Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan
Speaker 1: Lazar and Alex Barth. I'm Lazar, Lazar Lazar. Hello, everybody
Speaker 1: nailed it, joined us always buying our Barak David match.
Speaker 1: No really, Chulk here is Evan Lazar and Alex barr
Speaker 1: Zach Wilson is definitely like the worst person to get
Speaker 1: stuck flaying golf with. You made it eight episodes before
Speaker 1: I got into a golf rance. Evan, good job. Hello, everybody,
Speaker 1: Welcome into a new edition of The Patriots Catch twenty two.
Speaker 1: I've opened Lazar every show we've done together the same
Speaker 1: way for three years, and it took a golf reference
Speaker 1: to throw you off of that. Wow, it definitely did
Speaker 1: throw me off because you know my feelings on golf.
Speaker 1: You also told me that I had to stay focused
Speaker 1: on the show because Argentina Poland is on right behind you.
Speaker 1: So I'm trying not to watch that right now because
Speaker 1: I do want to focus on the show. So that's
Speaker 1: what we're gonna do. Uh, we are going to creeve
Speaker 1: you the bills here today. That's gonna be a big
Speaker 1: part of the show. But I do want to go
Speaker 1: back and talk a little bit about the Vikings game,
Speaker 1: not necessarily get into the nitty gritty because I think
Speaker 1: it has been almost a week now and we're kind
Speaker 1: of onto Buffalo around here, Alex, But well, you, I
Speaker 1: do want to talk a little bit about that game
Speaker 1: as well, and that's where I want to start. And
Speaker 1: every show I try to come up with my my
Speaker 1: one big thing that I need to get off my
Speaker 1: chest what really grinds my gears about about what's going
Speaker 1: to the narrative. So the talk around the thank you,
Speaker 1: thank you, Yes, I knew he had it. And when
Speaker 1: you come off a game like that in Minnesota last
Speaker 1: Thursday night, and I'm not saying everybody, and I'm I'm
Speaker 1: gonna not saying anybody in particular, but when you come
Speaker 1: off a game like that on Thursday night, I feel
Speaker 1: like the conversation immediately for the majority goes to the
Speaker 1: defense getting shredded by Justin Jefferson and the Vikings, the
Speaker 1: special teams giving up a touchdown and running into the
Speaker 1: punter and all of these other factors right that go
Speaker 1: into losing the game, the referees, and I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that the offense always escapes blame, but I think in
Speaker 1: this particular instance. I heard a lot of that, right,
Speaker 1: Like the defense couldn't stop a real offense when they
Speaker 1: played a real offense. The special teams was terrible, the
Speaker 1: f's were terrible, and all of that might be true.
Speaker 1: It probably is true. A lot of it is true.
Speaker 1: But what I think the biggest problem that I have
Speaker 1: with why it gets me agitated is because we look
Speaker 1: at that and we don't We're trying to take away
Speaker 1: blame from the offense, right, And I've had some people
Speaker 1: that sit here and tell me, oh, well, twenty six
Speaker 1: points should be enough to win a game. Twenty six
Speaker 1: points probably wins you a lot of games this league, right,
Speaker 1: It probably wins you a lot of those games against
Speaker 1: the Lions, or against the Jets with Zach Wilson at quarterback,
Speaker 1: or the Colt with Sam Ellinger. Like, that's gonna win
Speaker 1: you a lot of football games at twenty six points.
Speaker 1: But when the Patriots play teams like Minnesota on the
Speaker 1: road on Thanksgiving night of another playoff team they play
Speaker 1: Buffalo here tomorrow night, the offense has to be able
Speaker 1: to win you a game. Eventually, Yeah, eventually, the offense
Speaker 1: has to be able to drive the bus. Because the
Speaker 1: Patriots to me right now, Alex and I think the
Speaker 1: biggest reason why the Patriots cannot get over the hump
Speaker 1: of being a six and five mediocre average operation is
Speaker 1: because they can only win games one way. They only
Speaker 1: have one winning formula, and that is that the defense dominates.
Speaker 1: They play a clean game across the board, and the
Speaker 1: offense is allowed to just kind of coast to a
Speaker 1: victory and there's never any real pressure on the offense
Speaker 1: in a fourth quarter or in a big spot. That's
Speaker 1: how they win football games. When they get into these
Speaker 1: games where the defense doesn't have its best day, the
Speaker 1: special teams make some mistakes, there's some adversity for the offense.
Speaker 1: They do not have the ability yet to rise above
Speaker 1: it as an offense and lead this team to victory.
Speaker 1: The Patriots had I'm taking out the last drive because
Speaker 1: that the last drive to me is last garbage time.
Speaker 1: It's essentially garbage time. Yeah, the three drives that they
Speaker 1: had in the fourth quarter they went punt, punt, turnover
Speaker 1: on downs. In the fourth quarter, they gained fifty eight
Speaker 1: yards on thirteen plays, and forty of those yards were
Speaker 1: on a screen pass to Rumandre Stevenson, So that means
Speaker 1: that the other twelve plays went for eighteen yards in
Speaker 1: that game. And I think we remember a lot in
Speaker 1: the Brady era about the Patriots mystique that, oh, they
Speaker 1: never made mistakes like that, right, Like, oh, they never
Speaker 1: would run into the punter, or they would always step
Speaker 1: out abound Hunter Henry at the two minute warning and
Speaker 1: preserve the clock, right, like they always made these I
Speaker 1: think on the whole, they made those decisions way more
Speaker 1: than maybe they are doing now, right, Like maybe it
Speaker 1: was almost a ninety percent lock that they would do
Speaker 1: those things. But they didn't always play perfect. They didn't
Speaker 1: always have perfect games, but they won so many games
Speaker 1: because quite frankly, Brady would put the team on his back,
Speaker 1: right and Brady would lead them there. And I'm not
Speaker 1: putting it all on mac Jones, but I think a
Speaker 1: lot of it is on mac Jones. And if they
Speaker 1: are going to compete with Buffalo tomorrow night, and this
Speaker 1: is sort of why I'm bringing this up and starting here,
Speaker 1: if they're going to compete with Buffalo tomorrow night, they
Speaker 1: are going to have to get that performance from mac Jones.
Speaker 1: They are not going to hold the offense to ten points.
Speaker 1: They are not going to dominate the Bills offense tomorrow night.
Speaker 1: The Bills offense is going to get theirs right. Right.
Speaker 1: Maybe they can hope to make it less efficient, right,
Speaker 1: and maybe there's some turnovers mixed in there or something
Speaker 1: like that. But the Bills offense, I would say, realistically,
Speaker 1: is going to get to twenty seven points. Twenty seven
Speaker 1: is where they got last week against Detroy despite having
Speaker 1: a few snaffoos, right, despite having a few turnovers and
Speaker 1: brain farts in the red zone and things like that,
Speaker 1: they still got to twenty seven. Can you score twenty eight?
Speaker 1: Can you score thirty? Right? Can you outscore them? Because
Speaker 1: right now the Patriots cannot have not shown I'm not
Speaker 1: gonna say they can't do it, because maybe they can
Speaker 1: in the future, but as of right now, they have
Speaker 1: shown us that they can't do it. Well, they just
Speaker 1: score twenty six, so they're gonna need twenty eight. They're
Speaker 1: gonna need twenty eight, all right, Fine, can they hit
Speaker 1: another field goal? A couple things about what you just said.
Speaker 1: We've talked about this before, and I've said that when
Speaker 1: you know, we throw these terms around, good team, great team, whatever.
Speaker 1: A bad team can't win, a good team can win.
Speaker 1: Games their way, Right, a great team can win games
Speaker 1: multiple ways, or a great team can win games multiple ways.
Speaker 1: An elite team can win games anyway. And I think
Speaker 1: where the Patriots are right now, they can win games
Speaker 1: their way. They can win defensive games right, low scoring games.
Speaker 1: They're trying to get from that good to that great column.
Speaker 1: It's kind of essentially what you're saying exactly. I don't
Speaker 1: disagree with your overall points on the offense. I don't
Speaker 1: think it applies to last week a ton just because
Speaker 1: I yes, they weren't great in the fourth quarter, but man,
Speaker 1: they gave that. When your defense is built the way
Speaker 1: it is, that should be enough. The offense doesn't exist
Speaker 1: in a bubble, right. I just think complimentary football, right
Speaker 1: for the for the for the offense to have the
Speaker 1: performance it had, the defense should be able to clean up.
Speaker 1: I would come back at you, you know, where was
Speaker 1: the turnover late in the game, Where was the pressure
Speaker 1: on Kirk Cousins, any of that? When the Patriots have
Speaker 1: won these kinds of games, the kind of game even
Speaker 1: going back to some of the later Brady years we
Speaker 1: called darn harmon the closer for a reason, right, because
Speaker 1: the defense would come up at the end of the
Speaker 1: game and force that one big turnover that would end it,
Speaker 1: and that wasn't there. They let the Vikings score ten
Speaker 1: points in the fourth quarter and have a big drive
Speaker 1: late in the game that ran out the clock. I'm
Speaker 1: not saying the offense was perfect. They weren't. They weren't,
Speaker 1: But I think your point could be better made about, honestly,
Speaker 1: even a win. Go back to the Jets game, right,
Speaker 1: That's a game where I'm more like, yeah, they won
Speaker 1: and it was great, but man, you needed something more
Speaker 1: from the offense in that one. I just feel like
Speaker 1: you can only win a game with your defense right now, right,
Speaker 1: And this is the big problem to me is that
Speaker 1: you know you're saying it should have been enough, but
Speaker 1: on that day, it wasn't enough. Right, So on that
Speaker 1: particular day what you are expected why but because complimentary football,
Speaker 1: Why wasn't it enough? Because you are affecting the defense
Speaker 1: to be not I won't use the word perfect, but
Speaker 1: you were expecting the defense to be good every single week,
Speaker 1: and in this league, you're not going to be good
Speaker 1: every single the way this defense is played this year,
Speaker 1: and I know people point out the good quarterbacks versus
Speaker 1: the bad quarterbacks whatever, they should not allow thirty three
Speaker 1: points to Kirk Cousins. That to me is the bigger
Speaker 1: issue here. I got backup left, Hime. I disagree because
Speaker 1: I just think that some weeks you're just not going
Speaker 1: to be on your a game, like you know, for
Speaker 1: the Patriots. Here's the whole point, right, And when we
Speaker 1: say that about the offense, No, the offense is bad.
Speaker 1: The offense has been bad all year, right, and the
Speaker 1: offense at some point the offense needs to needs to
Speaker 1: hold its end of the bargain. That's my point, right,
Speaker 1: And I think the biggest thing is is that when
Speaker 1: you start to I'm not going to do the whole
Speaker 1: schedule thing and stuff like that, but when you start
Speaker 1: to break down, how does this Patriots team make the playoffs? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I think they have to get to ten wins, right,
Speaker 1: which means that they have to go four and two
Speaker 1: in the last six games of the season to get
Speaker 1: to ten wins. We are not going to win four
Speaker 1: games out of this six with this schedule on all
Speaker 1: on the back of your defense. Not in this league,
Speaker 1: not in twenty twenty two, not with Joe Burrow and
Speaker 1: Jamar Chase coming in here in a couple of weeks
Speaker 1: and two and the Dolphins coming in here and Buffalo
Speaker 1: coming in here and then traveling to Buffalo, Like, you're
Speaker 1: just not going to win the games on the back
Speaker 1: of the defense without the offense winning are stealing or
Speaker 1: whatever term you want to use a game every once
Speaker 1: in a while, And this this is I think a
Speaker 1: two year trend now at the Patriots two like this
Speaker 1: goes back to Max's rookie season as well, and it
Speaker 1: goes back to twenty twenty two, but I kind of
Speaker 1: throw twenty twenty out. You look at the last two years.
Speaker 1: This is the only way that they win football games.
Speaker 1: And if you're that one dimensional, then you're an eight
Speaker 1: win team. Then you're good. You're not, You're a good
Speaker 1: not great team, right And in order for them to
Speaker 1: get where they need to get, and and for in
Speaker 1: order honestly, in order for me to be totally sold
Speaker 1: on mac Joe is the future, like as the franchise
Speaker 1: quarterback that we all want him to be. I gotta see.
Speaker 1: Things didn't go well defensively, the special teams made a
Speaker 1: few mistakes, but it didn't matter because mac Jones led
Speaker 1: them to a win. He doesn't have a win like that.
