Jerod Mayo, Patriots Wasted Golden Opportunity With Awful Call

The Patriots didn’t go for the kill Sunday afternoon, and they ended up being put out to pasture.

New England’s chances of winning its Week 9 game in Tennessee looked very slim when Drake Maye and company were in desperation mode late in the fourth quarter. The visitors needed a touchdown to even things up with the Titans — a big ask for a team that only had 10 points when the game clock showed double zeros.

But Maye pulled off a magic act, scrambling just long enough to find Rhamondre Stevenson on a prayer of a floater from 5 yards out. New England’s joy ended there, though, as Jerod Mayo took the conservative approach and sent the game to overtime. Tennessee won the coin toss, kicked a field goal after a 13-play drive and sealed a win on a Maye interception three plays into New England’s OT possession.

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Sure, it’s easy to use hindsight to say Mayo made the wrong call at the end of regulation. But even in the moment, there were so many factors that pointed to a two-point try as a better choice.

For starters, the Patriots had the Titan’s defense on the ropes after an 11-play drive that culminated with the wild Maye-Stevenson connection. Going for two would have forced Tennessee’s D to stay on the field and try to make a short-yardage stop after being shellshocked by the rookie QB’s stunning score. On New England’s other trip deep into the red zone late in the third, the Titans didn’t offer much resistance trying to keep Stevenson out of the end zone.

By sending the game to overtime, Mayo put far more up to chance. If the Patriots won the toss, Maye would have had to lead the offense into scoring position on a day when New England struggled mightily to move the football. The Patriots’ running game outside of Maye was nonexistent Sunday and the offensive line struggled to protect the 22-year-old from wire to wire. Picking your best red-zone play from 2 yards out to win the game feels like a far better option, doesn’t it?

New England’s inability to keep Tennessee off the scoreboard in the extra frame also could have been forecasted. Mayo called the Patriots’ run defense in Nashville “leaky” and the visitors never generated much of a consistent pass rush on Mason Rudolph. The Titans carved up the Pats in OT, and quite frankly, Maye and company were fortunate to even get their hands on the football.

This all can be summed up into one question: What did New England have to lose? If it went for two and scored, it would have notched back-to-back wins for the first time since 2022 but remained irrelevant in the postseason conservation. And if it went for two and failed, it would have improved its 2025 draft position.

All told, Sunday’s late-game bungling was just another in the line of questionable decisions by Mayo.