Patriots Catch-22 12/21: Breaking Down Issues With Mac Jones / Offense, Bright Spots, Bengals Preview

new addition to the Patriots Catch twenty two podcast. Evan Lazar with me as always, Alex Barth back in the studio. Not to see you, buddy, Good to see you as well. Not in Arizona. Good to be seen. It was a long week in the desert. It wasn't as warm as I was hoping it was gonna be with like this old right, it's like in the fifties, so not cold.

It was definitely better than it was here. But I did want to talk about that a little bit because I think unfortunately what happened on Sunday got in the way of any conversations of what happened out in Arizona and things like that. So we'll try to touch on some of that. But at the top of the show, I'm gonna let you decide because I'm on the fence about this a little bit because we've talked about it at nauseum over the last two days on Unfiltered, well

obviously all wrote about it the last play of the game. Like, we can talk about it, we can dissect it, we can talk about what we think it means and all that kind of stuff, but I don't want it to be the crux of the show, right, Like I don't want it to be the majority of that. You're talking about the play, not the game itself, correct, right, the last play of the game on Sunday. All right, let you know what, let's just do that. You want to start on a really light, stupid note, just because I

think we all need that. Sure, what do we call on those things? Right? There's the miracle in Miami had a decent one. First of all, we're not supposed to name it, Okay, like we're we're supposed to name it. What is your pitch? I'm gonna steal deuces, which is collateral damage, which isn't bad, you know, because collateral Right, So now we're talking about it, So let's just let's just get this out. So the biggest thing that I I don't get to give mine. Oh yeah, sorry, go ahead.

So I think disaster in the desert. But the best one I've heard is what happens in Vegas. Well, this one, I don't know if it's if it's going to stay in Vegas. That's that's why it's interesting. So my I have two takes, and I'll give them again for people that just listen to our show because it's the best one, right, I mean, of course, right. So the first one is that I wish I could sit here and say that that was a one off thing, like the Miami Miracle. To me was a one off, right, like that they

won the Super Bowl that never happened. I was never worried about the psyche of that team shattering. I was maybe worried about the ceiling of that team, right, because we did start to see in twenty eighteen. We had already started to see some of the decay right of the roster at that point. But I wasn't worried about the psyche of the team because they had Brady, they had Gronk, they had Edelman, they had all these veteran players, you know, Devin mccordy five years younger at that point

in time. So I wasn't totally worried about the psyche of the team with that one. I wish I could say that this was a one off for this team. But to me, and we're going to get to all the other issues that they had in this game on

Sunday too, litany of issues. To me, this is indicative of this is maybe not maybe this is the most exaggerated or the like the biggest thing, but this team has not been a smart football team all year long, right, Like they've been a sloppy, undisciplined, especially on offense operation all year long, pre snap penalties, not lining up correctly and not running the right plays, having issues getting plays in off the sideline into the like this is all

year long. Now, this is it on steroids, right, This is like it to the tenth degree, right. But I still feel like this was they had, this was coming, like they had something like this coming that they were going because they were not buttoned up that they were going to have a moment like this in this season. I didn't could never have imagined it would have been that, but it felt like this was coming in some sort

of way. Well, what in what sucks is the two guys on offense who have consistently been above it, right. And there's been guys that have had nice stretches here and there, But the two guys who have made it work consistently throughout the roller coaster of this season have been Ramond Ray Stevenson and Jacobe Myers. They've shown up,

They've done their part. They're really the two guys that have been above I don't want to say above criticism, but they've been, for lack of better term, they've done their jobs. And for those two guys to be involved here is just so striking right because Jacoby Myers is such a smart football player and that was such a bad decision that he made. Now, I will say, to your overall point, I think you hit it on the head.

I was on Patriots post game after the game on ninety eight five Sports ub and yeah, my first thought, and I found myself yelling at times throughout the game this is stuff that all right, when we go out there for training camp, right, or when we're out there in the spring, right, we hear Belichick use the phrase, and we'll use the phrase a lot install period in teaching period, right, you know that it's like the third day of camp and we're asking Bill about, well, what

do you see from this player? And every year we have this conversation, he says, well, it's still the teaching period. We're not in the evaluation period yet of camp. This is the stuff they're teaching. This is the stuff they're installing, the plays themselves, how they're called, where everybody should line up, substitutions, like a lot of that procedural stuff. Yeah, that's what they go over in the spring in the first couple

of days of camp. So nobody's gonna be You're gonna have mistakes in it over the course of the season, like you're not gonna be perfect all season, but for it to show up as regularly as it does on a week to week basis and as often as it does within the games, it is striking to see because again, this is stuff that you kind of work on in the spring, like going back to the spring, some of

the first stuff you work on. Yeah, And the other thing that bugs me about this play and just in general that I've talked about a little bit as well, So I realized I sound like a broken record to some people that listen across all across the board here. But I'm still really bothered by the way that the coaching staff has handled this whole thing. And it started with that postgame press conference from Belichick saying mistakes were made on the play and then saying that Mac Jones

couldn't reach the end zone. Okay, may hang on. Can I as like the chief Mac defender address that. No, if you're gonna say it's because they don't have the protection and like all that, No, that's not what I'm gonna say. Like maybe he meant that, And initially I want to give him the benefit of the doubt on that, I don't anymore. Yeah, we have seen Mac throw the ball that far. Oh yeah, So unless there's some injury

we don't know about, that's just not true. It's just a it's a lie, and it's a lie in the sense that in my opinion, and this is and look, I hate doing this kind of stuff, but I actually agree with your counterparts on ninety eight five and some of the rate Talk radio points here with this is that, in my opinion, it's covering up for Patricia and him, right, say, oh well, Oh yeah, we we we called a job because we felt like the players couldn't execute a hill

Mary right like that. That That's what I'm hearing. And the other thing that has bugged me was that yesterday and Marine Matt's now heard this take like three times. Yesterday we talked to assistant coaches. Now, I will say this, They've had a rotation for who we get to talk to been alphabetically, I think, right, all season long. So I get that this is already a formulaic thing that was decided when the season started of how they were going to rotate because by league rules, once a week

the Patriots have to make coordinators available. Now they don't have an offensive and defensive coordinator by name or by title, I should say, they don't have one. So that is a loophole that they've been able to rotate the coaches in and out one at a time and basically limit the amount of exposure to the media that Matt Patricia gets. I think he's taught, he's spoken, and they rotate the

offensive coach. So there's two, right, there's the offensive coaches, we get one a week in the defensive coaches by the week. So doing the math in my head one, two, three, four, five, there's five guys, six guys who speak. I think Ross Douglas has spoken, right, yes, Billy Yates doesn't doesn't so he's not so six six times around in fifteen weeks.

And I remember them saying at the beginning of the year, it's alphabeticalue I don't I might be making that up, but it feels Patricia would be at the end of that. And he spoke last week between the Cardinals game and the Radios game, so I think that means he's spoken twice, maybe three times. And there's been a handful of times all the coaches have spoken, but it hasn't been much. Right.

