Patriots Playbook 9/18: Recapping Seahawks Loss, Previewing Jets

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Or Patriots played the co Legends aboard John who brings
the Heat Radial store from Braid. He's throw some new
stars rising. The playbook's opiated as soon as Rizon.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
So le.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
Patriots fast down his Patriots playboard. I think I'm just
sitting here in rock out of this for a little bit.
Matt's also dansing a jig in the other room, because

(00:43):
he's the he's the creative master behind these jingles. Thank
you for those of you who actually gave enough crap
to vote or at least listen to Matt's creations. Uh
you know via uh X and uh YouTube page and
Facebook and everywhere we posted the last few weeks for
the new show opens, we actually had a bit of

(01:05):
a tie, and we weren't sure that it was completely
complete because the returns kept coming in and we kept
getting different resorts. I'm not trying to figure out how
the hell that happened. So here's what we've decided to do. Okay,
this was our personal favorite, the one that you just
heard that was the pop rock version, which is actually
kind of it's kind of fun. We had quite a

(01:27):
bit of interest in which one, the rap one is
that what it was bo version, the boom bat version.
You want to play that one? Can you play that one?

Speaker 3 (01:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:36):
Give me one second one?

Speaker 4 (01:36):
Yah?

Speaker 1 (01:37):
Yeah yeah, go ahead, call up the boom Bap version.

Speaker 4 (01:40):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:40):
And then we also had interest in the country Western version. Uh.
And so we decided we're going to rotate the damn things.
Why not, we can make up the rules. Let's just go.
These were the three most popular by vote through social media.
The Raino Storms, New Stars Fire, Am I doing right?

Speaker 5 (02:07):
You want the turntable hands the Patriots.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
First down.

Speaker 6 (02:18):
Everyone, I.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Just love it. I think it's great, all right. And
then the one that actually came we think in third,
but we're gonna give it credit anyway. That was the
country version, correct, all right, you want to play that one.

Speaker 6 (02:36):
Patriots Playbook Legends Are Born.

Speaker 7 (02:41):
Watch Out.

Speaker 1 (02:41):
Kenny brings the heat step inside.

Speaker 8 (02:47):
From Brady's throat to New Stars Rising the playbook soap
and it's soszin into the playbook.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Here's your host John voice? Is that your voice from
the run down? La la la?

Speaker 6 (03:07):
There?

Speaker 1 (03:07):
It is? All right, So we're gonna rotate those suckers
in and round, and if you really feel strong to
be any of the others that were on YouTube. You know,
let us know. But that's fine. But we're gonna We're
rotating in and out, and I thank you for your interest.
We try to have some fun on this show. You
have to. Life's too short. Life's too short not to
have fun. So that's what we're gonna do. We're gonna
have some fun on the program today. Obviously, we have

(03:29):
a game tomorrow. It's the only prime time of pearance
thus far scheduled for these New England Patriots for this
twenty twenty four football season. And so you've got the
Thursday night football game tomorrow night on Amazon Prime. Don't
ask me where the hell you can find it on
your TV?

Speaker 7 (03:50):
Amazon Prime.

Speaker 1 (03:51):
Yeah, find it on Amazon Prime. I guess you know
where the hill's that. You know. I had somebody asked
me that, I said, you have a smart TV. I said, well,
I thought all TV's are smart. Okay, yeah, kind of
they are. But you have to download the app and
blah blah blah, and you have to subscribe and okay,
you know, so you know it's a pay thing, and
you know it's it's quite possible that in the next

(04:14):
five to ten years there's going to be one of
the Big Four, NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball hockey, that
going to be nothing but stream They will not have
what we would call in over the air broadcast product MLS.
Party does that right? They're on Apple TV.

Speaker 7 (04:33):
Yeah, it's just gonna Apple owns MLS.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, Apple owns Vice Versa, right, So MLS is already there.
It's gonna happen people, So you might as well just
you know, get the smart TV and you know, break
up your bundles or whatever and just you know, pay
for a couple of streaming services. You know. I know that.
You know, Peacock is very popular now because it's a

(04:56):
part of NBC. I happen to know the president of
NBC Sports, So he played basketball at Providence College. Did
you know that? Yeah, yeah, before a little before your time,
you know, being our producer and our engineer. But yeah,
his name is Rick Cordela. And in fact, when we
were when you had the Brady Thing here over the summer,
the Brady Thing Hall of Fame, Brady Thing, Mike Turrico

(05:20):
hosted it, you know. And so I'm sitting there getting
ready to do my bit and Twieks comes up from
behind gives me a little bear hug, and so we
make small talk. Ay, how's it going, blah blah blah,
what's going on? When are you going to Paris for
the Olympics? That kind of stuff, right, And I said,
do you know Rick Cordella? And he looked at me
and he thought about it for a second. He goes,
I know Rick very well, so do you. And I'm like, whoa,

(05:42):
that's impressive because he knew that Rick was a former Friar.
He's a former Friar walk on basketball player back in
the late nineteen nineties under Pete Gillot. And so now
he's running the NBC Sports Empire. Okay, that's amazing. And
so now Peacock is becoming the most subscribed I guess

(06:04):
app if you will that has sports on it. They've
got over thirty three million subscribers in this country and
they increased that number I think probably tenfold because of
the Olympic coverage. They had so many of the Olympic
games this summer, you know, from Paris on Peacock. So
they just they sold a bunch of subs smart.

Speaker 7 (06:23):
They made exclusive deals with WWE.

Speaker 1 (06:25):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely, So at any rate, it's gonna
happen before too long. So anyway, getting back to the
original point, it's on Amazon Prime tomorrow night, and you'll
have Al Michael's and Kirk herb Street, which is a
little bit of an odd companying for me, but you
know what, Al is still Al and Herbie is still Herbie,
So there you go. They'll be doing it tomorrow night.
Dan Leberfeld from Jets Confidential will join us at the

(06:47):
top of the hour and we'll get the latest on
the Jets going into the broadcast, going into the game
tomorrow night. Russell Baxter on week three around the National
Football League. He will be here at about four o'clock.
Chris Mason, who covers the Patriots for mass Live at
masslive dot com. He's gonna join us in a little

(07:09):
under an hour from now, around three thirty. So that's
what we've got coming up on the show. In the meantime,
eight five five past five hundred, toll free telephone number
eight five five p ATS five hundred. Web radio at
Patriots dot com is the email address if you want
to go that route or hit me up on X.
It is at JR Broadcaster. That's the follow on X

(07:31):
and so give me a you know, a post there
and we can communicate that way. A couple of things
that I want to start with before I get to
the phones. This morning, this morning, this afternoon, depending on
where you are, I guess it could be morning, right,
it's also tonight. Hi, Claire, how's it going, you know?
Hey girl? Yeah, yeah, So we just got to make
sure that we get that in there. Juwan Bentley, as

(07:53):
we know out. I looked at the play that he
was allegedly in injured in against the Seahawks this weekend,
and I look over it over and over, and at
the end of the play you can kind of see
him yank his right arm back like it was caught
somewhere where you know, it wasn't supposed to be. It's incredible,

(08:17):
how you know, you know quickly things like this can happen,
and he's got a torn pectoral muscle. And then the
country the conflicting reports mostly yesterday Tuesday, that said, you know,
he's out, he's in, he's out, he's in, he's out
for the year. He could play. You know, you don't
know who the hell to believe anymore. And and I'm

(08:37):
right there with you on that one. I don't really know.
I mean, I I follow you know, uh, all of
our guys, all of our reporters on on the Twitter
x I thought, follow a lot of them on a
couple of other social media platforms, and no one really
wanted to step out and claim that one. And then

(08:59):
we have had the initial report saying that, you know,
he was the injury wasn't as serious as it appeared
to be, and then all of a sudden, he's out
for the year. And that one came from Ian Rapaport
from NFL Network and of course being one of the
you know, true NFL insudters in the game along with
you know, Adam Schefter, I think that was the one

(09:20):
that kind of quieted everybody down. Oh my god. Well,
if you know, if the rap sheet says it, then
you know it's got to be true. You know, he's
usually right. I got to give him credit where that's concerned.
At any rate. It affects the Patriots hugely. And now
you've got this defense that was allegedly that we talked

(09:41):
about in the off season, we talked about early in
this season. We've got this Patriots defense that's been that
we thought would be pretty strong, and the first two
weeks of the season. They're not far off. They're not
far off. They're second in rushing yards allowed thus far,
you know, so I'm I mean, I think they're you know,
top five in total defense. So look here we go,

(10:04):
and now you're you've lost the right up the middle.
You've lost the heart and soul of this defense. You've
got Christian Barmore Moore who's out until further notice, although
he is on IR with a designation to return, so
Barmore in theory could come back. We don't know. But
Bentley's out and I'm just also out for tomorrow night's game.

(10:31):
O'Shane Ziminez, you know, who had a really solid one
of the better preseasons of any Patriot player. He's out
with a knee injury. And so you got your linebacking
corps that's hurting literally and figuratively, especially up the middle.
And so this is going to take away a lot
from I think the Patriot's ability to stuff the run. Now,

(10:53):
this means, of course, next man up, and we know
that Moniker, but you know, look, if the next man
up were all that, he'd be in there to start,
wouldn't he. And I'm not saying that to take away
from ray Kwon McMillan, because he's the guy that will
be stepping in now and he's gonna get a chance
to show what he can do, and he's gonna need to.
He's gonna need to because if I'm the Jets, knowing

(11:14):
what the Jets have done through their first two weeks,
and they're one and one, of course like the Patriots are,
then I'm running the damn Paul on the Patriots, and
I'm using that run to set up the past game,
and I am gonna attack and I'm gonna try to,
you know, nail that Patriot secondary that was suspect as
we saw against the Seahawks this past Sunday. You know

(11:36):
the miscommunication, you know that allowed the fifty seven year
touchdown bomb. You know, I'm just like, Wow, that can't happen.
And i know Kyle Dugger took full responsibility for it,
but it can't happen the Patriots. This Patriots team margin
of error is extraordinarily thin. They must play in order

(12:01):
to have a shot. And I know you've heard the
PU guys talk about this. You probably talked about it
your own self. You've read it, you know, you probably
go pined about it. You've seen it everywhere. There is
truth to this. Okay, this team has some ability. I
think this team is certainly a step above where we
were this time a year ago. And I think we
can even see that through two weeks, will know more.

(12:22):
Give me another two to three weeks and I think
we'll all know a little bit more about this team.
But just through the effort and some of the athleticism
that we saw during the preseason, during training camp, and
then what we've seen early in the year, I'm already
telling you you know, this team is certainly taking a
step in the right direction. How big a step, mother,

(12:42):
may I? How biggest step can they take from this
point forward? And could it possibly be that they regress
if the injuries start piling up? The Jets are banged up, Cheese,
San Francisco's banged up, He's banged up. They just happen
to be the next two Patriots opponents. What would be

(13:04):
a crying shame is for this kind of a situation
to avail itself of to New England and they're not
able to take advantage of it. With key players out
tomorrow next week, the week after, think about there for
a second. You know, you don't have Christian McCaffrey, probably
not gonna have Deebo Samuel. You certainly not gotta have

(13:25):
two a Tango vo Law because he's you know, on
ir now for the Dolphins with the concussion from this
past week as well. So for looking at it from
a New England point of view, you've got an opportunity
here now. And by the way, Tiger Voloa hasn't lost
to the Patriots. I'm sure you're very well aware of that.
So I'm just like, wow, what how do you take

(13:46):
advantage of this? I my own personal thought is is
that I think, look, if you could win the next
if you win two of these next three, which I
think is doable, then counts Thursday night. Okay, you win
two of these next three and you get to you know,

(14:06):
you know, you're at win two. That puts you through
you get to three and two through week five, Okay,
then I think you can look at this team and say, potentially,
you know, if you get people back, if they're healed,
you know, I'm talking barrow More in particular, I could
see this team hanging around into December for a playoff spot.
I could see it don't kill me on this. Okay,

(14:29):
don't kill me on this. I'm just I'm just sort
of supposing I'm throwing it out there. I'm not really
shaking the pomponds here. I'm not really trying to play Homer.
I'm trying to come up with what I think is
a plausible scenario to be where I think this team
should be, and probably where you think this team should be.
You're frustrated, you want to see improvement. You're too used

(14:51):
to seeing success around here. I know a lot of
fans that are like that. Hell, a lot of the
media is like that. A lot of the media is
expecting that. So we get there. You gotta take advantage
of these breaks that you've been given over the next
couple of weeks, starting with Thursday night. And how do
you do that? Well, I know that the Jets are
gonna be just there. They're gonna be if they don't

(15:13):
play eight or nine in the box against you know,
the second best rushing offense in the NFL through a
couple of weeks, then they're dopes. So that means the
Patriots are gonna have to be prepared to go over
the top to probably beat the Jets. Thursday night. Don't
be surprised. Don't be surprised if you see Drake May.

