One by one, they marched out to the podium in the small auditorium in the bowels of Gillette Stadium, sounding and looking as miserable as the weather was outside following an awful 6-0 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers.

Can you blame any of the New England Patriots? The torture continues, the weird dynamic where the offense can’t do a thing right, and the defense can barely do anything wrong.

What else can they do?

“Score,” defensive back Jalen Mills said. “Score on defense. Hopefully we’ll have opportunities this game coming up (at Pittsburgh) on Thursday. It is what it is.”

Score because the offense can’t. Zippo from Zappe on Sunday, as in quarterback Bailey Zappe. But the locker room doesn’t appear to be too fractured. Mills said he want up to Zappe after the loss in the steady rain and gave him encouraging words.

“I said ‘You played a helluva game, bro, you can’t build from this. The next one.'”

“Iwould say that, given the circumstances that we’re in, there’s no division on our team,” Zappe said. “Everybody comes to work every day. Everybody pushes each other. Defense pushes offense. Offense pushes defense. I think, as long as we stay this way these last five games, things will start going in our favor. We just have to keep working.”

Of course, once again the silver lining is that the Patriots at 2-10 are yet again close to that high draft pick that could land them the elite QB they so desperately need. The Patriots, despite losing running back Rhamondre Stevenson early to an ankle injury from one of those tackles the league is looking at outlawing, rushed for 148 yards. But Zappe threw for only 141 (13-of 25) but he should have had more had Tyquon Thornton been able to resemble an NFL receiver on a deep ball in which he was open in the second half. Other than that, Zappe Fever is whatever half the crowd (that looked about 65, 70 percent of the capacity, what a combo of a bad team and horrendous weather will do) will be catching at home in the next few days from sitting out in that mess for three hours.

“Our defense is playing great,” Zappe said. “Our defense is playing phenomenal. Like I’ve said multiple times, it starts with me as a quarterback on the offensive side. I’ve got to do better. I’ve got to get us down there. I’ve got to get us in an opportunity to score points.”

We didn’t get a sniff of rookie Malik Cunningham, whose presence/elevation from the practice squad we foolishly thought would have pushed Mac Jones to the inactive list and created some excitement. But the Patriots braintrust didn’t trust him, maybe because of the conditions?

“We had times where we got things going,” Belichick said. “We wanted to try to stay with what we were doing.”

The Patriots outgained the Chargers, whose play calling on third down was atrocious, 257-241.The defense may be able to carry out Mills’ wishes on Thursday night as the Steelers will have to likely rely on turnover machine Mitch Trubisky after Kenny Pickett got knocked out of Sunday’s game vs Arizona.

But who knows, given the depths this season has reached? You feel badly for a guy like center David Andrews, who bless his heart takes it upon himself to come out and be the first one to address the media after every game. The center.

“It’s obviously a different year than I’ve ever experienced,” Andrews said. “That’s (talking to the media as a captain) my job, that’s what I’m supposed to do.”

“I’m not frustrated at all,” Mills said. “When things aren’t going right, on either side of the ball, you’ve just got to rely on your motivation.”

Because the Patriots can’t simply rely on each other, they’re not good enough. Five more weeks to go, may it please go quick.

Tom King may be reached at @Telegraph_TomK on twitter, or tking@nashuatelegraph.com

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