Patriots Weren’t Offended By ‘Soft’ Assessment, So Why Are You?

“We’re a soft football team across the board. …It’s back to the drawing board, because, look, we can’t sit here and pout.”

Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo gave a relatively startling assessment of his team Sunday, responding to their blowout loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars with a blanket statement that really rubbed people the wrong way. It’s been the biggest story in New England since he said it, with fans leaving comments, calling into radio stations and ranting on social media in response, believing Mayo wasn’t taking responsibility for his role in the whole debacle.

It’s kind of hard to see why people are so mad, though.

The Patriots — you know, the guys Mayo was actually referring to — didn’t care, and to a man have agreed with the message behind those words.

“I don’t think we have any space to call ourselves a tough team based off our last performance,” Jonathan Jones said. “We weren’t able to stop the run, we weren’t able to run the ball, and we weren’t able to cover kicks.”

“It’s all about what we put on tape,” Keion White echoed Wednesday, per Alex Barth of 98.5 The Sports Hub. “There are plays where we were playing soft, me included.”

“I understand both sides of the fence, but he’s the head coach and I don’t think he told a lie. It’s a collective team game, and as a whole, that was not good,” David Andrews, who is currently sidelined with a season-ending injury, said on his podcast.

Do we have to keep going? No, but we will anyway.

“We’ve gotta play harder,” Kayshon Boutte said Wednesday, per Mike Kadlick of CLNS. “We’re tired of being 1-6.”

“I don’t really think anybody took it any type of way,” Deatrich Wise said, per Doug Kyed of the Boston Herald.

“I think it’s gotta challenge you,” Hunter Henry said, per Kyed. “This is a physical game, and you never want that to be your identity.”

It’s been surprising to see the response get as out of hand as it did, with Bill Belichick even getting in on the action by throwing a shot at his former assistant while conveniently omitting key details of the “analysis” he was giving.

The Patriots shouldn’t like that they were called soft, and they probably didn’t. But if that’s what it takes to produce a positive response, then isn’t that the entire point? Mayo’s been slammed for “losing the locker room” just seven weeks into the season, but they don’t seem lost to us.