So last year, for example, just to make sure everybody understands what we're saying, Josh McDaniels would speak every Tuesday, right, cam Accord speaks every Tuesday because they're coordinating. And then speaking of last year, it would be we'd get Steve Belichick one week, we get Geradmeyo another week, we get Mike Pellegrino another week, and DeMarcus DeMarcus Covington right, And

I couldn't remember if he spoke last year. On they rotate, they rotated through that right, because there was no by title defensive coordinator. So I get that. It's a formula. It's a formula, right, it's a it's a system that they have in place here. With that being said, when you lose a game like that, when you lose a game like the way that they lost it, and I and we're gonna get to the defense the way right,

the way doesn't just mean that play. It means the totality of the You have a seven point lely with three minutes to go, and you find, through a comedy of errors, you blow. I wouldn't even go back before that. I had questions for Patricia about things that happened before that.

Well whole line seen. Yeah. My point being is when you when a game goes that way offensively, and you lose a game like that at the end, and then you don't have the play callers available on both sides of the football, right, you don't make those guys available for us to be able to ask them that. Quite frankly, the tougher questions, Dad, I don't think I think that's unfair, and I'm not talking about to me. I think that that's unfair to the fans, right, it's also unfair to

the players because we're and most importantly to play. Let's start there. I mean, what, right, here's the thing. I've always defended Bill Belichick, and this I've probably haven't getting given this take as much openly since I started covering the Patriots professionally, but going back to when I as a kid, Right, I've always kind of thought Bill Belichick's deferral to the media was and granted this is when

they were winning regularly. Well, you don't want to put anything out there by accident that's either going to tip the opponent off or cause issues within your own room or whatever. Right, at the end of the day, what the fans want to see is wins. If being short spoken in public means you win more games, it's a trade off to fan should be happy with, yes, So I don't look at it that way. Now my issue

would be in line with your take. What what do you think the scene's going to be to talk to Jacobe Myers today in the locker room, to talk to him monder Stevens in the locker room questions that maybe Matt Patricia could have answered yesterday and taken some of

the heat off that, right, you know, he wasn't. And I think Nick Kayley was asked one or two questions about it, but not a ton because it's just that's that's not his role, right, right, So to Matt Patricia, Right, if we get to talk to him yesterday, Nick Kayley was asked because he was the one who spoke yes right, he was the If we got to talk to him yesterday, we could ask him, Hey, what did you radio in? Right? Like?

What was said in the huddle? Like, was it said, we're gonna run a draw and if nothing is there, you immediately go down and we go into over. The score is tied. The score is tied. The score is tied, right, Like, that's what you should be saying, right, is continuously in saying to Mac, Mac, make sure that all eleven guys on the field understand that the last thing that you can do is be careless with the football, right Like, that's the last like we are playing for overtime? Was

that said? And I don't know if we would get a straight answer, but I would also look at Steve, and this is kind of segueing into what I really want to talk about today, which is breaking this all down. I would also ask Steve Belichick, who's every time that the Patriots have a good defensive game plan and they call a good defensive game, and they have and they win the game on Steve called a great game, right, So Steve's the play caller on the defensive side of football.

What I posted on Twitter last night the play calls on the completions on the final drive for the Raiders, right, the touchdown drive for the Raiders. And they went on the three big completions in the game or in that drive, the twenty yard or up the seam and the touchdown. It's standard zone, standard four man rush, no blitz, no simulated pressure, nothing right, just four man right rush. So you went vanilla in the in the biggest moment of the game, you went vanilla, Like that's what you did.

Like all game long. You got Judean dropping j drop into Vye, dropping Bentley, blitzing McMillan, like you're doing all this stuff. They ran fire zones with the slot, blitzing Miles Bryant off the edge, right like they're doing all these different exotic stuff all game long. And then on the final drive of the game when you need to protect the end zone, they just rushed four guys, And it wasn't like they just lined up four guys on the line of scrimmage and those four guys rushed the

quarterback right like that was. It wasn't anything fancy at all. So without being able to know the answer those questions, and you can call in and ask us questions at eight five five Pats five hundred, or you can email in at web radio at Patriots apologize for not getting people's calls last week. Yeah, I got a little caught up with the draft. I we're gonna get draft questions today, by the way. You know that. I want to start on the offensive side of the football, and I want

to go down the list of what I look. No, wait, I want you to finish what you were saying, because I cut you off, You cut yourself off, and then I cut you off without getting the answer to those questions from the coaches. What happens, we don't know. But what are we doing. We don't know. We speculate, and that's not good for anybody. We speculate, and that's because I want you to finish that point, because it's an

important point. We speculate and then guys get thrown under the bus that maybe he shouldn't get thrown under the bus and it creates a bad environment. Yeah, and that's the crux if you're like, I want to make sure we don't leave that part un said, because that's the crux of your whole argument here. That's accountability the right and the biggest thing is is it's accountability to the players.

Because I was in the scrum with Jacobe Myers. I was in the podium room when Max spoke and Ramandre spoke and Jacobe Myers and look, I'm not trying to, I'm not trying to. The play was dumb. It was dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb. But Jakobe Myers stood there with what we thought were tears in his eye. It looked like that, and eyes were very red like he looked like he've been crying. And he owned it. He wouldn't let us deflect blame.

He wouldn't let us point fingers at anybody else. He looked me in the eye and said, I promise you this was my fault. It wasn't. They didn't call for lateral. Patricia didn't throw me off, Mac didn't throw me off from this was me, Like, do not put it. Basically, he was saying to us, do not put this on anybody else. Do not make this about everybody else. I made a dumb play, so he took total ownership of it.

Ramandre then went to the podium and said, I'm the one that started the whole chain of events, so it's my fault too. I should have just gone down. And then Mac gets to the podium and says he should have tackled Chandler Jones, which, okay, hang on, hang on, passed the quarterback. I have seen so many people say, well, if only Matt could tackle better. First of all, if Mac's biggest issue was his tackling ability, the Patriots would be great Patriots. If your quarterbacks biggest problem is he

can't tackle, you're in a fantastic spot quarterback wise. There's plenty to knock back four quarterback right related in that game. Second of all, if your game plan, if your game comes down to your six foot three, two hundred and seventeen pound quarterbacks has to tackle, I'm going by wikipedia, six three has to tackle a six foot six whatever it is, has to tackle a six foot six, two hundred and sixty pound defensive lineman who also happens to be one of the best pure athletes in the league.

