Pats Pulpit
Wearing their Nor’Easter-themed Rivalry helmets, the New England Patriots encountered some fitting temperatures on Tuesday. It was cold in Foxborough. In fact, it was cold enough for head coach Mike Vrabel to offer moving practice to the team’s indoor facility.
The Patriots’ players were not interested in that. The session remained outdoors, even with temperatures in the 30s.
“It’s just part of playing up here,” said quarterback Drake Maye afterwards. “It was important for us to get out there and embrace being in this weather. I think it’s good to be able to practice in it. It’s an advantage.”
The Patriots are set to play in freezing conditions on Thursday night, welcoming the New York Jets to Gillette Stadium for a prime time AFC East clash. Temperatures at kickoff are projected at 38 degrees, which would make for the team’s coldest game so far this season.
Chances are, however, that that will not remain the team’s only cold weather game this season. That is particularly true if New England manages to host a playoff game for the first time in six years, and the odds of that happening are looking pretty good at the moment.
In order to be ready for challenges like that, or any others coming up down the stretch, Maye and the Patriots know that proper preparation is vital. That is precisely why practice was not moved inside on Tuesday.
“It’s, shoot, not taking shortcuts. Not letting little things lack or slack,” the second-year quarterback said. “I think the biggest thing is to stay with what we’ve been doing, try to keep the same mentality. [Mike Vrabel] asked today to go inside and we wanted to go outside. Just trying to not let the little things go and know that these things will matter and have mattered for us in the past and I think will show up again.”
For the Patriots’ head coach, the team’s attitude is not a coincidence but rather the result of the tone being set from the top down.
“I think it’s the leadership,” Vrabel explained. “It starts with the coaches being able to give them a clear message. I think what the expectations are, and I think the consistency, they’ve appreciated that.”
The Patriots’ first-year head coach went on to provide another example of his team’s “no shortcuts” mindset. Vrabel asked his team if it wanted to move a meeting around in order to give his players more recovery time, but they once again did not pick him up on the offer.
“Trying to just move the time back to give them some more rest, but not shorten the meetings,” Vrabel said. “I said, ‘Hey, I can give up 25 minutes on Thursday in the squad.’ They all were like, ‘No, that’s an important meeting.‘ The leaders were like, ‘That’s an important meeting. We do the mental performance. We like the questions and all that.’ I said, ‘OK, then we’ll figure out a way to make the schedule.’
“I just used...
