Patriots Catch-22 10/5: Three Up, Three Down from Patriots at Cowboys, Concern Level with Mac Jones

gonna talk about the Dallas game. We're gonna do three up, three down, or it's a little bit of a different version of three up three this week, I should say, and I'll tell you why in a few minutes. And then we also have Nick Underhill calling in from NOLA Dot football. We haven't done this before a call in guess, but I wanted to have Nick Collin and get to

know the Saints a little bit. He's the best on the Saints, and it is a team we don't see very often up here, so I thought it'd be good to get somebody on the inside down there that knows what's going on in New Orleans. So we're gonna talk some Saints with Nick and preview the Saints and do our key matchups. But I have a couple of things that I wanted to get off my chest here at

the beginning of the show. And I should also say that, you know, I've been a little bit under the weather this week, as you know, Alex, and so hopefully my voice doesn't like crap out at some point in the next two hours. But we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. The first thing is that I want to talk about a couple of things with the Patriots

offense and where we're headed here. Number one, I want to address people that have been saying the last couple of days since the debacle in Dallas, and it was an outright debacle. I was there in person, and it was not fun to Witness Live. I'm sure it wasn't fun for you guys watching it on TV. The people that have come out and said the Patriots should tank the rest of the season, And it's not like that big of a thing. I'm not trying to make a

mountain out of a mole hill here. But as somebody that is privileged to see a lot of the inner workings of the organization, Alex, you see plenty of it yourself as well. Yeah, this starts for the coaches and the players and the people within this building all the way back in the spring, right like you start with you know, OTAs and off season program and then rookie mini camp and mini camp, and like all the way

back in April. Obviously the front office and personnel people they started at the combine and free agency and the drift. The people in these walls and in this building are not going to tank, right, Okay, Like, the amount of work that gets put into a football season for this organization is way too much to even put the word tank out there to these people. So I understand the bigger picture of why you tank, and I understand why fans think that they should at least be quiet tanking.

Maybe not like full on like you know, throwing interceptions to lose the game type of thing, but they should be quiet tanking. And I get the premise, but I think it's a little bit. It's it's so much deeper than that. So to that point, you know, we're gonna talk about the J. C. Jackson trade and all that sort of thing, and I think that that speaks to it. I heard a lot of people that said that, you know,

why even bother, why even bother making this trade. The bottom line is is that the Patriots are not going to tank. They're never gonna tank, and they I honestly don't think that they should ever tank. Now, there's a difference between full on tanking and what I just said, quiet tanking. Right, Like, you know, you're probably not gonna win a Super Bowl this year, right, they know that, But you're not gonna have a team that's gonna tank.

It's just not gonna happen here. And I think it's you know, I don't want to use the word disrespectful, but it's just you got to think about all the work that gets put in and all the guys in the locker room and all the players on this team, and some of these guys too, like mind you or free agents at the end of the year, so there their livelihoods are at stake to put good film out there. No one's tanking in the Patriots, no one.

you're tanking starting in November. There is never any incentive for a coach and player to tank because even if the team the organization wants to lose games for the purpose of draft position the play, why would the players want that? Right They odds are if you're a tanking team, you're probably overhauling the roster. That means most of the players won't be around next year. They want to put good plays on tape so they can go elsewhere and still be on a team in the future, even if

it's not that team. The same goes for coaches. They don't want to lose their jobs. They want to prove, whether it's to the organization they're working for and I'm just talking in generalities here, or another organization that they're still employable. The general manager is the lowest level where a tank comes from, because he may put together a team that he looks at it and says, this team will get me in the top five of the draft or whatever it may be. When the coach is the GM,

that goes away. Right, So, if they're gonna tank at this point, it's not coming from Bill. Bill's trying to win games. There's zero incentive, believe it or not. And people go, oh, well, doesn't he want a better quarterback? No, there's no incentive for Bill Belichick to tank at this point.

Bulls they're not great yet. It's the last game of the year against the Knicks and they need to lose to have like a shot at the number one overall pick in the lottery or whatever it is. It's some sort of draft thing and it's like kind of big and they tell Michael Jordan like, hey, stop trying right, stop scoring. We need to lose this game. And he is furious. They have to pull him out of the game because he means, what do you mean draft position?

This is a game that's being played right here, right now. I'm gonna win it. And I think that mentality, and this applies to more than tanking, but I think you see that mentality with a lot of the greats and sports I always had. I believe like Tom Brady has that mentality right, he wouldn't go into a season. There was some talk in twenty nineteen or at the end of his time in Tampa that, oh, he's just phoning it.

let's let's move on from that. But for the players for the Patriots, I I've watched quite a bit of things coming off this game, and everybody's got an opinion about what happened in Dallas, and understandably, that's that's the job, that's what we do. But from my own film study, and then I thought J. T. Os Sullivan did a great job with Mac Jones and in his quarterback breakdown

as well. The thing that I kind of came away from it, and we're gonna get to Mac and I'm not trying to excuse Mac of his play because this was this was on mass his career. Yeah, Mac was was not good in this game. We know that. The one thing I would I would say quickly though, is that and this has been on my mind, I offensively, and I think that this started last year and a lot of us chalked it up to Patricia and like

just not having belief in what the coaching staff. But this group of players doesn't have that excuse anymore, like they don't have the Patricia scapegoat anymore. And what I was really disappointed about in this game and then watching it back on film, is just the the lack of of a fight from this team, like the lack of like attention to detail and the lack of of I don't want to use the word effort because that's not fair, but just the lack of fight. And it comes down

to a couple of different things. First of all, teams that can't run the ball. You walk around the locker room and like I'm gonna go on a little bit of ramp, but you walk around the locker room and you wear those damn T shirts that say tough teams cover kicks, tough teams also run the football. Yes, tough teams block and run the football and take it to the opponent and you know, take their will. Like all those old cliches that we hear in football, I subscribe

to a lot of this. I know. I'm a spreadsheet guy. I love them.

He sends him into orbit Pancakes and the Patriots routinely tried to chip Micah Parsons routinely with the backs, with the receivers, with the tight ends. Week If your job is to chip Micah Parsons, you chip Micah Parsons right like, that's Micah Parsons. That's number eleven. That guy's an absolute freak and he took over this game. He ruined your quarterback and all you did was give a little forearm shiver on the way by. Yeah, it's gonna gonna try to push him, like, gonna try to put a little

shoulder shake into him right now. When you when your job is to to chip the best player on the other team on your way out, you know the old like offensive line guys would say, get a slab, Yeah, right, get a freaking slab of the guy. So that's number two. Number three the Chargers Raiders game again. Justin Herbert scrambles and gets absolutely laid out on the sideline by Jerry Tillery. Late hit, dirty play, all of it, like Drew Bledsoe

esque laid out the entire Chargers sideline. Coaches, players, defensive players, the punter, guys without helmets on the practice squad, guys in workout clothes, on the sideline. The whole organization got up off the bench and stormed the castle, all of them, all of them. Jerry Tillery had to be pulled out of a pile of people and basically like rescued by his teammates because they were all out for blood. Not literally, like I'm exaggerating for the point, but like you know

what I'm trying to say. And for two straight weeks, starting last week with the Sauce Gardner bs and then this week with Matt I don't care if you think that Mac Jones stinks. I don't care if you don't like Mac Jones as a person, as a teammate. That's your quarterback, Yeah, that's your quarterback. When he gets hit and guys are standing over him and guys are are you know, getting in his face and things like that, you gotta come clean house. You gotta, you have to.

