The great Bruce Lee, global action superstar and Kung Fu GOAT, once said, “if you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle. You put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. (Water) can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” Lee believed that a fighter should be formless and shapeless (like, you know, water). His philosophy was that one should not be assertive toward an object, but rather adjust oneself to it and that if we could do so, that thing would reveal itself – and its weaknesses – to us. Presumably with less effort and error on our part.
In football quarterbacking terms, this might be called, “taking what the defense gives you.” Rather than trying to force a particular type of play upon a situation (we gotta stretch the field, we gotta start getting chunk yards, we gotta start being more explosive, we gotta establish the run NOW, we gotta get it to THIS GUY), a quarterback should simply assess the defense, make the necessary adjustments at the line of scrimmage, try to exploit any mismatches that he sees or can create, protect the football at all costs and – above all – be patient. Call it the Zen of Quarterbacking. The Patriots once had another GOAT under center who was an an absolute master at all of the above, to the tune of seven Super Bowls. He would spend three quarters of the game throwing the ball away, if he had to. He told his receivers exactly where he wanted them to be and he threw to whomever was open. Simple? Maybe. Easy? Not on your life. If it was, every quarterback would do it.
Mac Jones actually did all of this quite well in his rookie season. He was reportedly not allowed to do it last year. This year it feels like, although the Patriots offense is an order of magnitude more organized and effective than last season, there is still something missing offensively. Some will say, and have been saying for some time now, that they are missing a true WR1. A Tee Higgins, Ja’Marr Chase, Cooper Kupp, etc., to help Mac take the offense to the next level. This is a suggestion that Bill Belichick has resolutely refused to consider. Or rather, he has refused to pay for it, which amounts to the same thing.
Some say the problem is the quarterback. They feel that Mac, with his lack of a strapping, American Gladiators frame the likes of Josh Allen, Justin Herbert, or Lamar Jackson, is doomed forever to be nothing more than a noodle-armed pretender. “He’s a Chad Pennington type,” those guys say here in New England, with a ceiling of – if he’s lucky and works really really hard – Kirk Cousins. Not everyone says this in a mean or unsupportive way, but it’s clear that they feel he lacks the “elite athleticism necessary to succeed in today’s NFL.” The fact that there is absolutely no statistical evidence to support “athleticism” (nor even height or throwing velocity, for that matter) factoring into an NFL quarterback’s success does not seem to matter to anyone. (Statistically speaking, height is actually inversely correlated with a quarterback’s success; this will most likely change now that teams insist on only drafting guys that are built like tight ends).
Well, if Mac is mid, then so is NFC Champion Jalen Hurts and current MVP front runner Tua Tagovailoa. Jones thoroughly outplayed Hurts in the Patriots first game against the Eagles, and he and Tua put up nearly identical stats on Sunday night: Tua went 21/30 for 249 yards 1 TD 1 INT. Mac was 31/42 with 231 yards also with 1TD and 1 INT. And Mac did it with no WR1. Tua put up monster stats against the Chargers, because the LA defense could not contain Tyreek Hill. Belichick not only took away Tyreek, he also eliminated Waddle from the equation, leaving Tua to spend the evening throwing mostly to Braxton Berrios. The Dolphins were actually lucky that the Patriots are still in shoot-yourself-in-the-foot mode: the two errors the Patriots made (a fumble and an interception) were right at the goal line, and cost them fourteen points. They only lost by seven.
But we believe that the issue is simply this: the Patriots are still trying to get their rookies’ sea legs under them, while simultaneously helping Mac play through what must be a certain level of PTSD. Having an OC that doesn’t even trust you to audible out of his ineffective, never-had-a-chance play calls in which the receivers are running into each other, then leaving you to deal with the media fallout and the boos and the blame has got to take a toll, even on the most psychologically resilient athlete. Mac is playing better than last year so far, but he looks like he is still trying to figure out when to trust his OC and when to trust himself. Getting pancaked over and over and over again will eventually erode even the most confident quarterback’s ability to trust any line that is put in front of him. When that happens, he will no longer be able to keep his eyes downfield.
Mac, Belichick, the rookies, and all the Patriots can get themselves over the hump by reminding themselves of Bruce Lee’s immortal advice: “Be water, my friend.”
[The photo of Bruce Lee is in the public domain, courtesy of National General Pictures].