Texans game goat thread

[Deathofthebambino]

It’s not a rebuild when your roster doesn’t actually improve year over year.

How much “building” did they actually do? They took Maye. Great. The other 52 roster spots are similar or worse than last year. That’s not building anything.

Umm yes, they took Maye, a quarterback with the 3rd overall pick.

The fact that they were so bad last year that they had the 3rd overall pick, and had the opportunity to get Drake Maye, while at the same time bringing in a rookie head coach, makes it the definition of a rebuild.

You're talking about results. I'm not arguing that the results thus far have been good, but this is most definitely what a rebuild looks like, especially a multi-year rebuild and anyone with functioning eyes that saw this roster last season should have prepared for a multi-year rebuild. The question is whether or not this rebuild will be successful, or end up falling short and require another rebuild, something that isn't exactly unprecedented in the NFL, and by not unprecedented, I mean "more likely than not."

If they hit on Drake Maye, the most important step in a successful rebuild will have been met. If Drake Maye is a bust, we'll be doing this again in a couple of years.

 

[Gash Prex]

Coach Mayo accepted a penalty on 4th and 5 btw. He had a full commercial break to recognize his mistake and correct it. He/the staff are the worst.

they actually changed the call to a catch which is why they accepted the penalty

 

[Mugsy's Walk-Off Bunt]

I think it's ridiculous not to be overall HAPPY with what we saw from Maye today. My biggest goat is Wolf for the reasons stated above. No prep. As for Polk, REALLY bad day, but I'm not going to give up on him yet. I do wish they had traded UP to get a Xavier Worthy or someone instead of what they did, but, well...what are you gonna do? The OL neglect is a fireable offense.

 

[CoffeeNerdness]

Polk has three drops on the year. Not great but also not Amari Cooper who leads the NFL with nine.

Most of the year he's been getting targets from a QB who showed an almost complete inability to get the ball to the WR. A QB who has a 58% completion rate with a pitiful 5.2 yds/reception playing behind one of the worst lines that's ever been assembled. Obviously the 10 catches on 24 targets is miserable efficiency, but the QB has to be factored into the equation.

 

[gmogmo]

The sooner they move away from this staff, the better....they will never win with them

 

[Petagine in a Bottle]

Polk has 10 catches for 78 yards, which projects out to 28 receptions / 221 yards. Pretty much Tyquan Thornton’s rookie season (22/247). Hopefully the advanced metrics is a good predictor of good things to come, because the actual results have been pretty lackluster.

 

[DJnVa]

Coach Mayo accepted a penalty on 4th and 5 btw. He had a full commercial break to recognize his mistake and correct it. He/the staff are the worst.

The posters still think Coach Mayo accepted a penalty on eth and 5 btw. They have had multiple hours to recognize this mistake and correct it. They are the worst.



I kid, I kid.

 

[DJnVa]

The sooner they move away from this staff, the better....they will never win with them

Thanks for this.

 

[Mr. Littlejeans]

Mayo stinks but the best coach of all time would probably win like 4 games with this roster. There’s a laughable amount of talent on this roster, and the most recent draft doesn’t look great. Hopefully next year they nail it!

I see what you did here.

 

[Cellar-Door]

Despite the blowout I was pretty encouraged. Maye looks promising which is what matters. I actually thought AVP did a pretty good job getting him option he's comfortable with and accounting form the line. There was almost always an easy button for Maye to go to.

 

[McBride11]

Ok, good to know. Refs said nothing, crew said nothing, and the NFL’s own app said it was incomplete.

Ya, this reeks of Cover your ass material.

 

[catomatic]

Bring me Vrabel, McDaniels and Flores — tough to rebuild from scratch when your HC seems to be a long-term project, as well.

 

[DJnVa]

 

[tims4wins]

What makes this “rebuild” different is that a) they hired mostly in house and b) they re-signed so many of their guys! Look at the 1999 vs 2000 vs 2001 Patriots. That’s what a rebuild looks like.

 

[Cellar-Door]

View: https://twitter.com/philaperry/status/1845520315918524644?s=46

I'm curious where he is getting that from. NFL lists it as an incomplete pass officially (they have until Tuesday to change it), and I don't see anyone else saying that.

 

[dcdrew10]

“Years of empty drafts” is a huge stretch

People overstate how bad the drafting has been relative to league averages. Barmore, Gonzalez, Onwenu, Dugger, Douglas, White, Stevenson, Jennings, Uche are all core and good or useful players. Sow, Mapu, Baringer, Boutte, M.Jones and a couple others have roles

Missing on Mac and the almost complete whiff of 2022 (although Strange might provide something if he can get healthy) is bad but it’s not catastrophic, set the franchise back 10 years bad.

