Week 7, Episode 1: Chiefs Concerns, Bengals Statement, Making history, Bob under fire!

than the Kansas City Chiefs. What is wrong with this offense? What is wrong with their defense? And Patrick Mahomes. There are a lot of questions starring around this team. Here's what the quarterback had to say. I mean, it's it's it's kind of been one thing here and there each and every week. It's not like a whole overarching one thing.

I mean today it was probably me who just pressing a little bit too early in the game, and then it kind of got down and we were in that kind of mode where you're kind of no huddle but you don't want to be in. In In the NFL, you can actually a little bit, but it's hard to get sustained drives. Um, so it's gotta better earlier in the games so we don't get behind like we did today. Well, maybe Dana does have to be the quarterback. I don't know. I mean, obviously he's not playing the way we've seen

Patrick Mahomes play in the past. But it seems like the problems for this team go way beyond Patrick Mahomes, Andy Reid and what always used to work, a seamless offense that would just glide down the field seemingly at ease every game. What what do you think the problem is? There's a lot of problems to your point, problem, I think, so I'll start on the other side of the football. Defensively, One, everything in football is connected. You guys know that it

is always connected. So the Chiefs defense is not good. They give up a lot of points. That impacts the way philosophically that defenses are going to play against the Chief's offense, and that impacts philosophically the way the Chiefs offense is going to try and go about their business. Right. So, as an opposing team, when you play the Chiefs, you know, are right, our offense is gonna score some points. We're gonna score twenty eight plus points. More than likely they're

given up, I think averaging like third. Do you want our thirty two points defensively? So when you play the Chiefs offensively, you feel comfortable you're gonna get to a round thirty. So then that frames again philosophically, how do we want to play defense against the Chief's offense? What's the best way for us to slow indoor stop them from scoring thirty points? Number one, teams are playing too high safety at in a ridiculous rate against the Chiefs.

Is that something new? Absolutely not. This is a rather lather, rinse and repeat thing. Everybody has been doing this against the Chiefs for probably close to three years now. Teams are playing a lot of two high safety now fundamentally in offensive football. When you get two high safeties, your number one goal should be run the football. It is a football is a math game. It always has been

to me. If I've got six guys blocking and you only have five, which is often the case in a two high shell defense, I should be able to run the ball wherever, whenever, however I want so. The Chiefs aren't doing enough of that. They aren't kind of banging their head against the wall with we are going to run the football. Number two. And this is a thing that you and I have talked about at nauseum a

little bit, Bob. I think that the RPO offense, the run pass option, has hurt this offensive line significantly and it's affecting Patrick Mahomes number one. The offensive line. There's no pop in their run game. There's no Okay, we are putting our hands in the ground. We're calling a run. I do not care what the defense is in. We're gonna get four yards. I don't you know there, it's always well, we're gonna call a run and if we if we get a half a body too much, maybe

Patrick will throw the ball. You know, you watch the offensive line come off the ball and there's no pop in the past aspect of it. You watch this offensive line come off the ball and you can see it on tape. They will start to peek back to see if Patrick has pulled the ball to throw the pass option. So that's the first aspect that in the run game

it's really impacting them. The second thing is when you live in the RPO world, there's a quarterback, there's very little rhythm to your feet you know you are catch place ball down read a defender, either give it or throw it right now, there's very okay, I'm dropping back number one, number two, my feet tell me to get to number three to a checkdown my feet. There's no rhythm to the checkdown for Patrick Mahomes. So all those variables are the fundamental reason why the Chiefs offense has

had moments of stagnant play. Obviously the turnovers are a result of those symptoms. Yeah, Dan, you know you're hitting on a keyword, and you mentioned the word fundamentals, and there's an absence of some real fundamental things going on right here. I do want to talk touch on you talk about the pop of the offensive line on play action, and you know, I was forcing around to be around some pretty good coaches and watch them coach play action. It's r p O S play action, same thing you're

baking them, you know. And one of the things that I remember the most about the best play action team, it was not only the ball handling and the footwork and the track of the running back and the quarterback, but was the offensive line. When you saw a team that could run the play action really well, you could you didn't just see it, right, you you're talking about what we could see on tape. The other thing is you heard that offensive line. There was a sound of

them coming off the ball. And again this is this is where my scouting thing comes in. It's you know, there's certain things that you can hear and feel and sense when you're on the field and when you're around Kyle Shanahan, Mike Shanahan, Charlie Weiss, Josh McDaniels. Some of the best play action teams that I've been around, Ron Earhart back in the day, Dan Henning. Their play action. You could hear their play action coming and it was enough where the offensive line would come off. It's with

such intensity. The defense even thought it was it was it was this visual thing that they saw the play action, but they heard a play that sounded like a run. So I don't want to spend too much time on that. But the other thing is the fundamentals of this. It's the turnovers. Right. They are dead last tied with the Jacksonville Jaguars at minus eleven and turnovers, and they've had some other turnovers that they've gotten away with. You go back to this game in particular, we're looking at go

back to the first court. Tennessee's up seven nothing, The Chiefs have the ball third seven at their you know, the minus forty nine, their own forty nine yard line. Bud Dupree gets the edge on Orlando Brown, strip sax Mahomes. Now Kansas City recovers. But the thing is, you know, we've talked about this before. Just because you do something wrong and it works out in your favor doesn't mean

that it's right. You know. One of the things that again the best coaches I was around that they always preached was making sure that you don't plant the seeds for future defeats, and not just defeats in games, but in series and in turnovers. So now you know that we've seen this. This has been all year. This offensive line has not been performing in Orlando. Brown want to go to in the city because he wanted to play

left tackle, saddle up, buckle up. Here we go. But he's getting beat by bud Dupree, and and you know, so so that happens. Now. The other thing is happening is one of the things of magic of Patrick Mahomes, who I still think is magical and is going to be magical and continue to be that way. The extended players are not working out the way they used to. Can go back to the second quarter. Case's got first and ten on their own, twenty five Titans are already up,

you know, seventeen nothing at this point in time. Nobody's open, which again, this is becoming a problem. The people are not getting open, which puts pressure on the offensive line, which hasn't jailed yet. He's trying to squeeze one in on this play, gets tipped in the air and intercepted. Tennessee gets the ball. You know, they only have to go forty six yards right now because they've gotten the interception in Kansas City territory. Touchdown, and now the game's

twenty four nothing. We're still in the second quarter, and now we go to this place again. We're still in the first half, but we're now we're under two minutes. Mahomes scrambles terrific scramble thirteen yards. But I encourage everyone to go back and watch the tape. The way that he is carrying the ball the entire time that he's running for thirteen yards. This is the kind of stuff that Patrick has been able to get away within the past. He's not protecting the ball. He's got it in one hand.

It's out as this play is ending, and he's going down. Sure enough, he's stripped balls. Turnover again. Tennessee gets the ball with less than two minutes eight plays, only eighteen yards ahead of field goal. We turned around and it's twenty seven nothing. And I think part of what's happening here is some of the things that you know, you can get away with not being fundamentally sound for a certain amount of time if you have rare talent and

the Good Lord is looking over you. At some point in time, those things are going to manifest themselves into unsuccessful plays. And that's what I'm seeing right now, in addition to the stuff you mentioned, Dan, Yeah, I mean it was twenty four nothing and the Chiefs had run eleven offense plays. I wanted to touch on the the interception play right because I think it's a big teaching point for everybody listening that there is a difference when I say the rhythm of your feet listening to the

rhythm of her feet to your check down. There is a big difference between checkdown an outlet for a quarterback. Okay, a checkdown is something that is built into the progression of a play. Hey, we are going one, two to three. And on that interception that first and tent where he scrambles to his left and he throws back across his body. Three is so he goes a little flash fake, backs on his left, flash fake, and the back is coming across,

so he's gonna cross Patrick. He's gonna help a little bit in protection with the chip, and then he's gonna run what's called the check M. So if you think of the McDonald's arch right, the M one half of that. So he's gonna go check M. So it's gonna almost look like a little bit of that arch loop and you're really just trying to get the back to start going downhill at the defense while also looking to the quarterback.

