Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch twenty two Podcasts with Evan
Speaker 1: Lazar and Alex Barth. I'm in Lazar, Lazar, Lazar. Well,
Speaker 1: everybody nailed it, joined us always buying our Barak David
Speaker 1: match no rescheduled. Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Barr.
Speaker 1: Don't worry. Evan will be back in the host chair
Speaker 1: next week and he'll run this thing much more efficiently
Speaker 1: than I just did. Apparently. Hello, everybody, welcome into a
Speaker 1: new addition to the Patriots Catch twenty two podcast. Evan
Speaker 1: Lazar with me as always, Alex Barth back in the studio.
Speaker 1: Not to see you, buddy, Good to see you as well.
Speaker 1: Not in Arizona. Good to be seen. It was a
Speaker 1: long week in the desert. It wasn't as warm as
Speaker 1: I was hoping it was gonna be with like this
Speaker 1: old right, it's like in the fifties, so not cold.
Speaker 1: It was definitely better than it was here. But I
Speaker 1: did want to talk about that a little bit because
Speaker 1: I think unfortunately what happened on Sunday got in the
Speaker 1: way of any conversations of what happened out in Arizona
Speaker 1: and things like that. So we'll try to touch on
Speaker 1: some of that. But at the top of the show,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna let you decide because I'm on the fence
Speaker 1: about this a little bit because we've talked about it
Speaker 1: at nauseum over the last two days on Unfiltered, well
Speaker 1: obviously all wrote about it the last play of the game. Like,
Speaker 1: we can talk about it, we can dissect it, we
Speaker 1: can talk about what we think it means and all
Speaker 1: that kind of stuff, but I don't want it to
Speaker 1: be the crux of the show, right, Like I don't
Speaker 1: want it to be the majority of that. You're talking
Speaker 1: about the play, not the game itself, correct, right, the
Speaker 1: last play of the game on Sunday. All right, let
Speaker 1: you know what, let's just do that. You want to
Speaker 1: start on a really light, stupid note, just because I
Speaker 1: think we all need that. Sure, what do we call
Speaker 1: on those things? Right? There's the miracle in Miami had
Speaker 1: a decent one. First of all, we're not supposed to
Speaker 1: name it, Okay, like we're we're supposed to name it.
Speaker 1: What is your pitch? I'm gonna steal deuces, which is
Speaker 1: collateral damage, which isn't bad, you know, because collateral Right,
Speaker 1: So now we're talking about it, So let's just let's
Speaker 1: just get this out. So the biggest thing that I
Speaker 1: I don't get to give mine. Oh yeah, sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 1: So I think disaster in the desert. But the best
Speaker 1: one I've heard is what happens in Vegas. Well, this one,
Speaker 1: I don't know if it's if it's going to stay
Speaker 1: in Vegas. That's that's why it's interesting. So my I
Speaker 1: have two takes, and I'll give them again for people
Speaker 1: that just listen to our show because it's the best one, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, of course, right. So the first one is
Speaker 1: that I wish I could sit here and say that
Speaker 1: that was a one off thing, like the Miami Miracle.
Speaker 1: To me was a one off, right, like that they
Speaker 1: won the Super Bowl that never happened. I was never
Speaker 1: worried about the psyche of that team shattering. I was
Speaker 1: maybe worried about the ceiling of that team, right, because
Speaker 1: we did start to see in twenty eighteen. We had
Speaker 1: already started to see some of the decay right of
Speaker 1: the roster at that point. But I wasn't worried about
Speaker 1: the psyche of the team because they had Brady, they
Speaker 1: had Gronk, they had Edelman, they had all these veteran players,
Speaker 1: you know, Devin mccordy five years younger at that point
Speaker 1: in time. So I wasn't totally worried about the psyche
Speaker 1: of the team with that one. I wish I could
Speaker 1: say that this was a one off for this team.
Speaker 1: But to me, and we're going to get to all
Speaker 1: the other issues that they had in this game on
Speaker 1: Sunday too, litany of issues. To me, this is indicative
Speaker 1: of this is maybe not maybe this is the most
Speaker 1: exaggerated or the like the biggest thing, but this team
Speaker 1: has not been a smart football team all year long, right,
Speaker 1: Like they've been a sloppy, undisciplined, especially on offense operation
Speaker 1: all year long, pre snap penalties, not lining up correctly
Speaker 1: and not running the right plays, having issues getting plays
Speaker 1: in off the sideline into the like this is all
Speaker 1: year long. Now, this is it on steroids, right, This
Speaker 1: is like it to the tenth degree, right. But I
Speaker 1: still feel like this was they had, this was coming,
Speaker 1: like they had something like this coming that they were
Speaker 1: going because they were not buttoned up that they were
Speaker 1: going to have a moment like this in this season.
Speaker 1: I didn't could never have imagined it would have been that,
Speaker 1: but it felt like this was coming in some sort
Speaker 1: of way. Well, what in what sucks is the two
Speaker 1: guys on offense who have consistently been above it, right.
Speaker 1: And there's been guys that have had nice stretches here
Speaker 1: and there, But the two guys who have made it
Speaker 1: work consistently throughout the roller coaster of this season have
Speaker 1: been Ramond Ray Stevenson and Jacobe Myers. They've shown up,
Speaker 1: They've done their part. They're really the two guys that
Speaker 1: have been above I don't want to say above criticism,
Speaker 1: but they've been, for lack of better term, they've done
Speaker 1: their jobs. And for those two guys to be involved
Speaker 1: here is just so striking right because Jacoby Myers is
Speaker 1: such a smart football player and that was such a
Speaker 1: bad decision that he made. Now, I will say, to
Speaker 1: your overall point, I think you hit it on the head.
Speaker 1: I was on Patriots post game after the game on
Speaker 1: ninety eight five Sports ub and yeah, my first thought,
Speaker 1: and I found myself yelling at times throughout the game
Speaker 1: this is stuff that all right, when we go out
Speaker 1: there for training camp, right, or when we're out there
Speaker 1: in the spring, right, we hear Belichick use the phrase,
Speaker 1: and we'll use the phrase a lot install period in
Speaker 1: teaching period, right, you know that it's like the third
Speaker 1: day of camp and we're asking Bill about, well, what
Speaker 1: do you see from this player? And every year we
Speaker 1: have this conversation, he says, well, it's still the teaching period.
Speaker 1: We're not in the evaluation period yet of camp. This
Speaker 1: is the stuff they're teaching. This is the stuff they're installing,
Speaker 1: the plays themselves, how they're called, where everybody should line up, substitutions,
Speaker 1: like a lot of that procedural stuff. Yeah, that's what
Speaker 1: they go over in the spring in the first couple
Speaker 1: of days of camp. So nobody's gonna be You're gonna
Speaker 1: have mistakes in it over the course of the season,
Speaker 1: like you're not gonna be perfect all season, but for
Speaker 1: it to show up as regularly as it does on
Speaker 1: a week to week basis and as often as it
Speaker 1: does within the games, it is striking to see because again,
Speaker 1: this is stuff that you kind of work on in
Speaker 1: the spring, like going back to the spring, some of
Speaker 1: the first stuff you work on. Yeah, And the other
Speaker 1: thing that bugs me about this play and just in
Speaker 1: general that I've talked about a little bit as well,
Speaker 1: So I realized I sound like a broken record to
Speaker 1: some people that listen across all across the board here.
Speaker 1: But I'm still really bothered by the way that the
Speaker 1: coaching staff has handled this whole thing. And it started
Speaker 1: with that postgame press conference from Belichick saying mistakes were
Speaker 1: made on the play and then saying that Mac Jones
Speaker 1: couldn't reach the end zone. Okay, may hang on. Can
Speaker 1: I as like the chief Mac defender address that. No,
Speaker 1: if you're gonna say it's because they don't have the
Speaker 1: protection and like all that, No, that's not what I'm
Speaker 1: gonna say. Like maybe he meant that, And initially I
Speaker 1: want to give him the benefit of the doubt on that,
Speaker 1: I don't anymore. Yeah, we have seen Mac throw the
Speaker 1: ball that far. Oh yeah, So unless there's some injury
Speaker 1: we don't know about, that's just not true. It's just
Speaker 1: a it's a lie, and it's a lie in the
Speaker 1: sense that in my opinion, and this is and look,
Speaker 1: I hate doing this kind of stuff, but I actually
Speaker 1: agree with your counterparts on ninety eight five and some
Speaker 1: of the rate Talk radio points here with this is that,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, it's covering up for Patricia and him, right, say,
Speaker 1: oh well, Oh yeah, we we we called a job
Speaker 1: because we felt like the players couldn't execute a hill
Speaker 1: Mary right like that. That That's what I'm hearing. And
Speaker 1: the other thing that has bugged me was that yesterday
Speaker 1: and Marine Matt's now heard this take like three times.
Speaker 1: Yesterday we talked to assistant coaches. Now, I will say this,
Speaker 1: They've had a rotation for who we get to talk
Speaker 1: to been alphabetically, I think, right, all season long. So
Speaker 1: I get that this is already a formulaic thing that
Speaker 1: was decided when the season started of how they were
Speaker 1: going to rotate because by league rules, once a week
Speaker 1: the Patriots have to make coordinators available. Now they don't
Speaker 1: have an offensive and defensive coordinator by name or by title,
Speaker 1: I should say, they don't have one. So that is
Speaker 1: a loophole that they've been able to rotate the coaches
Speaker 1: in and out one at a time and basically limit
Speaker 1: the amount of exposure to the media that Matt Patricia gets.
Speaker 1: I think he's taught, he's spoken, and they rotate the
Speaker 1: offensive coach. So there's two, right, there's the offensive coaches,
Speaker 1: we get one a week in the defensive coaches by
Speaker 1: the week. So doing the math in my head one, two, three, four, five,
Speaker 1: there's five guys, six guys who speak. I think Ross
Speaker 1: Douglas has spoken, right, yes, Billy Yates doesn't doesn't so
Speaker 1: he's not so six six times around in fifteen weeks.
Speaker 1: And I remember them saying at the beginning of the year,
Speaker 1: it's alphabeticalue I don't I might be making that up,
Speaker 1: but it feels Patricia would be at the end of that.
Speaker 1: And he spoke last week between the Cardinals game and
Speaker 1: the Radios game, so I think that means he's spoken twice,
Speaker 1: maybe three times. And there's been a handful of times
Speaker 1: all the coaches have spoken, but it hasn't been much. Right.
