The New England Patriots were handed their fifth loss in as many games when they fell 41-21 to the Houston Texans on Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium.
New England wasn't great on either side of the ball, as they didn't consistently move the ball on offense and couldn't slow down C.J. Stroud or either of Houston's top running backs on defense.
After the game, Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo spoke to the media, and before he was even asked a question, he gave some insight into why he believes his team lost this game.
"The penalties in the first half, just too many," Mayo said. "It's the same story over and over again. Had three or four turnovers in the game. Can't win if you lose that battle. Defensively, I would say just the fundamentals of just tackling, our run fits have to improve. They have to improve. I told all those guys, I said, “you should feel like crap today. You should feel like crap.” You take away those two long runs, we had two runs over 50 yards. That's just not winning football.
Offensively, I thought they did some things that were encouraging. Obviously, still not enough. The turnovers, one was on a tipped ball, but that's the way the league is."
New England had nine penalties that were accepted for 50 total yards and a few of them set Houston up in great position to score or gave them more chances to convert and keep their drives alive.
That can't happen.
Turnovers continue to kill this team as they have all season. They are giving the ball away more than they are taking it from their opponents. Whether it's interceptions or fumbles, New England needs to hold onto the ball and stop putting their defense, which is already under a ton of pressure to perform, in poor situations.
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