Speaker 1: He just doesn't. He should have against He should have
Speaker 1: two against Dallas and Tampa last year. Dallas, to me too,
Speaker 1: is the same thing. Dallas. He throws a pick six
Speaker 1: and then he comes back the next play and throws
Speaker 1: a touchdown. If he doesn't throw a pick six, Alex,
Speaker 1: then they're not in the hole to begin with, the
Speaker 1: only reason why they're all out, then it all that's out.
Speaker 1: I still don't I still don't think that that was
Speaker 1: that was And also let's not forget they had the
Speaker 1: possession in overtime where they had the ball now that
Speaker 1: Nelson Agler draw or was hell sure he dropped it,
Speaker 1: but and they could have gone for it on fourth down.
Speaker 1: To be honest too, I think it was like fourth
Speaker 1: and three or fourth right, But they didn't lead. They didn't.
Speaker 1: He had the opportunity to lead the drive in overtime
Speaker 1: and they didn't. And again I'm not just putting it
Speaker 1: all on Mac like the whole offense, right, But but
Speaker 1: this is my point. You're saying you want to see
Speaker 1: this for Mac, and I'm telling you have seen it.
Speaker 1: This is the whole. This is just one example of
Speaker 1: the whole conversation that exists around Mac Jones. Right now,
Speaker 1: you have seen it in the sense that Mac has
Speaker 1: done what you're asking him to do. The ultimate result
Speaker 1: isn't what you wanted to be, but that's due to
Speaker 1: factors outside of Mac jones control. I guess, man, we
Speaker 1: just can't keep making these excuses. You're right. Look, eventually
Speaker 1: you need to start winning games. You're right. But I've
Speaker 1: said this before on this show. I'll say it again.
Speaker 1: Mac Jones is not in the top three lists of
Speaker 1: reasons Mac Jones has struggled this year. I don't disagree
Speaker 1: with that, and I think that same concept applies to
Speaker 1: what we're talking about here again the Minnesota game. It's
Speaker 1: funny we're having this argument now. I actually think that
Speaker 1: there is some validity to the argument you're making. I
Speaker 1: just think the Minnesota game is the best example of it.
Speaker 1: I think the Minnesota game is the perfect example of
Speaker 1: it because the defense did not play particularly well. That yes,
Speaker 1: they probably should have played better against primetime Kirk Cousins,
Speaker 1: no doubt about it, but they did it. They in
Speaker 1: the kicking game. Let me let me, let me turn
Speaker 1: around on you. Then, why is it you need to
Speaker 1: see Mac play well when the defense doesn't play well,
Speaker 1: I would argue because I need Mac to pick up
Speaker 1: the rest of the team. I would, I would. I
Speaker 1: would be more interested in seeing because this is a
Speaker 1: defensive minded team. And even outside of maybe two or
Speaker 1: three years, defensive minded team in the league that is
Speaker 1: all about the last two or three years, even or
Speaker 1: the last twenty years, except for maybe two or three
Speaker 1: even when Brady was here, it is a defensive As
Speaker 1: long as Bill Belichick is the head coach, this is
Speaker 1: going to be a defensive minded football team that I
Speaker 1: want to be able to see them extend leads. I
Speaker 1: want to see when the defense is on, like look
Speaker 1: at the Jets game. I want to see them be
Speaker 1: able to pull away in that kind of game, not
Speaker 1: have a ten you know, a ten point come down
Speaker 1: to the wire. I've seen map before. Yes, I've seen
Speaker 1: them pull away from mediocre like I mean against I
Speaker 1: mean against a good team. Okay, I mean, but I
Speaker 1: just don't think that it's realistic. Again again down it
Speaker 1: is gonna come in here and drop an egg. But
Speaker 1: but not. It's not a Buffalo point. It's just a
Speaker 1: general point. You want to see Mac Jones play well
Speaker 1: against a good team. I want to see Mac Jones
Speaker 1: win a high scoring game. He has not won a
Speaker 1: game where the opposition scored twenty five points. Okay, So
Speaker 1: here when here's my point, Mike, and it's kind we're
Speaker 1: kind of arguing two sides of the same argument. But
Speaker 1: my bigger point is that's the story of our lives. Right.
Speaker 1: When is the last time the Patriots as a whole,
Speaker 1: like put Mac Jones aside, Yes, when's the last time
Speaker 1: they played a complete game offense, defense, special teams? We
Speaker 1: walked away from it all three units. Hey, that went
Speaker 1: well against not the Jaguars. I was gonna say Cleveland,
Speaker 1: So I guess that doesn't count. Okay, But they've been
Speaker 1: few and far between the last three years because I
Speaker 1: think that other teams get paid too, and you're just
Speaker 1: not gonna walk all over teams like Buffalo Like you're
Speaker 1: just not gonna walk all over teams on the road,
Speaker 1: Minnesota on all over him. That's why you want them
Speaker 1: to dominate in all three phases. You're not gonna do that.
Speaker 1: You can, you can play well in all three phases
Speaker 1: and not can the quarterback win a game for you? Can?
Speaker 1: He can? He put the team on his back. He
Speaker 1: had adversity on Thursday night. There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1: The special teams gave up a kick return touchdown, Pierre
Speaker 1: Strong ran into the punter. The defense gave up twenty
Speaker 1: six points. Okay, he had to win a game. Thirty six,
Speaker 1: thirty three came up short. It's not like twenty sixteen anymore.
Speaker 1: You can win games. You're getting mad at me for
Speaker 1: being like behind the eight ball and how the NFL works,
Speaker 1: right because quarterback, quarterback, quarterback. Yeah, let me ask you this,
Speaker 1: the hot team, the real hot team in the NFL
Speaker 1: right now, they're talking about him right behind us here
Speaker 1: on ESPN, the San Francisco forty nine ers. How many
Speaker 1: of those games is Jimmy Garofolo really won? Okay, but
Speaker 1: the San Francisco forty nineties have Deebo Samuel and Christian
Speaker 1: McCay and George You're right, good, right, But but all
Speaker 1: I'm saying is, right there, you can win games by
Speaker 1: just all three units showing up, and it's been few
Speaker 1: like but okay, okay, okay, I agree with you. I
Speaker 1: agree with your point that they can win games with
Speaker 1: all three units showing up. You're not gonna win every
Speaker 1: game like that. You're not gonna get all three units
Speaker 1: a well oiled machine. Special teams play as well defense here. No,
Speaker 1: it's not, it is no, it's not. Alex. Did the
Speaker 1: defense play well in the second half against Kansas City
Speaker 1: in the AFC Championship game in twenty eighteen, they'se gave
Speaker 1: up thirty points, But you know, you know who played
Speaker 1: freaking well, Brady. He put the team on his bed.
Speaker 1: But this is the You need all of it, You
Speaker 1: need all of it. It's it's okay, and win the defense.
Speaker 1: On Thursday night against the Vikings, when the defense picks
Speaker 1: off Kirk Cousins in the first half and Jonathan Jones
Speaker 1: return to the seventeen yard like they wore, they need
Speaker 1: to score there. You're right, they need to score there.
Speaker 1: You're right, You're you're right. But it's just it's it's
Speaker 1: more so it's less Mack that I'm frustrated with, and
Speaker 1: more so what's going on in the margins, right, It's
Speaker 1: the penalty point is is that the that winning on
Speaker 1: the margins every time you go out there is hard.
Speaker 1: Every time you go out on the field. If you
Speaker 1: can't have any dumb well, every time you go out
Speaker 1: there as hard. I don't want him to play well
Speaker 1: every time. I wanted to play well once and he
Speaker 1: did just play well for three quarters. For three quarters,
Speaker 1: he played well. Okay, I want him to go. I
Speaker 1: don't need him to play I don't need him to
Speaker 1: win every single game for them. Okay, I don't need
Speaker 1: him to be Patrick Mahomes right where he goes out
Speaker 1: there and you win every single game because Patrick Mahomes
Speaker 1: is your quarterback, right, I don't need that. But every
Speaker 1: once in a while, when the defense is having an
Speaker 1: off game, right, it's like if you're I'm gonna crossports,
Speaker 1: if you roll your ace out there in baseball and
Speaker 1: he gets knocked around a little bit, you're surprised, right,
Speaker 1: You're like, oh wow, Like you know, justin Verlander gave
Speaker 1: up five runs this this game. That's surprising. That's not
Speaker 1: justin Verlander's game, Right, We're not used to that. Let's
Speaker 1: go out there and score six, right, Like, is that
Speaker 1: that's where we're getting at here? Where that is the
Speaker 1: that has eluded this team, that has eluded this team,
Speaker 1: That when the defense over the last two years, and
Speaker 1: the defense hasn't carried the team to the winners circle,
Speaker 1: and all the stuff on the details and on the
Speaker 1: margins that everybody talks about. To me is what you
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier. That's that good teams need all
Speaker 1: that to go right. They need every call they need,
Speaker 1: they need not to commit dumb penalties when they're in
Speaker 1: the two minute drill, the quarterback needs to throw the
Speaker 1: ball away instead of taking a sack to preserve time
Speaker 1: because they need every second of the game, they need
Speaker 1: every scoring opportunity to go correctly. And this team is
Speaker 1: in that position. And that's why last year they were
Speaker 1: ten and seven beating up on bad teams. This year
Speaker 1: there's six and five beating up on bad teams. Is
Speaker 1: because when the good teams come in here, you need
Speaker 1: to actually be able to be better than just the oh, well,
Speaker 1: we didn't shoot ourselves in the foot team, or if
Speaker 1: you do shoot yourself in the foot, you have to
Speaker 1: be able to overcome in But that's how many teams
Speaker 1: in the league. That's two or three teams in the
Speaker 1: league are that good. I don't think that's true. I
Speaker 1: don't think that's true. I think that there are teams.
Speaker 1: I think that a lot of playoff teams are like that.
Speaker 1: I think a lot of good playoff teams are like that,
Speaker 1: and right now, that's what you want to be the
Speaker 1: super Bowl this year especially, I think it's all about
Speaker 1: what's going on in the margins. There's a handful of teams,
Speaker 1: and yes, one of them is coming in this in tomorrow.
Speaker 1: But this Buffalo team is eight and three and they
Speaker 1: don't play well in the margins at all. Exactly interceptions,
Speaker 1: and there's still eight and three. But Mac Jones isn't
Speaker 1: Josh Allen one because he throws less interceptions. But there's
Speaker 1: other reasons as well. Mac Jones isn't Josh Allen. So
Speaker 1: if you're a big complaint is Mac Jones isn't Josh Allen,
Speaker 1: I don't know what to tell you that. No, my
Speaker 1: big complaint is not that Mac Jones isn't Josh Allen
Speaker 1: because Josh Allen. I know you're gonna you have your
Speaker 1: chance to talk about Josh Allen, but Josh Allen is
Speaker 1: on a different level. Okay, I'm not asking Mac Jones
Speaker 1: to win every single game. I'm asking him every once
Speaker 1: in a while when the Belichick stuff doesn't go well, right,
Speaker 1: when the defense doesn't play well, when they don't play
Speaker 1: sound in or you know, they're undisciplined and they take
Speaker 1: these dumb penalties and all this stuff doesn't go well.
Speaker 1: All right, he's got to be able to rise up
Speaker 1: and help the team propel the team forward. And on
Speaker 1: Thursday night he played lights out. And I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: him some compliments here now, because I think he deserves something.
Speaker 1: He played lights out for three quarters, reading the field,
Speaker 1: seeing the open guys, coverage, manipulation with his eyes, with
Speaker 1: pump fakes in the pocket third down, even though there
Speaker 1: were only three for ten. I thought he made some
Speaker 1: good plays on thward down as well in the second half,
Speaker 1: like some really good quarterbacking from Mac Jones in this game.
Speaker 1: The throw that he made, the two downfield throws, the
Speaker 1: one to Dowson Agalore between the two safeties. Everyone can
Speaker 1: look at that play and then go watch the player
Speaker 1: that Josh Allen hit digs on to set up the
Speaker 1: field goal against Detroit. It's the same coverage, it's the
Speaker 1: same route, and Mac rifles it in there just the
Speaker 1: same as Josh Allen does. Right, Like there's a great
Speaker 1: throw though, a deep ball to DeVante Parker. Great ball,
Speaker 1: great ball, And I thought some of His situational stuff
Speaker 1: was pretty good too, in terms of, you know, more
Speaker 1: management game, you know, to the sticks, types of throws,
Speaker 1: you know, not necessarily the downfield bombs, some really really
Speaker 1: high level quarterbacking for three quarters. Probably in my mind,
Speaker 1: especially given the spot that you're actually playing a good
Speaker 1: team on the road, I think that that was probably
Speaker 1: his best three quarters in the NFL. I did so.
