Sunday's Week 4 showdown vs. the Dallas Cowboys was one to forget for New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones.
The third-year signal-caller turned the ball over three times in the 38-3 defeat and was directly responsible for two of Dallas' touchdowns. He tossed two interceptions, including a pick-six, and had a strip sack returned for a TD.
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Jones finished 12-of-21 for 150 yards and zero touchdowns before being replaced by backup Bailey Zappe late in the third quarter. Our Patriots insider Tom E. Curran didn't hold back in his evaluation of not only Jones' performance, but also his effort in the blowout loss.
"What I saw from Mac Jones, and part of the reason I think he ended up on the bench, is I saw a little quit in him. I saw a little give up," Curran said on Patriots Postgame Live. "Some of the throws he was making, especially the one that, air-mailed JuJu Smith-Schuster was, 'I just gotta get this ball out of here and get out of here before I get hit.' And that hasn't been him. He's been willing to take the hits and he's not in a position where he's been with this team long enough to allow your on-field leader to say, 'F it.' And I thought that that looked like an 'F it' throw and an 'F it' effort."
Despite Jones' benching, Zappe didn't do anything to spark another quarterback controversy in New England as he completed four of his nine passes for 57 yards. Jones almost certainly will remain the starting QB going forward, but Curran notes the importance of keeping the head coach-player relationship from going downhill the rest of the way.
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"You're gonna move forward for the rest of the year with him as your starting quarterback. There's just nobody wandering around out there and Bailey Zappe isn't going to be the answer," Curran said. "But you have to, with 13 games left in the year, make sure that the relationship doesn't sour so much that it's this miserable slog through into January. You have to find a way to get along."
Curran adds that while Belichick had every reason to bench Jones, the team simply needs to turn the page after the abysmal performance because the starting QB situation isn't changing.
"This was a benching by Bill Belichick out of disgust. You could see it on Bill Belichick's face on the sideline there and he had reason to be disgusted," he said. "The two picks, the strip sack, and then that lazy ass throw to JuJu Smith-Schuster. Actually, that sideline throw too where he was panicking. He looked like how I would have looked like in that instance, 'Ah! What am I gonna do?'
"So they have cause to bench him, but he still remains. He's still the same high-floor, low-ceiling quarterback he was coming into the game with five touchdowns, two picks, and a 67-percent completion percentage. It was a horrible day and I hate the way he seemed to quit on the game and his compete. I hate that and it really is the most alarming thing about this game to me in terms of Mac Jones, but you gotta make it work for the next five months."
Jones and Co. will look to bounce back next week when they host the New Orleans Saints.
You can watch the Patriots Postgame Live crew's full instant reaction to Sunday's loss below: