Patriots Playbook 9/13: Eagles Recap, Dolphins Preview and NFL Week 2 Predictions

Tune-in as John Rooke is joined by Evan Lazar from Patriots.com, Armando Salguero from Outkick.com, Ben Volin from the Boston Globe and Russell Baxter from ProFootballGuru.com to recap the loss to the Eagles, preview this week's game against the Dolphins on Sunday Night Football and offer a few NFL Week 2 predictions.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
This is Patriots Playbook. The legend a camera person just
jumped off the train.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Right.

Speaker 3 (00:12):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Those that have heard this are already going, oh, you're
I think Ken White is a legitimate candidate for Defensive
Rookie of the Year. Oh wow, you think that's a
good one.

Speaker 4 (00:21):
It's big bold.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
We didn't like it twenty two years of doing a
radio show. Now it's a television show too.

Speaker 4 (00:29):
How do you feel about it?

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Do you like it? It's fine?

Speaker 3 (00:31):
Now, here's your host of Patriots Playbook, John Rook.

Speaker 1 (00:35):
It's fine. We're all fine today. We're just fine. There's
nothing wrong here, there's nothing going on here. We're all fine.

Speaker 4 (00:41):
Fine. It's a pretty good way to do things around there.

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Fine is a good thing.

Speaker 4 (00:45):
It's not perfect, it's not great. It's fine, but it's fine.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
Right. Welcome in week two. It's the twenty twenty the
regular season. This is Patriot's Playbook for a Wednesday, John Rook.
Evan Lazar is here for the opening half hour of
the program, to be followed today by the one and
only Ben Voland of the Boston Globe. Armando Salgero, who
is a longtime friend of the show, has been for
over twenty years, been a long time beat writer for

(01:09):
the Miami Dolphins, now covers the NFL as an insider
for OutKick, and he's going to join us in at
the first of the second hour to talk Dolphins, ostensibly
because he's still pretty clued in around there. Do you
know Armando very well.

Speaker 4 (01:23):
I don't know him personally, but I've always followed him
for the Dolphins.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
He's a good dude's and he's a really good reporter. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:30):
Yeah, so a little bit of Mike Reasy.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yes, he's got a little bike crease in him, he
absolutely does. That's a very good comparison. And then of
course Russell Baxter will joined us for Week two around
the NFL and look back a little bit at week one. Look,
I'm left with a couple of overall impressions from week one,
and I know that you took some heat on social
media over the last couple of days. First of all, well, look,
I'm going to stick up for you for a minute,

(01:53):
because the one thing I love about having you with
this program, Evan, is that we don't have to agree
to get along.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
That's true.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
Okay, Sometimes you know I make the veins bulge out
on your head, which is fine. I understand that. But
you know, the one thing that I loved last week
when Mac Jones gave you crap for you know, being
the you know, the offensive coordinator if you will, or
whatever it was for the Patriots. I love that because
that tells me that they know you pay attention. Yeah,

(02:23):
I know you'd like to talk about the scheme, so right,
I try it. You do like to talk about the scheme,
I do.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
That's my favorite thing to talk about.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Talk about the scheme.

Speaker 4 (02:32):
Yeah, absolutely, And I enjoy that too.

Speaker 1 (02:35):
I actually enjoy a lot of the ditty, gritty nuts
and bolts because I am somewhat of a football nerd
like you are. Now, what do I know? I came
from running a wishbone offense, so what the hell do
I know? But I would tell you that, you know,
I see a lot more in pro football today that
I really enjoy watching like I used to watching college
football decades ago, because of the RPO, you know, the

(02:58):
where the quarterback has the option to do several things,
because that's what I always did and I never kept
the ball. I either had it off right pitched. So look,
I know you caught some flak because I'm guessing just
from reading listening to you guys a little bit earlier,
but mostly reading your stuff, because I'm like, why is
everybody hating on Evan today? And I'm kind of like,

(03:21):
I get it. I get it. I get it because
you told the truth or what you thought was the truth,
your interpretation of the truth. And we have a lot
of people here, v We have a lot of people here.
And look, this is Patriots dot Com Radio. Okay, this
is Patriots Playbook as a program, and so people expect

(03:43):
us to talk Patriots, Patriots, Patriots, and what's good about
the team and can they beat the Dolphins? And right, okay,
there is a certain element to everything we do here
that has pompound waving. Right, yeah, there just is outside media.
You know, we're the quote unquote dreaded team media, which

(04:04):
sort of is criticized by what we would call regular
media outside of team media because they feel like, you know, well,
we're in the tank for the team that we cover,
or we're protecting so and so, or we're you know,
saying one thing when reality really is another. And I
get that, but I'm going to reiterate this because I

(04:25):
usually say this once or twice a here. I just
told you this off the year before we started, when
we first started this venture of Patriots dot Com Radio
in two thousand. Okay. One of the things that Jonathan
Craft had said to us at the time was is that, look,
we understand you're going to need to be critical of
the team from time to time. Okay, it can't work

(04:46):
right if you're all ravn prom poms all the time.
If something's not going well, you have the right to
talk about that. Now. Do we want anybody throwing under
the bus needlessly.

Speaker 5 (04:55):
No.

Speaker 1 (04:56):
Do we want you, you know, giving away you know,
insights from in the hallways. No, And we don't do that.
And I think we're very respectful of football operations around here,
and we're very respectful of the outside media coming in
because many of us came by the way, let me
reiterate here, most of us came from outside media before
we came inside. I did. Okay, So we're doing it

(05:20):
a little bit differently, but it doesn't mean we've forgotten
our basic principles of telling what we believe are the
rights and the wrongs and the truths more than an
anything else. We're not leaving this. We're we're not towing
the company line, so to speak. Although, hey, it's great
when the Patriots win, Well, we won't lie to you.
It's great when they win, and we've had a lot
of winning over here over the last twenty twenty three years.

(05:43):
But we're here to tell you the truth. We're not
here to shake a pomp on your face. Yeah, and
I guess that's really where you were coming from, Correct
me if I'm wrong here now, I'm guessing that's kind
of that's the interpretation I got by reading some of
your social media.

Speaker 4 (05:56):
Yeah, I know it's it's I think it's two fault one.
There's And I'm not telling fans how to fan. You
fan the way you want to fan. So if you
want to have optimism and you want to look at
the bright side of things and look at the positives,
I am not going to tell you that you're wrong
or tell you not to do that. But my whole

(06:17):
thing is is that at what point with this football team,
are we allowed to flip a switch from saying they're
in a rebuild to the window is now open for
them to start contending for championships. And I'm not saying
that they My expectation level is that they win a
Super Bowl this year. There's a difference between Super Bowl

(06:40):
aspirations and contending. Contending means that you are in the hunt.
You are a playoff team that is in the hunt.
At what point post Brady and we're now in year.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
Four, what point do we get back to actual contention?

Speaker 4 (06:58):
And at what point is it fair to criticize the
fact that we are not getting there faster? So this
is why.

Speaker 1 (07:06):
Last year was such a complete abomination, because they took
a huge step back. It's almost like last year. Now
we got to go back two years almost now, because
last year was a complete zero across the board. Now,
I don't think Bill Belichick will ever issue the maya
culpa for last year. He tried something, it failed. Is
he going to have own up to it? Well maybe

(07:27):
in the book someday. But that set this franchise back
in my opinion, and it certainly set us back talent wise,
has set us back ever wise, has set us back
perception wise. And so we're actually, even though this is
twenty twenty three, we're actually at the start of twenty
twenty two in my way of thinking, post Tom Brady era.

(07:49):
So we you know, we got to go back in
the way back machine here and catch up a little bit.

Speaker 4 (07:53):
I think that's fair from a player development standpoint and
specifically looking at the quarterback, yes, I think that that's fair,
but from a roster building perspective. In my opinion, offensively,
I will not say a bad word about the defense.
The defense I thought played great on Sunday. I thought
the film backed it up. I thought it they played

(08:15):
really well. I thought they were really prepared. On his
way Keon White, I thought that they had a couple
of wrinkles defensively that we haven't seen before to stop
mobile quarterback elements and things like that. A really good
defensive performance that gives you a foundation to now be like,
all right, this defense this year can play and go

(08:36):
up against the Jalen Hurts and play, not go up
against Sam Ellinger and play or Zach Wilson, but go
toe to toe with elite good offense. And that's great. Offensively,
my concern remains the same, and that is that it
looks better with Bill O'Brien. Mac Jones looks better. He

(08:59):
looks more in rhythm, he looks more poised, he looks
more his decision making and where his eyes are going
makes sense in our sound and all that kind of stuff,
and the schemes that they are running in the passing
game are better than what they were last year. But
because of the roster building issues that they've had at
the specifically at the skill position players positions, but also

(09:24):
on the offensive line, they still don't have top end talent.
They still don't have elite talent.

Speaker 1 (09:30):
Got a ways to go still in pulling the roster
agree on this.

Speaker 4 (09:33):
And they what it ends up happening is that you
have a quarterback, in my opinion, who, like any quarterback,
has his limitations, and they need the execution play in
and play out to be at such a high level
for them to score thirty thirty five points in a game,

(09:55):
twenty six points in a game like on Sunday, They
need the execution to to be at a very, very
very high level. Because the quarterback is not a big
time playmaker individually. He's not mobile, he's not a second
reaction over play extension type of quarterback that's going to

(10:16):
play playground football and make plays when it is help.
He needs help, and they don't have. The quarterback is
who he is, and they don't have receivers that are
game breakers.

Speaker 1 (10:26):
Which is why I think incorrectly so we would all
been happy to see someone like if not if if
not exactly DeAndre Hopkins come in, or someone that could
be a receiver that could take pressure off away from
others to allow them one on one opportunities to do
actually what they all do pretty well. But we don't

(10:48):
have that option. Yeah, you're still not maximizing the talents
the way that I look at these Patriots, You're still
not maximizing the talent that can best support Mac Jones
and what he can do.

Speaker 4 (11:01):
Yeah. I don't disagree, and I think you know that's
my whole thing is just when you look at this offense,
there's nothing particularly explosive about the Patriots offense. They don't
have a quarterback with a huge arm, they don't have
receivers that are explosive, big play receivers. And when you
watch this Miami team, for example, on tape, they have

(11:23):
two guys and Tyreek Hill and Jalen Waddle that can
take a five yard slant and take it sixty five
yards to the house and as good as to a
play it against the Chargers on Sunday. And I'm not
trying to take anything away from Tua, but as good
as to a play it on Sunday. The bottom line
is is that he's got two thoroughbreds at the receiver
position that just do a lot of the work for

(11:46):
him and make it easier for him to make big plays.
So Miami early on in this game fumbled, like right
out of the gate. They drove down the field and
they fumbled inside the opponent's red zone, inside the Chargers
red zone in the game. Jac Jackson had an interception
in this game. So they had two turnovers off Also,
they scored thirty six points because they're able to overcome

(12:09):
those turnovers because all it takes is one play for
Tyreek Hill to house one from fifty yards out. The
Patriots don't have that luxury. So these issues that happen,
and these mistakes that happen, they have a domino effect
on them, and it makes it harder and harder for
them to go out there and score a lot of
points because they can't overcome the miscues. And that to

(12:33):
me is more about roster building. But I also think
you have to accept the fact that what you currently
have from a personnel standpoint is what it is, and
isn't enough. And that's where my critiques of Mac Jones
have come in, is because he isn't bad. I am
not telling you that he stinks. I'm not telling you
that he should be benched. I am just telling you

(12:53):
he is who he is, and they are asking him
to really make the supporting cast a lot better. Then
I think it's fair to ask him to do based
off of his talent level. Z. Now that would make
it worse, Okay, but that's the that's the bottom line.
I think people think that I was overly critical of Mac.

(13:13):
Maybe I was, but it wasn't. What I was trying
to articulate is this is reason X, Y, and Z
that Mac Jones is not that he's not the answer,
but it's just this is what holds him back from
being an elite quarterback.

Speaker 1 (13:31):
He's just not surrounded with the kind of talent that
you would expect a contending team to really be, you know,
full of the gills with. Yeah, that's kind of how
I look at it, and it's been shocking. It's been
a process ever since TV twelve left.

Speaker 4 (13:45):
Town really in twenty nineteen. Brady already in eighteen too,
but in nineteen and eighteen, Brady already started feeling the
last which.

Speaker 1 (13:53):
Is one of the reasons where we left. We know this.
He wanted to go someplace where he could win, and
obviously he did that. Yeah, so we still haven't addressed
the bigger picture here. Now it's slowly getting better. I
would tell you that the fact that the one thing
that I was left overwhelmingly with following Junday's game was
eleven rookies dressed. Yeah, eleven rookies dressed. That's that's that's

(14:15):
better than a fifth of your roster. Yeah it.

Speaker 4 (14:18):
I I always temper expectations for rookies because I will
see what they've become. Right, It's one game, and you
can't possibly judge any of the rookies that played on
Sunday based off of one game. Yeah, but I still
think that in some respects that that speaks to the
point I have been trying to make the last couple
of days, is that in that spot on fourth down,

(14:42):
with the game on the line, he had to throw
the ball of cash on Booty and his.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
And there's still something that was really never I don't
think sufficiently answered by anybody this week. Why Booty was
in the game as opposed to Juju, right, And and
is it because Juju's hurt, Well, if he's hurt, then
some of he's got to I mean they don't want
to say something, but clearly then these guys have made
a fundamental miscalculation.

Speaker 4 (15:05):
Yeah, and unfortunately, you know, Devonte Parker's is out, he's
not dressed. You have real, no really no depth behind
DeVante Parker for that outside X role. And so you're
in Week one against the defending NFC champions and the
guy that you have to put out there is as
a rookie that was drafted in the sixth round and
has never played a game in the NFL before.

Speaker 1 (15:27):
That's why I almost don't blame him for not getting them.

Speaker 4 (15:29):
I don't blame on him. I don't although he's.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
Supposed to know that, but I almost don't blame him. Look,
DeVante Parker has to learn the greatest ability in pro
football is availability, and I'm quickly fastly is that a word? Rapidly?
There you go, Okay, I don't know fastly losing faith
in his ability?

Speaker 4 (15:51):
Yeah, that that's a bummer. And look, I think that
for this team, DeVante Parker is a difference maker because
we saw it on Sunday. Not only was it the
fourth down play at the end of the game that
maybe DeVante Marker makes that catch. I think he pob
probably could make that catch, but the back shoulder to
Booty earlier in the game on third down, he definitely
makes that. I've seen Devonte Parker make that catch a

(16:11):
dozen times.

Speaker 1 (16:12):
Most routine for him. That's why they went and got
it right.

Speaker 4 (16:15):
So that's that's his ball, right, that's his catch. Sure,
that's his play. So for this football team, whether you can,
we just talked about the big picture of their talent
level on offense, but for the Patriots roster in twenty
twenty three, Devonte Parker is a big time difference maker
for them because they don't really have another outside receiver
that can win on the perimeter. And Kaishan Boody the

(16:37):
reason why I absolve him of all of this is
because he's that's a really tough spot to put a
rookie in his first NFL game in, But b he's
not really an outside receiver. Kaishan Boody at LSU played
more of like that Kendrick Bourne, Juju Smith Schuster role
of like a Z or a slot you know, someone
that was playing more inside the formation. He is a

(16:59):
catch and run player. We saw it in Green Bay
in the preseason, that slant and and and.

Speaker 1 (17:05):
That's putting him at his optimum.

Speaker 4 (17:07):
That's Kaishan Boudi, Kaishan Boody toe tapping the sideline. That's
not that's not his game. So I don't blame him
for it at all. The reason why he was out
there is because they lacked depth at the receiver position
on the outside. They got plenty of inside guys, like
they got inside guys up the wazoo. It's the outside
guys that they really lacked depth at. And it comes
back to like you said, you know that DeAndre Hopkins

(17:30):
was out there for them to have. You know, there's
aside guy.

Speaker 1 (17:34):
I'm just getting to the point where I understand completely
why Bill thinks the way he does. You know, well,
so and so isn't here, so we're not talking about him.
DeVante Parker, Taekwon Thorn, they're not here, they're not available.
I don't want to talk about him.

Speaker 4 (17:48):
Yeah, and Taekwon is is another you know, not to
pile on. But with Taekwon and in reality that that
Taekwon was drafted to be that player. Yep, that was
why he was drafted, and they drafted him in twenty
two and they end up really having to give that
role to Devonte Parker because Taekwon didn't take the bull

(18:09):
by the horns and wasn't able to play that role
the way they thought he was going to. And now
you have this domino effect. And I think this is
what's plagued this team since they've gotten themselves stuck into
this this right.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
I had friends from Baylor tell me watching Taekwon play there,
he said, he's really fast, but he's really thin. Yeah,
so we always question whether or not he would have
NFL capabilities because he's just not thick. Yeah, he doesn't
have size, he's just thin. He's skinny, and that's gonna

(18:41):
leave him susceptible to potential injury.

Speaker 4 (18:43):
And guess what, hello, I r two years in a row. Yeah,
to start the area. Look, that's my whole thing. It's
I don't think Max stinks. I don't think that Mac
is the biggest problem about this offense. But what I
do think is is that macneed's help, more help than
they have given him. And I don't think that they
they ride the roller coaster weekend and week out of

(19:06):
pick six fumble back to back, touchdown drives three and
out three, you know, like this this up and down
roller coaster. Because there's a lot on the quarterback shoulders,
he is expected to be perfect every time he drops
back to pass because he has to make the right reads,
he has to put the ball in the right place,
and he has to go a thousand paper cuts down

(19:29):
the field. The only quarterbacks that I've seen be able
to be that precise all the time are like the greats,
you know, like a Tom Brady and Drew Brees, a
Peyton Manning, right, like those types of guys. Asking Mac
to do that is ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
Versus unfair to put him in that position. Second of all,
without weapons, come on, Yeah, So all that would be
a task for Tom, That'd be a task for Peyton Manning,
that'd be a task for.

Speaker 4 (19:57):
Anybody that The margin for error in this offense is thin,
and so when they have a drop or they go
have a negative play, or they have turnovers, they're early
in the game and they have to overcome those things.
They don't have the firepower to dis make up for it.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Even like you know, for instance of sixteen nothing deficit.

Speaker 4 (20:19):
Yeah, you know, and that's why you can get close,
because you can string a couple good drives together, but
you can't string four or five good drives together to
get it over the top.

Speaker 1 (20:26):
That's the issue. So I guess that's really kind of
what I'm over overwhelming the left with this last week.
It's kind of like, well, they had their shots at
the end, which is actually impressive. And I am not
one for moral victories, but do I think that there's
something they can build off of? Well, sure, is there
something that they could correct that can make them immediately better? Abs,
So freaking lutely stop shooting yourself in the foot, you know.

(20:49):
The penalties of which there were several key penalties that
rubbed out gains, the dropped footballs that I mentioned. Yeah,
I mean, let's face it, guys, it's the same thing
as it was last year. That destroyed last year's team
was the self inflicted wounds.

Speaker 4 (21:08):
The turnovers are a big problem.

Speaker 1 (21:10):
It's awful.

Speaker 4 (21:11):
The question is are they committing turnovers because they're in
over their heads and they're they're pressing and they're trying to.

Speaker 1 (21:19):
If it were rookies alone, I would say maybe, But
this isn't rookies we're talking about, right. I Mean, we
saw Hunter Henry for that great one handed catch he
had on the fourth quarter. He dropped a couple of balls.

Speaker 4 (21:31):
He dropped one, but he would have been like five
yards short of the.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
First app Okay, nevertheless, it was still.

Speaker 4 (21:35):
The two big drops were by Juju. That one was
drop in the flat and uh, there was one more
that I've.

Speaker 1 (21:43):
Been Kendrick Bourne had the one that hit him in
the hands, that was hit for pick six.

Speaker 4 (21:47):
Yeah, I mean that I have always been.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
I have always been of the opinion ball hitching the hands,
you gotta catch it.

Speaker 4 (21:58):
I mean, that's a bad pass.

Speaker 1 (22:00):
It wasn't a great pass.

Speaker 4 (22:01):
He's not saying could.

Speaker 1 (22:02):
It have been a better pass, yes, but he got
his hands on it. His hands were on it and
it slipped through. Now, whether or not that was because
it was wet, maybe you can't use that as an excuse.
And we saw Julian Edelman out you know when it
was raining or he had you know, trainers when he
was here wetting the ball and throwing it to him
and possibles. These are things that guys have to practice on.

Speaker 4 (22:24):
It's such a good example though of like what I'm
talking about with Mac, because on that particular play, take
the throat, take the throw in, the ball placement out
of it for a second, which it wasn't a well
thrown pass right, it was up over Kendrick Bourne's head.
That was one of those plays where Mac really threw
it too quickly. He was rushed on the throw and

(22:46):
he's got Kasiki working up to see him on like
a little shake route right, and then he's got Kendrick
Bourne sitting down underneath the route and you're really just
making like a read of who gets covered in that situation,
and he doesn't allow to play the time to develop.
And so Kendrick Bourn is coming out of his break
and the ball's already on him. So now on top

(23:09):
of the fact that the ball was up here, he
turns around and he's got to make this instant reaction
to this high pass and just instinctually he puts his
hand up to try to catch the ball, and we
saw what happened. So normally you would say, like you know,
I shouldn't say normally for some quarterbacks, you make that mistake,

(23:30):
You make the mistake and you drive down the field
the next possession, you get the points back. Right, for
this offense, that little detail of mac rushing that throw
to Kendrick Bourne and having its sail a little bit
over Kendrick Bourne's head. For this offense, that turns into
a into a pick six the other way and a
sixteen to nothing deficit. That's that's the issue, is that

(23:52):
these that's such a little detail of timing in the
passing game that for them gets blown up into this
big because of just the situation that they're in. And
I keep on reiterating, I thought he looked back to
look better than he did last year. Certainly, I think

(24:12):
the offense is well organized. I think it's well coached.
I think that they have good concepts. I think that
there's a lot of really positive things to take away
from it. But if a pick six in the first
quarter is going to put you in a hole that
you can't get out of, then it's going to be
a long season like that. That's just the reality because
the expectation that everything's going to go perfect all the

(24:34):
time is unachievable.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
Which leads us to this week. So before you know,
we let you go. We we flip forward now to Miami,
and obviously, the Dolphins had a tremendous offensive performance in
scoring thirty six points and Tua was AFC Offensive Player
of the Week for his performance last week. You know,
he's got that you know, missibility as as I call it,
you know in the backfield where you know he can

(25:00):
uh make you look really bad if you're bring in
the heat. And of course if you bring the heat
and he makes you look bad, then there are fewer
people that can defend guys like Waddle and he'll in
the secondary and then that's when those you talked about
it earlier, those fifty and sixty yard pass plays come
into play. Yeah, so this is quite the challenge. But

(25:21):
I thought that the Patriots defended Jalen Hurts better than
I initially expected them to last week.

Speaker 4 (25:26):
Yeah, he was rattling Knight, So that tells me.

Speaker 1 (25:28):
Yeah, that tells me a little bit. Now. I would
also allow that maybe Phillies offense was a little rusty
because nobody played in the preseason, But this is not
the case with Miami this week. So I think this
is a unique challenge. Is it too early? Is it
ridiculous to say it's must win on Sunday?

Speaker 4 (25:49):
I think it's too early to say it's must win.
I think it's a it's a big game because not
only do you want to feel better about yourself with
a win just in general, but it's also a divisional
gamer in the year, So I think that's big. It's
a big Week two game. Is it a much? I
can't really say must win in week two, but it's
a big game for Week two.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
This is big I think as a week two game
can possibly be. Yeah, I think, especially if you're the
team that to win one.

Speaker 4 (26:14):
That's I think that's fair. You mentioned the receivers. The
Dolphins offense last week generated seventeen explosive plays. Seventeen and explosive.
Let's define that fifteen plus a team plus, so seventeen
fifteen plus yard plays last year. Last week, the next
closest team was the San Francisco forty nine Ers, which

(26:36):
is not a coincidence to very similar offense. Is they
only had ten so they had seven more than the
field last week just on their own. Now, people are
gonna hear that, and they're gonna say, well, Evan, the
Chargers defense sticks right, And there's certainly some element to
that that that is that is absolutely true. But I
think with this Miami offense what they do, I personally,

(26:59):
from my money, this might be the most well orchestrated
offense in the entire National Football League for the way
that they utilize their personnel. They know they have Tyreek
Kill and Jalen Waddle, they know they have two four
to two five receivers, and they have every bell and
whistle in the book to get those guys up the

(27:21):
field in single coverage like every They use motion, they
use play action, they use misdirection, they they do a
ton very creative, very creative.

Speaker 1 (27:32):
All right, So, mister offensive coordinator, yes, because you're going
to be our playbook offensive coordinator? What does New England
do to keep the ball out of their hands?

Speaker 4 (27:44):
So I think there's some element of that as well.
And they're going up against this Fangio defense. Mcfangio, the
defensive coordinator the Dolphins, who's a very well respected DC
around the league. He's his system is really starting to
take over the league. It's it really is. I mean
the Eagles run his system, a couple of other teams
do as well. The thing about the Fangio system is,

(28:07):
though it's two full one was just like related strictly
to Miami, they completely overhauled their defensive system by hiring
Vic Fangio. So their defensive coordinator last year was Josh Boyer,
who was a former Patriot assistant and was on Brian
Flores his staff with the Dolphins. They decided to hold
on to Brian Flores his assistant Josh Boyer, and keep

(28:29):
him as the DC last year. In the first year
under McDaniel, so, Boyer ran a Flores Patriots defense man,
coverage blitzman, some cover three zone sprinkled in. Fangio is
a zone demon. He runs zone coverage. He runs a
lot of two high zone coverage, cover four, cover six,

(28:49):
things like that. It could not be it's apples to oranges.
So I think the one advantages the Patriots have in
this game is that last week against the Chargers, who
was thirty four points and really move the ball really well.
There looked like there's a lot of growing pains in
the defense for the Miami defense. They're still learning the system.
It's pretty obvious their run fits weren't great. They gave

(29:11):
up a lot of yards on the ground. They have
trouble with assignments, you know, bunches, stack formations, motion, like,
how are we gonna handle all these different things? So
if I was the Patriots and I was Bill O'Brien,
I would throw a bunch of mental issues at the
Miami Dolphins defense, right like, we're gonna motion, We're gonna
have ourpo We're gonna put you in a mental pretzel

(29:33):
because you don't really feel so sure about your assignments
on every single play. We can see that on film
that you guys are all confident in where you're supposed
to be, So we're gonna play into that. The other
thing I think with this Fangio scheme, and this is
where the Patriots found success against the Eagles, who run
a very similar defense, is you can pick apart the

(29:55):
underneath part of the field against this team. You can
because they their whole defense it's designed to play two
high safeties and to take away the deep throws down
the field, So you can play, for lack of a
better term, you can play dink and dunk football against
the Fangio d which.

Speaker 1 (30:11):
Is ostensibly what you think you might actually do best.

Speaker 4 (30:14):
Yes, and that combination of basically using the pass game
as like an extension of the run game, and maybe
being able to run on some of the lighter boxes.
If you have your offensive lineman back, that combination could
allow the Patriots to possess the ball a little bit
in this game. And speak to your point.

Speaker 1 (30:31):
You mentioned offensive lineman. Obviously Trent Brown was not a practice. Yes,
that's not a good step in the right direction, especially
if you have strange in a Winno who's still out.

Speaker 4 (30:40):
Yeah, not a good step in the right direction at all.
I think you're looking at Vindarian Lowe or Tyrone Wheatley
one of the new guys moving in. But I'm not
too worried about Trent Brown. I would say that. But Trent,
we've watched them really manage him all summer long. In
terms of his longevity, He's a veteran guy. He's been
in the league a while, playing a ton of stamp apps.

(31:00):
I think this is probably going to come out as
some sort of veteran rest, you know, type of day
for him. So I'm not too concerned about that. But
I said it on PU I am reserving final judgment
about this offense until we see the guards out there, all.

Speaker 1 (31:16):
Right, so we'll call We'll call Evan the OC, not
the OG. He's the OC.

Speaker 4 (31:19):
Okay, I'm the grinch now apparently that's what I'm calling myself.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
The grinchy OC. Yeah, coordator or something. I like it.
Thank you, Coach Lazarre, appreciate your time as always at
Easy Lazaar. You know that already. You've followed him already
on Twitter, so you know that. All right, Let's move
now to Ben Volan, who covers the Patriots for the
Boston Globe. Hey, Ben, thanks for taking some time today.

