Patriots Playbook 10/9: Drake Maye, Dolphins Recap, Texans Preview

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
I'm Patriots Playbook, where legends are born.

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John Rook brings the heat, rain or.

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Here's your host, John Rook, legend voice of the New
England Patriots.

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Cursed out.

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Scene.

Speaker 4 (00:50):
Yeah, exactly. Welcome into the playbook everyone, I'm John Rook.
You know Evan Lazar is here. We're gonna jump into
it pretty quickly today. Obviously there's a little news going
on today kind of makes things seem like we're starting
over again a month into the regular season. We'll be
joined shortly by Mark VanderMeer, who's the radio voice of

(01:10):
the Houston Texans, a longtime New England guy himself, former
voice of the UMass Minute Man a number of years
ago as well, and now he's been in Houston since
the since the franchise, basically he's been there. So he'll
join us as well, and we'll hit some of the
regulars as well. In Chris Price from the Boston Globe
will join us and Russell Baxter on Week six around
the NFL Patriots fans. If you want to see Toyota's

(01:31):
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buy at toyota dot com. It's Toyoto's official website for
deals from the official vehicle of the New England Patriots, Toyota.
Let's go places, Let's go to the locker room, f
because I've got a new quarterback in here, and I
can't say it's something that we haven't talked about. You
and I have talked about it on this show. We've

(01:52):
been talked about it since draft day last April. That
you know you're gonna draft a guy third you need
to see what he can do now, whatever plan, And
I'm i gotta be honest, I'm not sure there really
was a plan. It's the plan as it now stands
is as as uh Gerad has mentioned it several times,
it seems almost retroactive. Seems like it's almost been reactionary

(02:18):
to what the public thinks, to what the media has
been hammering for. And we know the media can be
relentless around here, uh As in a lot of ways,
but this is just part of the game at least,
you know, in a market like Boston, a market like
New England. Overall, whatever the plan was, it hasn't been working.
And so he said today it was his decision alone

(02:39):
to start Drake may over Jacoby. Okay, I'll buy that
to an extent, but there still had to be some
extenuating circumstances.

Speaker 5 (02:49):
Yeah, I guess.

Speaker 6 (02:49):
So, I guess I'm on the on Mayo's side here
a little bit because I feel like it would be
disingenuous of me to argue the other side after I've
been you know, patting the table for him to make
this move for weeks. So the biggest thing to me
with this whole situation is that is two things. One,
one hundred and nineteen passing yards per game is not

(03:11):
NFL offense, Like you can't keep rolling that out there
every single week. If the offense which Chikobe were said
under center, was producing at a better rate, then yeah,
maybe we wouldn't be talking about this. But this is
this is truly rock bottom when it comes to passing
offense in the modern NFL, Like in twenty twenty four,
to be throwing for under one hundred and twenty yards

(03:32):
a game, is unheard of and something that just can't
really continue.

Speaker 5 (03:36):
So that's one.

Speaker 6 (03:38):
Number two is that I really like this from Mayo
because it isn't good enough and it shouldn't be acceptable
that they're going out there and losing games on Sunday.
So as you know, fifteen to ten on Sunday, a
win winnable game against the Miami Dolphins.

Speaker 5 (03:59):
There's a line.

Speaker 6 (04:00):
I understand that none of us expected them to be
a playoff team this year, but there's a line of
acceptance that the organization and that Mayo needs to put
up with and the circumstances, whether this was the plan
or not, the circumstances on the ground changed to the
point where their bridge quarterback was not holding up the
end of the bargain enough to make this move.

Speaker 4 (04:21):
If you wanted a bridge quarterback, I think there were
the candidates out there. I wonder whether or not they
would have wanted to fork out the kind of money
for it. Hello, Joe Flacco is coming to mind right
now off the top of my brain. And I think
even there for a while, Kirk Coussins was considered a
bridge there for a while as well, so there were
other choices. Whatever the case may be that in particular,

(04:42):
without completely throwing Jacobe on the bus, because I think
what he's done here is he's really taken one for
the team, and he's taken that to a different level
maybe in this regard, because I think he hasn't been saying,
he hasn't been separated, he hasn't been surrounded with the
kind of people that you expect a starting quarterback in
the NFL to be surrounded by. Let's be honest here, Yeah,

(05:04):
So no, I don't throw him under the bus at all.
This is not Jacoby's fault, you know, just putting that
right there where it is out in front, it was
pretty clear to see that we didn't have to go
very far into the season before this decision had to
be made. There were two three games that might have
been winnable that could have been differently. I'm not saying

(05:24):
they were, but could have been different had a change
been made when we started clamoring for it. I'm not
giving us all the credit on this either. Sometimes these
guys know more football, you know, you know, than we
know in our little fingers, So I get all of that.
The fact of the matter is, though, is that I
don't feel like there's been complete There hasn't been truthfulness here,

(05:49):
and I think that part of that is because of
the way that the coaching staff in particular, and maybe
the way that we've all acted around here. Under the
previous reason, everything was very close to the best. We
kept our cards. You know, we weren't showing our cards.
You know, we're holding our hand. You know, we're not
flashing it out in front of anybody because we don't
want the other guys to see. Now that having been said,

(06:12):
the decision being made this week, the way that it
was made. First of all, it was leaked. I think
we can all kind of figure that one out. It
got leaked, and rapapoor. You are a lucky son of
a gun because you know the right people. And that's okay.
That's the way the game is played. This is how
insiders get to be insiders because they have the confidence
of a lot of these reporters. I know this because

(06:32):
I've been a reporter covering the NFL for forty years myself,
so I get it. I just wow, I'm gonna get
caught up here for just a second, because this is
it's not the right way to do things. And if
we're gonna change the way that things are done, then
we need to have some clarification. We need to have

(06:56):
some consistency. We need to have you know, I mean,
if it's going to be your way or the highway,
that needs to be said. Bill Belichick was very clear
about that years ago, and we understood that. But at
the same time, you know, media in this position, the
position like you and I are in, Okay, there has
to be some autonomy here for us to be able

(07:18):
to do our jobs properly. Otherwise nobody gets taken seriously.
So I think where we need to go from here,
at least at this stage of the game, is just look,
there really wasn't a plan. If there was a plan,
then there should have been some kind of a of
an inkling that there was. This seems very haphazard, It
seems very thrown together. It seems very reactionary. Why else

(07:40):
would you start a quarterback like Drake against one of
the better defenses in the NFL as opposed to starting
him at home against one of the worst defenses in
the NFL just a week before. He can't have improved
that much in a week's time.

Speaker 6 (07:54):
Yeah, that's fair. I guess the biggest thing to me.
And this is what I was trying to say last
week before I stepped in my pile of you know what.

Speaker 5 (08:03):
And by the way, you don't have to say anthing.

Speaker 4 (08:06):
Okay, well but no, but I feel like I need
to say this. All right, I think we understand that
this is a reactionary business. Yeah, okay, you're speaking your feelings,
you're speaking your insight. You're in the locker room, you
see it. You talk to everybody. Now, maybe some of
the guys thought what you said was BS. Okay, that's fair.
That doesn't mean everybody thought it was BS. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (08:29):
I appreciate you saying that. I again, this has been brewing,
and that, I guess is where the conversation is about
plans and all that kind of stuff. It's very easy
to sit there in May and say no pun intended,
and say we're gonna sit him for the year. Then

(08:50):
you get into training camp, and to be frank, it
wasn't great right out of the gate for him. In
training camp. He had some lumps and growing pains. But
then when you saw him in that Eagles preseason game,
turn a corner, and then he comes out in practice
and he's practicing better, that he plays decent against Washington,
and he's you know, it keeps on getting better and

(09:12):
getting better. And what I was sort of getting at
last week was that you can't lie to the other
fifty one players in the locker room and you can't
get in there and you can't say we feel as
though Jacobe Brussette gives us the best chance to win
football games on Sunday, when.

Speaker 4 (09:32):
Part of the truth stuff that I was just talking about.

Speaker 6 (09:34):
When the other fifty one guys in the locker room
see practice every single day, the eye and the sky
don't lie on the film like they watch the film.
They watch the tape and you look at all of
these opportunities at this offense ad and I'm not sitting
here telling you that they're going to go out there
and average thirty five points a game with Drake may
But the tipping point to me, from my opinion, was

(09:59):
the game. Again, Miami had situations within the game where
they needed a play from the quarterback to put them
over the top, and Jacoby Brissett just couldn't give them
that play and that would listening to Mayo, that to
me was the tipping point was it was a very

(10:21):
winnable game. We had a possession at the end of
the game, and I understand the rookie receiver didn't get
both feed and bounds, and that that's a fair criticism
or stupid rule the way it's it's a fair point.

Speaker 4 (10:35):
But we took the tuck rule out of the thing.
Should we take the the toe heel thing out?

Speaker 6 (10:40):
Maybe there were multiple plays in this game on Sunday
where it felt like a little bit of a better throw,
just a little bit of a better throw would have
been the difference in the game.

Speaker 4 (10:53):
There's no guarantee that Drake would have made that kind
of a throw. There's no guarantee that he would have
made that kind of a throw, especially under direct under pressure. Yeah,
so you know, could he have thrown a bitter ball?
I personally thought he could have, you know, could you know,
Jalen Polk, I mean, you got to realize he's coming
out of the college ranks where only one foot is
required to be in bounds, right, so he I naturally
I even saw his Instagram photo of him with his

(11:15):
second foot in bounds.

Speaker 7 (11:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (11:17):
The problem was it's the toe and there's this rule
called the toe heel rule. That if you don't tap out,
then the entire foot's gotta be in. I think that's
one of the stupidest rules I've seen since the tuck
rule and the tough rule benefit of the Patriots, this
one bit him.

Speaker 6 (11:34):
Yeah, I just when you look at going back to
the the other fifty one guys in the room, Drake
made today said in his press conference, and I don't
think that he was meaning it to throw anybody under
the bus or anything like that, but he put it
very honestly. He said, it's a winning league. This is
league is about wins and losses. We're one and four

(11:57):
and the guys in the locker room want to win.
And if it's not working, then you have to make
a change. And when guys in that locker room can
look at the physical skill set that he brings to
the table, and they can watch him making progress in practice,
and they can see him going out there, and this

(12:18):
is all public, and we have coaches from the defensive
side of the ball. A couple of weeks ago ooing
an eyeing over some of the throws that Drake May
is making on the scout team in practice.

Speaker 4 (12:28):
We mooed an odd yeah, especially since you know that
late in the preseason when we saw when he started
to pick stuff up, it's kind of like, w ohoh,
this kid may be ready before week four or week
five or whatever was being rumored at the time. You know,
this kid might be ready. Let's play him. And everybody's
pushing it int the brakes on it, and then we're
buying into this narrative that well, there's no offensive line
around him, and look, football is football, Okay, Guys are

(12:50):
gonna get beat up regardless. Okay, And if you're really babying,
and I'm sorry, but I'm going to use the term baby,
if you're babying your quarterback, what does this say to
the other fifty two guys your trend? You know, Okay,
they can go out there and bust their tails and
have their next broken potentially, but not your starting quarterback really.

Speaker 6 (13:07):
Right, and you know you see you hear Mike Pelgreno,
their cornerbacks coach, when we were talking to the defensive
assistance a couple of weeks ago, said that Drake May
made a throw so good in practice that Pellegrino went
back and watched it on.

Speaker 5 (13:23):
The tape later that day.

Speaker 4 (13:24):
Love it.

Speaker 6 (13:25):
They hate Drew Wilkins. They're outside linebackers. Coach is talking
about how they're trying to throw pressure at him and
dial things up against him, and he's reading it out.
He's looking off safeties, he's baiting guys out of coverage
and you know, manipulating coverage with his cadence and things
like that. And you look at you hear all this
stuff from these coaches and so you're you know it,

(13:48):
it's going on behind the scenes. It's really difficult for
that to continue. And then for them to go out
there on Sundays and throw for one hundred and nineteen
yards a game, and then to keep going into those
squad meetings. If you're a Jeried Mayo and saying Jakobe's
our starter, right, you know, at some point the other
guys are going to start asking someone.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
This had to have been sure he made. He made
the decision on his own. I think it's great if
he did, and he should be making the decision without
any other outside influence, unless, of course, he wants the
input from his other offensive coaches. They're the ones that
should be making the decision, not from above, not from outside,
not from the media, especially not from the fans clamoring
for Drake. May it should be Girodmeo's decision. But if

(14:30):
it's taking him that long to realize what he has here,
to see what everybody else has seen here, wait what? Okay?
So if there is a plan that he's wanted to follow,
then there needs to be at least some kind of
a I don't know, an explanation. I mean, otherwise you're
really no better off than you know, or you're not

(14:51):
being You're not different from what we went under for
twenty three years around here with Bill Belichick. Around we
knew we weren't getting aything from Bill, even though people
rasking questions during the course of the week, and you
knew we wouldn't ask it, but you had to ask
the question anyway.

Speaker 6 (15:04):
Yeah, I would just say that because I know there's
a lot of talk about this right now about them
basically throwing the plan out and being reactionary in plan.

Speaker 4 (15:15):
So think there was any plan. You can't convince me
there was a plan.

Speaker 6 (15:19):
I I don't know exactly because one thing he has
kept very close to the chest, Girod is this this
mythical plan.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
That's why I think it's nothing but unicorns. And rainbows.
That's all it is.

Speaker 5 (15:34):
I don't know about that. He has not disclosed that
to us what this plan was.

Speaker 6 (15:41):
And I know that not everybody's gonna believe this when
I say it, but I truly do feel this way.
I believe that Drake may took the plan and burned
it down.

Speaker 4 (15:50):
And burned it. He burned it because of his progress. Yeah,
and so now the coaches are forged too. Well, if
there was a plan, now we got to play the yeah,
because he's showing and showing in practice. Yep. All right,
let's turn the direction of the program here for a second.
We're gonna get back to more on Drake and getting
the start here this weekend. Eight five five PATS five

(16:11):
hundred is the total free telephone number. We'd love for
you to take part in the discussion, whether you agree
with the decision or not, one way or the other.
I'd like to hear your opinion. You can also, you know,
send it out to us as well. On what the
hell is the new email address? Again? Podcasts at Patriots
dot com. Oh it's on top of the live read.

