FOXBOROUGH – Mac Jones has made a bit of a habit of showing his emotions, particularly his frustration, over the New England Patriots' last three games.

The first notable (and loudest) instance came in the Patriots' Week 13 loss to the Buffalo Bills when Jones noticeably yelled expletives about the “short” passing game failures. A week later, he dropped another expletive and appeared to wave off Matt Patricia during the Patriots' win over the Arizona Cardinals. Jones showed his frustration again as the Patriots failed to score a touchdown when they had four plays within the 2-yard line, with two touchdowns taken away either due to a timeout or penalty called, against the Raiders.

Jones was asked Wednesday if he has to be careful with how he shows his emotions and explained why he shows his frustration during certain moments.

“I think it's a big part of the game, playing with passion and emotion. I think the best players on every team do that,” Jones said. “You can't let it affect your next play, that's the biggest thing. Which it hasn't. It's all about fixing the things that pop up in a game, right? So sometimes when they're reoccurring, we just want to fix them and move on to the next play. That's something that definitely – that's who I am and that's how I've always been.

“I want to just be a great teammate however I can be and be a leader too. You want to show positivity as well. When we do things well, I try to do that. We want to do more things well and try to fix the things that we're working through. That's all you can do. It's a game. It shows that you care. I think we have guys that care on our team. I definitely care. So that's important to me.”

Jones' frustration comes during what's been an incredibly tough season for him. He's thrown more interceptions (eight) than touchdowns (seven) this season. Jones didn't particularly play well on Sunday after what had been a better stretch of play from him, completing just 13-of-31 passes for 112 yards.

The Patriots' offense as a whole has taken a step back, too. After ranking in the top 10 in many offensive stats last season, they rank in the bottom 10 in the key stats this season. The biggest is red zone efficiency, in which th Patriots rank dead last.

Jones explained that a lot of his frustration is just wanting things to improve.

“I think the biggest thing is just cleaning up the details and the nitty-gritty, right? That’s what I always call them, the nitty-gritty goals of just trying to get everything to where we’re all operating on the same page,” Jones said. “That can apply in football, that can apply in life, just cleaning up every little detail, so that when you get to game day, we have that stuff figured out. We have all that stuff planned out. We’ve done that at times, and we just want to improve that as an offense. For me as a quarterback, how can I be ready for any situation that pops up?

“I’m going to show emotion and be passionate about this game because I love this game, and I know my teammates respect that about me. The biggest thing is playing the next play and playing for each other.”

Part of Jones' frustration in recent weeks is that the Patriots haven't been able to get plays in on time, causing them to either take a delay of game or call a timeout. That happened on one of the goal-line plays in Sunday's loss to the Raiders as the Patriots took a timeout. It also happened when the Patriots called a timeout on the third play of the second half against the Cardinals.

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Some people might see Jones' actions in those situations as him showing up the new offensive coaching staff. Jones said though that he just wants to be urgent and get things figured out.

“It’s not really about that. I think it’s more, like I said, the sense of urgency for just doing everything on time and in control and that’s something we preach here, from the coaches, from the players, from the whole staff is just trying to do everything right,” Jones said. “At the end of the day, that’s what’s important is doing the right thing and getting to that point and holding everybody to that standard.

“As a quarterback, I can do a lot of things better, too. It always comes back to the quarterback, right? At the end of the day. I understand what position I’m in, and I want to just help the team win and that’s what I’ll do, and I’ll always do that and just try and compete every day and just try and win.”

Jones and the Patriots hope that they can finally turn that passion and emotion into positive results when they host the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday. With a 7-7 record, that game might ultimately decide the Patriots' playoff hopes.