FOXBOROUGH - After a 35-6 loss in Jacksonville, Kevin Byard says the Patriots handled Monday the way a team should handle a wake-up call: with a long, hard look at the tape and no shortage of accountability.
Byard described the day after the blowout as a 45-minute team meeting built around correction. The Patriots, he said, spent plenty of time going over mistakes before heading to the practice field with a clear message - fix it immediately, don’t let it linger.
“I don’t know how many plays we watched, but we watched a lot of plays [Monday] and it was a lot of that coaching,” Byard said. “Not necessarily on loafs or guys not running but just making sure we’re holding everybody accountable, and then get to the practice field. If it’s not looking how it needs to look, ‘hey let’s address this right now.'”
“We’re not going to wait until we get 2-3 plays into practice and nobody’s saying nothing. No, we’re going to coach you right then, right there and now. If Vrabel’s doing it, then we have to do it as players as well, and that’s how we’re going to continue to take the next step.”
That Monday session drew some speculation that it had been a players-only meeting, but wide receiver Mack Hollins pushed back on that idea Wednesday.
“I mean, most team meetings after games are that long,” Hollins said. “Y’all are getting the thought that it was, like, some players meeting or something?
No, it was just a team meeting. We just kind of watched tape.
We go watch the majority of the offense, the defense, and the special teams, so it ends up being a long team meeting on those.”
Byard, speaking later Wednesday at his locker, made clear he wasn’t trying to turn the moment into anything bigger than it was. He said head coach Mike Vrabel always comes armed with the film and the criticism, and that the tone only feels sharper after a loss.
“It’s just like what I said,” Byard said. “At the end of the day, just not to necessarily give a peek at what’s going on, but it’s like every Monday … [Vrabel] is going to put that film up. He’s going to coach everybody hard.”
“When you win, he’s going to coach us hard. When you lose, it feels a little different because you just lost the ballgame and I think the mistakes are more compounded and exaggerated.”
The urgency around the Patriots’ response is obvious. A win against the Bills would put them back at .500. A loss would drop them to 1-3, and the margin for error would get a lot thinner in a hurry.
Byard called the game against Buffalo “huge,” and said New England has to get back on track after being battered by a Jaguars team that handed them, in his words, an “old-fashioned a- whooping.”
“Just knowing the situation we are in right now, we have to get back on track,” Byard said. “So, obviously, I think the sense of urgency of everything is accelerated. We have to find a way to go up there on the road and get a win to get back into the race.”
The Patriots are in a different place now than they were a year ago, when they narrowly edged Buffalo for the AFC East title and later reached the Super Bowl after starting 1-2. This time, they’re not flying under the radar.
As Byard put it, the standard is clear, and so is the task ahead.
“I just think as we prepare this week, we know what’s at stake. We’re all professional football players … we know what’s going on. I think it’s just all about going out there and executing at a high level and playing team football.”
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