“Tough release there with James Sanders,” coach Bill Belichick said in a conference call. “James has been a good guy to have on this team. A hardworking kid. … He’s been a really solid team player for us but we just, part of the move, needed to release people.”

Also Monday, the Patriots signed receiver Tiquan Underwood and safety Ross Ventrone and released 10 other players: receivers Darnell Jenkins and Tyree Barnes, kicker Chris Koepplin, fullback Eric Kettani, long snapper Matt Katula, offensive lineman Mark Wetterer, tight end Garrett Mills, defensive backs Jonathan Wilhite and Malcolm Williams and defensive linemen Clay Nurse and Kade Weston.

Sanders was a fourth-round draft pick from Fresno State in 2005 who has totaled 300 tackles, eight interceptions, two forced fumbles and two fumble recoveries in his career. He has also played in 10 postseason games, starting seven.

“Not a lot of negatives with James,” Belichick said. “But we have to select the players that we feel like are best for our team.”

NFL teams need to get down to 80-man rosters by Tuesday and to 53 by the season opener. The Patriots have one preseason game left, at home on Thursday against the New York Giants, before the opener on Sept. 12 against the Miami Dolphins.

Belichick said he had no updates on Wes Welker (neck) and Dan Connolly (ankle), who left Saturday’s game against Detroit, which the Lions won 34-10.

Irene killed five in New England even as it was downgraded from a hurricane that devastated North Carolina and points south. As a tropical storm, it snarled transportation while causing widespread flooding and power outages that left more than 400,000 people without power in Massachusetts alone on Monday.

The Patriots were among them.

Patriots spokesman Stacey James said the power at Gillette Stadium went out Sunday morning and had not been fully restored early Monday evening. So, the team had a walkthrough and meetings off-site.

James would not divulge the location.

“We’re working outside of the stadium today, but we should be back there in a little while and it sounds like we’ll be back to normal,” Belichick said. “We weathered the storm and we should get back hopefully into a normal flow of things here tomorrow.”

Linebacker Jerod Mayo said his family in Virginia lost power, and he did at home in New England as well. Deion Branch said his family had trouble getting back from the game in Detroit.

“That may be the only scare that I really had,” he said in a conference call with reporters.

Defensive lineman Andre Carter said there was no disruption caused by moving Monday’s workout.

“There was no other difference after the game or after a day of rest. We came in, we worked out, (we) did stretching, got the muscle fatigue out,” he said. “We took advantage of (another site) the best way we could. … We’re very fortunate to have some resources to pretty much do what we need to do and be professional for this team.”

Underwood appeared in 13 games over two seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars before he was released on Saturday. Last year, he caught eight passes for 111 yards and returned 24 kicks for 561 yards.

Ventrone spent most of last season on the Patriots’ practice squad. He went to camp with the team this year but was released on Aug. 10.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Due to power outages that have affected Gillette Stadium, the New England Patriots moved offsite on Monday, and canceled their media availability.

The outages also led to the cancellation of coach Bill Belichick’s media conference call on Sunday, though that is slated to be made up on Monday afternoon.

The Patriots had off on Sunday, after Saturday’s 34-10 loss to the Lions in Detroit. They conclude the preseason vs. the New York Giants on Thursday night at home.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

By PAULA PASCHE
Of The Oakland Press

DETROIT — Let’s call it what it was: Matthew Stafford’s coming-out party on national television.

The Detroit Lions young quarterback’s numbers were gaudy — 12 of 14, 200 yards and two touchdowns.

New England’s Tom Brady looked mortal for a change at 11 of 20, 142 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Funny game.

Of course it’s only preseason action, but the Lions have to be thrilled with the 34-10 win and the 3-0 preseason record.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times, the Lions’ success this season depends in large part on Stafford, who only played in 13 games in his first two seasons due to injuries.

He looks healthy now. Took his first hit on Saturday night, courtesy of New England’s Kyle Arrington, and survived just fine, thank you.

With the sold-out crowd and the elite opponent it didn’t feel like a preseason game at Ford Field on Saturday night.

Stafford wasted no time getting cranked up. On the first series he completed a 37-yard pass to Nate Burleson, only to have Burleson drop a ball in the end zone three plays later. The Lions settled for a 33-yard field goal from Jason Hanson.

The Patriots’ first possession was cut short when Cliff Avril sacked Brady on a third-and-18 play forcing a punt. Continued…

The Lions come back and couldn’t have been much more efficient, gaining 57 yards on four plays and scored on a 9-yard touchdown pass from Stafford to Burleson to go up 10-0.

Brady looked more like Brady on the next possession where he converted four third downs before failing on a third-and-1 when Lions linebacker Bobby Carpenter (who also had a standout game) stuffed Benjarvus Green-Ellis. The Patriots got on the scoreboard with a 33-yard field goal.

After the sack, Stafford came the next series and was fine enough to throw another touchdown pass, this one for 22 yards to tight end Tony Scheffler to put the Lions up 17-3.

Brady found Wes Welker for a 44-yard touchdown to close the gap to 17-10 with most of Detroit’s starting secondary on the bench.

Then Hanson kicked a 46-yard field goal.

On a five-play, 26-second drive Shaun Hill connected with Aaron Brown for a 9-yard touchdown to give Lions a 27-10 lead with seven seconds left in the first half. Another efficient drive.

