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Patriots notes: New England players hope tough loss in Miami ends up a character builder

Mark Daniels, @MarkDanielsPJ
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, center, looks down while on the sideline during the second half. [The Associated Press]

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. — The Patriots will quickly find out what their team is made of following Sunday’s gut-wrenching loss to the Miami Dolphins.

Following Kenyan Drake’s winning touchdown, players seemed cautiously optimistic that this group could rebound to make another long playoff run. Of course, they’ll need to do so quickly as they go on the road to face Pittsburgh next week.

If the Patriots can respond positively after Sunday, it could take them far. If not, this could be an early exit.

“You don’t build character when things are going well all the time,” Matthew Slater said. “It’s easy. That’s not when you build character. You build character when you face adversity. That’s difficult. You know that. Now’s the time for us to go back to the basics, lean in on one another for strength, not lose faith in who we are and what our process is and focus on the next opponent. It’s as simple as that.”

Added Rob Gronkowski: “It’s going to test our character. It’s going to test our mental toughness.

The Patriots have a handful of veterans who have been through tough times, but a loss like Sunday’s was rare.

The Patriots are now 1-5 in their last six matchups in Miami. In those games, however, the Pats played so poorly that you expected them to make the proper adjustments. On Sunday, the Patriots made enough in-game adjustments to a point where it looked like they had certain victory. You could already envision they team handing out hats and T-shirts celebrating another AFC East title.

That’s still in the cards. As is a playoff bye since the Houston Texans also lost on Sunday.

“We’ve got a lot of great guys in the locker room as far as leadership,” Trey Flowers said. “As far as character and things as such, we’ve understand what we have at stake, what we’ve got to do and how we’ve got to get better and what we planned for. I think a lot of guys are high character around here understand we’ve got to fix it and keep it moving.”

“We’ve got guys who are mentally tough. Physically tough, too,” Duron Harmon added. “This is not something we’re going to let define us. We’re obviously going to learn from it, practice it, get better from it. We know we have a big challenge in front of us next week going to Heinz Field playing the Steelers. It’s something we can’t linger on, but something we’ve got to continue to move on from and get better from.”

A heartbreaking loss like this could fester, but Slater said he hopes that players will clear the air with each other and move on.

“We have to process it, air out our grievances, if anyone has any, and move forward,” Slater said. “There’s no magic pill or secret recipe to move past this. It’s mental fortitude. It’s mental toughness. It’s character and professionalism to move forward.”

Gronk or not?

This should’ve been Gronkowski’s welcome-back party.

Instead, the Patriots' last-second loss to the Miami Dolphins had people wondering why the team’s star tight end was on the field for the final play.

With 7 seconds remaining, the Patriots coaching staff placed Gronkowski on the field in case Ryan Tannehill attempted a Hail Mary-type play. Gronk’s lone defensive snap, however, backfired when he slipped and took a bad angle at Drake, who zipped by the All-Pro for the winning touchdown.

“We practiced that play a few times for the Hail Mary,” said Gronkowski, who had his first 100-yard game since Week 1. “You guys have seen it before. Go up and get the ball. But they changed it up a little bit. It was just kind of sucky.”

Typically, when the Patriots are defending a Hail Mary, they’ll put someone like Gronk on the goal line. His role as "jump" is to bat the ball down. Defensive players inside the visitors' locker room said they understood Gronk’s role, but they also said they weren’t expecting a Hail Mary.

“It’s like helter-skelter,” Devin McCourty said. “You don’t know what they’re going to do, but you know they’re going to pitch it back, try to get down the sideline. That’s exactly what happened.”

“You just know they’re not throwing the ball 75 yards to like the end zone,” Harmon added. “We knew that. We knew it was going to be a lateral situation. If the ball was at the 35-yard line or 40-yard line, we’d think Hail Mary, everyone get back, play the tip. But it was where they were, position, on the field, we knew it wasn’t going to be a Hail Mary. Lateral.

On Gronk being out there for the final play, Stephon Gilmore said, “We just play whatever the coaches call. Not surprised.”

“Rebound. If they throw the ball up in the air, you want a guy like Gronk to bat the ball down,” Jason McCourty added. “Obviously, if we know exactly what the play is you can sub all 11 and get the exact people you want on it. You just don’t know. You’re trying to prepare for any and everything. We just didn’t do a good enough job.”

After the game, Bill Belichick explained that the Patriots were trying to defend another type of pass play and not necessarily a Hail Mary.

“They could have run the Desperado-type play, which is kind of an in between 20-yard pass, then it turned into a Desperado,” Belichick said.

The decision, however, left Gronk out of position. It was clear he wasn’t prepared to make that game-saving tackle.

“I'm sure (Gronkowski) was definitely probably expecting like a pass or something downfield, something he could jump up and go get,” Josh Gordon said. “As opposed to pursuit, something that no offensive player has too much prowess of. So that's unfortunate, but you live and learn.”

Brady's miscue

Among the missed opportunities for the Patriots on Sunday, Tom Brady’s gaffe before halftime was one of the biggest.

During this seesaw battle, the Patriots' special teams unit kept making their mark. Albert McClellan’s first punt block, in the first quarter, resulted in a Julian Edelman touchdown. His second blocked punt, in the second quarter, resulted in Brady forgetting how many timeouts the team had. The Patriots settled with no points.

“That was a terrible play by me,” Brady said. “That should never happen. I lost track. I thought we had one time out. We called the one, and we ran a couple plays, and I was just not thinking on third down. So it was just a play that should never happen.”

The Patriots took over at the Miami 15 with 30 seconds left in the half. Following a 13-yard pass from Brady to Gronkowski, the Patriots were on the 2-yard line with 21 seconds remaining. But on third-and-2, at the 2, Brady was sacked and time clicked away with the Patriots leaving the field with nothing.

It was a confusing series of events. In the end, a potential field goal could’ve been the difference maker for the Patriots, who lost, 34-33.

“Yeah. Time ran out on us. It's obviously not what we were trying to do,” Belichick said.