FOXBORO, Mass. — With a swarm of Patriots crowding around the corner of the end zone inside the Dana-Farber Field House on Monday — whooping and hollering and cheering for their teammates with full investment — Vince Wilfork dropped back from the six-yard line and surveyed his receivers who were trying to break free in the end zone.
He glanced past Jerod Mayo, Devin McCourty, Marques Murrell, Darius Butler and Brandon Meriweather, all of whom were locked down in slightly-below-average coverage. And then Wilfork found Patrick Chung cutting toward the right pylon and delivered a pass to his chest.
Touchdown defense.
The Patriots mixed it up for a drill during Monday's practice — the final training-camp session held at Gillette Stadium — and made the defense play offense, and the offense play defense.
The point was simple. The offense (really the defense, but let's look past that for now) got one point for scoring a touchdown, and the defense got one point for keeping them out of the end zone. First side to three wins.
Wilfork was the quarterback, and his receivers were a rotating cast of defensive backs and linebackers. The "defense" trotted out its wide receivers and running backs, and they played seven-on-seven.
Wilfork's first pass went to Mayo, who couldn’t hold onto the ball in the middle of swarming defenders. Wilfork's second pass went to Chung, who hauled it in and tied the score. Wilfork's third attempt — after he spent a good chunk of time relaxing in the pocket — sailed high to the back of the end zone, where Aaron Hernandez swatted it out of Darius Butler's hands. And the next pass was a quick slant to Butler, who couldn’t hang on.
The offensive players (playing defense) took the drill, 3-1. Wide receiver Wes Welker was asked what the two sides were playing for.
"Pride, a lot of pride, a lot of trash talking and a lot of pride," Welker said. "I'm sure we'll take full advantage of it, and we'll go back and forth. We're going to get a stopwatch on how long [Wilfork] had to throw back there."
No doubt, that film will come up during meetings, and everyone was talking about Wilfork's patience in the pocket, which he was afforded because no one was rushing the passer.
"We should have put a clock on Vince's protection time," said quarterback Brian Hoyer, whose cushion for the No. 2 job should remain safe after this one.
Although, in victory, Welker was impressed with the big fella.
"He really made some good reads out there, although he didn’t have a rush so he sat back there for a good 10 seconds trying to get rid of the ball," Welker said. "At the same time, he had a good delivery and things like that. It's something we can probably work with."
