Dissecting the Patriots Loss to Rams | Patriots Beat
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00:00All right, everyone, welcome back into another live edition of the Patriots Beat Podcast
00:28here on the CLNS Media Network presented by all of our wonderful friends over at Price
00:35Picks and Game Time.
00:36It's Brian Hines back as always with Alex Barth to break down the Patriots 28-22 loss
00:43on Sunday to the Los Angeles Rams.
00:46The late comeback bid fell short.
00:49Drake May thrown an interception to kind of clinch the loss there again to the Rams 28-22
00:55dropping the Patriots to three and eight on the year.
00:59And Barth, I feel like it's only fair.
01:01We've started definitely our last two shows with the coaching staff, maybe even more and
01:07kind of feels like they're, you know, Gerard Mayo and his staff are back under the microscope
01:12after yesterday's game.
01:13There's kind of like that Titans game again, where there's some key points throughout the
01:18game that may or may not have, you know, lost his team the game.
01:22So I want to start there and we'll get into those specific points.
01:25But just overall, you know, again, that Titans game, we didn't feel great.
01:31It was a good bounce back from the coaching staff against Chicago.
01:34Now how do you feel about the coaching staff as they still kind of ride this roller coaster
01:38and it wasn't a great performance for them against the Rams yesterday?
01:42Look, this was one of the worst games of the year.
01:46I mean, it's right up there with the Jets game on Thursday night, you know, week three.
01:54It wasn't good from in-game coaching management, which everybody knows is kind of my big thing.
01:59I put a lot of weight on that to questionable X's and O's decisions.
02:03You know, I don't know that we need to do as much.
02:06We've talked in past games about the team just not being ready emotionally.
02:10I don't know that that was as much the issue in this one, but it's that lack of consistency.
02:15They went from one of their best performances last week to one of their worst performances
02:20this week.
02:21And you can't have that.
02:22Like this team needs to establish a level of consistency in order to move forward.
02:26You can't keep bouncing back and forth from one of the other and it starts with coaching
02:31staff.
02:32Yeah.
02:33Especially with the talent on this roster, right?
02:35Like the games they win, you walk away being like, okay, they were coached up.
02:39Well, like it was a good day from the coaching staff.
02:42Like they need that in order to win and to order to elevate this talent.
02:46And you're not consistently getting it, which again, it's a young staff.
02:50A lot of these guys are, you know, first year in their roles.
02:53So you would expect some bumps and bruises along the way, but like, I just want like
02:57two straight games, two games in a row where they seem to be building something that would
03:01seem to be positive.
03:02And it can't seem like they're getting there again.
03:05Like we talk about the players with that rookie rollercoaster, it seems like the staff is
03:09kind of on that.
03:10And it wasn't all bad.
03:12I think AVP had a good game and we can get into him and AVP was fine.
03:15If, if a, and you guys know, I love to go to this line.
03:18If AVP was their biggest issue in this game, they probably win.
03:21If AVP performing at the level he performed at was their biggest issue in this game.
03:25I think they win that game.
03:26Yep.
03:27But you mentioned there were some in-game coaching decisions that were questionable.
03:32I had four, maybe five big ones.
03:35I kind of wanted to run through them quickly.
03:37I had five.
03:38You had five.
03:39Okay.
03:40We'll see how our lines.
03:41The first one, I just went in chronological order.
03:43Sure.
03:44First one, you're up seven, nothing.
03:47You have the ball on the 37 yard line.
03:50You pass on a 54 yard field goal.
03:52You punt, you net.
03:54They took a delay game and then Bryce Berenger hit a touchback.
03:57So you net 22 yards on the punt.
03:59So Rams needed just one play, a 25 yarder to surpass the point where they would have
04:04been if they just missed the field goal.
04:06So you pass on a 54 yard field goal.
04:08Joey Sly's warmups weren't great, but still, you know, big leg kicker, go up 10, nothing
04:16early in that game.
04:18And they opt to punt.
04:19How'd you feel about that one?
04:21Well, first let's say they're in that situation because Vardarian Lowe lines up incorrectly
04:26and Michael Jordan too.
04:27The penalties on Vardarian Lowe, Michael Jordan's lined up incorrectly as well.
04:30That reflects on the coaching.
04:31So let's, let's put that in.
04:33That's why they're in that situation.
04:34Let's do this.
04:35I'm going to pitch these decisions right out of five, love it.
04:39Like it.
04:40Meh.
04:41Don't like it.
04:42Hate it.
04:43Right.
04:44That was a decades of don't like it for me.
04:45I didn't quite hate it because like you said, like it was noticeable that Sly was struggling
04:51specifically in that direction, specifically from that range and warmups.
04:55And I, as I always say, the decision to go for it's only as good as the play you call.
04:58If you know, like if Sly goes to you and says, coach, I can't make the kick.
05:05I mean, you know, do you say, no, we believe in you.
05:07You can go out there.
05:08Like, that's definitely an option, but like, that wasn't the worst one for me, but I didn't
05:12like the decision.
05:13I still would have kicked it.
05:14I would have tried to hype Sly up and give it a shot.
05:17If it's, you know, if you're eight and three and you're trying to hang on and you got a
05:20great defense, sure.
05:21That's one thing.
05:23I think you got it.
05:24You got to take a shot there.
05:25So I'll give that a, if one is hate it, five is love it.
05:29It's like a two out of five decision for me.
05:31Yeah.
05:32I would have been right on a two.
05:33I get the reasoning behind it and someone points out in the chat here, and I was going
05:37to bring this up.
05:38Like the Rams last punt of the game was right on that same area of the field, same direction.
05:44And that was a field goal to go up two scorers and potentially end the game.
05:47And they, you know, declined and maybe that had something to do with to, you know, make
05:51Drake may like drive the length of the field, but yeah, there was definitely something going
05:55on with that direction of the stadium, but it's a 54 yarder.
