Jerod Mayo’s ‘Soft’ Clarification Too Little, Too Late For Patriots

Anyone who has paid any attention to New England Patriots first-year head coach Jerod Mayo this season wasn’t surprised by what he did Monday morning.

Mayo backtracked on his most damning comment thus far just one day after making it.

This time, however, what was done can’t be undone.

Mayo labeled the Patriots a “soft football team across the board” after New England was pummeled by the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday. There aren’t many worse things you can say about a football team.

Mayo backed it up, too. He pointed to the fact the offense couldn’t establish the run (15 carries, 38 yards), the defense couldn’t stop Jacksonville’s ground game (171 rushing yards allowed) and special teams couldn’t cover kicks while allowing a punt return touchdown. New England lost all three phases.

Mayo’s in-the-moment criticism was blunt, but it was fair. Patriots players like quarterback Drake Maye, safety Kyle Dugger, tight end Hunter Henry and defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale didn’t have a problem with Mayo’s call-out. He said it to the team before he said it to the media, they said.

So stick by it, coach.

Instead, Mayo backpedaled during his Monday morning media availabilities. The Patriots were “playing soft at the moment” when clarified while speaking to reporters on a video conference before elaborating during an interview with WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show.”

“Playing soft,” Mayo interjected when the station asked about his comment. “I should have said — look, let me just go ahead and correct that: We’re playing soft. Because if you look at the first — going back to training camp, there was definitely some toughness all around the place. We still have the same players, we just got to play that way.”

Mayo added: “To correct what I said, it’s not that we have a softball football team. We are just playing soft over the past few weeks.”

Who knows whether Mayo’s backpedal was because he felt he misspoke or because of the reaction to it inside and outside the locker room. It served as the most notable quote from New England’s Week 7 loss across the pond. Regardless of the root of it, though, it proved yet another example of Mayo’s bungling of his public messages.

More than any other time in the past, however, this one is impossible to counteract. The Patriots are a soft football team, and Mayo said it himself.