FOXBORO, Mass. -- The Patriots' Week 1 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles left room for optimism. But Sunday night's disappointing 24-17 failure against the Miami Dolphins felt different.
New England players were visibly ticked off after falling to 0-2 despite looking and feeling like a better team than the one we saw last season. Mike Gesicki was among those whose frustrations boiled over, with NBC cameras catching the veteran tight end spiking his helmet after officials overturned a late first down.
Facing a fourth-and-4 and trailing by seven with a minute left, Mac Jones hit Gesicki on a short pass near the first-down marker. But while falling to the ground, Gesicki lateralled to guard Cole Strange, who appeared to run for a first down before officials reversed the call after review. Game over.
Here's how Gesicki reacted when the ruling was announced:
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"There is a lot of work that goes into these," Gesicki said postgame when asked about the helmet slam. "And you only get 17 opportunities. Two of them are gone now. But we've got 15 to go, and we've got a lot of football ahead of us.
"We have a lot of hard workers, a lot of great coaches. This is a great organization to be a part of and we have to get back to work tomorrow."
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Sunday night marked just the latest time the post-Tom Brady Patriots failed to win a close game against an upper-echelon opponent. Be it turnovers, penalties, slow starts, defensive breakdowns or a combination of all four, New England always finds a way to lose these kinds of games.
Of course, it used to always find ways to win such contests. But those days are long gone.
The Patriots now face an early must-win game next Sunday when they visit the New York Jets. A loss would drop New England to 0-3 for the first time since 2000 when it started 0-4 in Bill Belichick's first season as head coach.
Featured image via Paul Rutherford/USA TODAY Sports Images
