Patriots Catch-22 9/17: 3 Up/Down vs. Dolphins, Drake Maye Breakdown, Steelers Preview

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

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Bar Blazarre and Lazarre.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
He everybody nailed it, joined as always by our Here
is Evan Lazar and Alex bars.

Speaker 3 (00:22):
If you get that game from Will Campbell for seventeen
games great, like the blocking, the penalties, like you said,
like that can't happen if he If that happens in December,
I'll hold it against him a lot more than happening
in his first NFL start.

Speaker 2 (00:37):
I like how you're doing this podcast with David Andrews
because now you're interested in the offense.

Speaker 3 (00:40):
I was always interested, but now I just feel more
that's your No, don't say it was never interested.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Not I'm saying interested in takes about it. Oh no,
really I had, like you know, you just kind of
this is.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Your area events for no. I love it just to
fault to you and like you looking at it.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
You did a podcast with David andrew Have you.

Speaker 3 (00:57):
Listened to it?

Speaker 2 (00:58):
I have not to it, but just two now, Will
Campbell's a good jumping off point to this. I'm not
ready to declare victory yet on Will Campbell Alex after
two games one really really good game and one I
think decent game like the opener could have been a

(01:19):
little bit better in some areas, no doubt about it.
I'm not ready to declare victory yet on Will Campbell,
but it's certainly trending in the right direction. On Will Campbell.
I feel pretty good about what he's done over the
first two games. Feel pretty good about the Patriots right now,
good about their offense. It's amazing how much better you
feel coming off a game, not necessarily even just that
they won, but a game where the quarterback plays well.

(01:42):
It's just the whole thing. Even if they go out
on Sunday against Pittsburgh and lose, if Drake May gets
into this shootout, back and forth game with Aaron Rodgers like,
you're still going to come out of that game feeling
really good about it. I want to talk offense. I'm
gonna start with offense. Of course, we're gonna talk a
little bit about what's going on with the Patriots defense.

(02:04):
Not as good Alex on that side of the ball.
Maybe some more problems over there than what we've seen
with the offense. Are gonna do three up, three down?
We're gonna talk little Steelers. We'll open the show up
in the second half to your lovely calls and emails.
But it's Evan Lazarre, Alex Barth, Alex behind the Glass,
Patriots Catch twenty two, and I want to start with

(02:26):
the offense. And I just want to say that there
was two schools of thought after last week. I crashed
out after the game last week against the Raiders, I
crashed out. I was very unhappy about what I saw
for the Patriots offense. I was really disappointed and kind

(02:50):
of perplexed. And I think what I missed and last
week's show because I let the emotional side of me
get the best of me, and I kind of forgot
to mention this last week. One of the things that
I missed was the fact that in training camp we
saw all of the bells and whistles that we saw

(03:13):
against the Dolphins that we did not see in week
one against the Raiders. We saw the motion, we saw
the bootlegs, we saw the running backs getting vertical out
of the backfield on wheel routes and things like that,
and then they played the Raiders and none of it
was there, Like it just they completely stripped it down.
They almost treated it like a fourth preseason game, and

(03:33):
they it just completely went out the door, and I
was like, where is all the cool stuff? Like, where
is all the fun stuff? Josh McDaniels, Where did it go?
Because you were doing it in Minnesota and joint practices,
you're doing it against Washington and joint practices. And then
we got to the opener against the Raiders and I
was given nothing to work with, and I was like,

(03:55):
where's all the fun stuff? Then fast forward a week
to Miami and then now this is more like it.
This is what we were this is what we were
looking for. So as much as I fully admit that
I crashed out in week one, I'm not going to
allow for See, you should have been patient, you should

(04:15):
have given it more time. It was only one game.
I'm not going to allow for that. Because the numbers,
and I want to lay out some of the numbers
here in a second speak to this. It was such
a stark difference between what they called and what they
ran in week one to what they ran in week
two that I'm sorry, I'm not going to just sit
there and say that I overreacted to week one because

(04:40):
it was just a completely different thing. Like they completely
threw out what they did in the opener against the
Raiders that didn't work, and then did all the cool
stuff that we were seeing in training camp over the
summer and it paid dividends. Drake May was fantastic. This
was his best game as a pro. I think by
all accounts, whether you want to go I test that,
you want to go stats, whether you want to go efficiency,

(05:03):
pff gray, whatever you want to look at just across
the board. But I want to stick on McDaniel's in
the scheme because you know that that's what I do.
And then we'll give Drake his flowers. Here. So a
couple of numbers, and I published this in after further
review this week. If all these numbers that I'm about
to throw at you overwhelm your brain and you want
to read them instead of hearing me say them, then

(05:24):
you can go there. So in week one, the shotgun
rate shotgun, how often Drake May was in shotgun almost
seventy eight percent of the time in shotgun in week one.
That was down to forty two percent of the time
in week two. The other big one that really stood
out to me, which is a stat that I am

(05:45):
really starting to love that next gen kind of combines
runs in play actions into run actions, so it's all
one number baked in run plays, rush attempts combined with
play action dropbacks. You with me, all right? So in
week one thirty five percent run action rate for the Patriots.

(06:06):
In week two they almost doubled that sixty percent in
week two, so they were under center more. They were
run plus play actioning more. And then, of course the
big one the motion rate. The motion rate increases by
over fifty percent sixty nine point two percent in week two,
seventeen point six percent in week one, the lowest rate

(06:27):
of motion in the NFL in Week one to one
of the highest rate rates of motion in the NFL
in Week two. They completely changed up what they did
and whether or not in week one we were building
to this point whether or not the game script or
the game flow got away from them in Week one,
which I'm also really not buying, because that game never

(06:49):
really got away from them against the Raiders. It wasn't
like they all of a sudden until the fourth quarter
when they got down by ten points. They weren't ever
out of that game where you had to get into
drop back passing. They chose to not go this direction
in week one and we two they did, and that
brings us to Drake May which just my opening take

(07:12):
on Drake May. I actually thought the fourth down throat
a digs is what got him going? Are that converting
the fourth down on not punting or turning the ball
over on downs there on? The opening drive got him
some confidence, got him going in the game. And then
they started hitting the moving pockets right and you start

(07:34):
moving him, moving his feet, getting him out on the run,
having him read half the field instead of reading full
field progressions, you know, reading more when you bootlegre you're
reading more like posture, leverage of the defender. You're not
getting so caught up in is it one high? Is

(07:55):
it two high? As a man? Is its zone? Like
all these different intricacies in the drop back game that
you have to think about when you cut the field
in half like that, all you're reading is one guy,
like does this guy, you know, does he keep containing?
First of all, right, does he bite or not bite?
But then also is he playing it high to low
or low to high? And where's the opening there on

(08:15):
that side of the field. It simplifies things. He's great
on the move, he's got the power arm to throw
the ball from off platform on the move. So a
combination of the fourth down play to Digs and then
the boots after that leak obviously, and then the touchdown
pass to Hollins that really I thought had him cooking
like that really got him into this game and settled

(08:37):
him down, and then he was absolutely fantastic from start
to finish in this game for sixty minutes. So the
play calling changed. I thought that this is exactly the
way that they need to run this offense. Not to
toot my own horn or pat myself on the back,
but we talked about all this stuff last week, the
importance of the run game, the importance of play action,

(08:57):
the importance of motion. All of those things we touched
on in the show last week. They did all of
them this week. I'm a happy camper. I'm a happy
camper today. That was exactly what I was looking for.
What were your big picture takeaways from this game?

Speaker 3 (09:11):
Yeah, I think how much they changed the offense and
a lot of what you just said, I think, especially
getting may on the move, rolling them out the moving pockets.
But part of the reason you're able to do that
with such success is the run game. You look at
the end. It was early in the game, but even
still the way they were running the ball and the
league played to Austin Hooper. You go go back and
watch that play and watch all three of the Dolphins

(09:33):
linebackers on that play. They all bite incredibly hard. And
what happens is Tyrell Thoughtson ends up in a spot
where he essentially has to cover three people. They're in
zone and the other two linebackers are just so far
downhill they're kind of out of the play, and he's
got Jack west Over going one way, he's got Austin
Hooper going the other, and then I think the back

(09:54):
was in there too. There was somebody else kind of
in that area. And he starts following west Over and
Austin Hooper runs the route up along the sideline all alone.
And honestly, you know, not to nitpick, because Drake may
was awesome, like you said, but if it's a better throw,
a Hooper maybe walks in with a touchdown. So their
ability to run the ball, their ability to run the
ball between the tackles, their ability to run the ball.

(10:15):
When I say without gimmicks, they definitely dressed it up
a little bit. They did some bells and whistles, but
you know, you go back to last week where they
struggled to run the ball and I think they ultimately
ran for like three point four yards per carry against
the Raiders. That number is pretty significantly inflated by that
fake tush push and around a Trevon Henderson, which is
like not a real traditional run play. You're not building

(10:36):
anything off of that outside of maybe keeping the other
team on us if you want to run a toush push.
So in terms of just you know, meat and potatoes runs, yeah,
and some it's dressed up with motion, but things that
he runs you can build off of runs you're gonna
call on a regular basis. They were much better. They
were much better between the tackles, and some of that
goes to Drake May. So I'll reference to David Andrews

(10:56):
podcast again. Something that he pointed out is one of
May's best plays was a run play where he motions
he so they motion Hunter Henry out from the fallback
to the left side off tackle, and then he may
see something pulls mac hollins in literally points out the assignment.
They then run, they pull Jared Wilson they run behind him.

(11:18):
That was Ramondre's twenty one yard run. And it's set
up because Drake makes that adjustment, calls it out the
line of scrimmage, so building. And then they used a
similar motion sequence and a similar look on the pass too.
And they did this with a separate motion too in there,
but there's a kind of similar look on the touchdown
to mac hollins. So they were able to run the ball,

(11:40):
they were able to get downhill. I think you saw
in this game why Ramondre Stevenson We've taken a little
bit of heat for kind of Oh, why don't you
want Travon Henderson has involved Haven't you seen how good
he is in the preseason? And I don't think you
can build it all in Vermondre either. I'm not going
to sit here and say that's why Ramondre Stephenson, Ramondre
Stevenson should be their feature back. No, neither one should
be their feature back. But when you get Ormandre a

(12:02):
lane doesn't have to be a big lane, but you
get them a lane and you let him get up
to that second level and now it's a linebacker or
even a safety that he is taking on and he
can try to make that guy miss or at least
he's gonna win the tackle more often than not. What
I mean by that is he's not somebody that's getting
tackled backwards. Right when he gets tackled, he's still falling
forward and picking up some hidden yardage there, a couple
of yards one or two as he gets brought to

(12:24):
the ground. When you can let him get up to
the second level and do that, it really changes how
their whole offense can operate. And he's built for those
body blows and away Travon Henderson isn't. So I think
it all started with the run game. Drake May was awesome.
This was the best game of his career. I think
if you get that level of quarterback played from him regularly,
and by the way, three or four halfs this year,
he's been really good. For whatever that's worth. Because I

(12:47):
know everybody took their victory lap on JJ McCarthy for
playing one good quarter of four.

Speaker 2 (12:51):
Last so a lot of your own victory lap.

Speaker 3 (12:55):
I'm just saying, if I is it wrong to say
Drake May has played three or four halves a very
good football I know.

Speaker 2 (13:03):
I think the first half of the Raiders game was
better than maybe he got credited.

Speaker 3 (13:07):
I thought it was solid. It's because of what happened next, right,
and that that can't happen like he's got to sustain,
but he's sustained, didn't turn them all over, by the way,
So I thought he was really good in this game.
But I think it all started with their ability to
finally get the run game going and everything was built
off of that. So much as happy as I am
as he Drake made do it he did, I don't
want to take anything away from him. That was kind

(13:28):
of the expectation that he was going to look like that, right,
And I think the bigger development for me might be
how well they ran the football.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yeah, I mean that was what we were harping on
last week. It was you know what I led with
and after further of you after week one, is that
this team is built to run the football, like. They
have to be able to run the football offensively. They
cannot be a drop back pass team that drops back
forty five times a game like that's just not a
winning formula for them. And not only does the run game,

(13:59):
you know, take a load off of that in respect
to volume, but you also start to set things up,
you start to move the pocket, which helps the offensive
line like that. Drake May attempted what twenty three passes
in this game, I think it was, and then five
of them were on moving pockets. So really all you're
doing is you're drop back passing seventeen times for the

(14:20):
totality of a game. So when you start to look at.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
The Nithers, couple like screens in there too, right.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
So I'm not trying to discredit the offensive line and
what they did in pass protection, because I thought that
they were really good in this game. But that's the
formula for this Patriots team because now you're shrinking the
amount of exposures to drop that passing for that offensive line.
So now Will Campbell has fewer true pass sets, Morgan
Moses has true pass sets, Garrett Bradberry and Jared Wilson

(14:50):
in the interior have fewer true pass sets, And it
just takes away all of the sort of flaring ups
that we saw last week where the as protection late
in the game and against the Raiders gets out of whack.
Drake May has more sprays because he's throwing the football
more like this is the way that they need to
play football. Offensively and then just be ultra efficient with

(15:12):
their passes, which is exactly what they were. And that's
the type of offense that they want to build and
want to be. And this goes back all the way
to January, which I'm probably going to reference a decent
amount here today. Was that introductory press conference by Mike
Rabel where he said he wants to be an efficient
passing team, not a high volume passing team, but an
efficient passing team. And in week one or excuse me,

(15:36):
week two, Drake May led the entire NFL and expected
points outed per dropback. He was the most efficient quarterback
in the league in week two. That's what they're looking for.
Wasn't that they threw it fifty times. They threw it
twenty three or twenty five times or whatever it was
with all the scrambles, and they were just really efficient
in those twenty five dropbacks. And that's exactly what this

(15:57):
team is built for and what they're looking for, which
Drake May just to kind of close the loop on
him before we move on to some of the other things. Oh, actually,
really quickly, I want to just take you back off
your point about Remandre. One of the things that I
always monitor with Remandre is Remandre to me is a
head of steam running back like he's somebody that needs

(16:18):
to be able to get through the first level unblocked
or untouched, I should say, so that he can pick
up ahead of steam like, because he breaks tackles when
he's moving at a decent pace. He's not a in
a phone boot jitter bug. I'm going to break tackles
when my feet are standing still. He's a guy that
once he gets downhill, his contact balance and his ability

(16:42):
to avoid tackles in the open field really improves. So
one of the things that next Gen tracks and I'm
stats heavy today, but whatever.

