Speaker 1: Patriots Catch twenty two. We'll join Evan Lazar and Alex
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Speaker 1: the exit, the No's trends, and latest New England Patriots
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Speaker 3: Drive?
Speaker 4: Yeah, boy, welcome into the playbook for Wednesday game week Miami.
Speaker 4: It is now week twelve in the National Football League,
Speaker 4: so we're moving along. John Rook here. Evan Lazarre is
Speaker 4: also here as he always is, to start our program.
Speaker 4: A little bit later on. Chris Perkins, who covers the
Speaker 4: Miami Dolphins for the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He'll be
Speaker 4: here to also kind of fill us in on the
Speaker 4: Fins because, actually, Evan, I'm surprised to say this, this
Speaker 4: is a big week for the Dolphins because if they
Speaker 4: have any hopes of trying to backdoor their way into
Speaker 4: the playoffs, they can't afford to stumble to the Patriots,
Speaker 4: So I think New England has to be on their guard.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, Look, it's a tough matchup. I mean, the
Speaker 2: Patriots having one down there since twenty nineteen. I think
Speaker 2: you're gonna hear that a lot this week. They're win
Speaker 2: six against toa six and zero against them. Whichever way
Speaker 2: you want to look at it, this is in one
Speaker 2: of those games where if the Patriots were to pull
Speaker 2: off a win, it would be an outlier. There's no
Speaker 2: other way to put it. They really have not been
Speaker 2: able to beat Miami in Miami, and they especially have
Speaker 2: not been able to beat Miami with TUA. So it's
Speaker 2: going to be a tough one.
Speaker 4: Doug Kaide from the Boston Herald, he's also going to
Speaker 4: join us, the Patriots beat writer for that newspaper, And
Speaker 4: of course Russell Baxter belonged to run through week twelve
Speaker 4: in the National Football League. So let's kind of start
Speaker 4: here with the Rams. And look, I'm kind of I'm
Speaker 4: joining in with everybody else. I saw a myriad missed
Speaker 4: opportunities on Sunday I also saw an inability or whatever
Speaker 4: it was they were doing wasn't effective in terms of
Speaker 4: trying to slow down a RAMS attack that just seemed
Speaker 4: to score to score to score to score for a
Speaker 4: period of time there and there was no real apparent adjustment.
Speaker 4: So I have to look at it as hey, this
Speaker 4: is another week where the Patriots coaching staff kind of
Speaker 4: learned its lesson, at least you hope it learned its lesson.
Speaker 4: But I'm wondering where the accumulation of these lessons learned
Speaker 4: is when it is going to start paying off here,
Speaker 4: because you know, it's late in the year. We know
Speaker 4: the team is what it is. Yeah, that's a familiar
Speaker 4: you know, saying, but where's the improvement coming from that
Speaker 4: side of the ball, not the performance side, but the
Speaker 4: coaching and the instruction side. I'm not sure it's where
Speaker 4: it needs to be. And I'm just being honest here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it's a fair assessment. I think A big
Speaker 2: theme for me this week is sort of the same thing,
Speaker 2: which is one you can't win until you stop losing.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Right, that's a big one because when you watch the
Speaker 2: when you watch this team right now and you watch
Speaker 2: their their tape, especially on the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 2: They may didn't really make very many plays on defense
Speaker 2: this week, but offensively you see that. You see a
Speaker 2: team that in flashes makes plays right like that is
Speaker 2: capable of moving the football and is capable of scoring points.
Speaker 2: But they're just offensively sticking on that side of the ball.
Speaker 2: Really both sides of the ball though, they're shooting themselves
Speaker 2: in the foot too often where it's not consistent enough
Speaker 2: to string together four quarters of solid football to win
Speaker 2: a football game against a good team. So there's that,
Speaker 2: And then the other thing that I keep on going
Speaker 2: back on is an old Belichick cliche, which is that
Speaker 2: coaches lose games and players win games. And so right now,
Speaker 2: whether it's coaching or it's performance or execution, they have
Speaker 2: to get out of their own way because I do think,
Speaker 2: and I know that some people might disagree, but I
Speaker 2: do think they have the talent to remain competitive. I'm
Speaker 2: not saying that they have the talent to rattle off
Speaker 2: six straight wins. I'm just saying that they have the
Speaker 2: talent to be in these games.
Speaker 4: See, And I actually thought that, And you're right, I
Speaker 4: actually thought that much earlier this season. I saw enough
Speaker 4: there to where this team could be competitive. Yeah, if
Speaker 4: decisions being made could get them over the hump. It
Speaker 4: hasn't happened that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, you come into these games and look,
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to absolve anybody on the defensive side
Speaker 2: of the football, but a first time defensive coordinator in
Speaker 2: play caller, a rookie play caller on the defensive side
Speaker 2: of the footballp in DeMarcus Covington goes up against arguably
Speaker 2: the best offensive mind in the National Football League and
Speaker 2: Sean McVay. I think there's a really good case to
Speaker 2: be made that McVeigh is on the short list of
Speaker 2: play callers on the offensive side of the ball that
Speaker 2: are at the top of the game right now. McVeigh
Speaker 2: Reid Kyle Shanahan like, that's sort of the list.
Speaker 4: Well, okay, So well, we know that the Patriots coaching
Speaker 4: STAF is young, relatively immature first, coaching is concerned certainly
Speaker 4: together as a group. Is it fair to be critical
Speaker 4: of them doing their job when they're really doing it
Speaker 4: for the first time, they're kind of learning on a
Speaker 4: trial by fire. I mean, I ask you this because
Speaker 4: I think you know, first of all, I don't think
Speaker 4: anybody he's getting fired. I think that they're going to
Speaker 4: run with this for another year at least. That's been
Speaker 4: my gut feeling all along. I don't think that, you know,
Speaker 4: the Crafts certainly are going to bring in a whole
Speaker 4: new staff and then and then rip it apart or
Speaker 4: rip it to shreds after one year. They're going to
Speaker 4: try to give this an opportunity. What we really need
Speaker 4: to see more is UH is helped within the personnel department,
Speaker 4: which is another story entirely. I just I'm kind of
Speaker 4: curious though, might there be an evaluation or reevaluation or
Speaker 4: maybe maybe a reassignment in some of the duties or
Speaker 4: depending upon what happens when the you know, the black
Speaker 4: Monday occurs, you know in the NFL after the end
Speaker 4: of the regular season, maybe you think about making some
Speaker 4: moves to augment what you have and maybe suit your talent.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, the one thing I would
Speaker 2: say on the defense side of the ball, and they
Speaker 2: have some guys on defense that have coached a long
Speaker 2: time in this league. Yeah, so it's not Covington's a
Speaker 2: younger guy.
Speaker 4: He was on the staff. You know, people forget he
Speaker 4: was on the staff last year.
Speaker 2: He's been on the staff for seven eight.
Speaker 4: Years, right, so he's been around. Yeah, he knows the
Speaker 4: culture here.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know Jerry Montgomery, their their defensive line coach,
Speaker 2: Drew Wilkins, their outside linebackers coach Mike Pellegrino, their cornerbacks
Speaker 2: coach Brian Belichick obviously saved these like these guys have
Speaker 2: coached in the league for a while, Like this isn't
Speaker 2: necessarily a fully green staff on that side of the football.
Speaker 2: But the bottom line is is on Sunday in this game,
Speaker 2: and he's going to have it again on Sunday against
Speaker 2: Mike McDaniel, who's another guy that I would put on
Speaker 2: that short list of offensive innovators, you know, play design
Speaker 2: and calling plays and things like that. Sean McVay took
Speaker 2: him behind the woodshed on Sunday and it happens like
Speaker 2: that's that that's going to happen. But like your point,
Speaker 2: how does he learn from it? Like, how do they
Speaker 2: evolve from it moving forward?
Speaker 4: I want to see something different. I want to see
Speaker 4: a wrinkle. I want to see an attitude. I want
Speaker 4: to see an energy. I want to see something that
Speaker 4: tells me, hey, they're catching on here. I haven't seen
Speaker 4: that yet, and that's a little disturbing. And I would
Speaker 4: tell you maybe it's because they've decided they're going to
Speaker 4: stay the course and reevaluate it all at the end
Speaker 4: of the year. If so, then these coaches are the
Speaker 4: most disciplined coaches I've ever seen in my life, because
Speaker 4: you know, every season requires adjustments. I mean, my goodness,
Speaker 4: I've been covering the NFL longer than any of these
Speaker 4: guys have been alive, and so every season sees adjustments
Speaker 4: from within, from the coaches, from the players, from the administrators,
Speaker 4: from every You must adjust to win. If you stay
Speaker 4: with one thing and you're still doing that same thing
Speaker 4: at the end of the year, I would tell you
Speaker 4: you're losing.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, look, I think that's fair. And when you
Speaker 2: look at this game plan from the Bears week to
Speaker 2: the Rams week, one of the things that I thought
Speaker 2: they did that didn't work was they took a lot
Speaker 2: of the same things that they did against Chicago and
Speaker 2: expected those things to work against them. And in theory,
Speaker 2: I can understand where you're going with it, because you're like, well,
Speaker 2: we shut down the Bears, or're probably not going to
Speaker 2: shut down the Rams with as much success. But if
Speaker 2: it ain't broke, don't fix it, you know, So let's
Speaker 2: not try to get too cute here. But at the
Speaker 2: same time, it's just such a different matchup. You have
Speaker 2: a rookie quarterback in Chicago versus a sixteen year veteran
Speaker 2: in Matthew Stafford with the Rams, who I believe Stafford's
Speaker 2: one of the best quarterbacks in the league. I think
Speaker 2: he's a top ten quarterback in the NFL. So you
Speaker 2: have an experienced quarterback that's really really good. You have
Speaker 2: two receivers in Kup and Nikua who are really really
Speaker 2: good and also are tough matchups for you just because
Speaker 2: of their size and their ability to create yards after
Speaker 2: the catch. And both those guys are just our big,
Speaker 2: tough dudes to tackle in the open field and they're
Speaker 2: a little bit smaller in the cornerback room. So it's
Speaker 2: just a difficult matchup in that aspect. And then you
Speaker 2: also have all of mcveigh's bells and whistles, you know,
Speaker 2: the motion and the bunches and the nasty looks and
Speaker 2: things like that that we can get into. So all
Speaker 2: of that stuff, you know, is problematic and the biggest
Speaker 2: thing that I just learned from watching Bill Belichick is
Speaker 2: that you have to take something away from the opponent,
Speaker 2: like you can't let them do it all.
Speaker 4: And that's been to me the biggest fail of the
Speaker 4: coaching staff all year. Yeah, they haven't taken away what
Speaker 4: the one thing you need to take away the decision
Speaker 4: last week and again I'm probably you know, just a
Speaker 4: piling on here, but the decision to play Christian Gonzales
Speaker 4: on the short side of the field, the boundary side.
Speaker 4: If you're wondering what the terminology means because you hear
Speaker 4: that term a lot nowadays, and to not have him
Speaker 4: either take out you know, Cooper cup or Pooka Nakula
Speaker 4: was mind boggling. Now, I guess I understand in principle
Speaker 4: what they were trying to do, But at halftime you
Speaker 4: should have known because of the first half that Nakula had.
Speaker 4: You should have known, I think we need to make
Speaker 4: a change up here. Didn't do that, and so you've
Speaker 4: got to give them something they're not expecting. Yeah, Sean
Speaker 4: McVay and the Rams reacted, and that's why after the
Speaker 4: first couple of drives, they punched the fate the Patriots
Speaker 4: right in the nose.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, the Gonzales stuff. And I went on this
Speaker 2: yesterday and I understand people are gonna disagree with me,
Speaker 2: and that's fine. I didn't think the coverage plan with
Speaker 2: Gonzales was all that bad, the main reason being, and
Speaker 2: I've talked to some people about this that have coached
Speaker 2: in the league, and so I feel pretty confident in
Speaker 2: saying it at this point, when you play a team
Speaker 2: like the Rams, who use a lot of motion and
Speaker 2: use a lot of bunch formation, it's very difficult to
Speaker 2: play straight man to man against teams like that because
Speaker 2: what they're doing is they're creating picks, they're creating re release,
Speaker 2: they're creating leverage with all these different things that they're doing.
Speaker 4: I understand all of that, but isn't that what audibles
Speaker 4: were for. Isn't that whoever's calling the signals on the
Speaker 4: defense and what that for based on what they come
Speaker 4: out in the lineup. So and I know that they
Speaker 4: went back and forth between man and zone. They played
Speaker 4: both defenses against the Rams, but seems like they were
Speaker 4: caught in the wrong spot. Every time they needed to
Speaker 4: be in a man's situation, they were caught and it
Speaker 4: was like they were caught flat footed. They were reactionary
Speaker 4: instead of you know, proactive, and that's you. That's where
Speaker 4: I want to see. I want to see proactive, not reactive,
Speaker 4: and we haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I get I get everything you're saying. I just
Speaker 2: schematically and I'm not, you know, trying to take a
Speaker 2: shot at you, but I just schematically. I feel like
Speaker 2: it's it's a lot, right. It sounds logical to just
Speaker 2: say Nikua's got to go in today, Let's put Gonzales
Speaker 2: on Nikua. Like it sounds logical, and I think sometimes
Speaker 2: there's a lot to be said for the fact that
Speaker 2: the simplest thing is the right thing in football. But
Speaker 2: as logical as it sounds, in practice, it's not as
Speaker 2: easy as it sounds. If that makes sense.
Speaker 4: Sure, and no, I understand it. I get it all.
Speaker 4: I get it all. I think the bottom line is
Speaker 4: is what they really need is they need another cover corner. Yeah,
Speaker 4: somebody else.
Speaker 2: That's that's my biggest takeaway from this game, because you know,
Speaker 2: go back to it, go and watch early on in
Speaker 2: this game, what was happening was is that McVeigh was
Speaker 2: they were starting Gonzalez on Nikua. Sure, and then McVeigh
Speaker 2: was motioning him across the formation into bunch alignments and
Speaker 2: then releasing him out of the bunch alignment at the snap,
Speaker 2: So there's no time for communication or switching or whatever.
Speaker 2: And once they snapped the football, Nikua was running into
Speaker 2: somebody else's zone and leaving Gonzalez right, So then Gonzalez
Speaker 2: had to pass him off to other people. And now
Speaker 2: what happens is is you started with Gonzalez on Nikua,
Speaker 2: but you're ending with Marco Wilson on Nikua instead. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that is all McVeigh, right, Like, that's all scheme.
Speaker 4: Okay, I would have been proactive with that. How did
Speaker 4: the Patriots beat the Rams in Super Bowl thirty six?
Speaker 2: Super Bowl thirty six? Oh man, that's going back aways,
Speaker 2: Yes it is before you were alive. I was at it. Actually, No,
Speaker 2: definitely not before.
Speaker 4: Okay, but I'm asking sort of rhetorically, all right, Yeah,
Speaker 4: so how do they beat them? Because they lined up
Speaker 4: and they smacked them in the mouth.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but that team was different like that from what
Speaker 2: I understand of that RAMS team, And I don't I
Speaker 2: don't study that Rams team like I study these Rams teams,
Speaker 2: but like the team back in oh, one in the
Speaker 2: way you played like it was stagnant offense.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 2: They were an eleven personnel team that came out in
Speaker 2: three receiver you know, it was Bruce to one side,
Speaker 2: hold to the other side, and they just played football
Speaker 2: right like this team would nowadays. And we're gonna see
Speaker 2: it again on Sunday with Miami. So this is sort
Speaker 2: of my big thing of the week is like, you
Speaker 2: stunk against motion last week, so you better figured the
Speaker 2: freak out.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Jammy is gonna motion you today.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they're gonna do the exact same thing that the
Speaker 2: Rams just did.
Speaker 4: Correct.
Speaker 2: And so those teams back in the day, they didn't
Speaker 2: motion like these offenses do now. They didn't have that
Speaker 2: type of you know, this is more innovative or in
Speaker 2: a more new agey I hate using that phrase, but
Speaker 2: that's what it is, right. Yeah, I'd say in the
Speaker 2: last five to ten years, motion at the snap, not shifting,
Speaker 2: but motion at the snap, would you know, jet motion
Speaker 2: and missile motion and things like that, all that type
Speaker 2: of stuff has really taken off, I would say in
Speaker 2: the last you know, five years in football. So it's
Speaker 2: not the first time they've ever seen it, and it
Speaker 2: certainly looked like it was the first time they had
Speaker 2: ever seen it on Sunday. So I'm not letting them
Speaker 2: off the hook. I just I understood the philosophy of
Speaker 2: the game plan. I just think execution and the coaches
Speaker 2: have to take responsibility for execution as well. Like that,
Speaker 2: it's on them to get the guys ready, and they
Speaker 2: weren't ready.
Speaker 4: Hey, Marine, for some reason, the cursor isn't coming up
Speaker 4: on the call thing here, so you may have to
Speaker 4: bring the did you turn it off? Technology?
Speaker 2: Do you need help? Do you need help?
Speaker 4: I might wait? Is that it there? You go? Oh
Speaker 4: my god? It works now? You trying to say battery power?
Speaker 4: You know?
Speaker 2: Smart by him.
Speaker 4: It's what happens when you don't win. You know, you
Speaker 4: gotta watch you all the batteries that you have and
Speaker 4: make sure that you're taking them out of the things
Speaker 4: that you like. I get it, I get no, I
Speaker 4: get it, I get it.
Speaker 2: Hey, I'm just is focusing this game for one minute?
Speaker 4: I know, I'm just happy to be here. Chris Perkins
Speaker 4: covers the Miami Dolphins for the South fold of Sun Sentinel.
Speaker 4: Kind of enough to join us for a bit here
Speaker 4: inside the playbook, Hey, Chris, it's John and Evan here
Speaker 4: in Foxborough.
Speaker 5: How are you today, Hey guys, I'm doing good man.
Speaker 5: The Dolphins have won back to back games for the
Speaker 5: first time in almost a years.
Speaker 4: How about that?
Speaker 5: People down here at giddy they don't know what to
Speaker 5: do right now.
