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He's a red shirt rookie at that point, so it's really that's his rookie season essentially too, so now we're really not talking about them, really knowing.
Search for Patriots Unfiltered anywhere you get your podcasts. This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan Lazar and Alex Barth.
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All right, everybody, what's up? It feels good to be here on a holiday Thursday here at Jalette Stadium and festive day here today. Got some free sushi that was nice Karma Sushi. Shout out to Karma Sushi, and we appreciated that here today. So I've definitely got a full stomach, and now we're gonna talk some football, which is always fun and a pretty basic normal show here today. I know there's gonna be a lot of draft questions as always, and we're going to get to them in the second hour.
We're going to talk a little Patriots bills here in the first hour as well as we always do. And Alex is also here. Hi, I am here, yep. In case you didn't know, Alex also here also on ninety eight five the Sports Hub quite a bit this week. Yep.
Holiday season.
Yeah, it's it's your time to shine. It's the holiday filling schedule, it's this is the Alex Barthes Show. Great.
I had a great show this morning with with Andrew Callahan and Kendrim Middleton.
Honestly, it was a ton of fun.
I haven't worked I've worked with Kenda two or three times, hadn't obviously no Andrew, but hadn't been on the radio with him before today, done podcast, But it was a good show.
You you are the star of ninety eight five. This time of year, I won't go you are you are? You are on the you are on TV The other day too.
I was You're on TV Film TV tomorrow with Bill Perry tend to too.
Love that, love that. So before we get rolling here now and now that I've ribbed Alex enough for for being the star of ninety eight five for the next week. Uh, Hey, Patriots fans, if you want to see Toyota's best offers, including those not seen on TV, go by go to
buy Atoto. Toyota dot Com is Toyota's official website for deals from the official vehicle of the New England Patriots, Toyota let's go places and easy to drink, easy to enjoy, but like the official beer sponsor of your New England Patriots. All right, let's talk a little bit of Bill's Patriots here, and uh, my reaction after this game was met with
with some hostility. I would say some pushback, pushback, some better word, some pushback, because I I gave the Patriots some flowers in this game for competing against a much much better Buffalo Bill's team. And there are certainly nippicks of their coaching performance on Sunday, almost as Saturday, I'll thrown off. There's certainly nitpicks of their performance on Sunday,
which I'm sure we will get to. We were actually texting about this when I was traveling back and I was texting with you and we were kind of in disagreement on this then. I don't know if your opinions have changed too much, but we'll get to that. My biggest takeaway from this game against the Bills is I wanted to see proof of concept from Girodmeo and his coaching staff that they could go into it and coach a game with a concise, clear plan that they could execute.
It's one thing to have all these grandiose ideas of, oh, this is how we're gonna contend or beat Buffalo, but the reality is that their team and their personnel cannot necessarily execute the most complicated or the most sophisticated of game plans. So do you have a game plan that not only makes sense for how your strains versus the Bills weaknesses and what you could do to beat the Bills,
that you can also execute? And that's the name of the game, right that's coaching and going into this game offensively.
I think we all were refreshed by the fact that they went out there and took Drake may first spin a little bit, you know, let him run around a little bit let him throw down the field early on in this game against man coverage, which I thought was crucial to their fast start, was actually taking some shots against press man and allowing him to go make plays when he sees man to man coverage instead of what they did to against Arizona. And the second thing defensively,
I was even more impressed. And this goes to another big picture thing that I wanted to point out. This was truly the first time that Gerrodmeo and DeMarcus Covington, in their respective roles, currently played Josh Allen. And I know that we have a little bit of different opinion on Josh Allen, but the point is is that Josh Allen is the king of the division right now and he's not going anywhere anytime soon. The Bills aren't going anywhere.
Josh Allen's not going anywhere. So in order for this regime to get where they want to go, even if it's two to three years from now, they need to start laying the foundation of how we are going to play defense against Josh Allen and go out there and find a way to solve this problem that really goes back to twenty twenty, where they've more or less other than a win aided twenty twenty one game, have not
had a lot of answers for Josh Allen. So in this game, I felt like defensively, they had two clear concise goals. Keep him in the pocket, and we're going to play man to man coverage and to your point your side of the street a little bit. A big part of that man to man coverage to me was that they no longer have Stefan Diggs, so there's not this trump card that Buffalo can throw at you where they have this receiver that is uncoverable in man to
man one on one. And so the Patriots, I felt like, said, well, if we take Allen's skill players out of the game by playing type man to man coverage and sort of bait him into playing hero ball from the pocket, then we have a much better chance than if we back off and we play this off zone and we let him pick us apart underneath. And that's what they went out there and did, and I thought the defense really
executed the game plan flawlessly in the passing game. There was obviously issues in the run game, but seventeen points allowed in one hundred and fifty six passing yards for Josh Allen. I'll take that any day of the week, Like that's a game that you will absolutely take against that quarterback.
Yeah, I think this is remember the uh is the dress blue and black or white and gold? Remember that thing from the internet. I think this game is kind of that with the coaching and in reality it's both. But everybody's gonna fall on one side of the street. I agree with everything you said from the game plan side, and this is we didn't disagree on it. We were just focused on different things. I agree with you hundred percent on.
The game plan side.
I thought they came in with a good plan offensively and defensively. Offensively, as the game went on, it maybe didn't. They didn't adapt as well as they could have. Defensively, I think they did. It helped that the Bills just refused to run the ball, which is hilarious. Let's not give Sean McDermott too much credit here, But I thought they came in with a good plan. I thought the team looked prepared. The team came in with that energy.
The team came in ready to go, which coming off that Cardinals game was night and day, so the preparation the week leading up to it. I think the coaching staff deserves a ton of credit for the plan they put together. The flip side is the game management stuff still needs work. Some of the punt non punt decisions. I thought they missed a good shot at challenging a play, some of the clock management that is still where there
is room to grow. And look, it's good to see the game plan stuff, and I'm not discounting any of that. I just think that it's weird because I thought the most encouraging thing from this game was the coaching in terms of the game plan. The least encouraging thing was the coaching in terms of the end game management. So kind of both sides of the street for them. The game management stuff you can learn, you can get better at, but there is room to grow there.
I think that's a fair take.
I just you just don't care about the game management stuff, so you'll out the window.
I don't because I don't see you for this team right now. I'm not sure what it matters, like the most important thing for this team right but it's.
Not about right now. Again, it's about that projection. At a certain point, they're gonna have to get better at that.
Yeah, but you can develop that skill.
I just it's the most important. You've seen them develop it over the course of this year.
No, but the most important thing to me right now is winning during the week, Like, can you win Monday through Saturday?
I think the most important thing is winning on Sunday, and you do that by winning during the week.
But yeah, you can't just say you do it.
I hate, Well, we had a good week of practice and we lost so well, Like, no, there is ways they can be better during the game too.
Yeah, I don't disagree with that. I just I think as a three win rebuilding operation, the most important thing is proving that you can put together game plan, practice it during the week, take it from the classroom to the practice field to the game field, and go out
there and play a competitive product of football. Like if you want to sit here and nitpick that they punted, you know, the fourth down punt in the fourth quarter that everybody's going crazy about, then sure, like I understand that that's you know, it was not an aggressive decision, right, that was for a lot of people. I would say that decision to punt there was to keep the game close, so that on the scoreboard, they weren't getting blown out
by seventeen points. And maybe that's true, but I just again what I come back to with this coaching staff is I am far more concerned with Monday through Saturday with this team right now. Can you go out there and know what you need to do? You know, it's one of those things with Bill where he would you know, always get up in front of the team and he would have like three things, four things for us to win this game. We absolutely need to check these four
boxes right. And I'm not talking about like the catch alls like don't turn the ball over, and like those are all every week. You don't want to turn the ball over and you don't want to beat yourself. But I'm talking more about you know, really minutia, exs and no's, Like we are going to keep Josh Allen contained in the pocket, and this is exactly how we're gonna do it.
Whether it's a four man rush, mush rush, or it's a rush one guy gets to rush because we're gonna funnel him out of the pocket this way, and then we're gonna have a spy that's gonna close the pocket, which is what they did a lot in this game with Josh Allen was you know, using guys like Brandon Schooler as a spy on the quarterback and then allowing like one rusher to tee off right and the other three guys their job or their responsibility was to try
to push him in a certain direction, and then Schooler came wrapped around in that direction and sort of closed the pocket. Like the coordination of that rush plan don't look like to me with this pass rush, I know a lot of people are making a big deal to sort of out a key on Whitez, like let's slide here that he hasn't been as productive, Like to me, this is not this was not about that, Like you're not grading this game looking at quarterback pressures in sack numbers.
Like to me, they went into this game defensively and they said, we probably aren't gonna sack Josh Allen like he's he's probably he's hard. He's hard enough to sack as it is because of his mobility and his size. They have a good offensive line, they get the ball
out quickly, and there's the nature of this offense. We're not gonna necessarily get after Josh Allen in this game, so we're just gonna try to contain them and keep him in the pocket and make him meet us from the pocket, and then we're gonna take the receivers out. And they went out there and they did that offensively. It was great to see some of the throws down the field. It was great to see a couple of
design quarterback runs for Drake may So. Yeah, like, do you want to you know, the punt, Like you didn't like the punt? Okay, like what else?
Like?
I guess what else didn't you like about the game management stuff? Specifically the punt I didn't love.
I would have challenged.
So the third.
Down, not on the fake punt, drive the drive before second quarter incomplete, incomplete. Kendrick Bourne catches a comeback. He's like in mid air when he catches the defender drives him back. They marked him a full yard short, and I know those players are tough to overturn, but it's the first half out of challenge. I think there's a chance he got it. Even if he didn't get it, you're inches away. Maybe they're more inclined to go for it.
We know they had that fake punt I didn't love just as a whole, and it burned them one time burned them. So after the fake punt, they have to call time out instead of taking delay because they didn't get the special teams off and the offense on on time. And it's the second week in row something like that's happened. They had the twenty nine yard run form Antonio Gibson last week and have to call time out immediately after
because they can't get the play in. And it's like, when you have these big plays, you want to keep the defense on their heels. You want to keep them backed up, especially after a fake punt the defense comes off the field, I think they're done. They're kind of resetting now. They got all of a sudden run back on. When you call time out, you sort of lose some of that momentum. And there were other instances in the game.
That was the most glaring, but there were other instances in the game where they're either calling timeouts or they're getting to the line with six seven seconds on the play clock, Like you can't.
Be doing that.
It was almost Mike McDaniel.
Esku so I you just had to take a shot at me.
I mean, had that game in Buffalo, that playoff game, was that was so bad? How does he not figure out the entire game? Just called the play earlier and it's anyway you got to be able to get the play calls on time. Like this is basic operational stuff that Do they win the game? I don't know, but it will help them be competitive and it cuts down on some of.
That margin forrer. I like, I don't know, do they win the game? Maybe maybe not? Certainly the one after the fake punt you get the defense really back on their heels. That helps.
Instead they punt again three plays later, so the fake he kind of burned for nothing.
Okay, I hear what you're saying. I agree with a lot of what you're saying. I guess I just to me, you know, the stuff that you're talking about is I will be more concerned about that kind of stuff like a year or two from now when they are actually supposed to be competing.
Okay, but why can't why can't they work on the during the week stuff and the in game stuff. Why can't we be talking about both improving simultaneously. It's not like, all right, we're good where we are during the week, Now, let's figure out this game day stuff. That's not how it should be they should be working on improving the entire operation at once.
Because I don't think that that stuff that you're talking about. If we had to like split up winning into like a pie of like percentages, I think that your stuff is probably about twenty to twenty five percent more, and my stuff is seventy five.
Bits more than that, especially once you go up against maybe in a game like that where they're so outmatched talent wise, once the roster is more even, it's gonna matter a lot more than that. We saw that here. For years there were good teams that the Patriots would play.
The Patriots were beating teams before the team even got off the bus like that. That's that's what it was.
Because they were more tightened up, and other teams would get in a panic about playing the Patriots and they would stumble over the details, the end game details. No, I'm sorry, that's stuff. I'm not gonna let you say that stuff doesn't decide football games. It absolutely does.
It decides a lot of one score games. I agree with you, but I don't.
Necessarily most most games in the NFL at one score games.
I just don't think it matters as much as you do. I don't. I don't. I think it matters. I think it's a part of the game.
I'm not Shanahan and all the Super Bowl rings how much it matters.
Oh, come on, man, he's been like two bounces from the super Bowl, Like if he was a little better on the market games, Jimmy hits Emmanuel decision was Jimmy Garoppolo throw. So it's it's his problem, his fault that he missed a wide open receiver for a decision.
You know what, Jimmy Garoppolo is dress It matters. It absolutely decides games. And I'd rather them not wait to get better at it.
I'm not asking them to wait to get better at it. I just think that it's more important, especially coming off a game like they play in Arizona, where I just thought their entire approach was off. No, I mean even much better. Even John Medison on Tuesday that their effort in Arizona wasn't good.
