Birmingham bye week will be work, not fun

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Birmingham does not have a game scheduled this week. And the break comes at a good time, considering the arduous nonleague schedule it has completed.

Though the Patriots are off the schedule this Friday, it doesn’t mean they’ve had much time off.

Coach Ed Croson said he plans to work the team harder this week than he does on some game weeks.

‘For us its ‘get back to the basics,’’ Croson said. ‘You can only go in pads twice in [a nonscheduled) week. But we want to re-teach some fundamentals.’

How much more do the Patriots (4-1) need to improve, considering that conventional wisdom ranks them as the top team in the City Section?

‘It’s not that we’re slipping,’ Croson said. ‘There are things we haven’t finished working on. Footwork by the linemen, throwing mechanics for the quarterbacks, receivers running better routes. There are a lot of things at this level that you work on cleaning up all the time.

‘So for us, the bye week is like going back to training camp.’

Sounds like fun.

- Mike Terry