The Patriots defense has been unstoppable, but they do have one weakness - podcast episode cover

The Patriots defense has been unstoppable, but they do have one weakness

Nov 19, 202134 min
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Episode description

The guys discuss the Patriots’ fifth straight win with takes on the team’s surging defense and young talent. Also, is Mac Jones ready to carry this team if it can lean on the defense and run game? Hosted by Ryan O’Leary (@RyanO_Leary) with Patriots Wire Managing Editor Henry McKenna (@McKennAnalysis)

Transcript

S1

All right, now, here we go. It's another big week in the NFL for the New England Patriots, and this is the Patriots Wire podcast powered by USA Today Sports. Now your host Brian O'Leary and Patriots Wire Ed Henry McKenna. Welcome to the show, you might sense a different tone on the podcast this week as we're coming at you on a Friday morning, hours after the Patriots roasted the

Falcons 25 zip on Thursday Night Football. Henry, you were probably up late up early working for the Patriots Wire, and I'm always up because I got a baby that's a little over a month old now. So what could really go wrong in the pod this this morning, right? It's got a little bit, a little bit of hoarseness in our voices. Little ornery, right? That should be a good thing for the show.

S2

Yeah, it'll be a much greater grumpier show than normal here.

S1

Seriously. And who could be grumpy over this team, right? Like this Patriots team? It's hard to be grumpy. I'm sure we'll find a way to be grumpy about something. But a little over a month ago, the Pats were two and four, and they were coming off this like shaky win over the Texans. And then they had the overtime loss to Dallas, where the defense gave up 35 points at 567 yards. And since that point, the Patriots are five A. They give it up a total of

50 points in those five games. You know, we've talked about the team taking off max training wheels, accelerating his development. But doesn't that kind of extend to the entire team like they've gone from like mediocre in early October to legit AFC East Conference contender? And obviously, it starts with the defense. We're going to get to that. But have you ever seen a team make up this much ground

in such a short amount of time? Like this team has done a complete 180 and it just kind of rapidly getting better from week to week, and I feel so much different now that I did that.

S2

This is basically a classic Belichick turnaround. But I think you may have a point in that we haven't quite seen one so dramatic as this one. And there are reasons for that. But if you go back to the second run of Super Bowls that the Patriots had, for example, the 2014 team, they started two and two, and that loss to the Kansas City Chiefs was, you know, I'm sure Patriots fans already know what I'm going to say. It was beyond the Cincinnati game where Trent Dilfer was

saying that they can't. They're not good anymore. I love their team. That was kind of like the first time that the media members got burned for giving up on. The Patriots are not that good anymore. They're not that

S1

long. That was great.

S2

Yeah. But people learned their lesson after that. But like, you can't make your mind up about it. Belichick team after four games, that's when actually Belichick's teams start to really show up or show their identity. So and we've seen that throughout the last few Super Bowl runs, is this these teams are actually like they don't look that good through the first four games. This team didn't look

very good through the first six games. And actually, I would argue that they looked better than a lot of those Super Bowl teams. It's just that they didn't have the wins like those Super Bowl teams eventually had, you know, after six games because of the 2014 Patriots, just to use them as sort of a microcosm of this. They went forward to they were on a two game winning streak immediately after that, that Monday night blowout to the Chiefs. So the Patriots, you know, this year, they didn't really

have that. But the reason why they are turning it around so significantly is how much has changed this offseason, how important the offseason additions were to the team. And so Belichick spent like a hundred and seventy million dollars guaranteed at the beginning of free agency over the first few days. And like Robert Kraft, a billionaire, he had to like liquidate some of his assets just to pay

those people their money back. So dramatic that was from spending like just to give people perspective on how much money was being thrown around. Unprecedented for the NFL, let alone the Patriots, who are who are known as sort of a thrifty team I had for so many years,

S1

I hadn't read that. That's that's interesting.

S2

Kraft admitted it. He admitted that he needed to move money around, which is crazy. Maybe he didn't have to liquidate his assets. I might be. I don't know. Sounds like you had to move money around.