Speaker 4: I can only imagine, but I would tell you that
Speaker 4: there's an opportunity, a real opportunity, based on a couple
Speaker 4: of things that we've already talked about. Number One, you know,
Speaker 4: the Patriots got themselves motioned to death this past week
Speaker 4: against the Rams, which certainly I think would be an
Speaker 4: clue for the Dolphins in terms of trying to formulate
Speaker 4: a attack. Number one. But number two, Dolphins have it
Speaker 4: all over the Patriots right now. They've just you know,
Speaker 4: I don't know if Tua has a cast of spell,
Speaker 4: Mike McDaniel his cast a spell. I don't know what
Speaker 4: it is. But this Patriots team cannot beat that Dolphins
Speaker 4: team unless this Dolphins team, I think, shoots itself in
Speaker 4: the foot. What are your thoughts?
Speaker 5: It's an interesting dynamic. I believe that Mike McDaniel was
Speaker 5: four and one against the Patriot but we all know
Speaker 5: what happened that last game, right Jalen Polk is like
Speaker 5: a half foot literally east delivering a victory.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 5: So you know the Dolphins have to be wary. But
Speaker 5: you know, the strange thing with the Dolphins right now
Speaker 5: is they're kind of going through this metamorphosis. And you know,
Speaker 5: they came into the season with this high scoring, you know,
Speaker 5: big play passing game that they've used the previous two seasons,
Speaker 5: and it was Tua Tyreek and Jalen Waddell. Well, now
Speaker 5: it's Tua Devon Chan and John new Smith. And really
Speaker 5: teams have taken away the deep ball by playing the
Speaker 5: too high safety look, pressing them at the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 5: And so the Dolphins have switched and now they're trying
Speaker 5: to go with the underneath stuff, the short control passing
Speaker 5: game to a fan and John new Smith and then
Speaker 5: you know, using a running game. So we'll see what
Speaker 5: happens here. But you know, the Dolphins, you know, and
Speaker 5: I'll tell you this also, the motion had been cut
Speaker 5: down a little bit, and that was in the roll
Speaker 5: games against Buffalo and the Rams. I'll be interested to
Speaker 5: see how much that motion comes back here in a
Speaker 5: home game. It kind of came back a little bit
Speaker 5: last week, But I'll see how much. It'll be interesting
Speaker 5: to see how much they rely on that again this week.
Speaker 4: Is there any chance at all that this game is
Speaker 4: played tighter to the vest, and maybe we think, like
Speaker 4: the fifteen to ten game back in September.
Speaker 5: It could, it could. I don't know what to expect
Speaker 5: from these Dolphins now. Now they're under going just change.
Speaker 5: You know, it used to be you at pencil these
Speaker 5: guys in for twenty something points and maybe they go
Speaker 5: up to thirty or forty, and kind of now you
Speaker 5: kind of pencil them in for what maybe seventeen point
Speaker 5: twenty point and you see if they can get up
Speaker 5: to like twenty seven. So it's a new era of
Speaker 5: Golfon's football, and you know, again it's a little more measured,
Speaker 5: a little more conventional. So I really don't know what
Speaker 5: to expect from this offense.
Speaker 4: Well, you know, the fact the better is that this
Speaker 4: is completely different team when Tua is quarterbacking. And I
Speaker 4: think that's even obvious to those who are, you know,
Speaker 4: really not familiar with the Miami Dolphins. So with Tua
Speaker 4: back and seemingly the entire offense playing with more confidence,
Speaker 4: how does this team continue to try to build to
Speaker 4: see if they can't play their way back into legitimate
Speaker 4: playoff contention.
Speaker 5: I think the offensive key is going to be this
Speaker 5: run game and the control passing game. Again, devon Ah
Speaker 5: chan Uh at running back and John new Smith at
Speaker 5: tight end are going to be the stars. They're still
Speaker 5: willing to look for opportunities to hit Tyreek Hill and
Speaker 5: Jalen Waddle deep because really that's what makes this offense dangerous.
Speaker 5: Without that element, you know, you you kind of respect
Speaker 5: this offense, but you there's no fear. So I'm gonna
Speaker 5: be very interested to to to see what happens there
Speaker 5: as far as this offense. Defensively, looking ahead, you've gotta
Speaker 5: stay healthy and and that means Zach Steeler and Kaleis
Speaker 5: Campbell on the defensive line and Jalen Ramsey there at
Speaker 5: safety and probably uh Jevon Holland also back there at safety.
Speaker 5: Jordan Foyer has really struggled this season, so that those
Speaker 5: that's really the way ahead for this team is that
Speaker 5: they've got to keep their key players healthy and then
Speaker 5: they've got to develop their new identity and figure out
Speaker 5: who they are offensively. But they're still kind of searching
Speaker 5: when you when you look ahead to find out who
Speaker 5: they are because they've switched from the team that entered
Speaker 5: the season.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, that's actually kind of my biggest question
Speaker 4: about the Dolphins because you know, you brought up a
Speaker 4: great point. They've gone to more of an underneath game,
Speaker 4: you know, since two has come back here. But I'm
Speaker 4: wondering if they might not try to get back to
Speaker 4: the way things were earlier in the season. They didn't
Speaker 4: have a whole lot of success with that against the
Speaker 4: Patriots back in September, but they certainly were a little
Speaker 4: bit more dynamic in offense like that. Do they need
Speaker 4: to get back to that in order to have long
Speaker 4: term success where, let's face it, even immediate successes they
Speaker 4: try to get back into the playoff picture.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I kind of think that they do, because you know,
Speaker 5: the one thing that we have not seen from this offense.
Speaker 5: You know, this offense now is going on a lot
Speaker 5: of ten and eleven and fourteen play drives, and that
Speaker 5: requires you to be almost flawless, right, don't get behind
Speaker 5: the chains and face of first and fifteen. You know,
Speaker 5: against against Buffalo, Raheem Mostert had a third quarter fumble.
Speaker 5: They never recovered from against Arizona to a fumble three times.
Speaker 5: Heck Tua had the snap go through his hands that
Speaker 5: counted for a safety in a twenty eight to twenty
Speaker 5: seven loss. So you know, there's all these little things
Speaker 5: that this team has to clean up, and when you
Speaker 5: have to go you know, station to station, those things
Speaker 5: crop up a lot more that that. That big play,
Speaker 5: that one eighty yard touchdown, that removes a lot of
Speaker 5: the stink you know from the from the mishandled uh,
Speaker 5: you know, the fumbles and the mishandled nats. So you
Speaker 5: know that that's one thing that moving forward, I think
Speaker 5: that the big play is a necessity, not only to
Speaker 5: help you come back if you're down ten in the
Speaker 5: fourth quarter, but also yeah, if you if you lose
Speaker 5: a fumble or have an interception or or whatever, that
Speaker 5: big play can help you erase that mistake very quickly.
Speaker 4: Right. You actually wrote I think uh for the Sun
Speaker 4: centaal this week about how you know, this offense has evolved,
Speaker 4: but it's still probably not good enough for this team
Speaker 4: to get to where it wants to go. Is that
Speaker 4: still accurate?
Speaker 5: You think I think it is. I think it is.
Speaker 5: And look, here's the Dolphins situation. They're sitting here at
Speaker 5: four and six. I'm thinking that nine wins probably gets
Speaker 5: you in in the AFC. So the Dolphins are looking
Speaker 5: at having to win five of their last seven games.
Speaker 5: The toughest three games on the schedule are at green
Speaker 5: Bay on Thanksgiving Night, at Houston, and at home against
Speaker 5: San Francisco, So you know you're probably gonna have to
Speaker 5: win one of those games, and then you're remaining four games.
Speaker 5: You got the Jets twice, and you got the Patriots
Speaker 5: on Sunday, and then you've got Cleveland also, so you
Speaker 5: know they the path is there. You know they don't
Speaker 5: have to beat Houston and Green Bay and San Francisco.
Speaker 5: If you win those other four games, then you only
Speaker 5: have to beat one of those three teams. So that's
Speaker 5: the path. But is that offense ready? Is the offense
Speaker 5: ready to take them there? I don't know. You might
Speaker 5: need more help from the defense than you would have
Speaker 5: needed last year or two years ago, makes sense.
Speaker 2: Chris, just a couple of questions. I do want to
Speaker 2: talk about the defense here in a second, but I
Speaker 2: want to stick with McDaniel because I feel like there's
Speaker 2: a lot of narratives about him and about his coaching
Speaker 2: future in Miami in terms of how he's been able
Speaker 2: to adjust and you know, how he's been able to
Speaker 2: have the offense be productive throughout the course of the
Speaker 2: season late in the year specifically, what have you seen
Speaker 2: from McDaniel this year, and like, where do you kind
Speaker 2: of stand with him as the Dolphins head coach.
Speaker 5: I'm still late and see I do give him credit
Speaker 5: for going away from this, you know, Tyreek Hill, Jalen
Speaker 5: Waddell based offense, recognizing that you're really stuck in the mud,
Speaker 5: that that teams have figured this out. They're going to
Speaker 5: play that too high safety look and they're gonna take
Speaker 5: that deep pass away. There's no reason to keep forcing
Speaker 5: it go to something else. That's good recognition by Mike McDaniel.
Speaker 5: But I still need to the just general leadership hit
Speaker 5: coach Chopp. You know, this is his first hit coaching job,
Speaker 5: this is his first time calling play, so there's a
Speaker 5: lot on his plate. You know, here's a guy who boy,
Speaker 5: I'm trying to think of the numbers. I think they
Speaker 5: came into the season seven and twelve on the road.
Speaker 5: They're two and three now, so that will make them
Speaker 5: what nine and sixteen.
Speaker 4: On the road.
Speaker 5: They're four and ten in December and January. So that's
Speaker 5: a couple of big hurdles right there that you've you know,
Speaker 5: as a coach, you know, the better teams in the
Speaker 5: league are going to be around five hundred on the road,
Speaker 5: and you're certainly going to have to know how to
Speaker 5: win games in December and January. So you know, Mike
Speaker 5: McDaniel is improving, but there's still some questions he has
Speaker 5: to answer.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And on the other side of the ball, since
Speaker 2: the Dolphins offense is definitely more exciting to talk about,
Speaker 2: I think sometimes for some people, but for the defense
Speaker 2: I believe is this three defensive coordinators already for Mike McDaniel, right,
Speaker 2: that's correct. Yeah, And you know, just what have you
Speaker 2: seen from Anthony Weaver and do you feel like they
Speaker 2: finally found an answer there at DC?
Speaker 5: Oh? Yeah, Weave has been great now, he has been outstanding.
Speaker 5: I like the way that he has used Jalen Ramsey,
Speaker 5: specifically Ramsey. The only player that Ramsey has shadowed has
Speaker 5: been DK Metcalf. But what they're doing with Jalen Ramsey,
Speaker 5: they're getting him close to the ball and they're using
Speaker 5: him to extinguish the biggest threat on that specific down
Speaker 5: and distance. So you know, first and ten from from
Speaker 5: the opponent's twenty yard line, you know, Ramsey might be
Speaker 5: lined up on an outside receiver. Second and two from
Speaker 5: the twenty eight, he might be lined up on the
Speaker 5: slot receiver because that's where the team goes in those
Speaker 5: short yard is situations. First and ten from the forty,
Speaker 5: he might be lined up in the slot, and he
Speaker 5: might be blitzing. He's been good against the run. He's
Speaker 5: you know, he's been able to defend slot receivers, outside receivers,
Speaker 5: tight ends everything. So that's one thing that I like
Speaker 5: about Anthony Weaver that Vic Fangio did not do last year.
Speaker 5: He's using Jalen Ramsey kind of as that Swiss army knife.
Speaker 5: A few other things. You're seeing Kaleis Campbell and and
Speaker 5: Zach Steeler as down lineman moving all over the place.
Speaker 5: That's another good thing, uh, you know, And and the
Speaker 5: pass rush has it's pretty much been non existent for
Speaker 5: the Dolphins because Jalen Phillips and Bradley Chubb have pretty
Speaker 5: much been out all year. Chubb out all year with
Speaker 5: the with the knee that he sustained on New Year's
Speaker 5: Eve last season, and then Jalen Phillips. You know, he
Speaker 5: had the the Achilles last year on Black Friday. He
Speaker 5: came back and played I don't know what the first
Speaker 5: four five games this year and had a knee injury.
Speaker 5: So you don't have Chubb or Phillips, but they've been
Speaker 5: able to get decent pressure on quarterbacks, not sacked, not
Speaker 5: finishing the play, but decent pressure. Chop Robinson, the first
Speaker 5: round kick has been coming on the last three weeks.
Speaker 5: Here's the other thing about Anthony Weaver and this defense
Speaker 5: has been good. They were the number ten defense in
Speaker 5: the league last year under Big Fangio, and they've been
Speaker 5: pretty much just as productive. If the defense continues trending
Speaker 5: in this direction, Weaver might get a hit coaching job.
Speaker 5: I think he's interviewed twice for hit coaches. But so,
Speaker 5: you know, that's kind of the down thing is like
Speaker 5: the better Weaver does, the bigger chance that you're going
Speaker 5: to be on your fourth defensive coordinator in four years
Speaker 5: next year, because that guy could get a hit coaching job.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's interesting that you mentioned that because when I
Speaker 2: looked up his you know, information, sort of his bio
Speaker 2: this this week. He's he's got sort of the resume,
Speaker 2: you know, former player turned coach, forty four years old,
Speaker 2: Like you know, we got one of those here.
Speaker 4: And Mayo demography.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's kind of got those those boxes checked.
Speaker 2: So it's interesting you mentioned Chop Robinson there as well.
Speaker 2: It does seem like, you know, PFF pressures and all
Speaker 2: that kind of stuff. It's it feels like he's starting
Speaker 2: to come on here a little bit.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and what you're gonna see this week with Chopping,
Speaker 5: you know, Chop. Here's the funny thing about Chop. You know,
Speaker 5: even in college, he had a high pressure rate, but
Speaker 5: he didn't finish. He didn't have a lot of sacks.
Speaker 5: And you always heard, well, he's got a big win rate,
Speaker 5: you know, but and it's kind of like, yeah, but
Speaker 5: he's not finishing the plays. That's exactly what we've seen here,
Speaker 5: that that he's got the good win rate and all
Speaker 5: that kind of stuff, but he wasn't finishing plays. He
Speaker 5: wasn't actually getting the sack. He started to do better
Speaker 5: the last couple of weeks. I think he's had two
Speaker 5: sacks in the last three games, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 5: But one thing that you're gonna see on Sunday that
Speaker 5: they've been doing is they've been lining him up out wide,
Speaker 5: you know, kind of that wide nine position where you're
Speaker 5: outside the offensive tackles outside shoulder, And they say, what
Speaker 5: that does with chops quit first step, That gives him
Speaker 5: a better option of going inside or outside. He has
Speaker 5: a little more uproom to operate. It gives him, you know,
Speaker 5: to a two way option there. So look for that
Speaker 5: with chopping and if he continues to improve, because that's
Speaker 5: a big part of the defense. They need his pass rush,
Speaker 5: they need his pressure on quarterbacks. And by the way,
Speaker 5: the Dolphins are pretty impressed by Drake May, I'll tell
Speaker 5: you that, but they need his chop Robinson's pressure on
Speaker 5: Drake May to have an effective game play.
Speaker 4: Yeah, agreed, Yeah, fair enough, big picture here, real quick, Chris.
Speaker 4: Do the Dolphins need to finish strong to you know,
Speaker 4: help save jobs? And I know that there's been rumors
Speaker 4: about the GM and everything else going on this week,
Speaker 4: you know in South Florida. What are your thoughts in
Speaker 4: that regard.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's a very interesting situation. So for me, I say,
Speaker 5: never moved the goalposts. The definition of a successful season
Speaker 5: coming into the year was winning a playoff game. Ye
Speaker 5: at this point, it looks like you're gonna have to
Speaker 5: have a strong finish just so you can go get
Speaker 5: your teeth kicked in in the pol weather in Pittsburgh, Buffalo,
Speaker 5: Kansas City, Baltimore, wherever. So, yeah, jobs are on the line.
Speaker 5: This has been a disappointing season. They've underachieved, you know.
Speaker 5: But here's the thing. If they come back, if they
Speaker 5: win nine games and get a wildcard. First, I don't
Speaker 5: know that the general manager, Chris Greer loses his job.
Speaker 5: And to me, these things don't happen in a vacuum.
Speaker 5: There's the front end of it where okay, you know,
Speaker 5: you you you say that you're that Chris Greer is gone.
Speaker 5: But the new GM will probably have to be able
Speaker 5: to work with Mike McDaniel and SUA like they aren't
Speaker 5: going anywhere. It doesn't appear unless it's just an absolute
Speaker 5: disaster of a finish, then maybe Mike McDaniel gets fired.
Speaker 5: But you know, but you're gonna bring in the new GM,
Speaker 5: and then you're gonna have the same quarterback and the
Speaker 5: same coach. And then that's the front end of the problem.
Speaker 5: And on the back end, Well, who are you gonna
Speaker 5: hire as GM? You know, there's a lot of guys
Speaker 5: out there, but is everybody gonna want to come and
Speaker 5: work in these constraints, you know, with this offense and
Speaker 5: everything like that. So I think that Mike McDaniel almost
Speaker 5: in these days to like ninety nine percent will be back.
Speaker 5: Chris Greer, I would say, let's see how the season finishes.
Speaker 5: I would say, right now, he's probably about fifty to
Speaker 5: fifty coming back at GM.
Speaker 4: Okay, well that's that's yeah, that's actually information there more encouraging, right. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I was just gonna say, so, let's let's also just
Speaker 4: cut to the chase right here. How damaging would a
Speaker 4: loss to New England be? Nope, did we lose him?
Speaker 2: Sounds like it.
Speaker 4: I think we may have lost him. Did he just yeah,
Speaker 4: he just kind of like popped. I didn't hit anything, Matt,
Speaker 4: I expect promise, I promise, okay.
Speaker 3: Okay, Yeah, I got you.
Speaker 4: Yeah you're there, Yeah, we got you, We got you.