(16:32):
Oh it's not. Oh yes it is. See I can't read.
I'm sorry, Matt Marien.

Speaker 5 (16:37):
He tries. He gives you all the tools, everything I need.

Speaker 4 (16:41):
It's right here and I'm blind podcast at Patriots dot Com. Okay,
So now joining us on the herego This is for
you Marine on the TPX hotline. Okay, joining us on
the TBX hotline is the play by play voice of
the Houston Texans, Mark Vandermier, A longtime friend. Mark. Thanks
for taking a few minutes out of your busy dayppreciate you.

Speaker 8 (17:01):
Hey, I'm doing great. Guys. You sound a little choppy.
Do I sound shoppy to you?

Speaker 4 (17:05):
You sound perfect?

Speaker 8 (17:07):
All that's fine. I can deal with shoppiness on the
other end. But okay, I'm doing great. Looking forward to
coming to Gillette Stadium on Sunday.

Speaker 4 (17:13):
I'll bet you are. I bet you are. You got
to get back and we'll hold some champ We'll hold
some clam chowder for you.

Speaker 9 (17:18):
Bro.

Speaker 8 (17:19):
Yeah, I know I'm looking forward to that too. I mean,
this is one of the staples of the league as
far as the press food. You know, you have the
crab cakes in Baltimore, you have plam chowder, and in
New England and it's awesome.

Speaker 4 (17:30):
Gotta do it all right, So I know your time
is short, so thanks again. But first things first, Nico
Collins gets placed on IR and I know that's a
bit of a blowout for you know, CJ, for the
entire offense. How do the Texans overcome that kind of
an absence here for at least four weeks.

Speaker 8 (17:46):
Well, it's the moneyball thing. You cannot replace them. You
hope to recreate him, you know. And Stefan Diggs is
having a nice year for the Texans, sort of under
the radar compared to what Nico Collins has been doing.
Nobody here is surprised about Nico's star and how good
he's been based on what we saw last year. And
I figured this would be the case, especially with Diggs
creating more of an attention getter scenario, so Nico could

(18:09):
be freed up for some things. But now they have
to go with tank Dell Diggs, see what Xavier Hutchinson
can do. Maybe John Metshi. You know the other guys too.
You know, Dalton Schultz is a good receiving tight end.
They have other weapons. Daria gon Bowally has been really
handy for them with these running back injuries they've had.
He's caught some balls lately and came up big against
Jacksonville and against the Buffalo Bills, so they'll try to

(18:32):
piece it together. The good thing is they have number
seven pulling the trigger and he's really good all right.

Speaker 4 (18:37):
So you know, obviously sitting number seven was where I
was going next. Why has CJ. Stroud made the strides
that he, you know, at least to me, started making
late last year and picked it up this year. What's
allowed him to just make the game shorter? It seems
like it's it's slowed down for him a little bit.

Speaker 8 (18:57):
Well, it definitely has, and it did from the get go.
You know, they played that preseason game in Foxborough August
of twenty twenty three, and I don't think anybody could
have thought or projected that he'd be as good as
he became, but they saw signs of it in practice.
And what do we always say about all of these players.
Everybody needs to get better, everybody needs to improve, and

(19:18):
some guys don't, some guys do. And if you could
tell this pre draft, then we'd have a lot of
geniuses out there. But clearly people are wrong about so
many quarterbacks drafted because they don't get better. Stroud gets better.
He's devoted to it. He sees the field as well,
and you know, it's kind of like when you're playing
pick up basketball. Certain guys see the floor, all of

(19:38):
a sudden the ball ends up in your hands. He
sees the field. And you had, you know, the best
quarterback of all time who could see the whole field
very easily. The game was so slowed down for him.
He was just, you know, a maestro. And I don't
have to tell you that. I'm not saying Stroud is that.
But Stroud has that ability to see who's open, keep
the eyes downfield by time, within the pocket and outside

(19:59):
the pocket. And this year I think he's better in
the pocket than he was last year. And he's starting
to run a little bit very selective. Just ten yards here,
ten yards there, Just get a first down, reload first
and ten nothing fancy. Just keep the ball matriculating down
the field, like Hanning Stram used to say. And it's
fun to watch. I mean, the guy is a pleasure
to be around and really enjoyable to watch win these

(20:20):
really close games.

Speaker 4 (20:21):
Let's do a little comparison here, Mark, because I think
you know that the Patriots have announced that they're going
to start. You know, the rookie Drake May at quarterback
against you guys this week. So when CJ first got
it going in Houston, clearly every rookie has a learning curve.
When did he turn it on? And what was the
Texans attitude at the time about letting him have the

(20:43):
opportunity to kind of play through this and try to
develop himself or did they want to put the brakes
on him at least initially and his talent just took over.
Take us back a year or so ago.

Speaker 7 (20:55):
Well.

Speaker 8 (20:55):
In OTAs and training camp in twenty twenty three Strouds
rookie season, Davis Mills was the starter. Davis Mills took
the first team reps, Stroud second team reps. Then they
started to mix them, and then it was obvious to everybody,
because you know, we're all allowed to watch every training
camp practice. It was obvious to everybody that Stroud is
better than Mills. How good is he? Ultimately you couldn't tell,

(21:16):
but you knew that he was ahead of Davis Mills
and that looked good, so go ahead and start him.
It wasn't until the second half in week two where
we really started to see a cup alive against the
Colts at a loss. They were down, but he was
spreading the ball around, throwing it around the yard, making
plays through for a lot of yards in that game.
And then week three they torched Jacksonville on the road,

(21:36):
and this was a Jacksonville team that was coming off
a playoff win season and they were the favorites to
win the AFC South. And then you got a lotside
of victory at their place, and they were often running
with CJ.

Speaker 3 (21:47):
Strout.

Speaker 8 (21:47):
I think the Tampa game last year was the one
where it took even on greater level. When he came
back with minimum time on the clock, I mean minimal,
it was inside a minute to go, found Tankdell on
a beautiful sideline pattern to set up a last second
touchdown pass to Dell, and there it was. He saw
that this was going to be a special player. And

(22:08):
he's shown nothing but I mean, he had a couple
of turnovers against the Bills in the fourth quarter of
this past week, but he shakes that off real fast,
very calm, very cool, and these things don't affect him
other than to make him want to get even better.
And again, it's just fun to be around a player
like this.

Speaker 4 (22:25):
Well, knowing now that you know what you know about CJ,
are you at all surprised the Patriots have made largely
a similar remove in giving Drake May his debut against
you guys.

Speaker 8 (22:37):
You know it's funny because Brissette is a Texans killer. Okay,
He's five and one all time against Houston with three
different teams. He won that game in Week three twenty
sixteen as a rookie when both Brady and Garoppolo were out.
He won a few games with the Colts. He beat
the Texans as a dolphin in twenty one and we
were going over this. We thought, is this the best? Well,

(22:59):
I think it's the best winning percentage for a quarterback
against the Texans minimum six games played. I believe it's
the case because it's Peyton manning Brady and then Brissette.

Speaker 2 (23:09):
How about that?

Speaker 8 (23:09):
So we're happy not to see Brissette at least I am.
I don't think the coach has any opinion on the subject.
But with Drake May, look, it's just it's like I
just described, you won't know it until you see it,
and you hope to see it, but you don't know
when you're going to see it. You hope to see
it early. You just don't know until you know. And
I think that goes with all of these rookie quarterbacks,
all of these young qbs, even Jordan Love, you know,

(23:31):
he had to sit behind Aaron Rodgers and the times
he got out there, I don't know. Right now you're
seeing it, so that's good for them. So you won't
know until you know. And maybe it happens this weekend,
maybe it takes a few more weeks, maybe it takes
another year. We don't know sure.

Speaker 4 (23:45):
And I guess really, you know, you would know what
your defense, you know, would like to do against a
guy like Drake at least to you know, make sure
that his debut is a little bit rude out there
on the field on Sunday. What do you think, in particular,
Houston as defense does well that mike him some problems.

Speaker 8 (24:02):
Well, the Texans look, if you look at the sack numbers,
they look decent league Wie, I think you're top ten
in the league, but seven of them were in one game,
and you know we're still relatively early in the season.
What they do well, though, is get the posing quarterback
off his launching point, and they did that with Josh Allen.
It wasn't a sack best last week, but Allen went
nine for thirty. How many times do you see him

(24:22):
do that? Even his rookie year, he wasn't doing that.
So the Texans forced them bad throws, forced him to
be uncomfortable because they do spend time in the backfield.
Even in their lopsided loss to the Minnesota Vikings, they
still had four sacks and they got Donald to move around.

Speaker 7 (24:37):
Now.

Speaker 8 (24:37):
Donald was able to keep his poise and make the
plays Allen wasn't. And we'll see what a rookie can
do against this defense. But they have to make sure
they get into the backfield because Will Anderson, Junior, Daniel Hunter,
these guys are good, and the defensive tackles are underrated. Fully.
Fotacasi's having a nice year, best of his career so far.
Mario Edwards has been around the block in this league,
but he's felt a resurgence playing for this squad, and

(25:00):
I think that's a tribute to really the entire staff.
But Demiko ryans so positive, so encouraging, the kind of
coach people really want to play for. And you're seeing
the results on the field, and it's particularly noticeable because
they win the close games. You know, this lead over
this league is it's a one score league basically all
the every week, all the time. And who wins these

(25:21):
close games. The teams that are together play together and
feed off each other. That's what this squad is doing.

Speaker 6 (25:27):
Mark just one for me. I just wanted to ask
you about the offense. And Houston is nineteenth in scoring
with all this talent, like, it's kind of hard to believe,
right and you watch them and it doesn't feel that way.
Is there anything you can point your finger on as
to why they haven't scored more points?

Speaker 8 (25:44):
Tatastrophic mistakes in their four victories. Against the Colts on
opening Day, they got a punt block and it results
in a gift touchdown. A play later against the Bears,
they fumble at the five yard line when they're about
to punch it in and it turns could be two
score games into a one score game. Ultimately, need I
go on the Jags. I mean, NaN's a rally in

(26:04):
that one because they muffed the punt early, gave them
a gift touchdown off that. And lastly, two fourth quarter turnovers,
one of them resulted in a field goal, and it
just kept things close when they didn't really need to be.
The Texans have also been penalized a lot. Last week
they cleaned it up a bit. It kind of reared
its ugly head after halftime. The two weeks prior one
to loss. Want to win. They had a lot of

(26:25):
false starts things like that. They've been messy, they've been
a little sloppy. They got to tighten up and that's
what enabled the opponent to stay close, and that's why
the Texans haven't been able to score a ton of points.
But when you look at the yards, they're definitely moving
the football. I mean there's the number one passing attack
in the league and yards per game Stroud is amazing.
They've got the weapons. Even without Nico Collins, they should

(26:46):
be able to get some yards through the air. They
want to run it better. They have not run the
ball as well as they want to do. There's no
question about that, and we'll see if that materializes. I
think Damian Pierce should be back this week. So I'm
at practice today. I'm hoping, I'm crossing my and hoping
he can stay healthy and get out there. So we'll
see how it goes. But yeah, they have not scored
points to their liking. Twenty nine is the season high

(27:08):
and that was week one.

Speaker 4 (27:09):
All right, Mark, I know you got to go, but
I appreciate a little time here today. Thank you. Save
travels this way, and I will personally make certain that
the clam chowder is still warm for you when you
decide to come out of the booth.

Speaker 8 (27:22):
Yeah. Please, And let's get some U Mass fans in
the crowd. Please, I'd like to see.

Speaker 7 (27:28):
Some of that.

Speaker 4 (27:28):
Wait, you mess has fans football fans.

Speaker 8 (27:31):
What's that?

Speaker 4 (27:32):
I said, you mess has fans?

Speaker 8 (27:34):
Yes, they do. Don't do that to me, you know,
I'm just you and I go back to Big East days,
Miami versus Providence.

Speaker 4 (27:42):
We do fun, we do well well beyond that. I
don't remember your days at you Mass. Absolutely, thanks buddy,
appreciate the time.

Speaker 3 (27:49):
All right, Thanks guys, you got it.

Speaker 4 (27:50):
Mark Vandermeir the one and only voice of the Houston Texans.
You can follow him on x at Texan's Voice. That's
where you find him on that. So yeah, good handle.
It was very good handle. And you know, Houston's listen.
This is a team that for a number of years
we all thought, you know, would have potential for whatever reason,
they have never been able to get over the hump.

(28:12):
You remember the whole you know, letterjacket thing that went
on here with Jed J. Watt over a few years ago,
and can you forget that stuff? Right? And so whenever
I think Houston Texans, that's actually what I think of,
because I just think of man alive. You know, they
just kept their mouths shut, but that seemed to, you know,
go right in their face. Now, I think they've got
enough talent, especially on the offensive side of the ball,
as you alluded to, to overcome whatever foibles they have. They

(28:35):
seem to certainly be quick enough defensively where they can
play well enough with everybody else. But as he pointed out,
they're kind of shooting themselves in the foot, not unlike
what the Patriots are doing. But they've already got a
better offense on the field. So I think the secondary,
while the Patriot's secondary has been good at times, is
going to be extremely challenged. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (28:53):
I wanted to ask Mark that question because it's often
something like that where it's like turnover, is it inoperate
tune times or poor situational football? And as somebody on
the outside looking in, you don't necessarily think of those
little things all the time because you look at their
numbers right now, a quarterback a team quarterback by c. J.

(29:15):
Stroud with the number one receiver in football is nineteenth
in scoring. That doesn't really make much sense, you know.
He said that they're number one in the league in
passing yards right now, but they're only scoring twenty points
a game. Yeah, that doesn't necessarily compute their early down offense.
They're expected points added on early downs right now is

(29:35):
worse than the Patriots. They are a worse first and
second town team than New England is like this offense
right that's changing their quarterback. So it is a weird
one of those weird anomalies with Houston right now.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
Now.

Speaker 6 (29:49):
On the defensive side of the ball, they've been lights
out really the entire year. They've been really impressive on
that side of the football. Number three in DVOA on defense,
Umber one in pressure rate. They're playing a lot more
man to man. They're playing more aggressive style under Demiko
Ryans this year, so it's a tough defense to go
up against. But I continue to just be baffled by

(30:14):
how you could watch the tape and see how good c. J.
Stroud is and he is fantastic in the pocket. And
then the production just you know, you go to the
box score and it's it's nineteen to thirteen.

