How Jerod Mayo explained two late-game decisions in Patriots’ loss to Titans

Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo acknowledged Monday morning that he “oftentimes” thinks about decisions he’s made during games in hindsight.

One of those from Sunday’s loss to the Titans was the Patriots’ decision to kick an extra point and send the game to overtime rather than attempt a two-point conversion to win in regulation after an incredible scrambling touchdown pass from rookie quarterback Drake Maye that spanned 12 seconds. Another could be the Patriots’ decision to kick north to south after the Titans won the coin toss in overtime and chose to receive the ball.

Mayo was asked if fatigue played a role in the Patriots’ decision to kick an extra point since Maye and the offense had just been running around for 12 seconds. Mayo would only say that “multiple factors” went into the Patriots’ decision-making in the moment.

“You go back earlier in the season, we went for two. We didn’t get it. You get criticized and you kick the field goal here, and you get criticized,” Mayo said. “I’m always going to do what I think is best for the team. I think we can talk about analytics and all those things, which we do use those things. At the same time, there’s also a flow to the game. As a head coach, ultimately, the decision and the consequence lays on me.”

The Titans marched down the field after receiving the ball and settled for a field goal after an aborted snap on third-and-2. The Patriots ran three plays in overtime: an incompletion to Hunter Henry, a first-down pickup on an 11-yard scramble from Maye and an interception on a deep target from Maye to Boutte.

After the game, Maye said he should have put more power behind the throw since he was throwing into the wind. But the Patriots chose which way they wanted to kick after losing the coin toss.

“Yeah. The wind at the time, I would say the wind had changed,” Mayo said on Monday morning. “The wind had changed from the beginning of the game to the end of the game. So that’s what happened.”

The Patriots kicked north to south to start the game, when they lost the coin toss, and again to begin overtime when they lost the coin toss.

Clearly, in hindsight, the Patriots should have been able to tell that the wind had changed by the end of the game and factored that into their decision.

“Going back and watching the film and just seeing plays that were left out there on the field,” Mayo said in his opening statement Monday morning. “I always say it’s not just one play. Everyone’s going to either be stuck on the interception at the end of the game, or to go for it on two here, or not to go for it on two. Those are definitely those hindsight things that I oftentimes think about, that we prepare for throughout the week and during the flow of the game.”