People should be more concerned that the roster - apparently terrible - had no noticeable upgrades added other than Maye.

4 win roster and Gibson over Elliott was the big off-season success story. It should have been easy to find some improvements. Wolf failed to improve the roster in any meaningful way. That should be a much bigger story than what Belichick did in the draft in 2021 or whatever

It's not just the overall drafts that have crippled the Pats, it's the types of players they missed on:

1. Offensive Line - Owenu was the last lineman that they drafted who has had a positive impact on the line and COULD be considered started-quality. Maybe Mafi Sow and Strange make contributions, but at this point anything resembling near replacement-level player is a bonus. They go no starts by offensive linemen drafted in 2017 (unless you count McDernott coming back to the team 6 seasons after getting drafted), 2019, and 2021 and from 2023 Mafi started 2 games last year and is on the Colts PS, Sow has started 17 games over the last two seasons and been bad, as have 2024. draftees Wallace and Robinson, who have started 1 and 4 games respectively
2. Wide Reciever - no need to discuss this
3. Tight End - the last marginally productive TE drafted by NE was Lee Smith in 2011 and none of his contributions were to the Patriots.

 

[Cellar-Door]

It's not just the overall drafts that have crippled the Pats, it's the types of players they missed on:

1. Offensive Line - Owenu was the last lineman that they drafted who has had a positive impact on the line and COULD be considered started-quality. Maybe Mafi and Strange make contributions, but at this point anything resembling near replacement-level player is a bonus. They go no starts by offensive linemen drafted in 2017 (unless you count McDernott coming back to the team 6 seasons after getting drafted), 2019, and 2021 and from 2023 Mafi started 2 games last year and is on the Colts PS, Sow has started 17 games over the last two seasons and been bad, as have 2024. draftees Wallace and Robinson, who have started 1 and 4 games respectively
2. Wide Reciever - no need to discuss this
3. Tight End - the last marginally productive TE drafted by NE was Lee Smith in 2011

I think #1 is the big one, and in particular... OT, which you have to draft early.
2018 they looked set to get another good LT in the draft in Wynn and his body fell apart.
Come 2021 when it was clear they needed a new one.... they needed a QB.
2022 they took a G, he looked like he might end up decent... injuries, but they were still going year to year with Trent Brown.
2023 they didn't like the one 1st round talent left, took a #1 CB (also very important) and they were bad enough that Brown fully checked out and they moved on.
2024- QB time again.

So they hoped for non-1st round guys (not a high hit rate)
2019- Cajuste, didn't even really get to the swing tackle level they hoped for
2020, 2021, 2022 took very late fliers, neither hit unsurprisingly
2023- took a tweener... he ended up at G by default because of injuries, new regime never considered moving him back.
2024- 3rd rounder, we'll see how it goes.

 

[BaseballJones]

Ok, good to know. Refs said nothing, crew said nothing, and the NFL’s own app said it was incomplete.

And we in the stadium weren’t informed on that either. We were all like WTF on Mayo accepting the penalty.

 

[Garshaparra]

It's not just the overall drafts that have crippled the Pats, it's the types of players they missed on:

1. Offensive Line - Owenu was the last lineman that they drafted who has had a positive impact on the line and COULD be considered started-quality. Maybe Mafi and Strange make contributions, but at this point anything resembling near replacement-level player is a bonus. They go no starts by offensive linemen drafted in 2017 (unless you count McDernott coming back to the team 6 seasons after getting drafted), 2019, and 2021 and from 2023 Mafi started 2 games last year and is on the Colts PS, Sow has started 17 games over the last two seasons and been bad, as have 2024. draftees Wallace and Robinson, who have started 1 and 4 games respectively
2. Wide Reciever - no need to discuss this
3. Tight End - the last marginally productive TE drafted by NE was Lee Smith in 2011 and none of his contributions were to the Patriots.

Thank you. I always forget to cite that I mean offensive player drafting. BB found good defensive players in the first 4 rounds, and coached them well. He seemed to have no idea how to draft offensive players, let alone coach them, and it's badly hamstrung the team.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

Despite the blowout I was pretty encouraged. Maye looks promising which is what matters. I actually thought AVP did a pretty good job getting him option he's comfortable with and accounting form the line. There was almost always an easy button for Maye to go to.

Yes. As Pats fans were not used to seeing the ball come out with zip. He's not peak Tom Brady (or even 2019 Tom Brady) but he has the best arm we've seen since. Good runner too. Seems to glide along and then have an extra gear.

