Home sweet home.

After ten days on the road, with long stayovers in Seattle and Oakland, the Patriots finally touched down at Logan airport at 4 a.m. this morning.

With consecutive road games against the Seahawks and Raiders the past two weeks, Coach Bill Belichick opted to keep the team on the road through the week, and train in California, rather than returning to Massachusetts after the Seattle game. It's the second time this year the team has stayed on the west coast over a two-week road trip, after flying cross-country to play the San Diego Chargers and San Francisco 49ers earlier in the season.

The strategy appears successful The Patriots are 3-1 against the west coast this year, though that may have more to do with the woeful caliber of the Seahawks, Raiders, and 49ers than it does with the travel arrangements.

Safety Brandon Meriwether thought the tactic kept the team fresh.
"I think it kept a lot more energy that we didn't make the flight back and forth," Meriwether said. "Flying back and forth back and forth [would have] taken a lot more out of us."

Running back Sammy Morris, a veteran of many coast-to-coast flights over his nine years in the league, found himself missing home over the long stretch away, and he felt like he had to make it up to his kids. In the airport, his teammates ribbed him for the large bag of toys he was dragging around -- souvenirs for his three children and wife.

"I had this bag of kid's stuff, some stuff I bought while I was in California. And some stuff for my wife," he said. "It's tough to be away for that long. As you can tell from my voice, I'm still a wreck. My throat's killing me, my body hurts."

His priorities for today?
"I'm just lounging around the house," an exhausted Morris said.