(15:40):
I'm just saying, don't be surprised. I'm not saying it's
gonna happen. I'm just saying, if it happens, don't be surprised,
because for two reasons. Number one, I think you know,
the Patriots woefully, woefully played conservatively against the Seahawks, and
that helped cost them the game. And then, of course,
when they tried to throw the ball and they threw

(16:02):
two incompletions stupidly at the end of the first half
and allowed Seattle to kick that field goal before halftime
on Sunday, that was horrible clock management. Bill Belichick even
came out and criticized it during the Manning cast on
Monday night. I'm sure many of you probably heard that, man,

(16:22):
that hell of a time to pick to throw the
ball cost you the game. Otherwise you could win that
in regulation and it never gets to overtime. That's how
close the Patriots were. They gave Sunday against Seattle away,
gave it away. So now that you've made your mistakes,
you can see how thin the margin of era really
is for this team. To have success. It really wasn't

(16:44):
I mean egregious you had yeah, you know, and they
but they didn't turn the ball over. They didn't really
commit any penalties I mean of note that really killed anything.
They just didn't think, They didn't think or they didn't
think properly, and it ultimately cost them. So the margin

(17:05):
of area is extraordinarily thin for a team that has
some ability, has some talent, but not enough of it.
On top of that, because they were so concernative in
the passing game and they what wide receivers had three catches,

(17:25):
my guess is is that they realize that, hey, we
got to get the ball to Pop, We got to
get the ball to Jaalen Polk. We have to because
teams are going to load up in the box and
darro us to run and we're not going to have
any running room. I understand playing conservatively, but I'm not
sure that you can get away with doing that every week.
It's very obvious that the offensive line, such as it

(17:47):
presently exists, can run block way better than it can
pass block. So it stands the reason they're going to
want to try to run the ball, and I certainly
expect the Patriots Thursday night to come out against the
Jets and see if they can establish the run. Why
wouldn't you when you're one of the best running teams
right now in the NFL, why wouldn't you try to
establish that. Antonio Gibson looks like a breath of fresh

(18:07):
air back there, and between him and Ramandre Stevenson, that's
a great one two punch. Stevens has had a lot
of touches early in the year. I wouldn't be surprised
to see Gibson play a little bit more, rotate, a
little bit more, touch the ball a little bit more.
He's a great change of pace back because he's got
what I like to call missibility. He can make guys

(18:30):
miss and I think the Patriots are gonna need that,
But because I expect the Jets to be ready for it,
the way that you beat them is through the air.
Jacoby also got banged up against Seattle. He didn't let on,
but we've seen the signs around here, and you know,
without giving away house secrets, you know he was late

(18:52):
for an interview yesterday and he did one interview that's
allegedly you know, streamed that you know he did it
over the phone. Because you know, he's probably got wraps on,
and he's probably got this, and he's got that. And look,
I understand that you certainly don't want to give it
away to your opponent that you know, hey, so and
so has heard he's banged up, you know, and we
got him on the injury list. I'm not telling you
the Patriots are lying about the injury list. He's not

(19:13):
on it, or at least that he's not out. And
I think he'll probably start the game tomorrow night. I
think he'll probably start. But if there's not if they
struggle on offense and the Jets have it figured out,
I don't know if it'll be second quarter. I don't
know if it be third quarter. I don't know if
it be fourth quarter. I would not be at all

(19:34):
surprised to see Drake May come into the game. I
would also tell you I think it's more likely that
his debut happens, believe it or not, on a road
game than a home game, because of the crowd reaction,
because of the way you would react if you saw
him come out off of the bench. At Gillette Stadium,
it's a place to go nuts. I don't know that

(19:56):
there's going to be a tremendous amount of pressure on him. Hey,
young man, go out there to play ball. Let's go crazy.
As that sounds, I kind of think of it that way.
And the only thing that keeys me from really you know,
buying in on this one is you know, City's so
still out. Vederian Lowe is out. Patriots are probably gonna

(20:19):
start Kayden Wallace at left tackle because of the the
lack of depth now with without uh, I've already forgotten him,
big fellow on the left side. Okay, so which they
deafade right, so you know, or they they put him

(20:40):
on the put him on one of the lists I
can't remember at any rate. Chokes a core for ne
we go thought about it. So, uh, there's a big
opportunity there for a rookie So you're gonna have a
rookie tackle. You're gonna have a rookie guard. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

(21:02):
And he got banged up. Jacoby got banged up pretty
well last week. We could see it pretty stiff rolling
around and coming back on a short week. On top
of this, this is the third game in eleven days
for both teams. Okay, third game in eleven days. Seven yeah,

(21:22):
eight nineteen. There you go, third game in eleven days.
So yeah, you know, the Jets have got their own problems. Now, okay,
they've got their own problems. I'd be I'll be very
curious to see how Aaron Rodgers at age forty comes
back to perform, you know, his third game in eleven days.
There's a lot of things going on there for both sides.
But looking at it strictly, and we'll talk about that

(21:44):
with you know, Dan Liberfield coming up a little bit.
But you know, looking at it from the Patriots point
of view, why not? Why not? You've got an golden
opportunity laid out before he is, as I've explained, And
if you struggling, I think maybe you kind of go
for the change of pace, maybe you throw, maybe maybe

(22:09):
you know, you roll the dice and you know, hope
for the seven. I don't know, but I just I
wouldn't be surprised. Just call it, you know, a feeling,
call it a gut thing, call it an instinct, call
it desperation, whatever you want to call it. But I
think the Patriots are also feeling the opportunity here. And look,
let's keep in mind now the Jets snapped a fifteen

(22:34):
game losing streak to the Patriots last year when they
beat New England here at Gillette. The Patriots have not
lost a game it met Life since twenty fifteen. Okay,
surely that's a that's a that's a that's at least
a mini dominant run that you'd like to keep rolling

(22:56):
if you can. And it's a divisional game. And we
don't need Bill Belichick or anybody else to tell us
how important divisional games always are to your overall fortunes
for moving on in the season and into the postseason.
So you got a chance now to get one on
the road before you even play a divisional game at home.

(23:20):
It's a big opportunity, and it's a big spotlight for
some young guys, and it may be a huge opportunity
for a guy like Drake May if they decide to
place that call and make sure that he or ask
him to move in for Jacoby Brissette. Look, you know
he's banged up, but this is suck it up in

(23:40):
go time, because he knows he's He's got to know
Drake May and in the in his ability just waiting
in the wings, waiting for a chance, waiting for an opportunity,
and it could come as soon as tomorrow night if
things don't go well. So he's gonna have to get
the ball up the field. So the Jets had probably

(24:02):
best be careful with loading the box up. If I'm
the Patriots, I got to be ready to recognize that,
you know, immediately, and none of this, you know, five
yards and out. I mean, although Hunter Henry had the
career day this past week, certainly I think one of
the great bright spots for the Patriots in an overtime loss.
But you got to be ready to go over the top.

(24:25):
And if you're going over the top and you're missing
these guys, that's when you call on the rook I mean, look,
we've talked about this, but I but I got to
mention it here, right You drafted the guy third. You
drafted the guy third. Now, I know rookie quarterbacks are
not off to a great start anywhere in the NFL
right now. I mean, we'll talk about this with Russell

(24:46):
coming up in the next hour, but I mean, nobody's
playing well. Everybody's getting banged up, everybody's had a rough time.
You know, we've seen you know, Caleb Williams, you know
we've seen. I mean, it's you know, bone Nicks, We're
seeing all of them struggle, even Jaydon Dan. So maybe
the Patriots, at least in theory, did the right thing.
I gotta give them credit for that. I was all

(25:08):
into the play him now camp, and so I understand
why you bring him along more slowly. I get that.
I understand it, especially with the fact that you have
an offensive line that is in a constant state of flux.
And yeah, the one that's going to be out there
Thursday night against the Jets is about as fluxed as
you can get. So then why would you play him?

(25:31):
Because you need to win? Where's coach Herm Edwards? You play? Hello,
you play to win the game. Hello, you play to
win the game. There you go, that's it annoying, that's
what you do. And so you got to play to
win the game. You can win, rock, Yes, you can rock.

(25:58):
You can win. You can win. Greasy fast lightning. Wasn't
that one of the other lines that he had. You
gotta be greasy fast lightning, Okay, whatever, you gonna be
faster than grease light faster than grease lightning too. I
don't know. Whatever it was. Burgess Meredith all time. Great.
He was so good as the penguin.

Speaker 7 (26:15):
He's just gonna say that.

Speaker 1 (26:19):
See, you're not even old enough to remember that TV series.
I've watched it, obviously, watch you've seen it.

Speaker 5 (26:24):
I've seen it, and I knew you know him as
Mick before I ever knew he was the Penguin. It
knew my mind when I found out you found him was.

Speaker 1 (26:30):
The original youenguin? Yep, yeah, thea like the guy from
Rocky's Penguin. What, well, that's what I grew up with
because that was back in the sixties. That's that's back
in my childhood. And so we couldn't wait for what
was it Wednesday nights? I think it was the middle
of the week. Uh, when Batman was prime time on ABC. Gosh,

(26:53):
golly Gee wille Ger Simony Chippity Doo Batman. Yeah right,
Bert Ward is Robin Adam w a Batman? Sure, yeah, absolutely, yeah,
that's exactly right. That was the theme. Now I've sidetracked myself.
That's all right, It's okay. We like to do that.
Eight five five pats five hundred, eight five five pats

(27:17):
five hundred, all right, So I've kind of laid it
down for you, at least what I think about tomorrow.
Don't be surprised, Okay, if it doesn't happen, I would
tell you that things are going swimmingly for first the Patriots,
second Jacoby Brissett, because if things do go swimmingly and
he's able to make those long distance connections and able

(27:39):
to make those completions that he was unable to do
against Seattle last weekend, then that means the Patriots are
have a lead or they're winning the game, and they like,
sh we dodged another bullet. We can hold on to
Drake for another week. But I think they're at a
point now where they know this is the part of
the schedule where they're getting it handed to them on

(27:59):
us silver platter, or maybe we should say they're getting
and handed to them on a silver stretcher. Because the
other teams are not healthy and they've got key guys
out Starting tomorrow night, it's time to take advantage. Eight
five five Pats five hundred. Uh Todd in North Carolina,

(28:22):
Hey Todd, what's going on today?

Speaker 3 (28:25):
Why are you looking for a win? John? What is
this this potential playoffs stuff? I thought we were rebuilding.
I thought we were being patient. I thought we were
just enjoying the development of our team as they brought
in new pieces. We try new young guys on the
O line. We got a couple of young receivers. We
want to look. I thought there was not a sense
of urgency. I thought there was a sense of, Hey,
just chill, see how where are we going? You win

(28:47):
one game, John, in your outlook changes.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
To hell with that win.

Speaker 3 (28:52):
I knew you were such a ah.

Speaker 1 (28:55):
John, I'm a herd O. I'm a hard Oh. I'm sorry,
I just am. I always have been, I always will be.
You know this is where you know former PU Dennis
and Andy Hart and I have everything in common that
you know he was a hard Oh, I'm a hard Oh,
I always have been. You know I don't like this.
You know I'm playing for tomorrow. I'm playing with the future. No,

(29:16):
it's all about winning. Now. Life's too damn short. Let's
go now. The last four years have been extraordinarily last
well five years have been extraordinarily frustrating for me, just
as a fan and an observer. Now I would tell
you that, you know, I understand why it happened, But
now it's time to bleep or get off the pot. Okay,

(29:38):
it's it really is. And I think the Patriots, I
think the Patriots are beginning to feel kind of like that.
And so if you're like me, or if you're a
heart o like that, I think you're about to be rewarded.
That's just my gut.

Speaker 6 (29:51):
Here.

Speaker 3 (29:53):
Well, I'll say I was actually impressed with the Seahawks
game because as I called into PU, I told them,
I said, you, no, last year, I don't think they
would have kept going. I think they would have quit
when they lost the lead because they just didn't have
any heart. And you know, they tried well the defense
and blah blah blah blah. Like no, they just as

(30:14):
a team, they just kind of sunk a little bit
whenever they get behind because they had that quarterback. And
there's no way you're gonna tell me the defense kept
playing hard when they knew that Mac Jones was gonna
come in and give up, and they didn't give up.
They came back, they took the lead back. Yeah, they
lost it in the wrong run. But man, this team's
got something that I think that could get him close

(30:35):
to five hundred. You know, with the injuries and other
teams and but there's enough here that I think if
they can develop, they can move forwards towards that. My
only concern is I've heard it on a couple of
different places and came out of Evans's mouth as well,
is that Rissett doesn't like throwing short receivers. That's why

(30:55):
he hasn't made any connections with Pop. And I'm like,
then he can't be our quarterback because Pop's up. In
my opinion, Puff's are best receiver.

Speaker 1 (31:06):
I listen, you say, yeah, I agree with you. You can't.
You can't play this game the way that you want
to play it unless you have a the ability to
throw short over the middle. He's your slot guy, and
b figure out a way to get him one on
one with somebody, because that person who's one on one
with him is going to be slower than Tomario Douglas. Okay,

(31:26):
he's gonna be slower.

Speaker 3 (31:27):
It's not the short passes. John It said the height.
He said that Pop Douglass is too short as a
receiver in his height, that he doesn't like to throw
the short statuted receiver.

Speaker 1 (31:36):
Well, then he'd better learn how to do it, because
I don't know anymore. I don't know other who were
better short statued receivers than guys like Julian Edelman and
Wes Welker.

Speaker 4 (31:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:46):
I don't get it, but this has been reported on
a couple of different areas. And then Evan brought it up,
and then I went, well, like, okay, so somebody else
is listening.

Speaker 1 (31:54):
To it other than just me, Uh yeah, okay. But
if that's the case, then maybe that's why he's a
little p oed, And maybe that's why he was kind
of stomping around in the locker room. Maybe that's why,
you know, he you know, missed out on an interview
that he was supposed to have yesterday. Maybe that's why
he's a little butt hurt over everything. I don't know.
I mean, I really don't know. Maybe it's maybe his

(32:14):
David receiver was Jalen Rieger. I don't know.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
I don't know, but I think this ties into me
into your idea that Drake may might come in, because
if Brissett can't throw the get the ball to pop,
and if he's a little bit injured, there is no
reason not to put Drake May in there.

Speaker 1 (32:30):
I wholeheartedly concur, I wholeheartedly concur. I mean, it's if
he can't complete the play and do what the offensive
coordinator and the offensive staff is asking him to do,
then it's time to see if someone else can. Look,
they're saying, you know, with with Bentley gone and with
Barmore gone after the middle of the defense, next man up, right, Okay, Well,

(32:50):
if Jacoby Brissett can't do it, next man up, and
it just happens to be your prized rookie.

Speaker 9 (32:56):
Let me.

Speaker 1 (32:56):
I'll even put it in another way. You're picking third
over all of the draft last year. If you pick
an offensive lineman, which they might should have done, But
if you took an offensive tackle, you think he'd be
on the.

Speaker 3 (33:06):
Bench right now, not a chant.

Speaker 1 (33:09):
Yeah, exactly my point. He'd be in there playing. But
now you're gonna sit the quarterback who arguably is playing
a more valuable position. Come on, I'm not buying that.
It's dumb, dumb, I hear.