Speaker 3 (16:50):
One of the things that Evan's using the nerd stuff.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
One of the things that next Gen tracks is how
fast the running back hits the line of scrimmage, Like
what is his speed at the line of scrimmage on
his rush attempts? And every week I always go and
look in to Remondres and see where that was? Where
was that number? And usually when he has a bad game,
that number is very low, and when he has a

(17:15):
good game, that number is higher. And that's exactly how
week one to week two work for the Patriots. So
it all starts with getting the guys on the first
level blocked for him. Once he gets into the second level,
with some speed and some momentum, he's able to make
people miss. With Drake may, I thought what really stood
out to me in this game wasn't necessarily the high

(17:37):
level plays. There were a couple of those, but it
was the lack of negative plays. So he really just
didn't make very many mistakes in this game, never put
the ball in harm's way. I had him for two
minus plays the entire game. I thought that he was
extremely sharp with his decision making. He was decisive, he
protected the football. He was accurate, which is a big thing.

(17:59):
Coming off Week one, he seemed to get his mechanics
back in order and started to throw the ball more accurately.
And then, you know, the one play that I think
I probably watched about fifteen times at this point is
obviously the fifty five yarder to Remandre where he just
makes a hell of a play, you know, great pocket movement.

(18:20):
What I loved so much about that play in terms
of the pocket movement was not necessarily the slide up
in the pocket. It was the fact that he got
his feet settled back down after he slid back up
in the pocket, So get you know, slide up, avoid
the pressure and then get your base back right, get
your feet settled back down instead of trying to throw
the ball from you know, kind of a wonky platform there.

(18:42):
He kind of settles his feet back down, gets himself
balanced again, and then throws the football. That was just
a beautiful play. And then of course he runs in
for six yards in a touchdown at the end of
that drive and kind of just puts the team on
the back on his back and a time where they
really really needed it. So as much as he wasn't
doing a ton of heavy lifting, I thought early on

(19:03):
in this game, he delivered on that drive with a
lot of heavy lifting. So it kind of outset the
fact that they schemed open some stuff early and like
the plan was really good and that contributed to a
lot of the plays early on. And so basically what
I'm saying is is like he only had one big
time throw in this game. Yeah, but I think that
that's a really deceiving stat this week because of how

(19:25):
he hit all the layups early and then of course
he basically let a touchdown drive all by himself in
the second.

Speaker 3 (19:31):
He did what he needed to do. I think this
is a the box score under sells how good he
was in this game. I'll give you another example. Everybody's
been waiting for him to get that fourth quarter game
winning drive, right, everybody wants him to get that stat
in the in the box score. Well, they score a
go ahead touchdown with six seconds to go in the third,
so he doesn't get that one, and then the goal
ahead touchdown the fourth quarters on a kick return, So

(19:51):
he ultimately didn't get it, But didn't he feel like
he kind of carried that didn't feel like he kind
of carried them late there. So yeah, I think this
one goes beyond the box score. I just thought, again,
he it felt like he was in and players around
were struggling. Travon Henderson was struggling. He didn't get much
from the wide receivers. I thought the line was fine,
but this felt like him maybe elevating a little bit

(20:14):
and playing above what was given him.

Speaker 2 (20:15):
Definitely, the drive in the third quarter was probably the
biggest flash of like Drake may elevating that we've seen
with him as a pro. Just a great throw to
Remandre and like I said, they kind of messed up
the pass protection on the touchdown run. And that's just
the advantage of having a mobile quarterback and a guy
like Drake May that can create out of structure. Now, Judon,

(20:38):
they missed. They messed up the mic point and they
didn't block Jude On coming off the edge, and then
Judon comes unblocked off the edge, and for a lot
of quarterbacks, that's a sack or a throwaway. That's just
the dead play, right. They just can't get anything off
and he just runs away. He just runs away from
Judon and runs into the end zone. Really a great

(20:58):
a great drive, great moment for May. Did I do enough? Gushing?
Did I did? I did?

Speaker 3 (21:03):
I did?

Speaker 2 (21:05):
Yeah? Enough Flowers because now we got to talk about
some of the stuff that that didn't go so well,
and not a lot of it on offense. Like I
don't really have a lot of gripes with the offense
right now. But the Patriots defense is struggling, especially their
pass defense. Their run defense has been okay. I thought
they cleaned it up in the second half. Shut out

(21:25):
to Anthony Jennings who kind of came in this game
in the second half and started to set the edge
and started to get the run defense back in order.
But pass defense wise, the numbers are what they are,
league high six hundred and seventy seven pass yards through
two weeks.

Speaker 3 (21:39):
Ten point three yards per tenth league high. They're the
only team in the league that's allowed a three hundred
yard passer in each of the first two games.

Speaker 2 (21:45):
So they're thirty first in the league and pass rating,
like we can just rattle off all these numbers like
they're they're in the bottom of the league in pretty
much every statistical category against the pass. And the big
thing to me, just kind of you know, unpacking it
even further with the pass defense, is that this team,

(22:05):
and going back to Carlton Davis's introductory press conference, this
team wanted to play man to man coverage. They wanted
Carlton Davis on one side, Christian Gonzalez on the other side,
man to man across the board and then let that
pass rush heet, you know, make the quarterback hold the football,
jam receivers throw off the timing, make them hold it,
and then you let Milton Williams and Barmore and Landry

(22:27):
and those guys get home. They have not been able
to play man coverage. They've been one of the worst
teams in the league in man coverage as well. They're
giving up over eleven yards per pass attempt in man
coverage through two weeks. So this is not how they
were built. This was not the vision in the offseason
to play this way. So you can take that two ways.
You could sit here and take it half class, class

(22:50):
half full and say just need Gonzo back, right, just
get zero back, and all of this is going to
go back to the way that they envision. The other
side of it, though, is that there are guys that
they need to rely on in this secondary, with or
without Christian Gonzalez that are getting picked on, mainly the linebackers,

(23:10):
Alex Austin, a little bit of the safeties as well,
if those middle of the field defenders, particularly because once
Gonzo comes back, Alex Austin will go back to sort
of a rotational role and not be asked to cover
Jalen Waddle and Tyreek Hill probably, so that kind of
settles that whole thing down. But the linebackers and the

(23:32):
safeties and past coverage, if you're going to be a
man to man team, they're going to have the backs
and tight ends a lot in this season how do
they figure that out? Where's your concern level right now
with the pass defense because the numbers are not good.

Speaker 3 (23:49):
So it's twofold. On one hand, I think getting Christian
Zalez back is certainly gonna help. I mean, they're missing
their best player. They're missing their best player.

Speaker 2 (23:57):
Who happen if to be the best cover corner in
the league.

Speaker 3 (23:59):
Right, You're gonna feel that. You're absolutely gonna feel that.
So I think getting him back will be a chunk
of this. But I don't know how Christian Gonzalez coming
back helps Robert Splaine play better in coverage, helps christianell
has play better in coverage. We cite the yardage right,
the raw yardage of what they're giving up, and it's

(24:21):
it's kind of jarring. It's a lot thirty five. I
think it's just over thirty five percent of the pass
yards they've allowed. You got me doing it now, based
on PFF has come when targeting a linebacker, and the
vast majority of that is on Roberts Splaine and Chrishnellis.
There's a little bit of Martem Appu in there, but
I'd say thirty percent of their yards against him coverage

(24:43):
has come against more than thirty percent has come against
just two linebackers. So what do you do in that case, Well,
when you get Gonzales back, now you have him and
Davis on the outside, so you can, you know, put
more help there and put more help towards the middle
of the field and line and tight ends. Not every
running back two is going to be Devon a Chan

(25:06):
who obviously has tremendous speed and is a matchup nightmare.
It's not to say you won't face other good receiving backs.
There's a bit of an exception there, But at a
certain point, Robert Splain is supposed to be a three
down linebacker. Nobody's asked him to be Fred Warner, but
he can't be this much of a liability and coverage
that he's getting hunted the way he is. Christianellis is
a covers linebacker. That's the guy they brought back the
Raiders were going to sign as an RFA and they matched.

(25:29):
At a certain point, you just might need those guys
to play better. And I know that's not the answer
anybody wants to hear, and that's not really what we
do on this show. We kind of talk about the
schematics of this and that as they noticed no more
uh haas behind the logo.

Speaker 2 (25:42):
Oh yeah, well not on this logo. It's on like
the It's on like the Apple.

Speaker 3 (25:46):
Because I saw Brady talking about it, so I realized that,
I know, on the show, you know, we'd normally get
more of the schematics of and again, when you get
Gonzales back, I think there'll be more opportunity to give
some help. But at a certa and point, those guys
just have to cover.

Speaker 2 (26:01):
Yeah. No, that's a good point. I do think that
they are. There are things that they could do to
help out Roberts playing. I think they're asking a lot
of Roberts playe right now. I'm glad that you pointed
that out with a Chan. I know, hen killed them,
but Han kills a lot of people. He's a really
good player, and not only is he explosive, but he's

(26:23):
quick and he's just a matchup nightmare for any linebacker.
So one of the things that I would just nitpick
from the coaching staff standpoint here is that you need
to start going into games treating running backs like Chan
as a game plan player. Like you can't just go
into that game like you would any other week. And

(26:44):
just say you know, the linebacker's got him right like that.
That's got to be more of a game plan oriented thing.
Whether you know that situation where they give up the
twenty nine yard touchdown before halftime, Like maybe that's Kyle
Duggart on a chan Maybe that's another safety. If you
don't like Kyle dugger in that spot, maybe you try

(27:04):
Marte Mappuo, I know, gave up the eighteen yarder. But
like is a little bit more athletic and a little
bit better in space and has the safety background. You
have to treat him as a different kind of cat,
Like that's not a just run of the mill running
back out of the backfield route. That is a dynamic
skill player in space coming out of the backfield there.

(27:26):
So the coaching staff needs to help out Roberts play
in a little bit. I don't want to go as
too far to say that they're leaving him out to
dry because he's got to play better. But they're asking
a lot of robert splay, especially in coverage, and I
think that they can help him out by taking him
out of some of those band coverage situations. It might
be a situation where he is a little bit more

(27:47):
Jawan Bentley than what we thought. Not exactly the same player,
but Jwan Bentley, if he was playing on third down
with the Patriots over the years, was in the past
rush They did not drop Jawan Bentley in coverage you often,
especially not man coverage. So you might have to start
treating Robert Splaine like a like a two down player.

(28:08):
So maybe a three down player going to right that
that's the big question. Now, Mapu had a little bit
of an audition that did not go so hot. You know,
he got the pick, but he also gave up the
eighteen yard completion that could have been a touchdown if
the chalk is a little bit further out wide there
what the fields fifty three.

Speaker 3 (28:25):
And a half yards touchdown in Canada?

Speaker 2 (28:27):
If it's a fifty four you know yard wide field,
then it's a touchdown. Uh. The other answer that I've
thought about a little bit, and I know this is
maybe a tad outside the box, but would they ever
think about playing Kyle Dugger at the second level?

Speaker 3 (28:42):
But wasn't the whole thing in camp? The Kyle Dugger
was struggling and coverage, specifically.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
With deep coverage, Like I'm talking like if he's covering
a running back out of the back. I would like
to think so, and you got to be he's on
the TV.

Speaker 3 (28:55):
They got they gotta try something, right, So you've got
to try.

Speaker 2 (28:58):
Something on third down. I do one if they play
more three safety dime, so six defensive backs, three corners,
three safeties, and then they have an ability there to
use that third safety as a matchup player in man
demand coverage, whether that's against a pass catching tight end
or a pass catching running back. And that way there
you're not leaving Splain and Ellis as the two guys

(29:19):
on the running backs. The other thing that I thought
from this game defensively that stood out to me was
just they tried to play a lot of zone coverage
early on. They played a ton of cover two two
high safety cover two early on in this game. And
Vrabel said it after the game. They were conceding the
whole shots to Tua, Like if Tuo was gonna throw

(29:41):
the ball outside the numbers on those corner routes, they
were just gonna give those to him. They were going
to concede them into To his credit, he threw three
corner hole shots and hit all three of them for explosives.
Eighteen yard touchdown to Wattle and then two twenty plus
yard plays, one to Hill and one to Wattle. So
they we're willing to give up those those areas of

(30:02):
the field and to a burn them. Now, the pivot
would probably be to play man coverage, right, if he's
killing you on the corner routes, well, the obvious answer
would be then to pivot de man coverage. But they
don't have the ability to pivot demand coverage right now
at a successful level. So they ended up only playing
four snaps of man coverage the entire game, and to

(30:24):
a torch to them on all four snaps, right, So
they were kind of caught between a rock and a
hard place coverage wise, of you know, he's taken what
we're giving him in Cover two and he's hitting those things,
so we can't just sit into high safety Cover two.
And then when we play man, we can't man because
we can't cover the receivers. And so I know there's

(30:45):
a lot of talk early on in this game about
the pass rush through the first three quarters, where they
only had a couple pressures through the first three quarters.
But I'm watching the game and I'm looking at the
numbers and two us getting the ball out and like
two like less than two seconds at some point in
this game, right in the second to third quarter range.
I think it was one point nine seconds per attempt,

(31:08):
you know, in terms of the average time that Tuo
was holding the football. I don't care. If you have
the best defensive line in football, You're not getting home
in two seconds. Like, it's just not possible. So as
the game wore on, they did have some calls up
their sleeve. To Zach Kerr and Mike Rabel's credit, they
pulled out some calls in the fourth quarter that were
a little bit different that forced two and to hold

(31:28):
the ball. And then all of a sudden you start
noticing Landry and you start noticing Milton Williams. So this
is a coverage problem. This isn't a pass rush problem, right.
I actually think their pass rush has been almost near
dominant when they've had opportunities to rush the quarterback over
the first two weeks. What they need to do is
cover better. And it's simple to just say Christian Gonzalez

(31:52):
is going to come back and he's going to fix everything,
but they're still going to have these problems in the
middle of the flame.

Speaker 3 (31:57):
He'll fix some things. He'll he'll fix some things, but
it's really that linebacker coverage and covering running backs and
covering tight ends where they're still Gonzalez will help that
a little bit because you can maybe attribute more help
that way, but it's not going to fix everything.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
All right, last thing I want to hit on and
then we can do three up, three down, and then
we'll all open the show there is It's very fair.
And I waited thirty minutes to say this because I
didn't want to. I didn't want to cloud everything here.
It's very fair to point out the fact that the
Miami Dolphins are in trouble right now. The Dolphins are
not good. They're not good offensively. They woke up a

(32:34):
little bit in this game. Defensively, they've been a train
wreck through two weeks. Daniel Jones looked just as good
against them in Week one as Drake May did.

Speaker 3 (32:43):
Daniel Jones looked good last week against the Broncoswich was
one of the best defenses of football a shit.

Speaker 2 (32:47):
So maybe the Indiana Jones is just turning it around.
But as much as you have to take it with
a grain of salt because of the opponent, and what's
going on with Miami and my guy, and I know
you're gonna take a victory lap when this happens. If
they get blown out by Buffalo tomorrow night on Thursday
Night football. I don't know if Mike McDaniel's gonna coach

(33:08):
in the Dolphins next week.

Speaker 3 (33:10):
So Mike McDaniel even get on the plane, I don't
know so, and I'll be honest, is the only reason
he is a job right now because they're playing on
Thursday night could be because you just you really don't Logistically,
it's a night Mary, it sounds weird. Logistically is like
a mania buy for them.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
So if it doesn't go well on Thursday night, they
have this the weekend off and try to sit on
it and figure it out. A big reason why the
Patriots won this game. I don't want to take away
anything from from the Pats, That's why I waited to
say this, but a big reason why the Patriots won
this game was because of the Dolphins. The Dolphins defense
is wretched, and not only is it wretched, but you
can take a victory lap on this. They absolutely self

(33:51):
destructed at the end of this game. Uh and Mike
McDaniels self destructed at the end of this game because
they had a delay a game because they couldn't get
the play call in shock. They had a bad like
substitution or something like that happened that led to another penalty.
They went from what was it, like first and ten
from the twenty six after the h HN catch to

(34:13):
like second and twenty five, all on their own doing.
The Patriots took advantage of it, though, And that's what
I want to harp on here to kind of, you know,
bring it back to a good thing for the Patriots.
What was Mike Rabel's first step for.

Speaker 3 (34:28):
This football good enough to take advantage of bad football?
That's exactly what they did that That's exactly what that
win was. And they played some bad football themselves that
they have to clean up. But you know, I texted
a buddy mine after the game, the last two years
in that sort of game, the Patriots are who the
Dolphins were, Right, It's okay, we got a big return

(34:48):
and then we gave one up. We hit a big
play and then we you know, we committed these penalties
that kind of offset it. So that's not to say
they were perfect. They certainly made their share of mistakes.
I think they were called for. I know they were
had twelve accepted penalties. I think the actual number was
like fifteen or sixteen. And we talked about this last
week in the Reeler fake thing. I think the penalties

(35:09):
are going to be a thing, at least to start
the year. More than half of those called penalties are
against rookies, Travon Henderson and three of them. And on
top of rookies, you just got a lot of guys who,
even as veterans, are in a new system and are
going to have to figure it out. So they had
their mistakes. I'm not gonna say they didn't have their mistakes,
but at the end of the day, they didn't make
the last win. They didn't make the biggest one, and
that's not going to win you a Super Bowler. And hey,

(35:30):
we didn't make the worst mistake in this game. You know,
that doesn't make you a Super Bowl contender. But it's
the first step, and realistically, this thing's going to be
a process.

Speaker 2 (35:38):
So it's the first step. And it's been well probably
since the last time they scored thirty points. So the
Bailey Zappy game in twenty twenty two which was a
flash in the pan, let's face it, but they scored
thirty in Cleveland that day. The Browns were also a mess,
and I took advantage of bad football in Cleveland that day.
But I think to consistently go back to when the

(36:01):
offense was able to take advantage of bad football, you
probably have to go back to Max rookie season. Yeah,
that's honestly how long it's been since they've had good
enough offense that when they get a matchup with a
running back on a linebacker down the field, they make
the play, or when they can pull defenders out of
their zone drops on play action, they hit the plays

(36:22):
down the field, like the one to Hooper or the
touchdown Hollins, like those plays they just haven't been making
over the last two or three years. They were able
to take advantage of bad football. And I know that
some people get bothered when you look ahead, but we
don't play the game, so we can look ahead. It's fine,
trust me. Like they're not looking ahead, but we can't
their schedule. If you just go into some of these

(36:43):
games against the Miamis, the Carolinas, the New Orleans, the Clevelands,
the Tennessee's if you go into some of these games
and you just don't stink as bad as the other team,
that you're gonna see some wins start to pile up
for the team like that, that is set up for them.

Speaker 3 (37:03):
It's taking advantage of bad football to.

Speaker 2 (37:04):
Just be to let the other team out suck you.
That's it. Yeah, And they can go into five, six,
seven of these games, I would say, and we might
be able. We'll see what happens with the Bengals without
Joe Burrow. That's another game now in November. The Patriots
probably aren't going to have to face Joe Burrow when
they play the Bengals. It's Cleveland, it's Tennessee, it's New Orleans,

(37:28):
it's Carolina. Who the heck knows what's gonna happen with
the Jets between now and the time the Patriots play
them the Giants. Is that going to be Jackson Dart
in that game? Is that going to be Russell Wilson played?

Speaker 3 (37:40):
He played okay this week.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
But there's probably seven or eight games on their schedule
that if at the bare minimum, they take that first
step this year with my with Mike Rable of taking
advantage of bad football where they could go realistically five
and two, six and one in that stretch of games,
and that's a great first step for this team. So
there you go. I waxed poetic. I gave him their flowers. Nice,

(38:04):
good game, thank you. Three up, three down, and then
we're gonna move on. We're and talk some Steelers and
take your calls and emails. Number one up? Is it both,
Drake May? For both of us here the number one up?
Drake May. I had him, like I said, eleven plus
two minus, his best game as a pro, no doubt
about it. Is there anything else you want to add?

Speaker 3 (38:25):
I think we said all he was really good? Number
two ramondra Sevenson got the same list. Kyan already talked
about it. His ability to make plays, is a runner
and is a passer, and his ability to create hidden
yardage and break tackles and things like that. Chelsea, what
he can be when he's right. Now, don't run him
into the ground like you have the last few years,
because we see he can't beat his player all year

(38:46):
when he's getting three hundred touches. He got to keep
Travon Henderson involved. We'll get to Travon Henderson. But when
he's right he can be a weapon for the offense.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
So Remandre, of course, I just lost my dock here
Andre one yard run, fifty five yard catch, and then
he had that fourteen yard screen on a third down
backed up. That was a sneaky big play in this game.
Made a guy miss I had no business getting the
sticks in that play, and he did a really sneaky game.

(39:16):
I don't know if they just called the screens at
the right time or if Drake was checking into the screens,
but they caught Miami in two blitzes on screens. One
was a fifteen yard reception by Travon Henderson and one
was a fourteen yard third down and twelve where Remandre
gained fourteen yards where they brought the house to that

(39:38):
side of the field. They overloaded the side of the
field and the Patriots just snuck Remindre right behind the
blitz on a screen. So whether it was a well
time call by Josh McDaniels or a great check by
Drake may either way like that, that's really good offense
and good news for them. So I also had Remandre
in this game. I thought he was fantastic. Who's number three?

Speaker 3 (40:01):
Number three? So actually had four ups Number three Josh mctangils.
I just like the way everything you said off the top.
I like the way that they adjusted. I like the
changes they made from week to week. I think those
really helped. He deserves credit for this game certainly.

Speaker 2 (40:14):
Yeah. Absolutely, Number three on my list. The rookies on
the left side of the offensive line. Yeah, they're both
Will Campbell Jared Wilson. Both pitch shutouts. Now, like I
said earlier, they really only had like seventeen or so
true drop back past sets, so it wasn't a ton
of volume. I would also put out there, Bradley Chubb

(40:37):
right now is just not the same guy coming off
this knee injury. He's compromised. But at the same time,
I thought Will Campbell was terrific in this game. He
was in complete control of that matchup in pass pro.
He had three really dominant standout run blocks in this game.
One of them came on the fifteen yarder to Gibson
on the wham scheme where he got up to the

(40:58):
second level and turned the guy out. He was terrific
throughout this entire game and just kind of dominated Bradley Chubb.
He Bradley Chubb did not do anything of note. Jared
Wilson also really good. Saw a little bit of Zach
Seeler in this game. Was an underrated player on the
interior there for the Dolphins and was able to hold
up really well. Had a really good block on the

(41:19):
two point conversion, brought Remandra into the end zone on
that play. But like I said in the beginning of
the show, I'm not going to take any victory laps
yet on Will Campbell. I'm not declaring it a win
just yet. But kid looks like he can play. There
are gonna be some ups and downs, there's gonna be
some bumps in the road. But I think what we're

(41:40):
seeing through two weeks is that I don't think the
arm length thing and the physical limitations is gonna be
why this kid fails. I really don't. I think he's
plenty good enough to overcome that is gonna be perfect,
Absolutely not. But I think through two weeks and through
training camp, I can confidently say that there is that's

(42:01):
not going to be why if it goes south for him,
It's not going to be the arm.

Speaker 3 (42:04):
It was funny I said on the radio last night,
if everybody would have just gotten past the arms for
five minutes in the spring, I would have told you,
and I think I mentioned it very briefly on this show.
I don't know how many shows we even got through it.
My biggest concern with Will Campbell was not the arm length.
It was that he developed a little bit of a
penalty problem last year at LS. He was very good

(42:25):
the first two years and then last year. I think
he had seven penalty He had more last year, and
he did the first years combined, so the penalty self
to come down. He had another fall start in this game.
I know Vrabel said he didn't see him move. There
might be a little bit of a flinch there, but
I thought it. I thought so too. But I mean
he's in his second game in the NFL. Like the
penalties are something. First game on the road, that's first

(42:46):
game on the road. That's very coachable, and first game
on the road. It's interesting. Andrew's mentioned he noticed they
were going back and forth between a verbal count and
a head bob count. So it was a tough in
that regard. But if the penalties come down, I mean
he's that as a blocker. This is he's a starting
caliber left tackle. He's a solid, starting caliber left tackle

(43:06):
right now through two games. Like you said earlier, I'm
not gonna take the whole victory lap on that, But
if this is an indication of who he's gonna be,
I think you feel pretty good about that. As long
as as he kind of trims down the penalties, that's
the one thing you're looking at. This is exactly what
they by the way we talked about him, you know,
really winning against Bradley Chubb. He's finishing against Bradley Chubb.

(43:28):
I mean he put him on the ground a few times.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
He got his hands on him and just ended the reps. Now,
Bradley Chubb is not who he once was. I think
that has to be said. I'm really interested this week,
so I don't think not to get too much into
the Steelers right away. But I don't think Alex Heismith
is going to play in this game. He had a
high ankles game last week.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Tom said he's not.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Yeah, so I think he's gonna be out. Nick Herbig
the back their third pass rusher there, Watt. You know
high Smith. Herbig is sneaky good. He's a really good
speed rusher and he's kind of the type of guy
that I was a little bit concerned about with Will Campbell.
Where if you get those guys that can really threaten
the corner off the snap, and Will Campbell over commits,

(44:11):
that's when he gets beat to the inside. That's when
that inside move was getting him in college. So I'm
interested to see how he looks. He's gonna face better guys,
And I think what's what's been really nice for the
Patriots here is all the good rushers have been rushing
over the right tackle for the first two weeks and
will next week two with TJ. Watt. So Max Crosby
is a right tackle guy, Jaln Phillips is a right

(44:33):
tackle guy, and now t J. Watt is a right
tackle guy. So they haven't really had like the baptism
of by fire yet for Will Campbell, which I think
is a good thing in some ways to kind of
give him some confidence and get him into the league
a little bit before we get to that point. You
had four, I had four as well. Who was your fourth,
Milton Williams?

