Patriots bond on road trip

Team practices at high elevation

The New England Patriots spent time after practice bird watching.

A swooping falcon got the team to gawk.

This has been far from an ordinary week for the Patriots (7-2), who are training at the Air Force Academy (elevation 6,621 feet) to get used to altitude for their trip to Mexico City’s Azteca Stadium (7,200 feet) to face Oakland on Sunday.

As a side benefit, it’s given the players time to hang out — a lot of time.

While in town, they’ve visited the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, the zoo , the mountains, had some Air Force parachute specialists drop in during practice, learned all about cadet life from Air Force coach Troy Calhoun and were treated to an upclose falcon demonstration Thursday at Falcon Stadium.

All this, along with a five-game winning streak, has galvanized an already tight team.

“We all found out we kind of like each other,” cracked defensive back Devin McCourty, whose team made the trek to the Academy after a 41-16 win Sunday in Denver.

Texans

Tom Savage is tired of talking about how he’s playing and what he needs to do to improve. As Houston looks to end a three-game skid when it hosts the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, the quarterback is only worried about one thing. “It really doesn’t matter what I say right now or how I view this upcoming week,” he said. “The only thing that really matters is just winning, and that’s it.” Savage, a Pitt product, has had a tough time in the past two games since Deshaun Watson had a season-ending knee injury Nov 2. The 27-year-old has five turnovers and has led the Houston offense to two touchdowns in the past two weeks.

Browns

Corey Coleman has endured the pain of losing along with his Cleveland teammates for two months. He gets to do something to stop it this week. The speedy firstround draft pick whose career has been slowed by twice breaking his right hand, will return to the lineup Sunday when the Browns face the Jacksonville Jaguars.