Speaker 1: So last year, for example, just to make sure everybody
Speaker 1: understands what we're saying, Josh McDaniels would speak every Tuesday, right,
Speaker 1: cam Accord speaks every Tuesday because they're coordinating. And then
Speaker 1: speaking of last year, it would be we'd get Steve
Speaker 1: Belichick one week, we get Geradmeyo another week, we get
Speaker 1: Mike Pellegrino another week, and DeMarcus DeMarcus Covington right, And
Speaker 1: I couldn't remember if he spoke last year. On they rotate,
Speaker 1: they rotated through that right, because there was no by
Speaker 1: title defensive coordinator. So I get that. It's a formula.
Speaker 1: It's a formula, right, it's a it's a system that
Speaker 1: they have in place here. With that being said, when
Speaker 1: you lose a game like that, when you lose a
Speaker 1: game like the way that they lost it, and I
Speaker 1: and we're gonna get to the defense the way right,
Speaker 1: the way doesn't just mean that play. It means the
Speaker 1: totality of the You have a seven point lely with
Speaker 1: three minutes to go, and you find, through a comedy
Speaker 1: of errors, you blow. I wouldn't even go back before that.
Speaker 1: I had questions for Patricia about things that happened before that.
Speaker 1: Well whole line seen. Yeah. My point being is when
Speaker 1: you when a game goes that way offensively, and you
Speaker 1: lose a game like that at the end, and then
Speaker 1: you don't have the play callers available on both sides
Speaker 1: of the football, right, you don't make those guys available
Speaker 1: for us to be able to ask them that. Quite frankly,
Speaker 1: the tougher questions, Dad, I don't think I think that's unfair,
Speaker 1: and I'm not talking about to me. I think that
Speaker 1: that's unfair to the fans, right, it's also unfair to
Speaker 1: the players because we're and most importantly to play. Let's
Speaker 1: start there. I mean, what, right, here's the thing. I've
Speaker 1: always defended Bill Belichick, and this I've probably haven't getting
Speaker 1: given this take as much openly since I started covering
Speaker 1: the Patriots professionally, but going back to when I as
Speaker 1: a kid, Right, I've always kind of thought Bill Belichick's
Speaker 1: deferral to the media was and granted this is when
Speaker 1: they were winning regularly. Well, you don't want to put
Speaker 1: anything out there by accident that's either going to tip
Speaker 1: the opponent off or cause issues within your own room
Speaker 1: or whatever. Right, at the end of the day, what
Speaker 1: the fans want to see is wins. If being short
Speaker 1: spoken in public means you win more games, it's a
Speaker 1: trade off to fan should be happy with, yes, So
Speaker 1: I don't look at it that way. Now my issue
Speaker 1: would be in line with your take. What what do
Speaker 1: you think the scene's going to be to talk to
Speaker 1: Jacobe Myers today in the locker room, to talk to
Speaker 1: him monder Stevens in the locker room questions that maybe
Speaker 1: Matt Patricia could have answered yesterday and taken some of
Speaker 1: the heat off that, right, you know, he wasn't. And
Speaker 1: I think Nick Kayley was asked one or two questions
Speaker 1: about it, but not a ton because it's just that's
Speaker 1: that's not his role, right, right, So to Matt Patricia, Right,
Speaker 1: if we get to talk to him yesterday, Nick Kayley
Speaker 1: was asked because he was the one who spoke yes right,
Speaker 1: he was the If we got to talk to him yesterday,
Speaker 1: we could ask him, Hey, what did you radio in? Right? Like?
Speaker 1: What was said in the huddle? Like, was it said,
Speaker 1: we're gonna run a draw and if nothing is there,
Speaker 1: you immediately go down and we go into over. The
Speaker 1: score is tied. The score is tied. The score is tied, right, Like,
Speaker 1: that's what you should be saying, right, is continuously in
Speaker 1: saying to Mac, Mac, make sure that all eleven guys
Speaker 1: on the field understand that the last thing that you
Speaker 1: can do is be careless with the football, right Like,
Speaker 1: that's the last like we are playing for overtime? Was
Speaker 1: that said? And I don't know if we would get
Speaker 1: a straight answer, but I would also look at Steve,
Speaker 1: and this is kind of segueing into what I really
Speaker 1: want to talk about today, which is breaking this all down.
Speaker 1: I would also ask Steve Belichick, who's every time that
Speaker 1: the Patriots have a good defensive game plan and they
Speaker 1: call a good defensive game, and they have and they
Speaker 1: win the game on Steve called a great game, right,
Speaker 1: So Steve's the play caller on the defensive side of football.
Speaker 1: What I posted on Twitter last night the play calls
Speaker 1: on the completions on the final drive for the Raiders, right,
Speaker 1: the touchdown drive for the Raiders. And they went on
Speaker 1: the three big completions in the game or in that drive,
Speaker 1: the twenty yard or up the seam and the touchdown.
Speaker 1: It's standard zone, standard four man rush, no blitz, no
Speaker 1: simulated pressure, nothing right, just four man right rush. So
Speaker 1: you went vanilla in the in the biggest moment of
Speaker 1: the game, you went vanilla, Like that's what you did.
Speaker 1: Like all game long. You got Judean dropping j drop
Speaker 1: into Vye, dropping Bentley, blitzing McMillan, like you're doing all
Speaker 1: this stuff. They ran fire zones with the slot, blitzing
Speaker 1: Miles Bryant off the edge, right like they're doing all
Speaker 1: these different exotic stuff all game long. And then on
Speaker 1: the final drive of the game when you need to
Speaker 1: protect the end zone, they just rushed four guys, And
Speaker 1: it wasn't like they just lined up four guys on
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage and those four guys rushed the
Speaker 1: quarterback right like that was. It wasn't anything fancy at all.
Speaker 1: So without being able to know the answer those questions,
Speaker 1: and you can call in and ask us questions at
Speaker 1: eight five five Pats five hundred, or you can email
Speaker 1: in at web radio at Patriots apologize for not getting
Speaker 1: people's calls last week. Yeah, I got a little caught
Speaker 1: up with the draft. I we're gonna get draft questions today,
Speaker 1: by the way. You know that. I want to start
Speaker 1: on the offensive side of the football, and I want
Speaker 1: to go down the list of what I look. No, wait,
Speaker 1: I want you to finish what you were saying, because
Speaker 1: I cut you off, You cut yourself off, and then
Speaker 1: I cut you off without getting the answer to those
Speaker 1: questions from the coaches. What happens, we don't know. But
Speaker 1: what are we doing. We don't know. We speculate, and
Speaker 1: that's not good for anybody. We speculate, and that's because
Speaker 1: I want you to finish that point, because it's an
Speaker 1: important point. We speculate and then guys get thrown under
Speaker 1: the bus that maybe he shouldn't get thrown under the
Speaker 1: bus and it creates a bad environment. Yeah, and that's
Speaker 1: the crux if you're like, I want to make sure
Speaker 1: we don't leave that part un said, because that's the
Speaker 1: crux of your whole argument here. That's accountability the right
Speaker 1: and the biggest thing is is it's accountability to the players.
Speaker 1: Because I was in the scrum with Jacobe Myers. I
Speaker 1: was in the podium room when Max spoke and Ramandre
Speaker 1: spoke and Jacobe Myers and look, I'm not trying to,
Speaker 1: I'm not trying to. The play was dumb. It was dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.
Speaker 1: But Jakobe Myers stood there with what we thought were
Speaker 1: tears in his eye. It looked like that, and eyes
Speaker 1: were very red like he looked like he've been crying.
Speaker 1: And he owned it. He wouldn't let us deflect blame.
Speaker 1: He wouldn't let us point fingers at anybody else. He
Speaker 1: looked me in the eye and said, I promise you
Speaker 1: this was my fault. It wasn't. They didn't call for lateral.
Speaker 1: Patricia didn't throw me off, Mac didn't throw me off
Speaker 1: from this was me, Like, do not put it. Basically,
Speaker 1: he was saying to us, do not put this on
Speaker 1: anybody else. Do not make this about everybody else. I
Speaker 1: made a dumb play, so he took total ownership of it.
Speaker 1: Ramandre then went to the podium and said, I'm the
Speaker 1: one that started the whole chain of events, so it's
Speaker 1: my fault too. I should have just gone down. And
Speaker 1: then Mac gets to the podium and says he should
Speaker 1: have tackled Chandler Jones, which, okay, hang on, hang on,
Speaker 1: passed the quarterback. I have seen so many people say, well,
Speaker 1: if only Matt could tackle better. First of all, if
Speaker 1: Mac's biggest issue was his tackling ability, the Patriots would
Speaker 1: be great Patriots. If your quarterbacks biggest problem is he
Speaker 1: can't tackle, you're in a fantastic spot quarterback wise. There's
Speaker 1: plenty to knock back four quarterback right related in that game.
Speaker 1: Second of all, if your game plan, if your game
Speaker 1: comes down to your six foot three, two hundred and
Speaker 1: seventeen pound quarterbacks has to tackle, I'm going by wikipedia,
Speaker 1: six three has to tackle a six foot six whatever
Speaker 1: it is, has to tackle a six foot six, two
Speaker 1: hundred and sixty pound defensive lineman who also happens to
Speaker 1: be one of the best pure athletes in the league.
Speaker 1: If that's what your game comes down to, it's you've
Speaker 1: already lost. You've lost for putting yourself in that situation.
Speaker 1: Not three, We'll call it two A. How many quarterbacks
Speaker 1: in the league realistically can make that tackle? Like three
Speaker 1: or four? Maybe like Josh Allen probably could. The name
Speaker 1: I saw somebody bring up his big bend back in
Speaker 1: the day. Yeah, he's probably gonna put up their wattle
Speaker 1: over there. Well like Prime Ben. Yeah, you know who
Speaker 1: are the other like just big lurking. Aren't that many
Speaker 1: of those guys anymore? Right? So Kobe, maybe all the
Speaker 1: other players took accountability for it to the point that
Speaker 1: Mack is saying that he should have tackled Chandler Jones,
Speaker 1: and yet we hear nothing from the coaches and why
Speaker 1: why that's important? And we're probably delving into some psychology
Speaker 1: stuff here is when you see you guys say that
Speaker 1: you know and you're and look, we work together, right,
Speaker 1: And I'm using a smaller scale example here, but we
Speaker 1: work together and one of us would make a mistake usually, mate,
Speaker 1: and I don't it. And if I was just sitting
Speaker 1: there not talking about it. You probably would have been like,
Speaker 1: let's kid, just keep screwing up. He's not saying anything
Speaker 1: about if you own it. It's you're you're showing those
Speaker 1: around you, those you work with. Hey, I know I
Speaker 1: messed up. I want to get better. This is on me, Like,
Speaker 1: let's move. That's the kind of guy you can get behind.
