New England Patriots take Packers to the brink, but no moral victories
The New England Patriots played OK but as expected, they lost to the Green Bay Packers in Green Bay in overtime 27-24 as the Pack was just a bit better.
Though there was no “Mike’s prediction” this week, it would have been that the Packers would take the Patriots out easily. Hello, anybody home?
It wasn’t easy for Green Bay, but they got the win. There are no moral victories in the NFL. You play a good game and lose, it’s still a loss and you lose ground in the ever-diminishing hope of earning a playoff berth.
Let’s take a quick look at the game and its ramifications for the reeling New England Patriots.
New England Patriots were game but a loss is still a loss
At the risk of getting hammered by the “Patriots can do no wrong crowd” who’ll be trying to put a silver lining on another loss, a loss is a loss no matter how you slice it. The team’s fall from grace after jettisoning Tom Brady continues as they now have inexorably slid into the bottom of the AFC East.
The once-mighty Patriots dynasty, fueled by Tom Brady and company, now sits firmly and solely at the bottom of the AFC east, even behind the lowly Jets who sit with a 2-2 record.
So, can Patriots Nation actually take anything positive from this game? It can. They played well enough to push the excellent Green Bay Packers into overtime before they caved. That’s something.
Also, Bailey Zappe, who as this space suggested should have started for the Patriots instead of Brian Hoyer, got into the game after Hoyer went out early with an injury.
If the team used a fourth-round pick on Zappe, then why not throw him into the game? Circumstances dictated it anyway. Fine with that. Zappe was raw, as could have been expected. Yet he acquitted himself admirably.
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He was the better option than Hoyer and he proved it. He went 10 of 15 passing (a nice 66.7 percent completion rate) with a touchdown to DeVante Parker and no interceptions.
His teammates were duly impressed as Matthew Slater noted,
"“Very impressed,” Matthew Slater said. “For him to come in this situation, in this place, with all the mystique. Aaron Rodgers being on the other side of the field, he controlled the ‘controllables’, he stayed poised, he did what he was asked to do. And it speaks volumes about him being a professional and being ready to go.“That’s the first time he’s been active all season. You throw him into that situation and he doesn’t flinch. We’re fortunate to have a guy like that in this situation.”"
The problem was that the rest of the team as constructed didn’t complete the job and pick up the slack for the rookie quarterback.
Again, the reality of the situation is this, good teams (and great if you happen to have a Tom Brady on the team) are built in the offseason. The Patriots’ personnel operation at the moment is still not capable of getting that job done.
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As they say, the proof is in the pudding, and yesterday’s pudding had some sugar in it but ultimately resulted in a tasteless loss, culminating with the Patriots’ precipitous fall right into the cellar of the AFC East.
Sugar-coat all you want, it’s all about the W’s and the game Patriots didn’t do enough to get one against the Packers. It is what it was, just another loss, and the team is now 1-3.