Speaker 5 (30:27):
Or you know, or whatever they're shoot him.

Speaker 6 (30:28):
So yeah, and I'm just or twenty I think it's
twenty three twenty against Buffalo last week on Sunday.

Speaker 5 (30:34):
So it's just like, how do we get there?

Speaker 4 (30:36):
And yet, defensively, this team is impressive what they've done
against opposing quarterbacks this far. Yeah, they gave you know,
Josh Allen perfect example last week, gave him Molly can
handle and then some gave him a concussion probably. I mean,
it's it's and then let's get back to the original
premise of the show today, which we're talking about Drake
May's debut. He is going to have his hands full

(30:58):
in trying to figure out what he was going to do.
If I'm Houston, I'm throwing everything, including the kitchen sink
at him, And why wouldn't you in a competitive game
in a competitive world. I'm gonna do everything I can
to make life as difficult as possible for the air
apparent at quarterback.

Speaker 6 (31:15):
Yeah, the one thing that he maybe has going for
him in this particular game. Is I wouldn't call Houston
to spin the dial defense. This isn't necessarily a defense
that is is a disguise heavy or isn't showing their
cards before the ball is snapped. You know, when they
want to come after a quarterback, they're gonna put five
or six guys up on the line of scrimmage, and

(31:36):
you know they're coming like you know something. Maybe it's
not all six, maybe it's you know, four and they
drop two out or whatever the case may be. But
they they show their cards a lot, so you're not
necessarily gonna be in a position where you're gonna be
scrambling post snap to try to figure out what the
defense is in.

Speaker 5 (31:52):
You know.

Speaker 6 (31:52):
That's really this system, This system that I was gonna
say Robert solid, but no longer. The Jets run the
forty nine ers a run obviously. The Houston Texans run
under Damiko Ryans is a we do what we do
kind of defense, and they just a couple of weeks
ago played this defense twice in a row. The Jets
and the forty nine Ers both run the same system,

(32:15):
so they should know relatively what Houston's going to do. Defensively.
I'd also just look at Week two against Caleb Williams
and another rookie quarterback and say, well, that work for
them against Caleb, So that's probably what they're gonna do
against Drake May on Sunday. So they should know what's
reason right, Yeah, they should know what's coming. That doesn't

(32:35):
make it easier, but they should know what's coming.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
All right. So that means I got two questions for
you before I get you out of here. Number one.
Drowd Mayo said earlier today that Drake May gives the
Patriots the best chance to win the game. Yeah, is
there a chance to win this game on Sunday?

Speaker 6 (32:52):
It's an unknown because if I'm right about Drake May
and he goes out there and he plays like a star,
then yeah, Obviously, when you have a quarterback that's pulling
that hard on the rope and you can certainly win
any game that you're in.

Speaker 5 (33:05):
We know that all too well.

Speaker 6 (33:06):
Then when you go into a game with a quarterback
like that, that you have a chance. So I'm willing
to say that they have a chance, mainly because of
what Mark was talking about. Houston hasn't really pulled away
from anybody yet this year I mentioned the Bears game.
They sacked CAYLEB Williams seven times, they picked him off twice,
and they won the game nineteen to thirteen. It was

(33:26):
a one score game when all was said and done.
So if the Texans don't clean their act up on
that side of the football, if they're not crisper and
they're not sharper with their execution, then they will leave
the door open for the Patriots in this game a
little bit. So there's gonna be a lot of juice
in the building. I'm sure he's gonna be jacked up.
Maybe he does give them a spark offensively. So I'm

(33:48):
saying there's a chance, But I'm also willing to be
a little bit realistic.

Speaker 4 (33:53):
Just gonna say, because I heard today before I came
into the studio, both on radio and from you know fans,
you know on campus, you know where I teach, that
it's kind of like this is the season opener all
over again, you know, like we can eliminate the last
month almost and start all over. And in a sense,
I understand that mindset, and I also get what the

(34:14):
fans would feel like that, and that's why I agree
with you I think the stadium will be full of
juice on Sunday, and it kind of leads to well,
maybe this is why we had to make the move,
because they wanted the juice from the fans.

Speaker 6 (34:25):
Yeah, it's possible to me where what that means at
the start of the season.

Speaker 5 (34:30):
I always think about week one.

Speaker 6 (34:32):
Nobody really knows what you are in terms of schematics, Like,
you don't really know, especially when you have so much
turnover on the roster, new coordinator, new quarterback.

Speaker 4 (34:41):
That's right, we don't know who this team is.

Speaker 6 (34:43):
We don't know what they have planned right for Drake
May as the quarterback. I like to hope and this
is something that will judge off of this game and
moving forward.

Speaker 5 (34:54):
But I would like to.

Speaker 6 (34:55):
Hope that Alex van Pelt, Ben McAdoo, the offensive coaching staff,
has been preparing the Drake May playbook since.

Speaker 4 (35:05):
Muzzle comes off. That's what we want, you know, the muzzle.
We want the leash loosened, we want everything off. And
he needs to show his coaches, his teammates, the fans,
the meeting. You need to show everybody. This is why
you know, I need to justify being taken third.

Speaker 6 (35:19):
Yeah, it and their coaches too. Like, to me, the
onus right now is not so much on Drake, it's
on the coaches, Like the coaches need to not only
call things that he's comfortable running, but show me some
schematic tweaks, show me some creativity on the offensive side
of the football, show me some innovation on that side

(35:40):
of the ball, because now you don't have the excuse
anymore of well, we're limited at quarterback, Like you don't
have that excuse. Nope, you can say that you're mentally limited,
maybe that he's a rookie in his first career start
and he's not going to read defenses and be that
type of guy just yet. But physically he can reach
every single area of the field. He can run instruct
sure at a structure, he can improvise like you have

(36:02):
everything at your fingertips now, So what are they thinking
of doing from a schematic perspective, which Drake may is
going to be huge? I want to I want to
be dazzled a little bit, like, show me something, show
me what you.

Speaker 5 (36:14):
Got right you have to have.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
We're dying, I know.

Speaker 6 (36:20):
But I'm not just talking about being dazzled just by
the quarterback. Like the quarterback is going to do it
like I'd.

Speaker 4 (36:27):
Be dazzled if the offensive line made a block.

Speaker 5 (36:30):
I am not.

Speaker 6 (36:31):
I am not concerned that we won't see flashes from
Drake because we saw it all summer long and all
preseason long. The question is is schematically, what's the Drake
may offense look like. What is the way that they
are going to get him involved in more ways than
just with his arm, Because we also saw this in

(36:52):
the preseason. You have designed quarterback run at your disposal now,
so when you get on the goal line and you
need to punch the ball in, you can zone read,
you can RPO, you can have draw, you can do
all sorts of things at your disposal now to pick
up a first down, to run it in on the

(37:14):
goal line if you want to go for it on
fourth and one. Now you're eleven on eleven, you're no
longer playing with a quarterback that can't be a factor
into that. But in order for that to be the case,
they need to scheme it up that way. So I'm
really curious to see how that goes. I think that
can change a lot for this offense.

Speaker 4 (37:32):
Well, the second question I had for you is unattached
to the Drake May discussion. But I need to get
your opinions on Robert Sola's firing of the Jets. Yeah,
after only four weeks, and really after five weeks rather
and only two weeks after, they just thumped you as
bad as anybody has thumped you this year. I just
thought that was highly ironic.

Speaker 6 (37:53):
Well, we talk about knee jerk reactions. That's what it
feels like in New York. And I get it that
they would each Johns and their owners said that this
is the most talented Jets team ever assembled. And I
don't necessarily think that that's hyperbolic, like that could be accurate,
Like it's certainly the most talented Jets team in my lifetime.

(38:13):
I can tell you that I don't go as far
back as some, but I can tell you in my lifetime,
this ain't the Chad Pennington New York Jets. This ain't
the Gino Smith or Mark Sanchez Jets. This Jets team
is loaded on both sides of the football. When they
played the Patriots on Thursday Night a few weeks ago,
that talent gap is what won that game so decisively

(38:34):
for the Jets. It was very crystal clear who had
more talent on the field that night. Now they're trying
to win games, not against the Patriots, They're trying to
win games against the the cream of the crop. And
that's where coaching can come in because coaching. Belichick always
used to say that coaching can lose you games. Players

(38:54):
win games. And what they felt like was happening was
that Robert Salla and the coaching staff would losing football
games for that team because they have all this talent
that they should be winning.

Speaker 5 (39:06):
So I get it was.

Speaker 4 (39:08):
There butting of hits between him and Aaron Rodgers.

Speaker 6 (39:12):
Rogers says, no, you want to take his value. What
I believe with that situation is that Rogers has his
guys in that building, one of them being in Nate Hackett,
who is one of his good friends in the business
and as somebody that he trusts. And look, Rogers is

(39:35):
a tough We had this with Brady, and I understand
that it was a much more successful level than where
the Jets are right now. But Brady had his way
of doing things. You know that he ran his offense.
He didn't necessarily want much input. He didn't allow receivers
in the circle of trust very easily. When they had

(39:56):
new receivers on the team. Rogers to me, strikes me
as that maybe even ramped up a little bit times ten.
There are certain things schematically and certain things from a
play design perspective that Aaron Rodgers just doesn't want a
piece of, Like apparently he doesn't He's not a big
fan of motion at the snap or pre snap motion.
So he just wants to get to the line of scrimmage,

(40:16):
pick his matchups, and go to work. He doesn't want
all these bells and whistles that you see from all
these innovative offensive minds around the league, you know, the Miami's,
the San Francisco's, the Rams.

Speaker 5 (40:26):
You know.

Speaker 6 (40:27):
He doesn't want any of the bells and whistles. He
just wants to line up and I'm better than you, right,
and that sort of thing. So it seems to me
like there might have been some issues in that regard
of like how do we want to play the game,
like how do we want to win football games? And
just you know, to relate it back a little bit
to Drake May That was the biggest thing to me

(40:48):
with with this whole operation in the last five weeks
when it comes to the head coach you are not
necessarily going into the game and calling the offense or
calling the defense. But you have to go to your
coordinators and to your assistant coaches and with a plan
every single week. Of these are the four to three
you know, three things, four things that we have to

(41:10):
do that are non negotiable to win this football game.

Speaker 1 (41:14):
Right.

Speaker 6 (41:15):
I'll give you an example when they are before the
half on Sunday against Miami. Poor situational football. In that scenario,
they run the ball for seven or eight yards on
first down, and then they pass it twice and they
end up punting the ball back to the Miami Dolphins
without wasting any time. Practically, if your girod Mayo, I'd
like to hear Darrod Mayo get into the headset to

(41:37):
Alex Van Pelton, say we're running the ball here, we're
backed up on our own goal line. We can't allow
them to get the ball back before the half. This
has to be the last possession of the half. You
call it like whatever run play you want to call.
You want to call gap, you want to call it
outside zone, you want to call power like you call it.
But this is what we're doing, and for I know

(42:00):
everybody thinks there is no plan for once. I feel
like there is a direction. Like girod Mao went in
on Monday and said, we're making the change. I'm the
head coach and this is what we're doing. Everybody else
needs to just get on board. And this whole collaborative stuff.
You know, we gotta run it by Elliott, and you

(42:21):
gotta run it by AVP and we got to run
it by mcadude.

Speaker 5 (42:25):
Like, no, you're the head coach, like this is your team.

Speaker 4 (42:28):
Maybe this is something he just wasn't comfortable doing. Yeah,
but he's decided no, I gotta do it.

Speaker 6 (42:33):
Yeah, And I feel I know I'm going to be
on an island on this. I feel that that's growth.
I feel that that's growth. I feel like we've gotten
to the point now where he is putting his foot
down and he is saying, no, this is how we
are going to do things.

Speaker 5 (42:50):
This is my football.

Speaker 4 (42:51):
He needs to do that. I agree, he needs to
do that. I think there has to be more of
a demonstrative measure here from Gerrod Mayo. Yeah, I think
maybe this is the first step toward that. Yeah.

Speaker 6 (43:01):
He was asked on Monday about changing play callers and he.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
Threw cold hater.

Speaker 5 (43:06):
Yeah, so it sounds like that I would have to
begree with that.

Speaker 4 (43:09):
By the way, I'm gonna I'm gonna take the coach's
side on this one because it's unfair to Alex van Pelt,
largely because of who he's had to work with.

Speaker 6 (43:15):
Yeah, and I and he's also a first time play caller,
So let's let him go through his lumps, since, yeah,
he gets better.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
At You're gonna give gerard Is lumps. You're gonna give
Jacoby Is lumps. You're gonna give Drake his lumps. A
VP needs the lumps.

Speaker 5 (43:28):
Yeah, one hundred.

Speaker 6 (43:29):
I just I feel as though a lot of what's
happened here is that there's a lot of voices. And
this is just my opinion. I have to preface that
now every time I talk. This is just my opinion.
I feel as though there's been a lot of cooks
in the kitchen. Yeah, and it's coming from upstairs, or
it's coming from the coordinator level, or it's coming from

(43:51):
here and there and everywhere, And Gerrod Mayo is trying
to just straighten out this ship of This is what
I want to do. They need to start building a
culture like they need to start building roots of a
foundation here.

Speaker 4 (44:02):
This is who we are right.

Speaker 6 (44:04):
And now, this to me is a big first step.
I give him kudos. I think he stood up to
everybody on Monday, and I'm just again my opinion, he
stood up to everybody on Monday and he said this
is what we're doing, get on board, And I can't
say he's.

Speaker 4 (44:18):
Done that a lot previously.

Speaker 5 (44:20):
Yeah, and so I'm happy you.

Speaker 4 (44:22):
Left you wondering, kind of scratching your head. Yeah, Hey,
you know what the bottom line is out of all
of this right now? What's that Patriots are only two
games out of first place.

