Or Patriots played the co Legends aboard John who brings the Heat Radial store from Braid. He's throw some new stars rising. The playbook's opiated as soon as Rizon.
So le.
Patriots fast down his Patriots playboard. I think I'm just sitting here in rock out of this for a little bit. Matt's also dansing a jig in the other room, because he's the he's the creative master behind these jingles. Thank you for those of you who actually gave enough crap
to vote or at least listen to Matt's creations. Uh you know via uh X and uh YouTube page and Facebook and everywhere we posted the last few weeks for the new show opens, we actually had a bit of a tie, and we weren't sure that it was completely complete because the returns kept coming in and we kept getting different resorts. I'm not trying to figure out how
the hell that happened. So here's what we've decided to do. Okay, this was our personal favorite, the one that you just heard that was the pop rock version, which is actually kind of it's kind of fun. We had quite a bit of interest in which one, the rap one is that what it was bo version, the boom bat version. You want to play that one? Can you play that one?
Yeah?
Give me one second one?
Yah?
Yeah yeah, go ahead, call up the boom Bap version.
Uh.
And then we also had interest in the country Western version. Uh. And so we decided we're going to rotate the damn things. Why not, we can make up the rules. Let's just go. These were the three most popular by vote through social media. The Raino Storms, New Stars Fire, Am I doing right?
You want the turntable hands the Patriots.
First down.
Everyone, I.
Just love it. I think it's great, all right. And then the one that actually came we think in third, but we're gonna give it credit anyway. That was the country version, correct, all right, you want to play that one.
Patriots Playbook Legends Are Born.
Watch Out.
Kenny brings the heat step inside.
From Brady's throat to New Stars Rising the playbook soap and it's soszin into the playbook.
Here's your host John voice? Is that your voice from the run down? La la la?
There?
It is? All right, So we're gonna rotate those suckers in and round, and if you really feel strong to be any of the others that were on YouTube. You know, let us know. But that's fine. But we're gonna We're rotating in and out, and I thank you for your interest. We try to have some fun on this show. You have to. Life's too short. Life's too short not to have fun. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna have some fun on the program today. Obviously, we have
a game tomorrow. It's the only prime time of pearance thus far scheduled for these New England Patriots for this twenty twenty four football season. And so you've got the Thursday night football game tomorrow night on Amazon Prime. Don't ask me where the hell you can find it on your TV?
Amazon Prime.
Yeah, find it on Amazon Prime. I guess you know where the hill's that. You know. I had somebody asked me that, I said, you have a smart TV. I said, well, I thought all TV's are smart. Okay, yeah, kind of
they are. But you have to download the app and blah blah blah, and you have to subscribe and okay, you know, so you know it's a pay thing, and you know it's it's quite possible that in the next five to ten years there's going to be one of the Big Four, NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball hockey, that going to be nothing but stream They will not have what we would call in over the air broadcast product MLS. Party does that right? They're on Apple TV.
Yeah, it's just gonna Apple owns MLS.
Yeah, Apple owns Vice Versa, right, So MLS is already there. It's gonna happen people, So you might as well just you know, get the smart TV and you know, break up your bundles or whatever and just you know, pay for a couple of streaming services. You know. I know that. You know, Peacock is very popular now because it's a part of NBC. I happen to know the president of NBC Sports, So he played basketball at Providence College. Did you know that? Yeah, yeah, before a little before your time,
you know, being our producer and our engineer. But yeah, his name is Rick Cordela. And in fact, when we were when you had the Brady Thing here over the summer, the Brady Thing Hall of Fame, Brady Thing, Mike Turrico hosted it, you know. And so I'm sitting there getting ready to do my bit and Twieks comes up from behind gives me a little bear hug, and so we make small talk. Ay, how's it going, blah blah blah, what's going on? When are you going to Paris for
the Olympics? That kind of stuff, right, And I said, do you know Rick Cordella? And he looked at me and he thought about it for a second. He goes, I know Rick very well, so do you. And I'm like, whoa, that's impressive because he knew that Rick was a former Friar. He's a former Friar walk on basketball player back in the late nineteen nineties under Pete Gillot. And so now he's running the NBC Sports Empire. Okay, that's amazing. And so now Peacock is becoming the most subscribed I guess
app if you will that has sports on it. They've got over thirty three million subscribers in this country and they increased that number I think probably tenfold because of the Olympic coverage. They had so many of the Olympic games this summer, you know, from Paris on Peacock. So they just they sold a bunch of subs smart.
They made exclusive deals with WWE.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, So at any rate, it's gonna happen before too long. So anyway, getting back to the original point, it's on Amazon Prime tomorrow night, and you'll have Al Michael's and Kirk herb Street, which is a little bit of an odd companying for me, but you know what, Al is still Al and Herbie is still Herbie, So there you go. They'll be doing it tomorrow night.
Dan Leberfeld from Jets Confidential will join us at the top of the hour and we'll get the latest on the Jets going into the broadcast, going into the game tomorrow night. Russell Baxter on week three around the National Football League. He will be here at about four o'clock. Chris Mason, who covers the Patriots for mass Live at masslive dot com. He's gonna join us in a little under an hour from now, around three thirty. So that's
what we've got coming up on the show. In the meantime, eight five five past five hundred, toll free telephone number eight five five p ATS five hundred. Web radio at Patriots dot com is the email address if you want to go that route or hit me up on X. It is at JR Broadcaster. That's the follow on X and so give me a you know, a post there and we can communicate that way. A couple of things that I want to start with before I get to
the phones. This morning, this morning, this afternoon, depending on where you are, I guess it could be morning, right, it's also tonight. Hi, Claire, how's it going, you know? Hey girl? Yeah, yeah, So we just got to make sure that we get that in there. Juwan Bentley, as
we know out. I looked at the play that he was allegedly in injured in against the Seahawks this weekend, and I look over it over and over, and at the end of the play you can kind of see him yank his right arm back like it was caught somewhere where you know, it wasn't supposed to be. It's incredible, how you know, you know quickly things like this can happen,
and he's got a torn pectoral muscle. And then the country the conflicting reports mostly yesterday Tuesday, that said, you know, he's out, he's in, he's out, he's in, he's out for the year. He could play. You know, you don't know who the hell to believe anymore. And and I'm right there with you on that one. I don't really know.
I mean, I I follow you know, uh, all of our guys, all of our reporters on on the Twitter x I thought, follow a lot of them on a couple of other social media platforms, and no one really wanted to step out and claim that one. And then we have had the initial report saying that, you know, he was the injury wasn't as serious as it appeared to be, and then all of a sudden, he's out
for the year. And that one came from Ian Rapaport from NFL Network and of course being one of the you know, true NFL insudters in the game along with you know, Adam Schefter, I think that was the one that kind of quieted everybody down. Oh my god. Well, if you know, if the rap sheet says it, then you know it's got to be true. You know, he's usually right. I got to give him credit where that's concerned.
At any rate. It affects the Patriots hugely. And now you've got this defense that was allegedly that we talked about in the off season, we talked about early in this season. We've got this Patriots defense that's been that we thought would be pretty strong, and the first two weeks of the season. They're not far off. They're not far off. They're second in rushing yards allowed thus far, you know, so I'm I mean, I think they're you know,
top five in total defense. So look here we go, and now you're you've lost the right up the middle. You've lost the heart and soul of this defense. You've got Christian Barmore Moore who's out until further notice, although he is on IR with a designation to return, so Barmore in theory could come back. We don't know. But Bentley's out and I'm just also out for tomorrow night's game. O'Shane Ziminez, you know, who had a really solid one of the better preseasons of any Patriot player. He's out
with a knee injury. And so you got your linebacking corps that's hurting literally and figuratively, especially up the middle. And so this is going to take away a lot from I think the Patriot's ability to stuff the run. Now, this means, of course, next man up, and we know that Moniker, but you know, look, if the next man up were all that, he'd be in there to start,
wouldn't he. And I'm not saying that to take away from ray Kwon McMillan, because he's the guy that will be stepping in now and he's gonna get a chance to show what he can do, and he's gonna need to.
He's gonna need to because if I'm the Jets, knowing what the Jets have done through their first two weeks, and they're one and one, of course like the Patriots are, then I'm running the damn Paul on the Patriots, and I'm using that run to set up the past game, and I am gonna attack and I'm gonna try to, you know, nail that Patriot secondary that was suspect as we saw against the Seahawks this past Sunday. You know the miscommunication, you know that allowed the fifty seven year
touchdown bomb. You know, I'm just like, Wow, that can't happen. And i know Kyle Dugger took full responsibility for it, but it can't happen the Patriots. This Patriots team margin of error is extraordinarily thin. They must play in order to have a shot. And I know you've heard the PU guys talk about this. You probably talked about it your own self. You've read it, you know, you probably go pined about it. You've seen it everywhere. There is
truth to this. Okay, this team has some ability. I think this team is certainly a step above where we were this time a year ago. And I think we can even see that through two weeks, will know more. Give me another two to three weeks and I think we'll all know a little bit more about this team.
But just through the effort and some of the athleticism that we saw during the preseason, during training camp, and then what we've seen early in the year, I'm already telling you you know, this team is certainly taking a step in the right direction. How big a step, mother, may I? How biggest step can they take from this point forward? And could it possibly be that they regress if the injuries start piling up? The Jets are banged up, Cheese,
San Francisco's banged up, He's banged up. They just happen to be the next two Patriots opponents. What would be a crying shame is for this kind of a situation to avail itself of to New England and they're not able to take advantage of it. With key players out tomorrow next week, the week after, think about there for a second. You know, you don't have Christian McCaffrey, probably
not gonna have Deebo Samuel. You certainly not gotta have two a Tango vo Law because he's you know, on ir now for the Dolphins with the concussion from this past week as well. So for looking at it from a New England point of view, you've got an opportunity here now. And by the way, Tiger Voloa hasn't lost to the Patriots. I'm sure you're very well aware of that. So I'm just like, wow, what how do you take
advantage of this? I my own personal thought is is that I think, look, if you could win the next if you win two of these next three, which I think is doable, then counts Thursday night. Okay, you win two of these next three and you get to you know,
you know, you're at win two. That puts you through you get to three and two through week five, Okay, then I think you can look at this team and say, potentially, you know, if you get people back, if they're healed, you know, I'm talking barrow More in particular, I could see this team hanging around into December for a playoff spot. I could see it don't kill me on this. Okay, don't kill me on this. I'm just I'm just sort of supposing I'm throwing it out there. I'm not really
shaking the pomponds here. I'm not really trying to play Homer. I'm trying to come up with what I think is a plausible scenario to be where I think this team should be, and probably where you think this team should be. You're frustrated, you want to see improvement. You're too used to seeing success around here. I know a lot of fans that are like that. Hell, a lot of the media is like that. A lot of the media is
expecting that. So we get there. You gotta take advantage of these breaks that you've been given over the next couple of weeks, starting with Thursday night. And how do you do that? Well, I know that the Jets are gonna be just there. They're gonna be if they don't play eight or nine in the box against you know, the second best rushing offense in the NFL through a couple of weeks, then they're dopes. So that means the Patriots are gonna have to be prepared to go over
the top to probably beat the Jets. Thursday night. Don't be surprised. Don't be surprised if you see Drake May. I'm just saying, don't be surprised. I'm not saying it's gonna happen. I'm just saying, if it happens, don't be surprised, because for two reasons. Number one, I think you know, the Patriots woefully, woefully played conservatively against the Seahawks, and
that helped cost them the game. And then, of course, when they tried to throw the ball and they threw two incompletions stupidly at the end of the first half and allowed Seattle to kick that field goal before halftime on Sunday, that was horrible clock management. Bill Belichick even came out and criticized it during the Manning cast on Monday night. I'm sure many of you probably heard that, man, that hell of a time to pick to throw the ball cost you the game. Otherwise you could win that
in regulation and it never gets to overtime. That's how close the Patriots were. They gave Sunday against Seattle away, gave it away. So now that you've made your mistakes, you can see how thin the margin of era really is for this team. To have success. It really wasn't I mean egregious you had yeah, you know, and they but they didn't turn the ball over. They didn't really commit any penalties I mean of note that really killed anything. They just didn't think, They didn't think or they didn't
think properly, and it ultimately cost them. So the margin of area is extraordinarily thin for a team that has some ability, has some talent, but not enough of it. On top of that, because they were so concernative in the passing game and they what wide receivers had three catches, my guess is is that they realize that, hey, we got to get the ball to Pop, We got to get the ball to Jaalen Polk. We have to because teams are going to load up in the box and darro us to run and we're not going to have
any running room. I understand playing conservatively, but I'm not sure that you can get away with doing that every week. It's very obvious that the offensive line, such as it presently exists, can run block way better than it can pass block. So it stands the reason they're going to want to try to run the ball, and I certainly expect the Patriots Thursday night to come out against the
Jets and see if they can establish the run. Why wouldn't you when you're one of the best running teams right now in the NFL, why wouldn't you try to establish that. Antonio Gibson looks like a breath of fresh air back there, and between him and Ramandre Stevenson, that's a great one two punch. Stevens has had a lot of touches early in the year. I wouldn't be surprised to see Gibson play a little bit more, rotate, a little bit more, touch the ball a little bit more.
