Calls come in // Final thoughts on Patriots-Seahawks - 9/9/26

0:00Premier B final hour Felder Maz, brought to by the Draft King Sports Book here on 98.5. The sports of FM dial in Boston, the Samo Caspeans across New England and the country. On NBC Sports Boston, that's brought to by Supercuts Real Smart here. Big Jermery Alex Barth alongside from our town for entire studios. I'm gonna go right back to the phones unless one of you guys have a fresh thought to take us into the final half hour here. So you can get to the people. Okay, we got you covered up until 5.30 in the beginning of the Patriots pre-game show. Here's Chris and Rayne and Hi Chris. Hey guys, few quick points. These type of games where people thought the Patriots were gonna lose were early in the season, maybe the colds back in the Brady Bellachack days. Those are the games that those two would excel at. And we kind of set the tone for the rest of the season and kind of everybody's doubting us. And that's what I'm looking forward to seeing today. To see if Vrable and May and the rest of this group have that in them, go in a national stage. Everybody's watching you and really not just win, but play well and win. And secondly, you guys are just talking about

1:01Greg May and that Super Bowl. And it was actually 19 to seven, the score when he threw the inception with three minutes left there at their own 44. They just scored a touchdown. Seattle went four, three and out. And then they got the ball back. He just had a good scramble. So that was a killer in the seven. I compare everything to Brady. Those are the type of things that Brady did into he was able to slow the game down. So that's really what I'm looking forward to seeing from May. It's just coming up in those big moment. He had a great, he had a great player for a pretty lousy player for him. But he got him and I just want to see him really dominate against a team like this and come up big with that attitude. Oh, playing mentality. Winning mentality, play winning football that play. I point out because he wasn't, you know, he had some pressure. I think it was a, I think it might have been Campbell. There was a, I thought an offensive lineman sort of pushed into him a bit. Yeah, but it wasn't like a full on onslaught. He had a little bit of time. It was only second and three. No, he chucked up a prayer there. It was not a good play. And that was just on him. So that's still, look, there are more experienced team

2:02having gone through that run. Have it played in that game. And now they should and May should be better prepared for Seattle's defense and what they're bringing. I would thank for the print tonight. Yeah, and this is where one of the big tests tonight, they talked in the off season. We saw it in camp about May having more tools at the line of scrimmage. He's graduated from the entry level version of the Josh Maintain was offense. They ran last year, another year in the system. They're able to put more on his plate and something that highlighted was his ability to maybe make some more changes at the line of scrimmage. So I think a lot of their issues in past pro last year, it wasn't physical in the sense that like guys just getting, you know, run through and be careful with my hands here. It was a little grass over there. It was the twist, the stunts, the blitz, like they couldn't figure out how to pass this off. They didn't identify it right doing it again. So may, I just talk with my hands. So may has, I'm going to find your playing football coach. May has more on his plate now, I think, which could be good or bad to, hey, watch this. Hey, let's set this protection here. This is coming this way. We're going to change to this.

3:04Let's see how he handles that. And there is more tools for him. And then again, they have a more experienced left guard, Jared Wilson's at his natural position. They don't have two rookies next to each other. How they handle the past blocking mentally, the whole thing is is a bigger deal than just the physical side. Number number one thing on my list, because it was a number one thing in the game. They absolutely demolished you up front. And it was a mismatch. They're defensive front, they're blitz packages, all that stuff. And you try to protect it. It was complete. Men against boys. Have you closed the gap on that? That's the number one thing to watch tonight. I think Travis in the car on Roussini and Vrayble. Yes, Travis. Hey, guys. So I heard the midday show earlier talking about bar stool and it up, you know, being where Roussini ends up, would portals relationship with the patriots have any effect on that? Yes, a thousand percent. Yeah. So if she goes there, this will all but guarantee you will not get any kind of nitty gritty, salacious details about the relationship she had with Mike Ravel.

