After being pulled before the fourth quarter of New England’s past two games, Mac Jones started and finished under center on Sunday for the Patriots. But New England still came away with a loss to fall to 1-5 – defeated 21-17 by the Las Vegas Raiders, who used Jones’ former backup at quarterback in the second half and tackled the Patriots QB for a safety on New England’s final snap.

“I’m confident,” Jones said after the game. “I think that comes from years of experience and earning respect from people. I think I’ve done that. But once again I’m trying to win every game I play in, and I’m not doing it, so I just really want to focus on: How can I bring these guys with me, how can we clean up the little things? It takes all 11, and that’s important. And to be the leader of that 11 is a lot of stress, but that’s why I play this game. I really want to win, and I’m doing a lot of things to do that during the week, but for whatever reason, it’s just not happening on Sundays.”

As the Patriots lost 38-3 to the Dallas Cowboys on Oct. 1 and 34-0 to the New Orleans Saints on Oct. 8, Jones completed 24-of-43 passes for 260 yards with no touchdowns and four interceptions. Two of the interceptions were returned for touchdowns, and Jones also lost a fumble that was returned for a touchdown.

On Sunday, Jones completed 24-of-33 passes for 200 yards with no touchdowns and one interception. The former Alabama All-American had a 74-yard touchdown pass in the second quarter nullified by a holding penalty. The Patriots were penalized 10 times in the game.

“It just wasn’t clean enough across the board,” Jones said. “There were penalties and all sorts of things we need to clean up. It’s hard to win like that, so I’m definitely frustrated for sure.”

Trailing 19-10 with 13:03 to play after Daniel Carlson made his fourth field goal for the Raiders, New England drove 75 yards for a touchdown to pull within two points of the lead. But the 17-play series took 9:30.

The Patriots still got a final chance with the football, although not as much of one as they might have had after New England cornerback JC Jackson got a defensive pass interference penalty on a third-down incompletion to give Las Vegas a new set of downs with 2:44 remaining.

The Patriots’ final possession started at their 9-yard line with 2:23 to play. An offensive-holding penalty wiped out a first down, a deep ball went uncaught and a delay-of-game penalty put New England on its 4. Jones was sacked in the end zone from there with 1:47 left.

“We couldn’t quite make enough plays here tonight,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said. “Had our opportunities and just need to do a better job here in really just about every area. Any one of a number of things could have made a difference, so we just need to be able to coach it better, play it better, execute it a little bit better, and that’s really the story of the game. …

“Three penalties in the last two minutes. That’s not a good formula. Let’s eliminate that.”

Raiders QB Jimmy Garoppolo left at halftime because of a back injury. Brian Hoyer, who’d spent the past two seasons in the New England quarterbacks room mentoring Jones, completed 6-of-10 passes for 102 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions in the second half for the Raiders. He produced two field-goal drives after Las Vegas held a 13-3 halftime lead.

When the Patriots pulled Jones the past two games, Bailey Zappe went in at quarterback. But on Saturday, New England signed quarterback Malik Cunningham to the active roster from its practice squad, and the former Park Crossing High School standout served as Jones’ backup on Sunday, with Zappe as the designated emergency quarterback.

A dual-threat star at Louisville, Cunningham had been signed by the Patriots in May to be developed into a wide receiver, but he has retained the quarterback designation on the roster and played both positions in the preseason.

Cunningham entered the game for a first-and-10 snap at the Las Vegas 37-yard line on New England’s final touchdown drive. Cunningham was sacked on the play, and Jones returned to the field for the next snap.

The Patriots return to action against the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 22 at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

“I think we have a really good group of guys,” Jones said. “If we choose to respond the right way, it’ll be really good. If we don’t, then it’ll go the other way, so I know I’m going to be positive always. That’s my goal. Try to work hard like I’ve been doing and bring people with me. I know we’ve been saying that and the results haven’t been there, so I guess maybe look at the process and see what we need to change to get better because the results aren’t there.”

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