Bill Belichick said cancelling the Patriots' scheduled joint practices this week with the Tennessee Titans in the wake of Isaiah Bolden's injury was not an easy decision. (AP photo)

The New England Patriots huddled in the locker room at Lambeau Field on Saturday night after the scary injury to rookie defensive back Isaiah Bolden, and reached a difficult decision.

They’d go home instead of flying to Tennessee, and that meant the joint practices scheduled with the Tennessee Titans for today and Wednesday would not take place. Instead, both teams would be on their own until they face each other in in the preseason finale on Friday.

“It just felt like after the game, you know, we had a little bit of time there in the locker room to just kind of look at the situation and made the decision that the best thing for the team would be to come back (to Foxborough) and not go to Tennessee,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said “It was a hard decision. As much as we’d like to work against (the Titans), just tried to balance the situation. There was a number of things involved.”

Belichick said that he was glad to be able to have Bolden fly back with the team.

“Came back yesterday, Isaiah [Bolden] came back with us,” he said. “It was good to see him. I had an opportunity to talk to him. He’s alert and traveling with the team, so that was good. I thought that Dr. [Scott] Martin, Dr. [Gian] Corrado, Jim Whalen [Head Athletic Trainer], they were obviously right on top of the situation and did a great job of handling it and taking care of Isaiah.”

Titans coach Mike Vrabel said Sunday that the Patriots informed them Saturday night about the change in plans. Vrabel said the Titans wish Bolden well in his recovery and understands the Patriots’ decision to work by themselves this week. Vrabel said he would’ve loved to have his Titans practice against New England as previously scheduled on Tuesday and Wednesday.

“Obviously understand that things come up, and we’re always able to adjust and adapt and we’ll practice and we’ll get work in and and we’ll see where we are here at the end of the week on Friday,” Vrabel said.

Of course, the changing in plans means a new plan has to be put in place as the team returns to the practice field today.

“We’ve got to figure out how to maximize Tuesday, how to maximize Wednesday,” Belichick said. “We kind of know what Thursday is going to look like, and today is going to be a day to review the film and kind of go back over the Green Bay game and even some of the things that came up in practice, and then we’ll be moving on.”

BELICHICK ON JONES

Belichick talked yesterday at Mac Jones and how he played in his first preseason appearance — and possibly his only one.

“Yeah, I though Mac did a solid job,” he said. “Both quarterbacks (including backup Bailey Zappe) did, I mean, again, when you’re out there with 10 other guys, no matter what position you play, there’s an element of the team operation, so quarterbacks, receivers, offensive line, protection, running backs, blocking, etc., it all goes together.

“The biggest part of growth for our team is just everybody working together, and improving our timing, not necessarily communication in terms of what to do but just seeing things the same way so that we can react to them the same way. That just comes through repetitions and a lot of snaps and some experience doing it. Mac’s done a good job in his role on that, but there’s other things that he can’t control. There’s other people that he’s out there with that have to get used to him, he has to get used to them. We’ve worked some of these things together, but there’s some new things we’re doing, and a couple of new players, obviously, that just take a little bit of time to break in and get that timing and, I would say, seeing it the same way down.”

TAYLOR WAS IMPRESSIVE

The Patriots are still trying to work in running back J.J. Taylor, who played well the other night.

J.J. has just gotten better every year,“Belichick said. “He works extremely hard, very diligent guy. Had a couple good things in pass protection, which with his size is always a little bit of a challenge, but he’s a tough kid and strong for his size.

“So, that’s an area that he’s really grown in and just in general in the passing game. I thought he did a good job with the screens and some of the catch-and-run opportunities. He’s always been a good ball carrier and physical runner for his size. … His versatility, handling punts, playing on the kickoff team, playing on all three downs offensively, his versatility, he wasn’t able to do that three years ago. So, his versatility and his overall skill in the passing game, both of those have improved.”

(Material from the Associated Press was also used in this report.)

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