The New England Patriots were, unsurprisingly, not happy with the performance they put forward last Sunday against the Green Bay Packers.
No player verbalized that more clearly than wide receiver Mack Hollins, who put a challenge to his teammates.
“If you’re not ready to come to work Tuesday and Wednesday and get on that plane and work all this week, you’re probably not meant for this team,” he said.
“If there are guys on this team that are OK with that, I’m sure there are 31 other teams they can go to and maybe they can live like that. But we’re trying to get stuff done about this week.”
So, with the smoke having settled on the 45-27 defeat, how does Hollins feel about the state of the Patriots? It appears better. Talking to the media on Wednesday, before the team’s flight to Germany for its upcoming international game with the Detroit Lions, he added further context to his prior comments and along the way praised the team’s response to its fourth loss of the season.
“I think it’s good,” the 33-year-old said. “We’re excited for another opportunity, and I think the guys are focused on the ‘one week at a time’ mentality, which is a good thing. You’re trying to reach too far ahead or too far behind you, it’s hard to know where your feet are.”
Hollins was not the only member of the organization to highlight the Patriots’ work ethic and mental toughness this week. Head coach Mike Vrabel did as well, effectively echoing what the wideout said on Sunday.
And even with some time having passed, Hollins stood by every word he said.
“If you come after that game and said, ‘We did enough, it’s not my fault,’ you’re not able to look in the mirror and say, ‘I can get better.’ It’s more of that than guys aren’t working or guys aren’t doing things,” he explained.
“If you get this result and you’re OK with it, and you’re like, ‘I don’t need to come to practice next week and come to work, and I’d rather be somewhere where I can just relax and not do anything,’ this isn’t the place for you. I always stand by that, because I don’t want to play with guys that are like that. I don’t think we have guys like that, because, like we’ve said, we all we are, we all we need. The guys that are here, they come to play. Is the result always want we want? Hell, no. But do you continue to push that and get better? Yes.”
