DENVER — While his New England Patriots teammates faced the media and addressed their loss Sunday night, Chandler Jones already had exited his time machine and catapulted into December.
The defensive end only would talk about the Philadelphia Eagles, the Patriots’ Week 13 opponent, immediately following the 30-24 overtime loss to the Denver Broncos.
When asked about Sunday night’s game, Jones, who recorded an interception in the second quarter, replied: “I’m only answering questions about Philadelphia. I’m not talking about the game. If you guys have questions about Philadelphia, go ahead.”
Jones wouldn’t explain why he refused to discuss the loss, as the rest of his teammates had.
“Because Philadelphia is a great team, and we have to prepare for them,” Jones said. “(Eagles quarterback) Mark Sanchez is a great quarterback. (Eagles head coach) Chip Kelly runs some good schemes, and we have to prepare for them.”
Jones was further pressed about why he already was onto Philadelphia.
“Chip Kelly does a lot of different things,” Jones said. “He does stretch-zone runs, he passes the ball vertically, so we just have to prepare for that.”
The media scrum around Jones then disbanded.
Second-year pro Malcolm Butler did address the loss, however.
“I knew it was going to be a dogfight for 60 minutes,” Butler said. “I knew it was going to come down to the end, which it did, but we just came up short. There are a lot of lessons to be learned from this game.”
So did Logan Ryan, who gave up the Broncos’ go-ahead touchdown in the fourth quarter after limiting star receiver Demaryius Thomas to only one catch for 36 yards on 13 targets.
“Me, personally, I pride myself on finishing those plays in these games,” Ryan said. “I work hard enough, and we work hard enough as a team, to do that, and we were unable to. We’ve just got to go back, get in the lab, grind harder and get ready for Philly.”
Even head coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady addressed the loss.
“We will keep fighting,” Brady said. “We lost (Sunday), and it was a tough game. We had to come on the road and had a big lead and didn’t make enough plays in the fourth quarter. It is tough to win when you lose good players. It hurts. It always hurts to lose. We had plenty of opportunities to win, and we will try to get back to work this week and figure out how to put a plan together that we are confident about next week.”
Thumbnail photo via Ron Chenoy/USA TODAY Sports Images
