FOXBORO — Patriots quarterback Mac Jones was unrecognizable in Sunday’s win over the Bills.

After struggling mightily over the first six weeks of the season, including two mid-game benchings, Jones finally looked like the player who showed so much promise as a rookie in 2021.

Jones really didn’t have a signature win on his resume through two-plus seasons in the NFL, and Sunday’s win represented that. It featured just his second career fourth-quarter comeback and game-winning drive and his first since 2021.

It helped, of course, that the offense as a whole played much better Sunday. Jones was pressured on just seven dropbacks and was 4-of-4 for 42 yards with a touchdown on those plays. And the return of rookie slot receiver Demario Douglas gave the passing game a spark.

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So, how do the Patriots make sure they now replicate that Sunday when they travel to Miami to play the Dolphins?

One way is staying consistent.

“That’s really the word of the week for us,” Jones said. “How can we do it over and over again and put good days and good plays together is what I’m going to say.”

Jones has faced plenty of criticism — most of it fair — for his performance this season. After he was benched in Weeks 4 and 5 after the score got out of hand in losses to the Cowboys and Saints, even internally people within the organization were wondering how head coach Bill Belichick could stick with Jones as the starting quarterback.

The Patriots didn’t have any better options in Bailey Zappe, Will Grier or Malik Cunningham, so Belichick stuck with Jones. It paid off in Week 7, but now the Patriots have to prove Sunday’s win wasn’t just an aberration.

“Really just want to build off the momentum and continue to do it,” Jones said. “Do it over and over again, stick to the process, have expectations for yourself and don’t pay attention to the other expectations. That’s going to be big for me, and really starts in practice, right? Try to focus on how you can do it again, and how you can stack good days together, and that’s going to be a very big focus for me this week.”

The third-year pro has completed 66.7% of his passes this season for 1,480 yards with seven touchdowns and seven interceptions. He ranked third among qualified quarterbacks in expected points added (EPA) per play last week, fourth in success rate and eighth in completion percentage over expected. He had the second-lowest attempted air yards, however. And he still had just one big-time throw and one turnover-worthy play, per PFF’s charting.

And one game ultimately doesn’t prove anything. On the season, he still ranks 29th out of 33 qualified QBs in EPA per play, 18th in success rate and 25th in completion percentage over expected. He’s attempted the 26th most air yards per passing attempt. He’s PFF’s 30th-highest graded passer.

Jones didn’t attempt a single deep pass in Sunday’s game, but the Patriots still generated four passing plays of 20-plus yards. They had just eight explosive passing plays coming into Week 7.

“Just want to try to do it again,” Jones said. “What did we do well, and how can you replicate that. And what did we not do well? And how do we learn from it?”

Jones was asked if it’s easier to prepare after coming off of a positive performance like Sunday’s.

“I always talk about the process and kind of what I do each week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and then get ready for the game on Saturday,” Jones said. “Regardless of what happens, it’s a one-game season every week. And we understand that here, and that’s important to understand, because you have to go do it every week.”

Sunday’s win has as much bearing on Jones’ performance moving forward as the first six weeks of the season. But if the Patriots’ new offensive line configuration of left tackle Trent Brown, left guard Cole Strange, center David Andrews, right guard Sidy Sow and right tackle Mike Onwenu can not only stay in place but continue to hold defenders at bay, then Jones will have much better shot at being efficient in Week 8.

Jones and wide receiver Kendrick Bourne have connected for six-plus receptions and over 60 yards in consecutive games. And Douglas has certainly earned consistent playing time moving forward.

It’s possible that the Patriots have found the keys to their offensive success. But they’ll have to keep proving it before anyone should believe it.

A man found fatally shot early Monday in St. Paul was a 23-year-old, police said Wednesday.

David Lashawn Isaac, of St. Paul, died on the West Side.

A 911 caller just after midnight Monday reported “a person down on the ground” behind a residence in the 400 block of South Clinton Avenue, police have said.

Officers found Isaac in a driveway/parking lot area behind townhomes. He had apparently been shot and paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene near Cesar Chavez and Robert streets.

No one was under arrest as of Wednesday and police said their investigation of the city’s 29th homicide of the year is ongoing.

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For the second straight week, the Vikings have a defensive player who has been honored by the NFL.

After linebacker Jordan Hicks got the honor last week, safety Cam Bynum has been named NFC Defensive Player of the Week.

It was very much deserved after Bynum had two interceptions to help lead the Vikings to a 22-17 win over the San Francisco 49ers on Monday Night Football. He also led the team in tackles and contributed to a forced fumble that was officially credited to fellow safety Harrison Smith.

To this point, Bynum has started every game for the Vikings, and this season has 69 tackles, which is the most among all defensive backs this season.

