Wilfork: We're 3-3 for a reason

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SEATTLE -- Vince Wilfork was not in the mood to chat Sunday night.

The defensive captain got dressed slowly after New England's 24-23 loss. By the time he turned around, there was a crowd of reporters waiting. They waited to hear what went wrong when the Patriots failed -- for the third time this year -- to close out a game.

Wilfork clipped off the first question before it was finished.

"We didn't make enough plays," he said. "Plain and simple."

He shook his head while he spoke like a bull being bothered by flies.

"That's all I have. Didn't make enough plays. What else can you do? We lost. We're moving on."

Wishful thinking.

On Sunday, the Patriots gave up a 20-10 lead in the fourth quarter before they were felled. They did it by hemorrhaging 14 points in the final 10 minutes. Before that, the Seahawks were held scoreless on six drives over two-and-a-third quarters: Fumble, downs, punt, punt, punt, fumble.

But when it came down to crunch time Seattle was able to execute touchdown drives of 68 and 57 yards. The first was scored in two minutes; the second, even faster.

"We just didn't make enough plays," Wilfork repeated. "It's very simple. I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and say I'm not -- I'm very frustrated. I don't know what else to say. I'll probably lose my head right now. I'm very frustrated. We just didn't make enough plays when it counted . . . and it cost us."

Again.

New England's three losses this season are by two or fewer points. The 20-18 Cardinals win is immortalized by Stephen Gostkowski's missed game-winning field goal. Against Baltimore, a last-second 27-yard boot by an undrafted rookie kicker did the Patriots in by a score of 31-30.

Those are just two plays in 120 minutes of football; they don't illustrate the team's larger failings. But describing them may be just as simple. Like Wilfork said, the Patriots couldn't hit the kill switch. They couldn't even find it.

And not for lack of preparation.

"It was exactly why it was going to be. Everything they did, we knew what they was gonna do." Here, Wilfork gathered as much scorn in the back of his throat as possible before spitting his next words. "They didn't shock us."

When asked if New England's .500 record belies the team's talent, he paused for almost five seconds before answering.

"Who knows? We're 3-3 for a reason," he said. "Until we do something about it, we're going to continue to have problems."

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