Speaker 1: I guess here's where we differ and and we're not
Speaker 1: gonna it's just Is Winders. We're gonna disagree on this.
Speaker 1: We are. You're talking about it like the Patriots made
Speaker 1: some mistakes that every team makes, and they just couldn't.
Speaker 1: You know, every team he could. Every team gives up
Speaker 1: one thirty nine and nine catches to Justin Jefferson. Every
Speaker 1: team does, every team does. But no, but but but
Speaker 1: but what just did it? They just did it. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the punt return or the kickoff return, those penalties,
Speaker 1: like it was just that was a lot that was
Speaker 1: not your basic overcome. A couple of mistakes that Patriots
Speaker 1: played horrible situational football in that game. Four defensive penalties,
Speaker 1: the punt block penalty. Such brains two drives about what
Speaker 1: I for twenty years, everybody made such a big deal
Speaker 1: at a situational football and no penalties and the clean
Speaker 1: Patriots they never beat themselves. Do you know what? They
Speaker 1: had damn good players. And I'm not just talking about
Speaker 1: Tom Brady, Okay, they had damn good players. Well, you know,
Speaker 1: I first good about a lot of those players. They
Speaker 1: didn't make those kind of mistakes. They were also just
Speaker 1: that's part of all make them good. I just think
Speaker 1: that if you were only gonna win football games like that,
Speaker 1: you're not going to get in the playoffs this year.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna get enough wins because for all the
Speaker 1: other stuff to work out perfectly for you. I just
Speaker 1: don't think there's enough games on your schedule to win
Speaker 1: in that and just in that formula, right, Like, if
Speaker 1: that's the formula, it's the defense, it's special teams, it's
Speaker 1: the offense not beating themselves do that. But it's can
Speaker 1: I think I think your ceiling is what because they
Speaker 1: did that last year? Right, So the ceiling is ten
Speaker 1: wins and out in the wild card. Right. But but
Speaker 1: here here's the thing. They they invest so much in
Speaker 1: that stuff, right, and look, they had some massive moments
Speaker 1: last year that killed them in terms of bad situational
Speaker 1: football and making late miss Like, don't think they were
Speaker 1: ten and seven because this was all perfect last year.
Speaker 1: Now suddenly this year it's bad. It wasn't the ceiling
Speaker 1: last year could have been higher if they got some
Speaker 1: of this stuff right. When you invest as much as
Speaker 1: you do in special teams, both when you invest as
Speaker 1: much as you do time wise in the little things,
Speaker 1: which I think is great, you need to get them
Speaker 1: right though, you need to get them right. Yeah. Look,
Speaker 1: I think that they were both right in a way.
Speaker 1: But I just again I will keep reiterating how it's
Speaker 1: frustrating to watch a team that can only win one way.
Speaker 1: And I just think if you're that, if you're that
Speaker 1: type of team, it's kind of like your Titans, right,
Speaker 1: Like they also are in the same boat, right where
Speaker 1: they have one way they can where they have one way,
Speaker 1: and how did it go in the playoffs? They have
Speaker 1: one way that they can win a football game, right,
Speaker 1: and in order to for this Patriots team to go
Speaker 1: four and two in the last six, which I think
Speaker 1: is what they need to do to make the playoffs,
Speaker 1: and then I would also piggyback that on in order
Speaker 1: to go on a run, a real run. In the playoffs,
Speaker 1: you have to be able to win games multiple ways.
Speaker 1: And I go back to that eighteen run because I
Speaker 1: think everybody points to thirteen to three in the Super Bowl,
Speaker 1: and Perlo is always on this too. Thirteen to three
Speaker 1: in the Super Bowl is how they won. They won
Speaker 1: because they because they won in Kansas City, right Like,
Speaker 1: that's how they won. And so you're gonna have different
Speaker 1: types of games in the playoffs. Some games are gonna
Speaker 1: be thirteen to three, Some games are gonna be shootouts,
Speaker 1: some games are gonna be somewhere in between, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's gonna be how you have four games to glory now,
Speaker 1: because only one team gets to buy. And if you're
Speaker 1: gonna get there, you're gonna have to be able to
Speaker 1: play different You're gonna have to have different fighting styles,
Speaker 1: right like, you have to be able to win fights
Speaker 1: in different Again, there's not a lot of teams that
Speaker 1: can do that. What what you're what you're And yes
Speaker 1: it's again I'll say bad teams can't win. Good teams
Speaker 1: have a way to win. Great teams of multiple ways
Speaker 1: to win. Elite teams can win anyway. How many teams
Speaker 1: in the league right now, are truly great? How many
Speaker 1: teams can win a game in multiple like it's not
Speaker 1: a long list, that's not and it's not the longest
Speaker 1: list ever, I think, And it's a shorter list this
Speaker 1: year than it is other years. I agree with you.
Speaker 1: I think that, and I know this that people don't
Speaker 1: want to hear this, and I feel a little cringey
Speaker 1: saying it, but I'm gonna say it. This is the
Speaker 1: second year of a rebuild. That's very few teams, if any,
Speaker 1: or elite it. Like I've said this for the window.
Speaker 1: I don't want them to be elite at everything. I
Speaker 1: just want them until they win a game, and look,
Speaker 1: until they win a game in the thirties. Right. As
Speaker 1: dumb as this sounds, I don't think you need to
Speaker 1: be elite in the way I'm describing it. To win
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl, right, you need to be great. I
Speaker 1: don't think you need to be elite, like in the
Speaker 1: sense that if you get the right matchup, you teams
Speaker 1: can beat teams that are better for than them, right
Speaker 1: if if the matchup works the right way. We see
Speaker 1: that all the time in the NFL. I just think
Speaker 1: where they're at right, like next next year is supposed
Speaker 1: to be the great year. Year three with the with
Speaker 1: the draft pick quarterback is where it's all really supposed
Speaker 1: to turn on. I guess at this point I'm not
Speaker 1: it's concerning, but I'm not over concerned that they can't
Speaker 1: win these kinds of games because I think there's still
Speaker 1: one more year of what should be significant improvement on
Speaker 1: the way. And again it goes back to, you know,
Speaker 1: why can Josh Allen win these games this way when
Speaker 1: he makes all these mistakes because he has like a
Speaker 1: guy like Stefan. He's a guy likes Stefon Diggs who
Speaker 1: can erase those mistakes in one play? Right, Why can
Speaker 1: Bills the Bills Lions? To watch Bills Lions in the
Speaker 1: morning and then watch the Patriots sputter out offensively and
Speaker 1: the a and the late game on Thanksgiving was a
Speaker 1: perfect It was perfect rightly, because the Bills in that
Speaker 1: Lions game got outplayed for like, yeah, forty what was
Speaker 1: the difference at the end? They they Josh Allen, Stefan Diggs, right,
Speaker 1: and look why the Bengals actually play like kind of
Speaker 1: sloppy football, but they can overcome it because when Joe
Speaker 1: Burrow can hit Jamar Chase on a one play touchdown.
Speaker 1: It increases that margin fair so much because it extends
Speaker 1: the game. And then we'll talk about this when we
Speaker 1: get in the game plan and like that guy's not here.
Speaker 1: That guy's not here, and Matt can be better on
Speaker 1: his own, but they don't. Who's the guy that's eracing
Speaker 1: mistakes here? Yeah? You know, And I think and that's
Speaker 1: why I don't want to make this just the Mac thing,
Speaker 1: because that's pretty much all I'm saying. It's not like
Speaker 1: because people hear what you're saying and they take it
Speaker 1: to Mac Jones isn't the guy, right, they take it
Speaker 1: to it's time to go back in the quarterback Harisel
Speaker 1: and back to the draft and let's start talking with it.
Speaker 1: Like that's all I'm pushing back on because I and
Speaker 1: I'm not pretty sure I know you know that, but
Speaker 1: I'm pushing back on, like the pick. This is not
Speaker 1: the team, this is not the core for the next
Speaker 1: five ten years that they're just gonna go try to
Speaker 1: win with it. It shouldn't be that they're just gonna
Speaker 1: go try to win with this group. They're projective anywhere
Speaker 1: from fifty two hundred million dollars in salary cap next year,
Speaker 1: four top one hundred picks. Like, we'll see you ultimately
Speaker 1: what happens. But that's w is Like there's still this
Speaker 1: isn't there's still room to grow for this offense. Sure,
Speaker 1: this team needs to get off the margins. Right. They've
Speaker 1: been on the margins for for three years. And that's
Speaker 1: why they've been a five hundred football team since Brady left,
Speaker 1: because young teams are on the margins. That's what happens.
Speaker 1: All right, let's get to some of these calls, and
Speaker 1: then I want to get into the bills. Scott, thanks
Speaker 1: for hanging on with us. Scott, how you doing? I
Speaker 1: think we might have lost him. He was on for
Speaker 1: like an hour. If he wants to call back, Scott,
Speaker 1: you can call back and we'll we'll get you on
Speaker 1: the air. Patty and Aguham, how are you doing? Patty?
Speaker 1: Going on? Guys? Hey, So just to you know, go
Speaker 1: a little bit off topic. Is it too early to
Speaker 1: talk to draft? It's not too early to talk draft, Patty,
Speaker 1: But I will admit that if we go that direction,
Speaker 1: then I have another rant and I'm gonna end up
Speaker 1: going on. But go ahead, Patty. I just wanted to
Speaker 1: get because I know, I know Alex wosn't do a
Speaker 1: lot of guys. Um, I just wanted to throw three
Speaker 1: names at you. And they're all still positioned guys, So
Speaker 1: it might be like a little bit fun if he's
Speaker 1: looked up on these guys. But m bart definitely has guys.
Speaker 1: Dave Flowers out of Boston College, second guy wide receiver
Speaker 1: Jalen Hyatt out of Tennessee. And the guy that I
Speaker 1: find pretty intriguing even though his production doesn't wouldn't tell
Speaker 1: you so is Darnell Washington's not at Georgia's a big
Speaker 1: tight end. I wanted to see what you guys thought
Speaker 1: about guys and yeah, just you know when you guys
Speaker 1: think about him. Yeah, we got it, Patty, Thank you
Speaker 1: so much. Appreciate the call. Uh all right, so Za Flowers,
Speaker 1: I've seen a little bit a local guy. I want
Speaker 1: to see how he tests because his general athletic profile
Speaker 1: scares me a little bit, right Like, I don't see
Speaker 1: an overly explosive, fast, you know athlete out there. I
Speaker 1: see a guy that wins a lot of contest more
Speaker 1: stuff fast, Yeah, like that guy from Purdue, David Bell,
Speaker 1: was it he's faster. David Bell, He's not as big.
Speaker 1: He more to me is kind of like and you know,
Speaker 1: I get obsessed with these players every year. You know,
Speaker 1: Kidarius Tony and then Juan Dale Robinson. You think he's
Speaker 1: like that. He's not quite as fast, but he's maybe
Speaker 1: more shifty. Okay, that's another guy where like those guys
Speaker 1: are explosive. He's gonna need a test really well. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like you said to me, it's um, he reminds me
Speaker 1: a lot of And we do this every year. We
Speaker 1: tier players, right, Like there's the same mold of players,
Speaker 1: the first round guy, second round guy. Um, Jordan Addison
Speaker 1: at USC Yeah, I like him too, right, So Za
Speaker 1: Flowers is like, if you don't get Jordan Addison, you
Speaker 1: want that kind of players. A Flowers is probably like
Speaker 1: fringe top one. Yeah, Jordan Addison, So I like him.
Speaker 1: The Patriots traditionally aren't very interested in those kinds of guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: maybe that changes this year. Um, but we'll see. Jalen
Speaker 1: Hiatt's a really interesting one because he torched Alabama. I
Speaker 1: mean he torched Alabama. So you know he's getting the
Speaker 1: thumbs up. When Bill goes and ask Sabe and what
Speaker 1: about this guy was the issue? Like just a monster day. Um.
Speaker 1: He reminds me of Taikwon a little bit fast. Guy's big,
Speaker 1: not huge, but he's big. He can move. He's a
Speaker 1: little bit uh you know, he's a junior, but he's
Speaker 1: he's gonna be twenty two by the time next season starts.
Speaker 1: He's it's another guy. We're like, if he runs a
Speaker 1: four four, he's probably like a fringe top one hundred pick.
Speaker 1: If he can get like a high four two, low
Speaker 1: four three, he maybe starts to push his stock little bit.
Speaker 1: The Patriots obviously like guys like him. They just took Taekwon.
Speaker 1: And this is, by the way, all very poliminary. I
Speaker 1: haven't done a super deep dive. It's just the initial read.
