Patriots’ Jerod Mayo Doesn’t Pull Punches, Calls Team ‘Soft’

Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo didn’t exactly go scorched earth following his club’s loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday, but there clearly was a message he wanted to send in his postgame media availability.

He didn’t pull any punches.

“We’re a soft football team across the board,” Mayo told reporters, per team-provided video. “We talk about what it takes to be a tough football team, and that’s being able to run the ball, being able to stop the run and being able to covering kicks. We did none of those today… It’s back to the drawing board, because, look, we can’t sit here and pout.”

The Patriots quite literally did the opposite of those things, giving up 171 total yards on the ground while mustering up just 38 rushing yards of their own. New England also gave up a 97-yard punt return for a touchdown, as Jacksonville wide receiver Parker Washington practically went untouched the entire length of the field to essentially put the game out of reach before halftime.

Mayo was asked what he could do to toughen his team up, but couldn’t provide a concrete answer.

“I’m not sure,” Mayo said. “It’s something I’ll have to think about. We have a long flight back, and — I’m not sure. It’s not like all of a sudden we did something different and now we’re a soft football team, it’s just a mentality we need to get back into the guys.

“It’s a mentality,” Mayo said. “It’s an attitude.”

New England dropped six straight with the loss at Wembley Stadium, and the hits could keep coming with a tough matchup against the New York Jets on the horizon. The Patriots don’t just need to toughen up, they need to do it quickly.