Patriots quarterback Mac Jones is benched for the second week in a row

It has been a rough week for Mac Jones and the Patriots, and some may argue the game against the Saints is much worse than what we saw last week in Dallas.

Besides the losses of Christian Gonzalez and Matthew Judon appearing to impact the defense's performance, the offense has continued to look atrocious with poor offensive line protection, bad decisions by the quarterback, and costly turnovers allowing opponents to drive up the score.

Unfortunately, Jones' performance is at the center of it all. With another pick-six, his third this season, and another interception off the hands of Ty Montgomery, Bill Belichick made the decision to bench him and put in Bailey Zappe for the second week in a row.

It's a disappointing development in what should have been an easy game to win. The Saints came into Sunday's matchup not scoring more than 20 points. They topped that easily in the first quarter, scoring three touchdowns to increase their lead to 21-0.

They've now blasted their season-high in the fourth quarter, sitting at 31-0, and it's an embarrassing effort by the Patriots on all phases of the game.

At this point, what would be best for Belichick to do with Jones?

Should they keep him benched?

Is Zappe that much better for it to make sense?

Based on what he's done when given the chance in the last two games, he's not any better than Jones. Whether it's based on his pure talent or it's all a result of the overall disjointedness of the offense, it doesn't look like the team has the answer at quarterback right now.

Some critical decisions will need to be made for the immediate future and long-term. Robert Kraft cannot be happy with what he's seeing from his team, so it will be interesting to see if he decides to make any drastic changes before the trade deadline at the end of the month.