Transcript
Speaker: right, guys, welcome back to the Savage Boston podcast. Today is November 10th, 2026. It's 830 at night. And yeah, we're here, man. This is ah two days after the Patriots just played the Packers.
Speaker: And I was there. Snooty was there in just an atrocious, atrocious, atrocious game, triple atrocious. Snoopy, why don't you just kick it off first? And as I get this out on the socials and you give me your, your first impressions on the game and and we'll go into it from there.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean, I think the most disappointing part was they just they just didn't have it. They just looked flat from the very beginning. I mean, they came out, they throw the ridiculous pick, which is 100% on May, and then defense doesn't hold at all.
Speaker: The offense does three and out right away, and then the defense just gets obliterated the second drive. it's like And the game was effectively over at 14. I know it wasn't, but it was effectively over at 14. It felt over.
Speaker: You could just feel it. You're like, ah fuck, here we go. Like, this is bad. um And like starting slow and sloppy like that, that's coaching. That's 100% coaching slash leadership, not getting the team ready to start. I mean, that's kind of been a consistent theme with this team, which is disappointing. um I mean, some some days you don't have it, but like they've just – they've started really slow a lot.
Speaker: um And it's just – it's really – really bad. And I mean, we'll get into it, but I think yeah the defense is really my my biggest takeaway. Yeah.
Speaker: yeah Brett, what's your initial, just your initial take on the game. Just abysmal dude. It was top to bottom, horrible performance. I thought they got this out of their system in the Jags game, but apparently not. And we, as we talked about the last few weeks,
Speaker: The defense, man, is super concerning. I said it last week. I felt like they were a sort of a paper tiger, and their statistics were overinflated. They weren't that good. i was concerned about how they didn't close out the Jets game. I was concerned that they continued to allow the Dolphins move the ball. I get Chicago, Chicago, but like at some point, you got to make a stop, and they didn't make a stop. So the defense you look at and say, you're all healthy, guys.
Speaker: Rabel, this is your defense. You guys are supposedly – top 10 defense in the league, and you look nothing but. It's just, it was abysmal across the board, did not look good. And Snooty's 100% correct. We just came out flat on both and on all ends of the ball, right? Another game where you show up and you just weren't even in the game early at all. Chicago, same game.
Speaker: started off early drives and you were like, whoa, what's going on guys? You basically three and out and they're already scoring. And it's like, we're not even moving anything here. We only get a few minutes into the game and we're already down 14, nothing like guys, shouldn't you be up for this game? This was a marquee game. Everyone walking into this game said like, this is a pretty evenly battled tested teams. Like let's see who's going to be the more superior, but felt like it was going to be more of a back and forth battle.
Speaker: And it was not even close, not even close. So just across the board, abysmal performance. We'll start going into the blame game where our biggest concerns are, but just not a good feeling coming out of Sunday.
Speaker: Yeah. So let's do, um I mean, we could do like, you know, a list of your top concerns. i mean, but we don't even have to do it in that organized of a fashion.
Speaker: think ah let's just go down the list in some way. Like I want to touch on first is Christian Gonzalez. um I've never seen a game like that from an all pro guy ever.
Speaker: I can't remember seeing a game that bad. I don't know, from like a casual cornerback. I mean, to allow the amount of, a the a they just, they targeted him.
Speaker: Like they went after him. Like something they saw on tape, they're like, oh, how he plays his off man, how he plays ah his his quarters. Like something about their recognition with Christian Gonzalez told them that he's going to be incredibly soft and you can just run outs on him. Because they did it the week before. he had kind of a poor game the week before. He was he was getting targeted a bit. So, I don't LaFleur, give credit to LaFleur, who I think tremendously outcoached Zach Corr and Mike Vrabel, obviously. Drake Silver, a common here. Too many trick plays. Tempt to mask.
Speaker: Yeah, 100%. I forget who – I read that somewhere today as well, and and you see it on tape. What was happening is Green Bay got up there and just quick snapped, like with quickly. No waiting at the line, no Jotswins. They get up, snap.
Speaker: So the Patriots' disguises, they don't have time to, like, go into their rotations or disguises, right? Like there's all these issues. So anyway, I think let's touch on Christian Gonzalez first, because again, i went through the tape.
Speaker: You guys watched the clips. Like it was bad on tape. Yeah. There some plays that were the scheme that were communications as well. Like, like again, he tried to motion Marcus Jones to cover golden on a, on a, you know, a slant and then Jones just took golden anyway.
Speaker: And it looked like he tried to bump them off. So some of this stuff was not just on Gonzo, but overall, He wasn't good. He wasn't good in this game. And and I think it's genuinely concerning. So when don't you guys tell me – me your thoughts on Gonzalez.
Speaker: Yeah, so that touchdown to to Golden – Gonzalez postgame actually took took the blame for that. saw that. Yeah. I mean, that was about as bad a performance for a cornerback as you can see. I mean, Love was love was dropping dimes out there, but even still, like, he's got to be better than that. and he And more so, like, the entire defense basically hinges around your secondary covering and covering well.
Speaker: Right, because they don't have – they're not great at quick pressure. Even their blitz game isn't great this year. They don't really have sustained pressure. um So you need your corners to cover.
Speaker: And if you're getting just fucking roasted like that – like, there were a couple of blown assignments. all right, I get it. That's going to happen occasionally. But Gonzalez can't play like that. and I think he knows that. Like, you you simply can't play like that if you're the best player, if you're the highest paid player. Like, it's all supposed to be around you. You cannot play like that.
Speaker: Yeah, it's simply just unacceptable all around. I wish he owned it a little bit more, too. I get he's not media savvy. This is not his forte. i just felt like postgame. He just should have owned it a little bit more, not just said I had a bad game. Like, I'll move on. We'll be fine.
Speaker: Like, that's okay to a sense, but just juxtapose it to how A.J. Brown was after all those drops. Like, he owned it and said he had a bad game, but, like, that's on me. I got to be better. I got to be better. And just the the tone and delivery.