That's the sport. It's the same in hockey, right like like you know you take out for years with the If somebody comes after David Postronach on the Bruins and somebody lays out David Pastronach, do you think that there's gonna be no response response for that? Of course, there will be of course, like that's that's the sport, that's football,

that's your quarterback. Like take some pride in it, you know, like they play up to a certain standard and it goes down to like the techniques and the fundamentals of it too. If you're if it's third and fifteen or third and fourteen, whatever that situation was, right, and you remember this one right before the sneak, it was a third and fourteen, third and fifteen. Don't run a thirteen yard route on third and fourteen, right, run a fourteen

and a half yard route. Run the route past the sticks when you're coming out on fourth down and it's a big fourth down play, rub, get a rub, get a pick, get juju open, Like, don't just run in and lollygag off the line of scrimmage. This type of stuff has been going on for two years now with this team. Two years now they've been playing like this, And I didn't think that Bill O'Brien would stand for it.

You know, he's not that type of coach. And you know his nickname is Tea Pot and like I feel like he was losing his mind over this kind of stuff. But this has become and you talk about the turnovers and you talk about all like this is this is ingrained in the DNA of the team at this point that they that this is how their offense plays. And you don't have the Patricia escapegoat anymore. He's not gonna he's not gonna shield it for you anymore. So we're

coming after you now, like show some pride. That's all I got. So I'll say on that part first.

adding tackles, things like that that they didn't do. On the quarterback thing, You're absolutely right, and people want to make that about Mac Jones. The guys won't stand up for Mac Jones. Again, it's a point of pride. It doesn't matter who your quarterback is.

And this is the type of stuff. And I point at the coaching staff and Billy oh at this too, like this is what he was brought in here to clean up.

to somebody, say they're in the formation. I go, they this has to be a fake. They have to somehow fake the touch push here cause it's too long. The play doesn't get you that much yardage. And MATC gets half a yard, but they needed a yard and a half. And they've become think about how many third or fourth and ones have they gone right to the touch push this year? Yeah, like quickly to the lines, didn't even think about it. They've become too reliant on that play.

And I go to those two plays, the third one, the fourth and one. There was a play last week against the Jets. I don't remember the exact scenario, but they had a third and short and they went to the toush push and it worked, but barely. They went to the touch push instead of handing the ball off. And it goes back to something we talked about last week.

Even this team is built to be a run dominant team. Yeah, get under center, put one of your two hundred and fifty pound backs behind you, hand the ball off to him and let him go downhill. And I don't know whether they can't look they're not running the ball as well as they should, But the big picture of that is more about them not breaking big runs when it comes.

If they do it and fail, we can change the conversation.

the game. He called it that on Tuesday. He's right, if you can't pick up third and one, And then when we talk about the Saints game, I want to get back into this. If you can't pick up third and one on the ground, especially for a team that wants to move the ball methodically.

So running the ball right at that Dallas is not the way to run the ball against them. We talked about this with the Cardinals, Like the Cardinals outflanked them, they changed the point of attack. They use misdirection, they use motion, and they outflanked Dallas. That's how you run

the ball against Dallas. You don't run the ball against Dallas by running gap like duo right after right right like, That's not how you do it, because they attack the line of scrimmage and they come downhill at you, and they get penetration in the backfield and they blow runs up that way. You have to outflank Dallas and they

didn't even try to do that really very well. And schematically, this run game, I don't think it's using the personnel to the best of its ability either, because Frankly, their tight ends can't block. Hunter Henry and Mikasiki are not blocking tight ends. They can't block. So why are we using Hunter Henry and mi Kasiki at the point of attack? Like, why are we running to the y tight end in this offense? They can't hold up at the point of attack.

Mike Kasiki, you know, coming into like a little motion and and leading up through the B gap to try to kick out a two hundred and fifty pound linebacker. He can't do it. That's he's not winning that matchup. So you have to, you know, find ways to use them on the backside of runs and run away from the tight ends and use them, you know, out on the perimeter against safeties in corners where they might actually

be able to win that matchup. Kaziki and Henry, anytime they are blocking a defensive end or a linebacker, they're losing that matchup every time. And you can't do that anymore. You have to figure out some different ways that this run game right now is not creative. It's bland, and they have to figure out they don't trust it. This scheme it up.

can't block. So they have to add Pharaoh Brown into the mix, and then they have to have some sort of passing threat, so they have to have the other two tight ends out there with him, because if it's like twelve with Pharaoh Brown, then your real hotel. Yeah, there's just not much to do there, and they need to figure out how to run the ball. Like if I had to sit here and say, I think we're both in agreement, you know, what's the way to fix this?

first month. I would say, maybe it's better than Miami's, but it's close in general. Like when you get to some of these games where you're not playing these ridiculously talented fronts, you know, against the Raiders for example in Vegas the week after this, like maybe those are our

games that you can come right at those teams. Right in these games against the fronts that are that are better than your offensive line, which is a lot of teams at the moment, you have to be creative, like you can't just run right at them.

I think it's time to bring this up. Evan, I said to you back in training camp, at what point do we have the con because best five, right, that's what you're talking about when you say get the offensive line in order, you're talking about getting figuring out your best five, getting the best five on the field.

If we sit here and don't don't say that it should be an option, because, yeah, you put him out there. Riley Reef looked good at right guard this summer when they moved him in there, he did. I actually think if you went on whenu Reef Andrews whoever left guard, col Strange if he's healthy at Tonio Maffi's not, and then Trent Brown. That's not a bad line. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you they're great. But you you love to soccer. On this right you can cover

up one spot. Yeah, if you're covering up left guard and that's your spot. And on Whenos holding down right tackle and Reef looks like he did at the summer and right guard, you might be okay.

Mafy Andrews. Probably figure out whatever you can. Reef, you know, probably if Ree's healthy, i'd and then and then tackle. If you don't, if Reef's not ready, then maybe Strange still plays left guard and Mafi plays right guard, and you would put you wouldn't put out there. No, okay, I think he's still better than so okay, and I think that, like there is something to be said for the fact of like pulling a first round pick a year ago, like a right fair enough.

out there on Sunday is not not NFL caliber. No, he can't play that way and stay in the league and stay as a starter, I should say in the league, I am. You can make excuses for him in terms of the line. The offensive line right now Alex is dead last and pass blocking there's the thirty second ranked unit in pass blocking on in every metric. Yeah, they're the worst pass blocking line in the league. So you

can make those excuses for him. You can make the excuses that he doesn't have a lot of firepower on the outside and skill positions and stuff like that. That's all valid and all true. That does an excuse doing what he did on Sunday. No, Like, you still have NFL guys around you. You still shouldn't be imploding like that. His second quarter was as bad of a football quarter as I've seen any quarterback play. I mean, bad play

after bad play after. It wasn't just the turnovers like it was the other plays in that quarter that could have been turnovers or were just disaster plays as well. It's snowbottled him and he fell apart. I think the two biggest things that stand out that are you know, one is I'm willing to he corrects this week and it doesn't happen again, at least as badly as it did against Dallas.

the stat line, and I got attacked. Alex I got attacked. People were coming after me for it. They were like, what are you talking about? You don't know ball? You threw for three hundred yards through for three dds, YadA, YadA, YadA. I have seen mac Jones' footwork be crappy all season long. He has not been right with his feet all year long. He's thrown off his back foot, he's fading out of pockets,

he's bailing out of pockets. He's not you know, his feet aren't pointed in the hallway right, you created the hallway of where you're going with the football. His feet aren't pointed in the right directions. His feet are an utterly gross mess right now. I don't think it was as bad in the first three games as it was

on so of course it wasn't. But what my concern was is that I was starting to see these signs of his footwork falling apart, and I think the main thing that you have to look at is to me, the main thing is is that he can't survive this level playing like that. Yeah, his footwork can't be inconsistent like that. He can't, you know, be have happy feet in the pocket and you know, just be I don't even know what the word is, just unsettled in the pocket.

