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EPISODE 72 - Super Bowl hangover. what just happened.
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Transcript
Introduction & Superbowl Aftermath
00:00:00
Snooty
Looked right at my thumbs up and you were like, so are you good?
00:00:02
Savage Boston
All Welcome back. We're in the middle of talking. Thank you for talking over the introduction here. snody Thank you very much. Appreciate yelling at me. um All right. Welcome back to the Savage Boston podcast. We're off to a brilliant start. This is very fitting with the end of the conclusion of the Patriots season 2025, 2026. So,
00:00:26
Savage Boston
All right. So we're just going to dive in. It's, it's February 10th. Um, we're in Tuesday night, Superbowl was Sunday night and, uh, we're here to do the aftermath and maybe just like a tiny bit of looking forward. But, um, as, as far as the aftermath, you know, aftermath goes, man, like lot
Patriots' Offensive Struggles
00:00:44
Savage Boston
to get to. There's been a lot of chatter last couple days, a lot of people talking online.
00:00:49
Savage Boston
Um, and obviously like, like the first thing, the first thing we've got to start with, right. Is, is, is just the offense. Okay. And I want to go into, you know, we can do big picture. We can do whatever we, however we want to handle breaking down the game, but biggest talking point is the offense and who's to blame for a Patriots offensive performance.
00:01:13
Savage Boston
That was um historically poor. And not really just even historically poor for the Super Bowl, but really for the whole postseason, which is which sucks to say.
00:01:29
Savage Boston
um You can even really go back to, even if you ignore poor conditions like against the Texans, and and if you don't even include the second half against the Broncos and go back to the first half against the Broncos, when is the last time they had what appeared to be a good a good series of offensive football.
00:01:48
Savage Boston
There's been a couple of glimpses here and there, even against the Texans, like because they got the ball so much, uh, cause CJ Stroud turned it over so frequently, right. They had a ton of opportunities.
00:02:01
Savage Boston
Um, but like, I've watched a ton of breakdown footage, watched a ton of all 22. And I don't know where, I mean, you guys, I'll throw to you first. You tell me who you, who you put it on first. And I'll tell you my thoughts, but Snooty, why don't we go to you first? Like, who do you primarily put this performance on as far as the offense goes?
00:02:20
Snooty
So, I mean, the on the field, the worst unit was the offensive line, i think hands down. um I'll start by saying, just to preface all of this with that, nobody on that offense is blameless.
00:02:32
Snooty
Receivers weren't getting open with consistency. The quarterback was bad. The offensive line was bad overall. And I thought the game plan kind of sucked and they didn't really have any adjustments at all.
00:02:38
Bret
Thank you.
00:02:40
Snooty
They had no answers whatsoever. I also think there was a lack of preparation. It's kind of stunning that... The offensive line was struggling, which fucking literally everybody said was probably going to happen. Not a possibility, was a likelihood. And they just seemed to not have any type of adjustment prepared. They had nothing. They had no they were completely incapable of identifying blitzes and um a jet making making the appropriate protection gen know changes and and even just holistic scheme changes. They just couldn't do anything. There were no adjustments whatsoever. So the real answer is,
00:03:16
Snooty
It's kind of everybody, but there was also a story that the Seahawks came out said that the O-line had a lot of tells and a lot of, you know, stuff like that, which is a lack of self-scouting and it's It's some combination of youth on the O-line that they just can't handle it. Like it's, you know, getting a stressful moment and they kind of resort back to what they do. And then a lot of the, some of that's coaching too. Cause like that's your job is to find shit like that and to point that out and to, you know, self scout, you have an extra week to do it, to go through and find your tendencies and, and, you know, make the appropriate adjustments. And they didn't do that. So it was a complete fucking utter disaster overall.
00:03:52
Snooty
Um, really nobody on the offense, um, outside of, I guess, maybe Stevenson, maybe is like blameless. Um, it's not, that's just cause I don't think Stevenson didn't do anything really notable, but he didn't really fuck up. I don't think either. Um, so I think outside of that, pretty much everybody it was just a disaster overall.
Offensive Line Breakdown
00:04:12
Savage Boston
Brow is your initial take on the offense.
00:04:15
Bret
Well, if I had a stack rank it I would say the offensive line was the worst. It dominoed from there, so they take a large blunt of the brandt blame.
00:04:28
Bret
And it has a lot to do with the left side more so than the rest of the line with Wilson and Campbell. But, you know, by and large, the entire unit struggled ah there.
00:04:39
Bret
Next, I'd put it on Drake May. I just feel like he's still incredibly sped up. He was not making accurate throws. For whatever reason, he was nervous about running outside the pocket and trying to create with his legs when there was definitely opportunities. And then when he did have some time, he held the ball too long, which I recognized was there was lack of of open players. But, you know, he just he struggled. And some of those blitzes were on him where he wasn't calling the hot route or he wasn't reset in the group before snap.
00:05:11
Bret
So I would put it on him. And then after that, I'd put it on Josh because there were no adjustments. There was nothing to do with like, hey, let's try rolling May out to the right and create a rolling pocket.
00:05:22
Bret
Let's try, you know, let's not run Henderson and try running Vermandre more than seven times in a game where we talked about establishing the run.
