Following the Patriots' Wild Card blowout loss to the Bills, some have said the Patriots defense needs to change the way it does things and have one lead voice.
The team does not have an official defensive coordinator, while Jerod Mayo and Steve Belichick both have bigger roles than the other coaches, including Belichick calling the plays on gameday.
Appearing on Merloni & Fauria Wednesday, Mayo seemed to push back on that notion and defended the way the team is doing things.
“What I will say is even back when B-Flo [Brian Flores] was here, he was never named the coordinator," Mayo said. "Even when Matt Patricia was here, he was named the coordinator but it took awhile for him to get that title. I would say Steve and I have a great working relationship, and all the defensive coaches have a great working relationship. As far as Matty P. [Patricia] is concerned, he’s involved in a lot of different aspects of the team, right? He’s helping Coach with a lot of different things.
“But, defensively I would say we have a pretty good process. If you were to zoom out, forget the whole recency bias of what happened in Buffalo. I get that. We played like crap. I’ll take that on my shoulders, as a coach and everything. I hope the players feel the same way. But, if you zoom out, this defense still ended up third in scoring, seventh in yards. People will say, ‘Well, you didn’t play teams at their full strength.’ Alright, we still played Tampa Bay, they were at full strength. We still played the Dallas Cowboys, which they were at full strength. We still played that stretch in the middle of the season, but we can’t help those teams had injuries. We still had to go out and perform. That same Jacksonville team that we beat 50-10 went on to beat Indy. When you think about it from that way you kind of just have to take a step back. I understand the expectation around here is very high, but also there is frustration in the building and outside the building that we just have to be better. I shouldn’t say frustration, there’s a sense of urgency that we have to get better and get back to where we’ve been.”
Listen to the full interview below.
