FOXBOROUGH – New England Patriots QB Mac Jones might have faced the lowest moment of his young NFL career on Monday night.

Coming off a high ankle sprain that forced him to miss three weeks, Jones returned Monday in a matchup at home against the Chicago Bears that was viewed as a soft landing for him to get back on track for the second half of the season. It ended up being a disaster.

Jones played just three drives, going three-and-out on the first two drives before throwing an interception on a questionable decision, at best, in his final drive of the night. As Jones struggled in what ended up being a 33-14 loss for the Patriots, he heard boos and chants for Bailey Zappe to replace him.

Mac Jones didn't get mad at the fans though for their chants. Instead, he took responsibility for his poor play as he tries to work past it.

“I think obviously, like I said earlier, definitely wanted to play better. I just have to do better at my job, and that's all it comes down to. That's all I can control,” Jones said. “Honestly, we’ve got a good chance here to go against the Jets, and that's what I'm focused on. I'm going to do my best to put my best foot forward. I've been in this situation before, and just going to try to help the team.

“Whatever my role is, I'll be ready, and I'll give it 100 percent.”

After struggling in his first three games of the season, Jones didn't perform well at all on Monday. He completed just three of his six passes for 13 yards with an interception. He added 24 rushing yards on three scrambles, but the running appeared to be a sign of him being uncomfortable – either with his ability to stand in the pocket or trusting what he saw down the field.

However, Belichick said the plan was to play both Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe on Monday night. He even said that the decision to bench Jones when he did wasn't performance-based. Jones said that Belichick “had a good plan,” but wouldn't say if he was surprised about the timing of the decision to remove him from the game.

“Obviously, that's kind of internal stuff, but I understood the plan and what was going to happen,” Jones said. “Obviously, wish we got off to a better start, and I played a little bit better, but I'll have a chance to practice and get back into my routine. Something that I want to work on is getting back in my routine. I'm a very routine person, and

“I'm excited for this week. That's all you can do, right? You can't really look back in the past. Obviously, the game wasn't good by any of us, and starts with me.”

Jones wouldn't say though if Belichick's unusual decision made it difficult for him to perform well on Monday.

“Honestly, like I always say, I just try to control what I can control. That's my attitude and my effort,” Jones said. “That's something that I've done since high school. Obviously, I need to be able to play better, and we do as a team as well. So I just have to lead the team and do that.”

Jones said he felt “pretty good” following the game and didn't want to blame his injury for his performance as it was reported late last week that he was “around 85-to-90 percent.”

“I don't really do the whole percentage thing. You are either able to play or not,” Jones said. “In the NFL you don't get any credit for playing hurt or not, and there's no excuses. So I felt like I was good to go. Like I said, with time it will get better. Just got to play the game of football better.”

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Belichick wouldn't say who's starting at quarterback for the upcoming matchup against the New York Jets. Jones doesn't know if he'll start, either.

“I guess when Sunday comes, we'll know,” Mac Jones said. “I just, like I said, want to become a better player and prepare like I always prepare and put the hours in every day. My schedule doesn't change. I'm just going to continue to do that, and hopefully the results will take care of themselves.

“There's some things you can't control, and I'm just going to control, like I said, my attitude and my effort and come in early, stay late, and do my job.”

Jones and the Patriots fell to 3-4 on the season with the loss and will now face a Jets team that's surprisingly 5-2 in a matchup that could either float or sink them in their pursuit of reaching the playoffs.