By Tiffany Williams –
The New England Patriots on Christmas Eve traveled to the Centennial State for a week 16 matchup with the Denver Broncos and grabbed a 26-23 dub.
New England’s first scoring drive came in the second quarter after 13 plays and 61 yards, Chad Ryland made a 33-yard field goal.
New England dominated the third quarter with Bailey Zappe completing two touchdown passes and Cody Davis making a one yard fumble return.
New England’s twenty points in the third quarter were the most points scored by the team in a quarter since scoring 21 points in the second quarter vs. Jacksonville on January 2, 2022, in a 50-10 win.
With Russell Wilson’s two TD passes in the fourth, the game was tied at 23-23. But after seven plays and 43 yards, New England brought in Chad Ryland, who connected on a career-long 56-yard field goal with seven seconds to play for the Patriots to grab a 26-23 dub. Ryland’s previous best was a 51-yard field goal at the New York Jets on September 24. It is the fifth-longest field goal in history for the Patriots.
Zappe finished 25-of-33 for 256 yards with two touchdown passes, a 15-yard touchdown pass to RB Ezekiel Elliott in the third quarter, and an 11-yard touchdown pass to TE Mike Gesicki in the third quarter. He had five pass completions of at least 20 yards, with a 41-yard pass to Demario Douglas, a 30-yard pass to DeVante Parker, a 28-yard pass to Jalen Reagor, a 27-yard pass to Parker and a 20-yard pass to Pharaoh Brown.
Ezekiel Elliott on Sunday, finished with nine receptions, the second-most of his career. He had a career-high of 12 receptions vs. Philadelphia on December 9, 2018, with Dallas.
Patriots head coach Bill Belichick at the podium following Sunday’s game said, “That was a wild game. Really proud of our guys, our players and coaches. We came out, had to leave some of our better players in Foxborough. Got off to a rough start, but those guys really battled back, hung in there. Their defense played great in the first quarter and great in the third quarter. ‘Russ’ (Broncos QB Russell Wilson) brought them back and hit a couple big passes today and made some key plays. We missed some, we made some, we made the ones we had to make so, really happy for the work all of the players and coaches put in and how resilient they were coming out here. They were playing a team that’s really been well lately. Like I said, got out to a rough start but we’re able to settle down and play turnover free after the first play and put a lot of defensive snaps out there. Had a couple big plays in the kicking game, both ways, but it was good to make them. It’s good to come out of here and win.”
When asked about responding to big plays, Belichick said, “Everybody was really, really resilient. Defensively, we had a few of those. You can’t control that on defense, you can’t control field position. You have to go in wherever they get the ball. It could be at their one or our one, so whatever it is on you can’t control that. That was a big slot for us, fourth down the first drive and then third quarter is really we control the field position, we’ll take advantage of it offensively. It’s good complimentary football. We got some yards on the return game, so it was a good swing for us.”
When asked about playing complementary football, Belichick said, “It’s a great opportunity to play complementary football. Score, kickoff, pin them down there, get the ball back, get in good field position and see if you can string it together. The turnover was big, but it was a good opportunity, we took advantage of it so that’s probably something we haven’t done enough of this year, but it was good to see it tonight.”
Talking about Bailey Zappe’s resiliency, Belichick said, “I mean, yeah. Him and a lot of other guys. You just have to hang in there and learn from our mistakes. Keep trying to improve and keep moving forward. You can’t look back too much. You look back to learn, but you have to prepare [and] move on to the next challenge. Try to get better. He’s done a good job of that.”
Bailey Zappe following Sunday’s win said, “I’m on cloud nine. I’m going to enjoy these next few days—Christmas and everything.”
Next up for New England is a road trip to Queen City, Buffalo, New York for a week 17 matchup with the Bills.