New England Patriots legend Devin McCourty clearly wasn’t a fan of Patriots coach Jerod Mayo questioning the team’s toughness, following Sunday’s 32-16 loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Mayo claimed the Patriots were a “soft football team across the board” after they got pushed around and dominated in the trenches against a struggling team with one of the worst records in the NFL.
However, McCourty, Mayo’s former teammate, pushed back against that remark during NBC’s pregame coverage of Sunday Night Football, as transcribed by Pro Football Network’s Dakota Randall.
“The first thing I think of is toughness isn’t a skill set,” said McCourty. “You don’t need to be fast or do anything special to be tough. The second part of that is: Why, Jerod? Why is this team not tough?
“When you hear a team isn’t tough and they are soft, you think, ‘What is the head coach doing? How is he getting them ready to go?’ Mayo and that staff have a lot of questions to answer going in the next week.”
McCourty isn’t the only former Patriot who disagreed with Mayo’s comments. Former coach Bill Belichick also came to the team’s defense during a segment on “The Pat McAfee Show.”
It’s important to keep in mind that Mayo is a rookie head coach learning on the job. However, he’s going to need to adapt quickly to put an end to this already disastrous season.