06:00He still hit from like 52, 53 in warmups.
06:04Joey slides.
06:05It's not like it's Nick Fulk.
06:06I know.
06:07Like he said, even after the game, like it was right on the edge of his, his range.
06:11So I would have, again, I get the reasoning and the decision, but I probably would have
06:16just leaned, you know, try it because again, you miss, they only needed one play to get
06:22to that yard line anyway.
06:23So I'm with you to right around two on that scale.
06:27The next one, again, going chronologically fourth and goal at the Rams two yard line.
06:35This was when it was, I think it was 2110 and then, so they take another delay of game
06:40and then they kick a field goal to make it 2113.
06:44So a one score game, but they gave up scoring drives on three out of their last four.
06:51The ones, the one drive they didn't was the miss field goal to end the half.
06:55And then the Rams went seven plays, 72 yards and a touchdown right after that to take a
06:59two possession lead.
07:00So did you like the, make it a one score game there, or would you have, you know, be a little
07:07more aggressive and try to score a touchdown while you're down the two yard line?
07:10I think this is where we differ because there were two field goals, one in the second, one
07:15in the third that I looked at.
07:17They had a fourth and three from the 13 at the end of the second quarter down seven.
07:27And then they had the one you're talking about the fourth and goal from the three, um, down,
07:33down 11 in the third quarter.
07:35So the first one, I give a, I give a one, I hated that, you know, seven point game,
07:42you're up against a good offense.
07:43You're trying to go punch for punch.
07:45You're going to pin them.
07:46Pretty like, they're going to be at the 13, right?
07:48If you don't get it, that one, I would have gone for that one.
07:53I would have pushed it.
07:54I did not like that decision.
07:55The one you're talking about in the third quarter, I give that a three.
07:59I give that a mess.
08:00You could go either way.
08:01You can sell me on that.
08:02Either way.
08:03You're you kick still makes it a one score game.
08:06You need a two point conversion, but it makes it a one score game.
08:09They had just gotten stopped on the goal line on back-to-back plays.
08:13So maybe they just didn't think they were getting the push.
08:16And again, what's the point of running the play?
08:18If you don't believe you can get it, not that it's great that you don't believe you can
08:20get three yards, but if you don't think you can get them, maybe they'd exhausted their
08:24two point plays.
08:25They're trying to get in, could have called the veteran low play there instead of waiting
08:28instead of sitting on it.
08:30So I, I, I hated that one.
08:32I, or sorry, um, that one, I could go either way.
08:35I hated the one earlier with it 17 to 10.
08:40I, I, on one hand, I get it.
08:41Take the points.
08:42They'd ripped off a couple of touchdowns, but like the offense was getting going.
08:46You needed to go punch for punch there.
08:48That the one in the second quarter bothered me a lot more than the one in the third quarter.
08:53Was that right?
08:54After the two minute warning, they kicked a 32 yarder from the Rams 13, fourth and three
08:58that one.
08:59Uh, yes.
09:00Okay.
09:01And they're down 17, 10.
09:04It was, it was 14, seven.
09:07Yeah.
09:08Yeah.
09:0914, 10.
09:10And then the Rams had the lawn drive.
09:11They don't, the field goal, it was 14, 10, and then the big play out of half 21, 10.
09:16And then the other field goal, they drive down fourth and goal from the two.
09:22The one, you know, we'll talk about van Pelt again.
09:25I liked his day for the most part under center run on third and goal at the Rams too.
09:30Didn't love that call.
09:31And it felt like they just wanted a yard, like as you were just saying, like they didn't
09:35get a push.
09:36I think it was even said on that one, if it was fourth and one, they would have gone
09:39for it.
09:40So they probably just wanted one yard to make that decision easier.
09:43But like you have Drake may, he's been playing so well, like you go back to back runs inside
09:48the five, not even the threat of him and shotgun.
09:51Maybe I know they don't want to let him keep it, but not even the threat of letting him
09:55keep it.
09:56Didn't love the play call before that to set that up.
09:58So uh,
09:59Van Pelt had said, you know, when, when he was talking about, are they going to run Drake
10:03may exact decision, like specific situations, good situation to call it.
10:09Yeah.
10:10So the next one was the Darien low touchdown that you mentioned.
10:15They make it 28, 19.
10:17They kicked the extra point, which was then blocked.
10:21But uh, the decision-making to kick the extra point was similar situation in London a few
10:27weeks ago against the Jaguars.
10:29They're down nine, but they decided to go for two against, uh, the Jaguars, which they
10:33also failed in London.
10:35There was eight 22 left in the fourth quarter.
10:38This time, uh, yesterday against the Rams, there was 1245 left in the fourth quarter.
10:43So a little bit more time on the clock.
10:44I'd imagine, you know, Gerard kind of explained it, that every situation is different.
10:49That's why he, that was what I was getting at with the extra four minutes, but you know,
10:53still down nine different process.
10:55Did you like, I know in the Jacksonville game?
10:58I think if I remember correctly, neither of us felt really strongly one way or another,
11:02but did you like the decision this time to kick the extra point, try to make it an eight
11:06point game there, uh, instead of going for the two point conversion?
11:10I think the Jacksonville game, I said, I ultimately would have rather had them kick.
11:14So I'll, for the sake of consistency, I'll, I'll say kick.
11:18Um, and I like kicking there now.
11:20You got to block it.
11:22You got to get the play blocked, get the kick up, right?
11:26If you can't make the kick, it's completely irrelevant.
11:29And that's a massive issue.
11:30You shouldn't be getting extra points blocked, but yeah, I, I, I mean, I'll, I'll be consistent
11:35from the J I think I said, kick, then I'll stick with kick.
11:38If they'd gone for two though, like I get it, that's a, that comes down to personal
11:44preference.
