Curran: It's OK to feel good about a Pats loss, and other Week 4 notes

It will always be The Zappe Game.

The same way people of a certain vintage would have remembered Scott Zolak, his six-shooters and his first NFL start if Zo hadn’t gone on to be a shades-wearing, gravelly-voiced radio celeb, you’ll remember where you were and who you were with when you watched Pats-Packers in 2022.

Exceeding low expectations spawns giddiness. Winning or even near-miss performances when everything screams "they’re f-----!" leaves an impression.

And the impression that The Zappe Game leaves is that the 2022 Patriots have the requisite resourcefulness and the trademark grit of a Bill Belichick team. At the moment.

Patriots Talk: Aftermath: Moral victory? You betcha! | Listen & Subscribe | Watch on YouTube

It can be fleeting. We said the same last year when the Patriots secured a noble loss against Tampa Bay. And they were pretty grit-free by the time January arrived.

They felt resourceful in 2020 when they demolished the Chargers, 45-0. Four days later, they lost to the Rams, 24-3, and it wasn’t nearly that close.

But this year’s grit’s been building as opposed to the peekaboo grit we saw the past two seasons.

The cascade of criticism is slowing to a trickle. A summer of "In all my born years, I’ve never seen an offense look this bad … ever …" (and it really was that bad) has given way to three straight weeks of regular-season games where stuff is getting done.

Regardless of how much the Steelers suck, the way the Patriots closed out the final quarter in Pittsburgh was -- chef’s kiss. And, turnovers be damned, Mac Jones’ performance against the Ravens featured some of the best throws and plays of his young NFL career. And finding a way to make one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history look sub-pedestrian for a half at Lambeau Field is no small accomplishment.

So it’s a better-feeling 1-3 than an improvement-free 1-3 would have been.

Cue the "NO SUCH THING AS MORAL VICTORIES!" and "YOU ARE WHAT YOUR RECORD SAYS YOU ARE!" smoothbrains. Sorry, there are moral victories. And while your record reflects what you’ve done, it doesn’t necessarily reflect where you are headed.

Here’s a handy guide to a few moral victories the Patriots enjoyed and used as springboards through the years.

We'll start with the second half of the 2014 bludgeoning by Kansas City that dropped the Patriots to 2-2. They went on a rampage after that and won a Super Bowl.

In 1993, a 17-14 loss at Pittsburgh helped propel a truly terrible Patriots team with rookie quarterback Drew Bledsoe and head coach Bill Parcells to a four-game winning streak to close the year.

The following year, they made the playoffs. But even during that 1994 season, a 13-6 loss to Bill Belichick’s Browns in which Parcells made the Patriots run, run and run some more helped build a personality that went away from Slingin’ Drew. The Patriots won their last seven (and Bledsoe threw it 70 times the following week).

The 1996 Patriots used a 12-6 loss to the dominant Cowboys as fuel for a run to the Super Bowl. The 2001 Patriots' 24-17 loss to the Rams during the regular season led to a nine-game winning streak and their first Super Bowl victory.

If you live in a context-free world or still think it’s 2016, a 24-21 loss to the Packers in which the offense went 3-for-11 on third down and threw for 136 yards would be an abject disaster.

But if you understand those Patriots aren’t these Patriots and that these Patriots started from here (hand way down by my feet) and have gotten to here (hand near my waist) you can take the pretty good with the correctable bad and march forward.

I enjoy hammering the lack of succession plans at quarterback and offensive coordinator and the annual burning of second-round draft picks as much as the next miserable media member. But those ships have sailed. Assessing the reality of where the 1-3 Patriots are right now? Better than expected.

A few other nuggets from Zappe Day:

Just don't with the QB talk

On a few occasions last week, I was asked whether maybe Bailey Zappe should get the start over Hoyer. I said -- repeatedly -- absolutely not. Bailey Zappe needed to stay as far from the field as possible and continue doing whatever it is Bailey Zappe does during games in this, his first NFL season, after coming from Western Kentucky.

I proudly stand by that. Just because young Bailey got a 100 on his test, that was not objectively good quarterback play.

He was 10 for 15 for 99 yards. Twenty-five of those came on the touchdown pass to DeVante Parker which came after the play clock expired. And that play came AFTER THE PATRIOTS WERE PENALIZED BECAUSE THE PLAY CLOCK EXPIRED.