Speaker 1: But I don't like it feel a little redundant. Now
Speaker 1: they drafted. They've made such picks before. They drafted Anthony
Speaker 1: Jennings and Ronnie Perkins in back to back years, similar players,
Speaker 1: So that doesn't rule it out. But Jaalin Hyatt Tennessee
Speaker 1: certainly in name for Patriots fans to know. Now Darnell
Speaker 1: Washington the tight end out of Georgia, so he loses
Speaker 1: a lot of attention. They have two tight ends who
Speaker 1: are going to be first round picks. There's Brock Bowers,
Speaker 1: but he's not draft eligible yet. He's a true sophomore.
Speaker 1: Darnell Washington's number zero if you're watching the games, six eight,
Speaker 1: two sixty five, and he can move up. Until this point,
Speaker 1: they really only used him as a blocker. They've started
Speaker 1: using him as a receiver this year and he's been
Speaker 1: pretty good. Now, there's a lot of good receivers on Georgia.
Speaker 1: He's not getting a ton of coverage attention, obviously, but
Speaker 1: he's one of those guys, right He's twenty five catches
Speaker 1: for four hunt or three yards. He's one of the
Speaker 1: those guys that you watch him move and you don't
Speaker 1: understand how a guy that big moves that well. Really,
Speaker 1: when I watch him, I'm not sure how much of
Speaker 1: Like he's never going to be like an explosive down
Speaker 1: the field threat. But and we've talked a lot about
Speaker 1: the red zone with this team. Yeah, and this is
Speaker 1: a guy at six eight that you can run scheme
Speaker 1: touch plays with. Kind of He's almost like, I just
Speaker 1: don't know back right, I just don't know where the
Speaker 1: room on the roster is for another tight end. Because
Speaker 1: Johnny Smith is going to be here when right, That's
Speaker 1: what I was building too, is yeah, if john HU
Speaker 1: Smith and to me, he's more of a John U.
Speaker 1: Smith comp than a Hunter Henry Camp. Yeah. Also, he's
Speaker 1: projected to be a borderline first round pick right now. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so I don't know that they're investing that. But if
Speaker 1: Johnny Smith is in the last year of his deal,
Speaker 1: would be all over this. I don't He's a great
Speaker 1: football player. And at the end of the day, I
Speaker 1: say this all time. At the end of the day,
Speaker 1: the drafts about adding talented football players to your roster.
Speaker 1: But yeah, it's really hard to see where he fits.
Speaker 1: Given right, if you take him in the fifth round
Speaker 1: and you sit him for a year and then those
Speaker 1: tight end contracts are up perfect and there's guys like
Speaker 1: that who's that are called Patty, Yes, Patty, keep an
Speaker 1: eye out for m Luke Schoonmaker for Michigan because or
Speaker 1: Cameron Latt too Malabama. Those are similar players you can
Speaker 1: get later sit and then they come in in year
Speaker 1: two where you're gonna have to draft Darnel Washington. He
Speaker 1: needs to play year one. I like high it a
Speaker 1: lot from Tennessee. I think he's a good player, but
Speaker 1: I worry about usage with him. And if look who's
Speaker 1: their offensive coordinator, right, because the coach is a defensive guy, right,
Speaker 1: he's a saving Josh Eifel. Yeah, let me pull it
Speaker 1: up real quick. Their offensive coordinator, he's got it going on.
Speaker 1: That guy knows what he's doing, and he gets hired
Speaker 1: a lot of free releases, stacks, bunches, you know, things
Speaker 1: like that, and they get a lot of free release
Speaker 1: so that he can use that speed right down the field.
Speaker 1: So the other thing that's going to be interesting offense
Speaker 1: About all the Tennessee guys we talk about, and I
Speaker 1: know you want to move on, I'm just I'll leave
Speaker 1: you with this now. Yes, and I'll find out who
Speaker 1: the offensive coordinator is. A guy named Alec Golisch. He's
Speaker 1: in his second year. Spent a lot of time at Illinois.
Speaker 1: So there you go. M I the one thing about
Speaker 1: Tennessee you talk about this a lot with Ohio State.
Speaker 1: The offense they run is so different. It's very unique.
Speaker 1: And yes, I think that's sort of what I was
Speaker 1: getting at. I think Tennessee's offense actually will be in
Speaker 1: the NFL. I think that that's a that's a development.
Speaker 1: That's one of those like RPOs right the way they
Speaker 1: really and when I say spread the field, I mean
Speaker 1: there's guys on each sideline. They make you defend every
Speaker 1: blade of grass east to west that's coming to the NFL. Like,
Speaker 1: that's something NFL teams are going to use. It has
Speaker 1: some arraid elements too, it does, but right now, that's
Speaker 1: a that's a pretty stark adjustment. All right, Sean and Vancouver. Sean,
Speaker 1: thanks for hanging on. How you doing good? You know,
Speaker 1: I don't have any expectations, or I haven't had any
Speaker 1: expectations for the Patriots to beat the Bills make the
Speaker 1: playoffs this year. I'm looking for growth and there's like
Speaker 1: three specific things that I'd like to add. I like
Speaker 1: the way the offense has improved the last week especially.
Speaker 1: I liked them to add a couple of things like
Speaker 1: Klan Thornton, maybe put them in motion, let him try
Speaker 1: and build with his team, and also score touchdown in
Speaker 1: the red zone. On offenses that I'm looking for, we
Speaker 1: saw Marcus Jones replaced Miles Bryant returning kicks and punts.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see him replace them. And on defense
Speaker 1: as well, see him do some of the Nickel coverage,
Speaker 1: especially with Mackenzie coming up. Yeah, it's a good point, Sean,
Speaker 1: and when we we were going to get to here.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the call on Buffalo is how they match
Speaker 1: up and how they're going to match up defensively. The
Speaker 1: point first point quickly, I think the red zone conversation
Speaker 1: is interesting and how they get things going there. I
Speaker 1: wish I could sit here and say, like, this is
Speaker 1: the problem with their red zone offense, right, but it's
Speaker 1: really a collection of several different things that are happening
Speaker 1: in Each individual sequence or individual play kind of has
Speaker 1: its own issues, right, Like it's kind of hard to
Speaker 1: just pick them out. I think protection has hurt them
Speaker 1: in third down situations where they haven't really held up
Speaker 1: on deeper third downs in the red zone so that
Speaker 1: Mac really has a chance to throw the football down
Speaker 1: on the field and those spots, and play calling I
Speaker 1: think is also rears its head. And maybe even play
Speaker 1: design in general just having unique designs down in the
Speaker 1: red area has kind of alluded them as well. But
Speaker 1: to get to Buffalo, because I really do want to,
Speaker 1: I can I make one point on the red zone
Speaker 1: real quick, because this is something I've noticed really going
Speaker 1: back to twenty twenty and the Cam Newton year, as
Speaker 1: much as we talk about them struggling in the red zone,
Speaker 1: and they do, they're actually pretty good. Like inside the three. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if they can get the ball inside the three, they
Speaker 1: whether I guess Damian Harris is hurt, but Ramond Ray
Speaker 1: or whoever. Going back to twenty twenty with Cam, they
Speaker 1: just pound the ball in the end zone like, pretty
Speaker 1: good at that unless they run it out of shotgun,
Speaker 1: unless they were The issue has been getting the ball
Speaker 1: inside the three. And it's almost to the point where
Speaker 1: I watched them and again this goes back to last year.
Speaker 1: How many times have they thrown the ball just into
Speaker 1: the end zone? How many times is the ball in
Speaker 1: the air crossed the goal line? It almost feels like
Speaker 1: they're they're in their own heads about it. Where all right,
Speaker 1: we know we can score from inside the three, so
Speaker 1: let's just focus on getting inside the three and then
Speaker 1: go from there. Right, And it's almost compounding the issue, right,
Speaker 1: it's making it worse, they see him, right, because the
Speaker 1: issue isn't from the five and in it's from like
Speaker 1: the five to like the twenty five. Right, So I
Speaker 1: just I want to see them be more aggressive. I
Speaker 1: think that's the issue. They're trying to do it so
Speaker 1: incrementally in the red zone. Right, we're gonna get from
Speaker 1: the twenty of the fifteen, fifteen to the ten, the
Speaker 1: ten to the five, the five to three and then
Speaker 1: HB dive and we score. Right, just throw the ball
Speaker 1: in the end zone from the fifteen yard long like
Speaker 1: that's that to me is the biggest thing where attack
Speaker 1: from the high red zone and don't even worry if
Speaker 1: you get down to the one, great awesome, don't eat
Speaker 1: like that. Shouldn't the plan should just be get the
Speaker 1: ball in the end zone. Yeah, no, I'm with you
Speaker 1: one hundred percent. I think a lot of the good offense,
Speaker 1: I hate to keep phrasing it like that, but a
Speaker 1: lot of the elite offenses that you see around in
Speaker 1: the league to attack the end zone from either the
Speaker 1: fringe red zone or the high red zone more than
Speaker 1: anything else. Right there, if you look at a lot
Speaker 1: of these offense, we'll look at the Bills. The Bills
Speaker 1: suck in the red zone, so they've decided to just
Speaker 1: skip it. And that's from the twenty five, right, and
Speaker 1: that's exactly what Bill Belichick said at the podium yesterday
Speaker 1: when you or maybe it was on on Monday or
Speaker 1: Sunday or what I have, whatever day it was. Uh,
Speaker 1: if we can skip the red zone like we did
Speaker 1: a few times against Minnesota, then that's good too, right,
Speaker 1: And and I think that's where we're at with them
Speaker 1: as well, is shot plays from the high red zone
Speaker 1: or the fringe read zone, whatever frame the terms you
Speaker 1: want to use, like those I think need to become
Speaker 1: their best friends. All right, Eldred, what's going on? Hey?
Speaker 1: Hen everybody? How y'all doing? Hey good? How are you? Yes, sir?
Speaker 1: Earlier you earlier you see about flitting his zones against Buffalo? Yes,
Speaker 1: full safety. So I wonder who do you take off
Speaker 1: the field? You use the full safety five corners or
Speaker 1: three or whatever, three corners, two linebackers, will you take
Speaker 1: off the field? Yeah? Good question is thanks for asking,
Speaker 1: because I will. We keep on trying to talk about Buffalo,
Speaker 1: We keep getting away from Buffalo. So this is I
Speaker 1: my thing with this game with the Bills, my big
Speaker 1: thing with the Bills, and it starts on defense, and
Speaker 1: I think it also pertains a lot to the offense too. Clearly,
Speaker 1: what you did in the two games last year to
Speaker 1: the end of last year, which were the win game.
Speaker 1: You gotta throw out like the win game doesn't count.
Speaker 1: The two games that counted were the game the day
Speaker 1: after Christmas and maybe a little bit the playoff game.
Speaker 1: But really the game that I focus on is the
Speaker 1: middle one. That the middle one is the one because
Speaker 1: remember in the playoffs, I mean DeVante Bosby's out there.
Speaker 1: Yeah it was, it was, Yeah, it was in that
Speaker 1: game too. You just you were happy to be there.
Speaker 1: They were focused to try to go on a run.
Speaker 1: And it looked like two teams that were in totally
Speaker 1: different mindsets going into that game. I felt it. I
Speaker 1: think I texted you about it from the press box
Speaker 1: and I could fill the energy on the Buffalo sideline
Speaker 1: and their warm up was just so different than the
Speaker 1: Patriots energy and focus. So let's go. I want to
Speaker 1: go off the Week sixteen game last year because to me,
Speaker 1: that's the game, right, that's the game. This game is
Speaker 1: gonna most mimic, I guess is the way to put it. Sure,
Speaker 1: And that game what got you beat is that you
Speaker 1: just played your brand of defense right, like you played
Speaker 1: your early down zone stuff, and then he played man
Speaker 1: on third down, and they killed you in man coverage.
Speaker 1: Isaiah McKenzie versus Miles Bryant j C versus Stefon Diggs.
