This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan Lazar and Alex Barth.
Blazar and Lazarre.
Hell, everybody nailed it. Joined us always by our bar.
Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Barr.
The general sense or feeling that I get around the team right now. This is not a report, So Dov climbing like, don't don't hit me with the I'm just telling you.
Was always king telling you what I'm feeling as a person that's around the team quite a bit. Catch Catch.
What What's going on? Everybody a new time, New time morel a ten am. Patriots Catch twenty two And this might be a permanent time for us Barth because the.
Patriots of the regular city.
Yeah, the Patriots have decided to change up the locker room schedule a little bit, and so because of that, we we have moved into the mornings so that Alex and I can go and uh and do our our our day jobs, as I like to call him, and actually you know, talk to some people and cover the team and you know, do some some big jay journalism potentially, I don't know, I don't I don't think we do much of that, but we try I mean, you.
Were all hot and bothered about the thing I wrote about punting the ball off the scoreboard in Dallas. That was as close as journalism as like. Yet meanwhile, that game ended up that ended up being an afterthought.
Yeah, yeah that that was not a factor in that game. But what is a factor? And I want to talk about this off the top from a big picture since, but the Patriots won a football game, Alex, on Sunday. I don't know if you if you heard the Patriots won a football game on Sunday against the Bills, a twenty nine point offensive breakthrough. Can we can we call it that offensive coming out part signs of life life? So maybe that's that's where we're at. And I think that, uh,
you know, my my initial thoughts on it. And on Tuesday, you know, I'm damned if I do damned if I don't, Alex, because I I have been negative for five weeks, six weeks of the season, rightfully, so at one in five and you know they're too negative, YadA, YadA, YadA. Then then I give everybody their flowers on Tuesday for beating the Bills a game they haven't won in like five years,
like literally, and uh. And and now I you know, too positive a fair weather fans that the other thing, all right, whatever the point is is, h I think that this is one of the hardest things about being so entrenched in the Patriots world and having to cover the team on a day to day basis, in a week to week basis, is that it's very difficult even for for us to not ride the wave of the season, right, Like, when they lose, it's everybody stinks and everybody should be fired.
And when they win, it's so well, playoffs back on and there's a path and you know five and five at the buy is in play, and like all you know, all that type of stuff that we talked about on Tuesday,
And that's difficult. And I think what the most important thing that Sunday taught me, and you know, just looking myself in the mirror and say, hey, you got to be better about this a little bit, is that you have to see the long game here, right, And I think we all we all recognize that this team has flaws. We all recognize that the team building philosophy of this
regime and its current state has flaws. Based off of what we've seen in the first seven games of the season, and one win doesn't completely abolish them from all the
things that have gotten us here. But at the same time, we have to wait, unfortunately, I think, until we make a final declaration on the coach and you want to call them the g to you know, Belichick just in general, Mac Jones, the whole operation, until we get to January and we see what the record is and how the season looked, and you know, I think it's beyond just wins and losses. It's also just how it feels and how it looks, and how they play and things like that.
And right now we're in the roller coaster. We're on the roller coaster ride. But at the same time, we got to be able to see the forest through the trees sometimes. And that's where I'm kind of at right now, is you know, resetting the state of the Patriots a little bit off the top here, and how much does this win against the Bills, which again is a game just in terms of the way that it unfolded, and
also the fact that it's the Bills. They haven't won this game in three or four years, really since Brady in nineteen So how does this change your overall outlook of the team moving forward.
So everything you just said about you know, we gotta ride the wave and things are gonna change, we gotta do a show today. Well, here's the thing, I don't know. I don't know that I learned anything. And here's what I mean by that. Here's what I mean by that. Okay, what did they change? What was different in this game that they suddenly won? Mike and went who played right tackle to Mario Douglas, played a significant amount of game. They used their pass rushers as pass rushers and their
coverage players as coverage players. They ran the ball. Who's been talking about if you start doing some of the well, it can be collective. It's both of us. But I'm saying, like when when we were out of camp in the summer and we were you know, we were coming on here saying, hey, you know there's something here, and we're getting calls in YouTube coming. Oh no, it's three win team. It's a four win team, and all those people are
trying to take the victory lap. Right earlier in the season when we said this is you know, an eight nine win team, they'll push for a playoff spot. This is the team we saw. This is the team we were talking about. Now, I'm not saying like everything. I don't think mikeun Winn, who could have been playing right tackle all season. I know he was hurt. He didn't play.
I know he couldn't write yeah tomorrow. Douglas had concussion and also just is a rookie year and he's a rookie and they have to you know, they shouldn't have. They were a little too aggressive, was sitting him down after the fumble. But I understand easing him in two Like I get these things. But it's not like they came out. Did they do anything on Sunday that you watched and were like, wow, what a what a wrinkle? Yeah, couldn't have seen that coming.
You did not couldn't see it coming. But I thought that they went in the first five weeks of the season and this really started at after the half in Vegas, Like I would say this really started in the third and fourth quarter against the Raiders. They just they didn't make the changes on the offensive line, and they didn't have they didn't have pop right it he was out with the concussion. So those two combinations made it so that it wasn't quite as good as what we saw
on Sunday against Buffalo. But I would say that the biggest change, and this is why I've been giving so much praise to Bill O'Brien and the game plan and the play calling on Sunday, the biggest change was this
the way they played offense. Like they they went from they went from me screaming about how archaic they are on offense and they're just running the ball up the middle with no window dressing and no motion and no thread of an RPO or play action or anything, to all of a sudden, now they they that opening drive where you know against Buffalo, I know they only got a field goal out of it, but just the way they moved the football, they look like the Miami Dolphins.
Like they come out and first play they're they're motioning Douglas and throwing the ball to him in the flat. The next play they're they're building off that motion and they're running the ball off motion, and then they're bootlegging and hitting Faroh Brown for on the on the boot action and it's like, oh, like, what whose offense is this?
Like where did this come from? So I think my biggest takeaway from that on an offensive perspective, and this is what I think you're kind of getting at is I think they were always building up to this point.
So that's kind of my point. And I'm not sitting here saying, oh, they should have used that game plan like the first seven weeks this season. I get they couldn't for various reasons, so they probably could have done it more than they did.
But I did try it. I just don't think that the effectiveness of it was anywhere near as good.
In some maybe, but I this is the offense you're expecting them to run the whole time. Rights That's kind of my point. It's like, hey, the stuff we talked about this summer when we were optimistic is still there. It took them a while to get to it. For various injuries, coaching decisions, other stuff. It took them a while to get to it. But the stuff that I'm sitting there, it's, you know, the Leo DiCaprio meeting where
he's porting at the TV. That was me is like seeing the Patriots, seeing the training camp Patriots show up in late October and it's like whoa, yeah, there they are. That's kind of what this game was for me.
Yeah, I just I think The main thing that you saw that was so so different about it is how much window dressing the offense has. And when I talk about you know, you're talking about motion, right, Like whether you're actually giving the ball to the player in motion or he's just running across the formation as a threat of getting the football. Either way, it's manipulating the defense.
It's causing some sort of chain reaction in the defense, whether it's a communication thing or it's you know, moving bodies literally of like, okay, we're in man coverage, so now we have to follow the player in motion, which makes this a three receiver side and now that's a two receiver side. And it just changes the picture for
the defense. And it does it instantly at the snap, So you have to do this on the fly and there's no real pre snap time to communicate how we're going to handle this, and Buffalo had a really difficult time. I felt like, not just handling the motion itself, but then also handling the chain reaction as a result of
the motion. And that was what I really took away from this game was how much they are motioning, how much they are running RPO now, how much they are sequencing the motion into the run game, like that very first form Andre carry that goes for fourteen yards. Like there's orbit, then there's misdirection in the blocking scheme, and there's all these different moving parts, And like I said, it looked like the San Francisco forty nine ers, Like
there's just so much different things going on. And I think from Bill O'Brien's perspective, you mentioned the injuries and the guys that have been out and the offensive line and things like that, I think that they were always trying to get to this point, and I think it was always going to take time because these types of offenses that run their system like this, it doesn't happen overnight. You have to build up.
I guess where I come from with that. Remember at the end of camp they were talking about how they were like ahead of schedule. Yeah, yeah, So that's where I'm like, they were a head of schedule and that it took them seven weeks.
I just well, I don't know, I get it. I'm not saying the two are different.
I'm not saying the two are contradictory, Yeah, right, because they where you are in camp and where you are facing actual opponents are two different things. Right, was this weird dichotomy of they finished camp so strong, yeah, and then to start the season the way they did was a little jarring.
Yeah. So I think they were always building up to this point. I think a couple of things happened. One obviously the injuries on the offensive line and just the offense in general not really finding a rhythm of players that they could use every week in and week out. Then you have, I think secondly to that, you really you had to give Bill O'Brien some time to figure
out how to use the personnel. And we're at that point now, and I get that some of us could have looked at it, and some of us did and said, oh, well, shocker, Like if you feature Kendrick Bourne and to Mario Douglas and you move on Whenny to write tackle like, it's gonna look it's gonna be better, right, like like a
big surprise. But I still think that when you have a new coordinator and you have a guy that is trying to install a system and trying to get his system up and running, it's gonna take time for him to realize. Juju Smith Schuster on jet motion is not having the same effect on the defense as Pop Douglas in jet motion, right like that, just those two things
are not equal. And early on in the season, if you look at it from more of like a rate standpoint or an actual volume standpoint, they were using a lot of these motions and things like that already early on in the year, But unfortunately, the guys they were doing it with just weren't making any sort of impact on the defense when they did it. They were doing it a lot with Juju, They were doing it a lot at a heavy personnel grips with Micah Sicki.
They tried it with Devonte Parker at one point.