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The White House has been quietly urging lawmakers in both parties to sell the war efforts abroad as a potential economic boom at home.

Aides have been distributing talking points to Democrats and Republicans who have been supportive of continued efforts to fund Ukraine’s resistance to make the case that doing so is good for American jobs, according to five White House aides and lawmakers familiar with the effort and granted anonymity to speak freely.

The push, first previewed publicly in President Joe Biden’s Oval Office address last week, comes ahead of the election of a new House speaker, with the White House trying to invoke patriotism to help convince holdout Republicans not just to help Kyiv but to pass a major package that includes funds for Israel as well.

“As we replenish our stocks of weapons, we are partnering with the U.S. defense industry to increase our capacity and meet the needs of the U.S. and our allies both now and in the future,” according to a copy of the talking points obtained by POLITICO.

“This supplemental request invests over $50 billion in the American defense industrial base — ensuring our military continues to be the most ready, capable, and best equipped fighting force the world has ever seen — and expanding production lines, strengthening the American economy and creating new American jobs,” the document states.

The talking points are an implicit recognition that the administration has work to do in selling its $106 billion foreign aid supplemental request — and that talking about it squarely under the umbrella of national security interests hasn’t done the trick.

The White House’s pitch is an echo of one made by an influential figure on the other side of the aisle: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

In a March 2022 Senate floor speech, McConnell (R-Ky.) warned that the defense industrial base had been caught “napping” as the Russian invasion entered its second month. In the early days, he repeatedly pushed Biden to use the Defense Production Act to ramp up weapons production.

And while some GOP support for Ukraine has eroded, the Senate minority leader took to the Sunday talk shows last weekend to push his Republicans against separating Israel’s cause from the war in Europe.

“No Americans are getting killed in Ukraine. We’re rebuilding our industrial base. The Ukrainians are destroying the army of one of our biggest rivals. I have a hard time finding anything wrong with that. I think it’s wonderful that they’re defending themselves,” he said on CBS’s Face the Nation.

White House aides said they have been in communication with McConnell throughout the war and that his recent remarks were warmly received in the West Wing. A McConnell aide did not comment on recent communication with the White House.

On top of communication with McConnell, Defense Department officials have also circulated to the Hill slides showing nearly $20 billion in investment in the industrial base via U.S. support for Ukraine. That includes nearly $3.1 billion in contracts targeted toward expanding the nation’s industrial base capacity, including increasing artillery production approximately six-fold over three years.

That ammunition is being provided to both Israel and Ukraine, officials said. Funding for the work flows through red states such as Texas, Arkansas and Alabama and electoral battlegrounds like Arizona, Pennsylvania and Nevada.

The White House’s $106 billion supplemental request includes funding for Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and border security. But the ambitious package remains stalled until a House Speaker is finally elected. In the wake of the Hamas terror attacks earlier this month, most lawmakers have backed funding Israel. But while there is largely bipartisan support for helping Ukraine as well, the number of GOP no votes has grown.

In urging help for Ukraine for the past 20 months, Biden’s arguments have largely centered around lofty ideas like defending democracies and making clear that the United States’ own national security would be threatened if Vladimir Putin were to be successful.

But White House aides have also argued that the war was hitting Americans in their wallets. They blamed the conflict for surging costs, particularly gas prices — though its “Putin’s price hike” moniker didn’t catch on — and warned that economic woes would grow if Ukraine fell.

Now, the tenor of the economic push has changed, with White House aides enlisting lawmakers to make a more positive case.

“Let me be clear about something,” Biden said during his Oval Office address. “We send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpiles. And when we use the money allocated by Congress, we use it to replenish our own stores, our own stockpiles with new equipment.”

“Equipment that defends America and is made in America. Patriot missiles for air defense batteries, made in Arizona. Artillery shells manufactured in 12 states across the country, in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas. And so much more,” he said. “You know, just as in World War II, today patriotic American workers are building the arsenal of democracy and serving the cause of freedom.”

The change in sales pitch comes as polls show that Americans are growing more skeptical of the effort to help Ukraine — and continue to question Biden’s handling of the economy.

Some Republicans say they’ve been telling the Biden administration that their rhetoric around Ukraine has been subpar and that to gain House GOP support – and preserve the stronger support in the Senate – they have to change their message.

The administration has privately “realized that their messaging on Ukraine specifically has been a disaster… and that they needed to change,” according to a senior congressional Republican aide. “There has been a bit of effort to help the administration understand that their messaging is wholly inadequate, and they’re using phrases that Republicans don’t respond to and they’re not making convincing arguments.”

The aide pointed to Biden’s prior insistence that the U.S. would support Ukraine “as long as it takes” as open-ended and unwieldy. Biden in last week’s speech said the United States would help Ukraine “defend themselves” — a message more potent with the GOP and their voters.