Patriots Catch-22 12/24: Takeaways from Win Over Ravens, Film Breakdown, 3 Up/Down, Jets Preview

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:09):
This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcast. Lazar and Alex.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Carm Bla, Blazarre and Lazarn.

Speaker 1 (00:16):
Oh, everybody nailed it.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Joined has always Dad. Here is Evan, Lazar and Alex cars.

Speaker 1 (00:26):
What incentive is there for the Raiders to throw the
ball in the scambodies zero? I would not be surprised
the Rams come out run the ball thirty sometimes if
the Patriots opened the door for him. The Bill showed
that just because you're behind multiple scores on the Patriots,
he doesn't mean you need to stop running the football.
So this is where you're gonna have a chance, hopefully
like Patriot Dian in early lead, you're gonna have a
chance to kind of write the wrongs from last week

(00:47):
because in Beery Down twenty one nothing you should stop
running the ball. Bill's double down on running the ball
in the works. Yeah, I would not be surprised when
the Ravens take the same philosophy. If they fall behind, well.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
You're pretty much right.

Speaker 1 (01:00):
I think they kind of.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
They think they dropped back twenty two times in this game.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
So I was half right when I said there's no
reason to stop running the ball. I thought it was
implied with Derek Henry. At no point did I consider
you would pull Derek Henry from the game. But that's
a that's another point of common.

Speaker 2 (01:15):
One second, I gotta I forgot to tweet out the show.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
You forgot to tweet out, you forgot to tweet out
the show, everybody. I forgot to go to tweet out.
That's why I wait until Patriots dot Com tweets it,
because they do it with the live feed.

Speaker 2 (01:27):
And I usually tweet like ten minutes before I tweet
a little a little tease, and I forgot to do that.
It's been it's been a little busy the last couple
of days, a little busy. Hello, Hi, Evan Lazar, Alex Barth,
Patriots Catch twenty two, Alex behind the Glass, Happy Holidays,
Merry Christmas, which feels weird coming from us, but Marry Christmas,

(01:51):
Happy New Year, you know, all that good stuff. Christmas
Eve show here for you guys, and we're gonna keep
it to football, and as we always do on this program,
and we are going to talk about this Ravens game.
But before we do that, there was a ton of news.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Leave it to you know. I'm filming on the radio
bunch this week. And so yesterday wasn't. I was like,
all right, there's no Patriots availability. I'm not on the
like good day to take it easy before like I'm
the one that like, oh it's Christmas. Wow, my work
schedule gets really busy all of a sudden, and then
just news news, news, like all day it was crazy.

Speaker 2 (02:29):
Yeah, So we'll get to the good, the bat and
the stuff that gets to be and break down this
big fourth quarter comeback against Baltimore. But we got to
get to this news off the top of the show.
That happened yesterday really just a ton of it.

Speaker 1 (02:42):
You know.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
We got Pro Bowls, we got injuries, we got contract extensions,
all the way down the board. So it just is
a busy day.

Speaker 1 (02:50):
This is like your old old Patriots Beat episode. Yeah,
we'll just opening up. Hey, here's the news of the day. Yeah,
reacting to everything.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
It is a busy day yesterday it turned out to be.
I didn't think it was going to be when I
woke up yesterday morning, but it turned out to be.
So I kind of put this in the good and
the bad of the injuries of the news. So we'll
start with the good stuff because I think that's you know,
let's just start with some positives. So I think the

(03:19):
number one thing that is probably on the good side
is that Milton Williams is back at Patriots practice this week.
The Patriots yesterday officially started his twenty one day clock,
and it is expected that he is going to be
activated off injured reserve and play again this season. Now
we'll see about Sunday, and that kind of gets into

(03:41):
a conversation that we'll probably have more in the second
hour of the show about these next two weeks and
kind of how you handle it and all that kind
of stuff with the Patriots headed to the playoffs. But
Milton Williams back at practice, talked to the media yesterday,
said that he feels ready to go. Obviously wants to
test out that ankle in practice and make sure that

(04:02):
he doesn't have any setbacks, but feels good and looks
like he's coming back, and you know that's huge.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
I mean, they are entire run.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
Defenses fallen apart since he got hurt, and there's other
injuries that coincide with that, which is why those on
off the field stats are always a little bit wonky.
But you know, you have Robert Splaine's injury you have
Kiros Tonga in and out of the lineup during that
period of time as well. But from week eleven to now,
the last four games without Milton Williams, and really it

(04:36):
was five because he didn't really play against the Jets.
He played eight snaps against the Jets in that Thursday
night game and then sat the rest of that game
as well. So when you put it all together, they
went from like a top ten run defense to a
bottom five run defense. I think it was like fourth
in RUSH EPA to twenty ninth. Is this split without

(04:57):
Millon Williams. He also obviously was right up there top
five in the league in terms of pressure rate and
win rate and all those good things in the past
Rush too. So he was a huge, huge part of
this team and they need him to be the guy
that he was pre injury. If they're gonna have a
deep playoff runt, they need Milton Williams. So it's good

(05:18):
to see him back at practice. We'll see him in
the flesh out of practice this afternoon, but at least
we were told yesterday that he was out at practice.

Speaker 1 (05:26):
And they officially activated him on the wire. Yeah that's
the plan. Yeah, we talked about it last week, and
you've been getting the question, I know. I'm sure you've
been getting the question. I know I've been getting the question,
what can they do about the run game? Like schematically,
what are they doing wrong? And look, they came out
with essentially six down linemen. Yeah on Sunday night, still
couldn't start. They were playing like an old school for

(05:49):
like the three linebackers standing up behind the defensive line.
You really never see that anymore. Yeah, and they still
couldn't stop it. So it's as like I said, there's
maybe minor tweaks you can make here and there, but
it has been it's a personnel thing. So getting him back,
we'll see where Robert Splaine's at as well. That can
only help.

Speaker 2 (06:05):
Yeah, you're one hundred percent right and this you know this.
We'll get more into this with the game recap. But
in this game, they played thirty snaps in base defense.
A couple of those were in that like heavy base
defense where there's only three defensive backs on the field. Yeah,
and the Ravens average five and a half yards to
carry against base defense. So they still couldn't stop the
run even when they put the big boys out there.

(06:27):
So having Milton Williams back is going to be massive.
I'd also say it's been a frustrating four weeks for
Christian Barmore without his his buddy in there and the inside.
He's had double teams, you know, like he likes to
say to me, you know, he's got four hands on
him all the time, right, Like there's just bodies on
him all the time. Run game, Pass game. He has

(06:51):
been the Tuesday player. He has been the guy that's
been circled every single week. His lack of one on
ones is telling on the tape without Milton Williams helping
him out there on the inside. So other than Patriots
fans in Milton Williams, I think the happiest person on
earth that Milon Williams is back as Christian Barmore, because
I think the last month has been hard on him

(07:13):
without Milon Williams in there. All Right. The other good
bit of Patriots news that I think is really kind
of low key important news is extending Ben Brown, which
I think is a sneaky good extension. I cannot tell
you how valuable it is to have a super sub
on the inside or swing tackle on the outside that

(07:37):
you can come in play all three interior positions, play
that jumbo tight end role if you want him to
do that as well, and play it at a starting caliber.
Clip He's been good in both of his spots starts.
I think he might start again on Sunday with Jerry
Wilson in concussion protocol, so he might get the start
at left guard again. This is a valuable guy to have.

(07:58):
You know, that sixth offensive is a really difficult role
to fill for a lot of teams. You know, a
lot of teams don't have five starting caliber offensive lineman,
let alone six, and I think the Patriots might have
six with Ben Brown. So I've heard a lot of
you know, Ted Carris comparisons with him. I think that's
a good comp you know, he's kind of the new

(08:18):
Ted Carris for the Patriots. So it's good to see
them lock up a guy like Ben Brown who was
going to be a restricted free agent at the end
of the year. Reared him with a contract extension, but
also keep their depth on the offensive line.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, it's a good move. Like you said, the depths important.
We'll see what happens. Garret Bradbury is still signed for
another year, but it's no guaranteed money, so if they
needn't move some pieces around, he gives them some flexibility
there as well as Jared Wilson the ability to play
left guard and center. So I've been a big fan
of Ben Brown. I think that's known. And look back
in camp, remember it didn't look like he was going
to make the team, and he plays his way into
the backup role and now he's played well in some

(08:55):
spots starts, and Mike Rabel said he like program player.
That's the guy you kind of point to when everybody
else asks, like, what's the program about? How should I
handle myself? How should I go about my business? You
point he's not the only one in the room, but
you point to a guy like Ben Brown and say
that's what we're looking for. And so you need a
couple of guys like that around and obviously they need
to be able to play to justify keeping them around,

(09:16):
and Ben Brown can do that and can do both.
So happy for him, good to see him, good move
to keep him, And it really tells you to your point.
He's a restricted free agent, yes, so they didn't have
to worry about negotiating against like they could have tendered
him and and just moved on. I think this tells
you how highly they think of him. That you don't
usually see restricted free agents sign extensions in season. That's

(09:39):
pretty rare. I can't remember too many instances of that,
And again, it just speaks to how high they are
on him.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Yeah, this basically doubles up what he would have gotten
as a restricted free agent, So he would have probably
gotten around two and a half three million, depending on
which tender they gave him. So they gave him six
with this contract. So it's basically like they tacked on
two restricted free agent tenders and into right, so they
gave him two right, right, you know.

Speaker 1 (10:06):
So you can restricted for agent for a year.

Speaker 2 (10:08):
Right, So they were able to lock him up. But
like I said, uh, there's a dearth of that's the
right word, right, there's a dirt of offensive line depth
throughout the entire.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
NFL, And that would be correct.

Speaker 2 (10:24):
Ben Brown is having a guy on your roster like
Ben Brown is extremely valuable to these teams. And so
that was good to see. And I had this last thing.
I think him adding the ability or showing the ability
to play guard is also really big. You know, he
came in as a center he played center for them
last year and Drake May's rookie season, and now he's

(10:48):
shown that he can play at least left guard. He
has I don't think he's played right guard in the
game yet, but he's at least shown that he can
play left guard, which I'm sure means he can play
right guard. So he has true three position versus satility,
so he can really play four different positions because if
you had the muscle tight end or the jumbo tight
end role into that as well. So Ben Brown extension,

(11:08):
Melon Williams back at practice. The third thing here that
happened yesterday was the Pro Bowl Pro Bowl announcements. Patriots
have two Pro Bowlers, Drake May, which I think was
the easiest one to predict ever, and Christian Zalez gets
his first Pro Bowl nomination. This just starting with Christian

(11:28):
Zales real quick. He easily should have been a Pro
Bowler last year. He had a better year last year
and was a second team All Pro. But oftentimes you
kind of have to build up reputation over the course
of a couple of years to get the Pro Bowl.
So I know there's a kind of some tongue in
cheek about this. Probably wasn't his best year, you know,

(11:49):
compared to last year. But at the same time, I
think that he earned it last year. So now you
kind of get that reputation Pro Bowl this year and
he's still one of the better corners in the AFC.

Speaker 1 (11:59):
Yeah, I mean, like it's a fan vote. A lot
of it is just name recognition and things like that.
And that's not take anything away from again, like he's.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
A third of it's a fan vote.

Speaker 1 (12:05):
He's a good player and he has name recognition. Yeah
that's fair, but like, yeah, yeah, I'm still mad he
didn't make He was an All Pro last year. He
didn't make it.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
Oh yeah, it was. It was ridiculous that he didn't
make it last year. So regardless of what you think
of his season this year, he earned a Pro Bowl
in one of the last two years for sure, and
he gets it this year. Drake may first first ballot
Pro Bowl or like initial Pro Bowl vote. He was
an alternate last year. I thought his answers about that

(12:35):
yesterday were great.

Speaker 1 (12:36):
Yeah. When you say, like, oh, they had they finally
found somebody to do.

Speaker 2 (12:39):
It, Yeah, they he was the last person they asked.
Uh so I this was you know, a first true
Pro Bowl nomination for Drake May. So. The one thing
that I tweeted out last night that I think is
somewhat important because I don't I got to be honest
with you, like, I'm happy for both of them, but
I don't give a crap about the Pro Bowl, like
no one does. But what this is somewhat relevant in

(13:03):
terms of team building is that this kicks in an
escalator and their fifth year options for both Christian Gonzales
and Drake May. So there's one Pro Bowl nomination as
an escalator, and then one or more Pro Bowl nominations,
you know, two plus nominations. So if Drake May goes
back to the Pro Bowl next year, then he will

(13:23):
then have another escalator that kicks in that increases the
amount of his fifth year option. Now, a lot of
people said to me on Twitter because I said they
have to decide on Christian Gonzalez's fifth year option, the option,
what kind of decision is there? It's a no brain. Yeah,
of course it's a no brainer. But they still have
to say yes or no. And it's still it's a formality, maybe,

(13:46):
but they still have to say yes or no.

Speaker 1 (13:48):
The some teams too, like if you're going to do
an extension, then you don't pick up the fifty year options.
So there's that. Well, so this is this is where
it gets a little tricky and it gets built in
the extension.