Speaker: So, I didn't like that from Gonzo. He's getting called out now from Rabel. So, hopefully that is – Do you think that's him calling out Gonzalez, the comments, Rabelman? think it's Gonzalez and May as their two top guys, and those guys had major blunders this game. Gonzo got targeted and had, in ah like again, worst game of his career and basically got exploited. One of the worst games you can possibly have as a cornerback other than getting a bunch of penalties.
Speaker: And then Drake may three turnovers. So I think it's on both of their guys, which I hope that tactic lands. I'm a skeptical at this point with Rabel just because of the missteps that he's had over the last few weeks.
Speaker: So we'll see how Gonzalez responds. It's just, again, it's a trending pattern though with him. Like, We had the Bears game. You're like, okay, maybe he's sick. Maybe he's off. But then you go against the Jets and you're like, Omar Cooper Jr. Just like, what's going on? And then you go against the Dolphins. You're like, guys, guys, what's going on? So it's it's a pattern at this point. And it's confusing to all hell. I get it. There's parts of it that our scheme...
Speaker: He's sitting in the zone. They're not communicating right. They're not trading off. And he's giving too much of a cushion. But he's also getting burnt in man. Like, he's just not right. And I don't know why there's such a regression other than looking at coaching and saying, like, something is not right with what you're doing there. But he's just not delivering the way we're accustomed to seeing a player of his caliber deliver.
Speaker: Well, I'd say, like, so the first thing that people are mentioning is the postgame comments. And I think like, I have no problem if he's like a chill dude and he comes up there, he's like, like Manny Ramirez at the plate. He's like, yeah, already forgot about the last one.
Speaker: Right? Like that's what made Manny so great as an analogy. Right? If you're that kind of guy, forget about the last one, do better next time. Right? What I found weird was he was a little like, kind of like sheepish. Like he was smiling at the podium almost. He was kind of like, he didn't even seem that disappointed.
Speaker: Like, I thought that was odd. Like, just his, again, the way he was speaking, I found that behavior a little strange. It's fine. I mean, that's his personality. He's like Stephon Gilmore. Like, he's he's chill. Like, I'll get him next time. i just I just thought, like, how it looked. I thought it looked a little weird, like, to me personally.
Speaker: um You know, when he's, you know, you see in the tape and stuff too. Like, when he's allowed to be impressed, man, like, and really jam and be at the line, he's clearly better than when how he's playing zone.
Speaker: i don't I don't know why the way he's playing zone. i didn't even show this one on the YouTube tape I made where he was playing. They were in a cover three, right? Like Gonzo. For whatever reason, they decided to do this. Instead of just having him man up or be cover two, they're like, let's have Gonzo play a deep third. So they brought him into a deep third. Okay. And then Golden just ran like a 15-yard crosser, like a deep crosser. Changed him across the zone.
Speaker: He chased him across and he was like 10 yards behind him. You're like, how is that the design of that? Or is this just the perfectly worst defense for that call? Do you know what I mean? Like it was, it looked horrible and he was so far behind him. and you're like,
Speaker: Okay, wait, is that the design of the defense on that play? Like, you was that Gonzo's man to chase the crosser? Should someone have else have stepped up into that lane? You know, right? Because I don't know how they're coaching that right now, but it looked – how they're doing it looked horrible.
Speaker: And the way he's he's managing zone looked horrible. So, Snoo, do you have any comments on that? So I think the defense overall was was way underprepared. And I think coaching is a major issue. And I think that ah there was a two-play sequence that I think highlighted it perfectly where it was early in the game where they threw an out route.
Speaker: um It was a – I mean, they sure didn't really show the replay in stadium, but it kind of looked like it was questionable or not. And Vrabel was thinking about challenging. And the defense was just, i don't know, fucking around and just not doing anything. And the Packers, rightfully so, rushed up to the line. Got a play called and they hit a big play right after that because the defense was just not prepared, not ready. They weren't like focused. They weren't sitting there. And it's just like that was on fire.
Speaker: So that was on fire. That was fired and Gonzo. It was somehow they got into like it was like a cover to like Gonzo took like the flat. Byard's straight safety. There was no way play action. I watched it.
Speaker: There was no play action. Just drop back. Bayard let the guy just run a go route right by him, and that'd be a 50-yard pass play. It just, like, live, it looked like they's not locked in they weren't communicating well. They didn't get the play call in or something clearly was wrong, right, because, like, clearly a coverage bust, like, whatever. But it just was, like, just a perfect encap encapsulation of, like, how the defense played. it was just, like, they had their head up their ass. Like, I'm like, the only one who should be worrying about challenging besides stretch is Vrabel.
Speaker: Everybody else – Fucking focus on the field. like don't even look at the Don't even look at it. You don't care. Don't even look at It doesn't matter. Yeah. yeah and And I just want to go off on Bayard for a minute because, again, this is another Rabel guy coming in here. He like talks all the talk, like talks about how we got to get better at takeaways. Dude, then show up and get a takeaway. like Unless something gets tipped and fallen in your lap, you haven't...
Speaker: done shit all year. So you have this guy out there who's like trying to be a vocal leader and trying to be this guy, but then you do something like that in the game? like What does Gonzo think when he's like looking at Bayer being like, dude, you just like totally F that entire thing up. like He is just totally getting exploited, and clearly it was a situation where like well fleur just recognized it and said you can go after these safeties and get over the top just go deep on them because they're not good at communicating trading off they're they're playing zone coverage they don't communicate well and trading it off and you're just gonna burn them and they just did it all game wrong like how many times did they want to go over the top and we just had no protection from our backside safeties you look at bayard again where you're like dude you're getting paid real money you're coming in here to be
Speaker: a leader on this defense and you're anything but dude, like your play is God awful. And then you want to go around talking like, we got to be like own up, be better, blah, blah, blah. Like look yourself in the freaking mirror.
Speaker: He's just so bad all year. Hasn't been impactful at all. think just to talk, just to touch on really quick, um, Vrabel, Vrabel guys, right. We talked about Vrabel guys, you know, Vrabel signings.
Speaker: Vrabel's culture, right? It's Vrabel's team. He's a CEO. he's He's in charge. couple things. The biggest concern I have, well, A, I think the signings are are a problem right now. I think the A.J. Brown trade is a problem.