00:05:29
Savage Boston
Thank
00:05:32
Bret
Let's try running some kind of a screen pass to try and open things up for our offense and create opportunities to put our guys in open space. yeah There was just no flexibility, no adjustments.
00:05:44
Bret
And then after that, it's just our our overall weapons. I think they just obviously couldn't separate at times and couldn't get open, find their pockets in the zone, ah which was concerning. But There's also tape where there were guys open and they just weren't able to execute. So just a complete and utter failure. Hats off to Seattle. I mean, i think we all knew they had a great defense, but – They just completely emasculated our entire team on offense. So hats on hats off to them, clearly deserving winners of the Super Bowl. It was just painful to watch because you just were hoping something would click. And it was like just one drive where they made two plays to Hollins. And after that, it was like nothing, just nothing.
00:06:31
Savage Boston
Yeah. I mean, there was, I think there was a stat where in the first three quarters, the Patriots office didn't didn't cross their 40 in the first three quarters.
00:06:40
Bret
Mm-hmm.
00:06:41
Savage Boston
mean, you're down, what, twelve nothing at the end of, like, the third, like, twelve nothing meant Like, I know it was it was, you know, it was obviously brutal to watch. But, like, it wasn't even just this. This what I'm getting at. People are like, oh, it was just Seattle's defense. Like, it wasn't.
00:06:59
Savage Boston
They played her a lot of amazing defenses in the postseason. I get it. And Seattle deserves this. Don't get me wrong. But, like, they haven't been good in a while in offense. Virtually the entire postseason. Again, like, it just hasn't been working well.
00:07:10
Savage Boston
And so I was really hopeful that Josh, who obviously is really good coordinator. He just won assistant of the year. He's obviously a great coordinator. i don't know what the plan was.
00:07:19
Bret
Mm-hmm.
00:07:21
Savage Boston
And clearly, like, the tools to help Drake succeed – weren't there in this game. Like, that's what bothers me. Like, I just watched a ton of, a ton of tape on this, a full breakdown. There's a guy, he's QB school. Okay. He's excellent. He did hour and 20 minute breakdown of him going through every single Drake may passing. Cause like, it's very good.
00:07:44
Savage Boston
And it's like, it's not just like, Oh, Drake didn't do like a lot of these plays were just doomed to fail for like several reasons. I mean,
00:07:56
Savage Boston
one One thing bothers me. Why were they running so many massive long developing routes? Like this is, this bothered me. I don't know. Like what the fuck were they doing? You can't, they they even like halfway through the game, got to realize you can't protect right now.
00:08:12
Bret
Mm-hmm.
00:08:12
Savage Boston
And if you're going to do a long developing play, then put six linemen in there or something and like do max protect and run play action. But like there was no, there was one play. It was really evident where the Seahawks brought seven.
00:08:25
Savage Boston
I think they brought Witherspoon off the left. And Demario Douglas at wide receiver points him out that he's blitzing. So Demario goes, okay, he's blitzing, points him out. Then instead of having some sort of like hot option, because no one was on Demario, no one, no one within 20 yards. He, instead of having where he runs five yards, turns is just there for an outlet, any sort of hot option for Drake.
00:08:51
Savage Boston
um He ran a gigantic deep post. He ran like a 40 yard route, just running, just doing like he's doing track sprints, just running.
00:08:56
Bret
Yeah.
00:08:59
Savage Boston
Drake got sacked on the play, by the way. Wasn't even close. And it's like, how is that the option on that play? So was their approach like they just needed Drake to just be the MVP? Like that was their game plan? Like, oh, just Drake will figure it out.
00:09:13
Savage Boston
Because he they were so woefully in unprepared for this defense. That's what bothered me. Like it looked like they didn't they didn't have a plan.
00:09:19
Bret
yeah
00:09:20
Snooty
Yeah.
Game Plan Critique
00:09:22
Savage Boston
They were unprepared. every single fucking blitz Seattle had landed every single blitz. Like they, it was a fucking debacle from mc I actually, after watching tape, but most on McDaniels, I think for like, I just hated the plan.
00:09:40
Savage Boston
I hated the plan. Let alone we can go into the O-line shit, but like I just – the plan didn't fucking work. And I'm sure if we were in those rooms, maybe we would be like, oh, yeah, this sounds good. We'll do that. Like they needed way more short passes. They needed way more like zone busters. They had fucking nothing, dude. Nothing.
00:09:58
Snooty
It's, it's, um, it's interesting because I texted you guys during the game. There were two third downs where they blitz like that.
00:10:02
Savage Boston
God.
00:10:05
Snooty
And I remember the one to Douglas and I, I thought it was maybe Douglas on the other one as well, where like, yeah, I mean, you flip it out to him. understand it's like third and 12 or whatever. Cause they had some, you know, drive busting play, but like,
00:10:19
Snooty
I mean, it we would have been basically one-on-one Pop Douglas and the safety. It's like, okay, like if he doesn't get it, he doesn't get it, but he's going to pick up seven or eight fine if he's still short. But if he makes the guy miss, which he's very capable of doing because he's so quick, then like maybe, maybe pops it, maybe he gets the first down and all sudden it's a brand new game. I mean, i didn't realize that the first game, the first drive of the game was effectively the high watermark of the offense.
