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Patriots Catch-22 10/8: Raiders Preview, Key Matchups, Injury Updates · Patriots Catch-22

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch-22 podcast with Evan Lazar and
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: Alex Barth. I'm Evan Lazar. I'm Evan Lazar.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: I'm Evan Lazar.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. Nailed it.
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: Joined, as always, by our Barth. That's a fit. That's
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: a match. No risk it.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: No risk it.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: 42.
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Barth. They're back in
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the race. They're back in the race.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: That's what, that's all this, this win is it's week four.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: I don't want to, it wasn't a playoff game or
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: anything like that, but they're back.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: You don't want to be one in three, one in
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: three is not a good place to be.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: You know, they were, their backs were against the wall
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: here a little bit. One of the things that I
• 0:39
  Speaker 2: really admire about Mike Rabel is how he gets the
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: train back on the tracks when they hit a little
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: bit of adversity. And this is probably the most adversity
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: that they've hit. the ability to know which buttons to push,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: to send the right messaging, to lead the team through
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: a rough patch. That's like a leader of men trade.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: That's a very good opening because that's pretty much exactly
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: what I'm going to hit on at the top of
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the show today. As we preview this matchup against the
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: three and one Las Vegas Raiders, Alex, I'm going to
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: discuss the Raiders a little bit. I don't, want to
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: come across as disrespectful or overlooking.
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: Overlooking, yeah.
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: The Raiders. I'm not doing that at all. Now, I
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: will say I know people get all hot and bothered
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: when you overlook an opponent, but we're not actually playing
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: or coaching in the game, so I don't think the
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: Patriots are taking the Raiders lightly. But that open, I think,
• 1:39
  Speaker 2: was a good way to start off the show today because...
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: To me, this is like a classic letdown spot where
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: you just came off a big divisional win on the road.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: You upset Josh Allen in his house. You get back
• 1:56
  Speaker 2: in the race, as we were talking about on Tuesday.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: And then you play a game against a frisky Raiders
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: team that has started the year out well. And Kirk
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Cousins is playing well. And they have a new head
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: coach and all this kind of stuff. And you come
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: home and you lay an egg and you give it
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: right back. Right. Like that. That's the type of thing
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: you have to avoid. I'm going to come on your
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: side of the street. I'm going to talk a little
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: quick college football reference. OK, so beginning of the season,
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: Ole Miss, they had the Lane Kiffin game. Lane Kiffin
• 2:26
  Speaker 2: comes back. It's a big deal. Right. It's probably one
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: of the biggest games they've ever played in that stadium.
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: And they beat Lane Kiffin in LSU last. And like
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: a really important game just for that program and for
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: that college and that university. What happened the next week?
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I got blown up by Florida.
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: They got blown out by Florida.
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: Florida is not bad, but, but neither of the Raiders, right.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: You know, you know, I think honestly kind of comparable.
• 2:51
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: I think Florida was like 21st in the nation at
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: the time when they beat Ole Miss, they might be
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: higher now that they beat Ole Miss.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: The top 29 Raiders are three in one. They just
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: hung with Kansas city for four quarters. Um, last week
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: so that's uh you know mike rabel i said on
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: tuesday i'm always so impressed by how he guides the
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: ship you know how he captains uh the patriots uh
• 3:16
  Speaker 2: if you will this this week that's what it is
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: to me is don't avoid the trap avoid a letdown
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: take care of business against a team that you should
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: beat at home if you play at least like your
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: b game then you should win this game against the raiders.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah, David Andrews talked about this on our podcast this week,
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: and it's a really good point. Like, we heard from
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: players last week about how they upped the ante, they
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: upped the intensity. Mike Vrabel upped the intensity in the
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: building last week in response to what happened in Jacksonville, which, good, right? Like,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: that's what you need to do.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: But now it can't be, all right, well, we're through that,
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: so we can kind of let our guard down. It's no,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: now you see... what it takes to win week in,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: week out, what it takes for you to be the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: best version of this team. And you have to stay
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: at that level. You have to keep that intensity there.
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: If not exceed it, like you can't let that drop
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: off because, all right, we're back to two and two.
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: All's good. You know, Mike Vrabel said in the post
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: game press conference, puts us back in the race, back
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: in the race, but the race ain't over. You got
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: to keep racing. A lot of race left to go. So, Yeah,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: it'll be interesting to kind of see and hear players
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: talk about what the week is like, the day-to-day is
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: like this week that matches that Bills week.
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and I don't think, I don't sense any complacency
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: in the locker room. Like, I think a lot of
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: guys actually so far this week have been like, I mean, look,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: we're 2-2. We haven't won anything yet. So I think
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: that they all understand the messaging I was talking. I'm
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: writing something on the edge rushers who I think have
• 4:47
  Speaker 2: been a surprise bright spot so far this season. You know,
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: Akis Ponder, Draymond Jones. I was talking to Draymond Jones
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: yesterday and he was like, look, we're not like throwing
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: any parades like we're two and two. We want to
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: win a lot more than two games. So I think
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: that they understand that. But this to me feels like
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: one of those classic trappy letdown kind of games. And
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: that if I'm the Patriots and I'm Mike Vrabel. Uh,
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: that's it. That's the message. Like, I wouldn't be surprised
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: if his, he always has that like team slogan for
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: the week. If it's like something like keep your foot
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: on the gas, you know, something along those lines, uh,
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: for his Patriots team this week. So we're going to
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: talk Raiders. We're going to do key matchups. I am
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: going to try to get to some emails, uh, in
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: the second half of the hour. Cause we have a
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: ton of emails that I know we've been neglecting. We're
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: trying to get the pace of the show down. So
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: just bear with us. We're working on it. I'm working
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: on it. Um, and we're going to get it figured out.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: So we're going to try to get to some of
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: these emails. Cause I don't want to make you guys
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: feel neglected. You know, I don't want to neglect the
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: listeners thoughts as well, but, uh, let's talk a little
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: bit about the Raiders. Uh, I think that holistically big
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: picture wise, uh, with, with Vegas is a very similar model, uh,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: to the commanders a couple of years ago, the Patriots
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: last year, where you hire a new coach, uh, you
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: draft a highly drafted quarterback. Now Mendoza is not playing
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: obviously yet, but you have the quarterback, uh, you hope
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: of the future. You spend about, $ 250 million in free agency. And, uh,
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I always like compared like they just kind of like
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: jumpstart the thing.
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: Right.
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: So Tyler Linderbaum comes in, Quay Walker comes in, the
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: Kobe Dean comes in, Quitty pay comes in and you
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: already have a nucleus of, uh, Bauer's gentee Crosby. That's
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: a pretty good starting point. Like the Patriots had may
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: Gonzalez bar more like they had some guys already too,
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: but now you, we always talk about like increasing the
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: talent floor of the roster. And that's what I feel
• 6:50
  Speaker 2: like the Raiders us set out to do. And I
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: think that so far, at least they've accomplished it. Now
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: their schedule is not to do the whole easy schedule thing.
• 7:00
  Speaker 2: but their schedule is a little bit harder than the
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Patriots was last year because they're in a tougher division.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Well, so far it hasn't been, but it's going to
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: get there.
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 7:08
  Speaker 2: Because you know, at the Broncos and the chiefs twice
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: a year, you know, it's a tougher schedule in terms
• 7:12
  Speaker 2: of that. The Patriots just had to play the bills
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: twice last year. in terms of division opponents. So, uh,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: but it's a similar, it feels like a similar build.
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Now they're probably a year behind or, you know, this
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: is year one of Mendoza, not year two of Mendoza.
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: So he's not playing yet, but, uh, Drake may even
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: made the comparison to Jacoby Brissett, uh, yesterday, uh, with
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Kirk cousins. So, uh, that seems to be, you know,
• 7:36
  Speaker 2: just from a philosophical team building standpoint, Alex, if you
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: want to do the quick rebuild, uh, and really get
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: the thing going right away, this seems to be the
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: new model across the NFL. Spend some money in free
• 7:48
  Speaker 2: agency and see if you can get enough NFL players
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: on your roster that way.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's setting that floor. You look at the contrast
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: here of what they didn't do in 24 and what
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: they did in 25, and it was having that base
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: level of talent because draft and develop is the way
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: to go, but you can only do that on top
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: of talent you already have. Odds are, if you're joining
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: a new franchise... There was an opening because things weren't
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: going so well. So the Raiders are kind of the
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: next team up in this mold. And like you said,
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: I mean, the 3-0 start, I mean, credit to them.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: They're winning football games. They're going to face some tougher tests.
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: And I think who they looked like against the Chiefs
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: is probably closer to who they are. But they still
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: played close against the Chiefs. They didn't look that bad. But, yeah,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: this is kind of the new, this is the meta now.
