From the immediate aftermath of the 18-12 loss to the Broncos last Sunday to now, one of the themes with the Patriots has been the lack of practice time of late.
Due to COVID-19, the Patriots only had one practice the week of the Broncos game and Bill Belichick kept referring to how the team needed to get on the practice not only right after the loss, but also in the days that followed.
This was very unlike him as he was almost using it as an excuse for the team's performance. Belichick is never one to make excuses and rarely harps on something for multiple days, so this was surprising.
Then came Cam Newton on Thursday.
“I’m saying we have a better preparation method with this week,” he said via video conference. “Not making any excuses, I’m just saying we put ourselves in a better situation to win. I’ll just say it like that. Not saying we didn’t have capabilities of winning last week, because we did. We had our opportunities. For us, as an offense, we know that our excuse basket is running real low. We’re getting guys back that we missed for weeks. Even though we’re missing a couple other guys, but we got enough to compete with anybody. And I mean, anybody.
“For us, it’s not necessarily about the team we’re facing. It’s just about us accepting the challenge of saying, ‘We haven’t played a turnover-free game yet.’ Let’s see what that looks like. It’s more or less saying, like ‘Let’s get back to getting into a weekly routine from each point of emphasis – from early downs, third downs, red zone, coaching points and this, that and the third’ – and having the ability to go out there and practice.
“So for us it’s not necessarily the team that we’re playing; more or less than our preparation going into the game and executing it when given the chance.”
Newton’s “excuse basket is running real low” line is referring to the team having a normal week of practice thus far and then getting several players back from injury/COVID on offense, especially on the offensive line with David Andrews and Shaq Mason both returning to practice this week.
While he’s not wrong at all, and it’s refreshing to see a Patriots player speak the truth, it does seem like it’s setting the team up to be in a tough spot if they lose. And the since practice wasn’t impacted this week, the same could be said for Belichick.
What happens if the Patriots do lose to the 49ers on Sunday? How should fans feel then? Important players returned and there were actual practice sessions, so would that mean the team is what it is — a below .500 team that is going to struggle to make the playoffs?
This is shaping out to be a very big game.