Speaker 2 (13:58):
So yeah, so I think this is where it's relevant.
So most likely what they're gonna do is They're going
to probably pick up Christian Gonzalez's fifth year option in
May of next spring in the next offseason, and then,
just like the Jets initially did before they decided to
for some reason trade him with sauce Gardner, they then

(14:19):
agreed to a contract extension with sauce Gardner and like
July or something like that as a four year contract extension.
So that really turns into to kind of use like
basketball parlance, it's like a four plus one, right, because
he played this year, sauce Gardner the twenty twenty five
season on his fifth year option, and then the next
extension kicks in in twenty twenty six, so it gives

(14:41):
a team five years of team control. So it actually
makes more sense. Now the player probably doesn't like it
too much, but it actually makes more sense for them
to trigger his fifth year option and then extend him
after the fifth year option, so his twenty twenty seven
cap hit.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
I know this is kind of hard to follow, so
right eclogize still extend him at You don't have to
wait the full year to extend him. You can extend
him after picking up the fifth year correct.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
But it would make sense from a team perspective to
trigger the fifth year option and then post fifth year
option status sign him to an extension because that would
give you five years of team control and the fifthier
option is going to be a lot cheaper than his extension.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
So right now, the fifth year option a cordner over
the caps seventeen point five million.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
Correct, So it be seventeen point five million for Christian Gonzales.
So why is that relevant? Well, I know a lot
of people don't like the cap stuff, but I do
think it's relevant in the fact that it's a fully
guaranteed year of the contract. So his twenty twenty seven
cap hit is going to be seventeen point five million dollars.
And I understand that people don't care about the cap

(15:48):
and all that stuff. It's money in and it's money
out because that's a fully guaranteed year, so it's still
a budget. There's still a payroll, there's still a cap,
there's still expenditures that they are not going to go over, right, Like,
that's just football, that's just sports, in any sports. So
Christian Gonzalez's cap it in twenty to twenty seven will

(16:10):
most likely be seventeen point five million. For Drake May,
it's going to be north of twenty two million dollars.
I think this year Will Anderson's is going to be
right around twenty two million. So if you then adjust
for inflation and all that kind of stuff in the
NFL over the next couple of years, when the Patriots
have to make a decision again, they're going to pick

(16:32):
it up. But when they do eventually pick up Drake
May's figure option that is going to be north of
twenty two million dollars, which will be an absolute bargain
for Drake May. But at the same time, it's just
you know, kind of some housekeeping, bookkeeping stuff. I don't
love it. It's that set up that way because I
think the Pro Bowl is kind of a.

Speaker 1 (16:52):
Sham and all. Probably yeah, but the players probably want
it easier.

Speaker 2 (16:55):
To it's much to take, it's easier to attake, So.

Speaker 1 (16:59):
The alternates count towards that kicking in two. No, you
have to be Drake May currently has no one. He
has one with this year yet right, but if he
goes again next year then he would have the multiple.
Then then he has it is the biggest fifth year option.
By the way, next year, I believe it's Jack Campbell.
It is not Jack Campbells like for some reason, Jack
Campbell has like a twenty one or two. Jack Campbell's

(17:20):
twenty two million. Yeah, he is in the one Pro
Bowl category, yeah, which I don't get. Four players who
have hit the multiple Pro Bowl category. Jamior gives a
fourteen million, Devin Witherspoon at twenty one million, yeah, Jalen
Carter at twenty six million, Wow, and your guys Zay
Flowers at twenty eight million, the largest fifth year off.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
So those ones are a little bit different because you
might actually be able to save some money.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
By the way, the reason is there, it's by position.
They're different.

Speaker 2 (17:47):
It's based off of the percentage of like the top
ten receivers in the league or top.

Speaker 1 (17:53):
So like results in Witherspoon's numbers for one in multiple
are the same, but wide receiver because the quarterbacks if
the quarterbacks got there would be forty six million.

Speaker 2 (18:01):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
So it's actually so Drake May's fifty year option, if
he makes no other Pro Bowls, probably gonna be around
fifty because that's going to go up.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Uh no, well yeah, because he's a quarterback. I don't
know exactly you can look at it. I don't have
any I mean right now. Yeah, but they have quarterbacks
that were drafted in twenty three right, so right, so
if you look at that was Bryce Young and Bryce
Young CJ. So Bryce Young had multiple Pro Bowls. Forty
six million, Yeah, so that would be what Drake Mays
is gonna be.

Speaker 1 (18:28):
But it's it's based on the average of the highest
pape right right.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
Which is what inflation will kick in.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
So that's what I'm saying. It's probably gonna be, if
not around fifty, over fifty.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
Yeah, it's gonna be a lot of money.

Speaker 1 (18:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
So, uh that's a good point. So that's all the
cap stuff. Sorry to kind of boggy down with all
the numbers in accounting, But again, I I enjoy all
the emails you get out of I know that people
don't care about the cap, and I hear this all
the time about how the cap is crap. It's not
crap to the teams, and it's not crap to you know,

(19:02):
the payroll and all that kind of stuff. You know,
Robert Kraft stood up there and said that they don't
necessarily hold back to the cap on a year to
year basis, is a three year period that they look
at it, but eventually they want them to be and
CAP compliant. So it is what it is. You know
that it's a At the end of the day, it's

(19:23):
it's still a business. It's still a payroll. What were
you going to say.

Speaker 1 (19:26):
I was gonna say, I'm more of a So the
line I like is not the cap is crap. But
the CAP can be maneuvered because I think it is
there and you can manipulate it. But you have to
actually go about manipulating it, and that's a process and
that can take money and effort and things like that.
So you can't just ignore it. You can't blow by
it like in the NBA, but it is it can

(19:48):
be manipulated.

Speaker 2 (19:49):
Yeah, well the NBA has the never it's a separate conversation.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
You can blow by the NBA cap. I mean there's
a penalty that comes with it. I guess but not
with the aprons, not anymore. You can if you well
you can in the NFL too, But that's true, all right,
fair enough, yeah, okay, anyways, uh not, the NHL is
the best salary cap is a five million dollar contract.
It costs five million dollars. That's the cap.

Speaker 2 (20:11):
I don't we don't need to get to a whole cap.
I'm just saying subjective. It's subjective because.

Speaker 1 (20:18):
As as somebody trying to follow the sport, five year,
twenty five million dollar contract, five million dollar cap hit
each year, beautiful, okay.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
So in terms of trying to follow it, yeah, no doubt.
In terms of trying to build a roster, it's the
worst because it's actually a hard to.

Speaker 1 (20:34):
Tap because it works. Yeah, it's fair okay.

Speaker 2 (20:37):
Right, So like if you if you have a deep
pockets owner that's willing to spend, then NHL salary cap
stinks for you because you're not you know, you can't
just pay for a championship.

Speaker 1 (20:49):
And another place, facilities, coaches, things like that. But that's
not I just think it's I wish it was just
five million dollar contract, five million dollar cap hit.

Speaker 2 (20:57):
All right, let's let's not let's move on from that,
there there's a you know, there's some Pro Bowl you
know snubs. You know the Patriots of twelve and three,
they only have two Pro bowlers. The biggest one is
definitely Marcus Jones as a as a returner. But Jamiri
Dka returns kickoffs and punts for the Titans and does
it both well, and Marcus Jones just a punt returner.
So Marcus Jones matched Chamiri dk in terms of punt

(21:21):
return production, but Jamiri Dkay also on top of that,
has all of his kickoff return production.

Speaker 1 (21:26):
Do you make a case for Marcus Jones to make
it as a corner too?

Speaker 2 (21:30):
I think you make a case. I don't think it's
a good enough one, but I think you can make
a case. There's only three, right.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah, And you know you got Stingley,
you got Sir Tan. I don't know who the Gonzales stuh.

Speaker 2 (21:44):
So, yeah, I guess, like, could you argue that Marcus
Jones has had a better year than Gonzalez? I guess
you could, But I don't think that that's gonna You're
not gonna win that argument, I don't think all right. Anyways,
So the snubs were you know, kind of going to
the the negati here a little bit on my list
the snubs Marcus Jones, which we just said that is

(22:06):
in some ways kind of a technicality because there's only
one returner for both punts and kickoffs, and like I said,
DK does both. The other one that I thought was
a little bit sneaky. I got some pushback about this too.
Hunter Henry, I think was in the running for a
tight end.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Now.

Speaker 2 (22:24):
Travis Kelcey has the Taylor Swift vote, which obviously helps
him with the fan vote, but he had a really
good season he did. I actually think that he was
worthy of being in the Pro Bowl. Brock Bauers is
the other AFC tight end who matched Hunter Henry in
twelve games, but he only played twelve games, you know,

(22:45):
and so I think that that's different in terms of,
you know, the advanced metrics. I actually could make a
pretty good case for Hunter Henry being like a top
five tight end in the NFL this year because a
lot of his production comes on third down, you know,
red zone targets, like big kind of high leverage type
of plays that swing games. So I thought Hunter Henry

(23:07):
was a little bit of a snub. This year as well.
Did you have any other ones? I didn't really feel
too strongly about anybody else being on here.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
I mean there were some guys and you go, and
I think it's important you go look at who else
is there? Like you know in my mind because I
was looking at who is up there in the voting. Yeah,
initially and like okay, like who are they up against?
Like who was it that I saw? I was like,
oh yeah, I could see it. And then I looked
at who else was there? But like Andy Burgallis I
think at one point was the second kicker in the AFC.

(23:35):
But you look at what Keymie Fairbairn has done this year,
and like, okay, I get it. Julian Ashby at one
point was the top vote getter for long snappers in
the AFC, and then I guess that changed.

Speaker 2 (23:43):
So the voting, I'm gonna get this wrong, but the
voting that they put out, yeah, they're weekly voting. It
doesn't tabulate all the votes, Okay, So I'm pretty sure
that that is just the ballots that get submitted Patriots
NFL dot com. All of the hashtag Pro Bowl votes

(24:06):
get counted later on. So that's why you saw a
lot of like crazy swings, like Josh Allen jumped Drake May.
Drake May was leading the Pro Bowl vote the entire
way and then somehow Josh Allen jumped him at the
last second. A lot of that has to do with
with that, with the with like the social media votes
and all that kind of stuff. Fair enough, all right,

(24:26):
Pro Bowl, that's Pro Bowl. On the negative side of
the injuries the Patriots, we'll find out later today. I
think this is one of the more interesting practices of
the season from this perspective because now that we found
out that Jared Wilson is also in concussion protocol. There
were ten different guys that visited the medical tent on

(24:47):
Sunday night, and now you are nine different guys that
visit the medical tent, and now Jared Wilson makes it ten.
And that's just the ones that we know of right now.
So the Patriots have all sorts of injuries. It sounds
like as Tonga's regular season might be over. Ian Rappaport
reported that that's a one to two week injury. I
don't see any reason to push it, you know, against

(25:09):
the Jets and the Dolphins. So my guess is that
we're going to see him in the playoffs, first round
of the playoffs or Patriots first game of the playoffs.
But the other big ones are these guys in concussion
protocol because the percentage is low, you know, twenty five
to thirty percent. I think it is of guys that
get put in the protocol and then play the following week.

(25:29):
So Trevon Henderson, Kaishawn Boody, Jared Wilson. So there's a
really really high percentage chance that the Patriots will play
the Jets without those three players. Now the Jets think
so it's not.

Speaker 1 (25:41):
Should be able to beat the Chests without those guys.

Speaker 2 (25:43):
Yes, But but just in terms of roster management and
how this all shakes out, you know, they did sign Mitchell.

Speaker 1 (25:50):
I was gonna say, like, Elijah Mitchell be available, might
have to play in this game. Elijah Mitchell being available
this time of year, and he just got cut I think, yeah,
within the last couple Yeah, he got released on December twentieth.
I like, I like Terrell Jennings, I do, and he's
on IR right now and he'll I think he's eligible

(26:13):
to return into the first playoff game. But like, yeah,
Elijah Mitchell played a decent sized role for a Niners
team that went to the Super Bowl. Yeah, for multiple
Niners teams that went to the Super Bowl. As a
third back. Like, he's more in line with what Antonio
Gibson was doing, I would say than some of those
younger guys that they're trying to make a fit. So
I think that's sneaky, great signing. I wonder, excuse me,

(26:36):
I wonder if there's you know, maybe actually something a
little bit like see how he runs without Treyvon Henderson
out there, He's probably gonna be the second back. I
would think it's elevated next to Monre Stevenson and you
know he's running, well, that's somebody I would trust to
carry the ball a little bit in the playoffs. He's
done it before, so I played in eight playoff games.
He's eighty four carries in eight career playoff games.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
Sir Andre Stevenson played like eighty two percent of the
snaps last week because Trey Von Henderson got hurting game
and you know they weren't really I guess, right and
Dearness Johnson at all. So you know this is something
that they're going to have to manage that running back.

Speaker 1 (27:12):
But this is a guy I think you can comfortably
give the ball five to ten times a game.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
Yeah, I mean in these two games for sure. I
mean this is like Stephen Jackson twenty fifteen territory.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
I think he's better than Stephen Jackson. The Stephen Jackson
thought crossed my mind.

Speaker 2 (27:26):
Okay, but I'm just saying, like, this is not in
this spot. Absolutely, they're not going to get do I
give him the ball against the Houston Texans on wildcard
and you know, a wildcard game. I don't know yet,
not gonna have to see how he looks.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
Well, to see how he looks. But I'm saying like
he's only Stephen Jackson was what thirty three?

Speaker 2 (27:42):
Yeah, they called him off his couch.

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Yeah right, it was a Philip Rivers situation.

Speaker 2 (27:45):
It wasn't that draftsic, it.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
Wasn't that drastic, but it was close to Elijah Mitchell's
twenty six twenty seven. I'm not and again he has
some experience.

Speaker 2 (27:52):
Well, we'll see Kaijan Boody and you have Kyle Williams.
You know, obviously he think he can play James White,
but they have you know, Kyle Williams will play more
Matt Collins will play probably more on the outside. You know,
you can, you can kind of manage that one.