Speaker 5: Okay. So you know you you asked about a loss
Speaker 5: to the Patriots.
Speaker 4: Yeah, what what would that do to their chances?
Speaker 5: It would hurt them severely and the and the fan
Speaker 5: base would be really really upset. But here's the thing
Speaker 5: I'm calling this season right now out the race to
Speaker 5: the nine nine wins or nine losses, right and and
Speaker 5: that's kind of what it is. So you would still
Speaker 5: have a chance if you took that loss to the Patriots,
Speaker 5: but you would have to be pretty much flawless down
Speaker 5: the stretch and and it would be it would be
Speaker 5: you could overcome it, but it would be a really
Speaker 5: really tough thing going to Green Bay on a short
Speaker 5: week for a Thanksgiving game night, which is probably a loss.
Speaker 5: Then you would have back to back losses. You could recover,
Speaker 5: but it would be really, really really tough.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I would. I would definitely tend to agree with
Speaker 4: that one. It should be interesting as well. All right, Chris,
Speaker 4: thank you so much for the time today. Really spend
Speaker 4: your appreciating and you're sin bending a little time with
Speaker 4: us today to bring us the lowdown on what's going on.
Speaker 5: Not a problem, not a problem.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 4: You got it. Chris Perkins at Chris Perk p e
Speaker 4: r K on X if you want to follow him
Speaker 4: and get his latest on the Dolphins. There. I'm all
Speaker 4: tungue tight here because I'm trying to decide which way
Speaker 4: I wanted to go With the next question, I'm like, nah,
Speaker 4: he's been with us long. If we don't want to
Speaker 4: burn him out too much. You know, he's having to
Speaker 4: deal with the dregs of the NFL here, you know.
Speaker 4: With the Patriots at.
Speaker 2: Also, that was good stuff. I definitely, yeah, it's a
Speaker 2: fascinating team. It's not all that different in my mind
Speaker 2: to what's going on in the meadowlands right now with
Speaker 2: the New York Jets, where you look at the roster
Speaker 2: and you say, this is a really talented football team. Yeah,
Speaker 2: they definitely have. I don't know about depth because I
Speaker 2: don't know the team as well as I know the Patriots,
Speaker 2: But in terms of top end talent, you know, Miami's
Speaker 2: high end talent is just as good as anybody. I mean,
Speaker 2: Tyreek and Jalen Waddle is one of the best receiving
Speaker 2: duos in football. The quarterback's pretty good. They have some
Speaker 2: guys on defense, Ramsey, Kalays Campbell, Zack Steeler is a
Speaker 2: very very underrated football player on the interior their defensive line.
Speaker 2: No one of those sneaky good players. So you put
Speaker 2: all this together and you look at the GM and
Speaker 2: you're like, well, it's put together a pretty good roster here.
Speaker 2: But I think the one thing that you stand out
Speaker 2: that stands out to you whenever you watch this this
Speaker 2: Dolphins team is the trenches. Like they especially on the
Speaker 2: offensive side of the ball, when it gets later in
Speaker 2: the year, when it gets colder and opponents get tougher.
Speaker 4: They're not conditioned.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they don't feel like they win in the trenches
Speaker 2: against the good teams. Now that's probably not going to
Speaker 2: apply to the game as much on Sunday, but when
Speaker 2: they play the Buffaloes, the Baltimore is the Kansas City's
Speaker 2: they lean on the Dolphins teams, they lean on them
Speaker 2: and they don't have enough physicality to pull out of it.
Speaker 4: Patriot Vans. If you want to see Toyota's best offers,
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Speaker 4: Go places a couple of quick ones in before we
Speaker 4: let you go here if uh number one. The biggest
Speaker 4: news that came from practice today for the Patriots was
Speaker 4: Cold Strangers return. Yes, how quickly. Do we expect him
Speaker 4: to be reinserted into the lineup.
Speaker 2: Well, honestly, John, like I didn't think Christian Barber would
Speaker 2: be reinserted a lot.
Speaker 4: How many you got.
Speaker 2: Yeah, So they're going about this maybe a little bit
Speaker 2: differently than the old regime would have than Bill would have.
Speaker 2: I feel like Bill Belichick was really big on stretching
Speaker 2: out that twenty one day window and giving guys time
Speaker 2: to ramp back up. These guys, it seems like they
Speaker 2: feel like ramping up is best in game. You know,
Speaker 2: let's let's get.
Speaker 4: Which to me flies right in the face of the
Speaker 4: entire philosophy around Drake May just about the year. I mean,
Speaker 4: if you want to see what you got, let the
Speaker 4: guy play. Yeah, Oh my god, you just you just
Speaker 4: lit You just lit me up. You just lit me up.
Speaker 2: That's what I'm here to do. We're here to We're
Speaker 2: hearing to talk.
Speaker 4: We're here to talk.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, look, I get it. And you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know about Strange if he's going to be
Speaker 2: ready to play on Sunday. I always think it's really
Speaker 2: difficult in terms of trench play to come back because
Speaker 2: you're you're dealing with the position where fundamentals and technique
Speaker 2: is the name of the game. So when you get
Speaker 2: into the trenches, if your pad level is high, if
Speaker 2: your hand placement is off, if your feet aren't right, like,
Speaker 2: you're just gonna be in trouble. And I thought on Sunday,
Speaker 2: as much as great as it was to see Barmore
Speaker 2: back out there, I thought there were a couple of
Speaker 2: instances where his pads were getting up a little bit
Speaker 2: and he was getting moved off the ball, and that
Speaker 2: all comes back to back and drills.
Speaker 4: I was happy to see him back out there. I
Speaker 4: wasn't totally surprised that he wasn't terribly effective. It was
Speaker 4: nice to have his presence out there, if nothing else.
Speaker 4: But now you want to start to see improvements, slow improvement, slow,
Speaker 4: steady improvement. And when Strange gets back out there, you know,
Speaker 4: my biggest deal is you know, Okay, so he's been
Speaker 4: training a little bit at center. That's been fairly well documented.
Speaker 2: Those Yes, we're snapping today, right, So if.
Speaker 4: He was snapping today, do we actually see him line
Speaker 4: up at center? What do they do with Brown the instance,
Speaker 4: or do we see him at guard? And where would
Speaker 4: this team be best served? Right? Now considering the way
Speaker 4: that the offensive line has taken us on this mad,
Speaker 4: mad journey around the globe this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they seem to really like Michael Jordan at left guard.
Speaker 2: He's been pretty much there since week one of the season,
Speaker 2: one of the few guys that's been consistently there. But
Speaker 2: that being said, when I watched the film, I see
Speaker 2: him struggling out there quite a bit, especially in the
Speaker 2: run game. Just really doesn't have the upper body power
Speaker 2: and strength to sustain blocks. It's not so much that
Speaker 2: his like initial movements are terrible, but he gets thrown
Speaker 2: off blocks easily right like later on, So you guy
Speaker 2: will pick his gap to run behind him, and then
Speaker 2: he gets three yards down the field and and he
Speaker 2: shed and it's you know stuff. So I look at
Speaker 2: Michael Jordan at left guard and say that that's probably
Speaker 2: the spot that they could use Cole Strange at the most.
Speaker 2: And I would also say that, you know, center in
Speaker 2: this offense, there's a lot of men mental stuff that
Speaker 2: goes into making the line calls and getting the configuration
Speaker 2: correct and the mic points and all that kind of stuff.
Speaker 4: Why I asked the question, would you be putting too
Speaker 4: much on his plate? On his initial time back after
Speaker 4: being out for a year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, granted, maybe that's what he's been doing
Speaker 2: behind the scenes. And I know girod Meo said today
Speaker 2: that David Andrews has been helping him out with learning
Speaker 2: the intricacies of playing center. And I'm assuming a lot
Speaker 2: of that is mental because he's not been able to
Speaker 2: practice in terms of strange so like it can't be
Speaker 2: physical that David Andrews is helping him, So maybe he
Speaker 2: has a good grasp of that. And you know, Ben
Speaker 2: Brown came in here and in three days was making
Speaker 2: the line calls, you know, against the Houston Texans. So
Speaker 2: with a rookie quarterback and his first ever start, So
Speaker 2: maybe we're making too big of a deal out of that.
Speaker 2: I'll allow for that. But at the same time, I
Speaker 2: don't think Ben Brown has been a liability. No, it
Speaker 2: hasn't been great.
Speaker 4: Considering where you got him, you know, and you picked
Speaker 4: him up it was you know, it wasn't quite a
Speaker 4: street free agent, but he was damn close. Yeah, I
Speaker 4: think he's done remarkable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would say he's for the most part, has
Speaker 2: been passable. He has been functional, sure, So I wouldn't
Speaker 2: necessarily mess with that too much.
Speaker 4: No, I'm kind of on that line as well. And
Speaker 4: I know that there's a you know, a certain faction
Speaker 4: of people that are already out there talking about, you know,
Speaker 4: what you're gonna do when free agency comes around, what
Speaker 4: you might do when the draft comes around. I was
Speaker 4: looking at x earlier today and there's a lot of
Speaker 4: chatter about T Higgins and you know, potential wide receivers
Speaker 4: in the free agent market. And look, I don't really
Speaker 4: want to get too much. I'm kind of like Fred
Speaker 4: in this regard. Okay, next year's next year. We're still
Speaker 4: in this year, and you say, I worry about developing
Speaker 4: who you have here, but oh do we is it
Speaker 4: worth keeping an eye toward it? I mean, do you
Speaker 4: send signals? I mean, what do you do here to
Speaker 4: make sure that you're not caught flat footed? Because that's
Speaker 4: my biggest fear with player personnel within New England. And
Speaker 4: until we fix this problem, until we fix it we
Speaker 4: see Elliott Wolf can do it, I'm going to have
Speaker 4: this doubt in my head. I want to know that
Speaker 4: you know, they're doing the right things in order to basically,
Speaker 4: you know, smooth the runway out for someone to come
Speaker 4: in this way and catch passes from Drake May.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I hear you. I think the biggest thing that
Speaker 2: they could do, and I'm not trying to, you know,
Speaker 2: cop out here, but I think the biggest thing that
Speaker 2: they can do is keep Drake playing well like this
Speaker 2: because they.
Speaker 4: Have That's not a cop out, No, that's a good answer.
Speaker 2: They have to attract the free agents, right and the
Speaker 2: best way to attract the t Higgins are to attract
Speaker 2: the Amari Cooper or whoever the receiver that they're going
Speaker 2: after is. And I mentioned Cooper just because of his
Speaker 2: time with the Browns and in this system and with
Speaker 2: this coaching staff in Cleveland. So you know, these guys
Speaker 2: that are gonna be free agents, you need to show
Speaker 2: them that Drake May is the real deal and they
Speaker 2: have a quarterback to come here and play with. Because
Speaker 2: the reason in my mind that Calvin Ridley is not
Speaker 2: a Patriot is because the Patriots didn't have a quarterback.
Speaker 2: And he's thinking, and I understand Will Levis is not
Speaker 2: good either, but he's thinking, I'm a receiver, you know,
Speaker 2: I need to have a quarterback that can get me
Speaker 2: the football. I don't even know who's going to be
Speaker 2: throwing the football to me in New England. So if
Speaker 2: the money's equal, I'm gonna go someplace else. And that's
Speaker 2: ultimately what it ended up happening. Brandon a Yuk had
Speaker 2: no desire to come here because the Patriots weren't an attraction.
Speaker 2: They weren't a draw. So if you keep Drake May
Speaker 2: playing the way that he is playing, people are gonna
Speaker 2: want to come and play with that player. You know,
Speaker 2: maybe not more than Josh Allen or Patrick Mahomes or
Speaker 2: Lamar Jackson, but when you get into the dregs of
Speaker 2: the league, like you're gonna have the quarterback and these
Speaker 2: other teams might not necessarily have that. So I think that,
Speaker 2: you know, there's a lot of talk about what's to
Speaker 2: come in the offseason. There's a lot of talk about
Speaker 2: this coaching staff and if they're going to stay the
Speaker 2: course with this coaching staff or if there are gonna
Speaker 2: be changes. The one guy that I really feel, I
Speaker 2: continually feel strongly about even more so, is is retaining
Speaker 2: Alex van Pelt. I think Alex van Pel's doing a
Speaker 2: really fine job with Drake May.
Speaker 4: I'm not going to argue with that point. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 4: I've known Alex for a long time, number of years,
Speaker 4: and in this regard, he deserves an opportunity to continue
Speaker 4: working with Drake number one, developing his play skills. Number
Speaker 4: two and then probably two A getting more talent in here.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Man, then we can see what he truly is capable
Speaker 4: of doing. Because I think we all know they've been
Speaker 4: told the best way to go about it right now
Speaker 4: is to play this a little bit more close to
Speaker 4: the vest because we extend ourselves, we're really going to pratfall.
Speaker 4: But now what we want to do is try to
Speaker 4: build toward a certain level. We've seen that from day one.
Speaker 4: Whether we agree or not with the whole Drake may philosophy,
Speaker 4: the point is is that he's playing now, he's showing well,
Speaker 4: we're getting you know, bonnets and kudos thrown his way
Speaker 4: from you know, analysts all over the NFL, so that
Speaker 4: buzz is starting to catch hold. And I'm one hundred
Speaker 4: and ten percent in this corner. Yeah, do whatever you
Speaker 4: can to keep him playing well. Right that what you
Speaker 4: can score like you need to score in the offseason.
Speaker 2: It's just a huge it's a huge developmental time for
Speaker 2: Drake made from going from year one to year two
Speaker 2: in the NFL, and one of the myriad of mistakes
Speaker 2: that they made with mac Jones was Josh McDaniels goes
Speaker 2: to the Raiders after Max's rookie year and Matt Patricia's
Speaker 2: name the offensive play caller his second season, and that
Speaker 2: was really the beginning of the end for mac Jones
Speaker 2: in New England. And Drake's way more talented than Mac. Like,
Speaker 2: I'm not trying to make a comparison player to player,
Speaker 2: but right now AVP has Drake May playing great ball.
Speaker 2: He has him tied together, you know, is what I
Speaker 2: would call it eyes and mechanically, like he's going to
Speaker 2: right places with the football. He's playing on schedule, he's
Speaker 2: playing in rhythm. His feet looked great, which was obviously
Speaker 2: a big thing in the draft was his footwork and
Speaker 2: his mechanics. And right now he looks like he is
Speaker 2: tethered together the offensive coordinator. And if you start pulling
Speaker 2: things out of that Jenga tower, you're just asking for
Speaker 2: things to regress, right You're asking for the unc footwork
Speaker 2: to come back. You're asking for him to stop, you know,
Speaker 2: seeing blitzes and reading field correctly and all these things
Speaker 2: that we see him doing right now at a high level.
Speaker 2: I would stay the course with the offensive staff for
Speaker 2: right now. I would say Van Pelt is somebody that
Speaker 2: I think has done a really great job. I also
Speaker 2: wouldn't lose sight of their quarterbacks coach T. C. McCartney
Speaker 2: to today Tom Pellasaro named as an up and coming
Speaker 2: coach in the NFL on the offensive side of the ball.
Speaker 4: And as a potential replacement someone down the line if
Speaker 4: the dominoes fall the right way when Black Monday gets here.
Speaker 2: I just think that TC is someone that I'm going
Speaker 2: to try to do some more reporting on because he's
Speaker 2: someone that I think is close in age to Drake
Speaker 2: enough and has played quarterback himself, not at the pro level,
Speaker 2: but in college, and is clearly you know, every time
Speaker 2: that that may has asked about the coaching, he obviously
Speaker 2: talks a lot about a VP, but he's always is
Speaker 2: careful to mention TC McCartney as well. So I think
Speaker 2: there's a lot of good things going on in that
Speaker 2: quarterback room right now.
Speaker 4: I really like the analogy of likening the Patriots to
Speaker 4: a Jenga tower.
Speaker 2: Yes, so I'm big on this analogy, and I can't
Speaker 2: do do you know Dave Damashek with the NFL network.
Speaker 2: I know, yeah, I can't. I can't take claim. But
Speaker 2: David is the original Jenga tower guy, and I loved
Speaker 2: it since the day that I heard it where he
Speaker 2: usually talks about it with players. Yeah, so, like, you know,
Speaker 2: think of the Jenga tower like Juwan Bentley gets pulled
Speaker 2: out and then Christian Barmore gets pulled out, and you.
Speaker 4: Know, and you're pretty soft in the middle. Ye yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: it's it's wobbly. It's a really good analogy. I keep
Speaker 4: thinking of that. What is that the Popeye's Chicken commercial
Speaker 4: where the guy's pulling out you know, the Jenga pieces
Speaker 4: one by one until someone puts that big you know,
Speaker 4: chicken wing or whatever in this stase and just it's
Speaker 4: all gone. That's what I see when I think of that.
Speaker 4: So yeah, I'm gonna actually I like Jagga Jinga's fun.
Speaker 2: It's a fun game.
Speaker 4: Yeah it is.
Speaker 2: What do you think, Marie Jenga?
Speaker 4: You do Jinga?
Speaker 2: Yeah? Okay, yeah, yeah, good stuff.
Speaker 4: Show some talent, Thanks buddy, Appreciate you anytime, all right.
Speaker 4: The One and Only easy Lazar Evan Lazar here on
Speaker 4: the program. Hey, easy to drink, easy to enjoy, bud Light,
Speaker 4: the official beer sponsor of the New England Patriots. And
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Speaker 4: official furniture store of the New England Patriots. All right,
Speaker 4: it took me a little long to get to it today,
Speaker 4: but eight five five PATS five hundred is the toll
Speaker 4: free televiale number. You probably know that already, eight five
Speaker 4: five p A t S five hundred. You can also
Speaker 4: hit us up online. We've already got emails coming in.
Speaker 4: We'll read some of those in a bit. It's podcasts
Speaker 4: plural po d C A S t S podcasts at
Speaker 4: Patriots dot com. You can also hit me up on
Speaker 4: x at JR Broadcaster if you like to do that
Speaker 4: as well. I want to go that route. We're going
Speaker 4: to visit with Doug Kyde coming up at about ten
Speaker 4: fifteen minutes when he joined us. Russell Baxter will join
Speaker 4: us at the top of the hour, and so now
Speaker 4: we've got some time for you. And so because of that,
Speaker 4: it looks like Patty's been hanging in. He's got a
Speaker 4: little time on everybody else here. So Patty and aguam
Speaker 4: you're up next. Thanks for hanging in. Bro.
