Patriots Playbook 12/24: Bills Recap, Chargers Preview

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:30):
Patriots Catch twenty two will join Evan Lazar and Alex
Bart every Thursday as they take a deep dive into
the x of the nose, trends and latest new England
Patriots roster moves.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
And I usually into the numbers. Okay, we do this all.
I'm into the tangible numbers. There's there's tame here. Just
give me. There's the advantage. If fact, they haven't know
how to work it. I'm surprised, you know an old
man over here. I thought maybe I'd have to show
you like a Victorial or something.

Speaker 3 (00:55):
How am i old man?

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Search for Patriots Catch twenty two? Anywhere you get your podcast.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
On PAS Playbook Legends are Born. John Hook brings a
headway of storm from bratty bongs to new stage rising.
The playbooks so many, it's so much Horizon and Tower.
The playbook Patriots Playbook is your host, John Brook Legend

(01:29):
Voice and England Patriots Patres played.

Speaker 3 (01:44):
That's incredible, That truly is incredible. So that's the Christmas
version of the playbook. I'm blown away by that.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
That was great.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
I'm blown away.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
That might be my favorite one. I mean that was
a bop.

Speaker 3 (02:00):
Can we hear that? Again, Okay, I mean.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
He hit a camera on Marine Legend.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
He's dancing definitely that Yeah, that's what.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
I was thinking. Right, It's like it sounds like the sixteen.

Speaker 4 (02:21):
Carlton Banks and.

Speaker 3 (02:26):
Doing the Carlton There legend. Boys blown away by that.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
When you are a kid, right, John.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
Could be? Could be? Could be that. That's that's amazing. Hey,
good job Marine, good job. All right, that's our Christmas version, right,
are opening a Christmas version today? Uh? This is a
little different for us, no question about it. A little
different for us today. Uh. We decided because of the holiday.
Uh clearly, you know, I think of the past what

(03:02):
we've done on New Year's not New Year's well New
Year's two for that matter, but Christmas Eve we were
able to get done a little early in the afternoons.
So are we going to have the afternoon off to
be with their families and such? And then we're like,
you know what, why because the show is normally late
a little bit later this year anyway, because you know,
we've got all these elaborate, you know sets in here
in the studio, and you know Marine needs a time
to break them all down and move all the furniture

(03:23):
back and forth, and you know that kind of makes
his job as he comes in right here and he's
beginning to kind of get the computers and everything together,
and I'm this is awesome by the way. I say,
you're because you're on right there. You look there is
so he looks like, yeah, Kilroy was here. Look at that. Listen,
now you should be on camera today because here's the

(03:45):
guy that actually makes all of our shows run well
right here, And so you know, we have to give
the one hand of applause to.

Speaker 5 (03:56):
No.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
We wanted to do a little bit of an earlier
show today largely so that way we could spend a
little time with you guys, you know, being the holiday
such as it is, Uh, everybody's gonna try to get
home and be with family today and tomorrow. And normally
our show is on Wednesdays, and it just so happens
that the holidays are on Wednesday this year. So we're
backing it up next week. I think we decided we're
going to do Thursday, right, Yeah, So the playbook will

(04:18):
actually be the day after New Year's next week, when
we preview the final home game against Buffalo. So that's
why we're here at an earlier start time today, and
we're glad that you're with us and obviously is here today,
and we wanted to take a little bit of time
this morning as well to just, you know, I want
to open up the phones. Sometimes that's dangerous, but I'm

(04:41):
doing it for a couple of reasons. But the primary
reason here is is that it is our holiday. Here.
There are a lot of things, it's almost like Thanksgiving,
a lot of things that you know, we're thankful for.
But I wanted to share a few like holiday memories
with you today, you know, because I was thinking, you know,

(05:01):
earlier this week about some of the first sports related
gifts that I had ever received in my life. And
here I am, I'm an old dude, and I still
remember them from when I was like, you know, ten, eleven,
twelve years old, and so I wanted to take a
couple of moments to uh just basically ask you, largely,

(05:22):
what's your favorite football memory over the holidays? Do you
have a favorite football memory over the holidays? I do,
and I'll share it with you a little bit. I'll
give Evan a chance to think about his, perhaps because
he's much younger than I am, so he probably doesn't
have as many years to go by. But I wanted

(05:42):
to share a little bit of that with you today,
largely because you know, we sit here every week and
we you know, we nitpick and we can plain, and
we look ahead of the future and and frankly, you know,
I was extraordinarily well surprise number one. But I don't know.

(06:06):
Was I proud, was I happy, was I glad? I
don't know, But I thought the first half performance against
the Bills in Buffalo was hugely unexpected. Now again, I
know what happened in the second half. Three turnovers that
killed you. You're dead and you're not going to beat
anybody much less, you know, one of the better teams
in the NFL like that because of that. But I
mean that's also a problem that we've known with this

(06:27):
football team all season long. So I don't think that
we really should be stunned or surprised by that. That's
just who this team is. It's an imperfect team. But
the one thing that I learned from the game at
Buffalo this week, Evan, was these guys are not quitting
on Girad And so we've speculated here as they have
in the Boston media and throughout a lot of the

(06:49):
national media over the course the last several weeks, you know,
whether or not Gira would even keep his job, or
the Craft's doing the right thing by keeping him on.
And you know, he said, and you and I have
largely been in agreement here. You know, we never really
thought that he was in danger for next year, unless,
of course, something really catastrophic happened over theast last three
weeks and we didn't get that. We didn't get that.

(07:11):
This week, we got a fight, we got effort. We
saw the Patriots battle toe to toe is one of
the NFL's best. Yeah, they committed self inflicted wounds, and
I think that's just who this team is. And these
are things that all need to be addressed. But I
would tell you that, you know, while a lot of
times the preparedness is on the coaching staff, there is

(07:34):
a certain amount of this that you do have to
lay on the players and when players and I'm going
to use him as an example here, I got to
kind of call him out a little bit. Ramandre Stevenson,
who has had a hand in at least two of those,
you know, turnovers in the second half. The answer to
trying to fix somebody like that is to put him
on the bench, and he has seen a little pine time.

(07:55):
We got Antonio Gibson had a start early this year
because of that, Right, Okay, So the only way that
this really changes is that you've got better depth behind
them to play these people. Otherwise you really don't have
any choice. And so to me, if you're going to
put blame anywhere, and we're always looking for blame, right,
everybody looks for blame. Why why why did it happen?

(08:17):
Why did this happen? The reason that this is happening
is because there's just not enough quality depth on this team.
There's very little depth to begin with. Patriots have largely
gotten through the exception of a couple of frontline players,
they've largely gotten through, I think, relatively unscathed compared to
some teams in the NFL. And we're just learning that
the depth just is any good. So this is on

(08:38):
player personnel, and this is on then the coaches to
coach up that player personnel. So then you could take
Overmindrie Stevenson and put him on the bench and say, dude,
we love you. You're a great back, but until you learn
how to handle the football, until you know that they're
coming after you and they're going to punch at it,
and until you learn properly how to protect the ball.
I can't put you in there. Your liability to this team.

(09:01):
And if this team is in position to actually contend
for a playoff spot and you're leaving the ball on
the ground, what would you do to you? You wouldn't
play you either.

Speaker 2 (09:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (09:13):
So I know I've introduced a bunch of different things there,
but what are your thoughts overall on just the effort
playing for girod And then how do you fix the
problem of you know, the jackal hide halves of football here.

Speaker 2 (09:27):
Yeah, I'm a little surprised, and like it's probably just
a vocal minority in my mentions on Twitter. But yesterday
I tweeted out my film review that you can read
on Patriots dot Com at this game, and I said,
I thought it was relatively a step forward, and I
got a lot of hate being like a step forward.

Speaker 3 (09:45):
You know.

Speaker 2 (09:46):
They they got you know, blown out in the second half,
and they turned the ball over at three times in
three straight drives, and all of that is is well
and good, and my whole thing was just, well, what
did you expect to happen in Buffalo this past weekend.
I picked forty one to seventeen Bills on our show
last Thursday. So the fact that they were in this

(10:06):
game and they actually had a lead at halftime and
a fourteen to nothing lead in the first half, all
of us were like, who is this team?

Speaker 3 (10:13):
Like, you know, who are these guys? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (10:17):
I was blown away. Look I was at the game.
Bill's mafia is booing their team for being down fourteen
nothing to the Patriots. So I just I understand that
we don't want to lower that bar right where all
of a sudden we're accepting mediocrity, and that's not what
I'm trying to do. But you have to look at
it objectively and fairly about what the points that you

(10:40):
were making. I think everybody points to turnovers and things
of that nature and say undisciplined, poorly coached football team.
I just don't think they're very good.

Speaker 3 (10:52):
So little they're not.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Yeah, so just bad teams turn the ball over like that,
that's what happens. You know, they're down in the red
zone right at the you know, fringe high red zone area,
and Drake May tries to make a play tries to
push the envelope a little bit and tries to be
a little bit aggressive, and he throws a pick like that.
That's a rookie quarterback making a mistake and throwing a

(11:16):
bad ball. The routes were not good because they have issues,
like they have fundamental issues with this football team. So
I don't necessarily point to Drake May's interception or the
backward pass as this abomination of coaching. I pointed out
that this team is not capable of playing four quarters

(11:39):
of complete football to beat a team like Buffalo, So like,
is that a coaching Is it a talent? It's a
chicken of the egg thing a little bit, I suppose.
But I'm just a little bit surprised by how much
I've gotten that people think that this was a bad performance.
Still in Buffalo, I definitely felt like this they did

(12:00):
some good things, like as we like to say, they
put some good things on tape John in this game.
You know, defensively, their past defense was very, very good.
In this game. Offensively, they had you know, the hot start,
and Drake made some plays throughout really the entire game.
And so you look at this one and I come
away feeling like all right, if you can do that

(12:21):
again against the Chargers, who are a team that that
need it, that need to win on Saturday here to
clinch a playoffs spall.

Speaker 3 (12:28):
Again, all right, Yeah, you want to be a ballgame,
You want to you want to be somewhat competitive. Look,
I thought the only you know, really lousy play the
Patriots head was on May's interception. And yet I also
thought that, you know, uh, Austin Hooper got tackled in
the end zone. Yeah, you know, and and and I
know that's Gerard was talking about that. You know, after
the game, he questioned that call as well, had a
long conversation I think with the official after that play

(12:50):
was over too, because you could kind of see it
from the sideline, from the television point of view that
we were looking at. And and look, when you're where
the Patriots are, you're not going to get these kind
of calls. You're just you're not. That's number one. Number two.
You kind of are who you are. Good teams find
a way to win. Bad teams usually find a way
to lose. That inevitably is what happened. But I saw

(13:13):
enough from Sunday to think these guys are still playing
hard they have not cashed. They've not cashed in their
chips on the season. They're not just kind of gliding
towards the off season here. And so that tells me
that answers the girod Male question to me once for all. Yeah,
he's got to come back another year. You need to

(13:35):
give him a bigger stick to swing with. You know,
I'll use baseball parlance, right, Yeah, that's what you need here.
And so that's now. This is entirely incumbent upon personnel
and Elliot Wolf and everybody else who's involved. They've got
to bring in the personnel. You cannot wif in this
offseason on personnel that's either through the draft or through

(13:55):
free agency. This is the biggest year, certainly in modern
day Patriots franchise history. You've got to bring him in.
You've got to give Gerard an opportunity to, you know,
compete and show us that he can coach, because these
guys will fight for him. We saw it this week.

(14:18):
You can't convince me otherwise. Now. I needed to see that,
and I was I sat there, you ask miss Robin. Okay,
we sat there and we watched the game before my
grandkids came over for a little early Christmas, and we're like, like,
you said, who the hell are these guys? Could We're
shaking her heads like whoa, yeah, you know, oh nice,

(14:39):
oh great pol oh super tackle? What is going on?

Speaker 2 (14:43):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (14:43):
I fully you said forty what was it?

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Forty one seventeen?

Speaker 3 (14:47):
You know what I said? Robin asked me that before
the game, Well, the Patriots you think they can hang?
I said, nopeh She said, well you think it'll be
a good nope? Yeah, I said fifty four to ten.

Speaker 2 (15:00):
Yeah, I saw a lot of fifty six to tens,
forty one seven. All of us on Patriots Unfiltered picked
this game to be like at the point a rapper Buffalo,
I know.

