Brandon Meriweather

Patriots cornerback Brandon Meriweather joined the Dale & Holley show Monday morning (listen to the interview at the Dale & Holley audio on demand page) and explained why he didn’t start in Sunday’s loss to the Jets. “The coaches were doing whatever they felt was best for the team at the time,” he said. “I haven’t been myself in practice. The coaches wanted to show me just because I went [to the Pro Bowl]. I still have to come and play. Basically, that was my fault that I’m not on the field as much.”

Meriweather admitted to not heeding the coaches’ instructions, leading to his demotion. Explained the  defensive back: “I was trying a lot of things in camp just to see if they worked. And they weren’t. Instead of me stopping trying them and doing exactly what I was coached, I kept trying them.”

Consistency is Meriweather’s other key concern. “I can’t be a Pro Bowl-caliber player on one play and then a practice squad-caliber player on another play,” he said.

Meriweather said the fault for Sunday’s loss lies solely with the players. “I think it was all on us,” he said. “We were missing tackles. We were just not playing aggressive like we were in the first half. In the first half we were playing aggressive, we were hyped up, we were having fun. In the second half, it just seemed like we were dead. We weren’t having fun, we weren’t cranked. We weren’t doing anything that got us success in the first half.”

Meriweather said he calls himself the “party-starter” because he likes to make the big play that gets the defense going. Asked why his team didn’t seem to want to party Sunday, he said: “We wanted to start the party, I just think everybody was waiting for somebody else to start it.”

Asked if confidence will be an issue for teammate Darius Butler, who got burned on a couple of big plays vs. the Jets, Meriweather said not to worry. “Apparently, y’all don’t know Darius Butler,” Meriweather said. “He’s very confident on his own. That’s one person I can always say he’s going to keep his head about water without any help.”