Jerod Mayo may be in his first season as head coach for the New England Patriots, but he’s likely learning the hard way about how he’s been handling things in front of the camera.
While Mayo might believe in transparency with the media, the collateral damage it might be causing may not be worth continuing with that approach.
Coming off of Sunday’s loss in London to the Jacksonville Jaguars, Mayo was openly critical of his club, saying during his post-game press conference, “We’re a soft football team.”
Based on a couple of those reports, those comments seem to have had mixed reactions in the locker room. Given the fact his team is in the middle of a six-game losing streak, if this is his plan to motivate them, it certainly isn’t ideal.
To make matters worse, with Mayo, the number one issue certainly feels like there’s been a lot more “they” and not enough “we” as he’s spoken to reporters on the team’s problems as of late. That could become a bigger issue as he tries to rally his club with 10 games still left to play.
And if Mayo’s own comments aren’t enough of a headache, former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick spoke with Tom Brady and Jim Gray on their podcast this week, hinting that coaching may be a contributing factor to a defense that was among one of the best last season and is now among the bottom in the NFL.
“Look, I think when you criticize your team publicly like that, it doesn’t always go over well,” said Belichick. “Now every coach has their own style, and maybe sometimes that can be effective and all. But ultimately, I always felt like when the team played bad, that was my responsibility, too. I mean, we might have had bad playing, but we had bad coaching that led to bad playing. So I think it’s always best to kind of take a look at yourself and do what you can do to help the team. And then, if you have constructive criticism as a coach, that’s your job.”
“But I don’t know. Last year, the Patriots led the league in rushing defense, yards per carry, number one in the league. This year, they’re 26th or whatever it is. It’s the same players. I don’t think that those players on defense are soft, but they haven’t stopped the run very well this year.”
Mayo did walk his comments back on Monday during his weekly interview on WEEI, noting that the same toughness that the club showed in camp has been missing in recent weeks.
“Playing soft. Let me just go ahead and correct that,” said Mayo. “We’re playing soft. Because if you look at the first … going back to training camp, there was definitely some toughness all around the place, and we still had the same players, and we just got to play that way.”
The only question now might be whether or not the damage is done. After losing six straight, Mayo likely faces the challenge of mending fences among players who he might have a tougher time motivating if the club continues to struggle, especially if Belichick’s comments potentially complicate this situation even further.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