00:10:43
Snooty
For the entire game, they went 28 yards and that was outside of some garbage time stuff towards the end was effectively the high watermark of the offense, which which is so fucking embarrassing.
00:10:44
Savage Boston
Yeah. That's
00:10:52
Savage Boston
correct.
00:10:54
Snooty
I was actually encouraged by the first drive. i was like, oh, hey, moved it a little bit.
00:10:56
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:10:58
Snooty
They had one bad play. OK, that killed the drive. But like, you know, all right, we can move it. And I know nothing. It's just the scheme like it's they just they had no answer for any of the blitzes whatsoever.
00:11:09
Snooty
It's almost like they didn't scout the Seahawks. It's almost like they didn't scout them at all. They're like, no, we're just going to what we're going to do. and it's like, you've never done that. That's never worked before. Why would you do that?
00:11:21
Bret
and with This reminded me of the game earlier in the season where Josh just totally went away from the rush and ran the ball only two times in the second half. Again, we knew going into this game it was going to be a tough defense, but in order to help when it comes to a team from blitzing or stacking the box, you need to you need to be able to move the ball. And what happened was is they would either blitz or they would only rush four and drop back the rest. And then now you're in zone coverage and your guys can't get open. And they were they were landing with four. So we needed to run the ball. We needed to stick with the run. The fact that Ramondre only had seven rushes
00:12:02
Bret
is insane. And Henderson continues for whatever ungodly reason to run into blockers and just not be patient whatsoever.
00:12:05
Snooty
used
00:12:12
Bret
I really hope he goes back and watch his tape on how Walker was very patient on his run routes and when he was able to figure out where the gap was and make a move. Because even though it was something where our defense did a somewhat effective job at times, ah in the middle especially, like he still was able to gain a few yards. Where we struggled on defenses containing the edge, which we'll get to the defense soon. But offensively, like we just, we never stuck with the run, even though the game was always in relative reach. I mean, it's not like it was far and away. They were blowing us out. Our defense was keeping us in it all the way up until the fourth.
00:12:53
Snooty
And I think, to your point, that I think they tried one toss with Henderson. And I read a lot all week that the place you attack that on the ground, the place where you attack the Seahawks is on the edge.
00:13:05
Snooty
So that's why I thought it may have the chance to be a Henderson game because they were to try to get him outside.
00:13:11
Savage Boston
They don't want to.
00:13:11
Snooty
So they tried once, it worked, and they just never went back to it.
00:13:14
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:13:15
Snooty
I'm like, what are you doing?
00:13:16
Bret
he went nine yards, and and he went left side off Will Campbell.
00:13:17
Snooty
worked.
00:13:19
Bret
I know we talked about it, but we talked about it in the pregame show where we basically said like off tackle, try to get outside. We said from our defensive perspective, we need to cover the edge because we're we're stout up the middle.
00:13:32
Bret
And we said Seattle stout up the middle so we could probably attack them on the edge.
00:13:36
Snooty
Yeah.
00:13:36
Bret
And for whatever reason, we were like, nope, we are going to just go ahead and drive it up the middle. because we're going to figure this out. And then when it wasn't working, we basically said, Nope, we're not going to do that. And even on that one too, I remember like we got that nine yard game from Henderson and we ran again and then started one because we didn't gain any yards. And we're like, okay, let's go shotgun and try to run a long route to do something that didn't work.
00:14:01
Bret
And it's like, what are we doing guys?
00:14:04
Savage Boston
Yeah, I don't, I think there was like, I think with Drake himself, just just going to Drake for a second, like I don't, you know, obviously he wasn't good in this game, right? He wasn't good. There was many times he should have been running the football, that he wasn't running the football.
00:14:20
Savage Boston
Like he should have been running all over the place. I think he should have ran it 10 fucking, 10 times plus in this.
00:14:26
Bret
Oh, yeah.
00:14:27
Savage Boston
Like he should have been running the football all the time. There were lanes, you know, but some of the throws he made and like, especially in the second half, like I feel like the first half was so much scheme or they just got, again, we'll tie this into the O line where Drake got sped up quickly and they got out scheme.
00:14:43
Savage Boston
There were timely blitzes or blitzing a bunch. They did really well. Second half, they were just in their zone and, it was again, just a bit, that third quarter was like three consecutive three outs, like after halftime adjustments, like you went into the halftime and you couldn't find out on paper, one thing to get one first down in the first three possessions.
00:14:53
Snooty
Okay.
00:15:04
Savage Boston
It feels almost impossible. Like how could the offense have been that inept? That's, that's what like, And think obviously part of it, Drake wasn't seeing the field well. Like we know that. that Clearly he was confused and not seeing it. Clearly they had zero clue where the pressure was coming from.
00:15:21
Savage Boston
Like that was a problem. Like you had zero clue who was bringing blitzes, who was pressuring, who was dropping. Were they bracketing players? where they won Like they had no fucking idea was going on. And that's the OC's job.
00:15:33
Savage Boston
You can't just leave Drake in a fucking buzzsaw of like, literally this defense is top tier.
00:15:33
Bret
Yeah.