Speaker 1: It wasn't it wasn't a fair fight, right, They just
Speaker 1: killed you in those situations. I think this is a
Speaker 1: big Belichick game to me because for twenty years, we
Speaker 1: talked earlier about all of them. The other stuff that
Speaker 1: bugs me right about the Belichick mystique, But the one
Speaker 1: thing that's been absolutely true is that for twenty years
Speaker 1: and big games, Bill Belichick has always had something up
Speaker 1: his sleeve. He has always had a creative plan. And
Speaker 1: I go back to the eighteen run because I think
Speaker 1: it's a good one. In the eighteen AFC Championship game
Speaker 1: against Kansas City, they were eighty percent man coverage. They
Speaker 1: played man coverage with the whole game. And then they
Speaker 1: go to the Super Bowl and they played nothing but
Speaker 1: zone coverage against the Ramps. Right. Like those types of
Speaker 1: week to week game plan type of teams, This Patriots
Speaker 1: defense I think has the talent and the depth to
Speaker 1: be that. Like. I think they can go week to
Speaker 1: week and change it up if they have to. They've
Speaker 1: also had an entire off season to get ready for
Speaker 1: this game, like everything you did in the off season,
Speaker 1: both from like you know, coaching and kind of going
Speaker 1: over yourself and scouting yourself and figuring out how to
Speaker 1: get better and all that kind of stuff from a
Speaker 1: coaching perspective, and although it might not be these splash moves,
Speaker 1: I think from a personnel perspective, the mac Wilson's of
Speaker 1: the world, the Jabriel Peppers, like, those guys are the
Speaker 1: two young corners, the rookie corners. Those guys are work
Speaker 1: here because that's where you were deficient against Buffalo. You
Speaker 1: didn't have enough speed at linebacker. Your corners were getting
Speaker 1: beaten man coverage. So you went out and you got
Speaker 1: different guys, right, So in this game, I want to
Speaker 1: see one of those Belichick game plans that film nerds
Speaker 1: like me on Friday breakdown and are like, look at
Speaker 1: what Bill did against Josh Allen, like this is incredible, right,
Speaker 1: and to put my Bill hat on for a second
Speaker 1: and think really outside the box and away from their
Speaker 1: typical structure. A four safety dime package is sort of
Speaker 1: what I've landed on, right, So I think you gotta
Speaker 1: get the safeties on the field because those guys can cover,
Speaker 1: and they can obviously tackle, and that's the biggest thing
Speaker 1: is tackling. And if you're gonna play for safety, to
Speaker 1: Aldred's point, okay, who are you taking off the field?
Speaker 1: So I would play for safety dime, which means you
Speaker 1: only have two true corners on the field. So your
Speaker 1: corners are probably gonna be Jonathan Jones and Jayleen Mills.
Speaker 1: So that means that the guy coming off the field, surprise, surprise,
Speaker 1: is Miles Bryant, right, And I would roll those four
Speaker 1: safeties and I would play all different types of zone
Speaker 1: against him, right like I would really in the dial
Speaker 1: of zone coverages, play some three, play some four, play
Speaker 1: some two, maybe play some six like it just completely
Speaker 1: try to blur those zone lines completely. And but most
Speaker 1: of the time I would try to keep two safeties
Speaker 1: up up right, because you don't want to get the
Speaker 1: big place. If I'm the Patriots, if Buffalo runs the football,
Speaker 1: like every single Devin Singletary handoff to me is a victory,
Speaker 1: right like if you like go ahead, It's kind of
Speaker 1: like how they used to play Peyton Manning, right like,
Speaker 1: if you want to hand it off to no Sean
Speaker 1: Moreno forty times in this game, go for it, go
Speaker 1: right ahead. So that's how I feel about them. Defensively,
Speaker 1: you look at the Buffalo stats and as you would
Speaker 1: probably expect if you play post safety, like if you
Speaker 1: play one in three against them, one is obviously man
Speaker 1: forget it, like you know, like it's just it's a
Speaker 1: death sentence. And that's exactly what they did last year. Now,
Speaker 1: the other big part of my master plan here. You
Speaker 1: got a pass rush, right and I'm not talking about
Speaker 1: the mush rush like trash compactor, like push the pocket
Speaker 1: and contain no no, no, no no. You have to
Speaker 1: get after Josh Allen like I want to see Matthew
Speaker 1: Judeon and Dietrich Wise and Josh j pin their ears
Speaker 1: back and pressure Josh Allen because I think the two
Speaker 1: biggest things that kill you with Josh Allen. I think
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that kills you, honestly is one thing,
Speaker 1: and that is when he's able to hold the football
Speaker 1: and just turn it into a playground game, right, Like
Speaker 1: he's so good on extended plays, he's so good with
Speaker 1: his legs, he's so good outside the pocket. So what
Speaker 1: I want to try to make him do is make
Speaker 1: decisions whether he's throwing or he's taking off, just decide
Speaker 1: to do something like don't let him just sit there
Speaker 1: and dictate the terms of the game. You have to
Speaker 1: force him into things. And that's why I think zone
Speaker 1: would help, because if he takes off, then fine, then
Speaker 1: you just come up, you rally to the football, and
Speaker 1: you make the tackle. So that's the number one. Number two.
Speaker 1: If they wanted to play some man, which I'm sure
Speaker 1: they will, mac Wilson or if it's Jabriel, maybe it's Gabriel,
Speaker 1: but I think it will end up probably being mac
Speaker 1: Wilson just because of the size of Josh Allen. I
Speaker 1: think asking Jabriel Peppers to tackle Josh Allen one on
Speaker 1: one is a tall task for a two hundred and
Speaker 1: twenty pounds safety. So maybe it's mack Wilson, but you
Speaker 1: obviously I think you got to have a dedicated spy.
Speaker 1: I do, yeah, so I I have some similar thoughts.
Speaker 1: Actually disagree with some of that. Um. The biggest thing
Speaker 1: is you can't, like you said, the Bills are gonna
Speaker 1: get their's right, You're not gonna win every place. That's
Speaker 1: why I want them to be aggressive because maybe you
Speaker 1: will make some plays that way, right, like they might
Speaker 1: make some plays too, but at least you will make
Speaker 1: some play. So so, here's the thing about the Bills.
Speaker 1: The Bills are a globetrot or offense. And there it
Speaker 1: comes to his spiel about the Bills and how they're overrated.
Speaker 1: No yet, just do it. People mistake this for calling
Speaker 1: them overrated. It's wild. It's they're not perfect. The Bills
Speaker 1: aren't perfect. There I said it. Okay, the Bills are
Speaker 1: not a perfect football team. What are you talking about?
Speaker 1: Are the Bills very good? Yes? They're not new the Bill.
Speaker 1: There's been teams like this book. Okay, what's your point.
Speaker 1: Here's my point. The Bills are gonna get theirs right.
Speaker 1: If you try to pick apart every single little play
Speaker 1: with the Bills want to do. They want to score quickly.
Speaker 1: They want to be on and off the field. One
Speaker 1: play eighty yards to find digs. It's over. That's all
Speaker 1: they want to do, and they're very good at it,
Speaker 1: and when you let them do it, they will kill you.
Speaker 1: You have to take that away. You have to make
Speaker 1: them methodically march their way down the field. There's two
Speaker 1: reasons for that. One. They turn the ball over a lot.
Speaker 1: It's not just Josh Allen. Those receivers fumble, they turn
Speaker 1: the ball over a lot. At some point they're gonna
Speaker 1: give one to you, and the Patriots have to capitalize.
Speaker 1: But that's what they tried to do last year. There's
Speaker 1: not all right, all right, all right. The other thing
Speaker 1: is they're not good in the red zone. They struggle
Speaker 1: because again they want that deep shot, and the deep
Speaker 1: SHOT's not there in the red zone. It's almost a
Speaker 1: twofold thing. Something you said that I agree with his
Speaker 1: huge is if Josh Allen, if they're running the ball,
Speaker 1: you win. I think that even applies to Josh Allen
Speaker 1: scrambling inside the twenty two, inside the tent. I think
Speaker 1: people way overreact to him scram I would I agree
Speaker 1: with you. I would just don't give him that deep shot.
Speaker 1: If he's gonna run for fifteen yards from the forty
Speaker 1: five to the thirty. Yeah happened, Oh well, so be it.
Speaker 1: That's a wine. But but the thing you have to
Speaker 1: do is once you get in the red zone, that
Speaker 1: mentality flips. Josh Allen's turn over to interception ratio or
Speaker 1: touchdown interception ratio on the red zone is almost one
Speaker 1: to one. It's eight to seven. Once you get in
Speaker 1: the red zone, then it becomes about making him throw
Speaker 1: the football because he can't or he struggles throwing the
Speaker 1: football in those tight windows. As good as Josh Allen
Speaker 1: is and then he can finish. He is as a
Speaker 1: runner as good as he is. He's averaging six point
Speaker 1: nine yards of carry, which leads the league. Yeah, he's
Speaker 1: a quarterback. Show he's averaging seven point nine yards per
Speaker 1: pass attempt. So it's still better to have him run, right,
Speaker 1: But except in the red zone accepted. So that's why
Speaker 1: it almost has to you almost just hold on for
Speaker 1: dear life until you get down into the red zone.
Speaker 1: And if he turned last year. But here's the thing.
Speaker 1: When these teams step up and try to fight aggressive
Speaker 1: with aggressive, they get in your whole plan. Basically, your
Speaker 1: whole plan is predicated on the idea they can cover
Speaker 1: Stefon Diggs. Obviously the last couple of years they couldn't
Speaker 1: do that. Now this is where it's really interesting. J
Speaker 1: Stevon Diggs had J. C. Jackson's number. He just did
Speaker 1: you see that? With matchups sometimes like Davante Parker had
Speaker 1: prime Stephon Gilmour's number. Remember Malcolm Butler used to lock
Speaker 1: up prime Antonio Brown, like every time they played. It
Speaker 1: was just one of those matchups that jac Jackson didn't
Speaker 1: have it. Jonathan Jones may or may not. We don't know,
Speaker 1: but I think he does too, because we'll see I
Speaker 1: agree with you. I agree with you. Quickness. Yeah, Josh
Speaker 1: Allen's pass away and the run element is totally a
Speaker 1: factor here. But let's just take him as a passer
Speaker 1: for a second. Josh Allen's passer rating when he throws
Speaker 1: his Stefon Diggs is one twenty one and a half. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's astronomical. That's massive. Josh Allen's passer rating throwing to
Speaker 1: everybody else is eighty nine. That's pedestrian. That's it's like,
Speaker 1: that's not It's not as stark as Kirk Cousins throwing
Speaker 1: to Justin Jefferson versus everybody else. But in the big thing,
Speaker 1: of his eleven interceptions, ten have been targeting players other
Speaker 1: than Stefon Diggs. So good stats. You had. Your plan
Speaker 1: works as long as they can take Stefon Diggs away.
Speaker 1: But that's why I got a guy underneath him and
Speaker 1: a guy over there. But here's the thing. They had
Speaker 1: that on Justin Jefferson last week, and it didn't work
Speaker 1: every time. They played a lot of man though, I
Speaker 1: just think your plan works. Is a big picture thing.
Speaker 1: But there's gonna be a certain they're gonna get. There's
Speaker 1: there's gonna be certain drives where you just have to
Speaker 1: don't let the big play beat you. Hold on for
Speaker 1: dear life, get down into the red zone and then
Speaker 1: make Josh Allen throw the ball in the red zone.
Speaker 1: I would be with you one hundred percent. And I
Speaker 1: the big play thing is obvious, right, like God, you
Speaker 1: can't give up the big plays. But I think that
Speaker 1: and Bill said this yesterday about sitting there and watching
Speaker 1: him throw it, and that to me is what that
Speaker 1: is a little bit too much, right if you're just
Speaker 1: trying to get him to make mistakes. So let me
Speaker 1: just say, I think you're you're gonna be sad. I'm
Speaker 1: because I don't think he's gonna make as many as
Speaker 1: you want him. I'm still I wouldn't be so sure
Speaker 1: that he leads against us, not against you. I think
Speaker 1: against other teams. He's he's had some brain starts. I'm
Speaker 1: talking he's got your number, right, and that's fair. I'm
Speaker 1: talking about the coverage. Yeah, your thing about the pass
Speaker 1: rush and go get him is true. You gotta hit him,
Speaker 1: you got to make him uncomfortable in the pocket. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just saying, if, if, if you're gonna rush that
Speaker 1: aggressively and you're gonna try to jump routes and things
Speaker 1: like that, all he's gonna do is throw it over
Speaker 1: the top just to find dicks. No, I don't want
Speaker 1: to jump routes. I want to play really sound too
Speaker 1: deep zone. So so here's here's my question for you.
Speaker 1: Because you say I'm mimicking the plan from last year,
Speaker 1: what I'm saying the plan from last year a little bit.
Speaker 1: Did the plan from last year not work because it
Speaker 1: was a bad plan or did it not work because
Speaker 1: they didn't execute it? Well? It didn't work because he
Speaker 1: had all day, all freaking day to throw. So answer
Speaker 1: my question. Did it not work because it was I
Speaker 1: think then, or did it not work because they didn't
Speaker 1: execute it correctly? I don't know if the back end
Speaker 1: was necessarily a bad plan, the rush was a bad plan.
