Head Coach Jerod Mayo 11/11: "The young players are definitely growing up..."

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Pats from the Past. Tune in as Matt Smith and Paul Perillo offer in-depth interviews with some of the greatest players and coaches in New England Patriots history.

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Joined by the newest member of the Patriots Hall of Fame, Mike Ravel.

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Find out what led to some of the greatest moments in franchise history and unique behind-the-scenes insight.

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And pleased to be joined by former Patriot quarterback Brian Hoyer. Joined by number 37 on your scorecard, but number one in our hearts at least, Rodney Harrison.

Rodney Harrison (0:23)

Good to be home, good to see you guys.

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Jerod Mayo (0:30)

Yep, thanks Stace. You know, first and foremost, this is definitely a huge day, obviously in our nation and personally in our household. And I just want to personally thank all the veterans for their service, for their sacrifice coming from a military background. My grandfather was a chief massive sergeant in the Air Force. My mom works Langley Air Force Base. My stepdad, you know, also a veteran, I have nothing but appreciation for everything you do. And I think it's important to say, especially when we have the platform to say something. Moving on to the game, kind of hit on it last night, I thought. Overall, you know, just the message of physicality and just moving guys. I thought, you know, when I watched the film, you could see that for the majority of the game. I thought offensively, we did a good job handling the down guys in the run game.

Just getting the back started. And it was a stark contrast to the game before, where, you know, it was, you know, we would get behind the sticks and it would be second and 12 and second and 10, second and 11 I thought this week, really, I don't think we had any negative runs in the run game. I think we had a couple of no, like four or five, no gains, but no negative runs. And that's the way we have to win this. This game as a whole, to me, reminded me of the Cincinnati game. As far as really controlling the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and controlling the time of possession, it was very, very similar to that game. I thought the receivers did a better job, you know, blocking in the run game. You know, they did a good job doing that. And then also getting open, catching some balls. Thought Drake went out there and made some plays. I think, you know, he'll watch the film and he'll be critical of himself. But at the same time, I think there were some plays that we left out there. The one thing offensively, which was disappointing for me, was just the red area. I thought, you know, going into the game out of the last nine drives, you know, we had eight touchdowns and one field goal. And then yesterday to go one for five was was a step back. But I fully anticipate us getting back on track. We'll definitely make that opponent emphasis this week and going forward, as we as we always have defensively. I thought the front did a good job. I thought Farms went in there and and definitely gave us a spark. So I was happy to see that. But all those guys, especially the interior guys, for the most part, played pretty well. Now, there were a few runs that did squeak through, but I thought they did a decent job for us. You know, the edge at times, I wouldn't say it was a problem, but it was a little softer than we would have liked it to be. I thought the defensive backs really tried to come up and support some of those plays, which was encouraging to see. I think the young players are definitely growing up. I think Marte is taking a step forward, even though he didn't play that much, especially in our early downs. I just think his overall communication and control of the defense continues to improve while we don't have the other guys in there. I thought the linebackers went out there and tried to play hard. I thought Jelani definitely did a good job with the front adjustments and that communication and also, you know, obviously coming up with the big play as far as the sack. Special teams, Marcus continues to be a huge weapon for us. Our punter, huge weapon for us, our kicker, huge weapon for us.

You know, to be able to go out there and kick perfect game 4 for 4 with Joey Sly. And then, you know, after that first point, I thought Bryce really settled in and, you know, his confidence is where we want it to be, where we need it to be. And we're going to definitely lean on him as far as a guy that can flip the field for us. You know, saying that, you know, our pump coverage is special in that first one. We have to do a better job. And this is, I say it every single week, we have to continue to improve and we have to improve fast because these other teams are watching that stuff on film as well. And so as we continue to go to the self scout and stuff like that, or even watching this tape, there are definitely things that we have to do better. Now, in closing, I would say, like, this is, we're at this point in the season, this is who we are. We have to go out there. We have to control the line of scrimmage. We have to be able to run the ball. We have to stay ahead of the sticks. We have to play good defense. We have to get off the field and third down, which we did yesterday by a mix of generating pressure and also coverage, and play good special teams. And this is the formula. And as I always say, I use this as a microphone, not only to give you guys information, but also to talk to the players. So players, this is how we need to play going forward.