Belichick, Brady react to Mayo’s candid comments after Pats-Jags originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo was very candid in assessing his team’s performance after Sunday’s 32-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Mayo talked about the team’s inability to run the football or defend the run as key issues. But the comment that got everyone’s attention was when he said, “We’re a soft football team across the board.”
Mayo did his best to amend his comments, telling WEEI on Monday that the team isn’t soft, it’s just playing soft.
Either way, calling out your team like that in a public setting, especially when the players’ toughness is mentioned, is a bold move.
Former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was critical of Mayo’s comments during his weekly Pat McAfee Show appearance Monday on ESPN, but he wasn’t done there. Belichick also was critical of Mayo during the Let’s Go! podcast with co-hosts Jim Gray and Tom Brady on Monday.
“I think when you criticize your team publicly like that, it doesn’t always go over well,” Belichick said. “Every coach has their own style, and maybe sometimes that can be effective. But ultimately I always felt that when the team played bad, that was my responsibility, too.
“We might have had bad playing, but we had bad coaching that led to bad playing. So I think it’s always best to kinda take a look at yourself and do what you can do to help the team. And if you have constructive criticism as a coach, that’s your job.”
“Last year the Patriots led the league in rushing defense in yards per carry, No. 1 in the league. This year, they’re 26th or whatever it is. It’s the same players. I don’t think those players on defense are soft. But they haven’t stopped the run very well this year.”
Brady also chimed in after Belichick.
“I think that’s an interesting point, too, coach, because I think when we say something like that, Jim, and you say, ‘are they soft?’ We think that that’s almost like a trait,” Brady said. “And I think the thing I always learned from Coach Belichick was there’s actually statistics that support that.
“Toughness was about stopping the run and running the football and covering kicks. And if we did all three of those things on the teams that I was a part of, we considered ourselves a physical football team. … The teams that are tough, and to me, that’s a statistical thing as well, just look at the teams that run the ball well and stop the run, and I think that’s the answer you’re looking for.”
Belichick wasn’t very critical of his predecessor or former team early in the season, but with the Patriots sitting at the bottom of the standings with a 1-6 record and somehow playing worse than last season, he has not been afraid to speak his mind over the last two weeks.
Next up for the Patriots is their second and final matchup of the season against Aaron Rodgers and the New York Jets. Kickoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. ET on Sunday at Gillette Stadium.
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