Jerod Mayo calls Patriots "a soft football team" after loss to Jaguars
LONDON -- Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo did not mince words after his team's 32-16 loss to the lowly Jaguars in London. We expected this rebuilding team to be bad, but the head coach is now calling the Patriots "soft" after a sixth straight defeat.
"Look, we're a soft football team across the board," Mayo said at the podium inside Wembley Stadium. "You talk about what makes a tough football team, that's being able to run the ball, being able to stop the run, and being able to cover kicks. We did none of those things today.
"Back to the drawing board," added Mayo. "We can't sit here and pout. We just have to put a game together."
Calling your team soft is one of those "break glass in case emergency" cards that coaches don't use unless they really have to. But the scary part about Mayo's assessment is that he's pretty spot on about the 2024 New England Patriots.
The Patriots certainly didn't run the ball well on Sunday, with rookie quarterback Drake Maye one again the team's leading rusher with 18 yards on three carries/scrambles. Rhamondre Stevenson had just 18 yards on seven carries (a 26-yard-per-carry average) and Antonio Gibson ran for just four yards on his three attempts. JaMycal Hasty had a nice 16-yard catch-and-run touchdown in the first quarter, but lost two yards on his two carries.
"What I will say is it's a mentality, it's an attitude. As of late, our run game hasn't been able to do anything offensively," said Mayo.
The Patriots had just 38 rushing yards on Sunday, averaging a woeful 2.5 yards per attempt against Jacksonville. Going back to last week's loss to the Texans, New England running backs have picked up just 64 yards on their last 33 carries -- an average of just 1.94 yards per attempt.
Yeah, that's pretty soft. But the New England defense has been just as bad at stopping the run as of late.
While the defense was supposed to be a strong point of the Patriots, teams have been plowing through the New England run D like it's a unwound roll Charmin. Actually, Charmin is probably tougher than the Patriots' run defense lately.
The Jaguars ran for 171 yards on Sunday, picking up an average of 4.4 yards per attempt. Tank Bigsby looked like an actual tank driving through a paper bag as he rushed for 118 yards on his 26 carries and found the end zone twice for Jacksonville. D'Ernest Johnson averaged 4.2 yards per carry as he ran for 38 yards on his nine tries, and quarterback Trevor Lawrence also broke free for an 11-yard scramble on a key third down late in the third quarter.
At one point, the Jaguars ran the ball for 19 straight plays because the Patriots couldn't stop them. Linebacker Jahlani Tavai had no argument when asked about Mayo calling the team "soft" after the loss.
"He said it well. We have to look in the mirror and we have to understand what he's saying. If we're OK being soft, some guys will fall off. The rest of us who want to prove that wrong will step up and make sure this doesn't happen," said Tavai.
Tavai was just as upset about the 96-yard punt return touchdown that New England's special teams gave up in the second quarter to Parker Washington. Once again, failed tackles plagued the Patriots on that game-changing play.
"That's unacceptable and we will fix it," said Tavai. "We had guys there. The message right now is to do our job. We're not doing it and it's showing up on the scoreboard."
The Patriots had a very winnable opponent in front of them on Sunday, but it's now crystal clear that New England is one of those "get right" teams that struggling squads have circled on their calendar. The Pats got off to a good start on Sunday and took a 10-0 lead, but then proceeded to get outplayed and out-toughed by a team that looked ready to quit on the season just a week ago.
Patriots players now have a long flight back to New England to let Mayo's words sink in. From here, they'll either take his harsh critique to heart and set out to prove that there is indeed some toughness and fight in the group, or they could completely fold and get even softer over the final 11 weeks of the season.