Yeah.
No, And I'm giving them credit. They were much better in that regard. But this stuff is part of the game too. This stuff is part of coaching too. I think it's as much of the game.
Day stuff.
To me, is as much a part you can come in with a great plan. If you can't get play calls in and you're committing bad penalties and you're burning timeouts you don't need to burn, and letting the clock run when it doesn't need to run, you're still gonna even with a good plan, you're still going to have a hard time winning games in this league because so many of these games are so close.
All right, Well, we're not going to agree to this on this one, so I'm gonna move it along. But I do the one big thing that I definitely look at now as we come off of this Bills game. It's cool to do it once, and we're saying do it once they even win the freaking game. It's cool to come, you know and watch this film and feel some pretty good about some of the things that they did, you know, in terms of the past defense and the
start on offense. But the two you know kind of things that come from this now one you got to stack it right, like you gotta do it again against the Chargers on Saturday. If they just if this is just a one off performance by this group down the stretch here and we don't see that team on Saturday
against the Chargers, I would throw it all out. I would say all the flowers I gave you last week, you just set them on fire, right, Like, I will not care about this Bills game if they go out and play like they did in Arizona on Saturday against
the Chargers. Now, if they play the same way they didn't against Buffalo, and maybe you know, to your point, some of those in game things go their way, or they're clean those things up, or some of the bounces just are better this week, and they actually win this game against the Chargers, then I would feel like, Okay, we're starting to stack here a little bit. Now. With that being said, Week eighteen against the Bills, I'm throwing out I don't think that game is gonna matter for Buffalo.
I wouldn't be surprised if we see Mitch Trubisky in that game.
I'm not throwing that out because of what you just said. Like you date, if they're not competitive against the Bill's team, that's half assing it. That's a really bad sign.
Yeah, I agree with that. I just I guess I don't know this is this goes into like a you know, personnel level versus player level, Like the players aren't gonna go out there and tank for the team. Right, They're not gonna do that. But I do think that there's an element in week eighteen of thinking about that. I do.
I think for no I again, the game management stuff, the operational stuff, like you need to prove you can be a tight operation, and it doesn't matter who the opponent is.
Like, so you don't care that if they win a meaningless game against the Bills in Week eighteen, they could go from like the second overall pick to like the eighth overall pick. I think winning is more important. You think winning one game against mister Bisky is more important? Yep.
I think for the you don't want losing to become habitual for the culture of it. They're also not going to fall to eight. I think that if they lose, like if they lose one of the next two, the Charge are a good team. I don't think they can fall past like six.
Well, there's but I don't know what all the tie breakers are because we don't know, like this we're gonna have.
We're gonna have the tie breakers because their strength schedules so blow everybody else's.
Well, there's a bunch of four win teams in three win teams in the league. A bunch of them play each other though, Okay, I mean even if it's two to six or two to seven, I think that that. I also on this draft especially, I think that's bad.
I'm a proponent of them trading down so you don't get the Hall, but you still end up with the same player. I don't know, I'd like to see them. I don't think they're gonna tank.
Because they're not gonna purposely.
Right, And I just think that operational stuff, and I think like ending the season on a high note is important. I know, like what to do for the Jets last year, but that's the Jets. Yeah, you know, like I think ending the season on a high note is important. Yeah, Jet winning one game was not gonna help the Jets. The Jets are so far beyond one game.
Okay, So that's one. They gotta stack it together against the Chargers. The second thing is we're we're still seeing a lot of the same mistakes. And I know you kind of already broke down the coaching at and that this isn't necessarily not coaching, it's just in terms of the execution. The run defense is still a major problem with this team at this point, they're probably not going to fix the run defense until next year and hopefully
you get a Christian Barmore, Juwan Bentley. You know, maybe you draft a few guys to sign a few guys on defense that are stouter against the run. Their run defense is, in my mind, other than the offensive line,
the worst part of the team. And in terms of like the offensive line, they're so talent depleted on the offensive line that I almost feel more disappointed in the run defense than I do in the line play because you're not expecting much out of your starting tackles being Trey Jacobs and Vederian low right, Like, you're just not expecting that group to be great defensively. I still think they have enough good players on defense to not be a horrible run defense, and at times they are a
horrible run defense. And it's the big plays, it's the forty six yard touchdown by James Cook, but it's also these little runs where you know, this game, they missed eight tackles against the run. Four of them I counted could have been TFLs, and they're just they're missing these tackles and not only could they have been TFLs, but then they don't rally to the football, so like the ball carrier ends up squeaking out for four or five yards. It's not even just that they missed the play behind
the line of scrimmage. They then don't make the play at the line of scrimmage either, like you see other teams when they play the run. It's okay, we whiffed on a TfL, but then we have three hats that are just like flying to the ball. So no, we didn't get the two yard loss, but we got a no gain out of this play because somebody contacted the ball behind the line of scrimmage and slowed the ball down.
With the Patriots, they can slow the ball down behind the line of scrimmage and then the guy still gains five yards, and those body blows just add up over the course of time. That to me has been the
most disappointing part about their run defense. Maybe the physical at the point of attack and that type of stuff is personnel, uh, But in terms of like their just effort and the fact that they just don't rally or bring hats to the football consistently, uh to to bottle up runners, yea, it's a lot of one on one in space, Like if that guy doesn't make the tackle, then nobody might make the tackle any sort of thing.
Uh that It's been probably the most frustrating part of the team for me personally to watch on film every Monday is their fits, their their their inability to play blocks, their angles, and like their ability to leverage or you know, push runners back into the teeth of the defense, to the numbers of the defense. They just do not play fundamentally, just.
The tackling, just the number of times that even when they are in the right place at the right time, they can't bring the guy down. A lot of run You probably hate this. I don't know how you feel about this cliche. I do believe in it to an extent. A lot of run defenses just want to It's just effort. No, it would just being bigger, meaner, stronger than the guy opposite you who wants it more. And when you can't
stop the run, it kind of reflects that way. Also, just backtrack real quick, because I see the chat is pissed to make. I'm not saying that, oh, the Patriots help their draft stock by winning that last game. I'm saying, don't expect anybody in that building to say no, we need to go out and lose for the draft. I'm saying internally, they are not looked. They should not be looking at that as we want to lose this game for the draft. They should be wanting to pull out
every win they can. Obviously, yes, it's better for the draft positioning if they lose. I ideally, you play a close, competitive game and you lose, so you still have something to build on. But people are saying, I just want to be clear, I'm not saying it's better for them in the draft if they win that game. It's obviously not. I just don't expect them to. They're not gonna be going into that game thinking about the draft. Norse should they they're at the.
Yeah, and you know, yeah exactly. Just to clear that up. I love it when the check gets on you, though, I do like it. But yeah, I'm not suggesting that they're going to go out there and take by any means like, that's not That's not what any team. I truly believe, that's not what any team does. Now. Executives and did owners maybe from.
The GM level up.
Yeah, and and that's it. It's not an individual game. Hey, we need to go lose this thing.
It's the hey, like, we're not going to invest a ton in this roster because we need to reset. We need the draft picks, we need to reset the cap, like we're.
Going to go into this season. You don't get, don't You don't get.
Maybe at the trade deadline you decide like, hey, we're going to sell off guys. That's more so in other sports than football. You don't get to Week eighteen and.
Say we need to lose this game. Lose this Get's not how it works. Yeah, No, I just I think about the draft pick because I don't coach or play in the game. So I'm going to consider and.
Look who you're talking to about, don't think of the draft pick. Right that Jets game last year, I was up there. I'm picturing Drake May the whole time. I'm not gonna lie.
Yeah, So the other element of this Bills game just to go back there and then we'll do three up, three down. I know everybody wants us to talk off season, so we'll get to in the second. But the other element of this game that I have found myself being like lowercase C concerned about, is there. I used this take earlier for the Celtics lowercase c' I'm not big C yet, Like I'm not like really worried about it yet.
But I'm just this take or the Celtics has nothing to do with Celtics lower case W or upper case W. Worried about Celtics lowercase like the smallest case me too.
Yeah.
In terms of the Patriots though back to the show, this is a lowercase W worried about Drake May in the red zone and just their red zone offense in general. Now, the Drake May in the red zone angle probably improves when he has better supporting cast, right, like that, that element of it, I will totally allow for the The The concern that I have with it is two things. One,
there was some of this at North Carolina. They had some issues finishing drives at North Carolina too, And he had some issues with blit zero turnovers in the red zone like that kind of stuff. So this is probably in reality the more important development for him. Then. Like people making the big deal out of the footwork and like all that stuff, I thought I always thought, you know that, I always thought that was kind of way overblown. This type of stuff, though I don't think is as
overblown with him in college to the pros. And it doesn't help that he doesn't have the most creative play caller. When you get down there, you need to be creative. I'm not talking about like double passes and stuff. I'm just talking about scheme and motion and stretching the field horizontally and knowing how to use the space of the
field and all that kind of stuff. But you also have to look at it and you know, it took them ten plays to score from the eight yard line at the end of the game, and the Bills are just sending the house and they just can't get a cover zero beater. Now he had one on the play that he dropped the snap, which was the one time where I thought that he was a little shaky in
this game. And so you have that situation at the end of the game where if they score before the two minute warning, like now they're they're in business with three timeouts and the two minute warning down by three, at least, you're putting the Bills in a position where they have to put a drive together to close out the game. And it's not just one first down and the game is over. The interception I don't. There's a lot of fault on that interception. The route combination obviously,
you know, Kendrick Bourne and Austin Hooper like that. It was an ugly route combination in terms of the execution on that play. Don't mind. The route combination is actually, you know, scissors is actually a pretty good red zone high red zone play that a lot of teams run,
but it just wasn't executed great. But the thing that I see with Drake in the red zone is that he's a big like anticipatory thrower, and he likes to see the space in the defense, right like, here are the voids in what I'm looking at, and I'm just gonna anticipate that Austin Hooper is going to run into
this void. But the problem is is that a lot of things have to go right then from the time he releases the ball to the time that the ball arrives at the target, you know, like the routes hitting correctly, like Austin Hooper reading the play the same way that he reads the play, and in the open field between the twenties, those types of throws, if he makes that exact same throw, that might just be an incomplete pass.
But because the space is so condensed in the red zone, that middle of the field safety, it's a pretty it's an easier play for him to get to the sideline there and make that play. So it's a lowercase W like I'm not I'm not trying to be panicky or anything about it just yet. But they've struggled in the red zone all's a year long. But also with Drake at quarterback, it's probably the one area where they haven't
shown real improvement with Drake. Like everything else is up, like yards points, everything else is up with Drake at quarterback, but the one thing that isn't is their red zone efficiency.
Yeah, I think just talent will fix some of that. He'll have more time there. I agree, that's not just a Drake may thing. A lot of young quarterbacks like the red zone is kind of one of the last things to come. Having a better run game would be a big way to help him. But if you remember, remember I take after the Titans game on Drake May Like, he plays with an inner dialogue of fine, I'll do it myself. Yeah, I guess I'll have to do it myself.
He's been better about that the last few weeks. Except in the red zone, and he even said after the game you could tell he's frustrated. He said, yeah, you know, a lot of time, the red zone ultimately comes back to the quarterback. I've got to be better, And yes, he can be better in the red zone. But I do feel like he there is room for him to trust others to make plays down there. And I get why maybe he doesn't based on the way this year is gone. But when you get we'll do offseason.
Ono.
Do you hear the clip on the Athletic Football podcast this week about a certain receiver that we've talked about on the show. We'll get to that. When you get him, a guy like that, I think things will start to open up for him.
There's a lot of things that are personnel driven in this offense, and like I said, I when it comes to red zone, especially Van Pelt shares in a lot of the blame. And it took him. Of course, it took until week seventeen for them to run Drake in the red zone like that's not his fault, that's what
they're calling for him to run. And I think one of the elements you know with Van Pelt that I've had you know, criticisms of with the red zone stuff is that a lot of it is progression based reads for Drake in a condensed area where things happen a lot faster down there. And like you said, young quarterbacks, this tends to be the last frontier for young quarterbacks
is throwing in the red zone. So you know, you have a young quarterback that isn't you know, exactly there yet in terms of the red zone, and instead of running you know, some read options, some RPO, you know, some more creative type play calls to just sort of take him out of dropback mode, right, Like that's what I see the most of is like you're asking him
to drop back pass all the time. Yeah, you know, and if you were willing to run the quarterback a little bit, you know, great red zone plays like for Philly, like their quarterback draw play out of empty is one of their dynamite red zone plays, right you just empty the backfield. You usually get five in the box against five blockers and Jalen Hurts just runs the ball down there.
Like those are the types of things that if they were doing more of those things, then he wouldn't have to always try to throw the ball into the end zone from a drop back situation and they just don't do those types of things. So that that's been frustrating to me from a red zone perspective is they should be finishing more of these drives. I mean, what was it. It was the Colts game that they were two for
six in the red zone I believe it was. And then you know this game were the Cardinals game either, Yeah, this game it's been tough too, you know with the Bills. So those would be my two biggest nippicks. You know, obviously there's individual players, which we'll get to now with three up, three down, But in terms of conceptually run defense, I think at this point is what it is and
that's the next season problem. I would like to see them be a little bit more buttoned up in the red zone in these last two games, like can you get some stuff that makes you feel better about how they look down in the red area, And it's it's a big part of Alex Van Pelts evaluation for me, because they're down in red zone that that's where that's where coordinators make their mind.
We'll say this though, you know who the best red zone defense is in the NFL. The Chargers, Los Angeles Chargers for touchdowns.
Yeah, big reason why. Then we'll talk a little Chargers. The big reason why they're really good in the red zone their defensive.
Tous Edwards just ruled out JK.
Dobbins question. Okay, I think we should get the Patriots then shortly. The big thing, the big reason why they're they're a really good red zone defense, Jesse mint Or their defensive coordinator is really really good at keying on your tendencies on early downs and putting you in long down and distance. So if you get into the red zone and he kind of knows what you're gonna do on first and second down, and now you're in third
and pass in the red zone all the time. That's that's a tough way to live, Like, you don't want to live in third and pass. And I think the Patriots get into those situations a lot, where they're in laid down passing situations from like the low red area,
which is a really tough place to be. I mean, we saw that against Buffalo, just setting everybody and putting them in tough spots in there, that situation and that drive how many I think it was three defensive pass interferences that extended that drive, so they the Patriots need to clean that up. Let's do three up, three down. We'll talk a little chargers and a little draft as always, but do you want to start us off on three up,
three down? You prepared this week? I am prepared because already this sweet Well it's funny because we kind of just did the same show you did on Tuesday, Sports Like, Yeah, anyways, so I I'll do this a little different because that one had to be three up, three down, actually a two up, five down. Oh wow, five down you're critical, Yeah.
A little bit one of them you might have a problem with.
But oh boy. Uh.
First up, Christian Ellis, who I feel like has been on here weekly for me.
You have him as a up. I have him as a up. You have miss down. No, I just don't. I didn't think about him.
I thought that he made one good play in space early in the game, good tackle in space. He had the pass break up. I mean, for what it was, the ball hit off the back of his helmet, but he was right there in coverage.
Yeah.
A couple other plays where I thought he was in the right spot defending the run. They were maybe bigger run plays because there were other holes for the back to find secondary holes. But and this maybe says more about the Patriots current roster than it does about Christianellis.
He's just been steady. He's been I.
Don't know how many plays he's like gone out and made right creative might play he's created. But there haven't really been a ton of instances where he's doing the wrong thing either. He just always seems to be in the right place, right time, makes the plays that are there to be made. And especially on defense this year, there's not that many guys you can say that about
on this team. Like if we were to talk about just output for this season, Christian Elli's top fifteen player on the team, top ten.
Like says a lot.
And again I acknowledge this maybe says more about the Rosson does about Ellis. Yeah, who's been more impressive this year Christian Ellis, Kyle.
Loger, Yeah. I mean, look, I think with Ellis, the biggest thing that I see is that he has a role. You know, he's gonna I think he has a role on an NFL roster as a passing downs linebacker. Yeah, I do. Now they have to use him a little bit more on early downs than he's probably built for.
But even when he's in those situations, again, he hasn't been great, but he hasn't been I don't really seem getting exposed.
He just can't get off blocks in the running game. He's just too small, right, And some of that's you know, we've talked about this in the past of the run defense. I don't love how they play the run with this personnel because they're still trying to two gap and they're still trying to get their linebackers to take on blockers and things like that. And Christian Ellis is what two
hundred and thirty two hundred and thirty five pounds. Yeah, see only Taki Taki another guy who's a smaller guy that's more gonna win with athleticism and smarts than he is with physicality. So I don't necessarily put it on Ellis that they're asking Ellis to stand over the bubble and then take on a guard, you know, at the point of attack. Like, that's not Christian Ellis problem. That's a DeMarcus Covington and girod Meo problem.
So no, I think he had another solid game, and I think he's had a solid year.
Yeah, okay, fair enough. My first up was Jonathan Jones. Yeah. I thought Jonathan Jones was fantastic in this game, the best game of the year, best game I've seen him play in quite a bit. Look, clear, Shakir is now the Bills engine of that offense. He's the straw that stirs the drink. It's very Edelman esque, I would say, in terms of how they run that offense through him in the slot. Jonathan Jones on a twelve routes in man to man coverage against Khalil Shaker allowed one catch.
It was that little drag route over the middle of the field in the second half, one catch in twelve yards. And guess what on that one catch, he forced a fumble on the one catch that he allows. Yeah, peanut punch. So even though he gave up a catch, he still made a play on the ball. On that play he had to pass breakup in the end zone, which was just perfect trail coverage, trail man coverage. I just thought
he was all over Khalil Shakir in this game. And maybe the most the most sort of just stamp of this game plan against Buffalo was how well prepared they were for Shakir and his route tree. It really seemed like Jonathan Jones knew the route that Shakira was gonna run before he ran it. Kudos to him for his preparation on Shakir, but I also would imagine that that had a lot to do with what the coaches in the game plan was as well. So they recognized, you know,
Shakier is an inbreaking route runner. He's gonna run crossers, he's gonna run slants, he's gonna run things over the middle of the field. So they just put Jonathan Jones and an inside trail technique and had him just shadow him across the field and then they would put his safety up over the top of him so that if they went deep, he would have that safety help over the top. And he was just in his shirt all day long. I mean, really great coverage, Jonathan Jones. Yeah, absolutely,
Nell Johns, you only had two. Really, I would have put.
Drake May, but he threw the pick and I didn't love him dropping the ball on that snap in the red.
I was like, I considered Drake May.
He was like close to up but not up.
So the sticky thing about Drake and I'm with you, I considered it because the tough thing about him is that it feels like they wouldn't be in these games. It wasn't for him, but they also feels like he's making some critical errors, so it's hard to put him on the ups. But like the same time, you have to recognize he's the most valuable player on the team.
So this is where I was at with Drake basically in this game, and we didn't talk about this in the open. I wanted to talk about this, yet we're getting to it. And I said this with Greg on Tuesday. Just for him to go into that environment, both handling the coldest game in his career Buffalo, It's loud, it was kind of later in the day, just all those
like that was a big game environment. It obviously wasn't a big game for the Patriots at at three and eleven, but that was a big game environment, and you don't know how these guys are gonna handle it, especially a guy that was in the ACC. We're seeing the college football playoff right now, like what these kids look like when they go into a real road playoff game. R I think that's a big reason the games are lopsided last week. So you don't know what he's gonna look like.
And he went in there and he like they showed him on TV earlier.
I thought he looks cold.
Yeah, he looks but it it may have bothered him, but it didn't impact him, and that's really all that matters. In the noise, like the play some of the play calls gotten late, but there were also times he was able to handle it and make it work and things
like that. If we're talking about the long term five to ten year window, that game was incredibly encouraging for Drake May because, look, the games are gonna get bigger and we'll see but as much of a big game environment as he's had in the NFL, that was a pretty legit environment. He handled it well. So you have a quarterback that can go into that environment and handle it.
Five ten year window, great game for Drake May. If we are just talking about who played the best technical football game on Sunday, he's not towards the top of the list because he had his issues. But for a rookie in that spot, the issues he had you live with and you say, okay, overall he did. He did what he needed to do in this game for what this game was.
Yeah, it's a great point, and I believe it was. Van Pelt right then mentioned that it was good for the younger players. Yeah, he talked about that today, to play in Buffalo for the first time and get that first game under their belt. And I agree. And in some ways, you know, granted, they they're going to have to do it when the stakes are higher and that's gonna be a different kind of pressure. But to have it be sort of a low pressure situation for the first time.
Low pressure of a high pressure pressure situation, as you can get it.
Wasn't maybe the worst thing in the world that it wasn't a game that they had to win for a playoff seed or something like that.
That's a valuable game for young team and the coaches too, nuts players coaches, Yeah, that's a valuable game for a young team. In the fact that was as close as it was is a So this and this goes back to what we set off the top. You're talking about the game playing stuff now the handle it. I'm talking about the end game. Yeah, like five ten year projection.
You feel really good about that game. You feel better about that game in the five ten year window than you do the actual football product we saw on Sunday, which is not necessarily a bad thing for where this team is at.
Yeah, I would just say the other thing with Drake May the reason why I you know, look, he made some fantastic throws in this game. Obviously, the touchdown to Booty is just that that's an unbelievab beautiful throw.
He had one to Hunter Henry two on third down on an out that he threw before Henry got out of the break. That was like, that's an NFL That's an NFL third down throw right there.
Oh yeah, No, I mean he made he made several great plays in this game. But the the reason why I didn't go put him on the ups. Yeah, this game felt a little North Carolina eat to me in terms of his performance, where there's five or six throws that he made in this game that make your jaw drop, But then there was also the turnovers and some you know, real critical miscuse.
Looked more Josh Allen than Josh Allen did in this game. You're gonna hate me saying that, but yeah, it's or do you agree? Uh, he looked more like Josh Allen than Josh Josh Allen looked Timid.
He We'll get to Josh Allen in a second. I would just say that, I mean the spin move on the first down run, that's Josh Allen. Yeah. I would just say that if you're if you you could see this game with Drake May anyway you want to see it, you could watch this game and you could say, look
at this throw. You know, the throw he made to Booty over the middle of the field, you know, when the blitz came and they had to abort the play action fake and he just rolls out and uh, you know with his body weight, you know, flying right, he throws back into the middle of the field left. Like that throw is crazy. That's a crazy Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes like unreal throw. Right, the touchdown to Booty is
a great throw. Some of the third down throws that you mentioned, you know, Crosser to Hunter Henry early on in the game opening drive, scrambles for another first down when there was nobody open. I like those types of players are him adding to the to the situation, like he's elevating the product, like Kaishan Boody no offense, But like that's not He's not Randy Moss right and he made such a perfect throw on the touchdown to Kaishan Boody that Kashan Budy had no choice but to catch
it right. It was literally it was literally right in his hands, like there is no way he was gonna not come away with the football. The other thing I would say about Drake May that almost put him on the ups for me. I don't know about you, but I had some people from Buffalo reach out to me after the game that say that they're they're capital w worried about how good Drake May played in that game.
I know they're also capital w worried about their own football team. They were not happy about that.
No, there was boo birds at halftime, them off the field. But a lot of people that I know in Buffalo, you know, friends of mine, and I'm sure your friends said the same thing. We went to school and upper Upstate New York, so we all have we all have friends that was more just mad about Yeah. You know a lot of Patriots can't believe it. But a lot of people I think in Buffalo are like, well, now they have their own Josh Allen, so if they get
this situation around it correct. Anyways, let's get back to the actual list here. So my number two up was Jeremiah Farms, basically a one man pass rush in this game. He had five quarterback pressures. Nobody else on the team had more than one, So it was really Jeremiah Farms getting pressure on the quarterback. I do think that was by design that they were willing to let Jeremiah Farms rush Josh Allen, expecting Josh Allen to go out out of the back of the pocket rather than going up
through the middle of the pocket. So if you let those interior guys kind of tee off a little bit and then you keep the edges, you know, firm and make him stay in the pocket, you have some opportunity. He had the sack when he kind of you know, ran into him. But I thought he was the one guy that had impactful pressures in this game and was getting after the quarterback a little bit. Yeah, I thought I thought he saw a game n number three. I did put Kaishan Boudi on here. I thought Kishan Boudi
was really good in this game. Twenty eight yard touchdown. Obviously, he had the twenty two yarder on the crosser that I was just talking about, where Drake May the off platform throw, and then he had another chunk play that was left on the field that Drake, one of his sprays in this game, you know, missed him coming across the field. That probably would have been another twenty twenty five yard game at least if he hits him in
stride there. So it almost makes up for the fact that thirty one of his yards came on a garbage play ten and a half because he should have had you know, the play on the chunk play that Drake May missed him. So I thought Kai Shan Boody has continued to show that he belongs in an NFL receiver room. Yeah. I don't know if he's a starting X receiver in the league, but he is a receiver in the league.
He's still just so inconsistent. Yeah, it's tough to count on him for anything. If he's your fourth or fifth receiver. Throwing him out there ten fifteen snaps a game kind of his insurance. I think that's probably the role for him. This is kind of what we've seen from him his whole two years here. There's moments where he looks great, but there's just not enough of them strung together.
Yeah, that's fair. All right, let's go to the downs. You got seventeen of them, So Harry, I have five.
It's really for ramondre Stevenson number one. I so we haven't talked about.
It was tough for me. Sorry to cut you off, but he also had a ridiculous fourteen yard touchdown run. Yeah, so I was. I kind of love the defense about him.
