Matt St. Jean reacts to New England's 3rd win of the season in Pittsburgh.
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00:42 I'm Matt St.
00:43 Gene. No Pat Lane joining me tonight.
00:46 He had the pleasure of being at this one.
00:49 And I'm sure he had a great time with the Patriots pick up a
00:56 huge win 21 to 18,
00:59 their third win of the season and impactful one,
01:02 which we're going to be talking about here, breaking it all down once again,
01:06 I'm Matt St.
01:07 Gene here with CLNS media Patriot Nation podcast. And yeah,
01:11 we got a late night here after the Thursday night game.
01:14 Patriots go into Pittsburgh for the second year in a row and pull out a
01:19 victory. The last time they did that was at 2010 and 2011 seasons,
01:24 2010. That was the Gronk breakout game where he
01:29 dominated the Steelers in his rookie year.
01:32 And yeah, a surprising victory.
01:36 The Patriots were not expected to win this game.
01:39 They weren't expected to keep it that competitive.
01:42 The line on this one was six points.
01:45 So now that the question for most really was,
01:48 would they be able to keep it within a score?
01:50 And they set the tone early. This is like I said,
01:53 their third win of the season.
01:55 And there's something in common with all three of those wins.
01:59 All three had a double digit point leads in the first
02:04 half by the Patriots.
02:05 And that's a that's a key to victory for them.
02:09 There's a team built to play from ahead,
02:12 as we talked about back in the preseed.
02:14 Now, obviously, that plan has not worked for them all season long.
02:19 But you know, the the times where they've been able to build that lead,
02:22 they have held onto it.
02:23 You go back to that Jets game back in September
02:27 when we still had a lot of hope for this team.
02:29 They go up 10 nothing in the first quarter and ride that one
02:34 to a victory as the offense spluttered on a rainy day in the Meadowlands.
02:38 You go to the win against the Bills.
02:41 You get a field goal on the opening drive, an immediate interception
02:44 turned into a touchdown.
02:46 And you're up 10 nothing.
02:47 And then tonight they go up 14 to three.
02:50 So we're going to get into the implications of this win.
02:55 What it means the Patriots short term.
02:57 What it means for them long term.
02:59 Yes, they are still technically in the playoff hunt and not eliminated quite yet.
03:03 Although that can change, change this weekend
03:07 with a win from any number of teams could knock them out at this point.
03:10 But before we get into that, let's talk about what happened in this
03:15 in this victory that these wins have become oh, so rare in New England as of late.
03:21 And it started with getting off the bus ready to play.
03:27 Bailey's Appy came out firing.
03:29 The offensive line came out ready to go.
03:32 And on the opening drive, you had a pair of really big plays.
03:36 We're going to go to Juju Smith Schuster first here, who had his best game
03:41 in New England.
03:41 He makes a big contested catch down the left side,
03:46 double covered over a guy, a ball that maybe was an ill advised
03:52 throw from Bailey's Appy, but Juju Smith Schuster bails him out.
03:56 You see that big frame that he has show up on that as he makes the catch.
04:01 He's actually been one of the better contested catch receivers
04:04 in the NFL this season, too.
04:06 It's it's it seems like it's been after the catch, and sometimes
04:09 it's been the easier catches where he's had some issues here.
04:12 But contested catches he's done well at was a 37 yard play.
04:17 He had an explosive play on that first drive,
04:20 which after after last week against the Giants
04:25 felt like those were never going to see those again in New England.
04:29 So getting one right off the bat was good.
04:31 And then after that, you get a third nine from the Pittsburgh twenty five
04:35 and you get Bailey's Appy creating with his feet, picking up yards
04:39 on the ground to move the chains and they cash it in,
04:42 dumps it off to Ezekiel Elliott, takes it in from 11 yards out for the score.
04:47 And all of a sudden you're up seven up and first first drive touchdown.
04:51 Since I believe the Thanksgiving game last year in Minnesota.
04:55 So impressive execution there on a short week with backup quarterback
05:00 and a lot of your weapons down.
05:02 We didn't see this coming with the guys.
05:04 They were going to be out there against a good defense.
05:06 And TJ won't got injured on that first drive.
