New England Patriots Bill Belichick: Bailey Zappe ‘Deserved’ Start in Los Angeles Chargers Loss

The New England Patriots fell 6-0 to the Los Angeles Chargers at Gillette Stadium in Week 13 in the first start of the season for quarterback Bailey Zappe.

FOXBORO — As the old saying goes: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” 

For the second time this season, New England was shut out on their home field as they surrendered a 6-0 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday at Gillette Stadium. 

Making his first start of the season, second-year quarterback Bailey Zappe went 13-of-25 for 141 yards, while throwing neither an interception, nor a touchdown. Despite a handful of aesthetically-pleasing plays, Zappe and the Pats offense frequently misfired when faced with a promising scoring situation. In short, New England’s attempts to find the end zone fared no better under Zappe than they did under their since-demoted starter Mac Jones. 

Still, Belichick ultimately felt justified in making the quarterback switch, based both on Jones’ troubles, as well as Zappe having earns his shot to lead New England’s offense. Though a handful of play packages at the position had been schemed for rookie Malik Cunningham, Zappe took every snap on offense for the Pats. 

“I thought he deserved it,” Belichick said for his decision to start Zappe. “We gave Mac [Jones] the opportunity to work through his progression with the offense. Obviously, he hadn’t had a lot of production. I thought Bailey deserved a chance to play, so he played.” 

Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports

Entering Week 13, Zappe had made four relief appearances for the Pats, having completed only 19 passes for 158 yards with zero touchdowns and two interceptions. During that time, he routinely showed difficulty with accuracy, making his reads, as well as getting the ball downfield. Unfortunately, those problems continued into Sunday’s loss against the Chargers. New England ran 11 offensive series — eight of which ended in punts, and two resulted in turnovers on downs in the game’s closing moments. During their 31:10 time of possession, the Pats failed to advance the ball into the red zone even once. 

Instead, yet another gallant effort from the Patriots defense — which allowed only six points on two Cameron Dicker-field goals — was squandered by the futility of its counterpart. Though he was in far from a talkative mood, Belichick acknowledged that the lack of cooperative football led to their fifth straight loss, and worst overall record since 1993. 

“Missed opportunities today,” Belichick said. “Thought we had a lot of guys that played really hard… couldn’t play the complementary game we needed to play.”

Different QB, Same L: Patriots' Offense Historically Horrible in Loss to Chargers

New England must quickly turn the page from Sunday’s frustrating loss to their Week 14 matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night. In spite of expectedly sidestepping a question surrounding the identity of his starting quarterback for the contest, Belichick did wordsmith a response to an inquiry regarding his future as the Patriots head coach. 

“Yeah, I’m looking forward to this week and getting ready for the Steelers,” Belichick said in a less-than playful tone. 

Kickoff is set for 8:15 p.m. ET from Acrisure Stadium in the Steel City. In what has become customary for New England, information on which Patriots quarterback will be starting against Pittsburgh will be revealed on a “need to know” basis. 

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