FOXBORO, Mass. — Mac Jones bounced back in the best way possible from his pick-six Sunday afternoon.
The Patriots quarterback threw a 75-yard beauty to Kendrick Bourne who took it to the house for a touchdown late in the fourth quarter in New England’s eventual 35-29 overtime loss to the Dallas Cowboys at Gillette Stadium.
Jones has shown poise and composure time and time again throughout this rookie season with the Patriots and never seems to get rattled, which probably is why his teammates believed he’d bounce back immediately after the Trevon Diggs pick-six.
“I think it’s big. Mac, he forgets really well,” Bourne said after the game. “Even when the play happened, in my mind, I didn’t point my fingers straight at Mac. I said, ‘Look, it was a ball off my fingertips.’ But in my mind, I could make the play, I could do something better. I think we both felt like that and that’s the result we got of the next series, and that’s why I think the play played out like that because our mindset was locked in to, “OK we got a chance’ rather than ‘What just happened?'”
Ja’Whaun Bentley also praised Jones, saying he’s “constantly growing.”
“That’s just showing the grit he’s always showed us on the field,” he said. “He’s constantly growing every day so I’ll give him the credit where credit is due. He’s constantly growing, it’s been great to see him grow. So in that situation of him making plays is big time.”
As for Jones, he just wants to find ways to be better each and every play.
“Yeah, I think when I watch the film, I always want to find ways I can do something better, and I’m sure there was something I could do better on a lot of plays, and that play was one of them,” Jones said. “You’ve just got to play the next play and you’re only as good as your last play.
“At the same time, you’ve got to move on and just execute the play that’s called. I could do that better, and I will, and we can’t just hang our heads,” he added. “We’ve got to keep working, and no one is going to feel sorry for ourselves because that never works. You can get humbled every week, and you’ve just got to move on to the next week, and we’ll be ready to play next week.”
Jones and the rest of the Patriots have to move on from the loss and prepare to host the New York Jets next Sunday. But it sounds like they won’t be living in the past and dwelling on the Week 6 loss.
