MEXICO CITY — The Patriots are known for seeking out any possible competitive advantage, no matter how small. One example came this past week, with the team training at altitude in Colorado to prepare for a game 7,200 feet above sea level in Mexico.
Some players downplayed the importance of the week in Colorado Springs, but practicing at more than 6,600 feet at Falcon Stadium and sleeping at close to that altitude did have an effect.
“It’s hard to breathe sometimes but you just try and get used to it as much as you can,’’ running back James White said. “Mexico is going to be a little bit harder to breathe or whatever.’’
Players burned through lip balm and bottles of moisturizer in the dry air, and some got extra humidifiers delivered to the team hotel.
“It gets you a little bit,’’ said running back Dion Lewis. “I just get cottonmouth. That’s the only difference I see, but I really don’t tell the difference.’’
Raiders coach Jack Del Rio acknowledged that he was taking a different approach with his squad, traveling to Mexico from California just one day before the game. He didn’t think the question of altitude was overblown.
“No, I think it’s real,’’ Del Rio said on a conference call earlier in the week. “There certainly are challenges with travel in general. Certainly when you travel to a place where altitude is involved, that is an added challenge. We’re both facing that challenge.’’
The Raiders also arrived just one day before when they played in Mexico last season. Del Rio said he felt that worked well, which is why he chose to do so again even with the Patriots taking a different tack.
“It’ll be interesting really to look back and take some after-action review from the two experiences that we’ve had, not that we’re going to share with each other because we have two contrasting approaches,’’ said Del Rio. “We’re going in as late as possible and they’re spending the week training at altitude in Colorado. So, two contrasting approaches to it and we’ll see how it works out.’’
Quick thinking
By the time he returns home, Tom Brady will have been to Denver, Colorado Springs, and Mexico City in a little more than a week. He nearly added the doghouse to that list of destinations.
Brady was explaining some of the benefits of training on the road when he made a joke about avoiding distractions at home.
“I think, naturally, when you’re on the road like this, there’s less things to do. You know, my family’s not here, my kids aren’t here, there’s nobody telling me what I did wrong in the house,’’ he said on Friday.
Uh-oh. Perhaps fearing the wrath of wife Gisele Bundchen, Brady quickly backtracked.
“I didn’t mean that, babe,’’ he said. “So I’ll take that back.’’
Something special
The Patriots and Raiders boast two of the stronger special teams units in the NFL, and Bill Belichick has plenty of familiarity with Oakland special teams coordinator Brad Seely, who won three Super Bowls with the Patriots.
Now in his third year in Oakland, Seely’s unit includes the No. 2 punter (in yards per punt) in the league in Marquette King, an excellent kicker in Giorgio Tavecchio (12 for 14 on field goals, 22 for 23 on extra points), and the top kickoff returner in the league in Cordarrelle Patterson (30.8 yards per return).
Not surprisingly, Belichick is impressed with those results, and he also noted that the Raiders use a lot of big bodies on special teams that are difficult to match up against.
“It’s a very explosive group. Brad does a great job with them, no question. He’s an outstanding coach,’’ Belichick said.
Nora Princiotti can be reached at nora.princiotti@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter at @NoraPrinciotti.