Speaker 1: That's the kind of guy you keep working you want
Speaker 1: to keep working with, versus a guy who I mean,
Speaker 1: nobody's pointing fingers that anybody else, which is good, but
Speaker 1: not saying anything isn't great either. I think the coach
Speaker 1: pointed fingers, did everybody else? Bill actually did it a
Speaker 1: little bit. You're right, I don't think players are players
Speaker 1: are not. No, they're definitely no. The player again, it's
Speaker 1: a stupid play. Not to defend the play. It's a
Speaker 1: really bad play. It's going to go down as one
Speaker 1: of the dumbest players in NFL history. Yeah, but in
Speaker 1: terms of how you respond to something like that, a
Speaker 1: plus from the players. Okay, So I want to talk
Speaker 1: about the actual access and knows and get into this
Speaker 1: a little bit now that we had our moments to
Speaker 1: rant a little bit about this situation. Twenty three minute moment. Typical,
Speaker 1: very typical of us. We might not have started to
Speaker 1: write it too, but about that very typical. Uh, let's
Speaker 1: start with Mac. And I wanted to tell people beforehand
Speaker 1: that I I've I've separated the offensive issues here into buckets,
Speaker 1: so it's not I'm not just gonna point to Mac
Speaker 1: as an issue. Mac. I have a receiver issues and
Speaker 1: I have play calling issues, right because I actually thought
Speaker 1: the one thing that kind of escaped my flamethrower this
Speaker 1: week was the offensive line. They were fine, they were fine. Okay, Yeah,
Speaker 1: you go up against a really good edge rusher Duo
Speaker 1: Crosby and Chandler Jones had their moments, they made their
Speaker 1: impactful plays, but they didn't take over the game and
Speaker 1: you rush for two hundred yards like you were fine
Speaker 1: up front? Okay, But I want to start with Mac,
Speaker 1: and I think that there's some more psychology stuff that
Speaker 1: we will probably get into, but I want to start
Speaker 1: with mechanical issues that I'm seeing with Mac Jones, because
Speaker 1: I think that this is from an execution and why
Speaker 1: all the throws were getting sprayed all over the place,
Speaker 1: especially in the first half, Like why that was happening.
Speaker 1: A lot of it to me by watching it back
Speaker 1: is mechanical, and I think the biggest thing that you
Speaker 1: see with him is so there's like four points of
Speaker 1: mechanics with the quarterback. Right, there's defeat, there's his hips,
Speaker 1: there's his shoulders, and his eyes right like eyes obviously
Speaker 1: is a little bit more about mental than physical, but
Speaker 1: all four of those things need to be in sync
Speaker 1: to execute a perfect pass. And the biggest thing that
Speaker 1: you want to see is that kinetic energy right from
Speaker 1: the ground up, Like everything should start from your feet
Speaker 1: and like you should see the energy flow up the
Speaker 1: body and see it all uncoil at the same time.
Speaker 1: And a lot of what I'm seeing with Mac and
Speaker 1: I think a lot of this stems from how he
Speaker 1: handles pressure as well, is that he does not throw
Speaker 1: from a great base. He doesn't throw from a wide
Speaker 1: step into it, you know, solid foundation from the waist down.
Speaker 1: So what's happening is is he's he's not really getting
Speaker 1: that platform on the ground. And when he doesn't get
Speaker 1: that platform on the ground, he is trying to then
Speaker 1: use his torso and use his shoulders and his upper
Speaker 1: body to snap the throw right right, and his front
Speaker 1: shoulder is flying open as a result, So he's thrown
Speaker 1: from this skinny platform and then his front shoulders flying open,
Speaker 1: So naturally what's happening is that he's not going getting
Speaker 1: through the football and so he's sailing passes. So that's
Speaker 1: why when he had those back to back throws in
Speaker 1: the flat, the ball's sailed and nowhere near the target
Speaker 1: is because that front shoulders flying open, his feet aren't
Speaker 1: really pointed in, you know, in a really solid direction,
Speaker 1: and he's just airmailing the ball. The John who Smith
Speaker 1: what you know? We can The route wasn't great by
Speaker 1: either Smith or Tai Kwon, to be honest with you.
Speaker 1: But the throw sailed. Okay, it was a bad throw.
Speaker 1: This throws sailed because Max Crosby's coming off the right
Speaker 1: side and Mac didn't want to step into it because
Speaker 1: Max Crosby's right in his face and once again he's
Speaker 1: he's throwing it from that bad platform and the ball
Speaker 1: sales on him. So this really started against Buffalo, and
Speaker 1: I kind of wanted to call it a one off
Speaker 1: and against Buffalo and see if it progressed again last
Speaker 1: week against Arizona. He didn't throw the ball down the
Speaker 1: field all that much, so it didn't really come up right,
Speaker 1: And then this week he threw the ball down the
Speaker 1: field more and these mechanical issues are coming up again.
Speaker 1: So what I my read on on the whole thing,
Speaker 1: and again this is sort of again armchair psychology, is
Speaker 1: that physically he's now mechanically broken because mentally he's so
Speaker 1: frustrated with what's going on that now it's starting to
Speaker 1: impact his physical right. Yeah, I mean I think he's
Speaker 1: been hit so much. This is sped up. This is
Speaker 1: what we spent all that time talking about the beginning
Speaker 1: of year. What you just described is a quarterback being
Speaker 1: sped up. He's been hit so much that he's now
Speaker 1: playing as though he's expecting to get hit even when
Speaker 1: he's not, and his mechanics are all off because he's pressing,
Speaker 1: he wants to get the ball out quick, he doesn't
Speaker 1: want to move around, he doesn't know where the pocket's
Speaker 1: going to be, he doesn't know how much time he
Speaker 1: has in the pocket. He's sped up, and this is
Speaker 1: what happens. The mechanics start to fall apart, and this
Speaker 1: is where you start to enter that point of visit fixable,
Speaker 1: because once the mechanics start to go, that's what you know,
Speaker 1: if you're having a tough sense with the timing, if
Speaker 1: quarterbacks having a tough sense with the timing right, and
Speaker 1: mechanics are fine, he's just throwing the ball too quickly. Well,
Speaker 1: you get him behind a good offensive line and it
Speaker 1: settles down because you get that that rhythm back, that
Speaker 1: timing back. Once the mechanics start to go, now you're drifting. Now,
Speaker 1: it's all right, We've really got to pull this guy back.
Speaker 1: So that's it's because it's not like his mechanics have
Speaker 1: always been bad. This wasn't an issue with him in
Speaker 1: the past, even going back to the beginning of the season,
Speaker 1: this wasn't an issue. Now. I've never really loved his
Speaker 1: feet in terms of stepping into throws and really letting
Speaker 1: it go. I'm I've always felt like he's thrown a
Speaker 1: little bit um from a narrow base, which I would prefer.
Speaker 1: You know, I sent you that the clip of Brady
Speaker 1: throwing that slam. Okay, that was a He doesn't he
Speaker 1: doesn't like it when I bring up Brady because he's
Speaker 1: not Tom Brady. He's not Tom Brady. No. But okay,
Speaker 1: but here's the thing. All I'm saying to you is
Speaker 1: show me something attainable. All I'm saying to you is
Speaker 1: is that Brady is the gold standard, right, Brady has
Speaker 1: the best throwing mechanics in the history of the NFL. Yes,
Speaker 1: he's perfect. He it is literally perfect, okay. And when
Speaker 1: he and granted I think just from an eye like
Speaker 1: esthetic sense, he's six foot five, so his legs are
Speaker 1: a lot longer than Mac Jones's legs, right, so when
Speaker 1: he steps into a throw, you can really see it. Okay.
Speaker 1: But Brady, everything just is perfect with his mechanics. So
Speaker 1: I always go to him and say, it was great
Speaker 1: to watch him versus the Bengals after coming off watching
Speaker 1: Mac versus the Raiders, because I could see the perfect
Speaker 1: mechanics that Brady has versus the mechanical flaws that Mac
Speaker 1: is having, and so much of it to me, starts
Speaker 1: with the base, starts with his feet, and not to me,
Speaker 1: the hesitation to really step up in the pocket and
Speaker 1: really extend that front leg out and have that weight
Speaker 1: transfer that you want right from front to back is
Speaker 1: because he doesn't trust the pocket, right, right, That's that's it.
Speaker 1: And we know that that's it because it wasn't always
Speaker 1: an issue for him. Right, So I think that what
Speaker 1: changed the offensive line isn't protecting him the same as
Speaker 1: it right in the past. So I think the the
Speaker 1: problem that you have is that on the surface, let's
Speaker 1: just let the last three games are kind of mood
Speaker 1: in this conversation, I think. But because they're not going
Speaker 1: to fix his mechanics overnight, right like, that's this is
Speaker 1: now going to be a process, right, so this is
Speaker 1: going to be an off season kind So Tom House
Speaker 1: could he could get with Tom House in the off season.
Speaker 1: Coach d is his quarterbacks coach of choice, his private
Speaker 1: quarterback coach, but he also works with Tom House a
Speaker 1: little bit, and he could get with those two guys
Speaker 1: in the off season and against air, they'll fix his mechanics,
Speaker 1: right like, and he'll come in in mini caamp next year,
Speaker 1: just like he came in in minicamp this year, and
Speaker 1: he'll be throwing bombs a train next Look at that
Speaker 1: he's playing that it's totally fine. But it was right
Speaker 1: from the jump. Once we got into actual contacted padded
Speaker 1: practices in training camp in August, you started to see
Speaker 1: the decay beginning. Yeah, and now we're at that point.
Speaker 1: So when I watched this film against the Raiders. I
Speaker 1: didn't see a ton of some of the stuff that
Speaker 1: I saw, let's say, against the Jets and the Colts
Speaker 1: earlier this year, where he's staring down first reads and
Speaker 1: he's not starting with his eyes in the right places
Speaker 1: and mental processing issues. This to me was more mechanical
Speaker 1: and actually throwing the football accurately. Yeah, And i'd also
Speaker 1: want to as we move on to the next issues,
Speaker 1: unless you have something else on, mathewanta really want to
Speaker 1: get into the next thing. I don't know. The The
Speaker 1: other thing that I just want to mention is I
Speaker 1: don't think that Max's frustrations are being talked about properly
Speaker 1: because I think people are actually want to get into this,
Speaker 1: because I think people are blaming. Some people are like,
Speaker 1: he's a pouty baby, he needs to relax, right, And
Speaker 1: then other people are saying, well, he has a right
Speaker 1: to be mad, And the truth is obviously in the middle, right,
Speaker 1: like he needs to control his temper better and control
Speaker 1: his emotions better, and he's right to be angry for sure.
