Between his social media account, and interview sessions with the media Monday, Patriots cornerback Jonathan Jones held himself accountable for not making the necessary plays to foil Rams star receivers Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua.
Jones was beat on the 69-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to Kupp at the start of the third quarter, with Stafford getting effectively negating the Patriots zero-blitz. That left Jones on an island.
The veteran defensive back didn’t making any excuses.
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Asked if he was surprised the Patriots didn’t make any adjustments to counter what the Rams were doing with Kupp and Nacua, the most notable having top corner Christian Gonzalez take one of them on man-to-man, Jones stood by the coaches.
“Looking back at the film, there were just a handful of plays that I would say we were just out-schemed,” Jones said. “Or, I don’t want to say out-schemed, it was just a good scheme versus a (defensive) call.
“So, I don’t think there’s really a lot of adjustments that could have been made to do anything different. Their coordinators did a really, really good job … they had a really good game plan.”
During the 28-22 loss to the Rams, Kupp caught six passes for 106 yards and two touchdowns, while Nacua had seven catches for 123 yards with a touchdown.
Jones said not enough credit was given to the Rams coaching staff (Sean McVay, Nick Caley) for the game plan they devised to deal with the Patriots defense.
“They do a good job of scheming and getting those guys open. They know they’re not going to line up in wide splits, and get off press, man-to-man coverage. Their coaches don’t ask them to do that. The do a good job of scheming ways for them to get open.”
