Five Monday Patriots Thoughts: Mayo Put Himself in the Crosshairs Sunday
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Some thoughts coming off of Sunday’s 30-17 loss by the New England Patriots in Arizona:
1) With two weeks off, that was a horrific display: For a team that was coming off a bye, the Patriots looked grossly underprepared, badly disorganized, and outclassed after they took the field for the first time in two weeks on Sunday out in Arizona.
That’s not great news for a coaching staff that was already under the microscope coming off of their loss against the Colts two weeks ago. However, Jerod Mayo didn’t do himself any favors after openly questioning in-game decisions by the people around him, which is a giant red flag for any head coach and should be something Robert and Jonathan Kraft take into consideration over these final weeks.
Still, what we saw Sunday was just a continuation of where they left off the last time we saw them. Despite the fact the game remained relatively close for a good portion of the afternoon, this one felt they never had a shot. The Patriots spent most of Sunday’s game stuck in neutral until late in the contest, with the offense finishing the afternoon failing to convert on third down (0-for-6), while the defense, once again, fell apart in the second half.
One thing that was interesting was the fact New England started off Sunday’s game with a different approach. Given their inability to start fast in recent weeks, Mayo and the coaching staff changed things up and took the football to open the game after winning the coin toss.
It made sense. This is a Patriots team that has spent a good portion of the season playing from behind, and that was something they were clearly looking to change on Sunday. The problem is that a lot of the same issues we’ve seen all year came up early in the contest, including a couple of new ones.
One glaring problem that came up was center Ben Brown’s sudden inability to snap the football, which happened on the third snap of the game. Fortunately, Maye salvaged the play, calmly grabbed the football and completed a 16 yard pass to Rhamondre Stevenson. That play got the ball across midfield and into Cardinals territory, but it was a sign of things to come.
However, familiar miscues showed up shortly after. Two plays later, facing a 3rd-and-5 from the Cardinals 33, Antonio Gibson broke off a 15-yard run that would have gotten the offense down to the Arizona 18. But rookie Layden Robinson was called for offensive holding, which negated the play and backed them up 10 yards.
That penalty extended New England’s streak where they’ve committed at least one critical third down penalty on either side of the football in every game this season. Those types of mistakes and miscues have been an issue all year, and to see it that early in the game was just head-scratching.
“It’s very frustrating,” said Mayo. “We’re not a good enough football team to be able to go backwards and overcome those long-yardage situations as we’ve seen all season.”
To top it all off, kicker Joey Slye ended up missing a 53-yard field goal three plays later, which saw New England come up empty, and the ball was turned over on downs.
The issue at center continued two possessions later, with the Patriots looking at 3rd-and-7 from their own 33. Brown delivered a snap that landed at Maye’s feet, with the rookie unable to catch it after it landed just in front of him. Fortunately, Maye was able to get enough of a handle on it to at least keep the ball and pick up a handful of yards, but Brown’s bad snap caused the drive to stall, and they were forced to punt it away.
But overall, it was just an ugly game from start to finish. We saw Deatrich Wise Jr. make a foolish mistake on a horse collar tackle, grabbing Kyler Murray and pulling him down by the nape of his neck, negating a sack and extending a drive. Kayshon Boutte later had a ball that Maye fired over the middle that hit him in his hands, but he wasn’t able to secure it, and it ended up as an interception after a defender snagged the football.
It was just an afternoon full of the same familiar mistakes we’ve seen all season. To top it off, they were once again outcoached after the Cardinals made adjustments at halftime, and the defense looked well out of sorts in the second half. The Cardinals scored on nearly every possession, with the only one they failed to get points on coming after Murray had to leave the game to get evaluated for a concussion following a questionable roughing-the-passer penalty on Anfernee Jennings, which negated an interception.
Either way, despite some late-game heroics by Drake Maye, this one was never close, despite how the final score looked. Fortunately, Mayo didn’t attempt to explain this one away, albeit he made his own mind-boggling error after it was over.