Speaker 6: What's going on? Mister legend to steal a phrase from
Speaker 6: Eldred going on?
Speaker 4: You know, whenever he says that, I laugh internally. You know,
Speaker 4: I've always thought, well, I'm a legend in my own mind, right,
Speaker 4: just somewhat kiddingly. But when when when Eldred says that,
Speaker 4: I got to admit, actually, it actually feels like there's
Speaker 4: some authority behind it. You know, moves a little bit, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: you know, the needle moves. Shut up Marine, Oh no,
Speaker 4: it's all right, it's all good. It's all good. I
Speaker 4: love talking to you guys. You guys are the best.
Speaker 6: So I just wanted to throw something out there. About
Speaker 6: the Hall of Fame and a prediction.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, I was going to ask Evian about that,
Speaker 4: but I but we we got actually talking into uh,
Speaker 4: you know, football stuff. But we should mention of course
Speaker 4: that uh. The final well, the semi finalists for the
Speaker 4: twenty twenty five Class of the Hall of Fame includes
Speaker 4: three significant Patriot names, uh not, the least of which
Speaker 4: are well Rodney Harrison, Adam Vinteri and oh crap, who's
Speaker 4: the third one? Thank you, Vince? How can I forget?
Speaker 4: Holy smokes? Yeah, those are the three guys on the list.
Speaker 4: Now they'll they'll boil it down to the finalists I
Speaker 4: think in another month, I think it is, and then
Speaker 4: of course the class is probably going to be somewhere
Speaker 4: around four or five. I'm gonna be stunned, stunned, Patty
Speaker 4: if one of those guys didn't get in, and frankly,
Speaker 4: they all three deserve it. I just I would hope
Speaker 4: for two to get in. And here's my thing. The
Speaker 4: Patriots run of dominance, you know, since two thousand and
Speaker 4: one has is significant to the point where they have
Speaker 4: been underserved. It took I think the Steelers of the
Speaker 4: seventies and the even the Niners of the eighties a
Speaker 4: few years to you know, to really you know, get
Speaker 4: their due. But the Patriots are still owed. I think,
Speaker 4: you know, some representation in the Hall of Fame based
Speaker 4: on their their two decade run. And I know that
Speaker 4: there's a significant factor of media as well as you know, potential,
Speaker 4: you know, ownership, you know tied to you know, NFL ownership,
Speaker 4: and other teams that still are butt hurt over you know,
Speaker 4: things like Spygate and Flakegate for lack of a better phrase,
Speaker 4: And and all I'm going to tell you is is that, look,
Speaker 4: forget all that stuff. If you are a fan of Buffalo,
Speaker 4: or you are a fan of Kansas City, or let's say,
Speaker 4: let's be even worse, let's let's go step further. You're
Speaker 4: a fan of the Eagles, who the Patriots beat, you know,
Speaker 4: the first time around, or the Panthers or the Rams.
Speaker 4: You know, you know, because we've known for years that
Speaker 4: you know, there there was a lot of hurt feelings
Speaker 4: over you know that you know over that that era. Look,
Speaker 4: if you can't tell with your own eyeballs that these
Speaker 4: guys are Hall of Fame worthy, then I would question
Speaker 4: severely your ability to judge good football, because these guys
Speaker 4: are you know, they you know, you go back to
Speaker 4: Rodney Harris's days, you know, playing for the Chages. You know,
Speaker 4: Vince Wilfork, I mean, my goodness, he still had some
Speaker 4: life left in his legs when he went on to
Speaker 4: play in Houston, you know. And Adam Ben and Terry
Speaker 4: good Lord, he said all kinds of you know, longevity
Speaker 4: records after he left New England to go kick for
Speaker 4: the Colts. So those guys are Hall of famers, every
Speaker 4: one of them. Based on they're the x's and o's.
Speaker 4: Based on the numbers alone, they all three deserve to
Speaker 4: be in. I just don't think we'll see a Patriot
Speaker 4: dominated class and all of them getting in at the
Speaker 4: same time, just because there just aren't that many slots
Speaker 4: that will end up getting voted upon. But I'm hopeful
Speaker 4: that at least one of them is somewhat, you know,
Speaker 4: duly rewarded for their long, successful careers here.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and I kind of have a hot take on
Speaker 6: that too, go I would not be I would not
Speaker 6: be shocked if Adam doesn't get in on first ballot, even.
Speaker 4: Though I think he deserves it because he's a kicker.
Speaker 6: A little bit wary about voters, yeah, voting for a
Speaker 6: kicker to get in the first time.
Speaker 4: Well, and I would tend to agree with you, Patty,
Speaker 4: And I think this is where if anybody is deserving
Speaker 4: of breaking that mold, it is adam minitary most definitely.
Speaker 6: And not to sound like a broken record, like I
Speaker 6: want to see Vince get in eventually, but just put
Speaker 6: Rodney and I mean he.
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's Ed Reid, and.
Speaker 6: Then there was like yeah, alamlu yeah Rodney Harrison, and
Speaker 6: then a tier below that. Like I've always said, like Briandkins,
Speaker 6: I'm sorry he's not as good as as Rodney Harrison
Speaker 6: made me the one big play in a big game
Speaker 6: that he made you can't because he never made it.
Speaker 6: But just real quickly to my prediction for this week,
Speaker 6: because like I said, don't want to get up so
Speaker 6: other guys can get on the line. I really want
Speaker 6: to see our team just do it this week in Miami, John,
Speaker 6: I want to see may And and Mayo get up,
Speaker 6: you know, get their first win against it.
Speaker 4: You know, I know, I know, Daddy, I loved, I
Speaker 4: love your eternal optimism, but it's just it's it's woefully
Speaker 4: misguided on these guys.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I think it's going to be a close game,
Speaker 6: though I do have I think the Dolphins will probably
Speaker 6: win somewhere around like twenty four to twenty one or
Speaker 6: twenty eight to twenty four, something like that. But man,
Speaker 6: I just I just I can't stand the Dolphins the
Speaker 6: Yankees of the NFL. They always have that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, you know, I totally I agree with that,
Speaker 4: you know. And the funny thing it is is that
Speaker 4: I was thinking of this last week is I'm watching
Speaker 4: Buffalo beating Kansas City. I'm thinking, man, Bills fans got
Speaker 4: to be looking at the rest of the AFC East
Speaker 4: and laughing their asses off. You know, it's like, you know, what,
Speaker 4: what does the AFC East become? They're dominating kind of
Speaker 4: like the Patriots did a decade ago, and kudos to
Speaker 4: the to the Bills for turning it around after you know,
Speaker 4: it's kind of stumbling out of the gate and the
Speaker 4: subject for another day. Look, I kind of you know,
Speaker 4: I think the magic number here is is twenty. If
Speaker 4: the Patriots can get to twenty, they're in the game.
Speaker 4: They got a chance to steal it. But if they
Speaker 4: don't get there, the Dolphins are gonna roll. You have
Speaker 4: to figure out a way defensively to hold the Dolphins
Speaker 4: between seventeen to twenty points max. To have a chance.
Speaker 4: If you let the Dolphins get to twenty two, twenty three,
Speaker 4: twenty four, you're not winning that game. You're just not Patriots,
Speaker 4: and Patriots are not explosive enough on offense right now.
Speaker 4: So the only way you can do that is you've
Speaker 4: got to get some takeaways. You probably got to get
Speaker 4: a cheap score somehow, either on a short field after
Speaker 4: a takeaway or a pick six or a block kick,
Speaker 4: or you got to come up with something different. It's
Speaker 4: gonna take more than just doing your job. Oh goodness,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, but you know that kind of has stuck
Speaker 4: on our tongue around here. You got to do more
Speaker 4: than just the basics to win a game on the
Speaker 4: road and get off the schneid in South Florida.
Speaker 6: Yeah, and they're not generating pass rush against good teams.
Speaker 6: They're not slowing down the running game against good teams.
Speaker 6: And it's been five games John since they since they
Speaker 6: garnered a turnover.
Speaker 4: It yeah, anybody, Yeah, and it's.
Speaker 6: Got a change, and like eventually the worm's gonna turn
Speaker 6: I hope it's this week, but I'm not banking on it.
Speaker 6: But buck it off the line. It's always good talking
Speaker 6: to you, Johnny. I'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 4: I appreciate you, Taddy, Patty, thank you for the phone call.
Speaker 4: I just I wish I was a little more confident
Speaker 4: about that. And I'm not being anti New England or
Speaker 4: anti Patriot or you know, you're not waving the pomp
Speaker 4: ponds or whatever you want you to do. I'm not
Speaker 4: doing that here. I'm just being real. You know this
Speaker 4: team has got flaws. We know this. This is week
Speaker 4: twelve in the NFL. You're three and eight, okay, so
Speaker 4: you are what your record says you are. I believe
Speaker 4: one William Parcells said that years ago, and this team
Speaker 4: is improving. I think at times we can see that improvement.
Speaker 4: I thought, as I mentioned with Evan a little bit earlier,
Speaker 4: that they took a bit of a step back this
Speaker 4: last week because I didn't see the kind of adjustments
Speaker 4: that I think a high caliber NFL team needs to
Speaker 4: make in order to be successful against a high powered
Speaker 4: offense like the Rams have. I didn't see that kind
Speaker 4: of adjustment. I thought that the game plan, regardless of
Speaker 4: what Evan was talking about. You know why it's difficult
Speaker 4: to guard the Rams in man demand because of the
Speaker 4: way they run the bunch roots and they set screens
Speaker 4: and picks and things like that. Regardless that there's a
Speaker 4: way to beat that offense. There's a reason why the
Speaker 4: Rams are a five hundred team, okay, and you didn't
Speaker 4: attack it well enough. And that's really the bottom line.
Speaker 4: And then you're gonna remember the Rams were three and
Speaker 4: out what two of the first three possessions something like that,
Speaker 4: and then they ripped off what four straight touchdowns, And
Speaker 4: I'm just like, where's the adjustment? They clearly made adjustments.
Speaker 4: Where are yours? And that's what I failed to see
Speaker 4: from this team. So when you go up against the
Speaker 4: Mike McDaniel team this week, who we all know right
Speaker 4: now is coaching circles, dancing circles around the Patriots to
Speaker 4: a tango via aloa dancing circles around the Patriots. Whether
Speaker 4: he's got up you know, you know, a toboggan that's
Speaker 4: screwed on straight or not. And I'm trying to I'm
Speaker 4: not really trying to make fun of that. I'm just
Speaker 4: being graphic, I guess because he's had his you know,
Speaker 4: concussion issues, but regardless of those, he owns the Patriots.
Speaker 4: What are you gonna do to stop him? You've got
Speaker 4: to go above and beyond what you've done in the past.
Speaker 4: You got to throw him something that he hasn't seen.
Speaker 4: You're gonna run something hasn't seen. You gotta do something
Speaker 4: of the dolphins that make McDaniel is not expecting and
Speaker 4: we're not seeing that. We're not seeing that. If we
Speaker 4: see that, I might feel differently. But you know, as
Speaker 4: Eldred says, you got to show me first, right, isn't
Speaker 4: that right, Eldred? You got to show me first, right,
Speaker 4: mister Legend.
Speaker 3: How are you doing today?
Speaker 4: I love you, buddy.
Speaker 3: How are you love you too? Man? I'm doing pretty good.
Speaker 3: I'm off the rest of the week.
Speaker 6: Couldn't take next.
Speaker 3: Week off because the Thanksgiving I had to take this
Speaker 3: week off, right, So, so.
Speaker 4: Are you working on Thanksgiving week?
Speaker 3: I gotta work. Do you want us to work on
Speaker 3: Thanksgiving Day? But I ain't doing it. He did it
Speaker 3: in fifteen U John ain't about to do it now.
Speaker 4: Yeah? Yeah, Oh, don't don't feel don't feel sorry for me.
Speaker 4: I have to work next week too. But it'll be uh, yeah,
Speaker 4: I know, Matt. You want to tell him, Matt, you
Speaker 4: want to say he's working in the Bahamas elder. Don't
Speaker 4: let him.
Speaker 3: Don't let them fool you Bahamas. Yeah, hey, are you
Speaker 3: gonna change Simon? I go down there on the beach,
Speaker 3: your step, He'll be right there with him.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, right, I know, I know. Now the
Speaker 4: basketball tournament to the college basketball tournament called the Battle
Speaker 4: for Atlantis. I'll be covering that next week. So pretty
Speaker 4: good assignment, pretty choice assignment over the holiday.
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you gonna have you uh what do you
Speaker 3: see your Bahama Mamas and everything? Listen, I'll have me
Speaker 3: a glas of heitt.
Speaker 4: That's exactly right, That's exactly right. So yeah, so yeah,
Speaker 4: it looks like we both might be working a little bit.
Speaker 4: But you know, if if you, you know, if you
Speaker 4: decide that's it, I'm not gonna do it, then by
Speaker 4: all means, I think you've earned that, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, So I'm not working thanks I worked to day after.
Speaker 3: I have to do that one, but I'm not working Thanksgiving.
Speaker 4: You in a union job? Are you in a union? Okay?
Speaker 4: All right, I was going to say, you do you
Speaker 4: tell your well I was going to say, you just
Speaker 4: you can tell your you know, your shop Steward, you know,
Speaker 4: to talk to me. I'm gonna excuse you. But that's okay, So.
Speaker 3: All right, but I'm hoping that Rodney get in. Matter
Speaker 3: of fact, I wish all three of them get in
Speaker 3: the same time.
Speaker 4: I'm holding out. I'm holding out hope that you know, look,
Speaker 4: if you if you look at those three guys, based
Speaker 4: on their football talent alone and what they've accomplished, you know,
Speaker 4: over the last couple of decades, Yeah, they're all worthy.
Speaker 4: They absolutely are. I just don't think they're gonna Super
Speaker 4: Bowl win, yes, yes, And that that was part of
Speaker 4: the reason why I brought that up, because I'm like,
Speaker 4: you know, I don't think that you know, the Super
Speaker 4: the first Super Bowl era Patriot teams have gotten enough
Speaker 4: do I just don't. And no, And so yeah, that's
Speaker 4: the one that started it all. So uh, I think
Speaker 4: it's time for you know, the voters and and and
Speaker 4: the people on the Hall of Fame committee to recognize,
Speaker 4: you know, the beginning of arguably maybe even in arguably
Speaker 4: the best, the biggest dynasty ever in NFL history.
Speaker 3: I think this year too, you know, and just brent
Speaker 3: them guys in there, so them writers, Thurn Buffalo and
Speaker 3: all the other guys.
Speaker 4: Oh you know that, you know that they will absolutely
Speaker 4: do anything they can to shove it right up the
Speaker 4: wazoo of the Patriots. And that's unfortunate. That's unfortunate. You know,
Speaker 4: you need to have people that are are are more
Speaker 4: interested in the sport and what the Hall of Fame
Speaker 4: actually means. The Hall of Fame is it's supposed to
Speaker 4: stand for talent and ability and and and whatever else
Speaker 4: the NFL wants to stand for. Is not supposed to
Speaker 4: stand because well, you guys cheated, you know, to you know,
Speaker 4: to beat us so many years ago. That's not what
Speaker 4: That's not what happened, number one. But that's still the
Speaker 4: that that's the that's the hangover, Yes, that's the hangover
Speaker 4: from everything that.
Speaker 3: Day here too.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I know, but I would tell you, I would
Speaker 4: tell you also, elder that somebody who says that is
Speaker 4: just ignorant and they don't want to and they don't
Speaker 4: want to know the truth because this is an easy
Speaker 4: argument for for them to make. You know, we say,
Speaker 4: well we beat in the super Bowl, and they turn around,
Speaker 4: they looking and say, well, you cheated. I'm like, well,
Speaker 4: you're not very smart because you don't know. I don't
Speaker 4: care you cheated, you know. And I get that argument
Speaker 4: all the time. It's like arguing with you know, it's
Speaker 4: like arguing with my six year old grandson. I don't care, Papa,
Speaker 4: I don't care. You know you cheat it, you know
Speaker 4: you bos the cheat. Okay, well, all right, whatever whatever.
Speaker 4: But you're right. They all three deserve it. They all
Speaker 4: three deserve it. I just don't think they all three
Speaker 4: get in. I hope I'm wrong.
Speaker 3: I'm hoping you hope I'm wrong. I hope I'm wrong
Speaker 3: to me too. But all three do get in.
Speaker 4: Yeah. Correct.
Speaker 3: But I'm going, like I said, I'm gonna. I gave
Speaker 3: my my annsinence to to Evan the other day. Like
Speaker 3: I said, I'm still going to my jersey in my hat.
Speaker 3: As soon as I get it, I send it to them.
Speaker 3: You know, I'm a man of my word, you know.
Speaker 3: But uh, but this other thing is I don't trust.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, uh Wolf and the guy uh grow because
Speaker 3: you was there with Bill and like I said, this
Speaker 3: this class here, it's like the way Bill drafts. I'm sorry,
Speaker 3: you got the same guys as you like I've been
Speaker 3: saying for years, and y'all keep saying whatever, No, sir,
Speaker 3: you keep drafting the same guy. You don't go after
Speaker 3: that athlete or whatever. And then uh, I brought up
Speaker 3: this yesterday with pu that okay, Uh they said the Chargers,
Speaker 3: Uh after that traded, traded, and in the draft this
Speaker 3: year was the robbery. So they two got they three
Speaker 3: guys just produced and they seven and three. We three
Speaker 3: and eight. Polk can't get more more pillowties. He ain't
Speaker 3: got what two touchdown the two touchdowns and two hand
Speaker 3: snaps and Baconon got nineteen snaps. But you got lab
Speaker 3: mcconty and that I read that, Uh, the guy at
Speaker 3: the corner. They got cam Hart and they playing and
Speaker 3: they started they play off ready, you know with the Chargers,
Speaker 3: and you let Thornton go, which I understand he haven't
Speaker 3: showed nothing. I don't still think they're coaching, right, you know.
