Poll: Where do Pats turn now at QB?

Wow. Just when you thought it couldn't possibly get any worse for the New England Patriots' offense, they go and reach a new level of futility not seen in 85 years.

With yesterday's listless 6-0 loss in rainy Foxborough, the Patriots became the first team in the Super Bowl era, and the first team since the 1938 Chicago Cardinals, to allow 10 points or fewer in three consecutive games and lose all three contests.

A few days after getting bumped off Monday Night Football, tickets around Gillette could be found for as little as $10-$20 bucks in the hours leading up to kickoff yesterday, a far cry from the near-$300 get-in price the building maintained for 20 years. As we saw in September with the Sox, when fans lose interest and ticket prices plummet, that's when real change happens.

But for the Pats, there's no point to change course at the moment. The team and all involved are doing a lovely job of securing a top-2 draft pick for next April, especially thanks to Arizona's gift of a win yesterday in Pittsburgh, to bump New England up to No. 2. And don't look now, but the Pats have the strength of schedule tiebreaker vs. Carolina, so should the teams end the year with the same record, it would be the Pats who receive the better pick.

It's actually a masterclass in tanking if you choose to look at it that way. Amid the franchise's worst start to a season in 30 years, since beginning the 1993 campaign 1-11, Bill Belichick's defense is still keeping (albeit pretty atrocious) opponents out of the endzone and showing that top-level QB play would have even this terrible team within sniffing distance of .500.

The team made the switch at QB and Bailey Zappe, to his credit, didn't turn the ball over but also failed to do much else. Not that it really matters at this point, but after seeing four quarters worth of Zappe time, who would you put under center for the next must-lose Pats game on Thursday night?