Speaker 3 (15:10):
And so I'm pum waivers themselves. They all charge. They
all took the Bills by thirty.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Yeah. So if we're saying that, then and they come
into the game and they compete and they have a lead.
And I went to school in upstate New York at
the college shout out bombers, right, and I have so
I have a lot of friends that are are Bills fans,
you know, from the Western New York area. Yeah, and

(15:37):
the prevailing thought from just the enemy lines you know,
thing the prevailing thought from the other side. After the game,
they texted me and a lot of them were scared,
We're worried. And I was like, what are you worried about?
Like you guys are you're you're a wagon, Like what
are you worried about? And the responses that I was
getting from them And now, some of this is just
Bill's fandom PTSD. They know that, you know, they this

(15:59):
is what they tend to do, right, They'll find a
way to choke at some point, and that that's what
happens in Buffalo. But they were genuinely concerned about the
future because of Drake May. Like they're looking at Drake
May and they're like, uh oh oh yeah, Like the
Patriot's got a quarterback. Yeah, and so now they're like
looking at it. They you know, we're all talking Josh

(16:20):
Allen comparisons and things like that. Yeah, and and so
they're sitting there saying, if they figured this out around him,
if they build up the roster and have the right
coaching and all that kind of stuff, you know, two
three years from now, oh right, And then you just
listen to that in comparison to how a lot of
Patriots fans are reacting to these games right now and

(16:43):
it just is totally totally pull our opposite. So take
it from a fan base that understands rebuilds and understands,
you know, how it goes early on in a talented
but young quarterbacks career. This was a decent product that
they put out on the field on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (16:58):
It was and this is why everybody on this staff
and I'm willing even to go as far. I think
there will be changes made in the off season. I
do you know, in assignments, maybe even in coordinators. I
think anything's possible. At this stage of the game, I
would say it's more likely, and I don't have any
inside knowledge here, so I'm just going to give you
my opinion on this. And I think it's more likely

(17:21):
that a VP sticks around only because of his ability
to have worked already with Drake. He's been more of
a quarterback coach, guru whatever if you want to, even
over being an offensive coordinator. And I'm not casting dispersions
on anyone. I do think that there will be a
shuffling of the deck, and I don't think necessarily it's

(17:41):
going to be like reshuffling the deck chairs on the
Titanic either. I think what you have to do is
you have to find the right spots for the right people.
And if that means somebody gets demoted or moves on
to another staff or whatever, look, so be it. And
I'm not even going to say that if you know
someone is removed from a job, whether it's on the

(18:01):
defense or on the offense, that you know they couldn't
do the job here, I think that the personnel needs
to be built up for them to be able to
do a more adequate job, let's say, a more competitive job.
This is a this is a situation of circumstances, and
the Patriots really don't have anybody who blame but themselves.
And I think we can all agree on that one.
They swung and missed badly in the last few drafts.

(18:24):
They swung and whift you know, quite a bit through
free agency, you know, over the last few years as well.
There have been one or two here and there. And
we've talked about this before, but you need more substance.
And all I saw now was I saw the fight,
and I saw the will, and I saw the competitive
ability to stick with the team that granted the Bills

(18:47):
probably took the Patriots lightly. Let's face it, let's face it, Christmas.
Not like they were welcoming the Kansas City chiefs now
end of the stadium. Okay, we know that, and so
it's kind of odd. It's the Patriots. We're gonna walk
through this, We're gonna be okay. And then the Patriots
came up and spanked him and got up fourteen zip
and says like, whoa, I guess we need to play ball.
And if it hadn't been for a couple of self

(19:09):
inflicted wounds, I mean, my god, the backward lateral? What
the hell kind of a play call was that? Yeah?
That close to your own goal line? Yeah, I mean
I'm just like that now it's supposed to go no,
But just saying that was just wow, why would we
even take a chance. I mean, I understand it's you're
trying to get around in I understand the philosophy on it.
You're trying to burn them because they're clogging in the middle.

(19:29):
But it was just an ill, ill executed plan. Yeah,
And I just you know, that one left me shaking
my head and I said, well, it's not the cards today,
And sure enough, it wasn't and you handed him seven
points right there.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, No, that that one was tough. And I went
back and forth on that basically last couple of days.
Is it a bad play call? Is it bad execution?
I both. I kind of settled on both. I guess
I both. I just look at it as probably a
play that's a little bit too risky given the field position,
right of course. But at the same time, you know,
if Trade Jacobs cuts the end the way he's supposed

(20:04):
to and allows Remondre to flatten that route a little
bit more and get up the field, and we're not
talking about it, so it's it's obviously a little bit
of both. But I agree, and I just I what
I come back to you and not to you single
out Ormondra. I don't mean to single out Trade Jacobs,
but just to do it, you know, I have to
come back to the talent in certain areas on this roster.

(20:25):
Just being like this, to me was a good They
had a good plan in this game on both sides
of the ball. They really shut down the Bill's passing
game did. Yeah, there's a lot I was very impressed with. Yeah,
they played sixty five percent of the time in Manta
man coverage. They took out basically their entire pass game.
They gave up no explosives through the air. This was

(20:47):
the lowest amount of passing guards that Josh Allen's had
a game against the Patriots since the win game in
twenty twenty one, which was obviously condition based type of
performance by Josh Allen. So we're talking about six seven
games in a row against Josh Allen basically just owning
the Patriots, right, And they came into this game and
they had a very very good plan. I thought that

(21:07):
they got him to revert to some of his bad
habits of like hunting big plays and playing hero ball
and you know, running around out of structure and things
like that that he can tend to get into, and
they sort of baited him into those types of things.
He didn't take the profits underneath the defense like he
normally does against the Patriots and play patient. They took

(21:28):
Khalil Shakir out of this game, who's like the engine
of their offense. You know, when we talk about Patriots
offenses of old, we always talk about, you know, the
Edelman's and the Welkers and the Troy Browns, like those
slot receivers that.

Speaker 3 (21:43):
Show up.

Speaker 2 (21:43):
Yeah, and so well, it's funny that you bring up Diggs.
You know, Shakira is their engine, right, like he is
the guy, he's their leading receiver. Jonathan Jones game ball
to him if they had won this game. Fantastic job
in man to man on Khalil Shakier, Like, just absolutely
great of Jonathan Jones performance. But I did have that

(22:04):
thought about Stefan Diggs. And when you look at this
Bills receiving room, it's not it's not a bad wide
receiver room that they have in Buffalo, but they don't
have a Stefan Diggs that is just uncoverable in single coverage, right,
Like that guy that if you put him man to
man against the corner, like, he's gonna win that matchup
more times than not. So because of that, they really

(22:27):
just weren't all that threatned died on by the Bills.
And when you play a team like that that doesn't have,
you know, great receivers. We see this all the time
with the Patriots. The key is, you know, you play
man to man against those kind of teams, right, you
may because if you play zone, it's that we're gonna
try to take out the scheme. We're gonna try to

(22:48):
make the quarterback tice this up. We're gonna try to,
you know, march down the field. When you played Manton Man,
you're saying we're gonna take out the receivers and just
put it all in the quarterback hands to go out
there and be a hero. And that's what the Patriots
were able to do this week. And and their man
to man defense was really really good. I mean after
this game, Josh Allen's getting questions from Bill's reporters like

(23:10):
if other teams do this to you guys, like what
are you gonna what are you gonna do? Yeah, you
know that sort of thing. So, uh, that was the
most I would say encouraging sign. I really wanted to see.
Did DeMarcus Covington and Gerrod Mayo have something for Josh Allen?
This is their first time against Josh Allen in their
current roles with the Patriots. Did they have any answers

(23:33):
to the Josh Allen problem? And I thought I came
out of this game saying seventeen points, one hundred and
fifty six passing yards. There were some answers there. They
did a nice job.

Speaker 3 (23:43):
Well clearly, whether or not, you know, they had any
definitive answers will be decided over the course of the
next couple of years. I've got to tell you, though,
that I think there's enough there to where you might
have to start making a few decisions about some of
the younger personnel on this Patriots team and whether or
not they're you know, really worth keeping around, whether it's

(24:04):
this year, next year, depending on their contractual situations. I
think there's enough there to where you certainly want to
bring some guys back that maybe you didn't think about.
I think also there's enough there to decide definitively where
this team can take its biggest step forward next year.

(24:25):
I'm gonna give you, for instance on that one. I watched,
obviously my Longhorn in the college football playoff game against Clemson. Okay,
I saw Kelvin Banks open up the most monstrous hole
on the left side, you know, for his for Jaden
Blue actually was the running back went seventy seven yards

(24:46):
for a touchdown after Clemson got back into the game,
and I'm thinking, I want him. Jayden Blue would be nice,
but no, I want Kelvin Banks. Kelvin Banks, He's got size,
he's got ability, he's got arm length, he's got all
of the tools that you need for a prototypical left tackle. Now,

(25:08):
I know everybody likes Will Campbell from LSU. There are
some others names that have been mentioned, but based on
what I've seen, and yeah, I've got a little bit
of orange blooded biased in this one, but me sure,
But I want this is actually I want Patriots fans.
I want you guys to watch the CFP. I want
you to watch the playoff game. All right. Texas going
to play Arizona State next week on New Year's Day,

(25:31):
all right, in the next round of the playoffs. It's
weird to say that. I'm just sorry. It's weird, but
it's kind of cool actually in the same same regard.
I know they won the Big twelve, I know, I know,
but you notice that the four quarterfinal games, Texas is
the biggest spread, their fourteen point favorite, and I don't

(25:51):
know that they're fourteen points better than Arizona State.

Speaker 2 (25:53):
We had to have this playoff so that we could
have a fourteen point favorite in the corner finals. Listen
and job College five.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Yeah, Well, okay, all right, I understand what I know.
It's okay, you can rant that I think, I just
I think it's perfect. It's fine, It's fine, yea. Our
problem is is that, you know, in this country, were
we were worried so much about you know, everybody playing
everybody and in relative measure, and so it's the what
I would call the NCAA tournamentization of everything we're doing

(26:22):
in life. This is why we have the stupid NBA
Cup during the regular season, or the NBA that is
the most lame thing in season I have ever had.
It's why all Star games stink. No one wants to
play anymore in All Star games. They are absolutely superfluous.
There's no place for anything All Star anywhere at all.

(26:42):
Nobody plays. The entire NBA season, by the way, is
like one big long All Star Game because everybody wants
to jack up threes. Nobody wants to play defense. Okay,
yes it is true, It absolutely.

Speaker 2 (26:54):
True.

Speaker 3 (26:54):
Everybody's jacking up freeze and no one wants to play defense. Okay,
the NFL, if we allow it to, it's gonna go
that route as well. I don't want it to. College
football is starting to move that direction with the playoff,
but I understand there's so much money to be made
that's me. So Okay, now we got that.

Speaker 2 (27:14):
We digress.

Speaker 3 (27:15):
We have digres. I like to digress a lot of
the show. As you well know, you gotta watch Calvin Banks.
I know you've seen him. We're gonna start looking at
these guys more clearly over the course the next couple
of months before we get to the draft. He's gonna
be the guy that's gonna get mentioned a lot. Is
he a savior? No, I don't think anybody that would
be an offensive tackle is a savior. I am not.

(27:40):
I mean, I'm not a Travis Hunter guy. I'm just
I'm not. I think he's going to be a corner
in the NFL. Okay, I think he's gonna be a corner.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
Certainly sounds out.

Speaker 3 (27:51):
He could be a very good corner. But I think
on this team he'd be a number two behind Gonzo
and although I think that would be a dynamite pairing
at cornerback. And yeah, you could certainly run some you know,
an offensive package for him, kind of like they've done
with Marcus Jones, which I think is kind of intriguing.
And if they were to select him, all right, let's
go that route and see. I think he could be
a decent corner in the NFL. I don't think he's

(28:13):
a superstar. And if you've got if you've got the
number two overall pickers, which is where the Patriots are
headed right now, And that's another argument for in another
moment here or too. I don't know how you would
not take a guy like Hunter. You're not gonna take
Shad or you don't need a quarterback. And I think
think he could very well be the number one pick
because the Giants obviously need a quarterback, right, Yeah, okay,

(28:37):
And could you get Kelvin Banks five, six, seven, eight
somewhere in there? Probably? Right, I want to trade that
pick down and see if you can build up some options.

Speaker 2 (28:51):
Yeah, I'm with you. That's the biggest concern that I
have in this draft is I don't see the blue
chip talent at the top of the draft like they
I have seen last year. Right, So when I look
at this draft, in this class, my fear is that
you're going to be stuck in a position at two
or one or something and you're not really drafting a

(29:12):
player that's worth the second overall picking a draft, you're
just kind of drafting it by default because you have
to pick somebody. Yeah right, And I don't know if
there's anybody that's going to be really knocking down your
door to trade up to the pick if you don't
have the number one picky. I think Shador is worthy
of a high pay a quarterback. I'm not the biggest
cam Ward guy. So when you really look at this class, now, there's.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
Gonna be a couple of teams that want to trade
up to get cam Ward because.

Speaker 2 (29:40):
They quarterback potentially. I just let's take last year's class
just for example. All three of those quarterbacks go number
one overall in this class. All three Caleb, Jaden Daniels,
and Drake May. They're all the number one pick this year.
Yeah right, So they don't there's the quarterback class. Last
year blows this one out of the water. No compares,

(30:02):
not even closed. So you don't have the quarterback up top.
And you know this week we're gonna see him in
the flesh on Sunday at right tackle for the Chargers.
There's really not a jolt who is like this blue chip,
can't miss tackle prospect. I think Banks is good. I
don't think that he's in Joe Alt's tier. Joe Alt
is six ' nine three and twenty pounds and moves

(30:25):
like a ballerina, right like that. Those guys just don't
exist too much on planet. So he is nice.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
Look at him this week.

Speaker 2 (30:33):
Yeah, he's fantastic. Like he is really just like cut
from you know, sculpted to play tackle in the NFL, right,
Like that's what you would.

Speaker 3 (30:41):
Want, prototypical left tackle.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
Yeah, and so do I think that player exists in
this draft? Not necessarily. What I like about Banks? You
pointed out the run blocking, Like that's what pops off
the tape immediately, is how he's able to move the
line of scrimmage and get into his blocks in the
run game and really created.

