TUCSON — Patriots senior football adviser Matt Patricia and offensive assistant Joe Judge have no issues with quarterback Mac Jones’s recent profane outbursts to express his frustration both on the sideline and on the field.
“You love to see that stuff,” Patricia said Tuesday morning. “You always try to make sure you direct it in a way that will help everyone in those moments get better. That’s the biggest part of it, as a coach.”
During the closing moments of the Patriots’ loss to the Bills last week, cameras caught Jones yelling, “Throw the [expletive] ball! The [expletive] quick game sucks!”
Then, during the team’s Monday night win over the Cardinals, cameras once again captured an visibly exasperated Jones, this time after the Patriots had to burn their first timeout of the second half just two plays into the third quarter. The ESPN broadcast showed Jones shaking his head while walking to the sideline before shouting, “[Expletive]!” As he walked back to the huddle following the timeout, Jones appeared to wave off the coaching staff.
With New England’s offense struggling to establish consistency, Jones hasn’t been able to hide his frustrations on the field, despite his best efforts to do so during news conferences. Later in Monday’s game, cameras also showed Jones putting his hands up and asking, “What the [expletive]?” before clapping furiously.
Patricia and Judge do not view the reactions as proof of tension between Jones and the coaching staff. Rather, they see them as a reflection of Jones’s competitiveness.
“I mean, this is a super passionate game,” Patricia said. “We love this game. We put a lot into it. We work really hard. We care. We’re trying to win. I love all that. All of it is just that you care. You really care. Mac and I — I know he wants to win and he’s doing everything he can, just like we all are. That stuff’s great.”
Added Judge, “I’ve said before, I don’t know if I would want to coach a player who is not passionate about the game. In the heat of the game, it’s really a lot of emotions. A lot of things get misconstrued sometimes, in terms of what’s going on on the sideline.
“There’s a lot of times we’re looking at each other — as any coach, any player — where it looks like you’re shouting at each other. Hey, look, it’s loud down there. You’re passionate, you’re trying to get a point across, you’re trying to communicate something. I think Mac has done a really good job leading this team.”
Patricia compared Jones with some of the fiery personalities he previously coached, naming Tedy Bruschi, Willie McGinest, Junior Seau, and Mike Vrabel as examples.
“Mac’s just one of those guys who loves the game, so I love that,” Patricia said.
As the Patriots continue to work through their offensive difficulties, which have persisted since training camp, Jones has publicly said the right things time and time again. Asked point-blank Monday night if he is frustrated with the offense, he said no.
“The biggest thing for me is not letting it affect my play and bringing the best out of my guys,” Jones said. “Today, I thought we all did a good job with trying to play the next play, play the next series, and Matty P did a great job. He’s trying to call the game so that we can win.
“Sometimes, it might be this thing that people don’t know about, like the quick passes for whatever reason, and that’s our game plan. We knew what we had to do to win, and he called a great game and stayed calm. Matty P’s a very calm person, very stoic. We’re just going to continue to grow together and do what we can to win games.”
The Patriots improved to 7-6 and kept their playoff hopes alive Monday night. But, as has been the case more often than not this season, the defense was the unit powering this team.
The offense, which still ranks near the bottom of the league in multiple key categories, has four regular-season games to prove they can string together competent performances. Fourteen weeks in, Patricia continued to preach the importance of the “process,” a buzzword that coach Bill Belichick often used over the summer.
“I think it’s a growth process every single week,” Patricia said. “Some weeks are a little bit better than others, obviously. We haven’t had the consistency that we want all the way through. I think that’s the biggest part of it. A couple of weeks ago, maybe we had some production. [Against Buffalo], not so much. And then maybe a little bit better this one.”
The longer the Patriots flounder, the more likely Jones will continue to show his frustrations — and the more criticism and negative attention Patricia will receive.
Even on the “ManningCast” broadcast Monday night, Eli Manning joked about the unimaginative nature of New England’s offensive play-calling. Patricia, however, said he pays no mind to commentary from those outside of the organization.
“I think we do a pretty good job here of training ourselves to stay in our little bubble for the most part and try to ignore as much of that as we can,” he said. “We understand what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to do everything we can to get better each week. That’s our focus. Our focus has to be inside the building, just trying to do everything we can to do a little bit better.”
Nicole Yang can be reached at nicole.yang@globe.com. Follow her on X @nicolecyang.