Patriots QB Mac Jones

POSTGAME PRESS CONFERENCE

NOVEMBER 5, 2023

Q: Mac, big picture, what are your thoughts on the game today?

MJ: Yeah, I mean, tough game. Tried to get it down to the end there, but just didn’t come up with it.

We’ve got to find ways to do better and come up with the win in those situations. No excuses. Just have to work and figure out how we can do it.

Q: On the fourth down on the first drive, can you take us back to the play with Tyquan Thornton.

MJ: Yeah, he was like my third or fourth read and I just missed him, so… I had time in the pocket. I stepped up. I had good feet. I just missed the throw. Maybe put a little bit more air on it. Yeah, that’s a big, big play early in the game.

Q: Through the first nine weeks of the season we’ve seen a lot of changes on the offensive side of the ball, receivers coming in and out, guys coming in from injury, other guys leaving. How do you feel about your chemistry right now with your receivers and your ability for the offense to make plays with the weapons you have available?

MJ: Yeah, I think that’s a great point. It’s just a lot of different guys each week, but at the same time we have a great standard that we set. It’s just trying to go do it every play. I think there’s guys out there who can make the plays and it’s my job to get the ball to them. I have a lot of confidence in Jalen [Reagor], Tyquan [Thornton], Pop [Demario Douglas], Hunter [Henry], Mike [Gesicki], JuJu [Smith-Schuster], all those guys. Obviously DP [DeVante Parker] wasn’t there today. The whole group is very much so close together and they work really hard. It’s not like we’re not on the same page. We’re really close. We’re right there. We’re just a little bit short.

Q: You said before that you’ll always remain confident in yourself and that never wavers.

MJ: Yeah.

Q: But has it been difficult to remain confident in the system here just given the lack of results?

MJ: Yeah, it’s tough. 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.

Q: What did you see on the final play? Seemed like that was probably the most frustrated you’ve been visually with what resulted there.

MJ: I think JuJu [Smith-Schuster] made a great play the play before or we wouldn’t even be in that situation. I just went through my reads and fired it in there. It was just a bang-bang play. Obviously when you lose the game, it’s frustrating. It’s not on one person or one player at all. Like I said, JuJu made some great plays. We’re all in it together. I can throw a better ball, protect him a little bit more, all that stuff. I’ll watch the film, like I said, see what I can do to fix my part.

Q: Watching other teams’ offenses during the course of the nine weeks, seems like their quarterbacks have bigger windows to throw into, a chance for more shot plays, more explosive plays. Do you feel like you have to be so fine in this offense, it’s almost too fine because of the windows you’re throwing into?

MJ: I think, like I talked about, there is no excuses. 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.

Q: When you lose, you take a lot of the blame. You’ve been doing that a lot this season. You take it head on. But it comes a time during a game when you’re putting the ball right in their hands and your receivers are dropping the football. When do you become more demanding when the ball’s right there and it’s a catchable ball? I know it’s a fine line, but when do you have to get on them a little bit?

MJ: Yeah, I think like we talked about, some new guys in there. I think just for me, just keep communicating, right? Keep instilling confidence in everybody, let them know that I trust them, because I do, right? I wouldn’t throw it in there, fire it in there if I didn’t think they were going to catch it or get open. That’s part of the game. Sometimes it’s days like that, it’s weeks like that where it’s bang-bang plays all around the board. But at the end of the day my focus is, like I said, try to motivate everybody, keep them motivated. There’s still a lot of room to grow. I know the record is no good right now, but we’re growing together. We got a lot of young guys working hard and trying to grow.

Q: You were in 12 personnel a lot in the second half. Was that the game plan or just sort of due to some personnel you were missing like DeVante Parker?

MJ: We just went on the ball for a lot of the game, which is good. I like to be on the ball. I actually think that’s something we can expand on. We kind of did that with the 12 personnel, like you said. Hunter [Henry] and Mike [Gesicki] are two great football players. We want to have great football players on the field. For me, just how can I get them the ball, how can we have more explosive plays, skip some third downs. I felt like a lot of third downs. Got to be better there.

Q: On the near interception to Emmanuel Forbes, was that a decision you’d like to have back or was a miscommunication with the route conversion?

MJ: Which one was that?

Q: The near interception to Forbes.

MJ: I’ll have to look at it. I got stuck on my read. I was working that side. I can probably throw a deeper ball.

But, yeah, whenever he was in the game, we were going to try and throw at him. But he had a good game, so he showed up and played really well. Shout-out to him.

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