Patriots Playbook 10/23: Jets Preview, Maye's Progress, Next Steps for the Pats

John Rooke previews the upcoming rematch against the Jets, discusses Drake Maye's progress over his first two starts and possible next steps the team should take as a whole. Guests include Russell Baxter from ProFootballGuru.com and Nick "Fitzy" Stevens from WEEI & BIG103.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:30):
Patriots Catch twenty two. We'll join Evan Lazar and Alex
Bart every Thursday as they take a deep dive into
the exit, the No's trends, and latest New England Patriots
roster moves.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
And I'm usually into the numbers.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Okay, we do something.

Speaker 4 (00:44):
I'm into the tangible numbers.

Speaker 5 (00:45):
There's there's tame here.

Speaker 3 (00:46):
Just give me there's the advantage.

Speaker 5 (00:49):
How to work it.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
I'm surprised an old man over here. I thought maybe
I'd have to show you, like a pictorial or something.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
How am I old man? To search for Patriots Catch
twenty two? Anywhere you get your podcast.

Speaker 6 (01:07):
On Patriots Flavor Legions upon Chung of brings the heat
Way of Storm from Brady Tost.

Speaker 3 (01:15):
To New Staizon.

Speaker 6 (01:17):
The play Soaper so Horizon into the play Patriots Playbook
is your host Shango Legend Patriots.

Speaker 7 (01:43):
I will come into the program that Patriots played work
for a Wednesday. It is October the twenty third, as
the Patriots get set to take on the Newark Jets
again at Gillette.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
I'm John Rook.

Speaker 8 (01:56):
A little bit of a different setup today, so I'll
apologize off the front for this because for those that
are touring in Matt knows this, and I go ahead
and reveal I guess when we when I got cooking today.
Some of you who have been a part of this
program for a number of years now, since we've been

(02:16):
doing the show for gosh, twenty four years, remember my
son Austin. He's actually been on this show, oh gosh,
periodically throughout the years. He actually when we first started
the show back in the early two thousands, he came
on as a as a sort of a savant idiot savanna,

(02:36):
I'll like to call it, but came on as a
savant making picks and things.

Speaker 9 (02:41):
It was kind of cute for a little kid at
the time.

Speaker 3 (02:43):
Then, of course, I was one of those great father
of the Year awards and decided to uh back off
of that a little bit. Anyway, Austin's getting married this week,
and I don't know why, I'm not I'm not sure why,
but he and his fiance wrote me into doing the ceremony,
so I have a rehearsal to go to this afternoon.

(03:05):
So that's basically what we're gonna we're gonna end up
doing here, and so that's why we've got a little
bit of an abbreviated version of the of the program today.
It's important, though, that we continue to discuss and talk
and go over things, because I'll be honest with you,
this whole soft business, I gotta admit, I'm just not

(03:28):
sure that I'm buying it.

Speaker 9 (03:31):
I think I know what Gerard Mayo was.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
Trying to say, at least I'm I'm of the opinion
that Gerard knows what he was trying to say when he,
you know, used the term soft. Be that as it may.
A lot of times things like that can be taken
out of context, completely taken out of context. And because
of that, I'm not sure that if I were a player,

(03:56):
I would be taking that seriously because I'm trying to
concentrate on the game. I'm trying to concentrate on trying
to get better. I'm trying to concentrate on winning a
football game and and and performing. And I don't think
players really spend a lot of time dealing with that.
And I know it seems like, you know, everything gets
more magnified when things are going south, and yeah, they

(04:21):
you know, listen, the first quarter was fantastic, right, The
first quarter was fantastic this past Sunday and against Jacksonville
in London, and then you had, you know, a scripted
quarter of play, and then it completely went south, and
it went south in literally moments, not even minutes, seconds,

(04:44):
And the second quarter was one of the worst quarters
I've seen this football team play in thirty five years.
And it was twenty two to three in the second
quarter for Jacksonville. And so really, what I thought about then,
what I think about now, and what I think about
needs to happen in the foreseeable future, you know, for

(05:05):
this team is first and foremost. Calling for Girodmeo's firing
doesn't make any sense.

Speaker 9 (05:14):
You're not even in the middle of the season yet.

Speaker 3 (05:16):
Number one. Number two, I think if you're going to
charge a guy with replacing someone who is legendary like
Bill Belichick, that you need to give him half a
chance to, you know, learn how to coach, because I
don't care how much time you spend underneath him as
an assistant or as a player, as Jerad did both.

(05:37):
It's a different bowl game when you got the headsets
on and you're the one responsible for making all of
the calls, it's different. He needs to learn how to
be a head coach. Now, I'll agree, the leash is short,
and you know, he needs a lot of help. La
Wolves has to provide him without help. His assistant coaches

(05:59):
need to provide him with that help. The players themselves
need to provide him with that help. I just don't
know whether or not we're going to get that quick
enough for you or me, or the media especially around here,
to be satisfied with that. This is a tough crowd,
This is a tough market, tough city, tough time to

(06:21):
play in. And when you establish the kind of things
that the Patriots have established over the course of the
last you know, thirty plus years, really twenty three to
twenty five years, I guess and Bill Belichick came around,
and then I can understand why the process is simple,
because it's like, well, jeez, we did it before. Why

(06:42):
can't we do it again? You know, Bill did it.
Why can't draw into it? He played underneath it, He
should know it. Look, these are questions that you can't
really answer, So to me, I think that the best
gauge here is that. And I know the PU guys
were talking about this a little bit earlier in the
program today, and I think this is where the PU

(07:03):
guys are dead.

Speaker 9 (07:05):
On on this. And I've thought this for a while.

Speaker 3 (07:07):
This process simply has to play itself out. It has
to continue to play itself out. It has to continue
to work itself out, and then at the end of
the season, if this team is one in sixteen. And
I gotta admit, this is the first time since this

(07:28):
transformation of this franchise that has a This is now
the first time, following this this game this past Sunday
in London, this is the first time I've thought that
one in sixteen is a real possibility. Nobody wants to
hear that right now. Nobody wants to hear that. Nobody
needs to be happy with that. I'm not happy with that.
I know you're not happy with that. I can't imagine

(07:50):
any Patriot fans would be happy with that. Fans of
any other team in the FC, Easter, anywhere else, or
you know, people who have rooted against the Patriots when
the Patriots were good, you know they'd be happy with that.
You know, figure like, hey, this is a come up,
it's or whatever. But look to me, no, if you
follow this team at all, you know you know that

(08:11):
you're not happy with that. So when do you pull
the plug when do you decide to move on when?
And we're not there yet, I would tell you even
if this team does go one in sixteen, and and
I believe strongly for this number one. You know we
talk about being soft. It's a soft.

Speaker 9 (08:31):
That pulls the plug on its coach seven.

