9 Patriots takeaways: Mac Jones looks much better, but sloppy mistakes doom New England

MINNEAPOLIS — The Patriots can be thankful that Mac Jones looks like himself again, but unforced errors elsewhere cost them a game that they could have won in Minnesota.

Jones threw for 382 yards, but special teams cost New England two touchdowns and it fell, 33-26. Here are nine takeaways from USBank Stadium:

Jones looks better

Mac Jones looked like a rookie again — and that’s good news for the Patriots. The quarterback processed quickly, aired it out and didn’t turn the ball over all night. He went 28-of-39 for 382 yards and two touchdown passes. It was undoubtedly a step in the right direction offensively, and that was thanks in large part to…

Offensive line does a better job

The Patriots were down two starters on the offensive line, but the patchwork group held up just fine. Jones was rarely hit and had plenty of time to operate in the pocket. He looked like a different quarterback, and the protection played a huge role in that.

Strong takes a costly penalty

With the game knotted at 26-26 in the fourth quarter, the Patriots had forced a Vikings punt and should have gotten the ball back. But rookie Pierre Strong ran into punter Ryan Wright (who certainly helped sell the call) and 4th-and-3 turned into 1st-and-10 for the Vikings. Minnesota cashed in for a touchdown, so it was (at least) a seven-point swing.

That stood as the game-winner.

Jefferson goes off

Belichick is notorious for taking away what opponents do best, but even he couldn’t slow down Justin Jefferson. The Vikings All-Pro wide receiver caught nine passes for 139 yards and a touchdown. He might be the NFL’s best receiver.

Special teams gets beat bad

Four days after Marcus Jones’ near walk-off punt return touchdown, the Patriots kickoff team allowed a house call of their own. Early in the third quarter, Kene Nwangwu took a Nick Folk kickoff 97 yards to pay dirt. It looked like Kyle Dugger was held at the point of attack, but no flag came out. This is the first time the Patriots have really missed Jake Bailey, as he usually handles kickoffs and is generally automatic on touchbacks in domed stadiums.

Between the kickoff return and Strong penalty, it was a costly day on special teams.

Controversial call gets overturned

It looked like Hunter Henry had scored his second touchdown of the day in the third quarter, and it was ruled that way initially, but officials overturned the call after video review. When Henry hit the ground at the goal line, the referee deemed that the ball moved, and took seven points off the board. The Patriots settled for a field goal. You can see a clip of it here.

From start to finish, it felt like the officials couldn’t get out of their own way. New England had plenty of gripes, and fans in Minnesota also chanted “ref you suck!”

Parker shows up

With Jakobi Meyers hindered by an injury — more on that in a second — the Patriots needed another receiver to step up. DeVante Parker answered the call. The veteran wide out hauled in four catches for 80 yards, his most productive day since Week 3, and caught a 40-yarder. It was a great night for him.

Meyers gets banged up

An early Jakobi Meyers injury could have hampered the Patriots passing game. The go-to wide receiver went down with a shoulder injury early in the first half that was severe enough that the training staff sent him for X-rays. Meyers returned in the second half and tried to gut it out but clearly wasn’t 100%, and his snaps were limited accordingly.

Mental mistakes leave points on board

With a two-minute drill to end the first half and two timeouts, the Patriots shot themselves in the foot with a pair of mental mistakes. Henry picked up 22 yards running up the right sideline with 0:55 remaining, but rather than simply stepping out of bounds, the tight end tried to bowl a tackler over and stayed in bounds, forcing Bill Belichick to burn a timeout.

Later in the drive, Jones was under pressure and opted to slide rather than throw the ball away, which of course kept the clock running. Belichick had to use his final timeout and kicked a football on the sideline in frustration. Nick Folk wound up having to kick a field goal on third down because the Patriots ran out of time, so the mistakes could have very well taken four points off the board.

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