Eagles Pro Bowl CB offers encouraging review of Mac Jones

FOXBOROUGH — After a season opening loss to the Eagles, Mac Jones excoriated his own performance.

The Patriots quarterback went 35-of-54 for 316 yards, throwing three touchdown passes and an interception in a 25-20 defeat. Three different times in his postgame press conference, Jones said he let his teammates down and that the loss was on him.

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Jones’ opponents didn’t see things that way. On his Big Play Slay podcast, Philadelphia’s five-time Pro Bowl cornerback Darius Slay went out of his way to laud the Patriots quarterback’s performance.

“I gotta give a shoutout to Mac Jones. He had a great game. We stopped him early, we got (two) turnovers,” Slay said. “But he got his groove going. He was making great checks, making accurate throws. He missed some throws, but he was just making great plays. He made great plays on fourth down. We’ve for sure gotta play better.”

For the Patriots, the most encouraging part of that review is probably Jones “making great checks.” It shows that opponents believe he’s in command of Bill O’Brien’s offense at the line of scrimmage and is putting defenders in tough spots with audibles. Jones is a cerebral quarterback, and clearly O’Brien is giving him the leeway to utilize his brain.