There's No Coming Back from This for Mac Jones
I'll have more on this first thing in the morning after we've all had a chance to enjoy our NFL Sunday. But consider this the reaction before the Knee Jerk Reaction because there's no waiting on this.
It's just impossible to see any way back for Mac Jones at this point. Not this season at least. No quarterback with a record of 18-23 as a starter can go from that verbal beatdown in the 3rd quarter to this throw in the 4th quarter:
... to this:
… and expect to get his job back.
This marks the third time Jones has been benched this season. I promised myself there'd be no math today but that's 30% of his starts. If there's ever been a QB with a stat like that who didn't objectively suck, I'd appreciate you naming him in the comments section because my mind is a blank.
This third one is McCorkle's Crossing the Rubicon moment. It has to be. There's simply no logical reason for any of his coaches or teammates to have confidence in him after he embarrassed himself, his team, and his country on foreign soil like this. Beginning with the play Bill O'Brien eviscerated him for:
Horrific throws in the red zone. Missing open receivers in the end zone. And being unable to throw a touchdown pass for the fourth time this season. I mean, you don't put the ball in the hands of your backup in a one-score game with 2:00 left and needing to move 86 yards if you have even one subatomic particle of faith in your starter. There's simply no other explanation than they are done with the Mac Jones experiment.
This will obviously be the talk of the bye week. And I suspect Belichick will put his Deflector Shields to maximum power for the next two weeks and not name a starter for Week 12 until he's absolutely required to by league rules. But if Jones does, by some miracle, get that start against the Giants in New York, we'll have no choice but to assume we're officially into Tanking Season.
This is not how I expected this was going to go.
