With Week 15 now in the books, the New England Patriots remain a maddeningly difficult team to get a read on.
One thing is abundantly clear, however: This is not a good road team.
Thanks to Sunday night’s 17-10 loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Patriots will finish 3-5 on the road this season, the first time they’ve finished under .500 away form Gillette Stadium since the ill-fated 2009 campaign. Furthermore, the loss dropped New England (9-5) to third place in the AFC — one game behind the 12-4 Houston Texans — thus increasing the chances they’ll have to win on the road if they’re to reach Super Bowl LIII in Atlanta.
Tom Brady was asked about his team’s road struggles Monday morning during his weekly appearance on WEEI’s “Mut & Callahan” show, and the Patriots quarterback insisted his team is capable of winning in a hostile environment.
“It’s nothing other than playing great football,” Brady said of winning on the road. “It’s easier to do that at home. The communication is a little better, the momentum swings are a little bit bigger and so forth. We’ve done a great job playing at home this year. I certainly don’t feel we can’t win on the road. We had our chances yesterday, we certainly had our chances against Miami.
“I am not worried about playing on the road. We just have to win. We have to win at home. We have to beat Buffalo. That is where we have to get back to work, getting on the practice field and just go up there, win the game and try and win the division. That is our first goal.”
Ultimately, Brady knows the Patriots missed a golden opportunity at Heinz Field. But he also understands his team needs to refocus and right the ship before the postseason.
“You’re always trying to overcome situations and adversities. You either get the job done or you don’t,” he said. There could be a million reasons why you don’t get the job done, but that is pretty cut and dry. Again, yesterday we had plenty of opportunity and we didn’t get the job done. It’s disappointing for all of us, but it’s just a tough loss. We put a lot into it. We’re trying a bunch of different things and they are trying some different things. They had a tough few weeks where they have lost three in a row kind of on the last play and they played a little bit better than we did yesterday.
“We just have to play really well here the last two weeks of the year. Both these games are huge. They certainly are not going to be easy. Buffalo has the best defense in the league. We got to go earn it. No one is going to give it to us. Certainly, no one is going to feel sorry for us. We just have to go do it.”
The 2018 Patriots have many warts, with road failures being chief among them. But unless New England can shore up its run defense, find consistency on offense and, frankly, get better play from the quarterback position, it doesn’t matter where it plays come January. No matter which way you slice it, this is looking like one of the worst Patriots teams of the Brady-Bill Belichick era.
The fact that’s still good enough for a top-three seed in the AFC is remarkable, to say the least.
