Jerod Mayo and his coordinators met with the media on Friday, regrouping the morning after a tough loss at the hands of the New York Jets in front of a national audience.
Mayo quickly answered any lingering questions about a quarterback change, after saying post-game that the team would evaluate everything after the loss.
"Jacoby is our quarterback until I say he's not the quarterback," said Mayo. "I thought last night he showed a lot of toughness and a lot of grit on protection breakdowns. Tried to do what we asked him to do. But I would say just as a team, as a coaching staff, we just got to be better."
Brissett was under pressure for many of his passing dropbacks. With two rookies along the offensive line, including one getting his first NFL start at a new position, clean pockets were hard to come by.
Both Mayo and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt said some growing pains will be expected as the team continues to juggle personnel due to various issues along the line. But a 56.7 percent pressure rate on Brissett, according to Next Gen Stats, is a tough way to live.
"I believe we can correct the problems internally, it comes down to details, and we were not sharp on our details as a unit, and that's what the offensive line is," said Mayo. "It's not just one person, it's a unit and being able to see the picture out of the same set of goggles, and we just didn't do that last night."
"You know, we had guys in for the first time, so it wasn't what we wanted," said Van Pelt of the pressure throughout the night. "But I don't think it's a hindrance. I think we just continue to get better with the more experience we gain up front, especially from the young guys."
Caedan Wallace and Layden Robinson weren't the only rookies on offense to see the field, as Drake Maye made his NFL debut late in the fourth quarter. Maye was 4-of-8 for 22 yards, including a quality throw on fourth down, but took two sacks in a couple of "Welcome to the NFL" moments.
"For Drake, I thought it was a great experience for him to get in, especially in a night game in New York," said Van Pelt. "I thought it was a great start for him. Definitely some things to clean up in his game, but made some throws, made some plays with his legs, and, you know, encouraged about his future as well."
"Coming off the bench at that time is always tough, no matter what position, but especially at the quarterback position," said Mayo. "I thought he did handle himself well and, you know, try to put a drive together and something to build off of. I thought it was a good opportunity for him to go out there and get some live reps."
Maye's notable fourth-down throw found DeMario Douglas, who led the team in receiving with seven catches on nine targets for 69 yards and a carry for nine yards. A week after not seeing a single target, Van Pelt said it was part of the plan to get Pop involved.
"He's a dynamic player," said Van Pelt. "He's a really good route runner, he's quick, he's twitchy, he's good with the ball in his hands, so finding more ways just to spit it out to him quickly, push him down the field, get him in the backfield, just finding ways to get him more involved, and that's something that we tried to do last night."
Another strong performance lost in the loss was that of Bryce Baringer who continues to help win the field position battle with a collection of booming punts. Four times Baringer pinned the Jets inside their own 14-yard line.
"I just got done meeting with Bryce and I told him straight up he was undoubtedly last night our best coverage player because of how well he punted the ball," said special teams coach Jeremy Springer. "He's been a weapon for us."
On the defensive side of the ball, the Patriots struggled to get off the field against Aaron Rodgers and the Jets relentless attack. The Jets converted two-thirds of the third downs they faced. Both Mayo and defensive coordinator Demarcus Covington pointed to the fundamentals as one of the night's biggest culprits.
New England was credited with 14 missed tackles, a major departure from what had been to this point one of the defense's biggest strengths.
"The biggest issue was, in my opinion, defensively, it was just tackling," said Mayo. "We couldn't tackle. We didn't tackle, and we really haven't had that problem up until this point, so we have to get that. corrected."
"It wasn't anything where it was like, you know, X and O's" echoed Covington. "It was really about catching, blocking, defeating blocks, tackling... that's what it came down to, really."
The absence of defensive leader Ja'Whaun Bentley, reported to be done for the season with a pec injury, didn't help the defense, especially on a short week. Bentley is an emotional tone-setter and among their most reliable tacklers. He was missed against the Jets.
"A four-time captain, a leader on our defense, a signal caller, would definitely be missed out there on the field for us," said Covington. "But that's why you have guys that back you up. You have guys that are on the team for a reason. I tell all our guys, 'You're here for a purpose.' And hopefully, everybody's taking advantage of that opportunity, so they can go out there and be ready for when things like this happen."
With the short week out of the way, the Patriots now have 10 days to regroup and put the stinging loss behind them. Things won't get any easier next Sunday in San Francisco and the coaches know they'll have to learn from what went wrong on Thursday night, correct the issues and move on to Week 4.
Having an extra weekend to do so should help.
"All our focus right now is to get to 2-2," said Mayo. "We have the bonus Monday, and then we'll get ready for San Fran."
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