And so Patrick goes. Number one is Travis Kelsey on a little bit of it in an out whip route, It's not there. Number two is an inbreaker, it's not there. If you go one hitch to Kelsey, to hitch that that inner basic and three to your check m. He is going to catch that ball, and it is going to be at worst if he catches the ball and starts to trip on his own feet. It's going to be second in two. That is in the rhythm of

the play. That is a in rhythm check down. Now an outlet is, hey, there's the the ball has to get out of your hands. You are scrambling, there's a sack, you're under duress, and somebody has leaked out, and is it is your only option to get the ball of your hands. That is the difference between the rhythm of

a check down and an outlet for a quarterback. And that's what I say when Patrick has got to really and the Chiefs have to really start to hone in on this is when you start to listen to your feet way more, which again is not part of that RPO offense. You get into the rhythm of your checkdowns way more often, and then you don't make those mistakes

that right now are really hurting this football team. Well, let me say you're a good partner, because obviously working the golden arch is in there brings me into the conversation. So like, I appreciate that you're you're now talking about metaphor understand lonely I can see it. Hey, look real quick, we only have a minute or two left in this segment.

Every time We talk about the Chiefs every week, though it seems like our conversation is what's going wrong with them rather than what the opponents sometimes is doing right. How about a quick thought on Tennessee. I mean, this is a team that I watched a couple of weeks ago lose to the Jets and and Scott to your point, offensive line, imposing your will physically win. Like we spend all our time with the Chiefs talking about Kelsey and Tyree Hill and Mahomes and his magic and Mikole Hardman.

I mean, what's the biggest problem arguably with their offense. It breaks down on the offensive line, and it short circuits everything that they want to do. When the Titans get it going, there aren't too many breakdown on that offensive line. Mike Rabel is such a stickler for doing things the right way, fundamentals and just perfection and detail, and you know, it's part of what he learned as

a player. And again, so I've known Mike forever since since the time he came out of college and he had those couple of first years as a player with Pittsburgh. We brought into um New England, and he was with me in Kansas City. Also, Mike was a student of the game. And Mike was not a rare physical talent. He had to do everything right in order to be a good player, and he was not a good player. He was a very good player because he did things right.

He was prepared mentally, he did things right fundamentally, and that is the image of the team that he wants. That's why John Robinson goes out and gets the type of players that they may not be, they may not have a whole lot of sizzle, but what they're gonna do is they're not gonna They're gonna try not to lose football games. But I have to say this. You know what people forget sometimes is every team in the National Football League is playing with pro football players. Even

the backups are pro football players. These guys are the best of the best in the world. And you know, I mentioned this last week. Every once in a while, you know, Betty Crocker is gonna burn the Brownies and and the Jets burn the Titans Brownies. And I think that they learned from that. And I think that's what good teams do, is they learn from making mistakes and

not playing well. One week, I could keep it simple for the Titans number one defensively, they do a good job with coverage disguise what that does for a quarterback and makes you just hesitate for a second. They got two first rounders on their defensive line that are playing really good football, and they got a second rounder that's playing really good football. So Landry's playing good football, dupri is playing good football, and Simmons playing good football. Right,

so that's tied together. Offensively, they have the mon stars offense. I'm just a p s A to everybody listening that is watching the Titans. If you line up defensively to stop Derrick Henry, you are going to get gashed by those receivers. They their skill position players Bob skill a position, not their tight ends. Skilled position guys. Henry, A. J. Brown and Julio average six pounds. No one in the NFL is like that, nobody, no one in the NFL defensively can match up to them. So they're big boys

