Patriots Catch-22 10/15: 3 Up/Down vs. Saints, Drake Maye's Progression, Titans Preview

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan
Lazar and Alex Barth.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Blazarre and Lazarn. Hello, everybody nailed it, Joined as always
by our Bara.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Here is Evan Lazar and Alex bars. Do you doubt
them being able to replicate any of what they did? Evan?
Can they do it thirteen more times? Twelve more times? Exactly?
You know, it's still a young team. There's gonna be
some consistency issues, but they haven't shown that kind of
level for a few years now, and they've now shown
it two weeks in a row. They played the game
that they want to play and they won. That's a

(00:42):
very encouraging sign for the long Termans Well. Patriots just
keep rolling.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Alex up three in a row. Uh. Dare I say
first place? I whisper at first place.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Called the winning street in the AFC East. Uh.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
The Patriots are rolling and they it is called the
winning streak. But as of right now, you know, it
is week six of the season. We're all excited, we're
all encouraged by the things that we've seen. I think
that the people that are getting their flowers this week
deserve to get their flowers Mike Rabel, Drake May, Josh

(01:18):
McDaniel's doing a great job as well on the offensive
side of the ball. We're going to talk all about it.
We're going to break down this Saints game. We're gonna
talk some big picture things because I think one of
the most encouraging things Alex about this entire situation with
the Patriots and this winning streak and the fact that
they're winning games again and they're performing well and they're

(01:39):
four and two, is that we can actually really dive
into some of these minutias and talk about not that
they're across the board in a place where they're gonna
win four games, right where we can actually talk about
this like these are the things they need to improve on,
because if they do, and we're really going to be

(02:01):
able to start talking about playoffs and matchups and seating
and all that different type of stuff that we just
aren't used to talking about around here the last couple
of years. So that's all really exciting. And when we
talk about even the negatives or the things that didn't
go so well in this game, and the good, the bad,
and the stuff that gets you beat, it's not you

(02:23):
want to talk about it because it seems worth it,
like it seems worth trying to fix these things and
worth trying to get through these things and figure out
how to make this football team even better than the
way that it has performed and the way that this
schedule sets up for them. It's really I understand that

(02:44):
the Patriots are not necessarily yet in a position to
overlook opponents and things like that, But Tennessee and Cleveland
and back to back weeks. I mean, you're looking at
six and two if you just take care of business.
Now they got to take care of business. But you're
looking at six and two if you I just wanted
to start.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
A big picture done that point. It goes back to
one of the first things Mike Rabel said when he
got here back in January. It's one of my favorite
quotes that he's given. You know, talking about building up
the program and what will the hallmarks be, and said there,
you know, there's a handful of them, but the place
to start. You're gonna be good enough to take advantage
of bad football. And I said this back in May

(03:23):
when the schedule came out. If they simply take care
of take advantage of bad football, and just do that
is the baseline, and they don't even get beyond that.
They're going to be in the playoff mix and potentially
make the playoffs. And that's exactly what they're doing. So
vrabel through six weeks and there's still time to go.
But like they've followed through on that.

Speaker 2 (03:43):
Box check box checked. Absolutely, yeah, And that's highly encouraging.
And that's a baseline that in this league, and when
you eight or nine games and then you start stealing
a game in Buffalo that people are picked against you,
and you know some other games along the way here
where it might be more coin flippy or maybe even
favor I'll tell you the opponent.

Speaker 1 (04:03):
We not to get too far ahead, but like so
I've had this this take that I don't think I'm
talking to somebody o the day and they're like, well,
if if the Bills aren't as good as we thought
and the Eagles aren't as good as we thought? Right,
the Chiefs stumbled out of gatele like, who are the
elite teams in the NFL? Who are the best teams?
And I still think it's some of those teams, the Eagles,

(04:26):
the Bills, right, you know, the Ravens. It's weird because
the Mars hurt, but they're just what we're used to being.
The best teams in the NFL, the teams that can
go out there and blow doors any given week. Like,
I just don't think that team exists this year, which
might be a good thing for the league. It makes it,
you know, parody's insane. That being said, you know who

(04:46):
I would put in that best teams in the league
tier right now? Tampa Dampa might be you know, I
don't know how you feel about them. Tampa is one
of the best teams in this league. Agreed through a
month and a half, I agreed. Now it'll be a
good game in a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (05:02):
I think one of the elements of being six weeks
into the season and having all you know, somery trying
to draw some of these conclusions. I do think some
of the quote unquote best teams in the league will
level off and you know, sort of get back to
what we're used to see. Reilly, Kansas City's offense is

(05:22):
really starting to come on. Detroit, you know, Buffalo, like
I think at the end of the day, and I
don't know about Baltimore, they might have put themselves in
too big of a hole.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
Yeah, Baltimore's a weird one.

Speaker 2 (05:34):
But all of the teams that I just mentioned, I
do feel like we are going to wake up in January,
in week eighteen or maybe wild Card weekend, and it's
going to be all of the usual suspects, you know,
plus maybe like every year you know, a few new
teams like the Patriots. You know that that might be
in there. But at the same time, I do feel

(05:57):
like those upper echellent teams, especially when you look at
some of the efficiency metrics you know, EPA, DVA things
like that, like Kansas City is what like four and two,
three and two something like that. Two. Yeah, but their record,
their record is not like they're playing a lot better
than their record would suggest. So there I think going

(06:18):
to go on a run here at some point. I
do still feel like, and I know that right now
they've lost two games in a row and you're gonna
probably take many victory laps on the Buffalo Bills. I
still think the Bills are gonna are gonna be a
problem in the AFC. I think they're gonna be heard
from at some point in the AFC. Okay, so I'm

(06:39):
just saying I still think the teams that we thought
were going to be good. Once we start to get
into the real meat of the season, I think that
they're going to come out to the other side.

Speaker 1 (06:49):
I guess where I'm at relatively speaking. Yes, I agree
with you on the Bills. They're one of the best
teams the AFC. Are they that's.

Speaker 2 (06:58):
Big of you. I know that was probably hard for
you to say.

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Are they as good as they were last year?

Speaker 2 (07:05):
I don't know, but like they have no, I don't
know that. Like they have maybe one of the best quarterbacks,
if not the best quarterback in the NFL. Their defense
has not been fully healthy, so I don't know if
they're gonna get Matt Milano back permanently because he's just
seems like he's injured all the time now. So I

(07:27):
don't know about that. But at Oliver just came back
this past week. I just I like Tampa. I think
Tampa's going to be a force this year. I think
they're a great team. Baker's playing out of his mind,
no doubt about that. I still think these other teams
that have been in the mix and been in the
in the in the dance, so to speak. Over the

(07:47):
last couple of years are still going to be there
in the end.

Speaker 1 (07:49):
I think they're gonna be there. But they're any of
those teams. I think Buffalo, I think Kansas City. It's
really those two because Baltimore and Cincinnati you're dealing with
quarterback injuries right in the AFC. I don't think either
of those teams are as good as they were. And
I think some of it, I think on Buffalo's side,
and I'm not I know, there's the quote going around

(08:11):
about Josh Allen and you know him saying, you know,
I'm more than just a football player, and his really shit.
Like I'm not going to pick on the guy for
that when I say this, but I do think there's
a level of complacency in Buffalo that's more about the
coaching staff than the players. You know, I that was
not a well coach game the other night.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
I would relax on taking victory laps on the Bills.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Not a victory lap. The Bills are McDermott, the Bills are.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
I mean I think people just in general, like, I
think people are getting a little bit over it, and
even in Buffalo, Like if I thought they're four and two,
they're not. They're not one in.

Speaker 1 (08:45):
Five, I thought the Bills were dead in the water.
Don't you think I'd come on here and say it.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
Yeah, But I also like, I feel I feel like
we've heard this a lot all week long because of
the Patriots overtaking the Bills in the division for now
and the Bills are lost to eight games, And I'm
even seeing it like from Bill's people like, I'm not
just talking about the.

Speaker 1 (09:05):
Bills fans sound like me. Yeah, I find myself agree
with the Bills fans. Here's my point though, let me so,
I just I've been critical of mcdert. So what people
think is my disdain for Josh Allen really is more
about Sean McDermott, And I just don't think he what
I've said this, like, do I somebody called him a
sports Somebody asked me the other day do I think

(09:25):
Josh Allen can win a Super Bowl? Yes? I can, Yes,
I do. Do I think he can win one with McDermott,
I don't know. And I think he's getting exposed a
little bit. I think in Kansas City the issue is
more age, and you know, the age catching up with
the roster. Like Travis Kelsey's still playing well, but he's
not what he was. Chris Jones not playing is still
playing well, but he's not what he was. And you

(09:46):
know their receiver rooms and other issues as well on
top of that. So I still think those teams are good,
but they were, along with the Ravens and Bengals, who
again are in a different category here. I think they
were so far ahead of the pack in the A
the last couple of years, and I think they each
have their own flaws that are being exposed to more
because whether it's the Patriots, whether it's and the Colts

(10:09):
kind of took a roundabout way to get there, whether
it's the Colts, whether it's the Jaguars, some of these
teams that have been down and have been rebuilding are
now sort of through the painful part of the rebuild
and aren't fully there and aren't fully caught up. And
this isn't to say the Patriots or the Colts or
any of these teams have caught the Bills or caught
the Chiefs, That's not what I'm saying. Have they narrowed

(10:31):
the gap as those teams start to get older in
a little you know, further away from that apex, and
they get close to the Apex. Yeah, I think they have.
And I think that's what you've seen happen here in
the last few weeks. That's what this is all indicative of,
is it's no, the AFC for the last three or
four years was two or three teams and then a
bunch of nothing, that's all it was, whereas the NFC

(10:53):
was this super competitive conference where it was kind of
even across the board. I think you're starting to see
that flip. And by the way, he did, flipped from
where it was ten years ago, where it was you know,
the Patriots and the Colts and and the Chargers and
the Steelers and nobody else, right, it's now come back around.
So I think you're just seeing the power balance in
the AFC shift. That's not to take a victory lap

(11:16):
on the Bills and say they're done. It's not to
take a victory lap on the Chiefs and say they're done,
because that's not what I think is happening. But I
think that their monopoly on the conference is certainly starting
to go away.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
We'll see I still and this is the same thing
that happened, and then I want to move on to
actual Patriots stuff. No, but I think this is this
is similar to what happened last year with Minnesota, with
what's happening with Daniel Jones in Indianapolis right now. Minnesota
goes on this run with Sam Donald. Now it turns
out Sam Donald just good now. I don't know, Maybe

(11:50):
Daniel Jones is fixed and he's just good now too,
But it doesn't there feel there's a feel to it
in my mind of like the shoot to drop that
Daniel j One is eventually going to turn back into
DA saying that in like Minnesota had happened really late
in the season to say, im Darnold, Yeah, once they
got into like playoff caliber games week eighteen and then

(12:10):
you know the division or I think it was a
wildcard round, right, wildcard round of the playoffs, Like, so
maybe he makes it all the way to that point too.
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (12:19):
I've been saying that he's playing pretty good football right now.
But you also, I was just thinking of like them
the first place seems off the top of my head,
like the Chargers are another team that has kind of
been down and they got Herbert and they couldn't figure
out how to maximize Herbert. But I have something.

Speaker 2 (12:35):
Climated by injuries at this point, so that team, I don't.

Speaker 1 (12:38):
Know that's fair. I'll even give some credit to the Broncos.
I don't trust their offense, but that defense is still
high level. So I just think that there were more,
maybe not on the Chiefs and Bills level, but how
many teams were there that you looked at it you said, well, okay,
they're not as good as the Chiefs or Bills or Ravens, right,
but if they get them on the right day, they

(13:01):
can make it happen. There weren't even a lot of
teams you said that about in the AFC, and I
think now there are and and it's it's starting to
dependulum starting to shift more the other way. Like I
don't know how real Jacksonville is. I don't, but they're
playing really good football right now, and I'll tip my
cap to them. And Ivy liam Cone figured something.

Speaker 2 (13:17):
Now maybe it's just a little bit of I don't
know what the word is, Like I'm just wary of
saying that these teams have a chance against like Kansas City.
I just think we're on a march to Kansas City
and Buffalo and the AFC Championship game, and we're gonna
look up and at the end of January and say, oh, well,

(13:38):
the Colts had a nice season, Jacksonville had a nice season.
The Patriots had a nice season. But at the end
of the day, we ended up where we thought we
were gonna end.

Speaker 1 (13:45):
Maybe we do. But do they cruise there because they've
cruised there the last couple of years.

Speaker 2 (13:48):
Well not Buffalo, Buffalo hasn't even made it there the
last couple of years.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
But yeah, well to not THEFC championship, but to meeting
each other.

Speaker 2 (13:54):
Yeah, maybe maybe I hear like.

Speaker 1 (13:57):
I just I think it's it's different. And it's also like,
remember three years ago, this is where I will talk
about the division standings. Remember three years ago, it was, well,
the Dolphins got Mike McDaniel and he's a genius, and
they have all the speed and two it looks like
an MVP. And the Bills and Josh Allen they figured
out and they're a wagon. Oh and the Jets got
Aaron Rodgers. The Patriots won't be able to win the

(14:19):
division for the next ten years. Do you remember that, Dake. Yeah,
that's not how the NFL works. You cannot project beyond
the year in the NFL, and I also just think
I'll use a little math here. At a certain point,
the ultimate PAIRD of the NFL has to regress to
the mean, and new teams have to emerge.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
This is but a new teams emerging for real, and
I think that's where six weeks is probably still a
little bit too small of a sample size. There's no
doubt about it that there's new teams like the Patriots
and the Colts and the Jaguars. I'd put them in
that category two that are emerging to be frisky in
the AFBC. What are they emerging to? Are they real contenders? Don't?

(15:01):
I think we're too early so to say that.

Speaker 1 (15:03):
What are the odds they're all the real deal? Very low?
What are the odds none of them are the real deal?
I would say, also very low. I don't think we're
going to be sitting here at the end of the
year talking about all of these teams, and again, we
want to get to the Patriots. But this would maybe
be a fun discussion for like a bye week, although
the bye week's super late and we'll know by then,
like which ones are real and which ones aren't? Might

(15:24):
be a fun debate. But I don't think the number zero.
I don't think it's all of them, but I do
think we're gonna get to the end of the year
and we're gonna have determined that a couple of these teams. Okay,
these teams are the real deal.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
All right, let's talk Patriots. The big thing with the
Patriots coming out of this game. To me, we talk
a lot about on this show. We call them Tuesday players.
We still are not a very popular guy right now,
but it's a Michae Lombardy thing, right Tuesday players. A
game plan even that comes from yeah, early in the week,

(15:55):
you know, the staffs or the opponent gets into the
a beating room and they've watched the film and they say,
you know, who's what do we have to take away
this week? Who's the guy that we need to take
away this week? And the way I sort of judge
players and have they earned that respect across the league

(16:18):
of being an elite level player is how opponents game
plan for them. Are they players that opponents are thinking about?
You know, if it's a defensive lineman, are they getting
double teams? Are they getting slides to their way? Are
they getting chipped? If their edge rushers, are they getting
you know, safety help over the top. If it's a
wide receiver, are they getting doubled? Are they getting drawing

(16:41):
number one matchups? Like things like that, And so we
don't need to keep talking about Drake May in the
sense of is he taking the year two leap? Is
he a top ex quarterback in the league. He's here,
Guys like, he's here, right, So he's arrived. Okay. So
now other question that I have is what's the rest

(17:03):
of the league going to do about it? Because the
way that I look at, especially coming off the Saints game,
the way that I look at the way teams are
defending Drake May right now, they are not respecting Drake
May enough like they are coming into these games the Patriots,
and I put this stat out there multiple times, the

(17:24):
Patriots are seeing the highest rate of single high safety
coverage in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah, what third or fourth in loaded boxes in general?

Speaker 2 (17:32):
Yeah, one safety up top, put eight seven eight guys
in the box. And basically, what teams are saying is
we are daring your outside receivers in your downfield passing
game to beat us. And we know that this has
been the blueprint and the book on the Patriots offense
probably going all the way back to the end of
Brady honestly, like probably like twenty nineteen, twenty twenty is

(17:55):
about where this pendulum started to swing in this direction.
And all Drake May has done to those coverages, you know,
whether it's Cover three, which is single high zone or
Cover one, which is single high man, all he has
done to those coverages is torch it. It's you know,
he's literally just torched it. He's has first in the
league and passing yards second in the league, and EPA

(18:17):
per drop back against single high safety coverage. So at
some point you would think that the league is going
to adjust and say, this is the third rated passing
offense in the NFL by EPA. We cannot treat this
like the Patriots of the last couple of years, where
it was put him in long, down in distance, stop

(18:39):
the run, you know, do that sort of thing. They
have nobody on the outside that you have to put
any fear into. No outside receivers are gonna scare us,
So we're just gonna crowd the line of scrimmage and
we're gonna, you know, put them into third and long.
The Patriots are too good of a passing offense to
play them that way anymore. And so now here comes

(19:02):
the league adjustment for Drake May. And I'm just really curious,
you know, first of all, does the league start to
adjust to Drake in that sense, like do they start
to adjust to the Patriots passing offense and say, now
this is the Tuesday element of this offense, is we
have to take away the passing game. And how then,

(19:24):
of course, do Josh McDaniels and Drake May adjust to
seeing more too high safety, to seeing more cushion soft
zone things like that, and even starting this week, like
the Titans don't have a great defense, they don't have
great personnel on defense, but Dinard Wilson is a good
defensive coordinator who gave Drake May some problems last year

(19:45):
in his rookie season down there in Nashville. And they
play a lot of too high safety zone, like they
don't play a ton of post safety or single high
safety manner zone. So Item number one, do we start
to see on film that teams are game planning differently
against the Patriots? Item number two, what is then, of course,
the Patriots adjustment to that chess match. And the third

(20:09):
thing that I want to get to that we don't
necessarily have to tackle right now, is this whole run
game thing that's happening and the fact that the Patriots
can't really run the football, and does that start to
find its level as well because the teams aren't stunting,
gap penetration, run blitzing, putting eight guys in the box,

(20:29):
And now all of a sudden, there's less clutter at
the line of scrimmage and now there's more open lanes
for the Patriots running backs. So I'm excited to see
what happens now that Drake May is starting to establish
himself like an elite quarterback because he's not being defended
like an elite quarterback.

Speaker 1 (20:47):
So I want to rewind to something you said in
there earlier about, you know, talking about Drake May has
arrived and all of that. I said this on a
show yesterday, and I kind of felt ridiculous saying it,
So I'm glad to hear you say it. So we
obviously didn't do the show and Brady was here. We did.
We were what two shows against two shows that go
for us for us, But like you know, really going

(21:09):
back to twenty twenty one, I mean we've started every show,
in every column we've written and everything, and every day
of training camp and every game is what did the
quarterback do? How was the quarterback? Was it a good
day for the quarterback? Was it a bad day for
the quarterback? And yeah, I'm not gonna say quarterbacks never
going to be a focus because it's a National Football League,
but like we we wouldn't come on here the day

(21:33):
after Brady game and look, it was a good game
for Drake maybe you know what complete? Was it? Eighteen
to twenty six, two hundred and sixty yards, a couple
of touchdowns, like had three. We wouldn't have come on
here and been like, well, tom Brady's heading in the
right direction. It's so good they have Tom Brady right,
and it was. We would have started the show as example,
He's like, we probably would have started a show talking

(21:53):
about key Shan Boody, what a great game he had
and you know, awesome home coming to him for New Orleans.
But this is just in the modern NFL, in the
world we live in. Do you have the quarterback? Is
the quarterback the guy? Is such an important question and
I do think that's kind of the next level of
the Drake may discourse and I kind of can't wait
to get there. Is we don't hyper fixate on Drake May,
and it's not to diminish anything he's doing, but I

(22:16):
can't wait for the day and you saying that maybe
that's today, I can't wait for the day that Drake
May played well is not news, right, it's just the standard.
And I do feel I don't know that we're there yet,
but I do feel like we're kind of getting there.
And then that's I don't know why I feel like
I'm saying this, and it sounds like I'm knocking him.
I think it's a terrific thing, right, because thing of like, again,

(22:38):
think about it, we wouldn't now look if he those
were five hundred yards. Yeah, we're gonna come on here
and open about Drake May, obviously, but you know, there
were some of those games where Brady was kind of fine,
and he was moving the team up and down the field,
and he didn't play portally at all, but you know,
maybe the run game was the big story. The defense
had a couple turnovers or you know, who knows, and
we get around. So yeah, and you know, I thought
Brady played well, and we might you know, pick a

(22:59):
thing there here too, And it's gonna be cool when
Drake gets to that point where where we're like not
doing the thirty minute. Drake may break down after every
game because I do think we're gonna get there.

Speaker 2 (23:10):
Yeah, We're we're really close to that point.

Speaker 1 (23:12):
And so to your point, some of that too is
gonna come with all right, Like once teams are daring
them to run the ball and truly taking away the pass,
you know, the run game is gonna be the focus.
So I teams, I'm surprised they're still doing it at
this point, but you're right, teams can't continue to defend
the Patriots this way.

Speaker 2 (23:32):
Okay, So just to get more into some more specifics
about Drake May in the passing game, I think the
biggest thing that stands out to me from Drake May
just as an individual play, is that like he doesn't
make bad instructure decisions anymore. Like when he when I
watch his film and I watch how he reads the
field and how he's seeing coverage and how he's processing

(23:54):
the game, there are one or two and this was
you know, when you see great quarterbacks, as tends to
be the case, there are one or two plays a
game now where you say was that really the best
option for where the ball should have gone? If that?
Like in this game, I thought that there was one

(24:15):
mental error for him the entire game, and that was
the delay of game in the red zone. Like that
was the one time that's not even a post snap
processing error, that's just a pre snap thing that he
doesn't make bad decisions anymore in terms of his processing
and the decisions to that.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
You said bad decisions in structure. Yeah, also not making
a bad play worse last year on the bat and look,
the bad snap was a bad play, the fourth down
bad snap last year, Drake Nay tries to pick up
all up throws it. It probably gets tipped and picked off
right falling on the ball there understanding the plays loss.
It's a bad situation. Don't make it worse. Like it's
not just instructure overall, he's making much better decisions.

Speaker 2 (24:56):
Yeah, And I know he's credited a lot of this
to the pass protection. They deserve some credit for it
as well. But his ball security in the pocket has
been tremendously improved. And I just remember the first preseason
game against Washington and he comes out and he gets
stripsacked on the first third down of the game, and
it looked exactly like his rookie season, Like he'd told

(25:18):
in the ball a little bit too long. The ball's out,
you know, and vulnerable when he starts to move. Now,
when you watch him move with the football, he's got
two hands on the ball, and he's doing some things
in the pocket that are really advanced in terms of
his ball security. Of like he'll put two hands on
the ball and he'll like swing his arms through so

(25:39):
when he feels that edge pressure coming from behind him,
he'll just take the football and it's usually here right
because it's loaded in his right hand, and he like
swings it through to the left hip and sort of
protects the football as he's sliding or as he's moving
around in the pocket. We have seen Josh McDaniels and
Ashton Grant drill that with him, going all the way
back to the spring. They do the same quarterback drills

(26:01):
every single day to start practice. During positional drills of
guys coming around the edge were swatting down at his arm,
which used to be like all the way out here.
Remember all of the elongated throwing motion and all that conversation,
like now, it's also tight and the ball is so
tight to his body that when he moves in the pocket,

(26:23):
he's not getting strip sacked as much. And some of
that's timing, some of that's pass protection, but I think
a lot of it too is just his mechanics in
the pocket, his awareness of pressure, and then his ability
to protect the football. So last year as a rookie,
he was averaging a turnover worthy play on three point
five percent of his dropbacks. That's all the way down

(26:45):
to two percent, the very tenth in the league. So
he's a top ten quarterback now in the league in
terms of yeah of turnover worthy plays. A guy that
we had concerns coming into the year about him turning
the football all over. He's not putting the ball at
harm's way nearly as often, and that has to go
to what I was talking about with the processing, but

(27:07):
also with the ball security in the pocket and the
mechanics in the pocket as well. I mean, we can
go throw by some of the individual throwers are just
unbelievable in this game, obviously, but I think that those
couple of things are how he has taken the next
step from flashing to being consistent, and like, that's when

(27:27):
when you're consistent, that's when the efficiency starts to get
driven up. It's you know, we saw the flashes his
rookie season. Now he's efficiently protecting the football and we're
still seeing the playmaking ability shine. And it's just been
really fun to see the Other thing that really stood
out to me on this tape from this game.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
One more thing on Mett and you kind of hit
on it, But it feels like you talk about the
growth each week, it's something new and you see it
in real time. So last week it was all the
rollouts to the right, right, and he's rolling out to
the right, he's thrown on, he's making these big plays,
and that was something new him doing that, not him
doing that, but him doing that as consistently as he
did and as well as he did. So talking to

(28:09):
people that cover the Saints this week, it kind of
sounded like the point of emphasis was don't let May
outside of the pocket, right, keep him in the pocket,
don't let him get on those rollouts, which logically that
would be the book on a quarterback that did what
Drake made did to the Bills. So what does Drake
May do stands in the pocket. I thought his ability
to navigate the pocket, that's the best I've seen him do.
That was outstanding, and he makes him pay from the pocket.