Speaker 3 (30:58):
Such unbelievable leverage on the defender. Yeah, the only chance
that I've seen, and I've watched him a lot, obviously,
I watch every long one game. But where I think
Kelvin Banks has an issue potentially is at the point
of attack on the line of scrimmage with quick rush ends. Yeah, Okay,
if they can you know, get by him with a
swim move or whatever it is, off that initial point

(31:19):
of attack, that's where they could be difficult. But I
would argue that anybody is going to give give you
trouble if you've got that quick move like that any
tackle that exists, unless of course, you're a man mountain
like Joe Walt or someone like that. Right, And I
think that Kelvin has at least alarm of the the
arm length. And again I can't get all scientific on
this one, but I think he's got enough to be

(31:40):
able to you know, he's he's got some hand eye coordination. Yeah,
he's quick with it. I think he's only been I
think he's only allowed like two pressures all year.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, Like those numbers are always you know, because the
types of offenses that they play in college, Like it's
a lot of RPO, it's a lot.

Speaker 3 (31:58):
Of quick reads.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
Yeah yeah, but still, you know, I like a lot
of the tools with him. The biggest concern that I
had in the games that I watched, and I'll say
one nice thing about the college football playoff here in
a second, but one of the one of the things
that I noticed when I watched him was, you know,
like you're saying kind of pushing guys around the corner
around the arc there, like it's usually he can be

(32:20):
on the line there of you know, usually like to
get guys to ten yards behind the quarterback, like sometimes
it's eight nine. You know, we're right on the line
where the speed rushers, those guys that can really eat
up ground off the edge, like they'll get around to
him a little bit. You know that that's one concern
that some teams might view him more as like a
guard because of that, because he doesn't have that ability

(32:43):
on an island to to really protect his edge at
all times. So now to go to the college football playoff,
the one cool thing about it for the draft is
that this is the top competition in college football going
up against each other. So you have multiple games now,
a playoff games basically of these guys. And you know,
do you see Abdul Carter versus Calvin Banks? Does he

(33:03):
get another crack at Georgia who gave him some problems
in the regular season, Like if you can go and
see those matchups again, then you can see how he
handles NFL rushers.

Speaker 3 (33:15):
Yeah, and how he's learned, how he's grown, how he's
you know, figured it out. I mean he's still a
young guy. Yeah, you know, I think he's not even
twenty one yet. I think his twenty first birthday's coming up. Yeah,
so you got a young prospect here, a lot of extraordinarily,
you know, he's still like a piece of clay. You
can kind of make him whatever you want to make him.
So I think I see enough there. I'm thinking, Okay,

(33:38):
maybe not the number two pick in the draft, but
you know you got other teams behind you that probably
need a quarterback or need some kind of a playmaker
that you don't necessarily need. Can you figure out a
way to move down a few slots. I know you
don't want to mess around to the point where you
give up an opportunity to go get the guy that
you want, because I'm of the opinion I don't care
where he is and where you are. If that's the

(34:00):
guy you want, take him. I'm not so fixated on oh,
but you took him at three instead of six, how
you could have taken No, I don't buy that. It's
not a perfect world. You want the guy, go get
the guy, and I think there's a little bit of
that element here. So it'd be interesting to see how
anxious other teams would be to move up, and can

(34:20):
the Patriots do business with them to where they might
be able to give themselves another pick later on and
still get their guy. Here's the good part about it.
If for some reason Banks slips away from you, Campbell
would be sitting there waiting.

Speaker 4 (34:35):
Now.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
I don't even know having I've only seen tape of Campbell.
I mean, is he worth taking at six, seven or eight,
I don't know. But again, if he's your guy, yeah,
you gotta go get him. And that's my big thing
right now, because this team has to make a definitive

(34:56):
decision on these are the guys that we want to
go to battle with. We got to go get him
and not best available or no, no, no. If this
is our guys, let's put our scouting staff to the
test here. We like this guy over everybody else at
his position. We got to find a way to get
the majority of those guys in this upcoming draft.

Speaker 2 (35:17):
Yeah, that's totally fairy. Now with Campbell, I just say
they're different players.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
You know.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
Campbell is a twitched up mover, like he's an explosive,
very very light on his feet.

Speaker 3 (35:27):
He's more compact though I think at the point of
is he not.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
Yeah, he's smaller, Yeah he's smaller. Yeah, he doesn't you know,
necessarily have the ideal length and stuff like that, but
he's a explosive, twitched up athlete, right, Like he doesn't
move like like a tackle, you know, or an offensive lineman.
He moves like, you know, a nimbler, lighter guy than
what he actually is. So his ability to just redirect

(35:53):
and mirror guys in the past rush is is just
pretty exceptional. Like you know, he just got that ability
to just one on one against you and I can
you're not getting around me smart? Yeah, no, maybe he
might go through you because of your length and your
your issues there, but he's not going to go around
a guy like Will Campbell. So uh that that's a
really uh that's a flavor thing to me. It's like,

(36:16):
you know, do you want the heavy handed people moving
right tackle left tackle prospect? Or do you want the
dancer right? Do you want the guy that is going
to pass protect at a really high level.

Speaker 3 (36:28):
That's that's a Muhammad a Leer Jull Friesia.

Speaker 2 (36:31):
Yeah, you know like that That's how it is a
lot in the draft. You know, Like I'm not I'm
not swooning over Teed McMillan, the receiver from Arizona. I
know a lot of people are. It's just not my
cup of tea, Like I just that's not the skill
set that I particularly love. Now Luther Burden from Missouri,
that's my cup of tea, right, that type of guy
is a guy that I just love. Guys like that

(36:51):
that are explosive, create big plays, get open at the
top of their out shocker. I want receivers to get open.
I know that that's like, you know, a foreign concept,
but like so like this is it's that's what it
is to me. With Will Campbell and Calvin Banks too.
And if you look at what the Patriots want to do,
it's a question, you know, are they going to be

(37:12):
outside zone?

Speaker 4 (37:13):
Like?

Speaker 2 (37:13):
Is that what they want to do? Do they want
to be a zone run blocking team. Typically, when you're
a zone run blocking team, your tackles need to be athletic, right.
They need to be able to get out, they need
to be able to get out of their stance, they
need to be able to reach, they need to be
able to block in space like those types of things.

Speaker 3 (37:28):
See and I think Kelvin can do that. I think
he can do all that is. He is a superior
athlete to Will Campbell. No, probably not, but I think
he's got the best of all the qualities that you're
looking for. Would Campbell be able to fit. Yeah, because
especially if you're gonna, you know, do some of that
zone blocking and you need athletes, you know, out of tackle,
I think you'd be okay. But listen, go back and

(37:52):
look at it on that touchdown run the blue head
against Clemson, and I mean, Evan, you could have run
through that hole. I could have run through that hole.
It was remarkable. And in fact, I think, who the
hell were the announcers on that one? Dusty dvorichek I
think was one. Okay, I don't know, but you know,
he he couldn't stop gushing over it, and so I'm

(38:15):
thinking that was just it was a remarkable play. It
was a remarkable exhibit of his talent in his power
and when he's healthy, this guy is probably the best
tackle in the draft coming up. And you need a tackle,
You definitely need tackle. We need a lot more talent
on that offensive line because again, it's all about depth.

(38:35):
We talked about that. We saw the effort against Buffalo
this past weekend, the efforts there, but the problem is
you can't sit guys down when they make mistakes, or
you need to coach them up or whatever, because they
need to be in there because you don't have the
serviceable depth behind them. So this team needs everything.

Speaker 2 (38:50):
This team needs starters on the starters, and some of
those starters need to be moved to the second team.

Speaker 3 (38:56):
And then now you've got depth. Yeah, and this is
what you need to be a championship contender. Again, we've
said this all, we said this now for the better
part of what twenty three twenty four years that we've
been doing this show. Okay, he who has the most
toys at the end wins. These are the teams that
go far in the postseason. You not only have the

(39:17):
talented starters, but you got the serviceable depth behind you.
I mean, the Patriots are still a good football team
without Rob Grukowski and we know that. Okay, the Patriots
got to eleven and five the one year without Tom Brady,
they didn't get the playoffs. Still want eleven games. So
all I'm saying is, you had serviceable talent behind and
I'm using the two most glaring examples, but you had

(39:38):
the depth behind it. Yes, if you develop depth, that
tells you that you're also going to push your starters
to the top. So I'm all about bringing guys in
that are competitive. They're going to compete for jobs that
look good on paper, and let's get them out there.
Let's roll them through OTAs. Let's get them into mini camp,
Let's get them into training camp. Let's start developing, let's
start teaching. The one criticism that we've had really consistently

(40:01):
from this coaching staff this year has been their ability
to coach guys up. That phrase is sort of a
misnomer anyway, It's not really coaching them up means teaching them,
but they also have to absorb what's being taught. There
is a disconnect somewhere, and I think we know.

Speaker 2 (40:22):
This at certain positions.

Speaker 3 (40:24):
Certain positions are definitely disconnected. So if you've got a
guy under contract, it's tougher to fire the player than
the coaches to hold. You know, Red Sox twenty five
players and twenty five cabs thing, Okay, you can't fire
then you can't fire the players. You can fire the manager. Okay,
it's easier to do that even in pro football. You know,

(40:44):
you got guys under contract, You got guys that are serviceable.
Sometimes you need a different teacher, Sometimes you need a
different instructor. Sometimes you need a different professor. Sometimes you
need somebody there that is going to grab the ear
of guys. Dante s Cornekia was brilliant at getting the
attention of guys on the offensive line. Brilliant.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah. I think the big thing with Scar always and
I'm his biggest fan, Like I talk about Scar all
the time. He's a legend. And one of the biggest
things I think with him was that he always had
the group playing as one cohesive unit.

Speaker 5 (41:19):
Right.

Speaker 2 (41:20):
His big thing was always, we have to see it
through the same set of eyes. Right, it's one we're
five guys.

Speaker 3 (41:25):
But we're one, but we're acting as one.

Speaker 2 (41:28):
And so they were able to at times, they were
able to outperform their talent level because of how they
were buttoned up together, right, and their plan and their
preparation and things like that. And with this group, I
think they've tried to build that continuity and those types
of things. But I'll just rattle it off quickly because
I think it's really relevant. And again, it's not excusing

(41:50):
the coaching, it's just putting context behind things. You know,
at left tackle, Vederian Lowe is a backup left tackle
in the NFL. He is not a starting left tackle.
He's a backup at left guard. You have a rookie
that you drafted in the fourth round at center, Ben Brown,
who was probably one of their best linemen in this game,
by the way, against Buffalo. They signed him off a
practice squad in the middle of the season and he

(42:12):
is now starting games for you at right guard. You
have an NFL You have an NFL player, Mike on
winning right. He's an NFL guard. At right tackle, Trey
Jacobs was claimed off of waivers because he was released
at the end of training camp. They claimed him off
of waiver and now he is starting games for you right.

(42:33):
So this is not normal circumstances from a talent perspective.
And that's how you get to thirty second in the
league and pass bock win rate. That's how you get
to thirty second in the league and run blocking win rate.
They are the worst offensive line in the NFL by
every single metric. I don't even know, truly, I don't
really even know if Scott Peters is a good offensive

(42:55):
line coach yet, because they haven't given him anything to.

Speaker 3 (42:58):
Work, don't. Yeah, And so that's why I'm thinking, and
I said this when we started talking today, there are
a lot of guys on this staff that we just
don't know enough about because the talent level hadn't been there.
We don't know how well they can elevate them yet.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:13):
See, I look at it like we're really at a
low end developmental stage here, and so when you're thinking
along those lines, you kind of have a tendency to
start there, and so when you expect nothing, you're probably
gonna get nothing. Expectations need to be higher. The expectations
here need to be greater than what they have been. Okay,

(43:36):
you can't go into this thinking this guy is serviceable,
we can play them here. No, I want the best
possible at this position, and you have to go into
it that way. I'm not sure that our staff has
done that, And I think if we're going to be
critical of anybody here, I think we have to set
our sites higher on the talent that you can bring
in here. Now. Yeah, some guys wanted to play here
in the past. Maybe some players don't want to play

(43:58):
here now. I think we saw that in the off
season with all the free agent moves and the wide
receivers and all that stuff that went on earlier. All Right,
that's fine, next available up, give them the opportunity, and
if they don't pan out, move on quickly. We need
to have more swift, decisive decision making. And I think

(44:19):
that's hindering this more than anything else, because it's kind
of like, oh, I don't know, Oh well maybe he can. Nah,
maybe let's try that. No, stop that, yeah, stop that.
Somebody has to make the call for better or for worse.
And even if it's for worse, you've got time, I
would argue, to cover your tracks and to build back

(44:39):
up again, because we haven't even taught. We're not into
twenty twenty five yet. We're getting there, but we're not
there yet. There's still two weeks left in this regular season.
This is These are should be on the field auditions
for twenty twenty five. We said that two weeks ago.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Coaches too, everybody.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
Yeah, personnel people, ownership announcers. These are auditions for twenty
twenty five.