on the perimeter are a problem for defenses. If you line up to stop Derrick Henry, you are going to get play ash and passed to death. And when they lost to the Jets, there without Julio and A. J. Brown, so obviously that takes away a big part of how they want to play. A team right now that is playing exactly the way they want to play. Though, the Cincinnati Bengals, we're gonna talk about them when we come back, because that was a statement win for them this past

week in Baltimore. And also Dan and I were a part of history, a very unusual version of history. But we will tell you about that when we come back. One Pets back here on TEPTS Bobo shooes Him, Dan Or Loves Kip, Scott Pioli, the podcast that takes you

behind the xs and ohs and guys. We've been, i think all season with the Cincinnati Bengals having this discussion, waiting for a reason to say they should have taken Penny Soul, they should have addressed the offensive line this team with the role draft, and every time we want to have that conversation, Jamaar Chase does what Jamar Chase does again. Joe Burrow looks like he's got plenty of protection upfront, and this team looks like they are really

four real? Was that as much of a statement went on Sunday as we all may be on the surface think it was well. I thought it was the most emphatic and impressive win by anybody in the NFL this season. Cincinnati to go down and beat down Baltimore almost in a way that Baltimore has usually beat up people over the last decade plus. Uh. One thing that stood out to me defensively, Bob, if you go to the second quarter,

there's a third and eleven and um. Something that the Baltimore Raven defense has been notorious for I played against it too many times. Is in that situation. Here comes all out man to man coverage, zero pressure, and you as a quarterbacker sitting there going good gosh, dude, I know one guy is gonna get unblocked. I gotta get this ball out in one point three seconds. I'm gonna get hit, and I've got to find a come pieient for a first down. So they show that all out pressure.

Lamar drifts to his right, the backside linebacker becomes unblocked. There's nowhere for the Lamar to throw the football because the defenders are squatting at ten yards. Ball has gotta come out and there's an incomplete throw only a field goal opportunity. So then, as a quarterback, now the seed has been planted by the defense. Alright, third down eight plus, here comes zero pressure. You better have a stinking answer. You gotta figure out who's getting blocked, who's not getting blocked.

You better know where the ball can get thrown for a completion for a first down. Then fast forward to the fourth quarter. It's only a ten point game. Fourth and seven, the Ravens have to go for it. Here comes that all out pressure again. Man, the man across the board, everybody up until the line of scrimmage ball gets snapped. Lamar is gonna drift his left because he full slides his offensive line from the right to the left,

so the right defensive end is gonna come unblocked. He drifts from it because he knows that's the unblocked defender. Everybody on the Bengals defense at the line of scrimmage comes into the offensive line right first for one quick second, and then the linebackers drop out. Now are playing almost like a zero zone, so to speak. Everyone's sitting at eight nine yards. They're playing in and out coverage, and those linebackers drop underneath and almost pick off the ball,

tip it away. Lamar's thinking, I got an easy completion to a slot receiver, ball gets tipped away. When you as a defense do that, I as a quarterback and going, I got no clue, coach. Now, Offensively, the thing that I love the most that they did was they knew Baltimore was gonna do the same thing. They knew on third down Baltimore was gonna go here, we comes a man to man coverage, all our pressure, they kept their tight ending right next to Joe Burrow. They kept their

tail back in right next to Joe Burrow. Seven guys in protection, and guess what we're gonna bank on Tee Higgins wining verse man to man, or We're gonna bank on Jamaar Chase on an en route winning versus man to man or a back shoulder. I thought their protection plans and then the way they attacked protection were brilliant. Yeah, and what happened there was going back to again, what does this win mean? Like? What does this mean? Because the Bengals have been here before, they win a game,

but they don't know what. This was a statement game. Everyone said this was a shot heard around the division, and it really was because this is what that wind does in that moment, is it creates hope. And belief, And I'm not sure there's been a whole lot of hope and belief in systems and in processes and cultures in the past because they haven't been able to win a big, a big game like this and have a

