2017 Texans Training Camp

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WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.V. — The training camp trip is made for days like Tuesday. The Patriots have journeyed to a home-made training-camp site at one of America’s classic old resorts, the 104-year-old Greenbrier, nestled in the fog-swept Allegheny Mountains, to practice with the Texans. Houston is wrapping its first training-camp summer here. Talk about history: A cold-war bunker was built below the resort in 1959 to house the U.S. Congress in the event of a nuclear war. That’s where the Patriots’ makeshift locker room is housed for their three practices here this week.

This was a sneaky cool day. The Patriots, winners of five Super Bowls this century, with the ageless Bill Belichick and Tom Brady at the helm, versus the Texans, with the number one defense in football last year, and the best defensive player in recent history, J.J. Watt, back from back surgery to fortify the pass rush.

You hear at some joint practices of fights between teams; you heard of some at the Jags-Bucs practice in Jacksonville this week. Not at the Greenbrier. The collegiality here was noticeable; that stemmed from the fact that Houston coach Bill O’Brien was a Patriots’ assistant on Bill Belichick’s staff from 2007 to 2011 and was Brady’s position coach for two years. “”How’s Colleen and the kids?” Brady asked O’Brien with a wide smile when he took the field Tuesday, mentioning O’Brien’s wife. Both coaches told their players that anyone who skirmished would be thrown out of practice, and there was nothing close in two-plus hours here.

O’Brien reveres Belichick, and the fraternal feel went further. Music plays at the vast majority of camps and team practices now, loud music, very often rap and hip-hop. But there was little of that. “It’s My Life” by Bon Jovi blared at one point, and “Born to Run” and “Born in the USA” by Bruce Springsteen, and “Wild Horses,” by U2. Not normal fare at Texans practices, observers said, and so I asked O’Brien about it. One of Belichick’s good friends is Jon Bon Jovi, and he is partial to Springsteen too. “That was for Bill [Belichick],” O’Brien said.

The Greenbrier just had the feel of two teams that, as much as possible in this competitive and oft-spiteful league, like and respect each other, a lot.

One thing I found odd: The Patriots played Houston in Week 3 last year. The Patriots played Houston in the playoffs last year. The Patriots play Houston in the preseason this weekend. The Patriots play Houston in Week 3 this year. That’s four exposures against a potential 2017 playoff foe in 53 weeks—and Belichick and O’Brien elected to add two more days of practice against each other on these pristine fields in southern West Virginia.

“We don’t scheme against each other here,” O’Brien said between meetings late Tuesday afternoon, the sun finally peeking through the clouds over the Alleghenies after a day of spitting rain. “There’s no danger of giving away secrets, I don’t think. This isn’t a scheme-fest. Blocking people, getting off press coverage, just really practicing basic football. Ninety-man roster on each side. Really professional. You set ground rules. Things come up here that don’t come up in preseason games, and you can script them. You can practice whatever you want to practice, and that doesn’t happen in games. Today, late-minute field-goal situations came up, last-minute touchdown situations. It’s a controlled environment, with two teams that know how to practice, that respect each other, and there’s no live tackling, relative to player safety. There’s no downside for either of us.”

To that point: no blitzing, no exotic plays, no motion, no overloads on either side of the ball. Just the basics. But that didn’t stop the Patriots from treating it like it was a big deal.

Ones against ones. Watt breaks through and nudges Brady, back to pass, and Brady falls. It wasn’t a sack, nor would have been; Brady just slipped. But the pressure and the leakage seemed to bug Brady. The New England offense had some good moments—Brady’s 55-yard bomb to Chris Hogan in tight coverage against Houston cornerback Johnathan Joseph over the middle for one thing—but this was not a great day for the New England offense. After one series in which Brady threw incompletions to Rob Gronkowski and Julian Edelman, and in which Houston’s defense kept getting penetration, Brady yanked off his helmet on the way to the sidelines and reamed out his teammates. Five seconds, eight, 10, maybe more. And then he knelt near the sidelines, near none of his mates.

“Tommy being Tommy,” Edelman said later.

These are joint practices, not games, and the opening game is 22 days away. Should it be vein-popping time for Brady?

My theory: The Patriots are halfway between the start of training camp and the start of the regular season. The Watt-fortified Texans, likely to have better quarterback play with Brock Osweiler gone, are the kind of team New England is going to have to conquer to have another deep playoff run this year. Twenty days into training camp, Brady quite likely would expect to see his offense sharper, and his protection cleaner—and, honestly, some of his rancor could well have been his own inaccuracy.

This is what the Patriots have built. They’ve constructed a team that has great expectations every August. Even against the best defense in football (when the real games are played), the Patriots get ticked off when they sputter.

I remember covering the Giants in the late eighties, and Bill Parcells (with Belichick on his staff as defensive coordinator) would never care very much about how his team played in preseason games. But he would care a lot about practices, particularly when he saw lapses he felt were correctable. Some of his angriest moments would be when camp practices wouldn’t be up to his expectations. So Tuesday’s practice for the Patriots is not necessarily a bad thing. It allows Belichick and his coaches to play the urgency card. We’re three weeks into practice now. If we’re letting a good line cave us in now, what’ll happen when we face the Chiefs in three weeks?

I wouldn’t be surprised if Belichick walks into meetings today in West Virginia and puts a couple plays up on the screen from this Tuesday practice, pointing out why this play didn’t work, in no uncertain terms. It’s time for corrections, and it’s time for a sense of urgency from a team that expects great things.

For Belichick, it’s good to face a good team. It’s good because it lets him light a fire under guys if some of them need it.

For the Texans, it’s a day to prove they belong. “A great day to measure yourself against the best,” said cornerback Kareem Jackson.

