By SHALISE MANZA YOUNG Journal Sports Writer FOXBORO — As is their way, every member of the New England Patriots on Wednesday stressed that the team had moved on from its humbling at the hands of the New Orleans Saints less than 48 hours earlier, and that all focus is now squarely on this week’s game in Miami. The key words in the above paragraph: in Miami. Take a look at the Pats’ results this season and one thing jumps out about their 7-4 record: all of their losses have come on the road. Yes, they won in London against the Buccaneers, but (A) — while it was technically a Tampa Bay “home” game, there were many more New England fans at Wembley Stadium; and (B) — it was against Tampa Bay, which is a team that has one win thus far. Starting Sunday, three of the Patriots’ last five regular-season games are on the road. They are against the Dolphins, Bills and Texans, sub-.500 teams all, so on paper it should not be a problem for them to reverse their road woes. But with it all but assured that New England will be on the road for the playoffs after the wild-card round, the issues need to be resolved. “At home, on the road — the things that win football games don’t change,” Adalius Thomas said. “You have to go out and play, regardless of where you are. You have to be consistent.” New England is averaging 32.5 points scored and 14.5 points allowed in its six homes games this year. Those numbers drop to 22.4 and 23.2, respectively, in its five road games. It seems there’s no easy answer to their problems. “I don’t think we’ve put it all together yet. I don’t think we’ve completely shown our ability to be (consistent) for four quarters,” said Tully Banta-Cain. “Right now, everybody is looking at themselves in the mirror and figuring out what we can do to be better. You can’t look too far backwards. We have more games ahead of us and those are games we’ll have a chance to deal with those issues, especially this week on the road against Miami.” The Patriots have historically struggled on the Dolphins’ home turf, though they have won their last two games there. Looking at New England’s schedule, it has faced its toughest opponents on the road rather than at home: Denver, Indianapolis and the Saints all were undefeated when they faced the Pats. However, the Patriots lost at the New York Jets and in overtime to the Broncos after failing to score a point after halftime in both games. Against the Colts, they were outscored, 31-10, in the second half. In New Orleans, they were down by two touchdowns at halftime and could not muster a comeback. Whatever the cause, New England is fully aware of the issue, though why there’s been so much inconsistency away from Gillette isn’t easy to pinpoint. “Road wins show toughness with your team, that you went into their environment and got a victory,” Brandon McGowan said. “I wouldn’t say we lack toughness, because we have beaten physical teams … but a road victory shows a lot of toughness.” Defensive-backfield mate Brandon Meriweather said New England does not lack toughness; it just needs to get back to basics. “If I had the answer to (why the Pats have struggled on the road), I’d be in the wrong business. You just have to do your job,” Thomas said. On Monday night, the defense, in particular, had communication problems, most notably on the 75-yard touchdown pass from Drew Brees to Devery Henderson in which Henderson was wide open on the left side of the field. The defense was supposed to check out of the corner blitz it ran, and not all 11 players got the memo. Jonathan Wilhite took off toward Brees on the blitz and no one picked up Henderson. There’s still time for New England to get on that page, but the road woes must be fixed if the team is going to make the ultimate road trip — to Miami for the Super Bowl. http://www.projo.com/patriots/content/sp_fbn_patriots03_12-03-09_FKGLQAM_v4.37cd323.html
