‘Can’t win football games when you turn the ball over’: Bailey Zappe talks offensive struggles in loss to Bills
"If you take away those four turnovers, what happens? Who knows."
Bailey Zappe shined under the bright lights of a Christmas Eve primetime game against the Denver Broncos last week.
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Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills was a complete 180 from that success. The young QB threw three interceptions — all in the first half — in a 27-21 loss to Buffalo. He showed accountability for the offense’s struggles, which allowed the Bills to jump out to a lead too large for the Patriots to overcome.
“It was tough. You can’t win football games when you turn the ball over,” Zappe said postgame. “It’s kind of like the same thing the last few weeks … we’re playing good, we’re just not putting two halves together as an entire offense and executing together, communication-wise and all those things.
“If you take away those four turnovers, what happens? Who knows. Can’t go back, can’t change it, you just have to move on and fix the mistakes.”
The third of Zappe’s interceptions was the most costly, as it was brought back the other way for a Buffalo touchdown. It appeared Zappe had a miscommunication with his receiver, Jalen Reagor, leading to a well-underthrown ball that Rasul Douglas snagged with ease.
“Yeah, that was just a miscommunication,” Zappe said. “Just something that we’ll get back and we’ll fix it, make sure we’re on the same page.”
Douglas had a hand in each of Zappe’s interceptions. He broke on the ball as it was headed for Mike Gesicki, tipping the pass into the hands of a diving Ed Oliver for interception No. 1. The second pick was an anticipation throw by Zappe, who didn’t seem to notice Douglas undercutting DeVante Parker’s slant to nab his first pick of the day.
“Yeah that’s just, the corner was inside … I just gotta do what I’m coached to do and throw the little swing pass that we had going,” Zappe said. “If I do that, who knows what happens. [Could be] a 10-yard gain, 15-yard gain. If you’re getting the ball into [Demario Douglas’s] hands, that’s never a bad thing.
“That’s just things that I have to fix, and over the course of my career, trust me I’ll get better at that.”
To his credit, Zappe and the New England offense fared much better after the first 20 minutes, as Belichick pointed out in his postgame press conference. Zappe ran in a touchdown of his own before the half, and Ezekiel Elliott got one in the fourth quarter to cut into the deficit.
“Just having a short-term memory, understanding that there’s a lot of ball left to be played,” Zappe said of his and the offense’s mindset battling back from the early turnovers. “When we get rolling, we’re having good communication and we have a great operation, we’re a great offense. We can move the ball well. So, that was just kind of the focus point going into the second half.”
Zappe finished the day 16 of 26 passing for 209 yards, no passing touchdowns, and the three interceptions weighing him down. The highlight of the day offensively was his connection with Reagor on a long ball down the sideline. Reagor also made a tremendous special teams play, returning the game’s opening kickoff for a touchdown.
Unfortunately for Zappe and Co., it was just too little, too late to complete the comeback attempt.
Now, New England turns its attention to the New York Jets in the last game of the regular season on Sunday. It’ll be one last chance for the Zappe-led offense to showcase an effective four quarters before the highly-anticipated Patriots offseason and NFL draft.
“To put two halves together, something that we’ve been working on the last few weeks, would be awesome,” Zappe said. “Go into next year kind of on a high of what this offense can truly be.”
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