Yeah, like it just it it wasn't effective, right, And now all of a sudden, they look at it in week seven and you're seeing Pop Douglas, you're seeing Kendrick Bourne, you're seeing Taekwon Thorton. Maybe we'll see Jalen Rager, which we can talk about in a little bit as well, if we want to go there. And you're seeing these faster players being used in these in these schemes, and now all of a sudden, it does have an impact on the defense, and it does make an impact on
the whole overall offense. So I think they were always building up to this point. And the last thing I would say is that I truly and we knew this all along, just in terms of the longevity of the team as well. But I think in the first couple of weeks of the season, they were really hoping the defense was going to carry them, and they knew that the offense was gonna take some time. There was a lot of work, and we knew this as well. There was a lot of work to do on the offensive
side of the ball for Bill O'Brien. He had to figure out the offensive line, He had to put the quarterback back together, he had to figure out what he had personnel wise in the skill position groups. He had to integrate some new faces in that skill position group, you know, new tight end, new receivers, things like that. And there is a lot to fix from last year, just bad habits, poor fundamentals, like all these types of things,
and that stuff was not going to happen overnight. So what happened, in short, is that the loss of snowball on them quickly early on in the season. I think that they thought, all right, if we're two and four, three and three, and then the offense starts to hit its stride. Week seven, Week eight, now we have a
we're humming right right. Unfortunately, what happened was they got blown out and back to back weeks and all of a sudden they're one and five and they look up in the season is almost over essentially, So I think that that's all well and true. The last thing, you know, from a big picture standpoint, I wanted to talk about was was Mac and just the way that he played in this game. We're gonna do three up, three down, and I'm sure we'll talk about him a little bit
more during that as well. But with Mac, I came away from this game. For the most part. There were some Dallas New Orleans Mac moment where he had happy feet in the pocket and was panicking a little bit under pressure and things like that. But I would say, on the whole, his footwork, his mechanics in the pocket, his reads, his timing, his trust of the offensive line was night and day compared to what we saw in
the previous three weeks. And you know, we have all of us, and I'm gonna I'm gonna say all of us and speak for everybody. We have all been really critical. I think at different times of Mac Jones, and he has gotten a lot of heat locally here in this market, and understandably, he hasn't played well this year a lot, you know, on the whole, he has not played well in this season, and he didn't really particularly played well play well last year either. But he's gotten a lot
of heat. And as much as you know, Rob Gronkowski doesn't want us to celebrate like we're winning the super Bowl and things like that for beating Buffalo, I do think that it's okay to give him some flowers that he played a good game and in the fourth quarter, he was excellent in this game, probably his best fourth quarter that if we take out the like the the fake comebacks right like when they're down by fourteen, and he puts a couple drives together in terms of just
going toe to toe with Josh Allen, this was probably his best fourth quarter as a Patriot. And obviously that that game winning drive, I had a couple of really really high level throws and plays by the quarterback to get them down the field. I know the screen was kind of the big play that kind of got things going, but obviously the third down throw. But I really thought that the throw to Parker on the slant, the throw to Remandre underneath on the little angle route, in the
touchdown throw. All those throws I thought were good high level quarterback play, and he got them down there. He won the game, and you know, I'm glad. I'm happy for him because you just like shut up some of the doubters and some of the haters myself included, honestly for the first six weeks of the season, and uh, you know, it was great to see it. And I now, like he said, yesterday, god do it again, right, Like it's one thing to do it once, but now you
got to keep doing it again and again. And uh, you know, I I look back on it, and I do wish that I was like a little less critical of him in the first six weeks of the season, not because, like I, but we have been on this show pretty pro Mac and yeah and pretty uh you know. We We've told you guys why we feel like he's
not succeeding here. And I feel like we've blamed the right people for his failures, right, Like, I don't feel like we've been wrong to blame Belichick, to blame the supporting cast, to blame whatever abomination.
That coach, and we put to blame on Mac as well on Yeah, but I think we've carved up that blame pie pretty fairly. Yeah, it's kind of my take on Mac is kind of the same as my take on whole game. That's the guy we're talking about this summer when we said, hey, look he's bouncing back. They may have something here, they may have fixed them. That that's the guy and I when you protect him, he distributes the ball. Well, that's what the offense should look like.
The really interesting number Evan I thought from that game he had not just a season low, but a career low average depth of target, but his highest yards per completion of the season. And that's Mac Jones make the read, distribute the ball, and when you have playmakers around him, when you have guys like to Mario Douglas and guys like Kendrick Bourne who can create after the catch, that's how you get this thing going. That is exactly what
their offense should be. That's what all it should have been. That's what it looked like. The bigger now, the overarching element of it is I think that game, for better worse, was the Patriots best punch. I think that's I think there's another I think maybe there's like one more level, but that's about what you're gonna get. How many more times can they throw that punch? That's it And and that applies to mac Jones as well. That's mac Jones in his element, and he can play a little better
than that, but that's mac Jones in his element. He hasn't been in his element. I thought he I know, you don't think he was. I thought he was in the Philly game, but that was two months ago. Now, Yeah, how many more games can you get were mac Jones in his element? How many more games can they max out? Because if it's they got ten games left, right, they're not gonna make nobody MAXs out one hundred percent of the games. The best teams don't do it right. Patriots
almost did once. Uh, if you get eight more games of that, and that doesn't mean they win every game, Like, I don't know, do they beat the Chiefs playing that way? I don't know everybody else on their schedule they probably do. Yeah, but just with injuries and things that have gone on, Miami will be tough. We'll get to that. But do you get eight more games of that Patriots team. Do you get five more? Do you get two more? Do you get any more?
And I think that's kind of the question right now, right, And that's how you determine, like off, you know, kind of my big picture takeaway, that's how you sort of determine where you go from here twenty four exactly.
And I thought, you know, Greg Bedard wrote something after the game that Mac checked all the boxes he needed a check or he answered all he said. Greg said, he answered all the questions. I agree ninety percent with that. I think in terms of handling pressure, in terms of the fourth quarter comeback, in terms of you know, the whole twenty five points thing, the opponent scoring twenty five it being Josh Allen in Buffalo and a team that
had haunted him. There was one box he didn't check in that game that he was never going to be able to check in that game. And that's consistency. And that's where this this should have been the conversation we were having week one, Week two, Week three was all right, you did it, great, Can you do it again? Can you do it? Over the course of the season, it took us two week seven to get to that conversation
but here we are. We've seen him do it, and there's been people trying to tell us that he couldn't do that. He just did it. Can't take that away from he just did it. But now it becomes all right, can you it doesn't have to be every week, but more weeks than not. Can you do that in a significant portion of the weeks? Can you do it where you dig out of this hole, you get back to
five hundred, you make this a playoff chase. And I think most I'm talking about the team as a hole there, not just Mac, but I think for Mac importantly, we
can bring this concept back. Now. Can Mac lead the team that way enough times that they win enough games that they're not drafting in a spot where they can get his replacement, That they're not picking high enough to draft Drake May, that they're not picking high enough to draft Michael Penix, And maybe they do the Jalen Hurts thing and they take a quarterback in the second or third round, but those guys aren't immediate replacements.
Right.
That's where Mac Jones is at right now in terms of the twenty twenty four outlook. Right, Yeah, it's so much easier to move forward as a football team. If you don't need to draft a quarterback, it's so much easy.
Oh yeah, no, then Marvin Harrison Junior is back on the table. Joel if shan or on the table, Jared Verse, if you want to go the eye, I wouldn't, But I.
Think the tackler wide receiver is on the table. You're gonna like people don't know who any of these people are. Tackle or wide receivers back on the table and building. Mac Jones keeps playing with Mac Jones is back on
the table. And that is a much to get to from point A to point B. That's a much faster line, yes, right than it is to start all over with Drake may or Michael Pennix and build the whole thing back up, because then you don't have that asset anymore, right, if you don't have the first round pick anymore to draft Unfortunately you know they don't have two first round picks like you know, like the Texans.
You just you have to be confident that Max the guy you're gonna give that extension. That's basically or at least pick up the fifth fifth year eyes. I think you're confident if he plays that way, that's a guy extend. That's a guy you can build around.
I definitely think you're trending towards the fifth year option at the very least.
I will say this though, Yeah, so I think the Patriots played well independently, I think they executed at a good level. Yeah, I don't know when we get to the end of the season if Buffalo is going to be as quality of a win as we think it is right now.
Oh god, we can do that in the Sunday. You can take your victory lap on the Bills. In a second, but last couple of things here about about this game from you know, kind of a bird's eye view, and then we'll get into some calls and we'll do three up, three down. Last thing on Bill O'Brien, I think you know some of the things that you talked about in terms of the stats, like his average air yard per attempt and how efficient he was despite really not throwing
the ball much down the field. To me, that's a scheme stat like that, that's a play calling stat. And when I tell you, I truly think that this is one of the best coordinated games on both sides of the ball that the Patriots have had in my time covering the team, Like it's up there with some of the game plans that they had in like eighteen and nineteen.
To me offensively, Bill O'Brien created all those easy access type to throws for mac Jones right, using the motion, using the quick game, using the horizontal width of the field. The Patriots are still still even in this game, the Patriots can't throw the ball vertically down the field. They have no vertical threats even like Pop Douglas is the
closest thing that they have to it. But like that's more of that fifteen to twenty five yard range right seam throws things like that, you know, slot fades or he drops it in the bucket, you know, farrow brown right seam shot, like you know, twenty twenty five yards. They don't have a vertical element of the game. So what Billy Oh has said is, all right, you guys are gonna play a lot. You're gonna crowd in the
middle of the field. You're gonna play man coverage on the outside, or you're gonna play match coverage on the outside, and you're gonna make us beat you down the field. So what we're gonna do is we're gonna spread you out. We're just gonna run a horizontal stretch type of offense to spread out the field, and it's gonna create openings and conflict in the short part of the field for Mac Jones to just make the layups in this offense.
And I really thought until they got into that fourth quarter and they needed him to make some money throws in the fourth quarter a lot they were carried in the first three quarters by the play calling, Like they were really carried in that sense, and they created a lot of these different openings for Mac to make throws that he's capable of making off of window dressing, off of play action, off of RPO, like at all these
different things. And that's that's their offense. Like, that's gonna have to be the way that they scheme it up. If you're not gonna be able to challenge defenses vertically down the field, you have to be able to stretch it horizontally, right, And that's where all these different things that we're talking about came into play in this game, and that's how they were able to do that. Defensively, I think girod Mayo and Steve Belichick deserve kudos as well.
I thought that that game plan was the best they've had against Josh Allen in a couple of years. They did not do what they did last year against him.
Can I rephrase that?
Sure?
I think it's the best they've had against Diggs. I think what they did against Alan was similar. I think it's more changes on the back end. I don't know, I might disagree with that, Okay. I think Diggs would have had a huge game of Fallon played better. Oh no, that's true. But they didn't. What I meant was the last couple of years they faced him, they just took a corner, stuck him on Diggs shadow with help, and
it just wasn't enough. They changed the looks and Digs still beat them some of the time, certainly, and he had two walking touchdowns that Josh Allen just missed, like missed. But it wasn't just jac Jackson shadowing Stefan Diggs's safety over the help. It was jac Jackson, it was Jack Jones, it was Jonathan Jones. There was some more zone mixed in there, like they gave him. It felt like the last couple of years Stefan Diggs knew just like all right,
if I run by this guy. That's it. That's it, and it's gonna be the same guy every time, and I can kind of work and work to release package and figure out the tendencies and once I have that down, boom, I'm gone. He couldn't do that. There was no rhythm, there was no pattern. Well, I think through the kitchen sinkat.
I think the lack of rhythm and pattern was because of the pass rush. They they blitzed down fifty percent of the time, okay, and they came after him and what they they had a great rush plan of like sending five or six guys, but then one guy would like hang back. It was a lot of the time it was Juwan Bentley and spy him, and so when the pressure flushed him, they had a set like another layer of pass rush.
So there's kind of like what they did against Jalen hurts a little bit.
Yeah, yeah, uh yeah, I think so right, I'm trying to remember that.
I think that was more done. It wasn't so much that was more like they'd flush him to have a spy. This was more they would have, like I guess it layers. I don't know what the technical term would be, like layering the rush itself rather than a spy might be the better way to phrase it.
But yeah, this this one, I think that you know, Bentley was a spy, Yeah, a true dedic spy in a lot of these cases. But I think what the big thing is is that in past matchups against Josh Allen, they have allowed him to extend plays like with points. Like it's like calmly, like just kinda da da da da da da da. Okay, Like I'm just gonna run over here for a little bit and then run over there for a little bit, and you can't cover my guys for five seconds, like you just can't. So eventually
somebody's gonna come open. In this game, when Allen was throwing with extended play, he was throwing under pressure, and he was throwing early, like they made him throw it and make a decision quickly when he got on the move instead of letting him just delay delay, delay, and then all of a sudden, you got you know, Digs down there, you got gave Davis, you got the tight ends,
and someone's gonna get open eventually. In this game, they did a really great job of pressuring him initially and then having that second wave to kind of pin him to the sideline or make him make a throw quickly and on the move. Even rushed and he just he looked panicked, like he looked disheveled in this game, and you have to get him. We we talked about this last year. I'm trying to remember how he phrased it, because I think we phrased it the right way. But
they remember last year we had that. I think it was going to the second game like they didn't they didn't hit him.