 

[8slim]

What makes this “rebuild” different is that a) they hired mostly in house and b) they re-signed so many of their guys! Look at the 1999 vs 2000 vs 2001 Patriots. That’s what a rebuild looks like.

Not only do we need Maye to be good for the sake of having a competent QB. But we also need him to be good so we have something enticing to sell free agents.

For all the “you have to rebuild through the draft” pronouncements, that’s still only a handful of players each season, at best. Needless to say, a team also has to bring in a greater amount of free agents to “rebuild” as well. And there’s been no compelling reason for a FA to sign here recently other than money/lack of other opportunities.

 

[BaseballJones]

Ok I'm back from Gillette. My thoughts (I'll try to keep them brief because probably none of you care what I think)...

1. Gonna start with Maye. Loved what I saw. One of the TOs was a terrible, awful play on his part. 100% on him. I predicted (no kudos to me - it was an easy prediction) that he'd make some mistakes, and he did. Aside from the turnovers, he had several plays where he had guys wide, WIDE open for huge gains, but threw elsewhere. But I also said that he'd make some plays. And boy did he ever. Three touchdowns. Other very nice passes. Quality runs. He has talent. Lots of it. Also pretty tough. He got drilled a couple of times and bounced back up.

2. Mayo. DID NOT LIKE. I hated the first series of the game for the Pats. I hated the acceptance of the penalty when they got a stop on 4th and 5. Did the refs tell him that Houston caught the pass so accepting it was the right thing to do? I don't know. Apparently none of you watching on TV were informed of that, and neither were we in the stadium. Mystifying. And I absolutely hated the end of the game. If you want to play it safe with Maye out of concern for injury, fine. Then just run the ball. Or bring in Brissett. But they actually threw six times on that drive and he scrambled on another pass play. That's not "playing it safe out of concern for his health". So ok, you're throwing. Then TRY TO SCORE. It was, as someone else said in this thread, the worst of all possible worlds - not playing it safe but then also not trying to score. It was a perfect chance to get him some 2-minute drill experience against a live opponent trying to stop you, but with no real pressure because the game wasn't remotely on the line. Ideal situation for that. Nope. Infuriating.

Also....HOW THE F.. DO YOU HAVE AN ILLEGAL FORMATION PENALTY ON THE OPENING KICKOFF? Utterly, impossibly inexcusable.

3. The OL is a complete train wreck. I know they've got a million guys hurt but holy cow it's even worse in person than watching it on TV.

4. The WRs. I am not worried about Polk. I don't know if he'll be any good but he was getting open and had a drop or two. Seems like he can't catch, but the fact is, he had great hands in college, so I don't really get what's going on. Hands aren't really an "he needs to adjust to the pros" kind of thing. Route running is. Dealing with corners who are better, faster, and more physical is. Dealing with pro schemes is. But the basic act of catching the ball shouldn't need any sort of adjustment at the next level. So I don't get it. I suspect he will improve. Douglas was terrific today. Boutte showed up nice. I think these WRs would look pretty good with a good QB and OL.

5. The defense was awful most of the game, but they did do a few nice things. But that brings me to the last point:

6. The refs. Holy god they were terrible. The Pats actually got 3rd down stops against Houston on their first two drives, but weak, soft, baby soft penalties on NE extended the drives and led to TDs. Then when Gibson almost has his head ripped off on a facemask *right in front of the ref*, no flag. That would have given the Pats 1st and 10 at their 37 only down 14-7. Instead it led directly to the next play being the strip sack, which led to a Texans TD and a 21-7 lead. And apparently missed holding calls on long runs by Nixon. The Pats would have lost anyway, but they cost NE 8 points on the first two Texan possessions, and contributed to two more Texans TDs. So frustrating.

Anyway, Gillette was fun, though far from filled. But the fans were excited about Maye and that's a good thing. He brings a little juice.

 

[Ed Hillel]

The posters still think Coach Mayo accepted a penalty on eth and 5 btw. They have had multiple hours to recognize this mistake and correct it. They are the worst.



I kid, I kid.

I acknowledged it once I found out, which for some reason took until after the game for us to find out. But if others could acknowledge Mayo has done a shitty job despite the team’s limitations, that would also be nice. The penalties, the clock management, the defense getting worse (which is supposed to be his speciality), the absolutely inane media communications…it’s been really bad.

Honestly, the communication part is so bad (he comes off like a complete amateur publicly) he makes it so much more difficult on himself. He acts like a high school kid trying to fit in and make everyone happy, rather than in command and making confident decisions. Not sure how this comes off in the locker room, but it doesn’t seem like a positive. A lot of what he has said must make people feel unsure/like shit inside the building.

