For more than a week the New England Patriots have been beating up on each other. Tom Brady and the offense against the Patriot defense, which has given the offense all it could handle.
Finally, they will have someone else to knock heads with. New England is traveling to Detroit on Sunday with as many as three practices to start the week before the Patriots and Lions take part in the first game of their preseasons on Thursday night.
“It’s tough man, but I think for us as a team, it gives us the first chance to be together,” Devin McCourty said. “We’re going at each other and I think once you go to a joint practice, it’s the first time you get to kind of unify as a team.”
Safety Patrick Chung agreed.
“We’ll get to see where we are as a team,” Chung said. “So, we’ve just got to go out there and take it as if we’re going there for business.”
It’s an aspect of the preseason many of the players look forward to not only for the camaraderie they build together, but also for the competition they face.
“I enjoy them,” David Andrews said. “I think they’re really good, especially when you’ve got a good group to work with that’ll really go out there and compete, work together, try to improve in those two or three days.”
And despite no obvious long term implications like playoff seeding on the line, McCourty said there will be no taking it lightly. In any phase of the game.
“You go down there and you’re trying to win every period, whether it be special teams, offense, defense,” McCourty said. “We’re cheering each other on.”
It will be the first part of a two-week period where the Patriots preseason consists mostly of joint practices. Upon getting back to Foxboro at the end of the week, the Patriots will only have a few days before traveling to Nashville for a session with the Tennessee Titans before their Saturday night preseason game.
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