Episode 67: Unexpected

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1:00I'm Hogdale. I'm joined as always by my great compatriots. Get it? Because Patre is in the word. Jerry Thornton, what's up? How you doing? Hey, good to see you. Great to see you too, Matt. How you doing? Hi. What's up? What's up, what's up? You know, I feel a little warmer than the last time because Matt and I were stuck in your shadow. We were doing the live show. It was cold there. We were the wind beneath you. Very considerable wings. I mean, when he left at halftime, Jerry, it had that line of people looking for selfies and autographs. He just left us there. We're standing up there trying to carry the third quarter broadcast. He's late coming back. I mean, it was hogs out for Hogdale everywhere. I think we were all late because I'm like, oh, fuck the games back on. Actually, it goes to school. VIP, your family there. It was very fun. As Jerry said, hang out with Hogdale during his stream for a whole Patriots game. What's great? Yeah, especially when he's in ground zero.

2:00In the footprint of Fenway, it's like being at the Magic Kingdom and he's making, like, you and I are barely like Chip and Dale. You know what I mean? Like, no, kids even really even know who we are or whatever, but they all just want to say, you know, when you get that feeling with some enhancer, their phone, it says, hey, take a picture of me and Hogdale. You're like, yeah, that's it. We just part of his aunt, Teraja. I love that. It was a blast. I grew up on Barstool. I grew up when I was selling radio and doing radio and New Hampshire. When Uncle Buck hosted a new blog, it was a big deal. To meet the real Uncle Buck there, Barstool Legend. That was a very fun night. The crowd was excellent. The result sucked. Drake may stunk, but it was fun to be there. Yeah. It was. I met the genius who for the first time ever in marketing history decided that adding some element of sex to a content would sell. So and it worked. Yeah.

3:01He's he's a genius. One of my one of my best friends to be I was it was a fun night all along until it wasn't until three drives in the fourth quarter, three of them ending in intersections. Like just unacceptable on any level. It really was like that was the story of the game because like through three quarters like what? Sam Donald gets her like the the sea ox like first or second drive of the game. Like he fucks his hip up and like where's it? And they're like, Oh, you know, this is a cake walk. Like you got to face drew lock for the rest of this game. This is this should be all Patriots going forward. And like you get the 10 nothing lead. And Josh Daniels decided to like 10 nothing. That's 40 to nothing. I don't have to try once. I don't need to we don't need to plan any play with any sort of explosiveness. Frank's not throwing the ball beyond five yards. He parked the bus for three quarters and the fourth Drake had the worst quarter I've ever seen him play in my entire life. Like I I haven't looked back.

4:02I just can't imagine there's a worse one even in the Mayo season. I don't remember a quarter that that break. I really don't. I know for sure. I mean, it's hard to get much worse. And not only in three drives and in it, in it deceptions. I didn't see any other factor leading to the interception as far as I know in real time and like you, I didn't want to rewatch it. I just want to memory hole it. But I never remember someone getting in his face. A bad route runs, you know, receiver falling down. Some of the mitigating situation is just bad decisions, bad throws. He attempted four throws of over 15 yards. This is the best deep ball throw in the league in 2025. But 15 yards is not that long a throw and he had the four picks. And then the one that was the passing of parents that should have been a touchdown where, you know, AJ Brown had a step on his guy and that ball was under thrown, which is what resulted in the the DPI.

5:03And that was really the best offensive player the night. Sad is that is. It was not good. Again, you guys, you're going to get into Josh, Mattaniel's bashing. That's what you to do. Best, maybe anything. You guys. That's my, my, my, people destroying Josh, Mattaniel's. When AJ Brown went out is where like, I would criticize Josh because the offense looked like it was starting from scratch. And I wonder how much of their preparation was like, hey, we had this great receiver. We're just going to work it around him because they got a feel goal and then they got, I think, three picks and a turnover in the final five drives after AJ Brown got hurt. And that's why I felt like they were unprepared for him to leave the game and it built a lot of their game plan around. Hey, we're just going to throw to AJ Brown because Romeo Dobbs is not involved early. There wasn't a whole lot of the like plan to Josh, Mattaniel's stuff that we saw, it felt like, hey, AJ's here. He's our guy.

6:03We're going to build it around him. He left and it sucks. So I'm normally a Josh defender, but they felt very unprepared once he left the game on, Wednesday night. Remondray up the middle. Remondray up the middle. Yeah. And then you know, I won't do it for another fucking 18 times, which is what he actually did. Yeah. I'm, yeah, I'm more narrowly as pro McDaniel says they get and just, you know, when people criticize, I'm like, there was some graphic of predictability of play call. And he was weighed down. That's one. Like it's, like, if he's on the field 90% of the time, it's a run. Well, that's the Super Bowl last year. Yeah, that Ryan Pagnetti found that. And that held for this year as well for this exact game. It's like almost the exact same numbers. Yeah, this, in this particular, among all the coordinators in the league, he was like the lower left quad, Quadrant. I guess I can sort of understand the logic a little bit that, okay, we just face in Drew Locke. We're going to get some turnovers.

