Tom Brady is fired up about this team and says the Patriots are just getting warmed up.

"Football season hasn't even started yet," Brady told reporters Tuesday. "I keep telling you guys. We aren't even half the team that hopefully we're going to be at some point here in the next five, six weeks."

Bill Belichick talks to the media about the benefit of having a balanced offense.

I think that's the toughest thing for the defense to defend is when you've got to defend everything. You have to defend inside runs, outside runs, short passes, intermediate passes, deep passes, screens, reverses. If you can make a lot of things work than it's hard for the defense to say, ‘Well, we're going to take this away,' because there's so many other things that are a problem.

On the other hand, if you can do something real well and you can just keep doing it, or do a couple things real well - you don't have to do 20 things well, sometimes you can do one or two things well - and they complement each other, then that's hard for a defense to stop, too. It isn't all about how many things you can do; it's basically about how many things you can do well.

But I think, in this league, if you can only do one thing well, it's going to be hard against NFL defenses to make that go very far. It might get you a little ways, but sooner or later, somebody's going to be able to handle it and then you have to have something else.

Bill Belichick assesses the performance of Darius Butler, and plans for him going forward.

Well, we have confidence in all the guys we put out there. I think Darius did some good things. [It] wasn't perfect, but he's worked hard in practice and I think he's improved on some things that maybe weren't quite at the level that he would want them to be at earlier in the season. And those have been showing up better in practice. I thought he did some good things in the game.

The key for him is to keep working hard, stay focused and pay attention to little details in the techniques and executing the defense. He has a lot of talent. He's a smart kid, but it's about being able to apply it on the field and take those coaching points [from] practice and the meetings and make those part of the execution on the field on Sundays, or Thursdays.

TEAM TALK

• Erik Scalavino tells us what happened at yesterday's practice and offers some notes from the locker room.
• Patriots-Lions Tuesday Injury Report.
• Ask PFW: Defensive concerns.
• Pats-Colts draws the third-highest regular season ratings in franchise history.
• Tuesday Press Conferences: Bill Belichick (16.43 min. video) and Tom Brady (16.43 min. video) plus transcripts.
• Detroit Lions Conference Calls: Jim Schwartz (19.50 min. audio) and Ndamukong Suh (3.27 min. audio) plus transcripts.
• Patriots Today - Tuesday notes as Pats-Lions approaches. (3.29 min. video)
• Patriots Today - Johnson vs. Arrington. (2.44 min. video)
• Patriots Today - Brady reminisces. (2.21 min. video)
• Locker Room Uncut - Last thoughts before heading to Detroit. (2.53 min. video)
• Mike Nugent reports this week in "A Journey Through The Hall at Patriot Place" Gameday takes a look at QB Tom Brady's 2007 NFL Most Valuable Player Trophy.
• Help out the New England Patriots Alumni Club and win a VIP pass to the Patriots-Jets game on Dec. 6.

LOCAL LINKS

• Ian Rapoport gets the players' perspectives on playing in a Thanksgiving Day game, and what traditions they had growing up.
• Karen Guregian catches up with a rehabbing Leigh Bodden, who would have loved to play against his former team on Thanksgiving.
• Monique Walker notes BenJarvus Green-Ellis and Danny Woodhead are averaging 113 yards rushing per game to give the Patriots an option to complement Tom Brady’s arm.
• Mike Reiss offers his three keys for Pats-Lions.
• Christopher Price gives us ten things worth keeping an eye on in Thursday's Patriots-Lions game.
• Tom E. Curran looks at the key matchups for Pats-Lions on Thursday.
• Mike Reiss focuses on James Sanders' pick as the latest example of the Patriots making the big play.
• Mary Paoletti says the Patriots are ready for a possible Detroit trap.
• Jerry Thornton says there are plenty of reasons to be thankful this year.
• Mike Reiss reports the Patriots practice players of the week, Ross Ventrone, Brian Hoyer, Taylor Price and Pierre Woods, and lists the season breakdown.
• Mike Reiss takes a look at the snaps played by Patriots defenders in Sunday's 31-28 win over the Colts, while focusing on trends that could be a factor this week.
• Boston Herald Patriots Notebook: Stephen Gostkowski talks about his injury while handing out turkeys to families in need; Darius Butler felt pretty good about how he performed against Indy and Belichick agreed; Brady threw 14 of 26 passes out of the shotgun with a spread formation; Patriots talk about a phenom named Suh.
• Shalise Manza Young Patriots Notebook: Stephen Gostkowski had surgery Nov. 16 to repair his injured quad, doctors don't know when it happened; Leigh Bodden advises the young CBs on any issues they need help with; Tom Brady missed practice but talked aobut the challenges of a short week; Bill Belichick and Jim Schwartz heaped praise on each other; Lions' OL Gosder Cherilus was a BC standout and also played for Somerville High; Injury update.
• Mike Rodak catches a few players talking about how they will spend Thanksgiving with their families.
• Kirk Minihane answers his weekly Patriots mailbag.
• Mike Reiss answers his weekly reader mailbag, with plenty of insight here as usual.

NATIONAL NEWS

• Tim Graham (ESPN) Tom Brady: Patriots just getting warmed up.
• Steven Krasner (ESPN) McCourty, Suh on elite path.
• Mike O'Hara (Fox Sports) Lions have hands full with Brady, Patriots.
• Kevin Fishbain (Pro Football Weekly) An improved pass rush needs to emerge for woeful Patriots passing defense.
• Kevin Fishbain (Pro Football Weekly) Pats-Lions matchup of the day: WRs Calvin Johnson and Nate Burleson vs. CBs Devin McCourty and Kyle Arrington.
• Eli Kaberon (Pro Football Weekly) MVP Meter: Brady reaches the top.
• Vic Carucci (NFL.com) Bad behavior mars an otherwise exciting Week 11.
• Peter King (SI) MMQB Tuesday edition.

VIEW FROM DETROIT

• Carlos Monarrez (Detroit Free Press) Could Lions QB Matthew Stafford be like Phil Simms? Bill Belichick draws comparison.
• Chris McCosky (The Detroit News) Lions coach Jim Schwartz credits his career to Bill Belichick.
• Dave Birkett (Detroit Free Press) LIons' Ndamukong Suh out front on Pro Bowl ballots.
• Carlos Monarrez (Detroit Free Press) Lions' Peterman, team penalized at near-record pace.
• Tim Twentyman (The Detroit News) Penalties push Lions to question execution.
• Chris McCosky (The Detroit News) Lions RB Jahvid Best in pain, but practices anyway.
• Howard Ullman, AP (Detroit Free Press) Patriots promise they won't letdown vs. Lions.
• Dave Birkett (Detroit Free Press) LIons' No. 3 receiver needs to be more productive.