Head Coach Jerod Mayo 11/25: "It comes down to focus and concentration, especially when you’re on the road"

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Jerod Mayo (0:32)

Still felt the same way after watching the film. Just a very disappointing performance overall. And like I said last night, it starts with me and the coaches and the players just going out there executing, which we did not do yesterday. I would say offensively, the turnovers continue to be an issue, protection continues to be an issue, and then also the penalties. And it was from the very start. I think we had four or five penalties in the first quarter. Which, we've seen this at certain times during the season, and I thought we had to correct it. But obviously not. And it comes down to really just focus and concentration, especially when you're on the road. It's the pre-snap stuff, the operational things that you get frustrated by, but we had to clean that up. Defensively, did a better job in the run game, but then you give up the big plays. And we knew where they wanted to throw the ball, and we knew that they had some fast guys out there, and we just weren't able to go out there and get in the windows that we've talked about all week. Had to do a better job there, and I want to say to start tackling. It always goes back to fundamentals. We can talk about X's and O's, all you want. It comes back to fundamentals, you know, block destruction and tackling and attacking the ball. Those things definitely did not show up yesterday. And special teams, I would say special teams, besides the Miss Field goal, nothing of note there. But just overall, we have to get better, and that starts this week, you know.

It's a weird week with Thanksgiving being on Thursday, but we have to work. We have to go out there and practice. We have to go out there in pads, and we have to continue to get better. And that's always been my focus with this team.

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We'll open up for questions. We'll start with Doug Kine, followed by Sophie Weller.

Doug Kine (2:12)

Morning, Jerod. Apologize for background noise. I'm in an airport. But Jonathan Jones and Kyle Dugger both talked about players not being locked in last night and maybe a lack of focus. What do you think led to some of that, you know, players not being locked in, lack of focus, and is it on coaches to not only make sure the guys are locked in and focused, but to put players who are locked in and focused on the field?

Jerod Mayo (2:36)

My thing with that, we had our night before the game meeting, and the guys were definitely locked in and focused. And then you get out there on the field and you could see some of the communication problems that were happening on the field. Now, it's easy to say, we'll just put a guy here, put a guy in, take this guy out. But then you have to think about who you're putting in there. And that's kind of where we are right now.

Doug Kine (2:59)

And just one follow up question as well. After a loss like that, what does a team meeting look like, whether it's today or tomorrow or whenever?

Jerod Mayo (3:08)

Yeah, I mean, look, those are those hard meetings where you have to address the elephant in the room. But it's no secret, the good thing about this sport, it's all recorded and you can go back and forth on it, but the film doesn't lie.

Doug Kine (3:26)

Next question, Sophie Roller, followed by Mike Reese.

Sophie Weller (3:29)

Morning, Jerod, I was just curious, Christian Barmore got a sack yesterday, just knowing everything he's gone through this season with the possibility of not even being able to play. What was it like to see him have a moment like that?

Jerod Mayo (3:45)

In the moment, I was really just focused on the game, looking back at it and looking at it on film. So happy for him to get back out there on the field, it's what he truly loves to do.