Patriots’ Jerod Mayo ‘Very Disappointed’ About This In Loss To Jets

New England Patriots first-year head coach Jerod Mayo had his pick for what upset him the most in an ugly 24-3 loss to the New York Jets at MetLife Stadium on Thursday night.

Perhaps, it was the offensive performance, which accumulated just four first downs and 40 yards of total offense in the first half. Or the offensive line, which gave up seven sacks and 15 quarterback hits. Or the way the secondary played as Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers picked it apart.

But what got under Mayo’s skin the most was his team’s inability to execute a key football fundamental: tackling. According to Next Gen Stats, the Patriots missed 14 tackles in the loss, which gave the Jets an extra 100 yards of offense.

“Very uncharacteristic. That’s one of the things I’m very disappointed in as a defensive-minded coach,” Mayo told reporters, per WBZ. “Especially the second-level we struggled all day as far as tackling. Once again when we hit them in the backfield, just the lack of fundamentals, the lack of discipline and the lack of just execution definitely continued to show up.”

The Patriots’ lack of tackling was on full display during the Jets’ first scoring drive in the opening quarter. Raekwon McMillan had Jets running back Braelon Allen in his sights in the backfield on the first play of the series, but Allen made the linebacker whiff to turn the run into an 11-yard gain.

Aaron Rodgers’ first touchdown pass of the game also came about due to a missed tackle by a Patriots defender. Rodgers threw a quick pass to Allen Lazard, who made Patriots cornerback Alex Austin look silly and got around him with a simple move, leaving Austin to try to grab Lazard’s undershirt in an attempt to bring him down. It didn’t work for Austin.

Tackling wasn’t an issue for the Patriots in their first two games as they were sound in that department. And while it was out of the ordinary for them to struggle in that regard against the Jets, Mayo knew it proved very costly.

“That was very uncharacteristic for us,” Mayo said. “But once again, you only get one opportunity to go out there and perform.”