Projo Pats Blog

A few notes from Patriots coach Bill Belichick's morning press conference today at Gillette Stadium:

Given the Pats' upcoming preseason game against Tampa Bay, Belichick says that the team's schedule this week will be similar to a regular-season routine.

"It's kind of a good chance for us to transition a little bit into our regular-season routine from an organizational standpoint and for the players, from a preparation standpoint, kind of the routine that they would have getting ready for a game. Our next two games are back-to-back, they're on real short weeks, so we really don't have an opportunity to do that. So that's part of what we're doing here today."

"I'm excited about playing Tampa," Belichick continued. "I think it's a good opportunity for us for a lot of reasons, like I mentioned yesterday. Just the quality of the team. Had a good preseason game with them last year. The scheme that they use. Going down to warm weather, give our conditioning levels a little bit of a challenge against a good football team that does a lot of things well."

Belichick was asked about the penalty lap that the defensive unit ran toward the end of yesterday's practice:
"That was a mistake they made. It was a team mistake, so everybody thought about it while they ran around the field."

Belichick said he started using penalty laps when he was with the Giants:

"It just gives everybody a chance to think about what happened while they're running around the field. The guys who made the mistake (can) maybe get some advice from the guys who are running that don't feel like running."

When it was suggested that the loud cheers from the crowd while they players were running might be counterproductive in that it might be promoting more mistakes, Belichick replied:
"No, I think the guys that are running don't really care too much about the crowd. I think they're thinking about what just happened and why they're running and maybe trying not to run again. So I think that that cheering kind of goes over their heads. I hope it does anyway."

Asked if he addressed the defensive unit after the lap, Belichick said, "Definitely, I said something to them. It's not what we're looking for and the more those things happen then the laps just keep accumulating. One (lap) today, two tomorrow, four the next day. Eventually, we'll get the message."

Belichick said he is not sure if Matt Gutierrez will be read to practice with the team today. The second-year quarterback has not practiced since last Thursday's game against Baltimore.

"He's day to day," Belichick said. "I'm sure he'll be back out there soon. He's a tough kid and he's working very hard to try to be ready to go, so I don't think it will be too long. But I don't know whether it will be today or not."

When asked if he had gotten hurt against Baltimore, Belichick said he got "a little bruise."

At this very moment, Gutierrez is down on the field at Gillette throwing passes.

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