Speaker 3: And then they did not to use because if it
Speaker 3: got picked up the nixt day by Kansas City, now
Speaker 3: they got two four two guys on the outside or whatever,
Speaker 3: and watch how they use it and what and now
Speaker 3: I'm watching to see, Okay, if he flourished there. It's
Speaker 3: it's the problems in New England. It's the that's the problem.
Speaker 3: They don't know how to use They want to put
Speaker 3: him in the system instead of using the guys will
Speaker 3: be how they supposed to be used. Okay, you know,
Speaker 3: and that's my that's my biggest right But is uh
Speaker 3: which car? It ain't that I was glad that they
Speaker 3: are competitive, but it's like Paul said the other day,
Speaker 3: can it be just your the other team that's better
Speaker 3: than players are better than what you got, you know,
Speaker 3: and they can't run with him, they can't play with
Speaker 3: And that's not ninety nine percent what the deal is.
Speaker 4: Well, sure it is. And didn't even know how to draft,
Speaker 4: that's right. And and that's where I think that's the
Speaker 4: crux of the problem. The Patriots just don't have right
Speaker 4: now enough good players to be compared with the upper
Speaker 4: echelon in the NFL. It's it's real simple, and we've
Speaker 4: we've talked about this before. It will continue to be
Speaker 4: a topic of a conversation for the foreseeable future until
Speaker 4: the problem corrects itself. But this is a problem that began.
Speaker 4: This is a problem, well, this is a problem that started,
Speaker 4: as we know, probably five to seven to even ten
Speaker 4: years ago with you know, some of the failures. So okay,
Speaker 4: even so you want to go back that far, we
Speaker 4: go back that far. But that's the problem that we
Speaker 4: had with the previous regime that we need to figure
Speaker 4: out a way to kind of nip in the butt
Speaker 4: now because it's sort of you know, I mean, it's
Speaker 4: stockpiled to the point now where other teams have passed
Speaker 4: you by. You've hit on fewer selections, both the free
Speaker 4: agency and the draft than you did back in the
Speaker 4: early two thousands. That's how the Patriots built themselves. That's
Speaker 4: how they built two you know, Super Bowl, you know, decades,
Speaker 4: you know, with those kind of players. And then the
Speaker 4: last several drafts have just, man, I don't know what
Speaker 4: it is, but listen, if I'm if I'm a player
Speaker 4: and I'm getting picked in the second round by the
Speaker 4: New England Patriots, and especially if I'm playing wide receiver,
Speaker 4: I'm running the other way, that's almost like that's almost
Speaker 4: like the Kids of Death. It's almost literally, it's almost
Speaker 4: like the Kids of Death. I mean, you know, Taekwon
Speaker 4: Thornton gets released, Jalen Polk is struggling. I mean, I
Speaker 4: you know, I'm just like, wow, this is just you
Speaker 4: can't It's comical. It really is comical. I don't know.
Speaker 4: You couldn't try to be that bad if you really
Speaker 4: wanted to. And I think the Patriots just sort of
Speaker 4: like down for you. Well but but but when those pictures,
Speaker 4: but when those pictures, when those picts are made, elderd.
Speaker 4: I mean, honestly, when those picts are made, you're thinking, Okay, well,
Speaker 4: you know, pretty good guy, blah blah blah. Maybe you
Speaker 4: had a favorite or another you know, type of player
Speaker 4: that you would have taken in that slot, but you
Speaker 4: can't really.
Speaker 3: A whole lot better even.
Speaker 4: Well, of course go back and check.
Speaker 3: Okay, I'm saying it, and I'm staying it on the
Speaker 3: radio when they picked before it ain't a man. No,
Speaker 3: I'm saying it before they get them, when they get
Speaker 3: him into draft and before the draft.
Speaker 4: All right, well then d they got harried then then, Eldred,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna nominate you for GM.
Speaker 3: Heym. I kept saying, mister Kraft on your show, let
Speaker 3: me draft for you one time, one time. You don't
Speaker 3: have to pay me. I draft better than your GM
Speaker 3: that you got now in one pass and you have
Speaker 3: you have me come back next year and you still
Speaker 3: wouldn't have to pay me then my key.
Speaker 4: All right, Well, you know when we get when we
Speaker 4: get closer to the draft this next year, all right,
Speaker 4: I'm gonna let you make the picks. All right, you
Speaker 4: can come on this program, you can make those picks,
Speaker 4: and then let's stand them up through the test of
Speaker 4: time through next year and let's just see how well
Speaker 4: you do.
Speaker 3: All right, Okay, we're gonna do that. Okay, y'all kept
Speaker 3: saying it takes two to three years.
Speaker 4: Two well, and and I agree with that. But I
Speaker 4: want you to pick who you want to pick, and
Speaker 4: then we'll see how the season unfolds. We'll keep track
Speaker 4: of it. Marine. We're gonna keep track of this for
Speaker 4: Eldred and yeah, absolutely once and for all. Let's let's
Speaker 4: let's let's figure this thing out. Let's see how you
Speaker 4: do with it, all.
Speaker 3: Right, most definitely okay. And another thing, your boy a
Speaker 3: d Mitchell seemed to becoming a little bit more now
Speaker 3: that Richardon back in there. Ye you noticed that, yes, sir, yes,
Speaker 3: one of him before we got poked.
Speaker 4: I understand that. And listen, believe me. I know, listen,
Speaker 4: I was a big fan. I liked A d Mitchell
Speaker 4: more than I like Xavier Worthy, and and and and
Speaker 4: Worthy has had himself a pretty damn good season for
Speaker 4: Kansas City. Of course, he's got my homes to throw to,
Speaker 4: you know, throwing to him too. But you know, I
Speaker 4: like both of those receivers.
Speaker 3: So you know, I remember a couple of years ago. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I'll see it, Quentin Quinton Johnson, y'all, y'all laughed at me.
Speaker 3: But for San Diego, took him a couple of years
Speaker 3: and now he's producing. Of laugh, McConkie's on his on
Speaker 3: his side, and he's producing now on the end zone
Speaker 3: and stretching the field too. I'm like, damn s you
Speaker 3: know what I'm saying.
Speaker 4: Right, Well, you're exaggerating because nobody laughs at you. Nobody
Speaker 4: not laughing at you. Okay, well, Paul can laugh at you.
Speaker 4: But I know better, I know I like your football judgment, Eldred.
Speaker 4: That's why I'm gonna let you. I'm gonna let you be.
Speaker 4: You know our playbook GM here okay, okay.
Speaker 3: Glad to do it before right in the draft store
Speaker 3: all before the draft. Good, good, glad my board ready
Speaker 3: to right.
Speaker 4: And you need to talk to Marine too, because frankly,
Speaker 4: we need more road tips from Eldred. We need we
Speaker 4: need more, you know, we need more road tips for
Speaker 4: Eldrid from Eldred. So we got to work on that.
Speaker 3: I got one on. Ask the people I didn't, and
Speaker 3: maybe you too, mister mister legend. Why is it if
Speaker 3: you go down the interstate, you in the right lane,
Speaker 3: the slow lane. Yeah, okay, you're coming up on a ramp.
Speaker 3: You about a half a mile away from the ramp,
Speaker 3: you got idiots in the third in the passing lane
Speaker 3: or the sickle lane. Instead of them getting behind you
Speaker 3: and take that rent bright, they're gonna shoot all across
Speaker 3: four lane. They shoot across the.
Speaker 4: I see that every day. I see that every day
Speaker 4: on my commute. I absolutely see that every day on
Speaker 4: my commute. And I actually have some set for the
Speaker 4: truck drivers. Yeah I do. I do, funny, but most
Speaker 4: most of the people who do that. And I'm well
Speaker 4: out on four ninety five, okay, when I'm I'm heading
Speaker 4: to you know, the campus on the day, and the
Speaker 4: cars that from the left lane go across the middle
Speaker 4: lane where the truckers are to get to the right line,
Speaker 4: to take the right exit. You know where they're all from.
Speaker 4: You know where they're all from. They're not they're not massholes.
Speaker 4: They're no, they're all from Rhode Island. Yeah.
Speaker 3: But the ones down here, they got enough kind of
Speaker 3: tags on. Some got Georgia, some of them got uh, Maryland.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, you know, if my truck went a
Speaker 3: little harder, i'd hit you. But see one thing, they
Speaker 3: keep with getting Campa people. Truck got cameras in it now,
Speaker 3: so you can't say, well, he used to vote. They
Speaker 3: got cameras now. Yeah, And I gotta keep killing everybody
Speaker 3: you get within one hundred feet the truck automatic stops
Speaker 3: and you're gonna kill somebody in the back of the truck.
Speaker 3: So they're gonna make it Jack night, it starts to accident.
Speaker 4: Eldridge, rules of the road, all right, you gotta we're
Speaker 4: gonna work that out with Marine. You the man. Happy Thanksgiving, Eldred,
Speaker 4: appreciate you a lot. My friend, Uh. Doug Kide covers
Speaker 4: the Patriots for the Boston Herald. Been a good friend
Speaker 4: of the program for a few years as well. Doug,
Speaker 4: thanks for hanging in. Really appreciate your being with us
Speaker 4: today for a bit.
Speaker 7: Absolutely, there's going, John.
Speaker 4: Good, it's going well. So do you see the same
Speaker 4: thing that elderd just described when you're on the highway
Speaker 4: and in denizens of the great State of Rhode Island,
Speaker 4: crossing in front of these trucks to make the exit
Speaker 4: on the next exit on the highway.
Speaker 7: You know, what I noticed about Hode Island drivers most
Speaker 7: of all, is that they pass from like from behind
Speaker 7: people like they're they're coming up behind you, and then
Speaker 7: they pass you so that you can't see that they're
Speaker 7: passing you before they pass you. Yeah, it's everyone else.
Speaker 7: Everyone asks you that gets out out in front, puts
Speaker 7: the blinkers on, then passes you. Rhode Island, it's.
Speaker 4: To you bash Rhode Island drivers. Ha ha, Come on,
Speaker 4: we're gonna bash somebody around here. And I called massholes
Speaker 4: for no reason. Well that's also true, and I'm a
Speaker 4: card carrying masshole and I'm proud of it too. All right, Okay, well,
Speaker 4: well we'll move on to that one. But you know,
Speaker 4: I just thought that was just kind of a little
Speaker 4: quirky thing as well. You know, hey, you know there's
Speaker 4: a little politeness involved before we tell people to go
Speaker 4: bleep themselves. So that's all. It's just it's just it's
Speaker 4: what we do. So let's kind of pick it up
Speaker 4: with uh, you know, the at least the big event
Speaker 4: of the day. And I mentioned this with Evan a
Speaker 4: little bit earlier, but you know, Cole Stranger's return to
Speaker 4: practice based on you know, what Christian Barmore did last
Speaker 4: week and then he got into the game for twenty
Speaker 4: twenty one snaps this past week. Do you expect to
Speaker 4: see Cole Strange play this week? And where does he play?
Speaker 7: I mean, with this regime, this seems possible, like and
Speaker 7: almost anything seems possible. Because Alex Ousner turned to practice
Speaker 7: few weeks ago and now he's finally been activated to
Speaker 7: the roster didn't play right away. But with Cole Strange,
Speaker 7: I certainly wouldn't be surprised. I mean, if Christian Barmore
Speaker 7: can play after you know, one practice having blood clot issues,
Speaker 7: one practice since last January or whatever it was, then
Speaker 7: then yeah, it's possible with Cole Strange as well. And
Speaker 7: as for where he plays, there's a spot for him
Speaker 7: at left guard or at center right now. And you know,
Speaker 7: Michael Jordan and Ben Brown. Those guys have been holding
Speaker 7: down the ford as best as they can. Ben Brown especially,
Speaker 7: you know, really tough situation coming over from the Raiders
Speaker 7: playing in a game after practicing just twice. But both
Speaker 7: of those guys, as far as I was looking at
Speaker 7: the PFF grade today, both of those guys really ranked
Speaker 7: near the very bottom of their position groups this season
Speaker 7: as far as the PFF grades have gone, they're really
Speaker 7: struggling in past protection. So I think that when Cole
Speaker 7: Strange is ready, when he's a full go, when they
Speaker 7: feel comfortable putting him in there, I would put him
Speaker 7: in there at probably left guard or center. I might
Speaker 7: put him in at left guard just because that's position
Speaker 7: he's played before, that's the one he's more comfortable in,
Speaker 7: rather than forcing him in there at center. But I
Speaker 7: would start him absolutely before the season then.
Speaker 4: And one of the things that we kind of mentioned
Speaker 4: earlier was we kind of feel like the coaches to
Speaker 4: have as it presently, you know, exists likes Michael Jordan
Speaker 4: in that spot. So do you who's whose position? Do
Speaker 4: you interrupt here? Do you you come in and start
Speaker 4: snapping even though you're learning a new position basically for
Speaker 4: you know, for Ben Brown, or do you come in
Speaker 4: and you know, move Michael Jordan around and make him
Speaker 4: the swing piece. I mean, there's you're finally starting to
Speaker 4: get at least some semblance of continuity on this offensive
Speaker 4: line after you know, juggling balls the entire year, and
Speaker 4: now this is actually the best problem you've had for
Speaker 4: the offensive line in a long time. Is how do
Speaker 4: you figure out a way to put your your first
Speaker 4: round pick from twenty to twenty two back into the lineup.
Speaker 7: I think it would be a left guard because you
Speaker 7: do remember a few weeks ago when we saw Michael
Speaker 7: Wenhu playing at left guard. See that didn't stick for
Speaker 7: a game, but that tells me that they were at
Speaker 7: least willing to experiment a little bit and willing to
Speaker 7: take Michael Jordan out of that starting lineup if it
Speaker 7: comes down to it. So I do think that this
Speaker 7: could be a good opportunity for it the offensive line,
Speaker 7: just it has to be better. In general. They've been
Speaker 7: a little bit better with Drake Maye quarterback than they
Speaker 7: were earlier in the season with Choby Perscat, but there's
Speaker 7: still absolutely room for improvement there. So you know, I
Speaker 7: would put him in there at left guard. If they
Speaker 7: really like Jordan, then I would certainly sit them at
Speaker 7: center as well. But it just seems like a better
Speaker 7: fit firm there at left guard, and then you can
Speaker 7: get some decent athleticism there too, between viderian low left
Speaker 7: tackle and cool strangle left guard that it could be helpful.
Speaker 4: Sure, I don't disagree with that. I'm just you know, listen,
Speaker 4: the versatility of someone that's always been preached about that
Speaker 4: offensive line. And that's how teams really help themselves with depth,
Speaker 4: as we all know, is to have guys play multiple positions.
Speaker 4: So here's a guy that can play, apparently now multiple positions,
Speaker 4: even he's been working out with David Andrews, like has
Speaker 4: been reported or alleged. Where do you put him? And yeah,
Speaker 4: I would think you'd want to try to put him
Speaker 4: with a position to strength, But listen, we've seen this
Speaker 4: coaching staff do things that you know, quite frankly, I don't.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't have expected Barmore just came back a week ago.
Speaker 4: I would never have expected him to see him play
Speaker 4: first week back, and yet there he goes, and he
Speaker 4: gets twenty twenty one steps and I guess, mixed bag,
Speaker 4: you know, in terms of review from last week. But
Speaker 4: the fact that he's in there playing you know, up,
Speaker 4: I guess, and getting his feet wet and learning how
Speaker 4: to kind of do things all over again. I think
Speaker 4: it's great that he's kind of learning on the fly
Speaker 4: kind of takes me back. And I mentioned this earlier
Speaker 4: on the show today, But you know, it's the same
Speaker 4: philosophy really that I've always described to when it comes
Speaker 4: to playing Drake may I wanted him to play so
Speaker 4: he could learn on the fly. And it seems like
Speaker 4: kind of like that's what Barmore did a little last week,
Speaker 4: and maybe what a guy like Cole Strange ends up doing.
Speaker 4: So there's a little imbalance there in terms of philosophy,
Speaker 4: I think in terms of putting guys in the lineup.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean with Bill Delichick at head coach, you
Speaker 7: could always kind of anticipate that you would bring guys
Speaker 7: along slowly. Yea, when they were coming back it would
Speaker 7: take a few weeks for them to get back in there.
Speaker 7: But yeah, no, one hundred percent. It seems like with
Speaker 7: Drawd Mayo, they're much more willing to thrust guys in
Speaker 7: there learn on the fly. I think, you know, alex
Speaker 7: Am Pellt plays in it as well. And I mean,
Speaker 7: like you said, I never would have expected Christian Barmore
Speaker 7: to play twenty plus snaps with one practice under his
Speaker 7: belt after missing whatever it was, ten eleven months of football,
Speaker 7: going through the you know, a health situation, health related
Speaker 7: situation with blood cloths like I wouldn't have thought that
Speaker 7: was possible, but clearly they thought he could and he
Speaker 7: did it. And you know, he came out of it,
Speaker 7: like you said, mixed results. It didn't make a major
Speaker 7: impact in the game, but he wound up with three tackles.
Speaker 7: He was able to contribute, you know, rotate in there
Speaker 7: a little bit. And now I think that we'll just
Speaker 7: see his his uh, you know, his role grow. It
Speaker 7: goes along now too.
Speaker 4: Sure, Doug, what was the biggest reason in your estimation
Speaker 4: you think that the Patriot lost that game to the
Speaker 4: Rams last week.
Speaker 7: I mean, when it boils down to it, it was
Speaker 7: the defense. I think the defense really failed them in
Speaker 7: that game. You know, Jonathan Jones said after the game
Speaker 7: that he's got to be better off for the Patriots.
Speaker 7: He was certainly someone that should have played a lot better.
Speaker 7: He got burned by Cooper Cup on the sixty nine
Speaker 7: yard catch. Obviously you can throw coaching in there as well,
Speaker 7: since they called it zero blitz and he had no
Speaker 7: safety help over the top, But he also got burned
Speaker 7: by Cook Nakula for another touchdown the game. I personally
Speaker 7: disagreed with the philosophy of, you know, having Christian Gonzalez
Speaker 7: play the majority of the game on the boundary and
Speaker 7: did not match him up with either or Cooper Cup.
