Patriots: CB Jon Jones balled out in Sunday’s tough loss

Patriots defensive back Jon Jones balled out against the Denver Broncos, nearly flipping the game.

Patriots fans aren’t terribly excited about their team’s prospects right now. After all, when you’re used to a certain standard of excellence, you don’t really accept losing at home to a Broncos team that failed to score a touchdown, no matter the circumstances.

But needing everything to go right in the fourth quarter to have a shot at stealing a victory from the mealy-mouthed jaws of defeat, the Pats’ defense tightened up significantly, forcing a fumble (recovered by Denver) before picking Drew Lock off twice when it mattered most.

So, while the offense was out to lunch for most of Sunday’s game, you can thank the secondary for keeping the contest competitive — specifically Jon Jones, a generally overlooked member of this roster who was freaking fantastic in this one.

Jones, undrafted out of Auburn in 2016, has not-so-quietly established himself as a dangerous force on a unit captained by Stephon Gilmore, who was not set up to succeed in Week 6.

Gilmore, absent from the team for the better part of two weeks after a positive test, needed the rest of the secondary to stay in sync without him. Jones, for whatever reason, found himself to be the target of Denver’s game plan, which worked out very poorly for Lock and the coaching staff.

Whenever he needed to be, he was lockdown.

It was Jones who held his man in check most reliably. And it was Jones who made an acrobatic, diving interception to flip the field one more time in the waning minutes, when all Lock had to do was exhibit ball control to cinch it.

We’ve done plenty to espouse the work of JC Jackson in recent weeks, but Jones did more than enough from the No. 3-4 spot on the depth chart to earn our praise after this one.

No matter what turnover the Patriots experience in their secondary in the years to come, Jones deserves to be put on the same pedestal as Jackson as a building block.