Patriots LB Jahlani Tavai joins! What does Tavai think of the hit on Trevor Lawrence? How difficult is it to control your hit on the QB?
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00:00about this and that is Jelani Tavai, New England Patriots linebacker who joins us today as opposed
00:06to Friday because of the bye week and Jelani, good morning, how are you? Good morning, I'm good,
00:17how are you guys? We're great, we were just talking about that hit on Trevor Lawrence and how difficult
00:25is it when you're out there and your job is to hit guys to control something like that,
00:33I'm sure you've seen it, where do you stand on a hit like that? I mean that was tough,
00:40you know, I think it's the hardest thing to do is like tackling a quarterback because you don't
00:45know if they're going to slide, you know, if they're, you don't know if they're gonna, you
00:49know, try and get the extra yard or go out and bounce, so I mean I understand where he's coming
00:56from but it's just a tough play, you know, like I don't know. Is there any fix from you, like
01:05Wiggy brought up his potential fix? Five yard halo, if the quarterback doesn't slide early enough
01:13then he is fair game because I've never tackled anybody but I know it's got to be hard because
01:19they wait till the last second to slide and they have enough room to slide earlier.
01:25I mean this also goes on probably the players or on the quarterbacks too, you know, like
01:30you can't slide last minute, you know, that's, I mean as much as you think that like,
01:39I don't know, I don't like it because they're so protected in this league,
01:44but back in the day you could do whatever to a quarterback, you could, you can dog rag them,
01:48you could whatever and everybody was okay with it and everybody was like, oh yeah, that was a great
01:53play. Now it's just like, now it's like screw this guy, you know, he's a, you know, he's a
02:02terrible player, but you know, back in the day, like that's how we learned how to play before the
02:06rules changed. But it's again, oh sorry, I was just going to say again, it's on the player to
02:13make sure if he wants to be safe, slide early. Jelani, you guys had a practice yesterday before
02:19your bye week, Gerard Mayo's big proclamation yesterday was it, it was time to hit the reset
02:26button for you guys and figure some things out. Losing these really close games down to the wire
02:32like you guys did on Sunday, how difficult is it for a team and what's been the message
02:37inside the locker room for the end of the season? I mean, I agree with them. It's definitely a week
02:44of us reflecting on the year and hitting that reset button, you know. Right now everybody's
02:54just, everybody's trying to put on good film because, you know, it comes down to job security
02:59now. So it's up to the guys, if they want to improve, then, you know, they have to understand
03:08that we got to fix those little things, especially when it comes down to the last few seconds of the
03:13game. We got to, you know, we can't allow teams to capitalize on, you know, our mistakes.
03:21We just played some audio from Drake May and he, after the game on Sunday,
03:27talked about this loss being heartbreaking. Is that kind of the sentiment that you have and
03:34that this team has? Of course. Those close games like that, especially, you know, when it comes
03:43down to us on the defensive side, you know, a part of us feel like we just let it down with those
03:49last few critical plays, whether it was penalties or misreads. But,
03:56yeah, that one was tough. It was tough to swallow after the game.
04:01But, yeah, it's on to a new week. Luckily, it's bye week and we got a reset.
04:09Jelani, your former coach last night was on with Jim Gray and podcast, Let's Go podcast,
04:15and he said that he feels sorry for the defensive players this year that the team hasn't been able
04:22to be as successful defensively as they were with him. What would you say to that commentary?
04:31I don't know. I don't listen to the, I don't really watch the media, so
04:36right now we're just trying to, you know, figure things out and, like I said, we're trying to reset.
04:44You know, we can't, I'm not trying to listen to the outside noise as much as I miss, as much as,
04:48like, I love Coach Bill. Yeah, we just got to reset. Well, never mind his perspective.
04:58When you look at this defense, you were here last year and you look at statistically it being in
05:05most every category worse than it was last year. What do you, when you point at
05:13a reason or when you reflect on what, why that is, what do you think that is, you know?
