{"id":293133,"date":"2023-10-04T12:54:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T12:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=293133"},"modified":"2023-10-04T12:54:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T12:54:00","slug":"patriots-oc-bill-obrien-qb-mac-jones-struggles-versus-cowboys-were-uncharacteristic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/nfl\/patriots-oc-bill-obrien-qb-mac-jones-struggles-versus-cowboys-were-uncharacteristic\/","title":{"rendered":"Patriots OC Bill O'Brien: QB Mac Jones' struggles versus Cowboys were 'uncharacteristic'"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mac Jones’ floundering play to open the 2023 season sunk low in Week 4, leading Patriots head coach Bill Belichick to yank the starting quarterback from a no-win situation in the third quarter of the 38-3 blowout in Dallas.<\/p>\n

The question is whether last week was rock bottom or if there are still depths of despair to reach.<\/p>\n

Despite Jones playing his worst game of the season — 150 passing yards, two interceptions, with two of his three turnovers turning into touchdowns for Dallas — the staff has stuck by the starter. Offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien insisted Tuesday that Sunday’s Jones wasn’t the real Mac.<\/p>\n

“Some of the decisions that he made were very uncharacteristic of Mac,” O’Brien said, via ESPN. “He’s just trying to make a play, he’s wanting to win, he’s very competitive. I think you’ll see a lot of improvement in Mac as we keep moving forward here.”<\/p>\n

In the most lopsided loss of Belichick’s 29-year head coaching career, Jones generated a 39.9 passer rating, the third-lowest of his career — behind last year’s horrific loss to Chicago (16.7), during which he was benched after six pass attempts, and Week 15, 2021 in a loss to Buffalo (31.4).<\/p>\n

O’Brien said the coaching staff bears some of the blame for Jones’ early-season struggles.<\/p>\n

“Mac is a battler,” O’Brien said. “He is a competitor. When you play quarterback in this league, you have to limit the mistakes and you have to limit the bad games you have, obviously. We have to do a better job of coaching up some things with him. He has to do a better job of making good decisions for us. He knows that. He takes a lot of ownership — you saw that, I think, after the game. He blames himself.<\/p>\n

“The game wasn’t lost because of one guy. The game was lost, on our part, because of how poorly we played and coached in the game. … We have a lot of belief in Mac; I think he’ll get back to doing it the way he knows how to do it.”<\/p>\n

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