Mac Jones’ teammates let him down in season-ending loss

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BUFFALO, NEW YORK - JANUARY 15: Mac Jones #10 of the New England Patriots looks on against the Buffalo Bills during the first quarter in the AFC Wild Card playoff game at Highmark Stadium on January 15, 2022 in Buffalo, New York. (Photo by Bryan M. Bennett/Getty Images)

The dumbest thing you could do after that debacle Saturday night is blame Mac Jones for any of it.

This season was never about Mac Jones, and it’s not about him in the aftermath, either. The 2021 New England Patriots were always about everyone and everything else around the rookie. Their performance, not Jones’, would dictate where New England ended up by February.

When it comes to the Bills’ 47-17 demolition of the Patriots in the wild card round, just about everyone and everything on the Patriots let their quarterback down.

Jones finished 24-of-38 through the air (63.2 percent), but the Patriots’ pass-catchers had at least four drops. Brandon Bolden dropped an easy one that would’ve gone for 30-plus yards, and Jakobi Meyers couldn’t handle a quick strike on the next snap. Jones then threw his first interception, which more than anything was an outstanding play by Micah Hyde to range across the field. But it was also a play that could’ve used more fight from intended target Nelson Agholor. A promising opening drive, in which Jones converted two third-and-long plays, went poof.

“We didn’t have a chance to win the game, and that starts with me, just getting momentum early and not putting ourselves in that position,” Jones said. “Of course, it’s not how we wanted to be, and like I said, I could play better. A lot of guys would agree with me that we can push each other harder to get that product on the field. I think there will be a lot of strides this offseason to get there.”

Fullback Jakob Johnson also dropped his only target, and Hunter Henry dropped a would-be touchdown late in the fourth quarter. Kendrick Bourne, one of the few Patriots to show up and play a good 60 minutes, bailed Henry out by scoring his second touchdown of the game on the following play.

Matthew Slater on Mac Jones: ‘He’s the type of player you hope to build around’

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If you ask captain and special teams standout Matthew Slater, the New England Patriots shouldn’t lose faith in quarterback Mac Jones, even after he threw two interceptions in the team’s loss to the Buffalo Bills on Saturday in the postseason.

Jones had a rough stretch over the last five games, with two turnovers in all four of the team’s losses. But the rookie and former 15th overall pick did more than enough during the course of his rookie season to reassure the Patriots — players, fans and coaches — that he’s the answer for 2022.

“I think the future is bright with this organization with that young man, not just with his play on the field but with the character that he possesses,” Slater said on Saturday after the game. “He’s the type of player you hope to build around.”

Jones finished the year completing 67.6% of his passes for 3,801, 22 touchdowns and 13 interceptions with the Patriots enjoying 10-7 record. New England started 2-4 but Jones and the Patriots managed a seven-game win streak that turned the team around and landed them in the playoffs. Though he had his growing pains, Jones seems to have earned Slater trust. Jones appears poised to correct the mistakes in the offseason and come back stronger in 2022.

“I know my kids and I will watch be watching him a long time to come,” Slater said in the postgame press conference. “It’s certainly been an honor for me to play alongside him and see him grow over the course of the year. Patriots Nation — they should be excited about having No. 10 as a quarterback.”

Mac Jones’ future is bright, but Patriots’ Josh Allen problem isn’t going anywhere

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ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — As Mac Jones mulled the loss that torpedoed his rookie season, the 23-year-old offered one of his most insightful answers of the year.

“I think you get more comfortable with anything you do. Anything you do in life. I always relate it back to being a pilot,” Jones said after a 47-17 loss in Buffalo. “Like, if you’re a pilot and you’ve only flown so many times, by the time you have hundreds of flight hours, it’s just an everyday thing for you.”

Jones’ aviation skills are indeed improving. The problem for the Patriots is that Josh Allen is whizzing through the skies like Maverick from Top Gun and shows no signs of crash landing anytime soon.

Jones’ first season was certainly a success. He beat a former MVP in Cam Newton for the starting gig in training camp, suited up for every single game, and almost always gave his veteran team a chance; that’s all that can be asked of a rookie.

But Jones will be in a dog fight with Allen for a long, long time — the 25-year-old Bills quarterback is signed through 2028 — and the Patriots have no answer for him. They can’t count on biblical, once-in-a-decade windstorms to slow him down.

Throw that one out the window for a second. In Allen’s last three games against the Patriots without goalpost shaking winds, he’s gone over 300 yards and tossed 12 touchdown passes and no interceptions. That’s throwback Tom Brady vs. the Bills dominance.

On Saturday night, Allen got the ball seven times. The Bills scored seven touchdowns. For the second time in a month, Buffalo didn’t need to have Matt Haack activated; the punter didn’t see the field.

All week the Patriots talked about how paramount it was to keep Allen contained in the pocket. That lasted a whole 2:08. On the first drive of the game, Allen bolted around Matthew Judon for a 26-yard scramble. The Patriots know what they want to do against Allen. Right now he’s just too good for them to execute the plan.

