Link|Comments (0) By Mike Reiss, Globe Staff December 5, 07 08:45 AM
Coming off a Monday night win in Baltimore, the Patriots have altered their practice schedule this week. The big change comes today. The team is not scheduled to practice, and instead will follow a normal "Monday-like schedule."
Players will still be present at Gillette Stadium, but the focus will be more on conditioning in the weight room, as well as on film breakdown.
After his team has played three straight prime-time games, Coach Bill Belichick made the point on his regularly scheduled radio interview on WEEI this week: "We're a tired team right now. We're a tired team. We played three consecutive night games and three of our last four games we've come from behind in the fourth quarter to win. I think we need to try to find a way to get some energy back."
Wednesday is usually the hardest work day of the week for players. That is when they get the game-plan, and in recent weeks, Belichick has still had the team in full pads on Wednesdays for full contact work, with a focus on first and second down.
This week, the team will presumably push that work into Thursday, meaning a normal four days of practice will be condensed into three.
Today's media schedule:
11 a.m. -- Bill Belichick conference call
12:10 p.m. -- Steelers player conference call
12:45 p.m. -- Steelers coach Mike Tomlin conference call
We'll plan on passing along some updates along the way.
