Longtime Patriots special teams captain Matthew Slater didn’t like what he saw in Sunday’s 33-6 loss to the 49ers.
Slater suggested that the Patriots weren’t trying hard enough in a game that saw them blown out like New England has rarely been in the last two decades.
“I think there were times [against the 49ers] where we let the attitude and effort part slip away from us,” Slater told NBCSportsBoston.com. “That’s never acceptable. So, we’re going to have to make sure that we’re on that each and every day and never taking anything for granted. We’re so blessed to be able to play this game, and we owe it to the game to go out and pay it the respect that it’s due and approach this thing the right way. I’m confident that we’ll be able to do that moving forward. We’ll see if that’s good enough.”
We haven’t often heard the Patriots’ attitude and effort questioned during the Bill Belichick era, but this is a different team -- and may prove to be the worst Patriots team Belichick has coached.
