Mac Jones wasn’t perfect Sunday against the Texans, but he stayed poised amid the chaos in Houston and eventually led the New England Patriots to a comeback win over the Texans.
And David Andrews couldn’t be prouder of his rookie quarterback.
Jones, bloodied in the second half, orchestrated a late-fourth quarter drive that produced a game-winning field goal from Nick Folk. The freshman signal-caller finished having completed 23 of 30 passes for 231 yards and one touchdown, to go along with an interception.
Andrews began his postgame press conference by rightfully praising New England’s patchwork offensive line, which stepped up in a big way. He then lauded the performance of Jones.
“No. 10, he’s a tough son of a gun,” Andrews told reporters. “So, hats off to him, too.”
Andrews then expounded upon how Jones has earned the respect of his teammates.
“Quarterbacks, toughness maybe isn’t on display,” he said. “Like, they’re not going around hitting people. But the kid stands in there, he makes throws. He takes hits. He’s never negative, especially after some of our performances here of late.
“He stands in there, he’s positive, he’s ready to go. He has our back. You get to play for a guy like that — that’s a great opportunity. It shows a lot of poise from a guy like that.”
Andrews added: “He’s a great player. Great guy. Just the poise you’ve seen out of him these first four weeks. … What a great win for him.”
Again, Jones made some mistakes Sunday and obviously has much to work on. What rookie quarterback doesn’t?
But in delivering his first game-winning drive, Jones offered further evidence New England made the right choice with the 15th pick in the 2021 NFL Draft.
Jones and the Patriots will host the Dallas Cowboys next weekend at Gillette Stadium.