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: This is the mold. It's not sink to the bottom,
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: then draft, draft, draft. You have to have a mix.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: I would say that to the, the free agency, what
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: you can draft and develop, and that can be your mantra,
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: but you can't expect a rookie class to come in
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: and completely change the shape of your team, right? Like that,
• 8:56
  Speaker 2: that expectation I think is just putting too much of
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: a burden on young players on your roster.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: Now that's important.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: The Patriots played a second year quarterback, a rookie left tackle,
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: a rookie left guard last year, now center with Jared
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: Wilson in his second season, uh, So it's not like
• 9:11
  Speaker 2: the Patriots, you know, Craig Woodson playing a ton of
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: snaps as a rookie. They played young players last year,
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: but it was supplemented by the Morgan Moses's and the
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: Garrett Bradbury's and, you know, those types of players on
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: the offensive line or whatever, you know, on the defensive
• 9:27
  Speaker 2: side of the ball. So I think that that's exactly
• 9:30
  Speaker 2: the mix is that you don't want to put too
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: much stress on your rookie class. And the Raiders are
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: a great example of this because they're not playing Mendoza yet. Now,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: I'll get to the Kirk Cousins and the offense with
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: the Raiders here in a second. I wouldn't be surprised still,
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: even though Kirk Cousins has played well and has them
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: at 3-1, I still think Mendoza plays at some point
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: this year. And I'll go over some of the under
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: the hood numbers of as to why I feel that way. Uh,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: but I, I think that, you know, cousins has played
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: at an efficient level. They just played at a high
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: level so far this season. But my guess is, is
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: once the film starts to expand on what they're doing
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: to get him to play at that level, uh, that
• 10:11
  Speaker 2: defenses are going to start to clamp down on some
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: of the things that he's throwing well, and it's going
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: to start to look a little bit shakier for Cousins.
• 10:19
  Speaker 2: But that's maybe this week, maybe down the line with it.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Let's start with the Raiders offense. A couple of things
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: I want to unpack here. With Kirk Cousins specifically, the
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: key to me with this game, Alex, from a Kirk
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: Cousins perspective, He's not mobile. So he's going to sit
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: on his spot.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: And he wants to throw breaking routes. So that's breaking
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: into the middle of the field or out routes breaking
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: outside the numbers. And he doesn't necessarily.
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: In comparison to I think some people might hear that
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: and think like, well, every route, unless it's a goalball,
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: has a break in it. Yeah.
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: But go balls. Like when we talk about other routes,
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: we're talking about like the vertical tree, basically like curls,
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: go routes, things outside the numbers, stuff like that seems,
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: you know, like those types of routes that are more
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: linear in terms of what he is throwing. So the
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: breaking routes are his bread and butter and really have
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: been his whole career. But I would say even more
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: so now at 38 years old. And when you look
• 11:23
  Speaker 2: at the splits, Specifically, he is the number one quarterback
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: in the league right now in EPA against single high coverage.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: So if you play with the single high safety up
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: top against Kirk Cousins, he is the most efficient passer
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: in the NFL through four games playing those types of coverages.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: The reason is, is because they all those... options in
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: terms of in breakers, you know, outs in slants, angle routes,
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: like those are all available to you against single high coverages,
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: especially against man. So like when you play those types
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: of coverages against him, he has absolutely shredded it. Also,
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: you know, we'll get to key matchups with Brock Bowers. Like,
• 12:02
  Speaker 2: you know, it's only been two games of Bowers, but
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: how do you defend back Brock Bowers and man, right.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: You know, like that, that I think has been a
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: big problem for teams as well. So you put all
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: of that together and, The difference, though, and I think
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: the biggest split, single high safety, number one in the
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: league in EPA against single high safety. Out of 29
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: qualified quarterbacks, he's 25th against split safety coverages. Cause split
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: safety coverages, they take away the slant windows, they take
• 12:28
  Speaker 2: away the flats and they make you put, push it
• 12:31
  Speaker 2: in the honey hole or push it in the deep middle.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: And like, those are two areas right now that I
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: just don't think at this stage of Kirk cousins, his career, uh,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: that he's able to access. So we talk a lot
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: about the whole shots or the honey hole shots with
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: Drake may in the cover two holes, you know, the
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: deep middle of the field, splitting the safeties. He got
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: one of his receivers through a hospital ball across the
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: middle of the field to, uh, to one of his
• 12:53
  Speaker 2: receivers last week against the chiefs on trying to split
• 12:56
  Speaker 2: the cover to safety. So if you're the Patriots, I
• 13:00
  Speaker 2: think this is one of those weeks where Zach core,
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: who has done a fantastic job is going to really
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: bring out a lot of those tricky cover to shells.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: Like we're going to spin it. We're going to show
• 13:10
  Speaker 2: one thing, pre-snap spin it post-snap. Uh, they have played
• 13:14
  Speaker 2: a lot of two man against cousins as well. Cause
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: he's not mobile. So usually you don't want to play
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: two man against mobile quarterbacks because there's nobody to spy
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: the quarterback.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: Right?
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: So they, they played a lot of two man against
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: him cause he's not mobile. So I think that all
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: these things add up to, obviously you always want to
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: get pressure every single week, but going back to that
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Pittsburgh game, it just feels like Aaron Rogers by the
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: end of that game, one, nothing to do with the
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: pocket that he was sitting in. So can you make
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: Kirk cousins feel that way? Like you did with Aaron
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: Rogers and take away those in breakers, I would say,
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: especially inside this Clint Kubiak offense. I think that that's
• 13:49
  Speaker 2: really where, uh, you know, the Patriots have to start
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: in a game like this.
• 13:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah. Yeah.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, it, it, it starts with him. Obviously. I
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: think your point about him being less mobile, it's kind
• 13:59
  Speaker 1: of a one 80 from what we saw the Patriots
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: do against the bills last week and maybe some more opportunities, uh,
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: for Gabe Ackes, Elijah Ponder, you don't have to be
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: as patient. And that's going to help them get in
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: his face a little more. Those guys had some, although
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: they played well last week, they had fewer pressures because
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: that's just what the game plan called for, right?
• 14:16
  Speaker 4: Yes.
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: This is a pin your ears back and go for it.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Which I'm interested to see what the pass rush does
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: in that situation. Yep.
• 14:23
  Speaker 2: So the other thing I would just mention with the
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: Raiders offense is can could be at uh... eight months
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: ago he was coaching against the patriots in the super
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: bowl and uh... that seahawks offense uh... although wasn't as
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: good as their defense the seahawks office did more than
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: enough to win that game uh... in the super bowl
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: so my fear from this game. And it's unnecessarily a fear.
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: I would say it's more like, I'm interested to see
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: how the Patriots off season changes have shored up some
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: of these things against the team. That's maybe a little
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: bit weaker personnel.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Well, that's what I was going to say is he
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: doesn't have the same personnel.
• 15:00
  Speaker 2: No, but he's, you know, Seattle, the J besides JSN,
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Seattle's receivers are not like game breakers.
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: Oh, cup.
• 15:07
  Speaker 2: And Brock Bowers is... They're using him, and we'll get
• 15:10
  Speaker 2: to Bowers here in a little bit. But they're basically
• 15:13
  Speaker 2: using Bowers like JSN. Right. So.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Jenty isn't Kenneth Walker either. No.
• 15:19
  Speaker 2: But I think that they have some similar levers that
• 15:22
  Speaker 2: they can pull in terms of Seattle. Most specifically... if
• 15:26
  Speaker 2: I'm Clint Kubiak and I fully expect him to do this,
• 15:29
  Speaker 2: his smart coach, you're putting your tight ends on the
• 15:32
  Speaker 2: field and you're testing the edges of the Patriots run defense, right?
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: I mean, that's, that's really where I think that they would,
• 15:37
  Speaker 2: probably go, at least in the beginning of this game.
• 15:40
  Speaker 2: They already play the highest rate of two tight end
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: sets in the NFL to begin with, with Mayer and Bowers. Now,
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: Mike Rabel mentioned yesterday that Bowers is a little kind
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: of a receiver, basically, not a tight end. But still,
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: they have two tight ends on the field more than
• 15:55
  Speaker 2: any other team in the NFL, just from a stylistic
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: standpoint to begin with. And then they obviously are Clint Kubiak,
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: Gary Kubiak, Mike Shanahan, Kyle Shanahan, outside zone team. They're
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: going to try to run the ball outside and cut
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: it back through the middle of the field. So I
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: think that they have sort of the roots to do
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: a lot of the same things or press a lot
• 16:17
  Speaker 2: of the same buttons that Seattle pressed in the Super
• 16:20
  Speaker 2: Bowl eight months ago. So I'm really interested to see.
• 16:24
  Speaker 2: First of all, are the Patriots stouter on the edge
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: than they were eight months ago? They should be.
• 16:28
  Speaker 1: They should be.
