‘You can’t do that’: What Patriots center David Andrews said after loss to Bills

Patriots

Andrews acknowledged that the offense’s four turnovers put the Patriots’ defense in a bad spot in their loss to the Bills on Sunday.

David Andrews was frustrated with the Patriots’ turnover-prone offense.

The patriots came close to a comeback against the favored Bills on Sundayand as he does every week, center and captain David Andrews stepped forward to give his reaction to another loss.

“It was more about us than them. I mean, I take my hat off to them, they’re a good football team,” Andrews said. “But there’s an old saying around here that says ‘you can’t win not to lose,’ and in the first half… you can’t do that. You can’t turn the ball over four times. Obviously when we got it going we were able to have success, we need to finish some plays better, but (even) the best team in the world, it’s hard to win when you turn the ball over four times.”

New England managed to hold on despite those four turnovers thanks to a lot of help from their defense, which managed to limit the Bills to 3 points on short fields several times in the first half. Still, Buffalo scored 20 of its 27 points off of Patriots turnovers.

“We’re putting them in an impossible position,” Andrews said of the defense. “Obviously last week they started the game (with a fumble), and then they put up a big fight and to keep it up they did it this week… they can’t do anything about the pick 6, but when we put them out there I mean , you know, how many points do we allow… thanks to turnovers?

“They were playing to the extreme, and that’s more on us than them, and they kept us in the game.”

The Patriots’ offense went nowhere in the first quarter, but began to find its footing in the second with a six-play, 75-yard drive capped by Bailey Zappe’s 17-yard touchdown run.

“It wasn’t like, oh my gosh, having to throw out the whole game plan,” Andrews said of the adjustments. “Calm down, make some plays and we were able to do it. Get going, get into a rhythm. I just couldn’t do that enough and then I couldn’t finish some trips. But like I said, you dig that hole yourself, you know, any point we give up, four turnovers, a pick 6 and then three (turnovers) in their territory. I mean, that’s a really tough sled.”

At the end of the Patriots’ worst season in more than two decades, and by far the worst of Andrews’ tenure, his message to his younger teammates is to make the most of their last chance to play with this group.

“We have one more chance with this football team,” he said. “I think being young it’s hard to realize that it’s not going to be the same. In college, yes, you know the seniors leave, but it will be the same football team for the most part. The NFL is not like that. Guys retire, they get fired, they get traded, guys leave in free agency.

“So it’s the last chance for this football team to play together and I think, you know, you have an older guy, you value him because you know. I’ve seen the turnover… So I just want to take advantage of every opportunity that presents itself. Because, you know, you never know when it will be the last one.”