Speaker 3 (33:22):
You, So, John, I got a quick question for you.
I'll take the answer off the air, okay, but I
want you to give me who you think is gonna
be the star on defense for this Jets game and
the star on the offense. Thanks, have a great show, John.

Speaker 1 (33:34):
All right, Thanks Todd, on offense. Well, look, I would
tell you that it's I got to pick two, and
I'm gonna pick two because it's the run game and
if the Patriots are gonna have such chess against the Jets,
and I certainly expect the Jets to be ready for
the Patriots to run the ball, since that's what they've
done over the last two weeks. But I gotta put

(33:54):
that ball in either Stevenson's or uh, oh god, why
am I brain cramping today? Have I not had my
coffee today? I have it right here, Mike Duncan's here,
the hell with it? Gibson, Antonio Gibson. There, I did it.
I knew it would pop into my head. Sinility is

(34:15):
setting And also it's one of those two guys on offense. Defensively,
I gotta listen. I gotta go with my man key
on white and I'll tell you why, because I think
this game is actually going to be decided by one
of or the other of the defensive ends on this
In this game, you know, the Jets have a pretty
good one as well, and we're going to talk about

(34:36):
that in just a moment here. But I gotta I
gotta tell you that when you look at, you know,
the Jets defense and where the Patriots offense matches up.
I gotta you gotta favorite the Jet. Will McDonald is
the guy who was taken what in last year's draft,
and I think he had what three sacks last week
against Tennessee. And the Jets win, It'll come down to

(35:01):
McDonald versus White and which one is playing in the
other's backfield more so on defense. If the Patriots are
gonna win the game, it's going to have to be
key on White. Speaking of the Jets, Dan Libberfield, who
authors Jets Confidential, joins us here in the playbook. Hey, Dan,
John Rookier in Foxborough. How's it going good?

Speaker 6 (35:22):
John?

Speaker 2 (35:22):
How you doing excellent?

Speaker 1 (35:23):
Excellent? What are your thoughts on a couple of things
that we've we've had to talk about here. First of all,
I fully expect the Patriots to do what they've shown
they can already do. But if I'm the Jets, I'm
kind of licking my chops on this one because I
think I know what's coming.

Speaker 6 (35:41):
You mean, as far as as far as what's.

Speaker 1 (35:44):
Going trying to prepare for the Patriots and defend.

Speaker 6 (35:47):
Them, Oh, you mean terms of running the ball. Sure, well,
you can run on the Jets. There's no doubt about it.
Right even in the game we saw last weekast kind
of ce Tony Pollard game. Yeah, the Jets play a
very aggressive defense where they rushed the passer and on

(36:11):
the way to the quarterback, they play the wrong so
they're very aggressive. So if you present some eye candy
motions and such, they tend to bite on it and
opening up some rushing lanes. Now, the strength of the
Jets line right now is actually the tackles. They lost
Jermaine Johnson the end for the season to a torn

(36:34):
achilles in Tennessee. And yes, Will McDonald did have a
good game against the Titans, but the Titans right tackle
is really struggling in in the first game. The Jets
edge rush was kind of non existent in San Francisco
against better tackles. I know New England has some question
marks at offensive tackles, so maybe the Jets edge can

(36:55):
be good in this game. But it's those two defensive
tackles that out of playing so well for the Jets
right now, led by Quinn Williams. So it's a defense
you can run on if you schemed things upright and
you make them go for the cheese on different gimmick plays.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yep. And I think that's a great point. We don't
know yet whether or not the Patriots can scheme that.
We haven't seen it yet, so would be, like I said,
a lot of intrigue here. And this is part of
the reason why Dan, I think you would probably agree
with this, that you know, it's really hard to get
a complete read on a team until you're you know,
well past the first month of the season, because you're
still in a formulative stage where you're trying to figure

(37:35):
out what the hell you have and when you have
injuries start to kind of nip at the heels a
little bit. And both teams are having those situations here,
and as I said earlier, both teams are playing their
third game in eleven days with this game tomorrow night. Yeah,
you've got to monitor that. You've got to be very
careful with that. You don't want to try to put
somebody else out there that you might lose for the
rest of the year. So the chess match here, the

(37:55):
coaching match, is going to be extraordinarily important, if not interesting.
The Patriots, I thought, got coached circles around them against
the Seahawks in their game this past Sunday, and you know,
and the Jets were able to go out and get
a w. And by the way, I'm not sure when

(38:16):
was the last time team opened with two in a
row on the road. I don't remember that happening anytime
in the in the in the in the I guess
recent past. Do you remember the last time the Jets
had to do something like that?

Speaker 6 (38:29):
No, I don't remember specifically, but obviously it has a
lot to do with Aaron Rodgers and the NFL office.
I forgot which guy was. It might have been Mike North,
one of the scheduling guys said that they owed us one.
He was kind of joking. But as far as they
put Aaron Rodgers and the Jets on prime time six
times last year, and then he suffered the Achilles injury

(38:52):
for plays into the season, so they doubled down on
Aaron Rodgers this year. And and but the thing was,
when you look at the fact that the first two
games were on the road. The San Francisco game was
a real challenge. But when you come back on a
short week in terms of Monday night football to Sunday

(39:13):
and you're playing Tennessee a kind of a rebuilding team
of the quarterback who's trying to figure things out. I
think that the league office, without saying it, said you
know what, I know, it's two games on the road,
but the second game is Tennessee. So I think that
was kind of part of their thinking that it's not ideal,
but the second opponent, and they'll never say it on Park.
I mean, the second opponent isn't great.

Speaker 1 (39:34):
Yeah, got you. Okay, let me ask you again, Dan
Liverfield from Jets Confidential joining us here in the playbook,
So let me ask you your thoughts on Aaron Rodgers
and you know, can he live up anywhere close to
the original premise that I think the Jets thought they
were going to get with this guy when he came
from Green Bay.

Speaker 6 (39:54):
Yeah, I absolutely think so. The one thing that's not
there that we might have seen ten years ago is
the mobility. And I'm not talking about Lamar Jackson er
Josh Allen mobility. I'm just talking about that limited space
mobility around the pocket or on bootlegs rolling right. Obviously,
he doesn't run like he used to, so that's a
little limited, But I see everything else being intact and

(40:17):
I was just writing something for my website at Jetsconfidential
dot com about you saw that play on the highlights,
that play on third and one in the fourth quarter.
You know that that passed down the right skyline the
Garrett Wilson. I mean, I haven't seen scheming and execution
like that on a pass play from the Jets in
a long time. I mean, he milks the play cock

(40:38):
clock down to one. He changes the play at the line.
They have Alan Lazard, who lined up right with Garret
Wilson run inside, take the double team because the Titans
figured on third and one the Jets and a tight game,
we're going to go for the first down. No, they
go for the single coverage where Garrett Wilson takes off

(40:59):
down the side. Gary Wilson one on one with no
jam at the line is almost impossible to cover, and
they complete a twenty seven yard pass down the sideline.
It was just the execution and the and the game
planning and the scheme were just brilliant. And I haven't
seen anything like that because the Jets have had one
quarterback after the other and one offensive coordinator after the

(41:20):
other that was basically run out of town. That was
as good as it gets, and I think it's only
going to get better moving forward.

Speaker 1 (41:26):
All right, So Aaron Rodgers is beginning to sort of
roll into some kind of shape. Where is the where
is the you know, I guess I hate to use
the term, but where's the Achilles heel for this Jets offense?

Speaker 6 (41:41):
Well? Right now, well, it's hard to say. Like you
said before, after two games, it's hard to figure everything
out as far as the strengths and weaknesses of teams.
You know, we'll see what happens with this veteran offensive line.
You know, the two tackles are thirty three, soon to
be thirty four, and that's something to keep an eye

(42:03):
on against a team with really good edge rushers. And
you saw that in the open against San Francisco with
Nick Bosa and Leonard Floyd having really good games. So
if there was an Achilles hill, maybe it's the age
of the offensive tackles. But beyond that, it's hard to
find a lot.

Speaker 1 (42:20):
Yeah, I listened. I liked the offense. I was a
fan of Breese Hall when he was in college, and
I thought Breese Hall, you know, especially you know, rounding
back after an early injury. I thought he came around
pretty well last year and it looks like he's starting
to kind of round back into some kind of shape
as well. It's him and Braylen Allen. I guess that

(42:41):
combined last week in the backfield and helped kind of
chew up some of the clock. And I think the
rish game got a touchdown, did it not.

Speaker 6 (42:50):
Yeah, you had the the Brailen Allen touchdown late in
the game, and the run blocking was much better in
the second game than the first, and you figure it's
going to continue to get better because this is an
offensive line that did not play one snap in the preseason.
And you could say, well that's smart, it's a veteran

(43:10):
offensive line, but it's a group that really hasn't played together.
You know, Joe Tipman was the only guy coming back
at the same position. You had two new tackles who
they brought in, Morgan Moses in the trade with Baltimore
right tackle and Tyron Smith coming from Dallas via free agency.
And you had John Simpson coming into left guard a
via free agency from the Ravens also, and you had

(43:33):
Elijah Vera Tucker who played tackle last year before tearing
his achilles playing guard again. So it was only one
guy coming back in the same spot. So Week one
there were chemistry issues, there were communication issues. Week two
was a lot better, could get better, even more so
against New England.

Speaker 1 (43:50):
Sure, I would think.

Speaker 2 (43:51):
So.

Speaker 1 (43:51):
I guess one of the keys then that we'll be
looking for is, hey, how much does New York attack
New England up the middle without the presence of your
best tackle and your middle linebacker. But number two, you know,
do you go over the top? Do you? You know? Garrett
Wilson I know is a guy that will certainly probably

(44:14):
concern New England. I know that last year, if I'm
not mistaken, early we saw Christian Gonzalez before he got hurt.
I know he matched up a bit with Wilson. So
any thoughts about those two perhaps tangling again tomorrow.

Speaker 6 (44:26):
Night, Yeah, I think they will. However, the Jets, you know,
with Rogers, see, the last few quarterbacks that Jets had
were young guys, and this is common a lot of
young guys. I'm not picking on the last two quarterbacks.
And obviously Donald is doing better in Minnesota bo With
Donald and Zach Wilson, they were basically one read quarterbacks.

(44:50):
Aaron Rodgers is a full field reader. And there was
one point in the game in the third quarter where
the Jets were a little sluggish on offense. But Aaron
Rodgers made some adjustments and he started to throw to
the backs more. He started to throw to other receivers more,
and you know they he made Tennessee pay for the
fact that they were doubling Garrett Wilson. And that you

(45:13):
saw two plays after that brilliant play to to Garrett
Wilson that we were talking about at the beginning of
the interview, he threw Mike Williams open down the left sideline.
It was another great play. Mike Williams didn't play a
lot in the opener, coming off the knee coming over
from the Chargers. There's another weapon right there. So when
you have Mike Williams opposite Garrett Wilson and Alan Wizard,

(45:38):
who was so comfortable with Aaron Rodgers from their time
in Green Bay, there's a lot of other weapons. And
unlike the previous two young quarterbacks, Aaron Rodgers is going
to find those other weapons. So Christian Gazalez is the
heck of a young player, but Aaron Rodgers is not
going to just stick to Garrett Wilson, if Christian Gazalez
is covering him, well, he'll go to a one of

(46:00):
the myriad other weapons they have.

Speaker 1 (46:02):
Yeah, and I think that's I think that's a that's
a big key is going to put, you know, max
pressure on the Patriots secondary, which burned itself by you know,
the brain cramp they had against Seattle. Uh, you know
this past weekend and I saw where I think I
was looking at the snap count on stats just a
little earlier, Williams had what thirty seven snaps, So it
looks like he's rounding back into shape as well. And

(46:23):
if he's healthy and everybody is healthy, Yeah, that's max
pressure on your secondary. And Rogers would be the kind
of guy that's got the savvy enough to certainly go
out and find those guys. I don't have any doubts
about that. And so then it comes down to pressure.
Do you make him you know, you know, throw it early?
I mean, does he is that can you put that
kind of pressure on the Jets? And I think that's

(46:44):
a huge factor, which is why I kind of originally
pointed when I started the program today, I rightly pointed
to you know, the Patriots key here is key on White.
He's had a great start, you know, to the season.
He had a fantastic summer and training camp. He has
a tendency to beat tackles with his speed, or at
least not speed, I should say his strength first and

(47:05):
then his speed second. So he's got to find a
way to put it together. And I'm sure these will
all be, you know, focal points for New York defensively
going against the Patriots offense. Talked about your tackles already,
and you know up the middle, I think that you know,
it's you know, it's still one of the best tackle

(47:28):
sets at least that I've been familiar with in a while.
I really liked the way that the Jets have performed there.
Where are the concerns on that side of the football
in terms of consistency, if not playmaking ability or let's
go a little further, taking the football away from the
other team's offense.

Speaker 6 (47:48):
Yeah, there are things that the Patriots can exploit because
this Jets defense is not complicated, and the Patriots are
coming off a game against a brilliant young defense of
mine and McDonald who that's how he got the job
because in Baltimore, all the complicated games that baffle deposing

(48:09):
quarterbacks where you know, with fake pressure, real pressure, all
the things he did. It's really the opposite of what
the Jets do. The Jets just do what they do.
You know, they attack you. Like I said, they play
the run on the way to the quarterback. But there
this susceptibility there. There was a long scramble up the
middle by will Levis in Tennessee and I'll never forget,

(48:33):
you know, Bill Belichick and a lot of coaches do,
but he would, he would stress, and I'm sure the
new Patriots coaches stressed. You don't run past the quarterback.
You just don't do that because when the both when
both ends run past the quarterback, you basically now have
nine guys on defense. So on that play where Levis
ran for a lot of yards up the middle, both

(48:54):
ends ran past the quarterback. You know, Quincy Williams is
a good player, but he's so aggressive that sometimes he'll
run himself out of play. So that's what Van Pelton
needs to do in terms of play calling. Make them
go for the cheese and take themselves out of position,
or if they run too far upfield, Jacoby's going to
take off and run and Jacoby had success against the

(49:16):
Jets in a recent game in Cleveland. So this is
not a complicated defense. It's not the one that's going
to baffle you with the schemes, and you need to
take advantage of the simplicity and you've got to, you know,
come up with ways to find the holes in the scheme.
And the Jets are a little banged up, as you
mentioned before. They could be without their second corner, Dj Reed,

(49:38):
who's dealing with the knee, and their slot corner who
just got paid, who's very good, Michael Carter. He's got
a high ankle sprain that's going to probably be a
problem on an awful year, and on a short week.
You wonder if both those guys might be inactive, and
that could really help the Patriots passing game. Those two
guys are very good players.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
So we see whether or not you know, the Jet
the chess another Jets can actually play contain, and what
another Patriots can take advantage of lack of contained. So good,
there's some good, there's some good back and forth here. Finally,
then Dan, I got to ask the obvious question. You know,
last year the Jets snap a you know, an over
streak against the Patriots and winning here in Foxborough, but

(50:20):
the Patriots haven't lost. It meant life to the Jets
since twenty fifteen. Anybody mentioned that this week.

