HEAD COACH JEROD MAYO
PRESS CONFERENCE
November 25, 2024
JM: Yeah, still felt the same way after watching the film. Just a very disappointing performance overall. Like I said last night, it starts with me, the coaches and the players just going out there and executing, which we did not do yesterday. I would say offensively, the turnovers continue to be an issue. Protection continues to be an issue. Also, the penalties. It was from the very start. I think we had four or five penalties in the first quarter, which we've seen this at certain times during the season. I thought we had it corrected, but obviously not. It comes down to really just focus and concentration, especially when you're on the road. It's the pre-snap stuff, the operational things that you get frustrated by. We have to clean that up. Defensively, did a better job in the run game, but then you give up the big plays. We knew where they wanted to throw the ball and we knew that they had some fast guys out there. We just weren't able to go out there and get in the windows that we've talked about all week. Had to do a better job there. Obviously, our tackling, it always goes back to fundamentals. We can talk about X's and O's all you want. It comes back to fundamentals. Block destruction, tackling and attacking the ball. Those things definitely did not show up yesterday. I would say special teams, besides the missed field goal, nothing of note there. Overall, we have to get better. That starts this week. It's a weird week with Thanksgiving being on Thursday, but we have to work. We have to go out there and practice. We have to go out there in pads and we have to continue to get better. That's always been my focus with this team.
Q: Morning, Jerod. Jonathan Jones and Kyle Dugger both talked about players not being locked in last night and a lack of focus. What do you think led to some of that? Is it on coaches to not only make sure the guys are locked in and focused, but to put players who are locked in and focused on the field?
JM: My thing with that, we had our night before the game meeting and the guys were definitely locked in and focused. Then you get out there on the field and you could see some of the communication problems that were happening on the field. Now, it's easy to say, 'we'll just put a guy here, put a guy in, take this guy out.' Then you have to think about who you're putting in there. That's kind of where we are right now.
Q: After a loss like that, what does a team meeting look like, whether it's today, tomorrow or whenever?
JM: Yeah, look, those are those hard meetings where you have to address the elephant in the room, but it's no secret. The good thing about the sport, it's all recorded. You can go back and forth on it, but the film doesn't lie.
Q: Good morning, Jerod. Christian Barmore got a sack yesterday. Just knowing everything he's gone through this season with the possibility of not even being able to play, what was it like to see him have a moment like that?
JM: In the moment, I was really just focused on the game. Looking back at it on film, so happy for him to get back out there on the field. It's what he truly loves to do.
Q: What did you see from him throughout the process of getting better? He mentioned he was told he would not play this season. Three months later, he was back out there. What did you see in his recovery process that allowed him to get out on the field this year?
JM: Yeah, it's a credit to our medical staff. I would also say I think he would rather be pleasantly surprised by coming back early than severely disappointed when you try to say, 'all right, you'll be back in a couple of months.' Look, he did everything he needed to do, checked every box, and it's good to have him out there.
Q: Morning, Jerod. On the plays given up on defense, some of the touchdowns and the bigger plays where communication seemed to be lacking a little bit, it seemed like you guys had made improvements in that area from the start of the year to this game. So, I guess, how shocking was it, or to what do you – is that just human nature that you're going to have a bad day sometimes? I guess, how shocking was that to see based on what it had been coming into the game?
JM: Yeah, it was very disappointing, especially when you play an offense that is very similar to the offenses we played earlier. Then once you get into the red area, communication has to be on point. The field's getting shorter, there's less space, there's more movement, and it was definitely disappointing.
Q: I heard you mention maybe pads this week. You only get so many padded practices that last week you didn't have them in pads. In retrospect, how much do you look at that as contributing to some of the tackling issues that we saw yesterday?
JM: At this point in the season, I don't think it's that big of a difference. What I did last week, keeping those guys in shells was to get those guys fresh to go out and perform well. Then this week, we need to be in pads. We're playing a physical team in the Colts.
Q: Big theme, obviously, throughout the course of the year has been continuing to get better as a group. I'm curious, do you feel the team has gotten considerably better throughout the course of the season? Did you take a step backwards, perhaps, with that Miami game overall?
JM: I think the team has definitely gotten better. You take the Miami game out and look at the last four, we've done a lot of good things. Now, we know that the NFL can come down to one play. What I tell the guys all the time is most of the time people think getting better and success is just like this [motioned upward slope with hands], but really, it's an up and down, up and down type of thing. You just have to continue to just chip at the rock. We have a lot of young players in there that are developing, and hopefully, we'll be good going forward.
Q: What's your biggest theme over the last five games here so that you get a handle on what worked and what didn't work this year in terms of you, the coaching staff, but also the personnel and making those key decisions as to who's going to be a part of things in 2025?
JM: Yeah, it's definitely huge. I'm not really looking out of the front windshield that far yet. What I will say is we're all being evaluated. Coaches, players, we're all being evaluated, and these next few weeks are definitely important. My message to the players is, 'Look, let's pour everything we have into this over these next couple of months, and go out there and play good ball.'
Q: There are a lot of players on the roster who don't know what it's like to win with the Patriots. Are you finding it difficult to keep the standard high and make this team believe in itself when there's been so much losing the last few seasons?
JM: Yeah, the standard is the standard. I would say going back to – we always talk about changing the page. We just have to continue to chip at the rock, continue to work on our fundamentals and give ourselves an opportunity to win.
Q: Related to that, I wasn't in the locker room yesterday, but I've seen reports that the mood was more lighthearted than you might expect after that kind of loss with some players joking around. Do you have any problem with that, and do you at all question whether some of the players are taking all this seriously enough?
JM: Yeah, I mean, I don't question any of that stuff as far as the players taking a butt-kicking like that personally. Everyone in that locker room, we were down. Now, I'm not sure what that report is, but I'm not going to talk about that. I know the guys were disappointed.
Q: Last week, you mentioned it was going to be a speed matchup, but given how fast those receivers were and how free the releases were during the game, do you wish that you could have been a little bit more aggressive pressing them on the line of scrimmage right after the ball snapped?
JM: Yeah, look, I think we did it at times. I would say it depended on the call. We did understand the space they were trying to attack, and we just didn't do a good job defending that space.
Q: We saw Demontrey Jacobs get benched for Sidy Sow late in the game. Could you see personnel changes or lineup changes on offense or defense after a performance like yesterday's moving forward?
JM: Yes.
Q: Has re-establishing a winning culture been more difficult than even you expected?
JM: I never thought that we would be able to re-establish a culture in year one. It's a process. It's hard to change a culture, and we're trying to put those pieces together. I think it would be a disservice to get to the end of the year and not know exactly what we have from a player or coaching perspective, and that has to be our focus.
Q: Earlier, you talked about addressing the quote-unquote 'elephant in the room.' In your mind, what exactly is the elephant in the room?
JM: That we need to be focused, and we can't win games with that many penalties.