05:10 And I think they took advantage of that, but they have not been able
05:14 to take advantage of opposing injuries this season.
05:17 So credit to them for making that happen.
05:22 And that that was something Zappi kind of kept it going there.
05:27 The defense gets an interception there later in the in the ballgame.
05:32 That was the very beginning of the second quarter.
05:35 The first play, the second quarter, triple peppers gets a pick.
05:38 And you see the red zone execution.
05:40 Bailey's Appy once again able to make some nice throws,
05:45 put the ball in places where only his receivers are going to be able to catch it.
05:49 That was a consistent theme in the first half for him.
05:51 And it's a guy who's dealt with accuracy issues, dealt with processing issues.
05:55 And the first half, he looked good on both of those fronts.
05:59 He was placing balls where they needed to be.
06:01 He was quick. He was decisive.
06:03 I thought he did a good job of both attacking down the field
06:07 and taking the check downs when they were there.
06:10 And you see him using his feet. You see the pocket presence.
06:14 It was an improvement from what we've been seeing out of Mac Jones
06:17 since the first three weeks of the season before the Dallas game
06:20 and really made the first week of the season is the last time we saw Mac Jones
06:23 look anything like this when it comes to his decisiveness
06:27 outside of points in that game against the Buffalo Bills.
06:31 So good stuff there from Zappi.
06:33 And some of the best that he has played in New England in the first half.
06:38 Obviously, the Stewarts did get a field goal in there, but
06:42 Patriots would score another first half touchdown.
06:45 Zappi became the first.
06:47 I can't believe this when they said it.
06:49 The first New England quarterback to throw three first half touchdowns
06:53 and Tom Brady.
06:54 But then Zappi was able to do another one of these drives
07:00 where he pushes the ball down the field.
07:03 They have a four play 59 yard touchdown drive
07:07 where you generate multiple explosive plays on it.
07:11 You start out with two short throws.
07:14 Sorry, not too sure.
07:17 There was a short run, a short throw, end up in third and three
07:20 from midfield, and you're able from there to get into the end zone in two plays.
07:24 And this is where I think we saw the best version of Juju Smith Schuster
07:28 we've seen all season long.
07:30 He gets the 28 yard catch and run on third down.
07:33 That's the most explosive that he has looked after the catch
07:36 at any point this season.
07:38 This is a guy who came in as one of the best after the catch
07:42 threats in the whole NFL last year.
07:45 He's been dead last, according to next gen stats this year.
07:49 And you could see the knee injury bothering him and his lack of agility,
07:53 lack of explosiveness.
07:54 Tonight, this looked a little bit more like Kansas City.
07:57 Juju Smith Schuster.
07:58 It wasn't it's not all the way back, but, you know, getting back to 80% of that,
08:03 which is a huge boost to this offense.
08:07 And you start to feel a little bit better about the receiving core
08:11 if he if he is going to be under contract next year.
08:14 And if this is the result of him kind of getting healthier here,
08:17 feel a little bit you feel a little bit better about what you might have
08:21 in Smith Schuster or if he plays like this, your ability to trade him
08:24 and get that contract off the books.
08:26 He creates the huge play there.
08:28 You follow it up with Zappi
08:29 threading the needle into Hunter Henry for a touchdown.
08:32 Henry here on his birthday, two touchdowns.
08:36 Got to feel great for the guy doing something like that.
08:38 And, you know, it's the poise of Zappi in this ability
08:43 to push the ball down the field and find these guys.
08:45 The Smith Schuster throw was in a window where you got to be decisive on it.
08:51 You got to see it and throw it immediately.
08:52 You can't wait on it. You can't delay.
08:54 You got to have confidence in your read to make that throw.
08:57 And the Henry one,
08:59 I don't know how much of that was confidence and how much of that was arrogance
09:03 making that throw to fit into that window and get it right over
09:06 the outstretched hand of a stealer defender.
09:08 But it counts. It's a touchdown.
09:10 And I think these are these are some of the plays.
09:13 We've seen Mac Jones be a little bit late on all season.
09:16 And we've seen Bailey Zappi be late on when he's in there.
