The Saints had one long extended scoring drive early, and took advantage of the Jones interception to make it 14-0. It could have been worse if the New England defense hadn’t done relatively well to rise to the occasion for much of the first two quarters. After a mostly sluggish first half, it was the lone offensive bright spot of the afternoon for New England. On fourth-and-short, Hunter Henry was flagged for a false start, and the Patriots had to settle for a 45-yard field goal to make it 14-3. After a New Orleans time out, Jones connected with Meyers, who was knocked out of bounds at the Saints’ 22-yard line. That’s when Jones hit Bourne and Agholor to get the Patriots across midfield. New England’s best drive of the first half came with less than two minutes left in the second quarter. If not, the Patriots are going to lose this one. Bottom line? He’s being asked to do too much - the rookie needs some of the veterans around him to step up. Jones was on the run for much of the first two quarters, and tossed the first interception of his NFL career near the end of the first half. This was probably the two most uneven quarters of the season for the New England offense, which failed to get any sort of traction, lost sparkplug James White, and couldn’t provide enough protection for Jones.