Speaker 2 (45:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:05):
I don't know about you, but Saturday, I'm gonna bring it.
Oh does that okay? I'm gonna bring it. I'm not
happy that the game is on Saturday. I am okay,
I know you are. Well, I'm gonna give you a
little insight here, all right. I gotta give you a
little insight, all right. I was asked by a national
radio network to do the play by play for the

(45:26):
radio play by play for the Fenway Ball.

Speaker 6 (45:28):
Oh that's very cool, Bud, I couldn't take the job. Yeah,
that stinks because the NFL decided to flex this game
to roughly two hours after the Fenway Ball.

Speaker 2 (45:39):
Yeah. I know, Drake's pretty upset that he can't go.

Speaker 3 (45:42):
And I don't blame drakeh I'm right there with him,
hell on carpool with him to the game. John got
me the job with him. Matt was going to come
to the game too. I hired him as as the
engineer for the game.

Speaker 2 (45:52):
That's very nice.

Speaker 3 (45:53):
It just but it just didn't work out because the
NFL said, nah, we need the Patriots and the Chargers
on Saturday at one eastern.

Speaker 2 (46:01):
So you have extenuating circumstances to not like this, But
as somebody who has to cover these games no matter
when they are, love it. Absolutely love it Saturday.

Speaker 3 (46:13):
Because you got your weekend.

Speaker 2 (46:14):
Man, Saturday one o'clock one o'clock games are the best
to get. You know, you're home by a reasonable hour,
then Sunday can watch Red Zone. You can chill.

Speaker 3 (46:26):
It's really I did have a blast watching Red Zone
this weekend. I watched it, uh, the one o'clock games
on Red Zone, and I I get to do that,
what about maybe once or twice a year.

Speaker 2 (46:35):
I know it's usually just the bye week and maybe
if they have a Thursday night game or something.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
But I thoroughly enjoyed Red Zone. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
And there wasn't a game really one game worth watching.
I think the game that was on CBS over here
in the North. I think we got to regionalize the
Jets and Rams. Yeah, I think that was the game
that was on that makes sense Channel four. And I
was kind of like, so I said, oh, red Zone,

(47:01):
Yeah yeah, and I'm firing away and I'm just having
the great I'm having a great old time watching.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Yeah, it's great.

Speaker 3 (47:08):
That's one of the best inventions at the NFL. I
will slam the NFL for all this flex crap, but
I love the Red Zone. Great, great and genius invention.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
Also, you know, look, I know they played in London,
so that was kind of you know, I I tweeted
out that this is Drake May's first Island game is
what I would call it, right that your only show
on in in town, Right, you know, the whole NFL
world is watching this game. I know he played in London,
but like that feels a little bit different. You know,
it's out of the country. It's just not exactly the same, right,

(47:40):
And you know, this is kind of like the Bills
up four twenty five, Like this is a this is
sort of like a primetime game for them, right, Like
you know, it's the only game on at that time
for the NFL. Just like with Josh Allen, there's a
lot of comparisons for Drake with Justin Herbert as well,
and so it'd be interesting to see. I think he
gets up for these games. And I think part of

(48:02):
the reason why the team got up for the game
in Buffalo was because of the timing and all that
sort of stuff. It was kind of like a showcase game.
And you know a lot of those guys that are
are pending free agents and things like that, like they
they want to put good tape out there, you know,
for their next employer, if it's here or if it's
in another one of the thirty one teams. So I'm
looking forward to it. I feel like they they did

(48:25):
a lot of good things in Buffalo, but I'm not
ready to crown them for one game. You know, if
they do it again against the Chargers and maybe actually
win the game this time against the Chargers, and I
think you can start talking about, Okay, you know, that
was that thing we were looking for. Can we see
some progress down the stretch, you know, can we see
that they're on somewhat of an upward trajectory. That was

(48:48):
what was the most concerning thing about the Arizona loss
to me, was like, that was not it, right, Like
that was not oh, okay, we're you know, last four
games of the season, you know, we're feeling okay about ourselves,
you know, at the end of the season. Here that
was a dud, right, That was the total opposite. This
game against Buffalo is a step forward. Maybe they take

(49:08):
another step forward against the Chargers. And I think the
Week eighteen game against Buffalo is going to be a
bye week for the Bills, So I don't think that's
going to be a real football game. I think the
Bills might even play Mitch Trubisky in that game, so
we'll see.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
But well, I want to get to that. But before
we get to that, I do want to spend at
least a moment or two. Were talking about the Chargers
coming up on Saturday. Now, damn it, but on Saturday. Nevertheless,
good or Evan, bad for John, bad for Matt. But
what the hell are we gonna do? Right? Okay, good
for good for everybody else besides us two, we're the
only two that you know are lamenting the fact that
it's on Saturday. At one. The Chargers clearly have something

(49:44):
to play for. They win the game, they were in
the postseason, correct, So you're gonna get everything you can
possibly get from the Chargers. And frankly, even from a
New England point of view, I like that. I want
to make sure that if we're going to compete, let's
let's let's take the fastball, you know, from the opposition.
I don't know that the Patriots got the fastball from
Buffalo this past.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
I don't think so.

Speaker 3 (50:05):
I don't think so either, which is why let's see
how this team reacts to the fastball. And I think
they're gonna get it from the Chargers this week since
they can make the playoffs.

Speaker 2 (50:14):
I think the biggest thing with Buffalo just quickly.

Speaker 3 (50:18):
Why.

Speaker 2 (50:19):
I kind of feel like they didn't truly give him
the fastball. They didn't really run Josh Allen much in
this game, And I feel like that's a big tell
for Buffalo, like when they care about a game or
they want a game, go watch the game that they
played the week before in Detroit. You know, I think
he ran it eleven times in that game, and a
lot of those were by design. So that's that's the difference.

(50:40):
Right this game, they kind of played the four corners offense,
like let's just get out of here with the win.
We used to remember that, like those were we had
those games too here once upon a time, right where
it was let's keep everybody healthy, let's just roll the
ball out and let's let's take a win, and let's
move on to the next week. The Chargers they don't
need the game, like it's not it must win.

Speaker 3 (51:02):
No, because they would have the Raiders thereafter. Yeah, and
so if they don't, by some chance win here, they
still need to beat the Raiders unless we but the
Raiders are reeling arguably as much, if not more than
the Pagers.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
Yeah, so they have a ninety six percent chance to
make the playoffs the Chargers. So they're there and I
get that they're in good shape, right, but they don't
necessarily absolutely need to have this one. But I'm sure
that they want to get this wrapped up and not
put it to Week eighteen. So with the Chargers, just
you know, really quickly on them, I think offensively, the
thing that stands out is how much they still build

(51:36):
around their run game. With Greg Roman, their offensive coordinators,
probably best known for what he did in Baltimore with
Lamar Jackson early on in Lamar's career with the quarterback
run game. They don't do that as much obviously with
Justin Herbert, who's not the same type of athlete as
Lamar is. But they are a run centric football team.
They're gonna put heavy personnel on the field. They're gonna

(51:59):
power run right, smash mouth football down your throat, and
then they're gonna play action and you know, run action
off of that. So there's actually a stat called a
run action rate, which is play action passes combined with
rush attempts into one number. The Chargers are second in
the league and run action rate, so everything that they
do is through the run game. They have a full

(52:22):
back by the name of Matt Locke, who plays defensive
line and he plays full back right. He plays both ways,
just like Patrick Ricard in Buffalo. In Baltimore, excuse me.
So they are going to play smash mouth football against
the Patriots defense. That's concerning because we've seen this run
defense for the Patriots. We've seen how much they've struggled

(52:44):
all year long with that. I don't think that the
Chargers are going to try to get into a track
meet against New England. I think they're gonna come in
here and try to punch him in the mouth. Offensively
makes sense to me. Yeah, defensively. On the other side
of the ball, Jesse Minter, their defensive coordinator, is the
name I'm gonna say a lot this week. He's on
the head coaching track. He came from Michigan with Harbaugh.
Now he's here and with the Chargers. Really good game planner,

(53:08):
really good situational coach, Really good at feasting on tendancies,
disguising coverage, you know, changing up the picture on the quarterback.
It's a tough matchup from a scheme perspective. This is
a big one to me for Alex Van Pelt. I
don't the Bills are kind of a do what you
do defense, right, They kind of play their brand and
they do what they do week to week. This Chargers

(53:31):
defense is going to spin it. You know, they're gonna
mix it up on Drake May. They're going to show
some different things that he probably has never seen before.
So if I'm Alex van Pella, is a big week
for me, you know, this is a big week to
show that you can go up against the coordinator like that.

Speaker 3 (53:44):
I got to think right off the bat that you're
going to get a little bit of a challenge from,
you know, the Chargers edges because first of all, Khalil
mack Is is given that standing gear yeah and number one,
and he's given the Patriots trouble throughout his whole career,
no matter worries been Yeah right.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
Yeah, No, he's he's a handful. He's ageless apparently because
he's having another really strong season for the Chargers. And
you know, Derwin James really good, you know Blitzer and
and you know kind of jack of all trades in
their defense as well. So they have some good players.
But I would say just in general, they're punching above

(54:19):
their weight a little bit on defense. I think they're
a little ahead of where they thought they were going
to be defensively with Harbaugh and with Minter. And I
think a big part of it with Minter is just this,
you know, it's a really creative, exotic type of scheme
and it's a good test. It's a good test for
Drake to see, you know, if he's seeing the picture clearly.

(54:39):
It's a good test for AVP to have the answers
for him to that test. So it will be fun.
I think this is a good matchup in terms of
like seeing what this coaching staff is made of, because
that's what everybody's talking about with the Chargers is that
Jim Harbaugh's come in and he's sort of brought coaching
to the table with the Chargers and now all of
a sudden, there are nine wins and going to be

(55:01):
in the playoffs and going to be a tough out.
So that's a big challenge this week for the entire
coaching staff.

Speaker 3 (55:07):
He had talent when he got there, yeah, and he's
kind of brought, you know, as you said, some coaching
stability of nothing else and molding that team. And I
think that's why I began the show today talking about
trying to bring more talent into this organization, to give
the Patriots staff a chance to be able to grow
with it, teach it, get it to mature. Let's find

(55:29):
out if these guys can I coach, You've got to
bring him more talent.

Speaker 2 (55:32):
Yeah, And I think the great thing too, about the
Chargers just looking at them from like a blueprint standpoint
of a rebuild and that sort of thing. They drafted
three offensive linemen in the first round over the last
couple of years. For Sean Slater, their left tackle who's
a stud thirteenth overall, Zion Johnson, remember him from Boston College,
their left guard, first round pick, and then obviously, oh

(55:53):
it's last year, first round pick. So their offensive line
has gone from one of the worst offensive lines of
the best still one of the better offensive lines. And
when you give a quarterback like Herbert time in a
clean pocket, he's gonna make plays. So they've done a
really nice job there. I still think that they've got
a little ways to go with their receivers. You know,
Lad McConkie's obviously a great looking rookie, but they don't

(56:15):
necessarily have a receivers on the outside that scare you
a whole lot. So they're still kind of rebuilding that
room outside of McConkie. But their line is really good,
they run the ball effectively, and Herbert's awesome.

Speaker 3 (56:26):
So we'll tell you. One of the things that I
would love to see from the Patriots defense this week
is and I know they're gonna probably mix it up
because I think they need to mix it up, but
it wouldn't kill me to see them play mostly man
like they did this last week against Buffalo. I want to,
you know, I want to see how the Patriots backs
in the backfield man up against the receiver cord that
arguably might not be as good as the one they

(56:47):
just faced.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
Yeah, I agree with that. This is definitely a man
coverage type of game to me, especially because that unlocks
the guys in the box to be a little bit
more aggressive against the run, which they're gonna need to be.
But like I said, you know, outside of Mconkee, Josh
Palmer is a decent player. You know, he's a speed guy.
He can get down the field. You'll have to worry
about that, But I'm not too concerned about Quentin Johnston.

(57:09):
Josh Palmer, like those guys have one trick ponies or
kind of have flaws in Johnston's case, and a lad
McConkie is the guy right like he's the straw that
stirs the drink. He's there, Khalil Shakir. So if you
can go out there just like they did against Buffalo
and have some scheme demand coverages to kind of take
the middle of the field away and take out Maconkey,

(57:30):
then it has been at times difficult for the Chargers
to move the ball like they're middle of the pack
and points per game DVOA offensively, And the big reason
is is because they don't necessarily have the firepower in
the receiver room that they need to be like a
top top offense in the NFL. But the one thing
I would say with Herbert is that guy conslated right

(57:51):
like you know that, like he's gonna come to play
and he's fantastic.

Speaker 3 (57:55):
He was always one of my favorites when he came
out of school.

Speaker 2 (57:57):
Yeah, just an incredible arm talent type of player and
is seeing it well right now. And they're taking a
little bit of the pressure off of him by running
the ball better and run action play action fakes and
things like that to scheme open some receivers down the
field for him a little bit. But I mean he
made a throw against Denver on that wheel route for

(58:18):
that touchdown, like kind of cross his body off platform
with the guy in his face. That's just one of
the best throws you'll see all year. Yeah, so you
know he's he's great.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
Yeah, he's got that athleticism. Yeah, all right, right before
we lose out of it, what's the schedule like for
today and for the rest of the week, just because
of the holiday. I'm sure you probably got a little
bit of an update on that.

