What Was ‘Clear’ To Peter King After Patriots’ Crazy Win Over Bills

It’s been very easy to criticize Mac Jones this season, but Sunday was a day for praise for the Patriots quarterback.

Jones played one of the best games of his young NFL career in New England’s Week 7 win over the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium. The 2021 first-rounder completed 25 of his 30 pass attempts for 272 yards with two touchdowns, including the game-winning score with 12 seconds left.

For Jones, the encouraging performance came after three straight weeks of poor play that prompted an overflow of critiques and doubt. But the 25-year-old didn’t let the noise impact his play against the Bills, which didn’t go unnoticed by NBC Sports’ Peter King.

“After playing his best game in the league in nearly two years in the 29-25 upset over Buffalo in Foxboro, what was clear to me was how Jones, as expected, is good at compartmentalizing what really matters in football: leaving the outside stuff at the locker-room door. Business is business. Don’t let outside stuff interfere with it,” King wrote in his latest Football Morning in America column.

The jury still is out on Jones as a starting quarterback in the NFL. He hasn’t been consistent enough for the Patriots to bank on him as their signal-caller for the long haul and New England probably shouldn’t pass on the chance to select a QB if it lands a top-five pick in next year’s draft.

But Sunday’s game did offer a reminder that Jones possesses several traits you want in your QB1. And of them is a sharp focus on the task at hand, which Jones deserves credit for.