He can't be those things because he doesn't have the arm talent to make up for it. And so what I saw against Philadelphia was you know, throws that were short into the sideline, throws over the middle of that needed more zip on them, and they were some of these were completed, yeah, but they were leaving yards on the field because they weren't completed as well as they could have been. And this game, it was all of that turned up to a life.

good example of that. They followed the body language of their quarterback through and through. Yeah, And it's just you could tell he You hear players talk a lot about, you know, how do you come back from a deficit. You can't make it all up in one play. You can't chase it all in one play. And that's what it felt like he was trying to do that whole game.

He was trying to race it a fourteen, twenty twenty eight whatever it was point deficit in a single play on every single snap, and he's wheeling off his back foot and look, I thought early to get he was running around a lot. And that goes to the offensive line. I thought early early in that game, and I talked about how the first drive was promising. He did a good job of kind of moving around but still playing

within himself. As soon as they missed that fourth and one, right that play with the fumble, Buddy, you got to know where you are on the field, Yeah, you gotta, and to be running around with the ball back there like the Mike Vick animation and mad No. Four which isn't real. He can't run around with the ball like that for real. And to do it on your own goal line, that's just trying to do too much. And I think from that point on, and that's why I go back to that play call, they failed that, and

I think as a quarterback, as other offensive players. And this isn't to excuse Mac, but this is just to kind of prove that point. I would bet truth serum, you asked, Mac, did you panic after you didn't get that fourth down? I would bet he said. Yet he would say yes, and I think other players would say yes. And you could see it because that moment is where it wasn't even it was before the turnover. People pointed that turnover and say, oh, he turned the ball over

once and fell apart. No, he fell apart when they didn't get the quarterback sneak. And I think some of that is probably, well, if we can't get this, we're in big trouble, and now I have to do things I don't usually do, and Mac, there's a reason you don't usually do them, it's because he can't.

of structure. He needs to play, like he said yesterday, he needs to play within the scheme, right, within the framework of the offense. So what what I've always had reservations about with Mac and like canns about with the way that he plays, is that he doesn't have that Brady pocket movement gene where he can move and like

short bursts in the pocket. So if your left guard is getting beat, and I'm not like picking on Mafi, I'm just using it as an example, maybe the right tackle would have been a better example in this case. If your right tackle is getting beat, but the other four fifths of the line have created a pocket, you have to be able to maneuver to find the air space right like right, Just take a little step to the left and a little step up and do it quickly and then reset your feet and make a throw.

He doesn't. He he has two things. He either bails on the pocket or he throws off his back foot and just stands there and take it and takes the hit. And he's got to learn because of the fact that he needs to throw from that sturdy base and that sturdy platform with his feet set, he's got to learn how to make those Brady Jedi like movements in the pocket and have that sense of the pressure and where is the clean air space and where are are am

I protected? And where am I not protected? Because bailing on the pocket can't be an option for him because he's not gonna create yards with his legs, And throwing off his back foot can't be an option for him because he's not gonna be able to put enough mustard on the throws to.

You know, there's one play where Michaeh Parsons yet he comes up the middle and he's and he's coming through, but David Andrews gets just enough of him to like knock Parsons off his track just a little bit, and all Mack has to do is step to his right, reset and make a throw, and instead he just lets

Parsons hit him right. And so that those little things like the maneuvering of the pocket and finding the clean air and you know, resetting your base and you know, a little quick move to the left and reset, those are the types of things that pocket quarterbacks need to master.

If you're gonna be a really good pocket quarterback, and especially one that doesn't have a big arm, you have to be able to reset your base and make throws like that where you're not you're not scrambling, you're just moving like an inch here inch there in the pocket.

If he can't figure out how to do that, then this is how it's gonna look like, not as bad as it is on Sunday, but like for the first month of this season, this is how it's gonna look, he's made some good throws staring down the barrel right like guys are coming at him, and he's made some good throws. But he's got to figure out how to make those little subtle movements in the pocket. I haven't really seen him do that at this level, at a high level regularly. I haven't really seen him have that

type of pocket movement. And he's got to figure out how to do that because he's got to throw with his feet set. He has to throw on time and with his feet set, So you have to figure out ways to work around that. I don't think you know, And I thought Billy Oh said it perfectly when he said it was uncharacteristic of him to make some of the decisions that he made in that game. Spot on. It was there. No one's like thinking that Mac Jones gonna throw across the field and throw pick sixes like

he did on Sunday all the time. It was and characteristic of him. But the little throws here and there that he missed in that game were because of his footwork and his pocket movement. Yeah, all right, we're gonna get Nick underhill here on the line in the second. So I don't want to get too much off on anything else. But I think the other couple of things in this game that were obviously troubling were the injuries. But the Patriots did make a trade for J. C. Jackson, Yes,

and I did want to get to that. And I think the trade for j. C. Jackson, we went over the whole tanking thing and things like that, So I understand that, you know, some people want to don't see the point of trading for J. C. Jackson, But who's out of practice today? And I really like this move. I think that they had to do something to remain competitive on defense, and this move puts it there. And we'll get to that in a second, though, because I don't want to leave Nick on hold for too long.

So let's talk a little bit of Saints. Let's let's transition to the Saints, and we got Nick Underhill from NOLA dot Football here on the line. Nick, how's it going, man? Thanks for joining us.

think that's acknowledged, But so were the Saints. You know, they're kind of like weirdly parallel right now, where there's just these like totally atrocious offenses. I think the thing that maybe gives the Saints a little bit more hope than probably what the Patriots have is that you look around and there's actually talented players that you assume will

eventually get things going a little bit. But you know, I don't think they're taking the Patriots lately at all, even though they're catching them at a time when they're pretty banged up and they just lost their two best players and all that stuff. But I mean, Belichick's still Belichick. Man. That name carries cachet probably further away than it does that right now, but it's definitely still there.

have some weapons down there. And what's been the problem with the offense though, because here in New England obviously it's not quite that you can't really sit here and say, well, they could get it together because they have Chris Alave, you know, if you catch my drift.

losing one on ones. They kind of got it together this week, so I think that there's tigns of hope, and you should assume that they're going to eventually get it together because I mean, you go across the board and they got three first round picks started in the second round pick start, and a first round pick on the bench. I mean, they should be good at uh at blocking out. There's just been so much resource spent there. And Doug Maroon's the coach. I mean, he's a former

head coach in the league twice. I mean, so they have the players that have the coaching. I think last week we saw a corner turned, and I'm inclined to believe it just based on some of that stuff. You know. The other thing is that I think Derek Carr's kind of underwhelmed a little bit. You know, obviously he's just kind of like a like a league average quarterback, but I think he's probably been a little bit subpar so far. Lack of chemistry, some slow decisions, just not really what

you expected to see. To start the season, and then the last thing is is and look, I'm not someone that ever comes after coaching really like I just never really feel comfortable doing it. It's it's always feels like

like a half day criticism. But their play calling I think has been legitimately atrocious to the point like where you can see stuff happening in real time and just kind of you're scratching your head at the things they're doing, just in terms of like how they're attacking certain coverages, how they're using their personnel. Like it's just there's a lot of nonsensical things happening right now. I did an

interview with Alvin Kamara yesterday. He didn't like directly call it out, but if you read between the lines, like it was seven minutes of saying like, hey, like we got to be better at play calling. So it's definitely a thing that they're looking at. Dennis Allen spoke on it this week that that, you know, Pete Carmichael Junior

needs to do a better job beyondsive coordinator. So I mean, it's it's definitely not coming together as expected, but you know, as you said, I think the players are there for it to eventually turn around. It should turn around, and if it doesn't, I mean, I really do think this is a situation where, you know, if it's if it's the same, they play the Patriots this week, Houston next week. If you don't see improvement over the next two weeks, you know, I could see a change occurrent here.

really ugly. I mean that their top two tight ends were out of the game, and when you're trying to run screens behind Jimmy Graham, I mean, it's just probably not gonna work. So I mean that that's kind of where they were at with it, and it was just kind of a really ugly looking game. You know, he's looked okay this week in practice, we're we see like it slightly more than you guys do out of these sessions.

Like we see like the first fifteen minutes you see routes on air and then like there's there's sometimes like a little bit of like a red zone period that you get to see, so like there's a little bit more of a sampling, and he's looked okay. You know, I think he's gonna be He's gonna start obviously this week. You know, I do think it is it is an issue though, like it but they're shooting it up and

he's playing through it. And you know, he did throw a ball like fifty yards through the air last week. Again it was a little under thrown, but like he's not super limited that he is a little bit limited.

little bit to an extent. But I mean there's just also things like if you go break down this film, like you want to rip out your hair a little bit, like they're doing things like there's just nothing over the middle like at all, Like they're just like attacking to the outside, like you're going against like cover two middle

of the fields open. There's there's not even routes like going up the middle of the field, Like you aren't even bluffing how you should be attacking some of these coverages, like you know, cover three, Like there's that hole behind the linebacker in the safety, like you should have people running routes through there, Like there's no routes going through there. So it's it's play calling, and I think cars just

not executed well. Like he's been terrible in the red zone, which is which has been you know, kind of the story of his whole career. That was the thing coming out of Vegas that that you know, he just wasn't good in the red zone. I think there are three for twelve this year in the red zone. It's not been good. You know. Some of the throws down there have been like a little bit panicky. Sometimes he's holding

the ball a little bit too long. On the play he got injured on, I think he was like trusting his blocking maybe, so I don't totally fault him, but if you go back and look at it, it's like, damn, you could have got rid of that ball and maybe avoided a hit. Uh. You know. So there's just a few things where where it's just sometimes a little bit slow,

sometimes a little bit of a lack of chemistry. But I don't think they're doing enough to help them, Like with the play call, and I mean there's the spacing on some of their their routes, like they just it doesn't make sense. It's sloppy. You got people ended up in the same place on the field. There was an incompletion at the end of the Green Bay game. Jamis was a quarterback, but you have Chris A. Love and

Mike Thomas ended up in the exact same spot. And like, these are things that that we used to see, like Sean Payton just like hammering them to the point that it was like ridiculous about just the proper spacing on splits, Like he would respit like reset somebody like and tell them to move over six inches. And he was right though, Like it's what needed to happen for the play to work right, for the time to work right, for everybody

done up in the right places. And like, I just think like some of those like super hard details have gone to the wayside a little bit, you know, with Carmenical taken over and it's it's a little bit of it's just kind of like a little bit of everything underwhelming. But I think all it takes is one week and it could click. But the thing with Carmichael is last

year it was underwhelming. This year it's underwhelming. Like you're just kind of starting to get to the point where it's like maybe this is just who he is and it's not going to get significantly better.

the secondary in New Orleans though. You know, obviously we know Lattimore, we know Honey Badger, Tyron Matthew, but some of these other guys like Isaac Gideam and some of these other players are starting to step up for them and they've been a really good pass defense. What have you seen from those guys?

There's a maturation to his game and he looks really really good so far this year. And Tyron Matthew I think is playing better this year than he did last year as well, Like coming into the season last year that he had something going on in his personal life. He left her in camp, he came back. It just kind of took it a little while to settle in and get going, build chemistry and all that. Once it clicked, it clicked though, and he was good the second half

of the year. But he's looked really good to start the season. The other stafety Marcus May he's serving a suspension. He'll be out this week. His backup Jordan Howden, was out last week. That's a rookie fits round pack. He's been pretty solid. He should be back this week, but he's playing through yet hand surgery, so his hand will probably be club so I don't know. Turnover potential is probably pretty low at that spot. The other qurnerback you

mentioned Aasak Yeadham. He started the last two weeks. There was an injury to Pulsing a Deevo Pussing and Debos should be back and playing in that spot. The atom has been awesome, so it's gonna be interesting to see. Like Devo's a very physical corner, but he can definitely be exploited. Uh, he likes to He's kind of like gravy. There's a lot of p I penalties, so that that's you know, something that that could potentially be exploited. Double moves is something that I would run a lot about him.

And then the guy in the slot, Alante Taylor. So much energy, so much passion, tons of talent, tons of upside, unbelievable athleticism, plays out of control sometimes and you know sometimes in the run game there's there's mistackles. He's new to the slot this year, definitely still learning it. And you know there's ups and there's downs. When he flashes like he flashes like nobody else, and when he gets beat, he gets beat like nobody else.

just it's just been unbelievable. And you know, he's getting a little bit older, but he's just so smart and so anticipatory that it doesn't it doesn't matter. Like he's seems like he's still improving a little bit like in that aspect. But he's he's just great at everything. He's incredibly sound. He's he's solid and coverage, they can use him as a blitzer. They like to use them as blitzer. He's really good at that. He's just he's just such a cerebral player. And you know, he's he's the guy

calling stuff out before it happens all the time. Like he's just he's he's just really really good, really really sound. You don't really see him make too many mistakes. He missed the tackle against Green Bay, but I mean it's like one mistake that that, you know, the whole season. He's just such a good player, and yeah, he deserves

all the recognition. It's it's too bad, man, Like if he was a few years younger, Like he's someone that could potentially have like a Hall of Fame case, but he just got off to such a slow start with the Jets, and it took him a little while to kind of like he's talked a lot about like like how how he had to learn out of the study and all this stuff, and like once he finally figured it all out, like he became like a truly truly incredible player, one of the best linebackers in the league,

no doubt.

And yeah, I think he keeps getting better. And he's someone too that that's starting to be us a little bit more. As a blitzer. They'd like to use their linebackers like in these blitz packages a lot. Like on third downs, they played three down defensive lineman and they go to their dime package and they send the fourth Usually it's usually a linebacker you don't know where it's

coming from. Though, Kayden ellis they got it that went to Atlanta last offseason, was kind of the primary blitzer last year, so like Werner and Davis has been sparingly using it a little bit this year. But that that's something that I expect to see ramp up a little bit and Werner's Werner's been getting a little bit more action in those types of looks too.

I could. You know, it's funny because like the Saints are one of those teams too, like Patriots that put a lot in special teams. They got J. C. Gray the gunner. He's kind of Verry Slater ish, like a difference maker the Patriot or the Saints. Hunter has been pretty bad. There's not a lot of consistency there, so that that's something that if the Patriots need to get right, they might have an opportunity there at some point. But yeah, he's definitely something that can break.

I would try to get vertical on whatever side of the field Jordan Howden's on and just kind of see where that's at. I would attack the slot because, like I said, I think Alante Taylor is someone that can be you know, he he gave up like ten catches a couple of weeks ago, I think against Carolina. So that's that's one place i'd try to go with it. I'd run double move to the debo and eventually you're gonna get a key I down the field and get

a free play. Like so, there's just a handful of things that I think you can do against their secondary and just try to try to see where the soft spots are. The one thing I definitely wouldn't do is throw the ball at a lot of more. It's just tough, but look, they're gonna disguise their coverages. So I mean Mac needs to be you know, I I've only looked a little bit. It seems like he's had some trouble

with teams that do that well. And that's one of the things that that this defense does really really well. They'll hold their look until the very last second and they'll make you know, they'll give you a quarters look and it'll turn into cover three and you know, if you aren't reading that like through the snap like you're gonna make a mistake. So they just need to be very very aware of what their safeties are doing and what coverage is there.

great point about what he brings up. And as we kind of segue here a little bit and more more of the Saints about Dennis Allen's defense, you know, watching them against the Bucks and uh this season so far, you got to look at you know, their their stats of like coverages that they use and and rushes that they they they throw the kitchen sink at a quarterback right like there, they spend the dial, they play one high two high man zone, they play a lot of a lot of man to man coverage, which we know

the Patriots have had trouble with. And then their third down package is very patriot like. Well they'll put you know, five six guys up on the line of scrimmage and they only send four, but you don't know which four are coming, so you have to decipher all of that post snap. That's a great point by by Nick there about that's that's some of the stuff that I just laid out, you know, the disguising, the pressure man to man like that, that's the kryptonite for the Patriots offense

so far. So the under as he as he said, is is a good pick here. Let's let's clear some of these phone calls out and a lot of people have been waiting on hold for a long time, and we appreciate that, and then we'll we'll get into some of the other things we wanted to discuss. But Christian is in start with Patty actually has been on hold longer. What's up, Patty?

Buck Street going, you know, just selfishly and egoistically. But part of me thinks that, like, damn, maybe with all this, you know, with all of our cornerbacks hurt. I know, we just picked up JC, But like all the top of the run guys out of this game and all the potential firepower that the Saints have, I might, I might see another thirty seven to three games. Because that

was the final score to that Broncos game. I hope that I do have a little bit of faith that Matt's going to pull his head out of his rear end and hopefully play a decent game.

the pieces in the right direction. And Derek Carr, I think it's Brady made it look so easy that you know, some people forget Derek Carr was in Vegas, I guess now, but with the Raiders for like a decade and then he has to come to a completely new system, a completely new area, like move coast to coast and like there's a transition period there. But when you look at the Saints roster offensively, they have some first round picks

on their offensive line. They have Chris Olava on the outside, who's a great receiver and still is playing well, even though the Saints offense as a whole isn't. Alvin Kamara is back now after his suspension. There's just there's more pieces on that side of the ball. So my fear of this game is that is that the Saints are going to finally figure it out a little bit offensively and they're going to get some things rolling on that

side of the ball. And I don't think the Patriots, even against New Orleans, they don't have the firepower that New Orleans has. If this ends up being a game that does get into let's say the twenties versus a game that we're all picking, which would be like a rock fight in the teams, right. I think with car too, there's the thing about his shoulder, Like you mentioned that he's got to come in, he's got to learn new offense,

and now he's struggling to throw the ball. He can't throw the ball deep, which is something they probably wanted to do. Yeah, So yeah, he actually is a most of his career, he's been a pretty good deep ball thrower. Yeah, like that's not you know, he doesn't have this big cannon in terms of like driving the ball into tight windows. At the intermediate level, I've never really thought of him as like a great anticipatory passer over the middle of

the field. But deep balls, he's usually been pretty good at that. And h and yeah, I guess at that shoulder. He's zero for five on deep passes last last week.

the field. They can get up the field and create on vertical routes and create opportunities to throw the ball deep. And the Bucks just they played soft zone, they played off coverage, they played two deep shells, and they just said the only way that you're beating us is if you matriculate down the field. And that's I mean, that's football nowadays in general, like that's how everybody's playing it. But I thought that was very telling from Tampa Bay.

All right, Christian is in La. What's up? Christian?

So for me, we're going into the next into this draft like top seven, right, top ten pick, we already have that that that why can't we and mostly you get a second round pick at some point in second round, why couldn't we take our third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh round pick and package them to like a team like San Francisco that's not going to be trying to

really build an impact player next draft. They're looking for more depth and stuff like that, and wind up with a great first rounder, someone maybe in the bottom of the first round that we'd get from five picks from something else, and a good second round of three impact players to change the culture, change the team really quickly.

Could you kind of dig into this philosophy of that, But then the thing about mac Jones is and I know it's not fair to compare anything to Tom Brady at all, so I'm not really doing that, but it seemed like Brady had this sort of succession of football intelligence where the first quarter he would throw some things out there and sort of try something. The second quarter he would see how those things are really affecting and

working the defense. The third quarter he would know what the defense is going to do, and then the first quarter he would light you up. It doesn't seem like mac Jones has that level of football intelligence to make that progression has the game unfold.

second round. If they want to jump back into the first round at the end of the first round instead of picking at the beginning of the second round because they really like a guy on Night one, then I'm all for that. But they're gonna have to trade from future drafts to make right.

Peyton did it. That's an elite, elite, elite quarterback kind of thing to I would also sort of just use the first half of the game like a preseason.

just kind of came to him naturally. Of my footwork, my cadence, my eye, my eyes, where are they where it's my read? Was the intent of this play? Like all the things that Mack was talking about yesterday, right, All that type of stuff was natural to Tom Brady, so he could go to that next level of deciphering defense and deciphering how the game is declaring and how they are they defending us? And how are they defending me and all these type like Dad type of nuance

of the game. I don't know if mac has Is necessarily has the k ability to graduate to that, because he's still worried about wearing my feet and wearing my eyes on this play right right, and what are we doing before we even get to the defense. It's like what are we doing first? And then we get to that. Brady knew what we were doing all the time, right, like he had already mastered that piece of the equation.

So it's tough. It's tough to then, you know, play the chess match and do all that stuff when you're still not confident in yourself in what you're trying to do. Before we get to the rest of the phone calls, I do want to talk about J C. Jackson before we start to lose people here in the second hour.

The Patriots made a trade yesterday, obviously for J C. Jackson, and I also subscribe to a lot of the positivity that's come out about this trade on a money side of things, in a trade, you know, capital side of things, they basically gave up nothing to get him. He was gonna get cut by the Chargers. They basically gave up nothing to get him. And I think watching his film yesterday and as we're you know, when the trade officially gets announced, he was out at practice. I think it

actually literally just got announced as I just did it. Yes, so the trade is official now for J C. Jackson. But I think the biggest thing is is when I watched his film against the Chargers, I thought the Chargers fundamentally misunderstood the player and a player that they were getting. And I know you'll you'll jump right on this, Alex, because you hate Brandon Stance. He's a bad coach, so

this is right up your alley. I felt like the Chargers thought that they were getting this revous Gilmore lockdown corner right that when they played Miami in Week one, they could just line him up across from Tyree Killer Jalen Waddle and be like, Jac's got got number ten. You know, we're all set there. And that's never been the type of player that j C. Jackson is.

