Tom Brady is the undisputed leader on the field in New England, but after making it clear that his teammates’ lack of mental toughness was to blame for their recent struggles, he may find things to be a bit more tense this week in practice.

Brady slammed his team’s performance down the stretch against Miami, insinuating that they gave up when things got tough late in the game. The Patriots held the lead for 59 minutes of the contest before the Dolphins took control for good on a field goal with a minute to go in the contest, winning the game 22-21.

“I think we’ve got to find a way to play better football for 60 minutes, in all phases, and everyone has got to focus on what they need to do better. I think that’s the most important thing: being mentally tough to overcome adversity. When things don’t go your way, you have to fight back. That’s a challenge for all of us. I think at times we do, and at times I don’t think we fight very hard. … We have leads in the second half and leads in the fourth quarter and we’re just not closing the game out when we have the opportunity to.”

– New England quarterback Tom Brady

Calling out a team for its poor play is nothing new for most franchise quarterbacks in the NFL, but for Brady it’s one of the first times that he’s had to be publicly critical of his teammates, and it will be interesting to see how the Patriots react during the final four weeks of the season.

New England is still the frontrunner to win the AFC East and advance into the postseason, but their well documented problems with winning on the road this year could make an extended playoff run difficult to say the least.