The New England Patriots had two plays to get one yard near the goal line in the third quarter of Sunday's Week 15 road game against the Arizona Cardinals, and they were stuffed for no gain both times on runs up the middle by Antonio Gibson and Rhamondre Stevenson.
The turnover on downs four yards from the end zone in a 16-3 game pretty much sealed the Patriots' fate, and they eventually lost 30-17 to extend their losing streak to four games.
When asked postgame whether he would consider using rookie quarterback Drake Maye on designed runs in short-yardage situations, Mayo replied, "You said it, I didn't."
It was a bizarre answer, to say the least.
"Correct me if I'm wrong guys, but that felt like he was throwing (offensive coordinator) Alex Van Pelt under the bus," The MMQB's Albert Breer said Sunday night on NBC Sports Boston's Patriots Postgame Live, as seen in the video player above.
"I just think that it's a really hard thing to come back from because the players see that. They see the lack of accountability, the other coaches see that. So let's say you come out of this year and you're not happy with how things are, but you're going to keep Jerod Mayo and you're gonna change some of the staff, how are you gonna get coaches here then? Because they're all gonna think that Jerod Mayo is on the hot seat in 2025.
"And now you have this, where he threw a guy who's been in the industry for a long time under the bus. Now, I assume Jerod's gonna walk it back (Monday). The trouble with that is we've already been down that road a few times. I think Jerod's got great potential as a coach, but it's starting to feel like if you're the Krafts and you're looking at it, and it's like, 'We only have one shot at Mike Vrabel,' how do you compare what's happened here versus Vrabel?"
Referring to Mayo's "You said it, I didn't" remark, Breer later added, "I can't remember seeing a comment like that from a head coach in 20 years covering the league."
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Mayo did try to clarify his "You said, I didn't" comment Monday morning, telling reporters, "I know there's a lot of chatter about the question last night of, ‘You said that.’ I didn't mean anything by that. It was more of a defensive response. Ultimately, and I tried to clarify that with the follow-up question, all of those decisions are mine. I just wanted to get that out there."
What does Mayo mean when he says a defensive response to that question?
"Yeah, it was just more of I didn't mean anything by it," Mayo explained. "I just was like, ‘you said it’ because I didn't want to go down that whole rabbit hole trying to explain all those things. Like I just said, I tried to clarify that with the follow-up question saying that all of those critical situations fall on me."
The play-calling could definitely be improved, especially in the red zone, and Maye's ability to run the football with his size (6-foot-4, 220 pounds) and athleticism would add another layer of challenges for opposing defenses.
And based on Maye's postgame comments, it sounds like he would welcome more quarterback sneaks and similar plays.
"I was a good quarterback-sneaker in college," Maye said postgame. "I'm a big dude. I'm heavier than people think. So I think there's maybe a conversation for that. I think it's tough to stop a 6-foot-5 dude for one yard.
"But also at the same time, Rhamondre is pretty dang good at getting one yard as well. It's just unfortunate that it happened. But there's definitely a time and place for it."
The Patriots have a lot to fix over the next three weeks, and it'll be fascinating to see if the play-calling/playbook changes at all after what happened against the Cardinals and all the criticism that's followed.