11:45That comes down to philosophy.
11:46There's a strong argument to be made for going for two.
11:48There's a strong argument to be made for kicking just if you're going to kick, don't let them
11:53block it.
11:54Yep.
11:55Yeah.
11:56I'm with you.
11:58I'm with you either way, but they've gone both ways and they failed both of them now.
12:01So not a, not a great spot to be in, but I, I didn't have a major preference either way.
12:06I usually lean, I think after the Jaguars game, I usually said go for two.
12:11Um, I'm usually, I just like to be a little bit more aggressive there and think that might
12:15help you later in the game, but I don't have a major preference either way.
12:19So, and then the last one was right at the end of the game, that final Rams punt.
12:26Uh, I didn't, it was right before the two minute warning, the last 22 to 22 when they
12:31punted to 14 after the penalty, it goes out of balance at the five yard line, but there
12:36was an illegal formation penalty.
12:38They take the five yards to put the ball at the 10 yard line instead of making them re-kick
12:43it.
12:44Mayo was asked this morning, he just said he didn't want to take the chance of getting
12:47backed up even farther inside the 10.
12:51That felt like a questionable decision to like, I get there's a chance you could be
12:55backed up.
12:56You know, Ethan Evans, the Rams punter, he's second this year and I 20% and she's fourth
13:01and lowest touchback percentage.
13:03So he's going to be my fantasy matchup with Taylor.
13:05There you go.
13:06So you were kind of split there.
13:08You were kind of secretly cheering for that, but I still just like, I would have rather
13:13made him do it.
13:14Like prove you can put it, make him back him up even farther.
13:18And if not, like you put the ball in Marcus Jones's hand, who's been one of your most
13:21dangerous players and maybe you, you spark a return.
13:24So the five yards there, I don't think it was worth it.
13:26I would have made them re-kick and make them do it again.
13:29But did you feel the same about that final punt?
13:32By the way, you got a big game tonight, tied four, four Tommy Townsend.
13:35I know I, um, so initially I didn't like it, but to me, like in that situation, okay, why
13:44aren't you making him re-kick?
13:45I figure you don't put the time back on the clock after the penalty, which by the way,
13:50would change because there was an issue with this in college football this year with, uh,
13:55uh, Oregon did something like this where they purposely put 12 men on the field.
13:58I think it was 13 men on the field on defense, just knowing that even if they get called
14:02for the too many men penalty, the play is still run.
14:04The time still going to come off the clock.
14:06But for now, like that time doesn't get put back on.
14:09So I looked at it as, all right, you went eight seconds on the first point.
14:14If you make them re-kick, maybe that's the difference between running one or two plays
14:20before the two minute warning.
14:22Or if you have a decent return, that probably gets you to the two minute warning.
14:26So that's where I was like, again, using our scale, hate it.
14:30Don't like it.
14:31Like it, love it.
14:32That's where I was like, I don't like it.
14:33But for Mayo to come out this morning on EEI and say, no, we did it because we didn't want
14:39them to.
14:40We don't want to give them another chance to pin us.
14:41They already pinned you like zero.
14:45Absolutely hate it now because that that's, that's not just conservative coaching.
14:48That's coaching scared.
14:50You're not going to get pinned much further back than the 10 you're not.
14:55And it'd be one thing if their punt return game was a mess and they're muffing punts
14:58left and right.
14:59And it's raining.
15:00You're like, fine.
15:01You have an all pro caliber punt returner.
15:04One of the top five weapons on your team is Marcus Jones as a punt returner.
15:09You got to give him a shot there to make a play for you and give you a chance to win
15:13the game.
15:14I think that was the worst decision of the game.
15:17I know a lot of people are bothered with turning down the 54 yard field goal, and I'm not saying
15:21that was great.
15:22The worst decision of the game was not making the Rams re-kick at the end.
15:26That was mind blowing to me.
15:28Yeah.
15:29I'm with you.
15:30Like just make them do it again.
15:31Again.
15:32Ethan Evans has been a good punter this year in those situations, but prove that he can
15:36do it twice in a row.
15:37And if he can't, then you put the ball in Marcus Jones's hands and so many times, and
15:42especially in clutch situations this year, he's broken out a big return.
15:45And if that could just spark that drive a little bit more than maybe Drake doesn't feel
15:50like he needs to go for a home run play to pop Douglas there.
15:52If you pick up 20 yards on a return, like the trickle down effect could have made a
15:57real impact there.
15:58So I didn't love that.
16:00I would have made them repunt, but yeah.
16:03And the reasoning, as you said, like this morning that Mayo explained, it wasn't a good
16:08one either.
16:09Coaching scared was a good way to put that.
16:11So those were kind of the big decisions that I had from Mayo.
16:16Kind of those in-game situations, it does seem overall, he is very on the conservative
16:24side with these things, which that's usually how it trends with these defensive head coaches,
16:30that they are a little bit more conservative.
16:33It would be one thing if, again, he's eight and three and they're winning all these games
16:38and he's being a little bit more conservative and the defense is playing well, but for a
16:41team that needs to win on the margins a lot, I would like to see a little bit more aggressiveness
16:47out of him with some of these fourth down calls and decisions to try to steal points
16:51when you can.
16:52Because you need every little inch you can get if you're this team with the talent level.
16:58You have to win on the margins and I think some of these are kind of costing him.
17:02I don't know if you agree with thinking he's kind of overall, I know the math, if you go
17:07by the math, he says he is really a bit conservative, but how do you feel he's approaching these
17:12as a whole and do you think he's developing some kind of process, I want to say, or do
17:19you think he's just kind of going with it and trying to figure it out right now?
17:23It's tough to say.
17:24I feel like it's moment to moment, which, you know, on the whole, this is what I hate
17:31about analytics.