Speaker 3 (44:54):
I know, all right, No, you had the line and
I Josh McDaniel, Oh right, right, right, Let's could have
had the lineane though they were good as much as
the defense struggled. The sack at the end of the
game is great. He I don't know do you call
that beating a double team? He almost got around so
quickly before the second guy could even get there, you know,
like it never it was supposed to be a double team,

(45:14):
but it wasn't because he got off the ball so
quick that the center Aaron Brewer couldn't get over after
he snapped the ball. How about his other sack though?
Where and it was on a third down late in
the game, third and short, and he chases. It's not
a real sack in the sense that he tackles the quarterback.
He chases Tua all the way to the sideline, forced
him out of bounds, doesn't even give him a chance
to throw the ball away. Two has to run out

(45:35):
of bounds for a loss, which is very rare see quarterbacks.
Do I know Drake may did it last week? It's
not something you want to be doing as a quarterback.
For defensive tackle, too is athletic. Two is not a statue.
He's not Lamar Jackson, but he's not a statue for
defensive tackle. To chase the quarterback all the way to
the sideline in a game in Miami, like late in

(45:56):
that game when he's that's just terrific motor, terrific athletics,
is terrific, conditioning the guys showing up, the guys shown up.
Is a big time player. Through two weeks, he's been awesome.

Speaker 2 (46:05):
He's been a man possessed. He's been absolutely unreal through
two weeks. There's two things that you worry about with
guys like Milton Williams. One of course, it was is
he a product of the Philly defensive line? Is he
the Adlias Thomas of the Eagles defense where he's got
Jalen Carter, he's got Jordan Davis, he's got the guys
on the outside, And there were concerns when they signed him.

(46:28):
I admit I was concerned about it a little bit,
that he was just kind of a product of that
system and that defensive line. The other thing that you
worry about guys like million Milton Williams is when you
sign for a hundred million dollars, like is it gonna
mean as much to you after the contract? Or are
you still gonna play with that kind of effort and
that kind of motor both check and check like so

(46:50):
far right, like hurting the check. I mean, he just
he's playing with his hair on fire. The one thing
I texted you about on Monday is like, can he
keep this up? Can he play at this type a
level in terms of effort for seventeen games, Because this
is a crazy start for Milton Williams. He has ten
pressures through two weeks. He's second in the league in

(47:11):
a pass rush win rate among defensive tackles. They's yeah,
he's been one of the best defensive tackles in football
through two weeks. And I would say that the game
ceiling sack, they slide the three man protection towards him
in Harold Landry and then they are man to man
to the back side, so it's you know, man to
man one on one on the back side, and they

(47:32):
actually chip on the left side to kind of help
out the tackle there, and then they three man slide
it to two people on the other side. If you're
three man sliding to two people, you're supposed to be
able to block it.

Speaker 4 (47:42):
Right.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
You have three on two for the offensive line, and
Milton Williams was just off the ball so quickly and
through the double team so fast that they couldn't even
block them even with two guys on one player. So
just took over, just an absolute game takeover by Milton Williams.
I hope you can do it for seventeen games. I
hope we don't see this the gas tanks start to

(48:03):
run empty, right, you know, compared it to kind of
like Judon. Remember Judon will kind of tail off towards
the end of the season. I will get to the
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with the Patriots. Tostitos tradition matters. Let's move to the downs.
We've been pretty positive for the first fifty minutes, but

(49:08):
there's certainly some downs. Who's your number one down? Here?

Speaker 3 (49:12):
Number one down? I don't do him in order. I
just do him the order they come to my head.
All right, I'll try to stort it. Robertsplaine, Yeah, Roberts
and a lot of what we talked about. The mistackle,
the misstackles is the bigger thing, like if they need
to maybe turn somewhere else in coverage. It's not ideal,
but I get it. Guy's supposed to be a tackling machine.
I think he's missed more tackle. Has he missed more
tackles than he made he's made or something like that,

(49:33):
Like got to be finishing the tackles. So you have
me using the stats. His eight dot is four yards
per target average up the target, he's allowing eleven yards
per completion or eleven yards per tempt. So even if
he is going to allow these completions, like you got
to get the guy down at the spot. And if
there's not as much of a yak opportunity, okay, then
maybe teams don't target you as much. The tackling, to me,

(49:55):
is a bigger issue than the coverage with him.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
So five miss tackles for Roberts Splain, it was all
my number one down eight catches ninety six yards in
a touchdown into his coverage. Of course, the touchdown was
the twenty nine to nine yarder by eight Hn right
before halftime. The one thing I'll say for Robert Splaine
that gives me a slight glimmer of hope is that

(50:18):
he's there. He's just not getting the guys on the ground.
So he's been a good tackler throughout his career. He's
already missed I believe, as many tackles in two games
as he missed all of last year. So for whatever reason,
he's not tackling well right now. If he gets at
an order, I think the good news is that it's

(50:38):
not that he's not getting to the spots. He's just
not getting the ballgarer on the ground. So if you
start to tackle a little bit better, maybe this goes
the other way and starts to improve quickly here for
Robert Splaine, but he just hasn't been good enough. They
don't need him to be. He doesn't have to be
like prime ray lewis right, but they just need him
to be better than this. So Robert Splaine, the number
one down, who's number two on your.

Speaker 3 (50:58):
List, and Henderson three holding penalties to on offense, one
on special teams, got blown up a couple times in
pass protection. That's it's gonna make it hard to put you.
You gotta be able to pass block if you're gonna
be out there in the situations they want him in.
And it's not as simple as why don't you just
run him in the route every time. There's gonna be
times he need to check and keep the extra protector
in and he's gonna have to be able to hold
up in that regard. So a down week for him,

(51:21):
you hope it improves. You hope it doesn't cut in
was playing time too much, But the pass protection issues
were real for him in this game.

Speaker 2 (51:28):
So I'll get to him in a second. My number
two down was Alex Austin, who I'm just kind of
disappointed in what the performance because for the first two weeks.
I thought he had a really good training camp. I
thought he had a really good summer. I thought he
was good in the joint practices against other teams. And
he just hasn't been good to start the season. You know,
gave up six catches for ninety eight yards and a touchdown.

(51:49):
Of course, the Waddle touchdown with him in coverage, I
just I was expecting a little bit better from Alex Austin.
Now is he punching above his weight like a little bit.
He's probably not there yet to cover the number one
receiver on the other team, whether that's Waddle or Hill,
whichever one you want to pick. He's just not there yet.

(52:10):
But even the big catch he gave up to Hill,
the forty seven yarder, he's just got to play the
ball better in the air, Like he's got the deep third. Yeah,
you can't get beat over the top first of all,
and cover three when you have the deep third. He
gets run by by Tyreek Hill and then it's really
under thrown, but he's so far behind that he's playing
catch up and so that he can't recover the underthrown pass.

(52:32):
I just wasn't a good game for Alex Austin. And
if Christigan zalz We're gonna find out here in a
couple of hours, if he's gonna be on the practice
field today on Wednesday, if Christian Zalez continues to be
out like, they need Alex Austen to be better than
what he was on Sunday. So Alex Austen was number
two for me, he's number three for you.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
Part of me with Alex Austin though, just real quick like, yes,
he's a better player, and he looked in that game.
That's a bad matchup for him. He's not a speed corner.
He's a guy you're putting up against a big you know,
physical jump balls. Even the Dolphins don't have that guy.
So that's when where Gonzalez is back. I don't think
you see Alex Austen in a lot of the positions
that he was in. Now, I'm not saying you're wrong
to put him on the downs that game. I was

(53:11):
nervous about him going into that game. That's a tough
matchup spot for him against those Dolphins concept.

Speaker 2 (53:16):
And just to further that point too, this is what
such a massive part of the trickle down effect of
Christian Gonzales, right, because so if Christian Goanzalez is healthy
for this game, then maybe you can use Alex Austen
in more of a nickel role. Yeah, and now maybe
he has a chin coming.

Speaker 3 (53:33):
Out right, because you're gonna have it Gonzales and probably, honestly,
Marcus Jones on the two top receivers. Marcus Jones was
solid in this game. But the problem was whoever Marcus
Jones was covering, whether it was Wadle or Hill. They
were just going to the other guy and picking on
Alex Austin. Whereas if you have Marcus Jones and Christian Gonzalez,
you're two speed corners on their two speed receivers. It's

(53:53):
a lot easier. So obviously they didn't have them. You know,
that's revision his history, but I think that that makes
a change.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Who's number three?

Speaker 3 (54:00):
Number three for me, just outside of Antonio Gibson. The
special teams you have.

Speaker 2 (54:06):
I'm smiling because I actually had special teams for once.
But so I.

Speaker 3 (54:11):
Feel wrong putting special teams with a kickoff return touchdown
and I could have maybe nitpicked and done five guys
and done like Andy Borgollis and Schooler missed a tackle
and Charles Woods missed a tackle and you know what,
I think it's easier. Just Antonio Gibson and Mac Hollans
said a really good block on that kick return touchdown,

(54:32):
So take them out of those. But Andy Borgollis misses
two extra points. Credit to him. He comes back, he
hits the fifty three yarder, absolute stones from the kid
to do that, but then he puts the ensuing kickoff
short of the landing zone, gives the Dolphins a short field, Like,
that's not good. Bryce Baringer was really good. He had
two seventy yard punts, but did he OutKick his coverage.

(54:53):
I'll be interesting to hear, interested to hear if Jeremy
Springer has anything to say about that, because one of
them is a twenty yard return, which on a seventy
yard punt, you'll still take that. But I almost feel
like they used that return when Baringer hits another insane
punt to come back the next rep and then they
have the touchdown. And though Charles Woods had him wrapped
up at one point, and brettan Schooler is not a

(55:15):
guy that should be missing tackles, just giving his standing,
so it was even with the kick return touchdown overall,
and he had numbers of penalties on special teams. Overall
a down game for special teams, even with the kick
return touchdown.

Speaker 2 (55:29):
So you know, I usually leave the special teams for you.
So I considered Morgan Moses, but he's playing on a
bad tire, so I let that one.

Speaker 3 (55:37):
I mean, three fall starts is rough.

Speaker 2 (55:39):
I considered Morgan Moses. It wasn't great, but he's hurt,
he's playing through injury. Yeah. I considered Trevion Henderson for
the same reasons that you laid out. But he had
the wheel route that was a nice play, had the screen.
It was a rookie in his second NFL game, first
road game in the NFL. I just think I'm morehead

(55:59):
him on it because I agree with your analogis just
let me just add this.

Speaker 3 (56:03):
We know in the past, and look, this was a
few years ago and under a different head coach under Bilt.
But we've seen how finicky Josh can be with rookie
running backs, and you don't necessarily get a lot of chances,
and we've seen guys screw up and you don't they
you know, they essentially go missing for a few weeks.
And now I don't know that the Patriots have the
luxury to do that. I don't know if they have

(56:24):
the depth or the speed on offense this depth are
running back or speed on offense to do that. So
maybe that won't be the case for Henderson. But if
we're just gonna use historical context, you're a rookie running back,
you have a game like that under Josh McDaniels, we
might not see you for a month. I don't think
that's gonna be what happens with Henderson, but it's a
fair point. You have the thought.

Speaker 2 (56:43):
I would think with Henderson what we might see and
this would probably drive fans just as nuts is like
a package of plays, because his speed is so important
to the offense as a whole, that he might just
have a package of kind of game plans, scheme dump
plays that he's involved in instead of just kind of
throwing him out in the base offense. I considered Christian Ellis,

(57:03):
who I thought was just as bad as Robert Spulaine
in this game.

Speaker 3 (57:06):
Yah. Probably I probably should have just said linebackers.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
He almost frame, but I thought Robert Spolaine is just
such an important piece for them that I wanted to
talk about him. And I also considered Craig Woodson, who
I thought just struggled in this game in deep coverage.
But with Woodson, same kind of things Henderson's second career.

Speaker 3 (57:25):
He didn't want to put the rookies on the downs.

Speaker 2 (57:27):
I didn't want to put the rookies on the downs.
And it was also the first time that he was
going up as things are falling in the studio. It
was the first time that he was going up against
Tyre Hill and Joe and Waddle, and like, those are
the two of the best deep threats that you're going
to face all season long. So I actually think this
will be a good learning experience for Craig Woodson of
how to handle that kind of speed in an NFL game.

(57:50):
So I considered all those people from my third down,
but I settled on special teams. Yeah, because this is
going to annoy the crap out of me. If there
are special teams? Is this bad? All season long? Four
penalties on special teams? Brealis had, the two missed extra
points and the seventy four yard punt return. Guys, it

(58:12):
just can't happen, Like this team can't afford those types
of things, and they put too much into special teams
in terms of the roster. In terms of the coaching staff,
they have too many cooks in that kitchen to be
giving up backbreaking seventy four yard punt returns. It just
can't happen. And I'm not trying to single out just

(58:33):
Brandon Schooler, but you have an all pro on special
teams covering the punt. You have Jeremy Springer, who I
think is a good coach, and you also have Tom
Quinn who's a really good special teams coach as well.
They just have too much invested in that phase of
the game. It has to be a strength of the team. Yeah,
and they can't give up plays like that. You can't
give up seventy four yard touchdowns. So through two weeks

(58:58):
they are twenty eighth in the league in PFF grade
on special teams, and they are twenty ninth in the
league in DVOA on special teams. They are bottom five
special teams in the NFL. Now, kicking has a big
part of that. You know, when your field goal kicker
is missing kicks, that's going to knock you down. But
there They're coverage unit also hasn't been good enough. So

(59:18):
the special teams needs to be better. We're gonna take
a quick break and then we're going to talk some Steelers.
We're going to talk your phones and take your phones
and phone calls and emails. We'll be right back as
I stumble out of the break here.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
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to these phones. Thanks for waiting. Patty is an aguan.
What's up, Patty?

