Jones: ‘Getting hit is always fun’
Cowboy’s defensive end Randy Gregory delivered a couple bonecrushing sacks of Patriots quarterback Mac Jones during Sunday’s overtime loss.
During his weekly appearance on WEEI’s “Merloni & Fauria,” Jones was asked if he had ever been hit that hard before?
Jones indicated he had. In fact, he said he kind of likes being walloped.
“I think getting hit is always fun,” said Jones. “It makes it more fun. It’s part of the game. . . . The best part is getting back up and knowing that you’re fine and you can go out there and keep playing.
“Sometimes you don’t get hit all the time in practice, obviously, so it’s OK to get hit a little bit, and pop back up. That just kind of adds a little competitive juices to the whole situations. At the end of the day, it’s just part of the game ... the best quarterbacks in the world all pop up quick and play the next play.”
That first hit by Gregory sure didn’t seem like fun.
It came in the second quarter with the Patriots in Cowboys territory. Gregory roared by right tackle Yodny Cajuste, and just leveled the rookie quarterback, forcing a fumble.
Jones took on some of the blame for Gregory being able to get to him so fast.
“I just turned around, and looked at my reads, and he had a jump on the snap count and it was unfortunate, because it was almost like he timed up my cadence,” said Jones. “So, I think that’s something I can address and work on just so we have a little bit of a change-up.”
Jones, who popped right up, said he wished he had held onto the ball.
“It was just one of those bangbang plays,” he said. “Those happen all the time. I think our offensive line did a good job protecting me.”
Jones was sacked twice, both by Gregory, and hit on five other drop backs.
Conservative play-calling
During his weekly appearance on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show,” Patriots head coach Bill Belichick was asked if he considered going on 4th-and-3 from his 46-yardline, on the team’s only possession of overtime.
Belichick said it really wasn’t a consideration.
“With Greg Zuerlein, his field goal range, they can play on a pretty short field there,” said Belichick.
“One first down could probably beat you there. So, not really.”
The Patriots punted, and the Cowboys needed just seven plays to drive 80 yards for the gamewinning score, a 35-yard touchdown pass from Dak Prescott to CeeDee Lamb.
With the Cowboys scoring on 4of-its-last-5 possessions, with the one non-score a missed field goal, it’s a worthy second-guess giving Prescott the ball back without taking a chance on fourth down in overtime.
Asked if he could have asked Belichick to go for it on that overtime fourth down chance, Jones, on WEEI’s “Merloni and Fauria” said he always leaves those decisions up to the coaches.
“If they put us out there, we’re going to do our best to convert,” he said. “But I think at that point in the game, the coaches have a ton of experience. He’s been in that situation probably thousands of times.”
In the game as a whole, the Pats never attempted any fourth down opportunities. During the third quarter, the Pats had a 4th-and-2 from the 50-yard line, and opted to punt.
Taking a knee
Another second-guess was taking a knee before the half.
Belichick hasn’t shied away from being aggressive before a half, especially if there’s a chance for a double score, with the team also getting the ball at the start of the third quarter.
On Sunday night, after a goal line stand for the ages with his defense shutting down the Cowboys on four chances from the one-yard line late in the second quarter, the Patriots head coach was satisfied taking a 14-10 lead into the half.
The Patriots got the ball back on the 20-yard line with 1:30 remaining, no timeouts, with a chance to add a little more cushion to that lead. So it was somewhat curious why Belichick would take a knee and run out the clock, without at least trying to advance the ball into field goal range.
When asked after the game, Belichick simply said it was because the Patriots were getting the ball to start the second half. No further explanation.
Pressed further during his video conference with the media Monday, Belichick still wouldn’t explain any further. He had gone for it in the past plenty of times.
“We were going to get the ball in the second half,” he said. “We wanted to get settled in on the second half at half time. Same thing I said last night.”
Two blocks, too many
The Patriots have now had two blocked punts in their first six games, with their latest coming during the second quarter in the Cowboys loss.
They had no punts blocked in the previous five seasons combined, with their last two punts blocked coming in 2015 and 2014.
But All Pro kicker Jake Bailey has already seen two opponents easily stuff a pair of his kicks.
Dallas didn’t wind up scoring after the block by Luke Gifford, with the Pats ultimately putting on a goal line, with four stops from the one yard line before the half.
But having two punts blocked this season doesn’t sit well with Belichick, who spoke on the subject during his WEEI appearance Monday morning.
“We just obviously have to do a better job. Neither of those plays should have been a problem. But, we just didn’t execute them well enough,” said Belichick. “Obviously we have to coach them better, and play them better. We’ll just have to keep working on that. We haven’t done anything differently than we’ve done in the past. But two is certainly two too many. That’s an area we can’t continue to make those kind of mistakes or they’ll continue to cost us.”