To be fair, even if you go back to years 1-2 with BB here, he was a different guy, too. Much more talkative and wanting to explain things to the media. Hopefully experience will help, because this town will eat him alive if not.

 

[mikeford]

Mayo
AVP
Eliot Wolf

 

[8slim]

Ok I'm back from Gillette. My thoughts (I'll try to keep them brief because probably none of you care what I think)...

1. Gonna start with Maye. Loved what I saw. One of the TOs was a terrible, awful play on his part. 100% on him. I predicted (no kudos to me - it was an easy prediction) that he'd make some mistakes, and he did. Aside from the turnovers, he had several plays where he had guys wide, WIDE open for huge gains, but threw elsewhere. But I also said that he'd make some plays. And boy did he ever. Three touchdowns. Other very nice passes. Quality runs. He has talent. Lots of it. Also pretty tough. He got drilled a couple of times and bounced back up.

2. Mayo. DID NOT LIKE. I hated the first series of the game for the Pats. I hated the acceptance of the penalty when they got a stop on 4th and 5. Did the refs tell him that Houston caught the pass so accepting it was the right thing to do? I don't know. Apparently none of you watching on TV were informed of that, and neither were we in the stadium. Mystifying. And I absolutely hated the end of the game. If you want to play it safe with Maye out of concern for injury, fine. Then just run the ball. Or bring in Brissett. But they actually threw six times on that drive and he scrambled on another pass play. That's not "playing it safe out of concern for his health". So ok, you're throwing. Then TRY TO SCORE. It was, as someone else said in this thread, the worst of all possible worlds - not playing it safe but then also not trying to score. It was a perfect chance to get him some 2-minute drill experience against a live opponent trying to stop you, but with no real pressure because the game wasn't remotely on the line. Ideal situation for that. Nope. Infuriating.

Also....HOW THE F.. DO YOU HAVE AN ILLEGAL FORMATION PENALTY ON THE OPENING KICKOFF? Utterly, impossibly inexcusable.

3. The OL is a complete train wreck. I know they've got a million guys hurt but holy cow it's even worse in person than watching it on TV.

4. The WRs. I am not worried about Polk. I don't know if he'll be any good but he was getting open and had a drop or two. Seems like he can't catch, but the fact is, he had great hands in college, so I don't really get what's going on. Hands aren't really an "he needs to adjust to the pros" kind of thing. Route running is. Dealing with corners who are better, faster, and more physical is. Dealing with pro schemes is. But the basic act of catching the ball shouldn't need any sort of adjustment at the next level. So I don't get it. I suspect he will improve. Douglas was terrific today. Boutte showed up nice. I think these WRs would look pretty good with a good QB and OL.

5. The defense was awful most of the game, but they did do a few nice things. But that brings me to the last point:

6. The refs. Holy god they were terrible. The Pats actually got 3rd down stops against Houston on their first two drives, but weak, soft, baby soft penalties on NE extended the drives and led to TDs. Then when Gibson almost has his head ripped off on a facemask *right in front of the ref*, no flag. That would have given the Pats 1st and 10 at their 37 only down 14-7. Instead it led directly to the next play being the strip sack, which led to a Texans TD and a 21-7 lead. And apparently missed holding calls on long runs by Nixon. The Pats would have lost anyway, but they cost NE 8 points on the first two Texan possessions, and contributed to two more Texans TDs. So frustrating.

Anyway, Gillette was fun, though far from filled. But the fans were excited about Maye and that's a good thing. He brings a little juice.

Excellent post.

 

[tims4wins]

I acknowledged it once I found out, which for some reason took until after the game for us to find out. But if others could acknowledge Mayo has done a shitty job despite the team’s limitations, that would also be nice. The penalties, the clock management, the defense getting worse (which is supposed to be his speciality), the absolutely inane media communications…it’s been really bad.

Honestly, the communication part is so bad (he comes off like a complete amateur publicly) he makes it so much more difficult on himself. He acts like a high school kid trying to fit in and make everyone happy, rather than in command and making confident decisions. Not sure how this comes off in the locker room, but it doesn’t seem like a positive. A lot of what he has said must make people feel unsure/like shit inside the building.

To be fair, even if you go back to years 1-2 with BB here, he was a different guy, too. Much more talkative and wanting to explain things to the media. Hopefully experience will help, because this town will eat him alive if not.

Perry tweeted it in real time for the record.

 

[Justthetippett]

Ok I'm back from Gillette. My thoughts (I'll try to keep them brief because probably none of you care what I think)...

