Ahhhh, there was The Plan.

The Plan had the New England Patriots playing two quarterbacks on Monday night for all the nation to see.

The Plan was explained well by Patriots coach Bill Belichick to Mac Jones, Jones said after the Chicago Bears putting a 33-14 pasting on the Patriots – and said plan. The Plan to play both Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe at quarterback. Who knew preseason extended close to Halloween.

The Patriots have completely botched this quarterback thing, but it wasn’t the only reason they got smoked. Turns out Da Bears had a plan, too, and his name was Justin Fields. He was the Bears only quarterback, the game’s leading rusher with 82 yards, and he threw for 179 yards and one TD and ran for another. Bears coach Matt Eberflus came up with some designed runs that the Patriots hadn’t seen, and simply couldn’t defend.

“More designed runs than we saw on film,” Patriots safety Devin McCourty said, adding, “We never at any point in the game played good football.”

Well, maybe when The Plan had Bailey Zappe enter the game conveniently after Jones threw an interception on a fairly deep and covered route, with the Bears up 10-0. Enter Zappe, two TD drives that took a total of seven plays and Zap! 14-10 Patriots.

But then Fields executed his plan much better than the Patriots did theirs and it was over. Belichick insisted that Jones wasn’t benched for poor play even though the only positive thing he did after he fullfilled his part of The Plan by starting was rush for 24 yards while fans chanted Zappe’s name.Ugh.

“That’s not what it was (not a benching),” but you can write whatever you want to write,” Belichick said. “That’s not what it was.”

Belichick said health was a factor in playing both QBs; it seems like the Patriots’ version is they didn’t think Jones could make it through a whole game. And it looked like it would have taken a whole game to shake the rust off – or for his receivers to get open. Funny, they were strangely open for Zappe on those two drives. Truth be told, the TD pass to Jakobi Meyers was nearly overthrown.

“My job was to go in there and get the ball to my playmakers,” Zappe said. “I need to do a better job of that going into next week.”

We’re getting to the point, though, where there shouldn’t be a next week for one of these guys. Jones had a bad high ankle sprain that has created almost as much drama in four weeks as Tom Brady does.

Both quarterbacks talked after the game, and Jones, knowing he stunk – 3 of 6 for 13 yards – was on the defensive, talking about how he’s fought for his job (our words, not his) all the way back to his Pop Warner days. We were waiting for the lights to be dimmed in the Gillette auditorium to see film of those games, for crying out loud.

“Yeah, I think I’m always going to be a good team player,” Jones said when it was noted that he was the first one to congratulate Zappe after his TD toss. “I did that at Alabama when I waited my turn, and I did it in high school. I did it in Pop Warner. I know I’m a good teammate, and that’s one of the things that I pride myself on the most.”

Good grief. This whole thing is a mess. It started with the stupid offense the Patriots have been running since training camp, clearly helping to regress the team’s 15th pick in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft. Then no one thought Zappe would look as good as he did managing a game. But you saw last night what it looked like when he’s way behind and has to throw, throw, throw (14 of 22 for 185, a TD and two picks).

If Jones doesn’t get back in there and take over the reins soon, it will be worse. He needs to play, he needs to develop, and what’s even more important, the Patriots need a better plan.

“I think Coach Belichick had a really good plan for us,” Jones said. “Obviously, that’s kind of internal stuff, but I understood the plan and what wa going to happen. Obviously wish we got off to a better start and I played a little bit better…”

Jones was asked if he felt he was going to be the starter this Sunday at the Jets.

“I guess when Sunday comes,” he said, “we’ll know.”

Can’t wait to see that plan, can you?

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.