If that's what your game comes down to, it's you've already lost. You've lost for putting yourself in that situation. Not three, We'll call it two A. How many quarterbacks in the league realistically can make that tackle? Like three or four? Maybe like Josh Allen probably could. The name I saw somebody bring up his big bend back in the day. Yeah, he's probably gonna put up their wattle over there. Well like Prime Ben. Yeah, you know who are the other like just big lurking. Aren't that many

of those guys anymore? Right? So Kobe, maybe all the other players took accountability for it to the point that Mack is saying that he should have tackled Chandler Jones, and yet we hear nothing from the coaches and why

why that's important? And we're probably delving into some psychology stuff here is when you see you guys say that you know and you're and look, we work together, right, And I'm using a smaller scale example here, but we work together and one of us would make a mistake usually, mate, and I don't it. And if I was just sitting there not talking about it. You probably would have been like, let's kid, just keep screwing up. He's not saying anything

about if you own it. It's you're you're showing those around you, those you work with. Hey, I know I messed up. I want to get better. This is on me, Like, let's move. That's the kind of guy you can get behind. That's the kind of guy you keep working you want to keep working with, versus a guy who I mean, nobody's pointing fingers that anybody else, which is good, but not saying anything isn't great either. I think the coach pointed fingers, did everybody else? Bill actually did it a

little bit. You're right, I don't think players are players are not. No, they're definitely no. The player again, it's a stupid play. Not to defend the play. It's a really bad play. It's going to go down as one of the dumbest players in NFL history. Yeah, but in terms of how you respond to something like that, a plus from the players. Okay, So I want to talk about the actual access and knows and get into this a little bit now that we had our moments to

rant a little bit about this situation. Twenty three minute moment. Typical, very typical of us. We might not have started to write it too, but about that very typical. Uh, let's start with Mac. And I wanted to tell people beforehand that I I've I've separated the offensive issues here into buckets, so it's not I'm not just gonna point to Mac

as an issue. Mac. I have a receiver issues and I have play calling issues, right because I actually thought the one thing that kind of escaped my flamethrower this week was the offensive line. They were fine, they were fine. Okay, Yeah, you go up against a really good edge rusher Duo Crosby and Chandler Jones had their moments, they made their impactful plays, but they didn't take over the game and you rush for two hundred yards like you were fine

up front? Okay, But I want to start with Mac, and I think that there's some more psychology stuff that we will probably get into, but I want to start with mechanical issues that I'm seeing with Mac Jones, because I think that this is from an execution and why all the throws were getting sprayed all over the place, especially in the first half, Like why that was happening.

A lot of it to me by watching it back is mechanical, and I think the biggest thing that you see with him is so there's like four points of mechanics with the quarterback. Right, there's defeat, there's his hips, there's his shoulders, and his eyes right like eyes obviously is a little bit more about mental than physical, but all four of those things need to be in sync

to execute a perfect pass. And the biggest thing that you want to see is that kinetic energy right from the ground up, Like everything should start from your feet and like you should see the energy flow up the body and see it all uncoil at the same time. And a lot of what I'm seeing with Mac and I think a lot of this stems from how he handles pressure as well, is that he does not throw from a great base. He doesn't throw from a wide step into it, you know, solid foundation from the waist down.

So what's happening is is he's he's not really getting that platform on the ground. And when he doesn't get that platform on the ground, he is trying to then use his torso and use his shoulders and his upper body to snap the throw right right, and his front shoulder is flying open as a result, So he's thrown from this skinny platform and then his front shoulders flying open, So naturally what's happening is that he's not going getting

through the football and so he's sailing passes. So that's why when he had those back to back throws in the flat, the ball's sailed and nowhere near the target is because that front shoulders flying open, his feet aren't really pointed in, you know, in a really solid direction, and he's just airmailing the ball. The John who Smith what you know? We can The route wasn't great by either Smith or Tai Kwon, to be honest with you. But the throw sailed. Okay, it was a bad throw.

This throws sailed because Max Crosby's coming off the right side and Mac didn't want to step into it because Max Crosby's right in his face and once again he's he's throwing it from that bad platform and the ball sales on him. So this really started against Buffalo, and I kind of wanted to call it a one off and against Buffalo and see if it progressed again last

week against Arizona. He didn't throw the ball down the field all that much, so it didn't really come up right, And then this week he threw the ball down the field more and these mechanical issues are coming up again. So what I my read on on the whole thing, and again this is sort of again armchair psychology, is that physically he's now mechanically broken because mentally he's so frustrated with what's going on that now it's starting to impact his physical right. Yeah, I mean I think he's

been hit so much. This is sped up. This is what we spent all that time talking about the beginning of year. What you just described is a quarterback being sped up. He's been hit so much that he's now playing as though he's expecting to get hit even when he's not, and his mechanics are all off because he's pressing, he wants to get the ball out quick, he doesn't want to move around, he doesn't know where the pocket's going to be, he doesn't know how much time he

has in the pocket. He's sped up, and this is what happens. The mechanics start to fall apart, and this is where you start to enter that point of visit fixable, because once the mechanics start to go, that's what you know, if you're having a tough sense with the timing, if quarterbacks having a tough sense with the timing right, and

mechanics are fine, he's just throwing the ball too quickly. Well, you get him behind a good offensive line and it settles down because you get that that rhythm back, that timing back. Once the mechanics start to go, now you're drifting. Now, it's all right, We've really got to pull this guy back. So that's it's because it's not like his mechanics have always been bad. This wasn't an issue with him in the past, even going back to the beginning of the season,

this wasn't an issue. Now. I've never really loved his feet in terms of stepping into throws and really letting it go. I'm I've always felt like he's thrown a little bit um from a narrow base, which I would prefer. You know, I sent you that the clip of Brady throwing that slam. Okay, that was a He doesn't he doesn't like it when I bring up Brady because he's not Tom Brady. He's not Tom Brady. No. But okay, but here's the thing. All I'm saying to you is

show me something attainable. All I'm saying to you is is that Brady is the gold standard, right, Brady has the best throwing mechanics in the history of the NFL. Yes, he's perfect. He it is literally perfect, okay. And when he and granted I think just from an eye like esthetic sense, he's six foot five, so his legs are a lot longer than Mac Jones's legs, right, so when he steps into a throw, you can really see it. Okay.

But Brady, everything just is perfect with his mechanics. So I always go to him and say, it was great to watch him versus the Bengals after coming off watching Mac versus the Raiders, because I could see the perfect mechanics that Brady has versus the mechanical flaws that Mac is having, and so much of it to me, starts with the base, starts with his feet, and not to me, the hesitation to really step up in the pocket and really extend that front leg out and have that weight

transfer that you want right from front to back is because he doesn't trust the pocket, right, right, That's that's it. And we know that that's it because it wasn't always an issue for him. Right, So I think that what changed the offensive line isn't protecting him the same as it right in the past. So I think the the problem that you have is that on the surface, let's just let the last three games are kind of mood

in this conversation, I think. But because they're not going to fix his mechanics overnight, right like, that's this is now going to be a process, right, so this is going to be an off season kind So Tom House could he could get with Tom House in the off season.

Coach d is his quarterbacks coach of choice, his private quarterback coach, but he also works with Tom House a little bit, and he could get with those two guys in the off season and against air, they'll fix his mechanics, right like, and he'll come in in mini caamp next year, just like he came in in minicamp this year, and he'll be throwing bombs a train next Look at that he's playing that it's totally fine. But it was right

from the jump. Once we got into actual contacted padded practices in training camp in August, you started to see the decay beginning. Yeah, and now we're at that point. So when I watched this film against the Raiders. I didn't see a ton of some of the stuff that I saw, let's say, against the Jets and the Colts earlier this year, where he's staring down first reads and he's not starting with his eyes in the right places and mental processing issues. This to me was more mechanical

and actually throwing the football accurately. Yeah, And i'd also want to as we move on to the next issues, unless you have something else on, mathewanta really want to get into the next thing. I don't know. The The other thing that I just want to mention is I don't think that Max's frustrations are being talked about properly because I think people are actually want to get into this,

because I think people are blaming. Some people are like, he's a pouty baby, he needs to relax, right, And then other people are saying, well, he has a right to be mad, And the truth is obviously in the middle, right, like he needs to control his temper better and control his emotions better, and he's right to be angry for sure. But I think the biggest thing is is that at this point, and we're going to talk about the details and this basing and the timing and the routes and

all this kind of stuff in a second. But at this point, you were not going to fix it all. You're not going to fix at all. Okay, you're not. This is not training camp where you have a month to drill this stuff and fully padded practices six days a week. Like, you just don't have that time right now to get all this stuff down and get all this stuff where it's supposed to be and get everybody

lined up perfectly and all that kind of stuff. So the third down timeout that wipes out that Jacobe Myers touchdown, my read on that situation was that Mac through touchdown passes Jacobe Myers. Denny has the realization that there was a whistle because of a timeout from the sideline, and he looks over to the sideline and is like, what the hell now, Like, what's wrong now? Like we ran the play, it worked, I threw a touchdown, Like what

wrong now? And he comes over to the sideline and they're saying so and so didn't have the right didn't know that it wasn't running the right route, or so and so wasn't lined up properly. At this point in this season, who the hell cares. Okay, just get to the line and run the play, like if Hunter Henry's

running a flat instead of a curl. All right, I understand that that might in some instances result in a touchdown like an interception, I mean right, Like, I understand where the mistakes could happen there, but at some point in time from the sideline that the coaches have to have some trust and the players. And this is I think the biggest problem with this offense right now is that it's a two way street. The coaches don't trust the players to execute, and the players don't touch trust

the coaches are putting them in the best positions. So when the players actually make a good play and then it's wiped out because of a time out from the sideline, that's got to be infuriating. Okay, it's like, ah, we got it in the end zone. What are you guys doing? And then it's snowballs on him? And that's the issue, right it is, because then on fourth down it's snowballs on So that's the problem. And I talked about this

last week. I don't remember I was on this show or one of the other shows or whatever, but I love that Mac plays with passion. I love that he gets fired up. I think he has a ton of reason to be justified to his frustration, and I think playing that way it gets your teammates to buy in all of it. It shows your leader. I would much rather guy like that than a guy who just goes out and goes through the motions. Right. That being said, I don't want to say that that shouldn't impact your play,

that your emotions shouldn't impact your play. They should, but you need to harness them to elevate your play. Is a very emotional exactly, but he harnesses it. He harnesses it. Was that was the first time I've seen mac Jones let his emotions spill over to the point where they impacted him right as a player, right, And that obviously can't happen, and it's something he needs to work on. That being said, I'm with you in that I understand

why he's frustrating because they finally got it right. And it goes back to what I said before, you know, getting the play into substitutions where everybody's lining up, this is ota stuff and they finally and so I mean, what I would guess is not even necessarily that they didn't like the look they had. But I wonder if you know because Bill's standing right there next to Patrician Judge. There's a picture of it. I think they showed it on TV. Bill says, we're running this right, and then

mad or Joe says, no, we're running this type. No, we're not on the same bench time out right. That can't happen like that. That would be my guess as to what happened. There's something like that that can't happen. It just can't happen in that whole sequence. But sometimes, and I know you're agreeing with me, but like stay every once in a while, stay out of it it. So that's what I'm saying, it shouldn't happen. You're saying, if it does, just let it play out right, Which neither

of us are wrong. It's not one or the other. It goes back to the we're looking at it from different levels. But I would just say the whole sequence. Yeah. First of all, their last fourteen first in goal situations from inside the five, the Raiders had allowed a touchdown fourteen in a row. Right. They showed it on TV like right after that first play, and I was like, oh boy, um so vermondra from the two to the

one on first down. Fine, great, They then go was it was time out the touchdown, taking away of the time out right. Then they run this weird design where they ran a quick slint to Nelsonagler, but they motioned underneath it, yes, which was I don't maybe that was a wrong route or something. I think it was Pierre Strong, right was the guy who motioned. Then they go time out again. Then you get to penalty, and then you're

kicking the field goal. Is all basic avoidable stuff, and the real question is, you know, I'm somebody who sat here all year, Evan, You've you've heard go on and on and on about this and say they're giving the ball to Remond Receivens in too much. Yeah, he's gonna get worn down. You know, they need to take something off his plate. Stop giving him the ball so much.

I wasn't talking about right there, right of all the times to go away from him, you have this great power back to first down, he gained half the distance to go right. Just run that again, just running and the whole not going under center thing, I don't whatever, Like they clearly don't want to go under center. This year. That's not an issue with just that sequence. That's a

big picture thing. But the fact that they were I don't know if they were afraid to run it, or you know, they wanted to get Mac a touchdown pass to kind of get him going, or whatever it was, to not go back to the run there. I've yet to hear a good defense of it, Yeah, for sure. And this kind of gets into the next thing I wanted to talk about, which was, you know, receiver issues and some of the spacing and timing and all this

kind of stuff. So the red zone sequence is still is really good for this as well in some respects too. But I think the two we talked about line getting lined up like one of the biggest when they came in this offseason, Alex and when we got the training camp and we talked about this streamlined offense that they were going to run. The biggest thing that all the players, the explanation they got from the coaches as to why they were making these wholesale changes was to play faster, right.

They wanted to be able to get to the line of scrimmage and play faster in the down before the down all of that. That's why I think they stripped some of the optionality out of these routes, right, so to get guys to play faster, but they're not. They're not playing faster and they're not ready to play Johnny Smith on the sneak like, maybe, yes, Mac should have paused longer right before they snaps the ball on the fork down sneak to not get that false start penalty.

And the reason why they had to do it was because they were going to get an illegal formation penalty, right, so john Smith had to change his alignment to avoid the legal formation penalty. And it's like, can you just get lined up? Like, can we just get lined up? And then when the ball is snapped outside of the sneat, just in general, can you run the damn route? Like I cannot tell you, Alex how many times Mac Jones is hit the top of his drop and he's staring

at people's backs all five. I mean, it goes back to staring at the backs. Who was Orlovsky had that great breakdown on it a couple of weeks ago, and it's still the same thing. We thought maybe during the bye that was something they'd work on, and I think Mac even hinted at the fact that they might have worked on it during the bye and the timing set, and that has to be a design thing, right. I don't It's not like Max going through his drop back

too quickly. I don't look at him dropping back and thinking, oh, he's rushing this drop back. No, If anything, I think he's very patient with it. So the only explanations are one, which I think is probably the main explanation here, is that the receivers just are taking the sweet time, okay. And this is a big, big issue for multiple guys

right now. Taekwon, this is a major issue with his game at the moment, is that he thinks because back in college, you know, at Baylor, the quarterback had all day to throw in the big twelve, and so he's thinking that he's got twenty minutes to get into his route. And the ball that Max sailed to John hu Smith. A lot of the reason why I think he sailed that is because Taekwon Thorton didn't run his route quickly enough, so he didn't know what the outside corner was going

to do. Right, So the outside corner, Taekwon Thornton's there, you know, throwing jab steps and stuff like that. At the line of scrimmage, try to get off the coverage and the corners just sitting there. And to Mac, it's like if that corner, if that is he going to follow him or not? Is he gonna trap it? Like? How is he going to react to Taikwon Thornton's route?

