FOXBOROUGH - After a sleepy start to day 7 of Patriots training camp, some signs of life, in the form of irritation/frustration developed. At the tail end of one-on-one drills between wide receivers and cornerbacks, DeVante Parker and Kendrick Bourne celebrated a little too loudly for cornerback coach Mike Pellegrino, so the former collegiate lacrosse player decided to approach those two angrily.
There was never an actual physical confrontation, that was stopped by a mass of humanity from all sides, offense, defense and members of the coaching staff. Yet while we may not be in the dog days of summer just yet — Ja’Whaun Bentley reminds us we’re a long way from that — this altercation may have lit a spark, one that continued later in practice. Parker was again a central figure, remarking that it was “about time” the defense stopped the offense in the red zone (editor’s note: I don’t know what Parker was watching through the first week). Post practice, linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley smiled this was all in a day’s work.
“A little trash talk,” he said. “I feel like that’s kind of the beauty of the game. When we’re going against each other, it’s mano a mano, we going offense/defense, but at the end of day, we all come together at the end. We’re just trying to form what we’re trying to form, trying to form an identity.”
Bentley declared himself the team’s best trash talker, for what it’s worth, and said there is value to it.
“When you’re going against each other, trying to get into their head a little bit, try to figure out what makes them tick, that’s always fun. Adds a little sauce to the game.”
During the aforementioned red zone chatter, Bentley and the rest of the first-team defense showed they were up for the physical task, twice stuffing running back Kevin Harris on interior runs. The offense was once again working with a remade line, one that had Kody Russey and Atonio Mafi at guard, flanking center David Andrews. Conor McDermott lined up at right tackle and Riley Reiff was at left (Trent Brown only did conditioning today). They were no match for a defensive unit that filled in the gaps behind an immovable nose tackle, Carl Davis.
“Don’t let ‘em score,” said Bentley of the mindset. “Obviously, we’re trying to protect each other when we come to goal line period and things like that. But you also get a… that’s probably the most realistic look you’re going to get in practice. So, at the end of the day, if a team were to drive down the field and we get to the goal line, we have to know how to stand up as a defense and get in the end zone as an offense. It kind of goes hand-in-hand.”
As Bentley references, this is also an important area for the offense, which was anemic in the red zone a season ago. Receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster, who made a beautiful toe-drag swag catch in the back of the end zone off a nicely feathered throw by Mac Jones, is one of a couple new targets added this offseason to give this unit some life, and he’s been encouraged by the last couple days of work.
“There’s a big difference between putting up 3 points versus 7 points,” he said. “It’s nice that we can put some touchdowns into that.”
While it’s still clearly the defense consistently getting the better of the offense, there have been more plays strung together by why you’d consider the first-team “O.”
“Keep stacking good plays,” advised Smith-Schuster. “It’s what we are all about. Having fun with it. Having energy behind it.”
Even if some of that energy rubs the defense the wrong way.