S1

It's like when I have to start paying the gas bill again in the winter, it's like crap. I got to move some money

S2

around here like, oh no. In a move, the money around. Yeah, it's that bad side. But anyway, and then and then you add in the fact that you know you're your most important player. I guess your two most important players are brand new and one of them is Timothy Durant. And I would say Jason Jackson Jackson's kind of like to be so he is you have continuity with him,

but no one is Mac Jones, a rookie quarterback. And so that shows, you know, like why a team like the Patriots had so much upside this year because, you know, among their best players were new players. And so they were, in theory, only going to get better throughout the year. Now, of course, that you look at like the jets and their rookie quarterback doesn't seem to be getting any better. Sometimes it feels like he's getting worse and might wait there.

Other starting quarterback who is young he has. But more so it doesn't always work out that way. But yeah, I think that's why not only did we see such a dramatic turnaround. But why you could almost see it coming. Everything has looked as it should for a playoff contender constructed in the way that it is, which is offense kind of efficient, but not at anywhere near the level of a team like the Chiefs. But the Patriots defenses like the Chiefs offense of the NFL right now, they're

just like. They're they're just that much better than everyone else. They are so far above and beyond. It is. It's just

S1

ridiculous. Yeah, you were tweeting, you think they're the best in the league, right, right now at this point, and it's like they seem to have this blend of pressure, right? With Matthew Judon and Barbara and these guys in Gotcha. And then they had the coverage ability in the back end with Jesse Jackson, and they got physicality with like Kyle Dugger. And then they got some finesse too on some of these interceptions, like the Jesse Jackson toe tapping

and reaching out, catching that football is ridiculous, right? It's like pressure, coverage, physicality, finesse. It's like we've seen it a little bit here materializing over the last month, but people had to be watching that game last night from around, you know, around the league, you know, nationwide, watching the game on prime time, be like, Holy crap, they look at this defense. It's it's unbelievable that blend that they have right now. They give it up 13 points in the last 12 quarters.

S2

The Patriots have allowed a single point in 19 of their last. 19 possessions from opposing offenses. So, so 19 consecutive possessions, no points allowed. That's how good. That's how complete of a defense they are. That's wild. The one thing I'll say just as sort of a counterpoint or to provide additional context to this defense because everybody can see with their eyes plainly how good they are. I mean,

there's no there's no like argument here, right? And it's almost boring for viewers like, I don't think many Patriots fans made it to the end of that game because it's just this effort of futility for opposing offenses. It was like so brutal to watch these teams.

S1

Personally, I did enjoy our

S2

endurance

S1

struggle. I enjoyed the Falcons rolling out their quarterbacks to throw interceptions at the end, but that was fun. Yeah, I

S2

like three different quarterbacks through an interception. They weren't even close. They were worth to it.

S1

To the Patriots players. It was crazy.

S2

It was so bad. It was awful. I'm trying to get to what this team is not good at. And I'll tell you, it's man defense that is the one short coming that they have displayed so far this season. And I think that's also from a schematic standpoint. What has helped to trigger this shift for them to be that much better is they've gone into a significant amount of the zone defense. That's also why I think Jesse

Jackson isn't getting as much love this year. He's not like strictly tied to a specific man throughout the game. And I think for like, neat and tidy, sick of the media, they like to see CB one go against wide receiver, one quarterback, one wide receiver, one day like that, like one on one matchup. Drop the stats. See which person won. Kind of like narrative and went into the zone.

The quarterback, the quarterbacks usually play sides. So on one side, you have Jalen Mills, the second quarterback and then the other you have Jesse Jackson. So, you know, like last night against the Falcons, Jesse Jackson, only, you know, he only had a few snaps against Kyle Pitts, the top pass catcher. He's a tight end technically, but he's a little bit more than that, even though we didn't see it. Yeah, he's a freak. We didn't really see it, but he

really is. So anyway. And the reason why they've got into this zone is because they are weak at quarterback. You know, previously they could be a heavy man team. Came back to even last year, early before Saquon Gilmore got hurt because I just said of the name Stephon Gilmore, which is the reason you have Stephon Gilmore at number one. He's the best quarterback in the league or one or two.