Speaker 1 (28:07):
I'm looking forward to Williams getting some more reps. I
think this will be good opportunity. I think he's clearly
come away since he was kind of struggling in the
middle of the season. He looks a lot more comfortable now.
It hasn't been the high volume role, which is nothing
wrong with that. I like the role he's in, but
I'm interested to see what he can do with a
little more opportunities.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
So, you know, honestly, time to get it.

Speaker 1 (28:25):
Not you know, happy that that booty's hurt, but is
a big opportunity I think for Kyle Williams.

Speaker 2 (28:29):
Yeah, this is the time to get it. I mean,
he's these two games are aren't games that they should win,
you know, pretty handily. So this is a good time
to get the rookie involved and get him some some
high volume snaps and see what he can do in
a bigger role. Jared Wilson, we mentioned, you know, with
Ben Brown. I'm sure Brent Brown will We'll get the
start at left card if necessary.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
So not, I think running back is.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Probably the most complicated one right now, and then I
would also mentione, now Milton Williams coming back potentially lessons
this a little bit. But josh A Farmer goes to
injured reserve, he could technically come back, but now we're
talking about him coming back and like the AFC Championship
Game or the Super Bowl or something like that. So
his season is, you know, could be over at this point.

(29:15):
So you have Joshua Farmer on ir, you have Kiris Tonga,
you know, dealing with a foot injury. So Melon Williams
comes back that kind of you know, fills one of
those two spots. Yeah, but you you are, you know,
a little thin, maybe one body short at defensive tackles.
So does that mean a elevation for Jeremiah Farms, who's

(29:36):
been elevated twice? Maybe you know, they went with Taylor
the last time, Leonard Taylor got it. Last time, they
elevated a big boy. So maybe that's the route that
they go. But they'll probably have an elevation on the
defensive line, I would think, because you don't know what
you know, you don't want to expect Melon Williams to
come in and play you know seventy eighty percent.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
I wouldn't be surprised we've seen elevate. I think those
are two spots he elevated running back in def to tackle.

Speaker 2 (30:00):
Yep. Absolutely, So there's a lot going on there, and
I think in the second hour of the show we
can talk maybe a little bit about how the Patriots
handle these two games from injuries and more so, like
the banged up guys right in, you know, guys like splaying,
guys like Milton Williams, Tonga, you know, these players I
would expect to be on some sort of you know management,

(30:23):
you know, these last two weeks of this season. So
that's all the news. Took us a little while to
get through that. So we'll try to go as fast
as we can through the game recap because I know
that everybody probably wants to weigh in, and we'll take
your calls and emails here shortly. But let's get into
this Baltimore game, which I felt like was a weird

(30:43):
game to be at. There's a lot of sort of
emotional swings. You know, the Ravens come out hot, they're
playing well offensively to start with Lamar Jackson healthy, Derrek
Henry fumbles that was sort of like the first turning
point of the game. Then Lamar jacks and gets hurt
in the second quarter. That's sort of the second turning
point of the game. Then Tyler Huntley puts together a

(31:07):
decent third quarter and they kind of take the lead,
and then the Patriots obviously come back there in the
fourth quarter. But I think the biggest thing that, you know,
I just want to start. Let's just get into the
good and bad. I don't really have a great big
picture thought with all that news in my head. Doo, okay,
what's your big picture thought?

Speaker 1 (31:26):
It's just building off of what I said last week.
And I know people are probably sick of hearing about
the twenty one point loss, but it's hard not to
look at those two games together because we talked about
it a lot of what like the Ravens game, a
lot of opportunities presented that game more than we ended
up knowing going into it, were opportunities to right the
wrongs and answer the questions left after that Bill's lost.
And I would say they overwhelmingly, not entirely, overwhelmingly checked

(31:50):
a lot of the boxes they failed to check against
the Bills, And that's just an encouraging sign. Growth has
been such an important thing for this team this year.
How many times have we come on here and even
after they've won, like, oh, they struggled with this, or
they struggled with that, and then the next week they
come out and they fix it. And it's a credit
to Mike Vrabel and the coaching staff. And I think
this was a maybe the prime example of, you know,
whether you want to talk about some of the issues.

(32:13):
You know, Drake May's issues, issues that he had and
he wasn't perfect in this game, but he fixed him
when he needed to. Whether you want to talk about
some of their issues in terms of the receivers getting open,
the questions about Stefan Diggs and where he was at
after that game, obviously the fourth quarter, the ability to
come back, those questions were loud after they lost to
the Bills. The only one that didn't really answer was
the run game question, but we talked about it earlier.
That's it's gonna be hard to answer that question without

(32:34):
Millon Williams. But I just I was really impressed that
I think you kind of have to look at that
game in the Bills game together and hey, they struggled
with all this stuff, came back and fixed it, especially
against I know, the Ravens offense isn't what we thought
it was going to be. The Ravens defense was full
go in that game, and they answered a lot of
questions against a good Ravens defense.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
It's all fair points. I would just say, you know,
this is sort of why getting caught up in like
the week to week referendum of a team is what
we do, and it's what all of us do, fans
and media like. But this is why it's dangerous. Because
the Patriots lose that game to Buffalo, and all of
a sudden, the real loud people are saying that they're fraudulent,

(33:15):
right because they played a good team finally and they lost.
The other people are saying, you know, they can't come
back in the fourth quarter, Drake May's not clutch. They
can't lead game winning drives all based off of one
fourth quarter, like one second half of a game. And
then the very next week they do all the things
that everybody said they couldn't do. And now you know,

(33:35):
now the narrative flips and it's like, I get, this
is what we do, but this is why you know,
sample size and seeing things from multiple games and you know,
full seasons and all that kind of stuff is really
really important because just because he did it on Sunday
night doesn't mean that he's going to do it again
if they're in the same position in the playoffs. And

(33:56):
just because he didn't do it against Buffalo means that
he was going to be a much time failure for
his entire career. And I just feel like that that
was sort of what that told you was that this
is really it's too soon probably to determine whether or
not he's got that Brady clutch ginge and no one's Brady.
But you know what I'm trying to.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Say, Well, but I think that's also part of what
makes the NFL so interesting. And yeah, you don't want
to get caught up too much in the week to week,
but this is how like there's a lot of the
sporters answering questions. Questions come up and how do you
answer them, how do you respond to them? So I
think this was a you know, those two games are
a great example what makes the NFL so good.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
Yeah, absolutely, that's all fair. The other other thing I
was just going to say on the Drake mayfront, because
there's a lot of good stuff to talk about with
Drake may I just kind of pushed back a little
bit on the commentary that he was bad for the
first three quarters of this game. I don't think he
was bad at all. I may be inconsistent, and you know,
he had some bad plays, but he also had some

(34:54):
terrific plays for the first three quarters of this game.
And if you look at their drive chart for the
first half, they were in scoring terry territory on all
four drives in the first half. They were moving the
ball the entire game. Like this wasn't one of those
games more like the Buffalo game in the second half
where the offense just went completely cold.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
No, it was the turnovers, which we'll get to it,
but it was the turnovers.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
So I, you know, I charted these things and I
try to keep you know, week to week charting on this.
You know, in the first three quarters of this game,
I had him with like six really high level plays,
you know, whatever you want to call him, plus plays,
big time throws whatever. You know. He opening drive layers
went into Stefon Diggs for twenty five yards. That's just
a ridiculous throw. You know, It's just a great throw

(35:37):
to a crossing route to digs the third down deep
dig to mac Collins was another great throw in this game.
You know, threw them open on the second zone window
there over the middle of the field. That was followed
up immediately by the back shoulder to Austin Hooper. Same
drive got them down for a touchdowns back. Yeah, on
the second drive of the game. He had a third

(36:00):
three yard crossing route to Diggs as well in the
third quarter. That was a big play in this game.
And he put that ball on Hunter Henry's hands on
that little wide delay action that in Hunter Henry just
couldn't finish through Kyle van Noy, Like that was a
perfect throw, you know, he put it right on him.
So I had that as another one that was a
good throw or a plus play by Drake may So
I ended up having, you know, six plus plays in

(36:22):
the first three quarters. And really the only true negatives
were the two turnovers. And we'll get to him, like,
I'm not trying to absolve him with the two turnovers,
but I didn't feel like this was by any means
like the Buffalo second half where it was a complete
kind of no show. In the second half of that
game against the Bills, he had some really really good plays.
He was moving and navigating the pocket exceptionally well throughout

(36:46):
this entire game under a lot of pressure with some
banged up backups on the offensive line, and I thought
he was really, really good. Now the fourth quarter he
was absolutely tremendous. You know, that was a whole nother
level it. But I thought he was fine through three quarters.
Outside the turnovers. The fourth quarter was Brady esque. You know,

(37:08):
you go twelve for fourteen, one hundred and thirty nine yards, two.

Speaker 1 (37:12):
Touchdown round arguably was an incompletion. Oh the booty one, Yeah,
I mean the Kyle Williams all right, that's the Kyle
Williams on was like late in the third quarter. First
the Kyle Williams touchdown is that's a great throw too,
one of his best throws of the season. You know what,
that one reminded me of a little bit. And maybe
it's just because it's against the Ravens. Although I actually
didn't put that together until I said this to my
buddy and he was like, it's against the Ravens, You're

(37:33):
being lazy. The Tom Brady twenty fourteen Divisional game throw
to Brandon Lafel is similar. It's a little kind kind
of the same sort you gotta just drop it in
over the top. And again I came up with that
before I realized they were both against the Ravens.

Speaker 2 (37:45):
Yeah, I mean, he was just he was lights out
in the fourth quarter. I had him seven plus plays
just in the fourth quarter alone, and you know, he
was just excellent. And I think that, you know, just
to kind of get into some of the game winning
drives stuff. You know, obviously both drives were huge, so
I kind of put them together in a lot of ways,
but just specifically on the game winning drive itself. What

(38:07):
I thought was the most encouraging about how he handled
the game winning drive. I didn't think he did very
good against Buffalo in terms of just keeping the offense
on schedule, moving the chains, taking the easy throws underneath,
you know, kind of taking the profits. That's oftentimes what
leads to good game winning drives is just kind of

(38:28):
taking what the defense has given you at first, Like, yes,
you are eventually going to need a big play or
two in there, and they got that with the Matt
Collins crosser right out of the shoot on the first play,
kind of gets them that moving and gets that first
first down that's always crucial. And then the digs fourth
down play, So they did have two chunk plays on
the drive, but he also had completions of nine to

(38:50):
eight and six yards. And I thought that those players
were low key, very very important to just keeping the
offense on schedule.

Speaker 1 (38:58):
You got to go the time whole apple at once.

Speaker 2 (39:01):
Positive plays, keeping it moving, that sort of thing. I
always go back to Super Bowl thirty six. Now, they
only needed the field goal in that situation, but the
very first play of that game winning drive to for
Tom Brady's a checkdown to JR. Redmon right, like does
a little checkdown over the middle. It wasn't a downfield throw.

(39:21):
It wasn't, you know, Brandon lafel to you know in
the twenty fourteen Divisional round against Baltimore. It was just
a little dump off to a running back and it
just kind of gets the whole thing moving from there.

Speaker 1 (39:32):
Hasn't a hasn't Bill or Brady or somebody said like
they didn't hit the checkdown of Redmand they were gonna
sit on it or something.

Speaker 2 (39:40):
It's possible.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
I don't actually watched that drive yesterday.

Speaker 2 (39:44):
So Jr. Redman's a little checkdown, Wiggy Jermaine Wiggins, like,
get some like five yards at the very end of
the drive. That puts the field goal a more makeable
field goal. I think it was a forty nine yard
field goal, so we're talking about like a fifty plus
yard shodow. We were there, and there's just I've seen
that drive so many times that I could probably tell
you every throw.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
The big throw on that drive is obviously the Troy Brown.
Troy Brown crossed the same thing two years later, it's
the Dion Branch crosser, and beyond that it's a lot
of dink and dunk and with Drake May it was
the same thing. You want it sure, Jr. Redmond five yards, Jr.
Redmond eight yards incomplete. I think that was a spike. Jr.
Redman eleven yards incomplete, Troy Brown for twenty three, Wiggi

(40:26):
for six and then the spike.

Speaker 2 (40:28):
So this is my point, right, like how many Jr.
Redmonds did you just say? There's a little dump offs,
little checkdowns to j R. Redman and they're not the
big plays. The big play is obviously the Troy Brown one,
which we've all seen a million times. But that's just
how you matriculate the ball. Down the field on a
game winning drive, and Drake may in this game just
did such a better job of that than he did

(40:49):
against Buffalo. Right in Buffalo, you remember the third downplay
against Buffalo where he just throws it to the sideline
and complete the Trevon Henderson and kind of into no
man's land. This game, it was a lot more manageable,
like he was making the smart decision.

Speaker 1 (41:04):
Not to keep comparing Drake to Brady here, but I
the Panthers on was a little more explosive than I
remembered incomplete thirteen yards to Troy Brown, twenty yards to
Troy Brown, thirteen yards of Troy Brown, four yards to
Daniel Graham, seventeen yards a d On Branch, and then
they kicked the field goal. But I think some of
those are like underneath catch and runs. But yes, to
your point, to go back to the point we're reminiscing Tooch, Well,

(41:24):
I went back, it's fine for whatever, and it was
not in relation to what Drake Maye did. It was
another conversation I was having friends. I went back and
watched the fourth quarter of Super Bowl forty nine, of course,
and then the final drive of Super Bowl thirty six,
as say, because he got a refreshment place. I'm sure
remind yourself, I clar should watch the Panthers game. Maybe
I'll do that later. But you gotta be patient on
those drives. On those games, it's you know, it's one
thing that's like thirty seconds you got to look go

(41:45):
to length of the field. But the two minutes, if
you manage it right, that's more than enough time to
get down the field.

