Jerod Mayo says media has ‘overblown deficiencies’ of O-line

It was all smiles on Monday as Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo joined The Greg Hill Show for his weekly interview as a part of WEEI’s “ Patriots Monday ,” as the rookie head coach was coming off of Sunday’s 16-10 upset win over the Bengals .

Not only did the win come as a surprise to many around the football world, but the offensive line only allowing one sack after a well-documented summer of issues was more than notable.

But none of this came as a surprise to Mayo, as he told the show that the media has been blowing the issues with the offensive line out of proportion all summer long.

“I’ve told you guys the entire time, and I’ve told the media,” said Mayo. “We’ve overblown the deficiencies that we have at offensive line.

“Every single preseason game, turn on the tape. This what I’d say - turn on the tape, every single preseason game, I’d say we dominated the line of scrimmage offensively and defensively.”

Outside of the preseason performances and Week 1’s win in Cincinnati, it’s still hard for fans and media to get the image out of their head of the Patriots offensive line allowing 14 sacks to the Eagles in a joint practice.

Mayo believes too much is being made of that one day, and reiterated the faith he has in his offensive staff to keep this 1-0 train on the tracks.

“Now there were some things - there was the one practice versus Philly where everyone kind of blew it out of proportion,” said Mayo. “But I have nothing but total faith in Scott Peters, AVP, Kugler, Mike - all those guys, to get those guys ready to go, and we don’t hear [the criticism]. We don’t hear it.”

For an accounting of the names Mayo mentioned - Peters is the offensive line coach, “AVP” is offensive coordinator Alex Van Pelt, “Kugler” is assistant offensive line coach Rober Kugler, and “Mike” is offensive coaching assistant Michael McCarthy.

Words are one thing, but one thing from Week 1 that cannot be ignored was the benching of starting left tackle Chuks Okorafor during the offense’s second series of the game in favor of third-year tackle Vederian Lowe.

Okorafor’s PFF grade for Week 1 was a 1.7 out of 100 , as he could not get a handle on blocking Bengals star defensive end Trey Hendrickson. Lowe fared better, but Hendrickson’s pressure was persistent, and had veteran starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett on the move the entire game.

Despite his team’s obvious weakness at the most important position on the offensive line, it’s clear that Mayo wants to send the message to the fans, media and his team:

The offensive line is good, and he believes in their group moving forward.

Mayo will look to move 2-0 in his head coaching career during Week 2, as the Patriots host the Seahawks at Gillette Stadium.

Seattle is also entering the second week of the season at 1-0, as they beat the Broncos at home 26-20.

The Patriots are currently a +3 home underdog at BetMGM, and are listed at +140 on the moneyline.