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TEAM TALK
- Erik Scalavino shares his notes and locker room chatter from Thursday at Gillette.
- Briana Palma catches up with three families who have traveled from Australia just to attend a Patriots game.
- Press Pass - Matthew Slater and Tim Wright on playoffs. (2.36 min. video)
- Patriots Today - Patriots focus on improving during bye. (2.17 min. video)
- Patriots Today - Throwback Thursday: Opposites attract. (5.40 min. video)
LOCAL LINKS
- Tom E. Curran looks at the current version of the defense and how it has evolved over the years under Belichick.
- Karen Guregan observes the Patriots defense doesn’t have the cachet or reputation of the Seahawks defense, but it has evolved into a unit high-powered offenses aren't so anxious to play.
- Doug Kyed notes Bill Belichick keeps finding new ways to keep the Patriots ahead of NFL's trends.
- Doug Kyed notes the players were surprised to have their New Year's Day practice canceled. Preparation starts for their yet-to-be-decided divisional round opponent Monday.
- Mike Reiss notes players enjoyed their unexpected 'practice' at the movies Wednesday.
- Mike Reiss serves up a few leftovers from the locker room before players took a three-day break.
- Mike Reiss thinks Nate Solder's injury shouldn't keep him out of any playoff action.
- Chad Finn is optimistic there's still time to call 2014 a Championship season.
- Phil Perry notes that Hightower and Jones are now eligible to negotiate new deals with the Patriots.
- Doug Kyed issues his Patriots 2014 awards and superlatives.
- Mike Reiss takes a look at the total 2014 offensive snaps and analyzes them by player and position.
- Doug Kyed reports Darrelle Revis shines in the Patriots' 2014 season-long pass-coverage stats.
- Mike Reiss posts the final penalty breakdown for New England: Patriots finished tied (with Denver) for fourth-most penalties at 120.
- Karen Guregian Patriots Notebook: Belichick took the team to see a private screening of "American Sniper" after Wednesday's scrimmage (director Clint Eastwood made sure of it for Belichick); Chandler Jones said he planned on spending the next few days self-scouting; Tom Brady wants the offense to play with a lot of confidence; Stephen Gostkowski is the all-time leading scorer in Patriots history; Players came in early yesterday for team meetings but were then let go for a long weekend.
- Jeff Pini thumbnails potential opponents for the Patriots next weekend to see which one the Pats should fear the most.
- Adam Kurkjian looks at the teams that beat the Patriots at home in the playoffs and what they had that those Patriots teams didn't.
- The AP picks each playoff team's main weakness and strength heading into Wild Card weekend.
NATIONAL NEWS
- Jenny Vrentas (The MMQB) Patriots’ Super Bowl hopes rest on Revis & Co.
- Jeffri Chadiha (ESPN) Playoff X factors: Emerging game-changers. Brandon Lafell for the Patriots.
- John Clayton (ESPN) 2014 All-Pro team: RT - Sebastian Vollmer.
- Michael David Smith (ProFootballTalk) Tom Brady: What Patriots did early in my career was amazing.
- Gregg Rosenthal (NFL.com) QB Index: Year-end rankings. No. 2: Tom Brady.
- Andy Benoit (The MMQB) Everything to know about Wild-Card weekend.
- Jason La Canfora (CBS Sports) Wild Card Game Rankings: Rivalries, subplots kick off 2014 playoffs.
- Kenneth Arthur (Sports on Earth) The NFL playoff upset potentials.
- John Clayton (ESPN) Super potential in wild-card round?
- Analysts (NFL.com) Around The NFL's picks: Wild Card weekend.
- Elliot Harrison (NFL.com) NFL Wild Card Weekend game picks.
- Mike Florio (ProFootballTalk) PFT’s Wild-Card picks.
- Experts (SI) 2014-'15 NFL Playoff Predictions: Our picks for Super Bowl XLIX.
- Richard Deitsch (The MMQB) The MMQB Media Awards.