Patriots players say they didn't have enough energy in last night’s game with the Dolphins

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Call it sluggish. Call it messy. Call it an “off-night” or whatever you would like; but the New England Patriots know they cannot play like they did in last night’s 27-20 loss against the Miami Dolphins and expect to do good things.

After the game, Patriots’ players kept bringing up a certain thought that crossed all of their minds: they didn’t play with enough energy.

“We know we can’t come down here in a place like this and not play with energy,” said Duron Harmon. “We saw what happened to the Broncos. We just got behind too early and dug ourselves a hole that was too hard to come out of.”

“You gotta come down here with a ton of energy. A ton of determination,” said Nate Solder. “That’s just the environment down here. We know that those guys play great at home. We know that we’ve had a lot of hard games here, and that just has to be the mentality.”

“We had a good week,” said Devin McCourty. “In football, sometimes you come out and don’t play as well as you want to and that’s what it was. You play another good team that knows you well and you know them well and they’re on it a little more than you are. You’re a half step late. You saw that. It wasn’t like we never got anything going. We got some things at different times in the game, but it was just too late.”

They were not playing the Patriot Way, and they know that. Hopefully this game was a good wake-up call to give New England the edge and fire they need to take on the Pittsburgh Steelers this coming Sunday.

Follow Megan on Twitter: @carnahanmegan