The National Football League’s most historic franchise and the NFL’s most decorated Head Coach came together today as the Green Bay Packers welcomed Bill Belichick’s New England Patriots for a week of joint practices and Pre-Season game Saturday night at Lambeau Field.
The Patriots check in to Lambeau.
It was a warm and breezy day as the teams worked out for almost two and a half hours making it the longest Packer practice of the summer. Because of the warmth, the Packers pulled on their white, road jerseys and had the Patriots work with the dark navy shirts. The teams warmed up on opposite sides of the Don Hutson Center, the Packers on Ray Nitschke Field and the Patriots on Clarke Hinkle Field. They finally came together after about 40 minutes. It looked every bit the typical joint practice that are becoming so common across the league. In fact, the Patriots have packed for a two week trip. After working in Green Bay through Saturday night’s game at Lambeau, the team will stay in town one more night before departing to Nashville for another joint practice week with the Tennessee Titans.
Packer wide receivers wanted to make sure the packed bleachers at Nitschke were ready to help as they led cheers in the north end sections.
On the medical front, a good number of players were held out including healthy scratches like David Bakhtiari, De’Vondre Campbell and Kenny Clark. Other players out of action included Tyler Davis, Luke Tenuta, both expected to wind up on season ending injured reserve, Tyler Goodson, Tariq Carpenter, Innis Gaines, Eric Stokes, and new to the list, Bo Melton with a hamstring pull. I noticed only one injury during practice. Jayden Reed, attempting to come back for an underthrown ball, landed hard on his chest and he appeared to be tapping at it when led off the field by the team’s training staff.
There were a handful of team periods scheduled around special team sessions and split group drills. The defensive units carried the play on both ends of the field. The Patriots had a hard time with Green Bay’s number one unit while New England also made life difficult for Jordan Love and company with the usual amounts of odd looks, line twists and pressure packages. Both Love and center Josh Myers after practice both talked about how beneficial it is having to deal with a unique system like New England’s. It tested Love on assessing the alignments and matchups and for Myers, the blocking call declarations, Josh telling me it was great work for both.
While the offense had trouble moving consistently, they did strike for a couple of eye opening plays. Love hit Christian Watson on a deep corner crossing route to the left with a beautiful pass. Watson ran away from the Pat’s number one pick, corner Christian Gonzalez and beat help coverage from veteran safety Jalen Mills. Another interesting wrinkle was unveiled in the red zone when rookie tight end Luke Musgrave took an end around handoff which took everyone by surprise, especially when he hit the corner with ease because of his speed.
The Packer defense kept Mac Jones and the New England offense out of the end zone on ten straight plays from inside the 20.
Two minute drives wrapped up the day. Neither defense gave up a touchdown although it looked like Malik Heath made it in by laying out for a pass thrown by Sean Clifford right at the front pylon. Officials ruled him down just outside the goal line and the offense couldn’t get another snap off before time ran out.
The breeze played a role in the continuing saga of rookie kicker Anders Carlson. Downwind, he went five for five moving from the extra point kick of 33 yards out, to a 51 yarder. Into the wind later, it was a different story. Love’s two minute drive got him into position for a game winning 40 yard kick but like many of his misses this summer, sailed wide right.
Practicing a run on field goal attempt later, Carlson’s 43 yard lifted up high and the wind literally stopped the ball midfield well short of the goal posts.
Unlike last week’s dust ups in Cincinnati involving Elgton Jenkins and a couple of Bengals, today’s practice was well behaved and very business like.
Both coaches held media sessions before practice and it was Belichick’s answer to a question about coming to Green Bay for a little work that is my favorite sound bite to post. The six time Super Bowl winner is an avid historian of the NFL and that wasn’t lost on him when arriving in the league’s smallest and oldest market that oozes pro football history.
Bill Belichick and Rich Bisaccia talk shop after practice Wednesday.
The teams will do it again Thursday morning at 10:30 on Nitschke Field, take a break on Friday and wrap up the week together with a 7:00 PM kickoff at Lambeau Field on Saturday night.