Speaker 3 (08:34):
Or eight weeks into a you know, halfway into the season,
especially in this rookie year. That's soft. You want a
definition of self that's soft. I'm sure we'll spend some
time talking about that today. But I also deemed that unfair.
And I realize this is a business, and I realize
that we're in a what have you done for me lately? World?

(08:55):
In this business, I understand all of that, but I
think if we're going to be fair, then you have
to give you know, when you're when you're really trying
to change direction and rebuild, and literally this is a
rebuild job. Then you have to provide, you know, the
right tools to be really rebuilt with, and then maybe
we can determine whether or not a guy like Gerard

(09:16):
is the right architect for that build. And I don't
think they've been provided with the right tools yet. And
I'm willing to give all a Wolf more of an
opportunity to do that. I think he deserved that as
the primary you know, player, personnel director, GM, whatever you
want to call him, you know, with the Patriots, I

(09:37):
think he deserves that opportunity. Did he do well this
last year? For a first shot, you'd have to say, nope,
there's some definite room for improvement. The fact that they've
left the offensive line and the shape that it's in
is egregious. But then again, I know some people. I
had a couple of friends of mine tell me just

(09:57):
the other day to say, hey, this seasons already a
bonus for me because of what we've seen of Drake May.
Part of the reason why since day one, and you
guys who have listened to the show previous to this today,
you know, this is where I stood on Drake May
since day one. Played him in, you drafted him, play him.

(10:18):
I think you learned better by doing rather than sitting
back and paying attention. Well, hey, he sat back for
the first five weeks. Now he's doing and he's showing
that he has some ability. He just may not have enough.
You know, bullets in his host, in his gun chamber
and in his holster. You know, he just doesn't have

(10:39):
a whole lot to fire away with right now, and
I think that's the biggest concern that we have. So again,
this is a long process, and I think you've got
to go more than just one half of the first
season before we get there. Does that make this any
easier to take? No, it does not make this any
easier to take. It doesn't.

Speaker 9 (10:55):
And I would concur with you in that it's a
what have you done for me lately?

Speaker 3 (11:00):
Business? What can you do now for me? Business? And
let's capitalize the word business. Patriots are worth a lot
of money. Patriots have a lot of money. They need
to spend the money if they want to get the
team and the program back to where it's a customed
to be placed over the last twenty twenty five years.

(11:21):
They've got a ways to go, and that's going to
be up to the Crafts and the Craft family to
understand that, realize that, and then to you know, pull
the trigger on that. And if they're able to do
that and the people that you get in here aren't performing,
then that's when you start saying, Okay, next up. And
I don't think we're there yet. As frustrating as watching

(11:43):
that second quarter last Sunday was against Jacksonville. We aren't
there yet, all right, Coming up in the program, we
get a lot of things that we're going to get to,
you know, in terms of the softness and all the
other stuff that we're talking about. But I will tell you,
at least at first that, oh goodness, now my computer's

(12:07):
decided to reset. Hopefully you still got me on the
air here. Why does this never happen in the studio?

Speaker 5 (12:15):
All right?

Speaker 3 (12:16):
This program? Patriots fans, if you want to see Toyota's
best offers, includingo is not seen on TV, go to
buy a Toyota dot com. It's Toyota's official website for
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Let's go places, and of course our programs here on
Patriots dot Com Radio I brought to you by bud Light,
Easy to Drink, easy to enjoy. Bud Light, the official

(12:37):
beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. Open up the
phones eight five five pats five hundred, eight five five
pats five hundred. The TPX hotline is open and available.
Let's go to Trey in Memphis, because Trey, Frankly, i'd
like to know where you've been, Bunny. How's it going?

Speaker 10 (12:55):
What's going on? John?

Speaker 3 (12:59):
How are you?

Speaker 10 (13:01):
Man? I'm doing good? How are you? John?

Speaker 3 (13:03):
Everything's good, brother, everything's good. I'm having a really hard
time hearing you. So I'm gonna jack all my levels
up here and hopefully we can have a conversation.

Speaker 10 (13:12):
All right, can't you hear me?

Speaker 3 (13:13):
Now?

Speaker 9 (13:14):
I've got you.

Speaker 3 (13:15):
I think it's all on my end, so that's why
I will. I'll be able to hear you a little bit.

Speaker 10 (13:20):
All right, I got hear you very well.

Speaker 3 (13:22):
I got you. I got you.

Speaker 10 (13:26):
Yeah, sometime, man, I've been I've been listening. I just
had been calling is. I got a new job, so
I got new hours, more money. So well, it's kind
of hard to know, get it, sand to get it
chance to calling in.

Speaker 3 (13:40):
So well, I'm glad you took the time, Buddy, was
hoping everything was okay.

Speaker 10 (13:47):
Oh yeah, man, everything is going well. Like I said,
I've been listening, you know, every week, and so you know,
it's been a very very interesting season, Donna. I didn't
have any high expectations, but I damn show didn't see
run and see.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
Well, look I knew Trey that I thought one in
six would probably be in the equation.

Speaker 9 (14:13):
I was, I think, hopeful that you.

Speaker 3 (14:17):
Know, this team would figure out a way to win
two or three games out of the first six.

Speaker 9 (14:21):
It didn't turn out that way.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
I would tell you that you could knocked me over
with a feather before the season started if the one
win was actually going to be the openering in Cincinnati,
I would not have expected that. So right, So, I mean,
already it's sort of defied expectations, even at one and six,
and I didn't expect this team to be you know,
four and two, five and one or anything like.

Speaker 9 (14:43):
I never expected that. I knew though this was gonna
be a struggle.

Speaker 3 (14:46):
I was hopeful before the year started that this team
would figure out a way to win four or five,
maybe six games. I'm not sure that it's gonna be
that way. In fact, look, we still get a long
way to go. But I'm listen, based on what we
saw this last week, does this team look like he
could win three or four games? Now?

Speaker 10 (15:03):
Well, John, John, I'm gonna be honest with you. So
when I when they named Drake may the not Drake
Mayon da Kobe brussit the starter. So I really started
to say, okay, well, you know I never felt that

(15:24):
he was good. You know, they started to start off
the season. Yeah, well really started out because I always
wanted to see the kids. I mean, so you know,
the players get better by plane, and I honestly all
believed that if Drake made for the start of the season,

(15:46):
I think we would we would have more than just
one win. I mean because when you look at it, Jude,
I mean, the kids has all the intangibles, and he
has a dimension that as a defensive coordinator that you
have to pay attention to because the kid is athletic
enough to run that He's not a blazer, I mean,
but the kids moved with af leticism. He can make

(16:10):
some of those off the platform throws. I mean, the
kid has a strong arm. I know what you think.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
About that, well, I mean I would tend to agree.
That's why one of the reasons why I've been calling
for him, uh, you know, since week one, because I
thought he gave them the best chance to win. He
was the best quarterback coming out of summer camp, and
yet they kept saying they were gonna bring him along
more slowly, and I'm like, well, are we in the
business of winning? Games or or are we in the

(16:36):
business of bringing guys along slowly. I wasn't sure what
the priority was, and I guess, look, I guess I
can understand the bigger picture, but I still think we're
in the business of winning games here. Based on the
reactions that I've gotten from fans all over the place
and from people in the media, even are clamoring for,
you know, more results one way or the other. It

(16:59):
seems to me that we're still the business of winning
games around here, and they can't do it without their
best players on the field. And so, yeah, I mean,
do I think they could be a little bit better
had he started from from week one? Possibly? I think
it's possible that they could have won, you know, maybe
the Seattle game. I think it's yeah, I think they

(17:21):
could have maybe the Miami game certainly, but we don't
know for sure, but yeah, they could be I mean,
they're one and six. I think in the best best
case scenario, this team would be at three and four,
best case scenario right now, Trey, I appreciate the chance
to talk to you a little bit here, buddy, our

(17:43):
buddy Fitzie a ka Nick Stevens. The Six Rings Podcast
on w E E. I and a fellow partner in
crime at Jellette Stadium for home games kind enough to
join us on the program today.

