Patriots' Horrible Year Capped Off By Worst Punt of the Season

The New England Patriots will, mercifully, play their final snaps of the 2023 season on Sunday as they host the New York Jets at Foxborough Stadium. The simplest way to put it is that the entire season has been one giant example of Murphy's Law for the Patriots; everything, and I mean everything, that could go wrong has gone wrong. Bill Belichick is on his way out, Mac Jones is a broken man, Bailey Zappe tops out as a below-average backup, and the stadium was barely half-full for the season finale.

Punter Bryce Baringer, technically one of the few bright spots of the roster this season who was named a Pro Bowl alternate as a rookie, decided to pile onto the misery of the fans by putting forth a very late entry for the worst punt of the entire season.

In fairness, the circumstances were far from ideal. The snow was falling heavily in New England and the Pats were backed up against their own goal line when they were forced to punt for the third time in the first quarter. But Baringer's punt was still nothing short of atrocious.

Per ESPN, the punt traveled 37 yards. Based on the video above, at least 15 of those yards came after the bounce. So Baringer got barely over 20 yards of air on that punt. Outstanding stuff. Of course, New York failed to capitalize and managed only a field goal off the short field. The benefits of playing against Trevor Siemian.

It would be fitting in many ways for the Patriots to lose this game. Throughout his reign in Foxborough Belichick has hated losing to the Jets more than anything in this world. What better way, then, to send off the all-time great coach in his worst season ever by losing to this team above all others?

The Patriots are doing their best to make it reality.