The first throw of Mac Jones' NFL career didn't necessarily go as planned.

On a 1st and 10 on a strong opening drive from New England, Jones took the snap under center at the Miami Dolphin's 30-yard-line and dropped back in the pocket. In what may have been his "Welcome to the NFL" moment, the rookie QB tried to squirm out of the grasp of three Dolphins who fired past the Pats' protection before Jones could ever get a good read on the defense.

Despite that pressure, Jones got the ball out of hands. The only problem was it went the wrong way.

The Patriots ended up recovering the ball in a play that could have gone a whole lot worse for the first-year quarterback.

"We were just running a play in the red zone, or high red zone and I should have just thrown it away, it was that simple," Jones said after the game. "But yeah, just throw it away and move on to the next down."

Despite his shaky first throw, Jones had a strong, steady performance in his first real NFL action of his career, completing 29 of 39 passes for 281 yards and a touchdown in front of the home fans at Gillette Stadium.

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Even with the solid play from the rookie, the Pats couldn't come out of the game with a win, losing to Miami 17–16 to start the season.

If Jones' performance over the course of the game is any indication, though, the Patriots look to be in good hands at the quarterback position.

Jones won't be confused for appointment viewing signal callers like Patrick Mahomes or Lamar Jackson, at least not yet. But he kept it simple, making the right plays and never looking too out of sorts on the field — first throw notwithstanding.

On what looked his best throw of the day, Jones dropped a perfect dime over a Miami defender to running back James White on a wheel route up the sideline for a pickup of 26 yards, a throw that seemed to cement that this man is for real.

But the highlight that showed that Jones may be made in Bill Belichick's image is when he refused to take the ball after throwing his first touchdown pass, keeping it all business on the field and becoming the unwitting center of an early contender for NFL meme of the week.

Jones even kept it strictly professional when talking about his souvenir refusal after the game.

"That doesn't really matter, it was one touchdown, we've got to score more," he said. "It's not like the game was over right there, but I mean we've got to do better in the red zone and get more touchdowns. And we will."

But all the positives of Jones aside, the Patriots couldn't capitalize off his performance.

After the game, Belichick didn't have too much to say about Jones or the game in general.

"I thought we all competed hard, we just all gotta do a better job," he said. "I mean, Mac competed hard, I thought we had a lot of guys competing hard, but we've just gotta perform better as a team."

A somber Jones said all of the right things after the game, brushing off being the center of attention. His first game proved he can play QB in the NFL and lead a team. Now it may just be about putting all the pieces of the quarterback puzzle together all at the same time.

"It's not really about me, my job is to be the quarterback," he said. "And that's to either hand the ball off or throw it. And I can do a better job. And everyone else, I thought they played hard but we can play even harder. And we're just gonna go up from here."