A lot has been said over the last week, but now it is time for the Patriots to do some talking on the field.
It has been a tumultuous week for the New England Patriots, to say the least. They got their butt’s kicked by one of the worst teams in the league in London last week, and extended their league-worst losing streak to six games. There was a whole lot to criticize, and the media — both local and national — had no problem doing just that.
The locker room appears to be a mess. Receivers are running their mouths; veterans are calling out teammates for not being as committed as they should be; and, of course, head coach Jerod Mayo is questioning his team’s toughness by calling the Patriots a “soft football team across the board” after their 32-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars last Sunday.
A significant portion of the media spent the week clutching their pearls at the audacity of Mayo daring to call his team soft. But the team, at least publicly, has responded exactly the way you would have wanted them to respond.
“There are plays where a lot of guys were playing soft, me included,” said defensive lineman Keion White.
“It has to challenge you, this is a physical game, and you never want that to be your identity,” added tight end and team captain Hunter Henry.
A lot of the media coverage surrounding the topic of the Patriots’ perceived softness has come because of former Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick. Belichick was rather critical of his successor, Jerod Mayo, and the team in general.
He’s in the media now, and he’s also a legendary grudge holder. There should not be any surprise that he is coming after the Patriots, especially after owner Robert Kraft seemingly said the quiet part out loud this week. When Kraft went on The Breakfast Club and claimed that he had fired Bill Belichick and that it wasn’t the mutual parting of ways the breakup was announced to be, the floodgates seemingly opened for Belichick.
The Belichick, the rest of the media and fans alike can say whatever they want, of course. The bottom line is that it is on the Patriots’ players to show that they are not a soft team, and it’s up to the coaching staff to prove that they know what they are doing and are capable of putting this team in a position to win.
Winning isn’t necessarily the most important thing, either. As long as the team starts to look at least marginally better against the New York Jets on Sunday, and shows a level of competence and competitiveness that should come out of an NFL team, their responding the way you would want them to will prove to be more than just lip service.
If they can’t do that soon, however, the sharks will continue circling around Mayo and his team.