Speaker 6 (50:28):
Yeah, that was brought up quite a bit to the
Jet players. And it's weird these days in the NFL
because the rosters turnover so much, and people say, well,
the Jets have missed the playoffs thirteen years in a row,
and that's not good obviously, and that's currently tied with
the Buffalo Sabers as the longest streak in any professional

(50:48):
sports league. But most of these players really have nothing
to do with it, but that doesn't stop people like
us from asking them.

Speaker 1 (50:56):
No.

Speaker 6 (50:56):
So that is a big That was a big talking
point this week as far as you know the Jets
staffing that streak. But I just think with Rogers everything
is so different as far as the way he goes
to the line and milks the clock almost down to zero.
They took, they'll take, they'll take delay against penalties every

(51:17):
once in a while, which nobody wants. But he's trying
to read what you're doing. And against the Patriots defense,
I don't know a ton about the coordinator one way
or the other. You know a lot more about him
than I do, but against the young coordinator who's kind
of new to the position. There's an old thing in
football about veteran quarterbacks that they'll read your mail at

(51:38):
the line, and Patriots have to be careful that Rogers
doesn't come to the line and read their mail consistently
in terms of what they're doing on defense, because he
will take advantage of that. And that's why I think
the Jets win this game. If they had one of
their previous two quarterbacks, I'd probably picked the Patriots. But
some of the stuff Rogers did last week against Tennessee

(51:58):
was just stuff. I have to see her out of
here in a really long time. Competent, his ability to
change plays at the line, check off the better plays,
take advantage of coverage, mismatches, and things of that nature.

Speaker 1 (52:11):
Big X factor there. You're talking about DeMarcus Covent, who's
the first year defensive coordinator for the Patriots, and so
that kind of leads me then you know into what
you think or how you think this one might play out.
You know, frankly, I thought six and a half was
a bit high of a spread. I don't really expect
the Patriots myself to win the game. But I'd be
surprised if this wasn't a one score game that went

(52:33):
down to the last possession.

Speaker 6 (52:35):
What do you think, Well, you know it's always tough
on the road team on Thursday night football. You know
you're all banged up and you're also traveling. However, it's
such a short trip, so maybe it's not a big deal.
I just think that the way the Jets are playing
on offense is something to consider as far as they're

(52:59):
getting better each week. And Robert said it after the game,
and it wasn't just coach peak. They're going to get
better every week with Rogers and all these new players,
a lot of them who he hasn't played with, like
Mike Williams. So I think it's going to get better
every week. And I just think the Rogers factor is
the deciding factor in this game, because the Jets tend

(53:21):
to have problems with we go back to Tom Brady
over the years, or they have problems on defense against
the veteran quarterbacks that go through their progressions and find
the holes in the defense. I'm not sure it presents
that guy or if May plays at some point, if
he's that guy. So I like the Jets defensively in

(53:43):
this game. I also like the Rogers factors, so I
think the Jets. I think that Bread is just about right,
and I like the Jets.

Speaker 1 (53:50):
What if I told you that I think Drake May
is going to play tomorrow, well.

Speaker 6 (53:58):
I would like to love to see him in person.
I don't know if he's ready. You know, you look
at what's going on with with Bryce Seeng and Caleb Williams,
and I think Drey has a huge ceiling, but I'm
not sure if the results will be any different if
he played this early. Then you know, Caleb Williams and
obviously Bryce young in his second year but still a

(54:19):
young player. And I like Drake May. I just don't
know if he played this early, if the results would
be much better than what we're seeing from Caleb Williams.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Right now, understood? All right, Dan, thank you so much
for the time. Really appreciate it. Good luck the rest
of the way. I hope to talk to you again
soon anytime. John, Thank you very much. Dan Livererfeld, who
covers the Jets for Jets Confidential dot Com, joining us
here in the playbook. Patriots fans, if you want to
see Toyota's best offers, including those not seen on TV,

(54:47):
you go to buy a 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 and brought to
you by Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy bud like
the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. And
by the way, that interview brought to you by the

(55:11):
TPX Hotline. We want to make sure we get that
in there, right. TPX is our phone service provider here right,
new sponsor of ourn of our hotline. Right, so it's
the TPX hotline now. We want to make sure that
we're all in on that one. Interesting points I think
there from Dan uh You know, always love getting insight
from the guys that cover a team on a day

(55:33):
in and day out basis. They cover it way more
closely than you or I or anybody else could get it,
no matter how much we read on the net. Right,
But he's in on Aaron Rodgers. And if the if
the Jets win Thursday, then it likely will be because
Rogers is going to pitch them to victory. I would

(55:54):
tell you that I agree with them one hundred percent.
If one of those other two quarterbacks were a quarterback
in that team right now over the last couple of years,
I'd say, yeah, the Patriots have a good chance to
you know, go too, and one very good chance. As
it stands, even though Rogers is in there, I still
right now kind of feel like the Patriots are going

(56:15):
to cover that six and a half. Patriots are already
two and zero against the spread, even though they're one
and one in the season. They've covered the spread in
both games, and I believe the Patriots are oh gosh, well, no,
the one that I heard that that's an eye opener
for me. The Jets are one in seven against the
spread at home in their last eight primetime games, So

(56:41):
that tells me, you know, okay, maybe they don't or
they're not operating correctly under the lights. I don't know.
I don't know. I agree with that. I generally believe
on a Thursday night game, when you're doing the traveling,
you're playing the short week, that I do think it
is intrinsically hard for you to bounce back. The one
thing the Jets have going for them is the fact
that they are playing this game and their familiar confidence,

(57:02):
so they're not moving. But if some of those guys
that Dan was talking about, and this was the interesting
part I found out he was he mentioned the very
strong possibility, uh, that a guy like Michael Carter might
be hobbled, that a guy like DJ Reid might be hobbled.
Don't yet know what their availability would be, at least uh,
based on what I've seen thus far. You know, Quinn

(57:29):
Williams is the one that I love. I'd love to
have Quinn Williams the Patriot, you know, for I think
he's a stud, he's a stuffer, He's exactly what you need.
And you know, so that's that's the guy that you know,
I think is their their their top effort, and you're
going to see the Patriots probably try to avoid that
guy or maybe even double on him. This is where
zone blocking, which we saw that one big play that

(57:49):
Gibson busted last week against UH Seattle that was on
his own play zone blocking play, and I'd like to
see them try to seal off a guy like william
and bust something outside with Gibson and or Stevens. I
think that's where you might have some success, especially as
Dan pointed out, the problem with the Jets defensively the

(58:10):
first couple of weeks is their over pursuits. They're already
too far in the backfield. This is also the problem
that I've seen at least early that Keon White has.
Sometimes he doesn't contain well. So the Jets theory is, yeah,
we want to rush the quarterback, but we got to
also defend the run along the way. It sounds overly simplistic,

(58:32):
but it's not easy to do. So if that's their tack,
then something's going to be open somewhere. And if it's
over the top, if it's in the middle, okay, And
if you don't have Jacobi Brissette, get him to get
them the ball or he can't connect, or he overthrows
them or he underthrows them or throws a pick or whatever.

(58:57):
I think it's all kind of adding up to when
I opened the program with today. I think there's a
possibility that if things don't go well in the first
I don't know, quarter half, you could see Drake Man,
you could see it. I think you know that that
would be uh, that would be a possibility. All right,

(59:17):
eight five five pats done.

Speaker 5 (59:19):
I can't find their home record. But last forty games
all time against the spread, they're eighteen twenty one in one.

Speaker 1 (59:26):
So see, there you go, eighteen twenty one in one
over the last forty against the spread at.

Speaker 5 (59:33):
Home, No, not at home, just all time, oh all time.
I can't find that home number. I'd have to break
it down.

Speaker 1 (59:38):
Oh you mean against the Patriots or just just just
the Jets against the spread? Oh so so they over that?
So last forty games. We're talking about two and a
half seasons, right, eighteen twenty one and one against the spread? Okay,
I mean I would kind of lean that way if
if I were doing that, I would kind of lean
that way. Now, well, you tell me the Patriots are

(01:00:01):
going to turn the ball over twice or three times,
which they haven't done yet this year, and that certainly
kept him in both games, right, I mean, they've got
to win on the road, and they did go to
overtime with you know, at least a decent Seattle team,
not a great Seattle team, a decent team, but a
team that should likely be in the postseason hunt. You're
not that far away from being in the hunt yourself,

(01:00:22):
I would argue, again, as I said off the top
that the Patriots shot themselves in the foot, especially with
that play call at the end of the first tap.
The clock management was horrible. But I think that if
you're thinking, well, you got, you know, a young team,
you got young players, you got to realize you got
a young coach here that has to make these calls,
and so I think at least initially, you got to
cut him a little bit of slack until he learns

(01:00:45):
what he should be doing in these situations. So let's
just say that maybe this last week was a learning
lesson for a guy like Girod. When it comes to
the clock management story. You can certainly make that argument,
I think, but I gotta go harder on you here.
I'm just like, Okay, that can't happen again. That can't
happen again. If you're if you're bound and determined to

(01:01:08):
play football the way that you've come out playing over
the first couple of weeks, I think it's okay. You're
playing to the strengths of your team. Your lion can block,
rush block, run block better than they can pass block,
and then you're gonna run the ball. But at some
point in time, someone's gonna stack the line. They're gonna,
you know, clog the box and they're gonna make you
go over the top to beat you. And I think
that could happen Thursday night against the Jets. You gotta

(01:01:31):
be ready and a preset can't do it. Next man up,
That's all I'm saying. Next man up. Chris Mason covers
the Patriots for mass Live. Masslive dot Com joins us
here in the playbook. Hey, Chris, how's it going today?

Speaker 2 (01:01:51):
It's great.

Speaker 8 (01:01:51):
Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:01:52):
Sure, thanks for taking the time. I appreciate it. So
I kind of went out in a limb a little
bit here and call me crazy. You're perfectly welcome to
do that. But if things don't go well for the
Patriots Thursday night, at least don't start well once, say
they get into a hole and Jacoby Brissette overthrows, underthrows,
doesn't throw to his receivers. I think Drake May makes

(01:02:16):
his debut. What do you think.

Speaker 8 (01:02:19):
I think he might be a little crazy.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
I like it.

Speaker 8 (01:02:22):
I like it, just I do not think they want
to put him behind the offensive line right now, especially
with the Darien low out city so out. David and
Mike and Wanner are both questionable. I think with the
state of that offensive line and that Jets defensive front,
I think the only way he's getting into that game
is if Jacoby gets hurt.

Speaker 1 (01:02:42):
Well, that could also happen because he got banged up
against the Seahawks.

Speaker 8 (01:02:47):
Yeah, no, that's certainly good. That's an avenue. But I
don't think they're going to give Jacoby the hook in
this game and just say we want to see what
Drake king you now. I just don't think that the
way the offense is built right now, I don't think
that's going to happen.

Speaker 2 (01:02:58):
And you know what, Jacobe does aar.

Speaker 8 (01:03:00):
I was actually diving into some numbers earlier about the
downfield struggles and everything. So far, he's only attempted two
passes more than twenty yards, which, honestly, if you can
even remember the two, you're like, I don't.

Speaker 1 (01:03:11):
Know, I don't remember, incredibly low.

Speaker 8 (01:03:14):
Right, they're both in completions. But even with those short dropbacks,
he's been hurried twenty one times, which is tenth most
in the league. He's been hit ten times, which.

Speaker 2 (01:03:22):
Is fifth most.

Speaker 8 (01:03:23):
He's been bled down on twenty two point six percent
of his dropbacks, which is the third most in the league.
I think this is an offensive line issue more than
quarterbacks slay than anything right now, where I think about
what those numbers would be like if there are longer
developing roots. You know, he's getting hit even more so
they need to figure it out up front.

Speaker 1 (01:03:39):
But does his standar reason that a guy like Drake
may can get rid of the football quicker, that maybe
that won't be as much of an issue as we're
thinking it could be.

Speaker 8 (01:03:47):
I don't really think so, just because at this point
I think Drake is going to have a tougher time
reading these defenses. You know, he was out there looking
in the preseason. Yep, that's all vanilla. If anything, I
think Jacoby will be able to get the ball out
quicker because he knows what he's supposed to do with it,
opposed to if Drake gets thrown to that fire. I
don't know that a quicker release is what we're gonna
end up seeing.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
Yeah, good point. My concern is though, that the Jets,
you know, you know, fill up the box, load up
the box, and the Patriots can't move the ball and
Jacoby overthrows receivers or they get locked up or what
have you. Or you know, they challenge sauce gardener and
he gets a pick or something like that, then I'm
not sure what the next step would be other than

(01:04:25):
to throw a change of pace. You know, it's like
a relief pitcher coming in and throwing a slider or
a curveball or an off speed pitch of some kind,
because you know, when you keep throwing fastballs and you
keep whacking fastballs, you got to change it up.

Speaker 8 (01:04:41):
Yeah, but I think it might be on Alex Van
Pelt to be the one to throw that slider, that
change up, whatever you want to call it there where.
I think you can do that with play calling to
some degree. You know, if they're loading the box, they're
coming with their ears pinned back and they're listening it
on throw screen passes, you know, try try different things.
There's countermoves that you can have at this point. So
I think that to fall on Van Pelt at a

(01:05:01):
certain point to you know, get the right plays in
there and call for a slider if you need one.

