It's just not good enough - Belichick demands improvement from Pats
New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick offered a blunt assessment of his team's failings after their shock opening-game defeat to the Kansas City Chiefs.
The Patriots were beaten 42-27 by the Chiefs on Thursday, immediately ending talk of a potential undefeated season for the reigning Super Bowl champions.
"We didn't really do much of anything well enough tonight to deserve to win," said Belichick. "We gave up 42 points, stopped on four short-yardage plays.
"We've got to coach better, got to practice better, got to play better. We've got a lot of work to do. I mean, that's obvious.
"We'll have to get back to work and see if we can improve pretty much everything. It's just not good enough.
"Andy [Reid, head coach], Kansas City – they did a good job. Give them credit. We just really weren't competitive enough. We made too many mistakes.
"The fundamentals weren't good enough. Really nothing was good enough so we've all got to do a better job. That's going to be pretty much the answer to every question because that what it was."
Final score. #KCvsNE pic.twitter.com/hezCRkLbjy
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) September 8, 2017
Often a man of few words, Belichick was particularly concise when he was asked what had contributed to two big plays given up for touchdowns.
"Bad defense, bad coaching, bad playing, bad football," he replied.
Patriots quarterback Tom Brady agreed on the need for urgent improvement, adding: "We had it handed to us on our own field. It's a terrible feeling, and the only people that can do something about it are in that locker room.
"We've got to dig a lot deeper than we did tonight because we didn't dig very deep tonight."