Latest / Patriots Catch-22 / Patriots Catch-22 9/29: Jaguars Recap, Big Picture, Good/Bad/Stuff that Gets You Beat
Transcript
- 0:02Speaker 1: This is the Patriots Catch-22 podcast with Evan Lazar and
- 0:06Speaker 1: Alex Barth.
- 0:07Speaker 2: I'm Evan Lazar. I'm Evan Lazar. I'm Evan Lazar.
- 0:09Speaker 1: Hello, everybody.
- 0:10Speaker 2: Nailed it. Joined, as always, by our star. That's a fit.
- 0:14Speaker 2: That's a match. No risk it.
- 0:15Speaker 1: No risk it.
- 0:16Speaker 3: 42.
- 0:16Speaker 1: Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Barth.
- 0:19Speaker 2: The Jaguars play the second highest cover six rate in
- 0:22Speaker 2: the league since the start of 2025, 19.6% over the
- 0:26Speaker 2: last two years. The only team that plays more cover
- 0:29Speaker 2: six defensively is the Eagles who Vic Fangio is the
- 0:32Speaker 2: defensive coordinator.
- 0:33Speaker 1: It's their thing.
- 0:34Speaker 2: It's literally his coverage that he essentially coined against all
- 0:39Speaker 2: other coverages in the NFL. Cover one, cover two, cover
- 0:43Speaker 2: three quarters. He's number one in the league and EPA
- 0:46Speaker 2: per drop back since the start of 2025. So he's
- 0:48Speaker 2: literally the best quarterback in the league against every other coverage.
- 0:52Speaker 2: And he's one of the worst quarterbacks in the league
- 0:54Speaker 2: against specifically against cover six. That was not the open
- 1:03Speaker 2: I thought we were going to go with, so I
- 1:04Speaker 2: appreciate you not going with the other part of the
- 1:07Speaker 2: show on Thursday. Just like me, the Patriots are going
- 1:11Speaker 2: to flush that performance on Sunday, and we're going to
- 1:13Speaker 2: talk about it right now. No, not funny.
- 1:19Speaker 1: The one you told me you were going to use
- 1:20Speaker 1: was better. That was before the game.
- 1:23Speaker 2: Fair enough. All right, we're going to talk about this
- 1:26Speaker 2: loss to the Jaguars. We're going to do the good,
- 1:29Speaker 2: the bad, the stuff that gets you beat. And we're
- 1:32Speaker 2: going to vent about this game a little bit, I think,
- 1:34Speaker 2: and where the Patriots are right now, offensively especially. But
- 1:39Speaker 2: it's Evan, it's Alex, it's Ace behind the glass. And
- 1:42Speaker 2: I want to start big picture like we always do, Alex,
- 1:45Speaker 2: and then we'll zoom in with the full recap here.
- 1:49Speaker 2: But I just want to start off the top of
- 1:51Speaker 2: the show with– Two things. One, I feel like we
- 1:56Speaker 2: were talking about this off the air. No matter what
- 1:58Speaker 2: you say in your explanation of the Patriots' offensive struggles,
- 2:02Speaker 2: you're going to get accused of being... an apologist or
- 2:06Speaker 2: an excuse maker for somebody, whether it's Josh McDaniels, Drake may, uh,
- 2:12Speaker 2: the supporting cast, Mike Vrabel, whatever the case may be.
- 2:16Speaker 2: I'll just say off the top, I am not apologizing
- 2:18Speaker 2: for anybody.
- 2:19Speaker 1: Like they're all bad.
- 2:20Speaker 2: They're all culpable.
- 2:21Speaker 1: It's all bad. And let me just add to that too.
- 2:25Speaker 1: Explaining why something happened is not making an excuse.
- 2:27Speaker 4: Yeah.
- 2:28Speaker 1: Like say we, we were talking about this earlier with,
- 2:31Speaker 1: you know, some of the issues up front, and oh,
- 2:35Speaker 1: this and that, like, not making excuses, but like, guys
- 2:39Speaker 1: aren't going out there and just deciding, well, I'm not
- 2:41Speaker 1: going to get a block today or I'm not going
- 2:42Speaker 1: to throw this ball accurately. I'm not going to like,
- 2:43Speaker 1: there's reasons these things are happening.
- 2:46Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 2:46Speaker 1: Giving the reasons is not an excuse.
- 2:47Speaker 2: Yeah. So no one is apologizing for making excuses or
- 2:53Speaker 2: anything like that for anybody involved in that mess on
- 2:57Speaker 2: Sunday in Jacksonville. I would say that the biggest thing too,
- 3:01Speaker 2: that I also just put right at the top is that,
- 3:06Speaker 2: you cannot win football games when your quarterback turns it
- 3:09Speaker 2: over three times and has five turnover worthy plays and
- 3:13Speaker 2: throws another interception in the end zone on the goal line.
- 3:16Speaker 2: Like these are all things that until we, we're going
- 3:20Speaker 2: to talk all about all the other stuff that's going
- 3:22Speaker 2: on too, but just period full stop. They got to
- 3:27Speaker 2: stop turning the ball over and Drake may has got
- 3:29Speaker 2: to play better. It's that simple. He's got to play
- 3:32Speaker 2: smarter with the football. Now, with all that being said,
- 3:35Speaker 2: this dawned on me when I was watching the Bills
- 3:38Speaker 2: last night, watching the Bills' offense against the Chargers. Josh
- 3:42Speaker 2: Allen had a very similar game as Drake May. Josh
- 3:47Speaker 2: Allen turned the ball over three times. He was sacked
- 3:50Speaker 2: four times. He struggled in that game against the Chargers.
- 3:54Speaker 2: But the Bills had a run game. They were able
- 3:58Speaker 2: to run the ball.
- 3:59Speaker 1: On Los Angeles.
- 4:00Speaker 2: They forced a couple turnovers. on Justin Herbert. Justin Herbert
- 4:07Speaker 2: threw two interceptions going into the end zone in that game.
- 4:12Speaker 2: So in a lot of ways, I looked at it
- 4:15Speaker 2: and was like, okay, well, maybe let's take a step
- 4:17Speaker 2: back for a second. And let's talk about something that's
- 4:20Speaker 2: kind of been a core tenant philosophy of this show,
- 4:23Speaker 2: which is that playing quarterback in the NFL is really hard.
- 4:27Speaker 2: And everything that the organization does from the top down
- 4:30Speaker 2: in my mind, should be geared towards making the quarterback's
- 4:35Speaker 2: job easier.
- 4:36Speaker 1: Right.
- 4:37Speaker 2: I understand people want the quarterback to elevate. And I agree.
- 4:41Speaker 2: If you're going to be great at that position, you
- 4:43Speaker 2: need to be able to elevate, but you also shouldn't
- 4:46Speaker 2: be asked to elevate this much.
- 4:51Speaker 1: And look like, I think we're Drake Mays out right now.
- 4:55Speaker 1: I mean, it's, it's every, there's not one thing people
- 4:57Speaker 1: ask what's wrong with Drake May. It's not one thing. Yeah.
- 5:00Speaker 1: It's most things. And, It's going to take time to
- 5:04Speaker 1: dig out of that. I don't think the issues he's
- 5:05Speaker 1: having right now, like I think some people are waiting
- 5:08Speaker 1: for the game where it comes out, there's like 283 touchdowns,
- 5:11Speaker 1: no picks, and like, boom, he's fixed. I don't think
- 5:13Speaker 1: that's how this is going to happen.
- 5:14Speaker 2: I think it's gradual.
- 5:16Speaker 1: It's going to be incremental. And part of helping, and
- 5:19Speaker 1: there's things that he has to do and that Josh
- 5:21Speaker 1: McDaniels and Ashton Grant have to work with him on
- 5:25Speaker 1: independent of everything else that's happening for him to be better.
- 5:29Speaker 1: But it's all interconnected. Part of what is going to
- 5:33Speaker 1: help that process is making his life easier. Nothing makes
- 5:36Speaker 1: the quarterback's life easier than having a good run game. Yeah.
- 5:40Speaker 1: And they just do not have that right now.
- 5:41Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 5:42Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 5:42Speaker 2: So that's where it's this, you know, last night kind
- 5:46Speaker 2: of came to me a little bit because I spend
- 5:48Speaker 2: way too much time thinking about this stuff. When you
- 5:50Speaker 2: really boil it down. Drake may at this point has
- 5:55Speaker 2: no AJ Brown.
- 5:56Speaker 5: Yep.
- 5:56Speaker 2: He has no running game, worst running game in the
- 5:59Speaker 2: NFL statistically right now by some metrics is the Patriots.
- 6:03Speaker 2: He has a backup or really a third string player
- 6:06Speaker 2: playing at right guard. 20 snaps into this game. I
- 6:09Speaker 2: Morgan Moses, maybe it's his foot, maybe it's age. Maybe
- 6:13Speaker 2: it's a combination of both. Didn't look himself in that
- 6:16Speaker 2: game on Sunday.
- 6:17Speaker 1: So the right side, Henry doesn't look himself, right?
- 6:19Speaker 2: The right side of the offensive line right now is
- 6:21Speaker 2: not in good shape. The run game is not in
- 6:24Speaker 2: good shape. He has no number one receiver. Romeo Dobbs
- 6:29Speaker 2: is MIA in this offense right now. Hunter Henry looks
- 6:33Speaker 2: a little bit like he's showing his age at times
- 6:37Speaker 2: in some of these games as well. So, again, we're
- 6:40Speaker 2: not apologizing for Drake May. I'm not making excuses for him.
- 6:44Speaker 2: But when we talk about quarterback environments and is this
- 6:48Speaker 2: a stable environment for a quarterback to have consistent success,
- 6:53Speaker 2: not to have moments of success and good plays, like
- 6:56Speaker 2: those all exist. And Drake May, you know, certainly could
- 6:59Speaker 2: manage these games better and limit these turnovers more. But
- 7:03Speaker 2: do they have the ability to consistently move the ball
- 7:07Speaker 2: and score points with the infrastructure around him right now?
- 7:10Speaker 1: They have consistently moved the ball. That's what's so frustrating.
- 7:14Speaker 1: I think 47% of their drives have entered opposing territory
- 7:17Speaker 1: this year.
- 7:18Speaker 2: It's one of the highest rates in the league. They're
- 7:20Speaker 2: 12th in yards per drive. So it's better than where
- 7:22Speaker 2: they are in terms of scoring. But they're stalling right
- 7:26Speaker 2: around the 30, 35 yard line.