So through his first I think he's too. Have this written down through his first two hundred and ninety nine career care I'll do it this way. Through his first three.
NFL seasons, Yes, he had seven fumbles. Yeah, this year he has seven fumbles. Yeah, it's it's a real Yeah.
In his first three hundred and ninety nine career carries, he had seven fumbles. In the last two hundred five, he has seven, almost hat like twice the fumble rate.
I also, so we haven't talked about the backwards lateral play yet.
I call me a sucker if you want. I kind of believe Alex van Pelt. I take his side on this. Is it a great play to call?
There?
No, I see what they're going for. The Bills are getting really aggressive in their rush. They're trying to catch the Bills coming upfield, throw something quick behind him and get going. I would have probably called just a traditional half back slip screen, will slip screen. I think that is less risky. It achieves the same goal. Now that being said, every why would you call backwards pass in that situation? It's not supposed to be a backwards pass.
Ramandre Stevenson sunk his rat. Why did Ramandre Stevenson sink his route? I'm gonna combine my first two downs because Demandre Jacobs, who's the other one, misses the cut block, and Stevenson sens is the pressure steps back. Something of this is on Drake two. You got to either lead him forward or throw that ball at his feet or throw it away. Should van Pel, I'll have a better
read on the personnel. You're asking Demontrey Jacobs, who's had a rough game to cut block a great edge rusher, Like, yeah, Van Pel's not innocent in this either, But let's not act like they were like, Oh, yeah, we're gonna throw the ball backwards four yards because that's a good play. Yeah, it's supposed to be a very basic half back flat route. The execution I don't know. I couldn't think that word.
The execution is blown at three levels and I think that and on top of that, I know we got hit, but my rule ball hits in both hands, catch it, and that goes to there are some drops elsewhere in the game, frankly goes to Drake May's fumble too, Like I thought, ste if I'm assigning blame on that play to Monterrey, Jacobs is number one to me, Stevenson's number two, then Van Pelt, then Drake. Was it the best play call?
No?
And this is a line we've kind of walked this year where on one hand, you say, okay, but know who your personnel are. If you can't execute it, don't call it. But if you're in that camp, you can't complain that the play callings to Vanilla, right, because if you're just calling off the talent, that leaves a lot of things off your play sheet. So for what they are, a three and eleven team trying to pull an upset again, I wouldn't have called that exact play, but they tried something.
They they took a shot at something. I don't fault the play call a ton there a little bit because I think could have been better, but not a ton because if you're only gonna call, you can do off the personnel. They're really just not gonna be running that many plays.
Yeah, so I did in the moment. The reason why I wasn't like totally critical of it was because they had a drive earlier after the Mapu interception where they were backed up and Drake May threw two really solid passes backed up in his own end zone, one of them with his feet in the end zone to get is that the great throat? Yeah, that was a great throw and the third down throat. He was really good.
Sorry just on Drakes, you didn't touch on it. He was really good outside the numbers in this game, which is a ton of fun.
Yeah. He made a throw on third down to Austin Hooper on a little stick route where he throws it before, like with anticipation, before Hooper came out of his break from like his five yard line. Like, that's a ballsy throw, right for a rookie quarterback to to just let that thing go and trust that your receiver is gonna get open and that it's gonna hit off, you know, correctly.
So watching how poised he was in that situation earlier on in the game, I had no problem with him trying to throw later on in the game because he already proved that he could do it in this environment. The only the only little nitpick that I had of Drake May, and I thought Van Pelt said it well about the fumble. It was he was a little fast, like that's probably one, yeah, that he was a little
sped up on. And you should probably at least confirm that the end is cut before you throw the ball, because if you're Drake May, and I've heard, you know, Brian Hoyer said throw it at his feet. Well, it's a backward pass. Have you thrown at his feet? Right? He likes either way, it's a fumble.
When you throw a roll out, throw it at a bounds, you probably have somebody in the backs.
Like run it for a no gain sack or something, you know what I mean. Like, there's other options to eat it without throwing it behind the line.
One other take on that Drake May did this once. But I saw this a ton in the NFL the last few weeks and in college. Have you noticed this rising trend of quarterbacks running out of bounds behind the line of scrimmage?
It was it this week or in Arizona. That is this week.
You might have done in Arizona too, but it happened a couple of times in the college games. It happened.
I think CJ.
Stroud did it.
Against the Chiefs last week. I hate it. I actually might have counted it as a minus player and I hate it.
I don't know why this is suddenly a thing. I don't know if it's stat padding, I don't know what it is. If you're like toe on the line, just flick it, just flick it out of bounds.
Yeah, I don't know what it is, but I mean in this game it was a one yard loss. Compared to it, he wasn't as egregious as some of the other ones I've seen. Anyway, that was a side. You know, he has done it a couple of times. We're being a little critical on Drake though, so it's gonna reel back. No.
No, I honestly, I really meant that as like there were some not Drake. It just made me think of it, some really egregious ones elsewhere around the league. This has been a trend. Like I really think the whole year, I didn't see Mahomes do it.
Bad coaching. What do we do it. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of these quarterbacks, I think too, you know that are mobile. Everybody's mobile now at that position for the most part. And so I wonder how much of it is is that they get out the pocket, have their eyes downfield trying to make a play, and they kind of lose where they are relative to the line of scrimmage, you know what I mean. I think that's an element
of it. Two. And like, if you're in that situation, if you're running up the field, like you feel yourself running up the field right, so you can probably think to yourself, oh, I'm definitely pass the line of scrimmage at this point, when you're really not because you drop back so far right, you lost so much ground in your drop. Anyways, I still had Drake for eleven plus place to seven minus. He was still in that positive in this game. So I don't want to make it
sound like we're ragging on him too much. But now that they get into these games, to your point about the in game coaching, like these these four or five plays, I think that was another thing that Mayor Van Pelt said today. They basically lost this game because of like four or five plays, right, and that. That's what it comes down to. My number one down in this game. You mentioned him already was Trey Jacobs. Was this was tough. This was a tough go of it for Trey Jacobs.
Five quarterback pressures, two quarterback hits, two false starts, and the blown chop block also cut block whatever you want to call it. I call it cut block as a chop box. I legal cut block on Greg Russo on the fumble six. So just some really non competitive reps too. I think that's what stood out the most to me. Look, five pressures isn't the worst game I've ever seen from a tackle. I mean there's been times the guys have been in the double digits, so it's not horrible in
that respect. But he had four or five reps against von Miller where he didn't even get his hand on von Miller as he was coming around the edge, Like just non competitive blowbys. Those can't happen, Like you have to at least be a traffic on right, You have to at least get him to go and widen the rush a little bit, Like you can't just have these no contest rushes like he did in this game. So Kidden Wallace if if he's starting to heat up a
little bit in practice. I definitely do think that this is the type of game where you could consider making a move. Now, they're going to have a new center already in cal Strange it sounds like for Sunday, so that would be two new starters. But look, you're three and three and twelve and you have two games to go in the season. It's not really right whatever point, Yeah, all right, number two down.
Well, so I had steems in Jacob's Kyle Duggar. Yeah, he had one play in this game where I think it was knocks catches the pass and the flat and Dugger runs right up and sticks him. Yeah, no, shars, Where has that guy been? Yeah, that's the Kyle Dugger I know. But missed another couple more tackles. He just he still doesn't look right.
He's playing through something. I think that's pretty clear at this point. I just had my number two, and I just had the run defense as a whole. I just think everybody just stunk in that regard. You know, eight misstackles, like I mentioned earlier, in the run game, four of them would have been tackles for loss. You give up a forty six yard touchdown in this game. In the run game, and to your point, the Bills could have ran the ball all day long.
I don't know why.
I don't know why they didn't either. I don't I expect the Chargers to run the ball all day long on Saturday. Like this run defense is just it's just bad. Like it's just a bad run defense. So I would definitely anticipate the Chargers to run the ball a ton. All Right, what else do you got?
I had Marte Mopu just for running the interception out. He didn't have a bad game, that was he had.
He had one of the most eventful games. I think that was a good way to put it. I've ever charted. Like there was some plays where he was just really good on the play right, like the crosser that he undercut where he almost picked it off again on the next drive after the interception, was a really good coverage rep. Like,
that's a really good rep. He had some really high level play in this game, even the interception, Like does a nice job of playing the post and you know, just not getting baited out or anything like that and just sit there and wait for the ball to come to you. Some really good plays in this game. And then he also had some really knucklehead plays in this game, so he was a tough one. Yeah, and then I just.
Had the game management, which we already talked about.
Okay, so I have one more down that you're gonna love, Oh boy, Josh Allen. I have one more down that you're gonna love, Josh Allen. Josh Allen. Let's go, Josh Allen. And I don't mean to like, you know, glasshouses, right, I get it, but I'm a big Josh Allen fan, as you know, much to your chagrin, this was one of the worst Josh Allen games I've seen him play against the Patriots since he became Josh Allen. Right, we're talking about rookie year Josh Allen, second year Josh Allen.
With this game. He missed a lot of plays in this game. He left a lot of plays on the field. You know, some egregiously wide open receiver type misses a couple of times. And I just felt like the Patriots, to their credit, baited him into playing a lot of hero ball in this game. You know, old Josh Allen gonna roll right, chuck it, you know, twenty forty five, fifty yards down the field, you know, low percentage throws.
He had one on the wheel. You mentioned that Christian Ellis was in good position on he had a couple to Shakir that just had no chance of being cat. I don't care that it's an arm punt, Like the interception was another one where you know, find a profit.
Let's the CBS said, what an arm punt?
Wow?
Because you can't you can't say Josh threw a pick.
So on the one hand, I tested you this on Monday, the Patriots finally got a bad Josh Allen game, Like, this was the first bad Josh Allen game that I think I've seen him have against the Pats in a long long time. Now, the downside is they didn't win it, right, Like he kind of handed him an off game by his standards, and they still didn't win the game, which is a bummer. But I was I was disappointed in my guy. He did not play well in this game.
So I had Josh Allen. Yeah. Also, like you know, a couple honorable mentions, Joe Brady honorable mention, another guy that I really like. The one thing I'll give them, I don't think they necessarily thought they had to run Josh Allen in this game to win it, so they kind of put the quarterback run stuff on the back burner and to get him through the.
Game could have run traditional runs.
So that wasn't completely the Bills offense unleashed like we saw against the Rams and the Lions. That was sort of like a watered down version of the Bills offense. But I thought that was a big reason why they got off to such a bad start in this game
was because they didn't really play their game. They sort of just put in the four corners offense and thought that they were gonna roll because the Patriots stink, you know, like and they they did in the second half to some degree, but still they left that door open to get upset in a game they had no business to lose, and a lot of that I felt like was on the quarterback and the offensive play caller a couple, you know. I thought that Rumandra Stevenson was another one that I considered.
The reason why I didn't put Remandre on my list is because the fourteen yard touchdown run was.
Just I considered not but I just with if it was like a second or third fund of the year, I probably wouldn't have, but yeah, because he has faster.
Yep. So that concludes three up, three down. I do want to discuss a couple of other things with the Patriots, but I know we have you know, callers and stuff like that, so we'll get to you guys here in just a second. But at first, Bridgestone, the official tire the New England Patriots, is proud to partner with Sullivan Tyre, New England's headquarters for quality Bridgestone tires. Visit Sullivantire dot com to find a location near you. And the new year is almost here, it's time to get a first
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Newland Patriots. I might need one of those storage units like we got we have, like you know our we have like an office slash second bedroom situation, and man, there's stuff everywhere in that room. So maybe i'll I'll go to bots try to buy a storage union. All right, let's get to the phones here, Patty is an aguam. What's up? Patty?
Hey guys, it's going on.
Hey, what's up?
So my question you were just talking about the guy I was gonna ask a question about, which is Remandre Stevenson. I know it's not really a team friendly contract, but
it's a decent enough contract. Where do you guys think they have there's a chance that might move on from them after this year, do to his bumbling problems or or do you think they try and get him some help in the off season, Like I had the idea on John Rook Show on Tuesday, maybe looking them up with somebody like Peaky Barber who had bumbling problems early in his career. And then I don't know what he did, but like he shored it up, and that's all I got.
I'll take it off the year, guys, and happy holidays.
Man, Thanks Patty, thanks for the call. Yeah, and happy holidays to you too. Look, the Remondre thing is uh is a concern with the fumbles. It's not even early on in his career though, Like I feel like Tiki Barber was right out of the gate. Againmondre had as many fumbles in his first three years as he did this year. This is kind of new. Yeah, it's a new thing. I don't know what it is. You know, his running style, he does invite a crowd, and I
think now people know that. So when you have two three guys around the ball, not everybody has to tackle him, so they some guys are going to start punching for the ball and start doing that sort of thing. I like Antonio Gibson, I do. I think Antonio Gibson's a solid, uh change of pace back. So I don't know what the answer is, Like maybe maybe you get a third
running back in here. But you know, now you're really talking about replacing Ramandre Stevenson, hoping that that draft pick is better, you know, Like, I don't think that that's necessarily so much about helping him, Like I think Gibson's been enough of help.
