Mac Jones found himself profanely criticizing the Patriots’ play calls in their loss to the Bills
Mac Jones found himself profanely criticizing the Patriots’ play calls in their loss to the Bills
The New England Patriots‘crime had many critics at the time they lost their “Thursday Night Football”. Buffalo Billsand that group apparently included the starting quarterback Mac Jones.
The second-year quarterback was seen making an impassioned statement on the Patriots’ sideline in the final minutes of a 24-10 loss, with lip-reading fans chanting, “Drop the ball! [unclear] bad game! Fuck!”
Whatever he said, Jones had plenty of reason to be frustrated.
The Patriots’ offense only amassed 242 yards against the Bills, but the real struggles were in a conservative passing game. Playing behind most of the night, Jones averaged just 4.9 yards per pass attempt 30 of his 36 shots were aimed within 10 yards of the line.
Even with the Patriots leading 24-7 with eight minutes left, offensive lineman Matt Patricia chose to go for quick pass after quick pass. Yards gained on each Jones completion during the drive: 19, 3, 7, 8, 9, 4, 12, 6.
The drive ended up going 17 plays for 57 yards and eating 5:45 off the game clock. The end result was a white flag field goal as the Bills put the game on their knees on the next drive. Jones finished the game 22-for-36 for 195 yards and a touchdown.
Mac Jones addresses the moment of anger during Patriots-Bills
When asked about his apparent anger after the game, Jones said he lost his cool with the decision to focus on short passes when the team clearly needed bigger plays.
Jones’s response:
“Obviously, I just let my emotions get to me, but we’re playing from behind and what I said was to throw it deeper in the short game. I need to execute that part better, but it’s a short game. I felt we had them. I shouted that to get everyone going a little bit and that’s exciting, that’s football. I’m passionate about this game.
“Obviously, you don’t want to let your emotions get the best of you, but I think that’s enough. It wasn’t aimed at anybody, the emotion was coming out and we needed a spark.”
The Patriots’ offensive futility and Jones’ rookie year regression have combined for much of the season, and for Jones to criticize the team’s play, while acknowledging he could have played better, is another low. 6-6 on Thursday.
The biggest target of blame has been the Patriots offensive line coach. Two of the biggest figures there have failed two coaches and New England has retired: Patricia, officially the team’s offensive line coach, and Joe Judge, the quarterbacks coach. Neither man had much experience on offense before this season (Patricia’s lone experience was when he was an offensive assistant coach at New England in 2005), and it’s certainly showing.
Of course, at some point, the blame will probably fall on the man who put them up.
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