A porous Patriots defense implodes in the worst case scenario

Patriots

“I feel like a lot of guys think too highly of themselves and need to control their egos and just play as a team.”

When Jerod Mayo was asked about the Patriots’ poor defensive performance against the Texans last week, he didn’t mince his words.

“Defensively, I would say we just need to improve the fundamentals of tackling, our running pass,” Mayo said last Sunday after New England’s 41-21 loss to Houston. “You have to improve. I told all these people, ‘Today you should feel like crap.’ You should feel like crap.’ They take away those two long runs from us [allowed] two runs of 50 yards. You just don’t win football like that.”

Mayo did not waver from his stern messages to his defense throughout the week, announcing changes to the lineup ahead of Sunday’s game against the Jaguars at London’s Wembley Stadium.

Senior linebacker Jahlani Tavai agreed with his coach’s sentiments.

“People ran for over 100 yards on us,” Tavai said Wednesday after Houston beat New England with 192 rushing yards. “We have to take this personally. So I take it personally and I know the defensive players are.”

But Mayo and Tavai’s words ultimately rang hollow in London – prompting both New England’s head coach and linebacker to stick to the same angry script after another lopsided loss.

“We’re a soft football team across the board,” Mayo lamented after New England’s 32-16 loss to Jacksonville.

“He said it well,” Tavai said of Mayo’s harsh criticism. “And we have to look in the mirror and understand what it says. And if we agree to be soft, some people will fall away, and the rest of us who want to prove wrong will step in and make sure this doesn’t happen.”

Despite Tavai’s optimism, New England’s defense has continued to falter in recent weeks.

Once considered one of the few foundations of strength on New England’s rebuilding squad, the Patriots’ defense has eroded at the worst possible time – especially after the emergence of Drake Maye as the team’s QB1.

Despite another promising day for Maye (26 of 37, 276 yards, two touchdowns, zero turnovers), it did little to turn around New England’s fortunes across the pond – not with the razor-thin strength of its defense New England at the top.

A Jaguars team that entered Sunday’s game with an identical 1-5 record looked like a well-oiled offensive machine against New England on Sunday – gaining 364 total yards on offense, including 171 rushing yards.

According to Boston Sports Info, the Patriots have now given up at least 170 rushing yards in three straight games, a “feat” of defensive failure they haven’t accomplished since 1993.

“I would say it’s a mentality, it’s an attitude,” Mayo said. “I mean, the players…we just have to play better. We have to play with better technique. We have to lock out our guy in front of us, and I mean that’s what it really comes down to: locking out the guy in front of us, dominating him and making a tackle.”

Be it New England’s inability to slow down Jacksonville on the ground or through the air (a 58-yard catch by Brian Thomas Jr. with Christian Gonzalez in coverage helped set up one of Jacksonville’s TDs in a disastrous second quarter), the Patriots struggled to get the Jags off the field all afternoon in London.

In addition to Jacksonville landing multiple hits on New England’s defense, the Jags’ ability to run the ball with little resistance also helped keep the ball out of Maye’s hands – limiting New England’s chances of a comeback .

After the Patriots led in time of possession in the first quarter (11:30 to 3:30), the Jaguars held for nearly two full quarters the rest of the way (29:45 to 15:15). Maye and the Patriots ran just five plays total in the third quarter.

At one point, Jacksonville managed a 17-play, 84-yard drive that lasted a whopping 11:24 minutes – the longest drive in the NFL since 2022 in terms of time of possession.

As 98.5 The Sports Hub’s Alex Barth noted, it was the longest drive the Patriots had given up since at least 2001 (when Pro Football Reference began collecting data).

With New England unable to slow down players like Tank Bigsby (26 carries, 118 yards), the Jaguars continued to waste time – running the ball on 17 consecutive plays in the second half.

As Maye’s six-play, 94-yard touchdown drive in the fourth quarter, completed in under three minutes, proves, New England’s high-energy offense has the tools to march down the field and claw its way back into games.

But those chances will be slim if the team’s defense can’t get off the field.

“Jerod just said (after the game) that everyone needs to check their egos coming in,” Patriots defensive tackle Daniel Ekuale said Boston Heralds Andrew Callahan. “And I agree with him. I feel like a lot of guys think too highly of themselves and need to control their egos and just play as a team. I feel like no one can stop us when we play as a team.

“But if we go out there and do our own thing and play outside the mold, we’re going to get beat.”

The Patriots defense would inevitably take a hit in the run game, especially without Ja’Whaun Bentley, Christian Barmore and Jabrill Peppers anchoring all three levels of New England’s structure.

But even without those three playmakers, New England’s defensive decline over the last month has been staggering – and has marred a stretch of the season that should have been full of optimism following Maye’s arrival.

“There are 11 players on the field,” Tavai noted. “It takes one person on defense to screw up an entire play. We have to be consistent. You can’t do your job in one game and then play another. So all 11 guys on the field that were out there at that point just had to do our job.”