Bill Belichick’s Tuesday morning conference call began with a series of questions about New England Patriots rookie Cyrus Jones, who’d committed another costly special-teams error the previous night.
Jones allowed a punt to bounce off his foot during Monday night’s game against the Baltimore Ravens and then failed to recover it, giving Baltimore the ball at New England’s 2-yard line. The Ravens scored two plays later, kicking off a second-half comeback that ultimately fell just short in a 30-23 Patriots victory at Gillette Stadium.
It was the latest in a long line of mistakes by Jones, who now has five fumbles in nine games as a first-year pro. During the call, Belichick repeatedly was asked whether he still has confidence in the young cornerback as a punt returner.
“We have confidence in all of our players,” Belichick said. “We’ve seen (Matthew) Slater fumble before. We’ve seen (Tom) Brady throw an interception before, too. We’ll always do what we feel is best for the football team based on the situation, the particular game and what we’re dealing with.”
Belichick wouldn’t criticize Jones directly, instead speaking in generalities as he explained where the rookie went wrong.
“Of course, once the ball hits the ground, we don’t want to be near the ball and have it hit us,” Belichick said. “That goes for everybody. But in general, it’s the same thing I said (Monday) night. We turned the ball over three times, and that’s three too many. So we’ve got to do a better job of coaching and a better job of playing to eliminate those turnovers.”
Belichick added: “On the ball that hit him, the returner — any punt returner — once we don’t field the ball, then we have to get out of the way and keep it from hitting us. That’s a fundamental thing. But relative to ball security, we all have to do a better job of taking care of the ball. We turned it over three times. All those players and all the other players, we’ve got to do a better job of it. We’ve got to coach it better. We’ve got to handle it better.”
The Patriots used a squadron of punt and kick returners Monday night, with Jones, Slater, Julian Edelman, Patrick Chung, James White and Dion Lewis all factoring into the mix. Jones, Edelman and Chung all fielded punts in the absence of usual return man Danny Amendola, who was sidelined with an ankle injury.
Newly acquired wide receiver Griff Whalen, who was inactive for the game, also has the ability to return punts.
Thumbnail photo via Jim Dedmon/USA TODAY Sports Images
