Patriots’ Matt Patricia called good game for Bailey Zappe: AFC East takeaways

By Henry McKenna
FOX Sports AFC East Writer

It is time to give credit to offensive playcaller and offensive line coach Matt Patricia. The New England Patriots have to be Zappe about how their offense kept pace with the Green Bay Packers in Week 4.

To start the 2022 season, Patricia has stepped into a brand-new role, making the official move from defense to offense. While Patricia hasn’t been brilliant, he was very good in Week 4. Brian Hoyer, starting in place of Mac Jones (ankle), suffered a head injury in the first quarter. 

That thrust third-stringer and rookie quarterback Bailey Zappe into the game. Ultimately, his incompletion in overtime set up Aaron Rodgers for a game-winning drive. Zappe couldn’t find an open man on third-and-5, and the Patriots elected to punt. Rodgers drove the Packers down the field, setting up a Mason Crosby 31-yard field goal. 

We’ll get back to that play. But let’s discuss Zappe and Patricia’s greater body of work before we focus on where they failed.

Players told reporters postgame that the Patriots split practice reps 50-50 between Hoyer and Zappe this week. Even so, Patricia had to work around the team’s 2022 fourth-round draft choice at quarterback. Patricia built his game plan around Hoyer. And he got Zappe. Apparently, that called for halftime alterations which helped build more confidence among the players.

“The biggest thing coming out of halftime was adjustments, really,” Zappe told reporters postgame. “I was mainly thinking about what we could do differently. Or what we all could do differently as an offense in the second half.”

There were between-series adjustments, too. Patricia, Bill Belichick and quarterbacks coach Joe Judge would swarm Zappe, who held a tablet and digested the feedback from the three-headed coaching group.

Zappe finished the game 10-of-15 for 99 yards and one touchdown. He took three sacks. More impressive, New England averaged 5.1 yards per carry with 33 rushes for 167 yards and a touchdown. With Zappe operating at the conservative clip of 6.6 yards per attempt, the rushing attack had to be on-point. And it was. Damien Harris and Rhamondre Stevenson played well, and the offensive line played even better. Center David Andrews, tackle Trent Brown and guard Michael Onwenu enjoyed extremely impressive games.

It’s not easy to generate rushing yards when the defense knows the offense is singularly minded. But that’s what Patricia and company did.

New England, for example, managed to take a fourth-quarter lead on a drive where the Patriots ran the ball six of seven plays, with a 20-yard pass from Zappe to Nelson Agholor breaking up the ground game. The offensive line and the defense sent this game into overtime, not Zappe. And again, that’s a credit to Patricia, who did not ask Zappe to do more than he could.

“I think we all know what a backup quarterback’s potential job and role is,” Belichick said Monday morning. “That’s what happened and he stepped in. He was well-prepared. I thought, generally, he handled himself well. Certainly, things he can improve on. We’ll work on it. But, I thought he did a solid job.”

But that begs the question of how the Patriots came to a place where they wanted the passing attack to convert a third-and-5. Zappe had been tenuous in gotta-have-it moments, and throughout the game, he was more concerned with not making a mistake than making a play.

The one thing I would have liked to have seen: The Patriots go away from him on third-and-5. Belichick said it himself: Aaron Rodgers was “too good.” So why punt it back to him? Belichick explained that his defense got a stop on the opening drive of overtime. 

“We were able to put them on a long field. We had just done that the series before on the opening kickoff of overtime. Look, the longer it is, the harder it is to make that decision. Certainly, wouldn’t want to come up short on fourth-and-5 and hand them the ball, a first down away from field-goal range. There’s a trade-off there. I don’t think it was heavily considered, no.”

On that third down, the Patriots’ offense was just 10 yards from field-goal range. They could have run the ball twice to pick up five yards and a first down. By punting it, they gave Rodgers the chance to end the game. That’s exactly what he did — and, frankly, it surprised no one. Belichick should have heavily considered a fourth-down attempt. He was likely the one telling Patricia that they were attempting to convert the third down and not setting up a fourth-down conversion attempt.

The tale of two (or three?) Zach Wilsons

The Jets‘ offense did not do a lot to help Wilson in his season debut, with New York eking out a 24-20 win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. The quarterback, who missed the first three weeks with a knee injury, seemed interested in doing what his coach Robert Saleh told reporters Wilson would do. The quarterback needed to let the rest of the offense take charge of this game.

But that didn’t happen.

In the first half, Wilson looked OK when he had time. But his protection was truly awful, with quick sacks and pressure that made him look jumpy in the pocket. That said, it also gave us a look at his mobility, which mostly looked tentative, not explosive. Wilson also had a handful of elite throwaways — don’t laugh — eluding a handful of rushers to avoid sacks. Sometimes passers want the big play after creating space outside the pocket. That leads to mistakes. Wilson wisely didn’t ride the adrenaline. He simply used the opportunity to not take a loss. He spent the first half trying to help his defense avoid bad football.

“There was never a single time we were going out there that anyone was down. There was frustration, but it was the right frustration,” Wilson said.