00:15:40
Savage Boston
Again, according to DVOA, this as we said last week, this is the seventh best team since 2000. Or actually ever, ever, sorry, excuse me. This is the seventh best team ever, according to DVOA.
00:15:54
Savage Boston
Ever. Like, okay So it's not like this team is some joke, but you got to prepare Drake, prepare the team, what to expect.
00:16:04
Savage Boston
What are they going to do? Like they got fucking outclassed outclassed dude.
00:16:08
Bret
or at least or at least recognize it when your guy clearly can't see it is sped up and not like getting it off. Right.
00:16:19
Bret
You have to be able to get the guy in rhythm. And that's what like Boomer talked about it. And he basically said, like, I would have almost put them in like a no huddle, like your two minute offense to just kind of get them moving.
00:16:30
Savage Boston
five wide. Yeah.
00:16:32
Bret
Right. Because at that point it's all like, boom, boom, boom, boom.
00:16:33
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:16:36
Bret
boom boom And you can start to click a little bit, but it's like, We didn't do any of that. and There was no adjustments from Josh to help support the guy. Again, I still put it on Drake because i don't know how much – it's hard for us to understand that. Like we don't know what Josh is telling him.
00:16:53
Bret
I know you did a deep dive on all of his throws. Like I didn't go through an all 22. I mean I've watched a lot of highlights and breakdowns for certain plays. There were guys open at times.
00:17:06
Bret
A lot of times we weren't doing a great job on the zone. But, like, you go into your two-minute offense and you try to get your team sped up and get in a rhythm. The next thing you know, everything starts opening up.
00:17:18
Bret
I mean, we just didn't do any that.
00:17:19
Savage Boston
The problem is guys were coming open so far. Like there was a screenshot of like Stefan digs coming wide open on one route, but like guys were coming open so deep into their routes after Drake had been put on his ass.
00:17:35
Savage Boston
And like your line was getting blown up. Like you expect them to sit there for four seconds and deliver ah a pass 35 yards downfield on like a deep
00:17:37
Bret
Mm-hmm.
Blame Distribution & Coaching Decisions
00:17:44
Savage Boston
post.
00:17:44
Savage Boston
Like, I don't, They had unreasonable routes at times. I don't know really what was happening again. Like, yeah, go five wide have like a where or just shorter intermediate routes. I don't get it. Like, and they had a, they had a couple or in the game where Drake missed one to to Hunter Henry, Hunter Henry, by the way, didn't do shit in this game and had a pretty bad playoff and a touchdown against the chargers. Like you need a dynamic tight end at some point soon. Like there was nothing from that position, nothing.
00:18:15
Savage Boston
And there was a one pass. He had an RPO they did. it was It should have been a successful play. Drake whipped it. His backside, he drops it. And I saw, the again, the QB school guy said that for some reason they did a weird fold block with the center pulling.
00:18:30
Savage Boston
Bradbury pulls. So the guy just runs through the A gap in Drake's face and he throws a bad pass. It's like shit like that. You watch they're like, what the fuck is going on? Like it happened almost every play. Something was like wrong with the play.
00:18:43
Savage Boston
There's rarely, think one early in the game where Drake stepped up beautifully in the pocket and hit booty on a 20 yard comebacker. That was like, Oh good. We can do this. Like that was my first beginning. I was like, Oh, I think we can, we can work at this game.
00:18:55
Savage Boston
Totally wrong. That was the anomaly. He had had two phenomenal passes to Matt Collins classic where he had him the deep, deep in cut 20 yards down the field was a ridiculously gorgeous pass by Drake.
00:19:01
Snooty
Mm-hmm.
00:19:08
Savage Boston
And then the next play hits him on a bomb. You're like, all right, well, there's Drake. Like there he is. That's what he's been all year. couple of absolutely dying passes, but the rest of the game was literally a disaster. Like they just can't sustain drives.
00:19:21
Savage Boston
So, I mean, i don't know what you have to do. Like the offense, we, I think we said it last week, like the offense is too dependent on these massive, big, long developing plays and,
00:19:33
Savage Boston
And like when you have a really excellent confusing zone defense with a line that gets a ton of pressure with four, it just was a perfect storm to crush them. And it looked that way. I just, I've never seen such an inept offense.
00:19:48
Savage Boston
So
00:19:49
Snooty
Yeah, mean, they were they were horrible. It was just, it was fucking terrible.
00:19:52
Savage Boston
yeah.
00:19:53
Snooty
there's no other way to say it. Like... Alright,
00:19:55
Savage Boston
Snooty, go into Will Campbell.
00:19:58
Snooty
here's my thing with Will Campbell. Um...
00:20:03
Snooty
I basically didn't come away with this saying, if you hated Will Campbell before the draft and didn't say fucking boo during the regular season when he was playing well, now you're back in in force, basically saying that, god it's the short arms and whatever.
