Following Mac Jones throwing his first career touchdown pass, a video clip went viral of Jones not wanting to keep the football.
“That doesn’t really matter. It’s one touchdown,” he said after the game. “We've got to score more. It’s not like the game was over right there. We gotta do better in the red zone and get more touchdowns. And we will.”
It still is getting talked about two days later and offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels was asked about it Tuesday when speaking to reporters.
He didn't seem surprised by what happened.
“The football, I don’t really know where that football is, or what have you," he said. "He’s certainly not absorbed in selfish things or self-promotion, so I think he’s more about the team and how he can help the team and how he can play better. I don’t know what happened with that, but I know that is his attitude and mindset."
As for his play in his debut, McDaniels' takeaways were about the same as everyone else -- some good things, as well as some things to learn from.
“Look, there’s no young player who has ever played in their first NFL game that didn’t come out of the game and say, ‘OK, wow, there’s a lot of things I can learn moving forward that I hadn’t experienced before.’ So, I thought there was some positives to his play," McDaniels said. "But at the same time, I think he knows there were a few decisions that he made and a couple reads and a few throws [that he would like back]. There’s not many quarterbacks that play the game in the NFL that come out and say, ‘Man, I had a perfect game.’ So, there was some positives in the game, for sure. Things he learned. Some things he did well.
"Then I think there’s also some things that now he’s seen them and he’s seen some things different in the game, certainly the speed of the game in the regular season is different than the preseason. He’ll adapt to that. And he’ll continue to improve his communication, his ability to see things quickly and the decisions he makes will hopefully improve along the way as well.”
Jones and the Patriots will take on the Jets this week on the road.