Speaker 1: So this is so, this is basically what I'm saying.
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the coverage. Yeah, you're like, and I
Speaker 1: also think that leaving Isaiah mckenn thing that was Yes,
Speaker 1: that was bad. When they drafted Marcus Jones, well that
Speaker 1: was going to be my last point. Yes, all of
Speaker 1: this is right. Get get on Josh Allen, make him uncomfortable,
Speaker 1: takeaway the deep shot. That all works as long as
Speaker 1: he doesn't have the same option open repeatedly in the
Speaker 1: short and intermediate area of the field. Yeah, Myles Bryant
Speaker 1: struggled at the beginning of this season. He's had a
Speaker 1: good couple of months. But I learned one thing from
Speaker 1: those matchups last year. Said he does not have the
Speaker 1: foot speed to keep up with Isaiah McKenzie. They turned
Speaker 1: it into a foot rate. It wasn't this complicated scheme
Speaker 1: or anything like That field was faster than you. Not
Speaker 1: your game, Miles. When they drafted Marcus Jones, Evan is
Speaker 1: he my first thought, me too, But is he ready?
Speaker 1: I He's shown me enough that I'm I'm willing to
Speaker 1: try it out and find out. My fear is that
Speaker 1: they won't get there until Isaiah McKenzie has already beat
Speaker 1: that drum like six times, right, Like I think he's
Speaker 1: that's fair. Yeah, and look, they didn't adjust out of
Speaker 1: it last year. Now, the personnel made it difficult to adjust.
Speaker 1: They didn't have these so many guys were hurt. That's
Speaker 1: why I like their chances better this time. Marcus Jones
Speaker 1: has played sixty seven coverage snaps this year. He's been
Speaker 1: targeted six times. He's allowed to catch on two of those. Yeah, no,
Speaker 1: he's been fine. I I here, here's the Bills are
Speaker 1: better than the Patriots. There I said that the Bills
Speaker 1: are better than Patriots. You're gonna you're gonna have to
Speaker 1: take some risks to win this game. Would you disagree
Speaker 1: with that? If you're the Patriots, You're gonna have to
Speaker 1: take some risks to win this game. That's seeing if
Speaker 1: Marcus Jones can cover Isaia McKenzie is a risky. Think
Speaker 1: it's a good risk to take as long as you're
Speaker 1: willing to adjust out of it if it doesn't work.
Speaker 1: But like, that's something to start the game. I want
Speaker 1: to see that because I think he might be up
Speaker 1: to it. And if he is up to it, it
Speaker 1: changes the dynamic. So I think we agree more than
Speaker 1: we disagree. But I think the biggest thing to me
Speaker 1: is that I think you're just scared of Josh Allen.
Speaker 1: I'm not afraid of Josh Allen as much as I
Speaker 1: am afraid of Josh. The way that they played him
Speaker 1: last year allowed Josh Allen's raw talent to take over
Speaker 1: the game. And that's what that's what he can't do, right.
Speaker 1: So to me, what I think they need to do,
Speaker 1: and this is why I got into some of the
Speaker 1: pressure stuff, which I think is key. So I would
Speaker 1: call him like fire zones right blitzay because I think,
Speaker 1: to me, what you need to do is make him
Speaker 1: beat you in structure, right, like when he has to
Speaker 1: hit the top of the drop and make a decision
Speaker 1: with the football, and because he's got a guy, you know,
Speaker 1: pressure coming at him and he's got to throw the
Speaker 1: football and he's not running around and he's not standing
Speaker 1: back there for six hours every single time he drops
Speaker 1: back the past like you need that. If they can win,
Speaker 1: if they can get him to make the majority of
Speaker 1: his throws and that two point five to three second range, right,
Speaker 1: then I think they have a really good chance to
Speaker 1: hold up in struct And I guess what I'm saying
Speaker 1: is I think and again we're just talking about that
Speaker 1: matchup here last year because the playoff game was different.
Speaker 1: So many guys are hurt. I think they were maybe
Speaker 1: closer to that last year than people realized. But because
Speaker 1: Isaiah McKenzie was so constantly open as a quick outlet,
Speaker 1: the rest of it just didn't show up. And that's
Speaker 1: not to excuse it again. This all you have to
Speaker 1: cover isa McKenzie's time. He just but that that was
Speaker 1: the game that Stefan Dicks had the least impact. They
Speaker 1: were able to take him away, and there were a
Speaker 1: couple of moments in that game where Josh Allen panics.
Speaker 1: Remember he threw one right to Jase Jackson at the
Speaker 1: end of that game in a five point game that
Speaker 1: might have turned it. Yes, But for every time he
Speaker 1: was panicked, there were five times where he had that
Speaker 1: safety outlet and Isaiah McKenzie with nobody near him. And
Speaker 1: I don't know that Marcus Jones is blanking isa McKenzie,
Speaker 1: but Kenny at least forced Josh Allen to fit the
Speaker 1: ball into a window. He's got enough footspeed because we
Speaker 1: know he can run with That's the thing. Some of
Speaker 1: those throws tri za mckenzion. Again, this is where I
Speaker 1: get criticized for being too harsh, but it's right. Go
Speaker 1: back and watch it. Some of those throws Isa McKenzie
Speaker 1: had to go get They weren't They weren't horrible throws,
Speaker 1: but they weren't necessarily right between them, he made one
Speaker 1: throw on a crossing route, just one nice throw. Yes,
Speaker 1: but no some of those some of you remember McKenzie
Speaker 1: had to go up on the jump ball, there was one.
Speaker 1: He had a couple. But Isam McKenzie's also like five
Speaker 1: to seven, So a jump ball for him is you know,
Speaker 1: not necessarily. But you're taking as a guy that is
Speaker 1: not very tall. By the way, I'm not taking any shot.
Speaker 1: You're talking about forcing Josh Allen to play in structure. Yes,
Speaker 1: isn't part of that forcing him to fit the ball
Speaker 1: into windows? Yeah? They didn't do that last year. How
Speaker 1: often last year when he's throwing, say McKenzie, did he
Speaker 1: have to fit the ball into a window. That's fair.
Speaker 1: I also think you can bat him right, Like I
Speaker 1: think that some of the interceptions that I've seen on
Speaker 1: his tape recently are because he's so damn greedy, Like
Speaker 1: he thinks that there's not a single throw on the
Speaker 1: planet that he's don't think react quarterback. He just thinks
Speaker 1: that there's he just thinks his arm strength is going
Speaker 1: to get the ball into every window right right, So
Speaker 1: there's instances there where if you can close those zone gaps,
Speaker 1: then you can get some plays on the ball. All right,
Speaker 1: we got two more callers and then we got to
Speaker 1: wrap it up. All right, spee, let's go twelve rounds.
Speaker 1: What do you got? Great? No, you guys are you
Speaker 1: guys are killing it today. This is an excellent discussion.
Speaker 1: I love I love Myles Bryan on the bench and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, think that'll be that'd be great. No, it's thoughts.
Speaker 1: I wanted to get back to stuff that you guys
Speaker 1: were talking about earlier because I was oddly kind of
Speaker 1: agreeing with everything that Evan was saying and kind of
Speaker 1: disagreeing with Alex pretty good across the part. But like
Speaker 1: I was thinking about, um, you know, Alex, your net
Speaker 1: neutral idea. Yeah, and I want to and this is
Speaker 1: just better suited for this show than pictures Unfilder, because
Speaker 1: it's kind of a data driven thing. Like a while ago,
Speaker 1: I went back and looked on over the cap for
Speaker 1: just at at cap costs and cash costs for all
Speaker 1: the quarterbacks in nineteen ninety one through twenty twenty one,
Speaker 1: and if there's just an overwhelming theme when you look
Speaker 1: at all these so like, um, you have to have
Speaker 1: for the Super Bowl winning team is what I'm talking about. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I wasn't cleared. So basically, you need to have a
Speaker 1: quarterback who's either Hall of Famer or borderline hall of
Speaker 1: Famer on a team friendly deal. So like, only twenty
Speaker 1: three percent of those quarterbacks super Bowl wining quarterbacks were
Speaker 1: top five in league in cap and only thirty two
Speaker 1: percent we're top five in cash. So I just think
Speaker 1: that you're you're I mean, if this is this kind
Speaker 1: of harkens back to your discussion earlier today with Evan,
Speaker 1: where I think Evan was just knit completely right. Like
Speaker 1: you look at a mac Jones. Do you need him
Speaker 1: to be somebody who's gonna pull the team up by
Speaker 1: the bootstrops from the fourth quarter at some point to
Speaker 1: win it all? You need a quarterback who can do that. Well,
Speaker 1: you're preaching to the choir here, spe I think that
Speaker 1: that's I think we're Alex and I, or maybe I
Speaker 1: didn't explain myself articulate myself as the best is I'm
Speaker 1: not expecting him to do that every game right, But
Speaker 1: when the when when things go poorly like they did
Speaker 1: on Thanksgiving night for the defense and for the special teams,
Speaker 1: the fact that that game is like almost like an
Speaker 1: automatic l at that point if we tell you that
Speaker 1: that's exactly how the game is going to play out
Speaker 1: and the defense is not going to play very well,
Speaker 1: justin Jefferson's gonna go for nine for one thirty nine
Speaker 1: in a touch and special teams is going to give
Speaker 1: up a touchdown, and you're we all could have written
Speaker 1: the story before the game even started and say that
Speaker 1: they're gonna lose, and that that's the part that gets
Speaker 1: and I guess I just more more my point. No,
Speaker 1: I would just like, like to the point you're making.
Speaker 1: And I know this sounds like a cop out, but
Speaker 1: averages don't mean anything to the individual, right. Most of
Speaker 1: those quarterbacks, like you said, so, I don't know what
Speaker 1: you defined as a Hall of Fame caliber quarterback, but
Speaker 1: a lot of you know, hall of Fame quarter caliber
Speaker 1: quarterback on a team friendly deal. There's been expensive quarterbacks
Speaker 1: that have won Super Bowls. There's been non Hall of
Speaker 1: Fame quarterbacks that have won. Telling you that most of
Speaker 1: the case, the times they are not as expensive as
Speaker 1: as the other top quarterback in the league. So so
Speaker 1: you're saying it's more about contract than ability, which would
Speaker 1: back to my point about the Brady model. Think about
Speaker 1: the Brading model, right like, and that's and that basically,
Speaker 1: even though Brady is special, it is a unicorn. That
Speaker 1: model does generalize back in ninety ninety one. Right, So
Speaker 1: so you're green with that. But that agrees with my point.
Speaker 1: That makes my point, except except that it's not. These
Speaker 1: are not in that neutral quarterback They're good. They're they're
Speaker 1: like Hall of Fame or Hall of Fame caliber quarterbacks
Speaker 1: who have basically allowed enough money to be spent elsewhere
Speaker 1: to be able to shore up. But so, so okay,
Speaker 1: so here's my point. So so this is where where
Speaker 1: we diverge. I'm I'm throwing my idea out as as
Speaker 1: the way the league is trending, not the way it's gone.
Speaker 1: There's no such thing as one give me one data point,
Speaker 1: give me one data point. With the day the league
Speaker 1: trending that way, when zero quarterbacks who fit that description
Speaker 1: of bonus title, well, because it's trending that way, it
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. Yet here's what I here's what I would say, Well,
Speaker 1: all right, all right, hang on, here's what I would
Speaker 1: tell you. The concept of a good, affordable quarterback doesn't
Speaker 1: exist anymore. Every single deal these quarterbacks sign breaks some
Speaker 1: sort of record. It wasn't like that for a while.
Speaker 1: It's been that way the last three four or five years. Right.
Speaker 1: The quarterback you're describing. The only way to get that
Speaker 1: quarterback now is going to be through the draft. Right,
Speaker 1: So that in essence sort of mat we're just discounting
Speaker 1: Matt Stafford, right, I'm not just I just also, is
Speaker 1: Matt Stafford is? Is Matt Stafford special? Yeah? I wouldn't
Speaker 1: put him in that. You're talking about Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: caliber quarterbacks. He led the league in picks last year.
Speaker 1: I think Matt Stafford is a great example, honestly of
Speaker 1: what my point. Yeah, yet won a title for a
Speaker 1: team that didn't go He won a title for a
Speaker 1: team that was stacked, right, But he was affordable. He
Speaker 1: was like exactly, he was affordable. So all right, So
Speaker 1: I'm not saying it's him, right, I don't understand. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm I'm saying that he's a good don't know when
Speaker 1: did he sign that deal? When did he sign that deal.
