Patriots Playbook 9/11: Week 1 Recap, Home Opener Preview

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Patriots Playbook. Is it my turn to talk?

Speaker 2 (00:08):
Now?

Speaker 1 (00:08):
He is your host of Patriots Playbook. John Rook bad
A selects, should we lead off today with what we're
gonna do about our show opens marine? Should we lead
off with that today? I think that we're going we
have winners in each of the brackets that he sent
out last week, and so I think he's gonna retweet

(00:29):
those out what today tomorrow something like that, to vote
on the two winners, and then we'll debut the winter
next next Wednesday. I'll and I will get them loaded
up in just five minutes. Okay, all right, So if
you don't know what we're talking about, you know, Matt's
you know, he's got a big assist this year from AI,
but it's his creativity with the lyrics and the music

(00:50):
and the theme and all that stuff that we're developing
these these you know, right spanking brand new hip you know, yeah,
hip show opens for our show and for PU and
for you know, Catch twenty two and all the other
stuff that we do around here. And love it, and
so we decided we were going to throw it out
to the fans, to our listeners to vote on their favorites,

(01:12):
and so we'll take the two finalists from last week's
preliminaries and thill them back up on social media. You
get a chance to listen to them and then we'll
go from there. So something fun fun aspect of this one.
Speaking of fun, the football game was fun on Sunday.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
It was fun to be our kind of football game.

Speaker 1 (01:30):
Well, yeah, because it was smash mouth, it was defensive oriented.
It was no mistakes or few mistakes. I mean, they
played close to it the irony and I kept thinking
this about the entire game. If the irony was they
played it exactly as Bill Belichick would have chalked it up.

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Yeah, it's a good way of putting. I think it's
the formula that they've tried to get to over the
last couple of years, and at times, certainly during the
twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two seasons, they were
able to check those boxes. But last year, obviously they
weren't because of the offense and the turnovers mainly on
offense that were just catastrophics. So we've given a lot

(02:11):
of flowers to them for winning on Sunday, and rightfully
under so I understand it But at the same time,
now that we're on Wednesday and they're back out at
practice and we are turning the page to Seattle, to me,
it becomes more a conversation of Okay, well what now,
like nice way.

Speaker 1 (02:28):
Yeah, where do you go from here? What's the step?

Speaker 4 (02:30):
Right?

Speaker 1 (02:30):
And I think we realized the biggest thing on my
mind in trying to take the next step or continue
the momentimum whatever you want to tournament, is is that,
all right, we have to figure out what really needs
to be worked on first. And I think we saw
that there are certainly some needs on this team because
they're not going to win six, seven, ten, sixteen, whatever

(02:51):
you want. They're not going to win a number of
games playing exactly the way they played last week. And
I think that's a common missnimer here. Oh, let's just
run the ball and play good defense, and you know
we'll win seven or eight games. We'll be right there
at the end. Well, no, because somebody's got to catch
the ball, and not everybody's going to be healthy all
year long, and different opponents are going to present different issues,

(03:14):
maybe with the exception of Seattle, because as we talk
about it here over the next few minutes, I kind
of look at the Seahawks and I'm thinking they remind
me of the Patriots a little bit.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
Yeah, Yeah, it's a it's a good point about the
path to winning or the winning formula, if you want
to call it that. So I looked it up over
the last two years. I looked up quarterbacks that threw
twenty or more passes in a game but under one
hundred and twenty five yards, so basically Jacoby Prissett's stats
from that game. Yeah, there were thirty four instances of

(03:47):
that happening over the last two seasons. The record for
those thirty four teams eight and twenty six Christmas. So
you're winning about twenty five percent of the.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
Time, and you've got to do a little bit better
than that. Now, writing twenty five percent of the time
is about what people expected of this team.

Speaker 3 (04:03):
Right, But if you're gonna look at this and this
is the big thing that I would just maybe cautiously,
not not in a mean way, just push back on
a little bit from whatever, because I think there's a
lot of flowers going out to the Patriots right now,
because I think a lot of people thought that they
were going to be a disaster in Cincinnati on Sunday, penalties, turnovers,
you know, not lining up correctly offensively like all. And

(04:24):
it was a clean game.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
They especially Bill Pettis on the first snap of the
football game and he moves on the kickle right.

Speaker 3 (04:31):
So now you're expecting what we saw in Washingtonyeah, exactly.
And it was a much cleaner operation than anything we
had seen the Patriots put together to date, and they
deserve credit for that. But the stat I just mentioned
that is the norm is if your quarterback is only
going to throw for one hundred and twenty one yards
in the NFL nowadays, you are losing the majority of

(04:54):
those games, the vast majority of those games. So the
two things that I look at in order to really three,
but I don't know if the third one is really
going to happen. I don't know if two of them
are really gonna happen, but the third one for sure.
The first one is the Patriots allowed the highest pressure
rate in the NFL in Week one, forty eight percent
pressure rate on Jacobi Brissett. That is not sustainable and

(05:17):
that is not going to be good enough moving forward.
You can't have a functional drop back passing game when
he's under pressure half the time. It's just not going
to yield great results. The second thing, which is even
bigger to me because I don't know if they're going
to fix the offensive line, So that's one of the
things I'm not one hundred percent shart can be fixed.
The lack of production off of play action, I think

(05:38):
is really big because if you're gonna run for one
hundred and seventy, you can't scheme up some play action
shots off of the run game that's working. So they
only had twenty six passing yards off five play action
pass attempts.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
That's gonna have to increase.

Speaker 3 (05:54):
Increase significantly. And you look at the teams that run
this style of offense and run it away, well, that's
where they're getting their explosives from.

Speaker 1 (06:02):
The also something to do maybe because they're they're designated
I guess pass catcher out of the backfield, and Antonio
Gibson was a little you know, banged up.

Speaker 3 (06:11):
It could have been, But I'm more talking about like
throws down the field off play action. Like you look
at this Cleveland offense in the past with Flacco or
Brissette in twenty twenty two, they are an air yards offense.
Like they are trying to push the ball down the
field off of play action. They're not trying to do
what the Patriots have done in the past, where it's like,
you know, the tight end on a crossing route over

(06:32):
the middle or a little seam or something like that. No,
like they're trying to get that single high safety up
top hard play action and we're bombs away and we're
going to try to attack single coverage on the outside.
The Patriots weren't able to do that in this game.
Some of that was because the Bengals were playing a
lot of too deep safety and kind of conceding the run.
And this is we can talk about it. It's kind

(06:53):
of a trend in the league that we're going towards
in this regard. But the other big part of it
to me is the third third thing and the first
thing combining the first thing being the protection being an issue,
and the third thing is that jakobbers said is just
not a risk taker with the football. Now, that can
be good because you manage the game like he did

(07:13):
on Sunday and you come out with wins because you're
not turning the ball over. But when you watch the film,
you see three four or five instances where there's NFL
open receivers down the field and he's passing up on
those shots because he just doesn't want to rip it.

Speaker 1 (07:30):
All right, Well, you know, look, we're all pleasantly surprised. Okay,
we're all you know, Hey, they won the game. And
you know, I think we even talked at the last week.
He said, you know, don't be surprised if they play
it tough for they get into the fourth quarter or
have you a couple of breaks, they might be right
there at the end. And we talked about that last week,
and I don't know anybody outright expected them to win.
They won because they played relatively cleanly, mistake free, they

(07:55):
forced turnovers, They played outstanding special teams, which to me
was a huge bonus. I think not only did you
know was their special teams play clean, Joey's slide was
perfect and field goals, which is good to have somebody
that you can be relying upon. Joe Cardona made the
play for you know, pop on the football loose on
special teams. Schooler was a madman like he usually has been.

(08:15):
And I know they really appreciate that there's your your
Pro Bowl caliber special teamer, which it seems like New
England is able to come up with. I think the
thing that impressed me the most overall about the win
was the fact that the defense was aggressive and going
after the ball, punching at it, gouging at it, you know,
trying to flick it out of guy's hands. I mean

(08:37):
we saw that on you know, three or four occasions,
and they were able to come up with it a
couple of times. And obviously the biggest play of the
game was Cincinnati driving and they lose the football on
the pass over the middle and they come up with
the ball and run it basically out of the end zone.
That was the game difference, right there was that one play.

Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yeah, it's a ten point swing in the game. Huge,
and it really goes back to Gisiki dropping the touchdown
and then the end zone that gets overturned on review,
and then two plays later they punched the ball out
of Tanner Hudson's hands and that's essentially a ten point swing.
And I think the biggest thing with the defense, I
as much as I have concerns still about the offense,
you know, major kind of red flag concerns about the offense,

(09:18):
I can't give enough bouquets to the defense. I mean,
they they played an outstanding game in this game. The
main thing was obviously the you know, the main game
plan oriented aspect, was all the different disguising and all
the different coverages that they threw at Joe Burrow. They
they seldom showed Joe Burrow the same picture pre and
post snaps, so they were constantly just moving those safeties around.

(09:40):
They were having like Christian Gonzalez drop into the deep
part of the field at safety and in different you know,
rotations and shells and things like that, and they were
really spinning the dial. And they usually sometimes you throw
that out there is just like sounds fancy, right, but
like this was truly a spin the dial game plan defensively,
and to your point, they flew to the football.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
And they spun it right. They had a right game plan.
I think they realized what was coming at them. You know,
shame on Cincinnati for not being better prepared, because I
thought a better prepared team probably wins that game, but
they weren't. So give kudos to the Patriots. Not every
week are you going to have your opponent maxed out
in terms of their preparation. Patriots wanted it more, and
I think that's really the way it is, especially when

(10:22):
things are more even early in the year. But the
biggest I think one of the biggest problems where perceptions
are going to have to overcome is they stepped forward
now into Seattle this week. First of all, Seattle, as
we said to me, at least upon first glance this week,
looks very patriot like. Similarly, they have offensive line issues.
They got a pretty stout, you know, defense, defensive line especially.

(10:42):
I mean there's some They've got a veteran, a quarterback
that's been around the league a little bit, so there's
some there's some similarities there. But I think the Seahawks
are better well I'll know, I know they're better thought
of around the league. Case in point, Seattle is a
three and a half point row favorite against the Patriots
this weekend and they're coming three time zones eastward. That's

(11:06):
usually traditionally a tough thing for a West Coast team
to do, is to come eastward like that three time
They're gonna kick off at ten o'clock in the morning
their time, and yet they're a three and a half
point favorite. What does that tell me tells me a
couple of things. Number One, Patriots are still not well
thought of overall by the bookies, especially in Vegas, right ye.
Number two, they don't trust the Patriots. Number Three, Seattle

(11:29):
in the last ten years, and I looked this up today,
has actually had one about sixty five percent of the
games when they're coming eastward.

Speaker 4 (11:36):
Yea.

Speaker 1 (11:37):
And of course they're coming eastward for every road game unless,
of course it's in California. But at the same time,
when they're playing East coast time east coast starts, they've
actually performed pretty well since twenty ten. So that might
be a little bit of an overstatement saying, oh, they're
coming east, you know, let's get them early, blah blah blah. Okay,
maybe maybe, but I'm not so sure that's a definitive factor.

(12:00):
Is is they're coming east the Patriots should be able
to take advantage of that. We don't know yet if
they're equipped to do that. This is going to be
another test of what New England really has because hey,
and it's perfect cannon fodder for the locker room. I mean, hey,
these guys are coming all the way from Seattle and
there are three and a half point favorite on our
home turf, in our home opener. Yeah. Now, if that

(12:23):
isn't bulletin board material, I don't know what else could be.
So you're gonna have to try to figure out a
way to ride that momentum again in a little bit
of that emotional wave, and I think that could be
beneficial this week.

Speaker 3 (12:34):
Yeah. Look, all those intangible things are probably what they're
going to ride the wave on in a lot of
situations because to me, Seattle's favor because they're better, Like
they have more so well.

Speaker 1 (12:43):
They have better athletes up and down the roster.

Speaker 3 (12:45):
They certainly have a better top half of the roster,
like in terms of star power.

Speaker 1 (12:49):
Ride receivers, let's start there. I mean, so we know that,
and that's why I made the comparison. There's it looks
as if there are some similarities, but when it comes
to skill positions, Man is especially white out. He's glaring.

Speaker 3 (13:01):
Yeah. I mean they have three receivers on the Seahawks
roster that would be the number one receiver in New England.
Each each of those three yeah jsn DK Tyler Lockett
will called be the Patriots best receiver. Yeah, so they
have a lot more star power on that side of
the ball. I think the other thing that I look
at is I don't love I don't love the matchup
from a x's and nose standpoint for the Patriots. I

(13:22):
think this is a bad matchup for them. The big
thing with Seattle's defense and Mike McDonald, who is the
Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator last year, is that he runs
a lot of exotic pressure packages. Right, so he's going
to put five, six, seven guys up on the line
of scrimmage and then he's gonna make you sort out
who's coming and who's dropping post snap.

Speaker 1 (13:42):
So you're saying this would not be a good game
for Drake May to make his debut.

Speaker 3 (13:46):
Probably not, no, And I mean last week we saw
it with bo Nicks just running for his life. But
for course, Yeah, So it just you see a lot
of that exotic looks of you know, you don't know
who's coming and who's dropping on any given play in
this defense. That's how it's designed to go. So you

(14:06):
talk about the Patriots offensive line struggles, especially in pass protection,
this is one of the best schemers of pass rush
in the NFL in Mike McDonald, Like that's why he
got the head coaching job in Seattle. He did it
by having the number one defense in the league last
year in Baltimore. Right, So that's number one, number two

(14:26):
on the offensive side of the ball. This is the
trend that I was talking about. So in Week one,
their teams across the league averaged one hundred and twenty
one point five rushing yards per game. That's the highest
in Week one since two thousand and eight, So we're
going on two decades since that was achieved by the league.
In Week one, a lot of these teams, and this

(14:47):
happened for Seattle last week against Denver, they're lighting the box.
They're playing a lot of two high safety shell, six
or seven guys in the box, and they're basically just saying,
we are going to concede the run because you have Metcalf,
you have a lot, you have JSN. We're not gonna
get torched by your passing game, so run the ball.
And Ryan Grubbed, who's Adams didn't take advantage of that. No,

(15:09):
they didn't until like the third quarter of the game, Ryan.

Speaker 1 (15:12):
And then they turned it over.

Speaker 3 (15:13):
Yeah. Ryan Grubbed, who was at the University of Washington
last year with the Huskies with Michael Pennix and Jalen
Polk and Romadonsay. He's now the offensive coordinator at Seattle
and he was the offensive coordinator for the Huskies last year.
So he runs a very very modern offense. They're gonna shift,
they're gonna motion, They're gonna have all sorts of bells

(15:35):
and whistles and different types of run schemes and things
like that, you know, influenced traps and split flow zones
and like all this crazy stuff that people like me
just love to talk about. And they are gonna They
really ran the ball on Denver. Kenneth Walker ran the
ball on Denver last week, and they were able to
move the football on the ground. They didn't throw for

(15:56):
very many yards either, but they were able to hang
twenty six points. The Broncos turned the ball over and
they were able to run the football. So I just
look at the Patriots and I would expect again, just
like Denver thought going into that game, well, we can't
leave DK one on one, even though we have certain
like we're not going to do that for four straight quarters.
We're going to play some zone. We're going to back off,

(16:18):
we're going to do those sort of things, and all
they did was hand the ball off to Kenneth Walker
and watch them go. Yeah, And that's that's the problem
in this matchup to me, is that they have an
easy counter. If you're going to play the deep zones
and things like that, they'll run the ball that see,
since he wouldn't. And they are also going to pressure
the heck out of the quarterback. So I just look

(16:38):
at those two things as the key to this game.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
Two youngest head coaches in the NFL also matching wits
between Mia McDonald, who you know, beat out Gerard by
a few months anyway. Yeah, like a year almost, like
a full year almost.

Speaker 3 (16:52):
Yeah, So do you make anything out of that? Yeah,
it's cool, you know. I read a little bit about
this for my my game previews. So Mayo was hired
early obviously McDonald's was his successor, right, and Mayo was
the youngest head coach in the NFL at the time
of his hire. Three weeks later, the Seahawks hired McDonald,
who beats him by a year. So McDonald's thirty seven

(17:14):
GIAD is thirty eight years old. Both guys on the
defensive side of the ball. McDonald's actually from Boston originally,
so that's interesting. He was born in Boston. He went
to high school in Georgia, but he was born in Boston,
so that there's a lot of similarities between how these
two head coaches got to where they got two. And
they're both defensive guys. You know, they sharpened their teeth

(17:35):
on the defensive side of the ball, so they're gonna
play great defense. They're going to be willing to run
the ball, right. I think that's the difference between a
team like Cincinnati and a team like Seattle. Cincinnati with
Zach Taylor and Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase and all
these receivers like they want to come out and throw
the ball forty five times a game. The Seahawks have
a defensive minded head coach who's going to be willing

(17:56):
to run the football.

Speaker 1 (17:58):
I find it somewhat ironic that two youngest head coaches
in the league replaced the two oldest head coaches in
the league because of you know, Mike McDonald replacing Pete
Carroll and obviously Gerrod stepping in for Bill. Does that
say anything from an organizational sense.

Speaker 3 (18:13):
Well, I think what it does say, and this is
something that I was sort of getting at with the
schemes on both sides. For Seattle is these these younger
coaches are often looked at as like innovators in the league,
and Bill was one of them, you know, once upon
a time he was on the other side of this
whole thing, back with the Giants and the Browns and
eventually the Patriots. And like now, the innovator on the

(18:34):
defensive side of the ball that everybody's mimicking is McDonald's.
Like he's the one that's running the scheme that everybody
emulates and everybody wants to see on offense. For Seattle,
you know, they do a lot of the same things
in the run game that like San Francisco and Miami
and like all these you know, young hotshot head coaches
McDaniel and Lafleur and Shanahan and McVeigh are running all

(18:57):
of these crazy, exotic, you know, run schemes. They're doing
a lot of those same things. So I'm kind of
gushing about them because I'm like kind of envious about it, honestly, Like,
you know, I look, I think AVP is doing a
great job, but like the Patriots at the same time,
last Sunday, against the Bengals. They were in the ball
by running gap like they just ran duo. They double

(19:18):
teamed on the inside, they moved the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
It was pretty simplistic, but it worked.

Speaker 3 (19:23):
And then after Andre go downhill right, and this team
like you turn on the film with Seattle, and they
got guys moving all over the freaking place and Remandre.

Speaker 1 (19:31):
Remandre had really great yack yards after contact. He really did.
I mean it was it was impressive after he'd get hit.
I think what out of his one hundred and twenty
yards over one hundred of it which was after.

Speaker 3 (19:43):
Contact, Yeah, hundred and eighteen after contact major and ten
forced misstackles. Yeah, he was. He was amazing. But I
will say, like not to take away from Remandre, but
I was just talking about gap or duo and those
those schemes tend to leave the dbs on. So like
we're gonna we'll block the big dude.

Speaker 1 (20:02):
So take our chances with him going one on one
with the dB. Right.

Speaker 3 (20:05):
So like Dax Hill was in a freaking blender of
the entire game. The poor guy, and like he's one
hundred and ninety pounds, soaking wet, and so if you're
a two hundred and twenty five pound running back like
Rmandre Stevenson, and you're coming at Dax Hill at twelve
miles an hour, you know, basically full speed, and you're
asking Dax Hill to then wrap and tackle that guy, like,
good luck.

Speaker 1 (20:25):
Wait, where's Bill Nye, the science guy. Yeah, let's let's
let's get the figures done on that one. Right.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
It's just it's sheer, just like that is just old
school football, right, My guy is bigger than your guy.
And that's all it was. On Sunday for the Patriots.
The Seahawks, on the other hand, were you know, doing
all the things that the type pant ocs like to do.
That I get me all hot and bothered, you know.
So we'll see.

Speaker 1 (20:48):
Of course, he's Evan Lazarre. I'm John Rook coming up
with the program. Chris Price, who covers the Patriots for
the Boston Globe. He's gonna join us at the top
of the hour, uh. And then at the bottom of
the hour we will also we'll hear from Doug Kide,
who covers the Patriots for the Boston Herald. And then
an hour number two, the one and Only Russell Baxter
will join us for week two around the NFL. In

(21:10):
the meantime, you can join the show. It's eight five
five PATS five hundred eight five five p A t
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email web radio at Patriots dot com, or you can
also send a question via x dot com x Twitter.
The texting thing at JR Broadcaster is the Twitter handle

(21:33):
for the show that we use a little. Bertie told
me that you had a chance to speak to Drake
May I did.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
I did. I'm gonna write a story about it, probably
tomorrow or Friday. We're in hot to a VP side, like, can.

Speaker 1 (21:47):
You share at least a detailer too that won't spoil
your whole story? And how you know, his first week
as a as an official pro toop you know took form.

Speaker 3 (21:57):
Yeah, yeah, look, you know there's a lot of praise
for Kobe in there. You know, I think a big
thing for him is just watching Jacoby go through the
week as the starter and just soaking it all in
of what exactly goes into that and what it entails.
And then obviously with Jacoby playing pretty well in the
game and winning the game, that this is what it
looks like when you know, to put together a winning week,

(22:18):
you know during we always hear about it, you know,
Wednesday to Saturday, right, like what are you doing on
those days that that it is preparing you for the game.
The other little tibit is just the Patriots and Drake
may have adopted a lot of virtual reality technology and
this is like gonna be a new age thing. I
think that some people are gonna like and some people aren't,

(22:39):
and that's okay, but yeah, it's pretty cool. He has
like literally like a VR headset that they gave him
to go home with really and he has it on
an iPad. That's like the.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
App is like, that's cool.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yeah. So it's a virtual reality headset and it's got
the Patriots playbook uploaded into it. He's listening, he's listening
to us.

Speaker 1 (23:01):
That's amazing.

Speaker 3 (23:02):
Yeah, you beat me to the Joker.

Speaker 1 (23:05):
Yeah yeah, that was already for it.

Speaker 3 (23:08):
The Patriots offensive plays.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
Yes, I know, and I knew that.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
I know you knew that. Uh and uh. And he
said that he goes through different scenarios you know, two minute,
you know whatever, that type of stuff, and uh, they
it puts you on the field literally like virtually on
the field. Uh, and it puts you against the defense
and you can run plays and uh you know figure
out where you you know, go through your reads and

(23:34):
your progressions and stuff that.

Speaker 1 (23:35):
There's some serious advanced coaching. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:38):
Yeah, so they're they're doing a lot. I mean, look,
I I just started like laying out the piece before
I came on here with you. And it's the amount
of things that they were able to do with him
during the week behind the scenes is good. It's surprising.
You know, He's in these meetings and they're going over
the call sheet, the runs, the passes, like different situations
things like that, and he's got the ear piece on

(23:59):
during the game.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
So like as we can hear the call.

Speaker 3 (24:02):
Yeah, so he hears the call going into Jacoby Brisset
and then he's literally playing quarterback like on the sideline
like that.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
So he here's the call. He knows what he's going
to do in terms of, you know, dialing it.

Speaker 3 (24:12):
Up right exactly. And then if like you know, on Monday,
maybe like they might come back and Drake would say
to Jacoby like, hey, why did you do that? Like,
you know, why did you make that check or why
did you alert this or whatever? The reason why Jacoby
is here, yeah, to tutor. Yeah, and and he can
learn from that. So as much as I know we
all want to see Drake play and all that kind
of stuff, but talking to him, it did sound pretty valuable.

(24:35):
And just like the last thing I'll say is, you
know he he sat behind. Of course, I'm banking on
the freaking quarterbacks name Sam Howell how at North Carolina
for a couple of years, so this isn't like totally
foreign to him, and him and Sam Howe are like
best friends by the way, so this isn't like totally
foreign to him to sit behind like a more veteran quarterback. Obviously,

(24:57):
he joked the age gaps a little bit different this
time or than it was with Howell, but that's where
we're at there out. I thought it was an interesting
story to tell, just because I think there's a lot
of interest from the fans. I'm like, what's Drake doing?
You know, he's not playing in the game, so we
can't really see what he's doing behind the scenes, So
hopefully this helps tell the story.

Speaker 1 (25:16):
Well, what impress you and I appreciate this, so we'll
look for that win tomorrow. Yeah, tomorrow, Friday sometime. Okay,
so that'll be right here on the website. Now, what
stood out to you in terms of a pleasant surprise
other than maybe the overall play of say the offensive
line and the running game about the game on Sunday,
And that was something that you really didn't see coming.

Speaker 3 (25:39):
Oh, that's a good question. That's tough because I guess
like most of it was pretty expected. I guess the
one thing would be Jacobe Brissett's mobility, like his ability
to create yards with his legs. I think it even
surprised Gerrod Mao, like he's kind of joked about it
since then I joked about it on EI. I won't
say what he said because you know that let him
make those jokes. But that was surprising, like his what

(26:05):
I would call sack avoidance, like just he's in under pressure.
It looks like they have him dead to rights and
like somehow he's just getting out of there. And then
also he picked up three first downs with his legs
a couple on third downs, So just moving the chains
with his legs and then also avoiding pressure, avoiding sacks
with his legs. That's not typically a strong suit of

(26:26):
Jacoby Brussett's throughout his career, it's not really who he
is as an athlete. So that was surprising, and I
do question how sustainable it is, Like I don't know
if we're going to see Jacoby Brissette run around like
that every single week. But you know, Cincinnati didn't really
respect his mobility at all. They played man coverage and

(26:47):
they had no spies or anything like that on him,
and he took advantage of it. So if teams are
going to do that and he can run for first
downs and by all means do.

Speaker 1 (26:54):
It, is it safe to say that, you know, maybe
the lack of the passion game and or effectiveness of
the wide receivers in catching the ball, is that the
biggest disappointment?

Speaker 3 (27:05):
I would say, so I would say, you know, play action,
like I really fe that, Yeah, I really felt like
that was gonna be their their way of moving the
ball in the passing game. And look, it's one week,
it could still come, but their way, they're not going
to just line up against the defense and have guys
get open all the time, Like they don't have the
receiver talent to just win one on one matchups across

(27:28):
the board, like a team like Cincinnati or Seattle does.
So they are gonna need to scheme guys open, and
they're gonna need to find ways to scheme guys open
off the run game, and that I think is the
biggest hurdle that they have left to overcome. If they
start they come out on Sunday, and I'll give you
an example. Last week they hit Taekwon on like a
seventeen yard completion off of play action. If they do

(27:50):
that like four or five times though on Sunday, then
all of a sudden, I'm gonna be like, all right, well,
now you have run game, you have play action, like
you're sequencing things together, You're starting to marry it up,
and now we have an offense here that they can
kind of work off of. But right now just the
run game by itself is not going to be enough.

Speaker 1 (28:08):
All right, I'm just you know, is there enough there
with just one week to having? You know, we had
a miserable preseason kind of you know slough through, which
everybody does. To me, I mean, this is a a
I mean, if you've never really realized it, what happened
in Week one really in a lot of places around

(28:29):
the NFL, underscore is the fact that the preseason is
presently is as present exists, is useless, as useless as
the saying goes as teet's on a hog. Okay, I
mean it's just it's just not there, yeah, Aspo Nicks,
Yeah yeah, yeah, I mean, I mean he looked all
the rookie quarterbacks. Yeah. Well, and I think we expected
that to a certain extent, right, Yeah. But at the
same yeah, I mean, Caleb Williams through for what eighty yards,

(28:52):
eighty three yard whatever it was. Pars won the game
because defense and special teams, right, Patriots won their game
because of what defense and special teams and the running
game was pretty solid. Yeah. So I mean, what's sustainable.

Speaker 3 (29:05):
About what the Patriots did?

Speaker 1 (29:06):
Especially with what the Patriots did, What do you find
is most sustainable out of that or what should they
be relying on? In other words, where is the identity
of this team do you think beginning to develop? Because
we don't fully know it until we get at least
through the first month of the season.

Speaker 3 (29:22):
Well, I do. The good news is, and I know
I said that, I don't feel like it's totally sustainable
what they did on Sunday to win in that fashion.

Speaker 1 (29:31):
Every single week. Right, it won't be sustainable in that fashion.
I agree with that.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
But the good news is is that in terms of
foundation or identity, like you're talking about, I kind of
feel like that is their identity. They're gonna be a
good defense. They're gonna run the football.

Speaker 1 (29:44):
And they're gonna say stop us.

Speaker 3 (29:45):
Yeah, and now they just need to find ways what's
your CounterPunch? Right like that? They didn't have a CounterPunch
against Cincinnati offensively did not. But if they can start
to establish a counter punch, we're now we're cooking, Like
now we got something brewing here. If it's only gonna
just be remandre in the defense, then that's not going
to yield very many wins, Like they're going to be

(30:06):
a five or six win team with that. If you
can get that CounterPunch going, now we maybe you can
start talking about them overachieving from their win total and
stuff like that.

Speaker 1 (30:16):
What are your thoughts then about Sunday overall? It scares me?
It does because you mentioned it earlier. You're not sure
you liked the individual matchups.

Speaker 3 (30:24):
I don't love the individual matchups at all. I just
I'm sure the Patriots defense will be able to stop
Seattle's passing game, if that's what they want to take away,
if they come into the game and say, you're not
throwing on us, but the Seahawks' willingness to run the
ball last week versus Cincinnati's just disdain for the running game.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
They did it against Denver.

Speaker 3 (30:42):
It worries me because that's the counter for them, right,
if you're going to play too high.

Speaker 1 (30:46):
They have something that the Patriots are trying to achieve.

Speaker 3 (30:49):
Yeah, yeah, I agree with that. And defensively obviously with
the way they pressure the quarterback that the Patriots have
got to stay out a third and long. They have
to stay out of obvious past situations like they they
just have to be an on schedule offense this week. Okay,
Otherwise m McDonald is going to come after percent. You
want to make a prediction, I would take Seattle. I

(31:11):
don't have a score yet.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Three and a half point favorite. You're going to take
the Patriots to cover or Seattle do.

Speaker 3 (31:18):
Let's go twenty three twenty so.

Speaker 1 (31:23):
So you have the Patriots covering a bear half point.

Speaker 3 (31:25):
Barely covering. I think that's why they can make money
in Vegas because three and a half is like it's
exactly where this line should.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
Be, where it should be, So twenty three twenty.

Speaker 3 (31:35):
I think twenty three twenty. Now, all the things that
you said earlier about the intangible you know, motivation and right,
all that stuff, like, I'm more than happy to allow
that to happen, right, I really am. But I just
back it up on the bulletin board as a as
a guy that just you know, an excell x is
and O's guy. I just look at the matchup and
I'm like, I think Seattle has a little too much.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
They probably do. I think you have to that, but
it's a vastly different feel this week than I think
we expected to feel.

Speaker 3 (32:05):
Yeah, that's totally fair, and I will allow also for
the fact that you know, a lot of people have
given Jacoby credit and rightfully so. But I keep on
harping on the fact that I feel like there's another
level there that they need the quarterback to get to
if they're going to really win games. And maybe he
looks at the film from last week and says, oh,
I had some chances here, had some chances there, and

(32:26):
they come out of it differently, like when you have
a ten point lead at halftime, Like there's no reason
to push the ball down the field when you're not
one hundred percent shore that you can get it there
right now, you're letting the other team back in the game. Right,
So maybe if you're in a different situation, he is
a little bit more aggressive, right. Yeh, thanks buddy, of course,
any appreciate you.

Speaker 1 (32:43):
We'll look forward to the piece on Patriots dot Com
on Yes, Drake May's first official week is a professional quarterback?

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (32:49):
I like it right, all right? Very cool, very good
for me. You got it, all right? The one and
only easy Lazaarre on Twitter X whatever again? I just
why do I get? I just I don't know. Do
people understand when I say X or X dot com
or whatever that they know that that's Twitter? Now, yes,
if people understand, okay, because I don't.

Speaker 5 (33:09):
But it's also okay to refer to as Twitter. I
think you only need to refer to as X if
you're for like legal purposes, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Why do we need to have legal purposes? No, we don't.

Speaker 5 (33:19):
You could call it whatever he was what I'm saying,
Call it Twitter, call it X that thing, I know,
that thing, the thing that the loud mouth runs. Yeah, exactly,
the thing that Elon Musk who's trying to shoot rockets
into Mars.

Speaker 1 (33:30):
You know that that that thing that he's you know,
run and people think he's not running it very well anyway.
I don't know, I don't I don't really keep up
with that end of it. I just know that it's
a good conduit to be able to you know, talk
some sports talk, some football talk, current events, talk about
you know, political debates. Now, let's not do that today. Okay,
let's definitely not do that today. All right here at

(33:50):
the top of the hour. Patriot fans, if you want
to see Toyota's best offers, including those not seen on TV,
go to buy a Toyota dot com. It's Toyota's official
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New England Patriots, Toyota Let's Go Places and shows brought
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Bud Liked, the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots.

(34:13):
We welcome into the program Chris Price, who covers the
Patriots for the Boston Globe. He has been a frequent
contributor and guest on this show over the course of
our now twenty four seasons getting into this thing. And Chris,
it's always good to chat a little football with you.
And how is the the the noted book author doing today?

Speaker 4 (34:31):
I'm doing really well. How you doing, my friend?

Speaker 1 (34:34):
Everything's good, my man, everything's good. What's the what's the last?
Forgive me? What is the last?

Speaker 3 (34:40):
Something?

Speaker 1 (34:40):
You just published? Something did you not?

Speaker 2 (34:42):
Well?

Speaker 4 (34:42):
There was a book that came out last year, the
History of the Hertford Whalers. That's last year, two years ago.

Speaker 1 (34:48):
That's the one that's one years ago.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
Yeah, the History of the Hertford Whales, which was a
blast to do. Is to keep growing up in Connecticut.
But now I'm glad you asked, because October first, I
have a new football trivia book.

Speaker 1 (34:59):
Nice.

Speaker 4 (35:00):
Yeah, it was a blast to do. Skyhorse Publishing they do,
they do tremendous work. It's just it was. It was
a lot of fun and I had a lot of
fun putting it together. And it should be out.

Speaker 2 (35:12):
Yeah, a cobra.

Speaker 1 (35:12):
First title, what's the title? Give us the title?

Speaker 2 (35:16):
Here?

Speaker 4 (35:16):
Let me it's something along the lines. Man, this is horrible.

Speaker 6 (35:21):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (35:22):
Right off the top of my head. It's here we go.
The great Football Trivia Challenge six hundred questions to test
your knowledge.

Speaker 1 (35:28):
Nice. Nice, Yeah, And.

Speaker 4 (35:30):
It's basically it's a sequel in a lot of ways
to the Ultimate Football Trivia Book, which I did for
them a couple of years ago. We had six undred
questions as well, So yeah, another six hundred questions.

Speaker 7 (35:40):
Again.

Speaker 4 (35:40):
It was a blast to put together, so much fun.

Speaker 1 (35:42):
Where or do you know yet where people can go
when they want to purchase.

Speaker 4 (35:46):
Yeah, you can actually go to Skyhorse Publishing dot com.
That's all one word, just like it's down Skyhorse Publishing
dot com. You can also get it at Amazon pre ordered,
Amazon Fundsandoble dot com, find bookstores everywhere. It's going to
hit the streets October first.

Speaker 1 (35:59):
And I only have one other question about this. When
I get my copy, will you autograph it?

Speaker 4 (36:03):
Oh? That's one of the great things about doing this,
jar And I think we've even talked about this before.
If you think enough of me to plunk down like
nineteen ninety nine eighty, this one's fee.

Speaker 1 (36:17):
Oh that's good too.

Speaker 4 (36:18):
We'll sign as Annie copy that will write whatever you
want me right.

Speaker 1 (36:23):
I love that. Okay, that sounds great. That sounds like
a deal. Speaking of a deal. The Patriots had themselves
deal this last week on the road, and I think
to the pleasant surprise of so many, which is great
to spent, you know, the last thirty minutes or so
talking about it with Evan Lazar, and I think while
we're all pleasantly surprised and pleased, I think we all

(36:44):
realize that there's still a long way to go. And
I'm just curious, is to your point of view, what
your initial reaction was to getting a win and what
your initial reaction would be to try to sustain what
they started in week one.

Speaker 4 (36:58):
I think it was a pleasant surprise, I really do.
And you know, you take off your sports hitter. I
was talking with Mike Riez about this. You take off
your sportsraitter had put on your human being had and
you realize that these guys, you feel good for him
because you know they were questioned and they were doubted,
and you know for all spring and all summer and
just you know, a coaching staff, players, you know, the

(37:19):
way they went about their business, A lot of people,
you know, had a lot of questions about where they
were and for them to receive that level of validation
after one game, admittedly it's one game. Look, we've been
around here an awful long time, you and I and
so we could say that it's one game. But in
that one game, they played well. They they rose to
the challenge, they met the challenge. I think they played
well on you know, in all three phases of the game,

(37:40):
and they came out of there with a well deserved win.
Now the question is did I still have And I
was talking to a couple of people about this in
the locker room today and just kind of a couple of
people around the league, the idea of how do you
handle that as a young team? How adept are you
at closing the door on that and looking ahead to
the challenge of the Seattle Seahawks, And I think that
where we're going to get a real sense of where

(38:01):
this team is at right now mentally, because again they're
a younger team. This is all new to a lot
of them, and it was great that they got that victory. Again,
it was a really impressive victory on the road against
legitimate Super Bowl aspirations. How they handle that now, and
you know, their approach looking forward, I think is going

(38:22):
to really go a long way towards determining their legacy,
even as we sit here in September.

Speaker 1 (38:26):
What do we make of the fact that they played
that game really the way I think the Bill Belichick
would have drawn it up. And oh yeah, so does
that say more about the talent on the team? Does
that say more about you know, BB's influence on a
guy like Girodmeo, even though he's got basically a brand
new coaching staff underneath him. What do we make out
of that?

Speaker 4 (38:46):
I you know, and I heard you talking about it
with Evan before it came on. It really felt like
a retro game, Sure, didn't it like a two thousand
and three you know, Corey Dillon running for two thousand
and four Corey dill and running for one hundred and
twenty five yards, and you get tough defense, you get
a specially magic you know, you go in and you
pull off the upset. I think the test from an

(39:07):
on field perspective this week is gonna be can they
be multiple? Are they capable of being multiple? You want
to get the passing game more involved, You want to
take a few more deep shots down the field because
now people know, you know, people, not that people didn't
necessarily know before, but for Andre Stevenson's forced to be

(39:27):
recommend The Patriots can run the ball, they can mix
things up, you know, they can do a few different things,
you know, particularly when it comes to running game and
the schemes that they can put together, and they can
kind of game plant so they can find some matchup wins.
But look, if I'm Seattle, I'm bringing you know, I'm
bringing the extra safety down in the box. I'm gonna say, Okay, Jacob,
beat me over the top, you know, beat me with

(39:48):
Jalen Polk, beat me with Pop Douglas. We're not gonna
get beaten by Ramandri Stevenson. And so now it's like
a pitcher the second time through the order, rookie pitcher
the second time through the order. All right, we've seen
all this stuff. Now we got to come up with
a way to stop it.

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (40:02):
So I think, knowing Seattle and their defensive approach, they're
going to try and come up with a way to
stop it, obviously, And it's on Alex Sandelt and Jacoby
Brissett and the rest of the offense to say, all right,
you think you got us, you know, you think you
got us pegged, Well, here we go. We're going to
put together some work in the passing game that's going
to throw you, guys for a loop and it's going
to surprise you. And you know, this is this is
what we want to do now moving forward. We want

(40:23):
to be a multiple offense. We want to be a
game playing offense, and we want to have a different
look each and every week that plays for us.

Speaker 7 (40:28):
Shrink.

Speaker 1 (40:29):
Am I wrong to think that this is also where
the Patriots really could use Christian Barmore? Because my thought
is is that Seattle is likely going just to you know,
see if they can't drive it a little bit and
use that to kind of set up, you know, opening
up their wide receivers and if they're able to have
some uh you know success running the ball like they

(40:49):
did against Denver in Week one. I think that's a
pretty good, uh. I think that might be a pretty
good mix to to trying to to win on the road.

Speaker 4 (40:58):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. I think that you know, the obviously,
you know, the more you have bar Moore back, the better,
you know. I will say this too, when you look
at this, when you look at this game, in this
game this week, you know, obviously you know you're not
gonna have bar Moore this week but this game specifically
sets up to be, you know, both teams played to restrengths.
It should be a what it should be a you know,

(41:18):
a two and a half hour game, because you're going
to just run the ball and to kill a class
and to take all the year out of the ball,
and the game's going to end up you know, thirteen ten. Yeah,
this is if you want to be that kind of team,
if you want to be a tough, physical team that
wins in the trenches, you're gonna need bar Moore back sooner, Rapide,
and I think, you know, we've seen some pretty good
performances over the course of the preseason in the first

(41:40):
regular season game by the guys up front, but you
need to be able to have bar Moore back because
he is such a key part of what you want
to get done offense.

Speaker 1 (41:47):
And I know, I know he's on IR with a
designation to return, so we hope that he continues to
you know, work himself out of the issue that he
had with the blood clots. The other thing that surprised
me really about Week one, Chris was the defense seemed
to attack a little bit more, especially going after the football,
forced fumbles, forced mistakes, force the turnovers, and I think

(42:10):
a little more so than maybe they had done over
the last couple of years, certainly under the former regime.
And it looks like they they certainly at least through
one week, they've had more success with it. You were
in practice, you were at camp, You saw all these
practices over the course of the summer. What led you
to think that that might be a possibility, because we
really have a tendency to focus only on the negative.

(42:31):
So did that come as as a prize to you
at all?

Speaker 4 (42:34):
Well, I think it's tough, jer because when you look
at that can be a dangerous game to play, and
you have to have a very specific, I think, kind
of player who can do it, because when you do that,
when you force the tempo, when you go looking for takeaways,
when you go looking for forced fumbles and interceptions, you
know if you swing and miss, it could end up
at six points in the other direction. So I think

(42:56):
you need a specific player to be able to do that,
one with a extraordinary ball skills. And I think they
do have some guys, particularly in the secondary, who have
that skill. I will say this, I remember DeMarcus Covington
is first you know, press conference talking about how they
want to be more aggressive and they want to you know,
force takeaways and they want to do more of that.
And so I think that that's his vision for this

(43:18):
defense is to play aggressive football. Now again, this is
the kind of thing that could come back to, you know,
to hurt him, you know, against another team and other
game plan, another scheme, different set of personnel, whatever the
case may be. But for you know, last Sunday, it
certainly worked against the Bengals team that was quite frankly
underwhelming on both sides of the ball. So I guess,
ultimately the answer your question, it can be a difficult

(43:39):
game to play. I know, it's very easy to sit
here and say, well, you know, you want to be
a defense that forces takeaways and kind of as aggressive
gets that's the ball. But you also need to be
mindful of not extending yourself too much, if that makes
any sense. You're yourself too vulnerable.

Speaker 1 (43:55):
Yeah, totally. The other thing that I thought was a
pleasant surprise that could actually win them some game is
before this year's over with, is the clean play on
the special teams. I mean, the special teams unit was
what ranked second of the NFL after one week. And
I know it's only one week as an example, but
you know, Joey Sly, you know, Cardona made a play
in forcing a fumble. Brendon School were flying all over
the place, and I just I'm like, okay, so they

(44:19):
know what to do and if good special teams play
can help give them an edge. This is a part
of the team that nobody figured really would be a
difference maker, but we learned even after one week that
it could be a difference maker.

Speaker 4 (44:33):
You know, this man, for so many years they won
those games on the margins thanks in large parts of
special teams play.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Yeah yeah, yeah, how much if they.

Speaker 4 (44:40):
Can get a little bit of that special team's mojo back,
if they can get you know, one big play a
game on special teams, whether it's the force fumble we
saw from Cardona. You know, Bryce Barringer continues to you know,
pin teams inside their you know, inside the twenty yard line,
and you can get Joey Sly making field goals from
forty yards. Plus, if you can get one good return

(45:01):
a game from a guy like Marcus Jones, you're on
your way, man. And look, that's a big difference.

Speaker 2 (45:08):
It is.

Speaker 4 (45:08):
It's a huge difference maker. I always come back to
the idea that look is baddest thing has got. Last year,
they lost eight games by seven points to Left, you know,
and if they can get a little special teams magic
in those games, maybe they win two or three of them.
They go six and eleven or seven and ten, and
you know, everything is different this offseason. But but yeah,
I mean, special teams can be a difference maker, and

(45:29):
I think we saw that at least to some extent
on Sunday. The other thing too, I love Chad Roland,
Chad Roland with my guy, but Joey Sly making three
field goals in a one score game, that's tough to beat.
And you know, when you're getting that kind of special
teams play, you're gonna be a tough out. You know,

(45:49):
I don't care who you're playing with.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Yeah, Dad Ryland as a draft pick, I thought he
had the benefit of the doubt here and he's got
I think maybe the her leg, but Slies seem to
have just a sly edge and consistency, and I know
that was important to this particular staff.

Speaker 4 (46:04):
Yeah, it really was, and he's he you know. It
was a really good competition over the course of the summer.
I just missed Chad Ryland because he was another baseball guy.

Speaker 1 (46:12):
In a lot of firm.

Speaker 4 (46:13):
Yeah, they talk about the Pendent Race, but but that's
to him down the road. And you know, Joey sly
if he continues to kick like this, you know it
certainly Careers they made the right move.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
Yeah, and Chad Ryland probably only needs to keep his
phone you know, near his uh, you know, his bedside,
you know, nightstand, because chances are somewhere somebody in this
league is going to give him a call before too
much longer. Because again, Chris Price, Boston Globe with Chris,
because you've been around long enough, I wanted to to
venture just slightly for a minute here before we let

(46:43):
you go about, uh, some historical perspective here, because I
noticed that, you know, ESPN put out today a story
about how Robert Kraft has struggled to get into the
Pro Football of Fame. And then I also, you know, uh,
because I'm on you know, the reception of of the
committee here they nominated their veterans for twenty twenty fives class,

(47:08):
and I think Patriot fans everywhere are always wondering why
doesn't Gino Cappelletti get into the Profofball Hall of Fame,
and he was on the nomination list again. That was
released yesterday by the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And
so I just wanted to ask you about those two
two particular stories and what chances maybe the Patriots have
to be represented from the senior, the veterans point of view.

Speaker 4 (47:31):
Well, first of all, let me let me tackle Gino.
I wrote, I don't know, maybe twenty years ago, I
did a column. You know, I was talking to the
lead Creek, Gil Santos about Gino Cappelletti and people, if
you don't know Gino Cappelletti, go back, check YouTube, check
the stats. He was mister AFL and I still believe.

(47:55):
And it's not so much now as it was twenty
thirty forty years ago. There is a bit of a
disrespect card to be played when you're talking about guys
who played in the AFL as opposed to the NFL.
I'm talking specifically pre merger. There were there were a
lot there are a lot of people out there who
don't think that the AFL stars wore up the snuff

(48:16):
when it came to stacking them against the NFL.

Speaker 8 (48:18):
Stars.

Speaker 4 (48:19):
Look, you know, is was one of the best, you know,
and you could make an argument for his work as
a broadcaster that he could you know, he should be
you know, thought of as a contributor as well. I
think it's overdue that that we're even having this conversation.
I think he's a guy who, even if you would
vote against him, even if you did not appreciate him

(48:40):
as a player, as a contributor, whatever the case may be,
I think he deserves to be part of the conversation
when you talk about the Pro Football Hall of Fame,
given the breadth of his career, particularly as an on
field contributor in the American Football League.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
All time all time leading scorer in the AFL. Yeah, yeah,
all time leading scorer in the AFL. How is that
not worthy of the Pro Football Hall of Fame?

Speaker 4 (49:03):
And he played multiple positions and he was one of
the best in the league, you know, an over extended
period of time. It's just again, I think, really and
you see a lot of it. It's funny I talked that,
you know, we talked to the top of me writing
about the Hartford Whalers, and you know, there's there's a
similar bias when you talk about the Hockey Hall of
Fame and the wh and you know, the Whalers obviously
in the WHA and merging the HL and there they

(49:26):
don't necessarily recognize statistics from guys who are in the
wh A and the NHL. They just recognize the NHL statistics.
And so again I think there's a just an inherent
bias there, you know, considering a lot of people consider
that league substandard of whatever the case may be. I
just think g you know, again, given his work as

(49:46):
non field, as as a player on the field, trivia
off the field, long time broadcaster, I think he's earned
a right to at least be part of the conversation.
If I had to vote, I would vote for him.
But again I understand that if you did not necessarily
grow up in this era, in this area, in that era,
you may not necessarily know of the impact of Gino
Cappelletti on the franchise. I can tell you the other

(50:09):
thing about the Robert Craft's quest to get into the
Pro Football Hall of Fame. For me, again, if I
was a voter, I would put him in. But voters
are squirrel Yeah, yeah, they're fickle, they're particular and look,
I understand I don't agree with it, but I understand

(50:32):
why people might have some trepidation around a Robert Kraft
candidacy when it comes to to play gate, Spygate, all
of the drama that's kind of scrolled around this franchise
for the last twenty or so years at the same
time all points to guys like Jerry Jones. And I
think Jerry Jones. I think Jerry Jones's you know, has

(50:54):
had an incredible run as known of one of the
most important professional sports franchises on the planet. I would
stack Robert Kraft's off field behavior up against Jerry Jones.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
No question. That's absolutely where I was going with this.
Jerry Jones made the Pro Football Hall of Fame in
twenty seventeen. Okay, this is so. Since then, they've had
seven more seasons are going on seven anyway, more seasons
of disappointments, of not living up to expectations, of failures
by the owner who happens to also be the GM

(51:28):
in developing a team that wins. And he's certainly had
his more than his fair sheriff, shall we say, bicycle
wobbles along the way. I don't know how I came
up with that one. But that's kind of how I
look at it. You know, let's get back on track,
you know. And on top of all of that, you

(51:49):
can't tell me that mister Kraft hasn't had a significant
amount of influence on not only the television contracts, but
the success of a franchise, building it from basically nothing
when he got it to you know, an entity that's
worth seven and a half billion dollars today. I mean,
and the only reason that comes to my mind has
to be jealousy. And I'm not even sure that that's

(52:12):
an accurate word, but there's there's enmity there, there's something
there that it's kind of like, you know, hey, I'll
be nice to your face, but behind you, I'm going
to MFIA.

Speaker 4 (52:21):
Yeah. I think I think there are two things. I think.
First of all, from speaking to voters, like I've done
stories on like Robert Harrison, it's Will Fork and you know, minitarian,
I talked to a lot of voters. In voters, they
don't like to be lobbied, if that makes any sense. Yeah,
they don't like to be told this is why you
should vote for this guy.

Speaker 1 (52:42):
So maybe he should he should back off of his
lobbying efforts.

Speaker 4 (52:45):
Yeah, I think that's I think that's a small part
of it.

Speaker 7 (52:48):
I do.

Speaker 4 (52:49):
And then the other thing too, though specifically about Jerry,
Jerry has got enough pp barnum in um to be
endearing to just about anyone if you sit down with
him and what one or in a smaller setting. And
that's not to say that that Robert is not the
same way. It's just Jerry has.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
Whatever it is he does, you.

Speaker 4 (53:12):
Know, charisma, duende, whatever you want to put to it,
and he can just and he can sell it, man,
he can sell it better than just about anyone. And
maybe Robert needs a little bit more of that when
it comes to it. But yeah, really for me, like
I said, speaking with a lot of voters, a lot
of Hall of Fame voters, a lot of Hall of
Fame voters do not like being lobby. It is being

(53:37):
there someone is preaching to them, or someone is you know,
scolding them that they haven't put someone like this in
the Hall of Fame yet.

Speaker 2 (53:42):
So I think he's going to get in.

Speaker 7 (53:45):
I do.

Speaker 2 (53:45):
I just don't know when.

Speaker 4 (53:47):
I think Robert is going to get in eventually, because
to your point, look, he's the owner of a team
six Super Bowls, so much when it you know, when
when it came to the TV contracts and just just
all of it, you know, again, a really really impressive legacy.
I just don't know when it's gonna happen.

Speaker 1 (54:03):
No, I had the chance. It was the time before
the last time that the Cowboys were here in Foxborough.
Had a chance to talk with Jerry, and he was
very kind of to grant an interview. And you're right,
you know, I was basically nobody, and he, you know,
was a showman. Yeah, absolutely, you know, he turned it
on because he knew I was going to record his

(54:25):
comments for you know, for publications somewhere. And so I
give the guy credit in terms of pr sense. He
knows exactly what to do and how to push those buttons.
And you know, I don't necessarily think that that's mister
Craft's downfall. I happen to agree with you. I think
that those especially who are girls, little veterans, no old cudgers,
who don't write to be told what to do. I

(54:46):
think you're exactly one hundred percent right in terms of
the Veterans Committee. So maybe uh, discretion is the better
part of valor. Here where it is trying to convince people.
As long as we state the case and then back
off and let that case sort of sit there, that
might be the tact to take right now. I just
I hope that he's able to get into the hall

(55:06):
before he's not able to enjoy it.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
That's yeah.

Speaker 4 (55:09):
And that's the thing. And I think that's the only
thing that I would respond, That's the only thing I
would say in response to people who when I just
brought up the idea, they don't like being lectured to,
they don't like lobby that. Look, there's a finite amount
of time here. And so if you do want to
put him in the Hall of Fame and you want

(55:30):
to have a you know, a kind of tie a
nice bow on this on this story, that that's the best.

Speaker 2 (55:35):
Way to go about doing it.

Speaker 1 (55:36):
Yeah, Chris, thanks for the time today, brother. It's always
good to talk to you. I really appreciate I love it.

Speaker 2 (55:41):
I love it.

Speaker 4 (55:41):
Take care, my friend. We'll talk again soon.

Speaker 1 (55:43):
See on Sunday. Yes, sir, you got it. Chris Price,
the one and only Chris Price covers the patrons for
the Boston Globe. He's at c Price Globe on Twitter.
The hell with it. I'm calling a twitter. Okay, I
call it Twitter. Yeah, I know, that's what I'm gonna do,
all right. I'm also gonna call him Patty in Agua.
Thanks Patty for hanging in. You're in the playbook, brother.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
No, it's always a pleasure to hang on to Doc here.

Speaker 1 (56:13):
I'm glad that you take the time, my friend. What's
on your mind today?

Speaker 4 (56:18):
So I'll go over a few things.

Speaker 6 (56:20):
First of all, the Duke absolutely belongs inside the Hall
of Fame. I never watched him play, but just just
look at the stats.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
Look at how we.

Speaker 6 (56:29):
Separated as a wide receiver back in that era.

Speaker 2 (56:32):
You probably the guy was just great.

Speaker 6 (56:34):
Two more guys, Stanley Morgan absolutely belongs in the Hall
of Fame. I think he still has the highest average
yards per catch for anyone who will whatever qualify that
they have in the NFL, at over nineteen yards, something
like nineteen point two, I think. And brom Me Harrison.
I mean, I'll never stop saying this. I cannot believe

(56:57):
that Brian Dawkins is in the Hall of Fame. N
Hernson isn't. And I made the same correlation with the
N Williams when he get on got in years before
Taylan and I'm like, tell me, tell me a big
play that that guy made in a big game. You know,
they were great players, absolutely deserving to be in there.
But like law Harrison, those guys played at their best.

(57:18):
I have to think forty two notwithstanding, Yeah, you know,
I have.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
To thank Patty that that Rodney gets in this year,
you know, through the regular means. I have to think,
because I think he was closed last year. There was
a little bit of a stink when he didn't get in. Uh,
you know, and he's had, you know, people like Bill Belichick,
you know, pushing for his candidacy. I have to think
that that's that's gonna happen. That being said, there are

(57:43):
two other names I think that we'll ring familiar with
Patriots fans who are on the Veterans or the Seniors
nominating committee. They're gonna there's one hundred and eighty three
names from Pro football's past on the initial list, but
stands The reason is as gonna be a few Patriots
on the list. I counted them, and the guys that
I recognized, there are only three who played in New

(58:05):
England for any preaciable amount of time. They are going
to whittle this list apparently to fifty before the Veterans
Committee is actually going to consider their candidacy. Based on
what I've been told. The other two names Jim Plunkett
and Mark Van Egan, who both played a considerable portion
of their careers elsewhere. But Jim Pluckett's a former you know,

(58:28):
number one draft pick. And in fact, the first reaction
I had was, damn, he's not in the Hall of
Fame already. I didn't, I didn't really realize that. And
and Mark Van Egan is a dear friend. He spent
much of his his years, you know, his good years
playing football with the Oakland Raiders under John Madden and
wound up his career playing in New England in the

(58:51):
late eighties before he finally retired, So you know, but
he was a part of those you know, you know
old Glenn Raide you know, you know teams that you know,
Chris Berman likes to wax you know, or used to
like the wax poetic about, you know on ESPN. So
I just I find that odd. I just you know,
like you Gino Capilletti is, you know, as I just mentioned,

(59:12):
with Chris Dude led the AFL all time in scoring
ten years for this league before it merged with the
NFL in nineteen seventy, he led the AFL in scoring.
How is that not pro football worthy?

Speaker 8 (59:28):
Right?

Speaker 6 (59:28):
And it's the Pro football It's not the NFL.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
Not the NFL Hall of Fame, it's the Pro Football
Hall of Fame. And so yeah, if you're getting a
paycheck to play football, there should there should be an
avenue to get in.

Speaker 6 (59:42):
Again. Like guys, I'm sure you know because you've covered
it when it was going on, But like guys like
Jim Kelly and Warren Moon who played in the USFL,
all their statistics are are there. You know they still
count that as being part of pro football.

Speaker 2 (59:59):
And enough of that.

Speaker 6 (01:00:00):
Yeah, you know it was in the Pro Football Hall
of Fame. Yeah, So let's get down to a couple
other things I want to talk about.

Speaker 2 (01:00:08):
I called it.

Speaker 6 (01:00:10):
I called it here on the show last Wednesday, that
the past we're going to win now to get the
score right?

Speaker 1 (01:00:15):
You did.

Speaker 4 (01:00:15):
I predicted a little you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:17):
Did, and I told you i'd give you credit. So
I'm glad. I'm glad you called. I had to make
sure that I took your call. And if you hadn't called,
I would have said, hey, I think we did a
one or two fans picked the upset, and you're one
of them.

Speaker 6 (01:00:29):
And I'll tell you what this week coming up, I
think if they sort of stick to the same game plan,
I think they need to open up the passing game
a little bit more. They're going to have they're going
to get away with throwing just twenty twenty one passes.

Speaker 1 (01:00:42):
No, they're going to have to open it up because
like like Evan and Chris Price both mentioned, uh, you know,
Seantle's going to try to take away you know, Remandre,
and so that means you know, it's going to be
upon you know, Jalen Polk, It's going to be upon
you know Hunter Henry, Uh, you know these guys, and
and certainly I think, uh, you know it's gonna be God,

(01:01:06):
what am I thinking here already?

Speaker 8 (01:01:08):
Up Douglas.

Speaker 1 (01:01:11):
I would say that Douglas would have to be the
next one in line, because you know, as a slot receiver,
you know when you're going over the middle, Yeah, you're
gonna have to do some criss crossing, and yeah, you're
gonna have to be that safety.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Well.

Speaker 1 (01:01:21):
I also think that Antonio Gibson as long as he's
you know, perfectly healthy. Uh, he's gonna have to be
an option coming out of the backfield, So I think
he might get more snaps of the football because of that.

Speaker 6 (01:01:32):
Yeah, that's a good call. I was gonna bring him
up to. But yeah, I mean I said this on
to you yesterday too. Like if you look at just
basing in completely on last year's statistics, Seattle was the
second worst team as far as you know, average rushing
yards per game. They were tied for the second worst
team and rushing touchdowns allowed with the Giants with twenty four.