Early in the fourth quarter Drew Stanton threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Williams to pad the lead to 34-10.

Not only did Stafford and the offense find a rhythm, a quick-paced one. But the Lions’ defense put continual pressure on Brady and the other Patriots quarterbacks.

Avril picked up two sacks, Ricardo Silva intercepted Brady late in the first half, Corey Williams and Ndamukong Suh were in Brady’s face.

Lions fans were already excited enough about this season — Saturday was a sell-out and the Monday night game against the Bears on Oct. 10 sold out this week in less than an hour. Continued…

By PAULA PASCHE
Of The Oakland Press

DETROIT — Let’s call it what it was: Matthew Stafford’s coming-out party on national television.

The Detroit Lions young quarterback’s numbers were gaudy — 12 of 14, 200 yards and two touchdowns.

New England’s Tom Brady looked mortal for a change at 11 of 20, 142 yards, one touchdown and one interception.

Funny game.

Of course it’s only preseason action, but the Lions have to be thrilled with the 34-10 win and the 3-0 preseason record.

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times, the Lions’ success this season depends in large part on Stafford, who only played in 13 games in his first two seasons due to injuries.

He looks healthy now. Took his first hit on Saturday night, courtesy of New England’s Kyle Arrington, and survived just fine, thank you.

With the sold-out crowd and the elite opponent it didn’t feel like a preseason game at Ford Field on Saturday night.

Stafford wasted no time getting cranked up. On the first series he completed a 37-yard pass to Nate Burleson, only to have Burleson drop a ball in the end zone three plays later. The Lions settled for a 33-yard field goal from Jason Hanson.

The Patriots’ first possession was cut short when Cliff Avril sacked Brady on a third-and-18 play forcing a punt.

The Lions come back and couldn’t have been much more efficient, gaining 57 yards on four plays and scored on a 9-yard touchdown pass from Stafford to Burleson to go up 10-0.

Brady looked more like Brady on the next possession where he converted four third downs before failing on a third-and-1 when Lions linebacker Bobby Carpenter (who also had a standout game) stuffed Benjarvus Green-Ellis. The Patriots got on the scoreboard with a 33-yard field goal.

After the sack, Stafford came the next series and was fine enough to throw another touchdown pass, this one for 22 yards to tight end Tony Scheffler to put the Lions up 17-3.

Brady found Wes Welker for a 44-yard touchdown to close the gap to 17-10 with most of Detroit’s starting secondary on the bench.

Then Hanson kicked a 46-yard field goal.

On a five-play, 26-second drive Shaun Hill connected with Aaron Brown for a 9-yard touchdown to give Lions a 27-10 lead with seven seconds left in the first half. Another efficient drive.

Early in the fourth quarter Drew Stanton threw a 4-yard touchdown pass to Derrick Williams to pad the lead to 34-10.

Not only did Stafford and the offense find a rhythm, a quick-paced one. But the Lions’ defense put continual pressure on Brady and the other Patriots quarterbacks.

Avril picked up two sacks, Ricardo Silva intercepted Brady late in the first half, Corey Williams and Ndamukong Suh were in Brady’s face.

Lions fans were already excited enough about this season — Saturday was a sell-out and the Monday night game against the Bears on Oct. 10 sold out this week in less than an hour.

Again, it is just the preseason. But, again, the Patriots had soundly defeated Tampa Bay (31-14) and Jacksonville (47-12) in its first two preseason games.

The last time the two teams met was on Thanksgiving at Ford Field, when the Lions played the Patriots tough for three quarters, but lost 45-24.

Prior to the game, Detroit didn’t really talk much about revenge — they talked about focus, execution and winning. It was not idle chatter.

The Lions will wrap up their preseason action with a game at Buffalo on Thursday. Kickoff is 6:30 p.m.

(Paula Pasche covers the Lions. Follow her on Twitter @PaulaPasche. Get Lions news delivered directly to your phone by texting the keyword “Lions” to 22700.)

Because he played for the Cincinnati Bengals, there isn’t much to like about Chad Ochocinco, who now plays for the New England Patriots.

But you have to at least like his response once he heard rookie linebacker Mason Foster was getting fined for the hit he put on Chad in a game last week.

Not only did Ochocinco call it a great hit and that’s the way the game should be played, he also offered to pay Foster’s $20,000 fine.

The NFL, however, won’t allow players to pay for another player’s fine, but it’s the effort that really counts here.

Ochocinco also took to Twitter to let Commissioner Roger Goodell know of his intentions.

Ochocinco tweeted on Thursday: “Dad no disrespect but I don’t agree with @mason_foster fine n I’ll be reimbursing him personally.Please feel free to contact me.”

 

Read More: Leigh Bodden (CB – NEP), Jermaine Cunningham (LB – NEP), Brandon Spikes (LB – NEP), Dane Fletcher (LB – NEP), Stevan Ridley (RB – NEP), New England Patriots

There were several players missing from New England Patriots’ practice on Thursday, with Brandon Spikes and Stevan Ridley highlighting the group of missing players, according to Ian Rapoport of the Boston Herald.

 

No word on why Leigh Bodden, Jermaine Cunningham, Mike Wright and Dane Fletcher were missing from today’s practice just yet. Spikes, on the other hand, has been absent from Patriots practice for several days now, but is still with the team and working towards a return.

For more New England Patriots coverage, visit our team page and blog, Pats Pulpit.