The only sensible answer is that they just didn’t know. Bill told BOB “I might start either guy, get them both ready” so BOB’s only logical course of action was to split reps evenly. Bill evaluated them as they went. The tip to Howe was apparently that there wasn’t much discernible difference, which to me means that there’s not really much downside to playing Zappe if you aren’t seeing a big difference in practice when they’re both running with the first team.
Not buying
this. BOB knows exactly what they are. If this was Wk 3 or 5 maybe, but this is Wk 12 after the bye. They absolutely know what they have in Mac. He's been taking 1st team reps all year. He's been benched 3 times already. He hasn't improved. This is Year 3.
OTOH, Zappe only took 1st team reps for the 2 starts that he won. It's his 2nd season under a totally different coach (same as happened to Mac). If they were seriously considering Zappe, they should've given him the bulk of the reps. Instead, they cheated both QBs out of valuable reps.
Bill may even continue to ride that evaluation period all the way into the game itself and rotate the QBs every couple drives. Obviously that’s unconventional, but at this point in his tenure in NE I doubt he cares.
That would be nuts. It's not like having a Taysom Hill that adds a different element to the O for defenses to worry about. They're both pocket passers w/ similar athletic abilities. That would just rob the QBs from establishing a rythm.
Anointing Zappe early on and giving him the most reps possible obviously would’ve been much more beneficial
Yes, that's what should've been done.
but I think he did want to give Mac a real chance to prove he’s the better player, which we all believe he did in the summer by all reports.
He gave him that chance during the ten games (2-8).
Unfortunately he has regressed since then, and it sounds like Zappe may have improved a little in the BOB scheme, and we are back where we started. The result might have been different this time.
I'm not sure there's much difference between these guys from an athletic ability aspect. The one thing that's clear to me, at least, is that Zappe has the better QB character of the two. He looks more comfortable and decisive out there. That might not mean much but can it be any worse? I hope we get to find out.
This charade just makes Bill look indecisive and amateurish. We'd be laughing if it were any other coach.