Speaker: Signing his guys is a problem. And that sucks because I wanted A.J. Brown so bad. And and it's and i really I'm obviously way on record how much I wanted A.J. Brown here. And I'm so hopeful that he can come back and contribute, but obviously it looks terrible right now. Right. Harold Landry, terrible signing, you know, broken down. I mean, like, you know, you could go, you go up and down the variable signings who, who he handpicked to bring in the team. Draymond Jones has been hurt a bunch.
Speaker: um I like Draymond when he's healthy. I think he's a good player. I'm not going to complain too much about Draymond because i think he's he's solid. Bayard has been terrible. It's been a terrible acquisition. You got an old guy who's supposed to be who is supposed to be really good ball hawking leader.
Speaker: And dude, he blew like three coverages last game. He's not focused. Where's his focus? So I think the variable moves are are one thing people can criticize for certain.
Speaker: um I think you talked to him about especially being a defensive minded tough head coach. I just, that was, I mean, watching it in person, they were so ill prepared to play.
Speaker: The defense was ill-prepared. They weren't communicating. It was like, who's getting this blame? Is Ray was just going to put it on Zach Kerr? I don't know who gets the blame for the most points in Gillette Stadium history. And it could have been worse. I mean, like, talk about ill-prepared. They have two fucking good players.
Speaker: They have Christian Watson and Matthew Golden, and the tight end's pretty good. And Love played great. They have two good weapons at receiver. And you got, like, six DBs. And you couldn't figure out how to get – boat raced by the two of them so horribly.
Speaker: It was historic. It was actually historic. It was the worst loss in history, the worst defensive performance in history. It was historic. So there's no way to sugarcoat it. That's what makes me nervous. The defense isn't even injured.
Speaker: They're not hurt. They're healthy. For the most part, yeah. So what are we doing on that? And so that's the thing is like, just to kind of look at the other side of the coin, like the offense.
Speaker: Yeah. The offense still put up 28 points. I know they did some shit in garbage time or whatever, but like, it's not like they, you know, it's not like green Bay pitched a shutout. Right. Like, they've The offense has still scored points these last few weeks, even when, like, I know May turned the ball over, whatever, but, like, with the turnovers right now with May because he's pressing come, you know, some of the explosive plays. And I really think that if fucking Williams caught that touchdown, it's a slightly different game because – That whole thing, it could still could have changed. that It was early. It could have stopped the bleeding a little bit, maybe given a little bit more emotion back into the game. It's only a 10-point game at halftime.
Speaker: That's a field goal game at and halftime if he catches that touchdown. But yeah the offense is injured. You're down at the end. You're down four guards and a tackle. right like You're down a bunch of wide receivers, a bunch of running backs. like There's reasons why the offense is limited. So it's hard to even blame McDaniels for a lot of stuff. Because it's like you can't really call much when your left guard is a fucking turnstile once Ben Brown goes out. right So it's hard to really blame McDaniels too much.
Speaker: Your defense is – this is the group. And I think – you know, they talk about the soft schedule last year. They didn't really face a soft schedule defensively last year for the Patriots ah offense. now They faced some pretty good defenses. But the Patriots defense faced us a lot of god-awful quarterbacks, including into the playoffs. Right. And like, I know they made them look bad occasionally, Stroud and all that. But like, I mean, they play some a weak fucking offensive schedule last year. So I think if you're sign starting to see signs of regression based upon strength of schedule, that's where you're seeing it. but It's the defense, not the offense. The scheme has to be better on defense. You can't play that bad. like it's If that's the problem, it's like no other turn to disguise stuff, but nothing's working. like You can't be that level bad. like Again, that's the worst I've ever seen in my life, watching this team for a very long time.
Speaker: again since Again, it's the worst loss in Gillette Stadium history. and Watching it, I was like i was confused. was like i don't I know they the Patriots turned it over four times. yeah it You're not going to win a game having a minus four turnover differential.
Speaker: You're not going to win, period, like any game. So I understand that. But, um yeah, I think – I don't know. I expect better from Mike Variable. I really do. i expect better from his defense. This is his defense.
Speaker: These are his players, and I expect better from him. Well, I want to jump on that last point. These are his players because look, I'm a Vrabel guy. i was a proponent for Vrabel.
Speaker: i When we were going through the Vrabel Ben Johnson, I was a Vrabel guy. i so I told you guys that that's starting to crack the last couple of weeks. I'm honestly like pissed off with Rabel going out there and making the comments on EEI where he basically is leading into the trade deadline, saying something to the effect of, if guys don't want to be here, like we're going to find somewhere else for them. like We need people to compete, yada, yada.
Speaker: Yeah. Rabel, these are your guys. Rabel, this is your roster. You essentially flipped. Almost the entire starting 22 players on both sides of the ball.
Speaker: You've essentially flipped majority of them, right? You inherited May. Okay. But like you've, you've been flipped over all of them. These are your guys and you're calling out your guys for the guys that you brought in. There were supposedly character guys that fit the mold and the style football. want to play yada, yada, yada, yada. And I'm sitting there going to myself, like,
Speaker: dude where are the days of belichick coming up there doing the same old shtick like we got a coach better when he's asked about a player that had a bat performance i don't i don't see that or hear that consistently from brable and i get it like he's accountability accountability he's trying to build accountability But, like, where's the accountability on the coaching? Where's the accountability to look at yourself and say, we got to do a better job to prepare. I clearly didn't get our team ready. Like, he just doesn't feel like he's owning it.
Speaker: And I hate the, like, deflection point back to his players. If this doesn't land, he's in trouble. Like, doubt that to me is the first sign of a guy that's starting to lose the locker room. but he's He's a motivational guy. So, to me, like,
Speaker: it's obviously he has to be accountable when he gets up to the microphone and he's like, we need our best players to play well. Right. Like basically like we need our, but he was speaking specifically on Christian Gonzalez. Right. Cause it was, the question was about, it wasn't just general. So that's the thing. Like that people are reacting a little, it wasn't a general, like we just need everyone who's good to play good. It was like, he got asked about Christian Gonzalez's performance and he's like,
Speaker: hard to win when you're when your best players don't play well, right? So it was it was in reference directly to Christian. and I think that's true, but there's a reason. i think he's obviously on purpose. He's like, I need to light a fire under Christian.
