FOXBORO -- There was plenty to be learned from the Patriots' 40-7 loss to the Chargers on Saturday. Unfortunately for Robert Kraft's club, none of it was good.
Let's get to the details...
Questions abound
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While Patriots owner Robert Kraft has been committed to Jerod Mayo as the team's long-term answer at head coach -- and in my opinion Mayo will be back in 2025 -- Saturday's defeat is the kind of loss that should have ownership asking serious questions about its future. The Patriots were out-played, out-coached, and the effort at times late in the contest was questionable.
Combine the lopsided outcome with a sparse Gillette Stadium crowd, fans making their displeasure with Mayo known -- some chanted "Fire Mayo" late -- and one notable player questioning his fit in the Patriots' scheme? You have a recipe for widespread second-guessing of the decisions made at the highest levels of the organization.
Even if Mayo is back next season, that loss could certainly cast doubt upon others on his staff.
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A failure to communicate
There seemed to be another instance of botched communication Saturday between Mayo and offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt.
After Mayo told multiple media outlets pregame -- including 98.5 The Sports Hub's Scott Zolak not long before kickoff -- that running back Rhamondre Stevenson would not start in the game, the fourth-year back started. Antonio Gibson, whom Mayo said would start, was on the bench. After the game, Gibson told ABC 6 in Providence that he hadn't been told he would start.
It made sense for Gibson to play over Stevenson. He had the better game in Buffalo the week prior, and Stevenson was involved in two turnovers against the Bills that helped change the course of that game.
Why, then, didn't things go the way Mayo said they would? Did Mayo not communicate his desires properly to Van Pelt? Did Van Pelt get the message and willfully ignore it? Mayo said after the game only that it was a "coach's decision" not to start Gibson.
This situation harkens back to another recent example of faulty communication involving Van Pelt. On Thursday before the Bills game, Van Pelt told reporters he didn't like the idea of using quarterback Drake Maye on designed runs because he wanted to keep the rookie healthy. A few days later, the Patriots used Maye on designed runs four times (two sneaks, two quarterback read plays). Those were the first designed runs of the season for Maye.
Where are the answers?
Regarding Van Pelt's play-calling, the Chargers appeared to have New England's number when sending blitzes. The Bills did the same thing the week prior, so it made sense that Los Angeles would test the Patriots to see if they'd come up with some answers to beat additional rushers attacking the line of scrimmage.
The Patriots didn't seem to have those answers ready to go.
On this particular snap, an overload blitz couldn't be picked up, and Maye had nowhere to go with the football because there was no quick-throw option to hit. On a fumbled pitch, the timing was ruined by blitzing safety Derwin James, and the lack of coordination on how to handle the blitz in that play-call suggests that the Patriots offense didn't practice -- or worse, didn't discuss? -- what to do if the Chargers blitzed in that situation.
Derwin jumps on the fumbled toss!
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"We've practiced that play for a long time," Maye said. "I felt like we were executing it well. They happened to bring the nickel off the edge, and I think he just kind of – right by Pop (DeMario Douglas), and that's unfortunate. Just a good call on their part.
"I've got to give him a better ball to catch. That falls back on me. I think, kind of, Pop readjusted his thing a little bit, his route or his path just because of the blitzer off the edge. But yeah, we just got to give him a chance. Can't turn the ball over."
Can't go into consecutive games without answers to the blitz, either.
Substitute teaching
One question for Patriots owners after the team's latest loss could be, "Why was Maye handled the way he was handled?"
Maye took a hard shot to the head while scrambling for a first down in the first quarter, and he immediately dropped the football before needing extra time to get to his feet. He eventually returned to the game in the second quarter.
It made sense that Patriots coaches would like to see Maye back in the game once cleared. But the game was out of hand in the fourth quarter, and at one point Maye returned to the field with backup linemen Caedan Wallace (right tackle) and Lecitus Smith (right guard) in front of him and backup receivers Ja'Lynn Polk and Javon Baker in the huddle.
