Communication breakdown: Stephon Gilmore on his problems against Panthers

FOXBOROUGH — It was a bad day for Stephon Gilmore.

The cornerback was flagged for illegal use of hands on two occasions in the second half of Sunday's loss, both of which came on third down and allowed the Panthers to keep drives alive. (His four penalties through four games are the most for any player on the team.) And there were multiple situations where it appeared he was at the heart of breakdowns in coverage.


After the game — a 33-30 defeat where Cam Newton finished 22-for-29 for 316 yards, three touchdowns and one interception — Gilmore repeatedly referenced poor communication as the reason for the breakdowns in the secondary.

“It’s communication,” he said quietly. “We have to get better on the communication.

“I have to get better on the communication — I have to get better on the communication. I have to get better.”

“Gilmore’s been trying to do the right thing since he’s been here. It definitely wasn’t on him,” said safety Duron Harmon. “I tell him that the whole time: You might have had a mistake, but we all had mistakes. We all didn’t play the way we needed to play.

“It takes 11 to play great defense. From the top of the defense to the bottom of the defense, we all need to look at ourselves. We gave up 30 points in three of four games. We have to get going, and we have to get going now.”

Asked if he was surprised it has taken this long to get on the same page as a group, Harmon said yes.

“Yeah, a little bit. It’s not like we don’t go over this stuff in practice,” he said. “Obviously it’s something we need to work a little harder at. Obviously, what we’re doing is not good enough. We have to take a look in the mirror and really tonight, just look and realize: Are we doing enough to win. Are we doing enough to be good on defense? Are we doing enough to be a sound football team? (Sunday) we weren’t. Especially on defense.”

While it might not all be Gilmore’s fault, the fact remains that he is the only new face in a secondary that ended up being a major part of a defense that led the league last year in points allowed, all while keeping big plays to a minimum. Four games into 2017, things look awful different this year when stacked against last season.

“You can’t explain it,” Harmon said when asked about the difference that comes with having Gilmore in the lineup. “We continue to go out there. We work hard. We work hard each and every week. We practice hard as anybody in the NFL. For us to go out there and do what we do, I really believe it’s just a lack of focus. We need to be more focused.”

“I think collectively as a total team — offense, defense, special teams — we’ve all got to just do a better job,” Bill Belichick said when asked about Gilmore’s performance. “We’ve got to coach better. We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to play together as a team better, We’ve just got to do a better job.”

Gilmore, who finished with four tackles, was asked about the acclimation process that goes with joining a new defense, and he sounded a quietly optimistic note that things are going to get better.

“It takes time,” he said. “We know what we have to do — we just have to do it.”