Speaker 6 (31:41):
Man, absolutely thanks for having me.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
Of course. So I let's kind of pick up with
where I just kind of left it all with Evan
a little bit, because you know, there was there were
some things that you had to admire that you had
to like a little bit. I mean, things seemed more together,
more organized, especially on the offensive side of the wall
for the Patriots last week, but they still dug themselves
too big a hole. I mean, sixteen nothing, especially against

(32:04):
a team that's Super Bowl caliber, is usually insurmountable, and
yet this team had an opportunity to actually surmount it.
What are your thoughts as you look back over it
for the last couple of days.

Speaker 6 (32:18):
Yeah, I'd say, like the middle thirty five minutes of
the game, were really solid for the Patriots where they
showed good fight from coming back from sixteen to nothing.
Mac Jones I thought showed really good pocket presence and
awareness and kind of moving around and making finding his
guys and to throw for three hundred yards in his
first game with this Bill O'Brien offense. Really nice starting

(32:40):
point defense. You gotta love how they clamped down on
the Eagles.

Speaker 5 (32:44):
You know, that's said.

Speaker 6 (32:45):
It was an awful start and a tough finish where
they weren't able to capitalize on their opportunities on offense.
So you know, those are the you can't afford. The
Patriots are not a team that can keep afford to
keep going down sixteen and that's kind of been their
mo o the last few years. When they fall down early,
they don't usually have enough firepower to come back. So

(33:08):
and then you know, Mac Jones of the offense, I
think still needs to prove that they can execute in
the fourth quarter and that they can, you know, when
the games on the line, make the plays that they
have to, you know, I think Mac, so overall, you
have to be pretty pretty pleased with the way that
Mac and the offense looked and just there you know,
there there was a lot of bad football on Sunday
across the league. So Mac and the Patriots looked halfway

(33:31):
decent against a very good defensive line with the Eagles,
and as you said, a team that is probably going
to be competing for the Super Bowl again.

Speaker 1 (33:40):
You know.

Speaker 6 (33:40):
The only other issue is that this was an Eagles team.
I know, they made the Super Bowl, but they you know,
this was Week one and they barely played any football
during the preseason. They had every other day was an
off day during training camp. None of the starters played
any snaps. They were just getting their feet wet. And
they still kind of, you know, took care of business
again the Patriots.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Last that's a little concerning, and that is that is
taking it a little bit deeper, you know, beyond just
the surface, which you know, frankly, we have to do.
And so I had asked Evan, and I realized that
this is probably going to be a lot of the
scuttle but throughout the course of the week, you know here,
you know locally, but you know, for a Week two game,
this is probably as must win as you're probably going
to find anywhere else in the league, isn't it? For

(34:23):
the Patriots anyway, Well, you don't.

Speaker 6 (34:25):
Want to start ozing too. It's not a death knell
by any stretch. There's still a lot of football.

Speaker 7 (34:31):
Left after that.

Speaker 6 (34:31):
And especially having the seventh playoff team, yep, you know,
I think keeps you alive for most of the season.
This is a Patriots team. We've seen it time and
again where you know, they struggle a little bit September
and they really find their group in October November. You know,
even in Max rookie season, I think they had that
seven game win streak. So, you know, you'd hate to

(34:52):
put too much pressure on this game, but it is
a division game, which is huge, and obviously with this
unfortunate Aaron Rodgers news, you know, the season opens up
a lot more for the Patriots. Those Jets games are
much more winnable. The division is much more wide open.
I'd say, so, yes, absolutely, this is a game that
the Patriots you'd hate to go into an O two

(35:13):
hole to start the season. You really don't want to
lose these division games which have so much at stake
for the postseason. But you know, honestly, I really think
adding that seventh playoff team, really it does a good
job of keeping team kind of in it through the end.
So I would hate to put too much on this
game on Sunday.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
I was not a huge proponent on Aaron Rodgers really
turning the Jets around. I thought they'd be a playoff contender,
maybe kind of like the Patriots are a playoff contender.
But I wasn't buying into, at least yet, the whole
Jets or a super Bowl team. You know, hubbub and
nobody wants to see anybody get hurt. And I kind
of when he went down watching the game, I snickered

(35:54):
just because I know I have a bunch of fans.
I have a bunch of friends who are Jets fans,
and you know, they're all a bunch of sad sacks anyway,
and they love to play up to that. But now
that he's down, how much does this really help the
other teams in the division.

Speaker 6 (36:10):
I think it helps a lot, to be honest. I mean,
they went out on Thursday night and they beat the Bills,
even after Aaron Rodgers suffers.

Speaker 1 (36:19):
You know, okay, great point, great, great point. They came
back and won without him.

Speaker 6 (36:25):
Yeah, and they beat Josh Allen And that defense might
be the best defense in the NFL. They are fat
and aggressive all three levels. They have star players. Quinn
Williams is just an absolute monster in the middle. I mean,
that guy is a problem their offense. The Garrett Williams
what a touchdown catch that he made, brief Hall breaking

(36:47):
out for an eighty three yard run with Aaron Rodgers.
I think that I think the Jets. That performance just
underscored how talented that team was.

Speaker 7 (36:56):
And I was.

Speaker 6 (36:58):
Confident that Rogers is gonna make them a top contender.
And I think that performance the only cemented in my
belief they were going to be a real, real team
to watch for the super Bowl with him, and now
they're back to the pack. I mean, it's Zach Wilson,
and you gotta think they're gonna add a veteran, whether
it's Colt McCoy or Nick Foles or Matt Ryan, someone

(37:18):
who can just kind of check them into the right play.

Speaker 1 (37:21):
And Tom Brady if he throws pergaey.

Speaker 6 (37:24):
I don't know about Tom Brady, but.

Speaker 7 (37:27):
If there were any other team than the.

Speaker 6 (37:28):
Jets, maybe, but yabably, I can't imagine him going to that.

Speaker 1 (37:31):
No, I think that would be one way ruin a legacy.
One oh one go to the Jets. Oh my god, Hey,
I think Bill Parcells did that, didn't he? And he
still hadn't been able to get over it because they
can't even get Bill Parcells into the Patriots Hall of Fame.

Speaker 6 (37:48):
Well, that's true, that that is a good point. But
I think I think people would forgive Tom for doing it.

Speaker 1 (37:53):
Yeah, I suppose, all right, so uh yeah, I think
it does open it up a little bit, certainly to
an extent. I mean, time will only tell how much
it really opens back up. And then you've got a
game in the division this week, and it's at home,
and so you don't want to be oh and one
in the division. You don't want to be oh and
two at home to start the season. And I think
from just an overall mental aspect, uh, that puts, you know,

(38:14):
enough pressure on this week's game. But it's hard to
have success when you know your best foot forward can't
be placed. And by that, I mean you're still shooting
yourself with the foot with injuries, uh, and with the
mistakes with turnovers. And I saw a couple of things
I think on reported earlier today that Layel Collins was

(38:36):
let go by the Cincinnati Bengals, and I'm wondering if
that might not be a real consideration for the Patriots
considering some of the issues they're having on the offensive line.

Speaker 6 (38:46):
Yeah, I think they're always looking for reinforcements, and especially
I think at offensive tackle they're kind of flailing a
little bit. Riley reef. His injury hasn't been you know,
well timed, and how well he was playing before that.
I think Mike and WINU they'd rather put him at
guard instead of right tackle. I think they'd rather not
have to use. You know, Calvin Anderson was a left

(39:09):
tackle at Denver. Him playing on the right side to
do for him, you know that said, the offensive line
held up decently last week. They they kept mac Jones
relatively clean, and especially in the first half. I don't
think mac Jones was touched once in the first half
in that game against the Eagles. So offensive line, it's
really more about just finding the right five guys and

(39:31):
getting them worked together and trying to keep them in
the lineup weekend and week out. So Lyel Collins, you know,
to me, you know, a veteran who becomes available, you
got to look into it. But for the Patriots, it's
about just minimizing these mistakes and not not shooting themselves
in the foot in the first quarter especially. That's just
can't can't come out. This is not a team, This

(39:52):
isn't Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. They can't afford sixteen
nothing deficits.

Speaker 1 (39:55):
Yeah, that's that's the big that's the biggest issue more
anything else. And I felt like that that's why the
Patriots ultimately couldn't overcome you know, the Eagles last week,
because they just dug too big a hole. Now Miami
presents an entirely different, you know scenario. They're they're quick,
they're faster, they speedy, they got guys that can take
it to the you know, the end zone on any
given play. It's another supreme challenge defensively. But the way

(40:18):
that I look at it, it almost plays into what
the Patriots do best, which has traditionally been to game
plan for the opponent. They actually seem and again it's
just one week of observation, but they seem like they
could be a versatile enough defense to where game planning
for an opponent is exactly a strength for this team.

(40:39):
You know, whether or not they want to play four
safeties or whether or not they want to play, you know,
five defensive backs, cornerbacks, whether or not they want to
play two or three linebackers, or you know, whatever they
want to do. They can mention mix and match parts
because they have some versatility on the defensive side of
the ball in order to match up with the personnel
groupings from the opposing team. Does this pay defense? With

(41:01):
the players that they have, the players that we know,
the players that we've seen, can they match up with
Miami speed with their speed?

Speaker 6 (41:09):
It's I mean, I don't know if any defense can
match up with the Dolphin speeds. Can they neutralize it?
And yeah, I think the Patriots frankly, they neutralized AJ
Brown Devonte Smith pretty well last week. And I would
expect a lot more zone coverage. I think that was
a big part of the game plan last week. Just
try to keep everything in front of.

Speaker 1 (41:27):
You in front of you.

Speaker 6 (41:27):
You know, Tyreek Hill is going to try to break
one deep, but you can't focus on him. I mean,
Jalen Wattle is just as dangerous. And you you go
back and look at Wattle's numbers last year. He averaged
eighteen yards per catch. He had a ton of explosive
plays those two guys on the same line of scrimmage.
That's really dangerous stuff. And so I think you'll just
see a lot more deep stone coverage. Give the Dolphins

(41:51):
all the underneath stuff in the world and just you know,
hope that your safety is and Jowan Bentley and those
guys can make the tackles in the open field. So
I think the Patriots did a good job of really
neutralizing Jalen Hurts and that Eagles offense last week and
not not giving up the big play, and that's that's
crucial this time. They can't give up the big play.

(42:13):
Last year, they played the Dolphins early in the season
and Tua played and it was only twenty to seven Dolphins,
so they actually minimized to early in the season last year.
So I think they can do it. It's just, you know,
you can't play Manton man with these guys. Their speed
to me is just you know, you have Jonathan Jones
on one side, and he's obviously very fast. But I

(42:36):
just don't see how man coverage would work against it.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
I don't either, got to do a lot of deep zones. Yeah,
I don't either. I think you're exactly right. I'm not
sure any team, any tame in the NFL can hang
with these guys. Man a man, that's a big concern,
and I'm sure it's going to keep some of the
Patriots players and coaches up. One final one for you, Ben,
And I know you wrote this earlier this week, but overall,
I thought last week, you know you mentioned a little
bit earlier. You know, we saw some real struggles, you know,

(43:00):
with the football on Sunday in Week one, overall, offenses
just didn't seem to be quite as efficient as maybe
we're used to seeing them. Is that a byproduct of
Week one or is that more sort of a trend
of the way the game might be heading? Because we
know in life all things are cyclical, and yes, in
football all things are cyclical. Might we be going moving

(43:23):
back to where, you know, defense actually is important in
pro football?

Speaker 6 (43:29):
I wouldn't go that far now. I still think it's
going to be an offensive game. You look at last
year's Super Bowl. What was the final score, thirty eight
to thirty five. I think that's the norm, you know,
especially towards the end of the season. It's not a
Week one thing. Because last week was one of the
worst Week ones ever. There have been years where there
are fireworks in the first week of the season and

(43:50):
the offense is way ahead of the defense. That was
not the case this year. I don't know if there's
any one thing, you know, certainly, I think teams have
struggled to to adapt to the new rules of training
camp as far as how little contact there is. You know,
there's none in the offseason, and then it's kind of
regimented and spaced out during the season during training camp

(44:11):
and there's not much hitting going on, and like I said,
like the Eagles barely played football in training camp, and
last Sunday was probably the first time that most of
those guys really thumped. So I think some teams struggled there.
I think the weather. There's a lot of bad weather
last weekend that probably factored into it. Some random things
like Joe Burrow missed most of training camp with his
calf injury, and then he came out and was clearly

(44:32):
not ready to play, and just week one, I think
he just saw which teams used their training camp time
wisely and which teams couldn't.

Speaker 7 (44:40):
Figure it out.

Speaker 6 (44:41):
I think we know where the New York Giants fall.
Forty did nothing lost, you know, I think we see
you know, there was just like the Seattle Seahawks just
totally flat in their opener against the Rams. So I
just just an ugly week, but I expected to get better.
No one knows how those Week one games are gonna fold.
It really is extended preseason. And that leads me to

(45:03):
my final take that the NFL needs to stop scheduling
division games for Week one because those games are super
important for the playoffs, and you know, these games are
basically preseason, and you know, it's it's almost not fair
to everyone to have to have such an important game
right off the bat. So I would like to see
the NFL stop scheduling divisional games.

Speaker 8 (45:24):
For early.

Speaker 1 (45:26):
Late No, just just not in week one.

Speaker 6 (45:29):
You can start in week two, but week one, you know,
especially with training camp three preseason games now training camp,
there's so little hitting. You shouldn't have to. These games
are significant for the for the division, for the wild card,
and you shouldn't put it in these week one games,
you know, where neither team really.

Speaker 7 (45:49):
Knows what to expect.

Speaker 1 (45:50):
Okay, hey Ben, thanks for a little time today. Good
to visit with you. Appreciate you.

Speaker 6 (45:54):
Yeah, thank you very much.

Speaker 1 (45:55):
You got it. Right, ben Volan, At ben Volan, hold it,
I got it. There we go. Sometimes the button doesn't
work when I push it, so at ben Volin on
Twitter slash x slash whatever the hell Elon Musk is
going to call it later. It's not going to stay exes.
I know I talked about this last week, but do
you think it'll stay X dot com? Is that what

(46:16):
it's going to be? Is we call them X posts
now xes xes. That sounds so dumb, about to excess out? Yeah, hey,
can I ask you a question? Let me ask you something.
Oh goodness, I got an email here already from badass. Okay, badass,

(46:40):
all right? I disagree completely with you, guys, okay cool.
I think that the first ten minutes of the game
was connected to last season. The remaining fifty minutes was elite.
The Pats are elite again. The defense is a top
five defense. The offensive game planning and Mac john within
that offensive game planning is going to be an above

(47:02):
average offense. With their running game, they have a top
five special team. I believe they get at least ten
wins this year. Mark my words. Take the last fifty
minutes of the Pats Eagles game and if that is
our season, we are elite again. Well, okay, I think
Badass probably wasn't tuned in last week when I said

(47:24):
I'm gonna stick with my prediction of eleven and six
for New England. I wasn't gonna point that out because
of the way that they lost this week, because now
they're really behind it. If they're gonna go get to
eleven wins, it's not impossible. I think we can see
that injuries are going to play a huge factor for
a lot of teams. Obviously it already has for the Jets.

