Last modified: Wednesday, August 22, 2007 12:06 AM EDT PATRIOTS NOTEBOOK: Players mum on Vick plea BY MARK FARINELLA SUN CHRONICLE STAFF FOXBORO - If you had any doubts about the all-pervasive influence of Bill Belichick in the Patriots' locker room, they had to have been erased Tuesday. Several players were asked for their reaction to the guilty plea of Atlanta Falcons' quarterback Michael Vick to charges of operating a dogfighting ring, and their responses were right out of the Belichick-authored book of stock responses. "My heart and prayers go out to him and his family," fullback Heath Evans said, "and to the league, because it's affected all of us. This is our business." Evans was one of the chattier players on the topic, using "chatty" as a relative term. Junior Seau, Laurence Maroney, Tedy Bruschi and Vince Wilfork were among the other players asked to comment upon the Vick situation, and they all stopped after the "prayers to the family" line. Evans offered slightly more of a human reaction. "You hate to see a rap like that go down, but it's one of those things I really don't have an answer for you," he said. "It's probably the same as (the media), you're just kind of stunned and shocked." One of the players suggested, but didn't come out and say, that Belichick had met with them before the media availability period around noontime and told them straight-out what to say - and what not to say. Business as usual in Foxboro. Happy mix Belichick said during his press conference that he's been happy with the mix of teams he's seen on the preseason because of the different challenges they have posed to the Patriots at every step of the way. "I really thought that going against Tampa was a great experience for us defensively because all of the plays that they ran … they have such a variety in their offensive system that we really got a good look," he said. "Tennessee, of course, with a very mobile quarterback, had a whole different style of offense. And now we see some really good backs here with Carolina (8 p.m. Friday, Ch. 4, 12) - a big offensive line, a physical line, with a very experienced quarterback, so it's a good mix for us defensively to see." Belichick said the opponents' defenses have been almost as challenging to the Patriots' offense. "Tennessee is much more of a stationary type a defense, kind of more like we are, except they are in a four-man front," he said. "Tampa, they move a lot up front, and Carolina is a little bit of a combination of both and they have some very talented players, obviously starting with (Julius) Peppers. "Some things are a lot different than what we do, which is good, because we'll face that with teams like Indianapolis, teams like that who play a lot different style of defense than what we play," he said. Kudo time Asked if Rodney Harrison and Eugene Wilson were intuitive of each other at the safety position, Belichick said James Sanders has improved to the point where he believes the position would be well-manned with any combination of those three players. "He got quite a bit of playing time last year when Rodney was out," Belichick said of Sanders. "That was one part of his game that really improved significantly over the course of the season. Really, I think we're at the point now where whichever two of those three are in there together, all of the communication is pretty good."