That route is meant to pull the corner out of the passing lane, right, and you have that corner under combination to try to get that corner out of there, and it doesn't happen because of that, And I think that Mac threw the ball to the back pylon to Johnny to be one hundred percent sure that it was either going to be caught or it was Maybe He's got to put it in a spot where it's either we say this all the time, right, We're only his receiver, right,

So he throws it and ends up overthrowing it. So there was another play at third down play, and I'm gonna get into some of the third down stuff that that was not good in this game two for thirteen. There was another third down play where they ran their double dig concept, which they run like seventeen times a game on third down, and they ran it again, and they ran it right into the Raiders coverage. The Raiders had one cross on and they ran it right into

the coverage. But underneath the defense, it left Rumandre Stevenson one on one with a linebacker right where if Mac can cancel out the digs because of the coverage and get his eyes underneath to the running back, there's a whole acre of space that Remandre makes a cut at the top of the route, catches the football, makes a linebacker miss, and they might have a first down. You know, James White, Right, That's exactly what James White did. But Remandri takes the sweet time to get into the route.

So when Matt goes to look towards him, Remander is not even at the top of the route yet. Like get go, like go run the route. Okay, the spacing thing is a major issue too, where there's just guys on top of each other all the time. And there was one third down where Hunter Henry dropped the pass right and people watch that and they say, Okay, he's past the sticks, he's open to catch a ball ball he drops it. They should convert, yes, But when I look at it, I look at it and say, is

this sustainable? Like can they execute this play again, right, like in this play count five times instead of just one time because they got lucky and they cut ridge worked out that way. And this I think stems back from like when people are like, well, what happened in Minnesota? What happened in Minnesota is that the Viking stink at covering people, right, and they got some guys open. But when you actually broke down the details of the film,

it still wasn't good for the Patriots. They just won some one on one matchups in that game, and that play they're running like mesh crossers at the sticks and then they're also having Taekwon Thornton running out. So now Taekwon Thornton is in Hunter Henry's passing lane. He's on top of him. And at one point you can freeze the frame and all five receivers are in like a four by four box in the middle of the field,

Like what are we doing? Right? Like that that's not that's not how that that play needs to be drawn up. If you're gonna run mesh and you're gonna have you know, the two other receivers need to get the heck out a dodge, right like run verticals up the field to take the coverage and open up the passing lanes to the mesh crossers. Instead, they're all everybody is on top

of each other. So whether this is design or or coaching right, like execution of the coaching, it's it's just not it's it's getting worse, not better on film the

way that these guys are running routes. And at this point, obviously, I mean there's a difference between route running ability and the routes the players running right, and yeah, you get what I'm saying, like, yeah, because I don't think the players are just blatantly running the raw routes unless they don't know what the plays are and they're there they

think that it's one call and it's another. But that would again go back to coaching, right, So I think that as route runners, and look, we don't have a baseline for Tae Kwon last year because he wasn't here last year obviously, but as route runners from Nelson Aguil or Kendrick Bourne, they've regressed. And I don't know if that's all McDaniels. I don't know if it's McDaniels and Mick Lombardi leaving. And this is also kind of have to throw Troy Brown into the issue pot here. I mean,

he's the wide receivers coach. That's fair, and the receivers have not his group has not been good. So this is just an issue that's been going on all season with the spacing and with the whole thing the third down. And now we're getting into my last bucket. Less you have something else to add about about the receivers, No, this is all you, this is your specialty. Then we get into the play calling bucket. Okay, so I kind of already skipped ahead on this one. So the two

biggest gripes, that three biggest gripes. One was the red zone sequence. We are we already did. That was my big That was what was the second thing, and this is what I posted in after further review, was about the third down predictability. They're running the same three plays on third down every single game. And I wrote this, and I wish that I hadn't given given the Raiders

staff as much credit. But they do have Josh McDaniels and Patrick Graham over there who have institutional knowledge of the Patriots, right, and mc daniel certainly has institutional knowledge mac so I think that that's somewhat of a factor.

But the Raiders are playing these man coverages with either you can call it robber, you can call it cross, whatever you want to call it, where they have everything leveraged, like there's help defenders exactly, like receivers are running into defenders right like you know, Hunter Henry's running a dig or running like an underard a short dig, and there's just a linebacker or safety just sitting there waiting for him, right like sure, come run over here, like I'm I'm

waiting for you. They had one play on third down where the outside corner they're running like two digs at the sticks. The outside corner has inside leverage because he knows the outside receivers running an inbreaking route, and then the inside receiver whose Hunter Henry has the robber dropping into the passing window right the help defender is coming

into the window. So both receivers are running into leverage like they're both running into help or leverage or whatever you want to call it, and there's no place to go with the ball. So they're predictable on third down. Everybody knows what they're running on third down. The sequencing on the red zone, it was was terrible, right, the whole red zone sequence was horrible. And then I would also mention the drive right before they gave the Raiders

the football back was deplorable. Deplorable. Yeah, yeah, the Qibi boot just third and one maybe I actually think that's an underused play, But on third and eleven, no, thank you. So I wrote it down, especially play by play with it. Yeah, So first and ten they go. They bring yadneykajuiced in to go tackle eligible, which I don't hate. First in time, they gave three yards. Fine, fine, you're trying to run the clock like nobody's expecting to throw the ball down

the field. So then and this is where all the issues with the offense forever is coming up, right, then they get a false star penalty. Yeah, okay, so they go eligible again, which is fine, like if you want to go from second, first and ten to second and seven to third and three, like I'm fine with that, yeah, in that situation. But then they get the fall star penalty. So now it's second and twelve. They run it again.

They run the football again at second and twelve, so now it's third and ten because they just wanted to keep the clock running. They just wanted to keep the clock running, which go screen there, that's where you go screen. And then on third and ten, we all know that they ran the Naked Boot and the Naked Boot with Mac Jones trying it to get out the back door against Max Flipping Crosby, who's the best player on the Raiders defense and as an animal. Yeah, one of those ones.

I honestly don't hate the concept of it. I don't if you have justin fields, sure, or even if so, there's a lot of variables there were. If it's thirt and one, I'd like a lot more than third and eleven if it's not Max Crosby, Like even with Mac, there's some situations where I think if it was third and one, even with Mac, I don't think that's a bad call. He was never getting it on third and eleven. They just wanted something they wanted the least. I guess

what they wanted. They wanted a play that they thought was going to take the Raiders by surprise. But they still wanted to run clock. But I also didn't want to put it in the air. But not even that, not even not putting it in the air, they didn't want to handoff. They didn't want to handoff. I think they didn't want to handoff because they knew the handoff was going to go nowhere, so at least this play would.

But they could have gone, they could have gone if they want a deception, they could have gone end around. That's right. I don't understand, well because remember the last time they got funky with that. Do you remember what that was? It was going into a half against Buffalo. Okay, fair enough, But I guess like and maybe they just they were worried about the execution of that kind of play where they were going to fumble it. That's what I'm saying. It's just the snap, that's the only thing.