17:32They put you in boxes and I think every decision, every moment is truly unique and it should
17:36be addressed as such.
17:37So I don't mind approaching it moment to moment.
17:40I just don't think he's making the right decisions in the moment more often than not.
17:46So the process doesn't bother me.
17:49The big picture process, I guess, doesn't bother me, but like at a certain point, you've
17:54got to have your finger on, even if you want to be conservative, you can be conservative
17:57more often than not, but you got to have your finger on, Hey, they're like, so Mayo said
18:02after the game, he never felt like the Rams controlled the game.
18:06And I understand why he said that because Patriots had the ball for 37 minutes, their
18:11highest time of possession since December, 2019, they ended up out repping the Rams by
18:16almost 20 plays.
18:17Like in that sense.
18:18Yeah.
18:20Yet they're still beating you and, and, and beating you pretty, you know, pretty convincingly
18:25at a certain point, you got to go thumb on the pulse and realize like, we got to get
18:29a little aggressive here somewhere.
18:31We got to get a spark.
18:33And that to me is more, what what's missing is I don't mind looking at all of the situations
18:38individually, but you also have to look at them in the context of what's going on in
18:41the game.
18:42And after a certain number of conservative decisions, when you're still trailing, you
18:46got to try something.
18:47Yep.
18:49I agree.
18:50I agree.
18:51And just to go back, the punt one, like the first four conservative decisions, there's
18:57option a aggressive option, be conservative.
19:00The punt one's not even conservative.
19:02Like the punt one is just, again, coaching scared.
19:05That's its own thing.
19:07That's its own separate issue.
19:11Like if you're going to be, if you're a conservative coach or conservative coach, I, I wouldn't
19:15put that one in the category of conservative.
19:17Yep.
19:19Yeah.
19:20I agree with that, but I want to talk about his coordinators too.
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20:51All right.
20:52Going to a Mayo's coordinators.
20:55I want to start defense actually with the Marcus Covington because I feel like his game
20:59plan and their defensive strategy in this one is getting a lot of attention for not
21:05using Christian Gonzalez to shadow one of Cooper cup and Puka Nakua, who both had pretty
21:09good days.
21:11You know, Gonzalez was playing primarily along the boundary.
21:15I didn't mind it.
21:17I feel like I'm on an Island.
21:18I think I actually have Taylor on my side.
21:20We were texting back and forth about this today.
21:23I didn't mind it as much as everyone is talking about it.
21:26I minded something else, which I'll talk about, but how did you like Covington's plan with
21:30Christian Gonzalez in that secondary yesterday?
21:32I mean, I don't think it made a lot of sense in just like if I going into the game, fine.
21:39You want to try something?
21:41You want to try a wrinkle going into the game?
21:42Fine.
21:43Once those two started beating you the way they did an adjustment needs to get made.
21:47And look, if you put Gonzalez on Cooper cup, there's still Nakua and he's still going to
21:53be facing the same guys and vice versa, but you limit it to one guy.
21:58It allows you to, to, to kind of know where to pay attention and coverage.
22:01It forces the Rams to become a little more one dimensional.
22:04I mean, it was shades of the Isaiah McKenzie game against the bills a couple of years ago
22:07where it's like, how many times are you going to let this guy, or in this case, these guys
22:12beat you before not, not changing before changing something.
22:17And I know like, okay, maybe you can make an argument for it again from the jump, but
22:23it clearly didn't work.
22:24Like the evidence is there.
22:25It didn't work.
22:26Something needed to change.
22:27So I didn't mind it because a, you can't sit in man to man against the Rams all game.
22:33And Mike Pellegrino even said that kind of throughout the week, right?
22:36That they're, they're bunches and their pick plays that Sean McVay will do.
22:40Like you can't sit in man to man against them.
22:43They'll pick you apart.
22:44You even saw early in that game, seemed like they were having some communication issues.
22:48Duggar mentioned that after the game in the secondary, and then you go to zone, you know,
22:54you're playing some of that zone.
22:55And I know Puka and Cooper were away from Christian Gonzalez, you know, McVay even said
22:59he was scheming them away from him, but it was just bad execution.
23:04And I think that comes back to, you know, John Jones had a bad game.
23:07It wasn't a good game for Marcus Jones.
23:08You just saw Marco Wilson get cut because he didn't play yesterday.
23:11So I just feel like there were coverage busts and there were breakdowns that really, you
23:17know, emphasized, you know, the guys away from Christian.
23:21I will say the red zone plan was not good.
23:23They had times where Christian Gonzalez was on the boundary with two tight ends on the
23:28line and there were, you know, you saw Cooper cup and Puka Nakula have a touchdown.
23:32They should have had Christian Gonzalez over them on those plays, you know, in the red
23:37zone.
23:38So I didn't like the red zone plan.
23:39The rest of it, I just thought it was, you know, fine.
23:42They just went away from Gonzalez.
23:45But you saw even the times, you know, they did play some man, they had one Gonzalez was
23:49on Nakula and Colby Parkinson just burns Christian Ellis for a touchdown.
23:55So they were going to pick on other guys anyway, you know, in the man to man coverage, because
24:00I think that's coming back to, you know, you're not getting your play in your cornerback
24:04room that you need outside of Christian Gonzalez.
24:06So, and things settled down like second half Puka only had one catch for six yards cup.
24:1365% of his catches or yards came on that one play, which on the cover zero blitz, which
24:19that was my problem.
24:21They blitz Matt Stafford on over 60% of his drop backs.
24:24That's not something I would do against the veteran quarterback.
24:27He went 12 for 17, 217 yards and three touchdowns against the blitz.
24:32So that would have been my adjustment is stop blitzing the hell out of this guy.
24:36But I didn't mind so much, you know, the man, the man, and not shadowing one of these guys
24:40with Gonzalez.
24:41Yeah.
24:42Look, most of it wasn't good.
