Leftover Patriots observations, insights and more from the Bay Area.
— We made it.
Super Bowl Sunday.
Finally time for football, right?
Not so fast.
A week in the Bay Area uncovered plenty about the Patriots, from Mike Vrabel’s zingers in team meetings, Stefon Diggs’ extreme regularity, Drake Maye’s secret weapon juice machine, the backstory behind Wes Welker’s famous “foot soldiers” press conference, what it’s like to follow this team at the Super Bowl and how the staff brought parts of home to establish a comfort and routine this week.
And yet, there’s more.
Enjoy 10 leftover notes and thoughts from the week that led to Super Bowl LX:1. Antonio Gibson, recovering
Remember him?
Antonio Gibson was in the Bay Area this week, and all signs point to a healthy recovery from the torn ACL he suffered during the Patriots’ win at Buffalo in Week 5, perhaps the defining win of their regular season. Following a typical recovery timeline, the veteran running back could be in line to return Week 1 next season.2. Vrabel meeting leftovers pt. I
OK, back to Foxboro.
In his team meetings, now famous for Vrabel cracking on players, occasionally getting rookie left tackle Will Campbell fined and more, the head coach has a phrase he likes when showing clips of an explosive play.
“He gone!” Vrabel will shout.
“It’s something simple,” Pats left tackle Vederian Lowe said. “But it makes me laugh.”3. Vrabel meeting leftovers pt. II
But the Patriots don’t just pull plays from last week or the week before that for this reel. Vrabel and Streicher will go years back into the archives to make a point about rare plays that could affect their next game.
“(Vrabel) will show plays throughout the year, from the previous week or three years ago, four years ago or the Super Bowl,” Pats outside linebackers coach Mike Smith said. “He really thinks about every situation that could come up in the game. And then things he’ll just call out as flat-out dumb plays. Like, ‘what the f— was this guy thinking?’”4. Defensive disrespect
One of the more common Patriots storylines this week covered both the rise of their defense in the postseason, and the perceived slights players admitted have motivated their play.
Inside linebacker Christian Elliss, who is more reserved by nature but unafraid of a microphone, pinpointed exactly who is giving the Patriots bulletin-board material.
“It hasn’t really even been other teams. You know, most of the time you can look at other teams like, ‘Oh, look at what this player said.’ Most of the time it’s been reporters,” Elliss said. “And for us, we’re just going to use it as fuel to the fire.”5. The coaches’ Dunkin’ run
During a regular game week, Tuesdays are the longest work day for NFL coaches. Especially in New England.
Patriots coordinators and assistants will spend upward of 16 hours building a game plan for the following Sunday, a process that requires statistical study, film review, meetings, discussion and debate.
