Patriots' Jerod Mayo gets game ball after first win as coach - ESPN

CINCINNATI — New England Patriots coach Jerod Mayo was presented a game ball by owner Robert Kraft after Sunday's 16-10 victory over the Cincinnati Bengals to acknowledge his first career win.

Kraft delivered the ball to Mayo in the locker room, which led to a rousing cheer from players.

«It was special. I'm just appreciative of the opportunity,» Mayo said, adding that he presented a game ball to executive director of player personnel Eliot Wolf for his first win in the role. «My message to the players was without them, I'm nothing. I made sure they knew that. All the praise goes to those guys.»

The 38-year-old Mayo, who succeeded Bill Belichick after 24 years, joins Ron Meyer (1982), Raymond Berry (1984), Dick MacPherson (1991) and Pete Carroll (1997) as the only Patriots coaches to earn a win in their first regular-season game.

«He was ecstatic, elated, overjoyed. He should be. It's his first one,» quarterback Jacoby Brissett said of Mayo. «He got us ready to go — not only this week but going back to [the spring].… Nobody believed in us, but he kept preaching that 'the people are the ones that matter' and that came to fruition.»

The underdog Patriots beat the shorthanded Bengals behind a hard-charging running game, totaling 170 yards on 39 carries, while limiting a Joe Burrow-led offense that was without receiver Tee Higgins (hamstring) to 224 total yards. A plus-two turnover differential, as well as a fourth-down stop in the second half, were key factors in the outcome.

As Kraft presented the game ball to Mayo, it was noted that Kraft's first career win as an owner also came in Cincinnati — 31-28 on Sept. 18, 1994.

«It's a good moment, getting him his first win, on the road, starting the season off right,» veteran