Patriots Playbook 10/25: Takeaways from Thrilling Win over Buffalo, Dolphins Preview and NFL Week 8 Predictions

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
This is Patriot's Playbook, the legend be nice to Faith.
Would you call in on the show today or else?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
Yes, I've seen this team lose and so many spots
where I felt like they were going to pull it out,
and I.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Just don't understand how that's even professional caliber football being
played when you know you're in an obvious situation and
your quarterback is going to be in the end zone
and you still with on the play.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
I agree with you.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Finally, Well, thank you, You're welcome. I feel like I've
been right on along, but nobody pays any attention.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
So like continuing to just do the same thing as
the definition of insanity.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yes, thank you. Then that's my point. Is that what
we're embarking upon now is sheer insanity. Now here's your
host of Patriots Playbook, John Rook. But we like insanity.
We live by insanity.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Hey, they got the ball first and they won.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
Thank you.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
They didn't do because they elected to get the ball first.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
I understand that sometimes you need to be hit up
the side of the head with an idiot stick to
realize it.

Speaker 3 (01:04):
Right.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
Hey, it worked, It's all I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (01:09):
It was just a change up. Yeah, a slider a curve.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
It didn't help that they you know, they had a
good opening script down in the field and stop throwing.

Speaker 1 (01:20):
Fastballs down the middle. Okay, and maybe maybe they won't
get tattooed out of the park. I have to use that,
you know, baseball, because my Texas Rangers are in the
World Series.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
You congratulations.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well, I've really been more of a Red Sox fan,
you know, for pretty much the last forty years. But
but I grew up a Rangers fan because they came
to Arlington from Washington when they were the Senators when
I was a teenager. Yeah, I was thirteen years old
when they arrived in town. So yeah, how could you
not be a Major League Baseball fan, you know, of
a team that aviodutely stunk. I mean, they lost like

(01:51):
one hundred and ten games or something. The first year
was unbelievable. So I'm kind of happy and now that
they're playing the Diamondbacks because I know there's a lot
of you know, a lot of people that like the
Phillies around, at least up in the northeasting way. I
thought the Phillies were the best team start to finish
in the NL. Anyway, Hey, you guys can talk Bruins,
I can talk Baseball's right, but I mean, oh you
me and Deuce here understood people, I understood, understood. It's

(02:12):
all right, It's all right. I watched a little that
game last night too. Uh and uh, I just I
thought the Phillies are the best team. So the Diamondbacks
are in. I don't think it's a shoe in, but
I actually like the Rangers. Chance it's a little bit better. Yeah,
well they're literally mash at it right now.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
There's a lot of Red Sox ties with the Diamondbacks.
Their manager and their GM are both Red Sox people.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
I'll take it.

Speaker 2 (02:31):
So I'm sure a lot of people in Boston.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
That probably, yeah, that would root for the Diamondbacks. I
get it. I totally understand that. You know, uh, you know,
coming into the stadium today, what did they do to
the parking, you know, in the in the lot you
know nearest you know where we go in. Why do
they put those concrete barriers in there and then rope
off hat It looks like a freaking maze.

Speaker 2 (02:50):
I don't know what is the deal. I don't know.
There's there's always something going on here.

Speaker 1 (02:54):
They finally find a job they could give them, Malie Cunningham.
That was me. I'm just, man, I'm just I thought
maybe they were gonna try to keep him around, you know, like, oh,
let's keep him a parking job because no one else
can do it. Right. Hear Marine laugh on the other

(03:20):
side of the glass in the other room.

Speaker 3 (03:22):
You know you.

Speaker 2 (03:25):
Marine doesn't laugh like that at us too often. He usually,
you know, our dumb jokes don't usually don't resonate.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
No, that one resonated with Marine anyway. Yeah, yeah, I
felt bad. I really feel bad. But I mean, so,
why why did they do it? Why why did they
decide to to wave him after all the talk and
especially after the reup of the contract. And I guess
they have pretty good authority. He's gonna make it through
waivers here.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
I mean you, I guess. I I don't know. I look,
I've never been and it's not anything against Malie Cunningham,
but I've never been like a big believer in Malie Cunningham.
I've always thought, first of all, and I people that
have listened since the spring will know this him as
a receiver, I have absolutely zero interest in zero like
the guy from everything that we have seen as a receiver,

(04:14):
cannot play receiver at this level. It was like, he
just can't, all right, I'm not, yeah, I and that
that's the bottom line. As as developing him as a
dual threat quarterback, that's more interesting to me, but it's
still to me, is too far away to the point
where he's a practice squad guy and he's developing on

(04:36):
the practice squad. He had really that the one good
drive against Houston in the fourth quarter of the preseason
game in the opener, which if you pulled up the
eleven guys that were on the field for the Texans
and the Patriots, you might find one or two that
are on an NFL roster right now. And people made

(04:58):
it out to be that this the next coming, like
this was this big thing, And I get it. It's
he's an exciting young player with the ball in his
hands and they don't have a mobile quarterback, so it's
a little bit of like grass is greener on the
other side for people. I get it, But I've never
really believed in Malie Cunningham being anything of substantial value

(05:19):
to the Patriots, and frankly, I was pretty surprised that
they even put him on the fifty three man roster.
I think Bill O'Brien was a little surprised based off
of his comments.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
I think they were just intrigued, at least by my impression,
just intrigued by his sort of dual threat capability and
that maybe he could also play somehow on the special teams,
and you know, and and to keep a guy that
might be able to with one person fill two or
three different roster spots. Yeah, was a good thing. As
it turns out, it's gonna take a little more than

(05:48):
that in order to be able to securate.

Speaker 2 (05:50):
And then I think when he, you know, played against
the Raiders, and I don't want to like call it
too much against him because it was only six snaps,
and how much can you really Gardner off of six
snaps and two at quarterback. But the two at quarterback
both both read option design elements that they have with
him in that Raiders game were an abject disaster. I mean,
they lost five yards on one play and and they

(06:11):
I think it was like a one yard handoff on
on the other play, Like they they went almost backwards
on both plays. So I just I don't really think
it in a very very small sample size admittedly it
didn't really work against the Raiders, and you know, Belichick
after the game was not really too into it. Like
he was asked about Malie Cunningham and what went into

(06:32):
the decision to sign him to the fifty three and
make him active on game day, and he said, we
had a lot of injuries. You know, I think speaking
at wide receiver mainly with guys like Juju and Pop
Douglas and these guys being out. So now they're getting
a little bit healthier at a receiver and you know,
Jalen Rager, I think is a guy that plays a
little bit more natural receiver that can contribute immediately instead

(06:53):
of having to break him in right league. Yeah, it
just it's a long shot.

Speaker 1 (06:58):
I hope that they're own personal thing here is I
hope they're able to keep him and you know, moving
one of the practice squad and let him continue to
try to develop. That's yeah, I mean, that's that's the
best thing.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
I just I've always said it, and it's they need
to develop him at quarterback like he they developed. He's
not a wide receiver.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
I agree with you on that one.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (07:17):
So but that that just kind of falls in line.
Evan to some of the other wild and wooly things
we've seen, you know, from the coaching staff philosophy over
the last few years here, it's like, why are we
going to try to make him something he's not?

Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, Like, I would have been far more interested in
the Malik Cunningham story in training camp, because the people
that listen to us in camp know that I was like,
this is a ridiculous experiment that's not gonna work. I
would have been so much more interested in talking about
Malie Cunningham in August if he was training at quarterback
right and they are developing him at court and we
saw him every day in camp at I.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Would have loved to see I would love to have
seen him have a legit shot to supplant Bailey's happy Yeah.

Speaker 2 (07:56):
Yeah, But they didn't. And that's the whole that's the
bottom line, is that by experimenting with him at wide receiver,
they never gave him a shot to develop that quarterback.
So it just it didn't really give him a great chance,
Like I thought, it was kind of a disservice to him. Yep,
after he had a pretty good career at Louisville at quarterback,

(08:17):
to just be like, we're gonna make you into a receiver.
We're not really going to give you an opportunity to
make the team as a QB. And here we are.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
Yeah, all right, So at any rate, that's that was
part of the news this week. I guess the other
big well, there were a couple of other major stories.
I guess a semi major story. Let's see one, New
England won a football game. Two. Bill Belichick says he
ain't going nowhere. Yeah, just a typical day of the office.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
Yeah. The contract thing, I guess we haven't really talked
too much about it. We haven't, But I would fall
mainly into the camp of I don't really necessarily look
at the years of the length of the contract as
like tying him to the Patriots for that amount of time,

(09:04):
because we see it all the time, whichever direction it is,
whether it's the coach deciding to leave or the team
firing the coach, that contracts get ripped up at the
coach level all the time. They get at the player
level too. But like you know, specifically with coaches, I
don't know how much contracts necessarily matter. Now does it

(09:24):
matter to the point where, okay, if it's a lot
of money, then maybe you don't want to buy him out,
and I guess, yeah, I guess. But at the end
of the day, if Bill Belichick's on the chopping box
because of performance reasons, because of football reasons, I don't
think that a contract extension is going to prohibit the

(09:44):
Crafts from firing him. And that's just my opinion. But
I think a lot of people make out. You know,
if they did it with Malie Cunningham, I would signed
a three year contract like he's on the team.

Speaker 1 (09:54):
Yeah, it's it's not exactly what it appears to be.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
Yeah, And that's how I kind of feel about with
Bellichick as well.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Okay, well, and and look, I can't say that we
didn't kind of know that maybe something like that was
up anyway, even before all it came out, because the
more we kept hammering on Bill and he needs to go,
and fans kept calling for you know, especially locally, good
was gracious. I mean it was it was you couldn't
even listen to talk Radose. It was so toxic toward Bill.
But at the same time, you just kind of felt like,

(10:22):
if there really is something to it, it was going
to come out. Sure enough, it did. And whether it
was a league, a plant, whatever you want to say,
was basically to me, my way of interpreting Bill saying,
cut the noise. We still have a season to play here,
because you got now your your seven games into the season.
I mean, goodness, Grace, you got ten more still to play. Yeah,
that's a long time. Eleven more weeks to cover here,

(10:44):
three more months still to play football. And it's like,
we can't be dealing with that now, and so we
have no shot at pulling out of the morass here
unless we put this behind us. Now. That doesn't mean
that Bob Krab mister Kraft couldn't still decide to do something.
Just means that he might owe him some money depending
on the terms of the contract. But herein lies the

(11:05):
beauty of the deal, and it's all speculative. We don't
know because none of the terms of the contract will
ever be made public likely.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
Yeah. I mean, the fact that this much was made
public was it.

Speaker 1 (11:14):
Was a shock.

Speaker 2 (11:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (11:16):
It tells me that, you know, hey, all right, enough's enough.
I'm gonna leak it to Ian Rappaport. And that's basically
what I interpret what happened.

Speaker 2 (11:22):
Yeah, I just I think when it comes to this season.
And I I'm not just saying this because he signs
my checks, but you know, when it comes to this
season with the Crafts and and mister Craft in particular,
I think the patience that you have to be able
to show as an owner is hard because deep down,
like you know, he says it all the time, he's

(11:42):
a Patriots fan. I grew up a Patriots fan. Is
a Patriots fan.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
That's what we all forget. Yeah, but you have to
show you you make a very good point. Shocking, did
I just say that about him? He makes a very
good point. The fact is is that he has to
not think like the fan he writes. He has to
think about the business and out the noise and is
this in the best interests of his business. I think
we all realize that. You know, look, Bill's going to

(12:07):
be Bill in a lot of different ways. But at
the same time, Bill also can't be completely oblivious to
let's just say the NFL in twenty twenty three and
what's what's occurring, because otherwise we would never seen this
team get faster defensively over the last couple of years. Yeah,
they would never have seen well, a quarterback like Mike

(12:27):
Jones getting Mac Jones get drafted a couple of years,
three years ago, it would have, you know, taken somebody else.
So I'm just the idea that he's you know, lost it,
that he's behind the times, that he doesn't know what
he's doing any longer, whatever you want to say. And
that's been the consensus from every fan that cares to
tell me their opinion. And I, you know, nod my

(12:48):
head and say, yeah, well, uh, you know, that's you know,
and I don't engage because nobody gets it, nobody understands it.
The fact of the matter is is that six Super
Bowl championships, Okay, the AFC titles, the nineteen division titles,
whatever it is now, seventeen division I've lost County. That

(13:09):
still counts in the eyes of the boss, and it
should still count in the eyes of everyone else. And
I believe the man has earned his right to work
out of this.

Speaker 3 (13:19):
Now.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
If he doesn't work out of it, it's a different story.
How much room, And I know this is the big question,
big follow up. How much rope are we going to
give him?

Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (13:28):
How much rope are we going to give Bill Belichick? Well,
I think you know, he's got the rest of this year.
He just put out there in last week that you know, okay,
maybe two, maybe even three years left. I always thought,
to be honest with you when we heard about the
initial rumors about the contract, were that twenty twenty five

(13:48):
would probably be about the cutoff, because that would give
him enough time even in the really the worst of
the circumstances. I think that I'd give enough time to
pass Shoole's record.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
Yeah, I think that, you know, like you said, the
resume gives him some buys him some time to get
to a point where, you know, when we came off
that New Orleans game and they lost two back to
back games by combined seventy two to three.

Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yeah, a lot of.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
People, myself included, if you had asked us, you know,
in that moment, gun to your head, what are you
keeping him or you firing him? I think a lot
of people in Patriots Nation would have said fire because.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
We don't have you know, knee jerk reactions, right, but
emphasis on the word jerk, but craft.

Speaker 2 (14:34):
You know, and the way that you have to run
a football team. You can't just jump off the bridge
after every loss, right, And so my whole thing is
at this point, and I was, you know, very excited,
complimentary whenever you want to put it about the game yesterday,
about beating Buffalo. At this point you have to wait
it out and watch the whole body of work. If

(14:55):
we get to the end of the season and they
are a four or five win football team, then we
have a conversation. If we get to the end of
the season and they're middling again but the arrow is
not really pointing upwards, I still have the conversation.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
But my I think you have to have the conversation regardless.
I do think even if even if this team wins
ten in a row, I think you still have to
have a conversation.

