FOXBOROUGH - The throw of the day Sunday came from second-year quarterback Bailey Zappe. He found Jalen Hurd in the back of the end zone, a perfectly placed ball that drew oooohhhs and ahhhhhhs from a strong training camp crowd. As there had been little success from the offense the previous couple of days, especially in the red area, it was a nice little jolt. Post-practice, Zappe went into detail about how the play went down.
“I’m not going to tell you the exact play, but the defense was in a Cover 2,” he recalled. “We had a hole shot with Jalen Hurd. He had a conversion of a fade and I was able to step up, kinda slide out of the pocket, kinda have a view of the safety. I was able to put it out there, and he made a great play. Like we saw, the back of the end zone, high and away from everybody…I was just able to put the ball where he can go get it.”
Later, Zappe did it again, this time to Tre Nixon. It was essentially the same play, but it highlighted just how different life is the closer you get to the end zone.
“Red zone, everything is a lot more quicker, the field is a lot shorter, the defense doesn’t have to cover as much field down there,” he said. “The decision-making for us as quarterbacks is a lot more faster, a lot more fast-paced. To be able to do what we did today, to score touchdowns like we did, is really good to see.”
Zappe, like the rest of the offense, has had his share of struggles at the start of camp, but you can tell he’s operating on a higher plane than he was a year ago at this point, which should be the case but isn’t always (see Kevin O’Connell and Jacoby Brissett).
“Oh man, about 100% more,” he said. “It’s a night and day difference for me. Just speaking from a defensive standpoint and being able to see defenses, pre- and post-snap has been the biggest thing for me. I think that kind of translates to meeting with both Bills {Belichick and O’Brien}, watching more film, kind of just diving into the playbook and everything and kind of slowing down the game for me.”
Zappe was far from perfect as he worked with what I’d call the second unit. He was intercepted once and should have thrown another that was dropped. But Sunday was a step forward for him, and the rest of his offensive teammates, and with pads coming on tomorrow, the threat of a run game should put them on a more even playing field against a defense that hasn’t had to worry about that yet.
“Real football” said more than one player today.
Thank goodness for that.
