1 – Like every Patriots’ player and coach, Mac Jones had a chance to catch his breath and step away from football during New England’s bye week.
But last week was far from just a week off for a young quarterback who’s navigating what’s been a rather challenging season for both him and his team. As he and the Patriots prepared for this Sunday’s battle with the Jets at Gillette Stadium, Jones used the word “audit” a number of times during his midweek press conference to describe the work he’d done on his own game during the bye week.
“I think a lot of things are personal to me and things that I want to keep to myself, but a lot of things that I can improve, just like I said, footwork, timing, eyes, all that stuff,” Jones said. “Which I’m trying to improve that every week regardless and definitely put an extra emphasis on it, trying to matchup everything. Felt good about the progress we made and just got to apply it, like I said, on Sunday.”
Jones is a work in progress for an offense that’s a work in progress. New England is ranked 26th in the NFL in total offense, although it is tied for 14th in points. The unit is 21st in the league on third down and tied for 28th in the red zone.
Jones noted that even 10 weeks into the season, New England is still trying to figure out what it does well offensively, what its elusive identity is as a unit under first-time play-caller Matt Patricia’s direction.
“I think it's constantly trying to find that identity. Every offense is going to find that through the year. It's going to be defined through the year. We have to work through that,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, we know what we want to do. We need to score more points and eliminate the turnovers and negative plays. That's kind of where we're at. From there, we just grow together, coaches, players, everybody. So I feel like we have good effort, energy and all that stuff. So we're kind of controlling those things. Then the results are going to come here soon.”
The results need to come soon, because time is running out for both Jones and the Patriots’ offense to prove they are better than the performances they put up over the first half of the season. Coming out of the bye is a good time to do that, though it won’t be easy against New York’s impressive defense.
What did Jones and the Patriots work on during the bye? Will they be a better offense for it? Time to find out.
“Every game is different, right? It's sometimes a smooth sail and sometimes you have to battle it out and figure out how to win. So that's kind of the NFL. When you watch games around the league, the teams that just figure out how to win, whether it's the turnovers, penalties, they just find a way, and that's the important part is just winning,” Jones said of the challenges ahead.
2 – One factor that should aid the New England offense is the return of center and team captain David Andrews to the middle of the offensive line. Andrews missed the two games prior to the bye with a concussion, leaving a huge hole in terms of skill, communication and leadership. His absence seemed to have a trickle-down effect on rookie left guard Cole Strange, whose play dropped off significantly.
Jones – and likely Strange – is happy to have Andrews back in action for a line that needs to find more consistent play as a unit moving forward.
“I think David’s a great leader on our team. He’s played against a lot of different defenses, played on some really good teams, so he provides that positive energy and obviously is a great football player, but it’s a lot of the other things too,” Jones said. “He’s kind of the bell cow of that whole deal. He does a great job, really happy with him and everybody else too.
They’re doing a really good job just trying to work together and get better at individual techniques. That’s what I even noticed today, is just the little things that guys are trying to work through and all that is really important.”
3 – Teams are supposed to get healthier during the bye but that doesn’t seem to be how things played out for the Patriots. Second-year defensive tackle Christian Barmore missed the three games leading up to the bye with a knee injury, but seemed to be trending toward a return before he was placed on injured reserve late this week. Barmore had been practicing on a limited bases before apparently suffering a setback, missing practice on Friday and landing on IR, where he’ll remain for at least four games. It’s certainly a blow to the defensive front that faces increasingly difficult offensive challenges over the second half of the season against teams like the Bills, Vikings and Bengals. For Barmore it’s another setback in a sophomore season that hasn’t exactly been the Year 2 Jump that many had hoped for.
4 – Barmore isn’t the only Patriots player to surprisingly land on IR this week, as punter Jake Bailey suffered the same fate. Struggling through a second straight poor season – Bailey is dead last in the NFL in both net and gross punting average – the veteran punter popped up on the injury report as being limited with a back issue. He then missed Friday’s practice and was placed on IR, replaced on the roster by veteran Michael Palardy. The veteran previously punted for the Panthers (2016-20) and Dolphins (2021).
“He's been a good punter, a good athlete. High school quarterback, kicked off, punted,” Belichick said of Palardy this week, before he was signed to the New England active roster from the practice squad.
As for Bailey and the New England punting game, Belichick assessed the unit as “inconsistent” over the first nine games.
5 – It’s been lucky number 13 for the Patriots against the Jets of late. New England won its 13th straight game against New York with the 22-17 victory at MetLife Stadium on Oct. 30. Belichick’s team has also won 13 straight regular season games over the Jets at Gillette Stadium. New England’s last regular season home loss to New York came on Thursday night Nov.13, 2008, a 34-31 defeat in overtime. Brett Favre led the Jets to victory in that game, despite Matt Cassel completing 30 of 51 passes for 400 yards with three touchdowns.
6 – New England’s 13-game winning streak against the Jets is tied for the current longest streak against an opponent in the NFL, with the Chiefs having a baker’s dozen wins over the Broncos as well. It’s the second-longest win streak over an opponent in Patriots history, New England having beaten the Bills 15 straight times from December 2003 to December 2010.
7 – Prediction Time: Once upon a time the Patriots and Jets was one of the best rivalries in the NFL. It was the Border War. And while there remains a certain, distinct energy around New England for these games, it’s hard for a matchup to be a true rivalry when it’s been so one-sided for so long. But the reality is that New York was seemingly a roughing-the-passer flag away from maybe blowing the Patriots out back in Week 8, before Jones and Co.
righted the ship. Zach Wilson threw a trio of interceptions to the New England defense, essentially giving the game away. The Jets have the better record.
They have a very good, deep defense. And the Patriots offense is still very much a critical unknown. Jones talks about the Patriots wanting to avoid turnovers and negative plays, but Wilson is probably focused on the same issues for New York. Given the talent and production of the two defenses on hand, this will probably be another relatively low-scoring game. The team that turns the ball over less –the young, second-year quarterback who takes care of the ball better – will probably win this game. Wilson has played game manager most of the season, just not against the Patriots. The Jets have played well to get to 6 wins and second-place in the AFC East thanks to an upset of the Bills. But is New York ready to beat the Patriots, at Gillette, for the first time in what seems like forever? We’re going to give Belichick and the home team the nod over Wilson’s squad, in a 20-13 win for New England. But this is not anywhere near the layup one might expect in what has been such a lopsided series in recent years.
Thanks to MacFarlane Energy where they offer the most dependable home heating oil delivery and HVAC service including Lennox heating and cooling systems. Visit MacFarlaneEnergy.com for more.
