Mac Jones could be the face of the Patriots’ ongoing offensive woes, however Bill O’Brien is the brains.
For that, O’Brien says blame him.
“Things haven’t gone great for (Jones) this year. I don’t think that he’s the No. 1 guy to blame. If you want to blame anyone, blame me,” O’Brien mentioned Tuesday throughout a video convention. “I’m the one who designs it, and it’s not going very well.”
The Patriots are averaging 13.5 factors per recreation, second-worst within the league forward of the Giants. On Sunday, the Giants upset the Pats 10-7 throughout a recreation the place Jones was benched for the fourth time this season, and his backup, Bailey Zappe, tossed a horrible fourth-quarter choose that led to an eventual game-winning New York subject objective.
Before halftime, Jones threw two interceptions and took a strip sack. He owns the very best interception price within the NFL amongst energetic beginning quarterbacks. O’Brien supply some perception into each picks Sunday, underscoring Jones’ ongoing bother enjoying beneath strain.
“The one play where he threw the first interception, there was a protection breakdown. He has to make a better decision there to throw the ball out of bounds,” O’Brien assist. “We need to do a greater job of defending him, designing the safety, executing the safety. I’m simply being actual with you. And the subsequent interception, we have been in a state of affairs the place they introduced an additional man, and we now have to get the ball out and make choice or we now have to take the sack.
“In both of those situations, he would probably be the first to tell you that he has to make a better decision.”
As for a way the Patriots will deal with their quarterback plan this week, after they put together for a house battle Sunday with the Chargers, O’Brien indicated Jones and Zappe might once more compete for the beginning job..
“I think it will be the same as last week, relative to going into the week and ‘let’s do a good job this week of installing a good game-plan, teaching it to the players, and then the players going out and executing it on the practice field,’” O’Brien mentioned. “That’s really what it comes down to, and then performing on game day. And as an offense, coaching and playing wise, we just haven’t done that.”
O’Brien didn’t shut the door on practice-squad rookie quarterback/wideout Malik Cunningham presumably incomes enjoying time, however mentioned Cunningham has primarily practiced at receiver round some snaps because the scout-team quarterback. Earlier Tuesday, Patriots broad receivers coach Troy Brown estimated Cunningham has break up his time in conferences this season “half and half” between the quarterbacks’ and receivers’ rooms.
Cunningham’s solely regular-season look this 12 months got here in Week 6, when he took three snaps at quarterback and three at receiver throughout a loss at Las Vegas.
Source: www.bostonherald.com