Speaker 7 (01:02:15):
Hey?

Speaker 8 (01:02:16):
What's going on today?

Speaker 9 (01:02:16):
Guys?

Speaker 8 (01:02:17):
Hey, So I just wanted to get your thoughts on
a couple of things. The first thing, Drake May was
absolutely phenomenal. I thought on Sunday this was the first game.
Not only did I call him the postgame show and
say I thought he played his best NFL game, This
was the first time I think we might have seen
since twenty twenty the opener when Cam Cam was our

(01:02:41):
quarterback his first year against the Dolphins where the quarterback
actually put the team on his back and carried him
to a victory at least through the first three quarters
until that big kickoff return. Wanted to get your thoughts
on that, and I wrote in yesterday. I know it
was late because they didn't get to it on PU
but are either of you concerned about it? Seems like

(01:03:02):
three out of their four false starts on offense on
Sunday were caused by shifting and how did they wreck?
How does Rabel like get that out of their system?
And I'll take it out there, guys.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
Yeah, Patti, thanks for the call. It's a good point.

Speaker 6 (01:03:15):
So the.

Speaker 2 (01:03:17):
Dolphins defensive line was shifting right before the snap to
try to throw off the Patriots, and they did get
Morgan Moses especially a couple of times to jump just
by shifting the offensive line. And then there was another
procedural penalty that they had where they had two guys
going in motion at once. I think it was Hollins
and Henry were both in motion and they got called

(01:03:39):
for that as well. So a lot of those things
are obviously just locking in and focusing and not jumping,
but some of it also too, is cadence, and honestly,
like the one maybe nitpick with Drake in this game
is that some of that stuff is on Drake May.
Like it's his job to make sure that everybody is
settled in and as you know, on their p's and

(01:04:02):
q's and has a snap count ready, and the cadence
that he comes to line with and sort of the
flow that he that he you know, hikes the ball at.
I know it sounds like a little bit elementary or
just like kind of crazy, but it's honestly a huge
part of how they start every single play is his cadence.

(01:04:23):
So I do think that that's something that they need
to improve on. What did he said something about.

Speaker 3 (01:04:27):
Special Drake Drake May taking the game over, which we
kind of talked about at the beginning, Like, yeah, he's
he put them on his back. He led them in
that game. He truly led them and elevated in that game.

Speaker 2 (01:04:38):
All Right, Will is in Cranston. What's up?

Speaker 10 (01:04:40):
Will?

Speaker 3 (01:04:42):
Hey?

Speaker 11 (01:04:42):
Guys?

Speaker 12 (01:04:42):
How you doing today? A couple of things I want
to touch on today. I'm actually really excited to test
on defense this week against Pittsburgh's offense. I think that
Marcus Jones will match up well against Calvin Austin and
I think that Carlton Davis will match up well against
So pretty excited to watch those.

Speaker 9 (01:05:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 12 (01:05:03):
Just the other question that I had for you guys
was I think Travion Henderson will be a better matchup
this week than he was last week. Also, how do
you think we can stop the pressure from Pittsburgh? Considering
aw with TJ Watt and everybody I know, they are
a very blitz happy defense. So I would just like
to see what you guys thought with our new offensive line.

Speaker 2 (01:05:25):
Thanks guys, Thanks will, thanks for the call, and that
that pretty much hits all of the notes I would
say about the Steelers matchup. Yeah, So I think the
one thing I would say with just with the Steelers
that I was going to get to you once we
kind of started to look at them a little bit
closer here in the second hour, is I'm caustiously optimistic
about this game because they have a ton of familiarity

(01:05:48):
with the Steelers coaching staff. Arthur Smith was Mike Brables
offensive coordinator in Tennessee and whether it was the Brady years,
I remember that Thursday night Bailey Zappi game in Pittsburgh.
Mac Joeans was throwing dimes to Nelson, Agalore and Pittsburgh
in twenty twenty two. With Matt Patricia calling plays. They've
always seemed to have a good feel for the Steelers

(01:06:09):
defense and for Mike Tomlin's system, and now Josh McDaniels
is back to kind of hit the notes that they
always used to hit over the years and against that
Steelers defense. So the familiarity with the coaching staff is
something that I think was a big factor in Week one.
And I know Patrick Graham was mcdaniels's decoordinator and he
probably should have had some familiarity, but Pete Carroll's influence

(01:06:32):
on the Raiders defense was pretty substantial, And I don't
know if they knew exactly, like whose defense was the
Raiders really gonna be? Were they going to be a
Patrick Graham defense or were they going to be a
Pete Carroll defense. Having week to week as we go
here with the veterans staff that they do have, if
Rabel knows the guy, or if McDaniels knows the guy,
or they both know guys, like that's a huge advantage

(01:06:55):
to me about some of the things that the caller
brought up there of are they going to attack the
Steelers defense, how are they going to block it? How
are they going to handle Arthur Smith's offense and Aaron
Rodgers on the other side. When you have that institutional knowledge,
I don't think that's insignificant. I think that that's a
pretty big advantage for them in this game.

Speaker 3 (01:07:16):
Yeah, and I mean Vrabel helped game plan for them
twice last year in Cleveland.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
Yeah, so yeah, that's a good point as well. All Right,
we'll get to more of the Steelers though. Those are
good questions, but I want to hold off on that
just for a second. Connor is in New Hampshire. What's up? Connor?

Speaker 13 (01:07:31):
Hey, guys, been listening since the pl and Cionla stays Sorry,
love it, but I wanted to know you kind of
talked about the changes the offense made from week one
to two. I'm wondering about kind of the changes especially
in the blitz the defense may and if that's something
that'll be, will be a lower blitzing team moving forward,
or if they had more to do with a different

(01:07:51):
play caller on defense.

Speaker 2 (01:07:53):
Yeah, Connor, thanks to the call. So it's a good point.
We kind of I waxed poetic about all the good
things that they did on offense, but they also went
in a totally different direction on defense. After blitzing the
heck out of Geno Smith in Week one, they only
blitzed to a one time this entire game. I don't
think that that's about play caller, you know, difference in

(01:08:13):
play callers or anything like that. That's a game plan thing, like,
that's a matchup thing. When you have speed at the
skill positions and a really quick trigger in a quarterback
like Tua, I think blitzing the Miami Dolphins is not
the way to go, Like you are asking for big explosives.

(01:08:34):
And as much as I picked on the past defense
earlier on in the show, they did only give up
four explosives in this game to Miami. They gave up
nine of them in week one. They only gave up
four in week two. So they did a better job
of limiting explosive plays. Now, if they limit anything else,
like they had to do a great job overall, but
they did a better job of limiting explosive plays. So

(01:08:56):
what it tells me about the difference between the defensive
play calling from week one to week two is that
they're just gonna be a game plan defense. Like some
weeks they're gonna think that blitzing is gonna be the
best thing for them, and then some weeks they're gonna
think playing coverage is gonna be the best thing for them.
So how you know, do you agree with that or
what do you kind of see with those couple things.

Speaker 3 (01:09:17):
Yeah, I think that could be as much game plan
or more game plan based than it is having a
different defensive play call. Like you said, it didn't make
sense to blitz Miami, I don't think it makes sense
to blitz this Steelers team a ton, at least initially,
probably more than they blitzed to Miami, but not the
fifty percent blitz right they had against the Raiders. You know,
for me, it's can you get pressure with four on

(01:09:38):
Aaron Rodgers? And because you want as many guys in
coverage and tonight especially Gonzalese isn't out there, so he
has less obvious windows to throw into because you're not
gonna fool Aaron Rodgers. But if you can't get pressure
with four, then maybe you have to start sending the
blitz because you do need to get pressure on him.
You cannot give him all day.

Speaker 2 (01:09:53):
Yeah, I want to talk about DA but let's get
through these calls. First. Francisco is in North Carolina. What's up, Francisco?

Speaker 10 (01:10:01):
Hey, guys, how you doing good?

Speaker 3 (01:10:02):
Hey?

Speaker 10 (01:10:04):
All right, So I've got a couple of questions. So
my first question starts off with, uh, so I feel
like we should necessarily, not necessarily add a veteran presence,
but I feel like it wouldn't hurt to help with
adding a veteran presence in the dB room, like a
Stefan Gilmour out there. I feel like it'd be beneficial

(01:10:24):
for everybody to, you know, learn from somebody who's already
done it at a high level. And then second question
is you know yesterday's pu Fred asked you were the
origin of whit it's called the Yankee concept. I was
just wondering if you looked into that, and I'll take
it off there.

Speaker 2 (01:10:40):
Thank you guys, Thanks Francisco, thanks for the call. I
did not look into that. And this is uh, this
is one of my favorite fretisms that he likes to
put me on the spot. Yeah, you know that these
concepts and things like that are are called things for
ridiculous reasons. Yeah, So the Steelers in the first two
weeks of the season, they u each game they got

(01:11:00):
beat on an explosive touchdown on the Yankee concept deep
post with the deep over route underneath it, and the
Jets and the and the Seahawks both hit touchdowns on
the same exact play from about the same field position
as well. And so yesterday on PU I called it
the Yankee concept because that's what it's most normally. That's
like sort of the general terminology for it. And I

(01:11:23):
had no idea why it was called that, And so
that was that atcha I did not I really understand.
I just wanted to tell everybody because I'm sure a
lot of people had no idea what he was talking about.
Sean is in Vancouver.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
Just to go back, sorry, one second shot on the
Gilmore thing, because I've gotten asked to to watch at
the Patriots signed Steph on Gilmore. I yeah, I guess
adding a veteran presence, I don't know. I think everyone
needs to calm down for a little bit until Christian
Zoalz comes back. You know. I like Stephan Gilmour, and.

Speaker 2 (01:11:50):
Isn't Carlton Davis supposed to be the veteran presidence. I
already have.

Speaker 3 (01:11:53):
So there's that. And also between Gonzalez, Gilmour and Davis,
none of those guys playing a slot. I don't think
you're moving any of them to safety. Is Gilmour gonna
come here and just essentially sit on the bench, or
how's it going to go over with Carlton Davis if
he gets bench And you're obviously not benching Gilmore once
he's healthy, Gonzalez once he's healthy. So unless you know
Gonzalez is going to miss like a significant significant amount

(01:12:13):
of time, which as right now is not expected to
be the case as far as we know. I just
I you're signing Stephan Gilmore because his name is Stephan Gilmore.
I don't think you're signing in for much more than that.
And you know, if they're going to add a corner,
maybe at a slock corner, get some death beyond Marcus Jones,
But I don't think Stephan Gilmore is coming here to
play a rotational role on team that may or may

(01:12:34):
not make the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (01:12:35):
All right, Sean, go ahead, sorry about that.

Speaker 14 (01:12:37):
Yeah, well done, no problem. I really hope goneto this
back this week.

Speaker 11 (01:12:40):
That'd be great.

Speaker 14 (01:12:41):
And now last year, one of the criticisms, and there's
been any that Patriots weren't really doing what allowing Drake
May to do a quarterback snink. We finally saw that
in Miami. The other thing I'd like to find out
or see is if Drake May will do as design run. Well,
you think that would come maybe against Pittsburgh or in

(01:13:03):
the near future.

Speaker 13 (01:13:04):
Leady on that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:04):
Thanks, thanks Sean. So they did run a couple of
them against the Raiders in Week one, and they ran
a zone read on third and short on Sunday against
the Dolphins that Remandre picked it up. The one thing
that I would say about the design quarterback runs, you
know me, I have no fear about him getting hurt.
That's not on my why I'm not doing it. He

(01:13:27):
needs to improve though a little bit and like holding
the mesh a little bit longer and like really trying
to get that defensive end to bite on the fake
or on the read point the mesh points. It's not
something that Drake is great at yet. And that's like
a live in game field thing. You have to get

(01:13:48):
better at it with reps, Like you're not going to
be Lamar Jackson or Jayden Daniels at the mesh point
right away. You have to do it over and over again,
and so I think he needs to be a little
bit better at those. The rule of thumb with those
types of plays is the reed defender can't make the
tackle right, So that's all you're trying to do. You're

(01:14:09):
trying to put the reed defender, the unblocked defender that's
reading the mesh out, You're trying to put him in conflict,
and then you're trying to make him wrong no matter
what he does. If he crashes down to the ball
carrier to the back, then you take it off the
edge as the quarterback. If he stays out and sets
the edge of the defense, you hand it to the back,
and you just want to make him wrong and make
sure that the red defender doesn't make the tackle. If

(01:14:31):
you do that, then you've done your job as the quarterback.
So on the remandre a third and short one, Bradley
Chubb should have made the tackle in the backfield and
Rmande duked him in the backfield and got the first down.
So that wasn't the best mesh point mechanics, so they
have to do a little bit better job with that.

