Patriots HC Jerod Mayo
PATRIOTS HEAD COACH JEROD MAYO
PRESS CONFERENCE
December 16, 2024
JM: Just like I said yesterday, and then having the opportunity to watch the film, there were definitely a lot of plays out there that needed to be made. I talked about third down. The unique thing about only having six or seven third downs, and a couple of those were situational third downs, it was a very unique situation, but we didn’t play well on third down on either side of the ball. Offensively in the red area, we did an okay job. Obviously, you want to pick up those short yardage situations. Defensively, it comes back to fundamentals, which I always talk about. You can look at the big run play. We had two players that were pretty much unblocked that probably should have made that play, and they expect to make those plays, and we as a coaching staff expect them to make those plays. Overall, I would say that the Cardinals came out and played better than us. They executed better than us, and we have to go back to the drawing board and get better. I know there’s a lot of chatter about the question last night of, ‘You said that.’ I didn’t mean anything by that. 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.
Q: Jerod, what do you mean by defensive response to that question?
JM: Yeah, it was just more of I didn’t mean anything by it. I just was like, ‘you said it’ because I didn’t want to go down that whole rabbit hole trying to explain all those things. Like I just said, I tried to clarify that with the follow-up question saying that all of those critical situations fall on me.
Q: Continuing on that theme, Jerod, you’re on the headset, you’re on the channel. If you want Drake [Maye] to run the ball, do you have the right and the power to say, ‘Hey, Alex [Van Pelt], tell him to run the ball?’
JM: 100% on me.
Q: Morning, Jerod. Has there been any organizational disagreement about whether to use Drake Maye on designed runs?
JM: No, look, we have quarterback-designed runs, just haven’t pulled them out yet, so there’s no disagreement. We’re all on the same page. I think Alex and the offensive staff do a good job putting together the game plan. I go in there, I offer my two cents, and we come out of the room as a unit, all on the same page.
Q: Hey, Jerod, has Drake lobbied for those kinds of carries? He mentioned something last night about how he was a good quarterback sneaker in college, and he was open to it. Has he talked to you guys or suggested in moments that he would like to do that kind of thing?
JM: Yeah, I’m not going to get really into those types of conversations. Look, Drake’s the ultimate team player. He has been an ultimate team player in whatever’s called. He’s going to try to go out there and execute it the best that he possibly can. What I will say is Rhamondre [Stevenson] is one of our best players on the team, one of our best weapons on offense, and what we did there was ultimately my decision, and I thought we could pick it up.
Q: Hey, Jerod, hope all is well with you. What is the disconnect, in your view, between the offensive stats and point production, where it feels like week after week, there’s evidence that the team should be scoring more than it is? Why, in your view, is that not happening? Is that play calling? Is it execution? How do you fix it?
JM: I think overall it’s execution. I would say there have been times where we’ve gone backwards in the red area where we were in a place to score, and that’s tough to do. As soon as you get in the red zone to go backwards, it puts you behind the eight ball. We’ve been up and down as a whole, offensively and defensively in the red area, and we’ve just got to continue to understand that the field is shrinking. There’s another player there, as far as the middle of the field safety, and everything is about the details and going out there and executing.
Q: Morning, Coach. Yesterday, you mentioned after the game that you sounded like a broken record in terms of commenting on your team’s problems on the field. Do you think it’s because your message was not properly delivered and received by your players, or it was simply your team’s lack of talent? What might be the reason?
JM: As far as the messaging being received, that’s more of a question for the players. When we go into a week, we’re all on the same page as far as the targets that we have to hit to go out there and win the game. Unfortunately, we just haven’t been able to do that.
Q: Morning, Jerod. I was curious about Christian Gonzalez. You’ve had a matchup against some of the top receivers and yesterday was Marvin Harrison Jr. What did you see from him in that game, and what is it about his play that allows him to be such a lockdown defender?
JM: He’s our best player on defense, and he proved that yesterday. Just a guy that goes out there and competes on a down-after-down basis, and he did a good job for us yesterday.
Q: Jerod, prior to the fourth-and-one run, CBS had a sideline shot of Alex Van Pelt pointing to something, and you’re reacting to that. I’m wondering, was that the play clock, and if you could describe what that interaction was, what was going on in that moment? It looked like they might have reset it, but it came after 15 seconds.
JM: Yeah, we weren’t going to get the play off, so I called a timeout.
Q: Jerod, there was another moment on the broadcast where they showed Robert and Jonathan Kraft. Some of the lip readers out there thought they were talking about the offensive play calling. I’m curious what your thoughts were on that moment, and if they’ve ever come to you with issues about offensive play calling?
JM: Yeah, I haven’t seen anything like that, so I’m not sure what you’re talking about. What I will say is they’ve been fully supportive of us as a team. Look, they’re huge fans of the team that they own, so whatever they said, that’s what they said.
Q: Morning, Coach. Thank you for your time. I know last night you mentioned with the run defense that if you take away the one big run from James Conner, things didn’t look so bad. I know you said something similar after the Jaguars game, but it seems like lately teams have still been able to make those body blows, and get enough yards to stay on schedule. Are you willing to concede that as long as you’re taking away some things in the pass game, or do those body blows still add up because it seems like you faced a lot of third and short situations the past few weeks?
JM: Yeah, the body blows have definitely hurt us. I thought Conner ran the ball very hard yesterday. Obviously, that front, they do a good job on their doubles and things like that, but you’re exactly right. The body blows, they hurt. In saying that, the long run by Conner, we were there to make the play. We just didn’t finish the play, which is a frustrating thing, and it turns into a 50-yard gain. That’s what the NFL is. Every play is six seconds, and you’ve got to have ultimate focus and ultimate execution in six-second increments, and we just weren’t able to do that.
Q: Hey, Jerod. With three games left here, could you speak to your evaluating process at this point, and whether it comes to coaches or players? What are you looking for to see that there is progress going into next season, whether certain players or coaches are a part of winning moving forward?
JM: Yeah, there are definitely different measurements or metrics that we’ll look at at the end of the season, and that we look at right now that we want to see next week, because every week is about getting to 1-0, and everything’s being evaluated. I’m being evaluated, the coaches, the players, we’re all being evaluated, and no one’s happy about where we are right now, and some things have to get better.
Q: Hey, Coach, I wanted to ask you about the Cole Strange situation. You guys added him to the active roster last week. I understand you had a certain window to do so, but he was inactive yesterday. Does it mean that he’s still not completely ready for the game action? What’s the situation there, if you can explain a little bit?
JM: Yeah, he just wasn’t ready to go.
Q: Jerod, just getting back to your comments from last night, are you worried at all that those comments, you said you didn’t mean anything by them, are you worried at all that your players hear them and take them the wrong way?
JM: I’m not worried about it. I feel like they’re going to see all those things and they know my heart, they know the point that I’m trying to get across, and I don’t mean anything by it. I didn’t mean anything by it. Like I said earlier, I tried to clarify that with the second comment. I have ultimate respect for the way that those guys go out there and work every single day and we just got to start winning some games.
Q: Jerod, I’m going to clean up my other question. On the fourth and one run that Rhamondre was stopped short on, did you feel like operationally the time was good before the ball was snapped, or were you worried at all in that moment that the play clock might be coming down on you to get that play off, that ultimately got off, before the play clock went down?
JM: I wasn’t worried about it. Ultimately, we missed the block and weren’t able to get to first down.
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