The New England Patriots probably felt pretty good about themselves when they woke up Monday morning.
The Patriots were on a short week after being blown out on last Monday night by the Kansas City Chiefs, but it must have felt like one of the longest weeks of their careers.
If there are any players in the New England locker room who listened, watched or read the opinions of fans and media, they had plenty of motivation heading into Sunday night’s game — a blowout win over the Cincinnati Bengals. They’re back on the right track, and it’s all part of the ups and downs in the NFL.
“Players tune in to outside distractions to varying degrees,” former Patriots linebacker Matt Chatham wrote Monday morning on his new blog FootballByFootball.com. “Some hear more than others. But it’s not about ‘if you listened to the noise’ or ‘if you didn’t listen to the noise.’ You knew there was noise. When you know you’ve performed below your ability or your expectations, the note doesn’t have to make it to your ear.”
In today’s world of big expectations and even bigger overreactions when those expectations aren’t reached, “the noise” can often motivate teams to be better with the hope that results follow.
“It’s a process,” Chatham wrote. “A process that as an outsider, it’s very difficult to appreciate if you let the crazy talk in. There are innumerable ways to fix problems in a complex game. Â Brushing past them to find out who ‘sucks’ or who should be blamed is just too tempting for those who don’t get it. And the locker room draws inward every time it happens.”