Speaker 2 (41:51):
I did not think that he managed it very well
against Buffalo.

Speaker 1 (41:55):
He was pushing a little more. Now. I think he
had less time in that one.

Speaker 2 (41:58):
But he was. He was big play on hunting against Buffalo,
and I think in this drive he was willing to
kind of take some of the easy money and just
sort of march a little bit down the field. So,
like you said, off the top of this segment, just growth,
you know, just showing, you know, correcting things and just
kind of fixing things moving forward.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
I know he got they got the ball back with
two forty three and against the Bills, there's plenty of time.

Speaker 2 (42:22):
So that was Drake may I thought that, you know,
I wrote this in after further review, this was the
most high level plus plays I had for Drake Man
a game this season. Now we'll get to the flip
side here in a second, but he was making some
unbelievable plays for four quarters, not just the fourth quarter,

(42:44):
for four quarters in this game. I thought this was
one of his best games of the year. I really did.
And this Bill's appeals Ravens defense. Let's not lose sight
of the fact that the Ravens shut out Joe Burrow
the week before. His first ever shutout as an NFL
quarterback was the week before against the same exact Ravens defense.
So this wasn't a tomato can defense. This wasn't a

(43:07):
bad defense defense.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
I you want to critique what the Patriots defense did
against the Ravens offense without Lamar Jackson, and for some reason,
Derrek Henry like, we can have that conversation, which we will,
which we will. H that was that was a real
deal Ravens defense that they moved the ball on.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Yep, absolutely all right. So next positive, you know, good
thing here we got a wax poetic a little bit
about Stefan Diggs. I mean, this was just this was a.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
Clinic like if you were a time, if you were
a young receiver, if you're a coach of like a
high school, a college team or something like that.

Speaker 2 (43:41):
If you want to show a clinic.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
There's nothing but teach tape.

Speaker 2 (43:45):
For sixty minutes, we're oute running man zone press off
like inside outside, Like this was just an absolute clinic
by Digs, and you know, you could break down some
of the individual plays, but he was roasting that secondary
in pretty much every single way possible. His feel and

(44:08):
just understanding of, you know, space and voids in zone
coverage is as good as I've seen. I think the
only guy that rivals it is probably Travis Kelcey, who's
also excellent at that. But both of these guys are
doing that at the highest of levels. Like understanding where
this top spots are in zone coverage, understanding not to

(44:28):
run yourself into coverage when you don't have to, you know,
all these different types of things that he does know.
There are different kinds of routes. Some routes are meant
to clear out space. Some routes are meant to occupy defenders,
and you got to run those are those love of
the game routes, and you got to run those if
you're in that position. But in this game, Diggs was
in a lot of positions where he could kind of

(44:48):
freelance a little bit against zone coverage, and he did
that at one of the highest levels that you're going
to see anybody do it at. And then I also
thought it was really encouraging. Now, Marlon Humphrey might be
little bit on watch watch here. I don't know if
he's got much left in the take, but he was
on watch, watch, watch, wash watch.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
Okay, like he said, watch watch.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
He was beaten guys in man coverage too, And there's,
like you said earlier, there's a lot of chatter about
December digs and did he still have it against man coverage?
Did he still have the juice to separate against man coverage?
In this game, sixty five of his yards came against
man coverage. Beat Marlon Humphrey cleaned like a drum coming
across the field on a crossing route. So it was

(45:32):
good to see him be able to separate from man
to man as well. The zone stuff's awesome, but once
it comes to the playoff time, he's gonna they're gonna
get more man and he's gonna have to beat man coverage.
And he did that in this game.

Speaker 1 (45:44):
I just you know, there are all these questions about
is is Dig's cook thirty one? Coming off the ACL
the December Dig stuff. The people in Buffalo got really
loud about that, sure did, and I don't. They shouldn't
need Digs to be that guy every week, and there's
few receivers, if any, that can be that guy every week,
and they really shouldn't even be that to be the

(46:04):
Jets to beat the Jets and the Dolphins. But the
fact that he can still flip the switch and do
that when they need to do it is very encouraging
because they are going to need him probably once or
twice to make to be that guy in the playoffs,
if not every game. So yeah, it was like he
did a couple of quiet games and his usage was
down and all that, and it was good to just
kind of see him remind everybody, hey, no, I can
still do this. I can still be the number one guy.

(46:25):
And then you looked at what his gravity was doing
late in that game and opening up opportunities for other players.
I mean, he was fantastic. He was that his best
game as a Patriot, or is the Bill's.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
Game still the Bills game? I think is still better.
But this was really good.

Speaker 1 (46:38):
It's up there.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Yeah, this was really good.

Speaker 1 (46:39):
Now.

Speaker 2 (46:40):
I think the number one thing too, that just to
kind of make this a bigger picture thing a little bit,
they didn't double him as much as Buffalo did, and
he torched them in single coverage opportunities. So I do
think that there's a bigger picture kind of game plan
thing going on here where Okay, you know, they play

(47:00):
Houston in the first round and they have Derek Stingley, Like,
maybe you don't need to double him if you put
Stingley on him, but Stingley is going to have to
travel with Diggs or you're gonna have to double him
if you don't have a player of Stinglely or like
Certan or something like that, of that caliber. So either way,
you know, Buffalo didn't have Benford in the game a
couple of weeks ago, so they doubled him because they

(47:22):
knew that their backup guys weren't going to be able
to hang. So I think that that's great news for
the Patriots either way. We talked so much about that
on this show, Alex. You know, the Tuesday players and
the guys that are you know, the the hierarchy guys
that can really put other people in place. You know,
does Digs get Kyle Williams open, Does he get Mac
Collins open? Does he get Hunter Henry open? Yeah? He can,

(47:45):
and he can't have that kind of gravity. So I
think that that's really big for them moving forward. He's
been doing this to me all year, like even going
back to training camp, where when he needs to like
pull it out in a game when he needs to
be like, all right, I need to go and be
vintage Digs tonight. He has that ability to do it.
Can he still do it seventeen games a season? Probably not,

(48:08):
but he can still do it when he needs to
when they are in a big spot and they need.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
Him to, you know what. They're at a point where
their supporting cast is good enough that they can get
by with that for now.

Speaker 2 (48:15):
Yeah, So that's Diggs a couple more on the offense,
and then I all give the defense a little bit
of flowers for one thing in particular, and then I'll
probably not give the defense much flowers after that. I
thought it was a really encouraging performance for both Kyle
Williams and ramondre Stevenson and Andre Stevenson was sneakily really
really good at it.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
It's two games in a row where we're remond the
dirty work excellent and it thinks they now Henderson's hurt,
like they can't get both these guys healthy. But I
see the vision. I see the vision for this to
be a really strong running back room. We're getting there.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Yeah, he was really good in this game. Blitz pick
up that the little checkdown that he took for twenty
three yards was a great cut in the open field
that I haven't seen him move like that in a while,
you know, toe injury wear and tearor that kind of stuff.
The touchdown obviously, I think he ran a little bit
out of gas on the one deep target that he

(49:09):
had when he was flexed out, But overall I thought
he was He was really really good in this game.
He had some blitz pickups that were just tremendous, and
against like Kyle Hamilton, Roquand Smith, like guys that can
really blitz. He stood up Kyle Hamilton on one play
and Kyle Hamilton was stopped in his tracks. I mean,
that's hard to do. It's a really good blitzing safety
that he did that against and Kyle Williams. It's not

(49:31):
high volume and it's not perfect, you know, I didn't
think the third down target he had on the game
winning drive that was almost picked wasn't a great route.
But the deep targets and the big plays down the
field are starting to come more and more, and like
Drake May said yesterday, that's going to just open up
the first and second level at him. So he's just
got to learn, you know, be able to sell fade

(49:51):
on every single route that he runs. You know, everything
should be a fade with Kyle Williams. Get those guys
opened up and then have that ability to hit the
first and second lef But he's flashing in ways that
we didn't necessarily see with Polk Taekwon, Nikhil Hill.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
He's gonna say it long and it's not all those
guys you just listed, but how long have we been
talking about them getting that speed X. You call it
the sacrificial X. That's just the guy that kind of
run goes route, runs go routes and you know, isn't
gonna get targeted a ton, but enough to keep the
defense honest, but has to be good enough on those
targets to keep the defense honest. And they've been looking

(50:28):
for that guy I go back twenty twenty, de mere
Bird was okay in that role. Yeah, they then sign
Nelson Agalore, he he didn't really fit. Uh, they drafted Taekwon,
he couldn't stay on the field. Like it feels like
they finally have that guy. And I still think Kay
Williams long term futures is a z and I think
he can be a high volume guy in the NFL.

(50:50):
But for the role he's in right now, not everybody's
gonna get ten targets and he's not in the ten
target role that's Stefan Diggs. Digs should be there. But
you can still make an impact. Kyle Williams played thirty
percent of snaps, had three targets on Sunday Night. He
made a massive impact in that game. He catches the

(51:11):
deep ball, he had another catcher first down, and he
sets the block on the game winning touchdown run. So
having guys that can make an impact even when they
don't have a high volume in targets, you need a
guy like that. A guy like that can help even
if this offense isn't built around him in the way.
Kyle Williams has stepped into that role from where he
was earlier in the season has been impressive and it's
helped having somebody in that role that provides what he provides.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Yeah, his speed is translated to the pro game, which
I think is the most encouraging thing. He's clearly creating
downfield separation on his deep routes and that's his game.
That's his number one part of his game. Now, the
route detail, the salesmanship, all these like nuances to route
running that I think Diggs is trying to teach him

(51:55):
behind the scenes. Those things are going to be the
things that determine whether or not he's going to be
a high volume guy down the road. But at the
very least he can be this guy and that's something
for late thirty.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Right, if you get that guy late in the third
and this is what he is again, I still think
he can be more. But if this is what he is,
that like, there's value in having that player.

Speaker 2 (52:15):
Yep, all right, one flower for the defense turnovers. They
produced two turnovers in this game.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
The chase on play was an awesome football play by
tale Chase on to chase that thing down. Yeah, hurt
and finish, right, I will say sneaky important on that play.

Speaker 2 (52:33):
Del Pettis holding up Zay Flowers. You know that guy
that goes unnoticed.

Speaker 1 (52:37):
They had a couple of those on the Henry one too,
is Carlton Davis holding him up.

Speaker 2 (52:40):
So del Pettis. Jay Flowers comes across the middle of
the field, del Pettis gets matched up with him in
the slot, and del Pettis makes Zay Flowers stop his
feet right, and he's the guy that made Jay Flowers
cut back into the middle of the field. If del
Pettis doesn't, you know, create that leverage, then Jay Flowers
is just gonna run away and he's never going to
get even close to calevon chase On. So del Pettis

(53:03):
is the guy that made Zay Flowers stop and kind
of try to make a cut to get around him,
and that allowed calevon chase On, who's just hustling effort
finished all the Mike Rabel tropes like that's what that
is exemplified in one play to punch the football out there.
So that was a great play.

Speaker 1 (53:21):
It's another one where again you go back to last week.
We talked about this on that show. You should be
able to get the Bills to turn the ball over.
Bills are sloppy offense. And they needed one turnover probably
changes that game, and they couldn't get it. They couldn't
do it. So it's another example where they come back
the next week and correct the wrong and hey, look
at this, you know, we're we're not just one but

(53:41):
two turnovers, including one at a key point in that game.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
So and the Derek Henry fumble is not was not
unimportant either, because that game was they were on the
verge of maybe getting boat raced in this game. The
Ravens are going right down the field on them. The
offense was, you know, and over prone or mistake prone
at the moment, you know, to start that game, and

(54:04):
the Ravens were in complete control of that game in
the first quarter and Derrick Henry gets stripped and all
of a sudden it kind of at least kept the
game close and kept the Patriots in the game at
that point of the game. So the Derrick Henry fumble
just also just being there like that was kind of
a deflating moment, I thought, for the Ravens and for
the fans and for the crowd. So that was a

(54:25):
big play early in the game as well. But the
chase on played Mike Rable is going to be showing
that in the team meeting. I'm sure. I mean, that
was everything that they're about as a coaching staff and
as a program in one play, you know, one guy
making a sneaky good play with del Pettis another guy,
you know, full tilt to the whistle with calevon Chase
on that. That's raybl ball. You know, like that's what

(54:47):
everything that he wants this team to be.

Speaker 1 (54:51):
I wonder, you know, going back to that fumble being
a big play. Yeah, so I know, John Harbaugh said
after the game Henry wasn't in at the end because
of the running back rotation. I you know, who knows
you can change up the running back rotation. You have
first ballot Hall of Famer back there, chance to ice
the game?

Speaker 2 (55:07):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Is it possible they were spooked that he was going
to fumble again because he had some fumble ishoes early
in the year. He cleaned them up. But did they
look at that and say, oh, boy, like is he
gonna be able to hold on a ball? Tame? I
still would have gone, well, it's not an excuse, right,
but I you know, did that fumble maybe get in
the Ravens head? Was that fumble bigger than maybe it
even seemed in the moment, I thought.