Speaker 9 (17:55):
FITZI, what's up today?

Speaker 3 (17:56):
Ma Man?

Speaker 2 (17:57):
All right, Rook, I got an idea. I think basically,
considering the way that the season is going right now,
I need you to change your signature line or at
least potentially alter it going forward for the rest of
the season.

Speaker 5 (18:08):
Okay, So it's what am I gonna?

Speaker 3 (18:10):
What am I gonna call him? Now? What am I
gonna Now?

Speaker 2 (18:12):
It's it's gonna be good for another Patriots fan extended
frown because wow, we got some work. This is this
is uh yeah, well good thing. Good to know at
least John that well, it may be a soft football team,
you are not a soft analyst, and this is.

Speaker 5 (18:31):
No soft program.

Speaker 3 (18:33):
I appreciate that you're saying that a lot of people
think this is a soft program because you know, we worked.

Speaker 9 (18:39):
For the Patriots naturally.

Speaker 3 (18:40):
But as I've explained, and I started to explain and
I think fits me a couple of weeks ago, you know,
when there was some issue you know with several in
the media and especially Patriots media, that you know, the
only way that this worked when we started this venture
twenty four years ago, was we had to be we
had we had to be reporters, we had to be

(19:02):
you know, opinionators, opinion makers even and as long as
we were not unfair.

Speaker 9 (19:09):
And I think that we've largely done that.

Speaker 3 (19:11):
And we can call you know, the kettle black, and
we can call you know, the rainbows the rainbows, and
we can.

Speaker 9 (19:18):
There's a lot of things that we can do here.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
But I think the one thing that fans need, and
what we all really need, is a little dose of honesty.
And and I think, you know, you bring up the
soft thing from this past week, and I admit, look,
I knew right away what Gerd was saying. Why do
I because I heard coaches talk about, y'all, we're soft, Oh,

(19:41):
we're this, you know, and they're saying that just to
get a rise out of their players. That's really why
coaches say that. I don't think they really mean that.
In fact, I don't think anybody who plays in the
National Football League is soft.

Speaker 9 (19:56):
You can't be soft.

Speaker 3 (19:57):
If you're soft, you wouldn't be an NFL caliber athlete.
So the soft thing, I'm sort of abused by it.
I'm not even amused. I'm be mused, right, and I
just but it just seems like to have taken on
a life of its own. And I'm just curious to
know what you guys have talked about, you know, not

(20:17):
only on the pod, but what you think of the
public perception of Oh, well, the Patriots are soft. They
need to get tougher, and maybe they need to start
internally by letting a guy like Mayo go. I found
the whole thing remarkably ridiculous.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Well as far as how Gerrodmeo handled the situation in
the postgame the last two weeks, because obviously we listened
to and live by every single word of it between
the podcast too and the live postgame show and everything
that I do down at the stadium in fan service
of my favorite football team of Foxborough. You know, Mayo
has to be prepared for the for the blowout and
the reaction when he's desperate to try to light a

(20:54):
spark or get his team going, so he lobs that
flash grenade in the room, like you're the head coach.
You're not just the eventsive play call. You're not the
raw rock guy. You're not just everybody's bet, everybody's best
or a social media follow You're the head coach, so
when you call for that smoke, you best be prepared
for it not only from your players, but your fan
base and one of the most you know, dedicated, loyal, passionate,

(21:15):
and intelligent media bases in all of professional North American
sports as well. I understand what he was looking for.
I understand what he was saying as well. John, I
completely get it. Uh, it just feels a little early
to go from last week saying hey, I told the
guys they should be disappointed in themselves or that they
played like crap, and this week to say, you know,

(21:36):
we're a soft football team, because guess who that is
a reflection of, John, or rather I should be saying, Hey, Girod,
mister Mayo, coach Mayo, whatever you want to be called.
This is now thunderbuddy, whatever you know, guess who this
is a reflection of. For this team to go from
week one, take him to the hill with all the
ass kicking that took place in Cincinnati, to six weeks later,

(21:58):
we're a soft football team. I understand that there have
been significant injuries, and you know, a baseball team is
going to stink defensively if they lose their start and catcher,
start and short stop and starting center fielder, which is y. Yeah,
the Patriots have lost Barmore, Bentley and Peppers, the strong,
gut and spine of the defense. And we'll get to
other people hopping on the criticism of Mayo and the

(22:21):
defense in a second. You know, yeah, you've lost the
spine and you've lost a lot of the toughness. But
who is that a reflection of? I mean, it's obviously
a reflection on the coach and the coaches and what
they're able to get out of these guys. And if
people have already on the team sold off the season
and basically decided to make business decisions or emotionally or
professionally freelanced and not really care, that's a bad indictment

(22:44):
of the way that he's able to rally this room together.
And dude, it's not even Halloween.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
Which is amazing. So I mean, yeah, I think we
realized that there's there are a lot of extenuating circumstances here,
and I think those are the things that we need
to remember most as fans following up media whatever that
you know, you know, we thought this defense was going
to be good and your head the middle basically ripped
out of it. We thought that the offense could be good,

(23:12):
and you decided to sit your rookie quarterback number three,
you know, draft pick overall, you know, out the first
five weeks of the season or whatever, you know, it
turns out to be. And so it's kind of like, well,
you know, then we get back to the whole issue
of the plan. I'm not really sure that there ever
really was a plan definitively other than we want to

(23:32):
take this thing slowly. But what the thing it slowly
did was just accentuate the problems that this team, this roster,
the way it was constructed, it's accentuated the problems that
it has. And so now it's kind of like, well,
we have to be almost defensive now and bring them
in because we got nothing.

Speaker 9 (23:50):
We got no other bullets left and our gun year.

Speaker 3 (23:53):
And that's where I think the biggest first misstep was
taken this year.