Speaker 2 (58:37):
Yeah, so today is basically a Wednesday schedule, So you know,
we'll talk to Girod here at eleven twenty and then
Drake and you know, so it's same as Wednesday would
typically be there off tomorrow for Christmas and that's why
we're here today with the full media schedule. And then
Thursday is another full day, you know, kind of like a.

Speaker 3 (58:59):
Typically just their off day basically.

Speaker 2 (59:02):
Yeah, so instead of Tuesday being the off day, they
made Wednesday the off day. The one curveball was obviously
the game being on Saturday instead of Sunday, so they
lose a day for preparation purposes. So they are only
going to have two formal practices this week, but they
will have walkthroughs and stuff like that on Friday and Saturday,
so it's only one official, two official practices. But you know,

(59:26):
don't know, why aren't they practicing? You know, I know
it's they'll be here, Yeah, they'll be here.

Speaker 3 (59:31):
All right. So let me set the table again what
we talked about almost an hour ago. I love the
fact that Evan and I could just spin things out
all of a sudden. We look up it in an
hour's gone, so which is great. But that's that's the
best part of doing this because we consider we just
talk football and hopefully you guys will you know, enjoy
some of that as well. And I want you in
on the conversation today as well. Eight five five Pats

(59:51):
five hundred is a toll free televille number, eight five
five Pats five hundred, certainly about the bubble of game,
about the Charters game, anything that's going on in the
NFL right now, that's all on the table. But before
I let Evan go, I want him to answer the
question that I kind of tossed out of the beginning
of the program today. Because we are doing a little

(01:00:11):
bit different. We started earlier today, so that way we
could have the afternoon. Everybody here could have the afternoon
to head home be with their families. Tomorrow's an off day,
and then we pick it back up again on Thursday.
I just I want to know what your favorite football
related holiday memory is. I want some storytelling here. I
want people to tell stories. I want you to tell

(01:00:33):
us why it was significant to you. I've given you
almost an hour and now to think about it, even though
you've been yapping through most of it. But that's okay,
that's all right, because I like it when you yap.
That's fine. I'm going to tell mine very quickly, all right,
and then I want you to take over before you go.
Mine was at age ten, and this is right at

(01:00:54):
my formative football years. I was just discovering that I
was probably not going to be talented enough to play
the sport of football. I played peewee football. We called
it it was YMCA leagues, we called it Gray White
football where I grew up in Fort Worth, Texas and
loved it. Loved playing it. I just wasn't very good

(01:01:14):
at it. I was learning, but I loved the scientific
I loved the figuring stuff out. I was already a
huge Dallas Cowboys fan because my grandfather was a huge
Cowboys fan from the day that they were born in
nineteen sixty and Eddie LeBaron was the quarterback and you
know all that stuff, right. I got a Dan Reeves
number thirty Cowboys jersey for Christmas. My brother, my little brother,

(01:01:38):
who sadly passed away a couple of months ago. He
always loved to root for whoever the Cowboys were playing.
And so I remember the first time that we consciously,
you know, did this as brothers are wont to do,
would have been the nineteen sixty seven Ice Bowl between
Green Bay and Dallas. Yeah, and my brother, my brother

(01:01:59):
was only five years old. Yeah, okay, but he took
green Bay because it was not my team. You know,
I was anti green Bay, right. I was Cowboys, Cowboys, Cowboys,
and he was like, okay, Packers, Packers, Packers. And so
he got that Christmas that I turned ten, he got
a Bart's Star jersey.

Speaker 7 (01:02:18):
Oh no.

Speaker 3 (01:02:19):
And so I had my Dan Reeves jersey and he
had his Bart Star jersey. We literally wore those things
until they fell apart. They you know, they were on
at all times. But I will remember that number one
because it was my brother's way of sort of, you know,
I think at the time, keeping up with big brother.

Speaker 6 (01:02:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:02:39):
And you know, if you're a little brother, or you're
a middle child or whatever at home, you kind of
know what I'm talking about. You want to do whatever
you can to kind of strike a blow for yourself
against your older siblings, Okay. And so he would always
do that to me, And so that has lasted through
the test of time. I was ten. We're talking over

(01:03:01):
a half a century ago. But that is the most
significant Christmas that I can remember growing up that was
football related, sports related, because I got a Dan Reeves
number thirty jersey. And this is before jerseys were even popular.
You couldn't even really buy them. I don't even know
where my dad or my mom got them.

Speaker 2 (01:03:21):
I don't know.

Speaker 3 (01:03:22):
You didn't buy jerseys back in nineteen sixty nine.

Speaker 1 (01:03:24):
You didn't do that.

Speaker 3 (01:03:25):
Just rob them from the stadium, Yes, I suppose either
that or you bump off the back of the guy
like in the old Coca Cola commercial, you know.

Speaker 2 (01:03:33):
With thanks me and Joe.

Speaker 3 (01:03:35):
Yeah, yeah, thanks mean Joe Green, right, thanks mean Joe. Here,
you kid catch, you know, which was one of the
all time great commercials apparently all time.

Speaker 2 (01:03:43):
You've never seen it, Oh, I've seen it.

Speaker 3 (01:03:44):
Okay, to the corner and John's parents just robbed them
exactly right, exactly. So that's my memory. Okay, that really
stands out. I don't think I'll take that one of
my grave overall, just because of those two jerseys involved.

Speaker 2 (01:03:57):
Yeah, I would say I have a similar story, so
I'll tell it. But all right, just quickly, you know,
Thanksgiving Patriots games obviously stand out. You know, twenty ten
against the Lions with the long hair Brady and just
you know, that was I think they beat him what
forty five fourteen or something like that that day and
just murdered him.

Speaker 3 (01:04:15):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:04:16):
Obviously the butt fumble game, which we're like, not really,
you know, they don't love bringing it up. I feel
like we don't celebrate it like we should. That was
That's an all time great game against the Jets. So yeah,
those Thanksgiving games are are in my memory. But to
a similar story. When I was a kid, I was
obsessed with with jerseys as well, and my grandparents every

(01:04:36):
year for well I'm a hunka guy, so every year
for Honuaka would give me a new jersey, like a
new Patriots jersey, so early two thousands, like early dynasty Patriots.
I I had like so many, you know, like I
had Bruski, I had Rodney, I obviously had Brady, I

(01:04:57):
had I have been a Terry. Oh that I still
have them. None of them fit, but I still have
all of them. And so what I would what I
would do, because I'm you know, a huge nerd is
I would lay them out on game day. I'd lay
them out on the and whichever phase they were in,

(01:05:17):
you know, whichever side of the ball was on the field,
I changed the jersey during the game. So I'd wear
an offense jersey. When the Patriots were on offense, I'd
wear I'd wear a defense ju And then of course
when Terry would run on the field, I'd have to
put the Vinitary jersey on, so I yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

(01:05:39):
So so I usually started it. So I usually, like
I usually started in the Brady jersey, right, like you know,
they start the game in the Brady jersey. But my
normal go to on defense with was Rodney Harrison, you know,
like I would put the Rodney jersey on when they
were on defense. But you know I had, like I said,
I had Rodney, I had Law, I had Bruski. I
had Seymour because every single year they would just they

(01:06:01):
would just buy.

Speaker 3 (01:06:02):
Me change jerseys if somebody made a tackle.

Speaker 2 (01:06:05):
No, but sometimes I would change jerseys if it wasn't
going well. Yeah, I saw say, Okay, sorry, Rodney, I
have to retire you for today because the defense is
giving up a bunch of points. So we're going to
go to the Bruski jersey and try to change the
mojo a little bit.

Speaker 3 (01:06:19):
Okay, that makes sense to me. Yeah, that's really good. Yeah, happy,
thank you, Happy holidays, Mary chrismin all of it. And
I guess i'll see you. Uh, I'll see you probably
in the in the press box on Saturday at one o'clock.
Damn it. But that's why it works.

Speaker 2 (01:06:36):
He's so happy about him, Marie, and he can't wait.
He can't wait.

Speaker 3 (01:06:40):
No, it's okay, because I will look forward on Sunday,
even though daddy missed a paycheck. But I look forward.
I look forward on Sunday watching a probably read zone again.

Speaker 2 (01:06:50):
Not commercial free anymore.

Speaker 3 (01:06:51):
Though, No, I know I noticed that big controversy. I
know I thought that was supposed to be commercial free.

Speaker 8 (01:06:57):
It is.

Speaker 2 (01:06:57):
You know, they got you greedy, getting greedy, corporate greedy.

Speaker 3 (01:07:00):
Corporate greed. It's all well, speaking of corporate greed. Netflix
makes its NFL debut Wednesday tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:07:08):
Really quickly on this, and then I do have.

Speaker 3 (01:07:09):
Okay press conferences, but yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
I am expecting everything to go smoothly for Netflix tomorrow,
especially after the Jake Paul or whichever Paul versus Tyson fight,
like was kind of there warm.

Speaker 3 (01:07:23):
Up to this and it was hideous.

Speaker 2 (01:07:25):
But the problem that they're going to have is the
Beyonce halftime show is going to break the Internet. And
I'm telling you right now that something is gonna happen
when she's performing, because then you got the Bee High
that doesn't really care about football is all gonna come
and watch the halftime show. So the numbers are just
gonna skyrocket at halftime of the game, and I'm telling

(01:07:46):
you it's gonna crash and it's gonna be hilarious.

Speaker 3 (01:07:48):
Yep. Yeah, I actually think he's one hundred percent right.
Beyonce will break the Internet or yeah, I think that's
gonna happen. So you know, save anything that's precious on
your computer because your computer might melt down. It's gonna happen.
You know, you're totally right. It's the bee Hive. I like,
that's a good it's just gonna like, okay, they themselves

(01:08:09):
and Netflix is gonna just they'll they'll fry. Yeah, they'll fry.
Good prediction, Thanks buddy. Happy holidays. All right, so let's
make sure that we uh that you guys understand the
phone lines are open. It's eight five five PATS five
hundred eight five five p A t S five hundred. Uh.
You can hit us up of course online, send an

(01:08:31):
email if you like podcasts at Patriots dot com. If
you have a Chris's you know, football related memory that
you'd like to share, kind of like the ones that
Evan and I just told, Uh, I'd love to hear
them today. This is a good time for you know,
a little reflection, a little storytelling, a little you know, thankfulness,

(01:08:51):
you know, gosh, I mean, we point this out a lot.
We're spoiled. You guys know, we're all spoiled here, right,
We know we're spoiler around here. But that's okay. I'd
rather be spoiled than not spoiled. We have to learn
how to handle being spoiled, and I think the last

(01:09:13):
four or five years we're developing that as best as
we you know, potentially can here. It's not the easiest
thing in the world, uh, to win, and number one
to be humble about it all the time, but number two,

(01:09:33):
not the easiest thing in the world to learn how
to lose. We know the NFL was built in the
way that the NFL is built today is based on parody.
As I like to surmise, sometimes that parody is p
A R O D Y, not p A R I

(01:09:54):
T Y. Some of it is ridiculous, but I understand
the basic premise. Everybody's got a shot. It's up to
individual talent to get you to where you want to go.
And if that talent doesn't get you there, can the
coaching staff, can the can the talent evaluators? Can ownership?

(01:10:24):
Can the organization? Can the franchise get you to where
you want to go or at least get you closer
to where you want to go? And we're still in
that discovery stage right now for these patriots. You know
it's happened. You know this is a franchise that this
is the sixty fifth year of the New England. Patriots
existence started obviously, as we all know our history books

(01:10:46):
started out as the Boston Patriots in the old AFL
sixty five years and through time, you know, we've seen
a little bit of competitiveness but mostly mediocrity in the
old AFL. You merge, get into the NFL and you
are not very good, but you got your ticket. I

(01:11:11):
don't think fans, if you're old enough kind of like
me to remember back in the nineteen you know, late sixties,
early seventies, after the AFL NFL mergent, the Patriots weren't
very good. You had to be a die hard football
fan to really follow the Patriots, you know, if you were,

(01:11:32):
you know, for instance, in fact, I just had somebody
send me an email not long ago. I'll give you
some credit here. This one came from Scott, who says,
in honor of Jim Plunkett, remember Jim Plunkett. Honor Jim
Plunkett being nominated as a senior finalist to the Pro
Football Hall of Fame, which he is a trivia quiz
about Plunkett's first game as a rookie in Foxborough at
the new Schaeffer Stadium on September nineteenth, nineteen seventy one,

(01:11:54):
the lowly Pats beat one of the best AFC teams,
the Oakland Raiders, that day twenty to six. Plunkett play
quarterback for the Patriots. Who are the three quarterbacks who
played that day for the Patriots? Two of them are
in the Hall of Fame. You can google this all right.
Who are the two head coaches? One of them is

(01:12:15):
in the Hall of Fame. The Patriots kicker hit field
goals of forty six and twenty two yards that day.
Who was the kicker? His more successful brother kicked for
many years for both the Bills and the Giants. Raiders
kicker missed a twenty one yard field goal that day.
Who was the kicker he is currently in the Hall
of Fame? Really good question, Scott, Really good question. I'm

(01:12:40):
gonna give you the answers just because you know this
way he'll save you the trouble of, you know, hitting
the Google machine. The three quarterbacks that day, Darryl Lamonica,
George Blanda, Kenny Stabler, how about that one. You don't
necessarily think of Stable as being back in the early seventies,
I don't, but he was there. The head coaches John Maser,

(01:13:00):
John Madden. Yeah, that Madden right. Maser became the Pats
head coach the previous year when Clive Rush resigned. Madden
was in his third season at the time with Oakland.
The kicker that day was Charlie Gogolac. He was one
of my favorite players just because of his name. Go

(01:13:21):
Go Go Go Goglac. His brother was Pete Gogolak, who
played for the New York Giants at the time, New
York Football Giants, and he's in the Giants ring of Arner.
And then of course the other kicker was George Blanda.
He was forty four at the time, forty four sail

(01:13:44):
The chip shot wide right on that day, but George
Blanda was remarkable. I remember Blanda when he was quarterback
in the Oilers for God's sake, you know. So that
great question, Scott. I wanted to share that because I
think you did some dynamite research there, so really good stuff,
really good stuff. Thank you for sharing that with us.