Yeah, it's it's he's already been a spellback. You're not gonna spell him anymore. He can't really get out of that contract. You're not gonna sit him on that contract. Yeah, he just has to work through it. Like he's gonna be here and after next year it's another conversation, but he's gonna be here next year, and there really is much of an option besides him working through it.
Yeah, all right, Colleen is in Houston. What's up, Colleen?
Hey, guys, can you hear me?
Hey? Yes?
Perfect?
Okay, So I have a couple comments and then questions. So my comment is I would agree with Alex about like getting a winning record or not record, but oh, winning DNA is great. But if they win against Mitch Trubisky, who sucks like, that's not gonna give the locker room a boost anyway. But my question is, so you guys like Will Campbell, which is great, but he apparently is small arms, So how do you feel about Kelvin Banks?
And then also, Joe Tooney is currently playing left tackle with short arms.
How do you feel about that?
Okay, thanks guys, Thanks Colin. I appreciate the call. And you know, to the Joe Touney thing, Joe Tony is like a cyborg. That guy's an alien. You can play him at left guard, you could play him at left tackle and he's gonna just block people.
Yeah.
And it's also I mean, he's been in the NFL for years and years and years. He knows how it works. He's not trying to make that jump like he's been blocking NFL rushers for a while.
Yeah.
I don't know what his arm length is exactly, just pulled up quarter okay, because he played tackle in college. Yeah, Joe Toney did, and then they moved him inside when he got to the NFL. Uh with Will Campbell in his arm length and you know, we'll see, we'll see what it is in Indie. I thought Calvin Banks showed really well against Clemson. Now Clemson was totally overmatched in that game.
It's Clemson. They always have a good defense.
And we'll get to the college football playoff here at a second, because I know we want to do those takes too. But look, we're gonna debate the Will Campbell short arm not short arm left tackle guard conversation for months and months and months, And at this point, he doesn't have any any film that I haven't seen, right, Like, there's no new film. I don't know. I think is he gonna play in their bowl game? I doubt it.
Yeah, I think he already said he might have already said he's not, but I doubt it.
Yeah, right, So, like there's not a ton of new film for him at this point, So it really comes down to what the measurements and what we see in Indianapolis. Like that the combine is gonna be the determining factor for him. And I thought it was interesting.
Scott Peters said, was it last week that thirty three inches is not a definite cutoff?
Yeah?
Him, Like, you've got to be really good and know what you're doing if you're under thirty three. But even if he gets close, there's a lot to think about there.
All right, we're gonna take a quick break and then we're gonna come back and now we're gonna take all your calls and emails and do some draft in college football tox Soles, See you guys in a second.
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We're back, all right, We're back. You're good. Yeah, we're good. All right. It's been a long day for you, it has in your day. Your day is still going after this.
I got one more show and then oh yeah, I'm a writer.
I got it, hardest working guy in Boston.
And then I'm on back on the radio ten am tomorrow.
So I'm but but this is a big week for you.
No, I love it, like I take you know what I do this all the time.
Oh, poor Alex. She used to talk about football all day. What a toll life like? No, what you are doing the world smalest violin.
I wouldn't trade it. Well, but I can admit that I like you, who genuinely complains, I wouldn't trade it. That being said, I cannot wait to like get a good like fifteen hours night of sleep the day like so the season ends, but like the seat when the seats and the season will end for us next Sunday. Right, yes, but that's not like when the season ends, because you have like it's usually not the whole week like Monday, Tuesday,
Wednesday's recap stuff. You'll do like here's who they're playing next year, Here's who the free agents are, blah blah blah. But like that, honestly that Thursday will love the show. Yeah, and I'm probably gonna go home and sleep until the playoff games starts Saturday afternoon. I'll probably sleep until Saturday afternoon.
I look, I get it, And yeah, you know, I'll still do like my film review on Monday from week eighteen, that will still do one. So really you're talking about like Tuesday or Wednesday for the season to officially the usually.
Like Wednesday night, I'm starting to wrap it up. We have the show Thursday, so it's like yeah time.
Yeah, that's true. Yeah, so maybe a Thursday when the show's over, nice, we'll both feel like it's uh and then I'll be in mobile like two weeks later. Right, it's not I think.
I can't like, I can't rest for too long because then it gets st her crazy. Yeah, I need to do something, so like four or five days about where I'm at.
Yeah, all right, back to football. Yeah, and I do want to talk a little bit of college football playoffs. And you said we had to do a segment on college football Playoffs. So here's our segment on it. I'm not gonna get on you about the fact that these games were not competitive.
Can I say this, what a weird weekend for me because two of my big takes, especially on the show, are you underrate college football and you overrate Josh Allen. And I'm sitting there watching those games, like, man, this what a sucky weekend. None of these games are good. I gotta watch Josh Allen tear up the Patriots tomorrow. This just and then out of nowhere, Josh Allen just
turns back into pre Brian Daveall Josh Allen. I'm like, all right, I kind of figured everything wasn't gonna go my way this weekend, but if that's the one that does, I will absolutely take that.
A complete roller coaster of a weekend for me. So I'm texting you during the college football games on Saturday, just killing you about how you know, oh cool, we got to watch everybody get blown out by four touchdowns by much better teams. This was really fun. Really glad that we put you know some you in the college football playoffs, and Indiana like, good for you. You got your participation trophy. You deserve to be there. Well, there we go.
Hang on, if you're gonna do that rant. First of all, Indiana had the closest game of any team in the playoffs.
Oh but what was it? What was the final? Yeah it was ten points? But like not really?
Okay, So you mentioned SMU. Okay, Kirk Kurbstreet and look, I love Kirk. I love Kirk, but I hate him and the rest of ESPN. He's spot on, he's he's being a company man for ESPN, but he's not. You mentioned ESPN or you mentioned SMU, you mentioned Indiana. You didn't mention the team that had the biggest loss of any this weekend. I wonder why that is. That's Tennessee. Oh that's sec Darling Tennessee.
Okay, but they also played one of the best teams. They all played the best teams. It's the playoffs now, it's not the best teams. That's my point.
They all played Penny State's not one of the best teams.
Yes, but Notre Dame. I don't think was in the playoffs. Your argument, dissipation trophy, here's a ribbon. You made it.
You deserve your argument the whole time. Why can't we get a big boy team like Alabama.
In the playoff ye.
Miss album, Alabama lost to Tennessee, who got spanked by old Miss.
Okay, but I don't like that. It's not about the Alabama property. No, but it's not a transitive property. Because Alabama played Tennessee third Saturday in October. It's December. So you're telling me that Alabama hasn't gotten any better since October.
No, they've actually pretty much gotten continually worse as the years GOO, as the year has gone on. It's been very concerning, frankly. But the point I'm making is what I think happened. I don't think it was about the teams, and it goes back to something we actually talked about.
With Drake May. Yeah. There.
I think there's never been games like this. This was the first on campus, true postseason game college football history since nineteen o two.
It's a yeah, it is.
It's I think the environments for too were too big, and for a team like SMU. I think for a team like Tennessee the cold, that Tennessee team was not ready to go in that environment.
I can't believe you're blaming a bunch of children, a bunch of.
Eighteen Well, it's a lot for kids to handle. And ultimately, you know what, it's gonna be a good thing for the NFL because when we talk about a rookie quarterback first time in this environment, what's gonna be like, Like Nico's gonna be from Tennessee's gonna be an NFL quarterback at some point. I know he had a bad game, He's gonna be a NFL quarterback. His first playoff game
is gonna be a lot easier. Haven't been to the shoe for what that was, so I don't And and it also we're gonna talk about, well, playoff caliber game should be close. The NFL had a pair of whatever essentially playoff matchups this weekend.
How close were those games? So were the first round games duds? Absolutely? Absolutely they were? And you know what, Frank, it's probably good. It's probably gonna be that way for the next few years. I don't think. I don't think it wasn't worth it.
All it was because here's the thing. I don't think we'll get all four being duds all the time. But there's gonn be duds in there, because that's what happens in the playoffs. It happens in the NFL. The average scoring margin for the first round was only two points higher than it was for wild Card weekend last year. And don't tell me that it's called because that one blowout because the Cowboys Packers blowing out the Cowboys. Cowboys
scored two garbage time touchdowns. The other thing is the the round of eight games are gonna be awesome, Like Oregon Ohio State to me is the national championship. And I think you said that too.
Which I don't like because that game is it's only a quarterfinal game. Oh but that that happens all the time? How many times? But Oregon Ohio State to me like that, it just feels like that should be a game that was played later on in this playoff and it's not because of the format of the bye weeks for teams like Arizona States. That doesn't the other team that has the buy that shouldn't BYU no boise boise I received, I would receve I know where BYU came, I would.
Receed after the first round because they were supposed to be in it. They're supposed to win the Big twelve. I think that if that happs all how many times?
Okay, but if they didn't have a bye. These stupid bye week set up right where it's not done by the seed, it's done by winning your conference. Just just let me finish it. If they don't. If they didn't have that, then teams like Ohio State, like Ohio State would have been one of the top four teams.
They finished ranked fifth.
I think they finished Okay, Well, then they're still not playing Oregon, is my point. No, you're not getting the two best teams in the playoffs.
And I would go back to the original seeding after the first round. That is a change they should make. I do like the winning your conference having a bye because it makes winning your conference worth something, which I think is important because it keeps the regular season relevant. But like, how many times did the Patriots did Brady
and Manning meet in the divisional round? And you know, like when he was with the Broncos and there were those Andrew Locke no Defense Colts teams that were still getting to the AFC Championship, but we knew Brady Manning in the divisional round, like yeah, this is this is it, and we didn't complain about it.
I think it happened. I think Brady Manning and the division around happened.
That happened, but there were a number of other There were sometimes when they met the Ravens in the division, it happened with the Ravens and Reknew like, all right, and you had the t Bow Broncos or whatever in the next round. It was like, I that's just kind of how these things work. I don't really care where the game happens. As long as it happens. There's gonna be some other games in this next round two that are good for reasons that we don't need to spend
a ton of time on. You were never going to get eight teams. It was going to be four, twelve or sixteen. Sixteen is too many. We all know four was not enough. I will pay what's eight? What's wrong with eight? It has to do with you have to the SEC and Big ten kind of run it. But you do have to get the other conference on board to a certain extent, and the limited at large bids they didn't feel like they would get properly represented, and blah blah blah blah blah.
This is college football's problem. It's this is it right here? That's the crux of the problem is that this is all. At some respect, this is because and I get it, but at some in some points, this is a participation trophy because there's so much money to be made for a program like SMU from being in this game, or a program like Indiana that's trying to be up and
coming and is trying to build. Like, there's so much at stake for those types of teams to be included in the playoff that it becomes a situation of we're just putting this team in the playoff because they have the resume for it, but also because we want to partu.
Q March madness. We celebrate cinderellas. Why can't we do that here.
Because there aren't going to be any cinderellas.
Until there is. It took how many years for sixteen to be to one? They said, what never happened a sixteen?
No, but I wish not to give you that.
I will give you this it eventually it will because they'll they'll see it wrong. It would be a twelve that should be at twelve. I think college football's biggest strength and its biggest weakness are the same thing, which is there is basically no overarching governing body in some ways that makes call because, like the NFL, a lot of the issues with the NFL there's a lot of uniformity to it. Yeah, and the college football does not
have uniformity. And in some ways that's a big strength, but in an instance like this, it's a big weakness. I don't think the playoffs perfect. I don't think four bad games it's unfortunate, but I don't think four bad games off the jump are enough to damn the whole tournament.
Okay. So that being said, the other big l let's get into some draft stuff. Yeah, I have a I might have a very hot draft take on the playoff that you're either gonna love or hate. Okay. So the other big element of this is obviously what I'm doing, which is watching these games for the purposes of the draft and evaluating guys in the draft. The two biggest takeaways that I have in this game wasn't a big
Abdul Carter week. I didn't feel like but I watched some of the film back and it seemed like he was better on film than they.
Was watchin smu to a fault made a point in that game of saying we're not gonna go near Abdul Carter. Yeah and yeah, I mean I understand why they did it, but they had when he needed to show up, he showed up. So they had four trips to the red zone. That should have been a close game because they had four trips to When I say that that, I don't mean like they had four trips to the red zone. Yes, they scored three total points. Okay, Penn State's defense came up.
Oh.
Sorry, one more thing before we get to the draft. Kurt Signetti, Indiana, what do you think of that punt.
The fourth and nine? I think that guy's a kook.
That's your national coach of the year. Yeah, consensus national coach here. You don't think Bill Belichick's gonna run circles through this thing.
