Disrespect Fuels Patriots | Karen Guregian

The day after the Patriots’ blowout win over the Bengals, Jerod Mayo addressed the popular narrative surrounding his team.

So does defensive tackle Davon Godchaux.

Patriots owner Robert Kraft also addressed the topic while addressing the team in the locker room. He told the group that the win was especially meaningful following all the negative comments surrounding his football team.

“To all of you, nobody outside of this room believed this could happen,” Kraft told the team via Patriots social media video. “And every single one of you contributed. I’m so proud of the new players, the new coaches. People had every excuse to say it couldn’t happen, but you all did it.”

“And I’m spoiled now, because I’m going to plan a lot more things like that.”

The disrespect card made its way into the locker room. The Patriots certainly played with an advantage against the Bengals. There was a message behind every powerful move by the defense and every forward push by an offensive line that had been ridiculed at every turn by skeptics.

Back when the Patriots were winning championships, they used to invent slights to serve as motivation.

No need to reconcile with this group. The attacks were real and numerous.

Some predicted they wouldn’t win a game. The offensive line was crucified. The offense didn’t get much, if any, respect. The defense was lumped in with the defense. But some also wondered how good this unit would be, especially after the departure of its best player (Matthew Judon) and the departure of Bill Belichick.

Some have even suggested that the team should flop to get the first overall pick in 2025.

The Patriots happily took notes.

They relished their underdog status. While Mayo said the team tries not to listen to outsiders, they didn’t ignore the noise. They accepted the insults heading into Week 1 and were motivated to prove everyone wrong.

Mayo acknowledged that captain Ja’Whaun Bentley spoke to the team before the game. It was a sermon filled with all the negative “noise” from outside.

“They hear everything you say in the media,” Mayo said. “As a head coach, I always tell them not to pay attention to it. Whether it’s on social media, on the radio or in the newspaper, they hear it. But we’re all very concerned.”

Godchaux insisted on this point after the match, having stressed it during the week.

“Nobody’s giving us a chance,” the veteran defender said. “After we’ve had a couple of wins, I want everybody to stay on this side and keep us underdogs.”

After the 16-10 victory against the Bengals, will his wish come true?

Godchaux said it was “disrespectful” of the Patriots to be 8.5-point underdogs to Cincinnati. Well, there’s more fuel on the horizon.

The Patriots enter the game with a 3.5-point lead over the Seattle Seahawks, who travel to Foxborough on Sunday. That means Bentley & Co. will have more fuel to burn for Week 2.

But if they continue to play as well as they did against the Bengals and execute the game plan to perfection every week, they won’t be taken lightly by bookmakers or opposing teams for much longer.

How much mayonnaise fueled the fire last week?

“They don’t need me to make noise, it’s everywhere,” Mayo said. “After hearing Bentley address the team before we left … I know they hear it. It can be good or bad depending on the individual.”

“At the same time, it doesn’t matter. As soon as you cross the white lines, all the noise and everything that comes with it has to disappear.”

Mayo expressed confidence in his players, and they expressed confidence in him in return. Against the Bengals, the coaching staff and players were all in sync.

“We try not to hear anything from the outside and I told these guys all week, ‘It’s all about us in this building,’” Mayo said immediately after the win. “Nobody’s going to come in here on a shiny white horse and save the day. I said, ‘Listen, you’re here for a reason and that’s all we got. That’s all we need.’”

Mayo claims he doesn’t care how much the pundits bash the team, that he believes in the guys in the room, which is a clever way to use the doubters to his advantage.

Although Mayo only briefly crossed paths with Rodney Harrison, who relished provoking slights, the Patriots coach knows the story. Belichick also loved to use the scoreboards of not only opposing players, but also the media.

So Mayo learned how to push buttons.

What was Harrison thinking? Did he see Mayo borrowing a well-used motivational tactic from the past to push the team to victory?

“They won at the line of scrimmage on both sides,” the Patriots Hall of Famer told MassLive via text message Sunday, “and great job by Mayo motivating those guys.”

Wink, wink.

Having been in the media for a short time after retiring, Mayo knows how it works.

“Some of the things they hear are just not true. I try to remind them that whether you (the media) say the offensive line can’t move bodies, whatever it is, it’s on camera. All of that stuff,” Mayo said. “Some people will be contrarians. I tell them it’s (the media’s) job to make that noise. Our job is to go out there and win football games.”

For the first week, this work was done very well.