This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan Lazar and Alex Barth and Lazarre.
Hello, everybody nailed it. Joined us always by our bark. Here is Evan Lazar and Alex bars So I went with dlphin kin Kate, who I don't really love, to be honest with you, said, I don't feel great about it, but I just feel like the ball has just.
Blind love of Josh Allen. That's all that. Everybody's getting mad at me blindly hating Josh Allen. You're doing the same thing but in the other eard.
Yeah, I'm just doing to miiss you off. You like tonight, Alex? The bills Bills? Oh you like the bills?
Now?
Well, what do you mean under Mike mcdad Well, so two things. One, Yeah, the Bills never went in Miami because of the sun, like beating down on that bench. They're among other teams, they're not alone in that. Yeah, no sun tonight, So that helps the Bills also there, that's a factor. Come on, we we in New England know that as well as anybody.
Yeah.
Yeah. And then on top of that, Mike McDaniel against teams that over five hundred and yes, I do believe the Bills will finish the season over five hundred believe it or not. Yeah, Mike McDaniel against teams that finished the season over five hundred five and ten, he doesn't beat good teams.
That's why early season Bills they're good. That's why I picked the Bills in our picks. Patriot's Unfiltered is because of McDaniel against cause you.
Got annoyed me earlier in locker room for having that take.
I know, because you know I like the cool stuff that Miami does. But just really quickly on McDaniel's I know, McDaniel, I know this is not Dolphins on catch twenty two. I promise we'll we'll get to Patriots here in a second. There's not a whole lot of head coaches in the NFL that are just like he. I don't even know how to say this, because I want to be careful like he. It likes to go out on the town
quite a bit when we're in He enjoys life. When we're in Indied in the combine, you can always find he's not alone in that Mike McDaniel around Okay, it's just it's on my radar. Of like, is he really taking it seriously? Well, I see, yeah, I don't need with all this stuff that's going on. You know, they haven't won a playoff game yet, Like you know, I'm just I'm just thinking, oh loud, how Probably shouldn't have said it, but I'm just thinking.
How about you forget that taking it seriously? How about when he couldn't get a play calling in a playoff game that was against the Bills. Actually I think that was against the Bills, right, Uh that came out? Yeah, I think that was his first year they had what for delay games or should have had without timeouts, Like, yeah, guy can't get a play call. And I don't need to know what he's doing off the field to know he's not taking it seriously.
All right. Hey, hey Patriots fans, if you want to see Toto's best offers, including those not seen on TV, go to buy at toyota dot com. It's Toyota's official website for deals from an official vehicle of the New England Patriots. Toyota, Let's go play Seattle. I was gonna say to Seattle, but we're not going to Seattle, and.
Easy didn't go. If you want no, thanks, nothing there.
Easy to drink, easy to enjoy, bud Light, the official beer sponsor of the Newing and Patriots. All right, Evan Lazar, Alex Barth with you here. I didn't even say our names or the name of the show or anything like.
I like this because I've read in I've always said, going back to our previous podcast, our podcast isn't so much a show as much as it is just hitting recording, continuing the conversation we were having. And I think we've done this the last few weeks. Yeah, where you just kind of opened the show with what I mean, before we were on the air, we were talking about me playing pop worn or football. That's true, and we were
talking about Mike McDaniel about an hour ago. It's really just picks up the conversation or the text chat or whatever and we just go from there.
That's very true. That's very true. But we're going to talk about some Patriots begles here at the top of the show, and we'll obviously get into Seattle and we'll talk take your calls and all that good stuff. But my opening monologue, my opening take of the show here today, I want to go glass half full, glass half empty, because I'm not gonna lie to you, Alex. And I'm not just saying this because you know I'm trying to
be contrarian or you know, anything like that. But the the Patriots have gotten a lot of flowers this week for winning in Cincinnati. They've gotten a lot of those verbal bouquets from people that do our line of work, a lot of credit for winning in Cincinnati. I'm all for it, right, good for them, goodwin, glad they won, all those types of things. My glass half empty, are half full? Excuse me, glass half full?
On this.
I was listening to Julian Edelman in a clip that
somebody posted on the X Machine. I believe he was on with Colin Coward when he said this, the glass half full of what they did on Sunday in Cincinnati is that everything that Gerrod Mayo in this coaching staff has been preaching since the first squad meeting, going all the way back to the spring fundamentals, don't beat yourselves, be the more physical football team, conditioning, like all these different tenets of the girod Mayo era that they're trying
to build here, the foundation that they're trying to lay here, the fruits of the labor all showed up on Sunday. They were the more prepared team. They won the line of scrimmage, they tackled better, they were more buttoned up in terms of penalties and turnovers. They were the better
fundamental football team on Sunday in Cincinnati. So I agree with Edelman wholeheartedly when he says that makes Gid and Mayo's life now moving forward a tiny bit easier because now there there's buying, like now you understand, oh, like validation. There's validation exactly like what they're selling. We're actually buying now because we won a game playing this way.
It works.
It worked, and that's big for this team. I want to say that off the top before I get to some of my grievances, like that's truly is big for the team. And now we can work on some of the things that they didn't do so well in the game and hopefully improve on those. But the core philosophies of girod Mayo's football team physicality, run first offense, really good defense, be the more conditioned team, be the more
sound team. All those boxes were checked on Sunday, and they beat a team that nobody thought they were gonna beat So that's my glass half full about this win in Cincinnati.
Yeah, no, I think that works. And I make your other point because I kind of have an overarching point of both of them.
So my glass half empty to it is this. I look this up because I was curious since the start of the twenty twenty three seasons of all over the last two seasons teams who threw for under one hundred and twenty five passing yards on over twenty attempts. So, basically Jacob Brissett's stat line from the game on Sunday, there are thirty two such instances in the league over the last two years. How many wins do you think
those thirty two teams had a handful? Eight? They were eight and twenty four two handfuls, so twenty five percent win percentage. I just won't don't want to come in here and say that team is all of a sudden, we're gonna pick them every week and they're gonna they're
on a roll here. They they are going to have to pass better, score more, and I have, like, you know, individual categories here we can get into, but the overarching or the big picture is that they are not going to win a whole lot of football games with the passing offense that they had on Sunday. Just because they won this game this way this week doesn't mean that that's going to carry over into that next week and beyond.
And as great as it is that they won the game, and as much as Girodmeo deserves kudos and we should, you know, gets the gatorade bath and everybody feels good about it, and all that's great, I don't want to lose sight of the big picture, which is one hundred and twenty one passing yards in twenty twenty four is just not gonna win you very many football games.
Funny, we have a big TV up here that has Felgrin Maas on. Yeah, and I'm just watching his body language as he's delivering what I'm sure is the same take as you. And you were doing a lot of the same hand motion. Oh okay, so I found that kind of funny. But no, here my takeaway, and I'll go back to, honestly the same thing I said after they beat the Bills last year. I don't know if
you remember the take I gave after that game. Basically, most NFL teams when they play to their ceiling, whatever their ceiling is, depending on how they're built, it's going to be hard to beat a team that's playing to its ceiling, whatever the team is. Even the worst rosters in the league, when they play to their ceiling, they're
usually pretty hard to beat. What separates the great teams from the good teams from the bad teams on top of talent, I mean, talent's part of it, but part of talent is consistency, and what separates the great teams from the bad teams oftentimes in a league where talent wise, there's really not that much of a difference between the best teams and the worst team's top to bottom on the roster is how often can you go out and
throw your best punch. The best teams in this league in a seventeen game season fourteen fifteen times will give you their best game, and they're pretty consistent with it, whereas some of the worst teams. They might have That Patriots beat the Bills last year like that game, but and that team was capable of that. I don't think that team necessarily punched above its weight in that game, but it was they they just didn't have for whatever
intangible reason. Didn't have the ability to put that effort out consistently.
So do you think this was the not to cut you off? Because do you think this was the Patriots' best I don't think it was their best puncause if this is their best punches and they're gonna win four game, I don't think so.
I don't think it's their best punch because it's week one, and I still think they're figuring a lot out. But I think you saw a team that like it's I think that's as much as you could expect from them in week one. There were things that will and we'll talk about during the show. Right, they' figure out the offensive line, they'll get some guys back, The new coaching staffs was gonna have to iron some things out. So it's not apples for apples like that best punch take.
But I remember thinking that, like this was a team that came out first time head coach, first game, they wanted to win for him, They wanted to make a statement. They did be knocked all off season, like they came out and played this like it was their super Bowl. Yeah, and I think there's room for them to perform better, but it takes a lot to bring that kind of intensity every single week, and I'm not knocking them, like,
good for them for doing it. But I, like you said, there are going to be teams that test them more. That's the other thing. I don't think you got the Bengals best bunch. Oh No, there are going to be teams that test the more. So to me, it's a really encouraging sign. Yeah, especially for the long term more than short term. It's more of an encouraging sign for
the long term for the drawd Mayo, Elliot wolf Era. Yeah, but I don't know that it's indicative of, Hey, this actually might be a playoff team and we all just kind of missed on that.
Yeah, yeah, exactly how I feel as well. I just I worry about three things with this team, and this is sort of my categories here that I was talking about just a second ago. The first thing is obvious, and that's the past protection.
Yeah.
So they gave up a forty eight percent pressure eight against Cincinnati. That was the highest pressure rate in the NFL.
So here's what's crazy to me. Kind of goes back to what I was just saying, they had the highest pressure rate in the league against It was right, Yeah, and Ramandre Stevenson had one hundred and eighteen of his hundred and twenty yards after contact. Yeah, And I still came away from that game, And I know I'm not
alone in this. I don't know how you felt, but I still kind of came away from that game again, worst pressure rate in the league, wanting back, had to do almost everything after contact, and I came away saying, you know, it didn't go as bad as I thought it would, so just kind of crazy to think.
About, right. So that's sort of my point though, And I understand that we've adjusted our expectations, and it's it's fair that we adjusted our expectations. It's fair to the new coaching staff that we're adjusting. They have made it clear that they feel like they're still a year or two away. Yeah, like they're in a rebuild. They know that.
We know that this is about, like I said earlier, laying a foundation, you know, establishing tenants like all those types of things, and not necessarily a team that is expected to go on some playoff run or something like that. We all get that. But the bar, especially specifically towards the offensive line, was six feet under, like not even on the floor, like we dug into the ground and we put it even further under there because of what we saw in Washington. Penalties galore, poor pass.
Protection Washington, the whole summer Washington, the joint practice with the Eagles, like all of it.
So the fact that they lined up correctly and didn't give up like five sacks in this game was a passing grade for the offensive.
Linet lined up correctly and that cover set didn't get hurt.
Right With that being said, forty eight percent pressure rate I thought that they are run blocking was okay. Run block win rate was twenty fourth in the league, for what it's worth. Seattle's was twentieth, and they also ran the ball well, so I'm not really sure how much that stat necessarily matters.
Kenneth Walker kind of similar back to money seams.
But let's stick with the pass protection because I think that was really where their biggest issues were. Left tackle is going to be a sore spot. They're gonna have to live with left tackle. They're gonna have to live with the fact that they have a rookie in Leyden Robinson playing right guard, so he's gonna have some of these rookie brain farts like that's just going to happen. He's gonna be inconsistent as a rookie, and that's you
gotta live with. Dad. The element that I didn't like about this game, and some of that is in the Leyden Robinson category. I would say of rookie in his first NFL game. They allowed four free runners, four unblocked pressures. They robbed nine pressure dropbacks, and four of them were just guys coming Scott free to the quarterback with nobody in their way. Those ones, to me, are ones that have to go like they have to find a way to get those out of their system sooner rather than later.
Because Jacoby Brussett's pressure to Zach Rate was extremely impressive this week, his mobility was extremely impressive last week. That to me, I don't know is fully sustainable. That's not the Jacoby brres said that we've seen for most of his career. He's not necessarily a guy that's Whodini in the pocket, that's very good at avoiding sacks. He managed pressure very well in this game. He deserves credit for that.
We'll get to that. But the biggest thing to me is is you can't have guys running through the middle of the line unblocked like that. That has to get cleaned up because you are going to have some one on one losses across the line because you're just not very talented in certain spots.
Yeah, yeah, no, I agree with you one hundred percent.
I know.
