FOXBORO — For some time, Bailey Zappe went throw to throw with Patrick Mahomes and held his personal. The second-year Patriots quarterback was practically good within the first half and seemingly would have gone into halftime with a lead if not for some ill-timed offensive penalties.
But very similar to final week in opposition to the Steelers, Zappe’s sizzling begin wouldn’t final.
Zappe threw a backbreaking interception on his first throw of the second half, permitting Kansas City to grab management of what had beforehand been a neck and neck recreation. Things progressively acquired worse from there and the tip outcome was yet one more poor offensive effort.
“Simply not good enough,” Zappe mentioned after the sport. “Starting out hot in the first half again like we did the previous week, came in here and made adjustments, understood what we wanted to attack, went out in the second half and threw an interception on the first play of the second half, which was terrible on my part. Take away that, you take away seven points, it’s a whole different game.”
Early on Zappe demonstrated the type of consistency New England sorely lacked with Mac Jones beneath heart. The 24-year-old sign caller went 17 for 19 with 141 yards, a landing and no interceptions, and he demonstrated a very sturdy reference to tight finish Hunter Henry, who had six catches on six targets for 57 yards, 4 first downs and a 16-yard landing seize.
Zappe and Henry ought to have had a second landing connection too, however the rating was nullified by a holding name and issues went downhill from there.
The recreation turned on Zappe’s third quarter interception and reached its nadir early within the fourth, when Zappe practically threw one other decide and on the subsequent throw left Henry defenseless in opposition to an oncoming hit. Henry subsequently went to the blue tent with a knee harm and didn’t return.
When all was mentioned and executed Zappe went 6 for 12 with 39 yards and a decide within the second half, and the Patriots offense collectively managed solely 57 yards on 22 performs. New England scored a late landing due to a Jahlani Tavai interception and an 18-yard landing run by Kevin Harris, however even trailing by solely 10 within the last minutes it by no means felt just like the Patriots had been an actual risk.
“We had some opportunities there, some opportunities to put some more points on the board, but we really didn’t,” mentioned heart David Andrews. “Look when you’re playing a good team like this, a good defense, a good offense, you’ve got to score points. You have to score as many as you can and we didn’t do a good enough job of that today.”
Zappe’s disappointing second half continued what’s shaping as much as be a troubling pattern. Zappe additionally light down the stretch late in opposition to Pittsburgh final week, going solely 5 for 7 with 44 yards and an interception after an excellent first half, although in that case New England was nonetheless in a position to pull out the win. He wasn’t notably efficient at any level in his first begin in opposition to the Chargers both, going 8 for 13 with 102 yards within the second half of that week’s 6-0 loss.
Is Zappe struggling to adapt to the opposing protection’s halftime changes? He mentioned at the moment that wasn’t the problem, he simply must do a greater job himself.
“They adjusted and we adjusted, I just didn’t execute our adjustments, and that was the difference,” Zappe mentioned. “I’ve just got to get better.”
Whether Zappe can flip issues round over New England’s final three video games virtually makes no distinction, the Patriots are already eradicated from playoff competition and consigned to a 3rd shedding season in 4 years. But if Zappe needs to show he could be a profitable quarterback within the NFL — both in New England or someplace else — he’ll have to not solely elevate his stage of play, however preserve it for a full 60 minutes.
Source: www.bostonherald.com