Speaker 9 (23:59):
When you have good players, you need to play good.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
Players in this league, you know, and I've been straight
about this from day one. People who listen to the show,
they know it, you know, they read what you know
we talk about on social media or in my column.
They know. This is the way that I long thought,
and it's only because I've learned one or two things
in covering the National Football League for more than forty years.

(24:22):
And the fact of the matter is is that when
everything is equal, when everybody's got the same amount of
talent on their roster, and I think we have discovered
is that the Payriots don't yet as everybody else. But
when you do have amongst your your starters the amount
of talent, you've got to play the guys that you
know can get the job done. And so if you're
telling me that you didn't know Drake May couldn't get

(24:45):
the job done, then why'd you take him at third? Well,
I mean you needed a quarterback. Eh, Well, I don't know.
I think that they just miscalculated on Jacoby a little bit.
I think they like him. I think like his toughness.
I think he could, you know, accept the role that
he was handed. But I gotta admit I'm didn't see

(25:08):
anything there. And and of course then right when you
compound that with you know, the offensive line and some
injuries that they've had, you know, in the running back
corps and wide receivers, that are still having issues. And
you know, Jalen Polk now he's in concussion protocol this
week and he's had a hard time holding onto the
football and that frustrates a lot of people. And there's
no real overt explanation for it other than abe, we

(25:31):
just swung and whiffed, And so what is what? What
are the connections, What are the base hits we're gonna
you know, mixed metaphors here, what are those going to
start happening? And that's what everybody, I think is most
frustrated about.

Speaker 2 (25:44):
Yeah, you know, you were talking to the previous caller
tray about you know, you're pretty sure that this this
organization and operation is still in the business of winning
football games. Let's just get back to being in the
business of providing entertaining football games. Because if we're if
we're being completely honest, uh, since the Seattle game a
very winnable game, an incredibly winnable game that the Patriots

(26:06):
had a chance to start the season mind blowingly too
and oh on and kind of blew for a number
of reasons. Uh, you know, I don't even want to
go back into the sack and then the blockfield goal,
and and everything else. But you know, let's go back
to the off season real quick. I you know, I don't.
If you want the receipts of the tape, I'll be
happy to dig them up in the digital archives of EEI.
But I had a time for not Ja Kobe Prissett Gladly.

(26:29):
I wanted Heave ho Joe. I wanted old Joe from
the Jersey on the Joe from Jersey off the couch.
Joe Flacco would have been the perfect backup quarterback to
bring in who could have helped you win some more
football games and at the same time drafted along a rookie.
I also was on board. And uh and and look,
and I'll say this, Look who Look who ran the

(26:51):
Stfanski slash h Van Pelt offense to the best it's
probably been run in the last five years. Joe Flacco
when he came in last year when Deshaun Watson went
down for the season, and he came and he looked
awesome all the way up until Cinderella, you know, Cinderella
Slipper turned into a pumpkin in the wild card game
against the Texans, who are kind of a thing now.

(27:12):
Flacco would have been would have been perfect, uh, you know,
a big arm, and obviously he had a connection with
those guys. I think that would have been a better choice.
And when it came into the draft, look we can't.
You know, we're only in control of our now and
not our back then. But I also wanted them to
trade back a little bit, have a quarterback, maybe not
one top three and look, Drake May, like right now, hey,

(27:34):
you could easily say, John like, oh yeah, we got
a quarterback. All we gotta do is surround him with
fifty two other guys and we'll have a football team.
He's a thing. Drake May is excellent. He's he's likable,
he's affable, he seems unflappable. Not the biggest raw ro
guy in the world, but certainly has a laser rocket
arm and a much greater understanding of the of the
offense in the NFL game, which is obviously what had

(27:57):
Brian da Ball looking at him the same thing that
you know, the same way that I look at a
cold beer and a cheeseburger after every Patriots post game
on a Sunday. I wanted we need it, John, We
needed to We needed some hardball ball. You can't build
a house by starting with the master bedroom in a
hot tub. You gotta lay a foundation. This is a
gut reno. This is a massive rebuild for this team,

(28:18):
and to you know, and to go out and get
a to go to Jordan's Furniture and Best Buy and
get a five thousand dollars sofa and an eighty five
inch o LD TV and then be like, crap, where
are we going to put it? Oh, we don't have
a house. That's basically what you kind of have now
with me. So the kid is the kid is terrific,
but we don't have we don't have a foundation.

Speaker 5 (28:37):
There's no tackling.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
I almost feel like it's war criminal aft the way
that they went about handling this offensive line in the
off season. I mean, you're up to twelve O linemen,
a fifth left tackles tooks a corps for going on,
as Crocodile Dundee called it, a walk about. He might
be at the smartest guy in New England walking away
from right.

Speaker 9 (28:58):
He got out ahead of the firing squad.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
Hey, look, but you know your your analogies are spot on.
We're funny and they're spot on. I think you know
what we have to realize now is that you know,
you know, basic y fum, you know, what are you
going to do now? And Okay, that that's kind of
where we are with this, and so where do you
go from this point forward? You still have your one

(29:22):
and six, You played seven games, you have nine games
left to play, started this week against the Jets. Oh,
by the way, we.

Speaker 2 (29:28):
Have already been out, John Nice, All right, John Nice, right,
we have ten okay.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
Ten games left right, seventeen games right right?

Speaker 9 (29:35):
We played seven, we got ten left right.

Speaker 3 (29:38):
See, it's wistful thinking, fits, it's wishful thinking. And the Jets,
the Jets had their best offensive performance of their season,
and they're just two and five. So no matter how
bad you think that, there's always somebody out there that
always has it worse, you know the old adage. And
I kind of feel that's where these two teams are
heading into this week's game, that they wow, who's going

(30:01):
to survive this mess? Right? And we learned today that
you know, of course, they played as well as they
could have played, I think, and had their best offensive
performance against the Patriots, and of course then righting for that,
they fire Robert Salad.

Speaker 9 (30:12):
They make the change an offensive coordinator.

Speaker 3 (30:15):
And now we don't really know yet what we might
see of the Jets had Gillet this Sunday because there
was you know a little bit of an issue with
a potential hamstring injury, you know, with Rogers, Aaron Rodgers.
So I mean, I don't know how to keep them out,

(30:35):
but I would tell you that, man, how quickly the
things are changing a month's time.

Speaker 2 (30:39):
Oh my god, can you believe that Sunday? You know,
the you know, maybe it won't be you, maybe they'll
be starage on the microphone before the game gets going.
Welcome to Jillette Stadium. It's Hell and the cellars. Today
is a battle between the one and sixth Patriots and the.

Speaker 3 (30:55):
Two and hell. Good way to put it, Hell on
a cell.