2) Mayo putting himself in the crosshairs: Multiple reports last week said that Mayo’s future is secure heading into 2025, but while the conversations recently have centered on the people around him, his comments following Sunday’s loss in Arizona didn’t do him any favors when it comes to his role as the leader of this football team.
One of the biggest things to submarine the chances of an NFL coach succeeding is not being able to maintain a stable environment within the building. That includes keeping his staff on the same page and focused on the task at hand. However, Mayo did the unthinkable following the loss and openly questioned Alex Van Pelt’s decision to run the football on a 4th-and-1 from the Arizona 4-yard line early in the third quarter, trailing 16-3.
That play came after Antonio Gibson had gotten stopped for no gain on the previous attempt, which saw Rhamondre Stevenson try his hand at moving the chains on the following snap.
Unfortunately, Arizona kept him from picking up that yard, and the ball ended up being turned over on downs.
“I mean, it was disappointing,” said Mayo on that play. “I said this, I think probably the first week of the season, there comes a point in time as a football team where everyone in the stadium knows what the play is, and we just got to move bodies, and we weren’t able to do that.”
That eliminated a massive opportunity to potentially get themselves back in the game, as a touchdown would have brought the score to 16-10.
But Mayo made an incredibly foolish move shortly after when he was asked whether or not he would have considered running Drake Maye instead to get the first down.
“You said it, I didn’t,” quipped Mayo.
That’s basically a shot at offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt. Mayo seemingly caught himself shortly after when asked whose decision it was to make that call.
“It’s always my decision,” said Mayo. “I would say, look, the quarterback obviously has a good pair of legs and does a good job running the ball. We just chose not to do it there.”
As he has all year after letting something slip in a postgame press conference, Mayo tried to walk his latest miscue back on Monday.
“I know there’s a lot of chatter about the question last night of, ‘You said that.’ I didn’t mean anything by that,” said Mayo. “It was more of a defensive response. Ultimately, and I tried to clarify that with the follow-up question, all of those decisions are mine. I just wanted to get that out there.”
Unfortunately, the damage is done. Van Pelt likely heard about the comment and whatever bit of trust that may exist between the two likely took another hit. For a club that’s already in disarray, this only makes it worse and sets up what will likely be an uncomfortable three weeks.
And it’s going to be a tough stretch. These final three games include two brutal match-ups against the Bills with the Chargers mixed in-between. The match-up Sunday out in Buffalo already looks like it could be another week where things could get out of hand pretty quickly, given how the Bills have looked over these last few weeks.
3) Solid showing by Maye: Drake Maye put together a solid showing on Sunday, with the rookie finishing the afternoon missing on just four of his pass attempts, completing 19-of-23 for 202 yards along with a touchdown and an interception.
Maye started off the game on the right foot, completing 10-of-10 in the first half for 71 yards. However, it was certainly a challenging stretch, especially after the Cardinals blew things up on their second possession of the contest.
Maye found himself battling early after left tackle Vederian Lowe got beat badly on the first two plays of their second series, which led to Stevenson getting dropped for a 2-yard loss and Maye taking a sack, which put them in 3rd-and-19 from their own 21. That was too much to overcome, and it was a repeated theme of what he’s more or less dealt with all season.
Factor in the long-yardage they faced from penalties and it put them in a lot of difficult situations, which Maye talked about after the game.
“Yeah, frustrating. I think kind of the same thing, showing up,” said Maye. “That’s probably the most frustrating part. I think we are hurting ourselves, getting in long distances, first and second down and then not capitalizing when we get down in the red zone and the goal line. Kind of make it a one-score game. Those things just keep showing up over and over. We were addressing them and the guys I feel like we’re focusing on during the week and practice.”
One discussion that has come up was about how conservative they were in the early going, with Maye having to take a lot of short throws until they started getting a real feel for Arizona’s defense. In the second half, things finally changed as they started allowing for Maye to take some shots down the field.