Speaker: Because like I don't um don't get it. i mean, he should have been so up for this game. And this is an interesting point I just saw earlier today. Coach Flight, Gonzalez's defensive coach.
Speaker: I just saw this. He tweeted during the game, barely unnoticed. two likes. And it was just like he was criticizing. He's like, enough of the cover three, enough of the inverted cover two. Coach Flight said that on Twitter. You can still up. you can go read it.
Speaker: and um And it's basically like, okay, so – is that a sign kind of like he will he doesn't think that suits Christian Gonzalez, like dropping him off in cover three, dropping him. Like, cause you're basically making him a safety.
Speaker: That's what you're making. Gonzalez, you're saying, Hey, go play safety. Right? So the Patriots are doing wacky stuff between their defenses and rotating coverages, disguising coverages. Here's the problem. None of it fucking worked. They would been off if they just said, Hey, Christian, you're on Christian Watson the whole game.
Speaker: You, him, press man, every fucking play. Don't care. Shadow him. Every play, you're to have someone over the top. They would have more success. They would have more success with a fan coach defensive coach off the street.
Speaker: Literally, because you couldn't do worse than their performance. And I'm only fired up because the team, again, is fully healthy on defense. this is They're fully healthy. It's Drake May. People should be like – we should be complaining about how injured the offense is and talk about, wow, Drake is doing his best, right, with what he's got. But instead, we got to sit here and we had a non-competitive game.
Speaker: I'm scared they're going to get their doors blown off against the Lions. yeah Because, again, like ah can they compete against the Lions? Let's see. don't think the Lions defense sucks.
Speaker: I think Drake's going to move the ball pretty well, despite the lack of talent around him. So I think it's, I don't mind the people with a conquer sports. You're saying it's overblown. Look at other coaches talk. I don't, I don't, I don't personally mind how variable spoke. That's not just my perspective. Like, I don't mind that. I thought Gonzo was a little too coy and sheepish at the microphone. That's my opinion.
Speaker: But I'm just upset at the performance. I think the performance was so horrible. Rewatching it was so horrible. It was impossible. It felt impossible like the four blown wide open coverages, like that's not preparation. So coaching should have taken the first fault. there' should have been like, we fucked up.
Speaker: It variable might have should said that that was on us. We weren't prepared. Our fault. Zach needs to do a better job. I need to do a better job. And that's probably the first thing. that let should and Just to jump in here real quick, though, like how many times has he basically like called out Josh or like been kind of dismissive of Josh's play, but you don't hear boo about the defense. He never takes on like, pushes back on the defense. He never pushes back. So, look, I get it. To me, um'm I'm a little bit more passive towards Gonzo because I just realized that's his personality. He's just not media savvy. So I think that one's overblown. I think Vrabel is something that's got some meat there that we got to be hammering the guy on because if he doesn't start coaching his team better, getting them more prepared, and making sure they're putting the right scheme in position, like, that's you, dude.
Speaker: That's you. Do they need a real GM? they need a real GM? Yeah, mean, yes. Like being dead serious. The answer is yes. Because with the Bears, and I'll let you go, Sneedy, but like with the Bears, they got what, Ryan Poles and Ben Johnson working together, and they're like, hey, let's go get, we got to get the line really good. they went and signed a ton of really good offensive linemen.
Speaker: Then they're like, okay, as we develop Caleb, we're going to draft Luther Burden. Oh, we're going to sign, you know, or we're going to draft the Dunze. We're going draft Colson Loveland. They built that unit out.
Speaker: They drafted that unit and they acquired a ah shit ton of good off offensive linemen. That's how they've developed the Chicago Bears, who are now turned out to be an absolute powerhouse. Okay? So – the and People mentioned the Patriots went to the Super Bowl last year. They did.
Speaker: Drake played out of his mind the whole season. He was excellent. They had a weak schedule. He played incredible football. They get to the playoffs. Drake did fine, and the defense was outstanding. They shut down the Chargers. They shut down the Texans. They were out the defense for the Patriots, which is why I'm concerned. This defense is supposed to be a top-10 defense, not what they put on the field. and This is the second time they've gotten blown out this year.
Speaker: So that's the concern, right? Like they should be a much better team and they need the defense to play at a very, very high level to do that. Snooty, go for it. They need a GM who has teeth that like variable as a coach. Fine. Awesome. I was a Ben Johnson guy. like But I get the the allure of Vrabel. I get the allure of a coach like Vrabel. But his track record from a personnel standpoint is very poor. It was poor in Tennessee, and it's poor here. okay So, like yes, I'm concerned. They need Wolf to actually have some teeth. i'm not sure Wolf is the guy. i mean, he's going to be the guy if you're going to you know give some real power to a GM. But
Speaker: you know, cause Cowden's just a variable guy. Like they, they need something where they can identify like, cause Henderson looks like a bad pick. I think I was against paying for a first for AJ Brown because, you know, and that's pre injury for Henderson. I'm not blaming him for, you know, whatever's going on with them. Obviously hope he does better. yeah yeah to But the thing like, brown I was against spending first round pick for Brown because he's older and he's got, you know, degenerative knee condition that they knew about. So like at, It could be like a catastrophic trade just because you're supposed to get like maybe two good years from Brown, right? On a team that was contending for a, for a Superbowl.
Speaker: And instead, which they over, they overplayed their hand. Cause you weren't as good as you were last year. You just weren't right. You weren't, You weren't a legitimate Super Bowl contender. A lot of people, including us, said you're probably going to have a better team but a worse record just because of this year life. That's just how it goes. yeah So you spend a first-round pick to maybe get two good years out of, like, ah an all-pro receiver, and you might get one.
Speaker: next year if he's healthy. right so like It could be disastrous, that trade. i mean The track record for Vrabel goes back. and it it goes back it's just like It's not good. It's not it's it's not great. and i mean and Even still, they it looks like they hit on Campbell. They hit on May. right um They hit on Woodson. They've made a couple good draft picks, but you've got to you know People talk about, oh, it's the rookie contract, rookie contract. Once you get the extension. Yeah, you know what you need once you have a fucking quarterback on an extension? Cheap labor. you know how you get cheap labor?