Speaker 7: It was a it was a plan that worked well
Speaker 7: against the Bears, and for me that it worked well
Speaker 7: because there wasn't a weak wide receiver that the Bears
Speaker 7: could put on on Christian Goanzalez. Between DJ Moore, Keenan Allen,
Speaker 7: and Romo dun Day, someone was going to be worthy
Speaker 7: of that coverage. When you put Christian Gonzalez on the
Speaker 7: boundary against the Rams and they can just throw DeMarcus
Speaker 7: Robinson in there and get just kind of like set
Speaker 7: it and forget it, I think that's where you into
Speaker 7: issues because then you can let your other two wide
Speaker 7: receivers run free. So that's another big element. So I
Speaker 7: do think it was a majority of defense and really
Speaker 7: coaching on defense as well. I think there were some
Speaker 7: decisions that Droug Mayo might want to have back on
Speaker 7: offense too. But I mean Drake may performed certainly the
Speaker 7: interception at the end in help, but may it really
Speaker 7: just does boil down to the defensive performance.
Speaker 4: Sure, And I think there would be a lot of
Speaker 4: people that would agree with you. And of course you
Speaker 4: mentioned Drake's performance, which was you know, he had you know,
Speaker 4: his best numbers yet coming off I guess overall his
Speaker 4: best start thus far. Is there a danger for him
Speaker 4: to maybe hit a plateau here just because of the
Speaker 4: personnel that he has surround him. How can maybe this
Speaker 4: coaching is to have best keep him moving in an
Speaker 4: upward sort of curve here in an effort to be
Speaker 4: able to attract others to come to this roster in
Speaker 4: the off season.
Speaker 7: I think one big thing would be having some continuity
Speaker 7: a wide receiver, And I think we're getting closer that
Speaker 7: where Kendrick Bourne had a big game on Sunday to
Speaker 7: Mario Douglas performed well, Kayshaun Boody stayed pretty consistent and
Speaker 7: then obviously targeting Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper in the
Speaker 7: passing game as well. So for me, I think to
Speaker 7: continue that upward trajectory. I think there is a potential
Speaker 7: plateau with his supporting cast on offense just because it
Speaker 7: is one of the weaker offensive lines in the NFL.
Speaker 7: It's on the weaker wide receiver groups. But if you
Speaker 7: can keep those starting three of Kayshaun Buoy to Mario
Speaker 7: Douglas and Kendrick Burn and Drake May can really start
Speaker 7: to develop some chemistry with those guys. He talked about
Speaker 7: it a little bit today, where he wants his wide
Speaker 7: receivers to be playing football. He doesn't necessarily want them
Speaker 7: to go exactly what's on the play call sheet. He
Speaker 7: wants them to see what he's seeing at some of
Speaker 7: the same stuff that we talked about with Tom Brady.
Speaker 7: And I do think that that was probably the cause
Speaker 7: of that interception to Marto Douglas, where maybe de Mario
Speaker 7: Douglas was doing what was on the play call sheet.
Speaker 7: He was running the exact route that was called, but
Speaker 7: Drake May expected him to do something different on that
Speaker 7: play to cut in in front of the state sees
Speaker 7: behind the linebacker hit him over the middle there. So
Speaker 7: I think that with more continuity, with a little bit
Speaker 7: more predictability at wide receiver you will start to see
Speaker 7: that and it thinks that maybe a guy like Jalen
Speaker 7: Polk or Javon Baker doesn't play as many snaps if
Speaker 7: that is the case. But overall, I think it is
Speaker 7: about developing Drake May and like you said, it's about developing.
Speaker 7: It's about attracting other talent this offseason and maybe not
Speaker 7: having to overpay so significantly for a guy like Kee
Speaker 7: Higgins in creation.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you fly out, gotta want. You got to have
Speaker 4: guys that want to be here because you know you
Speaker 4: I mean, I wouldn't say you're going to get you know,
Speaker 4: pennies on the dollar for him, but still you still
Speaker 4: have guys that are motivated to be here, to play
Speaker 4: with a talent that can put the ball in their
Speaker 4: hands so they can do what they do best. And
Speaker 4: you know, everybody's always look, you sign a contract, but everybody,
Speaker 4: we know, everybody's always playing for the next deal. The
Speaker 4: contract that you want to be wary of is a
Speaker 4: guy who's, you know, signing his last deal. You want
Speaker 4: somebody who's playing for his next deal. That's when you're
Speaker 4: going to be able to really maximize I think the
Speaker 4: want to in terms of being in a particular place.
Speaker 7: Yeah, absolutely, And I think that one one kind of
Speaker 7: underrated element is you start to see last week after
Speaker 7: the game against the ram Sean McVay really talking up
Speaker 7: Drake May. Today, Mike McDaniel from the Dolphins, he's really
Speaker 7: talking up Drake May. When you see the analyst guy
Speaker 7: like guys like dann Er lobsk Here, any of these
Speaker 7: other quarterback experts that are out there really tweeting about
Speaker 7: Drake May, talking up Drake May. I think that's the
Speaker 7: kind of stuff the players see at this point too.
Speaker 7: So I think that anything like that is going to
Speaker 7: be helping to attract that talent. Like you said, those
Speaker 7: guys who are wanting to play for the next contract
Speaker 7: and say, hey, that's a quarterback who's.
Speaker 5: On the up and up.
Speaker 7: That's someone that I want to play for. So anything
Speaker 7: like that right now is just really beneficial to the Patriots.
Speaker 4: Well as far as this game is concerned, I think
Speaker 4: we certainly can see it, you know, right out there
Speaker 4: in front of everybody, that the Dolphins need to win
Speaker 4: to keep whatever flailing post season hopes they have alive.
Speaker 4: They certainly looked a little bit better last week against
Speaker 4: you know, the Raiders, and getting a win, even though
Speaker 4: they fell you know, flat in the previous few weeks.
Speaker 4: But there definitely is a pathway for them to play
Speaker 4: their way back into serious postseason contention. And you would
Speaker 4: think that the last thing that they would want to
Speaker 4: do is be able to, you know, stumble at the
Speaker 4: hands of a team that Franklin they've owned over the
Speaker 4: last couple of years. I mean, you know, I think
Speaker 4: you know, Tua can almost call the Patriots his daddy.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean, it's it's a matchup that I don't
Speaker 7: necessarily expect the Patriots to win, but they have at
Speaker 7: least proven that they can stay competitive a game against
Speaker 7: the Rams. I think it does help a little bit
Speaker 7: that you played last weekend, Sean McVay. Now you're playing
Speaker 7: against Mike McDaniel a little bit more of a similar
Speaker 7: offense that those guys are running, So maybe you don't
Speaker 7: make some of those same mistakes that he made against
Speaker 7: the Rams and Matthew Stafford this week against the Dolphins.
Speaker 7: But no, I mean, this is definitely a highly motivated
Speaker 7: Dolphins team, a Dolphins team that wants to prove that
Speaker 7: they are legitimate, a Dolphins team that definitely is is
Speaker 7: you know on the trajectory potentially to make the playoffs
Speaker 7: if they can continue stringing together these wins. So the
Speaker 7: Patriots really have to come in with the mentality of
Speaker 7: trying to play spoiler, and it's tough to do. They
Speaker 7: have not played well in Miami over the last few
Speaker 7: years or really historically. It's a little bit easier obviously
Speaker 7: in November than it would be in September, but it's
Speaker 7: still a place historically, even even in December that gives
Speaker 7: the Patriots fit. They've got to get over that hump
Speaker 7: and maybe you we'll see with Rod Mayo and there
Speaker 7: it will be all look different. But no, I mean,
Speaker 7: they they definitely have to prove that they can win
Speaker 7: in Miami because that is a really tough stuffre Yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Just I'm just curious to see your observations. Why has
Speaker 4: it been so hard for them to win there? Why?
Speaker 8: Why?
Speaker 4: Why do they have this this phobia.
Speaker 7: It's it's a really good question. I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 7: that the difference in heat doesn't help, even even when
Speaker 7: you're even when it's like December and maybe it's a
Speaker 7: little bit more mild in the seventies or low eighties,
Speaker 7: still going from from Boston to there certainly doesn't help.
Speaker 7: I don't think it's a massive like, I don't think
Speaker 7: it's crowd noise so much. I don't think it's necessarily
Speaker 7: any specific thing about the teams or the stadium because
Speaker 7: it's been different regimes, it's been different coaching staff. So
Speaker 7: it's a really good question. The only thing I can possibly,
Speaker 7: you know, come to the conclusion on it is that
Speaker 7: it's got to be weather related. And even that, I mean,
Speaker 7: Bill Belichick tried that in the past of having them
Speaker 7: stay down in Miami for the weekend and it still
Speaker 7: didn't work.
Speaker 8: So I don't know.
Speaker 7: It is very interesting that that specific place, where that
Speaker 7: specific team gives them so much trouble.
Speaker 4: Yeah, sure, they sure do. And you've got to motivated
Speaker 4: Miami team because they don't want to stumble. They've got
Speaker 4: tougher games, allegedly tougher games on down the stretch that
Speaker 4: they're going to need to win in order to stay,
Speaker 4: you know, right in the hunt for a potential wildcard
Speaker 4: spot on down the line. So it's a it's an
Speaker 4: important day for the Dolphins. The Patriots are definitely going
Speaker 4: to have the target on their backs. Doug, thanks so much.
Speaker 4: For spending a little time with his day. It's all appreciated,
Speaker 4: absolutely anytime.
Speaker 7: John.
Speaker 4: Great talking to you, you too, Thank you, buddy. Doug
Speaker 4: kyde k y e ed in the last name it's
Speaker 4: at Doug kyde on X follow his stuff from the
Speaker 4: Boston Herald. Good guy and uh, you know, accurate, very accurate,
Speaker 4: hard to argue with just about anything. Uh with uh,
Speaker 4: what he's gone through, what he's what he's what he
Speaker 4: said about this team and the way that they've got
Speaker 4: things set up for, you know, for the foreseeable future.
Speaker 4: I mean, look, it's all kind of laid out there
Speaker 4: right now. You want to do what you can to
Speaker 4: keep Drake moving forward. Uh. You want to try to
Speaker 4: get back some of your walking wounded, which they're doing slowly.
Speaker 4: You want to try to continue developing younger players, the
Speaker 4: few that you have that seem to be willing to
Speaker 4: be developed.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: You want to see if you can get anything at
Speaker 4: all out of the ones that are disappointing. Jalen Polk,
Speaker 4: you know, step to the front of the line on
Speaker 4: that one.
Speaker 8: Uh.
Speaker 4: So you know, there are still things to accomplish for
Speaker 4: this year before we get completely to next year. And
Speaker 4: I know so many want to turn the page. I
Speaker 4: got asked that today at school. I like, you know,
Speaker 4: you know, guys coming up and say, well, so, what
Speaker 4: do you think they should do about next year? What
Speaker 4: should they do about you know, the receiver? What should
Speaker 4: they do about this? And I'm like, hey, I'm going
Speaker 4: to worry about that in the off season. What's this
Speaker 4: year is over? Right now? What I want to see
Speaker 4: is I want to see continued improvement, and not just
Speaker 4: from the players. I want to see continued improvement from
Speaker 4: the coaching staf. I want to see adjustments made. I
Speaker 4: want to see, you know, the light bulb go being
Speaker 4: on top of the heads of the coaches and the players.
Speaker 4: And anytime I get that light bulb to turn on,
Speaker 4: I'm going to feel like, okay, now you're making that
Speaker 4: step in the right direction. And we just haven't seen
Speaker 4: that often enough. That's a big reason why the team
Speaker 4: is three and eight thus far. You're going through some
Speaker 4: growing pains here and nobody's used to them. There is
Speaker 4: a way to get out of those growing pains. You
Speaker 4: need some more personnel, but you also need to coach
Speaker 4: them up better. So it's a two pronged fork right now, too, ProMED.
Speaker 4: One prong is gott to help the other, and if
Speaker 4: one prong stays bent, you're not gonna be You shouldn't
Speaker 4: tolerate it. You shouldn't tolerate it. That's why, you know,
Speaker 4: how this team ends this year and how they address
Speaker 4: the off season as soon as the off season occurs,
Speaker 4: it's hugely important for the immediate future of this team
Speaker 4: in this franchise. Let's go back to the phones here
Speaker 4: and our buddy Todd in North Carolina with us.
Speaker 9: Hey Todd, Hey John, how are you doing today?
Speaker 4: Good buddy, good?
Speaker 5: Two hear.
Speaker 9: So I'm driving and I'm watching and every time I
Speaker 9: see a Virginia license plight, I would like to hit
Speaker 9: the dirt and you know, find a place to call
Speaker 9: and hide because they go too fast. And yeah, they're
Speaker 9: the types that will not only come from four lanes over,
Speaker 9: but they'll be behind you, honking go over four lanes,
Speaker 9: come back and cut you off. Get the off round.
Speaker 4: Just yeah, I understand, just to push off. I get that.
Speaker 4: That's kind of like Rhode Island drivers around here, So yeah,
Speaker 4: I understand that completely. What I want to do is
Speaker 4: I want to put eldred uh, you know, on route
Speaker 4: four ninety five here and where you're traveling as well.
Speaker 4: I want to put Eldred in a tank.
Speaker 3: That'd be cool.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'd be very cool with that. I think we
Speaker 4: want to put a we wouldn't want to put a camera,
Speaker 4: you know, on the front window of that tank, just
Speaker 4: so we can you know. Yeah, I think that would
Speaker 4: be you know, justice duly served.
Speaker 9: And the reason I called in is is exactly because
Speaker 9: of Eldred. Okay, I'm I'm wagering a Bertie's peanuts selection
Speaker 9: of peanuts. He can briddle whatever that he get against
Speaker 9: I don't know, offer T shirt or something that he
Speaker 9: can draft better than the Patriots draft team for the
Speaker 9: next year's draft.
Speaker 4: Well, okay, well we're we're okay. That's fine, and and
Speaker 4: and we can accept that, I guess as a show here.
Speaker 4: I I like that. I I will we'll at what
Speaker 4: Eldred does with what the team does, and we'll we'll
Speaker 4: see how he fares, because I think it's time, you know,
Speaker 4: for him to achieve you know, legendary status in his
Speaker 4: own right, don't you.
Speaker 9: Oh heck yeah, I love There's nobody who has the
Speaker 9: passion of Eldred. He just he's so tuned into the
Speaker 9: team and he's got that. I don't know if it's
Speaker 9: a sixth sense. He said, he'll tell you stuff like
Speaker 9: the team's gonna end up feeling in this area this year,
Speaker 9: and all of a sudden you look and it's like.
Speaker 4: Dang, yeah, it was right. Yeah, no, no, no word
Speaker 4: of a lie. I agree with you. And I've known
Speaker 4: this about Eldred for how many years I've been doing
Speaker 4: this show now, twenty four, twenty five? Almost yeah too, Damn,
Speaker 4: Mini is exactly right. But I have fun doing it
Speaker 4: because I get to talk to you, guys like you,
Speaker 4: and Eldred and and Patty and and a lot of
Speaker 4: the others that have been regulars on the show throughout
Speaker 4: the years. I enjoy this. I look forward to it because, frankly,
Speaker 4: I value your opinion. You follow the team closely enough
Speaker 4: to the point where your your opinions and the statements
Speaker 4: you have to make have validity because you watch the games.
Speaker 4: That's what I'm interested in. I'm not interested in just
Speaker 4: you know, straight pom pom waving. I want to know
Speaker 4: why you think the way you think.
Speaker 9: And with respect to Polk, didn't Booty have kind of
Speaker 9: a similar first year I know he's a sixth round
Speaker 9: draft pick and we shouldn't be comparing the two. But
Speaker 9: I seem to remember when Booty first was doing his thing.
Speaker 9: They loved him in the preseasons, like, oh my god,
Speaker 9: look what he can do.
Speaker 3: Look what he can do.
Speaker 9: Yeah, and then came around to the year and he's like, uh,
Speaker 9: because I think the game is so different. The NFL
Speaker 9: game is so so different than the college game. Yeah,
Speaker 9: it's faster, it's it's more complex. Well, it requires just
Speaker 9: a higher level of execution. You may have just don't
Speaker 9: think that that young guys are.
Speaker 4: Ready for it. You may have just answered your own question.
Speaker 4: I think that's part of the reason why we saw
Speaker 4: him struggle last year, because he just wasn't quite ready
Speaker 4: for the professional game. But now that he's had a
Speaker 4: year and a half now to learn how to be
Speaker 4: a pro, we're starting to see a little bit of
Speaker 4: production out of him. So, you know, he you know,
Speaker 4: you know, I had a few things hanging over his
Speaker 4: head before he got here. But I think he's I
Speaker 4: think I think he's in earnest, working his butt off
Speaker 4: to try to be a better player, a better professional.
Speaker 4: I think we're starting to see that, so I think
Speaker 4: you kind of answered your own question.
Speaker 9: Well see, I think that's why I'm getting too is
Speaker 9: I want to wait for both. I want to give
Speaker 9: both at least one more year, okay, just to see
Speaker 9: if he can have that development. I know there's a
Speaker 9: lot putting on him, a lot.
Speaker 3: Expected of him.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 9: And you know, I think I kind of agree with Aldrid.
Speaker 9: We always seem to get this weird, kind of a
Speaker 9: slow pondering guy for the outside, which I just I
Speaker 9: think that's the old school game. I think, just think
Speaker 9: in eighty seventies.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 9: That just doesn't work anymore. I think you need those
Speaker 9: fast guys. I think you need the guys that stretch
Speaker 9: the field, and not only north south, but can stretch
Speaker 9: a field east west. But how many times they put
Speaker 9: tyra key on nail in motion and your defense has
Speaker 9: to find him, just move it. And that's what the
Speaker 9: Rams did it to us, too, right, they got guys
Speaker 9: with speed and skill they could move latterly. So you've
Speaker 9: got to be able to stretch the field in all directions.
