0:06

This is Patriots Playbook,

0:08

the legend. Anybody else playing pork today.

0:12

Today's word of the day is porked.

0:14

You know, you know me, John, I'm a big

0:16

RPO guy. You know, I love RPOs. I think

0:18

they're sexy, all right, I love RPOs.

0:21

You know, you were playing football in the backyard and

0:23

somebody recovers the loose ball, and everybody

0:25

says dog pilot Johnny, Okay,

0:28

well, guess what we're dog

0:30

pilot on the Patriots.

0:32

Maybe they get a five game winning street coming, and maybe

0:34

we're gonna look back and say, wow, they're fixed and four

0:36

and they're right back in there.

0:37

And hey, maybe pigs will fly too.

0:39

Now here's your host of Patriots Playbook,

0:42

John Rook All.

0:44

Feeling a little bit porked today.

0:47

I think poor marine big

0:49

pork, he cracked a tooth.

0:52

Yeah, hey, he came in yesterday and still

0:54

did the show and everything, and all of us are like, what

0:57

are you doing, Like go to the dentist, dude,

0:59

Like I know you fought, you know in wars

1:01

and stuff. So I guess like a tooth is a tooth.

1:04

But that's painful,

1:06

Yeah, that's painful. So we're happy to have

1:08

faith run the show today high faith,

1:10

So at any rate, so be nice

1:12

to Faith when you call in on the show today before

1:14

or else, Yes, because that's that's right.

1:17

We have to take care of Faith. She's getting

1:19

the job done today. Stepping in into

1:21

the breach for the Marine, Welcome

1:23

into the playbook. We got Buffalo game

1:25

week Here will be joined shortly by Vic

1:28

Carucci, longtime Buffalo Bills

1:30

observer NFL reporter, currently

1:33

does things for a couple of different and at these,

1:35

one of which would be WGRZ and

1:37

Buffalo. But Vic's been a friend of the show

1:39

for twenty

1:42

two years that we've done it. He's been, you know, with us,

1:44

i think, in some form of fashion every season,

1:46

talking about either NFL in general

1:49

or talking specifically about the Bills, because that's

1:51

been his team of note. Karen Grigian,

1:53

who covers the Patriots, she's been a friend of the

1:55

show for a number of years, is well currently

1:57

with mass Live. Karen will join

1:59

us and so will Russell Baxter to go through week seven

2:02

around the NFL. But you know, as as

2:05

it now stands, Evan with

2:07

this team at one in five after what we

2:09

saw this past week, I'm

2:12

not sure anything really

2:15

moved the needle did it this past

2:17

weekend. I'm the one

2:19

thing that I let me let me begin by saying,

2:22

the one overwhelming recollection

2:26

memory what if that I have

2:28

from Sunday in Vegas

2:32

was DeVante Parker's drop ball. Yeah.

2:35

I mean, because as bad as it's been,

2:38

he catches that pass, the Patriots

2:40

probably kick a field goal to win the game. Well

2:43

yeah, okay, maybe, but they're

2:45

in position to do that as

2:47

bad as it's been.

2:49

Yeah, I think that. You know, it's funny

2:51

because I remember in Week

2:53

one against the Eagles,

2:57

Paul, Mike and Fred and I are sitting in

2:59

the press box watching the game, you know, in

3:01

real time live, and they

3:04

got the ball back when Jabriel

3:06

Peppers forced that fumble on Jalen

3:08

Hurts, and it was like they forced it at

3:10

I think, like the plus forty or plus forty

3:12

five, like they were in like, you know, on the eagle

3:14

side of the field, like the turnover was on the eagle side

3:16

of the field, and all

3:19

of them said they're gonna win this game. And

3:22

I'm like saying this to toot my own horn. I

3:25

just I've seen this team

3:28

lose and so many

3:30

spots where I felt like they were going to pull

3:32

it out, you know, the

3:34

thought of the game in Week one last

3:38

year. And you know games against like Cincinnati,

3:40

right you know where they're right on the doorstep

3:42

and they're they're literally at like the ten

3:44

yard line against the Bengals to score the game

3:46

winning touchdown and Ormandra Stevenson fumbles

3:49

the ball on a handoff. You know, things

3:51

like that and

3:53

this team, And I thought Bill O'Brien put it perfectly.

3:56

There's like six or seven plays he said,

3:59

that decide to most football games. Like

4:01

we're not talking about the games like Dallas and

4:03

New Orleans where you get blown out. We're talking

4:05

about games like Vegas. There's

4:07

six or seven plays

4:10

in a game that usually decide those games.

4:12

And right now the Patriots are

4:15

not making the winning plays late

4:17

in those games.

4:18

Yep.

4:19

And if they had done it, you know, Miami is

4:21

another example where they're driving

4:23

with the football and who

4:25

was it? Kasiki flips it to Cole Strange

4:28

on fourth down and he stopped like an inch short

4:30

of the first down marker and

4:32

on fourth down, excuse me and the

4:34

first down marker. And that

4:38

Eagles game, that Dolphins game,

4:40

this game in Vegas, you

4:42

know, with the ball and a two minutes to

4:44

go and a chance to take the lead. These

4:47

were games that they used to win,

4:50

and they don't win them anymore.

4:53

And until they start winning some of these closer

4:55

games when they do have a chance

4:57

to win the ball game, then they're not going in

5:00

anyway.

5:00

So what I have to ask then, I guess as a follow

5:02

up to that would be have you been able

5:04

to decipher? And you and I we've gone back and forth

5:06

about this, and you know, fans have their own,

5:09

you know, ideas about the root cause

5:11

of all this stuff is

5:14

the fact that they're not able to overcome

5:16

the things that they used to do. To

5:18

whom do we attribute this sudden

5:21

you know, pension for coming up short? Is

5:23

it max faults? Max fault alone is

5:26

a combination of several things. Is it really

5:28

the offensive line? Because Frankly, I mean on

5:30

the play where he got sacked for the safety, I mean,

5:32

he had not one but two guys whiffed. And

5:35

I just don't understand how that's even professional

5:37

caliber football being played When you

5:39

know you're in an obvious situation and

5:41

your quarterback is going to be in the end zone and you still

5:44

whiff on the play because Max Crosby

5:46

ate him for lunch.

5:47

Yeah, I think that, you know, it's

5:49

all the above. I think Bill O'Brien made a good point

5:52

again, saying that because

5:54

of the two penalties at the beginning

5:57

of that drive, they got a holding

5:59

call, they get first down, they gained six

6:01

yards on a little checkdown to Remandre. Then

6:04

they get a holding call in the very next play,

6:06

and then they get a delay a game right

6:08

away after that.

6:10

And these are things that are are this

6:12

is just fundamental football. But the problems that have been

6:14

happening with this team weekend and week out since

6:16

the start of this year and this team

6:19

last year, well yeah, well when this team

6:21

was successful, they didn't make these plays.

6:24

Is this the players or is this

6:26

on the coaches for not coaching it or being

6:29

I don't know, disciplined

6:31

enough.

6:31

I think it's both. I and you know, Brian's

6:34

point was is that because they get

6:36

these two penalties, and he also pointed

6:38

to the opening drive of the game where they started out

6:40

with two penalties too. There's no rhythm

6:43

to the offense, right, like you're just you're

6:45

knocking yourself backwards first of all,

6:47

like you're moving backwards, but you're also just losing

6:50

you know, that drive starting rhythm of like

6:52

okay, you know, first drive against New

6:55

Orleans they have an eight yard run right

6:57

first and ten eight yard run second and two,

6:59

and they go incomplete, incomplete, three

7:02

and out and there's just no they're

7:04

not getting into the flow of the game. And

7:06

I think for a lot, you know,

7:08

you can blame the players for the execution

7:11

or the lack thereof, and they're a lack of attention

7:13

to detail. I also put some of the penalties

7:15

and and you know, especially the procedural stuff

7:17

like a delay a game, you have to put some of

7:19

that on the coaching. But I think the

7:22

biggest thing is is that as

7:25

players, you know, you need you

7:27

need to feel good about yourself, like

7:29

you need to get into a rhythm. You need to have some

7:31

success early on in these games. Mac

7:34

Jones needs to complete some passes. Ramondre

7:36

Stevenson needs to get into a flow

7:38

of the game of carrying the football and having

7:41

positive yards and things like that. And

7:43

because they're starting these games so poorly,

7:46

they're eight are running

7:48

up hill the entire game, but be they're

7:50

just they're disjointed, like there's just

7:53

no continuity there's no rhythm,

7:55

there's no h you know, sort of like

7:58

they're not getting into it. They're not sweating into the

8:00

game, right, Like it's in that old cliche.

8:02

And who should we be pointing the finger at?

8:04

I think that on

8:08

in my opinion, when it comes to the start of

8:10

the game, that's what

8:12

that's the coaches in my opinion, because

8:15

that that's your you've been waiting all week.

8:18

For that game. You're gonna follow, right, You're

8:20

you're scripting some things out and yeah, yeah.

8:23

Like you know you're talking. Most people talk

8:25

about the opening spript script being

8:27

uh, some teams do it differently,

8:29

right, Like some teams it's shorter, sometimes it's longer.

8:31

But let's just call it ten plays

8:33

just to be safe, right, So your first ten

8:35

plays of the game are usually plays

8:38

that you are in the install

8:40

for the game plan that you've been practicing all week,

8:42

that you've been telling the players all week

8:44

long. First and ten at the twenty

8:46

five when we get the football to start the game,

8:49

this is the play we are running and

8:51

you and so the fact that they they

8:54

you know, basically predetermine these

8:56

things and they still aren't executing

8:59

it tells me that something about

9:01

the coaching and the details.

9:03

You know, it's really the details. And I know that.

9:06

You know, people get myself included,

9:08

get caught up and they don't have the

9:10

talent to go out there and you

9:13

know, hit the bombs or hit the sixty

9:15

yard play or hit the you know, explosive

9:17

and that thing is like that. But when it comes to

9:20

like getting into the game and

9:22

getting a rhythm and scoring early and

9:24

not getting into these ten nothing thirteen

9:26

to three holes like those types

9:29

of things, I think, are you

9:31

need to start the game better.

9:33

All right, So to that end, then I'll

9:35

share with you again because you know this has been one of my hugest

9:38

hugest is that a word, hugest

9:40

pet peeves for several years. Yes,

9:43

Okay, here we go.

9:43

I know exactly what you're gonna.

9:45

Say, and you know which one it is. Yeah,

9:48

And it has to do with before

9:50

we ever kick the game off. Yeah, the coin

9:52

flip. Yeah, and the Patriots win the flip

9:54

and they always, always and

9:57

forever until add nauseum

9:59

infinity defer.

10:01

Yeah. Now I understand

10:04

the whole You don't need to explain it to me. I

10:06

get the whole idea of the double score listen, when

10:09

the Patriots had Tom Brady at quarterback and

10:11

they had dynamic receivers, running

10:13

backs, you know, an offensive line that could block. Okay,

10:16

yeah, I get it. The double score idea is a great idea

10:18

because Tom could manage and massage

10:20

the clock as well as any quarterback has ever

10:23

done that in the history of the game. But

10:25

two things here. I know the Patriots

10:27

are poor on offense right now, I know this,

10:30

So why does it make sense then to

10:32

start the game on offense rather than

10:34

on defense? Because on defense, in

10:36

theory, you're playing to your strength because

10:38

you feel like you have more confidence in

10:41

your defensive side than you do on your offensive

10:43

side. But my point here is

10:45

number one. This is like the guy who throws

10:47

a ninety eight mile an hour fastball

10:50

early in a baseball game, right, he kills

10:52

people to the first what two three innings, right, yeah,

10:55

throwing ninety eight, throwing solid gas, maybe

10:57

even touching one hundred every now and then by

10:59

the start of the worth thinning, guys start catching

11:01

up, and then before long

11:03

those foul balls become you know, line drive

11:06

base hits, and then before too long he'll leave

11:08

one over the middle of the plate and Boof gone, Yeah,

11:10

how can he avoid that? Well, how do most pictures

11:12

avoid that? They throw something called a change

11:14

up or a curve or

11:16

a slider or something

11:19

that the better is not expecting.

11:21

And that's my point. Don't

11:23

the Patriots have to figure out a way

11:25

to throw something at the opposition that

11:28

they are not expecting.

11:31

Yeah, it's a good point. And at this point,

11:33

I think, you know, O'Brien was actually asked about

11:35

it on Tuesday, and

11:38

you know, in reality, I

11:41

truly think and he didn't completely put

11:43

it off on Belichick, but like,

11:46

it's probably more the the

11:49

head coaches call. I was gonna say

11:51

Bill's call, but that's confusing. It's

11:53

probably more the head coaches call about

11:55

you know what you're really doing in that spot. I

11:58

at this point, they have to try to do something

12:00

differently to start the game better, right like they

12:02

haven't. They've started games poorly all year.

12:04

And that's that's the whole. That's the whole.

12:06

Look, I agree with you.

12:07

Finally, I'm well, thank you, You're welcome, But

12:10

because I feel like I've been right on along,

12:12

but nobody pays any attention.

12:14

I've been, so you know, I know you explain

12:16

the double score thing, but it actually

12:19

for Belichick, and Michael

12:21

Lombardi wrote it. I think he

12:23

wrote it. I don't know. You can just google it and you'll

12:25

figure you'll find it about

12:27

the middle eight, right, So it's the last

12:29

four minutes of the second half, first half,

12:32

in the first four minutes of the second half, yes, And

12:36

the middle eight theory or the middle eight principle,

12:38

whatever you want to call it, is that not

12:41

only are you setting up the double score

12:44

at the beginning of the you know, the end in the beginning

12:46

of the half, you're also

12:49

basically keeping the other team's

12:51

offense off the field for like thirty

12:54

minutes of real time. Yeah,

12:56

and that can throw off the rhythm.