Speaker 1: But I think the biggest thing is is that at
Speaker 1: this point, and we're going to talk about the details
Speaker 1: and this basing and the timing and the routes and
Speaker 1: all this kind of stuff in a second. But at
Speaker 1: this point, you were not going to fix it all.
Speaker 1: You're not going to fix at all. Okay, you're not.
Speaker 1: This is not training camp where you have a month
Speaker 1: to drill this stuff and fully padded practices six days
Speaker 1: a week. Like, you just don't have that time right
Speaker 1: now to get all this stuff down and get all
Speaker 1: this stuff where it's supposed to be and get everybody
Speaker 1: lined up perfectly and all that kind of stuff. So
Speaker 1: the third down timeout that wipes out that Jacobe Myers touchdown,
Speaker 1: my read on that situation was that Mac through touchdown
Speaker 1: passes Jacobe Myers. Denny has the realization that there was
Speaker 1: a whistle because of a timeout from the sideline, and
Speaker 1: he looks over to the sideline and is like, what
Speaker 1: the hell now, Like, what's wrong now? Like we ran
Speaker 1: the play, it worked, I threw a touchdown, Like what
Speaker 1: wrong now? And he comes over to the sideline and
Speaker 1: they're saying so and so didn't have the right didn't
Speaker 1: know that it wasn't running the right route, or so
Speaker 1: and so wasn't lined up properly. At this point in
Speaker 1: this season, who the hell cares. Okay, just get to
Speaker 1: the line and run the play, like if Hunter Henry's
Speaker 1: running a flat instead of a curl. All right, I
Speaker 1: understand that that might in some instances result in a
Speaker 1: touchdown like an interception, I mean right, Like, I understand
Speaker 1: where the mistakes could happen there, but at some point
Speaker 1: in time from the sideline that the coaches have to
Speaker 1: have some trust and the players. And this is I
Speaker 1: think the biggest problem with this offense right now is
Speaker 1: that it's a two way street. The coaches don't trust
Speaker 1: the players to execute, and the players don't touch trust
Speaker 1: the coaches are putting them in the best positions. So
Speaker 1: when the players actually make a good play and then
Speaker 1: it's wiped out because of a time out from the sideline,
Speaker 1: that's got to be infuriating. Okay, it's like, ah, we
Speaker 1: got it in the end zone. What are you guys doing?
Speaker 1: And then it's snowballs on him? And that's the issue,
Speaker 1: right it is, because then on fourth down it's snowballs
Speaker 1: on So that's the problem. And I talked about this
Speaker 1: last week. I don't remember I was on this show
Speaker 1: or one of the other shows or whatever, but I
Speaker 1: love that Mac plays with passion. I love that he
Speaker 1: gets fired up. I think he has a ton of
Speaker 1: reason to be justified to his frustration, and I think
Speaker 1: playing that way it gets your teammates to buy in
Speaker 1: all of it. It shows your leader. I would much
Speaker 1: rather guy like that than a guy who just goes
Speaker 1: out and goes through the motions. Right. That being said,
Speaker 1: I don't want to say that that shouldn't impact your play,
Speaker 1: that your emotions shouldn't impact your play. They should, but
Speaker 1: you need to harness them to elevate your play. Is
Speaker 1: a very emotional exactly, but he harnesses it. He harnesses it.
Speaker 1: Was that was the first time I've seen mac Jones
Speaker 1: let his emotions spill over to the point where they
Speaker 1: impacted him right as a player, right, And that obviously
Speaker 1: can't happen, and it's something he needs to work on.
Speaker 1: That being said, I'm with you in that I understand
Speaker 1: why he's frustrating because they finally got it right. And
Speaker 1: it goes back to what I said before, you know,
Speaker 1: getting the play into substitutions where everybody's lining up, this
Speaker 1: is ota stuff and they finally and so I mean,
Speaker 1: what I would guess is not even necessarily that they
Speaker 1: didn't like the look they had. But I wonder if
Speaker 1: you know because Bill's standing right there next to Patrician Judge.
Speaker 1: There's a picture of it. I think they showed it
Speaker 1: on TV. Bill says, we're running this right, and then
Speaker 1: mad or Joe says, no, we're running this type. No,
Speaker 1: we're not on the same bench time out right. That
Speaker 1: can't happen like that. That would be my guess as
Speaker 1: to what happened. There's something like that that can't happen.
Speaker 1: It just can't happen in that whole sequence. But sometimes,
Speaker 1: and I know you're agreeing with me, but like stay
Speaker 1: every once in a while, stay out of it it. So
Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying, it shouldn't happen. You're saying, if
Speaker 1: it does, just let it play out right, Which neither
Speaker 1: of us are wrong. It's not one or the other.
Speaker 1: It goes back to the we're looking at it from
Speaker 1: different levels. But I would just say the whole sequence. Yeah.
Speaker 1: First of all, their last fourteen first in goal situations
Speaker 1: from inside the five, the Raiders had allowed a touchdown
Speaker 1: fourteen in a row. Right. They showed it on TV
Speaker 1: like right after that first play, and I was like,
Speaker 1: oh boy, um so vermondra from the two to the
Speaker 1: one on first down. Fine, great, They then go was
Speaker 1: it was time out the touchdown, taking away of the
Speaker 1: time out right. Then they run this weird design where
Speaker 1: they ran a quick slint to Nelsonagler, but they motioned
Speaker 1: underneath it, yes, which was I don't maybe that was
Speaker 1: a wrong route or something. I think it was Pierre Strong,
Speaker 1: right was the guy who motioned. Then they go time
Speaker 1: out again. Then you get to penalty, and then you're
Speaker 1: kicking the field goal. Is all basic avoidable stuff, and
Speaker 1: the real question is, you know, I'm somebody who sat
Speaker 1: here all year, Evan, You've you've heard go on and
Speaker 1: on and on about this and say they're giving the
Speaker 1: ball to Remond Receivens in too much. Yeah, he's gonna
Speaker 1: get worn down. You know, they need to take something
Speaker 1: off his plate. Stop giving him the ball so much.
Speaker 1: I wasn't talking about right there, right of all the
Speaker 1: times to go away from him, you have this great
Speaker 1: power back to first down, he gained half the distance
Speaker 1: to go right. Just run that again, just running and
Speaker 1: the whole not going under center thing, I don't whatever,
Speaker 1: Like they clearly don't want to go under center. This year.
Speaker 1: That's not an issue with just that sequence. That's a
Speaker 1: big picture thing. But the fact that they were I
Speaker 1: don't know if they were afraid to run it, or
Speaker 1: you know, they wanted to get Mac a touchdown pass
Speaker 1: to kind of get him going, or whatever it was,
Speaker 1: to not go back to the run there. I've yet
Speaker 1: to hear a good defense of it, Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1: And this kind of gets into the next thing I
Speaker 1: wanted to talk about, which was, you know, receiver issues
Speaker 1: and some of the spacing and timing and all this
Speaker 1: kind of stuff. So the red zone sequence is still
Speaker 1: is really good for this as well in some respects too.
Speaker 1: But I think the two we talked about line getting
Speaker 1: lined up like one of the biggest when they came
Speaker 1: in this offseason, Alex and when we got the training
Speaker 1: camp and we talked about this streamlined offense that they
Speaker 1: were going to run. The biggest thing that all the players,
Speaker 1: the explanation they got from the coaches as to why
Speaker 1: they were making these wholesale changes was to play faster, right.
Speaker 1: They wanted to be able to get to the line
Speaker 1: of scrimmage and play faster in the down before the
Speaker 1: down all of that. That's why I think they stripped
Speaker 1: some of the optionality out of these routes, right, so
Speaker 1: to get guys to play faster, but they're not. They're
Speaker 1: not playing faster and they're not ready to play Johnny
Speaker 1: Smith on the sneak like, maybe, yes, Mac should have
Speaker 1: paused longer right before they snaps the ball on the
Speaker 1: fork down sneak to not get that false start penalty.
Speaker 1: And the reason why they had to do it was
Speaker 1: because they were going to get an illegal formation penalty, right,
Speaker 1: so john Smith had to change his alignment to avoid
Speaker 1: the legal formation penalty. And it's like, can you just
Speaker 1: get lined up? Like, can we just get lined up?
Speaker 1: And then when the ball is snapped outside of the sneat,
Speaker 1: just in general, can you run the damn route? Like
Speaker 1: I cannot tell you, Alex how many times Mac Jones
Speaker 1: is hit the top of his drop and he's staring
Speaker 1: at people's backs all five. I mean, it goes back
Speaker 1: to staring at the backs. Who was Orlovsky had that
Speaker 1: great breakdown on it a couple of weeks ago, and
Speaker 1: it's still the same thing. We thought maybe during the
Speaker 1: bye that was something they'd work on, and I think
Speaker 1: Mac even hinted at the fact that they might have
Speaker 1: worked on it during the bye and the timing set,
Speaker 1: and that has to be a design thing, right. I
Speaker 1: don't It's not like Max going through his drop back
Speaker 1: too quickly. I don't look at him dropping back and thinking, oh,
Speaker 1: he's rushing this drop back. No, If anything, I think
Speaker 1: he's very patient with it. So the only explanations are one,
Speaker 1: which I think is probably the main explanation here, is
Speaker 1: that the receivers just are taking the sweet time, okay.
Speaker 1: And this is a big, big issue for multiple guys
Speaker 1: right now. Taekwon, this is a major issue with his
Speaker 1: game at the moment, is that he thinks because back
Speaker 1: in college, you know, at Baylor, the quarterback had all
Speaker 1: day to throw in the big twelve, and so he's
Speaker 1: thinking that he's got twenty minutes to get into his route.
Speaker 1: And the ball that Max sailed to John hu Smith.