(28:31):
So one you see the growth in real time, some
of those plays where he's moving around the pocket, climbing
the pocket, like he was in the same situation against
Pittsburgh a month ago and got stripsacked right, and now
those are going for thirty yard completions. You can see
the growth happen in real time. You can see we
can point to something from the first two or three
weeks and say this needs to be done better, and

(28:53):
then in the last couple of games you see the
exact same situation and it's here, it's done correctly. That's
really cool to see. The other thing that does big picture.
You hear about this a lot, and I'm sure we'll
hear it with Drake soon if it hasn't started yet.
Once these guys get to around twenty starts and I
think May is at seventeen now eighteen now, although two
of those he had the one Jets game he got

(29:13):
knock knocked out of early and then the Bills game
at the end of last year. Like you start hearing
the well, once the league has tape on him, it's
the legue has tape on him. What's gonna happen in
the league has tape on him. So he's canceling out
a lot of those things, because again, what's the book
on Drake may Well? Don't let him roll right? He
killed the Bills rolling right, keep them in the pocket. Okay, well,
now he just killed the Saints in the pocket, So

(29:34):
now where does the book go. Don't let him hit
you with the short stuff. Well, a lot of the
most of the the sprays are gone. He's not sailing
the short stuff, all right, Well, don't let him beat
you deep. Well, you know, then you're leaving the shorts
like he's just every time. And this is not unusual,
but like with a young quarterback, it's kind of process
of elimination. All right, Well, he's doing this well, so

(29:54):
we need to test him and see if he can
beat us this way. Okay, well he just beat us
this way, so we need to try this other thing
and see if he can beat us this way. And
he's just answering test after test after tests. So as
there's more film about him, he's continuing to kind of
evolve his game either of all this game or just
go into the toolbox and pull out tools that he
hasn't used yet, and it's gonna make it hard for

(30:18):
teams to kind of get that sophomore slump on them
and get that you know, I don't know what you
cout tape bump or whatever on them.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
Yeah, it's crazy to just see the playmaking still hold
strong as the turnover where he plays and decision making improves,
because normally when you start to be less aggressive and
stuff like that and less erratic, you don't see as
many big time throws down the field because it just
goes hand in hand, right, If you're not taking as

(30:46):
many chances, you're not gonna have as many high level plays,
but you're also not gonna have as many low level
plays either. He's still having all the high level plays
and he's just eliminating the low level plays, right, which
is when you know you have something special. The other
thing that was really encouraging and kind of goes hand
in hand with my theme here about you know, our
defense is going to start to adjust and play more

(31:07):
too high safety and back off this Patriots passing offense
a little bit. This was the one of the more
encouraging games I thought in terms of receiver separation down
the field, Like the last time the Patriots had this
kind of deep passing game production where guys were actually
breaking open down the field, I don't know. I honestly

(31:30):
don't know when the last time that that happened. You know,
they get the dressed up play with you know, clearly
a designed a scripted shot play to pop Douglas on
the opening drive like that that route where he know
nods to the corner and then breaks on the post.
He's got five six yards of separation wide. Yeah, I
mean that is not something that you see from a

(31:51):
Patriots offense fifty yards down the field very often. Kaishan
Boodie on his second touchdown just shakes the corner and
gets wide open on a man to man rep. As well.
Stefan Digs on fourth down, you know, moves the chains
on a little slant where he's just that's just pitching catch,
you know, seven on seven in July for Stefan Digs

(32:13):
and Drake May having all of these different things happen
on the film in this game, Drake May four for
five on deep passes, had one taken away because of
a bogus OPI had another taken away because of a
bogus OPI has.

Speaker 1 (32:29):
Another taken away because of a non DPI.

Speaker 2 (32:31):
Right, So, like, if you add back in his numbers
alone with four for five, three touchdowns on deep passes
are good enough. Now imagine if you add back in
one hundred and thirteen yards and another touchdown. Now, maybe
the booty touchdown doesn't happen because the pop touchdown would
have happened. But you get my point, yeah, is that

(32:51):
they they really were able to throw the ball down
the field. Some of the I tweeted this out last night.
Some of Drake May's deep passing numbers are just absolutely absurd.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
He is he's late or seventy percent completion percent.

Speaker 2 (33:06):
Actually, he's ten of thirteen on deep throws to start
the season. Uh that's that's like seventy six percent.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
That's ridiculous. So next Gen the league outge is like
forty percent.

Speaker 2 (33:18):
So next Gen goes back to twenty sixteen, and for
passers with a minimum of five deep pass attempts in
the season, he has the best completion rate that I
that in the next Gen era right now on deep
passes now obviously that could you know, find its level,
and that could by the end of the season he

(33:38):
might come back down to earth. But his passer rating
on deep throws right now is one hundred and fifty seven.
One hundred and fifty eight point three is a perfect
pass rating. So you're saying, so he's essentially perfect on
the deep ball at this point. And I just was
highly encouraged, you know, and this is where we can

(33:58):
kind of talk about Kai Shan Booties performance as well.
I was just highly encouraged about how open some of
these receivers were getting because that was not something that
we have seen a lot here in this neck of
the woods football wise. How long have we been talking
about separation and a lack thereof of receiver separation and

(34:20):
do they have enough talent at receiver and they need
number one receiver and maybe they still do need like
a true number one alpha dog, right like AJ Brown,
you know, or someone like that. But this receiver room
deserves a ton of credit. They've played some really good football.
It hasn't always been volume, you know, for everybody, but
when they get the ball thrown their way, and this

(34:41):
has kind of been the story of kaishon Booty's season.
Kaishon Boody's caught in eighteen of the twenty three targets
thrown his way this year. Yeah, that efficiency is off
the charts. I was just really highly encouraged by how
open guys were getting. I haven't been able to say
that in a while. Obviously, we can talk a little
bit about Boo. Just a great performance by him as well.

Speaker 1 (35:02):
Yeah, he was awesome, and just not only is he
catching a lot of these targets, all five of his
catches in this game win for first downs. His last
ten catches have gone for first downs. Going back to
the Steelers game, sixteen of his eighteen catches have gone
for first downs. And it's not like they're using him
on these little dink and dunk third and two, third
and threes. Fifteen of his eighteen catches this year have

(35:25):
been for ten or more yards. Of the two that
are not first downs, Evan one of them was in
the opener. It's a second and fifteen. He runs the
rout a yard short of the sticks because the corner
is sitting on the sticks, gets a fourteen yard game
on second and fifteen. They pick up the first down
on the next play, he's moving the chains and he's
being a tremendous intermediate threat. I think he's like sixth

(35:45):
in the league in yards per catch. I know he's
top ten. So to have that high of a first
down rate on targets, not on catches, on targets, Yeah,
to have that high of a first down rate on
targets and still have the yards per catch be that
high is nuts. He is average one first down every
one point four targets, highest rate in the league among
receivers with at least twenty targets. The next closest is

(36:06):
Tyreek Hill at one point seven. The gap between Kaishawn
Booty and the next closest receiver in that regard is
the same as the gap between the second and ninth
ranked receiver in that regard. We talked about it in
the summer. They needed somebody to maybe not be and
they're doing some true vertical stuff with Booty. It's mostly
been like just outside the red zone and these like
thirty yard goal balls for touchdowns. He had one of

(36:28):
those in this game. He had one of the Miami
game as well. But we talked about their need to
have a guy that maybe wasn't high volume, but was
high yards per catch and was their first down guy.
Now I thought it was gonna be Pop Douglas to
this point that is not beared out, but they needed
a guy to step up in that role. Kashawan Boody
is absolutely stepped up in that role.

Speaker 2 (36:47):
He's been their best vertical threat on this offense. And
I think what really stands out to me with him
is his contested catchability has just been fantastic guy. I mean,
you saw that on his first touchdown where he wins
at the catch point there on the go route. The
third and eleven played at ice the game is another

(37:07):
back shoulder fade contested catch. He's caught five of his
seven contested targets playing on the outside. That's a very
high rate of catch rate for contested targets. It's usually
that's like true. You know, you can call him fifty
to fifty balls for a reason, and he's well over
fifty percent on those. I think his play strength and

(37:28):
his physicality at the catch point has improved leaps and bounds,
and then his awareness along the sideline. I mean, I
can't help but go back to his rookie season in
the first game against Philadelphia where he doesn't get a
foot and bounds.

Speaker 1 (37:41):
I think it was a learning moment.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
I mean, he's been phenomenal in that regard. Two weeks
in a row on Sunday, he catches a little out
and slides down in bounds to make the Saints burn
a time out. Then he stays in bounds on the
back shoulder fade. He did the same thing on the
whole shot against Buffalo, where he stayed you know, got
down immediately to stay in bounds there to keep the

(38:03):
clock winding. Like these are plays that I've actually asked
him about afterwards, and he's aware of these situations like
this isn't like by accident, Yeah, Like he's doing this
type of stuff on purpose. That kind of awareness is
really a testament to him and him being locked in
and really you know, honing in on his craft, which

(38:24):
I don't necessarily know it was something that was in
his bag. He's always been very talented, but that was
the question mark right maturity, you know, being locked in
on and off the field. Like he's had some issues
there and he was open about it after the game
on Sunday that he's had some issues in those regards
and now he's just so laser sharp in a lot

(38:46):
of these situations. So a ton of credit to Kaishan Boody.
The last thing I wanted to say about the passing offense,
just because you know, to kind of put a bow
on all of this. A good stuff for them. The
pass blocking has been really, really good. Now. Some of
that is scheme and design, and I do want to

(39:07):
give Doug Moron and Josh McDaniels their flowers for that.
They are not allowing teams to just tee off on
their tackles all that much. They're getting a lot of help,
a lot of chips, a lot of slides, a lot
of double teams, a lot of Max Protect, like the
Pop Douglas touchdown is they leave bol tight ends in
they get double teams kind of across the board, just

(39:28):
in Max Protect, loaded up type of play. So it's
not all just you know, Morgan, Moses, Will Campbell, these
guys on islands. But to their credit, when they have
been on islands, they've held up well. Will Campbell hasn't
allowed to sack since week one. Yeah, and he's allowed
some hurries. And there were some hurries in this game.

(39:49):
And I had some sort of criticisms of his game,
I would say, coming off this one, especially in the
run game, for basically across the board, which we'll get to,
but the pass protection by pretty much every metric is
now trending towards the top of the league. And if
you told me that that's where they were going to
be after where they have been the last couple of years,

(40:11):
especially last year as an offensive line, that's really impressive.
And maybe it's not the best run blocking line. We
thought it would be better and hasn't been. Maybe it's not.
Maybe it's more of a finesse line and they're really
just built to pass protect. But if they pass protect
like this, I'll take it. I mean that this is
exactly why. A huge reason i'd say this is probably

(40:33):
like Drake May. If you want to hand out the
credit to the players in terms of the passing game,
Drake May is probably sixty five percent.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
YEA.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
The offensive line, I would say might be even more
of a big deal. In the receivers at this point,
they've done a really nice job.

Speaker 1 (40:50):
It's been great. It's been great. No blowbys, you know,
the penalties are minimal, the pressures are minimal. A lot
tolike in terms of the pass blocking. Uh.

Speaker 2 (41:00):
Moving on to the defense. I did have one good
thing I thought from the defense in this game, looking
at some of the numbers and also just the way
the game unfolded.

Speaker 1 (41:08):
We're doing what we're doing, good, the bad, and what
gets you beat?

Speaker 2 (41:11):
Yes, okay, So do you do you have anything else?

Speaker 3 (41:14):
No?

Speaker 1 (41:14):
I just I don't know that we introduced it that way,
so I want to make sure it's that's why we're
not going offense to offense. That's not where we're going
past game right to run.

Speaker 2 (41:22):
Yeah, great, great hosting by me there.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
Uh, wait to get to the reads.

