NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS HEADLINES - 8/21/10
It's a beautiful Saturday morning so far here in New England, and here are today's Patriots headlines.
Shalise Manza Young has an article this morning on the fact that after a nationally televised appearance that saw the Patriots beat Atlanta 28-10, New England is suddenly being talked about as a strong AFC East contender again. However, while he may be happy with the final outcome, head coach Bill Belichick says it's just preseason and the team still has a long way to go.
"There were some positives. There were some other things that we need to do better,'' Belichick said. "We lost yardage on seven of our running plays, so that's not very good.
"I think if we had seven sacks, everyone would be up in arms and it would be the big story of the day, but seven running plays that lost yardage nobody seems to care about, but what's the difference? I think we can do things better. There were certainly positives in the running game. We had our moments and then we had other plays that weren't so good. I think in probably all areas of the game, not just the running game, but all areas, we're still working on more consistency, eliminating the bad plays and having more good ones.''
Christopher Price of WEEI.com also has more highlights from Belichick's conference call from yesterday.
Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald also has more on Belichick's thoughts about Thursday night's win, and also has some comments from former Patriots defensive back Asante Samuel who fired off some tough comments about his former coach, and the fans here in New England.
Michael Hurley of NESN.com also more on Samuel's comments, with the former New England defensive back feeling he was just as good of a player as former Patriot Ty Law, but never received the recognition.
Young also has an article on the Patriots ground game, which after a decent showing again Friday night that included two touchdown runs, it appears that may be more effective this season.
Rapoport takes a look at the team's trio of tight ends, which so far appears poised to make the team's passing attack quite dynamic this season. He also provides a breakdown here of each of their individual performances.
Macon.com out of Georgia has an article about the fact Belichick took the time to visit Georgia Tech head coach Paul Johnson and defensive coordinator Al Groh before Thursday's game, and also spoke to the players.
Mike Reiss follows up his "10 Things to Watch" and breaks down how each of those things turned out during Thursday night's win over Atlanta.
Reiss also has an article on the fact the Patriots had a balanced attack during Thursday's game, and looks like the ground game appears to be a strong part of the equation for this season.
The Providence Journal takes a look at linebacker Derrick Burgess' first game back with the Patriots, with Robert Lee writing that Burgess wasn't much of a factor.
Erik Scalavino writes that the team will now start transitioning from training camp into their regular season routine, and has some behind the scenes details from last week.
Sad news this morning in the Boston Globe, with the newspaper reporting that former Patriot runningback Kevin Turner was recently diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's Disease.
Those are the highlight's from this morning's headlines. I'm off to work, but hope everyone enjoys their Saturday and we'll see you tomorrow.
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