09:18 Having him operate quickly
09:21 has put his receivers in better plays to actually make plays,
09:26 which they rewarded him with there in the first half.
09:30 You notice I keep saying in the first half, we're going to get
09:32 to the second half in a little bit, but the offense looked very good
09:36 in the first half.
09:37 You score 21 points.
09:39 You have to feel confident coming out of that because of what the team has done.
09:44 I mean, that's a very good showing, much more enjoyable to watch
09:48 than what we've been getting.
09:49 And a lot of it has to do with the offensive line.
09:52 I think that was the best pass blocking we've seen them do as a unit in a while.
09:59 Probably their best half of the season on that front.
10:01 One of their best halves, which set up the quarterback for success,
10:06 which is what they needed.
10:07 They routinely were able to kind of clear out the middle to that's where Zappi
10:11 had confidence to step up to make throws, had confidence to step up
10:15 and take advantage of holes in the running game
10:17 when they were there to pick up yards on the ground.
10:20 And that's something we haven't seen.
10:23 Something that really hadn't been there for Mac Jones a lot of points.
10:26 And when it was there, he was not.
10:30 His pocket presence wasn't there to sense that it was.
10:32 So I think standing back there, delivering throws,
10:35 Zappi was able to use the pocket better today than any Patriots
10:39 quarterback has been able to all season long.
10:41 And you got to credit the offensive line as part of that.
10:44 I thought they looked very good.
10:46 Things started to go off the rails a little bit right at the end of the first half.
10:50 The Patriots had a chance to add to that lead more going into the break.
10:54 And you, Mac Jones, not Mac Jones,
10:57 Bailey Zappi gets sacked as part of that one of two sacks they gave up
11:02 and give up a third down sack on the first possession, the second half.
11:06 And I feel like that kind of set the tone for what we saw.
11:09 That's where we saw, you know, the other Bailey Zappi coming in.
11:13 We saw some of the inaccuracy with throws, throwing behind guys.
11:18 He almost gets picked off in there, was very lucky that he didn't.
11:21 You saw, you know, some of the bad decisions.
11:25 The interception he threw, I don't think was fully a Bailey Zappi thing.
11:28 I think there's a lot of bad luck involved with that.
11:31 But if you're thrown into contested windows, you know, you're opening yourself up
11:34 for more bad bounces to happen.
11:36 And that was a throw short to Juju Smith Schuster.
11:40 And this is a two level concept.
11:42 The Patriots like to run.
11:45 And, you know, you get you get a drag route over the middle of the field
11:49 and then an in behind it.
11:50 And you're just stressing the middle of the field defenders.
11:53 You kind of got to pick.
11:54 Are you going to take the shallower route or are you going to take the deeper route?
11:57 The shallower route was blanketed.
11:59 The intermediate route there was open.
12:02 And if Zappi sees that and is able to put the ball there,
12:05 you got a first down, you're moving the chains.
12:07 Instead, he throws it short.
12:10 You get a lucky and unlucky bounce.
12:12 Steelers come away with the football on the interception.
12:15 And after after that and then the other
12:20 non pick that could have been thrown behind guys,
12:23 I think you saw the play calling start to scale it back and start to lean more
12:26 in the running game.
12:27 The defense knew it was keying on it and things really, really started
12:31 to slow down for them.
12:33 Only I believe if I have it right, three first downs by the offense
12:37 in the second half, which kind of brought things back
12:40 to what we expected coming into this game.
12:43 And, you know, I think you watch the first half
12:46 and there was a little bit of all right, is that be something that we can work with?
12:50 I don't think anybody expects him to be the starter,
12:52 but is he a guy who should be on the roster next year?
12:55 And the second half, you did see some of the reasons
12:59 why he didn't make the team at a camp, why he got put in that in that position.
13:04 So tough there and not all him.
13:07 I think blocking was part of it.
13:09 I think play calling was part of it.
13:10 The execution of the guys around him was part of it.
13:12 And game situation, you end up in a lot of third downs
13:16 that were tough where you're not able to convert that time.
13:19 And in your plan with a lead, the Patriots decided to be more conservative
13:23 when Mitch Trubisky is the quarterback on the other side of the field.