24:43And, and what you're saying are things that happened.
24:45I don't think they defend the game plan though, because like, okay, it wasn't working elsewhere,
24:51but making sure Gonzalez is always with one of those guys would have, would have made
24:56it worse.
24:57Like even if you're going to play zone to your point, there were some times not in the
25:01red zone where Gonzalez, they would stack NACU and cup to one side and Gonzalez on the
25:05other.
25:06And Sean McVay said after the game, they talked about during the week, they made a point that
25:09they weren't going to throw to the side of the field to Christian Gonzalez.
25:12So if you have Gonzalez, follow those guys at the very least, even if you're still going
25:18into zone at the very least, you're taking one of those options away and you're taking
25:23one side of the field away.
25:25The Rams basically figured out we can put these two guys on the opposite side of the
25:29formation.
25:30Gonzalez is in whatever that is and not have to worry about.
25:33So to not adjust out of that to me is, is still a problem.
25:37And I like, I get what you're saying, but I can't imagine having Gonzalez.
25:43One of those guys cover.
25:44One of those guys would have made it worse.
25:46There were coverage breakdowns.
25:47You're right.
25:48And, and maybe just one of NACU or cup burns you, but that to me is more manageable.
25:56Put your number one corner on the number two receiver, and then double the number one with
26:00a ton of attention like that would have made sense.
26:03And maybe you'd still have the coverage bus.
26:05And the thing that really stood out in that game based on the, on the coverage was how
26:10thin they are at corner, which is not something we saw coming in the summer.
26:14I, they should have activated Alex Austin for this game.
26:17Maybe he wasn't cleared, but like if he was in Mayo made it sound a couple of weeks ago,
26:22like he was good to go.
26:23He's been a full participant for two weeks of practice now.
26:26So Marco Wilson has not played well.
26:28I would have made the move they made today on Saturday.
26:31I don't know that it would have been better, but Austin has been a better player than Wilson
26:35going back to the spring.
26:37They, if you're somebody who is tired of the wide receiver talk in the draft is bored by
26:43a tackle, wants them to take a defensive player, wants them to take a corner.
26:47Will Johnson, Travis Hunter playing corner, like be loud this week.
26:51This is your week because that game, they need more in coverage.
26:56Marcus, Jonathan Jones has lost a step.
26:58Marcus Jones, I thought it was the best of the group, but he had, I mean, at size at
27:03the end of the day, size is size.
27:05He's a slot corner.
27:06They need help on the boundary.
27:07Like you said, Marco Wilson got cut.
27:10I don't know why we haven't seen Isaiah Bolden.
27:11I would have thrown him out there.
27:13It's not so much, I guess, let me say this to your point and to Taylor's point about
27:17why they covered the way they did and why moving Gonzalez maybe wouldn't have changed
27:21everything.
27:22It might not have changed everything, but it would have been a change to continue to
27:26get beat like that and not adjust.
27:30Whether it be moving Gonzalez, whether it be a higher percentage of manner zone, whether
27:36it be less than the blitz, whether it be putting more personnel out there, right?
27:40Putting Isaiah Bolden out there to not adjust period is the issue to me more than the initial
27:48plan because it wasn't working.
27:51Whatever the reasoning behind it, it wasn't working and you can't continue trying it at
27:55a certain point.
27:56You can't be like, well, you know, it'll, it'll click on eventually.
27:59No.
28:00Once you get to the second half of the game and you're down two scores, it's not working.
28:04It's not going to work.
28:05They did settle down though in the second half.
28:07I mean, did they settle down or did the Rams just not have the ball cause they were going
28:14on these long drives.
28:15So the statistics went down.
28:18They did have long drives, but I mean, you come out and you give up the big play, the
28:23Cooper cop that I didn't love.
28:25I get you want to be aggressive, but again, going back to the blitzing thing, I wouldn't
28:30have done that.
28:31Their next drive, they go seven plays, 72 yards touchdown.
28:34A lot of that came on the ground and it was two, two Atwell had the big catch.
28:40And then the touchdown was the one, the Parkinson.
28:42So they put a Christian Gonzalez in man on Puka Nakua and then someone else gets burned.
28:48And then after that, they go three and out and then they punt at the end of the game.
28:52And then it was the kneel down drives that didn't matter.
28:54So like they had the big explosive and then one touchdown drive and then which didn't
29:00come on copper or Nakua.
29:02And then it was back to back punts.
29:03So I, I just think, you know, that, that drive where they took the clock from six down
29:10to two, where they punted, which is the punt that Gerard Mayo declined the penalty on or
29:15accepted the penalty on there.
29:18They're like trying to run clock and they're still throwing.
29:21There were multiple times on that drive that they threw the ball.
29:23And I'm thinking, wait, does McVay have more Shannon in him than I thought?
29:27Like why are you putting the ball in the air?
29:29Because they knew that that right there should tell you a lot of it.
29:32Just like the Jags running the ball 17 times in a row in the London game.
29:37This game, incredibly similar to that Jaguars game, hot start fell apart, bad coaching.
29:43It had that, that two point conversion decision.
29:46Very similar.
29:48Just like the Jags game where they ran it 17 times and that told y'all, and by the way,
29:51run defense was not good against one of the worst running teams in the league.
29:55In this one, the Jags trying to run the clock felt comfortable throwing because they knew
29:59they could throw.
30:00That should tell you a lot.
30:01Yep.
30:02And just the last thing, if you're going to blitz that much, again, over 60% of his dropbacks,
30:09they only pressured Stafford on like a quarter of his.
30:12Yeah.
30:13That was a whole other issue.
30:15We mentioned building on that pass rush performance last week and we knew they weren't going to
30:19get nine sacks again.
30:22Just barely any pressure on him for, especially again, the amount of time he blitzed and good
30:28to see Christian Barmore out there.
