Most fans heading into this season had low expectations when it came to seeing how new Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo would fare in his first season.
So far, with the team sitting at 1-4 heading into Sunday’s game against Houston, it certainly hasn’t started out the way he probably hoped.
In their first week against the Bengals, the big question would be whether or not the club would go out there and potentially be a mistake-ridden, disorganized group against what many felt might be a Super Bowl-contending Cincinnati team.
In what turned out to be a pleasant surprise, that wasn’t the case at all. Mayo’s club was surprisingly organized and disciplined. The operation was smooth on both sides of the football, with New England putting up 170 yards on the ground and 290 yards of total net offense as they pulled off a 16-10 that was definitely unexpected.
The following week, they again went toe-to-toe against Seattle, with a blocked field goal ending up as one of the few miscues that played a role in their 23-20 overtime loss.
Again, that was a relatively well-played effort, with New England committing just 3 penalties and putting up 310 yards of offense, including another 185 on the ground.
From there, things started taking a turn. After being a relatively disciplined group in the first two games, Mayo’s defensive players appeared to be playing outside the parameters set by the coaching staff, which was evident in the loss to the Jets. The defense allowed Aaron Rodgers essentially to do whatever he wanted outside the pocket, with Rodgers throwing for 281 yards and two touchdowns as the Jets blew them out 24-3.
It continued into the San Francisco game. We saw Brock Purdy get a couple of first downs with his feet, along with making several plays as he scrambled and helped the 49ers pull away with a 30-13 victory. That dropped New England to its third straight defeat.
“It’s a frustrating thing,” said Mayo after the game. “Sometimes you tell guys over and over and over, ‘Look, the stove’s hot, the stove’s hot,’ and they still touch the stove. So today, it was just mirrored.”
“It’s on them to go out there and set the edge,” he later added. “This is your job. Do your job, and we’ll be okay.”
Signs of Disarray Have Started
However, a couple of players, including veteran defensive tackle Davon Godchaux revealed that guys were starting to go off-script. Mayo had said repeatedly that each game is a canvas and the guys are free to paint however they’d like, as long as they stay within the canvas.
Godchaux said last week in an interview with WEEI, that guys weren’t sticking to those parameters.
“We got guys, just to be honest, we got guys, some guys just being selfish,” said Godchaux. “Because guys, I get it, I mean, we’re down, guys want to make plays. I get it, but everybody got to play. I’m talking about defense. Everybody has to play as 11, and everybody has to sacrifice to do what’s best for the team. I know some guys want to make plays when we’re down, trying to get back in the game, but we got to just keep going as a team and play team defense.”
But on Sunday, they went off-script again. Second-year player Keion White committed two critical penalties on the same drive that ended up resulting in points for the Dolphins. Mayo took him off the field for just one play, but the chaos ensued. They committed a season-high 12 penalties and shot themselves in the foot on more than one occasion, along with some questionable coaching decisions as they dropped their fourth-straight game.
But that loss wasn’t even the worst thing that happened over the weekend. Star safety Jabrill Peppers, who had been one of the few bright spots this season, spent last week on the injury report before being downgraded to “Out” ahead of Sunday’s contest. However, a report on Monday revealed that Peppers had been arrested over the weekend for assault and battery, along with possession of cocaine.
That report was definitely a tough blow to a team that didn’t need any additional hits. Peppers had been a key player on the Patriots’ defense, as well as in the locker room. His work ethic, along with his play on the field has been outstanding all year, with Peppers setting an example for other guys to follow. It’s also part of the reason the team rewarded him with an extension this past offseason.
Needless to say, he’s the last player most would have expected this from, and it’s absolutely disappointing.
“He called me that morning,” said Mayo of Peppers. “I knew what was going on. And the NFL, we’ve informed the NFL what was going on, and we’re still gathering information.”
Whatever information they garnered must not have been good. The team has since revoked Peppers’ captain status, and it’s yet another mess that Mayo has to deal with.
Injuries, Coaching Decisions Have Hurt Them
With the team struggling this badly on offense, there have been reports of frustration within the locker room, and it feels like Sunday might be the week we see the first start for rookie quarterback Drake Maye.
After four consecutive losses, the fans have made it clear that while they expected a rough year, the hope was that the team would at least continue to be competitive and show signs of life.
With Brissett at the helm, the expectations weren’t all that high. With Maye in the fold, the veteran quarterback’s job had been to navigate the waters until the rookie was ready to play. Instead, Brissett’s been drowning, with New England’s offensive line having been riddled with injuries early on, along with seeing one player, Chukwuma Okorafor, simply pick up his ball and go home.