record quite honestly like this. So when when you look at this, you know, it just I started thinking about some of the teams that I was a part of, you know in Cleveland, when you know when we turn things around, like all these teams where we turn things around in the Cleveland Browns, the New York Jets, the Patriots, the Atlanta Falcons, where we did it pretty much in quick time. In Kansas City, we actually did it in quick time in the second year. We want a division,

but we didn't follow through. Again, we couldn't sustain it organizationally. Now what they did was create this hope and belief that I've seen before. But now what they have to do is treat this as though, Okay, that was big, that was important. It's just another game. We beat up the bullies on the block in the division, but we got a bunch more football to win. Because you go into every season the goal is to win the division because then the division. You know, win division, you're in

the tournament. Then the goal is where the Titans are at right now, where they have been able to win in the division. But now the last two weeks they've been able to win big ones within the conference. So now they know they're for real. So right now there's a mentality with the Bengals where they think, the players believe, the locker room believes that, coaches are starting to believe, the franchise is starting to believe. Now they have to

continue to stack these things together. This cannot be an outlier. They cannot go back and fall back. They need to take this hope and belief and let it become confidence. Yeah as a Jet fan, by the way, like I'm what belief like it can't I mean, like you said, rebuilding a teape two years ago. Obviously, the Bengals had the number one pick in the draft. There has to be a belief that at some point that foundation will be laid and a bad or bad organization become a

good one. A bad team can become a good team, hopefully, at least in my world, things can change quickly. But Scott, I'm not sure if you were aware that Dan and I were a part of history. On Saturday, we made history. I'm not sure if if nine over times later we actually called the Penn State Illinois game. And you know what, Look, this is a pro football show. We talk NFL, but look,

taped's can apply to college football too. And I'm just wondering philosophically, as two guys who are as died in the wold football purists, as I have ever met that system of doing nothing but two point conversions at the end of a game to determine the outcome of a team season Like Penn States season was determined at home on Saturday. They're not now going to play for the National Championship. They are done and it was a two

point conversion contest that ended their season. Do you have a problem with that or do you understand that kind of player safety argument that the nc double A made when they made this rule switch. I'll say this, Um, I don't like it, and I also don't have a solution, so I need to keep my amount pretty much shut. No. I mean, but that's the truth, because we've tried so many different ways in college football and pro football, and how are we going to do over time? This is

like one of the longest ongoing conversations. I sat in all of those meetings the league office, you know, in the annual league meetings, when when coaches and in front office people and really smart football historians discussed, you know, what's the best way to end this game, because you want to try to find a way that really mimics the game, the best right to some teams that have better and are built for short yardage goal line situations,

either offensively or defensively. Some teams play better in the middle of the field or the length of the field. You know, you get in this spot. Some offenses can't operate as well as they operate, you know, when there's more field space to work with, in greater depth of the field to work with. It mitigates their speed. And some teams are built for speed and not necessarily size,

so it really changes the game. But again, as much as I don't like it, I still haven't found a better solution, so I can't criticize it, right, Dan, I don't know if you were having this thought. I didn't even express this to you in the booth before after during even when we were off the air, that the cartoon bubble coming out of my head while I'm calling this is this is thrilling, Like there are a lot of people turning this game on right now that couldn't

believe what they were watching. I'm having a lot of fun calling it dot dot dot, but also this is weird and football games shouldn't end this way, right, And like both things can be true. I can be calling something that's thrilling for everybody that's watching, and at the same time that's not the football game should be determined. I don't know if you have the same thought, but

that was what I was thinking. No, I share the same sentiments, because you're sitting there going, wait, these kids just played their absolute guts out, and now what's gonna come down to? Three yards? You know? And and one over and over again, Yeah, over and over and over again. And I think Scott's point of, hey, some teams can excel in this area and maybe it's not a strength of another team kind of becomes exposed, so to speak.

