Jerod Mayo says Patriots are a ‘soft football team across the board’ following loss to Jaguars in London

The New England Patriots have dropped to 1-6 on the season after an overall demoralizing loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London. The club jumped out to a 10-0 lead through the opening minutes of the second quarter, but then was left in the dust by the Jaguars, who ripped off 25 unanswered points en route to the 32-16 victory. 

A large part of that winning effort was Jacksonville simply outmuscling New England on the ground, rushing for 171 yards as a team on 39 total carries. That effort led first-year head coach Jerod Mayo to call out his team directly in the aftermath of the defeat. 

“Look, we are a soft football team across the board,” Mayo told reporters. “We talk about what makes a tough football team, that’s being able to run the football, that’s being able to stop the run, and that’s being able to cover kicks. We did none of those today.” 

By Monday, however, Mayo had — very slightly — changed his tune. “We don’t have a soft football team,” the head coach said during a radio appearance, via MassLive. “We’re playing soft.”

Of those 171 rushing yards, 121 of them came in the second half, as it seemed like the Jaguars could pick up yards on the ground whenever they wanted to. At one point, Jacksonville, when including Trevor Lawrence scrambles, and ran the ball 17 straight times in the second half. 

“They controlled the ball for most of the day,” Mayo continued. “Their run game averaged over 4.5 yards a carry. Our run game, not sure what the average was, but it wasn’t good. Look, back to the drawing board. We can’t sit here and pout. We just got to put a game together.” 

Meanwhile, New England’s running back left a lot to be desired. On the day, Patriots running backs totaled 20 yards rushing on 12 carries.

“It’s a mentality,” Mayo said about the run game. “It’s an attitude. Here, as of late, our run game just hasn’t been able to do anything offensively. And then defensively, we just got to play better.” 

On top of the ground game, the special teams unit allowed a 96-yard punt return for a touchdown, where Mayo said he saw “guys getting out-leveraged.”

The Patriots will head back to Foxborough, Massachusetts, and look to turn the tide when they host the New York Jets in Week 8.