The Athletic has live coverage of Patriots vs Seahawks in the NFL Kickoff Game. FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — A Super Bowl rematch looms in Week 1 for the New England Patriots, an odd Wednesday kickoff against the Seattle Seahawks that presents a truncated schedule and dictates additional reps in preparation.At one point, the Patriots moved the offense to an indoor bubble where music blared, an attempt to get used to calling plays in the loud environment that’s expected on Sept. 9 when the Seahawks unveil their championship banner. At another, New England installed plays specifically for Seattle’s complex defense, the one that gave the Pats fits in February.But for the most part, the Patriots were focused on themselves. Camp is for determining the best players on the roster and ensuring everyone is on the same page. So it wasn’t the time for early game-planning for the Seahawks or taking a trip down memory lane.“I think you just have to be careful,” coach Mike Vrabel said, explaining why he hasn’t been all in on Seahawks prep in recent weeks. “It’s the first game. They’ve got a new coordinator, and some things will be different. I’m sure they’ll have some plays that are similar (to last year) that they like, and I think their defensive structure may be the same, (but) it may not. … You just have to be careful how much you show them and try to focus on what it is that we’re trying to accomplish.”Do the New England Patriots have a fragile foundation?Robert Mays and Derrik KlassenIf you zoom out, though, what’s more interesting is how the Patriots are navigating the challenge of putting together another successful season while picking up the pieces from a Super Bowl loss. History shows it could be rocky.Four of the last seven Super Bowl losers missed the playoffs the next season, including the last two (the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers). The 2018 Patriots are the only team this century to win the Super Bowl following a loss in the title game the season before. This century, 15 of the 25 Super Bowl losers failed to make the playoffs the following season.So how are the Patriots addressing that? Mostly by operating with a business-as-usual approach. They haven’t had extensive conversations about the loss to the Seahawks. Vrabel said he didn’t seek out advice this offseason from others who have lost in the Super Bowl.“We have a lot of new guys on the roster,” he said. “We have guys that are returning, our core guys, and understand that the journey’s going to be a lot more difficult just based on how we finished. … I think just staying consistent is probably the thing that we have to continue to do and not ride the waves of up here and then down low. We just have to try to stay consistent and continue to improve. The teams that do that are usually the ones that play in January.”New players haven’t sensed any wariness from the loss or felt a Super Bowl hangover. And New England has plenty of new players to help improve on last season; the team will take six new starters to Seattle for the opener. The Patriots also have 11 rookies on the roster, which suggests that this is a different group.“We’re not trying to recreate that magic,” new safety and co-captain Kevin Byard said. “This is a whole new situation with new guys that are going to have to win a different way than they won last year.”Of course, it’s easy to say the Patriots have moved on from the Super Bowl. It’s another thing to have the tough task of heading to Seattle for the opener — and watching the Seahawks unfurl a banner commemorating their championship.This marks only the second time since 1970 that the NFL season is beginning with a Super Bowl rematch. In 2016, the Denver Broncos beat the Carolina Panthers in Week 1, celebrating a second straight win over Carolina, this time on banner night.“There’ll be a lot of energy there,” Vrabel said in preparation for next week. “We’ll have to be ready for the environment, and we’ll have to be really sound in our operation and everything that we do. The magnitude of it is always important. … It’ll be a great test and a great challenge for us to go on the road and do that early in the season.”It will also be a great test to see how much has actually changed for the Patriots. The assumption is that the O-line will be better, that A.J. Brown will add a new dimension to the passing game and that the defensive secondary will make up for questions about the pass rush. Who better to test those assumptions against than the team that dominated them in the Super Bowl? And what better way to find out if this group can make a return trip to the big game?“We’re focused on just competing against Seattle,” Vrabel said, “not competing for something that’s going to happen in February.”