Jerod Mayo said Patriots defense should ‘feel like crap’ after letting Drake Maye down

The 41 points the Texans scored during Maye's first start are the most allowed by the Patriots since 2021.

The Texans became the first team since the 2021 Buffalo Bills to score 40 points or more against the Patriots, and Jerod Mayo expressed frustration with the performance after the game.

The Patriots committed nine penalties, including six during the first half. That number is too high, Mayo said, and it’s part of the “same old story” of what the Patriots are doing wrong week after week.

He also mentioned that the Patriots turned the ball over four times, compared to just one turnover for the Texans.

Mayo, who coached linebackers with the Patriots for several years before being promoted to head coach, offered a blunt critique of his defense.

“Defensively I would say just the fundamentals of just tackling, our run fits have to improve,” Mayo said. “They have to improve. I told all those guys, I said, ‘You should feel like crap today. You should feel like crap.’ You take away those two long runs, we [allowed] two runs over 50 yards. That’s just not winning football.”

The Patriots showed some encouraging things on offense with rookie quarterback Drake Maye starting under center for the first time, Mayo said, but it wasn’t enough.

“I thought he showed a lot of poise,” Mayo said. “I thought he went out there and controlled the huddle, got those guys out of the huddle and once again, made some plays.”

“It’s definitely encouraging. From a team-wide perspective right now, we let him down. It was his first game, and I feel like I let him down. I’m sure all the coaches feel like we let everyone down. We’ve just got to be better.”

Houston averaged 6.9 yards per carry on the ground and accumulated the same amount of rushing yards as passing yards (192).

Running back Joe Mixon bounced off of one of his own blockers and hit a crease while Jonathan Jones was attempting to shed a block from Stefon Diggs on his only touchdown of the game. Jones turned around to chase Mixon, but the running back had enough separation to dash into the end zone.

Mixon also broke off a 59-yard run right up the middle, gliding past a diving Jahlani Tavai and racing down the sideline before being tripped up by Jaylinn Hawkins.

Houston’s Dameon Pierce made three Patriots defenders miss on his 54-yard run in the fourth quarter. Anfernee Jennings lunged at him and missed. Jaquelin Roy gave Pierce a shove, but the running back was able to stay on his feet. Safety Kyle Dugger made an ill-fated attempt at an arm tackle as Pierce sprinted past.

“Yeah, it’s very disappointing,” Mayo said. “I would say now at this time we’re kind of up and down as far as starting fast. 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, and 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 fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter and the Texans led the rest of the way. Maye cut the deficit to seven just before halftime, but the game got out of hand in the second half.

“Guys just have to take accountability,” defensive Godchaux said of the miscues, per ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “Like, even if you guys think the game is over in say, the third quarter, it’s really just about having pride. It don’t look like it had pride out there. Just really don’t know how to win, that’s what it boils down to. Just frustrating, man.”

Texans quarterback CJ Stroud didn’t skip a beat without top target Nico Collins who missed the game after being placed on injured reserve.

Stroud went 20-for-31 passing for 192 yards and three touchdowns against one interception. Stefon Diggs led the Texans in receiving with 6 catches on 7 targets for 77 yards and a touchdown.

“He’s a great receiver. He’s been doing this for a long time,” cornerback Christian Gonzalez said. “On the touchdown he ran a good route. That’s the life of a corner. You’re going to get beat so props to him, he ran a great route and CJ put it on him and the other play was just trusting my technique and going out there and doing that.”

Cornerback Marcus Jones had the only takeaway for the Patriots, an interception of Stroud that came off of a pass that Marte Mapu tipped.

“Even though the game didn’t go how we wanted it to go, there were some great things that happened in the game to where need to do on a consistent basis,” Jones said. “The margin of error in the National Football League is very slim and the thing is we have to make sure we go back, anything we didn’t have handled we’ve got to practice it and make sure we get it right for next week.”

Khari Thompson covers professional sports for Boston.com. Before joining the team in 2022, Khari covered college football for The Clarion Ledger in Jackson, Miss.