Speaker 2 (41:26):
We definitely got off the rails with talking about the
rest of the NFL conversation though, that's what threw me off.
It was an interesting last good thing here, and then
we'll get to some of the stuff they need to
work on. I thought the second half defense was good again.
I thought they made some big plays and key moments
in the second half, especially here you have the Marcus
Jones sack on third down. It forces a field goal

(41:47):
they get to stop. Finally on that third down play
with Christian Gonzales late in the game, Christianelli's forcing the
fumble right Christianelli's forces a fumble. Yep. So if you're
just looking at it, you know, they they kind of
settled down again defensesively in the second half. We'll get
to the first half and we'll get to some of
the issues with the starts on defense, but overall I
thought that they once again the game kind of declared

(42:11):
and they sort of adjusted and were able to figure
it out.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
I have a big picture take on the defense that
I guess is kind of the good and the bad.
It depends how you want to look at. It's glass
half full of glass half empty. That's a game schematically no,
but like the overall strategy that would have fit right
in in the Bill Belichick Ben don't break era. Yeah,
you know, people kept asking why are these there's you know,
what are the corners doing. The receivers are super open.
I think that was kind of the plan because the

(42:35):
plays they're open on are all like hitches and quick
in cuts and things like that. And you know, I
talked about it last week. Did the way New Orleans
is built roster wise a little similar to Miami with
the speed you get beat down the field big on
the first play, which I don't love the corner blitz
on the first play the game, especially against that offense.
But you get beat down the field in the first

(42:55):
play game. Maybe this helped reinforce it. But that was
Ben don't break. That was we're going to sit back,
We're going to allow the short stuff. We're going to
step up and tackle. They tackled well, only two miss
tackles in this game. And we're gonna make Spencer Rattler
be perfect. And de Spencer Ratler's credit like he was.
He handled that situation better than I thought he would. Yeah,
like he played pretty well. But you know, as much

(43:16):
as that defensive ever felt painful in the moment, like
watching it, it was a little bit of a tough watch,
I think if you're a Patriots fan, But when you
go back and look at the big picture, like I
said this to my my Buddi's like, defense playing horrible.
This is like, you know, a little bit into the
game or a little bit in the you know, towards
the end of the game, I was like, rest, they've
only allowed one touchdown, right, He was like, no, it
feels like more right, they only allowed one touchdown. The

(43:38):
Saints are three of nine on third downs. They got
under the Patriots half of the field five times and
they came away with nineteen points. Yeah, that's if you're
an offense. That's not like that's a problem. You're going
back and that's one of the biggest things you're revisiting.
So was it perfect defensively?

Speaker 4 (43:54):
No?

Speaker 1 (43:55):
And what was odd was so I think there were
ben don't break on the back end, but they stayed
aggressive up front, which is you know in the ben
don't break bill us talking about this all the time
and incompletion is just as good as a sack, just
keeping behind the chains, and that's why they wouldn't be
so aggressive on that pass rush and just moving the
quarterback off his spot or just bumping him and making
him throw it away, even if it's not a sack,

(44:16):
might be worth it. But you had a couple of
times where rushers were running by Spencer Rattler and creating
lanes for Spencer Ratler that wouldn't have all otherwise been
there with a more disciplined rush. So you know, there
was that element of it which I think made a
little more frustrating. But again, five trips to the plus
side of the field, only one touchdown show for it.
Three of nine on third downs under three hundred total yards,

(44:39):
Patriots average more pot yards per play than the Saints
did outside of the kneel downs at the end of
the game. If the game playan truly was Ben don't break.
We don't want to get beat by the speed by
the way new they're starting free safety either, which might
have made them, like Jalen Hawkins probably would have been
a big player in this game be played. That might
have made them go a little more towards us. We're
going to play its. If we're gonna sit back on it,

(45:01):
we're going to force the underneath. We're gonna step up,
We're gonna tackle. We're gonna make them beat us by
a million paper cuts. If that was the game plan,
they executed that game plan, and they executed it relatively well.
If that wasn't the game plan, I'd be a little
more worried. But I do think that they kind of
viewed this and bred it to Zach Kor and we've
seen them be a game plan defense here at times
early in the year. I think that was a Ben
don't break game and that's what they did.

Speaker 2 (45:23):
Yeah, I agree. I mean, I'm just looking at it
statistically They played sixty five percent of their downs and
off coverage in this game on the outside. Yeah, in
Buffalo it was only forty percent. And they played a
lot of zone too, right, Yeah, a lot of zone,
seventy percent zone. So like they last week, it was
we came out of the you know on the show,
and I talked a lot about playing man and challenging

(45:46):
the Bills and receivers and impressed playing press, and they
are forty percent man and they were in the receiver's
faces and all that different stuff, and I love that
game plan. This week they definitely went ben don't break.
You know, sixty five percent off coverage. They average like
almost seven yards of cushion on the outside to these receivers.
So whether it was that was the plan going in,

(46:09):
or Chris Olave hit a fifty three yard bomb on
the first play of the game and they were like,
all right, I can't imagine. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (46:16):
So I wanted to talk about that, like, I can't
imagine you throw your entire game plan out over one play.
I'd have to think they went in with the baseline
and we're going to play this bend don't break. But
I wonder if that maybe reinforced it and like, all right,
we're going to like really live in this instead of
just like kind of have it as an option.

Speaker 2 (46:34):
So the interesting thing that I think, you know, comes
out of this game from a defensive standpoint, they are
not doing well defensively against the pass. Just from an
efficiency standpoint, you know, they're twenty third in drop back EPA,
they're twenty fifth and passer rating allowed if you want
to use passer rating, so they're down near the bottom
of the league as a pass defense. But they're seventh

(46:57):
in the league in scoring defense. They're giving up twenty
points a game. So this is as a defense, a
lot of this has turned into sort of ben don't
break as a unit all season long. You know, I
said yesterday on Unfiltered, we kind of were on the
same wavelength. It reminds me of like the Patricia Bill
defenses right where you know, there's a lot of bend

(47:18):
don't break in there. Every once in a while, they're
gonna throw an exotic, you know, scheme at the defense
at the offense, excuse me, that might lead to a
negative play, whether it's a big sack on third down
to force a field goal or a turnover or something
like that. But it's opportunistick with the turnovers. It's exotic
third down pressure when you get into long you know,

(47:39):
third down and pass situations. But other than that, they
played a lot of Bend don't break. Now. The one
thing that I would say that makes me a little
bit annoyed by that, yeah, is you have Christian Zales
and Carlton Davis and you're playing ben don't break. Right,
you would think that they.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
Didn't have Christian Zalees for part of the year.

Speaker 2 (47:58):
Sure, but it hasn't really changed all that much.

Speaker 1 (48:01):
Maybe changed in Buffalo. Well, so that's the thing. So
they never at the beginning of the year, the Carolina game,
they just they could do whatever they want to doors. Yeah,
the Bills game is I think, how we want them
to play and how we expect them to play, right, Yes,
And now you go into this and this is a
matchup game. So let's say, mate, what if that was
a one off? Would you change that take if that
game was a one off? And they just looked at
it and said, this is how we have to play

(48:23):
the Saints. So we're gonna play them that way and
then we'll get back to it. Next week.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
Maybe I just look at this, I'm not rolling that out.
I look at their numbers in terms of the passing game. Yeah,
and it's not very It doesn't feel very sustainable to
be honestly, use passerrating to be twenty fifth in the
league and passer rating allowed and only be giving up
twenty point zero games. Guys, those two things don't usually

(48:48):
go hand in hand.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
The other thing I would add to that is pat
you're talking about like old school passerating, right, yep, so
old school passer rating.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
Or you can go EPA is twenty third and les.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
So here's the thing with these efficiency things. And I
don't know the exact formula for EPA, but like I
know the pass rating, so it weighs completion percentage heavily, yep,
and it weighs turnover heavily. So even if you're not
true ben, don't break. But you're getting beat on a
bunch of quick hitters and you're stepping up and making
the tackle, it's gonna look efficient. But if it's like

(49:21):
this is kind of what Carolina did to them, where
they hit a bunch of like four yard passes, and
so I think that drags the efficiency down, But that's
ultimately good defense if you're stepping up and tackling so
and they just they haven't. They should have more interceptions
than they do. Like I I feel like.

Speaker 2 (49:42):
It just kind of breaks my brain a little bit
from a nerd standpoint of like how could they be
this bad against the pass statistically? But then you look
up and the opponent.

Speaker 1 (49:54):
Only what does tape tell you?

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Well, I mean it's one and the same. Like, I
don't think they defend pass particularly well right now, especially
in the middle of the field. Like I think that
you saw in this game, it's a lot of inbreaking
routes into the middle of the field. The corners are
playing zone technique, so they're playing outside leverage, they're bailing,
and then these you know, a Lave and Shaheed are
cutting into the middle of the field of the defense

(50:19):
and these linebackers that are dropping underneath are not squeezing
those windows enough, you know. I think it was really
kind of like a juxtaposition because they hit the dagger
route to Brandon Cooks for twenty one yards earlier in
the drive, and you just saw you know, Robert splaying
kind of get manipulated out of the passing window a
little bit, and then to Splaine's credit, on the third

(50:40):
down play that they got the stop. It's the same concept.
They run the same dagger concept, and this time they
squeeze it a little bit more and it's an incomplete pass,
you know. And Ratler started front side and came back
to it, So maybe the timing was a little bit
to do with that as well, But overall I thought
that that was like a good you know, we talk
about Drake May learning and getting better play to play.
They didn't get beat by it again, but I see

(51:03):
a lot of open receivers, and I think that when
you look at the pressure rate numbers, that also is
innificate of that, because I do think they're getting pressure
on the quarterback, but it doesn't feel like it's meaningful
pressure because I think that there's space to throw the football.

Speaker 1 (51:20):
So I'll go a couple of things. One, I do
think they've had some opportunities to get turnovers that haven't
turned into turnovers and that will help. And Two, I
part of me and I don't necessarily have anything to
base this on other than you know, what our priors were,
but I do wonder if the Saints game was They're

(51:41):
really fast team. We don't have our free safety. We
know we can beat up on their defense. If this
turns into a little bit of a shootout, let's just
not give up big plays. We're gonna play this game
is Ben, don't break, and we'll get because that's just
good coaching, and then we'll get back to what we
do to doing what we do moving forward.

Speaker 2 (51:59):
Right, I'm less concerned about because I think they're going
to be game plan oriented and it's going to change
week to week. It just did like it went to
can to man in Buffalo and then zone in New Orleans.
I'm more wondering from a big picture, holistic standpoint, is
it sustainable to be low efficiency against the pass but
keep teams out of the end zone?

Speaker 4 (52:19):
What like?

Speaker 1 (52:19):
Is that well if they can keep keep keeping teams
out of the end zone, it is like, yeah, if
you're keeping teams out of the end zone, it is
that sustainable. So can you be low efficiency against the
pass and still keep teams out of the end zone?

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (52:32):
What was their efficiency against Buffalo?

Speaker 2 (52:34):
H Josh Allen was you know average in that game?
So they did they did recover a little bit better.

Speaker 1 (52:39):
Against So when they play that's to me, that's the
only real data point we have on their defense because
they nevins. Also the first three games, Carolina game got
out of hand early, and then the Saints game. Well,
I guess it's I shouldn't say it's the only real
data point we have on their defense. I think it's
it's the Bills game or the Saints game. What do
you think is more indicative of what their defense is.

(53:02):
I almost feel like you have to throw the games
without Gonzales out. Yeah, it impacts the way the defense.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
It's tough to say because even with gonz like, the
numbers with Gonzalez are not that much better than they
were without him.

Speaker 1 (53:16):
You just said they were fine in the Bills game.

Speaker 2 (53:18):
Yeah, but I'm telling you, like from like the three
game sample versus the three game sample. Okay, I'm not
like their their defense is not like Gonzalez is not
coming into this defense and making this world a difference.

Speaker 1 (53:30):
But what I'm telling you is that it's not the
three games with Gonzalz versus three games without like it is,
and it isn't. It's they know Gonzalzo. The first three
games that impacted the defense, the Carolina game we did that.
We came in the next day and said, like, you
got to throw a lot of that game out stat
wise because it was almost all garbage time. Right, So
it's the Bills game was a real competitive game. They've

(53:50):
only played two real competitive games with Christian Gonzalez.

Speaker 2 (53:52):
But it wasn't like the Bills game was perfect, Like
they still.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
The Bills game wasn't perfect, but was it like was
good good enough? You said they were fun going on,
you said it.

Speaker 2 (54:00):
Was good enough, but this game was good enough, Like
they only give up nineteen points.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
We just said, efficiency wise, it wasn't good enough.

Speaker 2 (54:08):
But that's my.

Speaker 1 (54:08):
You're claiming the d the underlying number of efficient. This
is not me knocking the analytics. Is just we're having conversation,
Like the underlying numbers say, even though the points are
low in the Sands game, it's maybe not sustainable. What
did the underlying numbers and the Bills games say, because
they played very differently the same thing. Like okay, well
you had said it was fine, it.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Is fine, but like I'm telling you from like a
big picture standpoint, from all of looking at all of it,
like they right now are not a good pass defense.
And I thought once they got Gonzalez back, Now they
got him back this week, he played this week. Technically,
who knows where his hamstring is? You know it's yeah,
he's been on and off the injury report. You know,

(54:48):
he's questionable coming into this game, Like, who knows really
where he is physically. But the point that I'm trying
to get at is that normally when you see defenses
that are not good at defense the past, it's a
house of cards. Like you hold on in the red zone,
you hold on in the scoring zone in certain weeks,
and other weeks you don't like when they play Tampa

(55:09):
in a couple of weeks, when they even like I
don't think Pennox has been great. But if when they
play Atlanta and they have Bijon and they have Drake
London and they have real weapons that are coming at you,
like I just I don't know if his defense is
a paper tiger right now, and I hope it's not,
but it just it feels a little bit like a
house of cards to me, in the sense that the
numbers from an efficiency standpoint, like this is why I'm

(55:32):
not trying to get into a whole analytics thing with you.
But like this is why things like points and yards
like lack context, right, because like points are something that
is very very situational, Like did they produce in the
red zone where they playing a good enough offense to
sustain offense? Like all these different elements of a game
in the flow of a game.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
What does the tape tell you?

