Matt Light On New England Patriots’ Two-game Losing Streak: “there’s A Lot Of Things We Need To Work On.”

After a looking like the team to beat in the AFC through the first seven weeks of the NFL season, the New England Patriots suddenly look vulnerable following consecutive losses to the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 8, and to the New York Giants at home this past Sunday. The Patriots were shut out in the first half which seems hard to fathom considering how efficiently they moved the ball offensively early on in the season. The Patriots nearly pulled out the win against New York thanks to a late touchdown drive engineered by Tom Brady that gave the Pats their first lead of the ball game with under two minutes to play, but it was Eli Manning and the Giants who were able to make the plays in the final moments once again, much like they did in their improbable Super Bowl win four years ago. Light joined 98.5 The Sports Hub in Boston to talk about if the Giants defensive linemen are frequent trash talkers, whether the Giants defensive line is the best the Patriots have faced all year, if the Giants ability to pressure Tom Brady forced the Patriots to alter how they planned on attacking in the second half, the Patriots offense being slowed down by opposing defenses in recent weeks after New England’s torrid start to the season, trying to snap their two-game losing streak and three-way tie atop the AFC East standings next Sunday night against the New York Jets, the first matchup with New York about a month ago, and if he’d say that he ‘hates’ the Jets as rivals.

If the Giants defensive linemen are big trash talkers:

“I wouldn’t say any more than anyone else. It wasn’t a whole lot of jawing going on.”

Whether the Giants defensive line is the best the Patriots have faced all year:

“They’re up there, yeah. I mean, look, they’ve got a unique front in the fact that they’ve got not just four, but five or six guys that can all rush the passer; they’re very accomplished, they’ve got multiple moves, and that’s kind of rare to find. Usually you’ve got a couple guys, maybe a couple edge guys like they’ve got in Indy, or maybe one guy inside and one edge guy. But these guys across the board can get it done. They’re pretty dangerous.”

If the Giants’ ability to pressure Tom Brady with their front four caused the Patriots to alter their offensive strategy in the second half:

“No, I don’t think the pressure was the big part of that game. They’re going to get some pressure; you run 60 or 70 plays in a game or whatever it was, they’re going to get there every now and then. But I don’t think that was the overall problem in this one.”

On the Patriots’ offense being slowed down considerably in recent weeks after getting off to a torrid start at the outset of the 2011 season:

“Oh, there’s a number of different things that contribute to that, whether its guys just making poor decisions out there and not executing well, or making some of the mental errors that we’ve had putting ourselves in longer situations with penalties, and then obviously they’re out there making some plays too. We’ve been playing teams that have good records and good personnel and good players, and you look at all that stuff and there’s a lot of things we need to work on and a lot of things we’ve got to do better.”

On the three-way tie atop the AFC East standings and trying to break their two-game losing streak next Sunday night against the rival New York Jets:

“It’s kind of what you have to do. I mean, look, it doesn’t get any bigger than New York, number one. It’s been a bit of a rivalry over the years, and at this point I think the pressure’s really on us to go out there and play on the road, play under all the pressure. We’re going to see a lot of the looks that Rex can dial up, and he’s got a lot of them; they’re going to be doing a lot of things defensively and offensively; they’re a pretty physical front and I’m sure they’re going to try to run the ball and get down the field. So we’re going to have to come out swinging early in that one.”

If he’d say that he ‘hates’ the New York Jets:

“No, I just hate losing. It is what it is. The players on that team aren’t always the same each and every year, there’s so many differences from year to year. But losing is never fun. I hate that.”