New England has a way to go as it continues its endless pursuit of perfection.
New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) wipes his brow after the conclusion of training camp practice at the NFL football team's facility in Foxborough, Mass., Thursday, Aug. 2, 2012.FOXBOROUGH – The New England Patriots are ready to stop beating up on each other and start beating up on else.
With the New Orleans Saints set to arrive in Foxborough to begin joint practices Tuesday, the Patriots have finished installing all of their offensive and defensive sets and are now focused on the long process of tuning things to the key of perfection.
“We need to start getting ready for them and that will be part of the week’s process as well as trying to evaluate how we’re doing now that we’ve had an opportunity to pretty much get everything installed and get multiple reps on it,” coach Bill Belichick said. “Hopefully we go out there and execute it to a decent level.”
As New England enters its second week of training camp, it’s clear that the team has a ways go before being deemed game ready. The defense has several hiccups to overcome and the offense has struggled to move the ball at the machine-like level of efficiency its accustom to.
Quarterback Tom Brady had an uncharacteristically sloppy practice Thursday as he struggled to hit his marks in all levels of the field, and the offense was so out of sync running its two-minute offense Sunday that Brady loudly proclaimed “what are we doing?” after a series of unsatisfactory plays.
Then, after a missed connection in the end zone with tight end Aaron Hernandez, Brady could be seen across the field gesturing toward Hernandez as he laid into him.
“We’re just trying to get things right. We have a game here in three days,” Brady said. “We all gotta be on the same page. A lot of communication, and it’s not always right out here. We’re trying to get it right.”
It’s odd to witness an offense that posted 5,084 passing yards last season struggle to move the ball through the air, but Brady explained that it’s impossible for a team to pick up where it left off following a long layoff.
“You take six months off. There’s quite a bit of time between February and when we start,” Brady said. “There’s a new group, we’re doing new things. The communication is different.”
Still, the Patriots are confident that they will get to where they need to be in time for New Orleans arrival, and their guests couldn’t be coming at a better time as the doldrums of training camp have started to wear thin on this group.
Three separate fights broke out last week between the offense and the defense, and players have started to complain that members on the other side of the ball have started to become familiar with their tendencies, making it impossible to get a true representation of what areas of their game need to be worked on.
Once the Saints depart, the Patriots are hoping that they will have a good idea of where those improvements need to be made as they continue to prepare for the upcoming season.
“They’re obviously an outstanding football team all the way around – 13-3 last year,” Belichick said. “They set several historical records in the National Football League. I think their proficiency is pretty well documented. Definitely a big challenge.”
But even after their houseguests fly south, a new laundry list of inefficiencies will be slapped on the Patriots players’ plates as the pursuit of perfection turns in a new direction.
“As Bill says,” wide receiver Donte Stallworth said, “there is no light at the end of the tunnel.”