12:59

So when you're especially

13:01

you know, Belichick, I think really came

13:04

up with this theory like years ago, maybe

13:06

even in Cleveland. But I

13:08

think, you know, a lot of the reason why is

13:10

like when you're facing a great quarterback

13:12

like Peyton Manning, and if you can get

13:14

Peyton Manning to sit there for

13:16

an hour and get out

13:19

of his rhythm and throw them off his game and

13:21

all that kind of stuff, you know you're

13:23

gonna that's gonna benefit your football

13:25

team. But I'm with you,

13:28

that Look, they got to try everything

13:30

differently, like they're one in five. So

13:32

like continuing to just do the same thing is the

13:35

definition of insanity.

13:36

Yes, thank you? Then that's that's my point. Is

13:38

that what we're embarking upon now is

13:41

sheer insanity? Yeah, because you keep doing

13:43

the same thing expecting a different result

13:45

and it doesn't happen. And and to this

13:47

particular instance, Look, the

13:50

Patriots struggle. They

13:52

can't perform from behind. Yeah,

13:55

but that's all they've ever been this year. Maybe

13:57

with the lead, maybe somehow

14:00

things can turn out differently or force them to

14:02

play differently, or force the opposition to

14:04

play differently. Now, I granted, grant you

14:07

it'll be hard for the team to take the opening kickoff

14:09

and moving seventy five dow yards down the field score

14:12

touchdown. That I understand that part. But

14:14

you can't you don't have a shot

14:16

at it unless you have the ball.

14:17

Yeah, I mean they're just getting down way

14:19

too quickly in these games, like it's every week,

14:22

it's every week, and like you know, let's

14:25

let's just take for a second, let's take

14:27

the Dallas and New Orleans game that

14:29

of it, because those two games, they were not

14:31

competitive, right, right, they got blown the

14:33

f out. They were not competitive. But

14:36

if you just look at the three or four

14:38

games, you know that they were competitive.

14:40

In the Jets game, they had

14:42

a leady I think they were winning ten to nothing

14:44

at one point in the Jets game. But the

14:46

Eagles game, the Dolphins game, and

14:49

now this game last week in Vegas, they

14:51

were down double digits by like this midway

14:53

through the second quarter. I think it was like, you know, in some

14:56

of those games, it was like to start the game, like, you

14:58

know, you're down to the Eagles, is it like eighteen

15:00

to three or whatever. This score was absolutely

15:03

immediately like in the first quarter.

15:06

And you just, regardless of if

15:08

you're a good comeback team, bad comeback

15:10

team, good offense, bad offense, that's

15:13

not a way to live in the NFL.

15:14

Your mind set, Your mindset changes,

15:16

Your play calling probably changes because

15:18

you've got to do something, you know, to stem the tide.

15:21

So you're thinking probably more possession type

15:23

of offense simply because you want to

15:25

keep the ball out of the other guy's hands because they got already

15:27

a big lead on you. It changes

15:29

the face of the game if you're playing from a

15:31

lead. And again, yeah, they have a lead in the Jets

15:34

game, and that's the one game that they won. And I'm they

15:37

didn't win the game because they played from the lead rather

15:39

than the loss or from behind. I will

15:41

grant you that. But it just changes

15:43

the face. It changes the attitude, it changes

15:45

the tempo, It changes how the other guys

15:48

look at you. It changes a lot of different things.

15:50

And the keyword here is change. You got

15:52

to throw them something they're not expecting. I

15:55

would love for them to come out Okay,

15:58

this is crazy, but I'd love for them to come out the Malik

16:00

and run our pos and let him just take off with the

16:02

ball, you know, or let or let Hey.

16:04

You know what they did on the touchdown play

16:07

this last week. You know they let Ezekiel Elli

16:09

go from the wildcat. Yeah, I'm fine

16:11

with that. I'm okay with that. Give give

16:13

them something that they won't expect. Now, you

16:16

can't make a steady diet of it.

16:18

I'm not not saying to do that. But if

16:20

you get the other team thinking they

16:22

can't react, and right now, teams

16:25

are teeing off on this woeful

16:27

Patriot offensive line, yeah, and they're

16:30

blowing by guys, and you're getting your quarterback

16:32

to capitate it. And I've heard several people say

16:34

this, and it's an accurate term. And I think you started

16:36

it. Mac is broke. Yeah, he's

16:39

broken, and it's nobody's fault,

16:42

but this coaching staff and this organization's

16:44

fault. They broke Mac. Mac

16:47

didn't break Mac.

16:48

Yeah, I don't disagree with any of that,

16:50

and I I think

16:53

Mac is broken and at

16:55

the point where good job faith with the emails.

16:57

Yes, I'm at the point now

17:00

where I

17:02

the best way to put it like, I don't

17:04

know if you can put Humpty Dumpty back together again.

17:07

I guess like, and that's that's actually.

17:09

At way because you've done this to him

17:11

now two years in a row, I know. So I

17:13

don't know if you can. If sorry

17:16

for him, yeah I do. I don't know if

17:18

he's salvageable at this point. And I don't mean

17:20

that as like a knock on him or disrespect towards

17:22

him, but I I think that in general,

17:26

with this offense, they

17:29

they have to find some

17:31

success early in these games, because

17:33

you know, we were talking to some of the players last

17:36

week, and some of those guys they

17:39

were saying they have like

17:42

you know, Wednesday's a big early down

17:44

day.

17:44

Right.

17:45

In practice, they pads are on, they run

17:47

a lot of first and second down offense, run

17:49

game like, that's that's what Wednesdays are

17:51

all about. They have

17:54

calls on the call sheet. Bill O'Brien

17:56

has calls in the in the game plan that

17:59

they don't even get to because

18:02

they're down so quickly in these games

18:04

that he has to completely abort mission. Right,

18:07

Like, you know, they have all these first down play

18:09

calls on up their sleeve, but when

18:11

it's thirteen to three, ten minutes

18:13

into the game, they there's

18:16

no reason, right Like, they don't.

18:18

They don't, they can't call it correct, So they

18:21

have to figure out a way to start the game better

18:23

when it comes to throwing things that are different

18:25

at the team. I think, you know that was I

18:29

I blame like the

18:31

phrasing of the way that Bill said last

18:33

week, we got to start all over. I think a lot

18:35

of people took that as

18:38

they're going to completely throw out what they're doing

18:41

and you're going to see a totally different

18:43

offense, like in terms of scheme, right.

18:45

Like, they don't they can't do that, they don't do that, they won't

18:47

do.

18:47

That, right, so, but what he really meant was, we're

18:50

going to go back to the spring and

18:52

go back to day one of This

18:55

is our base place, right, these

18:57

are our base runs, these are our base base

18:59

paths plays, and that's what we're

19:01

gonna run because we are maybe

19:04

getting a little bit too caught up

19:06

in game plan and cowboys

19:09

and Micah Parsons and this that

19:11

and the other thing where we just need to

19:13

worry about us right now before

19:15

we can start worrying about all that. So when I heard

19:18

start all over, that's that's the way I took

19:20

it was, Okay, what are Bill O'Brien's

19:22

bass plays, what are his core

19:25

concepts, And that's what we're going

19:27

to run. And that's what they did against the Raiders.

19:29

Was it completely all this, you know,

19:32

really successful?

19:33

No?

19:33

No, But in the second half they did have

19:35

those two touchdown drives and

19:37

they found some things in the ground.

19:39

The seventeen played drive by the way. I mean,

19:41

I was happy they would drive with the ball, but I'm like, could

19:43

somebody play with a little sense of urgency here?

19:45

So it's a good question. They're like a

19:48

good point and he was asked about that too.

19:50

So you're hitting on all the things that.

19:52

I pay attention. You pay attention. I

19:56

pay attention. I knew I know you did, all

19:58

right, Okay.

19:59

Yeah, I too. Tuesday, you know, he

20:01

was asked about that, and I think that

20:03

it was Mike Reese is the one that asked the question,

20:05

and he phrased it really interestingly

20:08

to me, was like, do you have to walk

20:11

before you can run? Meaning can

20:13

you not even worry about how long

20:15

it's taking? But but just because you know,

20:17

you have to just string positive plays together.

20:20

And I think that goes back to your point about

20:22

the double score, Like there used to

20:24

be a time when they could go

20:27

into the four minute offense and they

20:29

could execute it so well that Brady

20:31

would like sit there and he'd call a time

20:34

out with like three seconds left with the ball

20:36

right in the middle of the field for like a chip

20:38

shot thirty yard field goal to win the game,

20:40

right like that. There used to be a time

20:42

and place for that. But this offense can't

20:44

do that. They can't like be like, oh, well, can't

20:47

do that. We gotta hurry up, guys, because then

20:49

they'll hurry up and then they'll make a mistake and then they'll

20:51

be over.

20:52

That's that's now you hit the nail on

20:54

the hit. The problem is is that they want

20:56

to play that way, they don't

20:58

know how or they are in care capable of

21:00

playing that way. And so I

21:02

lay that at the feet of two things. Number One, I laid

21:04

that obviously the foot of the athlete themselves,

21:06

because well, you're a professional, you should

21:09

be able to do that. Number Two, I lay that at the

21:11

feet of the coaching stab as well, because they're not coaching

21:13

it. They're not teaching it, and they're not selecting

21:15

the players that have the aptitude to perform

21:18

it. Yeah. Yeah,

21:21

it is a total systemic

21:24

failure. Yeah.

21:25

I think that in terms of like the personnel

21:28

side of it. Everybody knows. I've said

21:30

it a million times about how the talent and

21:32

the neglect of the offense

21:34

and all this kind of stuff. I think that there's

21:37

one thing that really stands out to me though, Like being

21:39

around the guys, you know, as much as we're

21:42

allowed to and everything, I

21:44

just I don't

21:46

know how many winners they really have in that locker

21:48

room. Like I don't know, and I hate to say it like

21:50

that because I don't want to be personal, but

21:52

like I don't know how many killers they really have.

21:55

Killers and winners I think are two different things. Yeah,

21:58

the winners, I think they have plenty of because

22:00

they have guys who have been team captains.

22:03

That's you know, part of their that's part of their recruiting

22:05

process when they got on the interview these guys, right, Yeah, they want

22:07

guys who've been leaders on their teams. Just sometimes

22:10

the level the football might not be what you would expect,

22:12

but that's what they want. Killers. Different

22:14

story. Yeah, they don't have enough guys that really

22:17

like you know, they like to gnaw the meat off

22:19

the bone. Yeah, Okay, I think they had

22:21

one at least that I saw,

22:24

and I have two or three. But the one that I

22:26

saw from you know, you'll come up at

22:28

least a little bit and thought I had promise was Keyon

22:30

White. I thought he was one of those potential

22:33

killers. I think that Kyle Duggar has

22:35

been a potential killer. Jabrill Peppers

22:38

went healthy, he's been a potential killer,

22:40

and he's the one that made the one hit that everybody's been talking

22:42

about because it's the only time we've seen the Patriots

22:44

smack down anybody on any other team

22:46

this year thus far. This last weekend, so there

22:49

are, there are spots, but there aren't enough of

22:51

them.

22:52

Yeah, and none of them are on offense.

22:54

No, Like you know, that's another good point.

22:56

I go back to say,

22:58

I think it was twenty six team. I think

23:00

it was twenty sixteen when the

23:03

Patriots played the Steelers and

23:05

they had to go on that game winning drive and

23:07

it was just Braidy to Gronkowski, Braidy to Gronkowski,

23:10

Brady to gronkoust nobody could start and nobody

23:12

could stop it because Gronk

23:15

was a killer. Like Gronk was like, I'm

23:17

you always mine. You can't cover me.

23:20

No, I know you can't cover me, and

23:22

yet we have you know, Devon Parker

23:24

on the other you know, Devonte Parker on the other side,

23:26

who's like, well, it might have touched my fingertip.

23:29

Yeah, dude, the ball hits you in the hands, you

23:31

dropped it, own it. And when he didn't own

23:33

it, I was done. Yeah, I'm

23:35

done with the guy. Done.

23:36

Yeah, I agree, And he just

23:38

those those guys, And I think

23:41

this is a general like statement

23:43

about the entire team too. On offense.

23:46

I don't know if those guys necessarily have

23:48

the confidence in themselves

23:51

and in the program and in the offense

23:53

and then the.

23:54

Quarterback and who does that come back to?

23:56

Hey, yeah, it comes back to the coaches, I

23:58

think, and you know all these like the confidence

24:00

I think is a big word. Like Gronkowski

24:03

had the confidence that nobody

24:06

on the Steelers defense was going to cover him

24:08

on that drive and they march right

24:11

down the field. Does DeVante Parker

24:13

have the same belief in his quarterback

24:16

and himself and the line and the whole operation?

24:18

None of the above, right?

24:20

And I think that that's when you start to see the you

24:22

know, the cracks, right, is that if

24:25

you know that type of play, the

24:28

the Gronkowski's, the Edelman's, like

24:31

those guys of the world make that catch.

24:33

Like I said, systemic failure,

24:35

Yeah, at all levels, Yeah,

24:38

at all points, you know. And and

24:41

it's unfortunate that it manifested itself

24:43

to even get to this point because it has

24:45

come like a blindside hit to

24:48

you, to me, to fans, to media,

24:50

to everyone who's covered and watched

24:52

the New England Patriots play football this year. It

24:54

has been a blind side hit.

