Postgame Transcript – WK8 NYJ – Patriots QB Mac Jones

Mac Jones

Opening statement…

Just wanted to give a huge congratulations to (Head) Coach (Bill) Belichick. What an accomplishment, obviously he’s done a great job here, and it’s just a blessing to be able to play for him. We don’t do the whole individual awards, but that’s a big one and just to be his quarterback right now is a huge blessing. I thought today was a good win, I think in the National Football League it’s obviously hard to win and the defense played exceptional. We kind of knew, we were just going to wait and let them kind of take over the game and special teams played great as well. Obviously, we did enough to put points up, but we want to do better, and we will. A lot of things will turn up I’m sure when we watch the film, but have to give credit to the Jets defense, that’s a really good defense, top defense in the League and we’ll face really good defenses in the future and that was good preparation for that.

On what the message was at halftime…

I think Coach Belichick and Matty P (Matt Patricia) and Coach (Joe) Judge did a good job just coming up with a plan of how we were going to attack, we talked about it, and they’ve done a good job all year of adjusting at halftime. I think that’s something they’re doing a great job of and that obviously benefits us in the second half and we were able to go down there and move the ball. Obviously, we want to score more points, we know that, and we’ll have plenty of stuff to work on, but super proud of the guys on offense for just sticking with it and trying to battle through against a really good defense.

On if he had any extra motivation this week…

I think I always try to be internally motivated and there’s obviously things you can control, and for me, it’s just my attitude and my effort, being a good teammate and showing up and trying to work and lead the guys. That’s a good attribute that I have is my communication, I feel like we did extra things this week to together as a team, and really as an offense that showed up on the field and if we continue to do that, we’ll see better results. I thought the process is there, I’m just super happy to be a part of this and want to continue to grow here. One game isn’t good enough, so we’ll be ready for next week.

On the extra things the team had done together going into this week’s game…

I think just talking through some things, watching extra film together was very beneficial, getting more reps in our own time, talking through things and just whatever we had questions on we were just more – ‘All right, how do we this? What do we need to do here?’ So, obviously that’s important, you want to be on the same page, and I felt like we made strides there. Kind of continue to do that, and like I said, it starts in practice, and we had a good week of practice, and we have to carry it even more into the game, but definitely good enough to get the W.

On clarification of who had gotten together…

I think as always, we have our meetings, and it takes everybody, all 11 on the field. There’s a lot of young guys that are learning too, so we want to just come together whether it’s as a unit or as a skill group, quarterback group or wide receiver group, everyone’s trying to do more and that’s what we’re trying to get to. It should be like that every week, so we’re going to continue to do that and just get better.

On what made him more comfortable in the second half…

Yeah, I think it really just applies to how the defense is playing and how we’re trying to attack. They have a really good defensive line and we’re just trying to neutralize that and move the ball quickly. Matty P did a great job calling the plays all day and I have to get the ball out on some of those sacks and stuff, so it’s not all one person or one thing, but I’ll definitely watch it and see how we can improve. You know obviously, we want to score more points and do all of that. A lot of progress, but have to keep going.

On what running backs Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson are doing that help make him so effective in the passing game…

I think Damien and Mondre have done a great job all year working together as a unit and helping those young guys move along. They’re both really good in the pass game. I think Mondre has done a good job there, we kind of included him in that this week and Damien has improved there too. I love both of those guys, they’re like my brother, so we just want to continue to grow together, and they’ve done a great job.

On what they can build off on and how great it was to get a win playing in a hostile environment…

Yeah, it’s great. I think that’s why football is the greatest team sport. You have a game plan. I feel like we laid out the targets that we wanted to hit and we hit most of them, so that’s part of it. I’m just super happy that we won, but we’re always going to try to look at the things we can do better and that’s what we’ll do. Great job on defense and special teams and offensively trying to just battle through it and find a way and that’s what the National Football League is.

On the roughing the passer call and what he was trying to do with the ball…

I think that’s something I’ll have to see on film. I knew what I was trying to do with it, and just a little miscommunication, but I can’t have those. Penalties saved us, but definitely want to eliminate those plays and have to watch it and see what we can do better.