ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — As Mac Jones mulled the loss that torpedoed his rookie season, the 23-year-old offered one of his most insightful answers of the year.
“I think you get more comfortable with anything you do. Anything you do in life. I always relate it back to being a pilot,” Jones said after a 47-17 loss in Buffalo. “Like, if you’re a pilot and you’ve only flown so many times, by the time you have hundreds of flight hours, it’s just an everyday thing for you.”
Jones’ aviation skills are indeed improving. The problem for the Patriots is that Josh Allen is whizzing through the skies like Maverick from Top Gun and shows no signs of crash landing anytime soon.
Jones’ first season was certainly a success. He beat a former MVP in Cam Newton for the starting gig in training camp, suited up for every single game, and almost always gave his veteran team a chance; that’s all that can be asked of a rookie.
But Jones will be in a dog fight with Allen for a long, long time — the 25-year-old Bills quarterback is signed through 2028 — and the Patriots have no answer for him. They can’t count on biblical, once-in-a-decade windstorms to slow him down.
Throw that one out the window for a second. In Allen’s last three games against the Patriots without goalpost shaking winds, he’s gone over 300 yards and tossed 12 touchdown passes and no interceptions. That’s throwback Tom Brady vs. the Bills dominance.
On Saturday night, Allen got the ball seven times. The Bills scored seven touchdowns. For the second time in a month, Buffalo didn’t need to have Matt Haack activated; the punter didn’t see the field.
All week the Patriots talked about how paramount it was to keep Allen contained in the pocket. That lasted a whole 2:08. On the first drive of the game, Allen bolted around Matthew Judon for a 26-yard scramble. The Patriots know what they want to do against Allen. Right now he’s just too good for them to execute the plan.
“We didn’t get a stop,” Devin McCourty said. “So damn near everything they did offensively was a good play for them, and you’ve got no shot to win a game like that.”
Having seen him three times in six weeks, Belichick is very familiar with Allen. New England’s defense still allowed 47 points — most of any game in the Belichick era — and after the loss, the coach twice lamented that his team “couldn’t keep up” with Buffalo.
So what now?
While plenty of attention will be paid to Jones and his development, the defense needs to continue the facelift that started last March. To hang with Allen and the Bills, the Patriots clearly need to get faster. In the NFL Draft they’re going to have to target an athletic young linebacker — think 22-year-old Jamie Collins instead of 32-year-old Jamie Collins — and the secondary certainly needs a turbo shot, too.
After the loss, New England’s eldest statesman, Matthew Slater, was the final player to speak to the media. The longtime captain’s final question was about what lies ahead for Jones.
“I think the future is bright for this organization with that young man,” Slater said. “He’s the type of man that you hope to build around. I know that my kids and I will be watching him for a long time to come. I’m excited about where this organization is going to be in the future with him... Patriots nation, they should be excited about having No. 10 as their quarterback.”
The future may be bright for Jones and the offense, but that won’t matter unless the Patriots can figure out a way to ground Buffalo’s high-flying No. 17.
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