• 16:29
  Speaker 2: With Draymond Jones and Gabe Ackes, they should be stouter
• 16:31
  Speaker 2: on the edge than they were eight months ago. But
• 16:34
  Speaker 2: are they? We'll have to see. The second thing I
• 16:37
  Speaker 2: would say is, how do the Patriots want to match...
• 16:41
  Speaker 2: two tight end. And especially when one of those tight
• 16:44
  Speaker 2: ends Bowers is kind of like a wide receiver. Are
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: you going to match that in nickel? Are you going
• 16:50
  Speaker 2: to match it in big nickel? Are you going to
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: match it in base? Like what's the plan there in
• 16:54
  Speaker 2: terms of personnel matching? Cause I fully expect Seattle or
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: Seattle Vegas to put the quarterback under center, two tight
• 17:01
  Speaker 2: ends on the field, wide zone, wide zone, and try
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: to test the edges and see if the Patriots can
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: stop at this time.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: And they, they have not run the ball well this year.
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: They have not.
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: They have not. So I, I think that you're right.
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: That is the first thing that it could be action test.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: And again, I said that the run game was the
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: first thing the bill should test and they never really
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: did it, but the Patriots should be better. I, you know,
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: I don't think they're in a smother of the Patriots
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: should be better prepared to make Kubiak go away from that.
• 17:27
  Speaker 4: Yep.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: So that's their offense side defensively. I think that, um,
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: What's interesting to me about the Raiders defensively is that
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: even though they're Rob Leonard, their defensive coordinator, he was
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: in Baltimore for a little bit. So maybe that's where
• 17:43
  Speaker 2: the Mike McDonald flavor comes from. But he they're running
• 17:48
  Speaker 2: basically a Seattle style defense as well. Like Kubiak, I
• 17:52
  Speaker 2: think wants to be Seattle schematically on both sides of
• 17:54
  Speaker 2: the ball.
• 17:55
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 17:55
  Speaker 2: And so he's running a similar defense defensively. They're in
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: a lot of too high safety structures before the snap.
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: They're in a lot of cover three. They play a
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: lot of the quarters family, quarters, cover six, things like that.
• 18:09
  Speaker 2: The big difference, though, between what they are doing in
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: Vegas and I would say what they are doing in
• 18:14
  Speaker 2: Seattle is that Vegas has upped the cover zero significantly.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: So they're leading the league right now in cover zero rate.
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: So all out pressure. We're sending the house. They're sending
• 18:25
  Speaker 2: the house 10.3% of the time. Wow. Which is the
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: highest rate in the NFL. No other team is above 10%
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: besides that. So they are bringing it. They're bringing pressure.
• 18:34
  Speaker 2: Now their blitz rate overall isn't exorbitantly high, but their
• 18:39
  Speaker 2: cover zero rate specifically is. So they're maybe doing that
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: a little bit more than Seattle, but even still, like
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: when I look at their cover zero designs, like the
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: way that they're actually pressuring quarterbacks, I actually see a
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: lot of Seattle influence in how they're running cover zero.
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 18:55
  Speaker 2: So it's an interesting defense because I think that that's,
• 18:58
  Speaker 2: they're trying to emulate the Seahawks in a lot of ways.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: I do think defensive line wise there, uh, not, you know,
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: no one Seattle, uh, but they do have Crosby. They
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: do have Coons. They do have Quay Walker who they
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: use as an edge rusher. Now a lot on, you know,
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: passing situations. Uh, they do have, uh, if quitty pays healthy,
• 19:17
  Speaker 2: you know, he's out there to, uh, some guys in
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: the middle of the defensive line, uh, like Tonka Hemingway
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: players like that, that are, are pretty good. You know,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: like they, they don't necessarily lack depth. Now the secondary
• 19:29
  Speaker 2: is nowhere near as good as Seattle's. They don't have Witherspoon.
• 19:32
  Speaker 2: They don't have even worry. They don't have those guys.
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: Zechia masses has been good though.
• 19:35
  Speaker 2: He's had a lot of picks. Yeah. He's had a
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: lot of interceptions. So those are the two things that
• 19:40
  Speaker 2: stand out to me. You brought up the interceptions with masses.
• 19:43
  Speaker 2: They take, the ball away or have taken the ball away.
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: Ten forced fumbles. They've recovered five of them.
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: They have that cover zero package that's been giving most
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: teams problems until Kansas City, and I want to talk
• 19:57
  Speaker 2: about what the Chiefs did in a second, but what
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: do you see with the Raiders' defense?
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: Super aggressive, like you said. The ability to force turnarounds.
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: They're very creative with how they've used Max Crosby. I
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: think you see Crosby, he only has, I think it's
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: one and a half sacks or something, two and a
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: half sacks. There's a number of plays where he's not
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: getting the sack, but he's clearly the point of disruption.
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: And they'll move him around, whether it's pre-snap or post-snap.
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: There's some plays where he shifts late. There's even some
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: plays I saw, I'm curious your thought on this, Evan,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: where he just sort of drifts into coverage. And you
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: can tell that. I mean, I guess it's a, it's
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: a sim rush.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: Like, yeah, they do a lot of simulated pressures, but the.
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: I mean the line, the lines having trouble handling it
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: from different teams they played. So I think they, they
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: do a good job at disguising stuff when you're aggressive
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: and you can disguise puts a lot on the quarterback. So,
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: you know, they face some quarterbacks and maybe weren't up
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: for that and, Yeah, their ability to take the ball
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: away is definitely notable, especially against this Patriots team that
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: struggled with that.
• 20:59
  Speaker 2: So the simulated pressures, they're a big simulated pressure team.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: That obviously lends itself to the big cover zero rate.
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: Because if you're going to show pressure every once in
• 21:07
  Speaker 2: a while, you have to bring the pressure. If you're
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: just going to drop out of it every single time.
• 21:11
  Speaker 2: And teams are going to catch on to that. So
• 21:13
  Speaker 2: simulated pressures, just to explain it, is when you put
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: like six, sometimes even seven rushers up on the line
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: of scrimmage as threats to blitz. So everybody's kind of
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: standing up around the line of scrimmage and you don't
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: know who's blitzing and who's dropping into coverage. So most
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: teams will try to get hat on hat. They'll try
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: to get six or seven blockers to block the six
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: or seven pass rushers. But when you have that happen, uh,
• 21:39
  Speaker 2: a lot of the time is like, what they'll do
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: is they, they call it stabbing where they'll go into
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage and then drop once they get
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: engaged by the offensive lineman. So like, Max Crosby, when
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: he goes and does that, the right tackle has to,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: has to commit to blocking Max Crosby, right? Because he's
• 21:56
  Speaker 2: a threat to rush. So he's going to come into
• 21:58
  Speaker 2: the line of scrimmage. They might bring the edge, you know,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: they might bring another player off the edge, whether it's
• 22:03
  Speaker 2: the nickel or an outside linebacker. And so now that
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: right tackle is kind of like in a two on
• 22:08
  Speaker 2: one bind.
• 22:08
  Speaker 6: Right.
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: And I would say in particular, it really puts the
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: running back in into a lot of binds as well,
• 22:13
  Speaker 2: because usually running backs are scanning for blitzers and sometimes
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: they have two guys. So it's like, which guy do
• 22:19
  Speaker 2: I take?
• 22:19
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: So those are simulated pressures are obviously very popular. You know,
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: the Patriots run them a ton, too.
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah. But the Brian Flores thing.
• 22:27
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 22:27
  Speaker 2: It's a lot like Brian Flores, although he's maniacal and
• 22:30
  Speaker 2: plays zone behind them because he's a freak.
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: Uh, but in a good, best way, best way possible.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: We are big Brian Flores on the show.
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: Yes. Uh, but that, that's what they do a lot of.
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: And then they'll, they'll send it like they will send
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: the house to keep you honest and make sure that
• 22:43
  Speaker 2: you have answers. And poor Tyler Shuck got his bell
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: rung multiple times by cover zero pressure when they played
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: him a couple of weeks ago when they played new Orleans. So, uh,
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: I would just say last week with Kansas city, uh,
• 22:56
  Speaker 2: really quickly. Uh, they hit three bombs against the Raiders, three, uh,
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: deep bombs, both two of them to our boy Taekwon,
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: who unfortunately like really, I shouldn't laugh. Like that was terrible.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Adrenaline is a wild thing, man.
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Um, but yeah, they were able to hit the
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: bombs down the field. Uh, two of them came against
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: cover zero because my homes would roll and he'd, he'd
• 23:18
  Speaker 2: buy time to let those receivers. One of them was
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: to worthy. One of them was to Taekwon on the
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: play that he got hurt on, uh, where they sent
• 23:25
  Speaker 2: pressure and they either designed a rollout with the dash protection,
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: or they just had my homes just drifted back into
• 23:33
  Speaker 2: by the time. And so, uh, you know, I, I
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: think that, Maybe those cover zeros last week against Kansas
• 23:39
  Speaker 2: city got a wee bit exposed. You know, I think
• 23:41
  Speaker 2: that if you're going to send that kind of pressure
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: that often that teams are going to come into the
• 23:46
  Speaker 2: game with an answer to pressure. And most of the
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: time those answers are like screens and stuff like that.