Speaker 2 (55:55):
It's the same thing. I don't know why you keep
asking me that it's like the same thing, like to
take like they do not defend the pass particularly, well,
that's what everybody's telling you. The coverage is not very
good at thet Is that going to Are they going
to be able to hold teams to twenty points a
game playing pass defense?

Speaker 1 (56:11):
I thought outside of Kincaid, which is not insignificant, but
I thought outside of Kinkaid, their pass defense was fine
against the Bills. You know, they weren't the twenty fourteen
Patriots with Reeves and Browner, But I thought the pass
defense was fine. I didn't think it was a negative
of anything was a positive outside of Kincaid. And they
do have to get better at covering tight ends, like

(56:32):
that's my big worry is tight ends and to an
extent running It's it's the non receivers killing them is
what worries mean. You mentioned the Falcons Kyle Pitts and
Bijon Robinson is a great example of this. Even the
Browns in a couple of weeks with David Joku and
Quinn Show Judkins getting it going a little bit. So
you know, was I did not think they covered the
pass as well against the Saints. I kind of think

(56:53):
that was part of the game plan, and so I'm
just interested to I feel like with Gonzales, I feel
like I haven't seen enough to make a definitive decision
of where I'm at with their pass defense.

Speaker 2 (57:05):
That's fair. It definitely needs some more sample, I will
say Gonzales, I just if they lose their coverages hasn't
been particularly good, and a lot of it, I would say,
is the linebackers in safeties, which is not going to
fix itself overnight. Like this is the personnel that they have.
I don't think Gonzales, Like I'm not trying to pick
on Gonzalez or pick on even Carlton Davis, like, I

(57:25):
don't think it's them that is like the holistic problem.
It's just that Gonzales has not come back and turn
this into a dominant pass defense. Like maybe we thought
it was going to be with those two corners because
I think that their linebackers and safeties are not good.

Speaker 1 (57:39):
So that that's fair too. Like I think that the
coverage on receivers has been better, but they still need
to get better cut the tight ends thing is what
worries me the most.

Speaker 2 (57:48):
All right, we're gonna throw to a quick break. When
we come back, we want to talk about the run
game on offense and some of the struggles. There have
a few more things to get to and then your
calls and emails. We'll see you guys in a second.

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Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
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you want some accent pillows for your your apartment, Alex,
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(01:00:52):
our house, like all over the place. I don't know
what it is about the blankets, but they're everywhere. I
do want to talk a little bit about the run game.
I know a lot of people are asking questions about
the run game. I think that the hardest part of
breaking down tape is breaking down the run game because
it's never one thing, Like it's always a bunch of

(01:01:15):
different things on one play that leads to a bad run.
It's very seldom like I can just look at this
and say, this one thing, if they just fix this
one thing, then the whole thing will work, right. It's
like that really doesn't happen a whole lot with the
run games, so it's kind of a different thing every week.
It's kind of a different thing every play. This game,

(01:01:38):
in particular, the blocking really struggled. I thought that the
blocking had been so so in the past five weeks,
and the running backs, along with average blocking, were just
really bogging them down this game. They only had nineteen
total yards before contact on the ground, good nineteen. Rimandre Stevenson,

(01:01:59):
for all of his struggles, had more yards after contact
than he did total rushing yards in this game. So
they did not block the very well. They had six
negative runs or Last week we talked a little bit
about how at least they were getting positive yards on
every single play. Was not the case this week. They
went backwards multiple times in this game. So what's your

(01:02:22):
So my big picture opinion on the run game is
that I do think there is a little bit of
a chicken or the egg thing going on here with
how defenses are defending the Patriots. I still see on
film that defenses are extremely aggressive against the Patriots under
center in particular, you know, run blitzink, stunting, slanting, gap penetrations,

(01:02:44):
like different things that teams use to blow up runs.
I'd still feel like teams are doing that a lot
against the Patriots. So does that continue? Does the pass
game success cause them to drop back? That's sort of
the chest match of it, if you will. But they
also just have issues in the run game, and they're
not a particularly good run offense. Like I'm not saying

(01:03:05):
it's all that, it's definitely a little bit.

Speaker 1 (01:03:07):
Yeah, I mean it's a lot of things. You hope
the past game success opens it up a little bit.
That's part of it. I do wonder if it becomes
mental at a point, like it felt like improving the
run game was the point of emphasis for them last week,
which is why it was so disappointing that because I
said this last week like the run game hadn't been bad,
it just hadn't been good. Yeah, it's kind of like

(01:03:28):
borderline functional, and this week it was bad. So you know,
where do you go from there? We do the deep
diyes on this show, But isn't there an element Evan?
And we talked about this earlier in the year, right
when the defense was having trouble and they had all
those mistackles, and remember we were talking about Roberts Plane
and it was like, yeah, you know, there's not really
a schematic answer. He just needs to play better.

Speaker 8 (01:03:50):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
I do think there's an element of that with the
run game for the Backs and the line that we've
seen Ramandree Stevenson play better than this. We've seen all
be it not at this level. We've seen Travon Henderson
play better than this. We've seen you know, Mike and
Win who I thought had a rough game in this one,
We've seen him play better than this. We've seen again
at another level. But just looking at the you know,

(01:04:12):
the tape and all that, Will Campbell, Jared Wilson, who
have had their moments, but be better than this run blocking.
And I just do think there is some natural internal
room for improvement. And I go back just Blaine s.
Blaine did it. He had more mistackles than made tackles
for the first two weeks. Something happened. He clicked the
switch and the coaching staff and with like I don't

(01:04:33):
know who, No, he figured it out right and he's
been really good since. And can you get the same
kind of bounce back from the run game? Where I
just think there's guys right now who have proven they
can play better football, and do they get back to
their level and if they do that, it's going to
open up a lot.

Speaker 2 (01:04:48):
So we've talked a lot about the running backs last week.
They only forced two misstackles the entire game. This week. Yeah,
at the running back position. Now, when you're getting contacted
behind or at the line of scrimmage or to break tackles,
right if.

Speaker 1 (01:05:01):
Able talked about this on Monday, that there's an element
of maybe the ball security thing is weighing a little more.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
I think that's certainly weighing with Remandre. I think with
Travon Henderson, what you're still seeing is just like a
lack of pacing or patience on his runs, and he's
just kind of running full speed into the line of
scrimmage and not really letting the blocking develop and missing
cutback lanes as a result, Like I think that there's
more meat on the bone in some of these runs

(01:05:29):
by the back. Certainly, I thought blocking wise, I look
at really two positions on the interior. This was not
a great game for Garrett Bradberry. I thought that he
struggled with a bigger front for New Orleans, especially in
the middle. I saw him after the game. It was cool.

(01:05:50):
Old friend Godshaw had a nice game. Brian Breeze is
a really good player. Bullard really gave them a lot
of problems inside. I also did not think this was
a particularly good game for Jared Wilson, but that really
struggled in this game on Sunday, so Campbell had some
misses too. I thought, really the only guy that I
felt like was okay in the run game was Morgan Moses.

(01:06:12):
I thought the other four guys had all a hand
in the run game. Being a struggle. I don't know,
Like to your point, I don't know if there's a
fix for it other than just reps and time on
task and hoping that some of the defenses maybe adjust
and back off the line of scrimmage a little bit
now that Drake may has arrived and like just let's

(01:06:35):
see where this goes throughout the course of the season.
Now if you want to get a little bit more
extreme and start making some personnel changes or tweaks to
the personnel. Oh one last thing. Yeah, their lack of
like a true battering ram full back I think is
hurting them as well, especially short yardage. No disrespect whatsoever

(01:06:56):
for Jack Westover, but he's just not He's not devil,
and he's not Yakub Johnson.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Would be a sneaky trade deadline edition for me.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
They don't They don't have like a true uh brock
Lampy the shind them up and you know, mu him
down fullbacks right like, they don't have one of those
guys right now. I think that that's hurting them as well.
This is not an overly physical group right now up front.
So I was a little bit nitpicky on Campbell in

(01:07:26):
this game. I think The main reason why is because
like he's the one guy that like he's the one
road grader right, Like he's the one guy up front
that I really feel like eats glass and is tough
and his physical and wants to set tone and all
that kind of stuff. It's a rookie, it's a lot
task of him early on in his career, but like

(01:07:46):
he kind of needs to bring that element because I
don't think that the other guys on the line are
going to bring that element. Left guard is a position
I'm wondering about. Uh, I've been testing you about this
off the air. I see Ben Brown sitting there on
the bench. I thought Ben Brown blocked with a lot
of physicality and effort against Carolina in the game that
he started for an injured Jared Wilson. I am not

(01:08:08):
out on Jared Wilson. I think Jared Wilson has a
bright future. I just think that bright future is at center,
and he's just a little small and lacks the play
strength at guard, especially against some of these bigger defensive
lines to be effective in the run game. It's a
little bit twenty twenty one. Ted Carris to me, like

(01:08:29):
Mike on Winne was the better player probably had a
higher ceiling, but he was a right guard, not a
left guard, and he was young, And like, is there
a world where we see Ben Brown at some point
at left guard, not to you know, rule out Jared
Wilson for the rest of his career, Like no one's

(01:08:51):
burying the kid. I just wonder if maybe they would
be more physical and a little bit better as a
run blocking unit if Ben Brown was in there instead
of Jared Wilson.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
I also wonder, you know, I didn't think Garrett Bradbury
had his best game in this game either. Do you
make that switch and you just move Jared Wilson over
now mid season switched to center for rookies not going
to be easy, hard and so maybe you have to
do it in stages and maybe it's Ben Brown in
and then you start working Jared whatever have you. But
you know, I think Ben Brown had a good showing

(01:09:21):
in that last game, so that the coaches have something
to go off of. I don't think it's imminent, because
I do think they want to develop these young players.
They look, I did this rant or this thing at
the beginning of the year. They have what six seven
rookies and starting positions right. They want to develop the kids.
That's clearly a point of emphasis for them, and there
is something to be said for having play through it.
But I do think if it gets to a point

(01:09:42):
where the run game's non functional, especially once teams start
respecting the past more and kind of daring the Patriots
to run, you have to talk about making a change.
But the other element of it is past protection has
been so good. Do you want to start poking around
and making changes or do you just say, look, we've
got Drake May protected, he's slinging it. We can figure
out way to compensate for a weak link in the
run game.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
So I don't love moving Jared Wilson this year to
center because to your point about the pass protection, this
battery of Drake May and Garrett Bradberry is working on
the whole for the most part. I wouldn't mess with
Drake May, And to me, changing his center is messing
with him, Like, just let him be. The center's working,

(01:10:25):
the protection is working. Let's not throw that off. I
just if we're talking personnel, and then we'll talk about
the running backs here in a second. But if we're
talking personnel on the offensive line, Wilson out Brown in
is really the only move to me that they can
really make, and maybe that would help their run blocking.

(01:10:45):
It might make them worse than pass protection slightly, yeah,
but maybe it would help them in their run game.
I don't think that this is design poorly. I don't
think there's tails. I don't think that there's tendencies like
they're right now. You know, first down run rate, they're
right smack dab in the middle of the pack. There's
sixteenth in the league. And first down run rate. They

(01:11:07):
do not run on second and long very often. That's
always one of those other tells that's not a very
good one. They they've been fine from a play calling perspective.
The other thing about the run game that frustrated me
out of this game, ALPS was the gold go situation. Like, yeah,
I'm okay, if you're not a dominant run game, like

(01:11:28):
if this isn't you know, Buffalo, Baltimore, Detroit level run game, fine, likes,
that's fine, but when you get down inside the two
yard line, you have to be able to run the
ball in, like you have to be able to do
that first run play. They just run lead again. This
is where the full back thing comes into play, like

(01:11:48):
they don't really have a full back that's just going
to kind of battering Ram through the line and just
clear out of space for the running back. But also
Jared Wilson and Will Campbell are on a double team
at the point of attack, and they don't make they
don't get any ground, they don't you displace it all
and so it's just stuffed. The next run, they try
to run power on the goal line, which is a

(01:12:09):
tough one in my opinion, but they try to run
power and Buller just shoots the gap when Jared Wilson
polls Will Campbell's supposed to cut him. But it's a
tough block, right, He's got to get him down. It's
a tough block. He misses the block there. So you
just would like to see if they're not going to
be good. They're not going to be an explosive game,
run game. They have to be good. Situation.