Maye played two fourth-quarter series down 30 points, and Jacoby Brissett re-entered the game with just over three minutes left to close it out.
Was there any thought to sitting Maye sooner than that?
"Look, we're trying to develop a quarterback, and he wants to play," Mayo said. "He's a competitor. He went out there."
That begs the question as to whether or not Maye should have any say in the matter, though.
It comes as no surprise that a player in that situation would want to play. That's the baseline expectation for most.
But Maye is the crown jewel of the organization, and his health is of the utmost importance to the long-term health of the franchise. He took a beating in the game, absorbing four sacks and somehow escaping having to enter the NFL's concussion protocol.
Had he been injured with backups around him, that would've qualified as a worst-case scenario end-of-season incident.
Max effort given?
Perhaps it's simply a function of having a team loaded with inexperienced players. Perhaps it's a function of having a team with very few players who've won at the highest level. Perhaps it's a function of having a team that has only three wins to this point in the season.
Whatever it is, you don't want to be known as a team that can't stiff-upper-lip it when adversity hits. But one of the few players on the roster who has won at the highest level -- two-time Super Bowl champion Jonathan Jones -- indicated that he perceived a lack of emotional fortitude from his team on Saturday.
“The speech I kind of gave last week after the game was just thinking that we showed who we could be," Jones said. "We came out, played together, all three units. Obviously, we still came up short, but just how guys came out and competed (was encouraging). As opposed to this week, we never got any momentum. We seem to be a team that if we get no momentum early, we don’t know how to fight back."
For a team that hoped to establish something in the way of a standard in Mayo's first year, that has to be a discouraging reality with which to be faced.
Mixed messages from the locker room
When asked about his coaches and why he believes in them, Maye was supportive for the second straight week.
"I think they're still bringing it every week," he said of Mayo and Van Pelt. "I think that's the biggest thing you see. They're not quitting. They're still coaching as hard since Week 1. They're still studying film as hard. We're still meeting as hard. I think the biggest thing was, you don't see those guys quitting.
"I think the score may not tell that today, but I feel like the guys are still wanting to win. We're still leaving it out there every week, and I think that was kind of my message to the team. 'Man, just give it all you got. It's our last two games, and this one today, so we've got one more chance next week, so just leave it all out there.'"
Davon Godchaux voiced his support for Mayo as well after being asked about the "Fire Mayo" chants heard at Gillette Stadium in the fourth quarter.
“I heard it," he said. "I get it. [Fans are] pissed off. They pay their money for season tickets and to see the Patriots… The ‘Fire Mayo’ chants are just ridiculous. The guy’s first year, first season. It’s not going to be golden…The ‘Fire Mayo’ chants are just ridiculous.”
There was one player, though, who was less emphatic in his backing of the coaching staff.
Keion White spoke to NBC Sports Boston for several minutes in the locker room, doubled down on his comments to MassLive.com from earlier in the week, and said he needed to "correct myself" and be "coaching myself" in order to improve.
He also said, when asked if he felt he was getting good coaching, "That's not for me to decide. I'm not the one who makes the decisions... I'm not doing the evaluations of the coaching staff. I'm not the one who makes the decisions. My opinion really doesn't matter."
Those sentiments seem to make White an outlier in a locker room that has, for the most part, been very supportive of Mayo and Mayo's staff. But White -- as a second-round pick who has clearly demonstrated impressive physical ability at times in his first two seasons -- should be a key player for this team as it rebuilds. And if he doesn't feel as though he's a fit with the Patriots defensive scheme, that's worth noting.
"I don't care about the numbers," White said. "Coming out of college, I didn't have top of the [line] numbers. But I do care about affecting the game...
"I hold myself to a higher standard than anybody does. I'd like to be my toughest critic. I feel like I'm not playing to the standard that I know I can, and I feel like I'm not playing and fitting and doing this system justice. It's on me to fix that."