Reiss: Patriots look for identity vs. Raiders

The quarter point of the season is the time when you can start realistically assessing what you’ve got. What your problems are, what your areas of strength are. The Raiders provide an excellent test for this Patriots team. It will be a hostile road environment against a tough, physical team, while coming off a loss. We’ll have a real sense for where this Patriots team might be headed by Sunday night.

Here’s a nice nugget from Brian Waters.

“This is a good team, a very professional football team; very consistent, not an up-and-down, roller-coaster type atmosphere,” he said. “Every day you come in to work, the guys prepare. The first thing I noticed once I got here was how many guys were here on their days off. That can be hard to convince guys how important that is, and that’s something I noticed right away.”