FOXBOROUGH – With a raging rainstorm hitting New England on Wednesday the Patriots moved their first official practice of Cardinals week inside the WIN Waste Innovations Field House to more closely mimic the indoor conditions they'll face in Arizona.
The team got a brief reprieve last week on their Week 14 bye week and now the message from the coaches and players is to lock in for the final four games of the season to end the year on a high note by building some positive momentum.
"Really, the goal remains the same, and that's to play our best football at the end of the year. That's the goal," said Jerod Mayo in the opening of his weekly press conference. "It's all about winning… It's all about going out there, playing complementary football, and that's what we want to see."
"We have a lot of young guys that this year haven't tasted a lot of winning, and so I think [winning] can build a lot of these young guy's confidence going into next year," said Hunter Henry. "So that's what we're trying to do, go get some wins against some good football teams in this back quarter of the season."
The Pats will kick off their final stretch of the season in Arizona, a place they won as recently as 2022 when quarterback Kyler Murray suffered a season-ending knee injury on the game's third play and New England rolled to a 27-13 victory.
Two years later Murray has recovered and is back under center, but after leading the Cards to a 6-4 start Arizona has lost three straight games, falling to 6-7 and finding their playoff hopes hanging by a small thread.
Rookie quarterback Drake Maye can expect to face a desperate defense looking to force him into mistakes. The Cardinals defense ranks 13th in points allowed and 14th in DVOA, above the league average, but they're 30th on third down and 19th in takeaways.
"They're flying around," said Maye. "It's hard not to see Budda Baker on film. He's flying around. He's a great player. They do a lot of different stuff and different fronts. They mix up coverages, play some man and bring all out [blitzes] on you. You've got a lot to prepare for and we've got a tough challenge."
Like his coach and captain, Maye sees this final post-bye stretch as an opportunity to build some momentum into the offseason.
"Nobody wants a season like this year again," said Maye. "I think there's definitely some urgency. You see it in those guys and you see it especially in the veterans and in me. As a quarterback, there's an urgency to get to that point and fix these things, work on them, get better and use these last four games as a stepping stool."
Practice Notes
Two players – Marcus Jones and Javon Baker – we missing from the opening periods of practice that were open to the media. The session inside the WIN Waste Management Field House was held in full pads and it was Cole Strange's first fully padded practice of the season and the final step before the newly activated Strange is ready to jump back into game action.
"With Cole, he has the flexibility to play center and guard, and hopefully he'll be up for the game this week," said Mayo. "He understands both of those positions, and I'm excited to see him. I'm excited to see him out there in full pads today at practice and excited to see him at the game, hopefully."
Quotes of Note
Joe Cardona on this weekend's Army-Navy game:
"I think now it's more important than ever. When you talk about the landscape of college football, when you talk about transfer portal and NIL, that takes up so much air in the conversation around games and this is a game where these players aren't worried about that. All they're worried about is going out there and playing for the guy next to them and playing to show the nation that that our country is in good hands."
Kendrick Bourne on Drake Maye:
"He's going to be phenomenal. And if you can't see it, then you need to wake up to it."
Hunter Henry on what the offense needs to improve:
"I think score touchdowns in the red zone. Number one, just not efficient enough in the red zone. I think obviously that's a glaring need that we all see, and we need to be better at and be able to execute down there… Everything comes a lot harder in the red zone so you just have to be on your details on everything."
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