It's just the snap. And they went under center. It was one of the few times they went under center. Yeah, if but if they run the boot right that I would have given them. Hey, at least macknew to go down and bounds. That's true. We we've made progress there.

If I would have given them so much credit as as a staff, if they had ran a reverse there, if they had hard faked it on the outside zone to Ramandre Matt keeps it and then flips it to Marcus Jones coming in the other direction, I would have been like that might have scored a touchdown, or he might have been out the back and into the end zone.

Let me like somebody had I don't even think we need to go that deep, did they because the fake handoff on the bootleg was stretched right, they made it look like did they run stretch from under center in that game at all prior to like a little bit, but like it was in the first quarter and it

wasn't even a look. And we've talked about this before, right the set up place, it wasn't even a look they'd really given them, right, there's not really much to suck the Raiders in there, right, So that was I think the bigger, the biggest, the big picture problem that I feel because I mentioned I thought the third down stuff was was horrible. They were two for thirteen on

third down. They are getting into these third down situations, Alex where they don't even try to pick up the first down that play that they they called the bootleg, like, might as well just punt on third down. And this happens all the time back in the day, they might

have pooch punted there. All this happens all the time, though that they are if it's like third and eight plus I think the third and sixth through third and ten, like they they they kind of try to go for it, right, But like I would say, any sort of third and long situation, it's like fifty fifty of whether or not they're even gonna come close to throwing passes. So since the bye since the bye week, yes, you know what,

they're third down percentages? Well, I know that they're twenty ninth in the league in general, so it can't be thirty first. Yeah, oh, twenty ninth overall. Yes, okay, So since since the buy, yeah, they're thirty first. They're a tenth of a percentage point higher in Washington twenty four point six percent, twenty four percent. And I think, to give credit to Washington, they're five for six on fourth

down in that span. A lot of it, I think it stems from the fact that when it's third and ten, they're getting into the a lot of these and and they're in their own territory. Yeah, they don't even they are throwing that that downfield drinking ink screen that worked one time, right, Like they're not even trying to throw the ball past the sticks and those situations. And I get that you have no trust in anything right now, but you had a chance in that series. You pick

up one first down, the game's over. The game's over. If you pick up one first down there, there's two minutes to go. You pick up one first down there, the game is over. Right. That was for the game. The bootleg was for the game. They were trying to ice it on that right and that like, they just didn't even call anything on second or third down that stood a chance to pick up the ten yards. And that has been all season long. It's not just that play or that sequence. It's been all season long that

they don't even try. Let's take patty and hang on, hang on real quick. I just want to I want to throw this on the average yards to go their third longest in the league on third down that span eight point two yards per right. So I've always been in the camp that first and second down has been a bigger problem for this team than third down, and this game it was third day that was the problem.

But here's the thing. When you're setting yourself up with eight point two, you're not doing enough on first and second. But they were fine on first and second in this game. So it's my point. There's a weird number. I don't know what to make of it. I said this before the show. Their average distance to go on first down this year is ten point two yards. That doesn't sound like a lot, but because they've had so many false start penalties on trags that average it's them, the Seahawks

and the Raiders at ten point two. It's the longest in the league. All right, let's take Patty and then we'll talk defense here and wrap things up. Patty, thanks for hanging on. Sorry, we's and left you on hold for so long. Oh, no worries, guys, upset. I missed the last two weeks because he guys came on early. But uh yeah, got kind of a crazy question. Maybe actually a couple of crazy questions. Neither of them are draft related, so I won't get into that. Sorry, but

let's just say a couple couple of hypotheticals. First one is if Craft goes to Billichick and just says, hey, listen, Bill, we got we gotta do something here on offense, and he's not willing to budge on on demoting Mattie Ke and gets bringing in a real offensive guy, and they end up moving on, what about Billy Oh to come in here and be the head coach. That's the first

hypothetical and the second one. I don't know the details of Bill's contract if it's a year to year, but if it's two years, what about raiding Bill for a first round pick? Yeah, So this is thanks for the call, Patty. This is the first trading building. I think a start was started by Mike Florio. He had a don't even know if it's a report. It was more like he was on a show like this and just kind of

was talking right about things. So could I don't know if we're we're really at trading Bill and all that kind I also don't know. I feel like he'd retire before that happened. Does he want to go at seventy new operations set up a whole Yeah, I think at that point he would just write like I don't necessarily didn't. Cronk was the one who did that right where they try to trade me retired, right. I think Bill would

pull this. So I think the bigger issue to me, and I guess this is sort of related to what Patty was saying. The bigger issue to me is that you we're just assuming that somebody's gonna want to take this OC job, right, Like, we're just assuming that somebody's gonna want to come in and fix all of this mess at Matt Patricia and Joe Judge have caused. I don't think it's as unattractive though, is you're maybe living

laying it out to me. I just I do. And at some point in time when I have more time and I'm not focused on on in season stuff and we get into offseason, like we can try to compile a more um complete list because that Bill O'Brien's the only name that ever comes up, right, Like he's the only well and then like Nick Kylee and Troy Brown, Right, but I think Bill O'Brien's gonna have options, so you're not not only do I well, So he was asking

would be what about Bill is the head coach? Bill O'Brian's head coach at Bill Belichick left, to which I would say, you could do worse, but you need a GM. You cannot have Bill O'Brien. Ben can't be Macro because they'll get pushed around by Bill O'Brien. That Bill O'Brien was a pretty good coach in Houston. He did not get let go because of coaching deficiencies. It was his moves. As a general manager, you cannot let him have control

of the roster, right. So I think that just in general, and not necessarily about Bill O'Brien, just in general, if we're talking about moving on from Bill Belichick, I would like it to be an offensive minded coach, right Like I would like to be Brian Dable, right. And I'm not saying they're gonna actually get Brian Dable, but I'm saying, like somebody like Brian Dable, who is going to come in here and fix mac Jones, right, Like, I think

that that's that's my most important thing. But I do wonder, you know, who else would be out there that they would consider for the OC job and would want the OC job, and like all these types of things. I think that that's a factor in all of this. And now I think we've all just put our eggs in the Bill O'Brien basket and and hoped and prayed. But I think that Bill O'Brien's gonna have some options, and I think that he's gonna it's gonna be a big price tag. Like I think he's gonna demand a pretty

lucrative contract to sign him. Are they willing to do those things? We'll see. I'm not there yet though, Patty. I'm sorry. I appreciate the call, but I'm not We're not at this conversation yet from Yeah, I don't think so.

So we talked a little bit about the defense. I have been a defender of the defense, I feel like all year, right where I said, I've said on several occasions, like against Minnesota for example, like, at some point in time, the offense to score some points, right, and this game technically falls into that category of the offense only scored what ten points, right because the defense scored seven of them? Sorry? Sorry, seventeen points right? Yeah, because the defense scored seven of them.

