Did the Patriots' Passing Game Finally Turn a Corner?

The Patriots may have lost to the Vikings on Thanksgiving night, but there were some silver linings that they could take away from the game. Mac Jones, who has struggled all season, completed over 70% of his passes for 382 yards and 2 touchdowns. It was by far his best performance of 2022. More noticeable was that the downfield passing game was finally a big part of the offense.

Entering Week 12, Jones had been abysmal on intermediate-to-downfield passes, completing less than 50% of throws traveling 10-or-more yards from the line of scrimmage with just 1 touchdown and 7 interceptions (a 52.6 QB Rating). Against the Vikings, however, he completed 9 of 13 such passes for 220 yards and 2 touchdowns (a 151.4 QB Rating).

Was this performance just an anomaly? The result of a bad Vikings pass defense? Or was it a sign that the passing game is about to take off? We’ll obviously know the answer a few weeks from now. All I can tell you is that Jones looked poised, comfortable, and decisive in a way that he hasn’t been this season while delivering downfield throws. It started on New England’s first play of the game:

That would have been a heck of a throw under normal circumstances. But this completion came after Jones fumbled the snap initially. He still had the poise to pick up the ball, continue on with the play, turn his head down the middle of the field to read the safeties, and then deliver a perfect throw. That may have been a good indicator that Jones was feeling comfortable out of the gate.

His touchdown pass later in the drive was confirmation that Jones was seeing the field well. On this play, the Patriots attacked Minnesota’s 2-safety shell with 3 vertical routes:

The Vikings were playing cover-2 to the front side and man-coverage to the boundary:

With the two verticals attacking the cover-2 safety to the front side and putting him into conflict, Jones knew he would have an opportunity down the seam if he could just hold that backside safety. And that’s exactly what he did:

With that safety following Jones’ eyes to the right side, the middle of the field was open. Jones planted his back foot, immediately turned and delivered a strike down the seam to Nelson Agholor for the touchdown: