FOXBOROUGH – The New England Patriots defeated the Indianapolis Colts with ease on Sunday, but it wasn't all too pretty.

New England's offense looked pedestrian for much of Sunday's 26-3 win, with both of the team's touchdowns coming with major help from the special teams unit and the defense. The offense had just 203 yards and Mac Jones completed 20-of-30 passes for just 147 yards with a touchdown and was sacked four times.

When asked how he felt about the Patriots' offensive performance on Sunday, Jones instead focused on how well the defense played, giving them credit for taking advantage of a Colts team that was without their best offensive player.

“I think football is a team sport, and we got the “W” today against a good team overall,” Jones said. “Obviously, talked about, you know, a lot about last year and how we felt after the game. Felt like we came in and played as a team. Obviously, offensively, want to do even better, and we will. We've got to look at the tape to kind of figure that out.

“Defense played great. … Sacks everywhere. So we kind of knew our defense was going to control the game, given the circumstance with the other team, and that's a good defense that we went against. I think there's good players all around.”

As for his performance, Jones was happy that he didn't commit a turnover on Sunday, marking the first time in six games this season he didn't do so. But he also knew the Patriots left some opportunities on the field, especially as they had to settle for a field goal four times.

“I don't think they did anything crazy in the game that we didn't expect, but we’ve got to hit our targets a little better here,” Jones said. “But no turnovers from my part, which is an improvement. But, you know, we put the two fumbles on the ground, which we'll fix. That's one of the things we talked about was just controlling the ball and not turning the ball over. So did a good job there. Obviously, we want to score more points in the red zone. I'm not sure how we finished there, but definitely had some short fields that we want to score on, and I thought we fought hard and won the game.”

Jones not throwing a turnover though appeared to come with the fact that he didn't throw many risky passes. There were a couple of instances where Jones appeared to miss open receivers down the field. One instance was late in the third quarter when Hunter Henry was wide open down the seam and Jones threw an incomplete pass down the left sideline to Tyquan Thornton instead.

As fans at home look at Jones potentially missing receivers on replays, he said that when he sees the stills of plays on the sideline, it presents a “false reality,” saying that “it's all about where your eyes start, right, as a quarterback and what you're being told and where you're looking.”

“Sometimes you miss things that people – you don't know if you missed it or not on the field,” Jones said. “You walk off and are like,'Darn, I looked at the picture. Looked like it was there, but my eyes were starting where they were supposed to start.' Sometimes that's how it is. A lot of those sacks too, it's just on me to get the ball out to the open guy. Doesn't have to be an explosive play every time. Like I said, I thought the guys stepped up with a lot of our – some of our starters out. That was really good.

“But got to watch the film and see how it really was. It's all about timing and footwork. Does it match up to the play? Does your drop match up to the route to where your eyes are? Like I said, there's good players on the other side of the ball. There's a clock going on in your head. You've got to be ready for it. Can't sit there and hold the ball all day.”

One of the main headlines entering the season was how well the Patriots would play in their new offense, led by coaches Matt Patricia and Joe Judge. There have been a lot of shaky moments for the unit, especially with Jones under center compared to rookie Bailey Zappe, that have left a lot to be desired.

Sunday was another instance that, at least from the eye test, the offense didn't play to its full capabilities. Jones believed there were some positives with the results of the coaches' gameplan but there was more to be accomplished.

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“I think we were focused on today, and today we kind of hit some of our targets. But wanted to hit even more of our targets,” Jones said. “They've done a great job preparing us for the games. Coach [Bill] Belichick in our meetings and stuff, anything he sees, he's always providing that information for us as quarterbacks from a defensive perspective, which is great. That's continued, and that's helped me a lot.

“With Coach Patricia, obviously, we've grown together and he's done a great job. He's a great leader of men. He loves football just like, you know, all of our coaches, and he's going to give it his all every day from 6 a.m. until whatever it is, two in the morning. So I know that they're all going to give their all. And Coach Judge, same thing.”

As the Patriots enter the bye week, Jones knows what the Patriots have to get better at on offense to improve their 5-4 record.

“I think really good teams are good on first and second down. Third down, they're in a better spot and convert more,” Jones said. “You want to be above whatever percentage mark we set, and we've got to be better and extend drives that way.

“Every drive can't seem like it's so hard to get yards. We've got to be able to skip some third downs and move the ball and get explosive plays. Once again, defenses are kind of trying to take that away, playing a lot of two-high coverage and trying to stop that. So it's a respect towards our skill players and the guys we have.”

Jones and the Patriots will face the New York Jets, who they defeated in Week 8, following the bye.