Last year.
They were very they were like dropping eight guys into cut like they were trying to know.
But I mean, I mean even when the guys, even when people got to him, they weren't finishing their hits. And this game, like he that whole second half, most second half, he takes a hit from Christian Barmore early. I don't remember it was a sack or a pressure, but he took a hit from Barmore early in the second half and the rest of that game, if you go back and watch it, he's wincing every single play. He came in with a bad shoulder. And they tested it.
They basically tested it. They said, how And I think that's part of the reason too, he didn't run as much. They basically said, how much do you want to put your body on the line in this game? Yeah, And I think you need to do that against Josh Allen.
I think that in past game plans they have played coverage, they've dropped seven guys, they've dropped eight guys at times against Josh Allen, and they have basically just been patient and hope that he makes a mistake like that, like they just want him to make a mistake. And in this game, it felt like they did the total opposite. They said, we're gonna come after him, We're gonna pressure him, We're gonna make him make plays on our terms instead
of his terms. And that was my whole thing going into the game was that, you know, he's to me, he's the most dynamic, extended play threat in the NFL right now. He's Captain Chaos, right Like he can play in that style all he wants. But in order to combat that, I think, you know, a lot of teams look at it, and I think the Patriots looked at it this way. In the past, it was we got to keep him in the pocket, we got to make him play in structure. We can't let him extend plays
on us. Instead in this game, they fought chaos with chaos. They were like, all right, we're just gonna come after him and we're gonna make him make throws rushed in on our terms, and we're not gonna play coverage and we're not gonna play quite frankly, like scared that he's gonna hit us with a big play, and yeah, maybe he'll get one or two, and he got, you know, the one to James Cook, like a twenty eight yard or off an extended play, but we're not gonna worry about him well going on.
It's that thing I always say every time, and I didn't say it this week ironically, or last week when the Patriots played the Bills, right that I bring up the Ravens in Matthew Judah saying, yeah, we weren't afraid of Brady because we knew if we do what we do, like we're NFL players still Yeah, And it felt like there was an element of that. But within all that and the scheme's c I don't want to take anything away from the scheme. I feel like that's what this
sounds like. It's not. Yeah, but that only works if you're getting them, and Christian Barmore and Anthony Jennings were. There were a couple other guys that got in there here and there, but felt like every other play was either Christian Barmore or Anthony Jennings in his face, PFF had Barmore down for four pressures. That feels very low. Uh. Those two guys made this happen, I think more than anybody else. Christian Barmore and Anthony Jennings were Josh Allen's probably seeing them in a.
Couple time that entire defensive line played out. They played great game, Davon Godshot played it great.
Yeah, they played incredibly well and they deserve a ton of credit for It's a good game plan. I don't want to take away from the game plan, but as any coach will tell you, right, yeah, players have to make the plays, and those guys, but this was.
Such a different they they did not. This is such a different approach against him. This was more what they did with him early on in his career and when he flipped that switch from being the quarterback that he was in his first couple of seasons to you know, a guy that's finishing top five and MVP votes. They got scared. They they played conservative against him in this game.
They almost went back to like what they would do against him in like twenty nineteen, you know, and they were they come after him instead, and yeah, they they had. He got out of probably four or five sacks, you know, avoiding pressure, seeing blitzers laid and and you know, kind of sneaking out of pressure. And I know that that sometimes drives people nuts, like when you know, Miles Bryant comes on a blitz and he can't get him on
the ground and things like that. But it even though he didn't get him down like that, it that was the goal, right, Like they succeeded even Yeah.
Myles Bryant's not tackling Jos on the open field. It's not happening.
All right, let's let's do let's do three up, three down. Then we'll open up the phones I have, you know, we do this sometimes, like when they were playing poorly, I had like five duds and two stuff. I have four studs for you this game, all right, ain't gonna you know, give them their flowers? Right, my number one stub from this game. And I went back and forth on who to put number one, but I ultimately settled on Mac Jones. I just think that this was his game.
You know, this was his his shining moment, his signature win, whatever you want to call it. We went over some of the things that I thought he did really well in this game, but really the throws in the fourth quarter stood out. The third and eight, the seam throw to Pharaoh Brown, the seam throat to Pop Douglas I
thought was a great throw as well. And also just the amount of times that he you know, got them into the right plays or made adjustments at the line of scrimmage, that type of stuff, the chess match type of stuff. He's really starting to take another step forward, and you know you combat it with Okay, he doesn't have the physical tools as Josh Allen. We've been over this million times.
You have established he's not Patrick Holmes.
Yes, in this game, the Patriots, with all the blitzing that they did against Alan, Alan really struggled with setting protections, getting himself protected against the blitz knowing when he was hot, like things like that. And I thought, conversely, on the other side, you saw the brain power of the Patriots quarterback, like, yeah, he doesn't have the ability that Josh Allen does. But Josh Allen's running for his life on one side because
he can't get the blitz blocked. And Mac Jones is out there field general style, getting everybody in order, getting the blitz blocked, and just making the simple throws and the simple reads. So I have Mac Jones as my number one stud in this game. Where are you at?
I think my number one is probably Christian Barmore. I mean, Mac Jones is on my ups, but I just kind of said it. I think Christian Barmore this is a couple of weeks in a row now, Yep, he's been a game wrecker. This is the guy we saw coming out of Alabama. A lot of people were surprised he ended up being a first round pick, interior nightmare pass rusher. I think part of it is he's finally healthy. And
Bill Belichick kind of alluded to that yesterday. He was asked about what he's seen from Barmore this year, and he said, you know, he's been training as hard as he's been able to going back to the summer, and that alludes to him being fully healthy. This is the guy they thought they were getting when he's fully healthy. Member Richard Seymour's name was getting thrown out there a lot. When he is drafted, people whispered, Aaron Donald, pump the
brakes on that, right. No, I'm not saying he's gonna be an NFL Hall of Famer, but it's like the guy he's been the last few weeks. That's the guy. That's the guy I thought we were getting, and he's been. He's a big reason it was as close as it was I think against the Raiders, and he is as big a reason I think as anybody that they beat the Bills, and more importantly, they finally shut down Josh Allen.
He was excellent. And I think there's two things that they really challenged the defense on this week, and one of the biggest things was interior pressure pressure up the middle on Josh Allen because they knew that they couldn't get they couldn't unlock the edges to go after him because then he's gonna get out of the pocket, right, So they really wanted to keep him in the pocket as much as possible, but then have the interior pressure through the middle of the pocket so that he couldn't
step up and through the pocket. So they did a great job of that in this game, really across the board on the defensive line, I had the entire defensive line on my ups if I wanted to bar more Wise, Godshow, Jennings, all those guys were phenomenal in this game. Devon Godshaw just like dominates against the Bills. I don't know what it is about the interior of the Bills, but he has had some of his best games as a Patriot against the Buffalo Bills. The win game was probably his
best game period as a New England page. I remember that he was awesome, but this game was close. He just dominates this matchup. And not only was he holding the point of attack and eating up blocks and doing all the nose tackle stuff, he had three quarterback pressures in this game as well. So he just continued to absolutely eat alive. Uh this this pass rush and this we could.
Yeah we got. We had a little uh a rumor. The Marine's not the greatest when it comes to parody account. There was somebody tweeted and it's you know that account that tweets like the fake quotes of the players.
Yeah look at it.
Yeah Boston Cream got me. Yeah, So the tweet I think it has been deleted. I can't even find it. Oh God, here the Raiders agree.
Las Vegas Raiders have agreed to trade wide receiver Hunter Renfro to the New England Patriots for a twenty twenty four first round pick.
And this is not true.
But then at the bottom it says the Patriots, however, did not agree.
Fake news alert. Yes, okay, anyways, yeah.
Too excited. I apologize. I'll say this because now people ask I have no interest in the Patriots trading for Hunter Renfro, not.
Mean me neither.
He hasn't been good in two years. He makes a lot of money.
I've always liked him.
I know you have. But he's kind of cooked. And they now have what six receivers on the act of large, like if you can one for one trade like Devonte Parker for him to unload that contract, I guess. But giving up a draft asset for Hunter Renfro, Yeah, yeah, I think there's other areas of the roster they could address.
Yeah, that's fair. Anyways, great game by the defensive line, Godshaw wise far more Jennings Tavi. Did you know his divide do your job type of thing?
Yeah?
But yeah, I think Devine gotscha. I I really good game for him in this one big reason why they were able to control the line of scrimmage. All right, Uh, but I got two more, maybe two more, one more, big one.
I can't remember.
Let me look at our list here, Yeah, two more, two more. Going back to the offense, I almost had this player number one in my list. Pop Douglas, I mean Pop Douglas in this game was This was an excellent wide receiver game for the Patriots that I don't know if I've seen a wide receiver for the Pats maybe other than some of the games that Kendrick Bourne has had over the last couple of years. But this was as good of a game for any of the Patriots receivers in a little bit.
Uh.
He was dynamic, he was effective in this game. He was open the entire time when especially when Buffalo played man coverage. Big part of it was the was the motion and thing like that moving him around the formation. But he's so good at that and he's so perfect for that role. The comparison that I would use of how they're using Pop Douglas like he's basically discount Tyreek Kill, Like he's there, like he's being used like Miami would
use Tyreek Hill. He is just obviously not Tyreek Kill, right, and they're using him in a similar fashion, and he's he's just been super super difficult to cover, great with the football in his hands. A couple of avoided tackles in this game. Very first play of the game, he spins Tron Johnson around like in a blender. Then he gets, you know, the the jet suite breaks the tackle there as well. He drew three penalties in this game, a
couple of pass interference calls, a holding. This was a dominant game by him in a lot of facets, and it's exciting to see a Patriots receiver play that well. He needs to be as involved as anybody else in this offense moving forward, and you you can't feed that guy enough, like you give Pop Douglas enough opportunities in this offense moving forward. So I had Douglass as another up in this one.
Yeah, I just kind of combined all these Bill O'Brien. I thought the usage of Pop Douglas, I thought the usage of Kendrick Bourne was excellent, and those guys played outstanding as well. But yeah, when you get those the playmakers the ball in their hands in open space. It's excellent. I thought the the the attack plan was good, really And we'll get to this when we talk about Miami. The balance of how much each guy played in terms of the skill positions and who played with who running backs,
tight ends, receivers, I thought that was a really good mix. Now, there were some guys that played less that you think might play more. There are some guys that didn't play at all that we're gonna have to figure out what they're gonna do with.
We can get into that.
But I thought I thought the whole plan in that regard was just excellent. Yeah, I thought it was really good.
The last one I had was was Mike Onwinnho. I mean, I think you got to give him some credit in this game. Look, I don't think he's perfect as a tackle. I think some of the film, you know, his range, like his footwork and his ability to hit landmarks. He has a little bit of a short corner. He does like he plays tackle like a guard and that's okay, especially on the right side where Mac can see the
pressure coming and step up in the pocket. And he is so much better, so much better than Vederian Lowe that even though I excuse me, I still don't think
he's a tackle. Okay, I know people want him to play tackle permanently, but he is certainly the best tackle right I understand though, and I think that based off of some of the comments that we heard from Bill Belichick, even Bill O'Brien and Adrian Clem, why there's some reservation from the player and the coaching staff for just to call him a tackle and to call him a right tackle. He he's a guard now. He's there best right tackle right and he's gonna have to play right tackle the
rest of the year to give them a chance. But that doesn't necessarily mean that his long term home should
still be it should be at tackle. With that being said, in this game it was so much better than what they had in the first six weeks of the season that he deserves all the credit in the world for moving out there playing out there well, and it was It was good to see them finally make that move, like we've been saying that, and I've been dismissive of it because I never thought they were actually gonna do it. It took them being one in five and in like
true desperation mode for them to make that move. But they finally made the move and it was the right move to make.
Yeah, he has to play out to the rest of the season. I understand the long term questions. Yeah, he has to has to has to play out to the rest of the season. He's their best right tackle. If they didn't want that to happen, they should have put more into the position in the offseason, plain and simple. I have two more yes, Ezekiel Elliott.
Yeah, was really good.
Again that touchdown specifically, that's when they signed him back in the summer. That's the play they had in mind because he gets stone Walls at the two yard line. That one actually wasn't blocked. Great, he got Stonewall at the two yard line and what does he do. We refuse to leave his feet, keeps twisting his body falls into the end zone. That is old school Zeke. Remember we talked about this when he signed. Yeah, I don't
know that he's a breakaway runner. He was, but if you need a yard, you need two yards, He's gonna get you two yards. That's what that run was. And then the other one. The rookie specialists wasn't all perfect on special teams. Fair enough he had the penalty on Brendon Schooler. Yeah, couldn't get the field goal un and on. But Bryce Baringer didn't shank his first punt of the game, so that was nice. And he put both his punts inside the twenty and Chad Rolland had a sixty four
yard Yeah, Chad Ratherands three for three. So those guys showed up. They did their jobs. That's kind of what you just want those guys to do. Not flashy, excellent good stuff from them.
Tyler Bass a really good kicker.
Tyler rat remember the Tyler Basstard Rego of Blanconship, The great Tyler Bastard Rego Blanket Ship Debate of twenty twenty.
It was, It was great, It sure was. Tyler Bass is a really good kicker, and he had a lot of trouble in the conditions on Sunday.
Andy kind of got built, took a shot at him after the game till.
The forty nine yarder that that Rylan made. That's not an easy kick, especially given the stakes of you're in the game against Buffalo and you're trying to keep the momentum moving forward and you're trying to get points on a drive a forty nine yarder and in some tough conditions. I think the wind was swirling a little bit in the stadium that day. That was a good kick. That was a good kick by the rook Ye good kick.
I know. It's not like a fifty six yarder, right, so on paper it doesn't look you know, you should be making the majority of your inside fifty kicks, But that one I thought was a tough.
Foot for a guy that And look, he's been asked to make a lot of tough kicks and you don't expect him to make all of them. But misses or missus and those away on you. For a guy to come back and respond the way he did, yeah, I thought was excellent. Matthew Slater said after the game, like he's Ryan's very mature guy. Yeah, wise beyond his years, I think is what's later said he kind of is it. The big thing with kickers is that short memory? Right? Can you move on from the last one? Right?
Yeah?
You don't. You can't scout that And like maybe guys do in college, maybe they don't. But if you're still, if you're a multi year starter, chances are you're not imploding every time you miss a kick, But yeah, it's different in the NFL, and you can't tell that in practice, can't tell it in the meeting room, can't. I know, they try asking questions at the combine and guy preseason because he never took a kick, right, so you don't really see it until you see it. How does he
respond to missus? And Chad Royland responded well this week?
Yeah, I thought he was good as well. And I agree with you on Zeke and basically, you know, I like the aggressiveness that they called, like that play action on third and one early on in the game, the completion to Pop Douglas, Like, I like that they were a little bit aggressive and short yardage in this game, but in general, I don't see how you can make that Like that's your short yardage offense, right, whether it's goal line, whether it's third and one, giving the ball
to Zeke or then play action to you know, get the defense opened up. But because they think it's going to Zeke either way, like that should be the Patriots short yardage offense moving forward. All right, I got two duds. You know, you win a game against.
Oh wait, I had one more, Sorry, I had one more. Okay, Yeah, I'd be remiss if I didn't give this one. Jabrill Peppers. Yeah, he is good. It's not just what he did during the game final. What do I say every time they play Josh Allen? Yeah, when he throws you one catch it, he did it. Yeah. I thought he was good in that sense. I thought he brought a level of physicality. Evan, I gotta tell you, though, I am ready to get over. I'm ready to just go all in on Jabrill Peppers.
He's good play.
He's a good player him. He's a good leader. Did you see him giving the speed? How many guys can cut off Matthew Slater and be like, hang on, I gotta say something and then stick the landing. This is a guy that is just turned twenty eight, so he's not Yeah, but he's definitely not old, just turned twenty eight. He's a leader, he is a tone setter. Do you remember my like loose comp for him before the season.
God, you're you're you're comparing Christian Barmore to Aaron Donald.
And now I didn't do that. I said other people did.
And now you're gonna compare compare Jabriel to Rodney.
Harrison as close as you can get in the modern game. No, that is a guy that sets. He's been great. He makes He's playing like a top ten safety in football right now. He's the highest graded run defender in the entire league ansy position. He's playing like a top ten safety in football. He's setting the tone you want your defense to play with. He's a communicator on the field, he's a leader off the field. He's bought into the program entirely. He got to ask after he got to
ask after the game. Peppersy's like, how do you keep playing? Keep it up when when you know you're one to five? Is you got to play football for the brand? That's what they want to hear. This is the guy. We've talked a lot with their lack of extensions in recent years about like who's the core, who are you building around? Who's going to take this team into the next era? That guy, that's the guy. I'm almost at the point where and we I don't know, this guy's one of
your duds. Maybe this leads into it. It's been a tough year for Kyle transitioning to free safety. If that's the role they want him to play, I would almost just let him walk. Yeah, sign Pepper's put him full time in that box safety role and then go out and get an actual real free safety, whether it's being free agency, the draft, whatever. I'm like, I'm really getting there.
So I love Jabriel. I would also say that I've tried to ask him. I know this is like kind of tongue in cheek a little bit, but I've tried to ask him questions about like what coverages they've been in and stuff like that. He won't tell me. They love that. There you go, don't give don't give me the game plan, right, Like did you ask him?
Well?
And he was like, if you can guess what the name is, I'll tell you.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And so that that he he loves messing with me on that, And I know that they like that because other guys will just like come out and and I never say, like this guy told me right, but other guys will will just tell me what stuff is called and things like that, and I know they hate that. So yeah, he's My point is he's drinking the kool aid right like he's he's on the program.
And I think that's important too. When you start talking about giving players extensions or giving them, you know, keeping them around long term and things like that. We know unfortunately for better. So let me just real quick.
For some reason people think he's a penning for agent. He signed through twenty twenty four, so you don't have to necessarily extend him, but not right now. But like that's the guy next offseason, next offseason, especially if he has a good maybe one of those like good camps and like get some of the money. All right, let's get into some get into the duds and then I promise, I know some people have been waiting on hold for a while.
We only have a couple, so, you know, good game, so I only have two. Uh, you mentioned it already, Kyle Duggar, Kyle Duggar in this game. I feel for Kyle Duggar. I do. And uh, this is something that we talk about it a lot with quarterbacks about like how you can ruin a guy's confidence and you know, ruin a guy change the perception of how a player looks because of the role he's playing or the supporting cast or the play calling or the coaching or whatever.
I think the Patriots are doing the equivalent of what they've done at times with Mac Jones to Kyle dugger right now by playing him out of position, he's not a free safety. He looks lost there. He looks just not good. He's not been a good player playing that position. Point plank. He had a number a number of mistakes in this game trying to play the deep part of
the field. Gave up the two point play that covering tight ends in the red zone and in the end you know more, I should say really in the end zone has been an issue for him. He let Stefon Diggs. I gave. I gave that half and half half to JC, half to Kyle Duggar, but the deep shot is Stefan Diggs. He was at least half responsible for covering that throw and that should have been a touchdown. He he just doesn't look at home playing the deep part of the field.
And if I'm the Patriots. In the very first rep of the game, which was the interception by Jabriel Peppers, they did this Mills in the deep middle with dugger and Pepper's in the box, right, Like, let those two guys play where they need to both play. Play Kyle Duggart closer to the line of scrimmage, and I think that he'll be better, But he's been lost back there.
You know, you start jotting down notes as you're watching the film and the amount of you know, to use a badardism, like the amount of minus plays that I had for Kyle Dugger in this game. It was starting to add up quickly on him as the course of the game went on. So it's tough. It's not his fault, is what I'm I think Kyle Duger is a talented player. I think he's a much better football player than what
he's shown. He's just playing out of position. And I also wonder how much of this is he's had to take on a much bigger communication and leadership standpoint without Devin mccordy, right like, in terms of being the back end field general. And I wonder if there's somebody else, whether it's Mills, I don't think that's really Peppers is necessarily thing. But if you play Mills in the deep middle, he knows the system, he's been here a couple of years.
Maybe he can take some of that responsibility off Kyle Dugger's plate. But Kyle Dugger is a C ball, get ball kind of player, and right now it looks like he's overthinking everything that he's doing. And it's costing him in a lot of instances. So he was my number one dud and really, like the only true dud I had in this game was Kyle Dugger. But I have one more guy that I that I need to bring up. But what do you have?
J C. Jackson? Yeah, I I don't know, all right, let me rephrase that. Actually, because Jackson made some good plays in this game against the guy that's given him a lot of trouble in the past. Yeah, just tackling, Yeah, tackling. And J C. Jackson's mistackle was the worst. I mean allowed a touchdown. Ironically, it might have saved the game because it allowed the Bills to score quicker. Ye, so the Patriots had time to come in the other right, But I'm not gonna credit for that.
I don't like, I agree with you that that was you know, that was a bad mistackle. Steve Belichick is like, let's tone it down with the zero blitzer, is all right? They sent the house up two scores with like five minutes to go in the game.
I thought he had a little Brian Floresa.
He went won too many right, he went to the well won too many times on that one. So I give that to like half JC Halfstein, but you.
Had Jewan Bentley missed the tackle in the open field. That's Bentley. He also and this is why I can't put any of these guys directly in the downs because Bentley had that big pass breakup on fourth down. That was a nice play. But Bentley's that's tackler. That's the guy. Kyle Dugger missed some tackles in this game. Adrian Phillips missed a tackle in the open field. These are some of the best tackling players on the team, and coming in the Patriots had been by most major metrics the
top five tackling team in the NFL. So you look at this and you say, all right, was it a blip or is this something we need to be concerned about. I'll say this, Tyreek Killer, No, you can't miss tackles against the Miami Dolphins, right That is the last thing you can do again the Miami Dolphins. So we'll see if they bounce back this week. Would be a they need to bounce back this week if they want to win, But you can't. They got very lucky to win that game.
Tackling the way they did. It was a bad tackling game.
Yeah, I agree wholeheartedly. Last one here, last dud Taekwon Thornton.
Taekwon Thornton. He can't really play just in general, okay, but also I think he got benched in this game because he continues continues to run the wrong rounds like and if you can't if you're not going to run the red like, the quarterback can't trust you, right, So like, even if you're open on a play, if mac Jones doesn't feel like he has confidence and where exactly Taekwon Thornton's gonna end up on the play, then he can't throw them the ball. So why have him out there?
