At this point, it’s the quote heard ’round the world.
“We’re a soft football team across the board,” Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo told the media on Sunday following his team’s 32-16 loss to the Jaguars. “You talk about what makes a tough football team. That is 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.”
Mayo has since walked back his comments saying on WEEI’s The Greg Hill Show, “We don’t have a soft football team, we’re playing soft” — but the point still stands. They’re not doing enough to win football games right now, and it comes down to those three things: running the football, stopping the run, and covering kicks.
As different as the two regimes have been so far, this moniker from Mayo actually comes directly from the Bill Belichick playbook. Belichick, verbatim, defined being a tough football team as follows: running the ball, stopping the run, kick [off] coverage.
So let’s break all three down — and how the Patriots did none of the three well enough on Sunday versus Jacksonville:
RUNNING THE BALL
The Patriots came into Sunday with their seventh offensive line combination in as many weeks, and a running back in Rhamondre Stevenson who practiced on Friday for the first time in over two weeks as he battled through a foot injury.
As a result, New England ran for a measly 38 yards on 15 attempts (2.5 YPC) against the Jaguars. Drake Maye and Stevenson were tied as the team’s leading rushers with just 18 yards each, while Antonio Gibson ran for just four yards on three attempts, and JaMycal Hasty ran for -2 (!!) yards on his two attempts.
These numbers are a far cry from where they were to start the season. After averaging over five yards-per-carry through the first five weeks of the season, New England’s rushing offense has fallen off a cliff over their last two games. Here are some of the numbers:
“That’s something you got to watch on film,” Mayo said after the game when asked what’s been plaguing this phase of their game. “What I will say is it’s a mentality, it’s an attitude. Here as of late, our run game just hasn’t been able to do anything offensively.”
Second-level defenders were once again the biggest issue for the #Patriots ground game, which went right on nearly every carry vs JAX
Backside pursuit from both levels consistently blew up outside zone, and pullers struggled to create movement on gap schemes pic.twitter.com/WJ6XwrZOVS
— Taylor Kyles (@tkyles39) October 21, 2024
STOPPING THE RUN
The Patriots also had their issues stopping the run on Sunday, allowing Tank Bigsby and co. to rush for 171 yards and two touchdowns on 39 carries.
New England tied a season-worst with six explosive runs versus the Jaguars on Sunday, and have now allowed 22 such runs since Week 3, tied for the second most in the NFL.
The #Patriots tied a season-worst with 6 explosive runs allowed vs the Jags
3 came on the same concept and drive, but from slightly different looks, hitting between Godchaux + Wise with the RB escaping to the third level
Tavai wound up on the ground 2x as the playside LB pic.twitter.com/7AtO8mylvI
— Taylor Kyles (@tkyles39) October 21, 2024
Mentioned last week the #Patriots should use more of their beefy 5-man fronts with Ekuale at DE over Wise/White
Saw just that on Sunday, especially in H2, but it wasn't enough to slow down JAX's inside zone and power schemes
Most hit middle-left at Godchaux, Roy, and Johnson pic.twitter.com/ETGwl3baHz
— Taylor Kyles (@tkyles39) October 21, 2024
Bill Belichick weighed in on New England’s struggles up front on Monday’s edition of ESPN’s The Pat McAfee Show, and took issue with Mayo calling, at least the defensive side of the football, soft:
“Defensively, the Patriots led the league last year in rushing defense,” the former head coach explained. “Yards per carry: No. 1 in the league, and this year they’re way down in the 20s somewhere… It’s the same guys. They re-signed [Anfernee] Jennings, they re-signed [Jahlani] Tavai, they re-signed [Kyle] Dugger. Marcus Jones and [Christian] Gonzalez have been healthy… You got [Deatrich] Wise, you got [Davon] Godchaux, you got Keion White, you got [Marte] Mapu. It’s a lot the same players… I’m kind of hurt for those guys. Because to call them soft, they’re not soft. They were the best team in the league last year against the run… I feel bad for the defensive players on that one because those guys, that’s a tough group.”
Sounds like the former man in charge is putting it on the coaching, while the new man in charge is putting it on execution:
“We just got to play better,” Mayo said after the game. “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 not the X’s and O’s,” he continued on Monday morning. ” We just have to be where we’re supposed to be.”
KICK COVERAGE
One thing Mayo and Belichick did agree on from Sunday’s loss? The lack of execution in the punt game. After allowing 14 straight points in the second quarter, New England allowed Jacksonville’s Parker Washington to return a Bryce Baringer punt for a 96-yard touchdown.
“Bryce has been a weapon for us the entire year as far as flipping the field,” Mayo explained on WEEI when asked what he saw on film from the play. “One thing I would say is, if you punt the ball right now the middle of the field, it puts a lot of stress on everyone else, and that’s what happened.”
Belichick had the same feeling.
“I don’t understand why punters just want to punt the ball straight down the middle against good returners,” he told McAfee. “And okay, it comes back 97 yards but I mean, look, it’s hard when you lay it right down the middle — like right down the middle of the field, and you’ve gotta cover all 53 1/3 yards and you outkick the coverage.”
“Now I get it, Baringer might lead the league in average…”, Belichick continued. “He’s got an 80-yarder, a 77-something-yarder, but they’re so hard to cover… and look, if you’re gonna go right down the middle, then put some hangtime on the ball! Like get it up there! Like those four-second, 69-yarders are hard to cover.”
Dial and Cardona wound up in the same area before being sealed off on JAX's return TD, and it looked like Elliss and Tavai may have run too far upfield
Mayo criticized the unit for punting to the middle, outkicking coverage, getting out-leveraged, and poor lane discipline https://t.co/G4PpncTZDp pic.twitter.com/PXOyqC6DmX
— Taylor Kyles (@tkyles39) October 21, 2024
On top of the poor punt, the Patriots failed to maintain their lanes and were out-leveraged the whole way down the field.
“Back to the drawing board,” said Mayo following Sunday’s loss. “I mean, we can’t sit here and pout. We just got to put a game together.”
At 1-6, he couldn’t be more right. The Patriots have another winnable game on the slate next Sunday as they welcome the 2-5 New York Jets to town. Kickoff is set for 1 p.m. from Foxborough’s Gillette Stadium.
Follow Mike on Twitter @mikekadlick for the latest up-to-date Patriots and Boston sports news!