Speaker 2 (55:25):
That there was a little bit of irony with Mike
Rabel being on the other sideline Derrick Henry's old coach,
because I cannot tell you how many games Mike Rabel
closed out by just letting Derrick Henry just eat up
the rest of the clock. And that's how the Titans
won games in that era. It was just get a lead,

(55:48):
play with the lead in the fourth quarter, and then
it's just Derrick Henry for five minutes down your throat
and you just can't stop it, and you can't stop
the clock, and this game over. You know that that's
that's Derrick Henry at his best as late in those games.
He's one of those guys for sure that gets better
as the game goes along. So it's only fair to
point out, you know, as much as I want to

(56:09):
give the Patriots flowers for coming back in this game,
Lamar gets hurt. They make a really weird coaching decision
with Derrick Henry in the fourth quarter of this game.
So the Ravens gave him some help too.

Speaker 1 (56:19):
They did, Yeah, they they did, but like, no, no comeback, He's.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
No, I'm yeah, I'm not trying to completely you know,
take away credit, but it's it's context as worse to
share it. Anyways, Let's go to the bads and the
stuff that gets you beat. I have a tough time
putting this on the bads because they were This was
one of those games that was like a game from
hell for the offensive line. They had basically, uh, you know,

(56:47):
we're on their third tackle, might have had to have
gone to their fourth tackle, but Morgan moses credit to him,
decides to gut it out and play on a bad knee.
That's another one we'll have to monitor this week. But
they already have a backup left tackle, they already have
a rookie at left guard. Right tackles got injury issues,
and the depth is getting killed there. So I'll give

(57:10):
them all those sort of caveats. But the pressure rate
ended up coming out to forty four point two percent
in this game, and I actually thought this was one
of those games where Drake May did his best to
help not hurt the protection in the offensive line. This
type of pressure forty four point two percent is not sustainable.
You can't win in the playoffs with that kind of

(57:32):
pressure rate. You need to win the line of scrimmage.
More specifically, the left side of the offensive line allowed
twelve combined pressures between Vederian Low and Jared Wilson in
this game. And I thought the stunts and the games
that Baltimore was running up front, those gave him some
problems too. So there was just a lot going on
with the offensive line from both the injury perspective. But

(57:55):
if you get into the playoffs and you're giving up
forty five percent pressure rate against Houston or against Denver
or against Buffalo, like, you're not gonna win. You're not
gonna win playing like that, at least not multiple times.
Like maybe you can get away with it one time,
because Drake may is just that good, but he's not
gonna get all the way through the playoffs playing like that.
He took a beating in this game.

Speaker 1 (58:14):
And you know, credit to him, like he played a
tough game, has a tough games. You're gonna see quarterback play.
But yeah, especially the tackle play. You had guys being
blown by on three man rushes like it just they
missed Will Campbell, They missed Morgan Moses in this game
big times. I think probably their worst pass protection game
of the year, certainly early in the season, and like
you said, you can't you put it well, you can't

(58:35):
get by with.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
That, so just really quickly and then we'll move on
to the next one. The one thing that I did
notice early that it was there there was some little
weird things going on with the snap count with the cadence.
I wonder if they were in silent count because Bold
tackles on the interception don't move like and I know
watching it live, it looks like they both just get
blown by. But if you watch bold tackles when the

(58:58):
ball moves, you know, when brad Berry snaps the ball,
the guards in brad Berry move with the two back.

Speaker 1 (59:04):
Guys, do both guys being slow that slow out of
their stance is.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Not No, something was going on with the snapcount or
the cadence or maybe they were in silent count or
maybe they weren't in silent count and that was throwing
them like. Something was weird that was going on there.
So I thought once they kind of got on the
same page and Vederian Lowe as one of those guys
that he needs to be getting off the ball, like

(59:28):
he kind of needs to be one of those dudes
that almost jumps the snapcount a little bit because he
doesn't have great lateral movement. He doesn't have a great
kick out of his stance, so that can really be
where he starts to play with the short corner is
when he's slow out of his stance. So I think
that that was a little bit of an issue early
on in this game. All right, going over to the defense,

(59:50):
run defense again on the bats just this week. Last
week it was inside runs by James Cook. This week
it was outside runs by Derrick Henry. I don't know
what was going on with The edge play in this game.
Wasn't good. Whatever it was, Uh, it just didn't look coordinated.
It didn't look the way that it should. They gave
up eight point two yards of carry to Derek Henry

(01:00:14):
outside the tackles, uh thirteen for one oh six rushing
off tackle in this game. So the edge play wasn't great.
The line packer play wasn't great. I mentioned the base
defense stuff wasn't great. Four and a half yards five
and a half excuse me, yards of carry and base defense,
like you said, Like we said at the top of
the show, this is just personnel at this point, Like

(01:00:36):
they just need spoiling and Milton Williams and Tonga healthy.
I just don't think they're gonna be a good run
defense unless those guys are healthy. It's I don't think
that there's anything schematically. I don't think it's anything that
they can really do.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
They put six guys down on the line scrim.

Speaker 2 (01:00:50):
Yet they do. They just don't have good run defense
at this point.

Speaker 1 (01:00:54):
The only thing more they can do is, you know,
just engauge eight every play and dare the other team
to throw to open receivers. The crazy thing to me
Dereck Henry in nine carries before nine carries after Lamar
Jackson got hurt. Yeah, just in terms of the yards
per carry. I don't know if you have the math
number for this. Derek Henry was better with Lamar Jackson
out of the game. So you take away, like you

(01:01:18):
take away the threat of not that Tyler Hunty can't run,
but he's not Lamar Jackson. Right, even not having to
respect Lamar Jackson's legs, Derek Henry was still rolled.

Speaker 2 (01:01:27):
That was all I mean.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
Credit died Derrick Henry too. He was guy's the first
ballot Hall of Famer, But yes, all the more reason
I don't. I don't know. I don't play at the
end of that game.

Speaker 2 (01:01:34):
But the edge stuff is has been a little bit
of a concern of mine. And I love when they
use spell techniques because I think it looks cool and
when it's coordinated and when it's timed up correctly, it
can be really effective. But I don't know if in
their current state, you know, maybe boxing the edges, which

(01:01:57):
means like the edges are setting the edge and they're
prying to the ball back inside versus crashing in and
trying to bounce the ball outside. Now maybe it's simple
as Blaine coming back and he's kind of good at
that sort of technique, the overlapping, you know, in the spill,
So maybe that's what they need. But this was this
was bad. The run defense just is not good right now.

(01:02:19):
And like the pressure rate, you are not going to
win in January. If you can't stop the run, you're
just not You're not going to win in January. Like that. Now,
they're really the only team that has like an elite
run game in the playoffs is Buffalo. So Denver's run
games bad.

Speaker 1 (01:02:37):
Houston's isn't bad.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
They're okay, but they're not Derrick Henry in Baltimore and
they're not Buffalo. Those are the kind of the two
best run games right now in the AFC because of
whatever the hell happened to the Colts without Daniel Jones.

Speaker 1 (01:02:48):
So hey, Philip Rivers was slinging it early in that game. Yes,
he was, he was. He was slinging it a little bit.
I saw somebody, somebody we can talk. Let's get through
somebody posted on Twitter. The one outcome I didn't consider
was Philip Rivers plays well, but the Colts lose anyway.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
So that was a big thing for me in this
game though, was you knew Baltimore was going to put
heavy gut personnel on the field, and the Patriots are
such a heavy nickel defense that I was curious to
see how the Patriots matched all of Baltimore's you know,
whether it's two back, whether it's too tight end. They
actually had some formations where they had recard and two

(01:03:26):
tight ends on the field, so they had like one
wide receiver on the field. It was kind of a
bad matchup in that respect for the Patriots, and the
Patriots played a lot of baits. They tried to play
more base defense in this game, and they have over
the last couple of weeks with Buffalo as well, and
they still can't stop the run out of base. So
this is this is a personnel thing. Is they got

(01:03:47):
to get their guys back. The other thing that I
had on the battle list, I'm taking flag for Alex,
but I'm just going to keep being honest about it
is Christian Zalez, who I just I think it's this
is partially scheme related. I think, yeah, and so I'm
not sorry. I think that that does kind of absolve

(01:04:08):
some of this. I heard Greg on your station yesterday
and I agree wholeheardly with his take on this. He
said that it reminds him a lot of early Steffan
Gilmore with the Patriots, where the Patriots are playing a
lot of zone. They're playing him off, they're playing him
in techniques that he's not his best at. And then
Belichick finally said, we're just going to play man to man.

(01:04:30):
We're gonna let Steffan Gilmore shadow the other team's best
receiver and we're going to just do it that way.
And then Gilmour flipped a switch. They went on two
Super Bowl runs. Semen's Defensive Player of the Year I
think there's a lot of parallels of what's going on
with Christian Gonzalez. The things about zone corners, playing off
and playing zone technique is just different. It's a different technique,

(01:04:51):
it's a different thing. It takes good eyes, it takes
good you know, instincts at the top of the route.
It's just a different ballgame. The other thing that playing
a lot of zone does is that it makes you tackle. Yep,
And I don't think that that's really a strength of
Christian Zion say.

Speaker 1 (01:05:07):
He's actually been a better tackle of this year for
everything else. That tackling made on Derrek Henry in space
was awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:05:12):
That was a good play, and the pass breakup you
know in the fourth quarter was another good play. But
there was some questionable things about his run defense in
this game. You know, when he sees a blocker coming,
if he's free to the ball, he'll make he'll he'll
stick his nose in there and tackle. But if he
sees like a polar coming towards him or something like that,
he was making some iffy decisions in this game. So

(01:05:36):
I just don't think that's who he is, and that's fine,
Like I don't expect him to be. I said this yesterday.
I don't expect him to be Dante high tower and
like hold up a guard, you know, like I don't
expect him to do that. But a couple of Derek
Henry's explosive touchdown runs in this game, were they just
running at Gonzo Like they're just trying to get on
the edge, and they're running left and they're running right

(01:05:57):
at Christian Gonzales And at some point some of that
I think is schematic. You know, you can't expect Christian
Zales to be a force defender. You can't expect him
to be somebody that's going to hold up blockers and
take on pulling guards and stuff like that. So it's both.
I think a little bit of this is on Christian Zales.
I think in Zoni gets a little bit loose with

(01:06:17):
his technique and could be a little bit tighter in
zone coverage. But I also think that it's not a
great fit for his skill set, And to me, that's
on the coaching.

Speaker 1 (01:06:26):
Yeah, I agree with a lot. I agree with a
lot of that. I think you've covered it pretty well.

Speaker 2 (01:06:30):
So let's go to the stuff that gets you beat.
Then we have to take a break the fake punt
just wasn't a good call. Great wasn't a good call.

Speaker 1 (01:06:38):
Do you think they tried? They talked about on the
broadcast there was one moment earlier in a game where
they had to I forget if they took a delay
or call the time out, but like they let it
run down and for a punt, and it looks like
there was some light communication. I wonder if they were
maybe trying to put it on earlier, saw something earlier
that they wanted to put it on, and for whatever
reason didn't. But I did not love in that spot.

Speaker 2 (01:07:00):
Yeah, So I don't think that they did, because I
think the two things that happened with the fake punt. One,
they lined up in a different punt protection formation. So
they the punts that they had before in the game
they were in like just the typical traditional blocking formation,
and in this one, the fake punt, they clearly were

(01:07:22):
in a different formation. And that that's always going to
be a tell, you know that what do we do?
You know, what's going on here? So the Ravens actually
got into punt safe at that point, and they had
two levels they had, you know, they basically were in
like a like a defensive front. You know, they were
in punt safe, so they had two guys at the
second level of the of the punt return team, and

(01:07:45):
Mike Rabel fell on the sword as he should. You know,
you don't call a fake punt without the blessing of
the head coach, Like that's not a coordinator level decision.
If you're gonna pull something out like that, it's going
to be on the head coach. But could they have
checked out of it once I saw that Baltimore was
ready for it. I think that's a fair question.

Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
That's to me, the like you want to call it
and go to the line and see if you get
the look, go to the line and see if they
did not get the loan you don't get the look,
you got to be able to check.

Speaker 2 (01:08:10):
Out right on d So that was my big thing.
Was not a great call, not a great time for it.
I didn't think it was needed. They just punted and
played field position like Tyler Huntley was gonna run out
of his team at some point, you know. And I
thought that their defense they should have trusted the defense
a little bit more. But my bigger gripe with it
was that they didn't check out of it, and I'm

(01:08:32):
not trying to put it on the players. I'm just saying,
like that's everybody, Like.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Well, they can be coaching thing too, you know, you
got to be able to coach them up on how
to do that right and what to look for. So
it was just was not a good play. It was
It was not a good play.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
And then the other thing was the two turnovers by
Drake May, like we got those are things that get
you beat. When you turn the ball over and you
cost the team points by turning the ball over, that
is going to come back to bite it. So they
cost it at least six points, you know, maybe even
ten if you want to say that. You know, they
would have scored or something like that on a later down.

(01:09:05):
But the interception, there was pressure. He left the pocket.
I think he thought Kaishan Boody was going to post
up inside and Kaishan Boudy I think thought they were
going scramble drill, so they kind of got their signals
crossed there. That was a bang bang play that I understand.
There was just kind of a miscommunication on what was
going on on the route a little bit. I think
Booty also could have put a little bit more effort

(01:09:27):
into trying to prevent the interception, but it was kind
of a weird one. The fumble I thought was actually
really good, sort of situational football thing because the clock
is running. They snapped the ball with twenty three seconds left.
They had no timeouts, So you can't take a sack
on third down, right, because you can't spike it on

(01:09:47):
fourth down to stop the clock. They would have been
really hard pressed to get a field goal off if
you just took a sack and didn't fumble. So you
can't fumble. You can't fumble, obviously, but you can't take
a sack period. I think the result might have been
same if you had just gotten sacked instead of fumbled.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
I would have still tried to try to run the
you could have tried. I don't know if you would
have gotten it off well, because you don't know, Like
you know, the defense scoops up the ball and they
run and.

