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Patriots dealing with rare defeat

By The Sports Xchange
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Photo by Matthew Healey/ UPI
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick. Photo by Matthew Healey/ UPI | License Photo

FOXBOROUGH, Mass, - It's been a full calendar year since Bill Belichick's New England Patriots (10-1) have had to deal with a real loss.

While New England dropped the 2014 season finale to the Buffalo Bills, it was a meaningless game that saw rookie Jimmy Garoppolo get his feet wet in the second half.

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No, the last time the Patriots faced true defeat was exactly one year ago - Nov. 30, 2014 in a 26-21 hard fought loss at Green Bay.

As much as the team was disappointed with Sunday night's 30-24 overtime defeat at the hands of Brock Osweiler's Broncos in Denver, New England appears to have dodged what would have been a much more significant loss than the one on the scoreboard.

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All-Pro tight end Rob Gronkowski was carted off in the fourth quarter with a right knee injury suffered on a low hit from Broncos safety Darian Stewart. Gronkowski underwent an MRI exam on Monday and it reportedly revealed a minor knee strain that should sideline him no more than a couple weeks at the most.

Belichick would not confirm the reports of Gronkowski avoiding a severe injury in his usual day-after-game conference call on Monday.

"I mean we're not even 24 hours after the game, so. Look, I know everybody wants an instant analysis, but I think it's more important to be right than to jump in and start talking about a lot of stuff that's inaccurate," Belichick said before going on to explain that it's unfortunate to ever see any player carted off the field.

"We always hope for the best for all of our players. I mean that will never change. Our players work hard and give us everything they got. I hate to see anything happen to anybody. So, of course, we're hoping for the best."

Even if Gronkowski is lost for just a game or two - the Patriots host the Eagles on Sunday and then will travel to the Texans for another Sunday night affair on Dec. 13 - it's the latest in a long list of ailments that have cut into Tom Brady's core of pass catchers.

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Pass-catching back Dion Lewis (ACL) is on injured reserve and Julian Edelman (foot) could be out until the postseason following surgery. Danny Amendola (knee) missed last week and could remain sidelined for a group that also saw little-used third-year receiver Aaron Dobson (ankle) land on IR.

As such, a New England offense that had topped 30 points in six consecutive games has now been at 27 or fewer in four straight, including two one-score wins and the team's first loss of the season on Sunday night.

"We will keep fighting," Brady said of the continued onslaught of injuries. "We lost [Sunday night] 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 and 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."

New England is in the unfamiliar spot of losing on the scoreboard as well as the familiar spot of losing yet another player to injury. Dealing with the latter will make it more difficult to overcome the former and move forward, but next-man-up is a way of life in Foxborough, as it is in pretty much all 32 NFL cities by this point in the season.

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"I've been in the NFL long enough to know it's part of the deal," tight end Scott Chandler said. "Injuries don't always pick who they come upon. It happens to everyone and you've got to be ready to move on as a team and have the next guy step up and make plays. I think if you sit there and dwell on it, it might [be overwhelming], but we can't do that. We don't have a choice. We've got to move on."

Said cornerback Malcolm Butler: "When you're out there, it's a 100 percent risk you can get injured. You don't want those things to happen, but it's next man up and you just have to keep on moving."

That's becoming easier said than done with each passing week in New England, and for the first time in a year it resulted in a loss.

REPORT CARD vs. BRONCOS

PASSING OFENSE: C-minus. Tom Brady's numbers don't look bad from the Denver game, especially considering that he was playing without a number of key targets and saw Rob Gronkowski leave with a fourth-quarter knee injury. Brady completed 23 of 42 passes for 280 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions for a 99.3 rating. He was sacked three times, though, and hit a total of 13 times by a pretty consistent Broncos rush that certainly got Brady off his mark. Gronkowski was the leading receiver with six catches for 88 yards and an opening-drive touchdown. Fellow tight end Scott Chandler was the leading target on the night, though he hauled in just five of the 11 passes thrown his way for 58 yards, including a 9-yard touchdown. Running back Brandon Bolden had the other score on a nice 63-yard wheel route, a big chunk of his four catches for 88 yards. But with the game on the line, Brady and the passing attack struggled. Three straight throws with a little more than two minutes to play led to a Patriots punt and Denver taking the late lead. Brady then threw a pair of incompletions sandwiched around a Von Miller sack (one of the pass rusher's five hits) on a three-and-out to open overtime. The numbers were OK against the NFL's No. 1 pass defense, but the Patriots couldn't make enough consistent plays to convert on third down - New England was just 2-of-13 on the night - or get the job done with the game on the line.