Speaker 2 (15:18):
Yeah, I just think that there's a chance that this
team has the arrow pointed in the upward direction and
they win. You know what, there's ten games left. So
let's say they win eight out of ten and maybybe
they don't make the playoffs, and I think it would
probably put them in. So let's say they win six
or seven out of ten and they finish eight and nine,
but they they had a really good second half of

(15:38):
the year, then maybe you can convince me that that
he stays I think when it comes to the personnel
decisions that the main thing is is just the offensive
game is moving in a different direction. The offensive game
nowadays is all about space. It's about getting speed in
space and having number one receivers and having high flying

(16:00):
passing games. Andy Dolphins, Hello, hey, all those things, and
the Patriots are still playing football in a phone boost. Yeah,
and these other teams are playing football because that's.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
What he knows best. That's what he knows best. He
knows how to bully people. Yeah, best that you know defense,
blah blah blah. I know that you need a defense
to win, but it's not all that it takes to
win in this day and age. There's got to be more.
And I think that's the part that Bill has had
the hardest time with. Hence bring in Bill O'Brien to
come in and try to spruce this thing up. The
problem is is that I'm not sure that the personnel

(16:32):
is ready to be where Bill O'Brien wants to take
it on offense. I think they've still got work to
do on the personal end, whether that's Matt grow whether
that's Bill, whether that's a combination of the two, whether
they bring in someone else from the outside. That's still
a work in progress. That's the conversation that really needs
to be had once this season is over all, right, yep.

(16:53):
So Chad Graff, who covers the Patriots in the NFL
for The Athletic, is going to join us here early
in the program. So are you taking off? Then?

Speaker 3 (17:00):
Is that it?

Speaker 1 (17:01):
You're done? Okay? So Evan's going because we got to
change in the locker room interview times today. So that's
why Chad has been kind enough to join us here,
and then thank youev and then Russell Baxter will be
along in hour number two. Armando saw Gero from The OutKick,
a longtime NFL contributor and follower the Miami Dolphins, former
beat writer for the Dolphins, in fact for the Miami Herald.

(17:22):
He'll join us here in about fifteen minutes. In the meantime,
Chad Graft joining us here in the playbook. Chad, what
are your thoughts on what Evan and I were just
talking about in terms of Bill Belichick The game passed,
and by do they still have a conversation about maybe
moving some things around in terms of getting the Patriots
ducks in a row in the off season.

Speaker 4 (17:43):
Yeah, we'll good to be part of this line change
with Evan as we quickly transition on the fly. But
line change, I think that you're completely right where you
got to have a conversation at the end of the year,
regardless of how it happens. That any talk I think
of something happening mid season is a little bit crazy.
Kind of let's see what happens. Let the Ducks, you know,

(18:05):
play out, Let's see you know where that arrow is
pointed at the end. And I think everybody can recognize
that this personnel, you know, probably doesn't match up with
these three or four bests in the league. So let's
kind of see what Phil is able to do with
this personnel and then make decisions after that about who
gets to make the final call in personnel and things

(18:26):
like that. So it's a little bit too early.

Speaker 3 (18:29):
For all of that.

Speaker 4 (18:29):
But at the same time, I don't think it's overstating
things to say that a ton rides of this game
against the Dolphins on that day, Like if you're at
two wins at that point going into a pretty easy
stretch with Washington and Indianapolis and the Chargers don't look
as good, like you've got some winnable games coming up,
that if you can sneak out an upset over the Dolphins,

(18:51):
all of a sudden, the season is trending way way up.

Speaker 3 (18:55):
But if you're still at one.

Speaker 4 (18:57):
Win after week eight, then you know there are some
tougher conversations.

Speaker 1 (19:01):
They're probably yeah, And I was just gonna say I
know that, you know. The first question I got asked
by a neighbor friend of mine this week was, hey,
should we start thinking about, you know, January again? And
I'm like, what are you are? You do the train
hitch in the head? What's your problem now? And I said, look,
this team gets to five and five, okay, then I'd

(19:22):
be I'd be convinced that they're back in the mix.
Until that point in time. This is put blinders on.
Go one week at a time, just try to get
a little bit better. Uh, you know, see if you
can't improve from week to week, and it certainly would
start with a team like Miami. The interest thing about
Miami chad before because I don't want to lose sight
of the Buffalo game just yet. But interesting about Miami
that I just I noticed this morning when I'm looking

(19:43):
at their stuff. They haven't beaten the team. They've only
what they've only played. Wait, let me get it right,
they've only played two teams winning records. They've lost both
of those games.

Speaker 4 (19:55):
Yeah. Yeah, They've just beaten up on the bad teams
and done it in a way that you know is
so emphatic. Hanging seventy on the Broncos. Right, they become
the talk of the league. Amazingly, And this could all
look really dumb in four days, but amazingly. I do
think that the Patriots, as far as one win teams

(20:16):
against five win teams go, I think that they match
up pretty well against the Dolphins. I think that Bill's
defense against this high powered Miami offense has shown to
be good. The Patriots have shown to be one of
the few teams that can float on Tyreek Hill. And
then offensively for the Patriots, I think that this new
thing that Bill O'Brien is doing, built on short passes

(20:39):
and a better running game, I think that that can
work well against Pick Fangio, who is the Dolphins defensive
coordinator and likes to play, you know, with two deep
safeties and his whole thing is to take away the
big explosive plays. Well, I think that Bill O'Brien looks
at that is great. We're going to throw three yard
passes to the Mario Douglas and if you want to
give him room to run like, have at it. So

(21:00):
you know, maybe this looks crazy in four days, but
for now, I do think that the Patriots batch up
pretty well against the Dolphins.

Speaker 1 (21:06):
All Right, I'll get back to the Dolphins again, but
before I lose sight of Buffalo. What was the most
surprising aspect of the win over the Bills this past week?
And and I say this because the Patriots were only
barely that's a good way to phrase this. I'm looking
for the correct terminology. I think Buffalo outscrewed up the Patriots,

(21:29):
really is I guess where I'm going with this. But
it was only by a slim margin. Does that say
anything about the talent level of the two teams? That
say anything about the injuries that Buffalo has suffered, And
keep in mind, the Patriots have suffered two major injuries
on their own defense. I'm just curious to what you're
you know what you're at, You're after the fact aspect
of that win over Buffalo is today, Yeah, I think.

Speaker 4 (21:51):
The most surprising thing for me was how clean the
Patriots offense was. We've seen them have so many interceptions
and pick fixes and fumbles and sacks and just loppy play.
And there were still probably too many penalties. And it
was an officiating crew that certainly.

Speaker 1 (22:08):
Oh my god, were those I was in their pocket.
Those guys were unbelievable, weren't they. That was cleat Bakeman
right that part.

Speaker 4 (22:15):
I'm not as worried, but yes it was. Yeah, so
they I think they wanted some time on TV and
made sure that they they got their faces out there.
But you know, for an offense that just always seemed
to like took one step forward and then two back,
they finally progressed the right way where they weren't shooting
themselves in the foot, and they weren't turning the ball
over and they weren't giving up tons of stacks Like

(22:37):
that offensive line performance, you know, if you want to
zero in and look more specifically, maybe that was the
most surprising thing to be of how well the offensive
line did. Once Mike I went and moved to right tackle.

Speaker 1 (22:48):
Yeah, yeah, that to me was I mean, I heard
all the hubbub from the press box. I think down
where I'm located before the game, and that that was
overwhelmingly the universal you know, tidbit that came out of
the pregames. It was, oh, when you has finally been
moved to right tackle, and clearly the offensive line had
one of its better efforts of the entire year, which

(23:09):
brought on I'm sure a lot of smug I told
you so responses from said members of the media, But
you know, I think all we wanted was just another
change and let's move somebody out that could be somewhat
competent it right tackle. And I think that's really more
that what happened than anything else. And the fact is,
when You's been hurt, so we hadn't been able to
really to get out there.

Speaker 4 (23:28):
Right and not just get out there. But he's a
bigger guy, and this has been an ankle injury. You
better be able to move if you're playing right tackle
against some of these speedy d rushers. Yeah, including against Miami.
Miami has some speedy add rushers, So you know, I
think it was a positive sign to step in the
right direction and something that they should keep, but also
keep an eye on that ankle injury, because you know,

(23:50):
those don't just get solved.

Speaker 1 (23:51):
Overnight, right, yeah, no question, all right, So Chad Graf,
who covers the Patriots for the Athletic joining us here
in the playbook, turn the page from Buffalo to Miami specifically.
You've already mentioned that you actually believe this is a
bit of a good matchup for the Patriots in particular.
But you know, with Miami, it all starts with figuring

(24:11):
out a way to slow down, which the Patriots actually
did kind of do you know, earlier this season already.
But they've got to figure out a way to generate
some offense and they decide to make this a game.
Do they play Miami similarly to what they did in September?
Or should they just scrap that and come out out
with something completely different this time around?

Speaker 4 (24:33):
No, I do think you stick with a lot of
what you did. Like Bill Dolichick has had more success
than any coaches pulling down Tyreek Hill, So I think
that you build on some of that. I think it
helped that Jack Jones is healthy and Jonathan Jones is
healthy in your cornerback group seems to be trending in
the right direction after the Gonzales injury. So you keep
all of that to build off all of that. To me,

(24:56):
more of the question is, was that a one game
aberration from the offense. Was that kind of a surprising
thing that the Bills didn't see coming and that mac
Jones's average pass went three yards past the line of scrimmage,
which is in the first percentile of games since twenty ten,
Or is that something that you can build on. Is
the success with the Mario Douglas an area that you

(25:19):
can continue to kind of spam that easy button, the
success that they had in the running game. Can they
continue that the offensive lines better performance, you know, is
that something that can be consistent now with onwhen or
at right tackles? So those are the big questions to me,
which you know is kind of bizarre. I think most
teams when they're preparing for the Dolphins, the questions are

(25:40):
how are you going to cover this team? And yet
I think it's a little bit different for the Patriots,
where the questions are about how their offense that sets
up with Miami's defense.

Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, and I would agree with that. I know you
wrote about it in The Athletic yesterday. You know, what
the Patriots did offensively against Buffalo was a pleasant surprise.
I think to most observers. But what they did is sustainable,
beginning with you know what they're gonna face with with Miami.

Speaker 4 (26:05):
Yeah, and you know, I do think that the Vicsangio
part of it is intriguing, just the way that he
plays defense and that his scheme has gotten so popular
at that I think to Mario, Douglas is kind of
the guy to watch. And I know we've talked about
him a ton, and you guysn't talked about him a
ton going all the way back to training camp when
he was doing so well. But if you're gonna beat

(26:27):
a defense like this, you need guys on underneath routes
who are able to put, you know, have yards after
the catch, and he probably more than any other player
in this wide receiver group can do that. So I'll
be curious to see how involved the Patriots make him.

Speaker 1 (26:42):
Yeah, I can't imagine that they wouldn't, you know, figure
out as long as he's healthy, long as he's clear
the doghouse, that he wouldn't be continued to be a
significant part of what the Patriots are doing because it's
pretty clear there are two guys on that side of
the ball that can be game changers for the Patriots,
and neither one of them is Devonte Parker. It's him

(27:04):
and it's Kendrick Bourne. So why wouldn't you try to
continue to do what worked well? And what worked well
against Buffalo was the short passion game. And I'm wondering,
even though I don't know with Miami devinsively, if that's
all together the best thing to do. But then again,
if you're starting to get into the groove and you're
starting to just kind of figure this outchead, why wouldn't

(27:26):
you kind of continue with that success until somebody stops it.

Speaker 4 (27:32):
It took this Patriots offense a long time to kind
of find it's footing and figure out with this personnel
and this health situation and this offensive line situation to
find something that worked. And so now that you have
found something that worked, like I would be hard pressed
to stray away from that, Even if the Patriots, and
even if Bill Belichick more than any other team and

(27:53):
any other coach, likes to be game plan specific and
like to switch things up just based on who you're playing, boy,
I would have a hard time switching things up too much. Like,
I think it was pretty telling too that on the
very first play of the game, Bill O'Brien goes straight
to Tomrio Douglas just because the other team knows that
maybe coming. I think you still keep going with that.

Speaker 1 (28:14):
Yeah, and you mentioned something in your piece. I know
that kind of came as a surprise to me because
I'm not a big PFF guy, a big Pro football
focused guy. But City's so grated as the second best
guard in the entire NFL in Week seven? Is that right?

Speaker 3 (28:30):
Isn't that crazy?

Speaker 1 (28:31):
That's that's that's insane. As much as we banged on
him and Antonio Maffi this year, but for Citi so
to step up in great out that well, that tells
been that line had a hell of.

Speaker 4 (28:40):
A day for sure. And I think something Bill Belichick
said today kind of speaks to that of you know,
they were more willing to move him from tackle to garden.
You could try about it tackle in camping in the
preseason to kind of see how it goes while doing
the whole time that you had that in your back
pocket that you could him back to guard if you needed,

(29:01):
and the Patriots certainly needed to, and thankfully for them,
he was able to kind of quickly remember all the
footstep differences and guard as opposed to tackle and turned
in a really good performance at a time the Patriots
really needed some help on the interior offensive line.

Speaker 1 (29:17):
All right, So final one then, for you, Chaed, what
do you think is sustainable what should be sustainable for
New England going forward? Do they try new things? Do
they keep just trying to build on what they did
last week? I'm just kind of curious as to you know,
a lot of times you don't like to, you don't
like to, you know, ruffle the feathers in the feather
bed when things are just getting kind of nice and fluffy.

(29:39):
I don't know if that's the right analogy that I
want to use here, but I think you get the
gist of what I'm going with.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
I do so.

