Taylor Kyles is joined by Anthony Prohaska of the Cover 1 Podcast to share insights on this weekend’s Patriots-Bills matchup! Tune in for an in-depth look at both of the teams ahead of their first of two matchups to close out the season.
0:00 Intro
2:12 - Bills' recent history
4:54 - Offensive strategies
9:14 - Patriots defense
12:29 - Offensive line issues
14:49 - Bills pass rush
24:02 - Bills vs. mobile QBs
25:27 - Drake Maye's mobility
27:59 - Injuries on defense
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Welcome to the CLNS Media Network’s YouTube channel for New England Patriots 🏈 football. CLNS Media is the leading online provider of audio/video coverage for the 6X Super Bowl Champions. Get complete inside access to the New England Patriots at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro and everywhere on the road. CLNS Patriots credentialed insiders Greg Bedard, Andrew Callahan, Tayler Kyles, John Zannis, Alex Barth and Mike Kadlick provide instantaneous news and analysis all in real time, as well as full access to complete videos from the players, coaches, ownership and everyone else inside Patriots Place.
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0:00 Intro
2:12 - Bills' recent history
4:54 - Offensive strategies
9:14 - Patriots defense
12:29 - Offensive line issues
14:49 - Bills pass rush
24:02 - Bills vs. mobile QBs
25:27 - Drake Maye's mobility
27:59 - Injuries on defense
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Category
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SportsTranscript
00:00I am joined by Robert Griffin, the third James Whitefield.
00:08Yes, Mina Kimes.
00:09All right.
00:10So first play, we're going to look at second into one of the Patriots first offensive plays.
00:16What's going on everyone.
00:17Taylor cows here for CLNS media coming at you with another episode of Pat's daily brought
00:21to you by our good friends at price picks and game time.
00:25It's Bill's week.
00:26We're all super, super excited coming off yet.
00:29Any other embarrassing loss for the Patriots who lost by quite a hefty margin, whether
00:35you look at the statute or not in Arizona, have a chance to maybe turn things around
00:40going on the road to Buffalo.
00:42Maybe not likely, but Hey, the game has to be played and any given Sunday team has a
00:46chance to win.
00:47So just hold on to that little bit of hope, but to give me a little bit of insight into
00:51where the bills are at at this point in the season, I am joined by good friend of the
00:55show.
00:56If the pro has got cover one, he is going to be breaking down not only where the bills
00:59are, but maybe potentially if there's some cheeks in the armor, because it's not looking
01:04good.
01:05This matchup of a absolute juggernaut Bill's team against the new England Patriots.
01:10So without further ado, I'm going to stop making fun of the team I cover Anthony.
01:14Welcome back brother.
01:15How the heck you do?
01:16Thanks for having me.
01:17I'm good.
01:18It's still so weird.
01:19I was always talking about this, like a friend earlier today that it's like, so the bills
01:23won the AFC title again.
01:24And it's just like, not even like talk about it.
01:28She's like, yeah, they won the AFC East, like whatever, let's kind of see what happens.
01:30And it's just like wild to be in that spot, having watched the bills for so long and like
01:35objectively covering them now, but like growing up as a Bill's fan and still being a Bill's
01:38fan.
01:39And then to have the conversation with you and having like the bills be the juggernaut
01:43and the Patriots be like this fledgling, like, we'll see what happens.
01:47It hasn't been good.
01:48It's just like the, you know, Michael Scott, like my, how the turntables type of deal.
01:52But it's just, it's just still so crazy to wrap my head around it.
01:55That like the Patriots, like is, you know, just like quarterback stuff and head coach
01:59stuff.
02:00And it's just like, wow.
02:01It's just, it's still a shock to me to see like how each has flipped and where we are
02:04right now.
02:05It's wild, but I'm good.
02:06Thanks for having me.
02:07Good buddy.
02:08Full on Uno reverse card.
02:09Indeed.
02:10But let's actually get into it.
02:12We'll talk about some of the scheme stuff.
02:14You know, we always have a good time doing that before we go back and forth with our
02:17three questions for each other.
02:19I want you to catch me up on the bills.
