In the first half, Bailey Zappe had three touchdown passes.

In the first half, Bailey Zappe had three touchdown passes.

Patriots quarterback Bailey Zappe with three touchdown passes with 7:38 left in the first half. The Patriots lead 21-3 after scoring 13 points in total throughout the previous three games.

Zappe has just five touchdowns in his career—none this year. At the beginning of the season, the Patriots were ruled out last week.

Hunter Henry, the tight end for the Pittsburgh Steelers, grabbed a precise throw from Zappe over the top of him for his second scoring of the game, which set up his third touchdown pass. The play was 24 yards long.

In August, the New England Patriots hired veteran quarterback Ezekiel Elliott to a $3 million, one-year contract in order to make sure that, in the event that star running back Rhamondre Stevenson suffered an injury, the team would be well-covered.

Elliott has performed well; the most recent example being his 11-yard catch-and-run score on Thursday during the Patriots’ first possession against the Pittsburgh Steelers.

Elliott played every snap on the first 75-yard touchdown drive in lieu of the injured Stevenson, who is sidelined with a right high-ankle sprain. Quarterback Bailey Zappe found Elliott wide open on the opposite side, and Elliott scored unnoticed.

Elliott has not scored a receiving touchdown throughout his previous 30 games. In the 16th week of the 2021 season, he scored his final receiving touchdown against Washington.

After the Giants (20 straight) the Jets (18 straight), the Patriots had gone 13 games in a row without scoring on their first offensive possession. This skid was tied with the Carolina Panthers as the third-longest in the NFL.

In addition, the Patriots made history by scoring on their first drive after the Jacksonville Jaguars of 2021 had shut them out the week before.

Elliott played 38% of the offensive snaps going into the game, accumulating 112 carries for 429 yards with two touchdowns in addition to 24 receptions for 154 yards.

Elliott had already experienced success in Pittsburgh. He totaled 21 carries for 114 yards (2 touchdowns) and a reception for 95 yards (1 touchdown) in his debut season with the Cowboys in 2016. He scored a total of three touchdowns in a 35-30 victory.

In the second quarter, Zappe connected with Hunter Henry for his second touchdown throw of the half, an eight-yard pass that gave New England a 14-3 lead.

Bailey Zappe’s performance during the first half of the game against the Pittsburgh Steelers on Thursday night stunned the whole NFL community.

Since Tom Brady in 2018, he became the very first Patriots quarterback to have three passing touchdowns in the first half.

Zappe erupted for 196 yards and a trio of touchdown passes during the first half of Thursday’s game, after failing to score for the New England Patriots in their loss to the Los Angeles Chargers on Sunday.

Zappe threw three touchdown passes against Pittsburgh’s defense during the first half of “Thursday Night Football” as New England cruised to a 21-18 victory, four days following the Patriots were shut out at home by the Chargers.

Even though the 24-year-old completed just 13 of 25 passes for 141 yards in Week 13, the Patriots were still unable to find the back the the end zone. He did not flip the ball over.

However, things haven’t been the same this week. In the first two quarters of the game against the Steelers, Zappe completed 14 of 21 passes for 196 passing yards, average 9.3 yards per throw.

The Patriots quarterback opened the scoring with an eight-play, 75-yard drive that culminated in an 11-yard score reception from Ezekiel Elliott. This gave the team a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.