Matt Patricia

When it came to Sunday’s game-winning touchdown pass from Seattle rookie quarterback Russell Wilson to wide receiver Sidney Rice, Patriots defensive coordinator Matt Patricia blamed a lack of execution across the board that led to the defensive breakdown.

“I think the particular play that you’re talking about, obviously we’ve got to execute better and coach better the call that we were in,” Patricia said on a conference call with the media on Monday afternoon. “[The] defense is called to try to stop any particular play that they can throw at us or run at us, and we’ve just got to go out and execute and perform it at a higher level.

“I can’t really say that an extra defender or an extra player here or there would have helped us, but we’ve got to obviously do a better job overall from coaching and playing to just handling the situation and the play better.”

The Patriots have up a bunch of big plays Sunday: Seattle had six pass plays of 20 yards or more and four pass plays of 40-plus yards. There were three completions, including the 46-yard touchdown pass to Rice, as well as a 40-yard pass interference penalty in the fourth quarter on safety Patrick Chung.

Asked about the big plays being the result of technique or mental issues, Patricia said it was a little bit of both.

“I think you’re probably going to look at both when you go back and take a look at it,” he said. “‘What could we have done from an awareness standpoint that was better?’ and ‘What could we have done from a technique standpoint that was better?’ So you need to improve on both because it just wasn’t good enough.”

Here are a few more highlights from Patricia’s Q&A with the media:

It looked like early in the game you guys rolled out some three-man fronts with Rob Ninkovich kind of being used at the end of the line, outside linebacker in a two-point stance. Was that more of a direct result of the matchup going against Russell Wilson or more that you were down two linebackers with Dont’a Hightower and Tracy White?

“I think we’re just trying to put the best people we can on the field in all the different situations. Everything that we do, we have multiple role players on our defense, so we’re just trying to get those best scenarios out there and put those guys in the [right] situation. It’s really not one factor or another; it’s really, more or less, the multiplicity of our packages.”

Along the same lines, what went into the decision to replace Kyle Arrington with Alfonzo Dennard early in the game?

“I think we try to play as many guys as we can and everyone that is active for the game is going to have a role for that particular game and get out there have an opportunity to play. So, we’re certainly going to take all the guys that are active and get them out there and try to get some opportunities and some plays out of them and certainly we do that every week.”

The Jets have kind of ramped things up with their ground and pound style. Does that pose a concern now that they have showed they can run the ball effectively?

“I think the Jets had an excellent performance and certainly their running game is going to be a huge challenge for us to prepare for, so that will be a big thing we’ll have to put a point of emphasis on and try to make sure we can handle. Certainly, this will be a big week for us here: an opponent within the division, which ultimately are huge and crucial games for us. So, we’ll have our work cut out for us and we’ll have to be on these guys as soon as possible here. Every week is a new challenge and obviously it’s the NFL, so every opponent is extremely difficult to prepare for.”

There are some injuries in the secondary with Steve Gregory and possibly Patrick Chung out. With a seemingly shorter week coming back from Seattle, is there an urgency to get some bodies in there or do you feel like you are all set personnel wise?

“Obviously, around here we take injuries day by day. We’re just always going to try to put the best people we can out on the field in the best situation we can, so I think we’ll just kind of handle it the same way we always do.”