Patriots' Jerod Mayo tries to clarify controversial comment after latest loss

Shortly after the New England Patriots fell to 1-6 on the season via Sunday's 32-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in London, first-year Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo raised eyebrows when he said he felt New England is "a soft football team" this fall.

Mayo attempted to clarify his comment multiple times on Monday. 

"Let me just go ahead and correct that," Mayo said during his weekly spot on WEEI's "The Greg Hill Show," as shared by Nick O'Malley of MassLive. "We’re playing soft, OK? Because if you look at the first -- going back to training camp, there was definitely some toughness all around the place and we still had the same players and we just got to play that way." 

The Patriots began the season with a surprising win over the Cincinnati Bengals but then lost four straight games. Mayo then benched veteran quarterback Jacoby Brissett in favor of rookie Drake Maye amid whispers claiming the New England locker room was "teetering on mutiny." While Maye provided the club's offense with a needed injection of life, the Patriots suffered a 41-21 loss to the Houston Texans in Week 6 before Jacksonville rushed for 171 yards against New England's defense across the pond. 

The Jaguars also returned a punt for a touchdown shortly before halftime of Sunday's game. 

"I felt like we just went out there and played soft," Mayo said about his team's effort against Jacksonville while speaking with media members on Monday, per Mike Reiss of ESPN and Myles Simmons of Pro Football Talk. "We’re playing soft at the moment. When I say playing soft, it means stopping the run, being able to run the ball, and being able to cover kicks, which we weren’t able to do. Now in saying that, do I think we have the guys in there that can turn this ship around? 100 percent. But that comes through hard work and getting better each and every day." 

Worries about Patriots players believing the organization was "tanking" this season with the future in mind arose over the summer and continue to hover over the club. If Mayo begins to lose members of the locker room for whatever reason, what's already an ugly season for the franchise could go from bad to worse before Week 18. 

As of Monday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook listed the Patriots as seven-point underdogs for this coming Sunday's home game against a 2-5 New York Jets side that has lost four straight contests and has an interim head coach in defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich.