Another week, another new low for the New England Patriots.
The Patriots hardly showed signs of life in front of their home crowd in Saturday's 40-7 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. L.A. scored on seven consecutive possessions and dominated the time-of-possession battle, 40:34 to 19:26.
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Pats fans at Gillette Stadium reacted to the team's latest embarrassing defeat with loud boos and "Fire Mayo" chants. NBC Sports Boston's Patriots insider Tom E. Curran didn't mince words either about Saturday's effort.
"Unprofessional performance by the New England Patriots," Curran said on Patriots Postgame Live. "It did not look like a professional football team in a 32-team league that is the NFL. When I look at this result, and I see it in the wake of last week's noble loss to the Buffalo Bills, it undoes that. ...
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"I feel as if now things have definitely been called into question because you had to be a better team at this juncture of the season than you were in 2023. Regardless of the merits and logic behind moving on from Bill Belichick, you had to be building as the season went along, laying a foundation. Whatever foundation this season was laid upon has now crumbled to the point where you have to question everything going forward. And, 'Would changes be for the better, or just for the sake of making them?' has to be decided in the next, I would say 10 days."
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Earlier in the day, NFL Media's Ian Rapoport stated that Jerod Mayo's job as Patriots head coach is considered "safe" heading into 2025. Former Pats linebacker Ted Johnson wonders whether Saturday's blowout loss could change things.
"It is gonna be interesting what people are talking about this week, because people said Jerod Mayo's job is not in jeopardy unless something really catastrophic happens. I don't know if this qualifies for it, but this is a bad, bad loss for the Patriots today," Johnson said.
"They haven't been able to put back-to-back games together all season long. That is a reason to be alarmed about the coaching staff and these guys. That (Chargers) roster is better than yours, but they had to come across the country in this kind of weather. To me, this was an unacceptable performance by the Patriots today."
For what it's worth, prized rookie quarterback Drake Maye was among multiple Patriots players to come to the coaching staff's defense last week. It'll ultimately be up to longtime team owner Robert Kraft and president Jonathan Kraft to decide how to address the question marks on the coaching staff and in the front office for 2025.
New England (3-13) will wrap up its rough 2024 campaign next Sunday vs. the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium.
Watch our PGL panel's full reaction to the Patriots' 40-7 loss below or on YouTube:
