Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch twenty two podcasts with Evan
Speaker 1: Lazar and Alex Barth. I'm Lazar, Hello, everybody, nailed it?
Speaker 1: Joined us always by hours, David match scheduled here. He's
Speaker 1: Evan Lazar and Alex barr band is back together page.
Speaker 1: Hello everybody, and welcome into a new Patriots Catch twenty
Speaker 1: two podcasts right here on Patriots dot com. Evan Lazar
Speaker 1: Alex Barth has always coming to you on a Wednesday
Speaker 1: regular time. Today, Alex and have to do it early
Speaker 1: regular time. We got some extra time too, because locker
Speaker 1: rooms not until four pm, so we'll have some time
Speaker 1: to talk to you guys over the next hour or so,
Speaker 1: let's call it an hour plus. But not not what
Speaker 1: I was expecting to be talking about today, Alex. I
Speaker 1: thought we were going to come into the show today
Speaker 1: on a three game winning streak, with the conversation being
Speaker 1: were driven by Okay, how real is this right? Did
Speaker 1: they just beat up on bad teams like they did
Speaker 1: at times last year during that seven game winning streak?
Speaker 1: And how much can stock can we put into it?
Speaker 1: In all this type of thing, I could never imagine
Speaker 1: that we would be sitting in a position not necessarily
Speaker 1: look at any given Sunday or any given Monday in
Speaker 1: this case, that things can happen and you can lose
Speaker 1: games to any team in the NFL. But this really
Speaker 1: feels like a franchise altering sort of moment, right because
Speaker 1: you drafted this quarterback in the first round of the
Speaker 1: draft last year. And I don't think that the decision
Speaker 1: to not go with Mac moving forward at least for
Speaker 1: this season, if that is the decision, is ankle related, right,
Speaker 1: I don't think this is an injury related decision. I
Speaker 1: think this would be more performance related decision. And that
Speaker 1: means that you're kind of pressing the reset button at
Speaker 1: that position, which obviously means we're in a totally different
Speaker 1: charted water then if they had just played poorly against
Speaker 1: Chicago and lost the game, right, this is a much
Speaker 1: bigger conversation than that. I do want to get into
Speaker 1: how each quarterback and specifically Mac actually played in the game.
Speaker 1: Not necessarily all the drama, but I think you have
Speaker 1: to address the elephant of the room off the top,
Speaker 1: and that this is a dramatic moment for this organization
Speaker 1: right now. Yeah, yeah, you know, everybody's kind of I've
Speaker 1: seen people trying to nail down what did this game
Speaker 1: feel like, what it looked like. The game that came
Speaker 1: to mind for me was the twenty twenty game against
Speaker 1: the Niners. Yeah, and the Patriots had had some success
Speaker 1: early in the year. They lost that tough one and
Speaker 1: you know, they lost late in Seattle. They lost the
Speaker 1: tough one against Kansas City when cam at COVID. They
Speaker 1: came back the next week they played a close one
Speaker 1: against the Broncos after a COVID riddle week, and it
Speaker 1: was like, hey, you know, there might be something here.
Speaker 1: They've had some stuff to overcome, but they've put some
Speaker 1: competitive football on tape when they're healthy. You know, the
Speaker 1: Niners weren't great that year. They were three and three
Speaker 1: coming into that game. They end up finishing six and
Speaker 1: ten and it was twenty six six. The score didn't,
Speaker 1: i would say, accurately reflect how lopsided that game was.
Speaker 1: And that was the first time in that season it
Speaker 1: was like, Okay, they might need to hit the reset
Speaker 1: button on this. And I'm not saying that it's totally
Speaker 1: time for reset, but that game really had you. I
Speaker 1: don't think you're looking at that game and thinking, okay,
Speaker 1: like you know they, like you said, it's not like
Speaker 1: they played poorly, and it happens any given Sunday. You
Speaker 1: move on. That game kind of makes you reflect on
Speaker 1: the bigger picture outlook of the team. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: that's where we're at, unfortunately. And you can give us
Speaker 1: a call. Two calls already Alex on the call screen
Speaker 1: right now, so already calling in. We're gonna get to
Speaker 1: you guys here in the second after we break down
Speaker 1: these two quarterbacks. But five pats, five hundreds the number
Speaker 1: web radio at Patriots dot com if you want to
Speaker 1: email us, already have an email too. So we got
Speaker 1: we got a lot of feedback from fans here that
Speaker 1: I wanted. I think we need to hear from the
Speaker 1: I know we're gonna get into the quarters. I think
Speaker 1: I need to hear from the people today. I think
Speaker 1: it's that kind of show. It definitely is. So I
Speaker 1: want to talk about how mac Jones actually played in
Speaker 1: this game and sort of break down the nine dropbacks
Speaker 1: eight if you want to take the penalty negating play
Speaker 1: off the board that he actually had. And I think
Speaker 1: what I've come at this all the time in the
Speaker 1: same way, and that is from a coaching standpoint when
Speaker 1: you chart when you watch, even at home. I think
Speaker 1: a lot of people can watch this game live on
Speaker 1: Monday night that probably don't dive back into the All
Speaker 1: twenty two or even a replay of a game like
Speaker 1: we do and really dissect what was going on on
Speaker 1: the field, can watch it at home and say, this
Speaker 1: seems like a much different style of offense that they're
Speaker 1: playing with one quarterback versus the other. And the best
Speaker 1: way that you can break it down is that mac Jones,
Speaker 1: for all intents and purposes, is running a vertical passing offense.
Speaker 1: And I can't. I think the first play of the
Speaker 1: game for both quarterbacks sums it up perfectly. First play
Speaker 1: of the game for mac Jones, he gets the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage in shotgun eleven personnel, three wide receiver, and
Speaker 1: he comes to the line of scrimmage and they had
Speaker 1: a pass play called in the huddle to pass the
Speaker 1: football out of that formation, and he didn't like the look,
Speaker 1: and he checks in to a run. So we're already
Speaker 1: making changes at the line of scrimmage, right He's already
Speaker 1: coming in. He's changing to the play, changing the play
Speaker 1: to a run, resetting them point you can see the
Speaker 1: communication happening on the broadcast. Very first play of the game,
Speaker 1: he's already changing plays. He's already making these types of
Speaker 1: decisions at the line of scrimmage. He's already spreading the field.
Speaker 1: They're already three wide receiver gun, all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 1: And then Bailey Zappy gets into the game. He's also
Speaker 1: in the shotgun, but they snapped the ball and he's
Speaker 1: got a slant to his left, he's got a stick
Speaker 1: or hitched to the tight end, and he's got a
Speaker 1: flat route on the backside and a vertical just clearing
Speaker 1: it out. But basically nobody is running down the field
Speaker 1: for Bailey's abby right, it is all easy, digestible reads
Speaker 1: and throws, and he hits Johnny Smith for like a
Speaker 1: four yard completion. I'm not saying it was some crazy
Speaker 1: throw or crazy read or anything like that. But when
Speaker 1: your quarterback going back to mac, when your quarterback hasn't
Speaker 1: played in three weeks and your bomb's away as soon
Speaker 1: as he gets back into the game, that's not easing
Speaker 1: your quarterback back in, right, that's throwing him right back
Speaker 1: into the fire. But then when Bailey comes in the game,
Speaker 1: they eased him in right, they run. They run a
Speaker 1: quick game concept and they're back under center and they're
Speaker 1: they're managing it for some play action in there. Yeah,
Speaker 1: with Mac, you know, they're running why Cross, They're running
Speaker 1: nine eight nine, they're running you know, all these are
Speaker 1: all vertical concepts, right, These are down the field first down,
Speaker 1: first and ten. I talked about this unfiltered. They run
Speaker 1: y cross, which is you know, it's really z cross,
Speaker 1: I guess for them. But Jacobe Meyers runs a crossing route.
Speaker 1: Tai Kwon runs a vertical, and the idea is it's
Speaker 1: single high safety, so the safety can only help to
Speaker 1: one vertical. Right, you can either cut off the crossing
Speaker 1: route or stay over the top of the vertical. But
Speaker 1: he can't do both. And that's sort of the stress
Speaker 1: that they're trying to put on the defense. But either way,
Speaker 1: that's a twenty yard plus pass no matter what. So
Speaker 1: first and ten from their own twenty three yard line,
Speaker 1: they spread the field. They run a vertical passing concept
Speaker 1: with Mac Jones, and they're pushing the sucker down the
Speaker 1: field and I'm thinking to myself, where's the drive starter? Like,
Speaker 1: we're not in a shot play area right when we
Speaker 1: talk about shot play as we think about maybe like
Speaker 1: the thirty to the forty five of the opponent right
Speaker 1: on the other side of the field, Let's take a
Speaker 1: shot here and dial something up to get to the
Speaker 1: end zone, like the touchdown that Zach through to Jacoby Myers, right,
Speaker 1: Like those types of down and distances are good for
Speaker 1: taking shots down the field because you're trying to get
Speaker 1: it into the end zone. But when you're on your
Speaker 1: own side of the field and it's first and ten,
Speaker 1: they just kicked it deep and you're just playing football
Speaker 1: at that point between the twenties, like can we get
Speaker 1: something easy? Can we get a slant? Can we get
Speaker 1: a hitch? Can we get some play action? Like just
Speaker 1: something that makes Mac feel good about himself, Like I
Speaker 1: got a completion, we got some positive yards, we're moving
Speaker 1: in the right direction, and then sever bombs away. And
Speaker 1: I think the biggest takeaway that I'm getting at here
Speaker 1: I get your opinion on it, is this is the
Speaker 1: playbook on how to ruin a first round quarterback. And
Speaker 1: we used to make fun of other teams, Like we
Speaker 1: used to sit here and say, oh, like that's this
Speaker 1: team doesn't know what they're doing, right, Like this is
Speaker 1: this is bad, Like, this is how you know this
Speaker 1: kid was promising at one point or he's a good
Speaker 1: prospect coming out or whatever, and they just completely botched
Speaker 1: his development. So now for Mac Jones, from year one
Speaker 1: to year two, he goes from Josh McDaniels to Matt
Speaker 1: Patricia as his offensive play caller. They've completely changed the scheme.
Speaker 1: Now he's in a vertical passing offense when he was
Speaker 1: in a short and intermediate passing game last year with McDaniels.
Speaker 1: They're not running play action, they're not dressing it up
Speaker 1: for him at all. So they're making him basically just
Speaker 1: read a full field progression and make a great throw somewhere.
Speaker 1: And then they're making it easy on Zappy. And I
Speaker 1: think a lot of people say, well, shouldn't it be
Speaker 1: easier for the rookie? Right, you got to you gotta
Speaker 1: make it easier on the rookie. But can we find
Speaker 1: a middle ground, like, can we can we strike a
Speaker 1: balance like because right now it feels like they from
Speaker 1: year one to year two, they have made Mac make
Speaker 1: like a leap that you probably make from like year
Speaker 1: one to year five, right right, like they've expedited that
Speaker 1: process for him and now as a result, his decision
Speaker 1: making is all thrown off, Like he's making poor decisions
Speaker 1: with the football, he's locking on to first reads, not
Speaker 1: progressing past the first read. He's not playing good mentally
Speaker 1: as well as physically. And when they drafted him mentally
Speaker 1: was the whole thing right, Like accuracy decision making that
Speaker 1: was supposed to be his calling card and they've completely
Speaker 1: ruined his brain, Like his brain needs to be recalibrated
Speaker 1: and refocused and it's just not at the moment. But
Speaker 1: what's your read on I guess the two different styles, right,
Speaker 1: like how they're kind of catering to Zappi versus how
Speaker 1: they're putting Mac into this vertical based system. Yeah. I
Speaker 1: mean we talked about this last week. When Mac comes back,
Speaker 1: are they going to go back to the week one
Speaker 1: through three offenses that the Mac offense or did they
Speaker 1: realize that didn't work? That was kind of the big
Speaker 1: question and they've gone back to it. It does feel
Speaker 1: like when Mac is in the game, and I think
Speaker 1: Mac feels this way too, and I think this is
Speaker 1: where some of the problems stem from. They're just asking
Speaker 1: him to go out there and make a play. They're
Speaker 1: asking him to go out there basically and beat Patrick Mahomes,
Speaker 1: and I think he feels some pressure to do that,
Speaker 1: and that's not who he is. That's not to say
Speaker 1: he can't be a good quarterback. You can be a good,
Speaker 1: starting caliber coack and not be Patrick Mahomes. Those players exist,
Speaker 1: But it almost feels like he has all this what
Speaker 1: just watching him, it feels like he has pressure on
Speaker 1: him to make that play down the field, to fit
Speaker 1: that ball into a tight window. That's why he's taking
Speaker 1: so many risks. And now you add to it, well,
Speaker 1: now he's playing for his job. At least that's kind
Speaker 1: of what it looks like, right, So I think you
Speaker 1: just you just used a good a good term. They're like,
Speaker 1: it's like from year one to year five, right, they're
Speaker 1: just suddenly putting the entire offense on his plate, And look,
Speaker 1: is it nice if you have a quarterback you can
Speaker 1: do that with? Sure, that's what three four guys in
Speaker 1: the league, if that even even good quarterbacks, and even
Speaker 1: for the best guys, even for a guy like Patrick Mahomes,
Speaker 1: the Chiefs still build the offense around him and build
Speaker 1: it to his skill set. They're not asking him to
Speaker 1: do things that he can't do. There's not a lot
Speaker 1: that he can't do, but they're not asking him to
Speaker 1: do things he can't do Lamar Jackson, they're not asking
Speaker 1: him to do things he can't do. They've built that
Speaker 1: offense around him excellently. It's not a knock on a
Speaker 1: quarterback to say, oh, well, the team built the offense
Speaker 1: around him and his skill set. That's just what smart
Speaker 1: teams do. If you have a player who's good at something,
Speaker 1: don't you want to maximize what that player can do
Speaker 1: instead of trying to make him do other things. And
Speaker 1: it just feels like it felt like last year that's
Speaker 1: exactly what they did. They built this thing around mac
Speaker 1: Jones and they went out, they got him a fifty
Speaker 1: fifty guy Intavante Parker grade addition or mandree. With another year,
Speaker 1: they'd be able to do somewhere that run play action stuff.
Speaker 1: It felt like, you know, they were really making progress
Speaker 1: towards that, and now the whole offensive system just it
Speaker 1: feels like mac Jones is fighting the system, where last
Speaker 1: year it felt like the system was helping him. That
Speaker 1: doesn't mean system quarterback, but a quarterback and the right
Speaker 1: system can take it to another level. Any guy. And
Speaker 1: now it feels like Mac Jones is fighting the system. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and to go kind of play by play with it
Speaker 1: a little bit more. And I guess sorry, let me
Speaker 1: just add this too. What makes it so frustrating is
Speaker 1: with Bailey's Appy, they are playing to a skillson, right.
Speaker 1: They are kind of, you know, putting things around him
Speaker 1: and putting him in a spot to succeed. So it's
Speaker 1: not like they can't do it because the skill sets
Speaker 1: are similar. And that's what you want from your starting
Speaker 1: quarterback and your backup quarterback. You want them to have
Speaker 1: similar skill sets. So if you have to go to
Speaker 1: the backup, not allow us to change. So that's what
Speaker 1: makes it so confusing, is it's not like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: they're running an out offense for Zappy that works for him,
Speaker 1: but not one for Mac. But they have two different
Speaker 1: skill sets, so they'd have to change the offense. That's
Speaker 1: not what this is. Yeah, And to your point about
Speaker 1: running an offense that fits your quarterback. So I think
Speaker 1: the play that's going around Twitter right now is the
Speaker 1: one where Jacobe Myers puts his hand up on the
Speaker 1: sideline and looks like he's open. I mentioned nine to
Speaker 1: eighty nine. That's what that is, right, Two verticals on
Speaker 1: the outside, a poster seam up the middle of the field,
Speaker 1: and it's under center play action. He comes off to
Speaker 1: the seven step drop play action and his first read
Speaker 1: is up the seam, and the linebacker in the middle
Speaker 1: of the field of the Tampa two defense cover to
Speaker 1: Tampa two does a great job of carrying Hunter Henry
Speaker 1: up the seam, so it's not there ideally. You see
Speaker 1: the safety cheating in, you see the linebacker working over
Speaker 1: the top of the seam. You get out to the
Speaker 1: boundary and you hit Jacobe Myers right. The problem is
Speaker 1: is that the down and distance is around the forty
Speaker 1: yard line of of the Bears. It's second down. The
Speaker 1: problem is is that that throw into the cover two
Speaker 1: hole to Jacoby Myers with Jakwan Brisker who picked him
Speaker 1: off later in the game, trying to fit the ball
Speaker 1: into his own coverage hole. That is a heck of
Speaker 1: a throw. If he makes that throw, it's not just
Speaker 1: the read, it's not just seeing the receiver. It's also
Speaker 1: dropping that ball into that cover two hole with the
Speaker 1: velocity that he would need to do it with. After
Speaker 1: it's not even his initial read on the play, so
Speaker 1: he's late a little bit to it as well. I
Speaker 1: think there's probably like four or five quarterbacks in the
Speaker 1: world that can make that throw. If it's Josh Allen,
Speaker 1: it's Herbert, it's Mahomes, it's these cannon arm quarterbacks. That's
Speaker 1: not Mac Jones, Like, that's not his game. If you're
Speaker 1: asking Mac Jones to fit a ball thirty five yards
Speaker 1: down the field into a cover two hole to find explosives,
Speaker 1: then you are doing him a disservice. So we can
Speaker 1: sit here and say all we want that, Oh he
Speaker 1: missed the read or oh he you know, he had
Speaker 1: myers and he should have come off the seam and
Speaker 1: he should have seen this and he should have thrown
Speaker 1: this football. That is a throw that if you make
Speaker 1: that throw, the defense tips your cap right tips their cap,
Speaker 1: and you write it down PFF would log it as
Speaker 1: a big time throw or a wow throw or whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it. That is one heck of
Speaker 1: a seat. That's the problem that I find the most
Speaker 1: with what they're doing with Mac is that they're asking
Speaker 1: him to be that guy, right, They're asking him to
Speaker 1: make those types of throws down the field. Okay, if
Speaker 1: you want him to throw a fade from the slaughter
Speaker 1: or a fade from the outside where he just has
Speaker 1: to put some air under it and drop it in
Speaker 1: the bucket. That's more his game. But if you're asking
Speaker 1: him to drive the ball in between two zone defenders,
Speaker 1: that is a really difficult throw for anybody to make
Speaker 1: and it just doesn't fit the skill set of your quarterback.
Speaker 1: Later on, or it might have been before that, but
Speaker 1: at some other point he hit Hunter Henry over the
Speaker 1: middle on like a twelve yard completion. It's twelve personnel.
Speaker 1: They were on Hunter Henry on the dig route, Johnny
Speaker 1: Smith on a little under to hold the defense underneath it,
Speaker 1: and he, with anticipation hits Hunter Henry in the chest.
Speaker 1: Twelve yard completion. Stay on schedule, let's move the chains right.
Speaker 1: That's Mac Jones. Like when I saw that play, I
Speaker 1: was like, that's the Mac that we saw last year. Like,
Speaker 1: that's the guy that we saw last year. Quick read, accurate, throw,
Speaker 1: ball is out on time, Like that's the type of
Speaker 1: quarterback that he is. Short intermediate, take your shots with
Speaker 1: fades and things like that down the field with some
Speaker 1: touch and not just with velocity, Like that's the type
Speaker 1: of quarterback that you drafted, So why are we trying
Speaker 1: to make him into this other thing? And it's funny
Speaker 1: because you know, Justin Field is on the other sideline,
Speaker 1: and it's like, okay, well, if you wanted the big
Speaker 1: arm quarterback, and he should have just drafted the guy
Speaker 1: you're playing against tonight, not the guy that you have.
Speaker 1: So I understand that he did that at Alabama. I
Speaker 1: understand that they had success with it in moments in
Speaker 1: the first three weeks of the season. Certainly against Baltimore
Speaker 1: stands out as a game where they were able to
Speaker 1: push the football down the field. But that is not
Speaker 1: his bread and butter. His bread and butter is the
Speaker 1: Hunter Henry play. It's not the cover two whole forty
Speaker 1: yards down the field. And what I would add to
Speaker 1: that is I think there is a room, there is
Speaker 1: room for mac Jones to make that throw in the offense,
Speaker 1: and like you said, he did at Alabama. But the
Speaker 1: trick is you set it up with that underneath stuff, right,
Speaker 1: and the defense cheats up, you know, and you get
Speaker 1: cover one and you're coming down underneath, they're bring a
Speaker 1: robber and then all of a sudden, that stuff down
Speaker 1: the field opens up. I do think mac Jones has
Speaker 1: the arm to make those downfield throws, but like you said,
Speaker 1: he's not gonna fit it in between two guys. Right,
Speaker 1: there's three or four quarterbacks in the world that can
Speaker 1: make that throw. They're running. It's it's almost like they're
Speaker 1: doing the second the second it with a quarterback like
Speaker 1: mac Jones, and their offense was built like this for years,
Speaker 1: even with Brady. Throw the ball to the short intermediate
Speaker 1: and just keep hitting the plays the defense will give you,
Speaker 1: and when the defense steps up to take those away,
Speaker 1: then you burn him over the top. Right, It's pretty
Speaker 1: basic there. It almost feels like what the mac Jones
Speaker 1: offenses this year is just skipping that first step of
Speaker 1: the short and intermediate and just going over the top.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, and when you don't set up that way again,
Speaker 1: you're just asking the quarterback to make throws that nobody
Speaker 1: makes on a regular basis. Yeah. I mean, he's ten
Speaker 1: point four air yards per attempt second in the league, right,
Speaker 1: and average air yards perttempt is that is that what's
Speaker 1: best for mac Jones to be second in the league
Speaker 1: and air yards per attempt and to attempt over twenty
Speaker 1: passes of twenty plus yards in the air on one
Speaker 1: hundred and twenty drop backs in four games. Like, that's
Speaker 1: just not the player that that he is and the
Speaker 1: player that you drafted. And maybe, like like we've been saying,
Speaker 1: maybe he did that at Alabama, but this isn't Alabama, right,
Speaker 1: this isn't the it's also Alabama set it up. You
Speaker 1: have to set it up first, And this isn't the SEC.
Speaker 1: And he's not throwing a Davante Smith and John Metchi
Speaker 1: and Jalen Waddle and all these guys that are significantly
Speaker 1: better than the guys that they're going up against in
Speaker 1: the secondary. This is a this is the NFL, and
Speaker 1: you have to adapt to the skill set at the
Speaker 1: player that you have. And I just don't feel like
Speaker 1: they're doing that. And that's an excusing mac for some
Speaker 1: of the mistakes he made. You know, the wire throw
Speaker 1: is what I'm gonna call it from now on. Right
Speaker 1: that he span is already the bunk that it didn't
Speaker 1: hit the wire, Okay, I know it. The wire shakes
Speaker 1: the wires, the LEAs the wire, it's not what illusion.
Speaker 1: The wire's actually fifteen yards above the ball source. Well,
Speaker 1: we're supposed to believe you. Well, they do have next
Speaker 1: gen tracking data that can probably tell you if it
Speaker 1: hit the wire or not. And why, well, why didn't
Speaker 1: they put that data out? Then you want I'm not
Speaker 1: you want Wiregate in context right now, I'm not do
Speaker 1: for me I do. I'm not saying that this is
Speaker 1: what lost in the game. I'm not just being the Patriots.
Speaker 1: But I love a good controversy like this that I
Speaker 1: know what. I saw that wire, and but don't tell
Speaker 1: me it was the wind. I looked later in the
Speaker 1: game when they were having the issues punting. I looked
Speaker 1: up the wind when they were having issues punting. It
Speaker 1: was two miles an hour. Those wires are thick. Those
Speaker 1: are big wires that hold that camera up. So it
Speaker 1: didn't hit the wire fifteen yards above. Get out of here.
Speaker 1: Regardless of if it hit the wire or not, it's
Speaker 1: a bad decision. It was a bad decision, but it
Speaker 1: hit the wire. So again, I think we're we've hit
Speaker 1: We've beaten this one enough that I think people get
Speaker 1: the point of what's going on. I don't think you
Speaker 1: get the point that it hit the wire. Oh my god. Okay,
Speaker 1: let's take some of these calls and and then I
Speaker 1: do want to talk about the defense. I think that
Speaker 1: you know, obviously there's a lot of issues to talk
Speaker 1: about from Monday night there as well, but I want
Speaker 1: to get to get to the people. Todd North Carolina, Todd,
Speaker 1: what's up man? Well, I think Barths hit on it earlier.
Speaker 1: The biggest problem with this team is it's not prepared.
Speaker 1: You know, people talk about the transition to Brady and
Speaker 1: all this stuff. Well Brady went into a team that
Speaker 1: was prepared and it was loaded for bear. Our line,
Speaker 1: our d line, our old line, it is not there,
Speaker 1: and it goes are your core things. If you can't
Speaker 1: have line play the rest of your it doesn't matter
Speaker 1: who you got in your defensive backfield or your offensive
Speaker 1: backfield is point line. Neither of these quarterbacks are going
Speaker 1: to succeed until they fixed the on line and our
Speaker 1: dbs and we're gonna get in our run defense, it's
Speaker 1: all going to be toasted. I'm totally fixed the lines,
Speaker 1: and I don't know if it's a speed issue or
Speaker 1: if it's an old age issue or one on both sides.
Speaker 1: And I'd like to hear what you guys have to say.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys, great show, Thank you. Yeah, thanks, Ton, I
Speaker 1: appreciate that. Yeah, the line of scrimmage talk is important,
Speaker 1: and this is sort of where I think we were
Speaker 1: headed with this next thing on the defense. But we
Speaker 1: can start with the offense because I had the offensive
Speaker 1: line issues written down as well on the rundown here.
Speaker 1: First of all, I would say that the blocking, especially
Speaker 1: the run blocking the pass blocking was good in the
Speaker 1: two games that they won. But the run blocking has
Speaker 1: been on my radar for a couple of weeks now
Speaker 1: because the Detroit game I felt like was and you
Speaker 1: know me, I'm anti running back, right I running backs
Speaker 1: don't matter, Like I subscribe to that theory. That was
Speaker 1: one of the first games in a while that I
Speaker 1: can say a Patriot running back actually like put the
Speaker 1: running game on his back and mattered, right. Romandre Stevenson
Speaker 1: against Detroit mattered one hundred and eleven yards after content
Speaker 1: at nine forced miss tackles Like that wasn't necessarily that
Speaker 1: they were blowing Detroit off the ball, and they were,
Speaker 1: you know, no one was touching Remandre for twenty yards, right,
Speaker 1: Like that was Remandre making things happen with the football
Speaker 1: in his hands. That was an excellent game by running back.
Speaker 1: So I actually thought that blocking in Detroit was so so,
Speaker 1: or against Detroit here at Gillette was so so. But
Speaker 1: Remandre just put the team on his back and went
Speaker 1: full beast mode and was able to rush for one sixty. Anyway,
Speaker 1: they didn't run the ball well against Cleveland. They didn't
Speaker 1: run the ball well last week against the Bears. We
Speaker 1: are trending in a direction now with this offensive line
Speaker 1: where I think there are multiple spots of issue, and
Speaker 1: then there's also a five man unit or a six
Speaker 1: if you want to count the tight end, seven if
Speaker 1: you want to count the tight end, and the sixth
Speaker 1: offensive lineman when they do that whatever with the whole
Speaker 1: blocking scheme in general, and I think the biggest thing
Speaker 1: that you see that has the personnel concern is obviously
Speaker 1: what's going on a tackle right. I mean, Trent Brown
Speaker 1: has completely regressed six penalties, four penalty is on Monday Night,
Speaker 1: six quarterback pressures allowed in the last two weeks, like
Speaker 1: has kind of fallen off the rails here at right tackle,
Speaker 1: Marcus Cannon, I think is less mistake prone right, Like
Speaker 1: he's not getting the bad penalties, the bad pre snap
Speaker 1: penalties that Isaiahwin was getting and the sacks or the
Speaker 1: pressures that he's giving up aren't completely leading to huge sacks,
Speaker 1: or you know, horrible plays for the quarterback right injuries
Speaker 1: and things like that. But he's a limited pass protector
Speaker 1: and he gave up three hurries in the game on
Speaker 1: Monday night. One of them was on Max pick where
Speaker 1: he didn't pick up the stunt and the guy came
Speaker 1: in front of him and sneaked inside. Those are the
Speaker 1: types of things that you see with Kennon when he
Speaker 1: has to redirect and move his feet to recover to
Speaker 1: a spot he has issues with doing that is with
Speaker 1: foot speed and with a change of direction at this
Speaker 1: stage of his career. So I think bold tackle spots
Speaker 1: are issues. I think Cole Strange is fine, but I
Speaker 1: think that he's somebody that you're supposed to be carrying
Speaker 1: with the other four guys on the line. He's not
Speaker 1: supposed to be Day one. You your superstar, your top lineman.
Speaker 1: So they've got to get the tackles figured out and
Speaker 1: they got to get those guys playing better football. And
Speaker 1: now you have David Andrews in concussion protocol, which adds
Speaker 1: insult to injury here as well. Yeah, it's more of
Speaker 1: the tackles. To me, I think the interior. We'll see
Speaker 1: what happens without Andrews with that. Looks like the interior
Speaker 1: has been fine. That's It's if the interior was their
Speaker 1: biggest issue offensively, they'd be in pretty good chape right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess is my point. They got to figure out
Speaker 1: what's going on at tackle. And Isaiah Wynn was it
Speaker 1: practice today? We'll see, you know, so was he benched,
Speaker 1: was he hurt? He was inactive? Yadi kad Juice came
Speaker 1: back as well. I don't know, you know, if we
Speaker 1: want it's Yady could Juice coming back to save the day,
Speaker 1: if that's kind of where we're at. But at least
Speaker 1: he's look, he's not gonna save the day. But I
Speaker 1: think with Marcus Cannon, Marcus Kenne can still get on
Speaker 1: a double team and move people. Yeah, at the NFL level, right,
Speaker 1: him and Mike on Wining want a double team is
Speaker 1: a people moving block, right that is still effective. But
Speaker 1: Yadney could use The one thing that you can say
Speaker 1: about him is that he is athletic and he's got
Speaker 1: good foot speed. So maybe there is a world where
Speaker 1: Yadne is active and they go six o line a
Speaker 1: little bit more like they were doing with Win and Cannon,
Speaker 1: And maybe Yadney is the right tackle and Cannon's technically
Speaker 1: the tackle eligible right as the sixth guy on the line,
Speaker 1: or whatever way you want to line it up, but
Speaker 1: you maybe put Yadne in more positions to move his
Speaker 1: feet versus Marcus Cannon just blowing people over, right. I
Speaker 1: think I think that could be some help there. It's
Speaker 1: kind of what I think they are going for with
Speaker 1: Isaiah Win, right, Like he's got a little bit more athleticism,
Speaker 1: a little bit more foot speed, and Marcus Cannon's kind
Speaker 1: of the bulldozer and those two work well next to
Speaker 1: one another. Well, that's another thing they missed, you know,
Speaker 1: when you talk about the Mac offense versus Appue offense,
Speaker 1: that's six offensive line set. Granted they couldn't do it
Speaker 1: the only at two tackles dressed, but yeah, getting getting
Speaker 1: carojuiced back be big. They need to figure out something
Speaker 1: because when you start moving around too many pieces on
Speaker 1: the offensive line. Yeah, continuity is such a big part
Speaker 1: of it. Right, when you start moving too many pieces around, right,
Speaker 1: and now you know, right tackle, we're not sure center
Speaker 1: there's going to be a backup. It's it's just you're
Speaker 1: putting a lot on everybody's plate, not just the offensive line,
Speaker 1: but everybody, the quarterbacks. He's got to communicate calls, all
Speaker 1: of that. Yeah, it's a really big undertaking for James
Speaker 1: Ferns and potentially chasing Hines if it's not James Ferns,
Speaker 1: that those two guys are gonna have to really step
Speaker 1: up with the calls because you're not gonna have you know,
Speaker 1: the other guards like Mike on when you I'm you know,
Speaker 1: his year three right in the system for him, So
Speaker 1: maybe he could help out, but Colstrange is certainly not
Speaker 1: going to help out. And he's got Quinnon Williams lining
Speaker 1: up over him this week, so he's got enough on
Speaker 1: his plate to not throw making line calls into the
Speaker 1: equation as well. So certainly that that line has crept
Speaker 1: up on them like it was a strength for a
Speaker 1: little bit there. It was a weakness early on in
Speaker 1: the season and they seem to figure it out there
Speaker 1: for a little bit. But you mentioned the max protect
Speaker 1: stuff or the extra protection, I guess is a better
Speaker 1: way of putting it. I think that's another really good
Speaker 1: point of this. Zappy Mac conversation as well. When they
Speaker 1: bring Zappy in the game, take out forget about the
Speaker 1: play action for a second, right, because that's obviously help
Speaker 1: any as well. But not to harp on that point anymore.
