LONDON — In his post-game locker-room address Sunday, Jerod Mayo called the Patriots soft and selfish.
Among the players listening, at least one of them agreed.
“Jerod just said everybody’s gotta check their egos when they come in. And I agree with him,” Daniel Ekuale told the Herald after a 32-16 loss to Jacksonville. “I feel like a lot of guys think too highly of themselves, and have to check their egos and come in and just play as a team.”
Ekuale and the Patriots defense allowed more than 160 rushing yards for a third straight game, the first time the franchise had done that since 1993. Ekuale’s comments came less than three weeks after fellow defensive tackle Davon Godchaux called out teammates for selfish play, and playing outside the system. Despite Godchaux’s call-out, the Pats allowed a season-worst 193 rushing yards to Miami the following weekend, the same game Kendrick Bourne made his season debut.
On Sunday, Bourne and the Pats offense were held under 20 points for a fifth time this year. The veteran receiver sensed a lack of energy, and ascribed it to players failing to adjust their body clocks for what would have been a 9:30 a.m. start on the east coast.
“The energy could’ve been better, a lot better. We’ve got to find ways from within to fight adversity,” Bourne told the Herald. “We know we’re going to play at 9:30. Through the week, we need to understand that.”
How can that mentality change?
“That’s (making) personal decisions. Rather than staying up all night, or eating whatever,” he said. “Whatever it is, whatever makes us be better, we have to make those decisions to be better so when we get (to the game), we can be better.”
Bourne indicated he’s sensed less than a complete commitment from his teammates,
“We had good, long drives, and that’s when we need to play our hardest. But with those drives, we start to get tired. There’s self-evaluating we need to do,” Bourne said. “I don’t know who specifically, it’s just as a group it feels like that. Just how I operate, I can feel it. So that’s just where I see we can be a lot better.”
After finding Bourne for a single 14-yard catch, Patriots quarterback Drake Maye took some accountability for the loss post-game. He threw for 276 yards — the most any Patriot has this season — but had no help from his running game. The Pats totaled just 20 rushing yards around his scrambles, which he believed reflected Mayo’s point about them being soft.
“I think what coach (Jerod) Mayo was preaching, we gotta run the football,” Maye said. “And when we do throw it on first and second down, I gotta find some completions to get us in third-and-manageable. Third-and-long is hard in this league. I thought that the guys battled especially up front, those guys are playing their butts off. I owe those guys a lot up front.
“And I thought we made some plays, just not good enough.”
In Maye’s two starts, the Patriots have rushed for just 66 yards outside of quarterback scrambles and allowed 73 points. Both times, Mayo called out his defense in his post-game press conference.
