The Athletic has live coverage of Patriots vs Steelers on Thursday Night Football.
FOXBORO, Mass. — Mac Jones wore his team-issued blue sweatshirt with a New England Patriots logo on it and gripped both sides of a lectern as he tried to explain how things had gotten this bleak for a sputtering offense and free-falling team.
Advertisement
He was careful Sunday not to throw anyone under the bus for the dreadful nature of this season or point fingers. But for the first time, his answers were sprinkled with comments that shed light on how the third-year quarterback truly feels about his situation.
He paused at one specific inquiry. Other quarterbacks, the ones who now routinely roll into this town and leave with wins, seem to have more open receivers to throw to than him, be it because of scheme or personnel. So does it feel like Jones has to be so fine with everything he does that it’s almost detrimental?
“Ummmm,” he said, buying time. He didn’t want to say anything bad about his teammates or coaches and noted that it’s hard to compare this team to other teams. But Jones continued. “That’s a great point,” he said. A few seconds later, he added, “That’s a good question.” He was also asked if it’s difficult to remain confident in this offensive system and admitted, “It’s tough,” as part of an answer that reiterated he needs to remain confident in himself.
It was all more evidence that this team is in uncharted waters.
The Patriots aren’t just bad, they aren’t just 2-7 for the first time in 23 years, they aren’t just leaving an apathy within the fan base, and they’re not just a team that lost 20-17 to a middling Washington Commanders bunch that traded away its two best players on Tuesday. The Patriots are now, it seems, at a point that’s teetering on dysfunction.
The quarterback is making clear in his own way that he’s not fond of the current setup around him, be it because of the offensive coordinator or wide receivers or both. Two defensive backs are making clear in their own way that they’re not fond of how Bill Belichick is handling their playing time. And that’s just what’s happening off the field.
Meanwhile, the team’s on-field performance alternates between maddening and boring. The Patriots make self-inflicted, easy-to-avoid mistakes every game, like their offsides penalty on a crucial fourth-and-2 Sunday. When they do execute what they want to do, it takes near perfection for sustained success. Every offensive drive feels so laborious. Defensive drives seem to last until an opponent makes a mistake since this injured group struggles to get stops on third down.
Advertisement
All of it has left the Patriots in an uncommon place for this franchise, now an NFL afterthought with no star players who attract national attention, and no intrigue beyond what this means for Belichick’s future.
GO DEEPER
Who's next? Five NFL head coaches who could be on the hot seat
Perhaps most concerning is how little things have changed and how few reasons there are for optimism. The offense hasn’t gotten any better. The silly mistakes persist. The defense isn’t good enough to carry a bad team.
“When you’re 2-7, everything is concerning,” said wide receiver Matthew Slater, the team’s longest-tenured and most-respected player.
On Sunday, the team’s top outside cornerbacks were benched for the start of the game but not actually benched if you listen to Belichick but definitely feel benched if you base it off how they reacted.
Jack Jones and J.C. Jackson didn’t play the first two drives, sidelined as Shaun Wade started (then didn’t play anymore once Jones and Jackson were allowed back on the field). During the benching that wasn’t a benching according to Belichick, Jones sulked on the — get this — bench while the defense was on the field, the only member of the unit not standing near the sideline waiting to play. After the game, Jones liked a tweet (since removed) saying that he should’ve pled guilty (presumably to the charges he faced for bringing loaded guns to the airport at the outset of this season), implying that the alternative is better than this current situation with the Patriots.
That’s where the team is at now. The Patriots, once a model of stability that won games easily and dealt with any issues internally, are sprinkling in off-field drama to their on-field woes.
Patriots cornerback Jack Jones, defending Antonio Gibson, joined Sunday’s game after sitting out the first two drives. (Paul Rutherford / USA Today)There’s also the issue of who plays and how that’s decided. The Patriots knew they’d be without their top wide receivers, Kendrick Bourne (out for the season) and DeVante Parker (concussion). That left them with five healthy wide receivers, typically the minimum needed for a game, which meant an opportunity for rookie Kayshon Boutte, who has been a healthy scratch in every game since the opener. Friday, Belichick seemed to offer a confidence booster for him, saying Boutte was coming off his best week of practice.
Advertisement
Then when the game against the Commanders rolled around, Boutte was a healthy scratch once again as Belichick chose the risky route of playing only four wide receivers.
“We activated the players that we felt were the best players to put in the game,” Belichick said in another gruff news conference with few definitive answers.
The wide receivers who did play were downright bad. The game-sealing interception bounced off JuJu Smith-Schuster’s hands. Tyquan Thornton was slated for ample playing time, then struggled so much early (one catch for 7 yards on four targets) that he was shelved. And Jalen Reagor had a deep pass slip right through his hands. Could Boutte possibly be this bad? What downside is there to playing a rookie in a season that was lost a long time ago?
GO DEEPER
NFL Week 9 takeaways: Chiefs win despite quiet offense; is C.J. Stroud already a top-15 QB?
Of course, none of that is to absolve Mac Jones. He was bad, and in almost every game this season, he’s been the worst of the two quarterbacks on the field. Sunday, he finished 24-of-44 for 220 yards, one touchdown and one interception, missing open receivers and throwing several bad passes. It’s hard to win like that.
Now, it seems like he’s making his feelings known, apparently not thrilled with a group of wide receivers that’s probably the worst in the league paired with a system run by Bill O’Brien that’s offering almost no easy throws.
So where do the Patriots go from here? They’re at the bottom of the AFC and head to Germany for an international game before their bye with questions swirling about how things got this bad and who is most at fault. How does a team that started this season with playoff hopes lose at home to a Commanders team that just traded away its best players? The problem for the Patriots is that there’s so much blame to go around for games like Sunday’s, it’s difficult to pick just one place to start.
(Photo: Maddie Meyer / Getty Images)
ncG1vNJzZmismJqutbTLnquim16YvK57lGlqbWphZnxzfJFsZmppX2WCcLzAramip6SoeqS7zKaYp5yVp8BuvsScmKllmqS7pr%2BMo5ico6Oku26uxKeaoZ2UZA%3D%3D