Mac Jones’ hold on the Patriots starting quarterback job is hanging by a thread, his once-promising NFL career dangling in the early fall breeze like a burnt-orange leaf on a low-hanging limb.
Jones has been benched by New England head coach Bill Belichick in each of the last two weeks – a 38-3 loss in Dallas that was the worst of the future Hall of Fame coach’s career and last Sunday’s 34-0 whooping at the hands of the Saints at Gillette Stadium that was the worst shutout loss in front of the home crowd in Patriots franchise history.
Jones is making history for all the wrong reasons.
All because the third-year quarterback isn’t listening to Belichick.
As the Hoodie himself might say, what’s that now?
If there is one thing that Belichick, his FOBs (Friends of Belichick) and veteran players have preached oh so often over his successful years in New England is that before you can win an NFL game you have to keep from losing it. And Jones has not been able to do that this season, not even close.
It began digging a hole in Week 1 thanks to a pick-6 to Darius Slay in a loss to the Eagles.
A week later the Patriots were driving to cut into a 14-point third-quarter deficit against the Dolphins when Jones threw an ill-advised ball toward DeVante Parker at the goal line that ended up a Xavien Howard interception.
Then came the second-quarter two Sundays ago in Dallas, a meltdown that included a pick-6 interception and a strip-sack scoop-and-score which were only the most glaring of Jones’ many mistakes leading to the ugly loss.
Most recently came yet another pick-6 against New Orleans to Tyrann Mathieu that was later compounded with an ugly pitch toward Rhamondre Stevenson, taking away a would-be big play with another turnover.
The Patriots have four losses and each of the four can be directly and inextricably connected to turnovers by Jones. It’s really that simple.
If Jones could stop giving the damn ball to the other team, stop giving points the other team, New England might just have a chance to claw out a victory. Heck, the games against Miami and Philadelphia were within striking distance even with all the game-losing errors at the quarterback position.
It’s not so much that Jones needs to start winning games for himself, his team and his coach as the Patriots vowed to “start over” this week after yet another embarrassing loss that had that dead last in some NFL power rankings barely a month into the season. It’s that Jones needs to stop losing games.
It actually sounds kinda simple, has for years the way Belichick and his parrots portray it. But for Jones and the Patriots in recent weeks it’s looked really, really hard.
And that’s the rub. Jones needs to stop making mistakes and start making some plays. He can’t play scared, fearful of another snowballing dysfunctional effort leading to another benching.
“I think just playing free and kind of going through – I call it my pre-snap checklist,” Jones said during his Wednesday press conference in response to a question about avoiding playing too tight in light of all the recent poor play. “I try to do that every play and just stay consistent with that, and once the ball is snapped, you’ve just got to go out there and play. When I’ve done that, it’s been a lot better than when I haven’t. So, definitely want to focus on that. And, I’ve talked about doing my job a lot, and what’s my read, and all that stuff, and that’s really good, but at the same time, you have to play free.”
Free. Free of turnovers and the kinds of mistakes that can lead to losing games, that have led to losing four games this season for the 1-4 Patriots.
We’ve all heard Belichick’s mantra about avoiding losing before you can actually win, including Jones.
Now the quarterback just needs to start living it. Stop making mistakes. Start making plays. And maybe even have some fun along the way, because winning is certainly more fun than what’s happened the last couple weeks in New England.
“That’s what I think of, when I’m at my best I’m having fun, enjoying everybody,” Jones said, seemingly doing his best to remain upbeat. “That’s one of the good things that I can do, is communicate, and I need to do a better job of that. We’re out there playing a game that we love.
Right now, it’s not looking too good, but we’ve got to flip the switch, right? And start over and figure out ways to go out there and have fun, sling the ball around and guys go make plays and then celebrate with each other, too. We work so hard. It’s been such a theme that we haven’t really scored a lot of points but when we do, we’ve got to go out there and celebrate and enjoy it.”
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