Scott Peters talked today about some of those free rushers and said some of it was, you know, sometimes guys are coming through, you're throwing hot whatever, but they The one that that gets me was the Logan Wilson who came up the middle. A couple of things just but the one really blew up cover set, right, he got
up a little slow. It's yeah, that that's kind of what when I say, oh, it went better than we thought, even though it didn't go well, it's like because I was kind of I wasn't sure it's cover set was going to make it through the game. Yeah, and that's as close as you got. I think if they can just keep Jacoby wever Set healthy, it's not even keeping clean,
just just not allowed those teams to tee off on him. Sure, that's kind of that has to be the baseline for this group, and they weren't able to do that completely on Sunday.
Yeah, So the scheme that Cincinnati was using a lot to get pressure, and I'm sure that Seattle is going to do the same because the Seahawks disguise pressure better than anybody. They were dropping their defensive ends off the line of scrimmage. Most of the time it was Sam Hubbard and let Henderson rush, and so they drop their defensive end out of the out of the rush, he would drop into coverage and then Logan Wilson or a linebacker would come blitzing up the middle of the line.
And so those are called replacement pressures where one guy's replacing another guy in the coverage structure, and it just is post nap communication, right, It's having active eyes and pass protection. So what ended up happening a lot is on when when Robinson were blocking the same guy like they would they would have two on one and then they didn't have anybody on the back or coming up through the middle of the line. Sometimes the bat the
running back was involved, sometimes it wasn't. That sometimes can confuse things as well. You know what I was thinking about the other day, same totally off a kind of on topic off topic, like what if I got like a whiteboard and just like start and like drew things.
On the white saying that for a long time. That you should do.
Because you know, it's a little hard for us to get like you know, wait, hang on, I think we have whiteboard back then, not like a big one, like just like a little handheld one.
Yeah, I'll make sure you guys get one.
Yeah, that'd be cool, right, because it's hard for us to pull up the actual play like the film.
We did that once yea towards the cand Yeah.
So then we can. We'll do a whiteboard. That's a good idea. Anyways, So they ran a lot of those what are called creeper pressures, which means that you have this the crowd. The defensive structure looks like it's a normal structure, looks like they're just playing normal defense. It's not covers, it's not cover zero, it's not any of that. It's just a normal defense. But what ends up happening is somebody that you're expecting the pass rush drops in
someone who you're expecting to drop blitzes. Right, so you switch places with those two guys. You did that a lot. Cincinnati did that a lot. This, Baltimore, Seattle scheme is gonna do that a lot too. With McDonald too, though. Those are the ones that got the Patriots. They they were confused a little bit on who was taking the unblocked guy or the unexpected rusher. That's gonna be big for them this week again. They gotta clean those things up. I still feel as though they can get there with
this offensive line. Left tackle again is gonna be a big concern, Like that's always week in and week out. You're gonna have to help, You're gonna have to scheme around it, you're gonna have to do different things. But if they can get themselves protected when they bring unexpected rushers,
then then I think they'll be okay. The second thing on my list, This one's big to me, and it goes back to the Browns, the Niners, the Rams, the Miami Dolphins, the Green Bay Packers, the teams that run this offensive system.
Yeah.
One of the big hallmarks of this system is marrying the run game with play action. And the run game you're gonna run it thirty times a game, but a big reason why you're running it so much is to actually set up the passing game. You're gonna set up play action explosives through the running game. So the Patriots were able to run the ball. Yes, they ran for one hundred and seventy yards as a team, they ran for one hundred and thirty eight with their running backs.
If you want to take the scrambles out from jacobyber set, they ran the ball well. On five play action play action dropbacks, they only had twenty six yards. That's five yards attempt. How about they only had five play action drop back They only had five, and they only averaged five yards per attempt off of them. Just for comparison, when Jacob Brisett was in this offense in Cleveland in twenty twenty two, he averaged over eight yards per pass
attempt off of play action. So when you have a team that wants to be run first, that wants to build everything off the run game, it's big with that schematically that the play action pass game works. And when you also have a team that doesn't necessarily have great receivers on the outside, Like if you're a team like Cincinnati and you have Chase and you have Higgins and all these guys on the outside, you don't need to run play action because those guys are just gonna win
on routes right, Like, they're just gonna get open. The Patriots need to scheme separation. They need to scheme guys open. And if they can't scheme guys open through play action, then they're gonna be porked. Then they're gonna be thrown for one hundred and fifty yards a game. So they're
gonna have to figure out ways. Whether it's pass protection related, which I have one thing on that, or if it's just Jacob Brissett, if it's the receivers, whatever the issues were that made it so that they couldn't get play action going. They need to be a better play action a much better play action passing team next week and moving forward.
Yeah, we've talked about this since March, Yeah, since January, Like, this is what it's gonna be. They're big plays. Their ability to push the ball down the field, their ability to pick up chunks is going to come off play action more than anything else.
Yep.
So so if they I can't do that, this so what I said at the beginning, right, this was their best punch I said for week one. You know you're gonna build on it. If they can't build on the play action game, they're not going anywhere.
Yeah, agreed, So the one thing I just add to that, then I'll go to my next thing. They used Caden Wallace. I want to call it sixteen excluding Niel downs because the two of them were kneel downs. Right, So they use Caden Wallace as a tackle eligible sixteen times in this game. They threw one pass with Caden Wallace on
the field. If you ask me, when you have a bad offensive line and you can't drop back pass because you can't pass protect, why wouldn't you try to push the ball down the field with six offensive linemen on the field, right, Like that goes hand in hand to me. Now, do I know how many times Jacoubersett checked out of a pass into a run or No? I don't know the answer to that, right, that could have happened a
couple of times. But that, to me, is there that's their answer, Like, let's go six to seven man protection. Why don't you put Candaen Wallace on the field. Maybe you leave the back endto Blitzkin, maybe you leave the tight end in Also, now you have seven guys in pass protection, you send a couple guys into the raws.
Too many because if you're leaving the back in with Kayden Walls and a tight end. You only two receivers, now you would do one or the other. Oh, put the back and the tight end.
Someone's got to do be the checked out, right, So if you want the tight end to be the checkdown, fine, If you want the back to be the tight the checkdown, fine, it doesn't necessarily matter which one. The point being, that's how I feel like they can actually generate some deep pass attempts is by six seven man protections, play action off of the run game, load up the protection, send two guys down the field and hope somebody gets open.
And then eventually, you know, if that works enough times you leave Kaden Wallace out in the flat and oh yeah, he runs for a chunk.
I'm good with that. I'm good with that, you know, I'm I'm all for like a little trickery. But the big thing is is that drop back passing standard like five man protect drop back passing is going to be tough for this football team. They're gonna have to do it on third down. You hope that it's like third and five and they can get six yards and we keep playing.
Well, that's if they did one thing really well in Week one that I do think can translate. Yeah, moving forward, they did an excellent job of staying ahead of schedule. Yeah, because we've seen the past years, right, second and eight are off of penalty first and fifteen.
Well, the big thing was the lack of penalties. It's like that, it's a huge to contribute to that.
No, but even even on first down, so they they're average. I have the number somewhere here. I know the rankings. They were eleventh in the NFL in average yards to go on second down in week one. This was before Monday Night football, but you get the idea. Here we go. Yep, first down, their average distance to go is nine point seven yards, so that they were actually helped by penalties rather than hurt. Second down average distance to go seven point three. That was tied for tenth in the league.
So they were top ten in the league in yards gained on first down third down six point one yards to go. That was the fourth shortest distance in the NFL. They stayed ahead of schedule, and the run game was a big part of that. But they stayed ahead of schedule. They didn't take negative plays, they didn't take penalties, they took what the defense was giving them on early downs to set up manageable third downs. That is why they had as much success as they did, and that is
something I actually think can carry over. And if they are going to continue to build offensively, I don't think it's going to do they need to add more chunk plays, yes, yeah, but I don't know that that's going to make as much of a difference as just consistently staying on schedule. And by the way, credits to the defense. The Bengals actually had better had shorter distances to go on second and third down than the Patriots and converted almost ten
percent less of the first downs. Yeah, so the defense did well too. I just want to mix that in.
But no, they did.
They did a great job of staying on schedule, not taking penalties, picking up legitimate game on first down, and that really helped them.
Yeah. It just if you watch all these offenses that do this at a high run, this scheme at a high level. You know, I'm you know, I'm not gonna wax poetic about Kyle Shanahan too much, but Shanahan, Lafleoor, McVeigh, Stefanski, so much of what they do well is play action, and they just generate these big, big chunks off of play action because they dress it up to marry it to the run game. It all looks the same to the defense, and then it doesn't, you know, it doesn't
end up playing out the same. So that's gonna be big. This goes hand in hand with my third point. I thought Jacobbers said played really well in this game. He's on my upslist. Okay, I thought he played really well in this game. He managed pressure extremely well. Not a lot of quarterbacks with a forty eight percent pressure rate keep their head on their shoulders. Yeah, like that can sometimes cause a lot of chaos like that, turnovers sped up,
all that kind of stuff. The one thing that I nitpicked a little bit about this film, what jacobber said, was a lack of aggressiveness pushing the ball down the field. I asked Van Pelt about this, and I'll get to that in a second. I thought he gave a good answer to it. But just statistically, he attempted two passes, not over twenty yards, over fifteen yards in the entire game. Two passes over fifteen the entire game. He only threw
past the sticks thirty three percent of the time. Isn't that wild?
Thirty three percent of the time passed the sticks? Yeah, I mean I think some of that though, doesn't some of that have to be just the pressure he was facing? How many opportunities did he really hear? Some of it was pushed the ball down.
But there was probably three or four times on the film where I felt like he could have and passed up those opportunities. That's what Van Pelt I asked him about this morning, and he said that it was more about game situation. He mentioned a third down play in the red zone that I posted to my Twitter circling Jalen Polk. He was open on the play if you guys want to just look at it, But was that
the one you sent me? Yeah, there's three open guys for touchdowns, and he doesn't throw any of the routs. He said, in that situation that you have a field goal, like, you have three points, you have the lead, Like, that's
more just about risk reward at that point. And I can kind of live with that answer, like I understand where they're coming from with that, But the point being, in future weeks, as soon as even maybe Sunday, you can't afford to pass up opportunities for more points, right, Like you aren't going to be able to win games scoring sixteen points every single week. So his lack of Jacoby's lack of aggressiveness or like lack of willingness to push the ball into some tighter windows down the field.
He really managed this game. Yeah, and that you can say that as a positive, and you can also look at some of the negative sides of that as well.
I mean, I think you saw one why he's starting over Drake May and just why they brought him in big picture, like how he fits in the mold of what they're trying to do. I thought he was calm, I thought he was controlled. The big surprise for me was what he did with his legs. Not a guy that you think of is really being that effective as a runner. But scrambled four times three for first downs, was able to extend some plays and get throws off
on the run. Nothing over the top, nothing you know, explosive. But he didn't cost him the game, right. He was a net neutral quarterback. You know how much I love that term. That was textbook net neutral quarterback. They didn't win the game because of him. But they didn't lose the game because of them, and they were more concerned with the second thing there than the first thing.
Yeah, we'll see if that holds up, Like, if they're able to do that at a high level like that, that's tough. Last little nitpick, and then we can do our three up, three down, and we'll open up the phone lines and everything. Yeah, little nitpick.
What would it be? Would a Patriots win be without Evan nitpicking?
Yeah? He gotta nippick some things because these are things that I just they gotta be better at. Yeah, they gotta stack these things. They have a good they laid a good foundation. But the foundation of the house isn't the the finished.
You were right last year, Mac Jones through for three hundred yards. I came all in here, all excited, and you just tore them a new one and you were right about that pick away. But the foundation to take a victory lap on that all week, the foundation of the house is there. Yeah, we see the I see the vision. I see the foundation.
Now we're talking about like the sub zero appliances right like in the Viking stoves, Like let's get the fancy stuff going now. Yeah, right, Like that's what we're talking.
About, Drake May. I think you're more just talking about the foundations up. Now, let's get like walls and doors and windows.
Yeah, you're probably right, that's probably better. Let's get those nice windows, little tint.
On the foundation. You build a house on top of the foundation.
Well I know that, but I was probably two steps in.
That's what I'm saying, like there's another step in between there. Yeah, you're right, So let's meet Drake. Drake May. Is that when you're wheeling the seventy five inch TV with surround sound, you know, speakers built into the couch, you got the fridge built into the couch. This is a good take you can get from like the great couches you can get from Bobs's count I should have just segued right into that read, but tried. I gotta get I gotta get my thought out first before I forget it. Books.
