NFL News: Mac Jones gets real on the Patriots' offensive struggles

The New England Patriots have been slightly better than expected this season. However, it’s been Bill Belichick’s defense that has helped them stay in contention, as Mac Jones and the offense took a step back sans Josh McDaniels.

Jones showed glimpses of great play during his rookie campaign, but seemingly regressed in his sophomore year, up to the point where there was a legit debate between him and Bailey Zappe.

And while his job doesn’t seem in jeopardy right now, it’s clear that the Pats could do better offensively. Nonetheless, the Alabama product believes there are many positives and that the team has actually improved a lot over the season.

NFL News: Mac Jones Says Offensive Stats Could Be Misleading

“Obviously, there’s individual things you want to improve, fundamentals, technique,” the quarterback told Boston.com.“You can look at statistics, but a lot of times there’s some false realities there.Each week you want to access what you can do better, whether that’s your footwork, your accuracy, your placement for receivers catching and running. Those are all things that I feel like we’ve gotten better at as the year went on.”

“We’re all trying to just focus on today and get better, get better as a team,” Jones added. “Obviously as an offense, we want to score more points, no more turnovers and all that. We can control those things and if we can control it, then we need to take control of it. That’s one of the big things. There’s things that are out of your control and there’s things that you’re in control of. So just trying to focus on those things.”

The Patriots average roughly 22 points per game but have been quite erratic in their red-zone execution. So, Jones will have to prove he has what it takes to turn things around and help this team stay in contention for years to come.