The New England Patriots won their Week 1 matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals 16-10 at Paycor Stadium to move to 1-0 on the season.
New England, as big underdogs heading into the matchup, wasn’t expected to really compete with Cincinnati in this one, but the team stuck to their plan and forced their opportunities to play their game.
Patriots starting quarterback Jacoby Brissett did a solid job leading the offense, avoiding mistakes and evading some consistent pressure. That’s exactly why New England named him the starter over rookie quarterback Drake Maye at least to begin the year.
However, that hasn’t stopped questions from coming. On Mayo’s Monday morning appearance on WEEI, former Patriots tight end Jermaine Wiggins asked about Maye, and the coach shut him down immediately.
“Come on, Wiggy. We won the game,” Mayo said. “It’s about Jacoby, and I would also say, look, Jacoby, how many plays did he make yesterday with his legs? From a defensive perspective, you don’t really expect that, and when he does it, he does it. He did a good job. Jacoby did a good job controlling the game, not making mistakes. We won the turnover battle. We won the yardage battle. That’s what I’m talking about.”
Later on in the interview, Mayo addressed whether or not anything could happen in the coming weeks that would lead to Maye taking over.
“As a coaching staff, as an organization, we’re 100% behind Jacoby… We’re 100% behind Jacoby,” Mayo said. “We have a developmental plan for Drake. It’s not for you guys to know what the developmental plan is, but we’re developing him as well as getting Jacoby ready to go out there and be our starting quarterback and win games. I’m not sure what else I can say about that.”
Mayo didn’t just give Brissett the job because they paid him and brought him in this offseason as the veteran free agent.
“No, that’s not how it worked out because I preach competition all the time,” he said.”Jacoby won the competition, and he won the game yesterday. The team won the game yesterday. The guys are behind him. We’re moving forward, and we’re getting ready for Seattle.”
After some interesting comments about the quarterbacks in the final week of the preseason and heading into the regular season, Mayo is making sure that everyone knows that he believes in his starting quarterback and that faith is a good thing.
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