Earlier Wednesday afternoon Panthers pass rusher Brian Burns continued to talk about the play from last Sunday’s game in which Mac Jones grabbed his ankle following a first-quarter strip sack in Carolina.
Late this afternoon at Gillette Stadium Jones – who told WEEI on Monday that he thought Burns had the football when he grabbed his ankle -- was asked if he would like to apologize to the Panthers defender.
“Yeah, I already addressed that situation,” Jones said. “I’m just looking forward to playing the next game with the guys we have on our team this week. So we’re already kind of moving forward and ready to play this week.”
Patriots veteran safety Devin McCourty was also asked about Burns’ comments, in particular the “happy hunting” remark that certainly would seem to raise some eyebrows.
“It is what it is,” McCourty said. “We played in Carolina last week. We’re turning the page. We have a big game, Cleveland at home. I would say we’ve been pretty bad at home overall. So it’s something that we talked about playing better. But I mean offensively I don’t think we’re going to change how we play because of that. I think as a team we have to keep building together.
“And it falls into what we talk about on the door (to the football level at Gillette Stadium) ‘Ignore the Noise’. And speak for yourself.
And not worry about the other distractions. I think that’s what we’re going to do as a team and that’s what we’ve been doing.
So, the Patriots clearly want to move on from the events of last Sunday, while the Panthers still don’t seem to have reached that point.
