Mac Jones shoulders blame, Patriots refuse to take any moral victories from Week 1 loss

FOXBORO -- The Patriots almost pulled off a comeback against the Eagles to open their 2023 season. But almost doesn't count for anything in the NFL, so the Patriots aren't going to treat Sunday's 25-20 defeat to Philadelphia as anything but a loss.

Sure, there were positives to take away from the game. The Pats shook off a terrible start by the offense and went toe-to-toe with the defending NFC champs for much of the contest. They trailed just 16-14 at halftime after falling into a 16-0 hole just 12 minutes into the game. The New England defense held the Eagles to just three field goals in the second half and gave the offense a chance to win it -- twice -- trailing 25-20 late in the game.

The Patriots never quit on Sunday, but the offense also didn't make plays when it mattered the most. It wasn't as bad as the horrid start -- when Mac Jones threw a pick-six and Ezekiel Elliott fumbled on the team's first two possessions -- but the Patriots didn't put any points on the board when they had a chance to win it.

Because of all of that, Jones took all the blame for the loss after the game.

"I let the team down tonight. Couldn't score early and fell behind because of me. I put it on myself," he said. "They gave me the ball twice to win the game and I couldn't do it. ... As a quarterback, that hurts. 

"In the most critical times I played the worst," Jones added.

While Jones was extremely difficult on himself, members of the New England defense said the loss was not on the quarterback. Football is a team sport, after all.

"As a quarterback, that's how you have to come up here and talk to y'all. We don't care about that," Matthew Judon said of Jones' comments. "Mac went out and played his butt off. We had some bad calls, bad penalties. We can't put that loss on Mac. He played his butt off and every opportunity he had he made them count."

"I love the way that we fought as a full team," added tight end Hunter Henry, who caught one of Jones' three touchdown passes on the afternoon. "We didn't start the way we wanted to start at all, but for no one to back down and to compete play after play after play. That is a great football team over there and we competed. We didn't come up with the result we wanted, but I was proud of the fight."

The Patriots outplayed the Eagles for most of the game on Sunday, but that will not reflect in New England's 0-1 record. "Almost" won't count for anything in the final standings either, so most Patriots players didn't want to hear about any "moral victories" following the loss.

"There are no moral victories," said center David Andrews. "Really, you have to execute at your best against a good football team when it counts the most. That is what it comes down to and that is how you win close football games against good teams. We have to do better at that."

The lack of execution from the offense to start and finish the game, plus the seven costly penalties throughout the contest, are what ultimately doomed the Patriots. While there are certainly some building blocks that the team can look to as they prepare for the 1-0 Miami Dolphins next Sunday, they didn't amount to a win in Week 1. 

"Losing is not fun. Never has been and never will be," said Jones. "We're not far off, just have to try to be better."