Vince Wilfork summarizes Pats' postgame message: 'We started (expletive)'

The Patriots had every reason in the football world to believe they'd start the regular season with a victory against the Dolphins today, so now they've got even more reasons to be ticked off that they were handled in a resounding fashion.

They were ticked, for sure, but there was also a theme in the locker room, especially among the veterans. They'll be better, and it's only one loss with 15 to go.

"It’s not how you start (the season)," Vince Wilfork said. "It’s how you finish. We started (crappy). I’ll tell you that, but we’ll get it together."

The 33-20 loss exposed issues on the offensive line and with their run defense, and they made plenty of other mistakes, too -- a blocked punt, nine penalties for 100 yards, missed tackles, a muffed punt, etc.

"We can’t hold our heads down," Wilfork said. "It’s a long season. We definitely have to get better. We will get better."

The Patriots locker room typically resembles a morgue after a loss, but they preached a forward-thinking philosophy while already looking ahead to the Vikings.

"Very confident, we’ve got to put this in the past and move on," Darrelle Revis said. "That’s how you’ve got to look at it. We’ve got 16 of these games. It’s a very long season. The only thing we can do is make the corrections and get better as a team, as a whole. The next time we see them, hopefully we have the answers to execute better when we play."


(bostonherald.com)