Waters wants Pats teammates to stick to routine

Veteran guard Brian Waters has some advice for his young Patriots teammates preparing for their first playoff game: Stick to your routine. Waters said Tuesday that if a player changes that, he'll feel like he left something out of his preparation. So he doesn't expect to change much this week as New England practices and does some self scouting before finding out who it will face in its first playoff game. The players returned to work Tuesday after a day off and are expected to hold their first postseason practice Wednesday. The Patriots won the top seed in the AFC East and have home-field advantage throughout the conference playoffs. They'll play their next game on Jan. 14 against Denver, Pittsburgh of Cincinnati.