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Mike Reiss, ESPN Staff Writer
FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — When New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft shared his optimism for the 2023 season, he often cited the return of offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien and its hopeful impact on quarterback Mac Jones.
The bottom-line results in the team’s 1-3 start have been disappointing, sparking questions of what has gone wrong and if it can be fixed.
The Patriots rank 30th in points scored. Their 55 points are their fewest through four games since they had 51 in 2000, which was Bill Belichick’s first year as head coach.
Meanwhile, Jones hit the skids in the second quarter of Sunday’s 38-3 loss to the Dallas Cowboys, losing a fumble on an ill-advised scramble that was returned for a touchdown and throwing a careless across-the-field interception that was returned for a touchdown. He then tossed a backpedaling interception on the opening drive of the second half before he was eventually pulled by Belichick with 3:41 remaining in the third quarter.
In the wake of that meltdown, Jones & Co. are picking up the pieces as they face a critical game Sunday against the 2-2 New Orleans Saints at Gillette Stadium (1 p.m. ET, CBS).
“There are glimpses of what we can be. We have to see more of that,” O’Brien said. “Coaching is about teaching, motivating and problem solving. We have to solve problems right now. The clock is ticking, we realize that. We think there are things we can do to improve.”
Jones is 93-of-146 for 898 yards, with five touchdowns and four interceptions. He’s been sacked seven times while playing behind four different offensive-line configurations.
Facing perhaps the most defining period of his three-year NFL career, he expressed confidence this week that results will improve if he protects the football better, stays true to his reads, and respects the intention of each play.
Those are some of the staples of O’Brien’s system.
“It puts everything on your plate, and that’s the exciting part,” Jones said. “When you use it to your advantage, it can really help you, and when you don’t, it hurts you. So I have to make sure that I do a better job.
“[O’Brien’s] doing all the right things, and as the quarterback, I’m going to continue to grow with him. At this point, we haven’t put up as many points as we’d like, but we have plenty of opportunities to do that.”
O’Brien, who is in his 13th NFL season and 31st overall in coaching, has continually stressed that “nobody is pointing fingers” and “we’re very much in it together.”
At the same time, he has acknowledged it’s ultimately about bottom-line production for everyone — coaches and players.
“We can do a lot of things to help Mac’s decision-making. He can do things to help himself, I’m sure he’d be the first to tell you that,” O’Brien said.
“None of us feel good about where we’re at. We came into the season really believing what we’re doing. We still have a strong belief in what we’re doing. We feel like there are things we’re doing well, even though that might not look like it on the outside, and we have to build on those and make those happen more often. We have to see the results soon. We understand that.”
Former longtime NFL quarterback Matt Hasselbeck sees it similarly to O’Brien, citing Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys as one example.
“I think they can get on track. There’s some good stuff there,” he said. “Mac Jones played great in the first quarter of that game — no sacks, started fast against a tough opponent. Then in the second quarter, everything comes off the rails – critical error after critical error.”
“I think he was playing outside himself, a situation where you have to keep your confidence high and remember who you are as a player, but also understand who you’re not as a player.”
Hasselbeck reflected on his own experience when hypothesizing how things unfolded behind the scenes with O’Brien and Jones this week.
“You might feel like ‘The world is against me, the fans hate me, am I even the guy here?’ when you’re coming in to watch the film,” he said. “And I’m sure Bill O’Brien paused it after the first quarter and said ‘Hey, we were fine. We just need to keep doing this. You don’t need to overtry.’”
Jones’ teammates expressed confidence in their quarterback, with running back Ezekiel Elliott saying, “I have no worries about Mac. I know he’s going to get it together. He’s very assertive. He’s been good this week.”
Tight end Hunter Henry added, “Great dude, great leader. He was voted captain for a reason. He’s respected by all us. Excited to go to battle with him this weekend.”
Among the reasons Hasselbeck believes there is optimism for the Patriots — who played two games in rainy conditions — is that they have consistently produced manageable third-down situations and been productive with the vertical passing game featuring tight ends.
He cited tight end Pharaoh Brown’s 58-yard catch-and-run touchdown in a grind-it-out 15-10 win over the New York Jets on Sept. 24 as “next level” scheming from O’Brien, a notable contrast to what he saw from the Patriots’ offense in 2022.
Hasselbeck also noted that O’Brien and Jones are still learning about each other and Jones needs to understand the limitations of the receivers to whom he’s throwing. He pointed to a Week 2 interception Jones threw to Dolphins cornerback Xavien Howard while targeting tightly covered receiver DeVante Parker along the right sideline.
“Mac needs to understand he isn’t playing with who he was in college [at Alabama] — you can’t just throw it up there like that and say, ‘My guy is better than your guy.’ That’s not this team. You have to read it out.
“And that’s probably a Bill O’Brien thing, too, that he is learning. In the big picture, when he was in Houston, he might install that play and say, ‘We got DHop [DeAndre Hopkins] on the back side, if you ever get one-on-one, it’s yours, so take it!’ It’s not necessarily that [with the Patriots].”
Per NFL Next Gen Stats, Patriots receivers rank last in the NFL with 3.1 yards of separation per target. Perhaps due to the lack of separation, Jones is averaging career lows in yards per attempt (5.7) and QBR (42.6) against man coverage through Week 4. Making matter worse, he is seeing man coverage at the highest rate of any quarterback in the NFL (59%).
O’Brien said Jones’ mistakes in Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys were “uncharacteristic,” there is still belief in him as the team’s starting quarterback, and they’re working hard together to limit the bad days.
“We’re very honest,” he said.
Meanwhile, Jones relayed that his plan this week is to “take the emotion out of it” while “moving on from it and learning from it.”
“The play-by-play basis is important,” he said. “What am I supposed to do on the play? What’s my read? What’s the intention of the play? If I follow that, usually 90% of the time it’s pretty good.”