Head Coach Jerod Mayo on WEEI 10/14: "We all look forward to seeing him [Drake Maye] grow"

Greg Hill (0:00)

Hello, Coach. How are you doing? Good, how are you? I'm doing well. Not likely that you're going to win a football game when you turn the ball over four times.

Jerod Mayo (0:07)

No, that's right. When you turn the ball over four times, it's tough to walk away with the win.

Greg Hill (0:12)

We were talking earlier about penalties. I know you talked about this a little bit post-game, but 12 last week, nine this week, over 100 yards. How do you, what do you do to fix that?

Jerod Mayo (0:22)

It finally settled down in the second half as far as penalties are concerned. I would say in the first half, I think we had seven penalties there, and we just got to continue to chip at the rock and be a more disciplined football team.

Greg Hill (0:34)

What did you see Drake Maye led the offense to season high when it came to points, touchdowns? What did you see from him yesterday?

Jerod Mayo (0:45)

No, offensively, early in the game, we started slow, but when he settled in, he was able to really take control of the offense and push the ball down the field. You saw him make plays with his legs, you saw him make plays with his arms. I don't want to forget about our center, Ben Brown, who he came in at the start. He was here for five days and I thought he did a great job yesterday to only be here five days and to go out there and play like that is definitely special.

SPEAKER_3 (1:13)

Jerod, one of the things that I really liked watching Drake was, he didn't make the same mistakes late in the game that he did make early in the game. I guess from watching that, it's always good to see guys trend in the right direction when it comes to not repeating the same mistakes that you get that same takeaway.

Jerod Mayo (1:33)

100 percent. We always talk about not being repeat error guys, and that's at every position and you could see that Drake is not one of those guys.

Greg Hill (1:42)

Hindsight being 2020, what you saw yesterday, do you wish you started them earlier?

Jerod Mayo (1:47)

Look, we came into the season with the plan, and you guys have heard about the plan all the time. I haven't mentioned that before. I would say for the plan, I thought it was just, we always had to try to put the team in the best position to win games. Now, in saying that historically, look, Jacoby has not turned the ball over and was able to go out there and operate. We knew that Drake was trending to be the starting quarterback, and we felt like this was the time to do it, and he gave our team the best chance to win.

SPEAKER_4 (2:14)

Greg brings up the turnovers, and I know that's not something you want to see, but when it comes to Drake specifically, the two interceptions, the strip sack, is that a nerve thing? Did you think that he was nervous going into that game? Is that a mistake that's made because you're nervous about your first one?

Jerod Mayo (2:28)

I wouldn't say nervous, but I think any athlete or in any profession, really, when you're on a big stage, you're gonna have a little bit of nerves. Now in saying that, the one overthrow, I mean, that was obviously disappointing, and then the tip pass on the screen. Other than that, I thought he did a good job going through his reads, getting the ball out on time for the most part, and running the offense.

SPEAKER_3 (2:50)

Jerod, when you look at now with his ability, is this something that maybe we see Alex Van Pelt say, okay, we're gonna try to utilize his legs a little bit more with more designed RPOs, or whether it's designed bootlegs and nakeds, or maybe he can maybe open up the playbook in other areas because of just his athletic skill set versus Jacoby.

Jerod Mayo (3:14)

Yeah, absolutely, and I know people talk about, we need more creative plays and things like that. But going back to the offensive line, we still have not settled on an offensive line. I know the focus is always on the quarterback and what he can understand. And Drake is a very smart person. Now in saying that, it's not just him out there on the field. It's also other guys out there that need to be on the same page. But I do think going forward, hopefully the O-line kind of settles down, even though we lost low yesterday. Hopefully when that starts to settle down, we can start adding new plays in there. And that comes just from practicing together with the same group.