Speaker 1: When they bring Zappy in the game, they are only
Speaker 1: using a five man protection fifty percent of the time.
Speaker 1: With Bailey Zappy, a lot of the time they're using
Speaker 1: extra guys, right, They're using six seven blockers in to
Speaker 1: help him and keep him clean. When Mac is in
Speaker 1: the game, they're five man protection eighty percent of the time,
Speaker 1: a thirty percent difference. So not only are they catering
Speaker 1: some of the route concepts and some of the dressing
Speaker 1: it up differently for Bailey Zappy, but they're also protecting
Speaker 1: him differently. And by the way, some people will I
Speaker 1: think hear that and say, well, why does Mac need
Speaker 1: to be protected and protected more? He's supposed to be better,
Speaker 1: he's the first round pick. That's not what it is.
Speaker 1: What it is you have essentially a rebuilt offensive line,
Speaker 1: four new starters from last year. And look, we're seven
Speaker 1: weeks into this thing now, but things are still moving around.
Speaker 1: Like I just said, you're gonna have a new center
Speaker 1: next week, maybe a new tackle, a new tackle last week.
Speaker 1: Adding you know, adding to the protection is not necessarily
Speaker 1: about the quarterback. It might be about the line, right
Speaker 1: the offensive line we knew from camp was going to
Speaker 1: be a question. They didn't bought, They didn't do anything
Speaker 1: to kind of help with that issue when Mac was in.
Speaker 1: Then suddenly when Zappy was and they did. It's it's weird. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's weird that they made that switch when they did.
Speaker 1: I get, yeah, rookie cornerback, you want to protect him more,
Speaker 1: of course, of course, but it's not like Mac didn't
Speaker 1: need the elevated protection. It's not like he was getting
Speaker 1: clean pockets all the time. Was five blockers. He's being
Speaker 1: rushed constantly. So that was a weird one for me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean you go out there and some of the
Speaker 1: players I broke down already with Mac like it's five
Speaker 1: man protection. He's got pressure, you know on the pick
Speaker 1: that he threw pressure. And then you look at Bailey
Speaker 1: Zappi and when they dial up things to go down
Speaker 1: the field, it's six seven guys in the protection. You
Speaker 1: got six guys in to protect you keep the tight
Speaker 1: end in the back. Also is sort of although the
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of its play actions. So the
Speaker 1: back is involved in the fake. Once he's done with
Speaker 1: the fake, he's not running a route, right, he's staying
Speaker 1: in and kind of playing like a personal protector type
Speaker 1: of role in case anybody leaks through. So you have
Speaker 1: all this protection loaded up. Mac It's like, Okay, we're
Speaker 1: gonna go three wide and we're just gonna throw the
Speaker 1: ball down the field and make him read the full
Speaker 1: field in YadA, YadA, YadA. Then Bailey gets in the
Speaker 1: game and Dave probably drew up the best play they've
Speaker 1: had all season on the Meyers to touch Myer's touchdown.
Speaker 1: And there, you know, it's three guys in the route,
Speaker 1: it's seven guys in to protect, and it's a game
Speaker 1: plan shot not on top of that, right, it's like
Speaker 1: a scheme wrinkle on top of that. So it just
Speaker 1: seems like it's so different. You know, DeVante Parkers throw
Speaker 1: down the field again as seven guys in the protection,
Speaker 1: hard play actions, Evan in to protect, three year in
Speaker 1: the route, like it's it's simplified and it's protected. And
Speaker 1: then with Macko's like, oh, we're just gonna spread out
Speaker 1: the field and we're gonna make you throw the ball deep.
Speaker 1: And again it's not necessarily about Oh, we're gonna make
Speaker 1: more of an effort to protect Bailey's appiots with the
Speaker 1: offensive line can't block him with five, right, so why
Speaker 1: are you still trying to block with five with one
Speaker 1: guy and not with the other. All right, Patty and Aguham,
Speaker 1: thanks for hanging on with us. How you doing, Patty?
Speaker 1: Pretty good? How you guys doing, We're doing well. Thanks
Speaker 1: what you got? So? I got a MAC question. Um,
Speaker 1: I just want to know with my eyes, are are
Speaker 1: telling me the truth when I when I've been watching
Speaker 1: him playing, when he's been out there, to me, it
Speaker 1: looks like, um, and you guys, I mean, you guys
Speaker 1: are much more nuanced than and breaking down games film.
Speaker 1: So it seems like he's sort of predetermining where he's
Speaker 1: gonna go with the falling. He's not really going through
Speaker 1: his reads and am I like Mike close there? Does
Speaker 1: it look like he's sort of just locking on the
Speaker 1: one guy pre snap and that's no matter what, that's
Speaker 1: where he's going. Yeah, Honestly, I didn't think he was
Speaker 1: doing it as much in the first three games of
Speaker 1: the season as this is something Patty that I think
Speaker 1: people are starting to catch on, right, what's going on
Speaker 1: in this game against the Bears. I thought he did
Speaker 1: it a lot more. Yeah, where a lot of things
Speaker 1: were predetermined. Now I mentioned the thrower earlier. I think
Speaker 1: the faith that he threw to Taekwon that they almost
Speaker 1: hit on. That's a blitz, right, So in that situation,
Speaker 1: Taekwon's the hot receiver, right, So if you get the
Speaker 1: blitz and you get the single high like, that's your
Speaker 1: hot so you're just one step dropping the balls out
Speaker 1: to the vertical. So that's a kind of like a
Speaker 1: predetermined thing already on its own. But we mentioned the
Speaker 1: one with Myers, like, that's the same play that they
Speaker 1: called for Zappy against Detroit and they hit it for
Speaker 1: a touchdown. Remember, now the down and distance was different, right,
Speaker 1: because there are you know where the situation the game,
Speaker 1: Zappy was on, like the twenty three yard line, right
Speaker 1: outside the red zone. So that's not a very far
Speaker 1: our throw, right. That's now like a twenty yard pass
Speaker 1: in the air instead of like a thirty five yard
Speaker 1: pass in the air. So that's a big difference. But
Speaker 1: Zappy was able to come off the seam and hit
Speaker 1: the vertical on the outside when he saw the safety
Speaker 1: cheating into the seam, right. So these are sort of
Speaker 1: those second or third progression reads that Zappi is getting to,
Speaker 1: maybe a little bit more than Mac. But I do
Speaker 1: think some of it again points to what we were
Speaker 1: just talking about with the offensive line and the protection,
Speaker 1: don't I think on that play that with Mac, although
Speaker 1: it's the same play, I don't know if he necessarily
Speaker 1: had the same protection at the same time in the
Speaker 1: pocket to get off the first read and get to
Speaker 1: the second. But I have noticed him hang on to
Speaker 1: the first read a little bit longer than what we
Speaker 1: saw at times last year, which is another part of
Speaker 1: this whole equation. Yeah, I think it just goes back
Speaker 1: to being sped up, right, which is quarterbacks have that
Speaker 1: internal clock, right, they know based on their offensive line,
Speaker 1: the defensive line, the play call, what they think the
Speaker 1: defense is running. All Right, I got three seconds to
Speaker 1: get this ball out. I got two and a half seconds,
Speaker 1: I got you know, two point three seconds. Whatever it is.
Speaker 1: You have an idea in your head as a quarterback
Speaker 1: of how much time you have to get rid of
Speaker 1: the ball, and that clutch that's called the internal clock,
Speaker 1: that clock can get sped up with pressure. If you
Speaker 1: think you have two point five right on a play
Speaker 1: and you run that play and you're not getting the
Speaker 1: two point five on a regular basis, or whatever number
Speaker 1: you think you have in your head. If you're consistently
Speaker 1: not getting that much time, you're going to speed up
Speaker 1: your process. And what can happen is it just throws
Speaker 1: everything off because it's all based off that internal clock.
Speaker 1: Everything the quarterback's doing. Mac started looking sped up this
Speaker 1: past summer in training camp, and I think that's where
Speaker 1: this happens, where he's taking more time or less time
Speaker 1: with different things, just because I don't think he's totally
Speaker 1: sure how much time he has in the pocket. And
Speaker 1: the other element of it is he has been blitzed
Speaker 1: quite a bit this year, and you don't go through
Speaker 1: progressions when you're blitzed, Like you said, you throw the
Speaker 1: hot receivers. So I think some of the talk of
Speaker 1: him not going through his reads is probably more circle,
Speaker 1: I'm stantial than anything else. Yeah, Yeah, thanks for the call, Patty.
Speaker 1: You really appreciated one of our regulars right there, Patty
Speaker 1: from Agawam so appreciate the call. J in Providence. Your
Speaker 1: next up, Jay, what's going on. Hey guys, big fan,
Speaker 1: I've always focused on your podcasts and stuff. It's great
Speaker 1: to have you back together. Thank you, thank you. The
Speaker 1: first thing I want to say is it seems unusual
Speaker 1: to me the way that they're handling Mac. If you
Speaker 1: want to force a player into a vertical offense like
Speaker 1: the one you describe, trying to get him to hit
Speaker 1: cover two holes and things that require a strong arm
Speaker 1: or at least a lot of confidence, while also sending
Speaker 1: him the message that if he seemingly sending him the
Speaker 1: message that if he turns the ball over once, they'll
Speaker 1: be pulled for the backup who's running the baby offense
Speaker 1: made him look like take him to the Pro Bowl
Speaker 1: and the playoffs and so forth. I I don't quite
Speaker 1: understand why you would be asking a player to do that.
Speaker 1: It seems like he's going to be pausing on those
Speaker 1: reads or you know, seeing Jacoby Myers running up on
Speaker 1: the sideline and not wanting to pull the trigger. Um.
Speaker 1: I also think that it seems to me that a
Speaker 1: lot of the Patriots fan base has been criticized for
Speaker 1: latching onto the Brady bled Zoe mythology and applying the
Speaker 1: kind of like the logic of the dynasty for the
Speaker 1: last twenty years, for the last two or three years,
Speaker 1: it's weird to me that Belichick is looking at Bailey
Speaker 1: Zappy coming to the game and running the baby offense
Speaker 1: and hitting wide open receivers, and maybe he's buying into
Speaker 1: his own mythology that Zappy could be the Brady to
Speaker 1: Mac bled Zoe. I hope that he saw the Bears
Speaker 1: game yesterday and concluded that maybe he had deluded himself.
