It’s still somewhat shocking to hear just how far the bar has lowered for expected quarterback play with the Patriots over the last four years.

Bailey Zappe was 13-of-25 for 141 yards after finally relieving Mac Jones as the Patriots’ starting quarterback in Sunday’s 6-0 shutout loss to the Chargers. He also carried the ball four times for 16 yards but was sacked five times.

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Bailey Zappe not ensured Week 14 start after Patriots’ continued offensive struggles?

Among 27 quarterbacks with at least 27 snaps in Week 13 so far, Zappe ranked 22nd with a -11.2 completion percentage over expectation and 26th in expected points added (EPA) per play.

Belichick was mostly complimentary of Zappe’s performance while speaking on WEEI’s “The Greg Hill Show” on Monday morning, however.

“I thought he did some good things,” Belichick said. “Obviously, we didn’t produce any points offensively, so that wasn’t good. That wasn’t just him. That’s everybody. We’ve just got to do a better job there. No turnovers at the quarterback position. There were some positive plays. We just need to make more.”

Belichick was asked a follow-up about energy on offense and mentioned, “We had some productive plays. We had a couple of explosive plays. Just obviously didn’t have any points.”

Belichick wouldn’t yet name Zappe as the Patriots’ starting quarterback for the team’s upcoming game against the Steelers on Thursday night.

“Yeah, we’ll talk about the game plan here today,” Belichick said.

There have been four shutouts in the NFL this season, and the Patriots have been on the offensive end of two of those, both of which came at home. Sunday’s offensive performance wasn’t just a middling showing, it was one of the worst of the entire 2023 season.

Belichick wouldn’t pin the offense’s inability to score on just one factor.

“First of all, when we get there, we have to do more with it,” Belichick said Monday morning on a video conference call about being in scoring range. “We had a couple of negative plays in those situations that put us out of — that we weren’t able to convert on. We were on a long field, so that’s always hard to move the ball an extra 30 or 40 yards. But again, look, that is what it is. And if we get the ball there, we still have to do more with it. But we’ve got to — there was one drive that was (13) plays and went down from somewhere around the 10 to the 30. That’s a good drive, but still not really within scoring range.

“I’d say a combination of not having enough explosive plays, not being able to do enough when we were able to get the ball into the plus territory and playing on a long field always makes it just statistically harder to make long drives compared to short ones. Those are some of the things. But again, when we get there, we just have to do more with the opportunities that we have when we get the ball in the scoring area.”

When asked about the sacks that Zappe took, Belichick chalked them up to a “combination of things,” including protection breakdowns, blitz pickup, and getting rid of the ball faster.

Zappe has now completed 50% of his passes this season for 299 yards with no passing touchdowns and two interceptions. He ranks dead last among 49 qualified QBs in both EPA per play and completion percentage over expectation. But it seems likely that he’ll get another start in Week 14 against the Steelers.

“Again, we’re always looking to increase our production on everything — passing game’s a part of the function of the quarterback, function of the receivers, protection, the plays and the way they match up against coverages,” Belichick said. “Just try to keep moving forward and try to maximize every one of those areas the best we can.”

Jones was certainly not the answer for the Patriots at quarterback, but Zappe has continually performed worse now in five appearances.