Speaker 1 (01:12:30):
You got to get that yard, yeah, you just you
have to get that yard. And to your probably again,
do you start putting We kind of toyed with this
idea back in the spring on the goal and you're
not doing this full field like on the goal line
you start using like Kyros Tonga as a fullback, just
somebody who can move bodies. It's not a bad idea
and something like that, you know, I you got to

(01:12:52):
be able to get that one yard.

Speaker 2 (01:12:53):
Yeah, or you know, maybe you put the eligible tackle
in the backfield instead of putting the eligible tackle eligib
tackle excuse me, on the line of scrimmage, right, and
like you use a bigger body there. The last thing
on the run game, of course, I'm sure we're gonna
get a lot of trade deadline questions and stuff like
that coming up the running back position. You know, I've
read off the stats last week. It's all of them

(01:13:15):
kind of stayed the same. You know, they're they're down
near the bottom of the league and yards after contact
avoided tackle rate. They don't break any tackles. So, just
to put it in Layman's terns, they don't break any tackles.
They don't break any tackles. They don't allow runs to develop,
they don't set up blocks, they don't cut back. The
running backs are a problem. The running backs have not
been very good. This really is a tough one too,

(01:13:39):
because I don't know if that's going to get organically better.
The blocking I could see getting better with more reps
and more time on task. I think the running backs
are kind of in a bad situation right now. Do
you make a trade? You know, do do you try
to pull off a trade? I'm not necessarily talking about
like Derrick Henry or like a you know, a huge
splash trade, but do you make a trade to get

(01:14:00):
another veteran running back in here that that could maybe help?

Speaker 1 (01:14:03):
Well, sorry, it's Distracted's Mike alstot highlights on the TV.
Get yeah, can can we get.

Speaker 2 (01:14:08):
Him in here?

Speaker 1 (01:14:10):
I I don't think if they're not gonna use Carel Jennings,
they need another guy. I mean, you just need three
running backs to get through a season. Yeah, So in
that case, yes, you know, further up the depth chart,
there's people talking about Breece Hall, Like, if it's Breece
Hall for a third or fourth, I would do that.

(01:14:30):
I just don't think the Jets are doing that in
the division, even though he's a rental. I wouldn't be
opposed to it. I wouldn't be opposed to it, certainly.
And that's not the one thing I will say. I've
seen people throughout trades like, well, if you trade Remandre
and a pick. You're not trading Remandre Stevenson one and rimondres.
There's a ton of credit for this. He's not running
the ball well right now. He's doing a lot of

(01:14:52):
other little things very well, and that's why he's staying
on the field. He's pass blocking.

Speaker 8 (01:14:57):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:14:59):
You look at some of the blocks setting downfield. Mike
Rabel's talked about this. Following the ball on the Pop
Douglas touchdown, he gets down the field right and sets
that block yep. And it kind of reminds me of
Pop Douglas where Pop Douglas was struggling with ball in
his hands, ended up in a reduced role, found other
ways to contribute, and it comes back around and look,
he's rewarding. He has a big game. Should have had

(01:15:20):
over one hundred yards in this game if not for
the officials. So does you know does that happen with
Randre Stevenson because he's keeping himself on the field right
now by doing all these other little things. One, you
just need the depth they need to add a running back.
They do not need to replace running backs. And two,
Romondre Stevenson's doing other things. Well, I'm not trading Ramondre
Stevenson for running back, Like it's you're moving a pick,

(01:15:41):
you're getting a back. That's what this is. So but
I would look at it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:46):
Yeah, I think they have to look at it just
from a depth standpoint, like if you're not at the
offense and you just need a body, I do think
they could maybe do a little bit better than just
a body. But it just I said this yesterday, like
it shocks me, Like Rico Dwell just went off for
like two hundred yards in Carolina, Like it's not like
you need, you know, prime Derrick Henry to come in

(01:16:08):
here and save you, Like if you just have somebody
that is just playing at a decent level at that position,
you know. I know it's kind of funny for me
to come at it and be like they need a
running back because I'm usually the anti running back guy,
but they need a league average running back. Yeah, I
think Remandre is probably a lead average running back at
all the other things that you brought up right, or maybe.

Speaker 1 (01:16:30):
Above league average those, but he's not running the ball.
Let me ask you one more thing. And I'm not
saying this would be because I've seen people say this
as like a permanent thing, and I wouldn't do it
as a permanent thing, but I mean they did it
earlier this year with Antonio Gibson. Would you use Rmandra
Stevenson as a fullback?

Speaker 2 (01:16:48):
I mean, like, I guess you could if you want to.

Speaker 1 (01:16:50):
Go like offset with Travon Henderson, not all the time,
but putting it in as a wrinkle.

Speaker 2 (01:16:55):
Oh yeah, I don't know what that really solves, though,
I like you maybe have some cool plays off of it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
As you talked about Jack Westovers, Maybe not that guy.

Speaker 2 (01:17:03):
I mean he's not going to like lead through the
a gap and block the line center.

Speaker 1 (01:17:07):
Yeah, I mean he's pass blocking pretty well right now.
I know it's different, but maybe a powerful guy.

Speaker 2 (01:17:11):
I don't know if you want to doing that, I'm
gonna get hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:17:14):
I think it's in any way to contribute to the
team kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:17:17):
They could do a little bit more with the scheme druns.
Like I think that they've kind of put the Drake
May design runs away because well, a like their passing
game doesn't really need it. But be I also think
that you know, he's probably a better scrambler than he
is like a natural design runner. I think that's kind
of what they've found in that regard. But whether it's motion,

(01:17:40):
whether it's jet motion or sweeps, or you know, getting
a little bit more production out of the screen game.
Like the screen game is just an extension of the
running game. It's just the passing games version of the
running game. Like, so could you get a little bit
more out of like your wide receiver screens and things
like that. I think that there might be some ways
that they could dress up the running game just a
little bit better, yea, and not just run it right

(01:18:01):
at people. But at the end of the day, you
also have to be able to traditionally run the ball
to be a good rush offense. This is something that
you know, not to make a buffalo again, but like
this is something that Bill's learned Josh Allen, Like, you
can't your run game cannot be solely reliant on the quarterback,
Like you have to be able to line up under

(01:18:22):
center and hand the ball off to James Cook and
be a good traditional rush offense. Like you can't just
put it all on scrambles and design runs. I don't
understand how that is. Is a smirk, Like Josh Allen's
still great at it, Like I.

Speaker 1 (01:18:38):
Know, but because no, my issue is not primarily with
Josh Allen's with the Bills and them misusing him and
people not understanding the context of that.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
Should I read this email about Bill's catch twenty two? Yeah, so, Evan,
is this Bill's catch twenty two? Because I thought I
was watching Patriots catch twenty two. The Bills are faltering
in struggling, even if their wins they aren't weren't perfect.
Just like how Bart defends his take on Josh Allen
bad years, definitely defen defending Josh Allen newgoat take. That's

(01:19:10):
Kyle from Penbrook. Kyle, I'm just not counting chickens before
they hatch. My friend, we're six weeks into the season.
You want to bury the Bills playing good football right now? Yes?

Speaker 3 (01:19:19):
Or no?

Speaker 2 (01:19:20):
No, they're not playing good football right now. I also
watched the Patriots play a bad football early on in
the season for years and come out the other side
and we end.

Speaker 3 (01:19:29):
Up in.

Speaker 1 (01:19:30):
Day had two. I'm sorry. You can love Josh Allen
all you want.

Speaker 2 (01:19:33):
He's not.

Speaker 1 (01:19:34):
I'm just saying that, like let mcderbert, certainly Bill Belichi.

Speaker 2 (01:19:38):
Also, last year the Bills were three and two, so
so let just make this point, just everybody calm down.

Speaker 1 (01:19:44):
I will say I saw somebody make this point that
the Bills have lost back to back games in like
five or six consecutive seasons or something like that. They
keep doing it. But last year, when they were two
years ago when they did it, or last year when
they did it, I guess I should say. They beat
the Dolphins by twenty one, and then they beat the
Jaguars by thirty seven, and then they lost back to

(01:20:05):
back in Week's four and five to the Ravens in Texas.
We're both good teams this year. Leading into their back
to back losses, they barely beat the Dolphins. They barely
beat the Saints. This is not Bill's catchwaying two, and
then they lost to the Patriots, who might be a
good team in the Falcons who might be a good team,
but aren't like the Ravens last year.

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
So the context is a little different. Okay, just I
think you know, I know, Ile Dermott, he was teasing us.
We have forty minutes left in the show. We're going
to do some calls and emails now, I promise. I
also want to talk a little bit about this Titans game.
A little bit of juice with were able going back
to Tennessee and.

Speaker 1 (01:20:42):
The change players in the league is on that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
So we'll talk a little bit about that. Brent Morquare
awake makes well. First of all, I just want to
I'm reading the brunt read because they sent us a
little care package and I really do like the stuff
that they sent us, and I want to give them
a ton of credit for that. So work where it
makes work boots and apparel that are built for the
job site, and his official sponsor of the New England

(01:21:04):
Patriots and the Jilted Stadium field crew. Their gear is comfortable, durable,
and named after the real workers and the trades that
helped design it. You can even try brunn out on
the job and if it doesn't blow you away, you're
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first order at bruntwork where dot com slash Patriots or
with coupon code Pats. All right, I know you guys
have been waiting. Let's get to these calls. Patty is

(01:21:25):
an agu on what's up? Patty?

Speaker 9 (01:21:28):
What's up?

Speaker 3 (01:21:28):
Guys?

Speaker 8 (01:21:28):
Can you hear me?

Speaker 7 (01:21:29):
Okay?

Speaker 2 (01:21:29):
Yes, all right?

Speaker 4 (01:21:32):
So what I really wanted to do was what I loved.
What I really loved about what what I saw on
Sunday wasn't the officiating. But what I really loved what
I saw on Sunday was how late in the game,
it was the possession before their final possession where they
closed the game out, when they got into these crazy

(01:21:53):
ass like third and long situations, they weren't running draws
like Josh, I think, recognize the situation and recognize that
my quarterbacks got a big arm and our guys are
getting open against these guys, and they went for it.
And I mean that's something I don't think that we've seen,
even like in the Brady era. You know, a lot

(01:22:15):
of times when they can know these third and long situations,
they would just like run draws or run screens or
run just basically play it safe. And I just I
love the aggression and I kind of hope that continues.
And I wanted to see what you guys had to
think about that. And I'll take it off there.

Speaker 2 (01:22:31):
Thanks Patty. Well it helps at the quarterbacks. One of
the best laid down quarterbacks in the NFL through six weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:22:36):
One of the best deep ball thars.

Speaker 2 (01:22:37):
Yeah, so this to me is another if you want
to like talk about Feathers and Drake May's cap through
the first six weeks of the season. His production in
obvious passing situations and his production on late downs is
just off the charts good right now. So he is
third in the league and EPA on third and fourth

(01:22:58):
down brock Perty, you know, hopefully he'll come back eventually,
and Daniel Jones is number one. And that statistic, their
success rate or drop back success rate on third and
fourth down is fifty two point six percent. So the
reason why they are opening it up on third and
fourth down is because Drake May is letting them, you know,
Drake May is elevating them in those situations. Now, one

(01:23:21):
of the plays on Sunday when they went for it
on that fourth down, it is so refreshing to see
us Stefan Diggs just win so easily on that route
like that is like with the pocket clean pocket Digs
wins clickly on the slant like that is literally it
might as well have been routes on air, like they

(01:23:42):
were just out there playing pitch and catch like it's
the middle of August in training camp. Drake May had
nobody around him. Diggs was wide open on the slant
got Beatman coverage. So it's a bit, a little bit
of everything, of course, but Drake May's efficiency on third
and four down is some of the best in the

(01:24:02):
league right now. And his efficiency in obvious passing situations
like expected passes situations. He's in number one rated quarterback
in the league when they're expected to pass, so that
that's a big reason why those things are happening. I mean,
some of the numbers on Drake May, and you know,
I could nerd out about all this for the rest
of the show. Some of the numbers on Drake May

(01:24:23):
are stupid, like it's insane how well he is playing.
And I would say, all like the great quarterbacks play
great on third down, Like that's really where that's the
money down.

Speaker 1 (01:24:33):
For the reason quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:24:34):
Yeah, and he's right up there with the best in
the league. Sean is in Vancouver. What's up, Sean.