(01:14:51):
They also they tried to bring Hunter Henry across the
formation to try to block Chubb as well, and he
ran into I can't remember exactly who it was, he
collided with somebody on the way. It was just kind
of a mess of a play, and Remandre actually bailed
them out from what probably should have been a two
yard loss in the backfield and just made a really

(01:15:11):
good run. So another you know he was on our ups,
but another one to credit Remandre with. Before we get
back to more of these calls and emails, I do
want to talk a little bit about the Steelers and
Aaron Rodgers because I think a caller earlier kind of
brought it up, and you were talking a little bit
about what to do against Aaron Rodgers. So watching Rogers,
I watched both games so far from Pittsburgh over the

(01:15:34):
last couple of days, and Rogers, I'm trying to I'm
telling you on the way over here, I'm trying to
come up with the best analogy for this. I don't
know if I have yet, But Rogers can still throw
the ball. He's still got a cannon, he can still
sling it. There's no dip or drop off I would
say whatsoever in terms of his arm talent, his athleticism,

(01:15:58):
and his mobility is declining fast. He is immobile. At
this point. His pressure desacarates the fifth highest in the league.
This is Aaron Rodgers, like a guy that used to
dance out of pressure and get out of sacks all
the time earlier on in his career. So the best
comp that I've come up with it is like late
in a career of like a great shooter like a

(01:16:18):
Ray Allen, where all he can do is stand in
the corner and shoot threes. But he's so good at
standing in the corner and shoot threes and shooting threes,
it adds like five years to his NBA career. Like
this is like Miami heat Ray Allen right now for
Aaron Rodgers, where if you keep him clean in the
pocket and he's just able to sit there and just

(01:16:39):
drop dimes left and right, he can still do that
with the best of them. The second he sees pressure,
the second that he has to avoid sacks, he can't
do it. So what's been the kryptonite for the Steelers
for the first couple of weeks has been man coverage
because you don't have to account for the quarterback because
he can't run, so you just keep him in the pocket.

(01:17:02):
You play man to man, bump and run on the
outside and make him hold the football and then just
hope that the pass rush gets there, and the pass
rush is going to get there and suffocate him at
some point. So that's been the blueprint that the Jets
finally got to in that game a little bit. And
then of course the Seahawks held them to you know,

(01:17:22):
seventeen points, held him in check in Week two, but
we broke down at the top of the show at
the Patriots have had a lot of issues and it's
a man coverage, so it's kind of like, you know,
a weakness on weakness sort of thing right now. Now,
if they get Gonzo back, that changes. But the caller
earlier said something that I agree with, Carlon Davis on

(01:17:44):
dk YEP, Marcus Jones on Calvin Austin. They do like
to run a lot of two tight ends a ton,
like fifty percent of the time they have two tight
ends on the field. So the tight ends and then
Jalen Warren is a pretty good pass catching back at
like a sixty plus yard catch and run in the
game the other day against Seattle, so those are the

(01:18:05):
parts that you kind of worry about. But there are
two primary receivers DK and Calvin Austen. I don't hate
how you match up against those two guys. If you
want to play man to man.

Speaker 3 (01:18:14):
Yeah, I don't either. I agree with a lot of that.
The other thing I'm interested in in this matchup and
ESPN put a stat up this morning. Let me let
me make sure I can find it here. We saw
against the Dolphins and this was something I was big
on after that game. The Patriots didn't run the ball
all the right side, and I think it made them
predictable and I think it really hurt their ability to

(01:18:36):
run the ball. So ESPN had this this morning. Through
two games this year, teams are running for six point
six flat six yards per carry running away from TJ.
Watt and two and a half yards per carry running
towards TJ. Watt.

Speaker 2 (01:18:54):
So they're ready for another wonky.

Speaker 3 (01:18:56):
Is it going to be a lops? I don't want
to see him do it. You got to run at
him at least a little bit to upset timing and
see what you can get over there.

Speaker 2 (01:19:01):
And they've gotten gashed on the ground, though.

Speaker 3 (01:19:05):
They have gotten gashed on the ground. So if you
can do it running off the left side, you do
it running off the left side. But don't I would
hope they don't handcuff cuff themselves in the run game
like they did against the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (01:19:16):
Yeah. I just it's interesting because they've gotten gash on
the ground for the most part of those. Zach Sharbonay
kind of struggled in his carries, but Kenneth Walker averaged
eight yards of carry, so this might be one of
those games again, not to you know, pick on Remandre,
but isn't Ramandre is a little bit more Zach Sharbonay
than he is Kenneth Walk and Zach Charbonay's issue as

(01:19:38):
they were trying to run off tackle and he just
doesn't have the speed to get out there. So maybe
this could be a bigger Gibson Henderson game. We'll try
to get that speed and get to the edge away
from TJ. Watt because that's exactly what the Seahawks did,
and they ran the ball effectively and then they play
action defectively.

Speaker 3 (01:19:56):
Along those lines too.

Speaker 8 (01:19:57):
Though.

Speaker 3 (01:19:57):
To go back to the Jets game, and obviously the
Jets are running a pretty unique game playing at this point,
but Justin Fields had a good game on the ground.
So to what you were talking about about the drake
made designed runs, do you maybe bring some of that.

Speaker 2 (01:20:08):
Back you could. Justin Fields did a good job with that.
Uh in week one, Like you said, they also ran
like a naked boot down by the goal line where
he just like waltzed in for a touchdown. So the
boots and some of the misdirection, I.

Speaker 3 (01:20:21):
Mean he ran even he ran for four yards to
carry like that's yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:20:24):
I just watching the Seahawks tape. They ran outside zone
duo and they ran one play of a wide zone
lead with the full back right, so still outside zone
blocking up front, but the full back is on the way.

Speaker 3 (01:20:39):
You see the full back to the Steelers last week.
You see Robbi Oots last week.

Speaker 2 (01:20:42):
So the full back was it was that Robby Oots,
the Seahawks full back. Yeah, Oh, I didn't know that.

Speaker 3 (01:20:47):
I was clearing guys out.

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
Yeah, so he took He absolutely pancaked the dude on
like a pretty big run.

Speaker 3 (01:20:54):
For wasn't there one He pancakes one linebacker into another linebacker.
He takes two guys out.

Speaker 2 (01:20:58):
Yeah. They so the full he was, I didn't know that.
I wasn't. I wasn't studying the Seahawks.

Speaker 3 (01:21:05):
But you're watching the the You're watching the Steelers defense.

Speaker 2 (01:21:07):
Weren't you? Yeah? But I was watching the All twenty two?

Speaker 3 (01:21:09):
But you never look, Oh, this guy's made some plays.
Who is that not the no?

Speaker 2 (01:21:13):
Nor you should? Yeah? Maybe I should? You right? So
the uh that's how they ran it. I agree with you.
The Jets were a little bit more option heavy with
justin fields. I expect the Patriots to try to run
it traditionally down their throats. That that's what I would expect.
But you could be right. It could be more of
the option stuff, especially if more of that, but just

(01:21:35):
mixing it in well Hayward and Watt. If they start
to take over the traditional run game, then they might
need to do some more deception and more trickery there.
The Steelers they played a lot more man coverage. I
know a lot of people think of the Steelers and
they think of Cover three and blitzberg and like all
that kind of stuff. They've transitioned to a lot more
man coverage. They're forty one percent man coverage through two weeks.

(01:21:58):
They blitz a lot. They're top five in the league
in blitz rate. So a lot of their coverages are
single high safety man coverage and they have Ramsey and
Darius Slay on the outside. Ramsey made a really good
play on his pick last week undercutting out, but other
than that, he kind of got torched in that game.
I gave up over one hundred yards in coverage, and
the week before Darius Slay kind of struggled. So you're

(01:22:19):
gonna have some single coverage opportunities. You're gonna be able
to attack those two guys. They're gonna leave those two
guys on islands over the top and if you can
get some separation down the field. The Steelers are giving
up This is an insane stat and I know it's
super small sample size of just two games. They are
giving up an explosive pass play on twenty four of

(01:22:41):
their pass plays.

Speaker 3 (01:22:42):
That's wild.

Speaker 2 (01:22:43):
They've given up fourteen plays over fifteen yards in the
passing game through two weeks. They are having a lot
of trouble with explosives, both in the pass and the
run game, and they're kind of getting torched by it.
This is not the Steelers defense. People will expect it.
They have five Pro Bowlers on defense and they have

(01:23:03):
not been good through two weeks. So you can look
at it this one way. You can sit there and say, well,
they're bound to, you know, get back to where they're
supposed to be, right your aggression to the mean right,
they're bound to get back there. But at the same time,
through five weeks or two weeks, to excuse me, they've
really struggled on defense. They're down near the bottom of
the league in pretty much every statistical category on defense.

(01:23:26):
So I'm interested to see this game because McDaniel should
know them pretty well, you should know what to expect,
and the Steelers just haven't covered very well or stopped
the run very well. So I'm interested to see if
the Patriots can continue what they did last week in Miami.
I think they can. I think the same kind of
formula could work again this week. You know, outside zone

(01:23:47):
duo to get downhill bootlegs. That was a big part
of Sea Seattle average thirteen yards per play action pass
attempt in this game last week on Sunday. It's all
the same notes and Clint Kubiak is a Shanahan disciple.
He coached under Kyle Shanahan and San Francisco, So it's
all the same things that the Patriots did in Miami

(01:24:08):
last week, the Seahawks did to the Steelers defense on
Sunday in Pittsburgh and they scored thirty one points, like
they won the game going away. So I think a
lot of those same notes are going to exist for
the Patriots again this week, and they should have some
success with them. And I can't wait. I can't wait
to see Aaron Rodgers too, trying to run away from
Harold Andrey and Milton Williams. Like if I'm the Patriots,

(01:24:30):
I'm trying to do everything I can to get Aaron
Rodgers to hold the football because he's going down like
a sack of potatoes right now in the pocket when
he gets pressured. So that Doull. Those are two things,
you know, hitting the Steelers on those explosives and then
getting to Rogers.

Speaker 3 (01:24:45):
Yeah, that's the key.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
That's the key to the game right there. Let's get
back to the calls. Eldred is in North Carolina. What's up, Eldred? Oh? Yeah,
there we go.

Speaker 11 (01:24:55):
Hey, Hey, good, oh question, I was listening to you.
I know they got Ramsey and they got late, but
our receivers last week, I know the game plan changed
for different things. But then we got enough enough power
to get get past those guys, even though I think
the other two teams they had some fast receivers they

(01:25:17):
got by. So that's why I was wondering, and Evan,
I ain't gonna take my victory I ain't gonna take
my victory lap yet. I don't wait to the middle
of the season. Quentin Johnson and Dante Thoort, like I
was saying before, I'm gonna tack my laps after that,
especially after the last week's performance. But other than that,

(01:25:37):
proudly may I hope everybody goes does well and we
win later.

Speaker 2 (01:25:41):
Got thanks, Aldred, appreciate it. Strive safe all right, Yeah,
I said yesterday he called into PU and he didn't
take a victory lap. On on Dante Thornton and Quentin Johnson,
who both had good games in that Monday night game.
From what I saw, did I went to bed. Honestly
at half time, I didn't see the whole game, but
they looked like they played pretty well. Johnson hadn't had
like a sixty yard touchdown on a deep post from

(01:26:02):
from Herbert in that game, so good, good for Eldred.
You mentioned the receivers. And this is a point that
we've gotten a ton of emails about Alex. I'm glad
that Aldred segued us in to the wide receivers in
the bag of things that are not so good about
the Patriots right now after that win and you know,
fine high after beating Miami, what's your Pop Douglas take?

(01:26:26):
You know what's going on with Pop Douglas played fifteen
snaps in this game. I believe it was just wasn't
part of the game plan. Just really wasn't in the
game plan. And I don't think this is necessarily an
indictment on Pop. It wasn't like he did something wrong
and right bench or was pulled from the game. He
just I don't think he was really planning on being

(01:26:47):
involved in this way.

Speaker 3 (01:26:48):
I don't know if you have the percentage, but the
exact percentages, but they were in heavy personnel twelve, twenty one,
twenty two a lot more than they were in Week one.
And he's not a guy like he's the third receiver.
We've talked about this.

Speaker 2 (01:27:02):
He's not a base receiver, right.

Speaker 3 (01:27:04):
He's not a receiver that you use when you're in
a two receiver set, and I think even when they
were in the three receiver set, mac Hollands seeing more time,
I think they wanted their better blockers out there to
try to get the run game going, which they did. Now,
the question is was that a Miami Dolphins game plan
thing or was that a sign of things to come.
I've said it and I'm gonna keep saying it. His
ability to create after the catch, his straight line speed.

(01:27:25):
They need that in the offense. Now. If he's not
gonna give it to them, maybe they get it from
Kyle Williams. He would be the guy that kind of
compares the closest. But they're gonna need to get him
going eventually, or at least figure out if they can't
get him go and get Kyle Williams going. But I
think for this game it was about how they wanted
to match it up and wanting those blockers out there.

(01:27:46):
And we'll see moving forward when there's matchups that you
know or more you're gonna try to hunt, getting him
on linebackers and on safeties and creating space and getting
yards after the catch. Does he get more involved there
or do they continue to go away because they want
the bigger personnel, or they simply just move on to
Kyle Williams. I will say it again, I do not

(01:28:06):
think Efton Chisholm is his replacement right e ft And
Chishlm is more in the role steph On Diggs's in
right now, Pop Douglas. There's a straight line speed elements
his game that Efton chism doesn't have. That is what
I think makes it key that they get him or
Kyle Williams going to some extent at some point, ft

(01:28:26):
And Chishm's going to be more in a Diggs roll
where where it's the oman role, it's it's it's the
short area of quickness and reliable hands and route running
and things like that.