1. Gonna start with Maye. Loved what I saw. One of the TOs was a terrible, awful play on his part. 100% on him. I predicted (no kudos to me - it was an easy prediction) that he'd make some mistakes, and he did. Aside from the turnovers, he had several plays where he had guys wide, WIDE open for huge gains, but threw elsewhere. But I also said that he'd make some plays. And boy did he ever. Three touchdowns. Other very nice passes. Quality runs. He has talent. Lots of it. Also pretty tough. He got drilled a couple of times and bounced back up.

2. Mayo. DID NOT LIKE. I hated the first series of the game for the Pats. I hated the acceptance of the penalty when they got a stop on 4th and 5. Did the refs tell him that Houston caught the pass so accepting it was the right thing to do? I don't know. Apparently none of you watching on TV were informed of that, and neither were we in the stadium. Mystifying. And I absolutely hated the end of the game. If you want to play it safe with Maye out of concern for injury, fine. Then just run the ball. Or bring in Brissett. But they actually threw six times on that drive and he scrambled on another pass play. That's not "playing it safe out of concern for his health". So ok, you're throwing. Then TRY TO SCORE. It was, as someone else said in this thread, the worst of all possible worlds - not playing it safe but then also not trying to score. It was a perfect chance to get him some 2-minute drill experience against a live opponent trying to stop you, but with no real pressure because the game wasn't remotely on the line. Ideal situation for that. Nope. Infuriating.

Also....HOW THE F.. DO YOU HAVE AN ILLEGAL FORMATION PENALTY ON THE OPENING KICKOFF? Utterly, impossibly inexcusable.

3. The OL is a complete train wreck. I know they've got a million guys hurt but holy cow it's even worse in person than watching it on TV.

4. The WRs. I am not worried about Polk. I don't know if he'll be any good but he was getting open and had a drop or two. Seems like he can't catch, but the fact is, he had great hands in college, so I don't really get what's going on. Hands aren't really an "he needs to adjust to the pros" kind of thing. Route running is. Dealing with corners who are better, faster, and more physical is. Dealing with pro schemes is. But the basic act of catching the ball shouldn't need any sort of adjustment at the next level. So I don't get it. I suspect he will improve. Douglas was terrific today. Boutte showed up nice. I think these WRs would look pretty good with a good QB and OL.

5. The defense was awful most of the game, but they did do a few nice things. But that brings me to the last point:

6. The refs. Holy god they were terrible. The Pats actually got 3rd down stops against Houston on their first two drives, but weak, soft, baby soft penalties on NE extended the drives and led to TDs. Then when Gibson almost has his head ripped off on a facemask *right in front of the ref*, no flag. That would have given the Pats 1st and 10 at their 37 only down 14-7. Instead it led directly to the next play being the strip sack, which led to a Texans TD and a 21-7 lead. And apparently missed holding calls on long runs by Nixon. The Pats would have lost anyway, but they cost NE 8 points on the first two Texan possessions, and contributed to two more Texans TDs. So frustrating.

Anyway, Gillette was fun, though far from filled. But the fans were excited about Maye and that's a good thing. He brings a little juice.

I'll be interested to see the breakdowns on plays he might have missed. When he had any time in the pocket, he seemed to generally make good decisions (aside from the first INT). Were you tracking him at all in between possessions? Teammates were very complimentary after the game. Wondering how much command he had on the sidelines and who he spent most of his time with from the staff.

 

[Helmet Head]

Thanks for this.

You seem to be dismissive of people criticizing Mayo. Curious why. He hasn't really shown anything to tell me he can be a successful coach in this league . Seems like he is in a bit over his head. If team continues down this path and shows little improvement, I firmly believe he won’t be back for year 2.

 

[8slim]

You seem to be dismissive of people criticizing Mayo. Curious why. He hasn't really shown anything to tell me he can be a successful coach in this league . Seems like he is in a bit over his head. If team continues down this path and shows little improvement, I firmly believe he won’t be back for year 2.

I suspect the only thing that would keep him from returning for year 2 is a massive scandal. He’s a first year HC who’s scaling a massive learning curve. If Kraft didn’t want to endure that he wouldn’t have hired him. He’ll almost certainly be back even if we finish 1-16

 

[BaseballJones]

I'll be interested to see the breakdowns on plays he might have missed. When he had any time in the pocket, he seemed to generally make good decisions (aside from the first INT). Were you tracking him at all in between possessions? Teammates were very complimentary after the game. Wondering how much command he had on the sidelines and who he spent most of his time with from the staff.

I couldn't really follow him when he was on the sidelines. Too far away. I thought he made a lot of good decisions, but also some not so good ones. I have two in particular in mind.