And now we're seeing Jesse Jackson is cornerback. You know, one of the best five or four quarterbacks in the league. So you had two of the top 10. I would say Jackson wasn't quite at this level. Last year he was getting there, but he wasn't quite here. Plus, you had Jonathan Jones, a really good nickel cornerback. You just had a great amount of depth and a great amount of talent. And so they could they had at least in the first half of the season licence to play

a lot of man defense this year. Jonathan Jones gets hurt. He's on injured reserve and got surgery so he won't be back. You have Jason Jackson. So across from him is Jalen Mills, who's technically like they signed him as like a hybrid safety quarterback. But he has nothing but quarterback, which, if you ask an Eagles fan, would be a disaster. Like, I'm serious. Like, Yeah, there's the writer from The Ringer,

Ben Spencer Locke. He does the podcast over there. He does a lot of film breakdown and he like slams amid Mills. And I was the I mean, being like, I know you and you, like, have a bad experience with eagles. Let's talk through this. Hey, you have a bad experience or Jalen knows, but he's actually been pretty good, like he's not good. But he is the sort of exceeded expectations as a quarterback because he's known as being massively inconsistent and he has been solid. I think his

completion rate this season is about 60 percent. You know, he's he's not letting off a ton of touchdowns. He's clearly the weakest link in this defense. And the fact that he can't play man does not allow them to be as multiple as they'd like to be. And so that's sort of the one thing right is Belichick has to really scheme up zone defenses every week, and if he could have it his way, he would be able to do both. He'd be able to throw his own defense at a team one week and a man defense

at a team the next week. And that's what kind of happened with Justin Herbert with the Chargers was he was expecting man, and that was when the Patriots switched the zone. Taking off what I feel like was sort of that big turnaround moment, so that was actually a good example of why, you know, switching schemes defensively and

tendencies can really confuse the quarterback. But now the Patriots can't really do that because they don't want to go back to man where they know they're not quite as effective. That's the one thing I'm not saying, like it's over or it's ominous or whatever. It's just like, they're not that that's a one limitation. They have.

S1

No, that's good. Nobody's talking about limitations right now, Henry. So that's actually interesting commentary and productive commentary, and it makes a ton of sense, like there's so many hybrid players on this defense. Adrian Phillips and Dugger and Jalen Mills and even some of the guys that play along the line like Kyle Van Noy, could go inside and out. So there's so many hybrid players, so Belichick's in his

lab cooking it up, and it's been fun. It's been fun to watch and we'll keep breaking down this defense as we go. I think it'll continue to evolve. But one new development with this team, Henry, is that we got a lot of young talent that's being productive and playing a lot of snaps, and I was looking at Pat's draft classes and that that hasn't always been the case for Belichick teams. So let's get into that right after this.

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S1

All right, Henry, here's our next topic. Young talent being a thing for the Patriots, right? That's usually not a thing for Bill Belichick in his rookie classes, but some of these rookies are just leaving their fingerprints all over this seven and four start to the season, right? Mac Jones, Christian Barmore, Ramadi, Stephenson. They're playing featured roles, right? We haven't even seen the kid. Ronnie Perkins, they the edge player. They drafted the third round. He's just kind of on

the shelf. We'll probably see him next year. But you go through some of these recent draft classes 20 20. Kyle Dugger. He struggled early. Now he's playing really, really well. Michael on when you. He's grown into a featured role. Even Josh, who he's kind of a situational guy. Go back to 2019. Damien Harris. He was mostly inactive, right for the whole first or second season while Sony Michel was playing. He's your only really regular contributor right now.

I know we got Winovich and Joel Williams to kill Harry. Yadi could just like some of these guys, but Damien Harris is really your only key guy for twenty and twenty eighteen. It took Isaiah Wynn some time he battled injuries to one Bentley, right? Like in 2017, he'll get me started. Right? That was the weirdest draft class ever. Were the Patriots in the pick in the first two rounds they traded for Brandin Cooks. That's going way back. But this this class is like a stand out for

Bill Belichick, right? So to see these rookies just dominating and they were going on and on about Barmore, more on the broadcast and you see them handing the football a reminder. Stevenson, he just looks like a beast in the fourth quarter. And again, Mac Jones with a high completion percentage, is right and really only made one horrible mistake in this game on that interception. But besides that,

he was pretty good. The young players, the rookie class being a part of the team's core right now is kind of a new development, and it's it's kind of a fun development for this team. This team's never got young talent right now with us.

S2

Did you, unlike I've said, go back to that 2019 class. You forgot someone. Oh no, the MVP of the 2020 season. It's Jake Bailey, the punter.

S1

Oh, yeah, I forgot about it. Yeah, they'll do that on your own time, right? Special teams. That's that's about that. They do special teams at your own time. No, the Patriots best players. Nick Foles, arguably, right? Nick Foles. Yeah, he's been the most consistent guy all season. Everybody else is that up and downs, not folk.

S2

It's like, yes, the best scorer. But kickers are generally right.

S1

How did I forget Bailey? But he is a step.

S2

Yeah, Jake Bailey is actually an. He's a very good puncher, but I'm point. OK, so to the actual point, the way that the last two draft classes are starting to shape this team, that's that's a good thing. Like you want when you have when the Patriots have to go to free agency, which they did this year to boost their team, to shape their team, to create an identity. That's not always a good sign because a the nature of free agency is that the best players, almost they

very often don't make it to market. The idea is, if your player is good enough, you'll give them a an extension and you'll keep them around. And so the best free agents or the best pending free agents never actually hit free agency their teams want them. This year was different. Teams had salary cap constraints, and so it was a better than normal free agency class and a below market time for free agents. So the Pacers were terrible. Yeah,

they were cheaper. So it was like it was a perfect time for the Patriots to really go in hard. And Bill Belichick saw the situation coming from a mile away. I asked him at the trade deadline last year. Hey, is this what you're doing? And he said, yes, that's nice.

S1

And, you know, it doesn't usually get that, you know, that straightforward.

S2

Yeah, I mean, it wasn't that simple. I was like, Hey, is this kind of what might happen? He was like, I think you're making a really good point. And I was like, OK,

S1

OK, I'll take that and run with it.

S2

Thanks. Well, that's the thing you've ever said to me. And so they don't want it like, this is an anomaly. You're not going to see free agent classes like we saw in twenty twenty one. And you're not going to see the Patriots have buying power, you know, and we won't see a buyer's market in free agency for a long time again. The pandemic created, you know, very unfortunate situations in the rest of the world, but unique situations

and buying opportunities in the NFL, which is stupid. Owners should never have done that with meaning like what they did in managing the pandemic was smart, but the finances behind it were ridiculous. So to make players suffer financially is absurd. But that's a whole nother episode about how players are improperly treated by the billionaires that run this league.

S1

That could be a good one for what we're talking about.

S2

Yeah, yeah, exactly. We're talking about a draft class. Yeah. And and so the reason why the Patriots had to build in free agency was because their draft classes were really bad, like the fact that I'm like, Come on, man! And the punter was a great player in the 2018 2019 class wasn't good. The 2018 class. Was it really good, either? Isaiah Wynn is a good player and it's great to

have a left tackle. That's hugely important. The fact that he's the only player on the team still from 2019 and that Sony Michel was like the second best player. He's I mean, those are first round picks. Of course, they're supposed to be good. And Sony Michel had a great rookie season where they helped him, where he helped them get to the Super Bowl and win it. But other than that, like Sony, Michel was never special. He was not a unique talent. He just was. He was

just like in a good situation, to be honest. And so I don't know. I don't know. I feel like there were years where he might not have made the team if he was wasn't a first round pick. And then you go back to 2017, 2016, really like one or two good players are coming out of those years and you need more out of a draft class like we're seeing over the last two years. Mac Jones, Barmore, Stephenson and then going into this, this last year, dugger. Okay.

Justin Herron, Michael online. No. So you have, you know, you have two starters, two with one one two and dugger, dugger and then you have two backups or sub sub role players here. And the fact that that's kind of all they got. I don't know. The fact is that like Devin ICRC and Dalton Keene are just duds. I think probably, yeah, they'll probably get caught next year when the optics look a bit better for Bill Belichick to cut them. Good one. The other thing is the 2021

draft class might not be done. You you alluded to Ronnie Perkins not really doing anything. Also, Shaun Wade is a rookie. The Patriots in draft him, but they traded for him at the roster cut down day. The Ravens had him on their team. It was great. It was a fifth round pick. I think a great preseason and the Patriots traded for him, so he'll he'll be kind of like an honorary member of the class. Curious to

