BOSTON -- We have to start with a few things if we're going to be forthright and honest about the present-day situation with the head coach of the New England Patriots.
First, there's this: The Patriots have a bottom-five roster in the NFL in terms of talent. They're going to finish the year with four wins, five if they're lucky, and that is more or less the ceiling of a team with this level of talent. Those were the expectations entering the year, and nothing has changed to divert that course.
Second, there's the obvious: The previous head coach was a man named Bill Belichick, and he was not exactly known as someone who willingly provided illuminating answers while speaking to the media. Abrasive, terse, tense, avoidant -- whatever you want to call it. Belichick offered up very little after games and especially after losses. But he also had the cachet that came with having won six Super Bowls, so there was a large element at play of the man generally being able to behave however he saw fit.
And lastly: Press conference quotes don't necessarily really matter for a football team. What happens on the field and on the sideline and on the practice fields and in the meeting rooms is what actually matters.
So, take this with those caveats in mind, but Jerod Mayo was flat-out delusional when he spoke to the media following Sunday's 28-22 home loss to the Los Angeles Rams.
And you can start with this quote:
I felt like we had control of the game. You look at the first half, I think we only had one three-and-out. ... When you look at the time of possession, you look at the movement we were able to get offensively in the run game and in the pass game, you look at the time of possession, that's part of the formula. We've just got to continue to build on it.
To be clear, there were plenty of positives for the Patriots to take away from this one. But having control of the game?
After stumbling on their first two third downs of the game, here's what the Rams' five possessions in the second and third quarters looked like:
Nine plays, 80 yards, touchdown
One play, 12 yards, touchdown
Eleven plays, 62 yards, missed FG
Two plays, 70 yards, touchdown
Seven plays, 72 yards, touchdown
That's 30 plays for 296 yards for 28 points (plus a missed chip shot field goal). The fact that the Rams needed just 10:23 to inflict all of that damage does not mean the Patriots controlled the game.
Two of the major reasons the Rams were able to go on that offensive run were Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua, the two players who are by far the biggest threats on the L.A. offense. Fortunately for the Patriots, they employ an antidote for at least one of those players with Christian Gonzalez, who has proven in his young career that he can neutralize (or completely shut out) some of the best receivers in the world.
Yet Gonzalez wasn't asked to cover Kupp. Or Nacua. He spent the whole game on the boundary, where veteran head coach Sean McVay was smart enough to keep sending Demarcus Robinson.
When asked why he went with this coaching strategy, Mayo offered up an answer that bordered on insanity:
Look, Kupp had the one reception which was a huge chunk of those yards. Look, going into the game, we have a plan, and we're always willing to change that plan. Like I said earlier, I felt like we were going to be okay. I thought we could outlast them.
The one reception that accounted for a huge chunk of those yards was a 69-yard catch-and-run that came with ... Jonathan Jones in coverage on Kupp and Marcus Jones covering Nacua. Jonathan Jones cannot cover Cooper Kupp, and that's precisely why Cooper Kupp scored a walk-in 69-yard touchdown on the second play of the second half. Dismissing that back-breaking yardage and score because it was just one play is a baffling move for a head coach, who probably could have used the halftime break to adjust the plan.
Kupp also scored a touchdown when lined up near the goal line against Dell Pettus. There is -- with respect -- no world where a defensive coach would like to have an undrafted rookie out of Troy lined up against Cooper Kupp. And -- not so shockingly -- what resulted was the easiest touchdown of Kupp's entire career.
You can see Christian Gonzalez on the other side of the field, covering a tight end who was never in one million years even going to get so much as a glance from Matthew Stafford on the play.
That's bad coaching, plain and simple.
Nacua also terrorized the Patriots' secondary, catching five passes for 80 yards and a touchdown in the second quarter alone. (The touchdown came with Jonathan Jones getting roasted in coverage.) The Rams barely possessed the ball in the third quarter (two touchdown drives on nine total plays) so Nacua's takeover faded a bit. But then, in a gotta-have-it situation for the Patriots' defense, the undersized Marcus Jones got outmuscled on a third-and-3, allowing Nacua to make a six-yard catch with 2:40 left in the game, forcing the Patriots to use two timeouts on defense. (Jonathan Jones did have a pass breakup on a third-down shot to Nacua.)
And unfortunately for Mayo, he doubled down on his stance when asked a follow-up question on the strategy of not using his best to cover the Rams' best.
Yeah, we just thought that was the best thing to do. It's a mix of man and zone, so we thought that was the best thing to do.
"Doing what's best for the team" is of course a stock answer that Mayo is borrowing from his former mentor. But again, when a six-time Super Bowl-winning coach says it, there's at least some backing to such a statement. When Mayo says something was the best thing to do after it was clearly and obviously not the best thing to do? it is uninspiring, to say the very least.
Is that all too much analysis of a press conference? Perhaps! At 3-8, is this team more or less riding on the exact path predicted for them this season? Of course!
So it would be wrong (and then some) to use all or any of this to point a finger at Jerod Mayo and say he's responsible for where the Patriots currently are. It's just that with a new coach learning on the job, we're also learning about his process and his philosophies. And what came out Sunday afternoon wasn't particularly inspiring.
With that one all sewn up, do you have any appetite for some leftover thoughts?
--Drake Maye is the real deal. We see glimmers of it each and every week, and though he still made the rookie mistake to end the game, he displayed some high-level quarterbacking throughout the game. He's got a long way to go before he's good enough to elevate a team with this lack of talent on the O-line and at receiver, but when you remember that he just turned 22 years old on August 30, you remember that allllllll of his development from in-game experience right now is gravy. And that's a good thing for Maye and the Patriots.
--Maye will get criticized for turning it over on the strip sack ... but he absolutely shouldn't. Watch center Ben Brown lay out a red carpet for the 291-pound Braden Fiske to fly in and destroy Maye before the QB could even think about ripping a pass.
--Ja'Lynn Polk was, however, open at the sticks on that play. Maye wasn't looking. In fact, Maye wasn't ever really looking at Polk, who was on the field for 31 offensive snaps but was not targeted a single time. The 37th overall pick has just 11 receptions for 80 yards (and two TDs) on the season, and he's caught just three passes since Week 5, with three zero-catch performances and an inactive week in that stretch. Polk was the 10th receiver drafted in April, but he ranks 18th among rookie wide receivers in receiving yards and 15th in receptions. (He is tied for ninth with his two touchdowns though.)
On the plus side, Polk doesn't look lost and overmatched the way that N'Keal Harry and Tyquan Thornton did as rookies. But the production is going to have to tick up, especially with fellow rookie Drake Maye already looking so solid. (I'm actually giving him a pass on the false start, though, because the play clock had already expired.)
--That being said, Maye screwed up at the end of the game. On the one hand, a quarterback is always going to be aggressive to the point of recklessness on a do-or-die drive to try to lead a come-from-behind drive. On the other hand, he rushed this decision and sailed his pass after assuming DeMario Douglas was going to settle down over the middle instead of running to open space for a potential big gain.
--If there's one positive to take from that game-ending pick, it was Maye's answer at the podium when asked about what went wrong.
"Just got to be on the same page, and I think Pop did the right thing," Maye said. "I guess got to just talk through more conversations. That just goes back to me during the week doing more, talking through different situations, 'Hey, I may put this one on you versus let it rip.' So that's about it."
There's no B.S. with Maye, who shows a lot of maturity on and off the field at just 22 years old.
--It doesn't make headlines the way talking about a quarterback or head coach will, but man oh man, the Patriots' run defense is terrible. Their pass rush was also nonexistent Sunday a week after sacking Caleb Williams nine times. Jahlani Tavai, Christian Elliss and Sione Takitaki getting extended runs at linebacker spots realistically presents as much of an issue for this team as the much-ballyhooed problems on the O-line and at wide receiver. Throw in the aforementioned coverage issues and some shaky tackling by Kyle Dugger, and it's a small miracle that the Rams only scored 28 points in this one.
--Hey, here's another positive for you: The Patriots employ a player who can throw out a Ferocious Juke with the best of 'em:
--Kendrick Bourne also had an admirable bounce-back game after getting benched a week ago. The recovery from the torn knee is surely limiting his normal level of athleticism, but he used his experience and -- frankly -- sheer determination to double his receiving yardage on the season and score his first touchdown of the year on Sunday.
--Vederian Lowe caught a touchdown pass, which wasn't on anybody's Bingo card. He said after the game that he had always dreamed of catching a touchdown, that he felt like he could have been a tight end growing up because he had good hands. Drake Maye offered a funny description of the ball he threw to the big man, saying, "I tried to give him a nice pass. I think hopefully my mom probably could have caught it."
--Zooming out on the rest of the season, and it's going to be a legitimate challenge for the Patriots to secure win No. 4. The Dolphins looked like they got some things together on Sunday, with Tua Tagavailoa lighting up the Raiders. The Colts (New England's Week 13 opponent) showed some spunk with a comeback road win over the Jets on Sunday. After the bye, it's the Cardinals, who have won four straight games, the last two of which were total blowouts. Then it's two games in three weeks against the Bills, who will almost certainly be gunning for the bye in the AFC after beating the Chiefs on Sunday, with those games sandwiched around a home date with the 7-3 Chargers.
I still think they get the fourth win, but getting there won't be easy. And that potential fifth win does feel difficult to dream up at this point in time.
And that would, obviously, leave the Patriots exactly where they were last year with Bill Belichick, at 4-13. That would help fuel tweets and columns and angry sports radio calls, but it might not do a ton for the actual organization.
For now, the takeaway from this Patriots game remains the same as it's been for a while: At least we all get to watch Drake Maye play football again next weekend.