Speaker 2 (01:10:12):
The fumble is bad, right, But I don't know if
they get the field goal off even if it's a sack,
So you can't take a sack in that spot. Now,
this is always the back and forth with Drake. May
they cover zero blitz him and there's an open gap
and he tries to sneak out of the pocket. Now
it didn't work, right, So the results analysis is it

(01:10:34):
didn't work. But the other side of it is if
he gets out of the pocket there and he picks
up the first down with his legs or I think
it was Booty and Douglas on that side of the field.
Booty or Douglas go playground mode and get opened down
the field and all of a sudden it's a touchdown
on a broken play. We all are going crazy about
how great of a play it was by Drake May.

(01:10:55):
So there's all sorts of different things to it, you know.
To me, I think he probably should have just rowing
it at Hunter Henry's feet and just stop the clock
and kick the field goal. But if we all are
going to fall in love with the play extensions and
the scramble drills and the off platform and all that
different type of stuff, this is the other side, Like,
this is the other side of him trying to do stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
I think in that spot you gotta be more careful
with the football. But I get it.

Speaker 2 (01:11:20):
Yeah, So that was the stuff that gets you beat.
That was the Ravens game. We're gonna take a quick break.
Then we'll take your calls and emails. We'll talk a
little bit about the Jets, not probably not a ton,
but we'll talk a little bit about the Jets as well.
We'll be right back.

Speaker 3 (01:11:36):
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Speaker 4 (01:13:29):
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Speaker 2 (01:13:44):
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(01:14:04):
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pats or with coupon code pete ats. All right, let's
get to the phones. Let's get to the emails. Talk
a little Jets as well. Jeremiah has been waiting. What's up, Jeremiah,

(01:14:28):
Jeremiah there, Lope, Yeah, let's see you all right.

Speaker 7 (01:14:33):
So I got a big question for you, Alex. This
has to do with the playoffs. I was reading this
situation or this rule change online. It's that the number
one seed gets to pick who they played instead of
getting to buy, this would be started like more rivalries.
Imagine getting picked called out if you're like the third
seed or something and the number one seed wants you

(01:14:55):
to come to their town. I just want to get
your guys' thoughts on that and who you would pick
if you were the Patriot and you are the number
one seed.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
Thanks for the call.

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
I've seen that floated as a So the number one
seed doesn't get a bye, but they so if they
went to eight teams, right, Baseball, I think Baseball like
loosely flirted with this. At one point the number one
seed gets to pick who they want to play in
the first round. Then the number two seed, unless they
get picked by the one, gets to pick who they

(01:15:23):
want to play. So the top four teams I'll get
to pick, but like if you're you don't you aren't
guaranteed to pick. If you're a top four team because
one of the teams above you could pick you and
then either from there it goes by seating or you
then pick again with the teams that are left. It
would be tremendously entertaining his point. Think about the trash
talk we will get into, right if like you're your
team gets oh you want to play us? You want

(01:15:45):
to Like it would be a lot of fun, I know,
because it renders the regular season pretty meaningless. It's just
getting in or not. You know, once you clinch your
playoff spot, what you do for there doesn't really matter.
If anything. You kind of don't want to look good, uh,
you know, to get favorable picks. So I'm out on it.
It's a fun thought in theory, but I'm out.

Speaker 2 (01:16:05):
I no offense. But that's like a little like that's
not real, Like that's not that's not something that they
would really consider.

Speaker 1 (01:16:12):
I think, like I don't know if baseball actually considered
kind of fantasy high level baseball writer considered it.

Speaker 2 (01:16:17):
Or what I would just say is like in a
sport like football, where motivation and those types of things
mean so much, if you get hand picked by the
number one seed to play them, that is a ton
of extra motivation for a team. I think that's actually,
in a lot of ways, would be a disadvantage to

(01:16:40):
the number one seed because you're creating that sort of
narrative sneaky.

Speaker 1 (01:16:45):
The best spot to be would be like the fourth
or fifth seed, because you if you're the last team left.
You don't really get to pick. You kind of get
a sign.

Speaker 2 (01:16:53):
I pick Picksburg, by the way, just to play out
the exercise. I'd play the.

Speaker 1 (01:16:57):
Steelers, probably the Steelers, maybe the Chargers.

Speaker 2 (01:17:00):
This is a weird year. It's not they wanted.

Speaker 1 (01:17:03):
To be a healthier to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:17:04):
The wildcard teams are good. The wildcard teams are good teams,
you know. That's I think the number one argument of
why it's the number one seed in this year is
so important is that you don't have to play anybody
from the wildcard because I could easily see and I
would pick the Patriots over the Texans. But is it
crazy to say that, like all.

Speaker 1 (01:17:24):
Three the teams can win tough game? Yeah, you know,
and that's tough, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:17:29):
So I think that this is one of those years
where the wildcard teams are better, might be better than
some of the division winners.

Speaker 1 (01:17:37):
Better. Worst postseason format picking your opponent or the college
football playoffs? The college football playoff, I know your problems
with that.

Speaker 2 (01:17:44):
Oh god, it's it's terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
The group of five auto bids probably dead.

Speaker 2 (01:17:49):
All right? Mark is in Connecticut. What's up, Mark, big guy?

Speaker 6 (01:17:53):
Thanks for taking my fall as always, I appreciate it,
and I just want to start off by saying, Merry Christmas,
Happy Holidays, thank you for all this you too, So
just want to start off with that last game. I mean,
it reminded me of Tom Brady throwing to Juliet Edelman
just when they got to have it moment, Drake May and.

Speaker 8 (01:18:13):
Stefan Diggs just they had it. They finally like had
that connection. And I'm just really excited hoping that that
will keep on rolling and keep on growing as well.
The other thing I had is why can't the NFL
step in when there is a clear and blatant obvious
miss call. You have two guys, two judges, one of

(01:18:33):
the back and one on the size, and the guy
is getting yanked down three times during the play and
there is a no call again, Why can't the NFL
get the call right? We have so much technology today,
just get the call right.

Speaker 6 (01:18:46):
Thanks guys, Love you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:18:48):
Thanks Mark. I'm with you, And you know, talking about
the officials is probably one of my least favorite things
to do. It's just not for me. But I am
totally with Mark, and I think it's a slippery slope
and I get that right, But at some point we
have to look at the clear and obvious ones, and
those ones need to be called correctly, whether that is

(01:19:11):
the sky judge simply buzzing down and say, hey, drop
your flag, like we need to throw this flag. Yeah,
I think it's the easiest way to do it. It
almost doesn't even need to be known by the public
that it was the sky judge, you know what I mean,
Like just put earbuds like little you know.

Speaker 1 (01:19:26):
IFB's and everybody's ears and so it's not called, and
then suddenly three minutes later there's.

Speaker 2 (01:19:31):
A flag three minutes it's got to be one of these.

Speaker 1 (01:19:35):
You can't have the late You got to know where
it's coming from. You can't have the late flags. Wow,
is out of nowhere? Well, I mean we talked about
this last week because then it looks like the rest
are showing up the place. You need transparencies the name
of the game. You need to be as transparent as possible.

Speaker 2 (01:19:47):
I don't think I need to hear every single time
at one of these sky judges makes a call. I
don't think I need Cleete Blakeman to get on the
freaking megaphone and tell everybody that it was the sky judge.
I don't care.

Speaker 1 (01:19:57):
No, you have to have transparency with this. I look
they have. I don't understand why because you just have
you seen you haven't seen it the ACC when they
go to video review, But.

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
I'm not asking them to go to video review. This
one with keseean body could be seen in real time.

Speaker 1 (01:20:12):
But I don't need to point it like so they
show the actual conversation between the official on the field,
and then I.

Speaker 2 (01:20:18):
Don't need that.

Speaker 1 (01:20:19):
No, the transparency is so important. Try it just is.

Speaker 2 (01:20:23):
It's if we're talking about like in bounds, out of bounds,
a turnover, like a fumble. Is it a fumble?

Speaker 1 (01:20:30):
Is it not a fumble?

Speaker 2 (01:20:30):
Sure? I don't need that for every single I think
you need.

Speaker 1 (01:20:33):
As much transparency with the officials as possible. What I
was gonna say is they actually had Remember they put
in the ability to challenge those calls at one.

Speaker 2 (01:20:40):
Point they did and it was a disaster.

Speaker 1 (01:20:41):
It was a disaster because they didn't overturn anything, which
I actually thought was good and they should have let
it play out longer because the coaches would have learned, hey,
we're not going to use this to overturn the tiki
tax stuff. This is for you know, the Saints' range,
that that situation, Who was the stupid umpire that costs

(01:21:04):
the guy the perfect game when the runner is clearly
outrunning first, like the very clear and obvious.

Speaker 2 (01:21:10):
I think all that stuff can be expedited.

Speaker 1 (01:21:12):
So it can be expedited too. It should be transparently,
but it can be expedited. But I would bring back
the penalty challenge you give won a game. I'd make
it a separate thing, but it has to be known
and the officials need to make a point. We're not
doing the circumcising the mosquito. To use the Jerry Jones phrasing,
We're not doing that with this like we do with

(01:21:33):
some other plays, like the backwards pass against the Rams. Right,
it has to be so clear and obvious. It's going
to be such a higher standard than what it is
for the other challenges.

Speaker 2 (01:21:42):
So I'm with everybody. I think the number one thing
though for me, is it's the agregious ones and you
know it when you see it. I don't need every
little hole legislated. I don't need every little tug of
the jersey legislated. But when Kijan Budi gets tackled trying
to with the ball in the air. That needs there

(01:22:03):
needs to be a flag thrown on that play. And
I would say the same thing if it was a
Baltimore Raven, if it was Rashad Bateman getting tackled by
Carlton Davis, I would have said the same exact thing.
You know, the rams, you know, Saints one is what
the one everybody always brings up. It's not that hard.
We all know what it looks like when we see it.
I don't need all the TICKI tag. It shouldn't be

(01:22:23):
slowing it down frame by frame. Just simply get the
egregious ones correct. And all you gotta do is have
this guy judge radio down say that you missed the
pass interference, blatant pass in appearance, throw the flag and
if you want your transparency, then you know Hockey Lee
whichever sean hockey right, it's not his dad anymore. Well,

(01:22:43):
jets on the on the megaphone and says, you know,
replay assists, you know had a defensive pass interference. We're
throwing the flag.

Speaker 1 (01:22:51):
Yeah, no, just like they do with the expedited reviews,
I think is the way to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:22:55):
And we move on no challenges, no video, no long
video reviews. Just get it over with all right, Sam
is in Virginia. What's up? Sam?

Speaker 9 (01:23:05):
Hey, guys, thanks for taking my call. Two quick questions here.
I know you talked about personnel on their own defense.
What do you think about maybe and form genics getting
some more snaps here. He's been a good edge defender
in the past and then a limit here it feels
like he's also been buying it rushing passer.

Speaker 10 (01:23:26):
The other thing.

Speaker 9 (01:23:27):
Just want to recalibrate, where are you guys out on
the AFC.

Speaker 2 (01:23:31):
What team?

Speaker 6 (01:23:32):
Uh?

Speaker 9 (01:23:32):
Kind of hears you're you're most scared of JAG winning
in Denver this week was a little eye opening to me.
I think really rounding in the form of their past games.
So just kind of cureus what your thoughts in the
greater AFC. So thanks, He'll pick it off one.

Speaker 2 (01:23:48):
Thanks for the call of Sam. You know what, honestly,
I have to admit I don't want to play Buffalo
at third time.

Speaker 1 (01:23:55):
Yeah, that's still number one for me.

Speaker 2 (01:23:57):
Both those games are super close. Both of them came
down to the wire. It's always wonky when you play
a division opponent a third time in a playoff game.
I just don't really have much interest. I don't think
it's a great matchup for the Patriots defense because of
the run game that Buffalo has against you. Obviously, maybe
the Patriots get healthy and get their guys back on
defense and that's better, But overall, Buffalo is still number

(01:24:19):
one to me. You know, I understand everybody's conversations about Houston.
Their defense is great. At the same time, I just
their offense has not really been great all year. I
like Stroud, he's a good player. I think schematically with
Nick Kaylee, they've had some problems with play calling and

(01:24:41):
with Dex's and No's all year long. They're kind of
like a middling offense. And I just have a lot
of confidence that Drake May and Josh McDaniels will put
up enough points against Houston. It might not be pretty.
It might it might be kind of like the you know,
close to you know, twenty three to twenty kind of game.
That's not exactly a mon elease of offense, because they're
going to lose some rounds to Houston, no doubt. But

(01:25:04):
can you just outscore the Texas. You don't have to outscore,
you know, a great offense right here.

Speaker 1 (01:25:09):
So let's do this. And we did this exercise two
weeks ago. We say we're gonna do it every week.
We missed it last week, but it might be a
ton refresh. Remember you ranked at the quarterbacks among the
teams that were over five hundred. Do you want to
redo the list?

Speaker 2 (01:25:21):
Can we just do the AFC playoff teams? I don't
want to, you know, Baltimore and in indianapos.

Speaker 1 (01:25:26):
So we only did the teams that were over five
hundred last time. So it was we're just.

