FOXBORO, Mass. — Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo landed in some sizzling water for the best way he described his staff final Sunday.
“We’re a smooth soccer staff throughout the board,” the 38-year-old rookie head coach mentioned following a loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars. “You discuss what makes a tricky soccer staff, and that’s with the ability to run the ball, that’s with the ability to cease the run, with the ability to cowl kicks. We did none of these at this time.”
Mayo had a far more constructive evaluation following Sunday’s gutsy win over the New York Jets, nonetheless.
“I don’t assume I’ve ever actually questioned the resilience of this staff,” Mayo mentioned. “I’m not going to return to these (smooth) feedback. I’ll say, now we have a room full of men with the mentality that you simply received to vary the web page every single day. Every single day is a brand new day.”
The Patriots couldn’t have performed a greater job displaying their resilience, as they have been examined at each flip.
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New England obtained some powerful information previous to the sport, with security Kyle Dugger being dominated out along with his ankle damage after giving it a go throughout pregame warmups. Marte Mapu, Jaylinn Hawkins and Dell Pettus stepped up in his place, and received recreation balls for his or her troubles.
Drake Maye — you recognize, the rookie quarterback whose well being must be the membership’s prime precedence — was top-of-the-line gamers on the sector to begin, however in the end was knocked out of the sport after simply three drives with a head damage that got here by means of a helmet-to-helmet hit that didn’t even draw a flag. Jacoby Brissett stepped in and led two landing drives — together with the game-winning sequence that was capped off by Rhamondre Stevenson’s plunge into the tip zone.
“I feel it was win, preventing by adversity. We received a problem earlier this week; the blokes got here out and responded nicely,” Brissett mentioned. “Clearly with the ability to come within the recreation and guys rally round me and assist make performs. We clearly pushed it in on the finish to attain the win. I feel that was the embody of a whole lot of issues all through the season. Simply hoping it is a snowball impact, begin of one thing particular.”
Kayshon Boutte had a horrific begin, dropping his first two targets instantly after admitting that he demanded extra alternatives from the teaching employees. The Patriots entrusted him to reply, and that’s precisely what he did with a pair of big catches on the game-winning drive.
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“It’s not — there’s not a ball that I can’t catch,” Boutte mentioned. “My greatest factor after a drop is just not getting in my head, as a result of I do know it’s a play I could make. I simply put it out of my head and transfer on; like I mentioned, there was two drops early on, however it feels nice to make a catch with the sport on the road.”
New England was additionally on the incorrect finish of a number of calls, even should you don’t embrace the non-public foul on their rookie signal-caller. Christian Gonzalez, Christian Elliss and Marcus Jones have been all referred to as for defensive go interference, whereas Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers was allowed to spike the ball into the bottom with out an eligible receiver in sight with out being referred to as for intentional grounding.
It simply didn’t appear to matter.
The Patriots have been lacking their quarterback and one among their finest defensive gamers, made routine errors throughout the early portion of the sport and had momentum stripped from them at a number of factors on account of suspect officiating… however they weren’t brief on coronary heart.
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It’s most likely too early to say that Mayo’s squad displayed the makings of a tricky staff, however there’s little question they’ve confirmed resilient.
