The Patriots had another poor offensive performance against the Raiders, netting just 259 yards in the 21-17 loss.
Quarterback Mac Jones finished the game 24-of-33 for 200 yards with no touchdowns and an interception. The third-year quarterback has now completed 64 percent of his passes this season for 1,208 yards with five touchdowns and seven interceptions. His passer rating i just 74.4.
Jones was asked after the game how confident he is that he’s the right quarterback to get things turned around in New England.
“Yeah, I’m confident,” Jones said in his press conference. “I think that comes from years of experience and earning respect from people. And I think I’ve done that. But, once again, I’m trying to win every game that I play in and I’m not doing it. So, I just really want to focus on, how can I bring these guys with me? How can we clean up the little things? And it takes all 11 and that’s important. And to be the leader of that 11 is a lot of stress, but that’s why I play this game.
“I really want to win. I’m doing a lot of things to do that during the week, but for whatever reason it’s just not happening on Sunday.”
Penalties and turnovers have been two of New England’s issues. As a team, the club was flagged 10 times for 79 yards on Sunday to contribute to the loss.
“We work so hard and all that stuff and we’ve put an emphasis on it. And those are part of the game,” Jones said. “But at the same time, I like to put them in different buckets. Like was it a forced penalty? Or were you giving effort and it is what it is? But the unforced ones are the ones you want to take away. We have too many of those penalties, turnovers all that stuff.
“So, I definitely need to improve, but gotta keep swinging. If you don’t swing, you’re not gonna get any hits. So, definitely going to keep swinging.”
Jones said the Patriots have to “watch the film with truthful eyes” in the coming days in preparation for next week’s matchup with the Bills. At 1-5, Jones and New England have a lot of work to do.