13:26 It's easy to be conservative.
13:27 You look what the Patriots defense was doing.
13:30 One more note on the offense here.
13:31 I'm going to talk about the defense after Zekiel Elliott.
13:34 Fantastic day over 150 yards from scrimmage.
13:39 He had a receiving touchdown in there, which was huge.
13:44 The one that got the scoring started off.
13:46 He was very active as a check down option for Zappi
13:49 and was able to pick up yards after the catch, which I think this is an area.
13:54 One of the areas where you could see Matt Jones was struggling
13:56 in this process and was breaking down.
13:59 A lot of his check downs were coming so late in the down
14:03 that it was easy to defend for the defense.
14:05 They were looking up and tackle and rally to the ball.
14:07 And Zappi was getting some of those out faster and giving his receivers
14:12 the opportunity to run after the ball, after the catch.
14:16 A little bit.
14:17 So credit to him there and Zeke took advantage of it.
14:19 This is the best he's looked in a while with reminder.
14:22 He's Stevenson injured.
14:23 I thought he looked fantastic tonight.
14:25 So all in all, 21 points for this offense
14:29 with these weapons out there on a short field, short rest.
14:32 That's a it's a good performance for these guys.
14:35 And you feel better about what you got in Juju Smith Schuster going forward.
14:40 Maybe what you have in Bailey's happy going forward as a backup on this team
14:45 and Hunter Henry free agent this year.
14:47 We're going to see see where they go with him.
14:50 The negatives offense, Mike Yosiki, really,
14:54 you know, it didn't didn't get involved that much.
14:57 You weren't hearing them call his name at all.
15:00 No receptions for him.
15:01 Jalen Rager, no receptions, one target.
15:04 Tyquan Thornton, three catches for 17 yards.
15:07 That's not it's not awful or anything, but he's not an impact
15:10 to this game whatsoever.
15:13 It was this was it was three guys for this offense.
15:16 It was Juju. It was Zeke.
15:18 And it was Henry.
15:19 They didn't get much impact out of that.
15:21 And two of those guys are free agents at the end of the season.
15:24 So we're going to see what direction they want to go.
15:27 And do they want to bring these back, these guys back,
15:30 what they decided to do with those guys long term and
15:32 how they look over the final four games of the season,
15:36 but at least somewhat encouraging signs there.
15:38 Defensively, the Patriots were stifling through long stretches of this game.
15:44 They held Mr.
15:46 Biscay to 190 yards through the air.
15:49 You get the early interception to set the tone.
15:52 You hold them to 82 yards on the ground.
15:55 And, you know, eight of those are 30 of those coming eight carries
15:59 from Trubisky.
16:00 Najee Harris was 12 carries for 29 yards.
16:04 So Calvin Austin had a 12 yarder in there.
16:08 And that kind of boosts the average.
16:10 The other three rushers for Pittsburgh, 3.8 yards to carry 2.4
16:14 and 1.6 yards to carry.
16:16 They stifled Pittsburgh, forced Trubisky to beat them,
16:20 and he just couldn't do it.
16:23 The I thought J.C.
16:25 Jackson had some really rough moments with penalties,
16:28 but he had some good moments in there.
16:30 Jonathan Jones had good coverage in there.
16:32 The defense as a whole played good football, kept Pittsburgh out of rhythm.
16:36 And the Pittsburgh offense that has not been good all season long.
16:39 The defense did a good job of, for the most part, just standing there
16:43 and letting the offense combust as it has all season long.
16:48 You know, you know, the Steelers were going to self-destruct
16:50 if you gave them the opportunity and Patriots defense gave them that opportunity.
16:54 And I think there's there's nothing that signifies that more.
16:58 I mean, each each team has a turnover in there and the Patriots turn their turnover
17:03 into a touchdown to Hunter Henry Steelers defense forces a turnover.
17:08 Ezekiel Elliott makes a tackle to save it from being run back for a touchdown.
17:13 And the Steelers get into a fourth and two situation.
17:16 The Red Zone go for it and the Patriots are able to stop them.
17:19 That was your difference in this ballgame.
17:22 So situational execution was as good as it's been all season on that front.