And the fact of the matter is, and they signed Jalen Rager to the fifty three reportedly, I should I should say reportedly signed Jalen Rager to the fifty three this morning. And he's been passed on the depth chart by Jalen Rager and Jillenberger is a former first round pick that's got a lot of talent, natural talent in
his own right. But this is a guy that was a bust, right, that has been a journeyman essentially after the Eagles drafted him the first round and didn't work out in Philadelphia, so Taekwon Thorn has been passed by him. He played three snaps in this game. The very first play after the Jubril Peppers interception, they try to take a shot. They go under center play action. They run like a deep shot type of route concept and it's
cover three. The Bills do a nice job of recognizing, like the crosser from the backside which is Taekwon, and then the vertical from Jalen Rager, and all Taekwon's got to do on those routes, you know, he's running it over and a lot of teams that run those types
of concepts, it's a Shanahan Tree concept. They'll they'll make it an overstop, which means that if you see the boundary defender fall off the vertical and he's just sitting there waiting for you, instead of continuing running across the field into the coverage, you're just gonna sit down in
the middle of the zone. And Taekwond just keeps running like if he had just sat down in the middle of the zone, he's gonna be there for completion and said he keeps on running into the sideline and gets himself covered and mac Jones ends up having to throw like a wild check down to Zeke Elliott and they
didn't get it. Luckily, they still score on the drive, So I guess, you know, in the big picture, no harm, no foul, But he didn't really play after that, and that tells me that he probably ran the wrong route and that.
Yeah, I mean we talked about the margin ferrer with this team that's not that big, and yes they ultimately ended up scoring, but that might not be the case next time. I have one more down. Yep, actually sorry, I have won more very quick up. Oh silver pants, silver pants got to be it up Mike Vrabels speech. Won't throw him out too. We gotta win. That was interesting. Yeah, one more down, Cleat Blakeman, what we Yeah?
No, that was yeah what is he talking about? There?
Nineteen flags? So the thirteenth most penalized game of the year. Yeah, non in the ones they didn't pick up. Yeah, I'm not. I don't think he cost either team the game. It was nine to eight terms of penalties, but there were they all ended up evening out. Yeah, so I don't know that he impacted the outcome, but boy did he make that game unwatchable. All the times him and his crew.
Yeah, slowly. I gave him a little bit of credit though, for for picking up the illegal man downfield on the mare screen on the game winning time.
Yeah, they got that correct.
They got that correct. My guess is why New York got that correct. They probably buzzed and be like, guys, this is not like we can't call this here.
Too many too many flights. Yeh, let him play.
I agree. All right, let's open up the phones, and thanks so much for waiting on, holl We had a lot to get out about this game and finally a win to talk about some positives right to come away from this game. So if you guys are still hanging on, we appreciate it. Eddie is in La. What's up about Eddie?
What's going on? Guys doing well?
Yep?
You two went by the team last Sunday. Man.
That was very enjoyable football to watch from them, really enjoyable.
Yeah.
So what I want to say is the whole thing he has just brought up with Jalen Rager. Obviously he was, you know, a first round pick one before Justin Jefferson. So I feel like that kind of talent, whether it didn't work out early on in his career or not. I feel like that's just talent that you can't ignore. And what I want to know from you guys is just what have the Patriots seen that the Egles and Vikings couldn't see in him that made the Patriots sign him on the fifty three men roster.
Yeah, thanks for asking the question, Eddie, because I did want to touch on this subject. So a good question. I think that there's a couple things I asked Belichick about this yesterday. I think we all had it. I'm not like I wasn't like revolutionary and thinking that they
might sign him to the fifty three man roster. So Belichick mentioned plays in practice, like he was he's flashing in practice and making plays on the scout team, and then that kind of translated into all right, let's put him into our offense a little bit and see if he makes plays in our offense. But I think the biggest thing is is, you know, obviously the practice habits everybody that we've talked to, Mac Jones, Bill Belichick, Bill O'Brien has pointed to the fact that he's made plays
in practice. But I would also just mention that they needed some speed on the outside, and if it's not going to come from Taekwon because of reasons that I just broke down, they needed it from someplace else. And I think that that's been the revelation to me with Bill O'Brien is that he has recognized when we're Parker, Juju, Henry Giesicki, and even if we put out Pop Douglas or Kendrick Born in that grouping, that's probably the slowest twelve personnel grouping in the NFL. It's just there's no
speed on the field. There's Kendrick Bourne type speed like explosiveness, but there's no actual vertical element to that grouping other than like a jump ball to Devonte Parker, which let's face it is not efficient and really doesn't do any good. So Jalen Rager adds that element to it, and I think that they've really welcome that and rightfully so. I also think, you know, in terms of him versus Taekwon, because that's really where the battle is, right you know,
it's two speed guys who can win that job. Jalen Rager and the opportunities that he has got, I think has been a decent blocker. He Honestly, he sprung Pop Douglas on the jetsweep like that was his block on Pop Douglas's man is a reason why Pop was able to turn the corner. So I think he's made some good blocks. And you know, Taekwon is just not going to be a guy that's going to be a high level blocker because of his size. So better blocker than Taekwon,
A good vertical element, good speed. I think that that's what they've seen in Rager, and I'm interested to see how his role expands or doesn't moving forward and what they really look at with Devonte Parker and Juju. I think that this is one of the more challenging things for this coaching staff the rest of the season, Alex is do they have the kahones to sit down there two most expensive receivers like that?
Right?
Not every coaching staff and not every GM is gonna be willing to say, let's just eat was it? I think combined almost twenty million dollars plus of salary on these two guys because we have better players, and not not every coaching staff would do that.
Yeah, that's what they're gonna have to do, I'll say quickly on rager with the team seas. I don't know that they see anything in particular, but they have a history of just you know, hey, something made this guy a first round pick once upon a time. Yeah, clearly didn't work out. But maybe it's not that they see it, but it's it's it's they want to see, right, let's see if we can tap into whatever those other teams could tap into. We saw them bring Corey Coleman in
on the practice squad. The Quan tread well, this has worked out better. Well, I joke like if Nikhil Harry hadn't been drafted by them, he probably would have been on their at some point.
I was surprised that you know, who is it that was released earlier this year that they didn't bring in.
I don't know I can, but this is they've done that, like they've had a history to it and this one's it's working out it And we always say, you know, people are oh, they signed Corey Coleman, Like why aren't they actually trying to make a move. It's like it's not this isn't the be all end all, But if they hit on one of these guys, and I don't know that they've hit on Raager, but it's a numbers game. As for what they need to going forward, I said it before.
I think the.
Usage distribution last week is what it needs to be. Kendrick Borne should still play the most. I really like Pop Douglas, but he is still a rookie. Kendrick Porn has that chemistry with Mac Jones.
He's your best receiver.
That's a guy needs to be on the field. What he played ninety eight percent of the snaps, ninety six percent of the snaps yea over ninety percent. Jamarow Douglas is your second receiver in twelve because he can create with the ball in his hands, and you need that for the offense to function. When you go to eleven, it should be an equal rotation situationally between Juju Smith Schuster, Devonte Parker and Jalen Rayer.
I don't even think Jujus Smith Schuster should. Juju should be in that equation.
You know what? That's fair? I think Look, Parker and and Reager are both You get down in the red he gets turn in the red zone. Parker gives you some size. You want to throw him on the field.
Yeah?
Fine, I think what do you play last week like twenty snaps. Yeah, that's about right. Rager gives you that speed element. He also blocks his ass off, which kind of came out of nowhere. But sure, Yeah, we'll have to gonna be if you want to. If you want to knock Juju out of the rotation entirely, I wouldn't be. Well, I just think they're good, they're going to but like at the most, yeah, at the most, he's your third receiver and eleven when you're in between the twenties.
I just don't see how so just positionally, yeah, x Z F right X. He's not an ex Juju. He's never been an X, so you're not playing him in that position. That's Parker or that's Jalen Rager.
Yeah, Z.
You have two guys right now and born in Douglas who are better Z receivers than he is. And you also can say that if one of them is playing the Z, the other is a better F receiver than right. I think so like where Juju has to play the Z or the F like those of the.
You're probably doing something with like condensed formations or something. I just I I don't see how he like how he fits that's fair, right, that's fair. But no, it's it's Kendrick Bourne's your number one. Yeah, Kendrick Warborne period, end of sentence. Should not come off the field except for the big body goal line package. Yeah, Tomorrow Douglas is your second receiver clearly, Yep, Parker Rager. Those are your thirds. You kind of pick and choose based on
matchups and situations. I don't need to see Juju. I kind of just put him in that group because they're gonna play him. Yeah, and he shouldn't be anything more than rotating equally with those other two guys.
Yeah.
The other things I'd say about the usage they when they went to twelve, Yeah, it was almost always Pharaoh Brown as one of the tight ends.
Right.
I wonder if that was because Hunter Henry's banged up.
I think that's part of it. Yeah, But I like what I want Pharaoh Brown on the field. Not all the time, you not, I mean, but like I think he's like I think he had like a thirty seven percent usage rate last week. It was like high thirties. Yeah, that's excellent right there. And I like him on the field with another tight end.
You have me too, And because he can play that in line and he can you can keep him into block. He can block in the run game, and that allows Kasiki and Henry to not have as much stress in the blocking game, right whether they're running the football or they're asking him to chip, or they're asking him to you know, double a great pass rusher or whatever the case may be. As we saw against the Raiders and the and the safety at the end of the game,
Kasiki is is is useless as a blocker. We all knew this coming in, but I think they're really figuring that out now. And Henry has is better than Kasiki, but he's still in the useless cat.
And he's banged up and he's banged so like the other thing about the other thing about Favor Brown we've talked about, like the buying of the offense and all that. That dude's out there to win a ball game. You what, he's I love me some Pharaoh Brown. I know that the way he's he's I mean, he's carrying guys on his back after catch the ball.
He's breaking every time he touches the ball. It's an explosive but every time, but like crazy, I've never seen anything like it.
No.
But it's also like if you watch him between the plays, Yeah, Like there were a couple times down in the red zone he's getting into it with the Bills defenders. He's not taking any any any big yes. Right. And the other thing I liked when they were down on the goal line running the ball. There was one they ran it from like the five or six and they got down to like the two. Yeah, and you see, Bob Socy pointed out to me, he's a really good observation.
Pharaoh Brown turns to the sideline and gives them like a hey, give it to us again, don't throw the ball, keep the big group.
And then they end up putting like a smaller package out there.
Yeah, and he's like, yeah, you know, he wants to run the ball, get in the trenches, get nasty. The team needs a little that they need a little bit of that edge. He brings a little bit of that.
Edge just quickly. All three tight ends are free agents at the end of the year, correct, all three tight ends. I think for Hunter Henry, to me, Hunter Henry is a prime franchise tag candidate. Yeah, the franchise tag for the tight ends are reasonable. It's I think thirteen million is the projection right now for next year, which is basically what he's making now, right, So you're not giving him a substantial phrase at his age and in the wear and tear, because he's been in the league and
played a lot of football. You're not giving him another a three year deal where you're maybe risking two in years two and three not being as good as year one, and you're making sure you're keeping some continuity with that room, which I think is important. So Hunter Henry looks like a nice franchise tag guy. I would say, Pharao O'Brien looks like a nice signing, like a return.
And I'll say this, he loves playing with Bill O'Brien like he played with Bill O'Brien in Houston. He just talked about that and that was his best season when he was with Bill O'Brien Houston until that.
Right.
Well, that's is assuming Bill O'Brien still here, which is another conversation for another time. That's the guy that you might be able to get to take a little less money to come back.
