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New England Patriots QB Tom Brady knows a thing or two about what it takes to win football games and he knows that the Patriots didn’t have the right mentality against the Chiefs on Thursday night.
“I just think we need to have more urgency and go out there and perform a lot better,” Brady said after the 42-27 loss. “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 appeared to have the game in the bag early on, moving the ball at will against the Chiefs defense and reaching inside the 10-yard line on the first four drives. The offense was in a position to go up 14-0, but the officials overturned a touchdown pass to TE Rob Gronkowski, the Patriots failed to convert on fourth down, and the Chiefs responded with a touchdown drive of their own.
“That was a disappointing play,” Brady said about the non-touchdown to Gronkowski. “I mean, that would have been a big play in the game. You know, just didn’t make it and didn’t make a lot of plays tonight, actually. So, we just have to be a lot better in a lot of areas, starting with our attitude and our competitiveness. We’re going to have to do a lot better than tonight.”
The Patriots only converted on five of their 17 third or fourth down plays, and just once in the second half, a disappointing mark for an offense that was supposed to be unstoppable
“We didn’t have it the way we needed it tonight,” Brady shrugged after the game. “It’s got to be at a much higher level next week and the rest of the year. That’s going to be a big point of emphasis for all of us.”
New England isn’t typically the type of team to crumble in the second half of games, so the coaching staff is certainly going to drill the 60-minute mentality into the team over the next week before they get a chance at redemption against the New Orleans Saints.