Less than a full day later and not much has changed.
On this last day of summer, without a cloud in the sky, the sun continues to shine brightly here in the northeast and U2 will again perform to a sellout crowd at Gillette Stadium.
Meanwhile, there is a bit of a cloud over the Patriots at the moment. From Bill Belichick'srelatively brief mid-morning press conference to the sullen mood in the players' locker room, the Patriots' defeat clearly still stings.
Here's how the head coach greeted a moderate contingent of media on Monday after he'd watched film of his team's road loss to division rival New York.
"We need to do a lot of things better: coaching, playing, offense, defense, special teams … big guys, little guys, you name it. The little things need to be better. We're just not doing things as well as we need to do them. In a close division game like that, that ends up being the difference. They did them better than we did. I think the results speak for themselves."
"I agree with Coach … the little ones definitely add up," running back Fred Taylorsaid. "Once you correct the small ones, you're that much better."
Judging by the reactions of both Belichick and his players, there's clearly some frustration at the moment over the way the team is playing.
The game's leading receiver, for instance, was Patriots rookie Julian Edelman, whose 98 yards on eight catches came in his NFL debut (he was inactive for the Buffalo game last Monday night). Yet, his short answers to reporters' repeated questions couldn't mask his disappointment with the final score.
"I just ran what I was supposed to run. I wasn't expecting anything," he said in assessing his individual performance.
On more than one occasion, fellow wideout Randy Mosshad to direct Edelman and other Patriots receivers on where to line up prior to the snap.
"That was just a veteran helping a rookie," Edelman replied. "That's all it was."
As disappointed as he no doubt was, Belichick said he understood that he's balancing between wanting to improve and not allowing his players to get too down on themselves too early.
"Whenever you win, there're things that aren't good. Whenever you lose, there are things that are good. Sometimes it's within a play. You could have a bad play and there could still be good things within that play. We try to break that down and point those things out, whatever they are - good or bad. [We] make our corrections, win or lose, good play or bad play, and try to keep working with the idea of getting, back and improving things that we didn't do right and reinforcing the things that we did do.
"That's a part of it every week," Belichick concluded. "It shouldn't change whether we win, or lose, or have a good play, or have a bad play. We try to do the same thing. Everything's important."
Veterans like safety James Sanders, who played a limited role in the Jets game, realize the value in Belichick's advice. Sanders pointed to the defense's effort against the Jets offense on third downs as a positive to take away from Sunday's game. In those situations, the Pats surrendered first downs to New York just three times in 11 attempts.
"You can't be too happy with third-down performance when you lose the game," a dejected Sanders noted, "but that was a bright spot."
"I think we played solid defense," defensive lineman Ty Warrenadded. "It wasn't perfect, but at the same time, it was something to build on, definitely. It was better, I think, than the first week."
Wilfork short and to the point
Defensive co-captain Vince Wilforkmade a brief appearance in the locker room just before the start of the team meeting. The nose tackle told reporters that, "The Jets kicked our butt. They talked trash and backed it up."
Taylor unfazed by pass/run ratio
QB Tom Bradyhas thrown the ball 100 times in the first two games combined. The committee of Patriots running backs, in contrast, has less than half that number of rushing attempts (43) – a nearly 2-to-1 margin in favor of the passing game.
Taylor acknowledged that while the running game needs to improve, that isn't the biggest concern for the offense at the moment.
"I don't try to make too much out of the ratio, whether we're balanced or not," Taylor contended. "We prefer to be balanced, but at the same time, we just want to score points to get victories."
Tate spotted
Rookie WR Brandon Tate, who's on the non-football injury list and hasn't suited up for the Pats since being drafted in April, talked to a couple of reporters while at his locker Monday. Tate suffered a serious knee injury in college last October and was asked today about his recovery and potential timetable for a return to the field.
The gist of his answers was that he's working hard and plans to be ready when his coaches and trainers expect him to be ready – whenever that may be.
"I'm hopeful," he said.
The week ahead
The Pats had a 12:30 team meeting to watch film and put the Jets game to bed. They'll have the NFL's traditional Tuesday off and be back on the practice field Wednesday afternoon to prepare for this Sunday's home game against the Atlanta Falcons.