(01:01:55):
And I think the Cardinals are somebody at twenty five.
So I think this is a team date, you know,
impose your will, kind of kind of do the same
thing you did last week against the Bengals. You know,
they know you're gonna run it. They're probably gonna stack
the box, but just you know, keep beating them or
keep pounding the rock until they prove they can stop it.
And you know, just basing it on last year, I'm

(01:02:17):
not I didn't see any of the Denver Seattle game
this past week, so I can't tell you how good
they did against the run. But I think, you know,
just statistically speaking, to look like they did a pretty
good job. But I think we're at least like as
far as identity goes, I think the Broncos with with
them doing a whole restart with Bonex and everything, they're

(01:02:40):
still the same thing. They're still trying to like reidentify
and re.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
Establ sure, and that's where I think the Patriots may
have their best opportunity coming up, because you know, when
you look at Seattle' who went over Denver last week,
I think you know, they kind of caught Denver a
little by surprise, and they put a lot of pressure
on bo Nicks and they made it difficult for him
to operate. And Seattle, by the way, in the first
half of that game against Denver, I don't know how

(01:03:06):
much you saw, they were miserable. They scored seventeen points
in the second half to win that game. They scored
four points on two safeties, which is nuts. When was
the less time that happened? So so they yeah, I agree,
that's awesome, But at the same time, you know, they
had to go to unusual means in order to be

(01:03:28):
able to get themselves some cushion, you know, to win
against Denver, so you know, yeah, they got some breaks too,
but the Patriots also, you know, made their own breaks
and were able to win on the road like that.
And and now Seattle's got to come, you know, travel
on the road for the first time. And so I
think that's where, you know, the Patriots have to know
Seattle's going to target what they do best. So you

(01:03:48):
let's see how well you know, alex Van Pelton and
Gerrod Mayo and Jacobe Brissett and the offense. Let's see
how well they scheme this up, come up with a
plan to counter punch, because they're gonna need a counter punch.

Speaker 6 (01:04:01):
Yeah, And just going forward after this week, like I
know it's going to get a lot tougher, but I
think that they can. I think they can run on
this team. And you know, I know, like hats fans
may grumble and groan about boring and you know, when
are they gonna when they can open it up and
pass the ball, But if they're winning, who really cares?

(01:04:21):
You know what I mean? Like, I just I think
this team could strut out on two. And I know
Freddy has said the hardest weeks to call our weeks
one two, and seventeen. And this is why, because you know,
we thought for the better part of twenty years when
when we had the greatest coach and greatest quarterback, like
they they didn't get their footing in September, they get
they got their footing starting in October throughout, you know,

(01:04:45):
to the end of the season.

Speaker 1 (01:04:46):
Yeah. And I think we find that that's the case
with a lot of good football teams.

Speaker 6 (01:04:51):
Yeah, but I like I like the fact that our
guys can like sneak up on a couple of these
teams and possibly.

Speaker 1 (01:04:57):
Pull you know, possibly go to and oh, now's the
time to do it.

Speaker 6 (01:05:01):
I'm gonna pick him again. Okay, I'm gonna pick him again. John, Okay,
I'm gonna go one D thirteen this week.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Okay. So you like the defense in that one, how, Patty? Okay, Yeah, I.

Speaker 6 (01:05:13):
Think it's gonna be I think it's gonna be another
white knuckle game. And I'll be on the edge of
my seat. You know, I'm getting ready for a nap
once the game up, and you know, from eating a
good breakfast and okay, spending a lot of energy yelling
at my television.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
I'm exactly and I'm sure you know especially if they
move to two. And oh, we'll talk about it next week, all.

Speaker 4 (01:05:35):
Right, buddy. Always great to talk to you.

Speaker 1 (01:05:36):
John, always great.

Speaker 2 (01:05:37):
I'll talk to you next week.

Speaker 1 (01:05:38):
Thank you, sir. Always good to have you on. I
appreciate that, Patty and Agawam. Let's bring in Doug Kaie,
who covers the Patriots for the Boston Harold, joining us
here in the playbook. Hey Doug, great to talk to you,
my man.

Speaker 8 (01:05:49):
How's it going, Hey, John, I'm doing all right. How
are you doing?

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
Excellent? Excellent? What surprised you the most about Week one
in New England's performance overall?

Speaker 8 (01:05:59):
I mean, honestly, the fact that they won surprised me
the most. And it wasn't wasn't a performance perfect performance
by any means, but and they were certainly helped out
by the Bengals and T Higgins being out and Joe
Burrow not looking like himself. But I mean, yeah, no
one predicted the Patriots to win that game. They were

(01:06:20):
the biggest underdogs in the league heading into the into
Week one, and and they pulled it off. U. So
I think that that, And no, it certainly wasn't a
maybe ideal performance by the offensive line when you dig
into into the numbers a little bit deeper, but it
wasn't an outright disaster, So I would say that that
perhaps surprised me a little bit as well.

Speaker 1 (01:06:41):
Were they really in your estimation? Were they really one
of the two worst teams in the NFL before last week?

Speaker 8 (01:06:51):
I mean, certainly they didn't look like it in Someday's game,
but I can understand that from a roster construction perspective,
and then also based on how they performed last season,
I can certainly understand why they would have been regarded
that way heading into Week one, because you know, even
as I was putting together some fifty three man roster
projections and everything like that, the roster just really is

(01:07:14):
not that deep. So I think that depth could still
be an issue for the Patriots you're moving forward, and
I think that goes into some of those predictions heading
into the season. But there's also certainly areas where the
Patriots improved him last year, and I think one of
those that showed up in maybe not a major way,
but certainly showed up on Sunday was the improvement of quarterback.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
What then, do you make of the fact that this
team is a three and a half point home dog.
Is that just because the respect factor around the league,
where especially from the bookies, just isn't there yet.

Speaker 8 (01:07:49):
Yeah, definitely. I think that some people are probably still
looking at that that Week one win as a fluke,
and I think that's fair. I think there's even people
within the building with the Patriots they don't expect the
Patriots to win that many games this season. No, no,
I won't be named anything, but you know, I don't
think that expectations are still necessarily that high after Week one.

(01:08:12):
And that's the thing. It just has to do with
the Seahawks having a talented roster. I mean, especially on defense,
They've got stars and future stars all over that unit.
On offense, they've got great skill position players at running
back and wide receivers. So I think that plays a
pretty big factor. But most it really is just the

(01:08:34):
expectations for the Patriots heading into the season. Caring over
here in a Week two.

Speaker 1 (01:08:39):
You know, based on what you saw over the course
of the summer leading into the preseason and now with
the pleasantly I guess surprising Week one performance, what really
stands out to you as being like, I didn't see
this coming.

Speaker 8 (01:08:58):
I think that you know, I mentioned the offensive line. Yeah,
and I thought that there was a possibility that heading
into Week one that it was it was really just
going to be in an outright disaster, and that's not
necessarily what we saw. You know, they did allow a

(01:09:19):
forty four point eight pressure rate to the Bengals defensive line.
One hundred and eighteen o vermondre Stevenson's one hundred and
twenty yards came after contact, So you know, it's I
think that Jacoby Brissett and Ramandra Stephenson both helped the
offensive line look better maybe than it really was, but

(01:09:39):
there were still holes Formandra Stevenson, they still helped bring
him in the end zone for the touchdown. You know,
Kobe Wasssett was under pressure, but maybe not so quickly
that he couldn't get the ball out quick fast. He
wasn't under pressure so quickly that that he couldn't turn
some of those players in a scramble, throwways and everything.

(01:09:59):
So I I think that really is the thing, is
that the offensive line looked like it could have been
a whole lot worse. And we saw that in that
joint press against the Eagles, where the Patriots could barely
form an offense. Their offensive line was allowing so many
pressures and that's not necessarily what we saw against the Bengals.

Speaker 1 (01:10:16):
Okay, have you had a chance to look into what
Seattle might bring to the table any at all yet
to this point in time, and what are your initial impressions?

Speaker 8 (01:10:26):
Yeah, I mean, I think that this could be a
tougher game overall for the Patriots offensive line, going against
guys like no Leonard Williams and boys. They've got two
really good cornerbacks and Devin Witherspoon and Kyrie Tike Wollen.
I think that could make life a little bit difficult

(01:10:47):
on not only Scoby were Set, but on the wide
receivers as well. Treeke Wollan has been a guy who's
done a lot of interceptions in his young NFL career.
So that's one thing that Score said is he's typer.
Aaron Rodgers would be awst interception rate in NFL history,
but he nearly torew an interception on Sunday. Hunter Henry
does a great job of defending that past against Gino Stone.

(01:11:10):
But yeah, I think that that's that's gonna be the
issue on offense for the Patriots. Just how many talented
players the Sea actually have across all the units, and yeah,
I mean on offense. I mentioned it before, but Kenneth
Walker is a great running back, and the Patriots' secondary
depth is really to be tested with DK Metcalf, Jacks
and Smith and Jigbo and Tyler Lockett. Those are three

(01:11:33):
really different wide receivers who will have a ton of talent,
And even if Christian Gonzalez is able to take away
DK Metcalf, they still have the other two to worry about.
And even if Jonathan Jones can take away a Lockett,
then Smith and Jigba could be an issue for Marcus Jones.
So all three of those cornerbacks are really going.

Speaker 1 (01:11:49):
To have to be on the top of Yeah, I
listen the talent that they have a wide receiver. We
talked a little bit about this in the first hour
of the show, but to me, that's the X factor here.
Some how, either the pass rush is going to have
to really you know, lay it down on Geno, which
you know, obviously Denver did it to an extent in
the first half, but in the second half, you know,
they rolled, and so it was not sustainable. Whatever Denver did,

(01:12:12):
it wasn't sustainable, and it certainly didn't help them in
getting a win. The Patriots are going to need a
lot of help with three outstanding receivers on that side
of the wall. You know, there's there's a lot of
guys that can go get it. Gino Smith just has
to kind of put it up there.

Speaker 8 (01:12:26):
Yeah, And I mean Gino Smith is certainly not you know,
a top ten quarterback in the NFL or anything like that.
You can force the stakes out of there at the
Patriots defensive line, their pass rush has to be more
effective in this game. Kean White had a huge game
the two and a half stacks, but otherwise he was
not getting a ton of help out there. So I
think you have to see a better game from guys

(01:12:48):
like Dannie m'culey, Josh Uch, you know, Dietrich Wise when
he's mixed into the group. It can't all just be
the key On White show in there. And I think
that there's a pretty massive difference between kennth Walker, who
to see ours have at running back and what the
Bengals have out there running back. So Patriots win defense
worked great against the Bengals at times, but that's gonna

(01:13:09):
have to continue. And that's one area where I really
do worry a little.

Speaker 4 (01:13:13):
Bit about the Patriots.

Speaker 8 (01:13:14):
Yeah, because after Devone Gotchah, they don't really have a
traditional nose tackle on their roster. Daniel l'qualley is much
more experienced on third downs rushing the passer than he
is on early downs. I mean, you have guys like
Jeremiah Farms, Eric Johnson who was inactive, Tristan Hell came
of off the practice squad. He's more of an interior rusher.
So they're gonna have to continue to really be stat

(01:13:36):
against the run to you know, to be able to stop.

Speaker 4 (01:13:39):
This see Oxen.

Speaker 1 (01:13:40):
Yeah, I thought that, you know, while as you mentioned,
White had an outstanding game. Uh and and I'm not
surprised he's beginning to break out. He's, to me, the
reason why Matthew Judah became expendable, uh, beyond whatever you know,
off field issues you might have had with his contract.
And I thought a huche was was was close in
some instances. There's gonna be more Detrich wise, and I'm

(01:14:02):
going to have to go back and look at who
he was situated against because my thought was is that
they did a really good job schematic of moving White
around to put him in a matchup that he could
win utilizing his talents.

Speaker 8 (01:14:16):
Yeah, they did do a good job of that. He
was you know, there's there's few players in the NFL
like Keon whitehor six foot five, two and five two
hundred and ninety pounds who can stand up at outside linebacker,
rush from the interior, you know, line up in the nose,
do all the things that.

Speaker 7 (01:14:31):
He could do.

Speaker 8 (01:14:32):
And one thing is that you know, even after Week
one where he has two and a half sacks, I
think that more attention might be drawn Keyon White's way,
and maybe that will help free up guys like Joshua
Ruche and Dietrich Wise and these other pass rushers on
the Patriots to be a little bit more productive because
I think that that's what allowed Luche to be so

(01:14:52):
good when he was lined up across from Matthew Judon,
is that he was able to clean up on a
lot of those backs when Judong was drawing more attention,
and maybe you start to see that a little bit more,
you know, with a key On White now, and I
think the Seahawks offensive line overall is something that can
be you know, the Patriots could there could be an
advantage for the Patriots. They've got a good love tackle

(01:15:13):
on Charles Cross. He had a great Week one, but
beyond that, they don't have maybe the greatest talent yet
at that position or that unit.

Speaker 1 (01:15:22):
All Right, So Doug, I want you before we wrap
it over here, I want you to kind of complete
this sentence, all right for a second here to go
to and Oh, the Patriots will need whom to step
up this week.

Speaker 8 (01:15:36):
I actually think it might be to Kobe Brissette, because
after seeing Week one, the Seahawks are definitely gonna be
loading the box up against the Patriots. After you're hearing
Drove Mayo's comments on Monday and even today saying like you,
we are going to be a run first team. We
are going to run the ball and you're gonna have
to stop us otherwise we're going to keep rying the ball.
I thinks are gonna look at that as a challenge.

(01:15:58):
I think that it will be loading the box. I
think the Patriots will need to rely a little bit
more heavily on Jacoby Brissette and now John Mayo praised
the Patriots wide receivers today, saying that they were doing
the dirty work. They were getting open to watch the film,
they were getting open out there, and yeah, Jalen Polk
was someone who was definitely getting open. So I think
that Patriots are definitely an after a lie more heavily

(01:16:19):
on Brissette, which means essentially bigger performances from guys like
the Mario Douglas and Jaalen Polk in this game.

Speaker 1 (01:16:24):
Yeah, I'm just going to say, you put out a
story in the Herald today on Jalen Polk that even
though he didn't really while you with the numbers last week,
he certainly got open on a lot of occasions and
the Patriots either had a different play call or just
didn't recognize it or what. But that's something I don't
think that they can afford to do this week and
expect to win the game.

Speaker 8 (01:16:43):
No, definitely. I mean he was open downfield too, and
he was a guy who who could get separation at
the University of Washington. He was a great contested catch guy.
So I think that, you know, overall, as the season progresses,
they are gonna have more trust in Jalen Polk and
he's the guy who could be a major player.

Speaker 1 (01:17:00):
All Right, Doug, thank you for the time, brother. It's
good to talk to you again.

Speaker 8 (01:17:04):
Absolutely good to talk to you, John.

Speaker 1 (01:17:05):
Thanks, you got it. It's the one and only Doug
Kyde at Doug k y E. D Kyde is where
he is on Twitter for those that don't know. I'm
very proud of Doug Kye because Doug is a former
student of mine at Emerson College in Boston. In fact,
the Bruins beat writer for the Globe is also a
former student of mine in Matt Porter. So I'm proud

(01:17:27):
of my guys. And I have two TV guys in
Providence who are former students. Gosh, I'm kind of they're
kind of sprinkling all over the country now, which is nuts. Huh,
what'd you say? We are the TV guys Nicky? And
that's what I was thinking.