(1) I think it was NE's third possession, early on. Maye had scrambled for a first down (checking....11 yards, yeah) and on the next play, they had a screen set up but on the play, Boutte ran completely wide open downfield, crossing from the right to the left and was 20 yards clear of anyone. Easy touchdown if Maye simply looks up. Now that being said, I'm not a play designer, so maybe it was never Maye's job to even think about looking for him on that, but to only focus on the screen. So I may be wrong in offering criticism on that play but man, Boutte was so unbelievably wide open - I'd think that a more experienced QB would have seen it and instead of throwing the screen, just lobbing it out there for the easy score. So someone with more knowledge than me can tell me if that kind of thing is even something Maye ought to be looking for on that play call. I could be wrong in my assessment. Of course, it wouldn't have mattered anyway because there was an illegal man downfield penalty on NE so it would have been wiped off the books regardless. So...no harm, no foul?

(2) The long TD to Boutte. Yes, really hard to criticize that play because it was an absolutely perfectly thrown ball for the TD. But I'm telling you, *when he threw it*, Boutte was not open. He was still on the DB's hip. Maye threw him open on that play. And on that play, he had Douglas wide, wide open over the middle - like nobody within 20-30 yards of Douglas. Maye never even looked that direction. So yeah, he made the play and it resulted in the TD so all good, but I'd think that a coach might say, uh, you made a great throw on a difficult attempt...you could have made your life so much easier by throwing to Douglas here.

But in both cases, neither play hurt, so my criticism is really muted here. Even so, I think they represent the idea that he could still make better decisions.

 

[BaseballJones]

You seem to be dismissive of people criticizing Mayo. Curious why. He hasn't really shown anything to tell me he can be a successful coach in this league . Seems like he is in a bit over his head. If team continues down this path and shows little improvement, I firmly believe he won’t be back for year 2.

Here's my hope for Mayo - that he learns and grows into the job at the same time as Maye, and in a couple of years both of them are really, really good at their respective jobs. That would make for a great HC/QB combo for years to come.

My hope anyway.

 

[Helmet Head]

I suspect the only thing that would keep him from returning for year 2 is a massive scandal. He’s a first year HC who’s scaling a massive learning curve. If Kraft didn’t want to endure that he wouldn’t have hired him. He’ll almost certainly be back even if we finish 1-16

I don’t agree. They were kind of forced to sign Mayo this past offseason if you believe Bedard. He stated Mayo would get $10mm of he wasn’t named coach, as it was on Mayo’s contract. With that being the case I think they would take any excuse to get out if that and 1-16 does that. They probably already looked at this year as a lost year anyways and can do a real coaching search this offseason.

Here is the 985 story regarding the buyout. He may be full of shit, who knows but I don’t think Mayo is safe for year 2.

https://985thesportshub.com/2024/02/07/greg-bedard-jerod-mayos-contract-buyout-was-massive/

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

Fire Mayo. Hire Brandon Spikes.

 

[Helmet Head]

I want to be clear here. I don’t think they should fire Mayo but if they go through this whole season and you see no improvements or any type of path forward i would hope they were having the discussion.

 

[8slim]

I don’t agree. They were kind of forced to sign Mayo this past offseason if you believe Bedard. He stated Mayo would get $10mm of he wasn’t named coach, as it was on Mayo’s contract. With that being the case I think they would take any excuse to get out if that and 1-16 does that. They probably already looked at this year as a lost year anyways and can do a real coaching search this offseason.

Here is the 985 story regarding the buyout. He may be full of shit, who knows but I don’t think Mayo is safe for year 2.

https://985thesportshub.com/2024/02/07/greg-bedard-jerod-mayos-contract-buyout-was-massive/

I certainly have no clue if that’s true. But they presumably have to pay Mayo a salary this year, right? And I assume he’s on a contract that lasts more than one year?

So instead of biting the bullet and paying him $10 million to go away, they’ll spend, what, $12 million? $14 million? More? So they don’t have to pay him $10 million?!

Doesn’t make much sense to me.

 

[Kenny F'ing Powers]

I don't want to just repeat what everyone said about Mayo - poor drives, mental mistakes by his team, etc - so I'll go in a different (more talk radio focused) direction.

I was really put off by the 3 seconds he spent with the sideline reporter before going in for halftime. He was asked about the final 2 minutes of the half, what he saw from Maye, and what allowed them to get points on the board. His reply?

"First off, I want to start with the offensive line. It was a good pocket and it gave him a chance to throw the ball down the field, so...*shrugs* it was a good throw."

Mayo has been willing to talk up everyone on the roster, and the first chance he has to give praise to his rookie QB it felt like pulling teeth for him. Almost like, "if Jacoby was given that amount of time, he'd have thrown a TD, too."

