FOXBORO - Bill Belichick was understandably down after Sunday's 35-28 loss to the Eagles.
After beginning the season 10-0, he's now watched his team drop its last two games in uncharacteristic ways.
Just one week after allowing the Broncos to score 17 straight points in the fourth quarter, the Patriots allowed the Eagles to erase their 14-0 lead with 35 straight points.
And they took it to the Patriots in all three phases of the game, too.
Whether it was a 100-yard interception return, a blocked punt for a touchdown, a punt return for a touchdown, or an 80-yard drive, the Eagles grabbed momentum in the second quarter and rode it midway into the fourth quarter.
The Patriots put 14 points up in a fourth-quarter comeback attempt, but ultimately fell short on their final drive of the game.
"Just overall we obviously didn’t do anything well enough today," Belichick said to begin his press conference. "Didn’t do enough on offense, turned the ball over, gave up two third-down touchdowns on defense, didn’t play well in the kicking game, just really didn’t do anything well enough to really win. We competed and sort of had a chance there at the end to come back, but when you give up 21 points when your defense isn’t on the field, you lose about 98 percent of those games. [We’ve] just got to get back to work, got to do a better job.
It's the first time the Patriots have lost back-to-back games since Week 2 and Week 3 of the 2012 season.
The 21 points Belichick mentioned all occurred in the second and third quarters.
A blocked punt was returned for a touchdown in the final seconds of the first half, allowing the Eagles to tie the score at 14.
"We blew it, just didn’t block it properly obviously," Belichick said. "Nothing we hadn’t seen before, just didn’t execute it well."
That momentum then carried into the third quarter where Tom Brady was picked off at the Eagles' goal line by Malcolm Jenkins and returned 99 yards for a touchdown. After the ensuing drive stalled, Darren Sproles returned a punt 83 yards for a touchdown and just like that the Eagles had opened up a 28-14 lead.
Earlier in the week, Belichick complemented the Eagles special teams unit, saying it's 'probably the best unit we've faced all year', while specifically mentioning Sproles as a great returner as well as mentioning the unit's ability to block punts.
He was certainly right about those things.
"Yeah, give them credit. They took advantage of our mistakes," Belichick said. "We’ve been good in that area, but we weren’t today."
