Patriots Playbook 11/22: Giants Preview and NFL Week 12 Predictions

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
This is Patriots Playbook, the Legend. Now here's your host
of Patriots Playbook, John Rook. Boy, you weren't kidding when
you said that was fast.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Right into it today?

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Wow? Okay, Well, glad to be with you. We don't
need to listen to other stuff anyway, now, do we?
Happy Thanksgiving? Everybody, at least on this side of the pond.
And if you're on the other side of the pond,
happy whatever, football still here, whatever you're celebrating, We're glad
that you're with us. Welcome into the playbook. It is,

(00:39):
of course Thanksgiving Eve here in the States, and we're
back in a game week, which you know, certainly there's
nothing wrong with that. There's a lot to celebrate, there's
a lot to be thankful for, and I want to
get into some of that with you guys today because
you know, frankly, we don't get much of a chance
to We really don't get much of a chance just
to shoot the bleep, do we. You know, we're always

(01:01):
focused on one thing or another. We're always focused on
the next game, We're always focused on what the next
quarterback I We're focused on something I'm not sure what
it is, but we're We're focused on something here and
I wanted to take a little bit of time today
and we are going to talk football. Okay, we are
gonna talk football. We got Matt Sitek, who covers the

(01:24):
Giants for Giants dot Com, joining us in ten minutes.
Nicole Yang from the Boston Globe, who covers the Patriots
as one of their beat writers. She will join us
at the bottom of the hour, and of course Russell
Baxter will join us in hour number two for week
twelve around the NFL. And you know, I'm sure some
Thanksgiving week news. And by the way, you know, let's
give let's give Evan Lazar at least a little bit

(01:45):
of a pat on the back for doing four hours
of sports talk radio today here on Patriots dot Com radio. Huh.
That is, of course the sound of one hand clapping, right,
I mean, okay, So he does four hours. He does
his own Catch twenty two pod from ten to noon, right,

(02:08):
and then he does twelve to two with p U.
And then I walk in the door. He could not
get out of here fast enough. He didn't even look
at me. He didn't even look at me. He didn't
want to say, oh, you know, hey, John, I really,
I've just done four hours of talk radio. You know,
I really I need to get going. You know, I've

(02:30):
promised my girlfriend fiance significant other, you know, that i'd
help her cook. Yeah right, yeah, every Thanksgiving? All right,
So you know what that means. That's more time for
you guys. That's that's that's more time for you guys.
Eight five five PATS five hundred is the toll free

(02:52):
telephone number eight five five p at S five hundred.
And if you don't have time for the phone call,
I hope you have time to send me a note
web radio at Patriots dot com on email or hit
me up on Twitter, X whatever the hell we're calling
it today. I'll probably call them both X dot com
if that's what we're going with now, because I don't know.

(03:13):
Nobody's told me what the etiquette is. Nobody's told me
what the protocol is. I mean, I realize I'm behind
the Glory of America. Yeah, I know, right. Uh, Elon's thing, Okay,
we can call it that. You want to get me
on Elon's Thing, It's at JR Broadcaster. Pretty simple, pretty
simple and always as always, thank you for the follows.

Speaker 3 (03:32):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
I do like to interact, you know, on on the
the the social app formally known as Twitter. Can we
call it that? I think I'm gonna call it that,
just like Prince, you know, when he was that stupid
simple thing, you know, and then we called him the
artist formally known as Prince. It's the social app formally
known as Twitter. Seriously, but I do like to converse

(03:54):
quite a bit on that one, so you know, whether
it's you know, through regular tweets or dms, you know,
slide me in, you know, something like that, whatever the
whatever the hell over the saying goes. I feel like
those dorks on the on the commercial or the uh,
you know, for the what is it? The insurance you know,
are because you have to teach uh young homeowners how
to be like their parents or something, you know, that

(04:15):
one which.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Which I cut streaming all. I'm a streamer. I cut
the cable cord in two fifteen.

Speaker 1 (04:20):
I get it on I get it on stream too.
I get these ads all the time. I've just forgotten
what brand of insurance it is.

Speaker 2 (04:25):
Here's the hard o thing of the day for you.
I'm bougie. I pay for the ad free service.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Come on, really, you pay how much more? Months. Do
you pay for the ad free?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Probably five bucks each for each app?

Speaker 1 (04:36):
Okay, so here's the shakra for you. Do you know
what I pay for a year of streaming because I
cut my cord too a long time ago. What would
you think that I would pay for a year of
streaming without the internet? Probably fifty dollars fifty to seventy
a year. Yeah, a month I'm without cable.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
I'm paying less than two hundred dollars for all my
streaming services plus one hundred dollars internet.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Okay, So wait a second, so what are you doing
for your streaming service? You're paying two hundred dollars a
year for your streaming?

Speaker 2 (05:08):
No, if you're adding a I pay for good internet
and then all the individuals, So what is.

Speaker 1 (05:11):
Your all right? So let me break this down there.
So what are you? What are you paying for good internet?
Do you mind my asking?

Speaker 2 (05:15):
It's about one hundred bucks a month?

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Okay, that's what I pay. I have gig speed at home.
I wanted that because I have to work so much
at home, right, and so I pay I think my
price is ninety three a month? All right? But I
know people who are you know they've cut the Cord
and they're doing like YouTube TV, or they're doing Hulu,
or they're doing Fubo, And I had Fubo once upon
a time. I dumped my Direct TV. I had Direct

(05:38):
TV for like fifteen years, and I finally dumped it
because I was getting, you know, po'd at the channels
that they were arbitrarily showing and then cutting off and
then showing and the cutting because of all the contract
things that were not being renewed or then renewed too late.
And I couldn't wait for it because I didn't want
to miss a game or a show or whatever. So
I said, screw it, I'm going to go to streaming, right, Okay,
So I found an IPTV service, and if you don't

(06:01):
know what I'm talking about, google it. You'll find out
I pay eight bucks a month. Yeah right, So when
you add that to my you know, uh, internet cost
for everything I do, I'm paying roughly one hundred dollars

(06:23):
a month for everything. And that includes not only the
Wi Fi in my home, but also the television that
I watch. You got me be on that and I
have get this now, I have access to up to
seventy thousand channels. I could never I can't even watch seven,
much less seventy thousand. But it's just it's a service

(06:46):
that I stumbled upon. If you're curious to know what
it is. I don't get any kickback from these guys.
Slip me a DM, Slide me a DM and my mentions,
you know, slide me a mention. I'll and I'll share
it with you. But I'm just like, you know, you know,
I don't see the reason to go back now. I do,
from time to time have an issue with the Circle
of Death, okay, you know, when it buffers and and

(07:10):
a lot of that is because from what I've been told,
really doesn't have it. It's two reasons. Number one, my
local provider for Wi Fi sometimes you know, they say
they don't but ha ha you wrong. They downcycle. They
absolutely downcycle, okay, And so sometimes you don't get what
you're paying for because I've called my you know, provider

(07:34):
multiple times and had multiple visits and the guys are like, well,
let's change out your box, and said, that's not the issue, okay.
The issue is that during the time, I mean you
can almost count it, you can almost set your clock
by at nine o'clock Eastern time, booth. There's a downcycle
because they anticipate now that less people are going to
be online, but they don't realize that more and more

(07:54):
people are streaming now. So it infuriates the hell out
of me. Ask miss Robbins. She'll tell you, I'm the
one that's going God blieve blah blah blah blah blah,
you know, letting it fly. And she's like, sh the
neighbors will hear you. I'm like, I don't care. I
want the neighbors to hear this brand X. I won't

(08:15):
say their name. Blows, you know, at the top of
my lungs, you know, because I know that they're down
cycling because it's just a it's a it's an industry practice,
and don't tell me it's not. It is. I know
your dirty little secrets. I've worked in cable TV for
a long time. I know your secrets. You can't. You can't.

(08:38):
You can't pull that one over me. You just can't.
You can't. So at any rate, be that as it may,
I'm glad to have, you know, the streaming. I do
put up with a circle of death from time to time.
I try to, you know, uh, And with the ip
TV services that aren't quite regulated here. It's a little
different if you pay for the extra service, like you know,
if you subscribe to Foobo, which actually think was a

(09:00):
pretty good service. I never had the issues with Fubo,
but when they dumped the Longhorn Network, I was off
because I wanted to watch, you know, the two or
three games that I can watch a year, and the
coaches shows. I like that. I like to keep up
with the Alma water As strippers, he'll tell you. And
then I thought about YouTube TV, but at first they
didn't offer Nesson, and I wasn't going to give up

(09:21):
to the New England Sports Network because they carry the
Red Sox exclusively. Right now, both services ironically count on.
They both carry nesson and I and I don't know
yet about Fubo, but Fubo I think, actually put the
Long One Network back on there, which is gonna end
up merging in another year or so with the SEC
network because Texas is going to the SEC. So I
don't know how they're gonna specifically do it, but I
don't really care. As long as I get the Texas

(09:43):
content that you know, I allegedly am paying for, it
doesn't matter. And that and that's really what it is.
Fubo I think has been pretty good. And again I
don't get paid by these guys. I haven't tried YouTube TV,
although I've threatened to. I haven't tried Hulu, although I've
threatened to. So I'm just gonna stick with what I
got and we'll see how it goes. Because did I
say I have seventy thousand channels?

Speaker 2 (10:06):
You can watch stea Vercle in every language.

Speaker 1 (10:09):
Do you know what I do? Watch in almost every language?
All in the Family. Do you remember? You're too young
for that?

Speaker 2 (10:16):
But I would hear archieyell in Spanish?

Speaker 1 (10:17):
Yeah, funny, Okay, well we're talking about Archie and Edith Bunker.
All in the Family, the hit seventy sitcom that you
know today would not be legal in this country because
of their political incorrectness, but it is still the most
hilarious sitcom all time in television history. And if you're
of an age where you don't know what I'm talking about,

(10:39):
do yourself a favor. Go YouTube it, Go google it,
go find it somewhere on your service that you can get,
and tell me that you don't laugh until you cry.
It's the most amazing it's one of the most amazing
television shows sitcoms that has ever been, you know, ever
graced the planet Earth. And so they actually have a

(11:03):
channel on my IPTV service. They actually have a channel
that does nothing but show classic television twenty four hours
a day, seven days a week. They have a stream
that has that right And so what Miss Robin and
I do we watch all the family? How many of
you show of hands here? How many of you have

(11:25):
actually tried to go find seven or four Houser Street
in Queen's I've done. That doesn't look anything like you know,
the house that Archie to eat if we're in. But
on the opening scene, the opening credits, there the house
that they show seven o four does exist. It's there.
I've seen that house, bend to it and it's you know,

(11:48):
it's amazing taking pictures up in front of it. And
I'm sure the owners of that house are absolutely driven
nuts by it. The house that is supposed to be
seven or four houses streets is that's not really the
address that wasn't.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
Like the show is that it is appointment.

Speaker 1 (12:01):
Well, I expected to see different because you know, in
the in the sitcom, arch you needed had a front porch.
This house is no front porch, has a flag pole
out front. And that's the house that they show in
the opening scene of credits on the on the film
that they shoot. Right that house has a specific address.
You can google it and find it out. And everybody
calls at the Archiemunker House because that's in the opening credits.

(12:23):
I've gone by that house. I've seen it, taken my
picture out in front of it, probably irritated the bleep
out of the you know, the owners of that house,
but I'm sure they're used to it by now after
all these years, because this was a hit sitcom fifty
years ago. And speaking of anniversaries, before we get to
matt Seyitek, I'd be remiss of it didn't mentioned today
as the sixtieth anniversary of the assassination of JFK. And

(12:46):
for those that are, you know, listening to this show abroad,
you undoubtedly are at least aware of a smidge of
the United States American history when he was assassinated allegedly
by one person in three bullets. I am a huge,
huge conspiracy theorist. You cannot tell me based on everything

(13:08):
that I have seen, heard, read, watched, cannot tell me
that one person, and one person alone, did that to
the President of the United States. You can't tell me that.
You know, I retweeted at earlier day. You can check
my feed, but I retweeted earlier today. And I don't
know if this was a fake or what. But there
was a tweet sent out and the account said at

(13:31):
CIA Central Intelligence Agency and so because it was a screenshot,
so I don't know if it's the real thing or not.
But this was from back in twenty twenty, so this
would have been three years ago on this anniversary eight
three years ago, which would have been the fifty seventh anniversary.
And the tweet said, and I'm gonna paraphrase you'd have
to go back and look at it on my feed here,
but the tweet said basically said, just because we killed

(13:52):
him doesn't mean we missed him. I know that brought
a chuckle in sort of a morbid sense from me.
But at the same time, I actually believe the CIA
had a lot to do with that. I think they
had a lot to do with it because I think
it was almost they threw a bone to the Soviet
Union and or you know, Communist cube at the time.

(14:14):
That's that's kind of what I think. So at any rate,
you know, i'd love to hear your thoughts on that,
but I don't really want to deal with morbidity today either.
I got to talk football about the Patrons and Giants,
and that's morbid enough, don't you think eight five five
Pats five hundred? There is a football game to be played.
Matthew Siitec, who covers the Giants for Giants dot Com,

(14:34):
kind enough to join us here in the playbook. And Matthew,
I know you've got what you're trying to work around
Giants practice today, so I appreciate the time.

Speaker 4 (14:43):
No problem.

Speaker 5 (14:44):
Thanks for having me on, guys.

Speaker 1 (14:45):
So let's kind of just start with where you guys
are at this stage of the game. You won a
football game last week, played well enough, certainly, and it's
just kind of ironic that two teams, two franchises that
once upon a time and the not too are past,
we're playing each other for super Bowls and now, as
it turns out, the winner of this game probably ends

(15:06):
up screwing itself more than the loser of this game,
because they'll be that much further away from the number
one draft pick this next April is that hit anybody's
consciousness in New York.

Speaker 6 (15:18):
I mean, you know, when the schedule first came out,
definitely was excited about this matchup. Did not think heading
into week twelve that either one of these teams would
be where we are today, right but you know, we
are where we are, and we're just the Giants are
coming out and trying to put their best football together.
I mean, last week's game against Washington was probably the

(15:41):
best overall performance the team is put together from start
to finish in twenty twenty three, and Giants are looking
to ride that momentum into this week's matchup and put
together a two game winning streak. I mean, the future
is the future. Talk about trap position you want for
Right now, Giants are focused on winning a football game,
and it's gonna come out on Sunday, best line up

(16:04):
out there and put the best football out there and try.

Speaker 1 (16:07):
To pick up the w I you know, you guys
talked about this. I think of the website. I think
it's actually one hundred percent accurate. But right now, one
of the best stories going in the NFL happens to
be Tommy DeVito. You know, here's a guy that you know,
my gosh, he's you know, the story is well documented,
but for those in our audience that don't know, he
lived with his parents and still does live with his

(16:27):
parents in just fifteen minutes from the team's facility.

Speaker 7 (16:31):
You know.

Speaker 1 (16:31):
So you're talking about really local boy making good. This
is the epitome of that. Nobody knows who this guy is,
and yet he led your team to win last week.
So I'm just kind of curious what your thoughts are
of Tommy DeVito.

Speaker 5 (16:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 6 (16:44):
Well, as a local conspiracy boy myself, I have to
say I'm very proud to see what Tommy has done.
His performance last week against the Commanders was, honestly, it
was historical in some set. I mean, he threw for
two hundred I believe it's two hundred and forty sixty yards,
three touchdowns, no interceptions. He finished with a one hundred

(17:08):
and thirty seven point seven.

Speaker 5 (17:09):
Passer rating, which was the highest of any Giants quarterback
in about a year.

Speaker 6 (17:14):
First of all, more impressively, the highest of any rookie free.

Speaker 5 (17:18):
Agent quarterback since nineteen sixty seven. I mean, what he
went out there and did.

Speaker 6 (17:22):
Against the Commanders last week, it truly was unprecedented, and
you know, there have been a lot of jokes from
the national media. Is expensive as the whole living at
home thing and you know, chicken cutlets all of that,
But honestly, he's he's leaned into his New Jersey pride
and someone from New Jersey myself, I love to see it.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
I love chicken cutlets too, so you know, I mean
it just does it. Yeah, right, It's one of those
comfort foods that's there all the time. The number I
think that impressed me the most out of all of this,
Matthew was the fact that you know, and you guys
had this, you know, which I would expect you know,
Giants dot com to have. But he's the first Giant
quarterback since nineteen fifty with five touchdown passes or more
in his first two NFL starts. That's significant. That's very

(18:07):
significant since, you know, believe it or not, a couple
of these quarterbacks that you've had in the past were
really really pretty good.

Speaker 6 (18:15):
Yeah, one hundred percent. And you know you spoke mentioned
Giant's history. He's only the fourth rookie.

Speaker 5 (18:22):
Quarterback to ever do that. Yeah, in the NFL's history.

Speaker 6 (18:25):
So what he's been doing, I mean, obviously undrafted rookie
free agent. You know, a lot of people's expectations for
him around the league, around the country's fans were probably
not that high. But I think he's exceeded those expectations
so far, and personally, I'm very excited to see what
he can do against a talented Patriots defense.

Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well, I you know, and I'm sure that it'll be
quite the test, But I'm just the thing that the
other thing that amazed me most is when you try
to look between the numbers, what DeVito has done for
you guys. I noticed last week against Washington he was
seven for eight on third down and through his two
touchdown passes, through two of his second passes on third down,

(19:10):
and the Patriots have struggled to struggle gold I'll use
the Joe name of the you know annunciation on that one.
Uh struggled on third down. And so that to me
ought to catch anybody's attention.

Speaker 6 (19:23):
Yeah, I mean his complete stats on third down. I
was gonna mention seven for eight, one hundred and thirteen yards,
two touchdown. Of course, he had no turnovers on the day,
so no interceptions and all that resulted in a perfect
one hundred and fifty eight point three past or eight inch.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
Which is nuts, that's nuts. What do you what do
you think? What does he do particularly well to the
to the naked eye that you can tell and what
have you guys talked about, you know where his improvement
has come from. What does he do that has made him,
you know, that kind of specialist that to this point.

Speaker 6 (19:53):
I mean, honestly, a coach Dable has spoken about this.

Speaker 8 (19:56):
Tommy just he has confidence.

Speaker 6 (19:58):
He is confidence in himself. He he doesn't care that
he was not drafted, he doesn't care that he started
the season on the practice squad.

Speaker 5 (20:05):
He truly believes that he.

Speaker 6 (20:06):
Belongs to the NFL and you can see it every
time he goes out there on the field. I mean,
his teammates have spoken about how since he's been named
the quarterback, started quarterback, he commanded the huddle. He's the leader,
one of the leaders.

Speaker 8 (20:19):
Of the offense.

Speaker 6 (20:20):
Now all the players around him listen to him, respect
him now. As great as he was last week, of course,
it was not a perfect outing by any means. He
got sacked nine times, and as coach Dables said after
the win, it wasn't all on the offensive line, right.
So he does have some things he needs to clean up.
But you have an undrafted rookie, twenty five year old

(20:41):
quarterback that is going out there believing in himself and
his abilities, and you know you'll love to see it.
The results are showing.

Speaker 1 (20:50):
Sure. Well, let's jump over to coach Dables, as you mentioned,
because clearly our fans know that there's a huge history
between Brian da Ball and Bill Belichick in the past,
and it has been largely I think a disappointing year,
not only for the Patriots but for the Giants as well.
How much is Brian day Ball, how much heat has
he absorbed? Is it rightful or is it wrong? Like

(21:12):
some think it's wrong to accuse Bill Belichick of where
the Patriots are currently standing you, what are your thoughts there?

Speaker 6 (21:20):
I mean, look, Coach Dable, he accepts responsibility for the
team's performance. I mean, the first one to say it
whenever he's asked that question as.

Speaker 5 (21:31):
A third party observer.

Speaker 6 (21:33):
I mean, of course, the Giants have been dealt with
a ton of injuries, and you never want to pay
that as an excuse for a record. But the offense
itself has been decimated by injuries since Week one. I
mean Andrew Thomas, the All Pro left tackle, got hurt
on the first drive of Week one, went on to

(21:53):
miss the next eight games. Is back now, But by
the time he came back, I mean, the Giants record
it was what it was at that point, and you know,
already down to their third string quarterbacks. So I personally
don't think that coach Dables deserves possibly as much keyed

(22:13):
as some people are trying to put on him. He's
kept the locker room together. The team's still going out
there and fighting from the first minute to the final
minute of every single game. One thing about this Giants
team under Brian Dable is they are never going to quit,
and that, honestly, that's all you can ask for from
a team in a season like this.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Sure sounds almost clich ish, but frankly, you know these guys,
you know, hey, they're professionals. You would expect pros to
try to act like pros.

Speaker 6 (22:40):
Right one hundred percent, and Coach Gable and the whole
coaching staff has seemingly gotten that out of the entire roster.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
Right before I lose sight of the offense, how's Daniel
Jones and what the prognosis for you know, his return
next year.

Speaker 6 (22:56):
Well, he actually we announced a couple hours ago that
he underwent successful surgery the hospital for spessial surgery on
his torn acl and he's just on he's on the
road to recovery now, okay.

Speaker 1 (23:08):
And then so this full expectation that he will be
able to return when next summer or what would be
into the fall, do you know.

Speaker 6 (23:15):
Yet that I cannot say.

Speaker 8 (23:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (23:20):
I'm not sure.

Speaker 6 (23:20):
I think right now, all Daniel's concerned about is rehabbing,
getting back to where you know, he can play football,
play the quarterback position without any hesitations, without any limitation
right now that he's just focused on his recovery.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
Okay, Let's then flip it for a second, then to
the defensive side. What's been the biggest surprise here at
this stage of the game to your point of view
in moving toward the positive and moving toward the future
for this Giants team? Has anybody broken out that maybe
wasn't expected to.

Speaker 6 (23:52):
There have been two players in particular that I believe
truly have broken out. I wouldn't necessarily say that they
were the most you know, under the radar player, but
breakout players nonetheless. First of course, Kevon Thibodeau. Going into
Week twelve, He's got ten and a half sacks. He's
the first player in a Wink Martin Dell led defense

(24:14):
to reach double digit backs and it's only eleven games
in so he can add to that total. He has
been a game wrecker, especially over the last I would
say two months, the last.

Speaker 5 (24:25):
Seven or eight games. He's really just been a force
in the past rush.

Speaker 6 (24:29):
And the second player is linebacker Bobby o'carake, who was
one of the team big offseason editions signed him in
free agency. He has been a true anchor in the
middle of the defense. I mean he has I believe
it's six games with double digit tackles this season. He's
tied for fit in the league and tackles, he's got

(24:50):
an interception. He's been one of the best coverage linebackers
this season for forced fumbles career highs and tackles for loss. Again,
they signed him to a decent contract in the offscun
So I'm not going to go ahead and say that
he's you know, under the radar, but in terms of
you know, the national stolid I do think he's one
of the more underrated players in the NFL and he's
really showing.

Speaker 3 (25:11):
It this year.

Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yeah, let me go back to Thibodeau for a second,
because I think that's the name that's kind of catching
attention of at least to most fans overall. What are
his particular traits that you really find might set him
apart from others? I mean, is it quickness? Is it strength?
Is it a combination of the two? Because when you're
a speed rusher, when you're an end rusher and and

(25:32):
your job is to get out of the quarterback, you've
got to have some unusual athleticism to be able to
do your job at the highest level possible.

Speaker 7 (25:40):
Yes, I would.

Speaker 6 (25:40):
Say the first thing that really stands out is his
get off speed. I mean, we saw it this past
week against the Commanders. He was matched up against their
left tackle Charles Leno, who's you know, very solid, better
and tackled, been around the.

Speaker 5 (25:54):
League for a decade now, and Bibodeau.

Speaker 6 (25:57):
Just dominated him. They had three one on one matchups
and Kevon had two sacks and eight pressures according to
the Next Gen Stats. More impressively, though, is he had
his quickest get off speed in any game this season,
which the Next Gen Stats had zero point six to
eight seconds, and five of those eight pressures I just

(26:19):
mentioned came in under two and a half seconds, so
he showed that he's able to get to the quarterback
and get to the.

Speaker 5 (26:25):
Quarterback very, very quickly.

Speaker 6 (26:27):
The second thing I would just point out is his motor.
I mean, he is giving it his all from the
first snap of the game until the last snap of
the game, which of course is something you would expect
from every player, but in a season, you know how
the Giant season has gone, you may not see that
from you know, every single player from teams across the league.
But every time Kevon steps out there, if it's a

(26:50):
passer rush, he's going out there with the mindset of
I'm getting after the quarterback.

Speaker 5 (26:54):
I'm going to get to him as quick as possible.

Speaker 6 (26:56):
And you see it out there.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
Sure sure, and caught my attention as well. Not only
the margin of victory, you know over you know the Commanders,
but six takeaways, and that's something that the Patriots defense clearly,
while they may be better physically, they haven't they haven't
forced turnovers even like last year's team did. And I
think that's been a huge reason to why New England
is only two and eight because the defense just hasn't

(27:20):
turned the other team over. Your defense did just that
in one going away last week.

Speaker 6 (27:25):
Yeah, I mean the six takeaways total, five were from
the defense. One did come on specialty, but that was
a season high for takeaways both by the defense and
by the team overall. Three of those were interceptions, great plays.
I mean, the one that really caught everyone's attention was
Isaiah Simmons the interception return for a touchdown at the

(27:47):
very end of the game. But if you were to
go back and look at the film, Darnay Holmes his
interception he lost.

Speaker 5 (27:54):
He literally jumped over the.

Speaker 6 (27:55):
Receiver, pulled down the interception. It was a very very
impressive play. And then there were three forced fumbles. Bobby
o'caac again, he punched the ball out.

Speaker 5 (28:05):
Twice in the game. Giants recovered one.

Speaker 6 (28:07):
But you could just tell in you know, last weeks
game in particular, that the defense made it a made
real concerned effort to punch at the ball, get the
ball out of the ball carrier's hands, and they were successful.

Speaker 5 (28:20):
They forced four fumbles and recovered three of them.

Speaker 1 (28:23):
And that's some of the hatreds have not defended well
against over the last few weeks.

Speaker 6 (28:28):
Yeah, So you know, the Giants defense went the first
four weeks of the season without a turnover and since
then have had multiple turnovers in every game except two.
So the defense after that first month really.

Speaker 5 (28:41):
Seemed to you know, flip a page and get back
to you know what week marn Dell is best at?

Speaker 1 (28:47):
Sure, all right, and the final one I have for
you man, And frankly, I'm surprised that you know, I've
gone all the way to the final question here before,
you know, talking about the probably the most well known
of all the Giants, and that's sick one Barkley. But
I thought his you know, his game, even though he's
sort of you know, he's been off and on with
his injuries really throughout his entire career. I thought he

(29:07):
had enough of an influence last week to sort of
ressure the Giants of being better than the Commanders. And
that's all you have to do from to week and
just worry about that particular game. And I thought that
he what did he have like four catches and eighty
some odd yards last week against Washington? So catching the
ball out of the backfield adds a dimension to his game.

Speaker 6 (29:25):
Yeah, I mean he caught four passes and total.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
Fifty seven yeards. Yeah I confused him with a Slayton.
Yeah I'm sorry.

Speaker 6 (29:34):
Yeah, no, no problem is fifty seven yards was his
personal season high. He caught two receiving touchdowns with matched
his season total in the receiving game up to.

Speaker 8 (29:44):
That point, right, So you're right.

Speaker 6 (29:45):
He was a huge asset in the passing game, which
is something we have seen from Saquon since he arrived
with the Giants back in twenty eighteen.

Speaker 5 (29:53):
The thing that impressed me even more than that, though,
was the.

Speaker 6 (29:58):
Giants got the ball back with about forty seconds left
in the third quarter. At that point, Sekon had negative.

Speaker 5 (30:05):
Two rushing yards.

Speaker 6 (30:07):
His next eight carries.

Speaker 5 (30:09):
He gained eighty five yards.

Speaker 6 (30:10):
I mean, that is the reason why the Giants were
really able to steal that victory because Tekon, despite not
having much success at all the first pretty much three quarters,
kicked it into high gear when the Giants needed it most.
Averaged over ten yards to carry on those last eight carries.
Finished with eighty three yards on the day, which is
pretty remarkable.

Speaker 5 (30:30):
He almost finished the third quarter with negative yards.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Yeah, okay, well, at least to me, I know that
you know because I have a lot of Giants fans
that I consider in my circle of friends, and a
lot of that is because you know, here in New England,
their dads and their granddads were Giants fans before the
Patriots ever existed, and it's just kind of stayed within
the family. So I do follow the Giants, you know,

(30:54):
at least from a distance a little bit. And I
know that there's largely been a lot of disappointment over
a team that was expected to be better, certainly than
three and a, but maybe even certainly a contender in
the NFC East, with the NFC East thought of being
like the AFC East, one of the better divisions in
the NFL. And I'm not sure that's quite turned out
the way that people thought it would have turned out.
But it's interesting to see now that the Johns are

(31:15):
playing better football with guys that they really didn't expect
it from. And that's why I kind of began the
conversation with a guy like Devido.

Speaker 6 (31:23):
Yeah, I mean, look, the season definitely did not go
how anyone here would have hoped or I guess would
have even thought.

Speaker 5 (31:31):
But this season, you know.

Speaker 6 (31:33):
It is what it is at this point, and from
this point on, all you want to see is your players,
especially a lot of the young guys, continuing to develop
and show promise as you head into the end of
the season and going into the future. Right So, you know, Tommy,
especially him playing like he did last week, and some
of the other young guys on both sides of the
ball really stepping up. That's the sort of thing you

(31:54):
want to see over these next seven games.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
All right, Matthew, thank you very much for the time today.
Happy things to you and to yours, and we'll look
forward to visiting again on down the line.

Speaker 5 (32:04):
All right, Thank you guys.

Speaker 6 (32:04):
Happy Thanksgiving to you, got it.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Same to you. That's Matthew Sytec, who covers the Giants
for Giants dot Com, taking some time out of his
Thanksgiving eve to join us here inside the Patriots Playbook.
We're gonna switch from the Giants and go right into
the Patriots. Nicole Yang, who covers the Patriots for the
Boston Globe, She's been a contributor here inside the playbook.
I got several occasions already this year, and Nicole takes

(32:27):
a few minutes of her time today to join us.
Thanks Nicole, appreciate you Thanks for having me, John. Sure,
so you know you probably call it at least the
tail end of that, but I mean, it's it's really
kind of odd, how, you know, the Patriots and Giants.
As I mentioned earlier, it's odd that here's two teams
that have met each other for world championships in the past,

(32:49):
and yet now the winner of this game on Sunday
is actually in worse shape than the loser when it
comes to getting a higher draft pick next April. And
that ironic nature to this game on Sunday is it
just I couldn't let it go right because frankly, it
defies description almost.

Speaker 3 (33:11):
Yeah, it's definitely no Super Bowl matchup or anything close
to that. But what's interesting is that it's not necessarily
a full tank off either, because the Patriots I think,
still want to win this game, even though it might
defy what is best for the organization at this point.
I think they still are going to be putting forth
their best effort to win, and I would like to

(33:33):
say the same is for the Giants, just given how
their season has gone as well. I don't think either
team is going to be tanking per se, even if
that might be best for.

Speaker 1 (33:45):
Both yeah, no, I don't believe in tanking, and we've
talked about that on this show a lot of times before.
The tanking is a concoction of fandom, and I think
you can go back to the original tank that at
least I was familiar with, and we're talking mid lord,
I think mid nineteen eighties, when the Houston Rockets in

(34:05):
the NBA were trying to tank to get a chem
a lage you want, and I said, you know, that's
I said, that's That's one of the most ridiculous things
I've ever seen. And then I got it confirmed. I
remember by the Houston Rockets played by play anouncer at
the time, he said, yeah, these guys have told me
they have no intention of winning another game this year,
and that's the only time. That's the only time I've
ever heard that. And of course all those guys got

(34:26):
ridden out of town on a court of wood too.

Speaker 3 (34:30):
I think you definitely see it more in the NBA,
like most recently with the Philadelphia seventy sixers. But it's
just the way that the Patriots are operating, the way
that the players and Bill Belichick are talking about the
game like they definitely want to win as many games
as they can in these final sevens.

Speaker 1 (34:50):
I mean, you know, if you're a professional, I mean
you know, I know that you know as a broadcaster,
you as a journalist as well. You know when you
see other people right well, and you see other people report, well,
you know, we applaud them, you know, and because you
know there's talent, you know to go around here. But
when it happens on you're beat and someone beats you

(35:10):
to a story. I don't know about you, but it
makes me want to get up and work a little
bit harder. And I don't think anybody that gets wrapped
in the mouth and gets beat up on on a
football field or a sheet of ice or a basketball
court or wherever the venue might be, who gets whipped
up on, I don't think anybody's going to just take
that lane down and say, eh, well we'll get a
better bad draft choice that does not exist in the

(35:31):
real world.

Speaker 3 (35:33):
Yeah, for sure, especially for the free agents, and the
Patriots have plenty of them with their contracts expiring at
the end this season, right, it doesn't matter to them
what draft position the Patriots get, like, they want to
put forth like their best tape to try and get
another deal to try and get the most lucrative deal
they can. No question, sure, Robert Kraft wants the team

(35:53):
to do well so that the Patriots still remain like
a desirable destination or a desirable team to put in
primetime things like that. So there's a lot of reasons
for why the organization topped it down. Still want to know.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
That's a great point right there, and I think that's
one that's largely missed by most fans is the fact, look,
you know, okay, so you want them to lose and
get a top draft pick. Great. Did anybody ever stop
and think that the more you lose, the less desirable
your location becomes as a destination. I mean right that
that blows me away. I don't want to go to

(36:26):
the Patriots. They sucked last year, and that's what people
are gonna think because it's always about what you've done
for me lately.

Speaker 3 (36:33):
Exactly. And now I have the NFL Players Association survey
that sort of reveals what players think about their teams
and things like that. So there there's a lot of
factors that play in terms of why the Patriots will
still want to preserve as much of this winning culture
like they're I mean they're hanging on to last threads here,
but yeah, of course, just to preserve whatever they can

(36:55):
of the brand.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Okay, well you you kind of opened up a whole
nother hornet's dist with that, So I gotta follow up
on it a little bit here. Hanging on to a
thread or a shred of winning culture? Should that still
include Bill Belichick?

Speaker 3 (37:10):
Yeah, I mean it's an interesting question. I think the
problem with if you're interested in parting ways with Bill
Belichick is how far do the departures go? Because you
look at the Patriots coaching staff and even their personnel department,
I would say the vast majority, if not every guy
has a personal connection to Bill Belichick. You look at

(37:33):
the coaches. Adrian Clem his first draft pick with the Patriots,
Troy Brown, his player of fifteen years, Grod Mayo, his
player of eight years, Mike Telgrino, who played lacrosse for
his good friend Dave Pietromala, Johns Hopkins, Benniathan Ferry his
brief player but played special teams for Nick Daban at Alabama.

(37:57):
Like every coach, every assistant and has a tie to Bill.
And so if you get rid of Bill Belichick, are
you gutting the rest of the coaching that if you
promote Girod Mayo, say, is Doirod going to retain the
rest of the staff. And we haven't even mentioned his
two sons. Yeah, either. So it's a really interesting question.

(38:20):
I get the frustration, and I could totally see why
the Craft why fans might think that moving on is
the right decision. I just think it's a lot more
complicated than all right, we're going to fire or trade
or part ways of Bill, because he's everywhere within that

(38:41):
coaching staff and personnel. Matt grow His dad is Algro
who works for Bill too. So it's like there's just
so many ties to Belichick that it wouldn't shock me
if he stays and they move on from the quarterback
and they're like, Okay, clearly Max Jones was not the future.

(39:04):
There are a lot of good quarterback procescts in this draft.
What if we reset with that one? See how it goes?

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Right?

Speaker 3 (39:10):
Robert Craft is eighty two years old. I don't know
how long of a rebuilder, how long he wants to
wait before the team can sort of turn its way around.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Sure, yeah, I'm one hundred percent on that one. All right.
So you mentioned Mac Jones, and you wrote about this
a week or ten days ago that the Patriots don't
believe in Mac Jones in your particular estimation. Otherwise they
might not have made that move to get him out
of the game and put in Bailey Zappy two weeks
ago when they were playing in Germany. Now, of course,
the Patriots are keeping their cards relatively close to the

(39:43):
vest in terms of naming a starter for this week's
game against the Giants. My personal belief, just based on
reading some tea leaves, is that macki is going to
start this game. That's my personal belief. What do you
think they should do? What's your belief in that regard?

Speaker 3 (40:00):
I agree with you. I think Mac is going to
start again this weekend. I think there are still seven
games left, which, if you can believe it, that's still
a lot of the season less yea And so as
perplexing as the decision was to go away from Mac
at the end of that game, I know the interception

(40:21):
was bad, but the game is on the line and
you're you're going to put a winning drive, winning two
minute drive in the hands of Bailey Bappy, who you
also have shown you have people faith in you subjected
him to waivers, you benched him in favor of Millie
Cunningham one week.

Speaker 9 (40:37):
So I just think the.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
Situation the Patriots have put themselves in just is reflective
of the mismanagement at this position. So I think they're
going to start Mac. I agree with that decision just
based on how bad the backups has been, right, well, right,
if they had a competent veterans as a backup, then

(41:02):
I could totally see why a change a quarterback could
ride a spark, could sort of benefit the offense, just
even just a change in the energy. But just given
the options, I understand why they would move forward with Mac.

Speaker 1 (41:16):
Yeah, and look, I actually you know I'm right. I'm
in lockstep with you on this one, only because you know,
if it were a veteran backup that had some experience,
let's say Brian Hoyer, I would buy that one more
than I would the rookies that they have now, because frankly,
Mac is their best option if they decide to keep him,

(41:36):
and they can, you know, with relatively short money, keep
him as a bridge option to the next guy, even
if they go out and they draft somebody next year
and he's their best chance to do that, especially if
you're interested in, you know, watching your funds come out
of the pocketbook. So why would you damage him any
further if you realize deep down that hey, we got
to hold onto this guy for at least another year,

(41:57):
maybe even too, but at least another year. And I
frankly think that that's what will end up transpiring. Now.
Are the Patriots guilty of mismanagement? Yeah, one hundred and
ten percent. The way that they've gone about, you know,
drafting and deciding what the importance is on their roster
and everything else. And I think they've made some very

(42:17):
poor decisions that will need to be addressed every one
of these issues in the off season. I don't think
that this is a one season fix or one off
season fix. I think the frustrating part about this, and
will be and will continue to be for a lot
of fans, is that this is going to take probably
more than one year. You can take a big bite

(42:37):
out of it because of the cap room and the
extra cap space you should have for next year, but
there's no guarantee. There is no guarantee that free agents
are going to look at that and say, oh, well,
let's go to New England, you know, because hey, guys
only know what they know now, what they know today,
and New England hasn't been competitive really in the last
couple of years, and I think that's a significant factor.

Speaker 3 (43:00):
No, I totally agree with you, and I think if
you move on for Max this weekends, you basically for
benching him for the rest of the year. I think
you can start Bailey Zappy this weekend and then if
that fails, go back to Mac like that is again
just like personalitismanagement. So I see why I did want

(43:20):
to keep him, as like you said, he's still under
contracts for a rookie deal next year. I doubt we'll
see what happens with the fifth year option. But even
keeping him in the fold, whether it's as a backup
or a bridge next year, you want to sort of
preserve that option.

Speaker 1 (43:38):
Sure, sure, all right, Nicole, here's a good one for you.
Toss up question, right, who has a better chance of
being here next year? Bill or Mac.

Speaker 3 (43:49):
That's an interesting question. I would have to say Mac
just because of that rookie contract. I don't think he's
the quarterback of the future. I think perhaps he still
has an NFL future as a starter, but just elsewhere.
It just clearly isn't working here. And you can debate
whose fault that is, and definitely the Patriots are culpable,

(44:14):
but it's just where we are now with that situation.
I can't imagine it lasting much longer. But I can't
see it lasting at least one more season, just because
he is on that rookie contract, he's affordable, and if
they're already going to bring in a new quarterback, I
can't imagine. I mean, they do have a lot of
cap space, but I imagine they just want to keep
back in the fold sort of as that strong backup

(44:37):
option that they probably wish they had this year.

Speaker 1 (44:40):
Agreed, Agreed, all right? So where where have the where
have the bright spots been? In your estimation? I know,
what was it a week or so ago. I know
you did a nice piece on David Andrews and you
know him trying to keep the you know, the ship together,
especially in an offensive line that's been largely disastrous all
season long, and in my opinion, a major reason that

(45:00):
Mac has not progressed and perhaps regressed in his development here.
But where are some of the other bright spots really
come from? In this team if you can find them.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
Yeah. I think Jabrill Peppers has stepped up as into
a nice leadership role. He's having a pretty good season.
He's had a hand in a number they Patriots haven't
had many takeaways this year, but he's had a hand
in the majority of them. Name goes for Jelanne to Vie.
I think the Patriots have a chance to make the

(45:31):
running game a bright spot. It seems to be trending
in the right direction after sort of struggling to start
the season because of the offensive line. It does seem
like run blocking has sort of come together a bit
more quickly than the past protection has. And here's Deep
after the game last week, he says that, you know,

(45:53):
that's what the offense should focus on. So I would
expect this weekend, especially given the fact that the Giants
are statistically one of the worst teams against the run,
that the Patriots just sort of lean into that. And
you kind of saw them do that last week. Max
just sort of derailed the drives with some rough mistakes,
but they really started to pound the run game. So

(46:16):
I think that has the potential to be their offensive
identity moving forward and a bright spot because I would
say Ramandre and Zeeker probably they're the most talented skilled
position players on Austense.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
YEP, I think I think we're on the same page
in that one as well. Nicole, thank you so much
for spending some time with us today. Hope you and
your family have a very happy Thanksgiving and save travels
the rest of the season.

Speaker 3 (46:38):
Likewise, John, thanks so much for having me.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
You bet our pleasure. Nicole Yang at Nicole C. Yang
all one word together for her on x dot com
formerly known as Twitter, and that's where you can read
her stuff and catch up with Nicole. And I think
she's done a really good job of reporting the news
on this team throughout the entire year for the Boston Club.