00:20:16
Snooty
Whereas most people have never looked at offensive linemen film and can't identify where it's a short arm problem ever. There was never a fucking problem. He was so fucked up from a fundamental standpoint, he was out of whack. his feet were out off His feet were terrible. His feet were off time with his hands. He wasn't delivering a punch. I mean, I've showed you guys this like in the past. like If you punch, if you stand on one foot and try to punch someone, you don't have any force behind it right If you stand on two feet and try to punch someone, now you got some force behind it. well Pass blocking is all about hitting, striking while you have your feet on the ground because you have to shut move your feet right to to get there, but you have to time up your punch appropriately. he His feet were sped up, his feet were all over the place.
Technical Analysis & Player Performance
00:21:00
Snooty
He was taking at points, two deeps of sets and stuff like that, which allowed the pass rusher to kind of get a little bit build up momentum to really bull rush. So he was off. His his timing was off with his feet. He wasn't punching when it's like with a good, good base, not not every time, but for the most part. And he was giving all sorts of space, allowing the guy to get into him, which meant, which means when you combine all three of them, it's like, that's why he kept putting on his ass from a, from a bull rush standpoint.
00:21:25
Snooty
um I mean, there's been a million breakdowns. I've spammed you guys with all the fucking, you know, tweets and breakdowns of everything. But Mitch Schwartz has a good one. And his brother, Jeff Schwartz is a good one, too. um Two NFL guys play tackle in the league for a long time. Like,
00:21:41
Snooty
They break down. i would highly recommend anybody listening to go go watch that because it's it's a really good breakdown of it. He can play tackle. He proved that. He was 21 years old for most of the season. He's 22 now.
00:21:55
Snooty
You're not going to move your fourth overall pick into guard based upon three or four bad games after he's coming back from an knee injury. okay He wasn't this bad all year.
00:22:05
Snooty
The only guy who made him look remotely be close to this battle year was Miles Garrett, who made literally everybody look battle year. He had fucking 24 sacks, whatever hell it was, in the regular season. right He can play tackle.
00:22:17
Snooty
He needs to get stronger. And his technique needs to improve. This was my concern going into the season with him with Doug Marone. I don't know how good of ah an O-line coach Doug Marone actually is. Jeff Stoutland is out of the Eagles.
00:22:32
Snooty
If he is at all willing to relocate to come up here, I know he's older, fucking I will go down to Philadelphia myself and drive him back up here. Okay? Phenomenal O-line coach. You want to maximize Campbell? You want to maximize Wilson? You want to, you know, they're inevitably going to draft ah another tackle, another guard, whatever.
00:22:50
Snooty
to you know shore up those positions, you get a guy like that. Someone who can fucking coach him up, can get those tells out of their system, and can actually get back to fundamentals and and hammer the technique.
00:23:00
Snooty
Technique, technique, technique. He can play.
00:23:03
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:23:04
Snooty
He has to square everything back up. <unk>s all sp Just like May. May was all sped up. His feet were moving, and that leads to shoulders off, hip, blah, blah, blah. And that's why all his throws were high. He was sped up. He was put in a fucking blender mentally. He started to get down on himself.
00:23:19
Snooty
It's just a perfect storm of just like, just the worst game of his life.
00:23:25
Savage Boston
I think that was, I think that was the worst I've seen a lineman look. Ever. I don't know if you would say you think Max Lane looked worse against Reggie White, but that was so long ago. And again, Reggie White is a Hall of Famer and one of the best DNs of all time.
00:23:41
Savage Boston
um And there were not, you know, they were good, good DNs on Seattle, but it's not Reggie White. So I think for Campbell, I mean, a couple of things, everything you said was right. Like everything you said is true. Like clearly I watched all of them too. Like the technique was awful. Wasn't punching. Well, I think what was alarming to me is his, his girth, like his, his size.
00:24:06
Savage Boston
He looked, he looks slim, like slim, like he's lost weight. Like he's listed at six, six, three 20. He looks like he's six, six to 80. Like he did. And I know his legs are probably thick. Well, he doesn't look it like, it feels like to me, he's needs to gain.
00:24:20
Savage Boston
at least like 20 pounds of of muscle. Like he needs to genuinely beef up. And I think he will because he's young. So I think he needs to beef up. Like you have to be able to take a fucking bull rush.
00:24:33
Savage Boston
You can't, he got driven backwards so many times. And so that that one dead play where he got laid on his ass, i was like, what the fuck? Like I thought they genuinely might put in low after that.
00:24:45
Savage Boston
And I think to be honest with you, Lowe would have had more success in that game than Campbell. Bar none. Bar none. I'm sorry people listening don't want hear that shit. He would have had a way. Like, I think if they thought or knew Will was going to play that poorly, he should never have been playing.
00:25:01
Savage Boston
Period. He should never have been playing. And that's real. That's not a fucking Felger. fake take. He should not have played the game. Lowe would have been serviceable, probably given up half as many pressures or less in that game because Lowe is an okay pass blocker.
00:25:17
Savage Boston
He can't run block. He's an okay, he'll make mistakes and he's an okay pass blocker. Lowe have given you a lot more in that game. So people use this argument. They're like, well, if Drake was injured, um you know, they still played him. And i was like, well, Josh Dobbs wouldn't have given you shit in that game. Like that's the difference. Like you had a fucking backup at left tackle who would given you something. Josh Dobbs would have been flying airplanes to space. You have no fucking idea where he is like this. So that was never an option, but we talked about it and everyone who's been on different chats and has said for real, Lowe is an okay, serviceable, pass-blocking left tackle. okay there's
00:25:58
Savage Boston
We have the next six months or whatever to talk about the future of Will Campbell. Vrabel was clear today. He's their left tackle. There's no debate. He's clear. He's the left tackle. As much as we think he should be bumped down or other people think he should bump down, he won't be.