see how he pans out. And then finally, Cameron McGraw, he's on, I think, either NFC or either one of those injury lists, and we'll be back next year. He's a unique talent. He's a speedy, lighter linebacker that's going to play on the inside for them, if he can, if he can play. I think he's got sort of upside. People were talking about him in the draft process if

he's put in the right place. Maybe he'll end up being one of those, those gems, one of those, sort of because he had to take a redshirt medical season. Teams knew he couldn't play this year, and he still came out of the draft. So that hurt his draft stock. But he seems like a kind of developmental guy where you let him, you know, heal up for a year and maybe he comes in and plays a sub several or even a starting one down the line. So it's important,

enormously important in the league to nail your drafts. And Belichick was not doing it for many years, and that's why Brady grew frustrated. I mean, there are a number of reasons why Brady left, but the fact that there was no talent or they were really lagging in the talent department was sort of a problem Belichick created in the draft and his his Stafford. And that's why they were making sort of like desperate moves to get Mohamed

Sanu and then Antonio Brown. They were adding these players that were like, You know, I mean, Antonio Brown is, I mean, we're seeing with with more drama in suing in Tampa. He's just like, there's not where. Use using questionable human being at its core and in Mohamed Sanu was a questionable talent, I'd say, for a second round pick a price, they probably went for a sixth round pick exactly, and they paid a second for Mohammed Teneo. So they were desperate at those times to really fill

those that that were shortcomings from the draft. And so it's it's really bad that the Patriots nailed both the draft and free agency class. And it's sort of crazy because all general managers try to build their teams like this draft a quarterback in the first round. You fill around with free agents, you set a culture and then you with, but like, nobody actually does that. Look at

the jets, wicked. Even the Browns like the Browns have had, they're looking at like obscene amount of first round picks through the years. And still, they're struggling to make a culture that wins and like it took years for them to go from being a dumpster team to like the five hundred and the Patriots. All of a sudden you go from like one year of being a 500 team back into a playoff and Super Bowl contention.

S1

What a story. It's a it's a it's an amazing story. Let's wrap it up here. We're saving our hot take for the end here. Had reset for all the folks that are hanging out with us here on the pod. You have a scorcher on Mac Jones about why he looks bad with the lead. So let's get into that right after this.

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This is the typical sports committee. Let's make this interesting.

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What's up, this is Geoff Clark from the Bet Slip and podcast presented by sports book Wired.com. I'm here with my handicap and whom he needs and begin to break down this week's Sunday Night Football game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and the Los Angeles Chargers. Our friends at typical sportsbook have the Chargers lane five and a half money lines, plus 200 for the Steelers, minus 250 for the L.A. Chargers and the total sitting at forty six and a half.

I'm taking the underdog Steelers out, plus five and a half. Steelers have a huge edge in coaching matchup between Mike Tomlin and Brandon Staley. They're much better on third down and red and in the red zone, the Chargers have a negative differential and third down and red zone conversion rate. Also, if you blindly feed the more popular side, which is the Chargers, you win sixty three percent of your primetime games this season. Nate, how are you looking at this game?

S2

I'm going with the under forty six point five. The Chargers by far have the worst rush defense in the league. Pittsburgh is twenty fifth in opponent, rushing yards per game. It's going to be a lot of running, a lot of killing the clock, especially if we don't know. But Big Ben status, I'm going with the under.

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That was your typical sportsbook minute for a limited time. New users in Colorado and New Jersey from this podcast will enjoy a special welcome bonus. Get your bonus today at USA Today BET.com Flash Podcast. That's USA Today Icon Slash podcast significant for terms and conditions. 21+ only gambling problem call one 800 Gambler in New Jersey one 800 five two two four seven zero zero in Colorado.

S1

All right, Henry, I don't know if this is still you're still kind of crafting this take, I think this is this one's not well done yet, it's still you're still cooking this one up, right? But we talked about this right before we started recording. You said you had to take on why Mac Jones might not. He doesn't look quite as good when he's playing with a lead. Right?

And we saw that right. He threw a bad pitch in this game and he wasn't completely, you know, was a really dominating as the Patriots are pulling away this game. So why does it, Mac Jones look as good out there when the Pats are ahead?

