Bloomfield Township, Mich. ? There they sat early Sunday evening at a table almost as long as their faces, the 12 American Ryder Cup golfers with captain Hal Sutton in the middle, attempting to explain how it was they got their flags handed to them by the Europeans — again.

There was Stewart Cink at one end, a vacant stare on his face. At the other end, Jay Haas looked ready to cry knowing this was his final Ryder Cup, and, like so many of his teammates, he was haunted by all the putts he missed.

In between, in dark blazers, sat the others. Tiger Woods. Phil Mickelson. Davis Love III and the fiery Chris DiMarco.

They tried to say all the right things, praising the Europeans, who deserved every bit of it for the way they played for three days and for how Darren Clarke and Sergio Garcia and the others went out of their way to be friendly to the American crowd, who came to love them.

But none of the Americans said what needed to be said. It’s time, past time in fact, for one of them to say this is getting ridiculous.

Get mad about losing the Ryder Cup seemingly every time it’s played. Do something about it.

The Europeans have won four of the past five Ryder Cups and seven of the past 10, and you better believe they’re going to be favored in two years in Ireland.

If the Ryder Cup means as much to the Americans as they say it does, then they need to take a long, hard look at how they’re going about this.

“It’s a career-defining moment for us,” said Mickelson, a lost soul in team play recently.

“When we get here, we are under constant ridicule and scrutiny over our play and not coming together and all this stuff we know to be false. We want so badly to win this event that when we arrive on the first tee, we don’t play as though we have everything to gain and nothing to lose. We feel the opposite almost.”

Whose fault is that?

Sometimes in golf the other guys just play better. That was certainly true at Oakland Hills, but it keeps happening.

It would help the Americans to shorten the qualification period from two years to one. Kenny Perry made the team because of a hot streak he had nearly 18 months ago. Fred Funk did his best work a while back, too.

The Americans need to change something. Why not try Larry Nelson as captain in two years? He should have been the captain in 1997, but got passed over for Tom Kite. Otherwise, get ready for Mark O’Meara to be captain.

After the Americans left the interview room, the Europeans filed in, cocktails in their hands and a light in their eyes.

Thomas Levet pulled a microphone close and began to introduce his mates up and down the table, working it like a lounge act.

“On the extreme left,” Levet said looking at Colin Montgomerie, “Mr. Ryder Cup, the mean machine, don’t play against him in singles.”

Wonder how it would look if the Americans ever won?