(47:01):
So if you're looking for someone to try to give
you a little bit of unbiased to pin and she's
one of those that, frankly I think is worth a read.
There are a few in the marketplace. Maybe we'll spend
a show one of these upcoming weeks, because we have
seven weeks left in the regular season and certainly in
the off season. We do our monthly off season shows
here in the playbook, you know, we we just may

(47:21):
decide to vote and talk about who are your favorite
reporters and why, and then we're gonna get them here
on the show. You know, we've done this before with
those of you who host podcasts you don't Patriots pods
out there in the blogg is sphere, and and that's
been a lot of fun. We'll do that again in
the off season coming up. In fact, had we had

(47:42):
a show last week, I was leaning toward doing that one,
but it was the off week and uh and we
had travel and all that stuff, so we didn't really
get a chance to think about that much this this
this time around. But that'll definitely be an off a
an off season project for us to get to because
I'd like to know who you guys trust. I'd like
to know who you guys read. I'd like to know

(48:04):
who you guys listen to. Who do you believe, who's
believable and why are they believable? And that includes us,
by the way, Okay, because I realized that, you know,
for many of you, we might be one of the
few sources that you that you get to, you know,
for Patriots news, because wherever you might live, you probably
don't get you know, the news like you know, New

(48:24):
Englanders would get. And so patriots dot Com is naturally
going to be the spot that you go to, you know,
but nowadays, you know, it's it's not hard to stay
connected with your favorite teams no matter where you are,
just because of the Internet. But i'd like to know,
you know, is there anybody else on a regional or
national level that you really go to for those kind
of for that kind of information. All right, so we're

(48:46):
gonna make sure that you know that the phone lines
are open eight five five, Pats five hundred. But I
have some pointed questions that I want to ask you today.
We've got some time here. Russell's going to join us
at the bottom of the next hour, so we've got
some time here to play with with you guys and
talk with you guys. And I want to get your
reaction to a couple of key things. You know. Number one,

(49:07):
I would like to know the question that I asked
Nicole from you, and and that would be, who's going
to be here this time next year? Mack or Bill?
And tell me why? Okay, that's one mack or Bill
and why this time next year? Number two? And guys,
this is you know, in all honesty, Uh God, I've

(49:31):
tried to, you know, think long and hard about this
because I want to do something that you know, feels
like we're we're starting to build for tomorrow. And yet, Gus,
there's seven weeks left in the season. Does anybody realize that,
you know, we look completely differently on this team, on
this franchise. If somehow they win five, six, seven out

(49:51):
of the next uh, out of the next seven, now,
do I think that'll happen. No, Yeah, it's probably the longest.
There's some long shots. Marine says, it's definitely a long shot,
but it's not impossible when you consider the records and
you consider the opponents that are on the schedule. Now,
I would have told you it would have had to

(50:11):
probably start two weeks ago with Indianapolis and Germany because
that game was right there for the taking. I think
we all saw it, and the Patriots just could never
take advantage of it. It was really a you know,
it's hard for me to use this word, but I'm
gonna use it anyway. It was a pathetic offensive performance,
but pathetic also means it's sort of in tones that

(50:32):
you know, there was some you know, lackadaisical play. I
don't think that was the case. I think guys were trying.
They're just not capable. And I don't know if it's
because of Mac Jones. I don't know if it's because
of Bill O'Brien. I don't know if it's because of
the offensive line. I don't know if the offensive line
screw ups have, you know, made give Mac the yips.
I don't know. It could be a combination. Frankly, I

(50:53):
think it's probably a little bit of everything. To be
quite honest with you, I think it's a little bit
of everything. It's not just one thing that is causing
this team to play at a miserable level that no
one around here has been used to or seen really
since nineteen ninety nineteen nineties, the last time you got
to go back to a team that started out like this.

(51:16):
I know this because I did Rod Rust's TV show.
I've said that a couple of times. I think this year,
you know, we couldn't even we didn't It was so
bad we couldn't do a show every week, so we
did one once a month. Nuts, absolutely nuts. I want
to know what's the one positive take that you have

(51:41):
thus far from the first ten eleven weeks of the season.
So while I'm asking you Mac or Bill, who's going
to be here this time next year in your estimation,
and I know that's got a negative overtone to it,
I also want to know what you feel like is
the most positive thing that you can come up with
to this point in time. I don't care what the
answer is, Oh, they lose and they get the top drip, Okay, whatever,

(52:03):
I don't care. That's fine. I'm good with either one.
But these are two things that I want you to
consider both for yourself. So we're gonna talk a negative.
We are because that's the prevalent feeling right now around
this franchise. But we're also gonna talk a positive what else?
What do you see out there that is in a
positive nature that you'd like to see continue, You'd like
to see more growth, like to see more of There's

(52:24):
got to be a positive aspect to this out there
for you. And honestly, Nicole mentioned my positive aspect. I
have loved the play of Jabrill Peppers, and while he's
not perfect, he brings a mindset to the football field
that this team needs more of. He's got that Rodney

(52:46):
Harrison mindset where he literally wants to blast the next
guy into oblivion, and I think we need more like
that on this team. So I'll take eleven Jabrill pet
I'll take eleven of him out there. Thank you very much.
That's a positive thing for me. What's one for you?

(53:07):
Eight five five PATS five hundred web radio at Patriots
dot com if you want to email or if you
can't get through at JR broadcaster on x okay, so
you can hit me up there with your answer on
that one. And then the other one that I am
going to deal with with Russell, and it has something
to do with the holiday because I just want to
have a little fun today. But you know, got I

(53:28):
know everybody's got their their favorite things for Thanksgiving dinner.
What's one must have on your table? And what's one
thing you'd like to throw in the trash? Okay marine,
what's one thing you have to have on your Thanksgiving
table tomorrow?

Speaker 2 (53:45):
A lasagna? And I will be making it tonight.

Speaker 1 (53:47):
Nice, good for you Thanksgiving, Lazanna. You know I did
that one year. I didn't do the turkey. I did
it one year when we were in New York and
we went out for Italian on Thanksgiving and I had
Lazaangna and it was fantastic. So for a change of pace,
it was awesome.

Speaker 2 (54:01):
I spent three hundred dollars of vendor ravioli.

Speaker 1 (54:02):
For the ingredients. Whoa dude seriously bought the thirty dollars pud?
Good lord, they're paying you too much here.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
That I treat yourself once a year.

Speaker 7 (54:15):
Things.

Speaker 1 (54:16):
But that is as vigorous a headshake as I've ever
seen anybody. Give me. Love it, love it all right.
So that's one thing you have to have on your
thanks Giving table. What's one thing you got to throw
in the trash? You know what?

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Just like the regular corn kernels, I don't eat you
toss a corn?

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Yeah, okay, I like corn on the car. But corn
out of the out of the can, no, forget it. No,
it can't come out of a can. If it comes
out of a can, it's not worth doing.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
I think she does it just for the kids.

Speaker 1 (54:43):
Yeah, well of course, yeah, Well that's precisely who it's
intended for. I think didn't they canned vegetables, you know,
based on we saw more can vegetable come the marketplace
post World War Two. Here, I'm gonna go old school
on everybody because it was a way to preserve things
and keep them around longer. Express vegetables weren't as prevalent,
but it was also then in the nineteen fifties, whenever
it was playing Happy Susie Homemaker at home, it was

(55:04):
the ease to which they could be prepared. That's how
canned vegetables became. And now it's kind of like, dude,
if I can't have fresh vegetables or at least frozen,
I just no, no, thank you.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
Canned vegetables. They have weird nutrients and preservatives.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
From metal taste. I honestly, I've been I have been
a label reader, okay, at the grocery store for a
number of years, because I really do try to watch
my spelt diet here, you know, try to anyway, and
you know, but I watched my intake with you know,
sodium and sugar and all that stuff. And those of
us in advanced age always have to do that, but
everybody should, okay. And I read so many labels and

(55:43):
it just freaks me out. Some of the preservatives and
these canned vegetables. It's just like, WHOA I didn't know this?
WHOA I didn't And the extra calories and the sugar.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
Come on, it was no fat people in Germany.

Speaker 1 (55:56):
I believe that. And they drink beer in the e
Bronts right, and there's no fat people.

Speaker 2 (56:03):
This is like an extra large soda.

Speaker 1 (56:04):
There you know, yeah, yeah, right, bottle of water holding
a normal bottle. Bottle of water. I know. Okay, So
there you go. All right, So I've given you several
things to think about. I want you to chip in,
all right. So uh let's get to actually, Patty and
Aguam was hanging in first. So Patty, you get to
go here in the playbook. What's up?

Speaker 5 (56:21):
What's going on?

Speaker 7 (56:22):
John?

Speaker 1 (56:22):
Hey? Patty?

Speaker 9 (56:23):
Foremost happy Thanksgiving to the Salt Patriots dot com crew,
and happy Thanksgiving to you and miss Robin and your
guys family.

Speaker 1 (56:31):
Thank you, Patty, same to you and yours, my man.

Speaker 7 (56:34):
Thank you.

Speaker 9 (56:35):
Before I get into the questions, I gotta tell you
because you brought it up earlier in the show.

Speaker 7 (56:40):
I wait for the.

Speaker 9 (56:41):
Cool handle or a cool story, hansle drop. I have
three animals in my house, two dogs. One of one
of the dogs is a lap dog, game Archie, and
I got a black cat name named Edith.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
That's fantastic. That's fantastic. I love it. I love it.
Archie and Edith. Yeah listen. Uh and so now, Patty,
you're not as old as I am, but are you
old enough to remember all in the family?

Speaker 9 (57:13):
I remember. I think it's I think it was ending
its run when I was real little, but it was
on in syndication when I was a kid in the early.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
Eighties, right exactly. It's lasting in syndication for a long time.
But yeah, it's it ended its run. I think mid seventies.

Speaker 9 (57:27):
German named Lucy. And if we get another animal, we're
gonna name it.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Ricky and Archie and Edith. I think that's fantastic. And frankly,
I like naming animals and pets off of a favorite uh,
you know, television characters. I do. I think that's fun.
That's fun. Yeah, I'm with you. My My, My two
cats are both you know, one's a big tabby, but

(57:53):
they're both main coons, so they have the big you know,
fur around their necks and big tails.

Speaker 7 (57:58):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (57:58):
One is one is Archibald, and but he is named
he is he is named for Archie Bunker, but we
call him Archibald. And then the other one is Zakias
with a z uh, he's the one that I've dressed
up or I should say miss Robin dressed up for
Halloween as Batcat only because he would. Archie looks at
us like, don't even dare thinking about putting that piece

(58:19):
of blank on my backside? Okay, he's thirteen years old
and he's just not gonna put up with it. But
Batcat will allow us to do that because he's only
six months old. Zakias is a biblical name for anybody
that knows any of their biblical history. And we just
decided because we wanted two cats from A to Z.

Speaker 7 (58:36):
Night.

Speaker 1 (58:36):
Pretty simple. So there you go, all right, now that
we've shared.

Speaker 9 (58:42):
Now that we share the question if I had to
go one of the other, because I don't think either
are going to be back, but find to go one
or the other, I do think it would be Bill
because he's got the track record. I mean, like but
Jonathan Kraft said before, I can't remember if it was
before this season or last season, that he's built up

(59:02):
equity over here with the.

Speaker 5 (59:05):
Patriots, And.

Speaker 7 (59:08):
As much as I don't.

Speaker 9 (59:09):
Like the personnel decisions he's made the past few years,
maybe like the past six or seven years, he still
is one of the best coaches in one and probably
the best game plan coach in the league still today.
And I think the Crafts will look at it this way, like, yeah,
we're not gonna let this, you know, this kid that
hasn't really lived up to his draft filling stick around

(59:31):
and you know, get rid of our coach, our legendary coach.
To me, that would have made so much sense. I
had to pick one or the other. I'm sorry the
second question, because I got.

Speaker 1 (59:42):
A second question was Yeah, the second question has to
do with the one positive that you can take out
of what you've seen those far.

Speaker 9 (59:50):
Yeah, you know what you brought it up. It's the
young guys like I think like the girl Peppers and
I think Jilani to Buy. I think he two younger
guys there that at least like they're they're good players,
they're really good players. But I think those are guys
that can blossom into like the next generation of the
leaders of the Patriots, at least on the defensive side

(01:00:12):
of the ball. And you know, there's there's hope and
prosper for for guys like Christian Zalas and for oh
my god, I John, I'm I'm almost in drinking mode.
So my brain is blanking out. Why can't I think
of the big number ninety? Why can't I think.

Speaker 8 (01:00:29):
Of as Christian Barmore?

Speaker 1 (01:00:30):
Thank you?

Speaker 8 (01:00:31):
Yeah, the big time.

Speaker 9 (01:00:32):
You know, you got some good foundational pieces there on defense,
I think going forward, and even a guy like if
they bring back Kyle Dugger, I mean, who knows, but
if they do bring him.

Speaker 1 (01:00:43):
Back, I'd like for that to happen. I would like
for that to happen. I'd like to see Dougger return. Yeah,
I love Doug.

Speaker 9 (01:00:50):
I love Douger. I love his athleticism. I love when
they just pretty much stick them in the box and
say do your thing, buddy.

Speaker 1 (01:00:56):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:01:00):
So yeah, that's that's my that's my one positive. I
still think that if they can get the offense six
over the next two years, they could be contenders. And
I think it's because they do have those foundational pieces.

Speaker 8 (01:01:12):
On defense right now.

Speaker 9 (01:01:13):
Okay, but that is me and that's a big positive
for me.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Okay, I think that's a good positive. Now, what do
you have to have on your Thanksgiving table and what
do you need to throw in the trash?

Speaker 9 (01:01:24):
Well, I'm mostly Scottish and Irish. John so I gotta
have the mashed potatoes on the table.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Yes, gotta have the tata gotta have them, okay.

Speaker 9 (01:01:33):
And what drives me nuts Now, I don't get fresh
cranberries like you, but I do get, like, you know,
the store box cranberries that I make on the soap
on the soap top.

Speaker 1 (01:01:43):
Okay, that's good.

Speaker 9 (01:01:45):
What I could throw out is the candcraft.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
That's the way. But I'm of a age where I
at once upon a time, I was probably well on
my twenties before I realized that, you know, cranberry sauce
was actually not a geled thing that came out of
a can. I know, I never had seen a cranberry before.

(01:02:08):
And then, of course the last decade, I've had three
cranberry bogs in my backyard until a year ago anyway,
because I moved closer to the ocean. But I'm just like, wow,
I never knew the process for, you know, producing and
growing cranberries and how they send them off to ocean
spray or wherever the hell they sent them off to.