Speaker: Drafting well. like it's just we you We'll go full draft. We'll be full draft pod for like three months. I know, but it's just so backwards. like It's just this whole fan base. Everybody bought into like their Super Bowl or bust now. And it's like, no, they're not. It's the beginning of the run.
Speaker: i'm not I'm not there yet. I know you're like you didn't like the trade from the beginning, and now you're basically saying this year is the reason why, and you're writing the whole thing off. He very well could come back and be impactful down the stretch and be something and then give us another year next year. So I'm not there yet with you. I'm okay with the fact that they traded to get A.J. Brown. I think you've got to try to get talent around situation where you're putting him in your you got a couple years before he kind of ages out in the contract ages out and you can move on from him while you continue to draft and develop guys the problem is is they got to be able to draft and develop guys they drafted kyle williams
Speaker: really was a bust. The guy can't play football. You drafted Trevion Henderson. He can't play football. So I just look at it and say, you're missing the mark on trying to draft those guys. and you've made real draft capital on those guys to bring them in. But you got to put something around Drake may in the short term, like you, you got to put weapons around him. Let me read this. Let me read this. Cause I like this comment. Jacob John had a comment, Kyle Williams and Henderson played better when they had real leadership on the bench. Someone who spoke up a community of respect. Diggs was that voice who's filling that role now. So, yeah, so I think, um well, I think on defense that role is filled by Byard has been doing that, but he's not playing well.
Speaker: He's the the vocal leader, but on offense, Diggs was the guy and Drake is supposed to be the guy right now, right? Drake's the leader. And I do think Drake is the leader, right? Like I think Drake truly, I think Drake is the leader of that team. And I'm happy about Drake's leadership.
Speaker: um I think you created a personality void when you got rid Stephon Diggs. I think that's a massive personality void. you had as a figure You had an imposing figure. Guess who would be that right now if he wasn't injured?
Speaker: His name is fucking AJ Brown. AJ Brown is like big time aura dude locker room guy that everyone likes. They all loved him in in Philly. They don't like Jalen Hurts.
Speaker: Jalen Hurts, I forget the nickname they called him. I heard it the other day, but they they like they don't like Jalen Hurts there. They love A.J. Brown. A.J. Brown is a good locker room guy, and all the players love him. so And he carries aura. So it's basically like,
Speaker: You try to replace it. you know And then if you have Dobbs in there not hurt, he's a silent killer too. Dobbs is a beast. he's a big Dobbs is a good player. People are going to like Dobbs. I really think that. He's a big body, good player, physical receiver. Had a tough beginning to the year. I think Dobbs will be fine.
Speaker: um So that's the answer to that question. I think AJ Brown, i'm geez I'm like, cross my fingers, man. And he's somehow miraculously able to go this week. I seriously doubt it, but man, I'm just hopeful. Even if you activate them for 20 routes, dude, just, just, I don't know what you can do, but get them on the field because the morale boost to that offense. So, and and I'm going to pivot to offense now.
Speaker: Hold on. Before you do, I just want to add one comment. Kyle Williams has never played well. So he didn't play better last year. sucked last year. He sucks this year. He is a bust. Kyle i am better than ky Williams is is worse this year. Kyle Williams is like – he's a home run hitter.
Speaker: He's actually incredibly comparable to Trayvon Henderson in a lot of ways where they they basically are like home run hitters. They either have a 50-yard touchdown or they're horrible. If you can put them out in you can put them out and they have like a 10-yard straightaway, they're very lethal.
Speaker: But if you can't do anything else but that, forget about it. they I feel bad for Travion. He might have like really bad like early like you know ct CTE stuff, creating neurological. like that could That could be very, very serious. I'm not impressed with that whatsoever. and I think Travion...
Speaker: I don't know, again, I brought this point up in the group chat today. I don't know if some of the brain injury stuff, is that is that playing into him saying controversial stuff publicly. Whereas maybe like an agent or something would say, Hey, like you might want to cool it on some of this stuff. Like there's things like some erratic behavior and i don't know, it's probably affecting his football play. So I don't know what's going on there. It sounds like he gets shut down for the whole year.
Speaker: um I wouldn't think he's going to be back. So I think that's, that's weird. um I watched this game with piss me off the most, right. Watching, going back in the film and we can talk about Drake and we're 31 minutes in, like we don't have to,
Speaker: you know, before we mentioned Drake may basically, but what pissed me off is not just like, not the Drake may interceptions necessarily was that instead of AJ Brown being out there to draw attention, you got Kyle Williams as your ex.
Speaker: No one gives a shit about Kyle Williams at X. Okay. So on both those bad interceptions, the first one to Matt Collins, the jump past one, Obviously, it's a bad interception.
Speaker: I got to assume Drake didn't see that safety or he assumed on the safety ran with Kyle and he thought Hollins had a space there. It turns out it's it's a bad pick, right?
Speaker: The third play, again, I shared this today. Same thing, Kyle Williams is running a three-quarter speed post. The safety didn't buy it for one second. He's playing – they were either in like quarters or something, but anyway, he's playing safety.
Speaker: He didn't buy Kyle's route. He didn't buy it, so he didn't turn to follow Kyle. He just sat there looking at staring at Drake's eyes, looking – Like, yeah, waiting. And he sees Raritan coming across the field, and he jumped him. He baited him into a great – it was a great interception.
Speaker: Not a good throw. Great interception. But this shit, everyone's got work together. Like, Drake waited too long to throw the ball. Kyle Williams runs a half-ass route. No one thinks he's going to throw to Kyle Williams. So, it all kind of malfunctions. So, that was my interpretation on the interceptions was, yeah, bad reads, but, like, just the personnel is not there either, dude.
Speaker: So – Yeah, I think the the first interception, i think if you look at it, um Hollins, I think, sat in the zone correctly. It still not a good decision, even if even if he threw it to where Hollins actually was. It still wasn't a great idea. yeah But yeah like clearly Hollins sat there and and May thought he was going to keep going.