00:26:14
Savage Boston
He's the left tackle. Now, Can you add a sick left guard? That feels like a massive priority. Jared Wilson also got ragdolled multiple times.
00:26:25
Savage Boston
And then Bradbury also got ragdolled. They kind of all got ragdolled, except for Unwenu. Even Morgan Moses had a bad game.
00:26:31
Snooty
Every O-lineman gave up at least three pressures.
00:26:34
Savage Boston
Yeah, that it was hot it was just a full, horrible show by everybody. like And I think that goes back to McDaniels. That goes back to ah long developing plays. It all ties together of a giant bag of sock, basically. like that' That was the whole thing in the game. they all But Will's the one that stood out.
00:26:53
Savage Boston
And I'm more upset, like if he couldn't go and he had no power in his knee, which is very possible that he's not right in his knee, then why were you playing in the biggest game In the world.
00:27:06
Savage Boston
It's not, you should not have been there. Like, you know, and i don't I don't think the eight year.
00:27:11
Bret
Yeah,
00:27:12
Savage Boston
Yeah. You go for it. You go for it.
00:27:14
Bret
I was going to say I'm not going to put it on the knee. I think the knee probably didn't help, but I think he was healthy enough to play. To Snooty's point, this was really technique and like him just not you know making the punch when he had to, not getting his feet set. So like even on ah even on a strong knee, if your feet aren't set, you're fucked.
00:27:35
Bret
So I'm not going to put it on his knee going through. I want to circle back to like Vrabel's points and comments today when he was asked about, you know, Will Campbell's future and he clearly stated he's a left tackle.
00:27:48
Bret
It is really pissing me off with how many people are talking about how we need to put him into guard. We need to find another left tackle. Like he's not a left tackle. We need to do this. And like yeah even you listen to the today and Beetle was talking about it and he goes,
00:28:06
Bret
Like, do they have the balls to basically tell the kid this offseason that he's not a left tackle, he's going to left guard? And to that I say, who the fuck you put in that left tackle?
00:28:18
Bret
you're You don't have another option. It's such a short-sighted view to look at Will Campbell on the last few games and say he's not a left tackle.
00:28:29
Bret
He was looked really strong against Denver, against Benito. Like, Didn't hear boo after that game. No one was giving him any roses because he shouldn't deserve any roses. He's a freaking, you know, top pick. He's got to go out there and perform. But if you look at the totality of the season, the kid deserves another year.
00:28:50
Bret
And it makes sense for the team to try and give him another year to go through. i agree with you, Savage. Like, we got to figure out that left guard because to me, and We've talked about it from the beginning, right?
00:29:01
Bret
Wilson is a clear-cut guy that slides into center. You get another left guard, whether you get that through free agency or you go ahead and draft, but you get some more strength in that position because Jared Wilson on the opposite, if you look at the totality of the season, did not look great.
00:29:16
Bret
And he struggled a lot through the year. But Will Campbell?
00:29:19
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:29:21
Bret
Yeah. I mean, he's a rookie playing in a freaking Super Bowl. And you hear all of these sports guys talking about it. But then when you hear the offensive linemen come in, they all support Campbell. And they all basically say the kid's got a bright future. It was technique. He's got to figure this shit out. It took me years to figure it out. He's going to bulk up. He's going to do this. He's going to do that.
00:29:41
Bret
Like, you're fine. Bright future. And i I got to believe it. And this is coming from a guy that didn't even want Will Campbell. Like I was thinking about it going through all of this hate that he's getting. And I'm like trying to relate. And I go, this is like the Jason Tatum hate that he was getting for years because of how he was on the field. Like I am a huge Will Campbell guy.
00:30:02
Bret
i am now carrying the Will Campbell flag for rooting for this guy's success to just tell all of these fucking people to shut the fuck up. Like just shut up.
00:30:11
Savage Boston
I think people, I think we have like the official blowback to the blowback. It's like the most classic thing ever, right? You get like bad performance, massive blowback, and then you get the second wind of people like actually is not that bad. You know what mean? It's like, it's like a phenomenon, the blowback to the blowback. But I agree. Like, like all these things, you know, like people want to stack up the blame game with the offense, right? It's, all the above, like, like they're all responsible for a piece of blame. And I think with will he'll be the left. We know he'll be the left tackle next
Historical Comparison & Need for Improvement
00:30:41
Savage Boston
year. He needs to get his knee right. If it's not that powerful, he needs to get healthy and he needs to fix his technique.
00:30:47
Savage Boston
Like if his technique sucks at left tackle, then his technique is probably going to suck at left guard. Right? Like, why is that different? Like, all sudden you go to guard and your technique's magical? Like, no, you're going to be off balance. You're going to – like, I just don't know. Like, this is an athletic kid and to watch him be so fucking off balance against blitzes, like, to to have – again, the way he was getting bull rushed, he had no ability to stop that bull rush.
