FOXBORO, Mass. — The New England Patriots kept their unbeaten streak alive with a 36-7 win over the Miami Dolphins, but you’d be hard-pressed to find any talking about that in the locker room.
The 7-0 Patriots had plenty to be proud of Thursday night, winning their second AFC East game in five days and keeping their record loss-free, but they made it clear after the game that they’re going to do all their talking on the field. The players wouldn’t acknowledge their clean record and otherwise avoided questions about Thursday’s game being a “statement win.”
“It was a divisional game.” wide receiver Julian Edelman said. “It was a big game. It’s like that every week in the NFL. Every team’s good in this league, and it’s hard to win every week, and you can’t afford to go out and choke off a game in this sport because there’s only 16 of them.
“Every game is so valuable, and you’ve just got to treat it that way. It wasn’t a statement game; it was the next game. As long as we just continue to try to prepare and try to improve each day, good things usually happen.”
It was the same story with tight end Rob Gronkowski, who downplayed the significance of their latest victory as business as usual.
“(The Dolphins are) a good team,” Gronkowski said. “They won their last two. They’re a solid team, and they came out ready to play. But we just take one game at a time and concentrate on the Dolphins and did what we had to do to get that win.”
So even though the New England will face a 3-4 Washington Redskins team at home on a long week next Sunday, we have a feeling it’s simply “On to Washington” for the Pats.
Thumbnail photo via Stew Milne/USA TODAY Sports Images