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: But Kansas city said, screw it. We're just, my home's
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: going to buy it by just enough time. And he's
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: going to chuck it. And he's going to have single
• 23:58
  Speaker 2: coverage with no deep safety, you know, in the deep
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: part of the field with the cover zero structure. And
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: we're just going to hit bombs against them. So I
• 24:06
  Speaker 2: think that the Patriots can emulate some of those kinds
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: of things. I guess we'll see which wide receivers are
• 24:10
  Speaker 2: out there for new England. If it's Efton Chisholm and
• 24:13
  Speaker 2: Romeo Dobbs and pop Douglas, then I guess maybe pop
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: could do some of the vertical stuff. against cover zero,
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: but you have to have answers against that pressure package
• 24:21
  Speaker 2: because that's what the Raiders have been doing and that's
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: what they're going to continue to do. But I thought
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: Kansas City and Spags started to get a beat on
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: Cousins a little bit late in the game by playing
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: the split safety shells and playing more cover two. And
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: taking away especially those outs, you know, to Bowers and
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: things like that. So I with Cousins, like I'm not
• 24:41
  Speaker 2: trying to poo poo Kirk Cousins in a start that
• 24:44
  Speaker 2: he's had. He's played really well. But when you look
• 24:46
  Speaker 2: at the under the hood numbers and you see his
• 24:49
  Speaker 2: splits of throwing vertical routes versus throwing breaking routes, throwing
• 24:55
  Speaker 2: short versus throwing deep passes.
• 24:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Throwing against split safety coverage versus against single high coverage.
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: All these teams, whether they do it with analytics like
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: me or they do it with film, they're going to
• 25:07
  Speaker 2: figure out that these are the things that Kirk Cousins
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: can't do. And at some point, that's going to run out.
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: And Kubiak does a great job, and maybe he can
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: protect Cousins for a long period of time before teams
• 25:19
  Speaker 2: really catch on. But it just feels right now with
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: cousins that there's like a clear blueprint and he's like
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: kind of limited past that blueprint. Like, I don't, I
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: don't know how you break through that blueprint. Whereas like
• 25:33
  Speaker 2: Drake may had a blueprint, but Drake may is extremely
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: talented and young. And so eventually once he figured it
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: out mentally, he was going to break through the blueprint
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: with Kirk cousins. I think that, you know, physically he's
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: kind of tapped at this point, obviously. So I don't
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: know what, like, how do you get a 38 year
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: old quarterback to be able to split the safeties and
• 25:55
  Speaker 2: cover two in the deep middle part of the field
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: when he doesn't have the arm strength to do it?
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: You know, like those types of things I think are,
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: are going to be kind of limited for him. So,
• 26:04
  Speaker 2: eventually I still kind of expect to see Mendoza. What
• 26:07
  Speaker 2: about you?
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: I mean, they have to play him eventually. Yeah. You know,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: even if, look, you can't bench cousins while you're winning. No,
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: you can't. That's the react. Even if they're not necessarily
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: winning primarily because of them, you can't bench him when
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: you're winning. So, but he's first overall pick on Mendoza.
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: Like he's, he's the franchise. He's going to play at
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: some point, but, This is what these veterans do now. Like,
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: they get put in these spots where it's them against
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: a rookie or them against a young guy, and they
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: refuse to give the job up. Who thought Sam Darnold,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: I mean, go back to his time in Minnesota, was
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: going to win that job. And he just never, you know,
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: let it go. Now, because I'm a little older, you
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: know what? Let's say the Raiders rip off. Like, let's
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: say they get to 10 wins, right?
• 26:49
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Maybe you sit Mendoza the whole year.
• 26:52
  Speaker 2: Maybe you do. I just feel like, and look, I don't,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: I'm not at practice. I don't know what Mendoza looks
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: like behind the scenes, but in this system, which is
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: really quarterback friendly.
• 27:03
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 27:04
  Speaker 2: If you have a guy that has a little bit
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: more mobility and a little bit more of an ability
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: to push the ball down the field consistently, then they
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: could be a really good off.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: They could be. But again, I think it comes down to,
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: and maybe it's just one game. Maybe he puts up
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: one stinker and that's it. Like the, the ropes probably
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: pretty short. Yeah. You can't bench him while you're winning. Yeah.
• 27:24
  Speaker 2: And who knows, like maybe behind the scenes, Mendoza looks
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: like the game is way too fast for him and
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: he's thrown picks left and right.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: I don't know.
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: I'm just saying, you know, from a physical tools standpoint,
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: Mendoza fits the system really well. And if you put
• 27:37
  Speaker 2: him in the system and you get just a little
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: bit more physical talent at that position and what cousins
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: is offering you, then, you know, this offense has a
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: chance to really, but.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: You have to have the opening to do it.
• 27:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: Right. If you're winning and you switch quarterbacks and Mendoza
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: goes in there and isn't ready just because you wanted
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: that physical ability in that upside. Yep. You know, you
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: lose the locker room.
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: Sure.
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: So, We saw this here. Remember, it was, yeah, Jacoby
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Brissett's going to start two months.
• 28:03
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: And then the 49ers game. The 49ers game. And suddenly.
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: I remember it well.
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: I am trying to, you know, talk about this carefully.
• 28:12
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: But, like, and look, maybe the Patriots give him that opening.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 28:17
  Speaker 1: Maybe the Patriots are the one that put the end
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: to Kirk Cousins. Like, it could be. But I think
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: until you get that, there is, like, a human element.
• 28:24
  Speaker 1: Because it was the reverse at the time, talking about, like,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: you can't lose the locker room if the quarterback that
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: gives you the better chance to win is on the bench.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: If these guys all believe Kirk Cousins gives them the
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: best chance to win, you can't pull him.
• 28:35
  Speaker 2: I would assume that that is the case right now
• 28:37
  Speaker 2: because he's playing well. Yeah, and he's top 10 in,
• 28:41
  Speaker 2: you know, he's 10th in EPA, he's 12th in QBR.
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: And you hear the reports out of there, like, he's
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: playing well. The guys bought into him. From what we've
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: heard out of Vegas, this guy, Mendoza's into it.
• 28:52
  Speaker 2: Well, they're winning. There you go. We're going to take
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: a quick break. When we come back, we're going to
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: do key matchups.
• 28:59
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• 31:11
  Speaker 2: All right, let's get into key matchups. I think we're
• 31:13
  Speaker 2: doing a much better job with the facing today. We're
• 31:15
  Speaker 2: killing it right now. So let's keep it that way.
• 31:18
  Speaker 2: Obviously the number one matchup that we all want to
• 31:21
  Speaker 2: discuss and talk about is Brock Bowers against this Patriots defense.
• 31:25
  Speaker 2: I just put Patriots defense against Brock Bowers because I'm
• 31:28
  Speaker 2: fascinated to see how they cover Bowers. I think that
• 31:32
  Speaker 2: the whole team needs to cover Bowers. I think this
• 31:34
  Speaker 2: is one of those guys where everybody's sort of aware
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: of where he is on the field. How do you
• 31:39
  Speaker 2: expect them, though, Alex, to approach it? It's not totally
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: dissimilar to how they played Dalton Kincaid last week. He's
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: just a better player than Dalton Kincaid. So that's really
• 31:49
  Speaker 2: the difference. But I think stylistically and usage wise, he's
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: only run 11 routes as an inline tight end in
• 31:56
  Speaker 2: the two games. So he's running routes as a slot
• 31:59
  Speaker 2: receiver and really an out wide receiver. Like Rabel said yesterday,
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: he's a big receiver. He is not a Gronkowski type
• 32:08
  Speaker 2: of tight end. How are you covering Brock Bowers on Sunday?
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I'd consider putting a corner on him
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: on third downs. It's tricky. Tell me who they have
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: a corner and I'll answer the question.
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah, right.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: Five or six corners on the active roster on the
• 32:21
  Speaker 1: injury report. Tell me he's good to go. If everybody's healthy,
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: I'd consider putting... Carlton Davis on him. You know, I
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: just think, yeah, just more physicality. I know some people
• 32:30
  Speaker 1: would probably say Christian Gonzalez. I don't think you quite
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: need to do that. There's also like the, the other
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: part of this, the Raiders receiver room, Jalen Naylor, who's
• 32:42
  Speaker 1: did Naylor practice yesterday. Was he limited? I know he
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: was on the injury report.
• 32:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was on the injury report. I don't remember
• 32:47
  Speaker 2: off the top of my head.