Speaker 9: And I just the only person I can see doing
Speaker 9: that is our wonderful little swat guy.
Speaker 8: And that's it.
Speaker 9: It's the only guy that I think we got right
Speaker 9: now with.
Speaker 3: That kind of speed and.
Speaker 9: Ability to you know, unless we get our dB to
Speaker 9: place more offensive snaps, that's just.
Speaker 4: Hard, John, I know. I actually think you hit the
Speaker 4: nail on the head right there.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 9: And with respect to defense, I was predicting this year
Speaker 9: that they regress, and I think that's kind of what's
Speaker 9: happened there. They just don't have They just didn't have
Speaker 9: the core people. We used to have depth, and the
Speaker 9: depth just kept getting eroded and eroded and eroded, and
Speaker 9: I was gone, John, is just there's no depth there.
Speaker 9: We take an injury on either side of the ball
Speaker 9: and it's over, and that's kind of sad. I don't know.
Speaker 9: I think we're gonna have to be patient and give
Speaker 9: them a year, two or three to get that back up.
Speaker 4: Two or three, two or three, Todd won't do it.
Speaker 4: You got a year. This is a very competitive league.
Speaker 4: It's all about winning now. You're in the business to
Speaker 4: win games, which has disturbed me about a lot of
Speaker 4: the philosophies that we've heard from this regime. You're not
Speaker 4: here necessarily to develop, you develop by winning. It's a
Speaker 4: little bast awkwards maybe, but to me, that's what it's
Speaker 4: always been.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: And you know, and maybe that's unfair. It could very
Speaker 4: well be unfair, but that's just the business of the NFL.
Speaker 4: And I think the Patriots sometimes I feel like sometimes
Speaker 4: the Patriots kind of a loose sight of that. So
Speaker 4: that's why you know, we opining the way that we do.
Speaker 9: Yeah, well that note, John, I can get my boy
Speaker 9: to piano class.
Speaker 4: All right, you got it, Thank you, Todd, appreciate you,
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Speaker 10: It's time to go around the NFL with football guru
Speaker 10: Russell Baxters.
Speaker 5: Now what.
Speaker 4: Your name is? Flounder? On Patriots Playbook, the one and
Speaker 4: only Russell Baxter joined us here decided to playbook. Good afternoon, Russell,
Speaker 4: how are you today?
Speaker 8: I'm good? Now, you did a Bridgestone promo but before me?
Speaker 8: Does that mean you're.
Speaker 5: Tired of me?
Speaker 8: No? But yeah, I know there's always a dad joke.
Speaker 4: In that Listen. That's okay, because when you're a dad,
Speaker 4: you're you're expected to do dad jokes. I finally that
Speaker 4: sometimes it's really tough for me to do dad jokes anymore.
Speaker 4: Do they have granddad jokes?
Speaker 8: No? I just know that dad jokes rhyme with dad jokes.
Speaker 4: Well that's also very true. All right, So you know,
Speaker 4: let's let's kind of start. The first thing I actually
Speaker 4: start with is non Patriot related, but I guess it
Speaker 4: kind of is, because you know, this team is you know,
Speaker 4: you know, is A is a neighbor in the AFC East.
Speaker 4: But man, the Jets seem to be you know, they
Speaker 4: just can't get out of the way for making news
Speaker 4: that just can't be anything but negative, because you know,
Speaker 4: you fire the coach at mid season. They let the
Speaker 4: GM go today. And now there's reports out there from
Speaker 4: several sources, is that the owner suggested benching Aaron Rodgers
Speaker 4: after the head coach was fired and didn't get what
Speaker 4: he wanted. And so who's running the show?
Speaker 8: Well, to me, it seems like what he Johnson is
Speaker 8: running the show clearly, And I don't know. Here's what
Speaker 8: I don't understand, Okay, And I know, listen, I know
Speaker 8: for some of our media brethren, their favorite game to
Speaker 8: cover is the blame game.
Speaker 4: Yep.
Speaker 8: And they tried to pick one person. And I know
Speaker 8: Aaron Rodgers is an easy target and I'm certainly not
Speaker 8: absolving him of anything that has gone wrong this year,
Speaker 8: But riddle.
Speaker 3: Me, this.
Speaker 8: Was Aaron Rodgers around in twenty ten when the Jets
Speaker 8: last made the playoffs.
Speaker 4: In twenty ten, when they last made the playoffs, that
Speaker 4: was fourteen years ago. Yes, yeah, so he was yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: he would have been yeah, sure, yeah.
Speaker 8: He was the Super Bowl winning quarterback.
Speaker 4: For Green Bay that year. Yeah, of course.
Speaker 8: Okay, and that year the Packers almost faced the Jets
Speaker 8: in the Super Bowl, right, and if the Jets lost
Speaker 8: to Pittsburgh in the NFC Titlekay, So my point is this,
Speaker 8: and you will you understand this more than anyone else.
Speaker 8: If you're going to finger Jerry Jones for the ineptitude
Speaker 8: in Dallas and the failure to get back to a
Speaker 8: Super Bowl or even an NFC title game since nineteen
Speaker 8: ninety five, nuts, why isn't the finger pointing more at
Speaker 8: the owner of the Jets for the longest active layoffs
Speaker 8: throughout the league.
Speaker 4: No, that's that's fair. That's very fair. So that's kind
Speaker 4: of why I let into it, because it does seem
Speaker 4: like Woody Johnson is He's doing all the string pulling here,
Speaker 4: and for the life of me, I can't imagine. I
Speaker 4: don't know if they even want to, but I can't
Speaker 4: imagine Aaron Rodgers going back to that next year.
Speaker 8: Well here's the other thing too. If Aaron Rodgers is
Speaker 8: doing or has done everything he's been accused of, in
Speaker 8: particular by one media person, and I won't get into
Speaker 8: his name, Okay, if that is true, and I mean
Speaker 8: there's been no source to this whatsoever, it's just pure speculation.
Speaker 8: If he isn't able to do this, john who would
Speaker 8: be the only person to empower him to do that?
Speaker 8: It would be the owner.
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, because he's the one that writes the checks
Speaker 4: and yeah, sure.
Speaker 8: Right exactly, So who's the you just said it? If
Speaker 8: Woody Johnson is indeed running the show and this team
Speaker 8: can't get back to the playoffs in a league where
Speaker 8: everybody gets back to the playoffs for the most part,
Speaker 8: and now Denver's not been there since twenty fifteen. Okay,
Speaker 8: I get that the Raiders haven't won a playoff game
Speaker 8: since two thousand and two. I get all that, but again,
Speaker 8: the longest active drought, numerous head coaches, numerous starting quarterbacks,
Speaker 8: one winning season. They haven't had a winning season since
Speaker 8: twenty fifteen when Todd Bowles was there and they finished
Speaker 8: ten and six but missed the playoffs. So this is
Speaker 8: the miserable stretch. And the idea that this franchise was
Speaker 8: going to bring in one person to save the ship
Speaker 8: is ludicrous because that's never happened. It's never been one
Speaker 8: person come in and save a franchise. Okay, you were
Speaker 8: a better chance of a coach coming in to save
Speaker 8: a franchise than you do a quarterback at defensive end.
Speaker 8: I mean, how many times you remember this? In the
Speaker 8: late eighties, I kept on hearing this, the Minnesota Vikings
Speaker 8: are one player away from getting to the super Bowl.
Speaker 4: Heard that a lot right like.
Speaker 8: Merriweather was a big trade for them. Herschel Walker, we
Speaker 8: know all about that. Well, I'm still waiting for the
Speaker 8: Vikings get back to the super Bowl. They haven't been
Speaker 8: there since ready, nineteen seventy six.
Speaker 4: Crazy, I was a junior in high school. Yeah, so
Speaker 4: was last time.
Speaker 8: They never even appeared in the Super Bowl. Okay, Miami
Speaker 8: hasn't been to Super Bowl in forty years.
Speaker 10: Jesus.
Speaker 3: So the idea that you.
Speaker 8: Can fix things and this isn't just football, this is
Speaker 8: all sports. Okay, maybe even the exception of the NBA
Speaker 8: because they only have five players on the court. I
Speaker 8: understand that, and you'll have a limited roster. But the
Speaker 8: idea that one person is going to come in, you know,
Speaker 8: walk on water, raise his hands and we're going all
Speaker 8: the way, it just doesn't happen. We have seen some
Speaker 8: of the greatest performances in history by an individual and
Speaker 8: they've gone on to win the league MVP that year
Speaker 8: and it doesn't translate. So I always talk about that's
Speaker 8: now only happened one time in fifty eight years that
Speaker 8: a quarterback led the league in passing yards and won
Speaker 8: the Super Bowl the same season. I was actually Patrick
Speaker 8: Mahomes in twenty twenty two. So this is not a
Speaker 8: one man show. It's not a one man fix. But
Speaker 8: you're right, they can't seem to stay out of the
Speaker 8: news as more and more of this gets on the
Speaker 8: earth about what has gone wrong and what is really fascinating,
Speaker 8: and you are I'm not going to again mention names
Speaker 8: of certain people I have worked with, who are in
Speaker 8: the media, who are flat out New York Jets fans,
Speaker 8: and they are calling this the worst season in franchise history.
Speaker 4: It's not. It's not even that.
Speaker 8: Of course it's not.
Speaker 4: They've had a bunch of them.
Speaker 8: Yet there has I remember one in fifteen yea, which
Speaker 8: is pretty awful. Sure, okay, but the fact that they
Speaker 8: are so ingrained and so personally involved in it has
Speaker 8: them saying. I mean, I heard one person say this
Speaker 8: was the most uh disappointing season by a franchise in
Speaker 8: sports history. Now, I wasn't around for the first Olympics, Okay,
Speaker 8: I'm willing to bet there was probably some disappointment there
Speaker 8: probably Okay, no, I mean the craziness, but again, that's
Speaker 8: what we live in. We lived the click fix and
Speaker 8: all that stuff. And meanwhile, let's just talk about the
Speaker 8: teams that are in the playoff mix, because we had
Speaker 8: some craziness last week. We had two we had two
Speaker 8: one point games, we had a two point game, you know,
Speaker 8: Chris Boswell and in Pittsburgh is now Pele, Okay, and
Speaker 8: you know, we had the showdown that the Chiefs are
Speaker 8: not undefeated anymore. The Cowboys are headed south the Lions
Speaker 8: and god forbid they play another ADFC team.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they're totally dominated. Yeah. Right.
Speaker 8: By the way, later in the year they played the Bills.
Speaker 4: Which I'm going to love to see.
Speaker 8: Wow, boy, that's got just fun written all over.
Speaker 4: I'll be honest with you. I really like and I'm
Speaker 4: not saying this to be anti Kansas City at all,
Speaker 4: because I think the Chiefs could Definitely I think they've
Speaker 4: got a legit shot at three pete and I've thought
Speaker 4: that all year long, no matter how much Patriot fans
Speaker 4: don't want to hear that. I would love to see
Speaker 4: a Detroit Buffalo Super Bowl just for the fact that
Speaker 4: somebody's got to win it, and it'll be the first
Speaker 4: time they've ever won it, right and for.
Speaker 8: The Lions, who are the only team in the NFC
Speaker 8: never to go. You know, they haven't won an NFL
Speaker 8: title since nineteen fifty seven, right, which was two years
Speaker 8: before I was even born.
Speaker 4: Same here, same here. So now that I'm going to
Speaker 4: tell you how old.
Speaker 8: We are, right, well, like older than twenty one?
Speaker 4: Yeah, times three?
Speaker 3: Do you know this?
Speaker 8: In the nineteen fifties that the league was dominated by
Speaker 8: two franchises since I've never been to the Super Bowl,
Speaker 8: the Cleveland Browns and the Detroit Lions, right right almost,
Speaker 8: and we played each other for the title. They both
Speaker 8: won three championships in that decade. Now, that's when the
Speaker 8: Browns finally joined the NFL when they were in the A,
Speaker 8: the All America Football Conference, where they dominated all four
Speaker 8: years that was in existence. So but yet a Lion's Bills,
Speaker 8: I can you know? I can you think about this,
Speaker 8: the Lions fan base and Dan Campbell, the Bills and
Speaker 8: their fan base jumping off tables and eating wings in
Speaker 8: the city of New Orleans.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that'll be wild. If you ever go to a
Speaker 4: super Bowl, or ever wanted to go to a super Bowl,
Speaker 4: especially where your team isn't involved, I would say the
Speaker 4: Lions Bills, if it gets to be, that would especially
Speaker 4: in New Orleans, that'd be a good one to go to.
Speaker 8: Right, I had to go off the top of my head,
Speaker 8: and I'll probably get this wrong. The last time two
Speaker 8: teams met in the Super Bowl that neither one of
Speaker 8: them had won one. And it might have been it
Speaker 8: might have been okay, and again I'm gonna get this
Speaker 8: wrong because I'm just doing it to win job here.
Speaker 8: It might have been Patriots Bears.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, both teams.
Speaker 8: Yeah, Now, the Bears had won NFL championships, they'd never
Speaker 8: been to super.
Speaker 4: Bowl, super Bowl. That's right, that's right.
Speaker 8: Obviously, the Patriots like the member three road wins to
Speaker 8: get to the super Bowl in the playoffs over the Jets,
Speaker 8: over the Raiders, h Matt Millan and where Patrick Sullivan
Speaker 8: won't be having any coffee soon? Is that?
Speaker 4: Do you remember what happened? I remember, Yes, I'm.
Speaker 5: Sure you do.
Speaker 8: And then them going down to Miami, which I think
Speaker 8: they hadn't won a game down and they're like since
Speaker 8: the mid sixties. Yes, and they beat and they ran
Speaker 8: right if they're running game and Sea and that was
Speaker 8: a really opertistic team.
Speaker 4: Correct.
Speaker 8: Again, We're gonna check it after I get off the
Speaker 8: air here with you and said, but it might be
Speaker 8: New England Chicago.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, that's a good guess. Anyway, that's a really
Speaker 4: good guess.
Speaker 8: Well, I mean, listen, you know what you know, lack
Speaker 8: of social life?
Speaker 4: All right, all right, well you talk. You mentioned you know,
Speaker 4: teams that are head in the other direction besides the Jets,
Speaker 4: and I look at it. Look at the schedule this week.
Speaker 4: There are four games that I that I've looked at
Speaker 4: that I'd say are potential difference makers for the remainder
Speaker 4: of the season. In other words, it could you or
Speaker 4: let's just say separation games. You could separate the haves
Speaker 4: from the have nots in these games this week, in
Speaker 4: Week twelve in the NFL. You know, it just so
Speaker 4: happens that you have three of them in the NFC.
Speaker 4: One in the AFC. I got forty nine Ers Packers,
Speaker 4: because the forty nine ers are you know, they're teetering,
Speaker 4: they're at five and five overall, I got I got
Speaker 4: the Cardinals and the Seahawks, who you know, Cardinals are
Speaker 4: six and four and maybe a little bit better than
Speaker 4: people give them credit for Seahawks five and five. And
Speaker 4: you got the Eagles and the Rams. And the Rams
Speaker 4: who we just saw this past week. They still look
Speaker 4: mighty potent on offense when they want to be, especially
Speaker 4: when the Patriots, you know, come up with a really
Speaker 4: semi silly game plan defensively that really helped the Rams,
Speaker 4: I think in that game. But you know, both of
Speaker 4: those teams need to win to stay in the hunt.
Speaker 4: And then in the AFC that's the Monday night game
Speaker 4: this next weekend, you got the Ravens at the Chargers
Speaker 4: separation games. Is that an accurate assessment you think? Well?
Speaker 8: I think so well, especially the three you talked about
Speaker 8: on Sunday, John, because they all involved all four af
Speaker 8: NFC West team, which if you haven't seen the standings,
Speaker 8: Arizona is six and four and the other three they're
Speaker 8: all five and five.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Okay, so you talked about the forty nine ers teetering.
Speaker 8: I have some pieces coming out in the next couple
Speaker 8: of days about ranking the playoff teams from a year
Speaker 8: ago their playoff chances this year.
Speaker 4: Okay.
Speaker 8: And it's not based on percentages of them getting in.
Speaker 8: It's based on other factors, you know, such as who
Speaker 8: was left on their schedule, not you know, not strength
Speaker 8: to schedule, but the opportunity. For instance, Buffalo is all
Speaker 8: but in the playoffs because of the fact that they've
Speaker 8: won nine games and the rest of the division has
Speaker 8: won ten. Okay, you know, and even though Kansas City
Speaker 8: has the better record, Kansas City, could you know, if
Speaker 8: they drop another game, they could wind up in the
Speaker 8: dogfight in the AFC West because Chargers and the Broncos
Speaker 8: are both above five.
Speaker 4: Hundred yep, charging hard, Yep, absolutely that.
Speaker 8: Meanwhile, Baltimore has already lost as many games as it
Speaker 8: did all last season. They're on the cusp of already
Speaker 8: giving they can up the fewest points in the league
Speaker 8: last year, John two eight, they've given up two seventy
Speaker 8: one already. Yeah, okay, And they have the Chargers this week,
Speaker 8: and they don't have a great record in the conference.
Speaker 8: And that's the kind of stuff. I mean, they're four
Speaker 8: and four in the conference, Okay, so when you start
Speaker 8: getting bunch up. Now, they did beat Denver, which is
Speaker 8: obviously a plus for them, Okay, but they lost to Cleveland.
Speaker 8: They obviously just lost to Pittsburgh. They did beat Buffalo, okay,
Speaker 8: but they lost to the Chiefs. So there's so much
Speaker 8: to solve here. And that Monday night game and we
Speaker 8: just saw the Chargers get out big on Cincinnati, let
Speaker 8: Cincinnati tie the game. Yep, okay, which was funny. The
Speaker 8: Chargers had not given up more than twenty points in
Speaker 8: the game all year. But I don't think they scored
Speaker 8: as many as they did the other night either, so
Speaker 8: which I think speaks volume about the Cincinnati's problems on defense.
