Zappe’s play has dipped over the second half of his last two starts.
If football games lasted just 30 minutes, the New England Patriots may have their quarterback of the future in Bailey Zappe. Unfortunately, teams must return from the locker room for two more quarters.
Over the last two weeks, there has been a night-and-day difference with the Patriots’ second-year quarterback in the first vs. second half. After completing 31-of-40 passes for 337 yards and four touchdowns in the first half of New England’s last two games, Zappe has completed just 11-of-19 attempts for 83 yards and two interceptions after halftime.
With nothing but personal pride left to play for at this point in the season, putting together a strong four quarters is No. 1 on Zappe’s to-do list.
“For me personally, I think it’s important for me to put a full game together. First halves been great. Second halves haven’t been so good,” Zappe shared Wednesday. “So, I think if I’m able to go out there and execute and run the offense the way it’s supposed to be run for two halves, I think we’ll score a lot more points. So that directly reflects on me doing my job well and then that relates to everybody else. So, I think that’s for me, that’s what I want to do.”
It didn’t take long for Zappe’s second-half struggles to show last Sunday against the Kansas City Chiefs. On his first pass of the half, the quarterback threw an ill-advised pass right into the stomach of Chiefs linebacker Willie Gay for an interception.
Kansas City found the end zone just two plays later to extend their lead to 24-10 — one that proved to be insurmountable for New England.
“We come out in the first play, we throw an interception. So, that’s not a good omen for the rest of the half,” offensive coordinator Bill O’Brien explained. “We gotta be able to overcome it but, we throw an interception on the very first play like that was not good. And so after that it became — I think at that point a two score game — and we had to do some different things and just didn’t go like the way we wanted it to go.”
Beyond the interception, New England’s struggles in the run game have played a role in the poor offensive half performances. With Zappe failing to get much going through the air, teams have not been shy of stacking the box to slow down the Patriots’ rushing attack.
“We’ve had some pretty heavy boxes last week in Kansas City. We’ve got to be ready for that again,” Bill Belichick explained. “Sometimes it comes down to numbers and blocking the guys we have to block. There are several ways to deal with that, but it makes it a little more challenging.You need more production throwing the ball. Which when we have that, it tends to loosen things up a little bit. So, depending on what we see and how the game unfolds.”
Kansas City sent run blitzes early and often on Sunday — helping limit New England to just 52 rushing yards while forcing Zappe to then make plays.
The Patriots’ quarterback putting together a full game will help all aspects of the offense, and he’ll have his next opportunity to do so on Christmas Eve when New England takes on the Denver Broncos.
“I think a little bit of it is just continuing to go through the system. Do what the coaches are teaching you to do and what they’re coaching us to do throughout the whole week,” Zappe said.
“As far as going right to left, one high, two high, things like that. Just going through your reads and taking the first up on a guy and not trying to make a play. Just not forcing anything, just playing within the system. As long as you do that, the system has been great for however many years. I just got to follow the system.”