The New England Patriots suffered a third consecutive defeat, this time to the reigning NFC champion San Francisco 49ers in Week 4. This prompted starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett to send a leader's message to the locker room, with plenty of football left to play for the AFC East's last-place squad.
Brissett opened up about what that message entailed shortly after the Patriots endured a brutal 30-13 loss to the 49ers, dragging New England to a discouraging 1-3 start to the campaign. The latest bid at getting back in the win column saw the Patriots repeat many mistakes that, so far, have never failed to haunt them, but Brissett didn't re-join the team that drafted him eight years ago thinking it'd be an easy path.
"It's a long season," Brissett told reporters postgame, per team-provided video. "... When we started this climb, we never thought it was going to be just you're on an escalator and you go up automatically. We knew there were gonna be bumps in the road, we were gonna get knocked down and be tired and be hurt. That doesn't stop the climb, that just puts a little adversity in the climb. Told the guys, 'Man, that's what we're built for in this room.' We got the men in this room that when you go back and look at everybody's story -- a lot of players' story -- how they got into that room. It wasn't easy to get there."
New England's go-to field general felt the brunt of the ongoing offensive line woes as Brissett endured six sacks at Levi's Stadium Sunday, increasing the 31-year-old's season total to 15 -- tied with Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis for the second-most in the NFL. Brissett, of course, didn't have much to work in fighting to overcome that anchor. He threw 19-for-32 with 168 passing yards, one touchdown and one interception, all while struggling to keep the Patriots competitive from start to finish.
Brissett doesn't envision the season getting any easier unless New England picks itself up and takes control of the campaign trajectory moving forward.
"Nobody's gonna come and save us, to pick our head up for us," Brissett added. "We gotta do it ourselves. That's the best part about being in this league and being early in the season. You have, not a lot of time, but you got time to pick yourself up and lick your wounds and go back to work because you got another week next week."
