The New England Patriots scored 28 unanswered points to tie the score at 31 in the fourth quarter against the 49ers before ultimately losing 41-34.

Tom Brady expected the comeback to happen.

"When we were down 31-3 that was my thought," Brady said on Monday. "I didn't think anything different. I thought we were going to come back and win the game, and a lot of our problems on offense were self-inflicted. I have a lot of respect for that defense. They're very good; they rush, they cover, they're physical, they force turnovers. It was just a sloppy game by us." 

Brady was asked how he remained so confident despite the big deficit.

"Because I look around at the quality and character of the guys that we've got and I have a lot of confidence that we could do it," he added of the comeback. "It's not that I was worried we couldn't score points. We put together, I don't know, was it four touchdown drives in a row? That's pretty good. You can't play, whatever, (just) 25 minutes of good football against a team, you can't do it." 

The Patriots play the 2-12 Jaguars next week.

"Our season is not over by any means," he said. "We lost to a good team playing very average football. We're 10-4, it's certainly not a great record, but that's where we deserve to be. We've got to be able to move on with mental toughness this week and put this loss behind us and go down to Jacksonville and try to win a football game."