‘You can’t do that:’ What Patriots center David Andrews had to say after loss to Bills
Andrews recognized the offense's four turnovers put the Patriots' defense in a bad spot in their loss to the Bills on Sunday.
The Patriots fell just short of a comeback against the heavily favored Bills on Sunday, and as he does each week, center and captain David Andrews stepped up first to give his reaction to another defeat.
“It was more about us than it was about them. I mean, hats off to them, that’s a good football team,” Andrews said. “But there’s an old saying, ‘you can’t win to keep from losing,’ around here, and the first half … you can’t do that. You can’t turn the ball over four times. Obviously when we got it going we were able to have success, need to finish some drives better, but [even] the best team in the world, it’s hard to win when you turn the ball over four times.”
New England managed to hang around despite those four turnovers thanks to plenty of help from its defense, which managed to hold the Bills to 3 points on short fields multiple times in the first half. Still, Buffalo scored 20 of its 27 points off Patriots turnovers.
“We’re putting them in an impossible position,” Andrews said of the defense. “Obviously, last week, started the game [with a fumble], and then they made a great stand and to make it stands they did this week … they can’t do anything about the pick 6, but when we put them out there, I mean, you know, how many points did we allow … off the turnovers.
“They were playing their tails off, and that’s more on us than it is on them, and they kept us in the game.”
The Patriots offense went nowhere in the first quarter, but started to find its footing in the second with a six-play, 75-yard drive capped off by a 17-yard touchdown scramble from Bailey Zappe.
“It wasn’t like, oh my God, got to throw out the whole game plan,” Andrews said of the adjustments. ”Settle down, make some plays, and we were able to do that. Get on track, get [in] a rhythm. Just weren’t able to do that enough, and then weren’t able to finish some drives. But like I said, you dig yourself that hole, you know, whatever points we gave up, four turnovers, a pick 6 and then three [turnovers] in their territory. I mean, that’s, that’s some really tough sledding.”
At the end of the Patriots’ worst season in more than two decades, and by far the worst of Andrews’s tenure, his message to his younger teammates is to make the most of their last chance to play with this group.
“We got one more opportunity with this football team,” he said. “I think as a young guy that’s hard to realize that it’s not going to be the same. In college, yeah, you know seniors are leaving, but it’s going to be the same football team for the most part. The NFL is not like that. Guys retire, guys get cut, guys get traded, guys leave in free agency.
“So is the last opportunity for this football team to play together and I think you know, you get an older guy, you value that because you know. I’ve seen the turnover … So, just want to take advantage of every opportunity you get. Because, you know, you never know when it’s going to be the last.”
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