FOXBOROUGH – The Patriots defense had to protect a seven-point lead. The Colts, a team with playoff aspirations, had the ball late in the fourth quarter and were desperately trying to tie it up.

This was a crucial moment for both teams. Jerod Mayo’s team had a chance to make a statement and generate positive energy ahead of the team’s bye week.

One defensive stand and it’s over.

It wasn’t that long ago that this situation was automatic. The defense would hold and the Patriots would seal the victory.

These are not these patriots.

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Instead, a microcosm of the last three months played out. Mayo’s defense, which had done a good job all afternoon keeping Anthony Richardson & Co. at bay, imploded.

The Colts put together just 19 plays, traveling 80 yards and converting three times on fourth down – including fourth-and-goal from three – to put the ball in the end zone. And instead of tying the game with an extra point, Colts second-year quarterback Richardson delivered the knockout blow with a two-point conversion with 12 seconds left in the game.

It wasn’t Peyton Manning or Andrew Luck who planned the comeback. It was Richardson, the same quarterback who went off for a play a few weeks ago and temporarily lost his starting job. That was the quarterback who led the Colts to a 25-24 victory.

If there had been a stop on that drive, the Patriots would have won. A stop on each of the fourth downs and the Patriots would have avoided their 10th loss of the season.

Instead, they couldn’t stop Richardson or the Colts when it mattered most.

After the game, defensive lineman Keion White faced no resistance. He pushed the defeat right on the defense’s doorstep.

“I feel like no matter how much we lose, it’s always going to be frustrating,” White said. “But I think this one was at our expense defensively.

“Without having seen the film, I think we personally had the opportunity to seal the game and get up and purposefully keep them in fourth place. But we didn’t do it. So it depends on us.”

Hard to argue. Although the offense had some difficulty converting red zone opportunities into touchdowns, their struggles were to be expected. With an all-new offensive staff, a rookie quarterback, a challenged offensive line and a collection of No. 3 receivers, all of these factors play a role in deciding field goals.

The fact that the defense was like a sieve in the red zone was the element that was not expected at the start. The Patriots weren’t necessarily the best in the world last season, but they were much better in the red zone.

The Colts went 3-4 in the money on Sunday. The previous week, Miami was also 3-for-4. The same goes for the LA Rams in Week 11. Allowing nine touchdowns in twelve red zone trips in the last three games is unfortunate.

“I think it’s crazy that we go from being such a dominant defense last year to what we are this year,” White said. “I know we have a lot of new guys, but the Patriots have always had a good defense. This should always be the standard. We have to live up to this claim.”

It’s a standard team that Mayo played on for a decade starting in 2008, when he was a linebacker and later an assistant coach. It’s a standard that started in the early 2000s with Richard Seymour, Ty Law, Mike Vrabel, Tedy Bruschi, Ted Johnson, Vince Wilfork and Rodney Harrison. It continued with Mayo, Devin McCourty, Dont’a Hightower, Malcolm Butler and Stephon Gilmore.

Even in recent years, there have been remnants and glimpses of defenses — all coached by Bill Belichick — providing key stops to secure victories.

The group now coached by Mayo and defensive coordinator DeMarcus Covington collapses at the worst of times. If there was one thing that former coach Belichick was missed, it was his impact on defense, his confusing looks and his ability to control that unit in critical moments.

“If we have the opportunity to take teams like that out, we have to take them out,” defensive tackle Davon Godchaux lamented after the loss. “We knew they would go in pairs. We had the chance to make a stopover. I thought I had a pretty good read on Anthony Richardson. I knew it was going to be a quarterback power (run). We just have to play the game. Didn’t and they scored.”

Twenty-four points was a decent performance for the offense, but wasn’t enough for a win.

“Drake (Maye), Rhamondre (Stevenson) and the whole offense killed them the whole game. I knew they didn’t want to give the ball back to the offense when they had a chance to play two,” Godchaux said of the Colts. “We didn’t put them away. We have to find a way to get better. We have to find a way to finish the games.”

Entering the game, the Pats were ranked 19th out of 32 teams allowed. However, they ranked 29th in EPA per game and 30th in overall DVOA.

They produced two turnovers, with a brilliant interception from Christian Gonzalez and another from Christian Elliss after a tip from Jahlani Tavai. But again, that 19-game road trip was all that mattered.

It was also a little more than odd that Mayo didn’t use any of his timeouts – except one – during that time-consuming final drive to ensure Maye still had some time to counter if Indy scored. Perhaps he incorrectly assumed his team would make one of the fourth stops on that painful drive.

It didn’t happen.

Defensive players talked about, among other things, not being on the same page during the last round, which was also eye-opening considering it was already 13 weeks ago.

White pointed to the same mistakes that had hamstrung them all season.

“I personally have said all season that we need to play more fundamentally and be on the same line defensively,” he said.

The Patriots knew Richardson was a dual threat. He ran nine times for 48 yards with a touchdown run and the two-point conversion. None of his stats really stand out from the game other than he delivered in the clutch. He completed only 12 passes, but they came at key moments, including the touchdown pass on 4th-and-3 from the goal line to Alex Pierce.

“It just wasn’t good enough. Like you said, we did plays. They did more plays,” Gonzalez said. “We have to – like I said – we have to be able to contain the offense when we go out with the game behind us. We have to do better.”

As we enter the bye week, with four games left, that refrain is no longer outdated.