Here’s the full transcript of New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo’s press conference following their loss to the Titans on Sunday, November 3, 2024:
*OPENING STATEMENT:
*This was cut short on the broadcast and joined late:
“…What we’re going to talk about is it’s not just one play. It’s not the interception. It’s not going for two. There are multiple plays that happen within a game that can change the tide of it. At the time, I felt like that was the right thing to do. It’s easy to make a judgment one way or the other, but I thought that was the right thing to do at the time. I will say this, I thought the team went out there, and they fought. Being on the road in this environment, I will say just a shout out to the fans that traveled. I felt like we had a lot of fans that traveled. You could hear them supporting us. Too bad we let them down.”
“We got to be better. I have to be better. Coaches have to be better. We go back to the drawing board. Have to be able to run the football. Obviously, that was disappointing. I think Drake [Maye] was probably our leading rusher today. You never really want your quarterback to be the leading rusher, and that’s in all facets. We got to be able to move guys off the line. I thought their defensive line did a good job. They were hard to handle inside, especially #98, and we knew that coming into the game. We just got to be able to understand every team that we play, they’re going to have either good edge rushers or good interior rushers. We just got to do a better job getting those guys off the ball.”
“Defensively, again, leaky run defense. There were times where it goes back to fundamentals. We spent a lot of time talking about the Xs and O’s, but I thought the tackling still needs to improve. That’s part of it. But we went into the game also saying special teams was going to make a play. They had to make plays, and we had the big returns by Marcus [Jones], and those guys out there are blocking for them, and too bad we let this one slip away.”
On the entire NFL talking about the 12 seconds that Drake Maye had running around and threw the game-tying countdown ,and his thoughts on what he saw from him:
“Just mental toughness and the ability to make plays with his legs, which he has shown before. Gave us a chance to win the game. Obviously, he just didn’t pull it through.”
On his running around and tiredness and if it was a factor into not going for two there:
“I’m not going to get into… I don’t want to get into that. It’s a good question. I just don’t want to get into it now.”
On the fact two weeks ago, he said that production in the run game was a mentality thing, and if he still feels that way and what he thinks is preventing the run game from finding consistency:
“I’ve always felt that stopping the run and running the ball starts with your attitude. Starts with your attitude, starts with your mentality, and we just have to do better on both sides of the ball.”
On what he thought of the decision by Drake at the end of the game:
“Look, he’s a guy out there trying to make a play. He’s just trying to make a play. I think sometimes, as well as he has played, sometimes we forget how young he is. He’s going to continue to develop, and he’ll be a good quarterback in this league. Look, we’ll all learn from this, myself included.”
On what he learned about him from that:
“Well, we already knew it, but I think the obvious thing is just his mental toughness and ability to really change the page and being a resilient player. That’s a great quality to have as a quarterback, and he’s a good competitor.”
On the fact the defense obviously held them to 17 points in regulation, but on the game-tying TD, they came right down the field and how tough it was to watch:
“It was very tough. We’ll watch the film and see what happened, but it was was tough. Those long drives have hurt us at times this year.”
On what he saw from the offensive line?
“Mike [Onwenu] ended up kicking in the guard. We felt like, look, we need to match up with one of their best players. Again, when you watch the film, you’re going to see the interior of the pocket at times was soft. We thought putting our best player in there was the best thing to do for the team.”
On the fact Maye had two interceptions and what the balance is between letting a young quarterback get his feet under him versus ‘win now?’
“We never want to go out there and turn the ball over. We came into the game saying we need to get turnovers and not turn the ball over. That’s the recipe for us to win football games, and we just didn’t do that today. He’ll learn from his mistakes. That’s one thing. You want to go back to a characteristic, he learns from his mistakes and he’ll be better for it.”
On if he feels like he’s seen some progress in certain facets of the game, complementary football, the interception by Tavai, and the fact they went down and got points, things like that. Along with Marcus Jones with the punt return:
“Yeah, I think so. At the same time, we never want to lose games. I feel like crap right now. It’s hard to really pull out a positive out of this one, for me, at least.”
On how he feels Drake protected himself after having to leave last week’s game, and he took a few hard shots today, along with how he thought he handled himself in the open field?
“I thought he did well. I thought he did well. I’m sure we’ll watch the film and say things and second guess whether to slide or not to slide. But he’s healthy, and I think that’s the most important thing.”
On what would he like to see his football team do now, going forward, after what happened in London, where they’ve come, and where he’d like to see them go from here:
“I want these guys just to, as we always say, change the page on Wednesday and get ready for a big game coming up because it’s the next game.”
“Thanks, guys.”
(Editor’s Note: This transcript is done via the available footage and is subject to typos. If you spot something, please take a moment to let me know in the comments below.)
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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.