24:57

So the question now stands, you

24:59

know, at one in five, what

25:02

do you do from this point in time? You have

25:04

you know, a division rival this

25:06

week who could make mincemeat out of you, although

25:09

they have their own injury issues going into the game

25:11

this Sunday, which would probably level the playing

25:13

field somewhat. We'll talk to Vic Crucy from

25:16

Buffalo and just a little bit on that one. But you

25:20

gotta kind of wonder what

25:22

the next step would be, because it's a little early to

25:24

start talking about tanking for the draft. And

25:27

I've never believed in that theory anyway. If

25:29

you're a professional, you play ball and that's

25:31

it and you don't worry about it, and the chips fall where

25:33

they may.

25:34

You know, Yeah, I think that that's a

25:36

good point because we get this a lot, and

25:38

I understand and you know, fans,

25:41

certain fans have given up on the season

25:44

for certain fans want a tank for the draft pick.

25:46

You know, certain fans are all right. You

25:48

know, we talk about this stuff on a on

25:50

an almost daily basis. I write

25:53

about it, and people will respond to my

25:55

tweets about the team like why why you

25:57

even do it? Like regardless it might be my job

25:59

and stuff like that. You know, who even cares?

26:01

Like this is ridiculous?

26:02

Right?

26:03

The bottom line is is that nobody

26:05

whether they can do it or not is a totally different

26:07

conversation. But nobody in the locker room is giving

26:09

up on the season at one in five. Nobody

26:12

is. So Our job and my job,

26:14

I feel like, is to try to tell you

26:16

guys, like what I think that they might

26:18

be doing, to try to turn

26:20

this thing around, because that's what they're

26:22

doing. Like they're not no One then out.

26:24

No, they're trying. Yeah, they're trying. They don't have

26:26

the personnel to do it, but they're trying.

26:28

Yeah, And I think the main thing that you got

26:30

to do, if you're the Patriots offense especially

26:33

is try to master what I was

26:35

just talking about, your base

26:38

offense, Like start at square one,

26:40

start at A, and then we can worry

26:42

about you know BCD.

26:43

Right, Yeah, that's all we gotta do. Awesome.

26:46

I appreciate you anytime, as always, Evan

26:48

Lazarre, Patriots dot Com. The aforementioned

26:50

Vic Caruci now joining us here inside

26:53

the playbook. Vic of course, has

26:56

covered the Buffalo Bills for you

26:58

know how many years, Vic? How many what

27:00

do you remember? We in now?

27:02

Wow? Well, I guess it started in

27:04

eighty nineteen eighty two, off and on, but

27:07

it hasn't been constant since then,

27:09

So since my return to Buffalo,

27:11

I guess was twenty fourteen.

27:13

Right, Okay, because yeah, because I remember

27:15

for a long time you covered the NFL for the Sporting

27:17

News and other places, and we should mention that, Yeah,

27:21

you do a lot of things for WGRZ

27:23

Television in Buffalo, and you also

27:25

started a column for a site

27:27

known as the thirty third Team. You want to tell

27:29

us a little bit about that one.

27:31

Yeah, it's you know, it's really cool. It

27:34

stems from, of course, building a lot

27:36

of league wide relationships at NFL

27:39

dot Com serious XMNFL

27:41

Radio, on which I've

27:44

regularly appeared since twenty four

27:46

right since the channel came aboard and

27:49

Mike Cannenbaum founded this,

27:52

the former NFL executive Jets

27:54

and Dolphins, along with

27:56

Joe Banner, for whom

27:58

I worked when I worked for the Brown for a while

28:01

and ran all their internal stuff media

28:03

wise, and they approached

28:05

me and said, you know, now that you're kind

28:07

of stepping away from the day to day

28:09

with the Buffalo News, would you be interested

28:11

in, you know, gabbling and writing for

28:14

this. And it really has been a blast

28:16

working with I mean, the roster

28:19

loaded with with Hall of Fame

28:21

gms and coaches.

28:22

I've noticed from.

28:24

Players right, it's really a stellar

28:26

lineup and it's really fun

28:28

to For me, every conversation

28:30

with one of those people is always

28:33

like a masterclass in the NFL.

28:35

Yeah, I've noticed. So I'll give it a little plug here in

28:37

case anybody is unaware of it. Just you can

28:39

find it at the thirty third team

28:42

dot com. Correct, yep, okay.

28:44

No paywall. Just go in there. You know they're

28:46

they're really building up the site and

28:50

it's great. And that's the other nice thing is from

28:52

what I've been told by those who run

28:54

it, that it's gaining

28:56

a lot of eyeballs and people are

28:58

coming to it and recognize So I

29:01

look one, what is

29:04

the most competitive world in media

29:07

NFL coverage and layer

29:10

today?

29:12

That's very true. Well, it caught my

29:14

eyeball, so I wanted to make sure I got that out as well, because

29:16

I said, hey, this is cool. I'm going to read this stuff. Especially

29:18

well it's not under a paywall. I'm

29:20

gonna go, I'm gonna get gonna get

29:22

after it a little bit. Paywalls are try

29:24

to charge your subscription. Well, yeah, and you

29:27

know what I you know, listen, Uh,

29:29

the way things have gone with media these days,

29:32

charging a subscription doesn't surprise

29:34

me, because everybody deserves to be paid, you

29:36

know.

29:36

Yeah, that's that's the way of it. And you're

29:38

right, I mean I you and I both have been

29:41

around this long enough to know what

29:43

the original concept of And

29:46

I think you know, I know we're getting.

29:47

Off to that's all right, no worries. We

29:50

like to digress here.

29:51

Okay, well I'm digressing. But you

29:53

know, early on it was I understood

29:56

the basic thought of they got a finance,

29:58

we've got to put it out there, let people see

30:00

it and consume it. Yeah, but the

30:02

but the drawa and and some still

30:04

do of course, but for the most part,

30:07

Uh, if you don't have you

30:09

know, it's either it's the advertising

30:12

or subscriptions. And and I guess you know,

30:14

if you're following that Netflix formula or

30:16

the for the you know, New York Times or whatever

30:18

you want to call it. Uh, you know, Amazon,

30:21

you're you're you are. You've got to get

30:23

people to pay pay for your product,

30:25

or else your product doesn't have a worth, right.

30:27

Yes, precisely, people

30:29

want things for free, vic And it's kind

30:32

of like, well, then really, what's it worth if you're getting

30:34

in for free, right if

30:36

it's it's only going to be worth something if you willing

30:38

to pay a little something for it.

30:39

Yep. Yeah, So anyway,

30:42

it's fun and thanks for bringing

30:44

that up. And yeah, it's just it's it's you

30:46

know, doing the you know, the TV stuff, the serious

30:48

stuff, and then having the chance to chat

30:51

with you, uh once or twice a year

30:53

when the bills play the past.

30:54

Well, it's it's it's always good to talk to you.

30:57

You gosh, we've been doing this for for so long. I

30:59

just you know, want you know, it's it's always that you and

31:01

and believe it or not, you and and Armando Solgero

31:03

have been the two guys that have been steadies for

31:06

this program for the twenty two years that

31:08

we've been doing this show here on Patriots dot

31:10

Com. And so yeah, well,

31:12

well you know, both of you guys are at the top

31:14

of my list. I would I will tell you that not

31:16

only in terms of your talent and your ability, so I'll

31:18

blow a little smoke up your score on this one.

31:21

But but but just because you know not

31:23

only the NFL, but you know the division we're

31:26

we're you know, this is and that's

31:28

what I love most about, you know, covering the Patriots

31:30

is the rivalries in the AFC East

31:33

or have been, even when the Patriots

31:35

were kicking everybody's butt. I'm

31:38

like, yeah, but you know, listen, don't

31:40

sleep on those Bills, don't sleep on those Jets.

31:42

And you know, because anything can

31:44

happen. And you know the fact

31:46

that the Patriots. Yeah, go ahead, and.

31:48

Netsy, I was gonna say to your point,

31:50

to your point, regardless of who's

31:53

got the you know, who's the top dog or who's

31:55

got the upper hand. Yeah, the rivalries,

31:58

uh by, they don't have

32:00

a singular definition. No, for

32:03

Bills fans. You know, for the longest

32:05

time, as you know, it was Bill's

32:07

Dolphins and it was all about you

32:09

know, back and and you and caused

32:12

by what dolphin dominance a long

32:14

time until the Bills you know, turned the table

32:16

and gotten their Super Bowl years and all that

32:18

and then the prolonged uh

32:21

Tom Brady Patriot ownership

32:23

of the Bills, and that entire division

32:26

was a thing too, but it built the

32:29

rivalry was defined by let's

32:31

find a new way to hate that guy that

32:34

team and hate their fans and you know, and

32:36

yes, and our business is

32:39

love and hate generates

32:41

the interest.

32:42

Yes, that's right. There's no middle ground. You either

32:44

got to love somebody or you gotta hate their guts. That's

32:47

right. So how

32:49

do the Bills then, let's let's jump from you

32:51

know, the historical perspective here, how do the

32:53

Bills then continue their recent

32:56

run of dominance UH

32:58

in the AFC East UH in

33:01

light of what we've seen from Miami

33:04

this year, because frankly, Miami is

33:06

the fastest football team I have

33:09

seen, maybe ever staggering.

33:12

Yeah, you know, it's interesting

33:14

because in the context of the

33:16

Bills, you almost

33:18

look at that Bills win

33:20

against miamis and as dominant

33:22

as that was, really as one sided,

33:25

even though Miami got a few touchdowns, there nothing

33:28

in comparison to what they normally do. And then and

33:30

they were coming off of seventy point that

33:33

seventy bigger and Denver ye, but

33:35

Buffalo getting forty eight against them?

33:39

Is that? And the question you find

33:41

yourself wondering, and as

33:43

we you and I stand here today looking at the

33:45

Bills, looking at the entire division, was that an

33:47

outlier? You know? Was that a real did that thing

33:49

really happen? Well, it really did. I witnessed

33:51

it. I thought they found the

33:54

right antidote to what tou

33:56

tongue of Iloa and that speedy

33:58

that track teamy as around them and that was

34:00

pressure him. That was good,

34:03

you know, good coverage combinations

34:06

causes for hesitation. And again

34:08

even when I mean he never quite

34:11

got to a consistent form

34:13

of comfort, which and by the time

34:15

he was the Bills that already you know,

34:17

piled up enough points and were in control.

34:21

Can that happen again with a

34:23

roster now that has been since that

34:25

game really beaten up on the defensive

34:27

side at Milano was such

34:30

a vital cog. It probably gone

34:32

for the season. Uh De Kwon

34:34

Jones, who has been a quiet

34:36

and steady interior

34:38

performer, probably gone for the season. With

34:41

their injuries that they suffered in London against

34:44

Jacksonville and then of course Tredavious

34:46

White at corner out, you're

34:48

taking some some real big

34:51

marquee defensive names out of that

34:53

grouping, especially

34:56

Milano and White, and you're and you're

34:58

left with a team that's

35:00

pressed to find its way with its

35:02

depth. They're they're holding

35:04

up. I mean, I will say that has not

35:07

been any of the problem they've

35:09

had in their last two games, where

35:11

they've been one and one and nearly oh

35:13

at two. In light of that game Sunday

35:15

night against the Giants, which they were primed

35:18

to lose, they had done just about everything

35:20

they could to put themselves in the position

35:22

to lose. Just that the Giants are awful,

35:25

and at least offensively awful,

35:27

and couldn't find any answers a

35:30

Giant defense pretty darn solid.

35:31

Yeah it was. I have to admit, Vic,

35:34

I have to admit I fell

35:36

asleep in the third quarter.

35:39

And you missed the best, you missed the most.

35:41

Oh I won't. I wont up in time at the end to see

35:43

the Bills hold on and win the game. But I'm kind of like, oh

35:45

damn, I missed their two touchdowns? What the hell it

35:48

was?

35:48

It was a snowsfest in many ways. I mean, okay,

35:51

but that all aside, I'm

35:53

not sure the Bills offense

35:56

is definitely cause for concern

35:58

for them. Starts uh,

36:01

They Josh Allen and

36:04

by extension, Ken Dorsey, the offensive

36:06

coordinator, struggling to find answers

36:09

against the Blitz. The Jaguars game

36:11

was pretty revealing in that regard. They

36:13

were really troubled

36:15

by the Bills offense, was by

36:17

the various pressure packages and

36:20

looks, even simulated

36:22

blitzes that threw them off. Giants

36:24

with with Don Wink Martindale

36:27

did the same darn thing. And of course they've got you

36:29

can't just have good coaches, but they're better

36:31

be talent behind it, which I

36:33

know people following the pass know

36:35

these days you've got to have the horses

36:38

beyond beyond the brains, behind

36:40

the brain or in front of them.

36:42

Uh.

36:42

And right in

36:44

terms of the Giants, you know, there's a lot

36:47

of talent on that defense and Deep put

36:49

it to good use. Allen was, you

36:51

know, was frustrated in many

36:53

ways. I also think

36:55

that he is uh somewhere

36:58

caught in this vacuum of run

37:01

or don't run. You know, it's been preached

37:03

to him to be cautious

37:05

about, you know, being reckless with his body.

37:07

That's been Sean McDermott and Brandon being

37:09

the GM They've been pounded a home since

37:12

throughout the off season, and I

37:14

think what they have now is a guy who isn't

37:17

sure what he should be doing when it comes

37:19

to his legs, because they are a valuable

37:21

part of his game. Now he's dealing

37:24

with a spring shoulder. Let's let's bring that

37:26

up right up front. Yep, uh limited

37:29

his or shoulder injury. I don't know exact

37:31

to the extent of what it is, but but it's

37:33

considered. It's been downplayed

37:36

by him. UH downplay and he

37:38

and he and uh uh. Sean McDermott

37:40

called him day to day today. He was

37:42

limited in practice, so that's at

37:45

least noteworthy if he's if it's if

37:47

it's nothing. According to Josh, it was something

37:49

enough for the Bills to limit what he did

37:51

in practice, uh, or whatever that's

37:54

worth. I think he starts, he plays.

