Patriots coach Bill Belichick experesses his displeasure with game officials during Sunday night's 24-17 loss to Miami at Gillette Stadium. (AP photo)

FOXBOROUGH, MASS. – Now it gets tougher, or so they say.

The New England Patriots, according to a popular NFL theory, have to beat the odds as well as the remaining teams on their schedule following their 0-2 start.

But, as tight end Mike Gesicki said the other night, “It’s September 17th and the regular season doesn’t end until the middle of January.”

True. There’s all sorts of overreaction after every NFL weekend in which fans and media overrate the wins and the losses.

But of course, should the New England Patriots do what could be the unthinkable and lose to the Zach Wilson-quarterbacked Jets this Sunday. Now, had Aaron Rodgers stayed healthy and was playing, then the Patriots might be in dire straights with a road game vs. the Cowboys to follow.

But here’s the main issue the Patriots have to solve: slow starts. They have not had a lead this season, constantly fighting an uphill battle. They’re not built to come from behind, no matter how much they rallied the last two weeks. They still fell short, so always look at the final score.

As center David Andrews said, “It’s hard to play catchup in this league when you’re playing good teams, good defenses.”

What has to change?

“Our production,” Belichick said. “The big thing is, offensively we turned the ball over three ties here in two games early in the game and that’s reallythe wors thing that can happen.

“Defensively we’ve had a couple of drives that didn’t result in a lot of points but then those turnovers put us on a short field so we had to battle through those.

Again, it’s just complimentary team football, taking care of the ball and defensively being able to convert on third down to get off the field.”

The turnovers are wearing on Belichick, which is the reason why he obviously benched rookie Demario Douglas, who appears to be a dynamic player but is of no use if he can’t hang onto the ball in the coach’s mind.

Can they afford that kind of move? Good NFL teams shouldn’t have to depend on a rookie to spark their offense, not when there are plenty of veterans around.

“Overall, I’d say this is a pretty hardworking group,” Belichick said. “But ultimately, in the end, we’ve all got to produce more. So that’s really the focus.

“We’ll keep grinding away on that and be ready for the jets and go down there and be ready to play our best football.”

The Patriots were visibly upset even more than usual on Sunday night. They put a ton of work into the Dolphins game, but the Mac Jones comment could have been telling when he said, “Definitely got to play better and learn from it and, you know, be here early and leave late and do it together. … If a couple guys are doing it, it’s not good enough, clearly.”

Yikes. Is that an indication there may be an effort problem? Belichick has said he’s happy with the effort, but that the effort isn’t producing the results. We’ll have to see who else drops hints with this team.

One thing we learned from Sunday night is the Dolphins are certainly for real with the speed they have on offense; as long as Tagovailoa remains healthy, their quick style — quick throws, fast runs — are going to serve them well. The Patriots see them again earlier than normal, Oct. 29 at Miami instead of the usual cold weather mini vaca for fans in December.

But clearly, just another reason for the Patriots to feel the pinch, as they do.

“We have more games,” linebacker Matthew Judon said. “We have more life in us, and we don’t know what can happen from here but something’s got to happen. Somethings’s got to give.

“We’re not just going to be a pedestrian team that lets people score on us and we don’t score. We’re going to bow up. We’re going to have a backbone.”

Spineless is no way to go through an NFL season, and the Patriots need that strong back when it’s obviously against the wall – which it is right now.