New England quarterback Mac Jones was 3 years old the previous time the Patriots had an 0-2 record. But the former Alabama All-American has his focus on the immediate future – Sunday’s game against the New York Jets.

“Definitely just moving on to the next game, the most important game, against a really good defense, for us,” Jones said this week. “They have a lot of talented players who have played a lot of football in this league. They present challenges – physical, mental, and all that stuff, so really just focused on that and doing my job.”

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Instead of playing to keep their season from slipping away on Sunday, New England might have been seeking a 3-0 record with a few more plays in the right places by Jones and the Patriots’ offense.

In New England’s 25-20 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles on Sept. 10 and 24-17 loss to the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 17, the Patriots’ final possession ended on downs. Against Philadelphia, New England got stopped on downs three times in the fourth quarter. Against Miami, the Patriots scored two fourth-quarter touchdowns, but Jones preceded that by throwing an interception from the Dolphins 22-yard line.

“For us, I think it’s about finishing drives,” New England offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien said. “We move the ball at times – I’m not saying we move the ball all the time, but we move the ball at times. We’re inconsistent. We got to coach it better and try to get more consistent and finish drives. We get in there and drive the ball 30, 40 yards and then we stall, so we have to do a better job of stringing plays together to be able to finish drives.”

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On snaps within 30 yards of the opponents’ goal line this season, Jones has completed 10-of-14 passes for 92 yards with four touchdowns and one interception – a 98.81 passing-efficiency rating. But Jones also has been sacked twice in that situation, and two of the incompletions came on fourth down.

“I think there’s been just inconsistency in all of our performances on game day,” O’Brien said. “I think there’s been glimpses of what the offense can be, and we have to be more consistent. There’s no excuse in the world that really matters to anybody out there. Nobody wants to win more than we do in this building, and I think it’s just coming down to consistency, and, like I said before, finishing drives. We move the ball. We get the ball inside the 20-yard line. I think we’ve gotten the ball inside maybe the 30-yard line six times and have come away with no points. We can’t do that anymore. We have to come away with points.

“I don’t know if you can point to one thing. It’s just more about, hey, we have to be more consistent in what we’re doing. The name of the game is points, and when you don’t score more points than the other team, it’s not good, so we have to come away with points when we get in those areas of the field.”

New England coach Bill Belichick supports that sentiment.

“I’d like to score as many points as possible, yeah,” Belichick said when asked about the Patriots’ offense. “More than the other team. I mean, what do you want to do? Run the ball 50 times? Is that a goal? All right, well if you win, that’s great. If you don’t, then, you know. We’ve won games throwing three passes, and we’ve won games throwing 50 passes. So you do what you need to do to win.”

The Jets aren’t buying the struggling-offense storyline.

“They play a very patient style of football,” New York coach Robert Saleh said. “You look from an offensive standpoint, everyone is trying to talk about their demise, but they’ve played two of the better defenses in football and they had 82 plays against Philadelphia and 75 against Miami, so they’re possessing the ball, moving the ball. Albeit it may not look explosive, but they’re moving the football.”

The Jets have been good for what ails the Patriots in the past. New England has a 14-game winning streak against New York since the Jets scored a 26-20 victory on Dec. 27, 2015.

“I don’t think any of those games in the past matter,” Belichick said. “We’re worried about this week’s game.”

New England’s previous 0-2 team turned things around to cap the 2001 season with a Super Bowl victory. But the most recent Patriots squad to start 0-3 finished 5-11 in 2000.

“Obviously, there’s a greater urgency, but that needs to happen every week,” Jones said. “That’s the challenge, is just trying to do it every week, and like I said, just play the play for what it is. Do your job — line up, assignment. For me, what’s my read, who am I supposed to throw the ball to and keep it simple.”

The Patriots and the Jets square off at noon CDT Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

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