Patriots' Jerod Mayo makes 'demand' of himself after Rams loss
Jerod Mayo took accountability following the New England Patriots ' 28-22 loss to the Los Angeles Rams on Sunday.
The Patriots coach made it clear that their 3-8 record isn't good enough, saying that the buck stops with him .
"Do we need to get better? Absolutely, and that's my job as the head coach of this football team," Mayo told reporters. "It starts with me. I have to do better. We have to demand more from our assistant coaches. We're going to demand more from our players. We have enough talent in our locker room to be a very good football team, we've just got to be able to put it together."
Entering the season, many would've expected the Patriots to be around 3-8 through the first 11 games of the season as they only won four games last year and didn't make many major additions to the roster . However, there were some questionable coaching decisions that Mayo has made that might have cost the team a win or two along the way.
Sunday's game featured a few decisions that led to some second-guessing. Instead of attempting a 55-yard field goal with a 7-0 lead in the first quarter, Mayo opted to send in the punt team. He pointed to what he saw from kicker Joey Slye in pregame warmups
"There were a lot of different factors that we take into account," Mayo said. "We talk about when, we talk about the pregame warmup. You can kind of see how the kicks are going on both sides during the pregame warmups, and just felt like that was the right decision to make."
In the third quarter, Mayo opted to kick a field when the Patriots were at the Rams' 2-yard line and trailing, 21-10, to make it an eight-point game instead of possibly trying to make it a three-point game with a touchdown. Mayo said he might have had a different approach on that fourth-down play if they were a little closer to the goal line.
"If it was fourth-and-1, probably would have went for it, but it made it a one-score game," Mayo said.
What Jerod Mayo said of Patriots' defensive gameplan against the Rams
New England's defensive approach in Sunday's game was also a bit questionable. The Patriots were aggressive in trying to sack Matthew Stafford, but the Rams quarterback got the best of them. He completed 12-of-17 passes for 218 yards and three touchdowns with a 152.6 passer rating against the blitz , per Pro Football Focus.
The Patriots also left their top cornerback, Christian Gonzalez, on the boundary for much of the game, allowing Rams receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua to control the middle of the field. They each had over 100 receiving yards in Sunday's game, with Kupp going for 106 yards on six receptions while Nacua had 123 yards on seven grabs.
Mayo defended the team's approach to how they used Gonzalez.
"Kupp had the one reception which was a huge chunk of those yards," Mayo said, referring to Kupp's 69-yard touchdown grab in the third quarter. "Look, going into the game, we have a plan, and we're always willing to change that look. Like I said earlier, I felt like we were going to be okay. I thought we could outlast them."
The Patriots will have another pair of standout receivers to gameplan for in Week 12 when they take on Tyreek Hill, Jaylen Waddle and the Miami Dolphins.