The Run Game. Loved the Run Game. Loved what Remandre did there. They were overly simplistic in this game. And I'll give it to them that it was week one, so maybe this was just let's get this out there. We're not ready for Alex van Pelt. You know, graduate level course, yet we're still an intro level classes right now. But a lot of the situations I felt like where Remandre had to truly create yards after contact were because of the lack of like bells and whistles and eye
candy in this offense. They were duo, gap, duo whatever you want to call it, Like double teams on the inside and we're just coming right at you right and that that can work, especially when you have a really good running back like Remandre who's really good at creating guards after contact. But some of the things I would like to see moving forward a little bit more motion.
Like the one thing that you see all game long under duo concepts, the corner to the place side was just like sitting there unblocked right, you could see it. Remandre was really good at breaking that tackle like that was a big part of his yards after contact totals was breaking poor Dax Hill like couldn't tackle the guy right. If you add like a little bit of like jet or orbit to that side of the field, Now Dax Hill's got a widen at the snap and he kind of gets out of that gap a little bit by
the motion. Like these are the little things that I just would like to see when you turn on For example, Seattle's run game from last week. They had a good running game too with Kenneth Walker. There's a lot more complexity to their run game. It's a lot the design of it is a lot more sophisticated. This was old school football from Alex van Pelt. This was lined up duo blocks on the inside were running downhill. Ask you and you can't stop us. That's cool like that. I
like that mentality. I like all of that. That's not going to get it against better defensive lines, Like you try to do that against the Jets in a couple of weeks and you just try to run over Quinn Williams, Like, good luck. Like that's not going to happen. It's not going to work. They have to disguise things or you know, motion things a little bit better, design it a little bit more sophisticated. Also, like can we not seven step
drop from under center anymore? Please? Like what come back to us, Alex vanpel This isn't nineteen ninety one, Like can we throw that stuff out the door? I just felt some of this thing, the stuff that they did was a little archaic. It was a little outdated.
Well it's weak one. Like you said, they're building up towards something.
All right, am? I is that good enough?
Like?
Like did I say enough positive things and negative things? Like I didn't want to be too negative? Like they did win the game like last year, at least they didn't win the game, you.
Know, right? Yeah, yeah, okay, that's fair?
All right, good enough? Okay, let's do three up, three down?
Right?
You can start your number one up.
My number one up was I. I had like ties for number one, but I guess I'll go. I'll go with my one for defense. I'd won offense one defense. I think you're gonna start offense. So I was ke On White?
What gave you that? Away?
Yea?
Keon White was so freaking good in this game. Yeah, And I was one of the people sitting here saying, I don't know how they're gonna generate an early down pass rush. I don't know how they're gonna generate a pass rusch nowt blitzing. I like Keon White, but I don't know that he's that like dynamic pass rusher. Wrong wrong, wrong, wrong wrong. At least based on that game, he was rushing for different spots the toolbox has gotten much deeper,
much deeper, I think than it was last year. We saw a little more speed, Yeah, more quickness from him. I feel like two and a half sacks almost under sells the effort he ultimately had, the impact he put in on this game. If they're gonna be the top ten unit we thought they might be when they had Matthew Judon, when they had Christian Barmore, if they're gonna get back to that, this is the kind of player they need ke On White to be.
Yeah. I couldn't agree more. He is now a Tuesday player, which is good for the Patriots because they needed somebody on the defensive front to develop into a Tuesday player without Christian Barmore and after the Judean trade. To me, he is now the guy that other teams are gonna have to worry about, Like they're gonna have to game plan for him. Now they're gonna have to have him circled in the game plan meetings.
Uh.
The one that stood out to everybody, and I'm sure it stood out to you as well, was the rush on Trent Brown on his first sack. Like that, to me, is not something he had in his back.
That's exactly what toolbox.
Yeah. Yeah, the double swipe rushing from a two point stance up on his feet, go right around him. I'm still hesitation in there inside. Has he double swipe go right around the tackle sack like that? That was not in his his wheelbox, his wheelbox, his toolbox last year. So that that was some of the things I wrote
about Key on going into the season. I had a conversation with him about his summer and some of the things that he had talked about were working on that specifically, like can I be a better stand up edge rusher because he knows that he can rush with his hand in the dirt over the guard. He's trying to be better in that regard outside the tackle, and he was. He was on that play.
Yeah, he was really good.
He was nine.
Number two, okay, number one was Remondra. Yeah, yeah, I had him his number one two, Remondre.
This was like Marshawn Lynch beast mode type stuff, like just running over dudes, joking dudes. The rush that he had on the last drive of the game where there's two guys in the backfield and have him dead to rights and he somehow gets out is unreal, like just an unbelievable run one hundred and eighteen after contact, ten forced miss tackles in this game just phenomenal. I mean one of his best game of was a pro.
Would you say he made a difference, made a difference in this one? Certainly you would say the running back made a difference. I just want to get it on the record. Okay, he did. Yeah, he was really freaking good in this game, which I'd say, Look what happens when this guy comes in like rested. Yeah, look what happens when this guy is ready to go and he's gonna take hits over the course of the season. He's
not gonna be that all year. But look what happens when you give this guy a chance to be more than just a bowling ball.
Ye, your point?
I mean game breaker yesterday he had a veteran rest day and practice.
Love that. Love that, Like he's your belcow running back. He's gonna get the ball a ton this year. He doesn't need to practice on Wednesdays. Like love it. Let him watch practice from the side, Give the reps to Kevin Harris or Terrell Jennings on the practice squad, and let's roll on Sunday reminder. I mean this was his best game as.
A pro, So I will say this now now, and you know I have to bring it back to this. Yeah, he had including his he had three catches in this game as well, so you factor those in.
Oh, here comes the volume issues.
He had twenty eight touches in this game.
Yeah.
Last year, Christian McCaffrey, where's my I gotta find the number here? Sorry, Last year Christian McCaffrey led the NFL in touches or at least touches per game. Yeah, which was at I thought I had it written here. It was like twenty one to twenty two touches per game. Yeah,
so this was an excessive, excessive workload from ramondre Stevenson. Yep, how do you balance it now to make sure you keep getting that guy and he doesn't get worn down too early without kind of handicapping your offense by not having him. Now, Antonio Gibson went into this game banged up. So and it's also the kind of game this is also part of that take. There are gonna be games when you want to give rimanre Stevenson thirty touches because it's a close game. He's feeling it, you're gonna ride
him to the win. You want to have the opportunity to do that. If this week that off, the game maybe doesn't set up like that. Can you get Antonio Gibson some more work, whatever. But honestly, that game, to me is exactly why I feel so strongly about this, because when he's not coming off a thirty touch game, when he's not worn down by Thanksgiving, and he can actually play his level of ball, he's a game breaker. But that's just the nature of the running back position.
This is something that the Titans went through with Dereck Henry, the Cowboys went through a Zeke. Pretty much any dominant running back in the last ten years had this kind of experienced. Nick Jeffs another one. How do you make sure you're getting the most out of these guys over the course of a seventeen game season, not just week to week. That's what the Patriots are gonna have to figure out now, because as we saw again, this isn't
to take anything away from his performances to emphasize it. Yea, that is how important of a player he is, and that is what he can give you when he's on and as the rest of the offense picks up and you can kind of supplement what he's your compliment what he's doing with the pass game, or maybe get Antonio Gibson going that will only help. But he's a game breaker. You got to take care of him.
So just two things quickly. Yeah, Number one on that point, if they're gonna run as much duo blocking as they did, they just straight downhill man demand power running, then I do feel like Kevin Harris or Terrell Jennings can just do that just fine. Yeah, in a game like for five to ten carries a game like maybe that's just not Gibson's style of play, Like I don't think he looked at home running those types of concepts in this
game last week. I know he was banged up. I wouldn't mind like certain games where you call one of those guys up from the practice squad for the week and maybe eight of the ca go to Kevin Harris that week instead of att to Remandre. Just doing the quick math and sample size alert like one game is not how we should be doing this. But that's four hundred and seventy six touches for the entire Sea.
So I pulled it up. McCaffrey actually missed a game last year, it still led the NFL and touches. Yeah, so what was the number you had for seventy six? So McCaffrey last year led the NFL with three thirty nine. Yeah, where I mean, obviously he's not gonna get twenty eight every single right, But so McCaffrey last year twenty one touches game. But the point is, don't let it be Okay, We're just gonna keep going till he gets hurt, Like, yeah, try to get that number down while he's still effective.
Yeah, at number two, there's you. You made fun of me about running backs mattering, right, Yeah, So there's only like a handful of running backs in the league that I would say truly, Matt. You've always said there's two McCaffrey, yeap. Who was the other one?
Camara?
Camara? Yeah, McCaffrey Kamara, And you only.
Said they mattered because their pass catching with Stevenson did not do a lot of in this game.
I'm a pretty close to adding Saquon Barkley to that list too, I think, especially with what he did last week Againstuff, you know, with the big breakout, I mean.
Can you retroactively add Derick Henry yet?
Yeah, but like Derreck Henry like five years ago, Like, I'm not going to count Dereck Henry now, I know, but you.
This is how this came up. You said Derek Henry didn't really matter, okay because he didn't catch the ball.
Yeah, you know, probably just ribbing you for that, I know, but now, okay, So I'm willing to get three right now in the league. Alvin Kamara, Christian McCaffrey. Yeah, I'm almost there with putting Ramondre Stevenson on this list. I'm almost there. Like he did a context of what this offense is. How can you not Yeah, he was a one man show on Sunday. He was the offense. He put the offense on his back.
If if people haven't listened to us for like a few years, if you're new to the show, that's a huge moment. Evan admitting that I just want to let like, I don't know that there is a better way to compliment the effort Ramon Stevenson put forth the impact he had on that game than Evan saying this guy mattered.
He mattered there really is. That's a big I don't know that.
Eble Ever, you might not even compliment Josh Allen that much as much as you just complimented your Stevenson in your own way.
You know how excited I am for tonight though, Josh Allen, you know it this September number three? Third up? Who you got number three?
All right? So we both had one and two. Key On White were probably gonna the same one again, Christian Zalez, I almost did, but I I okay. God, So Christian Zalez has looking back at Christian Zalz's camp, Yeah, where we were like, ah, it's disappointing. We got way too care with these cornerbacks. Man.
Yeah.
Remember we we figured this out with Alex Austin last week, like he's a fine player. We just we went into camp wanting Christian Zalez to be prime to Rowritas and that was just never gonna happen, especially not in training camp. For him to come out and do what he did against Jamar Chase. Was it three catches fourteen yards?
Right?
Yeah, in twenty routes twenty routes. Yeah, that's a hell of a performance.
Yep.
And he's now done it against a J. Brown, against Jamar Chase, against Garrett Wilson, Tyre Tyreek Hill. Yeah for a quarter. Yeah, he comes out and does it against DK Metcalf next week. Oh boy, Like here we go.
What a validating performance from him. And it kind of like I said with Keon White, and I said this before the season, if they want to get back to the kind of defense they were supposed to be with Christian Ballmore in the lineup, with Matthew Judon in the lineup, it's gonna be about the sophomores taking the year two jump and can Christian Zalees or Keon White turn into blue chip players? They both looked like blue chip players on Sunday.
Yeah, that's a great point because to me, with Christian Zales and I I would have him as like three b you know, you.
Know I'm gonna do one more. I'm gonna put ke White Christiansolz together. Is the defensive sophomores. Ye'll give me one more, Okay, So I'm gonna put them together. I think the thing that stands out the most about Christian Gonzales. We've been covering the team now since eighteen and let's take the OG's out.
Like Brady Gronkowski, Edelman like the Stefan gil More, like all the guys we covered in the first couple of years of our careers on the beat the Patriots in this like post Brady era, Gonzalez is like the first guy to me where I look at him and I'm like,
that's a that's a blue chip player. Like the athleticism, the movement skill and coverage, like that's what it should look like when you hit on a first round pick, Like I don't think they were really there with their other first round picks in that time frame, you know, obviously cold strange Mac Jones, like those guys didn't feel like they truly had a blue chip player on their hands. Christian Gonzalez feels like that. The way that he plays
feels like that. He had some extremely high level coverage reps in Manton Man on Jamar Chase in this game, you mentioned the gauntlet that he's played so far, and he's really gone head toe to toe with all those guys and held his own.