Speaker 8: But the end NFC West is really intriguing. Go back
Speaker 8: to the forty nine Ers for a second. This is
Speaker 8: obviously a playoff rematch from a year ago when they
Speaker 8: met in the divisional round. The Niners came back and
Speaker 8: beat them twenty four to twenty one. Sure, San Francisco
Speaker 8: is one in three within their own division.
Speaker 4: Man, Okay, yeah, you got to win it. Yeah.
Speaker 8: They lost the Seattle, they lost the Rams, they lost
Speaker 8: the Seattle at home, and he lost Arizona at home. Okay,
Speaker 8: So now we're just starting to thinking about and I
Speaker 8: know seven teams make it in each conference, but you know,
Speaker 8: here's another conference game for the forty nine ers. I
Speaker 8: think it would. I think it would surprise people to
Speaker 8: know you're ready for this jump. The Niners are two
Speaker 8: and five versus NFC teams.
Speaker 4: Jeez wow, So they've been feeding on AFC teams. That's crazy.
Speaker 8: Yeah, they're you know, they're doing okay against the A
Speaker 8: see okay, but that's not a good sign when you're
Speaker 8: starting to get down to this time of the year
Speaker 8: in terms of tiebreakers and so on. So another conference
Speaker 8: loss would drop them to five and six and then
Speaker 8: about two and six in the conference. And that's so
Speaker 8: when you say what you said about the Sunday games
Speaker 8: and so on, you couldn't be more spot on. And
Speaker 8: we'll see what happens with Seattle. Seattle's reeling. I know
Speaker 8: they came back and won the game the other day,
Speaker 8: but up before that day had lost what five or
Speaker 8: six after their three and oh start. They're still a
Speaker 8: very erratic team. They've got a first time NFL head coach,
Speaker 8: so it's going to be very interesting to see. And
Speaker 8: again Monday night the Chargers, who should be able to
Speaker 8: take advantage of that Baltimore defense. I know Baltimore didn't
Speaker 8: give up a touchdown last week, but of course they
Speaker 8: also turned over the ball three times against Stewarts. Pittsburgh
Speaker 8: somewhat has Lamar Jackson's number for lack of lack of
Speaker 8: a better word. But there's so much pressure on that
Speaker 8: Baltimore defense or Baltimore offense now because the defense has
Speaker 8: been and it's not really a shock if you look
Speaker 8: at the off season this year and how much they
Speaker 8: lost on that. You know, Patrick Queen went to the Steelers,
Speaker 8: Gino Stone Pro Bowl Safety went to the Bengals to
Speaker 8: Davian Clowney left, their coordinator left. So as much as
Speaker 8: they have Derrick Henry and Lamar Jackson, they're piling up
Speaker 8: big numbers. Okay, it's it's been a different story on
Speaker 8: the other side of the ball for them, and it's
Speaker 8: it's not really a Ravens team who were used to seeing.
Speaker 4: Right, No, it's not.
Speaker 3: Uh.
Speaker 4: I want to ask you obviously about the Patriots and
Speaker 4: the Dolphins you know, this week, but you know, overall,
Speaker 4: before I get to that point, what are your No,
Speaker 4: I've lost my computer, just Frozier, I had a question
Speaker 4: for you and I just I just lost it. It figures, right,
Speaker 4: old age doesn't help you sometimes, but when your computer
Speaker 4: fails you you're completely lost.
Speaker 8: Nowadays, right, the answer is to get to the other side.
Speaker 4: Listen, this chicken ain't going anywhere, trust me.
Speaker 8: It's to listen.
Speaker 5: That's always the fallback.
Speaker 8: Just like if you can't get somebody's phone number, you
Speaker 8: just say eight six seven real.
Speaker 4: Nine, Yes, exactly right, Jenny, Jenny, who can I turn to?
Speaker 4: All right, let's go ahead and get to the Dolphins
Speaker 4: and the Patriots. You know the it's run on the
Speaker 4: tip of my tongue too, and my computers is not
Speaker 4: helping me here. Okay. So at any rate, last week,
Speaker 4: what we saw with the Patriots against the Rams, and
Speaker 4: I think the Rams kind of figured themselves out a
Speaker 4: little bit more. The Patriots didn't adjust as to what
Speaker 4: we thought they might adjust. The Dolphins, this team, you know,
Speaker 4: has certainly had it over the Patriots over the last
Speaker 4: few years. Might be Daniel Tool We know that, you know,
Speaker 4: he you know, has had great success in his young
Speaker 4: pro career against New England. But now the Dolphins have
Speaker 4: something legitimately to play for. They need to continue to
Speaker 4: win because they've got a bit of a pathway to
Speaker 4: a potential playoff spot. And I'm just wondering if you
Speaker 4: think that really matters in the overall scheme of things,
Speaker 4: especially with the Dolphins really still being an imperfect team.
Speaker 8: Oh, I say question about it. Listen, they went through
Speaker 8: not having two to Tagolowa for four games. They've had
Speaker 8: a problem as of late, especially the last four games.
Speaker 8: They've given up at least two hundred yards of offense
Speaker 8: in the second half.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Yeah, but they've managed that. They did something they hadn't
Speaker 8: done all year last year, John, they won two games
Speaker 8: in a row. And listen, they've got some rough spots ahead. Okay,
Speaker 8: they have a obviously this week. And I'm not going
Speaker 8: to say it's not easy to sweep a team, because
Speaker 8: we know contrary, it's easier to sweep than it is
Speaker 8: to split, especially when you beat the team seven at
Speaker 8: eight times, like they have the Patriots. So they're trying
Speaker 8: to crawl their way back. I mean, I posed this
Speaker 8: question a couple of weeks ago that could we see
Speaker 8: an eight to nine team in the AFC, because you know,
Speaker 8: and now we have seven winning teams because what at
Speaker 8: Denver did to Atlanta last week, and then the Chargers
Speaker 8: et cetera, et cetera, so yeah, they obviously. Now I
Speaker 8: do know they have to go to Green Bay on
Speaker 8: Thanksgiving night, yep. And I don't even know what the
Speaker 8: temperature is going to be, but I'm guessing it's not
Speaker 8: going to be seventy five. Yes, okay, And you know,
Speaker 8: I'm not going to get into the whole numbers about
Speaker 8: them playing in cold weather and so on. But that's
Speaker 8: a tall task for anyone is to go up there
Speaker 8: at lambeau Field, except if you're a team in the division.
Speaker 8: Because one of the things that has Green Bay a
Speaker 8: little behind the eight ball, and they're seven to three,
Speaker 8: as you know, but they lost it home to both
Speaker 8: Detroit and Minute two divisional home losses. Now they beat
Speaker 8: the Bears in Chicago last week. That kind of even
Speaker 8: things out. But you know, this could be one of
Speaker 8: these year or someone you see in like an eight
Speaker 8: to nine or nine and eight in the AFC, and
Speaker 8: maybe someone in the NFC wins ten games and doesn't
Speaker 8: make it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I can see that. That's and that's part
Speaker 4: of the reason why I went that direction, because I
Speaker 4: know that the Dolphins, anything short of the playoffs, that's
Speaker 4: going to be a miserable disappointment for a team that
Speaker 4: so much was expected of before this season started. I mean,
Speaker 4: they were actually I think kind of considered a division favorite,
Speaker 4: with all due respect to the Bills. But over the
Speaker 4: year started, and of course then Tua got you know,
Speaker 4: his his block almost knocked off, and then you know,
Speaker 4: they've had some other injury issues and teams have adjusted
Speaker 4: and and I don't know if Mike McDaniel really deserves
Speaker 4: the heat or if he's just trying to kind of
Speaker 4: learn on his own because he's a young coach. But
Speaker 4: they need to win this game. If they lose this
Speaker 4: game to New England, that could have far reaching repercussions
Speaker 4: for this franchise.
Speaker 8: I don't think there's any question about it. And they're
Speaker 8: going to already need help obviously to get in And
Speaker 8: you know, Denver's sitting at six and five, and the
Speaker 8: game that could wind up really coming back and haunting
Speaker 8: Miami is that lost in Indianapolis.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 8: Now the Colts are five and six, Okay, So if
Speaker 8: it's a two team tie breaker and it's head to head,
Speaker 8: the Colts would go in place of the Dolphins. Now,
Speaker 8: you know, I'm not going to try and project, but
Speaker 8: the Colts play the Lions this week. Okay, and that's
Speaker 8: that could be more like the Lions versus the Christians,
Speaker 8: except for the instead of the Lions versus the Colts.
Speaker 8: As I was pointing out and something I'm writing this week,
Speaker 8: the Lions have played three teams in the AFC South
Speaker 8: and a score to combine one hundred and thirty points.
Speaker 4: Well could grief.
Speaker 8: They put fifty two up on Tennessee, they put fifty
Speaker 8: two up on Jackson Bill right, and twenty six against
Speaker 8: the Texans when they were way down.
Speaker 3: John, I know you know this.
Speaker 8: The Lions had six hundred and forty five yards of
Speaker 8: total offense. I had to look at it twice. I
Speaker 8: thought it was Michigan State.
Speaker 4: Yeah right, that's crazy.
Speaker 8: Six hundred yards of offense is not something you see
Speaker 8: in an NFL game, No you don't.
Speaker 4: But they're capable. That's why I love the Lions. I
Speaker 4: think the Lions are very entertaining football team.
Speaker 8: Yes. Oh, and by the way, I have to go
Speaker 8: back and correct myself. The Niners are not two and
Speaker 8: five in the conference. They're actually three and four.
Speaker 4: Three and four s okay.
Speaker 8: They have a losing record in the conference.
Speaker 4: They're teetering and the lost.
Speaker 8: The Green Bed could really set that one in three
Speaker 8: divisional record is mystifying because of how good they've been
Speaker 8: against their NFC West rivals the last two or three
Speaker 8: years and the fact that they lost two of those
Speaker 8: games at home. Now, I know it's it's been a
Speaker 8: battered roster, and you know, Christian McCaffrey just got back,
Speaker 8: But watching Seattle drives the field on them rate in
Speaker 8: the game, Gino Smith and Seattle's got some offensive talent.
Speaker 8: Watching them drive the field was very much like Arizona
Speaker 8: did to get the game winning field.
Speaker 4: Goal about a month ago, right for sure? Hey, Russell,
Speaker 4: I remembered what it was. I was going to ask you, Okay,
Speaker 4: it was about the Steelers. How the hell are they
Speaker 4: eighting two?
Speaker 8: Because they have found ways to win on offense, on defense,
Speaker 8: and special teams.
Speaker 4: All three phases of the game, right exactly?
Speaker 8: Okay, In fact, I was just writing, and again, who
Speaker 8: knows what's going to happen? Last year, Chris Boswell was
Speaker 8: twenty nine out of thirty one for the season in
Speaker 8: field goals. That's pretty good, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 4: Yes, Absolutely, no question about it.
Speaker 8: In ten games? Is yuear he's already twenty nine out
Speaker 8: of thirty. Okay, now I bring that up because the
Speaker 8: NFL record for field goals in the season, any idea, Yeah?
Speaker 4: No, wait, no, no, I don't.
Speaker 8: Actually, I'll give you a hint. It was with a
Speaker 8: guy who was more known for one team, and then
Speaker 8: he wound up going to another team and he kicked
Speaker 8: forty four field goals okay in twenty eleven.
Speaker 4: Yep, with David Acres Acres. Wow. Yeah, okay.
Speaker 8: Ors Boomer used to call them David Greenacres.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Greenacres, which is a good nickname. Yeah, Russell. I
Speaker 4: appreciate you as always. We won't be here next week
Speaker 4: the day before Thanksgiving because I'll be an assignment on
Speaker 4: the road for college basketball duties. So I'm gonna wish
Speaker 4: you and yours a very happy Thanksgiving and we'll try
Speaker 4: to we'll reconnect two weeks from today if that works for.
Speaker 8: You, Lulie. And I've said this on your show for
Speaker 8: I think for all twenty three or twenty four years.
Speaker 8: If you're betting on Thanksgiving, take me and.
Speaker 4: The over, yes, sir, Yes, sir, I will totally concur
Speaker 4: with that one. Thanks buddy. I always appreciate you.
Speaker 3: You too, have a good day.
Speaker 4: Thanks you too. The one and only Russell S Baxter
Speaker 4: at Backs Football Guru on X get all of his
Speaker 4: stuff on fans side and that's where he puts all
Speaker 4: of his work out there a couple of emails that
Speaker 4: I wanted to read real quick before we wrap up
Speaker 4: the show. I'm just kind of looking here. People are
Speaker 4: looking for the you know, the the newsletter that Fred's
Speaker 4: putting out and out, so they're putting their emails out here.
Speaker 4: I want to wed through it a bit. Here's one
Speaker 4: that comes from Daniel who says, guys, feels like a
Speaker 4: lot of the Patriots defensive lapses are stemmed from problems
Speaker 4: with schematics and matchups. Why is Tavai even matched up
Speaker 4: with Nikua once during the game. Is that something the
Speaker 4: Rams are doing or something that DeMarcus coming and is
Speaker 4: failing to see It's honestly, I'm thinking it's a little
Speaker 4: of both. To be honest with you, I don't think
Speaker 4: he's failing to see it. I think that, you know,
Speaker 4: this is something they wanted to try to see if
Speaker 4: they could get it to work. It clearly didn't. My
Speaker 4: biggest issue, and I mentioned this at the top of
Speaker 4: the show failure to adjust or not failure, yeah, but
Speaker 4: at least slow to adjust, not recognizing enough to adjust,
Speaker 4: or stubbornness to stay. You know what it is you're doing.
Speaker 4: I guess you could describe it in any way that
Speaker 4: you know that suits you. But I just I didn't see.
Speaker 4: I didn't see. I just didn't see any adjustment. Just
Speaker 4: didn't see an adjustment. This one I wanted to read
Speaker 4: real quick because it has my name in it, Tyler
Speaker 4: from Ludlow. It says the twenty twenty four Patriots Thanksgiving
Speaker 4: Dinner Awards below our awards to be given by John Rook,
Speaker 4: the Patriots player the best match the dish descriptions for
Speaker 4: the twenty fourth season. Did you see this one? Marine? Okay?
Speaker 4: He says. An example his Grandma's green bean castrole. Grandma
Speaker 4: took the year off from cooking after this being a
Speaker 4: dependable dish every year, and you miss it now that
Speaker 4: it's gone. And a player that might receive this award
Speaker 4: is Matt Judhan. Mom's mashed potatoes is dependable as it gets.
Speaker 4: They rarely let you down, but are not the main
Speaker 4: course that everyone will be raving about. Burnt dinner rolls.
Speaker 4: You were disappointed overall, but you just have to throw
Speaker 4: them away.
Speaker 3: And move on.
Speaker 4: Baked mac and Cheese. This dish is new to the table,
Speaker 4: but it's a welcome edition that you hope to see
Speaker 4: annually for years to come. And Cousin Bird's Brussels sprouts.
Speaker 4: Cousin Bird must have a cooking class, because last year
Speaker 4: this dish was just meh. But Thashier has improved greatly
Speaker 4: and smoked turkey the show stopper, the MVP of the meal.
Speaker 4: All right, if I've got to give awards burnt Grandma's
Speaker 4: green bee castrole, I'll go with Jude on mom smashed potatoes,
Speaker 4: dependable as it gets. I gotta dependable Christian Gonzales because
Speaker 4: he's good and so were Mom smashed potatoes. By the way,
Speaker 4: Burnt dinner rolls. Disappointed overall, you have to throw them
Speaker 4: away and move on. I could get in trouble with this.
Speaker 4: Jalen Polk Baked mac and Cheese. This dish is new
Speaker 4: to the table, but is a welcome edition that you
Speaker 4: hope to see annually for years to come. Drake may
Speaker 4: first name that pops into mind, right, Okay, Cousin Burt's
Speaker 4: Brussels sprouts cousin Burt must have taken a cooking class,
Speaker 4: because last year this dish was just this year is
Speaker 4: greatly improved. Keishan BOUDI smoke Turkey, the show stopper, MVP
Speaker 4: of the meal. Ah Drake's gonna get a second one
Speaker 4: on that one. What do you think? How'd I do?
Speaker 4: Is it? Okay? Mareen? Hey? Really good email? Okay, really
Speaker 4: good email? Thank you, Dan, appreciate that. Appreciate the thought,
Speaker 4: all right. Our thanks to our thanks to Russell Baxter,
Speaker 4: our thanks to Doug Kaide, Easy Lazar, Evan Lazar and
Speaker 4: Chris Perkins from the Foul Florida Sun Centinel for joining
Speaker 4: us of the program today. As I mentioned a little
Speaker 4: bit earlier to Russell, no show next Wednesday because I'll
Speaker 4: be away on college basketball duty. So but we will
Speaker 4: have programming here on Patriots dot Com at Patriots dot
Speaker 4: Com Radio to preview the Colts game next week. Then
Speaker 4: I'll be back in time from you know, my sojourn
Speaker 4: for the game on Sunday, and then we'll recap the
Speaker 4: Colts and talk about the bye week two weeks from today.
Speaker 4: That'll be our next live edition of the Patriots Playbook.
Speaker 4: So that's what we'll have and when we'll have it.
Speaker 4: Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate. To everyone who tunes
Speaker 4: into this program for taking the time to listen to us,
Speaker 4: either live here on Patriots dot com or download the podcast.
Speaker 4: Whatever it did you do, I thank you for taking
Speaker 4: the time to spend a little time with us. You're
Speaker 4: always welcome to the program. You're always welcome to sending
Speaker 4: me a note where you think I'm full of it
Speaker 4: or not. I'd love to hear from you, all right, Marine,
Speaker 4: Thank you as always for putting it together, Same patch, time,
Speaker 4: same pats channel. Two weeks from today will be our
Speaker 4: next live edition of the Patriots Playbook see it. Thank
Speaker 4: you downloading this podcast.
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Speaker 10: Like the show, Please rate and review us. Listener comments
Speaker 10: and ratings help keep us high in the podcast rankings
Speaker 10: so new listeners can find us. Be sure to check
Speaker 10: Patriots dot com for more news and more podcasts.
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