Knowing Kraft, part of me wonders if Mayos hand was forced with Maye.

Thanks. I'll hang up and listen.

 

[NickEsasky]

I couldn't really follow him when he was on the sidelines. Too far away. I thought he made a lot of good decisions, but also some not so good ones. I have two in particular in mind.

(1) I think it was NE's third possession, early on. Maye had scrambled for a first down (checking....11 yards, yeah) and on the next play, they had a screen set up but on the play, Boutte ran completely wide open downfield, crossing from the right to the left and was 20 yards clear of anyone. Easy touchdown if Maye simply looks up. Now that being said, I'm not a play designer, so maybe it was never Maye's job to even think about looking for him on that, but to only focus on the screen. So I may be wrong in offering criticism on that play but man, Boutte was so unbelievably wide open - I'd think that a more experienced QB would have seen it and instead of throwing the screen, just lobbing it out there for the easy score. So someone with more knowledge than me can tell me if that kind of thing is even something Maye ought to be looking for on that play call. I could be wrong in my assessment. Of course, it wouldn't have mattered anyway because there was an illegal man downfield penalty on NE so it would have been wiped off the books regardless. So...no harm, no foul?

I’m not an NFL coach or QB but on a screen pass you’re basically letting rushers come free so my guess is they’re not really looking for a second or third read on that play.

 

[Zedia]

I’m not an NFL coach or QB but on a screen pass you’re basically letting rushers come free so my guess is they’re not really looking for a second or third read on that play.

Also, I think that was the screen where they called Lowe for being downfield. So, yeah, no time for anything else.

 

[BaseballJones]

Also, I think that was the screen where they called Lowe for being downfield. So, yeah, no time for anything else.

There definitely was time for the deep ball. I just am not sure if it's even in Maye's list of responsibilities on that play to even look for it, or if a screen pass like that is a one-read play only.

But like I said, it didn't matter due to the penalty. I'm just looking at it from the perspective of Maye's decision-making, not the actual result.

 

[BaseballJones]

Ok, I'm going to stand corrected after watching the Boutte TD play on DVR. Douglas did have someone over the top of him and wasn't nearly as open as I thought live. In the moment he looked like he was completely alone but I obviously missed the DB (#5) behind him. Totally my bad. Turns out it was a great decision and throw by Maye, 100%. I was wrong. He was right.

(and it's much, much more important that he was right!)

 

[McBride11]

Fire Mayo. Hire Brandon Spikes.

It is what it is, but it ain’t what you think

 

[Justthetippett]

I don’t agree. They were kind of forced to sign Mayo this past offseason if you believe Bedard. He stated Mayo would get $10mm of he wasn’t named coach, as it was on Mayo’s contract. With that being the case I think they would take any excuse to get out if that and 1-16 does that. They probably already looked at this year as a lost year anyways and can do a real coaching search this offseason.

Here is the 985 story regarding the buyout. He may be full of shit, who knows but I don’t think Mayo is safe for year 2.

https://985thesportshub.com/2024/02/07/greg-bedard-jerod-mayos-contract-buyout-was-massive/

If this was the case I doubt we'd get the whole Mayo airport story from Kraft. Also, what a dumb shit clause for a team to include in a contract for a guy who was never even a coordinator. I know he got other interviews but those always seemed a little superficial.

 

[splendid splinter]

Ok, I'm going to stand corrected after watching the Boutte TD play on DVR. Douglas did have someone over the top of him and wasn't nearly as open as I thought live. In the moment he looked like he was completely alone but I obviously missed the DB (#5) behind him. Totally my bad. Turns out it was a great decision and throw by Maye, 100%. I was wrong. He was right.

(and it's much, much more important that he was right!)

Douglas looks open to me on the clips I see but even so, it really comes down to the progression reads. If Boutte is his primary read and Maye thinks he’s got his man beat, I definitely want him to have the confidence in his read and his arm talent to take that shot. And I’d guess that with 16 seconds left in the half, Boutte might well have been the primary read.

 

[Eddie Jurak]

I don't want to just repeat what everyone said about Mayo - poor drives, mental mistakes by his team, etc - so I'll go in a different (more talk radio focused) direction.

I was really put off by the 3 seconds he spent with the sideline reporter before going in for halftime. He was asked about the final 2 minutes of the half, what he saw from Maye, and what allowed them to get points on the board. His reply?

"First off, I want to start with the offensive line. It was a good pocket and it gave him a chance to throw the ball down the field, so...*shrugs* it was a good throw."

Mayo has been willing to talk up everyone on the roster, and the first chance he has to give praise to his rookie QB it felt like pulling teeth for him. Almost like, "if Jacoby was given that amount of time, he'd have thrown a TD, too."

