The New England Patriots came within inches of defeating the Indianapolis Colts on Sunday. While it was Joey Slye’s 68-yard field goal that hit the crossbar as time expired, head coach Jerod Mayo attributed the defeat to one key aspect.

“Just our red zone in general,” Mayo said. “Our offense in the red zone was, I think, 1 for 6. Our defense in the red zone wasn’t able to stop them there. That’s really the game.”

Entering the week, New England’s offense was already in a lull within the 20 mark, managing just 2 of 6 in the red zone. The unit recorded a touchdown called back due to penalties, a missed field goal from just 25 yards and an interception bounced into the air by Hunter Henry.

“I was just trying to get to him quickly and hopefully he’ll come in. I think I took it the wrong way,” Drake Maye explained after the game. “I think if I put it on the opposite shoulder away from the defender, I think that might be a complement. It’s just a shame that it was overturned. It’s just a shame.”

Poor execution coupled with some unaggressive playmaking that took the ball out of Maye’s hands resulted in New England settling for four scores after having possession of the ball inside the 10-yard line.

“I thought we ran the ball up the field pretty well until we got to the goal line. I think I might be able to make progress in the passing game,” Maye said.

“It was tough down there. It was tight. Narrow windows. Tight throws. I have to give our guys some chances. I think that’s probably the biggest thing. And penalties – I think one of them was penalties. We scored again from the 20th minute. We just can’t settle for four field goals in the red zone and expect to win ballgames.”

“That was the story of the game,” Henry added. “We were able to move the football around a lot, but couldn’t finish the drives.”

While New England’s offense struggled to find the end zone, Indianapolis’ offense had more success against the Patriots’ defense. The Colts capitalized on three of their four trips to the red zone, including the fourth-down touchdown, and scored the game-winning two-point conversion in the final minute.

“It’s just unfortunate. Again, just in the red zone in general, I would say we just weren’t good enough throughout the game,” Mayo said. “When the field shrinks like that, I mean, the details and everyone has to be on the same page, and we just didn’t do it well enough.”