Sure whatever you want to call it. I still believe that was Zappe's one shot to put Mac on the bench permanently and he crapped the bed on national tv. Bill took a look at that and in practice and decided Mac was the better option going forward. The BB I know would notice Mac's pissy faces and hysterics and that would get him benched right away - if Zappe was good enough.
Again "he's not Mac" or "Mac is having a terrible season" which he is... doesn't mean Zappe is good. That's the same pro Stidham argument we heard a couple years ago. It just means the Patriots might need to find a QB this offseason.
Zappe has faced the 16th (Packers), 21st (Browns), 30th (Bears) and 31st (Lions) ranked scoring defenses in the league. Nothing more than one of many backup QB's who had some success vs bad teams who have no tape on him and turned into a pumpkin once defenses get a look on tape and game plan for him. If Zappe already had 5 passes batted down I'd hate to think what good defenses could do to him. Did Zappe even throw 5 passes over the line of scrimmage in the Packers game? He had 99 yards against them including OT and they're the best defense he played this year. If he gets another shot at the top job in camp he needs to be a lot better than that.
Mac might not get us to the playoffs this year. Zappe definitely won't.