Under Bill Belichick last year, the Patriots led the league in opponents’ yards per carry.
That stoutness still has Belichick calling the defensive unit “tough guys.”
This year, with first-year head coach Jerod Mayo, New England is tied for 17th entering the Monday night doubleheader.
That leakiness has Mayo labeling his team — and calling out the run defense — as “soft.”
Hearing that label thrown on his former players stung the legendary coach.
“I’m kinda hurt for those guys because to call them soft, they’re not soft, they were the best team in the league last year against the run,” Belichick said of his former team on “The Pat McAfee Show” on Monday. “Those guys went out there and did it even though we couldn’t score many points offensively. I feel bad for the defensive players on that one because that’s a tough group.”
The Patriots lost their sixth straight game Sunday against the Jaguars in London and Mayo took his team to task after the 32-16 setback to a terrible Jacksonville team.
Mayo clarified Monday that he did not believe his team is actually soft, but they have played that way.
The Patriots allowed the Jaguars to rush for 171 yards, including backup Tank Bigsby rumbling for 118 yards and two touchdowns.
New England, conversely, rushed for 38 yards on 15 carries.
Belichick noted that the Patriots retained most of the players from their dominant rush defense last season, which usually sets a team up for success.
Instead, the Patriots have regressed.
“We’re a soft football team across the board,” Mayo said Sunday. “We talk about what makes a tough football team, that’s being able to run the ball, being able to stop the run and that’s being able to stop kicks, and we did none of those today.”
Despite their success stopping the run last season, the Patriots went 4-13 last season and Belichick was forced out the door.
New England’s rush defense will try to get on track in Week 8 against a Jets rushing attack that ranks second to last in yards per game.
Mayo believes his team has the potential to revert to its past form.
“Last night, after the game, I felt like just went out there and played soft, we’re playing soft at the moment,” Mayo said Monday. “When I said I playing soft, that means stopping the run, being able to run the ball and covering kicks, which we weren’t able to do. Now, saying that, do I think we have the guys that can turn this ship around? One hundred percent. But that comes through hard work, hard work comes on the practice field and going out there and getting better each and every day.”