Yeah, I like it all right. Johnson, Louisiana, what's up, John?
Hey, Hey, I got some quid things that'll Sunday was my first time after the game, and about the motion, you think that helped Mag kind of identify with the defensive end. That's kind of with Tom Brady, you feel like someone And was that like kind of a those things.
Yeah, yeah, one hundred percent. You know that that definitely helps. I think not just Mac, but they're receivers too, and there's so much conversions in this offense based off of man and zone. So when they motion, if it gets followed, then they they typically know it's man. If it doesn't, then they probably know its zone and that definitely helps.
And the shifting can help with that too, like not just motion, but also you know, just like shifting the formation that that also can help and be coverage tail or indicator to the quarterback.
Yeah, I was like, man, Mag is doing to man man. I was really like it. But Alex Man, you don't know how much you made me look at the game different. I was so hyped for social teams that take that bright there before the first half. I was like literally yelling like yeah talking about.
Man, I love that.
All right, go there it go, you just hit you hit, go ahead now.
I was just so high because Alex, you know that team. He was just talking about Bryce so much. I'm like, man, I'm just waiting today that specific kick, man, and it could have never been no better.
Man.
I was literally yelling like, yeah, Bryce.
Let's go.
There we go.
Yeah. No, it was a great kick and they needed it too. It was good timing as well.
Yeah, thanks for the call, John, and that that's that's the show right there, right. You asked me a question about motion, and you ask Alex a question about about.
Bryce Baron good.
I like that. There we go, all right. Todd's in North Carolina. What's up Todd? Well, Miss Todd. I left him on hole for a while. Jeff is in Vain. What's up, Jeff?
Hey, you doing guys? Good?
Uh?
So I said it in week two and we didn't do it, so I'm gonna say it again.
Uh.
And I'm wondering what you think with Miami running the ball so effectively, because so many teams have to put sony players in the back end and they're running against such right boxes, doesn't it make more sense to play mark tame off to the second level if you can't put enough players in the box to clog all the holes at least put a backer in there who has the speeding first to close on somebody like Poster if they do break through one of the holes.
Thanks guys, Yeah, John, thanks for the call, and yeah we can get into Miami now. I think that that's a good point in something that you know, I was a little frustrated with the game plan if you remember Alex the first time around against Miami, just sitting off in those three safety shells and and kind of just you know, really not disrupting the timing of the offense like that, to me is that's Tua. Like Tua is a rhythm based thrower, right, Like Tua wants everything to
be on time. He wants to get the ball out of his hands. And I felt like the game plan the first time around, I just really allowed him to do that and it ate them up. And uh, I just feel like that's something that they have to do this time around, is trying to disrupt the timing a little bit.
Yeah, absolutely, they got to do more. And that's why I think that they can maybe borrow a little bit from that game plan last week of just how much they harassed, how much they harassed Josh Allen and if they can do some of that to too it. You know. It's a little different, little different guy to handle in the pocket, but that same thing where if you start getting interior pressure on him, he's not gonna like that.
Yeah, all right, we're gonna take a quick break and we'll be right back.
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Catch Alex my body or a week eight of the NFL season. We're right in the middle of it now and I feel like I am I am in decline. My body is giving out on me. Not good, not good, bad bad neck. Just had to break in the middle of the show for a quick, quick bathroom break. Just terrible.
You're an old man.
Terrible, absolutely terrible. I need to be I need to need some sleep. Maybe maybe that's totally yeah, all right, let's get into Miami. I'm glad we we tee that up. I know, I know we'll get into them. Uh So, the big caveat with everything that we talk about with Miami is are the Dolphins actually gonna show up to
this game? Or are they all gonna be, like, you know, on crutches on the sideline, right, like, so the Dolphins and uh, you know, in some ways it's like, okay, well this gives a Patriots a real chance to win this game. In other ways, I always hate like that, you know, because now it has an asterisk, right if you beat the Dolphins down in Miami, which is another win that's like a monkey off their back there zero
to five against Tua in his career. They that stadium is a house of horrors for them, even way before our time, right like the going all the way back. So it it kind of stinks that if you beat the Dolphins with their CE team or C squad or whatever you want to call it. But I want to talk about it a little bit assuming Tyreek Hill is going to play, but I also want to talk about it in assuming he's not, which I think based off of the reporting down there yesterday, it definitely sounds like
not playing is more likely at this point. So just your reaction to that and how that kind of changes this entire game.
I mean, look, we know the Dolphins offense is what it is in yeah, in the the schematics of it and Mike McDaniel, but that only works if you have the players to execute it, and Tyreek Hill might be out or he moster didn't practice. Jalen Waddle is dealing with a bad back.
Yeah, who's left.
Who's like, it's not gonna look the say with Braxon Burials and Preston Wilson, Yeah, Cedric Wilson whoever it is.
Preston Williams was also an ex DOLF.
That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, okay, will early, it's before noon still yeah, no it it not. Having Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle being banged up changes a tone. It changes a ton because will those concepts work with lesser players? Do the Dolphins have to change their offense, which McDaniel
probably doesn't want to do. The other one. That's a sneaky big injury in those and it's gonna sound weird to people, but if you've been following along, the Dolphins put Isaiah Win on ir was that yesterday or on Monday?
Yeah? Whatever it was. Yeah, this week.
Isaiah Win was really good in that first game against the Patriots.
Yeah, I mean he's been he's been serviceable for them at guard. Well so that his backup is Lester Cotton, who is not serviceable.
But he was He's been fine for them at left card. But that Patriots game, he was the best game of the year. Yeah, he played well, didn't allow me pressures. Just one penalty, Yeah, you just one that happens. You look at the way well compared to his time here. You look at the way Christian Barmore is playing right now. Yeah, where and their starting center is on the injury report as well. He's banged up. I think he practiced yesterday, but he's gotta put the injury report.
No, you know he is. Connor Williams is their starting center, and it sounds like Leon Eikenberg is going to play center again for them this week.
Who's not a center? No, So I don't want to admit like losing Tyreek Hilt would be that's the biggest loss right there. But if they're down center and left guard against a defensive line that played the way it did last week, they're already on a backup left tackle toront Armstead's on ir that that could be as big as anything because you think and most are played last week and maybe he's fine, all right, Tyreek Hill's banged up, Jalen Wadall's banged up. They still run the ball and
use the speed that way. And it's I think it's supposed to rain in Miami, which is rare, but it's not rare that it rains in Miami. But it's supposed to rain the whole day. It's not what he's passing South Florida showers all right, it's raining. You don't receivers are gonna run the ball lift the offensive line is three fifths backups, four fifths backups. That's not going to be so easy either. Yeah, Now, Patrin's stuff to take care of business when they have the football. We can
get into that. But on every single level, we kind of came into the season when we previewed all the AFCAST teams. My thing on the Dolphins was, let's see if two is healthy. That's what it comes down to. Two is healthy, but nobody else is right, and that's a problem too.
So with all the injuries aside, I al see, it is worth mentioning that two oh was three and zero against the Patriots in the Brian floor a z Era two right, like without Tyreek Hill, without Mike McDaniel. So he's beating you with without an incredible supporting cast. But I think the two things about it is, and you're one hundred percent right when it comes to the offensive line.
This Dolphins offense, and I would say the same thing about most Shanahan teams, like the San Francisco forty nine ers are the same way as talented as they are at the skill positions. It all runs through the offensive line, it all runs through the blocking schemes, and it all runs through the offensive line. So if you can it's just you know, it's not like anything revolution like. It's
the same for a lot of great passing offenses. If you can disrupt and get pressure and take over the line of scrimmage in this game, then you're gonna have a much better chance to beat them. Whether they have Tyreek kill or they don't. Right like that, that's just the bottom line. So in Week three, Week two, excuse me, the first time that they played the Dolphins here, they I thought that their game plan had sound reasoning behind it.
I understood what they were trying to accomplish with the lights, you know, the soft zone and the light boxes and the three deep safety look they came out with in the open drive from Miami. But like I mentioned before the break, the issue with it was that the timing of the offense and getting the ball out of his hands and hitting the quick underneath throws and setting up the yac plays. That's Tua's bread and butter, like that's that's how he plays his best. So, yes, you kept
the top on the defense. They had one deep pass completion, They had a couple of like mini explosives, but they didn't have any of those like seventy five yard Tyreek Hill just running through everybody and see you later. Those types of plays. Yeah, they took those away, but what they didn't take away was the fact that Tua averaged I think two point zero eight seconds and time to throw in that game sixty or no excuse me, seventy percent of his throws came out in under two and
a half seconds. Yeah, he was just carving you up and hitting the top of his drop, getting the ball out immediately. Those types of throws are that's too a that's that's his comfort zone. It might their offense might be more explosive than that, but the quarterback thrives in that type of way.
And the reason they're able to do that is they have these receivers Tyreek Kill, Jalen Waddle yack monsters. Well, yes, elite release packages, because you can't throw the ball in two seconds if nobody's open and it's not easy to get open that quick.
Yeah, burst off the line.
So if those guys are well, if Heill's not playing and Waddle's playing, hurt. Yeah, if I'm the pain, this sounds kind of concert counter to what you would normally do against Miami? Do you jam them a little bit this week? That?
Yes, And I would do it even if those guys were out there and at one hundred.
Per just because of the offensive line.
So the strategy against the Dolphins that has worked the most is two man two man coverage. So you're playing two d keep safeties with man coverage underneath it.
Yeah.
And the reason why a lot of teams so two man is probably one of the least popular coverages to play in the NFL. The reason why, the reason why a lot of teams don't play two man is because there's nobody to account for the quarterback. So if you're facing a mobile quarterback, you can't play too man.
You can do two men with a spy, but then you have like no pass.
Rush you really can't. Like then you're really talking about like a three man rush. So if you want to rush four and you want to play you know, conventional defense that way, in terms of the pass rush, you can't play two men against a mobile quarterback. So playing two men against Buffalo is no disaster, right, Like, You're not gonna do that playing two man against Lamar Jackson like just like ha, like what do you? What the heck are you doing? Tua is not somebody that I'm
too worried about beating you with his legs. If that's how they're beating you, you chal that up as a win.
Right.
So a lot of teams that have had success Philadelphia this past week, Buffalo last year, like the Chargers like randomly had a great game against this Dolphins offense, a lot of those teams have played two man. So you play two deep safeties and you put those guys over the top to help against the verticals, and then you
play inside leverage man to man. So the other thing along with rhythm throws right and alongo with getting the ball out of his hands quickly, the other thing that TWOA loves to do is to throw in breaking routes. That's that offense, right. Yeah, So the three most the guys that throw in breaking routes at the highest percentage in the league. I bet you you could guess it because it's all Shanahan guys.
Yeah, Tua Purdy yeah, and Wilson Jets, Jared Goff, oh close enough. Those they don't have those kind of I guess they do.
So if you play two man one, you can jam at the line of scrimmage to throw off the timing, right, so now he's got to hold the ball and wait for it to develop. Two you can try to force to it to throw the ball outside the numbers. And I'm not talking about verticals outside the numbers. I'm talking
about like outs, flats, like things outside the numbers. So that way, there you protect the inside of the field, you protect against the verticals, and you make them beat you throwing you know, twelve yard outs to the brax and barrios right like or whatever. If they beat you that way, then you just have to tip the cap and say good job, you did it right. So the other thing that the Eagles did along with the timing.