Speaker 1: After all, Mac is speaking today at four pm at
Speaker 1: the Wednesday presser, which usually is reserved for the starting quarterback.
Speaker 1: So I'd like to know whether you think that that
Speaker 1: maybe means that Bill is going to do what a
Speaker 1: lot of fans want him to do, which is stick
Speaker 1: with Mac and live or die with him. Thanks so much, Yeah,
Speaker 1: no problem, Jay, Thanks for calling. It's an interesting question
Speaker 1: about you know, this is sort of gets into the
Speaker 1: where they go from here, right, And I think that's
Speaker 1: that's a good logical next step here. And I look,
Speaker 1: we've been harpy, Harley's I've been harping, and I think
Speaker 1: we share the same we agree on this is that
Speaker 1: it's a balance, right, Like there's gotta be a middle
Speaker 1: ground where you can open up the offense a little
Speaker 1: bit more for mac Jones to make bigger plays down
Speaker 1: the field. But you're doing so while still keeping in
Speaker 1: mind that this is just a second year quarterback with
Speaker 1: twenty two starts under his belt or whatever the case is.
Speaker 1: I think it's twenty two. So at some point there
Speaker 1: has to be a balance, right, And some of the
Speaker 1: training wheels stuff or the you know, I think what
Speaker 1: Jay called it, the baby offense or whatever, like, some
Speaker 1: of that stuff still has to be present in every playbook. Like,
Speaker 1: it's not like Aaron Rodgers is going out there and
Speaker 1: running all these full field progressions every single time he
Speaker 1: dropped back. You know, they have a lot of RPO,
Speaker 1: and they have a lot of motion plays, and they
Speaker 1: have a lot of early down just easy throws for
Speaker 1: him to get to football out quickly and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: And it goes back to as well and not I'm
Speaker 1: not comparing Brady to these two guys in terms of
Speaker 1: their play. Remember Brady's first like eight to ten games
Speaker 1: in Tampa and he's running Bruce Arians's offense and he's changed, well,
Speaker 1: he's changing who he is, right, he's right to fit
Speaker 1: their offense instead of bringing his playbook, he's trying to
Speaker 1: run the Bruce Arians offense. And the two things that
Speaker 1: you heard about that situation were one, he's getting killed,
Speaker 1: right because you're you're holding the football for all this
Speaker 1: vertical stuff to happen down the field, So you're getting killed.
Speaker 1: And that's another element of the protection too that I
Speaker 1: think is important to mention is that these downfield you
Speaker 1: gotta hold the ball, right, You gotta wait for a
Speaker 1: develop so you gotta hold the football. So he's getting
Speaker 1: killed doing it. Yeah. And then around what like week
Speaker 1: eight nine, all of a sudden, you start hearing these
Speaker 1: rumblings on broadcasts and from Tampa reporters that they're running
Speaker 1: more Brady stuff. Right there, I think somebody said metaphorically,
Speaker 1: he kicked Bruce Arians out of the world. Yeah, they're
Speaker 1: running more vintage Belichick Brady Patriots stuff, starco more off
Speaker 1: play action right kind of thing, more short intermediate stuff.
Speaker 1: Like one wasn't involved at the beginning. He was really
Speaker 1: just a blocker. Yeah, until that that switch and they
Speaker 1: start gett him involved along. So to me, it's nothing
Speaker 1: to do with comparing the situations or comparing the players,
Speaker 1: but I think the scheme is what we're comparing, right,
Speaker 1: And I think Brady told you, like, this is not
Speaker 1: a sustainable offense, like this is a chucking duck, no
Speaker 1: risk it, no biscuit, as Bruce arians is like famous
Speaker 1: line the thirty thirty offense Jamus Winston, Right, this is
Speaker 1: not a good NFL offense in terms of efficiency. That yeah,
Speaker 1: you might hit some big plays down the field, but
Speaker 1: in terms of efficiency, this is not a good offense.
Speaker 1: And they moved away from it, and then they won
Speaker 1: a super Bowl. I'm not saying the Patriots will win
Speaker 1: a super Bowl if they move away from it too,
Speaker 1: but they had a lot more success with it. So
Speaker 1: look the back talking this afternoon. Do you make any
Speaker 1: thing of that? And last week it was Bailey's I
Speaker 1: think it's Ben Bailey zappy pretty consistently since Mac got injured.
Speaker 1: I think maybe we had one week where it was
Speaker 1: Brian Hoyer the Packers game. Going into the Packers game,
Speaker 1: it was Brian Hoyer, But the last two weeks it's
Speaker 1: been Bailey zappy. This week it's Mac Jones. Do you
Speaker 1: do you make anything of that? I don't know, not
Speaker 1: not definitively, Like I'm back and forth in my head
Speaker 1: of what it could mean. So, you know, does it
Speaker 1: because they don't have to give the starting quarterback, right,
Speaker 1: just a quarterback. The obligation is a quarterback. But I
Speaker 1: do believe that it's technically written as the starter, but
Speaker 1: it's not necessarily if Bill, like Bill said this morning,
Speaker 1: we'll see who the starter is. He hasn't named a
Speaker 1: starter yet. So these are all all these media rules
Speaker 1: are are like more like guidelines. Look, it was happy
Speaker 1: last week, Maybe it's Mac this week. Maybe they go
Speaker 1: back to zappy next week. Maybe it's a rotation. Maybe
Speaker 1: Max's gonna do they're platuning the press conference. Um, I
Speaker 1: don't make a ton of it, you know, may maybe
Speaker 1: it is Bill kind of you know, it wasn't a
Speaker 1: good look when he pulled Mac. It wasn't a good look.
Speaker 1: Maybe this is a hey, you're still the guy, You're
Speaker 1: still the starter, like that sort of thing. But I
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't read into that stuff too much.
Speaker 1: I don't read too much because it could also just
Speaker 1: be Look, this is gonna be a tough press conference
Speaker 1: for whoever it is, Mac or Bailey. Right, it's gonna
Speaker 1: be a lot to handle. I feel I feel for
Speaker 1: whoever it is. Maybe this is Max. Max's been here
Speaker 1: for a year and a half, he has more media training.
Speaker 1: They just trust him more in that spot, yeah, to
Speaker 1: answer the questions and say not that they don't trust
Speaker 1: happy to answer the question. He's a rookie. You're throwing
Speaker 1: him into a lot. He also said some things on
Speaker 1: the EI that I think they would have rathered him
Speaker 1: button it up a little bit. But that's besides the point.
Speaker 1: I think, you know that's that's exactly my point, like
Speaker 1: Max's gonna be more prepared. I think the other thing, though,
Speaker 1: is is too is this morning or this afternoon in
Speaker 1: twelve forty five Belichick press conference, I get it looked
Speaker 1: they haven't practiced. He hasn't talked to the team. Maybe.
Speaker 1: I think that was a good point that Paul brought
Speaker 1: up or Fred brought up that, Look, maybe he wants
Speaker 1: to address the team first, and they weren't in. The
Speaker 1: players weren't in yesterday, so they didn't get a chance
Speaker 1: to tell the team first, hey Max starting, or hey
Speaker 1: Bailey's starting, and then you go in tomorrow. We talked
Speaker 1: to Bill again. Maybe tomorrow Bill names a starter for
Speaker 1: this weekend at least right, maybe that's how they're going
Speaker 1: to handle it, and maybe that's the way it will go.
Speaker 1: But by getting up there this morning and giving the
Speaker 1: we'll see, we'll see, we'll see response. Now when Mac
Speaker 1: gets up there at the podium this afternoon, he's gonna
Speaker 1: get peppered by with questions about it. I think it's
Speaker 1: a much different mood and that Mac Jones press conference,
Speaker 1: if it's Bill named him the starter this morning, and
Speaker 1: then he gets up there and he's just asking answering
Speaker 1: questions about starting on Sunday, right right, Like now we're
Speaker 1: almost back to normal. This inviting, I think in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, is inviting the same peppering that Belichick
Speaker 1: took at twelve forty five over the quarterback situation. Is
Speaker 1: now they're now bringing it upon Mac. Right now, Mac
Speaker 1: is going to have to answer the same questions too,
Speaker 1: and be asked the same questions and kind of fall
Speaker 1: on the sword here today for the situation right from
Speaker 1: a player perspective, and that I think is really difficult. Yeah,
Speaker 1: for a player, I do all right? What stands out
Speaker 1: to me on it? Sorry? One quick point, Yeah, you
Speaker 1: go back and I talk about this all the time,
Speaker 1: historical context, right, find the patterns. Bill has been doing
Speaker 1: this for so long, there's down to be tendencies. Last
Speaker 1: time they had any sort of uncertainty at the quarterback
Speaker 1: position was twenty twenty, right, right, And do you remember
Speaker 1: how Bill handled that. Camasas start every chance he got
Speaker 1: and I get The team finished seven to nine. They
Speaker 1: didn't finish where anybody wanted them to finish. But I
Speaker 1: actually think it could have been a lot worse. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would would would build did by continually reaffirming camas
Speaker 1: to start. Was there was direction. Everybody got behind him.
Speaker 1: Cam was a clear leader on and off the field.
Speaker 1: And say what you will about Cam as a player,
Speaker 1: but it never felt like that locker room fell apart.
Speaker 1: It never felt like those guys quit that season right
Speaker 1: where I think it would have been really easy to
Speaker 1: kind of create a battle in the locker room over
Speaker 1: who the quarterback should be. Fast forward to now, I
Speaker 1: would say, there's even more reason to stand. You just
Speaker 1: took Mac Jones in the first round. Right, Cam Newton,
Speaker 1: he didn't have a long term future in New England,
Speaker 1: even if he played well. He was thirty three years old,
Speaker 1: he was on a one year contract. He was not
Speaker 1: a ten year plan kind of guy at that point
Speaker 1: in his career. He wasn't mac Jones could be. Mac
Speaker 1: Jones could be. But you're adding a level uncertainty to
Speaker 1: an inside the building the way and look, maybe Bill's
Speaker 1: gone in there and told him that Max starter, Bailey
Speaker 1: start or whatever. But it's a little striking to see
Speaker 1: how he handled in twenty twenty versus how he's handling
Speaker 1: it now. Yeah, absolutely all right, last caller here on
Speaker 1: the screen, Ben, how are you doing. Hey, y'all, big
Speaker 1: fan of both of you. Quick question, why did Jamie
Speaker 1: Collins open the game at lineback to like against the
Speaker 1: athletic quarterback like justin fields? And who was the quarterback spy?
Speaker 1: Because it kind of felt like the Patriots did not
Speaker 1: have one. And then um, I think it's under the radar,
Speaker 1: but it's Stevenson taking over for David Damian Harris as
Speaker 1: the started. Thanks guys taking it off. Thanks for calling, Ben,
Speaker 1: appreciate it. First question. I wanted to move over to
Speaker 1: the defense, so that's a good segue to answer the
Speaker 1: question about the spy. No, they didn't happen. They didn't
Speaker 1: have one in man coverage. The didn't play a lot
Speaker 1: of man coverage. They played nine snaps in man coverage,
Speaker 1: nineteen in zone, so they didn't play a ton of man.