(47:47):
You know, nobody, like I said earlier, nobody likes to
seem but get hurt. I think it's a horrible way
to end a year and you're like fourth snap of
the whole season. But you know, was that just not
typical Jets? I mean literally typical Jets? Right? Mss Robin
stood up when it happened. Did he get hurt? Yeah,
he got hurt. I don't know how bad he got hurt?

(48:08):
Jay E t Oh Is it too early for that?

Speaker 8 (48:15):
I mean, yeah, Oh, listen, you can't have fun with
somebody else's misery.

Speaker 1 (48:25):
What the whole fun is it anymore? Right? Yeah? I
know I know that's okay. You know, hey, it's happened
to the Patriots before. We know this, right, Okay, so
Badass still thinks this team wins ten. I'm not sure
how you feel about it, but I'm kind of curious
to know whether or not eight five five Pats five

(48:46):
hundred the toll free telephone number web radio at Patriots
dot com. That's the email that Badass just sent to You.
Got to admire someone who has the you know, it's
bah to call themselves bad ass? Right, What in the
world did you do that qualifies you as a badass?
I just want to know, are you like a fifth
degree black belt? You know, Judo son of a bleep?

(49:11):
I don't know what are you? Are you Chuck Norris revisited.
I mean, to me, he's a badass. But other than that,
you know, I'm yeah, Marine's a badass. Marine's a badass. Okay,
I don't know, it's just I'm like, badass. Okay, that's
his email address, too, bad Ass, I'll let you figure

(49:34):
out the number of a's that are in there. Obviously
likes the vowel a yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh that
was that one of the best, one of the best
WWE intros. Right, Okay, I was a road Doug fan myself.
Oh yeah, oh yeah, Oh you didn't know, but it
called somebody one of my favorite things ever. Oh I know.

(49:58):
Now I'm showing my twelve years out side of me
pretty pretty efficiently here, Sean and Vancouver Sean, please save
me for myself.

Speaker 9 (50:06):
Okay, saving on its way. Yes, I'm not a badass,
so I'm more of a flat ass.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
Wait, now, let's not get personal here. That's a little
too much information and a picture I don't want to see.
So there you go.

Speaker 9 (50:18):
No, you don't need to see that.

Speaker 6 (50:19):
That's what I'm not sending it.

Speaker 7 (50:22):
I think my bold prediction.

Speaker 9 (50:25):
Looks less than less bold this week, as I predicted
the Patriots will have a top five defense, that that
defense was was was better than last season.

Speaker 1 (50:35):
Yeah, yeah, I would tend to agree. I mean I
was really, uh pretty happy with the way the defense played,
especially you know, holding you know, Jalen Hursts one hundred
and seventy yards they held you know, uh, you know
the Eagles to uh, you know, well under what we
figured they would their total might be. Look, yeah, I

(50:57):
thought I thought they had a great game plan, and
I remember saying that in the middle of the game.
I remember, you know, saying this to you know, the
people that come in and frequent the booth. I just say,
you know what, the defense is handling it today. They're
handling their business. They just they handed the Eagles a touchdown.
They don't hand them a touchdown. Then this is a
game that goes right down to the stinking end, you know,

(51:17):
and you probably still have a chance to win it.
You might even have the lead. So I mean, the
reason Patriots lost to me is largely, not entirely, but
largely self inflicted. Yeah. So yeah, I just you eliminate
you got to eliminate the mistakes. And this was the
biggest gripe, the biggest nitpick, as we love to call

(51:38):
it here on the show that we had with last
year's team was the fact that they were just they were,
you know, shooting themselves in the foot every freaking week.
And it's kind of like, do they not teach discipline anymore?
Do they not teach fundamental football anymore? And frankly, I
laid it right at the feet of coach Belichick and
and and I'm gonna lay it right at the feet

(52:00):
the coaching staff. Right now, this is your You're through
week one, this is week two. You need to be
better than this. And if the team doesn't improve, you
own it. You own it, the players own it, but
the coaches also on a piece of it. There's got
to be more consideration to I mean, if Ezekiel Elliott
can fumble, holy cow, right, that was one of the

(52:22):
reasons they went and got him in the first way.
His place was because the guy is supposed to have
great ball security. He doesn't fumble.

Speaker 5 (52:28):
I know.

Speaker 9 (52:29):
But here's the thing. I'm hoping, like you said, the
coaches made there. I'm hoping Belichick watches that tape and
he sees it and goes, you know what, I'm looking
at this and this defense is damn good. So next
time it's ten minutes to go, we're fourth and three
inside the red zone, We're just going to kick the
field goal.

Speaker 6 (52:49):
Let the defense do their job.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, Well.

Speaker 9 (52:54):
Okay, I'm hoping he gets from Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:58):
No, no, Evan's off doing his repertorial duties.

Speaker 9 (53:02):
Well hopefully, here's this because I just want to respond
to what he misunderstood my encouragement about the game on
the offensive side. Yeah, and this is This is just
what I what I need to say, because I saw
what happened last year. Twenty twenty two was a disaster
in terms of having no offensive coordinator. It just didn't

(53:22):
work and it was a complete mess.

Speaker 5 (53:24):
And I thought Mac.

Speaker 9 (53:25):
Jones might be ruined, but I didn't know. But here
I see Mac jowns and Evan said this, you know,
in that second quarter, Mac Jowens has never played better
than that, throwing those darts, you know, and making great plays.
And one of the best throws he made was late
in the game to Born that I think it was

(53:46):
third and twelve, and Born didn't catch it. He can't
catch the ball like missus former Brady once says. He
can't throw and catch the ball at.

Speaker 2 (53:58):
The same time.

Speaker 9 (53:58):
And you only do much as a quarterback.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
Right right.

Speaker 9 (54:01):
So I see an actual game plan. I see something
that's that's positive, and I see Mac coming out this
Like I wasn't sure if he'd be ruined. I don't
think he is. I think he's going to be better
than he was two years ago. You can't worry about
what isn't there. Okay, we don't have a top wide receiver. Yesterday,
we didn't have a running game. It's a short pass.

(54:23):
That's that's what he's got. He's not he's not Patrick Mahomes,
he's not Alan. He's not going to scramble and throwing it.
That's not what he does. So he is what he is,
and that's true. But they can win that way. Sure
they're not going to score touchdowns on every drive, but
if you have a running game, you live with those mistakes.
I got that first interception that you were talking about earlier.

(54:44):
He didn't have the pressure in front of him, but
he probably felt like he should have because that's what
he was used to from last year.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
Okay, that's that wasn't there. That's that's a great observation, Sean,
because I thought so as well. He didn't get the pressure,
so he zipped it in there and he probably had
too much mustard on it, which is why the ball
kind of sailed. And you're talking about the one to
to Bourne that it went off his hands for the pick.

Speaker 7 (55:07):
Six right or jumps up and it just touches his
fingertips and then all the defenders are behind him. He
just put it a right soft one in front of him.
There's no one between him and the quarterback. It's an
easy reception, right, but yeah, he rushed it and then
he figured I think out out from that.

Speaker 9 (55:23):
It's like, I don't have to do that. These these
backup guards, you know, they're playing all right, I'm not
getting killed in here.

Speaker 1 (55:31):
Well, I thought, you know, yeah, it would have been
really easy to blame the offensive line, and I don't
really have any blame for the offensive line. Uh, for
the most part, they they kind of held together. The
one thing that you can criticize, if you're going to
criticize anything, is the fact that they did not run
block worth a you know, uh word the darn. But

(55:53):
I know they were also overly concerned. Yeah, they're overly
concerned with the speed and the strength of Philadelphia offensive line,
which to me might have indicated well, let's just let's
just go, let's take it right at them. Let's just
you know, let's put our hats you know, you know,
right into their helmets, right into their their chest, and
let's try to go forward. And I thought they could
have done a better job at that. I think we

(56:16):
saw enough, not a lot, but we saw enough of
Ezekiel Elliott to show that maybe you know that he
actually has something left in his legs and maybe we
give him an opportunity to try to you know, you know,
help us grind one out here, because to me, that's
what the Patriots really need. They never got last week
was one of those kind of grinded out drives early
in the game. They never got that, And of course

(56:37):
in the second quarter they bounced back, but I mean
that would have helped, you know, kind of set a
tone in a tempo and and and frankly, I feel
like they're gonna have to do a little grinding this
week against Miami because you know, a team that can
be as explosive as Miami is, you got to keep
that offense off the field and give your defense half
half a chance to rest and be ready for that,
don't you.

Speaker 9 (56:57):
And he also can't be too predictable. You can't straight
up the middle on first ten. You're going to have
to try a few I thinks maybe run on second down.
But yeah, you want to keep the Dolphins off the field,
and you don't want to do what the Chargers did
and just let he'll find his zone in the find
himself in the middle of his zone. Like I think
it was like third and ten late in the game,

(57:19):
and the Dolphins like threw right down to Hill. No
one's near him, Like what.

Speaker 7 (57:24):
Double team the guy?

Speaker 9 (57:25):
You know, make sure you don't let Hill.

Speaker 5 (57:27):
I'll be happy if.

Speaker 9 (57:29):
Wattle gets a hundred. I'd gladly give up one hundred
yards and a touchdown the Wattle if that means that
Hill doesn't get a touchdown in his cells unto one hundred.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
Yeah, well, I.

Speaker 7 (57:38):
The Patriots always take away your top weapon. That's the Dolphins,
right we and they have to take sure, all right,
this defense they.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Can final quick win then for you shown must win
on Sunday, must win.

Speaker 9 (57:49):
Must win, and they do it.

Speaker 7 (57:50):
Twenty three twenty two, Yeah, twenty three twenty two.

Speaker 9 (57:55):
Yeah, twenty three twenty two.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
Okay, strange score, but that's that's okay. I like it.

Speaker 9 (57:59):
No, no, no change it chance, Sorry, let's make a
little bit.

Speaker 1 (58:02):
What are you changing it too? For twenty four to
twenty three? Okay? All right, yeah, Patriots have the twenty
four of the Dolphins.

Speaker 7 (58:10):
Patriots.

Speaker 1 (58:12):
I knew that already. Thanks, Sean, you're good, You're good.
I appreciate you. Armando Salgero covers the NFL, I should
say for OutKick and OutKick dot Com but he has
also been a primary, you know, beat writer reporter for
the Miami Harrow for a number of years before his
time at OutKick, covering specifically the Miami Dolphins beat. He's

(58:35):
been a friend of this program and can be kind
enough to visit with us once or sometimes even twice
throughout the course of a football season. With the two
long time AFC East foes, decided to bang helmets again,
and we thought, well, what for old time's take, Let's
get Armando to talk a little, not only Dolphins, but
talk a little NFL as well, and he joined us
here inside the playbook. Armando, it's nice to have a

(58:57):
chance to speak with you again. Thank you for making
time for us.

Speaker 10 (59:00):
I appreciate you saying a number of years rather than
a number of decades. That makes me feel good.

Speaker 1 (59:06):
Dude. I'm right there with you with decades. Okay, I'm
in my fourth so here we go.

Speaker 11 (59:13):
That's awesome.

Speaker 10 (59:14):
Yeah, right, hopefully you'll make four more after that.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
I don't know about that, dude, I think I I
you know, the golf course, Becons, let's be honest here,
the golf course, the beach, my boat, you know it all. Beckons.

Speaker 6 (59:30):
Look at you you.

Speaker 5 (59:32):
I love it?

Speaker 1 (59:34):
See right? All right? Wait, hey, we got a dream big,
We got a dream big. What's your overall impression of
h We've been kind of dancing around this one so
far today. And there was a part of me that
felt really badly after Aaron Rodgers went down. And then
of course there's the part of me that kind of
chuck a little bit because I said, only the Jets,
I mean, only something like this could happen to the Jets,

(59:57):
and I'm sure that that probably occurred to more than just,
you know, a couple of fans across the country. What
does Aaron Rodgers' injury really mean within the AFC East
and your thoughts here?

Speaker 10 (01:00:07):
Well, it upsets the apple cart, does it not? It
opens up a spot everyone was thinking the AFC East
that minimum will have two playoff teams, the winner of
the division and the runner up, who will obviously still
be a very good team because there are a lot
of good teams in the AFC East. The New York

(01:00:29):
Jets are not going to be either one of those two.
Let me just say that right now. Okay, the Jets
have a great defense, and it's a defense that the
Devil's Josh Allen every year. But you know, football is
kind of more than just about the defense. You gotta
score some points here, and they manufactured some against the Bills,

(01:00:53):
but that's not going to happen every week. And I
just I'm just not a believer in Zach Will So
so I'm done.

Speaker 11 (01:01:02):
With the Jets.

Speaker 6 (01:01:03):
It's over.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
One week down, sixteen more to go. They're toast, They're out.
I gotta admit I kind of think the same way.
I'm not gonna lie to you. You know. Robert Salah
had said, and I saw this tweet from you earlier today,
that he'd be shocked if Rogers retired. Frankly, I think
I would be too, just because of the way that
he went out. Is there a chance that he retires.

Speaker 10 (01:01:29):
There's always a chance that Aaron Rodgers will do whatever
Aaron Rodgers decides that next second. Here's the you know,
the landscape. Aaron Rodgers in you know, twenty twenty one,
had a great season, and after the season, he thought about, what, oh, retirement,

(01:01:54):
and so he thought about it for a while and
did his whole retreat thing that he does every offseason,
came back and decided I'll come back for fifty million
dollars a year. Last year, after not such a great season,
he played that season finale and in his mind that

(01:02:14):
was going to be the last game of his career.
I'm not saying that he has said that. He went
on that so called darkness retreat, Yeah, and came out
of it believing in his mind he was retiring. I'm
not saying that he said that. And so the idea

(01:02:35):
that Robert Salad today said he'd be shocked if Aaron Rodgers,
you know, goes out like with that game the other night.

Speaker 1 (01:02:46):
It's a smoke screen. Smoke screen.