He's doing well in the portal. Anyway, back to the draft, Abdual North Carolina Football. I can't wait Abdull Carter. So I thought Abdul Carter looked better than I was expecting. And I agree with your general premise that do you big game planned obviously for a guy like Abdill Carter and sort of or saying we are not going to let him take over the game. And although that might hurt his you know, down to down production a little bit like that's in itself. The case to draft him,
right is that he is a game planned player. He's a Tuesday player that you have to then go out and devise a blocking plan, a pass blocking plan for how are we going to take, you know, prevent him from taking over games. That opens up opportunities for other people. Now, Christian Barmore eats Kean White, eats you know whatever. Like I'm just using Patriots for an again, and I'll just add this.
And obviously everybody saw what he did on Saturday going into that game. Yeah, abdul Carter, not Abdul Carter, Kevin Jennings, one of the Heisman favorites for next year. And I don't look like correct response. And I think some of that was the moment was just too big for me and he needs to grow. But part of it he's incredibly mobile. He's incredibly good getting around the pocket. So they had a guy that kind of could counter Abdul Carter and they just said, nevermind, we're not gonna touch him.
Yeah, they were afraid of him. I would say that that's the least my takeaway from it. I'm just pulling up real quick. His actual pressure is because I think that they were better than maybe what people would have expected watching live in that game.
Yeah, you think he was the best, And we'll get to Kelvin Banks. I want to put the cap on, which is what we stall here, and look it up. Did you think he was the best of like the top of the draft guys?
No, so I was actually going to get to that. So Abdual Carter in this game against four pressures? Yeah,
four pressures? So oh no, sorry, five pressures. So it's still pretty good, right, I mean like it was definitely one of those games where you had to watch, Yeah, and you're not going to look at the box score and say, oh, Abdul Carter had a huge game, but I'm expecting him to continue to pop and he just look when you're trying to stack this board and we're trying to figure out who are just the best overall
talents in this draft. I still think Travis Hunter is on a planet of his own in terms of pure talent on a football field, But I feel like Abdull Carter is in that next thing you have to talk about Abdul Carter, Yeah, Like you absolutely have to talk about him. That being said, I thought Kelvin Banks was awesome. I thought he was really really good. His run blocking continues to be his best trait to me. He's a
people moving run blocker. It's not necessarily like dominant like J. C. Latham man strength, you know, like it's not necessarily that. But he's just very, very good in the running game. And they do a lot of different things with Sark in the run game and move their tackles a lot and ask him to make some high level blocks that he's gonna have to make at the NFL level, So there's translatable stuff there. I look, I'm I'm weary of
the both these tackles for different reasons. You know, Campbell obviously has the length issue, and Kelvin Banks I don't think is quite as nimble as his feet in pass protection as I would want my left tackle to be ideally. But he's he's a talent, you know, he's a really really good football player, and I'm starting to come around to him if he plays like this the rest of
the playoff. Now, Will Campbell doesn't have this opportunity, right Like, he doesn't have the opportunity to play in the playoff and show out. But if Kelvin Banks plays this way the rest of the playoffs, and I think there's gonna be a lot of OT one conversations that he's going to be the clear cut number one time and.
He's got So they have Arizona State, which is.
Uh, might as well be a double A team.
No, they have some NFL talented out that he's gonna be going up again, so that that one doesn't help him a ton. Assuming they win, though, they get Ohio State of Oregon, and he is going to have a chance to make some serious money. It's gonna be the Cotton Bowl. Yeah, he's going to have a chance to make some serious, serious money in that game. I don't know if you want to talk about any of the other top guys.
Yeah, I was just curious now because I obviously was watching those two specifically. Is there anybody else that stood out to you from the this weekend past weekend?
Uh, there weren't a ton of guys going at least from the top of the board. There's mid level guys. Tyler Warren had a good game against SMU. Yeah, you know, I'm interested to see the Georgia. The Georgia pass rushers. Obviously we didn't see them. They had the buye.
I would love to see Banks get another crack at Georgia. I would too.
Yeah, here's kind of where my hot take was. This is more league league take, but this could impact the Patriots especially. We talked about what might happen if they win another game in the draft, and it's a two quarterback draft right now, right so you figure one two when it's gonna be Giants Raiders if that honestly him Ward's playing in the pop Tart Bowl, which is kind of surprising you.
I do love the pop Tart pole, the pop.
Tart, It's an edible mascot. What's not to love?
What flavor are you picking?
So the MVP of the winning team, there's three flavors this year, gets to pick the flavor.
Brown cinnamon, sugar. I'm a classic pop tart guy. I I I do like s'mores a lot too, Like if I had to, you know, Smores is a great pop tart, But I'm a classic brown cinnamon and sugar pop tart guy.
This year, wild berry hot fudge Sunday, Come on, I thought they were There was a oh, frosted cinnon roll is the mystery flavor.
Of course, freaking gen z Man. They just gotta make everything like, can we just go back to the classics? Can we go back to brown cinnamon sugar? And can we go get s'mores up there? Because frosted cinnamon role, that's brown cinnamon sugar single. They have to call it frosted cinnamon role now because brown cinnamon sugar is not a cool enough name for it, so they yes, they have to spice up the name.
That's what go back to the take. Let's say Patriots win another game, right, they moved down a little bit?
Yep?
Could they still be in a position where teams trying to move up for quarterback.
Or maybe even maybe even they.
End up like thirty four, a team's trying to move up into a Will Levis where, Yeah, we think this guy might be the guy, but we don't want to bet our first round pipon us.
We're gonna get him the top of the second.
Yeah, how did you feel about Will Howard's performance on Saturday Night?
Didn't love it? I love him as a prospect.
I thought he's pretty good. Ohio State's quarterbacks.
Are being yeah, yeah, yeah, he's had a really good close to the season. I probably can't. He was awful against Michigan.
He was terrible against Michigan.
But besides that, he played well down the stretch. Here's my point. So using the big board that we use right now, here are the guy that he is right around or behind? Okay, tell me how many of these guys you think he can realistically jump. Kyle McCord from Syracuse. Oh yeah, definitely can jump.
Riley Leonard from Notre Dame.
Oh god, he's still geez. Yes, he's just glorified.
What's his name from Texas? He played for the Colts, Cole McCoy. No, Sam Allinger?
Sam?
Okay, So that's who's behind him. This is on the big board. Yeah, Jylen Milroe.
See, that was the one that I was gonna mention.
Yeah, because he's done the Hayes in the barn with him.
Yes, I doubt he's gonna play the game. I don't think he's gonna right, he can't. Well, he won't play in the bowl game. Now. You know Bryce Young played in the Sugar Bowl. Yeah, a couple of years ago. That was a huge game for Bryce Young. No, yeah, that's true. He lit Kansas State on fire. He had a huge, huge game that was probably the game that made it consensus number one overall. Pick. Maybe Jayleen Milroe.
I don't know if he was on that team, like as a backup or anything like that, but maybe Philip Leaves follows a similar game plan. Milroe, though, I think, is the one to me that I would maybe take a chance on.
Jayalen Miller is playing the Bowl game.
Actually, Okay, I'm not surprised because I I guys have, especially at that position, have really really helped their stock in the in the bowl games.
All right, I'll give you a couple more here. Play maybe Milroe Michigan's rematch of the National Championship.
I feel like that is in the because Michigan's defense is still good and Michigan's defense still, like schematically is, is creative and uh, you know, it can do some different things that NFL teams do. So like you still go into that game thinking that you're playing a pseudo legit defense and if he puts up numbers, then that's gonna help him.
Last year, Michigan Alabama's national championship. This year it is the Relyaquest Bowl, formerly the Outback Bowl.
Okay, so you think.
Maybe Will Howard, now there's no more outa anymore, maybe Jalen Mirrow finishes that. I know, you usuld to get free blooming onions like that. Carson, I think without an elbow.
I think Carson best going on draft, I think so yeah, yeah, yeah.
Quin yours, quin yours or Will Howard quin yours?
Really? You know, I don't like quin yours. I want just a.
More physically built so Will Howard six four to two thirty five.
Yeah, I don't know. Man, he played awful against Michigan and I can't get that out of my head. All right.
That's the thing about the playoffs against Oregon. I organize a very good defense.
I still feel like, and I understand that. You know, in hindsight, that was a really talented Texas offense last year. Yeah, but really, when you think about it, like, it's not like Xavier Worthy or eighty Mitchell's really lit the world on fire on the NFL either, you know what I mean?
So you could go both ways with that. And I do think that some teams are eight team will convince themselves, not like top ten pick or anything, but I think eight team will convince themselves that they can get last year's Quene Wars right right.
And then the last one ahead of him is Jackson Dark.
Yeah. Jackson I feel like is more of like a folk hero than he is a quarterback across. That is a great way to put it. He's a college quarterback.
Yeah, So all right, maybe Jalen Milroe maybe put in yours. I will say, Will Howard is going to Senior Bowl. Okay, so we will have that one of Maybe it's yours, then maybe it's Howard, maybe it's Milroe in the Relyaquest Bowl. I'm still not locking in this being a two quarterback draft. If Will Howard plays well in this playoff, and that's the thing for I guess it is true for you or to yours too. But you look at it. What
Will Howard will have had to have done? Blown out Tennessee and he put up numbers against an SEC defense twenty four to twenty nine, three hundred eleven yards.
Two touchdowns.
He will have blown out in SEC defense. He will have beat the number one team in the country in Oregon, which is another number one defense, another top defense. Yeah, all odds are unless Arizona State pulls off something spectacular, he'll beat Texas. That'll be his second SEC win and then if he gets one more win, now he gets
throw that national champion tag on top of it. I'm not saying that he's gonna be a great NFL quarterback, but isn't that kind of resume teams are looking for when they draft.
The guy sounds JJ McCarthy, JJ.
McCarthy, Jac Jones. Yeah, and maybe that's who he is in the NFL, but we know teams make wrong picks all the time. So I just I think Will Howard has some room to rise, which could be and maybe Jalen Milroe does too. We can throw them this take. That is a factor when we talk about if the Patriots win another game where their pick is, because maybe there's a third quarterback that's not going third like last year one, two, three, but maybe fifth, sixth, seventh, the team's moving up to take them.
So I like Milroe a little bit, and I don't meet the stereotype, but like there's obviously the Jalen Hurts thing. Yeah, and I see some of that comparison with with with Milroe. I also think that as a passer he got better this year.
He did get much better.
Yeah, And there's a lot of athleticism there. There's a lot of arm talent there, uh there, if you build it like the Eagles have built it for Hurts and you built it a certain way. I believe that that Jalen Milroe could potentially be a starting quarterback in the NFL. But is that enough for him to go in the first round. I don't know, but it's probably enough for him to go in the second, right, Like.
And look, it's too easy for these things, but we like this database. Yeah, Dave Jylen Miller going six overall?
Right now? Oh yeah, no, I mean that's not happening unless he I know, I can't. He would have to light up the bowl game, light up the pre draft process like that would would He is.
Going to be impressive, and he's one of the few guys like usually top quarterbacks don't do stuff.
Yeah, I wouldn't be surprized if he.
Runs at the combine and throws and does the whole because he's going to dominate the combine.
Yeah, that's why that's why I like him. You know, I could he be sort of like and again I don't mean the stereotype, but like, could he be sort of like an Anthony Richardson. Jalen hurts like type of process. Not that big though he's not as big as Richardson. No, he's not even as like he's hurts his short shorter right, which hurts like two which like Milro's taller.
He's listening to two twenty. Wow, I would not have guessed that I run around.
Yeah. I think he's kind of built a little bit like Jalen Hurts. All I doesn't look like it. But yeah, all right, let's take these phone calls and I want to talk a little bit Chargers before we wrap up the show. Here. Justin is in North Carolina. What's up? Justin?
I didn't know at first, you know, I was like, hey, how.
Do you going good? How are you?
I'm good. My problem is that after they had back such a terrible game, and then they had such a good day, then they had such a good game. It's like everybody was really complaining Drake May. Everybody would say, Drake May just stops, you know, ninety Drake May lost the game, and and then and then there's saying, you know that Ramondre was, you know, got our hands and all that kind of stuff.
It means he did run good.
I mean he bumbled once and then in that gatteral play, which was property because they were in the back of the end zone. It's just that they were just and now they're ready to trade them. I mean, I think he played a better game. He made more yards and played and played a better game as far as running
than he has this all year. And you know, now, I know it's a problem that it's fumble, but gifts the fumble as well, and I just I just now and if they had to even though they did not win, which whoever, I know, that's what a lot of people wanted. They played so good against the Bill that that took away from the m v P status of Josh Allen. So I mean, if they did do good, they did show a good front. And I just don't understand why
they don't. I guess I can see they just don't want to be over overly confident, because it's all it's get up and down. I just I just want to give him a little break, you know.
Yeah, that's that's fair. Just yeah, yes, I know this.
