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Bill's take

Patriots coach Bill Belichick was running about a half-hour late to his 11:20 a.m. press conference. He opened with the following statement:

“Sorry, I’m running a little late this morning. Do I get a mulligan on this one? Just kind of scrambling around a bit. We’re just going to go through our last day of preparations here for Arizona, get all the down-and-distance situations, red-area, goal-line, punt, all those things, try to get all that tuned up and ready to go. Like I said, I think this is a really good opportunity to play against a team that plays differently than we do and has a lot of skill. Those receivers -- [Anquan] Boldin, [Larry] Fitzgerald -- they had 2,800 yards, 17 touchdowns, whatever it is. Those guys are really good, plus [Bryant] Johnson. They’re a good skill group. With [Edgerrin] James down there, they have a very explosive offensive football team. That will be a good test for us. They like to blitz. They pressure just about all the time. There is no need to run any blitz periods in practice. Every play is pretty much a blitz. It will be a good opportunity, a good chance for us to see where we’re at against a different style of team. We’re looking forward to that. Hopefully we can improve on some things from last week, and look at a lot of players.”

A few other nuggets from Belichick:

* The team has had 26 practices since training camp opened (22 open to the public) and he feels the team has established a good base on which to work.

* He said he couldn’t name the 53 players who will make the roster at this time, but that there are about 40 players the team is pretty sure on.

* In focusing more on fundamentals in this camp, Belichick said the team has had less team work and group work in favor of individual work.

* Belichick cracked a few jokes when asked about Tom Brady’s rookie year in 2000 and his progression. He said Brady and Michael Bishop had a nice opportunity for some expanded repetitions, and that was when Bishop “had already been anointed the next Randall Cunningham, the next John Elway.”

MESSAGE TO FANS: The Patriots are reminding fans who normally park in the P9 lot on game days that the lot will be closed on Saturday night due to construction. Fans are encouraged to park in the P10 lot.

More to come after the team's 2:30 p.m. practice. Quarterback Tom Brady is expected to speak with the media after that workout.