Yup. I was hard on Mac this year but he was very good last night. The issue, as many continue to point out, is now with the rest of the team and not him. The OL is truly pathetic. The WRs are decent but a mediocre group. Patricia's coaching is just not good enough. Red zone offense continues to just be terrible.
He threw an absolutely perfect bomb to Parker, too, and that throw on 4th and long was pretty darned good. Aghlor woulda had it without the hold. Or he would have dropped it, I suppose.
This is part of why having poor pass protection such a problem. Mac needs the protection to be able to throw passes like these.
That's an interesting point, and how much of that is on Mac vs on the team more generally is an open question.
As noted above I thought he played well and it was a vast improvement from earlier games this season.
His tackle whiffed on a block of an edge rusher. Most QBs take that sack.
Right. I don’t think it helps that we had 20 years of Brady who stepped up at the end of games. The same way Allen got the Bills in FG range at the end of their game earlier yesterday. Or how Mahomes always does.
I think this is unfair. Either Mac had a chance or he didn't on that play, regardless of any patterns.
That is clear. It's not clear that he ever will be that good, and at this point the safer bet is that he never will.
When everything goes right, he's able to get the ball downfield. At the same time he doesn't have the arm to make the types of high percentage shorter throws that were a Brady staple. And his mechanics are bad so his arm plays down especially under pressure. I agree, the OL and pass protection needs to be an offseason focus. But he has cut down significantly on the unforced errors.
If there’s one good piece of evidence that the Patriots offensive line has fallen apart, it is that.
The team will absolutely need to rebuild its OL next season. Wynn is likely to leave via free agency. Trent Brown has a very cuttable contract and will almost certainly be cut. Onwenu and Strange will be back and will probably remain as starters in the interior. As for Andrews, he will be 31 and is a retirement risk due to his past health and concussion issues. Strange will benefit from the typical first offseason of NFL conditioning and hopefully will make the year 1 to 2 leap that we want from first round picks.
Isn't it always the "safer bet" that a particular QB will never win a Super Bowl?
Yes. I guess what I would say though, is that Mac is further away that he appeared at the end of last season.
Come on. For the same reasons we shouldn't anoint Zappe, we should be cautious here. There is way more suck this year than good. Let's see if he can repeat his good games before saying anything more about his career prospects.
Even if he plays well, there will be the, "Yeah but Von Miller was out." gravity he will have to overcome to please some people.
I mean, sure. I'll def still have my doubts, it's going to take a string of good games and proving he can beat a good defense at some point. He needs to start checking boxes: big game with no mistakes (check), beat a good defense, come from behind, etc etc.
I literally had the same thought a handful of posts before getting to your post.
He played a lot better in this last game. Against the Colts and Jets he played at a similar level to his other performances.
I think the basic point is that making a determination that this guy is unlikely to be a high-enough quality player based on one+ seasons, or how badly he sucked in *that* game seems to be an unsound methodology. Maybe if he had shown absolutely nothing in 25 games, the evidence would count for something. But like most turned-out-good QBs in their 2nd season, he's shown some really good, some really, bad and some good and bad in between.
Sure, I agree with that. I just disagree with the assessment that he has been trending up. He had one great game. I've never seen a QB get praised so much for a 3 point performance, he wasn't good against the Jets in either game and did nothing against the Colts. This is his first above average game since coming back from injury and it wasn't just above average, it was really, really good, so yeah, I'm also excited to see he can put it together, but it's not part of a trend.
Really? I've never seen a QB crapped on so much on a day when he completed 85% of his passes, threw for nearly 250 yards, for a 9.1 y/a, with zero turnovers, in very windy conditions against a top shelf defense.
Maybe if you watch the game and actually see those completions you'll begin to understand. I really hope we go beyond box score scouting to evaluate performance here, he was asked to do very, very little in that game.
Please, I ask you politely to not be condescending to me by saying things like this.
Yeah. He can win if the defense stops any late drives, but so many quarterbacks now win at the end when they have to - and I don't think Mac is that guy yet. Or just hasn't had the right opportunity to do so.
It’s because you do Baghdad Bob style apologetics in these Mac Jones conversations that people respond this way.
