Patriots Under Pressure: Mac Jones, New England Facing Must-Win at Arizona

The New England Patriots must show immediate improvement to remain in the 2022 playoff race in the AFC.

FOXBORO — Through 13 weeks in the 2022 NFL season, the New England Patriots find themselves in a pressure situation.

Following their disappointing 24-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills last Thursday, the Pats have dropped to 6-6, and currently outside the playoff window in the AFC. With their proverbial backs against the postseason wall, the Patriots need to return to the win column to remain in contention.

The task will not be easy, especially for the team’s struggling offense. Through 12 games, New England’s offense is averaging just 18.4 points per game. When eliminating points added from their defense and special teams, the Pats rank 23rd in the NFL. They also rank 22nd in turnovers (17) and 25th on third-down conversions (36.2 percent) under the direction of play-caller Matt Patricia.

Despite their season-long pratfalls, quarterback Mac Jones remains optimistic that the Patriots’ offense is capable of righting the ship and reversing their fortunes.

“When you watch the tape, we’re close,” Jones said during his appearance on WEEI’s Merloni, Fauria & Mego this week. “We’ve just got to eliminate those (bad plays) at this point. There are a few plays in every game — a handful of plays that just aren’t very good. Once we can fix those then everything goes. We understand it’s us the player. We have to trust the coaches, which we are. They put a lot of hard work into it. That’s what we have to do. It’s a player’s game. We want to come together and play together.”

To do so, the Pats must resist the pressure. For Jones, that means both literally and figuratively.

For the majority of the season, the second-year quarterback has struggled to maintain his presence in the pocket, often finding himself under duress. Teams having the most success against Jones have been those who have deployed strategically placed blitzes from the second and third level of the defense. The pressure has typically confused the 24-year-old, causing him to open the top of his drop in the wrong direction, leading to confusion and suspect decision-making.

With inadequate protection from the team’s offensive line, Jones has had insufficient time to operate. As a result, he has had little-to-no choice but to take short-yardage check downs, especially with the Pats opponents’ perimeter corners taking away his preferred routes and targets. In Week 13, the Bills’ pressured Jones on 39.5 percent of his dropbacks, leaving him with an average of 3.15 seconds to attempt a pass.

Though the blame for New England’s offensive woes deserves to be laid at multiple doorsteps, their issues with play-calling have put offensive line coach Matt Patricia in the crosshairs. The matter seemed to be compounded in the closing moments of Thursday’s game when Jones was caught by cameras during an expletive-laden tirade, believed to be directed at the Pats offensive coaching staff.

Still, Jones was clear that he and his coaches remain unified in their desire and approach to fixing their problems. Even though the relationship may occasionally be contentious, Jones is confident that he and his coaches are ready, willing and able to produce positive results.

“We’re all super competitive … we want to be coached hard,” Jones said. “Those are conversations that we have and that’s internal and you want to be able to have those with your position coach or Matty P, coach Belichick, coach Judge,” Jones said. “It’s not fun at the time. Like, ‘Hey, you didn’t do this right or it didn’t look as good in practice.’ You have to have (those conversions). I feel like we have to do that more often and work through the problems. There’s obviously things we want to get better at, but that’s part of life… We’re all on the same page in that regard.”

While the team’s collective spirit may be willing, New England is running thin on time to parlay consistent improvement on the field into a postseason berth. If the team wishes to get better, it must demonstrate a sense of urgency. 

In the meantime, Pats continue their preparations for their Week 14 matchup with the Arizona Cardinals at State Farm Stadium on Monday night Dec. 12. Kickoff is set for 8:15 p.m. ET. 

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Follow Mike D’Abate on Twitter @mdabateNFL and Listen/Subscribe to his daily podcast: Locked On Patriots

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