Speaker 10 (01:02:48):
Robert sala hasn't talked to Aaron Rodgers on the subject,
and Aaron Rodgers today might have a different opinion than
Aaron Rodgers three months from now post surgery. So the
idea that he's definitely coming back, come on, Yeah, we
don't know Aaron Rodgers like that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
Yeah, yeah, everybody wants the hot take on that one.
But you're absolutely right about that, especially since, as you
well point out, he's talked about leaving previous to arriving
in New York. All right, let's push the Jets aside.
And for Patriots fans, they gotta wait another week to
sink their teeth into into that carcass, in particular to
a tag of Blowe was the AFC Offensive Player of

(01:03:31):
the Week for his performance for sixty six. I mean
I realized that the Chargers and every time I see
LAC you know the abbreviation, I think Los Angeles Clippers.
That's just the old you know NBA in me. But
the Chargers may not have a very good defense. But
I gotta tell you it caught my attention as soon
as I saw that happen. So is this Miami team

(01:03:54):
as explosive as they appeared to be last week?

Speaker 10 (01:03:58):
The Chargers may not have a very good coach, is
what the Chargers don't have. Look a week ago before
this that game was played, Yep, everyone knew that Tyreek
Hill's pretty good, I mean really good. He was pretty
good in Kansas City for years, and last year, like

(01:04:19):
the first I would say month and a half of
the season, he was on pace for a two thousand
yard season. So he should not be a revelation to anybody.
And yet in the game against the Los Angeles Chargers,
Brandon Staley, who is a defensive minded coach, a former

(01:04:41):
defensive coordinator, man coverage a lot.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Over over what are you doing? Yeah, what are you doing? Right?

Speaker 10 (01:04:52):
And adjustment. No, we're gonna do what we do. Whoops,
there's another touchdown?

Speaker 1 (01:04:59):
Yeah and so, and they only lost by two points, right.

Speaker 10 (01:05:04):
Well, because he's got arguably one of the best quarterbacks
in the NFL and Justin Herbert, which he's wasting, by
the way. But that being a side, my feeling is
that Bill Belichick isn't gonna let that happen. Tyreek Kill
is gonna get his against the Patriots on Sunday, just

(01:05:28):
like he does against everybody when to a tongue of
Iloa plays. But is he gonna go off for two
hundred and fifteen yards while Belichick watches them torch man
coverage over and over and over again. I don't think so.
I think Belichick normally tries to take out your best

(01:05:49):
player and then you have to adjust to that and
try to beat the Patriots with your.

Speaker 6 (01:05:56):
Second best player.

Speaker 10 (01:05:58):
And you know, Mary Kill is their best player, So
I guess he's gonna draw some attention from the Patriots.

Speaker 1 (01:06:05):
He'll definitely draw attention, But it's almost kind of like
choose your poison. So if they take Tyreek out, that's
a hell of an opportunity for Jalen Wattle. Conversely, if
they decide wattles the guy that can damage them, which
seemed to be an early consensus around here, boy does
that open up opportunity for Tyreek. I mean, I don't know.
Can you take them both out?

Speaker 10 (01:06:26):
No? You can't. But here's what you can do. You
have to find a way to put pressure onto a
tongue of I looop yep. Last week there was none,
and the Dolphins dolphense is built for there to be
none because it's a two step, balls out kind of thing.
And that's that's the way they're hoping to keep him

(01:06:50):
healthy and durable this year. And that's just the way
that they've built the scheme. The idea has to be
you have to make him come off that first read.
You have to make him do something want to need
to do something else, and then you've got pressure on him.
You're not gonna get pressure on him if you can't

(01:07:11):
take that first read away, but you can if he
has to go through his progression.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
So is this Miami team as presently constituted, is this
a team that can should maybe is the favorite in
the AFC East now? Should they be.

Speaker 10 (01:07:28):
I don't know if they're the favorite yet. I mean,
look the Bills. You know, they laid an egg against
the Jets on Monday night. Josh Allen three interceptions and
a fumble a loss fumble at that he fumbled actually twice.
Arguably the worst game of his career. And I'm not

(01:07:51):
sure that he's going to repeat that very often this year.
So look to somebody just once upon a time said
to be the man. You gotta beat the man. When
the Dolphins beat the Bills, then we can talk, but.

Speaker 1 (01:08:12):
Not until Yeah, I kind of am that opinion as well.
It was it was that way when the Patriots were
up on top of the league for the division, especially
for a long time. You know, to beat them, you know,
to beat the man, you got to beat them in
and finally the Bills did. And I kind of thought
that maybe this was the year that the Bills took
a step back. I know some others shared that opinion,

(01:08:33):
largely because of the changes that they've had on the
defensive side of the ball. And now we're seeing that
Josh Allen may have some issues of his own, because
he was a little extra careless the other night. And
you know not without casting direct dispersions. The team that
I thought that would rise to the four of this
was Miami, and that's I'm not surprised that they won
the game in the manner in which they won last week.

(01:08:55):
And you know, I would tell you that my personal
favorite to win the division before the year started was Miami.

Speaker 10 (01:09:04):
It's hard to disagree, but look, the Bills have suffered
from what I would say is brain drain. You lose
your offensive coordinator who basically developed Josh Allen. Josh Allen
last year wasn't as good as he was the year before.

Speaker 7 (01:09:23):
You lose, you.

Speaker 10 (01:09:24):
Know, you move off of your defensive coordinator, who is
a very good coach, and now the head coach is
not juggling but trying to do both jobs as a
head coach. Sean McDermott is the head coach and the
facto defensive coordinator who's calling the defense. That's a lot
of assignments for one guy. They've lost people in the

(01:09:50):
front office, They've lost people below the coordinator level. They
lost their quarterback coach as well. He went to the Giants.
A team that has success has a certain window to
maximize that success. Sure, and I agree with you. The
Bills didn't maximize they got, you know, they happened to

(01:10:13):
have the tough luck of playing in the league that
has the Kansas City Chiefs in it. And so there
is that. And they are not the monster, bohemous super
team that they look like two years ago one year ago.

(01:10:33):
But are they division worthy in this division without without
Aaron Rodgers and with TUA still being a durability question,
I think they.

Speaker 1 (01:10:49):
Are all right? Before I let you go, Rmando, I'd
be remiss if I didn't ask you about something that
we haven't had reason to really talk about. We may
not get that chance here, but I know that you've
written about it. You probably you pined about it as well.
You know the the two owners in the NFL, Jerry
Jones and Terry Pagoula and Buffalo who have allegedly made
some let's just say, less than flattering comments, and they

(01:11:12):
were named in a lawsuit by a former NFL reporter
in Jim Trotter. Uh. You know, I just I'm kind
of curious as to what you think, what, uh you know,
if this is something that the NFL can sufficiently kick
under the rug, or if Jerry Jones and Terry Pagoula
might actually be in real trouble for some of the
things that they've said, well, allegedly said right, allegedly said yeah.

Speaker 10 (01:11:36):
Both have said that they didn't say it right.

Speaker 7 (01:11:39):
This is.

Speaker 10 (01:11:41):
This is what I think about that whole thing. First
of all, if if you feel like.

Speaker 7 (01:11:48):
You were you were.

Speaker 10 (01:11:49):
Damaged, why was it this suit brought before you lost
your job?

Speaker 1 (01:11:53):
Yeah? Yeah, that's that's that's the big thing. That's number one.

Speaker 7 (01:11:57):
Yeah, right, I.

Speaker 10 (01:11:57):
Mean you basically you were okay with it until they
stop paying you. So that's number one. Number two, the
suit does feel like it's gonna make the NFL quite uncomfortable,
especially if it gets to the discovery phase and there's depositions,
then you can ask for all sorts of records. Typically

(01:12:20):
what the NFL does in response to that threat is
it settles or it just throws gobs and gobs of
lawyerisms at the opposition. And they've got billions of dollars
to be able to do that, And so I would

(01:12:42):
be surprised if we ever see this in a court
of law. I would say that we're headed towards the
settlement and or a dismissal.

Speaker 1 (01:12:54):
Yeah, I think a settlement is likely because that's the
quickest way you can shut people up, isn't it.

Speaker 7 (01:13:04):
Absolutely yes, depends.

Speaker 1 (01:13:08):
On who you ask, who you try to shut up,
that's true, Hey, Armando.

Speaker 10 (01:13:11):
Yeah, for example, Brian Flores.

Speaker 6 (01:13:13):
Yeah, they're not that guy.

Speaker 1 (01:13:14):
No. I think we learned that around here, and that's
one of the reason why so many people run here.
Liked him because he was willing to stand up and
you know, say what's what and you know, so yeah,
I'm you know, some people have backbones, some people understand
what it is. Some people want to fight for, you know,
true wrongs that have been done out there. And I
appreciate those people more than I think most people really realize.

(01:13:38):
I appreciate you, Armando. Thank you for the time today
as always, for more decades to at least another decade.
Gat okay, awesome, have a good season. Talk to you
down the way.

Speaker 10 (01:13:51):
Sounds great.

Speaker 1 (01:13:51):
You got it. Armando Salgaro. You can get him at
Armando Salgaro s A L g U E r O.
It is how you spell his last name on X.
I just will never get used to that. I'll never
get I'll never get used to that, man, you know.
I honestly, and I you know, it really wasn't a

(01:14:12):
place for us to bring this up. But I actually
think that if we get to the discovery phase, as
he mentioned on this whole you know, Jerry Jones is
Terry Pagoula thing, that it's quite likely that other teams
and other individuals get dragged into this. So if you're
in a position of power within the NFL, or if

(01:14:33):
you've had any dealings with this former NFL you know,
network reporter Jim Trotter who got fired and brought the
lawsuit against these teams for this alleged discrimination, discriminatory talk
that he was talking about, racist talk he's talking about
because Jim is black. Then you might be a little
nervous right now. Just a story to kind of watch,

(01:14:54):
That's all I'm gonna say. I think it's a story
that kind of watch, because when we're talking, you know,
things being said, and uh, you know, politically correctness and
everything in this day and age, you had best mind
your p's and q's because it's a it's a it's
an ultra sensitive subject. I just can't figure out as
we were sort of talking about there, I just can't

(01:15:14):
figure out whether or not this was you know, motivated
because of the real racial wronging done here, or if
this was something that was done because he was just fired.
You know, he's you know, it's it's retaliatory. I don't know.
I just don't know yet, all right, So we'll figure
this one as we go along. Patriots 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

(01:15:36):
Toyota's official website for deals from the official vehicle of
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Stone is the official tire of the New England Patriots,
and Bridgestone tires are now on sale through September thirtieth
at all Sullivan Tire locations. Visit Sullivantire dot com for
a location near you. Russell Baxter, the pro football Guru himself,

(01:16:00):
joined us in twelve minutes eleven minutes from now, so
we got time for you. Eight five five PATS five hundred,
eight five five p A t S five hundred, Web
radio at Patriots dot com at JR Broadcaster. If you
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you want to post on Facebook, you can do so.

(01:16:22):
John dot rook ro o k E. Here's one from Sergio.
Sergio says John, longtime listener, Happy to have you back
every Wednesday. I think one of the problems with this
team is that Bill is trying to run it like
Brady is still here. You know that that's actually a
common complaint, that's a very common or criticism that Bill

(01:16:45):
still tries to run it like Brady's here. Well, let
me explain something to you about Bill. If you haven't
already figured this out. Game, Okay, Bill's gonna Bill. He's
gonna do exactly what you've seen him do, regardless of personnel.
What Bill's biggest issue is is that, at least in
my humble opinion, is that he doesn't have the talent

(01:17:08):
that he had here and he doesn't have the the
the overwhelming presence of one Tom Brady to you know,
bail him out. I mean, that's how that's how huge
Brady was. That's why Brady probably should go down as
the greatest quarterback to ever play, regardless of what Chiefs
fans think about their own guy. Patrick Mahomes you know,
he needs to do what Brady did for at least

(01:17:29):
another decade before you can even put him in the
same category. So let's be honest here, let's and let's
go by the numbers. And Brady never had receivers that
Mahomes has had, and you know, so Bill's clouded by that,
and I think he long has been. Was it Brady

(01:17:49):
or was it Bill? For the success? I heard that
one debated again for the millionth time or more earlier today.
It was some talk show here locally, and I've forgotten.
You can make compelling arguments either way. But if you know,
the brain trust under Bill doesn't draft Tom, which was

(01:18:12):
Dick Raybine, the late Dick Raybine, who was the one
that said, Hey, I like something about that kid out
of Michigan, you know, so they decided to take a
you know, a shot at him in the sixth round
at number one ninety nine.

Speaker 5 (01:18:25):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:18:26):
So if it wasn't for Dick Raybine convincing Bill Belichick
and the Patriots brain trust at the time to take
a shot of this guy, none of this would ever happen.
Maybe you know what would be fun to what would
be fun is to go into Flash's alternate universe. This
is right up Marine's alley here. We need to go
into a Flash alternate universe to find out what would

(01:18:47):
have happened if the Patriots didn't draft Tom Brady in
two thousand. What do you think about that Marine beat
the Jaguars? Yeah? Right, we would you think this team
would be the Jaguars? Oblie? I mean Drew Bledsoe obviously
then comes back in place, doesn't he? Right? So yeah

(01:19:09):
about drumming. I'm young. Yeah, I know, I know, but
I'm just saying, you know that I finally saw The
Flash from start to finish in the movie. It was
on HBO or something this week. I was greatly disappointed,
you're telling me. Yeah, I know, I know, you're the
comic book fiend. I wanted to like it, and there
were a couple of parts of the movie that I
actually did like. I actually I actually liked the sequence

(01:19:34):
at the end where all the worlds and the universes
were colliding and they showed all the old footage from
you know, the the George Reeves Superman, and oh my god,
there was who the hell plays the other the other
the who? Yes, thank you Nicholas Cage. I stuck on

(01:19:56):
that one, the Nicholas Cage Superman. We forget that one
ever happened, you know, kind of like the the val
Kilmber Batman. You know, we forget that one happened too, right,
you know it's kind of forgetful. But nevertheless, I enjoyed
that part. That part was kind of cool to see
all the comic book stuff sort of collide together. You know,
we saw a lot of cool Easter eggs in the movie.
I'll give it that, Yeah, but it was just it

(01:20:17):
was so hard to freaking follow.

Speaker 4 (01:20:19):
Fell apart, like what is it?