(01:14:05):
And so what we'll kind of do here for the
remainder of the program, do we have the ability to
carry the coach or or not? Okay, so I'm thinking
we'll do that as well here just because I know
that it's it's we usually bring you know, Coach Mayo's
interview live here on Patriots dot com. Anyway, I think

(01:14:28):
we'll probably want to hear what Coach has to say,
and then we'll come back here and we'll finish the
program up until twelve noon. Patriots Unfiltered will be here
at twelve noon Eastern time today. They'll be here from
noon to two to get you guys set up for
the Chargers matchup on Saturday, and to take you on
into the holiday week as it is, it's just bizarre
having holiday of the middle of the week. I'll never

(01:14:52):
say that a holiday is disruptive. We like this kind
of disruptive, but it is a little bit from a
football standpoint. So I think we will try to do
that for you today because I think that's where everybody's
mindset is, at least if you're tuned into the program today.
I do want your thoughts on a lot of different
things today. Yeah, I want your Christmas memory, or at
least a football related memory over the holidays that you

(01:15:14):
can share with us. If you've got a story you'd
like to tell and why it's significant to you eight
five five Pats five hundred. You can also send me
an email podcasts at Patriots dot com. You can also
send it to me on X if you want to.
I'm at JR Broadcast. Had somebody to do that. Hold
on whereas it I'm going to find it here very quickly. Yeah,

(01:15:36):
this one comes from Andy. He says, I'm trying to
decide how much credit to give the d holding Buffalo
to under thirty points first time since Week six, versus
crediting the weather last Sunday in Buffalo. It's actually a
legitimate thought, Andy, I honestly believe, and Evan's sort of

(01:16:00):
alluded to this earlier. I just believe that the coaches
probably needs a little bit of credit for at least
the plan of attack, for some of the game plan.
But I think we'd all be uh, you know, disingenuous
who we didn't think that. I'm not sure that a
three and eleven Patriots team at the time is really
going to fire up too many people. I don't care

(01:16:20):
where you are, and I don't care who you are.
I think I think the Patriots probably could have played
with the Kansaity Chiefs probably could have played with the
Philadelphia Eagles, probably could have played with the Detroit Lions,
know the in the Minnesota Vikings. If we're going to
go all the potential contenders right now in the NFL,
you you probably could have been right there with just
about everybody simply because you're three and eleven, and so

(01:16:41):
there's a natural tendency to overlook your opponent because of
who you are. But then once you get hit in
the mouth, how do you respond? And I think that's
what Buffalo did. You know, Patriots hit him in the mouth,
got to a fourteen ozhing lead, and then the Patriots,
you know, coughed up the ball a few times, and

(01:17:03):
that ends up being a significant factor, you know, in
the in the game's outcome. And that's something that we've
seen all season long from these Patriots. So we we
absolutely know, just give me the high side and when
he's ready to go, Matt okay uh, and then we'll
get you over to that here on the program. So
that way, no matter where you're listening to us today

(01:17:24):
or watching us you know on YouTube or here on
on Patriots dot com, we'll get you to coach and
one he's done, then we'll come back and you might
have some comments, we might have some reaction to what
he has to say, and so we'll we'll take care
of that, and of course the guys will be around
at the top of the next hour to take you through.
But in the meantime eight five five Pats five hundred,

(01:17:45):
it is podcasts at patriots dot com at JR Broadcaster
on x where you can find us. You know, if
you're if you're a Facebook friend, you're going to post
on my Facebook page. You can do that and I'll
get to that one as well. I wanted to also
share really quickly and I, Patty, I see you on
the line. I'm gonna let Gerrod come up here in
a couple of minutes, so if you can hang on

(01:18:05):
a couple of moments uh longer, I want to be
able to give you, you know, the the microphone so to speak, uh,
to allow you to have your time so you're not
rushed to this. But I did want to spend a
little bit of time. And I heard some local talk
show hosts talking a little about this here, you know,
the greater Boston area earlier today and even yesterday, and

(01:18:26):
and while we're sort of looking back on you know
beginning to look back on twenty twenty four and looking ahead. Clearly,
the Patriots are looking ahead now to twenty twenty five
more than just about anything else at this time. I
wanted to extend a little bit of thanks to Bill Belichick.
Not because he's been the Patriots coach. This is for

(01:18:48):
a completely different reason. Although I think we all know that,
you know, as Patriots fans, will be indebted to Bill
Belichick for a lot of things, I personally, you know,
as a fan, I'd be indebted to Bill Parcells for
turning the thought process around back in the early nineties,
which is one of the reasons why I've always believed,

(01:19:10):
and I am on the Patriots Hall of Fame voting committee.
As many of you already know, I will continue to
support Bill parcells candidacy for the Patriots Hall of Fame
because he helped change the mindset around here three decades ago.
I don't know if he'll ever get in, but maybe
that's just me being stubborn. I don't think Bill Bella

(01:19:31):
if Bill Parcells had been here, I'm not sure that
we would have had I'm not sure that we would
have had six championship follow up anyway, I'll continue that thought.
Let's get to jerrot and then we'll be right back
here with more of the playbook.

Speaker 9 (01:19:43):
Really, just tell people how much you appreciate them. I
always grew up where it wasn't really always about the gifts,
didn't get many gifts as a kid. You know, my
kids are growing up totally different than me. But it
is what it is. Uh, you know. My message to
the team was, look, this is a huge week as
far as being able to compartmentalize. When we're in the building,
it's all about football. When they're outside the building, obviously,

(01:20:04):
they need to spend time with their family, and it's
all about family at that time. And being able to
do that, I think is good to have a balanced life.
You know, the unsung, the unsung heroes, all the people
who are doing the shopping taking it off of our
plates here. So I just wanted to give them a
shout out because I couldn't imagine right now going into

(01:20:25):
the stores or wrapping gifts. Never really been really been
my thing. Moving on, this is a very good football team,
a team that honestly reminds me of like the old
school way of playing, you know, going out there playing
good defense, solid base technique, you know, being able to
stop the run, having those playmakers over there, and offensively,
you know, they have a great quarterback in Herbert, but really,

(01:20:47):
you know, this team also up front. They're very talented
across the board up front, and I think they work
very well together, especially in the run game, you know,
and as the weather changes, you know, and they're coming
out this way, I expect them to try to run
the ball, and especially how we looked last week. And
so that's the challenge to the players that, look, they're
gonna come in. Here's no secret, they're gonna want to
run the ball, and we have to stop them and
make more one dimensional team. Good running backs obviously is

(01:21:11):
a huge you know, Baltimore raven type of you know
flavor to this entire staff and even the players. You know,
you look at the backs that they have, you know,
a couple of them came from Baltimore. You know, we've
you know, we've gone against Greg Roman multiple times you know,
over the years. Is a very good coordinator, you know,
very experienced, and he's going to exploit your weaknesses and

(01:21:31):
I think they do a good job with that. Defensively,
you know, I've been a fan of this player for
for a while. I always you know, he always pops
off the off the film is Derwin James. I think,
you know, he's just one of those guys that he's
a football player. And you can tell by the way
that he goes out there and plays, you know, just
his energy, enthusiasm, and the rest of the crew uh
kind of follows his lead in my opinion. Not to

(01:21:53):
take anything away from the front guys. You know, they
have two very good defensive ends, and they have some
big guys in upfront that do a good job too, gaping,
but I think it all starts with Derwin, and I
think we have to know like where this guy is
on every single play. If he's down near the line
of scrimmage, like he can absolutely you know, rush and
drop from there. If he's in the back half, he
can play the deep part of the field as well.

(01:22:15):
So uh, definitely definitely a very good player. Look for us,
you know, we gotta we gotta be able to stay balanced,
and we got to stay ahead of the sticks, stay
ahead of the chains. And and again this is another
opportunity against a team that really don't turn the ball
over much. Uh, for us, to go out there and
try to and try to get after it so far away.

Speaker 5 (01:22:35):
You just mentioned that another where then run the policies
of the.

Speaker 9 (01:22:37):
Weather, because I'm they're they're gonna be pretty balanced, is
what I would say. I would say they would I
don't wanna. I don't know what the weather's gonna be.
I think it's actually gonna be pretty nice. I think
the last I checked. But we're good.

Speaker 6 (01:22:49):
Sorry, you're good, Uh with.

Speaker 5 (01:22:51):
The running fen fallacy and you mentioned that really struggled
on this last game, and so the two things that
cap the game came down to, how are you working
on that going into this game knowing that that's probably
something that can.

Speaker 9 (01:23:03):
To me, it's about block destruction. It's about tackling. Like
the best tacklers I've ever been around always knew where
their help was and so, you know, l not letting
Uh the ball carrier get out to the edge is
definitely a huge part of it. And turning it back
into the teeth of the defense.

Speaker 3 (01:23:17):
You look at the emotion of the Arizona game versus
last week, what did you see as the difference and
how do you get that out.

Speaker 10 (01:23:23):
Of your team on a on a on a.

Speaker 3 (01:23:25):
Weekly basis, because it seemed like they had that passion
from the start. Sunday.

Speaker 9 (01:23:30):
Yeah, I would say the Arizona game, to me, at
least from an efforts standpoint, was an anomaly. It's not
what we put on film as far as effort. Now,
have we always played you know, clean games? You know, no,
I mean look at our record. But in saying that,
I would say, they always go out there and play
with tremendous effort. And that's what showed up last week
and it'll show up this week. You look, we're at home.
We got to protect you know, protect home home field,

(01:23:51):
and that's the goal.

Speaker 2 (01:23:54):
It's had a number of different guys wearing the green
dot since the one went down.

Speaker 3 (01:23:57):
How much would challenges up them?

Speaker 9 (01:23:59):
I would take like all of those guys that have
had the green dot throughout the year have done a
good job in doing it. I mean sometimes I think,
you know, we make too too much of a big
deal about the green dot. I mean literally, a coach
is talking to you and you just gotta It's like
playing a game of telephone and saying that, though the
adjustments after that are always difficult. Look, we have some

(01:24:20):
good communicators on defense. You know you have you know
Dugger of course, and Jilani and Ellis, all those guys
have done a pretty good job as far as that
is concerned.

Speaker 2 (01:24:29):
You're right, I know each turnover has its own story,
and perhaps there's a common link when it comes to
to Drake.

Speaker 8 (01:24:39):
Is there a chance he might be doing trying to
do a little too.

Speaker 2 (01:24:42):
Much on some of those turnovers, or you know, trying
to take it upon himself to produce.

Speaker 9 (01:24:49):
Drake is a competitor and he's always gonna try to
go out there and make plays. And I think just
the way that he's played, you know, how well he's
played this year, Oftentimes we forget that he's a rookie
quarterback and those are those are lessons learning. I've been
very upfront about this to the intangible with Drake, you know,
besides his even demeanor has he's learned from his mistakes
and I expect that to continue going forward.

Speaker 7 (01:25:11):
Did you right focus this following off for counters talking
about it turns turnovers? I haven't turn to funneling and
it's been a tough year for Remondra and there's no
doubt about it. Well, can you, as a coach wanna
try to prevent fumbles. Is it a mental thing or
is it a technique thing?

Speaker 3 (01:25:27):
Withholding the ball?

Speaker 8 (01:25:28):
How do you how do you try to prevent that?

Speaker 9 (01:25:30):
I mean it's a combination of the two. Uh, I
mean you have to understand how important that is. And
then there's also that you want to take you through
the whole elbow tight, eagle claw, grip, that whole thing.
But it is there is a there is a technique
about it. And then and then just the overall focus
drought last year very.

Speaker 7 (01:25:46):
Progested per a picture for the offense because for team
a lot of different personnelse what's the biggest difference you
seeing him good Rollman's offense.

Speaker 10 (01:25:54):
With harb Off that Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:25:57):
I mean, look, I think he's doing a good job
protecting the ball. I think, uh, what does he have
three interceptions?

Speaker 3 (01:26:01):
Something low?

Speaker 9 (01:26:02):
But that's I mean that's what he's doing a great
job at and it gives that chance that team a
chance to Win's saw players in sideline where John Jones
is making the tackle by himself, and share also punches.

Speaker 5 (01:26:17):
It seems like that sort of evolve.

Speaker 8 (01:26:19):
I mean a pepo punch with a thing.

Speaker 2 (01:26:20):
But he used to be the second guy coming even
now and if you're you're teaching that or is that.