Speaker 2 (01:25:29):
We're just doing the seven teams that are going to
the play Well, you're.

Speaker 1 (01:25:32):
Gonna have Indie last anyway, and then it will be
the same list.

Speaker 2 (01:25:34):
Like Indy, like Indian and Baltimore are we.

Speaker 1 (01:25:37):
Didn't do Baltimore last time? Okay they were under five hundred.

Speaker 2 (01:25:39):
Well they're the only two teams that are still alive.

Speaker 1 (01:25:41):
Okay, so I'm just gonna put the Colts last, because
I know, why.

Speaker 2 (01:25:45):
Are we doing We don't need to do the Colts.
Don't last.

Speaker 1 (01:25:48):
They're not their last, is what you're saying?

Speaker 2 (01:25:50):
They're not going?

Speaker 1 (01:25:51):
Or is there somebody you're nervous to rank behind the Colts?
Is that the issue.

Speaker 2 (01:25:53):
No, all right, So can I just rank them in
order first to the last, because it's easier that way.

Speaker 1 (01:26:00):
Josh Allen, even with the foot Josh.

Speaker 2 (01:26:02):
Allen number one, I don't I'm not a doctor. I
don't do right. I don't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:26:05):
Just reminder this was we included the Patriots in this.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
Josh Allen, all right, Drake May number two, Herbert okay, three.

Speaker 1 (01:26:18):
Should I tell you the listener, No, I'm not gonna
tell you. Listen last time. I want to see if
anything changing now.

Speaker 2 (01:26:22):
It gets now, it's when it gets starts to get harder.
I would say Stroud for I think Stroud is is good.
I like Stroud. I would then go Rogers has been
better of late. He's been better the last couple of weeks.
All right, Trevor is just so streaky, and you know
how I.

Speaker 1 (01:26:41):
Feel about you got to put them in some order.

Speaker 2 (01:26:46):
I'm gonna say Rogers for now, because I think he's
been better. I think he's played well the last couple
of weeks. I'll give it a bon Nix and I'll
put Trevor.

Speaker 1 (01:26:55):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:26:56):
Yeah, so that was me being nice to bow Nicks.
You did not play well last week, but he played
really well against Green Bay.

Speaker 1 (01:27:03):
You are nothing if not consistent. The only thing you
changed from two weeks ago Rogers and Knicks were flipped.
There you go, So you had Knicks fifth, Rogers sixth.
Now it's Rogers fifth and Nick sixth, and then Trevor
Lawrence and so all right, you're you're still pretty much
where you were on the quarterbacks. I, especially with the
foot injury, I'd put Drake May one. I'd have Trevor

(01:27:25):
Lawrence higher, I'd put him ahead of Knicks. You're right,
Rogers has been the only.

Speaker 2 (01:27:29):
Reason why I have Josh Allen one is because he
has playoff.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
That's fair. That's fair, and you are more in line
with that than you were last time because you have
Rogers over Knicks.

Speaker 2 (01:27:38):
That's the only reason why I have Josh Allen ahead
of Drake. If Drake may goes out there and plays
great in the postseason, I my mind might change. But
Josh Allen has not been the reason why the Bills.

Speaker 1 (01:27:48):
So you're more or less where you were two weeks
ago in terms of the quarterbacks.

Speaker 2 (01:27:51):
Yeah, I think that you know this. The Patriots really
the only game where I'd feel strongly that the Patriots
don't have the best quarterback is against Buffalo. Now, Herbert's awesome.
Herbert's great, so he's right there with those guys. I
think Herbert is probably going to finish in the top
five MVP voting as well. He's had a great year
and he's a great player. But those three guys are

(01:28:12):
the best quarterbacks in the field right now for sure.
And then it kind of drops off after there, and
it's sort of like a tier, you know, like that
that top tier of Alan May, Herbert, and then there's
a gap and then there's the rest of these guys.
I think, you know, bo Knicks is just last week
he was not so good against Jacksonville. The week before
that he was great against Green Bay. I just can't

(01:28:33):
get a great feel for him. Trevor Lawrence kind of
same thing. Streaky, streaky quarterback.

Speaker 8 (01:28:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:28:39):
Aaron Rodgers. I'm still not sure how if Aaron Rodgers
is good or bad.

Speaker 1 (01:28:43):
We're starting getting like, is Aaron Rodgers just pissed off
and on the revenge tour? But also we know what
he's been in the playoffs. Yeah, but no, I think
that's mostly a fair list. Again, I'd quibble with a couple,
but I think you're more or less in the ballpark.

Speaker 2 (01:28:54):
You would have Drake May ahead of Josh.

Speaker 1 (01:28:56):
Allen if his foot's messed up.

Speaker 2 (01:28:58):
Okay, oh, I just said I'm not I'm not taking
the facts.

Speaker 1 (01:29:02):
He's like missing practices before. It is a huge game.

Speaker 2 (01:29:05):
It's a big game. They need to keep winning.

Speaker 1 (01:29:07):
So right, Like, I'm not a doctor either, but is
I would consider Allan missing practice a week if they
were playing the Jets, I might not read into it
as much. I would consider Alan missing practice in a
week like this a red flag. It's not good now.
It's not open heart surgery. No, it's not a former
head coach. There's probably only one guy that can split
his hand open and go out and win the AFC

(01:29:27):
Championship the next week. He don't make him like that
guy anymore. They didn't before, and they don't know. Josh
Allen's pretty tough, though, Josh Allen, Josh Allen's pretty tough.

Speaker 2 (01:29:35):
And I would say that. You know, with Alan the
second half against Cleveland, I watched almost all that game.
He was not the same guy.

Speaker 1 (01:29:42):
And the second looked uncomfortable.

Speaker 2 (01:29:43):
So if he wasn't moving around, he wasn't bouncing around.
He wasn't using his legs. So if that's how he
looks on Sunday against Philly, maybe he's better by the
time the playoffs come around, because he's got a couple
of weeks. But if I was Buffalo, you know, I'd
be a little bit worried.

Speaker 1 (01:29:57):
We might need to read the list again next week
when we see how he looks.

Speaker 2 (01:30:01):
Can we talk about the Bills for a second, because
I know you love talking about the Bills.

Speaker 1 (01:30:04):
I always love talking about the Bills.

Speaker 2 (01:30:05):
I'm definitely coming more towards your side of the street
with the Bills a little bit. And I think the
main thing that I'm coming towards your side of the
street on is I think it's being severely downplayed. How
much if a failure would be to lose the division
to the Patriots.

Speaker 1 (01:30:20):
Can't say bad things about the Buffalo Bills there everybody's
feel good.

Speaker 2 (01:30:23):
I think it's getting masked by the fact that they
still are eleven and four and are going to the
playoffs and they're still very good team. So I think
a lot of people are saying are kind of glossing
over it, and I get the vision titles or it
are not Super Bowls, and you don't hang banners for
them here in New England. And I get that, but
coming into the season, the Bills were a heavy, heavy

(01:30:44):
favorite to win the AFC East, Like, there was no
way the Bills really should have lost the division this
year to the Patriots. Now, the Patriots have been much
better than expectation, but a step back in the division
by losing the division to the Patriot it's and then
in a playoff exit, Like, I just don't know how
you keep going forward with this with Sean McDermott and

(01:31:06):
Billy and I was gonna say, Billy Bean and Brandon Bean, like,
I don't know how you keep doing running it back
and running it back and running it back, because if
they let's just say, let's play it out, and I'm
sure you'll be happy to play it out this way,
they're gonna lose the division to the Patriots if there
are been one and done in the playoffs, Like let's
say they lose to like Jacksonville in the first round

(01:31:27):
of the playoffs. I don't know how that's not like
an abject failure, like and it just it's odd to
me that we're kind of glossing over the fact that
Buffalo has regressed like that is a big regression. For
Buffalo to go from Division champs five years in a
row to one and done as a wildcard team is
a huge regression from Buffalo.

Speaker 1 (01:31:47):
And I'd like to think the way we're the reason
it's not being dissect is because everybody saw it coming.
I don't think that's it. They got older, they lost
talent off the roster. It's the NFL is not designed.
I'm not even gonna make this a Bills thing. I mean,
I'll make it, and I know the Chiefs have some
injuries and stuff, but like remember a couple of years ago,
the conversation was, well, the Bills have Josh Allen their wagon.

(01:32:09):
The Dolphins just signed this wonder kid offensive genius named
Mike McDaniel, and look out, the Jets got future Hall
of Fame Ran Rodgers. Like there were people saying for
the next five years, the Patriots can't win the division.
Don't even bother, right, And I just it's not to
take a victory lap or like you know, defend the wall,
wave the Patriots flag. It's that's not how the NFL works.
There is an undercurrent, an active undercurrent in the NFL

(01:32:31):
designed to make the good teams bad and the bad
team's good with the great everybody back to the men
right with the great organizations know how to do is
hold off that undercurrent as long as possible. You really
have like a three to four year window if you're
lucky to be a good team. The great organizations can
stretch that to like six or seven. Twenty years is ridiculous. Yeah,

(01:32:52):
twenty years is by no means the standard. It never
will be. It will never be done again.

Speaker 2 (01:32:58):
So the Chiefs did it for ten The Chiefs.

Speaker 1 (01:32:59):
Did it and it was like a soft head well
because Alex Smith years where they were fine. Sure, so
they did it from what eighteighteen eighteen they were the
name championship came eighteen to twenty. That's a pretty good run.
That's what six years, seven years, So that's a good run.
Should feel good. That's a good run. Eight years the
eight year you're making me do math Like the Bills

(01:33:23):
are caught in that undertow right now. Yeah, the Bills
are caught in that undertowe and they can't get out
of it. And yes they still have Josh Allen. He
will keep them at a certain level. I don't think
they're gonna be picking first overall anytime soon. But the
fact that everybody thought the Buffalo Bills, for whatever reason,
were going to be immune to this cycle that comes
for everybody not named Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. I

(01:33:44):
don't know, but it's catching up to him. And look,
maybe they still can win this year. The Patriots won
as the cycle is catching up to them. In twenty eighteen,
the cycles catching up to them again, they still wan
second again, Right, well, they kind of dodged it as
well as you can dodge it the first time. But
like that's the other thing, Like the AFC is weak
because it's going to be they have to do it,

(01:34:04):
they don't do it. To see, they're not going to
do it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:06):
I keep on bringing up the same comparison to and
I know people don't necessarily like crossing sports, but it's
the twenty twenty four Celtics, like.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
I've said that get furious when I said that.

Speaker 2 (01:34:16):
Path has completely cleared, you know, the deck has completely cleared.
And if you don't do it that year, then when
is it going to happen with this setup? Right, I'm
not saying it will never happen for Josh Allen, because
you know how I feel about Josh Allen. But with McDermott,
are they hitting their ceiling as a team. I think
you could make a really good case that they are.

Speaker 1 (01:34:33):
That this is sort of hit it. I think they're
below their ceiling. Your ceiling was probably like three whatever
that digs years. Yeah, and then you know you get
the question of and by the way, the Saint. You
can say the Saint just so I'm not picking on
the Bills. He can say same thing about the Bengals,
about Joe Burrow. At what point does that Matthew Stafford
path start to look really attractive to those guys.

Speaker 2 (01:34:53):
You can say the same thing about Baltimore right now
with Lamara Jackson. I mean they're they're going backwards. That
team is not gonna make the playoffs. Now Lamar got hurt, right, Still,
they're not gonna make the plays.

Speaker 1 (01:35:04):
I think the unique thing for all three of those
guys is they haven't They've only had one head coach. Yeah,
so maybe you know, they give another coach a try.
I don't think any of them are asking out this year.
That thing's gonna be looming. That thing is going to
be looming, and you know the Jets are gonna have
picks for the next couple of years.

Speaker 2 (01:35:24):
It's crazy how great of jobs those would be, right,
if you have openings in Baltimore, Buffalo, what was it there? Cincinnati?
Eventually Andy Reid's gonna hang it out.

Speaker 1 (01:35:36):
So I threw this out there the other day on
the Morning Show on ninety eight five, Like, do any
of those teams almost get scared off for firing their coach?
Especially the Ravens, Right, John Harbaugh is a great coach
and his time has come, and it just they probably
just need to part ways. I think Andy Reid and Philly, right,
But you can't just fire Harbor to fire Harbor and

(01:35:59):
replacing with who ever if the Ravens job opens, what's
the better job? The Ravens are the Chiefs.

Speaker 2 (01:36:06):
Ravens really, yeah, I think their rosters better.

Speaker 1 (01:36:10):
Wow, all right, well then that derails my day. I
was gonna say, like, you can't fire John Harbaugh and
then suddenly be like the fourth team left, like the
fourth most popular team in the coaching game.

Speaker 2 (01:36:19):
I mean, so I would say that it's probably more
like mahomes mahomes of those chief If you look at
the rest of the roster. Yeah, I think it's Baltimore
because there there are other pieces that are younger, like
Travis Kelsey and Chris Jones are probably at the end too,
Like this is probably Travis Kelcey's last.

Speaker 1 (01:36:36):
If all four were to open up, Chiefs, Ravens, Bills, Bengals. Yeah,
most attractive to least attractive job.

Speaker 2 (01:36:43):
Bill's number one.

Speaker 1 (01:36:45):
Okay, we can't put the Ravens ahead of the Chiefs
and then say the Bills are ahead because of the roster.
The Bills roster thinks Bill's number one, Okay, all right,
Josh Allen fan.

Speaker 2 (01:36:54):
Boy, But it's it's just it's just obvious, like he's
he's the youngest of those guys, is he. Yeah, he's
the best of those guys. Like he's definitely younger than Mahomes.
Uh so, I I just Bills and Allen's like twenty eight,
twenty nine.

