Patriots return to practice after big loss at Indy

[November 19, 2009]  FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP) -- Bill Belichick has heard enough about his fourth-down decision that failed. So has Tom Brady.

The Patriots returned Wednesday for their first practice since Sunday night's 35-34 loss in which their coach went for it on fourth-and-2 from the New England 28-yard line instead of punting with a six-point lead. They fell a yard short and the Indianapolis Colts scored a touchdown and extra point for the victory.

"Today is Wednesday," Belichick said. "We talk about Wednesday."

His players delivered the same message: The Colts are in the past, it's time to prepare for Sunday's game against the New York Jets.

On the fourth-down play, Kevin Faulk appeared to be beyond the first-down marker when he bobbled Brady's pass, which wasn't perfectly accurate. He quickly gained control, but the ball was spotted just short of the marker and the Colts took over.

The quarterback wouldn't address whether he could have put the ball in a better place.

"I'm worried about the Jets," Brady said. "I think I'd talked a lot about the Colts game and I think we've all got to move forward and understand that we're playing a great opponent one that really gave our offense a lot of problems the last time we played them and that has a lot of good players.

"It's already Wednesday, that game was last Sunday and really that game can't help us at all moving forward, so it doesn't really do us a lot of good to waste energy thinking about it or talking about it. We've got to just go worry about the Jets."

Not as much, though, as they might have earlier in the season.

Brady had his worst game of the year in the second week, a 16-9 loss at New York. But the Jets (4-5) have lost their last three games and trail the Patriots (6-3) in the AFC East race.

New England usually bounces back well from big losses -- and Sunday night's against its top AFC rival was huge.

"It's tough," Brady said. "You lose those games and emotionally you're pretty drained and it's disappointing for everybody, but the reality is there's a lot of games left for us and we all understand that."

The last time the Patriots lost two straight, they were beaten at home by the Colts and Jets in the eighth and ninth games of 2006. Their previous two-game losing streak came in the 14th and 15th games in 2002 -- against the Tennessee Titans and the Jets.

The Patriots know New York can do it again as they try to rebound from the emotional loss at Indianapolis.

"It takes a lot out of you," cornerback Jonathan Wilhite said, "but I think just the respect (we have) for the Jets and how good of a team they are, I think we need to focus more on them instead of dwelling on the past."

Safety Brandon McGowan said he got over the loss "right after it happened. Like Coach said, 'the past is the past.' "

Reggie Wayne caught a 1-yard scoring pass from Peyton Manning with 13 seconds left Sunday night despite being guarded closely by Wilhite. Still, the second-year cornerback had a decent game against one of the NFL's best receivers.

"There are some things that happen in every game that pretty much a player did what he could do and there's not always the optimal result on that," Belichick said. "And then there are other times when players didn't do what they were expected to do (and) that's something that you can correct."

Belichick did the unexpected when he went for the first down.

When the decision backfired, the critics piled on. Former Patriots Rodney Harrison and Tedy Bruschi and former Colts coach Tony Dungy all said the Patriots should have punted.

"When you lose, people place the blame in certain areas," Brady said. "We all know in here there's not one thing to blame. We all could do things better. Its unfair in a group of 53 players and however many coaches we have that one person gets the blame."

Clearly, Brady wanted to move on despite the media's focus on the decision.

"I don't turn the TV on. I don't read the paper," he said. "When you win, you watch 'SportsCenter,' you watch 'Monday Night Football.' When you lose, you don't turn any of it on. You watch the Jets and that's about all you do."

[Associated Press; By HOWARD ULMAN]

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