S2

I think there's layers to it. He's an emotional guy, and I think he's tired of the narrative that he's the weak link on the offense and kind of the team in general, where it's like team is really coming up fast and he his development is lagging behind the general groundswell of development all around him. And I think there's something to that that he is like, Don't get me wrong, Mac Jones. I feel like Patriot fans are going to hate me because they're like, Oh, Mac Jones

is so good. He's the best rookie ever, and he's inward looking and I love him. That's a good one. It's like, I like that, you know, Mac Jones. Like, I get that Pro Football Focus loves Mac Jones, and I get to the stats show Mac Jones is like guy two incredible completion percentage. That's all well and good. He likes to throw the ball to the line of scrimmage. Andre Stevenson and Johnny Smith and other guys who really create yards after the catch. They're doing a great job

of making those stats look look better. So there were just many opportunities for Mac Jones to really like slam the door of the Falcons because it was 13 zero when Mac Jones threw his interception and the Falcons ended up in Patriots territory.

S1

They ended up fouling is what they did.

S2

Yeah, and then they Falcons. But like, you can't always trust the opposing team to like the Falcons are going to Falcons, the jets are going to jets, right? There have been a couple of games where Mac Jones really struggles to slam the door on his opponent. And a part of that's because Arthur Smith, the Falcons coach he really gets how to stop this Patriots system. So a

credit to him. But yeah, Mac Jones threw that interception, there was a third down, or Mac Jones misfired to an open Jacoby Meyers at the end of the first half. Mac Jones mismanaged the hurry up and there was a fourth and one, and when he went to the sideline, Brian Hoyer was kind of like coaching through it, like, here's what you should have done. Clearly, Mac Jones felt like he should have gotten a shot at the end zone. Or maybe they were going to try to convert that

fourth down. Maybe they were going to try and draw an offsides. I don't really know, but it seems like they didn't feel like they maximize the final. Twenty five seconds of the first half got a field goal, which is great. And he's he's got a few games in a row now by getting that second quarter final second field goal or touchdown, which is a credit to him. But the defense is so good. The Patriots then become reliant on their run game that Mac Jones doesn't have

to throw very much. And when he doesn't have to throw very much, he gets a rhythm out of sync and he doesn't do well in that area. That's just that's not his comfort zone, which is basically beyond the 10 yard line. He's really good at peppering the ball with timing short, quick dink and dunk all that. And then, you know, his completion percentage looks brilliant, but sometimes doesn't pick his spots very well when he's going to push

the ball downfield. And we saw that with the interception. A.J. Terrell, the Falcons cornerback. He really just stole the ball right away from them, and it was just sort of a careless error by Mac Jones that could not cost the Patriots the game, obviously, but could have been more costly

against a more substantial opponent. So basically, my take is Mac Jones, still a rookie still developing and everyone who's saying that he's like the second coming of Tom Brady or even like, I don't know what the comps are these days for Mac Jones, but he's just not just not there yet, and he's not consistent quite yet. And I think that's one thing he's got to work on is is this defense and this running game will not

make the team reliant on him. So unlike at Alabama, where he's like throwing the ball 40 times and he's the the most important player he's got to to kind of take a backseat and relax and like, find his rhythm, even when he's getting asked to throw sparingly, take his spots carefully because pushing the ball downfield is not easy for him. And so he shouldn't just do it because

the media like me are saying that he can't. And so, yeah, that's kind of my take because I think he's a little bit in his head trying to prove himself to the NFL and to the up end that narrative. And I think he's a rhythm passer that doesn't quite always get put into a rhythm.

S1

Excellent stuff, as always from Henry McAdoo. Some stuff for Patriots fans to think about as we sit now through a long week waiting for the Titans, the Patriots on typical already three and a half point favorites of this one. Can't wait. It's going to be a huge game. So for Henry, I right O'Leary, thanks again for joining us. Hit the Subscribe button! Find us on Spotify, Apple Pods, Google Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. We appreciate you

if we don't talk to you before then. Happy Thanksgiving to. This USA Today Sports podcast has been presented by USA Today Sports Media Group and is available in your favorite podcast store. Make sure to subscribe for weekly updates. The latest fantasy picks from Corey Bonini and The Huddle podcast inside the weekly line with Sportsbook Wire's Geoff Clark and Heston McLaren and the Bet Slip podcast, we'll see you again next week.

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