"If you want to blame somebody, blame me."
Bill O'Brien has been upfront and honest about most of what has transpired with the Patriots' offense, and Tuesday was no different. O'Brien deflecting the barbs being thrown in Mac Jones' direction by a) putting it on himself and b) reminding anyone who's paying attention that there is a lot more to this game than the signal caller.
"I do think that it's a collective effort that we all have to be better," he said. "Like, you know, I don't think you can blame one player. You can't blame one person. I don't think it is about blame. I think it's about football. And the teams that we've played have made less mistakes than we have offensively. And that's why we've lost."
No argument, but just when you think it can't get any worse for this dysfunctional unit, it does. The latest was that six-point, three-interception bleep show in Jersey. If the Pats were co-starring in The Sopranos, Silvio Dante would have driven them out to the middle of nowhere and left 'em for dead. Mac was responsible for two of those picks and nearly lost a fumble. It has been a confluence of factors that has led the third-year pro down this road - lack of elite physical talent, poor decision-making, and a hurried-up internal clock - that has put him on the bench four times in 11 starts and is helping to stifle any opportunity for this team to grow and improve.
"I don't want to get into all the detail of each play, but the one play where he (Mac) threw the first interception, there was a protection breakdown," said O'Brien. "He has to make a better decision there to throw the ball out of bounds. We have to do a better job of protecting him, designing the protection, executing the protection. I'm just being real with you. And the next interception, we were in a situation where they brought an extra guy, and we have to get the ball out and make a good decision or we have to take the sack. In both of those situations, he would probably be the first to tell you that he has to make a better decision. But all of us have to do a better job. I've been doing this for 31 years – some years are better than others, and right now, this year is not going the way any of us wanted it to go…"
So that leads us to this week and Sunday's home game against the Los Angeles Chargers. Common sense says Bailey Zappe should be the starter and get all the practice reps afforded to that role. But Bill Belichick has made many head-scratching decisions to this point, so until he says that's how it will go, I rule out nothing.
O'Brien, for his part, played the week right down the middle, which is the smart thing to do because, at the end of the day, he's not the boss.
"I think it will be the same as last week relative to going into the week and 'let's do a good job this week of installing a good game plan, teaching it to the players, and then the players going out and executing it on the practice field.' That's really what it comes down to, and then performing on game day," he said. "And as an offense, coaching and playing wise, we just haven't done that. We haven't been consistent enough. We are going to continue to work hard on the practice field and then see how it all shakes out relative to game day."
Of course, that's just coach-speak. The only decision that makes sense for the Pats offense, O'Brien and Belichick, ultimately, is to play anyone but Mac. I've been hammering that point home, but it's a fact, and you saw, even if it was just for a series, that Zappe gave the offense energy it's been lacking for a better part of the year. And had Chad Ryland not gacked a 35-yard field goal, the backup would have led them on a game-tying drive to force overtime. Who knows what happens from there? There are many reasons for what's happened with Jones. Still, he's the one who has the ball in his hands on every offensive play and who, through his decisions, can heavily influence the game one way or another. It's been a bad influence, and it's time for him to sit, watch, and reset, whether for another starting turn this year or next season, wherever that might be.