Speaker 9 (01:26:24):
Just an instant thing we always teach that in John
Jones over the last few years, has all you know,
come up with play like that. He just has a
knack for punching at the ball. You know, you always
want to make sure that the tackle was secure. I
don't want to get away from that. But at the
same time, that's, uh, that's something that he's been very
good at for a while now.

Speaker 3 (01:26:41):
As a player coach, obviously you appreciate and try to
get Christmas in there for you your players. And was
there a favorite gift you got as a kid? A football?
Was anything like that?

Speaker 9 (01:26:55):
I was, you know, just to go back to the
gift part. I still remember being a young kid. You know,
at the time, I think single parent home. I have
a great step dad. Shout out to all the step dads.
But my grandfather bought us mountain bikes and it took
us to the BMX track and I was scared to
go up to hill. It was almost like my grandfather,
you know, not that I was spanking for not going

(01:27:17):
up to hill, but it was one of those types
like I better get my butt up to hell so
that's that was one of the That was a great memory.
I appreciate you bringing that up. I went up that hill.
I went up that hill. That's the easy part. That's
the easy part. There was a BMX track like five
from my house and we had to ride those new
bikes mountain bikes to a BMX track. So all the
other kids had their l you know, their uh you know,

(01:27:37):
huffies and all that stuff, and we got these big
tires on our on our mountain bikes.

Speaker 3 (01:27:40):
But it was fun.

Speaker 5 (01:27:42):
Jal, do you have a favorite Christmas movie or your
kids that you favorite that you like to spend.

Speaker 2 (01:27:47):
So off with that doing.

Speaker 9 (01:27:48):
I'm a huge home along guy.

Speaker 3 (01:27:51):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:27:51):
It was during my time. And then the the big
you know, the the big debate or back and forth
is is uh die Hard uh Christmas movie? And I
say it is, yeah, it is.

Speaker 2 (01:28:03):
What types of things are your kids asking for?

Speaker 9 (01:28:06):
I had no clue, And again that's why I started
this off.

Speaker 3 (01:28:09):
You know, I just wanna think.

Speaker 9 (01:28:10):
I just wanna thank my wife and think it. You know,
just all the people men and women who go out
and do the Christmas shopping and allow you know, their
spouse or significant other to focus on what they have
to focus on.

Speaker 2 (01:28:21):
Did you believe in did you believe in Santa? And
do your kids believe in Santa?

Speaker 4 (01:28:25):
Wait?

Speaker 9 (01:28:26):
Wait, what do you mean when I was a little
kid now the way I was or is they wanted
to make sure, you know, you knew where those gifts
came from. Cry and my kids.

Speaker 3 (01:28:35):
You know.

Speaker 9 (01:28:35):
I I feel like at this point in time, the
new generation, they believe more in the l F L
on the shelf than they do actual Santa Claus, and
that in itself takes time. I'm not sure if you
guys are familiar, like doing the all the creative things
with the elf on the shelf, you know, pouring the
cereal out in the in the kitchen and throwing toilet
paper around the house and moving the l's and there
you go, same thing, same thing, decisions, the kids love

(01:29:01):
it though, the kids love it. I know we asked
you at last week ago comparisons between Rake you Josh Allen,
you see any submards between Drake and Justin for work?
You know, for me, it's it's probably too early to tell.
What I would say is you know again, I don't
wanna get into the comparison thing. I think Drake is
on track to be a very special player in this

(01:29:21):
league and and uh, hopefully we all get a chance
to see it. Right, Thanks, that's.

Speaker 3 (01:29:28):
Cool, figured Giad. We finished right as I took a
bite of Christmas crack, right, it really would. I love
the fact that he takes the time to be able
to reminisce a little bit as well, because that's what
this time of year is all about. And I also

(01:29:48):
think that, you know, for the most part, he's been
very upfront and very I think honest and open about
the mistakes of this football team has made. He's never
really dodged anything. I think the one thing that we
have to sort of remember here is that Gerada is

(01:30:10):
learning how to be a head coach. We've talked about
this before, mentioned it here on this program many times
before that you know, he came into this job clearly
as a rookie head coach. I mean, he'd been an
assistant here under Coach Belichick. But you know, and we've
even suggest that maybe if there was an error in

(01:30:32):
judgment or Girodg's concern and being the head coach here
at this early and this young and his in his
coaching career, that you know, maybe he should have gone
off and learned under somebody else, or maybe you should
go off and actually been, you know, a coordinator and
then come back to the team. And I think that's
that's a that's a legitimate argument. But at the same time,
I'll tell you this, he definitely has learned. I haven't

(01:30:55):
really seen any of what I would call backtracking, and
I think he takes his mistakes and he tried to
turn them into something positive, which is something we all
try to do from time to time. Goodness knows, I've
met enough of him, you know, in a you know,
nearly fifty year career, and you always try to take
them as a learning lesson so that way you can

(01:31:17):
avoid making them the next time. And I think that's
the one thing that you can say about Girod. I
think he's a I think he's a wonderful human. I
think he's a good guy. I think he was a
very good football player, and I think he can be
a very good coach if he's given And I mentioned
this or Evan earlier on the program today, he needs

(01:31:39):
to be given a bigger stick to swing with. He
needs he needs a bat that doesn't have a hole.
In the middle of it, which is kind of how
I envision what he's got personnel wise right now. And
I'm not trying to indict anybody here, it's just a
fact we've seen it. There isn't enough depth, There isn't
enough overall talent. There are some key pieces in place,

(01:32:03):
and yeah, you can start right at quarterback that if
you can't figure out a way this next year to augment,
then clearly you've got to make a change on who's
bringing those pieces in. Okay, And yeah that's coaching, Yes,
that's player personnel. Yes, that's everything. This is the year
that this franchise needs to step forward. Sure you're disappointed

(01:32:26):
when you get be sure you're disappointed when you put
the football on the ground three times of the second half,
when you've got a touchdown two touchdown lead, you know,
on a potential AFC championship team this last week. Yeah,
who wouldn't be disappointed? But as it happened, didn't you
kind of sit there and watch the game and think, yeah, eh,

(01:32:47):
it's the Patriots. Eh, gotta figure this was gonna happen.
Sure you did, We all did. So. The point now
is they're gonna fight, They're gonna play for him, as
we talked about earlier on the show. Today, that's what
I wanted to see. That makes these last three or
four weeks of the regular season legit in my eyes

(01:33:08):
to where I'm not gonna be. I have to admit
I was one of those you know that all along,
I've said, I don't think the I don't think the
Crafts will make a move. I think they'll let him
hang around for another year, and I think they should.
Before last week, I was wavering. I think we all
have been at some point in time. You gotta be
honest with yourself here, and I'm wondering if he's the

(01:33:29):
right person that maybe it was time to sort of
cut bait fish or cut bait right, And I just
I kind of thought, you know, it might hurt, but
clearly the direction that you were that this team was
moving in was not the direction that it probably needed

(01:33:49):
to go. Well, I've now swung back again after watching
the game against Buffalo, and I think that's legitimate. And
I'm not saying that because it's the Christmas season or
anything else. I'm saying that because I saw players want
to play fight, scratch claw improve. I haven't seen much

(01:34:17):
of that this year. I haven't seen much of that
this year, and I thought the game plan was pretty good,
And yeah, I believe Buffalo it took them a while
to kind of get their juices going because of who
they were playing. The Patriots are not going to have
that issue this week against the Chargers because, as we
talked about earlier, the Chargers can clinch a playoff spot

(01:34:39):
if they beat the Patriots here Saturday. So that's incentive
enough right now, I think for the Chargers, and I
think they will full well bring it, and I want
to see how the Patriots react to that, and then
we'll react to that next week and find out how
they've kind of taken the next step. Can we can
we start taking small steps? Can we start building just

(01:34:59):
a little bit here? And if you can do that,
can you create a foundation now before the end of
the regular season to where you can actually have something
to build a house, build a franchise, build a championship
team on top of I don't know that's that's kind
of where we have to go, but I think we
all have to kind of start from that point. All right,

(01:35:20):
eight five five Pats five hundred. We still get about
a half an hour a little less than that here
before Patriots Unfiltered will jump in here on Patriots dot
Com Radio and then take you guys to holiday time,
and then we resume resume programming as per the normal
on Thursday after the Christmas Day holiday. Patty and Agawam.
Thank you Patty for hanging in there, my man. Merry

(01:35:41):
Christmas to you.

Speaker 10 (01:35:44):
Very Christmas, John, talk to me.

Speaker 3 (01:35:48):
What's happening today?

Speaker 10 (01:35:51):
I'm at work.

Speaker 3 (01:35:52):
Well I figured.

Speaker 10 (01:35:55):
Probably only until like three thirty. But it's nice, you know,
I enjoy what I do. But give me my Christmas
memory please. Well it's kind of kind of more or
less like a holiday memory, but it goes back to
two thousand and three and those two weeks, if you remember, John,
the Patriots had a Saturday night game against the Jets,

(01:36:16):
and that's the infamous game where Joe Namath was was
hitting on I can't I can't remember. I think it
was Susie Coolber and he's like, you know, I could
care less about my team's struggling, you know, And but
you know, more than that, those two weeks to close
out the season were big weeks because you know, the

(01:36:38):
Colts were almost keeping pace with us that year, we
had beaten them, but you know, we didn't know. We
didn't know at that point if the two thousand and
one team was kind of a one off, because you know,
they came back the next year and didn't make the playoffs.
But those were two big weeks, and prior to that season,

(01:36:58):
the Patriots had never won more than eleven games in
a season, even going back to like the early days,
I think before they started playing sixteen games, their best
record was eleven and three. So they were twelve and
two going into those last two weeks, both division games.
They narrowly escaped the Jets, but they beat them. And

(01:37:19):
then going into the week seventeen that year, back in
the first week, we'd lost thirty one to nothing to
Buffalo and we gave them the spank all stankings by
beating them thirty one to nothing and it was thirty
one to nothing at halftime too. Yeah, and we kind
of we kind of called off the dogs. But I
just remember that year thinking like, wow, you know, we

(01:37:43):
got to we we have an excellent quarterback, we have
a great quarterback. We're gonna win fourteen games and probably
gonna win the Super Bowl because the Coles are gonna
have to come to our house, you know, and.

Speaker 3 (01:37:55):
Right, I remember that, yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:37:58):
And that was like the just you know, those those
two weeks. I believe it was the twentieth and the
twenty seventh, because those were back to back Saturday games,
so we get we kind of got a got a
kind of put in the spotlight that year too, But
that was, uh yeah, that was probably my my favorite,

(01:38:21):
at least Patriots related Christmas memory when it comes to
the NFL.

Speaker 2 (01:38:24):
Good good, And I just want to say, I.

Speaker 10 (01:38:29):
Just want to say, like, very thankful for all that
you do. Don't tell me you're gonna bring it on Saturday.
You bring it every week.

Speaker 3 (01:38:37):
You're You're you're too kind. I'm a little perturbed that,
you know. I get, you know, rare chances to do
college football any longer because I'm I'm such a huge
college football fan, and I think you know that, and
most of our listeners probably do here as well. I've
enjoyed college football since I was old enough to walk,

(01:38:57):
but so anytime I get a chance to do it,
I usually relish that opportunity. And damn the NFL, they
had flexus the other way, and I don't care if
the NFL hears me say that you guys screwed up.
But okay, I get it. I understand it's all about
maximizing exposure, opportunity. And you know, I'm rubbing my fingers
together like Johnny Manziel, right, it's not about the cash.

(01:39:19):
So nevertheless, yeah, I mean, we always try to do that.
And I think that you know, patty paying cushustomers deserve
to experience what they've paid for. And I think the
and I think the Patriots as an organization have done
a remarkable job. It's been very easy to sell winning

(01:39:43):
championship football over the past twenty plus years, but over
the last few years it's been a little tougher. We've
seen the stands lighten a little bit. But I would
also argue that, well, this is an opportunity for others
to get involved here, you know, because there still is
a waiting list for season tickets here, and so this

(01:40:04):
is an opportunity to enlighten, entertain, and inform others who
haven't had the opportunity before, and maybe even create new fans.
So I've never looked at a team's misfortune as oh
my god, we suck, you know, Oh why do we
have to do that? Oh, this is terrible. Oh I
can't watch this now. I never looked at it like that.

(01:40:26):
It hurts. It stings because we take it personally. We
take losing personally as fans, right, whatever team you follow,
we take we take losing personally, even though we don't
have a direct hand in it. I mean some places,
you know where the fans can really make a difference.
I happen to think Gillette right here, and I'm in
the bowels of Gillette as we speak. But you know,

(01:40:48):
I think Gillett's one of the better spots, and I
think we can name you know. Uh, you know in
one hand, you know the places around the league that
where I think fans can actually make a difference, Uh,
in terms of the tone and tenor of a football game.
Do I think fans can make a difference in the outcome? No,
that's gonna go up. That's up to the players, that's
up to the talent. But weather conditions can combine in that, uh,

(01:41:12):
you know, which is why Buffalo is such a great
home field advantage for them. And even a place like
Miami where sometimes the fans kind of have a las
fair attitude, sometimes that heat and humidity can be very tough.
And the Patriots know that because Patriots just can't seem
to win to save their lives in Miami from time
to time. But that's what home old advantages. Yeah, that's
what's supposed to be about.

