PALO ALTO, Calif. — As quarterback Drake Maye and the New England Patriots’ first-team offense jogged onto the field for the first of nine plays focused on red-zone situations in practice at Stanford Stadium on Thursday, the team employee in control of the playlist had a song ready to go: “Be Legendary” by Pop Evil.
The track wasn’t Mike Vrabel’s choice, but New England’s head coach did have one request for the DJ: crank the music loud. The Patriots haven’t pumped in crowd noise through the stadium speakers, but turning the volume of the music up can in part simulate the crowd noise the Patriots expect to hear when they are on offense during the Super Bowl against the Seattle Seahawks on Sunday.
“We’ll have to be ready for anything that comes up,” Vrabel said.
The Patriots spent 75 minutes running through an up-tempo practice session with a focus on the two-minute drill, red zone situations and special teams. The team will finish its on-field preparations for Super Bowl LX on Friday.
“We wanted to try to get some of those things with speed and in the red zone, the plays that we’ll have to come back to and hit again (on Friday), but those are obviously critical plays down there,” Vrabel said.
Maye was sharp during that red-zone series, as the team worked through plays from the high red zone down to the goal line. But that wasn’t the case during a sloppy two-minute drill for the offense.
“We’ll have to have better execution on Sunday, without a doubt,” Vrabel. “There’s going to be mistakes, they just can’t pile up and we can’t let one mistake turn into another mistake and another mistake. So it’s going to be about how we regroup, and I thought they did that.”
Maye was once again a full participant in practice, though he remains on the injury report because of the right shoulder ailment. Linebacker Robert Spillane returned to practice and was a limited participant after sitting out on Wednesday with an ankle injury. Linebacker Harold Landry III did not practice after he was limited on Wednesday due to a knee injury.
Other players on the Thursday injury report include starting right tackle Morgan Moses (limited, rest), backup offensive tackle Thayer Munford Jr. (limited, knee) and defensive tackle Joshua Farmer (full, hamstring).
–Pro Football Writers of America