02:21All right.
02:22Recent history.
02:23Where are they at?
02:24Obviously they're trying to win a super bowl this season, but when you look at how the
02:27team is made up, we know going into this season, we had questions about the wide receiver
02:31court because no more step on digs.
02:33What's it going to look like with Josh Allen?
02:34Is he going to be able to really get to that super sand level and carry this offense?
02:38And then on the defensive side of the ball, I know when the trenches, we were kind of
02:41concerned about the depth there, obviously Matt Milano and his injury, that was a pretty
02:45big blow, but it seems like year in and year out, Sean McDermott, whoever's in the lineup,
02:50he gets his guys to play.
02:51So catch me up where the bill's at heading into this week, 16 matchup.
02:56So like you said, they've, you know, really kind of become a juggernaut offensively, especially
03:00the last like three weeks with all the, again, not that Ross stats or everything, but the
03:04last three games, 17 touchdowns, zero turnovers, zero sacks, you put up 35, 42 and 48 granted
03:11the 35 was at home in the snow against a Niners team that I never wanted to say, like, just
03:16seemed kind of checked out after like things started not going well and rightfully so they
03:20came out hot and then things kind of fell apart.
03:22But yeah, they really turned it around offensively for a large part of the beginning of the year.
03:28Even when they were winning, even before they got decimated by Baltimore and looked really
03:31poor against the Texans offensively, this was an offense that really struggled with
03:36the in structure passing game, the run game worked and the out of screw or out of structure
03:41off script passive stuff was working, but they were struggling to pass the ball outside
03:45the numbers.
03:47They were struggling to get the ball down the field.
03:48They trade for a Marty Cooper.
03:50Everybody goes from being like, everybody eats.
03:51You don't need Stefan digs to all of a sudden being like, we need an X.
03:55Like, what do we do?
03:56This isn't working.
03:57Yeah, exactly.
03:58And Cooper, you know, hasn't lit the world on fire from a staff perspective, also been
04:03banged up a bit, but his presence, I think has helped.
04:06They've had injuries at the past catching spot, Dalton Kincaid, a bunch of wide receivers,
04:11but throughout it all, I think Joe Brady really has done a good job pressing the right buttons,
04:15pulling the right levers.
04:16The run game has been strong, both the running back run game and the Josh Allen run game.
04:20Things are really starting to click and fold into one another very well.
04:24They become very diverse with their run game, especially against Detroit with what they
04:28were able to throw out.
04:29So this is an offense that I think there were significant questions early on, even when
04:34they were winning, even more so when they were losing, especially against, you know,
04:37man coverage and single high coverage structures in general that put them in one on ones on
04:41the outside.
04:42But they really started to kind of turn the corner against that and become an offense
04:46that has the opportunity or the ability, I should say, to kind of pass on you with it,
04:51with a variety of looks or run it down your face in a variety of looks, beat you with
04:55speed, beat you with power, athleticism.
04:57They're really coming into their own offensively, defensively.
05:00I think they are what they are year over year, you know, assignment sound, if not very sexy
05:05on the back end.
05:06And overall, I do still think the interior is somewhat worrisome from a pass rush standpoint
05:11and from a run standpoint, you can displace this interior, especially the second wave
05:17of guys and blow them off the ball.
05:19The Rams game was a great example.
05:21They're running split zone and just getting more inside with it and just knocking dudes
05:25off the ball.
05:26And Kyron Williams just has holes to get through.
05:28So I think that's still a worrisome thing.
05:30We'll see how it gets going forward.
05:31Game script matters a lot to them in order to get teams away from the run, or they just
05:35have to sell out for it with rumblitzes and numbers and bodies in the box.
05:39Even though these quarterbacks are going to be the headliners, Josh Allen and Drake
05:42may, obviously, I really do think it's going to be these run games and ultimately decide
05:45what happens in the game.
05:47Because if the bills can just feed James Cook the entirety of Ray Davis also, and just be
05:51able to dictate the flow of the game, and then Josh Allen doesn't have to, you know,
05:55go Super Saiyan mode, then it's going to be a long day for the Patriots who have had a
05:58really hard time stopping teams from just running the ball at will.
