To his credit, he didn't.
"I feel like I cost my team the game," the rookie from UCLA said in a hushed tone. "There is no excuse for it. You have to field the ball first, and I didn't do my job. It's as simple as that."
The muff came after the Steelers had taken their first lead of the game, 13-10, on a Jeff Reed 25-yard field goal with 5:39 remaining in the third quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, Slater was the primary returner, subbing for Ellis Hobbs, who was battling cramps and throwing up on the sideline.
The ball caromed off Slater's chest, he couldn't gather it in, and Steelers linebacker Keyaron Fox pounced on it at the 8-yard line. Two plays later, the Steelers led, 20-10.
Slater said he saw the ball - "there are no excuses" - and it was simply a matter of handling it.
"I feel like I let the team down; you can't give up the ball inside the 10 or 5," he said.
In retrospect, given the rainy conditions, perhaps the Patriots' coaching staff should have considered a more experienced option. Running back Kevin Faulk, for example, ended up taking the next kickoff.
Asked if there was a thought along those lines, coach Bill Belichick said Slater has been the top backup returner all season. Entering yesterday's game, Hobbs had taken 34 of the team's 45 returns, Slater nine. Faulk (1) and receiver Wes Welker (1) had the others.
Hobbs, however, had been in and out on the Steelers' 14-play drive that preceded Slater's muff, replaced by Mike Richardson because of cramping.
"I just got sick a little bit," Hobbs explained. "I tried to make it happen, man, but sometimes your body won't allow you to."
While Slater's miscue was decisive - Fox felt the Steelers "rallied off that" - it was far from the only factor in the Patriots' loss.
The NFL's least-penalized team entering yesterday's action, the Patriots were flagged for five infractions in the first half - a stretch in which they couldn't capitalize on several opportunities and found themselves locked in an unsatisfying 10-10 tie at the break. Receiver Sam Aiken, who was signed this offseason as a free agent mainly for his special teams play, was penalized twice in the kicking game.
