BY NICK ST. DENIS
The New England Patriots' offense was atrocious Sunday in a 13-6 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals. That, or the Bengals' defense was really good.
Patriots rookie wide receiver Aaron Dobson thinks the former.
"I feel like we beat ourselves," Dobson said after the game, via Patriots.com. "If feel like it’s stuff that we can improve on. It’s nothing that they did. We just have to improve."
The Bengals ended Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's 52-game touchdown streak and held New England to a dismal 1-for-12 third-down conversion rate. The Patriots didn't convert on their lone red zone trip.
Brady, who completed just 18-of his 38 pass attempts, was sacked four times, threw an interception and fumbled once. LeGarrette Blount, Julian Edelman and Dobson also fumbled. Blount's was the only one that resulted in a turnover.
"It wasn’t our best day of execution today," Brady said.
According to ESPN.com's stats, the Bengals' defense hit Brady eight times, batted down five of his passes and tallied another five tackles for losses.
Patriots coach Bill Belichick followed the game with maybe the shortest press conference in the history of the franchise, but he did offer an elaborate analysis of the offense's performance.
"We didn’t perform well enough," he said.
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