Speaker 5 (01:17:44):
I didn't know Quit was one of your guys.

Speaker 1 (01:17:47):
Nicky at w l and E Channel six, the ABC
station Providence and his weekend guy, Ian Steele. They were
a couple of years apart. I think Nick being the older,
I'll get that one in for him, and I'm sure
I'll hear about it. But you know, and so Hey,
the fact that we could keep, you know, local students

(01:18:07):
and have them matriculate quickly and work back this way
says something says something. In fact, as I recall, I
wish I still had Doug on the line here. I
asked him about it. When Doug was in my class,
he wasn't even a SPORTSCM major. I don't believe. I
think he was something else and he just wanted to
take this class just because he thought it would be fun.
And now look at it. Holy crap, right, that's them.

(01:18:31):
Call me now for your free reading stuff, Call me
now for your free reading.

Speaker 4 (01:18:36):
I like it.

Speaker 1 (01:18:37):
I totally absolutely Hey, look at the kick off of
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(01:19:00):
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England Patriots eight five five Pats five hundred, the toll
free number web radio at Patriots dot com. I'll read

(01:19:22):
a couple of emails coming up at JR Broadcaster on
Twitter on Twitter. Let me get back to the phones here,
and I want to thank uh Todd in North Carolina
for hanging on Todd. You there, brother, I'm still here.

Speaker 7 (01:19:35):
I haven't talked to you in a while, there, John.

Speaker 1 (01:19:37):
I'm glad you took the time. I lost you on
the show last week and we couldn't find you again.

Speaker 7 (01:19:42):
Uh, there was an incident at my son's school. So
I just said, you know what, I'm just gonna.

Speaker 5 (01:19:47):
Duck out here and okay with that, Okay, I can
tell you off airone happened.

Speaker 1 (01:19:51):
Okay, all right, fair enough, all right. I'll get filled
in on the on the details. I hope everybody's okay.

Speaker 2 (01:19:57):
I got my boy.

Speaker 7 (01:19:57):
That's all that matters.

Speaker 1 (01:19:58):
Okay, that's all that matter, all right, tell me what's
on your mind. Man.

Speaker 7 (01:20:04):
I really like the way they played the other day,
but I think we all know that's not sustainable.

Speaker 1 (01:20:10):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:20:10):
I think they played their heart out. I was a
little bit impressed with Jacoby, especially towards the end and
some of the decision making he made. He made some
passes towards the end of the game that were very
I think he them actually winning the game. But again,
I don't think it's sustainable with the line play, and

(01:20:32):
I don't if if somebody shuts down the run, I'm
not sure exactly how well we'll be able to protect.
So I noticed they were bringing in an extra guy.
What would you do to try to keep them on
time with respect to their passing game? John?

Speaker 2 (01:20:48):
And keep it going?

Speaker 1 (01:20:50):
Well? You mean like you mean, like get it going
to begin with? Really?

Speaker 7 (01:20:55):
Yeah, get it going? Like, how are you gonna get it?

Speaker 1 (01:20:57):
I'm I'm I'm I'm finding Pop Douglas. I'm gonna try
to get him to create with the ball. That's what
I want. I mean, you know, he's a guy that's
supposed to be a slot receiver. He's supposed to have
a unique talent. He can catch the ball, he's quick,
he makes people miss. I want to try to scheme
Pop Douglas to get open. That being said, I think
Jalen Polk is the one guy that you can somewhat

(01:21:18):
rely upon to beat his defender, uh, you know, and
get open deep I don't know. If he's a true
stretch the field kind of guy, we can fight out
pretty quick. But if he's as open as much as
everybody says he was, and I only looked at a
little bit of tape after the game, but so I'll
take the guys who know it, because this is what
they do for a living. They study it. I'll take
the word for it. He was open a lot, and

(01:21:39):
I want to see them get downfield, and they're going
to have to do that to one or both of
those guys in order to win this game on Sunday.

Speaker 7 (01:21:49):
You're not looking at any kind of you know.

Speaker 1 (01:21:53):
No, no, I don't think this is no Todd. I
don't think this is a trick oration team. I really don't.
I don't get the empray than they are. I think that,
you know, while they may have some of that in
the arsenal, I think right now they're worried about the
meat and potatoes. I think right now, this team, because
girod Mayo is head coaching, he learned at the feet

(01:22:13):
of the master, and you know, maybe the Master kind
of lost touch with his subjects, you know, over the
last couple of years. But I think I think I
think Girod buys into it because it's what he knows.
It's how he learned how to coach. He didn't forget
he learned and so and I think he found guys
that would agree with some of that philosophy in what

(01:22:35):
he has with his coordinators in a VP and with
the Covington So I don't know. I mean, I'm not
gonna say they'll never run a flicker. I'm gonna say
they're never going to run an end a round. In fact,
i'd love to see them do it because I think
Pop Douglas, if you can find the right situation, he'd
be the perfect guy to run something like that. But
I just don't think that that's going to be the

(01:22:55):
rule rather than the exception. In order to get guys
open and go with the ball, you're gonna have to
win going over the top. You're gonna have to win
like every other good team in the NFL wins. And
that is to find, you know, a quarterback that can
give you sixty to sixty five percent completions. That's to
find a quarterback that can give you two hundred to

(01:23:16):
two hundred and fifty yards passing on a consistent basis,
that's to find a quarterback that can give you at
least a two to one ratio in touchdowns to interceptions
thrown and manage the game. And that's what really is
upon Jacoby percent. Did you know Todd that this week
NFL quarterbacks one to thirty two of all the thirty
two quarterbacks that started in play averaged under two hundred

(01:23:40):
yards passing in Week one and that hasn't happened in
two decades.

Speaker 2 (01:23:45):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:23:45):
Well, my fear is that the line just can't meet
the requirements that you're outlining. I think I'm not even
sure about Jacoby that much. You know, he's not a
bad quarterback, he's functional, but our on line, if our
online game of him enough time, then we're gonna have
to be, you know, shifting funks and doing something well,

(01:24:05):
try to buy the time because if you're going to
touch the field, like you said, John, and the indications
were last game they were bringing in a sixth lineman
to try to keep him clean, I just don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:24:17):
And and frankly, go ahead, No, that's my concern.

Speaker 7 (01:24:22):
I think, Okay, how they can do a long passing
game like that, well, I.

Speaker 1 (01:24:26):
Thought I thought bringing in Wallace like that. I thought
was was was brilliant, you know, because he ended up
becoming a tackle eligible, you know, and tie then, So
I actually listen, whatever you gotta do to win a
game is what you got to do. This is all
about going week to week, moment to moment, game to game,
win that game, then move on and worry about the
next one. And that's what you know. We're we always
try to look big picture around here because we always

(01:24:48):
want to be able to be able to to to
what predict the future. We want to know how this
team is going to be in another a month or two,
and is it you know, actually you know, contention worthy
and all that stuff.

Speaker 7 (01:24:58):
And I think we comit. John, I missed you. I know,
I really missed you. I know, to get back to
it at least twice a week, my friend, I miss this.
This kind of heart, this kind of insight combined saying hey,
this is where we're at, this is what we can do.
Let's just figure out away and this is what we'll achieve.
And we're not getting that from the PU crew. We're

(01:25:19):
getting I don't know, a little bit of dribble of this,
a little bit of that, a little bit, and you
know you and Evan are the only ones right now
keeping it real so well.

Speaker 1 (01:25:28):
I appreciate your saying that, but there are some of
us that gotta make money.

Speaker 7 (01:25:35):
Yes, I would like you to make money too, John,
Thank you. That would be good.

Speaker 1 (01:25:39):
Thank you.

Speaker 3 (01:25:39):
How about this?

Speaker 1 (01:25:40):
How about I make so much money I can afford
to retire on my full time job, and I'll do
nothing but come and talk football.

Speaker 7 (01:25:47):
Damn it. If I win the lottery, put me.

Speaker 1 (01:25:52):
Down right now, dude, somewhere okay, all right, you win
the lottery, I'll verbally archive. Okay, all right, verbally are
Matt has a record of it? Now I need a
million and if you're gonna bring me all you send
me a million bucks. I will do nothing but appear
on Patriot's playbook and go to the stadium. How's that done?

Speaker 7 (01:26:11):
John?

Speaker 1 (01:26:12):
Okay, absolutely done.

Speaker 7 (01:26:13):
Have a good one, Matt.

Speaker 1 (01:26:14):
Thank you, brother. It's good to talk to you. Todd,
be careful out there. So what happened with his kid?
Can you? Is it something you can share on the air? No, okay,
that's probably good then, all right, so we'll save it
for another day. Nelson's in la Hey, Nelson, you're in
the playbook, Nelson going once, Nelson going twice sold. Okay,

(01:26:41):
Russell Baxter will join us here. In approximately five minutes,
I mentioned the veterans' candidates for the Pro Football Hall
of Fame, and like one hundred and eighty three nominees overall,
which is an extraordinary number the Pro Football Hall of Fame,

(01:27:02):
And I mentioned this earlier. One was talking about it
with Chris. You know, in the last hour is going
to narrow this down to a list of fifty. So
as I said, one hundred and eighty three in the
senior category for the class at twenty twenty five. To
be considered in this particular group, each former player has

(01:27:24):
to have appeared in a professional football game in the
at least in this group, each former player last could
have appeared in a professional football game in nineteen ninety nine.
We don't have any issues with that where any of
the Patriots have experienced because they were well before nineteen
ninety nine. One hundred offensive players, seventy seven defensive players,

(01:27:48):
five special teamers, and the seniors screening Committee. This is
something that frankly, we need to do for the Patriots
Hall of Fame. They have the old fogies like myself
and a few others that have been around really for
thirty plus years. I mean, the team, the team's life

(01:28:10):
is what now, this is nineteen sixty, this is twenty
twenty four, so we're sixty five years right, New England
Patriots are sixty five years old. There are a handful
of us that have covered the team actively now for
more than half of the life of the franchise. There
are some guys that go before me, but they're you know,

(01:28:32):
they're already retired. They're smart, they saved their Dallas and
they got out when they get it was good, you know.
You know, guys like Ron Hobson and Jim Donaldson and
people like that come to mind, you know, Kevin Mannox,
guys like that. But I would tell you that we
really need to set up a senior screeting committee for
the Patriots Hall of Fame. There are some guys that

(01:28:54):
I think are very deserving within the New England realm
of the New England Patriots Hall of Fame. Uh you know.
And the guy that I've kind of touted over the
last few years has been a guy like Mosi Tatupu,
who was a do it all you know, mister patriot
kind of guy that really I think deserves that kind
of attention. And he was certainly a fan favorite, and

(01:29:16):
and and and I don't think anybody would have problem
with that pick. The problem is is that we're only
letting in one candidate per year, which is okay. I'm
all right with that, because you don't want to put
too many in all at once and then all of
a sudden you're bereft of quality candidates. You know, I
think there are guys like Logan Mangans are going to

(01:29:36):
get in and when they're eligible, you know, Julian Elliman's
going to get in. And we know we already broke
the rules for you know, Tom Brady getting in this summer,
and rightfully so. But I'm just you know, there also
should be a senior stream a screening committee, and I
think there is, because we haven't met with it, you know,
with the overall Hall of Fame committee in over a

(01:29:56):
year now, because Tom was the fate of complete for
this this year. So forgive me if there isn't. If
that I've misspoken, I don't. I'm just not aware of it.
I'd like to be on it because I think there
are a lot of guys that need to be talked about,
But as far as a pro football Hall of Fame
is concerned, I'm also kind of curious as to why
Jim Plunkett isn't in. Forget Gino Cappelletti, and of course

(01:30:18):
let's not forget Gino Cappileetti. He deserves it as the
all time league scorer inn AFL football history. He deserves
to be there. But why is Jim Plunkett not in
the Hall of Fame? I said, because I don't know.
I'll ask Russell that in a few minutes. But to me,
that's one. And then a guy like Martin Van Eagen,

(01:30:39):
who was you know, it wasn't a fancy guy. He
was a meat and potatoes, straight ahead kind of runner, tough,
tough as nails. You know, he was a he really
was a hybrid. He was a full back tailback, if
there is such a thing, you know. And he played
with those you know, raider teams that had Fred Bullettnakoff
and Phil villa Piano and who, by the way, you know,

(01:31:01):
Villa Piano's on this senior screening list too. Blatnikov's already
there in the Hall of fame, and deservedly so. John Madden.
He was on those Madden teams that were you know,
the Miller Light All Stars on those old commercials back
of the nineteen seventies and eighties, you know, and so
he and he's a guy that ended his career with
the Patriots. I would also tell you that I think

(01:31:22):
a guy like Steve Grogan could probably get some play
on this. You know, I was watching an old Monday
Night football highlight this week. Someone tweeted it out and
I guess it's because of the anniversary, the forty fifth
anniversary I think of, Yeah, forty fifth anniversary of Monday
Night Football was this week this past week, forty five

(01:31:45):
years football. So there was only an old Howard Cosell
halftime highlight clip and you know who he went nuts
over Mighty Macharron of the New England Patriots. And I'm
just like, I was like, I was so into it.
I was like I goosebumps on the back of my
neck listening to his his his narration, his video highights.
If you can come up with that on Twitter, do

(01:32:06):
yourself a favor and go look at that, because he had,
you know, believe it or not, The secret about Howard
is is that he always had to have that. You
think he always had to have things handed to him,
you know, like you know, the producers had to make
sure they did everything for him. Uh huh. Howard did
everything off the top of that bald noggin. He was impressive.
And I think that's what made how Wold how would

(01:32:28):
coach sell remarkable? Absolutely remarkable.

Speaker 5 (01:32:34):
I mean you could see the sheets on the tables
in the TV booth if you look it down on
it when the cameras are on the announcers, you can
see the piles of papers they have in front of him.

Speaker 7 (01:32:42):
You know.

Speaker 1 (01:32:42):
The funny thing about it is and I'm glad you
mentioned that, because, yeah, there are papers and sheets all
over the place, and you know, charts and figures and stats,
and most of it handwritten, not computerized or not typed out,
you know, because we didn't have computers back then or remember, right.
And then there was a shot of the booth during
the Sunday night game where Mike to Rico and Chris
Collinsworth were saying, you know, hit the camera behind this

(01:33:05):
is on, and so you could see the lay of
the land in front of Mike and Chris, it's all
computer monitors, and I'm like, where the hell's the paper,
where's his spot charts? Scroll with your finger on the iPad?
That's yeah, yeah, And I'm like, oh my god. I
couldn't believe it. It was amazing to see that, especially
in light of the fact that the clip that I

(01:33:25):
showed you of Howard Coussell or I told you about
of Howard Coussell narrating off the top of his head.
He had a producer in one ear telling him what
was coming in the name of the player and everything,
where they had a shot sheet that they would give
him and he'd look at that. There's no script. It's
just like you know, mac Herron, touchdown and he's and
he's going to his right, then he's head and again

(01:33:47):
to the end zoned. I mean, it was just like wow, wow.
The ability to add lib was extraordinary. That's kind of
part of what made Howard is Nelson in La back
is He's back there again? All right? Let me squeez
him in here real quick. Hey Nelson, what's up buddy?
I was doing today?

