After calling out his football team following their disappointing 32-16 loss to the Jaguars in London on Sunday, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo is already walking back his comments.
“We’re a soft football team across the board,” he said on Sunday. “You talk about what makes a tough football team. That’s being able to run the ball, that’s being able to stop the run, being able to cover kicks. We did none of those today.”
On Monday morning, however, Mayo changed his tune.
“We don’t have a soft football team,” he told WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show. “We’re playing soft.”
Mayo also clarified his comments in his Monday morning press conference with the media, saying that his team is “playing soft at the moment.” The head coach still alluded to stopping the run, running the football, and covering kicks as his barometer for performance. He added, “Do I think we have the guys in there that can turn this ship around? 100%. But that comes through hard work, hard work on the practice field, and going out there, just getting better each and every day.”
After climbing out to a 10-0 lead on Sunday, New England collapsed around themselves. They allowed the Jaguars to score 25 consecutive points (including 22 in the second quarter alone) and gave up 171 yards on the ground for an average of 4.4 yards per carry. Their own run game, meanwhile, tallied 38 rushing yards at just 2.5 yards per carry. Drake Maye was their leading rusher with 18 yards.
“It’s a mentality, it’s an attitude,” Mayo said when asked to explain his team’s lack of control in the run game. “Here as of late, our run game just hasn’t been able to do anything offensively. Defensively, the players, we just got to play better. We got to play better technique. Got to lock our guy out in front of us. That’s what it comes down to, locking the guy out in front of you, dominating him and making a tackle.”
“It’s the front seven,” he explained on Monday after watching the film. “We just have to be more disciplined, build on a wall and defeating blockers in front of us. Look, it’s not the X’s and O’s. We just have to be where we’re supposed to be.”
Speaking of messaging, Mayo has said many times that he’ll occasionally use media for messaging and now, his players are doing the same. Davon Godchaux, Kendrick Bourne, and Daniel Ekuale have all spoken out recently about their teammates not doing enough, and on Sunday wide receivers Ja’Lynn Polk and KJ Osborn took to social media to let out their post-game thoughts. Polk posted a “peace sign” emoji on his Instagram story after another poor performance, and Osborn posted a conversation with a friend about his perseverance through, “being told [he] would be inactive on Wednesday” to scoring a touchdown on Sunday.
“I don’t think it creates a divide in the room at all,” said Mayo when asked about his players speaking out. “I think just how I use the media sometimes for messaging, I think some of the players do the same thing. I’m not going to tell them, ‘Say this, say that.’ No, if that’s how you feel, if you feel like you’re the best player in the league, then go out and do it. If you feel like you want to challenge your brother beside you, I mean, go out and do it. Just, I think they use it as a tool to get guys going.”
He was also asked if he’s concerned about losing the locker room following their 1-6 start:
“I’m not worried about that. The guys, they understand. Every week is its own week. It’s my job, when we get there on Wednesday, is to change the page.”
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