Speaker 4 (29:46):
I think that this is going to work, and this
new offensive look is going to work for the next
three or four weeks. The defense is that they're playing
don't rank super high statistically over the next three or
four weeks when you look at who's coming with Washington
and Indianapolis after that, I think that the Patriots can
find some success with this current plan. And then my

(30:09):
question is in a month or so, when you've gotten
through that easy part of your schedule, and teams have realized, Okay,
Tomaro Douglas is their top target and this is how
they're going to attack us. Teams are going to adjust
how they play the Patriots, and then the questions becomes
do the Patriots have a CounterPunch beyond this? So in
the short term, I think it's going to work well

(30:30):
and I guess my only questions are the long term.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yep, that would be the question I think for everybody
at this stage of the game. Hey, Chad, thank you
for the time today. Great to talk to you again.

Speaker 3 (30:40):
For sure, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (30:42):
You got it. Chad Graf again from The Athletic, who
covers the New England Patriots and the NFL for The Athletic.
He's at Chad Graf g r Aff on X. Armando Selgero. Well,
best way to describe Armando is as he's been more
than gracious to us with the time throughout the twenty
twenty two years that we've been hosting the show. If

(31:03):
you've listened to the show for any length of time,
a lot of that time as the Miami Dolphins beat
reporter for the Miami Herald and now covers the NFL
as a senior writer for OutKick, and Armando gracious again
today with his time with us here in the playbook, Armando,
I'm the first thing I had to ask you today though,
was that you just hid a piece I think it was.
What was it yesterday on Josh Allen and getting you know,

(31:25):
you know, some of his impressions on how it's been going.
Actually I saw it published earlier today, in fact, So
what was your take on Josh Allen? And is he
is he missing a little off of his fastball of
light boy.

Speaker 3 (31:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (31:39):
So Josh Allen is talking to reporters yesterday and that's
great because they're playing on Thursday, and he's explaining to
them how in the last couple of weeks he's changed
the way that he approaches how he thinks in a game,
and what he tries to do is try to stay low,

(32:02):
you know, not get too excited, and that allows him
to think more because obviously a quarterback has to do
a lot of thinking on the field. And then the
next in the next breast, he says, but maybe I
should stop thinking so much and just play and so,
you know, and and throughout the press conferences he says

(32:26):
one thing and then second guesses himself and says, but
but maybe I won't do this. I want to do this,
but maybe I won't.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
He's a walking, talking question mark.

Speaker 5 (32:38):
And that is showing uh in his play. That is
definitely showing in the fact that the last couple of years,
if you combine him, he is among the NFL leaders
in interceptions. Right now, this is a supremely talented quarterback.
He's great, but obviously he's got something going on where

(33:02):
the uncertainty has crept in. And I think it's the coaching. Frankly,
you know, he lost Brian day Ball to the Giants,
and Kenny Dorsey, who's from you know, played at the
University of Miami South Florida. Just not it's not the same.
It's just not the same.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Is that why a lot of a lot of fans
in Buffalo From what I'm hearing, she'd be jumping all
over the head coach as well.

Speaker 3 (33:28):
Well.

Speaker 5 (33:28):
The head coach has basically got his hands full with
the defense because he kind of agreed to let Leslie
Fraser go as the defensive coordinators. So now Sean McDermott
is the fact, not the fact, though he is fact
the defensive coordinator as well as the head coach. So

(33:48):
what what's going on is, Look, the Bills are supposed
to be an elite team.

Speaker 3 (33:57):
They're not.

Speaker 5 (33:59):
They've already lost as many games as they lost all
of last year. They've lost to in a row now,
and it's just it's not that their window is closing.
It's just that they're not maximizing there. They've got a
couple of key injuries and the division now is up
for grabs.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
IM just going to ask you that is there window closing?
I think it is.

Speaker 4 (34:24):
I think it would be, John, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (34:25):
I mean I think it is.

Speaker 5 (34:26):
No, you only get a certain amount of time now. Obviously,
if if you're thinking, if you're going to Joe Burrow route.

Speaker 4 (34:33):
Where Joe Burrow said, you know what, our.

Speaker 5 (34:36):
Window is never going to close as long as I'm here,
and apply that to Josh Allen, you can stay the
case that their windows not closing. But as we just
talked about, Josh Allen has his own issues.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
Yeah, so quarterbacks in his own head, Oh my god. Yes.

Speaker 3 (34:55):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (34:57):
And the thing about it is going back to that
a second. He's asking people to advice, like outside the organization,
outside the clubs, can you imagine if a New England
Patriots quarterback.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
Went outside the organization. Oh my god, I need.

Speaker 3 (35:17):
An approach for winning this in playing this game.

Speaker 5 (35:20):
Let me go ask somebody who doesn't work for the
New England Patriots.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Oh oh, the parallels are just uncanny on this one,
you know. So I thought that the timing of this
was outstanding number one. Uh, and number two, because look,
you just said it as well as anybody can say it.
I'm under the the Bills are still a good team.
I don't know if they're an elite team anymore. They've
had some injuries, yes, and but the division is wide open.
And so I guess now, if New England figures out

(35:48):
a way to beat Miami this week, uh, who the
hell is gonna win the damn thing?

Speaker 3 (35:57):
Who knows?

Speaker 5 (35:58):
I mean right their own issues right now?

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Sure?

Speaker 3 (36:03):
You know, Uh, they can't beat a good team.

Speaker 5 (36:06):
Uh, they've got five wins, and those five teams have
an eight and twenty five.

Speaker 1 (36:12):
Records, and one of those, of course, including the Patriots.

Speaker 5 (36:15):
Yeah right, and and by the way, uh kind of
blown out both times. Yeah, and by blowout in the NFL,
A blowout is you know, you lose by seventeen. You've
been blown out.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
Oh sure, yeah, two touchdowns plus that's a blowout. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (36:32):
Yeah, And so that's happening. Uh, they're they're doing good.
They're doing good against you know, oh and sixth Carolina
and two and five Denver and uh, you.

Speaker 1 (36:46):
Know and five New England.

Speaker 5 (36:49):
Yeah, the Patriots, the Chargers. They beat the Chargers by
a couple of points. And the Chargers are under five
hundred as well.

Speaker 3 (36:56):
I think they're two and four mm h.

Speaker 5 (36:59):
So, uh, you know, watch out if h If you're
not good, the Dolphins will beat up on you. But
if you're anywhere near mediocre, you're gonna give him trouble.

Speaker 1 (37:11):
Well, I think it all starts clearly, uh on the
offensive side and to a tungue of aloa and obviously
Tyreek Hill and I will figure out. I guess what
Jalen Waddles situation is here as the week progresses, and
whether or not he's going to be up to up
to snuff here. But you know, it starts to swowing
those guys down. But the guy that impressed me the
most the in meeting number one between these two teams

(37:31):
was Raheem Mostert. I mean, here's a guy that you know,
I thought he was really good, a great weapon for
San Francisco, and became expendable clearly when they moved in
this guy named McCaffrey, who's done pretty well for them,
you know in the aftermath. But most of the Patriots
had no prayer of even slowing him down, much less
stopping him. And I'm wondering if mine he just didn't

(37:51):
try to go back to basics and maybe just run
most at left and most at right, and most of
most are up the middle, maybe to lull the Patriots
into a false sentence security stop the run, and then
unleashed Tyreek and whoever else thereafter.

Speaker 5 (38:05):
That would make a lot of sense. The one little
flaw in that thinking is that your offensive line.

Speaker 3 (38:14):
Is beat up.

Speaker 1 (38:15):
The Isaiah win was was he I rd this week?

Speaker 5 (38:18):
He's irs going to be a while before he comes back.

Speaker 3 (38:22):
It's not all the season.

Speaker 5 (38:24):
Armstead is on ir and he's not ready to come
back yet. Connor Williams at center has not been playing
because he's injured, and so you know they've got significant
issues up front.

Speaker 1 (38:39):
Well, then I guess as most of these battles come
down to, it sounds to me like this one this
week is going to be in the trenches and whether
or not the Patriots defensive front can somehow wreak havoc
with a you know, an ever changing Miami offensive front
looks like it'll start there this week.

Speaker 5 (38:55):
Absolutely, Now, what the Dolphins have a great ability to
do that not all teams are able to do. Is
they you know, they can overcome some some flaws at
the line of scrimmage, especially on offense, with great speed.
You know, they believe that speed kills. And if you

(39:16):
ask the thenver Broncos who swallowed a seventy burger from
this dolphense, It's true. It's hard to cover Tyreek Hill,
and it's hard to cover uh, you know, Jalen Waddle,
and it's hard to catch Raheem Moster, and they're all
you know, track stars who are in football uniforms. Bill

(39:39):
Belichick has his his work cut out for him.

Speaker 3 (39:42):
M hm.

Speaker 1 (39:43):
Well, I guess the other the other X factor then
for this weekend would also be whether or not Miami's
defense can continue to make plays. They made a few
of them, certainly against the Patriots offense, and I guess
they got to figure out a way also to supplement
whatever they're able to do on offense by maybe turning
some of the defense into offense. What's what that's been
in your observation, what's been the bright spot defensively that

(40:05):
Miami's defense can kind of hang their head on and
rely upon as being a consistent factor.

Speaker 5 (40:12):
You're gonna be surprised by this. The defense's bright spot
is that Jalen Ramsey, who hasn't played it down, is
coming back, is coming back exactly, and that will give
them what looks like two lockdown corners, which a lot
of teams are happy when they got one, assuming that

(40:34):
Jalen Ramsey is anywhere close to being you know, traditional
Jalen Ramsey that everybody's you know, kind of been accustomed to.
That is the thing that they are hanging their hat on,
because if that happens. Along with Xavian Howard on the
other side at cornerback, now Vic Fangio is a new

(40:56):
defensive coordinator doesn't need to blitz or handlitz rather to
get some pressure on a quarterback because he's got the
outside lockdown. That that's something that Fangil, who normally doesn't
love Blizzy anyway, has had to do less because he

(41:17):
doesn't trust the secondary all the time. So once that
happens with Jalen Ramsey and Davian Howard is healthy, it.

Speaker 4 (41:25):
Opens up a new chapter for.

Speaker 5 (41:28):
The for the Dolphins playbook on decent.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
And the hearing lies the intrigue, because obviously mac Jones
has performed worse when he's under severe pressure. I'd like
to see Miami bring the pressure. And what the Patriots
had success with last week against the Bills was the short,
quick passing game, So it sounds to me like we
might seeing more of the same this Sunday, at least potentially.

Speaker 5 (41:49):
All I care about is not having to watch gritty.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
That's all I care about. I don't want to see gritty.
I'm done with the greedy.

Speaker 1 (41:59):
I didn't even think it was a very good gritty.
It wasn't a very good one.

Speaker 5 (42:01):
Done with the Mike Yeki when he was on the Dolphins,
he promised to stop doing that, and there it is
on Sunday. There it was again. It was like the Undertaker,
the wrestler coming.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
If you if you watch, if you watch the video
at the end of that after after he does that
very bad gritty catching that touchdown pass. The best part
of that touchdown pass was actually the handshake that uh
David Andrews did, I think it was with I think
it was with Kendrick Bourne in celebration of that. Their
handshake was like, oh dude, that took some time to plan.

Speaker 5 (42:37):
That's I didn't see that, but I did see that.

Speaker 3 (42:41):
Mac Joe he also he also tried to do.

Speaker 5 (42:48):
The gritty and it was worse than Kicky.

Speaker 1 (42:54):
I was like, what what is this the gritty? I know, scarred,
I know, I can't even. I can't even do the
What the hell is the one with the with the
what you can't even name him? I can't even. I
don't even know what the hell it is. It's it's
it's the one like when you're cleaning your teeth. What's

(43:14):
that stuff? Floss? Oh, the floss. I can't even do
the floss. I tried doing the floss once and my
twenty eight year old son dead stop.

Speaker 2 (43:29):
I'm like, okay, at least enough not to do it.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
Oh god, no kidding, Oh my god. Hey, I'd be
remiss if I didn't ask you also about your podcast
with Donovan McNab on the our Kick YouTube channel. Is
that correct?

Speaker 4 (43:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (43:47):
So Donovan McNab who you know, once upon a time
I believe lost the.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
Super Bowl to the Patriots. Yeah he did.

Speaker 5 (43:55):
But great guy, super smart individual knows ball in and
out and sideways. And so we've got a podcast on
the OutKick YouTube channel every Tuesday and Friday, and you know,
we special guests the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
Doug Peterson was on it this.

Speaker 5 (44:16):
Week, Andy Reeth is it cool last week? So please
tune in.

Speaker 1 (44:21):
Helps to have somebody like you know, Don the moving
nab with star power pull these guests in right. Absolutely
absolutely see, we're just a we're just a one man operation,
me and the marine. The marine pulls in all the
guests for me, you know, and that's that's basically how
we roll it here. So that's why we're we're ever
grateful to your loyalty Armando anytime.

