Brady will take the wins however they come

FOXBORO -- New England's 29-26 overtime win over the Jets was ugly. No doubt about that.
But the Patriots don't really care.
"The winning is important because youve only got 16 opportunities," Tom Brady said Wednesday. "You can play really well for 58 minutes and then not play well for two minutes and thats the game. So the important thing is the win or the loss."
More importantly, the Patriots don't really care if you care.
"Whether the fans appreciate that or not, thats not really our concern," Brady continued. "Were trying to win every week, but whether you lose by 1 or 30, or win by 1 or 30, the record is the same. And really, it doesnt have any bearing on the next week either."
The quarterback isn't saying last Sunday's game didn't have problems. In the same press conference he talked about how the team will always identity areas of its play that need improvement. Fourth-quarter offense? Yeah, that's something that has to get better. The secondary's continued surrender of 20-plus yard plays? That needs fixing, too.
But working things out doesn't mean twisting the screws of last week's mistakes.
"Part of the mental toughness is putting what happened behind and moving forward to next week without wasting any time or energy spent thinking about last week and using all your energy to move onto the following week so you can be at your best that week" he said. "Thats how you string wins together. That's why you dont win one, lose one, win one, lose one, because at the end of the day, you're mediocre and you're watching all the good teams play. The good teams win, win, win, win, win."So maybe squeaking a three-point victory over a vulnerable Jets team didn't make the fans feel good. Maybe more flaws were exposed. For the Patriots, who've lost more close games than they've won this season, the walk off the field and into the locker room was a little piece of heaven."Thats a great part of the week," Brady smiled. "Probably the four minutes that you get to enjoy it after the game until you start thinking about the next game. So thats part of the marathon part of the football season. Its a game of attrition and its for the mentally strong and its for the mentally tough and the physically tough. That's where the good teams begin to separate themselves."
Talent aside, is this team mature enough to flex the kind of mental toughness Brady talked about? It's been noted that the 2012 opening day roster is the youngest ever put together in Bill Belichick's tenure. It can't be easy for players with little NFL experience to quickly master the reactionary aspect of their competitiveness.
But that's where old Patriots pros can step in. It happened for Brady in the past.
"I think I had a lot of great examples and mentors when I was a younger player, of guys that could put good games past them, could put bad games past them and you move forward as a team. We have a relatively young team. We have some great captains; we have some great veteran leadership that really has to carry the torch and say, No, guys, this is what we need to do. This is how we have to move on.
"The better the veteran leadership is, the better the younger guys understand what they need to do. And they do their job and you do your job and everyone is doing their jobs and you all move forward with hopefully winning games."