Albert Haynesworth speaks to the media following his preseason debut last night.
On whether him being substituted in and out is about conditioning: "It's not conditioning. And what we do here - which is pretty good, I mean unbelievable, it will help you – is that we rotate a lot. We have a lot of depth. We had good depth at Tennessee, but here, we have great depth. We have guys that go to any other team and start. Like coach tells, like Pep [Pepper Johnson], he tells us, ‘Go as hard as you can for however many plays. If that's three, four plays, do that, come out and we'll have someone else send another wave of attack in.' That's what we're going to do, I'm going to play as hard as I possibly can. When I get gassed, I'm going to come out."
On if he and Andre Carter talk to each other about playing for the Patriots: "Yeah, we were talking, just about how different it is and how we really like this place. To me, it's a career-saving place for me to come. I had no idea it would be like this, but it's unbelievable and I wish I kind of took two years ago and came here."
Shaun Ellis talks to the media about how he feels after his first game action with the Patriots, and if getting some snaps before the regular season was important.
"I feel good, I feel good. They did a great job of getting me in shape and doing the things they need to do to get me ready. It's a tremendous organization, everybody here has treated me with the utmost respect, so I feel good about going into Monday night."
"Yeah, it was, just because I had to work on my timing live. It's just one of those things…you have to get out there and get the flow of the game and just get used to playing in a Patriots uniform, to see how they operate, go about things on game day. It was fun. I learned a lot too, being on the sidelines, just how they go through coaching changes and all that stuff."
TEAM TALK
- Game Notes: Patriots vs. Giants.
- Post Game Presser: Bill Belichick (11.08 min.video) plus Transcript.
- Post Game Quotes: Patriots and Giants.
- Patriots Today - Assessing the Pats. (4.03 min. video)
- Locker Room Uncut - Thoughts from Haynesworth, Meriweather and others. (3.18 min. video)
LOCAL LINKS
- Mike Reiss gives us his initial reaction to Giants 18, Pats 17.
- Shalise Manza Young saw shrewdness and foresight in Belichick's strategy of playing his starters last night.
- Ian Rapoport says the starters can feel good heading into the season, even if the reserves coughed up a 14-point lead in a six-minute span.
- Mark Farinella recaps the final preseason 'sleeper', and notes Belichick has 11 days to fine tune the team he'll be talking into the regular season.
- Zuri Berry lists out the play-by-play action from last night's final tuneup of the season.
- Paul Kenyon tells us the Patriots accomplished much of what they wanted to do last night.
- Karen Guregian notes Albert Haynesworth is drinking the Kool-Aid. He’s bought in, hook, line and sinker to the Patriots Way and is loving every minute of it.
- Monique Walker reports Albert Haynesworth's debut was worth the wait, as he shakes off the rust and gets back in playing form.
- Jim Donaldson focuses on Albert Haynesworth's long-anticipated first appearance in a Patriots uniform Thursday night.
- Tom E. Curran notes the Patriots rolled out some daunting personnel in the first half of Thursday's preseason finale.
- Tom E. Curran says the 2011 preseason - aka the Brandon Meriweather Cut Watch - concluded Sunday with Meriweather mystified by speculation that he'll be cut.
- Danny Picard focuses on Mike Wright, getting back on the field and into the swing of things.
- Mary Paoletti reports on left tackle Nate Solder playing on the right side in New England's fourth preseason game.
- Greg A. Bedard puzzles over the fit of the final pieces into this year's roster.
- Julian Benbow reports WRs Matthew Slater and Brandon Tate both hope to make the final roster.
- Jeff Howe writes about the strange atmosphere in the locker room, with players stressing out about the impending cuts.
- Chris Forsberg recaps the return of the Andruzzi's for a 9/11 tribute at Gillette Stadium last night.
- Christopher Price tells us ten things we learned Thursday: Normalcy returning to NFL.
- Christopher Price tells us what went right and what went wrong in the Pats preseason loss to the Giants.
- Mike Reiss gives his three up and three down for the Patriots.
- Mark Farinella tells us who's hot and who's not from the game.
- Mary Paoletti picks out the Best & Worst from Giants 18, Patriots 17.
- Mike Reiss charts the first-half snaps for offensive players in the Patriots' season finale.
- Mike Rodak looks at which players were part of all four, three, or two of the "big four" special teams units last night.
- Paul Kenyon says lessons learned in preseason can help when facing the same opponent in the regular season.
- Shalise Manza Young Patriots Notebook: Patriots continued the safety shuffle last night; Brandon Meriweather admits he doesn't know his situation; In Foxboro for mere hours, DB Antwaun Molden played in the second half last night with three tackles and two pass breakups; The D-line rotation was more in line with what has been expected since the team brought in a bunch of new players; Shane Vereen suited up for the first time.
- Ian Rapoport Patriots Notebook: Brandon Meriweather didn't play until the fourth quarter last night; The Albert Haynesworth era has begun; Shaun Ellis and Mike Wright also played for the first time; Matthew Slater replaced the injured Wes Welker and played well with his time; Rookies Ras-I Dowlling and Shane Vereen made their debuts; Nate Solder played right tackle for a half, while Sebastian Vollmer sat out.
- Kirk Minihane ranks the 10 best quarterbacks in the NFL today. Brady the best and Peyton Manning 6th.
NATIONAL NEWS
- NFL Game Center: New York Giants at New England Patriots. Recap, analysis, stats and highlight clips.
- Tom Weir (USA Today) Utility company says Patriots didn't get favoritism after Irene.
- John Clayton (ESPN) Ranking NFL starting quarterbacks.
- Andy Benoit (NY Times) 2011 NFL Season previews.
- Scott Kacsmar (Cold Hard Football Facts) Regression: The best and worst teams (1995-2010).
- Michael David Smith (ProFootballTalk) NFL details its 9/11 remembrance plans.
- Staff Debate (NFL.com) Five in, five out: Will NFL playoff parity trend continue?
- Jack Bechta (Nat'l Football Post) Access Granted: Are we seeing a more media friendly NFL?