It was an unfamiliar sight.

Late in the fourth quarter, Gillette Stadium was about half full, the New England Patriots down two scores to those powerful New Orleans Saints.

Fans had begun heading for the exits; weather was still incredibly nice, so why not put another burger, shrimp, steak on the grill in the parking lot, right?

It was better than wasting time watching what they had seen from the Patriots through the better part of three-plus quarters. They knew there would be no miracle comeback. Those have likely left with a guy named Brady and a rumbling Rob Gronkowski.

The pair couldn’t be returning to Gillette at a worse time for the Patriots, now 1-2 and still searching to do the one thing the Patriots could always do: Score points. Now the stakes for Brady’s return get even higher, as New England can’t afford to drop to 1-3.

But while the fans were out tailgating post game or sitting on Route 1 in traffic, Patriots tight end Hunter Henry issued what you might consider a startling admission in the Gillette bowels.

“We kinda, you know, we got punched in the mouth a little bit today,” Henry said. “We’ve got to keep our head up, learn from this fast, because there’s a lot of football ahead of us.”

The way this team was built this season was to be the ones punching opponents in the mouth, not the other way around. Tough, physical, and ready to rumble.

Defensively, you could argue the Patriots were. But offensively, they were getting beaten up by a defense that is none too shabby. Not having gigantic lineman Trent Brown in there, still out with a calf injury, didn’t help. Jones was hit a whopping 11 times and sacked twice.

“Obviously, New Orleans has a good defense,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said, “but we’ve got to move the ball better than we did today.”

And then they saw one of their most respected players, James White, go down with what the Patriots said was a hip injury in the first half. The cart came out, teammates went all the way across the field to pay their respects. Those two things are never good, because it’s as if they’re saying good-bye. You can probably figure he’ll be placed on injured reserve in the next day or two.

The Patriots lost mainly because they lost the turnover battle, and remember, a big turnover played a part in their opening game loss here at Gillette to Miami. Rookie QB Mac Jones threw three interceptions, one a pick six that Pats tight end Jonnu Smith should have caught but deflected it to the Saints’ Malcom Jenkins who took it to the house.

Jones had a matter of fact view. Again, his approach may give fans hope.

“There’s always good conversation,” he said when asked if he talked to Smith, “that come out of bad plays and a bad day.”

Henry talked to Jones before he left the locker room. “I’ve been through a lot of these, unfortunately,” he said. “It is a long season. We can’t hang our head and let this snowball into multiple games. … We’ve got to be better, starting with this week.”

“He handled it great,” Henry said. “As a complete offense, we just need to be better. … We’ve got to continue to strive to be better this week. …

“He’ll be fine. This is all new to him, it’s a long season, it’s a little different than college, for sure. We’ve got to move on and not let this snowball.”

Patriots back Brandon Bolden, normally a special teamer but pressed into duty at running back after White’s injury, was somewhat defiant afterward, probably as a way to infuse a feeling in the locker room that all is certainly not lost.

“This is a good team,” he said. “We’ve just got to get everything in order. We’ve got to play complementary football, offense, defense and special teams…

“We’re way better than that and we know we are.”

How does he know?

“Because,” he said, “we know we are.”

They’ll try to prove it next Sunday night, but it won’t be easy. Defensive back Jonathan Jones called the loss “a reality check.”

It better not be reality for the Patriots down the road, or the site of those empty seats will be all too familiar.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.

Newsletter