Speaker 6 (44:30):
Look, I'm not going there. I'm not going there. I'm
not going there. But it's exciting that. You know, we
had people calling to PU and stuff and talk about Okay, well,
you know, it felt rudderless before, like we're on this
road to nowhere because Jacob Brissett isn't the future. The

(44:51):
product isn't watchable, he's not the quarterback of the future,
So like, what are we doing here now? At least
even if they don't win on Sunday, they could have
a similar game to what they had in San Francisco,
and it could look just as bad, right in terms
of the other three two phases and the whole operation
and all that kind of stuff. But if Drake May

(45:12):
gives us three or four or five Wow plays, then
it's gonna feel different. It's gonna feel like there is hope,
and hopefully that becomes more consistent, and hopefully he becomes
more consistent and we grow from there. Now it really
does feel like we have a new lease on life
around here a little.

Speaker 4 (45:30):
Bit the season opener, Yeah, all over again, as I said, right, yep, absolutely,
thanks buddy. Of course, make sure you're sticking around a
little extra here, all right. The one and only Easy
Lazar at Easy Lazar on X joining us here on
the program, of course. This program is also brought to
you by bud Light, Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy,
bud Light, the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots.

(45:50):
Eight five five PATS five hundred, the toll free telephone number.
It is podcasts at Patriots dot com. That's podcast with
an s plural at Patriots dot com is the new
web address to join us if you want to follow
along on Twitter, even submit a question on Twitter or X.
Because I always screwed that part up. You can hit

(46:11):
me up at JR Broadcaster. That's the ex address. All right,
you want to do what now? Oh you texted me?
Should I take a time out here? Let's just do
it live on TV. I'm going to read what Marines
texts has to say here. Oh yeah, right, we do
we have a we can hear from Drake May. All right,
let's do that in a moment, just in a moment,

(46:33):
have it ready to roll, because we should hear from
the star of the day, Drake May. But I also
want to acknowledge the fact that I got two gentlemen
hanging on for quite a time here, Patty and Agawam,
you're up first here in the playbook. Look up, Johnny, Patty,
what's happening today with you?

Speaker 9 (46:52):
Just a work just sort of winding the day down?

Speaker 4 (46:54):
And are you on board? Are you on board with
the decision here?

Speaker 9 (46:59):
Okay? Any of the guys will tell you that, like I,
for a lack of better term, John, I've been calling
and bitching the last few shows on TU saying that
you know nothing personal against Jacobe, but to me, he's
a backup quarterback. He kind of always has been a
backup quarterback. Sorry about the echo.

Speaker 4 (47:22):
That's right, You're good, I hear you fine.

Speaker 9 (47:24):
To me, it was just well, like like what everyone
else said, I mean, no matter what, I was going
to watch the product, but I was watching it like begrudgingly, like,
oh my god, I can't believe this is this is
our team this year, and you know, is this going
to go on all year? You know, are we going
to are we going to win another game? And I

(47:47):
didn't think we were with Jacoby as our starting quarterback.

Speaker 4 (47:51):
No, and we said as much, We said as much
last week. I think that I really thought one in
sixteen was in play if we can continued. If this
team had continued down the road that was traveled last week,
I'm not sure how much that really would have changed
had they won the game last week. I don't believe
that even if that pass to Jalen Polk had been

(48:13):
complete in the back of the end zone, I'm not
sure that it necessarily would have saved Jacoby's job. I'm
not necessarily sure that you know that Drake may wouldn't
have been you know, rushed in as the court. I'm
not sure that any of that would have changed. If,
of course, we are to believe what has been said
all along that there was going to be a process
in bringing Drake along in this, but it was clear

(48:36):
when they didn't win it that something needed to change.
So maybe that was a convenience factor. I don't know,
but this is something we've all seen coming for a while.
I've been an advocate for doing it since day one,
because then you might actually have you might be a
few weeks ahead of the game. You might be where
Jaden Daniels is, you might be where you know Caleb
Williams is. You might We don't know, and we're never

(48:57):
going to know the answer to that. So well, that's
why I was an advocate for starting now back when
the season got started. At the very least, it's happening now,
and that's why it's kind of like, hey, this is
the season opener all over again.

Speaker 7 (49:12):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
Right.

Speaker 9 (49:13):
And I was on the fence before the season started,
but leading up to Week one, I said, you know what,
screw it, I want to see the kid play.

Speaker 4 (49:20):
Yeah, we need to see that. We need to see
what he can do. We need to see what he
can do with the ball, We need to see what
he can do under duress. We need to see you know,
if he's been listening to the calls, and we've seen
the shots of him on the sideline, you know, with
a year piece end, he's listening to all the calls.
He know what it is. He can make his own decision.
He's playing the game in his own mind. So all right,

(49:40):
how much has he retained? Look, this guy is not
he's a little bit of a novidge when it comes
to football because he's only started X number of games
in his entire career. Remember he only started for like
a season and a half at North Carolina before you know,
he moved into the central role. He's still relatively brand
new at this when you look at the bigger picture.

(50:01):
But he comes from a great pedigree. You know, his brothers,
you know, we're great athletes. His whole family's dad. You know,
he knows how to play. He's an athlete, you know,
at H A. L. E. T. He's an athlete. And
we need to see that because if we don't get
what we think we got with the third pick, then
you really got to start looking at the big picture.

(50:23):
I don't think that'll be the case, but we got
to find out because you know, you got to worry
about the team first more than anything else.

Speaker 9 (50:31):
Yeah, right, and I can't I don't know if I
haven't said it on fewer if he just said it
on this on the playbook with you where this team's
talent offensively might not be good enough for them to
win at least like four more games this year. But
it's all right, you know, all I'm really looking for,
I think all fans are really looking for is something new,

(50:52):
something exciting, something to get excited about, and eventually progress.
You want to see the kid progress and eventually get
better as as the weeks go on. I mean, if
you look at what Houston did to Josh Allen last week,
he completed like what nine of thirty passes. Look at
Caleb Williams first week, it was almost the exact same statline.

(51:12):
He completed nine of like probably nine of thirty, and
he's progressively gotten better.

Speaker 4 (51:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (51:16):
Jaden Daniels weeks one and two didn't look like anything,
and now he's like he's in MVP consideration.

Speaker 4 (51:24):
Yeah. So, and so even if he comes out, if
Drake comes out and struggles this week against Houston, you know,
there's no reason to get overblown about this. Okay. You
know we've seen it with the other rookie quarterbacks in
this league, the three that are actually you know, starting
with their teams. Let's throw boone Nicks into the mix
as well. They've all struggled at times this year because
their rookies. This is why, again I'm gonna repeat myself here,

(51:47):
I was an advocate for starting him early so you
could get by the rough stuff and hopefully he'd started developing,
like by week five or week six. But okay, that's over,
that's done. We got to move on now. And so
now you're going to start the clock and he's gonna
struggle at times, so we have to allow for that.
You can't say, oh my god, he was terrible, where's

(52:07):
Jacoby bringing back? No, no, no, this is what we have.
This is what we do. We need to see if
this guy can play. He gets the entire rest of
the season to figure this thing out, and that at
the very least, that's what he's gonna get, and he
should be getting because he is the future. Otherwise, you
don't take a guy at number three if he's not
the future of your franchise. So I know there's gonna

(52:29):
be people that want to shoot their own selves in
the foot. If he doesn't have a good game this week,
if the Patriots get blown out or whatever happens, there's
gonna be people saying, Oh, they should have never done it. Look,
he got killed behind that awful offensive line. I'm not
buying that. I'm not buying that. If he gets killed
behind the offensive line, then that's as much his fault
as it is the offensive line's fault. He's got the ability,

(52:52):
he's got to know how. I think, frankly, we'll see
him do a lot of rolling out of the pocket.
I think he's gonna have to move the pocket a
little bit in order to avoid a rush that's clearly
gonna pit its ears back and come after him. So
in that regard, you'll you'll probably see, you know, a
VP dial up some plays that we just haven't seen
before because it's not in Jacoby's wheelhouse to be able

(53:15):
to run those kinds of plays, right.

Speaker 9 (53:18):
And if you know, if they come after him and
he's able to get the ball down the field and
they switch up and start playing men, he'll we've seen
him like or those that have like watched them play
in college.

Speaker 7 (53:33):
He's not afraid to take off.

Speaker 4 (53:34):
No, No, he's moving. That's right. He'll he'll take off
he has to, and he's not afraid to make mistakes. Okay,
I thought that, you know, well, Jacoby again deserves to
have a statue erected. I think because of him, you know,
taking the bullets here, so to speak. The fact of
the matter is that he's limited in what he can
do with the football. Drake can do more with the

(53:55):
football than Jacoby can. That's not a slam on Jacoby.
It's just a credit to the town that Drake may has. Okay,
Jacoby's a great guy. He's a leader, his teammates respect him.
He's an adequate quarterback. Frankly, he's great as a backup.
He's exactly what you want, you want a game manager.
I also believe, quite frankly, that he was kind of

(54:16):
told to, you know, we need to be conservative at
the stage of the game until we get you know,
more bullets in our holster. And I don't know that
they have that yet, but it's kind of like, well,
we may never get it, so we got to play
the young guy. And I really believe the decision to
play him boil down to basically that, you know, it's
kind of like We don't know when we're going to

(54:37):
have more bullets in the holster to be able to
shoot from our gun. So let's play him before he
gets too late. Bingo, that's why he's starting.

Speaker 9 (54:46):
Yeah, and just a couple more points down and I'll
get off and yeah, you know what, probably they don't
have the bullets in the holster. But I'll tell you
what I like. I'll tell you what I like what
I saw this past week. You know, kat Osbourne, he
was injured, but he was inactive. They pretty much even
though he was there and active for the game, Taekwon

(55:06):
Thornton was essentially obstensively just an active you know, for
the game last week. And they gave Kisham Boudi a chance.
And Kishan Boudi is actually talented.

Speaker 4 (55:17):
Kishan Boudi got his job. Kaishan Boudi got his playing
time based on what he's done at practice and what
he's done at practice well from the little that we've
seen plus the reports that we've seen and gotten from
the coaches, he's he knows how to block downfield, he
knows how to block right and he's in a superb
job of that in order to be able to try

(55:38):
to spring guys. So it just tells me that the
guys that are doing the little things to earn their
playing time are the ones that are being rewarded as
it should be.

Speaker 9 (55:49):
Yeah, and I'm not saying the kids. The next coming
up Stefan Diggs, but there is a reason why he was,
you know, consensus number one, number two wide receiver coming
out of high school. Because the kid's talented. So I'm
glad he's getting a chance. Pop Polk, let these young
kids place. You have to see what you not only
what you have with May, but now that you have

(56:11):
him starting there and you actually have like an uber
talented quarterback, you need to see what you have at
the wide receiver position too, before the start of the
next offseason. And listen, fans, fans out there and anyone
that's listening. I know you were saying, you know, Drake
May gets the calls. Drake, if you're listening to this call,

(56:35):
everybody needs to temper their expectations down because this is
essentially your one of a rebuild.

Speaker 4 (56:41):
It's week one, baby, It's week one all over again.
That's why we started with that today. This is the
season opener all over again.

Speaker 9 (56:51):
It's gonna take time. It's gonna take patience. You know,
you don't go from going fourteen or four and thirteen
last year and not really upgrading other than possibly, you know,
a couple pieces here at the wide receiver position with
with Polk, you know, getting a healthy born back and
taking a quarterback number three overall and expect to win

(57:13):
twelve games and win the division the next year. It
doesn't happen.

Speaker 4 (57:17):
Yep, you're right, you know.

Speaker 9 (57:19):
But now that I said that, now that I've sort
of grounded myself in reality, I'm going to enter fantasy
land for a second. John, here's my prediction for the game. Okay,
Patriots pull off a huge upset. I think the crowd
is going to be juiced. I think that place is
going to be loud. Gillette's going to be freaking, you know,
chopping at the bit to see this kid come in

(57:41):
and have a big game.

Speaker 2 (57:42):
I think.

Speaker 9 (57:43):
I think May's going to be amped up. I think
he's going to have a few big time throws, and
I'm I'm picking the Patriots to win twenty eight to twenty.

Speaker 4 (57:51):
Wow, Well, the Patriots can score twenty eight points. I
tell you what, There'll be a lot of people with
eyes wide open. I'll put it to you that way,
you the man, Patty, thank you, all right, you got it,
Patty and agawam for twenty eight point healthy for twenty points.
I think would be at least on the right track,
wouldn't we. Eldred in North Carolina? What's up, Eldred?

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Mister?

Speaker 4 (58:18):
It's all good today. Clearly you're on the road. Be
safe out there, and that guy's dead.

Speaker 2 (58:23):
Oh yeah, I'm riding around and wish to Salem right now,
so huh dropping one load off there and I'm done
done for the day.

Speaker 4 (58:30):
All right, very good, all right, be safe out there.
Are you guys gonna get You're not gonna get it. No, see,
you're not gonna get any of the aftermath of the
of the hurricane that's hitting Florida because it's going to
go out to the Atlantic. So I think that's probably
a good thing, right.

Speaker 2 (58:45):
Yes, because the mountains and Ashfield still having problem.

Speaker 4 (58:48):
Oh I know, I feel I feel so badly for
the people of Asheville. I've got uh, I've got a
dear friend of mine who lives in Greenville, South Carolina,
which is you know, is not far away, and uh
uh you know, and he took a tree right in
the middle of his house, so you know, he's got
his power back, but he can't get the tree out
of the house until somebody comes by, like an insurance

(59:09):
adjuster to give him an estimate on the repairs. And
that may take a while, so crazy.

Speaker 2 (59:14):
Huh yeah, that is.

Speaker 3 (59:15):
Kind of slow.

Speaker 2 (59:16):
Yeah uh Threeville and s Farmer, South Carolina. Like I
got family there too, Yeah, and day too long got
their power on like yesterday and day before. Wow, you know,
And that what I'm saying. I'm like, I'm just glad
he just didn't have him that bad up in Charlotte.
We had some powers and stuff out, but wasn't that bad.

Speaker 4 (59:33):
Yeah, yep.

Speaker 2 (59:34):
But but like I said before, I'm glad he got
a shot. But like I told you a little while back,
I would have started him day one.

Speaker 4 (59:43):
Yes, three, Yes, yes exactly. We're you and I are
in agreement. We're on the same page here. Yep, there's
I would not have sat him. I would have started
him day one, no question, I would have.

Speaker 2 (59:54):
I would have. But even though I'm not in a
wheelhouse yet. But like I say, you got to show
me now in mister S three, you just got to
show me. But like I said, maybe buy a made jersey.
Ain't about a Patriot jersey. In a while. I still
got Brady's and mouth.