At the same, Brissett isn’t without fault. He’s missed a fair amount of open receivers and often holds onto the football longer than he should. After taking those hits, he’s now become gun-shy, missing open windows, forcing him to scramble and that’s lead to some of the additional hits he’s taken.
Mayo has already alluded to the fact that the ball isn’t coming out as quickly as it should.
“It’s easy on some of those sacks, you go back and watch the film, the ball should be out,” said Mayo after the loss in San Francisco.
It clearly hasn’t gotten better since then. And Mayo again acknowledged that he’s ultimately responsible for where they are now when it comes to their continued struggles on offense.
“We’re not playing well. It’s not a secret,” said Mayo on WEEI on Monday. “And being the head coach of this team, I have to accept all the responsibility for that.”
Offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt is also under fire. After averaging over seven yards per carry Sunday, the club didn’t even try and allow Rhamondre Stevenson or Antonio Gibson to get them either closer or the end zone late into Sunday’s contest.
After they got down to Miami’s 12-yard line, they had plenty of time, with 1:13 still on the clock and all of their timeouts remaining to run whatever they wanted. The stage seemed set for the Patriots to pull out a win at home and possibly get back on track.
Instead, they called four straight passes, with the near touchdown to Ja’lynn Polk being called incomplete. Two plays later, Brissett was being chased and threw high on a pass Hunter Henry had no shot at on fourth down, turning the ball over on downs.
The last possession after that had no chance, regardless of Brissett’s decision to throw to Henry in the middle of the field, allowing time to expire. The game was lost at that point.
To Brissett’s credit, he’s been a warrior out there, and he’s taken the hits, and he’s kept getting up off the mat. But the reports of Maye possibly getting the starting nod Sunday seem to indicate that Brissett’s toughness isn’t enough to offset the club sitting near the bottom of the league in scoring.
There have simply been too many missed opportunities for a team with a small margin of error, and they’re likely hoping Maye might connect on some of them moving forward.
Drum Has Started Beating on Mayo
With the club on the verge of losing its fifth-straight this weekend as the Texans come into town, the drum is already starting to beat in terms of Mayo’s future.
Michael Felger of 98.5 The Sports Hub, spent a lot of last season questioning whether or not Bill Belichick should continue as head coach, and that became the key talking point, especially late in the season. The team obviously parted ways with Belichick at the start of the offseason, with Robert Kraft turning to Mayo as his replacement, which was a plan that ended up coming to fruition two years sooner than most expected.
Five games in, those same questions are already starting for Mayo. And Felger believes “he’s not the guy” who should be leading the club after what he’s seen the last few weeks.
“Mayo’s in over his head, is what it is,” said Felger on Tuesday. “He’s just in way over his head, as most guys at his stage of their career would be. There’s so many problems on this team. And so many problems in that organization, frankly. He’s just not cut out for it, and like I said, very few people would be at this stage in their careers. He’s just set up to fail, but he’s not the guy.”
“I also think [Tony Massarotti], he reacted to some of his players complaining about not getting the ball. First couple of weeks, you’ve got those receivers stomping around out there, kind of pitching a fit. Demario Douglas, of all people, is holding press conferences in the locker room about his lack of touches and whatnot. And Mayo admits, ‘We’ve got to get him the ball,’ and all that. And then the next thing you know, they’re dropping back to pass 33 times in New York trying to get Demario Douglas the ball. Who? Why? No, it starts with the head coach.”
“And I don’t blame Jerod Mayo for Alex Van Pelt. It’s not his hire. Ownership didn’t want to pay for the guy that they wanted. That’s ownership’s fault. But Mayo’s part of the problem. He’s in there somewhere, I am sorry.”
Mayo has remained steady and seemingly unfazed through all of this. He’s simply stayed focused on the task at hand, but that Gatorade bath he took in Week 1 now feels like forever ago, and how these next couple of games play out is going to be critical.
No one is expecting a winning streak or for this team to be anything more than the four-win team that the oddsmakers had them at the start of the season. You can make the argument that Belichick’s first season started 5-11 before personnel changes that following offseason set the tone for what played out in 2001.
Mayo’s team will have that opportunity next spring to fill in the personnel holes they weren’t able to fix in one offseason, hopefully setting them up a little better for 2025. But for now, the theme is simply improvement after what’s played out these last three games.
And if that improvement doesn’t start to appear and the club doesn’t get back to where it was in Weeks 1 and 2, it’s likely going to be a long year. In fact on Sunday, an inspired effort by Mayo’s group that hopefully won’t beat itself is all fans are likely hoping for against Houston.
However, if the mistakes and questionable coaching decisions continue, things might really begin to get ugly.
If that happens, unfortunately, Mayo will likely see that drum start to get even louder in the coming months.