17:27 Definitely not perfect, which I'm going to touch on here in a second.
17:31 But you could execution there.
17:34 And, you know, the defense, they did a lot of rotating
17:38 to confuse the heck out of Mitch Trubisky back there,
17:41 which worked very, very well.
17:43 We saw safety blitzes, but Miles Bryant, Jabril Peppers, Kyle Duggar,
17:47 all very involved in the middle of the field and very good.
17:50 Christian Barmore's Christian Barmore.
17:52 At this point, you know, he's going to be excellent.
17:54 Anthony Jennings was dominant against the run.
17:57 The whole team was dominant against the run.
17:59 The defense looked as good as it has the last couple of weeks
18:02 and put together another performance good enough to get the win
18:05 culminating in that fourth down stop with the game essentially on the line.
18:10 And, you know, we talked about letting the Steelers self combust
18:13 its fourth and two from midfield with the game on the line.
18:16 And their answer was a contested deep shot.
18:19 And if that's what they're going to take, you're going to let them throw that one
18:23 over some of the some of the shorter throws or checkdowns
18:27 to pick up a first down any day of the week.
18:29 Especially because I think they did have somebody open there.
18:31 And Jonathan Jones does enough to to make a play on the ball
18:36 and cover DeAndre Johnson, and that's your ballgame.
18:39 So very good job from the defense there.
18:42 Now, obviously, not not all perfect.
18:46 Here's the punt block, which I will say
18:50 I have not been overly pleased with the special teams this year.
18:56 I think a lot of that has had to do with inconsistencies
18:59 with the rookie kicker and a rookie punter, which is to be expected.
19:03 And I think some of it can be blamed on coaching.
19:06 This that that pun getting blocked, that's not coaching.
19:10 That's a dude getting his ass beat.
19:12 That's what happened there.
19:13 Tom Montgomery has been fine all season long in that role.
19:16 And he got bullied.
19:18 He got walked back right into the punter on that block.
19:22 And now he's performed well all season.
19:24 You're not going to change it before something like that happens.
19:28 So all of a sudden it happens and it ruins your day to an extent.
19:32 Patriots punted again after that and put Kyle Duggar out there
19:36 instead of Tom Montgomery, and he was a lot more physical
19:40 on that block and was was able to, you know, not allow the next punt to be blocked.
19:46 So I'll credit credit the adjustment there from the coaching.
19:50 And I'm going to be honest, I don't know what Tom Montgomery
19:53 brings to this football team at this point.
19:54 He's not a good returner.
19:56 You're not you can't count a block on special teams.
20:00 He doesn't do anything for the offense.
20:03 The only the only people to run the ball for the Patriots tonight
20:05 were Bailey Zappi and his eagle Elliott.
20:08 So if Tom Montgomery, he had one play in there, which is a 17 yard
20:11 catch on a check down outside of that, he did nothing.
20:14 And he's the negative impact on special teams. So
20:16 yeah, not I don't know what he brings to the football team at this point.
20:23 I also got to talk about penalties.
20:25 I thought it was I'll describe it as creative officiating,
20:29 but it was what it was.
20:31 You have a seven to one penalty disparity in this one.
20:34 The Patriots were a little bit lucky that it wasn't a based on that.
20:37 The false start offsides discussion on the punt at the end, which
20:42 I don't I'm just going to be glad that the Patriots got that call.
20:47 I see what the ref saw.
20:48 I don't know if that's a false start, but I will gladly take it.
20:52 But, you know, an area where we've been talking about all season,
20:55 you want to be cleaner penalties didn't cost you in this one.
20:58 It has cost them previously.
21:01 If you're going to play in a lot of close games, you got to run a tighter ship.
21:05 They haven't all season. You've seen it be an issue.
21:07 And, you know, they're they're three and seven now in one score ball games.
21:13 All three of their wins there, you know, they're not getting blowout wins.
21:15 Most of their games are these one score games.
21:19 It's just the two blowout losses in the loss in Miami that aren't.
21:23 And that loss in Miami was a one score game down late in the fourth quarter there.
21:27 So I just haven't been able to execute them.