06:01Not a lot of explosive runs that they've allowed, but it really has just kept offenses on schedule.
06:06And then the Patriots can run the ball, so that actually has been one of the few things
06:10they have been doing very well on offense, then maybe that could at least keep things
06:13close.
06:14But like I said, headliners are the quarterbacks.
06:16So Josh Allen, for my first question, I got to ask you, has anyone done anything to this
06:23alien golden retriever with a rocket launcher on his arm this season?
06:28Because for years, we always talk about it.
06:30Really the only one holding Josh Allen back has been Josh Allen.
06:33When he has those games against the Patriots where he just locks in and decides, I'm not
06:36making any mistakes.
06:37It usually turns into a blowout.
06:39Obviously last season, the Patriots were able to contain him a little bit.
06:43A lot of that had to do with getting the bills in some obvious passing situations and teeing
06:46off with pressure schemes.
06:48So has anything managed to kind of keep Josh Allen under wraps, or are we seeing a version
06:53of him that everyone outside of Buffalo has always been terrified to see?
06:57You know, early on, it was single high coverage structures, both cover one and cover three.
07:02The lack of an ability to win one-on-one outside or pass 10 or 15 yards, there was
07:10just such a cap on the outside and the vertical aspect of the offense.
07:15Teams were able to flood the box with bodies, shut down the run game, and then make things
07:20tough with terms of just bodies, keeping an eye on Allen, all that kind of stuff.
07:24But really nothing has slowed them down too much recently.
07:31But to your point, and for as much as Allen is leading the MVP race and that conversation
07:38and is a mutant and an alien unicorn super saiyan, all that kind of stuff, the run game
07:43is what makes this offense go.
07:45If they cannot run the football, things just get a little harder.
07:48And sometimes it doesn't matter because Allen can just dust the cape off and be that guy.
07:53But the run game is what makes this offense go.
07:56A little bit of Josh Allen scrambling, a little bit of Josh Allen design, but really just
08:00the basic running back run game, like duo, the tackle pull stuff with long trap and with
08:04dart.
08:05They have the ability to just work in weak side mid zone, which pairs well with duo.
08:11They'll use six offensive linemen sets.
08:13They're attaching guys to the line of scrimmage.
08:15They're marrying their run concepts really well with play action ever since the game
08:19against Seattle.
08:20So everything is kind of hitting well for them, which in my paranoid brain means at
08:26some point things are going to regress to the mean just because of how well everything
08:30is clicking schematically, shut up.
08:32But also all the crazy high variance plays that Allen's making and how they're all hitting.
08:39Like that's just at a certain point, like that's like a guy hitting like 700 for like
08:44a month.
08:45Like you can't just keep hitting that at some point you're going to come back down or maybe
08:49not.
08:50It's been wild to see.
08:51And yeah, they, he doesn't look like he's slowing down and neither does his offense
08:54right now.
08:55As always with these great quarterbacks, a lot of the time it's not about really beating
08:59them.
09:00It's about beating the guys around them.
09:01So if the Patriots can ideally contain the run, not make it so easy on the bills ground
09:06game and then also maybe man up against the receivers because one of the few strengths
09:10for the Patriots defense has been their cornerbacks.
09:13Maybe you got yourself a little bit of an advantage there, but now brother, your first
09:16question, what do you got for me?
09:17I will say Christian Gonzalez is amazing and yeah, I just, I love how I had him as corner
09:22one and a lot of people fought me on it, which I was surprised at coming out.
09:25And I was so upset when he got hurt last year.
09:28I'm very happy to see him balling out again and kind of being the dude that he was supposed
09:31to be.
09:32Um, so yeah, we'll see what happens there.
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10:53My first question for you, and I know, I love how you called all my questions loaded questions
10:58because I thought it was funny.
10:59So my just opener for you is what stresses the Patriots offense the most?
11:05Something schematic?
11:06Is it something niche?
11:07Is it something general?
11:08Just kind of what puts them in a bind the most?
11:11Really?
11:12I'm not trying to be condescending.
11:13It's pretty much anything that has to do with the website, their offensive line.