Speaker 10 (01:41:33):
Even when we had the greatest player in the history
of the league, we struggled down there.

Speaker 3 (01:41:38):
Yeah, yeah, for sure, I'm not.

Speaker 10 (01:41:40):
I'm not gonna hold you up. I just want to
I want to touch on just two more quick things
and let some other callers get him. But uh, the
first thing is, like the next two games, I just
want to see the same kind of effort that they
came out with against Buffalo. You know, if they do that,
win or lose, I'll be happy going into next season.
And I think that could build some momentum. And the
second thing is, I agree with everything you said about Parcels,

(01:42:01):
and I wanted to share one of my favorite one
of his quips because one of the one of the
things that made Parcels great too was he just he
just knew how to push the right buttons with certain people,
you know. But uh, it's not his NFL liked the
special from years ago, but the the quote is Simons
fellas stopt all seasons over, these guys are going to

(01:42:22):
hit back, you know.

Speaker 3 (01:42:24):
Yeah, And I think we needed we needed that kind
of a of a of a process. We needed somebody
to pull us by the shirt collar and shake us
and say this is the way it really is. And
I think Bill Parcells did that to this organization, probably
even did that to this ownership, which is part of
the reason why he graded on some nerves on his
way out the door. And that whole thing happened, you know,

(01:42:45):
with the you know, the you know, the the flirtation
with the Jets during Super Bowl week against the Packers,
and and I know there are a lot of people
that will never forgive him for that bit of traitorous activity.
I mean, look, I don't I don't really think of
that of that way. Did it sting at the time? Sure,

(01:43:05):
But at the same time, this is still a business
and he saw that his avenue to do things the
way that he wanted to do it close here, and
the avenue that the Crafts needed to take at the
time was was changing direction. And so I think he
looked at it as a business decision. It's probably best
if I look for another landing spot. So look, you

(01:43:27):
got to look at this thing as a business first
and foremost, and put your emotions away as best as
you possibly can, which is why I think he deserves
a spot in the Patriots Hall. I don't know if
he'll ever get there. He's deserving. He's in the Pro
Football Hall of Fame for a reason. He's deserving, just
like you know, Bill Belichick is and everybody else that
you know has come along the pike over the less

(01:43:49):
twenty plus years. There are a lot of guys in there,
and and I'll continue to advocate for you know, his
inclusion as long as I possibly can, as long as
I will, you know, stay on the stay of the committee.
So that's a part of it. And you're right about
this weekend. Yeah, I just want to continue to see
the fight there. I think they'll they'll they'll get they'll

(01:44:10):
get the Charger's best swing because the Chargers have something
legitimately to play for that really, the Bills did not
last week. So I want to see how that goes
and whether or not they can adapt to that. And
and again I also want to see if they can
take care of the ball like anybody else. I want
to see if they can continue or keep not continue
to make mistakes. These are controllable mistakes that the Patriots

(01:44:35):
are still making that should have been you know, taken
care of in training camp that never came to fruition
here during the regular season. And there are reasons for that.
It's on the individual, sure, but yeah, there's something with
the coaching that needs to be reevaluated here. There's something
in the drills that you know, a guy like ramondre

(01:44:56):
Stevenson probably goes through that could help him or hurt him.
Whatever they're doing here, take better care of the football,
you know. And and there's also you know, Drake may
is a rookie. He had to know that. You know,
that play that you know ended up being recovered for
a touchdown on a on a backwards lateral because he
couldn't get up the field. It's not supposed to be lateral.
It's supposed to be you know, a wheel route type

(01:45:17):
of of of of pass play that you know, he's
got to be able to pull out of that somehow,
someway and recognize that, hey, the Buffalo has got this
figured out and and not go through it. But again,
these are all gonna come with time, with effort, with
a lot of different things that the Patriots just don't

(01:45:38):
possess right now. Experience is the one thing that they
need more than anything else, and they're getting it, which
is why I was always an advocate and we talked
about this a lot earlier this year, Patty, but I
was always an advocate for it. Let's say, look, you
drafted the guy three. He needs to be playing well
before too long. It became yeah, before too long. Yeah
he got in there. And this is not anything negative

(01:46:00):
to Jacoby Brissett. But if this guy is gonna be
your guy, you got to figure it out and you
got to give him a chance to play it. He's
doing that, we're seeing the results of that. Now you've
got to find other guys who can come along for
that very same ride. That's where this team is right now.

Speaker 10 (01:46:16):
Yeah, I agree, and real quick, I think Remandre should
reach out to Tiki Barber because if you remember, he
had like fumbling problems early in his career and he
corrected it somehow, some way. But I'll let you go
so you can get more callers on the air. Merry
Christmas to you and your family, John and all of
the staff at Patriots dot com.

Speaker 3 (01:46:33):
Thank you, Patty, Merry Christmas to you and your appreciate you,
my friend. Yeah, you know that's interesting, Tiki Barber. Look,
I think somebody that probably would have been really good,
uh at at addressing this issue would have been Ivan Fears,
who's the longtime Patriots running back coach retired a couple

(01:46:53):
of years ago. Uh And I think Ivan would have
been the kind of guy that, you know, probably could
have helped him address this issue almost more than anybody
else known Coach Fears as I've known him over the years.
But I'm sure that Remandre is you know, at the
stage now where something like this continues to sort of

(01:47:16):
haunt you know, his and and and you serve his
clear talent and ability as a running back. But I've
got a you know, I could admit I didn't think
running back was only going to be in the list
of needs for the Patriots for the next off season.
But I think you're not doing your job as an

(01:47:39):
evaluator if you don't consider running back somewhere, you know,
either through free agency or maybe a middle to late
round pick or whatever it might be. But you've got
to build that up. And I am totally four Antonio
Gibson returning. I think we've seen enough that he's got,

(01:48:00):
you know, life left where I'd like to see him
come in and you know, if not legitimately challenged for
the job, then you know, be that change of pace option.
I'm in on it. I've been impressed with that I've
seen from Gibson most of the entire year. I don't think,
you know, he's able to power his way through things.

(01:48:20):
But very few guys, after you know, five six years
in the NFL, very few guys are in position to
do that because the game just beats you up, just
beat you up. This is why running backs aren't valued
is highly any longer because of the abuse that they take.
You get, if you're lucky, three or four really good years,
and then skills start to wane because they just get

(01:48:41):
physically abused out on the field. All Right, So a
couple of quick things I want to point out before
we wrap up, and again, Patriots Unfiltered will be here
at the top of the hour, and the guys will
be here for their normal Christmas Eve program from twelve
till two Eastern and then we'll resume normal programming here
on Patriots dot Com Radio on Thursday after the Christmas

(01:49:03):
Day holiday. Our show, by the way, next week because
of the because Tuesday is New Year's Eve and I
have college basketball on New Year's Eve. And so rather
than rush through a show or do it short or
what have you, on next Tuesday, We're gonna move next
week's show to Thursday. And I know, sometimes it's difficult

(01:49:25):
to know. I never know when these guys are on
the area. Yeah, I get it. Hell, I never know
when we're on the ear sometimes. But our reason for
being here is you. Okay, that's why we're here. So
we can talk football, talk strategy, talk whatever, but about
the Patriots and about football with you because we know
you know the diehard nature that you have here. That's

(01:49:46):
why you're here with this show. That's why you're listening
to it, that's why you're watching it. I mean, I
understand that, and that's what gets us up and gets
us motivated every time we do a show, because we
know you're interested in it, and we try to bring
something valuable to the table. We try to create conversation.
You're not going to agree with everything that we say.
You're not going to agree with hardly anything that we
say sometimes that's perfectly fine. I've never been offended by that.

(01:50:08):
By the way, I like talking to people who have
different points of view why because I think it makes
me smarter, and so that's what I'm interested in. It's
okay if you agree, then we can kind of laugh
and agree about it, which is great, which is why
you know, I love you know, you know, the regular

(01:50:29):
callers of this show, like like Patty and like Eldred,
you know, and and several others that we have on
the program from time to time. There's nothing wrong with
being able to have a conversation the conversation that I
had with Evan Lazarre today like minded individuals. You know,
Evan knows a lot of x's and o's. He does

(01:50:49):
a really good job I think of, you know, nitpicking
things apart. Evan's kind of like Coach Lazarre in that regard,
and he's an intelligent, you know, observer of the game,
and he understands the why a lot as well as
the how in terms of the execution. I feel like
I'm more of a reactionary person. But I think after

(01:51:09):
covering you know, the NFL for better than forty years,
myself I've learned to think or two more about the
modern day game and why coaches and players act and
react the way that they do. And so I try
to share that with you, and it may be foreign
to what you're thinking. It may be like, what is
this guy thinking? Okay, I understand that, But again, this

(01:51:30):
is all about point of view, so we can we
can create conversation and exchange those points of view with
each other in the hopes of understanding our sport and
our team a little bit better kind of what we do.
All right. One thing that Evan talked about before we
got gone here, and by the way, no Russell today
because he's already enjoying the Christmas holiday with his family.

(01:51:51):
So happy, you know, holidays. Merry Christmas to my good
friend Russell Baxter, Backs football guru. He will rejoin us
next week, is my understanding. But the Netflix double header tomorrow,
I'm hoping for the best. I'm expecting the worst. I

(01:52:13):
kind of agree with with Evan on that one, just
because of that, you know, Jake Paul Mike Tyson thing
and the way that you know you had this this
spending circle of death, you know, and the rebooting and
oh my god, I had during that fight. I had
it up on Netflix, and I think I had to
clear the cash on my Internet and my WiFi three

(01:52:39):
or four times at least during the course of that fight,
because of you've got the spinning circle of death, right,
And I fully expect that to happen, and I fully
expect the Internet to blow up over that. And then,
as Evan suggested, when it gets to Beyonce's you know,
halftime show, all bets are off, it'd be like having

(01:53:00):
you know, Taylor Swift or someone a look like that.
I mean, it's gonna be nuts. But about the games
themselves look attractive. Games Chief Steelers one o'clock on Christmas Day,
Eastern time, Ravens Texans at four point thirty. Everybody's in
the playoff hunt. Everybody is in the you know, you've
got meaningful football on Christmas Day. The interesting comparison really

(01:53:24):
is outside of the sport of football. The interesting comparison
is that normally Christmas Day has been a day for
the NBA. You know, American sports fans certainly understand this one.
You know, the NBA has always taken front and center.
Celtics are playing on Christmas Day, right, and that's sort
of been a tradition, you know, with a lot of families.
You know, you you know, you've got family over, you're

(01:53:45):
having a nice meal, you're opening gifts, you're sharing you
great times together, and the TV is on the background,
and there's usually a basketball game on. That's just what
we do, you know, on Christmas Day. But now now
you've got football to choose from on Christmas Day, not
unlike what you have on Thanksgiving here, but now you've
got football, and you've got Wednesday football, which is first

(01:54:09):
of all, that's actually sounds great. I'm not sure how
great it is for the players involved, just because of
the you know, the the odd times they've had some
of these some of these guys now are going to
be playing their third game in eleven days, which is
remarkable idiocy, it really is that the NFL would do

(01:54:31):
this to their marquee teams, high profile players, and some
of them going through a stretch where they're gonna pay
three games in eleven days when they really need to
be thinking about being healthy for the stretch run, which
is nuts to think about, Okay, but the NFL's they
made that bed, now they have to lie in it,
so in that regard, that's what I'm gonna be kind

(01:54:51):
of looking forward to on Sunday football on Christmas Day.
Our thanks to Evan, Our thanks to Marine for everything
that he does for us over the course of the season.
We got Patriots on Fielder that's coming up next here
on Patriots dot com Radio. Stay tuned for the guys.
They'll be up here in just a couple of minutes.
And our next playbook show will be again the day

(01:55:13):
after New Year's that'll be January two, and we'll be
here at at the same time. Isn't that what we
planned on Matt? I think we Yeah, Okay, there's a
possibility we might move in the morning, depending on the
day after schedule. Right, Stay tuned to your social media channels.
We'll put it out on X and we'll put it
out on Facebook and we'll do that. Okay. Merry Christmas,

(01:55:36):
Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays to all of you who watch
this program and pay attention to the New England Patriots
here on Patriots dot Com. Talk to you again next week.

Speaker 8 (01:55:48):
Thank you for downloading this podcast, Subscribe on Apple, Google Play,
and everywhere else you listen. Like the show, Please rate
and review US listener comments and ratings help keep us
high on the podcast rankings, so new listeners can find us.
Be sure to check Patriots dot com for more news
and more podcasts.

Speaker 1 (01:56:08):
Patriots Unfiltered the world's original podcast, Patriots Unfiltered brings you
inside you at Stadium for rousing conversations on everything New England, Patriots,
and NFL. Join host Fred Kersh alongside Patriots dot COM's
Paul Parillo, Mike Deso, Evan Lazar Tamara Brown, and Alex
Francisco as they bring you in depth coverage of the team.

Speaker 2 (01:56:26):
He's a redshirt rookie at that point, so it's really
that's his pcson essentially too, So now we're really not
talking about them, really, No experience called twenty twenty six.

Speaker 1 (01:56:35):
Search for Patriots Unfiltered anywhere you get your podcasts.

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