21:30 They've been close with almost every single team that they've played
21:34 and consistently when they when they start ahead,
21:37 they are able to hold on and execute enough to get it done.
21:41 And when they have to play from behind, it's
21:43 they just can't get over the hump on that.
21:44 And that's that's kind of what we've seen from this team all season long.
21:48 It's the same group.
21:50 But when they when they get off the bus and play well, they can beat teams.
21:54 And, you know, we look ahead.
21:58 They got Kansas City next week.
21:59 We talk. We're going to be talking about that during the week, I'm sure.
22:01 Interesting opponent coming in here no longer Monday Night Football.
22:06 We'll see other Patriots get off the bus for that one.
22:11 But yeah, I think that's that's most of my kind of X's
22:16 and O's takeaways from what happened.
22:18 I don't think you feel too differently about any of the players
22:21 with the possible exception of Juju, just because of how much more explosive
22:24 he looked tonight in a little revenge game for him.
22:27 And it was a this was a nice little double revenge game.
22:30 You got Juju Smith Schuster going out there and making some really big plays
22:35 on offense, and Landon Roberts, former Patriot for the Steelers with the
22:38 the pick there.
22:40 So I hit a I don't know if he had the pick or if he forced the pick,
22:44 but he also had a he had a sack in there.
22:48 Um, that's Michael.
22:50 Michael Walker had the pick, but it was so Landon Roberts
22:54 on the coverage on that play that forced the deflection.
22:56 So, um, that's a little double revenge game, which is fun.
23:00 We're going to do an ad break here.
23:02 I'm going to come back and we'll wrap up here.
23:04 It's late. It's going to be a short show, but talk about some of the implications
23:07 going forward for the Patriots, what this means
23:09 in the bigger picture of their season.
23:12 So we'll be.
23:13 We'll be back in a sec.
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24:28 Welcome back to the Patriot Nation podcast.
24:39 It appears I'm having a camera issue here, so I don't know what's
24:42 what's going on with that, but I will continue the show here.
24:47 Talk about the implications of this Patriots victory over the Steelers.
24:52 I want to start by saying I'm happy that this team got a win.
24:57 I'm happy for the players.
24:59 You listen to them talk, the press conferences that they're doing.
25:02 It's pretty clear that this has been weighing on them.
25:06 You put in a lot of hard work.
25:07 They've been going at this since late July, and it's almost Christmas.
25:10 They haven't been able to get a lot out of it.
25:12 And you could see after the game, the relief, the elation from the players
25:16 to have this finally work out for them.
25:19 And I'm I'm happy for them because they've earned this.
25:21 They deserve it.
25:22 They've been putting in the work.
25:23 And again, like I said, nice to see it finally rewarded.
25:26 You can see Zabby and Hunter Henry on the post game show there on Amazon.
25:30 We're both very happy with the performance.
25:33 And I know they kind of talked about simplifying the game
25:37 and just getting the ball to one another.
25:40 And yeah, the typical stuff you would expect from them, nothing groundbreaking,
25:45 but good for them.
25:47 You saw Zabby with his arm around Bill O'Brien as they were
25:50 coming off the sideline at the end of the game there.
25:53 And guys cheering, going into the locker room.
25:56 You get the all yeah chant there in the locker room.
25:58 And you beat Pittsburgh. That's always a good thing.
26:00 So as a fan of this team and fan of these players, I'm happy for them.
26:04 And yeah, I mean, it's always more enjoyable when it's a win.
26:10 We got to talk about that when it comes to the draft conversation.
26:14 This really doesn't change much for the Patriots.
26:17 They're probably out of the running for the number one overall pick now.
26:21 I think that was going to be tough anyway, because you'd need Carolina
26:25 to win a game somewhere.
26:27 And the Patriots got a fairly easy schedule here down the stretch.
26:30 We need Carolina to win a game and the Patriots not win any of them.
26:33 I don't think that was very likely.
26:36 Carolina, I don't think is going to win a game.
26:38 They are. That's that's a really bad team.
26:43 I think the Patriots are bad.
26:44 I really think Carolina might be an order of magnitude worse there.
26:47 They're in rough shape and they don't even get there to use their first round pick.
