{"id":49995,"date":"2023-12-08T01:30:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T06:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/?p=49995"},"modified":"2023-12-08T02:07:32","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T07:07:32","slug":"did-the-patriots-blow-their-season-by-winning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/2023\/12\/08\/did-the-patriots-blow-their-season-by-winning\/","title":{"rendered":"Did The Patriots Blow Their Season By Winning?"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH \u2013 New plan.\u00a0 Bailey Zappe starts next year.\u00a0 First draft pick now becomes a tackle.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to believe, based upon what you\u2019ve seen these last several weeks, that you could find a worse offense than the Patriots.\u00a0 In the first half, that\u2019s exactly what happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zappe threw for three touchdown passes, while Mitchell Trubisky, filling in for the injured Kenny Pickett, looked worse than Bryce Young out there for the Pittsburgh Steelers.\u00a0 The Patriots led 21-3 at halftime, then reverted back to being a substandard offense in the second half.\u00a0 But Trubisky was not able to bring the Steelers all the way back, and the Patriots won their third game of the season, 21-18 at Acrisure Stadium on Thursday night.<\/span><\/p>\n

Zappe seemed to recapture his 2022 magic, if you will, in that first half.\u00a0 Finally, you the Patriot fan saw some competent quarterbacking for a change.\u00a0 Birthday boy Hunter Henry caught two of Zappe\u2019s scoring tosses, and Ezekiel Elliott caught the third.\u00a0 Zappe looked calm and in control of things out there, even when yards were no longer easy to come by in the second half.\u00a0 He threw one interception which wasn\u2019t totally his fault, but overall played a solid game, the likes of which nobody had seen all this season.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Patriots are now 3-10.\u00a0 Is it time to say goodbye to the top draft pick?<\/span><\/p>\n

The way Young is playing in Carolina, the Patriots could lose out and still not get a whiff of that top pick (which will go to Chicago through a draft trade).\u00a0 3-14 would get you a nice high pick nonetheless, but the quality of the pick won\u2019t be exactly what they want.<\/span><\/p>\n

And if this spawns a win streak\u2026what then?<\/span><\/p>\n

Win out and go 7-10, now that would be something.\u00a0 It would also change several narratives, most of which surrounds the future of Bill Belichick.\u00a0 Mac Jones is almost a certain goner at year\u2019s end.\u00a0 Zappe had one good game, and he really energized the whole team and not just the offense.\u00a0 The question is:\u00a0 do you want Zappe to keep playing at this level and turn the Patriots into a middle of the pack team instead of a bad team that gets to pick high in the draft?<\/span><\/p>\n

First, let\u2019s get real for a moment.\u00a0 The Patriots will not run the table.\u00a0 They have four games left and only one is winnable (season finale against the Jets at home).\u00a0 They play Kansas City at home next Sunday (flexed out of next Monday), then play at Denver and at Buffalo.\u00a0 The altitude in Denver will negate any chance to win that game, and the Bills will be bent on revenge at home for the last Patriot win before tonight.\u00a0 The Patriots will likely finish 4-13 and need to hope that Arizona doesn\u2019t lose out.<\/span><\/p>\n

Right now, there are five teams with four wins, if that\u2019s how the Patriot season turns out.\u00a0 Those teams are the Jets, Tennessee, the Giants, Washington and Chicago.\u00a0 So if they all lose out and the Patriots do beat the Jets in their finale, then tiebreakers would result in the establishment of the draft order.<\/span><\/p>\n

If the Bears are smart, they absolutely lose out.\u00a0 They could wind up with two of the first five picks in the draft because they get Carolina\u2019s top pick.\u00a0 Anyone out there ever hear of Gale Sayers and Dick Butkus?\u00a0 In 1965 Chicago took Butkus with the third pick and Sayers with the fourth.\u00a0 Both men are Hall of Famers.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the Bears played zero playoff games over the careers of these two late NFL legends.\u00a0 So Chicagoland should not get too fired up over this prospect.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Patriots are our concern, not Da Bears.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, what do you the Patriot fan really want now?\u00a0 After seeing this win tonight, how badly do you want the Patriots to \u201ctank\u201d?\u00a0 Are you now dreaming of a playoff team next year with Zappe at the helm?\u00a0 Or are you not worried about the present, as there really is nothing the Patriots can do to avoid going 4-13.<\/span><\/p>\n

Just go to bed and savor this win.\u00a0 You may possibly not see one again until 2024.\u00a0 Then again, the Patriots have to beat the Jets in Week 17.\u00a0 It\u2019s almost like, how can\u2019t they.<\/span><\/p>\n

For the record, Zappe finished 19 of 28 passing for 240 yards, three touchdowns, one pick and a passer rating of 115.2.\u00a0 <\/span>Madre de Dios.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Elliott had seven catches (one for a touchdown) to lead the Patriots, but JuJu Smith-Schuster had 90 yards on four catches as he came back to bedevil his old team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Trubisky wasn\u2019t completely awful, it just seemed that way.\u00a0 He finished with 22 of 35 passing for 190 yards, one touchdown and one interception (there was a second nullified by a holding penalty) for a 74.7 rating.\u00a0 Most of the time the Steeler crowd was booing him, with these menacing looks of disgust written all over their faces.<\/span><\/p>\n

As previously stated, a week from Sunday the Patriots host the Super Bowl Champion Chiefs at Gillette.\u00a0 The game was supposed to be next Monday night but got moved back to Sunday.\u00a0 The defense might play well against Patrick Mahomes, given that he sometimes has had receivers who have the dropsies at the wrong time.\u00a0 Please don\u2019t make a big deal about whether or not we will have a Taylor Swift sighting.\u00a0 Just sit back and try to figure out ways that Zappe can score on this Chiefs defense.<\/span><\/p>\n

Actually, it would be nice for all of us, this writer included, to just enjoy the fact that the Patriots actually <\/span>won, <\/span><\/i>and not what the ramifications it has on next year.\u00a0 Yes folks, the Patriots won.\u00a0 Believe it.<\/span><\/p>\n

We invite you to catch Bob George\u2019s new <\/span><\/i>Boston Sports Podcast, <\/span>broadcast every weekday on YouTube. Go to YouTube handle <\/span><\/i>thepic413<\/span><\/a> to view the podcasts. Please click on the <\/span><\/i>Subscribe<\/span> button so you don\u2019t miss any of the podcasts.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New plan.\u00a0 Bailey Zappe starts next year.\u00a0 First draft pick now becomes a tackle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":50001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-49995","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-patriots-commentary"],"yoast_head":"\nDid The Patriots Blow Their Season By Winning?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"New plan.\u00a0 Bailey Zappe starts next year.\u00a0 First draft pick now becomes a tackle.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patsfans.com\/patriots\/blog\/2023\/12\/08\/did-the-patriots-blow-their-season-by-winning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Did The Patriots Blow Their Season By Winning? 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