Patriots Monday Live: Jerod Mayo calls Jaguars' loss 'death by a thousand cuts'

• Mayo spoke to the media at 9 a.m., followed by an appearance on WEEI at 9:30 a.m
• The players are available in the afternoon. Read on to hear what they say.
• Former Patriots head coach Bill Belichick will appear on “The Pat McAfee Show” around noon to talk NFL.
• He will also appear Monday night during the “ManningCast” broadcast of Monday Night Football with Eli and Peyton Manning on ESPN2.

Mayo joined The Greg Hill Show at 9:30 a.m. on WEEI. Here's what he said.

For a quick start: “The boys started quickly. I think defensively, five plays in the first quarter. I thought Drake (Maye) went out there and really ran the offense, executed the script correctly and made plays, and we scored, scored a touchdown. So it was nice to see.”

On his expectations for a rookie quarterback: “It's what we thought he would be. He's making progress. In the last game he had three turnovers. This game, no ball losses. And that is progress. And that’s why we look forward to it remaining that way in the future.”

On his comments about his team being “soft”: “Let me just go ahead and correct that. Was play soft. OK? Because if you look at the first time you went back to training camp, it was definitely tough everywhere, and we still have the same players, and we just have to play like that.”

On the question of whether the Patriots played softly last season: “Last year we played softly at times. There were always games every single season where you felt like you played softly in that game. And like I said, to correct what I said, it's not that we have a soft football team. We’ve just played sloppily in the last few weeks.”

If he does enough to get the team fit: “I think I am. Our balance sheet does not reflect this. We are what our file says. We are a 1-6 football team at the moment. You know, when it comes to training and really demanding a lot from the players, we all do it from a coaching perspective. And you know, maybe we need to do a little bit more, but we are what our record says.”

On the 2-point conversion on Sunday: “At some point you have to choose between two anyway. So if you choose 2 in this case, you will know exactly what situation you will find yourself in in the future. Even if we say that, we should have made the play and gotten the 2 points and we would never talk about it.”

On players voicing their grievances in the media: “I don’t see it as a pointer. Once again, I look at it as these people using the media as an opportunity to spread their messages widely. Look, you can tell this man face to face, but that’s how they feel.”

On complementary football: “Every game we leave there was a good game in at least one phase. Now we just need to reinforce the other two phases. Every single game was different, whether it was the special teams going all out or the defense not playing well; Attacking, scoring points, now special teams – that’s complementary football that we don’t play.”

Which phase played well on Sunday: “The offense, especially early in the game, definitely played well. I would say our pass protection looked a lot better at times than it has all season. Well, saying that, we couldn't run the ball. So it's almost like a puzzle, trying to put all these things together. But that's exactly what we're going through right now. And you know, it’s tough, it’s hard to win this league and we just have to keep working hard.”

Regarding Ja'Lynn Polk's use of social media: “When you make it clear that you have the best hands in the league, you have to go out there and do it. Everything will be resolved with a victory. OK? As if everything would be solved with a win. That's kind of how I see it. This is how you see it. If you want to go out there and say, “I'm the best corner in the league, I'm the best receiver,” then you've said it, now you have to prove it every week. I've been around players in the past who have said that and they were great players. And you know, they say something. You have to go out there and prove it every week.”

More about Polk: “He puts in the extra work before practice, after practice. At some point it reaches a tipping point where something clicks and he becomes a good player.”

Mayo began the day by addressing the media. Here are the highlights.

His thoughts on the game: “Of course we are disappointed. You know, six losses in a row is never a good thing. Last night after the game I said I felt like we just went out there and played softly. Right now we're playing softly. And when I talk about “playing softly” I mean stopping the run, running the ball and covering kicks, which we failed to do. Now, when I say this, do you think we have the people there who can turn this ship around? 100%. But you know that through hard work, through our work on the practice field and through our work out there, we get better every day.”

About demanding instead of humiliating: “It’s in my DNA. A lot of these things are about relationships and dealing with people as human beings, so that's in my DNA. That doesn't mean we're out there gently training these guys. I think the coaches are doing a good job and training them hard. And of course if we were sitting here at 6-1 it would be easy to continue to get that message across, but at 1-6 it's a natural question from you: Should we change our coaching style? And right now I just think we have to keep working hard and keep pushing the players to get good results on the field.”

How Drake Maye surprised him: “It’s just his general toughness. He takes hits, comes back up and still goes into the pocket. Think he's doing a good job talking about the progression from game one to game two. There were no ball losses yesterday, which is going in the right direction. He’s definitely playing at a good level for us.”

On Kendrick Bourne's comments about player discipline off the field: “It’s part of the job of a professional. That's your job. Your job, not just inside this building but outside this building, is to take care of your body and all that stuff. That’s part of it and that means longevity in this league. The message is: We simply have to get better. We have to do everything a little better. … You want to go to heaven, you have to go through hell sometimes, and it might feel like that right now, but hopefully we'll change the situation.”

When stopping the run: “It’s the top seven. We just have to be more disciplined, build a wall and beat blockers in front of us. It's not the X's and O's. We just have to be where we're supposed to be. Last week it was the big runs where we talked about taking away those three big runs. And (this week) it's not a problem. We're not even having this conversation. Yesterday it was almost like death by 1,000 cuts, whether it was 4 yards, 6 yards, 5 yards, and that's hard. This is hard.”

On Ja'Lynn Polk's now-deleted Instagram post: “I didn't talk about that. I don’t question his dedication to the team at all.”

Regarding veterans' punishments: “No matter who it is, whether you are a newcomer or an experienced player, it is simply unacceptable. We see what happened yesterday. You know, we jump off the side and then they go for two points. It's like we're all giving these guys extra opportunities by shooting ourselves in the foot. And that’s just not good football.”

Emma can be reached at [email protected] or at @_EmmaHealy_.