You know. The thing that I kind of referenced it during the broadcast, but I wanted to make sure that everybody understood is, first of all, it's really hard to have a play that has to get four yards but can't get thirteen exactly. You know, like that's a very difficult challenge for a play caller and play designers. I

gotta get four, but I can't get their team. And again, you go into games with game plans, right, you have your your your game plan sheet of plays that we have practiced, repped, our kids know or whether it's in the NFL our kids know that we're gonna call these things when you get to the end of the game. And then you get into that situation and you get

four or five, six plays deep, so to speak. In that situation, there's only so many plays that you have that are actual options to call, because again, I can't call a third and ten plus play. You know, I can't go into my third and ten plus game plan and go, well, this one can work, because what happened.

I don't have the space. And so I think that is the challenge when you get into that world, and and maybe it's a learning opportunity for coaches is you always have to have this relatively large bank of plays that that are scripted or built or fundamentally designed to go, Okay, we can get four. The goal is to get four,

but we can't get thirteen. And here's the other thing is and Dan, you know this, and I coached in college football because back when the two point play actually existed in college but didn't exist in in the In pro football, every team, every week pro college, they have a short yardage goal line package, set of plays right every situation with a third and long, third, medium, Everything

is on that giant play sheet that there. And in college you also have to remember there's a restriction on the number of hours that you can practice, and you have to determine in college and how much time you can spend and what is the most important thing for that week. There's only so much time to work on on certain things. And the short yardage goal line or two point package again, you understand that the game may come down to it. There's only so much work you

can do on it. And the other thing is this, teams don't build themselves around purely short yardage goal line situations. You don't and you can't. It's a fascinating schematic discussion as well. Like you guys said, when you get into that very specific spot. Um, something also that apparently was fascinating was at least for a brief period of time, I turned into a pinata on Boston Sports Radio. And

that was a period of time on that one. But that's a good point, and maybe we can talk about that and we come back, because it actually does lead, I think to a really interesting schematic discussion about how the Patriots are executing their offense when they are at their best and why what looks so simple is obviously so difficult to stop. We're gonna talk about that with Dani Lovsky man Scott Pioli on Bobo Shoes coming back on te pits Back with Dani Lovsky and Scott Pioli.

I'm Bobo Shusan, I'm the play by play guy for the New York Jets. Said. Apparently that didn't ring too well with the Patriot fans this past week, at least for a brief period of time on sports radio. Uh, let's talk about that, and guys, really it was what I said during the game when the Patriots are going up and down the field against the Jets. I kept referring to Mac Jones as a dink and dunk quarterback, which, by the way, he is, and that that is their offense,

right he doesn't throw the ball down the field. But when I was saying what I was saying about Mac Jones, it was in no way meant to be looked at through the lens of someone knocking Mac Jones. I mean, as good a quarterback as the Jets have had over the last twenty years that I've been calling the games. When he had it going, might have been Chad Pennington, and he was a dink and dunk quarterback, and that

was the way, and their offense was terrific. Um. Having said that, though, what to me was amazing about that game this past week was that the Patriots, their entire offense is basically run for the most part, within six or seven yards of the line of scrimmage. And yet they were on pace to put up six hundred yards of offense against the Jets in that game. And on top of that, they scored more points in that game against the Jets than the Jets have given up to

anyone since seventy nine. So when I kept saying, Matt Jones keeps throwing the ball four or five yards with the line of scrimmage, Matt Jones said, thinking dune quarterback, Matt Jones runs this offense in a phone booth. None of that was meant to be disparaging towards Mac Jones the lens I was looking at it through, obviously as the Jet play by play guy to a Jet audience.

Is how does a defense know that this offense is going to basically run most of, if not all, of what they do within seven yards of the line of scrimmage, and yet you can't stop it? I think I said, at one point, Matt Jones has thrown five yard passes to guys or screens to guys who are open, over and over and over and over again. Scott, I know you said you went through this with Tom Brady, But at the same time, when Tom Brady got Randy Moss, when Tom Brady got grunk, the ball went down the field.

