Even though we beat Pittsburgh, I think we need to talk about how bad Mac Jones has looked this season, especially today.
There's been much discussion of Mac's arm over the past year. For now, let's forget the arm. Plenty more time to talk about that.
Let's talk about Mac's inaccuracy. He missed several open, hittable (for him) throws today, just as he did in week 1 against Miami.
Let's talk about Mac's poor reads and decision-making. His one interception came on a ball where he threw deep for Parker, covered by a LB. That makes sense except Mac obviously had no idea that that LB had safety help in the form of Minkah Fitzpatrick who came down with the easy INT. On a different play, Mac, scrambling, hits a Pittsburgh defender right in the numbers, but the ball was dropped. According to the announcers and to twitter, Mac also did not see some open receivers.
Let's talk about Mac's struggles to get the team to the line and run plays cleanly. The Pats offense had several mistakes of the false start/delay of game/need to burn a time out variety. While a false start is not 100% on the QB (a different player is the guy who jumped), it is an indication that the offense - Mac's offense - is not running smoothly. Same for the delays and being foced to burn time outs.
Whatever the reason, this guy is a mistake-prone mess right now. I'll come back to the arm just to say this: not having a cannon reduces some margin for error. Mac can't afford to miss open throws he can hit, canot afford not to know where the safeties are, cannot afford to lose yards or time outs because he cannot get the team set in time.
Maybe some of this is defenses adjusting to what he did well last year? But he doesn't look like a guy who can lead an NFL team to 11 wins, a thing he actually did accomplish last year.