He's a ballhawk, whatever you want to call it. And when you start to look at the film, I thought that he looks like JC and you look at the coverage stats and last year was a disaster for him. For the five games he played before the knee injury was a disaster. But he was, you know, transitioning to a new scheme, a new coast, all that kind of

stuff that I was talking about with Derek Carr. I think applies here this year when you start to look at some of the coverage metrics, his metrics were starting to level back off to what he was closer to twenty twenty one. You know, similar completion rate into his coverage,

similar success rate. Had an interception in Miami and then also gave up ninety nine yards, right, like, that's that's j C. Jackson, And I think the doll the Chargers, excuse me, just had this this this belief that they were getting this lockdown number one corner and in reality, the player that he was against Miami ninety nine yards,

but an interception, that's all. That's who he's been. When he's elevated to that number one spot, when he was playing behind Stefan Gilmour and and you know those guys, that's a little bit different. But when he was the Patriots pseudo number one corner and what was at twenty one or twenty or twenty one, yeah, twenty one, that that was who he was. And so I think in some ways there there's Dad and you know there's a

couple of the plays he gave up against Miami. Gives up a big explosive to Jalen Wattle trying to play him out of the slot, like not his game, right, Like Jan Waller runs a little quick slant on him and gets open and gains like thirty five yards. He gave up an explosive on Ti to Tyreek Hill on one of those motion routes. Everybody gives up explosives to Tyreek Kill on the motion routes. That's why they run

the motion routes is because they're impossible to cover. And then he gave up the touchdown over the top to Tyreek Hill where he didn't have safety help, right, Like, how you're not putting State, You're putting him in press man with inside leverage against Tyreek Hill and he doesn't have safety help over the top, what do you expect to happen? He got burned, Like that's exactly what was

going to happen. So in a lot of ways, I'm optimistic about this trade helping the Patriots because one, they just needed corners, like they just needed playable corners and running a mere speed and Sean Wade and Miles Brian out there the rest of the season was not an option and they needed to be better than that. So they get a guy that can keep them competitive on defense. They get a guy that they can turn the ball

over some on defense. I had two takeaways in the first four games of the year, so maybe he gets some of those. Mister iron, T's right, and I like the player, and you know who he is. You know he's not anything special.

it easier to facilitate that they knew the guy. I wonder, and there's been some reporting to kind of suggest this if he was gonna end up here one way or the other once he got cut and the injuries just kind of created a situation where they couldn't wait for him to get cut. And I said that, and people pushed back on me, like, oh, no, it's a smart move because if you got cut, he might not have come back here. I don't know how big the market

was going to be for him. I also, for a number of reasons, I think he has to look at it and be like, this is the place I belong in. Oh, this is a huge win for him. Yeah you can get where I was massive win for him. Yeah, if I'm him, I'm a static, But you know what, we'll see.

can play for you on Sunday. And since JC Jackson knows the system and he knows the defense, if he's healthy, he's going to be active on So it's more for me with that.

along those lines as well. Let's say it's Halloween. If you can get to a point where your corn are Jack Jones and j C. Jackson on the boundary and you move John Jones back into the slot. And I don't know if they will or not, but like, if your top three corners are Jack Jones, John Jones and j C. Jackson, who's going in? Like are they gonna bench one of those three guys from Ales Bryant? Maybe

they might bench Jack Jones from Miles Brant. But the point being, like jac Jackson, Jack Jones on the boundary, John Jones on.

the last two years. Like obviously we were all hoping they were gonna take that next step with Christian Gonzales being that true number one Gilmour type corner. Unfortunately gets hurt. It's a bummer, but I think you at least you know, last year they were still a pretty good defense. Like they weren't a great defense, but they were a good defense,

and I think they'll be a good defense still. If JC is ready to go, all right, let's do a three up, three down real quick, and uh, we'll get into this and then we'll take some of these calls and we'll rap with some more on the Saints. So I did a little differently this week because of obvious reasons the result of the game. Yeah, and I have two up in three and four down, so I took I only did two. Let's start with the positives though. Okay, Uh, best player in the game for the Patriots I thought

was Detrick Wise. Okay, Dietrich Wise really good this game. Five pressure sack, another TfL on the run game. I thought he was disruptive. I thought he read blocks extremely well. I thought he worked well on the on the games or the stunts up front. I think Dietrich Wise, you know, he's not Matthew Junoni. He's not a game wrecker. He's not a Tuesday player, as we like to call him.

But he's a guy that I think teams know of and is starting to get a little bit of a positive reputation around the league in terms of being someone you gotta worry about. He's a really well rounded player all of a sudden, you know, I think he's one of those rare guys that comes in and in like year six or year seven of his NFL career kind of takes that next step to being extremely well rounded.

And he's much more violent with his hands in the run game and getting off blocks, and his block anticipation has really improved, and his leveraging has really improved. I've been impressed with him all year, but I thought this game he was particularly really well, really good. Excuse me, yeah, I'll go.

something for Hunter Henry. Yeah, because he keeps making plays. And honestly, the Cowboys are a team I look at they're like, can you get a third round pick, maybe second round pick with a pick slot for Hunter Henry?

eyes on this. And by the way, I see people saying in the chat getting annoyed at me for saying Bill Belichick might bench Jack Jones from Miles Bryant. He did that last year. So there's history of that. That that the CD Lamb touchdown. That's just such a bad Again, it's not like there's a ton of ops to choose from in this game, right Evan, And it's a bad spot for him. It's just a bad He shouldn't be out there. This goes to my whole point about Miles Bryant.

Miles Bryant's a solid rotational football player if you use him correctly, having him one on one, ceedee Lamb on the outside.

just does his job. It's like it's the usage thing. Yeah, I get that, But I actually think that Jelanie Deviz turned into a pretty solid player for them, and I think that he's gonna play a lot now that Judon's not here. So just just prepare yourself for the fact that forty eight is going to be out there a

ton on this defense. I'm not saying that he should be over Keon White, don't get on me, but I'm just telling you that in this game, this was probably one of the better games I saw Jelye Tevi play. He was really he was disruptive in this game, beat a couple really really well done in terms of shedding blocks in the run game. In this game, deflected a pass that he almost picked off at the line of scrimmage, got the sack on the goal line where he was unblocked,

but he made the play. So I was impressed by Tavai in this game, and he was already playing a lot before Judon got hurt. He had a sixty six percent snap usage. I think in the first four games of the season, so he has his own role. Like this isn't like Julyn Devia is replacing Matthew Judon and he wasn't playing before. This just means that Julya DEVIAI is going to play a little bit more on the edge. I would say the defense versus off the ball. But I thought he was really good in this game. So

that those are my two. I gave him both on the defense because the offense is deserved anything. I don't know why, Jeannie to Van Dietrich quiet, I don't know. I didn't pick any any defensive ones because it's just.

like six feet onet eighty. Obviously Douglas is not that tall, but there that's the type of player if she has a big game on Sunday for New Orleans, Like, that's what you, as a Patriots fan hope that Pop Douglas is going to become like he's one of those just jitterbug, game breaking, bursty guys. All right, let's get let's get to the DUTs. Yeah, this is uh, this is gonna be fun. All right, So we have four duds for me. Okay, four, I'm gonna guess we have a lot of overlap. Number

one is Mac Jones. I mean Mac Jones gotta be number one. I mentioned a lot about it already, So I'm not gonna like continue to beat the dead horse about the footwork and the decision making. All of it was bad. Second quarter, all of it was bad. I think the biggest thing with Mac in terms of getting him back on track, Uh, they need to get him back to obviously playing within himself and playing within the system and then and then taking some of the layups.