Speaker 4 (01:00:10):
You know what I'm gonna like this weekend, though, I'm
gonna really like seeing the patriot red jersey with a
white ten on it and and the white helmet with
the old pat Patriot on it. I'm gonna enjoy the
heck out of there this weekend.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
Me too, Me too, I'm gonna enjoy that. But uh,
i'd be working for a little bit. But I should
get back in town to see the second half. But
one thing I heard but May in this press Carson conference,
and I hope you don't do that. Well he's talking
about the coach will tell him, don't try to say
too much offstrip. No, let that guy play, don't put

(01:00:44):
no muggle on him, Let him play. Let him play.
You know, if you gonna put a muggle on him,
to the back there in that pocket, you know, and
let that guy. Let let that guy play.

Speaker 4 (01:00:54):
That's why I think they'll get it. That's why I
think they'll run him out of the pocket. You know,
he's gonna be moving. I don't think he's gonna be
a statue by any stratechy the imagination back in the
in the in the in the offensive backfield. He's going
to be moving, uh you know, And so yeah, go.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
Ahead, but I'm sorry, sir, but but I won't. You
have to take his victory lap. So I keep taking mind.
You every time y'all mentioned CJ Strout, I keep taking mind.
So that's what I told y'all two years ago to
be coaching well, Joe.

Speaker 4 (01:01:28):
Well, that's why I asked Mark vandermir from the Texans
earlier about to take us back to a year ago
when largely c J. Stroud and Drake and May were
in the same position, and we were talking a lot
about how, you know, the two were comparable, how they
got started. But CJ picked it up really quickly, you know,
and so it was not a hard decision, you know,
for the Texans to make to put him into the

(01:01:48):
starting lineup. So Davis Mills was the starter, just like
Jacoby Brissett was the starter here. And you know, so
I can appreciate, you know, the similar path that both
of these guys are taking the starting in the end, fell.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Yep, can I ask you a question that I see
be spetch in my head because you know, I'm a
receiver guy, right, yeah, so I know we've got the
new wide receiver coaches. Okay, and Hikwon, if you can
hear me, why you're not putting your ballad to use
where you can be that top eight. That's what I

(01:02:22):
can't understand. I can't understand it.

Speaker 4 (01:02:24):
We can be Yeah, look, Eldred, I wish I could
answer that one for you. I mean, I'm not even
sure Taekwon can answer it for you, to be honest
with you, I got to hike the speed and he
put on weight in the off season. You know, he
knew he needed to get stronger, he needed to do
and yet it's still not So the only thing I
can tell you is is that it looks to me

(01:02:46):
and based on the things that I've seen for myself,
and maybe you can even pull it out a little
bit yourself, being a receiver, as you suggested, he's just
not doing the things you need to do to get open.
There's no separation. They're getting very little separate from anybody.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Thats me, because he had a full two speed.

Speaker 7 (01:03:03):
That what kills me. Well, that's okay, Yeah, and I
can't understand why you ain't.

Speaker 4 (01:03:08):
That tells me that he's in decisive okay. But Eldrick,
that tells me with four two speed, if he's not
getting open, he's indecisive on the route that he should
be running and the route that he is running, there's
indecision on there. There's doubt he's not cutting it loose.
That's that's what that tells me, okay. And if he's

(01:03:29):
not willing or able even to cut it loose, dude,
we got to put somebody in there that is willing
to do that, real simple.

Speaker 2 (01:03:36):
Yeah, Yeah, I betrayed him too. Try I look at
somebody with that count of speed, with that height, and
see if I can make him into it if I
have to go in through the draft or get my
boy like I wanted into nineteen DK metcalf Sure after
all count.

Speaker 4 (01:03:50):
Of absolutely, Harry, Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2 (01:03:55):
You have a good days, always, good times, you, mister legend.

Speaker 4 (01:03:58):
Be safe out there, big boy, Yes, sir, all right,
you got it, Eldred in North Carolina, all right out
on the road in Winston Salem. Be safe out there.
Everybody be safe out there. Let's move now to Chris
Price Covers the Patriots, of course, for the Boston Globe,
been a friend of this program for a number of years.
Noted sports book author as well. We talked about this

(01:04:19):
a few weeks ago. He's got another hockey one coming
out soon enough. Chris, how's it going today?

Speaker 3 (01:04:24):
I'm doing great here? How you doing, my friend?

Speaker 4 (01:04:26):
Awesome? Awesome Chris, by the way, brought to us on
the TPX Hotline, which of course is a great sponsor
for us again, and of course the program brought to
you by bud Light, Easy to Drink, easy to enjoy,
bud Light, the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots.
All right, so what do you make of I guess
this could be considered officially day one of the Drake

(01:04:48):
May era in New England. And are you at all
surprised that the decision to insert him at starter came
when it did?

Speaker 3 (01:04:58):
I think that, first of all, this is you know,
the I'm not surprised. I'll say that the idea of
needing to jump start this passing game, there's no one
else coming, There's no other kind of card they can
play when you look at them, when you look at
this offense, you look at the way it's currently set up,

(01:05:18):
that there's no one waiting to come back from you know,
pup or you know they're they're certainly not going to
trade for anyone. So this is the move that they
made to at least theoretically try to give the passing
game a spark. The only question I have here and
is about the timing up. And I imagine you feel
kind of the same way that you know, maybe you

(01:05:40):
could have done it last week against a banged up
Miami defense, or maybe you wait another week against the
Jacksonville team that's really struggling. This Houston team, and this
Houston pass rush is pretty good. I mean they just
knocked around Josh Allen pretty good, no question. And so look,
it's it would be a tall task for any young quarterback,
much less a quarter back starting his first game in

(01:06:01):
the National Football League. But I think, and again I
think we're in agreement here. You know this was going
to happen sometime this year. I think Drake accelerated the
process by his performance in practice and maybe some of
Jacobi's ineffectiveness over the course of the first five games
that also contributed.

Speaker 4 (01:06:18):
Yeah, this was an inevitability. It's curious, and I know
a lot of the folks that thought that this was
the wrong move to make because of the status of
the offensive line, and some of the talent around him
are questioning, you know why now because of them playing
Miami last week and playing a stout Houston defense this week.
But I would tell you that if there is a plan,

(01:06:39):
and I've long said, whenever we first heard the words
the plan, and I'm putting quotes around the plan, Chris,
whenever we first heard that, whatever the plan may be,
the plan doesn't include who the opponent is, Okay, that
the plan would involve whenever we feel he's ready to go.

(01:07:01):
That's when he goes, regardless of who the patriot opponent is.
And that's the part of the plan, if it actually
exists or existed, that's the part I would agree with.
You go on your time, you go on your schedule,
You go when we think you're ready to go. Now,
maybe the way it planned out last week helped move

(01:07:22):
that time frame along a little bit more. I don't know.
That's probably for Gerrod to know and maybe to keep
to himself in that regard, but it's pretty clear that
we've all seen that this was bruin for some time.

Speaker 3 (01:07:35):
Yeah, exactly too, And I'll say this to JR. I
think that there is value to the unknown if you're
the Patriots, because obviously, look, Houston has a bunch of
film on Jacoby Brissett. They know what he can do.
They know what he's capable of at a national football
league level. From a regular season perspective, we don't know.
We don't know about Drake by his ability to perform
when you know, when the real bullets are flying, for

(01:07:57):
lack of a better terms. So I think that that
can kind of play into things if you're the Patriots. Look,
the hope is here that Drake will be able to
play quicker than Jacoby did, and I'm going to be
fascinated to see how that might manifest itself. I'm that
thing that they're going to go up tempo, but just
the christness in getting in and out of the huddle,

(01:08:19):
looking to move the ball as quickly as possible. Things
that kind of bogged down the last few weeks, in particular,
would Jacoby under center. Now, I think that ultimately might
manifest itself in maybe another turnover or two, because I think,
you know, for all of his for all of the
attributes he had, I think Jacoby is also very careful
with the football. Yeah, and I think that's necessarily a

(01:08:39):
bad thing. But you're going to see a little bit
of the youth here kind of come to the floor
with Drake May and I think that might manifest itself
in an interception or two. But I also think it's
going to manifest itself in some faster football than what
we've seen over the last few weeks.

Speaker 4 (01:08:53):
Right, Chris, I gotta ask you a sort of a
silly question here. I don't think there's ever such thing
as a dumb question, but I'd certainly categorize this, maybe
you as silly, but I got to ask it anyway.
What would you categorize as a win for the Patriots
this week short of actually winning the game?

Speaker 2 (01:09:11):
I think you want to.

Speaker 3 (01:09:12):
See trending in the right direction, particularly on the offensive
side of the ball. I think that if Drake is
let's say, if he goes twenty for thirty for two
hundred and fifty yards and can show an ability to
move the ball consistently up and down the field, short
of a win, I think, you know, you could take

(01:09:32):
a positive out of that. But you know that's I
want to say, that's the only question I have because
it's weird when you talk about a one and four
team that in my mind might not be one and
four if it weren't for a few brings here or there.
But you just want to see some christness, some efficiency,
some energy in the passing game that we just haven't

(01:09:52):
seen over the first you know, really over the first
five games. I think the running game has done as
well as could be expected. Ramondre Stevens's all security issues
to sign. I think the defense has remained competitive even
after losing so many key pieces.

Speaker 2 (01:10:06):
All I want to see.

Speaker 3 (01:10:07):
Is Drake may show an ability to run the offense,
run the you know, execute in the passing game, and
you'll really move the ball up and down the field.
I'd like them to stay competitive. I think that the
seven point line is fairly on point when you talk
about this game, at least, you know, on the surface.
But yeah, ultimately the answer your question, you just want

(01:10:28):
to see the young quarterback do well. You want to
see him continue to act.

Speaker 4 (01:10:31):
So steps made in the right direction. And then the
other analogy that we've kind of used today here is
that this is really weak one all over again that
you know, you know, we know there's going to be
juice in the building. We know the fans are excited,
we know the media is going to be anxious to see.
We're all going to be anxious to see what can happen.
And and we might already be putting a little bit
too much on it, but look, you know the guy

(01:10:52):
is is, he's an He's an excellent talent. He wouldn't
be uh wouldn't have been selected where he was if
he wasn't. But we need to see if that talent
is justified. He needs to play. Now is the time
because it certainly wasn't going to improve with the things
that the way they were, regardless of the relative strength
or ability of the offensive line, or the receivers to

(01:11:13):
get open, or the running backs to hold onto the
football or whatever it may be, we got problems in
all aspects of the game. Maybe, just maybe this guy,
what he can do with the football can help make
the others around him better.

Speaker 3 (01:11:25):
I love the line. We're probably putting too much on this. Yeah,
we're going to use this single game. We won't even
wait till the end of the game. It's gonna be
the first half. It's going to be a referendum on
how he's going to do the rest of his career. Look, ultimately,
he's either going to be on the CEO by by
Sunday at four point thirty, he's either going to be
in the trash heap or first ballot Hall of Famer.
And it's a whole lot of people. So yeah, look

(01:11:47):
it's unfair. Look, but you know what, man, that's life
in the big city. That's why the quarterbacks, you know,
get the big money and get the covers of the
magazines and get state the supermodels, you know, because they
get too much of the credit, too much of the blame.
So yeah, look it's all on his shoulders. There's there
are problems with this team that extend beyond the quarterback,
namely the offensive line and developing some consistency and continuity

(01:12:09):
upfront and like at the ball security when it comes
from Andre Stephenson, and you know, the depth on the
defensive side of the ball. But at the end of
the day, that's why the quarterback position is the you know,
arguably the toughest position. And then you know in all
professional sports, because so much is right as so much
as is on their shoulders, you know, good or bad.
And if we're going to see comes Sunday one. If

(01:12:31):
this young man can execute right, well.

Speaker 4 (01:12:33):
I got to bring up now the elephant in the closet,
or at least the elephant in the room, because all
of this, you know, hubbub over Drake May getting the
call to start, has overshadowed the fact that the Patriots
had an off field issue raised its ugly head over
the weekend. Would you Bill Peppers charged with assault? Perhaps?
I don't know, nobody will ever really know the truth,

(01:12:54):
but maybe you know. Look, let's face it, that's completely
been pushed aside in this entire escapade simply because everybody's
excited about Drake May in the future from this point forward. Today,
Darrilla has put on the Commissioner exemp list, which means
the Patriots now can basically wash their hands of this deal.
He can only come off the list based on Commissioner

(01:13:15):
Roger Goodell's decision making. So they're going to let this
process play out, and I don't think he's even due
back into court until toward the end of November. What
I mean, should the Patriots cut bait here? Should they
let the process play out? What are your thoughts based
on what we've learned through the media.

Speaker 3 (01:13:32):
Well, I'll start with this the patrio. The commissioner did
the Patriots of favor here, because usually the wheels of justice,
you know, move a lot slower in these instances. The
Patriots before this announcement, they basically had four options. They
could keep around, ask him to leave, it's to spend him,

(01:13:53):
or just kind of do nothing. And the commission kind
of took that decision off their hands. So basically, Jabill
Peppers now has you know, kind of a p leave
fundamentally while they figure out what to do with them.

Speaker 2 (01:14:05):
I think it's awful tough.

Speaker 3 (01:14:07):
It really really is. Man, If a whiff of this
is true, and look, as a guy who love setting
aside at the very serious real world implications of what's
going on, Pepper's is a really talented football player. And
it pains me to say this, but if a whiff
of this is true, they should cut they should get
rid of him, and they should move on from here.

(01:14:27):
Because the police report. I've taken a look at the
police report. It's very very serious, very serious stuff. In
the past, the Patriots for the most part, have moved
on from instances like this. I think that we deserve
to see and kind of hear this thing play out
a little bit before they know, we anyone else, the Patriots,

(01:14:48):
the league makes an ultimate decision. But look, if this
thing is true, they need to do the right thing.

Speaker 4 (01:14:54):
Well, he obviously, for what it's worth here, we should
present both sides of the story. Says he's innocent. In
his attorney says that there's video that will help vindicate him.
You know, I realized that. You know, hey, that's all
fine and good, but this process does need to play
out quickly. Otherwise then it's if he's really innocent of
some of the things that he's being accused of doing,

(01:15:15):
then it's it's it's gonna hurt him, it's gonna hurt
the football team, it's gonna hurt a lot of people.