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Oh? It did? It did? And then the stuff between
the two Flashes was tedious. It was just tedious. Right,
everybody want to watch a good version of Flashpoint, Go
watch the animated version that came out a few years ago. Yeah, sure,
I understand. But you know what it reminded me of was,
you know, President Day Flash was working with his alternate
universe Flash. She reminded me of me when when I've

(01:20:44):
said many many times, if I could talk to my
younger self, and this is what I would tell my
younger self. That's what it reminded me of. I said,
Oh my god, he's talking to his younger self. He's
talking to the eighteen year old version of him. What
would we do if you could talk to the eighteen
year old version of you? What's the first thing you'd
say to eighteen year old marine? Probably not to join

(01:21:06):
the Marines. Let's be honest. Oh goodness, What would I
tell myself if I met the eighteen year old rook? Oh? God?
Three words? Just say no, change mind, to learn a trade, right,

(01:21:33):
don't go there? Oh? Or come up for air. That's
another one. I think I'd probably say, please come up
for air. Let me see what Sergio has here. Okay,
so he said, I think the problem one of the
problems with the team is that Bill is trying to
run it like Brady is still here. I just don't
think Mac has that clutch factor, and he isn't talented

(01:21:55):
enough to bring up average receivers. Okay, you're comparing comparing
him serge to Tom. That's an unfair comparison. You can't
do that. Mac deserves to have the opportunity to be
Mac Jones. Is anybody fair to compared to Tom? Well, No,
when you're the greatest of all time, you're gonna fall

(01:22:16):
short and you're right. You don't have the receivers that
Tom had. Hell, you can make an argument though the
Mac might have some better receivers now than Tom ever had,
you know, And again that's with all due respect to
Julian Edelman and Wes Welker and Randy Moss and some
of the ones that actually Troy Brown, you know, that
came through here and actually performed pretty well. Uh, Brady

(01:22:38):
made average receivers look great. But that's Tom Brady we're
talking about. Ma's a decent quarterback, but he needs elite receivers.
I don't know if you need elite. I would settle
for one really good one that'll take pressure off of
the very good ones. Does that make sense? I would
settle for one really good receiver. Hello, DeAndre Hoggins. I

(01:23:01):
would settle for one really good receiver that takes the
pressure off of the very good ones. And I think
then Mac is already a better quarterback. He says the
information in this communication. Oh okay, that's that's the end.
That's his that's his email. He didn't put any buffer there,
all right, Okay, it's a good point. Sergio will agree

(01:23:22):
to disagree on that one, because I don't think Mac
is I don't think the clutch factor. I think clutch factor,
you know, can be developed to a certain extent. If
the Patriots had won the game this past weekend, then
I would say that Mac probably has a little bit
of that clutch factor. Nobody has the clutch factor like

(01:23:42):
Tom Brady had it. No one, no one, no one,
not Tua, not you know, no one, Not Patrick Mahomes.
I don't think he is the clutch factor. Yet, He's
got really good players around him. He's got the ability
to take a team down the field, you know, at
a moment's notice. I'm just not sure about the clutch factor.
Clutch to me is defined by much more than just

(01:24:05):
being able to throw the ball up the field and
make plays. Mahomes are close, but he's got to do
it over a number of years in order to, you know,
I think, be put you know, close to the same
pedestal that Tom Brady is in close. Tim in the UK, Hey, Tim,

(01:24:26):
welcome into the playbook. How are you?

Speaker 5 (01:24:29):
Hey?

Speaker 1 (01:24:29):
Y good good, good good? What's on your mind today?

Speaker 11 (01:24:34):
I mean frustrating for fraighting loss on Sunday, you know,
as soon as as soon as that pick six was
thrown it, you know, kind of just only flashbacks from
last year coming back and the game played out, you know,
much of the same as they all did last year.

(01:24:56):
You know, put yourself in a hole early, make as
many mistakes if you do good plays, and you know,
put yourself in a posision to come back at the end,
and you know twice couldn't come up with anything in
the red line.

Speaker 1 (01:25:09):
Yeah, you bring you bring out a really important point. Though.
The fact about it is that when it happened, the
first thing that I'm thinking is is, oh my god,
this is last year all over again because this team,
like this team shot itself in the foot almost every
game at least once or twice, and ultimately they weren't
able to overcome those self inflicted wounds because they missed
the postseason. And so if you've got a team that
all they really need to do, we think they're certainly

(01:25:31):
better defensively. We think they at least improved incrementally on offense.
You know, if you have a representative offensive line back
and so if you just clean up the mistakes, this
team has a shot at being better again. The schedule
is probably arguably a little tougher than a year ago.
But you still have reason believe that this team can
be better if they're only look if they're only one

(01:25:53):
maybe two games better, if they can win one or
two that you know they didn't win a year ago.
This team is probably in the postseason. And yet you
saw that happen early and then you dig yourself a
sixteen nothing haul. It's like, my god, did they not
learn anything from a year ago? That bugged me?

Speaker 11 (01:26:10):
Yeah, yeah, exactly, I'm right then with.

Speaker 1 (01:26:13):
That. Just that just bugged me. And then I give
him a lot of credit for fighting back the way
that they did and staying in the game, you know,
because that could easily been a twenty three, twenty four
to nothing game at halftime, and then you got Tom
Brady coming out and you know, saying what he said
and YadA YadA and and celebrating, and it just wouldn't
have been a terribly celebratory move. They were able to,

(01:26:34):
you know, uh, you know, come back and make a
game of it, obviously at halftime with the good second
quarter push, but then they could never get over the hump.
You know, the defense bent a little bit, but they
didn't break. They didn't give up big plays. They didn't
give up the touchdowns, but they gave up clutch plays,
so you know or or or you know, first down plays,

(01:26:55):
And I mean, I'm not sometimes you have to give
the other team credit. They've got athletes too, they got
ability to and Philadelphia is a Super Bowl you know,
contending team for a reason. Although I think Philadelphia, I'll
be honest with you, because I know they were trying
to scrape off a lot of the rust on Sunday.
What I saw from them didn't really look like a

(01:27:15):
team that had just gotten out of the Super Bowl.
And again maybe it's just maybe it's just because they
didn't play at all.

Speaker 11 (01:27:23):
The super Bowl running up. You know, you have shaky starts. Yeah, yeah,
after a super Bowl lost, you know that's that's that's
something that we've seen before.

Speaker 1 (01:27:32):
It's not it's not so well. Uh, I mean, look,
a nothing you can do about that one. It's over,
so you try to figure out a way to get
the next one. And question that I asked today Tim
was is this must win in your estimation? Then on Sunday?
Is it must win Sunday night for this team too?
And I know you guys have to watch it early
in the morning. Which kind of sucks for you. But

(01:27:53):
you know, what do you do you watch it live?
Do you watch it by yourself? Do you watch it
with other people? Or do you do you sort of
it and watch it the next day.

Speaker 11 (01:28:03):
Sunday afternoon games are okay, you know one o'clock kickoff
is about six in the evening over here.

Speaker 1 (01:28:09):
Right right, But but this one isn't kicking off until
eight twenty at night East Coast.

Speaker 11 (01:28:15):
I'll probably catch up with that in the week.

Speaker 1 (01:28:18):
See, that's what. Yeah, I was just curious to know.
And I know, you know, some of our UK people
you know, will hold you know, all night watching parties
or what have you. But I got to imagine that,
you know, if you do that three or four times
during the year, which the Patriots were doing, you know,
a few years ago, that's got to be rough.

Speaker 11 (01:28:35):
Yeah, yeah, it takes it. So for the big ones,
for the big ones, I might do it and and depends,
you know, it depends what I've got going on Monday morning.

Speaker 1 (01:28:42):
Well that's what I love. That's why I love you guys,
your dedicated fans. So is this must win then on
Sunday for this team.

Speaker 11 (01:28:49):
For a brief window between the patsl losing and and
Aaron Rodgers injury. Yes, it was must win because you
need to stay in that AF you race with the Jets,
you know, probably not going to be as hot this
year as as as they would have been. I think

(01:29:10):
that gives you a little bit of leeway.

Speaker 1 (01:29:12):
Okay, little leeway, but yeah, yeah, it would be. It
would be better, obviously better to win than to lose.
But listen, you're on and tow your on one the division.
If you lose this weekend, it puts a completely different scheme,
a different different light on this season if you win
it as opposed to losing it early, this early in
the year.

Speaker 11 (01:29:32):
Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, especially especially you know after watching
what Miami did in LA. You know, if if, if
you can hold Waddle and Hill, you know, in check
to an extent and you know, not have Miami put
up what was it thirty sixth in the end.

Speaker 1 (01:29:51):
Well, I don't think you can. You can't let Miami
score thirty six and expect to win the game Sunday.
You can't. I don't know. You can't let them get close.
If you can hold miamiammy to under twenty four, you
got a shot because you struggle to get to twenty
four yourself, and I think we've seen that still with
this team. So the best chance you have is to

(01:30:12):
keep Miami to three touchdowns in a field goal and
then hope that you can figure out a way to
score three touchdowns on a field goal yourself on offense
against the Miami defense that may still have some question
marks early. And that's kind of the way that I'm
thinking this thing plays out. I know one of our
callers earlier, Sean and Vancouver, he said he thought it
would be twenty four to twenty three. I kind of
liked that pick. I kind of like that pick. I'm

(01:30:35):
gonna go I think twenty seven to twenty six, and
I think I'm gonna take the Patriots to win it,
just because you know, I'm gonna give them the benefit
of the doubt in terms of the desperation here because
they need this more than Miami needs it. Miami can
prove a lot to a lot of people with this win.
They can absolutely take charge of the division two weeks

(01:30:57):
into the season if they go on the road and
they beat the Patriots without a doubt.

Speaker 11 (01:31:02):
Yeah, John, Before I head off, I want to give
I want to give you and I a little bit
of credit after our chat last week. You absolutely nailed
Kendrick Bourne being a big part of it this year.

Speaker 1 (01:31:15):
Well he was. Unfortunately, the problem is he could have
been and should have been a bigger part.

Speaker 11 (01:31:20):
Well yeah, yeah, yeah, But unfortunately my prediction about Juju
being a downgrade from Jacoby. I feel vindicated after both
his Juju's performance on Sunday and Jacoby's.

Speaker 1 (01:31:34):
In I know, I know, listen, I mean hindsight as
we know, Yeah, hindsight as we know, Tim is twenty twenty.
But you know, the whole Juju thing is a little
bit troublesome because if he's had in you know, you know,
if they've been protecting him for his knee, I guess
I can understand that, but I just don't know why
they wouldn't have gotten gone out and gotten more help

(01:31:56):
at receiver knowing that Juju had this knee problem or
this you know, alleged problem, and that Taekwon was gonna
be in the shape that he's in, and why wouldn't
you go and get yourself more help. You're relying on
two sixth round receivers, which was Evan's chief complaint earlier.
Like you know, and you don't have DeVante Parker who
can't stay healthy and can't get back on the field,
and so you're relying now on two sixth round receivers

(01:32:18):
to bail you out of tough difficulties, tough tough situations.
And that's unfair. And not only is that unfair, that's
just dumb. That's dumb. Yeah, completely a great So, Tim,
thank you for the call. Appreciate you all right, Yeah,
no worry of John, Talk to you soon, my friend.
Patriots fans, if you want to see Toyota's best offers,
including those not seen on TV, go to buy at

(01:32:41):
toyota dot com. It's Toyota's official website for deals from
the official vehicle of the New England Patriots, Toyota. Let's
go places a real woman could stop him from drinking.

Speaker 5 (01:32:53):
Yeah, it's a real big woman.

Speaker 3 (01:32:55):
It's time to go around the NFL with football guru
Russell Baxter.

Speaker 1 (01:32:59):
Now' the name is Flounder on Patriots playbook. By the way,
before we get to Flounder, with all due respect, Russell
Claire sent this email from the UK. She says, so
I have a sandwich bet with my buddy and I'm
going eleven and six pats second in the division? Is

(01:33:22):
she being overly optimistic? I said eleven and six. I
don't know. I think eleven and six after starting oh
one to one might be a little bit more difficult
to achieve, but certainly not impossible. And let's bring in
the afore mentioned Russell Baxter to get his thoughts on
what he saw from New England against Philadelphia this past Sunday.
Is eleven and six out of the question?

Speaker 7 (01:33:45):
Well, I think it would depend on the sandwich.

Speaker 1 (01:33:50):
Right right now? So are we gonna start talking about
favorite We're gonna start talking about favorite sandwiches now.

Speaker 7 (01:33:57):
H Well, that's a twenty for our show. You know me, John,
I've never turned down the sandwich.

Speaker 1 (01:34:04):
Oh no, no, no, well I haven't either usually don't
usually don't mean, I mean, we know how.

Speaker 7 (01:34:11):
It's topsy turvy at any one time a team can
get hot, and by the way, and any one team
time a team get very very cold. You know, it's
it's been a streaky league for quite a while. I
mean you look at you know some of the teams
that made the playoffs last year that went barreling in

(01:34:31):
to the postseason on winning streak. Ye and then of
course we still all and and you know, in my uh,
the more things changed, more things say the same piece
that I did for ian for full press coverage. You know,
we had five teams who went into Week one having
lost at least their last six games last season.

Speaker 1 (01:34:53):
Wow, okay.

Speaker 5 (01:34:54):
The only one who didn't lose again were the Jets, right, Okay,
So now Tennessee and Indie are sitting in Arizona eight
game losing streaks, and the Bears have lost eleven games
in a row.

Speaker 1 (01:35:05):
That's nuts. Okay, So we have two teams, two teams
eight game losing streaks now and one with eleven right.

Speaker 7 (01:35:12):
No, three teams Tennessee, Indianapolis. I mean, look at Jacksonville
like it's just interesting. You know, they're the only team
to win.

Speaker 5 (01:35:23):
In the division last week.

Speaker 7 (01:35:25):
You know, indian Jets and Tennessee are in free fall.
Houston is in the rebuilt mode. So now, of course
they get the Chiefs this week, which you know, the
well rested chief who also have Chris Jones back. I
don't know if they'll have Kelsey back. We'll have to
see about that, he said some extra time. But and
Kansas member Kansas City beat the Jaguars not once, but

(01:35:47):
twice last year.

Speaker 1 (01:35:48):
That's true. That's true.

Speaker 5 (01:35:51):
They have eleven and six.

Speaker 7 (01:35:53):
I don't you know, I don't rule anything out. I
get tired of the that's impossible, and this is impossible,
and and you know, there were a lot of teams
last year that were left you know, you know, I
just thought that we had been miserable. And the Giants
were very surprising last year. The Seahawks were astounding last year.
You know, we've talked about this in Jacksonville. Jacksonville finished

(01:36:16):
last in the division four years in a row, and
then all of a sudden they wanted Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:36:19):
So, by the way, about this last.