11:17And that is also a trickle to center where Ben Brown came in midseason, literally was
11:21signed midweek and wound up starting for them in the first time that he saw action.
11:25He's been up and down.
11:26You didn't really expect the guy who's been living on practice spots for most of his NFL
11:30career to come in and be even like a replacement level starter.
11:33He has been that for the most part, but last week he had two snaps that wound up on the
11:37ground.
11:38There were some times where like line games really hurt him.
11:40He had some really ugly quick losses in pass pro.
11:44And then with the Darian Lowe and Leighton Robinson, you've got a rookie in Leighton
11:46Robinson who has been benched three times this season.
11:49He's gotten a little bit better the past couple of weeks when he got back into the lineup.
11:53He's playing left guard for the first time, but it's still a rookie.
11:56And if you are going to bring a twist or something from a side that he's not necessarily expecting,
12:01that's going to be tough for him to pick up.
12:02Against Blitzers has actually been okay, but some of those twists have been an issue.
12:06And then the Darian Lowe, who one of the nicest guys on the planet, I always have to preface
12:11with that.
12:12Every time you lead with that, that's a bad thing.
12:14It's yeah.
12:15He's not great because he's just been a lightning rod for criticism over the past couple of
12:19years.
12:20And, you know, first of all, he has outplayed expectation by far.
12:23He's got really long arms, he's got a strong punch and Scott Peters has really brought
12:27out the best in him.
12:28But at the same time, the reason that he's not a starter is because he's so inconsistent,
12:32whether it's penalties, whether it's, you know, just completely whipping on blocks at
12:36times that he makes most of the time, but then it's just like, ah, there were two drives
12:41basically last week that his assignment essentially blew up after two consecutive plays.
12:46This happened twice in the game.
12:48So the rest of it, like, yeah, the receiving core isn't great, but Drake may has done such
12:53a great job taking what defenses give it, give him.
12:56No one wants to play main coverage against him because they know he can just take off
12:59even if you spy him with a linebacker, he can outrun that guy and he can put the ball
13:03wherever he wants to man coverage.
13:04The tight ends have been really reliable.
13:06Pop Douglas is, you know, really good against main coverage.
13:08So in Kendrick Bourne, they're kind of finding some chemistry.
13:11So it's hard to stop the passing game when they don't stop themselves because Drake may
13:16has been so good, but really when you see run or pass game, then really start to get
13:21behind the eight ball.
13:22It's usually because the offensive line has done something wrong and typically it's been
13:25that left side.
13:26And again, kind of trickle over and around this week.
13:30It's funny you mentioned like even just like some of the pieces and the bills the last
13:34couple of weeks have really started to lean into like twists and stunts and games up front.
13:38And I wonder how much they, yeah, lean into that even further.
13:42And that it's an interesting spot, like to point to that kind of Pat's old line as a
13:46week, especially on like that left side, because the bills for as much as the numbers may suggest
13:51that individually and as a group, their, their pass rush and run play up front aside from
13:56Greg Russo and even Russo as a, as a pass rusher, it hasn't been as like great as it
14:01gets made out to be locally and nationally.
14:04So I wonder kind of who can swing that pendulum, if kind of just butt heads with that group
14:08in the trenches there.
14:09I've been wondering, cause I keep hearing about Greg Russo and you know what, I'm going
14:12to cheat a little bit.
14:13I'm just going to do my question right now.
14:15Where's the pass rush coming from for the bills?
14:17Because I keep hearing about Greg Russo.
14:19I feel like the numbers aren't really backing it up.
14:21I haven't gotten a dive into the tape.
14:22We're recording this earlier on in the week and you know, my thing with Ed Oliver, I think
14:26he's a good player, but he's never really struck me as someone who can consistently
14:32be the dominant force in a game.
14:34You know, where I feel like that's his reputation, but I just don't see that, especially because
14:38it feels like Mike and when you pretty much does a good job against them every year, whoever's
14:41at left guard usually hangs in there.
14:43So who does this Patriots offensive line outside of the scheme stuff have to worry about?
