The maturation of Mac Jones continued on the prime-time stage Thursday Evening time.
With that progress has come success and that was the case as quickly as extra As a Outcome of the mannequin new England Patriots gained their fifth straight recreation, downing the host Atlanta Falcons, 25-0, with Jones turning into simply the third rookie quarterback in NFL historic previous to win his first 5 begins on the road.
“It was A great group win and the protection stepped up and performed Very properly,” Jones said Thursday Evening time. “The objective is To understand Ancompletely different level than The completely different group and we have been fortunate enough To Do this. It is actually exhausting to win Inside the NFL And also you’d possibly’t take somefactor As a proper. You only Want to watch the film and get greater, however On The prime of the day, The one factor that issues is scoring Ancompletely different level than The completely different group.”
The aforementioned 5-recreation worthwhile streak is the Patriots’ first since starting the season 8-0 in 2019, when Jones was a sophoextra at Alabama backing up his current AFC East rival Tua Tagovailoa. Certainly, these are completely different occasions for the Patriots franchise Inside the submit-Brady period, however with the rookie beneath center They’ve rediscovered their worthwhile methods.
Collectively with his victorious displaying on Thursday, Jones propelled himself into some rarefied rookie air. He improved To 5-0 as a starter on the road this season, turning into simply the third rookie QB To take movement, per NFL Evaluation. The completely differents have been Dak Prescott and Ben Roethlisberger. Jones’ seven wins in complete are Higher than The The rest of the 2021 NFL Draft’s quarterback class mixed (5-24 Getting into Week 11).
Nonetheless, the maturation of Mac continues and head coach Invoice Belichick was Faraway from glowing after the Jones-led offense produced Just one touchdown and Desired to Settle for 4 Nick People area goals.
“We had An excellent deal Of fantastic performs, we simply, we Did not get enough factors set off We would have appreciated too many drive-sprimeping performs,” Belichick said when requested bout Jones’ Evening time. “You gotta maintain away from these performs So as To understand On this league, we simply Did not do a Okay job of it toEvening time.
“I do not assume have been Tons dangerous performs On the market, we simply Desired too many adverse performs that killed drives.”
The Falcons protection has struggled all season with its move rush, however defensive coordinator Dean Pees was In a place to put together dinner up 9 QB pressures and three sacks in the direction of Jones, displaying him An excellent deal of appears. It restricted manufacturing, although it Did not Appear to ever rattle the rookie all that a lot.
“They emptied the clip on whOn they have been going To purpose to convey in the direction of us They typically did A great job on the defensive facet and We will do greater,” Jones said.
Having sputtered to a 2-4 doc after An further time loss to the Dallas Cowboys in Week 6, the Patriots’ 5-win response has gone hand-in-hand with Jones establishing himself not simply as a strong rookie QB, however a reliable NFL signal-caller, Regardless of his expertise.
Now 7-4, the Patriots head into the Week 11 weekend as the AFC’s No. 4 seed.
Source: https://www.nfl.com/news/maturation-of-mac-jones-continues-in-patriots-fifth-win-in-a-row