37:56

I don't. I'm not casting any doubt on his availability

37:59

uh on Dave Foxborough. But beyond

38:01

that, you know they

38:04

are right

38:06

now when they're clicking, when they've clicked

38:08

their best in the stretch of three

38:10

games they won before they played Jacksonville,

38:13

they were a balanced offense,

38:16

and by balance, not just the running

38:18

game coming for as it did

38:20

in the second half against Giants and open

38:22

things up. But it's Josh completing

38:25

passes to like nine different receivers,

38:28

letting the game come to him, not forcing

38:30

the ball like he was doing in that jet opener

38:33

that helped lead to three picks.

38:35

Right, which is what I think Patriots fans probably have to

38:37

have the most worry over. Is because Josh Allen

38:39

still knows how to go out and spread the ball

38:41

around. And the Patriots, you know, have enough

38:43

issues guarding one guy, much less seven,

38:46

eight or nine guys. Vic Carucchi again

38:48

joining us here, why Vic

38:51

you mentioned? And both teams have injury problems.

38:53

We know this, and Buffalo's maybe a

38:55

little bit more prevalent, only because of Buffalo's

38:58

standing thus far. You know within you know, the

39:00

AFC in with the AFC East, But why

39:02

does the defense still seem to be able

39:05

to sort of limit the other team's

39:07

offense even though they're suffering these these

39:09

injuries. Is this the depth better

39:11

than you originally thought? Is is the coaching

39:14

staff adjusting? What are you thinking along

39:16

those lines?

39:17

I think it's not one answer, John.

39:20

I'll say this coaching definitely has

39:23

helped a great deal. And it's Sean

39:25

McDermott who's now wearing the additional

39:27

hat of defensive coordinator. He took

39:30

that on in the off season. They

39:32

nudged Leslie Fraser aside

39:35

Leslie is is you know and

39:37

you know that wasn't a choice by him

39:40

to take a year off that. You know, Sean

39:42

took control. He wants to push

39:44

all the buttons on defense. It's it's his background.

39:46

He did that in Philly, He's he

39:49

did that with Carolina. That's what got him

39:51

a head coaching job. And now he's

39:53

doing his thing and doing it well, really

39:55

putting these guys in good place. I'll start

39:58

there depth. Yes, obviously,

40:01

you're right if you get people hurt and

40:03

others step up. And

40:05

when I say step up, are they stepping up

40:07

as all pros?

40:09

Uh?

40:09

You know?

40:10

Solid. I'm not sure that a star

40:12

has emerged or stars have emerged, but

40:14

I think guys who are holding their own. But

40:17

I quickly add to that, the

40:19

two teams now Jacksonville h

40:23

even though there was a lot of hype about

40:25

Trevor Lawrence in that offense and Doug Peterson's

40:27

team entering the season, you know

40:29

they weren't playing that way leading

40:32

up to that game against Buffalo, and

40:34

and then even through the course of that game there

40:36

were issues that they were having. And

40:39

again Buffalo's defense didn't really fall

40:41

apart despite those early

40:44

injuries, especially to Milano

40:47

and Jones in the front

40:49

and the defensive front, and then the Giants

40:51

they were facing Tyrod Taylor, a journeyman,

40:54

you know, guy backup guy who's

40:57

who stepped in making his first start as a Giant.

41:00

Daniel Jones was hurt, was you know, had

41:02

had the injury of the neck injury, so

41:06

and and it's a limited offense, uh that

41:08

the Giants hadn't yet they were you know, they

41:11

were in the game and mean they shot, had they

41:13

not screwed their game up so much?

41:15

And I think before you fell asleep you saw they did

41:17

at the goal line and the horrible

41:19

management. Now, you know, part

41:22

of me is, you know, yeah, that's that's

41:24

what you're going to get when you don't have your

41:26

starter in there and it's tire right there. But a part

41:28

of it also is just

41:31

that's on the coach too, That's on Brian David.

41:33

You know, you got to figure that stuff out there there there

41:36

had Mike Kafka, the coordinator,

41:38

they had. They were all falling apart

41:41

at that point. And honestly, because

41:43

I think they went into that game expecting

41:46

probably to be a founding

41:49

outside, I don't think they were, you

41:51

know, ever feeling comfortable that they could

41:54

take control and they had an opportunity

41:56

right.

41:56

There that they sure

41:59

absolutely all right, Vic, So you

42:01

know, I don't know if you're aware of this or not, but I

42:04

haven't seen I didn't see the spread when I got

42:06

up this morning, but I heard yesterday on local

42:08

radio here that the Patriots haven't

42:10

been as big a home dog and I think

42:12

it was nine nine

42:15

and a half somewhere of that, Yeah, like

42:17

that, but the Patriots have not been a home

42:19

dog like this since the nineties.

42:22

Wow.

42:22

Wow, this is their biggest I

42:25

guess, the biggest underdog they've been

42:27

at Gillette Stadium in the stadium's history. And

42:30

the stadium is twenty three years old this year. So

42:32

I'm just kind of curious to what

42:35

you think about that in a historical perspective,

42:38

all those years that the Patriots were inflicting

42:40

pain, and now the Bills can actually go after their fifth

42:42

straight win in this series, overrun New England

42:45

here and continue to keep the Patriots

42:47

winless at home this Sunday.

42:49

Yeah.

42:49

Well, A couple of things come to mind on that is, you

42:51

know, I know, I don't remember

42:54

what the stat was, but something else

42:56

was a nineteen ninety five not since

42:58

ninety five thing and it was a negative for

43:00

the Pats. So I know now we're getting to

43:03

that, and that's the sad reality when

43:05

when teams fall into this this

43:07

losing mode, uh and the other

43:10

thing that for me that's odd. It's not it's

43:12

not from a Bills perspective, but just someone

43:15

who covered covered the league as a whole

43:17

for more than a decade, well

43:20

more than than and I still do. But I mean

43:22

in my time specifically of traveling

43:24

around and writing when I was with NFL dot Com, Uh,

43:27

the Pats felt like a regular beat to me.

43:29

I mean I was always there and and you

43:31

know, and it was and I always, by

43:33

the way, enjoyed the the presence

43:37

of it. Wasn't any sort of rooting

43:39

interest because I try to keep that as including

43:41

what I do now. It's the worst

43:44

thing to get too emotionally attached to anything,

43:46

uh good or bad. But but the

43:49

the good part for me was how

43:51

it felt there like you knew you were in

43:54

an elite excellent uh

43:56

you know, level of a level

43:58

of excellence, and and it felt that way

44:01

throughout seeing it. Seeing

44:03

the opposite of that now is a hard

44:05

thing to digest. I'm still and I know your

44:08

you go through that and with your show

44:10

and your callers and everybody else or whoever is

44:13

discuss interacting, uh, because

44:16

I listened to the previous conversation that

44:18

you had with the writer from from Patriots

44:20

dot Com. It's the same,

44:22

that same sense of what are

44:25

we dealing with here? Because these are topics

44:27

that hadn't been broke before. And I

44:29

still hold the hold Bill Belichick's

44:31

coaching to the highest regard. But you

44:34

can't ignore when things you

44:36

know are bad and why are they bad?

44:38

And you and that's what happens. What

44:40

are they? What are the reasons people when things

44:43

are going well? Uh yeah, people want

44:45

to what are they doing? Well, let's list the things,

44:47

but the list of what's going wrong

44:49

or why it's wrong is a much longer one.

44:51

It's overwhelming, right, it's

44:54

overwhelmed.

44:54

It's overwhelming. So as I look

44:57

at it, the line or or

44:59

whatever you want to it is probably the

45:01

Vegas guys probably got it right. But I thought

45:03

they had it right with fifteen or so of

45:06

that giant game, and we saw how that turned out.

45:09

So at the end of the day, the spread really doesn't

45:12

mean anything except for how the money is moving

45:14

on the game. We know that. I think it's more to

45:17

me about the matchup,

45:19

and I've looked at I've

45:21

watched the all twenty

45:23

two of you know, of the Patriots,

45:26

and I just see so many holes,

45:28

so many flaws, so many areas

45:30

that if the Bills are playing most

45:34

of their game, not even being fantastic,

45:36

but just being not self

45:39

destructing like they when

45:41

they've lost. That's the common denominator

45:43

when they've lost this season, those two games, Jets,

45:46

Jaggs, they found a way to

45:48

look they did it to themselves more

45:50

than I think the opponent, So they if

45:53

they're approaching this game is something

45:55

other than that, then I don't see them

45:57

having a problem controlling this one throughout

46:00

and having a you know, pretty comfortable

46:02

victory.

46:03

Yeah. I think it's going to take self inflicted wounds,

46:06

you know, for Buffalo to probably lose this, as

46:08

you suggested, the two losses that we've that

46:11

we've seen so far. I mean, I was stunned really by the

46:13

Jacksonville one until I realized, okay, number

46:15

one, Jacksonville had been there for a week in

46:17

London, so they obviously had a built

46:19

in advantage I think right there, which I'm sure didn't

46:22

make anybody in Buffalo terribly happy. And

46:24

number two, I thought the Giants came out and

46:26

played really chippy to started the game

46:28

this last week. It's almost like, you know, hey, we're

46:30

going to slap these guys up side of the head and

46:32

see what we can catch their attention. And I think

46:35

it worked until the second

46:37

half.

46:37

Right John, No doubt,

46:40

I was. I was. It was one of the points.

46:43

I'm not just saying this because you said that. I

46:45

mean, I'm not reacting because

46:47

of that, but it is. It was something

46:50

I because we were talking in the presspects like there's

46:52

no rivalry here. Okay, Brian dave

46:54

Ball, Yeah he coached at Buffalo, but

46:56

that's not why these guys are having

46:59

these these right up from the opening kickoff,

47:01

all this extracurricular stuff. Or

47:03

Josh Allen foolishly jamming

47:06

his shoulder into the end zone that was

47:08

just so idiotic. I couldn't understand

47:11

what he was thinking. There a shoulder

47:13

that is now bugging him, but that

47:15

happened when he hit the field hard. But my

47:18

point is Brian,

47:20

in some ways, let's give him credit and

47:22

the coach, because I think he told these guys look

47:25

again, we're going to be competitive in this game.

47:28

We're going to do we got to pull out all the stuff here,

47:30

irritate them, get in their face, sure,

47:33

talk, push, whatever it

47:35

takes. I don't like that and put You know, we don't

47:37

want that in sports. You know, you want to say that you want

47:39

it clean and pure

47:42

and whatever, but guess what, it's football

47:44

and nasty. And if you add

47:46

a little level of nastiness for the sake of

47:49

throwing another team offense game and

47:51

it works, Yeah, I'm sure

47:53

Brian in some ways felt Okay,

47:56

we did, we did the right thing, and we almost

47:58

won.

47:59

I think patrons and would hope that their team might

48:01

still have some of that left in him for this Sunday

48:03

if if it gets down to that. Vic, thank

48:05

you so much for taking the time this afternoon. You

48:08

gave us a big portion of your day and really appreciate

48:11

the the insight that you always bring, especially

48:13

from the Buffalo perspective. And I'll

48:15

make sure that the clam chatter is warm for

48:17

you when you get here.

48:19

Always a pleasure chat, all right.

48:21

Thank you so much. Vic Carucci, who you

48:23

can find him at Vic Carucci C

48:25

A R U C C I is how you spelled his last

48:27

name. Find him there on X In

48:31

fact, you can read his columns and I don't believe

48:33

it's behind a payhall at all. At w

48:36

g r Z dot com, which is Channel two in Buffalo,

48:38

but that's where he does a lot of his work as well.

48:40

And then of course we mentioned the new website

48:42

that he's a part of, which is really cool. Thirty

48:45

third the thirty third Team t

48:47

h E three three R D T E A M the

48:50

thirty third Team dot com pretty cool because

48:52

they're getting a bunch of really good writers from around

48:54

the NFL to offer their thoughts, and I

48:56

think it seems to be a really nice compilation

48:59

of experience in the NFL

49:01

that you don't have to, at least right now, find

49:04

behind a paywall. Karen gar Reagan

49:06

of mass Live and also Russell

49:08

Baxter will join us here shortly.

49:10

In the meantime, phones are open eight five

49:13

five, PATS five hundred,

49:15

web radio at Patriots dot com, on

49:17

email at JR Broadcaster.

49:20

That's the Twitter handle or the X post

49:22

or whatever the hell they call it. I

49:24

can't every week I talk about this and

49:26

I realized I probably sound like I'm eighty five

49:29

in this regard. But I truly

49:31

don't know what Elon Musk wants us to call it anymore.

49:34

What do we call it? So X my ex

49:36

address here, you go something like that, maybe

49:39

I don't know. At JR Broadcaster

49:41

or you can post on my Facebook page. All right,

49:44

Sean, and Vancouver has been kind enough to hang on for

49:46

a long long time. Hey Sean, you're in the playbook.

49:49

Hey John, how's it going good? I was in

49:51

Vegas on Sunday.

49:53

Was even though it was a loss.

49:54

And I didn't really anticipate much more, I had a great

49:57

time. I saw

49:59

thylaw On on Saturday.

50:01

And how was that? That was

50:03

good?

50:04

Right?

50:04

That was amazing?

