Save for a terrible Week 3 showing against the New Orleans Saints, all of the Patriots' losses to date saw New England let a very winnable game fall by the wayside.
Bill Belichick's team tacked on another defeat of that variety Sunday evening at Gillette Stadium.
The Patriots hung tough with one of the hottest teams in all of football. New England and Dallas engaged in a memorable, back-and-forth affair, and the Week 6 contest needed overtime to be decided. But it was the Cowboys who ultimately came out on top, while the Patriots dipped deeper below .500.
That type of loss can do damage to the spirit of any team, especially one that already had a slim margin for error. But as Kendrick Bourne explained after the game, Belichick hopes his team will operate with tunnel vision beginning Monday.
"The last few weeks, we've been having close games and we are still trying to find ourselves," Bourne told reporters, per a team-provided transcript. "He said it was a tough loss, we fought hard and fought to the end. It's just all about our mindset. Are we going to come in here (Monday) with a positive attitude for the future or are we going to come in here and fold? We all have to look at ourselves in the mirror and see what we have to do to fix it. We had a good start and just didn't finish well. It's not about how you start, it's about how you finish."
Bourne and the Patriots have a golden opportunity to bounce back this weekend. New England on Sunday will host the 1-4 New York Jets, whom the Patriots beat by 19 points in the Meadowlands back in Week 2.