Speaker 1: A lot of the reason why I think he sailed
Speaker 1: that is because Taekwon Thorton didn't run his route quickly enough,
Speaker 1: so he didn't know what the outside corner was going
Speaker 1: to do. Right, So the outside corner, Taekwon Thornton's there,
Speaker 1: you know, throwing jab steps and stuff like that. At
Speaker 1: the line of scrimmage, try to get off the coverage
Speaker 1: and the corners just sitting there. And to Mac, it's
Speaker 1: like if that corner, if that is he going to
Speaker 1: follow him or not? Is he gonna trap it? Like?
Speaker 1: How is he going to react to Taikwon Thornton's route?
Speaker 1: That route is meant to pull the corner out of
Speaker 1: the passing lane, right, and you have that corner under
Speaker 1: combination to try to get that corner out of there,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't happen because of that, And I think
Speaker 1: that Mac threw the ball to the back pylon to
Speaker 1: Johnny to be one hundred percent sure that it was
Speaker 1: either going to be caught or it was Maybe He's
Speaker 1: got to put it in a spot where it's either
Speaker 1: we say this all the time, right, We're only his receiver, right,
Speaker 1: So he throws it and ends up overthrowing it. So
Speaker 1: there was another play at third down play, and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna get into some of the third down stuff that
Speaker 1: that was not good in this game two for thirteen.
Speaker 1: There was another third down play where they ran their
Speaker 1: double dig concept, which they run like seventeen times a
Speaker 1: game on third down, and they ran it again, and
Speaker 1: they ran it right into the Raiders coverage. The Raiders
Speaker 1: had one cross on and they ran it right into
Speaker 1: the coverage. But underneath the defense, it left Rumandre Stevenson
Speaker 1: one on one with a linebacker right where if Mac
Speaker 1: can cancel out the digs because of the coverage and
Speaker 1: get his eyes underneath to the running back, there's a
Speaker 1: whole acre of space that Remandre makes a cut at
Speaker 1: the top of the route, catches the football, makes a
Speaker 1: linebacker miss, and they might have a first down. You know,
Speaker 1: James White, Right, That's exactly what James White did. But
Speaker 1: Remandri takes the sweet time to get into the route.
Speaker 1: So when Matt goes to look towards him, Remander is
Speaker 1: not even at the top of the route yet. Like
Speaker 1: get go, like go run the route. Okay, the spacing
Speaker 1: thing is a major issue too, where there's just guys
Speaker 1: on top of each other all the time. And there
Speaker 1: was one third down where Hunter Henry dropped the pass
Speaker 1: right and people watch that and they say, Okay, he's
Speaker 1: past the sticks, he's open to catch a ball ball
Speaker 1: he drops it. They should convert, yes, But when I
Speaker 1: look at it, I look at it and say, is
Speaker 1: this sustainable? Like can they execute this play again, right,
Speaker 1: like in this play count five times instead of just
Speaker 1: one time because they got lucky and they cut ridge
Speaker 1: worked out that way. And this I think stems back
Speaker 1: from like when people are like, well, what happened in Minnesota?
Speaker 1: What happened in Minnesota is that the Viking stink at
Speaker 1: covering people, right, and they got some guys open. But
Speaker 1: when you actually broke down the details of the film,
Speaker 1: it still wasn't good for the Patriots. They just won
Speaker 1: some one on one matchups in that game, and that
Speaker 1: play they're running like mesh crossers at the sticks and
Speaker 1: then they're also having Taekwon Thornton running out. So now
Speaker 1: Taekwon Thornton is in Hunter Henry's passing lane. He's on
Speaker 1: top of him. And at one point you can freeze
Speaker 1: the frame and all five receivers are in like a
Speaker 1: four by four box in the middle of the field,
Speaker 1: Like what are we doing? Right? Like that that's not
Speaker 1: that's not how that that play needs to be drawn up.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna run mesh and you're gonna have you know,
Speaker 1: the two other receivers need to get the heck out
Speaker 1: a dodge, right like run verticals up the field to
Speaker 1: take the coverage and open up the passing lanes to
Speaker 1: the mesh crossers. Instead, they're all everybody is on top
Speaker 1: of each other. So whether this is design or or
Speaker 1: coaching right, like execution of the coaching, it's it's just
Speaker 1: not it's it's getting worse, not better on film the
Speaker 1: way that these guys are running routes. And at this point, obviously,
Speaker 1: I mean there's a difference between route running ability and
Speaker 1: the routes the players running right, and yeah, you get
Speaker 1: what I'm saying, like, yeah, because I don't think the
Speaker 1: players are just blatantly running the raw routes unless they
Speaker 1: don't know what the plays are and they're there they
Speaker 1: think that it's one call and it's another. But that
Speaker 1: would again go back to coaching, right, So I think
Speaker 1: that as route runners, and look, we don't have a
Speaker 1: baseline for Tae Kwon last year because he wasn't here
Speaker 1: last year obviously, but as route runners from Nelson Aguil
Speaker 1: or Kendrick Bourne, they've regressed. And I don't know if
Speaker 1: that's all McDaniels. I don't know if it's McDaniels and
Speaker 1: Mick Lombardi leaving. And this is also kind of have
Speaker 1: to throw Troy Brown into the issue pot here. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's the wide receivers coach. That's fair, and the receivers
Speaker 1: have not his group has not been good. So this
Speaker 1: is just an issue that's been going on all season
Speaker 1: with the spacing and with the whole thing the third down.
Speaker 1: And now we're getting into my last bucket. Less you
Speaker 1: have something else to add about about the receivers, No,
Speaker 1: this is all you, this is your specialty. Then we
Speaker 1: get into the play calling bucket. Okay, so I kind
Speaker 1: of already skipped ahead on this one. So the two
Speaker 1: biggest gripes, that three biggest gripes. One was the red
Speaker 1: zone sequence. We are we already did. That was my
Speaker 1: big That was what was the second thing, and this
Speaker 1: is what I posted in after further review, was about
Speaker 1: the third down predictability. They're running the same three plays
Speaker 1: on third down every single game. And I wrote this,
Speaker 1: and I wish that I hadn't given given the Raiders
Speaker 1: staff as much credit. But they do have Josh McDaniels
Speaker 1: and Patrick Graham over there who have institutional knowledge of
Speaker 1: the Patriots, right, and mc daniel certainly has institutional knowledge
Speaker 1: mac so I think that that's somewhat of a factor.
Speaker 1: But the Raiders are playing these man coverages with either
Speaker 1: you can call it robber, you can call it cross,
Speaker 1: whatever you want to call it, where they have everything leveraged,
Speaker 1: like there's help defenders exactly, like receivers are running into
Speaker 1: defenders right like you know, Hunter Henry's running a dig
Speaker 1: or running like an underard a short dig, and there's
Speaker 1: just a linebacker or safety just sitting there waiting for him,
Speaker 1: right like sure, come run over here, like I'm I'm
Speaker 1: waiting for you. They had one play on third down
Speaker 1: where the outside corner they're running like two digs at
Speaker 1: the sticks. The outside corner has inside leverage because he
Speaker 1: knows the outside receivers running an inbreaking route, and then
Speaker 1: the inside receiver whose Hunter Henry has the robber dropping
Speaker 1: into the passing window right the help defender is coming
Speaker 1: into the window. So both receivers are running into leverage
Speaker 1: like they're both running into help or leverage or whatever
Speaker 1: you want to call it, and there's no place to
Speaker 1: go with the ball. So they're predictable on third down.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows what they're running on third down. The sequencing
Speaker 1: on the red zone, it was was terrible, right, the
Speaker 1: whole red zone sequence was horrible. And then I would
Speaker 1: also mention the drive right before they gave the Raiders
Speaker 1: the football back was deplorable. Deplorable. Yeah, yeah, the Qibi
Speaker 1: boot just third and one maybe I actually think that's
Speaker 1: an underused play, But on third and eleven, no, thank you.
Speaker 1: So I wrote it down, especially play by play with it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So first and ten they go. They bring yadneykajuiced in
Speaker 1: to go tackle eligible, which I don't hate. First in time,
Speaker 1: they gave three yards. Fine, fine, you're trying to run
Speaker 1: the clock like nobody's expecting to throw the ball down
Speaker 1: the field. So then and this is where all the
Speaker 1: issues with the offense forever is coming up, right, then
Speaker 1: they get a false star penalty. Yeah, okay, so they
Speaker 1: go eligible again, which is fine, like if you want
Speaker 1: to go from second, first and ten to second and
Speaker 1: seven to third and three, like I'm fine with that, yeah,
Speaker 1: in that situation. But then they get the fall star penalty.
Speaker 1: So now it's second and twelve. They run it again.
Speaker 1: They run the football again at second and twelve, so
Speaker 1: now it's third and ten because they just wanted to
Speaker 1: keep the clock running. They just wanted to keep the
Speaker 1: clock running, which go screen there, that's where you go screen.
Speaker 1: And then on third and ten, we all know that
Speaker 1: they ran the Naked Boot and the Naked Boot with
Speaker 1: Mac Jones trying it to get out the back door
Speaker 1: against Max Flipping Crosby, who's the best player on the
Speaker 1: Raiders defense and as an animal. Yeah, one of those ones.
Speaker 1: I honestly don't hate the concept of it. I don't
Speaker 1: if you have justin fields, sure, or even if so,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of variables there were. If it's thirt
Speaker 1: and one, I'd like a lot more than third and
Speaker 1: eleven if it's not Max Crosby, Like even with Mac,
Speaker 1: there's some situations where I think if it was third
Speaker 1: and one, even with Mac, I don't think that's a
Speaker 1: bad call. He was never getting it on third and eleven.
Speaker 1: They just wanted something they wanted the least. I guess
Speaker 1: what they wanted. They wanted a play that they thought
Speaker 1: was going to take the Raiders by surprise. But they
Speaker 1: still wanted to run clock. But I also didn't want
Speaker 1: to put it in the air. But not even that,
Speaker 1: not even not putting it in the air, they didn't
Speaker 1: want to handoff. They didn't want to handoff. I think
Speaker 1: they didn't want to handoff because they knew the handoff
Speaker 1: was going to go nowhere, so at least this play would.
Speaker 1: But they could have gone, they could have gone if
Speaker 1: they want a deception, they could have gone end around.
Speaker 1: That's right. I don't understand, well because remember the last
Speaker 1: time they got funky with that. Do you remember what
Speaker 1: that was? It was going into a half against Buffalo. Okay,
Speaker 1: fair enough, But I guess like and maybe they just
Speaker 1: they were worried about the execution of that kind of
Speaker 1: play where they were going to fumble it. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm saying. It's just the snap, that's the only thing.
