few backs on this team with the authority to bring it up, as he hasn't lost a fumble yet this year. The Patriot with the most touches without a fumble, surprisingly, is Kevin Faulk.

 

[Mike the Brit]

I'd be interested in those fumble stats if you have them. Have Dillon and Maroney really fumbled recently? I always think of Corey as protecting the football very well.