FOXBORO, Mass. — A familiar rallying cry has reemerged in the Patriots' locker room this week.
Finish.
Defensive lineman Vince Wilfork said that’s been a big focus since Sunday when the Patriots surrendered the last 21 points of the game in a 28-14 loss to the Jets. The finishing motto was big in 2007 after New England's AFC Championship collapse against the Colts and then again in 2008 after the Super Bowl defeat to the Giants.
Granted, a Week 2 loss to the Jets has far, far less meaning than anything that has gone down in the postseason, but the trend was similar.
"The faster we get it turned around, the better we'll be as a team," Wilfork said. "That’s a goal of ours, put 60 minutes together [and] finish a football team."
The best way for the Patriots to put that loss to use is to learn from it and quickly move past it. Understand how it happened, take it as a lesson and get it together for the next week.
"I'm pissed when we lose," Wilfork said. "I hate when we lose. I want to win every game. It's impossible, but those plays that we left out there that we didn’t get back. I'm just kind of frustrated, but you know what, we learn from it. We can't let last week affect this week. That’s one thing we're trying to get going, get back to playing good football. Hopefully, we can start it with another division win."