14:48Oh, if it's from a man, this is such a tough, this is, this is a load of question from a
14:56consistency basis.
14:59Greg Russo is the bill's best pass rusher from a dominance perspective in flashes.
15:05It's at Oliver.
15:06Right.
15:07Um, Russo has had some wins this year.
15:09He's really started to develop more of an inside move this year.
15:12Previously it was just, you know, he, he doesn't have great change of direction or dip or bend.
15:16He has literally built like group when group is full size, like hence the nickname.
15:20So there's not a lot of bend and flexibility and dip there.
15:22So everything for him is length, strength, first touch leverage, good hand placement.
15:27So it's really just him like collapsing the pocket, driving guys back this year.
15:32It's been that with a good inside move and when he wins with it, it's clean, it's dominant,
15:37but overall just, I feel like most weeks grew it on a scale of one to 10 and this kind of
15:42put in perspective group, most weeks on a scale of one to 10 is anywhere from like a
15:47six to a six and a half or a seven as a pass rusher.
15:50We'll have a couple blips is like an eight or maybe a nine, but he's usually living in
15:53that six to seven range, maybe six to seven and a half.
15:57So the number goes from, he'll be like a four one week and then he's like a nine and a half
16:01and then he's a three and a half and then he's a 9.7.
16:04Like it can be all over the place.
16:06He's been hurt a little bit, been banged up, had a great game against Detroit, both as
16:10a pass rusher and as a, um, a run defender as well.
16:15Playing with leverage, great hand usage, pop violence.
16:17I think he's gotten healthier as the season has gone along.
16:21The numbers don't reflect, I think he's played better than his numbers suggest.
16:26His numbers last year were amazing and I think that kind of put him into a different
16:29echelon of conversation, but I think he's been a good player.
16:32I still don't think he's kind of the perennial all pro you look for at the spot, given what
16:36they would have liked him to be drafted him inside the top 10, but he's been a quality
16:40guy.
16:41He's been getting better lately and he and Groot are both coming off a week where they
16:44had 10 pressures each against the Detroit lions and a pressure rate, uh, each above
16:4922%.
16:50I think Oliver was second on the week and pressure rate behind Micah Parsons Groot was
16:54third on the week, right behind Ed Oliver.
16:56Yeah, it was a pretty interesting.
16:58A lot of that was scheme and structure and what they were doing, but they had a lot of
17:01quality one-on-one wins.
17:02I mean, anytime you're Greg Russo and you're driving Panay Sewell back into Jared Goff's
17:07lap, like I don't care if it happens once, that doesn't happen a lot to him.
17:11Um, and then, yeah, I think, uh, seven of Ed Oliver's 10 pressures were all against
17:16a Graham Glasgow who's like, like a really good left guard, not some like scrub who's
17:21just in there just to be in there.
17:22So yeah, they both, uh, balled out in a week that they kind of had to, so they're coming
17:26off strong games.
17:27Yeah.
17:28I was going to ask if anybody was hurt up front for the lions, not even to be condescending,
17:32but that's kind of the worst case scenario as an opposing offensive line where yeah,
17:36Ed Oliver and Greg Russo are both going to be completely locked in and just terrorize
17:39up front.
17:40So that was my second question, brother.
17:42What do you got for me?
17:43Uh, I always like to change the, or no, I'll stay in order here.
17:47Um, Pat's defense, we're talking about a little offline before we got started, but where does
17:52the path defense struggle the most from a situational standpoint this year?
17:59It's been, the red zone was, has been pretty bad.
18:02I'll say that now a big issue there has been miscommunication.
18:05Um, it just feels like they're not on the same page.
18:08Like you had a bunch of them against the dolphins.
18:11You had one on literally a walk in touchdown against the Colts were Anthony Richardson
18:15could have walked in and himself, he could have thrown it to two or three different people.
18:19Just not great.
18:20And then you had some of the times that they ran it in, in the, you know, guys, I just
18:23went, wasn't very good.
18:24And you had like Christian Gonzalez is an unblocked guy, but he doesn't realize that
18:28Richardson got the ball.
18:29You have Christian Ellis.