Speaker 9 (01:24:41):
Well, Stevenson didn't fumble. Now that's not something we need
to celebrate. But one thing I noticed is it looked
like they were like really mauling him and trying to
force the fumble and he didn't. So I want to
give him prompts for actually maybe make an adjustment on
that of the run game not working like, yeah, they're

(01:25:04):
they're not doing a good job. But yeah, like you said,
the teams the opponents are are really you know, playing
the run. There's stuff in the box and they're they're blitzing. Well,
one play that worked early was a play action uh
to pop. Now maybe they could do more play action
like have that uh X plays five times for play

(01:25:25):
action instead of once and and maybe either you know,
teams will the opponents will will have to pay for
that or they'll adjust. Now the officiating, I'm wondering that
one solution on that could be hiring these these refs
that I'm full time. So they study and they watch tape,
they go to practice, they just get better. And one

(01:25:46):
one last question, how do we find out the game
day captains? Where where can we go on the on
the web to know who that will be?

Speaker 10 (01:25:53):
All right, I'll leave it out there.

Speaker 2 (01:25:55):
Thanks, thanks Sean. Yeah, we should probably do a better
job of keeping track of those. Last week, it was
kind Toga he did not go out for the coin toss.
I Able made a joke about that in postgame, saying
that he maybe was a little bit nervous to go
out there on the coin toss. But I love Caiusakiris.
Tonga's a beast. Yeah, guy deserves a ton of credit
for what he's done in the run defense. So we

(01:26:18):
can do a better job sean of keeping track of those.
Mark is in Connecticut. What's up? Mark?

Speaker 11 (01:26:25):
Going on?

Speaker 1 (01:26:27):
Not much?

Speaker 2 (01:26:28):
How we doing.

Speaker 8 (01:26:30):
Well?

Speaker 11 (01:26:31):
I think the NFL finally put the officiating on notice.
I saw some things on Facebook and some other webs
that we're saying that the NFL is definitely gonna do
an investigation on that officiating group, because I mean, that
was just probably the worst officiating crew I've ever seen.
And I've been watching football for probably thirty years now,

(01:26:53):
and I got to say that that's just terrible, the
terrible product that they're putting on the field. But other
than that, the other thing is can we get more
designed type of I just need to get more innovated
in the run game because we know that they're stacking
the blox with eight in the block, So if they're
going to keep doing that, can we get like some

(01:27:14):
James White type of screenplays going or something. I Mean,
I'm just thick of every time we're going up the gut,
we're going up the gun, but we're losing yards and
we're or we're getting nowhere, So can we just try
and get a little more creative?

Speaker 9 (01:27:27):
Thanks guys, Love you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:27:28):
Thanks Mark, Thanks for the call. Yeah, I definitely think
that calls for more creativity in the run game are
fair because they're so bad running the ball, they got
to do something different than what they're doing.

Speaker 1 (01:27:41):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:27:41):
It's interesting. I think that their run game just by design,
like they're running a lot of duo or gap where
they're just kind of getting double teams on the line
of scrimmage and trying to push the line of scrimmage.
And they've had some good reps in duo even in
this game early on in the game. But that scheme
inherently does lend itself to guys getting up to the

(01:28:02):
second level, like blockers getting up from the first to
the second level. So a lot of what you're seeing
when you run duo is like three four yards in
the cloud of dust because it's just a displacement that
they're getting from the double teams. And then there's no
like the linebackers are unblocked, so like they're just free
to make the play once they can kind of sift

(01:28:23):
through the trash, and that's where like the running backs,
breaking tackles and things like that come into play. But
that's why you're seeing like a lot of like runs
up the middle is because they are running up the
middle by design. It's a good question. I think there
are some schematic things that they could do, certainly like
more from the gun, you know, with some of their
gun package and their motion packages that they could get

(01:28:45):
more involved in. I don't think that this coaching staff
is quite in the AVP school of like we're gonna
we're not gonna run drake because we want to keep
them healthy. I don't think that they're quite there, but
I do think that they're There is a balance there
where if you start letting him run around and start
unleashing him in that regard, you know, it is a

(01:29:08):
juice worth the squeeze, right, Like is it worth it
if he starts to get you know, added up, some
body blows and starts to take some hits, Like is
that really worth it to be a little bit more
productive in the ground. That's that's something that you always have.

Speaker 1 (01:29:21):
To say, you know, you talked about earlier. There's you know,
I think everybody's looking for. And I you talked about
earlier with the Bills. I've talked about this with Bills
for a long time. Like it just felt like whoever
the Bills offensive coordinator was was always getting criticized because
they were trying to find that that magic equilibrium of
how much do you run the quarterback where to benefit
but not too much that he gets hurt and now
your offense is lacking because the quarterback's playing banged up.

(01:29:43):
I don't know that that equilibrium honestly exists. Yeah, I
don't know that there is a perfect number. I air
on the side of don't run him, and that doesn't
mean run him zero times. But I'd rather run him
not enough than run him too much, because if you're
running him not enough, at least he's still healthy. You know,
I think that goal line situation, for instance, right that
the Patriots had. Your run game's not good. You want

(01:30:05):
to mix in maybe like a read option or QB
power there obviously the quarterback sneaks right the two point
conversion things like that. You know, second in seven in
the first quarter, early in a drive, Why do you
need your quarterback take a hit?

Speaker 8 (01:30:22):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:30:22):
Like it I'd rather just figure out how to get
the run game going. I'm with you there on you know,
short yardage, goal line situations though gone out of it.
You know to like fourth and too late in the game.
You can you can kill the clock.

Speaker 2 (01:30:34):
Like sure, I want to throw a zone read in
there or something.

Speaker 1 (01:30:36):
High impact situation.

Speaker 2 (01:30:38):
Yeah, here's another email, Chirpin at us. Alexis is from Barton,
Poland have you stopped underrating Drake London in the pre
draft process? When TET was getting Drake London comps with
high end comps of T Higgins, it was flabbergasted because
in no world is Higgins better than London. Also, I
wrote in on Catch twenty two saying how DK is
overrated in one of the players that I had over

(01:31:01):
him was London Barth and you scoffed at it. But
I don't think that there are many people that would
take DK over London. Drake London has gotten, uh has
broken out here. Maybe he didn't break out the wrong word. Uh.
I have respect now for Drake London. He's a good player.
He's gotten.

Speaker 4 (01:31:16):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:31:16):
He's caught my eye, especially watching him in primetime this weekend.
That guy's a beast. He's a good football player. He's
probably like a top ten receiver in the league. Bart,
you were right, we were wrong. That's big of me.
I don't normally do that. There you go.

Speaker 1 (01:31:29):
No, he's been really good and I think you're seeing
We talked about this a lot with Tep McMillan, that
the league became so speed driven that these guys that
are really technically skilled but don't run a four to
three maybe get you know, get overlooked. And yeah, obviously,
you know, I think that our comp to from Drake
London to Tech McMillan still stands. We were maybe just
a little too low on both of them. Yeah, cop

(01:31:51):
works out just not the way we thought it would.
But I think it's great. I love to see a
player that maybe isn't the you know, the most. I
don't even want to say he's not athletically gifted because
he's you know, he's not changes direction. Well, that's right,
he's not a track sprinter. That shouldn't be the all
there is to playing wide receiver. And it kind of
felt like the league was going in that direction. The

(01:32:12):
fast and guys right, and Drake London is showing that
there's more than one way to play the position, which
is a good thing you want there to be. You know,
people used to joke you stand Randy Moss next to
Wes Welker. You know, it's hard to believe those two
guys play the same position, but they do. I think
that's part of what makes football so great, is the
specialization of it. So love seeing guys like that succeed.

Speaker 2 (01:32:33):
So I will fully admit that my Drake London takes
in the past, especially in his draft class or Nikhil
Harry PTSD, I just don't big you know, physical jump
ball receivers. Now London has turned into a much different
kind of player than that. Like London is a good
route runner, London gets open Like I'm not trying to

(01:32:55):
put London in that category, but when you're evaluating guys
out of the draft and he runs like a you know,
low four five and he's like, you know, not really
known for his separation, Like I always just get a
little bit nervous with those types of guys in the
Patriots specifically because of their lack of success in that
archetype in that position. But Drake London has definitely proved

(01:33:18):
me wrong. I wasn't overly high on him even coming out,
and he's been much better than I expected. He's a
good player. We are getting a bunch of questions Alex
about needs and stuff like that. That's how you know
that this is a draft show and this is an
offseason show. Is that people, despite the fact that the
Patriots are four and two and currently leading the AFC East,

(01:33:39):
they want us to talk about twenty twenty six in
the needs on this football team. So he's asked for
the five biggest that's a lot, let's get.

Speaker 1 (01:33:47):
Let's do three on this show, you know, projecting ahead
a little bit, so I will say this, I am
I nuts that I'm kind of taking wide receiver out
of the big three knees conversation, No, because if Kaishan
Bo's going to play this way, you know, I know
Diggs is thirty one, but they still look Kyle Williams,
who they haven't used in I'm not saying it's not

(01:34:09):
a need, but I look at it getting a premier
edge rusher and this looks like a really good edge class.
And not all these guys are going to be there
for where the Patriots are picking, but Arvel Reese, ruben
Bain Denise Dennis Sutton like they're going to push some
other guys down. I think I think you might get
a long way to go. You might get like a

(01:34:29):
top ten pick caliber edge rusher in the late teens
in this draft, just because I think that position has
a chance. We'll see who comes out and all that
has a chance to be really loaded. I would say
the same for right tackles, this looks like a really
good tackle draft. In particularly really good right tackle draft.
Morgan mos has been solid, but we know the deal
with his age and all of that, and you know,

(01:34:51):
whether it's Maui Goa, I still got to get that
name down from Miami. You know, Utah has got a
couple of good tackles that both have experience playing both ways. Uh,
Caleb Lomu, I believe is there they're right tackle this year.
You know, those are probably the two biggest needs. And
then some whether it's a linebacker or a safety. There's

(01:35:12):
multiple ways you could go about this, and it would
depend on what they do in for agency and what
happens with Kyle Duggar and things like that. But like
somebody who can cover tight ends and rush the passer,
and whether that's Harold Perkins. I know you had your
theory that Caleb Downs might fall in the draft all
the way he's playing Evan, I just that's it. He's
got to be a top five player to be fair.

Speaker 2 (01:35:32):
My theory was more likely. Let's say the Patriots are
picking like eleventh. Yeah right, well here's They're gonna be
probably better than picking eleven, So it's probably so all right.

Speaker 1 (01:35:42):
But I had this thought the other day, and we
can bring this back to this year kind of like
they they made their run in because one of the
questions I get now is how is this different than
twenty twenty one. They had a rookie quarterback, he played well,
and then what happened that let go of the rope
and fell apart? Are wondering, now, Drake May is better
than mac jones lot, But you know some of that
was you look at their off seasons in twenty twenty

(01:36:04):
two and twenty twenty three. They didn't do much after
a big year in twenty one. Now, I don't know
that they need to spend the way they spent last year.
You're not going to do that every year. You're not
gonna be the highest spending team every year In a
salary cap league, but you do want to stay aggressive
and keep keep the pedal of the metal parts of
this roster. This is six weeks, since this is all
very much subject to change, is it fair to say
parts of the roster are further along than we may

(01:36:26):
be expected at the beginning of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:36:27):
Yeah, I think that, you know, So just on the
wide receiver thing real quick. Yeah, like when you have
a great quarterback, all of a sudden the receivers look
a little bit better. I think that's happening now. Is
there still a is there still like a big picture
need for like that true deep number one alpha receiver
to play alongside Diggs? Like yeah, Like no one is

(01:36:49):
saying that if aj Brown wants to reunite with Mike
Rabel that we're going to say no thanks. Like no
one is saying, but here's what here's my But is
it like a thing that you need to throw assets
at in the offseason and it's like all the like
like it has been the.

Speaker 1 (01:37:02):
Specifically first round pick right right, so it's more much so.
But let's even if they want to receive it, right So,
cause i I'm like, where does your where would you
put your Entyson in this offense? Where'd you put Carnell
Tait in this offense?

Speaker 8 (01:37:12):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:37:12):
Or you want to talk about it at the edge,
maybe they get aggressive, Maybe they really like dds, you know,
maybe they really like Ruben Band's gonna be top five picks,
so he probably doesn't apply to this. But should we like,
how much are we going to talk about trading up
this offseason? Yeah, it's positing up to the draft like
that would kind of be striking while the iron's hot

(01:37:32):
is okay, maybe you don't like going into the year.

Speaker 2 (01:37:35):
That's what Houston did.

Speaker 1 (01:37:36):
You looked at it and it was like, Okay, they're
probably gonna need another year where they hit on five
or six draft picks. Now, maybe not, and that doesn't
mean that they needed They can hit on zero like
they have to hit on some. But do you need
to be finding those value guys later on or in
two years? Right if you involve future picks, or do
we start talking about them moving up from you know,
wherever they end up sixteen seventeen, eighteen nineteen two, train

(01:38:00):
up to the fringe top ten and get one of
these edge rushers that falls like if the season ended today,
we'd be wondering why the season ended on October fifteenth,
But if the season ended today, that would I'd kind
of be making that argument that like, let's see where
the board falls after the combine. But if this edge
rusher class, if the meat of this class is going

(01:38:21):
to be like eight to twelve thirteen, and the Patriots
are sitting there at seventeen, go up and get your guy,
you can maybe blow some assets on that.

