Here's Today's Update of the Absolute Catastrophe the 2024 Patriots Have Become

Boston Globe. Getty Images.

Just as a bit of inside baseball to begin our little Rage Ritual in the woods here, the subtitle of this above image is, "The Patriots aren't good at any phase of the game, and their sixth straight loss proved it." And this is from a photojournalism subscription service, not Rex Ryan on ESPN's morning show. Even people with zero skin in the Patriots' game recognize what an undeniable goatfuck this team is. 

For those of us who are emotionally invested in the Patriots, they've become unrecognizable. It's the Paradox of Theseus' Ship. What remained of the Dynasty a few seasons ago has been replaced to the point where you can have philosophical debates over whether or not this is still the same franchise. Or if it's an entirely new and different one, with no relation to what made the original so special that it was worth preserving besides the name.

And when Jerod Mayo laughed when he was asked why his roster was so bad instead of rejecting or ignoring the premise of the question, it seemed like he woke a sleeping giant. At least a giant who was willing to play nice and avoid criticizing the franchise that fired him and the former assistant who replaced him. Then So at the beginning of this week, that giant took off his giant's gloves and started throwing knuckles:

Which brings us to today. In the normal course of business, Wednesday's press availability doesn't produce anything you'd consider blogworthy. Belichick himself would spent his Hump Day presser extolling the virtues of the next opponent. Whether they were good, bad or in between, he'd give a TED Talk about all the things they do well and the players they have to watch out for. Once in a while you might get him waxing poetic about the punt return or long snapper and it would be a journey into football eroticism. But rarely did anything of note ever come out of these midweek interviews. 

Of course, this isn't the normal course of business. It's more like Black Friday, 1929 (which ironically happened 95 years ago tomorrow), with us aforementioned emotional investors jumping out skyscraper windows. So with everything going, today figured to be one for the books. And it didn't disappoint. 

Well, that's not entirely true. The one guy I wanted to hear from most is Ja'Lynn Polk. He of the three dropped passes and one self-tacklization, tripping over the goal line on a 2-point try. But it was not meant to be:

Next was, naturally, the eye of this storm of his own creation, Mayo. He made a noble effort to take the blame for 1-6, before lifting one of Belichick's most popular catchphrases like he's Amy Schumer stealing jokes:

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Then he fielded a question about something I've spent the week talking to friends about. How he never seems to engage with his players during a game. Where Belichick used to take a knee in front of the bench, white board in hand, going over adjustments for his defensive front-7 or whomever, Mayo always seems to be forornly staring into the middle distance like a Wes Anderson character. We're seven games into his coaching career, and I can't even remember him talking into his headset. But he insisted that he does:

I don't think I've heard anyone yet sum up the way Mayo handles these public comments than Tom E. Curran, who did a few seasons of regional sports TV with him as a cohost and knows him well. Here he lists example after example of times Mayo has said something to the media, only to have to walk it back later:

He clearly is not ready for this part of the job. As someone on Twitter said, he makes more corrections than a 5th grade English teacher. The question remains whether he's ready for the other 999,999 parts of the job. 

Some retired Patriots legends weighed in as well. Ty Law, for instance had this to say about Mayo's lack of engagement:

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Devin McCourty played with and for Mayo, and based on what he told Pro Football Network, he seems to think Mayo needs to look inward:

“The first thing I think of is toughness isn’t a skill set. 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.”

While longtime Belichick assistant Michael Lombardi is still nuking Mayo from orbit:

But not everyone is so negative. From his perspective, watching all this unfold from IR, David Andrews hears Mayo's fightin' words as a challenge for the teammates he and his season-ending injury left behind:

But I digress. Forgive me for taking that off ramp, because today is about the players currently on the active roster. And you have to admit, they've all been positive and supportive of Mayo, even if he's basically calling them squishes. Beginning with Kayshon Boutte, Hunter Henry, Deatrich Wise Jr and Keion White. All of whom seemed to agree with their coach:

Truth is a defense against libel, I guess. Although it's not comforting to learn that the only reason Boutte has a 40-yard touchdown and a 33-yard catch from Drake Maye is he had to go to the coaches and lobby for some deep shots:

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I should go no further without bringing Drake Maye into the chat, since he's the one positive we've gotten out of the last month and a half. Even at 22 years old and with two career starts, he sees part of his role as getting all his receivers involved. Which never seemed to be a priority when he was standing on the sidelines wearing a hat:

Even Polk:

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Meanwhile Davon Godchaux, who last week was questioning his own teammates' commitment, is trying to broker peace in the Mayo-Belichick War:

While Jonathan Jones, who has been the furthest thing from soft all season, also agreed with Mayo's assessment. While calling out guys like Polk to knock off posting to the socials after games because no good is ever going to come from it:

Amen to that. 

So what's the bottom line to all this? I guess that in their words and in their tones, Patriots players don't seem the least bit butthurt about being called out by their rookie coach. Sitting here now, in the middle of the week, it sounds like this an external problem. Something only retired players, former coaches, media members, fans, and charming, sexually desirable bloggers are concerned about. One that isn't a problem inside the building. 

The proof of who's right will come on Sunday. If they put up a fight against the Jets on Sunday, Mayo's comment will be regarded as a stroke of genius. Like he's a coach with his thumb on the pulse of his players, who understands exactly how much of a kick in the ass they need. Think Larry Bird in the 1984 Finals when he said the Celtics "played like a bunch of sissies." In the next game, Kevin McHale almost decapitated Kurt Rambis, chaos broke out, and few days later they were winning a championship. 

But if they don't show up, if they look like they did last week in London, then this noted Patriots Insider might just be right:

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We're in for a hell of a rest of the week.