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Mac Jones screaming “throw the f—king ball, the run game f—king sucks” is must-see TV for Patriots haters
On Thursday night, the New England Patriots lost to the Buffalo Bills 24-10 in a game that felt like 45-3. The Bills had a long touchdown and interception taken off the board by the refs, Gillette sounded like the Boston Public Library in the second half, and the Bills never got out of second gear, racking up their third straight double-digit victory over the Pats, which is an interesting little benchmark in its own right.
The loss dropped the Patriots to .500 on the season, marooned at the bottom of a division they used to dominate. But for the Patriots, it’s not just a matter of being “meh.” They’re starting to look dysfunctional. Part of that was the Pat Patriot throwbacks, which look great when Randy is Mossing fools but downright silly when you can’t properly block a screen, but a lot of it comes down to the simmering quarterback unrest in Foxborough. Enter erstwhile Brady successor Mac Jones, who was caught on camera expressing some, uh, pretty strong opinions about the Patriots’ offense.
There were major questions about Matt Patricia’s ability to run an offense when the season began, and those questions are still unanswered. In their three losses against AFC Eact opposition this year, the Patriots have scored seven points against the Dolphins, 10 points against the Jets (including a walk-off punt return to win it), and another 10 against the Bills. Is airing it out the solution as Jones kindly suggests?
Well, over the past five games, Jones has averaged 33.4 pass attempts per game. In that span, he has eclipsed 50 QBR (the highest possible is 100) just once. On Thursday night, he chucked it three more times than Josh Allen and still ended up with under 200 yards total passing. Then there’s the matter of running back Rhamondre Stevenson, who has emerged as one of the lone weapons on the Patriots offense this season. He had 10 total attempts for 54 yards on Thursday. Last time we checked, 5.4 YPC will keep the chains moving.
So is Mac right? Should the Patriots “throw the f—king ball”? Does the run game “f—king suck”? Who knows, who cares. We're just enjoying the chaos while it lasts.
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