The Patriots’ defense continues to be a liability, with penalties and mistakes benefiting their opponents. New England head coach Jerod Mayo held no punches when he met with reporters following the ugly Week 6 loss to the Houston Texans.
“The penalties in the first half, just too many,” Mayo told reporters, per team-provided transcript. “It’s the same story over and over and over again. We had three or four turnovers in the game. Can’t win if you lose that battle.
“Defensively I would say, just the fundamentals of tackling, our run fits have to improve. I told all those guys, I said, ‘You should feel like crap today. You should feel like crap.’ You take away two long runs, we had two runs over 50 yards. I mean, it’s not winning football.”
The Texans’ first two drives, which involved a combined 19 plays, 110 yards and two defensive pass interference penalties, resulted in two touchdowns and a 14-point lead for Houston.
“It’s very disappointing, and I would say now, at this time, we’re kind of up and down as far as starting fast,” Mayo said. “We have to start fast, whether we’re on defense or offense, and we just didn’t do that today. I thought they did settle down. But, again, it goes back to every single play being important. You can stop them, stop them, stop them, and then all of a sudden it’s a 50-yard run. We can’t live in that world.”
The Patriots’ defense sacked Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud twice for a loss of 16 yards and had one interception, but the offense managed just six plays and one first down before having to punt.
