While no official announcement has been made, the Pittsburgh Steelers should probably anticipate seeing QB Bailey Zappe under center for the New England Patriots. Head coach Bill Belichick opted for this past game to make the move to Zappe from Mac Jones, and though things didn’t get any better—as in, they didn’t score any points—indications point to him sticking with that change.
Zappe, a second-year quarterback out of Western Kentucky, completed 13-of-25 passes against the Los Angeles Chargers for 141 yards with zero touchdowns and zero interceptions. He was also sacked five times. But Jones wasn’t offering much. Now Zappe makes the second trip to Pittsburgh in his career, but this time in a much different role.
“I was able to be there last year”, he recalled, via the team’s website, as an inactive. “I got to kind of see it from the outside, kind of like a fan view. It was pretty awesome. That field—I don’t even know, what is it? Acrisure? Heinz Field—I mean, it’s pretty legendary. The Steelers organization is an awesome organization. They’ve been good for a long time. To be able to play them at their place is pretty unreal”.
It’s rather amusing, I’m sure, for Steelers fans to see that even opposing players want no part of calling their stadium Acrisure. The new name was adopted for the 2022 season following the conclusion of a 20-year arrangement with Kraft Heinz, with Acrisure the new recipient of the naming rights contract.
But it’s not the catchiest name in the world and the company has no meaningful history with the region. People just generally don’t like change all that much, so it’s no surprise that many, many fans of the team still continue to call it Heinz Field.
As for the last time Zappe was here, that was all the way back in Week Two of the 2022 season. Jones was the starter and veteran Brian Hoyer was the backup at the time, so he was a healthy scratch in just his second career game.
The Patriots ended up winning 17-14, never trailing at any point in the game. They pulled away 17-6 late in the third quarter, but the Steelers were able to make it interesting with a touchdown to TE Pat Freiermuth at the top of the fourth. A successful two-point conversion (to WR Diontae Johnson, no less) made it a three-point game with roughly a quarter to go, but despite possessing the ball twice more before the clock struck 0:00, they failed to even pick up another first down.
That game was started by Mitch Trubisky before he was benched two weeks later in favor of then-rookie Kenny Pickett, and he will be starting this game as well. Pickett suffered an ankle injury on Sunday that required surgery, and he is expected to miss two to four weeks. If he can make it back in time for the finale, he will have one more game left to play at Heinz Fi—Acrisure Stadium.