Yeah, so he's absolutely that's what he by the way, he used that term with me this week, the Gauntlet.
Yeah, it's incredible and I know it's you know, the league and one this week that's the way the league is. You know, the Garrett Wilson and then I Yuk probably with the forty, like it's gonna be everyone.
But that's why. But that's why it's so important that he become this level of player because if you have somebody that can shut those guys down, it's it's the ultimate like una reverse card in this modern NFL because everything runs through that receiver. Everything runs whatever offense it is, and it's gonna look different, but everything runs through that receiver in the modern NFL. If you can erase that guy, and this defense too, everything this defense is at its best.
We just talk about this all the time. Evan. You put step On Gilmour over here on their on one of their top receivers, and then you can play the rest of the game ten on ten over here. Yeah, And that's advantage Patriots every time. And Christian Zales gives them a chance to play games ten on ten defensively.
Some of his coverage snaps that he has and Man, I to keep referencing my own Twitter, but I know people might want to see it visually.
You're going off in the locker room today about he you don't tweet these anymore.
Not all the time, but the individual ones on mondays, I try to tweet some of my favorites from watching the film. He had a rep against Chas and man to man coverage where you be hard pressed to find a better man to man rep than that one. And the hip swivel that he had to change directions at the top of the route was utterly disgusting.
Well, that's like, that was the whole thing in the draft. We both got all hot and bothered after the combine looking at that and saying, the way this guy moves is different. The way he moves around the field, that way he changes direction, do he changes speeds? Do he flips his hips? The way he goes from the back pedal to the sprint, like it's just all so flut. He looks like he's ice skating out there. It's awesome and it's great to see him back to it after
missing so much time last year. You went to one thing, and I know we've been talking about him for a while, so we'll move on here after this. But the one thing that really stood out to me, and I know he ran well the forty and everything, like he's a lot faster in a straight line than I thought he was coming out. And I loved him coming out, as you know, But like he's even faster than I thought, Like it is effortless for him to carry a vertical route, Like he doesn't even need to really try.
Yeah, some of the time, it's incredible. All right, let's move on my third star, my third up, Jacoby Brissette. I just thought that we have seen so many quarterbacks over the last couple of years, mainly one sorry to you know, throw the boy in Jacksonville under the bus, But Trevor, when you have a pressure rate like that forty eight percent, yeah, how many times have we seen the game just completely unravel on mac Jones in that situation.
Kobe Brissett was the game manager that the Patriots needed the last couple of years, right Like he he did what they were hoping mac Jones was going to be able to do for them. Didn't turn the ball over, no real catastrophic plays, like even the sack he took was like a half yard behind the line of scrimmage. His legs were a big impact in this game. Three first downs with scrambles. I would have liked to have seen him push the ball down the field a little
bit more. That was my nitpick. But in Jim Mineral, he gave the game what it needed this week and he was really, really good. I thought that this was the best of Jacoby Brissett in a lot of ways.
Yeah, we talked about it before, but he was exactly what they needed him to be. Yeah, he didn't lose them the game, and I think that's what you that's what really stands out.
All right, you had one more right, yeah?
Special teams.
Oh yeah, I thought, see this is why I thought you were going to take special teams. So I went with like, okay, yeah.
Special teams. Well, I didn't want to do the thing where it's like, oh the defensive sophomores, you know, too complicated special teams.
So it starts.
It starts with in your head, it starts with del Pettis leaving early on the kickoff and you're like, oh boy, here we go.
It's going to be fifteen flags. Yeah.
After that, masterclass special teams. Master Jeremy Springer excellent in every phase, kickoff, kick return, punting, punt returny of the long snapper, forcing a fumble. Brendon Schooler was great. Bryce bearing are No touchbacks three out of five inside the twenty. How nice is it not holding your breath on a thirty two yard field goal? Joey Slide Those three for three hit some big kicks there late in that game. They're if they're gonna win these games, they're gonna need
to win on the margins. They're going to need better. They're gonna need to be better in the parts of the game that the teams maybe don't focus on as much. Yeah, that's special teams. They don't win that game without that kind of special teams effort, agreed, And if they're gonna continue to win games, they need to continue to weigh up to play that way on special teams.
This is a week where I'm gonna allow, without any snark, allow you to that sounded like smart to get that sound to give your special teams some flowers, Like I'm gonna allow you to do it. Brendan schooler twenty two miles an hour on the GPS, I mean that's impressive, Like that was moving.
Uh.
They he's turning into like, you know, baby Matthew Slater right, Like he's not Matthew Slater. I No one's Matthew Slater. But he's like, you know, in that category of special teams aces. Uh, he's he might be an impact player in the kicking game for them this year. And then you also look at Bill's guy Joe Cardona. How I on it right? How funny is that that he forces the fumble? Yeah? I mean, look, that's such a big part of this win.
Uh.
In going back to like the expectations and all that kind of stuff, how clean they were in all three phases. You know, the penalties were down the big you know kind of brain farts, there were a lot of those special teams was sound throughout basically besides the Dell Pedica jump off sides like that. It was good. It was good for that unit. Not gonna lie. All right, let's go to the downs. I only have two Patriots downs, and then I have a wild card down the I have to I almost did scratch.
I almost did the same thing as you, but I figured you were gonna do it for that third, So I did. I have two players and then just a philosophical thing number one down the left tackles, you can just like put them together. I wanted to give Tucks a corps for his zone.
He deserves his own place he played. He played six pass plays. He gave up three quarterback pressures in six pass plays. Yeah too, the quarter four Vederian Lowe gave up three himself. That most of the pressure. Four I had him for three. I had him for three quarterback hit and two.
Her next gen had him at four on sixteen.
Okay, so maybe that's probably we're in the same ballpark. Basically half the pressure came from the left tackle position alone. In terms of where it was coming from. Trey Hendrickson had a huge game. He had his way with those two guys. It's going to be a concern moving forward to the point where I think we're at the point now and I want to say this and just give a little bit of leeway to Vidarian low because he really hadn't practiced for that.
The thing I almost didn't want to put lows of down because he's hurt. Yeah, he had practice, came in and was not a total disaster. Where it's like the fact, it goes back to what I said at the beginning, highest pressure rate in the league, all but two yards on the ground, efrict contact, and you still walked away saying, man, that could have been a lot worse right. So that's why, like Garian Lowe, it was what it was to me.
It's just like the number one concern for this entire team. And we've been saying this for months, so it's nothing new. Is just left tackle like that's it's that spot, whether it's low it's a Corps four, it's Wallace, like whoever is playing that spot. Every week, it's gonna be the other team's top edge rusher against your left tackle is going to be a mismatch. And that's the concern level that I have there. I was surprised that they didn't
send a ton of help towards Vederian Lowe. I wonder if that chip by the running back in the preseason that led to a sack maybe contributed to the fact that maybe he doesn't like getting help, you know, like maybe that that throws him off his technique a little bit, but chipping, putting the tight end over there, putting the extra offensive lineman over there, even just like the tight end as he goes into the route, just giving a little bit of a bump to the pass rusher on
the way by to try to slow Bowie Maffi down or Trey hendrickson down last week could maybe help Adarian Low out a little bit. But when you give up fifty percent pressure rate, like in terms of the overall pressure number for the Patriots, when fifty percent of it comes from the left tackle spot, it's got to be on the downs.
Yeah, absolutely, and it's something that there. It's probably gonna who didn't. Wasn't there somebody a couple of years ago? It would have been last year, because no, two years ago we started the show, wasn't there somebody like, Oh it was Christian Barmer? Remember we retired him from ups because it was just like every every week. Yeah, we might end up retiring left tackle from downs at some point this season.
You know, as an offensive line guy, it just I can't it just it grinds my gears so.
Much as somebody and as a guy who believes in doing as much as he can to help the quarterback above all else, gears too.
All right, who's your number one for? Okay, Joshua, you're okay, I hear what you're saying.
So yeah, it's not that he get this overall terrible game.
Yeah.
What bugged me is this is a guy that so ke on White part of What was so good about his game yea was he was able to be impactful on first and second down. Maybe could be better against the run, but played eighty percent of the snaps and didn't look out of place as a three down player.
If you agree with me on that. Yeah, you got to run on a little bit, but it wasn't terrible.
He didn't look out of place, like did he look out of place as a three down guy?
Right?
Joshua uch is a player who is here to play on third downs? Yeah, he is here to come in on third down, pin his ears back and go after the quarterback. The very crucial stretch in this game, there's back to back third downs where he's one play where he blows contained allows Joe Burrow to run out of the pocket and convert a third in I think eight. Yeah,
and then the next third down, so they go. Joe Burrow converts it first, second, third and six, josh U j jumps off sides and then they get the third one. They pick it up on the ground. Can you come back for the less if you're josh Uja, come back for less money? You're betting on yourself. You know you're trying to show off that you can be this high level sub rusher, mistakes on third down is the last thing you can afford to be doing. So that just kind of stood out to me in this game.
It's fair enough. You know, I had him with three hurries in this game, and on one of the sacks that was split between Bentley and and uh Keon White, it was his pressure that forced the quarterback.
Up in the box moments too. Was just again for a guy that's gonna make his money on third down, two negative third downs back to back, that it stood out to fair enough. I just think if you take him out of the pass rush, it's then it's really just Keon White who was getting pressure. Yeah, yeah, I would say big like. It's not to say they should play him less or anything. I don't mean to say that. I'm just saying that it was an observation I had.
In the game. Fair enough. I won't go too long on this one because my number two down was is the downfield passing game that was non existent. I already talked about it.
So you made me feel like I'm reaching for that, you're reaching less than I am, or you're reaching more than I am. Correct, Okay, all right, so yeah, that's yeah, okay, I just got to defend who cha little? Yeah, that's all right.
Uh, downfield passing game. When you don't complete a single pass over fifteen yards in the air, you're on the downs list for me. To me, it was mostly protection, but some of it was just Koe Wereset not wanting to really test those windows down the field. That's gonna have to change. They're gonna have to be willing to take some chances moving forward coming out of the half, and you just chuck one to Taekwan Thornton without any
play action or any sort of fake or anything. It's just three step, drop, pop up and throw a go ball. I just didn't care for that call either, just thought that was kind of a waste. They need to find some ways to get the downfield passing game going, all right. So my third down is kind of along the lines with that, and it's the third quarter play calling. Yeah.
They got way too conservative in the third quarter. Yeah, And some of that I think has to do with the offensive line and Cincinnati really started turning the heat up on Jacoby Wessett late in the first half, and it almost felt like they reacted to that by and look, you need to adjust, right, But it almost felt like they went too into a shell their first three, so that they have this lead at halftime and you know, it's like, all right, you've got the momentum, like go for the kill. Shop.
Well, that was what I felt like a Taiwan play, but it was just a no chance.
It was a no chance because I think it was designed to get the ball out of Ersett's hands so quickly, right. I think that was one read because he is Jaalen Pulp wide open. On the other side.
It's probably like a pre snap, like just pick your matchup, which which again goes to I think they were nervous about the offensive line.
They got too conservative. They come out of the half three and out punt Joe Cardo on a force is the fumble, so it's technically a new drive. Right, three plays field goal, so it's technically not a three and out, but it is, and they get the ball back again
three play. Their first would went on the books is their first three drives of the second half were twenty yards on ten plays, and they didn't pick up one first down and they had that one quick throat deep shot and then they just ran the ball a bunch. You have to be more varied than that, especially when you have a chance to get some breathing room. That's where I would have liked to see them go more
play action. That sequence bugged me. I was getting ready if like the Bengals stormed back to say, like this was the turning point. They came out of the locker room way too conservative.
Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. And I just the fumble three, you know, the Cardona forces the fumble, like I was hoping we were kind of done with those, where like the offense just immediately goes three and out after the turnover, Like it would be nice to be able to score touchdowns off of those, Like you're in plus plus territory, like not just plus territory, you're like basically yeah, like you should be able to score a
touchdown from there. My last down. This is my like out of the box one.
I agree with you on this, and I'm happy you're saying this because I thought I was gonna have to say it and you were gonna complain.
It's very rare that I put not just another team's player, yeah, but another team's coach on the downs.
In a coach that comes from the Shanahan McVeigh tree.
Nonetheless, sort of, I'm not ready to claim him. I'm worked for Sean McVeigh for like two years.
