Patriots know excuses won’t help

FOXBORO — So what now?

The 2020 New England Patriots season didn’t look bad right up until they took the field and played Denver on Sunday afternoon.

The Patriots already had a pair of moral victories under their belt and with their two actual wins, that meant they were practically undefeated.

Sunday’s 18-12 loss to the Broncos changed that quick.

You can make plenty of excuses for New England. They had a slew of injuries [...]

FOXBORO — So what now?

The 2020 New England Patriots season didn’t look bad right up until they took the field and played Denver on Sunday afternoon.

The Patriots already had a pair of moral victories under their belt and with their two actual wins, that meant they were practically undefeated.

Sunday’s 18-12 loss to the Broncos changed that quick.

You can make plenty of excuses for New England. They had a slew of injuries across the offensive line. The offense hasn’t gotten to work with Cam Newton in two weeks. There’s been nothing in the way of practice except for one day for an entire week.

They are all valid points as to why the Patriots lost the game.

But if the Patriots don’t see it that way, why should anyone else?

"I don’t make excuses. I’m not an excuse guy," linebacker Ja’Whaun Bentley said. "We all knew going into this thing it would be kind of adversity-filled and we planned to take it on and continue to take it on."

"Practice is obviously important, but it’s no excuse," cornerback Stephon Gilmore said. "We’re professional athletes. Whatever adversity we hit, we have to be able to compete and make plays."

"It’s a little different, obviously, not getting the chance to practice, but that’s really no excuse. That’s kind of the world we’re living in right now," running back James White said. "There's a pandemic going on so things like this might happen. You have to find a way to adjust and be prepared to play. I thought we were prepared to play, we just didn’t go out there and play our best football."

Sunday’s game was the Patriots’ worst performance of the year. They lost, 18-12, to a team that surrendered 28 points to the lowly New York Jets.

Defensively, giving up only 18 points should win you a lot of games, but that 18 was disguised by the Broncos’ own ineptitude. Six scoring drives should elicit as least one or two touchdowns, not six field goals.

"We made plays, but it’s a team game. We could have made more plays, that’s how I look at it," Gilmore said. "It’s a team game. We win as a team, we lose as a team and we lost today."

Preparation is the Patriots’ bread and butter and Sunday was stale. While they had two weeks to game-plan for the Broncos, it was just WebEx meetings while Denver was putting in the work on the field.

But the Patriots, being the Patriots, don’t think that should matter.

"A lot of this just comes down to personal accountability. We’ve got to maximize the time that we have with virtual meetings. If we’ve got to go out and run on our own, we run on our own," special-teams ace and team captain Matthew Slater said. "We have to be responsible in ensuring we keep each other safe so as best we can have an opportunity to come in and practice and prepare.

"This was a unique week and we understand that and we went over this game plan extensively. We prepared for Denver for two weeks. Unfortunately, we didn’t get on the practice field and it’s tough, but when we get on the practice field we have to make it count."

Barring an outbreak in Foxboro or a league-wide break that causes the NFL to pause the season, there will be nothing but practice and play from now until the season ends for the Patriots. That could be in the playoffs or it could be after their Week 17 game against the Jets. There are no more breaks.

And there will certainly be no excuses, because New England needs to do a better job of getting things done no matter how it happens.

"We just want the win. Regardless of how we get it, regardless of what happens, throughout the process we want the win," Bentley said. "We didn’t make that happen [on Sunday] so we’re back to the drawing board. Whether plays are put in or not, that’s not a big deal."

"I don’t know what the future is going to hold," Slater said. "I don’t know what next week is going to look like or the week after that. We just have to live in the day-to-day and try to maximize each day."

erueb@providencejournal.com

On Twitter: @EricRueb