Knowing Kraft, part of me wonders if Mayos hand was forced with Maye.

Thanks. I'll hang up and listen.

I don't think so. It has seemed for the whole season that AVP was the Brissett guy and Mayo was the Maye guy. I doubt that has suddenly changed.

 

[Garshaparra]

I was really put off by the 3 seconds he spent with the sideline reporter before going in for halftime. He was asked about the final 2 minutes of the half, what he saw from Maye, and what allowed them to get points on the board. His reply?

"First off, I want to start with the offensive line. It was a good pocket and it gave him a chance to throw the ball down the field, so...*shrugs* it was a good throw."

Meh, he said the right thing. The Oline is really terrible, but they held up here, and got him 6. They deserve praise too. Maye got tons of praise from Mayo post-game, moreso than he deserved TBH. Mayo is still very much a rah-rah coach, not a guy who's going to call out how a scheme worked. There is room for guys like that (Dan Campbell comes to mind), but they need Xs and Os guys around them.

 

[lexrageorge]

Those 2 minute pre-/post-halftime segments have about as much value as the comments on a tweet, and that's on a good day. Not really convinced Mayo is a goat, as there is simply a huge gap in overall roster talent between these 2 teams, and the results were indicative of that. So I'll go with:

OL
Hooper
OL
Polk
OL
Front 7 on the defense
OL

 

[Humphrey]

The coaching staff. That last drive told me everything that I needed to know. They quit. They had 3 time outs and used none. A never say die attitude starts from the top.

The Pats played the Lions 2 years ago when the Lions were still pretty bad, the game where Zappe looked like he might be a player.

To your point, Campbell knew he was going to lose and still stretched the game out for what then seemed like an eternity. Perhaps something from that game carried on.

 

[Humphrey]

Sneaky lowlight:

Refs - missed holding on both long Mixon runs, PIs and a blatant face mask by HOU. They called a weak hold on a good PR, and killed momentum. They weren't the difference in the game, but they did make it an uphill battle.

That's a good way of looking at it. Houston's still a much better team but those guys in some ways ruined the game. The PI on the first drive was an inexcusable call. The god damn ball was in the air, clearly intended for someone else: the qb wasn't going to take the throw back and throw it to the person who #15 bumped into slightly.

So at the half, Houston should have had 13 (let's give them the fg on that one and the fg that their great kicker missed).

The other big play was the non-call on the face mask. The non-call was followed by a turnover on second-and-8....first and 10 15 yards down the field they probably run it again.

 

[BaseballJones]

That's a good way of looking at it. Houston's still a much better team but those guys in some ways ruined the game. The PI on the first drive was an inexcusable call. The god damn ball was in the air, clearly intended for someone else: the qb wasn't going to take the throw back and throw it to the person who #15 bumped into slightly.

So at the half, Houston should have had 13 (let's give them the fg on that one and the fg that their great kicker missed).

The other big play was the non-call on the face mask. The non-call was followed by a turnover on second-and-8....first and 10 15 yards down the field they probably run it again.

Yeah I said this yesterday but the Pats actually "stopped" Houston on their first two drives and held them to FG attempts, but the refs threw flags on two cottony soft, totally lame DPI penalties. That essentially gave Houston 8 points (4 each possession). Then the non-call on the face mask - no idea how they didn't throw a flag on that - Gibson's head nearly got totally spun around. They literally don't get more obvious than that. Cost NE 15 yards and the next play was the strip sack, which led to a Houston TD. That's 7 more points.

15 points gifted to Houston in a game where they won by 20. I still think they would have won the game without that, but they helped in a significant way to make the game noncompetitive. So frustrating.

In years past, the great NE teams would have been able to overcome those calls, but not this team. No chance.

 

[cournoyer]

That's a good way of looking at it. Houston's still a much better team but those guys in some ways ruined the game. The PI on the first drive was an inexcusable call. The god damn ball was in the air, clearly intended for someone else: the qb wasn't going to take the throw back and throw it to the person who #15 bumped into slightly.

So at the half, Houston should have had 13 (let's give them the fg on that one and the fg that their great kicker missed).

The other big play was the non-call on the face mask. The non-call was followed by a turnover on second-and-8....first and 10 15 yards down the field they probably run it again.

It's interesting watching Patriots games the last two years, in that I'm just hoping to take something positive from their performance and not live and die with each play. That being said, if they were in the playoff hunt and the game was officiated that way I would have been pissed. It's nothing new of course, but it's frustrating as a fan as those calls you mentioned were huge swings in the game. Patriots most likely still don't win, but you never know how things can shake out without those gifts.