No, I'm sorry. If you're gonna do this, you're gonna do.
This because he doesn't he doesn't run the system. He doesn't run the system.
He comes from the tree. Evan, this is one of your guys.
Zach Taylor looking at the carr when I say this, Zach Taylor, y bum. He was a bum in this game? Like what was that from Cincinnati on offense? I thought that game plan from Cincinnati offensively was terrible, like absolutely awful. And I don't usually like to like talk like this, but it just grinds my gears when you have that much talent on the offensive side of the ball and you do nothing with it. Just first of all, you
don't have t Higgins. Jamar Chase like supposedly has like food poisoning or something like that, and is coming off the hold in you ran the ball twelve times, bro, Like.
What do you do? Bro?
The team is the Patriots are sitting in cover two, They're sitting in too high safety. Shew, They're begging you to run the ball. They're begging you. You're just asking you to run the ball. Zack Moss had six carries into light boxes in this game, which is six defenders or less in the box. He had thirty yards. He was averaging five yards of carry against the Patriots light boxes. You only ran it twelve times, Zach Taylor? What are you doing? I say this all the time when I
watch the Bengals offense. I think their offense is rudimentary, and I think their scheme is terrible. Like they don't do anything their gun, their three receiver. They run like a couple of our you know, RPOs here and there. And then it's just Joe Burrow cook and like save me, you know, like be be my merchant, Joe Burrow. Zach Taylor, I think is the most overrated coach in the league on a good team.
And and by the way, by the way, like the game management was bad too. Yeah, that weird challenge that he won but should have lost. The time out the special teams wasn't good. Why why is Charlie Jones returning all these punts? Yeah, tell him to fair catch it. Tell them to fair catch it or put somebody else in there. But Evan, this is this is what the
coaches from that tree do their heads against. They are arrogant, their heads against the wall until it works, because they just think they're so smart that it has to work eventually. I think he is the whole thing when he got highed and remember was oh yeah, because.
He doesn't but he doesn't run that system. He runs a shotgun three receiver spread system in Cincinnati, basically like they think the core philosophies.
He comes from that tree.
It's not though, he doesn't run that offense like they run the Cincinnati Bengals. It's a Tiger. They are the Cincinnati Tigers because they try to run what LSU runs. Right for Burrow got he is he in the Sean McVay coaching tree, Yes or no? He coached under Sean mcgiy, so yes, so yes, so he's in the tree. They don't run the system.
Look, I'll say this, it don't run the same, whether it be game planning, whether it be in game. But I'm talking about the end game decision making, which he definitely didn't learn under Sean McVay because they don't do that. I don't mean this to disparage draw in Mayo. I really don't, but this is a guy coaching head coaching an NFL game for the first time. It's just what anybody rookies. We say this all the time with rookies, like a rookie playing in his game for the first time,
like you expect some growing pains. That's the thing that's veteran. Being a veteran should be an advantage. Zach Taylor and his staff got absolutely pantsed by what was largely a first time coaching staff. The head coach is a first time head coach. Two of the three coordinators are first time coordinators at least at the NFL level. Wow Springer, thank you. Jee Springer was a especially cos coordinator the college level, but two of the coordinators were first time
coordinators at the NFL level. And Alex van pel is a first time true first time play caller. He'd done it before, but like, really, it being his show. You should not get out coached in that situation. And that's not to say that's not to say I think lesser than of the Patriot staff, but it's like any rookies. You let somebody doing something for the first time pants you. That is a terrible terrible.
Look.
I agree with you. Taylor should be on the hot seat.
On the hot seat, Zach Taylor. When the defense is playing soft zone the entire game, put the damn quarterback under center and run the goddamn ball like it's it's really not rocket science. Like I just I find it so unbelievably crazy that they could see the way that the Patriots are playing defense in this game and run the ball twelve times?
Is he the hottest seat in the NFL coming out of Week one?
Maybe? Like I'm sure that the Bengals would probably say, oh, well, we didn't have t Higgins.
And excuse objectively, who's the hot Who's the hottest seat coming out of week one? I'll give you a couple is he Does he have a hotter seat than Robert saw.
No?
I think Robert Saal has a hotter seat.
There's people saying like that's the that's the sneaky bet for like the first coach fire.
Yeah, because if it doesn't work now, then Robert sala is out.
Brian Daball.
Maybe because I think the GM gets fired before Dable does, like dabel might be able to survive there through the GM. Yeah.
Uh, there's another one, who was it? I forget.
Anyway freaking Zach Taylor twelve. Oh he won, But Mike McDaniel, I can see why he's he's there's some skeptics because of the lack of playoff.
It's not his seat's not harder than than than Taylor. I guess that's that's the wrong way to bring it up. But he does a little bit of hot you know, like in a car, there's some of the some of the nice cars have like the different levels of seat warmer. It's like one, two three, he's on like level one. It's on the seat warmers on.
It's not on the high side the lights on, but it's not all the way on. I hear you, all right, I'm done with picking on Zach Taylor. I just I find it. One of my least favorite things about coaches in general are guys that just refuse to see the forest for the trees, Like it's just right in front of you and you're just so stubborn and you just run what you run, and that's it.
Well, idolizing the Shanahan tree is.
Wild, because I think you're you're wrong when it comes to this element of the Shanahan tree. I think the Shanahan tree adjusts.
All the time we've Evan, We've talked about this, this is what they do.
I can't sit here and tell you that, like what their pass run splits and all that kind I'm talking about Schematically. If a team came out and played the forty nine Ers the way the Patriots played the Bengals, Kyle Shanahan would have run the ball forty times. He did it in the in the NFC Championship game against the Packers with Jimmy g like that, Like he would have just ran the ball. If you're going to play that type of coverage against us, we're gonna run the ball.
I mean they Okay, they adjust more than that. I'll give you credit for that, but they don't they they He's throwing the ball at Brock Party up two scores in the fourth quarter Super Bowl. That's not adjusting. Is banging your head against the wall, blinders on. I'm gonna do what.
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still there, you're on. What's up Sean?
Heyvan?
Yeah, that's how you.
Thanks Sean, No.
Problem now. I was really impressed by the Patriots win and I know, yeah that that's crazy how it happened, and it's really not something that we can count on as there was so much going on in terms of how everything went. My right, and you can't have that as a formula to consistently win. However, what I really
did like was the Patriot's Way. And I know some people are skeptical about the Patriot's Way in terms of what that means, but to me, it means do your job, which is focusing on playing your position and being your best at your ability and limiting errors. You know, you trust your teammates to do the same. It takes discipline, trust patients, and that play of that game on Sunday is a great example of that. So I'm happy that the Patriot's Way is still alive and well in New England.
Yeah, thanks for the call, Sean. I think it's a good point. I You know, this is something that Edelman mentioned too, was that it's a lot of the same messaging, it's just coming from a different messenger. Yeah, and sometimes that's all it needs to be.
You know.
Bill Belichick was the greatest head coach of all time, Like you don't need to go into it and completely change his entire program, and Girodmeo being here kept a lot of the things that he liked and then maybe changed or slightly tweaked some of the things that he felt like he didn't like and so far one weekend, it seems like that was sort of a Belichick coach to win, you know, fundamentally sound, No, don't hurt yourself,
run the football, play great defense. Like a lot of those things are what Bill has been going for, frankly for the last couple of years, and at times in twenty one and twenty two they got to it, but it obviously wasn't consistent enough. I understand where he's coming from that it still did feel a little bit Bill like Belichick.
In Yeah, I think there was definitely an emphasis on that that do your job thing, and it never felt like there were times where guys were trying to do more than they needed to do. Ye, And that's encouraging because on a team like this, there's definitely you can see how there'd be be a lean towards that, and you didn't see that in this game.
Yep. Absolutely, all right, Patty is an aguam. What's up? Patty?
What's up?
Guys?
You want to take doing great man? A couple of questions, as always, do you think first questions and for the both of you guys, both questions, do you think we run a similar game plan that we ran last week, with the exception of maybe opening up the passing game just a little bit more to try and keep them a little bit more honest, because I do think honestly we can we can scheme up and run against the
Seattle defense. And which of the three cornerbacks Jonathan Jones, Marcus Jones, Christian Gonzales, which one of those three guys do you think draws the hard hardest matchup this week? And I'll take it off air, and as always.
You guys are the best.
Thanks, yeah, thanks Patty? All right? Who who draws you in the receiver? In the receivers for Seattle Patriots corners?
Yeah, I think it's pretty straightforward. I think Gonzales gets DK metcalfs dying over here. You get Gonzalez and DK metcalf yep, right. You know, athletics is not leticism. John Jones, Tyler Lockett, two veterans, quick guys. That makes a lot of sense. And I think you throw Marcus Jones or whoever in the slot on Jackson Smith and Jigbo. If JSN really starts to beat you up, maybe move John Jones in the slot and throw Alex Austin or Marco Wilson un locket with help over the top. But I
think this one's actually pretty straightforward. I don't think there's too much to get into here.
Yeah, the only thing that you worry about a little bit is is Marcus Jones, like Jackson Smith and Jibus a little bit thicker and bigger than Marcus Jones. We worry a little bit about that. But Yoshiva's he did a pretty good job against Yeshiva's considering the height difference and stuff like that, So maybe it's not that big
of a deal to the first one. I think it is a kind of a similar game plan because the one thing you don't want to do with this McDaniel's scheme or McDonald excuse me, I said McDaniel McDonald's.
Like, oh, we bring the fullback back this week, let's go right.
I wish the one thing that you don't want to do with this McDonald's scheme is to get is get into passing situations and just allow him to unleash this pressure package of his. Is the darling of the leagues. You don't you got to stay out a third and long. You have to stay out of like being behind on the scoreboard big that you're an obvious pass, you have to be able to stay ahead of the chains like
all that kind of stuff. It still qualifies here. So I would say Downhill run game probably better off that way too, because they are a pretty fast and athletic defense in Seattle. I don't necessarily think that they should be going sideline to sideline against this team. I don't think that's how you beat them. I think you go right at them again, So pretty similar Again, like I said earlier, I hope the play action passing game is
a little bit more you know, fruitful this week. And the one thing that might be beneficial to them is this is a very very zone heavy system. They play a ton of zone coverage in this defense. So usually with play action you think the zone stuff. You know, you're pulling guys, guys like in the middle of the field now have run fits and they have zone responsibilities. So if you put those guys in conflict, then you can play games with them in the play action passing
game and get that thing going. So that's that's the hope here. But I I think from a game plan perspective, offensively, it kind of stays the same. I would run right at him again, because I you know, as good as Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy are, those guys are downhill players, like they're aggressive gap shooters there. I don't necessarily look at those guys as like Devon Godshaw's right, like who You're just gonna have a tough time moving on the interior.
Do you do you think that they do anything differently offensively? Maybe mix in some more play action. Yeah, you know, but nothing.
You're not going to reinvent the wheel. I mean that you're kind of limited in terms of what personnel is. So I don't think we're gonna see anything that's that much of a departure.
Agreed, all right, Kendall is in North Carolina. It's up Kendall.
On guys. Hey, Hey, I just want to know what's your overlot, Like, what is your negative about any weak I know you already did your film work on them. Well, I'm not sure if you've already completed were the early weaknesses that you see in Seattle defense?
Yeah? Yeah, thanks for the call, Candle, I appreciate it. So I will start with the Seahawks defense because that's what we were just talking about. I think It's what I just mentioned with them in terms of weakness is Byron Murphy and Leonard Williams and Hankins, and those guys in the middle are really good pass rushing players, especially Williams and Murphy. But again, I Murphy's like in that Aaron Donald type mold, but he's obviously not Aaron freaking Donald.
So like, if there's one thing that you could probably do is run at him at this stage of his career. So I would probably get downhill on this team defensively or Patriots offense their defense because of that, I don't necessarily look at their lineup in their linebackers either and say, those guys are are Juwan Bentley's and Godshaws and like players that you're you don't want to run over.
Yeah, and if you can start running the ball successfully, it kind of forces some of those blitzers to hesitate. We talked about you talked about earlier, how you know these blitzer are gonna be coming from all over and don't necessarily know who they're bringing. If the run becomes a real threat, you kind of have to hesitate before really going all in after the quarterback. So I'm with you. I think establishing the run early is important.