Speaker 1: He's a he's not allow he's a Hall of Famer,
Speaker 1: maybe because of his his inflated numbers by Matthew Stafford
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty one. No, my point is getting in Afford,
Speaker 1: like you can't draft a quarterback, develop and then signed
Speaker 1: him in Like, if you have a good quarterback, you
Speaker 1: can't afford all the other bells and whistles in the
Speaker 1: modern NFL. I got this. I mean this is Bill
Speaker 1: Barnwell wrote a column about this like a few years ago,
Speaker 1: and that's where the thought kind of first occurred to me.
Speaker 1: And that's what I did this analysis. But I just again,
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to I'm trying to find the middle
Speaker 1: ground between your take and the empirical reality of the
Speaker 1: quality of these quarterbacks. We are winning everything. They're just
Speaker 1: maybe you're saying things shifted in recent history, and I'm
Speaker 1: saying they're shifting in that direction. This this theory doesn't
Speaker 1: apply to nineteen ninety one, to two thousand and one,
Speaker 1: even to two thousand and eleven. This is a very
Speaker 1: recent recent you know, it's really only been the last
Speaker 1: two or three years you've seen teams go like all right,
Speaker 1: Penney Sewell and J. C. Horne being drafted ahead of
Speaker 1: Justin Fields doesn't happen three or four years ago. Like
Speaker 1: even as recently as three four, five years ago, that
Speaker 1: doesn't happen. That's a relatively new phenomenal think. I think.
Speaker 1: I think that's part of the disconnect in our discussion
Speaker 1: about this is that I think you're kind of talking
Speaker 1: about getting the okay ball and I'm talking about winning
Speaker 1: the Super Bowl, like and maybe that's just too stringent.
Speaker 1: The criteria is something, but you, I think all are
Speaker 1: I think all Alex's point is, and I agree with
Speaker 1: most of it, is that there is a path to
Speaker 1: winning the Super Bowl without having Patrick Mahomes on your roster. Right, So,
Speaker 1: I guess here's what kills me. If the Niners had
Speaker 1: won in twenty nineteen, I'm a genius. But they didn't
Speaker 1: lose because of poor roster construction. They lost because their
Speaker 1: coach blew the game. Why were they throwing the ball
Speaker 1: with Jimmy Garb It could have run out the clock,
Speaker 1: But that's the point, that's the point. Why would they
Speaker 1: throwing the Sorry problem, you have a quarterback. You can't
Speaker 1: make that thrill. That's part of the problem. He was
Speaker 1: wide open. They didn't need to throw that. It's not
Speaker 1: like they were down to It's not like they were
Speaker 1: down two scores. It's not like they were down two
Speaker 1: scores and Jimmy Garoppolo couldn't lead them back. Okay, man speed.
Speaker 1: We really appreciate the call man. Anytime you want to
Speaker 1: call in the floor is yours to argue with Alex,
Speaker 1: which I really appreciate. And then he always brings up
Speaker 1: twenty nineteen Jimmy Garoppolo and ignores that forever ignore is
Speaker 1: the fact that he missed a wide open touch. They
Speaker 1: didn't need to throw the ball because they didn't need
Speaker 1: a throw ball. Ben and Maryland wrap us up here, Ben,
Speaker 1: what do you got? Hey? Y'all? This has been my
Speaker 1: favorite podcast episode yet. I have to say thank you.
Speaker 1: I have to say that I've agreed with Alex most
Speaker 1: of the show, darn it. But anyway, be watching the
Speaker 1: All twenty two from last year, it felt like the
Speaker 1: Patriots really like never blitz Alan and let Alan Alan,
Speaker 1: you know, extend plays on food, down, both down, all
Speaker 1: that stuff. So I want the Patriots to blitz lots,
Speaker 1: to bring in Jude on Wise all of that, and
Speaker 1: also wondering if you just as signed a player like
Speaker 1: you know, Mac Wilson to follow him all night quarterback
Speaker 1: spy kind of thing. But yeah, that's it. Yes, love it,
Speaker 1: love it, Love it, Ben. That's I think exactly what
Speaker 1: we were trying to get to. And thanks for the call.
Speaker 1: Is that put some pressure on him, dial up some
Speaker 1: blitzes when you do play man coverage. Then a guy
Speaker 1: like Mac Wilson's the perfect spy, right, And I think
Speaker 1: what's cool about some of the things that they do.
Speaker 1: I I got into this rabbit hole, and when I
Speaker 1: was writing up my game preview, I didn't fully go
Speaker 1: there because the Patriots don't do a ton of it.
Speaker 1: But Georgia and the Sabin Tree runs this front called
Speaker 1: Odd Mirror, which is a three down front, and there's
Speaker 1: a fourth guy who's kind of like a free player.
Speaker 1: And basically the whole design of the front again it's
Speaker 1: called Odd Mirror, is that those three guys are let loose,
Speaker 1: like they have the freedom to just beat the guy
Speaker 1: in front of them. Just do whatever you want. Don't
Speaker 1: worry about rush lane integrity, don't worry about the mobile quarterback.
Speaker 1: Just go get the QB. And that fourth guy who's
Speaker 1: usually standing up on the line of scrimmage is the
Speaker 1: is the spy, right, So what they do that really
Speaker 1: really well is they funnel the quarterback in one direction
Speaker 1: so that the spy is not trying to spy him
Speaker 1: from sideline to sideline, but instead he has an idea
Speaker 1: of where exactly they're leading the quarterback to. So, for example,
Speaker 1: if like they want to let Judeon you know, just
Speaker 1: loops on the edge, like maybe it's like, okay, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna rush him from the backside on the left tackle
Speaker 1: who happens to be a backup because Deon Dawkins isn't
Speaker 1: playing in this game. So mac Wilson, you know, that
Speaker 1: non armed side is where Josh Allen's going to escape
Speaker 1: the pocket from, which is what you want to do.
Speaker 1: And I think mac Wilson played that role the right Alabama. Um, yeah, no,
Speaker 1: that that's a great That's the key. The key to it, though,
Speaker 1: is as much as you're letting the rushers free, they
Speaker 1: have to still rush within that structure. Yeah. I would
Speaker 1: also say Alabama in recent years to struggle against mobile
Speaker 1: quarterbacks like the Patriots have. You know, yeah, they have.
Speaker 1: You saw what Hendon Hooker did to them extending plays
Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago. So, uh, you know against
Speaker 1: the guy, this was more. I believe this is more
Speaker 1: of a Kirby thing, Like I think this is more
Speaker 1: of a Georgia that would make sense. Yeah, No, I
Speaker 1: know Alabama runs it, but I think they've I think
Speaker 1: it's more. I think Georgia doesn't were an Alabama. Maybe
Speaker 1: Georgia does it better. Well, well, I mean you look
Speaker 1: at who they had, like some of the guys they've
Speaker 1: had the last couple of years, Play Walker into Kobe
Speaker 1: Dean with with those guys they've had up front, Jordan
Speaker 1: Davis like, come on, get out of here that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they've they've had just unbelievable talent upfront. Um, we didn't
Speaker 1: touch too much on the offense. So yeah, I at
Speaker 1: one point on the offense, and I pretty much make
Speaker 1: this point every time the Patriots play a high flying
Speaker 1: off offense on the other side. And I talked about
Speaker 1: it for the Billy Bucks last year the Cowboys. The
Speaker 1: biggest thing the Patriots offense can do in this game
Speaker 1: other than score points. I know you want them to
Speaker 1: score points, really is shorten the game? Shorten the game
Speaker 1: You're going old school on me. Keep the clock, but
Speaker 1: it works even it works, keep the clock running. Limit
Speaker 1: the number of plays, limit the number of drives. Because
Speaker 1: we've talked a lot about the Bills margin for error.
Speaker 1: They turn the ball over a lot, but they can
Speaker 1: make up for it. The way to shrink that margin
Speaker 1: for error. You look at where they've won a lot
Speaker 1: of these games. The last couple of weeks. They've won it.
Speaker 1: People say, oh, they're winning games in the fourth quarter. No,
Speaker 1: they're winning well, they are, but they're winning games on
Speaker 1: the tenth, eleventh, twelfth drive of the game. If you
Speaker 1: keep that clock running, might be the fourth quarter. But
Speaker 1: that tenth drive is not gonna come right. Last year
Speaker 1: against Tampa, I said, I said, they have to keep
Speaker 1: Tampa to under eight drives or eight or under drives.
Speaker 1: Tampa scored a game winning touchdown on the ninth drive
Speaker 1: of the game. Now, shortening the game, that means ball control,
Speaker 1: It means converting third downs, it means extending drives. These
Speaker 1: are things that the Patriots they're you know, third down percentage,
Speaker 1: average drive length, average drive time, average rise per game.
Speaker 1: They're in the bottom ten, you know, bottom third of
Speaker 1: the league, and all of that so this is this
Speaker 1: is all well, here's the thing. We're just talking about
Speaker 1: what they need to do. It's all much easier said
Speaker 1: than done. But if they can find some sort of
Speaker 1: rhythm offensively where they keep it moving, that's how they're
Speaker 1: gonna win this game. Can I give you the one
Speaker 1: sliver of hope on this. I know you say they're
Speaker 1: not great with this. Yeah, the Bills are one of
Speaker 1: the worst teams in the league and covering tight ends,
Speaker 1: and it's been especially a big problem for them since
Speaker 1: Micah Hyde went on irm as you would expect. Great
Speaker 1: way to extend a game is run the ball. Run
Speaker 1: the ball, run the ball. When they come out to
Speaker 1: take that away, go play action, throw it to the
Speaker 1: tight end. I know this is something we've called for
Speaker 1: for two years and hasn't happened, But if there was
Speaker 1: ever a time to do it, and the kicker. The
Speaker 1: Bills are also one of the worst tackling teams in
Speaker 1: the league. They don't tackle well in the open field.
Speaker 1: This is such a game where play action. Hit your
Speaker 1: tight ends in the flat, let them run with the
Speaker 1: ball after the catch. This is such a game for
Speaker 1: that con sept. Will they do it? We'll see it's
Speaker 1: not the first time if somebody sat here and called
Speaker 1: for it, but this is a game where that that
Speaker 1: sort of game plan could serve them very well. So
Speaker 1: the Lions actually did well off play action. But for
Speaker 1: the most part, the Bills have been really good play
Speaker 1: action defense. But I think the main reason why they've
Speaker 1: been so good is because a lot of play action.
Speaker 1: This is gonna sound counterttuitive to everything that I've said
Speaker 1: all year, I admit that, but a lot of the
Speaker 1: play action concepts that teams run aimed to attack the linebackers,
Speaker 1: and they're linebackers are excellent in coverage, right Jamaine Edmonds
Speaker 1: and Matt Mulatta is probably the best coverage duo at
Speaker 1: linebacker in the league. So what the Lions did was
Speaker 1: they ran a lot of those like seven eight protect
Speaker 1: big drop play action against them where they got those
Speaker 1: corners Dan Jackson, you know guy a Xavier Rhodes. I
Speaker 1: don't think he played in that game yet, but that
Speaker 1: he's gonna play it tomorrow night. Like those guys were
Speaker 1: on islands against the moder Ross Saint Brown a lot
Speaker 1: of the game and that's how they did it. So
Speaker 1: I think that those the play action concepts. We've actually
Speaker 1: seen them run a lot of more with Bailey Zappy,
Speaker 1: but then a little bit with Mac over the last
Speaker 1: two weeks. I think those, ironically, because I've been saying
Speaker 1: ditch them, right, I think those actually came back, come
Speaker 1: back to in play. And I think the biggest reason why,
Speaker 1: to kind of my overarching point with the offense is
Speaker 1: that just like the defense, you gotta do something different,
Speaker 1: right like what you what you're They know your bread
Speaker 1: and butter. Teams are selling the run and teams they
Speaker 1: know they know you're gonna try to run gap at
Speaker 1: them because that's what you did in the win game
Speaker 1: and we're so successful with you know that they know
Speaker 1: you're gonna try to run gap at them, and they
Speaker 1: know that you want to throw the ball to in
Speaker 1: breaking rats over the middle of the field, right like
Speaker 1: they know that that's your bread and butter. So last
Speaker 1: year they played more man coverage than they usually do
Speaker 1: in that Week sixteen game, and they played a lot
Speaker 1: of inside leverage. Right. The corners were taking inside leverage
Speaker 1: instead of outside position to try to take away and
Speaker 1: cut off the middle of the field. So on top
Speaker 1: of the fact that you know having some compliments or
Speaker 1: having some tendency breakers to those types of things where
Speaker 1: you know, maybe Jakobe Myers runs a ten yard out
Speaker 1: instead of a ten yard dig or something like that.