Speaker 1 (01:05:06):
Well, one of the guys that I think certainly will
have to play a key role again and putting pressure
on on a guy like Aaron Rodgers has to be
key on White. I know you did a feature recently
on key On for Mess Live, and I'm just curious
as to when you you know, when you hear the kid,
when you hear him talk, there's a lot of great
self confidence in his voice. What do you think makes

(01:05:28):
him tick? What do you think really drives him? Is
it just you know that he enjoys the sport. Is
there a something about him, you know, playing with a
chip on his shoulder? Is he that much of a
physical mismatch for some of the guys that he's matched up? Again,
where is he getting a success from do you think?

Speaker 8 (01:05:46):
I think it's some bit is his physical makeup where
he definitely has the build. But more than anything, I
think he wants to be elite and he is really
just kind of hell bent on doing that however he can.
One thing that caught my ear over the summer was
that I would watch the O line D line pass
rush drills all the time when they would do the
one on ones. Yeah, and early in camp, Kiwan wasn't

(01:06:06):
winning a ton of those, but it's because he was
going against Mike on WINNU every time, And in talking
to him after, he was like, yeah, I kept seeking
Mike out because he's our best off at the climate.
I want to get better. And I also told myself
that I wasn't allowed to bull rush against him. I
which that's his bread and butter. That's his best is
his bull rush because he has natural strength. But he's saying,
I want to get better at these other moves, and

(01:06:26):
so in trying to do that, you know, he seeks
out the biggest kid on the block and it's like,
let's see what I can do against him. So I
think it's that drive, and I think he really wants
to be great, and he does the things where you know,
he's not afraid to look bad or lose a one
on one drill if he knows that it's going to
help him in September. And so I think there's some
humility there that goes a long way too.

Speaker 1 (01:06:44):
Well, that's I kind of noticed that as well. The humility.
I think that's a great word that you pick up on,
and I think that's what you look for when you're
trying to cultivate new leadership and then they're clearly is
a leadership void now because your defensive captain is gone
with you know, Juwan Bentley, he's untimely injured this past week.
So is White the kind of gad that you know unexpectedly,

(01:07:05):
might you know, fill that void if he's you know,
able to continue to play and be effective.

Speaker 8 (01:07:10):
Definitely. And he really caught my ear on Sunday, So
spill the curtain back a little. He was early. Keon
was early. He was one of the guys that was
going to speak to the media at the podium. Keon
was early there, so he just sat in the front
row and listened to the end of Jacoby's press conference.
He clearly didn't like Jacoby's tone or like the way
that he was taking some blame. So he got up
there and he said, look, first things first, our offense

(01:07:34):
didn't have to win this game today. As a defense,
we need to play better. I need to play better.
And then he goes through and names like defensive line
needs to better, linebackers need to be better, dbs need
to be better. And this is a guy that was
quiet as a rookie. He's really quiet. But to see
him in the second year, not only you know, speaking
for the entire defense, but challenging him too, that caught
my ear really and I was like, Okay, they might

(01:07:56):
have something here, and John Mayo singles them out as
someone whose leadership is grown too. So I think you're
starting to see that in real time.

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
Nine pressures against the Seahawks, nine of them. Now you know,
he you know, had a sack and a half. But
I'm just you know, how do you convert the pressures
into sacks? What do you see where it's lacking that
he might be able to, you know, flip the switch
on and come up with a couple extra sacks here.

Speaker 8 (01:08:22):
So some of that it's really interesting where I thought
that he probably played better against the Seahawks than he
did against the Bengals where he was get against the
Bengals in the opener. He finished that game with two
and a half sacks, you know. So some it's just subjective.
And if he's beating his guy so badly up the middle,
that's going to inherently force the quarterback out of the pocket,
which I think he saw Geno Smith on at least
one occasion where suddenly he's running right into the edge

(01:08:43):
rusher and maybe that's Shashu j maybe that's whoever's there.
It gets the sack. So I think at a certain
point the pressures are almost. I'm not going to say
they're more valuable than the sacks, right, if you bring
the guy down, you bring the guy down. But if
you're helping the teammate get a sack, you might not
get into the box store. But it's your pass rush
that really keep the entire thing.

Speaker 1 (01:09:01):
And we've seen that from him and I think that's
actually where his value to this defense is. He can
get in there so quickly, and I know he's been
working on some of those sweet moves and the speed
moves rather than the bull rush that you mentioned. Uh man,
you do that, that's going to open up some opportunities
for anybody else who can you know, beat their man
at the line of scrimmage.

Speaker 8 (01:09:20):
Yeah, definitely. And it's it's funny. It's like, after watching
Tom Brady for so many years, the way to get
him off the game most was like interior pressure. You know,
if you can get pressure through the A gap and
he can't sit in the pocket anymore, that's when you
start to really like rattle at quarterback like that. And
I think with Keon and the ability to rush the
way he has from the interior, you're gonna see some
good things happen where quarterbacks aren't coachbable sitting in the pocket,

(01:09:43):
stepping up, and I think that's gonna lead to more
sacks for everyone on that defense.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
You know, a guy like Aaron Rodgers who they'll be
going up against, you know, a quarterback with that kind
of veteran savvy that he has. I don't know that
he has the elusiveness that a guy like Gino Smith.
You know, certainly, you know, showed that he can, you know,
still possess last week. But at the same time, you
got stuff upstairs that sometimes can't be measured. What would
be the biggest way to really you think that maybe

(01:10:08):
for this Patriot team to try to give Rogers trouble
because for a forty year old guy, he's seen it
all pretty much.

Speaker 8 (01:10:17):
I think a big part of the if they can
just generate pressure by rushing four and that's a big thing,
just because, like you said, you're not gonna fool him.
You know, he's seen everything. Sorry, my thought's trying to
hop on the coll fume he.

Speaker 1 (01:10:29):
He can he bring him on. It's all right, it's
a family show. And yeah it includes pets too. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:10:36):
There you go.

Speaker 8 (01:10:39):
But I think if you can get pressure with four
and drop back into coverage to some degree. I think
that's your roadmap to success there, because I don't think
you're going to fool him with exotic coverages. I don't
think you're gonna fol him with a lot of blitzes.
But if you can get your if you can get
pressure with your front, then I think that's gonna be
a major key.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
Yeah for sure. All right, And so then you know,
I think we kind of expect the Patriots to do,
you know, hopefully what they've done well thus far. I
expect the Jets to counter. So how do the Patriots recounter.

Speaker 8 (01:11:12):
I think they should start using more play action than
they have where if, like you said, they're going to
load the box, you know, they know they want to
run the ball. Drod has told everyone we want to
run the ball. Okay, start running more play actions. They've
only run twelve play action plays through two games, which
is it's down low. I think it's like twenty eighth
in the league. With the running game going the way
it is, linebackers are going to bite on that. You know,
it is a valuable tool. So I'd like to see

(01:11:34):
more play action and I think that's an easy adjustment
that they could make and that might buy some more
time for some downfield for us to progress. You know,
he's using the linebackers and boom.

Speaker 1 (01:11:43):
Are you also in the corner of the got to
figure out a way any way you can to get
Pop Douglas the ball a little bit more, definitely, And.

Speaker 8 (01:11:49):
I'm surprised that that hasn't been happening, just because they're
not throwing downfield and he's one of those guys that
gets open on the plant route, the under routes, anything
all the time. So I'm kind of hasn't seen more targets,
especially because it looked like he had some really good
chemistry going with Jacoby Drake. Honestly, any quarterback there in
the summer, he was like their best friend. He just
gets open in a way that a lot of other

(01:12:10):
guys don't.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
Is that is that a Brissette problem or is that
an alex Unpelt problem.

Speaker 8 (01:12:19):
It's like situational. I think it's a little of both, honestly,
where I do think Jacoby has to look its way
more than he has been. But if teams are doubling him,
then eventually someone else has to get open too. That's
the thing with like the whole receiving corps hasn't given
you enough so far. It's kind of crazy that year
one on one could be two and oh here given
the contributions from wide receivers thus.

Speaker 1 (01:12:40):
Far right, Okay, so what do you think then happens
tomorrow night? You know, the Patriots are going to a
place they haven't lost since twenty fifteen. They had a
fifteen game winning streak snap last year when the Jets
won here at Gillette. What's it obviously going to take
in your estimation for them to continue winning ways on
the road here?

Speaker 8 (01:13:00):
I think the Jets are going to win this game
just given the state of the Patriots offensive line right now,
where you know they struggle to begin the year in
pass pro, and now you're down to Darien Lowe shoots
a cor force not with the team anymore. You're Kiden
Wallace into the fire. And then you have David Andrews
Mike on went who banged up. So best case scenario,
you're able to run the ball squeak out a low
scoring win. But the Patriots defense is going to have

(01:13:23):
to play a huge game for that to happen, because
I don't think the offense is going to score a
lot of points in this one.

Speaker 1 (01:13:28):
Yeah, I'm kind of there with you on that one,
which is why I'd like to see them, you know,
throw a change up that nobody expects, even if you know,
even if it's only a package of plays, I think
it would be certainly put some juice in the thing.
Chris Mason covers the Patriots from mass Live mass live
dot com. Thanks for joining us, Chris, appreciate you.

Speaker 8 (01:13:46):
Thanks for having me on.

Speaker 1 (01:13:47):
You got it all right. So there's Chris. You can
get him on X at buy Chris Mason. Be why
Chris Mason. That's where you get him on X If
you want to follow his stuff, you get a chance
to do that, all right. So so interesting though that
everybody so far and the two reporters that we've talked to,
But it just seems to me that nobody expects the

(01:14:08):
Patriots to win this game. I mean, I don't think
the Jets are all that, do you. I mean, I
feel better about this game than I did last week
against Seattle, and I actually thought the Patriots would win
last week. I didn't make a prediction or anything, but
I just I kind of felt like this was a
really good opportunity for them to sneak up on some people.

(01:14:30):
And frankly, if they had just been smarter than I
think they win that game in regulation. It was a
great football game. It went right down to the end.
Obviously you go into overtime, but then you leave the game,
you leave the stadium thinking, wow, did they blew that?
They blew that? So how do they unblow it against

(01:14:51):
the Jets, because they've had karma going against the Jets
for at least the last ten years, if not more.
Just I you know, listen, if you play a clean game,
in other words, you don't turn it over, and you
don't commit stupid penalties, and you can keep from brain
farting like they did with clock management at the end

(01:15:12):
of the first half. And again I'm saying a lot
of stuff that if if IF and I mentioned early
in the program today. As you know, the margin of
error is really thin for this team, but they make
one mistake and it costs them, and they play cleanly,
and they went on the road against a pretty good
Cincinnati team. Although Cincinnati zero and two, you know, through

(01:15:35):
no fault of their own. I mean, you know, they
I think they underestimated the Patriots, and then you know,
Kansas City is going to Kansas City Chiefs are going
to a chief you know, and they last second field
goal beats them. And so now the Bengals are zero
and two for a second straight year, which is crazy.
But you know, I don't think they're a bad football
team at all. I got a lot of talent. I
don't know. I just I feel like this team is

(01:16:00):
in position to win. You can see it, and I
know the initial thought is is you don't want to
rush it. You can see progress, it's there. And yeah,
there's a lot of little things that we like to
nitpick on. Remember when we used to do nitpick Tuesdays
here on the show, and we just sit here and
you know, and you know we're gonna do nothing. You know, hey,
well they won the game, didn't they. But we found
all these little things that we could nitpick on and

(01:16:21):
that you know, could use improvement. And I think you know,
when you're winning and you're you're you're going to super
Bowls and you're winning championships, that it's easy to nitpick
because you you you can identify the things that are
going wrong because there's so few and far between. But
when the winning isn't occurring with regularity like you did

(01:16:41):
just a few short years ago. You've got all these
nitpicks to choose from, and so now, you know, I
think the goal here is to find the ones that
are really costing you games. And and these are not
really nitpicks. They're probably more like fundamental flaws.

Speaker 4 (01:16:59):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:16:59):
And the you know, the largest fundamental flaw that we
can find, I think, and we can all pretty much
agree on this one is, you know, play on the
offensive line. But you know, if if they can get
one of these rookies to come and play, Caden Wallace
is gonna get that chance. It looks like, you know,
tomorrow night. So nothing like throwing a rookie into the

(01:17:19):
end of the fire, at least initially. If you get
a cold, strange back before you know, all of a
sudden done, you know, then you're automatically gonna have more depth,
more ability. If you can continue to develop the you know,
get cities so back from his injury as well, then
that the depth automatically increases. And you've got some guys
that have some ability, but it just takes them some

(01:17:41):
time to be able to gel together. Keep in mind
now on the offensive line. You got five guys, two tackles,
two guards to the center who have to play as a
single unit. They got to play in concert with each other.
They gotta move together. They gotta know the calls. They
gotta know which way they're blocking. They gotta know past block,
run block, they gotta know where they're gott to seal.
You know, there's a lot of things they have to

(01:18:02):
do together. And if the five guys aren't able to
be together on it, one guy fails on his job,
the team probably isn't going to move the ball. So
when you talk about being in sync, it's the offensive
line that's being sync more than any other positional place
on the football team. And I would argue the secondary

(01:18:22):
is next. And we saw what a blow up and
the secondary can do. It costs you a score that
ultimately cost you the game this past Sunday. So the
offensive line is really the challenge. How do you mitigate
the issues that you have within the offensive line? And
I think that's where the Patriots are and I think

(01:18:43):
that's where you know, a guy like Alex van Pelt
has to figure out a way and has been trying
to figure out a way for the first couple of
weeks of the season. But now, you know, especially now
when you're you know, preparing for a Jets team that
knows the Patriots are going to run the football, they
know it. How do you counter That's why I asked
the question earlier. How do you counteract that? What's your

(01:19:04):
what's your you know, what's your blowback? And uh, this
is this is a game for Alex van Pelt, I
think to show all of us, you know, his ability,
his creativity, his imagination, whatever it may be, in terms
of his ability to get guys open. And then if
he can get guys open and you go be Bressett
can't connect with them, now you've got an entirely different issue.