Speaker 2 (30:58):
I honestly, yeah, it's it's it's unthinkable that it would
be one in six versus two and five. I'm sure
the Jets are donned as well, because you know, the
game three on Thursday of football, they absolutely blasted the
Patriots twenty four to three. Wasn't even indicative of how
how far apart the teams were on that Thursday night,
And uh, yeah they're a mess now. But you know

(31:20):
what here's the big The big difference is, you know,
the Craft family, the entire operation and organization, needs to
stay the course for a while and really do some
due diligence and think about some of the fixes that
they're going to need to make in season and especially
off seasons, so they don't join the Jets and so
much of the rest of the NFL in the dysfunctional

(31:40):
morass of reactionary poor ownership. The Jets decided to scapegoat
Robert Sala because you know, rot comes from the top down,
and they're just not a poorly run franchise. And have
they been any better since? Have they been any better
since Todd downing Abbey decided to become the play caller
and not Nate I can't hack it? Nope, in the
least bit, they're the exact same team, even Affing after

(32:03):
adding Devonte Adams as well. So what the Patriots need
to do? Two things. One, Alex van Pelt needs to
stop overthinking things. Andy Hart reminded me of this the
other day on our podcast. John Remember back in twenty
twenty one, the Browns came to town and the Patriots
ended up absolutely waxing them, like thirty eight ten thirty
eight seven in the mac Jones rookie season. But on

(32:25):
the opening drive, Stefanskian and Van Pelt were calling plays
and Baker Mayfield was the quarterback. De Ernest Johnson was
the backup running back. They marched all the way down
the field and ultimately Baker Mayfield through a touchdown too
Patriots tight end Austin Hooper. And what did the Browns
decide to do after what they did on the opening
drive worked well, scripted, got away from it through the

(32:47):
rest of the game, and the Patriots clabbed them. This
is exactly what they did last week in Jacksonville. Nice
play action, mixing up all the play calls, letting Drake
run the field. They looked awesome those first two drives,
and then for some reason they decided, hey, you know what,
this is too easy throwing against the thirty second ranked
pass defense in the NFL. Let's start running into the

(33:07):
teeth of Jacksonville's strength, which is their rush defense. And then,
of course, the Levy broke on the other side, and
what should have been like a showcase victory for the
Patriots turned into another get right game for a poverty
franchise in the face of the Jaguars, jeff But go
back to nineteen ninety three, ninety four, if you look
back to when other coaches took over Belichick two thousand

(33:30):
ninety seven. If I were Girod Mayo and I were
given one lifeline, one phone call from jail, which is
where he probably feels like he's in right now, I
would call Built, I would call Bill Parcels, and I
would ask him what did he do in the face
of all the criticism rebooting the franchise when he had
a strong arm quarterback. Eventually, what they decided was the
hell of it, Just grip it and rip it kid. We

(33:51):
need to go back to you know, seventy past attempts
and the good old days of Jefferson and Brisbee Coates
and Kevin Kevin Turner and just you know, hang him
high and let him fly. At least the hands will
be like you gave us a little bit of a show.
I see, we have the kid. Hopefully we keep him
up right the rest of the way, and that will
allow Girod Mayo to get to work on taking away

(34:12):
all the receivers, cell phones and social media accounts, getting
the defense to be accountable. No more freelancing and above all,
no more internal criticizing. Say less, do more.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
I'm right there with you. Let's will sim well put.
Let's just let's try to have fun with it. Let's
not worry so much about the bigger picture. That's for
the people who are above our hay grade, our pay
grade to worry about. But in the meantime, you know,
how do we make chicken salad out of chicken feathers?
And that's kind of what we have to I think
we do from this point forward. We'll put thanks for

(34:43):
joining us, but appreciate you jumping in for a little
bit today and go get him.

Speaker 9 (34:47):
I know I'll see you on Sunday, won't I yes.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
Here you most certainly will see you down the stadium.
I'll be on the other side of your voice, giving
away tickets on the jumbo tron, providing everything the fans
service they can, and if you need to voice your
frustrations Sunday after the game, I'll be there with you
on the Six Rings post game show live on Wei.
You'd be good, John, Thanks brother.

Speaker 3 (35:07):
There you go it. Thanks man. I want to go.
I got to get a couple of those got to
get a shot at a couple of those trivia questions that
he does for those you know Jet Blue tickets in
the stadium. Damn, those are easy questions. I'd like to
get free airfareware of a Jet Blue flies right emails
coming in podcasts at Patriots dot com, Josh sends this

(35:27):
note he designed for one wake Up every day, Thankful
that May was in a twenty twenty one Pats draft pick.
Imagine Joe Judge and Matt Patricia developing our star hasset
sends a shiver down my spine, and well, I agree
with Paul's point earlier that a season under a bad
all O line won't ruin May or potentially lead to
a collabitous injury. Two plus seasons with this level of

(35:48):
line play would certainly pose a threat to May's development.
May's development not being impacted by bad O line play
is predicated on the line improving over time. I agree
with that Bill showed little interest in providing Mac with
the requisite line talent. Who's to say he'd act any
different where May were our twenty twenty one pick. That's

(36:09):
that's worth worth considering. I think that's worth considering here.
Let's Sean and Vancouver Shawn, are you still on the line, buddy.

Speaker 5 (36:20):
I'm here, John.

Speaker 3 (36:21):
How are you hey? Sean? How are you good? To
hear from you?

Speaker 11 (36:24):
Don It's great to talk to you as always. You're
the best, you know. I called in to Pee yesterday
to try and make a kind of an elaborate point,
but Paul jumped all over me right before I can
really say anything, and they cut me off. I was
just mentioning, oh, yeah, he's got his opinions, so and

(36:47):
you know he knows better than I do, or or
you know, the official game book. But that's fine. Wasn't
really what I was trying to get to. But you know,
first of all, for your side, I just want to
say tell everybody I was wrong. You know, I should
never not make predictions. You should not listen to me
when I make predictions. The Patriots did not win, and
they did not come close, so that's definitely wrong on

(37:10):
that one. My apologies for leading anyone astray.

Speaker 3 (37:17):
Now.

Speaker 11 (37:18):
Watching the game, I say it's nine, The playbook says
it's nine. Maybe it was five. I don't know, but
what from my eyes, it looked like the Patriots on
first down, not that I say they shouldn't run the ball.
You've got to run the ball, but don't. When it's
not working, you got to adjust, and they just couldn't
run the ball down the middle. It just wasn't working.