So at some point in time, the offense needs to score more than seventeen points in a game. Mac almost had that trive you were looking for. He almost did. There's only two plays, but he almost had it. So

here's the catch. The catch is that this offense, we can all agree, is not capable of scoring more points, right, And when the offense puts the defense or the defense and you know the team is in the situation where it's twenty four or seventeen with two minutes ago, the defense has got to close that game out like that's that's they're the backbone of the team, right, like they're the strength of the team. So this time it bugged

me that they didn't close it out. And I think the biggest thing that stands out on film about it is that I mentioned it earlier. They got really vanilla with the play calls late in this game. I think this is a big issue that teams are having across the NFL this year in these two minute situations. In some cases it's like forty seconds that teams are going down the field and scoring right to tie the game

or to win the game. I think the biggest issue that teams have is that they're so petrified of giving it all up in one play that they that they basically go into a pre event right and it's not full on like eight guys like it has been at times. It wasn't for the Patriots, like they are a little bit more aggressive than that. But you know, you have

fourth and ten and you run like a mug. Look at the Raiders block it easily, and then Marcus Jones is eleven yards off the line is scrimmaging on fourth and ten, right, like, these are the types of things that are what are we doing? They ran the scene play up up the scene that gained twenty. That was

the play that's set up the touchdown play. It's just covered two, right, It's just its zone spot drop covered two with a four man rush like, no blitz, no simulated pressure, nothing, just a four man covered two, basic like day one install type of stuff. And it shredded them. Not they had been aggressive all game, right, they're dropping guys, they're blitzing other guys, they're doing the Judeon thing right, and they're doing all this smoke and mirrors stuff all

game long. And then the biggest moment of the game, they went vanilla and and that was worrisome. The other thing that was worrisome, And I sent you the fourth down end zone view. Yeah, some of their guys up front need to be better. And when I say some of the guys, I'm mainly pointing at Matthew Judon. Honestly, Matthew Judan and had a couple of opportunities to go one on one with your main Illuminois on that sequence, I think I actually one of them was on a luminore.

The other one was on Colton. Miller's a good left tackle, but I don't know if he was gassed, and that's possible. And I guess there's that bigger conversation of while they're on the field so much because the offense can't stay on the field, And but you need if you're Jude On, if you're ucha, if you're bar Moore, who I thought, actually bar Moore I thought was the most impactful rusher

on that series for the Patriots. But those three guys, like you need a sack, Like if you get a sack in that situation and you get them behind, you know, into third and sixteen, right like it's over right, like you know, those are the types of plays that end drives, especially drives that need touchdowns, right, And they couldn't win a one on one. They just couldn't win a one on one. And maybe they were gassed and maybe it

was all those things. And then on the last the cold touchdown play, josh Uja wasn't even on the field. They had pulled him off for some reason. So that was also disappointing that when the moment when it rose to that moment and they just needed their pass rushers has been great all year, And is this the one thing that we've always said, I think with this team, besides maybe r mondre Stevenson, the best thing about this team is the pass rush, right, the best thing about

it is the pass rush. The scheming go vanilla, and the players couldn't didn't go after it, like truly go after it in the one on one situations. And that was disheartening because that was a game that the defense, if it's a good defense, the defense closes that out. Yeah, you don't disagree, disagree with something, I'm just kidd No, but you're You've wanted me to be on this side all year. You're right, like they were one drive away. And that's why I said it earlier. Again, I said

it earlier in the show. Right. Yes, the the play at the end of the game is inexcusable. Yeah, we really didn't get into Keelan cole catch. There's not much more to say others than it wasn't. But Homer, if they get the what you thought you thought it was kidding, I'm just kidding. If you get the four points when I say four points, they end up kicking a field goal rights a four point difference, right if you get the seven points instead of the three down on the

goal line early in the game. None of that presents itself. Oh well, that that gets into like the domino effect, right, like the whole game works out different but so so exactly, but it works out differently. Doesn't mean they win, but it means that those situations don't present themselves. So I think the biggest problem that they had in this game, and this game I said this about the Vikings game to a degree too, and and Parillo was was arguing

with me about it. This game in particular, the biggest problem that they had in this game was that they they were able to they were able to tilt coverage towards Davante Adams and take him out, but they lost the other one on one matchups, right, like Darren Waller beats Adrian Phillips up the team for a touchdown, Keelan Cole beats Marcus Jones for a time. I know it

might not it shouldn't. Maybe it shouldn't have counted, like I know, okay, you know I was in mac Hall Miles Bryant, which I'm surprised that the Raiders kind of figured out very late in that game that none of

the Patriots corners were over five ten. Yeah, it took them way longer to exploit that than it probably, right, So you know, and that on the Mac Collins touchdown on the goal line, they call one double on DeVante Adams, Right, they have two guys on Davante Adams and it's single coverage everywhere else, and then you just have to make a play. So as we're spinning it forward now to the Bengals and we got ten minutes, I want to

wrap it up on the Bengals. That's my biggest concern about this game from a because the defense is going to have to hold them in the twenties for the Patriots to have a chance in this game. Like I think we can all agree with that. They might even need to set score on defense again in this game. And the biggest how many of their wins this year had they had either a defensive or special team scored just a field flipping play. It's up there. It's gonna

be every game. It said, maybe Cleveland, Yeah, they scored against Detroit. They had the muff against the Steelers, right, right, we don't have to go through all this, but yeah, yeah, pretty much every game. So with the Bengals, my biggest concern is, Okay, like you know, they had this nice wrinkle for DeVante Adams and they did it was Stefon

Diggs a little bit too, maybe not enough. It was this three cloud coverage where they have one guy who's basically man to man and press coverage on DeVante Adams, and then they had the safety over the top of Davante Adams right right, and it's cover three, but it's just tilted towards Davante Adams, and that was a really

effective coverage for them. The issue was is that eventually, after the Raiders had seen it a few times, they started running verticals on the other side of the field and Adams beats or excuse me, Darren Waller beats Adrian Phillips and then Killing Cole beats Marcus Jones. So in this matchup, that's Tyler Boyd and t Higgins right like that, those two guys are if you're gonna play that cloud coverage, and those two guys are gonna have one on ones.

If you're gonna play one double and those guys are gonna have one on ones So the question is for the Patriots in this game, there is it's a formula that has been put out on tape. Against the Bengals, they're not as good against zone. They're not as good against split safety zone in particular, and they have a bad offensive line right there. Their offensive line, it might be better, but it's still not better than it was

last year. But it's not great. Right, So if you can get the pass rush going again, and if you can play split safety to keep everything in front of you, then you have a chance against them. But like you just mentioned, you're gonna have five foot nine Jonathan Jones, five foot eight Marcus Jones, and five foot eight Miles Bryant against six foot four t Higgins, six foot one Tyler Boyd and six foot tall Jamar Chase, who plays a lot. He's only like six and a quarter, but

he plays a lot bigger than that. These are Higgins and Jamar are probably two of the best catchpoint receivers in the league, right Like, they're fantastic contested catch receivers and burrows an aggressive downfield throwers. So he's just gonna throw it. So I would trust those guys to just go up and make the play. Yeah, I'm try I think that the best way. Let's not forget they got Hayton hursted tight end too. Yeah. Also, this is the

Devin Asiasi revenge game. It's okay, Hayton Hursts Okay. I think the biggest thing that when you look when you look at this Bengals game is I think it's very similar in the as the Buffalo game, where you're just trying to win a couple of rounds, right, like, if you could win four rounds like and what I mean when I mean for us a pint, for us to turnover you know, four or five times when they have possessions, then you should be able to keep them in the twenties.

