In New England’s previous game, quarterback Mac Jones threw an interception with the Patriots on the Indianapolis Colts 15-yard line trailing by four points with 4:16 to play.

When New England got the football back with 1:52 remaining, Bailey Zappe came in at quarterback. The backup QB’s interception with 31 seconds left sealed the Patriots’ 10-6 loss to Indianapolis on Nov. 12 for their eighth defeat in 10 games this season.

The choice to replace Jones poses an obvious question: When New England returns to the field on Sunday against the New York Giants, will the former Alabama All-American be the Patriots’ starting quarterback?

Don’t ask New England offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien.

“For me, I basically get everybody ready to play,” O’Brien said on Monday when asked to name this week’s starting QB, “so what we try to do every week, regardless of this week, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, get Mac ready to play, get Bailey ready to play, and that’s what we do. So at the end of the day, (coach) Bill (Belichick) will make that decision at some point, and we’ll go from there.

“But I do believe that we have to continue like we do all the time – to earn it on the practice field, coaches and players. We have to practice better. We have to earn it on the practice field all the way around, and that’s what we’ll do.”

O’Brien said assistant coaches can recommend, but the head coach decides. He declined to share his recommendation, or even if he’d made one.

“I think anything that’s spoken about between myself, the quarterbacks, Bill Belichick, (team owner) Robert Kraft, whatever, stays in the organization,” O’Brien said. “I have a strong belief in that.”

O’Brien indicated neither his second-half blowup at Jones on the bench as they viewed video nor the quarterback’s benching during the last game should be interpreted as a point of no return.

“I think that was just coaching in the moment,” O’Brien said of his angry star turn on social media. “That’s kind of the way I coach. Sometimes the way to get a point across is to be very demanding and very intense about it. That’s just the way I coach. That’s who I am. That’s how I’ve always coached. Sometimes that rubs certain players the wrong way. Sometimes players want that.

“I think Mac – I don’t want to speak for Mac – but I think Mac wants to be coached. He wants to be told, ‘Hey, look this can be better.’ And I look for the same thing from the players: ‘Hey, coach, you got to explain that better’ or whatever that may be. That’s just the way I coach, and that’s coaching, in my opinion.”

O’Brien said Jones hadn’t been relegated to the scout team at practice before the Patriots took a break for their Week 11 open date.

“The other day at practice, Mac took the first-team reps,” O’Brien said. “Bailey rotated in there. Will Grier rotated in there. So we’ll see. I think what I’m saying that’s really important is – and I’ve said this and I know that people may scoff at this – one of the reasons I really enjoy coaching here is you have to earn it on the practice field. You earn it on the practice field by quality reps. Really you have to strive for perfection on the practice field. You’re not going to reach perfection on the practice field, but you’re going to strive for it and try to execute at a high level, and, hopefully, that leads to good execution in the games. Right now, we haven’t had consistent enough execution in the games, obviously, so we’ll see what happens down the road here. …

“We have to have good practices, and then we can all determine at every position who should play the most. That’s really what I feel.”

Jones has completed 212-of-324 passes for 2,031 yards with 10 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. His passing-efficiency rating of 80.2 ranks 26th among the NFL’s regular quarterbacks. But O’Brien said Jones shouldn’t be assigned all the blame for the Patriots’ plummet to the bottom of the AFC.

“I think at times, Mac’s played really well,” O’Brien said. “I think that’s what we have to remember: At times this year, Mac has played really well. I also think it’s really important to point out there’s 10 other guys on the field, and everybody’s got to play better. And there’s coaches on the sideline, we all have to coach better. That’s the truth. I don’t believe in yips or anything like that. Mac has played well. Mac will play well again. Like Bill always says, and I totally agree with this: We believe in the guys that we have on this team in every position.”

The Patriots and Giants square off at noon CST Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

“We just all have to do a better job,” Belichick said. “I don’t think it comes down to one position.”

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