Last season, the New England Patriots' offense took a massive step backward. After ranking 15th in yards and sixth in points during Mac Jones' rookie season, New England plummeted to 26th and 17th, respectively, in 2022. In terms of efficiency, the Pats were arguably even worse: They ranked 25th in points per drive, 24th in Football Outsiders' DVOA, and 25th in Tru Media's version of EPA (expected points added) per play.
At the center of it all was a disastrous season from Jones himself. His completion rate dropped, as did his average yards per attempt and touchdown rate. Meanwhile, his sack rate spiked, as did his rate of potentially interceptable throws, according to Tru Media.
The hope is that this season's change from Matt Patricia to Bill O'Brien at offensive coordinator will reverse that trend. But there might still be some bumps in the road along the way. Apparently, one such bump came up at a joint practice with the Green Bay Packers this week, and it resulted in Bill Belichick laying into Jones for it.
Jones, though, took the blame. "So, we scored on the two-minute drive with a field goal, and then we just wanted to try a situation again. We just kind of redid the situation, I guess. That was fun, I guess, but it was my fault," Jones said, per CLNS. "I think it was just a miscommunication between all of us. But it was fine. It was a good learning experience. It's too hard to explain in football terms to the media and stuff, but it was kind of a nuance, because we kind of repeated a situation we just did, you know what I'm saying? So that's what we need, though, so both teams can get the situation, try and practice it and then do it again to get it right."
The Pats still have a few more weeks to get things right before they take on the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 1, but they have a difficult schedule to begin the season, with games against the Dolphins, Jets, and Cowboys following that contest. If they're going to get things back on track, they will have to do so against a very high level of competition.
