You say what the Patriots said.
“It was lack of execution,’’ sighed a morose quarterback Tom Brady. “In order to score points, you must consistently put together plays. We could never do that, and find a rhythm.’’
“We just didn’t make the plays,’’ agreed tackle Matt Light. “When we had a little rhythm, we stopped short. We didn’t help our defense. We didn’t do it the way we did in the past.’’
“We had plenty of opportunities,’’ confirmed receiver Deion Branch. “We didn’t take advantage of them. The Jets had a great game plan, and they executed theirs, and we didn’t.’’
And in case there was any doubt . . .
“We just didn’t play well,’’ said coach Bill Belichick. “We didn’t do anything well enough.’’
For the second year in a row, the Patriots were eliminated from the playoffs by losing the opening game at home. But there is a vast difference between the beating they took from the Ravens last year and the defeat they suffered at the hands of the Jets yesterday at Gillette Stadium. Last year’s team had internal issues and simply wasn’t all that good.
This team had come in as the AFC top seed with a 14-2 record and had been playing very well during an eight-game winning streak. And no Belichick team had lost a playoff game after earning the much-coveted first-round bye.
Then there was the matter of the infamous 45-3 Patriots rout of the Jets Dec. 6, a game many fans couldn’t get out of their heads, even if the players could.
Branch explained the difference between what went on here back then and what went on in this game.
“We executed that day, and we didn’t today,’’ he said with a shrug. “We had a great game plan, and we didn’t execute it.’’
