Humbug: Patriots not feeling like winners after subpar effort

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- New England won again Sunday night, but Bill Belichick didn't embrace the Patriots' sixth consecutive victory. As he considered this 31-27 win against Green Bay, Belichick grimaced as if he were looking at an ugly form of insect, something he'd like to squash under his shoe.
"We obviously have to play better than this," Belichick said, "or our season won't last a lot longer."
A few minutes later, Patriots quarterback Tom Brady walked to the same podium, stood before the same media, and sounded just as disgusted.
"This was as much as we could handle," Brady said. "I'm sure we lost time of possession. I'm sure we lost the [battle of] field position. We weren't great on third down by any stretch today, either."
True, all of it. The Patriots were playing at home against a Green Bay team missing its star quarterback, and without a decent backup to replace Aaron Rodgers. Matt Flynn? He's awful -- or he had been. In five games this season, he had a passer rating of 59.8, and in 27 career games his passer rating was 51.5. That's just good enough to get you cut from most teams, but Flynn survived and made his first career start Sunday night -- and carved up the Patriots defense. He threw for 251 yards and three touchdowns. He almost doubled his career passer rating, posting a 100.2.
The Packers outgained the Patriots 369-249, controlled the clock for almost 41 minutes and had the ball inside the New England 20 for the final play before a sack ended the game.
"We couldn't handle a lot of the basic stuff they did," Belichick said. "That's disappointing."
To score, New England needed unconventional heroes. Its most explosive run came from 313-pound offensive guard Dan Connolly, who picked up a short kickoff late in the first half and returned it 71 yards to the Packers 4. That led to the first of two short touchdown passes from Brady to tight end Aaron Hernandez, which cut the Packers' lead to 17-14.
The Patriots' best scoring play came from defensive back Kyle Arrington, who intercepted a Flynn pass in the third quarter and returned it 27 yards -- breaking four tackles -- for a touchdown. That gave New England a 21-17 lead.
Those were New England's offensive stalwarts -- the lineman and the cornerback. On defense, the Patriots extended two Green Bay touchdown drives with penalties, and nullified what would have been a game-sealing interception with another penalty.
"Terrible," Belichick said.
There was plenty of that. Wes Welker, one of the most sure-handed receivers in the league, dropped three passes. Julian Edelman dropped one as well. Brady, who hadn't been intercepted in 268 attempts coming into the game, threw his third pass Sunday into the hands of Packers cornerback Charles Woodson. Woodson dropped what would have been his 48th career interception.
New England fumbled twice, but recovered both. The Patriots were penalized seven times for 52 yards, compared to two for 15 yards by the Packers. The New England defense made a star of Green Bay blocking back John Kuhn, who produced 48 yards and a touchdown from scrimmage. And the Patriots even allowed Green Bay to open the game with a successful onside kick.
And yet, they won. Belichick didn't talk like the winning coach, and Brady didn't talk like the winning quarterback, and Edelman didn't talk like the punt returner of the winning team ("We have to put this one in the past," he said), and Jerod Mayo didn't talk like the linebacker of the winning team ("We weren't tackling well," he said), but the Patriots won.

extracted from cbssports.com