Coming off a Week 14 bye, it was a slow and sluggish start for the New England Patriots Saturday night against the Indianapolis Colts. Quickly falling behind 20-0, the Patriots dug themselves too big of a hole, as their fourth-quarter comeback attempt was stopped short in a 27-17 loss.
Following the game, Patriots quarterback Mac Jones noted the team “didn’t have a great practice every day” leading up to Saturday’s matchup. During his weekly radio appearance on WEEI’s Merloni and Fauria show on Monday, Jones provided more context on his comments.
“I think just it is what it is. It just reflected how we played,” Jones said. “I don’t have the answer for you. I’m not going to expose anything, but I feel like we can have a better attitude, and it starts with me. And we will. And we understand that when we practice well, the product on the field on Sundays is better. We understand that, and we can’t go back and change anything. We just have to move forward and continue to try and practice perfect.”
Bill Belichick agreed with his quarterback, noting on Monday that the team’s general level of execution and concentration were not good enough. Jones himself saw similar mistakes.
“It just wasn’t our best effort,” he said. “We didn’t stack good days together. We don’t have to talk about it, we already addressed it. We’re just excited. We know we’re guaranteed however many practices are left in the regular season and this week is the most important. We have three practices this week and that’s all we can focus on — Wednesday, Thursday, Friday.”
Jones’ 45 pass attempts Saturday night was the second most he’s attempted all year, while his 58 percent completion percentage was his second worst this season. Jones also added two interceptions, as the Patriots’ offense was held scoreless through three quarters. The rookie knows that strong practices throughout the week have led to success so far this season.
“Our energy could be better,” Jones said on WEEI. “I don’t have an answer, but we addressed the issue like I said earlier, and we’re moving on. We’re ready to go this week. We understand what is at stake and we understand what we need to do to practice well and the mentality we need to have coming into this building. The proof is in the pudding. When you look at practice and [when] we practiced well earlier in the year, we won the games we played in. When we didn’t practice well, we didn’t win. It’s not just this week, it’s kind of our formula for the whole season.”
The Patriots will look for better performances on the Gillette Stadium backfields this week, as they prepare for the biggest game of their season against the Buffalo Bills.
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