Speaker 7 (01:34:02):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:34:03):
It's all good. What's on your mind?

Speaker 8 (01:34:06):
Man?

Speaker 1 (01:34:06):
I'm just tinning to get that w again.

Speaker 2 (01:34:08):
I'm going for twenty one ten again.

Speaker 1 (01:34:11):
Run that w again, twenty one to ten. So you
like the way the defense is playing then, huh yeah,
I loved it.

Speaker 2 (01:34:17):
I loved it.

Speaker 1 (01:34:18):
Okay, good what who who stood out to you? Who's
played that impressed you on Sunday?

Speaker 3 (01:34:26):
Uh gone?

Speaker 1 (01:34:29):
Okay, yeah yeah the quarterback.

Speaker 2 (01:34:33):
As pressed me. I thought he was going to fuck
up in my language.

Speaker 1 (01:34:38):
Okay, No, it's the internet. It happens. What's going on?

Speaker 2 (01:34:44):
But what's going on?

Speaker 1 (01:34:45):
No worries?

Speaker 4 (01:34:45):
What?

Speaker 1 (01:34:46):
What's what's going on? Behind you? I here's some saws.

Speaker 7 (01:34:50):
Oh yeah, we right here. We're digging a trench reference
plus on pipe under ground, you.

Speaker 2 (01:34:55):
Know, the oil field.

Speaker 1 (01:34:56):
Okay, all right, well stay safe out there. You're not
anywhere near the fires and California, are you? Oh no, sir,
they're not near me.

Speaker 2 (01:35:03):
I'm in bakers right now.

Speaker 1 (01:35:05):
Okay, all right, that's good. I got you? All right, Nelson?
What else you got anything else? The boy? All right?
You got it?

Speaker 5 (01:35:14):
Should we be concerned that construction is being done while
they're on hold of the other.

Speaker 1 (01:35:21):
If you're in Bakersfield, get the hell out? Oh goodness? Uh? Well,
you know, Nelson calls with the prediction just about every week,
So I give him this. He's certainly certainly dedicated.

Speaker 6 (01:35:36):
A real woman could stop him from drinking.

Speaker 8 (01:35:39):
Yeah, it's a real big woman.

Speaker 1 (01:35:41):
It's time to go around the NFL with football guru
Russell Baxter.

Speaker 4 (01:35:45):
Now on.

Speaker 1 (01:35:47):
The name is Flounder on Patriots playbook. Huh, mister Baxter,
I presume how are you today, sir?

Speaker 2 (01:35:56):
I'm good all over? Nelson? Yeah, he made I thought
he'd made good points. But after all, as we know,
Nelson games are won.

Speaker 1 (01:36:07):
In the yes they are. They're one in the trenches
at a boy, if anybody can come up with an
analogy to digging trenches in Bakersfield, California, you can Russ.

Speaker 8 (01:36:17):
So there you go.

Speaker 2 (01:36:18):
I like it, and I will also like. I also
like Nelson's twenty one to Given what happened to the
Seahawks last week, even though they won, I'm predicted that
the Patriots gets let's see, uh one, let's how many?
How many safeties could they get?

Speaker 1 (01:36:39):
Can they get three?

Speaker 2 (01:36:41):
I'm gonna get I'm ten safeties in the Canadian Football League.

Speaker 8 (01:36:44):
Rouge.

Speaker 1 (01:36:46):
Yeah, you know what, why don't Why doesn't the NFL
take that that that hint from the CFL and create
the rouge because he got so many kickers that have
heavy legs in the league. Now, why can't kicker score
more than just a field goal or an extra point?
If they can kick that ball through the end of
the end zone, you know, to get a point, What

(01:37:07):
the hell? Why not?

Speaker 2 (01:37:09):
Well, listen, I think they've done enough tweaking and to
me still, you know, one of the most exciting plays,
obviously in college and pro is watching somebody miss that
field goal and then they going.

Speaker 1 (01:37:19):
Back running it out. Yeah, running back.

Speaker 2 (01:37:21):
You know we saw Devin Hester do it as a rookie.

Speaker 1 (01:37:25):
Well, why couldn't you put somebody back there? Russell, Let's say,
you know you're you're gonna kick it all Why couldn't
you put somebody back there deep in the end zone
if someone tries to boot it through the end zone
and maybe try to bat it down to keep somebody
from scoring a rouge? Wouldn't that wouldn't that pro? It
be like a block shot in basketball.

Speaker 2 (01:37:40):
Listen, if you say it enough and it gets out there.
You know, the NFL listens. That's one thing. Okay, they
you know, they're they talk about football being a copycat thing.
I think the NFL does a lot of copycatting, and
it's mostly done with stand pressure. Okay, Brett farm didn't

(01:38:01):
get the ball on overtime in the two thousand and
nine NFC title game at New Orleans. Of course he
had the ball in regulation. He decided to give it
to the Saints. But let's not let facts get in
a way. Okay, So we start tweaking the overtime rule.
You know, we tweaked the Pro Bowl. We've now tweaked
the kickoffs. Okay.

Speaker 6 (01:38:20):
They might have to change the name of football if
they take anything else out, So we'll see. I also
like your discussion about the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Speaker 1 (01:38:29):
Yeah good. I'm glad because I was going there next
ye on.

Speaker 2 (01:38:32):
The knees and I'm going to I'm going to give
you my reason why I don't think Jim Plunkett is
in good And I think it's because when you look
at the Pro Football Hall of Fame, it's really a
career award. And listen, he had his struggles in New England.
He went to San Francisco and that didn't turn out
so well, and then he was rejuvenated in Oakland. Flash

(01:38:56):
the Los Angelists of the Walkard to me almost like
a Hall of Fame story. He's one of my favorite
stories because what he did in Oakland in nineteen eighty
is he wasn't the starting quarterback at the beginning of
the year. Okay, the Raiders and Oilers made a significant

(01:39:17):
trade in which Dan Pasterini went to Oakland and Ken
Stabler went to Houston because bum Phillips wanted to knock
the door down in Pittsburgh. And as it turned out
that year out of the out of these, the Steelers

(01:39:38):
did not even make the playoffs. This year, they got
very old, very fast. Dan Pasterine broke his leg in
Week five and Jim Plunkett the rest of the way,
and obviously they won the Super Bowl, the first technically
the first wild card to win the Super Bowl, as
I like to point out, in nineteen sixty nine to
Kansas City Chiefs were actually the first non de vision

(01:40:00):
winner to win the Super Bowl because they did not
win the division in the AFL and had to play
the Raiders, who they had lost to twice during the
regular season, and then beat them and then beat the Vikings.
So I always phrased his non division winners, but technically
the Raiders were the first wild card because that's how
the playoffs were then set up, you know, starting in

(01:40:21):
nineteen seventy and obviously they've expanded, so but I think
that's probably what hurts Plunk at the level now. I
will also say this, I was personally surprised that Kurt
Warner got it because I thought he felled them to
the same category. Okay, and and greats again, great story

(01:40:41):
went up with the Rams. You know, began his career
in training camp in nineteen ninety four with the Green
Bay Packers. People then bounced around.

Speaker 1 (01:40:49):
And the Iowa Barnstormers, of the AFL, of.

Speaker 2 (01:40:52):
The arena groceries and all that, and then one of
the Rams and then had not so successful sint with
the New York Giants, and then bounced back and obviously
it was part of the cardinal team that went to
the Super Bowl in Super Bowl forty three. So and
yet he ended up in the Hall of Fame, so

(01:41:13):
we shall see. I mean to me, the thing that
goes on with the senior players now, and I'm very
very happy that we now have three senior finalists every
year instead of one Senior finalist, because we have such
a backlog when it comes to the older players, I
mean the really older players who meant a lot to
this league in the twenties and the thirties, in the forties. Again,

(01:41:37):
I like to remind people the Hall of Fame opened
in nineteen sixty three, the NFL first took it, and
it's not here's my ultimate reminder. It's the Pro Football
Hall of Fame. It's not run by the NFL. So
I always get those conspiracies, Well, Roger Goodell doesn't want
the Raider, but please stop it. Okay, that's not how
it works. It's separate entity. But the bottom line is

(01:42:00):
the NFL was born in nineteen twenty. The Pro Football
Hall of Fame class was first nineteen sixty three. That's
forty three years of a gap. So they've been playing
catch up forever.

Speaker 1 (01:42:14):
Yeah, and which is why I'm glad they've developed the
you know, the Senior Screening Committee. But there are some,
I mean, there's the most egregious omission here. Plunkett. I
think is worthy enough. I think he's worthy enough just
because of his story, as you suggested, over his career.
But the guy that's the most egregious omission is Gino
Cappelletti because he led the AFL career in scoring.

Speaker 2 (01:42:39):
No, I would definitely not disagree with that at all.
You know, I always do an emissions piece my guy
who I put first as the biggest omission, and I
do thirty. I could probably do one hundred before somebody
dozes off and so on. But I put L. C.
Greenwood from the Pittsburgh Steelers dynasty, who you know. And

(01:43:03):
now thanks to guys like John Turney and Pro Football
Reference who went back and did the homework and now
we can see and they did it, you know from
records and media guides. You know, we now have sack
totals going back to nineteen sixty instead of just nineteen
eighty two. And you go back and you look at

(01:43:25):
I mean, according to the NFL, the official NFL, you know,
Deacon Jones never had a sack because he played.

Speaker 1 (01:43:31):
Well before they kept that as a stat Yeah, that's
right now, as.

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
We know that veteran stuff. And you know, I'll tell
you something. John Turney, who does a lot of writing
for Clark Judge on his Hall of Fame site and
so on. You can follow him on Twitter Twitter as well.
He'd be a great person to come on your show
one day and just talk about the history defensive linemen

(01:43:56):
and so on.

Speaker 1 (01:43:57):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (01:43:58):
Shape of plugs. Yeah, terrific guy. I've met him at
ESPN at least once or twice when I was there
and so on, and he's a wealth of knowledge and
he really orchestrated getting this information about Saxon career, sacks
and so on. Else. I mean, I do a piece
we didn't update this year. I think we're going to

(01:44:20):
update it because once a couple of guys that got
in now on my list, I had Randy Gratishar and
Devin Hester, and they are now in Okay, So now
I have to go back and we'll see what happens
this year, and I'll probably update it after the class
of twenty twenty five gets in. Yeah, certainly have the
modern guys, and we'll see some of the older guys.

(01:44:40):
Now I can tell you guys who have gotten a
lot of consideration in the last couple of years. Our
guys like Ken Anderson, our guys like Sterling Sharp yep,
and boy would that be a ceremony.

Speaker 1 (01:44:54):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:44:54):
Sure. If you remember Shannon Sharp's induction, yeah, and what
he said about his brother, it wasn't it And I
was there. It wasn't a dry high in the house.

Speaker 1 (01:45:04):
Yeah, Sterling is on the list and the Veterans Committee.

Speaker 2 (01:45:07):
Sure, yeah, well Shannon got up there instead of all
the people in the Hall of Fame. I can honestly
say that I'm the second best football player in my
entire family.

Speaker 1 (01:45:18):
That's ruler. Yeah, that's a nice thing to say.

Speaker 2 (01:45:19):
Brother sitting fifty feet away.

Speaker 1 (01:45:21):
Yeah, on the stage.

Speaker 2 (01:45:23):
And I've known Sterling for a long time. We worked
together at ESPN and so on, and I know that
meant the world to him and so on. But Ken
Anderson's another guy who the numbers don't do him justice.
But he was a very successful, efficient quarterback in the
nineteen seventy League, MVP in nineteen eighty one when the

(01:45:43):
Bengals went to their for Super Bowl. And again, I
have so much fun doing this. There's so many older
guys in modern somewhat modern guys who were not in
And you know, I look forward to where were you
looking forward to updating the piece once we see absolutely
the senior members and so on, And I'll just throw

(01:46:04):
out one modern guy who is first time eligible, and
we don't have a lot of kickers in the Pro
Football Hall of Fame. But I think it would be
a swing and a miss.

Speaker 1 (01:46:17):
Yeah. He deserve, Yeah, he deserves to be there. He's
had some of the biggest kicks in league history. So yeah,
he definitely.

Speaker 2 (01:46:23):
All he's done, John, I mean not much. I mean
all he's done is he has the most field goals
in NFL history. He is the most points in NFL history,
He is the most points in NFL postseason history, and
he has the most field goals in the NFL posteas
in history. I don't know. I think he's marginal.

Speaker 1 (01:46:41):
Marginal in whose eyes?

Speaker 2 (01:46:42):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:46:43):
By the way, I just I looked at this list
of one hundred and eighty two names is officially on it.
There's another ex patriot on it, Stanley Morgan.

Speaker 2 (01:46:52):
Yeah. Yeah, Well you get Bob Heidelberg on the air.

Speaker 1 (01:46:55):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 (01:46:57):
She'll talk about yeah, and we probably just so many
George Koons. Bob Kuchenberg is another guy who is you know,
often talked about so on so many and and if
you notice the list, you know, if you're just going by,
you know, they combined wide receivers in tight end, yes
they did, Yes, And they combined safeties and cornerback. But

(01:47:20):
look at all those offensive linemens list.

Speaker 1 (01:47:23):
There's some unbelievable names. And you you mentioned the defensive
lineman earlier. How about Lyle Alzado, George Andre who I remember, Uh,
Bubba Baker, Ben Davidson, Mark Gastino. You mentioned el C Greenwood,
Rosie Greer, too tall Jones, I mean, my goodness, Uh,
Leonard Marshall, Harvey Martin good I mean, this is nuts.

Speaker 2 (01:47:46):
Yeah, it's it's this is but this is the fun
part about football. This really is. And I don't know
the last time you were in Canton, John, it is.
You know, it's something you know that I don't miss.
You know, I just don't miss it. And I've been going.
The first year I went was nineteen eighty nine. The

(01:48:07):
ceremony was still on the steps. It was Artshell, Willie Wood,
Terry Bradshaw and Mel Blunt and then they played the
Hall of Fame game at two thirty in afternoon. Now
it's the stadium is renewed, there's a hotel there. It's
bigger than life, and it's just it's such a joy
to go there. And you go to that jacket ceremony

(01:48:27):
on Friday night when they bring back like one hundred
Hall of Famers who come back and the guys get
to walk the gauntlet and so on. Although the one
thing that always strikes me when I see that, and
not to be modeling or or anything like that, is
watching some of the older players not kind of struggle
to get up those steps now and it's hard, and

(01:48:52):
it's hard we don't come up at all.

Speaker 1 (01:48:54):
It pains me literally and figuratively when I see Earl Campbell, yes,
and how much he struggles to get around in some
of these other players, and obviously I don't know who
couldn't have been touched by Steve McMichael's induction this year,
I mean, which was one of the most emotional things
I've ever seen in something that you know, can be

(01:49:17):
rather you know, mundane and even sometimes boring, a ceremony
that wasn't boring at all. That was riveting. And I
was very happy that I watched it because something like
that had never happened before, you know, holding the actual
induction remotely like that, because he's just he's physically unable
to attend and to see his teammates, you know, around
him like that, you know from the you know, the

(01:49:38):
Bears eighty five team in particular. I was just that
was very touching and very satisfying as a fan of
football to see something like that happen.