Speaker 1 (01:37:09):
He is maybe Joe Burrow's younger, about like seven months.

Speaker 2 (01:37:13):
Yeah, Joe Burrow. I forgot about Burrow. I was thinking
more of Lamar.

Speaker 1 (01:37:16):
I think he is young. So all right, Bills are
number one, Ravens real number one, Chiefs yep, Bengals because
the Bengals team is Joe Burrow and Jamar chasing T.

Speaker 2 (01:37:31):
Higgins and that's nothing. Their defense is So.

Speaker 1 (01:37:36):
You say you rank it basically by how good the
roster is, except the team with the worst roster.

Speaker 2 (01:37:41):
I don't, for I don't think they have the worst roster.

Speaker 1 (01:37:43):
Oh I think their rosters worse than Bills, or worse
than Bengals.

Speaker 2 (01:37:47):
Worse than the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (01:37:49):
Yeah, at least the Bengals are chasing Higgins.

Speaker 2 (01:37:51):
What how is it worse than the Bengals. The Bengals
have nobody on defense. Their defense is terrible.

Speaker 1 (01:37:57):
The Bill's defense is old.

Speaker 2 (01:37:59):
So I guess they have Rousseau, they have Benford, they
have Oliver like they have good players on defense. They
Terroll Bernard is a good linebacker. All I guess I
don't know their defense. They don't have the star power
the Bengals do. Not I mean, they don't have the
skill talent that the Bengals do. But other than that,
I think they have a better roster everywhere else. Their
offensive line is better than the Bengals. Their run game

(01:38:21):
is better. James Cook is better than anybody.

Speaker 1 (01:38:25):
All right, I might have got caught up in the moment,
they don't have a better roster than the Ravens, though I.

Speaker 2 (01:38:29):
Think it's close with the Ravens. I think it's close.
I would just take Josh Allen over the Mark, but
it's it's a that one's close. The Kansas City roster,
the issue is everybody's old, Like like they're guys, you know, Kelsey,
Chris Jones, like those guys have to be. I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (01:38:44):
I think the Bills are, like Dawkins is older, you know,
some of those guys on defense, Milano is still playing,
Poyer is still playing a key role for him.

Speaker 2 (01:38:53):
Poyer doesn't play a ton Milano. Milano is is older,
and that's a bit of a problem.

Speaker 1 (01:38:58):
But I think they're through Bosa edge.

Speaker 2 (01:39:02):
They've tried their best to kind of move on from
a lot of those guys. Though. Yeah, that's fair, that's fair. No,
I'm not saying they don't have holes. I just I
would say their roster is good enough that when you
have the best quarterback in the league on top of it,
I'm saying Buffalo, but it's close with Baltimore, Kansas City.
Outside of like Trent McDuffie, I just don't have a lot.

(01:39:25):
I just don't know what else you're building around.

Speaker 1 (01:39:26):
Duffy you have. I think he's a good player.

Speaker 2 (01:39:32):
Player, his heads on Checko hasn't been the same guy.
That super Bowl run was good.

Speaker 1 (01:39:37):
It's fair. I don't know what. The Chiefs have a
ways to go.

Speaker 2 (01:39:42):
The Chiefs their roster's not very good. That's why I
keep like, that's why everyone's like so stunned that they're
out of the playoffs and homes and all that stuff.
It's like, look at the team, like the roster is
not good, right, you know that roster is really not good.
All right, let's do ten minutes on the Jets. That's
probably ten more minutes than we need to spend on
the Jets.

Speaker 7 (01:40:00):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (01:40:00):
This, to me, there's called there's three different ways to
categorize this game against the Jets. Number one is to say,
any given Sunday, right, is the NFL weird crap happens?
Cleveland just played Buffalo tough in Cleveland last week. You
know that that thing, right, like this could happen. I heard,

(01:40:21):
and I love him the debt, but I heard Mike
Reese talking like up the Jets the other day and
saying that this is a sneaky hard game. I love you, Mike,
I do, but it's not I'm sorry. Okay, the Jets,
this Jets team, I can't do the any given Sunday angle.
I just can't. But that at a angle's there if
you want it.

Speaker 1 (01:40:36):
You know what the twenty nineteen Dolphins beg to differ.

Speaker 2 (01:40:39):
The twenty nineteen Dolphins, though, had a better team than
this they did, and better coach and they had fits magic. Yeah,
you know, like it's not Brady Cook, who is probably
the tape commander right now for the Jets more than anything.

Speaker 1 (01:40:51):
Yeah, I might have been wrong about my Brady Cook take.

Speaker 2 (01:40:53):
Yeah, he stinks.

Speaker 1 (01:40:55):
I said, like seventh round project. Guy. It's not like
I was ready to know.

Speaker 2 (01:40:58):
I mean that's okay. I'm not like killing you for it.
Just he's not good. So there's that angle. I'll allow
that to be part of the discussion. The second angle
to me is the seeding, the division, the stakes that
come with the game in terms of all of that,
which is important. You know, the Patriots can win the

(01:41:20):
AFC East on Sunday if they beat the Jets and
the Eagles beat the Bills, they're gonna be AFC's chances.

Speaker 1 (01:41:27):
But go birds go, Birds, there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:41:29):
I think that would be big. I think that taking
Week eighteen out of this and kind of just letting
you coast is probably the best.

Speaker 1 (01:41:36):
Case scenario because then, so I don't know if you've
seen this, I've tried to figure this out. I can't
find a scenario where it doesn't happen. But if the
Patriots win the division, yes, I don't think they can
get the three seed. Like if they lose enough games
to fall to the three seed, I think that just
means that they are the wild card.

Speaker 2 (01:41:56):
Yeah, that sounds so, because they're one game ahead to Jacksonville.

Speaker 1 (01:42:00):
Right, I don't think they have the head to head
or the tiebreaker, whatever the tie breaker is. So if
you win this week and clinch the division, you can
assent even if you don't get the bye. You can
essentially create your own pseudo bye week. We can, so
now that's usually locked into the tune of I'm not positive.

Speaker 2 (01:42:18):
I think the tricky part is, of course, that the
Chargers and the Broncos playing Week eighteen, that game could
get flexed into the primetime Sunday night slot because it
could be for the AFC West if they both if
the Chargers win on Saturday against Houston, then they are
are going to if they beat the Broncos in week eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:42:38):
They the head to head. So who has the number
one seed tiebreaker between the Patriots and Chargers.

Speaker 2 (01:42:44):
The Patriots if the Patriots went out. Interesting, So that
that's that's the difference there, right, Okay, But I think
this is I still feel this way. I said this yesterday.
I think you can beat the Dolphins as long as
Drake May plays. And it's one of those games that
at it's conservative and I know you're getting Steven Jackson

(01:43:05):
twenty fifteen.

Speaker 1 (01:43:05):
Yeah, but wouldn't it be nice if he didn't have
to Well, I.

Speaker 2 (01:43:08):
Think he's going to have to if you want to
not out. But the inactives that that day can be
Robert Spallane Kiris Tonga, you know, if you don't want
to play Milton Williams. You know, like all of these
guys that are banged up that you need to get
healthy for the playoffs. None of those guys need to play.
But let's be also clear about something. Somebody has to play.

(01:43:33):
So you can't bench all twenty two starters on both
sides of the ball. Doesn't work like that in football,
you can't do that.

Speaker 1 (01:43:41):
Not even so when you're losing team you can because
you just put half your team on hot ir inside
your practice squad.

Speaker 2 (01:43:45):
You can't do that now, right, So you can't do that.
So some of their starters are going to have to
play against Miami. Now, maybe it's Austin Hooper getting more
run instead of Hunter Henry, and it's Kyle Williams getting
more run, and Vawn Diggs and Charles a Lot like
you do that sort of thing. But some people are
gonna have to play. So there's that angle, the seating,

(01:44:08):
all that stuff. The other the last angle that I
think is the most important to me is it's a
classic tune up game. It is a classic. We are
gonna play bmidgie state as Alabama in the second game
of the season, and we are going to win by seventy.

Speaker 1 (01:44:27):
Mercer mercer, sure, uh.

Speaker 2 (01:44:30):
And we're gonna you know, al Corn State and we're
gonna win by one hundred. But we're gonna feel good
about ourselves doing it. Maybe the Jets press some buttons
or pull some levers that have given the Patriots some issues,
you know running the ball. Obviously with breist Hall, you know,
some of the coverage stuff that they did in Week
eleven in the second half could come back. And so

(01:44:51):
you get practice, live in game practice against these things,
and it's not the same path, it's not the same team.
But the twenty eighteen team, it was definitely the Bills.
I think it was the Bills and the Jets. I
don't remember if it was the Bills and the Dolphins
or the Bills and the Jets, but they played two
division games at the end of the year. In twenty eighteen,
they got right, they got their stuff figured out, They

(01:45:13):
figured out their run game to leaniles in the playoffs
at home, and it completely flipped the season from the
Miami miracle and the Pittsburgh lost to a super Bowl team.
And so you can use tune up games to your advantage.
And I think that that's another thing that you'd like
to see. Can they get the run defense settled down
against a good run game back to back weeks, because

(01:45:36):
Devon Ahan, if he plays for Miami and Week eight eighteen,
is one of the best running backs in the league
this year, Yeah, and Bresol is a good player. Can
you get the run defense figured out if the Jets
play man to man coverage, if they play drop eight,
if they play a lot of too high shell like
all that was different things that teams have started to
do against the Patriots more and more. Here's this is

(01:45:56):
an opportunity to kind of get some live in game
practice against that type of stuff. I don't think that
there's any scenario that I could come up with where
the score or the result of the game is in doubt,
but it would be nice to see them shore up
some of these things going into the postseason. So I
would have felt differently about Miami if Miami didn't fall

(01:46:18):
apart and Tuo was still playing and they were like
that would have reminded me of twenty nineteen, like a
frisky Dolphins team. This Jets team is not that. This
Jets team is in a free fall.

Speaker 1 (01:46:30):
Yeah, Tcob game, take care of business.

Speaker 2 (01:46:33):
Yeah. Brady Cook terrible against the Blitz. So if they
have to start pulling out some things, heating him up
is probably the path that they're going to take. He
is the least efficient quarterback out of forty five qualified quarterbacks.
He is forty fifth out of forty five, and epage
per drop back against the Blitz he is double worse.

Speaker 1 (01:46:56):
Than the next closest guy. Wow, So cam Ward is
like minus can't Ward really? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:47:02):
Cam Ward is like minus by these numbers, I wish
they were easier to digest minus zero point five against
the Blitz. Brady Cook is minus one point one six
against the Blitz. Okay, anything over one in either direction
is insane. Like that is like categorically insane on a

(01:47:22):
play to play basis. So if they have to do something,
if this game is closer than they want it to
be and they have to start making some plays, heating
up Brady Cook is the way to go. You know,
a guy can't handle a Blitz. So that's the Jets.
You have anything else to add on the Jets?

Speaker 1 (01:47:37):
That much it?

Speaker 2 (01:47:38):
Yeah, so well we can end it there. We want
it a little bit early. Look at us, Look at us.
This never happens. I wish I had more to tell
you about the Jets. I'll give you one little thing
about the Jets actually, because you know, I don't like
ending early. I don't like short changing the people. Sneaky
Christian Zalees eighty Mitchell matchup. Ad Mitchell gave him some.

Speaker 1 (01:48:00):
Issues, problems, He just got dropping the ball.

Speaker 2 (01:48:03):
Yeah, Week eleven wasn't the best for Christian Gonzalez. I
didn't think last week was particularly great for Christian Gonzalez either,
so you can shut people like me up. Even though
Brady Cook's going to be throwing in the ball, I'm
still going to watch and see if he's winning routes
or not. Right, So I would like to see Christian
Gonzalez kind of be a little bit like mad that

(01:48:24):
Adie Mitchell got him a couple of times the last time,
and this time really take Adie Mitchell out of the game.
We'll obviously be watching Milton Williams if he comes back.
That will be one to just watch how he looks
and how he's moving and things like that. And you know,
this could be the last game for Vederian Low at
left tackle because Will Campbell will be eligible to come

(01:48:45):
back against the Dolphins. But Will McDonald is probably one
of the Jets' best players and probably one of the
only like bright spots on that defense which has been horrid,
and he'll be rushing off the left side on Vederian Low.
So those are some matchups look out for. But I
am watching Gonzales closely against Mitchell.

Speaker 1 (01:49:03):
Yeah, we'll see how he bounces back in that matchup
because he Yeah, Mitchell got him a couple times last night.
All right, there we go.

Speaker 2 (01:49:09):
It got us to eleven fifty. All right, Alex and
I will be back next week. We will do a
show on New Year's Eve as well, and we will
recap this Jets game, talk about the Dolphins, look at
the AFC playoff picture, which we'll really be down to
the wire. Maybe well that those games won't happen yet,
right because your college football playoffs has got a stupid schedule,

(01:49:30):
so we won't talk college football.

Speaker 1 (01:49:32):
First game will be well, the first game will be
that night, so we get in.

Speaker 2 (01:49:34):
Okay, maybe a little bit of that as well. All right,
so we'll see you guys then. Patriots unfilter will be
up in ten minutes. Hey, this is Alex.

Speaker 10 (01:49:44):
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. Also, make sure you
follow us on the New England Patriots YouTube channel to
see this show and everything else we do here at
the Patriots.

Speaker 1 (01:49:58):
Thanks a lot

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