Like so the things that irked me the most about this game from Mac was like some of the crossers to Devonte Parker that he missed, Like just these shallows, right, these shallow crossers over the middle of the field, and it's like throw it, throw it, throw it, throw it, throw it, sack or throw it, throw it, throw it, throw it late almost intercepted, right, Like those are the types of throws that like he's got to make. You know a lot of people have been talking about the

Kasiki one in the end zone. Devonte Parker is the read on that play. Devonte Parker is wide open, like five yards in front over the ball, you know, running a little shallow drag over the ball in Mac Jones. All Mac Jones got to do is put it on him and he's just gonna turn off field and walk into the end zone right, and he doesn't completely skips the read, just doesn't see it, just completely ignores it.

They he's got to do much better job of seeing the fields, like all the footwork stuff, the decision making stuff. I'm willing to bet that it will be better than that on Sunday with the Saints. But the reads and seeing the field and stuff that's not Mac like Mac usually sees the field pretty well. It was disaster. It was bad. Yeah, he wasn't good. He was bad. He was bad in this game. He was bad.

It's a lot at right tackle. Eight last week nine this week, it's no contest, right like, especially if you're going up against a good edge rusher like Micah Parsons. I'll give a Darian Low this. He gets his hands on you, initially, he just can't stay with it, right like, once he okay, I'll get my punch, I'll get my hands on you. But as soon as you start running the arc, I'm like, you're you're past me, right and that it just it's not it's not sustainable, it's not playable.

They gotta do something at right tackle, like it's it's it's Vaderian. Low's not the answer. They got to do something at right tackle. Whether it's Riley Reeve win City, so even like getting an opportunity out there, I don't know, but like they have to look elsewhere right tackle. He has been a disaster.

has to be better the entire group. We've picked on their offensive line a lot this year. I think that wasn't well. I was gonna say, like, it's not that they've played a bunch of great games. I think that was their worst game of the year.

with a mentality. I just haven't really seen that at all from him. I thought he was okay in pass pro for the most part, but in the run game, they need him to be a much bigger impact, Like he needs to be an impact blocker for them in the run game, and he just really hasn't been consistently. I don't know if it's the ankle. I don't know if it's the lack of training camp and this is basically his training camp and he's trying to ramp it

up in season or whatever. But going into the year like that, that's your guy, right, Like, that's the guy that you can you're saying is your best offensive lineman. He has not played like that and he needs to play better.

are when the game was out of reach. Again, third and one in the red zone. This is Zeke's game, it's his homecoming. You don't think he's a little extra jacked up. You can't give them the ball on an HB dive like what they should have come in. The Cardinals ran. The Cardinals ran for two hundred and twenty two yards on the Cowboys a week before, and there was zero interest in getting under center and just plowing ahead with the football. Why why why? And I know

you you kind of explained before. You can't traditionally run on the Boys because they do this, you know what, I think at a cert as much as we like to talk about the breakdown between the two teams, I think there is something to be said, you know, not for the entire game, but there's something to be said for you know what, for get what they do.

covers Alabama football. And he kind of said, like, this is what you see, Like this is what I was trying to tell you as somebody who watched Alabama football last year. He doesn't run the ball, you know, he doesn't traditionally run the football. And I said that I thought that he would up here when they hired Bill O'Brien. I thought that he would because Bill would make him like Big Bill, not Bill O'Brien, like Bill Belichick would make him. And uh, and that hasn't necessarily been the case,

you know. They they've they kind of use like the bad starts as an excuse, like, all we were playing from behind and we had to throw our way back in. You get down by two touchdowns, you don't just completely abandon Also, but also this game, even if you want, even if that is their philosophy that if we're down two scores, we're not gonna We're not gonna run the ball, even if that is their philosophy, it is I forget was it three nothing or nothing nothing on that third

and one? I think it was three nothing, three nothing, three nothing, So Cowboys already kick a field goal. It's three nothing. Yeah.

one last thing about the play calling. They only called two screens two screen passes the entire game against the front that was eating their offensive line alive, Like you would think that trying to you know, get invite Parsons and those guys to come up front and you'll come downhill and then maybe just pop a screen over their heads to Mandre or Zeke would have worked like maybe once, Like I'm not saying it's gonna work a ton, but like maybe you hit one play like they did against Philadelphia,

right like they hit that one screen. So I was shocked about the lack of screen passes in this game. Just really quickly on Bill.

run I thought he coached. They coached well against Philly, especially defensively, they were they were really buttoned up on all the quarterback run stuff, the r R PO game, like all they had that buttoned up. But at the same time, they had all off season to plan that that.

sling it like that. You know, Dak and the gun, three eleven personnel, three wide receivers, spread the field, where's twenty six, where's twenty seven on the defense, like that we're attacking these guys. I think they thought that like I thought, and I hand up like I thought the same thing. I thought that the Cowboys are going to put the ball under center. They were going to run the football like they always do. I thought that too. They didn't. They came out throwing eighteen passes in the

first four drives of this game from Dallas. They went right down the field on the opening drive on six passes, right like, just Dak and the gun spread the field, throw the football, and the Patriots had no answers for it. I think people, the offense is clearly the issue with this team right now, so I'm not trying to point fingers at the defense. The Cowboys had five drives of over ten plays in this game. They had five drives over seventy yards. They had five drives over ten plays.

I think people look at the final score and are like, well, technically, the defense only gave up twenty four points. Like, that's not that bad, right. They didn't stop the Cowboys on their first drive of the game. Where you mentioned that the Cowboys kicked that field goal, Dak and Tony Pollard ran into each other. Right, That's the only reason why the run didn't work is because they ran into each other. On the play. The offense screwed up. They held them

in the red zone. They had some good stuff in the red zone, but for the most part, Dallas drove the ball in this game at will. They drove the ball at will. And I get that the Patriots were short handed in the second theary, I get Christian Gonzalez got hurt at the end of the first quarter. The first quarter was the same even with Gonzales out there. So at this point, you know, this kind of comes back to like Bill and the job security and all

that kind of stuff. We know that he's on the hot seat because of his personnel decisions, rightfully, so right and if he's not a great game planner anymore, Like that's the that's the Belichick mistique that Nick was talking about when we were talking to him about the Saints, is the Belichick mystique of game planning and taking away your best thing and like, you know, really out coaching you. And think, if he can't do that anymore, then I present the question to mister Craft of what what does

he bring to the table? He doesn't the roster is not good, the game plan and then game coaching isn't necessarily good. What is he bringing to the table. And if Bill's gonna like rest on his laurels and figure something out for the rest of the season. They've got to get back to out coaching teams again. Yeah, because they don't have the talent to make up for it. That's that's why he makes the big bucks. That that's

why he's here. So I was really frustrated by by the fact that, you know, you mentioned all all great points about the offensive coaching and the things that they didn't do offensively. Defensively, I thought that they were pretty much non competitive as well, except in the red zone.

just regretting. It's horrible. Uh he's he's not playing his foot and that threw that throw he made across the numbers. You know, it's high school level mistakes. You know it was big on Mac. But again, you know every week he's just like he's regressing. Even that pick six, he immediately left the pocket. I mean it was closing in but he still had time in there. And then a touchdown throw that one definitely win over top. He you know, looked off his number one and number two option immediately

he had that throw in the middle there. You know, it's it's after the fact and when he went quarterback, but it's just you know, it's time NFL level quarterbacking. And then last just kind of curious why it feels like when I watched the past games, compared to other games, they're just so slow looking on the field of their motions,

their plays. There's just really no urgency there as far as get the ball and go compared to some of these other new offenses in the league, and again I'll take off fair thanks for everything and.

a concern. I think one of the biggest reasons why they're so slow on offense is because of how many tight ends they're playing. And they're playing two or three tight ends like all the time, right, you know, like they're playing two or three either twelve personnel thirteen personnel, like something like eighty five percent of the game in some of these games. I get why they're doing it.