On his first interception, he looked like he was pressing. It was an impatient decision. He wanted a touchdown no matter what the coverage showed him. He threw into the area of receiver Jeff Smith and three Steelers defenders, with cornerback Cameron Sutton getting the interception.

“I’ve got to throw a better ball. Still missed a little bit over Jeff’s head, but I’ve still got to be able to see that, hold on to it, live to play the next down,” Wilson said.

The second interception was a high toss that Tyler Conklin should have reeled in. But the tight end tipped the ball into the air and it made for an easy Pittsburgh interception. That pick is on both of them. Wilson simply can’t miss high in that instance. Conklin has to bail out his quarterback on a catchable ball.

I don’t know if that’s when Wilson knocked off his rust. But that’s when he started to play better.

Even with all that bad play, he had a terrific fourth quarter. He went 10-of-12 for 128 yards and a touchdown. He didn’t take a sack. And he didn’t turn over the ball. With excellent and clean play, Wilson helped reverse a win probability for the Jets of 7.8% in the fourth quarter, per ESPN.

“The young man doesn’t flinch. He got us out of a lot of bad situations with his mobility. I thought he played a pretty good game for his first game back,” Saleh said.

On that fourth-quarter drive, the Jets had a first-and-20 after an illegal block penalty. Wilson converted in just two downs. New York only had one third down on the entire drive. Their quarterback was 5-of-5. 

“We didn’t feel stagnant, we didn’t feel timid,” Wilson said.

They didn’t look it. 

Wilson stood in the pocket and went through his progression. He found receiver Corey Davis with accurate passes into tight windows. On the whole, the Jets made the progress offensively that they needed to make. Rookie running back Breece Hall scored the go-ahead touchdown.

The obvious caveat is that Pittsburgh is a bad football team. One good quarter of quarterback play won’t cut it against other NFL opponents. Against the Miami Dolphins in Week 5, Wilson and the Jets’ offense won’t get those three quarters of warmup.

The Jets’ ballhawks gave Wilson ample opportunity

The Steelers aren’t exactly known for strong quarterback play right now. That’s not their M.O. for winning games. But New York did what no one else has done this year: The Jets got Mitchell Trubisky benched with an interception. And then their defense picked off rookie Kenny Pickett three times for good measure. Without all those chances, the Jets might not have gotten back in the game.

The final Pickett interception came in garbage time when he was heaving a Hail Mary. But the other two were legit. Safety Lamarcus Joyner had two picks. Safety Jordan Whitehead, who signed with the team this offseason, came up with an interception. And slot cornerback Michael Carter corralled one, too.

Rookie cornerback Sauce Gardner has been brilliant for the Jets this year and contributed to Carter’s interception with physical coverage of Steelers tight end Pat Freiermuth. Carter revealed that Gardner baited Pickett to throw the ball — and the two defensive backs took away the ball.

Gardner has been as good as the Jets could have hoped. He has, so far, allowed nine catches on 19 targets (47.4%) for 101 yards with four PBUs and one touchdown allowed, per PFF.

The Bills‘ goal-line defense

Buffalo held Lamar Jackson and the Ravens‘ offense at the goal line thanks to strong play from a handful of Bills. So let’s shout out the players who helped get it done.

First down, 10-yard line: The Bills pass rush contained Jackson in the pocket and the coverage showed only one player open: Devin Duvernay inside the 5-yard line. Though Jackson completed the pass, linebacker Tremaine Edmunds managed to tackle the receiver before he made it into the end zone.

Second down, 1-yard line: Buffalo and Baltimore sized up muscle against muscle. The Ravens lined up in a power formation and the Bills matched. Linebacker Matt Milano was the difference maker. He has been a stud all season. And he fired upfield and brought down J.K. Dobbins in the backfield, Linebackers can’t really make better plays than Milano did. His tackle for loss put the Ravens back three yards, no longer in easy rushing territory.

Third down, 4-yard line: Speaking of rushing territory, Jackson didn’t like what he saw on the next play as a passer, so he tucked to run. If not for Milano’s tackle for loss, there would’ve been space for him to get into the end zone. But safeties Damar Hamlin and Jordan Poyer rushed to the line of scrimmage and held Jackson to a very short gain.

Fourth down, 2-yard line: The Ravens decided to throw again, and the Bills’ pass-rush was superb. Defensive ends Shaq Lawson and Gregory Rousseau remained disciplined as they closed the pocket on Jackson without letting him scoot past them for a scramble. With nowhere to run and nowhere to throw, Jackson fired the ball in the direction of Duvernay, but Poyer got to the ball quicker than the intended target. Excellent play by Poyer, who had two interceptions on the day.

Why did the Ravens elect against a field goal? It makes little sense. But that’s also with the hindsight of the Bills holding Jackson’s offense.

Buffalo’s offense gets all the love. But the Bills’ defense is what will make them a true Super Bowl contender. Their goal-line stand proved it yet again.

Prior to joining FOX Sports as the AFC East reporter, Henry McKenna spent seven years covering the Patriots for USA TODAY Sports Media Group and Boston Globe Media. Follow him on Twitter at @McKennAnalysis.