New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo was unhappy with the team’s performance during their 32-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Sunday.
Mayo described his team as “soft” as they dropped their sixth straight game and fell to 1-6 on the season.
“We’re a soft football team across the board,” Mayo said. “We talk about what makes a strong football team, and that is being able to run the ball, being able to stop the run and being able to cover kicks. We didn’t do any of that.”
The Jaguars ran for 171 yards, with Tank Bigsby recording 118 of those yards and two touchdowns and Parker Washington returning a punt 96 yards for a score.
One football observer who disagreed with Mayo’s description of his team and may be slyly pointing the finger at coaching is Bill Belichick.
The former Patriots head coach chimed in Monday during his weekly appearance on “The Pat McAfee Show” to defend his old team.
“The Patriots led the rush defense last year and they still have a lot of those players.
I’m hurt for those guys because they’re not soft…
I feel sorry for the defensive players because they are all strong players” ~Bill Belichick #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/wVN9ufcNMg
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 21, 2024
“The Patriots led the league in rushing defense, yards per carry, No. 1 in the league last year. This year they are well into their twenties. They’re the same guys.
“They re-signed [Afernee] Jennings, they re-signed [Jalani] Tavai. They’ve obviously re-signed [Kyle] Duggar, right? Marcus Jones and [Christian] Gonzalez has been healthy all year and they were both on IR last year. You have [Deatrich] Sensible, you have that [Devon] Godchaux. You got Keion White, you got [Marte)]Mapu, three rookies from last year. It’s a lot of the same players, and in some cases I would say more.”
“I’m a little hurt for those guys because when I call them soft, they’re not soft. Last year they were the best team in the league against the run. Those guys went out and did it even though we could.” ” I don’t have many points offensively. I feel sorry for the defensive players, because those guys, they’re a tough group… Those guys are all tough players.
Last season, the Patriots allowed 3.3 yards per rush attempt against top marks in the NFL, as Belichick noted. This season, that number is up to 4.6 yards allowed per carry, which is tied for seventh in the league.
Mayo clarified his use of “soft” on WEEI’s “Greg Hill Show” on Monday, saying the team’s play was soft, not the players.
“Let me just go ahead and correct that. We’ll play soft, okay?” Mayo said. “Because if you look at the first thing, going back to training camp, there was definitely some toughness everywhere and we still had the same players and we just had to play that way.”
The Patriots have been at the bottom of the AFC East for seven weeks and face the New York Jets on Sunday. A seventh straight defeat would only widen their gap in the division.
