FOXBORO, Mass. — Things got pretty awkward Monday night at Gillette Stadium.
Perhaps predictably, quarterback Mac Jones looked rusty in his first start in a month, going 3-of-6 with an interception over three drives against the Chicago Bears. Patriots fans, captivated by Bailey Zappe’s surprise success the last few weeks, increasingly booed Jones before Bill Belichick inserted Zappe into the game early in the second quarter.
Zappe was greeted with a thunderous ovation before leading New England on consecutive scoring drives. Cheers for the rookie signal-caller grew louder with each play.
The buzz eventually subsided as Zappe and the Patriots defense cratered during the second half. But the bizarre scene from the first half loomed large after the Patriots’ ugly 33-14 loss, with receiver Jakobi Meyers sounding especially upset with how Jones was treated by the home crowd.
During a postgame news conference, safety Devin McCourty was asked for his message to Jones and Zappe amid all the noise.
“My message to every individual is, ‘We gotta do our job.’ Not just Mac and (Zappe), it’s every individual in the locker room,” McCourty said. “We can’t turn this into what the fans said, what the media said. Each guy has a role, each guy has a job in the locker room. We’ve shown this season when everybody does that, we can go out there and play well enough to win. When we don’t do that, like tonight, whether you wanna talk about who the quarterback was, who the tackles are, who’s the defensive ends, who’s the linebackers, the safeties, the corners — no matter who was in there, what it looked like, I’d so overall it didn’t look good.
“So, I think each individual needs to go home tonight, figure out what we’re gonna do for this week and come and give your best shot.”
The bad news for the Patriots is that Belichick seems content with allowing the drama to continue ahead of this Sunday’s must-win game against the New York Jets. New England’s head coach refused to name a starting quarterback after Monday’s loss while also insisting that Jones’ removal was less a benching and more a health-related strategy.
McCourty wants Jones, Zappe and the rest of his teammates to focus on the things they can control, but Patriots fans might have other ideas — and Belichick isn’t helping.