Speaker 1: It's just the snap. And they went under center. It
Speaker 1: was one of the few times they went under center. Yeah,
Speaker 1: if but if they run the boot right that I
Speaker 1: would have given them. Hey, at least macknew to go
Speaker 1: down and bounds. That's true. We we've made progress there.
Speaker 1: If I would have given them so much credit as
Speaker 1: as a staff, if they had ran a reverse there,
Speaker 1: if they had hard faked it on the outside zone
Speaker 1: to Ramandre Matt keeps it and then flips it to
Speaker 1: Marcus Jones coming in the other direction, I would have
Speaker 1: been like that might have scored a touchdown, or he
Speaker 1: might have been out the back and into the end zone.
Speaker 1: Let me like somebody had I don't even think we
Speaker 1: need to go that deep, did they because the fake
Speaker 1: handoff on the bootleg was stretched right, they made it
Speaker 1: look like did they run stretch from under center in
Speaker 1: that game at all prior to like a little bit,
Speaker 1: but like it was in the first quarter and it
Speaker 1: wasn't even a look. And we've talked about this before,
Speaker 1: right the set up place, it wasn't even a look
Speaker 1: they'd really given them, right, there's not really much to
Speaker 1: suck the Raiders in there, right, So that was I
Speaker 1: think the bigger, the biggest, the big picture problem that
Speaker 1: I feel because I mentioned I thought the third down
Speaker 1: stuff was was horrible. They were two for thirteen on
Speaker 1: third down. They are getting into these third down situations,
Speaker 1: Alex where they don't even try to pick up the
Speaker 1: first down that play that they they called the bootleg, like,
Speaker 1: might as well just punt on third down. And this
Speaker 1: happens all the time back in the day, they might
Speaker 1: have pooch punted there. All this happens all the time,
Speaker 1: though that they are if it's like third and eight
Speaker 1: plus I think the third and sixth through third and ten,
Speaker 1: like they they they kind of try to go for it, right,
Speaker 1: But like I would say, any sort of third and
Speaker 1: long situation, it's like fifty fifty of whether or not
Speaker 1: they're even gonna come close to throwing passes. So since
Speaker 1: the bye since the bye week, yes, you know what,
Speaker 1: they're third down percentages? Well, I know that they're twenty
Speaker 1: ninth in the league in general, so it can't be
Speaker 1: thirty first. Yeah, oh, twenty ninth overall. Yes, okay, So
Speaker 1: since since the buy, yeah, they're thirty first. They're a
Speaker 1: tenth of a percentage point higher in Washington twenty four
Speaker 1: point six percent, twenty four percent. And I think, to
Speaker 1: give credit to Washington, they're five for six on fourth
Speaker 1: down in that span. A lot of it, I think
Speaker 1: it stems from the fact that when it's third and ten,
Speaker 1: they're getting into the a lot of these and and
Speaker 1: they're in their own territory. Yeah, they don't even they
Speaker 1: are throwing that that downfield drinking ink screen that worked
Speaker 1: one time, right, Like they're not even trying to throw
Speaker 1: the ball past the sticks and those situations. And I
Speaker 1: get that you have no trust in anything right now,
Speaker 1: but you had a chance in that series. You pick
Speaker 1: up one first down, the game's over. The game's over.
Speaker 1: If you pick up one first down there, there's two
Speaker 1: minutes to go. You pick up one first down there,
Speaker 1: the game is over. Right. That was for the game.
Speaker 1: The bootleg was for the game. They were trying to
Speaker 1: ice it on that right and that like, they just
Speaker 1: didn't even call anything on second or third down that
Speaker 1: stood a chance to pick up the ten yards. And
Speaker 1: that has been all season long. It's not just that
Speaker 1: play or that sequence. It's been all season long that
Speaker 1: they don't even try. Let's take patty and hang on,
Speaker 1: hang on real quick. I just want to I want
Speaker 1: to throw this on the average yards to go their
Speaker 1: third longest in the league on third down that span
Speaker 1: eight point two yards per right. So I've always been
Speaker 1: in the camp that first and second down has been
Speaker 1: a bigger problem for this team than third down, and
Speaker 1: this game it was third day that was the problem.
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. When you're setting yourself up with
Speaker 1: eight point two, you're not doing enough on first and second.
Speaker 1: But they were fine on first and second in this game.
Speaker 1: So it's my point. There's a weird number. I don't
Speaker 1: know what to make of it. I said this before
Speaker 1: the show. Their average distance to go on first down
Speaker 1: this year is ten point two yards. That doesn't sound
Speaker 1: like a lot, but because they've had so many false
Speaker 1: start penalties on trags that average it's them, the Seahawks
Speaker 1: and the Raiders at ten point two. It's the longest
Speaker 1: in the league. All right, let's take Patty and then
Speaker 1: we'll talk defense here and wrap things up. Patty, thanks
Speaker 1: for hanging on. Sorry, we's and left you on hold
Speaker 1: for so long. Oh, no worries, guys, upset. I missed
Speaker 1: the last two weeks because he guys came on early.
Speaker 1: But uh yeah, got kind of a crazy question. Maybe
Speaker 1: actually a couple of crazy questions. Neither of them are
Speaker 1: draft related, so I won't get into that. Sorry, but
Speaker 1: let's just say a couple couple of hypotheticals. First one
Speaker 1: is if Craft goes to Billichick and just says, hey, listen, Bill,
Speaker 1: we got we gotta do something here on offense, and
Speaker 1: he's not willing to budge on on demoting Mattie Ke
Speaker 1: and gets bringing in a real offensive guy, and they
Speaker 1: end up moving on, what about Billy Oh to come
Speaker 1: in here and be the head coach. That's the first
Speaker 1: hypothetical and the second one. I don't know the details
Speaker 1: of Bill's contract if it's a year to year, but
Speaker 1: if it's two years, what about raiding Bill for a
Speaker 1: first round pick? Yeah, So this is thanks for the call, Patty.
Speaker 1: This is the first trading building. I think a start
Speaker 1: was started by Mike Florio. He had a don't even
Speaker 1: know if it's a report. It was more like he
Speaker 1: was on a show like this and just kind of
Speaker 1: was talking right about things. So could I don't know
Speaker 1: if we're we're really at trading Bill and all that
Speaker 1: kind I also don't know. I feel like he'd retire
Speaker 1: before that happened. Does he want to go at seventy
Speaker 1: new operations set up a whole Yeah, I think at
Speaker 1: that point he would just write like I don't necessarily didn't.
Speaker 1: Cronk was the one who did that right where they
Speaker 1: try to trade me retired, right. I think Bill would
Speaker 1: pull this. So I think the bigger issue to me,
Speaker 1: and I guess this is sort of related to what
Speaker 1: Patty was saying. The bigger issue to me is that
Speaker 1: you we're just assuming that somebody's gonna want to take
Speaker 1: this OC job, right, Like, we're just assuming that somebody's
Speaker 1: gonna want to come in and fix all of this
Speaker 1: mess at Matt Patricia and Joe Judge have caused. I
Speaker 1: don't think it's as unattractive though, is you're maybe living
Speaker 1: laying it out to me. I just I do. And
Speaker 1: at some point in time when I have more time
Speaker 1: and I'm not focused on on in season stuff and
Speaker 1: we get into offseason, like we can try to compile
Speaker 1: a more um complete list because that Bill O'Brien's the
Speaker 1: only name that ever comes up, right, Like he's the
Speaker 1: only well and then like Nick Kylee and Troy Brown, Right,
Speaker 1: but I think Bill O'Brien's gonna have options, so you're
Speaker 1: not not only do I well, So he was asking
Speaker 1: would be what about Bill is the head coach? Bill
Speaker 1: O'Brian's head coach at Bill Belichick left, to which I
Speaker 1: would say, you could do worse, but you need a GM.
Speaker 1: You cannot have Bill O'Brien. Ben can't be Macro because
Speaker 1: they'll get pushed around by Bill O'Brien. That Bill O'Brien
Speaker 1: was a pretty good coach in Houston. He did not
Speaker 1: get let go because of coaching deficiencies. It was his moves.
Speaker 1: As a general manager, you cannot let him have control
Speaker 1: of the roster, right. So I think that just in general,
Speaker 1: and not necessarily about Bill O'Brien, just in general, if
Speaker 1: we're talking about moving on from Bill Belichick, I would
Speaker 1: like it to be an offensive minded coach, right Like
Speaker 1: I would like to be Brian Dable, right. And I'm
Speaker 1: not saying they're gonna actually get Brian Dable, but I'm saying,
Speaker 1: like somebody like Brian Dable, who is going to come
Speaker 1: in here and fix mac Jones, right, Like, I think
Speaker 1: that that's that's my most important thing. But I do wonder,
Speaker 1: you know, who else would be out there that they
Speaker 1: would consider for the OC job and would want the
Speaker 1: OC job, and like all these types of things. I
Speaker 1: think that that's a factor in all of this. And
Speaker 1: now I think we've all just put our eggs in
Speaker 1: the Bill O'Brien basket and and hoped and prayed. But
Speaker 1: I think that Bill O'Brien's gonna have some options, and
Speaker 1: I think that he's gonna it's gonna be a big
Speaker 1: price tag. Like I think he's gonna demand a pretty
Speaker 1: lucrative contract to sign him. Are they willing to do
Speaker 1: those things? We'll see. I'm not there yet though, Patty.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. I appreciate the call, but I'm not We're
Speaker 1: not at this conversation yet from Yeah, I don't think so.
Speaker 1: So we talked a little bit about the defense. I
Speaker 1: have been a defender of the defense, I feel like
Speaker 1: all year, right where I said, I've said on several occasions,
Speaker 1: like against Minnesota for example, like, at some point in time,
Speaker 1: the offense to score some points, right, and this game
Speaker 1: technically falls into that category of the offense only scored
Speaker 1: what ten points, right because the defense scored seven of them? Sorry? Sorry,
Speaker 1: seventeen points right? Yeah, because the defense scored seven of them.
Speaker 1: So at some point in time, the offense needs to
Speaker 1: score more than seventeen points in a game. Mac almost
Speaker 1: had that trive you were looking for. He almost did.