Speaker 2 (01:15:20):
Yeah, it's it's true.

Speaker 3 (01:15:22):
And look, I agree with you wholeheartedly there. You need
to let the thing play out. You need to hear
both sides. If there is indeed video evidence that needs
to be shared, that needs to be kind of combed over,
You need to make sure everyone does their due diligence
before they come to an ultimate decision on this, because again,

(01:15:42):
this is a very serious thing. This you know, we
talk about football and it's great, and you know, it's
the Look, this is the toy department, quite frankly, but
you know, there are very serious real world implications here
when you talk about the Patriots in the National Football
League as a whole, So that has to be examined.
But yeah, this is again I'll go back to my
point is that the league did the Patriots a favor

(01:16:03):
because they made the decision for them, at least in
the short term in terms of what to do with
ja Bill Peppers.

Speaker 4 (01:16:08):
Yeah, all right, this team defensively, even though they've lost
a big chunk up the middle, you know, from Christian
Barmore being out, you know, with the the clocks and
Juwan Bentley out with you know, his injury, you know,
and some inconsistent play let's say, maybe the exception of
you know, Christian Gonzales and the secondary up the middle.
It's taken a few hits.

Speaker 8 (01:16:29):
C J.

Speaker 4 (01:16:29):
Stroud has played extraordinarily well. They're gonna be without their
leading receiver who just went on ir this week as well.
Maybe that's a bonus, Maybe it isn't. The running game
hasn't been great for Houston. They've got good numbers, but
they really don't score the ball a lot. Is this
a matchup that actually might help the Patriot defense out in.

Speaker 3 (01:16:48):
That regard with no Nico Collins in, no Joe mix
and you know, stop me if you've heard this before.
You're catching them at a good time.

Speaker 2 (01:16:57):
Yeah, trip, You know, it feels like we've said.

Speaker 3 (01:17:01):
That about a number of the Patriots opponents this here,
but it really is true, you know, with no comments
and expected to be no mixing in the lineup because
he's still dealing with that. I believe it's a He's
suffered a hip drop tackle in an opener against the Bears,
and he really has. I don't think he's been on
the field since then. So look, it's all going to
come down on the defensive side of the ball, to

(01:17:21):
being able to contain Stroud, to be able to you know,
keeping him in the pockets. The Patriots have struggled with
quarterback contained through their first four or five games of
the year, and if Stroud is able to operate in
the pocket without much of a pass rush, I think
it's going to be much of the same issues here.
You know, you look at it. If you can figure
out a way to cut down on his time in
the pocket if Keon White and Dietrich Wise and you know,

(01:17:45):
the rest of that defense in front, that front seven
can find a way to keep him contained and not
have him ruught around back there for five six seven
seconds like we saw from like Rock Purty. I think
the Patriots are going to have a shot in this thing,
but you just need to be able to figure out
a way to slow that down. And look, honestly, you
could probably take a page, you know, in an ideal world,

(01:18:05):
out of the old Patriots playbook in terms of you
want to slow the game down. You know you're not
going to beat the Texans if this gets into the
twenties and thirties, you're gonna want to put together some long,
extended drives. M Andre Stevenson. That's got to touch the
ball twenty plus times. You need to be able to
deliver consistently on the ground because look, if you're picking
your poison there with the Houston defense, you're gonna want

(01:18:26):
to run out and that is the most winnable matchup
if you're New England. Put together some long drives, keep CJ.
Strouding that offense off the field for as long as
possible and hope for some special teams magic and then
you take your chances from there.

Speaker 4 (01:18:40):
The irony of the situation certainly has dawned on me
that you know, Girodmeos has said all along that how
they beat Cincinnati in Week one simply was not sustainable
throughout the course of this season based on how this
team was built. And yet it seems like the Patriots'
best chance to win games is playing precisely that way.

Speaker 3 (01:19:01):
Yeah, it really is. It's about running the football. It's
about being physical upfront. Look, you've talked to enough offensive
linement over the course of your life to know that
offensive lineman much prefer run blocking as opposed to pass blocking.

Speaker 4 (01:19:12):
Out.

Speaker 3 (01:19:14):
Yeah, that the Patriots have had their best success this
year when it comes to, you know, really running the
ball consistently, and so I think that plays into it.
But look, if they can figure out a way to
run the ball, and that kind of goes back to
the Drake may stuff that like, look, you want to
take some stuff off the plate of the kid, and

(01:19:35):
this is a good way to do it because you're
going up against the team that might have kind of
a middle of the road run defense, So you're not
going to ask him to throw the ball thirty five
forty times this game. You're going to have run, you know,
hand the ball off to Gibson and Stevenson, try to
put together some steady, consistent drives and you kind of
go from there. So yeah, I agree with Girodd that

(01:19:55):
it's not sustainable.

Speaker 2 (01:19:57):
That being said, you know, maybe.

Speaker 3 (01:19:59):
You can sustain it for a good portion of the
afternoon against the Texas this.

Speaker 4 (01:20:03):
Sunday, right. You know, Pete Brock has told me. You know,
it was always much much easier and much more fun
for an offensive lineman to block straight ahead, to hit
rather than be hit, which is why I've never known
an offensive lineman who preferred pass blocking over run blocking.

Speaker 3 (01:20:21):
Oh, I remember the conversations I had. I'm going back now,
I remember. I'm getting all wistful because the conversations I
would have with Logan Bankings about the joy of delivering
a pancake block on an opposing defensive tackle and clearing
the way for you know, like Gerrit Blunt or whoever
it was behind him to run for twenty thirty forty

(01:20:43):
yards at Eclipse. So yeah, you'll, you'll that's the guys
in the team. Now, the same thing. They'll tell you
the same thing. They love run blocking. They much prefer
run blocking to pass blocking. And if you get some
of that going, just a little bit of it, get
some of that going Sunday techin, it's going to give.

Speaker 7 (01:21:01):
You a shot.

Speaker 4 (01:21:01):
Yeah, there might be some continuity there. This could be
the second straight week and for the first time this
season they'll started the same five in the offensive line.

Speaker 3 (01:21:09):
Yeah, yeah, I agree. And look, you know Nick Leverett
was a mixed back. Let's be generous here. You know,
it's center, but you have to win you there at guard.
You know, Yeah, you feel decent about the group that
you have out there. I think so much of it
now is about developing that consistency in continuity, even if
they're not the best five past. Look, for years and

(01:21:29):
years we've seen it here in New England. It's not
about the best five offensive linement about the offensive lineman
who worked the best together, the five guys who like,
you know, the five fingers in the hand. You know,
it's just if they're all working in harmony, they're all
working in unison and that's built through consistency in continuity.
So maybe we're starting to see a little bit of that,

(01:21:50):
you know, over the course of the week, and if
they can carry that over into Sunday and next Sunday,
the offensive line will eventually start to get better.

Speaker 4 (01:21:58):
Yeah, Chrish, love talking man. Thanks for taking the time today.
It's always appreciated.

Speaker 3 (01:22:03):
My pleasures. Je take care. We'll talk again too.

Speaker 4 (01:22:05):
But yep, see on Sunday one and only Chris Price
find him on x at ce Price Globe to cover
all of his stuff going on out there in the media.
Eight five five Pats five hundred the toll free number
podcasts at Patriots dot Com with email funny how I
have to sit and remember that I've got some of

(01:22:26):
those I want to share. Russell Baxter is going to
hit us up on we gosh. See, that's the problem
with sitting here in these chairs. I told Marine I
really wanted to try sitting in these chairs for a while.
And so today was the day because there's a bunch
of stuff that was going on in between shows today
that they had to record. So we just left the
interview set up today for those that are actually listening
on audio and not seeing the video, and so we're

(01:22:50):
just kind of maneuvering around a little bit here. Oh, good. Look,
it actually works the computer here, So I want to
read a couple of emails and Russell Baxter will join
us right at the top of the hour. Pat and Agawam, John,
today I turned the ripe young age of forty eight.
Can I get a birthday shut out?

Speaker 7 (01:23:11):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:23:12):
Shout out, not shutout. I'll give you a birthday shutout too.
I think that would be outstanding.

Speaker 7 (01:23:18):
Uh.

Speaker 4 (01:23:18):
But Matt's currently ensconced with somebody in the studio, so
I was gonna see if he had. Hey, Marine, do
you have do you have a recording of Happy Birthday?
I do, because we need to give Patty and Agawam
a happy forty eighth birthday today. Since he's a regular
on this show, he listens every time he calls every time,

(01:23:40):
you know, should.

Speaker 7 (01:23:42):
We do that?

Speaker 1 (01:23:42):
Happy birthday, mister president.

Speaker 4 (01:23:50):
Who's imitation of Marilyn Monroe?

Speaker 7 (01:23:52):
Is that.

Speaker 4 (01:23:55):
Nice? Nice? Okay? Happy birthday? Birthday? Yeah, that's a exactly right.
You the man, Patty, You are the man.

Speaker 7 (01:24:06):
What is this?

Speaker 4 (01:24:07):
Oh okay, somebody's sending me garbage. That's fine, that's okay.
Aiden in California. John. Just when I thought I was
done watching this team with Jacoby, they reel me back
in in a good way. Yeah, like Michael Corleone and
was that Godfather three? I think I'm done and they

(01:24:27):
reeled me back. Okay, that kind of thing. Anyway, this
is the obvious choice and now we get to see
what this kid has made of with this move. It
brings hope and excitement, and with hope, I think the
Patriots win this and a thriller twenty four to twenty three.
On a side note, the Boston media sucks, with an

(01:24:48):
exception on a very few of a very few, it
was not cool what they did to Evan. My only
outlet for content is you guys. You guys are great
and I will always listen. I appreciate you, aiden thank
you very much. I mean with the day, this day
and age and the internet, you can pick up anybody
from anywhere because everybody's streaming nowadays. What we hope to
provide is, yeah, we all work in this building. These

(01:25:11):
guys cover this team on a full time, everyday basis,
as opposed to the guys at Wei or ninety eight
five or Channels four, five, seven, ten, Nessing, you know,
the stations and Providence. I mean, they don't cover the Patriots.
Full time. You know, guys like Evan and Paul and Deuce,

(01:25:33):
they cover the team full time. And when I'm covering teams,
I cover this team full time. You guys know that
I basically split my seasons between football and college basketball
for the better, well for all of the thirty three
years that I've been with New England. But it's always
been that way. You know, there's only a couple of
teams that I cover, so there's a tendency to believe that, yeah,

(01:25:55):
we're too close to it. There's a tendency, I think
for a lot of people aiden to believe that we're
touting company policy or that we're saying the things that
management wants us to say. I could not be more
emphatic here. That has never been the case before. And

(01:26:18):
I've been hosting this particular show now since two thousand
and one, so this is my twenty fourth year to
host this show. And I have never been told to
watch what you say. I just have to use good
judgment and you know, and Evan even said as much.
You know, when he was on the program earlier today
if you tuned in late, he said, look, you know,

(01:26:39):
I'm you know, it's emotional I was speaking offhanded. I
need to preface it, preface things by saying, this is
my opinion. It's an educated opinion based on his observations
in the locker room and talking to the guys that
he's talked to, as he talked to everybody. No, but
immediately you know that got out, and he got out

(01:26:59):
on social media and sometimes social media, Look, it's not
your best friend. I realize this is where a lot
of people go to get their news and their information,
and yeah, sure, your entertainment. I understand that. That's why
I do it. I do it because I get entertained
by it. Sometimes I chuckle at it. But yes, I
also know a lot of good people in this business,
people who actually know how to cover a story, who

(01:27:21):
know what journalism is as opposed to propaganda. I respect
the heck out of a lot of people, and I
follow them for that reason. You know, you could choose to,
you know, follow a guy like me or not. It's
entirely up to you think what you want to think.
It's perfectly fine with me. I like to share what
I know with other people. I like to have fun

(01:27:41):
with what I know with other people, with fans, with
other people in the media. But do I get my
information from the media, Yes, But I kind of put
a little bit of a cautionary tag in there, because
sometimes you don't know, you can't read sarca, and sometimes

(01:28:03):
things can be misconstrued in the media because there's not
enough time to explain it, enough space to explain it.
You can kind of do that on x now because
if you go premium you can get more than one
hundred and forty characters in I understand that. Well, I'm
too damn cheap. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't make fun
of them, but I'm just too damned cheap. I'm gonna

(01:28:24):
admit it right off the bat. I mean, elon, I
understand what you're doing. I appreciate that, I appreciate the avenue,
but I'm too damn cheap, and I'm gonna be honest
about that. So whatever I have to say, if I
can't say it one hundred and forty characters, it's out
real simple. Now, I'll go pay I'm gonna go pay
for it. Now, don't do it.

Speaker 5 (01:28:44):
I'll make fun of you.

Speaker 4 (01:28:47):
Rain will make fun of me. Okay, well that's quite
possible that could happen. You gotta make up your own mind.
You gotta do your own reading, you gotta do your
own research, You got to read a bunch of different people.
And yeah, it was kind of unfair for a lot
of people to do what they did, you know, with Evan,
or do with anybody in that regard when they've got
a quote unquote scoop. And yes, Evan's right when he said,

(01:29:09):
I should have prefaced it by saying, in my opinion,
that's all, and that would have solved basically every problem
that we've had this week. But we've never been told, Nope,
you can't say this, Nope, you can't do that. Nope,
we don't want you to do that. Nope, we're gonna
take you off the air. Nope, nope, nope, never never
said that. Johnathan Craft was very clear with me when

(01:29:31):
we first started this operation, you know, twenty four now
twenty five years ago, and they showed twenty four years ago.
You know, he knew that we needed to have the
ability to use our reporting skills in order to be believed,
in order to have profession to bring in professional integrity along.

