FOXBOROUGH — In an evening full of frustration and disappointment for the New England Patriots, there was one pleasant surprise: rookie cornerback Marcus Jones.

The youngster made one of the more impressive plays of the game when he scored a 48-yard touchdown on a screen pass in his first NFL offensive snap in the 24-10 loss to the Buffalo Bills on Thursday night.

Jones, who recorded 15 receptions during his college career, said that the idea of him to play offense came up in the days prior to Thursday's game.

“It was one of those situations where it was a week thing,” Jones said. “So coach came and took me and asked me about different things and everything and then I mean, there isn’t too much to it after that. Just came in and tried to do it as coach said.”

Jones didn't say if a particular coach came up to him with the idea, but mentioned that it was the collective offensive staff that decided to play him on that side of the ball.

It's the second time in three games that the Patriots' rookie has found the end zone. Of course, he scored the game-winning touchdown against the New York Jets in Week 11 when he returned a punt in the final seconds to five New England 10-3 win.

With the Patriots going three-and-out on their first drive of the game, Marcus Jones sensed his touchdown gave a similar spark in the first quarter of Thursday's game.

“During that moment, yes [it gave us a spark], due to the ball movement and different things like that, how the game was going,” Jones said. “I mean we definitely didn’t get the win that we wanted to get, so that’s the main thing.”

While he ended up in the end zone on the play, Jones made it sound like he wasn't expecting his first offensive snap to go the way it did.

“It was one of those situations where you have to be ready, no matter what it is,” Jones said. “That’s a Mac [Jones] read and whatever he sees, that’s what we go with.”

It's pretty clear that the third-round rookie has fans on the Patriots' coaching staff. He has assumed full-time returner duties and still plays a fair amount of the defensive snaps. Jones said he takes pride in having the coaching staff's trust like that.

“It definitely means a lot,” Jones said. “Just coming in and making sure I’m one of those people to where I try to keep my head down and just keep working and things like that. For the coaches to trust me, that means a lot.”

Marcus Jones has excelled in all phases of the game over the last few weeks — and he doesn't plan on stopping.

“I’m definitely one of those people where I’m learning each and every day, so I’m not going to say that I know everything, because, as a rookie especially, you don’t know everything,” Jones said. “New things come in, you have to absorb and just go.”