Speaker 3 (37:42):
And well, the adjustments haven't been there at all. And
that's my biggest disappointment with this coaching staff is that,
you know, whatever adjustments are being made, they aren't the
right adjustments. In fact, you could make an argument that
the adjustments that are being made aren't really even being made.
I think you can clearly say that with the exception
of the first week against Cincinnati, this coaching staff has

(38:04):
been out coached in the other six games, and that
is fundamentally an issue. It is an issue, and I'm
willing to give these guys a little bit of time
on this though, because again, they're all in positions that
nobody has really been in as the number one guy before.
So you know, when it comes to you know, Alex
van Pelton, and I've known Alex for almost forty years

(38:26):
since he was in high school, it comes to DeMarcus
Cutington obviously, Girodmeo and everybody else that it is in
between the positions that they're in me that there must
be results and so if they're having a hard time adjusting,
then they need to understand that if they don't figure
it out pretty quickly before this year is over, that

(38:49):
when the year is over, there will be an adjustment
in personnel on the coaching staff. There has to be.
You can get rid of coaches and move coaches around
and bring other people in a lot quicker than you
can guys who are under contract as players. I think
we all understand that. But my issue here is is that, Okay,
when you keep turning this roster over of coaches, it's

(39:11):
kind of like what happened with Bill late in his tenure.
That didn't help any of these players. They didn't help
Mac Jones. And we know it didn't help Mac Jones.
So but you keep doing that, and now you're going
to have another voice and a somebody else's ear. You're
not helping yourself. So this is where leadership at the
top needs to know which direction we're going and we're

(39:33):
sticking with it. I don't know that we have that
here And that's my best largest concern right now.

Speaker 11 (39:42):
Yeah, and it is concern. I mean, people are clamoring
for their jobs already and it's year one. Their rookies
in terms of coaching as well. I mean, yeah, alex
and Pelots has been an offensive corner, but I don't
think he's had this kind of responsibility in terms of
being planning and adjustments before. So they're all learning on
the job and and and they have to be held

(40:03):
accountle but that doesn't mean they need to be shown
the door. They need they need to just improve and
they need to adjust and fix things. And I can
understand why running up the middle. They probably thought that worked.
They might have confidence in it because maybe during the
week when they were practicing at work, because the defense
couldn't stop the run at all.

Speaker 3 (40:21):
Yeah, and that's the big problem.

Speaker 11 (40:23):
And you know, when and when the head coach says
they're playing soft, that's on him as well. You know
they're playing sotoft because you're allowing them to play souff.
You've got to make that adjustment. You've got to do
things to help them. You've got to they're running seventeen
times against you, you have to change the actual defense.
Put in a jumbo package after four or five times,
maybe they'll complete a pass, but at least stop them

(40:44):
from doing what's working over.

Speaker 5 (40:46):
And over again.

Speaker 11 (40:46):
That's just embarrassing and that doesn't happen.

Speaker 9 (40:48):
A good point, Sewan.

Speaker 3 (40:50):
They're coaching sold you call them the players solved, and frankly,
the coaching is a bit soft because you're not adjusting
to the adversity that they're clearly facing out on the field.
And so again, it's all a part of this big
learning curve that this brand new coaching staff and these
younger players are on.

Speaker 9 (41:08):
They've got to learn how to adjust.

Speaker 3 (41:10):
Now, there's enough veteran leadership on this team that should
be able to step up on I know the p
you guys were talking about this earlier today as well.
We need somebody to step up and say, damn it,
this is what we got to go do, and we
don't have that right now. We may not have that.
It could be Drake May because the quarterback is sort
of the defact leader on a team anyway, but being

(41:33):
a rookie, he's gonna he's gonna defer that to the
guys who've been around for a while. You need some
of that help. And frankly, the one guy that I
think that could make a big difference here. Two guys,
three guys, they can make a big difference here and
all the three guys up the middle defensively that are
not playing. You can start with Bentley, who normally wears
the green dot on the back of his helmet anyway

(41:54):
making the play calls, and then bar More upfront, and
then Pepper's in the back. Those are three guys that
are tone setters. They're not playing for you right now,
that's yeah, and they already.

Speaker 11 (42:07):
The hope is, you know, for for twenty twenty five
with those players. But in the meantime, you got to
do something right now. I don't know if that means bringing
in another linebacker or another big nose tackling or.

Speaker 3 (42:20):
Who you're going to bring in at this stage of
the game. Who you bringing on stream free agents won't
help you any more than what you already have on
your roster. That's that's the that's a common misconception, Oh,
bring somebody else in, well, who because if there were
the damn ramy on somebody else's fifty three.

Speaker 11 (42:38):
Yeah, and the Great Cups in three weeks here in Canada.
I don't know the CF is going to really help
you on that.

Speaker 9 (42:45):
You wouldn't know that you would know that. Seaw good
to talk to you.

Speaker 3 (42:48):
I appreciate the time to everybody as always, Thank you,
uh Marine, we found Russell.

Speaker 6 (42:55):
A real woman could stop you from drinking.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
Ye's a real big woman.

Speaker 4 (42:59):
It's time to go around the NFL with football, gurlu
Russell Baxter now on.

Speaker 3 (43:05):
Your name is Flounders on Patriots playbook. I mean the
subject matter this week is, you know, Russell has been
the Patriots, you know, coachings to have callings some of
the players soft or at least playing soft. I figure
you wouldn't know soft as well as anybody. And I'm

(43:34):
not hearing him at all. Man may have to try
this again. Yeah, that's not gonna happen, all right, we
lost him, No worries at all. Before we then move

(43:56):
on to something else is Patty and Agawam'm still on
the line. How are you there?

Speaker 12 (44:08):
I'm still here, Johnny? What's going on?

Speaker 3 (44:10):
Heyboddy? How were you? How's it going.

Speaker 10 (44:13):
Going? All right?

Speaker 7 (44:15):
Yeah?

Speaker 12 (44:16):
I just wanted to say that I think I think
the narrative around like firing man Pel firing Covington, firing
Mayo was all it's all a bit premature, I mean,
and just to kind of piggyback off what Sean Vancouver said,
like this is they're all doing this for the first time,
you know, and I have.

Speaker 5 (44:36):
A rookie quarterback.

Speaker 12 (44:38):
It's everything is all brand new. I mean, I don't
know about you, but like, barring some kind of crazy scandal,
like this team just gets a free pass at least
for me for the year, because I knew going into
the season that they probably weren't going to be very good.
It probably wasn't going to look very good to start off,

(45:00):
but it kind of did. And I just, you know,
the thing I've been consistent with, and I think some
of the guys in PU have said this, and I
believe you said this too. You just want to see
throw of steady progress to close out the season, get
a little momentum going, and then hopefully you're in good
enough position to take a blue chip impact player at

(45:22):
one of the positions of need. And the draft has
come in yere.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Yeah, you know, and we're so anxious for this stuff
to happen now because we're you know, we're always you know,
what have you done for me lately? You know, society
here and because we're so unused to, you know, the
things that have transpired here, people don't realize that you know,
I'll steal a well worn cliche here, but you know,
Rome wasn't built in a day. I think that even

(45:48):
the Patriots back you know, when Bill Belichick vers came here,
they weren't built in a day or even a year either.
It took them the better part of two full seasons
before you kind of started seeing things roll out. It
took them all of two thousand and most of two
thousand and one. Remember, you know the game in Foxborough
Stadium they played, you know, the the Rams at the time,

(46:09):
and lost to the Rams, dropped them to five and five,
and then they ended up ripping off what six, seven,
eight games in a row, nine games in or whatever
it was, you know, to ultimately you know, beat the
Rams in the super Bowl that year. But I'm just saying,
you know, there was no previous indication that that kind
of performance was going to happen. So I think what

