EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ — Bill Belichick is done. He was asked 22 questions in four minutes and mumbled through them with short answers about how everyone on his struggling team was told to be ready to play. He doesn’t want it anymore. So he gently lowered his right hand like a gavel, abruptly ending his postgame news conference.
Bill Belichick Live Postgame Press Conference: https://t.co/gpm9zzq8YC
— New England Patriots (@Patriots) November 26, 2023
The 71-year-old coach exited a tunnel and turned right past the football field at MetLife Stadium, where his New England Patriots had just lost 10-7 to a backup, undrafted rookie quarterback and a New York Giants team that had become one of the worst in the NFL.
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Patriots benched Jones for Zappe, lost to Giants
Three months into a dysfunctional season, there’s no point in ignoring the obvious. After nine losses in 11 games and a quarterback situation that made the once-proud franchise a laughing stock, Belichick had no answers. The tricks and stunts he pulled didn’t work. His team did not respond. His roster stinks. And his explanations of how it got so bad are even worse.
“I told everybody to be ready to go,” Belichick said four different times.
All of this, of course, leads to the uncomfortable question that hovers over the final six games this season. Will Belichick return? Are these the final games of a brilliant career, one that ends in an implosion that once seemed unfathomable?
What question could be more important than that after watching the product Belichick’s team put out on Sunday? He tried something different this week, an attempt to jump-start a lackluster offense that has been dragging this team down. Belichick made a decision no to name the starting quarterback. He let Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe get practice reps with the starting offense, hoping one of them would be so good that a decision would be made for him.
Instead, it was another Belichick decision (or indecision?) that backfired for this team. Belichick is the same coach who in 2001 explained to Tom Brady taking practice reps with Drew Bledsoe by saying a team can’t split those sessions with multiple quarterbacks because they’re too important — that’s missing out. whatever snaps hinder the QB’s starting preparation.
But 12 weeks into this season, Belichick split practice reps between Jones and Zappe. Perhaps it should come as no surprise, then, that both struggled.
The argument here is not for one with Jones or Zappe. In fact, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that they are both bad.
But instead of them competing for the starting job this late in the season, it’s the coach’s job to make the decision and do whatever it takes to get that quarterback its ready.
If you want to play Jones, try to boost his confidence. Bring him back to the public. Do what you can to make sure he doesn’t have to make difficult decisions. See if running the ball works.
If not, switch to Zappe. It’s easy to say that Jones is beyond repair at this point. Go to Zappe. Spent a week getting him ready to play. Build a simple, unsophisticated offense that he can master.
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) November 26, 2023
Instead, Belichick opted for an inexplicable midseason competition that brought out the worst in both quarterbacks. They made almost identical interceptions in double (or is it triple?) coverage.
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The Patriots midweek quarterback competition is not what this team needs
The move likely did irreversible damage to Jones, who was benched for the fourth time in 11 games this season. He seems completely broken and needs a fresh start somewhere else. So the Patriots will likely have to turn to Zappe, even though his summer was so bad that the Patriots cut him before Week 1. The second-year man has performed so poorly this season that he just managed to beat out Jones for the starting job Sunday.
All of this combined to make this a lost season. It doesn’t matter what the rest of the team does because the offense is so bad. The Patriots scored three touchdowns and just 30 points all November.
“Bad quarterback play,” Jones said Sunday, summing things up aptly. “If the quarterback doesn’t play well, you don’t have a chance.”
That has been — and will continue to be — the case with the Patriots in 2023.
Even though owner Robert Kraft hasn’t said anything publicly about the job security of the only head coach he’s had for the past 24 years, anyone who follows the team knows Belichick’s seat is too hot. Kraft expects to end this season with a playoff berth.
Instead, his franchise became a mockery. JuJu Smith-Schuster yells at coach Troy Brown on the sideline Sunday. As punishment for not curfew, players are left home for road games (JC Jackson) or cut completely (Jack Jones). The Patriots have won two games this season and none since Oct. 22. Their offense has been tough to watch — and only lost to a Giants unit led by Tommy DeVito. No one knows who will be the starter in the sport’s most important decision. And they’re coming up on three straight prime-time games where the nation will be forced to sit back and watch what happened to Belichick’s team.
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The Patriots shouldn’t fire Bill Belichick now, but after the season, all bets are off
This season is no longer about making the playoffs. That dream died long ago. These last few games are a chance for Belichick to show why he should remain at the helm making all football-related decisions for the Patriots. It’s not just about resting his six Super Bowl rings — not when the Patriots become a laughingstock.
But the results so far are really embarrassing. The Patriots failed to score a touchdown in Germany and lost to Gardner Minshew and the Indianapolis Colts. They have two weeks to sort things out. Instead, they created a pointless quarterback competition that resulted in poor play from both. Any pass either quarterback throws downfield feels like a hold-your-breath, pray-it’s-not-an-interception attempt.
Now, after a loss to the hapless Giants that dropped them to 2-9, the Patriots are in a place they haven’t been in decades. They might be the worst team in the NFL. And the evidence is piling up that Belichick doesn’t have the answers to fix it.
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Buckley: The Patriots put Mac Jones in a position to take the blame but not to succeed
(Photo: Elsa/Getty Images)
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