Jerod Mayo should be criticized for his decision against the Seahawks

COMMENT

It wasn’t the blatant overtime interference on New England cornerback Jonathan Jones that ultimately led to the Patriots losing their home opener at Gillette Stadium on Sunday. Nor was it rookie head coach Jerod Mayo’s unhinged decision to punt, after a curious selection of offensive plays, in overtime.

It wasn’t Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith and DK Metcalf who connected for a 56-yard touchdown pass thanks to poor coverage by New England in the first half. Nor should Seahawks safety Julian Love be blamed for blocking New England’s Joey Slye’s 48-yard field goal attempt in the fourth quarter.

The Patriots had a lot of misfires after their upset win in Cincinnati last week. New England’s supposed weaknesses all showed up in Game 2: poor offensive line play, forcing quarterback Jacoby Brissett to run for his life and take a beating that will likely get Drake Maye’s fans what they wanted sooner than expected. And the passing game was nonexistent. Brissett found just two receivers — JaLynn Polk, who scored the game’s first touchdown, and KJ Osborn, who only added to his stat sheet late in the game — on the afternoon.

But for all the little mistakes the Patriots (1-1) made against the Seahawks, no incident was more glaring than the display of talent by head coach Jerod Mayo and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt in Foxborough that afternoon. And there’s no sequence that should make you wonder if the ghost of Matt Patricia is still in charge than the Patriots’ final possession of the first half.

Anyway, it was a good teaching tool. With 1 minute and 32 seconds left in the first half and the Patriots backed up to their own 10-yard line, my teenage son started complaining that Mayo was going to do a “Belichick screw-up” and run out the clock instead of taking his chances. On your own 8-yard line, why wouldn’t you do it? Or at the very least, run the ball a couple of times and see if you get anything. If you get it out to the 30- or 40-yard line, maybe we’ll start thinking about something. Don’t be stupid. Go into halftime with a one-point lead.

But here’s the idiotic turn of events:

First down: JaMycal Hasty ran for two yards.

Second down: No huddle. Brissett and tight end Hunter Henry couldn’t connect on a short pass.

Third try: another incomplete pass to Henry.

Fourth try: Punt.

What an amazing band.

Thanks to three timeouts (plus the two extra timeouts the Patriots gave them), Seattle marched from its own 49-yard line to the New England 25-yard line, ending with a Jason Myers field goal that gave Seattle a 17-13 lead. Even if the story remained the same in the second half, when Brissett spent more time grimacing than scoring, maybe the Patriots would have come away with a win if they had just run the clock down in the first half. Maybe the game wouldn’t go to overtime, and suddenly the entire NFL would be talking about these 2-0 Patriots.

All this took the Seahawks just 35 seconds. Or the time the Patriots could have saved by not trying to turn their offense into a titanic one, led by Brett Favre. From their own 10-yard line. With 47 seconds left.

So far, Van Pelt’s offensive philosophy hasn’t exactly excited anyone. But the Patriots have been telling us how committed they are to the race, boasting about their ability to play 1976-style, pound-and-ground football in 2024. The Brissett-Henry connection worked well in the first half. But that doesn’t mean the duo has suddenly morphed into Brady-Gronkowski. Did Mayo and Van Pelt really think they were going to be able to drive down the field to score? With this offense? Take the lead, head into the locker room, and see if you can continue to enjoy that early-season vibe.

Instead, the Patriots coaches literally gave the Seahawks three points.

“I don’t want to get into a rumination on what would have happened, or go back and consider what-ifs,” Mayo said at his news conference Monday morning. “All those key decisions … those are things that can change as the games go on and also as the game goes on.”

If you want to argue that if Brissett and Henry met on second down, it may have given the Patriots something that allowed them to advance the ball to midfield. Instead, you didn’t make the play and you stopped the clock. But trying again on third down and stopping the clock AGAIN for the Seahawks was in Adam Gase territory in the playbook.

Seattle had essentially FIVE timeouts at the end of the first half.

What Mayo lacks in on-field decision-making doesn’t say much about the influence he seems to have had on the young Patriots. The players have bought into the team, and that’s the most important aspect of a head coach’s job. The rest will follow with the right people around you.

To be determined on that one.

But that’s what the Patriots are, a team that isn’t good enough to truly compete, but a unit that can give teams a run for their money every week. For those of us who expected much worse (or just can’t get over the hangover of the depressing 2023 season), this is much better than expected.

This won’t be the only loss this season where the Patriots are responsible for poor coaching. That’s normal with a first-year head coach.

But when highlights like Sunday’s late-half performance emerge, it only underscores Foxborough’s learning curve.