(46:31):
we have to do is just figure out a way
where where we can start. And I think the start
happened a couple of weeks ago when they finally inserted
Drake May into the lineup. Now we need to find
something else that will kickstarted. And unfortunately, when you get
to week seven week eight. Now on the regular season,
you also have injuries that you have to deal with

(46:53):
because it's a long season and rosters are just not
as deep as you would like them to be, and
so on defense, which we thought would be a strong
point for this team, you're kind of starting over and
other guys are having to step into the fray. Now
they're going to have to play. So at least, at
the very least, we'll learn who can play for you

(47:14):
in a pinch, and who can who should be a
part of your rotation, and maybe who you should try
to move on from and look for more help in
the next off season. So there are small things that
you can do. As bad as it will was last
weekend in London, I'm still thinking, well, at least you know,
we know what can happen if we're playing these guys,
or we know that this guy can't play in this situation,

(47:37):
or we know that Drive Mail and or his staff
need help in making adjustments. I mean, we're able to
figure things out. So as we're figuring things out, it
may not be a positive, but at least we're moving upward.
We're figuring things out, and that's how you get it.
Taking small step closer closer to where you want to
be in terms of being competitive or even a playoff team.

Speaker 12 (47:59):
Couldn't agree more. And I got a question, just one
more question, John, and I'll give you my prediction for Sunday.
Do you think they should let Polk sit for like
a week or two to collect themselves and give Javon
Baker a chance? Because definitely, I would like I would
like to see them give them a chance, you know,
and I agree. I mean, I don't know if he's

(48:22):
just overconfident or just has delusions of grandeur, but yeah,
like I mean, if if you're going to say you
have the best hands in the n go out and
prove it.

Speaker 9 (48:32):
I agree one hundred percent.

Speaker 3 (48:34):
I think they should probably give him that kind of
an opportunity to do that. And if they're if they're able,
uh uh, you know, to set him. And they may
be doing that anyway, because you know, the of the
concussion protocol this week, so we don't know how he's
going to end up.

Speaker 9 (48:49):
But yeah, I think you need to.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
Start learning who on this roster can help you before
you start going through your wholesale fire. You know, you
know your or your wholesale fire sale changes. Okay, all right,

(49:21):
Patty and drop my apologies, gang, my apologies. Things seem
to be kind of a you know, a piece together
my home computer in my own studio here. All right,
did you say Russell was back?

Speaker 9 (49:34):
Yes he is, hopefully, Yes, hopefully, I'm here.

Speaker 5 (49:39):
Your phone lines are sawt.

Speaker 3 (49:43):
There is?

Speaker 5 (49:44):
I think I have you now, Your phone lines are saw.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
Anybody there? Ire?

Speaker 9 (49:58):
Okay, gotcha, I got you, Yes, I got you.

Speaker 5 (50:01):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (50:09):
This country put a man on the moon over fifty
years ago. We can't pull this off. This is all
on my end too, so I mean, I'm just trying
to figure it out. Matt, you know kind enough to
do this for me because I've got my son's wedding
rehearsal to get to later today. So the way would
make it a little bit easier for me to kind
of get back and forth from the places that I
need to be later this tonon and I probably created

(50:32):
more problem than we have here, but I appreciate your
sticking with me, buddy. Thank you.

Speaker 5 (50:38):
I think your phone lines are soft. I think that's
a big problem here.

Speaker 3 (50:41):
So might be, might be we we've had those issues
as well all over the place, So.

Speaker 5 (50:49):
Go ahead you're right, go ahead, question soft and that's
you know whatever, So how are you and congratulating, by
the way, that's so important than anything.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
Right, I know, well, I think we're all a little
soft around the middle at this stage. But you know,
I know you've heard coaches criticize players many, many, many
times over the years, and some of them go about
it a bit differently than others. It's been in the
past that I think when you call somebody soft, it's

(51:20):
almost like a slap in the face, right, And I'm wondering, though,
if you've ever been around a coach or a coaching
staff that really meant that other than to just kind of,
you know, hey, remind them why they're here to do
the job they're supposed to do it.

Speaker 5 (51:36):
There's I mean, listen, everybody, there are so many different
motivational tactics. And you know you were mentioning coach Barcel
earlier when I was listening and so on, and I
just kind of laugh at some of the stories I've
heard from him. And actually I was in a room
the first time I ever met him when he was
a Giants head coach, and it was this fourth year

(51:59):
there in nineteen eighty six, and they would eventually go
on to win the Super Bowl that year over the Broncos.
And we're in a press conference and this is kind
of what you're talking about. Somebody in the media asked
them a question and said, what does this preseason game
mean to you against Atlantas this week? And he simply said, well,
if we win, you guys will write it just a

(52:19):
preseason game, and if we lose, you guys will write
what's wrong with the Giants? Right, okay?

Speaker 10 (52:26):
And same thing.

Speaker 5 (52:27):
He also there was also a story about Doug Yeah,
not softness, but motivating. The Dolphins are playing the Giants
nineteen ninety Week three at Medline Stadium, Dan Marino obviously
one of the quickest releases in history. The coach goes
over to Lawrence Taylor before the game and says, you know,
no one ever sacks this guy. You just do the

(52:48):
best you can and walks away from them.

Speaker 3 (52:50):
Yeah. Yeah, And I ultimately I think, you know, I mean,
we've seen coaches that's a little unusual.

Speaker 9 (52:57):
Coaches are I think usually of the opinion.

Speaker 3 (53:01):
That there has to be some kind of bluster in
what they have to say, and they're going to come
a little fire and Brimstone or whatever it is, and
like the fiery sermon on a Sunday or whatever. But
in reality, I'm not so sure that the players react
to that, maybe like they did back in the day
of Oh, I don't know, George Halla's Vince Lombardi. I mean,
I'm just I think the game has changed a little bit,

(53:22):
largely because this is.

Speaker 9 (53:23):
A full time job for players now.

Speaker 3 (53:25):
And so there they know there's that pressure is already
intrinsically upon them.

Speaker 5 (53:29):
Well, I think it's also the power structure john in
the NFL and pro sports has changed. Okay, professional players
are now empowered. I mean, dare I say even college
players are empowered? Okay, So you know, I think they're
not as reticent to hearing some of this stuff now.

(53:50):
I've always find it funny because I hear as much
soft talk from fans in the media, and you know,
I spend all my days looking up the fans in
the media who call people's soft, and I can't find
any of their NFL statistics. It's mind boggling because over
the morn they played the coach. But I just don't
think that works anymore. I just I just think it's
a different era. And it's also and dare I say this,

(54:14):
the NFL is not as physical as it was twenty
thirty years ago. It just isn't. Okay, So people players
have learned to take care of themselves. They've learned to
take care of their bodies, they've learned to take care
of their heads. And the NFL waited off a long
time before they started looking out for the players heads
as well. So you know, soft soft you know, it

(54:37):
just I just don't think it has the same bite
that it has. You know, I think before a player
might be and I can't speak for all players, but
you know, a player might be insulted. It's almost like
a challenge to their manhood. Now I think it's you know,
they probably look at their may look at their teammates
that roll their eyes and go.

Speaker 3 (54:57):
You know, but I can't it.

Speaker 5 (55:02):
But it's not. This is I want to say this
the right way. As physical as this league can still be,
it's more physical, like almost with individual hits, if you
know what I mean. In other words, we still see
some headbanging hits illegal or penalty do wise and so on.

(55:23):
We don't see that, you know, the grinding type of
defensive fronts and offensive fronts that we saw back in
this sixties and the seventies and the eighties and and
pretty much for thee I mean, think about think about
the last great it's just my opinion, the last great
brawling offensive line in this league. I think you would

(55:43):
have to say the early nineties Cowboys.

Speaker 3 (55:46):
Yeah, you might be right about that. You might be
right about that.

Speaker 5 (55:50):
Hey were just offensive lines. But as far as like
big behemoths, you know, Eric Williams, Kevin Gogan, Mark Stepanowski
for a little bit, Larry Allen eventually and so on,
I mean, those were you know, you know, if if
if those guys are the five bouncers in the bar,
you better behave.

Speaker 9 (56:11):
Yeah, exactly. That was a dominating line.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
Speaking of lines, all right, I got this a couple
of minutes low here today, whistle, But I wonder you
might offer a thought on, you know, a two and
five team against a one in sixteen when the Jets
come to play the Patriots this week, and and of
course the Jets are going to be under an in
room coach. They might have give you forty year old
a quarterback. We still think that they have a decent defense,

(56:34):
but they've been pummeled the last couple of weeks. I mean,
if you're the Patriots, you can't go really anywhere. But up,
is this an opportunity for both teams this week to
sort of, you know, start bailing water out of the boat.

Speaker 9 (56:48):
I guess.

Speaker 5 (56:50):
Well, listen, we already saw earlier in the day, John,
what the Tennessee Titans are doing. You know, are they
the Titans or the Titanic? They traded DeAndre Hopkins and
Ernest Jones away. Yeah, and they walk to a one
in five start to playing Detroit this week. That should
be fun.

Speaker 10 (57:09):
Listen?

Speaker 5 (57:09):
Is that this division? And you know it's funny. Buffalo
at times looks like Buffalo, and then at times they
don't look like the team that's won the division four
straight years. Okay, Now, the Jets obviously blue golden opportunity
to beat them, and so that the Dolphins they have

(57:30):
them both at home and let those games get away
from them. Okay, So, and let's be honest about the
entire division. Buffalo's got five wins. The other three teams
have five wins. No, I think it is an opportunity.
You've got to keep on trying to win these divisional games.
I know the Jets beat them on the Thursday night
back in Week three. You have to go back sometime

(57:52):
if the last time the Jets have swept them. They
have beaten the Patriots two times in a row after
losing what fifteen in a e row. So the Patriots
to me at times looked spunky, okay, But at the
same time, the way they let that game get away
from them last week, and by the way, they weren't
the only team that had like a significant lead in

(58:13):
the first half and that just watched it flitter away.
The Jets did that last week. Tennessee did that last week,
Tampa Bay did that last week, the Dolphins did that
last week. It was always got a weird trend. No,
they have to come out and listen. I don't think
at two and five, even with their defense, which was
a little bagged up at Pittsburgh on Sunday night, aren't

(58:34):
the Jets are scaring anyone? Okay, no one. In fact,
we see Glimmer from Baltimore. Even the Chiefs are not
scaring anyone, even though they've won twelve in a row. Okay.
Their defense is at hitting their offense and it probably
has been for over a year. So if you're New England,
you get a chance here to split with Jets. And

(58:56):
I'm not sure what's going on with the Jets. I
think it's too simple to point to Aaron Rodgers. This
and Aaron Rodgers death. Here's what I know. They have
been going to the playoffs since twenty ten. That's not
all Aaron Rodgers. That's bad management. And you guys were
talking about bad management. This is a quarterly one team. Okay,

(59:16):
think about this perspective. The last time the Jets were
in the playoffs, Aaron Rodgers won the Super Bowl with
the Packers.

Speaker 9 (59:25):
That's that's yeah, that's correct. More correct about that one.

Speaker 3 (59:30):
That is absolutely correct.

Speaker 5 (59:31):
Every team I think is pretty much fair game. Okay,
it just is. That's how the league is. You know,
some people are trashing the Ravens after zero and two.
Now all of a sudden they're five and two in
red hot and so on. It takes a little time
to form out what exactly you're going to be and
so on, and we have seen we saw it with

(59:53):
Tampa Bay four years ago. If you can get in,
god knows what can happen.

Speaker 3 (59:59):
Yeah, Russell, I thank you for the quick stop today.
Greatly appreciate it. We'll be back I think close for
a little normal schedule for you next week. So thank you, man.

Speaker 9 (01:00:09):
I look forward to talking to you again real soon.

Speaker 5 (01:00:11):
No problem. Let me know when the wedding date is,
so I want to be able to catch the bouquet.

Speaker 3 (01:00:17):
The wedding date is actually tomorrow, and so as someone
who's officiating, I've got to be there for the rehearsals.

Speaker 5 (01:00:23):
So that's kind of the problem, now, I gotcha.

Speaker 3 (01:00:26):
Okay, all right, that's part of it. So thank you,
my friend, to talk to you as always.

Speaker 9 (01:00:33):
All right, thanks, quick reminder? Shall we do a quick reminder?

Speaker 3 (01:00:36):
Yeah? I think we need to do a quick reminder here,
really quickly, quick reminder, going quickly? What else would we
do right now? See it's already okay, one of those
kind of things.

Speaker 9 (01:00:51):
Marine, you're a saint for.

Speaker 3 (01:00:53):
Putting up with this today, so thank you for that.
I do want to remind everybody, of course, of our sponsors.
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(01:01:57):
All right, there we go. That's it shortened version today
so I can make sure that my son, you know,
actually doesn't back out of his wedding. Our thanks to
Russell Baxter and to Nick Stevens for joining us.

Speaker 9 (01:02:11):
Thanks for putting up with this one today.

Speaker 3 (01:02:13):
We'll be back of the studio next week, same patch time,
same patch channel. Patriots Jets Sunday, one o'clock at Gillette. Yeah,
we'll be there. Hope you will be too. We'll talk
about it next week.

Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
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Speaker 1 (01:02:47):
Patriots Unfiltered, the world's original podcast. Patriots Unfiltered brings you
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Speaker 11 (01:03:06):
He's a redshirt rookie at that point, so it's really
that's his rookie season essentially too, so now we're really
not talking about them, really knowing.

Speaker 1 (01:03:13):
SI search for Patriots Unfiltered anywhere you get your podcasts