Andre Carter

Patriots defensive end Andre Carter made his weekly Patriots Monday appearance on the Mut & Merloni show from Gillette Stadium and talked about the defense’s frustration in trying to the stop the Steelers Sunday. To hear the interview, go to the Mut & Merloni audio on demand page.

The Steelers dominated time of possession, forcing the Patriots defense to stay on the field for long chunks at a time.

“It does wear and tear on you,” Carter acknowledged. “We’ve just got to go back from scratch and see what we did wrong.”

Added Carter: “It’s just unfortunate that we just pretty much got out-executed. We didn’t tackle well. I’m not sure as far as assignment-wise where we were on point, as far as communication. It was a circus.”

Carter said he expected the Steelers to run the ball more than they did, as Ben Roethlisberger controlled the game through the air instead.

“You have to expect the unexpected, don’t get me wrong, when you prepare for an opponent and you look at the game film week by week,” Carter said. “Of course, the mindset is, especially when it comes to the Steelers, OK, they’re going to pound the ball. They’re going to pound it, pound it, pound it. But that wasn’t the case. He threw the ball. And he was successful from it. He was pinpointing different offensive weapons. He spread the ball out well. He also made some great audible checks. He was dead-on.”