Speaker 2 (01:28:35):
So to your point about the personnel groupings, they were
in twelve personnel, so one back, two tight ends on
twenty snaps. Yeah, and then they had a couple of
two back packages two one pony and then one with
the full back, which accounted for thirteen So and then they.

Speaker 3 (01:28:50):
Were in twenty two a handful of times two I think, yes.

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
So thirty three out of their fifty five snaps were
what we would call heavy groupings. They played twenty two
snaps and three wide receiver so snaps and.

Speaker 3 (01:29:03):
Three wide receiver. Yeah, so Pop Douglas was still on
the field for the majority of those, they were just less.

Speaker 2 (01:29:07):
Of them, right, And so that that's a big part
of it to me, is that he's just not a
base receiver. Yeah, he is a slot receiver that comes
in in eleven personnel like he is a three receiver
package guy. He's a slot receiver in that respect, even
not skill set wise, but like in that respect, I
would think, you know, the comparison is like more Danny Amandola,

(01:29:30):
right that that's kind of the role that Pop Douglas
is playing right now for this team. He's not playing
the Z receiver role. He's not Julian Edelman. He is
Danny Amandola. Julian Edelman right now is Stefan Diggs, Right.
So that that's I think a good comp right now. Again,
not skill set wise, but just usage wise of how
they're using Pop Douglas. They wanted to get Mac Collins's

(01:29:52):
run blocking into this game, yeah, And whether you agree
with that or not is your decision. I personally do
because I see the advantages that it brings in their
early down base offense of when he blocks, He's a
good blocker. He's an effective blocker, and then all of
the play action stuff they built off of that comes

(01:30:14):
because they have to worry about Mac Collins being a
plus blocker. If Mac Collins is a speed bump on
the way to the ball carrier, then those linebackers in
the safeties they're not going to bite on play action
when Mac Collins comes to block them if they don't
have to worry about Mac Collins being a good blocker.
So they wanted to get Mac Collins's blocking. They didn't
play a lot of three wide receiver. And the other

(01:30:37):
element to this that I do think is a part
of it. They're seeing so much zone coverage. Through the
first two weeks of the season. They're seeing zone coverage
over eighty three percent of the time when Drake May
drops back to pass. We have talked about this a
lot on this show. I thought he did a better
job of it in the summer, and I hope that continues.
But Pop Douglas is a man coverage beating receiver. Yeah,

(01:31:00):
when you can get him on a matchup in man
to man. He's a dynamic route runner. He's extremely quick,
he's bursty, he is a man to man coverage winner,
that is where he thrives. So when you see eighty
three percent of the time when you're in zone for
the defense, and we can kind of unpack that as
an element too, But when it's eighty three percent of

(01:31:22):
the time zone, to me, like, you're gonna want your
more zone reliable players in those spots. Whether it's Digs, Hollins,
tight ends, you know, those types of players are going
to be the guys that when they settle down in
those zones and they present a nice, big quarterback friendly target, like,
that's going to be a lot easier for Drake May

(01:31:45):
to throw those passes to those receivers settling in those
zone voids than it is to hit a five foot
eight receiver settling into a zone void. It's just it
is what it is. It's a body type thing, it's
a skill set thing. Pop's going to get playing time.
Pop's gonna play, and he's gonna have certain games. Maybe
this week, if the Steelers come out and they play

(01:32:05):
a bunch of man coverage like they have in the
first two weeks, then I think Pop's gonna play and
he's gonna be a factor in the game. So I'm
not worried about it with Pop Douglas. I actually, in
some respects it shows to me that the coaching staff
has a good feel for the roster, because if they
put Pop Douglas out there to kick out the force,

(01:32:26):
you know, block in the in the run game, and
play as a base receiver and all this different stuff,
like they would put you putting him in a position
to fail, Like it just isn't what his skill set
is necessarily lending itself to. I think he'll play plenty
once they get into some more of these man coverage matchups.
One of the things about the zone thing, though I
wanted to ask you about. You could chock it up

(01:32:49):
to two games, small sample size, but eighty three percent
zone is a lot of zone coverage. Yeah, and a
feel for the way I look at it, if we
want to look into it and not just chalk it
up to sample size. Is this a Drake May thing?
Where the blueprint on Drake May is that he's not
consistent with his accuracy. So let's keep him in the pocket.

(01:33:12):
Let's make him pick us apart, just like the Raiders
were able to do in Week one, and let's not
let his legs and his mobility beat us is that
as do you see that? Because you play man coverage
and everybody runs down the field with their man and
everything clears out and there sees part like he's just
gonna take off. We've seen that and he's been really
effective scrambler his rookie season. So I expect to see

(01:33:37):
the Patriots facing a ton of zone this year. I
think that that's gonna be the book. All eyes on
the quarterback.

Speaker 3 (01:33:44):
They're going to do it until he gives him a
reason not.

Speaker 2 (01:33:45):
To, right, Yeah. And I do think that the boots
that helps. That helps a lot against zone. It's not
asking him to just drop back pass against zone coverage
all the time. When you boot, not only does it
cut the field in half, but the misdirection if you
have zone eyes and everybody's eyes are in the backfield
at the snap because everybody's looking at the quarterback, and

(01:34:06):
then you change the point of attack by bootlegging, then
you get everybody flow in one way and then the
balls out the other direction. Right that That that's a
very good way to mess with the eyes. Like all
of this is eyes. It's all eye discipline and being
able to see, you know, decipher and process for corners

(01:34:28):
and safeties. If you get those eyes in the wrong
places by looking in the backfield, at the at the action,
the run action, then you can really help it. Drake
with zone, and they hit a couple of plays in
this game that way against zone. Let's get back to
the phone. So Christian is in LA. What's up, Christian?

Speaker 15 (01:34:46):
Hey you guys, nice to talk to you on your
own show. Yes, sir, get to chill, relax, talk, do
some strategy. I love the x's and part of your show.
It's an amazing show and I love you guys for it.

Speaker 8 (01:34:59):
Thank you you.

Speaker 15 (01:35:00):
You guys have been talking about like how Pittsburgh's defenses
or the running packs at this time. To me, week
three is kind of what week two is kind of
a liar because week three seems to be the week
that that the adjustments really kick in. You figure out
what you're good at, what's just bad at this early stage,
and you make those adjustments. So I don't I don't

(01:35:23):
really see Pittsburgh allowing the same run defense that they've
had over the last.

Speaker 16 (01:35:28):
Couple of weeks.

Speaker 15 (01:35:29):
They figured out now we have a little bit of
problem running. So I don't know if they're going to
be able to run the ball the same way the
last two teams have run on Pittsburgh one of the
opposite on the opposite side. You know, let me just say,
I've never actually been impressed with DK Metcalfs with route running.
I think he's fast, big and sean and can go
oh yes, But I think he lacked the subtlety in

(01:35:50):
his route running to really be a threat to to
to rip a team apart. So I don't see that
we're really you know, have to worry too much about
their receivers. Rogers it still has a very strong arm,
but he's kind of a mobile now. So if we
can just contain him in, I think we've got a
really good shot to keep their offense at bay. On
our offensive side, I think it's time to unleash Kyle Williams.

(01:36:13):
No team has tape on him. They don't know what
we can do and how we can use him. I
know he can get behind them, and I just feel
like this Sunday is going to be our Kyle Williams
and Trey Von Hennison's breakout day. I would also like
last thing is for it to be a Stefan Diggs
breakout game and isn't by week four, I think we

(01:36:35):
should look at trading Stefan Digs and getting a pick
for him. What do you guys think?

Speaker 2 (01:36:40):
Thanks for the call, Christian. So to the Kyle Williams thing,
I think Kyle Williams is in a similar boat as
Pop Douglas. Like, Kyle Williams, I think is going to
be a lot more dangerous against teams that play a
lot of man to man like whereas speed and his
route running and his releases can can really give teams trouble.
So again, if the Steelers come out and the brand

(01:37:00):
of defense they've played in the first two weeks, which
they might not because they've gotten Torch, so they might
just kind of throw it out and say we got
to start over here. They Pop Douglas, Kyle Williams like
this might be more of their kind of game for
that reason, So you might get that to the Digs thing.
I'm gonna be a little bit defensive with Stefon Diggs. Yeah,

(01:37:24):
it's not because of what happened earlier with you know,
his press conference a couple of weeks ago. It's not
that I just think that he's been exactly what I
wanted him to be for this team so far, and
those high leverage gotta have it third and fourth down,
late down opportunities when they go for it on fourth down.
And in the beginning of the game against Miami, the

(01:37:45):
way that he ran that route and just how calm,
cool collected he was, and how quarterback friendly he was.
That's why he's here. He's here to move the chains.
And maybe he's not gonna have have the you know,
a thousand plus yards or average over ten yards to
carry or catch excuse me, like he used to. But

(01:38:08):
for Drake, like, it's so calming, and it's so important
for him to have a receiver that in third down
and eight with the game on the line, he can
go to Digs and he can trust Digs to get open.
Like that's such a crucial thing for a quarterback. I
can't understand how important and how just much pressure that

(01:38:30):
takes off the quarterback to know that he has a
go to guy in those situations. So if all Pop
Dougley or excuse me, Digs does is move the chains
on third and fourth down, that's worth the money to
me because they just haven't had that guy. They haven't
had that guy probably since Jacoby myself. So like really
since Edelman, like they haven't had that guy and that

(01:38:51):
reliability and that ability to focus in there is just
it's huge for this team. What we're gonna say.

Speaker 3 (01:38:57):
Let's also not forget he's less than a year removed
from a torn acl Like there is going to be
a build up process. You're not gonna get the steph
On Diggs you got in Buffalo, Nobody. You shouldn't be
of that assumption if he's moving the chains for you
and coming up big on third down and fourth down
and things like that. He was there leading receiver among
wide receivers on Sunday, Like you can't you can't talk

(01:39:21):
about trading him. That they need him on this team
right now. Yeah, there's no the breakout game might not happen.
He might just steadily be five catches fifty yards for
them for first downs, like that might be what he
is each week. Great, that's and all they're paying him
this much money and blah blah blah. It's a lot
of incentives.

Speaker 2 (01:39:40):
And plus when it's again when it's like the money downs,
when it's third and seven and the game is on
the line and he picks up eight or nine yards.
It's worth it.

Speaker 3 (01:39:49):
It's having a guy that can do that consistently and regularly.
They haven't had that since Kobe Myers. Yeah, you need
somebody who you rely on to do that. And I
know people like Fton Chisholm. He had a really good
summer and I who think he is a future in
this league. I don't know that with a young quarterback,
you're just turning to an undrafted rookie kind of sight
unseen in such a major role.

Speaker 2 (01:40:11):
So the other thing that Christian brought up there was
the run game in Pittsburgh, adjusting and being better against
the run, which I think is possible. Especially Hayward and TJ.
Watt is saying like enough of this run game nonsense,
like we're kind of taking over. What I think is
interesting though about the Patriots run game from Week one
to week two. They actually had almost identical success rates

(01:40:33):
in week one to week two. I know it didn't
feel like that, but they were thirty six percent success
rate in week two and a thirty five percent success
rate in week one. Now, they had a couple of
explosive runs in week two that it didn't get in
week one. M Andre's twenty one yarder and Gibson's fifteen
yarder were big plays in this game. But you just
see the balance and how important that balance is to

(01:40:57):
just setting up play action and even if they don't
run the ball super effectively, just committing to the run
early in the game, like they did on Sunday where
they came out against the Dolphins. I think they ran
the ball on the first three plays of the game
that all it does is just set up everything else
that they're trying to do. So even if they're not
running the ball super effectively, I think what they learned

(01:41:19):
from Week one is that you have to still stick
with the run game in the second half. Like they
went away from the run game in the second half
against the Raiders and they lost all of the window
dressing from the offense. They lost all the play action,
they lost all the bootlegging, they lost all the motions. Right,
it was stagnant drop back pass and they just can't

(01:41:40):
play that way. So I think that they learned their
lesson on that. You know, they ran the ball traditionally
in Week one seventeen times. In Week two that was
twenty five times. Like that's just a big difference. Yeah,
oh yeah, it's a huge difference. All Right, Mark is
in Connecticut. What's up? Mark?

Speaker 9 (01:42:00):
Hey, guys, how you guys doing today?

Speaker 2 (01:42:01):
Good bat?

Speaker 9 (01:42:03):
All right, just got two quick things for you are
one observation and then the other one a question. The
first observation that I noticed, and I've been calling for
for a long time on is to use Drake May's abilities,
which is the rolling out of the pocket and getting
them on the move to throw. And that was just
amazing that I saw in the second game versus Miami

(01:42:26):
that they did a lot of that and he just
looked really comfortable doing that, and I'm hoping that they'll
keep incorporating those kind of, you know, attributes that the
kid has into that. The question that I have.

Speaker 15 (01:42:39):
Is Kyle Williams.

Speaker 9 (01:42:41):
Is he a guy that is able to beat the
zone coverage on the outside with his speed and the
strong hands that the kid has. That's my question on
you guys.