Speaker: The tip down the sideline... I mean, look, is it a great decision? No. Is it like a horrible interception? Not really. I mean, like you got a little bad tip luck there a little bit. The third one to Raritan, I guess they um they ran that same play, but to I think it was to Douglas earlier. So like he had seen that route combination. So like he kind of he kind of jumped it. Good play.
Speaker: you know, whatever. But to your point, like if they don't respect the deep ball, like from Williams, what the fuck do you do then if they don't respect you? Like it all get it at all. I think if he cut again, maybe they respect it a little bit more if he catches that first shot down the sideline.
Speaker: You know I mean? like because that is the only thing he's really good at is, is the deep ball. yeah Yeah, I'll say this when it comes to Drake Mays picks, which just taking a step back, I still am a fan of Drake. I'm not concerned about Drake long term.
Speaker: Like, I think he'll clean up the turnovers. He's shown flashes. He's gotten better. I get it. He's going to have bad moments. He's forcing a lot of this. One thing I'd like to see him develop is, like, can you shake off the safety? Like, can you, like, play like you're going to Kyle to cause him to bite and then make a move? Because he could have, like, faked out the throw, and then the safety's got a bite. Does he bite in on Hollins and throw it to Kyle? Or does he go back out on Kyle, and now you can get on... on Hollins like that's a piece of Drake where if I think about his play and how he's had picks come at him, he never does a great job of kind of throwing guys off and he's had time like he had time and then he like forced himself into a bat like the Hollins when he just
Speaker: bad form as well. But like he's had time to make them. He's thrown them bad. Can you do something to kind of throw the safety off? I think that's a piece of his game that he's got to develop to be able to... You could see he was trying to like see where the safety goes and he thought he had it. He just didn't do it right.
Speaker: I'd like to see him develop that. But by and large, when it comes to Drake May, the kid's balling with nothing. Which, again, leads back to my argument about A.J. Brown. And I'm not going to bash the team for going out there to try and get a guy like A.J. Brown. You need to put elite talent around him.
Speaker: Maybe you're upset because A.J. Brown is the guy that they just decided to go. But, like, he's an elite level wide receiver. It's just – is his Where's his knee at? What is that and how is it long term? That's obviously the biggest concern and that's why people are going to harp on it. But you need elite talent in order to do it. I 100% agree. like You compare the wide receiver cores that you had for Green Bay and what Jordan Love was throwing.
Speaker: Don't get me wrong. Jordan Love had a good game, but there were balls where he's just lobbing out there. His guys are just going to win it. Those two wide receivers are really good. There's no question. i think like I didn't realize how good Christian Watson was. I knew Matthew Golden was young and really good, but they're both playing really, really well.
Speaker: um yeah We do not have that. We have not had that in forever. But I think like that's why it's hard to pile on the offense. And they're still like doing OK. It's just the injuries have been profound. I think you can get mad that they haven't figured out how to like run the football very well.
Speaker: You know, that's been an issue all season. You got to be able to run the ball. um and You do. But when you're all banged up on the offensive line, I'm not going to kill them. And they couldn't do, they could have lost to Miami. You're talking Miami. Drake had to play excellent ball in the second half. He was really good because he's trying to carry the team. And Drake was great in that second half, but they could have lost that Miami game.
Speaker: That was really sloppy. It was a really sloppy game. And the defense was really sloppy in that game too. So yeah everything's kind of gone upside down here. New, let me see a new deal explorer enjoy or sorry. i thought they, that would be the strength with, with the running game, sad and frustrating.
Speaker: It's true. i think like it is sad. like They intended on being a power running team. And then play action. like Nothing's going. They're still 5-4. Hold on. Just to jump in and talk about it, then Snooty can obviously go because I think he's going to agree. like We got a guy like Gilliam. He's been out.
Speaker: We basically got... What's that? Julian Hill. Julian Hill, tight end. We got Vera Tucker. He's been out, which again, again, he's injury prone, but he's been out. Like you lost him. You'll, you lost Ben Brown. You lost on when you before that you're, then you get Ben Brown back. Then you lose Ben Brown again. You're relying on Prower and Rouse. And it's like, you can't do much. Will Campbell goes down again. He's still kind of working through the left knee.
Speaker: So like they're incredibly banged up on the line. They lost their fullback. They lost the tight end. and Like, they just don't have the pieces to be that power run game. So I'm not going to be super critical on the run, like the lack of the run, because of the fact that it's like what want them to do. but If anything, I'm a little more impressed that they've been able to close out some games, like games going to Kiner.
Speaker: But I'm not going to harp on that because they're so banged up. Like, it is what it is. You can't be on that. I like Kiner, but, I mean, how do we feel? He's running back one this week.
Speaker: you Look at Drake Scott this week. i mean Seriously, look at Drake Scott this week. I think it's not just that they're hurt up front. They've lost like four guards.
Speaker: Like four. and like I know everyone wants to oh get some depth interior or whatever, but like no one's trading starting worthy guards like they're are all lined in general, right? Like unless you pay an extreme premium for that, like they're just not going to do that. So I understand Pryor's actually done okay, all things considered. Pryor's not bad actually. He's actually, he hasn't been bad. Hopefully you get Van Roten back. Right. So maybe I can't believe Greg Van Roten might be the savior of the O-line. I know. Like you plug him at left guard and you go, OK, at least there's like a professional level player who can play left guard and start and be good. I have some some i'm exceptions that I've been saying all year. I want them to run a bit more like zone.
Speaker: and get the O-line moving a little bit, particularly when Vera Tucker was healthy because you had a pretty athletic O-line. You don't have, a ah like, a huge O-line that can just impose their will. But between Wilson and Campbell and Vera Tucker, you have some guys who can move, right? And once you get Lomo in there at right tackle, like, you've got guys who can move. So use that, right? Like, get them moving. Get them going in zone. Get them reaching. Get them going, stuff like that. that And especially a guy like Henderson. That's how you get you get a gap. He'll hit it, and he'll go.