18:30He's, you know, inexperienced guy, defensively, more of a special team or been asking you
18:34a lot more because of one Bentley's injury, but he's like flying out to take Jonathan
18:38Taylor.
18:39Also not realizing Anthony Richardson kept the ball and his situation where I'm sitting
18:43in the press box saying they are going, it's going to be a QB run on two point conversion.
18:47They're going to do that.
18:48And they're just going to dare you to stop it.
18:49And you know, so that's been a pretty big issue against the Cardinals.
18:53They scored a couple of times in the red area.
18:55The biggest issue there though, in my opinion was really just, I think at that point, the
18:59defense kind of, and I hate to say this, it felt like they kind of threw in the towel.
19:03It just wasn't very competitive.
19:04Both times, James Conner was able to walk into the end zone and I'm kind of cheating
19:09here, but the red zone is the glaring thing because you can be a bend, but don't break
19:13defense, but you can't break.
19:15And that's really been the biggest thing.
19:17But when we're talking about James Cook, I have to at least acknowledge the early down
19:20defense because third down was atrocious for the Patriots last week.
19:24The Arizona was 10 for 15.
19:26Only one of those 15 third downs was a third and long situation, third or seven or more.
19:32They were just constantly in these areas where all you really had to do was check it down,
19:36throw to somebody underneath.
19:37They turn around, you get the first down.
19:39So the red zone has been the crippling thing for the Patriots defense, but also if they're
19:44just going to let James Cook get three yards, four yards, I need one yard, let me get three
19:48yards, two yards.
19:50If that continues to happen, then they're screwed because then the play action game
19:53opens up.
19:54You got a lot of guys on this defense who were inexperienced, are going to make mistakes
19:57like Dell Pettis, Christian Ellis, guys who are in these really tough spots and against
20:02Josh Allen.
20:03This is the guy who's going to exploit every mistake you make.
20:06So got to stop these guys in the red zone, of course, but also I just don't think you
20:10can let them walk down the field because once you get in the scoring territory, there's
20:13not a whole lot you can do to stop up.
20:16And that's a good point.
20:17Yeah.
20:18A hundred percent.
20:19And the red zone piece is important, obviously, but I, the early down stuff is so important
20:23for anybody who plays the bills because when, and again, it was earlier in the year, but
20:26even as they've gone through, even after getting a Marty Cooper and still been kind of the
20:29juggernaut, if you can get them into third and long third and, you know, known passing
20:35situation or more of a true drop back, you can kind of put them in a bind at times, but
20:40they've just, you know, kind of like how you alluded to here and what the cards did,
20:45they've just been able to stay in third and four, like a third and long for them has been
20:48like third and five, maybe like third and six, but they're just running the ball so
20:52well.
20:53And Alan has been taking what's been given to him for a majority of the year.
20:56So they're really just staying on script and on schedule with the run in the past, which
21:00is what makes the offense so difficult when Alan is also hitting the high variance plays.
21:05Cause you're just getting this chunk, you know, generation in addition to kind of death
21:09by a thousand cuts and staying on pace, which has just been unreal this year.
21:13It's one of the worst ways to lose as a defense when you know, you can't stop them.
21:17And then every once in a while, it's just like, Oh yeah, Josh Allen's going to throw
21:20the fastest, the most quickly delivered 50 yard pass in like next gen stats history or
21:24some crazy something like that.
21:26I saw that tweet from Solak just on real, just, yeah, it looks like it too.
21:30When I saw it, I was like, that got on him very fast.
21:33That was like a Madden throw.
21:35It really was.
21:36Yeah.
21:37It was like, you didn't like put the arc on it.
21:38You just like lasered it with a 99 throw power and it just, yeah, there was no, there
21:41was no layer arc.
21:42It was just like, yeah.
21:43Which, but again, that's another example, like everything keeps hitting.
21:47So like, is the glass slipper staying on or is like, he going to turn into a pumpkin at
21:51some point?
21:52Like, and it would be so bills.
21:54I hate saying this.
21:55It would be so bills just like he wins the MVP and they just run through everybody and
21:59then they get like the two seed and they lose in the wild card or like they get the one
22:03and they get housed in the divisional round by like Denver or somebody just where they're
22:07like over with the bills are going to win.
