The 10 Worst Patriots Moments of 2023: No. 7

Our offseason countdown continues with the seventh-worst Patriots moment of 2023.

Our flip-flopping madness continues this week as we all, for some insane reason, recap the season that was for the New England Patriots. Last week had us looking at a good moment, so it’s time to balance things out and take another bite of the turd sandwich.

But first, the list so far:

10. Marcus Jones, Christian Gonzalez, and Matthew Judon are all lost for the season by Week 4.
9. Jakobi Meyers out, Juju Smith-Schuster in.
8. Bailey Zappe closes out the Colts game with an unfathomable pick into triple coverage.

No. 7 puts us into somewhat unfamiliar territory as Patriots fans; then again, that was kind the name of the game for 2023, wasn’t it.

7. Chad Ryland shanks a 35-yard field goal to lose the game against the New York Giants.

Thanksgiving weekend is all about shopping and football. And the Patriots-Giants game that took place on November 26th of last year had both; after this football game, both teams started the process of shopping for new quarterbacks.

Mac Jones vs. Tommy DeVito. What a matchup.

Tommy DeVito didn’t waste any time in becoming something of a legend in the NFL; he still lived at home in Jersey, was leaning as hard as humanly possible into every Italian stereotype you could possibly think of, and he’d managed to win the Giants some games in Daniel Jones’s absence. He wasn’t a world-beater by any means, but then again, neither were the Patriots.

This game went, for the most part, exactly as expected, two lousy offenses trying to outsuck each other. The first ten offensive possessions of this matchup went as follows:

• Fumble
• Punt
• Punt
• Punt
• Punt
• Interception
• Punt
• Punt
• Punt
• Interception

That last interception was a Mc Jones one, at the NYG 23 yard line, returned 55 yards to set the Giants up at the NE 26. Six plays later, it was 7-0 New York, and the way things were going, it was more or less an insurmountable lead.

That pick would be Mac Jones’s last pass for the New England Patriots. Bailey Zappe came on in relief duty to start the second half.

And surprisingly, he came out swinging. New England’s first drive of the third quarter was an 11-play, 60-yard drive that ate up almost seven minutes of clock and ended with a Rhamondre Stevenson touchdown to tie the game. Maybe putting Zappe in there was just the spark that this team needed.

Maybe not.

That touchdown drive represented the last points the Patriots would score on the day. Their next three possessions went punt, pick, punt, and the Giants were able to capitalize on the turnover by tacking on a field goal. The defense was playing well, having only conceded points on extremely short fields given up by turnovers, but since the offense couldn’t get anything going, none of that mattered.

After forcing yet another three-and-out, the Patriots offense took over with just over three minutes to play in the game and the chance for a game-winning/tying drive. This would also be a good time to mention that Gillan shanked the punt a bit and Myles Bryant got a solid return to set the Patriots up at midfield. They needed about two first downs and they were well within field goal range.

And two first downs is exactly what they got. Zappe hit JuJu Smith-Schuster on 4th-and-4 to keep the drive alive, then a big Mondre run brought the Patriots down to the 17-yard line. Just six seconds left to play, so it’s field goal time.

Chad Ryland came out onto the field with plenty of time; both teams called timeouts, so there was no rush. A field goal attempt from the 17-yard line is a 35-yard attempt, well within any kicker’s range.

Ryland shanked it wide left, by a pretty decent margin, and that was that.

One kneeldown from the Giants later, and the game was over. Giants 10, Patriots 7, in what was likely the second worst game of the entire year.

In retrospect, I probably should have ranked this one higher on the list. Not only was it an awful, embarrassing miss, but it also signaled the unofficial end of the Mac Jones era in New England. A player that gave us all so much hope just a few years ago was now sitting on the bench after a stretch of absolutely horrendous play. The Patriots were also coming off a bye in this game too, meaning they had two weeks to prepare. Hands down a low point of the season.

But I have it ranked here at No. 7 because in a lot of ways, that shank was a blessing; had Ryland made the kick, this game goes to overtime, and the way both offenses were playing, there would likely have been another scoreless quarter of football we all would have had to endure before it ended in a tie. And of course, the loss was a feather in the cap for the tank-for-draft-picks-crowd. So it loses some suckitude points for that.

But for those of us still rooting for wins, this was a massive kick to the junk. After two decades of clutch kicking and superior QB play, New England got a double whammy of both in the opposite direction. It’s not like there was any hope to salvage the season at that point anyway, but still… you can’t lose like that.

Check out the kick here. Watch the loosest definition of the word “highlights” you’ll ever see here.