Speaker 1: There's only two plays, but he almost had it. So
Speaker 1: here's the catch. The catch is that this offense, we
Speaker 1: can all agree, is not capable of scoring more points, right,
Speaker 1: And when the offense puts the defense or the defense
Speaker 1: and you know the team is in the situation where
Speaker 1: it's twenty four or seventeen with two minutes ago, the
Speaker 1: defense has got to close that game out like that's
Speaker 1: that's they're the backbone of the team, right, like they're
Speaker 1: the strength of the team. So this time it bugged
Speaker 1: me that they didn't close it out. And I think
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that stands out on film about it
Speaker 1: is that I mentioned it earlier. They got really vanilla
Speaker 1: with the play calls late in this game. I think
Speaker 1: this is a big issue that teams are having across
Speaker 1: the NFL this year in these two minute situations. In
Speaker 1: some cases it's like forty seconds that teams are going
Speaker 1: down the field and scoring right to tie the game
Speaker 1: or to win the game. I think the biggest issue
Speaker 1: that teams have is that they're so petrified of giving
Speaker 1: it all up in one play that they that they
Speaker 1: basically go into a pre event right and it's not
Speaker 1: full on like eight guys like it has been at times.
Speaker 1: It wasn't for the Patriots, like they are a little
Speaker 1: bit more aggressive than that. But you know, you have
Speaker 1: fourth and ten and you run like a mug. Look
Speaker 1: at the Raiders block it easily, and then Marcus Jones
Speaker 1: is eleven yards off the line is scrimmaging on fourth
Speaker 1: and ten, right, like, these are the types of things
Speaker 1: that are what are we doing? They ran the scene
Speaker 1: play up up the scene that gained twenty. That was
Speaker 1: the play that's set up the touchdown play. It's just
Speaker 1: covered two, right, It's just its zone spot drop covered
Speaker 1: two with a four man rush like, no blitz, no
Speaker 1: simulated pressure, nothing, just a four man covered two, basic
Speaker 1: like day one install type of stuff. And it shredded them.
Speaker 1: Not they had been aggressive all game, right, they're dropping guys,
Speaker 1: they're blitzing other guys, they're doing the Judeon thing right,
Speaker 1: and they're doing all this smoke and mirrors stuff all
Speaker 1: game long. And then the biggest moment of the game,
Speaker 1: they went vanilla and and that was worrisome. The other
Speaker 1: thing that was worrisome, And I sent you the fourth
Speaker 1: down end zone view. Yeah, some of their guys up
Speaker 1: front need to be better. And when I say some
Speaker 1: of the guys, I'm mainly pointing at Matthew Judon. Honestly,
Speaker 1: Matthew Judan and had a couple of opportunities to go
Speaker 1: one on one with your main Illuminois on that sequence,
Speaker 1: I think I actually one of them was on a luminore.
Speaker 1: The other one was on Colton. Miller's a good left tackle,
Speaker 1: but I don't know if he was gassed, and that's possible.
Speaker 1: And I guess there's that bigger conversation of while they're
Speaker 1: on the field so much because the offense can't stay
Speaker 1: on the field, And but you need if you're Jude On,
Speaker 1: if you're ucha, if you're bar Moore, who I thought,
Speaker 1: actually bar Moore I thought was the most impactful rusher
Speaker 1: on that series for the Patriots. But those three guys,
Speaker 1: like you need a sack, Like if you get a
Speaker 1: sack in that situation and you get them behind, you know,
Speaker 1: into third and sixteen, right like it's over right, like
Speaker 1: you know, those are the types of plays that end drives,
Speaker 1: especially drives that need touchdowns, right, And they couldn't win
Speaker 1: a one on one. They just couldn't win a one
Speaker 1: on one. And maybe they were gassed and maybe it
Speaker 1: was all those things. And then on the last the
Speaker 1: cold touchdown play, josh Uja wasn't even on the field.
Speaker 1: They had pulled him off for some reason. So that
Speaker 1: was also disappointing that when the moment when it rose
Speaker 1: to that moment and they just needed their pass rushers
Speaker 1: has been great all year, And is this the one
Speaker 1: thing that we've always said, I think with this team,
Speaker 1: besides maybe r mondre Stevenson, the best thing about this
Speaker 1: team is the pass rush, right, the best thing about
Speaker 1: it is the pass rush. The scheming go vanilla, and
Speaker 1: the players couldn't didn't go after it, like truly go
Speaker 1: after it in the one on one situations. And that
Speaker 1: was disheartening because that was a game that the defense,
Speaker 1: if it's a good defense, the defense closes that out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you don't disagree, disagree with something, I'm just kidd No,
Speaker 1: but you're You've wanted me to be on this side
Speaker 1: all year. You're right, like they were one drive away.
Speaker 1: And that's why I said it earlier. Again, I said
Speaker 1: it earlier in the show. Right. Yes, the the play
Speaker 1: at the end of the game is inexcusable. Yeah, we
Speaker 1: really didn't get into Keelan cole catch. There's not much
Speaker 1: more to say others than it wasn't. But Homer, if
Speaker 1: they get the what you thought you thought it was kidding,
Speaker 1: I'm just kidding. If you get the four points when
Speaker 1: I say four points, they end up kicking a field
Speaker 1: goal rights a four point difference, right if you get
Speaker 1: the seven points instead of the three down on the
Speaker 1: goal line early in the game. None of that presents itself.
Speaker 1: Oh well, that that gets into like the domino effect, right,
Speaker 1: like the whole game works out different but so so exactly,
Speaker 1: but it works out differently. Doesn't mean they win, but
Speaker 1: it means that those situations don't present themselves. So I
Speaker 1: think the biggest problem that they had in this game,
Speaker 1: and this game I said this about the Vikings game
Speaker 1: to a degree too, and and Parillo was was arguing
Speaker 1: with me about it. This game in particular, the biggest
Speaker 1: problem that they had in this game was that they
Speaker 1: they were able to they were able to tilt coverage
Speaker 1: towards Davante Adams and take him out, but they lost
Speaker 1: the other one on one matchups, right, like Darren Waller
Speaker 1: beats Adrian Phillips up the team for a touchdown, Keelan
Speaker 1: Cole beats Marcus Jones for a time. I know it
Speaker 1: might not it shouldn't. Maybe it shouldn't have counted, like
Speaker 1: I know, okay, you know I was in mac Hall
Speaker 1: Miles Bryant, which I'm surprised that the Raiders kind of
Speaker 1: figured out very late in that game that none of
Speaker 1: the Patriots corners were over five ten. Yeah, it took
Speaker 1: them way longer to exploit that than it probably, right,
Speaker 1: So you know, and that on the Mac Collins touchdown
Speaker 1: on the goal line, they call one double on DeVante Adams, Right,
Speaker 1: they have two guys on Davante Adams and it's single
Speaker 1: coverage everywhere else, and then you just have to make
Speaker 1: a play. So as we're spinning it forward now to
Speaker 1: the Bengals and we got ten minutes, I want to
Speaker 1: wrap it up on the Bengals. That's my biggest concern
Speaker 1: about this game from a because the defense is going
Speaker 1: to have to hold them in the twenties for the
Speaker 1: Patriots to have a chance in this game. Like I
Speaker 1: think we can all agree with that. They might even
Speaker 1: need to set score on defense again in this game.
Speaker 1: And the biggest how many of their wins this year
Speaker 1: had they had either a defensive or special team scored
Speaker 1: just a field flipping play. It's up there. It's gonna
Speaker 1: be every game. It said, maybe Cleveland, Yeah, they scored
Speaker 1: against Detroit. They had the muff against the Steelers, right, right,
Speaker 1: we don't have to go through all this, but yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty much every game. So with the Bengals, my biggest
Speaker 1: concern is, Okay, like you know, they had this nice
Speaker 1: wrinkle for DeVante Adams and they did it was Stefon
Speaker 1: Diggs a little bit too, maybe not enough. It was
Speaker 1: this three cloud coverage where they have one guy who's
Speaker 1: basically man to man and press coverage on DeVante Adams,
Speaker 1: and then they had the safety over the top of
Speaker 1: Davante Adams right right, and it's cover three, but it's
Speaker 1: just tilted towards Davante Adams, and that was a really
Speaker 1: effective coverage for them. The issue was is that eventually,
Speaker 1: after the Raiders had seen it a few times, they
Speaker 1: started running verticals on the other side of the field
Speaker 1: and Adams beats or excuse me, Darren Waller beats Adrian
Speaker 1: Phillips and then Killing Cole beats Marcus Jones. So in
Speaker 1: this matchup, that's Tyler Boyd and t Higgins right like that,
Speaker 1: those two guys are if you're gonna play that cloud coverage,
Speaker 1: and those two guys are gonna have one on ones.
Speaker 1: If you're gonna play one double and those guys are
Speaker 1: gonna have one on ones So the question is for
Speaker 1: the Patriots in this game, there is it's a formula
Speaker 1: that has been put out on tape. Against the Bengals,
Speaker 1: they're not as good against zone. They're not as good
Speaker 1: against split safety zone in particular, and they have a
Speaker 1: bad offensive line right there. Their offensive line, it might
Speaker 1: be better, but it's still not better than it was
Speaker 1: last year. But it's not great. Right, So if you
Speaker 1: can get the pass rush going again, and if you
Speaker 1: can play split safety to keep everything in front of you,
Speaker 1: then you have a chance against them. But like you
Speaker 1: just mentioned, you're gonna have five foot nine Jonathan Jones,
Speaker 1: five foot eight Marcus Jones, and five foot eight Miles
Speaker 1: Bryant against six foot four t Higgins, six foot one
Speaker 1: Tyler Boyd and six foot tall Jamar Chase, who plays
Speaker 1: a lot. He's only like six and a quarter, but
Speaker 1: he plays a lot bigger than that. These are Higgins
Speaker 1: and Jamar are probably two of the best catchpoint receivers
Speaker 1: in the league, right Like, they're fantastic contested catch receivers
Speaker 1: and burrows an aggressive downfield throwers. So he's just gonna
Speaker 1: throw it. So I would trust those guys to just
Speaker 1: go up and make the play. Yeah, I'm try I
Speaker 1: think that the best way. Let's not forget they got
Speaker 1: Hayton hursted tight end too. Yeah. Also, this is the
Speaker 1: Devin Asiasi revenge game. It's okay, Hayton Hursts Okay. I
Speaker 1: think the biggest thing that when you look when you
Speaker 1: look at this Bengals game is I think it's very
Speaker 1: similar in the as the Buffalo game, where you're just
Speaker 1: trying to win a couple of rounds, right, like, if
Speaker 1: you could win four rounds like and what I mean
Speaker 1: when I mean for us a pint, for us to
Speaker 1: turnover you know, four or five times when they have possessions,
Speaker 1: then you should be able to keep them in the twenties.
