Tenured Patriots defender owns up to poor performance in Week 11 loss

Heading into their Week 11 matchup with the Rams, the Patriots' defense was expected to have a much easier day due to the long list of injuries to their opponent's offensive line. That would inevitably create a lot of opportunities for their defensive line, hoping to slow down quarterback Matthew Stafford and (hopefully) impact his precision to some of the best receivers in the league.

That was not what happened, however, as Puka Nacua and Cooper Kupp accounted for 229 of the 295 total passing yards for the Rams, much to the delight of Stafford barely being hurried or touched by a single defender.

Much of their production came on the back of cornerbacks not named Christian Gonzalez, who was not shadowing either top receiver like he has been in every other game this year. Instead, Nacua and Kupp were covered by either Jonathan Jones, Marcus Jones, or Marco Wilson, all of whom were beaten badly all game long.

Jonathan Jones's weak game stood out the most, as the tenured veteran has been a mainstay in the Patriots' defense since he joined the team as an undrafted free agent in 2016. As the number two cornerback playing alongside Gonzalez, his poor performance made it too easy for the Rams to move down the field, prompting Jones to admit his faults on social media after the loss.

Jonathan Jones doesn't hide from scrutiny over poor performance against the Rams

Likely knowing what was coming from analysts and fans regarding his performance, Jones took to Twitter/X a few hours after the Patriots' loss to take ownership of his weak day and promise to continue working to improve for the rest of the season.

As a voice of the locker room and an unofficial captain of the team, it's crucial that Jones leads by example, and this is one way to do that. On top of that, it's impressive to see a player acknowledge his short-comings in a game overall, but especially in a loss that could have been avoided like this week to the Rams.

If Jones had successfully tackled Kupp late in the second quarter, he wouldn't have run a 69-yard touchdown to put LA up 14-7 right before halftime. It was a big whiff by the experienced cornerback, but hopefully, we won't see a repeat of this performance during the remainder of the season.

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