7:04We don't need a ton of points. Let's just stay within ourselves. Let's be smart. You could be somewhat conservative. He went full like Calvin Calvin Coolidge, you know, it was the, the faster child of Calvin Coolidge and like Margaret Thatcher. Okay. Now, now I'm like, Calvin Coolidge on my head. I got the Thatcher reference. There were. Yeah. I stopped me before I sub reference again. But it just, you know, it was frustrating at times. The best place he dialed up was on the goal line, the, the past that Eli Rarity. That was a great play design. But at the same time, I'm looking at it going. That was first and goal from about the two. Why do you need to do that when you've got three tight ends on the field and, you know, a ten man, I'm sure at nine man front and they had to resort to passing it because they don't feel like they can just punch it in. And then there was the, the flea flicker. That was cute, cute play. But like, shouldn't touch down.

8:05Yeah. And, and, and, and to, to just crystallize this, the final numbers after AJ Brown left, they had five drives, including that drive, 32 plays, 93 yards, three picks. Like that, that should not happen with, with a drink may let off. And so the critical, grab a critical Josh. Normally, I'm defending him against people like Hauddale who rip him every third line and his stream. In this case, there had to be a better plan once he left. And I know Robin, Oh, Dobbs had a terrible drop, but they're, they're, they're, they're should have been more there. And I put that on the coordinator. I will also say like post AJ going out because I was curious because like, I don't remember like seeing Kyle Williams almost at all. Great point for that game. I looked it up. Well snaps total seven routes. He runs seven routes, the entire game guys. This is a trade case on booty, presumably because you like Kyle Williams in some regard. And then after AJ Brown goes out and Romeo, Dobbs clearly just did not have it.

9:07I do not understand like how Williams doesn't get a bit more of a look there. But it goes back to the conservative game plan where like, yeah, like Kyle Williams, that have a lot of guy like he's fucking, he's running routes down the field. He's attacking down the field. And if you're not willing to really do that for most of the game, Bro, just kind of hanging out. And then you use and Kyle Williams in the short yardage situations back in the day with like the fucking slot guys. I do have all the snap counts in front of you because I'm curious about. I'm one side. Yeah, like rarer than and Reggie Gilliam. And okay, if you're going to go two tight ends or one tight end and a full back or what they did a lot of which is a 22 personnel. Okay, there's only so many bodies you can put on the field. Yeah, I would have loved to see a shot to Kyle Williams or two. Let's see, I'm looking at and I wonder how much of that while he's looking at up Jerry, like they were playing if not one of the like the best secondary in the NFL. Like that we know they're very good.

10:08I wonder how much they trusted the offensive line of protect Drake, but also they trust guys to get open against with their spoon in that very good secondary. Okay, I got the answer. I got the booty thing. It's not a second guess. The first guess. The perfect one for a place for Freja Brown to give him away, never made sense to me. Even with as you wrote about a bunch of times a camp on the blog, Jerry, it's a loaded receiver room. They could have, I don't know, effinchisms there, but he wasn't active game one, but booties and Houston. Can I also say like even with dogs, you know, like how they always say with receivers that you want to try to get them into a rhythm, but gangles did not do that. Like for most of these receivers, Romeo dobs, he played 40 snaps. There's only 56% of like the total snaps like of the total snaps like available. He like Raritan, like your asian, Jerry, he played 54% 38 snaps to him. Reggie Gilliam was down at 18%. He was only in for 13 snaps. Kyle Williams was below even Reggie Gilliam. He had 12 snaps, only 17%. That is the lowest of any wide receiver on the team.

11:08But where would he be any receiver rankings? Like, is he the lowest? Is it shouldn't he play the least of any receiver though? We move Brown going out like he does a lot of what AJ Brown does. And especially if you're not using fucking Romeo dobs, like they were not using Romeo dobs that intensely. They remember the three of us were looking for dobs prior to the half. And I want to say was five minutes into the half that Brown went down. And then it was, you know, it was all dobs all the time. But you know, I think he had three targets. And then that that atrocious drop in. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Here's what I'll ask guys. What receiver had the most snaps on the field? Mac Collins. Easily. Easily. He was being fucking close. He said he didn't get guys in rhythm. He loved Mac. Drake loved Mac Collins. Josh loved Mac. He played fucking. And listen, I like Mac Collins. Yeah. He was like, Mac Collins a good player. He just, it's like I said in the Super Bowl. In no universe can he be your number one receiver. He can't be the most productive guy in the field.

12:10Mac Collins is great for like clutch third down. He's a great run blocker. He's super responsibly trustworthy. That guy's not a fucking, you know, like your wide or three or three or four. Like that's what he should be in an offense that is functioning correctly. He's far on a way number one. Number two is Demario Douglas. Like why the fuck is pop Douglas getting 44 snaps 60% of the snap count. And I can't get like any Kyle Williams guys on the field for 17% of the time. Like I'm sorry. The pop Douglas has his moments, but he's not consistent. I guess the logical answer is that because it will go in ball control. And what is Hollins? Hollins a guy who you can throw it to him at the sticks and he's going to get that one. He's not the guy who's going to catch it just shy and then try to spin and lose an extra yard or whatever. And I mean, he made a fantastic hands catch in a big moment. I forget. I think it was like a third and 11 and he picked up like 13 or something. So yeah, yeah, you said it yourself. He's dependable.

13:11He's efficient. But yeah, he's best as a complimentary guy or you know, graded the point of attack where I mean, one of the early runs that Stevenson did break off was right behind Hollins who put his corner back on healies and just shoved them five yards deep. And so yeah, he certainly has his valuable role. But I think the lack of Williams just reflects the lack of we're going to try to chuck it deep. We're going to try to throw bombs. I think they were their game plan was to move the sticks and they just really didn't. You know, time and again, they were in third and longs. And as the game wore on, you just had next to no confidence that they were going to pick up third and eight or whatever and felt like Seattle was in, you know, third and threes the whole night. Yeah, my confidence was that they're going to get to the fucking backup quarterback for Seattle. Like, you're okay, this guy is drew lock is in. This game is fucking over. It's 10 nothing and it's drew lock. We kept like, there's go back to the stream.

14:11We're mocking drew lock being in there. Like this is like, well, 10 nothing. Pinyorier is back. This will be easy. And drew lock at times carved up that defense and made plays like I as much as the talk we've dealt with Drake made for as long as you guys want to. I thought they make some more plays defensively against lock. And I wonder if him having to play like almost every snap in the preseason. Actually helps Seattle because once he went in, he had played for three games or whatever it was. So he he looked way better than I thought he was going to look at that game. I mean, it just doesn't help that like and this is something that we've talked about plenty before. The Patriots are going to have trouble this year rushing to pass her. Like they're going to have trouble getting the quarterback. And like, I will say like I was looking at now like the defensive snap counts pulled up. Sure. K back is flashed tremendously in this. Yes, yeah, we only played 19 snaps. He was only 38% of the total defensive snaps and like he flew off the screen. And he was going to run defense too. And that's where people said he was really going to struggle. Yeah, he really was in and and Dremon Jones too played well.

15:13I mean, I'm sure he got more snaps than I'm back as did right. But but he was out there for 42 84% of the snaps. Okay. Both of them were pleasant surprises. And look at you know, to your point about drew lock playing a lot, my this weekend of games was pretty much a mess everywhere you look. Just yeah, but would you agree? I let you finish your thought like there are more high scoring than I thought as a mess. Like crazy scores. I was not expecting. Yes, before Monday night and possibly move for Sunday night, I should have this data in my head. But they had set a record for points in a weekend. Great point. Yeah. And I think a lot of that is defenses just haven't been live tackling. You know, the their opportunity to do it is in, you know, the backups are in preseason games. And then you got joint practices and even that's a little bit more controlled or whatever. And it takes time to catch up. I saw the headline today.

16:14I didn't click on the article, but apparently Tony Dungee took some time out of trying to keep Mr. Kraft and Bill Bellicic out of the Hall of Fame to say that the lack of preseason is ruined in football and that this weekend was garbage. And that was good. It was good for me to take a break from that for a little bit. But for once, I have to agree with them. It's just not that I want to see guys get injured in preseason, care about preseason. Well, you pay a price this time of year when no one's really ready to play football. And as much as I'm ready to like flip out about the paths like we were scored 10 points at Seattle against a top-rated defense, the next night, the Rams score seven at a neutral site against this mid San Francisco team. And I know I'm not here in the same level of panic out of Los Angeles. I'm going to get right here. This week, the rest of the weekend was nice. I stress for the people who are Drake May do post and what you shouldn't be.

17:15I'm sorry. You guys got a little bit more faith in our quarterback. Man, just a fucking little bit. He's going to be okay. Well, like, yeah, seeing Matt Stafford put up a complete nutter stinker, like where he was just legitimately horrible. And who's the other one I'm trying to think of right now? Another big quarterback this weekend who fucking really just did her. Justin Herbert is here looking for Justin Herbert. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. I don't even think that was it. Like, this wasn't a great weekend for Elite quarterbacks. I'm like, fucking Josh Allen. Like, Josh Allen looks like Josh Allen. Like, fucking, but other than that. Al look good. Jackson Dart look good on Sunday night. Yeah. I thought it was pretty cool. Lamar Jackson was awesome. MVP performance against the Colts. Lamar was incredible. Absolutely fucking incredible. Lamar, like, yeah, he was awesome. It was a mixed bag, but I, you know, I'm not giving up on Drake. But I think it's, I saw Dave had a funny post. Like, he's keeping track everyone who's counting Drake out. I, anyone with a brain is not doing that. But I also think you'd also like, there's no, there's no sugarcording the picks.

18:16Like in the Super Bowl, I'd go back and say it and play well, Jerry, because he was hurt and the offensive line. So I found a way to make excuses for the way he played in the playoffs and Super Bowl. It's tough to find like the big excuse for Wednesday, other than he made some really bad for us. There's no excuse. He just made it down again. Like, that's it. And I, like, the whole Uber ride home from hanging up with you guys was just me going through my phone, looking at people just absolutely abandoning ship. I wish the guys on the USS Indianapolis had gotten off the boat as fast as they get off this frigging Drake ship. Although that's a bad example, because things went horribly wrong for those guys. But, but be that as it may. Some of the guys who were complaining to me stuck by like Bailey Zappy longer than they have on May, like the last year and a half didn't happen. And I really appreciate Milton Williams using Prickly, those very words

19:16that just say, yeah, last year and a half battered. That's him. That's who he is. I guess you guys just watched football last year. Like, great quote. Like, fucking, I love Milton Williams for saying that, because it hits better than like when we say it. Like as people like who aren't players on the team who are like, you guys watch fucking football last year? I'm sorry, like, I watched Drake May, what he did last year. I wish it's a year he should have won the MVP with a substandard supporting cast, especially offensively. Like, I'm glad in the playoffs that the defense like did him the favor of carrying him in that spot. But Drake, they carried that page rate team that entire regular season. Like, that team is a easily out of the playoffs. They probably wouldn't like fucking five or six games if they's not there. Same argument why you're not sure when the MVP over Cam Schlippler. Like, the Astros not be a playoff team without him. Same thing for Drake May last year. And it's a great point, Jerry. There are actual Patriot fans. They call themselves fans who paid actual American dollars for Bailey's happy jersey in order to fucking games years ago. Like those are the same people now calling out Drake May.

20:17So I should preface all this by saying the quarterback reaction to wingland has not been awesome the last 36 months. Yeah, fellas, I'm an Irishman, which means I forget everything I should remember. And I remember everything I should forget. And I'm not, I didn't forget the Bailey's happy stuff. I didn't forget the people who bought into whatever deflates gate. And I'm not going to forget you if you're the person producing panic porn over a bad game from Drake May and going back to last year. This is five straight games or whatever. And if that's you, look inside yourself right now and answer me this question. If not him, then who? What are you going to do? You're going to take your part. Talk to me to Vito, kid. Put in. Yeah, Vito. Hey, touch down Tommy. You're going to talk to Tommy Cullitz is the new future. You're going to draft somebody. You're going to sign a free agent. Right now, the fate of this team is completely tied to Drake May's fate.

21:19And honestly, I've said this since long before the draft, there's nobody I would rather have our fate tied to than this guy. He's my rider die. No one's riding over that hill. It's it's going to be him for the next 20 years, unless you really think we're going to get somebody better who's never going to throw a three-interception game. I'd love to tell you to tell me who that guy is. Yeah, there's just there's nobody like it's it is fine. I do hate like the Drake May shit just because like it's like none of them actually mean it. I'm like if you actually think the Drake May sucks, then like why aren't you calling for us to tank for archman? No, they're they're but there are plenty of people think like in the chat right now. It's it's emblematic of what you see online. Like the schedule made Drake May last year. There are there are people that believe that. Like I think he's a top five quarterback. There are people that point to Monday Wednesday, Jesus as being like the example of C against a good team this year. He's healthy as AJ Brown. I wasn't very good. That exists. I don't believe it, but exist.

22:20Make AI sat went around or like and people are just like probably like Drake May is over 12 against winning team. Mind you, he made the super market thing from a shitty company. I don't don't give them. They saw well, they fucking sucked and fucking but like it's like they said to those last year you made the Super Bowl. You have to beat good teams to make the Super Bowl. Like the fact that like people can even like halfway believe it for a second. Like it's like what is this like anti-drake May propaganda? He led he led the NFL and pass a rating. I'm pretty sure he led in QBR if not he was narrowly second or whatever. He did the impossible which he was to have the you know higher highest percentage and deep balls and efficiency and deep balls. Like there's there's not a metric where you don't say this guy was absolutely elite. And I don't care if he was playing the Mountain West conference. Right? That's that's impressive. But he was playing in NFL schedule. I don't know what people want out of this and I shouldn't even raise my voice because they're just exposing themselves.

23:21If you're freaking out about this then that says more about you than it doesn't vote drake May. Now if you want legitimate concern. Okay I'll offer it up to you and it's the way Seattle played them with a lot of deep shallow water even like you know practically like cover six guys. That cover six again that made him look so bad. The Super Bowl Jerry that same. Yeah there was variations on that and a lot of where they would really good drop a guy's into coverage like it looks like they're going to rush a bunch and then the pressure comes it's concentrated on one side and guys are dropping into the underneath slot where you know he for the like the flat seam curl routes where that might have been his hot route and now that's occupied or whatever um sure that's a legit concern and that's for Josh from Daniels to figure out. I also want to get to one of those things like where Seattle like they just do have the best defense in the sport like they were the best defense in the sport

24:23last year they brought back basically the entire fucking unit. I most teams are not going to be able to run cover six that well. Like most teams when they run cover six like you could just run them out of it. You can't do that with Seattle because they're just so talented. Yeah. Defensively also they knew what was coming. I cannot stress this enough. They need the Patriots have to figure out the tendency shit and like they need to start mixing things up of it to like make themselves less predictable. But um like a lot of these things that you're like you're playing better teams but like there's different between playing a really good defense and the absolute best defense in the sport. Like I saw what Drake did against the the bills defense plenty of times last year and that's a damn good defense. He fucking cooked. Right and and I they keep chalking up the Houston game last year is a bad game for him. Like yeah there were fumbles. Fumbles are bad. But I mean you move the ball he put points on the 40 through touchdown passes. You know it's it wasn't all just CJ Stroud.

