Mac Jones' Last Five Games - 2022 vs 2021

[BTTA]

LOL, I can't believe I live in a world where we have people actively rooting against the team's quarterback or trying to come up with ways to look at the totals to manipulate them to make him look worse. If anyone had told me that would be the case 20+ years ago when I put this place together, I never would have believed it. It's like some bizarre alternate universe.

The evidence about what social media has done to people's brains is very clear at this point. Two aspects of that in play here, I think:
1. Tribal memberships trumps curiosity; everything is about supporting my tribe's agenda, and there isn't one, I'll make one up, leading to a reactivity that leads to...
2. The death of being able to put information out in the world without being accused of having an agenda, or supporting a certain conclusion.

In this case, you just put some info out about our QB's performance. The reactions you got were argumentative, rather than, "hmmm, that's interesting...".

Agree, it is really sad. The forum would be so much more useful and interesting otherwise.

 

[RIpats88]

The evidence about what social media has done to people's brains is very clear at this point. Two aspects of that in play here, I think:
1. Tribal memberships trumps curiosity; everything is about supporting my tribe's agenda, and there isn't one, I'll make one up, leading to a reactivity that leads to...
2. The death of being able to put information out in the world without being accused of having an agenda, or supporting a certain conclusion.

In this case, you just put some info out about our QB's performance. The reactions you got were argumentative, rather than, "hmmm, that's interesting...".

Agree, it is really sad. The forum would be so much more useful and interesting otherwise.

To be honest I'm not even sure why there are fans that want Mac to fail so bad. Wouldn't you rather he be successful as a fan of the team? I guess to feed some agenda for the team to go to Zappe because he looked passable in 2 games. Good in one and bad in another.

I'm honestly kind of just want to see the team succeed. Whether that is with Mac or someone else.

 

[archstanton543]

1. Tribal memberships trumps curiosity; everything is about supporting my tribe's agenda, and there isn't one, I'll make one up, leading to a reactivity that leads to...

That's always been the case with humans for a very very long time...until the scientific method became a thing. But that instinct hasn't gone away.

 

[BTTA]

That's always been the case with humans for a very very long time...until the scientific method became a thing. But that instinct hasn't gone away.

Agree. It's been proven that social media has fed that tribalism and impulsivity to the point where people's brains are literally physically different than they were before they started using it. People who use social media regularly are not the same as their ancestors because of it. And that's now part of the business model for the big social media firms.

 

[Betterthanmost]

wow BB, what type of show are you running down there?

 

[Rob0729]

I know the anti-Mac crowd thinks Orlovsky has an agenda, but they were all in on Lazar's analysis early in the season on Mac Jones. Lazar thinks Jones has potential to be a very good QB.

After Further Review: Patriots QB Mac Jones is Showing Reasons to be Optimistic About his NFL Future

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

Why do we always have so many guys running in the same area?

Patricia is at fault but personnel doesn't help either. Most of our guys work the same parts of the field. Also nothing is quick or easy. Everything is drawn-out.

 

[BaconGrundleCandy]

No one but Lazar and Orlovsky has ever said this before. Glad we have them around.

 

[stinkypete]

I know the anti-Mac crowd thinks Orlovsky has an agenda, but they were all in on Lazar's analysis early in the season on Mac Jones. Lazar thinks Jones has potential to be a very good QB.

After Further Review: Patriots QB Mac Jones is Showing Reasons to be Optimistic About his NFL Future

I don't know what defines a "big time throw" in media circles, but I will agree that Jones made some very strong throws against Miami, and he was exceptional against Minnesota. We also saw him launch more than his fair share of wounded ducks, so you gotta take the bad with the good.

Overall, I would rate Jones last 5 games as a draw when compared with the last 5 games of 2021. He looked great at times, awful at others. The problem remains that he has been unable to string together more than one good half at a time, with Minnesota being the exception. I'd say if he plays well against Buffalo, we can look at 2022 as a year in which he regressed (badly) but returned to his end of 2021 form. Obviously this is not an ideal scenario, but it is enough to give us hope that with improved blocking and scheme, he could take a leap in 2023.

On the topic of blocking, my eyes tell me that the pass blocking against Miami was terrible - worse than normal. I haven't watched the all 22 film and I'm not going to, but I am willing to consider that the problem is not the QB.

 

[Jlaff]

It's like Patricia is having them double the DB as if it's some sort of coverage play.

 

[Jlaff]

This forum has effectively redshirted Mac. The only player who can't be criticized.

On a separate note, as much deserved criticism as Patricia's received this hear things are slowly coming around since the Vikings game. He also called two great games against the Browns and Lion. In the guy's first season. Without any experience going in. On the verge of the playoffs with a second year QB and no true WR1. He's at least not the worst OC in the league.

 

[One-If-By-Sea]

I don't think this tracks. There have been plenty of hall of fame reactors (Mahomes, Favre, Kurt Warner) and a lot of thinkers who got time and never developed into anything of note. You can succeed in a variety of ways at the QB position and more often than not with enough time reactors end up becoming closer to thinkers. I don't think your play style limits your ceiling.

Yes, any generalization is wrong including this one. It depends if you look at the extremes or center. Cam Newton was an extreme reactor, not a thinker, and he had some success. But was he successful? In a redraft do the Panthers take Cam?

