Patriots running back Ezekiel Elliott takes a handoff from quarterback Mac Jones, while Coach Bill Belichick looks on during practice on Wednesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Morry Gash/Associated Press
There’s an air of positivity around the Patriots more than three weeks deep into training camp.
The team is still in Green Bay after two days of joint practices with the Packers before their second preseason game of the summer. Wednesday’s practice had some up-and-down moments. At best, it felt like a draw between the Packers and Patriots.
But something clicked in the time following Wednesday’s practice and before Thursday’s session. The Patriots came out energized and looking like a new team. The sideline was bringing energy. Quarterback Mac Jones was hitting deep passes. Young defensive backs were forcing incompletions. Trash talk was flowing.
“I think this was good,” Patriots Coach Bill Belichick said Friday morning. “We talk about some of the things that Green Bay was doing, some of the things we were doing, how to adjust them and how to make them better. We saw them and made some adjustments, and they did, too. They gave us a couple new looks on Thursday that we had to work through. It was really good work for all of us; good work for the coaching staff to see something on the field, correct it, go back out there later and practice, have it come up again and make the adjustment.
“For the team to be able to make those adjustments as well, those were great learning situations and communication on the respective sides of the ball between the coaches and players, players and players, and then there was obviously more of that in the meetings after Wednesday’s practice and before Thursday’s practice. We didn’t really have a scouting report here, obviously; it is what it is. The scouting report is going out there and practicing against them. So, it was great work all the way around, really beneficial.”
Of course, during the regular season, the Patriots won’t have the ability to play a game, go back that night and watch the film and do it all over again the next day the way they could in joint practices. But as Belichick mentioned, they will have film to pore over on their opponent before a game.
And Belichick was impressed with the Patriots’ ability to problem-solve out in Green Bay.
“That’s what we do. Figure out the problem, what it is. Identify it, make an analysis and then fix it,” Belichick said. “Again, that can be coaches, that can be players, a combination of both. I mean, there’s multiple things that could be involved there. But, that’s the game.
“It was a great experience. When you practice against the same players 30 times or whatever it’s been going back to the spring, you see the same guy every day, there’s the same team every day, there’s a lot less of that. There was a lot more of that up here in Green Bay, and like I said, it was good for all of us.”
More specifically, the Patriots have seen growth from their offense from the time training camp broke in late July. Once struggling in the red zone, the Patriots dominated in a shortened field Thursday in practice.
The session might have been Jones’ best as an NFL QB.
“I can’t state more emphatically that these guys have done a great job of learning and working with us, and we work with them,” Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien said Friday morning in a video conference call. “And I think it’s just really been a good process to this point.”
Now it’s about proving that the Patriots can continue to progress. They have another test in Saturday’s preseason game and more next week with joint practices and a preseason game scheduled with the Tennessee Titans.
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