22:08It would just be so bills.
22:09I think this audience would be very okay with that.
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23:30What time is it Taylor?
23:31Game time.
23:32But for my last question, we're talking about Josh Allen, the scrambles.
23:36I'm going to uno reverse card this one.
23:39Drake may been one of the better scramblers in football.
23:42It's done a much better job trying to keep his eyes downfield and has a really good sense
23:45for when to actually scramble to run, when to scramble to throw.
23:49How have the bills been against mobile quarterbacks who can threaten them once they leave the
23:53pocket and potentially extend plays because it feels like this is going to be a game where
23:57Drake may is going to have to pull a couple of things out of that.
24:00You know, they're, they're largely fine mainly in, in the fact that their past rushers are
24:09really more just compression guys as a whole, like Vaughn Miller is Vaughn Miller, who's
24:13going to kind of dip and bend and use, you know, has athleticism, which he's been better
24:17than he's probably getting credit and shine for this year.
24:19Not, not really, yeah, definitely not Vaughn at times looking like an edge two against
24:26the past, which is like fine, but really been more of like an edge three or like a low tier
24:29two at best.
24:31So he's going to do Vaughn stuff, but Groot is still a pocket compressor.
24:35Ed will try and win one-on-one.
24:38There's not a lot of pressure that comes from the interior other than at Oliver.
24:41So guys just kind of naturally maintain their rush lanes because they can't generate any
24:46penetration or knockback insides.
24:49And then AJ at Vanessa, really good double swipe.
24:51He'll try and run the corner on you and they'll do like twists and stunts and they're very,
24:55they're very conscious of not letting QBs get out of their rush lanes or not like not
25:00them, not getting out of their rush lanes to kind of let the QBs escape.
25:03Kyler Murray did a pretty good job in design and scramble in week one.
25:07I think you can find success there.
25:10You're not going to find too much because they are a primarily zone-based defense.
25:14So you're not going to turn and get a ton of like, Oh, he broke contain and everybody's
25:17backs are turned and you can run for 30 yards, but you can generate like seven to nine, seven
25:22to 10 yards.
25:24Bernard is a really good linebacker, not the best foot speed.
25:27I think may can, can kind of give him some trouble there.
25:29Bernard is the guy underneath Milano is working his way back, but can still be got, he's still
25:34kind of getting into game shape.
25:35I do think you could see a day where Drake may scramble successfully it just because
25:40of how good he is at navigating the pocket, embracing the chaos, and then making a play
25:45with his legs or with his arm out of it.
25:48Hopefully it's a bad day for the pass rush and he can find just a couple of cracks to,
25:51like I said, make some of the plays he might have to pull up because this is hopefully
25:55going to be tight, but at least he got Josh Allen on the other side, you're going to have
25:58to make some magic.
25:59Now, buddy, what's your last question for me before I get you out of here?
26:03What or where is the biggest vulnerability on the Patriots?
26:08Is it as on a specific side of the ball?
26:10Is it a specific player or position group or something schematic?
26:13What or where is it?
26:15I would say it's the Patriots defensive line play.
26:20I would say that's probably the biggest weakness.
26:22It's now it really is linebacker, but I will say because when you loop in pass rush, which
26:27they have absolutely none of right now, it is last year was Christian Barmore.
26:31Now you've got no Jude on.
26:32Far more was injured.
26:34Keon White has been pretty great, but I mean, he's an interior rusher.
26:38You can only use them there in certain situations and those known passing down.
26:41So it's kind of tough to get the most out of him consistently.
26:44And the offense, honestly, they get in their own way.
26:46There's not a whole lot that other teams have done that's really stopped them.
26:50As again, Drake may the running backs are getting going.
26:53Really it's just been they can't generate any pass rush.
26:55So quarterbacks have a ton of time to do kind of whatever they want.
26:58They've been much better in keeping guys hemmed in.
27:00And then when Calvary did get outside the pocket last week, the coverage was very, very
27:04good at just plastering and making sure they didn't give up anything.
27:07That's going to be huge this week.
