FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — A clean-shaven Tom Brady addressed the media on Wednesday wearing wide receiver gloves.
“Playing receiver this week,” he said, with a smile. “Catching a lot of balls.”
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Desperate times calling for desperate measures?
Not yet. The New England Patriots lost their opener 33-20 in Miami on Sunday, a game more shocking in the way they were manhandled in the second half than the actual outcome.
The Dolphins are always tough on the Patriots, especially in the heat and humidity of Miami. But the utter breakdown of the Patriots in the second half – in which they were outscored 23-0 – was stunning.
Brady was asked if that loss amplified the team’s preparations for this week’s game in Minnesota against the Vikings.
“Nobody likes to lose, but it happens,” said Brady. “It’s happened before. We’ve just got to figure out how to make some improvements and go out there and do a lot better next week.”
Since Brady came of age, the Patriots haven’t lost back-to-back games often. When they do, like in 2012 (when they lost to Arizona and Baltimore to drop to 1-2), it’s big news. Except in the Patriots’ locker room.
“We’re a long ways from the team we’re going to be,” said Brady. “We hate losing. It’s a terrible feeling around here. It’s a quality-of-life issue I think we all face when we lose, and hopefully it motivates us to go out there and have a great week of practice and be prepared for this game.”
The Patriots haven’t lost consecutive games to open the season since 2001. And we remember how that year went, don’t we?
New England lost its opener at Cincinnati 23-17 on Sept. 9. Fourteen days later, in their first game after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, the Patriots lost 10-3 at home to the Jets – the game in which Drew Bledsoe was injured and a skinny kid named Tom Brady took his place.
The Patriots then won 11 of their next 14 regular-season games and eventually won the Super Bowl with a stunning 20-17 victory over the heavily favored St. Louis Rams.
And therein ends this week’s history lesson.
The Patriots have no time to dwell on the past.
“Whatever did or didn’t happen the week before … I don’t really know how much impact that has on the next game,” said Coach Bill Belichick. Mondays, he said, are for corrections. Look at the film, see what you did wrong, correct it.
The Patriots have a lot of things to fix as they prepare for the Vikings. They need to find a way to slow down Minnesota’s offense, led by the incomparable Adrian Peterson and the multitalented Cordarrelle Patterson, who last week became the first wide receiver in team history to rush for over 100 yards in a game.
And they’ll need to find a way to slow down Minnesota’s aggressive defense. The Vikings this year are coached by Mike Zimmer who, as defensive coordinator in Cincinnati last year, held the Patriots to six points and only 248 total yards in offense.
Mostly, however, the Patriots need to figure out exactly who they are.
They shuffled seven players in and out of the offensive line last Sunday, another 11 in the secondary. Perhaps that was a concession to the heat in Miami.
But the offensive line, in particular, looked out of sync, allowing the Dolphins to pressure Brady nearly every time he dropped back to pass.
Dan Connolly, who shuffled between center and both guard positions, didn’t think it was either a communications or chemistry issue.
“We do a good job here rotating guys through and building a chemistry with multiple groups and not just playing with five guys in practice,” he said. “I think we’re ready when different guys come in the lineup (during the game).”
Belichick agreed, saying he didn’t see many mental errors: “It was more, I would say, a lack of execution of good fundamentals.”
If that’s the case, it’s no surprise the Patriots’ offense struggled so much.
“In offensive football, you really need 11 guys to do the right thing on every play or else it’s usually not a successful play and you certainly can’t sustain it over the course of a drive,” said Brady.
“You just can’t have any breakdowns. When you have them, which you’re going to have them in every game and you’ll have them to a degree on every play – not everybody is going to stone their guy at the line of scrimmage or run the perfect route – you’ve got to have some margin for error.
“If we break down at the line I’ve got to get the ball out. If we have extra time to throw, I’ve got to find the open guy, I’ve got to have my eyes in the right place to find the right guy.”
Shane Vereen, the talented running back, said the only answer to losing is getting back to work.
“We’ve got a lot of football left,” he said. “It was just one week and you can never dwell too much on just one week.”
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