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: He was hang on. I have it right here. Did
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: not practice with a concussion.
• 32:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so he's in protocol.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: So that leaves you with Trey Tucker, who's kind of
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: like a gadgety player.
• 32:59
  Speaker 2: Sort of their Pop Douglas.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: Cody White. Big dude, like Matt Collins-y. Malik Benson, who's
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: kind of another gadgety player. And I think it's Drake A.
• 33:11
  Speaker 7: Young?
• 33:12
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so they're going to play White and they're going
• 33:16
  Speaker 2: to play Tucker. And then they're going to play the
• 33:18
  Speaker 2: two tight ends.
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: Right. So, but this is my point. Like you're not,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: I'm not sweating over pulling a corner off a receiver.
• 33:24
  Speaker 6: No.
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: Like Bowers is their number one receiver. And I'd give
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: him that kind of treatment. So if, if, if Davis
• 33:32
  Speaker 1: is healthy enough, I'd put Davis over there.
• 33:34
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 33:35
  Speaker 1: Gonzalez, especially if he's banged up, I may be a
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: little more hesitant because you're asking for him to maybe
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: take more of a beating. If you have to go
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: with a corner with a safety, Um, I'd probably rotate guys,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: throw different looks at them. I wonder if they bring back,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: this was an old Belichick thing. Remember, and they would
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: do it on receivers, but I think you could do
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: it on Bowers. They should do it to T Higgins
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: a lot. Remember they have Kyle Duggar play him on
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: the line, just jam the crap out of them.
• 33:59
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 34:00
  Speaker 2: So they cloud them, but they put Kyle Duggar or,
• 34:02
  Speaker 2: you know, safety up on the line of scrimmage. He
• 34:04
  Speaker 2: would reroute them, jam them at the line of scrimmage,
• 34:06
  Speaker 2: and then somebody would catch him.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: Right, and it was like, you're going to lose the
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: press eventually. Like, we know that. Your whole job is
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: to just not let them get off the line. Throw
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: off the timing of the route. Right, somebody else will
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: go get it. Do they bring that back, maybe?
• 34:18
  Speaker 2: They could.
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: Do you do that with, like, Jalen Reed?
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: They could cloud them, especially because they're going to play,
• 34:22
  Speaker 2: I think, a lot of cover, too, specifically in this game.
• 34:25
  Speaker 2: And so you're going to have the flat player already
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: that can play down and and press him, I would
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: say that just by default, he's going to end up
• 34:34
  Speaker 2: over Carlton Davis a lot. I think just because of
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: where he plays on the field.
• 34:38
  Speaker 1: Lines have outside more than anything else.
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I kind of expect it. They play the condensed formation,
• 34:43
  Speaker 2: so outside is kind of like the slot, but I
• 34:45
  Speaker 2: expect them to play with Carlton Davis on them a lot.
• 34:49
  Speaker 2: I think the question is if you're going to play man,
• 34:53
  Speaker 2: which I think they might because Kirk Cousins doesn't move,
• 34:55
  Speaker 2: so you're not really worried about that. uh, this week,
• 34:58
  Speaker 2: like you were last week with Josh Allen is like, okay,
• 35:01
  Speaker 2: like do you bracket Bowers? Like the, are you, are
• 35:03
  Speaker 2: you committing double teams to Bowers? Are you playing with,
• 35:07
  Speaker 2: maybe you're playing with a player in the hole? Like
• 35:09
  Speaker 2: Robert's plane is kind of intermediate short. And then you
• 35:13
  Speaker 2: have the safety over the top. I would layer it
• 35:15
  Speaker 2: that way.
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: And cause this is their big issue right now. Like
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: who are you worried about taking the resource away from
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: their top three receivers to this point are rock Bowers
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: only played two games.
• 35:24
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: Ashton Genting, Christian Ellis can take care of Ashton Genting.
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: Not super worried about that. And Michael Mayer. And if
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: they beat you, like there's always going to be something
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: you have to give up, right? If they beat you,
• 35:34
  Speaker 1: throwing the ball to Michael Mayer 10 times, tip your cap.
• 35:37
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: Like Bayard or Woodson should, whoever's not on, on Bowers
• 35:41
  Speaker 1: should be able to take care of Michael Mayer. Maybe,
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: maybe not shut him down, but like manage him.
• 35:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: And you know, if you could do that, they don't
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: throw to the receipt. They just don't throw to the receivers.
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: It's almost like a, um, it's.
• 35:53
  Speaker 2: The part that's missing from their team right now. They need,
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: they don't need like Jason out there. Like they have
• 35:57
  Speaker 2: that guy with Bowers, but they need like an outside
• 36:00
  Speaker 2: the numbers guy.
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: That's going to KJ Duff. Sure.
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, we were just talking about him. Uh, just someone
• 36:05
  Speaker 2: that could like, you know, makes you respect the fact
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: that they have an outside receiver that can win on
• 36:10
  Speaker 2: a vertical tree. Like right now it's this offense does
• 36:13
  Speaker 2: feel very compact. Like even with Bowers, like I don't
• 36:16
  Speaker 2: really feel like they have a vertical stretch element. Like
• 36:19
  Speaker 2: Tucker kind of is that, but he does it like
• 36:21
  Speaker 2: pop does it where it's like from the slot and
• 36:23
  Speaker 2: It's like speed, like deep overs and stuff like that.
• 36:26
  Speaker 2: It's not necessarily like your traditional field stretching outside receiver.
• 36:31
  Speaker 2: So that's like the missing piece to this, I think,
• 36:34
  Speaker 2: for the Raiders. And like until they start running the
• 36:36
  Speaker 2: ball a little bit better, I hate to kind of say,
• 36:39
  Speaker 2: but on paper, they're like sort of easy to defend.
• 36:42
  Speaker 2: If you take away the middle of the field. And
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: you don't really have to worry about much over the top.
• 36:46
  Speaker 2: Like if you put Marcus Jones on Trey Tucker, like
• 36:49
  Speaker 2: that's a speed on speed matchup that I feel pretty
• 36:51
  Speaker 2: good about.
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: I put it this way. They're as easy to defend
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: as your plan is for Bowers. Bowers is not easy
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: to defend, but if you have a good plan on Bowers,
• 36:59
  Speaker 1: they don't really have a counter. If you can take
• 37:02
  Speaker 1: him away, easier said than done. But if you can
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: do it, I mean, where else are they going?
• 37:07
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 37:07
  Speaker 2: So they throw a lot of in breakers to Bowers.
• 37:09
  Speaker 2: He's 42% of his routes are in breakers. And, uh,
• 37:12
  Speaker 2: you know, for the most part of that, a lot
• 37:14
  Speaker 2: of that's off of play action, but a lot of
• 37:16
  Speaker 2: that too, is also, uh, you know, he'll be on
• 37:19
  Speaker 2: the backside of a, of a read.
• 37:21
  Speaker 5: So.
• 37:21
  Speaker 2: I don't actually think cousins plans on throwing to the
• 37:24
  Speaker 2: front side ever, ever, but he's trying to move the
• 37:26
  Speaker 2: help defenders in the middle of the field away from Bowers.
• 37:29
  Speaker 2: So he'll look right. For example, move that linebacker that's
• 37:33
  Speaker 2: playing the low hole away from Bowers. And then he'll
• 37:35
  Speaker 2: come back to like the backside dig or the backside angle,
• 37:38
  Speaker 2: the Bowers where now there's like a whole, like void
• 37:41
  Speaker 2: of space for him to run into. So like, you
• 37:44
  Speaker 2: have to be cognizant of that. Like he does a
• 37:47
  Speaker 2: cousins does a really good job of looking off the
• 37:49
  Speaker 2: help defenders.
• 37:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 37:51
  Speaker 2: And so like, don't, don't take the cheese, right? Like
• 37:54
  Speaker 2: he's trying to throw the ball to Bowers. So don't
• 37:56
  Speaker 2: take the cheese by letting him move you out of
• 37:59
  Speaker 2: the help windows and things like that. But yeah, I
• 38:02
  Speaker 2: think that you can, I think you can bracket Bowers
• 38:06
  Speaker 2: in some different ways that if Carlton Davis is sitting
• 38:10
  Speaker 2: outside of him and he's taking away the outbreaking routes,
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: and then there's a linebacker and a safety in the
• 38:16
  Speaker 2: middle of the field to kind of support on the
• 38:17
  Speaker 2: in breaking routes and he has a little bit of
• 38:20
  Speaker 2: juice to run down the field, but I think that
• 38:22
  Speaker 2: that really takes away like 85% of what he does. Right.
• 38:26
  Speaker 2: And so if he beats you a couple of times,
• 38:28
  Speaker 2: he beats you a couple of times down the field.
