Mac Jones engineered the touchdown drive of his Patriots career, and the signature victory he’s been lacking – The Boston Globe

30 comments

  1. From [Globe.com](https://Globe.com):

    By Tara Sullivan

    FOXBOROUGH — In the last 12 seconds of football that were played Sunday afternoon at Gillette Stadium, the Buffalo Bills were able to get off two final plays.

    Mac Jones couldn’t watch either one.

    Sitting instead on the home bench, eyes down and staring at the turf, Jones waited out the excruciating seconds, lifting his head only briefly for a quick squirt from his water bottle or a quicker glance at the giant end zone scoreboard to his left. Having just engineered the touchdown drive of his Patriot life, an eight-play, 75-yard masterpiece that delivered the Patriots a 29-25 lead in the waning seconds, Jones couldn’t watch the live action.

    But when the last tick of the clock expired and the Bills limped harmlessly toward home, Jones erupted out of that seat, hopping and sprinting his way back onto the field, falling into the waiting arms, hugs, high-fives and head slaps of teammates so eager to congratulate him. For this one game, during this one crisp, fall afternoon, against these heavily-favored and once-mighty Bills, Jones was everything the Patriots could have wanted in a quarterback, his calm in the middle of a fourth-quarter storm delivering the signature win of his three years in New England.

    “He just did a great job in crunch time,” said tight end Mike Gesicki, the recipient of Jones’s 1-yard, game-winning touchdown throw. “In the biggest moments of the game when our best was needed he delivered.”

    This was officially the second game-winning, comeback drive of Jones’s career, but this one is both more impressive and more important than a rookie year win over an overmatched Texans team he was able to beat with the last of four field goal drives. Without another comeback since that Week 5 win in 2021, despite many opportunities, Jones has been much maligned and often doubted. But just as he repeatedly promised he could, and would, Jones tuned out the noise, and turned in a gem.

    It’s the final drive that will deservedly be remembered most, but the entire fourth quarter was a testament to Jones’s resilience, poise, patience, and decision-making. Handed the ball with 1:58 to go, his team down by 3 after Kendrick Bourne’s fumble set up the Bills for their second TD drive of the quarter, one that saw them take their first lead of the game at 25-22, Mac and the offense went to work. Using the two-minute, no-huddle offense center David Andrews said had been featured and repeated all week at practice, behind a similarly embattled offensive line that finally gave him a clean pocket, alongside a running game that carved out much needed chunk plays, Jones lit it up.

    When a field goal would have been enough for overtime, Jones went big.

  2. I know I haven’t heard the last of people saying Mac isn’t it, but for this week can you all just kindly shut the fuck up and let us enjoy this one? He did exactly everything we needed him to do.

  3. As much as I have been a critic of our O Line Vows, the entire team showed up to play yesterday and really showed how good this team can be when EVERY player/coach is on the same page and timing just perfectly to allow your QB to rally down the field.

    With that being said Parker and JuJu are not our WR threats it’s Douglas and Bourne, I haven’t been this excited to watch a WR since Edelman. Feed Douglas PLEASE!!

  4. He played extremely well. Allen also played like shit. Perfect storm to get back on track.

    On a side note, if DD didn’t prove today that he deserves the snaps over shit-scheuster I immediately call for the termination of Bill’s contract.

  7. Great team win and awesome job by Mac to get his game winning drive in the last couple minutes. This season hasn’t been great overall but I did feel like we were closing the gap on the Bills last year. Doing this without Judon, Uche, White and Gonzalez makes it even more impressive

  8. That felt like a classic dynasty era Pats game. I missed us winning games like that tbh.

  10. Maybe these last three weeks were this team’s “on to Cincinnati” moment.

    By no means is this a Super Bowl winning team, but a fringe playoff contender at the very least.

    There is a path to 7-6 headed into the Chiefs game if and only if the same team as yesterday keeps showing up.

    At the end of the day, Mac needed that game yesterday.

    I have mellowed out over the years as a fan, but yesterday was the loudest I have gotten after a win since JW completed the comeback in the Super Bowl.

  14. He was laughing and smiling before he threw the ball to hunter Henry on 3rd and 8 he looked relaxed And like he was having fun. Hope we get to see more going forward

  15. I wouldn’t say it’s a signature victory yet. We’re still 2-5, great to win that one but it’s still a long season.

  17. Guy finally has ONE decent GWD in nearly 3 years and now we’re supposed to forgive and forget? No. I want him and BB gone. This was a one-off game against a very weak Bills team. I’ve seen enough of Mac.

  18. I mean, let’s not lose our heads too much. Great drive and good game but I didn’t think Mac played particularly well as a whole. Considering that’s a Bills team missing some of its biggest pieces of defense, our offense is not out of the woods yet. Fun to watch but it doesn’t change much.

  22. Speaking of the Globe, wtf was up with [this](https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/10/21/opinion/renee-graham-bill-bellichick-patriots-losers/?event=event12) absolutely pointless opinion piece in Sunday’s paper? Like yeah, this season is ripe for criticism, but why get someone who begins by admitting they haven’t watched a single football game outside of one Super Bowl halftime show in six years to write anything about the team? The whole article was basically just “I’m happing the Patriots are doing bad because Kaepernick and…ummm…I’m just tired of hearing people in Boston talk about the Pats.”

    I know the opinion page is supposed to have a diversity of opinion and there’s no shortage of takes on the Pats this season, but how did this make it to print???

  23. And it was a team effort, not just Mac, just like past failed drives weren’t all Mac. Guys finally made plays, didn’t fumble, drop the ball, miss blocks, etc.

  26. We saw who Mac Jones can be with a clean pocket and average weapons. He’s surgical, clutch, and accurate. It’s why Orlovsky has been screaming for his defence all year. So have I, but I’ll admit I stopped being a believer after the Dallas game. He’s reeled me back in now.

    Please get this guy a WR1 next year, and a consistent pocket. At least a league average one and he’ll eat. He’s a smart kid with an accurate arm. More than half his incompletions this week were simple throws or the ball slipped. Easy to fix. He made all the difficult ones.

    Let’s not forget he did this against the BILLS. A solid defense with championship aspirations. They won’t take us easy either, divisional foe and all.

  28. How Mac Jones engineered a game winning drive? You mean his lateral floater to Rham who took it to FG range in one play?

  29. It’s true. Under two min, 75 yards the game on the line. It has been a long way coming and I hope that we get more. But in if self this was brilliant

  30. yall were saying trade mac a couple weeks ago. Now he does good you hopping on the wagon? Ive been saying mac is good just needs the oline to play better and welp looks like that happend

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