The Patriots suffered their third loss in four games this past Sunday, but Peter King believes Bill Belichick deserves a ton of credit for how New England performed in Week 4.
The visitors strolled into Green Bay hobbled, as wide receiver Jakobi Meyers, cornerback Jalen Mills and starting quarterback Mac Jones all were inactive for the Patriots’ meeting with the Packers. New England’s situation at Lambeau Field quickly went from bad to worse, as rookie signal-caller Bailey Zappe was forced to spell an injured Brian Hoyer early in the first quarter.
Despite all of those obstacles, the heavy underdogs almost pulled off an upset over the Aaron Rodgers-led Packers. Green Bay, one of the favorites to represent the NFC in Super Bowl LVII, needed overtime to take down the Patriots.
In turn, King hailed Belichick as the NFL’s best coach in Week 4.
“All you need to know about the Belichick gameplan is this: Someone named Bailey Zappe played most of the game at quarterback for New England in hallowed Lambeau Field against Aaron Rodgers,” King wrote for NBC Sports. “…The game went to overtime … Zappe had a higher passer rating than Rodgers … Rodgers threw a pick-six to another unknown Pats rookie, Jack Jones … And the Packers needed all 10 minutes of OT to eke out a 27-24 win. The Patriots are 1-3, but if Belichick ever coached a game that was a moral victory, this was it.”
Praising Belichick wasn’t the only New England-related business King took care of in his latest Football Morning in America column. The veteran NFL scribe also criticized Jack Jones for calling Rodgers “disrespectful” after the first big play of his young professional career.