• 38:29
  Speaker 2: But I don't anticipate really being too concerned about the
• 38:33
  Speaker 2: other receivers. So I think that they're going to have
• 38:36
  Speaker 2: a lot of eyes, like two, three sets of eyes
• 38:38
  Speaker 2: on Brock Bowers at all times, try to take him
• 38:41
  Speaker 2: out of this game. I just wouldn't get caught napping
• 38:44
  Speaker 2: against the run game. Like, I don't think that they
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: haven't run the ball.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Well, like the statistics, they've been one of the worst
• 38:49
  Speaker 1: teams in the league.
• 38:49
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 38:50
  Speaker 2: And Gentry struggled. But Mike Washington, their rookie, he's got
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: some juice.
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 38:55
  Speaker 2: He's got some one cut ability and some long speed
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: breakaway speed. So I just wouldn't, fall asleep against the
• 39:01
  Speaker 2: run game. But it's really that if you can take
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: the run game away and you can take Bowers away,
• 39:05
  Speaker 2: I think you got a good chance against their offense. Uh,
• 39:08
  Speaker 2: the other key matchups I had written down here, uh,
• 39:11
  Speaker 2: another tough week for Morgan Moses, who just gets thrown
• 39:14
  Speaker 2: to the wolves every week. It seems now, uh, Max
• 39:17
  Speaker 2: Crosby mostly lines up over.
• 39:18
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: Do you think there's a chance they move Crosby over
• 39:22
  Speaker 1: like the, the bills did with, uh, Rousseau?
• 39:25
  Speaker 2: There's a chance. Uh, I wouldn't rule it out. Now
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: Crosby has been over the right tackle his whole career. Like,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: I feel like Crosby has really, it's kind of like
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: TJ watt. He has lived on that side of the formation,
• 39:36
  Speaker 2: his entire career. I'm not saying that they won't do
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: it a handful of times, you know, maybe they do
• 39:41
  Speaker 2: it half a dozen times just to test will Campbell
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: on that side. Uh, but yeah, he guys like him,
• 39:47
  Speaker 2: TJ Watt, Von Miller was this way too. Like they
• 39:50
  Speaker 2: are over the left side of the defense, the right
• 39:53
  Speaker 2: side of the offense, like for their entire careers. I
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: think with Crosby, a lot of that is, is that
• 39:59
  Speaker 2: he's such a good edge setter and run player that
• 40:02
  Speaker 2: they have them on that side of the field to
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: a close the pocket from the quarterback, but also stop
• 40:08
  Speaker 2: the run to the, what's usually the strong side of
• 40:10
  Speaker 2: the formation for a lot of teams. So he plays
• 40:13
  Speaker 2: a lot over the right tackle. So, Last week against Rousseau,
• 40:18
  Speaker 2: they chipped Rousseau on 42% of his pass rushes last
• 40:22
  Speaker 2: week over the right side. So they gave Morgan Moses
• 40:25
  Speaker 2: quite a bit of help on him. When he was
• 40:27
  Speaker 2: rushing on Moses, Moses did a pretty decent job against him.
• 40:30
  Speaker 2: When he was rushing on the other side, it didn't
• 40:31
  Speaker 2: go so well with Will Campbell. So I think that's
• 40:34
  Speaker 2: the biggest thing with Crosby is learning from last week
• 40:37
  Speaker 2: with Rousseau. When Rousseau flipped sides, they didn't have the
• 40:41
  Speaker 2: chips on for Campbell. And he got beat a couple
• 40:45
  Speaker 2: of times one-on-one. So if they're going to move Crosby around,
• 40:49
  Speaker 2: then you have to be cognizant of that and you
• 40:51
  Speaker 2: have to flip the chip. You've got to make sure
• 40:54
  Speaker 2: the chips go in the other direction. But Crosby's a problem.
• 40:57
  Speaker 2: He's one of the best players in the league.
• 40:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and I mean, really good run defender, too. Doesn't
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: get enough credit for that. So somebody that you have
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: to be aware of every time you snap the ball
• 41:04
  Speaker 1: where he is on the field. He anchors it. They
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: got him back after kind of a nonsense offseason. He
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: looks healthy. He looks good. He's playing really well. the
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: rest of their front struggle to make an impact. He
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: has 25 pressures. Malcolm Coons is next with 12. So
• 41:19
  Speaker 1: kind of like with Bowers, right? If you can take
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: him away, the Raiders don't have a, a super strong counter.
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: I think Coons is probably better, a little better than
• 41:27
  Speaker 1: the numbers say, but I don't, You know, again, if
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: Malcolm Coons beats you.
• 41:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: All right. Congratulations.
• 41:32
  Speaker 5: Right.
• 41:32
  Speaker 2: He's got a good speed. He's a good speed rusher.
• 41:36
  Speaker 2: Got some bend to him, but I'm with you.
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: He's a fine complimentary player. Yeah.
• 41:40
  Speaker 2: If that's the guy that beats you on Sunday, then
• 41:42
  Speaker 2: it is what it is.
• 41:42
  Speaker 1: Then it is what it is.
• 41:43
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: So kind of like with offense, if you can take
• 41:45
  Speaker 1: Crosby out, which is not easy, but you throw the
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: attention at him. And if you can take him away,
• 41:51
  Speaker 1: it makes your life a whole lot easier because they
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: don't necessarily have that other guy that's going to bother you.
• 41:56
  Speaker 7: Yep.
• 41:56
  Speaker 2: Last one. I just highlighted, I use Corey Durden specifically,
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: but I think you can really highlight the entire interior
• 42:03
  Speaker 2: offensive line against Tyler Linderbaum, who's one of the best
• 42:06
  Speaker 2: centers in football. This is a weakness on weakness matchup.
• 42:10
  Speaker 2: The Raiders are 29th in rush EPA on offense. The
• 42:13
  Speaker 2: Patriots are 30th in rush EPA on defense. So who,
• 42:17
  Speaker 2: who's going to blink, right? Like which one is going to,
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: are the Patriots going to be able to shut down
• 42:22
  Speaker 2: Vegas's run game is Vegas going to finally find a
• 42:24
  Speaker 2: run game and be able to run the football. I
• 42:26
  Speaker 2: think that that's really going to dictate a lot of
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: this matchup when the Raiders have the ball is do,
• 42:31
  Speaker 2: do the Raiders have a run game in this game
• 42:32
  Speaker 2: or not? Uh, we did the Madden sim, uh, the
• 42:35
  Speaker 2: other day. That's going to be posted today. I wanted
• 42:38
  Speaker 2: to plug that. Catch 22 on the Madden Sim. Ash
• 42:41
  Speaker 2: and Jenty ran all over the Patriots in the Madden Sim,
• 42:44
  Speaker 2: not to spoil it. So that was rough to watch.
• 42:47
  Speaker 2: So I hope that that's not a precursor to what's
• 42:50
  Speaker 2: to come because if the Raiders find a run game
• 42:53
  Speaker 2: and then they're play-actioning off the run game and it's
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: the Super Bowl all over again, that's another way along
• 42:58
  Speaker 2: with the turnovers how this game could get away.
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: From the Patriots. You cannot let the Raiders start running
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: the football. You can't do it. Um, and it's surprising
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: they're not running well considering how much they're in heavy personnel.
• 43:07
  Speaker 2: They're in heavy personnel a ton. They drafted a running
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: back sixth overall last year. They drafted another running back
• 43:13
  Speaker 2: in Mike Washington. Pretty high. They signed Tyler Linderbaum in
• 43:16
  Speaker 2: free agency. They signed a fullback in free agency.
• 43:18
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 43:19
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is like they kind of.
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: Like the Patriots.
• 43:22
  Speaker 2: They try. They're trying to run the ball.
• 43:24
  Speaker 7: Right.
• 43:24
  Speaker 2: They can't. And it's a good scheme to run the football.
• 43:27
  Speaker 2: And they still can't find a way.
• 43:28
  Speaker 1: Don't let him get going.
• 43:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: And I think some of it is Gent. He's not
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: breaking tackles at the rate he did last year. Certainly
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: at the rate they did in college. So I thought
• 43:35
  Speaker 1: that's somewhere the Patriots. A lot of talk this week
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: has been about how you build on last week. What
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: went right last week that you can carry over making tackles.
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: Tackle the guy when you get to him. I think
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: that it might be as simple. It's not, it's not
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: all of it, but part of it might be as
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: simple as that. If you can just tackle gently when
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: you get to him, um, he's going to go down.
• 43:57
  Speaker 2: Like if you, he does, doesn't look very bouncy to
• 44:00
  Speaker 2: me right now. He looks, he run you over like he'll,
• 44:03
  Speaker 2: he'll truck stick you. That's for sure. And he's always
• 44:05
  Speaker 2: been able to do that. But I think in college
• 44:08
  Speaker 2: he ran through so many arm tackles because his base
• 44:12
  Speaker 2: was so sturdy and he had such great contact balance that, Uh,
• 44:15
  Speaker 2: but in the pros, like guys are just better, bigger attack.