50:05

He was so good he was.

50:06

He was like there for three hours, you know, just signing

50:08

anything anybody would give to him.

50:10

Yeah. Like he he's very

50:12

engaging. He is very engaging, and

50:15

you know the best part about it is is that I

50:17

think he appreciates what he once had

50:19

and now that he's you know, still superstar

50:22

level because he's an NFL Hall of Famer, he's

50:25

actually trying to give back a little bit and promote

50:27

the sport and everything. I think that's very cool,

50:30

and you know, I would tend to say that, you know, with age

50:32

comes wisdom. Uh and and I

50:34

think in his case, uh, it's

50:36

that tenfold. Yeah.

50:38

And earlier that morning, I wished

50:41

Jules a good shobist.

50:42

So that was nice, nice, nice, well

50:44

done.

50:46

No, it was, it was.

50:47

It was fun and you know, it was not

50:49

like the crazy Raiders fans you'd expect

50:51

from back in Oakland.

50:53

Uh.

50:53

Everyone was really friendly and fun. And

50:56

uh, yeah, I really I'll go again

50:59

for sure.

50:59

Good well and hopefully you'll get a little

51:01

bit better result overall. Although I got to

51:03

tell you I still thought it. Yeah,

51:06

I mean I still oh, it

51:08

may be and I would imagine it probably

51:10

will, because I don't think they're getting back there this year, that's

51:12

for sure. But no,

51:16

no, you know, in your dreams maybe, But

51:19

I would say, look, yeah,

51:22

I know, and I think and and really, I'll be honest

51:25

with you, Sean. That's that's the disappointing part

51:27

about all this, because not so much that we said

51:29

all the Patriots are going to be, you know, a contender.

51:31

I think, you know, on the plus side, we all hope

51:33

that the Patriots would be good enough to get back into the postseason.

51:36

My prediction was. I thought that actually win a game

51:38

if they got into the postseason. But they're not even

51:40

going to sniff that. And for the reasons that

51:43

we've stated over the last few weeks

51:45

and we will probably continue to state over the course

51:47

of the next few weeks, this this roster

51:49

has a ton of

51:52

rebuilding that it still needs

51:55

to go through, and some

51:57

of that may start within the coaching st as

52:00

well. And look, I'm not going to

52:02

sit here and tell you that Bill Belichick

52:04

should be fired and replaced. We've talked about

52:06

it. We talked about what, you know, should happen,

52:09

what could happen, what might happen. But

52:11

if if you're really gonna pin me down

52:14

to it, I would say, no, I don't think it's going to

52:16

happen. I don't necessarily think

52:18

that's a bad thing, because I think Bill realizes

52:20

that this is going south and has gone

52:22

south on him in a hurry, and so, knowing

52:25

that the competitor that

52:27

he is and has been and undoubtedly

52:30

will continue to be until the day he leaves

52:32

planet Earth, I

52:35

think he wants a chance to get this thing back on the

52:37

right track before he departs Foxborough.

52:40

And so I think he knows that he's going to require

52:42

some help now, whether that means he's

52:45

willing to give up you know, his general manager duties

52:47

or look for you know, player personnel stuff

52:49

or whatever. I mean. Our local media here,

52:52

Sean, just so you know, they're

52:54

all saying, you know, there's no way Bill would take

52:56

a lesser role. That you know, it's kind of like it's my way

52:58

or the highway. And maybe that's

53:00

the case, but I would tell you that nothing

53:03

ventured, nothing gained. You have to ask the question. And

53:06

I think mister Kraft, being the smart businessman

53:08

that he has been for a number of years,

53:11

when you buy a team for one hundred and seventy million

53:13

and you turn it into a seven billion

53:15

with a B dollar enterprise over

53:17

the thirty years that you've owned the team, then you

53:20

obviously have some sort of acumen for turning

53:22

things around and building.

53:24

And I think he still is capable of doing

53:27

that here. And I think, you know, if a

53:29

push comes to shove, these guys can have a meeting

53:31

of the minds and decide what is the

53:33

best way for us to step forward

53:35

here, And the best way to step forward here

53:38

is to make this in all hands on deck

53:41

everybody's available, Let's go out and do

53:43

the best job we can to turn this around

53:46

so that way we all feel better about ourselves before

53:48

we sail off into the sunset. And I think

53:50

that's the natural reaction that should be

53:52

coming from him. It's just going to take a

53:54

hell of a lot longer than we thought that. The analogy

53:57

that I will use here is if

53:59

we went to the the top of the let's

54:02

say, the top of the Prew Center in downtown Boston,

54:04

all right, and we threw a right

54:06

pumpkin over the edge of the top of the Prew

54:09

Center, right, okay, and you know it's

54:11

going to smash into a million pieces right

54:13

down at the bottom and hopefully not hurt

54:15

somebody along the way. Yeah, it's it's

54:18

it's just taking Uh, it's taken this franchise

54:21

since Tom Brady left. It's taking

54:23

this franchise the better part of three four years

54:26

for the pumpkin to reach the street. Yeah,

54:30

you understand the analogy. It's taken us.

54:32

It taken us longer to realize

54:34

that, hey, this team hasn't bottomed out yet. And guess

54:37

what we're there now, say

54:39

hello to the bottom.

54:41

Well, yeah, speaking of bottom, like I could see

54:43

this team. Let's say they finish at

54:46

five and twelve, right and it's late January.

54:49

I think you're being generous at five right now, to be

54:51

honest with you.

54:52

Well maybe, but if it's five or three, it

54:54

doesn't matter. But the thing is, I

54:56

could see Robert Kraft not wanting to

54:59

actually fire Bill Pelichick

55:01

and your scenario think, hey, look we need

55:03

to do something in person, nap. You can't have

55:06

these decisions to continue.

55:07

We're going to bring in a GM.

55:08

Yeah.

55:09

Probably the ninety eight percent.

55:11

Belicheck was so well, you know, I can't

55:13

really deal with that.

55:14

That's not happening.

55:15

Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, right, so

55:17

that that's probably what's going to

55:19

happen. But you know, when you're you're talking to

55:22

Evan earlier about a quick

55:24

start, you know, getting the ball, it doesn't

55:27

it doesn't work if they don't score. So they have

55:29

to do something different. If they want to take

55:31

that approach, you've got to do something like this is what

55:33

I could see, Like first down, the first play

55:35

of the game. Okay, you have Malie Cunningham

55:38

wide right, and you have Pop

55:41

Douglas running a crosser, and

55:43

you have a Thorton going

55:45

deep. They throw backwards

55:47

pass to Maleak if he's open

55:50

to run and.

55:50

It's intercepted by Chaine Jones and run back for a

55:53

touchdown.

55:53

Well channeler Jones is in jail, so that's.

55:55

Yeah, that's also true. How about that story. Huh

55:58

oh my god, talk about a guy that's had the wheels

56:00

come flying off. I feel badly hit.

56:02

The head too much.

56:03

Yeah, really hurt.

56:06

Something like some type of

56:08

mental illness they start with, which it is possible.

56:10

I don't know if he's been diagnosed with it, but he might have

56:13

some kind of dementia disorder

56:16

O reason like fivefoler or something like that.

56:18

I don't know.

56:19

Yeah, I'm just guessing.

56:20

Sad it's said, it is said, and

56:22

Vig Coocher is pointing out, you know that the twenty

56:25

two So this team

56:27

is not good. That's why you've seen all these holes

56:29

and and not not much cauld change.

56:31

You just have to restart.

56:32

So my prediction for the game, I'm

56:35

going to go with Bill's twenty seven

56:37

Patriots ten.

56:39

I think that's probably pretty

56:41

accurate. Sean, thank you for the phone call. I

56:43

was as disgusted with any

56:46

single play that I've

56:48

seen this entire season. On

56:50

the safety of Mac Jones at the end of

56:52

that game to seal it for the Raiders because

56:54

Mike is sicky and oh

56:58

good lord low at

57:00

the at the right right tackle and right they

57:03

got they were whipped. And my grandfather

57:05

used to tell me this one, you got whipped so like a rented

57:08

mule. They were both whipped

57:10

like rented mules on the right side, and Crosby

57:13

was almost unimpeded, and

57:15

it was just so embarrassingly bad.

57:19

I don't have any other explanation for it,

57:21

but it was not professional caliber football,

57:24

and and that's that's why I'm kind of like, wow,

57:26

that's just like that would be like if

57:28

if I had I had to block Max

57:30

Crosby. You know, I'm gonna

57:32

have my big red cape out there, just

57:35

like the you know, the the Matador with

57:37

the but with the bulls, and I'm gonna just

57:39

wave it and say, olay go,

57:41

because that's basically what happened. Todd

57:44

and gardnern

57:47

North Carolina. Oh in Garner,

57:49

North Carolina. Okay, that's cool. Hey, Todd,

57:51

how's it going.

57:53

Well? I haven't called you in a while.

57:54

Does I tell you something, Well, it tells me that

57:57

you don't have much to say, have

58:00

a lot to say.

58:00

I just been not using that kind of language with

58:03

a guy that I could consider a virtual

58:05

friend.

58:06

Drawn up with you.

58:07

You're thatrop landing spot that

58:09

the Patriots are totally lost on. Yeh

58:12

okay, Bill's go by, mister kraft S.

58:14

Even on on Weei

58:17

they've got the little article they're discussing it. They

58:19

don't think Robert got the attention,

58:22

the detail that he used to be

58:24

able to cover this team too. So I think we just

58:26

need to let the seniors get

58:28

in space because he said they couldn't be on the planet.

58:31

Otherwise they're going to be involved and take a

58:33

flight, because I think that this team just

58:35

needs an absolutely total rebuild.

58:38

It's been instead of a year too late, it's

58:40

been about three years or

58:43

a year early, it's been three years too late. And

58:46

we're not doing what's best for the team. We haven't

58:48

been doing it since Brady left. And

58:50

that's where we're at. And yeah, the pumpkin

58:52

was falling, but you don't you realize it

58:54

was bouncing off the walls. It's been

58:57

in sideways. It was a horror

58:59

show, and it's been and Brady's gone. There's always

59:01

been one or two plays that you're

59:03

looking at, going, dear lord, what happened

59:05

there? Like I said last year in rab Pound,

59:08

it was the you know, the end

59:10

of the game.

59:10

I'm actually thankful, Todd. I'm actually

59:13

thankful that we finally uppear to have hit rock

59:15

bottom because it's taken us a while to get there, and

59:17

and and now you can actually start thinking about

59:20

building back to the top. But

59:22

you can't really build to the top until

59:24

you hit bottom. And that's what the last

59:26

three years really have been. You're you're just sort

59:28

of trying to maintain and hold on to

59:30

and grab on to any little sliver of

59:33

respectability that you once had when you were

59:36

dominating the NFL for twenty years, when

59:38

you clearly know that you don't have it any

59:40

longer. But now the pumpkin

59:42

smash, so you gotta go.

59:45

You just stated the problem. They kept going on,

59:47

They kept trying to do this stuff. They never

59:50

cleaned house, they never got it reset,

59:52

and even right now it's not reset.

59:54

That's correct, that's right.

59:56

I would love to see Jonathan

59:59

Kraft come up and say, we got to feel the

1:00:01

bandage off of this. We got to do it now, we

1:00:03

gotta let the team know.

1:00:04

Let the players know.

1:00:05

We gotta find out if we've got anything here.

1:00:07

Agreed, Just

1:00:10

say, you know, Bill, goodbye.

1:00:12

We're gonna put Mail or O'Brien. I prefer

1:00:14

ol Brian because he's offensive as interim

1:00:17

the head coach. Let's reset

1:00:19

this, let's see what Yeah.

1:00:21

I just I understand your thought

1:00:23

process Todd here, and I think it makes

1:00:25

sense in practical terms. But I just don't

1:00:27

see the Crafts doing that to Bill. I just don't.

1:00:30

I don't see it. I know the relationship,

1:00:33

well, okay, maybe, but maybe there

1:00:36

maybe this is their way of thinking, you know, Bill

1:00:38

for six super Bowl trophies. I don't know. They're gonna

1:00:40

give him a chance, and they're gonna give him the benefit

1:00:42

of the doubt when it comes to trying to correct things. Now they

1:00:44

may have parameters.

1:00:48

Sixteen.

1:00:48

Again, I'm you're making

1:00:51

You're making plenty of sense, Todd. But I'm just telling

1:00:53

you the reality of it is is that they

1:00:55

don't look at it like that. That

1:00:58

the man has built up enough chits

1:01:01

in the bank to where he really

1:01:03

can't do anything wrong even when everything

1:01:05

has gone wrong. So he's

1:01:07

gonna get a chance. He will get a chance to

1:01:10

fix this, even

1:01:13

with parameters. It's up

1:01:15

to Bill to take the parameters and accept

1:01:17

them.

1:01:18

Say that again, don't you think

1:01:21

that the crafts have enough enough

1:01:23

cache enough.