27:08But one Patriots can't really stop the run.
27:11Like I mentioned, there's just a ton of guys that are in roles.
27:14They're not really suited for like Daniela quality right now is basically a starter.
27:18You got Jeremiah Farms, who I was hoping would take a step forward, but
27:21he's super inconsistent.
27:22Eric Johnson, a guy they picked up off waivers earlier this season,
27:26like a lot of guys playing a lot of snaps them exactly.
27:29That you ideally wouldn't love to be in those spots like Keon White.
27:32He's been kind of inconsistent as an outside linebacker stopping the run.
27:35And then it's pretty Jennings.
27:36He's being asked to be an every now player.
27:38And I think it's starting to kind of hurt him as a run stopper.
27:41He's still very good.
27:42But it's like two or three times a game.
27:43Now you'll see him give up an edge that he doesn't usually give up.
27:45So that defensive front period has been really disappointing.
27:49But I would say because we know injuries on the second level.
27:52No, Juwan Bentley, that's been pretty huge.
27:54Jelani to buy has been putting some tough spots, but
27:56the defensive line plays been really disappointed.
27:59Man, that's not great considering how the bills run the ball and how Alan goes.
28:04And yeah, it's so unfortunate when like injuries is kind of mashy.
28:08Plus you're trading Jude on before the season starts.
28:10And I really I know what a couple other people felt this way.
28:14I thought the past he was good last year and
28:16I thought they had a chance to kind of run it back this year.
28:19And I was like, okay, if the offense can just be halfway decent,
28:22this is a good defense.
28:23And then Jude on is gone and bar more with like the clocks or
28:28whatever that like kept him out and then Bentley and like, I don't know,
28:31Duggars get back to form Duggars.
28:34There was one there was a run against the Cardinals where I think it was on like
28:38a big run for Connor, where Duggars coming up and he just takes a bad angle and
28:42Connor beats him to the corner and gets up the sideline.
28:44And I was like, you gave that up to James Connor.
28:46Like and I think Connor sweet, but like, you're Kyle Duggar, man.
28:49You shouldn't be getting beat by James Connor at the second level to the sideline.
28:52And like that right there was like, give me a give you a microcosm of like
28:56the Patriots defense not working this year.
28:58I was like Kyle Duggar,
28:59like getting out run like that from an angle perspective because he's usually.
29:02That was right there in the hole.
29:04He had a chance to stop it.
29:05Mayo called him out.
29:05He's like, yeah, we I think he meant I'm not sure if he meant Ellis or Duggar, but
29:09he said there were two guys that had shots to make the tackles that they expected to
29:12make those tackles.
29:14Maybe not Ellis because he was a little far back, but like efforts and
29:17Duggar, he was just like, this is a really, really bad look.
29:20And that's what we're gonna close on because I'm about to go on your show.
29:23So before we get out of here, buddy,
29:24please let the people know where they can follow you.
29:26What great stuff you've got coming down the pipeline that we should be looking out
29:29for. Thank you very much.
29:30Yeah, you can find me on Twitter at pro underscore underscore ant.
29:33That's pro two underscores a n t.
29:35You can find me on blue sky at pro and no underscores there.
29:38They don't allow that there.
29:40So it's just pro ant.
29:41I host a solo show every Tuesday, live 9 p.m.
29:45Eastern called Disguised Coverage to focus on advanced metrics, film, all that kind of stuff.
29:49Yeah, you'll be on it very shortly as we wrap up here.
29:51And then I co-host a show every Wednesday called The Film Room.
29:55That show is purely 100 percent film based.
29:57So my solo show is anywhere from like 40 to 70 percent film, sometimes a little less,
30:02sometimes a little more dependent on the week.
30:04And then the film room is all film.
30:05I'm all about X's and O's scheme and structure, build stuff, league wide stuff, college stuff.
30:11That's me.
30:12Awesome. Thank you so much once again for coming on, buddy.
30:15And I'm sure we'll see you again soon.
30:17And thank you all, as always, for watching.
30:18Now, take care of yourselves.
30:20Take care of each other.
30:21We will see you next time. Peace, y'all.