‘He’s a fighter’: How Mac Jones kept the Eagles on the ropes as the Patriots seemed to head for disaster

Patriots

“We know that Mac is a dog and his mentality is always going to be to fight no matter what. So we weren’t worried after the pick.”

The Patriots seemed like they were careening toward disaster from the outset of their season opener when Darius Slay intercepted a Mac Jones pass and ran it back 70 yards for a touchdown.

Ezekiel Elliott fumbled on the only play of New England’s following drive, and Philadelphia capitalized with a touchdown that put the Patriots in a 16-0 hole in the first quarter.

Jones and the Patriots easily could have folded after that, trailing by two scores early against the defending NFC champion Eagles.

But, they didn’t. They gnashed their teeth, dug their cleats into the Gillette Stadium turf, and clawed their way back into the game.

The Patriots had a pair of chances to win the game in the fourth quarter with the ball in their hands as they trailed by five points. But, they fell just short of what would have been an impressive upset in the “Thank You Tom (Brady)” game and started off the season with a 25-20 loss.

“Not good by me,” Jones told reporters after the game. “They gave me the ball twice to win the game and I couldn’t do it, so I just have to go back and watch and see what I have to do better. But, as a quarterback, that hurts to have a chance to win the game twice and you cant do it. So you’ve got to learn from it. You only get so many opportunities in the NFL to do that and I definitely feel like I let the team down.”

Jones ended up going 35 for 54 on passing attempts for 316 yards and three touchdowns. The pick-six was his only turnover. He led the Patriots to 14 unanswered points in the second quarter, which sliced Philadelphia’s lead to two heading into halftime.

The third-year quarterback’s performance wasn’t the reason why the Patriots lost, linebacker Matthew Judon said. Rather, Jones played a big part in keeping the Patriots in the game.

“I think as a quarterback that’s kind of how you have to come up here and talk to (the media), but we don’t care about that,” Judon said. “Mac went out there and played his butt off. It was unfortunate he got a couple of bad calls, a couple of penalties here and there. But, we can’t put that loss on Mac. He played his butt off.”

While they didn’t get the win, the Patriots showed that they can keep their cool under pressure. They were competitive until the very end against one of the best teams in the league, in large part because of the way Jones bounced back after the early mistake.

“He’s a fighter,” Phillips said. “The game is going to go like that some times. We might give up a few touchdowns and they might have to crawl back, so it just is what it is. We’re always helping each other. We know that Mac is a dog, and his mentality is always going to be to fight no matter what. So we weren’t worried after the pick.”

Jones spread the ball around, hitting six different Patriots for four catches or more. He threw a pair of touchdown passes to Kendrick Bourne and another one to Hunter Henry. Henry had a spectacular one-handed catch on fourth-and-8 to keep a crucial drive alive.

The Patriots had their share of shortcomings. New England got called for a delay of game penalty that forced the Patriots into a fourth-and-17 situation on their second-to-last drive. Jones was unable to complete a fourth-down pass to Henry, stopping the nine-play, 36-yard drive in its tracks.

On the final drive, Kayshon Boutte appeared to make a 12-yard catch on the Patriots final drive that would have converted a fourth-and-11 and put the Patriots on the Eagles’ 8-yard line. The play was ruled as an incomplete pass as Boutte did not have both feet in-bounds.

But still, the Patriots were right there.

Multiple Patriots said after the game that they won’t accept moral victories. But, playing the Eagles down to the wire with a banged-up offensive line and a comeback effort that had the Super Bowl runner-ups on the ropes is a promising start to the season.

“It’s resilience right? And that’s all of us,” said offensive tackle Calvin Anderson. “All of us have to be able to bounce back from any setback in a game. If you’re going to win big games, you’ve got to be able to do that. Luckily, we’ve got great leadership up front, guys that will tell you hey it’s next play even when you get down. So, I’m appreciative of being around guys like that.”