Patriots
“I think he’s one of our most consistent players.”
Bill Belichick called Mac Jones one of the Patriots’ most consistent players. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus)
Mac Jones and the Patriots were hitting their stride entering the bye week. They won seven straight games to improve to 9-4, the best record in the AFC at the time.
The tide has changed since the bye, though. The Patriots lost two straight games, with Jones struggling for the majority in each of them. Not only did New England lose its spot atop the AFC, but it also no longer controls its destiny to win the AFC East.
But even with the recent skid, Patriots coach Bill Belichick hasn’t noticed a difference in how his rookie quarterback is handling himself.
“I think Mac’s been pretty consistent. He’s consistent day to day and week to week. Honestly, I think he’s one of our most consistent players,” Belichick said. “He works hard. He continues to improve. There are new things every week from a game plan scheme, matchups standpoint, but he continues to gain experience processing those and doesn’t repeat many errors.
“There’s a lot of new things for him, lot of new things that he hasn’t seen, things that come up, but again, he handles those pretty quickly, pretty well, and pretty consistently.”
A positive sign that did emerge briefly for Jones during the recent skid was his play in the fourth quarter of the loss to the Colts. Jones led the Patriots to three scoring drives, throwing for 163 yards and two touchdowns to keep New England alive.
However, Jones followed that up with a dud against the Bills. He failed to complete 50 percent of his passes, going 14 of 32 passes for 145 yards and two picks in a 33-21 loss.
Belichick isn’t sure what Jones will learn from the recent adversity. But he sees it as an opportunity for Jones.
“We all learn from experience and we all gain experience, even those of us that have been around for a while,” Belichick said. “You’re always learning things every day and certainly things about the team that you’re with and situations that are specific to that current year. I’m sure everything will benefit everybody and I think he’s done a good job of taking advantage of the opportunities that he’s had: practice, meetings, film, games, postgame analysis, and so forth. Continue to improve as a player, improve his preparation, improve his processing.”
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