Hot start in freezing weather, but eventually the New England Patriots went ice cold.

But not cold enough to satisfy the Mayo Mashers. If you wanted Patriots head coach Jerod Mayo fired by season’s end, Sunday was not your day.

As we thought, New England was going to be able to move the ball against the Buffalo Bills, jumping out to a 14-0 lead before two things that have been their downfall all season – giving up big plays in the run game and turning the ball over – caught up to them in the Bills’ 24-21 win.

“We got off to a hot start,” Patriots QB Drake Maye said, “and came out in the second half and put our defense in a tough spot.”

Once can probably pencil in Mayo’s name for next season. The players, when asked about their coach after the game, were adamant in their support. He’s not going anywhere, and we’re not sure he should. Mayo was fairly abrupt with his answers postgame yesterday, and didn’t stick his foot in his mouth as he so often has this year. A lot of “I’ll have to look at the film.” He will be sizzled for punting on fourth down from midfield in the second half and quickly said “To me, it’s a field position thing.”

To Maye it’s a stupid thing that his coach and offensive coordinator were under fire.

“Yeah, just trying to block out that noise,” Maye said after. “I think it’s a bunch of conversations about our coaching staff and stuff like that. I think it’s some BS, to be quite honest. Coach Mayo, those guys, like I said, we’ve got his back, and he’s coached us hard. He wants to win. We all want to win. We’re all frustrated.”

And he showed the same support for his offensive coordinator.

“AVP’s been – I feel like – calling great the past few weeks,” Maye said. “We’e just plays away, and it’s basically me turning the ball over. I think it’s just a testament to these guys that keep fighting. We keep fighting. … They’ve got energy at practice, they’ve got energy coming into the game. We want to win.”

So take that, naysayers. The Bills are 12-3, have the MVP candidate in Josh Allen, and the Patriots held their own until the wheels came off. That’s what happens to teams that aren’t that good. They often beat themselvs. Buffalo, thanks to injuries, is suspect defensively, the Patriots tried to take advantage of it but the bad things that happen to bad teams resulted in 24 unanswered Bills points.

“The guys were ready, in the locker room, I felt like the guys were ready to go,” Mayo said. “They went out there and started fast. Now we’ve got to do the same thing in the second half and put them together.”

At some point it goes fom disappointed to you’re getting real frustrated,” Maye said. “Coach Mayo said tonight he was proud of us but it’s not where we want to be.”

But Maye is where he wants to be, and playing for whom he wants to play for, coach and team. So all those calls that ownership (the Krafts) have been making as to how to handle or who could handle best a rookie QB, maybe that’s a waste of time.

“There’s guys not even playing that are yelling on the sidelines and wanting to win,” the rookie said. “So, I think we’re building something good, building something that fels right here, and I’m proud to be a Patriot.”

The franchise QB has spoken. Anyone upstairs listening?

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on X at @Telegraph _TomK.