He's a great change of pace back because he's got what I like to call missibility. He can make guys miss and I think the Patriots are gonna need that, But because I expect the Jets to be ready for it, the way that you beat them is through the air.
Jacoby also got banged up against Seattle. He didn't let on, but we've seen the signs around here, and you know, without giving away house secrets, you know he was late for an interview yesterday and he did one interview that's allegedly you know, streamed that you know he did it over the phone. Because you know, he's probably got wraps on,
and he's probably got this, and he's got that. And look, I understand that you certainly don't want to give it away to your opponent that you know, hey, so and so has heard he's banged up, you know, and we got him on the injury list. I'm not telling you the Patriots are lying about the injury list. He's not on it, or at least that he's not out. And I think he'll probably start the game tomorrow night. I
think he'll probably start. But if there's not if they struggle on offense and the Jets have it figured out, I don't know if it'll be second quarter. I don't know if it be third quarter. I don't know if it be fourth quarter. I would not be at all surprised to see Drake May come into the game. I would also tell you I think it's more likely that his debut happens, believe it or not, on a road game than a home game, because of the crowd reaction, because of the way you would react if you saw
him come out off of the bench. At Gillette Stadium, it's a place to go nuts. I don't know that there's going to be a tremendous amount of pressure on him. Hey, young man, go out there to play ball. Let's go crazy. As that sounds, I kind of think of it that way. And the only thing that keeys me from really you know, buying in on this one is you know, City's so
still out. Vederian Lowe is out. Patriots are probably gonna start Kayden Wallace at left tackle because of the the lack of depth now with without uh, I've already forgotten him, big fellow on the left side. Okay, so which they deafade right, so you know, or they they put him on the put him on one of the lists I can't remember at any rate. Chokes a core for ne we go thought about it. So, uh, there's a big opportunity there for a rookie So you're gonna have a
rookie tackle. You're gonna have a rookie guard. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he got banged up. Jacoby got banged up pretty well last week. We could see it pretty stiff rolling around and coming back on a short week. On top of this, this is the third game in eleven days for both teams. Okay, third game in eleven days. Seven yeah, eight nineteen. There you go, third game in eleven days. So yeah, you know, the Jets have got their own problems. Now, okay,
they've got their own problems. I'd be I'll be very curious to see how Aaron Rodgers at age forty comes back to perform, you know, his third game in eleven days. There's a lot of things going on there for both sides. But looking at it strictly, and we'll talk about that with you know, Dan Liberfield coming up a little bit. But you know, looking at it from the Patriots point
of view, why not? Why not? You've got an golden opportunity laid out before he is, as I've explained, And if you struggling, I think maybe you kind of go for the change of pace, maybe you throw, maybe maybe you know, you roll the dice and you know, hope for the seven. I don't know, but I just I wouldn't be surprised. Just call it, you know, a feeling, call it a gut thing, call it an instinct, call it desperation, whatever you want to call it. But I
think the Patriots are also feeling the opportunity here. And look, let's keep in mind now the Jets snapped a fifteen game losing streak to the Patriots last year when they beat New England here at Gillette. The Patriots have not lost a game it met Life since twenty fifteen. Okay, surely that's a that's a that's a that's at least a mini dominant run that you'd like to keep rolling
if you can. And it's a divisional game. And we don't need Bill Belichick or anybody else to tell us how important divisional games always are to your overall fortunes for moving on in the season and into the postseason. So you got a chance now to get one on the road before you even play a divisional game at home.
It's a big opportunity, and it's a big spotlight for some young guys, and it may be a huge opportunity for a guy like Drake May if they decide to place that call and make sure that he or ask him to move in for Jacoby Brissette. Look, you know he's banged up, but this is suck it up in go time, because he knows he's He's got to know Drake May and in the in his ability just waiting in the wings, waiting for a chance, waiting for an opportunity, and it could come as soon as tomorrow night if
things don't go well. So he's gonna have to get the ball up the field. So the Jets had probably best be careful with loading the box up. If I'm the Patriots, I got to be ready to recognize that, you know, immediately, and none of this, you know, five yards and out. I mean, although Hunter Henry had the career day this past week, certainly I think one of the great bright spots for the Patriots in an overtime loss. But you got to be ready to go over the top.
And if you're going over the top and you're missing these guys, that's when you call on the rook I mean, look, we've talked about this, but I but I got to mention it here, right You drafted the guy third. You drafted the guy third. Now, I know rookie quarterbacks are not off to a great start anywhere in the NFL right now. I mean, we'll talk about this with Russell coming up in the next hour, but I mean, nobody's playing well. Everybody's getting banged up, everybody's had a rough time.
You know, we've seen you know, Caleb Williams, you know we've seen. I mean, it's you know, bone Nicks, We're seeing all of them struggle, even Jaydon Dan. So maybe the Patriots, at least in theory, did the right thing. I gotta give them credit for that. I was all into the play him now camp, and so I understand why you bring him along more slowly. I get that. I understand it, especially with the fact that you have an offensive line that is in a constant state of flux.
And yeah, the one that's going to be out there Thursday night against the Jets is about as fluxed as you can get. So then why would you play him? Because you need to win? Where's coach Herm Edwards? You play? Hello, you play to win the game. Hello, you play to win the game. There you go, that's it annoying, that's what you do. And so you got to play to win the game. You can win, rock, Yes, you can rock. You can win. You can win. Greasy fast lightning. Wasn't
that one of the other lines that he had. You gotta be greasy fast lightning, Okay, whatever, you gonna be faster than grease light faster than grease lightning too. I don't know. Whatever it was. Burgess Meredith all time. Great. He was so good as the penguin.
He's just gonna say that.
See, you're not even old enough to remember that TV series. I've watched it, obviously, watch you've seen it.
I've seen it, and I knew you know him as Mick before I ever knew he was the Penguin. It knew my mind when I found out you found him was.
The original youenguin? Yep, yeah, thea like the guy from Rocky's Penguin. What, well, that's what I grew up with because that was back in the sixties. That's that's back in my childhood. And so we couldn't wait for what was it Wednesday nights? I think it was the middle of the week. Uh, when Batman was prime time on ABC. Gosh, golly Gee wille Ger Simony Chippity Doo Batman. Yeah right, Bert Ward is Robin Adam w a Batman? Sure, yeah, absolutely, yeah,
that's exactly right. That was the theme. Now I've sidetracked myself. That's all right, It's okay. We like to do that. Eight five five pats five hundred, eight five five pats five hundred, all right, So I've kind of laid it down for you, at least what I think about tomorrow.
Don't be surprised, Okay, if it doesn't happen, I would tell you that things are going swimmingly for first the Patriots, second Jacoby Brissett, because if things do go swimmingly and he's able to make those long distance connections and able to make those completions that he was unable to do against Seattle last weekend, then that means the Patriots are have a lead or they're winning the game, and they like, sh we dodged another bullet. We can hold on to
Drake for another week. But I think they're at a point now where they know this is the part of the schedule where they're getting it handed to them on us silver platter, or maybe we should say they're getting and handed to them on a silver stretcher. Because the other teams are not healthy and they've got key guys out Starting tomorrow night, it's time to take advantage. Eight five five Pats five hundred. Uh Todd in North Carolina, Hey Todd, what's going on today?
Why are you looking for a win? John? What is this this potential playoffs stuff? I thought we were rebuilding. I thought we were being patient. I thought we were just enjoying the development of our team as they brought in new pieces. We try new young guys on the O line. We got a couple of young receivers. We want to look. I thought there was not a sense of urgency. I thought there was a sense of, Hey, just chill, see how where are we going? You win one game, John, in your outlook changes.
To hell with that win.
I knew you were such a ah.
John, I'm a herd O. I'm a hard Oh. I'm sorry, I just am. I always have been, I always will be. You know this is where you know former PU Dennis and Andy Hart and I have everything in common that you know he was a hard Oh, I'm a hard Oh, I always have been. You know I don't like this. You know I'm playing for tomorrow. I'm playing with the future. No, it's all about winning. Now. Life's too damn short. Let's
go now. The last four years have been extraordinarily last well five years have been extraordinarily frustrating for me, just as a fan and an observer. Now I would tell you that, you know, I understand why it happened, But now it's time to bleep or get off the pot. Okay, it's it really is. And I think the Patriots, I think the Patriots are beginning to feel kind of like that. And so if you're like me, or if you're a heart o like that, I think you're about to be rewarded. That's just my gut.
Here.
Well, I'll say I was actually impressed with the Seahawks game because as I called into PU, I told them, I said, you, no, last year, I don't think they would have kept going. I think they would have quit when they lost the lead because they just didn't have any heart. And you know, they tried well the defense and blah blah blah blah. Like no, they just as a team, they just kind of sunk a little bit
whenever they get behind because they had that quarterback. And there's no way you're gonna tell me the defense kept playing hard when they knew that Mac Jones was gonna come in and give up, and they didn't give up. They came back, they took the lead back. Yeah, they lost it in the wrong run. But man, this team's got something that I think that could get him close to five hundred. You know, with the injuries and other teams and but there's enough here that I think if
they can develop, they can move forwards towards that. My only concern is I've heard it on a couple of different places and came out of Evans's mouth as well, is that Rissett doesn't like throwing short receivers. That's why he hasn't made any connections with Pop. And I'm like, then he can't be our quarterback because Pop's up. In my opinion, Puff's are best receiver.
I listen, you say, yeah, I agree with you. You can't. You can't play this game the way that you want to play it unless you have a the ability to throw short over the middle. He's your slot guy, and b figure out a way to get him one on one with somebody, because that person who's one on one with him is going to be slower than Tomario Douglas. Okay, he's gonna be slower.
It's not the short passes. John It said the height. He said that Pop Douglass is too short as a receiver in his height, that he doesn't like to throw the short statuted receiver.
Well, then he'd better learn how to do it, because I don't know anymore. I don't know other who were better short statued receivers than guys like Julian Edelman and Wes Welker.
Yeah.
I don't get it, but this has been reported on a couple of different areas. And then Evan brought it up, and then I went, well, like, okay, so somebody else is listening.
To it other than just me, Uh yeah, okay. But if that's the case, then maybe that's why he's a little p oed, And maybe that's why he was kind of stomping around in the locker room. Maybe that's why, you know, he you know, missed out on an interview that he was supposed to have yesterday. Maybe that's why he's a little butt hurt over everything. I don't know. I mean, I really don't know. Maybe it's maybe his David receiver was Jalen Rieger. I don't know.
I don't know, but I think this ties into me into your idea that Drake may might come in, because if Brissett can't throw the get the ball to pop, and if he's a little bit injured, there is no reason not to put Drake May in there.
I wholeheartedly concur, I wholeheartedly concur. I mean, it's if he can't complete the play and do what the offensive coordinator and the offensive staff is asking him to do, then it's time to see if someone else can. Look, they're saying, you know, with with Bentley gone and with Barmore gone after the middle of the defense, next man up, right, Okay, Well, if Jacoby Brissett can't do it, next man up, and it just happens to be your prized rookie.
Let me.
I'll even put it in another way. You're picking third over all of the draft last year. If you pick an offensive lineman, which they might should have done, But if you took an offensive tackle, you think he'd be on the.
Bench right now, not a chant.
Yeah, exactly my point. He'd be in there playing. But now you're gonna sit the quarterback who arguably is playing a more valuable position. Come on, I'm not buying that. It's dumb, dumb, I hear.
You, So, John, I got a quick question for you. I'll take the answer off the air, okay, but I want you to give me who you think is gonna be the star on defense for this Jets game and the star on the offense. Thanks, have a great show, John.
All right, Thanks Todd, on offense. Well, look, I would tell you that it's I got to pick two, and I'm gonna pick two because it's the run game and if the Patriots are gonna have such chess against the Jets, and I certainly expect the Jets to be ready for the Patriots to run the ball, since that's what they've done over the last two weeks. But I gotta put that ball in either Stevenson's or uh, oh god, why am I brain cramping today? Have I not had my
coffee today? I have it right here, Mike Duncan's here, the hell with it? Gibson, Antonio Gibson. There, I did it. I knew it would pop into my head. Sinility is setting And also it's one of those two guys on offense. Defensively,
I gotta listen. I gotta go with my man key on white and I'll tell you why, because I think this game is actually going to be decided by one of or the other of the defensive ends on this In this game, you know, the Jets have a pretty good one as well, and we're going to talk about that in just a moment here. But I gotta I gotta tell you that when you look at, you know, the Jets defense and where the Patriots offense matches up.
I gotta you gotta favorite the Jet. Will McDonald is the guy who was taken what in last year's draft, and I think he had what three sacks last week against Tennessee. And the Jets win, It'll come down to McDonald versus White and which one is playing in the other's backfield more so on defense. If the Patriots are gonna win the game, it's going to have to be key on White. Speaking of the Jets, Dan Libberfield, who authors Jets Confidential, joins us here in the playbook. Hey, Dan,
John Rookier in Foxborough. How's it going good?
John?
How you doing excellent?
Excellent? What are your thoughts on a couple of things that we've we've had to talk about here. First of all, I fully expect the Patriots to do what they've shown they can already do. But if I'm the Jets, I'm kind of licking my chops on this one because I think I know what's coming.
You mean, as far as as far as what's.
Going trying to prepare for the Patriots and defend.
Them, Oh, you mean terms of running the ball. Sure, well, you can run on the Jets. There's no doubt about it. Right even in the game we saw last weekast kind of ce Tony Pollard game. Yeah, the Jets play a very aggressive defense where they rushed the passer and on the way to the quarterback, they play the wrong so they're very aggressive. So if you present some eye candy motions and such, they tend to bite on it and opening up some rushing lanes. Now, the strength of the
Jets line right now is actually the tackles. They lost Jermaine Johnson the end for the season to a torn achilles in Tennessee. And yes, Will McDonald did have a good game against the Titans, but the Titans right tackle is really struggling in in the first game. The Jets edge rush was kind of non existent in San Francisco against better tackles. I know New England has some question marks at offensive tackles, so maybe the Jets edge can
be good in this game. But it's those two defensive tackles that out of playing so well for the Jets right now, led by Quinn Williams. So it's a defense you can run on if you schemed things upright and you make them go for the cheese on different gimmick plays.
Yep. And I think that's a great point. We don't know yet whether or not the Patriots can scheme that. We haven't seen it yet, so would be, like I said,
a lot of intrigue here. And this is part of the reason why Dan, I think you would probably agree with this, that you know, it's really hard to get a complete read on a team until you're you know, well past the first month of the season, because you're still in a formulative stage where you're trying to figure out what the hell you have and when you have injuries start to kind of nip at the heels a
little bit. And both teams are having those situations here, and as I said earlier, both teams are playing their third game in eleven days with this game tomorrow night. Yeah, you've got to monitor that. You've got to be very careful with that. You don't want to try to put somebody else out there that you might lose for the rest of the year. So the chess match here, the coaching match, is going to be extraordinarily important, if not interesting.
The Patriots, I thought, got coached circles around them against the Seahawks in their game this past Sunday, and you know, and the Jets were able to go out and get a w. And by the way, I'm not sure when was the last time team opened with two in a row on the road. I don't remember that happening anytime in the in the in the in the I guess recent past. Do you remember the last time the Jets had to do something like that?
No, I don't remember specifically, but obviously it has a lot to do with Aaron Rodgers and the NFL office. I forgot which guy was. It might have been Mike North, one of the scheduling guys said that they owed us one. He was kind of joking. But as far as they put Aaron Rodgers and the Jets on prime time six times last year, and then he suffered the Achilles injury for plays into the season, so they doubled down on
Aaron Rodgers this year. And and but the thing was, when you look at the fact that the first two games were on the road. The San Francisco game was a real challenge. But when you come back on a short week in terms of Monday night football to Sunday and you're playing Tennessee a kind of a rebuilding team of the quarterback who's trying to figure things out. I think that the league office, without saying it, said you know what, I know, it's two games on the road,
but the second game is Tennessee. So I think that was kind of part of their thinking that it's not ideal, but the second opponent, and they'll never say it on Park. I mean, the second opponent isn't great.
Yeah, got you. Okay, let me ask you again, Dan Liverfield from Jets Confidential joining us here in the playbook, So let me ask you your thoughts on Aaron Rodgers and you know, can he live up anywhere close to the original premise that I think the Jets thought they were going to get with this guy when he came from Green Bay.
Yeah, I absolutely think so. The one thing that's not there that we might have seen ten years ago is the mobility. And I'm not talking about Lamar Jackson er Josh Allen mobility. I'm just talking about that limited space
mobility around the pocket or on bootlegs rolling right. Obviously, he doesn't run like he used to, so that's a little limited, But I see everything else being intact and I was just writing something for my website at Jetsconfidential dot com about you saw that play on the highlights, that play on third and one in the fourth quarter. You know that that passed down the right skyline the Garrett Wilson. I mean, I haven't seen scheming and execution like that on a pass play from the Jets in
a long time. I mean, he milks the play cock clock down to one. He changes the play at the line. They have Alan Lazard, who lined up right with Garret Wilson run inside, take the double team because the Titans figured on third and one the Jets and a tight game, we're going to go for the first down. No, they go for the single coverage where Garrett Wilson takes off
down the side. Gary Wilson one on one with no jam at the line is almost impossible to cover, and they complete a twenty seven yard pass down the sideline. It was just the execution and the and the game planning and the scheme were just brilliant. And I haven't seen anything like that because the Jets have had one quarterback after the other and one offensive coordinator after the
other that was basically run out of town. That was as good as it gets, and I think it's only going to get better moving forward.
All right, So Aaron Rodgers is beginning to sort of roll into some kind of shape. Where is the where is the you know, I guess I hate to use the term, but where's the Achilles heel for this Jets offense?
Well? Right now, well, it's hard to say. Like you said before, after two games, it's hard to figure everything out as far as the strengths and weaknesses of teams. You know, we'll see what happens with this veteran offensive line. You know, the two tackles are thirty three, soon to be thirty four, and that's something to keep an eye on against a team with really good edge rushers. And you saw that in the open against San Francisco with
Nick Bosa and Leonard Floyd having really good games. So if there was an Achilles hill, maybe it's the age of the offensive tackles. But beyond that, it's hard to find a lot.
Yeah, I listened. I liked the offense. I was a fan of Breese Hall when he was in college, and I thought Breese Hall, you know, especially you know, rounding back after an early injury. I thought he came around pretty well last year and it looks like he's starting to kind of round back into some kind of shape as well. It's him and Braylen Allen. I guess that combined last week in the backfield and helped kind of chew up some of the clock. And I think the rish game got a touchdown, did it not.
Yeah, you had the the Brailen Allen touchdown late in the game, and the run blocking was much better in the second game than the first, and you figure it's going to continue to get better because this is an offensive line that did not play one snap in the preseason. And you could say, well that's smart, it's a veteran offensive line, but it's a group that really hasn't played together. You know, Joe Tipman was the only guy coming back
at the same position. You had two new tackles who they brought in, Morgan Moses in the trade with Baltimore right tackle and Tyron Smith coming from Dallas via free agency. And you had John Simpson coming into left guard a via free agency from the Ravens also, and you had Elijah Vera Tucker who played tackle last year before tearing his achilles playing guard again. So it was only one guy coming back in the same spot. So Week one
there were chemistry issues, there were communication issues. Week two was a lot better, could get better, even more so against New England.
Sure, I would think.
So.
I guess one of the keys then that we'll be looking for is, hey, how much does New York attack New England up the middle without the presence of your best tackle and your middle linebacker. But number two, you know, do you go over the top? Do you? You know? Garrett Wilson I know is a guy that will certainly probably concern New England. I know that last year, if I'm not mistaken, early we saw Christian Gonzalez before he got hurt.
I know he matched up a bit with Wilson. So any thoughts about those two perhaps tangling again tomorrow.
Night, Yeah, I think they will. However, the Jets, you know, with Rogers, see, the last few quarterbacks that Jets had were young guys, and this is common a lot of young guys. I'm not picking on the last two quarterbacks. And obviously Donald is doing better in Minnesota bo With Donald and Zach Wilson, they were basically one read quarterbacks. Aaron Rodgers is a full field reader. And there was one point in the game in the third quarter where
the Jets were a little sluggish on offense. But Aaron Rodgers made some adjustments and he started to throw to the backs more. He started to throw to other receivers more, and you know they he made Tennessee pay for the fact that they were doubling Garrett Wilson. And that you saw two plays after that brilliant play to to Garrett Wilson that we were talking about at the beginning of the interview, he threw Mike Williams open down the left sideline.
It was another great play. Mike Williams didn't play a lot in the opener, coming off the knee coming over from the Chargers. There's another weapon right there. So when you have Mike Williams opposite Garrett Wilson and Alan Wizard, who was so comfortable with Aaron Rodgers from their time in Green Bay, there's a lot of other weapons. And unlike the previous two young quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers is going
to find those other weapons. So Christian Gazalez is the heck of a young player, but Aaron Rodgers is not going to just stick to Garrett Wilson, if Christian Gazalez is covering him, well, he'll go to a one of the myriad other weapons they have.
Yeah, and I think that's I think that's a that's a big key is going to put, you know, max pressure on the Patriots secondary, which burned itself by you know, the brain cramp they had against Seattle. Uh, you know this past weekend and I saw where I think I was looking at the snap count on stats just a little earlier, Williams had what thirty seven snaps, So it looks like he's rounding back into shape as well. And if he's healthy and everybody is healthy, Yeah, that's max
pressure on your secondary. And Rogers would be the kind of guy that's got the savvy enough to certainly go out and find those guys. I don't have any doubts about that. And so then it comes down to pressure. Do you make him you know, you know, throw it early? I mean, does he is that can you put that
kind of pressure on the Jets? And I think that's a huge factor, which is why I kind of originally pointed when I started the program today, I rightly pointed to you know, the Patriots key here is key on White. He's had a great start, you know, to the season. He had a fantastic summer and training camp. He has a tendency to beat tackles with his speed, or at least not speed, I should say his strength first and then his speed second. So he's got to find a
way to put it together. And I'm sure these will all be, you know, focal points for New York defensively going against the Patriots offense. Talked about your tackles already, and you know up the middle, I think that you know, it's you know, it's still one of the best tackle sets at least that I've been familiar with in a while. I really liked the way that the Jets have performed there.
Where are the concerns on that side of the football in terms of consistency, if not playmaking ability or let's go a little further, taking the football away from the other team's offense.