25:24Caught in the ball up. I mean the Patriots took it away and made through well. So he also ran well. Jerry's got he's a great guy's legs like that. I have we saw in the game Wednesday like when things break down he's smart. Like he gets down he slides he gets out of balance his smart runner like that is part of what made him to me the MVP last year is that Stafford didn't do that Stafford did a much better offense around him and he didn't run. The Drake May was undermaned offensively and ran for six hundred yards with a fucking was like I right. You know what he's doing too he's he's running smart which he didn't do early on. Yeah I agree. How many times did he that he took it and run and we were going no don't get down. No he knows what to do with it. He's stepping on a bounce. He's sliding at the right time and I mean Kyla Murray tried to slide but oh that was absolutely brutal. And anyone who's one of those like why do you know why we protect on the quarterback thing you know that that argument like watch that hit

26:25and tell me that that's how you want to see this game played. You pay money to watch quarterbacks play not back up quarterbacks and you'll one bad but it's similar injury away from getting J.J. McCarthy under center so by all means. No I know it was called nine. I told you that as bad as as that you guys said you didn't rewatch the game and I I rewatched the next morning because I just wanted to a couple of points I couldn't get out of my brain and one of them was like is there an explanation yet how JSN scored basically untouched on that fourth and short like what the fuck is that at that point in the game I think it's a combination of they were tired like fucking the you know the Patriots defense is being a lot of time. Patriots are tired oh yeah okay all right because remember on that point it was in the I think that was like around when the offense had gone like three straight drives doing fucking to all uh and it's it's that and then also laziness like there's so many Patriots in the area how the fuck does not one of you make it to

27:27crazy like that to the same the main and like I can even even then they were observing COVID are in social distancing rules there was nobody within six feet of him and he's he's kind of JSN like you might want to pay attention to him and well you know yeah we've been correctly criticized in Josh McDaniels and he deserves it and he criticized himself um Zach Kerr's got a lot to answer for for that game yes they only gave up 13 points but I think they just got too cute like yeah you put uh Gonzalez on JSN and that's it just you line up on him you know or once in a while you can make it up put him on someone else and then double JSN I can live with either possibility but they kept flipping to this zone and the stat I saw was that um there were 16 times when Gonzalez wasn't covered them they had him in in zone and all his catches came then and he had none against Gonzalez like if

28:30that's working just keep doing it until he right until he figures out the cheat code on Christian Gonzalez until then just say take him out of the game throw a blanket over him and we we'll find we'll worry about everybody else and Jerry it's you know what we hadn't seen the proof of concept for this before like we saw the Super Bowl man Christian Gonzalez erased Jackson's in jigba he did not exist in that game you look 32 yards receiving but it was it was as thorough a lockdown uh as you're going to see from a quarterback on a elite top five receiver in the sport as you're going to see and that game I don't know if they got scared off it it's like wall Seattle was able to run the ball they had Kenneth Walker then dude and Sam D'Arnold was in a fucking quarterback you're overthinking it they overthought it so badly you just put Gonzalez on JSN and they're not doing anything you think Drew Lock throwing the fucking Cooper Cup that's going to be you stop just stop you did on one play it's a great catch

29:30like fucking Cooper Cup didn't break like a 45 yard you know run after catch fucking like it's right they got way too clear yeah and then they play a lot of this it's kind of a non-traditional Tampa two in a nutshell you you you make a read if it's two by two you play quarters coverage if it's a three by one you have a four man box around the three and you know you play a couple of guys on the backside whatever um that's supposed to take away the triangles and like kind of the cover two hole of each sideline and then the deep middle and they repeatedly gave up deep middle catches you know you leave the middle of the field between the the hashes open and you you know you pick your poison the one to cop it was a third and like a million miles you guys are not going yeah and he caught it beyond the sticks in front of the safety he's like

30:31okay what what do you do and there was just and yeah it was only 13 points but those were the differences in the game they every time there was a you know high leverage play see automated and the Patriots just never did and like it so much point like yeah it's 13 point it's Drew Locke should've been fucking zero or three or six you should have held the more field goals like why are you you're long and touchdowned Drew fucking a lot like this guy knows uh it never turned him over they never turned him off not once I mean like you hit him a couple times but like in terms of like pressure rate in terms of really getting out for the quarterback like yeah man like if you don't hit the quarterback they're usually going to make you pay like you hope that like you know like Drew Locke went 16 of 22 187 yards in a touchdown but Drew Locke's completing like 68% of his passes that's gross you should feel ashamed yeah yeah you should feel a little bit ashamed yeah and then I followed that up with watching Houston refuse to take the ball away from Buffalo Buffalo did everything in their power they they had a dropped into section and then you just know the very next play

31:34that it's going to be a home run ball by Josh Allen and you're almost just just never wrong and I just can I also say like I understand like CJ Stroud's numbers were good in that game see this CJ Stroud bro I'm sorry that guy's not good not a good quarterback that's not a winning player like you're like that drive then the game from him specifically when he takes the two sacks like dude you got loser DNA like well like I I know like someone pointed out like oh he dropped like 15 or 20 pounds like he was a fat player so I played CJ Stroud for the most like the skin of your quarterbacks and plays like yeah man he's lean he dropped 15 right right and I know what watching Buffalo win like that was demoralizing because their defense was really suspect they should have given the game away at the end they tried desperately too and it was just yeah it was a one of those battles of who wants it least except they can score it any any time they want it's the same thing year in and year out where

32:36you know Allen leaves the pocket he throws on the run and you can just count to three and you know it's going to be a 30-yard catch it almost never fails and we got a lot of that out of Drake May during that whole winning streak last year it's been a minute haven't seen it in a while hopefully we get that this weekend's Pittsburgh I I think we will I just don't have a lot of respect for the Steelers I just I just don't like this is what a Mike McCarthy led team now that she's fucking coaching Steelers nowadays like I have no respect for Mike yeah I wish I was it's not like initially you guys are confident my my issue is that their defensive front is so good they had four sacks last week they had two strip sack fumbles of the quarterback that were called back because of penalties like take or leave the Watt Brothers TJ Watt so my my concern is Drake May's health I fully admit going into the game they should beat him it's Aaron Rogers Michael Pittman's okay like DK McCaff's okay but they they're at home one o'clock

33:38Sunday ran in the forecast they should win but that front for Pittsburgh is good and I still will gamble out a couple of very bad penalties late in that game on Wednesday and I but in past protection he's still scared I'm still scared yeah he did he was blame for one sack but if you watch it it was Derek Hall who by the way Derek Hall just owned a little Campbell that entire Super Bowl of yes terrible yeah exact he just had no answer from that sack came on a stunt and he went in through the through the A gap or whatever so that's a concern another concern is as you know we were talking about the zone thing a minute ago Pittsburgh's new DC is a Patrick Graham who is with the the Raiders and plays a ton of zone like almost exclusively it's it's it's a 180 degree turnaround from what Pittsburgh is traditionally done with they did under Mike Tomlin um not for nothing I mean I won't get too lost on the weeds and numbers here but percentages yeah let's there's percentages on Graham are cover three on 43.9% of straps it snaps quarters on 29.8

34:46and cover six on 22.8 so kind of a you know half of the time in one coverage and then you know splits the other 50% more or less evenly so but just a ton of zone and and it's you know we used to hear this about Brady all the time like oh Rex Ryan set the template oh there's a template he's figuring it out he's got the cheat code on that and you know we're hearing a similar thing about May and great say it but it's up to him to prove them wrong it's up to him in big Daniels and his receivers well Jerry Jerry to your point um Patrick Graham was the defense coordinator for the Raiders last year right yes and yep I think that was one of Drake if they think I'm looking at now he had two games under 80 quarterback 81 quarterback rating all year that was one of them that opening game took four sacks he put up some yards but yeah opening day that was a Patrick Graham game so I I had not realized that that's a great that's a great nugget and I coming into the year

35:47I didn't have much respect for the Steelers but I still know I'm a little I'm more concerned that I was heading into the year I'll be honest like like yeah they had four sacks the Falcons offensive line is shameful their entire brand is that they're offensive line is shameful well they have shit they have the terrible they play Cooper rush too so Cooper rush is brutal yeah it's I trust the Patriots offensive line to hold up against like you know the the breakdowns like the reason Drake suck isn't because he was getting hit at time he sucked because he fucking was just had a one in a billion all-time dumb game where it just seemed like he forgot how to play the position of quarterback everyone every now and then yeah and I'm glad you brought up the Raiders game last year because three weeks into last season it felt like the continuation of the Dryd Mayoe era and you know a lot of times it was yet another season where a very successful Patriots team gets off to a horrific start and I you know I can cite chapter and verse some of this stuff

36:53the most famous example was the warrants at Cincinnati game there were two and two and they got their breaks beaten off on national TV at Kansas City in week four but all four of the final four teams in the league that year started out either 500 or even Seattle was like I think like two and three or something like that um again it it's happened for a long time where the first month of the season is a continuation of preseason a lot of teams are still figuring it out and just kind of a a counter intuitive example of this you know a counterfactual if you will is in 2024 Dryd Mayoe takes this team on the road and they beat Cincinnati and you've got hey hey we're back look they play hard for this guy that having a good time they're loose they're enjoying themselves and we know the disaster that follows so you know you you always embarrass yourself when you go like way out obvious key tips on the first few weeks of the season especially this we watch this

37:57Patriots preseason boys they they played fucking nobody I mean Brable did not and and right they wanted to protect players they made more than almost any team the league did not play any of their real starters for three consecutive games so there's more upside than most teams and Brable off the losses historically has been unbelievable so I there there are some positives and you still have Drake made there there are plenty of positive in week two but yeah the Patrick Graham defensive thing I was not aware of yeah um Gabiak has played a ton because he had to earn a spot because he had missed any look good the spring and he comes out in week one and was you know one of their better players so yeah I'm fishing it's all is just gonna be good no matter when you play him he's ready he's ready for an apple football and thank god because we fucking eat him like that's like this team is just gonna struggle they're gonna struggle to hit the quarterback and that's the guy it looks like you can just send out there to go kill somebody and I love that so right maybe how do you know what's going to end so and so you guys what do you think they do without brown how do

38:58you know sub in for him I gotta imagine like I just keep going back to Kyle Williams Kyle Williams has to be somewhat involved in this game plan Dobbs is gonna get more snaps obviously um it's one of those things were Drake last year he spread the ball around for the most part I think that's just kind of like his personality as a quarterback he's a smart guy he hits the open man so he's gonna exploit uh the weaknesses and the defense he's gonna spread it around and break down Henderson's probably back this week correct he was practicing he's been practicing you return to practice yes yeah I think that also is important because I am very eager to see what Henderson looks like with this offensive line this new look offensive line because like and if he learned how to catch out of the backfield even a little bit like he could add something so different like to the complexion of this offense yeah I think it's Henderson and Henry the two guys jerry to me like I there was not much hunter Henry involved on Wednesday night that was a little weird I don't know if they kept him into block more um if they can try to reverse throws because he's he was a great third

40:01down weapon for for Drake last year and I have more faith in him than I do Kyle Williams or or like epitachism being activated and playing in the slot and I know you like pop Douglas to bounce back and pop had a couple of plays but like my faith would be in Henderson year two and hunter Henry you're gonna do contracting the offseason those two guys yeah I mean Henderson there's two roles that have always been essential in this offense and I'm going all the way back to Charlie Weiss and one is a slot receiver and the other is a pass kitchen back yeah and Henderson was that guy last year actually in a way he played both roles but you know you had the odd pop Douglas who you know is absolutely slated to step back into that you know uh the westwilk or in julian edmund roll I'm not saying he's that player but um you can attack a lot of different coverages a lot of big pass rushes by having those guys and as much as I'm like you know a lion larison guy and he had his one

41:05catch for 11 yards and I'll be dine enough that off of that for a long time yeah um Henderson with good lord will and if the creeks don't rise if he gets in there that's a guy that's that should play a huge role yeah I just super talented um founder recalled like what other like take away from the game uh I remember like thinking like the like the run defense or whatever but I didn't see anything like roles like I'll fuck like uh like uh like I thought the linebacker actually held up Christian Oles was good like I remember like yeah he flashed yeah he flashed that game um I remember the three of us being pretty aggravated early on by just up the middle runs and they signed dayquan jones this week and he knows with been with the bills he's a veteran he's like 35 but they're just asking him to be a rotational guy right and that kind of kairas tonga role like alongside of dirt and between Milton Williams and Christian Barmore and just you know a wide

42:06body you can two gap and eat up a couple of blocks and free things up for Roberts Blaine so it really seems to me like they had saw that need and said you know we're getting gashed between the guards so let's let's come up with somebody there and um yeah beyond that I mean they didn't have huge breakdowns I just want to see them not out thinking themselves by feeling like they've got to keep mixing up coverages in order of force like a drew lock to make a mistake I mean I don't know how much that's gonna work against Aaron Rogers who you know still has quite a bit on his fast ball but you know he's still got a galaxy brain when it comes to reading what you're trying to do and and exploit it but just I wouldn't hate if it just Gonzalez DK Metcalf DK Metcalf Gonzalez okay guys let's worry about everything else yeah I'm looking at the Steelers offense like it doesn't scare me like not even a little bit I'm not gonna lie like I like DK Metcalf I think he's a good receiver like it's like you said if they put brushing Gonzalez on and he's gonna be an absolute

43:10non factor like the way DK wins is because he's bigger and he's he's bigger than anyone else and he's faster than anyone else well Christian Gonzalez is probably the most athletic corner in the sport and he's not small big guy like he can fucking get in there he can fucking finesse his way into breaking up passes and then it's like what your number two like you're wearing about his Michael Pittman like oh man he's pretty good like they have two good running backs in Dottal and War I guess I I again the fear is not the word I guess I respect Pittsburgh more than than you do and maybe it's a Roger set that's the one guy do think to Jerry's pulling galaxy brain is a good thing sometimes for Rogers be also over think shit when he's out there so that would be an interesting matchup to see what they do and what they try to what they think they have to take away from him is it DK Metcalf deep is it the stuff underneath the running backs and tight ends I don't I don't know but I guess I have more respect for them than than you do yeah yeah it was lost in and it screams like eight went to him sorry Jerry go on yeah no no good I was um

44:14enjoying the fact that I had a Sunday at one without the Patriots playing and they've been rare the last few years so I was too screened in Pittsburgh and Buffalo and my main takeaway was Aaron Rodgers is in mid-season form when it comes to being angry and frustrated at everyone around him which I which I love like oh the overrun to run him like barking at one of his receivers is probably five and a half in the run the head shake walking back to the sideline Jerry he does is like oh yeah and I mean I might even been at Metcalf where I the ball hit him in the hands he was fairly well covered but he didn't come down with it and he's doing the sunny coolly on at the toll booth death scene like he's just demonstrative and falling all over himself it remind me of a month there was a player back in the day who we we we loved uh Steve Nelson he was the PJ middle linebacker 57 I met him great guy and I remember hearing in a minute to view saying when he'd screw up in bove to one of the younger players and start poking him on the shoulder pad

45:18and going I screwed up that was my guy and I messed that up so the whole stadium would be going wow Nelson's really mad at that guy and and Rogers has made a career out of it and it just it's sweet music to me to hear him all frustrated and nuanced should have been crap so hopefully we see some more of that absolutely let's see your brother and I think we hit all of like the notes that I was uh that that I like wanted to get to you guys have anything else like you wanted to throw in that I'm not thinking of right now no I guess it this got some headlines online for a day okay good it was a little surprising that when Josh McDaniel was told by w e i that they put that was about AJ Brown and I are he didn't know and I asked somebody and said they weren't at the stadium and it was a procedural I just I don't know as a Josh Defender started the podcast defending him that was not that wasn't great that might mean he's like on the outside of the inner circle

46:20of Rable and whoever else is there um but I can little concerning as a Josh guy to me in that moment that Jackson that if you if you didn't hear you why like like that the fucking that you like outright admitted like oh yeah I had no idea that's insane to me yeah like that's right yeah you should be you should be in the fucking group text you know like for one that information is put out not doing really got kicked out exiled from the group chat he might be the third wheel voice he might be the third wheel of the coaching staff or is it one of those deals where you got a group chat but you have a separate side group chat to let keep one guy out because like he gets offended at this stuff and you don't you know and maybe they just have one with a talk and trash about McDaniels or whatever and they they put it out on that one but you got to label these things more carefully didn't love that that's definitely what exactly that was it was a bad look it just it just simply was a bad block like that just is one of those things yeah you're gonna just yeah just

47:21read the nonverbal clues or whatever we all have conversations with someone talking about something you don't know what they're talking about you just just play along and if you're asked about it going yeah well you know what are you gonna do we still gonna do the bit you know just spew a few clichés and then get on the text and go Mike with with the deal yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah my other take is I thought coming into the year we might have talked about this before the season like I the AFC had to be better than it was it was a down year for the AFC last year AFC's back my homes look good on Monday night Lamar Jackson look good Josh Allen look good like that it's gonna be a more difficult road for those teams including the wow including the Patriots schedules tougher and the conference is better right out nothing changed my mind that the AFC is quote unquote back after the first week and see everyone who's have we all overrated the Rams I mean one on the one you could say well it's just one game and it's in the Southern and the scary kind of like who knows maybe make vague fuck that up by going the day before

48:21they both have a slip-up through that game is getting the Warren sharps of the world like always a genius is going the day before they were asleep they basically shanahan spanked them in that game 100% and now they're out the season the most you know significant defensive accusation of the last 10 years anyway in the league I mean it's one thing to lose AJ Brown and I think we were all thinking worst case scenario the way he limped off the field yeah four to six weeks or whatever that seems like like you really dodged a bullet at least got grazed by it instead of taking it center mass but lose a miles Garrett for the year like so much of their hope was invested in him and now they're turning to Aaron Donald who really didn't do anything and was it has been out of the league for a couple years and is not a young man anymore so you know it's very possible that the power and the league is in the AFC like you like you mentioned it might not be the Rams it's

49:21going to be an interesting situation to watch for sure I still think the Rams are going to be really good like I think that with Seattle it's going to be hard to win that division as well and even the Niners like if like what they showed in week one like holds like I just love by the way the Debo Samuels and I know again it just makes sense to me like a Kyle Shannon just knows how to use that fucking player yeah they like the NFC West is going to be brutal as usual so even if like the Rams don't win the division like it ends up like Seattle like getting a don again again I still think they're going to be very good um it's it's weird like it's in a weird spot like I'm a big Ravens believer this year like I just I am not a John Harvagh guy I think he was holding that team back I think he was holding the Mar Jackson specifically back they blew so many leads over the last couple years like it was like a running joke of like how the how are the Ravens going to fuck this one up now like I'm still not like and like the Giants one and week one I'm not so on the Giants I'm just not they haven't easier schedules that's going to benefit them but as a real team I

50:23just I'm still not right and another NFC team that I think is it is in the mix anyway they've been good for a long time I respect them um Green Bay just collapse like a genitalia I know and some calls went against them or whatever I get that but no you you don't it was there was some metric that has never happened before like a team of the 17 point lead like ends up winning by 22 whatever those numbers were in the history of the NFL it's never happened once like it like Jordan love had a game breakthrough for 387 yards and was terrible yeah like it's 21 of 42 is doing a 50% completion rate and it's like it's like nah man like if I could that was not it like have any game in 2026 where you're getting dusted by Carson Wentz like you need to read and evaluate everything but that's more certainly getting dusted by the re-lock at this stage but it's where a bigger impact because it's a vision of loss in week one versus NFC loss

51:26patrons excuse me and uh we live in a world where the patriots are in all alone in last place in the AFCs there's your headline boys the jets are in first place and my favorite part of Monday was Rex Ryan saying that the jets are back a month thank you Rex back from what back from 1969 the last time they won one like really back from those two times they went to the AFC championship game that he dined out on for the last you know 15 20 years I I love it uh nothing can make me happier than the jets get excited before the inevitable happens so and New York fans and sufferable right now Yankees are very good jets win Yankees re giants win fucking nicks win it's not not a fun time for I'm very much looking forward to patriots jets where we can put them right back in the toilet that'll be fun that'll be fun yeah that'll be fun I cannot wait that's gonna be a lot of fun

52:28I think that's gonna do it for us today good show uh talking about like truly the greatest patriots game of all time really well we're gonna remember the rest of our lives definitely not gonna try to you know force it away and you know we're present it's fun to be together fun to watch the game together bad result we're bad luck to get we gotta fix that at some point but all a great job on the stream man carried us thank you yep and just real quick last year three weeks into this the biggest problem they were dealing with was Ramondrae Stevenson had a had a case of the Ramondrae's and he just kept leaving the ball on the ground and ultimately I said part of the reason they went to the Super Bowl is because he kept messing up early on any corrected that they've got a lot to correct here and that's what the good teams do they go into the meeting rooms and they watch the film and they go okay these these are the points we gotta focus on we have to take care of the ball better Drake you can't be when you're in field goal range you can't be like you know being reckless with with the ball let's take the three and go to overtime so yeah well this will

53:29be a fantastic test to see how well they bounce back at home like you said in the rain knowing the conditions they no excuses they just gotta get to one in one absolutely just get to one in one thank you all so much for tuning in and dirty wires always you find me at Hawkdale underscore on Twitter find about it Mike Manansky find Jerry Thornton at Jerry Thornton have yourselves a phenomenal evening go fucking pass get a Pats Kid love y'all good night all right good shit