But this is not in my mind like they're gonna give up some plays in this game because they just they just there's too many matchups that favor the Bengals offense, especially when you start to account for Jamar Chase in different ways, whether it's doubles or high lows like I describe what the cloud coverage or whatever. There's gonna be a lot of single matchups eventually, and you're gonna have

to live with some of that. So for defensively, This is all about make them drive the field, don't give up, you know, try not to give up big plays. But most importantly, just you have to stay aggressive because something. You need sacks, you need turnovers, because you're gonna have to win. You're gonna have to win by split decision. You're not gonna win by knockout, right, Yeah, No, it's

you gotta outlast them. And this is one of those games where I talk about you shorten the game, right, limit the number of drives, try to try to win some of those rounds. Like you said, you're gonna need a force turnovers are like, I don't think you can play this game passively. If you're the Patriots defense, you need to try to get some turnovers. And then I mean their defense can play too. They've got a very

good defense. And the Patriots are gonna have to You mentioned the Buffalo game, right, do they have another like the Marcus Jones swing pass? Like, do they have another trick up their sleeve for this one, Something that no that isn't on tape, something that the other team has not seen, something that looks like it. I think you need to have that in this game. So when the Patriots are on offense and the Bagels are on defense.

I think it's usually I only have hone in on the chess match between the defense and the other team's offense, because I don't trust the Patriots offense to have any sort of chess match, right, right, But at the same time, let's call it checkers, right, We're playing checkers here on offense. And there is some metrics that favor the Patriots being able to move the ball in this game, And the biggest one I would say is that this defense structurally

is designed to take away big plays. They play a lot of split safety, right, especially a lot of cover two in quarters, so they're trying to take away the big plays and they're fifth in the league in doing so. They're fifth DVO against deep passes, but they're seventeenth against short passes. So I know it's going to drive people absolutely up a wall. But this is another one of those quick game game plans in my mind for the

Patriots and the Bucks. Until they turned into a turnover slot fest in the second half, they were able to move the ball with a lot of those you know, slant flat, you know stick concepts, like all these like quick game style stuff that the Patriots do as well, you know, just run off the coverage with Evans and the other receiver on the outside and just thinking dunk. Right. Yeah. The thing about that though, is you then have to

execute in the red zone, right. You can't because they've done that at times this year, and they have moved the ball like that, and they get to like the thirty yard line and they go super conservative. They run the ball three times, they kick the field goals, like down here, we want points. You're not going to beat this Bengals team kicking field goals. The Raiders you might beat kicking field goals. The Cardinals you could beat kicking

field goals. You're not gonna beat this Bengals team kicking field goals. Fair point. And the second thing I would say, and look, this is another thing. I sound like a broken I call for play action every single week and they never do it. So right at this point. I did this a couple of weeks ago. Remember I said, if they do this and this and this, and you just rolled your eyes and me, You're like, well, they

don't do any of that, right. So last week Brady was ten for fourteen for one hundred and forty five yards. Of the play action over ten yards per attempt. Yeah, they're six in the league in terms or sixth were so twenty seventh in the league and yards per tempt allowed to play action, they're giving up almost nine yards attempt per play action passed. Yeah. A big reason why is because they play a lot of his own right,

So that that's Bill said that earlier this year. Well, if you play his own team, then you know whatever, So he said play action doesn't work as well against No, he said it doesn't work as well against Man because in Man, oh yeah, you know, you're right, you just have you guys covering the guys, right, there's run players pass play, right. So this, in theory, should be a game where we see a lot of that quick game stuff and a lot of the you know, Marcus Jones

screens or whatever you want to do. Maybe it's Pierre Strong because they're playing Marcus Jones so much on defense, right, and that that sort of package and then play action from under center like that should be the game plan. Now, one, I don't know if they're they're going to do that right because I mean, let's face it, because they haven't done it all year yet. And secondly, the Bengals got to be thinking, that's what the Patriots are gonna do, right,

Like they got to know that. So that's the chess match to me is does lou and them a remo? And Bill I just butchered his name. I came close though. Bill said it at the podium earlier today that they're not really a game planned defense. They kind of just do what they do. So do they just do what

they do? And that actually does lend itself to some of the things that the Patriots have I wouldn't say done well, but done acceptable right at Or do the Bengals say we're just gonna play press man coverage and we know that you guys can't beat us down the field, right like that's but that would be a total departure

from what they normally do. But they have in their bag and they could always do it right like any team could always do it in the I think they come out I meant offense probably hasn't shown much that they feel like they need to give them special treatment, right. I think you come out and you do what you do and if they need to adjust, they'll adjust away

from it, right. But I would think that they're just going to see the typical Bengals defense, and the Bengals are again gonna make them beat them, make them be consistent, because the other thing about that dink and dunk one penalty and it's all undone right right, So if I'm the Bengals, I just do what I do and force them to go down the field mistake free, and force them to execute in the red zone. It's probably fair. Season's over. No, no it's not. It ain't over till

it's over. I'm a firm believer in that, right, and I'm over to the fat ladies say, I wouldn't be surprised they win one of these three. I think Miami's a winnable game just because they're coming up here and they're not playing great football right now. You know, maybe, uh, Bill, Matt, do you have the snow machine back there for the Miami game? You got well, you just missed it. Apparently the next two days it is supposed to be wild with the weather. Do you got some some blizzards up

your sleeves? You know? Could it's Joe Burrow's first time facing Bill Belichick. Maybe he gets some turn the ball over a bit, right, Maybe the Bills have everything locked up, and it's case keen him in week eighteen, like they could maybe sneak a win in here somewhere, but um, it ain't overtilts over. It's a very I said this somewhere. It's a very. It's a we are better than new offense.

Like this offense is not super the Bengals, I mean, this offense is not super creative, right, Like, it's not like a Kyle Shanahan or a Mike McDaniel offense, where like there's dudes running all over the place and there's motion and there's all this crazy creative stuff. This is like we line up, we just execute our basic concepts really really well, and we have Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase right Like, that's that's the offense. It's it's you know,

you know what we're gonna do. We know what we're gonna do, but we're gonna execute it at such a high level it's not gonna matter, right, So, which is kind of what the Patriots were for a while there with Brady. So in that respect, I think the Patriots will have a pretty good feel for what the Bengals are offensively by Saturday, and obviously it will just come down to the individual. Matt, you got to show up and stop it. Yeah, all right, I agree with you.

Though season is not over. I think that this game, if they lose this game, then I think I might pronounce it dead because I think they need to win this one. I think, I mean, I think they it would be over. I think mathematically they'd be eliminated if they lose. Well, depending on what else happens, I guess I think that there is a chance there is a path to nine and eight getting into the playoffs. Whether I can hear the argument that you might not want

to get into the playoffs. And we did this last week, We did this last week now, or two weeks ago, whenever it was. Yeah, but either way, we'll be back on the show next week, same time, same place, win or lose or draw, we will be here to talk about the end of the season, all the way through the end of the season, and then in the offseason as well. So keep it right here, Patriots Catch twenty two, Alex and I will be back with you guys next week.

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