Lather, rinse and repeat.
Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo unsurprisingly tried to walk back his headline-grabbing comment about 12 hours after he made it. Mayo essentially called out offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt for play-calling decisions after New England’s 30-17 loss against the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium.
“You said it. I didn’t,” Mayo responded when asked about Van Pelt’s questionable calls in the red zone.
It came across as Mayo’s stamp of approval regarding the Van Pelt criticism.
Speaking to reporters on a video conference Monday morning, Mayo backtracked and said he didn’t mean anything by the comment.
“I know there’s a lot of chatter about the question last night, ‘You said that.’ I didn’t mean anything by that,” Mayo said. “It was more of a defensive response, and ultimately, and I tried to clarify that with the follow-up question, because ultimately all of those decisions are mine. So just wanted to get that out there.”
A defensive response?
“Yeah, it was just more — I didn’t mean anything by it,” Mayo said. “I just was like, ‘You said it’ because I didn’t want to go down that whole rabbit hole of trying to explain all those things. And like I just said, I tried to clarify that with the follow-up question, saying that all of those critical situations follow me.”
Mayo’s initial comment came after he was asked about the decision not to try a quarterback sneak with Drake Maye on either third-and-1 or fourth-in-1 in the red area. The decision came from Van Pelt. Mayo, however, confirmed he has the power to override Van Pelt’s call should Mayo want something else. The first-year head coach didn’t do so in the moment and the Patriots failed to gain one yard on either of the two rushing attempts.
Shortly after meeting with reporters, Mayo told WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” he spoke to Van Pelt on Monday morning and explained what he meant. Mayo said Van Pelt responded by saying, “What are you talking about?” Mayo was surprised the comment made such waves.
“I back Alex 100%,” Mayo told WEEI.
That might be true. It might not. What’s not debatable, though, is Mayo’s postgame messaging again got him into trouble.
