The final four games of the National Football League regular season, punctuated by Sunday’s loss at Miami, should serve as a major warning on Mac Jones, like those “Test Brakes” signs for truckers about to head straight downhill.
At a time where New England Patriots fans have been programmed to the Belichick doctrine of “play your best football in December (now December-January),” the rookie let them and his team down, culminating with the effort in Miami, which the QB himself correctly deemed, “Super embarrassing.”
Numbers don’t always tell the story correctly, especially in small doses. There’s simply no denying Mac’s dip over the final four.
Miami
1st Quarter: 2-4, 7 yards, 1 INT
Half: 8-15, 107 yards, 1 INT
Final: 20-30, 261 yards, 1 TD, 1 INT
Jacksonville
1st Quarter: 6-6, 56 yards
Half: 12-14, 107 yards, 2 TD
Final: 22-30, 227 yards, 3 TD
Buffalo
1st Quarter: 3-5, 27 yards
Half: 5-13, 47 yards, 1 INT
Final: 14-32, 145 yards, 2 INT
Indianapolis
1st Quarter: 4-5, 27 yards
Half: 8-11, 75 yards, 1 INT
Final: 26-45, 299 yards, 2 TD, 2 INT
Four-Game Totals
1st Quarter: 15-20, 117 yards, 1 INT (68.1 rating)
Half: 33-53, 336 yards, 2 TD, 3 INT (69.4 rating)
Final: 82-137, 932 yards, 6 TD, 5 INT (79.7 rating)
Second half numbers: 49-84, 596 yards, 4 TD, 2 INT (86.2 rating)
He and the Patriot offense have been bad early, and they have been bad often.
“Wasn't good enough. And I can be better. And it starts with me. I'm the quarterback. And that's my job is to make people around me have success,” said Jones. “You know, you've got to watch the film and learn from it and realize how embarrassing it is to play that way.”
Sunday started as poorly as can be with Xavien Howard pouncing on a cookie in the flat and taking it home to turn a 7-0 Miami molehill into a 14-0 mountain.
Asked about one of his worst throws this season, Jones finally seemed a little testy and defensive.
“I'm not going to get into logistics. I knew what coverage they were playing,” Jones noted. “I just didn't see the outside guy. And I threw it too wide, and it was my fault. But it's just cover 2. There's nothing to it. It's simple. And I’ve got to read it out and do a better job getting the ball to the right guy.”
There is a bundle of head-shaking going on down there in Foxborough today.
The defense let this football team down again, helping Tua Tagovailoa pull off the season sweep of the Patriots. Special teams committed critical errors at the worst times. And the coaching staff continues to be good for at least a head-shaker or two in the game-management side of things, week to week.
But Jones represents a lot more than any of those because he is the 15th pick of the draft, the potential cornerstone of the franchise at the most pivotal position in sports.
Almost weekly, comparisons to Tom Brady and his 2001 season were unfairly heaped on Mac. Just brutal.
Shouldn’t better comparisons have been made to Davis Mills, the Houston Texans’ third-round pick?
They were pretty much the same player – Mills made 11 starts and Jones, to his credit, all 17.
Jones completed 67.6 percent of his pass attempts with 7.3 yards per attempt. He finished with 22 TDs and 13 picks.
Mills completed 66.8 percent for 6.8 yards per. He had 16 TDs and 10 picks.
And as plain and average as the Jones’ weapons were this year, led by Jakobi Meyers and Hunter Henry, the Texans weren’t exactly laden with game-breakers.
Both players had solid rookie seasons. But if Jones doesn’t flash some kind of potential brilliance – and he has not over the last four weeks – the impact goes a lot further here in New England, than say the disappearance of Matt Judon over the second half of the year.
For better or worse, Jones has been pegged as the face and future of this franchise.
Belichick, a week ago after the win over Jacksonville, cemented that fact when he was asked to expound on Mac.
He obliged:
“Mac is super consistent. Every day is really the same day for Mac. He's always well prepared. He's in early. He's ready to go. He knows what we're going to be doing, and he's already got a head start on it. He maximizes the information that the coaches give him, maximizes the walk-throughs, the practice reps, and learns from whatever happens in those situations. He's smart. He's a good learner, but he's got good instincts and good mechanics. He's just worked hard to get better every day. A lot of consistency and great work ethic and really pays attention to details and has just improved in every area throughout the course of the year. Continues to improve on a daily basis. He's just a really great person to coach because he's so responsive to trying to do everything the way that you want to do it. Josh (McDaniels) has done a fantastic job with him, and Mac has really, I think, embraced the wisdom that Josh has transmitted to him, and he played extremely well today.”
Translation: He’s our guy.
And Sunday in Miami, our guy certainly showed his limitations, limitations the Patriots’ coaching staff understands, even if they don’t want to say it.
In panic mode, down 17 points with 11 minutes to play, it was hardly “In Mac We Trust.”
New England ran 17 plays the rest of the way, 10 pass plays (including one Mac scramble) and 7 runs. Think about that for a second.
The Los Angeles Chargers found themselves in a similar spot, down 15 points to the Raiders on Sunday night. They ran 33 plays in rallying to tie at the end of regulation.
How many runs? Zero.
The ball was in Justin Herbert’s hands … win, lose or draw … because the clock mattered.
At the expense of the clock on Sunday, New England chose not to put it all on Mac. And the Patriots ran out of time.
That has to say something about Mac, something maybe people in these parts just don’t want to hear.
As the Patriots move on to Buffalo, there is no other alternative. Mac is the guy.
“He obviously didn't play his best early, had some crucial mistakes,” said the tight end Henry. “I know he's going to learn from them and grow. He's young. But, still, just the resiliency of him. The toughness of him taking some shots today especially. He's a tough, tough dude. And I'm glad to have him as our quarterback.”
Now, hitting the playoffs, we get to see if all that is enough.