For the segment she's talking about on the Sports Ub, Matt McCarthy did the lightning round where he just had as many people calling as possible, did Drake May cost Patriots the game? Yes or no? He said yes. They were like, I think it was like twenty two to three callers saying no. So he just got put in his place.
That's a that's a very Matt McCarthy thing to do, which I say with all due respect, he just likes to poke the bear a little bit. Oh yeah, yeah, that's absolutely But I think the biggest thing to me with Drake May, by the.
Way Patriots of World Marcus Jones out Ben Brown is one of eleven that are questioned.
Yes, so Ben Brown still has a chance in the protocol, which is going to be tough. This regime, though, has done it right. Drake May cleared protocol.
Remember there's like a not loophole, but it's easier for quarterbacks to get out of the protocol.
Yeah. I also wonder too, you know, if Cold Strange is ready, you probably want to see Cole Strange at some point play this year, and this is probably the opportunity to do it. Like Ben Brown doesn't deserve to get bench based off of the tape, like he played pretty well in this game last week. Besides the snaps
which have continued been an issue. That's why I was a little bit surprised that it was a concussion because it's two weeks in a row now that he's had some snapping issues, and I actually thought that maybe there was something physically, you know, like an ailment, like a core issue, or like an upper body type injury that or was causing it. But it's a concussion, so it
still has a chance to play. Back to Justina's point, though, I think the biggest thing with Drake May there's so much good on the film with him, there's so much good, you know, a lot of really great, high level throws. I think he sees space in the defense and reads zone coverage extremely well, just kind of knows where the voids are going to be and where the pockets are going to be. And he has great ball placement against man coverage for the most part, which is how you
beat man right. You got to put the ball in a place away from the defender for the receiver to make the catch. I thought the early third down to Hunter Henry was a perfect example of that. That's pretty good coverage. That is a muddied pocket. There's pressure on him in that pocket. He stands in that pocket, and he puts the ball on Henry and makes the play, and they move the chains and they stay on the field. So there's a lot of great things. I think, you
know what we're all looking for. One this fan base, and understandably so has some Mac Jones rookie season PTSD, right that just exists within this fan base. We saw a quarterback, a young quarterback not too long ago, played some really good football as a rookie, and then it completely fell off after that. So there are certain people that are just setting themselves up for failure right like
that are trying to protect their own feelings from that. Again, the second thing is is that it's fair to say they're still not winning these games that Drake May is playing it. Yeah, he has won from wire to wire. He's won one game against the Bears since he took over as the starter, So just where can he improve? It's not everyone sees it, like I think, all, well, everyone, you can't deny that everyone sees the talent like that is undeniable that this guy is a franchise quarterback talent.
But now it's on the Patriots and on this organization as a whole to develop that talent, it's to get him developed. It's to get the situation around him to develop. It's to get him with the right coaches, the right receivers. I get him an offensive line. Like, there's a lot that goes into that, and that's where we're at. We've checked the box of is Drake may a starting quarterback in the NFL? I think the physical talent checks that box for you. Now the question is is you know,
can he be better? Right? Can he be even better than this? I'll touch on one other thing.
She said, Yeah, the Patriots ended Josh Allen's MVP chanswer impact his MVP chances? Who's your MVP?
Evan? He was damn good yesterday, Lamar. You know this is truly like deciding. I bet you this is how parents feel about deciding between children, because I you know, I love both guys. Oh, come on, I probably give it to Josh Allen. Still cut really yeah, first.
Off, what he did against this Patriots defense.
Second of all, okay, that's such. Don't don't be recency biased, don't don't fine, don't look at what.
He did against the Texans and look at what Lamar did against Texan.
Do you remember the reaction after that Texans game, because this is also another version of like, oh when did they play Tennessee October? Like, okay, so he played the Texans four months ago and then this Texans team played Lamar yesterday Like those are not it's not the same. And Lamar has been awesome Lamar, I have no doubt about that. I do wonder. Look what it comes down to when I'm evaluating m VP, and maybe this is an argument for Lamar and that I'm making without me knowing.
It's basically which if you took the player off the team, how much worse would they get? Right like that? That's what we're talking about here. My thing with Lamar, and this is one of your guys, like Derrick Henry is there now and he's had a great scene now, Lamar is letting him do a lot of it right like that. It's a lot of it is because of Lamar that Derek Henry has been there.
Lamar still has like forty total touchdowns.
Yeah, he's like forty four to four in terms of touchdowns interceptions right now.
Really, really Burrow should be in the conversation too, but the Bengals just suck. Yeah, But because if you talk about take him off the team. Whose team gets worse, it's Joe Burrow. I just the Bengals seems nothing without him.
Watching the Bills up close, and it was a bad I put him on the downs list. It was a bad Josh Allen game, There's no doubt about that. But watching the Bills up close, Josh Allen does not have a great supporting cast. He has a good supporting cast, but those receivers are nothing special. Like it's washed Amari Cooper, it's Khalil Shakiro, who's a really good slot receiver, but that's what he is, right, And it's Keon Coleman, who
you know how I feel about Keon Coleman. And I said it at the time when they drafted Dalton Kinkaid, Dalond Kinkaid was that was a bad draft pick in my mind. Is his career so far has been exactly like a lot of tight ends like early in the draft, aar like not all of them are gonna be brock Bowers, right, Like he's not brock Bowers. Yeah, And Dalton kin Kid has like I think, like four hundred and fifty five
hundred yards this year. In year two had about the same last year, Like, that's not that's not a ton. That's not a ton.
How about the the strength schedule. Josh Allen's playing the afcast, He's playing.
I'm not gonna if they give it to Lamar Jackson, Like, I'm not gonna argue, Like Lamar Jackson's awesome, right, if they give it to Lamar Jackson, I'm not gonna argue. It's probably a little bit of voter fatigue. And we could look back on this and it's like, you know, Joel Embiid's MVP instead of Nikola Jokic, Like Jokich was probably the MVP of the league.
Well, it's it's that thing where like we dealt with this for Brady for years. You win a couple MVPs, and now it's not just you have to be the best player in the league. You have to be better than your average year at being said Josh Allen winning it to your point about Jokic, Like I've compared the Bills to the Sixers for a long time. This would do the fraudulent Joelle and beat MVP.
It would be very Sixers esque. His numbers, Lamar's numbers this year are better than they were last year. Last year though, probably was like a water down year for MVP. It was really you know, unless he wanted to give it to like Christian McCaffrey, Like there wasn't a whole lot of options outside of the Mamar Jackson fel SA, I know how you feel. But in the conversation, he's in the top five, like he just deserves votes. Yeah, but he doesn't. He's not gonna win it. He shouldn't win it.
Who whose team is forget? Take him off the team? Which team becomes worse?
Who?
Which team is a better team? Which team would you less want to play? The Ravens or the Bills?
I don't know. It's so such recency biased because we both we just watched the Bills kind of be in a game with the Patriots, and then we just watched the Ravens wax the text.
I know the Bills have a better record that Ravens team. I think they're like the danger team. That's the team you do not want to see going to the playoffs.
I really hope Lamar Jackson wins the Super Bowl. I would love to see Lamar Jackson win a Super so I would not like to see the Bills winning.
That is one of the few on your yeah you do no, yeah, do you want Josh to win one?
So we'll shut up? No, No, I would be perfectly content with Josh Allen being a more enjoyable Joel Embiid like same resume, but just.
Not you know what, you know what I want for Josh Allen. And this is gonna surprise some people. But again, it's nobody understands what my real take is.
Oh my god, that's because you're really like when you say nobody understands your real take, it means you're doing a bad job. No, I'm all right.
I've tried to explain a number of times. I want Josh Allen to be Matthew Stafford. I want him to go win somewhere else. I would love to see Josh Allen.
Win a super Bowl and not Buffalo. Yeah, that's fair, that's fine. I'm good with that. I can't the Bills can't win a super Bowl, and we're never gonna be on the same page about Coyle Shanahan.
But he's not gonna win it this year, so you don't have to deal with him blowing the Super Bowl late again.
Congratulations all right, Kendall is in North Carolina. What's we're big in North Carolina? Told me what, Kendall is not gonna win. It's the Bill Belichick effect. It's the Drake Bill Belichick effect. Good good.
Of course was for and Alex.
If we do win another game and whatnot? Where would you all draft Luther Burden? That would you draft him in the top pano maybe outside top?
And I take it up.
Oh that's a good question, thanks Kendall. Yeah, because you good quick. We did this the other week. You raved about Luthor.
You're ruling about Luthor Burden, and then you basically ended the segment saying, and.
He's the third best receiver in the draft. I didn't say third is second? Where Drift Hunter?
Uh?
Yeah, I guess. But I'm I'm sort of coming around just to listen to some of the reporting out there by the insiders. It definitely does seem like jams around the league. Think Travis Hunters is going to say, what do you make of that? Jay Glazer report? Probably pretty accurate. So all right, so you you you drooled over Luthor Burden. You talked about how tentative you were on Tet McMillan. But then he said, but Tet mcmill is my wide
receiver one. I tried not to let my stylistic biases creep into my rankings too much, because I always have this sort of back and forth internally with myself about how to treat the draft in terms of rankings, Like am I ranking as if I was Elliott Wolf? Or am I just ranking to be right about the players? You know what I mean?
Like?
Am I ranking it as if I am just a generic NFL football team and just who's the best football player? Like if I'm ranking it with just who's the best football players? Like I try to take my biases of this guy's just not really my cup of tea out of it unless I'm really convicted that, like Quinton Johnson, Like I just did not see it with Quinton Johnston, and so I wasn't gonna allow myself to rank him, you know, highly, because of that. But with Ted McMillan,
I see what everybody else sees. It's just I wouldn't build my offense around a player like that, Okay, I would build my offense around to Luther Burden. Are you taking Luther? I think he's a top twenty pick in this draft. Top twenty.
Okay, so even if the Patriots win is both games, Yeah, it's still probably a trade down situation for you.
Yeah, and look, I would love if because we had a caller. I think it was on Peu. Like, I would love if they could be in a situation where they trade back up from the top of the second round to grab a guy like Luther Burden. I just don't think he's gonna fall that far.
So all right, let me ask you if you say his top twenty pick. Yeah, let's say in this draft, like in this draft, yep, yep, yep. Yeah, let's say I'm looking at.
The teams here. Oh, here's a good one.
Okay, the Bengals at fourteen, they lose t Higgins. They need to add juice for Joe Burrow. Yeah, you know, you get in Tell the Bengals are taking Luther Burden at fourteen? Would you take him somewhere ten through thirteen?
I think about that. Yeah, I would know that, like, all right, we're not gonna get him if we wait till eighteen nineteen twenty. Yeah, I would. I would. I I in this draft in particular now, and that might be trade down trade. Does the board does the board just for the fact that it's not a great receiver class.
And well that's what I'm saying. So, like a couple of years ago, right when Jay Flowers and Jackson Smith and Jigba and Jordan Addison came out, they had the league adjusted for the fact that it wasn't Malik Neighbors, Marvin Harrison Junior and Romadonza right like they got drafted in the twenties. Yeah, I think they all went with four straight picks if I'm not mistaken. Yeah, in twenty twenty two or twenty three. Which draft was that? Twenty three,
twenty three? Yep, yeah, sorry, twenty three, So Zay Flower, it was JSN, Zay Flowers, Addison, Quentin Johnson I think in that order, and they went with four picks in a row or like four or five picks or something like that.
It was four picks in a row, js N, Johnston, Flowers, Addison.
Oh okay, I thought Flowers went ahead of Johnson for some reason. No idiots, Uh, anyways, that man him on this Chargers team. Yeah, I mean whatever, Yeah, just draft stiff receivers. It's fine. So you look at this draft, I could I see that happening with Luther Burden, the kid from Ohiose Sate to BUCA. Right, like those types of players, you know, some of the guys, you know, Tory Horton or the kid from Texas, you know, like
those guys. I could see that happening that the league is like in other years, this guy, we have to take the guy where he's worth on the board. Now in mis draft, I think Luther Burden could be in the top fifteen because he's the second best receiver in the draft.
And the other thing is so in that draft, the kind of the consensus was in none of those guys were top picks. Yeah, so they fell. This one's a little different because bias aside. Is Ted McMillan going to go in the top six picks?
I think he's top ten at least, right, Yeah, he's gonna ten. Ten is his floor? Right? Right? Yeah, he's gonna go. And now it's well, we got to get the next receiver.
We need a receiver. So maybe Burden is a twenty to twenty five pick. But are are we really going to see in the first round of the draft where wide receivers go so often? Are fifteen picks going to go without a wide receiver going. When's the last time? Honestly, well, I guess that year that got to the twenties. But after the first receiver, when's the last time we went fifteen picks in the first round without another wide receiver taken? They always go in bunches.
Yeah, all right.
