Patriots feel defense isn’t playing up to full potential in 25-24 loss to Colts

FOXBORO — The Patriots’ 25-24 loss to the Colts ultimately falls on the defense’s shoulders.

Sure, you can nitpick if the offense did enough to score in the red zone, there were issues with penalties, and kicker Joey Slye missed a 25-yard field goal, but the Patriots led 24-17 when the Colts got the ball at their own 20-yard line with 5:34 left in the fourth quarter, and the defense allowed them to march 80 yards down the field on 19 plays to score a touchdown and game-winning two-point conversion.

“Yes, very disappointing. They obviously ran the ball relatively well,” head coach Jerod Mayo said after the loss. “We just didn’t make the stops that we need to. Look, that’s the NFL. That’s the NFL. We say it every week. It’s that one play here, that one play there. That extended drive definitely hurt, and then those guys going for two and couldn’t keep them out.”

The Patriots’ defense forced three fourth downs on the epic five-minute, 22-second drive, but Colts quarterback Anthony Richardson converted on all three, twice with his arm and once with a designed run.

Richardson was able to hit Colts wide receiver Alec Pierce for a touchdown on fourth-and-goal from the Patriots’ 3-yard line to cap off the drive. He then ran up the middle on the Patriots’ two-point conversion.

“I knew they were going for two,” defensive tackle Davon Godchaux said. “Obviously, they’re fighting for the playoffs, for that seventh seed. Personally, me, just talking about me, personally, I played it right. I thought we had a great call, played back into the guard, was down-blocked, center went away. I ended up grabbing Anthony Richardson by one of his legs, but he’s a big, powerful guy, so we all have to rally to the ball and gang tackle.

“I thought we had the stop, personally. I don’t really know everybody else’s position. I’ll look at it on film and we’ll try to see what the problem was, but obviously big quarterback, gotta-have-it play for them, and obviously they got the two-point, and we didn’t get the stop.”

Defensive tackle Christian Barmore appeared to be held and chop-blocked on the two-point conversion. He was held by Colts offensive tackle Matt Goncalves below the waist and pushed over by right guard Quenton Nelson.

“Felt like I had good position,” Barmore told ESPN. “I felt like someone was holding my leg. Quenton Nelson is a good player and he came and got me, but I felt like somebody was holding my leg. Real frustrating.”

Richardson ran through tackling attempts by Godchaux and linebackers Jahlani Tavai and Christian Elliss.

The Patriots allowed the Colts to run for 144 yards on 34 carries. Richardson had 48 of those yards on just nine attempts.

Richardson completed just 12-of-24 passes for 109 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. Elliss and cornerback Christian Gonzalez each came away with picks. Cornerbacks Marcus Jones and Alex Austin each had two pass breakups in the secondary. Austin and Tavai both were charged with costly pass interference penalties.

Still, defensive end Keion White didn’t believe the Patriots played up to their full capacity.

“I don’t think we were really that close. I think if we were really playing up to our potential of what we really could do, it should have been a completely different story,” White said. “Like, I think the score was close, but I think we played — we wasn’t stopping the run at all today. And it was still close. So if we could just play fundamentally, we could pretty much, probably dominate teams.”

The 3-10 Patriots haven’t played well defensively since their Week 10 loss to the Bears. Their pass defense improved Sunday, but they couldn’t stop the run nor the Colts in general when it mattered most on Sunday.

Mayo is a defensive-minded head coach, and that unit, led by defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington, keeps coming up short for the team this season.