LONDON — The Jacksonville Jaguars found the end zone for the final time Sunday, this touchdown ensuring the latest New England Patriots loss would end in blowout fashion, like so many others. Some 35 yards away, coach Jerod Mayo removed his headset and looked around Wembley Stadium, at nothing and at everything, left in disbelief by his team’s play.
Mayo took this job riding a wave of optimism with a franchise that badly needed change after nearly a quarter-century under Bill Belichick. Now, seven games into his tenure, the Patriots are setting records for futility not seen in decades. They lost their sixth straight game Sunday, an old-fashioned, 32-16 butt-kicking delivered by a Jaguars team that seemed on the verge of quitting on its coach. The Pats hadn’t lost that many in a row since 1993.
On the sideline, Mayo looked like a man bereft of answers. He must have been fuming — a tough, run-stopping former middle linebacker now coaching a team either unwilling or unable to stop the run.
A few minutes later, after the merciful final whistle, Mayo arrived to face the media with a plan. He called his Patriots one of the worst things football players can be called.
“We’re a soft football team across the board,” he said as part of an unprompted opening statement.
Jerod Mayo clearly frustrated: “We’re a soft football team across the board.” pic.twitter.com/e07iO7eCMa
— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) October 20, 2024
Mayo has brought with him plenty of departures from his predecessor and former mentor, but this news conference felt notable. Belichick would often say that games in the NFL were lost by coaches and won by players. Yet Mayo felt the Patriots are in such dire, desperate straits that the best route was to call his team soft seven games into a rebuilding season.
Maybe it will work. Maybe the Patriots will figure out how to stop the run, and maybe calling players out will motivate them to work harder. Maybe it will help them claw their way to, say, a 5-12 record.
Or maybe temperatures will continue to rise for a team that knew it wasn’t playoff-ready but expected to be at least competent, a team that is now left to pick up the pieces amid a quickly unraveling season.
During that same news conference, Mayo said the team needed more from second-round pick Ja’Lynn Polk, who is off to a slow rookie season and dealing with far too many drops. The 22-year-old receiver had zero catches on three targets and left the game late with a head injury. Twenty minutes later, Polk posted “…” on Instagram with a peace sign.
Ja’Lynn Polk on Instagram: pic.twitter.com/qqL8iX57wh
— Chris Mason (@ByChrisMason) October 20, 2024
In the locker room, defensive players were reluctant to break down their issues against the run. The Jaguars outrushed the Patriots 171 yards to 38 and 4.4 yards per carry to 2.5.
“We’ve just got to be better,” said linebacker Jahlani Tavai, whose struggles were a big part of the problem.
The Patriots knew they weren’t going to be great in Mayo’s first year, but they were confident they could do two things well: run the ball and stop the run. The rest they could figure out, they assumed.
Instead, the Patriots are getting exposed in precisely those two areas, and it’s leaving them broken and without an identity. It’s bad when rookie quarterback Drake Maye’s 18 rushing yards match the total of Rhamondre Stevenson, the player you just handed a lucrative contract extension to be the team’s bell-cow running back.
Meanwhile, the New England run defense was absolutely mauled Sunday. The Jaguars looked across the line of scrimmage and saw a team they could bully. At one point, they ran the ball 18 straight times and on 23 of 24 plays. And there was nothing the Patriots could do to stop it. That’s how Jacksonville put together a demoralizing 11-minute, 24-second drive — one that ended, ironically, with the Pats stopping them on downs at the 6-yard line — that was the NFL’s longest possession in over two years.
That’s probably the more troubling area. The offense had low expectations and Maye is showing enough progress to offer a bit of optimism if you look at the big picture. But the defense was supposed to be in good hands, even after Belichick’s departure, thanks to Mayo.
Whatever first-time coordinator DeMarcus Covington is trying hasn’t worked. So is it time for the head coach to essentially take over that side of the ball and become the defensive play caller?
“From where I was standing, even when we’re in the right call, (the players) are not doing their jobs,” Mayo said, making it clear where he puts the blame.
LIVE: Patriots Postgame Press Conferences: https://t.co/Ki5fS8CaXu
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) October 20, 2024
That’s an interesting strategy for a coach who quickly earned a reputation as a players’ coach even if he has pushed back on that title.
On the one hand, maybe it’s the right move for Mayo to put his foot down and show that it’s not going to be all popsicles and pats on the back for his players. On the other, to stress the point again, we’re seven games into Mayo’s tenure. That’s awfully early to be calling his team soft.
That’s why the pressure is going to ramp up on Mayo and his coaches. Everyone knows the roster they’re working with isn’t great. There’s separate — yet deserved — criticism for de facto general manager Eliot Wolf and the front office for basically re-signing everyone from a four-win team and thinking they’d done enough to solve the offensive line. Still, the team keeps making dumb mistakes and looks out of answers as soon as the opponent makes an adjustment.
The Patriots had a good plan out of the gate Sunday and jumped out to a 10-0 lead. They then allowed 25 consecutive points with no clear plan for turning things around. After the first quarter, Alex Van Pelt’s offense felt stagnant. Covington’s defense can’t stop the run or rush the passer.
That leaves the Patriots without an identity and stuck at the bottom of the league. They’re not just losing — they’re also getting blown out. They’re not just struggling to stop the run — they’re watching the Jaguars (the Jaguars!) break records for offensive efficiency.
Only seven games into the tenure of their new coach, the Patriots feel like they’re at a crossroads because the guy running the show just called the whole team soft.
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(Photo: Richard Heathcote / Getty Images)
