Preparations intensify

FOXBOROUGH – The Patriots are set to practice in full pads today as part of a Wednesday-like schedule, meaning the bulk of the game-plan for Saturday night’s playoff game will be installed.

Patriots coach Bill Belichick held his daily press conference (10:50 a.m.) and opened by touting the Jaguars’ all-around strength.

“In the second half of the season, the last third of the season, they pretty much led the league in just about everything, offensively and defensively – points scored, points allowed, yards, [fewest] yards allowed, you name it,” he said, also noting the Jaguars are one of the NFL’s least penalized teams.

“It’s kind of like a regular Wednesday for us. We’re on the road. We need a good week of preparation against a real good football team.”

Belichick was asked a variety of questions – from Richard Seymour’s improvement, to Tedy Bruschi’s all-around impact. One of the final questions was regarding the surprising retirement of Redskins coach Joe Gibbs today.

Belichick touched on one aspect of Gibbs’ coaching that seemed to have an impact around the league.

“When Joe started out in ’81, he kind of started out running the two-back offense, more of a traditional offense. I want to say they were 0-5 or something like that, and he just went to the one-back offense that he had worked on with Don [Coryell] in San Diego, and he has really been a one-back coach ever since. I don’t want to say he was the founder of it, or invented it, but he certainly popularized it and was very successful with it,” Belichick said.

"That of course led to a lot of the coaches who left his system, people like Dan Henning and Joe Bugel and so forth, who went on to become head coaches with other teams, to take that system or elements of it with them. I think a lot of the one-back offense goes back to not only Coryell but also to Gibbs and the success he had with it. I know from when I was at the Giants as the defensive coordinator, it started off as just kind of Washington and everyone else was mainly two-back, in '82 and '83. It really expanded into more one-back, so I think he popularized that. He really made his mark as an offensive coach. ...

"I have a lot of respect for Joe, competed against him for a long time. He's a true Hall of Famer."

In the locker room, OLB Mike Vrabel, LG Logan Mankins, CB Ellis Hobbs, LB Adalius Thomas, RB Kevin Faulk, WR Donte’ Stallworth and TE Kyle Brady were a few players drawing larger media crowds.

In addition, Seymour and Bruschi held press conferences in the media workroom.