FOXBORO, Mass. -- Three years after playing in the Super Bowl, the New England Patriots are in shambles.

	Drew Bledsoe leads the NFL with 20 interceptions and has been sacked 47 times.

Their coach is on the hot seat, their players make too many mistakes, and they were bounced from playoff contention by one of the NFL's worst teams. The Patriots have declined in each year of Pete Carroll's tenure as coach.

"I'm really disappointed with that because it looks like we're sliding," Carroll said Monday. "You'd like to think you're getting better."

The season after Bill Parcells led the Patriots to the Super Bowl, then quit, Carroll took them to a 10-6 record and the second round of the playoffs. Last season, they slipped to 9-7 and a first-round loss.

This season, they won their first four games and were 6-2 at the midpoint. They had a bye the next week and didn't look like the same team when they resumed playing.

The Patriots have lost five of their last six games to drop to 7-7. More troubling to Carroll is the way they lost Sunday in Philadelphia in a game that eliminated them from the playoff race.

"The goals that we had set for ourselves are no longer available," Carroll said. "That reality comes on the heels of a dismal performance in Philadelphia at a time when we couldn't afford to do that."

The Patriots dropped eight passes, committed seven turnovers, suffered six sacks and scored no touchdowns despite getting inside the Philadelphia 35 nine times.

Carroll was unusually somber Monday but, as he has done all season, refused to lash out at players who lacked intensity or played poorly.

Even though team owner Robert Kraft, who Carroll spoke with after Sunday's game, might fire the coach after the season.

"Robert has been very supportive," Carroll said. "He makes it quite clear to me that he wants us to win these two games."

The Patriots finish their first non-playoff season since 1995 with home games against Buffalo (9-5) and Baltimore (7-7), who have two of the NFL's better defenses.

Somehow, the Patriots will have to find motivation even though their postseason hopes are gone. Carroll plans to keep Drew Bledsoe at quarterback, even though he leads the NFL with 20 interceptions and has been sacked 47 times.

"I'm not worried about him taking hits," Carroll said. "After what he's been through, he's about as prepared for that as you can get."

He also said Bledsoe gives the Patriots a better chance of winning than rookie Michael Bishop, a better runner who excelled against substitute defenders in training camp.

"We need to be winners. We need to win a couple of games to do that," Carroll said. "That's what I'm turning my focus to, and I'm going to take those who want to go with me right through that."

There's some question that all his players want to do that. Against the Eagles, some appeared to lack intensity and, in a no-huddle offense toward the end of the game, some Patriots strolled to the line of scrimmage as precious seconds ticked away.

Making a fine semantic distinction, backup safety Larry Whigham denied that some of his teammates were quitters.

"At times in the ballgame, I felt that guys just were accepting what was happening," he said, "not quitting but just accepting."

Whatever the reason for the Patriots worst performance of the season, Carroll is looking ahead to the next game that could determine whether he keeps his job.

"If anything distracts me from competing in this game and getting everything right in this game, then I'm letting my guys down," he said.