FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Through the years under Coach Bill Belichick, the New England Patriots have always been regarded as having special teams that were indeed special. In Stephen Gostkowski, they have perhaps the best kicker in the NFL. In Matthew Slater, they have a four-time Pro Bowl selection as a special teams player.

Sunday, however, was not a good day for the special teams.

The Philadelphia Eagles scored two touchdowns on special teams to beat the Patriots 35-28 at Gillette Stadium.

Najee Goode returned a blocked punt 24 yards for a touchdown and Darren Sproles returned a punt 83 yards for another score.

Slater, who suffered a stinger in the first quarter but returned to play in the second half, seemed to take the loss personally.

“Obviously, we’re very disappointed with the way we went out there and played tonight,” he said. “We’ve got to do a lot better than that. We take a lot of pride in what we do, and we put a lot of time into it. It’s obviously disappointing.

“Everybody’s got to get better. I feel we hurt our team tonight.”

The Eagles also are usually mentioned among the league’s top special teams, and they made a point Sunday night.

“Give them credit,” said Belichick. “They took advantage of our mistakes. We’ve been good in that area. We weren’t tonight.”

Sproles said it felt good to have the special teams contribute against a very good opponent.

“We spend time on our special teams,” he said. “And the people who are on the special teams actually take pride in it. So this means a lot.”

Eagles Coach Chip Kelly said his team spent a lot of time preparing for the Patriots’ special teams. And Philadelphia special teams were a huge part of the win.

“When you have a blocked kick for a touchdown, an interception return for a touchdown and a punt return for a touchdown, it takes those things to win in this stadium against that coach and that quarterback,” he said.

LOSING STREAK: The loss was New England’s second in a row, which is a pretty rare occurrence. The Patriots have lost two regular-season games in a row only five times since 2003 – also doing it in 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2012.

The Patriots have lost more than two in a row only once in the Tom Brady era. That came in 2002 when the Patriots lost four in a row early on – including all three games they played in October. They also lost two in a row later that year, when they finished 9-7.

IT WAS a balmy 52 degrees at kickoff, which might seem unusual. But since 2005, the Patriots have played four other December games at Gillette Stadium when it was at least 51 degrees, according to the summaries of those games.

The highest December game-time temperature in that time was 59, on Dec. 10, 2012, in a 42-14 win over Houston.

The Patriots won all those 50-degree games, by the way: beating Indianapolis 31-24 on Dec. 4, 2011 (51 degrees), Jacksonville 35-7 on Dec. 27, 2009 (55 degrees) and Houston 40-7 on Dec. 17, 2006 (52 degrees).

IT WAS NO SURPRISE that wide receiver Julian Edelman (ankle) and tight end Rob Gronkowski were on the Patriots’ inactive list. They were joined by two defensive starters: linebacker Dont’a Hightower (knee) and defensive lineman Dominique Easley (ankle).

BRADY THREW three touchdown passes, giving him 31 for the season and 423 in his career.

He is now third on the NFL’s all-time touchdown list, trailing Peyton Manning (539) and Brett Favre (508).

It’s also the sixth time he has thrown at least 30 touchdown passes in a season. He is fourth all-time on that list.