If you listened to Mac Jones David Andrews and Hunter Henry after Sunday night’s game, you would think that there is a lack of commitment from some of the Patriots players. None of the players came out and said it outright, but if you read between the lines, it could an issue for the Patriots.

When Jones was asked what has to happen for things to change, he gave the standard response but he also casually mentioned what guys need to do more in order to turn things around.

“Really, just stay positive and try and work together and find solutions to issues or problems. That’s all you can do, is just come in each day, arrive early, leave late, and grind with each other.”

Was Jones calling out some guys out for a lack of commitment? Hard to say but it was an interesting comment. It makes you wonder if some players  are doing enough? When a team is 0-2, it is a fair question.

David Andrews is one of the leaders of the team and a captain along with Jones and Henry. He believes the Patriots need to be more consistent and focus on setting a standard of perfection.

“We’ve all got to play better. It’s a team game. I appreciate everyone’s effort and things like that, but it’s not good enough. We’ve all got to be better. We’ve all got to strive for perfection. Perfection is an endless chase and you never catch it, but you’ve got to strive for it each week. We’re not doing that right now. We’re not doing it consistently enough. We’ve just got to be better, and it starts with us. The things we can control, we’ve got to control those and stop beating ourselves.” 

Henry agreed with Andrews assessment.

“That’s wise from a guy that’s been here, played a lot of football and won a lot of games, too. He’s seen a lot of success here, so I’ll back him 100% on that. We need to be better execution-wise, discipline-wise and we all need to be better. I need to be better; there’s a lot of plays that I need to be better on. I know everybody will look themselves in the mirror, and we’ve got a chance to do that this week. We’ll just continue to keep grinding.” 

Working hard and striving for perfection are all great goals but the fact of the matter is, the Patriots are 0-2. It is not from a lack of effort. It is because of a lack of execution and an inability to finish games down the stretch. I know this sounds hard to believe when it comes to the Patriots, but they need to learn how to win. These are not the Patriots of ten years ago. This team is young and not confident enough to close out games. 

They will figure it out but it will take time. Until then, the only thing they can do is continue to work hard and get better. If the effort is not there during the week however, they will not get better. The Patriot Way is predicated winning. Right now the Patriots are not winning and until they do, the Patriot Way is not a thing. Perhaps they should start by working harder in practice and spend more time watching film. A little bit of extra work never hurt anyone.

It is how you go from being a struggling football team to one that wins games and can compete for championships. The Patriots know what the secret sauce is. Now they just need to commit.