Yeah, So offensively for the Seahawks. Defensively for the Patriots, their offensive line also has some concerns and some issues. Yeah, Charles Cross had a really nice debut last week at left tackle. He's a really good run blocker and blocker in space, like super athletic guy, but can be had in pass rush or pass protection bite with power, Like if you want to put Keon White over him and just have him bull rush him into the pocket, there's a chance that you can dent the pocket that way.
And at right tackle, George Fan, I'm not sure if he's gonna play or not. He was a DNP in practice yesterday, so they could be on a backup right tackle.
Both their guards are hurt too.
Yeah, they have some concerns on the offensive line, just like the Patriots.
Yeah, I to me how they use key On what is interesting? Like you said, do you put him on the blind side? Do you put him up against Charles Cross and just kind of try to put him in bully him. Well, I just be like, do you put Keon White in the spot where he's gonna be most effective? What I mean by that is obviously your best rusher on the blind side quarterback can't see him coming? Or do you use Keon White to match a punt and oh they have a backup right tackle and oh their
guards are banged up? Right do you put it? And I think they'll do a little bit of everything. I think to move around. But how do you approach Keon White's usage in this game? Where do you put him? I think is the big question there. And I don't know if there's necessarily a wrong answer, it's just is it is it good or is it better how you're using him?
Yeah, last thing on their weaknesses, And I also want to talk a little bit about their strains to their offense. Because we talked about the defense the pressure package. We can talk about that a little bit too. But I think there's like once or I think Geno has come a long way. Like Gino's a much better player than he used to be. It's it's impressive how far he's come as a passer from the pocket compared to what
he was. And he also had like a thirty yard touchdown run in the game last week, just like took off up the middle of the field and ran like nineteen miles an hour. I think he almost touched on the GPS really fast player in the open field there. There's once or twice a game. He's still gonna give
you a chance to take the ball away. He's gonna make some aggressive throws down the field where he trusts his arm a little bit too much, and he's got a little bit of that arm arrogance going on like we talk about with Josh Allen, and you can turn him over a little bit in that respect. He turned the ball over on their first possession of the game last week, like threw the ball right to a guy, you know, arm punted style, basically right to somebody there's
some pressure in the pocket. But taking advantage of those opportunities is going to be big because if you're the team like the Patriots, you gotta steal possessions, right, you have to find ways to steal possessions. So where do you see, you know, in terms of what stood out to you in Week one with Seattle? Offensively?
Yeah, so offense, So a couple things you mentioned the early interception, right, yeah, not a group that's going to go down quietly. Just big picture kind of saw us last week with Cincinnati, like didn't they feel like discouraged by the end of the game, and maybe some of that. I think Burrow was the wrist was a thing mentally.
Say the water bottle thing.
Yeah. So here's real quick on Joe Burrow. I see a lot of people using this game as like an indictment that Burrow is not actually a top five quarterback in the league. I'm not willing to all that far. But if I'm the Bengals, I'm calling a sports psychologist.
I don't know if he's healthy.
I think he is healthy. I don't think he thinks he's healthy.
So I was talking to Trags. Yeah, are our good friend Trags before the game on Sunday. Yeah, And we were just running through both teams. You know what do you see? What you see? And I asked him about Burrow and Trags nailed it per usual, said that in the middle of the field, Burrow looks like Burrow, like he can still throw the ball through the middle of the field, anticipate throws, all that kind of stuff like
he always has. But in camp he was not having He was having some issues throwing the ball outside the numbers. And I felt like that really reared its head in the game, like he had some opportunities, some one on one opportunities outside the numbers that old Joe Burrow I feel like would have just ripped it and he didn't.
Well that's why again I think he needs a sports psychologist. I wonder if there's a confidence thing, because the water bottle was not that heavy, Like that's a mental thing,
that's not a physical thing. If your wrist was really that much of an issue, he like he wouldn't be able to play, you know what I'm saying, Yeah, I think he needs sports like anyway, back to the original point, Yes, it did feel like the Bengals, maybe following the lead of their quarterback late in that game, got sort of just all right, well you know this else take him to exactly, you're not gonna be able to. You might you can try to take the Seahawks the hill. I'm
not gonna say you can't. But this is a team that's gonna play a sixty minute game. And I think some of that was they had a little bit of what the Patriots at first time head coach like, they're playing for this guy, They're trying to get him going. I think Gino has tremendous buy in there, much like Jacoby does here agreed, this is not a unit that the Patriots punched the Bengals in the mouth, and the Bengals stumbled, Yeah.
You're not.
You're gonna punt. If they punched Seattle in the mouth, Sew's gonna get back up and gonna need to punch him again and again and again. So that's one thing. The other thing that sitt out to me Kenneth Walker. I am so glad gerrowd Mao and von Gotscha and all these other guys have talked about how underrated Kenneth Walker is this week because they are right. I love this guy coming out of Michigan State. I was really high on him, and he is such a good modern
NFL back. And what I mean by there's two kinds of modern NFL backs. There's the one that you like, which is basically a receiver out of backfield, one of the best players in and those guys well McCaffrey Kamara, Yeah, you could even take it to a level like the guys like James White, right, like a modern back, a guy that can be a factor in the passing game.
The other the other thing I think of when I think of modern back, are you two twenty five, two thirty with wiggle, because if you're a speedster but you're not like one of these pass catchers, it's really hard to be sustainably good in the NFL because the physical toll with these bigger, faster, stronger defenders. It just it's a lot harder to be impactful like that if you're
not also contributing the passing game. There's also guys that are like two thirty, but they're just two thirty and they fall forward like they don't like, are you a guy that Bjeon Robinson, Well, he contributes to the passing game, but you get what I'm saying. Yeah, yeah, Actually that's what it is, is Jamier games. B Jeon Robinson one of the two right. Kenneth Walker is the guy that I think he's like two twenty six to twenty seven something like that. You wouldn't know it by the way
he plays, kind of like we saw with Remandre. He can run around guys just as well as he can run through them. Those guys are a freaking headache because small guy, you kind of know what the point of attack, all right, as long as I don't let him get outside my frame, I'm gonna be able to take him down. He's not gonna put much of a fight. Big guy, you know, is gonna hurt. But if I stand in front of him, I'm gonna tackle him. Kenneth Walker can do so many different things to you with the point
of attack. It really makes him a nightmare to go up again. So we can talk about DK metcalf a lot. Everybody knows how I think about about him future Patriot DK metcalf right ideally, Yeah, but the way Kenneth Walker can just exerts actual he's listed at two fifteen. Wow, I thought he's bigger than that. Still big, but he
runs much bigger now, which kind of my point. The way he can exert force on a defense and put a defender in conflict at the point of attack makes him a really dangerous player to me.
Yeah, so let's stick with the running game because I think it's a good point. First of all, probably one of the biggest X factors of this game is Kenneth Walker's health.
Like Kenneth that's a good point. He didn't practice.
If Kenth Walker doesn't play in this game, it's huge for the Patriots. Like I would say, potentially result changed almost as big as t Higgins being out, if not bigger with the Bengals.
It's a it's a good comparison.
I don't think Zach Charbonnet is as good of a player, like even close, So I think it would be really massive if Kenneth Walker is out on Sunday. One of the things that really stood out to me that I thought was impressive with the Seahawks film watching their tape last week against Denver was how well Walker ran and how well Ryan Grubb, their offensive coordinator, is one of your guys is from wat University Washington College. Oh see
how well he designed a run game. On top of that we just talked about earlier, I had my rant about Zach Taylor not running the ball against the Patriots soft zones. The Broncos played the exact same type of coverage as the Patriots played similar type of coverage, I should say, as the Patriots played against the Seahawks last week. The Broncos game plan was, it's not gonna be Metcalf, It's not gonna be Jsn, it's not gonna be Tyler Lockett. It's gonna be the run game. It's gonna be Gino.
It's gonna be something else. They really held Dk Metcalf under wraps. Now, a lot of that was Patrick Surtan, who was a stud. But what you're kind of hoping, Christians Alls is that kind of play. So just a quick aside. I was talking to Christian Gonzalez about this the other day. He said that the number one corner that he watches in the league is Certain. He said that that's like his his idol, Like he's that's the
guy he models his game. Makes sense. Anyways, the run game for Seattle, I was really impressed with Ryan Grubb and his scheme. In the run game. They run a lot of bells and whistles, like all the things I
was talking about the Patriots didn't do last week. Seattle was doing all of them, like shift here, shift there, motion this guy, Yeah, bring the tight end into motion, right, So when you bring the tight end and you start the tight end early into his block and then it allows him to kick out with more force and things like that, and changing the strength of the formations with shifts, like they shifted ten times in this game. That was
the highest amount in the league. Last week, Washington's offense was was a big shifting offense. They did that a ton with the Huskies as well. It's a big hallmark of this system is how much they motion and shift pre snap. So they do it with a purpose though, like they're gonna shift guys to change up and open up holes in the run game, or they're gonna motion guys to get guys into their blocks with heads of steam and things like that. They do it really nice
job in the running game. And if you watch that tape, Denver is a lot of six man in the box. They're a lot too high. They're just worried about the passing game and stopping the explosive plays through the air, and the Seahawks carved them up on the ground, absolutely carved him up. So if you're the Patriots, I look at this run game from Seattle, because when I think of Seattle, I'm sure you think the same thing. We both love DK. You think DK, you think Lockett, you
think JSN. When I turned on this film against Denver, I was thinking Kenneth Walker. I was like, this was a Kenneth Walker game. They'll run the ball if the Patriots play the same brand of defense they did against Cincinnati. So I'm interested to see what DeMarcus Covington does this time around, because there's a different game plan. It's a different beast that they're going up against, and this is a team that will run the ball unlike Zach Taylor. Yeah,
so that's an offense. Defensively, it's McDonald like, this pressure scheme is becoming the invoke thing I know Andrew Kallen had in the Herald today. The Patriots are even trying to take some things from it. They they are running the IT scheme defensively in the league right now. What you're gonna see a lot of is you're gonna see a lot of multiple pass rush pass rush threats up on the line of scrimmage. Once the ball is snapped, who's coming and who's going? Right Like, they're gonna bring
different guys from different places. They're unknown rushers, as girod BeO calls them. You don't know who the four guys are gonna come and who are the four guys that are gonna drop. But they're gonna get to a four man rush. They don't bring a lot of extra pressure. Often it's usually four or five guys. You just don't know where those four or five guys are coming from. It's extremely disguised heavy, it's extremely difficult to decipher pre snap.
It's a very very difficult attack based system to run against.
And that to me is why you have to establish the run. Yea, nothing will up because you have to do against this group. They already have the reason not everybody runs. That is it's a lot easier said than done. It's a big mental task for not just the guys that are rushing, but all eleven players on the defense.
So they're already thinking about a lot. If you can start using misdirection, motion, play action, just running the ball to offset the timing where they now have to you know, the run fit has to be just as much at the front of the mind as the passing down responsibility, whether it's rushing or covering that extra quarter second they have to think, and you give them something extra to
think about can make all the difference. So I think for the Patriots about establishing the run and just even things as simple as counters or draws, just anything that upsets the timing and doesn't make it a black and white picture is gonna help this week.
Yeah, So McDonald is from the wink Martindale tree, but he doesn't bring as much like Wink Martin dud just blitzes.
Wink Martindale had a rough week last I know, did you watch that. When you watch that in Fi Brewery, you your guy Sarks. The Sarkisia put Wink Martindale in an absolute blender. So Wink Martindale blitzes like just pure, we're bringing more guys than you have to block. McDonald has sort of taken that to the next level where it's we're gonna simulate that you were bringing more guys and you're gonna block, but we're actually gonna just bring four guys. It's just that you just can't decipher which
for it is gonna be. So I look at Layden Robinson, I look at Michael Jordan, like two guys. Jordan's a little bit more experienced, obviously had some experience in the league. They're gonna play some freaking mind games with Leyden Robinson. I can tell you that right now. Yeah, you know, his.
Head's gonna be in an absolute blender. So this is a big week for David Andrews, It's a big week for Jacoby. Like those guys need to know when they're hot, they need to know, you know, where the lines pointed needs to be correct, and basically, Jacoby, it's kind of on him, like if you point the line in a certain way and you know this guy's the mic, and you know that the line is responsible for one, two, three, four, if five comes, you need to know that you're hot and the ball needs to come out.
You know that.