05:20It's just attention to detail, whether it's us making tackles or keeping the quarterback in the
05:25pocket. It's always those little things that just bite us in the butt. So, yeah, it's probably just
05:36yeah, I would just say that. When it comes to attention to detail, a lot of people want to put
05:41that on Gerard Mayo as somebody who plays for him. What would you say to those people? Do you
05:46think that the defense failing and the penalty issues, does that fall on him? No, this is a team
05:54sport. You know, we're all, we're all, we're all at blame. You know, we can't, we can't just throw
06:00our coach, you know? So I take, I take responsibility of whatever I've done.
06:06I know the guys do the same. So this is, it's not, it's not one person's fault. You know,
06:12this is a collective and, and that's what I love about team sports.
06:17Jelani, when you say the little things and have played, you know, haven't played the game before,
06:24generally attention to detail, little things. I feel like sometimes is the players
06:32not putting enough mental work in studying film, doing situational football. We go again from the
06:40former player. Do you feel like that? No, no. But do you, do you feel like at times, because
06:45like when you say the little things, is it a lack of focus and a lack of maybe not understanding
06:51the situation? No, we, we go over situational football every day. You know, it's like,
06:59when I say the little details, it's, it's like, if we're in cover three, we're,
07:04and we're the hook players, we get, we got to get depth. You know, sometimes guys think that
07:09they're getting dense, but really they're working more lateral than they are like,
07:14or horizontal than, than, than getting depth. So there's, there's stuff like that. Like it's
07:21the hidden, hidden things that people don't, don't see in the game. And then sometimes it's,
07:27oh, and then plus penalties, you know, we were biting ourselves in the butt, whether it's us
07:32being not conditioned or whatever like that, that's, that's simple things that we shouldn't be
07:38doing. Do you also think, and I think Boomer Esiason brought this up, but Ty and I talk about
07:43it, the lack of practice time, because practice is a way shorter that maybe when you talk about
07:50a guy getting to his hook to curl zone, he's not doing it enough in practice where it becomes
07:56second nature. Do you think that might affect some of the, you know, overlooking the little
08:01things is the lack of practice time that you guys actually have to be out on the field?
08:06I don't think so. Cause you know, we're, I don't like to compare of course, but if we're,
08:12if we're putting last year and this year together, like we had the same amount of time practice and
08:16the outcome was like that. And you know, now, and if we look at the present, it's on the guys to
08:22do stuff after, after practice, if they want to get the extra work in with, with the older guys or,
08:27or with the, with the assistant coaches, like that's on the guys. And like I said, I do see
08:35those guys do that after practice. You know, I will see wise at the sleds after, after we break
08:40it, break the huddle and he's out there for probably 15 minutes, 15 to 30 minutes after
08:46practice is done. So yeah, it's, it's stuff like that, that will like, that'll help.
08:53I mean, for you, we should point out the positive, nice tip that led to an interception on Sunday.
09:00And something perhaps that we can, we can end this on a positive note, something that we can
09:06definitely agree on. I think on the, on the holiday table, when it comes to a, perhaps a
09:13leftover Thanksgiving, Sandy or just a warm and buttered Kings Hawaiian, the best, the best role
09:24to have on the holiday. I was just thinking about that too. We would agree on that. At least
09:31those are great for making slides. They are, they are great for slide. They're really great for
09:34anything. I mean, they really are the, like the Crescent extra, no use for the leftover ham. Oh,
09:42leftover ham. Yeah. Fantastic. I would make a breakfast sandwich out of that. Those are made
09:48like cut the whole roll in half, some eggs in there and then leftover having cheese.
09:56Toast it up, throw some jelly on it. Jelani. Greg never leaves the house without at least a
10:00pocket full of Kings Hawaiian. All right. Well, listen, enjoy, enjoy the bi-week and we will get
10:12to talk to you again next week. All right. I appreciate it. All right. There you have Jelani.