In their first game since coming back from 28-3 down to win a Super Bowl, the Patriots got outscored 28-10 in the second half to start their 2017 season with a 42-27 loss.
The loss dropped an anvil on the talk of an undefeated season and made the lavish pregame celebration of last year’s title feel like it happened in a different decade. Based on what quarterback Tom Brady said after the game, the team may have waited a bit too long to put those things into the past.
Brady said in his postgame press conference that the Patriots need to be better across the board, “starting with our attitude and our competitiveness.” Brady was asked what he meant and suggested the team didn’t do a very good job of focusing on the moment that was right in front of them.
“I just think we need to have more urgency and go out there and perform a lot better,” Brady said. “That is a winning attitude and a championship attitude that you need to bring every day. We had it handed to us on our own field. It’s a terrible feeling, and the only people that can do something about it are in that locker room. We’ve got to dig a lot deeper than we did tonight because we didn’t dig very deep tonight.”
The Patriots have more than a week to work on all that went wrong before they are back on the field against the Saints. From what Brady said, one of the first things they need to do is fully turn the page to the 2017 season.