Matt Patricia, Joe Judge break down why Mac Jones wasn’t as bad as he looked against the Jets
There were two big mistakes, but Mac Jones' overall performance wasn't as bad as it looked, the coaches say.
On the surface, Mac Jones’ performance Sunday afternoon didn’t look that great.
He caught a pair of huge breaks after throwing a pick-6 that got called back because of a roughing the passer call, and having a pass that bounced off Isaiah Wynn’s helmet get dropped by a Jets defender.
But, it wasn’t all bad. The Patriots pulled off a big divisional road win against the Jets. Jones went 24-35 for 195 yards and scored his first touchdown pass since getting injured against Baltimore.
On Tuesday, quarterbacks coach Joe Judge spoke to reporters via Zoom about why Jones’ performance was better than it appeared on paper.
“He really did some good things for the team the other day that won’t show up on the stat sheet,” Judge said. “That won’t show up if you just watch — if you’re just watching the tape and just saying, ‘Hey, that’s really a big play by Mac,’ without really understanding what the entirety of the game is.”
Judge listed some of the things he saw on film that may provide context behind the numbers.
“Understanding the flow of the game. Where are we score-wise relative to the Jets, who have a very good defense,” Judge said. “How is our defense playing at the time? What are the chances we can take? What are the calculated shots we’re going to make as an offense and how do we have to play within the team flow of the game? I think Mac did some really good things that helped the team win.”
When asked for his thoughts on what he’s seeing from Jones, senior football advisor Matt Patricia said:
“He puts a lot of time and effort into studying those looks, understanding the different configurations, and making sure we communicate that out. That was really tough this past weekend, [the Jets] do a really good job with some of the things they do. … I think he had to make adjustments as we did on the sidelines, and I think he did a really good job out on the field in that nine seconds trying to get that communicated.”
Although Jones was sacked six times, he was able to make some solid decisions under pressure, head coach Bill Belichick said.
“I thought Mac did a nice job. We had pressure on quite a few pass plays, more than we would like, for sure,” he said. “I thought he made good decisions and had to pull the ball down a couple of times and make some key runs for us. The Jets gave us some looks on the line of scrimmage that he had to deal with in the running game, and I thought he handled those well.”
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