Speaker 1: But when they did play man, I think I sent
Speaker 1: you the third and fourteen, yeah, where Justin Fields runs
Speaker 1: for for twenty yards and picks up the first down
Speaker 1: wide open. No spy Adrian Phillips is playing robber at
Speaker 1: the sticks. I don't think he was a factor as
Speaker 1: a spy. It's a four man rush, it's man coverage.
Speaker 1: The defense that you know, the secretary has their back
Speaker 1: to the quarterback, non factors and they're just trying to
Speaker 1: keep them in the pocket with the rush and they
Speaker 1: weren't able to do that and they let them out.
Speaker 1: So no spy in man. I thought, from just a
Speaker 1: designer a planned standpoint that was obviously not a good one.
Speaker 1: And this issue that they have with mobile quarterbacks and
Speaker 1: zone coverage is all pass rush related. It's all pass
Speaker 1: rush related. And what's happening is is that you're either
Speaker 1: having guys over pursue or get up the field too
Speaker 1: far and allowing the quarterback to escape through the middle
Speaker 1: of the pocket right the A and B gaps, let's
Speaker 1: call it, or you're just having guys stand there and
Speaker 1: watch the quarterback play quarterback from the pocket, and yeah,
Speaker 1: you're making him throw and beat you from the pocket technically,
Speaker 1: But a lot of NFL quarterbacks, most NFL quarterbacks can
Speaker 1: make throws down the field when they're kept clean if
Speaker 1: there's no pressure. Guys like justin fields, the guy they're
Speaker 1: they're going to play on Sunday that we're going to
Speaker 1: talk about at the end here, Zach Wilson. Zach Wilson's
Speaker 1: numbers when he's kept cleaning the pocket are terrific. When
Speaker 1: he's under pressure, he craters right like that. That's a
Speaker 1: lot mac I think it has similar as so, just
Speaker 1: because you're keeping him in the pocket, if you're not
Speaker 1: getting any pressure on him, that doesn't matter, and then
Speaker 1: he can sit there and make throws and all that
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. But the players that really kill them
Speaker 1: are the ones where they let him out of the
Speaker 1: pocket and he moves the zone with his legs right,
Speaker 1: because all of a sudden he breaks contain. Now he's
Speaker 1: on the run, and guys in zone or pulled towards
Speaker 1: him right, so the whole zone is moving towards the quarterback,
Speaker 1: and then all of the receivers have to do is
Speaker 1: find the soft spots or find the openings and sit
Speaker 1: down and Justin Fields hits them with throws. Those are
Speaker 1: the ones that really kill you because you have good
Speaker 1: initial coverage, you have a good initial rush, and then
Speaker 1: you let him out of the pocket and now he's
Speaker 1: creating almost like a playground scramble drill at that point,
Speaker 1: and those are the ones that are backbreakers, and along
Speaker 1: with like the scrambles on third and fourteen, when you
Speaker 1: give up a first down to on a scramble like
Speaker 1: those are just can't happen because they're so deflating for
Speaker 1: the defense. But we saw this with Justin Josh Allen
Speaker 1: excuse me last year as well, especially like the playoff game.
Speaker 1: I kind of throw out because they were banged up
Speaker 1: and it was just a disaster, right. But the game
Speaker 1: in Foxborough zone coverage, everybody looking at the quarterback and
Speaker 1: people know pressure right, like he's got all day to
Speaker 1: throw behind the line of scrimmage. So those are the
Speaker 1: types of things that they have to get out of.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've always been an advocate of just
Speaker 1: rush them and maybe put a spy out there in
Speaker 1: man coverage, like I think that that's probably the best
Speaker 1: way to handle it. But I think it's sometimes like
Speaker 1: you just gotta gett after him, you know, Like I
Speaker 1: think at some point in time, like I think a
Speaker 1: really interesting quote that Davon Godshaw gave me after the
Speaker 1: game was that Justin Fields wrecked their third down game
Speaker 1: plan because people, the players, the coaches, everybody was thinking
Speaker 1: so much about not letting him beat them with his
Speaker 1: legs and not getting out of the pocket that their
Speaker 1: usual dynamic third down rush package was completely neutralized just
Speaker 1: by Justin Fields's threat of him potentially taking off. And
Speaker 1: I think that they get caught in this no man's
Speaker 1: land of well, we gotta contain, but we got a pressure,
Speaker 1: so we're really kind of doing neither right. And that's
Speaker 1: like what happens so much on these tapes against mobile
Speaker 1: quarterbacks and then the design thing. Runs are a whole
Speaker 1: different ball game, But in terms of passing plays and
Speaker 1: how the mobile quarterbacks affecting it, I just don't think
Speaker 1: that they have any a great grasp on what exactly
Speaker 1: it is are they're trying to do. Are they trying
Speaker 1: to pressure him or they trying to contain him? Like
Speaker 1: which one are they going to go with because right now,
Speaker 1: guys are doing different things. Some guys are going after him,
Speaker 1: some guys are staying back, and it just looks kind
Speaker 1: of like a mess. Honestly, Well, I think what's hurt them.
Speaker 1: They do have some guys who aren't talented enough, and
Speaker 1: it's not easy to find guys like this, But there
Speaker 1: are some guys who are talented enough to do both.
Speaker 1: You look at Matthew Judo, who's a very disciplined rusher
Speaker 1: right can stay in front of a quarterback as long
Speaker 1: as he needs to to ultimately close in and get
Speaker 1: the sack without too much of a risk. Another guy
Speaker 1: like that as Christian Barmore, and they missed him badly
Speaker 1: in this game because Daniel Aquala got turned around a
Speaker 1: couple of times. Sam Roberts on one on his one
Speaker 1: defensive Snapcott turned around. They just they didn't. I almost
Speaker 1: feel like they recognize they didn't have the athleticism to
Speaker 1: go after him, and they were two hands off. There's
Speaker 1: a certain element of you don't want to aggressively pursue
Speaker 1: him too much because when he breaks it, he's going
Speaker 1: to be able to run forever. But by staying as
Speaker 1: off as they did they just naturally created those opportunities. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean the old adages, you don't want to chase
Speaker 1: the chicken, right right, Like you don't you don't want
Speaker 1: to pin your ears back and chase him around the
Speaker 1: field and turn it into a game of tag, right right,
Speaker 1: because Destin Fields is going to beat you in a
Speaker 1: game of tag every single day of the week. But
Speaker 1: unfortunately he did turn it into a game at tag
Speaker 1: because either they were coming after him undisciplined, or they
Speaker 1: weren't coming after him right. They were so far away
Speaker 1: from him that he had room to run anyway, right,
Speaker 1: So it just they got to find a better way
Speaker 1: of striking that balance between the two things. And maybe
Speaker 1: it's by not balancing at all, Like maybe maybe it's
Speaker 1: just like, Okay, this is too difficult to strike a
Speaker 1: balance on this. So instead of trying to do the
Speaker 1: old Star Wars trash compactor and just kind of collapse
Speaker 1: the pocket around him and not let him out, because
Speaker 1: it's kind of hard to push a pocket like that consistently, right,
Speaker 1: So instead of doing that, like we're just gonna let
Speaker 1: four guys go after him, We're gonna put Mac Wilson
Speaker 1: or Kyle Dugger or Adrian Phillips as a spy of
Speaker 1: one of our faster, better tacklers in the open field
Speaker 1: is gonna spy him, and we're just gonna play football, right,
Speaker 1: And I think that that's I hope where the adjustments
Speaker 1: start to come now, Zach will I will say again though,
Speaker 1: getting you know, there's some things in the game you
Speaker 1: look at schematically and how do they change this, and
Speaker 1: that getting Christian ball more back will help with that.
Speaker 1: I think that's that's an issue that maybe you know,
Speaker 1: once they get their personnel back, they'll be in better shape. Yeah,
Speaker 1: quickly On the design quarterback rounds than I want to
Speaker 1: talk about the Jets, yea. The design quarterback rounds I
Speaker 1: think are interesting as well to dissect because well, first
Speaker 1: of all, design quarterback rounds are tough to defend, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: everybody's got problems with design quarterback rounds, especially when you
Speaker 1: have a guy like Lamar or a guy like Justin
Speaker 1: Fields who for statistically and I would say, for my money,
Speaker 1: are the two best running quarterbacks in the league right now,
Speaker 1: and just in terms of pure skill with the ball
Speaker 1: in their hands, right, So, yeah, those guys are just
Speaker 1: tough to tackle. Like they're they're very very good at
Speaker 1: what they do. Now from a numbers standpoint, would would
Speaker 1: always challenges, and the Patriots took advantage of the numbers
Speaker 1: count with Cam and the whole twenty twenty season. The
Speaker 1: one thing they probably did well on offense was taken
Speaker 1: advantage of this, Like when they go empty for instance,
Speaker 1: like they did on the touchdown, and they did it
Speaker 1: again on third down on that QB sweep play. You're
Speaker 1: you're just it's five on five blocking and he's the
Speaker 1: sixth guy and there's unless somebody gets off a block,
Speaker 1: he's gonna pick it up right, Like it's just numbers,
Speaker 1: it's just math, Okay. Now. The one thing that you
Speaker 1: see though with some of these read plays like counter
Speaker 1: reads or gap reads or zone reads, the second read,
Speaker 1: the second level of the defense. I think at times
Speaker 1: we've seen it with Mac Wilson. There was a play
Speaker 1: that I highlighted in my post with Jawan Bentley. I
Speaker 1: discipline is huge because what's happening right now is that
Speaker 1: second level is getting caught trying to read out the
Speaker 1: mesh point like instead of Juwan Bentley just saying I
Speaker 1: got the B gap right, like the poller comes to me.
Speaker 1: I'm meeting him in the gap, and that's my responsibility.
Speaker 1: He's standing there and trying to scan right like he's
Speaker 1: trying to read out and react to the play. So
Speaker 1: what's he ended up doing. He ends up false stepping.
Speaker 1: It makes him easier to block. They get the crease
Speaker 1: on him, and now it's a big play, right, Like
Speaker 1: those are the things that are happening with the design
Speaker 1: quarterback rounds. So run defense in general, it's you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's obvious, like in the fit, like you have
Speaker 1: a responsibility and you got to play team defense like
Speaker 1: your job is your job. My job is my job.