Speaker 9 (01:02:25):
And to be like me growing up, it would all
depend on how much my mom would have to drink
the night before. I guess yeah, I think if she
didn't have too much, we would get like.

Speaker 8 (01:02:33):
The good cranberries.

Speaker 9 (01:02:36):
Yeah yeah, no, hungover Sally would just open up the
can and.

Speaker 5 (01:02:40):
Here's the cranberry.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
What's most disgusting and disgusting is when you open up
the cannon you get that Oh yeah, my god. It
just kind of gives me the willies when I hear that.
So I have to I have to take like a
spoon and spoon it ug because I just can't do that.
So it's kind of like, oh, Patty, they're not actually

(01:03:05):
all that bad, but when they're just that gelatinous. Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah,
it's that's tough. That's that's that's a little Yeah, I
totally understand that one. Patty. Happy Thanksgiving. Yeah you want
to predict, go ahead, I'll.

Speaker 9 (01:03:17):
Take the giants seventeen to.

Speaker 1 (01:03:18):
Ten, seventeen ten. Yeah, I'm kind of leaning that direction myself,
to be quite honest with you. All Right, have a
great holiday, Patty, Patty and Aguam Eldred in North Carolina. Eldred,
thanks for hanging in, brother, how are you hey.

Speaker 4 (01:03:33):
Mister legend, thank you and I hope you you and
miss uh I forgot a name that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:37):
Robin, Robin miss, Yeah, thank you. No, that's that's quite
all right, that's quite all right. She does ask about
you from time to time, like where was Eldred today?
Whenever you don't call, so she wants to make sure
that you're okay out there in the road when you're
when you're driving the eighteen wheeler.

Speaker 7 (01:03:56):
I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (01:03:57):
Yes, I'm I'm off the day. We got off a
little bit early Thanksgiving Eve.

Speaker 1 (01:04:01):
Of course, of course you.

Speaker 7 (01:04:02):
A little cooking and everything else.

Speaker 1 (01:04:03):
Of course, did the did the storm going up the
east coast? Did they get by you guys yesterday? Or
was it last night?

Speaker 4 (01:04:09):
Uh? He hit us all right, yesterday really Monday, Monday,
Monday evening yesterday.

Speaker 7 (01:04:14):
And uh it's cleaning up to bob be cleaning up
to day. But like it's coming back again.

Speaker 1 (01:04:18):
Oh good lord, Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:04:20):
Yes, it's cloud is on the wind, Charlotte.

Speaker 1 (01:04:22):
Yeah, we we've been we've been nailed with it all
day today.

Speaker 7 (01:04:24):
So yes, so that's what we're doing it up here, right,
you know.

Speaker 4 (01:04:30):
Right, So I'm glad to be home early.

Speaker 1 (01:04:32):
Yes, sir, Yes, sir. That'll make two of us here
very very soon. All right, tell me what you got,
tell me what's on your mind?

Speaker 4 (01:04:40):
Uh, I'd rather neither want them be here next year,
but I know that ain't gonna happen, right, So I
got a feeling they both will be.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
You think they both will be? Okay? All right, yes, sir?

Speaker 7 (01:04:51):
Because uh huh. What I hate is, well we maybe, Frank.

Speaker 4 (01:04:58):
What I hate is let Field run this draft for
it again if by chances they said we're gonna be third,
we get down to seven or eighth, you know, by
winning a couple of games or whatever, and instead of
him doing what he's supposed to do, because the last
five drafts to show everybody that you know, he can't
draft or it ain't that he doesn't know the people,

(01:05:20):
he don't want those if he want those other people,
because he thinks everybody in the draft is equal to
the people down in the lower part of the draft.

Speaker 7 (01:05:26):
Which is not. So you know, you.

Speaker 4 (01:05:29):
Got seven good quarterbacks coming out this year. I don't
want no part, officaated Williams, especially when he said, point out,
I will not play for New England or anybody else
want to lose the record. You know that was his
take and any the first one out of his mouth.

Speaker 7 (01:05:45):
Drake, may I see Drake may here.

Speaker 4 (01:05:47):
You know, he don't show good, especially when my team Florida.

Speaker 7 (01:05:50):
State with that butt.

Speaker 4 (01:05:52):
You know that Decen's got to him and whatever. I
like Jordan Travis, but he got hurt.

Speaker 7 (01:05:56):
He's going for the years, so he gonna.

Speaker 4 (01:05:58):
Go down to a lower draft. But I'm more in
free with Pettit, you know. And everybody saying, well, he
just throw the deep ball.

Speaker 7 (01:06:06):
Now, he could throw the short ball, long ball, and
he's accurate. I understand accurate.

Speaker 4 (01:06:11):
He can move a little bit, had a couple of injuries,
I understand, you know, but he's a during good prospect.
They got him going either first or second round. The
main man is Marvin Harrison. I know we won't get
him because Bill won't draft end up getting him. The
Bears will get him, yeah, because they got that up

(01:06:31):
and they're gonna give just to feel that number one
threat on the outside go along with the rest of them.
That's what I would do if I was them, you know.

Speaker 7 (01:06:39):
But Bill I don't trust with the draft, you know,
because of what he drafts and the way he drafts.

Speaker 4 (01:06:47):
And just like I said, the guard to tackle whatever
cold strain.

Speaker 7 (01:06:53):
Was a bus just like tack on thor bus.

Speaker 4 (01:06:56):
You know, y'all told me back then with the draft grade,
I said a f.

Speaker 7 (01:07:00):
Y'all said, you can't do that.

Speaker 4 (01:07:01):
Have been three years, been a year and a half.

Speaker 1 (01:07:03):
And well, I'd have to say that you're certainly trending
toward that fl Yeah, without a doubt, without adult Yes.

Speaker 7 (01:07:11):
Sir, without a doubt.

Speaker 4 (01:07:12):
But I've been you know, Bill doing mister Kraft, he
ain't gonna have the gunction to pull but if but
if you look back, you're a.

Speaker 7 (01:07:22):
Businessman, and you see your business going down.

Speaker 4 (01:07:25):
From the last five years. Draft course, and people in
bill legendary status, once they lose, like I said, they
lose that number one quarterback, they go hell now I
wanted it didn't With Sugar, he made it to the
playoffs a couple of times, but he never never could
win after that, you know. But everybody else they sucked,

(01:07:49):
give my language, but they did, and they had a
bad ending towards their career when they should have got
out on top. And Bill's stingy to I don't care
what nobody saying.

Speaker 7 (01:07:59):
He ain't changing this way. He ain't changing for nobody.

Speaker 4 (01:08:02):
He gonna always think that he's you know, it's the way,
the best way. Just give me a top fifteen quarterback
and they can run my system. Like I said, where
you got one, he couldn't run it. He grabbed the
wrong one, you know, So any fifteen can't run your system,
and everybody get mad at me. But like I said again,
and I mean it would understod in my heart.

Speaker 7 (01:08:23):
He wasn't the greatest coach, then he got the greatest player.
I'm sorry.

Speaker 4 (01:08:27):
The NFL factors backed that up for fifty two out
of an undred games, you know.

Speaker 7 (01:08:33):
But he'll be back.

Speaker 4 (01:08:36):
And if if you don't submit to the GM rule,
well we're gonna we're gonna be doing this for years
and years to come. Like I said before five to ten,
maybe longer wants that quarterback gone to rebuild get back
from it.

Speaker 7 (01:08:48):
It ain't always the same coach.

Speaker 4 (01:08:51):
It's another regime, you know. And if I hurt you earlier,
well by Bill and the coaches tied to him. If
I new regime coming in, I try to keep Mayo
as my defensive coordinator. Prol Brown got to go with
my wide receivers coach because he yeah, he's inffing it
up as wide receivers.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
I would have to say that that that's largely that's
actually been one of the disappointments that really nobody has
talked about this year, but it's been or very few
have talked about I'll put it that way. But you know,
the development of the Whiteouts under Troy Brown has been
non existent, and Troy has been critical of himself the
few times that we've heard from him. You know, when

(01:09:32):
the assistant coaches, you know, have their time to be interviewed,
I would say that there's there's a disconnect there in
some form or fashion, either with what he's teaching or
what those guys are picking up from the organization. There's
a disconnect. And yeah, I you know, and nobody wants
to say, oh, Troy's done a horrible job, because Troy's
beloved as a Patriots former player because of what he

(01:09:55):
meant to the team and his give it all, and
you know, the fact that he was a very low
draft pick, you know, come from a little known place
like Marshall and blah blah blah. But hey, look, this
is a bottom line business and I think everybody on
this staff, including Troy Brown, has to be held accountable.

Speaker 4 (01:10:11):
Especially wide received the one that came out that we
did good, and I hate because Mitchell got hurt and
they have to win this super Bowl. Was Mitchell, you know,
you know that's the one he did do. But everybody else,
all the other A wide receivers nothing. Taekwon though it
nothing And I told everybody again Harry was a bus
from Jump Street. Should have got DK you know, or

(01:10:32):
a J. Brown and will make it so bad. Like
I said, they worked them all out. They went and
saw it all up and then you're gonna pick Harry
because of coach Edwards.

Speaker 7 (01:10:42):
Bomb deal, bomb deal, you know, but he gotta go.
I wish they would had had Sean Jefferson last year
when he came over with Bill O'Brien, because I think
Taekwon would be a little bit better. But then again.

Speaker 4 (01:10:59):
I still I say they didn't use him right because
I because I don't know.

Speaker 7 (01:11:03):
It's just the way, you know, things happen, and they
just can't developed that group.

Speaker 4 (01:11:08):
They hit on Gonzales, but they flunk five years before them. Yeah,
you know, and the Gonzale failed too. But he could
have got a better cornerback, not better than Gonzales, a
good one last year, but he passed on. Could have
got one when he got colds trained, you passed.

Speaker 7 (01:11:23):
On, you know, and you got Strange and all that.
Others jump.

Speaker 4 (01:11:27):
You know, it's just this drafting and like I said,
he's getting set up in this age and my way
or the highway, and then he don't keep the core guys.
Did he trained Myers? I hate if if they let
their safety go, they let when you go, not Peppers.

Speaker 1 (01:11:47):
Yeah twenty three Oh dugger, Kyle dugger.

Speaker 7 (01:11:50):
Dugger.

Speaker 4 (01:11:51):
Yeah, if they let dugger to me, my core is
dugger when you.

Speaker 7 (01:11:58):
The running back.

Speaker 4 (01:11:59):
And then that's right there.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
Stevenson got that contract.

Speaker 4 (01:12:02):
Stevenson is coming up, and then you know, I try
to build around that a little bit right there.

Speaker 7 (01:12:08):
You know, but those are guys on keep because it's
town for the contract.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
Okay, I'm keeping those guys, okay.

Speaker 4 (01:12:13):
But you let Myers go, you let some more guys go,
and they furbishing everywhere elp okay.

Speaker 7 (01:12:18):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:12:18):
So is that is that really your your positive out
of all of this, that you found some guys that
you you definitely want to.

Speaker 4 (01:12:23):
Keep that one and I love Baltimore Christian Barmore.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, he belongs he belongs to
that conversation. I agree with that.

Speaker 4 (01:12:34):
Yeah, and I believe I'm hoping that key On White
was just a little bit more.

Speaker 1 (01:12:39):
Yeah, me too, Me too, bit more. I had a
lot of I had a lot of expectation for key
On before the season started. Some of it was probably
misguided because I wanted it bad enough, But from what
little I saw of him in camp and the preseason,
I thought this guy could end up being a player.
I wonder just because of the way things have played out,
that some of that growth hasn't been stunded little bit.

(01:13:00):
But uh, you know, I'd still like to continue to
see him get opportunities here because I think he can
make a very good professional football player at some point
in time in the very near future.

Speaker 4 (01:13:10):
Me too, A mister Leach, I tried looking at Claire
Oh on the podcast you can't.

Speaker 1 (01:13:18):
Be all right? Did you did? Did you try to
contact her on Twitter? Yeah? Okay, all right? Well her
handle on Twitter is at classy Claire c l a
z z y c l a r E all right,
and she might even be listening to this. So Claire,
if you're listening to this, Eldred wants to know where

(01:13:39):
he can get your podcast, right, yes, sir. Okay, see
so there you go. All right, that's good, all right,
and Thanksgiving dinner. I gotta ask you what what what
has to be on your table?

Speaker 7 (01:13:55):
It has to be did.

Speaker 1 (01:13:58):
Okay? No, no, no, no no I I we secrets,
we need, ideas, we need How do you prefer it?

Speaker 7 (01:14:06):
I prefer it?

Speaker 4 (01:14:07):
Well, I let us all for two days, you know,
real good marinated o or marinated on Wednesday.

Speaker 1 (01:14:14):
Night, marinated with what.

Speaker 4 (01:14:17):
I'm not gonna give you my secrets.

Speaker 1 (01:14:18):
Come on, Eldred, come on, you cannot do that here.
You cannot do that here. It's just the two of
us anyway, nobody else is listening.

Speaker 4 (01:14:29):
For six years, and they all, are you gonna do
the turke to this year?

Speaker 7 (01:14:34):
Humph?

Speaker 4 (01:14:34):
But because my sister wanted fried turkey one time, so
we did that. I didn't do the turkey. They said,
did you bring.

Speaker 7 (01:14:39):
You all bunk? I said nope, mh.

Speaker 4 (01:14:42):
So next year we did, got rid of the fried turkey.

Speaker 7 (01:14:44):
Now I'm doing all the turkey.

Speaker 1 (01:14:45):
So so you guys ditched the fried turkey deep fried
I assumed for for your your your your recipe. Yes, yes,
well you gotta tell you gotta give me a hint.
I'll share with you. I'll share with you because because
because I cook the turkey as well. Okay, that's my deal,
and it's my brine. I brin the turkey. In fact,

(01:15:08):
it's brianing right now as we speak. And when I
go home from the studio here, I will go home
and I will clean it and prepare it for the
oven tomorrow. But it's still brining right now. So I
will share with you my brine recipe if you at
least give me a little hint about what you do.

Speaker 7 (01:15:25):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
Okay, come on, come on, help help a brother out now,
come on. You know we're brothers from another mother, so
let's go all right, Okay.

Speaker 4 (01:15:36):
So my marinate thought is I'll start with.

Speaker 1 (01:15:41):
Uh app Okay, so some.

Speaker 7 (01:15:48):
Garlic, and I put a little with that.