26:50 So they're in a tough position there.
26:53 And I'm glad the Patriots are not in that position that the Panthers are in.
26:59 Now, the Patriots are still, you know, they got the number two pick right now,
27:03 and that's not changing this week.
27:04 They got the tiebreaker over the Cardinals at the moment.
27:07 And both of these teams are in the same position right now.
27:11 So we're going to see how this how this goes over the next month.
27:15 But the Patriots are in good position
27:18 to have the number two pick and are in great position to, you know,
27:21 stay in the top three, four or five.
27:23 They're not going to drop out of that range unless something seriously changes
27:26 the next month, so not not a concern here about the draft position.
27:31 I'm not worried about that for these guys right now.
27:34 We're going to get to that when we get to that. But
27:36 again, I'm just happy for the players themselves that they won.
27:41 And, you know, I mean, one of the reasons they won this
27:44 because the offensive line played better.
27:46 You know, if the offensive line plays like it did tonight,
27:48 most nights you're going to have a chance.
27:50 And that means, you know, you got guys who you got to resign on the line.
27:55 You got guys hitting for agency.
27:57 And I think you feel a little bit better about resigning some of those guys
28:00 and being able to be competitive with that offensive line next year.
28:03 With the performance you saw tonight,
28:08 obviously, they were rough last week and you get four more games.
28:10 So it's just it's just one game in a 17 game sample size.
28:14 And really, you're looking at the last probably ten games here
28:17 where they're fully healthy and figuring things out.
28:19 And you got on winning with tackle.
28:21 But it's the best it's looked and it keeps getting.
28:24 Now, there's progression isn't always linear,
28:27 but it does keep getting a little bit better.
28:29 So, yeah, I I think that helps evaluate your offensive line defense.
28:36 You love what's going on.
28:37 It's a championship caliber defense, especially when it's healthy.
28:40 So, you know, just fixed quarterback position, get some weapons.
28:45 And I think you're in a you're in a good spot.
28:47 Obviously, easier said than done.
28:49 That's the hardest thing to do in football right there.
28:52 But they're able to do it.
28:54 They're going to be in a good spot.
28:55 Matt Minito says, is your webcam frozen or you just have a profile picture up?
28:58 It was it's frozen.
29:00 I don't really know what's going on here.
29:01 I think coming back out of the ad, something broke.
29:04 So, yeah, I wish I had an answer there.
29:09 Yeah. No, it's just totally not working.
29:12 But yeah, as we look ahead to next week, you get a mini buy here to reset
29:20 and try to evaluate Zappi the last month of the season.
29:23 A good enough performance to build off of with still plenty of mistakes
29:26 and plenty of the old Zappi.
29:29 Now I'm curious to see what it looks like when they play the Chiefs.
29:32 The Chiefs have a very, very, very good defense this year.
29:34 And, you know, the Patriots should be healthier for it.
29:37 Should have popped up was back by then.
29:39 Be a good test of the offensive line once they're out there.
29:43 And, you know, this is a Chiefs offense that hasn't been that great this year.
29:46 And they've lost some games that the Chiefs of the last couple of years
29:50 wouldn't usually be losing.
29:52 I don't think the Patriots are going to win that game.
29:54 But if they start out hot and are able to play like they did tonight,
29:58 you never know what's going to happen in a game like that.
30:01 So I mean, I'm intrigued to see what happens.
30:04 I was the you don't expect the Patriots when it probably won't be a close game,
30:08 but you never know.
30:10 I'm curious.
30:11 And, you know, if you see progression from players, I think that's a good thing
30:15 and helps inform the way you want to go after this.
30:18 And as to the the Bill Belichick discussion,
30:21 I don't think tonight changes anything when it comes to evaluating Bill Belichick,
30:25 the GM.
30:26 I think this proves that Belichick, the coach, still has it.
30:31 I also think it proves the Belichick, the coach, is still very, very conservative.
30:35 And in a game like this, where you have a quarterback
30:39 who has has been inaccurate and the opponent has a quarterback
30:44 who has been inaccurate, neither in the opposing quarterbacks
30:47 made bad decisions in your playing with a multi score lead.
