In his first game working with offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien, New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones completed 35-of-54 passes for 316 yards with three touchdowns and one interception. The former Alabama All-American reached career single-game highs for completions and passes, matched his best with his fourth three-touchdown game and recorded his fifth 300-yard performance.

But three of his incompletions came on fourth down in the fourth quarter in the Philadelphia Eagles’ end of the field as New England opened the 2023 NFL season with a 25-20 loss on Sunday.

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“Not good by me,” Jones said. “They gave me the ball twice to win the game, and I couldn’t do it. I just got to go back and watch and see what I can do better. But as a quarterback, that hurts, right? You get a chance to win the game twice and can’t do it. You just got to learn from it. You only get so many opportunities in the NFL to do that, and I felt like I definitely let the team down. …

“When it’s the hardest, that’s when you need to play your best. I definitely can do it. I know I can do it. I’ve done it before. Just have to be better, and definitely came back and had a chance to win the game a few times. Just felt like I let the defense down, and I’ll have to live with that.”

New England trailed by 16 points before the end of the first quarter, with Jones’ former Crimson Tide teammates Jalen Hurts and DeVonta Smith hooking up on a touchdown pass and Philadelphia cornerback Darius Slay returning an interception 70 yards for a touchdown.

But the Patriots had reduced the deficit to 22-14 when Jones’ pass on fourth-and-3 at the Philadelphia 17-yard line was incomplete with 9:32 play.

“I think they kept fighting just play-by-play,” Jones said of the rally. “Don’t look at the scoreboard, and coach (Bill) Belichick did a great job explaining that to us. Just play each play for what it is.

“Definitely had too many bad plays versus good plays for me. Just have to watch it and see what I can do better. But everybody around me played a great game, and just have to be better.”

After the Eagles’ Jake Elliott connected from 51 yards for his fourth field goal of the game, Jones led a six-play, 75-yard touchdown drive. He completed 4-of-5 passes for 70 yards, with an 11-yard touchdown toss to wide receiver Kendrick Bourne cutting Philadelphia’s lead to five points with 3:37 to play.

New England pulled within a field goal on Jones’ 2-point conversion run. But the score was nullified by an offensive-holding penalty against right tackle Calvin Anderson, and the subsequent pass for 2 went incomplete.

The Patriots regained possession nine seconds later when Hurts fumbled, and former Enterprise High School and Troy standout Marcus Jones recovered for New England on the Eagles 41.

But New England couldn’t get a first down.

With 1:57 left, the Patriots regained possession when Hurts’ pass on fourth-and-2 at the New England 44 was incomplete.

Jones completed a fourth-and-11 pass to wide receiver Kayshon Boutte, who was pushed out of bounds by Josh Jobe, another former Alabama teammate of Jones, at the Philadelphia 8-yard line with 25 seconds to play. But video review revealed Jobe got Boutte out of bounds before he got both feet down, and the game was over.

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Playing without three of its projected offensive-line starters against the defense that led the NFL in sacks last season, New England yielded only two sacks – but both came in the final three minutes of the game.

“Mac Jones, I thought, did a really nice job,” Philadelphia coach Nick Sirianni said. “And Bill O’Brien, so much respect for coach O’Brien. Man, I’ve seen him call plays for a long time being in (the AFC South), and I just think he’s an outstanding play caller and he did a good job of getting the ball out of Mac’s hands and Mac did a good job of seeing it.

“But where I was really excited was — you know, there was a couple times there, I’m like, ‘We’ve got to get to this quarterback at some point,’ and two of the biggest moments in the game, we did.”

Jones gets another matchup with a former Alabama teammate when quarterback Tua Tagovailoa and the Miami Dolphins come to Foxborough for the Week 2 Sunday night game.

Tagovailoa threw for 466 yards and three touchdowns as the Dolphins started the season with a 36-34 victory over the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.

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The Patriots and Dolphins are scheduled to kick off at 7:20 p.m. CDT Sunday at Gillette Stadium. NBC will televise the game.

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