Head Coach Jerod Mayo 10/14: "We have to steady the ship"

Jerod Mayo (0:00)

All right, good morning. You know, said this last night, obviously disappointed in our performance overall.

You know, we just got to play better, we got to coach better. We, you know, we got to win the turnover battle, we got to do a better job with penalties early in the game. Had a lot of penalties that just, you know, nothing good comes from that. I would say in the second half, it kind of settled down as far as the penalties were concerned, but we just can't play that way. Defensively, I would say, just big plays. Big plays killed us, you know. They had two runs that, you know, were over 50 yards. You take those away, and it looks a lot better, but at the same time, like, that's what the NFL is. You got to limit those big plays, and then offensively, we have to make big plays. I thought yesterday, overall, Drake did a good job with his reads and getting the ball out. Was it perfect? No. Will he get better? Absolutely. But we got to do a better job. You know, supporting a rookie quarterback yesterday, the run game, something that we've been good at for the majority of the year, was non-existent. And we just got to get back to the basics.

SPEAKER_2 (1:11)

And with that, we'll open up for questions.

SPEAKER_3 (1:12)

We'll start with Christopher Gasper followed by Doug Kyd.

Dakota Randle (1:20)

Chris?

SPEAKER_2 (1:21)

Chris, can you hear me?

SPEAKER_5 (1:24)

Christopher Price is here. I don't know if Christopher Gasper is here.

SPEAKER_3 (1:27)

Oh, geez, I'm sorry. That's my fault.

SPEAKER_2 (1:29)

Sorry, Chris Price.

Jerod Mayo (1:31)

Sorry.

SPEAKER_5 (1:32)

Thank you, Stacey. I appreciate that. Jerod, specific to Drake's performance, I'm curious to get your opinion on what you might have seen from him after rewatch of the game, what you might not necessarily been cognizant of or aware of in the immediate aftermath of Sunday's contest.

Jerod Mayo (1:47)

I mean, we knew he could make plays with his legs. We knew he had a good arm and can really push the ball down the field. I would say the thing that was a pleasant surprise, he did take some shots yesterday. I think there were one or two where he got up a little bit slow, but just his overall toughness, I think, was on display yesterday.

SPEAKER_5 (2:04)

Thank you.

Jerod Mayo (2:05)

Thank you.

SPEAKER_2 (2:07)

Dan Kine, followed by Mike Reese.

SPEAKER_3 (2:09)

Good morning, Jerod. I feel like I have questions for you. What made Ben Brown the right guy to start at center in that game yesterday? And then also, how do you feel like he performed?

Jerod Mayo (2:22)

Look, this is one of those things I've never seen before, a guy being able to come in here after four or five days and become a starting center. So he did a great job.

I would say he probably was our best lineman yesterday, and he did a good job for us. He did a good job all through the week during practice, and then went out there and performed pretty well.

SPEAKER_3 (2:44)

We have another quick one. On Joe Cardona, I think he was listed with a calf injury on the injury report, but then I think that was updated to a personal reason. I just want to get some clarification on why Cardona missed the game.

Jerod Mayo (2:56)

Yeah, I don't want to talk about the exact incident. He had a family matter that he needed to attend to, and we allowed that to happen.

SPEAKER_3 (3:08)

Thank you. Next question, Mike Brees. And hold for just a second, guys. There's some background noise. I'm going to mute all lines, and then we'll come back on in one second.

SPEAKER_2 (3:28)

Okay, we'll try that again.

SPEAKER_5 (3:29)

Mike, please.

SPEAKER_2 (3:31)

Jerod, you mentioned the two runs over 50 yards. When you went back to watch them on the tape, what did you see that contributed to allowing those runs?

Jerod Mayo (3:41)

Poor run fits, poor tackling, and then we couldn't catch them.

SPEAKER_2 (3:48)

And in a game situation question that worked out for you at the end of the second quarter on the illegal shift penalty, when you, I think you didn't decline it to make it third and ten.

Jerod Mayo (4:05)

No, we declined it because it was a seven yard. We thought those two yards would be beneficial if we had to kick the ball.

SPEAKER_2 (4:12)

Gotcha. Just wanted to follow up on that, and they end up missing the field goal, right?

Mark Daniels (4:16)

Yeah.

SPEAKER_2 (4:17)