And that's when those big pinball machine offensive numbers started to get put up by the Patriot offense. You shouldn't be giving up six hundred yards of offense to a team that plays within seven yards of the line of scrimmage. That it was much more the focus on the Jet defense than it was anything disparaging about Mac Jones. Your your guys thoughts on why does Patriot offense when they get it going, As simple as it looks is so effective. I want to go back to the part that you were.

You were unfairly in my opinion criticized on Bob is it's semantics and it's word choice because quarterbacks and people who love big quarterbacks love to see the quarterback throw big throws, deep throws. We love the deep ball, right, just like we love the long ball. And it's the word choice. It's It's just like when a quarterback is called a game manager, it's received as being a defensive The words dank and dunk don't sound sexy. It makes

the quarterback sound like he can't do anything else. And I watched Brady go through this early in his career, and people said, he can't throw the long ball, he can't throw the deep ball. All he does is this underneath check down dank dunk stuff. And that is just the way that that sounds and is received, is that it's not meant. People don't understand your intent. They don't

understand the intent of the words. But I go back to the history and part of what I learned about the short underneath sideways throwing, and often early with Brady, I heard Charlie White first referred to it as the extended running game where you put the player who does the best thing with the ball in his hands out in space where he can get the ball in his hands, look down field and see people and start making people miss, which is sometimes the the running back, sometimes the tight end,

sometimes a short, shallow crosser. And that was the That was part of the belief in it. Now. The other thing was from that watching Charlie do that. Charlie learned that from Ron Airheart and Dan Henning and I go back to listening to Parcels early on when we got to the Jets, and Parcels was giving me a little bit of a schooling on why they wanted to make high percentage throws, short throws, sideways throws because they were high percentage completions. Putting the ball in the hands of

the playmakers. Right, everyone hears playmakers and they think it's guys who are gonna be twenty yards downfield. The other thing it does is it develops confidence in the quarterback. And it's what Bill and ron Airhord did at the Giants early in Phil Simms career. And this whole idea of the dank and dunk is really just short passes extended running game, being smart, high percentage throws and putting

the ball in the hands of playmakers. But you know, Bob, again, it bums me out that you went through that, and I'm, y'all, poor Bob. I mean, it's it's like sometimes people have to listen to the words and understand the meaning behind it, and it's never meant to be. And if you took the clip of me on the game saying Mac Jones is a DNC and dunk quarterback, it sounds disparaging. If you play the whole clip or what I probably followed that up with, it was much more damned through the

lens of why can't the Jets stop it? Why do they not get more in a phone booth with their defense? Why are these easy access throws available over and over and over again. Yeah, I think first of all, the myth that the Patriots don't push the ball downfield? Is that a myth? I mean, if you go back to this game, they threw five go routes. Now they threw five go routes, So fundamentally I'm not hitting all of those.

I hit two of them as a quarterback. But what I'm also doing the number one thing a defensive back does not want to happen is have the ball go over their head. That is the number one fear of every cat. So when I go in through a process of a game and I do take that three step fade or that go route, I'm at least telling you I'm willing to do this. If you present the opportunity for me to throw the ball down the field, I'm gonna take my chance and give my guy an opportunity.

So that's number one that the Patriots are when the situations present themselves, pushing the ball downfield. Okay, number two when it comes to the dink and dunk game manager number one. Every quarterback is a game manager. Every quarterback is a play operator. I get a play call in my helmet when I get to the line of scrimmage. What I do with the football is directly correlated to what the defense allows me to do with the football.

I can't go on a five minute rant to start this pod about Patrick Mahomes not taking check downs and kill him for that or not. Could criticize him for that, but then sit there and go vice. First of all, Mac Jones, you gotta try to push the ball downfield. If the defense is telling you to do X with the football. That's the only play that's the right play, because it's the only play. Sean McVeigh used to say that. Now when you are gonna see defenses that are gonna

play a lot of zone coverage. Steve Young, Greg Knapp, God rest his soul, the one time great NFL quarterback coach, spent time with Steve Young, and I remember him sharing a story with me that Steve would talk to him about playing zone a quarterback against zone defenses, and Steve would always say, someone is open. When you play zone deep coverage for a quarter, someone is open. It's my job to find the open guy. And I think that's

what the Patriots predicate their offense on. We got a guy that's gonna find an open person, so he operates the play. It's not a game manager, it's a play operator.

