Patriots Loss of Jerod Mayo Proving Costly as Defense Struggles to Stop Jets Run

The New England Patriots' hopes and dreams came down to a game-ending field-goal attempt on this week's edition of Thursday Night Football. In what turned out to be a hard-fought AFC East battle, the New York Jets shoved their rivals to brink.

Bill Belichick's football troupe rose to the occasion, blocking the 58-yard try from Jets kicker Nick Folk. The final score of 27-25 was a little too close for comfort, especially when you consider the Jets came into Gillette Stadium on a five-game losing streak.

A lot of the Jets' success can be directly correlated to the their commitment of running the ball. The game plan put forth by Jets offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg was all about making life easier for his quarterback Geno Smith.

The tandem of Chris Ivory and Chris Johnson gave the Patriots serious problems. On 34 rushing attempts, the duo gashed New England's defense for 168 yards—Ivory also punched in a one-yard touchdown run with 9:08 left in the third quarter.

In total, the Patriots gave up an inexcusable 218 yards on the ground. To put things into perspective, leading up to this Week 7 showdown, Coach Belichick's defense had allowed 111 yards per game. That's not a great total by any stretch of the imagination, but it's nowhere near the rampant amount of yardage Gang Green achieved.

The biggest change this defense has endured since their Week 6 game against the Buffalo Bills is that star inside linebacker Jerod Mayo won't be able to play anymore after suffering a season-ending leg injury, via ESPN's Adam Schefter.

Tom E. Curran of CSNNE.com had the particulars on just how bad the injury turned out to be:

Not having Mayo out there anchoring the linebacker corps could very well turn out to be a huge problem for this defense as the season ventures forward. Before he suffered yet another unfortunate injury—Mayo was put on injured reserve right around this time last year for a torn pectoral muscle—the 28-year-old was putting forth a quality effort stopping the run.

Patrolling the middle of the Pats defense, Mayo had the fourth-best run defense grade according to our friends over at Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

The stats prove how valuable he really was in that department. Without Mayo on the field, New England is losing its best run-stopping linebacker. The mere fact that he wasn't out there tonight was obvious with each progressing snap.

But the bigger long-term issue is going to be replacing his unique ability to call out of the plays and carry this defense through difficult times.

Karen Guregian of the Boston Herald wrote about that in greater detail saying, "First, there’s Mayo’s leadership in directing the defense. That was severely lacking when he went down last year. The task had to move from player to player given the complexities of the assignment."

She's right. There's no easy fix replacing a team's defensive maestro. When you break down all of things he actually does, you can start to paint a pretty vivid picture detailing how his departure will have a negative impact on their run defense.

We touched on it earlier, but it's important to rehash the subject: The Patriots' run defense wasn't great to begin with. At best it was middle-of-the-road. Even with that being the case, as NFL Network's Albert Breer mentioned, the loss of Mayo is just going to magnify that weakness:

The real tragedy of losing Mayo for another season lies within the lack of depth at the position. Brandon Spikes—the run-stopping thumper—is now a member of the Bills, leaving the Pats with no viable options at the moment to replicate at least some of his production.

Coach Belichick summed it up best. "There’s no one guy who is going to, on this team, do what Jerod did. We’re lucky to have him, let alone another guy that can do all that too. It will have to come from a combination of guys somehow," he told the press, via Nick O'Malley of MassLive.com.

The Patriots may have beaten the Jets on a dreary Thursday night, but how will they hold up against some of the NFL's premier teams with an unsettled run defense? It's time to fire up the old "next guy up" engine and see what this coaching staff can do in order to stop the bleeding.

Unless noted otherwise, all game scores and information come courtesy of ESPN.com.