How Did The New England Patriots React To Losing To Jets?

Dec 27, 2015; East Rutherford, NJ, USA; New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (12) during the first quarter against the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jim O

Tom Brady

On playing with so many injuries to key players…
We knew it was going to be a fourth quarter game. So I thought we did a good job battling to the end. We just didn’t make enough plays to score enough points. Wish we would’ve won it. That’s a good football team and they’ve got a lot of good players and they played pretty well. So, we certainly had our chances, but just didn’t come away with it.

On whether he agreed with the decision to elect to kick the ball in overtime…
Whatever Coach (Belichick) decides, that’s what the team does. We as players, just have to play better. It wasn’t like we were tracking it up and down the field. It’s certainly not an easy decision. I think we all have confidence that whatever coach decides, we have to go out there and do our job and do the best we can because he’s trying to do whatever he can to help us win. And that’s what we’re all trying to do. They just made some nice plays during the overtime drive. So, that ended up just being the difference.

On whether he is aware of what the call was going to be if the Patriots won the coin toss…
I’m not sure how it happened today. Sometimes I go out there, sometimes I don’t.

On how much of a disruption it is to continuously lose left tackles to injury…
It’s tough. We’ve had so many guys that have stepped in and have tried to do a great job. We just had some bad luck, truthfully. The game always ebbs and flows, and (the team is) missing some guys, but like I said, I don’t think we’ve ever used those excuses and we had opportunities to win this game. Hopefully we can get healthy and we’ve just got to win one game next week. I’m glad we fought to the end. It’s a good football team and we can see them again, so we’ve just got to do a better job if we do.

On what happened on the pass that was intercepted by Darrelle Revis…
It’s just one we’ve got to watch as a team. I mean, you hate to have them happen, certainly not throwing it to him—that would be my least favorite option on the play. It just so happened that it didn’t turn out the way we wanted.

On whether it makes the result more bitter after having a great fourth quarter drive…
Yeah. I think we have some mental toughness. A lot of guys have been in and out of the lineup, lot of guys coming in off the street trying to play and help us win. It’s never easy. This time of year, a lot of guys are fighting through bumps and bruises. If we just get our guys, everyone out there and practice together and see what we’re made of, I think that’ll be a great thing, but in the meantime, you’ve just got to keep, individually, trying to get better on the practice field, in the game, see what you could do better, because you never know whose number is going to be called in the playoffs. We’ve all got to keep working hard, see what we can accomplish this week in practice. Ultimately, we’ve got to go win next week, that’s a huge game for us. And then you have time to try to improve and be at your best two weeks into the playoffs.

On whether the answer to offensive woes is as simple as getting Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola back from injury…
We’ll see. We’ll see. I think that all remains to be seen. It depends on how hard we work, how well we execute. I think the better players you have out on the field, certainly those guys have been some our most dependable plays for as long as they’ve been here, that always helps. No, but I wouldn’t put it all on their shoulders. I think all the guys who played today have to obviously do a better job, because what we did today wasn’t good enough.

On whether it was hard not to get frustrated by the offensive struggles in the first half…
I think we only had three drives in the first half. We scored on one and missed two. Missed a third-and-one and then we had one other drive that didn’t go well, so we didn’t have a lot of plays out there. Played a little bit better in the second half. We got a big turnover that resulted in the touchdown that Jamie (Collins) ran in, that really kind of gave us a big boost right there. So, we fought, we just didn’t make enough plays.

On losing players to injury each week…
I know we’ve had six or seven weeks where critical players have gone out for extended periods of time. I don’t think anybody’s feeling sorry for us. I’ll say that. So, the guys who can do something about it and make a difference that are on the field have to go out and try to play well and win for this team, win for the guys who aren’t out there playing with us. Every week presents different challenges. Going to Miami is going to be a great opportunity for us. It was a great opportunity being down seven in the fourth quarter and seeing what we’re made of. We did a good job going down there and tying it up. (We) almost made a great interception on the one that Rob (Ninkovich) batted up in the air and that could’ve been the game right there, so we’re close. (We) just didn’t make the plays in the end.

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