Patriots’ Jerod Mayo Answers To Rhamondre Stevenson’s Ongoing Fumbling Woes

Another week, another fumble from New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who has now recorded four fumbles in as many games to start the season, carrying on the trend during Sunday's 30-13 loss to the San Francisco 49ers.

New England stuck by Stevenson entering a challenging battle with the reigning NFC champion 49ers. The 26-year-old, however, continues to struggle to hold onto the football, this time fumbling with 2:26 left in the first quarter, a turnover that allowed San Francisco to tally up three more points with a field goal. Stevenson's latest fumble matched his total logged across his first three seasons combined.

"Well to me, a lot of this stuff goes back to body language and showing disappointment. I always talk about those types of things," Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo told reporters after New England's Week 4 defeat, per team-provided video. "There's no one out there more disappointed than Rhamondre as far as his ball security issues are concerned. It is what it is, change the page and let's move forward."

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Stevenson's ongoing struggles to prevent opposing teams from ripping the ball out of his hands, so far, isn't the only re-occurring miscue quickly directing the Patriots toward yet another bottom-of-the-barrel campaign. New England's offensive line remains a disaster, allowing quarterback Jacoby Brissett to get sacked six times by San Francisco's defense -- 49ers quarterback Brock Purdy was sacked once by the Patriots -- which now increases Brissett's endured sack total to 15, tying the 31-year-old with Tennessee Titans quarterback Will Levis for the second-most this season.

"The players know it's early in the season," Mayo explained. "They understand that. We have veteran players in there. They understand it's a long season, and we've always talked about that North Star is to get better each and every week. Now look, there were some good things that happened today. Maybe the score doesn't reflect it, but we just gotta fix all the bad football, and that's my job."

Stevenson finished Week 4 rushing for 43 yards off 13 carries. The four-year veteran's fumbling ways can only be swept under the rug for so long, especially with the now-1-3 Patriots sitting dead-last in the AFC East where New England remained staring up at the division's true competitors throughout all of last season.