New England Patriots pass rusher Keion White believes his team lacks a “defensive identity” a statement that only intensifies the pressure on embattled head coach Jerod Mayo.
Mayo had the unenviable task of replacing Bill Belichick after his glorious 23-year tenure in Foxborough came to an end ahead of this season. The former All-Pro Pats linebacker inherited one of the least talented rosters in the NFL, but there was an expectation that he would be able to harness his defensive acumen to ensure his team would be effective on that side of the ball.
Instead, the Patriots have been dismal across the board. The flashes of excellence from rookie quarterback Drake Maye give cause for optimism, but many of the players around him on offense and defense have fallen well short of expectations.
The Pats are languishing at the bottom of the AFC East with a 3-12 record, piling the pressure on Mayo, who is fighting to keep his job. Numerous reports have indicated in recent weeks that owner Robert Kraft is leaning towards giving Mayo another shot next season, but White’s comments in the wake of Sunday’s demoralizing defeat to the Buffalo Bills certainly do not help the rookie head coach’s cause.
The Patriots raced into a 14-0 in Orchard Park over the Bills (12-3), but they meekly succumbed to Buffalo’s fightback, going on to lose 24-21 with a late Hunter Henry touchdown giving the illusion on the scoreboard that it was a close game to the end.
There were promising glimpses of potential sprinkled in the Patriots’ performance, but the same kind of sloppiness that has marred their season appeared on both sides of the ball to wreck their hopes of scoring an upset victory.
“I personally don’t take consolation prizes,” White, 25, said in response to the suggestion the game in Buffalo offered some moral victories for the Pats. “I want to win. So that’s just how I feel about it.
“You learn things from losses. You learn things from wins. You can learn things from every situation that you’re in. But I believe that a loss is a loss. There’s no such thing as a good loss. There’s no such thing as, like, all the consolation prizes and everything like that. At the end of the day, we get paid to win, and that’s how you continue to get paid.
“That’s the thing I’ve been thinking about for a while. I don’t feel like I’m playing really good run defense right now. I think we just have to get all on the same page, align where we want to be, and have a defensive identity. I think right now, we’re not doing too many things well as a defense, and we just had to find what our identity is. We played a little bit better last week, for sure, but just figure out what our path is.”
New England ranks 21st in the NFL for yards allowed per game with 342.8, giving up 41 touchdowns. The rushing defense has been particularly disappointing, giving up 130.4 yards per game.
The Patriots return to action on Saturday, hosting the Los Angeles Chargers (9-6) at Gillette Stadium. Mayo will be desperate for his team to put up the kind of performance that convinces the ownership to keep him around in 2025.
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