Speaker 4 (01:15:56):
H can't eat the main thing, but.

Speaker 1 (01:16:00):
You're gonna give everything but the main ingredient. Otherwise it
sucks without this main ingredient. Okay, I got it.

Speaker 4 (01:16:05):
Yes, So what I do is I put it in
there and then like you, I get my turkey cleaned
and everything.

Speaker 7 (01:16:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:16:11):
Yeah, And about about another thirty minutes, I'm fin to
go in there and Marin put it in the marinate,
marinate all over it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:17):
Yep.

Speaker 7 (01:16:18):
Put it in the bag, put in the refrigerator.

Speaker 1 (01:16:19):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:16:20):
And Thursday morning about sticks, I get up and I
cook it.

Speaker 1 (01:16:23):
Yep.

Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
And if I don't put in at seven, so we
beat my sister's house at two thirty on fancy at
my sister's house. Yep, Crystmas time to come to mile
Yeah yeah, vice versa.

Speaker 1 (01:16:33):
So do you cook both turkeys? Do you do turkey
again on Christmas?

Speaker 7 (01:16:36):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:16:37):
Okay right?

Speaker 4 (01:16:38):
Deep sweet potato pie, banana pudd Oh.

Speaker 1 (01:16:42):
Sweet potato pie and banana pudding.

Speaker 7 (01:16:45):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:16:46):
My veins hurt just hearing you say that.

Speaker 4 (01:16:49):
And well, I don't like his macaroni and cheese.

Speaker 7 (01:16:51):
I'm sorry, really need it?

Speaker 1 (01:16:53):
Yeah, I see, I know you, being the son of
the South, I would think you would like mac and cheese.

Speaker 7 (01:16:58):
Sir, I did a long time ago.

Speaker 4 (01:17:00):
But you heard of NESTLEI right, stufs uh? Well, okay,
Gasney stopped comand I used to say it STOs had
a big plant there.

Speaker 7 (01:17:10):
I still got a big plant decause Nesti brought him out.
So I worked online seven.

Speaker 4 (01:17:15):
So we did mac and cheese for a year every day.
So he's like rep the noodles, the sauce.

Speaker 1 (01:17:22):
Okay, enough said, I got it. I got you. Yeah,
you just you got sick of it. I totally got it.
I understand. Yeah, I get it. All right. So all right,
so let me quick you get I'll let you know
what's in my my brine. All right. It depends on
the quantity. Now, I won't give you the quantity, but
i'll give you the ingredients. So I brian mine. First
of all, I take the turkey's got to be completely thought,

(01:17:44):
and then I put it in a double uh bagged.
Uh you know, garbage bag is what I do. You know,
like I'm gonna throw it out, except I'm not gonna
throw it out. And then what I cooked for the brine.
It has uh you know, water, has brown sugar, as
maple syrup, has salt, has peppercorns, has bay leaf uh

(01:18:08):
and has uh soy sauce.

Speaker 4 (01:18:13):
Well, I tried that brown sugar once to pour and
it kind of like the bad guy.

Speaker 7 (01:18:18):
Kind of stuffed.

Speaker 4 (01:18:19):
I'm like, you know, well cut that out put that in.

Speaker 1 (01:18:23):
Well, I would tell you that the secret ingredients really
in this particular instance are the brown sugar and the
maple syrup. U largely because it gives it a flavor
where it really eliminates a lot of the gaminess. Uh.
If if some people don't prefer turkey, it's usually because
it's probably a little gaming, and it's the way that
you know turkeys usually are. But the brown sugar and

(01:18:46):
and the and the maple, they smooth out that gaming
iss where it's just like, oh, if you do it right,
it's like butter, it really is. It smells good. The
bay gives it a lot of good flavor as well.

Speaker 3 (01:18:59):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:18:59):
And then I like the pepper corn because I like
mine to have a little bit of spice to it.
You could add garlic, but Miss Robin's not a huge
fan of garlic, so I leave the garlic out, and
and I put a little fresh crunched salt in there,
and then the soy sauce for a little body, and
just and largely, you know, just to sort of keep

(01:19:20):
it from being too sweet, because you don't want some
of it that that's too sweet, and meat is not
supposed to be that sweet, supposed to have a little
bit of you know, yeah, I supposed to have a
little hardness to it. So that's kind of what I do.
And then it's worked every time. Every time, every time
I Brian a turkey, it works every time. So that's
why we don't even we don't put a turkey straight
in the oven from you know, from the wrapper. We

(01:19:41):
you know, I've got to take a good twenty four
to thirty six hours to prep it and brine it
and then clean it and then baste it while it's cooking.
And if you baste it with that brine again, after
you know you've got it in the oven, it's going
to be nice and golden, and the skin will be crispy,
and the flavor will be all throughout. It works out
pretty well. That sounds okay. See there you go. Now,

(01:20:05):
what's the one thing. What's the one thing that you'd
like to throw in the trash off of your table?

Speaker 7 (01:20:10):
Mac and cheese?

Speaker 1 (01:20:11):
Okay, all right, I figured as much figured you're gonna
probably go there, So all right, I have to admit
it's a it's a big it's a big thing up here,
at least in the northeast, uh and where we're located.

Speaker 3 (01:20:23):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:20:23):
And I'm not sure why, but I I don't do
the my my wife and her mother, they love carrots
and turnips, and I can't. I can't do it. I
just can't do it. Sorry, yeah, I can't sit. I
can't do it. I mean it's yeah, it's it's a yeah.
It's just that they like it, and so, you know,

(01:20:44):
every once in a while we bring it to the table.
But they're like, oh, do you want to carrots and turnips?
And I'm like, no, thank you, I'm gonna have an
extra helping of this. I don't want to be mean.
Of course, of course Miss Robbin's listening right now. Anyways,
She's like, okay, scratch that off the list. So but

(01:21:06):
but I and I don't mean that to be bad.
It's just that I, I don't know. Turnips and I
have just never really agreed. And I'm not sure why,
because I remember my Grandpap used to love turnips, in fact,
the other vegetables he loved that I didn't really develop
a taste for until I was much older in life
are Brussels sprouts, And a lot of people still don't
like Brussels sprouts. It's an acquired taste. I do too.

(01:21:27):
I do too. But he loved turnips and Brussels sprouts,
and the only way that I could eat those is
if I threw a bunch of Tabasco sauce on it.
And you know, of course, my grandfather, remember he used
to call them. He used to call them little cabbages
because that's what they look like. They like little cabbages, right,
And he put that on there and that would make
him edible. But I just I couldn't do it with turnips.
I tried. I tried, I tried. I couldn't do it.

Speaker 2 (01:21:49):
And sprous with hot sauce. Your house must have been awful.

Speaker 1 (01:21:52):
Oh yeah yeah, Brussels sprouts with hots. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
between me and my grandfather. Oh yeah, we let's put
it this. That's what gas furness was working. It was working.
It was fired up.

Speaker 7 (01:22:10):
That's the way it worked.

Speaker 1 (01:22:12):
Hey, it's always Eldred, I really always look forward to
our conversations. Thank you so much for taking time out
of your day to visit with us, and I wish
you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving.

Speaker 7 (01:22:23):
And mister Legend, always good talk you.

Speaker 1 (01:22:26):
Yep, you too. There you go. Oh rah, he just
gave it back to you. Eldred in North Carolina, one
of the good ones out there. You're they're all good.
You're all good. I appreciate you a lot eight five
five Pats five hundred eight five five p Ats five
hundred Web radio at Patriots dot Com, at JR Broadcaster

(01:22:46):
on the social media formerly known as Twitter. I'm gonna
start calling it that I don't really care. I got
this little tidbit as well from this week's game that
I wanted to share because I don't guess I was
aware of this.

Speaker 8 (01:23:00):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:23:00):
The Patriots sent this out a little while ago, and
I'm not sure who they sent it to yet, but
I just wanted to pass this along that you know,
Coach Belichick is going to coach in his four hundred
twenty third overall game since joining the Patriots in two thousand. Okay,
and this also includes the postseason, so he's four hundred
and twenty three games now that he will have coached.

(01:23:22):
When he steps in on the sideline against the Giants
this weekend, Belichick is going to tie Don Shula for
the third most games coached with one team in NFL history.
Now a wager you can gather who number one and
two are on the list. Number one is the slam Dunk.

(01:23:46):
It's George Hallis with the Chicago Bears, right okay, number
two on the list with one team now one team, okay,
and it was the I'll give you a hint, it
was the only team that he coached coached before he
was unceremoniously gassed by Jerry Jones. It's Tom Landry. Tom

(01:24:07):
Landry second on that list with four hundred and fifty
four games with one team. So Belichick ties Shula at
four point twenty three for number three. So he's definitely
going to pass Don Shula in one category. In two
weeks when the Patriots come back home to play, he
will move into third place all time in games coached

(01:24:29):
with one team, including the postseason, and that would also
leave him eighty three games behind George Hallis. I'll be honest,
I don't know if he gets there or not. I
you know, I don't know if he gets there, you know.
And that kind of speaks to the question that I
had for you today, one of the questions that I
had for you today, which certainly goes along with you know,

(01:24:52):
this time next year, who's more likely to be here?
Is it Bill or is it Mac? And the more
that I've thought about it, I've actually danced, you know,
probably the turn up two step on this one, back
and forth from Bill to Mac, to Bill to Mac,
and right now I'd have to say, if you really

(01:25:13):
held my feet to the fire over this one, I
would say more likely to be here next year is Mac.
And that's not because I really think the Patriots are
gonna part ways with Bill. I've gone back and forth
on this one too. I've had a range of emotions
on this one, just like you guys have. And the
only reason I would say Mac over Bill at this

(01:25:34):
stage is because, first of all, I don't think Bill
needs the angst anymore. He's gonna want to go to
a place. I think it's pretty clear he wants to
still coach for a couple more years, not to pass
the coaching record. You know, most games coach with one
team that you know, a guy like George Hellis has

(01:25:55):
and may but I certainly think the wins record that
Don Shula has at three forty seven, I think that
that's important to him, and I've always said that. I've
maintained that for the last couple of years, since we
really started talking about it, when three hundred looked like
it was going to be right around the corner. I
think it means something to him because Bill is a
historian of the game. I think the Crafts are historians

(01:26:17):
of the game. Let's remember they started out of season
ticket holds of this franchise before mister Krafft bought the
team back in the early nineties, So I think that
they would love for that to happen. I don't know
if he's going to get that chance, because I think
mister Kraft, also, being the multi billionaire that he is,
is a businessman and he understands that, Hey, you know what,

(01:26:37):
sometimes you have to operate in the interest of the business.
Just like Bill has always said, I am only doing
what I think is in the best interests of the
football team, mister Kraft has to do what's in the
best interest of the franchise. So if they're both adhering
to those principles, that's why I make the choice of

(01:26:58):
Mac being here next year over Bill, if I have
to choose between one. Like Gosh, I think it was
I think it was Patty who just mentioned he said,
I think both of them are going to be here. No,
Eldred said that. Eldrid said both of them are going
to be here next year. I haven't agree with that.
I think both will still be here next year. That's
where I currently am. But if I had to choose
one over the other, that's why I would choose Mac

(01:27:20):
because to me, it's a business decision. You can control
his salary and yeah, you're probably gonna have to pay
off Bill, but allegedly only for a year, and you're
gonna get something back in return for him. If you
cut Mac, you get nothing unless you trade him. So
I you know, I just I'm going to side with
Mac on that one. That's kind of what I have

(01:27:42):
to That's that's kind of where I am. As far
as the positive out of this year, I mentioned it
in the previous conversations here. I'm going to take the
play of Dabrill Peppers because I like the mindset that
he brings. I like the rough, tough, ready to rumble,
I want to hit somebody, you know, mindset, which is
you know, to me, that's what the mid two thousand
Patriots had, And if you really want to get back

(01:28:04):
to championship level football, you got to have a team
full of these guys. I like that. That's what I think,
and I'm glad that somebody in that locker room feels likewise,
and then as far as the stuff I gotta have
on my table, which I go in the trash. Look,
you know, my favorite side is Miss Robin's cornbread stuffing.

(01:28:28):
She's baking the corn bread when I left for the
studio today. The house smells like heaven. It's just like,
you gotta be kidding me, right, that's not real, that's
like so that's like dreaming it, John.

Speaker 2 (01:28:40):
I felt something moved, hope.

Speaker 1 (01:28:44):
Somethings just stirred. I got it, Okay, her cornbread is stubbing,
is out of this world. What I can do without
is what I just told you. With Elder, I could
do without the carrots and turnaments. Although I don't think
that's on the menu for tomorrow. I don't believe it's
on the menu. So there ain't gonna be anything that
I am. I'm not gonna want to, you know, partake it.

(01:29:04):
And so I feel blessed. I feel very blessed. I feel,
you know, very privileged to have that, because I know
there are a lot of people that don't necessarily have that.
And my wish to you is that good fortune smiles
upon you wherever you are, because everybody deserves that. We
have so much, so much going wrong in the world

(01:29:28):
these days. There's not something that something that happens almost
every day in the news that makes you just shake
your head, you know, hashtag smah right, and you just wonder,
how did we get here? And so at least for
a moment, I just I want to wish peace. I
want to wish good fortune. That's what I want. That's

(01:29:51):
what I want for everyone. You know, it sounds cliche
ish and very immature to say, you know, I just
I want everybody to be happy. Well, I kind of do,
because I do try to appreciate every day that I'm here,
and I hope that you guys kind of feel likewise.
But yeah, Happy Thanksgiving to each and every one of you.
And speaking of Thanksgiving, a real.

Speaker 4 (01:30:15):
Woman could stop you from drinking.

Speaker 1 (01:30:17):
Ye a big woman. It's time to go around the
NFL with football guru Russell Baxter now name is Flounder
on Patriots playbook. Happy Thanksgiving Eve, mister Baxter.

Speaker 8 (01:30:33):
Happy Thanksgiving too. I wish you peace. Would it be
a pumpkin or apple?

Speaker 1 (01:30:40):
See, I knew you would do that. That's called the
old softball toss that you just went pow right out
of here.

Speaker 8 (01:30:46):
High lob at the net.

Speaker 1 (01:30:47):
You gotta hit it back, Yeah, I have to. In fact,
when I'm done here, I'll be not only going back
to the kitchen where Miss Robin is preparing the cornbread,
but I go to work in the kitchen, Russell, because
I do the baking. Oh yes, I do the baking.
And so pumpkin pie is definitely on the menu, and
it is my grandmother's recipe.

Speaker 7 (01:31:10):
See.

Speaker 8 (01:31:10):
I do a lot of cooking in my house, not baking.
Baking's got too many measurements for me. I'd like to
play around. But it's funny if I ever did I
said that somebody last week. If I ever did want
to start baking, I think I'd be baking breads, bread,
doing different stuff like breads and rolls and maybe even crackers.

Speaker 1 (01:31:33):
Yeah. Bread, Yeah, totally, that kind of stuff appeals totally. Yeah. No,
I would tend to agree with that one. Then those
are vastly underrated. So let's start with this one today.
The one thing that you cannot do without on your
Thanksgiving table.

Speaker 8 (01:31:47):
Seconds.

Speaker 1 (01:31:50):
Okay, I should have seen that one coming.

Speaker 8 (01:32:00):
I think stuffing epitomizes Thanksgiving m h. And a lot
of that. And now I'm one of those people that
likes their sausage and your stuffing and stuff. But I
think one of the other things that pittomizes Thanksgiving is
putting that turkey stuffing, mashed potatoes, and cranberry sauce all

(01:32:21):
into one fork.

Speaker 1 (01:32:22):
Yeah yeah, that's that's pretty impressive.

Speaker 8 (01:32:25):
And getting all the all the food groups, white beige.

Speaker 1 (01:32:30):
Colors, get all the food group colors and one fork cuts.
That's a challenge.

Speaker 8 (01:32:36):
That flavor combination, the four of those things together totally,
that's dynamo. And of course, you know you do turkey sandwiches,
turkey salad.

Speaker 1 (01:32:45):
Dude, there's nothing better there is, like Bubba Gump that
no question, there is no better left over than a
day after turkey sandwich.

Speaker 8 (01:32:55):
Oh yeah yeah. Well, my good friend Tom Jackson, you
all know who he is, and so we will often
talked about basically the stuffing, the turkey and the cranberry
sauce on the bread.

Speaker 1 (01:33:06):
Oh yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah, turkey stuffing. Uh. And
in fact, I'll tell you who taught me how to
make the best turkey sandwich ever. Is Pete Brock the
Patriot super Bowl Center from Super Bowl XX. But you
know Pete and I were broadcast partners doing college football
together for a number of years and uh, you know
his his wife was she it was it was. It

(01:33:27):
was spectacular, but it was nothing more than thinly sliced
you know, fresh turkey. It wasn't like deli style or anything,
but it was thinly sliced. And then you had a
layer of of stuffing, and then you had a layer
of mashed potato, and then you had a layer of
u cranberry sauce. And then on top of that you
had a small piece of cheese, not to disturb from

(01:33:49):
really the flavor, but to just kind of keep everything binded,
bound together. And then a drizzle of turkey gravy with
the with with the with the bread.

Speaker 8 (01:34:01):
That's Thanksgiving lasagna.

Speaker 1 (01:34:03):
Yes, yes, exactly, that's exactly what it was. Basically, was
a Thanksgiving lasagna on between two pieces of bread. And
I'm just like, oh my goodness. And so when we
would travel over Thanksgiving weekend, you know, Pete would he'd
bring this little bag along and he says, looky what
I got here, John, And it was the little you know,
grab bag full of you know, Thanksgiving sandwiches. And I'm

(01:34:24):
just like, oh my gosh, I'm a blessed person. So yeah, yeah,
that was how I learned to make my Thanksgiving sandwich.
Yeah absolutely, I'll.

Speaker 8 (01:34:32):
Could we tell you my favorite Thanksgiving story. But before
I got into this profession and finding my way around
life and so on, I worked at a resort in
the Pocono It's called Shawnee on the Delaware Big Tommy,
the young lady eating to a damns. He's still a
very very good friend of mine. And one of the
things I was told here is my mother couldn't stand

(01:34:54):
the fact that I had to work in Thanksgiving. Yeah,
wondered who family together, you know, all eleven of us
to get And she also felt that everyone should have
a place to be on Thanksgiving, nobody should have to work.

Speaker 1 (01:35:06):
Yeah, And when I worked.

Speaker 8 (01:35:08):
That night for about nine thirty who came over my
house and attend And my mother made to a turkey
sandwich just so she could feel that she was somewhere
for Thanksgiving?

Speaker 1 (01:35:19):
How about that? That's really great? Yeah, that's really great,
you know, And I like to try to do the
same as much as we can, you know, So yeah,
that's that's just you know, that's part of a you know,
that's part of the whole, you know, giving thanks. As
far as I'm concerned, we lose sight of what yeah, yeah,
and I and God bless your mom for that attitude.

(01:35:42):
My mom and my grandmothers were both like that, and
so I've tried to pick up a little bit in
their you know memories, you know, over the years, to
try to give back, because I think we lose sight
of what this holiday is really supposed to be about
in this country.

Speaker 7 (01:35:54):
Right.

Speaker 8 (01:35:54):
Well, it's funny fun A young lady that you might
remember from ESPN that we used to work with, named Dylan.

Speaker 1 (01:36:00):
Okay, I've met I remember meeting her, yeah, in.

Speaker 8 (01:36:03):
The offices and so on. And I used to have
a thing at my house, John caught the Baxter lou out.
I won't tell you how many people would attend, and
I won't tell you some of the things that happened.
They're good memories and for some people they'll never remember
anything that happened. Okay, But one day, Diane at one
of the parties one year we did this for a
long time. She somebody came up to me when Diane

(01:36:28):
was sitting there and said, so, why need you do
this ever? Reason, why do you open your house and
you make all the food and all that stuff. And
without even blinking, Diane looked at me and said, because
of your mom, isn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:36:40):
M M yeah, yeah, yeah, my mom or my mom
when my mom came up to ESPN and made it times.

Speaker 8 (01:36:49):
A couple of times.

Speaker 3 (01:36:50):
M h.

Speaker 8 (01:36:51):
And that was you know, that was like twenty something
years ago that people were still full.

Speaker 1 (01:36:55):
Yeah, not a surprise. Wow, I wish I'd been around
for that. I bet that was a experience.

Speaker 7 (01:37:01):
Oh.

Speaker 8 (01:37:01):
I Every once in a while on Facebook, one of
the people I used to work with will bring up
my mom's One year she made Lazanna John and after
her visit and so on, I asked her she had
a good time. She said yes, but she said I'll
never make lasagna for your friends again. And I went, oh,
my god, who said something to my mom. She goes, no, no, no, no,
your your friends are fine, but your friends eat lasagna cold.

(01:37:24):
You're not a lot of beat lasagna cold. She said,
take this back on the street, goes next year, when
I come here, I'm bringing them sausage and meatball and
crop pots and pasta salad, and we're going to keep
everything hot, okay, and David a year later. That's exactly
what she did.

Speaker 1 (01:37:40):
How about that? That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, Marine just told
us at the beginning of the show that he is
in charge of the things giving Lasagni in his household.

Speaker 8 (01:37:49):
So there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:37:49):
Yeah, I found out. Anybody ate it cold? I want
to invite him back.

Speaker 1 (01:37:52):
See, he's a stickler for that, stickler for that.

Speaker 8 (01:37:56):
When my mom made that first visit true story, Chris
Berman having helping, and my mom took the plate out
of his hands and went downstairs and microwave, I'm not.

Speaker 1 (01:38:08):
Kidding, this is back true. You need to you need
to get back back back back back back back here,
but it's true.

Speaker 8 (01:38:18):
She was like, no, way, great.

Speaker 1 (01:38:24):
I think I just cracked myself up with that one.
Since the life that I lead, all right, so I've gone.
We've gone from things that we have to have on
the table to things that we would just as soon
throwing the trash. Is there anything on the Thanksgiving table
that you're like, you're not a big fan of.

Speaker 8 (01:38:39):
Sweet potatoes, yams too starchy.

Speaker 1 (01:38:41):
For me, Okay, okay, well I gotta have I have
to have sweet potatoes, so you'll forgive me.

Speaker 8 (01:38:47):
Yeah, it's just it's just listen that I have to
choose something. Yeah, okay, person, I'm not a biscuit person.

Speaker 1 (01:38:54):
Yeah yeah, I'm not a big bread person for Thanksgiving either,
because there's just so much. There's just so much. I
mean a lot of people say, well, you gotta have something,
you know, to kind of scooch it around with or
sop up the gravy or whatever. And I'm like, yeah,
but you know, I'm already carbon out and calorieing out
and I gotta I gotta give something up. And so
usually for Thanksgiving its bread.

Speaker 8 (01:39:15):
Okay, I can see it. I mean I like my dirves,
I like my uh my dips and different things like that.

Speaker 1 (01:39:21):
So miss mss Robin makes a nice stuffed mushroom, nice
stuffed mushroom with stuffed with Parmesan's fresh sliced Parmesan cheese,
and it's you know, and with a little drizzle of
olive oil on it, and it's absolutely you want to
talk about something that melts when you eat it, that does.

Speaker 8 (01:39:42):
Well, this wasn't this wasn't Thanksgiving. But my sister in
law made bacon wrap dates once.

Speaker 1 (01:39:48):
Now that's the sweet and the salty thing going there. Yes, oh,
I bet that's fantastic.

Speaker 8 (01:39:53):
Oh it's great, especially with the prime Ary went with it.

Speaker 1 (01:39:55):
Oh my god. Wow. Okay, party time, party time.

Speaker 7 (01:40:01):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (01:40:01):
All right, I suppose then we should talk a little football,
even though maybe yeah maybe maybe maybe not, but you know,
well we'll least we'll start this way. I love the
piece that you got out on a full press coverage.
I guess it was earlier today that it got out,
to forgive me if I don't know the exact time,
but just you know, worrying about, you know, some of
the things that you had dug up for Week twelve

(01:40:22):
going in. You know, the calendar this week, and you
know it's a holiday weekend, we know, and it starts
with you know, three you know, pretty decent games, I
think actually on Thanksgiving Day, which we're not always blessed with.
And a lot of that is due to the fact
that the Lions are just significantly better than what they've
been in recent years. But this is also one of
those rare weekends, especially at least time a year, when

(01:40:43):
every team, all thirty two of them, are in action.

Speaker 8 (01:40:46):
Yeah, and ten of the sixteen games this week or
in the division. Wow, okay, rematch at Detroit and Green
Bay is a rematch. But this is the first time
from Washington and Dallas, this first time for campus in Seattle.
You know, we have two teams that were in the
playoffs last year, the Ravens and the Chelgiers. On Sunday

(01:41:06):
night interconference, interesting Buffalo in Philadelphia. Philadelphia would have to
be a major statement what they did on Monday night
at Kansas City, hanging in there and coming back from
Kennon down. By the way, the Chiefs have not scored
a point in the second half in three straight games.

Speaker 1 (01:41:25):
Wait, wait, what say that again?

Speaker 8 (01:41:27):
The Kansas City Chiefs have gone three straight games without
scoring the point in the second half.

Speaker 1 (01:41:33):
What's the issue there?

Speaker 8 (01:41:35):
I don't know. When they played Philadelphia in the Super Bowl,
they scored twenty four points in the second half.

Speaker 1 (01:41:40):
Oh good lord, Yeah, that's right. I guess that just
didn't That hadn't dawne on me until you just said it.

Speaker 8 (01:41:46):
Well, I mean they've really struggled with adjustments. I mean maybe,
And listen, it's their point production from a year ago
is way down now their defensive production is also way up.
You know, they had the game against Denver where they
gave up some running yards underkind of the middle of
the pack against the run. They also I think run

(01:42:06):
a little better, but you know the past that Patrick
Mahomes through late in the game, you know, just they
were just off the second. I mean it was damn
near to the game winning touchdown. But listen, that's the
Chiefs have already lost as many games as they did
all the last year. They don't look nearly as explosive.
That's being said. You know, the only team in the

(01:42:28):
nf AFC West with a winning record. Now, what's going
to get interesting is how this all jockey's out, everybody
in the division, everybody who's leaving the division, the AFC.
John has three losses, all of them have seven wins.
They have Baltimore's date wins because they've played one more games.
I bring that up because there's one thing that Kansas

(01:42:49):
City Chiefs have not done during the Paltrick Mahomes era,
and that's played the road playoff game.

Speaker 1 (01:42:59):
M Okay, yeah, I'm not talking about neutral sites.

Speaker 8 (01:43:03):
Obviously, they've been to three Super Bowls. Those are neutral
site games. And Patrick Mahomes has never started a playoff
game in the row.

Speaker 1 (01:43:12):
Wow, that's amazing and It's.

Speaker 8 (01:43:14):
Kind of weird when you think about it, because when
you make the playoffs as many times they have in
a row, and Patrick Mahomes has been in the Chiefs
have been the five straight AFC Championship games and they've
hosted all of them. And listen, they've lost AFC Championship
games at home. They lost to the Patriots and over
time they lost to the Bengals a couple of years ago.

Speaker 4 (01:43:35):
They're at home.

Speaker 8 (01:43:37):
In fact, this year they've already lost two home games.
Three loss are at home.

Speaker 6 (01:43:42):
So it's been there.

Speaker 8 (01:43:44):
Listen, you know super Bowl hangovers everybody. Yeah, yeah, they
you know why it is so tough to repeat in
nearly twenty years, and it's certainly not to be written off.
Maybe they get hot later in the year and so on.
But it's been kind of a different kind of year then,
the different style of team that Andy Reid has.

Speaker 1 (01:44:04):
Right, here's another thing that I that I liked it
you had in your piece today, Uh that you know
because uh uh And and thanks to the the win
that they had over Kansas City this week. Speaking of
the Chiefs, Eagles have won four in a row, which
is co ownership of the longest current winning streak in
the league. And the other team that's also won for
in a row, you would never guess Denver, Denver. That's stunning.

(01:44:30):
You don't think of that. But but yeah, but I mean,
I be honest. Uh, you know, I think mister Wilson
has resurrected himself a little bit thinking and that's largely
the reason why Denver's won fore in row.

Speaker 8 (01:44:42):
Well, he's made the place at the right times. He's
cut back on the mistakes. The defense has played well.
They're running ball with a little more emphasis.

Speaker 6 (01:44:51):
You know.

Speaker 8 (01:44:51):
They the other night against Minnesota, they basically couldn't get
into the end zone until late, late, late in the game.
They're finding ways to win, and they're also listening. They
beat Kansas City, they won and below and in a
short week they came home and beat Minnesota, and Minnesota
came into the game of a five game winning street,
which was the longest in the league. So they've really
resurrected themselves and so on. And what was interesting about

(01:45:16):
Denver in Minnesota and Minnesota is still there, you know
coming We've only see an I will believe it's sixteams.
John reached the playoffs at the B and O and three.
Now Denver Minnesota both opened H and three this year.
It's not all of the realm of possibility. Both of
them could be in the postings.

Speaker 1 (01:45:35):
Which would then provide a couple of positive numbers in
an extraordinary statistic that is extraordinarily negative. We talked about
this a few weeks ago.

Speaker 8 (01:45:46):
Oh yeah, absolutely, it's it's it's but it's almost epitomizes
what the league is now. You know, you look at
the you look at some of Houston was a last
place team a year ago, then doubled its wins from
a year ago. But Denver was a last place team.
They're now sitting at five and five. You know, to

(01:46:09):
somebody who listened some of the other teams that have
not answered the bill and so on, and it's kind
of stayed where they are, you know. But Cleveland was
the last place team. They've already equaled their win total
from a year ago. So, as we saw last year,
four teams that were last place teams in twenty twenty one,

(01:46:30):
we're all playoff teams in twenty twenty two, and two
of them, the Giants and the Jaguars, actually one playoff game.
The topsy turvy nature of this league is very, very evident,
and yet we're the twenty year run by the Patriots
and right now the hell of are run by the Chiefs.
So you know, there's always seems to be one exception

(01:46:50):
to the rule. And you know what, and it's funny.
Even though they don't hand the Super Bowl win two
Super Bowl wins over the stretch, it's time to look
at the philadelph I think Eagles wanted a little bit
of a dominating run here as well, you know, with
the exception of a couple of years ago when they
missed the playoffs and out on their face. And they've
done it with different head coaches as well. You know,

(01:47:12):
they were in Super Bowl in twenty seventeen when they won,
they were the Super Bowl last year. They right now
have the best record in the league. The common denominator
is not a coach or a quarterback. It's the general manager,
Howie Roseen.

Speaker 1 (01:47:27):
I also want to spend at least a moment here
on Buffalo because the Bills have already lost two more
games than they did all of last season. I know
that they are continuing to kind of hang in there
with Miami. They're what a game and a half out
of the lead of the AFC East. But this is
not a team that appears to be any We're close
to what it was over the last couple of years.

(01:47:48):
And I've heard so many people say, hey, their window
of opportunity is gone, and I know a lot of
Patriots fans may feel that way as well. And yet
this week the Bills get to step into a game
with Philadelphia, which sounds hard. But then when you consider
Buffalo is three and oh in interconference games this year,
what are we to make of that?

Speaker 8 (01:48:08):
Well, they catch Philadelphia off a short week, yep. And
you know the thing about the Bills that they stayed
bizarre is they play this very loosey goosey style of
football and sometimes it tastes off of them in a
huge win, but more you know, I can't say more

(01:48:29):
times than that because they have a winning record, but
these turnovers more times often had come back to bite them.
They didn't. In Week one, Josh Allen had turnovers. They
lost the game in overtime the Jets. Here here's one
that is amazing. Okay, talk about give and tape. Last
year Ja and the Bills were thirteen and three. They

(01:48:51):
had twenty seven takeaways and twenty seven turnovers.

Speaker 1 (01:48:56):
Wow.

Speaker 7 (01:48:57):
This year the.

Speaker 8 (01:48:57):
Bills are six and five. Yeah, nineteen takeaway and nineteen turnovers.

Speaker 1 (01:49:02):
That's nuts.

Speaker 8 (01:49:03):
Okay, So in the last let's be the Remember they
played sixteen games last year. M hm okay, so is
that twenty seven games? They've played twenty seven games, forty
six turnovers, forty six takeaway that's crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:49:18):
At least there's a little consistency there, But I would
tell you for a championship level team, you need to
do a little bit better in the in the giveaway department.

Speaker 8 (01:49:27):
Well, it's one of my favorite stats of all time
and it was a different era of football. We've had
fifty seven Super Bowl champion There's only been one to
lead the league in turnovers and win the Super Bowl
the same year, and those with the nineteen seventy nine
Fits Sprakes Steelers.

Speaker 7 (01:49:45):
Wow.

Speaker 8 (01:49:46):
Now, way do you hear this job? Because the irony
this is amazing. They eventually went on get the Rams
in Super Bowl fourteen. John in sixteen regular season games
they turned over the ball fifty two times.

Speaker 1 (01:50:00):
Sixty two times in sixteen games, fifty two times, oh
my gosh, fifty two.

Speaker 8 (01:50:07):
They had a nine turnover game against the Bengals, an
eight turnover game against the Chargers. Now do you want
to hear how talent that this team was. They turned
over the ball fifty two times and led the league
in scoring.

Speaker 1 (01:50:19):
Man was that defense ever on the field they got
off the field. That was the point, right, I mean exactly?

Speaker 8 (01:50:28):
And back then, you know in the league seventy says,
you know, it was more Bradshaw and the offense than
it was.

Speaker 1 (01:50:34):
Joe Green in the defense. Yeah, yeah, you're right.

Speaker 8 (01:50:37):
Getting a little older. And the rules that changed, okame
seventy eight, the rules changed dramatically, So you know, Terry
Bradshaw was never shy about throwing the ball into a
crowd or deep or whatever. And but imagine that turnover
the ball fifty two times and still being the number
one scoring team in the league.

Speaker 1 (01:50:56):
That's crazy. I means every time they had the ball,
they were doing something constructive.

Speaker 8 (01:51:01):
With it, something something was going to happen, something exciting
because in their favor or not.

Speaker 1 (01:51:06):
Yeah, no fooling. Uh So the the three Turkey Day
games of the three uh you know clearly, you know
it's cool to see the Lions competitive and a chance
to win, leading their division. You know, I'm I'm used
to Dallas, Washington, you know Turkey Day games, you know
throughout you know, my younger years, because that was always
a tradition on Thanksgiving as a kid growing up in

(01:51:27):
the in the Dallas Fort Worth area. But the one
that ends the most intrigued to me might be the
nighttime game with the Niners playing at the Seahawks, because
San Francisco has won nine straight times against the NFC West, Yes.

Speaker 8 (01:51:39):
And rolled most of them, then beat Seattle three times
last year including yeah, and if I the memory serves
me just by starting quarterback, I believe Trey Lance started
the first Seattle game and got hurt and they just
lost for the rest of the year. I think I
might be wrong when this. I try and remember when

(01:52:00):
Jimmy Garoppolo or that was. I don't know if Jimmy
Garoppolo was the second starter. Rock Perty might have started
the other two the playoff game and then there was
a prime time game and so on. I can't remember
when got hurt off the top of my head. Doesn't matter.
They really dominated. The last time the forty nine Ers
lost a game in the NFC West was actually the

(01:52:24):
NFC championship game to the Rams in twenty twenty one.

Speaker 1 (01:52:28):
Wow, okay, it's been a while yet, been a while.

Speaker 8 (01:52:33):
It sounds very patriot like those long winning streams.

Speaker 1 (01:52:36):
Yeah, the division, that's exactly right. Within the division. We
got a black Friday game for the very first time,
and it happens to being the AFC East Dolphins playing
out the Jets. Any thoughts about that one?

Speaker 8 (01:52:48):
Well, I know Miami had a bad offensive day last
week and only scored twenty points. I know the Jests
have had a bad three weeks. They've scored twenty four
points in three games and I believe one touchdown in
those three games. And if you include in fact, they
the Jets have been limited John to thirteen points or

(01:53:10):
less than their last four games. And that being said,
the Jets will probably wins fifty to forty nine.

Speaker 1 (01:53:18):
I'll take that one. I'll bet the under.

Speaker 8 (01:53:23):
It's a Friday game. It's goodness knows what the crowds
are going to be like. And so on in Miami
still winning. By the way, they haven't won a division
title they leave the division. They ever won the division
title ready two thousand and eight.

Speaker 1 (01:53:39):
Yeah, I knew that.

Speaker 8 (01:53:40):
The year they tied the Patriots, and Patriots missed the playoffs,
right and tie breakers.

Speaker 1 (01:53:45):
That was the Tom Brady knee injury year exactly.

Speaker 7 (01:53:49):
Yea.

Speaker 8 (01:53:49):
And it's you know, Miami hasn't been super sharp as
a late in terms of holding on to the football,
I believe. I want to say. They had three turnovers
last week and survived the Raiders, so they're not but
they're not putting up the juggernaut offensive numbers and they
certainly have not win the ball well the last four game.

(01:54:09):
So listen, as strange as it may stam, the Jets
are the only team this year to beat the Eagles.

Speaker 1 (01:54:16):
Yeah, that is nuts. So that's right, that's right. Got
to keep that in mind.

Speaker 8 (01:54:20):
Yeah, right, And now that this is a huge game
for Miami, you know, get another divisional win and it
would be a Roague divisional win and so on. And
they still have Buffalo at Miami later in the year.

Speaker 7 (01:54:32):
They also have some.

Speaker 8 (01:54:32):
Tricky games ahead. I think they have Dallas yep to
play yet yep. So I mean, this stretch run is
going to be fascinating because if you really look at it,
no one and I know it's only nine or ten games,
but no one is really pulled away. You know, San
Francisco looked like it was going to dust the NFC West.
And if they lose there then and ste Aller are

(01:54:54):
going to have the same It's going to be it's
going to be interest even. And I think that even
though Detroit has a two game lead. Basically, keep in mind,
if the Lions and the Vikings don't play each other
until Week sixteen and week eighteen.

Speaker 1 (01:55:12):
Wow, almost back to back two of the last three weeks,
and they do.

Speaker 8 (01:55:16):
This, I will say this week eighteen, if the division
title is up the draft, that'll be your Sunday night game.

Speaker 1 (01:55:22):
No question, last game of the regular season. All right,
And so the Patriots at the Giants Sunday at one.
You know, it's a War of Attrition Bowl more than
anything else, rather than the Super Bowl, which is what
it seems like. These two teams have played each other
most often in over the last decade or so.

Speaker 8 (01:55:40):
Yeah, they they have combined to score two hundred and
ninety points, which is fifteen point less than the Miami
Dolphins to score this year.

Speaker 1 (01:55:49):
So that's and that's combined. So we're saying it's going
to be like a fifteen to fourteen Final on Sunday.

Speaker 8 (01:55:54):
Right, no, no, no, it'll be another fifty.

Speaker 1 (01:55:56):
Forty nine game with the other I'll take the under
about this.

Speaker 8 (01:56:01):
I'm the big gambling guy at all and a point
spread guy. But the New England had actually favored yeah,
coming into this game. I think a lot of that
has to do with Tommy DeVito is a young quarterback.
By the way, they had a big day against Washington
last week. Despite being amazing. He was sacked nine tonnings
John and he was sacked five times.

Speaker 1 (01:56:22):
In the first quarter and still one for.

Speaker 8 (01:56:25):
Almost two hundred and fifty yards.

Speaker 1 (01:56:27):
Yep, and still one.

Speaker 8 (01:56:28):
Maybe said something about Washington's defense more than anything else.
So I think that's why maybe New England is favored
in this game. But not a lot of production from
either one of these teams. In New England I think
definitely has the defensive advantage, But it will be interesting
to see how this how this plays out, and listen,

(01:56:50):
there may be more Super Bowl replays with touchdowns and
then the actual touchdowns in this Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:56:56):
I was just gonna say, I bet on television you'll
see more replays of touchdown from games past then you
will games present, right, Yeah, yeah, I would agree. I
would agree with that. I would definitely agree with that,
my friend. I wish you and yours a very very
happy holiday and happy Thanksgiving. And I know Marie and
I are very grateful that you take the time to
visit with us every week, and I hope the fans

(01:57:17):
are as well, because you bring a world of NFL
football knowledge to us and we like to share as
much as we can. So thank you for that.

Speaker 8 (01:57:25):
Well, thank you, sir, Thank you, my friend, to bless
you and your family and everybody out there who takes
the time to listen and so on. And I've used
this line for twenty something years. To use it again.
If you're a gambling person, take me in the turkey
and bet the over.

Speaker 1 (01:57:40):
Bet the over, Yes, sir, have a good one tomorrow,
and I'll talk to you again in the next week.

Speaker 8 (01:57:46):
You got it.

Speaker 1 (01:57:47):
Thank you, Russell Russell s Baxter. I don't know if
I ever really knew what the S stood for. I
have to think about that for a second. He probably
told me before Scott. Maybe I don't remember stuffing now.
Why didn't I think of that? That's too obvious, right,
good one, give yourself a drum riff on that one. Okay,

(01:58:11):
all right, I think that was worthy. That was definitely worthy.
All right. You can find him on Twitter, of course,
as you know, at Basbax football Guru. Pro football Guru
dot com is his own personal website and he writes
for full press coverage mostly and a lot of things
on the Fans Sided network of sites that cover the
National Football League, and he's he's just remarkable sometimes. Our

(01:58:32):
thanks to Nicole Yang from the Boston Globe. Our thanks
to Matthew Sitek from Giants dot com. Our thanks to
you as well for you know, in Russell, of course,
and thanks to you for taking some time here on
Thanksgiving Eve to spend a little time with us. And
if you're listening to this on the podcast, well I
appreciate you more than you possibly know. Marine every Thanksgiving

(01:58:53):
to you and your family and your kids especially. All right,
I'm sure it'll be a great day. To save me
a slice if you think about it, of a lasagna.
He's like, hell no, don't give it to you.

Speaker 2 (01:59:08):
PC on Friday, Yeah you can.

Speaker 1 (01:59:09):
We got to get a basketball game on Friday. That's right,
I even think about that. That's right. Okay, same patch time,
same patch channel next week. We'll talk about it, we'll
get through the weekend and see where we stand, and hopefully,
maybe well we'll figure it all out somewhere. Happy Thanksgiving,
everyone be blessed. Thank you for downloading this podcast. Subscribe

(01:59:32):
on Apple, google Play, and everywhere else you listen. Like
the show, Please rate and review us. Listener comments and
ratings help keep us high in the podcast rankings so
new listeners can find us. Be sure to check Patriots
dot com for more news and more podcasts.

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