How Did The New England Patriots React To 35-28 Loss To Eagles?

Dec 6, 2015; Foxborough, MA, USA; New England Patriots wide receiver Brandon LaFell (19) attempts to catch the ball in front of Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Eric Rowe (32) during the last minutes of a game at Gillette Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark L. Baer-USA TODAY Sports

Nate Ebner

(On the play selection of his kickoff with the Patriots leading 14-0) 
“No, I mean that’s just kind of how we decided to go about it and we just didn’t execute. Like I said, give all the credit to the Eagles. They were prepared for everything we threw at them.”

(On his kickoff)
“I just tried to put it into space and make it an element of surprise, but they were prepared for what we threw at them and credit to the Eagles for reacting so quickly to that one.”

(On the decision for you to execute the kick over Stephen Gostkowski) 
“I’m not sure. I have the ability to do some stuff and you would have to ask them [coaches] that, but we just threw in a little surprise I think with someone else kicking the ball.”

(On the Eagles’ punt block)
“I did not see it [breakdown in coverage]. I was occupied on the right, but I’m pretty sure we just didn’t handle the leak well and the guy came free and made a great play.”

Brandon LaFell

(On his biggest take away from the game) 
“The biggest takeaway is we’ve just got to play better [in] all three phases. We’ve got to protect the ball. We’ve just got to go out there and play better than the other team.”

(On if his drop on the last drive is going to stick with him)
“Definitely, man. I just took my eyes off the ball at the last minute looking up field. That’s one of those plays that I’ve got to come down with it. We get that play, we’re still on the field, we’re still moving the ball, we’ve got a chance to go down there and tie the game.”

(On if this is one of the more uncharacteristic losses he’s been a part of here in New England) 
“It feels different around here with the way we lost the last two games, especially the way we lost today. It felt like a bad day at practice. It just felt like a bad day at practice when you sit down and talk about, ‘if this goes wrong, if this goes wrong then we won’t have the chance to win the game’ and it felt like a lot of stuff went wrong for us today.”

Devin McCourty

(On if injuries have contributed to the two-game losing streak)
“These last two games we’ve had chances to win, so to me, it doesn’t matter. The guys that are playing are prepared and ready to go. Whether it’s a guy who has been here since September to a guy who is here now, the fact is we had a chance to win the game. We’ve got to do more to win the game and we welcome guys as they continue to get healthy and come back. I’m not ready to put blame on injuries for the reason we lost the last two games.”

(On the first onside kick)
“We didn’t get the ball back, but we still had a chance to stop them defensively.”

(On what the first step is to ending the losing streak) 
” Play better. It’s simple. We don’t need to start to draw up stuff in the dirt or think of a whole new way to play here. We’ve won plenty of games, we’ve just got to play better. As usual, we’ll break down the film and see what we need to do. It was too many bad plays to overcome. It’s crazy to think in a game like this where we’re down by so much that we still gave ourselves a chance to win the game. There’s always some good and bad, but we’ve got to learn from it. We can’t give up some of the plays we gave up today.”

(On the multitude of mistakes)
“We’ve got to hope we got every bad play out of our system tonight. We know we can’t afford to let that happen, to lay an egg on some plays this time of year. Those guys are trying to get in the playoffs, they’re trying to win their division and we’re trying to do the same. This time of year, every team we play is playing for something so we’ve got to take up our level and like we always talk about around here, we’ve got to play better and not just talk about it.”

Matthew Slater

(On getting a hand on Darren Sproles during his punt return touchdown) 
“A hand is not good enough for him. There are things I could have done better on that play. I get doubled [in coverage] every game so that’s not an excuse. It starts with me as the gunner on the kick-side and I’ve got to get down there and try and be a little bit more disruptive.”

(On what the goal of the drop-kick play is)
“I don’t want to get into discussing scheme. Obviously, we felt comfortable in doing it and confident or we wouldn’t have ran it. It obviously didn’t go the way we planned.”

Next: Week 14 AFC Power Rankings: Pats fall to No. 3

(On how dangerous the Eagles special teams unit is) 
“They were the best in the league last year. They’ve got a lot of good players. I can name off every guy on that unit and he’s far above average for his position. Chris [Maragos] does a good job of leading that group. Bryan [Braman] makes a lot of plays and obviously Darren [Sproles] – he’s been doing it since he was in San Diego. He did it in New Orleans and now he’s doing it there, so he poses a lot of problems for you and they made us pay tonight.”