Tuesday New England Patriots Links 11/23
Tuesday is normally an off day for the players, but with a short week thanks to a Thanksgiving day game on Thursday, instead they'll be at Gillette Stadium today going over the game plan and getting ready to take on the Lions.
Mike Reiss has the schedule of events for the media today, and while we'll obviously hear from head coach Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, the media will also talk to Detroit head coach Jim Schwartz - whose conference call scheduled for 9:30am. The media will also talk to Lions defensive lineman Ndamukong Suh at 2:00pm.
Reiss also writes that defensive lineman Mike Wright suffered a concussion during the Patriots win over the Colts on Sunday.
Reiss also has a look at where the Patriots rank in some key statistical categories.
Jeff Howe of NESN has more on the short week, with wide receiver Deion Branch feeling pretty happy about the short week.
"I actually like it," Patriots wide receiver Deion Branch said. "Guys just want to play the game. If we play games like this, two in five days, one day of practice, don't have to worry about Coach Belichick cursing us out all the time. That will be great."
Shalise Manza Young writes that time is of the essence this week, with a lot on the plate of head coach Bill Belichick as he tries to get his team ready.
Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald writes that the short week presents a challenge, with Belichick saying that they have to decide what's important and what needs to be covered in such a short time.
“You have to pick your spots,” Belichick said. “If you want to try and do something that is maybe a little bit different and specific for them, you might have to give it up somewhere else.”
Rapoport also has an article on tackles Matt Light and Sebastian Vollmer, who for the most part got the best of their match-ups against Dwight Freeney and Robert Mathis.
Mark Farinella of the Attleboro Sun Chronicle writes that the team has a case of the "Short Week Blues" as they try and cram six days of preparation into three - and it's almost less to a certain extent. Tomorrow's a travel day since they'll be getting on a plane to head out to Detroit.
Ron Borges of the Boston Herald has his report card from Sunday's win over the Colts, and as usual has some interesting comments about this one.
Greg Easterbrook of ESPN has his 'Tuesday Morning Quarterback', and says that Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker can play for him any day.
Monique Walker of the Boston Globe writes that Tom Brady said during his interview on WEEI yesterday that he wasn't impressed with the tactics of the Indianapolis Colts defensive line, who apparently tried to simulate the snap count at the end of the game and Brady didn't appreciate it.
“The defensive line, they can’t simulate a snap count at the end of the game when you’re kneeling on the ball,’’ Brady said. “And really, the only thing that could have stopped us was an offensive penalty to stop the clock. So you know, I’m in the middle of my snap count, and the defensive tackle is going, ‘Hut! hut!’ to try to get us to jump offsides.
“To me, the only thing that the ref should be listening for is that. I was just creating some awareness for the referees on what they were doing. Not that they care or listen to me; they really don’t.’’
Gerry Callahan of the Boston Herald has an entertaining column this morning, with some passing thoughts on the Patriots along with some other topics.
And finally Karen Guregian of the Herald writes that the Patriots defense bent, but came up big in the clutch on Sunday against Indianapolis.
That's it for this morning. We'll have a couple of more entries in a bit, so be sure to check the front page of PatsFans.com for more in a bit.
