Patriots LB Jerod Mayo wasn't going to get into Wednesday's events when approached on the day-after. But he was willing to go far enough to say that this week -- coming off the Patriots' worst month, record-wise, of football in the last seven years -- has been no picnic.

"It's been pretty rough, but we have to right the ship, and that's the plan," Mayo said today, adding that to make it happen, it'll take "a lot of hard work, everyone committing a lot of time, more time to football. That's what we're gonna do."

That's why Mayo thought Tom Brady's presence on Wednesday -- hours after his second son was born -- was meaningful.

"It is," Mayo said. "Having a guy like him lead by example is huge. A guy like me, I don't have any (family) up here, so I'm good. I can come up here whenever."

The idea, Mayo said, is now simply to breathe new life into the team by extending the season into playoffs. Of course, the idea has been for players to go that extra mile from here on out to make it happen, but Mayo was careful to pick his words there.

"There always could be more dedication during the week," Mayo said. "At the same time, guys on this team have families, and things like that, so it's kind of understandable. But it's a one-game playoff (this week) and we have to get it done now."

(Update 7:32 p.m.: Somehow, a piece of the Adalius Thomas post got tacked on the end of this one. Not sure how that happened, though we do have some new blog software we're working with. So we've erased that part now.