FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — That the New England Patriots would defeat the Oakland Raiders Sunday at Gillette Stadium was a foregone conclusion, right?

After all, the Patriots were favored by 14 points, playing at home for the first time this season and facing a team that appears to be years away from being a playoff threat.

What was of more interest was how the Patriots would do it. Would Tom Brady become Tom Terrific again and hit all his open receivers? Would the running game overpower a defense that had given up 200 rushing yards per game coming? Would this be a blowout? Would the defense overwhelm the Raiders?

The answers were no, no, no and kind of.

The Patriots did beat the Raiders, but the only message the Patriots sent anyone is that they still have a lot of work to do, especially on offense. The final score was 16-9, and New England’s second victory of the year wasn’t secured until 325-pound defensive tackle Vince Wilfork gathered in a deflected Derek Carr pass for an interception at the Patriots 9 with 51 seconds remaining.

The mood in the Patriots’ locker room afterward was much like it is after any game.

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“Today is over with,” said cornerback Darrelle Revis. “We won. That’s my focus.”

But with that realization comes the caveat that the Patriots know they have to get better. A lot better. The offense staggered for most of the game, rushing for just 76 yards. The Patriots got into the red zone four times but produced only one touchdown.

“It’s not one person, it’s not one thing,” said Brady, who was 24 of 37 for 234 yards with one touchdown. “It’s everybody doing a better job, because it’s tough to (score in the red zone).”

It’s a good thing for the Patriots that the defense is playing well. After giving up 33 points in an opening loss in Miami, New England has allowed a total of 16 in the last two games.

With the Patriots clinging to a 10-9 lead entering the fourth quarter, the defense twice forced a three-and-out, the second time stopping the Raiders for no gain on second and third down when Oakland needed just 1 yard for a first down.

“That’s what it’s all about,” said defensive end Rob Ninkovich. “The blowout games, they don’t happen all the time in the NFL, that’s just not the way it is. Sometimes you just have to dig in and fight. It’s a good feeling to be in that situation and come out on top. Backed into a corner, you’ve just got to come out fighting.”

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That’s what they did on Oakland’s final drive. A pass interference call against Logan Ryan gave the Raiders first-and-goal at the 6 with 1:02 remaining. Darren McFadden ran in for an apparent touchdown on the next play, but Oakland’s Gabe Jackson was called for a holding penalty at the 2.

On the next play, Derek Carr passed to Denarius Moore underneath. The ball deflected off Moore’s hands, then off Ryan’s helmet before Wilfork reached out and grabbed it while falling forward.

“I’m just happy he jumped over me and didn’t land on me,” said Ninkovich, who hit Moore just after the ball arrived. “That would have hurt.”

The feeling among the Patriots is that the offense will get better, that Brady, Julian Edelman, Rob Gronkowski, Brandon LaFell, Stevan Ridley and Shane Vereen are too good to be kept in check every week.

Until then, the defense is ready to carry the load.

“If we score seven points, our job is to keep them to zero points,” said Ninkovich. “Whatever it is, we’re going to go out there and do our best, play team football. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes.”

The lone touchdown came on a 6-yard pass from Brady to Gronkowski in the second quarter, New England’s first score of the afternoon. The play, Gronkowski said, worked just like it was diagrammed.

“I just had to get open,” he said. “I had the cross route (from the right to the left), across the linebacker’s face and got open. Tom made a nice pass, right on the money, and I just had to catch it and score.”

Then, without hesitation, he added, “We’ve got to put more of those up on the board.”


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