It’s hard to envision that there could have been a more fitting final sequence to end Sunday’s New England Patriots-Indianapolis Colts game. And yet, the beautiful disaster that was the NFL’s final international game of the 2023 season ended on an interception, which was thrown into triple coverage, on a designed fake spike.
Bill Belichick’s reaction said it all.
As did Rich Eisen and Jason McCourty’s call for NFL Network.
“A Bailey Zappe fake-spike leads to a game-sealing interception,” said Eisen, who called his second and final game from Frankfurt on Sunday. “Words that I didn’t wake up this morning here in Germany think that I’d be saying.”
"A Bailey Zappe fake-spike leads to a game-sealing interception. Words that I didn't wake up this morning here in Germany think that I'd be saying."- Rich Eisen
"I'm in disbelief of just the sequence… [Bill Belichick's] look right there sums up their season…"- Jason McCourty pic.twitter.com/IiKNzsexm9
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) November 12, 2023
That’s because it was Zappe, who replaced Mac Jones on New England’s final drive of the afternoon. Clearly, out of answers, Belichick turned to his backup quarterback for a spark, as the Patriots just needed to find paydirt to avoid their would-be eighth loss of the season.
To that point, Jones completed 15-of-20 attempts for 170 yards with zero touchdowns against an interception. Zappe had completed three passes in relief of Jones before the Patriots converted on a 4th-and-1 from their own 40-yard line.
Running out of time, Zappe tried to pull a Dan Marino, but he wound up looking more like Dan Orlovsky. (Sorry for the ricochet shot, Dan).
He was intercepted by Colts safety Rodney Thomas II and that was that.
“I’m in disbelief of just the sequence right there,” McCourty, the ex-New England Patriots star said. “They go to the running play, OK? You pick up the first down. You think they’re gonna spike the ball, get their wits about, and figure out what’s next. They go with the fake spike. JuJu Smith-Schuster is one-on-one on the outside, so maybe you give him a chance. Instead, Bailey Zappe here throws it over the middle into a team meeting of Indianapolis Colts and they make him pay.”
And Belichick, McCourty’s former head coach was made to pay as well. He seemed to have sympathy for the 71-year-old future Hall of Fame coach, whose look summarized just how badly things have gone for New England as of late.
While the game was it was, Eisen and McCourty did a spectacular job of encapsulating the final moment; the icing on the cake to one of the worst games of the season.
[Awful Announcing on X]
