Head Coach Jerod Mayo on WEEI 10/21: "We need to win football games, not only now, we need to build for the future as well"

SPEAKER_1 (0:00)

Hi, Coach, how are you doing? Doing alright. So you focused this week, big focus in practice, starting fast, and you get over there and you started fast.

Jerod Mayo (0:09)

Well, thanks for starting this off on a positive note. Yeah, they did, you know, the guys started fast, you know, I think defensively we only had five plays in the first quarter. I thought Drake went out there and, you know, really ran the offense, ran the script the right way, made plays, and you know, we scored a touchdown, so that was good to see.

SPEAKER_1 (0:27)

When you, your expectations for a rookie quarterback in his second game, has he exceeded those? Is he right where you thought he'd be?

Jerod Mayo (0:34)

I mean, I mean, it's kind of, you know, it's kind of where we thought he would be. He's progressing. You know, last game he had, what, three turnovers. This game, no turnovers, and that's progress. And so we we look forward to seeing that continue in the future.

SPEAKER_3 (0:47)

Jerod, when you say after the game, because we've been talking about this and we're trying to figure it out, that your team is soft, playing soft, playing soft.

Jerod Mayo (0:55)

Yeah, and let me just go ahead and correct that. We're playing soft.

SPEAKER_3 (0:57)

Okay.

Jerod Mayo (0:58)

Because if you look at the first, going back to training camp, there was definitely some toughness all around the place and we still have the same players and we just got to play that way.

SPEAKER_3 (1:06)

So like when you say playing soft, is that like they're not rallying to the football, they're making mental mistakes? Like, give me some context to it.

Jerod Mayo (1:18)

To me, I said it last night. We got to be able to run the ball. We have to stop the run and cover kicks. And we did none of those. And that's what equals a tough football team.

SPEAKER_4 (1:26)

Would you say that the team last year played soft?

Jerod Mayo (1:29)

At times. At times, last year we played soft. At times, there have always been games within each individual season where you feel like you played soft that game. And like I said, to correct what I said, it's not that we have a soft football team. We are just playing soft over the past few weeks.

SPEAKER_5 (1:45)

When you look at the game yesterday though, Drake Maye seems like he has no issue or he's not nervous about throwing the ball and getting it downfield.

It seemed like there were points yesterday where that could have been helpful for you guys. And I know you're not AVP, but you talk about the script. Why is he handing off the ball so often instead of just telling him, hey, open it up, do whatever you want?

Jerod Mayo (2:05)

Yeah, I don't think it was so often. In my opinion, it was two drives that we're really talking about where we got kind of away from the pass game. Two, three and out. So we're talking about six plays and five of those being runs. But after that, I mean, we did try to push the ball.

SPEAKER_3 (2:19)

What do you think that you can do and the coaching staff can do to get your guys back to playing that tough mentality of football? What can you maybe do in practice? Something differently after you're evaluating this?

Jerod Mayo (2:31)

Yeah, we practice hard every Wednesday. We're in full pads and it's just about embracing the grind, embracing the suck and just going out there and getting it done.

SPEAKER_1 (2:39)

Your old teammate Devin McCourty said when last night said, when you hear about a team that's not tough, a team that's soft as you said or playing soft, you think about the head coach and you have to ask that head coach what he's doing to get these guys ready. Are you doing enough to get them ready?

Jerod Mayo (3:02)

Sorry, I think I am. And in saying that, look, obviously, our record does not reflect that. We are where our record says we are. We are a one in six football team right now. You know, as far as practice and really demanding a lot from the players, we all do that from a coaching perspective. And, you know, maybe we have to do it a little bit more, but we are what our record says we are.

SPEAKER_1 (3:20)

Do you feel like you have the right leaders in the locker room that can, if it becomes necessary for teammates to motivate teammates? Do you have the right guys?

Jerod Mayo (3:30)