they were recently humbled and will either regroup and play as a unit or they will fall apart quickly and be out in round 2 of playoffs. no conference championship game.
Matthew Slater, Devin McCourty answer Ty Law’s ‘have some damn pride’ criticism of defense
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</td><td style="text-transform:none; text-align:right;">11.16.16 at 1:19 pm ET</td> </tr> </tbody></table> By
Mike Petraglia
FOXBORO — It’s one thing when fans or the media critique the Patriots’ defense.
It’s another when a former defensive star and Super Bowl hero chimes in and rips what he is seeing on the field.
Ty Law appeared on FS1’s “Undisputed” and ripped into what he sees as a very passive attitude from many players on the defense. He said on the show that the Patriots veterans on defense need to stand up and “
have some damn pride” before it gets too late in the season.
“Play better. We can hoot and holler and yell and scream but leaders have to play better,” Devin McCourty said Wednesday. “It starts with us. If we play better, usually the whole defense plays better. Leadership comes in different forms, and at times, you have to do different things to lead. But the best way to lead is to go out there and play good football and lead the team and give them an example to follow.
“All the veteran players and the leaders on this defense have to go play better. I think that’s what we think as a team in all phases. Bill [Belichick] says it all the time: If you’re a leader on the team, it starts with you. You go out there and play well, the team will follow.”
McCourty was asked how he could calm the fears of fans who think the Patriots are a mess defensively since the trades of Chandler Jones and Jamie Collins.
“It’s simple. We’ve just got to play better. There’s nothing I can say to calm that or anything,” McCourty added. “We’ve just got to go out there and play better. That’s what everyone in our locker room and everyone on defense wants to do. There’s nothing to say. You’ve just got to go do it.”
Matthew Slater, the third-longest tenured player on the Patriots and a captain, said Wednesday that he has no worries that the leadership on the team will carry the team through any rough patches.
“I’m confident in the men that we have in this locker room,” Slater said. “I think that there is some great leadership there. Everyone leads differently, though. And that’s something that I certainly understand and guys understand that. Obviously, we all need to hold each other accountable to do our jobs at a high level. We play for one another so ultimately, everybody could do a better job when you look back at the tape after a loss. And everybody can say, ‘If I had done that, if they had done that.’
“But, we’re one or two plays away from coming out with a different story.”
Slater recalled how the team responded after last year’s 35-28 home loss to the Eagles, adding, “certainly one of the worst performances we’ve had in the nine years I’ve been here.”
McCourty sounded a similar tone.
“I think it’s all up to the players,” McCourty added. “It falls on us on going out there and playing better after a loss. I think any type of game, anything you go through, adversity-wise, can help you. But it’s all on how you respond and how you go out there and come back from it. I think that falls on us. We’ve been in games where we’ve won but we haven’t particularly played well and we’ve learned from those games and the different things we didn’t do well and improved on it the next week. Now, coming off a loss, it’s something that we have to improve on and go out there and play better football.”
http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports...ws-have-some-damn-pride-criticism-of-defense/