All analogies fall over. The point is Mac and Cam are pretty much opposites. BB chose Mac (Cam was pretty broken down at that point but you see my point?). Without the game slowing down for Mac he does not look good because he is thinking too much. There is a Zappe fan club because Zappe reacts well, Mac doesn't. Bu

 

[catent]

You could put together a handful of impressive throws from Cam Newton during his time here. That deep pass to Jules against Seattle was exceptional. He looked looked like a top-5 QB during his first two games here. (Unfortunately there were 14 more games to be played that season).

A good throw in a vacuum doesn't mean much, especially with Mac Jones, who we already know is an accurate downfield passer who can throw with touch. His passes to Henry and Meyers against Miami were right his up alley, working the parts of the field that he's most comfortable with. That didn't surprise me to see, nor did it reveal anything new to me about Mac.

What I want to see is consistency and an improvement in the areas where he currently struggles. I know Mac can throw a beautiful touch-pass 20-25 yards across the field. Can he feel the pocket? Can he move well in the pocket? Can he feel rush angles? Can he get to secondary reads post-snap? Can he throw the ball with zip outside the numbers when he needs to? Can he clean up his mechanics and get his feet and eyes synced up?

 

[Rob0729]

This forum has effectively redshirted Mac. The only player who can't be criticized.

On a separate note, as much deserved criticism as Patricia's received this hear things are slowly coming around since the Vikings game. He also called two great games against the Browns and Lion. In the guy's first season. Without any experience going in. On the verge of the playoffs with a second year QB and no true WR1. He's at least not the worst OC in the league.

I have “redshirted” most of the players on offense. I am not drawing any conclusions on almost any player on offense because of the disfunction in coaching. I have blamed Troy Brown for Tyquan Thornton not have some of the fundamentals down like knowing how to work the sidelines properly.

And Patricia is still awful. It was just two weeks ago where he had a play that had his TEs running so close to each other that one of them took out the other one. This past game was the first game where receiver route separation wasn’t a huge issue. And he still seems to call plays like he is throwing darts against the wall.

The only players I haven’t redshirted on offense are Trent Brown and Jonnu Smith. Brown has turned into the lazy underachiever who constantly is committing penalties that he has been everywhere he has been. Smith is the same as he was last year. Maybe also Agholor because his hands of stone is a feature, not a bug.

 

[TomPatriot]

You could put together a handful of impressive throws from Cam Newton during his time here. That deep pass to Jules against Seattle was exceptional. He looked looked like a top-5 QB during his first two games here. (Unfortunately there were 14 more games to be played that season).

A good throw in a vacuum doesn't mean much, especially with Mac Jones, who we already know is an accurate downfield passer who can throw with touch. His passes to Henry and Meyers against Miami were right his up alley, working the parts of the field that he's most comfortable with. That didn't surprise me to see, nor did it reveal anything new to me about Mac.

What I want to see is consistency and an improvement in the areas where he currently struggles. I know Mac can throw a beautiful touch-pass 20-25 yards across the field. Can he feel the pocket? Can he move well in the pocket? Can he feel rush angles? Can he get to secondary reads post-snap? Can he throw the ball with zip outside the numbers when he needs to? Can he clean up his mechanics and get his feet and eyes synced up?

The real question is would Mac Jones have improved if the offense wasn’t “changed.” We don’t know the answer to that question, but it’s pretty safe to say that almost no one on offense is better this year than last year.

 

[sb1]

He also called two great games against the Browns and Lion.

I don’t think the offense looked that great against the Lions. Lions were 0-6 on 4th down and the offense managed only one TD from that.

 

[Rob0729]

I don’t think the offense looked that great against the Lions. Lions were 0-6 on 4th down and the offense managed only one TD from that.

I think he was just saying Mac is the issue because Patricia called great games with Zappe as a starter. Notice how he didn’t mention the Vikings game? It is a completely bogus argument, but I will give him credit for creativity in his way to blast Jones.

 

[venecol]

I think he was just saying Mac is the issue because Patricia called great games with Zappe as a starter. Notice how he didn’t mention the Vikings game? It is a completely bogus argument, but I will give him credit for creativity in his way to blast Jones.

He did mention the Vikings game. His point is that Patricia isn't the worse OC in the league.

 

[Rob0729]

He did mention the Vikings game. His point is that Patricia isn't the worse OC in the league.

If he isn’t the worst, he is definitely in the top 3 worst. I would say he is the worst. He is probably the worst OC the Patriots ever had.

I don’t know any other team where receiver route spacing is still a major issue with the team this late in the year. It is comically awful with this team.



BTW, the Pats lost both TEs in the Bengals game because of spacing issues with the receivers. Henry went out when he ran into Smith and Smith went out on this play. Patricia is such a bad OC that his play calling is injuring his players.

 

[Rob0729]

No one but Lazar and Orlovsky has ever said this before. Glad we have them around.

You do realize both Lazar and Orlovsky are praising Jones for this play? Lazar says this was Jones' best play of his season in his opinion. I guess you missed the question mark in Orlovsky's comment. He is one of the biggest Mac Jones supporters in the media.

Orlovsky thinks Jones is a good QB hindered by Patricia and the o-line and Lazar thinks he has seen enough of Jones in recent weeks that he thinks he is optimistic that Jones could become a franchise QB with a new OC.

But I agree with you. I am glad they are around because they are both debunking a lot of the anti-Mac Jones rhetoric.

I am glad that you have come around on Jones and you finally agree that Mac Jones doesn't stink.