Speaker 7 (01:36:21):
Year, John in New England doesn't qualify for this because
they finish in last place, but half the league last
year as far as their last place teams all made
the playoffs one year later.

Speaker 1 (01:36:31):
By the way, that the Giants were unbelievably disappointing. You know,
whether you're a Cowboy fan or not, but to get
beat forty to nothing in the opening league of the season,
I mean, wow, how does that happen?

Speaker 7 (01:36:46):
Well, it happened because your offensive line and your special teams,
Uh really let you down. You got the one interception
was off of the flexing some one, but they looked
to dazzle. Okay, yeah, and but no, I mean, listen,

(01:37:09):
we don't see that many shutouts in.

Speaker 5 (01:37:11):
The league to begin with.

Speaker 1 (01:37:12):
No, and and but.

Speaker 5 (01:37:15):
Yeah, I know, I know.

Speaker 7 (01:37:16):
I mean the shutout is one thing that forty to
nothing was pretty astounding. And again Dallas's offense didn't do
all that much. Of course they didn't really have to,
but I mean it was really unbel I mean, here's
but I'll tell you something. It shows you the difference

(01:37:38):
between teams and how they handle things. Yeah, okay, because
if you really think about it, John, A couple hours earlier,
the Patriots found themselves in similar mode.

Speaker 5 (01:37:52):
Down to the.

Speaker 6 (01:37:55):
Okay, a pick.

Speaker 7 (01:37:56):
Sick ezekiel olliat fumble set up another score, and all
of a sudden, the Patriots are damn big. But they
hung in there. The Giants didn't. You know, those games
weren't all that much different in terms of how they started.
They were certainly different on how they.

Speaker 1 (01:38:18):
You cut out right at the very end there, Russell,
can you say what you just said over again?

Speaker 7 (01:38:23):
The Patriots Eagles game and the Giants Cowboys games were
very similar in the way they started, they were not
anywhere close to the way they finished. There probably outplayed
Philadelphia the last week quarters so and that just shows
you that resiliency. And they shows you Bill Belichick and

(01:38:43):
Brian Dabele And that's not knock on him, but that's
a team that is still learning. And and here's something
to point out about the Giants. Okay, as good as
they were last year, and they surprised a lot of people,
and I lost five in a row to the Cowboy.
And even though last year they were a playoff team

(01:39:06):
nine to seven and one and won a playoff game,
they beat Minnesota, and Minnesota they were during the regular
season one four and one against their own division, and
now make it one five in one because they got
flastered in Philadelphia in the playoffs, right, and now make
it one sixth and one in the last eight division

(01:39:29):
games after last week.

Speaker 1 (01:39:30):
Yeah, I obviously would be remiss if I didn't ask
you what your thoughts were on the Aaron Rodgers debacle
in New York as well. It's so unfortunate to have,
you know, a star player in the NFL go out
like that on what the fourth stap that he had
of the night. And yet you know, there's a part
of me, as I mentioned earlier the show today that
kind of like I kind of chuckled at it because

(01:39:51):
I'm like, the Jets just can't get out of their
own way, and it just seems like this is if
you ever, if you have a cursed franchise in the NFL,
that might be one.

Speaker 7 (01:40:00):
Well, I mean, I mean it was so sad to
watch that so and then hopefully that's not the last
we see of him.

Speaker 1 (01:40:05):
I don't think it will be. I don't think you
go out like that? Can you possibly go out like that?

Speaker 7 (01:40:10):
You remember? You know, it's interesting it was the latter
stages of his career. And I want to say the
year was nineteen ninety three. Lawrence Taylor is getting carted off, yeah,
early in the season, yeah, and missing most of the year.

Speaker 1 (01:40:25):
Yeah and yeahs you.

Speaker 7 (01:40:27):
Know, and nineteen ninety three would have been his thirteenth
year in the league mm hm. And he wasn't going
out that way.

Speaker 1 (01:40:35):
Now.

Speaker 7 (01:40:35):
I know he's been seen on a golf part for
the last twenty five years. Yeah, you know, and I
don't know what his handicap is, but Lawrence Taylor wasn't
going out that way, and I get to feel and
Aaron Rodgers and would out that way at all.

Speaker 1 (01:40:48):
Yeah, yeah, I kind of think so too. I mean,
it's unfortunate, but you know, nevertheless, it does keep things
wide open in the AFC East. Do you have an
overall impression over the for the uh the I guess
the lower level of offensive play in Week one that
we seem to tee to have with the number of
points that are actually scored, you know, per game. I

(01:41:10):
think it was like forty points a game or whatever,
it was actually a pretty low number for NFL in
terms of historical purposes. What was your take on that?

Speaker 7 (01:41:20):
Not shocking? I mean, I will say this, we did
see during the preseason, John, some teams play their regulars
a lot more than people thought. Okay, but we also
know in this league that it gets it's hard to
come out of the gate flying, it really is offensively

(01:41:40):
because they don't allow you to do a lot with
their offense, you know, with your offensive line and training camp.
You know, they limit physical play. So you know, we
saw I mean.

Speaker 5 (01:41:52):
You know, if you went to the Meadowlands this week,
I'm still calling it the medal Lands. Okay, if you.

Speaker 8 (01:41:58):
Went to the Medal lands a week and what does
Jimmy Hoffer, Yeah, I dign't.

Speaker 7 (01:42:08):
If you watch the Jets and the Giants game this weekend,
say you you know you are a New York fan
you went to vote. Think about the turnovers and how
big special teams were in those games. The Cowboys blocked
the punt and returned it for a touchdown. The Jets
won the game on a punt return in overtime. They

(01:42:31):
forced Josh Allen into four turnovers Monday night. Okay, we
saw Daniel Jones and the Giants overrun by a very
very fast Dallas defense and they couldn't hang.

Speaker 5 (01:42:44):
On to the ball.

Speaker 7 (01:42:45):
So you you know, if you went there to see offense, okay,
I mean we saw one team get shut out. We
saw another team, you know, limited as far as their
offense and so on. A lot of that obviously had
to do with Aaron Rodgers going down, But again, to me,

(01:43:06):
it's so interesting to watch teams overcome adversity. Okay, the
Giants didn't. The Patriots did to a point, but they
couldn't close the deal, and the Jets certainly did coming
back and winning that game.

Speaker 1 (01:43:27):
Yeah, let's take a look. Then a week two. We
have Thursday, the Eagles are back on the slate. They
got kind of tough, a tough road to Hoe to
start the season. They're at home though, for their opener
against the Vikings, who started out somewhat disappointingly. That certainly
will catch you I think some attention, you know, for
early in the schedule. The Bills are back at home,

(01:43:49):
but they've got to go to play a Raiders team
that won their first game the Bengals may have been
to me one of the bigger disappointments of the entire week.
They get to go home and they'll take a Ravens
team that started out undefeated. And then I'll be anxious
to see a lot of intrigue. I think this week
I'll be asxious to see how the Lions repeat after
getting that big win over Kansas City on the road

(01:44:11):
to open up. They're at home for their opener against
the Seattle team that fell short of the mark. So, uh,
there's definitely intrigue. And almost every week that we got
on the schedule this week, every game on the schedule.

Speaker 7 (01:44:22):
Yeah, and Week one was great because half the games,
eight of the more divisional games. I think we give
six more this week. And you know, if if you're Cincinnati, now,
remember Cincinnati was zero and two last year. M h
and struggled in the middle of the year, got actually
got killed by Mike Cleveland on a Monday night, and

(01:44:43):
then then we found it and obviously made to be
but you know, to be oh and two last year
when they watched the Pittsburgh and Dallas opposed to oh
and two if they lose to Cleveland and Baltimore, which
are two.

Speaker 6 (01:44:58):
Divisional offices, Yeah, that puts you a.

Speaker 7 (01:45:01):
Little behind the eighth ball right away. And that's the
stuff I look at is and I you we've talked
about this one hundred times, so this will be one
oh one. How you hold service, how you play against
your rivals, and if you can't play against your rivals competitively,

(01:45:23):
you're going to struggle to win division titles. You might
get in the playoffs. So we obviously know it's a
long way to the Super Bowl now. I mean, listen,
Tampa Bay won the Super Bowl was a wild card
a couple of years ago. Okay, Tampa Bay lost this
first game of the season that year and still won
the Super Bowl. So Obviously things change, and things change
also because there's now seventeams per conference in the playoffs, so.

Speaker 5 (01:45:50):
It is intriguing.

Speaker 7 (01:45:52):
Detroit is intriguing because you know, listen, they won one
game and they need to Chiefs in there. That does
not make a playoff run. But it's how they handled that.
They how they handled that in terms of letdown, that
is the key.

Speaker 5 (01:46:10):
Now.

Speaker 7 (01:46:10):
I think I remember last year when they when they
played h and they struggled, uh, you know, offensively early
on they were a powerhouse defensively throughout the year until
later in the year they were really rough. And one
of the games that you lost last year, we didn't

(01:46:32):
know Geno Smith was on his way to becoming NFL
Comeback Player of the Year, but he had a monster
game at Detroit. So how Dan Campbell handles that and
they can get off to a decent start, which obviously
that division is you know, seemingly up for grabs this
year because there's a lot of components. Minnesota sure undergoing

(01:46:55):
whatever they're undergoing, and last year they didn't insily on
a Monday night and got destroyed right right. I'll be
curious to see how that happens.

Speaker 1 (01:47:02):
Yeah, I want to see how they handled success. Absolutely,
I mean, you know, and they and they finished last
year so strong. You know, I obviously think, you know,
they were probably one of the few teams that seemed
to have benefited, you know, from hard knocks on HBO,
because that gets panned so much nowadays. But I kind
of I put it to you this way. I've got
interest in the Lions where previously I could care less.

Speaker 7 (01:47:26):
Well, yeah, he said, Listen, I think anytime a team
is down, as long as they've been down, and let's
let's let's throw out the streets here. First off, they've
never been to the Super Bowl. They're the only team
in the NFCA that has not been to at least.

Speaker 6 (01:47:41):
One Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (01:47:42):
Wow, there you go.

Speaker 7 (01:47:43):
Yep, they have not won an NFL title, and they
won four. But in the history, they have not won
an NFL titles since nineteen fifty seven, right, that's two
years before I was born. Through the mad same here, Yeah,
they have not won a playoff game since Eric riddled
Jimmy Johnson's Dallas Cowboys in the nineteen ninety one Divisional round,

(01:48:08):
by the way at the Silver Dome. And they haven't
won the division title since the division was called the
NFC Central. That would be nineteen ninety three, So that's
a lot to overcome in terms of history.

Speaker 1 (01:48:23):
Was Bobby Lane their quarterback when they last won? When
who Bobby Lane was? Either quarterback?

Speaker 7 (01:48:30):
Oh, I'm trying to think of fifty seven. If he was,
it's escaping me right now. I don't want to commit
to that, but I know who the quarterback was when
they won that playoff game. Like I said, it was
Eric Kramer, that guys like Herman Moore very excited.

Speaker 5 (01:48:45):
That was Wayne.

Speaker 7 (01:48:46):
Font Fonts' team. You know that that was a pretty
good team. But again they had won, they lost to
the Redskins in the NFC title game and that's been
it since then. So I think we saw this to
a degree with the Browns the last couple of years.

(01:49:06):
We saw to a degree with the Buccaneers once Brady
got there in Sinnbomber, they and those those teams ended
long postseason drafts, and I think people were, you know, honestly,
John bar looking forward to that with the Jets this
year when Aaron Rodgers in there. As we know that
the Jets currently owned the longest playoffs are out in

(01:49:26):
the league been there since.

Speaker 1 (01:49:28):
Yeah, that's right. Well, I'm presently watching on NFL Network
a monitor here in front of me in the studio.
I'm watching the Miami you know, Chargers game, and so clearly,
you know, it was a game that went back and forth.
You know, the Chargers, uh, you know, had an opportunity
obviously couldn't hold it. Miami came roaring back, scored thirty
six one at thirty six thirty four. They have unbelievable

(01:49:50):
weapons on offense. Defense probably still needs a little tweaking.
They've got some new coaches on that side of the
ball this year as well. But I don't know about you.
At least in Week one, you know, the NFL's dynamic
offense seems to reside in South Florida, and you know,
I'm wondering if that is still going to be the
modus operandi for championship contending teams is offense first, or

(01:50:13):
because we saw an overall sort of shrinkage in combined
points score in Week one, if we're not beginning to
start on another era of defense over offense in the league.
I mean too soon probably to really gauge that, but
I kind of like to get your early thoughts on.

Speaker 7 (01:50:29):
That, Well, I think it is too soon to gauge it.
But I understand where you're going there, John, because you know,
it's funny. I've always had this school of thoughts. You know,
the NFL has always tried to introduce more offense. Okay, yeah,
I remember going back to seventy six and seventy seven

(01:50:51):
when I was like fifty years old, and there were
like almost a record number of shutouts in the modern era. Now,
a lot of them had to do with the expansion
Buccaneers those first two years in the league. I want
to say they were shut out like eleven times in
two seasons.

Speaker 1 (01:51:10):
I'm going to digress her for just a second, Russell,
because it reminds me of my favorite football quote ever.
When John McKay was John McKay was asked about, you know,
the Buccaneers execution, he says, I'd be in favor of.

Speaker 5 (01:51:22):
It, absolutely.

Speaker 7 (01:51:25):
He had another one a year later. They lost the
game to the Rams, and he said, I guess when
the game touchdown that decided the game, the Bucks only
had ten men on the field, and he said something
to the nature of, as good as we are, we
can't beat the Rams with ten men.

Speaker 1 (01:51:45):
Yeah, yeah, I.

Speaker 7 (01:51:47):
Mean he was always you know, he always kind of
you know, you've seen the NFL film stuff with him
with what he spends like twenty minutes trying to get
his players to sit down.

Speaker 5 (01:51:57):
Yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, the sidelines, you know.

Speaker 7 (01:51:59):
The discipline one and right, very very funny. But anyway,
in nineteen seventy eight, they changed the rules to open
up the passing games. You know, offensive lineman could extend
their arms to pass block. The five yard contact rule began.
And you know, it was funny because the Steelers, who

(01:52:22):
were as you know, a running football team with that
great defense you know play they won back to back
Super Bowls in seventy four and seventy five. Then they
changed the rules and guess who won back to back
Super Bowls with the new rules. It was the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Now from throwing the ball with Bradshawren Swan, Stoli Worth
and that whole cat. The defense wasn't good, but I digress. Now,

(01:52:43):
ever since then, we have seen tweaks and little things
to make more offense, and I think there's been a
theory of the elaite just once more exciting games. My
theory has always been this and you kind of allude
to it. They keep changing the rules because offenses as
much faster than people think.