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RUSHING OFFENSE: D. Three weeks in a row the Patriots have made some effort to balance out the offense and three straight weeks that effort has failed. New England rushed 16 times for 39 yards in Denver for a 2.4-yard average. LeGarrette Blount "led" the way with nine rushes for just 27 yards. The offensive line didn't pass protect well and didn't open up many holes on the ground, while Blount once again danced too much in the backfield. It was another less-than-effective game for the Patriots rushing attack, which hasn't been able to step up with the passing game going through an injury-slowed slump late in the year.

PASS DEFENSE: B-minus. Brock Osweiler was making his second NFL Sunday night in Denver. At times he looked very much like a young, inexperienced passer. But overall he was solid. The young passer completed 23 of 42 passes for 270 yards with one touchdown and one interception for the 72.5 rating. He was sacked three times - including one bad sack that knocked him out of field goal range. Jabaal Sheard and Chandler Jones combined on a deflected pass/interception that set up a short New England scoring drive to help the visitors. Logan Ryan had an impressive night helping to hold Demaryius Thomas to just one catch for 36 yards on 13 targets, although Thomas had a handful of pretty bad drops. Thomas' one catch did come on Denver's drive to take the lead late. Malcolm Butler experienced somewhat of a tough night with Emmanuel Sanders, the receiver returning from an ankle injury to snag six passes for 113 yards. With the game on the Thomas and Sanders made key catches to set up Andre Caldwell's go-ahead touchdown with just more than a minute play. The pass defense wasn't terrible, but it couldn't make the plays it needed when it needed them.

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RUSH DEFENSE: C. New England's run defense had been the team's most productive, consistent unit the last five games. It had ascended to No. 2 in the league, hadn't allowed more than 3.5 yards a carry or 100 yards in that span. That came crashing down in Denver. The Broncos ran 32 times for a season-high 179 yards, including C.J. Anderson's 48-yard game-winning touchdown in overtime. Anderson led the way with 113 yards on just 15 carries (7.5 average) with a pair of scores. Ronnie Hillman shook off a slow start to tally 59 yards on 14 carries (4.2 average), including a 19-yard touchdown. New England missed too many tackles up front and got gashed too often on the ground. It didn't help that Dont'a Hightower left with a knee injury in the second quarter, with Denver running even better in the second half. New England's run defense was part of the problem and not part of the solution for the first time in nearly two months.

SPECIAL TEAMS: C-minus. Stephen Gostkowski nailed his 47-yard game-tying kick as time expired and Ryan Allen was impressive with his season-high 10 punts, but that wasn't enough to overcome the play that may have cost New England the game when rookie practice squad call-up Chris Harper muffed a fourth-quarter punt that was recovered by Denver. The turnover led to a short scoring drive that pulled Denver to within 21-14 early in the fourth quarter. It sort of went downhill from there for the visitors, even though Gostkowski did his best to save the day. Allen averaged a 40.6 net with five punts down inside the 20. New England didn't do much in the return game and was solid in coverage, but Harper's miscue was the story on the night in the kicking game.

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COACHING: C-minus. Bill Belichick's team rarely looks ill-prepared or on the ropes. But that was the case with some regularity Sunday night. Early on it looked like New England might role to the victory, and holding a 21-7 score in the fourth quarter had victory very much in the cards. But it all fell apart. One of the more curious coaching calls came late in the second quarter when the Patriots had three timeout and possession at their 20 but decided to run the ball five straight times rather than aggressively try to move down the field. Strangely Belichick and Co. seemed content to go to the locker room with just the 14-7 lead. Then, the reveres happened late in the game when New England threw the ball four straight time with three minutes to play, despite the fact that Denver had just a single timeout remaining and trailed 21-17. The play calling on offense was also strange, as lacking receivers Brady seemed to target deep balls to Brandon LaFell and Chandler with regularity despite limited success and it being unlike the team's usual approach to the passing attack. It was a curious night in terms of the game plan and in-game decisions for Belichick and his staff, including losing time caught off guard when the clock began running after a Denver defensive injury with less than a minute play.

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