Speaker: Right? Like you its in a zone type scheme. yeah how ah excuse how early How early you draft in a yeah ah safety in 2027? You should always be in best player available mode outside of quarterback and tackle.
Speaker: We're pretty much there. Best player available. That's all you should be doing. I'm gonna be i'm i'm a scout young free safeties. That's all I have to say. I'm scouting young free safeties. I want a linebacker this year. I need like a young, fast linebacker. I wanted Jacob Rodriguez in the draft last year. but like I want a fast linebacker. I want a fast, good, young, free safety.
Speaker: like um And if you have an opportunity to get a stud edge, I'm down for that in the first round too. We'll go full draft, baby. I don't even know like the guys yet. Best player available. You're like, let me just list every position other than the back the classroom. Well, player available the positions you need.
Speaker: Which is like every position other than quarterback and tackle. It's like quarterback tackle. like I'm just saying. say I mean, you could talk me into a tight end in round one. Sure. Realistically speaking. Like you there's really – maybe center is like the only position I'd be like, don't take a center round one.
Speaker: Center tackle and – All right. I'm not down for a guard in round one. I don't want to take a round one guard. I'm sorry. Why? you Everybody says that, and then they don't fucking run the ball and everyone goes, oh, the guards suck. The O-line's terrible. Well, okay, sorry. Maybe look at all the teams that are really good and invest a lot of draft capital in the O-line and D-line. and what like They're really good. It's like the same argument for running back. How many teams draft running back in round one, how often does that work?
Speaker: That's because running back – The material difference between a first round running back and a mid round running back is is negligible. i hate I hate that we suck so much that we're talking about the draft right now. like we We should not suck this much. Hold on.
Speaker: Hold on. I'm going to spin this, and inject a little positivity into this. Okay. You've got three games remaining that you should absolutely 100% win. Against the Jets, against the Dolphins, who are tanking even harder than they were before, and the Chargers.
Speaker: Okay? Because you should be pretty healthy the time you play the Chargers. That's eight wins. You need two of all the other ones to get in. That's it. And the problem is they're against two.
Speaker: I'm aware. Lions, Chiefs, Vikings. Bills. bill Bills. Who am i missing? That's seven. Broncos.
Speaker: Broncos. So you got to win two of those. Right. and those other than Other than the Bills, those are – well, well the actually the Lions defense. So the Bills and Lions defense suck. So that helps our injured offense.
Speaker: But counterintuitive to that. like Can you beat the Broncos at home? Can you beat the the Vikings at home? but like Those are tough. But starting, I believe it's week 12, you can get Vera Tucker back. You can get couple other guys back. You know what mean? Right off, Dobbs, A.J. Brown. That's off the bye. Everyone gives you chance. It's a good time for the bye, right, after the Lions game. They're going come out of the bye and play, I think, the Chargers out of the bye. If they don't bludgeon the Chargers like 40 to nothing, like I need a bloodbath that game. Sure. and I'm not joking. I'm just saying. Like bloodbath.
Speaker: I'm just saying, not not only do you get guys back, but you're also coming off the bye. So it's like the whole team should get a chance to, you know, whatever nicks and bruises, whatever you got, like take care of it. Like if you can find a way to clip the Lions, like your odds of making the playoffs are exponentially higher than they were if you lose the Lions. Yeah, this is it. if you can get if you get If you beat the Lions this week, I think like this – it's such a massive, massive week.
Speaker: We must win right now. Are we in must win territory for playoff? Almost. I mean, orderly yeah, because like you lose, go five and five. And then again, like you're, you're, you know, you got seven games left and we just, just talked about the teams. Like you got to win what five out of those seven at five and five to get in.
Speaker: yeah Yeah, and now that top with Kirk Cousins going to Minnesota, that offense will be a little bit scarier because they do have pretty good offensive line. and Justin Jefferson. and And he's played in that system. So, like, we know their defense elite.
Speaker: Their offense just got better today. So that's yeah not voting well for a very bad defense. I think you can – I think you got to – The Lions defense is not very good. I don't know if they've not played very many good teams, but ah but they're scoring a ton of points. And again, like you just had horrible game and now I just don't trust this. I'm just why i am down on it. I just straight up don't trust what they're doing. Like, I feel like this is you have the personnel and you're playing a really shitty scheme.
Speaker: Like for you to be that bad, it means that you got outcoached so hard. So that that's the problem. Like how badly could you have possibly been and been out coached in that game?
Speaker: That's my concern. And like, if you could be that bad out coach against the Packers, why couldn't the Lions do it They're gonna do the same shit. They're gonna get up there. They're gonna quick snap. They're gonna run the ball a lot.
Speaker: You know, like they're really good offense. They have really good skill positions. So, If the same shit happens, you start getting shredded, I'm going to be real down. If you lose this game and you get shredded on defense, I will be fucking down on the team at 5-5. It depends. It depends. If the offense starts to get healthy and put up points and at least you're in shootouts, at least you're capable of scoring points, like, you know, because the offensive line can actually hold up and not allow pressures at 50% clip. Like, okay, that gives me a little bit of hope because then now you're looking at, all right, shootouts and we have Drake May, right? And I'll take May over most quarterbacks in the league.
Speaker: That's kind of how I look at it. We'll be in lucky. if we If we're going to be competitive in this game, it's going to be a shootout because both defenses are really bad. I just – I don't see how we slow down their run game, ball control, that we're going to give enough opportunities for our offense to – To win it because we know they're going to run the ball with Gibbs. We know Campbell wants to run the ball and we can't stop the run.
Speaker: Like Green Bay was one of the worst running teams in the league. And we just gave up the most rushing yards for their team all year. We can't stop the run. So let's let's go through and let's go through some stats really quick on, on Detroit, because since we're going to do this anyway, they're scoring. They're the fifth highest scoring offense in football. They average 27.8 game.
Speaker: They give up 23.6 a game, but they do give up 355 yards a game, 26 in the league, maybe because they're always ahead because they're they're scoring a lot.
Speaker: um You know, they again, their offense is is is pretty good. They do give up points, though. Again, they give up, ah you know, not bad, in yards of rush.