Yeah, there are things that the Patriots can exploit because this Jets defense is not complicated, and the Patriots are coming off a game against a brilliant young defense of mine and McDonald who that's how he got the job because in Baltimore, all the complicated games that baffle deposing quarterbacks where you know, with fake pressure, real pressure, all the things he did. It's really the opposite of what the Jets do. The Jets just do what they do.
You know, they attack you. Like I said, they play the run on the way to the quarterback. But there this susceptibility there. There was a long scramble up the middle by will Levis in Tennessee and I'll never forget, you know, Bill Belichick and a lot of coaches do, but he would, he would stress, and I'm sure the new Patriots coaches stressed. You don't run past the quarterback. You just don't do that because when the both when both ends run past the quarterback, you basically now have
nine guys on defense. So on that play where Levis ran for a lot of yards up the middle, both ends ran past the quarterback. You know, Quincy Williams is a good player, but he's so aggressive that sometimes he'll run himself out of play. So that's what Van Pelton needs to do in terms of play calling. Make them go for the cheese and take themselves out of position, or if they run too far upfield, Jacoby's going to take off and run and Jacoby had success against the
Jets in a recent game in Cleveland. So this is not a complicated defense. It's not the one that's going to baffle you with the schemes, and you need to take advantage of the simplicity and you've got to, you know, come up with ways to find the holes in the scheme. And the Jets are a little banged up, as you mentioned before. They could be without their second corner, Dj Reed, who's dealing with the knee, and their slot corner who
just got paid, who's very good, Michael Carter. He's got a high ankle sprain that's going to probably be a problem on an awful year, and on a short week. You wonder if both those guys might be inactive, and that could really help the Patriots passing game. Those two guys are very good players.
So we see whether or not you know, the Jet the chess another Jets can actually play contain, and what another Patriots can take advantage of lack of contained. So good, there's some good, there's some good back and forth here. Finally, then Dan, I got to ask the obvious question. You know, last year the Jets snap a you know, an over streak against the Patriots and winning here in Foxborough, but the Patriots haven't lost. It meant life to the Jets
since twenty fifteen. Anybody mentioned that this week.
Yeah, that was brought up quite a bit to the Jet players. And it's weird these days in the NFL because the rosters turnover so much, and people say, well, the Jets have missed the playoffs thirteen years in a row, and that's not good obviously, and that's currently tied with the Buffalo Sabers as the longest streak in any professional sports league. But most of these players really have nothing to do with it, but that doesn't stop people like us from asking them.
No.
So that is a big That was a big talking point this week as far as you know the Jets staffing that streak. But I just think with Rogers everything is so different as far as the way he goes to the line and milks the clock almost down to zero. They took, they'll take, they'll take delay against penalties every once in a while, which nobody wants. But he's trying to read what you're doing. And against the Patriots defense, I don't know a ton about the coordinator one way
or the other. You know a lot more about him than I do, but against the young coordinator who's kind of new to the position. There's an old thing in football about veteran quarterbacks that they'll read your mail at the line, and Patriots have to be careful that Rogers doesn't come to the line and read their mail consistently in terms of what they're doing on defense, because he will take advantage of that. And that's why I think the Jets win this game. If they had one of
their previous two quarterbacks, I'd probably picked the Patriots. But some of the stuff Rogers did last week against Tennessee was just stuff. I have to see her out of here in a really long time. Competent, his ability to change plays at the line, check off the better plays, take advantage of coverage, mismatches, and things of that nature.
Big X factor there. You're talking about DeMarcus Covent, who's the first year defensive coordinator for the Patriots, and so that kind of leads me then you know into what you think or how you think this one might play out. You know, frankly, I thought six and a half was a bit high of a spread. I don't really expect the Patriots myself to win the game. But I'd be surprised if this wasn't a one score game that went down to the last possession.
What do you think, Well, you know it's always tough on the road team on Thursday night football. You know you're all banged up and you're also traveling. However, it's such a short trip, so maybe it's not a big deal. I just think that the way the Jets are playing on offense is something to consider as far as they're getting better each week. And Robert said it after the game,
and it wasn't just coach peak. They're going to get better every week with Rogers and all these new players, a lot of them who he hasn't played with, like Mike Williams. So I think it's going to get better every week. And I just think the Rogers factor is the deciding factor in this game, because the Jets tend to have problems with we go back to Tom Brady over the years, or they have problems on defense against the veteran quarterbacks that go through their progressions and find
the holes in the defense. I'm not sure it presents that guy or if May plays at some point, if he's that guy. So I like the Jets defensively in this game. I also like the Rogers factors, so I think the Jets. I think that Bread is just about right, and I like the Jets.
What if I told you that I think Drake May is going to play tomorrow, well.
I would like to love to see him in person. I don't know if he's ready. You know, you look at what's going on with with Bryce Seeng and Caleb Williams, and I think Drey has a huge ceiling, but I'm not sure if the results will be any different if he played this early. Then you know, Caleb Williams and obviously Bryce young in his second year but still a
young player. And I like Drake May. I just don't know if he played this early, if the results would be much better than what we're seeing from Caleb Williams.
Right now, understood? All right, Dan, thank you so much for the time. Really appreciate it. Good luck the rest of the way. I hope to talk to you again soon anytime. John, Thank you very much. Dan Livererfeld, who covers the Jets for Jets Confidential dot Com, joining us here in the playbook. Patriots fans, if you want to see Toyota's best offers, including those not seen on TV,
you go to buy a Toyota dot com. It's Toyota's official website for deals from the official vehicle of the New England Patriots, Toyota Let's Go Places and brought to you by Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy bud like the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. And by the way, that interview brought to you by the TPX Hotline. We want to make sure we get that in there, right. TPX is our phone service provider here right, new sponsor of ourn of our hotline. Right, so it's
the TPX hotline now. We want to make sure that we're all in on that one. Interesting points I think there from Dan uh You know, always love getting insight from the guys that cover a team on a day in and day out basis. They cover it way more closely than you or I or anybody else could get it, no matter how much we read on the net. Right, But he's in on Aaron Rodgers. And if the if the Jets win Thursday, then it likely will be because
Rogers is going to pitch them to victory. I would tell you that I agree with them one hundred percent. If one of those other two quarterbacks were a quarterback in that team right now over the last couple of years, I'd say, yeah, the Patriots have a good chance to you know, go too, and one very good chance. As it stands, even though Rogers is in there, I still right now kind of feel like the Patriots are going
to cover that six and a half. Patriots are already two and zero against the spread, even though they're one and one in the season. They've covered the spread in both games, and I believe the Patriots are oh gosh, well, no, the one that I heard that that's an eye opener for me. The Jets are one in seven against the spread at home in their last eight primetime games, So that tells me, you know, okay, maybe they don't or they're not operating correctly under the lights. I don't know.
I don't know. I agree with that. I generally believe on a Thursday night game, when you're doing the traveling, you're playing the short week, that I do think it is intrinsically hard for you to bounce back. The one thing the Jets have going for them is the fact that they are playing this game and their familiar confidence,
so they're not moving. But if some of those guys that Dan was talking about, and this was the interesting part I found out he was he mentioned the very strong possibility, uh, that a guy like Michael Carter might be hobbled, that a guy like DJ Reid might be hobbled. Don't yet know what their availability would be, at least uh, based on what I've seen thus far. You know, Quinn
Williams is the one that I love. I'd love to have Quinn Williams the Patriot, you know, for I think he's a stud, he's a stuffer, He's exactly what you need. And you know, so that's that's the guy that you know, I think is their their their top effort, and you're going to see the Patriots probably try to avoid that
guy or maybe even double on him. This is where zone blocking, which we saw that one big play that Gibson busted last week against UH Seattle that was on his own play zone blocking play, and I'd like to see them try to seal off a guy like william and bust something outside with Gibson and or Stevens. I think that's where you might have some success, especially as Dan pointed out, the problem with the Jets defensively the first couple of weeks is their over pursuits. They're already
too far in the backfield. This is also the problem that I've seen at least early that Keon White has. Sometimes he doesn't contain well. So the Jets theory is, yeah, we want to rush the quarterback, but we got to also defend the run along the way. It sounds overly simplistic, but it's not easy to do. So if that's their tack,
then something's going to be open somewhere. And if it's over the top, if it's in the middle, okay, And if you don't have Jacobi Brissette, get him to get them the ball or he can't connect, or he overthrows them or he underthrows them or throws a pick or whatever. I think it's all kind of adding up to when I opened the program with today. I think there's a possibility that if things don't go well in the first I don't know, quarter half, you could see Drake Man,
you could see it. I think you know that that would be uh, that would be a possibility. All right, eight five five pats done.
I can't find their home record. But last forty games all time against the spread, they're eighteen twenty one in one.
So see, there you go, eighteen twenty one in one over the last forty against the spread at.
Home, No, not at home, just all time, oh all time. I can't find that home number. I'd have to break it down.
Oh you mean against the Patriots or just just just the Jets against the spread? Oh so so they over that? So last forty games. We're talking about two and a half seasons, right, eighteen twenty one and one against the spread? Okay, I mean I would kind of lean that way if if I were doing that, I would kind of lean
that way. Now, well, you tell me the Patriots are going to turn the ball over twice or three times, which they haven't done yet this year, and that certainly kept him in both games, right, I mean, they've got to win on the road, and they did go to overtime with you know, at least a decent Seattle team, not a great Seattle team, a decent team, but a
team that should likely be in the postseason hunt. You're not that far away from being in the hunt yourself, I would argue, again, as I said off the top that the Patriots shot themselves in the foot, especially with that play call at the end of the first tap.
The clock management was horrible. But I think that if you're thinking, well, you got, you know, a young team, you got young players, you got to realize you got a young coach here that has to make these calls, and so I think at least initially, you got to cut him a little bit of slack until he learns what he should be doing in these situations. So let's just say that maybe this last week was a learning lesson for a guy like Girod. When it comes to
the clock management story. You can certainly make that argument, I think, but I gotta go harder on you here. I'm just like, Okay, that can't happen again. That can't happen again. If you're if you're bound and determined to play football the way that you've come out playing over the first couple of weeks, I think it's okay. You're playing to the strengths of your team. Your lion can block, rush block, run block better than they can pass block, and then you're gonna run the ball. But at some
point in time, someone's gonna stack the line. They're gonna, you know, clog the box and they're gonna make you go over the top to beat you. And I think that could happen Thursday night against the Jets. You gotta be ready and a preset can't do it. Next man up, That's all I'm saying. Next man up. Chris Mason covers the Patriots for mass Live. Masslive dot Com joins us here in the playbook. Hey, Chris, how's it going today?
It's great.
Thanks for having me on.
Sure, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. So I kind of went out in a limb a little bit here and call me crazy. You're perfectly welcome to do that. But if things don't go well for the Patriots Thursday night, at least don't start well once, say they get into a hole and Jacoby Brissette overthrows, underthrows, doesn't throw to his receivers. I think Drake May makes his debut. What do you think.
I think he might be a little crazy.
I like it.
I like it, just I do not think they want to put him behind the offensive line right now, especially with the Darien low out city so out. David and Mike and Wanner are both questionable. I think with the state of that offensive line and that Jets defensive front, I think the only way he's getting into that game is if Jacoby gets hurt.
Well, that could also happen because he got banged up against the Seahawks.
Yeah, no, that's certainly good. That's an avenue. But I don't think they're going to give Jacoby the hook in this game and just say we want to see what Drake king you now. I just don't think that the way the offense is built right now, I don't think that's going to happen.
And you know what, Jacobe does aar.
I was actually diving into some numbers earlier about the downfield struggles and everything. So far, he's only attempted two passes more than twenty yards, which, honestly, if you can even remember the two, you're like, I don't.
Know, I don't remember, incredibly low.
Right, they're both in completions. But even with those short dropbacks, he's been hurried twenty one times, which is tenth most in the league. He's been hit ten times, which.
Is fifth most.