Speaker 1: But even more so with design quarterback runs, you have
Speaker 1: to just I know it's cliche and I know it's
Speaker 1: their mantra around here, but you got to do your
Speaker 1: job right. You can't be a hero. You can't try
Speaker 1: to read out the play. Oh he's given it to
Speaker 1: the back and now I'm going backside b gap to
Speaker 1: you know, the the edge and making the tackle Like,
Speaker 1: don't be a hero, Like just play your gap, Like,
Speaker 1: just play your assignment. And I think if they can
Speaker 1: get back to assignment based football like that, you know,
Speaker 1: I think a lot of people think, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: they don't have the speed, right, how many times do
Speaker 1: we hear that they don't have the team speed, They
Speaker 1: don't have the athleticism in the front seven. They need
Speaker 1: a playmaking linebacker. They need better eyes. That's what they
Speaker 1: need right now. I mean, like, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: mean that literally. I just mean like they need they
Speaker 1: need to be more disciplined with what they're reading and
Speaker 1: how they're playing the scheme. So I don't necessarily think
Speaker 1: that it's like an athleticism thing as much as I
Speaker 1: think it is a eye discipline in a reading thing.
Speaker 1: And those counter read plays, that's what they ran that
Speaker 1: Baltimore ran, and the Bears just copied it, right, they
Speaker 1: just literally took it and they copied it into their
Speaker 1: game plan and they ran the exact same play against
Speaker 1: the Patriots and the exact same results happen. So if
Speaker 1: you can just get the linebacker level back to just
Speaker 1: playing their assignment and not trying to be a hero
Speaker 1: and read out the mesh point and find the football
Speaker 1: and all that kind of stuff, Like pollers come in,
Speaker 1: you gotta press the pollar right, like you meet the
Speaker 1: pollar in the gap. Like that's simple don't worry about
Speaker 1: the handoff. Go in the other direction. Like we got
Speaker 1: guys that are worrying about that. Your responsibility is over here,
Speaker 1: and that I think is what's happening a lot of
Speaker 1: time on the design quarterback rounds. Yeah, anyways, Jets, Jets,
Speaker 1: got to talk about the Jets. I looked up some
Speaker 1: of these numbers this morning. The Patriots won twelve straight
Speaker 1: games against the Jets. Yeah, going back to twenty fifteen.
Speaker 1: The last quarterback to beat the Patriots in a Patriots
Speaker 1: Jets game was. Oh, man, I'm usually good with this thing.
Speaker 1: I know on the spot twenty fifteen. Wow, it was it.
Speaker 1: It wasn't Hackenburg take I don't know who was it?
Speaker 1: Fits magic? Oh, I should have had Ryan cat Track,
Speaker 1: who's now retired. I know what game you're talking about.
Speaker 1: I know exactly what I think. They won by field
Speaker 1: goal right in overtime. Do you remember who the head
Speaker 1: coach of the Jets was that day? Wasn't Ryan anymore? Nope,
Speaker 1: it was it was Todd Bowles to So they've gone
Speaker 1: through since that game. They're on their second head coach,
Speaker 1: right because they went to um of course, now I'm blanking.
Speaker 1: Now they're on Robert Sala obviously, and h Adam Gaze
Speaker 1: Outam Gas. That's right, yeah, Adam Gas. Right, So they're
Speaker 1: on Adam Gays and they go to Roberts. They're on
Speaker 1: their second GM, right, because mccagny gets fired. Now Joe
Speaker 1: Douglas is the general manager. They have started ten different
Speaker 1: quarterbacks since that game. Ten ten different quarterback I started
Speaker 1: what four guys last year? I think, oh yeah, even
Speaker 1: post Brady twenty twenty and twenty twenty one, yeah, four
Speaker 1: or no ye? An average margin of victory of nineteen
Speaker 1: points a game one third. Seven to sixty is the
Speaker 1: aggregate score in those four games with Cam Newton and
Speaker 1: Mac Jones at the quarterback for the Patriots. So even
Speaker 1: post Brady, the Patriots have dominated the Jets. That's the
Speaker 1: one team they've always beaten. Even with all the rebuilding
Speaker 1: and you know, the post Brady stuff, they're still beating
Speaker 1: the crap out of the Jets. But this feels like
Speaker 1: a game the Jets would be favored in. And this
Speaker 1: feels like a game that I'll put you this way.
Speaker 1: This feels like a real football game now right, Like
Speaker 1: this doesn't feel like oh they're playing they get right,
Speaker 1: game right, like they got any easy one this week. Guys,
Speaker 1: don't worry about it. It's the Jets, right. The Jets
Speaker 1: defense is trending in a really positive direction. They're tenth
Speaker 1: in dv OA now their second in this windstreak and
Speaker 1: epa per play. They have a budding defense. Are gonna
Speaker 1: get to Zach in a second because he's still a disaster,
Speaker 1: But their defense is fantastic, And I think when you
Speaker 1: look at the way that they've built their defense, you
Speaker 1: have to give Joe Douglas and Robert saw a lot
Speaker 1: of credit because some people play Matt right and they
Speaker 1: just pick guys off the draft board that are, you know,
Speaker 1: a talented right, Like for the Jets. I think Stingley
Speaker 1: went three right, so they didn't have a chance to
Speaker 1: take to take him right and then and then Sauce
Speaker 1: goes forward to the Jets. But like that would be
Speaker 1: like if they had both corners on the board and
Speaker 1: they pick Stingley instead of Sauce right, because Sauce fits
Speaker 1: exactly what they do, Like he's Richard Sherman two point
Speaker 1: out for round sala Stingle's man coverage guy. Like it
Speaker 1: wouldn't have been a good fit in the in the
Speaker 1: zone scheme that they run. So they've about it's about
Speaker 1: collect it's it's not about collecting talents, about building a team.
Speaker 1: They've built a team. They have on defense. Defense, They've
Speaker 1: built a defense. So I think the couple moves that
Speaker 1: I had, I'll highlight retaining Quinnin Williams and John Franklin
Speaker 1: Myers through the rebuild great decisions by that front office,
Speaker 1: because both of those guys, if you're gonna run this
Speaker 1: Seattle three system, which is what they do, they're play
Speaker 1: zone in the back end three quarters, things like that,
Speaker 1: you gotta have four man pass rush. You gotta be
Speaker 1: able to get home with four because you don't want
Speaker 1: to take guys out of coverage because you're trying to
Speaker 1: cover in zone right, so you don't want to have
Speaker 1: to only drop six or drop five into zone like
Speaker 1: they're gonna be screwed. So you gotta be able to
Speaker 1: get after the quarterback with four. So they retain Quinnon
Speaker 1: Williams and they retain John Franklin Myers through the rebuild,
Speaker 1: two really good moves by them, because those are two
Speaker 1: guys that can get after the quarterback without much bells
Speaker 1: and whistle right they don't need to place, they don't
Speaker 1: need to do stuff like that. At linebacker, Quincy Williams
Speaker 1: is a player that I don't think a lot of
Speaker 1: people know. He is a very athletic linebacker. And when
Speaker 1: you're gonna play zone, you need linebackers that can cover space, right,
Speaker 1: So he's somebody that can do it. And then obviously
Speaker 1: c J. Mosley is a really good and athletic player
Speaker 1: as well. And then what they did with the fourth
Speaker 1: overall pick last year in the draft was draft Sauce,
Speaker 1: who I know a lot of people I put some
Speaker 1: praise for Sauce on Twitter. The boss, Fred Kurch told
Speaker 1: me to be quiet, right, he said, don't don't be
Speaker 1: praising Jets players. But a lot of people came at me.
Speaker 1: All you know, Dpi, right, Like he's always holding guys.
Speaker 1: Go watch Richard Sherman play. He's always holding guys too, right,
Speaker 1: Like that's just he's long, he's physical, that's his style
Speaker 1: of play. But he's six foot three. He's got great
Speaker 1: length to disrupt the catch point. It's almost like throwing
Speaker 1: to it, like buy a soccer goalie, right, because he
Speaker 1: can stand there in zone coverage and just covers so
Speaker 1: much ground with his length. He's got great route recognition
Speaker 1: in zone. And then when they play like some of
Speaker 1: their locked coverages, like their Mabel coverages and things like that,
Speaker 1: where they locked the backside in man, he can cover
Speaker 1: guys in man because he's got the fluidity do that
Speaker 1: as well. He is a Richard Sherman clone. He literally
Speaker 1: he really is. Now we'll see if he ends up
Speaker 1: having that type of career. It's he's seven games in,
Speaker 1: but seven games in fifty one passer rating into his coverage.
Speaker 1: Ten pass breakups through seven games as a rookie leads
Speaker 1: a league in pass breakups. So they got their corner
Speaker 1: and he only plays exactly like Sherman plays his side.
Speaker 1: He's a left corner. He doesn't move, he doesn't travel
Speaker 1: right like he's just going to play his side of
Speaker 1: the field. So that's what they've done defensively. They've really
Speaker 1: built this defense. They're not collecting talent. They know what
Speaker 1: scheme they want to run, they know what Robert Salad does,
Speaker 1: and they have built this defense in Robert Sala's image
Speaker 1: of what the defense should look like. To their credit,
Speaker 1: and I think that they deserve some of the flowers
Speaker 1: that they're getting for the fact that they've built a
Speaker 1: really good roster. They haven't really gone out in free
Speaker 1: agency and had any real terrible contracts, Like I guess
Speaker 1: you could talk about the Corey Davis contract. Maybe not
Speaker 1: the best signing, but they needed receivers and they got
Speaker 1: a receiver kind of like the Patriots the Aghalore and
Speaker 1: Kendrick Bourne or Davante Parker. And they didn't pay him
Speaker 1: twenty five million dollars a year or anything like that.
Speaker 1: He's making manageable money. And they've really done a good
Speaker 1: job in free agency as well of spending but not
Speaker 1: just spending to spend and spending calculated. Now, with all
Speaker 1: that praise aside, and you can for your opinion on
Speaker 1: the defense if you want as well, but all that
Speaker 1: praise aside, Zach Wilson is still Zack Wilson. Yes, And
Speaker 1: that is I think the biggest thing that you look
Speaker 1: at in this game and you say he's not Lamar,
Speaker 1: he's not just in fields. He can move, but he's
Speaker 1: but he's not straight line fast like those two guys are,
Speaker 1: so you're not as worried about him getting out of
Speaker 1: the pocket and running away with the game. So his
Speaker 1: splits when he's kept clean versus under pressure insane. It's
Speaker 1: like him and Mac Unfortunately Mac as well are near
Speaker 1: the bottom in the league and pretty much every metric
Speaker 1: when it comes to pressure, right passer rating, turnovers, p
Speaker 1: F grade, like whatever you want to use. So really,
Speaker 1: you know, when you look at Wilson, it's still a
Speaker 1: big time question mark of whether or not they have
Speaker 1: the quarterback. And you look at their receivers. You know,
Speaker 1: Garrett Wilson, I weird did a lot of Garrett Wilson
Speaker 1: talk and on the old Pod pre drafted. I'm not
Speaker 1: like the biggest Garrett Wilson fan, but he's a good
Speaker 1: player and he's a good receiver. Corey Davis I mentioned
Speaker 1: Elijah Moore is unhappy, but he will see what the
Speaker 1: deal is with him. Yeah, but he can play when
Speaker 1: he plays. They have some receivers. I know Breece Hall
Speaker 1: is a big loss for them, but overall I'm getting
Speaker 1: outs their skill positions are pretty solid as well. Their
Speaker 1: line is still a problem, Zach Wilson's still a problem,
Speaker 1: but pretty much the rest of the roster is in
Speaker 1: pretty good shape. And I think once they addressed the line,
Speaker 1: I think that probably comes first, and then they probably,
Speaker 1: if they're smart, eventually I think they build the line
Speaker 1: out and then I think eventually they move on from
Speaker 1: Zach Wilson as well and restart there too. But it
Speaker 1: goes to show ultimately, you know, look, they've won four straight,
Speaker 1: so they're not exactly in a terrible spot, but it
Speaker 1: goes to show that, like if you don't have the
Speaker 1: quarterback position and figure it out, it still feels like
Speaker 1: a winnable game. Yeah, yeah, I get because they've got
Speaker 1: enough around and it all makes sense what they're doing around.