“We didn’t get a stop,” Devin McCourty said. “So damn near everything they did offensively was a good play for them, and you’ve got no shot to win a game like that.”

Having seen him three times in six weeks, Belichick is very familiar with Allen. New England’s defense still allowed 47 points — most of any game in the Belichick era — and after the loss, the coach twice lamented that his team “couldn’t keep up” with Buffalo.

So what now?

While plenty of attention will be paid to Jones and his development, the defense needs to continue the facelift that started last March. To hang with Allen and the Bills, the Patriots clearly need to get faster. In the NFL Draft they’re going to have to target an athletic young linebacker — think 22-year-old Jamie Collins instead of 32-year-old Jamie Collins — and the secondary certainly needs a turbo shot, too.

After the loss, New England’s eldest statesman, Matthew Slater, was the final player to speak to the media. The longtime captain’s final question was about what lies ahead for Jones.

“I think the future is bright for this organization with that young man,” Slater said. “He’s the type of man that you hope to build around. I know that my kids and I will be watching him for a long time to come. I’m excited about where this organization is going to be in the future with him… Patriots nation, they should be excited about having No. 10 as their quarterback.”

The future may be bright for Jones and the offense, but that won’t matter unless the Patriots can figure out a way to ground Buffalo’s high-flying No. 17.

Boston Globe writer longs for 49ers’ Jimmy Garoppolo over Mac Jones after first series against Cowboys

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Jimmy Garoppolo’s first drive against the Cowboys on Sunday saw him complete all three of the passes he attempted for 43 yards, and ended with an Elijah Mitchell rushing touchdown. This was apparently enough for Boston Globe senior NFL writer Ben Volin to send out a pretty powerful take about the New England Patriots’ quarterbacking situation.

“Patriots would’ve had a better season with Garoppolo. Though he obviously is much more expensive than Mac,” Volin wrote.

Many Pats fans were quick to dismiss the post as lazy, and perhaps this was something that Volin fired off on his phone with just a couple seconds of thought, but even if you disagree with the idea, perhaps you can understand why it came out at all. The NFL’s longstanding Evil Empire just finished its second Tom Brady-less season this century where the rival Buffalo Bills absolutely whooped them in the first round of the playoffs, 47-17.

Mac Jones had some decent stats, but he wasn’t exactly stellar in his performance. The stuff that looked good on the box score all happened in garbage time, when it was clear that the Bills were moving onto the next round.

So let’s give this Globe writer’s take some serious consideration. Beyond the price tag, would it necessarily have been better for the Patriots to have Garoppolo over Jones at quarterback this season, or even just this past game?

The short answer is probably not. Jones did all right, but, as Steve Buckley of The Athletic pointed out in a column after the game, it was the defense that truly failed New England on Saturday. Unless this hypothetical Niners-Pats swap would somehow bolster Bill Belichick’s pass defense, there wasn’t anything Garoppolo could have done to stop Josh Allen from going off.

As far as the season goes, if you look at the advanced stats between the two quarterbacks, there isn’t a whole lot separating how they’ve performed. Something that’s even more in Jones’ favor is the fact that Garoppolo got those numbers with significantly better weapons to work with than Jones had.

But, again, it’s been a rough time for Patriots fans. Those poor things are a whole three years removed from their last Super Bowl victory and are still recovering from the horror they witnessed in Buffalo just 24 hours ago. Forgive them, as some illogical thinking is par for the course when dealing with this kind of struggle.

Mac Jones playoff collapse doesn’t bode well for Buccaneers Kyle Trask

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The Buccaneers can learn about Kyle Trask from Mac Jones.

Yes, it is another Kyle Trask piece. Yes, he hasn’t played a rep for the Buccaneers yet, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t ways to determine which type of player he is projected to be in the NFL, and Mac Jones is an excellent place to start the comparison.

As Trasks sits and learns behind the greatest quarterback of all-time on an offense that is very quarterback-friendly, Jones was thrust into the starting role as a rookie, and the playoff collapse should surprise no one.

Rookie quarterbacks rarely make it to the playoffs in the first place, and those that make it that far face a very difficult task, which we all saw first-hand with Jones.

Jones wasn’t the main reason why the Patriots lost, but the lack of faith from his coaching staff was painfully obvious. While Jones hit some great throws, others lacked velocity, play calls were far too conservative to work, and the Patriots clearly showed that they didn’t want their rookie quarterback making any big plays.

This may be due to Jones being a rookie, but it also brings up several questions in a traits-based evaluation of Jones that stem from similar situations throughout the season.

Three passes in a win? Is that really the recipe for success from a dominant quarterback?

One way or another, this season shouldn’t surprise anyone. Mac Jones and Kyle Trask had very clear draft profiles that highlighted their strengths and weaknesses, and this season with Jones as the full-time starter showed those strengths and weaknesses very well.

While Jones isn’t a perfect comparison, and both quarterbacks clearly lack many of the tools that most modern quarterbacks need, our best look at Trask comes from the current signal-caller in New England.