FOXBOROUGH — Stefon Diggs thought his body was good, his football was decent and his head was eager to get back on the field and get better.
New England’s 20-13 loss to the Raiders was Diggs’ first game with the Patriots and first game back from the torn ACL he suffered a year ago with the Texans.
He caught six passes for 57 yards. Four of his six receptions went for first downs.
“Decent,” he responded when asked to evaluate himself. “It was my first game back. I was just happy to be back.”
Mostly, he was happy to be back and building again.
“Obviously, (emotions) were high. It’s an injury that’s been detrimental to a lot of guys. Some guys still might not be back right now, but I just took it with a grain of salt,” he said. “It’s a lot of hard work and effort on my end, but I put that work in for me just so I can be available for my team and I wanna do a lot more.”
Diggs said even parts of the game he doesn’t like felt good.
“I just missed it,” he said, smiling. “I got tackled. I missed getting tackled, and I hate getting tackled but I missed it.”
“For players coming off an injury, their condition the day after playing is often more revealing than how they feel immediately after the game.” Diggs wasn’t worried about his knee.
“I’m actually ready to get back to work. I want to right this ship,” he said.
There’s plenty to work on.
Diggs thought the offense showed an ability to make plays, but the consistency wasn’t sharp there.
“We want to play cleaner and be there for our quarterback and be consistent,” he said. “It comes down to executing and everybody being on their details. That was the biggest thing. We just gotta consistently do it, take the practice habits to the field.
“Falling short isn’t ideal. There’s a lot to learn from. It’s the first game,” he added. “They’re a good team. You’ve got to earn the right to win, each and every week.
“We kind of already know what we didn’t do right. Get back in the lab, correct it and try to get back on track,” he continued. “There are a lot of lessons in losses. If you win, you can kind of get by, even though we didn’t do this well. When you lose, all the things that didn’t go right, you have to pay closer attention to them.”
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