Post Game Press Conference – Patriots HC Jerod Mayo
PATRIOTS HEAD COACH JEROD MAYO
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
October 13, 2024
JM: Good afternoon, good evening. Look again, sit here before you guys just disappointed. The penalties in the first half, just too many. It’s the same story over and over again. Had three or four turnovers in the game. Can’t win if you lose that battle. Defensively I would say just the fundamentals of just tackling, our run fits have to improve. They have to improve. I told all those guys, I said, “you should feel like crap today. You should feel like crap.” You take away those two long runs, we had two runs over 50 yards. That’s just not winning football. Offensively I thought they did some things that were encouraging. Obviously still not enough. The turnovers, one was on a tipped ball, but that’s the way the league is. I thought Drake [Maye] made some good decisions out there. I thought he had some good reads. I thought he tried to get the ball out of his hands. I thought he did a good job extending plays with his legs, picking up first downs. Just got to be better.
Q: Jerod, on Drake Maye, is that kind of what you hoped you would see as far as some of the things that he was able to do, and how did you have that little bit of – okay, that 40-yard drop-in-the-bucket pass to Kayshon Boutte that got you guys back in the game to end the half?
JM: Yeah, and look, we fully anticipate or expect him to be better going forward. It was his first start. Obviously here at home there was a lot of expectations on him. I thought he handled it well. Got to build on it.
Q: How did you think Drake Maye ran the offense today and his poise in his first start?
JM: I thought he showed a lot of poise. I thought he went out there and controlled the huddle, got those guys out of the huddle and once again, made some plays. It’s definitely encouraging. From a team-wide perspective right now, we let him down. It was his first game, and I feel like I let him down. I’m sure all the coaches feel like we let everyone down. We’ve just got to be better.
Q: Jerod, throughout the first few games you’ve emphasized the passing game as something that needs to improve. Today it felt like we saw the receivers getting a little more involved. What would you say to the passing game today specifically as it relates to Drake Maye?
JM: Yeah, I would say, first, there were some good pockets to start with up front. I thought the offensive line at times definitely had some good pockets to allow the quarterback to make those throws. But once again, it’s a team-wide sport, and we don’t feel very good about anything right now.
Q: Jerod, with the offensive line, the left side going down with Vederian Lowe and Michael Jordan, how tough is it right now to keep a cohesive unit together with how far down the depth chart you guys are at that spot?
JM: It’s very tough. Every single week it’s a different combination of players. It’s tough for those guys to really build that camaraderie or that communication. But again, like the backup players, they have to prepare like they’re starters every week. We’ll see how we came out of this game, but it’s definitely an issue for us.
Q: Jerod, you mentioned the penalties. From a coaching staff standpoint, what can you do on your end to get those numbers down?
JM: We talk about it all the time, and Saturday night meetings we talk about what crew is going to be out there, what do they call frequently, and we knew that this was a high penalty calling crew. I thought the second half kind of cleaned it up a little bit, but just way too many penalties in the game.
Q: Jerod, a couple questions ago you said that you along with the players and so on, the coaching staff, let Drake down. Could you be more specific what you meant by that?
JM: Yeah, not really the coaching staff. Look, we feel like crap right now, and I would say just for a rookie quarterback to go out there and do some good things, do some good things – I just felt like we could have did a better job supporting him.
Q: DeMario Douglas had 92 receiving yards, the most you guys have had in more than a year. He seemed to come off the field when you go to those two-receiver sets. Do you think he can function in those or there’s a way to get him the ball more often?
JM: Yeah, absolutely. Pop [DeMario Douglas] is one of our best receivers. He can get open against anyone. Those are definitely things we’ve got to consider.
Q: How would you evaluate Drake’s decision-making today in terms of reads, making sure that he avoided the rush, et cetera?
JM: His reads were good all day. I thought his reads were good. I’ll watch the film, obviously, but I thought he did a good job.
Q: Jerod, you talked about the defense. The first two drives of the game where they came right down the field, score, right down the field, score, how disappointing was that from your perspective, and I think the 192 yards on the ground, and what do you do to get going in the right direction there?
JM: Yeah, it’s very disappointing, and I would say now at this time we’re kind of up and down as far as starting fast. We have to start fast whether we’re on defense or offense, and we just didn’t do that today. I thought they did settle down. But again, it goes back to every single play being important, and you can stop them, stop them, stop them, and then all of a sudden it’s a 50-yard run. We can’t live in that world.
Q: In terms of play calling for Drake, did you feel like on offense you guys did what you could to help him get settled in? Was it how you planned or scripted or did things evolve differently?
JM: Absolutely. We talked about the first 15 [plays] as we always do, and that was to get him settled in. Once again, he’s a rookie making his first start. Will there be things that didn’t go right for him? Yeah, absolutely, but I thought the way we planned that out was good.
Q: I don’t know how many interactions you had with Drake during the game, but how did you see him react to some of the physical punishment he took throughout?
JM: Yeah, he took some big hits, and slow to get up after a couple of those, but he’s a tough guy, and I was encouraged by that.
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