Everything Bill Belichick said about insane Patriots last-second defeat

Patriots head coach Bill Belichick pointed to “too many mistakes” to explain New England’s jaw-dropping loss to the Raiders on the final play.

No one could have predicted how the Patriots would lose to the Raiders on Sunday. But you could have predicted how Bill Belichick would react to the loss.

Surly as ever, the Patriots head coach went to the podium after the 30-24 loss and kept it simple: New England just made too many mistakes.

He’s not wrong. Rhamondre Stevenson and Jakobi Meyers lost their minds on their final play with the game tied and destined for overtime, both lateralling the ball to set up Chandler Jones’s 48-yard return touchdown.

Here’s everything Belichick had to say about the loss.

Bill Belichick postgame press conference: “We had too many mistakes”

“Unfortunately, we had too many, just collectively, made too many mistakes and gave up too many big plays that were obviously the difference in the game,” Belichick said. “Can’t do that in this league and it cost us. Gotta work to eliminate those and continue to play the good football that we played, but like I said, too many mistakes and too many big plays to win. That was obvious.”

There wasn’t much more to say about the individual mistakes that piled up and doomed the Patriots.

When asked about the final play and others, Belichick parroted the same line: “We made a mistake on that play.”

Given the outcome of the final rush attempt, which Stevenson confirmed was supposed to be a simple draw before the improvisation happened, Belichick was asked if the Patriots considered a Hail Mary instead.

“Couldn’t throw it that far,” he explained.

There truly isn’t more to say when it comes to this kind of loss. The players know better. They know they know better. Things just went terribly wrong and the team has to live with the consequences.

For the Patriots, the consequences include a significantly more difficult road to the playoffs. The Raiders represented the last manageable win on the schedule. Now New England needs to pull off an upset or two against the Bengals, Dolphins and Bills to give themselves a chance to make the postseason.