1:01:25

Yes, yes they do, they

1:01:27

do, but they're not. But I'm gonna tell you they're

1:01:29

not gonna use it. They won't, they won't use

1:01:31

it. I'll be I'll be, I'll be in the

1:01:33

front of the line with my surprise,

1:01:36

you know, mask on and all that kind of stuff. Hey,

1:01:38

surprise if they let him go before

1:01:41

this season is over. In fact, I'll be surprised they let

1:01:43

him go at all. I think they're gonna give him every opportunity,

1:01:46

you know, to throw a change up and invite

1:01:48

some help in because they know he doesn't

1:01:50

want to go out like this in New England. Could

1:01:52

he go and get another job somewhere else. I

1:01:54

think that's the only way, the

1:01:57

only way that this

1:02:00

up, you know, non amicably

1:02:02

or not in a non retirement sense,

1:02:05

where if he goes to say the Chargers

1:02:08

or you know some or the Cowboys

1:02:10

I've heard that room or out there or anything else, you

1:02:12

know, and if he has a chance to control

1:02:15

personnel as well as coach anywhere

1:02:17

he goes, then then

1:02:19

I could see them agreeing to part ways

1:02:22

at the end of the year. Short of that, short

1:02:24

of having that opportunity to go because Bill said he wants

1:02:27

to coach for a three or four years. He'd like to coach age

1:02:29

seventy five and and so if that's

1:02:31

the case, then if

1:02:33

it's going to be in New England, Bill, we got to

1:02:35

do something to fix this problem. And we're going to bring

1:02:37

in somebody from the outside to help you do it. And if

1:02:40

he doesn't like that, then I could see everything

1:02:42

unfolding. But they're going to give him every opportunity

1:02:44

to take that ball and run with it.

1:02:46

But the longer he's here, the harder it is going

1:02:49

to be the transition away from him, because the more

1:02:51

it's gone, they can cut his family.

1:02:54

I know, well

1:02:58

that's fair, Okay, Now now you're you're

1:03:00

talking about something completely different. They

1:03:02

again, one of those conditions for him sticking

1:03:04

around may very will be we got we gotta change it

1:03:06

up here. And it's fair to point fingers

1:03:09

at guys like, you know, Troy Brown, for

1:03:11

all that we love him and all that he's done, you

1:03:13

know, for this franchise over the years. Uh,

1:03:16

the wide receiving corp is still a complete

1:03:18

mess. We're seeing guys that are not disciplined

1:03:21

on the roots. We're seeing a lot of things. So

1:03:23

he'd be one. You'd have to look at. Adrian

1:03:25

Clem. You know, he just came in. But my god,

1:03:27

is the offensive line and absolute disaster.

1:03:30

That's another one that you'd have to look at. Yeah, his

1:03:32

own sons, Yeah, Bill O'Brien.

1:03:35

He deserves a lot of criticism because we all thought

1:03:37

he would be the panacea to curring

1:03:39

mac Jones's ailment, and it's gotten worse. Although

1:03:41

I would tell you that what is indirectly

1:03:44

led to that has been the poor performance of the

1:03:46

offensive line. That's that's.

1:03:49

Yeah, year, that's obvious.

1:03:52

You watch him in the pocket. He's scared,

1:03:54

man.

1:03:54

I know, I know, I know, I

1:03:57

know, but you know I'm gonna

1:03:59

let you go with that.

1:04:00

Scared too. Let's just do something.

1:04:03

We got to do something. We're in agreement,

1:04:05

Todd. It's good to hear from you. We always have to

1:04:07

be ready to do something. All right, You

1:04:09

want to hit his You

1:04:11

got Russell's open there. Faith stand

1:04:14

by Russell. Faith is

1:04:16

learning the routine. You

1:04:18

got it. We'll

1:04:21

find out.

1:04:24

Stop from drinking.

1:04:27

It's time to go around the NFL with

1:04:29

football guru Russell Baxters.

1:04:31

Now, what.

1:04:33

Name is Flounder on Patriots

1:04:35

playbook? How

1:04:38

about that Faith's maiden voyage in

1:04:40

the playbook today? And she's she's got all the buttons

1:04:42

punched? Hello, Russell, I.

1:04:45

Don't know what you're so nervous about.

1:04:47

I mean I had total faith in her, right.

1:04:50

Right, perfect name, right, perfect

1:04:52

name. She's doing a bang up joke about

1:04:55

rock and roll on the show. Well,

1:04:59

we get talk about anything you want, Rose, look is Frankly,

1:05:01

I'm not sure football is working, so you know, right,

1:05:04

I don't know if it's rock and roll.

1:05:06

What are the Smashing Pumpkins considered.

1:05:10

Rock? I don't know how much of a roll, but

1:05:12

I would say rock? Sure?

1:05:13

Why not?

1:05:14

Yeah, absolutely heard that.

1:05:16

I heard that Pumpkins analogy, and I wore

1:05:19

you were out of your gold.

1:05:21

But stop

1:05:26

me something.

1:05:26

Want to find a drum roll?

1:05:29

But yeah, yeah, she's on

1:05:31

the phone with somebody else right now, so I guess you know people

1:05:33

are giving her congratulations everything. We're doing such

1:05:35

a good job today. Yeah, I know,

1:05:38

right, So, I you know I got

1:05:40

to start, uh at least with

1:05:42

with the Patriots here only because we just

1:05:44

got off the line with our good friend Vic

1:05:46

Carucci and uh, you

1:05:49

know, and getting his take on what

1:05:51

he's seen, and obviously he is underscored

1:05:54

really kind of what we've all feared about

1:05:56

in New England when he looks at the old twenty two and he

1:05:58

looks at the film, he looks at all this stuff, and he's one

1:06:00

of those you know, all twenty two geeks that you know, a lot

1:06:02

of us like to pretend we are, but really I

1:06:04

only know two or three people that are like. But

1:06:07

he's, you know, he's like, man, I've never seen

1:06:09

it like this in New England. And I'm kind of paraphrasing,

1:06:12

there's a lot of holes. And so when

1:06:14

you're at one in five and you've

1:06:16

got a lot of football still to play, and

1:06:18

you have a lot of walking wounded, which the Patriots

1:06:21

have, some walking some not, and

1:06:23

you're staring at Buffalo and Miami

1:06:25

back to back here and a shot you know, at

1:06:28

one in seven potentially going into

1:06:30

this, how do you get i

1:06:33

mean, how do you take that next

1:06:35

step forward?

1:06:37

Well, it's rough

1:06:40

to watch, and as long as you and I have been

1:06:42

doing this together, it's

1:06:45

uncharted territory. Yeah, and

1:06:48

you really have to go back to some I mean, listen,

1:06:52

the Patriots has some competitive teams.

1:06:54

Obviously, they were a super Bowl team with

1:06:57

Bill Poli Sells Pete Carroll had him in the playoffs

1:07:00

at least two times, ninety

1:07:02

seven to ninety eight. So

1:07:05

this is we're going back a while in

1:07:08

terms of this team, and they're just you

1:07:11

think about the fact that this team is averaging

1:07:14

twelve points.

1:07:15

A game, which is crazy.

1:07:19

That's, by the way, that's not dead last in the

1:07:21

league. That's next to least.

1:07:22

I mean the Giants. The Giants has scored one

1:07:24

less point than the Patriots. And

1:07:28

by the way, I will remind people that the

1:07:30

Giants have scored one more point

1:07:33

than the Dolphins did in Week three, and

1:07:35

the Patriots has scored two more.

1:07:37

Points than the game. Yeah,

1:07:39

I know right.

1:07:41

I'll tell you a number that really jumped out, and

1:07:44

we'll get the Buffalo in the second. As far as how

1:07:46

that series has slipped, this

1:07:50

is a team that's always been very opportunistic. Last

1:07:53

year it turned you know, a lot of turnovers

1:07:57

into or i should

1:07:59

say take away in the scores, little

1:08:02

shaky you know, special teams, and yet they

1:08:04

had their own problems and special teams as well.

1:08:07

But we're six games into the season. The

1:08:09

New England Patriots are dead last in the league.

1:08:12

Is three takeaways.

1:08:15

I mean, you know, that's that's you

1:08:17

know, you can't

1:08:19

beat anybody when you're not taking the ball away. You have

1:08:21

to have you got to have the difference that

1:08:23

I've seen, the main difference that I've seen between this Patriots

1:08:26

defense and even the one last year. And I think

1:08:28

this Patriots defense is probably more

1:08:30

talented overall than the one that they played

1:08:32

last year. But last year's team took

1:08:35

the ball away and

1:08:38

it made them more competitive. Yeah, they

1:08:40

had.

1:08:41

Thirty takeaways last year in seventeen games,

1:08:43

they have three.

1:08:44

Yeah, and six That should

1:08:46

say a lot right there.

1:08:48

We saw the Jets or four

1:08:50

turnovers against Philadelphia on Sunday alone.

1:08:52

Yep, yeah, so and

1:08:56

so and listen, you

1:08:58

could almost make them. In fact, you would make the

1:09:00

case that Matt Judon is

1:09:03

not only your best defensive player, he might be

1:09:05

the best player on the roster. And

1:09:07

not having this huge Yeah,

1:09:10

I.

1:09:10

Mean, you can certainly make a case for the two best

1:09:12

players, you know, being

1:09:14

gone from the defense with Bill Judon and Christian

1:09:17

Gonzales without.

1:09:18

A doubt, yes, yeah, and Gonzales

1:09:20

obviously in his rookie year. But it's made a solid

1:09:23

impact in just such a short time.

1:09:25

But this is when

1:09:28

you're a team that relies on defense like

1:09:30

they do, and you don't

1:09:32

have those kind of players around,

1:09:35

there's nothing really to flow back on. And I'm

1:09:37

not trying to be mister doom and gloom and stuff

1:09:39

like that, but if they're gonna, if they're

1:09:42

gonna pull this off the next

1:09:44

couple of weeks, and listen, you

1:09:46

know, the Bills as disappointing

1:09:48

as New England is, the Bills

1:09:51

are perplexing, okay,

1:09:53

because they still

1:09:56

have, you know, kind of the issue

1:09:58

with turnovers. Their defenses.

1:10:01

They gave up correctly if for one, they gave up

1:10:03

like four hundred and seventy four yards yeah

1:10:06

to the Jaguars in London.

1:10:07

Yeah, yeah, they did, they did.

1:10:09

They almost put that John.

1:10:12

They didn't score a point until the fourth

1:10:15

quarter against the Giants on Sunday night. So

1:10:19

which version of Buffalo shows up this week?

1:10:21

Now?

1:10:21

I know, you know, you

1:10:24

know, it's actually an amazing set.

1:10:26

You know.

1:10:26

Bill Belichick from two thousand to twenty

1:10:29

nineteen went thirty five

1:10:31

and five against the Bills since

1:10:34

twenty twenty, including the playoffs, He's

1:10:36

one and six.

1:10:39

That's yeah, right, that's.

1:10:41

And the Bills

1:10:43

have had few problems scoring points, with the

1:10:45

exception of that bad

1:10:48

weather game in Buffalo,

1:10:50

which was you know, the wind and all that a

1:10:53

couple of years ago. But I mean it's been Listen,

1:10:56

they've kind of taken the mantle for him. But

1:10:58

then again, if you look, it's a Bills

1:11:00

and their own inability to hang

1:11:02

on to the football, and they're great to taken it away,

1:11:05

but they're still sloppy. And it's more than

1:11:08

just Josh Allen, right, but for

1:11:10

lack of a better word, Jound there's almost like the Devil

1:11:12

may care attitude when the Bills play, and

1:11:15

they can put a lot of points on the board, and

1:11:18

then they can also kind

1:11:20

of, you know, do their best to give it a give

1:11:22

away a game. And you

1:11:24

know, I'm not one who complains

1:11:27

much about officiating because I've just accepted

1:11:30

the fact that it's not very good around the league

1:11:32

and it hasn't been for a number

1:11:34

of years, and you know, until we get full time

1:11:36

officials, I think that's just how it's going to be.

1:11:38

Yeah, And I would tell you as far as that part

1:11:41

is concerned. Look, I think

1:11:43

replay has really done a lot to add

1:11:45

to that problem because they're under the pressure

1:11:47

to get it right and so they hesitate. And

1:11:50

frankly, I think all of us as football connoisseurs

1:11:53

are okay with human error, but when

1:11:56

we really try to micro manage it and

1:11:58

we're looking at it to the nth degree, and oh,

1:12:00

I think there's a blade of grass there that the way,

1:12:02

you know, that's ridiculous. We just need to learn

1:12:04

to move on. And I think you know, the NFL

1:12:06

has been its own worst enemy. Where that where the poor

1:12:09

officiating concern?

1:12:10

Yeah, I agree, And and the point

1:12:12

I was going to bring you is the Darren

1:12:15

Waller play at the end of the game last Sunday

1:12:17

night. That hard to believe

1:12:19

there's no call there, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:12:22

And I'm not saying that Giants would have punched

1:12:24

it in after that, and believing the Giants

1:12:27

Giants offense is five touchdowns in

1:12:30

six games, and four of them came

1:12:32

in one game. So even

1:12:34

if they would have had another opportunity, and I'm not saying

1:12:36

they would have gotten the ball in, but

1:12:39

you know, the Bills, the Bills

1:12:42

are a team to me that are like

1:12:45

playing with fire.

1:12:47

You know.

1:12:47

They they did a number one the Dolphins

1:12:50

and then followed it up by laying out let's

1:12:52

see what would be I'm

1:12:55

trying to think of an English breakfast eggs

1:12:57

and beans, isn't it?

1:13:00

It's bangers and match. I can't

1:13:04

that too, but but yeah, it's the

1:13:07

traditional uh you know English

1:13:09

breakfast, right, yeah, except

1:13:11

except don't don't don't try the blood pulling. It's

1:13:13

nasty.

1:13:16

The bills have just been Listen,

1:13:18

anything can happen in this league. We saw trust

1:13:21

me recent line. I have a piece coming that later.

1:13:24

The offenses took last week

1:13:26

off. Yeah, I'm around the

1:13:28

league, John. You know there were thirty

1:13:30

teams that played last week. Do you have any idea how

1:13:32

I may even scored thirty points?

1:13:35

None?

1:13:36

Two?

1:13:37

Okay, it was close?

1:13:39

Two?

1:13:39

Yeah?

1:13:41

Only three of the thirty are you for this? Only

1:13:43

three of the thirty teams scored

1:13:45

more than two offensive sections.

1:13:48

See now that's that's to me, that that's

1:13:50

crazy, that that's nuts. And so you

1:13:52

know, as offensive minded as the game has

1:13:54

really become over the last you know, decade

1:13:56

plus, here, yeah, we're still

1:13:58

seeing a perfect example of how cyclical

1:14:02

the sport really is. And I begin

1:14:04

to understand a little bit more to get

1:14:06

I think, to the larger point here, especially where the Patriots

1:14:09

are concerned, begin to understand why Bill thinks.

1:14:11

Bill Belichick thinks the way he does. You know that we're

1:14:13

gonna build up defense because defense is where it's

1:14:15

gonna be. This is where we're gonna win football games. And I

1:14:17

had this argument with Evan Lazarre, you know, to

1:14:19

start the show today, and he grudgingly

1:14:22

started to give in to me a little bit, because the Patriots always

1:14:24

defer, and they start the game with their

1:14:27

defense on the field. But the problem

1:14:29

is is their defense can't get off the field, and the

1:14:31

team invariably gives up a six

1:14:33

seven, eight minute drive to start the game and they

1:14:35

dig themselves a hole from which they can never climb

1:14:38

out of.

1:14:39

Well, they deferred themselves

1:14:41

to the tune of thirty nine to six.

1:14:44

In the first quarter of this year.

1:14:46

Thirty nine to six three

1:14:49

in the first half. Wait say the first

1:14:51

half score again?

1:14:52

What was it?

1:14:53

Ninety eight to thirty three?

1:14:55

Okay, all right, So anybody who says

1:14:58

the Patriots should defer early

1:15:00

has their head up their keyster because

1:15:04

that's that's ridiculous, and you keep expecting

1:15:06

it to do better. If that's

1:15:09

not an example of insanity, I don't

1:15:11

know what else would be. That's football

1:15:13

insanity right there. That's a perfect example

1:15:15

of it. And the numbers bear it out.

1:15:19

I mean, their offensives generated eight touchdowns

1:15:21

in six games. I don't look

1:15:23

at total touchdowns.

1:15:24

I look at the offensive I

1:15:26

happen to have heard a promo on

1:15:29

the Patriots the flagship

1:15:31

radio station this week, and

1:15:34

of course there's you know, our good friend Bob Soci

1:15:36

who calls the games of the radio in the background,

1:15:38

given the call, that call is from last year,

1:15:41

why because there haven't been that many touchdown

1:15:43

calls this year? How

1:15:46

crazy is that?

1:15:47

Eighth offensive touchdowns? And

1:15:50

to make matters worse? Okay,

1:15:52

for a team last year that

1:15:54

relied on the return game and then when I say

1:15:57

returns, that interception,

1:16:00

fumble returns, special

1:16:02

teams, all that stuff. I mean, keep

1:16:05

in mind that last year as

1:16:07

I scroll through my little notes

1:16:09

here.

1:16:10

Yeah, that I love when you scroll the.

1:16:14

Patriots often last

1:16:16

year scored thirty one touchdown

1:16:18

offensive They

1:16:21

had eight returns for

1:16:24

touchdowns eight returns eight

1:16:26

returns including five interception returns

1:16:29

for touchdowns. Okay,

1:16:31

they have three takeaways and they have

1:16:34

zippo zip return touchdowns

1:16:36

this year.

1:16:36

Okay, so that's the difference between

1:16:39

eight and nine a year ago, and God only

1:16:41

knows what this year right.

1:16:44

Right, Well, if they

1:16:47

are relying on a certain style and

1:16:49

unfortunately they have a

1:16:52

guy who creates

1:16:54

chaos in the backfield ye backs,

1:16:57

strips, et cetera, et cetera, and they

1:17:00

don't want him right now, that's making the task

1:17:03

obviously the bat in the charterer. So, like

1:17:06

I said, it's going to be an interesting

1:17:08

stretch for him in the next couple of weeks with

1:17:11

Buffalo and Miami. They've already know

1:17:13

in Miami one.

1:17:14

So yeah, yeah, we

1:17:17

shall see.

1:17:18

Like I said, this is uncharted territory for

1:17:20

for quite a while.

1:17:21

No kaid to go back to nineteen

1:17:24

ninety two.

1:17:25

I mean we're probably talking Lady'd like the Bloodstoe

1:17:27

era.

1:17:28

Yeah, well pre bread So era. As far as I'm

1:17:30

concerned, we're talking I think

1:17:32

maybe even the uh oh god,

1:17:36

we're talking Rod Rushed era and coaching Well,

1:17:40

yes.

1:17:41

Right, and I always

1:17:43

and I almost think about now that I'm

1:17:45

going to go even further back to

1:17:50

like nineteen eighty one, when they

1:17:53

won like only two games

1:17:56

and then wind up taking Tenants.

1:17:58

In the first pick.

1:17:59

Yeah, yeah, right draft.

1:18:00

Yeah, and.

1:18:02

Why I point that out my former college

1:18:04

classmate, by the.

1:18:05

Way, Oh really, well,

1:18:08

you know what I what I remember most

1:18:10

about that year is

1:18:14

the Baltimore Colts also finished two and fourteen.

1:18:18

And correct me if I'm wrong. They

1:18:21

began the season by beating the Patriots.

1:18:25

They then turned around and lost fourteen straight

1:18:27

games and then ended the season

1:18:30

by beating the Patriots. So

1:18:33

but I mean, obviously we're going way way

1:18:35

back with this team, which I ought to

1:18:37

tell you how you know, you

1:18:40

know what this franchise accomplished

1:18:43

over a twenty year period, No question, there

1:18:46

are there is a fan base out

1:18:48

there and followers of the team

1:18:51

who don't know the Patriots other

1:18:53

than being a winning franchise.

1:18:57

Yeah, in the last three years.

1:19:00

Yeah, there's absolutely an entire you know, there's

1:19:02

a couple of generations with the fans that don't know anything.

1:19:04

You know.

1:19:05

I've heard people, you know, call this show

1:19:07

and call Patriots unfieldered here

1:19:09

and respond you know, to mail bag stuff

1:19:11

here on the website and everything else, you know here in their

1:19:13

twenties and they don't know anything other than

1:19:16

Patriots and super Bowl championships, so

1:19:18

they're not even sure how to react. And you

1:19:20

know, unfortunately that's what these Patriots

1:19:23

were when I first started covering the NFL. They were sad

1:19:25

sacks. And you know, it

1:19:27

took you know, you know, mister crafts

1:19:29

purchase and and one, you know, Bill

1:19:32

Parcells to kind of be you know, change that thought

1:19:34

process around. And then we all know

1:19:36

what the history has been in the twenty two, twenty

1:19:39

three, twenty four years now since you know, Bill

1:19:41

Belichick arrived. It's it's certainly been different. And

1:19:43

you just got to remember what

1:19:45

it took to get you to where you were

1:19:48

dominant. And you've got to make sure

1:19:50

that you're willing to accept that,

1:19:53

because I've thought for a long time there was not a

1:19:55

willingness to accept that you were lousy.

1:19:58

And you've got to accept that we're lousy

1:20:00

and we need help and we need different

1:20:02

people to chime in here because Bill's

1:20:05

way or the highway just isn't working. So

1:20:08

another conversation for the day. Let me hit on a couple

1:20:10

of other games here really quickly, a couple of games that I'm looking

1:20:13

forward to to kind of watching and seeing just to find

1:20:15

out if they're for real or not. I'll lead

1:20:17

off with what is going to be tomorrow night, Jaguars

1:20:20

playing at the Saints. I'm really intrigued

1:20:22

by the Jags and if their quarterback

1:20:25

is healthy, I you know, I think

1:20:27

Jacksonville could be a real sleeper for the rest of

1:20:29

the year. And then the other one I think that could

1:20:32

be damn exciting is Detroit

1:20:34

playing at Baltimore. And if there is

1:20:36

a team that you know, New England fans should

1:20:38

root for, it has to be Detroit for

1:20:40

the rest of the year because if they win

1:20:43

their six and one and

1:20:46

they haven't been six and one in

1:20:48

the Super Bowl era. I know you

1:20:50

knew that.

1:20:53

Listen if you want.

1:20:56

And listen.

1:20:57

They got, you know, not

1:21:00

off Kansas City, and a lot of people focused

1:21:02

on the aspect of no Chris Jones and no Travis

1:21:04

Kelsey. But if you watch that game

1:21:06

and you watch the physical nature of

1:21:09

the Lions, and then of course next week at home

1:21:11

they kind of squandered the lead and lost to Seattle

1:21:13

and overtime, Well they haven't long since,

1:21:16

and you know, next

1:21:18

to Kingston Sydney, they're the second hottest

1:21:20

team in the league, and they're much

1:21:23

different than they were to start last

1:21:25

year when their defense was an

1:21:28

absolute sieve. They

1:21:30

are they can run the ball and

1:21:33

listen. Defensively, they were bad

1:21:35

for a couple of years. But guess

1:21:37

who's leading the league in

1:21:40

run defense right now?

1:21:42

Run defense.

1:21:43

Yeah, and this is something tom

1:21:45

Jackson and I always used to look at. Now

1:21:48

I find this interesting. And this is by

1:21:50

two yards, okay, So

1:21:52

you know, take it for what it's worth. Tommy

1:21:55

and I would talk about the fact that teams

1:21:58

that were ranked the ten right

1:22:02

both offensively and defensively

1:22:05

in terms of total yard In

1:22:07

other words, Tillillyard's game in

1:22:09

total yards were Okay, there

1:22:14

are only four teams

1:22:17

that can claim that in the league right now.

1:22:20

There's a Go forty nine Ers, the

1:22:23

Philadelphia Eagles, the Kansas

1:22:25

City Chiefs and gold the

1:22:27

Detroit Line.

1:22:28

Wow.

1:22:29

Wow, okay worked

1:22:34

for me.

1:22:34

So this is not this is not fluky.

1:22:37

This is a team that finished eight and two a

1:22:40

year ago after a one in six start.

1:22:44

So eight and two and five

1:22:46

and one that has thirteen.

1:22:47

And thirteen and three pretty good.

1:22:50

And quite and quite a run. And so

1:22:53

I mean they went into Kansas City and

1:22:55

he defending Super Bowl champions and

1:22:58

went into Tampa and beat the first place

1:23:00

team. Okay, so this

1:23:03

ought to be. Now here's

1:23:06

the over under this week when it comes to the Lions

1:23:08

and the Ravens. How many times

1:23:10

will the network show Justin

1:23:13

Tucker's field

1:23:15

goal from a couple of years ago, which set the

1:23:17

NFL record in Detroit, the one

1:23:19

that bounced off the uh not

1:23:22

the crossbar but.

1:23:22

The the other bar.

1:23:24

Yeah, yeah, went through

1:23:26

and the Lions lost the heartbreak. Yeah,

1:23:29

the under on that.

1:23:30

Kick game show two or three at least,

1:23:32

right, let's say we'll say two and a half.

1:23:35

There you go.

1:23:36

Okay, Yeah, I like that. A

1:23:39

couple of great games coming up, and then, of course I think we'd

1:23:41

be remiss if we didn't mention the

1:23:43

fact on Sunday night, the Dolphins are playing

1:23:45

at the Eagles, you know, and you know Miami.

1:23:48

You know, we've already know that. You know, it's one of the quickest

1:23:51

teams that we've seen, fastest teams we've seen out there.

1:23:53

The Eagles have you know, proved mortal and they're

1:23:56

the cause for celebration, I think from

1:23:58

the remaining members of the seventy two Dolphin

1:24:01

celebrating because they finally got beat But hey,

1:24:04

this could be a huge bounce back opportunity for Philly

1:24:06

on Sunday Night.

1:24:08

If you like wide receivers,

1:24:11

Sunday Night is the place to be in terms

1:24:13

of the talent. Tyree Killed

1:24:16

and Jalen Waddle, Devonte

1:24:19

Smith and AJ Brown.

1:24:20

Right yeah, Tyree Kill and AJ.

1:24:22

Brown are one to two in the league right now

1:24:25

in some self receiving guards.

1:24:26

Yeah, you like receivers or

1:24:28

you're not used to seeing good receivers, especially

1:24:30

if you're a Patriots fan. You want to watch Sunday

1:24:32

Night's game.

1:24:33

Yeah, and I got something coming

1:24:35

out on this later, which I's always interesting.

1:24:37

Okay, but oops,

1:24:46

Yeah, what happened?

1:24:47

Oh?

1:24:47

I think when you were trying to hit that one button,

1:24:50

it hung up on the other one. Okay,

1:24:54

yeah, yeah, try it. Faith

1:24:57

gets a pass because Faith is taking over

1:24:59

from marine to so kind

1:25:01

of you know, hey, it is what it is this

1:25:04

time. It wasn't Russell's phone that broke up normally

1:25:09

that's kind of the situation there. Yeah, see if you can

1:25:11

get him back on, you know, and we'll we'll

1:25:13

at least finish up our chit chat here and

1:25:16

then Karen Griegan from Mass Live.

1:25:18

She's going to join us here momentarily. I

1:25:20

think part of the problem on that one is because

1:25:23

the line that you were using faith, I'm not sure

1:25:25

that's an open line. So we only have a

1:25:27

few open lines here, so that's why, you know, sometimes

1:25:30

it happens like that. So we'll you

1:25:32

know, we'll get that done. In the meantime.

1:25:34

Let me remind you Patriots fans, if you want to see Toyota's

1:25:36

best offers, including those not seen on

1:25:38

TV, go to buy a Toyota dot

1:25:41

Com is Toyota's official website

1:25:43

for deals from the official vehicle of the

1:25:45

New England Patriots, Toyota. Let's

1:25:47

go places, all right, That

1:25:50

one was on faith. She's okay, she's got

1:25:52

you back, I think now.

1:25:53

I told her, I told her I had faith

1:25:55

in her.

1:25:56

Yeah, well, of course naturally, right, random,

1:26:00

Okay.

1:26:00

The Dolphins played, uh, the

1:26:03

Patriots in Week two, and the Patriots

1:26:06

quarterback was.

1:26:08

Back in week two.

1:26:10

Yeah, Patriots quarterback with Mac Shoon.

1:26:12

Oh yeah, okay, right, okay,

1:26:14

yeah, So.

1:26:16

Last week they played the Panthers,

1:26:19

spot at them fourteen and then beat them by twenty

1:26:21

one.

1:26:21

Yeah.

1:26:23

Panther's quarterback was Bryce.

1:26:25

Young, Ryce young. Yeah. Right.

1:26:27

This week, the Eagles

1:26:29

quarterback is jal So,

1:26:33

a team that has a former University

1:26:36

of Alabama quarterback already

1:26:38

in Tua. Yeah, we'll be facing

1:26:40

its third.

1:26:42

Former Alabama quarterback.

1:26:44

Yeah, in seven guineas.

1:26:46

Yeah, that's that means that

1:26:49

means that, you know, roll tide. I guess right,

1:26:51

roll tide.

1:26:53

Apparently apparently the Patriots don't have

1:26:55

Georgia on their minds. They have Alabama.

1:26:58

Have Alabama? Yeah, home

1:27:00

Alabama? Right, Okay, all right,

1:27:02

Russell, I thank you as always for the

1:27:04

time and for the catch up and the ability

1:27:07

to you know, make some sense with

1:27:09

some numbers that you know. Uh, it

1:27:11

may not make me feel better, but it leads me makes

1:27:13

me feel like I'm not going crazy here because

1:27:16

things obviously have stirred in a little bit of

1:27:18

a different direction, and hey, we just

1:27:20

have to kind of let this thing play out and see how it

1:27:22

goes. I would suggest to you that

1:27:27

I'd be surprised if we saw

1:27:29

anything definitive happen with this New England

1:27:31

team before the end of the year. What is your thought

1:27:33

on that on that concern, especially if things continue

1:27:36

to go south.

1:27:37

Because the better organizations

1:27:40

do not make knee jerk reaction and

1:27:43

all around league. You know, you have certain

1:27:45

fame bases and certain people

1:27:48

who covered Limbin, and they're

1:27:50

so anxious when things go bad for

1:27:53

a couple of years to want

1:27:55

to pull the plugg Yeah, and that's what happens

1:27:57

with New England.

1:27:58

Yeah, okay, you go

1:28:00

back to Pittsburgh.

1:28:01

You know Bill Cower was

1:28:04

losing AFC title games year

1:28:06

after year and losing him at home. They

1:28:10

got to the super Bowl against the Cowboys finally

1:28:12

in the awe, and then he went to

1:28:14

a little drought, but they stuck

1:28:17

with him and eventually he

1:28:19

rewarded them with a super Bowl title. Okay,

1:28:22

okay, I heard what you said.

1:28:24

I mean, I know Todd is you know, Todd is

1:28:26

ready to hire Bill Belichick to do whatever

1:28:29

you want them to do. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but

1:28:33

you have to give him the chance. You

1:28:35

can't take twenty

1:28:37

years of equity and nine

1:28:40

super Bowl appearances and

1:28:43

then just jump ship. Yeah

1:28:45

because of maybe three bad years

1:28:47

and foe.

1:28:48

Yeah.

1:28:50

No matter, how, no matter how much you know your

1:28:52

your your customers are clamoring

1:28:54

for a change.

1:28:56

Well, you know, I don't see the customers

1:28:59

calling play. I don't see the customers

1:29:01

catching passes, which I

1:29:03

wish Devonte Porker would have done last year. Right,

1:29:08

Okay, I mean.

1:29:09

I'm glad you saw that too, because he doesn't

1:29:11

think he doesn't think it was catchable.

1:29:14

Are you kidding me?

1:29:15

I know, I know.

1:29:16

I'm not going to say I could have called it.

1:29:18

I mean, but in the hands where Spoty

1:29:20

get hit, right, I don't.

1:29:22

I think that was one of the things that was

1:29:24

so deflating about last week's loss.

1:29:27

That Mac Jones threw a

1:29:29

perfect pat literally perfect

1:29:32

past.

1:29:32

One of the best throwers he's had all year. Yes,

1:29:35

correct field.

1:29:35

Goal range, and then one play later

1:29:37

he gets.

1:29:38

Backed for safety and it's all over.

1:29:39

Yeah, we talked about uh

1:29:42

exaxt swing. I mean, that's, lack

1:29:45

of a better word, almost like the five point swing, no

1:29:47

question, you know, because let's

1:29:49

say he gets down there and okay,

1:29:51

maybe they missed a field goal, but at least they're in position.

1:29:54

Yeah, fraud correct and yet

1:29:56

and.

1:29:56

Then you turn around and then Crosby

1:29:58

winds up sacking that.

1:30:00

Yeah, I'm being crossby. Okay,

1:30:03

now you're showing your age.

1:30:08

Got hurt.

1:30:08

I got hit Oh

1:30:11

yeah, more than one. Oh, we're

1:30:13

full of them today. I love it. But thanks,

1:30:17

buddy. Good to talk to you. As always, I'll check

1:30:19

in with you very very soon.

1:30:21

All right, let's believe thet.

1:30:25

Hopefully hopefully Russell

1:30:27

Baxter at Backs football Guru

1:30:30

on X is where you'll find him there, all

1:30:32

right. Karen Krigian from Mass Lives coming up

1:30:34

in the meantime, Eldred, you're

1:30:36

in Charlotte today? Is

1:30:40

Eldred still there? Eldred may not

1:30:42

be there?

1:30:43

All right?

1:30:43

I'm gonna put Eldred on hold just the event that he

1:30:45

is unloading his truck. Patty

1:30:48

and Patty, Patty,

1:30:54

what's happening?

1:30:57

Not too much?

1:30:58

Driving a class?

1:30:59

Okay?

1:31:00

Kay?

1:31:00

Well of course you driving to class? Are

1:31:03

you teaching or taking?

1:31:06

Oh no, I'm I'm I'm a student.

1:31:09

Wow?

1:31:09

And what do you take?

1:31:10

What are you?

1:31:11

What?

1:31:11

Are you a student of.

1:31:14

HCAC and Refrigeration?

1:31:16

Okay, Well

1:31:19

that's good to know because when you get into that

1:31:21

and you start doing that, people don't want to know that you know what

1:31:23

the hell you're doing.

1:31:24

Right, I'm

1:31:26

looking to get my license so so

1:31:28

I can do it legit.

1:31:29

Good for you, Good for you. Go get them study

1:31:32

hard, yes,

1:31:34

sir, I always do.

1:31:36

So.

1:31:37

I had a question.

1:31:37

I wanted to post to you, John. I posed

1:31:40

this to Catch twenty two last week and been

1:31:43

busy the last couple of days of work.

1:31:45

I was hoping to pose it to.

1:31:46

See you guys do and hopefully I'll

1:31:48

get a chance to. But just

1:31:52

for poops and giggles, Let's say the Patriots

1:31:55

who end up with a top five six this

1:31:57

year, in your opinion,

1:32:00

do you think they should take a quarter.

1:32:04

Yob all

1:32:06

right, your

1:32:09

phone call has broken up. I think

1:32:12

I understood most of that, Patty, and

1:32:15

you know, frankly, I think would be a good

1:32:17

idea to ask this person that

1:32:20

very very question. Karen Krigan from Mass Live

1:32:22

joining us here in the playbook. Karen, I think

1:32:24

that question was let's say the Paperots get that top

1:32:26

five pick, should they be thinking quarterback

1:32:28

up high? Are there just too many holes

1:32:31

that this team needs to fill

1:32:33

for, you know, quarterback to really

1:32:35

even be a thought. I would tell you that I

1:32:38

would lean other than quarterback,

1:32:40

but that's just me because I don't think they're going to get the two guys

1:32:42

that really might benefit them the most. That

1:32:44

would be having one of the top couple of picks and being

1:32:47

able to get either Caleb Williams, who I'm not sure

1:32:49

is all of that. I've seen him play in

1:32:52

Drake May from North Carolina. What do you think?

1:32:55

Yeah, well, I think if they're not in

1:32:58

the one or two holes, god,

1:33:01

they could sure use a left tackle. They

1:33:03

could sure use a receiver.

1:33:05

Yeah.

1:33:06

And there's a couple of good ones in the draft

1:33:08

coming out.

1:33:09

Yep, I've heard already. My

1:33:12

boy mel Kiper has already said there are like six

1:33:15

or seven guys in like the top, you

1:33:17

know, fifty or sixty players maybe the first couple

1:33:19

of rounds in terms of tackles that'll be available,

1:33:21

that are high caliber guys. And I'm like, Okay,

1:33:24

sign mem for any one of them, Sign mam

1:33:26

for two of them.

1:33:28

Yeah, I'm I'm with you.

1:33:30

But they're like a day laid a dollar

1:33:33

short. They should have done that this past draft.

1:33:36

Instead, they drafted every guard known

1:33:39

to man.

1:33:40

Yep, they certainly did all right, So

1:33:42

before we jump way ahead on that, because clearly

1:33:44

there's a lot of football still to be played. Even though I know

1:33:46

that, you know, it seems like all the questions that I've

1:33:48

taken have all been about, wait, what do you think we got

1:33:50

to do about the draft? I'm like, guys, it's

1:33:53

freaking October, you know. I

1:33:55

mean, I realized that we haven't been in this position for

1:33:57

thirty years. But at the same time, you

1:33:59

know, it's a long, long season,

1:34:02

you know, based on your conversations

1:34:04

with these guys, you know, and in

1:34:07

listening to the coach, and the players

1:34:09

are getting the same thing, you know, week

1:34:11

after week after week. Are they Is it

1:34:14

even possible that you might see them

1:34:16

turn around and give us I

1:34:18

don't want to say false hope, but maybe provide

1:34:20

a little momentum to to

1:34:23

somewhere. I mean, because it seems like I know most

1:34:25

people I talk to. In fact, I talked to a couple of friends today,

1:34:28

Karen who said, you know, I don't even know why they want

1:34:30

to win another game this year, because you know, even if they win

1:34:32

another game, but it's only going to postpone the inevitable. And

1:34:34

I'm like, I just don't know that that's the attitude

1:34:37

that anybody who plays professional sports really

1:34:39

entertains. I mean, unless you've

1:34:42

been in a locker room and you've been in a huddle and you've

1:34:44

gotten you know, hit over the head with somebody else's

1:34:46

you know, forearm, I'm not sure

1:34:49

that anybody else other

1:34:51

than people on the outside think that way.

1:34:54

Yeah. I don't think that's the

1:34:56

attitude now for sure. But

1:35:02

you know, you got Buffalo and Miami

1:35:04

back to back, so you could

1:35:07

conceivably be one in seven at

1:35:10

the midway point. And

1:35:13

then you know, I think human nature

1:35:15

kind of takes its course and

1:35:17

while they you know, the players will say all

1:35:20

the right things, some of them, you

1:35:22

know, who were in the final years of their deals.

1:35:25

You know, you might these

1:35:27

guys might start thinking individually as

1:35:30

opposed to collectively as a team.

1:35:32

By that, I mean, you know, do

1:35:35

I want to get hurt and

1:35:38

hurt my chances to get a big contract?

1:35:41

You know, so that these are like external

1:35:43

factors that I think come into play, John,

1:35:47

Do I think it's right now? No, But

1:35:50

if the losing continues, those

1:35:52

type of things I think will

1:35:54

enter the picture.

1:35:56

Do you see any scenario where

1:35:59

mister Kraft would have to make a decision on Bill

1:36:01

Belichick as the head coach of this team before

1:36:03

the end of the year.

1:36:08

Wow, I've

1:36:10

always I've always said no

1:36:12

on that. I think I don't think he would do anything

1:36:15

in the middle of the season, no matter how

1:36:17

bad they are. But you

1:36:21

know, if if

1:36:24

Bob is thinking about mister Kraft

1:36:26

is thinking about waiting to the end. I

1:36:29

mean there's decisions that have to

1:36:31

be made. The trade deadline is coming

1:36:33

up, yp and you have to

1:36:36

really start thinking about

1:36:38

the future. And if

1:36:40

Bill Belichick is here still

1:36:43

coaching, he's the guy who's thinking about

1:36:45

the future.

1:36:46

Ye.

1:36:48

If mister Kraft is deciding

1:36:51

and knows already that he's going to be moving

1:36:54

on, I don't know.

1:36:55

Maybe you you do make some

1:36:57

moves if you could.

1:37:00

Do you think the Patriots could make a move right

1:37:02

now before the trading diedline that would

1:37:05

actually help this team long term? Would

1:37:07

they unload a contract? Would they what

1:37:09

would they do if they if they should make one?

1:37:12

Have you given that any thought yet?

1:37:14

Well? I just think whoever is

1:37:16

going to be making such decisions

1:37:18

has to decide, you

1:37:21

know, do you part with several

1:37:23

of these players who are going to get

1:37:26

you something back? You

1:37:28

know, do you want assets or do

1:37:30

you want to hold on and these players try to resign

1:37:33

them for Bill or whoever