Speaker 2 (01:49:47):
The thing that always strikes me about the Hall of
Fame and some of the stories and some of these
speeches are just amazing. I remember Curtis Martin talking about
his mother and so on. I remember Brying Young who
lost the son years ago and which I really didn't
know the story, and to hear him speak, I think
that was last year as a matter of fact. That's

(01:50:10):
the Hall of Fame is such an honor for these gentlemen,
but it's really an reward to their family because of
what they gave up. And every year you hear those
players acknowledge their significant other, children, their parents and so on.

(01:50:36):
That's that's what's important. They know what they sacrifice as
a father or a brother, or a son or anything
so they could live their dream. And they always come
back and it always comes back to that, and it's
just wonderful to watch it really is. I highly recommend

(01:50:58):
and this is my own person, I highly recommend it.
If you're one of your favorite players or one of
your teams is being represented. Get to Canton for Friday
and Saturday Eve. If you don't go to the game,
I mean the game is the game? Is the game?

Speaker 1 (01:51:13):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:51:13):
Okay, well I was only that jacket ceremony and it's
all about those induction ceremonies and bring the clean next.
I'm just telling you right now, I have.

Speaker 1 (01:51:23):
A feeling that in the next couple of years, you know,
when you know, two guys named Belichick and Brady are
ready to roll, there'll be a plenty of Patriots fans
and plenty of New England representation there yep.

Speaker 2 (01:51:34):
And the Patriots will probably play in that game.

Speaker 1 (01:51:36):
Likely likely act.

Speaker 2 (01:51:39):
Never think the NFL does, I'm sorry, the Pro Football
Hall of Fame does now in conjunction with the NFL.
It used to be they had a schedule John of
the Hall of Fame games going like twenty years. Wow.
And now they've abandoned that and they coincide with who's
going into the Hall Ofame. Yeah okay, so your head,
Devin Hester, you had Steve McMichael and you had Andre Johnson,

(01:52:01):
which is.

Speaker 1 (01:52:02):
Why they had the Bears.

Speaker 2 (01:52:03):
Bears. Sure the game and by the way, I'm really
looking forward to Bears Texans Sunday night because they didn't
get to finish that Hall of Fame game.

Speaker 4 (01:52:12):
No, because of the weather.

Speaker 2 (01:52:14):
I'm sorry, I really want to see how this turned out.

Speaker 1 (01:52:17):
Are they going to pick it up from where they
left off? Hey? Thursday night? Man, you know Bill's Dolphins,
great AFC East battle. Uh. You know Miami Uh you
know had its own off field issues last week and
managed to overcome them.

Speaker 4 (01:52:34):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:52:35):
Buffalo came from behind to win their game, and Josh
Allen got himself banged up a little bit. But to me,
that's gonna have my attention certainly here in week two.

Speaker 2 (01:52:44):
Well, I don't think they had off the field issues.
I think they had on the road on.

Speaker 1 (01:52:48):
The road issues, yeah, traffic issues. Yeah yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:52:51):
And not from Willie Nelson by the way.

Speaker 1 (01:52:53):
No, No, that's true.

Speaker 2 (01:52:56):
This has been a house of horrors regardless of where
they've played for the Miami Dolphins. Okay, even before Josh
Allen got there in twenty eighteen, John, Since Sean McDermott
was hired in twenty seventeen, the Miami Dolphins, including the playoffs,
are two to thirteen versus the Bills.

Speaker 1 (01:53:17):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (01:53:18):
Wow, Okay, and they've lost their shriff games to them
at home. If you remember at the end of the
year last year, sure Miami had a chance to still
win the division, which they have not won the AFC
East since two thousand and eight.

Speaker 1 (01:53:32):
Correct, Okay, yeah, when Tom Brady went down with his
knee injury, right right.

Speaker 2 (01:53:36):
The Patriots won eleven in a row and the Bills
have won the last four. And this is this is
their albatros, and they have to find a way and
they're a little bagging running back where he mostered is
not going to play tomorrow night egg Chaine is a
game time decision. One of the reasons they were able
to rally and beat Jacksonville last week is they actually

(01:53:58):
ran the ball in the fourth quarter after really not
running it the first three quarters. So it's this is
a statement game, even though it's week two. They need
to hold serve at Miami if they have any plans
of winning the AFCAST, which is, like I said, has
eluded them for sixteen years. First, just say fifteen seasons,

(01:54:24):
so we shall see. I was impressed with Miami defense.
I was impressed with Buffalo's running game. You know, both
of these teams fell way behind last week at home
and had come back and rally. Now they're on a
short week, so it's it's going to be an interesting game.
But listen, I don't want to bury the lead. How

(01:54:45):
many people on this earth had the Patriots going into
Cincinnati last week and winning that football game one?

Speaker 1 (01:54:52):
And he's a listener to this program, Patty and agawam,
I'm going to give him full credit on that one.
He picked the Patrons to win.

Speaker 4 (01:55:00):
That was it?

Speaker 1 (01:55:01):
Well, the only person I heard all last week.

Speaker 2 (01:55:04):
Right, Well, I will just say this for certain members
of the media who shower you nameless, who continue to
stress that this is an offensive league and it's all
about the quarterback and if you have a defensive head coach,
you're doomed. Because of course you know this, John, every
defensive head coach in the NFL coaches the exact same way. Okay,

(01:55:27):
I mean we all know that, right, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.
So you know what never changes about the game of football, physicality?
No right, And New England took it to the Bengals
last week physically on both sides of the ball. And
you know it's funny because there was a defensive coach

(01:55:47):
in New England now and they won last week.

Speaker 1 (01:55:50):
Correct.

Speaker 2 (01:55:50):
Yes, there's a defensive coach in Seattle and they won
last week.

Speaker 1 (01:55:55):
Yes, two youngest coaches in the NFL going at each
other this week.

Speaker 2 (01:56:00):
Yeah, there's a defensive coach in Chicago and even though
they're offensives score a touchdown, they won last week. Right,
there's a defensive coach in Pittsburgh. They didn't even score
a touchdown and they won last week.

Speaker 1 (01:56:11):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:56:13):
So I guess the people who are charting the offensive coaches,
you know, I guess some of these guys can just
get fired.

Speaker 1 (01:56:19):
If that the I don't know either that or they're
just emphasizing defense early in the year.

Speaker 2 (01:56:24):
Well, the beauty of football and as you well know,
because there are so many ways to win a game.

Speaker 1 (01:56:30):
Okay, the defense and the special teams won it last week.

Speaker 2 (01:56:33):
Right, you don't have to have your quarterback throw for
three hundred yards. Listen, all offensive coaches had the same philosophy,
every game would be fifty to fifty in a tie.

Speaker 1 (01:56:44):
Yes.

Speaker 8 (01:56:44):
Yeah, the beauty of.

Speaker 2 (01:56:46):
This league and it's the beauty of this game. And
you know, I actually heard Julian Edelman do an interview
this week and so on and talking about Gerrod Mayo
in the philosophy of the Patriots, which really not that
far gone from Bill Belichick, just upgraded a little. And
he also said the same thing about Mike McDonald in

(01:57:07):
The Animal okay, who took over for Pete Carroll. Kind
of the same game plan for the most part, but
just upgraded a little. So again, that's what I love
about football. There are so many different ways to win. Okay.
I mean, the Packers scored twenty nine points last week
and couldn't win, couldn't win the twenty seven and couldn't win, right, Okay,

(01:57:30):
the Steelers kicked six field goals and won a road game. Okay,
so go ahead and keep you know, it's not a
one trick pony. It's thirty two staffs who find different
ways to take advantage of your talent, their talent. And
you know, I look at Kansas City last week, who
let's be honest, last year, they really won that more

(01:57:52):
on defense than they did on offense. Okay, they had
the second most sacks, they gave up the second fewest points.
You know, if they were Steve Savant only.

Speaker 8 (01:58:01):
Did a hell of a job.

Speaker 2 (01:58:03):
But then I watched them Thursday night. I know they won,
But John they gave up four hundred and fifty two
yards a total offense to the Ravens. I don't know
if they get away with that all year, they will.
But as you also know, week one can be fools goal.

Speaker 1 (01:58:19):
Yes it can. You can't. That's why you know. I
think Week one's fun, but I don't really put a
lot of stock in it because we don't know what
kind of a team anybody has until you're through at
least a month of the season. And I would tell
you that you really don't know for certain until you're
almost at the halfway point of the year. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:58:38):
Well, because now, as we have talked about to a degree,
and the way the preseason is run, which I'm not
happy about, to be honest with you, I did. I
want to get to our eighteen games and I want
to put more emphasis on the preseason because it will
only be two games. You just don't hit the ground
running anymore at all. I mean, you have that final

(01:58:59):
preseason week and then there's a week and a half
up down time unless you're playing on Thursday night or
you're playing Friday night in Brazil. Okay, So it was
almost surprising that there were as many points as there
were scored in both of those two of the higher
scoring games the Chiefs Ravens and the Packers Eagles. But

(01:59:20):
then again, maybe one of the reasons they were some
of the higher scoring games is because their defenses didn't
get to tell of a lot of work in the ausseason.

Speaker 1 (01:59:28):
Sure, yeah, gotcha, Russell. Good to talk to you. As
always brought up week one in the books. Hopefully we'll
learn a little bit more.

Speaker 4 (01:59:35):
I know.

Speaker 1 (01:59:36):
One of the questions we talk about next week is
which oh and two team is most likely to be,
you know, a playoff team at the end of the year.
I know we can jump in a lot of that
stuff next week, but you know, uh absolute yeah. And
then in which to and oh team is likely to
miss out on the playoffs? And that might be one
right here in New England. We don't even know that
yet for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:59:55):
That's right. Well, here's what I do know this week
in New England. It's it's the ten your anniversary of
Super Bowl forty nine.

Speaker 4 (02:00:03):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (02:00:03):
Yeah, I'm going to look in the end just by
chancey if Malcolm Butler is.

Speaker 1 (02:00:11):
I know, I can't believe those ten years ago, My goodness,
I know, have a good week my friend enjoy the
football on Sunday. Yes, sir, talk to you soon. The
one and only Russell Baxter at Backs football Guru on Twitter.
Let me grab a couple of emails here before we
sign off. Chris Aloha from Hawaii. Just listening to the broadcast.

(02:00:33):
I heard you ask a question that I've been asking.
Were the Patriots really the worst team in the league
headed into Week one? Your guest did some then nah,
and then really to answer around the question, they weren't.
I think most of the quote unquote power rankings had
them thirty first out of thirty two, with the Carolina
Panthers rated last. And I don't think Carolina did anything

(02:00:54):
to improve their lot, but the Patriots, I think in
most poles jumped like five or six spots, if I'm
not mistaken. He says the answer straight up.

Speaker 4 (02:01:03):
No.

Speaker 1 (02:01:03):
The reason is that the defense, in my opinion, is
the top ten defense. However one ranks the Pats d
it has to be very high. Given the pass performance
is going all the way back through last season, points
allowed are way below average, and given the pedigree with
BB and now with Mayo, there has to be some
ranking they're worth there, which was overlooked. Now couple the
pats steadfast defense with opposing Week one and two offenses

(02:01:26):
and they're likely wins to be had. All right, Thank you, Chris,
appreciate you and appreciate your service. He's on the submarine
out there in Hawaii. Howard in Stratford, Connecticut. Good to
hear from you, Howard. He said, what an exciting game
that was. Would have liked a few more points from

(02:01:47):
the O, but I'll take the win all around, team win.
Very happy for Coach Mayo and his staff. Love the
aggressiveness that Coach Covington is bringing to the D and
has stated would like more output from the passing game,
but couldn't ask more for the firm Remandre was a
present surprise. Hopefully they build off of that performance against
Seattle and ask for Seattle. I think the Pats built
off Week one stuff the run, make Seattle beat them

(02:02:08):
throwing the ball, which plays to the strength of the D.
I'm not quite sure about that. I think the Seattle
receivers will give the Patriots secondary a really solid test
in that regard, He says, the D remain stingy. Pat's
moved it to an O twenty three thirteen. That's Howard
in Stratford, Connecticut and Aiden in California. John, just call

(02:02:30):
me now for you free reading, rereading. I know you
were doing something else, right, try to queue up other things,
he said. I was right about my prediction for the win,
but not the score. Oh that's two. I gotta give
Aiden in California credit. Then it was it was Patty
and Aguam and Aiden in California. Yes, they both picked

(02:02:51):
the Patriots over the Bengals last week. So I'm gonna
I gotta give you credit. Aid. I'm sorry about that,
he said. Nevertheless, a good, solid win. Most importantly, they
can build on it. So what's the focus Wednesday? Well,
taking from a former theme of this program, right, Uh,
we build on the offense, start opening it up more.
And John, I'm saying we went again twenty four to twenty.
I'm gonna trust the process. Thank you and thank you Aiden.

(02:03:15):
I appreciate your taking the time. All right, very good? Uh?
Is there one more here? Oh? Yes, this one comes
from Riley says I'm wondering what you think of this.
Polk was able to get great separation all day, close
to fifty percent of the time. Pop is gonna be
a reliable target all year. I liked what I saw
from the tight ends. Mare looks fantastic, the line run
blocked well. Pass protection is work in progress. I think

(02:03:38):
this game made me more comfortable with the idea of
playing Drake sooner rather than later. I don't know if
that makes sense. Why would you play him sooner things
are going well now? I'm not sure, especially with the
lack of production throwing the ball. Does week five sound
more realistic after Sunday? Right now? I would say week none,
But then again, I know that that's not gonna happen either.

(02:04:00):
And again I'm not trying to take away from Drake again.
Evan Lazari told us earlier in the show, if you
joined us late, he's he managed to have a private
conversation an exclusive interview with Drake May about his first
week learning under Jacoby in the regular season, and that'll
a pear here on the website coming up in the
next day or so. Our thanks to Evan, Our, thanks

(02:04:21):
to Russell Baxter, Our, thanks to Doug Kaid for The
Boston Herald, and Chris Price from the Boston Globe for
joining us. Thanks to the Marine Urrah appreciate you he's
gonna put out by the way, those opens for us, right,
You're gonna put those out on Twitter, all right? Q
Y two two eight nine is that your Twitter handle?
So we'll find him there and I'll retweet them on

(02:04:43):
Jay our broadcast on Twitter. So that way you can
vote for your two favorites, and then we'll debut the
winner next week, same Pat's time, same Pat's channel next Wednesday,
two thirty Eastern time on Patriots Playbook. Thank you for
downloading this podcast, Subscribe on Apple, Google Play, and everywhere
else you listen. Like the show, Please rate and review us.

(02:05:06):
Listener comments and ratings help keep us high on the
podcast rankings so new listeners can find us.

Speaker 3 (02:05:11):
Be sure to check patriots dot com for more news
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