30:30You know, he took on some double teams.
30:32He helped Christian Ellis get loose on some stunts, but obviously, you know, 21 snaps
30:36still working his way back into things.
30:38Yannick Ngoc Hue only 14, 15 snaps.
30:41I think it was.
30:42So he's still easing back into things, but they need more of a pass rush.
30:46You hope that's where it's going to come from as those two guys get more in football shape,
30:50but especially if you're going to blitz that much, you need to get home and they just couldn't
30:54to make life even harder on their secondary.
30:56I mean that, that cover zero, the Cooper cup touchdown.
31:01That tells you about this game.
31:02They brought seven with a six man protection.
31:04Still didn't get home.
31:05Jelani Tavaes, the hot player, he's unblocked, gets caught up in the wash, ends up running
31:11into a block and you essentially have one Rams player blocking two defenders.
31:16The whole point of cover zero and look, Jonathan Jones is never a great game, but like the
31:21whole point of cover zero is Jones is off because that's a hard play to cover.
31:26You're not expecting an accurate throw.
31:28You're calling cover zero with the idea that at the very least you're turning up the heat
31:32on the quarterback and he's throwing off his back foot or he's throwing through contact
31:36and he's not going to be able to get a lot on the ball.
31:38You go, the, the play at the end of super bowl 53, the famous cover zero blitz there.
31:43That's what happens.
31:44I'm blanking on who the receiver was.
31:46The receiver is open.
31:48If golf can really put the ball on him, but he has a rusher in his face.
31:52He ends up, it's a duck comes up 10 yards, short step on Gilmore's right there.
31:56Was that Brandon cooks?
31:57I don't think it was cooks because cooks was the McCourty one.
32:00Yeah.
32:01I know the breakup.
32:02Was he both of them?
32:03I'll look it up.
32:04You keep the point being, and who was in, was it Van Noy or high tower?
32:09Who was in golf on that play?
32:11I think Van Noy, Van Noy and golf.
32:14So like, that's what that's supposed to look like when it was cook.
32:19It was cooks.
32:20All right.
32:21Damn.
32:22I, I, I, I remember the McCourty one.
32:23I'm like, it couldn't have been him for both.
32:25But the point of that play is like, you're trying to force the quarterback to make an
32:28uncomfortable throw.
32:30Not only did Stafford get to make that throw with the set base, he's able to step up in
32:35the pocket.
32:36The fact that there is any semblance of a pocket when you're rushing seven is things
32:42have already gone horribly wrong.
32:43There should not be a pocket for him to step up into.
32:46So like that right there, you, you then blitz all you want.
32:52If you're going to allow a pocket on a seven man rush, you're not going to win the game.
32:58Plain and simple.
32:59Yep.
33:00Not good enough.
33:01Not good enough.
33:02But, uh, let's hit on AVP and some Drake may before, uh, we do that.
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34:42All right.
34:43AVP, you want something wild here on Monday night football.
34:48So there's already been enough questions about AT&T stadium, right?
34:51With the sun coming in and putting up the curtains, uh, they tried opening the roof
34:54for the game tonight.
34:56So the fans want that the windows block the curtains, get the sun out of the player's
34:59eyes.
35:00Their answer was let's open the roof.
35:01Let's let more sun in.
35:02Um, a piece of metal fell off the roof.
35:05Oh, good.
35:06Stadium's literally falling apart.
35:08Good, good.
35:09Things are going great in Jerry's world down there.
35:12I can't, it didn't hit anybody apparently, which, which feels incredibly lucky.
35:16If you, if you go look on Twitter, it's on Twitter, it's not a small piece of metal.
35:21It's probably about the size of like, I'm just looking here cause there's a Gatorade
35:24cooler next to it for comparison.
35:26Oh, geez.
35:28That's not a small piece of metal.
35:30No.
35:31Geez.
35:32All right.
35:33So good old, maybe they, maybe it's a sign that they're tearing down the stadium to build
35:36a new one so they can walk out the sun and go the opposite direction.
35:40But, um, Alex Van Pelt, I thought it was one of his best games of the year and maybe
35:47why it coincided with Drake may, you know, set in some career highs, uh, on Sunday.
35:53I thought he had a, a good plan.
35:54You saw some good wrinkles, the Baderian low touchdown.
35:57We saw Marcus Jones offensive package.
36:00It wasn't perfect.
36:01You know, I mentioned that third down run earlier before they decided to kick the field
36:04goal.
36:05That last field goal drive to like way too many runs, like it felt like they were really
36:10milking the clock.
36:11Kind of goes back to what we were talking about in Tennessee and those end to half situations
36:15where they just get really hyper-focused on picking up a first down on certain times instead
36:20of, you know, trying to get chunk gains and keep moving in those instances.
36:25But overall give Van Pelt credit.
36:28I thought it was a really good plan and performance from him, one of his best games in that offense.
36:34It still seems to be kind of trending in the right direction.
36:37So I thought it was a good AVP game.
36:39Uh, yeah, I thought, again, the, the big knock for me is just, there are times it's not the
36:45entire game.
36:46There are times where they get too fixated on like one or two yards on these important
36:51drives where the clock is a factor.
36:53It's been a problem at the end of the first half, a couple of times, this was, was later
36:57in the game, as you mentioned, but I thought the creativity was good.
37:00I wish we'd gotten to see that trick play where Jalen poke fall started, uh, but a hundred
37:04percent going to be a touchdown apparently.
37:06Yeah.
37:07All right.
37:08I, we've missed a couple of, you know, or they mixed in a couple of trick plays.
37:11I thought the usage of Kendrick Bourne was, was great.
37:14So like, here we go.
37:15Right last week.
37:16Wow.
37:17This is one of the best games of the year for the coaching staff, except they bench Kendrick
37:21Bourne for KJ Osborne.
