The Patriots QB Conundrum
I can’t be the only one who heard Bailey Zappe was the new QB, looked him up, and did a double-take because I thought I clicked on a picture of Mac Jones. Anybody else?
Whatever the case is, the Patriots now officially have a QB problem. Belichick has blundered the situation this week during the Bears game. Mac has never been a particular inspiration up to this point, but he’s had his solid games since becoming the starter and appeared to have a good foundation to build on. Then he got hurt against the Packers in what I expected to be a season-ending ankle injury, or at least a much longer IR stint than he got. I feel like the Patriots rushed him back to play the Bears.
Especially since they basically seemed to have Mac Jones 2 just waiting in the wings holding down the fort just fine. Zappe did pretty decently in his time as a leading man. He took the Packers down to the wire (which we now know isn’t a huge accomplishment but still worthy of note). He crushed the Lions, which isn’t a big deal, but he also crushed the Browns, which is a mildly bigger deal because they actually have a defense. I fully expected Zappe to start a couple more games. Surely he could beat *checks notes* THE BEARS.
Instead, we got an extremely weird game. Mac gets the start. He looks awful. After he dumps a bad pick to the Bears, all of a sudden Zappe comes in and Foxboro gets electric. Admittedly, I think the touchdown pass was terrible. He wasn’t pressured or anything and Jakobi Meyers was wide open and still had to make a heroic effort to catch the ball. But the stadium crowd lit up and the Zappe hype got real. He then completed a bomb downfield (that was honestly a 50/50 ball into double coverage) and the place went nuts. The Patriots soon went ahead for the only time in the game and they wouldn’t stop cutting to Mac Jones looking despondent on the sideline. Did Mac Jones just get Drew Bledsoe’d by Mac Jones 2? Sure seemed like it.
Then the rest of the game happened. Zappe never did anything of value past that point and now Mac Jones gets to start against the resurgent Jets this weekend. Probably the correct call as long as Mac has the mental resilience to handle what happened to him Monday night. To be honest, neither of these two QBs looks very good. They both strike me as low-ceiling game managers at best. The Patriots defense is the team’s strong suit which means a game manager can win, but if the defense breaks down as they did against the Bears neither of these dudes can be relied upon to lead the march.
It’s so weird seeing the Patriots as a normal team with normal team problems. I’m still not used to it.
I remember the 1-15 that landed them Drew.
Their turn to suck is coming, as it comes to us all.
zApPe HoUr WoOoOoO
(Saying this as a Patriots fan)
As a Pats fan, I just keep reminding myself how lucky I’ve been since 2001 to watch my team win and win and win and I know it can’t keep going.
So with that said, I can also be critical of the team recently. I keep saying “In Bill We Trust” but sometimes I’m just not sure. I never thought Mac should have started and I certainly didn’t think he should have been pulled after the interception. It’s a weird time to be a NE fan, but we’ll keep moving forward. We’re on to New York.
I hear you, man. Just have the weird feeling that Belichick’s end of career will look like Tom Landry’s last ten years or so starting from the Catch. From there, the Cowboys were a non-factor. Seems like the same since Brady’s last season with the Pats.
From there, I do the same as you and remind myself that we’ve been blessed for almost 20 years.
Hoo boy, don’t get me started on this one. I had a sinking feeling that NE was in for a shitshow as soon as Bill started playing coy about naming a starter. It’s just appalling to me that Bill Belichick of all coaches would screw up a QB situation like this. Regardless of whether you want Mac or Zappe, at the end of the day, no matter what, you have to make a decisive choice. You have to commit to one guy and stick with it. Bill of all coaches should know this since he’s gone through this exact scenario not once but twice now.
I really hate questioning the guy, but stuff like this is baffling to me. He could have very well destroyed Mac’s development by pulling this stunt, and for what? The marginal chance that you might have ended up with another Bledsoe-Brady situation? I just don’t get it.
clearly they need to perform more ritualistic sacrifices to appease the gods
i feel like mac and zappe need to take the field in each other’s uniforms and see how they’re evaluated by both bill/pats and the public
Maybe that’s what they did in the second half
So I decided to read about bledsoe on the wiki cause of this, I mean I knew the deal with him getting replaced etc but was just curious and bored.
I had no idea the injury he suffered was that serious, holy moly.
His brother rode in the ambulance with him after the game and at one point through Drew died on the way to the hospital. It was nearly catastrophic.
It’s kind of insane that Drew Bledsoe very nearly died on that play and ended up not only being eligible to play again like 2 months later, but even stepped in for the second half of the AFC Championship that season to help get New England to the Super Bowl. You’d think it would have ended his career right then and there.
IDK who starts I just wanna watch the suck ass it’s just so fun to see them suck.
UUUUMMMMMMMMM The second one is Mac?
The wild thing is that a low-ceiling game manager makes Mac instantly the best QB in his class!
Plus Tampa is 3-5. The link between Tom & Bill is fully severed now and both are starting to fail
I can’t find a good answer on this, but was Jakobi Meyers named after the law firm?
For that matter do Jacoby & Meyers still advertise? Granted I’m not watching TV in the middle of the day anymore, but they were a staple of random 2:30 in the afternoon syndicated station ads along with the Apex Tech guy and Karl Ehmer.
But Jakobi Meyers sounds nothing like BenJarvus Green-Ellis.