- 7:27Speaker 1: Well, there's this other issue. And this is where you
- 7:30Speaker 1: get into the coaching of it. I think it's coaching
- 7:32Speaker 1: and players. Last week, we came on here. We did
- 7:35Speaker 1: the good, the bad, and stuff that gets you beat.
- 7:37Speaker 1: The biggest stuff that gets you beat thing for me
- 7:39Speaker 1: was they had six explosive plays last week. One of
- 7:42Speaker 1: them just straight up went for a touchdown. The other five,
- 7:45Speaker 1: they instantly, like the next play, had a negative. I'm
- 7:50Speaker 1: not saying you have to follow an explosive play with
- 7:51Speaker 1: an explosive play, but you pick up 25 yards. Get
- 7:56Speaker 1: four or five on the next snap. Defense is on
- 7:58Speaker 1: their heels. They did that again this week, and I
- 8:01Speaker 1: can pull up the list, but right from the jump,
- 8:03Speaker 1: you have that 21-yard catch and run by Mack Hollins.
- 8:06Speaker 1: Nice play. Nice play by May to find him. Hollins
- 8:08Speaker 1: does a good job creating after the catch. Drake May
- 8:11Speaker 1: misses a receiver. They end up punting, right? They get,
- 8:15Speaker 1: I think it was off, yeah, the Marcus Jones interception. Like,
- 8:18Speaker 1: great momentum play. You have the Jags reeling. It's early
- 8:21Speaker 1: in the game. You're at the 21-yard line. This should
- 8:23Speaker 1: be where the momentum turns. Back-to-back offensive penalties, now you're
- 8:29Speaker 1: in first and 30. You can't have that. That is
- 8:33Speaker 1: not winning. That is losing football. And that is on May.
- 8:37Speaker 1: That is on the players around him. That is on
- 8:39Speaker 1: the coaching. There's not one thing that keeps happening. Some
- 8:43Speaker 1: of them are Drake May interceptions. Some of them are penalties.
- 8:45Speaker 1: Some of them are bad play calls. Like, there's no
- 8:47Speaker 1: rhyme or reason to it. It's just that when they
- 8:49Speaker 1: have an explosive play right now, you can set your
- 8:51Speaker 1: watch to it. They're going backwards the next snap.
- 8:53Speaker 2: Yeah, so I think we're just bordering on an environment
- 8:57Speaker 2: for a quarterback that makes it really difficult to succeed. And,
- 9:01Speaker 2: you know, I think the second, third down play that
- 9:03Speaker 2: stalled out their first drive to me is like a
- 9:07Speaker 2: microcosm of all of it. And so same with the
- 9:09Speaker 2: end of the half. And I think that third down play...
- 9:13Speaker 2: Morgan Moses loses his block on the right side. There's
- 9:16Speaker 2: immediate pressure on Drake May. He actually steps up in
- 9:19Speaker 2: the pocket and shrugs off the pressure. Like 2025 Drake
- 9:23Speaker 2: May would have. Steps through the pocket, resets, and he's
- 9:27Speaker 2: going to throw to Hunter Henry over the middle of
- 9:28Speaker 2: the field. Well, there's a problem. Hunter Henry and Pop
- 9:32Speaker 2: Douglas are right next to each other for some reason.
- 9:34Speaker 2: So now we have right tackle losing his block. We
- 9:38Speaker 2: have route spacing down the field with the tight end
- 9:40Speaker 2: and the slot receiver. And we have Drake May throwing
- 9:43Speaker 2: off-platform from a muddied pocket to a crowd in the
- 9:46Speaker 2: middle of the field. And it goes high-heat fastball right
- 9:49Speaker 2: through Hunter Henry's hands. And they're punting on that possession.
- 9:54Speaker 2: The end of the half sequence was obviously a disaster.
- 9:56Speaker 2: I mean, just an absolute disaster. First down... zone read
- 10:00Speaker 2: that Drake may keeps when he should have probably given
- 10:03Speaker 2: it to Ramondre Stevenson. Stuffed. Second run under center run
- 10:07Speaker 2: stuffed third down interception on a ill-advised decision.
- 10:12Speaker 1: So they only get in that scenario because may again,
- 10:16Speaker 1: they hit the big plate of pop Douglas.
- 10:18Speaker 4: Yep.
- 10:18Speaker 1: May then overthrows them for what, if not a touchdown
- 10:21Speaker 1: gets you inside the five, right? They could have avoided
- 10:24Speaker 1: all of that. If may just hits pop Douglas in stride,
- 10:26Speaker 1: he walks into the end zone.
- 10:27Speaker 2: Yeah. So we're just, you know, we're looking at this.
- 10:30Speaker 2: I just want to make the last plan that we
- 10:32Speaker 2: can move on. I, I just want to make it
- 10:35Speaker 2: clear that I really feel like it's probably too unfair
- 10:41Speaker 2: to just blame this all on Drake.
- 10:42Speaker 1: Well, it's compounding issues.
- 10:44Speaker 2: I think that all of it is a problem. I
- 10:46Speaker 2: think that he's culpable. He's the tip of the iceberg
- 10:48Speaker 2: when it comes to anything with the offense, along with McDaniels.
- 10:51Speaker 2: But I think all of these things are contributing to
- 10:55Speaker 2: them not having offensive success.
- 10:57Speaker 1: Here's how I put it last night was even if
- 11:02Speaker 1: Drake May was playing great right now, There are still
- 11:06Speaker 1: issues around him independent of him that are going to
- 11:10Speaker 1: put a lower ceiling on this offense that they need
- 11:12Speaker 1: to get cleaned up. But if everything else was going great,
- 11:17Speaker 1: Drake May is not in a position right now where
- 11:18Speaker 1: he can capitalize when everything else does work. It's both.
- 11:22Speaker 1: And they're both going to have to get better in conjunction.
- 11:26Speaker 1: I don't think May can truly bounce back while some
- 11:30Speaker 1: of these issues are happening around him. And at the
- 11:33Speaker 1: same time, even if he does, well, these issues are
- 11:35Speaker 1: still going to happen, and that's going to limit him,
- 11:37Speaker 1: and it's going to limit the offense. So it's everything.
- 11:39Speaker 1: It's everything. It's, you know, May's play is a problem,
- 11:43Speaker 1: but there's more to it. Aaron Judge, not on the
- 11:46Speaker 1: Yankees wildcard roster.
- 11:48Speaker 2: Oh, okay. Yeah, we'll see about that.
- 11:51Speaker 1: All right, let's get to the— What do you mean, like,
- 11:52Speaker 1: he's not on the roster?
- 11:53Speaker 2: I know, I understand.
- 11:54Speaker 1: I just— See about that series?
- 11:55Speaker 6: Yes.
- 11:56Speaker 1: Okay, that's fair.
- 11:57Speaker 2: Let's get to the good, the bad, and the stuff
- 11:58Speaker 2: that gets you beat. So I don't have a ton
- 12:01Speaker 2: to say on the good side from this game. I
- 12:03Speaker 2: don't think that anything, any unit, any phase, any aspect
- 12:08Speaker 2: of this game was good enough for me to put
- 12:10Speaker 2: it on the goods. So what I did do is
- 12:13Speaker 2: kind of a little quick three up.
- 12:15Speaker 1: Yeah, I got two players.
- 12:16Speaker 2: Three guys that I thought just played pretty well in
- 12:19Speaker 2: the game and were outliers in that sense. Again, I
- 12:21Speaker 2: don't think schematically, I don't think unit-wise, I don't think
- 12:25Speaker 2: phase of the game-wise, they did anything good enough for
- 12:28Speaker 2: me to put it on this list.
- 12:29Speaker 1: Would you agree with that?
- 12:31Speaker 7: Uh, yes.
- 12:32Speaker 2: Okay. So, uh, I have three players that I thought
- 12:35Speaker 2: played well in the game. Uh, four, I kind of combined.
- 12:38Speaker 1: You found four.
- 12:38Speaker 6: Wow.
- 12:39Speaker 1: I have two, maybe three.
- 12:40Speaker 2: I kind of combined, you know, one, two guys.
- 12:43Speaker 1: Okay.
- 12:44Speaker 2: Uh, the first one is, I just think that he
- 12:46Speaker 2: consistently keeps playing well and that's Will Campbell.
- 12:49Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 12:50Speaker 2: I mean, it's not, he's still not doing a ton
- 12:54Speaker 2: of one-on-one pass blocking on an island. So I want
- 12:57Speaker 2: to put that caveat into it. He had 16 true
- 12:59Speaker 2: pass sets. Those take away screens, play actions, things like that.
- 13:03Speaker 2: It's not a terribly high volume, I would say, when
- 13:06Speaker 2: it comes to true pass blocking. But still, he only
- 13:09Speaker 2: allowed one hurry in this game. He had one short
- 13:12Speaker 2: corner where he missed his two-hand punch, and Hines Allen
- 13:16Speaker 2: beat him with the cross chop around the high side.
- 13:18Speaker 2: Other than that, he was absolutely clean. I think the
- 13:21Speaker 2: thing that stands out the most to me with Campbell
- 13:23Speaker 2: is how sturdy he looks. Like, guys just aren't going
- 13:26Speaker 2: through him anymore like they were in the playoffs last year.
- 13:29Speaker 1: You see the muscle he put on, the work he
- 13:31Speaker 1: put in in the offseason. It's kind of funny, just
- 13:34Speaker 1: a side note. Like, the three questions you had going
- 13:37Speaker 1: into the season, if you told me in week three,
- 13:39Speaker 1: Will Campbell looks great.
- 13:40Speaker 6: Yep.
- 13:41Speaker 1: Christian Gonzalez, there's no issues with the contract. in the
- 13:45Speaker 1: time he missed and all that and gave Accus looks representative,
- 13:48Speaker 1: I'd be like, Oh hell yeah. They're three. Yeah.
- 13:51Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 13:52Speaker 1: And those three, those three boxes seem checked. I would
- 13:54Speaker 1: have Will Campbell as an up to.
- 13:56Speaker 2: So I would just say, and I think Will Campbell
- 13:59Speaker 2: is the biggest one, but the whole left side of
- 14:01Speaker 2: the line, I saw pretty much him absolving them of
- 14:04Speaker 2: any wrongdoing in this game. I think both of those
- 14:06Speaker 2: guys were fine.
- 14:07Speaker 1: I mean, you need better run blocking across.
- 14:09Speaker 2: The board, but I guess that's fair. I, that, that part.
- 14:12Speaker 1: They're not the bigger issues in that.
- 14:14Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 14:15Speaker 2: So the second one you just mentioned, Gabe Ackes, and
- 14:18Speaker 2: I would also put Ponder. Again, I thought both those guys,
- 14:21Speaker 2: like we were worried about Draymond Jones being hurt and
- 14:24Speaker 2: not having him available. I did not feel like that's
- 14:27Speaker 2: why they lost this game or was like really the problem.
- 14:29Speaker 1: The edge group has been good through three weeks. The
- 14:31Speaker 1: edge group has been good. Now, the problem is Ponder
- 14:35Speaker 1: and Ackes played like 80% of the snaps. That's not sustainable.
- 14:39Speaker 1: And Tremont Jones will come back and hopefully eventually Harold
- 14:42Speaker 1: Landry will come back. But like, you can't ask them
- 14:44Speaker 1: to do that every week. But the edge group has
- 14:46Speaker 1: been late. That's not the reason they're losing, which is
- 14:50Speaker 1: what we thought the reason would be.
- 14:51Speaker 2: No, it's certainly not. Now the four-man rushes need to improve,
- 14:54Speaker 2: and we'll get to that. And I think that's really
- 14:57Speaker 2: the last step. And maybe that's more of a long-term
- 15:00Speaker 2: thing for Ackes. I don't think it's totally realistic to
- 15:04Speaker 2: expect him to add a true one-on-one pass rush arsenal
- 15:08Speaker 2: in season. But I'm really excited about Ackes, man. I
- 15:12Speaker 2: think they have a guy here. I really do. Run defense...
- 15:16Speaker 2: That stuff that he made where he avoids the puller,
- 15:19Speaker 2: Cleveland pulls from the backside, he avoids the puller, goes inside,
- 15:23Speaker 2: and just puts the running back in the ground instantly.
- 15:27Speaker 2: It's not just the play strength. It's block recognition. It's
- 15:31Speaker 2: suddenness to get around the block. Just a really impressive play.
- 15:35Speaker 2: And then when it comes to pass rushing on early downs,
- 15:39Speaker 2: he does a nice job of transitioning. Like when he
- 15:41Speaker 2: reads play action, he can transition. He can kind of
- 15:44Speaker 2: knife into gaps. find space on the offensive line to
- 15:48Speaker 2: get into the backfield. Trevor Lawrence had one throw where
- 15:51Speaker 2: he checked it down to two in on a 15-yard play,
- 15:53Speaker 2: but Akis was pulling him down as he threw the ball.
- 15:56Speaker 2: You know, things like that I think are really impressive
- 15:59Speaker 2: from Gabe Akis. So, I think that in the off season,
- 16:03Speaker 2: like he needs to get, you know, in his bag
- 16:05Speaker 2: in terms of pass rush moves and figuring that part
- 16:08Speaker 2: of his game out, uh, to take that next step.
- 16:10Speaker 2: But right now, uh, certainly like starter level play from
- 16:14Speaker 2: gay back.
- 16:15Speaker 1: The player we thought he would be back in April. Yep.
- 16:18Speaker 2: Absolutely. Uh, last one. I got one more. Uh, I
- 16:21Speaker 2: just think Christian Ellis continues to be awesome. and I
- 16:24Speaker 2: think it should be talked about more. I don't have
- 16:26Speaker 2: much more else to add than that. As a blitzer,
- 16:29Speaker 2: there was one play in particular, though. He's great as
- 16:32Speaker 2: a blitzer. They threw a screen where he was the
- 16:35Speaker 2: only guy on that side of the field, and he
- 16:38Speaker 2: ended up avoiding the block and making the tackle for
- 16:41Speaker 2: just a two-yard gain. That play had a long way
- 16:44Speaker 2: to go if he doesn't make that tackle. And he
- 16:46Speaker 2: somehow got off the block and made the play as
- 16:49Speaker 2: really the only guy within like 20 yards of the screen.
- 16:53Speaker 2: He's just been really good. I think he's been really
- 16:55Speaker 2: good all three games this season, and it's exciting to
- 16:58Speaker 2: see that.
- 16:59Speaker 1: He's been good. I'll give you one more. I thought
- 17:00Speaker 1: Christian is also another really good game.
- 17:02Speaker 2: Um, yeah, I, I, I thought he was good. Uh,
- 17:05Speaker 2: you know, slipping on the one throw on third down it,
- 17:08Speaker 2: you know, it happens, but that was like the one
- 17:10Speaker 2: thing that kind of kept him off the list for me.
- 17:12Speaker 2: He gave up a third down, uh, completion of Jacoby Myers,
- 17:15Speaker 2: but other than that, he was good.
- 17:17Speaker 1: Yeah. I, he's still playing well to me.
- 17:20Speaker 2: Yeah, he is.
- 17:21Speaker 1: Uh, all right.
- 17:22Speaker 2: That's enough on the goods.
- 17:23Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 17:24Speaker 2: Uh, let's get to the bads and let's get to
- 17:26Speaker 2: the stuff that gets you beat. So, uh, I think
- 17:30Speaker 2: that I want to put all of the offensive things
- 17:32Speaker 2: into separate buckets, you know? Let's start with the run game.
- 17:37Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 17:37Speaker 2: So I'm going to rant about the run game, I'm sure,
- 17:40Speaker 2: because it just gets me fired up. There's nothing more just.
- 17:46Speaker 2: Frustrating than watching a team consistently just run into piles
- 17:51Speaker 2: in the run game. And to me, I will keep harping.
- 17:54Speaker 2: And I know I sound like a broken record. I
- 17:56Speaker 2: think this is schematic mostly than it is blocking and execution.
- 18:01Speaker 2: I'm sick and tired of hearing, just move the guys.
- 18:04Speaker 2: I'm sick of it. These guys are 320 pounds on
- 18:07Speaker 2: the defensive line. The defensive lines are stunting. They're blitzing
- 18:10Speaker 2: on first down. They're doing different things to get hats
- 18:12Speaker 2: into the box. You can't just expect to run duo
- 18:16Speaker 2: on every single play up the gut and have all
- 18:18Speaker 2: the offensive linemen and all the blockers just create movement
- 18:22Speaker 2: on every single play. And it's honestly not that they're
- 18:25Speaker 2: not creating a ton of movement. It's just for two
- 18:27Speaker 2: or three yards at a time. And it's like, to me,
- 18:32Speaker 2: their scheme is just nowhere near dynamic enough when you're
- 18:34Speaker 2: running the football. So if you look at the teams
- 18:36Speaker 2: that lead the league, and we're going to see one
- 18:38Speaker 2: on Sunday with the Bills, the three teams that lead
- 18:42Speaker 2: the league right now in success rate, in rushing success rate,
- 18:46Speaker 2: are all top 10 in motion rate. They all use
- 18:49Speaker 2: a ton of motion. They use a ton of window dressing.
- 18:51Speaker 2: They have different compliments and different pitches that they can
- 18:54Speaker 2: throw off their base runs. The Patriots just run duo
- 18:57Speaker 2: right up the middle every single time. They're 29th in
- 19:00Speaker 2: the league in motion rate. They don't use any sort
- 19:03Speaker 2: of disguise or misdirection pre-snap. I just don't understand what...
- 19:09Speaker 2: like what they expect to accomplish by just, we're going
- 19:13Speaker 2: to get guys on double teams and we're going to
- 19:15Speaker 2: push the line for four yards at a time at best.
- 19:18Speaker 2: And then there's also, I would say issues in terms
- 19:21Speaker 2: of how the backs are reading it out. I think
- 19:23Speaker 2: the backs are too stringent and too kind of like, uh,
- 19:27Speaker 2: narrow focused on like, I'm just going to follow the
- 19:31Speaker 2: block and the point of the play. When you run
- 19:33Speaker 2: plays like duo, you know, and you see, I think, uh,
- 19:36Speaker 2: not to keep bringing up the bills, but I think
- 19:38Speaker 2: James Cook is one of the best in the league
- 19:39Speaker 2: at this. I think Kenneth Walker is also one of
- 19:41Speaker 2: the best in the league. A lot of the times
- 19:43Speaker 2: when you run those interior double teams on the inside,
- 19:46Speaker 2: the defense will just naturally pinch in. Like it's just, natural.
- 19:50Speaker 2: Like they see the double teams, they see the point
- 19:52Speaker 2: of attack and the force defenders and the edges and
- 19:56Speaker 2: they all start to kind of converge on it and
- 19:58Speaker 2: kind of like a like a kickoff or a punt return. Right.
- 20:01Speaker 2: You have to have lanes.
- 20:02Speaker 1: Right.
- 20:02Speaker 2: And so what happens is these outside guys will lose
- 20:04Speaker 2: contain and that creates a bounce outs or just, you know,
- 20:08Speaker 2: abilities for the back to just bounce out runs off
- 20:11Speaker 2: tackle and outside the numbers. And when I watch Ramond
- 20:14Speaker 2: Ray Stevenson and Travion Henderson run duo, they are just
- 20:18Speaker 2: right up the middle all the time. And I don't
- 20:19Speaker 2: know if that's just how they're being coached or what,
- 20:22Speaker 2: but I'm sorry. I just, you watch, I, you know,
- 20:26Speaker 2: I just watched the bills. I just watched the Chargers,
- 20:29Speaker 2: who now Mike McDaniel is coordinating the Chargers offense. You
- 20:33Speaker 2: watch the Bears last night on Monday Night Football. Their
- 20:36Speaker 2: run game is just so much more exotic than what
- 20:40Speaker 2: the Patriots are putting on film. There's so many more
- 20:43Speaker 2: things to think about for defenses. They're creating angles. They're
- 20:46Speaker 2: adding blockers. They're doing different things to help the offensive
- 20:50Speaker 2: line play. create movement and create rushing lanes and the
- 20:54Speaker 2: Patriots just go forward like they just get on double
- 20:58Speaker 2: teams and they just run it right up the gut
- 21:00Speaker 2: at you and I would maybe like excuse it if
- 21:05Speaker 2: they had play action working off of it like if
- 21:08Speaker 2: those duo blocks were getting the linebackers to come down
- 21:11Speaker 2: and that was creating play action opportunities behind the linebackers
- 21:15Speaker 2: but the They're bottom five in the league in play
- 21:17Speaker 2: action rate. So they're not even using it in terms
- 21:20Speaker 2: of the sense of creating play action plays or explosives
- 21:22Speaker 2: through the play action passing game. I could probably rant
- 21:26Speaker 2: about this for another 10 minutes. It's infuriating. And I'm
- 21:29Speaker 2: kind of sick and tired of like hearing, well, the
- 21:31Speaker 2: run game, you just got to block this guy and
- 21:33Speaker 2: block the force and do this. No, like you got
- 21:35Speaker 2: to do more than that now.
- 21:37Speaker 1: But but there is an element of that. And, yeah,
- 21:40Speaker 1: you watch the Bills. You watch the Bears. They blow
- 21:43Speaker 1: defensive lines off the ball.
- 21:44Speaker 2: They blow defensive lines off the ball.
- 21:45Speaker 1: And the Patriots are not doing that.
- 21:46Speaker 2: Because they're creating angles and numbers in the running game. So, like,
- 21:50Speaker 2: you have ability, like, to in order to.
- 21:53Speaker 1: But even when they're not using motion, they're pushing guys back.
- 21:56Speaker 2: They're using motion, like, 80% of the time.
- 21:58Speaker 1: They're still. You hear guys who play talk about this
- 22:01Speaker 1: all the time. So much of the running game. is
- 22:03Speaker 1: just want to. The Patriots are just not getting that push.
- 22:06Speaker 1: I'll add to that, too, and this is where the
- 22:08Speaker 1: compounding issues come in. You've talked about this. Part of
- 22:10Speaker 1: the issues with motion is some quarterbacks don't like it
- 22:13Speaker 1: because it changes the picture. Do you want them using
- 22:16Speaker 1: a ton of motion right now? Like, I don't know
- 22:18Speaker 1: if Drake may can handle.
- 22:19Speaker 2: That right now. I'd need them to do something that
- 22:21Speaker 2: leverages something against the defense. I'll say it again. In
- 22:26Speaker 2: this day and age in football, these defenses have really
- 22:30Speaker 2: gotten smart with how they play the run. They slant
- 22:33Speaker 2: the line. They stunt. They run blitzes. They use penetrations,
- 22:38Speaker 2: gap penetrations, to basically... take down your double teams and
- 22:44Speaker 2: eliminate your combination blocks. And what that's doing is it's
- 22:48Speaker 2: kind of muddying up the picture. That's why they're running
- 22:50Speaker 2: into piles all the time. So all these different things
- 22:52Speaker 2: that I'm talking about, all you're trying to do is
- 22:56Speaker 2: create more space. You're trying to just widen defenses out, right?
- 23:00Speaker 2: And you're trying to eliminate the conflict that they can
- 23:02Speaker 2: put into your run game. So if you just are
- 23:05Speaker 2: a stagnant run team and you just turn around and
- 23:08Speaker 2: hand the ball off and run it up the gut,
- 23:10Speaker 2: In 2026, that is not going to be effective. It's
- 23:13Speaker 2: just not like I don't care. Maybe if you had
- 23:17Speaker 2: like the 1990s Dallas Cowboys offensive line, you could do
- 23:20Speaker 2: it that way. Or if you had like, you know, whatever.
- 23:24Speaker 2: So name some prime offensive line that had multiple pro
- 23:27Speaker 2: bowlers and stuff like that. They don't have the personnel
- 23:29Speaker 2: for that. And I think, you know, you saw it
- 23:31Speaker 2: last week against Pittsburgh. The one really good run they had,
- 23:35Speaker 2: it was out of the gun. They spread them out
- 23:37Speaker 2: and they ran.
- 23:38Speaker 1: So I'm all for spraying out, forcing a lighter box
- 23:41Speaker 1: and maybe running that way. And Reggie Gilliam has not
- 23:44Speaker 1: been the player we expected.
- 23:45Speaker 2: I wonder how much of.
- 23:46Speaker 1: That is on the right side.
- 23:47Speaker 2: He's hurt. There's something going on with him. They've been
- 23:50Speaker 2: managing him since the spring.
- 23:52Speaker 1: So like, I'm all for that. I'm just saying that
- 23:54Speaker 1: I think at a certain point saying, well, they need
- 23:56Speaker 1: to do all the schematic stuff with the run. None
- 23:59Speaker 1: of that matters. You have whoever's at right guard getting
- 24:02Speaker 1: pushed back. You have Morgan Moses getting pushed back. You
- 24:04Speaker 1: have Jared Wilson getting pushed back. Unless you want it,
- 24:07Speaker 1: they could do a bunch of creative outside stuff, like
- 24:11Speaker 1: way outside stuff. You want to start tossing the ball
- 24:13Speaker 1: a ton. You want to start using unbalanced lines. Like
- 24:17Speaker 1: that would be how you counter that. And maybe they
- 24:19Speaker 1: do some of that. At the end of the day,
- 24:20Speaker 1: it doesn't matter what you call. And this is, again,
- 24:23Speaker 1: to go back to your point off the top, this
- 24:25Speaker 1: is not to excuse the play calling. There's multiple layers
- 24:28Speaker 1: to it. if the guys that they, they, they built
- 24:32Speaker 1: this kind of more athletic, smaller offensive line. Yeah.
- 24:37Speaker 6: Right.
- 24:37Speaker 1: We talked about that. Michael and when it was kind
- 24:38Speaker 1: of the last piece of the old build and he's
- 24:41Speaker 1: now out Walter Rouse, smaller, more athletic player, Ben Brown,
- 24:44Speaker 1: Greg Van Roten. Like this is the unit they have now.
- 24:48Speaker 1: If those guys can't just get a push and, I
- 24:52Speaker 1: don't care how many, whoo, motion, left, right, look at
- 24:55Speaker 1: all the... If the right guard's getting blown back.
- 24:58Speaker 2: I just don't, like... I don't understand what you kind
- 25:01Speaker 2: of expect, like, these guys to do.
- 25:04Speaker 1: I just.
- 25:06Speaker 2: Like, when you watch these other teams, do you see
- 25:08Speaker 2: stagnant run games? Do you see them just turning around
- 25:10Speaker 2: and handing the ball off?
- 25:11Speaker 1: So, again, they can mix in more. The Patriots can
- 25:15Speaker 1: mix in more. But I also... Some of those teams
- 25:17Speaker 1: just have... Really good offensive lines that whatever the scenario is,
- 25:21Speaker 1: they get a push. The Patriots not getting that push.
- 25:23Speaker 2: I guess like my... Don't you see how the scheme
- 25:27Speaker 2: helps the offensive line and helps them create angles and
- 25:30Speaker 2: helps them create numbers and helps them create that movement?
- 25:34Speaker 2: To an extent.
- 25:35Speaker 1: I don't think that does everything.
- 25:38Speaker 2: I've been hearing for two years, we just got to
- 25:40Speaker 2: block them. That's too simplistic.
- 25:42Speaker 1: But you're acting like, all right, if they run Pop
- 25:45Speaker 1: Douglas from right to left before the play, they're going
- 25:47Speaker 1: to run for five yards a pop.
- 25:49Speaker 2: No, that's not at all what I'm saying. I'm saying
- 25:51Speaker 2: that you have to have motions that you're using them
- 25:55Speaker 2: for a reason. They have to have a purpose. I
- 26:00Speaker 2: guess I don't understand. I know you don't like the
- 26:02Speaker 2: fancy dipsy-dos and all that.
- 26:04Speaker 1: It's not that I don't like it.
- 26:05Speaker 2: I'm just confused as to if you look at, I
- 26:08Speaker 2: just named all three of the top three run teams
- 26:12Speaker 2: in the league are all top 10 in motion rate.
- 26:15Speaker 1: They also just have some of the best offensive lines.
- 26:19Speaker 2: It's a chicken or the egg thing, Alex. Like, is
- 26:22Speaker 2: it that they have great offensive linemen, or is it
- 26:25Speaker 2: that the offensive line and the scheme work in concert
- 26:28Speaker 2: to run the football effectively?
- 26:29Speaker 1: Again, so it's both. They need to vary their run
- 26:32Speaker 1: game more. Especially, it is surprising they're running so much
- 26:36Speaker 1: power with this smaller offensive line. But if you have
- 26:40Speaker 1: guys getting beat off the snap, what is it like–
- 26:45Speaker 1: The motion is going to stop that. The motion makes
- 26:48Speaker 1: the linemen stronger.
- 26:49Speaker 2: I know. I don't think you're giving enough credence to
- 26:51Speaker 2: like how you can create scheme conflict so that guys
- 26:55Speaker 2: are not just firing off the ball into the line
- 26:57Speaker 2: of scrimmage, expecting double teams and expecting combination blocks.
- 27:01Speaker 1: Yes. They need to vary their run.
- 27:03Speaker 2: Well, that's what we're all talking. That's what we're talking about. Like,
- 27:06Speaker 2: that's what all of this is. It's not just motion.
- 27:09Speaker 2: It's misdirection. It's having different sort of compliments or pitches
- 27:13Speaker 2: to your run game. It's having Drake May, who I
- 27:16Speaker 2: think right now, given the state that he is in,
- 27:18Speaker 2: I think he needs to be more involved in the
- 27:20Speaker 2: run game too. But not just on design quarterback runs,
- 27:23Speaker 2: but keepers, like bootlegs.
- 27:25Speaker 1: Isn't it tough to do that when you can't execute
- 27:29Speaker 1: the basics?
- 27:31Speaker 2: To me, it's a chicken or the egg thing. Are
- 27:34Speaker 2: they not able to execute the basics or are they
- 27:37Speaker 2: not being put in positions to succeed? I think that
- 27:41Speaker 2: there's a little bit of column A and a little
- 27:43Speaker 2: bit of column B going on there. I really do.
- 27:45Speaker 2: I don't think that this is as simple as like
- 27:47Speaker 2: the offensive line just stinks and they're all just getting
- 27:50Speaker 2: blown off the ball. Nor do I think that that's
- 27:52Speaker 2: like an answer. So like, what are we going to do?
- 27:54Speaker 1: I don't think it's as simple as they're calling.
- 27:56Speaker 2: The wrong play. In week four of the season, we're
- 27:58Speaker 2: just going to sit here and say, well, the offensive
- 28:00Speaker 2: line can't run blocks, so let's just not run the ball.
- 28:02Speaker 1: No, but I don't think it's as simple as just
- 28:04Speaker 1: call different plays either. Like if the guys aren't going
- 28:07Speaker 1: to execute, you mentioned the running backs aren't finding the holes.
- 28:09Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 28:10Speaker 1: You're going to have more going on that they have
- 28:12Speaker 1: to read through.
- 28:13Speaker 2: What do they have more going on? They have to
- 28:15Speaker 2: read through like it's.
- 28:16Speaker 1: It's like motions changing the picture.
- 28:18Speaker 2: It's pretty simple. Like you just run where they're not
- 28:21Speaker 2: like the whole thing about duo is that the bigs
- 28:24Speaker 2: are getting blocked by the offensive line. The backs need
- 28:27Speaker 2: to make the linebacker Ron. If the back is the
- 28:30Speaker 2: linebackers in the B gap, you run through the a gap.
- 28:32Speaker 2: If he's in the a gap, you run through the
- 28:34Speaker 2: B gap. If they converge and they pinch inside defensively,
- 28:37Speaker 2: you bounce. Like these are all things that that's NFL
- 28:40Speaker 2: running back. Like that's reading out runs. as an NFL
- 28:42Speaker 2: running back so it's just like I I just how
- 28:45Speaker 2: much more are we gonna just say all right just
- 28:48Speaker 2: turn around stagnant offense nobody's moving pre-snap nothing's happening there's
- 28:53Speaker 2: no misdirection there's no false pullers there's nothing we're just
- 28:56Speaker 2: gonna run it at you and you're we're just gonna
- 28:58Speaker 2: move you because we're tough and we're physical and we're
- 29:01Speaker 2: gonna win the line of scrimmage like how much longer
- 29:04Speaker 2: are we gonna do that for and expect different results.
- 29:07Speaker 1: Look, they should be doing more, especially, I think, to
- 29:09Speaker 1: capitalize on the athleticism of the offensive line. I think
- 29:12Speaker 1: that's a part of it. I think suddenly cranking up
- 29:15Speaker 1: the complexity of the offense when guys can't execute what
- 29:19Speaker 1: they're being given right now, like you're, it could, I
- 29:23Speaker 1: don't know, change something because obviously what they're doing right
- 29:25Speaker 1: now isn't working. That fit, like putting.
- 29:28Speaker 2: I can agree on that.
- 29:29Speaker 1: Putting more on Drake Mays plate, putting more on the
- 29:31Speaker 1: running backs plates right now feels like a tough task.
- 29:34Speaker 1: That's all I'm saying.
- 29:35Speaker 2: Fair enough. All right, let's move on. the offensive line.
- 29:41Speaker 2: just put it in the same bucket as what we're
- 29:43Speaker 2: just talking about right now. I mentioned it off the top, uh,
- 29:47Speaker 2: nine total pressures, uh, Morgan Moses, tough call. Like when
- 29:50Speaker 2: the quarterback is running by you and it's your whole,
- 29:53Speaker 2: you're blocking a guy and you're engaged with a guy
- 29:56Speaker 2: you have to let go. But that, that's a tough
- 29:58Speaker 2: thing to do. Uh, that his hold wipes out a touchdown. Uh, I,
- 30:02Speaker 2: whether he's hurt, whether he's 35, whether he's both, uh,
- 30:06Speaker 2: with Morgan Moses, uh, that was not his best game, uh,
- 30:10Speaker 2: and then right guard obviously they're down to their third
- 30:12Speaker 2: string right guard with walter rouse i'll give walter rouse
- 30:15Speaker 2: this i don't think it really truly got bad for
- 30:18Speaker 2: walter rouse until the second half which i wonder was
- 30:21Speaker 2: it was a conditioning thing like you could not have
- 30:24Speaker 2: expected to play that much in that.
- 30:25Speaker 1: Game i also wonder if some of that was the
- 30:28Speaker 1: jaguars going into the locker room and hey they got
- 30:30Speaker 1: a backup right guard here's your third string right guard
- 30:33Speaker 1: third string right we're gonna key.
- 30:34Speaker 2: In on yeah so i i would just say moving
- 30:36Speaker 2: forward uh you know If they have a Morgan Moses problem,
- 30:41Speaker 2: I don't know what they do because they put Caleb
- 30:43Speaker 2: Lomu in, and granted, it's mop-up duty, but it didn't
- 30:45Speaker 2: look much better. I don't know if he's ready. So
- 30:48Speaker 2: I don't think that that's the answer, and obviously that's
- 30:51Speaker 2: a big step to bench a guy like Moses who's
- 30:53Speaker 2: a captain and all that kind of stuff. But him aside,
- 30:57Speaker 2: at right guard, how long do we go with this? Obviously,
- 31:01Speaker 2: you don't know if Van Roten's healthy or not, so
- 31:03Speaker 2: that's a big factor. But obviously, Ben Brown's an option,
- 31:08Speaker 2: Rouse is an option, and of course, Van Roten's an
- 31:11Speaker 2: option if he's healthy. And then there's also, like we
- 31:14Speaker 2: talked about last week, the break glass of emergency of
- 31:18Speaker 2: Caleb Lomu finding his way into the starting lineup somewhere.
- 31:21Speaker 1: Again, the fact that Lomu hasn't looked good at right tackle...
- 31:25Speaker 1: makes me so hesitant to put him at guard. Cause
- 31:27Speaker 1: that's where you can even develop. And on top of that, like,
- 31:29Speaker 1: and David Andrews brought up this point on our show yesterday,
- 31:33Speaker 1: the way Morgan Moses playing. And we, we talked about it.
- 31:35Speaker 1: He's dealing with something. You start having him work at
- 31:39Speaker 1: right guard now. And then in a week or two
- 31:42Speaker 1: weeks or three weeks, suddenly it's, Oh, we need you
- 31:44Speaker 1: to go play tackle. Like that's such a tough ask
- 31:46Speaker 1: for rookie. That's putting the kid in position to fail.
- 31:50Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 31:50Speaker 1: So I don't think you can really do that at
- 31:52Speaker 1: this point. unless you only have five healthy linemen left
- 31:56Speaker 1: or something like that. You know, I wonder, and this
- 31:59Speaker 1: is maybe playing a little bit of a game of
- 32:01Speaker 1: Jenga here. You had talked about, I think you had
- 32:03Speaker 1: talked about this last week. Elijah Tucker's playing pretty good.
- 32:07Speaker 1: He was okay in the opener. He's been better since.
- 32:09Speaker 2: He was rough in the opener better since.
- 32:11Speaker 1: Do you move him to right guard to kind of
- 32:15Speaker 1: spread out the guys who are playing well, and then
- 32:18Speaker 1: I'd probably go Ben Brown or Van Roten at left guard.
- 32:21Speaker 2: So I wouldn't move... Vera Tucker, unless you're putting in Loma.
- 32:26Speaker 2: I think if you're getting to stay with basically just
- 32:29Speaker 2: right guard one in one out, I'd leave a Vera
- 32:32Speaker 2: Tucker where he is. I, I think that there's an
- 32:36Speaker 2: argument to be made and I don't know if he's ready.
- 32:38Speaker 2: And based off of the mop up duty, like I
- 32:40Speaker 2: just mentioned, I don't think he is, but there's just
- 32:43Speaker 2: an argument to be made that it's the most talented
- 32:45Speaker 2: five guys you can get on the field with Caleb
- 32:48Speaker 2: Loma playing somewhere on the offensive line. And you know,
- 32:51Speaker 2: another thing that we, then we have to take a
- 32:52Speaker 2: quick break. It is driving me nuts that their first
- 32:55Speaker 2: round pick as they're kind of teetering here is sitting
- 32:58Speaker 2: on the bench like that is kind of driving me
- 33:01Speaker 2: a little bit nuts. So maybe that's their probably their
- 33:05Speaker 2: best five on paper is something involving Lomo. He's definitely
- 33:09Speaker 2: a more talented player than Walter.
- 33:11Speaker 1: It's just it's so tough. knowing what the big picture
- 33:15Speaker 1: is to put him at right guard and take him
- 33:17Speaker 1: off the tackle track right now.
- 33:18Speaker 2: I'm putting him at left guard.
- 33:19Speaker 1: Either way. And as Morgan Moses is maybe teetering a
- 33:23Speaker 1: little bit.
- 33:24Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 33:24Speaker 1: Again, so you're going to, he's been working at right tackle. Yeah.
- 33:27Speaker 1: You're now going to move him. Inside to left guard.
- 33:31Speaker 1: We saw him do some left guard in practice, though. Very,
- 33:34Speaker 1: very briefly.
- 33:35Speaker 2: But we did see it.
- 33:36Speaker 1: Very briefly.
- 33:37Speaker 2: But those were the practices that we were able to see.
- 33:39Speaker 2: That's fair.
- 33:39Speaker 1: He might have been doing it more in other days.
- 33:41Speaker 1: That was back in the spring.
- 33:42Speaker 2: It was. And then.
- 33:44Speaker 1: At a moment's notice.
- 33:46Speaker 2: I'm not asking him to do it like Sunday.
- 33:48Speaker 1: No, no. I'm saying, so you're going to take him
- 33:50Speaker 1: from the position he's been working at where he's not
- 33:52Speaker 1: probably developed to the point where he needs to be.
- 33:54Speaker 1: To have him go play in another position he's never
- 33:56Speaker 1: really played before. Knowing that, well, he's there at a
- 33:58Speaker 1: moment's notice. because your 35-year-old right tackle has a foot
- 34:02Speaker 1: injury and isn't playing well, he might need to go back.
- 34:05Speaker 7: No, no.
- 34:06Speaker 2: If they're going to put him in at left guard,
- 34:08Speaker 2: he's playing left guard. If Morgan Moses gets hurt, then
- 34:11Speaker 2: you have Rouse, you have Crown.
- 34:13Speaker 1: You have whoever. Well, now it's a mess. At that point,
- 34:16Speaker 1: I would say it's a mess.
- 34:17Speaker 2: If they have two starters both go down with serious
- 34:20Speaker 2: injuries like Moses and Onwenu, that's tough. They're going to
- 34:23Speaker 2: be kind of messy.
- 34:24Speaker 1: I think you have to keep Lomu working at right
- 34:26Speaker 1: tackle unless it's an absolute emergency.
- 34:28Speaker 2: We're getting there. I mean, it's not been good.
- 34:31Speaker 1: No, I mean like just pure not number of bodies emergency.
- 34:34Speaker 2: Fair enough.
- 34:34Speaker 1: Because you have to continue to look at the– like
- 34:37Speaker 1: you start, okay, you're going to play left guard and
- 34:39Speaker 1: you're going to right tackle. Like now you're talking about
- 34:40Speaker 1: the Caden Wallace development plan.
- 34:42Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess I'm just not as panicky about doing
- 34:46Speaker 2: all that.
- 34:47Speaker 1: I'd feel better if Lomu looked better at right tackle,
- 34:50Speaker 1: I guess. Some of it is how he's looked at right.
- 34:52Speaker 1: If he looked fine at right tackle, I'd be like,
- 34:53Speaker 1: all right, he's got that down. Yeah, move him to guard.
- 34:55Speaker 1: And if he needs to move back, he can do that.
- 34:58Speaker 1: It's about how he's looked at right tackle as part
- 35:01Speaker 1: of this take.
- 35:02Speaker 2: Fair enough. All right, let's take a quick break. We'll
- 35:04Speaker 2: be right back.
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- 37:49Speaker 2: All right. A couple more things. One more thing on
- 37:51Speaker 2: the offense. And then I want to talk about some
- 37:53Speaker 2: of the things defensively. How concerned what's our temperature check
- 37:58Speaker 2: on the wide receiver room and just the pass catchers
- 38:00Speaker 2: in general? Because I would say that it's to me
- 38:04Speaker 2: like it just doesn't feel detailed enough. No, like it's
- 38:06Speaker 2: not that they don't ever pop an explosive or get
- 38:10Speaker 2: some separation or every once in a while. It's not
- 38:13Speaker 2: that like there are, when you watch the tape, you
- 38:15Speaker 2: do see open receivers at times, but it just doesn't
- 38:19Speaker 2: feel buttoned up. Like it feels like everybody's not exactly
- 38:22Speaker 2: where the quarterback is expecting him to be. And there's
- 38:24Speaker 2: a lack of trust there and all those different types
- 38:27Speaker 2: of things. Like I continue and I don't have the playbook.
- 38:30Speaker 2: I don't know for a fact if he's running wrong routes,
- 38:33Speaker 2: but I continue to wonder with pop Douglas, like how
- 38:35Speaker 2: precise he's being sometimes with his landmarks. It's just all
- 38:39Speaker 2: of the above.
- 38:39Speaker 1: Well, I think it starts with Romeo Dobbs. he still
- 38:42Speaker 1: looks like he's fighting the offense. Yeah. And that's not,
- 38:45Speaker 1: he needs to be the number one receiver right now.
- 38:48Speaker 1: And that's not great. Pop Douglas has been inconsistent. I,
- 38:53Speaker 1: whatever the Efton Chisholm experiment is, was he's failed to
- 38:57Speaker 1: look at. I think some of it too, you know,
- 38:59Speaker 1: I talked about this last year, Efton Chisholm and Kyle
- 39:01Speaker 1: Williams have not played a lot of football with Drake May. Yeah.
- 39:04Speaker 1: So their timing is going to be off. Those are
- 39:06Speaker 1: not guys that work with the ones a lot and
- 39:08Speaker 1: you're kind of seeing it. So, And Kyle Williams, like,
- 39:10Speaker 1: there's some detail issues there, not just on offense, and
- 39:14Speaker 1: we'll get to it and stuff that gets you beat.
- 39:15Speaker 1: But he needs to learn where the sideline is and
- 39:19Speaker 1: what the penalties are for that. But, yeah, I think
- 39:23Speaker 1: you're seeing some guys that didn't play a lot with
- 39:25Speaker 1: the ones, and it looks like they didn't play a
- 39:27Speaker 1: lot with the ones. Mike Vrabel preaches a lot, preparing
- 39:29Speaker 1: like you're a star. starter. They're down to some backups
- 39:31Speaker 1: now at receiver, admittedly, and it looks like it. And
- 39:35Speaker 1: you're not seeing that level of detail that comes with
- 39:37Speaker 1: the starter, and you'd like to lean on your starters more.
- 39:39Speaker 1: I think Matt Collins' stupid penalty aside has actually been solid.
- 39:43Speaker 1: I have no problem with Matt Collins. Romeo Dobbs looks lost.
- 39:46Speaker 1: He looks like he did early in training camp. And
- 39:48Speaker 1: I mentioned this at the time. This was my worry.
- 39:51Speaker 1: They had him running a lot of stuff early in
- 39:53Speaker 1: camp that wasn't his traditional route tree. It felt like
- 39:55Speaker 1: they were trying to plug him into the digs role.
- 39:58Speaker 1: When he got better in the second half of camp,
- 40:00Speaker 1: they took him off that stuff and had him running
- 40:02Speaker 1: the route tree. He ran more in Green Bay, which great.
- 40:05Speaker 1: But I remember saying at the time, like, so is
- 40:07Speaker 1: this just, are they going to have two vertical receivers
- 40:09Speaker 1: now or? Was this just to get his confidence up
- 40:12Speaker 1: and now they're going to put him back into the
- 40:13Speaker 1: other stuff and we'll see how it goes. It feels
- 40:15Speaker 1: like they've put him back into some of the dig
- 40:16Speaker 1: stuff and it's not working again. So he's, he's fighting
- 40:22Speaker 1: it right now.
- 40:22Speaker 2: It seems like, yeah, I, I, I wonder with Dobbs
- 40:27Speaker 2: how much of this is they had a plan that
- 40:30Speaker 2: they built up in training camp to have him be
- 40:34Speaker 2: sort of the Z where A.J. Brown was playing the X.
- 40:37Speaker 2: Now they don't have A.J. Brown. So now they need
- 40:39Speaker 2: him to be like a vertical X. And I do
- 40:41Speaker 2: think that he operates more naturally on a vertical plane,
- 40:45Speaker 2: but I still don't think it's a pure vertical threat
- 40:47Speaker 2: that he's very good at, like breaking down at the
- 40:51Speaker 2: top of the route, out routes, digs, comebackers, back shoulders,
- 40:57Speaker 2: like that sort of stuff. And I know Nate Tice
- 41:00Speaker 2: had the numbers about like how many out routes he's
- 41:02Speaker 2: running and the lack of out routes he's running compared
- 41:05Speaker 2: to what he was doing in Green Bay. Like those
- 41:07Speaker 2: are the types of things that he's best at, but
- 41:09Speaker 2: they don't really have anybody to play consistently on the
- 41:12Speaker 2: outside without A.J. Brown.
- 41:14Speaker 7: Right.
- 41:14Speaker 2: So like now I feel like they had to move
- 41:17Speaker 2: him kind of out of position in a lot of ways,
- 41:20Speaker 2: not to mention where he is in the hierarchy of
- 41:22Speaker 2: the offense, too, is now out of whack. So all
- 41:25Speaker 2: of this, like with the receivers, you know, I think
- 41:27Speaker 2: a lot of people right now are lamenting, you know,
- 41:30Speaker 2: digs booty, like moving on from those guys, which I
- 41:33Speaker 2: think is fair in terms of where they're at right now.
- 41:37Speaker 2: But how much would we be feeling that if AJ
- 41:39Speaker 2: Brown never gets hurt? I, some, I don't know.
- 41:43Speaker 1: I still think with the Drake may issues go beyond
- 41:46Speaker 1: AJ Brown. It wouldn't be, it probably wouldn't feel as bad.
- 41:49Speaker 1: Like they, he's a big part of the picture and
- 41:51Speaker 1: you need to acknowledge that. But you know, Drake may
- 41:57Speaker 1: throw in a very, not even contested coverage, throwing two
- 42:00Speaker 1: defenders on the goal line.
- 42:02Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 42:04Speaker 1: Does it matter if AJ Brown's on the field or not?
- 42:05Speaker 1: Like maybe it gives them another option, but that just
- 42:07Speaker 1: seems like a processing thing.
- 42:09Speaker 2: But I think there's always like a domino effect, right?
- 42:12Speaker 1: There's definitely a domino effect.
- 42:13Speaker 2: Having the number one guy, having a guy that has,
- 42:16Speaker 2: that garners number one attention that can make number one
- 42:19Speaker 2: receiver plays like just elevates the whole thing. Like we've
- 42:22Speaker 2: done this before where they don't truly have a number
- 42:24Speaker 2: one receiver. To me, it doesn't really work.
- 42:27Speaker 1: But it's never looked this bad.
- 42:29Speaker 2: No.
- 42:30Speaker 1: And I don't think that like, I don't know. I
- 42:35Speaker 1: know Diggs was the volume guy last year, but the
- 42:37Speaker 1: guy that was playing the A.J. Brown role was Keyshawn Booty.
- 42:40Speaker 1: Keyshawn Booty missed, I think, five or six games last year.
- 42:43Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 42:43Speaker 1: That might be overshooting a little bit. I think he
- 42:46Speaker 1: played 13.
- 42:46Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 42:47Speaker 1: He missed a few. It never got this bad without him.
- 42:51Speaker 2: Well, it's not going to get this bad without him.
- 42:53Speaker 2: No offense to Keyshawn Booty.
- 42:55Speaker 1: No, but I'm saying if that's the role that Drake
- 42:57Speaker 1: Mays is missing... Like, he's played without a guy in
- 43:00Speaker 1: that role before.
- 43:02Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, Hollins has kind of filled that void
- 43:04Speaker 2: last year, I would say.
- 43:06Speaker 1: Well, he had Diggs, and he does it now.
- 43:09Speaker 2: Right, with, like, a sprinkle of Kyle Williams being that, like,
- 43:12Speaker 2: vertical outside guy. So, you know, maybe... I don't know.
- 43:16Speaker 2: I just think that it's convenient now to say... they
- 43:20Speaker 2: should have kept Diggs when you don't have A.J.
- 43:23Speaker 1: Brown.
- 43:23Speaker 2: Like, if A.J. Brown was healthy, I'm not saying that
- 43:25Speaker 2: they'd be the number one scoring offense in the league,
- 43:27Speaker 2: but that's really not apples to apples.
- 43:30Speaker 1: No, I think that is the comparison. I think, look,
- 43:34Speaker 1: lament the Keishon Booty trade all you want. I'm not
- 43:36Speaker 1: saying it was a home run of a trade, but
- 43:39Speaker 1: they still have Matt Collins in that role. Keishon Booty
- 43:44Speaker 1: was the swap for Romeo Dobbs, which is a little
- 43:47Speaker 1: bit of a square peg in a round hole. That's
- 43:50Speaker 1: the guy they're missing. I don't think they miss A.J.
- 43:52Speaker 1: Brown as much right now because, like I said, Matt
- 43:54Speaker 1: Collins is playing fine. Like, they'd be bad with A.J. Brown.
- 43:56Speaker 2: Don't get me wrong.
- 43:57Speaker 5: But.
- 43:58Speaker 1: It's who's the guy that can run a return route
- 44:02Speaker 1: or quick out and just get open at six yards,
- 44:06Speaker 1: fall forward for four and get the first down and
- 44:08Speaker 1: keep the chains moving and do it every time. And
- 44:11Speaker 1: Drake may just knows no matter what's happening, I'm going
- 44:13Speaker 1: to have this guy at the sticks. Just the guy
- 44:16Speaker 1: that's going to help him in the offense, get in
- 44:18Speaker 1: a rhythm, stay ahead of the chains, all that. They
- 44:20Speaker 1: don't have that guy right now. That's what digs was.
- 44:23Speaker 1: That's what they miss. They miss the guy that's keeping
- 44:25Speaker 1: them on schedule.
- 44:27Speaker 2: I don't, I guess maybe I think A.J. Brown is
- 44:30Speaker 2: more of that guy too. I think A.J. Brown's all
- 44:33Speaker 2: of it. And I think that A.J. Brown, healthy, it
- 44:37Speaker 2: just changes a lot. And so I understand talking about
- 44:40Speaker 2: the personnel stuff and missing digs and all that kind
- 44:43Speaker 2: of stuff. I just don't think that it's an apples-to-apples
- 44:45Speaker 2: comparison because the guy that you brought in to replace
- 44:51Speaker 2: the volume that digs left behind is on injured reserve.
- 44:56Speaker 1: I think Dobbs was a bigger part of that picture
- 44:58Speaker 1: than you're giving credit for. I think you're talking, like, role? No,
- 45:02Speaker 1: I think Dobbs was going to have more volume, too.
- 45:05Speaker 1: I know role, but I think with that role comes
- 45:07Speaker 1: a certain amount of volume.
- 45:08Speaker 2: Right, because A.J. Brown is the one drawing the attention
- 45:12Speaker 2: of the defense.
- 45:12Speaker 1: I guess. Diggs was drawing the attention last year. He still,
- 45:16Speaker 1: until the playoffs, made plays.
- 45:18Speaker 2: Yeah, and then when they got to the playoffs and
- 45:19Speaker 2: played better defense, what happened?
- 45:20Speaker 1: That's true.
- 45:20Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 45:21Speaker 1: I still think they missed Diggs.
- 45:22Speaker 2: Moving over to the defense... A couple of things defensively.
- 45:27Speaker 2: Number one, this was not a chunk player, explosive play
- 45:32Speaker 2: run offense for Jacksonville this week, but they were just methodical.
- 45:37Speaker 2: Like they were just five, six, seven yards.
- 45:40Speaker 1: Off the ball.
- 45:41Speaker 2: Oh yeah. No, no other things, elements there. They had
- 45:45Speaker 2: 14 successful runs in this game, zero tackles for loss.
- 45:50Speaker 2: So it was all just moving forward. Their rushing success
- 45:54Speaker 2: rate was 52%. That's just, it was just like a
- 45:59Speaker 2: slow methodical burn. And it wasn't, he only had two
- 46:03Speaker 2: and only had one run over 10 yards in the game.
- 46:05Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 46:06Speaker 2: So it wasn't like they were hitting these 40, 50-yard
- 46:10Speaker 2: runs a pop. They were just going four, five, six
- 46:13Speaker 2: yards at a time. The one position specifically I wanted
- 46:16Speaker 2: to zoom in on, you talk about missing digs. Low-key,
- 46:22Speaker 2: really missing Kyrus Tonga, or at least a player.
- 46:24Speaker 5: Yes.
- 46:25Speaker 1: Yes. A real nose tackle.
- 46:27Speaker 2: Yeah. No disrespect to Corey Durden. In two out of
- 46:30Speaker 2: three games, it hasn't looked good with him playing as
- 46:33Speaker 2: a true nose. I don't know what they do to
- 46:37Speaker 2: mitigate that. They don't really have a guy that I
- 46:40Speaker 2: don't think they have a guy on the roster that's
- 46:42Speaker 2: good enough to play in that spot over Durden. Maybe
- 46:45Speaker 2: Daquan Jones.
- 46:46Speaker 1: Kind of hope it would be him.
- 46:48Speaker 2: He's not even him though. He's like three 20.
- 46:50Speaker 1: Like, and I know that's big, but it's not, and
- 46:52Speaker 1: he's an older guy.
- 46:53Speaker 2: Yeah. It's not like he's like that wide body run
- 46:56Speaker 2: stuffing nose. I just watching the Jaguars run wide zone
- 47:00Speaker 2: and just combo the nose tackle with the center and
- 47:02Speaker 2: the guard just consistently and get consistent cutbacks and have to,
- 47:07Speaker 2: and just riding the cutback over and over again. The
- 47:11Speaker 2: middle of the defensive lines got to be stouter against
- 47:13Speaker 2: the run. There's no doubt about it.
- 47:14Speaker 5: Yeah.
- 47:15Speaker 1: And just, just on the Jags, like, when we talk
- 47:18Speaker 1: about the Patriots having a better run game, that's what
- 47:20Speaker 1: we're talking about. I think people measure it. Like they
- 47:22Speaker 1: look at the run trade on Henderson had against the Steelers, right?
- 47:25Speaker 1: That's nice. That's not what makes it makes a successful
- 47:27Speaker 1: run game. It's the four to five yards of pop.
- 47:30Speaker 1: That's what they can't do right now.
- 47:31Speaker 2: Yep. Uh, last thing on the defense, just the zone coverages, uh,
- 47:36Speaker 2: the zone coverages got, got picked apart by Trevor Lawrence
- 47:39Speaker 2: in this game.
- 47:40Speaker 1: Why, why did they play so much zone?
- 47:41Speaker 2: So my guess is to why they played so much
- 47:43Speaker 2: zone is, Condensed formations. So the Jaguars run a lot
- 47:48Speaker 2: of condensed formations. They're a West Coast team. They're a
- 47:50Speaker 2: Shanahan type of team. When you run those condensed formations,
- 47:54Speaker 2: it creates a lot of traffic. So you can just
- 47:56Speaker 2: really pick off guys easily in man-to-man coverage. And then
- 48:00Speaker 2: they also run a lot of motion. So if you're
- 48:02Speaker 2: going to face a team that plays with that much motion,
- 48:05Speaker 2: then are you matching the motion in man? Are you
- 48:08Speaker 2: passing it? Are you bumping it? How are you responding
- 48:11Speaker 2: to the motion? And then you've got guys just going
- 48:13Speaker 2: across the field this way and that way, and you're
- 48:16Speaker 2: just running all over the place. The last thing I
- 48:18Speaker 2: would say, if you're going to play a ton of
- 48:20Speaker 2: man coverage, it's five guys that need to be able
- 48:23Speaker 2: to cover, not just three. So who's covering the tight end?
- 48:26Speaker 2: Who's covering the back? And without Craig Woodson, did they
- 48:29Speaker 2: feel great about Brenton Strange kicking out of the backfield?
- 48:33Speaker 2: So that's something that I think that doesn't get enough
- 48:35Speaker 2: credence when you talk about man coverage. You look at
- 48:38Speaker 2: the receivers and you look at the corners. But how
- 48:41Speaker 2: do you cover the fourth and the fifth guy is
- 48:43Speaker 2: important as well.
- 48:44Speaker 1: So you think they're going to play a lot of
- 48:45Speaker 1: zone against Buffalo because it's kind of a similar problem.
- 48:48Speaker 2: I hope Craig Woodson's healthy because I don't think that
- 48:50Speaker 2: zone's going to work against Buffalo either, although the Chargers,
- 48:53Speaker 2: they did a little bit better in their zones, but
- 48:55Speaker 2: they're a zone team. That's sort of what they do,
- 48:57Speaker 2: and that's how they coach it. All right, let's get
- 48:59Speaker 2: to the stuff that gets you beat. I think these
- 49:02Speaker 2: are all pretty obvious. One of them I did want
- 49:04Speaker 2: to talk about a little bit longer. I don't know
- 49:07Speaker 2: how much talking about Drake Mays turnovers we really need
- 49:09Speaker 2: to do. They just can't happen. The blood fumble is
- 49:13Speaker 2: what I'm calling it.
- 49:14Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 49:14Speaker 2: The blood fumble.
- 49:15Speaker 1: Footballs get stuff on them.
- 49:18Speaker 2: Yeah. You just can't slip it out of your hands.
- 49:20Speaker 1: It's not even, again, I got accused of making excuses
- 49:23Speaker 1: for him because I went and I found the picture.
- 49:25Speaker 5: Right.
- 49:25Speaker 1: I was just curious how much blood was on the ball,
- 49:27Speaker 1: and it's not that much.
- 49:29Speaker 2: It's not. You can't have that as an excuse. I
- 49:32Speaker 2: would also say I wonder a little bit if there
- 49:35Speaker 2: was some hesitation and he almost was trying to pull
- 49:37Speaker 2: it down.
- 49:38Speaker 1: I think so.
- 49:40Speaker 2: The safety starts down and then he drops out. Now
- 49:42Speaker 2: the safety wasn't going to be a factor. The safety
- 49:45Speaker 2: was poaching, looking to the other side of the formation.
- 49:47Speaker 2: So it was still a go ball look, I would say,
- 49:50Speaker 2: but I don't think that he got the exact look
- 49:52Speaker 2: he was expecting. I don't think Kyle Williams went off
- 49:55Speaker 2: the line as cleanly as he was expecting. And then
- 49:57Speaker 2: I think the safety dropped into the deep part of
- 49:59Speaker 2: the field. And I think it was a little bit
- 50:01Speaker 2: muddier just looking at it. Once he popped up and
- 50:03Speaker 2: looked down the field, then he thought it was going
- 50:05Speaker 2: to be. And I wonder if there was just like
- 50:07Speaker 2: a moment's, for Drake May to throw that ball. I
- 50:11Speaker 2: still would have liked to have seen him just throw it.
- 50:14Speaker 2: Obviously better than fumbling it, but just in general, I
- 50:16Speaker 2: would have liked to have seen him throw it. The
- 50:19Speaker 2: pick on the goal line is just....
- 50:22Speaker 1: What makes that so tough is he's now a mistake repeater.
- 50:25Speaker 1: That's essentially the same mistake he made in Seattle. The
- 50:29Speaker 1: stakes were not quite as high, but clock running down,
- 50:32Speaker 1: you have points in your back pocket. Just don't risk
- 50:35Speaker 1: the football and It's not even really a risk. I
- 50:38Speaker 1: don't know what he thought that throw was going to do.
- 50:41Speaker 1: Afton Chisholm is not out of his break. He's not
- 50:43Speaker 1: looking at him. Travis Hunter is basically square to the football.
- 50:48Speaker 1: My thought, honestly, at first was he tried to throw
- 50:50Speaker 1: it away and didn't get enough on it. Like, I
- 50:52Speaker 1: don't really know what the end goal was. I don't
- 50:54Speaker 1: know how that throw works out positively.
- 50:56Speaker 2: So I think that he I guess the only thing
- 50:58Speaker 2: that I could think of as an explanation is he
- 51:01Speaker 2: thought that if he threw it back shoulder to Chisholm,
- 51:04Speaker 2: that Hunter would just drive by. Maybe, but Hunter.
- 51:07Speaker 1: Has eyes on him and Chisholm doesn't.
- 51:09Speaker 2: It was not a.
- 51:10Speaker 1: No, it's a non-competitive throw.
- 51:12Speaker 2: Yeah, and then... We can talk about the play call.
- 51:15Speaker 2: They're running that fast to the flat boot, which every
- 51:18Speaker 2: team runs now, short yardage and goal line, where instead
- 51:22Speaker 2: of really executing the handoff, the back just releases right
- 51:25Speaker 2: out of the backfield into the flat. And the Jaguars
- 51:28Speaker 2: just sorted it out well. They switched it instead of
- 51:30Speaker 2: trying to match the running back.
- 51:31Speaker 1: With the linebacker. They did what the Patriots couldn't do
- 51:33Speaker 1: on the fourth and one against Seattle, right? That was
- 51:34Speaker 1: basically the same play.
- 51:35Speaker 2: Yeah, I think so. Well, yeah, kind of. Obviously, they
- 51:39Speaker 2: threw the curl behind it. You're talking about.
- 51:41Speaker 1: It's the same idea.
- 51:42Speaker 2: Same concept, I should say.
- 51:43Speaker 1: Not the same play, but the same concept.
- 51:46Speaker 2: And so the second read there, it's to Stephenson to Chisholm,
- 51:50Speaker 2: and he just threw it.
- 51:53Speaker 1: As Alex Van Pelt said, that ball's got to hit
- 51:55Speaker 1: the tuba player.
- 51:55Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly. Then the Kyle Williams interception. I put still
- 52:02Speaker 2: some of it on Drake May. Like, you can't just
- 52:04Speaker 2: throw it.
- 52:04Speaker 1: I mean, it's a little late, right, would you say?
- 52:07Speaker 2: It's late. It's inside.
- 52:09Speaker 1: Yeah, inaccurate.
- 52:10Speaker 2: I would also say Kyle Williams, you got to run
- 52:13Speaker 2: the corner off. Like, it's a bad route.
- 52:15Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 52:15Speaker 2: Just call it what it is. Like, I'd say 75%
- 52:18Speaker 2: of it is that he's throwing it kind of anticipating
- 52:21Speaker 2: that Kyle Williams is going to separate at the top
- 52:23Speaker 2: of that route on the comeback. or the stop route.
- 52:26Speaker 2: And Kyle Williams just never runs the corner off. And
- 52:28Speaker 2: it just is not, it's telegraphed. It doesn't do anything
- 52:32Speaker 2: to the corner. So that, that was just not a
- 52:35Speaker 2: good route. I would put that mostly on Kyle Williams,
- 52:37Speaker 2: although I don't, I never absolve a quarterback.
- 52:40Speaker 1: It's not a great throw from Drake May either.
- 52:41Speaker 2: Yeah. The second thing on my list, Just situational football.
- 52:46Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 52:46Speaker 2: End of the first half, the red zone and third
- 52:49Speaker 2: down discrepancy. The Jaguars were five for five in the
- 52:53Speaker 2: red zone and eight for 12 on third down offensively.
- 52:56Speaker 2: Eight for 12 on third down. The Patriots are four
- 52:59Speaker 2: of 12 and over three in the red zone. And,
- 53:02Speaker 2: of course, they have the bone opportunity at the end
- 53:04Speaker 2: of the half. You're just not going to win a
- 53:06Speaker 2: lot of football games with that kind of discrepancy.
- 53:08Speaker 1: No, and there's other stuff to it as well. I mean,
- 53:10Speaker 1: bad penalties. The penalties are about equal between the two teams.
- 53:15Speaker 1: But the timing of the– I mean, how many– this
- 53:17Speaker 1: is multiple games now they've had back-to-back penalties. And I
- 53:20Speaker 1: talked about it earlier, the inability to capitalize after a
- 53:23Speaker 1: big play and some of the situational stuff. Kyle– and
- 53:25Speaker 1: I know the game's out of reach, but guys let
- 53:28Speaker 1: go of the rope at the end of that game.
- 53:30Speaker 1: Which is a little worrying to me. It's never too early.
- 53:33Speaker 1: He'd be down 50. It's never too early to start
- 53:36Speaker 1: cleaning things up. You shouldn't have the mentality, oh, this
- 53:38Speaker 1: game's over. It doesn't matter. Like, Kyle Williams fielding the
- 53:41Speaker 1: kickoff that's going to go out of bounds. That costs
- 53:43Speaker 1: you 31 yards of field position.
- 53:44Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 53:46Speaker 1: Stepping out of bounds, losing track of the sideline when
- 53:48Speaker 1: he should have had a touchdown.
- 53:49Speaker 2: Right.
- 53:50Speaker 1: That Mack Hollins penalty at the end of the game. Look,
- 53:52Speaker 1: play with emotion. I'm all for that. You didn't even
- 53:55Speaker 1: get the first down.
- 53:57Speaker 2: Finish the game.
- 53:57Speaker 1: And a fourth and one that they probably go for,
- 54:00Speaker 1: and at least maybe get in the end zone and
- 54:01Speaker 1: salvage a little bit, becomes a fourth and 16. Like,
- 54:04Speaker 1: why are you taunting down 25? So there were just,
- 54:09Speaker 1: you know, mental mistakes like that. They had some bad
- 54:13Speaker 1: offsides penalties on defense. Like, not bad in terms of
- 54:16Speaker 1: it was.
- 54:17Speaker 2: Could you hear on the TV broadcast, and I probably
- 54:20Speaker 2: should have pulled it up, was Lawrence playing with the cadence?
- 54:23Speaker 2: Because they jumped offsides back-to-back plays.
- 54:26Speaker 1: Vrabel said he was. Yeah, I don't know.
- 54:29Speaker 2: You can usually hear that. Like, you know, like... Either
- 54:32Speaker 2: going on, you know, like that thing.
- 54:35Speaker 1: Yeah, we're doing the cadence.
- 54:36Speaker 2: We're getting somebody to jump.
- 54:38Speaker 5: Right.
- 54:38Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe. I mean, I'd assume a little bit, but still,
- 54:41Speaker 1: it's like, look at the ball, right?
- 54:42Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 54:43Speaker 1: You know, you're, yeah, it's a tough one. The untimely,
- 54:47Speaker 1: second week in a row, can't capitalize on the big plays.
- 54:51Speaker 1: Untimely penalties. Just when they need, they're at their, they're
- 54:56Speaker 1: the sloppy. This is, I made this comparison last night.
- 54:59Speaker 1: And it mainly applies to the offense, but some of
- 55:01Speaker 1: the defense. People think bad Patriots offense and they go
- 55:04Speaker 1: back to the end of Mac Jones in the first
- 55:07Speaker 1: year of Drake May in three and out punt, three
- 55:09Speaker 1: and out punt, three and out punt.
- 55:10Speaker 2: Right.
- 55:10Speaker 1: This isn't that. This is not. This is one step forward,
- 55:15Speaker 1: two steps back. That was just no steps. And that's
- 55:17Speaker 1: not to say that that's better or worse, but like
- 55:20Speaker 1: they are making plays here and there. It's the way
- 55:24Speaker 1: they shoot themselves in the foot immediately after doing so
- 55:27Speaker 1: that's so frustrating because you see the potential. You see
- 55:32Speaker 1: the flashes of what could be there. It's just so intermittent,
- 55:36Speaker 1: and it's usually followed by them crashing back down to Earth.
- 55:39Speaker 6: Yep.
- 55:40Speaker 2: Last thing. What's your concern level right now with the kicker?
- 55:43Speaker 2: Because missing 38 yards is not great.
- 55:46Speaker 1: Not great.
- 55:46Speaker 2: I don't know.
- 55:47Speaker 1: I'm probably one miss away from bringing in guys for workouts.
- 55:49Speaker 1: I'm not totally there yet. He had a slow start
- 55:52Speaker 1: last year, too. Maybe some of that is just it
- 55:54Speaker 1: doesn't feel as.
- 55:55Speaker 2: The other one that he banged through, too, did not
- 55:57Speaker 2: come off his foot right.
- 55:59Speaker 1: Maybe it just doesn't feel as bad because of everything
- 56:01Speaker 1: else that's going on. And it's like, you wish Andy
- 56:03Speaker 1: Borgals was... If Andy Borgals was their biggest problem right now,
- 56:06Speaker 1: they'd be in much better shape. But... No, like, yeah,
- 56:10Speaker 1: we're getting there. We're getting to that conversation. I'm not
- 56:12Speaker 1: fully there yet, but it's on the radar.
- 56:14Speaker 2: All right. Thursday's show is one of my favorite shows
- 56:18Speaker 2: of the year. We get to do this twice, and
- 56:21Speaker 2: it's the best part of Catch-22, in my opinion. It's
- 56:24Speaker 2: the Bills week.
- 56:25Speaker 1: We're going to get Alex fired up about the Buffalo Bills.
- 56:28Speaker 1: I just wish we got to break down Bruins Avalanche.
- 56:31Speaker 1: We already did it.
- 56:33Speaker 2: In our fake pre-production meeting before the show, we are
- 56:38Speaker 2: already arguing about the Bills and Josh Allen. So I
- 56:42Speaker 2: just can't wait for Thursday. It's going to be great.
- 56:45Speaker 2: This is going to be must-watch podcasting because it is
- 56:49Speaker 2: Bills week. So Alex and I will be back on
- 56:51Speaker 2: Thursday on Catch-22, same time, 10 a.m. on Thursday morning,
- 56:56Speaker 2: to preview a trip to the new Orchard Park to
- 56:59Speaker 2: take on the Buffalo Bills. PU will be on in
- 57:02Speaker 2: about four minutes at 11 at the top of the hour.
- 57:04Speaker 2: So I'll see you guys then. And Alex and I
- 57:06Speaker 2: will see you on Thursday. Thanks for watching.
- 57:10Speaker 1: Hey, this is Deuce. Thanks for tuning into the show.
- 57:13Speaker 5: If you really want to help us, make sure you
- 57:14Speaker 5: like us wherever you get your podcasts, like Apple Podcasts
- 57:17Speaker 5: or Spotify. Also, make sure you follow us on the
- 57:19Speaker 5: New England Patriots YouTube channel to see this show and.
- 57:21Speaker 2: Everything else that we do here at the Patriots.
- 57:23Speaker 1: Thanks a lot.