Losing has become the standard for the Patriots over the past three seasons, and players are not taking losses as hard now as they did amid the dynasty era.

That was evident Sunday when some players — with notable exceptions like quarterback Drake Maye and cornerback Jonathan Jones, among others who acted dejected — appeared to take the loss lighter compared to past weeks and seasons.

Head coach Jerod Mayo was asked about the tenor of the locker room after Sunday’s loss during his Monday morning news conference.

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“Yeah, I mean, I don’t question any of that stuff as far as the players taking a butt-kicking like that personally,” Mayo said. “Everyone in that locker room, we were down. Now, I’m not sure what that report is, but I’m not going to talk about that. I know the guys were disappointed.”

Mayo was also asked on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” about how players reacted to the loss.

“I didn’t get that vibe in the locker room when I broke the team down. I told them how I felt about the game. I’m not sure where that report came from,” Mayo said.” What I will say is I heard one person, I guess (left tackle Vederian) Lowe, smiled during a question. But that’s him — he smiles all the time. Look, we’re disappointed. We’re all pissed off. And we all understand that we have to get better.”

The Patriots’ locker room was a depressing place to be when the team was only used to losing a handful of games each year. The Patriots clinched their third straight season with a losing record Sunday.

Mayo anticipated a “hard” team meeting following the loss to the Dolphins.

“You have to address the elephant in the room, but it’s no secret,” Mayo said. “The good thing about the sport, it’s all recorded. You can go back and forth on it, but the film doesn’t lie.”

Asked to clarify what he meant by the “elephant in the room,” Mayo said, “That we need to be focused, and we can’t win games with that many penalties.”

The Patriots had 10 accepted penalties for 75 yards in Week 12.