Speaker 1: I mean, sounds crazy to say it. Jets are kind
Speaker 1: of a well coached team right now. They are outside
Speaker 1: of whatever's going on with Elijah Wis Elijah Moore, But
Speaker 1: I think that's more about Elijah more maybe than the
Speaker 1: coaching staff. It's a bizarre one. Yeah, they know what
Speaker 1: they're doing. Again, they've got to cover up for Zach Wilson.
Speaker 1: I think if you're the Patriots, I think you had
Speaker 1: texted me this like this could be a scene ghost
Speaker 1: game again. Yeah, but you got to take an opportunity
Speaker 1: because if if you get I don't know that the
Speaker 1: Jets are gonna come out and win the game straight up.
Speaker 1: But if you in the past, you could give the
Speaker 1: Jets a couple chances to get back in the game
Speaker 1: and they wouldn't be able to take them. Yeah, if
Speaker 1: you give the Jets chances, they're gonna get back. They're
Speaker 1: gonna get in this game. So that's what it comes
Speaker 1: down to to me. And they're gonna play great defense. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're pretty clean on special teams as Belichicks, They're gonna
Speaker 1: keep that margin of error very time, right, So they're
Speaker 1: gonna make you drive the field most of the timeless
Speaker 1: you can pick Zach Wilson off, which is maybe possible.
Speaker 1: But this, to me is one of those games for
Speaker 1: the Patriots to kind of get into, like how the
Speaker 1: Patriots attack this, right? I think this is one of
Speaker 1: these games for the Patriots where if you're the Patriots defense,
Speaker 1: you have to come after Zach Wilson. You have to
Speaker 1: basically dictate the terms of the game by being aggressive defensively,
Speaker 1: and you really need forget about like, oh, we gotta
Speaker 1: put the pressure on Zach Wilson and put the game
Speaker 1: on his No, no, no, you'd have to come after
Speaker 1: him like right off the bat, because the one thing
Speaker 1: that you're gonna need to do is You're really gonna
Speaker 1: have to find ways to give the offense short fields
Speaker 1: because I don't think that the Patriots offense and the
Speaker 1: current state that it is in, is going to drive
Speaker 1: the field consistently against this Jets defense. The defense is
Speaker 1: playing out of its mind. So I don't think you're
Speaker 1: gonna go seventy five yards on the Jets defense too
Speaker 1: often right now, especially the way that they play. They
Speaker 1: really limit explosive plays with the zone, so like they
Speaker 1: don't really give up chunk yardage. So you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to matriculate your way down the field if you're gonna
Speaker 1: do it. So if they're in the Zappie offense is doable.
Speaker 1: If they're in the Mac offense, that's that's not how
Speaker 1: the Mac offense operates. So it adds to kind of
Speaker 1: the weirdness of all right. So but ultimately I think
Speaker 1: you really need to This needs to be like a
Speaker 1: seeing ghost kind of game, right, Like you need to
Speaker 1: pick off Zach Wilson two or three times. They had
Speaker 1: a game like that last year in Week two, right,
Speaker 1: they offense didn't really play very well. Mac is his
Speaker 1: second art in the NFL. Wasn't one of his better
Speaker 1: games as a pro, and they were able to pick
Speaker 1: off I think they picked him off three times by
Speaker 1: like the first drive, right, it was twice name JC
Speaker 1: at two right, I think j C had too, and
Speaker 1: I think the first one that Jac had was like
Speaker 1: the second play of the game. Right. So you have
Speaker 1: to have a couple of those types of turnovers or
Speaker 1: field flipping type of plays by the defense where you're
Speaker 1: able to really put the offense, put it on a
Speaker 1: silver platter right for the offense and say, now you
Speaker 1: get the ball at the at the Jets thirty yard line,
Speaker 1: like please get a touchdown, right, you know, one of
Speaker 1: those types of things, or another five Nick Folk field goals. Yeah. Sure,
Speaker 1: but this Jets defense is legit. It is and I
Speaker 1: did against the Packers. They did it last week obviously
Speaker 1: as well against Brett Rabin. So I'm not going to
Speaker 1: give them even with the pack has been But yes,
Speaker 1: it's a good defense. It's still it's still the Packers.
Speaker 1: And they dominated the Packers. It wasn't like they you know,
Speaker 1: played decent against the Packers. There was a flat out
Speaker 1: domination defense side of the ball um. But yeah, look,
Speaker 1: I this is you need to take the game from
Speaker 1: Zach Wilson, right like you need to force Zach Wilson
Speaker 1: to give you the football game because straight up right now,
Speaker 1: like this is a tough game for the Patriots, Like
Speaker 1: just looking at their tough matchup, Yeah, tough matchup, looking
Speaker 1: at their offense against the Jets defense. I have to
Speaker 1: give it to the Jets right now, Like I have
Speaker 1: to say that the Jets defense is better, and kudos
Speaker 1: to them. They They've built a good d and they
Speaker 1: have a lot of young talent on both sides of
Speaker 1: the ball, and some of it's hurt, right like Elijah
Speaker 1: Vera Tucker and Breece Hall are hurt, which hurts them
Speaker 1: on offense. But they have a lot of really good
Speaker 1: young talent on this roster. It's a fun team. I
Speaker 1: hate to say that. It sounds like disgusting coming on
Speaker 1: the bath, but it's a it's a fun team. But
Speaker 1: if you're the Patriots, you gotta hang your hat on
Speaker 1: the fact that they don't have a quarterback. I still don't.
Speaker 1: I still it all goes back to that. Until you know,
Speaker 1: as long as you can take advance. We kind of
Speaker 1: saw this with the Patriots last weekendst the Bears. If
Speaker 1: you can take advantge of the quarterback situation, any game
Speaker 1: is winnable. Yeah, And I also would say that, you know,
Speaker 1: we mentioned that that Wilson can move around a little bit.
Speaker 1: They do move the pocket right, so they they're they're
Speaker 1: shanahan ish. I wouldn't say that it's like full on Shanahan,
Speaker 1: but they do have the bootlegs and stuff like that.
Speaker 1: At times. They run some RPO on early downs as
Speaker 1: well to get the ball out of his hands quickly,
Speaker 1: and he's pretty good at those um But he's again
Speaker 1: the type of quarterback that I still think you can
Speaker 1: pin your ears back, like. He's not totally like he's
Speaker 1: not Jared Goff right, Like he can move around a
Speaker 1: little bit more than that. But maybe he's like Jacobe
Speaker 1: Rissette right, like you know, you're still not deal. He's
Speaker 1: more mobile than Jacoby, I would say, but yeah, he's not.
Speaker 1: He's not justin fields or Jackson. So I think this
Speaker 1: is one of those games we're talking about earlier where
Speaker 1: you might just need to let the pass rush pass
Speaker 1: rush right, like you've gotta let them. The one guy
Speaker 1: who really looked good on defense for the page well
Speaker 1: there were three. I thought Marcus Jones and Jacket Jack
Speaker 1: Jones both had good games, but Matthew Judon is the
Speaker 1: one guy who's kind of been impervious to all of this. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you need him in this game big time. Yeah, let
Speaker 1: stunt the line. Let Judon go after him. Like you know,
Speaker 1: Joon says he has those plays or he just has
Speaker 1: a full go, right, they don't tell him to contain
Speaker 1: or anything like that. I need like four or five
Speaker 1: of those in this game. It could be it could
Speaker 1: be like just well, I bring up the rookie corner
Speaker 1: Zoe specifically, Jack could be a big game because, like
Speaker 1: you said, you're gonna need a blitz in this one. Yeah,
Speaker 1: those guys are gonna be out on an island, I
Speaker 1: think quite a bit if you can't play it the
Speaker 1: right way. And you know, it's not the Bengals or
Speaker 1: or the Rams in terms of the receiving core, but
Speaker 1: they've got some real NFL talent there, and we know
Speaker 1: what Jalen Mills can do. But for Jack Jones, for
Speaker 1: Marcus Jones, I think this is gonna be a big
Speaker 1: test for them. They're gonna kind of be putting spots
Speaker 1: where the team's really going to rely on them without
Speaker 1: help to be able to lock some of these guys down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and I think a lot of it too, will be
Speaker 1: off man, which is Jack prefers where Jack wants to be,
Speaker 1: and that allows him to not only you know, you're
Speaker 1: playing man coverage, but allows him to see the quarterback. Right,
Speaker 1: So there's gonna be opportunities to intercept balls, Like, there's
Speaker 1: gonna be opportunities to pick him off. Yes, and Jack Jones.
Speaker 1: I if Jack Jones doesn't have an interception in this game,
Speaker 1: then I'd be surprised, and that's not good for the paper.
Speaker 1: That's that means that they didn't do the plan, Like,
Speaker 1: they didn't execute what they were trying to execute, all right,
Speaker 1: So we'll see, Well, we'll come back next week and
Speaker 1: see what this game looks like. I still don't think
Speaker 1: either one of these teams are in an elite tier
Speaker 1: where this is like a statement game of any sort
Speaker 1: for either one, right, Like, I don't know if like
Speaker 1: I'm gonna come out of this game and be like, oh, well,
Speaker 1: maybe the Patriots aren't what we saw on Monday night
Speaker 1: like and be fully all in, or if the Jets
Speaker 1: win in rattle off five straight like, I still don't
Speaker 1: think I'm gonna be like, oh, well, maybe the Jets
Speaker 1: are contenders, right, they'd beat the Patriots. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, like that, you know, I think that this
Speaker 1: is a big game for both teams. The Jets need
Speaker 1: to get the monkey off the back, right, like they
Speaker 1: need to beat the Patriots for the first time since
Speaker 1: Ryan Fitzpatrick and Todd Bowls are running the ship in
Speaker 1: New York, and for the Pats, a big bounce back
Speaker 1: this week for sure. Yeah, all right, So we'll be
Speaker 1: back next week, same time, same place, two to three pm,
Speaker 1: or on the re air on the anywhere you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts, right Spotify, Apple, Google, anywhere you get your pods,
Speaker 1: you can find Patriots Catch twenty two. But until next time.
Speaker 1: Signing off for Alex Barth, I'm Evan Lazar. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening everybody, and we'll see you next Wednesday. Thank you
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