While New England did manage to land its punches, primarily on Day 1, the two-day event as a whole was, for lack of a better term, “won” by the home team. Vrabel and his club, meanwhile, are left looking for silver linings.

So when J.J. McCarthy produced an uneven performance during the first of a two-day joint practice Wednesday with the New England Patriots, O'Connell went to work. Along with the rest of the offensive staff,