[
]()This loss this week was another heartbreaker. This is one of those games that we knew we had to have and it kind of slipped through our fingers. It's hard to talk about this one because it really hurt. It was a hard fought game all the way through. Then it came down to the last five minutes in the game. They got a couple of key turnovers in the red area and they capitalized off of them. That put them ahead by a couple of scores and that was it.
Watching the film of the game, we weren't' really having trouble getting going it was just that we made a lot of key mistakes. We were really one play away from making big plays. But it was just that in certain positions we got beat and other things like that that kept the plays from breaking out.
The reaction to the two losses in the locker room has been varied. In some places in the team you have uncertainties because you are thinking, 'What am I doing wrong? What are we doing wrong as a team?' But we are trying to keep everybody's heads up and go out this week and make something happen because even though we have lost two in a row we still have a chance, if we beat Berlin this week, to get back into first place. So we are not hurting too bad. And like I said earlier, we haven't really been worrying about our record. But as you look at all the games, we could be 5-0. We knew every team that we were going to play was going to come out and play hard and the ball just rolled the other team's way a couple times.
Our coach has just been staying on us this week, telling us to keep our heads up up and not to give up right now because as I said we are still in a situation where we can still take first place. Right now he kind of feels like we are giving up and he's trying to make sure that we aren't doing that.
From what we've seen on Berlin from previous games they like to do a lot of blitzing. So we know this week that we are going to have to really prepare and study a lot of film because they are one of the teams that probably does the most blitzing. We know they are really going to come after the quarterback so we are going to have to tighten up in every area and just make plays.
We are not looking thinking about the World Bowl right now. We are just focused on trying to win another game. We have to take one game at a time. If we can finish out the season playing pretty well then hopefully we'll get a chance to go to that game.
We are still keeping that one-game-at-a-time mentality even though it is hard. You drop one game and then you are still thinking, 'Man we need to win so we can do this or do that.' But we are just trying to tell everybody that we need to take it one game at a time.
As the season goes on I realize that I was probably homesick the first week I got here. But as team we have gotten so tight and close together that it sort of took me out of that homesick phase. I think about going home still, but I know I am over here to do a job and I talk to my family and then tell me that I am not missing anything. They tell me just to stay focused on what I am over here to do and they will be there when I get back.
For me that is my motivation. I use it. I usually talk to my kids before the game and just to hear their voices kind of gives me strength. So that helps me in a way.
With Mother's Day this weekend, I just want to tell my mom and my girl back home, happy Mother's Day. And to my Grandmother and everybody else's mother, happy Mother's Day.
As told to Patriots Football Weekly’s Andy Hart.
