Jerod Mayo's blunt post-game quote sums up Patriots' 2024 team perfectly

Heading into Week 7, there was a lot more excitement and optimism surrounding the New England Patriots than any other game this season. Although they fell to the Texans last Sunday, the impressive debut of Drake Maye and how well the offense worked around him proved they were in good hands and made the right decision to put the rookie in under center.

This prompted a strong belief they could go into Wembley Stadium and add another win to their season against the Jaguars, who have been just as bad of a team as the Patriots have through the first six weeks. But that was far from what happened.

After a hard-fought start ending with an opening drive touchdown followed by a field goal, the rest of the game went entirely downhill.

The offense was projected to be the worst part of the roster this year and more of a liability on the field during games, so seeing the complete opposite happen this week was disturbing. The defense continues to be a mess, from lack of solid tackling to absolutely zero pass rush; they could not do much of anything against a very beatable Jaguars team.

Getting beat up for another week in a row despite having the future of your franchise under center and outplaying the limitations put on him because of lousy play-calling and a lackluster offensive line is just unacceptable.

That makes Jerod Mayo's post game comments all the more fitting.

Jerod Mayo isn't afraid to speak the truth about the Patriots latest humiliating effort

While addressing the media immediately after the loss, Mayo quickly summed up how many fans have felt watching the Patriots play this season.

In the kindest way possible, the head coach shared his belief that they are a "soft football team."

It's something that has been an issue all season long with the seeming lack of discipline, the constant distractions happening off the field, and the same mistakes being repeatedly made every single week.

It's become such a problem that it's not just the offense making the mistakes, as was expected. The defense has been playing far below expectations, and it didn't help that the special teams allowed a 96-yard kickoff return touchdown on top of it all on Sunday.

And apparently, Mayo isn't the only one unafraid to state the quiet part out loud, as Maye also agreed with his coach's statements after the loss.

Something needs to change quickly, whatever that might be. Things aren't clicking, and the season is already getting away from the Patriots, even if they weren't expected to be a competitive team this year.

Now that they've decided it's time for Maye to take over, there should be more of an urgency to provide the best team for him to learn and grow from this year so that next year will be even better. But that's not what's happening right now, and by all accounts, it looks like the team is progressively moving backward rather than forward.