Speaker 1: I think that these bigger drop back, you know, bigger,
Speaker 1: you know, deeper play action plays that they've developed this
Speaker 1: year is something that Buffalo has not necessarily seen you do, right,
Speaker 1: because you've always been so caught up in the second
Speaker 1: level play action plays. So I think that's a big
Speaker 1: part this secondary for the Bills, and now that they
Speaker 1: don't have Von Miller, which I think is huge, This
Speaker 1: secondary for Buffalo is banged up. They are not the
Speaker 1: same secondary that they've been that that safety tandem is
Speaker 1: now broken right because Mica Hide's not playing, Jordan Poyer
Speaker 1: has been in and out of the lineup. Ddavious White's
Speaker 1: supposed to play more this week, but he's still coming
Speaker 1: back from that acl and they've had a lot of
Speaker 1: issues at the second outside cornerback spot. They've revolved the
Speaker 1: revolving door there. Dame Jackson I mentioned that Ben Ford,
Speaker 1: who's now on injured reserve Kayer Elam, their first round pick,
Speaker 1: has kind of been a bus so far. So they
Speaker 1: are really struggling to find consistent play out of their
Speaker 1: cbe two spot. So those are the areas that I
Speaker 1: think you can attack this Bills defense, and without von Miller,
Speaker 1: maybe you have some more time to do it. I
Speaker 1: just had this lasting image from the game last year
Speaker 1: here where they're Patriots from that condensed formation. Nelson agiler
Speaker 1: is out wide. Yeah, everybody else is condensed. The Bills
Speaker 1: had one corner standing out with Nelson Agilor, and then
Speaker 1: they had ten guys in the box. They didn't have
Speaker 1: a deep safety. They weren't, you know, they they were
Speaker 1: just waiting for it. Yea. And I would expect the
Speaker 1: Bills to give the Patriots a similar look again until
Speaker 1: they prove they can beat it. So you have to
Speaker 1: prove you can beat that look. And I go back
Speaker 1: to play action and are you you're looking for the
Speaker 1: deep shots. To me, it's the tight ends they've They've
Speaker 1: allowed the fifth most catches to tight ends in the
Speaker 1: league this year. You've got especially tight ends out of
Speaker 1: some of their spread looks. You gotta spread out, you
Speaker 1: gotta spread spread out. The play action stuff for is
Speaker 1: me attacking Milano and Edmunds feels like you're attacking this,
Speaker 1: So I'm not necessarily saying play action to attack those guys.
Speaker 1: I'm just saying they're expecting you to run. Their gonna
Speaker 1: come out and expecting you to run. Maybe you can
Speaker 1: take advantage of that. But especially John hu Smith, you
Speaker 1: got a team that can't cover tight ends, that's bad
Speaker 1: at tackling after the catch. That should scream John. And
Speaker 1: look they have gotten them more involved the last two weeks,
Speaker 1: John who had six touches against the Jets, and then
Speaker 1: Hunter Henry had the big game last week. Right, it's
Speaker 1: not close to what we were looking for coming into
Speaker 1: the season, but they are starting to get a little
Speaker 1: more involved here. So I will say this, Alex, it's
Speaker 1: a good time to play the Bills. Like if you
Speaker 1: have you're gonna have to play the Bills twice a year.
Speaker 1: You can't, you can't avoid playing Buffalo. No, it's a
Speaker 1: good time to play the Bills. They have some guys out,
Speaker 1: starting left tackle out, Von Miller out, Micah Hide out
Speaker 1: for the year, Tredavious White still working his way back,
Speaker 1: Edmonds has been banged up a little bit. So if
Speaker 1: you're this is as good of a situation to play
Speaker 1: Buffalo as you're gonna get that other than Josh Allen
Speaker 1: not playing in the game, right, all all I had
Speaker 1: did and this is kind of my big point on
Speaker 1: the whole game. And then I know we're running long here.
Speaker 1: I have to get this one out. U. I when
Speaker 1: I watched the Bills this year and really going back
Speaker 1: to last year, I've texted you about this a lot.
Speaker 1: Oh boy, I think teams respect the Bills too much.
Speaker 1: And what I mean, listen, listen, I don't mean that
Speaker 1: the Bills are overrated or anything like that. When the
Speaker 1: Ravens used to come in here. You see, I give
Speaker 1: the spiel. People say I'm hating on the Bills, and
Speaker 1: I can care them the Patriots, right, I think Judan's
Speaker 1: got a little bit out. He's no, he talked about it.
Speaker 1: So yeah. The reason the Ravens were the one team
Speaker 1: that always gave the Patriots fits is they were the
Speaker 1: one team that consistently when they played the Patriots. Whatever, Man,
Speaker 1: we're NFL players, they're NFL players, will figure we're gonna
Speaker 1: do what we do because we believe in what we
Speaker 1: do and we're gonna trust ourselves. When the Patriots played
Speaker 1: Brady last year, Matthew Jude I don't remember exactly what
Speaker 1: it was, but it was something to the effect of, yeah,
Speaker 1: he's Tom Brady, but he's human. He's an NFL quarterback.
Speaker 1: We faced NFL quarterbacks before and they almost beat him.
Speaker 1: That doesn't mean take them lightly, but what it means
Speaker 1: is Patriots. I know people are down on them. They
Speaker 1: made the playoffs last year. The ove these guys are
Speaker 1: in the NFL for a reason, right, just just kidding.
Speaker 1: I'm not saying. I'm not saying run the same stuff
Speaker 1: they always, but like, don't reinvent the wheel. I see
Speaker 1: so many teams they play the bills, and they diverge
Speaker 1: so extremely from what they usually do, and they come
Speaker 1: up with these super intricate game plans and it's like,
Speaker 1: all right, in theory, that's a nice idea in theory
Speaker 1: that will work, but you don't have the personnelity execute
Speaker 1: it to do things they can't do right, Gotta do
Speaker 1: something different, do something different, but operate within your strength.
Speaker 1: Don't like a perfect example last year, Miles Bryant just
Speaker 1: wasn't fast enough to cover Aza McKenzie. It was again,
Speaker 1: I don't necessarily hate the coverage plan they had last year,
Speaker 1: but they didn't have the players to execute it. You
Speaker 1: can't just go reinventing the wheel because the Bills are
Speaker 1: this big scary offense. I think you still at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, any and this is about any matchup,
Speaker 1: you have to play to your strengths. If you don't
Speaker 1: play to your strengths, you're not gonna win the game,
Speaker 1: regardless of who you are as a team, regardless of
Speaker 1: who you're playing. You know who does a great job
Speaker 1: of playing to their strengths. The Bills, they almost do
Speaker 1: it to the other extreme. They almost do it to
Speaker 1: a fault. The Wind game, they did not adjust because
Speaker 1: they said, we don't run the ball. Well, we have
Speaker 1: Josh Allen, so we're just gonna throw because that's what
Speaker 1: we do well. I think so many teams, so many
Speaker 1: teams get away from so many teams get away from
Speaker 1: their identity against teams like the Bills, against teams like
Speaker 1: like this isn't just the Bills, the old Patriots. You
Speaker 1: see it against the Chiefs, although you see it a
Speaker 1: lot less now. And look that's what's happening. The Chiefs
Speaker 1: are in some more rock fights. You can't get away
Speaker 1: from your identity in this game. You just can't do
Speaker 1: it because that's how the game will get away from
Speaker 1: you quicker than anything else. Okay, so my two things.
Speaker 1: I want to wrap this on three things. Two things,
Speaker 1: three things whatever. One. Number one I need I need.
Speaker 1: I need a Bill game plan out of this, right,
Speaker 1: Like I need some old school like this is like
Speaker 1: we're putting it Thurman Thomas in the Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: because Bill took them out of the Super Bowl, Like
Speaker 1: like I need this. But that's my point Bill, this
Speaker 1: like Bill needs to get in the lab and be Bill. Yes,
Speaker 1: that's that has to be. You are only gonna win
Speaker 1: this game if after the game on Thursday night early
Speaker 1: Friday morning, when you and I are in the press box,
Speaker 1: were like, holy crap, that was a hell game plan
Speaker 1: by Bill, right, Like that's the only way that they're
Speaker 1: gonna win this game. Number two, I'm gonna go back
Speaker 1: to my quarterback thing. The other way you're gonna win
Speaker 1: this game is if Mac Jones makes some plays in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter. Like you're not gonna avoid that, Like
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be up two scores in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 1: So the quarterback's gonna have to make some plays in
Speaker 1: the fourth quarter as well. And if you can get
Speaker 1: those two things and one of them, I mean both
Speaker 1: of them kind of have eluded them a little bit here,
Speaker 1: especially more than before with Bill. I would say, if
Speaker 1: you can get those two things checked off, and I
Speaker 1: think that you have a good chance in this game.
Speaker 1: And the last thing I will say. I'm not gonna
Speaker 1: preface this very carefully because I do not want them
Speaker 1: to purposely try to injure Josh Allen. That's not this
Speaker 1: is I was. I didn't want to say it. I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say, but thank you Mac Wilson and Jabriel Peppers.
Speaker 1: Is a message for both of you, if you have
Speaker 1: a chance to line him up, line him up, okay,
Speaker 1: because everybody else that you see play against this guy
Speaker 1: doesn't want to do it. So they don't want to
Speaker 1: put their shoulder into him because he's two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty pounds and he's a beast. Okay, But I see
Speaker 1: those two guys lay out big who I think would
Speaker 1: definitely respond to that message. Matthew jud Yeah, this goes
Speaker 1: back to me. But he's important, So like I don't
Speaker 1: want to because if they because what's gonna happen as
Speaker 1: as soon as they lay him out all the flags
Speaker 1: are in the air, and now all of Buffalo is
Speaker 1: gonna want the guy ejected from the yards here. Okay,
Speaker 1: here's the thing. This goes back to their spec thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: players don't want to tackle Josh Allen. I don't know
Speaker 1: if it's because he's big or it's got don't want
Speaker 1: to be the guy. I don't want you to tackle
Speaker 1: him where like he runs you over and then he's
Speaker 1: flaxing on you and stuff. I don't want to see anything.
Speaker 1: I forget who it was who said it this week.
Speaker 1: It might have it might have been wise, It might
Speaker 1: have somebody said it. Yeah, when he runs the ball,
Speaker 1: you got to make him feel it. Yeah, absolutely, and
Speaker 1: again sank try to hurt him. No dirty place. But
Speaker 1: now when this is a talking place. As long as
Speaker 1: quarterbacks have been scrambling going back to fran freakin Tarkington
Speaker 1: as I know you hate going back, but this is
Speaker 1: will you Sammy by listen, I did he run? I
Speaker 1: think this is something we can agree on. That's an
Speaker 1: old school football talking point, and there aren't many of those.
Speaker 1: When the quarterback decides to become a runner, Yes, you
Speaker 1: need to make him pay for it. You need to
Speaker 1: make him feel it that it's as true now as
Speaker 1: it was in the days of slinging, said luckman, I
Speaker 1: think it was slinging Sammy ball or whatever. You know
Speaker 1: the point, you know the point I'm trying to make here,
Speaker 1: would you disagree? Disagree? I watched their games all the time,
Speaker 1: and I watched Josh Allen. He runs over a defensive
Speaker 1: back and then he's flexing on him and thank him.
Speaker 1: But he in a blanket as they escored him out
Speaker 1: of my own And that's how they get him all
Speaker 1: fired up. Like that's how he gets into the game, right,
Speaker 1: That's how he gets his juices flowing. It's that hockey
Speaker 1: mentality where like every team, like you know, when Pasta
Speaker 1: gets hit too hard, there's like six bruins that like
Speaker 1: come to his defense, right, Like that's that's what they
Speaker 1: gotta be able to do it. I think that goes
Speaker 1: to your point of not over hyping the bills in
Speaker 1: your hands, right, like that getting too That's a better
Speaker 1: way to say it than teams respect the bills too much.
Speaker 1: But I like the reaction when I say, all right, well,
Speaker 1: we appreciate Marine Mad for hanging on for twenty five
Speaker 1: extra minutes on the Five here today and uh Alex
Speaker 1: and I will be back next week, same time, same place,
Speaker 1: hopefully talking about how Bill Belichick did a great job
Speaker 1: of stopping Josh Allen and just like slimming Sammy Barr
Speaker 1: or whatever said luck then Otto Graham they leave him.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening to everybody who We'll talk
Speaker 1: to you next week. Thank you for downloading this podcast,
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