So I think that this is like the reason why I bring up the coverage is because I think Philly people watch that game and they watch Phillies front dominate the Dolphins offensive line, and they said, the reason why Philly won that game and shut down the Miami offense was because they have that defensive front. Their pass rushers are insane. You know, Reddick, the rookie forget his name
for some j Jalen Carter. Those guys are awesome. There's some truth to that, absolutely, But they weren't allowing to to get the ball out of his hands quickly. They made him hold the football and that was because of the way that they played coverage. So the other wrinkle that they did and Sean Decide, you know, got a lot of his own flowers this week for his game plan against Miami, Shandacida also played tilted coverage, so he tilted the deep safeties to Tyree Kill's side of the field.
So the biggest issue with playing two men against Miami is that if you play that coverage and you play the corner inside shade on the receiver, all that they'll do is they'll just run fades to the sideline for Tyree Kill and the safety that's midpointing or playing the half, he has a long way to go right to impact that throw. So what the the Eagles did is they put the safety on the numbers and they just put him right over the fade, so that way there, it
had to go underneath and to the outside. So hold the football and then limit the yards after the catch, right, That's what Philly did. They pressure to it by holding the football. They limit the yards after the catch, and they took away the bread and butter routes. They didn't let them hit those skinnies. You know they love skinny posts, crossers, verticals. They didn't let him hit those routes. And that's how
you shut down Miami. So if you can do that in this game, and I think you do that almost regardless of whether or not Tyreek kills out there or not, because even though the effectiveness with Braxon Barrios and Cedric Wilson and those guys is not going to be the same, I don't think Mike McDaniel is going to completely reinvent his offense on three series. So they're gonna run what they're gonna run. And I think that's the main key to getting to Tua is to get him to hold
the football and take away the quick game stuff. They haven't been able to do that against Tua, even going back to Brian Flores, Like remember the first couple games against too, it was like all rpo and quick game and all this crap, and that they was just getting the ball out of his hands quickly. And the box score numbers weren't like overly impressive, but they controlled the pace of the game on offense, and that's kind of
how I thought that the Week two game went. They only scored twenty four points, They only had like three hundred and eighty yards of offense. It wasn't like this big offensive explosion for the Dolphins, but they were extremely successful on their plays. I think they were like sixty percent success rate, and they just they controlled the pace of the game. They controlled possession, they controlled the pace, and honestly, like the Patriots really didn't stop them all
that much. They got the one turnover by Christian Gonzales and then they got some nice red zone plays and things like that, and to A tripped all over himself on one third down in the red zone and that's how you get the twenty four. So that's a game plan. Defensively, I think against Tua is you have to play man, but you have to play with the two deep safeties over the top. You play single high against them, you're asking for trouble.
Yeah. I think again, just disrupt the timing pass rush will be big this week. I think you gotta get in his face that' see. I add to what you said. I think he got to get in his face. And another thing, hands up in the passing lines. Yeah, it's something they haven't done as well against him that they probably should be.
Yeah.
Is he six foot six to.
One right, Yeah, and he likes to throw over the middle.
Right, So you're getting this push now, and the Dolphins are seeing that on tape and they're gonna be more cognizant of that. You gotta be ready when he throws ball to get those hands up. Anthony Jennings, he was amazing at this in college.
Yeah, he was. He's a long guy.
He was as good as knocking passes down the line of scrimmed as anybody. When they drafted him, I thought it was part of the reason. Uh, you know, get him in here and have him just rub some of these RPOs, Christian Barmore. If he's gonna be getting that pressure. These are guys, by the way they played with Tua that will have a good idea of the timing and what he wants to do. I think this is another game. The covered stuff's all important, but especially if you don't
have Tyreek Hill and Jalen Watdalls banged up. They're also healthier at corner than they were in that last matchup. Member they they'll have Jack Jones who they didn't have. They weren't of Gonzales, but they'll have Jack Jones who they didn't have that game, the lift John Jones who they didn't have in that game, and they'll ja C Jackson they hadn't traded for yet.
Right, it's manageable.
It's mangible in the back end without Tyreek Kill and Jalen Wadle banged up. Doesn't mean it's easy, but it's manageable. If that offensive line is banged up as it is, they need to get to a scene ghosts in terms of the pass rush in this game, and it's something I think they can do. That's what I'll be looking for first and foremost.
Last thing, and then we'll take some more of these calls. The other thing that the Eagles were able to do in that game that the Patriots simply didn't do well was stop the run out of light boxes and that that's the front, right, that's.
Where Jawan Bentley shows up. That's where your your hope and Jowan Bentley shows up and plays a big game.
So I thought a huge, huge part of that game early on was how well the Eagles played the run game against Miami, and Miami then got behind, they basically had to go. They only ran the ball I think twelve times with their running backs in that game. That that's that's a key. Like you have to be able to stop the run out of six seven man boxes because you're not gonna put You're not gonna stack the boxgainst Miami, so you have to be able to stop the run out of too high shell. That was what
That's the difference between the Eagles defensive line. Like that's where like that comes in, right, is that their dominant defensive line has that ability to just go out there and stop you. But you also have to remember, like what we've been saying about their offensive line, they have some banged up pieces on the their missing three fists of their offensive line, So you need to take advantage
of that. And that really needs to translate to the run game and stopping the run against the Patriots, they average over six yards per attempt against light boxes. You know, forty three of those came on one run. But even if you take the moster touchdown run out of it, it's still over four yards to carry.
Yeah, still too much. No you need This is a big bounce back game for Jwan Bentley. Yeah, because that's him, that's him making contact before the guy can bounce it to the outside.
Yeah. Absolutely, All right, let's get to Todd in North Carolina. Thanks for calling back, Todd. What's up.
Yeah, they're focusing a lot on the D. But I think this game is going to be about our offense, and I really think that one of the keys to the game is just be consistent and don't turn it over. You know, I think that's what we need. We need, But I'm not gonna say that it's the perfect game. But just get some plays out there, get it moving, and you know, so we don't constantly have to face two US and eventually that'll just that quick game will wear our defense down.
Yeah.
What do you guys think?
Yeah, good call Todd. Thanks for calling in. Uh yeah, I wanted to talk about the offense too. It's not we're not all just a rapid defense, So just haven't gone to the offense yet. Offensively, I you know, I like Bill O'Brien, so this is not like I'm not trying to dump on Bill O'Brien. But Vic Fangio got him in week two. You just did. Now. It didn't help that they were playing Calvin Anderson and Vederi and Low as their two tackles right.
Afferent and did Ye Stranger one who both played next.
Yeah, but they were playing Calvin Anderson and Vaderian lower Turnstiles in that game. They were horrible. And then they also bench Pop Douglas after the fumble. So you're taking that's a big difference about where this team is at now versus where this team was at in week two. But Fangio's system is very hard. It's a really good sound system. Now, Miami statistically is not a good defense. They're twenty fourth in DVOA. They're down near the bottom
of the league in points break. They've given up twenty seven points a game. You know, they haven't played well on defense this year on the whole. And sticking with the injury theme, Javon Holland their best player on defense, is in kacussion protocol. He's not going to play. Like there's like a seventy five percent chance he's not playing in this game.
They also have five corners that were limited yesterday.
Yeah, and we'll see if Ramsey's back or not.
So help me square this. Yeah, if people remember way back and I wrote about this way back on ninety eighty five the sports sub dot com if people want to go find it. Yeah, I was not a big Ramsey guy this offseason. Yeah, I just think his best football is behind him. I agree, it doesn't mean he's not serviceable. But every single time he went up against the top receiver line year, he got torched. Patriots don't exactly have a top receiver. But I'm sitting here, like,
if he plays, I want them to test him. I kind of want them to test him to see where he's really at.
What's better than thrown at Zavian Howard?
Right, But like how do you test it? Like I don't know who the guy is to test him, right, So That's what I'm stuck on.
So I think the question is is.
Although Zavian Howard's hurt too, let's not forget that.
If he does play, Ramsey if he does play, Yeah, I have I wonder what Fangio's plan is with him, because I think that there's a chance that he plays the star role and he's in the slot because he's always been a guy that's that's played a little bit inside and he's always had that skill set, and in that defense, the star role is maybe the most important role in the entire defense because the way that they rotate their safeties and the way that they play coverage,
they you have to have a really good nickel like that's important for that defense. So I wonder if maybe that that's where they're going with Ramsey and that's why they acquired him. And to your point, Okay, maybe he's not the guy to carry routes on the outside anymore than he was early on in his career. So let's move him in kind of how they you know, some guys move to safety like later on in their career, right, but in this in term, it's we're moving him into
the slot. So if they if Ramsey plays and he plays in the slot like I think he might, then he does become a big factor in this game, because that's where the Patriots want to throw the ball, right, So I think that becomes a factor. So with Fangio, everybody in the in the league is a little bit of Fangio. Now, they like Fangio is the hottest guy in the league right now. Defensively plays a ton of split safety zone, a ton of two high split safety zone.
The base coverage in his coverage is Cover six, which is quarter quarter half, So you have quarters to one side, right, a deep fourth deep fourth quarters to one side, and then you have Cover two to the backside. That that's how they play it. So you can beat that coverage down the field. But it's essentially designed to take away big plays, which is why everybody plays it now because of all the quarterbacks and passing games and things like that. So you can set up big plays down the field.
But in order to hit shot plays down the field against Vangio, you need time. You need the quarterback has to have time in the pocket because what you're gonna do is you're gonna clear out right, You're gonna clear out the quarters side and then you're gonna send routes from the backside into the quarter's side. But in order to do that, you need the quarterback to have some
time in the pocket. To let that develop. So that's where the Patriots ran into problems in the first match of is every time they try to dial up a coverage beater to go down the field a little bit, they couldn't block it. So then they had to go to the quick game. When we went to the quick game,
they didn't really average. You know, it was all five yard throws, like he was throwing the ball four or five yards at pop. And that's a difficult way to live is to go down the field like that consistently. So in general, I think when you play against Fangio,
you have two choices. Either you try to hit the shot plays down the field that are going to take longer to develop, or they can continue to do what they kept that what they've been doing, and try to open up the underneath part of the zone and try to throw the ball that way. If Miami has health on their side at the cornerback positions, I do also think that they're gonna play some man to man in
this game. You know, if they have Howard, if they have Ramsey, you know, I think that they will try to play some man, which they did in week two as well. So it's a it's a tough matchup because I think the biggest thing with Fangio, like I just mentioned, he wants you to go death by a thousand paper cuts, like he wants you to have to beat him by going ten to fifteen play drives. The other thing that he makes difficult is it's really hard to decipher the
coverage pre snap. They're a really good disguised team. They play six cover six, but they can get to different things out of cover six really easily with post snap rotation. So you can play three, you can play man to man, and it all looks the same to the quarterback. So that's a difficult part about it. That's why everybody's obsessed with the system is because it takes away big plays and a mix the quarterback hold the football and read
things out post nap. So if you're the Patriots, I think that this is a game where you do want to try to spread them out again and try to get the ball out of mac Jones's hands, and then the chess match comes into play of well, Fangio probably knows you're gonna try to do that, so how do you you know, how do you one up him in that phase of the game. The other thing with the run game. They changed up how they stopped the run
a little bit. In week two. They started slanting the defensive line right, so you come in at like a forty five degree angle and you slant into the gaps. Typically they are one gap and a half defense, so they're gonna play the primary gap and they're gonna flow to the secondary gap. They went up the field against the Patriots last time. I think that took the Patriots by a little bit by surprise. But I'm curious to see, you know, how they go about building off of what
they did last week. But then at the same time, you know, Fangio is going to watch that film and if you're predictable, he's gonna have answers for what you did against Buffalo. Right, So let's get into the calls. Uh Mark is in Connecticut? What's up? Mark going on? And Alex, Hey, how you doing that?
