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Rivers raves about New England

USC linebacker Keith Rivers (whom we mentioned in our list of prospective Pats' picks on Sunday -- plug! plug!) visited with the Patriots last week and blogged about the experience on the website yardbarker.com, which boasts numerous athlete-written blogs.

Rivers said he spent five hours with New England coaches, including defensive coordinator Dean Pees and linebackers coach Matt Patricia, watching video and learning about the team's 3-4 defense.

He also met a few current Pats, at Gillette Stadium for offseason workouts.

Overall, Rivers seemed impressed.

"You could feel the winning environment right when you walk in. They pay attention to every detail. It was awesome because you see how much they prepare and what goes into having an amazing season as they did. They have pictures of all the great plays covering the walls from the whole season. They only put up pictures after they win so as you could imagine they had a lot of pictures on the wall," he wrote.

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 8:50 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

UPDATE: Pats' preseason games

The Patriots have nailed down the dates and times of their four preseason games:

Thu., Aug. 7 Baltimore Ravens 7:30 p.m. WCVB/Patriots Preseason Network
Sun., Aug. 17 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers 8:00 p.m. NFL Network
Fri., Aug. 22 Philadelphia Eagles 7:30 p.m. WCVB/Patriots Preseason Network
Thu., Aug. 28 at New York Giants 7:00 p.m. WCVB/Patriots Preseason Network

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 5:21 PM | Permalink | Comments 0

NFL schedule to be released tomorrow

Various media outlets are reporting that the NFL will release the 2008 regular-season schedule tomorrow at 2 p.m. Ed Bouchette of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was apparently first with the news.

As we know, New England's opponents have already been decided -- they'll host their AFC East rivals the Jets, Bills, and Dolphins as well as the Rams and Cardinals from the NFC West, the Chiefs and Broncos from the AFC West and last year's AFC North winner, the Steelers. The Patriots will visit New York, Buffalo and Miami in addition to Oakland and San Diego in the AFC West, Seattle and San Francisco in the NFC West and last year's AFC South winner, Indianapolis.

Four of those teams were in the playoffs last year.

Now we'll find out when these games will be played; with four West Coast trips on the schedule, the spacing of those will be a major factor. If, for example, the league scheduled the Oakland-San Francisco games on consecutive weeks, would Bill Belichick elect to spend the in-between week in Northern California to cut down on travel and fatigue?

Posted by Shalise Manza Young  at 2:08 PM | Permalink | Comments 0