He's been bled down on twenty two point six percent of his dropbacks, which is the third most in the league. I think this is an offensive line issue more than quarterbacks slay than anything right now, where I think about what those numbers would be like if there are longer developing roots. You know, he's getting hit even more so they need to figure it out up front.
But does his standar reason that a guy like Drake may can get rid of the football quicker, that maybe that won't be as much of an issue as we're thinking it could be.
I don't really think so, just because at this point I think Drake is going to have a tougher time reading these defenses. You know, he was out there looking in the preseason. Yep, that's all vanilla. If anything, I think Jacoby will be able to get the ball out quicker because he knows what he's supposed to do with it, opposed to if Drake gets thrown to that fire. I don't know that a quicker release is what we're gonna end up seeing.
Yeah, good point. My concern is though, that the Jets, you know, you know, fill up the box, load up the box, and the Patriots can't move the ball and Jacoby overthrows receivers or they get locked up or what have you. Or you know, they challenge sauce gardener and he gets a pick or something like that, then I'm not sure what the next step would be other than
to throw a change of pace. You know, it's like a relief pitcher coming in and throwing a slider or a curveball or an off speed pitch of some kind, because you know, when you keep throwing fastballs and you keep whacking fastballs, you got to change it up.
Yeah, but I think it might be on Alex Van Pelt to be the one to throw that slider, that change up, whatever you want to call it there where. I think you can do that with play calling to some degree. You know, if they're loading the box, they're coming with their ears pinned back and they're listening it on throw screen passes, you know, try try different things.
There's countermoves that you can have at this point. So I think that to fall on Van Pelt at a certain point to you know, get the right plays in there and call for a slider if you need one.
Well, one of the guys that I think certainly will have to play a key role again and putting pressure on on a guy like Aaron Rodgers has to be key on White. I know you did a feature recently on key On for Mess Live, and I'm just curious as to when you you know, when you hear the kid, when you hear him talk, there's a lot of great self confidence in his voice. What do you think makes him tick? What do you think really drives him? Is
it just you know that he enjoys the sport. Is there a something about him, you know, playing with a chip on his shoulder? Is he that much of a physical mismatch for some of the guys that he's matched up? Again, where is he getting a success from do you think?
I think it's some bit is his physical makeup where he definitely has the build. But more than anything, I think he wants to be elite and he is really just kind of hell bent on doing that however he can. One thing that caught my ear over the summer was that I would watch the O line D line pass rush drills all the time when they would do the
one on ones. Yeah, and early in camp, Kiwan wasn't winning a ton of those, but it's because he was going against Mike on WINNU every time, And in talking to him after, he was like, yeah, I kept seeking Mike out because he's our best off at the climate. I want to get better. And I also told myself that I wasn't allowed to bull rush against him. I which that's his bread and butter. That's his best is
his bull rush because he has natural strength. But he's saying, I want to get better at these other moves, and so in trying to do that, you know, he seeks out the biggest kid on the block and it's like, let's see what I can do against him. So I think it's that drive, and I think he really wants to be great, and he does the things where you know, he's not afraid to look bad or lose a one on one drill if he knows that it's going to
help him in September. And so I think there's some humility there that goes a long way too.
Well, that's I kind of noticed that as well. The humility. I think that's a great word that you pick up on, and I think that's what you look for when you're trying to cultivate new leadership and then they're clearly is a leadership void now because your defensive captain is gone with you know, Juwan Bentley, he's untimely injured this past week. So is White the kind of gad that you know unexpectedly, might you know, fill that void if he's you know, able to continue to play and be effective.
Definitely. And he really caught my ear on Sunday, So spill the curtain back a little. He was early. Keon was early. He was one of the guys that was going to speak to the media at the podium. Keon was early there, so he just sat in the front row and listened to the end of Jacoby's press conference. He clearly didn't like Jacoby's tone or like the way that he was taking some blame. So he got up there and he said, look, first things first, our offense
didn't have to win this game today. As a defense, we need to play better. I need to play better. And then he goes through and names like defensive line needs to better, linebackers need to be better, dbs need to be better. And this is a guy that was
quiet as a rookie. He's really quiet. But to see him in the second year, not only you know, speaking for the entire defense, but challenging him too, that caught my ear really and I was like, Okay, they might have something here, and John Mayo singles them out as someone whose leadership is grown too. So I think you're starting to see that in real time.
Nine pressures against the Seahawks, nine of them. Now you know, he you know, had a sack and a half. But I'm just you know, how do you convert the pressures into sacks? What do you see where it's lacking that he might be able to, you know, flip the switch on and come up with a couple extra sacks here.
So some of that it's really interesting where I thought that he probably played better against the Seahawks than he did against the Bengals where he was get against the Bengals in the opener. He finished that game with two and a half sacks, you know. So some it's just subjective.
And if he's beating his guy so badly up the middle, that's going to inherently force the quarterback out of the pocket, which I think he saw Geno Smith on at least one occasion where suddenly he's running right into the edge rusher and maybe that's Shashu j maybe that's whoever's there. It gets the sack. So I think at a certain point the pressures are almost. I'm not going to say they're more valuable than the sacks, right, if you bring
the guy down, you bring the guy down. But if you're helping the teammate get a sack, you might not get into the box store. But it's your pass rush that really keep the entire thing.
And we've seen that from him and I think that's actually where his value to this defense is. He can get in there so quickly, and I know he's been working on some of those sweet moves and the speed moves rather than the bull rush that you mentioned. Uh man, you do that, that's going to open up some opportunities for anybody else who can you know, beat their man at the line of scrimmage.
Yeah, definitely. And it's it's funny. It's like, after watching Tom Brady for so many years, the way to get him off the game most was like interior pressure. You know, if you can get pressure through the A gap and he can't sit in the pocket anymore, that's when you
start to really like rattle at quarterback like that. And I think with Keon and the ability to rush the way he has from the interior, you're gonna see some good things happen where quarterbacks aren't coachbable sitting in the pocket, stepping up, and I think that's gonna lead to more sacks for everyone on that defense.
You know, a guy like Aaron Rodgers who they'll be going up against, you know, a quarterback with that kind of veteran savvy that he has. I don't know that he has the elusiveness that a guy like Gino Smith. You know, certainly, you know, showed that he can, you know, still possess last week. But at the same time, you
got stuff upstairs that sometimes can't be measured. What would be the biggest way to really you think that maybe for this Patriot team to try to give Rogers trouble because for a forty year old guy, he's seen it all pretty much.
I think a big part of the if they can just generate pressure by rushing four and that's a big thing, just because, like you said, you're not gonna fool him. You know, he's seen everything. Sorry, my thought's trying to hop on the coll fume he.
He can he bring him on. It's all right, it's a family show. And yeah it includes pets too. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
There you go.
But I think if you can get pressure with four and drop back into coverage to some degree. I think that's your roadmap to success there, because I don't think you're going to fool him with exotic coverages. I don't think you're gonna fol him with a lot of blitzes. But if you can get your if you can get pressure with your front, then I think that's gonna be a major key.
Yeah for sure. All right, And so then you know, I think we kind of expect the Patriots to do, you know, hopefully what they've done well thus far. I expect the Jets to counter. So how do the Patriots recounter.
I think they should start using more play action than they have where if, like you said, they're going to load the box, you know, they know they want to run the ball. Drod has told everyone we want to run the ball. Okay, start running more play actions. They've only run twelve play action plays through two games, which is it's down low. I think it's like twenty eighth in the league. With the running game going the way it is, linebackers are going to bite on that. You know,
it is a valuable tool. So I'd like to see more play action and I think that's an easy adjustment that they could make and that might buy some more time for some downfield for us to progress. You know, he's using the linebackers and boom.
Are you also in the corner of the got to figure out a way any way you can to get Pop Douglas the ball a little bit more, definitely, And.
I'm surprised that that hasn't been happening, just because they're not throwing downfield and he's one of those guys that gets open on the plant route, the under routes, anything all the time. So I'm kind of hasn't seen more targets, especially because it looked like he had some really good chemistry going with Jacoby Drake. Honestly, any quarterback there in the summer, he was like their best friend. He just gets open in a way that a lot of other guys don't.
Is that is that a Brissette problem or is that an alex Unpelt problem.
It's like situational. I think it's a little of both, honestly, where I do think Jacoby has to look its way more than he has been. But if teams are doubling him, then eventually someone else has to get open too. That's the thing with like the whole receiving corps hasn't given you enough so far. It's kind of crazy that year one on one could be two and oh here given the contributions from wide receivers thus.
Far right, Okay, so what do you think then happens tomorrow night? You know, the Patriots are going to a place they haven't lost since twenty fifteen. They had a fifteen game winning streak snap last year when the Jets won here at Gillette. What's it obviously going to take in your estimation for them to continue winning ways on the road here?
I think the Jets are going to win this game just given the state of the Patriots offensive line right now, where you know they struggle to begin the year in pass pro, and now you're down to Darien Lowe shoots a cor force not with the team anymore. You're Kiden Wallace into the fire. And then you have David Andrews Mike on went who banged up. So best case scenario, you're able to run the ball squeak out a low
scoring win. But the Patriots defense is going to have to play a huge game for that to happen, because I don't think the offense is going to score a lot of points in this one.
Yeah, I'm kind of there with you on that one, which is why I'd like to see them, you know, throw a change up that nobody expects, even if you know, even if it's only a package of plays, I think it would be certainly put some juice in the thing. Chris Mason covers the Patriots from mass Live mass live dot com. Thanks for joining us, Chris, appreciate you.
Thanks for having me on.
You got it all right. So there's Chris. You can get him on X at buy Chris Mason. Be why Chris Mason. That's where you get him on X If you want to follow his stuff, you get a chance to do that, all right. So so interesting though that everybody so far and the two reporters that we've talked to, But it just seems to me that nobody expects the Patriots to win this game. I mean, I don't think
the Jets are all that, do you. I mean, I feel better about this game than I did last week against Seattle, and I actually thought the Patriots would win last week. I didn't make a prediction or anything, but I just I kind of felt like this was a really good opportunity for them to sneak up on some people. And frankly, if they had just been smarter than I think they win that game in regulation. It was a great football game. It went right down to the end.
Obviously you go into overtime, but then you leave the game, you leave the stadium thinking, wow, did they blew that? They blew that? So how do they unblow it against the Jets, because they've had karma going against the Jets for at least the last ten years, if not more. Just I you know, listen, if you play a clean game, in other words, you don't turn it over, and you don't commit stupid penalties, and you can keep from brain farting like they did with clock management at the end
of the first half. And again I'm saying a lot of stuff that if if IF and I mentioned early in the program today. As you know, the margin of error is really thin for this team, but they make one mistake and it costs them, and they play cleanly, and they went on the road against a pretty good Cincinnati team. Although Cincinnati zero and two, you know, through
no fault of their own. I mean, you know, they I think they underestimated the Patriots, and then you know, Kansas City is going to Kansas City Chiefs are going to a chief you know, and they last second field goal beats them. And so now the Bengals are zero and two for a second straight year, which is crazy. But you know, I don't think they're a bad football team at all. I got a lot of talent. I don't know. I just I feel like this team is
in position to win. You can see it, and I know the initial thought is is you don't want to rush it. You can see progress, it's there. And yeah, there's a lot of little things that we like to nitpick on. Remember when we used to do nitpick Tuesdays here on the show, and we just sit here and you know, and you know we're gonna do nothing. You know, hey, well they won the game, didn't they. But we found all these little things that we could nitpick on and
that you know, could use improvement. And I think you know, when you're winning and you're you're you're going to super Bowls and you're winning championships, that it's easy to nitpick because you you you can identify the things that are going wrong because there's so few and far between. But when the winning isn't occurring with regularity like you did just a few short years ago. You've got all these nitpicks to choose from, and so now, you know, I think the goal here is to find the ones that
are really costing you games. And and these are not really nitpicks. They're probably more like fundamental flaws.
Uh.