Speaker 5 (44:41):
John, It's always my pleasure.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Thank you sir for the time today, and I hope
that we'll get a chance to run into each other
on the trail someday. Sounds good, all right, very good,
Thank you, Armando Salgero. You can get him on x
at Armando Salgaro s A L g U E R oh,
give him a follow, good info and I just thought
it was the wildest thing because this week, you know,

(45:04):
obviously we're talking about Miami, and it's like, you know,
first thing I'm going to do is talk to Marina
and say, hey, let's get Armando on the show again,
because we rely on our old, you know, contacts through
the years, because Armando spent better part of over two
decades as the beat writer and NFL columnists for the
Miami Herald covering the Dolphins and then it's been what
now three years maybe that he's been without kick. Yeah,

(45:25):
I think it's been about three years that he's been
without kick and he got a big promotion senior NFL writer,
so he's not just covering the Dolphins, although the Dolphins
are still a specialty and he still covers them from
time to time. But I mean it's kind of like,
who really knows the Dolphins better than a guy who's
covered him for you know, better part of three decades.
And if he's a friend of the show, then why

(45:46):
wouldn't we want to bring his his take into the
process here, especially when the Patriots are getting ready to
play them, And so that's a no brainer. But then
I imagine my surprise. I'm reading his stuff this week,
and all of a sudden, I see this story pop
up about Josh Allen and Josh Allen getting into Josh's
own head, and I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, Wait a second, Okay,
I'm sensing I'm sensing some kind of a crease you know,

(46:09):
in the in the in the atmosphere here or something,
because you know, there's something going on in Buffalo. There's
something going on in Buffalo. And as I kind of
alluded to during the conversation, I'm like, the first thing
that I when I read his story and you know,
when I saw it early this morning, when i'm you know,
thinking about the show today and I read the story,

(46:31):
and I'm like, it's over the bill's window of opportunity.
They're WU. I like to call it the WU window
of opportunity. Get it. Their Wu is done. There ain't
no more WU in Buffalo. I'm sorry, that's my impression.
At least at this stage. It's gonna let you know,
Wu Tang fans won't like that Wu Tang. Oh sorry,

(46:54):
I'm sorry. I'm you know, I never got Wu Tang. Sorry,
I just never got it. I just never got it.
I'm sorry, why Wu tang before the show? Yeah, okay,
well maybe we should do that. Maybe we should play
a little Wu tang, you know, as a lead into
the show. And then I'll get it maybe sort of.
I don't know, will I No, I won't get it.
I didn't think so. I'm just being honest, but I
think Buffalo has kind of lost their woo a little bit.

(47:15):
And so uh and then to see him say that,
somebody else clearly thinks to think the same way. And
so you're coming off the Buffalo game and you feel
so much better about yourself. You feel, you know, a
little bit better about the organization. Maybe Bill's not as
dumb as everybody thought he was. Maybe these guys aren't

(47:36):
as bad as you thought they were. I don't know.
I'm just look, things change when you win. The roses
smell prettier, the sun shines brighter, the tacos taste taco wear. Okay,
is that a thing? I just made it one?

Speaker 5 (47:55):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
I'm just saying things are different when you win. Doesn't
really we're not throwing dirt on the problems that this
franchise has. There's still a lot of what I would
call disciplinary issues. You know, they did you know, have
six seven penalties last week, you know, and like I said,

(48:17):
Buffalo was just out. They just out Buffalo to them,
because Buffalo had like nine penalties last week. And I'm
like god. And then of course they had the two
turnovers the Patriots had won. So the Patriots actually won
the turnover battle two to one. I'm just like wow.
And so Buffalo just stunk worse really than the Patriots did.
The thing that was so surprising really about the Patriots

(48:38):
effort was the fact that they scored twenty nine points
after it all, you know, and I realized Buffalo is
missing a bunch defensively because of their injury situation. But really,
there are a lot of teams in the same boat. Hello,
New England, they're in the same boat too. They're missing
their two best starters. So I hate to put a
lot of extra credit on the table here. I think it's,

(49:00):
you know, it's nothing more than really kind of what
Coach Belichick said it was. It's, you know, it's a
good win against divisional opponent, YadA, YadA. You know, we're
on in Miami, And really that's the way you have
to look at it. I mean, just through seven weeks,
but this team, and we tend to be recency biased,
do we not, especially coming off you know that's spanking

(49:23):
at the hands of the Saints and then you know,
getting beat by you know, a Raiders team that you
know deserves to be thrashed every time out that they play.
I mean, come on, I like, I like Josh McDaniels
as well as the next Patriot fan. But I just
don't think the guy's head coach. I just don't. It
just doesn't look like I mean, this is his third time,
you know. I mean, you have to count Indianapolis because

(49:44):
he got the job and then he said no, so
you know, but this is his second time we be
a head coach, and I don't know how well it's
going to go for him. I hope for the best,
I do. But they shouldn't have beat that Patriots team
that day. They should not have done it. Shouldn't have
done it last year either. The Patriots are like this
far away. I'm holding my fingers if you're not watching,

(50:06):
I'm holding my fingers about an inch apart. Okay, but
is that about right? Yeah? But like that, Okay, they're
really that kind of far away. As bad as it's
been as much as Mac Jones has been blind, as
much as we have absolutely and deservedly hammered the offensive line.
And you know what, I don't mean to hammer those

(50:28):
players as individuals. We hammered the group collectively, and we
hammered the people that brought those people, you know, into
that situation, because they're the ones on the hook for
they're the ones that are doing the you know, the
the navigation. They're the ones that are, you know, doing
the observation. They're the ones doing the scouting and the
signing and everything else. Clearly, there's work still to be done.

(50:52):
There's work to be done, however, on every football team.
I mean, you'd say right now that the San Francisco
forty nine ers are one of the teams in pro football?
Would you not? Probably? Right? Okay, Well, they just got
spanked the other night by the Minnesota Vikings. Come on,
why was San Francisco supposed to lose to a team
like Minnesota? They're not. But guess what they do? Why?

(51:16):
Because in the NFL, it's p A R I T
Y turned into PA R O D. Why. Parody is parody,
But that's what the NFL wants, That's what Grand Pooba,
Roger Goodell wants. It's what the owners want. They want
everybody to have the ability to beat up on anybody

(51:38):
in any given Sunday. Wasn't there a movie on any
given Sunday? Was that the one with De Niro? No Pacino? Gino? Yeah? Pacino? Right?

Speaker 3 (51:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (51:46):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (51:46):
Yeah, that was a bootle? Was that where the blimp
flew over the Super Bowl stadium and blah blah and
all that stuff? Was that the one on any given So? Okay,
I've getten my my sports movies mixed up here? Might
not a bet all cool? Jay? I might be mixing
up too. Yeah, I don't know. Whatever, it wasn't that great?
Yeah no it wasn't. But just I knew that there
was a movie that was entitled that at any rate, See,

(52:07):
now I lost my train of thought. You know. The
thought is is that it's so equal out there that
it only takes little things to win. And so the
little things that can help a team win are the
things that the Patriots got away from doing this year.
Limiting penalties, limiting turnovers, forcing turnovers from the other team.

(52:32):
Those are the three little things that the Patriots got
away from doing. The open week of the season now. Granted,
the opening four weeks of the season is the toughest
stretch in my estimation, that they had of the schedule
all year, and the schedule looks like it's really it
can definitely play in the New England's favor if they
can't figure out a way to win in Miami this weekend,

(52:56):
I'd be surprised if this team wasn't five and five
at some point and then a chance to build and
really be in the mix. And we're gonna go from
right now, here's a good one. Okay, here's a good one.
I saw this today, right, I had a couple of
different people figured this part out if the season ended today.

(53:17):
It doesn't, but if it ended today, the Patriots would
have the number six draft pick in the first round
based on the record and the tiebreakers. Okay, they would
also be next to last in the AFC playoff chase,
but only two games out of the playoffs in the AFC.

(53:40):
How about that, they're two and five, but there are
only two games behind Buffalo, who holds the seventh spot
right now, and they hold the tiebreaker over the Bills.
Get that any given Sunday? Yeah, Okay, that would just
blew me away right there. Hey, you know what. Okay,

(54:01):
so they end up with the record that they have
the number six pick in the in the draft. Okay, great, now,
I know a lot of people would love to see that.
I do. You know my own son, the rookie, he's like, tank, Tank, Tank,
and I'm like, no, what are you doing. You don't
even know what you're talking about. Nobody tanks on purpose,
nobody does. You know, your professional pride won't allow you

(54:23):
to tank. So when you hear that they should tank,
that's stupid. Don't think that because it's not gonna happen. Now,
management and coaching stabs can make decisions that would allow
you not to be at your best. And so if
you want to call that a form of tanking, all right, fine,
then leave it at that. Call it a form of tanking.
But it's not. The players don't tank. A players want

(54:46):
to go out and kick your butt. Always a competitor,
always a competitor. They want to go out and and
and cause you misery. That's what that's what plays, is
what I do. But you know, can general managers and
in upper management, can they make decisions that would in
effect hamstring your team? Yep. Can coaches play different guys

(55:11):
that would in effect make your team not as good
as the other one? Sure, especially in a league that
has as much parody and I'll use p A R
I T. Y in this instance, in a league that
has as much parody as the NFL. Sure, one little
move too little moves? Yeah, that can make a difference
in a ball game. I mean, how else can a

(55:32):
move as simplistic as starting Michael win who at right
tackle because he's got a little size, makes such a
huge difference on a Patriots offensive line that's been abysmal
this season. I'm just saying, now, do I think that
the Patriots played you know, others that are on purpose? Know,
because the one who hadn't been healthy. But it's also

(55:56):
a move that I think universally had been clamored by
a lot of members of the media who cover this
team on a day in and day out basis. And
I know a lot of fans have been feeling the
same way about it as well, and I know a
lot of you follow it really closely. And so sure
enough they make the change and win who comes in
and it's a different looking offensive line. Mac actually stood
up under pressure and fired the ball and fired a

(56:18):
couple of great shots on that winning drive. Now, you
can't say Max never won one of the fourth quarter,
because he certainly did the other day. After this team
looked like it was going to hand that one back
to Buffalo after leading by double digits. It looked like that, right,
and then they come storming back. So I think we

(56:39):
have to give credit where credit is due in that regard.
But at the same time, this team, yeah, this team
is I've really been searching for a term on this
and I can't really come up with it. This team, well,

(57:02):
it's not far away. Okay, let's just leave it at that.
It's never been far away. And you have to see
that if you had all of your pieces to the
puzzle in place, healthy, not ripped up, not torn up,
not on ir not here, not there, but you know,
playing and performing well, you know, there's absolutely a case

(57:23):
that this team that's two and five right now could
be four and three. And if you're four and three,
you're tied with Buffalo for the last playoff spot. That's
how close this team really is. And we thought going
into the season. I thought going to the season that
New England was a potential playoff team based on the personnel. Yeah,
I said it. Based on the personnel. I thought they

(57:44):
had enough to be in the playoffs. Now a contending team,
a super Bowl team, No, and that's different. And then
we saw Miami's speed, right, we saw Miami's speed in September,
and I'm like, oh, I've never seen a faster team
ever on a football field, bar none. It was a

(58:04):
track meet. Patriots had no clue. I mean, and the
Patriots are quicker, and they're more athletic defensively, and they
couldn't keep up with Miami speed. And so that is
still a major concern, I think for this weekend. But
Miami's lost a little edge. And Miami also knows and
reading up on the Dolphins this week, they also know

(58:25):
they haven't beaten anybody. The question is do they still
consider the Patriots somebody? Eight five five PATS five hundred
is the toll free telephone number eight five five Pats
five hundred, toll free at its web radio at Patriots
dot com on the email. If you want to send

(58:46):
an email, follow me on x at JR Broadcaster, or
you can hit at my Facebook page. Russell Baxter will
join us at the bottom of this hour. We've already
had Chad grat F and Armando Silgero and even Evan
Lazar in the opening part of this show, simply because
the locker room times kind of changed up for both teams,

(59:08):
So we move some things around to get everybody on
the program so you could hear from them and they
could talk to you. In the meantime, let's go to
Patty and Agawam and Patty, Hello, how are you?

Speaker 3 (59:19):
What's going on? Johnny?

Speaker 1 (59:20):
How are you doing?

Speaker 3 (59:23):
I'm doing all right today?

Speaker 1 (59:25):
Well, I think we're all doing a little bit better, right, Yeah,
we're all doing a little bit better. I mean, you
feel a little better today. You know, if you're looking
at it from a you know, not even a big
picture point of view. If you're looking at it from
an immediate point of view, you're looking at things a
little bit differently. But even big picture, you can start
to see that, well, maybe that light at the end
of the tunnel isn't an oncoming train just yet.

Speaker 3 (59:45):
Now yet hopefully fingers crossed too. Yeah, So you know,
you and I more so you because you've been you've
been watching the NFL longer a lot, a lot longer
than I have.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Well, it's because I'm a hell of a lot older
than you are. So that's why probably right said you
throw the hell of a lot longer in there. Marine
just said, yeah, I noticed you put the hell of
a lot older in there, and I'm like, yeah, I
have to. I have to. So it is what it is.
But you know that doesn't lessen your opinion at all.

(01:00:15):
I'm interested in your taken. That's why we do the show.
I want to know what people are thinking. I want
to know what you're thinking.

Speaker 3 (01:00:23):
Well, here's what I'm thinking. I'm thinking, here's the question
I want to post to you, and here's where I'm
coming from. We know, historically, even with the greatest player
of all time on our team, we were subpart that's
going into Miami and playing and that's it didn't matter
if it was September, you know, November, December, whenever.

Speaker 1 (01:00:47):
Mm hm.

Speaker 3 (01:00:48):
You know, this team has struggled in Miami, most more
specifically the team with Mac Jones. You know, there's there's
no way around it. And historic, they've never really played
all that great down there. So I'm a little bit
worried about that. And my question to you is can

(01:01:09):
you give me a couple of at least a couple
of reasons why I should be hopeful this week this Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Yikes, really yeah, Okay, well, uh no, no, it's not
entirely true. I think Number one, I think that Miami

(01:01:37):
is is for the first time this year because they lost,
you know, albeit they lost to a you know, good
team this last week they lost to Philly, and Philly,
in my estimation, is probably the overall best team in
the NFL right now, top to bottom. At least, they're
certainly playing that white record wise, and the Patriots obviously
played them very well and probably should have won that game,
you know, in the opener. Uh but they didn't. They didn't, So,

(01:02:00):
you know, but it kind of shows you where, even maligned,
where the Patriots could be, They could be amongst some
of the best in the league if all things were
going right. So are the Patriots moving in the right direction? Well,
he didn't really move in the right direction over the
first four or five weeks of this season, but you know,
at least they didn't take a you know, a mother
may I big step backward this last week against Buffalo. Now,

(01:02:23):
what can Buffalo can? What? What can you use from
Buffalo in order to make this better for Miami. I
think if nothing more than just pure out and out
self confidence occurs, and I think that's where the Patriots
are going to benefit most. I still worry about Miami's
overall speed. I still worry about you know, Raheem Moster,
are you know, gouging the Patriots up the middle because

(01:02:46):
they're so worried about the speed, it leaves the middle
of the field open. And that's where he killed them
back in September. You know, he got into the you know,
you know, the second level, and you know, he just
you know, I Most had had a hell of a day.
He was over one hundred yards and Yata, you know,
big touchdowns at the end, and you know, and he
he basically ruled the roost. So you know, if you're
going to take out Tyreek Hill, which is what I

(01:03:06):
expect the Patriots to try to do, then that means
that the rest of the guy's got to figure out
a way to you know, to to be there for
Most because Most is the one that that that that
bothers me.

Speaker 3 (01:03:17):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:03:17):
I think the other issue is I don't think is
Achin is he on? Is he on I r I
have to look at that because if he's not able
to play either, and I think he was injured for
a while, then uh, then that's only going to help
New England's cause because that makes Miami less of a
dual threat. So I think you kind of understand where
the pieces of the puzzle are. If you're looking at

(01:03:38):
this trying to guard this, you know, ultra quick, super
fast Miami offense, you got to keep everybody in front
of you. You know, anybody get behind you. And I think
they played that way largely in Week two when they lost,
but at the same time they got killed up the middle.
Maybe that doesn't happen because of the offensive line troubles
that Armando was telling us about just a little while ago.
So in that regard, I actually feel a little better

(01:04:02):
and with the Patriots feeling a little more confident and
showing finally that hey, look what happens when we limit
our mistakes. I didn't say eliminate them. I said when
we limit our mistakes. If they can go to Miami
and limit their mistakes again and maybe force Miami into
one more turnover or two more turnovers, then then the
Patriots get I like their chances a lot. I'm not

(01:04:23):
quite ready to say if the Patriots win the turnover battle,
they win the game. But I think if the Patriots
win the turnover battle, they can win the game.

Speaker 3 (01:04:34):
Does that make sense, Yeah, definitely. And I'm wondering if
if they try to, you know, employ kind of the
same defensive scheme that they used against Buffalo, because the
first game against Miami they did I mean, they sat back,
they sort of let them have the run, and I
mean and ended up killing them. They were still able
to move the ball, but you know what they're what

(01:04:56):
they're dealing with on their offensive line. I wonder if
pick them after two and try and you know, get
him off of the spots and get him on the
move too. You know, sure, not saying that he's not
good on the move, but you know that, and uh,
you know, I hope they I hope they have the
same offensive line that they did. And my big worry

(01:05:17):
is then not holding him to twenty four points and
getting into a shootout, and I just I don't see
that ending well, you know, if that.

Speaker 1 (01:05:24):
Ends up happening, all right, So you asked, also, are
you're talking about how the Patriots haven't done well, at Miami.
They have lost one, two, three, four, five of the
last six in Miami since twenty seventeen, and eight out

(01:05:45):
of the last ten since twenty thirteen in Miami before that,
and this was obviously toward, you know, the the latter
part of the Tom Brady era. They actually had one
five of six in Miami. So they've lost eight of ten,
But that comes on the heels of going five and
one at Miami, if that, you know, I don't know

(01:06:08):
if that makes you feeling better or not, but that's
that's where we've been, at least recently, in the last
seven or eight years, they've lost eight of the last
ten down there.

Speaker 3 (01:06:17):
Yeah, and I remember them winning in early twenty seventeen
on New Year's Day because I was I was home
sick right watching the game on my recliner, and that
was the that was the game that Julian had that
big that big touchdown was I can't even Michael Floyd
had a huge block on a touchdown, right. But yeah,

(01:06:38):
I mean, it's been a it's been a sort of
a house of whose for them just historically. And I
do think, you know, if they're able to go down
there and pull this one out. You know, they the
next two games after that. I'm not penciling it in.
I'm not penciling anything in, but they are definitely more
winnable games than than this Sunday.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
Not penciling it in. Okay, okay, all right, well that's fair.
I guess that's fair. Sol. You got a score you
want to predict it?

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Oh, yeah, I'm gonna say it's thirty one twenty seven Miami.
I hate to say it, but I'm just going by history.

Speaker 1 (01:07:18):
John, I'll I'll be honest with you. I actually think
that's a little more high scoring than I think it'll be.
I know, Miami, you know, hung seventy on the Broncos,
But I just, you know, gosh, I think the Patriot
would just you know, go, you know, three yards in
a cloud of dust on offense if Miami started ringing
up the scoreboard. And I still don't understand how Sean

(01:07:39):
Payton could let a game like that get out of
control like that, get a hand like that. I don't
think that would ever happened to a Bill Belichick team.
I just don't think it would.

Speaker 3 (01:07:47):
Yeah, I mean neither seventy.

Speaker 1 (01:07:49):
I mean that's shown by history.

Speaker 3 (01:07:52):
I mean if they had showed me, if they had
showed me something again, you know, against the Saint the
game I was at, and again the Cowboys, if they
were a little bit more consistent, I might say that
they they'd have a better shot of going down there
and taking it. But I don't know. You know, I'm
hopeful John Bud. At the same time, I'm not full

(01:08:15):
of my breath.

Speaker 1 (01:08:15):
I hate to be offensit or but no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
I don't believe me, because that's exactly what I've been
doing all day. I've been sitting on the fence and
and you know, trying to hang dangle my feet off
of both sides. And I don't like either side yet,
So I guess the arrows are going to come from
all sides now because I'm just I'm just clearly this
has been one of the tougher you know, pick thems

(01:08:35):
for me because I'm trying to look at it someone analytically.
You know, if you go, you know, with the emotion
and you go with the momentum, yeah you might tend
to favor in New England, but at the same time
you realize, you know, how the individual matchups rely and
you've got, you know, still got a speedy Miami offense,
especially if Waddle goes and against the Patriots defense that

(01:08:55):
you know is missing. You know, arguably they're two best defenders.
It's kind of hard to reason that way that you
could see, you know, realistically a potential win, especially we
consider how difficult, as you pointed out, as we pointed
out a couple of moments ago, difficult it is to
win on it South Florida. So but it's going to

(01:09:16):
add some intrigue. And look, as we said earlier with
Evan in particular, and also with with Chad and even
with Armando, if the Patriots figure out a way to
win this game and get to three and five, okay,
just to get there, okay, and then you know, you've
got a couple of games left to go, you got
the trip to Trimany to going before you know, you
get to an off week and all that kind of stuff.

(01:09:37):
Now you're talking about, okay, this team might actually have
a shot shot to play its way back into some
kind of postseason discussion. And I mean you could have
knocked me over with a feather on that one ten
days ago, right, I think you could have you know,
people would have looked at you and laughed. They're probably
still laughing, which is fine. But that's the nature of
the beast. So if you want to call that the

(01:09:59):
p a r I T the p a r O
d Y of the NFL, well that's what we're facing
and everybody faces that every week in this league. That's
part of the entertainment value that we have with this
we you know, Patriots fans are so used to dominating
they don't really understand how, even Stephen, this stinking league
really is and can be, and how we can change
literally and swing literally on one injury or one mistake

(01:10:22):
or one penalty, and it can swing on just about anything.
That's part of the fun, and that's part of the agony.
So it is what it is, right. I think that's
why Bill came up with that answer.

Speaker 3 (01:10:33):
Anyway, Yeah, And I mean, how great would it be
a week after Mac exercises those demons of winning a
game where the opponent scores twenty five points and you know,
coming back in the last two minutes to win a game,
for Belichick to finally get that win over to us.

Speaker 1 (01:10:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10:55):
Right, So, and you know, me, like the Dolphins are
my NFL Yankees. They're my least favorite team in the league.
It makes me sick to my stomach that we haven't
beaten to it yet. And and there's a reason. I mean,
they're good and as much as I hate to say it,
they're they're a good squad.

Speaker 1 (01:11:12):
Is it possible that the Patriots decide the game plan
for Tua rather than Tyreek Hill just because they've never
beat the guy?

Speaker 3 (01:11:21):
I hope so. And I think that that goes back
to what I said, you know, but I would like
to see them employees sort of the same strategy they
used against Buffalo and come after them, you know, just
come after him, hit them and instead of hitting the
receivers or playing off of them.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Yeah, I think that that's that's what I think you.
I think you might see a little bit of that,
because you're right. Number one, Miami looks to be somewhat
vulnerable on the offensive line because they've got some injury issues.
You know that it certainly plagued New England. The problem
with that is, though, is that if you come after him,
you better get him, because if they complete the ball
to you know, Tyreek or anybody else really, but uh,

(01:11:58):
then you know they're gonna kill you in the secondary.
They're just gonna, they're gonna, they're gonna murder you. So
you gotta make sure that if you go after him,
you get him.

Speaker 3 (01:12:07):
Yeah, and he can't miss tackles this week.

Speaker 1 (01:12:09):
Nope, nope. And there were a lot of mistackles last week.
And that was one of my biggest nitpicks this week
was all the mistackles, especially that came in the secondary.
It was like the youse guys, figure forget how to
wrap up. These guys forget how to make a tackle.
They forget how to complete a tackle. My god.

Speaker 3 (01:12:26):
The j C.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
Jackson thing on the touchdown the Buffalo scord at the
end that was digs right. I was like, well, and
he spun out of it and got into the end zone.
What the hell was that? I mean, that's that's a
benchable offense. You're not wrapping up on somebody like that.
You had him down at the three, he had him
down at the inside the five yard line, and then
he spins out of it and scores because you can't

(01:12:47):
finish the tackle. Come on, man, that's that's bush. That's
total bush. So I mean, hey, we all know what
j C. Jackson is it was that way when he
was playing well here a couple of years yars ago.
You know, he is a feast or famine guy, and
you know he can make big plays, and he can
pick off passes, or at least he did two years ago.

(01:13:08):
And he can also give up big plays. Well, he
gave one up. So as far as I'm concerned, JC,
you down one now and you always one.

Speaker 3 (01:13:17):
Hey, he had a pick in the first game when
he played the Chargers.

Speaker 1 (01:13:21):
Well, yeah, but that was that was with another teams.
There needs to be a pick, you know, on this end,
and then all is forgiven and we can move on
from that point. That's you know, that's how I look
at it. Look, you make a mistake. A lot of
guys are gonna make mistakes, but make up for it.
Make up for it. That's why we play. He keep playing.
You can't dwell in the past. You make up for
The problem is nobody's made up for anything. They can't

(01:13:42):
make a mistake of a mistake and mistake, and so
at some point in time, you have to have personal
accountability in here, and not enough guys have taken personal accountability.
I you know, some of the rookies have may be
more difficult because they just don't know any better. But
there has to be a personal accountability and there's just
not enough of that going on. And hey, five ten
years ago, this would not have happened under Bill Belichick.

(01:14:05):
And to me, that's the biggest difference other than Tom
Brady not being a quarterback. That's the biggest difference in
the Patriots now. From the Patriots then there's very little accountability.
Maybe that senior leadership in the locker room, I don't know.
And I'm not blaming Matt Slater. I'm not blaming you know, DARBYL. Peppers,
who did the whole you know family yell, you know,
in the locker room after you know, the game of

(01:14:27):
this past week. That's fine, great good. I'm glad that
new guys are stepping up and they want to be leaders.
But more guys have to have a personal accountability for
poor performances. Trent Brown one of them. And in Trent
graded up pretty well last week. I mentioned to Chad
Graff earlier, I'm like, good God, City Sal was the
second highest graded tackle in the NFL last week, I

(01:14:49):
mean guard in the NFL. Last week. Good Lord, we've
hammered that guy unfairly because he's a rookie. But if
he's able to play at that kind of a level,
what does that tell you about his talent level of
the Patriots originally saw and maybe you know, the Patriots
original scout and determination that he would be worth a

(01:15:09):
pick where they got him was not off. A lot
of intrigue left out there, Paddy, A lot of.

Speaker 3 (01:15:15):
Intrigue, Yes, yes, sir, great stuff is always.

Speaker 1 (01:15:18):
Gone, thanks buddy.

Speaker 3 (01:15:20):
Great stuff with UMC and the Hall of Fame induction too.

Speaker 1 (01:15:24):
Well, you're you're kind to say that that's a lot
of fun for me every year. That's a lot of
fun for me to do because I am, you know,
being the old school, you know person that I am
a chance to kind of get in there and be
a part of, you know, Patriot tradition for the you know,
sixty four years that this team has has been in existence,

(01:15:47):
and I've been here for thirty two of those sixty
four years, so one half of the Patriots existence, which
to me blows me away every time I think about it.
But I get to see, you know, when we introduce
the players as they come out, you know, guys that
were with the original Boston Patriots of the AFL, and
and guys that were with you know, the Super Bowl
twenty team, and one of my dear, dear friends you

(01:16:08):
know on this planet now it's turned out to be
Pete Brock, who was the center on that Super Bowl
twenty team and you know, played alongside one of the
greatest who have ever played the game on the line
in John Hannah. Uh yeah. And then you know, and
then other guys like you know who I ran into
this week, who I had a wonderful chat with after
the ceremony was over was Mark Van Egan. And you know,
Mark Van Egan only played in in New England for

(01:16:30):
a couple of years. His notable part of his NFL
career came playing for the you know, the then Oakland Raiders.
As we all know, he was a part of the
whole you know, uh mellerd like commercial and all that
kind of stuff, right, he was that was in his
heyday and he was playing back in the days of
guys like Phil Villa Piano and and and you know,
and when Jim Pluckett was quarterbacking, Kenny Stable was quarterbacking,

(01:16:50):
and he was a running back back then, and they
had to Fred Balletnikoff as a wide receiver. And you know,
and Mark Lee played in New England for a couple of years.
But you know, I rarely get a chance to see
him anymore because he's kind of a homebody. And and uh,
his son in law is Dan Copen. And yeah, his

(01:17:12):
middle daughter was actually the Mark's middle daughter. Amber was
a Patriots cheerleader for a few years. And then after
she left, she and Dan Copen uh started dating, and
they got married and now they have two kids. And
and so I told Dan, I saw you know, Dan,
and we spoke. And by the way, he's he's shed
a lot of his football weight. And it's amazing to
see a lot of these guys who played recently, guys

(01:17:33):
like Sebastian Volmer, uh, Copin, Nate Solder, all those guys
were there this last week, how much weight they've taken off.
Pete Brock's another one.

Speaker 3 (01:17:45):
Even like a guy I mean, he never played for
the Patriots, but like Joe Thomas, I think you see
that a lot with the offensive blindmen.

Speaker 1 (01:17:52):
Well, they tell you, and I asked, Yeah, I asked
Pete about it. Because Pete and I have done college
football broadcast together. He's been colored. And I've been played
by playing a lot of you know, college football games
over the years. And I asked him, I said, so,
you know, why did you shed the weight? And why
does this seem to be a you know, an ever
growing you know, not slowing down. Trenty. He says, because

(01:18:12):
of the weight he puts on our legs and our
knees and our joints. And he says, you know, the
quicker you can take that weight off, the longer your
own joints are going to last. And that makes a
lot of sense. So they've gone from you know, they're
playing weight in their days of you know, tow seventy
five to eighty to ninety you know, maybe even in
Copin's case, three hundred. You know, they're down to spelt,

(01:18:36):
you know, two twenty five's. You know, they've dropped seventy
five eighty pounds. I mean, I didn't recognize Nate's soldier.
I did not recognize Nate and he was up on
the dais. If you watched any of the of the
the ceremony, I'm just like, that's Nate's soldier. Holy crap,
where did he go? He Actually, he looks like he
could you know, suit up and play a stretch for

(01:18:58):
for the Celtics right now. You know, he's he's lean,
he's thin. I'm like, dang, does he have a jump shot?
Let's go, you know, And I'm just like, wow, I
was amazed. And then even Dan Copan when we were
talking about his father in law and Mark and I
had a great conversation with Mark, but I'm just like,
you know, you gotta drag your dad out a little bit,
you know, your father in law a little bit more
to some of these things. Bring him along. We love

(01:19:20):
to see him be more involved in some of these
alumni things. And even Coping's like, wow, Dan, you look fabulous.
Look fabulous, So you know, and they all take the
weight off because it's just a strain on their joints
and on their internal organs. And so kudos to these
guys for recognizing that that, hey, you know what, we
do have an afterlife after football, and it's important for

(01:19:41):
us to take care of ourselves, and a lot of
these guys are taking it to heart. But in those
guys in particular, that's who I saw this week into
that thing, and that was really eye opening for me, Patty.
So I'm glad you asked. And that's so much fun
for me to be a part of. And I'm glad
the Patriots have allowed me to be a part of it.

Speaker 3 (01:19:57):
Great stuff. All right, John, I'll talk to you next week, all.

Speaker 1 (01:19:59):
Right, buddy, talk to you soon, Patty and agawam eight
five five Pats five hundred if you want to jump
on eight five five Pats five hundred web radio at
Patriots dot com and obviously at jar Broadcaster on X.
Sean sends this email just a short while ago. He says,
congratulations on getting what you've been demanding for years. The

(01:20:19):
Patriots took the ball first. Yeah, I guess the only
problem with that is, he says, let's see if they
choose that the next time they win the toss. There
you go, right, He says, of course that works because
they scored. I have a rare in person audition and
in an hour from now, so I can't call in,

(01:20:40):
but my prediction for Sunday is Dolphins twenty seven, Patriots twenty.
I hope I'm wrong again like I was last week.
That's Sean and Vancouver. Good luck with your interview, Sean,
good luck with your interview. Yeah, look, I know that
That's something that I've harped on for a long long time,
and you know, you know, I'm sure it's laughable to

(01:21:02):
too many, But the point is is that you can't
keep doing the same thing over and over again, especially
when the same thing doesn't work the time and era
we're playing, you know, to score football like that, you know,
into the first half first positent to the second half
is over O v A over. You don't have TV

(01:21:28):
twelve a quarterback any longer. You certainly don't have a
to a tongue of a law or you know, or
Pat Mahomes or or even a Rock Purty. You don't
have that. And it's that and that's really taking nothing
away from from mac Jones. He didn't have the weapons
either in order to do that in or does it.
I believe he have the experience to really you know,
pick apart a defense, you know, in the final four

(01:21:48):
minutes you know, of the first of the first half
or the first four minutes of the second half. And
so for the Patriot to continue to harp upon, well
we want to go for the double score. You know,
it'd be the last team to have the ball, the
first team to get the ball, and not let the
other team, you know, touch the ball and you conceivably
score twice. I mean, that's that's I'm sorry, it's just ridiculous.

(01:22:13):
I was gonna go with another R word, but I
think decorum will keep me from saying that, right, I
get back. I know, Miss Robin and I were talking
about that the other day. I'm just like, really, what's
wrong with that medical definition? At one point, Well, and
here's the thing, and here's the thing, the true definition
of that word, the other R word, Okay, it means

(01:22:33):
that it's it's just it's a it's a lack of growth.
That's all it is. We're not we're not saying it
to be personally offensive to anybody. It indicates a lack
of growth. And so what the Patriots are doing every
time they take the damn ball or every time they
you know, they defer, shows a distinct lack of growth.

(01:22:58):
It also shows a distinctly lack of intelligence. And these guys,
like I said before, and I'll continue to say it,
they've forgotten more football than I'll ever know. They've forgotten
more football than Evan Lazarre will ever know. And Evan
knows a lot for a young man, he knows a
ton about football. That's why I'm glad he's still a
part of our shows here. And I know many of
you listen to his pod that he does, you know,
the Catch twenty two and listen to what he has

(01:23:20):
to say. I'm Patriots unfiltered, hey, and we utilize Evan
in all these formats because frankly, you know, he's a
good football guy. What he says makes a lot of sense.
My problem, my biggest problem, is that I put too
much common sense into it, and a lot of times
common sense doesn't compute with some of these football brains.

(01:23:41):
And I think that that's kind of what gotten away
from the Patriots here. They're so damn used to just well,
you know, we want the two score chance and don't
really think about it. How about a little forethought. It's clear,
painfully clear to see that this new England team was
struggling to get anything going early. Okay, I mean there's

(01:24:04):
you know, especially I'm talking about on the defensive side
now and so, and their slow starts once they got
the ball were painfully obvious as well. How about changing
it up and giving them a chance to play from
a lead. And again, I know the offense was struggling,
but you can't score realistically without the ball. Maybe give

(01:24:24):
you know, mac ten or twelve or fifteen scripted plays,
win the toss, take the ball, give them ten or
twelve or fifteen scripted plays, and get I don't know,
a field goal out of it. That's what they did
this last Sunday and they won. What the hell? That's
all I'm saying. Do I think you should take the

(01:24:47):
ball every time you win the toss? No, I think
there might actually be an opportunity to defer and take
the ball to start the second half, especially if you
feel like, you know, you can control the other teams
offensive line, defensive line, the trench war, if you can
win that a little bit, all right, fair enough, so

(01:25:08):
we feel like we can control the line of scrimmage,
then maybe we take a shot at and maybe we
play the clock, and maybe we've gotten better at clock management,
and maybe we figure out to you know, all right,
four minutes the first half, four minutes of the second half,
maybe we feel like we can get to that point
and try for the double score. It just depends really
on the opponent and the opportunity and the momentum and everything.
Else that goes along. It cannot be carte blanche every time.

(01:25:34):
And I remember even saying in the booth on Sunday,
thank god they lost the toss. Thank god, Now there's
a chance, there's a hope. And what did they do
but score in the opening drive for the first time
this year. I just you know, blinds the headline you
had reblind squirrel finds nut.

Speaker 3 (01:25:57):
The real woman could stop you from drinking.

Speaker 5 (01:26:00):
Yeah, it's a big mom.

Speaker 1 (01:26:02):
It's time to go around the NFL with football guru
Russell Baxter.

Speaker 5 (01:26:06):
Now what.

Speaker 6 (01:26:08):
Name is Flounder?

Speaker 1 (01:26:09):
On Patriots playbook also known as our own personal blind Squirrel?
Here in the playbook, Russell, how are you today?

Speaker 3 (01:26:19):
Can I be Secret Squirrel?

Speaker 1 (01:26:22):
You could be Rocky the Flying Squirrel.

Speaker 3 (01:26:24):
If I'm Secret Squirrel, that makes you add a man?

Speaker 1 (01:26:28):
All right? Then if you're Rocky the Flying Square, I'll
be Bullwinkle.

Speaker 3 (01:26:32):
Well, the bullpart I get.

Speaker 1 (01:26:34):
A very good but yeah, yeah, there we go.

Speaker 3 (01:26:40):
The meanest thing I've ever said to you in twenty
three years.

Speaker 1 (01:26:44):
No, I don't look at it like that, though. You can't.
You can't bust chops with one of your friends, and
who the hell can you bust chops with that.

Speaker 3 (01:26:51):
That's very true, right, that's very exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:26:54):
So give me what your your initial impression. How much
did you see of the game on Sunday and what
was your impression and after you finally learned the score
in that.

Speaker 6 (01:27:02):
One, well, no, I saw much of it, especially, uh,
you know, the frantic finish and and give credit where
credit due. You know, if if you're the Patriots and
you've had the season that you've had and you watched
that lead just squirt away in the blink of an
eye and then had you know, roughly two minutes left

(01:27:28):
to make, you know, salvage a win, and you drive
the length of the field basically and get.

Speaker 1 (01:27:34):
The job done.

Speaker 3 (01:27:36):
And you know, kudos to a team that you know,
you know, some people rode off, you know, they they.

Speaker 6 (01:27:46):
Wind up scoring their most points of the season. Okay,
and we could talk about the Bills in a little
bit by the way too, because you know, as I
as I was pointed out out and a piece that
I did for Ian for full press. First off, they've
already lost as many games as they did all last year, right,

(01:28:07):
I'm second, you know they've had a trend john of
their defense failing them later in the season. Their defense
is failing them already, especially against the run.

Speaker 1 (01:28:20):
So the trend is not going well for Buffalo right.

Speaker 3 (01:28:23):
Now, right And I don't care what kind of league.
You know, It's funny, you know, Buffalo stumbled out of
the gate. They won, you know, three straight games and
pumbled the Dolphins. And since pumbling the Dolphins, they lost
two to three. And that even though it was a

(01:28:43):
five point game in London against Jacksonville, they gave up
over four hundred and seventy yards of total offense and
their run defense, which was top five last year's twenty
third league. Right now, and the Characters is a passing league.
If you can't stop the run and you can't stop that, yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:29:04):
There's there's no question, Russell. They missed that Oliver last week.
That was the biggest egregious, you know thing that I saw.
I was like, man, they missed that dude's presence in
the middle.

Speaker 6 (01:29:13):
Well, they're they're missing some other key components on defense
as well. And you know, again, it's great that you
can run rush the passer, okay, but when the running
back has the football, it's an issue. And the fact
that the Patriots stay balanced and you know, we talked

(01:29:36):
about all the time carries, I mean as much as yards.

Speaker 3 (01:29:39):
Do when it comes to the running game.

Speaker 6 (01:29:42):
You know, in New England executed and like I said,
they could have very easily hung their heads after that,
you know, that late turnover and all of a sudden
they relinquished the lead because they they basically controlled the
game from you know, mostly three quarters. But kudo to Belichick,
and kudos to the staff and the players and Mac Jones,

(01:30:04):
who was you know, that an excellent day as far
as the completing passes and so on, and uh yeah,
it's funny. That's that's the beauty of this league. You
got it all figured out. And then you watch powerhouses,
the quote unquote supposed tower houses.

Speaker 3 (01:30:23):
Of the league. Buffalo, Miami, Detroit, San Francisco all bite
the dust in one week.

Speaker 1 (01:30:29):
Yeah. That amazing. All the big guys, all the big guns. Yeah,
they all lost them.

Speaker 3 (01:30:36):
Yeah, it's I mean, and and listen, I know Miami,
Philadelphia was the showdown, Detroit, Baltimore was the showdown. San Francisco.

Speaker 6 (01:30:44):
It's gone from imposing to confusing in the.

Speaker 3 (01:30:48):
Span of seven weeks.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
Yeah, yeah, and I and and to me, I think
that gets back to one of the topics that I
started with today. You know, I know that you know
the NFL, you know pooh Bas, you know want p
R I T Y, And a lot of fans look
at it as p I R O d Y, parody
and parody. But at the same time, I think this

(01:31:11):
is what the teams want. Otherwise they would legislate otherwise
within the NFL rule book, were they not.

Speaker 6 (01:31:18):
Well, it's listen, the salary cap changed everything. Free agency
changed a lot, and the salary cap changed even more.
And now you go back, you go back to the
mid ninety eight. But free agency started ninety three. The
cap kicked in in ninety four. Whe we were in
the midst of the Dallas dynasty of the nineties where
they won three Super Bowls in four years. And as

(01:31:42):
I like to remind people, the ninety two team, there
was no free agency, just smattering at the end of
the year ninety three. It kicked in ninety four. There
was the cat ninety five. They still have a lot
of players. Ninety three, the Cowboys didn't move that many
players to free agency. They weren't back and repeat. Then
they started losing people and it kind of swung John,

(01:32:04):
But the tide kind.