Speaker 2 (01:38:30):
So quickly to answer the question more directly, if it's me,
I'm focusing on the spine of the team still, so
in the middle of the field. I do understand again,
like if aj Brown wants out of Philadelphia and he
wants to come here to reunite with Mike Rabel and
play with Drake May, I am, I will drive. I
will pick him up at the airport.

Speaker 1 (01:38:49):
And I said take a first round pick.

Speaker 2 (01:38:51):
Maybe, but I'm just saying like, I'll pick me up
at the airport myself. But with that being said, this
team right now, I look at it defensively, edge rusher, linebacker, safety,
I still think are really positions that they need to
hit on. Like if you really wanted to say, like,
what is the weakest positions of the team running back, linebacker, safety,

(01:39:13):
and I don't think it's particularly close now, edge rusher.
They have the depth, but they don't have that top guy. Yeah,
they don't have a top do I don't. Jason and
Land are nice players, they're just not It's not Miles Garrett.

Speaker 1 (01:39:26):
I'm with Ed rusherm kind of where I've been with
receiver the last few years, which is either take a
guy at the top or like don't or take a
real project late Like I don't need them using a
they don't need to try to find josh Uche. Yeah,
no offense to josh U Chip like that. Like fiftieth
fh overall pick, that's gonna come in and be a
complimentary guy. Take that top by the way real quick,
because you said it. We are probably going to be

(01:39:46):
talking running back in the draft. It's probably going to
be a power back. There are some the crackhead running back.
There are some running backs that crack heads in this
they're gonna eclipped.

Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
Yeah, there's some.

Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
Uh, some guys that crackhead. Who's the Notre Dame kid
Jeremiah Love, Yeah, Nick Singleton, Jonah Coleman from Washington is awesome.
If you've seen him.

Speaker 2 (01:40:11):
Yeah, yeah, that's where I would focus. I think they
are good enough at receiver right now. Again, like everybody
could use the number one guy, but I think they're
good enough with the way Drake may is playing that
that that's not like we need to throw assets.

Speaker 1 (01:40:26):
No, you're not gonna draft so Jeremiah Love might be
first round pick, You're not gonna They're not there yet.

Speaker 2 (01:40:31):
Especially after taking Henderson at the top of the second.

Speaker 1 (01:40:33):
Do they do another top one hundred back and maybe
in the second or third, Like.

Speaker 2 (01:40:37):
I wonder if and not to like drive them to
the airport, but like I wonder if it's a veteran
back in for Andre.

Speaker 1 (01:40:45):
Well, well, then you get into the whole philosophy of
like do you pay running backs or do you draft them?

Speaker 2 (01:40:50):
It hasn't been totally paying running backs and.

Speaker 1 (01:40:54):
Free comes back around the other way. It's coming back
a little bit because it's funny you look at it,
and there was that I think it was two.

Speaker 2 (01:41:00):
Years ago where a bunch of running backs changed teams
and they kind of did like a musical chairs at
running back. I think that was the twenty four off season,
not this last one, but the two off seasons ago
and like all of them hit and their new teams,
like Derrick Henry going from Tennessee to Baltimore. Tony Pollard's
been decent for the Titans. And to make it a
little bit Titans, you know, Aaron Jones going to Minnesota,

(01:41:25):
Josh Jacobs going to Green Bay. Like it kind of worked,
so I DeAndre Swift is Chicago.

Speaker 1 (01:41:30):
The thing about it to me, like that Saquon Barkley contractor,
was like, you're gonna pay a running back that much?
And like he's the Then I left out, of course,
because I think he was the year after that, right,
think it might have been in the same year. Yi,
that's a bad miss then, But did like he's getting
If you actually look at what Saquon Barkley's contract is,
it's like wide receiver three money I think he got
with Steve Slayton got from the Giants, right, So, oh

(01:41:53):
my god, he's a top five paid running back. It's
like remember when people freaked out that the Patriots made
Joe Cardona the he's paid long separate NFL. It's like
it's half a percent of the gap. Yeah, like at
a certain point with some positions. Yeah, he's getting paid
a lot relative for his position. But if he's good,
it's not. Is Saquon Barkley's contract a backbreaking contract? No, right,

(01:42:14):
it's so.

Speaker 2 (01:42:15):
It's a little bit in vogue right now. It's it's
coming back slightly, just because I don't I don't hate
that the market correction has led to it being almost
like a devalued position because of the contract. To your
point about Saquon, like, it's not like these running backs
are making twenty five million dollars a year, so now
there's almost like value in it, right, it's kind of
a zig zag thing. All right, let's get to these calls.

(01:42:37):
Let's go rapid fire through these calls, and maybe we
can talk thirty seconds about the Titans, which, frankly is you.

Speaker 1 (01:42:42):
Want me to give my tit take real quick before
we do the falls.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
It's over, good idea.

Speaker 1 (01:42:45):
Jeffrey Simmons rules. Yeah, great player. I saw you know,
somebody get out of there given a chance to win.
Underrated player, tremendous player, game change around, all three downs.
Love watching him, looking forward to watching him this week
after him, some young guys. I don't hate cam Ward,
but like not a ton of talent.

Speaker 2 (01:43:04):
Yeah, so my biggest things about this game, like trying
to find ways where this is a upset for the Titans.
The interim coach bump like does kind of exist. I
did some digging on this yesterday. It's not as it
hasn't happened as recently, you know, as much recently. They're
three and six and since twenty twenty two. But Jeff

(01:43:26):
Saturday in Indy, Darren Rizzy in New Orleans, Antonio Pears
in Vegas. All three of those guys recently won their
first games as interim head coaches. Mike McCoy has coaching experience.
He was four years with the Chargers in the middle
of the twenty tens, So like, it's not like somebody
that's getting the job for the very first time and
doesn't know what he's doing. That whole thing kind of

(01:43:49):
exists now to me, that gets washed out by Rabel
coming back to Tennessee because I think the Patriots players
are gonna want to win this game for Rabel. So
like as much as the interim coach bump helped the
Titans and kind of light a fire under the Titans,
I think this game has a lot of juice internally.
Rable Stretch Harold Landry, Jack Gibbons, Robert splain, even to

(01:44:13):
an extent, like a lot of guys going back to
a place that kind of fired them from their jobs.

Speaker 1 (01:44:19):
Do you think there's a little more it's a you
could look at it either way. I guess I don't
know I ver abel well enough on a personal level
to say this, is it a little more of a
twisting the knife that the guy they replaced you with
didn't even make it to your return on him. I'm
like that might be the other way. That might be
some of it might be like ha ha, like I'm

(01:44:41):
not even facing my replacement, like it's not. But part
of it, I don't know, if you're that level of
a competitor, would there be an element of you're not
even gonna let me beat the guy that you replaced
me with. Now I gotta beat this next guy twice?
Is bad kind of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:44:53):
So I think that the interim head coach bump is
one thing. The other thing is three straight row games.

Speaker 1 (01:45:00):
It's really hard to win on the road in the
same never done Patriot's never done it.

Speaker 2 (01:45:03):
It's really hard to win three in a row in
this league on the road. That is that is something
that is a little bit tricky. But we're taught when
we talk about the interim coach bump in the road thing,
like we're not talking about tangible things that have anything
to do with this game. We're talking about like historical anomalies.

Speaker 1 (01:45:22):
Well, football, it's a game played by humans and there's
a human element to it.

Speaker 2 (01:45:26):
Can't totally sund like it's not about what's like actually
on paper.

Speaker 1 (01:45:31):
You know the meme online about like the power friendship
thing with teams with the power friend it's the Titans
got to get up for it, basically, is your point exactly.

Speaker 2 (01:45:39):
I think this game is going to go one of
two ways. They're going to be an extremely excruciating competitive
game where the Titans are going to get up for
the game and they're going to really go toe to
toe with the Patriots on Sunday, or the Patriots are
going to blow doors. And I don't think there's much
in between.

Speaker 1 (01:45:54):
All right, let's do these calls. All right, four minutes,
you gotta go, all right, you gotta go.

Speaker 2 (01:45:58):
Brandon is in New Jersey's Brendan.

Speaker 10 (01:46:02):
Hey, you got me, Yes, So I have a question
about what you guys think about how McDaniels has been
using the running backs in the passing game. I mean
what it kind of has been is may using the
running back as a last resort. I'd kind of like
to see like the old McDaniel style, like quick hitters
like they use James White, you know, like one one
step drop to the you know, to the flat or

(01:46:24):
even the check release. I mean the caveat is that
maybe they don't do this because they don't have the
luxury to do it, because the running back has to
help out to chip or just stay in to block.
Just one of your guys thoughts here, I'll take it off.

Speaker 2 (01:46:36):
Air, thanks Brendan. So you know the James White option
routes and things like that. You know that that takes
some advanced nuance to understand leverage and read it out.
And I think Remandre can do those types of things,
but he is not. Isn't the more dynamic mover out
of the two backs, the rookie Henderson. My guess is
that there's some mental things going on there about doing

(01:46:57):
those different things. The one thing I would say with
the running backs in the passing game, and they hit
the wheel to Remondre in Week two in Miami. I
would like to see them get vertical a little bit
more with the running backs, like especially Henderson, Like can
we just see Henderson trying to run a wheel route
down the sideline and maybe he gets matched up on
a linebacker that's out leverage and actually just wins the
foot race, And that might be a way to get

(01:47:19):
him loose and get him the football, is just to
get him vertical out of the backfield and just let
him run a straight line, Like see if he can
outrun a guy, like he's probably gonna be pretty good
at that. So that would be my nitpick of the
James White like Tom Brady dump offs and things like that,
Like those two guys are just really special at that.
Like I don't know if that's necessarily something everybody can replicate. Eldredd, Eldred, what's.

Speaker 8 (01:47:45):
Up a they outed email? I don't care. I'm taking
DK over everybody.

Speaker 2 (01:47:55):
Hell yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:47:56):
But I still say it's the line to back both
games out, especially the last game. And like I said before,
but when you got his butt feat full way to one.

Speaker 10 (01:48:08):
But other than that, that's it.

Speaker 8 (01:48:10):
But AJ Brown would be a Patriot. He's not this year,
next year, guarantee, Thank you. I have a good one.

Speaker 2 (01:48:17):
Thanks, Eldred. Is there what is the over under on
either AJ Brown or Derrick Henry eventually being a Patriot,
because I think the percentage is probably pretty hard.

Speaker 1 (01:48:25):
I think it's higher for Henry than Brown.

Speaker 2 (01:48:27):
I think one of those guys is gonna say, you
know what Vrabel's doing exactly what he did in Tennessee.
They're building a program in New England. I'm going back
with you.

Speaker 1 (01:48:34):
So I'll say, I think like there's a good maybe
not this year, and maybe it's at the end when
he's like kind of done. But like I think a
j I think Derk Henry's gonna end up here.

Speaker 2 (01:48:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:48:44):
I just have a gut feeling at some point, not
necessarily this year, at some point I think he ends
up here. AJ Brown and we'll see.

Speaker 2 (01:48:50):
Francisco is in North Carolina. What's up Francisco? Francisco going once?

Speaker 3 (01:49:00):
Go on?

Speaker 1 (01:49:01):
Wait, guys, Hello, thank you, Yeah, we got you.

Speaker 2 (01:49:07):
What's up? Go ahead, you're on the air. All right,
I'm dropping. All right, So that's gonna do it for
the show today. That was a quick trigger. I'm sorry,
but I had to. We have Patriots Unfiltered coming up here.
In about ten minutes, so plenty more Titans breakdown talk.
I'm sure Alex will do the same thing on his
station at some point this week.

Speaker 1 (01:49:29):
So this morning and check it out on sportsw YouTube channel.

Speaker 2 (01:49:31):
There you go. So if you really are dying to
hear a preview of Patriots Titans that was more than
five minutes, we will certainly have you guys covered. We'll
be back next week. Finally, thank you to the Lord
that we are finally going to have a home game
and I don't have to travel next week. So next
week we'll break down the Cleveland Browns coming to town

(01:49:52):
against the Patriots. Will recap this game on Sunday down
in Tennessee against the Titans. We'll see you guys then, Hey,
this is Alex.

Speaker 7 (01:50:01):
Thanks for tuning into the show. If you really want
to help us, make sure you like us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,
or wherever you get your podcasts.

Speaker 1 (01:50:08):
Also make sure you follow.

Speaker 7 (01:50:10):
Us on the New England Patriots YouTube channel to see
this show and everything else we do here at the Patriots.

Speaker 1 (01:50:15):
Thanks a lot

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