And the you know, the largest fundamental flaw that we can find, I think, and we can all pretty much agree on this one is, you know, play on the offensive line. But you know, if if they can get one of these rookies to come and play, Caden Wallace is gonna get that chance. It looks like, you know, tomorrow night. So nothing like throwing a rookie into the
end of the fire, at least initially. If you get a cold, strange back before you know, all of a sudden done, you know, then you're automatically gonna have more depth, more ability. If you can continue to develop the you know, get cities so back from his injury as well, then that the depth automatically increases. And you've got some guys that have some ability, but it just takes them some time to be able to gel together. Keep in mind
now on the offensive line. You got five guys, two tackles, two guards to the center who have to play as a single unit. They got to play in concert with each other. They gotta move together. They gotta know the calls. They gotta know which way they're blocking. They gotta know past block, run block, they gotta know where they're gott to seal. You know, there's a lot of things they have to do together. And if the five guys aren't able to be together on it, one guy fails on his job,
the team probably isn't going to move the ball. So when you talk about being in sync, it's the offensive line that's being sync more than any other positional place on the football team. And I would argue the secondary is next. And we saw what a blow up and the secondary can do. It costs you a score that ultimately cost you the game this past Sunday. So the offensive line is really the challenge. How do you mitigate
the issues that you have within the offensive line? And I think that's where the Patriots are and I think that's where you know, a guy like Alex van Pelt has to figure out a way and has been trying to figure out a way for the first couple of weeks of the season. But now, you know, especially now when you're you know, preparing for a Jets team that knows the Patriots are going to run the football, they know it. How do you counter That's why I asked
the question earlier. How do you counteract that? What's your what's your you know, what's your blowback? And uh, this is this is a game for Alex van Pelt, I think to show all of us, you know, his ability, his creativity, his imagination, whatever it may be, in terms of his ability to get guys open. And then if he can get guys open and you go be Bressett can't connect with them, now you've got an entirely different issue.
And so I think, you know, at least initially, that's that's where you know the Patriots can have success or lack thereof, is how creative can Alex van Pelt get in trying to get some guys open? Uh so the quarterback, whoever it is, can get the ball to them. Huge issue, Patty and aguam, Hey.
Patty, Hey, I'm sorry.
Let me your blowtorches on.
Buddy.
You're are you who you? What are you welding?
I'm just working on a refrigeration deck.
Got you, okay, all right.
I had my acetylene towards going. Sorry about that, sir.
No worries at all, I hope I'm not interrupting anything.
Not at all.
Okay, this is what I do, Baby, to listen to Patriots dot Com Radio while I'm working. Not help the dago by a little bit quicker.
Love it, love it, love it? So uh, what are your thoughts on on on tomorrow?
I don't have a really good feeling about the game tomorrow, John, just because of coming out of last week's game, I think pretty much, you know, I don't was just a kind of a phony Bologny projection of excuse me, of an injured injury report, but like all of our whole starting line was on there. Yeah, it's and so far through two games, Jacoby hasn't shown the ability to push the ball down field. I do think we'll be able
to run a little bit on this team. But I'll tell you what really scares me about the It's not Aaron Rodgers, it's not Garrett Wilson, Mike Williams. It's it's Breece Hallum, Brelan Allen.
Yeah, and we didn't really touch on that a lot. But I really like Briess Hall. I think he's one of the best young, exciting running backs in the NFL. He's he's got some elusiveness, he's got some strength. I thought he was a really good player at Iowa State, you know, and now that he's rounding back into physical shape, uh, you know, after an injury, I I think he's a kind of a secret weapon for the Jets.
Yeah.
Same thing with Alan. I know he's a rookie, but I really liked him coming out of Wisconsin. This past year. I was pissed, I was sorry, for lack of a better term, that the Jets drafted him with their in the third round because I wanted to see him here in Patriots flu. But I mean, that's that's coming gun, and now we got to face him on the field on Thursday night. Yeah, I mean, Rogers. One thing that might help us is that like he at least through two games, he doesn't look like he's as mobile as
he used to be. Like he's he's basically just sitting back in the pocket, and he's still gets through the ball quickly. I mean, he's still got the laser and he can put it pretty much wherever he wants to put it on the field. But I think if our secondary holds up and we're able to match these guys, I mean, we should be able to get some decent pressure on him, especially if we can keep him in
the pocket. But being as smart as he is, I think a lot of a lot of a lot of their offensive game plan I think is going to be called at the line. Like I think if if we load up the box to stop the run, he's probably going to push a quick one out there. If they start playing the too deep that they've been playing for the majority of the defensive snaps over the two first two games, I think he's just going to hand the
ball off and try and gash our defense. And I'm not expecting this one to be close just because because of everything I said, most because the lines banged up, and I mean I would like this to be another kind of big Antonio Gibson game too, you know, take some pressure off for Madre. He had over what twenty five carries the first game nineteen last game. Yes, you know, give him a little bit of a break the short week. You know, Gibson probably has fresher legs at this point
just because he wasn't really utilizing the first game. I hate to say it, but I'm picking the Jets win. I think they're gonna cover to twenty seven to thirteen.
Wow, and you think they're gonna cover, I'm gonna cover. I'm stunned by that, Patty, You're usually captain, you know, captain optimistic.
I know I wear the footy pajama, the Patriots footy pajamas. But I also like just just from trends, you know, I try and look at trends more than anything. And that's why I thought they would beat Cincinnati in the first week. That's why I thought they were going to beat Seattle this past week. But uh, you know, Gino Smith had other plans. Good on him. I mean, he's he's played good and you know, he ever since he he went to Seattle's he's been a really good player.
And that's good for him, you know. But yeah, just it's it's just it's a whole conglomeration of everything this week that I just I just got a bad feeling about this this game. And hopefully John I'll call on Wednesday and say, Wow, I can't believe how wrong and stupid, well.
I just wow, I'm just I'm really a little surprised by this because I felt exactly the opposite all week, exactly the opposite. Oh wait, I'm like, you know, this is where this team sets puts the good foot forward this week. And I know it's a short week, it really kind of defies the odds, if you will. I think that what the papers do well on offense kind
of plays into the Jets' hands in that regard. I just I just feel like, you know, because the Patriots were so damn close this past Sunday and they know where they screwed up, that if you make just one little tweak here and there, you got an opportunity to play and win a game against a team that I don't think is as good as the Seahawks, at least right now. And again, I know we don't really we really don't know again what a team is until your
you know, at the halfway point of the year. I think traditionally that's when you know what kind of a team you have. But I just I just wow, I don't see it. And I've had every I had people coming, I had students coming in to my office today. I say, well, how beout. Are the Jets gonna beat the Patriots Thursday night? And I'm like, do you think that's gonna happen? And then I'm like, yeah, I don't see them beating the Jets. Aaron Rodgers, oh my god, he's all that, and I'm like, really, really,
I said, you realize now, Aaron Rodgers is forty. He's a man, He's forty, you know. So I mean, but I'm just I'm a little surprised by that. I'm sensing a real Debbie Downer here that we're people are frustrated, which is why I want to win the damn football game. Drake may.
John was after last week's game too. I was like, I wasn't really that upset about it. I just kind of went, it's growing pains. You know, they're a young team.
It's well, you're taking insensibly, You're you're taking insensibly, Patty, which I really appreciate out of you, But damn it, I'm frustrated. I want WS.
I want WS two. I just I don't see it happening this week. And you know what it's like, whenever whenever I watched the Jets win a game, it's like I want to stab my eyeballs out with a fork. You know, it's it's terrible. I have this theory on that there's no such there's no such thing as a real Jets fan. There's only status.
By the way, stab your eyeballs out with a fork. Pete Gillen, when he was a coaching probably his collar, used to tell me they're trying to scoop my eyeballs out with a spoon. God wide, a Lord, that's just an awful visual or like they're up. Wow. So I don't know, Okay, all right, I guess I get it. I just you know, I'm surprised. I'm just surprised. I give the Patriots, I mean, and guess what, you know what, I'm happy to may a cup, although I'll be unhappy.
But you know, if the Jets cover and they dominate like you say they're going to dominate, well then you know, next week we come back on the show and we said, totally misread that, Mike tea Ley, you know, call me now for your free reading. It didn't work, frauds.
And and how many times is even I think up until the last game of last season, like even with Mac Jones as our quarterback, did I say, yeah, they're gonna win. It's the Jets. Come on, what have they ever done anything?
Well, they would, They did split with the Jets last year, and like I said earlier, they haven't lost at met Life in you know, since twenty fifteen. That's nine years ago. So they've had They've had great. They've had more success on the Rogans the Jets than any other team I can possibly.
Think of, so infamous Ryan Fit's Magic Game where we gave the ball to him in overtime.
Yeah, yep, that's right. So if you don't give the ball to them and you can play you know, keep it close to the vest and and and not you know, have you know, the the late second quarter brain cramp like they had this past Sunday, then okay, why can't they win the game? Why can't they win this game?
Like one of the guys from PEW said this earlier last week when they said, you know, I think if they played the Seattle game and they don't, they can't come up with a turnover. I think Seattle wins. I think the path to beating the Jets is turning them over. You have to get lucky, and you have to at least get like a couple turnovers, okay. And the crap the crappy thing about Rogers is I mean he really doesn't turn the ball over.
Okay, I bought, Yeah, I'll buy that. I will buy that. If you probably are gonna have to pick up a turnover or two, I'll buy that. If they can't, the defense can't, you know, for some a Jets mistake, then that's where the Jets can win.
Absolutely all right, And the next next week, I got a long drawn out question for you, and I'm hoping at some point during that Matt, Matt will drop this cool story handel sound drop while I'm while I'm saying it.
So I start, I'll talk to you and Marine, well, i'll talk. I'll probably talk to Marine on tomorrow night. Good enough, talk to you next Wednesday. John, Yes, sir, let's hope I'm wrong.
You got it. I'm gonna hope you're wrong too. Thank you. Patty. Let's get Nelson in l a here. Hey, Nelson, you're in the playbook. It's all good. What are we working on today?
We all stand by right now.
Stand by? All right, okay, all right, that's good. No, no, no heavy lifting.
We messed up this weekend. Man, I thought we were going to get to w.
I know, I know it was all bad.
Well, you know, why would why can we white? Can we go for the first on the fourth and.
First in the overtime? Yeah, we were right there, Yeah, go for it. Yeah, I mean you certainly can make a claim that that would have been another you know move that you know sometimes you know, you just gotta you gotta take a shot. And uh, I understand the frustration.
The one that you know obviously bothered me the most was, you know when they you know, threw the ball deep in there into the field late at the end of the second quarter and then Seattle called time out and then the clock was stopped and then they were able to get the ball back with thirty seconds and they ended up getting a field goal. They ended up really
being the difference maker in the game. That was just really bad, bad, bad Without thinking about it, and I'm just like wow, because sometimes you have to coach to not beat yourself, and they totally coached to beat themselves last week.
Yo, And I hope they flip it over and I'm going twenty seven to twenty the Pagers all the way all the week.
Well, you're You're the first Nelson. You'll be happy to know you're the first one that I've spoken to all day today.
Our cornerback.
Who you mean Gonzales?
Yeah, he's gonna get his first interceptions that gave.
Oh get it, get a pick?
All right?
See? Okay, quarter? Okay, So you think Gonzales gets the pick when they try to throw to Garrett Wilson, because I think that's where that matchup will probably be. Okay, all right, Well then if that happens, then you have to call back next week and you have to brag about it.
Oh you know, I'm an brag about it.
All the time.
All right, twenty seven to twenty all right? I like it. I like it. Can Aaron Rodgers still play? Do you think can Aaron Rodgers still play?
Yeah?
He could pay it. But if we get in there and we get in the pocket, he can't run like that no more. You can't move like that?
Well no, And that's where I think if you flush him, then I think you're you're probably a good shape.
And that's when he's gonna make a mistake, and then that's that's when it's gonna come back and bite him in his assy.