(01:19:28):
And so I think, you know, at least initially, that's
that's where you know the Patriots can have success or
lack thereof, is how creative can Alex van Pelt get
in trying to get some guys open? Uh so the quarterback,
whoever it is, can get the ball to them. Huge issue,
Patty and aguam, Hey.

Speaker 3 (01:19:46):
Patty, Hey, I'm sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:19:49):
Let me your blowtorches on.

Speaker 4 (01:19:52):
Buddy.

Speaker 1 (01:19:52):
You're are you who you? What are you welding?

Speaker 9 (01:19:57):
I'm just working on a refrigeration deck.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
Got you, okay, all right.

Speaker 9 (01:20:03):
I had my acetylene towards going. Sorry about that, sir.

Speaker 1 (01:20:08):
No worries at all, I hope I'm not interrupting anything.

Speaker 4 (01:20:12):
Not at all.

Speaker 9 (01:20:13):
Okay, this is what I do, Baby, to listen to
Patriots dot Com Radio while I'm working. Not help the
dago by a little bit quicker.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Love it, love it, love it? So uh, what are
your thoughts on on on tomorrow?

Speaker 9 (01:20:27):
I don't have a really good feeling about the game tomorrow, John,
just because of coming out of last week's game, I
think pretty much, you know, I don't was just a
kind of a phony Bologny projection of excuse me, of
an injured injury report, but like all of our whole
starting line was on there. Yeah, it's and so far

(01:20:50):
through two games, Jacoby hasn't shown the ability to push
the ball down field. I do think we'll be able
to run a little bit on this team. But I'll
tell you what really scares me about the It's not
Aaron Rodgers, it's not Garrett Wilson, Mike Williams. It's it's
Breece Hallum, Brelan Allen.

Speaker 1 (01:21:10):
Yeah, and we didn't really touch on that a lot.
But I really like Briess Hall. I think he's one
of the best young, exciting running backs in the NFL.
He's he's got some elusiveness, he's got some strength. I
thought he was a really good player at Iowa State,
you know, and now that he's rounding back into physical shape, uh,
you know, after an injury, I I think he's a
kind of a secret weapon for the Jets.

Speaker 6 (01:21:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 9 (01:21:34):
Same thing with Alan. I know he's a rookie, but
I really liked him coming out of Wisconsin. This past year.
I was pissed, I was sorry, for lack of a
better term, that the Jets drafted him with their in
the third round because I wanted to see him here
in Patriots flu. But I mean, that's that's coming gun,
and now we got to face him on the field
on Thursday night. Yeah, I mean, Rogers. One thing that

(01:21:58):
might help us is that like he at least through
two games, he doesn't look like he's as mobile as
he used to be. Like he's he's basically just sitting
back in the pocket, and he's still gets through the
ball quickly. I mean, he's still got the laser and
he can put it pretty much wherever he wants to
put it on the field. But I think if our
secondary holds up and we're able to match these guys,

(01:22:23):
I mean, we should be able to get some decent
pressure on him, especially if we can keep him in
the pocket. But being as smart as he is, I
think a lot of a lot of a lot of
their offensive game plan I think is going to be
called at the line. Like I think if if we
load up the box to stop the run, he's probably
going to push a quick one out there. If they

(01:22:45):
start playing the too deep that they've been playing for
the majority of the defensive snaps over the two first
two games, I think he's just going to hand the
ball off and try and gash our defense. And I'm
not expecting this one to be close just because because
of everything I said, most because the lines banged up,
and I mean I would like this to be another

(01:23:07):
kind of big Antonio Gibson game too, you know, take
some pressure off for Madre. He had over what twenty
five carries the first game nineteen last game. Yes, you know,
give him a little bit of a break the short week.
You know, Gibson probably has fresher legs at this point
just because he wasn't really utilizing the first game. I

(01:23:27):
hate to say it, but I'm picking the Jets win.
I think they're gonna cover to twenty seven to thirteen.

Speaker 1 (01:23:33):
Wow, and you think they're gonna cover, I'm gonna cover.
I'm stunned by that, Patty, You're usually captain, you know,
captain optimistic.

Speaker 9 (01:23:45):
I know I wear the footy pajama, the Patriots footy pajamas.
But I also like just just from trends, you know,
I try and look at trends more than anything. And
that's why I thought they would beat Cincinnati in the
first week. That's why I thought they were going to
beat Seattle this past week. But uh, you know, Gino

(01:24:07):
Smith had other plans. Good on him. I mean, he's
he's played good and you know, he ever since he
he went to Seattle's he's been a really good player.
And that's good for him, you know. But yeah, just
it's it's just it's a whole conglomeration of everything this
week that I just I just got a bad feeling

(01:24:29):
about this this game. And hopefully John I'll call on
Wednesday and say, Wow, I can't believe how wrong and stupid, well.

Speaker 1 (01:24:36):
I just wow, I'm just I'm really a little surprised
by this because I felt exactly the opposite all week,
exactly the opposite. Oh wait, I'm like, you know, this
is where this team sets puts the good foot forward
this week. And I know it's a short week, it
really kind of defies the odds, if you will. I

(01:24:57):
think that what the papers do well on offense kind
of plays into the Jets' hands in that regard. I
just I just feel like, you know, because the Patriots
were so damn close this past Sunday and they know
where they screwed up, that if you make just one
little tweak here and there, you got an opportunity to
play and win a game against a team that I

(01:25:19):
don't think is as good as the Seahawks, at least
right now. And again, I know we don't really we
really don't know again what a team is until your
you know, at the halfway point of the year. I
think traditionally that's when you know what kind of a
team you have. But I just I just wow, I
don't see it. And I've had every I had people coming,
I had students coming in to my office today. I say, well,

(01:25:40):
how beout. Are the Jets gonna beat the Patriots Thursday night?
And I'm like, do you think that's gonna happen? And
then I'm like, yeah, I don't see them beating the Jets.
Aaron Rodgers, oh my god, he's all that, and I'm like, really, really,
I said, you realize now, Aaron Rodgers is forty. He's
a man, He's forty, you know. So I mean, but

(01:26:02):
I'm just I'm a little surprised by that. I'm sensing
a real Debbie Downer here that we're people are frustrated,
which is why I want to win the damn football game.
Drake may.

Speaker 9 (01:26:18):
John was after last week's game too. I was like,
I wasn't really that upset about it. I just kind
of went, it's growing pains. You know, they're a young team.

Speaker 1 (01:26:27):
It's well, you're taking insensibly, You're you're taking insensibly, Patty,
which I really appreciate out of you, But damn it,
I'm frustrated. I want WS.

Speaker 9 (01:26:38):
I want WS two. I just I don't see it
happening this week. And you know what it's like, whenever
whenever I watched the Jets win a game, it's like
I want to stab my eyeballs out with a fork.
You know, it's it's terrible. I have this theory on
that there's no such there's no such thing as a
real Jets fan. There's only status.

Speaker 1 (01:27:01):
By the way, stab your eyeballs out with a fork.
Pete Gillen, when he was a coaching probably his collar,
used to tell me they're trying to scoop my eyeballs
out with a spoon. God wide, a Lord, that's just
an awful visual or like they're up. Wow. So I
don't know, Okay, all right, I guess I get it.

(01:27:21):
I just you know, I'm surprised. I'm just surprised. I
give the Patriots, I mean, and guess what, you know what,
I'm happy to may a cup, although I'll be unhappy.
But you know, if the Jets cover and they dominate
like you say they're going to dominate, well then you know,
next week we come back on the show and we said,
totally misread that, Mike tea Ley, you know, call me

(01:27:42):
now for your free reading. It didn't work, frauds.

Speaker 9 (01:27:46):
And and how many times is even I think up
until the last game of last season, like even with
Mac Jones as our quarterback, did I say, yeah, they're
gonna win. It's the Jets. Come on, what have they
ever done anything?

Speaker 1 (01:28:02):
Well, they would, They did split with the Jets last year,
and like I said earlier, they haven't lost at met
Life in you know, since twenty fifteen. That's nine years ago.
So they've had They've had great. They've had more success
on the Rogans the Jets than any other team I
can possibly.

Speaker 9 (01:28:16):
Think of, so infamous Ryan Fit's Magic Game where we
gave the ball to him in overtime.

Speaker 1 (01:28:24):
Yeah, yep, that's right. So if you don't give the
ball to them and you can play you know, keep
it close to the vest and and and not you know,
have you know, the the late second quarter brain cramp
like they had this past Sunday, then okay, why can't
they win the game? Why can't they win this game?

Speaker 9 (01:28:43):
Like one of the guys from PEW said this earlier
last week when they said, you know, I think if
they played the Seattle game and they don't, they can't
come up with a turnover. I think Seattle wins. I
think the path to beating the Jets is turning them over.
You have to get lucky, and you have to at
least get like a couple turnovers, okay. And the crap

(01:29:04):
the crappy thing about Rogers is I mean he really
doesn't turn the ball over.

Speaker 1 (01:29:09):
Okay, I bought, Yeah, I'll buy that. I will buy that.
If you probably are gonna have to pick up a
turnover or two, I'll buy that. If they can't, the
defense can't, you know, for some a Jets mistake, then
that's where the Jets can win.

Speaker 10 (01:29:24):
Absolutely all right, And the next next week, I got
a long drawn out question for you, and I'm hoping
at some point during that Matt, Matt will drop this
cool story handel sound drop while I'm while I'm saying it.

Speaker 9 (01:29:40):
So I start, I'll talk to you and Marine, well,
i'll talk. I'll probably talk to Marine on tomorrow night.
Good enough, talk to you next Wednesday. John, Yes, sir,
let's hope I'm wrong.

Speaker 1 (01:29:50):
You got it. I'm gonna hope you're wrong too. Thank you. Patty.
Let's get Nelson in l a here. Hey, Nelson, you're
in the playbook. It's all good. What are we working
on today?

Speaker 2 (01:30:02):
We all stand by right now.

Speaker 1 (01:30:03):
Stand by? All right, okay, all right, that's good. No, no,
no heavy lifting.

Speaker 2 (01:30:08):
We messed up this weekend. Man, I thought we were
going to get to w.

Speaker 1 (01:30:13):
I know, I know it was all bad.

Speaker 2 (01:30:15):
Well, you know, why would why can we white? Can
we go for the first on the fourth and.

Speaker 1 (01:30:21):
First in the overtime? Yeah, we were right there, Yeah,
go for it. Yeah, I mean you certainly can make
a claim that that would have been another you know
move that you know sometimes you know, you just gotta
you gotta take a shot. And uh, I understand the frustration.
The one that you know obviously bothered me the most was,

(01:30:42):
you know when they you know, threw the ball deep
in there into the field late at the end of
the second quarter and then Seattle called time out and
then the clock was stopped and then they were able
to get the ball back with thirty seconds and they
ended up getting a field goal. They ended up really
being the difference maker in the game. That was just
really bad, bad, bad Without thinking about it, and I'm
just like wow, because sometimes you have to coach to

(01:31:03):
not beat yourself, and they totally coached to beat themselves
last week.

Speaker 2 (01:31:08):
Yo, And I hope they flip it over and I'm
going twenty seven to twenty the Pagers all the way
all the week.

Speaker 1 (01:31:14):
Well, you're You're the first Nelson. You'll be happy to
know you're the first one that I've spoken to all
day today.

Speaker 2 (01:31:23):
Our cornerback.

Speaker 1 (01:31:25):
Who you mean Gonzales?

Speaker 2 (01:31:28):
Yeah, he's gonna get his first interceptions that gave.

Speaker 1 (01:31:31):
Oh get it, get a pick?

Speaker 4 (01:31:31):
All right?

Speaker 1 (01:31:32):
See? Okay, quarter? Okay, So you think Gonzales gets the
pick when they try to throw to Garrett Wilson, because
I think that's where that matchup will probably be. Okay,
all right, Well then if that happens, then you have
to call back next week and you have to brag
about it.

Speaker 2 (01:31:47):
Oh you know, I'm an brag about it.

Speaker 4 (01:31:48):
All the time.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
All right, twenty seven to twenty all right? I like it.
I like it. Can Aaron Rodgers still play? Do you
think can Aaron Rodgers still play?

Speaker 6 (01:32:01):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:32:01):
He could pay it. But if we get in there
and we get in the pocket, he can't run like
that no more. You can't move like that?

Speaker 1 (01:32:07):
Well no, And that's where I think if you flush him,
then I think you're you're probably a good shape.

Speaker 2 (01:32:12):
And that's when he's gonna make a mistake, and then
that's that's when it's gonna come back and bite him
in his assy.

Speaker 1 (01:32:19):
Okay, all right, good stuff. Hey, be safe at work now,
all right, good tooth sir. Thanks hearing you. Appreciate you.
Thank you. Nelson in Los Angeles working out in the
oil fields or wherever he is out there. That's you know,
he's got some grammy work going on there. Appreciate you, Nelson. Absolutely. Hey,
getting ready for a marathon game day watch party. Make

(01:32:40):
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England Patriots eight five five PATS five hundred, web radio
at Patriots dot com. A couple of quick emails here,

(01:33:22):
Gang uh Claire says my prediction. Hi John, Hi Marine, Okay, Carol, Yeah,
so much to topsy turvy, but I'm still going pat
seventeen Jets sixteen f the jets. She spelled out f
e ff. Come on, she got a little class.

Speaker 7 (01:33:41):
All right, How very English of you, How very English?

Speaker 4 (01:33:43):
Right?

Speaker 1 (01:33:44):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (01:33:45):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (01:33:45):
And then uh, let's see where else do I have
this one? I got oh aiden from California, John Man.
That was a close game that we fumbled away. But
I'm looking at this as a glass half full. These
are learning lessons for Gerard and the staff. All right,
we did talk about that Aiden. You're correct, and I
did say that, you know, okay, he gets the benefit

(01:34:06):
of the doubt. He gets a couple of screw ups
on his side. He screwed it up, but he gets
that benevit of the doubt because he is a rookie coach.
You got to learn, you got to learn. Let's just
hope it doesn't happen too often. Should you be giving
the ball back before the half so they can score it?

