Patriots coach Jerod Mayo calls his team ‘soft’ after 6th straight loss

LONDON — Patriots coach Jerod Mayo told his players what he thought about their performance against the Jacksonville Jaguars on Sunday.

And then he told everyone else.

“We’re a soft football team across the board,” Mayo said.

New England (1-6) squandered an early lead, gave up 171 yards on the ground and allowed a punt return for a touchdown to lose their sixth straight game - 32-16 at Wembley Stadium.

“What makes a tough football team? That’s being able to run the ball, that’s being able to stop the run and that’s being able to cover kicks. We did none of those today,” Mayo said.

It’s the team’s longest losing streak since 1993.

The Patriots built a 10-0 lead by scoring on their first two drives. Drake Maye threw a 16-yard touchdown pass to JaMycal Hasty on their first drive. Joey Slye hit a 41-yard field goal on the next drive.

From there, Jacksonville scored four straight times.

Tank Bigsby carried 26 times for 118 yards and two touchdowns. And the Patriots had trouble getting Jacksonville’s offense off the field in the second half.

“I felt like as we kept running the ball that the Patriots were getting tired,” Bigsby said.

The Jaguars running back added that “on film it shows, fourth quarter comes, third quarter comes, those guys start arm tackling. We just did what we had to do.”

New England rushed for just 38 yards.

“They controlled the ball for most of the day,” Mayo said. “Back to the drawing board. We can’t sit here and pout.”

Parker Washington returned a punt 96 yards for a score in the second quarter. He retreated to catch Bryce Baringer’s 66-yard punt at the Jacksonville 4, went straight and then left to avoid two tacklers into open space.

“I saw guys getting out-leveraged, I saw a punt down the middle of the field, which is always difficult to cover,” Mayo said. “He has a strong leg and he outkicked his coverage and we weren’t disciplined in our lanes.”

Maye, in his second career start, finished 26 of 37 for 276 yards with two touchdowns and no interceptions. He also scrambled three times for 18 yards.

The Pats pulled within nine points when Maye found K.J. Osborn for a 22-yard touchdown pass in the fourth quarter. The 2-point conversion attempt failed.

The third overall pick in this year’s NFL draft said Mayo gave his blunt assessment in the locker room and that veteran cornerback Jonathan Jones also spoke up.

“Jon Jones gave a speech after the game saying ‘you’ve got to find it,’” May said. “What we’re doing is not good enough. Got to man up.”

It’s back-to-back international losses for the Patriots, who were dismal in Frankfurt, Germany, a year ago. Bill Belichick benched Mac Jones late in the 10-6 loss. Jones, a Jacksonville native, was traded to the Jags in the offseason to serve as Trevor Lawrence’s backup.

Tom Brady was at the helm for New England’s three international victories. The Pats won in 2009 and 2012 at Wembley and in 2017 in Mexico City.