Would do with Evan as always, but our guy Pop Douglas is popping as he should. But what I wanted to ask you guys is Devont Parker, Juju Smith, Schuster. They were They're irrelevant. Now can we trade them? Can we cut them without taking a big loss? Because I want to see I want to see more, uh you know, more of the young guys Taekwon, Thwarton, Kijon Boute, Bob Douglas.
You know, we need to get those guys, Jalen Riger, We need to get those guys more involved and time to get rid of these two guys that are bumped. They just they don't do anything.
It was.
It was a bad sign. I think will Bill admit to being a bad time.
Yeah, it's a good call, and uh, we're with you. We're with you, And I will say, you know, DeVante Parker has his flaws, like we know that, and I we we we did that last week with the Raiders, Like the drop was horrible. I thought someone his route running and just effort in that game was horrible. And the coaches agreed he only played seventeen or ran seventeen routes. I forget the exact snap. Yeah, he didn't play as much. Right, so they saw it. They they recognize it and they
saw it. But I do think that with his body type, like you kind of said, you know earlier about the red zone and like goal line packages and things like that. I also think that on like inbreakers like slants, like having a bigger frame, like, yeah, he can. He can help in those regards, and you don't necessarily have another big bodied outside body type like that next a true traditional extent unless're gonna start puting. Yeah, so I think that he has a role. Is it should it be
reduced one hundred and ten percent? But I think Parker has as a role. Yeah, I don't see Juju's role.
He got he got Remember how we were talking all summer rebellus to Mario Douglas going to catch tack on Thornton. Yeah, not only did you that he got Juju, he got Wally Pipped a little bit, he got Wally. Bill brought up Wally Pip yesterday.
Who did h Yeah that works too, I guess.
Yeah, Bill loves him to Wally Pipe.
He knew what he was. He That was one of his better jokes. Like sometimes like people last Bill's jokes because because it's Bill. But that was a good one. Like he was Wes, he was Wes welkering it, I know what he know?
Did he's joking when he said it to Welker though.
No, I think he meant that.
No, he was no way to compete Welker, and he never saw him again. I yeah, I think with juju, like, so you can't. I got to pull up the exact details contract, going to get past. Cap is going to get mad at me, rightfully, rightfully, he can't cut them. People got to get this information right. So it is, I know. But to make the rest of my take, yeah, so there's I mean, it's you lose a leg. It's not even like there's minimal cap savings. You lose eleven million dollars in cap space.
If you come this year. Okay, definitely can't cut him this year.
Starting next year, if you trade, you can't cut him. No, if you trade him, the money gets split about fifty to fifty. It's five million ish in dead cap. Five million is in savings.
Which for a team that has one hundred million dollars in cap space next offseason, you can eat it.
Well.
The other thing I would say is like, so in the past, like you couldn't make that trade. Yeah, if they could trade. John new Smith said yes, So that that's where I'm at. Like I used to I used to be in this in this camp, and everything you said about Parker this year is correct. I think this offseason, when you may have a chance to bring in another big body wide receiver. This changes in the past. I
would say, you're stuck with these guys. If they can trade John new Smith for a seventh round pick, maybe there's if they look it helps them too, that John who's been good in Atlanta this year, Maybe Carl falcons again.
Yeah, or maybe just you know, point to and say, hey, it wasn't a scheme fit for us here, right, Like you know with Johnny Smith, he goes back to Arthur Smith and Atlanta and he's having a decent year. So maybe Juju goes back to Kansas City.
So that's that That would be my first call. Yeah, it would be the Kansas City Chiefs. Yeah, but like that you have you can't cut them. You can't Parker or Juju, so you can't cut them.
Juju essentially signed a two year deal, right Like it's two years essentially fully guaranteed, and the third year I think there.
Is two point six.
Yeah, there's a way to wiggle out of the third year of the contract.
Mostly there's still some tad money.
So that way, when you look at that, like if a team like Kansas City acquires him, for example, next off season in a trade takes him off the Patriots hands. They could get one good year out of Juju like they did in the Super Bowl year last year, and then they could probably walk away from him too after twenty twenty four. So that could be appealing and not for a team that knows that he's had success there already.
Now that's a very unique situation, just like the Falcons were a very unique situation with John Ay because John Who's best year in the NFL is with Arthur Smith as his offensive coordinator in Tennessee. So it's a similar thing. I The bigger question that I have, and I get why, you know, Mark brings up the future with those two players.
The bigger question that I have is the here and now, Like are the Patriots going to do right by the twenty twenty three team and not force Juju back into the lineup now that he's healthy, Because I it wouldn't shock me either way. It wouldn't shock me if you know, they get out in Miami and like there, you know, he runs off the sideline and he's one of the
right back in the mix. It also wouldn't shock me if if they recognize that, hey, we got to roll with you know what worked against Buffalo, and this is what we're sticking with. But like I said earlier, it's it's not easy to walk away from that investment, like you gave this guy fifteen.
But that's what the that's always been a core tenant of Belichick, or for a long time was a core tenant of Belichick, was it doesn't matter if you're the first round pick, the seventh round pick, doesn't matter, if you're on a ten million dollar contract, doesn't matter if you're on an eight hundred and fifty thousand dollars contract. Yeah, we're gonna play the players. We're gonna play the best players, and it's hard to argue right now that Juju from
the Shooter is one of the best players. I also think, just like I know, he hasn't been on the injury report, but his knee doesn't look right. Yeah, maybe some time off helps him.
I was I was seriously wondering, especially because Jalen Rager has now come on a little bit. Kishon Booty has come on a little bit. You know, excuse me, Ragers come on and you have Kishon Booty. Booty's doing that thing, and you have Kishon Boody. You know, I actually thought when he got the concussion that ir was was maybe
a consideration. I thought so too, like just a it's more just a reset, right, like of you know, let's get you ten percent, maybe get your knee into a better spot, and then let's revisit where we are health wise, where we are in terms of contention and all that kind of stuff four years or four weeks away, and they didn't do that. You know, he's he's back out at practice, he wasn't on the injury report yesterday. He's ready to go, he's healthy, he can play in the
game on Sunday. I'm really fascinated to see how they approach that. And they have seven wide receivers I think now on the fifty three with Rager, and then they have Time Montgomery too, you know, so it's like seven and a half.
They won't play Tom Montgomery. They've made that blatantly clear.
So it's a it's gonna be interesting to see where they go from here at that position in terms of snaps and things like that. Do I think that either one of those guys can be moved by the deadline. No, I don't think anybody's taken. Maybe Parker like, I think Parker's had enough okay film that you could talk a team into that needs. You know, an outside receiver. Juju is not tradable at the moment, you know, just not tradable. He's been one of the worst receivers in the league.
Anything else, You got some key matchups for us? Got some key Yeah, he talked. We touched on them, most.
Of we I think we touched on most of them. I mean the big thing for me is tackling bar More versus the backup interior offensive line. Ye, all right, yeah, I got one more. You'll love this. The Patriots gave the Dolphins a little something special in that Week two game, right with the field goal block. It wouldn't surprise me if the Dolphins come back with a little something for
the Patriots. If Danny Crossman, and maybe it's not on the field goal, maybe it's something, but they pants Danny Crossman's unite, they pants them.
Yeah, does he pants them back?
Right? Does he try? Maybe it's on a punt, maybe it's on a gick return, but the blood whatever. I would just be very vigilant as Patriots special teams this week. You gotta expect the unexpected because and then I guess building off of that, they're obviously going to be ready for the Patriots. They know that Jake Bailey is the tell right did the patriotsack? Are they going to build
off of that Schooler play? So last week on the missfield goal, I don't know how much it impacted it, if at all, but.
Miles Bryant was running, Yeah, Miles Bryant was running.
Like like Schooler was on that play.
So well, I think it does because we have watched two kickers, because didn't they get the kicker again on it or was it a different game?
No, it was that it was that game they got him again because he didn't block it. But like he pushed it right, Sanders, he's staring down Schoolers, he's running again.
He pushed it left right. Explorer was coming from the right and he pushed it left. So I think it's a factor. I think it's a factor whether he boxed it or not. I do you know, kickers are so you know better than me. Kickers are so finicky, right like, and when guys are doing weird stuff like it just kind of comes out of nowhere. Last well, you know, I'm excited to see assuming he's healthy, Jonathan Jones the stopper, the Tyree kill stopper, assuming well the Tyre Kills not well,
maybe the Bultpip playing. But last one here for key matches because you mentioned Barmore, which I think is a huge one. Again it's lester cotton, like Barmore should take lesser cotton behind the woodshed and eat him for lunch, right like that that should be what that is the last one here City Sow versus Christian Wilkins that this is so last time around, hopefully with the last time
in Week two. It was the edge pressure because of the tackle situation, assuming the Patriots have Trent Brown and Mike on Winu out at tackle, I'm a little less concerned about the tackle, you know, the edge pressure from Bradley Chubb, and I think Jalen Phillips is gonna be one of the few Dolphins you know, marquee players it's actually gonna play in this game are Bradley Chubb and
Jalen Phillips. But Wilkins Lisa Rine up line up over the right side like he's he likes to play either the one or the three on over the right guard, like I think it's seventy five percent of his snaps or something like that, or are to the defense's left, the offense is right. So he's one of those guys that has a spot that he typically favors, and that's gonna be City So. And I think City So PFF, like we all have our you know, ups and downs.
I think with PFF grades and things like that, I thought they were overly generous to City So in their grading last week.
He was fine.
He was fine, But like saying he was one of the best offensive lineman in the NFL.
Highest grade any rookie lineman has gotten in a game this season, something like that, there was something that attached that's bogus.
Let's face it, that's bogus.
So save those for next year.
Yeah, So I think that that's still a mismatch for the Patriots in terms of that right guard spot. Now, David Andrews and I know a Belichick with Mac Jones both talked about this a little bit yesterday. He definitely deserves a ton of credit for the fact that he's been helping.
Both deserves a ton of credit for a lot of things.
Frankly, both guards like both because, like, let's face it, Cole Strange is a he still hasn't played a ton of football because he's and hurt and everything like that, but be you know, he still needs some help too.
I think that, you know, I would love and this is never gonna happen, but I would love to hear like not even you know Belichick mentioned yesterday, it's not just like helping set the protections and help post snap, like picking up stunts, and it's also like the little reminders pre snap right, Like it's like, hey, like don't forget about this, right, or don't be fooled by that, or you know when you your footwork, like the last one was a little like this, like we need it
more a little like that, you know what I mean? And like these little things that he's just tips and reminders and things like that that he's giving those guys. I am sure, David Andrews, if you could like get an audio of he probably has like a freaking essay worth of words in a game, right of just little tips and reminders and little you know, watch for this is watch for that. And I think that that's going on left and right for both guards honestly on a
game to game all right, we're gonna wrap. We got unfiltered starting out at noon, so just hang around here for a couple of minutes. Oh, I think we got we got boss Man back. I think Bossman's back from jury duty, so that's good. And Deuce and Paul and are ready to go, and they're chopping at the bit to get in here. So that's good. And we'll see you guys. This is probably gonna be our time, probably, so ten am is probably gonna be our time moving forward.
So we'll see you guys next week. Thanks for listening, but.
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