After grinding through three games in 12 days, Patriots hit pause button

After three games in 12 days — and two games in the span of roughly 100 hours — the Patriots get a chance to catch their collective breath this weekend.

Bill Belichick has given the players the weekend off at least in part because of the way they responded to the recent condensed schedule — two wins in three games, including a 38-24 victory over the Colts on Thursday night.

“I thought they handled it well last week,” Belichick said on a conference call Friday when asked about the players’ ability to respond to the challenge of playing on a short week. “In the short amount of time that we had to prepare, I thought our players were focused and did a good job on it. Were we as well-prepared as we would’ve been on a Sunday game? No. Was Indianapolis? No. It is what it is.

“I think those (Thursday) games come along once a year. Every team has one. You get through it and you move on. I’d say that’s where we're at right now.”


The time away also allows the Patriots to heal up. Heading into Thursday night, the Patriots had several players questionable, including Rob Gronkowski (ankle), Josh Gordon (hamstring) and Eric Rowe (groin). Both Gronkowski and Gordon played Thursday, but the weekend should provide more time for them to get back to full strength, as well as hit the reset button before the work begins in earnest for the Chiefs on Oct. 14.

“We’ve had two games in five days. Everybody’s tired,” Belichick said. “Everybody worked hard the last five days, then (played) a late night game. Honestly, it takes you a couple of days to get your feet back on the ground after a game like that, just because you put so much into the Monday through Thursday, there's no chance at all after the game to have any kind of catch-your-breath. You just get right off the treadmill and jump onto another one and it’s already going pretty fast. It definitely takes a couple of days I think for everybody to kind of unwind and get your feet back under you and catch your breath.”

Also on the same call were offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels and de facto defensive coordinator Brian Flores. McDaniels was asked about the return of Julian Edelman, and how that might open things up for the Patriots. Edelman provide some early energy for the New England passing game, catching Tom Brady’s first pass of the night. While he had a third-drop drop in the first half, he ended up with seven catches on nine targets for 57 yards.

“He’s played in our offense, in this system with our quarterback for a long time,” McDaniels said of Edelman, who took his first significant snaps in game action since Super Bowl LI. “The strengths that he possesses and the things that he does well certainly allow us to do some things offensively. When we do them well, obviously it helps us move the ball and score points and try to get into a good rhythm. We always try to get into a good rhythm regardless of who we are throwing it to. But our overall execution (Thursday) … he helped us at the beginning and certainly made some plays throughout, but I’d say there’s plenty of things we need to improve on. But it’s good to have him back.”

As for Flores, he was asked about the stark contrast in the defensive splits Thursday night. In the first half, the Patriots allowed just three points, as the Colts were 2-for-6 on third downs and had just 141 totals yards of total offense. In the second half, Indy had 21 second-half points and cut New England’s sizable lead to a touchdown as Andrew Luck led three scoring drives down the stretch to turn a blowout into an unexpectedly close game.

“It’s always a goal to be consistent all the way throughout the game,” Flores said. “It's like what I tell our players — there's never been a perfect game played of football. Obviously, that was the case last night. We didn't play as well in the second half. We've just got to do a much better job. Once the game changes like that we've got to be able to adjust better than we did. Hopefully, we learn from that and the next time we get in that situation we'll be better.”

One of the things veteran Devin McCourty said after the win was the fact the defense did not do well when it became a “two-minute game,” a point Flores didn’t dispute.

“Like anything, that’s starts in the practice field and the film room,” Flores said when asked how that might improve going forward. “Obviously, we’ve taken a look at it and just kind of get an understanding of the mistakes we made and some of the things we can do better. They have a good quarterback and they made a couple of plays there. But at the same time we could have played some of those things better.

“We’ll work to improve those areas, two-minute, but not just that, two-minute, third down, red zone, there is so much we can improve on. Obviously, it starts with coaching, putting our guys in good position to make plays and we’ll continue to work to do that.”