The New England Patriots are sitting atop the AFC East after their 37-22 win over the Buffalo Bills, but there was a somber feeling after the game as the team saw one of its leaders, linebacker Jerod Mayo, carted off the field with a knee injury.
“I’m still a bit bittersweet with Jerod going down,” coach Bill Belichick told reporters in Buffalo. “So we hope he’s OK.
“We will just go forward this week and see what we think the best thing to do is.”
Mayo appeared to twist his knee on a tackle in the second quarter. He was seen after the game using crutches and had a compression sleeve over his right knee. Mayo suffered a season-ending torn pectoral injury in 2013 during Week 6.
Team captain and defensive tackle Vince Wilfork, who also suffered a season-ending injury in 2013, knows what it’s like to lose a key player.
“It’s always tough when you lose a guy like that,” Wilfork said. “Don’t know exactly what it is, I just talked with him for a little bit at halftime and got back to making adjustments. Haven’t really spoken to him. But anybody of that caliber means so much to this team on and off the field, their character and all. That’s what it’s all about -- who he is as a person first and foremost.
“And being a great leader and contributor to the team, you lose some value there. I’m pretty sure I’ll talk to him on the way home and see how he is feeling and stuff like that. But we are going to have to rally around one another.”
Wilfork and Mayo have a close relationship, and Wilfork had a somber tone when discussing Mayo’s injury.
“It does [cut a little deeper] because we are so close; it’s almost like we are brothers,” Wilfork said. “Our wives, our kids, we both spend a lot of time together off the field. So it kind of means something a little different to me just because of the personal relationship I have with him and him being a leader of the defense.
“It’s tough to lose somebody like that, but I’m pretty sure this team will rally around him. One thing he said going off the field was ‘finish the job for us,’ and I think we did a good job of rallying around one another. [We] played this game for him in the second half. It means a lot to us, what he brings to this team not only on the field, but off the field also.”
Quarterback Tom Brady added to Wilfork’s mantra that it’s time for teammates to rally around each other when a player such as Mayo goes down.
“I think you have to rely on all of the guys that you have in the locker room you have confidence in,” Brady said. “You build your trust in each other by going to practice and when you lose someone -- like I said, every team loses certain players every year -- it’s hard to do. But guys have to rally around the guy who steps in there and try to do a great job.”
Brady choked up a little when asked about Mayo’s injury as he took a long pause before saying, “It’s unfortunate.”
“Guys like that -- Jerod, we lost Vince last year, we lost a lot of really key, important players -- you just have to keep fighting on and there’s a lot of football to play. Those guys have played great football for us and they give everything they can to our team, so it’s tough when you lose them.”
