FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Win and silence the critics.
It’s a simple phrase but that’s the message New England Patriots defensive tackle and team captain Vince Wilfork told his teammates throughout the week.
“Best way to answer anything is to win,” Wilfork said after Sunday night’s 43-17 victory over Cincinnati. “If we were sitting here undefeated, everybody would be blowing smoke up us about how great we are. That’s why we don’t pay attention to anything outside of here. Our job is what we have in here.”
As one of two remaining members from the Patriots’ 2004 Super Bowl championship team -- the other being quarterback Tom Brady -- Wilfork knew what he needed to do to help this team after a tough loss.
“Just leading by example,” Wilfork said. “We knew what we had to do going forward, coming into this week. And the team followed. It was just one of those things everybody, even rookies -- the things we do around here, how hard we work and for us to play like we did [against the Chiefs] -- it just wasn’t us. It was out of character.
“Everybody knew we had to step our game up individually, and ultimately it would boost the team. So we played good today, just one foot in front of the other. The team just keeps chipping away. That’s what it has to be every week against good teams. It’s a good start. Hopefully we can keep it going.”
Six days ago, the Patriots lost in embarrassing fashion to the Chiefs, but on Sunday night the team flipped it around.
“You’ve just seen two different teams from Monday night to tonight,” Wilfork said. “Two different teams. Just goes to show you we are capable of doing it. Just need to do it every day and every week.”
The Patriots ran onto the field with intensity and a sense of anger that carried over to the defense’s aggressive performance.
“We knew what we showed wasn’t who we were and the only way is to do something about it,” Wilfork said. “So we came out, executed well. Saying we were going to play well, and that’s what we did. You can call it any way you can call it. You can call it aggressive. Call it whatever you want to call it. We just said we had to play well, and we did.”
With Wilfork’s leadership and an impressive performance in all aspects of the game, the Patriots continue to be a team that finds a way to bounce back after losses. Since 2003, the Patriots are 36-4 (.900) in regular-season games following a loss.
“Correct the mistakes and just get back to work,” Wilfork said about why the Patriots rebound from losses so well. “I think we do a real good job of taking the mistakes that we’ve made and just moving forward with them. What we did this week coming back from Monday night.
“I’ve been with these guys for a long time. So I know what we are capable of doing when we execute well. Our goal is to continue to play the way we played tonight. That’s the name of the game at this level.”
Coach Bill Belichick’s mantra during his news conferences this week was “we’re on to Cincinnati,” and after the win Wilfork picked up where his coach left off.
“On to the next week,” Wilfork said. “We are not going to dwell on this win. Just going to move forward.”
