LONDON – Before their 2007-08 championship-winning season, the new-look Boston Celtics spent a week in Italy during the preseason, and they said that experience together, all of them in a foreign place, helped forge the bonds that carried the team through the year.

Could this trip to London bring the same for the Patriots?

While it isn’t ideal for NFL teams – particularly a team like New England, which thrives on routine – to pause their preparations two-thirds of the way through the week to make a trans-Atlantic flight and then resume things in a new country, this experience may have brought the team closer.

Tom Brady indicated after the win on Sunday that it had.

“We don’t as football players often get to spend as much time together [during a normal week],” he said, noting that the players had been together a great deal since Thursday, and will be again on Monday, when they travel home.

“I think we all went out to dinner on Friday night, which you don’t get a chance to do too often, spending meals together and all sitting on the plane together. I think just that experience for all of us and getting to know each other will serve us well down the road,” Brady said. “[We have] a lot of new players, and it’s nice to come together and experience something like this. It’s a unique bonding experience for all of us.”

Brandon Meriweather, who certainly introduced himself to London with his performance, taking an interception back for a touchdown four plays into the game and adding a second just a few minutes later, agreed with Brady’s notion that the Patriots drew closer as a team.

And it wasn’t just dinners that played a part.

“We went to a haunted house that was over by Big Ben [on Saturday] and just to see some of my teammates act like little kids, that was probably the best part of my weekend,” Meriweather said.

New England has been showing improvement in various areas from week to week, but maybe the trip overseas will provide a certain intangible boost to the club moving forward.

As the London press was fond of noting this week, the Giants played in the International Game two years ago, and it worked for them.

******

Meriweather got Sunday’s game off to a great start for New England on Sunday, intercepting Josh Johnson’s second pass attempt of the game and racing untouched into the end zone for his first career touchdown.

The third-year safety followed it up with another pick seven plays later, meaning that in the first half, Meriweather had as many receptions off Josh Johnson passes as any Tampa Bay receiver (Antonio Bryant had two first-half catches).

Meriweather nearly had a third, as he and rookie Darius Butler went up for a jump ball on the final play of the first half and Butler came down with the ball.

“He stole one from me,” Meriweather said, smiling. “But I was happy for him though. I was happy for him.”

The interceptions were the first of the season for New England’s 2007 first-round pick, who led the team last year with four.

“He’s had a real good year for us. From the beginning of training camp he’s really been a leader for us back in the secondary, making calls, making adjustments, sometimes taking harder responsibilities with the safeties,” Bill Belichick said. “Brandon stepped up with some huge plays today; those are the plays he’s capable of making. There’s a lot of plays he makes that don’t show up on the stat sheet. Today’s plays did, but there’s a lot of ones that he makes that don’t.”

Meriweather does not keep the balls from his interceptions, giving them away to others. Bill Belichick got his first ever, and Sunday, Bianca Wilfork (wife of Vince), who made the trip to London, got the second one he pulled in.

******

It didn’t take long for New England to get rookie Bradon Tate involved in things.

The third-round pick, who only began practicing last Tuesday, the first day he was eligible under the rules of the reserve/non-football injury list, got the ball on a reverse on the first play of the Pats’ second possession, and he ran for an 11-yard gain.

Despite having not played in more than a year due to the torn ACL he suffered while playing for North Carolina last October, Tate certainly looked speedy. In the second quarter, he ran a deep route down the middle of the field, but it appeared that Brady underthrew the ball, and it ended up being intercepted by the Bucs’ Aqib Talib.

“It must have been great for him,” Meriweather said. “My first year I got a chance to play and it was wonderful. It was one of those times that I felt like I was in high school all over again, getting my first chance to play. So it must have been really, really good for him.”

Tate’s stock was on the rise before his injury; already the NCAA career leader in return yardage, he was starting to gain notice as a receiver as well.

He returned two kickoffs on Sunday, returning each 22 yards.

******

Line of the day is from Wes Welker, who said he, Brady and other players were mistaken for a boy band when they were at dinner on Saturday night: “That was pretty funny. (But) we had two offensive linemen with us, so I don’t know where they got that from.”…With three interceptions against the Bucs, the Patriots have now forced at least one turnover in their last 15 games, the longest current streak in the NFL. … Junior Seau has won 24 consecutive regular season games in which he has appeared with New England, tying former Miami DT Maulty Moore (1972-73) for the longest personal winning streak in league history. … New England is now 25-5 in October since 2003.