Lawrence Guy on the Patriots’ playoff chances: ‘We ain’t a bunch of quitters’
"We're going to go out there and play some football. That's why we are who we are."
Lawrence Guy said he doesn’t concern himself with records or whether or not the Patriots are in the playoff picture.
His main focus is on preparing for the game ahead, and he prioritizes not letting outside noise alter his approach. The defensive tackle Guy – speaking after the Patriots’ momentum-curbing 24-3 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Thursday – said all they can do is “continue to fight,” and he expects nothing less.
“We ain’t a bunch of quitters,” Guy said. “It doesn’t matter what the record is. It doesn’t matter what the outcome is. We ain’t a bunch of quitters. We’re going to go out there and play some football. That’s why we are who we are.”
At 6-7, the Patriots will likely need to win out and get some help in order to make the playoffs for the 12th straight season. They’re slated to face three AFC East foes in the Miami Dolphins, Buffalo Bills, and New York Jets, to close out the regular season.
The good news is that tonight’s loss wasn’t a conference game, which is one of the top tiebreakers. But yeah, it’s pretty much over for the Patriots pic.twitter.com/pIOTAYCI2Z
— Ben Volin (@BenVolin) December 11, 2020
According to ESPN Football’s Power Index, their odds to qualify for the postseason are down to 6 percent. Though the outlook is bleak at the moment, Guy remains relatively optimistic despite the dud against the Rams.
“We’ve still got to keep on grinding,” he said. “It’s not over yet.”
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Free safety Devin McCourty has never missed the playoffs in his 1o-plus year career, and he’s also never been on a team that hasn’t won 10-plus games.
It’s clear one of those streaks will end, as the Patriots will definitively finish with single-digit wins for the first time since 2002. McCourty hopes the other stays intact, but he’s not concerned with the big picture at the moment.
This ends a 17-season streak of double-digit wins for the Patriots, which was the longest in NFL history. Their last non-10 win season was 2002 (when they were 9-7).
Consecutive 10-win seasons:
Patriots/17 (2003-19)
49ers/16 (1983-98)
Colts/9 (2002-2010)
Cowboys/7 (1975-81)— Mike Reiss (@MikeReiss) December 11, 2020
“Just keep playing. It is what it is right now. We’ll keep fighting,” McCourty said. “We’ll see how it works out. There’s no easy answer other than we’ve got three games left. The goal is still the same, trying to win the remaining three games.”
He said that the goal for every team is to win every game and stave off elimination as long as possible.
McCourty said he hasn’t thought about his future with the Patriots at all. While he doesn’t know what next year will hold, he did say that these last three games are an opportunity to play football and “you can’t take that for granted.”
“Whatever the outcome is, we’ve got to live with,” McCourty said. “There’s no pointing fingers. It’s not on anybody else besides us.”
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