The New England Patriots closed out their season with a 17-3 loss in the snow at Gillette Stadium Sunday.
The loss brought the Patriots' record to 4-13, helping to secure an early draft pick at the 2024 NFL draft.
For Patriots fans, the game was in many ways overshadowed by the questions swirling about the future of head coach Bill Belichick. When the game ended, he walked across the field with a ski mask over his face for what many have speculated could be his last game in Foxborough.
The Patriots' 4-13 record is the worst finish in Belichick’s 29-year NFL coaching career.
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The season had begun with hope for a Patriots team poised to recover after missing the playoffs in two of the three seasons following Tom Brady's departure. Instead, injuries and an anemic offense sank a team that once won 11 straight AFC East titles. New England ends the year at the bottom of the division and conference and have guaranteed their first draft pick in the top three since 1993.
The Jets' Breece Hall rushed for 174 yards and a late touchdown as New York snapped a 15-game losing streak against the Patriots, since the 2010 AFC divisional playoff round.
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Sunday’s loss marked the 178th of Belichick’s career, including the playoffs, tying him with Tom Landry for the most ever. It also ties the record of 165 regular-season losses held by Jeff Fisher and Dan Reeves.
New England now shifts to its most uncertain offseason of the past two-plus decades, with Belichick’s future with the team in the spotlight after 24-year tenure during which the Patriots won six Super Bowl titles.
Belichick and team owner Robert Kraft are expected to meet Monday to discuss the coach's future with the franchise.
Kraft will have to decide whether to part ways with Belichick, only the third coach who has worked for him since purchasing the team in 1994. With 333 victories, Belichick is currently 14 wins shy of equaling Hall of Fame coach Don Shula’s record of 347, including the playoffs.
The Jets led 9-3 when they went for it on fourth-and-1 at New England’s 37 with less than four minutes left, but Hall was stopped short and New York turned it over on downs.
But on New England’s ensuing play Bailey Zappe was sacked for a 16-yard loss and then intercepted on the next play by Ashtyn Davis. But Davis was stripped of the ball by Mike Gesicki and Vederian Lowe recovered for the Patriots.
New England’s momentum didn’t last, with Zappe intercepted two plays later by Tony Adams. Two plays later, Hall sealed it with a 50-yard TD run and 2-point conversion run.
The weather affected both offenses, particularly in the passing game.
In what has been a microcosm of the entire season, New England struggled to sustain drives and managed a season-low 120 yards. Zappe completed 12 of 30 passes for 88 yards and two interceptions.
With injured quarterback Aaron Rodgers looking on from the sideline, Trevor Siemian made his third consecutive start in his place of Zach Wilson, who remained out with a concussion.
Siemian finished 8 of 20 for 70 yards.