00:31:13
Savage Boston
Nothing.
00:31:14
Snooty
It was mental. Like, he was thinking about stuff instead of, like, going through and actually, you know, trusting the coach and trusting the technique. It's muscle memory, right? mean, he's played left tackle for, what, nine years now?
00:31:27
Snooty
Like, he knows how to play left tackle. Like, he just...
00:31:30
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:31:31
Snooty
Once you start getting off and then like, like once you start, like it you get fucked up, then you're worried and you're thinking about it. And, you know now you're trying stuff and then, you know, then that's going to throw this off and now this is off.
00:31:43
Snooty
And then it just like, it just snowballs.
00:31:45
Savage Boston
Like, I would believe, I believe in Will Campbell's character.
00:31:45
Snooty
That's basically how the whole night happened. It just snowballed.
00:31:50
Savage Boston
And this is, and I know everyone does, like everyone believes, like he he said today, a quote, like no one's going to beat me up as much as myself. Like no one's, no one's more disappointed than myself. And I love that quote because that's probably the truth. Like people will get over it and be like, oh, okay, Will, you make a joke, but you know, this will haunt him.
00:32:07
Savage Boston
And, and I think, I hope he's a guy. And I think he is that just like Drake, that he'll overcome this and it'll make him a better player. Drake to me, I'm not worried about Drake for one second.
00:32:20
Savage Boston
I think Drake is 23 years old runner up. Almost MVP was it in a ridiculous season. He'll just get better with Josh next year. Okay. Josh is going to stay.
00:32:32
Savage Boston
He's going to get better with Josh. I think though, like, They got to work on the game plan a little. I don't know. Like when you're seeing a tricky zone defense, who's mixing it up a lot.
00:32:43
Savage Boston
What do you do to stop that? Like what's the, what's the, if you were the OC and you're like, Hey, we're not really seeing it. Well, guys aren't getting open or we're confused. What's the number one thing you're to right? Step one is you're going probably line them up and run the fucking football.
00:33:01
Savage Boston
Right? You don't know what you're seeing. You don't know what you're looking at. You're confused. You're getting sacked a lot. You can't pass block. Put six linemen in and a fullback and run the football.
00:33:11
Savage Boston
And see if they can stop that. Then what do you do after that? Oh, maybe you do some play action. Like you use like basic football shit. like And that's what I thought was weird they didn't do. Ramondre should have been in the game trying to pound the fucking rock while you're down six nothing.
00:33:26
Savage Boston
Pound the rock. Like, i just don't know where their fucking heads were. This is what bothers me.
00:33:31
Snooty
And that's the thing is, i mean, it was effectively over at like 12-0 or whatever it was. But nominally, it's not like it's – but, I mean, it was over because they were not doing anything.
00:33:37
Savage Boston
Basically.
00:33:43
Snooty
But, like, there's still plenty of time to run the ball. Like, you know, it's not like you down 28-0. You're like, well, fuck it. Now we got to wing it around. It's you're down two scores. Like, you could still try to run the ball.
00:33:53
Snooty
They just didn't. And that's why it was over. It's because it's like, well, now the coaching staff is all fucked up. So it's like everybody's all fucked up. No one's doing anything. The only one playing is Gonzalez. The only who's who's living up to any who's rising to the occasion is Gonzalez.
00:34:07
Snooty
Everybody else was good.
00:34:08
Savage Boston
Milton Williams, well, Milton Williams, people want to yell out about the tackling.
00:34:08
Bret
none No, no, no,
00:34:12
Savage Boston
I get it. He didn't finish, but he was sensational rushing the passer.
00:34:13
Snooty
Right.
00:34:15
Savage Boston
Just saying, Milton Williams was excellent.
00:34:15
Snooty
Sure.
00:34:16
Bret
no. And Woodson balled.
00:34:18
Savage Boston
Yeah, and Craig Woodson had a great game.
00:34:20
Snooty
True.
00:34:20
Bret
Like, so I get it, right?
00:34:21
Snooty
True.
00:34:21
Savage Boston
Great game.
00:34:23
Bret
Gonzo elite, extend that guy ASAP, set the market.
00:34:27
Savage Boston
Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:30
Bret
The guy is elite as elite comes. So, yeah, he balled, but he was not the only bright spot on defense. I mean, we clearly got the pressure and you're right. I mean, they give. Milton Williams shit, but at the same time, like he's generating pressure that forced Donald to make th throws.
00:34:47
Bret
They're like, we're susceptible to being picked. And a few of them kind of bounced around and almost did get picked. Like Seattle got a little bit of ball luck there because we definitely put themselves, put them into compromising positions to be able to do it.
00:34:53
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:35:00
Bret
But at the end of the day, like our defense couldn't find a way to land and our defense couldn't find a way to create those opportunities. It's just hard to look at the defense as the totality and say, you know, those guys like Gonzo was the only bright spot because they basically held Seattle who just steamrolled through the Rams and the Niners, who again, i don't think have great defenses, but still like steamrolled them, put up well over 30 points.
00:35:23
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:35:26
Bret
It's like, They just contained them all game when they had no break. Like the time of possession was absolutely insane this game and the defense sustained. So great.