Speaker 2 (01:42:51):
Thanks Mark, Yeah, it's a good question. I I look
at Kyle Williams as the guy that's going to be
better off against man like when they can get him
off the line of scrimmage, open them up, get his
speed going, get the dynamic routes similar different body types,
Like he's a little bit bigger than Pop Douglas, but
similar idea as Pop Douglas, where Hollins booty digs. Like

(01:43:13):
those guys are the guys to me that are the
zone beating receivers that are going to find those soft
spots that are going to know, you know, if it's
to cover two, you know, too high safety, like the
corner is going to be trapping or squatting in the
flat and like where's that hole right behind him? Or
if it's cover three, do you have that ability to
run off the corner and then kind of hitch you

(01:43:34):
know underneath it. Like those types of things I think
are more a feel for those guys. And again if
the Steelers play a lot of man coverage, because I
can tell by the calls and the emails that people
want to get Douglas and Kyle Williams going.

Speaker 3 (01:43:47):
I mean, yeah, like you want this because the offense
needs the speed and that's not I don't want to
come across as saying those guys are you know the
fast and conversation there's an and with both of them.
Pop Douglas his ability to win at the top of
the route and manage his ability to create after the catch.
Kyle Williams had to release his ability to get off
the line. He has an ability to create after the
catch as well. But I get it. You want to

(01:44:09):
get the speed going that you can't force it. You
also don't want to just force it and kind of
handcuff yourself from everything else you're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:44:17):
Okay, So a couple of emails to wrap up the
show here. So one theory on running left versus running
right and favoring running left was this is from will
and Toronto talking about the stunting on the left side
that we saw in the preseason that gave Campbell and
Jared Wilson problems. I think one of the things that

(01:44:39):
you might be seeing, and this could go either way.
I could hear arguments for both sides. They're running a
lot more outside zone and actually an outside zone. I
would say the backside blocks are just as important as
the front side blocks because you're trying to set up
those cutback lanes back through the middle of the field.
So if they feel like Moses and on anywhere, they're

(01:45:00):
run blockers like they might. Actually sometimes teams will run
outside zone away from their best blocker so that he
can try to pin down the defense and create those
cutback lanes, So that might be a part of it.
Duo is kind of similar, where like if you run duo,
you're running towards the tight end usually in duo, And
if you want to do that, then like again like

(01:45:21):
kind of bouncing or cutting up the field, it might
be the better path. And if you put your best
blockers on the backside of duo, then you might be
able to kind of set up a crease for them
to cut back that way too. So they did run
power right behind Morgan Moses in the right side, and
Morgan Moses and Austin Hooper were on a double team
that caved in the line and got that twenty one

(01:45:43):
yard run going. So maybe it's your thing is just
the simplest path forward, right, Like, yeah, your best run
blockers run right behind them, But I do think some
of the schemes that they're running in the run game
now might favor your best run blockers actually being on
the back side of the run instead of the front
side of the run. Plus, like, if you want to
try to get the edge on the outside zone, like

(01:46:05):
Campbell's much more likely to get the edge than Morgan
Moses because of his athleticism. So this is from John
and Louisiana. He's making fun of you, Alex. So, Alex,
I watched you and Brian Hines shout out Brian Hines
Dolphins versus Patriots preview, and you said, I quote, if
you want to be that team, go be Miami. We

(01:46:26):
look at all the motion. He just does sound like
something that you would say. Yeah, and that's all that was.
We're playing in my head Sunday because Miami was motioning
us to death. I blame you because that was an
all time quote. Lol.

Speaker 3 (01:46:40):
Who won the game? Which in which coaches? In which
coach is going to be employed at this time next week?

Speaker 2 (01:46:46):
Who ran more motion this week versus last week? Patriots?

Speaker 3 (01:46:51):
Okay, well, the Patriots motion had purpose, the Dolphins got
called for a costly illegal shift penalty, that's true. And again,
who won the game?

Speaker 2 (01:47:00):
Do they?

Speaker 3 (01:47:01):
I have no problem with motion with purpose. Yes, we're
gonna run this guy back and forth left and right
five times because we just want to wear out your corner. Eh.

Speaker 2 (01:47:10):
As Josh McDaniel said, motioning is fun, which I'm his
my words, not his. I think that that's kind of
him being like, all right, your cute little motion, but
it's okay.

Speaker 3 (01:47:21):
Well yeah, no, I think that I think the Dolphins
motion at times out of hubers. I think Mike McDaniel
wants to look cool and wants people to post the
clips on Twitter and be like, what a genius this
guy looks fancy.

Speaker 2 (01:47:32):
There's no doubt about that.

Speaker 3 (01:47:33):
Doesn't do anything. Sometimes it does, so I'm not saying
it always doesn't. But and are the motions he's doing legal?
And if he's getting away with it, fine, credit to him.

Speaker 2 (01:47:42):
But I don't think that their motions at the snap
always have a purpose. The cheap motions where they motion
he'll into the route is like impossible to defend.

Speaker 3 (01:47:51):
You mean the one where he gets a running start.

Speaker 2 (01:47:53):
Yeah, yeah, it's impossible to defend. Uh. Since that email
is picking on you, I'll pick on myself with this email.
Noah emails an Alex are you hearing this? Evan's a
run game apologist. Now I've gotten a couple of these that, like,
you know, people both sides.

Speaker 3 (01:48:08):
But some people are worried, Oh you're in on establishing
the run now, this is great.

Speaker 2 (01:48:11):
Some people are worried that I'm so run game centric
right now is in like, oh god, Evan doesn't think
that they can do anything else good, so they have
to run the ball. And then some people are making
fun of me for being a run game apologist. I
want to be clear about my run game thoughts. My
run game thoughts are running the ball to set up
play action. That's why I want them to run the football.
It's not to be oh, yeah, we're gonna ground and

(01:48:34):
pound and we're gonna we're gonna out at a certain point,
we're gonna be the tougher team and bite knee caps. No,
that's not what it is.

Speaker 3 (01:48:42):
At a certain point. There's not much of a difference
there is. You got to establish the run. You have
to establish the run.

Speaker 2 (01:48:48):
Okay, but I'm just being very crystal clear that it's not.

Speaker 3 (01:48:52):
Is establishing the run important?

Speaker 2 (01:48:53):
Yes or no to this offense? Yes, all right, there
you go. That'd make you happy, Yes, very much. Want
to talk a few injuries here in the last five
minutes of the show. One of them I think is
kind of under the radar. This is from Michael in Pinegrove.
Should we be concerned about Morgan Moses, especially against t
J Watt this week?

Speaker 3 (01:49:14):
Yeah, Yeah, absolutely. I actually got a question in my
mailbag this week that was, what's the drop off from
Morgan Moses to Marcus Bryant. I really didn't know how
to answer it because we didn't don't him right, We
don't have a ton of exposure. I think it's fair
to be encouraged by what you saw from Morgan from
Marcus Bryant this summer, like he had a good summer and.

Speaker 2 (01:49:36):
I didn't.

Speaker 3 (01:49:36):
I don't know that he was a player that was
always going to make the team. I think he earned
his way onto the team and he deserves credit, and
he had a good summer, and happy to see it.
It was a lot against backups and tjo Wat's a
pretty big jump from the average backup you see in
the NFL. So I don't know if the question was
about injury or if it was just about wanting to
bench Morgan Moses because of the false starts or whatever,
which I think would be premissture. Well, the question I

(01:49:58):
got him saying, but because he's from sports have listeners, yeah,
where there's generally a little more emphasis on this guy sucks.

Speaker 2 (01:50:05):
Yeah, but oh I wonder why.

Speaker 3 (01:50:07):
Yeah, I don't know. I honestly I kind of skipped it,
and I apologize because I don't know what the drop
off is. I don't know what more Marcus Bryant's gonna
look like in the NFL. I don't know that this
is the week I want to find out up against TJ.
Watt and kind of drop them in cold. They might
have to depending on where Morgan Moses is at health wise.
But we talked about this before the season. They have

(01:50:28):
so many rookies and key roles, and there were six
that were starting right away. Marcus Bryant is kind of
a quick seventh. Only seventeen tackles last year started all
seventeen games for their teams. Only two teams I think
it was the Titans and Packers had both tackles start

(01:50:49):
all seventeen games. So odds are Marcus Bryant. We're gonna
see him at some point. We're gonna have to find
out ands TJ. Watt might not right now, nothing against
the kid, This is probably not the week want to
do that.

Speaker 2 (01:51:00):
So I think Morgan Moses I know yet I almost
had him on the downs. He was not particularly good
in this game on Sunday, but he also wasn't bad
by any means.

Speaker 3 (01:51:09):
If not for the penalties, I think you kind of
just move on. He wasn't good or bad. He was
kind of fine and would sink it.

Speaker 2 (01:51:16):
And that's such a that's such an improvement from where
their right tackle play has been right that he is
he's really earned that set it and forget it money.
So far, I would say week one he was really
really good against Matt Crosby. That last week he was hurt.
But there's a bunch of reporting coming out of the
locker room postgame in Miami that I think Doug Kyde

(01:51:38):
said he saw him with a boot on his foot.
A lot of limping from Morgan Moses. I would highly doubt,
and this is just speculation and has zero shelf life
because we're going to find out in like two hours.
I would highly doubt that he's going to practice on Wednesday.
I feel like he might be a veteran rest slash
injury rest Wednesday player all year. Yeah, as a thirty

(01:51:59):
four years in this league, So I am a little
bit worried about Morgan Moses. It changes a lot in
my opinion if it's Morgan, if it's Marcus Bryant against
TJ Wytt instead, of Morgan Moses, like now you have
to kind of reinvent your entire UH protection scheme, protection plan,
like you got yeah, one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (01:52:17):
I will say this about Morgan Moses though, and there
was a lot of talk about his age when they
signed him. He plays. He plays, and he'll tough through
it and he'll play hurt. He didn't miss after his
rookie year. He didn't miss a game until twenty twenty three,
and then he's missed three games each the last two years.
It's pretty solid for a tackle to play twenty eight

(01:52:37):
games too over the span of two years. He has
missed some time. The last couple of years, he's gotten
on this other side of thirty. He hope this isn't
one of the game. You don't want him to miss
any games, but this especially, you hope isn't a game
that he misses. But he's not somebody I worry about
being like, I don't want to risk it this week. No,
I think if he can go, he'll go, and if

(01:52:57):
you know, if it means in a walking boot after
the game, he's didn't practice during the week, if he
can get out there on Sunday, he seems like the
kind of guy that will get out there on Sunday.

Speaker 2 (01:53:05):
So last thing here speaking of zero shelf lives. But
there are a bunch of people watching live, do we
or do we not see Christian Gonzales at practice oh
for the next couple of days.

Speaker 3 (01:53:16):
I mean, I feel like Vrabel's saying there's a chance
he plays this week. He's not gonna say that and
then not every practice, right, So.

Speaker 2 (01:53:22):
You're saying there's a chance.

Speaker 3 (01:53:24):
Here's where I'm at with Chris Gonzalez. Yes, I actually
think that what it comes down to is what has
he been able to do behind the scenes. We've talked
about this before. Corner is not a position, not that
practice is not important, but it's not like wide receiver
where you got to get the timing down with the
quarterback and the timing down with the other guys running
the routes and the context of the offense and the chemistry.

(01:53:44):
Corner is it's more in the film room than on
the practice field. The way they're going to play at
man coverage, right, Study this guy, learn his routree, learn
the nuances of his release, things like that, and go
use that against him on Sunday. That's what you do.
So if Gonzales can still do that, it's just what
kind of shape is he in because he hasn't practiced
in six months.

Speaker 2 (01:54:02):
It's a conditioning.

Speaker 3 (01:54:03):
If they've been being especially careful, right and he's still
running around, he's still doing his conditioning on a side field,
he just simply they didn't want him taking the contact,
then he may be able to go this week. If
he returns to practice. If it's actually been bad and
he couldn't even do the conditioning, then you're probably looking
at another week even once he returns to practice.

Speaker 2 (01:54:24):
Or maybe even it's just like third downs, like if
you play him in third downs and like two minute.

Speaker 3 (01:54:29):
Ham strings are just so weird.

Speaker 2 (01:54:31):
It's like, but even that, like if he plays twenty
twenty five snaps, I think it's a good thing to do,
just to kind of.

Speaker 3 (01:54:37):
East back and fields this week for the Jets.

Speaker 2 (01:54:39):
All right, let's hear it for the team. Bob's disconference
just opened. It's two hunder a store and you can
join in on the celebration. Make your way to your
nearest door to shop the latest styles like the Phantom
Power of Clining sofa made for kicking back on game day,
The ELM dining set made with real marble that sure
did to impress the home team, and the style is
Calvin Bedroom Design to help you dream up your next

(01:55:02):
Tailgate party. Plus Tailgate Party Plus you can enjoy free treats,
limited edition stickers, and more surprises this Labor Day weekend.
Stop in and check out the winning lineup at Bob's
Discount Furniture, the official furniture store of the New England Patriots.
All right, don't worry. Two more hours of Patriots Radio
coming up here Patriots Unfiltered. We'll get you going here

(01:55:22):
in a few minutes. Alex and I will be back
next week to talk about the Steelers game in preview
the Carolina Panthers in week before. We're moving now, Alex,
Week three, almost week four. We'll see you guys then.
Thanks for watching.

Speaker 16 (01:55:40):
Hey this is Deuce. Thanks for tuning into the show.
If you really want to help us, make sure you
like us wherever you get your podcasts, like Apple Podcasts
or Spotify. Also make sure you follow us on the
New England Patriots YouTube channel to see this show and
everything else that we do here at the Patriots.

Speaker 3 (01:55:52):
Thanks a lot,

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