Speaker 3 (01:34:22):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:34:23):
But again, if the coaches can learn from this and
not be error repeaters, I'm okay with these growing paints,
that's the key. Can't do it again. Got to recognize
it the next time, you know, what this is probably
not the greatest situation to pass the ball, probably not
the greatest situation through because if we don't complete the pass,
it stops the clock. He gives the team more time
to come back and score on us at the end
of the half. It's a long and grueling season. I'm

(01:34:45):
just glad this is a more watchable product than what
the last year coach made his go through. Last year, coach,
we can't even say this name, say my name, I mean,
and I admitted that off the top today. I said,
you know, this is a better team than last year already.
I think it's more together. I think it's obviously. I
think it's more disciplined, or at least there's more attention

(01:35:06):
to the discipline on the field, and that's through because
of the lack of mistakes. The biggest mistake this team
has made through two weeks has been the clock management issue.
And they didn't come from the players necessarily. Not necessarily,
they have to be getting direction from the sideline. Right
it's Jets week. I'm picking them to win. I assume

(01:35:28):
he means the Patriots to win twenty three to twenty one.
This is more a hate pick than anything else. Love
the show. All right, thank you, Aiden, I appreciate that.
I mean, so we've had two in a row. Now,
I'm not sure we can continue that trend. God, was
I really that off on this? I mean, did you
think that marine? Did you think that you know the

(01:35:48):
Patriots were gonna get beat this week?

Speaker 10 (01:35:54):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:35:55):
Okay, yeah, I mean you know and this we're not
promised a thought to that, but no, I didn't know.
You didn't think it's I mean, it's the Jets, right,
I mean, and look, I realized that, you know, the
Jets are you know, pros like everybody else. But you know,
I think we've seen this a lot over the last
decade plus.

Speaker 7 (01:36:13):
The Jets will jet.

Speaker 1 (01:36:14):
Thank you, thank you. That's exactly right, the Jets will jet.
That's why when people said, oh, you know, this team
is going to be a contender in the AFC gigs
this year, and I'm like, not until I see them
win a couple of games first. There's no way. There's
just no way. Now, Aaron Rodgers can prove us all wrong,

(01:36:35):
and you know, he might dominate. I don't think he will,
but he might. And if he does, yeah, then it's
maya Maxima copa but until I got to be from
the state of Missouri. Show me.

Speaker 2 (01:36:47):
It's a real woman, could stop you from drinking.

Speaker 8 (01:36:50):
That's a real big woman.

Speaker 11 (01:36:52):
It's time to go around the NFL with football guru
Russell Baxters.

Speaker 1 (01:36:56):
Now the name is Flounder on Patriots playbook Russell Baxter
Week three in the NFL. Good afternoon, Russell, how are you?

Speaker 4 (01:37:08):
I'm good, sir, How are you? Jets? Patriots week Thursday Night?

Speaker 1 (01:37:12):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:37:13):
I'm a little disappointed because I was hoping this game
within Foxborough and I would get to see you.

Speaker 1 (01:37:20):
Yeah, yeah, Well, we don't get a whole lot of
primetime opportunity this year for obvious reasons because the team
just you know, hitting very good. But at one, you know, I'm.

Speaker 4 (01:37:29):
More disappointed than Roger Cadell did not call me back.

Speaker 1 (01:37:34):
Wait, you're not on his speed dial?

Speaker 4 (01:37:37):
No, no, no, obviously.

Speaker 1 (01:37:40):
Not No, that's all right, Okay, I.

Speaker 4 (01:37:42):
Don't think I'm on his rotary phone either.

Speaker 1 (01:37:45):
I'm not on his rotary either. I know that. I guess. Well,
since you brought it up Thursday night, you know, the
Patriots and the Jets are both playing their third game
in eleven days to start the season. When is this
gonna catch up to the NFL, and could you see
the eventuality of the possibilities worn down the line that

(01:38:07):
they decide that the discretion is the better part of
valor and keeping guys healthier longer, especially if they go
to eighteen regular season games and doing something else besides
Thursday night football.

Speaker 4 (01:38:20):
I certainly don't rule it out. And by the way,
the Jets even shorter week. Remember they played Monday night.
Yeah the first.

Speaker 1 (01:38:27):
Week, Yeah they did.

Speaker 4 (01:38:28):
Okay, yeah, so Monday night Sunday and now Thursday.

Speaker 1 (01:38:32):
Yeah, So that's right. So there are day days shorter
prep time than the Patriots have to start.

Speaker 4 (01:38:36):
That's right, exactly. So, but fortunately it's a divisional game
and probably not a lot of prep for either team.
Obviously they know each other well, and we also know
that the Patriots have really had their way with the
Jets for you know, I don't think Bill Belichick ever
recovered from losing that playoff game in.

Speaker 1 (01:38:56):
Two No, no, no, I don't think so either, right.

Speaker 4 (01:39:01):
But irony of irony, Bill Belichick's last game as Patriots
head coach saw their long winning streak over the Jets
end in Week eighteen, So you know it's strange as
may seem, but you know, you got two teams here,
one who won last week after watching their defense get
pushed around by the forty nine ers. Yeah, and a

(01:39:23):
Patriots team. Now I know they lost last week in overtime,
but I agree with whoever said it about five minutes ago.
This is a better football team. It looks like there's
more cohesion. The physicality is certainly there. It would have
been nice if they could find a way to cover
you know, locket In Metcalf for true, but you know,

(01:39:45):
give Gino Smith his due, you know, as a comeback
player of the year a couple of years ago. Last
year took a little dip and this year bought to
a good start. You know, I find it very fascinating that,
especially this past week. You know, I watch you know,

(01:40:08):
Mike McDonald with Michael McDonald, you know those defensive coaches
who don't know anything about offense. They're two and oh yeah,
right and low and obviously Steelers, you know, have been
futured on offense, but they're two and o. So you know,
you could go down the whole long laundry listeners though
on but uh, just so you know, second year in
a row, we have nine two and oh teams and

(01:40:30):
nine oh and two teams, and we shall see because
you know, not every two and o makes it. And
just to remind people, each of the last two seasons
and oh and two has not only made the playoffs,
they won their division. The Bengals won it in two
thousand and two twenty two, and the Texans won the
division after being oh and two last year.

Speaker 1 (01:40:50):
So I knew you were going that direction. So I'm
glad you started that direction because then I was going
to ask you the next obvious questions. So, you know,
with the nineh and twos from a year ago, but
two of those teams coming back to win the division,
it sounds to me then, at least in recent history,
oh and two isn't quite the whole dug that it
might have been, even just a few short years ago

(01:41:11):
in the NFL.

Speaker 6 (01:41:11):
Is it.

Speaker 4 (01:41:12):
Yeah? Well, I think the seventeen game schedule certainly helped
that one extra game. I certainly think having an extra
playoffs birth helps. That started in twenty twenty. The seventeen
game slate started in twenty twenty one, so that has
helped a little, There's no doubt about it. But you know,
It's hard to watch a team get off to a

(01:41:36):
tremendous start, knowing what we know about preparation now and
how tough it is. That's why Holy Holy Saint Bernard
the New Orleans Saints with ninety one points and eleven
touchdowns in two games, I know, right, although I will say,
and I love players perspective. I heard Cam Jordan on

(01:41:58):
a interview yesterday. They say, reminded people we were two
and oh last year, and you know you finished ninety eight.
They wound up in some playoffs, right, So you never know,
you know, you know as well as I do. You know,
we see teams go off and get on long streaks
at the beginning of the year and then fade. I

(01:42:19):
mean the Pittsburgh Steelers in twenty twenty were eleven and
oh and crawled the rest of the year and then
got blown out at home in the playoffs. Look at
Philadelphia last year it was ten and one and disaster.
You know, lost what six of their last seven, including
the playoffs, and struggles with the Packers on defense. And

(01:42:42):
I don't have to tell anybody what happened Monday night,
you know, So maybe same old problems with Philly. So
it was not you know, it's you know, it's a
weird week when the Washington Commanders are the only team
in the NFC East to win.

Speaker 1 (01:42:56):
Wow, I know, right, or one and one through the
two weeks, that's correct, all right, So we got we
have not one but two battles, two matchups of two
and oh teams for Week three. This week, let's start
then with the Texans and the Vikings. I've been impressed
with both teams thus far. I know it's early. Which
one has staying power?

Speaker 3 (01:43:18):
Oh?

Speaker 4 (01:43:18):
I think in terms of a roster you would have
to lean Houston, who just keeps on adding players. And
it's very very funny. Here's some wacky coincidences. You will
recall in the offseason that these teams basically swapped be
a free agency, not trades. They swapped their top tax rusher. Yeah,

(01:43:38):
Jonathan Greener went from Houston to Minnesota. Daniel Hunter wanted
from Minnesota to Houston. So both are two and oh.
Here's my favorite. Do you know the last time that
Texans for two and oh no twenty sixteen reasons? The
last time the Vikings for two and oh twenty sixteen?
No kidding, This has got overtime ty written.

Speaker 1 (01:43:59):
Although two zero to one then right, okay, the other
two and oh versus two and oh match Chargers and
the Steelers. I guess I'm mildly surprised with the Steelers,
maybe a little less so with the Chargers. Just kind
of like your thoughts on on both teams and the

(01:44:19):
way that they started out.

Speaker 4 (01:44:21):
Well, I'm glad Jim Harball doesn't like to run the football.
Oh goodness. JK. Dobbins a see note each of the
first two weeks. JK. Dobbins somewhat familiar with the Steelers
defense through his days in Baltimore. I'm gonna make a
weird prediction, okay, and you will get this. And I'm
sure people who've been following the league for thirty forty years, Well,

(01:44:44):
Justin Herbert is ify this week. He's a little banged up.
So the Chargers are going to start Jim Harball at quarterbacks.
And this time he completes that Hill Mary Cash in
the right corner of the end zone and Avenge is
in the nineteen ninety five ASC Championship game. What do

(01:45:05):
you think, John?

Speaker 1 (01:45:06):
Why not? So it's only been what the twenty nine years?

Speaker 4 (01:45:10):
Yeah, it don't don't let the facts get in the rest.

Speaker 1 (01:45:13):
No, I know, but you know what, that's probably one
of the reasons why he's back in the NFL anyway,
just because he's had this, you know, itching in his
craw for all this time.

Speaker 4 (01:45:22):
You know, Oh, absolutely well, I will say that you
and I always do this with a certain games. What's
how early in the game on CBS, will we see
that play?

Speaker 1 (01:45:32):
Oh? Yeah, probably in the open right, yeah, probably in
the opening couple of minutes we'll see that play.

Speaker 4 (01:45:38):
It'll be there, Yeah, it'll certainly be there. But listen,
Pittsburgh's defense has been pretty formidable, I will say that,
and did it on the road, okay, you know, you know,
I think they picked for three turnovers the first week.
They had two picks a bow knicks last week. Offense
still leaves a lot to be desired. The jointing around

(01:46:00):
with their offensive line George Pickens is a marble, but
a couple offensive pass interference calls and everything last week,
so I'm not sure what to expect. It's Pittsburgh's home opener.
They're not the home juggernaut they've been in the day,
and I think actually it helped them to play on
the road the first two weeks with all the stirring
and controversy. But I'll tell you Joe Walt to tackle

(01:46:24):
that running game. You know, Herbert had some turnover issues
last week at Carolina, So you know, thirteen twelve. I
don't know if the year the last time the Stewarts
won the Super Bowl in two thousand and eight. I
just remember this, they beat the Chargers during the regular season.

(01:46:45):
That was that palamalo diving one handed interception. And I
bring that up because they won the game eleven to ten.

Speaker 1 (01:46:54):
Eleven to ten. That had to have been a score
of gumi.

Speaker 4 (01:46:56):
Right, that's like a softball scour. Yes, I know, Okay,
eleven to ten, so you know what, let's I'll do
fifteen to fourteen. And I'm not even going to pick
a winner. We already saw the Steelers winning game without
scoring a touchdown. Last week we saw Washington right or
win seven field goals and winning game without scoring a touchdown.

Speaker 1 (01:47:17):
That's true, that's true.

Speaker 4 (01:47:18):
Other than the Saints and the Bills, I would say
offense is a little sluggish out of the gate.

Speaker 1 (01:47:26):
And why do you think is it because of the
emphasis defensively? Is because teams are trying to do too
much on offense? Is this traditionally an issue? Do you
think over the last few years in the NFL? Why
are the offensive having a harder time now?

Speaker 4 (01:47:39):
Because I think the offensive line don't know each other. Ah,
And you know in recent years the NFL is cut
down on contact during training camp, and you know, offensive
line is all about continuity and physicality, and you know,
if you're not playing that much, you don't really get
to know each other. Then you have some of these
teams who and invest a lot of draft choices in

(01:48:01):
their offensive line. I mean they barely know these guys' name,
you know, hitting around and so on. But still it
is so you know, we have seen over the last
couple of years, and you and I have talked about
this as well, the first forced games of the of
the regular season is almost like the preseeds. And now,
because you don't see a lot of teams, you know,

(01:48:22):
it's been up and down the last couple of years
play their regulars. They get a lot of work in
the mini camps and maxi camps and Vanda camps and
all that other stuff. Right, and when we do get
to an eighteen game season, I'm hoping that little of
that changes. I'm hoping that the more regiment, steady preparation schedule,

(01:48:43):
because I think it's hurt the pride early on, it's
hurt the product. And listen, we've had some thrilling games
in Cincinnati and Kansas City last week obviously Monday Night,
you know, the Ravens and the Chiefs as well.

Speaker 1 (01:48:57):
Sure the Patrons and Chargers. Was a great game last week.

Speaker 4 (01:49:00):
Yes, the Chargers last week.

Speaker 1 (01:49:03):
Yeah yeah, and then not the Chargers to patrons on
the seahawkscuse me.

Speaker 4 (01:49:07):
Yeah, absolutely over time, I you know, we had we
had we had overtime with Detroit and the Rams by
the way, the Ram John, I don't know what you
guys are doing in the studio this week. You guys
could always play.