Speaker 1 (01:53:04):
Yeah, they definitely do the peace.

Speaker 7 (01:53:06):
Again, maybe that's the case again that that that Miami
by the way, that Miami Chargers game last week reminded
me of the Miami Baltimore games last year in Week two.
Remember when he went crazy to stay on twenty one
nothing they came all the way back. Yeah, and so on,
and listen, Tyreek killed, Tyreek kill the guy.

Speaker 6 (01:53:29):
This is just just for a little perspective.

Speaker 7 (01:53:33):
He's been in the league. This is his eighth year. Okay,
his first seven years in the league, which includes last
year with the Dolphins, he was named to the Pro
Bowl every year. Okay, and now for people who've squashed
the Pro Bowls, he's also been named All Pro four times.
What he's done to the Chargers in his career, he's

(01:53:55):
played them thirteen times. Okay. Touchdowns, Yeah, he has ten
receiving touchdowns, two return touchdowns, and the third return touchdowns
because last year the Chargers made a great.

Speaker 5 (01:54:10):
Play against the Miami offense and Tyreek Hill picked up
the flumbone ran at fifty seven yards.

Speaker 7 (01:54:16):
For a touchdown.

Speaker 1 (01:54:16):
Nuts. Crazy and that's the that's the issue I think
the Patriots have clearly on Sundays, they've they've got to
limit I mean the really big plays, big plays and
explosive plays. If you're looking at fifteen yards or more,
you know for an explosive play, all right, you got
to limit those. But you can't give up the big ones.
I'm talking about the forty and fifty plus they go
for touchdowns. Somehow you got to figure out a way

(01:54:39):
to keep those guys from doing that, because both he
and Waddle are eminently capable.

Speaker 7 (01:54:44):
Well, listen, I've seen Tyreek kill when he had Patrick
Mahomes come up to Pitchillette Stadium and have quite the night,
and I'll make a bad I'll make a bad five
years the pun here if you'll know where I'm going.
I think it was a Sunday night game up in
Foxborough and Tyreek Hill made his share, especially one time

(01:55:05):
he made his share of a flash flut if you
remember what I'm talking about, Okay, yeah, yeah, flash flat
which I believe that young man, whoever that person was,
is no longer attending Patriots gape in Gellette Stadium. In
any case, he is dynamic he's great after the catch.

(01:55:26):
He can strict Listen, go back to when Tampa and
Kansas City played in the Super Bowl in the regular
season that year, Tampa had had to make an adjustment.
Tyreek Hill caught over two hundred yards worth of passage
john in the first quarter.

Speaker 1 (01:55:43):
Oh, that's that's insane. That's insane. How do you allow
that to happen?

Speaker 7 (01:55:48):
No, I don't know. Well, they didn't allow it to
happen when they played in the Super Bowl because hey,
Patrick Mahomes was the thing is starting offensive tackles. Yeah,
and they defense Tyreek Hill a much different way. So,
but it just shows you what Tyreek Hill is capable of.
And last year when they played on a Sunday night,

(01:56:09):
Tua had an awful day, an awful night, I just
say had. He was under fifty percent. Tyreek Hill caught
four passes for eighty one yards in the touchdown, but
Johnny was targeted at ten times. This time around, he's
targeted at fifteen and fought eleven for two fifteen and
obviously those big scores and maybe.

Speaker 5 (01:56:29):
He's just.

Speaker 7 (01:56:32):
You know, he reminds me in some ways he's not
quite as good as after the catch. But it's like
Antonio Brown as much as Antonio Brown, and you know,
whatever's going on with him in the last couple of
years and a different time in different conversation, you couldn't

(01:56:52):
denyinate when he got the football in his hand that
he could beat in so many different ways.

Speaker 5 (01:56:56):
And that's what.

Speaker 7 (01:56:57):
Tyreek Kill was able to do. And that's what dud
Pellagi it's going to have to prevent. And you know,
Belichick's always had that reputation for taking the team's best
weapon right out of the mix, right And I would
say right now, because Miami didn't show much of a
running game. And listen, Jalen was obviously a solid receiver,

(01:57:21):
but that was maybe two or three for four sixty
six and Tyreek Hill had almost half of it. So
I mean, it's pretty obvious with Belichick and the game
plan is going to be defensively. Now, if I'm also
Bill Belichick, and fortunately for Patriot fans, I'm not, I'll

(01:57:42):
be curious to test that run defense. Yeah, okay, Now,
so obviously the fangio is the defensive coordinator down in Miami.
They know how to get a video. But Chargers ram
for two hundred and.

Speaker 6 (01:57:53):
Thirty four yards last week.

Speaker 7 (01:57:55):
Now, I went back and looked, I'm actually right on it,
and Austin ex had one hundred and seventeen of them.
But I went back and looked at some of the
and the Dolphins last years on were fourth against the run.
But I like to go back and look at game
by game, and I thought it was interesting that there
were a couple of times where they gave up one
hundred and fifty yards Russian yards rushing against the Bears,

(01:58:17):
they gave up two fifty two, and I'm like, wow,
I mean this is really erratic. But then when you
take it closer, look what the Dolphins struggled with last
year where the mobile quarterbacks Lamar Jackson justin field. That's
where those big rushing numbers came from when they played
those teams. So a little up and down. But you know,

(01:58:38):
I don't know if you're putting or you're putting Mac
Jones in that same category that be incented. I think
Bill Belichick and the coaching staff and Bill O'Brien are
going to test the interior of that Miami defense because
it does two things. It wears down the opposition and
it keeps two entirely kill off the field.

Speaker 1 (01:59:00):
I think there's definitely mission Mission one for Sunday, if
not Mission two, three and four to go right along
with it. Hey, Russell, thank you, my man. It's always
great to catch up with you. And uh, let's try
it again next week if you're around.

Speaker 7 (01:59:12):
That was very clever of you. We were talking sandwiches
and then you end it with ketchup.

Speaker 1 (01:59:17):
Yeah, yeah, why not? Although I don't know, can we?
We can't put ketchup on a sandwich?

Speaker 10 (01:59:22):
Can we could?

Speaker 1 (01:59:26):
Depends on the sandwich.

Speaker 7 (01:59:27):
I always appreciate the nice condiments you have for me.

Speaker 1 (01:59:30):
Ah, but don't I get it? I get it. I
don't know ketchup could go on a Hamburger.

Speaker 7 (01:59:36):
Maybe I'm not going to top seven eleven from next week,
so I might not even try.

Speaker 1 (01:59:42):
That's right, that's right. Uh, we have to have a
day where we do nothing but witty puns. Okay, we'll
try that next week. Thanks, my friend, talk to you soon.
You got it. You know the other thing that we
have to do. Here's the other thing we we have
to do. We have to have a Russell Baxter drinking game.

(02:00:04):
We have to. We have to do it. It's just
so many options we have to because he says okay,
like after every other sentence, and I mean you could
be stone cold, bleep faced if you had a rustle
backster drinking game and had to do a shot every
time he says okay, shah, you be dead. Wow. You
know we might have to do that. We could even
do that live on the air here one of these days.

(02:00:26):
You know, I'd be a way to get the audience
involved with it. Get around for the tequila right now?
Oh my play back to the interview. What I love it?
John Howard and Strafford Connedica says, what a disappinting outcome

(02:00:47):
to a hard fought game by the Patch. They dug
themselves a hole that they aren't at this point in
time able to overcome. I like the way Mac pounced
back from a horrific start, but I agree with Evan.
He needs everything to be perfect in order to make
all the throws as he has as a starting quarterback
in the NFL needs to make. He's got to have
help from the other guys, and it would start, as

(02:01:07):
we suggested, by getting guys like Devanta Parker back of
the field, the guys like Taekwon Thornton back of the field,
and like I said, the best ability for a receiver
is availability, and they don't have that right now. That's
a huge problem Aiden in California, John man all I
can say I'm encouraged about the performance, not necessarily about

(02:01:28):
how they lost the game, but Poise Mac had deliver
passes with a patchwork O well and that was impressive.
But a loss is still a loss. I'm just glad
the offense for the most part, they're on the same
page and growing together forward. Now we're on to Miami
and John, this is a must win. You have two
back to back division games, you have any aspersions for
the playoffs. Being up to a zero in the division

(02:01:50):
would be critical, he says. I think we went it
in a thrill with thirty one to twenty seven, and
that's why I asked the question to start the show.
It sounds stupid, It's silly to say that, oh it's
week two, but this is already you must win. Look,
if you can win in Sunday at home, you get
back to even Stephen one to one. But you're want

(02:02:10):
to know on the Division and then somehow back that
up with a road win at a Suddenly you know
Rogers lest New York Jets team. Now you've said a
message not only to the rest of the division, but
maybe even to the NFL that this is a team
that could actually be in the postseason. So if this
week is must win, next week is also critical to

(02:02:31):
letting people know that you're legit. And isn't that what
you want from you this New England Patriot team. You
want people to realize that maybe this is legit, even
if technically they're not yet. Devon in Atlanta, you got
the no, he's not there. I don't care. I was
gonna give him the last word, but he's not there. Uh,

(02:02:51):
he might be ringing back in. I'll give him another
second here. So at any rate he says thirty one
to twenty seven, I'm going to take the Pats on
this one, twenty seven to twenty. I don't know that
they can get to twenty seven. I'll be honest. I
think that maybe they could have been around the twenty
four range or whatever last week had they not thrown

(02:03:12):
the pick six. They did assist Philadelphia in that regard.
I think it's gonna be hard to get there, and
I'm hoping that the defense can just somehow stuff a
sock in the Dolphins offense and at least slow them
down a little bit, and like you know, has been
suggested already. Look, you gotta figure out a way to

(02:03:32):
take out or tamp down on either hill, you know,
or waddle and probably Tyreek Hill, and then you see
what kind of a chance you can you can take
with the other one. But you can't let both of
those guys run rampant. If they do, there's no way
you win the game. All Right, Claire, I'm gonna give
you the last word on the show today. How are you?

(02:03:55):
Is sheit? There? You got her?

Speaker 5 (02:03:58):
He Hello?

Speaker 1 (02:03:59):
There you are?

Speaker 4 (02:04:01):
Hello?

Speaker 1 (02:04:01):
Hello?

Speaker 10 (02:04:02):
Hey John, Hey Marie?

Speaker 1 (02:04:06):
What is? What is? What's happened? What's going on? And
what do you think about what we've talked about today?

Speaker 7 (02:04:13):
Well, as I.

Speaker 2 (02:04:14):
Said in my email, I've kind of committed to an
eleven and six wins. I've got to be positive. I've
got to keep it positive. And I'm I think I
tweeked at you or posted at you a thirty one
twenty seven wins.

Speaker 1 (02:04:30):
You did? Yeah you did.

Speaker 2 (02:04:32):
Crazy maybe, but you know we're going to keep this
hype try and going. And I've decided as I rang it,
I rang in for the real for the reason of
as that you were kind of concluding wide in the showdown.

Speaker 6 (02:04:44):
I heard you.

Speaker 2 (02:04:44):
Say something and it made me think about maybe this
offense is a grower, not a shower.

Speaker 1 (02:04:50):
That's good, that's actually pretty good phrase. We might have
to steal that one. I thought that one out at
evidence see what he thinks. But yeah, I mean, honestly.

Speaker 2 (02:04:58):
It's got to develop with Sticky And yeah, he's doing
well already. We've seen Hunter for what he is, and
we know kind of what he is, and he's developed
in his bocking, which is brilliant. Yeah, he's got to
kind of get in there some more, you know, he.

Speaker 1 (02:05:11):
Has to grow. I think, yeah, I think that's a
good way to look at it. And I would tell
you that I think that this could be if any
week was going to be this would be a good
week for Mike Gasiki since he'd be going against his
whole team. So, you know, I'm sure that there'll be
something for him to sort of try to lay out there.
And I'd be surprised if the Patriots didn't milk him
for all the you know, Miami intel they could get,

(02:05:31):
you know, you know from him having been in that
locker room and on that sideline a year ago.

Speaker 2 (02:05:36):
Well, if any needed any help, I'd happily interrogate him
for you know, the Patriots if they need so, please,
you know.

Speaker 1 (02:05:42):
Pass that on, will I'm quite sure you would love
to do that, and I will be happy to pass
that on my friend. Thank you, Claire, thank you. Okay,
you got it very quickly. Before we wrap up the show,
the Patriots playbook Fantasy League is underway. The commission Marine

(02:06:03):
himself routed the Chowderheads. In week one, Armed dou So
lost to the Bamboo Shooter. Let's see, I didn't come
up with these names, by the way. Okay, so I'm
just gonna read the names and you can laugh and
chuckle and giggle like a twelve year old if you
want to still do it. Okay, right, but you are
laughing when you because you even know I'm getting ready

(02:06:23):
to say these two right, justin her butt and football orgasms.
I mean, come on, guys, really, really, we're all freaking
twelve around here, aren't we. Justin Herbert spelled justin her butt.
I love it. I know it's okay, your genius. Jowas

(02:06:44):
slaves versus acp one by ACP Go Pats versus Date,
Mike Date Mike One, and Big Gronkowskis versus I'm the
Cincinnati and Big Grounkowski's one, So yeah, the Big Grunkowskis
Go Pats, jowas slaves, justin Herbert arm du So and
the Commission who all won in week one. So thank

(02:07:05):
you for those that are playing and will update from
time to time throughout the course of the season. Who's
ruling the Patriots Playbook Fantasy League. So I feel like
I got to go home and get admonished by my mother.
Now our thanks to armand Salgero, Armando Salgero, Russell Baxter,

(02:07:28):
Ben Vollen, Evan Lazarre, and of course Marine Matt for
putting it all together. Evan will be here tomorrow with
the Catch twenty two podcast right after Patriots Unfieldered at
noon Eastern time and Catch twenty two. Then we'll be
on at two o'clock tomorrow, and then we'll be back here,
same patch time, same patch channel next Wednesday for our

(02:07:49):
next edition live edition here a Patriots Playbook. Patriots and
the Dolphins get Sunday night on NBC. Wow means it's
going to be rough. On Monday morning. Doesn't it all right?
Talk to you next week.

Speaker 3 (02:08:04):
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