37:22Now here we are this week.
37:23This is one of the worst games of the year for the coaching staff, except they actually
37:27put Kendrick Bourne on the field for the third year in a row.
37:29I had to do this thing, Brian, where Kendrick Bourne.
37:32And I think it's been like three different co-hosts now on Patriots beat that have seen
37:35me do this.
37:36Kendrick Bourne looks good.
37:40Gets benched for a petty reason.
37:42I have to spend a month red in the face, reminding everybody, Kendrick Bourne's a good player
37:46while the team goes through the rest of their options, none of which are as good as Kendrick
37:49Bourne.
37:50Finally, the team realizes maybe we should put Kendrick Bourne on the field again.
37:54They put him back on the field and he's electric.
37:56He is their best playmaker.
37:58This is the third time that has happened.
38:00That's insane.
38:01And I know if you have a bad story about every roommate you've ever had, you're probably
38:05the bad roommate.
38:06I do subscribe to that theory.
38:08And yes, the fact that Kendrick Bourne has had an issue with three different offense
38:12coordinators.
38:13I think this is the exception of the rule, especially when you look at how they've done
38:17managing and developing and judging wide receivers as a whole.
38:23This guy needs to be on the field.
38:24I get why K.
38:25Sean Booty gets the most snaps.
38:26I'm fine with that.
38:28Kendrick Bourne needs to be a regular part of the offensive game plan.
38:31Booty, Bourne, Douglas.
38:33Those are the guys that are going to make plays for you.
38:36And you know, we can fix, I get that.
38:38That's not exactly the old seven Patriots.
38:40I'm talking about getting through this season, giving Drake may opportunity, the best opportunity
38:45to succeed, right?
38:48Kendrick Bourne needs to be on the field for a team that is starved for production and
38:54skill at the wide receiver position.
38:57This guy cannot be on the bench.
38:59He can't be, I said it like it was insane last week.
39:05And I get, and I hear people, Oh, he doesn't run great routes.
39:08Oh, he commits penalties.
39:10Show me a receiver on the Patriots.
39:12That's an expert rat runner.
39:14Show me a wide receiver on the Patriots.
39:16That's not committing penalties.
39:17That's not dropping passes.
39:19Yeah.
39:20He's not prime.
39:21Randy Moss, fine.
39:23He's as good an option as they have.
39:25And by a significant margin, you should be playing.
39:27Yeah.
39:28I mean, we talked about it.
39:29Even if he's making some of those mental lapses, the skillset, the ability to separate the
39:34plays he can make with the football in his hand outweighs the negatives.
39:38And you're even seeing like they, the big play to me was the growth between him and
39:43Drake that back shoulder ball late in the game, right?
39:46That was one they tried against Tennessee and it was almost intercepted.
39:50The communication wasn't spotty.
39:52And then they come back to it in a big situation, I believe it was on the last drive.
39:56One of the last two drives to kind of kickstart one of those.
40:00And it was a great ball.
40:01And, you know, they, they read it the same back shoulder, got things going.
40:04So you need Kendrick born out there.
40:06I do think it's born booty and pop.
40:10That's your three.
40:11You know, I know they, Jalen Polk has a role in the 12 personnel, but another penalty,
40:16no catches.
40:17It's just not going great for him right now.
40:18They don't want to play Jayvon Baker.
40:20So that's your three and 11 stick with that.
40:22Get Kendrick born the ball.
40:23I don't think we're going to see Jayvon Baker on offense this year.
40:26Like I think that's a, in you listen to males answer today about, they didn't like what
40:31he did on the kick returns.
40:32I don't know what he did wrong on the 40 yarder.
40:35I get that.
40:36That other one, you come out indecisive about whether or not to knee it Muffet and you try
40:40to hurdle a guy.
40:42I yeah, I, I, I understand me and we're not going to see him for, I can get ready Brian
40:49for this off season.
40:50When we're talking about the wide receiver room, what about Jayvon Baker?
40:53He could do a case on booty did Jayvon Baker case on booty comp.
40:57That is going to be, um, at the top of the charts.
41:00I think when we get to the spring and tat tat had quite the game this weekend, he did.
41:06That was an impressive showing, but, uh, so are you, are you tat at the top of the draft
41:12now more than a tackle?
41:13Cause neither were, uh, Calvin Banks was fine.
41:17No, Campbell did not have a good game against Florida.
41:19Calvin Banks was fine.
41:21I think I like tat better than the tackles just as prospects right now.
41:25So probably I'm still leaving the door open for a defensive player, especially, you know,
41:32I have concerns with T Higgins durability, but watching T Higgins last night and that
41:37Sunday night game, it was like, Oh boy, put that with Drake may, that would be fun.
41:41And that's someone you only have to pay, right?
41:43You don't have to use a draft pick.
41:44So I I'm not in long way to go still a lot of evaluation and big games for all these
41:50guys to play, but I'm still not closing the door on an edge.
41:54You mentioned Will Johnson at corner, just kind of going best player available, which
41:58in this draft might be a defensive player, but tat tat's going to be hard to pass.
42:04And we'll see what those tackles, but I think because he's been a little inconsistent trade
42:09down tat trade back up or three, like that's looking pretty good.
42:14I'll tell you this.
42:16If you could trade down and get tat or even one of the tackles at that point, like all
42:19for that, that would be great.
42:21I'll tell you this, like every year we do the mock drafts on this show.
42:25Right.
42:26And by the time we get to like the third one, it's because we, we want to try different
42:29scenarios every time.
42:30And we're like scraping.
42:31Remember we did the wheel last year we had the wheel, make our picks.
42:35I don't think we're gonna have trouble coming up with different scenarios this year.
42:38I think it's all going to be on the table.
42:41Yup.
42:42Yup.
42:43Big, big last six weeks to figure out some of these things, but yeah, we'll see six weeks
42:48too.
