3 Mac Jones Stats That Should Terrify Patriots Fans

Mac Jones is in his third NFL season now, so Patriots fans have a pretty good idea of the type of quarterback he is. He’s had some nice highs (making the Pro Bowl and reaching the playoffs as a rookie) and some terrible lows (pretty much all of 2022), but even through the ups and downs some unmistakable trends have emerged.

And frankly, some of those patterns are absolutely terrifying.

Many New England fans are still wondering whether Jones can be “The Guy.” Is he good enough to lead this team to the Super Bowl? Based on these stats, probably not.

Let’s take these one at a time, shall we?

3 Scary Mac Jones Stats

1. Jones is 0-13 when opponents score 24+ points

So basically, if you’re playing New England, all you need to do is score 24 points. If you do that, you’ll win. Every time.

Scoring 24 points in the NFL isn’t particularly difficult — that’s 3 touchdowns and 1 field goal. Ten teams averaged that many points per game last year — nearly one-third of the league.

This stat says a couple of things about Jones. The main one is that his ceiling as a quarterback seems to be limited. If the Patriots find themselves in a shootout, Jones simply isn’t able to keep up. He’s not good enough to win high-scoring games, whereas elite quarterbacks like Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow and Josh Allen have proven they can.

This stat also shows how reliant New England is on its defense to win games. The Patriots have been an elite defensive team during Jones’ tenure and have the most games with fewer than 24 points allowed since 2020.

If the defense falters, however, Jones doesn’t have enough juice on offense to compensate. That gives the team very little margin for error and puts a ton of pressure on the defense, which isn’t a great recipe for success in the offense-friendly modern NFL.

New England is 0-2 this year, and in both of its losses the team allowed at least 24 points. Jones had chances to win both games at the end, but couldn’t do it either time.

The Patriots’ defense has been propping Jones up and gives the team a high floor, but he hasn’t been able to take it to the next level.

2. Jones is 3-12 against playoff teams

If you want to be the best, you need to beat the best. Jones hasn’t done that, at least not consistently.

After losing the first two games of 2023, Jones’ career record through 33 regular-season starts is now 16-17. Not great, but not terrible. When you break it down, however, it becomes clear that Jones is beating up on bad teams but falling short against good ones.

Jones 13-5 against non-playoff teams, which is pretty good! The Patriots are supposed to win those games, and they’ve mostly been taking care of business.

Playoff teams have given Jones major trouble, however, as he’s just 3-12 against them. That’s a .200 winning percentage, folks, which is definitely not great.

If you want to be a playoff team, you generally need to beat other playoff teams about half the time. Jones hasn’t done that, consistently falling short against formidable competition.

Elite quarterbacks find ways to beat other elite quarterbacks and elite opponents. Jones hasn’t been doing that which, again, plays into New England’s 0-2 start. Both losses came against teams that made the postseason last year.

If Jones can’t beat these teams in the regular season, how the heck is he going to beat them in the playoffs?

3. Jones is 0-12 in comeback games

As a Patriots fan, this one is the most alarming.

During the Tom Brady era, you knew the team was pretty much always going to win. The only question was how. And if the team was behind in the fourth quarter, more often than not Brady would find ways to bring them back and win the game.

With Jones, it’s the opposite. When the Pats are behind in the fourth quarter, I expect them to lose. They’re good enough to make it close at the end, but not good enough to actually win. And that’s because of Jones.

If New England is trailing by a touchdown in the fourth quarter, you can turn the TV off and start doing something else, because the Patriots aren’t coming back to win that game. They never have under Jones. Not once.

Granted, losing by a touchdown in the fourth isn’t an easy situation to be in, but it’s not insurmountable. Unless you’re Jones, apparently.

Again, we’ve seen this exact scenario play out twice already this year. In Week 1, New England was down 25-20 to the Philadelphia Eagles in the fourth quarter and turned the ball over on downs during its final drive. The same thing happened in Week 2’s 24-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins when Jones inexplicably threw short of the sticks on fourth down.

While Jones was let down by his receivers stepping out of bounds in Week 1, the Week 2 loss was on him. When you need a first down to keep the game alive, you have to put your teammates in a position to get it. Throwing them the ball at the line of scrimmage and asking them to pick up the yards themselves is not a winning strategy.

So is Jones “The Guy?” It sure doesn’t seem like it. And if he doesn’t start improving on these trends soon, the Patriots will have their answer.

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