The Patriots had the ball with a chance to tie or beat the Commanders at the end of Sunday’s game, but Mac Jones’ pass bounced off wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and into the hands of Commanders safety Jartavius Martin.
Martin’s pick sealed a 20-17 win for Washington and sent the Patriots off the field with a 2-7 record. It was the seventh time this season that the Patriots have failed to reach 20 points and Jones was asked at his postgame press conference if it’s difficult for him to remain confident in what the team is doing offensively.
“Yeah, it’s tough,” Jones said. “I think the biggest thing, like you said, is remaining confident in yourself. When you do everything you can every day, you should have no regrets. I have no regrets. I do need to do things better, but I’m always going to work hard and put in the hours. That’s all I can do, right? Motivate people around me to do it, as well. I’m always going to be the same person. Obviously, like you said, the results aren’t there right now. It stinks. There’s no excuses.”
Jones was 24-of-44 for 220 yards over the course of the game. There were times where he missed open receivers to go with dropped passes and a lack of open targets. Another question in the postgame press conference referenced other quarterbacks having “bigger windows to throw into, a chance for more shot plays, more explosive plays” before asking if Jones feels he has to be “too fine” when he throws the ball.
“There is no excuses,” Jones said. “It’s hard to compare to other people, other teams. We have a standard here. At the end of the day, we need to meet that standard and execute as best we can for me as a quarterback and all that stuff. That’s a great point but at the same time we’re always going to focus on us and what we can do better and the things we need to improve, what I need to improve and all that stuff. But, yeah, that’s a good question.”
Questions abound in New England, but answers have been in short supply this season and that’s only adding to the intrigue about what kinds of changes are coming to the Patriots.
