Patriots playoff road: Not impassible, not impossible, but certainly now monumental

FOXBOROUGH — The road for the New England Patriots is not impossible.

But it's not promising either. You could tell that by the scowls on the faces in the home locker room after opportunity slipped right through the home team's hands in an excruciating 27-24 loss to the Miami Dolphins.

There is no bye. And if this party is to extend to Miami in February, it will likely take back-to-back road trips.

“It just means we play next week,” said safety Devin McCourty, himself an owner of three Super Bowl rings, all attained with two home victories in the playoffs before the big one.

History does not favor the Patriots. No team since the 2012 Ravens has won three games en route to the Super Bowl. Of course, the Patriots, garnering the 1 or 2 seed and representing the AFC in half of the games since the 2001 season, have had a lot to do with that fact.

But what now? New England looked a heck of a lot more like a team that went 4-4 in the final two months than the one that flew through an 8-0 start. And that carries for how they looked on the field Sunday and in the postgame.

“Just got to suck it up. I don't know who we play next week. Just got to go back and practice hard and correct the things we didn't do right, and go from there,” said Stephon Gilmore, who was a multi-time victim in DeVante Parker's 8-catch, 137-yard performance.

“You have to (turn the page). When it's good you do it, when it's bad you've got to do it. Got to move on. Can't do nothing about it. Just got to play better.”

Play better. Turn the page. Get ready. The message couldn't have been more resonant in the room where AFC East champ hats and T-shirts hung happily just one week ago.

“The end of our season will be next week if we don't turn the page,” said McCourty. “How we play this week doesn't have to matter next week.

"It's hard to go out and execute every week. That's the task at hand.”

The task at hand – a Titans team that has won 7 of their last 10 games – will at least start here at Gillette.

But you wonder if that will matter, judging by the way the Patriots played on Sunday.

Those of you comforted by the victories over Buffalo (a 13-6 loser to the Jets Sunday) and Cincinnati simply can't ignore the recent warts shown by a team that couldn't find an open receiver, save for linebacker Elandon Roberts and one bomb to Philip Dorsett, against the worst defense in the game.

“Keep fighting. It's just what we do,” said running back Rex Burkhead, one of the few bright spots in the offense with an 8.0 yard per-carry average on Sunday.

“The confidence is never going to go away. We know what we have. We know what we are capable of. We must quickly put this behind us, move on, understand we have a playoff game next week, just do everything we can to prepare and get ready for battle.”

Will that be enough to win on the road at a rested Kansas City and then Baltimore, if they survive the Wild Card round?

It's just sounding more and more Herculean by the minute.

“I don't think it's any more difficult,” said halfback James White. “Just go out there and play football. It's just one extra game to make it to where you want to be.”

On paper, it is for certain. But here in New England, we know different. We've witnessed it first hand.

Bill Belichick and Tom Brady may be facing their final run together. It's going to be as difficult as any they had in 20 years.