42:49Jeez.
42:50It's crazy.
42:51There's only six games left.
42:52I realized that today.
42:53That's that's wild.
42:54Seven weeks, six games.
42:55It's like that, but you don't morph.
42:58They make the playoffs, but oh boy, uh, we almost, we almost got to do path talk.
43:05We were that close.
43:07They won last week.
43:08Would have been perfect, but, um, Taylor's waiting to get on Pat's daily live coming
43:11after this.
43:12So just let's wrap up, uh, with some Drake may thoughts, uh, career high in completions
43:18with 30 passing yards, 282.
43:21If you want the nerd stats, career high, 86 and a half adjusted completion percentage,
43:268.3% completion, over-expected and bars favor stat, uh, plus 0.27 expected points added.
43:34Oh, expected.
43:35Well, you know, as long as he won in the hypothetical, as long as he was good, hypothetically, I
43:39don't care what he did for real.
43:41As long as he was good, hypothetically, it's all I care about that.
43:44That's the Bruins guy coming out and you, the expected goals, right?
43:47Oh, hypothetically looks good.
43:49So we'll, it'll, it'll work out.
43:51It'll even out in the end.
43:52No, we're not a bad team.
43:54We just, the other shoes got to drop.
43:55That's definitely what's happened.
43:56No, the Bruins expected goals are bad.
43:59Okay.
44:00Oh, is it actually bad?
44:01Uh, probably.
44:02I haven't checked the only, the only, uh, Bruins analytics I'm up to date on cause I
44:07just looked it up the other day when they sent Matt Potter down as like, he's analytically
44:11their best forward and they sent him down because we can't have those, you know, around
44:15here.
44:16So, but, uh, the stats are good for Drake may, um, I thought he just did a really good
44:23job of playing quarterback, right?
44:25You know, he said two weeks ago he wanted to win as a passer.
44:28He only scrambled three times.
44:29It was his quickest game in terms of time to throw his shortest average depth of target,
44:34like really sharp underneath accurate in those areas, you still saw some of the out of structure,
44:40the arm angles, the fun stuff he can do.
44:42But I thought it was an encouraging game just for him being a quarterback first, uh, still
44:48some turnovers, but you know, the one at the end, the, the, uh, strip sack.
44:52So you still got to get those out of the system.
44:54But I thought it was again, overall, another step in the right direction for him yesterday.
44:59Yeah.
44:59I mean, I, I continue to be encouraged big picture.
45:02It's literally just the turnovers two more yesterday and look, they, there were others
45:06at fault along with him.
45:08Michael Jordan, Ben Brown get beat really bad on a pretty basic line game and him and
45:12pop Douglas aren't on the same page late, but like to me that if there's one thing I
45:18want to see from the Patriots over these last six games, project number one, can Drake man,
45:23Alex man, pelt, find a way to cut down on the turnovers.
45:26They don't have to eliminate, don't even have to eliminate them entirely.
45:29Just cut down on the turnovers while still allowing him to be an electric playmaker.
45:33That would be the most encouraging thing I think you could see over the next six weeks.
45:37This is not me giving a referendum on his career.
45:40This is not me saying he turns the ball over too much to ever be good.
45:44The pace he's on right now is unsustainable.
45:46He has nine turnover.
45:47I'm not counting the jets game, nine turnovers and five full starts, multiple turnovers and
45:52three of those five.
45:54That's not sustainable.
45:55But he's a rookie and they're not exactly contending for a super bowl this year.
45:58So he has time to get that number down, but it does have to come down.
46:03And that to me is the, the, the big project for him and van Pelt for the rest of the year.
46:07If he can get that down six games left, six turnovers or fewer in the last six games,
46:13I would feel it.
46:15And I'm already encouraged by what I've seen, but I would feel like over the moon encouraged
46:20about him going into 2025.
46:22Definitely.
46:23Definitely.
46:24Yeah.
46:25Yeah.
46:26Yeah.
46:27The, the fumble, it was like the fastest sack recorded all season across like the whole
46:29league for a defensive lineman.
46:31Yeah.
46:32Yeah.
46:33So, uh, that, that was tough.
46:34He said on the radio, like he had booty open and he should've got it out, but that, that
46:37was tough.
46:38And that, you know, those line games have been an issue all year, um, upfront, but yeah,
46:43if it's just the turnovers that the turnover worthy play percentage was down, it was down
46:47like 2%.
46:48So that was an improvement, but still some big turnovers and costly moments.
46:52So with you, if that's, you know, you cut those down to end the year while he's still
46:57playing like he has in the other areas would be a really encouraging end of the year for,
47:02for Drake may there.
47:03So, uh, any other just overall last thoughts or players or anything, uh, else in your notes
47:09before we wrap this one up and let Taylor take over on Pat's daily?
47:14Um, oh, they couldn't, I talked about them not being able to stop the run.
47:18No, I think that's pretty much it.
47:20All right.
47:21Uh, I'll give him Andre Stevenson, a shout out just in past protection.
47:25He throws his body in there.
47:26That was just something I noticed.
47:27So give him his flowers there, but we will wrap it up there again.
47:31Patriots drop at 28, 22 to the Rams fall on three and eight on the year.
47:35They are now back on the road next week to go play the Miami dolphins.
47:39We will be back to preview that on Thursday.
47:41So make sure you're locked onto Patriots press pass, uh, to catch that.
47:45In the meantime, you can follow Alex on Twitter at real Alex Barth, head over to 98, five
47:48e sports hub.com, uh, for his Patriots coverage on there.
47:52And you can follow me on Twitter at I am Brian Heinz and head over to
47:54pat's pulpit.com for our Patriots coverage online there as well.
47:58So thank you everyone for tuning in with us tonight and we will
48:01see you guys later this week.
48:04Bye.
48:18Good.