The Education of The New England Patriots continues.

Jerod Mayo and his Los Angeles Rams counterpart, Sean McVay are certainly young head coaches, but McVay is by NFL standards a grizzled veteran at age 39. He’s been coaching L.A. for almost eight years and has been to two Super Bowls, winning one. You could tell on Sunday during his team’s 28-22 win at Gillette Stadium, as he basically saw the way rookie coach Mayo had his defense playing at attacked it accordingly.

So it wasn’t too surprising that Mayo spoke of how well his offense played on first and second downs but “Defensively, not so much. They only had, what, eight third downs in the game, and you just can’t win that way. When you look at the time of possession, you look at the movement we were able to get offensively in the run game and in the pass game, you look at the time of possession, that’s part of the formula.”

But what was also part of the Patriots formula was to not double Rams dynamic receivers Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp. Nashua had seven catches for 123 yards and one fantastic TD catch in the corner of the end zone. Kupp had dix for 106 yards and two TDs, the biggest one a 69 yarder down the middle on L.A.’s first series of the second half. He beat a diving Jonathan Jones in one-on-one coverage.

Yes, nowhere in the vicinity of either receiver most of the day was a No. 0. That would be arguably the team’s best corner, Christian Gonzalez. Why?

“Look, Kupp had the one reception which was a huge chunk of those yards,” Mayo said. “Look, going into the game, we have a plan, and we’re always willing to change that look. Like I said earlier, I felt like we were going to be okay. I thought we could outlast them.”

Well there was one five drive sequence in which the Rams came away with four TDs and missed a chip shot field goal. They started slow but, as McVay said, “Then we really got rolling.”

Pretty tough to do,but New England’s defense did get better as the game grew late, keeping the Rams off the board and the clock in the fourth quarter. But the Patriots weren’t able to harass Stafford enough — zero sacks – so if his guys were open or close to it, he got them the ball.

“He’s a vet,” Gonzalez said. “He’s been doing it a long time, and every type of defense he’s seen. Defensively, we’ve got to come out and execute better.”

Gonzalez didn’t criticize the game plan, smartly saying he gets the plan from the coaches and does what he’s told. If something’s not working, he said. “It’s all about making adjustments.”

Pats cornerback Marcus Jones wouldn’t get into it either, opting to praise Stafford and the rapport he has with Kupp and Nacua.

“You could definitely tell Stafford and those guys have great chemistry,” Jones said. “They design it to where those guys succeed.”

And that’s exactly what they did. The Rams aren’t exactly the powerhouse offense of years past despite all those veterans but they knew what to do,clearly.

“He’s a gamer, man, he’s a gamer,” Patriots defensive lineman Davon Godchaux said of Stafford. “He’s a Hall of Famer.”

Defense had been more of a strength for the Patriots all season. But they weren’t playing the Bears yesterday. Or, as someone said, they were facing “a real offense.:

They were tested Sunday and got a D-minus,only that fourth quarter saving them from an F. Class is not dismissed.

Tom King may be reached at X @Telegraph_TomK, or via email at tking@nashuatelegraph.com