Bill Belichick answers questions on Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe, Jack Jones, J.C. Jackson, Bill O'Brien and more

BOSTON -- The Patriots may have been in Germany on Sunday, but Bill Belichick was on his usual schedule on Monday morning in Foxboro. He made his 7:30 a.m. appearance on WEEI's The Greg Hill Show, and he sat with the media over a video conference at 8 a.m.

With the Patriots fresh off a 10-6 loss to the Colts to drop to 2-8 on the season, there were naturally many questions for the head coach. In terms of answers ... well, Belichick being Belichick, the answers didn't always provide the level of detail that everyone might have liked.

Nevertheless, here's what stood out from Monday's sessions.

From WEEI

What happened on Mac Jones' interception?

"Yeah, we really moved on from the play and went to the next situation there. So we didn't really talk too much about the play. But it's, you know, [Mike] Gesicki's on a deep over route. Just didn't get it to him."

Was Mac Jones one red-zone interception away from losing his job? Is that why he was benched?

"No, I wouldn't say this was about one play."

There's a report that says J.C. Jackon never showed up to the team hotel last weekend. If that's accurate, is that the guy who understands what he needs to understand about being on this football team?

"Yeah, I'm not gonna comment on any personal situations. "

Do you feel like you still have control of the locker room?

"Yeah, I feel like we're working hard. We're getting better at a lot of things. We just have been in a lot of close games and we just haven't been able to finish, to make enough plays to win. We just gotta work harder at getting, you know, if we get that done, if we do that, then the results change."

Robert Kraft told fans in Germany that winning this game was critical. Did you speak to Kraft after the game, and what was his mood?

"Well, you'd have to talk to Robert about that."

But have you spoken since the loss?

"Briefly after the game, but that's ... a disappointing situation, obviously, the way the game ended."

What changes do you need to make to turn this season around, in terms of how you approach your job?

"Yeah well, we'll take a good look at that this week, and yeah, figure that out. Yeah."

From Video Conference Call

Who do you anticipate will be your No. 1 quarterback going forward?

"Yeah, we just got back from Germany here, so we'll work through everything. We'll look at everything, all the way across the board. Not specifically at any one position, just try to look at everything, do the best we can here going forward."

Is Jack Jones engaged and locked in a the desired standard?

"Yeah, I'm not gonna get into any player's personal situations."

What are you weighing in the QB evaluation? Is it evaluation for the future, trying to win as many games as possible this season?

"Yeah, well, we'll do what's best for the football team -- for now and the future. We have a game this week, we have a game next week. So."

Bill O'Brien was brought in to improve the offense, but it hasn't gotten better. Generally speaking, what are you seeing from the offense and why it hasn't made the progress that you had hoped for?

"It's what we've talked about all year really is consistency. There are good things, there are things that we can build off of. We're certainly doing a lot of things better than we did earlier in the year, but it doesn't take much to stop a drive or you know, to have a bad play. And we just have to do a better job of eliminating those errors. So that's what we're working towards."

How would you assess Bailey Zappe's performance in three relief appearances? And how is Will Grier coming along?

"Right, well, you know, Bailey has had some opportunities. I think he's prepared well every week and you know, we've called on him at the end of a couple of games, three games, I guess it was. So, you know, I think he stepped in, did the best he could. Was it perfect? No. Are there some positive things? Yes. And Will certainly is improving every week in terms of understanding and working with his teammates and running the scout team and executing the plays that he has an opportunity to. It's just, there's not a lot of opportunities for that right now in the third position, which is where he's been. But he's taken advantage of the ones that he's had."

On WEEI, you said taking Mac Jones out of the game wasn't about one play. Were you talking about just that game, or the whole season?

"Yeah no, just the way the game was going."

Will the team's record impact whether or not Matt Judon might return from IR in December?

"Yeah no, I don't think so."

How important has the veteran leadership been from Matthew Slater, David Andrews, Deatrich Wise and other veteran leaders?

"Yeah, I think all those guys have done a good job. Certainly, guys you mentioned and a lot of other guys, even some of the guys like Judon who hasn't been playing. But yeah, you can go right down the list there. Jon Jones, you can honestly keep going. [Joe] Cardona, there's a lot of them. So, look, everybody's working hard. You know, we've been close. We're just not able to -- we haven't been able to finish enough and make the plays that we need to make here in critical situations at the end of the game to win. And so everybody's committed to working hard to change that. We put ourselves in that position multiple times here, but we just haven't had the results that we're looking for, and we're gonna work hard to get those results."