Even with an extra seven days off, the Patriots continue to suffer from the same problems, and Sunday's loss in Arizona was perhaps their worst yet: penalties, sinking offensive drives, pass protection breakdowns, WR miscues, lack of fight/buy-in from the front seven, the whole nine yards both literally and figuratively.
It's hard to look at the process by which the Patriots have arrived at these losses, and I believe this is anything but a bad reflection on this coaching staff and head coach, Jerod Mayo. What really made matters worse yesterday was after the game, when Mayo was asked about not running it with Drake Maye at the goalline before turning it over and completely backing the bus over Alex Van Pelt.
To me, there are two reactions here. 1) You're the Head Coach of the team, as in you supersede your offensive coordinator. Why not communicate that to AVP in real time if you wanted to run Maye??? 2) How does this answer help out in any way, shape, or form when you've been under fire for months now for saying things that Patriots' fans/reporters haven't been accustomed to in decades, to walk said comments back less than 24 hours later repeatedly (spoiler; he did exactly that here as well)? Honestly, that issue hasn't bothered me until now, but this specific comment reeks of loser organization behavior and reminds me a lot of how Ben Roethlisberger would blatantly throw his guys under the bus.
There was also the comment about a single James Conner run skewing the statistics, which rubbed me the wrong way, but the bottom line is this. Things continue to get worse, not better defensively (outside of cornerback), this offense cannot get going fast enough, and Mayo continues to fan flames whenever he gets to the podium. Bill Belichick didn't exactly give you colorful insight after bad losses, but I can't recall him ever making bad situations notably worse like Mayo has at points in 2024.
There are some valid excuses for how things have gotten this bad for the Patriots (mainly Ja'Whaun Bentley's injury), and certain players remain adamant that the coaching is good, but at the end of the day, they are what their record says: not good. Barring any surprise wins, they'll also end up with a worse record than the year prior for the third consecutive season.
At a base level, this staff as constructed should be shaken up in some way, shape, or form going into 2025; speciffically, this team needs a veteran presence with the defensive playsheet and desperately at that. However, does this mean Jerod Mayo should be fired no matter what? I'd say that all depends on team preparation, execution, and buy-in these last three weeks. To be clear, they're losing all three of these games, but I'm far more concerned about those three factors than the results, especially given they're playing the Bills twice and the Chargers. But if the large bulk of this defense continues to play like they're mentally checked out and the offense remains allergic to crossing the goalline, I think we all know how this should end.
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