MINUTES after the Seahawks had pinned his Patriots with a stunner of a setback in Seattle, Bill Belichick was asked to evaluate his defensive secondary — but the coach wouldn't take the bait.

“Nothing we did today was good enough,” he answered. “On offense, defense, special teams, coaches, players — everyone involved in the game — just wasn't good enough. We all made mistakes. We had our chances, we just didn't do a good enough job.”

Belichick wasn't lying. There were plenty of people culpable for the 24-23 loss that dropped his Pats into a tie atop the AFC East, and today's review of the game film isn't likely to leave many unscathed. Including quarterback Tom Brady.

But no area deserves more blame for Sunday's result than the Patriots secondary that Belichick was careful to lump in with the rest of his roster and staff even though it was regularly lit up by Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson — the rookie signal caller who the rest of the league had made to look like a vulnerability through the first five weeks of his pro career.

The Seahawks entered the game with the NFL's 30th-ranked offense according to both points and yards, and with the league's 31st-ranked passing attack. Based on that, it certainly seemed that if the Patriots could slow down Marshawn Lynch and the home team's power running game they'd have the Seahawks right where they wanted them.

New England's front seven certainly held up its end of the bargain in that regard, keeping Lynch to 41 yards on 15 carries, and Seattle to 85 yards on 26 hauls as a team. However, when needing the types of big plays that help a club rally from a 23-10 deficit like they faced halfway through the fourth quarter, the Seahawks knew right where to attack.

They went right to the air. Unafraid of getting burned, and confidence in their odds of getting a positive result, they unleashed Wilson's strong arm on the very first play after Stephen Gostkowski's 35-yard boot put the Pats up by 13. Going after cornerback Devin McCourty, Wilson connected for a 51-yard gain to Golden Tate. That flipped the field, moving the line of scrimmage from Seattle's 17 to New England's 17, and eventually the Seahawks seized on that field position with a touchdown pass where Braylon Edwards beat Alfonzo Dennard.

Then, two series later, Seattle struck for the game-winner. Working with only one timeout, and barely inside New England territory, Wilson sucked up the safety with some play-action misdirection, and from there all he had to do was put enough air under the ball to ensure Sidney Rice could catch up to it. Floating a bomb 46 yards, he floated the ball beautifully into his receiver's hands, and with that Seattle was 78 seconds from victory.

“Today is one of those days where we just didn't do enough things well enough, we had a lot of chances and just all the way across the board — everybody involved in the game — none of us did a good enough job,” Belichick reiterated. “The result was what it was. Just not good enough.”

Part of the secondary's struggle is personnel related. Chasing Rice in coverage were rookies Tavon Wilson and Nate Ebner – the latter having been drafted for special teams purposes after barely playing at Ohio State, but who was pressed into critical duty when Steve Gregory missed the game with injury and Pat Chung exited earlier in the second half.

But still there's no excuse for allowing so many big plays. It's one thing to give up yards — it's another to give them up in such sizable chunks. Rice's catch was just the Seahawks' third longest of the day, surpassed by aforementioned pass to Tate and a 50-yarder to Doug Baldwin. There was also a 29-yard hookup with Rice, and a 24-yard Baldwin touchdown, meaning that 200 of Wilson's 293 passing yards came on just five completions.

And the Seahawks were so unafraid of going deep, they didn't even always need their quarterback to do it. They also gained 40 yards on the pass-interference penalty Chung committed when Rice threw the ball on an end around.

“We didn't make enough plays. Plain and simple. Very frustrating,” defensive lineman Vince WIlfork said. “I'm not going to sit here and lie to you and say I'm not. I'm very frustrated. I don't know what else to say. We just didn't make enough plays when it counted, and it cost us.”

That Seattle was even within striking range at that point was in no small part the fault of Brady, who cost his team a chance at a chip-shot field goal when he was flagged for intentional grounding on the final play of the first half, then forfeited another chance at an easy kick when he threw an interception with the Patriots already in the red zone in the fourth quarter.

Two poor decisions essentially cost the team six points, and yet again the Patriots couldn't hold a lead in the final period, so as a result they're now 3-3 headed into next week's game against the (also 3-3) Jets. On the one hand, those three losses are by a total of four points, so there's hardly a need to panic in a league full of parity and a conference with a level playing field. It's a story similar to the one the Packers were telling throughout a 2010 season that was full of narrow defeats, but wound up with a win in the Super Bowl.

On the other hand, though, it's not a good sign that they've struggled so much to grab a winnable game when it's hanging in the balance.

“It's not a magic wand,” WIlfork said. “We're 3-3 for a reason and until we do something about it we're going to continue to have problems.”

He wouldn't say it, either. But it's the secondary where fixing the problems need to start.

Dave D'Onofrio covers the Patriots for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. His e-mail address is ddonof13@gmail.com.