Patriots Begin Joint Practices With Buccaneers
BOSTON (CBS) – The New England Patriots are wasting little time to get their joint practices with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers going.
The Pats arrived in Tampa Tuesday night, and took the practice field at 9 a.m. Wednesday morning. This is New England's second joint-practice venture of the preseason, also sharing the practice field with the New Orleans Saints in Foxboro prior to their two weeks ago.
Much like their time with the Saints, head coach Bill Belchick is looking forward to another learning process for his team.
"This is really good for us because we just played Monday night, we went through the film yesterday on our game with Philadelphia, so we don't really have much of a scouting report. We haven't watched any film on Tampa, we just know some of the basics and we're going to have to figure it out as we go," Belichick told the media early Wednesday morning.
"That's good. That's a realistic situation in games, of how they're using a particular player, what adjustments we have to make, what looks they gave us, how we would identify and handle those different looks the next time we go back out there. This will be a real good learning experience for us on the field in practice, just like it is in the game."
While many star players, like Tom Brady, Wes Welker and Rob Gronkowski, did not take the field on Monday night, this is a very quick turnaround for those that did. But Belichick sees it as a great character builder, and will help when the regular season hits.
Belichick On Short Turnaround:
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"This is training camp. The coaches are tired, the players are tired but we're going to have a short week during the season. We have a Sunday-Thursday game during the season," said Belichick, noting the Patriots hosting the Colts on November 18 followed by a Thanksgiving Day matchup with the Jets four days later. "That's what training camp is for, it's to suck it up and be mentally tough in whatever situations you have; if you're tired, you're sore, you travel, whatever it is. You block that out and focus on what you can control which is your performance and effort… that's the way it's going to be during the season."
"There are going to be plenty of weeks during the season that somebody is going to be tired or sore, some position is going to be short on numbers. You build your toughness and resiliency through training camp and that serves you well during the season," he added. "These guys came to camp in good condition... We're putting a challenge in front of them and we expect them to meet it."
