Jerod Mayo no longer believes Patriots’ winning formula is ‘unsustainable’

Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo has said he reserves the right to change his mind. He’s done it again after his team’s 19-3 win over the Bears on Sunday afternoon.

Mayo began Monday morning’s video conference call with reporters saying that Sunday’s win reminded him of the Patriots’ Week 1 victory over the Bengals.

“We’re at this point in the season, this is who we are. We have to go out there, we have to control the line of scrimmage, we have to be able to run the ball, we have to stay ahead of the sticks, we have to play good defense, we have to get off the field on third down, which we did yesterday by a mix of generating pressure and also coverage, and play good special teams,” Mayo said.

“This is the formula. As I always say, I use this as a microphone not only to give you guys information, but also to talk to the players. So, players, this is how we need to play going forward.”

Rewind to last month, however, and Mayo said at the time that he had realized that playing style was “unsustainable.”

“We knew going into the season we would take our lumps, and even after the first game when we beat Cincinnati, we understood that this is unsustainable as far as winning that way,” Mayo said after the Patriots lost 30-13 to the 49ers in Week 4.

When asked why he changed his mind about whether the Patriots’ formula of controlling the line of scrimmage and time of possession was sustainable, Mayo said that it’s now “a totally different point of the season.”

“Last week I went back and watched the first three games of the season and just tried to pull out the things that we did well and the things that people were attacking us on,” Mayo said. “Now, I said that weeks ago at the start of the season, and now — again, reserving the right to change my mind — we can do it. We can do it, and that’s what we did last night.

“Hopefully, that’s what we do going forward. I would say just overall, just the physicality of that game compared to this game. I think that’s — when I say unsustainable back then or sustainable, whatever, it’s really the physicality part of it that we need to continue to build on, which I would say is sustainable.”

The Patriots emphasized physicality last week in practice, kicking off the competitive part of last Wednesday’s session with a run blocking/run defense drill that seemed to pay off for both sides of the line.

The Patriots gained 144 yards and 4.1 yards per carry on the ground — a significant improvement from past weeks — and allowed just 73 rushing yards and 3.6 yards per carry to the Bears.

The Patriots’ pass defense was also dominant, sacking Bears QB Caleb Williams nine times through the help of the secondary, which limited the rookie No. 1 overall pick to just 120 passing yards with sticky coverage on an impressive wide receiver trio of D.J. Moore, Keenan Allen and Rome Odunze.