Okay, all right, good stuff. Hey, be safe at work now, all right, good tooth sir. Thanks hearing you. Appreciate you. Thank you. Nelson in Los Angeles working out in the oil fields or wherever he is out there. That's you know, he's got some grammy work going on there. Appreciate you, Nelson. Absolutely. Hey, getting ready for a marathon game day watch party. Make sure you're well rested with a brand new mattress from
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Bob's Discount Furniture. The official furniture store of the New England Patriots eight five five PATS five hundred, web radio at Patriots dot com. A couple of quick emails here, Gang uh Claire says my prediction. Hi John, Hi Marine, Okay, Carol, Yeah, so much to topsy turvy, but I'm still going pat seventeen Jets sixteen f the jets. She spelled out f e ff. Come on, she got a little class.
All right, How very English of you, How very English?
Right?
Yeah?
Uh?
And then uh, let's see where else do I have this one? I got oh aiden from California, John Man. That was a close game that we fumbled away. But I'm looking at this as a glass half full. These are learning lessons for Gerard and the staff. All right, we did talk about that Aiden. You're correct, and I did say that, you know, okay, he gets the benefit of the doubt. He gets a couple of screw ups on his side. He screwed it up, but he gets that benevit of the doubt because he is a rookie coach.
You got to learn, you got to learn. Let's just hope it doesn't happen too often. Should you be giving the ball back before the half so they can score it?
No?
But again, if the coaches can learn from this and not be error repeaters, I'm okay with these growing paints, that's the key. Can't do it again. Got to recognize it the next time, you know, what this is probably not the greatest situation to pass the ball, probably not the greatest situation through because if we don't complete the pass, it stops the clock. He gives the team more time to come back and score on us at the end
of the half. It's a long and grueling season. I'm just glad this is a more watchable product than what the last year coach made his go through. Last year, coach, we can't even say this name, say my name, I mean, and I admitted that off the top today. I said, you know, this is a better team than last year already. I think it's more together. I think it's obviously. I think it's more disciplined, or at least there's more attention to the discipline on the field, and that's through because
of the lack of mistakes. The biggest mistake this team has made through two weeks has been the clock management issue. And they didn't come from the players necessarily. Not necessarily, they have to be getting direction from the sideline. Right it's Jets week. I'm picking them to win. I assume he means the Patriots to win twenty three to twenty one. This is more a hate pick than anything else. Love the show. All right, thank you, Aiden, I appreciate that. I mean, so we've had two in a row. Now,
I'm not sure we can continue that trend. God, was I really that off on this? I mean, did you think that marine? Did you think that you know the Patriots were gonna get beat this week?
No?
Okay, yeah, I mean you know and this we're not promised a thought to that, but no, I didn't know. You didn't think it's I mean, it's the Jets, right, I mean, and look, I realized that, you know, the Jets are you know, pros like everybody else. But you know, I think we've seen this a lot over the last decade plus.
The Jets will jet.
Thank you, thank you. That's exactly right, the Jets will jet. That's why when people said, oh, you know, this team is going to be a contender in the AFC gigs this year, and I'm like, not until I see them win a couple of games first. There's no way. There's just no way. Now, Aaron Rodgers can prove us all wrong, and you know, he might dominate. I don't think he will, but he might. And if he does, yeah, then it's maya Maxima copa but until I got to be from the state of Missouri. Show me.
It's a real woman, could stop you from drinking.
That's a real big woman.
It's time to go around the NFL with football guru Russell Baxters.
Now the name is Flounder on Patriots playbook Russell Baxter Week three in the NFL. Good afternoon, Russell, how are you?
I'm good, sir, How are you? Jets? Patriots week Thursday Night?
Right.
I'm a little disappointed because I was hoping this game within Foxborough and I would get to see you.
Yeah, yeah, Well, we don't get a whole lot of primetime opportunity this year for obvious reasons because the team just you know, hitting very good. But at one, you know, I'm.
More disappointed than Roger Cadell did not call me back.
Wait, you're not on his speed dial?
No, no, no, obviously.
Not No, that's all right, Okay, I.
Don't think I'm on his rotary phone either.
I'm not on his rotary either. I know that. I guess. Well, since you brought it up Thursday night, you know, the Patriots and the Jets are both playing their third game
in eleven days to start the season. When is this gonna catch up to the NFL, and could you see the eventuality of the possibilities worn down the line that they decide that the discretion is the better part of valor and keeping guys healthier longer, especially if they go to eighteen regular season games and doing something else besides Thursday night football.
I certainly don't rule it out. And by the way, the Jets even shorter week. Remember they played Monday night. Yeah the first.
Week, Yeah they did.
Okay, yeah, so Monday night Sunday and now Thursday.
Yeah, So that's right. So there are day days shorter prep time than the Patriots have to start.
That's right, exactly. So, but fortunately it's a divisional game and probably not a lot of prep for either team. Obviously they know each other well, and we also know that the Patriots have really had their way with the Jets for you know, I don't think Bill Belichick ever recovered from losing that playoff game in.
Two No, no, no, I don't think so either, right.
But irony of irony, Bill Belichick's last game as Patriots head coach saw their long winning streak over the Jets end in Week eighteen, So you know it's strange as may seem, but you know, you got two teams here, one who won last week after watching their defense get pushed around by the forty nine ers. Yeah, and a Patriots team. Now I know they lost last week in overtime, but I agree with whoever said it about five minutes ago. This is a better football team. It looks like there's
more cohesion. The physicality is certainly there. It would have been nice if they could find a way to cover you know, locket In Metcalf for true, but you know, give Gino Smith his due, you know, as a comeback player of the year a couple of years ago. Last year took a little dip and this year bought to a good start. You know, I find it very fascinating that, especially this past week. You know, I watch you know, Mike McDonald with Michael McDonald, you know those defensive coaches
who don't know anything about offense. They're two and oh yeah, right and low and obviously Steelers, you know, have been futured on offense, but they're two and o. So you know, you could go down the whole long laundry listeners though on but uh, just so you know, second year in a row, we have nine two and oh teams and nine oh and two teams, and we shall see because
you know, not every two and o makes it. And just to remind people, each of the last two seasons and oh and two has not only made the playoffs, they won their division. The Bengals won it in two thousand and two twenty two, and the Texans won the division after being oh and two last year.
So I knew you were going that direction. So I'm glad you started that direction because then I was going to ask you the next obvious questions. So, you know, with the nineh and twos from a year ago, but two of those teams coming back to win the division, it sounds to me then, at least in recent history, oh and two isn't quite the whole dug that it might have been, even just a few short years ago in the NFL.
Is it.
Yeah? Well, I think the seventeen game schedule certainly helped that one extra game. I certainly think having an extra playoffs birth helps. That started in twenty twenty. The seventeen game slate started in twenty twenty one, so that has helped a little, There's no doubt about it. But you know, It's hard to watch a team get off to a tremendous start, knowing what we know about preparation now and
how tough it is. That's why Holy Holy Saint Bernard the New Orleans Saints with ninety one points and eleven touchdowns in two games, I know, right, although I will say, and I love players perspective. I heard Cam Jordan on a interview yesterday. They say, reminded people we were two and oh last year, and you know you finished ninety eight. They wound up in some playoffs, right, So you never know, you know, you know as well as I do. You know, we see teams go off and get on long streaks
at the beginning of the year and then fade. I mean the Pittsburgh Steelers in twenty twenty were eleven and oh and crawled the rest of the year and then got blown out at home in the playoffs. Look at Philadelphia last year it was ten and one and disaster. You know, lost what six of their last seven, including the playoffs, and struggles with the Packers on defense. And I don't have to tell anybody what happened Monday night,
you know, So maybe same old problems with Philly. So it was not you know, it's you know, it's a weird week when the Washington Commanders are the only team in the NFC East to win.
Wow, I know, right, or one and one through the two weeks, that's correct, all right, So we got we have not one but two battles, two matchups of two and oh teams for Week three. This week, let's start then with the Texans and the Vikings. I've been impressed with both teams thus far. I know it's early. Which one has staying power?
Oh?
I think in terms of a roster you would have to lean Houston, who just keeps on adding players. And it's very very funny. Here's some wacky coincidences. You will recall in the offseason that these teams basically swapped be a free agency, not trades. They swapped their top tax rusher. Yeah, Jonathan Greener went from Houston to Minnesota. Daniel Hunter wanted from Minnesota to Houston. So both are two and oh. Here's my favorite. Do you know the last time that
Texans for two and oh no twenty sixteen reasons? The last time the Vikings for two and oh twenty sixteen? No kidding, This has got overtime ty written.
Although two zero to one then right, okay, the other two and oh versus two and oh match Chargers and the Steelers. I guess I'm mildly surprised with the Steelers, maybe a little less so with the Chargers. Just kind of like your thoughts on on both teams and the way that they started out.
Well, I'm glad Jim Harball doesn't like to run the football. Oh goodness. JK. Dobbins a see note each of the first two weeks. JK. Dobbins somewhat familiar with the Steelers defense through his days in Baltimore. I'm gonna make a weird prediction, okay, and you will get this. And I'm sure people who've been following the league for thirty forty years, Well, Justin Herbert is ify this week. He's a little banged up. So the Chargers are going to start Jim Harball at quarterbacks.
And this time he completes that Hill Mary Cash in the right corner of the end zone and Avenge is in the nineteen ninety five ASC Championship game. What do you think, John?
Why not? So it's only been what the twenty nine years?
Yeah, it don't don't let the facts get in the rest.
No, I know, but you know what, that's probably one of the reasons why he's back in the NFL anyway, just because he's had this, you know, itching in his craw for all this time.
You know, Oh, absolutely well, I will say that you and I always do this with a certain games. What's how early in the game on CBS, will we see that play?
Oh? Yeah, probably in the open right, yeah, probably in the opening couple of minutes we'll see that play.
It'll be there, Yeah, it'll certainly be there. But listen, Pittsburgh's defense has been pretty formidable, I will say that, and did it on the road, okay, you know, you know, I think they picked for three turnovers the first week. They had two picks a bow knicks last week. Offense still leaves a lot to be desired. The jointing around with their offensive line George Pickens is a marble, but a couple offensive pass interference calls and everything last week,
so I'm not sure what to expect. It's Pittsburgh's home opener. They're not the home juggernaut they've been in the day, and I think actually it helped them to play on the road the first two weeks with all the stirring and controversy. But I'll tell you Joe Walt to tackle that running game. You know, Herbert had some turnover issues last week at Carolina, So you know, thirteen twelve. I don't know if the year the last time the Stewarts
won the Super Bowl in two thousand and eight. I just remember this, they beat the Chargers during the regular season. That was that palamalo diving one handed interception. And I bring that up because they won the game eleven to ten.
Eleven to ten. That had to have been a score of gumi.
Right, that's like a softball scour. Yes, I know, Okay, eleven to ten, so you know what, let's I'll do fifteen to fourteen. And I'm not even going to pick a winner. We already saw the Steelers winning game without scoring a touchdown. Last week we saw Washington right or win seven field goals and winning game without scoring a touchdown.
That's true, that's true.
Other than the Saints and the Bills, I would say offense is a little sluggish out of the gate.
And why do you think is it because of the emphasis defensively? Is because teams are trying to do too much on offense? Is this traditionally an issue? Do you think over the last few years in the NFL? Why are the offensive having a harder time now?
Because I think the offensive line don't know each other. Ah, And you know in recent years the NFL is cut down on contact during training camp, and you know, offensive line is all about continuity and physicality, and you know, if you're not playing that much, you don't really get to know each other. Then you have some of these teams who and invest a lot of draft choices in their offensive line. I mean they barely know these guys' name,
you know, hitting around and so on. But still it is so you know, we have seen over the last couple of years, and you and I have talked about this as well, the first forced games of the of the regular season is almost like the preseeds. And now, because you don't see a lot of teams, you know, it's been up and down the last couple of years play their regulars. They get a lot of work in the mini camps and maxi camps and Vanda camps and
all that other stuff. Right, and when we do get to an eighteen game season, I'm hoping that little of that changes. I'm hoping that the more regiment, steady preparation schedule, because I think it's hurt the pride early on, it's hurt the product. And listen, we've had some thrilling games in Cincinnati and Kansas City last week obviously Monday Night, you know, the Ravens and the Chiefs as well.