Speaker 3 (01:32:05):
Of swung when the Broncos won those back to back
Super Bowls. You know, we started seeing franchises that had
never had any kind of Super Bowl success all of
a sudden get to the Big Game and win it,
you know. And then included the Patriots who had been
to a couple of Super Bowls and then all of
a sudden did what they did. But you know, we
saw the Saints, you know, we saw the Cardinals in

(01:32:26):
the Super Bowl. We saw Seattle and back to back
Super Bowls. You know, like I said, franchises, free agency
changed everything, and the cap changed even more. And that's why.

Speaker 6 (01:32:39):
What New England did for twenty years and what the
Chiefs are currently doing, we've got to applaud more than
anything else because they've been able to find a way
to buck the system where everybody else is just kind
of floating in mediocrity for lack of a better word.

Speaker 1 (01:32:57):
Yeah, how does a team I wanted to ask. I
asked this question of people and I get different answers.
I'd be curious as to yours. How does the team
pull itself up out of mediocrity? And do they have
to get that lucky bolt of lightning strike them like
the Patriots getting you know, Tom Brady with a one
hundred and ninety ninth pick and then you know, as

(01:33:17):
we know, the world changed thereafter. Or is there more
of a calculated effort for a team to pull itself
itself up out of the morass of mediocrity. I think
that's a good phrase and actually turn themselves into a
bonafide Super Bowl contender.

Speaker 6 (01:33:33):
I think what you have to hang as is a
plan more than anything.

Speaker 3 (01:33:38):
Now, it's funny you should bring that up.

Speaker 6 (01:33:41):
Okay, now I've read this, I can't say I researched it. Okay,
I saw it online today and I'll just throw out
baseball correct me if I'm wrong. Both the Texas Rangers
and Arizona Diamondback two years ago lost over one.

Speaker 1 (01:33:56):
Hundred game they did, that's true.

Speaker 6 (01:33:59):
And now they're in the World Series.

Speaker 1 (01:34:02):
I saw another number this week that you love too.
Last time, we had two teams who started the year
at fifty to one odds or better to reach the
World Series. The Rangers were fifty to one and I
think the Diamondbacks were like one hundred and twenty five
to one something like that. Okay, the last time we
had two teams like that make the series was thirty
two years ago. Wow, a long time.

Speaker 3 (01:34:23):
I was hoping you didn't say nineteen nineteen because I
remember putting money down on the White Dot.

Speaker 1 (01:34:32):
And you've never forgiven chew It Joe since.

Speaker 3 (01:34:35):
Yeah that remember that? You remember that movie eight Men Out?
Yeah it was the ninth again. But you don't know.
You have to have a plan.

Speaker 6 (01:34:47):
You know, this does sound like a non example because
he's not there anymore. Yeah, okay, but when Brian Florey
left New England and went to Miami, they had a
plan to change the culture. Everybody choose them as oh,
they're tanking. And if you remember that that season, remember
where they got annihilated by the Ravens and then shut

(01:35:09):
out by the Patriots. I think they what they give
up with one hundred and two points in their first
two games something. And then by the end of the year,
Ryan Fitzpatrick came into Foxborough with the Dolphins and beat them.

Speaker 3 (01:35:25):
Correct.

Speaker 6 (01:35:26):
Yes, yeah, so they weren't tanking. They were trying to
change things after some really, really bad years. But I
think the tendency for teams is to not have in
and grab a box of band aids and let's spend
some money and do this and that and this and

(01:35:47):
that and this and that and change the Rocks.

Speaker 3 (01:35:51):
A team that has fallen into that.

Speaker 6 (01:35:53):
Big time with a slew of changes.

Speaker 3 (01:35:56):
Every year is the Raiders.

Speaker 6 (01:35:58):
And that's why the Raiders haven't won the playoffs. The
Raiders haven't won the playoff game since the only year
that Tom Brady was the full time starter in New
England two thousand and two. Wow, they haven't want to play, that's.

Speaker 1 (01:36:15):
Right, that's right. That was the year they got to
the Super Bowl, right, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:36:19):
The last playoff game they won was they beat the
Titans in the in the AIFC Championship.

Speaker 1 (01:36:24):
Yeah right, Okay, So you.

Speaker 6 (01:36:27):
See other teams and you wonder why Green Bay does
what it does in terms of the draft. You wonder
why Pittsburgh does what it does in terms of its
front office, even though they made a change this year
and they had, you know, three different head coaches and
fifty something years.

Speaker 3 (01:36:43):
Okay, they don't win it, but they're at least in
the ballpark and and maybe one day they will win
it again. Stability is huge. Uh, you know, Andy Reid
has now been part of if they Andy Reid reminds
me it's gonna be a weird and analygy. It kind
of reminds me of Adam Vinatieri, who you know, as

(01:37:07):
part of the Patriots dynasty and then wound up spending
more years in Indianapolis than he did in New England.
And I say that because Andy Reid is now in
his eleventh years as the head coach of the Chiefs,
after spending more than ten years in Philadelphia. Crazy and
Philadelphia got to one super Bowl that didn't happen. Andy

(01:37:30):
Reid's now got to three and won a couple of titles.

Speaker 6 (01:37:36):
Stability, Hey, there's that lack of stability, and that certainly
not lack of impatience is what has hurt a lot
of teams as they came. For instance, more recently the
Buccaneers in the Rams, it looked like they were now

(01:37:59):
one year now. The Rams did it for a couple
of years, and the Patriots certain I mean the Buccaneers
certainly did it. But once Britney.

Speaker 1 (01:38:07):
Left, back to back to being the Bucks.

Speaker 6 (01:38:12):
They won the division last year and they were eight
and nine. The Rams went from Super Bowl champion to
setting a record for the most losses ever.

Speaker 1 (01:38:22):
By super Bowl champion, super Bowl champion, right, exactly, back
to being the Bucks in the Rams.

Speaker 6 (01:38:27):
Right, So, I mean they got their titles, and for
some people that's good, but you don't know what you're
I mean that the Rams lost the last week.

Speaker 3 (01:38:34):
They're not three and four. Last year they were five
and twelve. Okay, so what's that?

Speaker 5 (01:38:39):
Five?

Speaker 3 (01:38:41):
Eight, eight and sixteen? In their last was that seven? Three?

Speaker 6 (01:38:49):
They carried listen to me eight and take care of
the cipher? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:38:55):
Eight, No, eight?

Speaker 6 (01:38:56):
They played twenty four games and seven they watched two
thirds of the games. Since when in the Super Bowl?

Speaker 1 (01:39:04):
Damn abacus kids in the way, doesn't it?

Speaker 3 (01:39:06):
Yes, carry the four?

Speaker 1 (01:39:12):
I amuse myself too, way too.

Speaker 3 (01:39:13):
Often making seven to eleven jokes.

Speaker 1 (01:39:16):
Yeah, all right, Well, the aforementioned Bucks and Bills, by
the way, kind of lead off or play this week.
They got the Thursday night game at Buffalo, and clearly
it's an opportunity for for both teams, but maybe for
the Bills to reassert themselves as a potential contender, you know,
within the AFC.

Speaker 3 (01:39:37):
I would think, right, well, you would think so, and
you know, we know how Buffalo is certainly at home.

Speaker 6 (01:39:45):
I mean, obviously the the three games now, I think
technically the loss of jackson though I think they were
the home team, the loss in London to Jacksonville, I
could say the other two losses are divisional.

Speaker 3 (01:39:59):
And it's you know, it's kind of a rare meeting
between two the quarterbacks that were drafted the first round
in twenty eighteen, Victor Mayfield number one and Josh Allen
number seven. What is what is extremely rare? And I
never went back and looked, and I'm pretty certain I
can't ever remember a week where we've had ten interconference games.

(01:40:22):
I might be wrong, but.

Speaker 6 (01:40:24):
Ten of the sixteen games so we have no buys
this league. Ten of the games are are interconference games,
starting with Thursday night and ending with the Raiders.

Speaker 3 (01:40:33):
Lions game on Monday night.

Speaker 1 (01:40:35):
And if I'm not mistaken, Russell, I counted up a
little bit, just halphazardly. Today the AFC's got the lead
again in the clubhouse, right.

Speaker 3 (01:40:44):
Yeah, twenty they lost. You know, it's funny the first
two weeks they were zero and six. Since then they're
twenty and seven. Wow, And you know, I don't know
what that means. And a lot of times, just so
people know, a lot of times if you win the
season series, it doesn't necessarily translate Laid into the super
Bowl team.

Speaker 1 (01:41:04):
You don't get home court advantage.

Speaker 6 (01:41:06):
Yeah, it just doesn't do anything until there's no real
trend there is.

Speaker 3 (01:41:10):
What I should say. But this will be interesting because the.

Speaker 6 (01:41:15):
Bucks are certainly flawed. Their offenses really struggled the last
couple of outings and so on. Defensively, they they they're
pretty solid. The one thing that Bucks don't do, it's funny. Offensively,
their issue has been moving the ball. It's not like
they've made a slew of mistakes. They're one of the

(01:41:37):
better teams in turn of terms of turnover margin and
just not turning over the ball period. They just haven't
been able to move the ball now. And last week
was a perfect example. You know, they had a couple
opportunities to rally and beat the Falcons, and unfortunately for him,
their defense came up. They gave up one huge pass
play the Kyle Pitt late in the game, and the

(01:42:00):
land to want to wind up wound up beating them
in Champa and so on.

Speaker 3 (01:42:03):
The Bills they got to figure.

Speaker 6 (01:42:05):
Way to stop the run and and we know the
thing about the Bills, the bills are so capable of
just about blowing anyone out.

Speaker 3 (01:42:16):
At any one time.

Speaker 6 (01:42:18):
But you know, they're like an old record player. Are
we going to see the bills of seventy eight speed
or thirty three in the third?

Speaker 1 (01:42:27):
Whoa wait a second, say that again.

Speaker 3 (01:42:30):
Are we going to see the bills at seventy eight
speed or.

Speaker 1 (01:42:34):
A thirty three and the third thirty three? Right? Okay? Yeah,
for those that are uninitiated to that terminology, that's the
speed that you know Vinyl Records used to play it
on the term table, right, okay, gotcha?

Speaker 3 (01:42:48):
In fact that there, I'm done, Like I didn't go
change by Montavannie outbum.

Speaker 1 (01:42:51):
So I used to love playing the thirty three since
I mean forty five too. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:42:58):
Absolutely, my mother and father and so on, like you know,
listen with your last last name was Squally, like my
mother's was.

Speaker 1 (01:43:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:43:05):
Okay, there's gonna be a month of Honey album Okay, Yeah,
with Diana Ross in the Suprium.

Speaker 1 (01:43:13):
Yeah, they gotta have some Diana Ross all right. So
the Jets obviously the Dolphins of the Patriots to get
to them last year, but the Jets are also playing
on the road at the Giants. The Jets are the
dark horse. Now they're three and three. M I mean,
and I and I never thought this, but I mean,
if if they beat the Giants, Bill's lose, Patriots win.
Oh my gosh, you're talking about it. You're talking about uh,

(01:43:37):
you know, I'll have the toss up question for two hundred, Alex,
because frankly, you don't know what's going to happen in
the AFC East, but it could be that close amongst
all the all of the teams.

Speaker 3 (01:43:46):
As Bill Murray at it said in Ghostbusters, dogs and
cats living together in Massisteria.

Speaker 1 (01:43:52):
Yeah, mass hysterio, yep.

Speaker 6 (01:43:54):
Yeah, well yeah, I mean exactly, especially if the Patriots.

Speaker 3 (01:43:58):
Can pull this off.

Speaker 6 (01:43:59):
And and and you know, it's funny about Miami last year,
and a lot of this had to do with injuries, okay,
And and good for the Dolphins this year because after
they lost their first game to Buffalo, they did rebound
and win the next two weeks.

Speaker 3 (01:44:16):
But do you remember the Dolphins last year?

Speaker 6 (01:44:17):
They were three and oher and they were three and three,
and then they were eight and three, and then they
were eight and eight. So they won three, lost three one, five,
lost five and then beat the Jets and that newser
at the.

Speaker 3 (01:44:33):
End and then lost the playoff game. This year there
five and two.

Speaker 6 (01:44:39):
Now they got they really got their hands had helmets
headed handed to them in Philadelphia.

Speaker 3 (01:44:44):
Okay, I heard a lot.

Speaker 6 (01:44:46):
Of squawking about referees and the Eagles had no penalties
and the Dolphins had ten. John, I don't know about you.
When you run from minus seven yards in the first half,
you know, call me crazy, but I think you might
be getting dominated the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 1 (01:45:02):
Yeah, yeah, that that was not pretty. And I know
they've talked about this a little bit earlier in the show.
They have had some problems recently on their offensive line,
and they just lost lost ex Patriot Isaiah Win to
the ir So their troubles on the offensive line are
very patriot like at least how it was around here
just a few short weeks ago. And one of the

(01:45:24):
real intrigues of the game on Sunday is if the
Patriots defensive front is in position to be able to
take advantage.

Speaker 6 (01:45:31):
Well, yeah, I mean listen when they played each other
earlier this year Miami, I mean New England hung around
to say the lead, and New England's biggest problem in
that first meeting was actually stopping the Patriots running game.
I mean, they really beat them with the ground attack.
It wasn't so much you know, well, listen, Tyreek Hill
does something to everybody. Let's not ignore that. Okay, but

(01:45:55):
that was really the difference.

Speaker 3 (01:45:56):
In the game.

Speaker 6 (01:45:57):
But you remember the Patriots for two games against Philadelphia
and Miami were kind of the same. They fell behind
early and hung around, but just couldn't make that final
push at the end and make the big play, which
is completely opposite of what happened against Buffalo last week. Right, Okay,

(01:46:18):
they're trailing and this time they pull it off, and
maybe they gained little confidence in doing that. So I'll
be curious to see how Miami physically and emotionally bounces
back from this game. I know they were disappointed, obviously
to lose of Buffalo and the way they lost the Buffalo.
The Philadelphia game to me was a little different. Again,

(01:46:39):
it's not as important as the Buffalo game, but it
was the way they kind of got pushed.

Speaker 3 (01:46:46):
I mean, this was a team that's rolling up yard.
They had two hundred and forty four total yards against Philadelphia. Okay,
they barely even tried to run the football. And listen
Philly with Jalen Carter and Davis and already you know
Brandon Gray. I mean, they're loaded on the defensive front. Again,
I don't have to mind Patriots fans. What a big

(01:47:08):
difference that was sixty years ago when those two teams
played in the Super Bowl. That's you know, that's Howie
Roseman's form him by the way, a team that's been
such shaky against the pass just went out and got
one of the best ballhawks in the league.

Speaker 1 (01:47:21):
And Kevin Byer, Yeah, right right, Andy. They're just a
couple of other games though, that I find, you know, intriguing,
although I would have to say that most of them
were kind of met for even interconference games. But one
of them has to be Bengals at the forty nine ers,
because the Bengals everybody thought would be good and they've
struggled out of the gate. The forty nine ers, everybody

(01:47:41):
thought they'd be good, and I was frankly surprised they
got beat by Minnesota.

Speaker 3 (01:47:46):
I think it was the way they got beat by Minnesota,
you know, and Minnesota defensively, we know, has been iffy
for the last couple of years.

Speaker 6 (01:47:55):
Daniel Hunter is one of the best pass rushers in
the league, but they don't stop a lot of people.

Speaker 3 (01:48:01):
I think Kirk Cousins kind of gets.

Speaker 6 (01:48:02):
A bad rap and but he was he threw an
early interception and then he was almost flawless.

Speaker 1 (01:48:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:48:10):
I want to say San Francisco gave up four hundred
and fifty nine total yards. Yeah, Now you can't blame
that on Brock Burdy. I know herew some interceptions and
they you know they did. I think they had another
turnover as well. Okay, but it was that Think about
what San Francisco looked like the first five weeks of

(01:48:30):
this season, John, and keep.

Speaker 3 (01:48:32):
In mind on Monday night. I don't think they stacked
Kirk Cousins.

Speaker 1 (01:48:38):
Didn't get to him at all. No, I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (01:48:40):
Huh and seventy eight yards against that defense.

Speaker 1 (01:48:44):
Yeah, and that's just that was amazing to me.

Speaker 3 (01:48:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (01:48:46):
So it's very interesting again, how does the team to
handle losing after not losing for a while. I remember
San Francisco won fifteen straight regular season games if you
include the playoffs lost at Billy, they were sixteen and
one and I'm seventeen in one in their previous eighteen games. Okay,

(01:49:07):
because remember they beat They beat Battle and Dallas and
the playoffs last year before the NFC title game. Yep.

Speaker 3 (01:49:13):
So this was a team that got used to winning
and now all of a sudden, this and you know,
put the the Bengals have won two in a row.
The Niners have lost to in a row. Are we
seeing only shifts passing in the night? Here? By the way?
For the Bengals, the good news is they have won
too in a row. You know who else has won

(01:49:34):
too in a row?

Speaker 6 (01:49:36):
The Ravens, the Steelers and the brown The whole division
is riding a two game winning.

Speaker 1 (01:49:41):
Yeah, and the whole division is playing like you know,
I know that everybody's talking about the NFC East and
even the AFC East is being the best division. I
would I would beg to differ at this stage of
the game.

Speaker 3 (01:49:52):
Well, Baltimore is really fascinating. First off, they they've given up.

Speaker 6 (01:49:59):
Six offensive touchdowns this year in seven games. They've given
up six points in the fourth. In the first quarter,
got scored the opposition fifty five to six. Wow. And
Lamar Jackson, don't give me long. He has been pretty
sharp throwing the football. Okay, would it surprise you to
know that Lamar Jackson has already turned over the ball

(01:50:22):
eight times to seven games.

Speaker 1 (01:50:24):
You know that's totally been hidden by their overall success.

Speaker 6 (01:50:28):
Yes, yes, because I think they've been able to overcome that.
I think in past years when he has gotten into
those turnover rusts, they've had derision. Now a bunch of
those games became in the loss of the Steelers. I
understand this, But you would have never thought that last
week there, I mean, they had five touchdown drives. That

(01:50:50):
was it was like watching Michigan against Michigan State for
lack of a better words, okay, long touchdown drives again,
what we thought was a pretty.

Speaker 3 (01:51:01):
Good Detroit defense. But yet I think I want to
say right off the top of my head that Lamar
is fumbled eight times and lost five of them. Wow,
and I think he is three interceptions.

Speaker 1 (01:51:12):
It's crazy. And your team's right.

Speaker 6 (01:51:14):
That regards to eight turnovers in seven games by the quarterback.
And yet because of their defense, because of their past rush,
they have been able to overcome mistakes that I would
say in the last three or four years they weren't
able to overcome.

Speaker 1 (01:51:30):
Yeah, I know, that's that's a great story within the
story as far as the Ravens are concerned, you know,
and about the success that the Ravens are having this far. Hey,
one more I wanted to ask you about quickly, Russell
is the Monday night game, because I just I was
really disappointed in Detroit last week. And I'm kind of,
you know, figuring out if my new favorite team other
than other than New England, is closer to what we

(01:51:50):
saw last week, or are they closer to what we
saw in the previous five weeks or six weeks before that. Uh,
they're home against the Raiders, which means they at least
have a chance to get well again on Monday Night.
But what the hell happened to Detroit?

Speaker 3 (01:52:06):
I guess people who told you they were good they were.

Speaker 1 (01:52:09):
Lyons go bottom? Okay, yeah, no.

Speaker 3 (01:52:13):
Actually that clashed. That was the Lions last week.

Speaker 6 (01:52:18):
I mean it was you know what it was interesting
was last year you remember the Lions won either of the.

Speaker 3 (01:52:24):
Last ten games.

Speaker 6 (01:52:25):
Yeah, and their defense looked like it was making a turnaround.

Speaker 3 (01:52:29):
And in fact, I.

Speaker 6 (01:52:30):
Had just written it has nothing to do with me,
but I had just written the piece about give the
Lions defense some credit. Well, I wrote that piece a
couple of days before they went to Carolina and Carolina
late three hundred and twenty yards rushing.

Speaker 3 (01:52:43):
On them late in the year.

Speaker 6 (01:52:47):
In that sense, it's probably the game that cost them
the playoff bers last year they got destroyed by the Panther.

Speaker 3 (01:52:54):
They gave up over five.

Speaker 6 (01:52:55):
Hundred yards to total offense. That's the same thing that
happened to them. I think it was five two by
the Ravens one Sunday. I mean that was they didn't
lay an egg.

Speaker 3 (01:53:04):
That was.

Speaker 1 (01:53:11):
You coulda bet me any amount of money that we
would not get the word for tada into the show today.

Speaker 3 (01:53:18):
Well, I'm gonna let you think about that.

Speaker 1 (01:53:21):
Oh god, I'm gonna let you think about that one.
Thank God, it's going We're gonna be humpty dumpty before
too long. Oh you the man, you the man as
always always good to talk football with you, my friend.

Speaker 3 (01:53:42):
Oh isn't it fun?

Speaker 1 (01:53:44):
Yes, it is. This is great. This is great. I
could sit here and I could talk just football, football,
football forever. And I realized, you know, there is a
little bit of a time, you know, restraint here, but
still it's just it's good conversation. I could, you know,
I could dance around this all day beats the hell
out of work. And I'll tell you that.

Speaker 6 (01:53:59):
Well, I tell you here's well I say that, and
I'm not going to get my soap u.

Speaker 3 (01:54:03):
This is what sports talk is.

Speaker 1 (01:54:06):
Okay, well it should be. It should be one.

Speaker 3 (01:54:09):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 6 (01:54:10):
I mean those are their sports scream their sports yeh sports, yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:54:14):
They're sports anger. Okay. When you and I get together.

Speaker 1 (01:54:18):
Sports talk yeah, yeah, okay, But it takes a couple
of old fogies to teach the new kids how to
do it well.

Speaker 3 (01:54:26):
The new the new kids are all too busy, unfortunately,
trying to shout over each other.

Speaker 1 (01:54:32):
That's also true. That's also true. So that's fine. If
you like shouting, that's great, go for it. But if
you don't, well you know you've got an alternative.

Speaker 6 (01:54:40):
Some of these guys out here don't make me want
to shout.

Speaker 3 (01:54:42):
Yeah, tell you that.

Speaker 1 (01:54:43):
Well, that's also true. I heard a little bit of
that earlier today myself. Thank you, my friend. What's that funny?

Speaker 3 (01:54:50):
You can hear them? You don't even help the volume.

Speaker 1 (01:54:52):
Oh no, absolutely, that's that's one hundred percent true, one
hundred percent true. Talk to you next week, my friends,
see you then.

Speaker 3 (01:55:00):
You got it all right?

Speaker 1 (01:55:01):
Russell Baxter, the one and only at backs football guru
on X. He's one of those guys that's forgotten more
football than I know, but that's it's always good to
talk with him. Daniel's in Pennsylvania. I'm gonna give Daniel
the last word of the program today. Hey Daniel, you're
in the playbook.

Speaker 7 (01:55:20):
Hey there, I'm calling because honestly, I was really shocked
about the Saints incredible rashing of the Patriots. Yeah, you know,
I didn't think that it was going to happen in
that way.

Speaker 3 (01:55:35):
Patriots are my favorite team, and I guess I just
had a question.

Speaker 1 (01:55:41):
Shoot, do you uh, do you like for dicks in
your mouth?

Speaker 3 (01:55:44):
Or just three?

Speaker 1 (01:55:45):
Really?

Speaker 3 (01:55:47):
Really?

Speaker 1 (01:55:48):
What are you a jerk? That was? That was totally
uncalled for, Right, that's the first time I think that's
happened in twenty two years to be one of those
young guys that you know clearly has his head up
his ass, right, no kidding. And we don't have a
dump button for that thing.

Speaker 3 (01:56:08):
Do we.

Speaker 1 (01:56:12):
Podcast?

Speaker 2 (01:56:12):
Not radio?

Speaker 1 (01:56:13):
I know exactly? Oh god?

Speaker 3 (01:56:17):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:56:18):
And he waited how long to be able to say that?
That shows you know, a good level of intelligence, I
think right there or maybe lack thereof Okay, fair enough,
will earmark that guy for next time, all right, unless
you're gonna call in with another name and from you know,
some other place like Hell. I don't know, maybe one
way or the other. Hey, thanks to no sweat off

(01:56:40):
my nose, I've been accused of a lot of words,
trust me. Thanks to our guest. Today we had Chad
Graffon from the Athletic Armando saw Gero from OutKick covering
the Miami Dolphins, amongst other items, obviously the one and
only Evan Lazar Russell Baxter, you know, heading around. God,
is this already week? Oh my god? Eight? We're damn

(01:57:03):
near halfway through the season. Past this week. We are
halfway through the season, which is stunning for me to
even realize. Stunning. So there's a little part of me
that wants to think, you know, it's not over yet,

(01:57:24):
just a little part of me, right. But at the
same time, it's kind of like, man, let's be real
about this thing. What we've seen and what we just
saw are two completely different things. Is it growth? Is
it turnaround? Is it you know, for the better, for
the worse? I don't know. It just seems like there
was a confluence of things this last week that pointed

(01:57:45):
towards the Patriots playing well. I mentioned to Miss Robin
and the Booth before the game on Sunday, I said,
you know what, I actually have a pretty strange feeling
about this one, and she says, I do too. I
think the Patriots win today. I'm like, well, I don't
know if I go that far, but I think it'll
be a good game. And sure enough turned out to
be the best game. It was one of the most
entertaining games we've seen in a long time. Long time.
Fortunately that New England won the game. But I had

(01:58:09):
that good feeling, and I'd be hard pressed to think
differently from thinking that the Patriots might might have a
bit of a run in here, or at least have
one within them. I don't know what that translates to,
but the schedule is certainly going to translate into their favor.

(01:58:29):
So if that's the case, then yeah, okay. I don't
want to get ahead of myself. Maybe I better stop
before I keep going, because then I'll get accused of
being a homer. You know, hey, every once in a
while you wave the pomponds, but we try to do
it somewhat intelligently, at least on this program, and look

(01:58:51):
if they if the Patriots can find a way to
win in South Florida, which again, as we dictated earlier
in the show, has been difficult to do. They've lost
eight of the last ten that they've played in Miami
coming into this one. So but I figure out a
way to turn that around and get a win. You're
at three and five, and you get an opportunity to
play your way right back into this thing. But I

(01:59:12):
think it has to start with this weekend. Does that
mean you slam the door shut of the season if
they lose? No, I think most everybody expects them to lose,
to be honest with you, and they and they and
they might. I mean, okay, I would expect them to
be a favorite in this thing anyway, to be honest
with you. What's the latest spread on this game? Dolphins

(01:59:37):
are a what ten point favorite? Yeah? About ten? Right now?
Is the last the last spread that I saw in
the game. You know, I think the Patriots make it
a game. I don't know if they win it with
a ten point, you know, being a ten point road dog,
But I think there's an opportunity that you know, if
they make this a game and make it a one
position game and not shoot themselves in the foot, that
you know, they could cause Miami some trouble. And they

(01:59:59):
do know Miam and I would be surprised if the
Patriots came in and played them the same way that
they did back with this the second week of September. So,
at any rate, it's all on the table for Sunday
in a one o'clock kickoff Eastern Time in South Florida
thanks to our guest. Thanks to Marine, We'll go Saint
Patch time Saint Patch channel right here on Patriots dot
com Radio next Wednesday, and we'll see. But at least

(02:00:21):
they've giving us something positive to talk about, right, talk
to you next week. Thank you for downloading this podcast,
Subscribe on Apple, google Play, and everywhere else you listen.
Like the show, Please rate and review us. Listener comments
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