Speaker 1 (01:49:18):
We could probably play. Yeah, I mean, that's that's it.
Just it just goes to show you the old landage
is no matter how bad you have it, somebody else
has got it worse.

Speaker 4 (01:49:27):
And that's and that's why I have to giggle at
people who take a look at that schedule in April
or early May, and the same people who can't pick
week the week try to pick months and months. It's
in advance, yeah, right, and fight. Well, they're going to
face this quarterback and the face that quarterback. And no,
I mean, let's they are down Cooper Cup and Cooka Nakula.

(01:49:51):
And last week was embarrassed. I mean that was the
team that Sean McVay had beaten thirteen the last fifteen
times in the Rams coach includes the playoffs, and that
was I mean that was over in the first quarter.

Speaker 1 (01:50:05):
Right, Yeah, that's cutting the heart out of your team
with those two guys gone, no question. All right, so
let's take a look at this. Then You've got uh
at O and two. You've got the Giants, you have
the Titans, you have the Colts. Uh, you have I'm
gonna go down my list here, you have the Broncos,
you have the Panthers, and you also have the Ravens.

(01:50:27):
Shockingly with the Rams also at O and two, going
in Bengals. Yeah, and the Bengals at OEN two. Right,
So you've got all these teams in at oh and
two and the Jaguar Excuse me, I knew I left
one out. The Jags are the other O and two
and I'm not sure we expected them to be there.
But my question is that all those and two's that
I just mentioned the nine that you talk about when

(01:50:49):
we started here, which one is likely to stay winless
for a while more likely to stay winless.

Speaker 4 (01:50:56):
I had been worried about Baltimore coming into the season
because if you saw their offseason departures, regardless of reason,
it was stunning how many people left Baltimore. And that
was a defense last year that tied for the lead
league in takeaways, they gave up the fewest points. That

(01:51:18):
was a very formidable unit. And so far they've looked
pretty ordinary. I mean, they're up ten at home in
the fourth quarter against the Raver Raiders and can't close
the deal, and you know that's they've given up what
twenty seven points and twenty six points in games. They
go down to Dallas, I don't envision. I was told

(01:51:42):
that Mike McCarthy is going to get the team there
the night before so they don't miss the first half,
okay like they did last week. That's a rough. That's
a rough. That's a that's a rough afternoon to win
to Dallas them coming off the loss. Okay, So Denver,

(01:52:03):
Denver has Tampa Bay this week. I'd be very surprised
if they won, although bo Nick's already has the quote
of the early season when he was asked about that
interception in the end zone and he just said, I
dropped back and I threw it to the other.

Speaker 1 (01:52:22):
Team, which is accurate.

Speaker 4 (01:52:24):
Which is totally and I'm all about accurate.

Speaker 1 (01:52:27):
Yeah, I'm all about.

Speaker 4 (01:52:29):
And but you know, it's interesting. Just right off the
top of my head, I want to say six of
the nine teams that are oh and two or in
the AFC, Yes, Houston is all by themselves at two
and zero, and nobody in the division has won a
game other than them.

Speaker 1 (01:52:46):
I'd say they're off and running. But as we've already
pointed out that and two doesn't mean jack right now,
that's right, and who knows?

Speaker 4 (01:52:55):
And and listen, the NFC East has already jumbled in
a bunch of one and one to two and as
we know, which is going on twenty years this year. Now,
I know Dallas won the NFC East last year, but
nobody's repeated in that division since the Eagles did it
four years in a row from two thousand and one
oh four.

Speaker 1 (01:53:15):
So that's an amazing streak there, really is.

Speaker 4 (01:53:18):
It isn't that it's funny and the last couple of years,
it's been alternating Philadelphia. Remember Washington won the division in
twenty twenty with the seven to nine records.

Speaker 1 (01:53:28):
Right, so right, seven or nine, that's right? Yeah, unlet's
yeah under five?

Speaker 4 (01:53:32):
Yeah, I mean, to me, it's gonna be. And you
know Philadelphia, who's obviously defense is still an issue. I
know they have Vic Fangio there and all that stuff,
but they they they turned over the ball three times
to their credit against Green Bay and still managed to

(01:53:53):
win the game. But they gave up twenty nine points. Okay,
last week they gave up a drive in the last
and change and losing home to the Falcon. Now they
get the Saints this week, so you know, I mean,
I'm not declaring Derek Carr MVP, although boy, I will
say that it is fun to watch Alvin Kamara beat

(01:54:13):
Alvin Kamara again.

Speaker 1 (01:54:15):
Yeah. Yeah, he looks he looks better. He looks better
than normal, that's for sure.

Speaker 4 (01:54:19):
Yeah. So it's an interesting and what makes this week
really interesting is for the third straight week minimal amount
of divisional games. The Jets and the Patriots are one
of the few and ten of the sixteen games or
interconference games this week Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:54:36):
See, I like that. Though, I like that. Let's let's
talk about a couple of those anyway. Well, the Dolphins
and within the AFC East Dolphins will go on the road.
They got to play Seattle last week's Patriot conquerors. They
got to do it without to a tongue of viola,
and got put on ir this week with yet another
concussion issue. You know, I think we could we all

(01:54:59):
fee even if we don't feel exactly like to it.
Does we all feel for him and certainly you have
to wonder what this might mean for the remainder of
his career. Nevertheless, I look at, as you know, opportunity
for others as well within the division. Miami's got to
go from the tip, you know, of one corner of
this country all the way to the other corner of

(01:55:21):
the country against what's a tough road trip for the Dolphins,
and we get a chance, I think, really to see
how good Seattle might be. I thought they were okay
last week, but I gotta admit, you know, with the
brain cramp the Patriots had at the end of the
second quarter and the whole clock management issue that even
Bill Belichick, you know, ragged on during the Manning cast
on ESPN on Monday night. I think we still need

(01:55:42):
to see what kind of a of a team Seattle
can really be. I mean competitive, yes, playoff contender maybe,
but division contender. I don't know that we're there yet,
but this could be a step in that direction for them,
doubt about.

Speaker 4 (01:55:57):
And this just occurred to me as I was thinking here. Obviously,
Skyler Thompson is going to start for quarterback for the Dolphins.
But did you know that the Dolphins also added Tyler Huntley?

Speaker 1 (01:56:12):
Yes, yes, yes, he spent you know.

Speaker 4 (01:56:15):
He signed with the Browns in this officeas they cut him,
but he played a lot during the preseason. He spent
his four year career to date in Baltimore. And of
course it just occurred to me that if Tyler Huntley
gets in this game, gee, you think Mike McDonald might
know a little about it about him, you know, because
he spent the last two years in Baltimore. So, yeah,

(01:56:37):
this is an intriguing game. It's obviously teams that are
don't play each other that well. I I think Mike
McDonald will be ecstatic if his team doesn't give up
a safety this week like they did in the in
the opener, they gave up two and had some like
really mind boggling issues, just like Brian Callahan, who obviously

(01:56:59):
had a lot to say to his starting quarterback Will
Levis after another turnover. The Titans have five turnovers this year,
all of them by Will Levin, but I'm sure he
also had something to say to his special teams. For
the second week in a row, the Titans had a
punk block last week against the Bears was for a touchdown.

(01:57:20):
This week it's set up the score. And if you
go back to week fifteen of twenty twenty three, they
had a punk blocked for a touchdown and lost it
overtime to Indianapolis. I mean, how often do you get,
you know, three punch blocks in the six game span.

Speaker 1 (01:57:39):
Not often, not often. Big change is coming special team wise.
The other division game Jags that I went to two
playing at the Bills on Monday Night football, Well, Buffalo's
got a chance to really establish themselves again in the
AFC East.

Speaker 4 (01:57:55):
Well, you want to talk about a roller coaster ride,
you know, Jacksonville was four in eight couple of years ago,
ran the table, came back from twenty seven down to
win a playoff, came over The Chargers then lost to
the Chiefs in the divisional round. No shame in that.
And last year they started eight and three and went
belly up. Now I know Trevor Lawrence was banged up,

(01:58:17):
but still wound up losing five in their last six game.
And now it's seven of their last eight game. And
Doug Peterson, a Super Bowl winning coach, as we well
know Trevor Lawrence, who you know very much like a
couple of quarterbacks. This year big pay day, they look

(01:58:38):
and they've lost close games. That's funny, the three winless
teams in the AFC set. In fact, let me take
a step further, every game played by an AFC South
team this year has been decided by seven points or left.
Do you know what that means?

Speaker 1 (01:58:57):
I have no clue, but it might be a close game, Yes.

Speaker 4 (01:59:01):
Might be a close game. And remember Jacksonville beat Buffalo
last year in England.

Speaker 1 (01:59:05):
Right, yes, yes, yes, home away from home.

Speaker 4 (01:59:08):
They did know they did that eight and three start
last year where it looked like they were going to
repeat his division champions and they wind up not even
making the playoffs at all.

Speaker 1 (01:59:17):
Right, while we have about a minute or so loved
here in the program. I'd be remiss if I didn't
ask you about the Pro Football Hall of Fame today
putting out their initial list of nominees, of which there
are what one hundred and thirty or so? But among
them Corey Dllon, Wes Welker, Ben Coates, Bruce Armstrong, Logan Mankins,
Vince will Ford, Teddy Bruski, Mike Vrabel, Willie McGinnis, Rodney Harrison,

(01:59:41):
a Keith taleb Adam Vin, and Terry Those are the
ex Patriots in that particular list. Harrison, I thought had
a shot last year, did not get in. Of those Patriots,
who's most likely to get further consideration and make that
final ballot?

Speaker 4 (01:59:59):
I would be done if Adams's there is not a
first ballot Hall of Famer, And I know we don't
have a lot of kickers in there. We have Jon
Stenderud and we have Morton Anderson. As far as place kicker,
he has the most points and most field goals in
NFL history. He has the most points and most field
goals in NFL postseason history. He's a multi Super Bowl

(02:00:23):
champion with two different franchises. He actually wound up playing
longer for the Colts than he did for the Patriots,
and he had quite run from the Patriots. Luke Keikley
is another guy I know, he's not a Patriot. Luke
Keikley is another guy who's a first time ballot. I
think the big discussion will be Eli Manning. Okay, whether

(02:00:46):
you know, was he great for those two seasons when
they won the Super Bowl and mediocre that that's going
to be. I wouldn't be surprised if he made it,
and I also wouldn't be surpris he didn't make it
first ballot.

Speaker 1 (02:01:02):
That's what I think. I think he'll make it. I
don't think he makes it first ballot.

Speaker 4 (02:01:07):
To me, right off the top of my head, Luke
Keikley and Adam Vinitieri are first ballot Hall of Famers,
And I think if you had doubts about Kickley, who
had a shortened career, and I know Patrick Willis was
in first ballot. Yeah, but you know, it seems like
to be a younger mindset now and a lot of
defensive players are going in the last couple of years.

(02:01:28):
I can't imagine Adam Minitary not to be in in there. Yeah,
first ballot, Yeah, I mean, if you don't put the
all Listen, the Hall of Fame didn't put in the
all time interception leader Paul Krauss for years and years
and years. Okay, but you know we finally got a
kick returner in last year in devin Hester, Adam van Kerry.

(02:01:50):
And forget the numbers, what about the moments? Sure, the kicks?

Speaker 1 (02:01:53):
Sure, No, absolutely, the.

Speaker 4 (02:01:55):
Bulls and the Super Bowl.

Speaker 1 (02:01:57):
The big moments. Yeah, he deserves to be there. And
as long as we're to put Anna Vinentarian there, I
think the leading score in AFL history should belong in
there as well. From the Veterans Committee, and we talked
about this last week, Gino Cappelletti, Yeah this.

Speaker 4 (02:02:09):
Okay, Well, let's put it this way. If Vinititieri goes
in and Capelletti gets the nod, I will see you
in Canton next year because I'm positive the Patriots will
play in the Hall of Fame game.

Speaker 1 (02:02:22):
Yeah, I think you're right about that. Thank you, Russell.
Always good to be with you, my friend.

Speaker 4 (02:02:28):
You're welcome. I'll be watching tomorrow night. We'll be very
interesting to see which version of the Jets show up,
because I'm pretty sure I know what version of the
Patriots are going to show up. And it's going to
be a pretty physical style.

Speaker 1 (02:02:41):
One that'll score about sixteen or seventeen points.

Speaker 4 (02:02:44):
Right, whatever works.

Speaker 1 (02:02:48):
Whatever works, Yeah, as long as the other team scores
one point.

Speaker 4 (02:02:51):
Last, when you hit a tree and the ball bounces
on the green, yeah, nobody cares on the score.

Speaker 1 (02:02:57):
That's also very true. Thanks, thanks my man, Talk to
you later. You got it. The one and only Backs
Football Guru on x BAX Football Guru Russell Baxter. Okay,
football season here we know. Sullivan Hire Auto Service kicks
things off in a big way with our exclusive Go
Pats Tires sale now through October thirty first score big

(02:03:19):
with incredible savings on Bridgestone tires. Save one hundred dollars
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program brought to you by bud Light, Easy to Drink,
Easy to Enjoy, bud Light, the official beer sponsor of

(02:03:41):
the New England Patriots. Russell Baxter peering to us on
this program via the TPX hotline. Hey, We're getting it
all in today. Get it all in today. Thank you
for Chris Mason for Mass Live talking about the Patriots,
and obviously Dan Liverfeld from Jets Confidential dot com. Hey, kickoff,
see what happens j Ets Jets Jets Jets week. We'll

(02:04:04):
recap that and look forward to San Francisco and find
out if the Patriots this time next week, of course,
same patch time, same patch channel. We'll look forward to
that one and we'll see if the Patriots can take
advantage of some of this I guess apparent good fortune
because teams are getting kind of banged up right now,
are they in position to do that? We'll find out

(02:04:25):
a little bit more this time next week. See you then,
Thank you for downloading this podcast.

Speaker 11 (02:04:31):
Subscribe on Apple, Google Play, and everywhere else you listen.
Like the show, Please rate and review us. Listener comments
and ratings help keep us high in the podcast rankings
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