Sure the Patrons and Chargers. Was a great game last week.
Yes, the Chargers last week.
Yeah yeah, and then not the Chargers to patrons on the seahawkscuse me.
Yeah, absolutely over time, I you know, we had we had we had overtime with Detroit and the Rams by the way, the Ram John, I don't know what you guys are doing in the studio this week. You guys could always play.
We could probably play. Yeah, I mean, that's that's it. Just it just goes to show you the old landage is no matter how bad you have it, somebody else has got it worse.
And that's and that's why I have to giggle at people who take a look at that schedule in April or early May, and the same people who can't pick week the week try to pick months and months. It's in advance, yeah, right, and fight. Well, they're going to face this quarterback and the face that quarterback. And no, I mean, let's they are down Cooper Cup and Cooka Nakula.
And last week was embarrassed. I mean that was the team that Sean McVay had beaten thirteen the last fifteen times in the Rams coach includes the playoffs, and that was I mean that was over in the first quarter.
Right, Yeah, that's cutting the heart out of your team with those two guys gone, no question. All right, so let's take a look at this. Then You've got uh at O and two. You've got the Giants, you have the Titans, you have the Colts. Uh, you have I'm gonna go down my list here, you have the Broncos, you have the Panthers, and you also have the Ravens. Shockingly with the Rams also at O and two, going
in Bengals. Yeah, and the Bengals at OEN two. Right, So you've got all these teams in at oh and two and the Jaguar Excuse me, I knew I left one out. The Jags are the other O and two and I'm not sure we expected them to be there. But my question is that all those and two's that I just mentioned the nine that you talk about when we started here, which one is likely to stay winless for a while more likely to stay winless.
I had been worried about Baltimore coming into the season because if you saw their offseason departures, regardless of reason, it was stunning how many people left Baltimore. And that was a defense last year that tied for the lead league in takeaways, they gave up the fewest points. That was a very formidable unit. And so far they've looked
pretty ordinary. I mean, they're up ten at home in the fourth quarter against the Raver Raiders and can't close the deal, and you know that's they've given up what twenty seven points and twenty six points in games. They go down to Dallas, I don't envision. I was told that Mike McCarthy is going to get the team there the night before so they don't miss the first half, okay like they did last week. That's a rough. That's a rough. That's a that's a rough afternoon to win
to Dallas them coming off the loss. Okay, So Denver, Denver has Tampa Bay this week. I'd be very surprised if they won, although bo Nick's already has the quote of the early season when he was asked about that interception in the end zone and he just said, I dropped back and I threw it to the other.
Team, which is accurate.
Which is totally and I'm all about accurate.
Yeah, I'm all about.
And but you know, it's interesting. Just right off the top of my head, I want to say six of the nine teams that are oh and two or in the AFC, Yes, Houston is all by themselves at two and zero, and nobody in the division has won a game other than them.
I'd say they're off and running. But as we've already pointed out that and two doesn't mean jack right now, that's right, and who knows?
And and listen, the NFC East has already jumbled in a bunch of one and one to two and as we know, which is going on twenty years this year. Now, I know Dallas won the NFC East last year, but nobody's repeated in that division since the Eagles did it four years in a row from two thousand and one oh four.
So that's an amazing streak there, really is.
It isn't that it's funny and the last couple of years, it's been alternating Philadelphia. Remember Washington won the division in twenty twenty with the seven to nine records.
Right, so right, seven or nine, that's right? Yeah, unlet's yeah under five?
Yeah, I mean, to me, it's gonna be. And you know Philadelphia, who's obviously defense is still an issue. I know they have Vic Fangio there and all that stuff, but they they they turned over the ball three times to their credit against Green Bay and still managed to win the game. But they gave up twenty nine points. Okay, last week they gave up a drive in the last
and change and losing home to the Falcon. Now they get the Saints this week, so you know, I mean, I'm not declaring Derek Carr MVP, although boy, I will say that it is fun to watch Alvin Kamara beat Alvin Kamara again.
Yeah. Yeah, he looks he looks better. He looks better than normal, that's for sure.
Yeah. So it's an interesting and what makes this week really interesting is for the third straight week minimal amount of divisional games. The Jets and the Patriots are one of the few and ten of the sixteen games or interconference games this week Wow.
See, I like that. Though, I like that. Let's let's talk about a couple of those anyway. Well, the Dolphins and within the AFC East Dolphins will go on the road. They got to play Seattle last week's Patriot conquerors. They got to do it without to a tongue of viola, and got put on ir this week with yet another concussion issue. You know, I think we could we all fee even if we don't feel exactly like to it.
Does we all feel for him and certainly you have to wonder what this might mean for the remainder of his career. Nevertheless, I look at, as you know, opportunity for others as well within the division. Miami's got to go from the tip, you know, of one corner of this country all the way to the other corner of the country against what's a tough road trip for the Dolphins, and we get a chance, I think, really to see
how good Seattle might be. I thought they were okay last week, but I gotta admit, you know, with the brain cramp the Patriots had at the end of the second quarter and the whole clock management issue that even Bill Belichick, you know, ragged on during the Manning cast on ESPN on Monday night. I think we still need to see what kind of a of a team Seattle can really be. I mean competitive, yes, playoff contender maybe,
but division contender. I don't know that we're there yet, but this could be a step in that direction for them, doubt about.
And this just occurred to me as I was thinking here. Obviously, Skyler Thompson is going to start for quarterback for the Dolphins. But did you know that the Dolphins also added Tyler Huntley?
Yes, yes, yes, he spent you know.
He signed with the Browns in this officeas they cut him, but he played a lot during the preseason. He spent his four year career to date in Baltimore. And of course it just occurred to me that if Tyler Huntley gets in this game, gee, you think Mike McDonald might know a little about it about him, you know, because he spent the last two years in Baltimore. So, yeah, this is an intriguing game. It's obviously teams that are
don't play each other that well. I I think Mike McDonald will be ecstatic if his team doesn't give up a safety this week like they did in the in the opener, they gave up two and had some like really mind boggling issues, just like Brian Callahan, who obviously had a lot to say to his starting quarterback Will Levis after another turnover. The Titans have five turnovers this year, all of them by Will Levin, but I'm sure he
also had something to say to his special teams. For the second week in a row, the Titans had a punk block last week against the Bears was for a touchdown. This week it's set up the score. And if you go back to week fifteen of twenty twenty three, they had a punk blocked for a touchdown and lost it overtime to Indianapolis. I mean, how often do you get, you know, three punch blocks in the six game span.
Not often, not often. Big change is coming special team wise. The other division game Jags that I went to two playing at the Bills on Monday Night football, Well, Buffalo's got a chance to really establish themselves again in the AFC East.
Well, you want to talk about a roller coaster ride, you know, Jacksonville was four in eight couple of years ago, ran the table, came back from twenty seven down to win a playoff, came over The Chargers then lost to the Chiefs in the divisional round. No shame in that. And last year they started eight and three and went belly up. Now I know Trevor Lawrence was banged up, but still wound up losing five in their last six game.
And now it's seven of their last eight game. And Doug Peterson, a Super Bowl winning coach, as we well know Trevor Lawrence, who you know very much like a couple of quarterbacks. This year big pay day, they look and they've lost close games. That's funny, the three winless teams in the AFC set. In fact, let me take a step further, every game played by an AFC South team this year has been decided by seven points or left. Do you know what that means?
I have no clue, but it might be a close game, Yes.
Might be a close game. And remember Jacksonville beat Buffalo last year in England.
Right, yes, yes, yes, home away from home.
They did know they did that eight and three start last year where it looked like they were going to repeat his division champions and they wind up not even making the playoffs at all.
Right, while we have about a minute or so loved here in the program. I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you about the Pro Football Hall of Fame today putting out their initial list of nominees, of which there are what one hundred and thirty or so? But among them Corey Dllon, Wes Welker, Ben Coates, Bruce Armstrong, Logan Mankins, Vince will Ford, Teddy Bruski, Mike Vrabel, Willie McGinnis, Rodney Harrison, a Keith taleb Adam Vin, and Terry Those are the
ex Patriots in that particular list. Harrison, I thought had a shot last year, did not get in. Of those Patriots, who's most likely to get further consideration and make that final ballot?
I would be done if Adams's there is not a first ballot Hall of Famer, And I know we don't have a lot of kickers in there. We have Jon Stenderud and we have Morton Anderson. As far as place kicker, he has the most points and most field goals in NFL history. He has the most points and most field goals in NFL postseason history. He's a multi Super Bowl champion with two different franchises. He actually wound up playing longer for the Colts than he did for the Patriots,
and he had quite run from the Patriots. Luke Keikley is another guy I know, he's not a Patriot. Luke Keikley is another guy who's a first time ballot. I think the big discussion will be Eli Manning. Okay, whether you know, was he great for those two seasons when they won the Super Bowl and mediocre that that's going to be. I wouldn't be surprised if he made it, and I also wouldn't be surpris he didn't make it first ballot.
That's what I think. I think he'll make it. I don't think he makes it first ballot.
To me, right off the top of my head, Luke Keikley and Adam Vinitieri are first ballot Hall of Famers, And I think if you had doubts about Kickley, who had a shortened career, and I know Patrick Willis was in first ballot. Yeah, but you know, it seems like to be a younger mindset now and a lot of defensive players are going in the last couple of years.
I can't imagine Adam Minitary not to be in in there. Yeah, first ballot, Yeah, I mean, if you don't put the all Listen, the Hall of Fame didn't put in the all time interception leader Paul Krauss for years and years and years. Okay, but you know we finally got a kick returner in last year in devin Hester, Adam van Kerry. And forget the numbers, what about the moments? Sure, the kicks?
Sure, No, absolutely, the.
Bulls and the Super Bowl.
The big moments. Yeah, he deserves to be there. And as long as we're to put Anna Vinentarian there, I think the leading score in AFL history should belong in there as well. From the Veterans Committee, and we talked about this last week, Gino Cappelletti, Yeah this.
Okay, Well, let's put it this way. If Vinititieri goes in and Capelletti gets the nod, I will see you in Canton next year because I'm positive the Patriots will play in the Hall of Fame game.
Yeah, I think you're right about that. Thank you, Russell. Always good to be with you, my friend.
You're welcome. I'll be watching tomorrow night. We'll be very interesting to see which version of the Jets show up, because I'm pretty sure I know what version of the Patriots are going to show up. And it's going to be a pretty physical style.
One that'll score about sixteen or seventeen points.
Right, whatever works.
Whatever works, Yeah, as long as the other team scores one point.
Last, when you hit a tree and the ball bounces on the green, yeah, nobody cares on the score.
That's also very true. Thanks, thanks my man, Talk to you later. You got it. The one and only Backs Football Guru on x BAX Football Guru Russell Baxter. Okay, football season here we know. Sullivan Hire Auto Service kicks things off in a big way with our exclusive Go Pats Tires sale now through October thirty first score big with incredible savings on Bridgestone tires. Save one hundred dollars instantly with the purchase of four eligible Bridgestone tires. Bridgestone
the official tire of the New England Patriots. See Sullivantire dot com for complete details and Go Patriots and the program brought to you by bud Light, Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy, bud Light, the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. Russell Baxter peering to us on this program via the TPX hotline. Hey, We're getting it all in today. Get it all in today. Thank you for Chris Mason for Mass Live talking about the Patriots,
and obviously Dan Liverfeld from Jets Confidential dot com. Hey, kickoff, see what happens j Ets Jets Jets Jets week. We'll recap that and look forward to San Francisco and find out if the Patriots this time next week, of course, same patch time, same patch channel. We'll look forward to that one and we'll see if the Patriots can take advantage of some of this I guess apparent good fortune because teams are getting kind of banged up right now, are they in position to do that? We'll find out
a little bit more this time next week. See you then, Thank you for downloading this podcast.
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