(01:29:51):
He knew that, mister Craft. Robert Kraft has always said,
you know, no, you guys do what you need to do.
Just be fair, and I think we have been. I
think we have been. If we haven't, then you know what,
you have the right through coming on to this show,
through calling, through tweeting, through posting, through email, through whatever,

(01:30:15):
to call us out on that, which is fair. It's
absolutely fair. So you know we're gonna give you our best.
I think we've done that. I think you know, Deuce
and Evan and Paul have done it at a high
level for a number of years. And a lot of
the local media here in Boston they make fun of
Team media because they know they like, you know, oh

(01:30:37):
sure they're going to report this because they all feel like, well,
the team is being told, is telling them what to say.
And I'm here to tell you because I've been on
both sides of the fence, that's not right. It's not accurate.
That's all I can say. So you know, it is
what it is. I felt like I needed to say
that on Evans's behalf because Evan's a good reporter, and

(01:31:01):
I don't know that the Boston media sucks either. As
you said, Aiden, there's some really good guys in the
Boston media. We just talked to one we just talked
to one at Chris Price. Okay, he's one of the
true good guys in this business. He's a hell of
a writer. He's a great reporter, he's a great author.
You know, if you ever read his stuff, takes some
time to read his stuff. He's good at it. He's thorough.
He understands journalism, he gets it, and most guys in

(01:31:24):
this business do. I would tell you that sometimes when
you hear through talk radio, sports talk radio in particular,
guys will stay stuff, will say stuff to get a
rise out of you, to make a social media splash,
because it's all about the quote unquote entertainment part of
the business. They're in the business of entertaining. They're in

(01:31:45):
the business of getting listeners and clicks and views. That's
what they're in the business to do. They're in the
business of attracting your attention. Guess what they did? It
didn't they If you're reacting to it, they did it.
So they're only doing their jobs. We're gonna try to
stick the reporting. And are we perfect? Are we one

(01:32:05):
hundred percent infallible? Nope, nobody is. We're all human. Okay.
I've had stumbles in my career and I've been doing
it for a number of years. We step back, we
think about it, we issue a maya culpa if necessary,
and we move on. It's real simple. Okay, speaking of
moving on right now, a.

Speaker 2 (01:32:25):
Real woman could stop you from drinking.

Speaker 8 (01:32:28):
Yeah, it's a very real, big woman.

Speaker 5 (01:32:30):
It's time to go around the NFL with football guru
Russell Baxter.

Speaker 7 (01:32:34):
Now on the name is Flounder.

Speaker 4 (01:32:37):
On Patriots playbook. Huh, I gotta get this button to work.
Oh there it works. Good afternoon, Flounder. How are we
going today?

Speaker 7 (01:32:49):
Don't flounder with that? You know, I didn't catch any
of your uh what happened before? You just said what
you said about the media. But I'm glad you said
what you said because I'll put this questions everybody listening
out there. I often here the generalization of the media.
Are people aware that there's more than like four or

(01:33:10):
five people in the media, No, okay, there are thousands
and thousands and thousands. So I mean, if you've been
a stereotype and generalize and a lot of them do
different things. Some are reporters, some are insiders, you are writers,
Some are shock jock, some are awful shock jocks with

(01:33:32):
personal vendettas and agendas. Some people say stuff just to
get like you said, get a rise and get you listening.
You know, for the people in my profession who like
to play the shock jock game, a word of advice
probably is not a source. And I've heard a lot

(01:33:52):
of that over the last couple of days with the
Robert Sala you know, Aaron Rodgers, Woody Johnson surprisedly and
Throke Joe Namath in there at the same time. You know,
they're doing exactly what they're doing. And many of these
people who play the shock shock game are, for lack
of better word, just flat out lazy. So don't categorize.

(01:34:17):
You know, I've never met Evan, but I know him
by reputation and he does a pretty solid job. I've
never met Christopher Price. I've had contact with him on
social media very very rarely, a couple of years ago.
His reputation is pretty damn good. So don't lump everyone together. Okay,
you know, just as it was spent a long time

(01:34:39):
on TV, not all detergents are the same.

Speaker 4 (01:34:44):
I appreciate your saying that we've you know, you and
I have seen the highs and the lows. Of that
end of the business, you know, through our time years
they go together at ESPN. UH and understand that, you know, Uh.
For whatever reason, sometimes reportersournalists or put up on a
pedestal like a lot of the athletes. And I guess
we're held to a different standard. And I would answer

(01:35:06):
that by saying, well, we're only held to the standard
that we hold ourselves to, and we should put ourselves
up on a pedestal because our job is to get
the information right, not necessarily first, not necessarily the most salacious,
but to get it right. And the old adage in
the business is especially in this day and age of

(01:35:28):
social media, which can be as we know, instantaneous, and
sometimes that's not for the better. But the old adage goes,
I would rather be last and correct than first and
wrong with a story.

Speaker 7 (01:35:44):
Beautifully put, I have a saying that I came up
with you. I know I've said it to you and
I'll say it again. And my Jeff Bennett, my former
Pause at ESPN, told me he loved it, so I
stick with it. Okay, right, Not everyone is accurate. I'm
more interested in accuracy. It's true're going to go on

(01:36:05):
TV tonight and tell me that Joe DiMaggio at a
fifty eight game hitting streak. That's your opinion, but you're wrong, yep. Okay,
So I'd rather be accurate. I'd rather take the time
to double check it. And I'm not putting myself on
the pedestal. That's just when you are do what I
do and you're in research, it's important that the people

(01:36:27):
you work with trust you. And I've been pretty trustworthy
in that regard, and I think that's why I've been
able to do what I've been able to do for
a long time. And so on. I mean, I go
back to the very first Olympics. I've been in this
business for so long.

Speaker 4 (01:36:43):
Hey, what kind of a receiver would Jim Thorpe have made?

Speaker 7 (01:36:47):
I think you would have been an excellent deep threat
and also very good after the.

Speaker 4 (01:36:53):
Catch, especially good after the catch. Rights.

Speaker 7 (01:36:58):
I just it calls me sometimes for the quick fix,
and there's no reason for that. You know, we're not
on dead liment. You know. I used to have a
very good friend of mine who's also no longer that
ESPN the research and Paul Kinney and I don't know
if you ever crossed Pad's football when he was thereied

(01:37:20):
a lot of college footballs. We would have the occasional plan.
You'll get this reference spot on. We would have the
occasional club. Like everybody does. Everybody does make mistakes, okay,
but we would have the occasional club mistake and jump
the gun on the story and so on. And I

(01:37:43):
can't remember what the subject matter was, but any time
that happened, I would stand up and Paul was in
the back of the room and I was in the
front of the room, and I would just look at
him and say, Dewey defeats Truman.

Speaker 4 (01:37:58):
Right, And if you don't understand that phrase, go google
it right now.

Speaker 7 (01:38:02):
Yeah, and here's the funny part. Uh. There was a
place in Washington my good friend kilj took me to
a long time ago called the Newseum, not the museum
the News. I don't. I think it's not funded anymore.
The first year I went there, it was the let
me see was the fortieth I think it was the
fortieth anniversary the Kennedy assassination. They had to move a camera.

(01:38:26):
They had all the document. It was fascinating and as
I'm looking at newspapers from a whole eras century cities etc.
I look around and what do you think sitting there
the front page of doing the feach Truman the actual
headlooking it's there. I quickly snapped a picture and sent
to my friend Paul. So it is about getting it right,

(01:38:49):
you know. I know this. If that story was about
me or you, and it was and you were reporting,
and it was about some of you were close to you,
sure as ill would take the time to get it
Oh yeah, oh.

Speaker 4 (01:39:00):
Yeah, without a doubt. So let me ask you the
obvious question. Now, do you what are your thoughts on
the Patriots getting it right by making the change to
Drake May this week? Any thoughts on that?

Speaker 7 (01:39:10):
Well, I think it seemed inevitable. And you know, we
are getting to that time of the season as you
can as you will see this week. Some of it
due to injuries, some of it due to inefficiency. You know,
the Raiders are about to start aiding O'Connell after benching
Gardner Minshew during the game last week, and now Connall's
going to get the start. So it's about that time

(01:39:32):
of the year where you've dug yourself a little bit
of a hole. The Patriots, you know, a lot of
hope after the beating the Bengals and haven't won the
games since. And I get it, third picked in the draft.
You want to see what he has. Maybe he lights
his spark and you know it's a tall order. I mean,

(01:39:52):
they're playing you know, division leader this week in Houston.
All the Houston is very, very funny because they're four
one and they've still given up more points John than
they scored. Yeah this year. That's because the four wins
have come by fifteen points and the one loss game
by twenty seven, right, exactly, so, But I have no

(01:40:13):
problem with the move whatsoever. Obviously, the offensive line has
been a concern and you know, maybe Drake may is,
you know, on his heels this week running around, But
this is not and this is a good Houston team,
but it's not overpowering Euston team. We've been seen a
lot of overpowering teams so far early in the season.

Speaker 4 (01:40:33):
I don't think anybody's overpowering Russell. And that includes Kansas
City at five and zero. Kansas City's won every game
but the last one by one one score. So no,
I don't think there's overpowering at all. This is how
the NFL wants it to be. They want parody like this,
and guess what they've got it. My biggest problem is
some of this p r it y can turn into

(01:40:54):
p r o D. Why if we're not careful with
this sport.

Speaker 7 (01:40:58):
Well, there's no question about it, okay, And that's why
we see what we see turnarounds. We see the last
place teams wind up in the playoffs. You know, the
Eagles were a last played team in twenty sixteen. In
twenty seventeen, they warned the whole damn thing. You know,
the year before last year was the Browns and the
Texans who went from last place.

Speaker 3 (01:41:18):
To playoff spots.

Speaker 7 (01:41:19):
I think the year before that for the last for
the eight last place teams all made the playoffs, and
I want to say three of them one playoff game.
So it is crazy. That's why what New England did
for so long and what Kansas City's doing now is
more an anomaly than anything else. And you can cite
the reasons, and I would hope right now, and even

(01:41:41):
to a point last year, you know, Kansas City's been
a better team defensively than they've been offensively for probably
like a year and a half, to be honest with you,
And it's not just if Mahomes does not. But that's okay.
We saw several versions of the Chiefs with the Patriots.
The Patriots, wo are winning their three Super Bowls in

(01:42:02):
four years, they were more defensively and special teams orient.
I've said it to Young four hundred times. The two
thousand and one Patriots scored three offensive touchdowns and three
defensive slash specialty touchdowns in the playoffs and won a
super Bowl. Okay. Then Tom Brady throws with five hundred
and five yards in the Super Bowl and they lose. Yeah,

(01:42:23):
so take your pick. There's a lot of the beauty
of football is there's so many different ways to win.
You know, you could score on offense and defense and
special teams. You don't have that fucturing necessary necessarily another
sports and so on. Okay, So, and a good coach

(01:42:44):
plays to his strength, and like I said, we're seeing
that right now with the Chiefs, who will relying more
with Steve Spagnolo than an offense that you know. Now,
they ring it at four hundred and sixty yards the
other night against the Wall Looms, but they only we're
twenty six points only, I mean, but that was enough
because of what they're doing on the defensive side of

(01:43:06):
the ball. I hope we get to this. I have
something very it's I'm not projecting, but there's something very
interesting about the Chiefs and the Vikings. Okay, the loan
to five no teams, all right, I want to say,
all right, Well.

Speaker 4 (01:43:20):
I was just going to say that the Chiefs, you know,
and the Vikings are two of the four teams that
you know lead us off with buys this week, you know,
but they're two five and no teams going into their
weeks off. What's so special about those two you wanted
to point out?

Speaker 7 (01:43:33):
Now, I just went again, this is not a prediction,
this is an it Okay, but I just find this
would be funny. Let's say the Chiefs and the Vikings
both finished with the best record in their respective conferences.
In other words, they are the number one seeds. Okay,
m hmm. Then let's say the Chiefs and the Vikings

(01:43:53):
actually play in the Super Bowl. Okay. That means that
during the regular season, both the Vikings and Chiefs would
have been off the same week. In the regular season,
they would both be off the first week of the playoffs,
and they would both have a buy before the super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:44:14):
Which would be nuts. I don't think that's ever happened before,
has it?

Speaker 7 (01:44:17):
I can't think of it. If the closest goofy thing
I can ever remember happening like that, and off the top,
I had, and I hope I'm right. When the Raiders
and the Eagles played each other in Super Bowl in
nineteen eighty seasons, the Raiders wildcard teams, you remember, Jim Plunkin,
I know you.

Speaker 3 (01:44:33):
I know that story very very well.

Speaker 7 (01:44:35):
If I remember correctly, and maybe I'm wrong, they played
each other in the preseason, the regular season and the
Super Bowl.

Speaker 4 (01:44:43):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (01:44:44):
Crazy, somebody, somebody can You can google it, you can
Yahoo it, you can doing that one right off the top,
by have, But for some reason that stands.

Speaker 4 (01:44:53):
Out right certainly does other teams by the way that
I have the week off this week, Rams and the Dolphins,
and then as far as the AFC East is concerned,
the Bills are playing at the Jets on Monday Night Football,
and of course the Jets made a strange let me
just say the word strange. It's a strange in season

(01:45:16):
move or not even at the halfway point, the Patriots
are two weeks away from two weeks hints from getting
thumped by the New York Jets, and yet they fire
Robert Salah this week. So number one, that doesn't happen often.
I'm sure you can provide some perspective on that. But
number two, I mean, can teams who make mid season

(01:45:36):
firings recoup enough to where they can finish the year respectively?
And I don't know, as it has it happened early
enough for them to try to gather things, gather themselves
together and make something out of this year.

Speaker 7 (01:45:49):
Well, usually when this happens, there's something besides what's going
on on the field. Now that you remember, three years ago,
John Grutin resigned the Raiders jobs for you know, those circumstances.
We don't have to get into details, and they promoted
the special team coach Rich Psakia and they made the playoffs,

(01:46:12):
so you know, making the move when you make the move.
I can't remember. It was probably about a decade ago
where we saw a whole bunch of early mid season
firings where we hadn't seen all that, and I'd have
to go back and do the research to see how
those teams spared. Sometimes it seems like it happens more
successfully in other sports than it does. The National Football League.

(01:46:37):
Speaking in nineteen eighty in Philadelphia right off the top
of you know, I'm not decorated at baseball, but I
remember the Phillies firing their manager and hiring a guy
named Dallas Green. In nineteen eighty they went on the
won the World Series.

Speaker 4 (01:46:53):
I believe, Yeah, I remember that.

