Seymour gains ground</p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> <span class="articleBegin">F</span>OXBORO - Given that the defensive end didn’t have the benefit of training camp and missed the first seven games of the season, Patriots coach Bill Belichick wasn’t expecting Richard Seymour to be a Pro Bowl-caliber player right away.</p> As Belichick pointed out, Seymour, who underwent offseason knee surgery, wasn’t coming back from the same place as safety Rodney Harrison, who took part in training camp then missed the first four games of the season because of a drug suspension.</p> “That’s a lot of ground to make up, and I don’t think you make it up in one or two weeks. It’s a gradual process,” Belichick said. “Richard’s worked hard. You all know what kind of player Richard is, and he’s gotten progressively more reps as the season’s gone on, from his first few weeks back. I think that accumulation of practice time and timing and game reps and conditioning and different situations playing against different types of players, different types of offenses and those kinds of things, that’s what rounds every player into really playing shape, is being able to handle all of the different things that come at that position, whatever the position is, over an extended amount of playing time.</p> “Practice is good, but it’s not the same as games. I think all of those reps, practice and games cumulatively have helped him, and that’s probably really the way it should be.”</p> Seymour was a force during Sunday’s 20-10 win at Gillette Stadium. He set up safety Eugene Wilson’s 5-yard interception return for a touchdown by pressuring Kellen Clemens and driving the New York quarterback to the turf. Clemens left the game following the hit with what the Jets termed a rib injury.</p> </div></p>
