Jones guides late winning FG drive
HOUSTON — Trailing on the road in the fourth quarter, the New England Patriots needed Mac Jones to deliver Sunday.
The rookie came through, throwing a touchdown pass to tie it before Nick Folk’s 21-yard field goal with 15 seconds left lifted the Patriots to a 25-22 win over the Houston Texans.
The game was tied at 22 before New England (2-3) used a 15-play, 85-yard drive capped by Folk’s fourth field goal of the game to take the lead. The drive was kept alive when Maliek Collins was flagged for roughing the passer on thirdand-18 early in the possession.
Houston rookie Davis Mills threw an incompletion after Folk’s field goal before Brandin Cooks fumbled after a catch to seal New England’s victory.
Jones tied it when he connected with Hunter Henry on a 13-yard touchdown with about nine minutes remaining.
“Mac has been good for us all year in terms of his leadership and resilience,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “We are counting on him to do the right thing and he’s doing it on a high level.”
Jones threw for 231 yards with a touchdown and an interception as the Patriots ended a two-game skid.
“Sometimes you have to find a way to win,” said Jones, the 15th overall pick in the draft. “It feels better to not play as well but win and learn at the same than play OK and end up losing. So the win feels good.”
Jones completed 23 of 30 passes to give him 135 completions this season and tie Cincinnati’s Joe Burrow for the most completions by a rookie quarterback in his first five starts in NFL history.
New England center David Andrews raved about the poise of Jones down the stretch.
“What a great win for him,” Andrews
said. “What a great win for this football team. We needed it.”
Mills threw for a career-high 312 yards with three touchdowns to bounce back from last week’s terrible performance where he tied a franchise record with four interceptions.
“Davis protected the football,” Houston coach David Culley said.
“He was very good in the pocket and ran our offense very well. We knew going into the game the most important thing to do was be able to protect the football and he did that.”
But he was unable to move the ball late as the Texans (1-4) lost their fourth straight after beating Jacksonville in the opener.
“You don’t want to lose football games ever, so it’s a harsh feeling,” Mills said. “But the guys rallied together. We (played) how we wanted to a lot during that game and we can learn from that and find ways to win.”