Mac Jones still believes in himself, but do Patriots?

Mac Jones still believes in himself, but do Patriots?

New England will go into its bye week not with the momentum that quarterback Mac Jones had talked about building, but with a question about who will be the team’s QB when the Patriots return to action on Nov. 26 against the New York Giants.

New England lost to the Indianapolis Colts 10-6 on Sunday in Frankfurt, Germany, in another game of untimely miscues by the Patriots offense. And with the game on the line, New England pulled Jones in favor Bailey Zappe, who followed the starter’s lead by throwing a game-ending interception.

“They just told me I was out of the game,” Jones said. “I wasn’t playing very good, so I got taken out of the game before the two-minute drive at the end of the game, so that’s kind of what it was. …

“It’s hard, right? It’s a difficult situation. But at the end of the day, I really did want the team to win. I’ll always be that person. I know that we didn’t win, so it’s hard for everybody. I have to play better and not even be in that situation. It’s not ideal for anybody. No one is going to do good in that situation.”

Patriots coach Bill Belichick deflected the questions about Jones’ future as New England’s starting quarterback in similar fashion each time he was asked at his postgame press conference.

“We’ll worry about next week next week,” Belichick said to the first one. “The game just finished a half-hour ago.”

At one point during the game, Patriots offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien seemed to be ripping into Jones on the bench as they looked at video on a tablet.

“I just try to go through my reads and hit the open guy,” Jones said when asked what O’Brien was telling him. “I got to do a better job of that. It’s really hard out there in the NFL. It’s really good defense. But there was a lot of open guys out there that I could have hit.”

Trailing by four points, New England reached the Indianapolis 13-yard line with five minutes to play. But on what turned out to be Jones’ final snap, the former Alabama All-American threw the football to Indianapolis safety Julian Blackmon at the Colts 1-yard line with 4:16 remaining.

“It was a terrible throw,” Jones said of the interception. “Practiced it. Hit it in practice. Just not a good throw. I knew where to go. I just didn’t do it right.”

The Indianapolis offense had its own struggles after a touchdown on its opening possession, and New England won the yardage matchup 340-264 on Sunday. But after the turnover, the Colts were able to get one first down and cause New England to use all its timeouts before punting.

With 1:52 to play at their 14-yard line, the Patriots sent out Zappe at QB. He completed 3-of-6 passes for 25 yards before faking a spike and being intercepted by safety Rodney Thomas II with 31 seconds to play.

“I just thought it was time for a change,” Belichick said about changing quarterbacks. “… I made the decision. That’s what it was. We’ll deal with next week next week.”

Jones completed 15-of-20 passes for 170 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. Thirty of the yards came on the final play of the first half.

“To make people believe, you got to be better, so I’m not sure,” Jones said when he was asked if Belichick still had faith in him. “I don’t know.”

Belichick answered the same question by saying he had faith in all the players.

Jones had an answer when asked if he still had faith in himself.

“Yeah, I do,” Jones said. “I put a lot of work into it. I got a lot of faith in myself. There’s just things I got to get fixed. Just learn, right? Just keep learning and figure it out. ..

“I’ve played well in my career before but just not right now. It’s peaks and valleys. Kind of in a valley right now. Just got to bounce back.”

New England scored on its first possession with a 37-yard field goal by Chad Ryland. The Patriots took the field goal after Jones was sacked on a third-down snap at the Indianapolis 14.

Of New England’s five full first-half possessions, four included third-down sacks. Jones ran for 25 yards on three scrambles in the game.

The Patriots eliminated the sacks in the second half and had scoring opportunities on their three possessions before Zappe got his turn.

After an incompletion on third-and-3 at the Indianapolis 17, Ryland went wide right on a 35-yard field-goal attempt on New England’s first third-quarter possession.

The Patriots used 13 plays to move from their 6-yard line to the Colts 5-yard line. But a third-down incompletion there brought in Ryland for a 24-yard field goal that cut Indianapolis’ lead to 7-6 with 12:44 remaining.

After Indianapolis got a 51-yard field goal from Matt Gay thanks to a 42-yard kickoff return by Isaiah McKenzie, New England moved from its 25-yard line to the Colts 13 before Blackmon intercepted Jones.

“It was obviously a disappointing game,” Belichick said. “A similar theme to other games we’ve had this year – just too many missed opportunities in all three phases of the game. Just got to play better situational football and do a better job of taking advantage of the opportunities that we have. We just didn’t do a good enough job today.”

At 2-8, New England has the worst record in the AFC. The Colts even their record at 5-5.

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Mark Inabinett is a sports reporter for Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter at @AMarkG1.