Twenty twenty two is another example. You had five wide receivers going in the first round. Right, six wide receivers go in the first round. They went in the span of ten picks. Drake London went eighth, Treylon Burks went eighteenth. Yeah, so you had same thing at twenty twenty one. A bunch of wide receivers went five, six, ten, and then you jumped to twenty in twenty seven. So there was
a little bit of a jump there. But it's like McMillan's gonna go and teams unless there's a team that fused Hunter as a wide receiver, and maybe that exkews it. But this is going to be so hard to read the board this year. Travis Hunter, it's gonna make it. I'm realizing, like in real time he's good off he makes the draft.
No, I mean, he's going to be a top five pick.
So I, well, but the trickle down, right.
Yeah, But I still feel like Teed McMillan is still a top ten pick even if the team treats Travis Hunters.
Sure, but no, But I mean it's like, if Travis hunter goes, are more teams panicking about the corners going early or more teams panicking about the receivers going early corners?
I think that because it's really just him and Will Johnson.
Okay, so, but the point being like, I don't think team is gonna wait around that long to take the second receiver.
Yeah, and receivers like Luther Burden that have that kind of explosiveness and that kind of big playability really at all three levels where you can like scheme touch him or you can throw the ball on a vertical down the field. Like those types of guys don't last long in the NFL draft.
I still think that Chiefs are going to give up a ton to move up and get him to.
Be a good pick. All right, Eldred is in North Carolina? What's up, Eldred? There? It is Christmas? Thank you?
Yeah, yes, sir, I'm kind of kind of count of fun a little bit with I Like, he's got this burnspeed. But Travis huntert y'all wouldn't try to make him a wide receiver instead of a corner first.
Yeah, we've talked about that in the past, Eldred and I definitely would think about it. You know, if that's the side of the ball that he wants to play and he's more committed to being a receiver, I'm not gonna tell him that he can't be right like it's it's that sort of thing to me.
I wouldn't play him both ways if I think, if you're the Patriots, it makes much more sense if you're gonna draft him, to draft him as a receiver. And we kind of talked to him about him being like a third down corner. Yeah, maybe or a spot corner. But based on all the reporting right now, it sounds like the majority of the teams see him as a cornerback. I understand why. I think his ceiling is higher both.
I think his football ceiling. I think his caliber of a players hires a corner, And honestly, if I'm advising him, I think he makes more money as a corner in.
The NFL too. That's the biggest thing to so the wide receiver contract, the big wide receiver contract is worth more in the biggest corner contract.
But you look at the way he's built. He's gonna get one, maybe two big contracts as a receiver. He might get three as a corner. Like he'll last a lot longer as a corner. I think he makes more money, honestly if he plays corner than receiver.
Okay, one more, one more question. Let y'all go, yeah, and I take it off there. Do you trust Wolf to make the right move? I didn't trust them last year. I don't think I trust him this year.
Thanks Eldred, Yeah, thank you. Love the horn. I think we're getting into the territory now where we've talked a lot about the coaching.
Right, it's trying to start talking about the front office and a.
Lot about Gid Mayo. And just my two cents, this is just my opinion. We're probably in the territory now at Girod Mayo where he's going to get a second year. It seems to be that way. Yeah, I would be pretty shocked. They would have to have like they would have to lose forty five to nothing to I think it's more than that. I think you would have to see like fights on the sideline. Yeah, it would have to have a complete implosion at this point for Girod
Mayo to not be back for a second season. It is that the best thing we could debate that, you know, Like I understand that there's multiple size of this. I really also then feel, and I feel pretty strongly about this. Scapegoating Alex van Pelt for what's gone on here, I think would be a mistake.
I could not agree with you more.
I actually think that the person that's done the best job at his job on the coaching staff is probably Vampel. Doesn't mean he can't make changes below him, yeah, And it doesn't mean he's been perfect. Yeah, certainly hasn't. Like I've had a lot of criticism of his play calling, mostly the play design and the creativity of the offense, and then the red zone stuff we talked about earlier.
I put that as much on Vapelt as anybody. But at the same time, he's done a nice job with Drake may They seem to have a good relationship working together.
There's enough there from a base offense that I see that if they had better personnel what they are trying to execute and how they would be able to do it, and at the end of the day, like, what message does that kind of send to the organization that the guy that actually did the best job, right, because some head has to roll for three and twelve or three
and thirteen or whatever. The frick the math is now three and fourteen because some head has to roll for that, We're just gonna We're gonna can they know that's done the best job?
What message does is cent to potential candidates if you're looking for somebody to upgrade, like they know they're not coming in a ton of job security.
No, I completely agree with you, And that's not say Alex em Pelt should be offensive coordinator for life. Yeah, he's just earned a second year.
I'll say this on the Elliott Wolf thing, and I know that people might laugh at me saying this. When it comes to the Patriots in their draft history, I think there are certainly some So I assume he's asked about the draft getting right, bigger picture, free agencies and another story. But when we're talking about that top draft pick, how
many wrong picks really are there? There's definitely some picks that are better than others, but you look at the majority of the board Travis Hunter would be a good pick. We're not gonna complain if they draft Travis Hunter. Abdul Carter would be a good pick. We're not gonna complain if they draft at to Carter. I will say Ted McMillan.
Would be a good pick. Yeah, like pending free agency, and I will be nervous. It's a good so I left him. There's some picks that are better than others. Yeah, how many Will Carr Will Campbell would be a good pick?
How many like bad picks really are there? Because they have so many needs.
Right, there's not a lot of bad paces at the top of the first I agree with you, And it's pretty hard to miss on a pick that high.
The only guy I look at that I'm like, I really hope they don't draft him at the top. And it's not even that he's a bad player. I just don't think there's a spot for him. And we talked about this, I think it was last week.
Is Mason Graham?
Yeah, he too redundant with Christian Barmore. It's one of the few spots you have a good player, you really can't. It's not like even if they took Will Johnson, like you can play him a Gonzalez at the same time. It's gonna be very hard to play Mason Graham and Christian Barmore at the same time. That's really the only guy I look at when I look at the top of this list, and obviously the quarterbacks, but they're not
going to do that. Mason Graham is the only guy I looking at the top of this list and say like, yeah, I'd be unhappy if they draft him. I'd be happier with some than others, but there aren't a lot of bad picks on the board.
Yeah, So really quickly on Wolf. What's that on your sleeve? By the way, why don get me started? And got pain on it? All right? Anyways, really quickly on Wolf and then we gotta get out of here. So I just want to do two seconds on the Chargers. Uh. The biggest thing to me with Wolf moving forward is really one closing in free agency. I think that's gonna be harder than just in terms of evaluating who they
should go after. I believe that part is kind of easy to be honest with you, like, who are the players you want? Is not the hard part. The hard part is getting the contract signed and across the finish line and getting that player in your building. Well, it's closing.
I know we got a wrap, but like I think it's not just honestly, they need to make trades. They're not gonna get everything they want for agency. I've said this, I think t Higgins is going back to Cincinnati. It's dk Metcalf and I don't know if you saw the Athletic Football Podcast.
This week, it was Robert these people are giving you credence here.
Robert Mas and Dereklass and we're both talking about, Yeah, the Seahawks and move Metcalf. Like, I still think he's gonna be the best guy available at that position.
So I'm not as concerned about them being able to identify the players that they want in free agency. I'm more concerned about them getting the players that they want in free agency.
A little breaking news to Sean Jackson named the head coach.
At uh this is what you interrupt me for Delaware State, DeShawn that's mike Vic DeShawn Jackson. That's kind of cool.
Uh.
So that's the biggest thing to me because they they are still not like a great destination. They're they're more attractive than they were a year ago because of Drake May for an offensive player of T Higgins or DK Metcalf or whatever. But those guys are gonna have tons of options. They're gonna have tons of options that are gonna pay him tons of money. So it's not your money is not going to just be the only reason why you get the player. Don't get the player. So
they're gonna have to sell that player on something. And that's on Elliott Wolf, Like, that's on that staff and girodmeyo a little bit too to persuade Elliott Wolf to persuade T Higgins or whoever it is to sign with the Patriots. Just a quick story aside. You know in in Tennessee, you know, big thing that I had heard from a lot of their beat writers and stuff like that about the Calvin Ridley sweepstakes. Ran Carthin, their GM is this
sort of closer like he's like, do you ever watch suits? No, But I understand that he's Harvey Spector right, Like he comes in and he gets the deal done, and that might have been the difference. Now there was other things like you know, the whole location and money and all that. I'm sure, but ran Carthin apparently is this guy that just comes in and closes deals.
Something to make those something that makes those things like a factor is how it's pitched right.
So that's that's a big thing to me. And then in the draft, it's all about what you do in two through seven. I'm not trying to totally take credit away from them for taking a guy like Drake may.
We took too many calls on Marvin Harrison to he was a slam dunk pick.
Right, But it's sort of similar now where you're gonna have you're gonna pick two overall, you're gonna have a board of four or five guys, and all four or five you have a really strong case to make the pick. So it's not gonna be the hardest pick in the world in the first round. Jalen Polk, Kendon Wallace, Javon Baker, like, those are the guys that make you gms great like those are. That's how Howie Roseman is one of the best GMS in football. That's how Brett Viach is one
of the best gms in football. Those guys make their money on Days two and three in the draft. Yeah, and so that's gonna be big for Wolf. He's gonna get it, Like just like Girod's gonna get the second year as the head coach. Elliott Wolf is gonna be the one picking the groceries and the offseason for the Patriots. His future with this team will be decided by this offseason. If he strikes out this offseason, he's he's probably gonna
be I. They both problem. Yeah, So really quickly on the Chargers, my big uh, you know the thing I'm looking for in this game, really really good defensive mind coming here with the Chargers. Jesse Minter probably gonna be a head coach in the league, not before long. Really one of those He's a tighte pants guy on the defense side of the ball, right, Like he's he's Mike McDonald, he's Demiko Ryans. Like he's one of those types of guys. Uh maybet better than Stale, but he's one of those guys.
It's a schemer, like he's a mastermind. Right, he's gonna come in. He's gonna be really good on the x's and o's. He's gonna be really good at knowing your ten season situational tend and seas in particular. So that is a really tough matchup for Alex fann Pelt. We talk about him getting his second year here and all that kind of stuff. You know, this is one of those games I thought the Bills are kind of a
do what you do type of defense. You sort of know you're gonna get four to three over, you're gonna get Cover two, you're gonna get Manta man. You kind of know what the Bills are gonna do. Uh, this Chargers team is gonna spin the dial a lot more on Drake May. So big game for Alex van Pelt, big game for Drake May going up against a pretty
good Chargers defense to show some chops there. But defensively for the Patriots, I still feel like this is a game that they can compete in like they did against Buffalo. I look at this Chargers offense. It's Lad McConkie, like it's Lad McConkie.
And Will Disley's their second leading receiver and he's hurt.
It's really not a passing offense. Great quarterback, one really good receiver. They just played a great quarterback and one really good receiver, and Josh Allen and Khalil Shakir and did a really good job this game. To me, defensively has a ton of carryover. The one caveat is that the Chargers will run the ball. They will not. They won't pull a Joe Brady Josh Allen and get baited into throwing the ball forty times in a game. They don't need to be throwing the ball forty times. They're
gonna be two back. They're gonna put a full back in the backfield. They're gonna put Justin Herbert under center or in the still and they're gonna run the ball, and if the Patriots can't stop it and get them into third down situations, then it will be a Charger game. Like the Chargers will control the game. Yeah, I agree with a lot of that. I know we've got to get out of here.
I just I think it's a tougher team than the Bills, and they're gonna have to win it if they can win at the line of scrimmag which is than if with this team, if they can win at the line of scrimmage. I don't know if they win, but they keep it close. I know some people look at it as four and a half as the number is being you know, surprised it's that low. You also have the whole thing about West Coast Dome team coming to the Northeast. Herbert has not been good here in Jillette Stadium, especially
late in the year. I think the Chargers are probably trying to win this game, like thirteen to ten.
Yeah, I would also say they the Chargers don't run away from you and the scoreboard necessarily like the Bills can. The Bills can be a wagon and they can hang forty five on you and just run away from you. This Chargers team is nineteenth in the points per game. They're fifteenth in DVOA. On offense. They have a really good quarterback, but they're not a great offense yet they still have holes. Receiving corps is still not scaring a
lot of people. So this Charger game could be a Patriots style game where it's twenty to seventeen, right, seventeen fourteen, twenty to seventeen. I think I paid twenty fourteen on PU Like that's a score that the Patriots could win a game within. The Bills are a little bit different. The Bills you had to score and you knew it. So that's the Chargers on Sunday. I hope our Saturday. Excuse me, open the future we do shows again where
we have like a long game preview segment. It just it feels like we haven't really cared about the games in a while, and I hope that changes here soon. But we'll be back next week, one more regular season to go, game to go against the Bills here at Jillette Stadium. We'll obviously talk plenty of draft in the offseason as well at that point, but until then, bud Light Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy, the official beer
sponsor of the New England Patriots. Had to get that in there, and we'll see you guys next week.
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