Krause: Nothing to see here, people!

FOXBOROUGH – There’s nothing left to say. Nothing to see here, folks. Even if the Patriots have spent the week as the collective anti-Rex Ryans (well, except for Wes Welker, at least), it’s apparent the art of not saying anything can be as mentally taxing as shooting off your mouth is.Friday was the last time the news media had access to the Patriots until the aftermath of Sunday’s NFL divisional playoff game against the New York Jets. But media access is a general term. There weren’t a whole lot of players making themselves accessible.Before we go on, this is not a complaint, because I don’t care. I’m not a regular down there these days. I’m strictly small-time in a big-time world.But it’s fun to go down there and observe ? to try and gauge the rhythm (and perhaps biorhythm) of the team. And my (very) amateur analysis is that they’re ready ? that they were sick and tired of all the talking probably around Wednesday, and that they’ll be the happiest collection of athletes ever when they finally kick off Sunday at 4:30.All week long, the Patriots have trotted out players to stand before the podium and talk, and all week long they’ve held to the party line ? that, aw shucks, they’re just getting ready to play football. Let motormouth Rex and deadbeat dad Antonio spout off. They’re not going to get sucked in.The only real deviation came Thursday (and I wish I’d been there to see it) when Welker inserted the words “foot,” “feet” or “toe” in just about every sentence he uttered (delivered with a Belichickian straight face).Anyway, Friday, the Patriots trotted out two rookies as featured speakers, and rather than take them to the press room podium, they stuck them in front of their lockers. Devin McCourty and Aaron Hernandez were on the hot seat, and you could tell immediately that Crash Davis (look him up if you don’t know who he is) had schooled them both.First, it was Hernandez, who missed the last regular-season games with a hip injury. He assured one and all that he was ready to go. And that’s basically all he said. And he had a look about him that suggested that he was warned within an inch of his life to stick to a narrow script or face the wrath of Vince Wilfork (or someone similar).Here is one of the more elaborate quotes from the session: “Basically, it’s time to make plays. Give it your all or you are going home – there is no tomorrow. We have got to leave everything on the field. The intensity is going to pick up and the game is going to get faster, so I am ready to see what happens.”That’s him.McCourty was a little better. Here’s a random sampling: “When Sunday gets here, you’ve just got to go out there and play ?” “I’m just going to go out there and play Sunday. I’m not really worried about what other people are saying or what they’re thinking. I’m just preparing to go out there and play.”As I said earlier, I’m not complaining. This is entirely within the character of the Patriots’ business model, which is to be as bland as possible so they don’t give any opponent any extra ammunition. Rex may be more entertaining, but he certainly makes himself – and his team – a bigger target in the process.And, as Alge Crumpler said, “they take after their coach; we take after ours.” And theirs ? well ? when he speaks before the media, he looks as if he just stepped on the treadmill next to the guy who spent the previous night eating garlic. Friday, ESPN’s Suzy Kolber (she being the woman Joe Namath wanted to kiss on national TV) asked him how much of the game’s preparation came down to the physical, the mental and the emotional. It’s not a question many media people here ponder very often, but, hey, it’s the WorldWide Leader, so ?Belichick treated the question as if it were the dumbest he’d ever heard.”I don’t know,” he said ? dismissively. “Playing well is about playing well. You can break it down into 17,000 adjectives, but it’s doing your job. That’s technique. It’s execution. It’s strength. It’s toughness. It’s consistency. It’