For the cadre of fans, maybe 2,000, who came on this misty day with low clouds making it feel like Scotland, it was a day to appreciate the push for greatness by both teams. A very fun day at training camp.​

 

"Is he hurt?"

 

Patriots camp observations: Texans challenge Patriots again as Gilmore returns

• Tom Brady was 14 of 24 in team drills and completed passes to Brandin Cooks (five), Chris Hogan (three), Julian Edelman (two), James White (two), James O’Shaughnessy (one) and Rex Burkhead (one).

• Jimmy Garoppolo was 7 of 15 with completions to O’Shaughnessy (three) and one each for Dion Lewis, Rob Gronkowski, Dwayne Allen and Austin Carr.

• Jacoby Brissett was 4 of 8 in his lone period of third-team work and completed passes to Tony Washington, K.J. Maye, Cody Hollister and Jacob Hollister.

• Rivers sacked Tom Savage on the first 11-on-11 rep of practice. He’s been coming along nicely, so any type of absence would be a tough blow to his development.

• Lawrence Guy had a couple strong plays in the first 11-on-11 period.

• Gilmore blanketed Bruce Ellington for an incompletion on the first throw of the day. It was the only time Gilmore was targeted.

• Kyle Van Noy stole the ball from Stephen Anderson at the end of a play. Just took it from him when the play was already dead. It was a Kevin Garnett type of move.

• Ealy can be inconsistent. He had a sack in early 11-on-11s. And on the next play, he was blown out of his run gap.

• Whitney Mercilus again tortured Cam Fleming. He sacked Brady on the second passing play of 11-on-11s, and the Patriots lined up Dion Lewis directly behind Fleming to chip Mercilus on the next play. It resulted in a perfect throw to Hogan up the seam. Hogan beat Johnathan Joseph for the catch.

• The Texans brought it again on defense. Brady had a rare 1 of 6 period in 7-on-7s. His first incompletion sailed over Cooks in the end zone. The next also went to Cooks but was broken up by Joseph. Edelman dropped the third incompletion. After a strike to Cooks, Benardrick McKinney broke up a bid for Burkhead and Brady closed the frustrating period by sailing a ball past Gronk.

• Brady rebounded by completing 4 of 5 passes in the ensuing 11-on-11 period. He went to Cooks on three straight plays, a short completion, a drop and then a solid out route at the sticks for a first down. Brady then hit Hogan on a deep crossing pattern. The fifth throw was a screen to White.

• Brady and O’Shaughnessy connected for a beauty up the left seam. O’Shaughnessy leaped over McKinney to make the nifty catch.

• Danny Amendola, who never caught a pass from Brady during team drills in 15 camp practices, nearly had his first on a short crossing pattern, but Zach Cunningham swooped in from out of nowhere for the breakup. Remember, Amendola missed about two weeks of practices due to a hamstring injury, so that’s a reason for the doughnut.

• Adam Butler recorded another sack.

• Trevor Bates got some time on the edge and got a sack of Deshaun Watson.

• The Patriots were on punt coverage when a few Texans started shoving 5-foot-7, 175-pound Will Likely. Patrick Chung immediately stepped into the crowd and walked inside several Texans for about 10 yards toward their sideline. Nice gesture in terms of sticking up for a teammate in terms of a “pick on someone your own size” type of message.

• Malcolm Mitchell made an athletic play to break up a Garoppolo pass that otherwise should’ve been intercepted. Mitchell and Corey Moore were jumping for the ball, which got tipped, and Mitchell batted it out of bounds while lying on his back.

• Elandon Roberts has been up and down. He overpursued in coverage and allowed a running back to get free for an easy catch and run. On the next play, Roberts diagnosed a screen, stopped the play and then forced a fumble that was recovered by Eric Rowe.

• Tom Savage was picking on David Harris during practice. Harris got beat several times, including by Tyler Ervin for a touchdown.

• Malcolm Butler, Devin McCourty, Jonathan Jones and Chung all had pass breakups.

• Edelman and Cooks each had one drop.

• Savage threw a beautiful, high pass to Jaelen Strong for a touchdown against Butler.

• Brady opened a late 11-on-11 period by hitting Cooks for a 20-yard touchdown on a nice vertical route up the left hash against Kevin Johnson, who is expected to be the Texans’ top corner this season.

• Brady and Hogan connected for a 60-yard touchdown on as perfect of a pass as you’ll ever see. Hogan got past Cunningham up the left hash about 30 yards down the field, and Brady uncorked the ball before Hogan broke into a post route. Cunningham actually played Hogan pretty well, but the throw and the route were so in sync that Cunningham couldn’t do anything about it. Hogan caught it in stride about 40 yards down the field and ran into the end zone from there.

• Mercilus beat Cameron Fleming for two sacks of Brady and also pressured Brady to throw away a pass in the red zone. Fleming had a forgettable week against Mercilus.

• Brady hit White for a touchdown on his final throw of the day. White beat Cunningham on a short route to get open for the score. Afterward, Edelman and Cooks were chirping at Kareem Jackson and Marcus Gilchrist, and Brady watched and smiled after taking off his helmet.

• As practice ended, Andre Hal immediately walked to the middle of the field to slap Brady’s hand. Jackson followed, and the rest of the Texans starters followed suit. It then turned into a hockey-style handshake line. There were some testy moments over the two days between the teams, but it ended respectfully.

• Bill Belichick hosted Tony La Russa and Tom Crean for practice.

• O’Shaughnessy got reps ahead of Jacob Hollister this week. They’re in a great competition for the final tight end job, and these reps are interesting. It could be a result of O’Shaughnessy missing so much time earlier in camp, which means the coaches want to see him as much as possible before roster cuts. Or it could be because O’Shaughnessy is simply viewed as the better option over the undrafted rookie.

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