New England Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo wasn't pleased with his team's performance during their 32-16 defeat to the Jacksonville Jaguars in London on Sunday.
Mayo described the team as "soft" as they dropped their sixth straight game to fall to 1-6 on the season.
"We're a soft football team across the board," Mayo said. "We talk about what makes a tough football team, and that's being able to run the ball, being able to stop the run and that's being able to cover kicks. We did none of those."
The Jaguars ran for 171 yards with Tank Bigsby recording 118 of those yards and two touchdowns and Parker Washington returned a punt 96 yards for a score.
One observer in the football world who disagreed with Mayo's description of his team and may be slyly pointing a finger at coaching is Bill Belichick.
The former Patriots head coach chimed in on Monday during his weekly spot on "The Pat McAfee Show" to defend his old team.
"The Patriots led the league in rushing defense last year and they still have a lot of those players..
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) October 21, 2024
I'm hurt for those guys because they're not soft..
I feel bad for the defensive players because they're all tough players" ~ Bill Belichick #PMSLive pic.twitter.com/wVN9ufcNMg
"The Patriots led the league last year in rushing defense, yards per carry, No. 1 in league. This year, they're way down in the 20s somewhere. It's the same guys.
"They re-signed [Anfernee] Jennings, they re-signed [Jahlani] Tavai. They re-signed obviously [Kyle] Dugger, right? Marcus Jones and [Christian] Gonzalez have been healthy all year which they were both on IR at this point last year. You've got [Deatrich] Wise, you've got [Devon] Godchaux. You've got Keion White, you got [Marte] Mapu, three rookies from last year. It's a lot of the same players, and in some cases, I would say more."
"I'm kind of hurt for those guys because to call them soft, they're not soft. They were the best team in the league last year against the run. Those guys went out there and did it it even though we couldn't score many points offensively. I feel bad for the defensive players on that one because those guys, that's a tough group. ... Those guys are all tough players. They'll strap it up and go."
Last season, the Patriots allowed 3.3 yards per rush attempt, tops in the NFL as Belichick noted. This season that number is up to 4.6 yards allowed per carry, tied for seventh-most in the league.
Mayo clarified his use of "soft" on WEEI's "Greg Hill Show" on Monday, saying that the team's play was soft, not the players.
"Let me just go ahead and correct that. We're playing soft, OK?" Mayo said. "Because if you look at the first — going back to training camp, there was definitely some toughness all around the place and we still had the same players and we just got to play that way."
Sitting at the bottom of the AFC East through seven weeks, the Patriots face the New York Jets on Sunday and a seventh straight loss would only deepen their hole in the division.