I think the second philosophy for them is we are going to make the defense for four quarters tackle well, We're gonna make them tackle well, you know, like yeah, it makes you tackle for four quarters because if I gotta if I get the ball and and if you think about it, if I get the ball to Damien Harris and and in space and he makes one guy miss, well, that four yard completion goes to fifteen. Well, let's you know,

that's the field or whatever percent of the field. If I get the ball to John who Smith on a screen and he makes two guys miss, well, that's thirty you know. And so it's this philosophy of let's make the defense over four quarters tackle really really well. And I think the last point I'll make Bob about this is, listen, every defense has rules. Every defense has rules. They have rules given to what the field is and what the

formation is. My job as a play caller is to attack those rules and to attack the people within the rules of that defense. And I don't care if I do it over four plays and covers eight yards or if I do it over ten plays and it covers eight yards. I gotta attack rules. And when I do that efficiently and consistently, it might look like I'm dinking and dunking, I'm still attacking. Yeah, why would you do anything different if it keeps on working? Agree with you?

And that was really it was more exasperation for the jet defense giving up six hundred yards to a quarterback that never throws the ball more than five yards of the air. Yeah. That's what they need to understand though, is if the rules of the defense are telling me as a linebacker. My rule tells me I have the hook to curl area, which is you know, basically from

the offensive guard to the slot wide receiver. If my rule tells me that I dropped to twelve yards and I sit until the ball is thrown underneath, well that that's my rule. Because if I break that rule and I come up, the ball is going over my head. Well my rule is this. This podcast is almost over, so really quick, I'm gonna get a thought from you guys on the Thursday night game because we have the Packers and the Cardinals coming up. It might be the Thursday and I might be the game of the year,

certainly the Thursday night game of the year. Give me a minute thought from each of you guys on what's coming up on Thursday. Yeah. I think the Packers defense is got their hands full. If you watch the Washington game, a more explosive pass offense strows for four hundred yards against them. Um, I think there's just chunks gonna be in the past game. Kyler is playing at such a high level. Um, he's stretching the field horizontically. He's stretching

the field vertically. They're they're at you run game is you have to respect it. And I think that the Packers secondary um and linebackers are gonna be tested in their run game. And then also we'll see if DeVante plays. That's a big part of this conversation. If DeVante does not play, Robert Tunyan and Alan Lazard have to have big games. The number one thing for the Packers offense, Aaron has got to be fantastic with his eyes post snap,

seeing their coverage, disguise and change. I agree right now, Arizona's confidence is so high for all the reasons that you mentioned, and it's not a false confidence because they've developed this confidence slowly because they've gone through it and they're just playing in a different level right now. And I'll say the other thing is right now the Packers.

The Packers with the COVID situation and some of the other stuff they have going on right now, I think they're in a situation right now that there's so much unknown. I mean, we're sitting here, it's it's Tuesday, and and we don't know, not only with the with Davante Adams, but with their coaching staff and how serious some of this stuff is going to be and how many people

are gonna be missing. It's one of the things again in this league that the injuries or injuries, but we've got this other thing out there, COVID that is keeping players away and keeping coaches away, and it may really impact this football team in terms of preparation and then

the whole entire game day operation. Well, that's coming up on Thursday, and that is when the next episode of Tapeds is going to drop, because we're going to talk about the fact that Kyler Murray, Aaron Rodgers, several other quarterbacks are in an m v P conversation with a guy that might play until he's fifty and for seven hundred touchdown passes, the ongoing amazement we all have at the player that Tom Brady is and we just won't stop being That's gonna be something we will lead off

our Thursday edition with join us then on te peds. Yeah. Tape Heeds is a production of i Heeartmedia and the NFL. You can download the tape Heeds podcast on the i heart app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts,