Patriots feeling sky high
With vacation looming, they focus on Denver
By Michael Smith, Globe Staff, 11/3/2003
DENVER -- It's been said that 90 percent of the game is half mental. That's 100 percent true of tonight's "Monday Night Football" game between the Patriots and Broncos at Invesco Field at Mile High.
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The Patriots have a lot on their minds besides complex schemes and innovative game plans. There's a list of things they have to remind themselves to forget. More stuff they can't afford to forget to remember. Other things they have to be mindful to ignore. Understood?
New England is coming up on its bye week, and Bill Belichick has done his best to make certain his players don't overlook the struggling, beaten-up Broncos (losers of three of four, all those losses on the road) while looking forward to their well-deserved vacation and suffer a letdown and a 12th loss in 13 trips to Denver. Just as Miami in Miami was motivation in and of itself, likewise, Belichick has the team focused on "Denver in Denver." Yet while the Patriots have won four straight, they struggled, particularly on offense, with the Giants and Browns. Pay attention to how sharp they are to begin tonight's game.
Win a fifth consecutive game, and it promises to be a pleasant two weeks at Gillette Stadium leading up to the Sunday night showdown with Bill Parcells's Cowboys. Go into the bye on a losing note, and the happy feelings of the last month go bye-bye.
During their Super Bowl season, the Patriots went into their open week riding a five-game winning streak. Last year, they had to wait two weeks to try to snap a three-game skid. They failed, dropping a fourth consecutive game -- to Denver. "The thing about losing, it's on your mind all week," offensive lineman Damien Woody said. "So imagine three, four weeks of being just miserable."
Give Belichick credit for practicing what he preached. "I'm not thinking about the bye week," he snapped Friday. "I don't really know when the bye week is and I don't really care when it is. It's Denver in Denver. We haven't talked about it. We haven't thought about it. We haven't given it two minutes worth of thought.
"I said one thing [to the team]. I said, `I don't want to hear anything about it.' Let's talk about Denver, that's it. That was the extent of it. I don't want to talk about that. I don't want to talk about Dallas. I don't want to talk about Miami. I don't want to talk about the Jets. I don't want to talk about Jacksonville. I don't want to talk about anything other than Denver. There's nothing else."
Nothing gets players hyped quite like "Monday Night Football." Al Michaels. John Madden. National television. Great. Now forget about it, was Belichick's directive. Remember, Denver in Denver. Thus there was minimal talk last week about the bright lights. Almost as minimal as the talk about the Broncos' home-field advantage or the Denver altitude. As far as the Patriots are concerned, they're playing in a vacuum, and they avoided being sucked into discussion about anything other than the opponent.
"[`MNF'] throws you into a little bit of a different routine," Belichick said. "It's something that we have done here a couple of times a year for the last couple of years, so I think we're used to a little bit of a change in the routine. Denver in Denver. That's about as tough as it gets."
The Patriots have had a difficult time with the Broncos the last two years, losing 31-20 at Invesco two years ago and 24-16 at Gillette last year. A lot has changed with those guys, though. Danny Kanell is the quarterback. Ed McCaffrey is questionable with a quadriceps injury. Instead of Ian Gold and John Mobley, the Broncos are lining up with Donnie Spragan and Jashon Sykes at linebacker. But forget about it they must, and remember Clinton Portis, Rod Smith, and Trevor Pryce.
They're keeping in mind what the Broncos have done to them lately -- keeping it in the backs of their minds. Last year's film? Still on the shelf.
"We didn't look at that game at all," said wide receiver Deion Branch, who'll be asked to pick up the slack if Troy Brown (doubtful, leg) sits. "I think going into this game, Coach wanted to put that behind us. Different team. It's a new year. Personnel is different on the field. He just wanted to make sure we didn't get caught up in that."
