"Anything that happens with discipline on the team stays between me and the players on the team," coach Bill Belichick said prior to practice, which was held in the Dana-Farber Field House due to the wintry mix of snow and freezing rain that swept through the area.

It's unknown why the four showed up late, how late they were and whether it was a group effort, although the fact Burgess, Guyton and Thomas play the same position does raise a flag. The weather, while miserable, wasn't believed to be a factor as the rest of the team was present and accounted for.

That included quarterback Tom Brady, who showed up for work the day after his wife, Gisele, gave birth to the couple's first child, a son.

"You guys find out everything these days," Brady said, referring to his banished `brothers' and not the welcome addition to his family. "That's coach's decision. And the guys that are here ... I've got to do my job. I've got plenty of things to do

"Like I said, I've got to show up every day and bring whatever I have - the energy and the leadership that I have - to this team, because that's what all those guys (here do). That's what our job is."

Whatever the reason or reasons for the tardiness of Moss & Co., the lack of good timing couldn't have come at a worse time. The Patriots have lost consecutive games for the first time in three years as they prepare to play the Carolina Panthers here Sunday.

The latest loss, a 22-21 setback to the Miami Dolphins that reduced the Patriots' lead in the AFC East to one game and lowered their record to 7-5, prompted Brady afterward to question how much fight this team has in it.

Brady clarified his open-to-interpretation comments yesterday, pointing out playing hard on Sundays is not the problem. The issue is what happens the other six days a week around here.

In other words, are the Patriots hard at work or - as was the case with four players yesterday - hardly working?

"We've got to make the commitment to each other," Brady said. "And if it's Monday and it's Tuesday and coach wants us to come in on Monday and work or stay for a 2-1/2-hour practice on Wednesday and Thursday, then with no bitching and complaining, just doing the job. I think at times we all feel a little bit sorry for ourselves and you're beat up and you're tired and you're sore and it's the end of the year and you go, `Why is he doing this?'

"But in the end, you're either gaining ground on a team or you're losing ground, and I always prefer to be gaining ground and getting ahead and staying ahead over the course of the week through walkthroughs, through meetings, through post-practice film, through your film study on Tuesday, through all of the treatment that you've got to do. There's a lot that goes into it."

That motion was seconded by veteran Kevin Faulk. The 11th-year veteran is the longest-tenured Patriot, having joined the organization the year before Belichick in 1999.

Faulk can flash three Super Bowl rings on his hands if he so chooses. He's quite certain they weren't handed to him.

"That's how we've got to where we are as a team, as an organization, and that's what we're doing," Faulk said of working hard during the week. "That's what we've got to continue to do. We know that things are not perfect right now - far from it - but at the same time if you continue working on it, that's where you're going to get."

Where the Patriots are looking to go is back to the playoffs after a one-year absence. They have stumbled as of late, losing three of four for the first time in seven years, but are still in control of the AFC East and their own destiny.

There are four games left, and the Patriots don't need to win them all to receive a postseason invite, just one more than the Jets and Dolphins, both of whom are 6-6 and a game back in second place. Brady made it a point to point that out.

"I mean, there's nothing figured out at this point," he said. "There are playoff races, but there are no seeds - there's none of that. What we need to do is win this week. Two straight losses, that's been tough for all of us, so we have to really put it all on the line this week.

"That's why we've been working for a long time for this opportunity, and there are some teams in the league that would die for this opportunity - to be in first place with four games left. So we've got to use that as confidence for us and still go out there and understand that we've got to play our best Football."

The first significant storm of the season passed through the region yesterday. There's still one brewing in these parts, though, and it's going to be four more days before the extent of the damage is known.