New England Patriots - NESN.com
The New England Patriots lost a tight game against the Los Angeles Rams.
Despite giving up four touchdowns to the Rams and trailing from the midway point in the second quarter, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo thought New England was in control throughout the game.
“Kind of what I told the guys in the locker room, felt like … I never felt like they had control of the game,” Mayo told reporters, per team-provided transcript. “I felt like we had control of the game.”
The first-year head coach pointed to the Patriots’ time of possession and control of the ball. New England’s offense was on the field for 37:20 compared to the Rams’ 22:40. The Patriots also ran 73 offensive plays to the Rams’ 51.
“You look at the first half, I think we only had one three-and-out. Offensively, I thought they did a great job on first and second down, which was one of the targets we talked about,” Mayo said. “Defensively, not so much. Defensively, they only had what, eight third downs in the game and you just can’t win that way.
“When you look at the time of possession, you look at the movement we were able to get offensively in the run game and in the pass game, you look at the time of possession, that’s part of the formula. We’ve just got to continue to build on it.”
But does volume truly indicate control? Not really, if you break down what actually happened in the game.
The Patriots scored the first points of the game when Drake Maye led New England on a seven-play, 77-yard drive, capped off with a touchdown pass to Kendrick Bourne with 5:05 remaining in the first quarter.
Yes, it was a great start. However, the Rams tied the score at 7:18 of the second quarter and then took a 14-7 lead shortly after when Maye fumbled deep in New England territory just three plays later.
The Rams never looked back. In fact, the Rams had an offensive success rate of 80% after their first touchdown drive, according to NBC Sports Boston’s Phil Perry.
The Patriots did do some things well Sunday. Maye threw for a career-high 282 yards with two touchdowns, and the defense only allowed the Rams to convert two third downs. But was that enough to say the Patriots had “control” of the game?
“Do we need to get better? Absolutely, and that’s my job as the head coach of this football team,” Mayo said. “It starts with me. I have to do better. We have to demand more from our assistant coaches.
“We’re going to demand more from our players. We have enough talent in our locker room to be a very good football team, we’ve just got to be able to put it all together.”
The Patriots were not able to do that in Week 11. Only time will tell if they can “put it all together” when they battle the AFC East rival Miami Dolphins...