30:50 I don't I don't have any issue with playing conservatively,
30:53 but this is something we've seen from Bill time and time again.
30:57 And, you know, it doesn't change the evaluation of the way he fits
31:01 the modern NFL, especially with the way the Steelers are run on the other side.
31:05 But I think what you do see is that Belichick can still design a defense
31:09 that can really, really get after a quarterback and make life miserable for him.
31:14 And I think the team morale is a big thing here.
31:18 I think at this point in the season, on the road, in the cold against a team
31:23 that's usually pretty physical and hard nosed and well coached when you're two and ten.
31:27 That's a spot where a lot of teams would fold.
31:30 The Patriots didn't.
31:31 I mean, they they really could give up at any point and the defense could turn around
31:35 and say, hey, we're and what am I playing for?
31:37 We're not winning games and they're not doing that.
31:40 They're staying together.
31:40 They're playing as a team.
31:42 They're working through stuff and it's not it's not working.
31:44 Lartin, the big picture in large part because a lot of these players aren't that good.
31:49 And that's on Bill Belichick for acquiring them and evaluating them.
31:54 But, you know, I think we saw a little bit of what they imagine
31:57 they were getting from Juju Smith Schuster.
31:59 And if we saw the investments into the red zone offense,
32:02 you know, you get tight ends and running backs who can be a factor in the red zone
32:07 and the way that impacts it.
32:09 And you go two for two in the red zone.
32:11 You get a score from outside the red zone, two and three touchdowns.
32:14 That's that's nice.
32:15 100% in the red zone.
32:17 That's nice.
32:17 They haven't gotten there very often, but they've been good in the red zone
32:19 when they've gotten there.
32:20 So I think you saw some of the stuff they've been working towards there.
32:24 And had this puzzle come together the way they expect it to,
32:29 I think we got a glimpse of what it would have looked like.
32:32 So, yeah, I don't know if this changes anything
32:36 when it comes to the way Kraft's going to look at things either.
32:39 Maybe with a better if this stays like this for the next month,
32:43 that'll sway Kraft's mind in a certain direction.
32:47 As of now, I think it's still we're changing things up.
32:50 That's offseason.
32:50 It's going to be new decision makers in there.
32:52 But but we'll see.
32:54 So I think that's going to do it for this one.
32:56 It's late.
32:57 We're over 30 minutes now, and it's just me.
32:59 And there's not a lot to talk about out of this one.
33:01 I think we're going to be back with Pat presumably next Wednesday,
33:06 I would guess sometime middle of next week as the Patriots gear up for the Chiefs.
33:11 So we're going to be off here for about a week.
33:14 So enjoy the enjoy the mini by enjoy watching a Sunday
33:18 full of football without having to worry about the Pats this weekend.
33:22 And, you know, we're getting close to Christmas.
33:25 Good luck to everybody with their their Christmas shopping
33:28 as we get close to the holiday here and they're decorating and everything.
33:31 That's going to wrap up the show for us.
33:34 Oh, Matt Minito says his his birthday is Sunday.
33:37 Happy birthday to Matt Minito.
33:39 And, you know, he says his final takeaway winning is fun.
33:42 Winning is fun. I'm not.
33:44 Yeah, it would be nice to have the number one overall pick.
33:47 But as somebody that wants to enjoy watching the game,
33:50 I'm not going to complain about a win ever.
33:52 I'm just not going to do that.
33:55 If you want to sit there and complain about the fact that the team
33:58 one might have worse draft position, you can do that to your heart's content.
34:02 But I am just not interested in doing that.
34:04 I'm a Patriots fan.
34:06 I got to see the Patriots win today and I got to see the players smiling after it.
34:09 And I can be I can be happy with that any day of the week
34:13 and twice on Sundays or apparently a Thursday night.
34:16 So that's going to do it for me and Pat, who is at the stadium.
34:22 Go check out his Twitter feed and all his pictures and all his stuff at the game.
34:27 You'll hear from him next week when we're back.
34:31 And yeah. All right. Thanks, everybody, for listening.
34:33 Has it been the Patriotian podcast?
34:36 And we'll see you next Wednesday.
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