AFC Notes: Mac Jones, Dolphins, Patriots

Dolphins

• Dolphins QB Tua Tagovailoa on the interception he threw before halftime that resulted in a touchdown: “Things happen, obviously poor decision on my part …You’re gonna make mistakes, it’s really about how you come back from it.” (Marcel Louis-Jacques)
• Tagovailoa remained critical of his interception despite the win: “I know how to move forward from interceptions now. The second interception was poor ball placement. You can be asked for trouble with that kind of a poor ball.” (Joe Schad)
• Tua on  new WR Chase Claypool: “The media has a way of portraying certain guys. This is an opportunity for our locker room to see who Chase is and for him to show us who is is.” (Louis-Jacques)

Patriots

Patriots OC Bill O’Brien said he’s beginning to see glimpses of what the team can be offensively.

“There are glimpses of what we can be. We have to see more of that,” O’Brien said, via ESPN’s Mike Reiss. “Coaching is about teaching, motivating and problem solving. We have to solve problems right now. The clock is ticking, we realize that. We think there are things we can do to improve.”

Patriots QB Mac Jones said he loves playing in O’Brien’s system and said that the quarterback position fully dictates how the offense will perform.

“It puts everything on your plate, and that’s the exciting part,” Jones said. “When you use it to your advantage, it can really help you, and when you don’t, it hurts you. So I have to make sure that I do a better job. [O’Brien’s] doing all the right things, and as the quarterback, I’m going to continue to grow with him. At this point, we haven’t put up as many points as we’d like, but we have plenty of opportunities to do that.”

O’Brien feels as if what they’re trying to build is moving in the right direction but also understands that the results need to show up more often in the box score.

“We can do a lot of things to help Mac’s decision-making. He can do things to help himself, I’m sure he’d be the first to tell you that,” O’Brien said. “None of us feel good about where we’re at. We came into the season really believing what we’re doing. We still have a strong belief in what we’re doing. We feel like there are things we’re doing well, even though that might not look like it on the outside, and we have to build on those and make those happen more often. We have to see the results soon. We understand that.”

Mac Jones

Patriots HC Bill Belichick believes QB Mac Jones has the mental toughness to rebound from poor performance so far this season.

“Anybody who plays or coaches in this league has not-so-good performances somewhere along the line,” Belichick said, via Boston.com. “So, part of the job, part of the situation, every week’s a new week. Mac’s pretty mentally tough. So is everybody else around here. I mean, you have to be in this league. If it just goes from bad to worse, then you’re not going to be around very long. We all get knocked down, got to get up and go back in the ring.”