Bill Belichick Throws Haymaker In Response To ‘Soft’ Patriots

You better believe Bill Belichick knows the score when it comes to the Patriots.

The former New England head coach seemed hesitant to weigh in on his former team earlier in the season. Now that things have gone into complete free fall in Foxboro, the legendary coach is more than willing to pile on as he sees Year 1 of the Jerod Mayo era circling the drain.

One of Belichick’s myriad media gigs this year is “The Pat McAfee Show.” He made his weekly appearance Monday and was asked to weigh in on Mayo’s assessment that the Patriots were a “soft” football team, comments he made following an ugly loss against Jacksonville.

“The Patriots led the league last year in rushing defense, yards per carry, No. 1 league. This year, they’re way down in the 20s somewhere. It’s the same guys,” he said.

Slight clarification: The Patriots did rank No. 1 in rushing yards allowed per attempt last season, and they are No. 17 this year ahead of the Week 7 Monday night doubleheader. But Belichick was cooking, and cook he continued to do.

“They re-signed (Anfernee) Jennings, they re-signed (Jalani) Tavai. They re-signed (Kyle) Duggar, right? Marcus Jones and (Christian) Gonzalez have been healthy all year which they were both on IR at this point last year. You’ve got (Deatrich) Wise, you’ve got (Davon) Godchaux. You’ve got Keion White, you got (Marte) Mapu, the three rookies from last year. It’s a lot of the same players, and in some cases, I would say more.”

Another clarification if we may: You’ll notice Belichick conveniently omitted the names Ja’Whaun Bentley and Christian Barmore. The former led the Patriots in tackles last season and the latter ranked 14th in Pro Football Focus’ grading for run defense of 76 interior linemen who took at least 200 run-defense snaps last year. Both are out for the season.

The point Belichick’s trying to make, though, is still pretty strong: The defense has clearly regressed under Mayo.

Considering Belichick brought a lot of those players to New England — and the defense was his baby — he was also very defensive in response to Mayo’s comments about the defense being soft.

“I’m kind of hurt for those guys, to call them soft, they’re not soft,” Belichick insisted. “They were the best team in the league last year against the run. Those guys went out and did it last year, even though we couldn’t score many points offensively. So, I dunno, I feel bad for the defensive players on that one because that’s a tough group … Those guys are all tough players, they’ll strap it up and go. They’re tough guys.”

This war of words between current and former Patriots isn’t exactly healthy for the long-term future of the club, but it sure is entertaining.