That's a big part of his game plan this week. The good news because it's daunting to go up against. It's a scary defense to go up against. Yeah, the good news is a VP again week two of this has a lot of experience against this defense. You know, he coached against Baltimore for years with the Cleveland Browns, coached against McDonald's you know, four or five times with the Cleveland Browns. So he has the he knows what's coming, Like he understands what's coming in this game. It's gonna
be an interesting test for the offensive line. There's a lot of different moving parts here. I want to do key matchups. Let's what do you got? Number one?
So we already kind of talked about it. Christians also and DK metcalf. Yeah, and not even necessarily like what obviously means a lot for this game, but also just what a sign it would be about Gonzales going forward if he comes out and just has another one of these performances against DK Metcalf. You know, I I think he'll travel with him a good amount just based off what we saw last week. Is kind of why I'm projecting that. But yeah, that's that, that's my number one
match we're looking forward. Yeah, so I definitely had that one too.
I think the biggest thing for Gonzo so I wrote down two certans numbers here for a second. So he went against DK for twenty four routes, eleven of them in man coverage, and gave up three for twenty nine. So that's pretty darn good.
Yeah.
Uh.
The biggest thing to me with Gonzo at this matchup is that DK is such a freaking beast right like, so he can stick with him speed for speed. I have no doubt about that. This is a tough matchup for him in terms of physicality. I remember us talking about this with AJ Brown a little bit too, like this is a physical specimen. So Gonzalez holding his water against DK Metcalf is gonna be tough, and not just in the route, but he is going to catch one
or two like tackling him. Yeah, yep, one hundred percent. All right, So my other two are on the offensive line for the Patriots, you know, for a good reason. Yeah, Vederian Lowe versus Boie Mafy, I think it's a huge mismatch.
Uh.
Mafi had nine quarterback pressures last week. It was third most in the league behind I think it was like Miles Garrett and Max Crosby, like two of the most guy was awesome, maybe was Micah you know what, really good guys, right, that's the point. Also had a TfL in the run game too, MafA. He was kind of like ther Keon White. Yeah, this year where he was a raw player. We've talked about him in the draft. I go that for a fact. I think one of our mock draft simulators we actually took him for the
Patriots at the end of the first round. He's definitely one of those guys that was a little bit raw coming out of college. This is like raw, toolsy, physical guy, just like Keon. And it took him a couple of years, but last year the light started to go on. This is year three for him. Now it started to come on a little bit last year and now it seems like it's fully on in year three to start year three,
so he's gonna be up against Vidarien Lowe. He likes to run, they like to rush him off the left side, and he's extremely explosive, excellent first step, good length to him as well. But unlike Keon, like he's not a bull rusher necessarily. He is a first step demon off the edge, but with some power. So i'd say it like almost like a mix between Kean White and Joshua Ucha. So that's a pretty scary guy one of mine.
I guess I should have said this before because it was literally what we were talking about. But just Alex van Pelt versus Mike McDonald. I'm fascinated by this storyline of like, all right, you have two brint coaching staffs brand new on their teams, yet this is just an old AFC North matchup. Yeah, between Mike McDonald's Ravens and Alex Van Pelt's Brown It's crazy how that keeps happening, like two weeks in a row. Yeah, So you know,
I was actually before he came in. I didn't get a chance to finish, but like looking up kind of how Van Pelt did against McDonald the last few years, you know, in Cleveland and Baltimore. But I just so they've run these schemes against each other, but they're not doing it with new players, new strengths and new weaknesses. I'm just interested to see how that plays out. I think that's kind of a cool little wrinkle to this one.
So the game in twenty two, I'm trying to pull it up, Yeah, was twenty three to twenty Baltimore at twenty twenty two. I mean, Jacoby Brissett starting against against this Ravens defense. They they they've had, they've held their own, No, against the Ravens team that frankly has Lamar Jackson and is like better than them, right, Yeah, like they've held
their own in those matchups. They ran the ball okay in that game with Jacoby Brissett, but he was sacked five times in that game a couple of years ago, so that that was obviously the big thing. But it's again another week, just like last week, where at least AVP has a ton of familiarity with what they're gonna do.
I mean last year that did big fourth quarter comeback against them in Baltimore, right, So yeah, and then they put up three points in the game in Cleveland. I think that was the first game with Josh Dobbs.
Yeah the yor not with Josh Jobbs, with Don with the uh dtr No, no, no, Pat the other guy the other the other what the Pat Walker?
Hang on Walker?
Uh?
PJ Walker?
Oh No, it was weak four. They just got spanked at Sean Watson the.
Other But I'm like shouting PJ. Walker. I knows him, PJ Walker. I just like PJ Walker.
Anyway, He's put up points against him before.
Yeah, yeah they have. Uh, it's it's a tough matchup though. It's gonna be interesting to see.
Uh.
Last one here for me, Leonard Williams against Leyden Robinson on the interior. Leonard Williams had five quarterback hits last week against bow Knicks, like vintage Leonard Williams. He was, Yeah, he's still got it. He he has not lost a step or even half a step. Yeah, he's gonna be a problem. He likes to do a little you know, head slap move like two double swipe where he just kind of you know, goes inside out and then double swipes the guy out of the way and goes around him.
It's kind of it seems like that's sort of his go to move in the pass rush. He's a good player. I like watching him play. And Murphy's not a slouch either. Rookie but not a slouch either. Their first round pick out of Texas. So Landon Robinson's gonna have his handsfuld. Michael Jordan's gonna have his hands full on passing downs. Those guys are gonna be stressed in this game. What else do you have?
Again? I are talked about this like ke On White against just the Seahawks line. They're gonna line him up all over the place. But Seattle's banged up up front. It's maybe a place the Patriots can find a mismatch. So key On White, whoever they line him up across from on any given plake, that's that's a spot Patriots gotta win.
All right, Let's get to some of these emails. We can still talk Seattle. There's a couple of Seattle questions here, but I think that was a pretty extensive breakdown of this matchup. But we can still talk to some Seahawks questions here. I want to get to this question now because I think it's a good one. David who listens from Madrid, Spain every week. He's always emailing in. He asked about Drake May, and you know, we talked about
Drake May week five kind of being that target. Does it change at all that Jacob Brisseet won a football game and maybe continues to win football games here? So he said, basically, if Jacoby's around five hundred or better, does that push May's starting point down?
I mean, some of that's gonna come along with just what that looks like. Like he's a five hundred and he's playing like he did on Sunday? Is he playing worse?
Right?
As long as they're winning games, he's gonna have to buyd in the locker room. And that gives the Patriots more time if they want to pull the trigger for.
Better or worse. It turns even more into the Miami Dolphins with Tua and Ryan Fitzpatrick in twenty twenty, where there was a divide in the locker room and a lot of people in that Miami locker room felt like they should stick with Fitzpatrick because he had them in contention for the first six weeks of the season, but the organization was behind to a big picture and that was where they went with it. I have to tease it. I talked to Drake May yesterday, did a piece on
him this morning. It's up on Patriots dot Com, just talking about how what he went through last week and the practice reps. He did mention that he saw some first team starter reps early in the week with the Patriots ones. He called him good on good right, our first team offense versus the first team defense. And he did get some of those reps early in the week,
he said. And then once it went into a real hardcore game plan prep mode, they went to Jacoby and he was on working with the scout team, But he felt like it was beneficial to just watch Jacoby go through it, Like what's the preparation, what's the meetings look like, what's the lead up to the game look like. You know, this was also a road game, so like what does that element of it add to it once we got to Cincinnati, Like, how does that change everything from a
road perspective. The more that I heard him talk about it, the more I began to see some of the benefits to him sitting that even go beyond just him getting better himself before they throw him in there just learning how to be a pro, like learning how to do the little things, you know, some of the things that he said about you know, North Carolina has school right right now, it's just football and a lot of the
preparation that goes to preparing for an NFL defense. He said it was significantly more than preparing for a college defense. So that's a lot that's a big undertaking. And then on the sideline, of course, he had the earpiece in and is basically playing the game mentally from the sideline. So I think it was it was beneficial to him in his long term development in terms of when he starts. I'd still say by Halloween. I'd like to see it happen.
But look, if Brissette's winning, you don't pull a winning quarterback out just it's like a goalie and hot, right, like, you don't pull the hot goalie. So if they're get to mid October, let's call it week six is in, they're four and two. I don't know if they've made the switch, then they might.
Let's get to foreign two.
But no, I'm getting ahead of myself, but I'm just you know, for the point of the argument.
No, I've said this like just the him going over that film with Jacoby and understanding the decisions he didn't didn't make. Yeah, it's gonna save him a lot of growing pains on the field. I certainly think that's valuable. And if they can, if they can wait a little longer, like it can't hurt, right, I do still think he should play at some point to see. I'm still not on board with sitting in the whole year agreed.
Like unlet's say all of a sudden are like on pace to win ten or eleven games and make the playoffs. I still feel like, if you're gonna be even best case scenario for this team, to me feels like the twenty twenty two team where they're like it's six to eight wins in that range, I still make the switch if that's all you're you're hovering around like because that you're not a playoff team at that point, so you're not really derailing anything too much. But we talked about
it earlier, you know, during the summer. Kind of has flip flopped after one game a little bit. But do you lose the locker room by going one, you know, one way over the other. You do have to think about that sort of thing. If you're winning with Jacoby, some of the veterans in that locker room, some of the captains, those guys are gonna be like, what the hell are we doing if you take Jacoby out? So that's an element of it too. But I maybe have pushed it to like Halloween, Like was that week five?
Halloween's probably like week eight or nine October. Maybe we're more closer to that range. He plays for half the season, get his feet wet. I don't know. I don't love it. I don't love it. Uh, Stephen writes in and he says that he had things that a lot of people have written that this game against Seattle is a winnable game. A lot of people, I feel like, have circled this home opener, Gerron Mayo's first game as head coach here at Jillette Stadium, the Seahawks coming from Seattle to the
East Coast. Like a lot of people have circled this as a winnable game for the Patriots. Steven says that he disagrees because of some of the matchups, and I kind of tend to agree with him a little bit. I feel like not to no pun intended a little sleeping on Seattle in New England, Like maybe we it's a West Coast team. They always play it at four o'clock windows. Sometimes we get the game. Sometimes we don't
get the game here on the East Coast. I'm not sure how much people have watched Seattle over the last couple of years. This was a nine to eight football team that missed the playoffs on the tiebreaker last year. Like, this is not a slouch of a football team.
So I think the Bengals have a better roster. But where the Bengals holes are just match ups so well with the Patriots strengths. Yeah, and that's what I think you saw happen. That's not the case with Seattle. Like Seattle's better against the run, They're better at running the football, they can spread the ball out more on offense. There's gonna test the Patriots in ways. I think the Bengals didn't that it's gonna be tougher test for the Patriots.
Yeah, I agree.
I don't know.
I just feel a lot of people have had that take. We did our picks on the fanl I was the only one that picked Seattle to win this game, really, and I guess sometimes we can be Sunshine dot Com sometimes a little bit right. But I was shocked. I was pretty surprised I was the only one that picked
the Seahawks in this game. I get that there's gonna be a lot of energy in the building, probably for Mayo and for you know, the season being back here home opener, But I don't love the matchup for the Patriots. I think it's a really good pressure defense that Seattle runs, and I think they have a lot of weapons on the offensive side of the ball. They have a lot more than the Patriots too. If Kenneth Walker doesn't play, it evens the playing field a little bit. If he does,
then I be hard pressed to find more weapons than Seattle. Honestly, I kind of think he might play.
I don't know. I wonder if he got I know they called it like an oblique. I wonder if he was getting a rest day like Ramandre was because he had a similar yeah workload. I I'll be interested to you what it looks like on the injury report today.
Yeah, agreed, all right. Carlos Los Pats emails in He's got two questions for us here, he said, he asks how confident are we in the coaching staff's ability to prepare the team week to week, so like game plan oriented offense and defense. I think this is a good question because last week it worked exactly to a t what they planned. We talked about it off the top of the show. That plan's not going to work every
single week. How confident are you, I would say, especially offensively defensively, I'm pretty confident that they're gonna be able to game plan it up offensively if teams stacked the box and they are forcing Jacoby Brissett to beat them with his arm. Like, how confident are we that they can actually go out there and do that?