Speaker 1: But this is not in my mind like they're gonna
Speaker 1: give up some plays in this game because they just
Speaker 1: they just there's too many matchups that favor the Bengals offense,
Speaker 1: especially when you start to account for Jamar Chase in
Speaker 1: different ways, whether it's doubles or high lows like I
Speaker 1: describe what the cloud coverage or whatever. There's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of single matchups eventually, and you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to live with some of that. So for defensively, This
Speaker 1: is all about make them drive the field, don't give up,
Speaker 1: you know, try not to give up big plays. But
Speaker 1: most importantly, just you have to stay aggressive because something.
Speaker 1: You need sacks, you need turnovers, because you're gonna have
Speaker 1: to win. You're gonna have to win by split decision.
Speaker 1: You're not gonna win by knockout, right, Yeah, No, it's
Speaker 1: you gotta outlast them. And this is one of those
Speaker 1: games where I talk about you shorten the game, right,
Speaker 1: limit the number of drives, try to try to win
Speaker 1: some of those rounds. Like you said, you're gonna need
Speaker 1: a force turnovers are like, I don't think you can
Speaker 1: play this game passively. If you're the Patriots defense, you
Speaker 1: need to try to get some turnovers. And then I
Speaker 1: mean their defense can play too. They've got a very
Speaker 1: good defense. And the Patriots are gonna have to You
Speaker 1: mentioned the Buffalo game, right, do they have another like
Speaker 1: the Marcus Jones swing pass? Like, do they have another
Speaker 1: trick up their sleeve for this one, Something that no
Speaker 1: that isn't on tape, something that the other team has
Speaker 1: not seen, something that looks like it. I think you
Speaker 1: need to have that in this game. So when the
Speaker 1: Patriots are on offense and the Bagels are on defense.
Speaker 1: I think it's usually I only have hone in on
Speaker 1: the chess match between the defense and the other team's offense,
Speaker 1: because I don't trust the Patriots offense to have any
Speaker 1: sort of chess match, right, right, But at the same time,
Speaker 1: let's call it checkers, right, We're playing checkers here on offense.
Speaker 1: And there is some metrics that favor the Patriots being
Speaker 1: able to move the ball in this game, And the
Speaker 1: biggest one I would say is that this defense structurally
Speaker 1: is designed to take away big plays. They play a
Speaker 1: lot of split safety, right, especially a lot of cover
Speaker 1: two in quarters, so they're trying to take away the
Speaker 1: big plays and they're fifth in the league in doing so.
Speaker 1: They're fifth DVO against deep passes, but they're seventeenth against
Speaker 1: short passes. So I know it's going to drive people
Speaker 1: absolutely up a wall. But this is another one of
Speaker 1: those quick game game plans in my mind for the
Speaker 1: Patriots and the Bucks. Until they turned into a turnover
Speaker 1: slot fest in the second half, they were able to
Speaker 1: move the ball with a lot of those you know,
Speaker 1: slant flat, you know stick concepts, like all these like
Speaker 1: quick game style stuff that the Patriots do as well,
Speaker 1: you know, just run off the coverage with Evans and
Speaker 1: the other receiver on the outside and just thinking dunk. Right. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The thing about that though, is you then have to
Speaker 1: execute in the red zone, right. You can't because they've
Speaker 1: done that at times this year, and they have moved
Speaker 1: the ball like that, and they get to like the
Speaker 1: thirty yard line and they go super conservative. They run
Speaker 1: the ball three times, they kick the field goals, like
Speaker 1: down here, we want points. You're not going to beat
Speaker 1: this Bengals team kicking field goals. The Raiders you might
Speaker 1: beat kicking field goals. The Cardinals you could beat kicking
Speaker 1: field goals. You're not gonna beat this Bengals team kicking
Speaker 1: field goals. Fair point. And the second thing I would say,
Speaker 1: and look, this is another thing. I sound like a
Speaker 1: broken I call for play action every single week and
Speaker 1: they never do it. So right at this point. I
Speaker 1: did this a couple of weeks ago. Remember I said,
Speaker 1: if they do this and this and this, and you
Speaker 1: just rolled your eyes and me, You're like, well, they
Speaker 1: don't do any of that, right. So last week Brady
Speaker 1: was ten for fourteen for one hundred and forty five yards.
Speaker 1: Of the play action over ten yards per attempt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're six in the league in terms or sixth were
Speaker 1: so twenty seventh in the league and yards per tempt
Speaker 1: allowed to play action, they're giving up almost nine yards
Speaker 1: attempt per play action passed. Yeah. A big reason why
Speaker 1: is because they play a lot of his own right,
Speaker 1: So that that's Bill said that earlier this year. Well,
Speaker 1: if you play his own team, then you know whatever,
Speaker 1: So he said play action doesn't work as well against No,
Speaker 1: he said it doesn't work as well against Man because
Speaker 1: in Man, oh yeah, you know, you're right, you just
Speaker 1: have you guys covering the guys, right, there's run players
Speaker 1: pass play, right. So this, in theory, should be a
Speaker 1: game where we see a lot of that quick game
Speaker 1: stuff and a lot of the you know, Marcus Jones
Speaker 1: screens or whatever you want to do. Maybe it's Pierre
Speaker 1: Strong because they're playing Marcus Jones so much on defense, right,
Speaker 1: and that that sort of package and then play action
Speaker 1: from under center like that should be the game plan. Now, one,
Speaker 1: I don't know if they're they're going to do that
Speaker 1: right because I mean, let's face it, because they haven't
Speaker 1: done it all year yet. And secondly, the Bengals got
Speaker 1: to be thinking, that's what the Patriots are gonna do, right,
Speaker 1: Like they got to know that. So that's the chess
Speaker 1: match to me is does lou and them a remo?
Speaker 1: And Bill I just butchered his name. I came close though.
Speaker 1: Bill said it at the podium earlier today that they're
Speaker 1: not really a game planned defense. They kind of just
Speaker 1: do what they do. So do they just do what
Speaker 1: they do? And that actually does lend itself to some
Speaker 1: of the things that the Patriots have I wouldn't say
Speaker 1: done well, but done acceptable right at Or do the
Speaker 1: Bengals say we're just gonna play press man coverage and
Speaker 1: we know that you guys can't beat us down the field,
Speaker 1: right like that's but that would be a total departure
Speaker 1: from what they normally do. But they have in their
Speaker 1: bag and they could always do it right like any
Speaker 1: team could always do it in the I think they
Speaker 1: come out I meant offense probably hasn't shown much that
Speaker 1: they feel like they need to give them special treatment, right.
Speaker 1: I think you come out and you do what you
Speaker 1: do and if they need to adjust, they'll adjust away
Speaker 1: from it, right. But I would think that they're just
Speaker 1: going to see the typical Bengals defense, and the Bengals
Speaker 1: are again gonna make them beat them, make them be consistent,
Speaker 1: because the other thing about that dink and dunk one
Speaker 1: penalty and it's all undone right right, So if I'm
Speaker 1: the Bengals, I just do what I do and force
Speaker 1: them to go down the field mistake free, and force
Speaker 1: them to execute in the red zone. It's probably fair.
Speaker 1: Season's over. No, no it's not. It ain't over till
Speaker 1: it's over. I'm a firm believer in that, right, and
Speaker 1: I'm over to the fat ladies say, I wouldn't be
Speaker 1: surprised they win one of these three. I think Miami's
Speaker 1: a winnable game just because they're coming up here and
Speaker 1: they're not playing great football right now. You know, maybe, uh, Bill, Matt,
Speaker 1: do you have the snow machine back there for the
Speaker 1: Miami game? You got well, you just missed it. Apparently
Speaker 1: the next two days it is supposed to be wild
Speaker 1: with the weather. Do you got some some blizzards up
Speaker 1: your sleeves? You know? Could it's Joe Burrow's first time
Speaker 1: facing Bill Belichick. Maybe he gets some turn the ball
Speaker 1: over a bit, right, Maybe the Bills have everything locked up,
Speaker 1: and it's case keen him in week eighteen, like they
Speaker 1: could maybe sneak a win in here somewhere, but um,
Speaker 1: it ain't overtilts over. It's a very I said this somewhere.
Speaker 1: It's a very. It's a we are better than new offense.
Speaker 1: Like this offense is not super the Bengals, I mean,
Speaker 1: this offense is not super creative, right, Like, it's not
Speaker 1: like a Kyle Shanahan or a Mike McDaniel offense, where
Speaker 1: like there's dudes running all over the place and there's
Speaker 1: motion and there's all this crazy creative stuff. This is
Speaker 1: like we line up, we just execute our basic concepts
Speaker 1: really really well, and we have Joe Burrow and Jamar
Speaker 1: Chase right Like, that's that's the offense. It's it's you know,
Speaker 1: you know what we're gonna do. We know what we're
Speaker 1: gonna do, but we're gonna execute it at such a
Speaker 1: high level it's not gonna matter, right, So, which is
Speaker 1: kind of what the Patriots were for a while there
Speaker 1: with Brady. So in that respect, I think the Patriots
Speaker 1: will have a pretty good feel for what the Bengals
Speaker 1: are offensively by Saturday, and obviously it will just come
Speaker 1: down to the individual. Matt, you got to show up
Speaker 1: and stop it. Yeah, all right, I agree with you.
Speaker 1: Though season is not over. I think that this game,
Speaker 1: if they lose this game, then I think I might
Speaker 1: pronounce it dead because I think they need to win
Speaker 1: this one. I think, I mean, I think they it
Speaker 1: would be over. I think mathematically they'd be eliminated if
Speaker 1: they lose. Well, depending on what else happens, I guess
Speaker 1: I think that there is a chance there is a
Speaker 1: path to nine and eight getting into the playoffs. Whether
Speaker 1: I can hear the argument that you might not want
Speaker 1: to get into the playoffs. And we did this last week,
Speaker 1: We did this last week now, or two weeks ago,
Speaker 1: whenever it was. Yeah, but either way, we'll be back
Speaker 1: on the show next week, same time, same place, win
Speaker 1: or lose or draw, we will be here to talk
Speaker 1: about the end of the season, all the way through
Speaker 1: the end of the season, and then in the offseason
Speaker 1: as well. So keep it right here, Patriots Catch twenty two,
Speaker 1: Alex and I will be back with you guys next week.
Speaker 1: Thanks so much for listening, and we'll see you then.
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