Post Game Press Conference – Patriots HC Jerod Mayo
PATRIOTS HEAD COACH JEROD MAYO
POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE
November 17, 2024
JM: Obviously we’ll always be disappointed walking out of here with a loss, but before I get into the football stuff, hopefully you’ve seen these pins that all the guys are wearing, and we all were out there representing a fallen hero, a fallen soldier, which I think is important. I think the TAPS program, they do a great job. We’ll support these guys – as long as I’m here, we’ll continue to support them. Today I was representing Army Sergeant First Class Daniel Ferguson, known as Danny to his friends and family, and really gave the ultimate sacrifice for our safety. Today would have been his birthday. Pretty tough situation. Especially coming from a military family, I can’t imagine suffering a loss like that, but I think the TAPS program is a great program. Kind of what I told the guys in the locker room, felt like – I never really felt like they had control of the game. I felt like we had control of the game. You look at the first half, I think we only had one three-and-out. Offensively, I thought they did a great job on first and second down, which was one of the targets that we talked about. Defensively, not so much. Defensively they only had, what, eight third downs in the game, and you just can’t win that way. When you look at the time of possession, you look at the movement we were able to get offensively in the run game and in the pass game, you look at the time of possession, that’s part of the formula. We’ve just got to continue to build on it. I will say the guys came out with energy, and even when our backs were against the wall, they still continued to play hard, which I definitely appreciate. I know the rest of the coaches and hopefully the fans appreciate it, as well. We’re playing hard. Do we need to get better? Absolutely, and that’s my job as the head coach of this football team. 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. A couple situations that came up, I’m sure that’s going to be part of the discussion. The fourth and 2, elected to kick a field goal. If it was fourth and 1, probably would have went for it, but it made it a one-score game. Then the Seattle situation showed up again, and I would say this: Every game is unique. It’s one of one, and I just felt like when I made those choices, it was the best thing to do for our football team today. Like I said, proud of the way those guys competed. Just got to clean up a few things.
Q: With what you just said and with how hard they played, how much do you maybe look at this one as a team you were facing had key veterans at the positions, Matthew Stafford and Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp and knew how to make plays when they needed to make plays compared to you guys just battling and trying to learn?
JM: Yeah, it’s part of it. Look, you win or you learn. That has to be our mindset. It would be a huge disservice if we don’t learn anything from this game. But that’s a good football team that we played today. But at the same time, I feel like we had our opportunities.
Q: I’m curious what you saw on that final play where Drake Maye was intercepted. What went wrong there?
JM: Just miscommunication. Which going back to the question earlier, you go back and look at the Rams versus the Seahawks and those guys making those plays down the stretch, and it was very impressive. Look, we’ll grow into being able to finish out, finish and close out these games. We’ve just got to go back to work, get on the practice field. Tomorrow we’ll clean up a lot of this stuff, and then Wednesday it’s change the page on to the next game.
Q: Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp both went for over 100 yards. Christian Gonzalez was just talking about how the game plan was for him to play on the boundary. Looked like the Rams were able to stay away from him. Do you regret the decision to not have him shadow one of those guys or to adjust quicker?
JM: Look, Kupp had the one reception which was a huge chunk of those yards. Look, going into the game, we have a plan, and we’re always willing to change that plan. Like I said earlier, I felt like we were going to be okay. I thought we could outlast them.
Q: You were talking about some of the game decisions. When you went up 7-0 second quarter early, I think it was like a 54-yard field goal for Joey Slye but ended up punting on that one, is that the one you were talking about, or is that a different one?
JM: No, that’s a different one. I was talking about the fourth and goal on the 2, making that a one-score game. And then really, the extra point versus the two-point conversion is always a conversation. I will say, look, anytime you get a kick blocked, too, it’s not a very good day.
Q: On that 54-yarder, what was it about that decision that you didn’t want to go 54 yards and ended up punting?
JM: Yeah, there were a lot of different factors that we take into account. 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.
Q: With the punt, with that punt, with the fourth and 2 which the fans clearly were not happy with, do you think you’re coaching to win?
JM: I’m always coaching to win. Look, every decision that I make won’t always be the popular one, and that’s part of this job.
Q: What do you think is preventing Ja’Lynn Polk and Javon Baker from having larger roles within the offense?
JM: Look, I think it’s important to remember those guys are rookies, and sometimes the expectation is that they’re just going to come in here and be All-Pros. That’s not it. Those guys, they work every day, and at some point they’ll hit an inflection point where they can help our team win.
Q: Tackle-eligible play to Vederian Lowe in the end zone. What ended up giving you confidence that Vederian was going to be able to make that play? Do you put him on the JUGS machine in practice?
JM: No JUGS machine for him. It was just something we worked on in practice, and anytime you see special plays like that, look, we’ve got to see it multiple times. It’s not like he’s run it one time in practice and you feel good about it. So he caught three balls in practice, so I felt pretty good about him.
Q: You had three pre-snap fouls offensively which cost you points. I was wondering what you thought about that and if there’s a message to the team?
JM: Yeah, the message is we can’t go backwards. I don’t care how good the team is, you never want to go backwards, and that definitely hurts us.
Q: From your perspective, obviously the team is competitive right now, but what are maybe one or two things that you feel are keeping you from winning these types of games, whether it’s from a decision-making standpoint as a coach or overall as a group and how do you get to a place where it’s better?
JM: Overall as a group it’s just consistency. That’s what it is, on a down-after-down basis.
Q: I wanted to ask about Christian Barmore’s day. What did you think of it overall?
JM: Yeah, I’m not sure what the final snap count was, but it was good just to see him back out there. Obviously he’s a disruptive presence, but today – with anyone, linebackers, defensive front – I don’t think we had any negative tackle for loss or anything like that, but it was good to have him out there, and first and foremost player safety is important, and I know he was excited about it.
Q: Going back to the decision to keep Christian Gonzalez in the boundary, I know he had a lot of success in Chicago, you guys basically running the same idea. As the game progresses here and they’re scoring with Kupp and Nacua, what was the logic behind keeping him in the boundary versus mixing that up a little bit more?
JM: Yeah, we just thought that was the best thing to do. It was a mix of man and zone, so we thought that was the best thing to do.
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