They're doing it because they need to figure out a way to block, right, So they're trying to put more blockers on the field to try to figure it out.

to run the ball. We know that, but I don't necessarily know if the heavy packages is doing them any favors because they can't throw out of it. So maybe eleven personnel is the way to go to get more

receivers on the field. This kind of goes to, you know, everybody's point about Pop Douglas, like you're only playing an eighteen snaps, Like some of these routes like that need to hit quicker, need to be by run by faster people like Pop Douglas, like a Kendrick Bourne, like Taekwon if he ever gets his butt back on the field, right like, you know, those are the types of guys that need to be running those types of routes. All right, Roman is in our Justin, Sorry, go in order here.

Justin's in Houston. What's up Justin?

I know hindsight is twenty twenty, but what do you personally.

get him loose and get him moving. He's not a jitterbug. He's not Pop Douglas, right, so he's not gonna shake out of tackles. He has to be able to run with the football, you know. Hit him on a slant and watch him run, Hit him on a dig and watch him run with it. Like those are the types of routes that he ran in Kansas City that he was effective on and they just haven't gotten the loose.

And this is something that really Alex, We're on like three different coordinators that like can't get these catch and run players the ball in space. I don't think. I think McDaniel's really struggled with it with nickil Harry and with Johnny Smith. I think Patricia obviously struggled it with it last year again with John hu And I get that people can point to it and say, oh, well, those players just stink, right, like it's just on the personnel, and it's on the player, John who.

I'm not saying that that's gonna turn him into a thousand yard receiver, but that's what he was at his best. Right He's running those types of routes and they just haven't really gotten gotten that. But I was totally wrong about Juju and Jacoby Myers. I'll admit that Roman's in Chicago. What's up Roman?

Cameron Jordan might as well be twenty six years old. Like that's the way. He doesn't play like a thirty four times it's wild. He's agent like fine wine him and tomorrow Davis. This this is a absolute mismatch, a monster mismatch. On the same plane, I would say is like not necessarily Mike A. Parsons because I don't think

Cameron Jordan's in that category of elite. But like John Franklin Myers, who also ate up Vederian Low two weeks ago, this is a this is a big you know, warning warning, right like for me with the Patriots in this matchup.

for the Saints offense. And I asked Lawrence Guy about him earlier today and I was like, oh, you should like the way he cuts, and like, they're clearly impressed with this guy.

I would say also in the passing game, like you almost have to treat him as a wide receiver in the passing game, So like Juwan Bentley and Jeelani Tavai cannot be isolated on Alvin Kamara on Sunday, Like you have to treat him like, yeah, a Marde Mapu, Kyle Duggar, maybe even Jalen Mills, Like you have to have somebody that's the cover guy covering Alvin Kamara when they flex him out or in the passing game, he's a problem. And with Derek Carr's shoulder, you know that's the guy

that the ball is gonna funnel through. Right now, It's not gonna be a lobby, I don't think necessarily, because a lobby is a vertical guy that needs to get the ball deep. I think a Kamara is gonna be a big part of their game plan.

like that. The Patriots defense needs to have that mentality this week, not just tackling Alvin Kamara, but getting to them in the backfield, not just knocking passes down, but picking them off when you get to the ballcarrier, right, because they got to be swarm tackling. First guy, hold them up, second guy, punch it out. It's got to be things like that this week.

how you can win anymore at a high level. We all agree, But the bottom line is that they came into the season expecting their defense to be dominant, and when you're a dominant defense, you turn the ball over. It's not just about points per game. It's not just

about points per game. The Patriots have had great defenses in terms of points per game that have given up a ton of yards, and our ben don't break and then are good in the red zone and good situationally, so they don't give up, you know, forty points a game. They only give up eighteen. This defense was not built for that. This defense was built to take the ball away. And I think a couple of different things that I've

noticed about the way that they play right now. First of all, you gotta play Kyle Duggart close to the ball. Kyle Duggar's got to be close to the ball. Whatever you have to do with Devin mccorty's role, like whatever whoever has to play post safety to make that happen. You gotta try to make that happen because playing him twelve yards off the ball at this snap every single time is taking away his superpower, which is playmaking around

the football. He's got to be around the ball because he has to be producing the turnovers he was producing last year, and he's not doing that right now because he's playing so deep off the line of scrimmage. So a guy like Kyle Duggart needs to be close to the ball. You get JC back, hopefully mister Iront comes up with his signature a right, and maybe Jack Jones comes back at some point, and the ball hawks a

little bit as well. But in general, you weren't I'm sorry, in the modern NFL, you are not a good defense. If you have two takeaways in four games, you just aren't.

an idiot. But Christian Barmore without I'll get it in here in this I'll keep talking. Christian Barmore without Matthew Judon becomes your second best pass rusher, right, Joshu Jay is your best pass rusher, and Christian Barmore becomes your second best. It's James Hurst, James.

the backfield for a lot of that game. So I need to see that that old rookie season Christian bar Moore. I know we all want to see kef. I was gonna say, can we put Keon White in there as well. But it's gonna is gonna get a lot more attention now, like is gonna be the judon of this defense in pass for situations. Now they have to get some interior pressure. They have to get some secondary rushers, and Christian Barmore has got to lead that. Okay, So I only gave one.

in front of him. In Sandra Bullock, run the damn ball, I think that's right.

biggest thing is just looked at the clock. Don't be surprised, Like, don't be surprised when they try to run like QB power with Taysom Hill and all of a sudden, it's you know, it's the Wildcat Dolphins game with Ronnie Brown, right, Like, just don't don't take it lightly and don't be surprised by it. The Patriots have a plan against it. They'll be fine, but they will put Taysom Hill at quarterbacks some in this game and have them run wildcat Like

that's going to happen. It happened, They did it last week, They're gonna do it again this week, and they're gonna try to hit the Patriots. I'm sure on some of the things that have given them problems, you know, like power and counter with Lamar and justin fields last year. I'm sure they're gonna try to do some of those things and test it and see if the Patriots are

ready for it. So just don't get yourself caught in a place where you're like, oh, right, Taysom Hill and then he's got, like, you know, a ridiculous game on his hands. This game is gonna be offense is gonna be at a premium for both of these teams. I think, you know, the Saints their quarterbacks banged up, and they haven't been a good offense so far. The Patriots haven't

been a good offense because of their own reasons. And you know, this should be eighteen fifteen, seventeen fourteen type of game, and you don't want Taysom Hill to be the difference in that for New Orleans. Like one drive that Taysom Hill comes out and runs the ball down the field. So just be ready for that. Do you like the Patriots in this game on Sunday? You're taking the Patriots because they're at home? Yeah, I do, But

I don't feel great about it. I mean neither I've taken the Patriots too, but listening to Nick Hunter Hill, I am a little bit concerned about the fact that the Saints probably have more offensive firepower that they just haven't really been using correctly. So I hope they don't. Hope this isn't the week that they figure it out. But that's gonna do it here. Thanks for listening, Thanks

for watching. Leave those comments, leave those reviews. We like them all, even the ones that are negative, So keep leaving those. Rate us on you know, Apple podcasts or whatever, and we will be back next week to preview the Raiders, talk about this game against the Saints, and then pack to Vegas. I go Alex back, You're gonna see the Vegles. This is the fourth time I will be in Las Vegas in the calendar year, and for most men that's like,

hell yeah, let's go to Vegas. For me, I am done with the desert, but I'll be there next week, so there we go. See you guys. Then, thank you for downloading this podcast.