Speaker: Teams are thrown on them. pete Teams aren't rushing on them. They're first in the league at percentage of rush plays because teams are just throwing the ball against them. And the opponent passes a game. Opponents are, pass play percentage is 65%. That's last. Passes 39 passes a game that's last. Pass yards a game is last in the football. They're giving up the most pass yards per game at 260. That's last in football. So clearly like they're either getting ahead or they're just getting shredded in the passing game. So like you can throw in this team. It's not the same, like the Packers defense.
Speaker: It was really good. Their past defense coming in was really good. And they've been in a competitive unit. you Can't necessarily say the same about, about the lions. So. Yeah, i they really haven't played anyone great offensively. I mean, they held Green Bay to only 17 points, but they had Minnesota. They had Miami, Arizona, not good. Jets, not good offensively. When they played the Bills, they gave up 31 and they lost that. game I'm sorry, they gave up 41. They lost that game.
Speaker: So the Bills is good offensive team. They gave up a lot of yards. I mean, they just – they haven't played anyone good. So to have those statistics on defense and basically not play any good competition is pretty sad. They beat the Vikings 19-15, which, again, the Vikings are a horrific offense.
Speaker: They beat the Dolphins 19-9. The Dolphins really couldn't couldn't move the ball very very much on them. But they are 6-2 team. You know what I mean? They're third – They're good. They're 6-2. mean, they just beat the Packers a few weeks ago, and you just got freaking steamrolled by them.
Speaker: I will say division game, though, against the Packers and and the Vikings. Like, it's the same – for the same reason that, like, like the Dolphins were more competitive, the Jets were more competitive than you'd think, right? Like, it's a division game.
Speaker: Like, i've I've always said that. It's a division game. that a yeah yeah what ah What's the score prediction for the game against the Lions? What do you guys got?
Speaker: I'll start. I think the Lions are going to win this one, sadly. I think it's going to be like 31-20. Just we think know good not good. I feel like they're... To me, I think the biggest problem we're going to have here is they're just going to bleed us out possession-wise. We're just not going to give enough chances for our offense to be able to do anything. So they're going to go up early, come out and attack us, and then they're just going to bludgeon us with the run, and we're just never going get the ball enough to try to...
Speaker: make anything happen because again, Drake may doesn't have enough weapons. They're not super efficient on offense. So I think 31 20.
Speaker: I think 3430 minds. This might be the first time in a program that we all pick against the Patriots. That we all do. Yes, that's true. I don't think we've ever all picked against the Patriots.
Speaker: And guess what? It's not going to be the first time now. Pass, baby. Big win. big win i was going to pick Lions then you two picked them. So, the 30-27 Patriots.
Speaker: I don't know. I just – I'm not that impressed by the Lions. I know they win a bunch. But, again, like you said, they're not playing great team. I mean, they play the Vikings with no quarterback. Vikings offense sucks.
Speaker: They played the Dolphins and struggled a little. Beat them 19-9. It's gross. So, it's And you're in fucking Germany. It's a it's a toss-up. 9 a.m. m game in Germany. Like, you truly – you don't know. I just – we're gonna tell early. it We're going to tell early. If the Patriots come out and get their doors blown off early in a couple first drives and be like, this is – like, change it up. Like, they're going to have an adjustment, dude. Like, is that core adjusting? Like, where are the adjustments against the Packers? Like, hey, maybe let's, like, double cover their wide receivers.
Speaker: like wherere Like, let them run the ball. Like, where's the adjustment? That's my that's my concern. You know, again, the defensive coaching.
Speaker: Yeah, I just, i I don't know. I don't know how they're going to stop them. I don't know what they're going to slow them down. And i just don't have a lot of faith in our defense, by and large. So, yeah, I i hope I'm wrong.
Speaker: I hope it's competitive and whatnot, but... Yeah, this could be this could be a bad turnout. Five and five is not a good position you want to be in going into the bye with the stretch you have coming out of the bye. I know we got some soft schedules, but, like, you essentially have chargers and then you have a gauntlet.
Speaker: And just again, before we before i head out, to remind people for the third time in this podcast, the Patriots' defense is not injured. This is their hand-picked group that they wanted, that they think they can be top ten, top five defense. This is who they picked.
Speaker: They're not injured and they got their doors blown off. So if they lose this game and get their doors blown off again, it's going to give you like a real um existential crisis almost of being like, oh, like do we not have good coaching on defense? like because because you can't have – they've been blown out twice already this season. Even that alone is weird.
Speaker: Like to have two like legit blowout games against you – Weird, weird, not good. so um So, yeah, I think this is a really important game. That's all I'm saying.
Speaker: And I'll just throw out, I get Chicago's offense elite, but that was another game where we showed up flat. Yeah. And we should have been, like, ready to go. Yeah, it was like, we didn't wake up until, like, halfway through the first, like, the first quarter was over. And we're like, oh, we should probably play football now.
Speaker: It's one thing to lose on the road on a Thursday against a really good team. It's another to be like, to just not be prepared and not ready to go. It's completely excusable. Yeah, and brady out radioy bow yeah and Drake May was like otherworldly in that Chicago game. Like one flub in the end zone with a pick. Other than that, like near perfection.
Speaker: Yeah. Yeah, he was. He had a really good game. He's actually had just a fantastic month. And in this game, he had two bad interceptions that, you know, I hopefully he doesn't make, or or if they're going to run deep crossers like that, you certainly key in on that safety, make sure he's not baiting you.
Speaker: I'll remind everyone. He had like a 50% pressure rate that game. He's throwing to Holland's just coming back from IR, which was essentially a non-factor. Chisholm, like he's got Kyle Williams, Pop Doug.
Speaker: Who does he have around him? It's just these guys would barely be touching roster, never mind being your starting team. He did have Mondre, who had a great wheel route out of the backfield and scored. I like that a lot. Oh, great throw right over the top, too. Yeah, great throw. Now Mondre's injured. So it is what it is. All right, we'll sign off now. Thank you guys for coming in and engaging and chatting and all that stuff. We appreciate you.
Speaker: and And, yeah, we'll we'll catch you guys around and um hope for a good outcome this weekend. We'll see. Peace out. Peace.