New England came out in the third quarter running the ball, with runs by Stevenson of 15 and 10 yards getting them out near midfield, and Gibson ripped off a 29-yard gain that got them down to the Arizona 13. However, that was the possession where they needed a yard to move the chains and give themselves a scoring opportunity, and they turned it over on downs.
The next possession saw some bad luck after Maye fired a strike over the middle to Kayshon Boutte, which glanced off his hands and ended up being snagged by Cardinals defensive back Sean Murphy-Bunting. Arizona turned around and marched 55 yards on 9 plays, with running back James Conner taking it in for the touchdown.
That blew the game open at 23-3, and it was more or less over at that point.
Give Maye credit. He came back on the next possession and threw a dime to Kendrick Bourne for 37 yards, and then followed that up with a scramble down near the goal line where he flipped the ball out as the defenders came up and connected with Demario Douglas for an impressive 3-yard touchdown pass. He then answered another touchdown by the Cardinals by putting together a 6 play, 70 yard drive where he took it in from 5-yards out for the score to make it 30-17.
Unfortunately, it was too little too late. Why it took so long to open things up will be a topic of discussion this week. But Maye continued showing flashes of brilliance that was overshadowed by another afternoon of incompetence by the people around him.
4) Gonzalez played well: On defense, Christian Gonzalez drew the task of covering Marvin Harrison Jr. on Sunday, and he certainly delivered. While Harrison Jr. was able to make a couple of receptions when the Cardinals used some rub routes to free him, Gonzalez kept the football out of his hands on multiple big play attempts.
Murray had a couple of throws where the ball was dropped in, but Gonzalez maintained his cool and broke up each throw as the ball arrived in the rookie’s hands. The two battled it out all afternoon and Gonzalez ended up on the right side of that match-up.
The second-year defensive back has quietly had a solid year. Unfortunately, with the Patriots sitting at 3-11 and at the bottom of the standings, a lot of Gonzalez’s efforts have essentially gone unnoticed nationally.
Gonzalez had praise for Harrison Jr. after the game, saying he expects him to be a formidable player in this league.
“I told him after the game he’s the truth,” said Gonzalez. “He has all the tools to be really good. It was a fun matchup. I had fun, and maybe we’ll see each other again.”
5) Slye lost the kicking battle Sunday: After losing what was a tough battle during training camp, former Patriots kicker Chad Ryland ended up getting a little revenge on Sunday.
Ryland finished the afternoon hitting all three of his field goal attempts, connecting on kicks from 49, 35, and 40 yards, respectively. Meanwhile, Joey Slye missed from 53-yards out on New England’s opening drive, but did later hit from 50 yards out.
However, that miss set the tone for the Patriots, who were never able to grab any momentum and spent another Sunday chasing their opponent from behind.
Overall, Ryland has had a solid year. He’s hit all 18 of his point after attempts and he’s 22-of-26 (84.6%) on field goals. Meanwhile, Slye is 19-of-20 on point after attempts, and just 23-of-30 (76.7%) on field goal attempts after a tough run recently. He still has a higher ceiling due to the impressive strength he’s shown, but he looks like a player who is still putting things together.
For now, the Patriots will have to regroup and get ready for what could be an ugly game next Sunday out in Buffalo. The Bills put up 48 points against the Lions on Sunday and given their struggles defensively, it might be another long afternoon next weekend out in Western New York.
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The incessant nit picking at Mayo and repeatedly asking the question if he’s getting fired end of season is a media drama drum, that the media beats every day. What else do you cover when the team isn’t good and doesn’t draw reader eyeballs based on team play and prospectus on Sunday? Need something. So every week the Albert Breers of the world ask the question and everyone concludes “Mayo is likely here unless something drastically changes”. But they then ask the same thing next day like it changes status. Kraft got interviewed this past week and said he “expected a bumpy… Read more »