On Sunday, the Patriots played their best football game of the season, dominating the Bears in Chicago on their way to a 19-3 victory in Week 10.
This win moved the Patriots to 3-7 on the season.
By most measures, that record tells you that 2024 has been a failure for first-year head coach Jerod Mayo.
But for Mayo, he’s taking a more nuanced approach when it comes to his own personal goals for year one at the helm.
“At one point, I think you guaranteed over four wins for this football team, on this show,” said WEEI’s Greg Hill on Monday’s edition of The Greg Hill Show. “I know you’re a goal setter - did you go into this season, for yourself, setting a goal when it came to wins?”
“No,” said Mayo. “For me, it was to - as the season continued to progress - that we are that team that no one wants to play at the end of the season. It was about getting better. And I knew there would be bumps along the road. And I think everyone knew that - at least inside the building, you guys probably didn’t.
“The last time I was in here, Wiggy told me the rosters that he thought our roster was better than, he named, you know - Kansas City, Tennessee, Washington, you said Chicago. But that was going into the season.”
“And you beat Chicago!” WEEI’s Jermaine Wiggins interjected.
“Yeah, but if you were to go back,” said Mayo. “And this is - it’s funny to me at this point, because I’ve also worked in the media, where you guys have to guess on all these things. If you went back - how many more hours are you guys on the show? You should go back, look at Chicago’s roster at the beginning, and how you felt about that roster and our roster, and just do a side by side.
“But again, I would say we got a room full of guys - you know, guys that want to get better, guys that are hungry, and I appreciate that.”
Mayo calling for a juxtaposition of New England’s roster before the season and Chicago’s roster before the season is his way of trying to point out the improvements his group has made through 10 weeks, even if that’s not apparent on the stat sheet or the weekly standings.
But if you’re looking at those standings on Monday, and you’re comparing them to the standings on this same Monday last year, you’ll see one more win than Bill Belichick had up to this point in 2023.
“I know you’re not going to say it, but it’s my pleasure,” said WEEI’s Chris Curtis. “It took you four fewer weeks to get to three wins than it did your predecessor last year. So well done, 3-7. Bill was 2-8. You’re dominating.”
“Curtis is obsessed,” Hill chimed in.
“Hey, somebody’s gotta support the guy,” said Curtis. “I mean, everybody else here craps on Mayo all the time.”
“It’s fine, though,” said Mayo. “Look, it’s part of the job. Like, you can crap on me, or we can be undefeated - you’ll still crap on me. I mean, that’s part of the business.”
Whether Mayo liked it or not, Curtis wanted to make sure Mayo got his flowers for 3-7, even if there was a not-so-subtle hint of ripping his old friend, Belichick, while doing so.
“You’re ahead of the curve of the greatest coach of all time,” said Curtis. “It’s a good start.”
With their win on Sunday, the Patriots will have a chance in Week 11 to win two games in a row for the first time since the middle of the 2022 season.
Those wins were a part of a three-game winning streak that year - from Week 8 to Week 11, they beat the Jets, Colts and Jets, with a bye week in between the second and third wins.
The team was 6-4, and firmly in the hunt to make their second consecutive playoff berth with Belichick at head coach and Mac Jones at quarterback.
From Week 12 of the 2022 season to now, the franchise has gone 9-25 overall.
But for Mayo, the past is not important.
“It’s about week after week after week getting to 1-0,” said Mayo. “And I think if we do that, get to 1-0 every week, then we’ll be able to look back and wherever we are, we are.”
The Patriots will attempt to go 1-0 in Week 11 against the Los Angeles Rams (4-4), who play their Week 10 game at home against the Miami Dolphins (2-6) on Monday Night Football.
Without knowing how things will play out for the Rams on Monday, both BetMGM and FanDuel currently list L.A. as a 5.5-point road favorite for their tilt at Gillette Stadium.