Patriots 21, Steelers 18
Q. Take us through, how good did it feel to get out with a win?
BAILEY ZAPPE: Yeah, I mean, it's awesome. Things haven't really been falling our way, but to go out there and play good team football, we had a great first half, there's things that we need to clean up in the second half that we didn't do very well, personally me. But it was great to win and it's a great feeling.
Q. What was your mindset tonight?
BAILEY ZAPPE: Yeah, I mean, just doing what I'm coached to do. Going through my reads, first read's open, take it. We have great play-makers. One on one with our guys, we take our guys any day. Anybody to try to come town and tackle Zeke... These guys one an one, we like that matchup. So to be able to give the ball to Zeke and Flat like on his touchdown, it's a matchup that we like.
We're going to look back at it. Like I said, there's a few things that I missed, like the interception, I have Hunter on the cross. Learn from it and get ready for next week.
Q. What was this week like, a short week, 4:30 in the morning getting up on Monday, you worked after practice, take us through the short week.
BAILEY ZAPPE: Yeah, I think it was a lot different. I think I learned some things as far as like preparation. There wasn't a lot of physical reps, so a lot of it was mental. A lot of it was me sitting behind a computer screen and just watching plays and games after games after games.
I think that's something I'm going to learn from and carry it over to the next few weeks, try to continue to grow as far as what I do during the week before games.
Q. Zeke was talking about the confidence you play with, saying the whole offense can feed off that. Where does that come from?
BAILEY ZAPPE: It comes from those guys. They help me out a lot. They deserved today. To be able to have this moment, have it with these guys, go out there and have the game that we had, was awesome.
I think as far as confidence, it just comes from preparation, what you do in the week before. Also having confidence in these guys, that these guys are going to make plays like JuJu, giving these guys a chance.
That also gives you confidence when you see them go out and make a play. You're like, All right, I'm going to do it again. That just continue to builds with time.
Q. (Off microphone.)
BAILEY ZAPPE: Yeah, 100%. We'd love to have those three guys. Those three guys are a big part of the offense. It's kind of a next-man-up mentality. Looking into this game, D.P. is not able to go, so Jalen Reagor steps up. Rhamondre is out, Zeke has to take the load of it all.
Those guys had a great game. To be able to do what Zeke did today as far as the run game and pass game just shows that he's still the old time Zeke, he still has a lot left in the tank.
Q. Your emotion on the touchdown with Zeke...
BAILEY ZAPPE: I mean, it's really hard to score touchdowns in the NFL. To be able to score touchdowns, you got to celebrate each one. Kind of a weight off our back once we scored. It was kind of just went from there. It's exciting. I'm just glad we won, move on, get ready for next week. For right now we're going to celebrate this one.
Q. Walk us through the 37-yard pass to JuJu?
BAILEY ZAPPE: We alerted to it. My read was a reading certain somebody. That certain somebody drove the quick out, it was one on one with JuJu on the corner. It was underthrown a little bit by me. He was able to go up there and make a 50/50 catch. He's been able to do that throughout his whole career. To be able to throw it up there to him, see him go make that play, especially back where it all started for him, is awesome.
For me as a quarterback, just giving these guys chances to go make plays, and that's what we did tonight.
Q. Inner circle here to watch tonight, how special was it?
BAILEY ZAPPE: I had nobody.
Q. Really?
BAILEY ZAPPE: Yeah. They all watched from home. I don't know. No, I don't want to pay for those tickets (smiling). I'm still on a rookie contract. That's expensive.
Q. On the 24-yard touchdown, fake to the outside, what did you see?
BAILEY ZAPPE: Yeah, it's a read that you've really done your whole life. Pump the screen. If the corner drives it, the safety plays over the top, you kind of throw a whole shot. I didn't throw much of a whole shot. I kind of left it a little bit inside. It was high enough to where it got over him. Hunter made a great catch.
It's the kind of the read, left-to-right read, easy read, read one side, work your way through it. The corner drove it. I ripped it to Hunter, made a heck of a catch.
Q. Drilling those fakes, practicing them, making sure that corner bites...
BAILEY ZAPPE: You try to make everything look the same, whether you're throwing a slip screen, whether you're pumping it. Everything has to look the same. If you barely pump it on a pump-and-go they're going to know it's up. You have to make everything look the same so they can't tell if a slip screen is coming or when a pump-and-go is coming.
Go, Pats.
FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports