What went wrong in practice? According to Wes Welker, the same things that went wrong during the game.
Arizona Cardinals cornerback Justin Bethel, right, celebrates after New England Patriots kicker Stephen Gostkowski, bottom, missed a field at the end of the fourth quarter of an NFL football game, Sunday, Sept. 16, 2012, in Foxborough, Mass. The Cardinals won 20-18.
FOXBOROUGH -- Blame Stephen Gostkowski if you want.
The New England Patriots kicker missed a 42-yard field goal with 0:01 remaining that could have turned Sunday's 20-18 loss to the Arizona Cardinals into a victory.
But the Patriots' issues weren't at all confined to Gostkowski's right foot, and several players said the problems didn't begin Sunday.
"It all started in the week of practice. Everybody will tell you," said cornerback Kyle Arrington. "We knew what they were doing; we still couldn’t get it done. On the practice field, there were blown calls, lack of communication, and it showed up today in the game. We had our chances."
New England managed just 129 yards of offense in the first half, committed eight penalties for 60 yards and didn't score a touchdown until 2:06 remained in the game, seriously threatening not to reach the end zone for the first time since Oct. 26, 2003. In addition to the final missed field goal, the Patriots also surrendered a third-quarter blocked punt that gave the Cardinals the ball on the 2-yard line and set up the first Arizona touchdown.
"We just didn't come out there firing," said wide receiver Wes Welker. "We didn't have a great week of practice. Coach (Bill Belichick) made a point of that, that we need to not play catch-up. We really didn't do the things necessary to come away with the win, especially early. We have to start faster than that and come out, play from ahead and do things the way we need to."
Added Rob Gronkowski, "You have to be ready for any situation, for any game. That's what practice is for all week. Clearly, we didn't practice good enough. I didn't practice good enough all week. We have to pick that up and be ready for all situations at all times."
What went wrong during practices? According to Welker, the same things that went wrong during the game.
"Just a lot of mental errors and things like that, guys not doing their assignments and not doing their job," he said. "We talked about the different things they did defensively and the type of players they have, and people we had to control. We just didn't do a good job of that."