I would say more than that, Like you look at that Week one game. I love the game plan, but they had what like three months to put that together. Yeah, now they have one week. So this to me is the first real like game game plan week of the season, you know what I mean. So I'm really interested to see what it looks like this week and how many new wrinkles can they add? Excuse me, how much do
they change going into this game? Because again, you had months to tinker and do this and that whatever going into the Bengals game. Now it's all right, install on Wednesday, get it set on Thursday, situational stuff on Friday, and you go. So it's a good question. I actually think this week will be more telling than last week was in that regard.
Yeah, I agree. I think that's a really good point. And sometimes I feel like we make too much of it. But sometimes I feel like we almost don't make enough of it. Of like the whole offseason to prepare for one team, and the Bengals really didn't change very much in the off season either. I owe their offensive coordinator change, but their head coach is an offensive guy and all. It's still the same cast of characters for the most part with Cincinnati, so they kind of knew who Cincinnati
was like for months leading up into this game. So it's a good point about this being a quicker week. I'm still skeptical or still not. They got to earn it with me about them being able to go game plan on offense. I don't know if they can do that yet. His second question is about Scott Peters. Early on in training camp, I gave Scott Peters some kudos. I was a little excited. I was like, Okay, maybe this guy just knows what he's doing. I am pretty
confident in Scott Peters at this point. I trust. He asked, how much trust do I have in Scott Peters. I trust his ability to coach technique. We see it every single day. It's actually pretty dark and cool. Offensive line is usually right in front of us, which I know that Dante Scarnekia is in his woodshop at home being like, yeah, right, I would put my guys right in front of the media, but he's out in front of the media now, Scott Peters, and we hear it every single day, him coaching these
guys up. Yesterday he was working on with Vederia Lowe on a certain type of pass at a sea set to like a forty five degree and he was working on it with him like in the weeds, like in the trenches, like talking about footwork and all that kind of stuff. What I'm more concerned about, And I know there's some rumblings that Ben McAdoo might have a hand in the design, the overall design. It's one thing to
be a really good technique based coach. It's another thing to be able to design a game plan and a run game and a pass blocking and all that kind of stuff. We're talking about this out at practice a
little bit earlier in the week. The way that this is often done is the OC and the play caller puts together the call sheet and he says, these are the forty things we want to run this week, these are the thirty five things we want to run this week, and then he gives it to the offensive line coach or whoever's responsible for getting it blocked, and they get it blocked, right. They go through the actual what protection are we gonna marry to this route concept? And what
you schemer? Are we gonna run here and there? And I don't know about that element of it yet. Scarnekia and Ivan Fears were excellent at getting stuff blocked for the run game, like Ivan with the running backs obviously, Dante with the offensive line. I don't know where Scott Peters is in terms of that. That might be more Ben mcadow's perview with this coaching staff right now, but
that remains to be seen to me right now. It's like how they're gonna get everything blocked schematically and kind of from the bird's eye view.
And that's again goes to what I talked about earlier, just with looking at this week, you finally saw we talked about all summer. You can't really evaluate the offensive line to they're in games. You saw it, now, what are you gonna change about it?
Yep? Absolutely all right. Adam asks from California. He has two questions. Number One, he saw, we all saw Xavier Worthy shot out of a cannon on that jet sweep the other day, and the opener thanked the Buffalo Bills for that one. Thanked the Buffalo Bills for that one. And he asks if we feel like Taekwon Thornton could be used on similar types of motions he has in the past. He's done it in the past, not in a high volume.
He did it against alex man Pelt in Cleveland.
Though, Yeah, did it against alex mn Pelt on the goal line right in Cleveland for a.
Touch to the goal line one. No, I think that was a little bit longer.
I thought that was a touchdown.
It was a touchdown, but I think it was like fifteen to twenty yards okay, red Zolo, Yeah, Redzep.
And then he did it. Remember last year against the Chargers. If DeVante Parkers stopped blocking down the field, otherwise he would he might have been able to house it, he's done it in the past. We obviously know about his injury concerned turns in terms of doing that at a high volume, but I suppose the same could be said for Worthy, right, he's also kind of a real thin guy.
I would like to see it. I like to see them at least at least send Taekwon in motion some just as eye candy too, like just as window dressing would be nice as well.
By a nineteen yard run, getting two yard pass passing touchdowny two touchdowns in that game. I remember the run looked like everybody was standing still. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean this is they made a whole point of this, like getting the guy in the lineup because his speed and his big play ability and all that. Like that doesn't need to just be go balls. There's probably gonna be a lot of it, but it doesn't need to
just be go routes. You can have him doing other things too, So I think he yeah, I think that they should kind of expand his role a little bit.
So second question was about the scheme with avp's installing, and we talked a little bit about this, how I didn't love some of the rudimentariness of it, but he just one thing I'd also mention are the players made a big point of this after the game to give kudos to Remandre because Rimandre, I guess, went up to Alex Van Pelton said like, let's run downhill, let's stop with.
The I thinks it was even in that that my dad put in the mic up. He's like, he gave me the ball, like yeah, you finish this.
Yeah. Yeah. So I'm still very, very skeptical about them being a an e fision or a good outside zone rushing team. I just don't know if they have the personnel for it. I'm less skeptical now than I was before about Remandre because I think Remandre might just be primed for a big year no matter what blocking the scheme is running. But just in terms of their blockers, like I just don't love it for their personnel. I still don't up front. It just doesn't seem like they
have the athletes for it. Like frankly, the best outside zone run blocker on the team right now is Michael Jordan, which which tells you a lot like it. It doesn't seem to fit the other guys. So that being said, I like the fact that they justed that they went to duo and they went to some of their gap plays and they got downhill. I wonder if they continue to adjust and move even further away from outside zone. I know that that's what Van Pelt wants to do,
like that's like his real bread and butter. I just don't I still don't really fully believe they have the horses for it.
Yeah, I mean, Peters talked about this morning and kind of said that you have your main thing, but you're gonna run what works, and if outside zone is not working, they can't keep doing it, whether they want to or not. If it's not working, you can't keep running it.
Yeah. I so they said that. They mentioned that Cincinnati was run blitzing a lot because they were expecting outside zone. And the one thing that kills outside zone is penetration, right, you know, That's what really kills that system. That's why I remember in the Super Bowl against the Rams, Bills yell and get vertical, get vertical, right, because that's right. You shoot gaps against outside zone, you get in the backfield.
That could be really detrimental to the scheme. So the Bengals were run blitzing guys to try to put them through the line of scrimmage to try to blow it up. So what do you do to counter that? You get downhill, you get you get bodies, you get hats on them, and then you move them off the ball.
So I like it.
I like the downhill stuff. They need to dress it up a little bit better for my liking, but I like what they're doing.
I mean, you know me, run the damn ball, put it between the tackles, put your head down and go.
Run the damn ball. I like it all right.
Oh look Evan Lazar saying run the damn ball.
I like it.
Can we please like clip that?
It's true. I can't believe I heard that. I said two nice things today. Heard that I said, Remandre Maddern and I said run the damn ball.
That wasn't even like nice, that was like excited. You were exciting.
Yeah, I thank you, Sandra.
I might just to get you one of those who has it, Marshall Lynch, you with the hats or yeah, run the damn ball. I love it.
Do you know who? I get confused a lot? Sandra Bullock and Julia Roberts. I feel like they're the same person. Who's the one who is Like if you switch them in movies, they would kind of just act the same, right, it's really the same. That's Sandra Bullock though she's run the damn ball.
I know that.
I put Hillary's Hillary swank in that gay.
Yeah, they're all kind of in that same category. Yeah. Look, I'm all for running the ball. I think this is a misconception of me. I am all for running the ball, but the run game needs to marry to the pass game. Like if you're gonna run the ball and you're gonna run it thirty five times, that can work if you're hitting ten explosives off of play action tens a little bit much five explosives off of play action, Like that's
that's the element that needs to be there. That even like they're not an outside zone West Coast Shanah entry team, the Detroit Lions, Like that's what they do, right, They run the ball a ton, but it's all married together so that golf can play action and then push the ball down the field off of it. If they get that sequence and going, I'm a happy guy. If all it is is just running the ball, then I'm not happy. There. You go, All right, how's that good? Is that enough
compliments for your running game? All right, A couple more questions here and we'll get to the Aldred here in the second two. To wrap it up, Christopher Susa asks about Gonzo and he just said, uh, you know how what's his ceiling? You know, do we think that Gonza Gonzo could be truly one of the best, you know, premier corners in the NFL.
He hasn't give me any reason to think he can't be. I mean it's that simple. Like he's he's we went through the five receivers he's faced, and he's held his own against every one of them. He's looked as good as any corner that's come here since it's come through here, since Gilmore. Yeah, he hasn't give me any reason not to think so, outside of it just staying healthy.
It really, I genuinely feel like everybody's waiting for a shoot to drop with Gonzo where he just has a bad game, because he's yet to really truly have a bad game. Yeah, And we were talking about him earlier on the on the show, somebody emailed into Patriots Unfiltered and asked kind of a similar question about Uh, I think it was speed.
You know s.
Yeah, he said that he's still a little bit skeptical about Gonzo's see you know, and how good Gonzo can be, and some of the panel agreed with him, and I was he has not shown anything yet to suggest that he's not gonna be anything but a great.
You ask what his ceiling is, like, that's his ceiling. Now, can he keep this up? It's a very high level of play to keep up. The majority of people can't. But we're talking ceiling, which is hypothetically, what's the best he could possibly be? Can't really be any better than this?
Yeah, It just that position too often lends itself to guys just being awesome right out of the gate and really never regressing Ye Sauce Gardner, Patrick Surtan, Denzel Ward, Like, these guys just came into the league and were just good right like almost right away and have been good the whole entire time. So sometimes when that it clicks for you at that position and you're just a dude at that cornerback spot, you're just a guy, like you're just one of those guys that can just do that.
I wonder if Gonzo's in that category. And some of the things that about him when the draft seem to be so overblown, you know, the toughness and the alpha and like all that kind of stuff that had him fall in the draft. I think we're looking at it now like that was probably overblog. Yeah, all right, let's take Eldrid and then we'll wrap it up. Eldred is in North Carolina. What's up, Beldrid?
There it is today?
Good? How are you?
Hey?
I got it's fun. I got a question for you, Evan, And Hey, I didn't get to see the game much because I had to work Sunday. But I'm wondering about the wire receivers. Are they getting open against spaces? And he is the y receivers coaching them better or did he to do better? And now I take it off the air, buddies, good to talk to you.
Thank you, Thanks Eldrid. Thanks for the call. So the receivers, and I'm sorry I didn't hear it one hundred percent, but I think he was asking about the receivers getting opened down the field and things like that.
Yeah.
So I think the biggest thing what I saw with them is no, they're not going out there and creating like loads of separation from their receiver position. But there were some opportunities, mainly for Jalen Polk that Jalen Pulk got open about half a dozen times in this game and didn't get the ball. So hopefully you go back next week or the week you know, you start to look for those opportunities moving forward. Are they gonna be a great receiving corps? Probably not right, They're not gonna
They're not gonna come out like Gangbusters and surprise us all. Necessarily, it's a fine margin with this group because every NFL tape you can probably look at and see half a dozen plays that you would want back when you watch the film. The great teams that have great receivers, it's two dozen plays, right the Patriots it's maybe six to eight plays a game, So that that's the difference for the Patriots. But yeah, it's on our all of our radars.
I think about this receiving group and if they're gonna actually be better this year, and I.
Just think once they get the pass blocking figure out, that'll help because it'll give them more time to find some of these guys that are open. The quarterback on field is rush, So yeah, it all starts with that pass blocking. It all starts from there. Nothing's changed in that regard.
All right, Well, that about does it here. We will be back next Thursday for another edition here, No, we won't good call. So we're gonna be on Tuesday, I believe, right, Morrell. I believe it's Tuesday that we're gonna. Yeah, we're gonna do the show. We'll see what time we're scheduled to leave on Wednesday maybe, but Tuesday, I think is what we're gonna lock in and we're gonna do it Tuesday afternoon,
so because of the Thursday night game. Obviously probably should have put that in there because of the Thursday night game. So we'll be back next Tuesday. I'll be sure to tweet it out as tweeted out to what time and everything, just because it's gonna be different than normal. But before we sign off, football season is here. It sure is in Solvent Tire and Auto Service kicks things off in a big way with our exclusive Go Pads tires sale
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New England Patriots. We'll see you guys next week and we'll recap Seattle quite.
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