Saturday's New England Patriots Links 8/20
A quiet day yesterday due to the fact the players were off, but here are this morning's headlines.
Christopher Gasper of the Boston Globe has a column this morning on Bill Belichick, and writes that even he should be feeling pretty good after his team's performance on Thursday night.
Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald writes that when asked about the fact he still had Danny Woodhead in the game during the 4th quarter when Woodhead was involved in a helmet-to-helmet collision covering a punt return, Belichick said all players need to be ready to play '60 Minutes'.
“When we go into any game, all players are told to be ready to play the entire 60 minutes,” Belichick said. “That’s what a game is. We don’t stop playing. We don’t stop coaching. Everybody’s ready to play the whole time from beginning to end. That’s every player and every coach. That’s part of the game. That’s how we approach them all.”
Rich Garven of the Worcester Telegram wonders if Woodhead suffered another concussion during the play, and writes that Belichick - as usual - didn't have any updates yesterday.
“No, I don’t have any updates,” Belichick said. “We got in pretty late last night and we’ve been scrambling around today trying to get caught up on the film and all those kind of things. So we’ll know how they are when they come back in tomorrow.“It usually takes 24 to 48 hours to sort things out, and even then it becomes a day-to-day thing from there. So I don’t really have any updates. Hopefully, they’ll be back sooner rather than later.”
Shalise Manza Young of the Boston Globe writes that after throwing an interception that was returned for a touchdown, Belichick was pleased to see how well Ryan Mallett bounced back from his mistake.
Christopher Price of WEEI.com has highlights from yesterday's interview with the head coach.
Patriots.com has the entire transcript of Belichick's conference call yesterday.
Garven has an article on Jerod Mayo, who he writes is having success making plays so far with the Patriots new defensive scheme.
Ian Rapoport also has a similar article on Mayo, and writes that the veteran linebacker has been a 'tackling machine' in the past, and has been making quite an impact so far this preseason.
Monique Walker of the Boston Globe has her notebook for this morning, and covers the Woodhead story, along with some other injury updates.
Ron Borges of the Boston Herald has a good column this morning on the fact that he thinks Belichick is 'trying to win the Super Bowl the old-fashioned way — with a defense that terrorizes opponents'.
Former Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi has his 'Bruschi on Tap' column for this week, and breaks down the Patriots new scheme that's allowing them to get more pressure on opposing quarterbacks.
Mike Reiss reports that the Patriots worked out former Redskins runningback Clinton Portis yesterday. Reiss points out that the workout had been scheduled prior to Thursday night's game, and isn't a reaction to Woodhead's injury.
The report from the workout was that it didn't go well, with Shalise Manza Young Tweeting that Portis showed up 'incredibly out of shape' for the workout.
Reiss also has an entry breaking down the total number of snaps for each player from the first half on Thursday night, and writes that Will Yeatman had a chance to play with the first team offense and seemed to respond well.
Mike Rodak of ESPNBoston.com reports that linebacker Ricky Brown worked out for the team on Friday.
Rodak also has some interesting observations from the second half of the game.
Patriots.com reports that the team placed rookie free agent linebacker Christian Cox on injured reserve with a neck injury.
Jeff Howe of NESN.com reports that the Patriots signed former UMASS Star safety James Ihedigbo on Friday. Howe writes that the signing may be in reaction to Brett Lockett's injury, although he points out Ihedigbo will need to stand out on special teams in order to make the roster.
Paul Kenyon of the Providence Journal writes that the Patriots had a balanced offensive attack against the Buccaneers Thursday night, which is why they got the job done.
Glen Farley of EnterpriseNews.com has an article on Steve Maneri, who hopes he can survive the 'numbers game' and make the final roster.
Matt Goisman of WEEI.com has highlights from SI's Peter King, who was interviewed during the mid day show. King talked about a variety of topics, along with the fact that he feels Albert Haynesworth is going to be a force playing next to Vince Wilfork in this defense this season.
Christopher Price of WEEI.com points out that Belichick once again said that Haynesworth is 'day-to-day' and didn't have much more to say about when he'd be back in action.
The Houston Chronicle has an article from the Associated Press on Haynesworth, and writes that the defensive lineman's lawyer reportedly offered money to the waitress that is suing Haynesworth, so she would help convince the government to drop her sexual abuse case against him.
And finally, Richard Holder of the St. Petersburg Times writes that after Mason Foster leveled Chad Ochocinco with a forearm and was called for a personal foul, Ochocinco Tweeted back and praised Foster, and offered to pay his fine if there was one.
That's it for this morning. We'll have some updates later this afternoon.
