JONES CALLS FOR MORE URGENCY VS. JETS
FOXBORO — First, Mac Jones won over the Patriots’ scouting department.
Then, he won over the locker room. Next, he won the starting job.
Now, two weeks into his rookie season, Jones simply needs to win.
Jones’ NFL debut, an admirable effort within a one-point defeat, will remain memorable so long as it serves as a building block for greater things. Jones didn’t care how well he performed against Miami’s nasty blitz package and unrelenting pressure once the clock hit zero. His team had lost.
So within hours, that same night, he started studying the Jets.
“Sometimes when we lose, I look ahead just to get a sneak peek of what we want to look at,” Jones shared Wednesday. “So it just depends on the game. But definitely early this week for sure.”
The Jets should offer him a cushy landing on Sunday.
Their secondary is soft. They hardly blitz. Jones’ teammates are determined to protect him better, after allowing the Dolphins to clock him nine times last weekend. Jones called for more urgency on Wednesday.
“We just gotta be better. We put it on ourselves,” Pats left guard Michael Onwenu said. “Obviously, it’s us blocking. So, I mean it just pushes us to be better and do better.”
Jones will also face a fellow rookie quarterback in Zach Wilson, who led New York to a 19-14 defeat at Carolina. Jones said they’ve met just twice before, including at the draft last April. He added he admires Wilson’s playing style and talent, both stark contrasts to how Jones approaches and plays the game.
Wilson is known for emulating Aaron Rodgers, just as Jones once patterned his game after Tom Brady. Neither rookie is anywhere close to his hero, of course. But the Brady parallels are no longer deniable, even to Jones’ teammates.
“He had a lot of poise and obviously delivered the ball really well,” Pats tight end Hunter Henry said of Jones’ performance against Miami. “(He) sat in there in the pocket, even when the pocket was coming down. He made some big-time throws that sometimes a lot of other guys aren’t going to make, just standing in the pocket and taking hits and different things like that.
“That shows a lot to us as (teammates) — a guy that’s going to stand in there no matter what and deliver the ball. It was big to see.”
If Jones is protected well enough Sunday, it reasons he should dice a Jets defense that’s talent-starved outside of defensive tackle Quinnen Williams and safety Marcus Maye. He did enough to steer the Patriots into the red zone four times against a well-coached Miami defense backboned by two Pro Bowl corners. Inside the 20-yard line, his teammates failed him.
But Jones isn’t dwelling on the past, explaining he gives himself a set time to rebound.
“I mean, it’s not fun to lose, so just learning from what we could have done better is definitely just the only thing you can do really,” Jones said. “You can sit there and feel bad for yourself for a little bit because that’s human, and that’s what you’re supposed to do. Or you’re in the wrong profession. But you just got to move on; the 24hour rule — just after 24 hours.”
Unless, of course, you’ve suffered a one-point loss at home to a divisional rival in your NFL debut. Then it’s on to the next rival immediately, a divisional doormat that will either serve as a springboard to greater heights or something much worse that may need a full 24 hours to recover from.
“I think we’re moving in the right direction. Just take it day by day,” Jones said. “Obviously there shouldn’t be any focus on the past. We’ve just gotta focus on what we need to get better at. That’s just fundamentally for me, what can I do each day that’s extra? Or what can I improve? So that when I get to the game, we play fast and play better
than we did last week.”