Welcome to Season 12, Episode 5 of the Unconventional Preview, a serious yet lighthearted, nostalgia-tinted look at the Patriots’ weekly matchup . . .
Mac Jones will play the 36th regular-season game of his NFL career Sunday when the Patriots host the Saints. He’s never played a more important one.
It would be unfair and wrong to blame the third-year quarterback entirely for last Sunday’s embarrassing 38-3 loss to the Cowboys, which dropped the Patriots to 1-3 and convinced a significant portion of the remaining optimists that none of this is about to get fixed any time soon.