I'm not slamming young Zappe. Hats all the way off to a terrific performance relative to expectations. I'm just saying that's absolutely as well as it could have possibly gone for him. Sometimes, in an emergency, you plug a leak with some newspaper and it holds. But you don't want that to be the long-term answer. 

Hoyer was 5 for 6 for 37 yards in 16 plays and 10 minutes of action. If he can go on Sunday against the Lions, he should go. Obviously, that will be this week’s chew toy along with Mac Jones' status. But if you find yourself tempted to posit aloud that there’s a budding quarterback controversy, say it into a pillow so nobody hears.

Happy returns

Between Zappe's play, Jack Jones’ pick-six and fumble recovery, Marcus Jones’ special teams contributions, Cole Strange’s continued stability at left guard, Rhamondre Stevenson blossoming into one of the NFL’s least-fun-to-tackle running backs and the already-established work of Mac Jones, Christian Barmore and Kyle Dugger, the Patriots are finally stacking seasons of drafts where multiple players become big-time contributors.

Perry: Patriots' rookie class flashes upside in loss to Packers

From 2013 to 2019 the Patriots missed too often, especially high in the draft. Even though they nailed a bunch of UDFAs (David Andrews, Malcolm Butler, J.C. Jackson) and later picks (Trey Flowers, Joe Thuney, Shaq Mason), they never hit the mother lode the way they appear to have done the last two seasons.

Will he ever return?

Isaiah Wynn got benched on Sunday. Marcus Cannon, shrewdly signed a couple weeks back, stepped in at right tackle and stabilized things.

It’s fair to wonder whether Wynn will ever return to the starting lineup unless injury forces the Patriots' hand. He’s had some abominable days and was on the scene Sunday for the sack that drove Hoyer from the game (Pete Kendall, the longtime NFL guard and Patriots Talk Podcast guest, thought Wynn may have been held on the play) and also the hit that caused Zappe to fumble.

Almost more maddening was the fact Wynn had a false start on Zappe’s first snap -- when the Patriots were first-and-10 from their 8 -- then got called for a hold on the VERY NEXT PLAY!

Wynn, a 2018 first-rounder, is making $10.413 million this year in salary, second only to Matt Judon’s $11M. Talk about taking a flamethrower to a stack of cash.

It’s all so perplexing. It’s also something I wrote about in June when wondering whether the Patriots should try to move Wynn then. Here was a bit on Wynn from last season.

According to Pro Football Focus tracking, Wynn allowed six sacks, five QB hits and 28 pressures in 2021. He also drew nine penalties, which put him in the top 20 among all offensive linemen in penalties against. It was puzzling because there were games Wynn looked terrific and games he just lapsed.

So after three years battling injuries that limited him to playing in just 30 of the Patriots' 48 games, in the first full season Wynn played he was less effective than imagined. Not a disaster. But also -- at least to this point -- a player the Patriots are likely not willing to make a long-term commitment to with a new deal.

Wynn wasn’t at any of the OTAs that media attended. He was at mandatory minicamp, which was the first time we saw him flipped from left tackle to right tackle. He missed a bunch of training camp practices with injury. And he’s Heisman’d every invitation during media access to explain if he’s pissed, sad, happy, ambivalent or none of the above. Which, of course, is his right.

But it remains really hard to figure why a guy who does have the physical tools to be really good commits so many seemingly unforced errors.

In other financial news...

Through four games, Hunnah Henry, Jonnu Smith, Parker, Kendrick Bourne and Nelson Agholor have combined for 43 catches and two TDs. That's 20 combined games among the five. And 43 catches. So individually they are a little better than two catches per game.

By contrast, Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill have 52 catches between them in eight combined games. Better players, sure. But yeesh. 

The aforementioned fellas are making $28M in combined salary this year. Gonna be looking for heftier returns there.

Half full/half empty

Could the Patriots be 4-0? Is it encouraging that they are -- but for some stupidity and bad luck (missed blocks and tackles in Miami, turnovers vs. Baltimore and injuries in Green Bay) -- that close to unbeaten? Or is it a characteristic of middling teams that they find ways to lose? Discuss.