Speaker 7 (01:46:54):
Yeah, yeah, So I mean again, I don't it stands
out to maybe because it is highly unusual for success.
But again, yeah, I can remember one year with the Chargers,
and I'll think they were successful. That they went through
a season with Kevin gilbrid and then six weeks into
the next season he was gone. He left at like

(01:47:16):
twenty two games, and you know, they was talked of,
you know, him not being the right man for the job,
et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And now, of course
Kevin wh I think, But we went on and joined
the New York Giants staff, and I think he won
a couple of Super Bowl rings marked with the Giants.
So you know, it's Robert Sala's been there for a bit.
You know, he joined the franchise. Let's not forget because

(01:47:38):
I know we focus on uh, you know, maybe what's
going on there now and all that, but you know,
you kind of got to look at what's happened within
the organization going back a few years. The Jets have
the longest current playoff trout in league. Okay, they haven't
been through the playoffs since twenty ten? Do you know

(01:47:59):
how long? Who that was? That was the year Aaron
Rodgers and the Packers won the Super Bowl. They've made
the AFC Championship Game. The Packers almost face the Jets
in Super Bowl forty five. Okay, same thing with Denver,
you know, Russell Wilson, Miss Sean Payton, Vince Denver hasn't
been to a playoff game since they won Super Bowl

(01:48:20):
fifty Okay, then a nine and seven season in twenty sixteen.
They've had nothing but losing stays contents. So is that
only won man or is that going home? The continuous change,
the lack of continuity, et cetera, et cetera. So you know,
it's it's you have to look at the big picture
in terms of why a team continues to strow. How

(01:48:43):
many years did we see the Browns go through? The
Browns are going through more quarterbacks than either from potato chips. Okay,
head coaches, general and managers. Now they've made the playoffs
two of the last four years. Kevin Stefanski's won Coach
of the Year two the last four years. But at
least there's some continuity there. Now. They went through five
different starting quarterbacks last year. Yeah, because of injuries for

(01:49:07):
the most part. And uh, you know, and Joe Flacco
wound up winning the NFL Comeback Player of the Year.
I guess, Joe Flacco, maybe you should have been left
because even though the Colts last week he was gangbusters.

Speaker 4 (01:49:20):
I know, that's the one guy. That's the one guy
who if you're talking about bridge quarterbacks. And we mentioned
this earlier in the show today, I mean, I know
Jacoby Brissette was brought in as a quote unquote bridge
here to Drake May. But shoot, it looks to me
like Flaco. That's the kind of guy you should have
brought in. He slowly looked like he can still wing it.

Speaker 7 (01:49:38):
Oh well, that was always Blacosse. That was the fee
for flacos that far. Yeah, you know, and you go
back to the year that the Ravens won the Super Bowl,
when the people were the nine ers and uh, you
know the long past was the Jacobe Jones in Denver
Lately game they waned up beat the Broncos and uh

(01:50:00):
in overtime in the divisional round. Eventually he beat the
Patriots that year in the as the title game, and
then of course the Brothers the Super Bowl and uh,
you know the like the like. Well the lights went
out in Louisiana not Georgia. Yeah, but you know you
sold the results and Flacco I think they made eleven

(01:50:20):
touchdown passes and and no picks and the playoff game,
so you know, he's he's had his moment. You know
this with strong quarterbacks like that Brett Fars and so on,
that you know their numbers, crew numbers. Even though there
are whole a lot of touchdown passes, sometimes they also
try to squeeze that ball in a lot of places
and the other players couldn't, which is why their interception.

(01:50:43):
So it was are the same. But you know, Laco
wound up even for lack of a better, really kind
of got phase to help in Baltimore when they drafted
with Moore Jackson, he was with the Jets, he was
with the Broncos. Why did he put the Browns iron
You know it's ironic. Remember when the Browns came back
Tippo League in nineteen ninety nine. Remember their first overall

(01:51:06):
pick was Tim Couch. Yes, right here, they got Joe
Flacco off the couch.

Speaker 4 (01:51:11):
Yeah, yes they did, Yes, they did. I hate how much?
How much did Houston last week expose the Buffalo Bills
or I'm just curious was that more? Was that more
Buffalo losing or was it really Houston winning that game
last week?

Speaker 7 (01:51:29):
Well, Houston did it best to try to give it away.
I remember they were have twenty to three in third
quarter and then all of a sudden, it's twenty twenty.
That's what I say with Houston. Houston is wanted share
of mail by this this year. And then you know
they went into Minnesota and got Pancakes thirty thirty four
to seven. Know what's interesting? They again this is either
the knee jerk reactions of getting off to a good start.

(01:51:53):
Do you remember when Pittsburgh was three and oh, now
they're three and two.

Speaker 4 (01:51:56):
Yeah?

Speaker 7 (01:51:57):
Remember when Seattle was three.

Speaker 4 (01:51:58):
And oh now they're three and two. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:52:01):
Remember when Buffalo was three and n three and two.

Speaker 4 (01:52:05):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:52:05):
By the way, you remember when Baltimore was zero and two.
There're three and two.

Speaker 4 (01:52:10):
Well, and that one doesn't come as a surprise, to
be honest with you, although I do love Baltimore getting
a test at home this week against those surprising Washington
commanders at four and one.

Speaker 7 (01:52:20):
Oh, Listen, I don't know what the over under is, okay,
and I would I would be tenuous because I'm sure
people are gonna jump all over it.

Speaker 4 (01:52:31):
Over under over under is fifty one and a half?

Speaker 7 (01:52:35):
Is that for one team in both right?

Speaker 4 (01:52:38):
I think I'd still had to I'd have to look
at the over on that one. Sure if I were
a betting man.

Speaker 7 (01:52:43):
Well, Washington is the highest scoring team in the league.

Speaker 4 (01:52:46):
Yeah, Baltimore and the second. Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:52:48):
So now were the one thing we've seen with the
Ravens who have bounced back nicely, Derrick Henry, who's got
a touchdown and every game he's played this year, by
the way, I'm glad. I'm glad the Titans thought he
was slowing down their defense leaves a lot. I mean
Joe Flacker, I mean Joe Burrow had his way with

(01:53:09):
him last week. Patrick Mahomes early in the year, even
Dallas with to comeback, and so on, so you know,
the Raiders coming back with Gardner Minshew in Baltimore to
beat them in overtime. So that combination of defense Washington's defense,
I think we're not sure of, but you know we
saw them lose Week one, thirty seven twenty. By the way,

(01:53:32):
Washington's already won as many games this year as they
did all of last year. That should tell you something
about a last Page team. John. They lost their last
big games last year, and this year they won their
last four days, so that immediately turn around. Now last
I'm not sure I know one thing. They do have

(01:53:54):
a divisional win this year, and I say that for
this reason. They were one of two teams in the
league last year who were winless within their division. So
they're already one to know, you know who the other
one was. Who are two the division after going and

(01:54:14):
six in the division last year?

Speaker 4 (01:54:16):
How about that? That's good? Hey. The other game I
wanted to to kind of point out here is uh
and I think this could be a dynamite game as well.
The two traditional you know Thanksgiving Day teams, even though
they don't necessarily play each other, Detroit playing at Dallas.
You know, Cowboys are playing at home, and they're oh
and two out of their three and two. They're oh

(01:54:36):
and two at home. Detroit is three and one going in,
but they're undefeated. We they only one to know what.
They've won their one road game. And I've I've liked Detroit.
Detroit's been my sleeper all year. I think Detroit. Actually
I'm and I'm if I'm rooting for anybody, I'm rooting
for Detroit to make the super Bowl because they've never
been there. And I'm wondering if the Cowboys, if they

(01:54:59):
continue to stumble. I mean, I know, we heard Bill
Belichick's name mentioned this week immediately as soon as the
Jets you know, had an opening, And frankly, I'd be
shocked if he went to New York just because of
the history between you know, him and Bill Parcells on
the Jets and everything else that happened over twenty years ago.
But I wondered the Cowboys don't become more of a
factor in this regard if they lose at home again.

Speaker 7 (01:55:21):
Well, let's go back to the playoffs last year, John,
they also lost that playoff game, yep, but to the Packers.

Speaker 2 (01:55:27):
Ye.

Speaker 7 (01:55:28):
John. In their last three home games, the Dallas Cowboys
had given up one hundred and twenty points. Wow, now
let me see if I can do that with all
my fingers at that's forty points game. But on the road,
the Linus will still some points. And their defense, you know,

(01:55:50):
it was kind of better last year, but not really.
We saw Seattle almost come back on them this year.
So I think they're better, better team than they were
last season. But they certainly have their their question with
on defense. Now I'm going to go and make a
reference to the game last year. You're the craziness of

(01:56:11):
the Dan Campbell and how he handled, you know, going
for the win last year. I'm going to make the
prediction that even if the Lions don't score a touchdown
on Sunday, that Dan Campbell was going to go for
a two point conversion on every poem.

Speaker 4 (01:56:30):
There's a part of me that actually thinks that's fun,
you know. Yeah, Although although if I'm a Lions fan,
I'm probably screaming at the TV but or at the
stadium or wherever I am. But I kind of like
the swashbuckling, you know, right.

Speaker 7 (01:56:43):
I think the thing about it that was a little
nutty was, you know, they would get the conversion then
there'd be a penalty, and kept on getting pushed back
and pushed back, and then he was insistent on you know, listen,
we see teams go for a pat there's a penalty,
the ball gets moved up to the one yard line,
and then teams go for the two. Okay, this was

(01:57:06):
an instance where they pull off the two. There's a penalty,
the ball goes backwards, and he's still insistent, ongoing on
the two for the two. So I also know that
d d Lamb ran around at the toy secondary last
year in that game almost it will, so I mean,
that's that's Dax Dye in Saussets. It's a very pivotal

(01:57:27):
game for the Cowboys because and anyway in the NCAS,
because you have a team now with Washington that obviously
was a surprise last year. I mean, it has been
a surprise so far this year. And you know, I'm
not saying the other teams discounted them, but they're off too.

(01:57:49):
They're off to what I call when I wrote abound
this week is startling to start. Okay, I mean, keep
in mind Philadelphia didn't play last week and lost ground
into division. Because every every team in the NFC East
one last week, Dabas one on the road, the Chinas
win on the road. The Giants could be looking at
three at three and three when they host the angles

(01:58:11):
Ondon night. So, you know, you look around this league
and when you have somebody you know, like the Bears
were the last place team last year. Every team in
the NFC North is about five hundred. So that's that's
the danger of looking at the schedule in May and
trying to pick games.

Speaker 4 (01:58:27):
Trying to pick games, yeah through out the season.

Speaker 7 (01:58:30):
You know when people in our business can't hit week
to week, right, No.

Speaker 4 (01:58:33):
Believe me, I know that one as well. All right,
one final one for you here, Russell as we got
just a couple of minutes left here. But I'm just
kind of curious your perspective on rookie quarterbacks when they
get their first starts in the league, especially if it
comes in the season. I don't know if we can
actually break it down that succinctly, but what's your overall
impression of, you know, how they do, and whether or

(01:58:56):
not it's actually more beneficial for them to take their
lumps as opposed to having early success in their careers.

Speaker 7 (01:59:05):
Well, I think it all depends on circumstances. You know.
Right off the top of my head, I think about
Ben Roethlisberger who got forced into a game against the
Ravens after Tommy Max got hurt. Now it was just
twenty years ago. Tom Brady wasn't a rookie when he
came in the game against the Jets. Yeah, okay, but

(01:59:26):
I mean he had not started a game. I think
the most important thing you can do as a rookie quarterback,
and to a degree of rookie in general, it's the
old Dan reeves never to let them see a sweat,
and if you can fool them into thinking, you know,
what the hell you're doing, I think that's half the
battle if you go in there. That's one of the
things I look at during the Priests season. It's not stats,

(01:59:49):
it's comfort level for somebody who's showing up and playing
in professional football, which you find, of course, you find
the difference between preseason irregular season very very rare rapidly.
But if you can go in there and you know
you your teammates feel like you're one of the guys,
and then we have to walk you through and so on,

(02:00:10):
I think that's half the battle. That Drake may does
have a smattering of regular season experience. I know he
played uh in the preseason. I think I think it
helps that they're that they're playing at home, you know,
and and I think they got to let him be
him now. I'm not saying that they want him throwing
the ball fifty times and so on, but he's gonna

(02:00:31):
have to be on his feet. We obviously know the
issues of the offensive line, but I will say this
that they run the football like they like they did
last week, which I thought they did pretty good job
running the.

Speaker 4 (02:00:41):
Football seven per carry exactly.

Speaker 7 (02:00:45):
So they run the football last year. That's going to
make life easier. And Drake listens bo nicks the first
two weeks, I think from two interceptions in each game,
but he's settled in now. He's not lighting up the scoreboard,
but you can see the comfort level that he's having.
That's the problem we expect. I think many people expect teams,

(02:01:10):
regardless of what their makeup is, to hit the ground
running in week one, and it rarely happens. Because of
the way the preseason is now, you don't get a
live exposure so on, and maybe even wonder if you
haven't announced.

Speaker 4 (02:01:22):
It, ye Russell, you the man. Thanks Buddy for all
the perspective and the insight, and we'll try to do
this again next week if you're available.

Speaker 7 (02:01:31):
Let me see, let me check my tay.

Speaker 4 (02:01:33):
Okay, thank you, Bud, Appreciate you. You so you got it.
The one and only at Backs Football Guru on X
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(02:01:56):
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(02:02:19):
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(02:02:41):
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thanks to Matt the Marine for putting it all together
as he does every week. Listen, it's gonna be fun.

(02:03:03):
There's gonna be a little juice in the building as
we talked about, right, that's what we want. But it's
time let's get on with it, no matter what happens.
Let's step ahead, let's step forward, let's see what happens.
Let's just throw caution to the wind. It's time to
see what we got out there. It's gonna start this
Sunday and we'll be back saying Patch time, Satan Patch

(02:03:25):
channel next week to talk about that and lies ahead
because we go or there the other side of the pond, London, mates, London,
Well that was actually Australian, so I probably shouldn't do that. Huh.
Claire would be so disappointed in me, wouldn't she sound
like it from London? London? Yes, bloke, I've never understood

(02:03:46):
the word bloke. What the hell is a bloke? I
just maybe lady Hell Harry that too? All right, we'll
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