• 44:17
  Speaker 1: I also wonder, remember he, he had that ankle injury
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: in camp.
• 44:20
  Speaker 2: That's what all the Raiders fans are. I said, he's hurt.
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: I do wonder if he's not, he doesn't look fully healthy.
• 44:25
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 44:25
  Speaker 2: So Mike Washington's is fast. You know, he's like a
• 44:28
  Speaker 2: speed back. I keep on thinking of like DeMarco Murray
• 44:31
  Speaker 2: for some reason, when I watch him, like he went
• 44:33
  Speaker 2: to Arkansas. okay. That's probably why, but like an upright,
• 44:36
  Speaker 2: like fast runner, right? Like he's not going to make
• 44:38
  Speaker 2: a lot of people miss either, but when he gets
• 44:40
  Speaker 2: a hole and he can hit, he can hit the
• 44:42
  Speaker 2: hole and he can go, you know, he can really
• 44:44
  Speaker 2: hit breakaway runs pretty easily. I don't know why I
• 44:47
  Speaker 2: didn't think of the Arkansas thing. That's exactly what it is.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: But so I, cause he also played at Buffalo and
• 44:53
  Speaker 1: what's the other one? New Mexico state, I think.
• 44:55
  Speaker 5: Yeah.
• 44:56
  Speaker 2: Just, You're right. Uh, so yeah, that, that's, that's, I think, uh,
• 45:01
  Speaker 2: you know, I wonder how much Mike Washington run we
• 45:04
  Speaker 2: see cause he's been the better player.
• 45:06
  Speaker 1: So the two of them, if they see Mike Washington,
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: it's PFF won't load. Cause I want to get the
• 45:12
  Speaker 1: exact number. I don't have it off the top of
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: my head. Um, do you remember the big knock on
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: him in the draft vision, breaking tackles, fumbles, fumbles. He
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: fumbled a lot at Arkansas last year. And I'm trying
• 45:24
  Speaker 1: to see how many had this year and PFF is down. But,
• 45:28
  Speaker 1: so he had, it's just not loading. All right. He
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: had a lot of fumbles in college.
• 45:34
  Speaker 2: You're just going to have to believe me on that one.
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: You can just say he had a lot of fumbles.
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: It's okay. This year, he has not fumbled once.
• 45:41
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: But, rookie back, maybe getting a little confident that he
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: hasn't fumbled.
• 45:45
  Speaker 2: And getting more carries, potentially, too.
• 45:47
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: If Jente is limited or whatever is going on with
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: Ashton Jente. Because he's just been better.
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 45:51
  Speaker 2: The numbers, he's just been better.
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: Go for the football. Yeah. Go for the football. He
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: might have a chance to punch the ball out.
• 45:57
  Speaker 2: Did you have any other key matchups, or should we
• 45:59
  Speaker 2: get to some emails?
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: The Raiders have one of the best kick return units
• 46:06
  Speaker 1: in the NFL. Dylan Lauby, UNH, actually leads the NFL
• 46:10
  Speaker 1: in kick return average. The Raiders are second as a team.
• 46:13
  Speaker 1: The Patriots, I thought, were not great in kick coverage
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: last week until that last one when they had to
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: have it. The one that set up the interception.
• 46:20
  Speaker 2: They were a little bit leaky.
• 46:21
  Speaker 1: No, they haven't broken one yet. But the Raiders have
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: been very good.
• 46:26
  Speaker 4: So.
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: Can the Patriots kick coverage and maybe they get Brendan
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: Schooler back? He's been practicing. Eric Hunter another week in
• 46:33
  Speaker 1: the system. I'll be very interested to see what they
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: do there because that's somewhere we're on paper. As a whole,
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: the Patriots have not been great. They're not bottom of
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: the league, but I think they're bottom half. Just bottom
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: half of the league in kickoff coverage. Don't get beat there.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: That's exactly the door. The Raiders need to open to win.
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: This game is a big special teams.
• 46:53
  Speaker 2: Special teams, plays turnovers, right? You know, finding a run
• 46:56
  Speaker 2: game to be balanced offensively. That to me is the
• 46:59
  Speaker 2: Raiders formula to an upset.
• 47:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 47:01
  Speaker 2: If they can hit those three buttons, uh, get the
• 47:04
  Speaker 2: Patriots to turn it over, have a big T either
• 47:07
  Speaker 2: defensive return or a special team return to set up
• 47:09
  Speaker 2: a short field or a touchdown on non-offensive touchdown and
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: Jen D and Mike Washington getting going.
• 47:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: That's how you lose.
• 47:18
  Speaker 1: But again, we'll talk to Jeremy Springer here in about
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: an hour. Curious what he has to say about Dylan Lowey.
• 47:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah.
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: All right. A couple of emails. I wish we had
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: a little bit more time, but we'll take the last
• 47:27
  Speaker 2: eight minutes here to do some emails. This is from Christopher.
• 47:31
  Speaker 2: He asks about Kyle Williams and how long do we
• 47:34
  Speaker 2: think the Patriots will continue to assess Kyle Williams? Obviously,
• 47:39
  Speaker 2: after a really good preseason, he hasn't really gotten going
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: here in the regular season. What's your Kyle Williams take?
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: Because I bring this up because we have no idea
• 47:48
  Speaker 2: at wide receiver.
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: Also, right.
• 47:50
  Speaker 2: You know, Matt Collins is now hurt. uh, obviously AJ
• 47:53
  Speaker 2: Brown is out. So this, uh, receiving core could be
• 47:57
  Speaker 2: Romeo Dobbs, Efton Chisholm, pop Douglas, Kyle Williams on Sunday
• 48:00
  Speaker 2: in this game. And with that group, you would like
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: to think that Kyle Williams, you know, you can't play
• 48:05
  Speaker 2: Efton Chisholm either the entire game on the outside. You
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: would like to have another guy out there like Kyle
• 48:10
  Speaker 2: Williams with some speed and some juice outside the numbers.
• 48:13
  Speaker 2: Where are you at right now with Kyle Williams?
• 48:17
  Speaker 1: I think it's telling that they went to Afton Chisholm
• 48:19
  Speaker 1: over him against Buffalo. That kind of shows you where
• 48:22
  Speaker 1: the depth chart is, but they need his speed.
• 48:24
  Speaker 7: Yeah.
• 48:24
  Speaker 1: And like you said, they're going to need to put
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: him out there eventually. But if he's not like, I'm
• 48:29
  Speaker 1: going to guess Chisholm has been better than him in practice.
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: And that's why they went to Chisholm. So there's still
• 48:34
  Speaker 1: something that he needs to do better. It's tough to
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: say because we've even seen a lot of them, but yeah,
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: He should get more chances this week, and it'll be,
• 48:42
  Speaker 1: for us on the outside, I think a more full evaluation.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: So I think what's interesting about Kyle Williams, and I'm
• 48:46
  Speaker 2: not expecting the Patriots to sort of build out a
• 48:52
  Speaker 2: role for Kyle Williams the way they would for an A.J. Brown.
• 48:55
  Speaker 2: He's just not that caliber of player. But right now,
• 48:58
  Speaker 2: Kyle Williams and Kayshaun Booty's usage was similar when he
• 49:01
  Speaker 2: was here. He is... only a boundary receiver yeah like
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: he doesn't play anywhere else and he basically only runs
• 49:09
  Speaker 2: go routes like and i know that that's his best
• 49:12
  Speaker 2: route and i think people would say maybe one of
• 49:14
  Speaker 2: the you know he's kind of a one trick pony
• 49:16
  Speaker 2: that whole narrative was going around over the summer But
• 49:19
  Speaker 2: I thought in college. he showed more versatility than that.
• 49:23
  Speaker 2: And I thought that, uh, especially running him out of
• 49:27
  Speaker 2: stacks in bunch alignments where he could get free releases
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: and just eat up coverage that way with his speed.
• 49:33
  Speaker 2: I thought that there was more meat on the bone
• 49:36
  Speaker 2: in terms of like him being a dynamic route runner
• 49:39
  Speaker 2: than just like running by people. And look, he, he
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: ran by the corner on Sunday and Drake made this
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: through the ball out of bounds. Like it wasn't a
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: good throw. Uh, but yeah, I just wonder if like there,
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: his usage was a little bit more, uh, flexible and
• 49:54
  Speaker 2: a little bit more versatile. And look, it's, there's reasons
• 49:57
  Speaker 2: for it. Like they have other players in those spots
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: that they probably like a little bit more. Uh, but
• 50:01
  Speaker 2: in college, like I always go back, there's this one
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: play at, uh, in college where he ran an angle
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: route into the middle of the field and like took
• 50:09
  Speaker 2: it to the house from like 65 yards.
• 50:11
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 50:12
  Speaker 2: And he, they never have done anything like that with him.
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: And with the Patriots, and I think it's role specific,
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: like they have a role for a sacrificial X. We've
• 50:21
  Speaker 2: talked about this a million times. It was the role
• 50:23
  Speaker 2: Keishon Booty was playing last year. But at the same time, like,
• 50:27
  Speaker 2: you know, I think that there's maybe a little bit
• 50:28
  Speaker 2: more to chew on with Kyle Williams that they're not
• 50:31
  Speaker 2: fully unlocking. And again, I'm not expecting them to like
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: reinvent the wheel for Kyle Williams, but it's just interesting
• 50:37
  Speaker 2: how his usage has been, frankly, like just kind of
• 50:40
  Speaker 2: limited in terms of what they've given him and routes
• 50:43
  Speaker 2: and the opportunities that they've given him. Um, this question
• 50:47
  Speaker 2: is from Doug. He asked, uh, can you explain to
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: me why there seems to be no quick patterns, the receivers.
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: So they can get rid of the ball right away.
• 50:54
  Speaker 2: It seems like every combination of routes are fairly deep
• 50:57
  Speaker 2: down the field. So the offensive line always has to
• 51:00
  Speaker 2: hold blocks for a longer time. So I think that
• 51:02
  Speaker 2: they do run a lot of quick game. It has
• 51:04
  Speaker 2: not worked to begin the season. Every single time you
• 51:08
  Speaker 2: see the tackles cut block when they just like cut
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: the ends at their, at their legs, they're, they're running
• 51:14
  Speaker 2: quick game. And how many times have we seen that,
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: especially in the first three games of the season? A lot, right?
• 51:20
  Speaker 2: So they're trying to get the ball out of Drake
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: May's hands quickly. I would say when the quarterback is
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: not processing well and not seeing the field at a
• 51:28
  Speaker 2: high level like May was in the first three weeks,
• 51:31
  Speaker 2: It's hard to run quick game because you need to
• 51:33
  Speaker 2: make split second decisions of where you're going with the football. Usually,
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: for the most part, a lot of it is determined
• 51:40
  Speaker 2: pre snap based off of the structure of the defense
• 51:42
  Speaker 2: where you're looking and you don't normally like progress through
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: quick game.
• 51:46
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 51:46
  Speaker 2: It happens every once in a while, but you usually
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: pick a side and stick aside.
• 51:49
  Speaker 1: It takes time and it's not quick.
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: So if your tackles are cutting, then, you know, you
• 51:54
  Speaker 2: got to throw the ball. So I think that they've
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: tried to do some of that. I would just say
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: that for now, and you know, it's not like a
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: knock or anything. I don't know if that's a strength
• 52:03
  Speaker 2: of Drake Mays game. I think his strength is throwing
• 52:06
  Speaker 2: the second and the third level. Like he wants to
• 52:08
  Speaker 2: throw the ball down the field. He wants to throw
• 52:10
  Speaker 2: the intermediate and he wants to throw the deep passes.
• 52:13
  Speaker 2: And so they've just scripted their offense or built their
• 52:15
  Speaker 2: passing game around their quarterback strengths of being a guy
• 52:18
  Speaker 2: that wants to push the ball down the field. So
• 52:20
  Speaker 2: I don't really like knock them for that. I think
• 52:24
  Speaker 2: that that's like, makes a lot of sense. Like, I
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: don't know why you would, you know, try to ask
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: him to like, you know, hit all the underneath stuff
• 52:32
  Speaker 2: consistently when that's not really his game. So that'd be
• 52:35
  Speaker 2: my answer to that. Um, This is from Michael. He asked,
• 52:42
  Speaker 2: what do you think will be the biggest factor that
• 52:44
  Speaker 2: decides this game? Obviously, May playing well last week was huge,
• 52:47
  Speaker 2: but if anything other than his play, what do you
• 52:50
  Speaker 2: think the difference will be? Other than his play, because
• 52:54
  Speaker 2: I think turnovers is the biggest thing that's going to
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: decide this game. The Patriots protect the football. They should win.
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: I would say it was what we were talking about
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: earlier about the run game. If Vegas finds a way
• 53:04
  Speaker 2: to run the football in this game, like Kubiak's offense
• 53:07
  Speaker 2: did in the Super Bowl, then I think that the
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: game could be a lot more competitive than they.
• 53:11
  Speaker 1: Wanted to be. It's the one thing they haven't had,
• 53:13
  Speaker 1: and it's going to throw the pass rush off. Now
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: you have to, you know, those extra resources you're putting
• 53:17
  Speaker 1: on Bowers have to be more focused on what's going
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: on in the backfield, and that would be a problem.
• 53:21
  Speaker 2: So we should have gotten to this one earlier because
• 53:24
  Speaker 2: we could argue about this probably for a while, but
• 53:27
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to bring it up last time. uh, Anthony, uh, asks,
• 53:31
  Speaker 2: did the increase of motion in our offense directly lead
• 53:34
  Speaker 2: to better play? Or do you think it's a coincidence?
• 53:36
  Speaker 2: So Alex and I had a great off the air conversation.
• 53:39
  Speaker 2: I wish it was longer. Maybe we can, uh, talk
• 53:42
  Speaker 2: to him longer for next, next Tuesday. Uh, Brian Hoyer
• 53:45
  Speaker 2: was in the building and, he was trying to do
• 53:47
  Speaker 2: the crossover. We, we do. And, uh, Brian Hoyer was
• 53:50
  Speaker 2: in the building doing, uh, all access stuff, you know,
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: stuff for our, uh, KSP TV. And, um, He said
• 53:57
  Speaker 2: he came in hot. He came in hot looking for me.
• 54:01
  Speaker 2: And he was like, Evan, we got to talk about
• 54:03
  Speaker 2: this motion take of yours. And I was like, okay,
• 54:06
  Speaker 2: let's talk about it. So Brian Hoyer, former NFL quarterback
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: and former player in Josh McDaniels' offense, is on Alex's
• 54:14
  Speaker 2: side of the street. He thinks that the motion stuff
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: was all kind of just coincidental.
• 54:19
  Speaker 1: I think Bedard's with me on this, too.
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: Okay, I'll take Brian Hoyer's.
• 54:23
  Speaker 1: I know. I'm just throwing it out there.
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: I'm just kidding. Uh, but I think that the difference is,
• 54:28
  Speaker 2: is like, and this is what I would, would try to, uh,
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: counter with is I don't think that they did anything
• 54:34
  Speaker 2: that was new. I just think they did more of it. Like,
• 54:38
  Speaker 2: I don't think that they did anything that I haven't
• 54:39
  Speaker 2: seen Josh McDaniels do in his history before, uh, Like,
• 54:43
  Speaker 2: they weren't all of a sudden the 49ers and, like,
• 54:45
  Speaker 2: running all these crazy motions and things like that. I
• 54:48
  Speaker 2: just think that they undressed the defense by motioning more
• 54:52
  Speaker 2: than what they were doing. So it was more volume.
• 54:54
  Speaker 2: It wasn't necessarily more exotic or, like, more, you know,
• 54:58
  Speaker 2: anything different. But you got Brian Hoyer on your side.
• 55:01
  Speaker 1: Again, like, I'm not saying it doesn't help at all,
• 55:04
  Speaker 1: but at the end of the day, you got to
• 55:05
  Speaker 1: move the guy in front of you. Whatever, whichever direction
• 55:08
  Speaker 1: pop Douglas is running before the snap. I don't know.
• 55:10
  Speaker 1: I keep using pop Douglas when I see motions a lot.
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: He is usually their motion guy. Can you move? Can
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: you move the guy you're supposed to move? Yes or no.
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: And on Sunday, the answer was yes.
• 55:21
  Speaker 2: There you go. So we'll talk about that a little
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: bit more next week. And I would love to get
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: Hoyer and Andrews on. We got to figure that out.
• 55:27
  Speaker 2: We've been trying to do that for two years to
• 55:29
  Speaker 2: just lining up schedules and things like that. But that's
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: what all the time we have to try to land
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: this plane on catch 22 Patriots unfiltered is coming up
• 55:37
  Speaker 2: at 11. So five minutes from now, you'll see me again.
• 55:41
  Speaker 2: And now you'll see Alex and I again on Tuesday
• 55:44
  Speaker 2: to recap this game against the Raiders. We'll see you
• 55:47
  Speaker 2: guys then. Thanks for watching.
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: Hey, this is Deuce. Thanks for tuning into the show.
• 55:53
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• 55:54
  Speaker 6: like us wherever you get your podcasts, like Apple Podcasts
• 55:57
  Speaker 6: or Spotify. Also, make sure you follow us on the
• 55:59
  Speaker 6: New England Patriots YouTube channel to see this show and
• 56:01
  Speaker 6: everything else that we do here at the Patriots.
• 56:03
  Speaker 1: Thanks a lot.