4:07Because when this story broke back in the spring, because Porton was such a patriots hog and patriots superfan, and that's part of his brand, he basically tried to stick his head in the sand in terms of covering this story. I was like, ah, nothing to see here. So if he brings her in, yeah, you're not going to get any kind of new details from this story. And she'll just tell her quote unquote side. It'll be like, okay, we're adults. We had a relationship. Now let's move on. What can I do for you in this brand now? That's what it'll be. So I don't think she didn't do it no matter where she goes. But even if she wanted to agree at that outlet, they wouldn't let her do it, right? No, no, no, not on Dave's watch. Jeff at work has a thought on that. Go ahead, Jeff. Yeah, my question is on Ravel's wife. Not to get her involved, but she's obviously involved. Is it normal for the wife to be there at the first game, whether it's the home game or the way he, the way game? But this is the opening of the NFL season against the Super Bowl. And does anyone know if she is attending or somewhere in the state?

5:09Well, that would sure be an interesting thing to show on TV tonight. Yeah, if you get her in the, you know, up in the booth or whatever, not the box or whatever. Yep. Yeah, she wanted to look it up. So he's been married to her for 27 years. The wives don't typically travel to road. I mean, sometimes they don't even if it was eight years. If I'm the spouse and I'm, this is what, you know, my life is your football coach. You're never around. Like, I don't want to go to these games at this point. Is it typical? Please, after 27 years and after what just happened and how this story broke in the spring, I'd be like, go up yourself. I'll see you in January. So listen, I would say, right. There would be a certain level of a layer of, no, I'm not going to the F and Seattle. Okay, you're fine. Mike, we'll see when you get home. But is there a possibility for a dog and pony show tonight? Well, that's how I would take some sort of public display. If she was there, that's a, oh boy, does that smell? Yeah. Yeah. Can you do me a solid day? But this would look really good. So that's that's what we haven't thought about. I wouldn't think like how else would you look at that?

6:09Oh, this is, this goes to show their true love. Okay. Like the least is NBC going to cover the story tonight. I was leaning, yes, me too, about a week ago, because you know, we had that thing come out with the athletic. They did their investigation. And now that, you know, puff, peas, rabble story dropped the other day and there was nothing in that because of the, I don't know. No, I know, I'm now, I'm now going the other way. No, I don't think it's touched on. They'll cover it. Didn't Tom and say something about it during the, yeah, it was a Hall of Fame game where they previewed this night. They spent about 60 seconds on it. But it was a, like a legit little topic where it was both Devon McCordy and Tomlin said, if they start to lose, it's not going to be forgotten. You win it all goes away when you lose. Everything gets brought up and paraphrasing, but it was something along those lines. So they did it then. I would think they're going to do it again tonight. I think Florio is on the pregame show tonight. And I think he mentioned on PFT yesterday that he was going to talk about it. Oh, good. Okay.

7:10So that gets by the NFL sniffer. Florio's not afraid. That's why he's so good. 617779085. Stephen Miami. Hi, Steve. Hi. How are you today, guys? Good, Steve. It's the beginning of a great time. And that's the beginning of football. A couple of questions. One, after Hilt, I think his last name was Hilt from the Dolphins guy's hurt, I was surprised that they didn't go after a veteran Titan. Thank you. It's really ready. I don't know. Paul still there, but how about you? See, I'm going to cut you off. Thank you for the call. What's their situation at Titan? At blocking tight end, it's what Hill was going to do. I'm not sure. I think Reardon's ready as a pass catcher. They do have Tana Rarkin, the UDFA who's more primarily a blocker, but now you're getting into it's more of a tell. I think they trusted Julian Hilt. A developer, little more as a receiver and be a true second Titan. Now it's a tell. What do you mean? Last year when they tried to go 12 with Austin Hooper, right?

8:11Austin Hooper couldn't block. Teams basically played that like he was 12 personal one back to Titans. Yes. When they went to two Titans, which is a little grouch over here, but he's like seriously morphing. Go ahead, which is supposed to be a more run heavy formation. So you want the defense to put more size on the field. They said, well, this guy's basically receiver. We're going to leave our third corner out here. Go ahead. Sorry. We're going to leave our third corner out here. There was a tell there. They were mostly throwing out of it. If you put the extra offensive linemen in, which they did later in the year, the six offensive linemen, the jumbo tight end. Well, that was all right. You're probably going to run the ball and even if you throw it, he's an offensive lineman. We're not going to find another legit, you know, third tight end. I would feel like that's not that expensive and they're just sort of there. I was surprised. There were a few guys in for agency. I thought maybe at the start of Camp OK, you're going to let the kids get the snaps. He would take and do sometimes you can bring these guys in like they did at guard with Greg Van Roten. You can bring these guys in in August and get them caught up. But yes, especially when we had a good start to the summer kind of evened out.

9:13I don't think Tanner Arkin gives you really much as a receiver. So when he's out there, you're not really going to respect him as a pass catcher as the defense. I thought they might bring in somebody else. The wild card here is Regigilium. We didn't see them use a lot of the fullback in the summer. Obviously, didn't play in the preseason. Does he bring that element of because he's got to catch the football as a fullback? Does he bring that element of unpredictability? 617779095, Pats in the car. Hi, Pat. Yeah, how's it going? It's going good, man. What do you got? So I just hopped into the car a minute ago and I heard you guys trying to say that Christian Gonzalez is more of a speaker than Drake May. And I've never heard a worse take in my entire life. Did we say? 100 per thing. You said you said he was pedicure and he was good to go. I feel your exact words. You're like, you're holding one. You were setting up Paul Perillo for a question because has Drake May got more confident at the microphone kind of thing.

10:13I said, Gonzalez has already shown that he's, you know, you said he grew up. I feel like when I see Christian Gonzalez at the podium, he feels more mature to me. I didn't say he was a better speaker than Drake May, but I felt like he's, I feel like there's, like he's sort of grown up a little bit is what I said, Pat. All right. So I, like I said, I hopped into the car a minute all of that. I'm a huge Christian Gonzalez fan. He's an incredible athlete. He's an infant when it comes to speaking and taking care of his business. Drake May has been a consummate like professional since he came in with way more pressure than Gonzalez. I just, I've never heard a worse take in my life. Well, you don't even have the take right. Why do you think Gonzalez is an infant? Have you heard him speak? Yes, I've heard him speak. I get it lately, like with his contract, he's been saying exactly what his agent said. And that's great. But like there's a reason why he's not a captain. There's a reason why like most of his interviews are garbage. Like the guy's not a public speaker.

11:14Like I just, I just thought that was not me like yourself. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. You guys are incredible. I get it. But I mean, it's not even close to argue that Christian Gonzalez has been like, you know, needed a step forward. I just wild. I don't think it's that wild. He's just a soft spoken guy. Not everyone's going to have a big booming voice and be super confident, be a big personality in front of a microphone and cameras. I thought he handled himself really well. This whole contract. If anything, yeah, this whole summer, he's carried himself way more sure of himself that he did the last couple of years. I thought 100%. He definitely says less like in terms of word count. But he's, I mean, he reminds me a lot of stuff on Gilmore and stuff on Gilmore is never captain. He was a leader on those teams. Don't get yourself wrong. He's quiet, but to say he's an infant in the way he talks. Something tells me Pat just doesn't like the fact he took on the team would be my guess. Here's Matt and Worcester. Go ahead, Matt. Hey, I was going, boys. Quick question. I guess a two-par question.

12:14First, I guess how confident are you in this tight end group outside of Hunter Henry? I know you touched on out a little bit before. And then I guess the second piece efficiency wise. Is there any, I guess, Jurassic difference to the offense that you guys expect to see this year? So I was going to ask Paul Prillo that, all that's Barth. You were down there. They're, I guess you're available to report it. But here we are, Barth, we get all the camps over. If it looks different, how does it look different? Such an emphasis on tempo, right? So tempos one thing, just getting, and not necessarily no huddle, but they were in terms of pace. So seconds between snaps, they were, I think, 28th last year was towards the bottom of the league. They were 18th in plays run. They were getting to the line quickly, get it red, snapping it. It's going to prevent defenses from doing some of that more complicated disguise stuff that Seattle did in the Super Bowl. Good test of that tonight. Another thing we didn't see in camp, but just the way they spent their money this off, season one would think more of the fallback. They wanted to have a true fallback last year in Brock Lampy. He got hurt in camp. They went to Jack West over who's really a tight end sucks.

13:16He was not a good fallback. They had now have one of the best in the league in Red T-Kill. Where's the first guy you said? Brock Lampy. The old Lampster. He's on the Seahawks. Certainly not. Go ahead. He, they have a real fallback. I think they're going to be able to do more of those kind of formations, those kind of things. He's not a James Devlin-like fallback. He's more of one of these H-backs. He's athletic. Is he running back in college? Can he catch? A little bit. Yeah. So I think play action using him in the past game. I do think they're going to use more play action and go back to the running. I know that's your second run-over. Back tonight. I, you know, I almost said it before. I wonder, little bit. Does he get carries? He didn't in Buffalo, but he did say when he got here that he's looking for to maybe a little more than expanded role, whatever that is. I took that as more of his pass catcher than true carries, but if they need somebody tonight, I don't think he's the true second back. Do they mix him in a little bit here? I mean, just get right there. As opposed to playing that. That's what I'm saying. That freaking kid who is on the practice squad. That's that nothing burger. I'd rather have Reggie Gilliam out there.

14:18He might, I wouldn't be surprised if maybe there's one or two plays like that in their form. I could see something like that, but throwing in the ball and then some more play action. Because again, they should not be as predictable based on their formations as they were last year. And that opens the door to more play action, which is somewhere that Drake May was really good last year. I think they wish they could have done it more. They didn't have the person held to do it. They should have the, and they're more athletic on the offensive line with Veritucker. They should have more ability to do that this year. David Chikapy, what do you got? Yeah, how are you guys doing? Good. I think that when it comes to Benzala's number one, I think that guy handled everything beautifully. He did it as a growing up and as a gentleman. As far as the game is concerned, I think that if we can survive the first quarter, we'll be all right. I think AJ Brown is going to have Drake May's back and he's going to be, you know, keeping him going. He's going to keep him up in spirits. Okay. If you need AJ Brown to keep Drake May up in spirits, you're probably in trouble. But surviving the early going is, I think, solid analysis.

15:21Yeah. And that has to do with, you know, playing in that environment, one of the toughest in the NFL. It's week one. The banner's going up. Avoid. This was brought up yesterday. Procedural penalties don't, you know, have a first and 10 turn into a first and 15 and you're behind the sticks. Yeah. You know, all of a sudden, it's a quick three and out. And that could lead to a turnover. Like if you even avoid that, even if you've only put three points on the board in the first quarter, three nothing game, three three. Okay. Final segment thoughts, calls and emails comes your way. Next Patriots pregame. The official Patriots pregame starts at 5 30. Don't go anywhere. And do it. Might not have been told this. Well, damn, Blizzard taking place in second half. We understand all of that. When the conditions seems to back up quarter back, it's an AMC championship game because Boa Nix is not there. That's what New England was going was going with. And then when you face the team fully loaded in the Super Bowl, you got shellac. There wasn't even a contest. So for me, starting off this season, making some of the acquisitions. Sonic and Zalas last night acquiring AJ Brown into all season, having that primary weapon to go to. Okay. Now, all of a sudden, your receiving court has been upgraded in the eyes of many.

16:23Drake May is clearly your quarterback of the future. You got a defense that's worth recognizing. They're not scrubs here. To me, New England wins this game. That's a statement. Like, and it says, we, what every bit is legit as we thought we were last season. And we come in again this year with a win. A loss, the Pettit or a high lose could say something different. Stephen A Smith with the PR stakes for the Patriots tonight. A lot of people think you were a fool's goal. A few as a phrase last year. The Super Bowl just sort of drove that home. You have another night like that. You can have to hear it for another week or month or whatever. So if you care about all that stuff, what I know you do. A win tonight, a good showing tonight would help quiet some of that. Let's get out here with a few phone calls, few emails before he turned over to the official pregame show. Ed and Danvers, what do you got Ed? Yeah, I think Barth wants to say it. And I think Paul wanted to say it. So I'll say it. This offense is going to be a juggernaut this year for the Patriots. Absolute juggernaut. And if they're not bombs away tonight in Seattle against this secondary, I'm going to be

17:30deeply disappointed because they should be throwing at least two out of every three downs tonight all the way down the field. What if they can't protect it? Oh, I'm not worried about the offensive line. I'm not worried about the offensive line tonight. Well, then I wouldn't even bother watching. Did Will Campbell's arms grow magically this off season? I'd be worried about any offensive line against that Seattle defense. Yeah, yeah. So it's just as it's you do respect the opponent. Their front owned that game seven months ago. It's the reason why the Seahawks won the Super Bowl against you. And they haven't changed that. Jim on the Cape. Hi, Jim. Hey, guys, I'm surprised. None of you have come up with the subvenient of Drake. Hey, do you remember during the Denver game? He turned to Josh McDaniel on the sideline and said, this is hard. Oh, I know. It's not. It goes, of course it's hard. What is that tell you about him? You think Tom Brady ever looked at anybody and said, this is hard. I'm really concerned. He's not as tough as you guys think he is.

18:31Well, big Jim's been. I mean, that one to me. I haven't shaken that out of my brain. That's one of the worst things I've ever seen from a quarterback. Well, Drake Maze, you know, he still has things to prove. His record last year against teams, losing teams versus playoff teams is pretty stark. His performances were pretty stark. So he's, you know, he needs some more big games against legit opponents before I think everybody starts buying in. I think that's fair. Yeah, absolutely. And so look, again, I think he has the talent to do it. And you know that he, with the numbers he can put up against, you know, bad to mediocre teams. It just, it would be great for everyone, especially Patriots fans though. They think the league too. If he went out and threw for 300 in a couple of touchdowns tonight and all of a sudden you're like, oh, okay, like he has grown a little bit. Like, who wouldn't want to see that? Let's do some email, shall we please, Jim? Yes. It's the Coleman Electric email of the day. This is the book.

19:36And I think that's the book. It's electric. The Coleman Electric email of the day. It's electric. 10 yours to Felder at 98 5, the sports hub dot com email the day brought to by our friends Coleman Electric. A bunch of really good electricians. I'll be homeowners just like you. When you need an electrician, you want to call Coleman electric KUHL M.A.N. I do not think the patrons are going to mess with Drake May on the contract like they just messed with Chris Hanzales. A lot of people disagree with me. Everyone here on the show and a lot of you Alex, who's on me all the time for being a craft apologist. He's like the only guy who thinks I'm like pro craft or like I carry his water. Yeah. Alex is all over me. He says you are allowed to feel the way you claim you feel, but you are being a slave to facts, but you being a slave to facts and scoreboards. You do have some acknowledgments to make your stance at the crafts for some reason will just pay Drake May without any issue is completely nonsensical.

20:37And you know it. If you're being at all objective and looking at all the historical data, the evidence points to a giant contract dispute as the most likely scenario. If you're going to keep saying they won't mess with May, as I said, you are allowed to feel that way. You do have to admit though that you are being just as dumb as honky as dumb as honky as the fanboy collars you make fun of. There's absolutely no logical way to come to that conclusion. The only explanation I can think of is that you're just carrying more water for craft, more water for craft bar. Classic felgar carrying water for the Patriots. I mean, my God. Can't get enough got you. All right, you expose me. I've just a rump swab for Patriots ownership. You wear a Patriots PJs under there. You need to know basis, Barthie. But on that note, let's get out for the pregame show, shall we? Patriots Seahawks tonight here on 98 five sports up. They kick it off like eight 20ish. Yeah, right? See with the banner. The pregame with Murray and gasp for starts pretty much right now. Yeah, question mark on that second name. No, he's here. I see him. He's in.

21:38Here comes Patriots pregame. We're back at it tomorrow at 2 p.m. To discuss. Have you been off air show? Oh, off air show myself and scams right now myself and scams on the YouTube channel. OK, so a special real quick off air show with me and scams. But pregame here on the broadcast Felgerman's tomorrow to talk to you soon.