00:35:38
Bret
I thought Woodson was spectacular. Seems like a fourth round steal at this point. And then Milton Williams continued to show. up But yes, Gonzo stud. You got to extend that guy.
00:35:50
Savage Boston
Yeah, I mean, this is at least the only thing I feel good about.
00:35:51
Snooty
I mean, the
00:35:54
Savage Boston
What I feel good about coming out of it, right, is that it's not like, like, I think the defense played well, has really good coaching. Really good game plan. They'll probably get another couple of players and even be a little bit better next year. They need an end rusher. The defense was good. I liked their plan. I thought they did well. And even in a perfect world, they would have gotten a Darnold more. I think and you play that game 10 times. Darnold doesn't make, you know, I think he turns it over a couple. Like I really think, you know, they they did, they did. Okay. I think they were okay.
00:36:25
Savage Boston
But, you know, you come out of and saying, all right, like the offense doesn't have enough talent.
00:36:26
Snooty
you
00:36:32
Savage Boston
I think that was clear. Like they, and that's the, if you want to, and I think the the fool's gold stick by Cam Newton and all that obviously it was all bullshit. Like you beat all the teams you got there. There's no fool's gold. You earned your way there.
00:36:44
Savage Boston
It's not a joke. You earned it, but the offense hasn't played well in a long, the last two games they played at the regular season, they got jaded because they
Future Optimism & Roster Development
00:36:54
Savage Boston
ripped apart. One of the worst jets teams I've ever seen in my life. And a Miami dolphins team who didn't even want to be there.
00:37:01
Savage Boston
So Drake ripped them apart. they're like They get this confidence. Then you get in the real shit, and they couldn't move the football all postseason. They had one of the worst EPA. like the It was bad all postseason.
00:37:15
Savage Boston
so no No, no.
00:37:15
Bret
No, they had some spots against Houston.
00:37:17
Savage Boston
Hold on. Have you seen this stat? I'm going to read this stat really quick that might surprise you and is an unpleasant stat. But this is from, hold on, let me find this thing. Okay.
00:37:30
Savage Boston
In the playoffs, you you want to see how good the offense was to put it perspective? In the playoffs, the Patriots had 53 drives. Okay. They averaged 1.13 points per drives in those games.
00:37:43
Savage Boston
Okay. Do you know where that stacks up historically? The 2017 Browns, who went
00:37:47
Bret
probably worst.
00:37:52
Savage Boston
ohn sixteen average one point two two points for drive They were better than the Patriots this postseason. The 0-16 Browns from 2017. Just to put it in perspective, like, we're talking a historically poor – I just don't want people to like, sugarcoat it.
00:38:08
Savage Boston
Like, you know, yeah, there was a couple plays Drake made against the Texans were great and booty with that catch. But –
00:38:15
Bret
Well, and that's what I was going to get at.
00:38:15
Savage Boston
million
00:38:16
Bret
So before you go down about beating it, because I heard Nick Wright did the same thing where he was talking about the historic stats on how bad the Pats were. There was more than one.
00:38:26
Savage Boston
Their offense, their offense.
00:38:27
Bret
Yeah. yeah Yeah. I'm sorry. Their offense. But like, yeah, when it comes against the Texans, like we had some really bad series, but then we've had, so we had some really great series where it was more than just one or two plays. It was a bunch of plays.
00:38:42
Bret
And the other thing I'll note is, we had like two absolute dog shit weather games that were clearly going to be factors against
00:38:52
Savage Boston
That's fair.
00:38:53
Bret
And at the same time, we were he was the only offense that's gone through those top-level defenses in every single playoff game. So there's asterisks there. Look, I'm not trying to make excuses for the poor play of the offense. I'm just trying to put it into perspective before before people say how historically bad this is. You also have to put in the caveat they played historically great defenses in really poor weather conditions.
00:39:21
Savage Boston
the the weather The weather was a factor, and they played great.
00:39:21
Snooty
It
00:39:23
Savage Boston
I agree. They played great defenses, but the performance, I think it's more helpful to to basically put it out there that it was genuinely a very poor performance throughout the majority of the postseason.
00:39:39
Savage Boston
And, I mean, and I'm disregarding second half against the against Denver.
00:39:39
Bret
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:39:43
Savage Boston
Like, no one – but, dude, first half against Denver, they were abysmal in fine conditions. Abysmal. They couldn't do a single, he almost threw a pick six on the first fucking play.
00:39:55
Savage Boston
Like they were abysmal. The turnovers were abysmal. The blocking was abysmal. It was, I mean, and this is again, I'm a Patriots fan, obviously, but this is, you have to be honest what you need to improve on this team. There's a lot they need to improve. It starts up front. Build from ah build from the line out is what I'm getting at.
00:40:15
Snooty
They need a veteran left guard to plug and to move to move Wilson to center. Get a veteran left guard to kind of settle that down with an Inuit right guard. I don't know if Moses is going to be back at right tackle.
00:40:28
Snooty
You certainly need a tackle, at least someone to develop. I don't think Marcus Bryant's actually going to be anything, but you need a tackle at right tackle, even if Moses is coming back.
00:40:39
Snooty
Because he's going to be like 36 or whatever. he's like You can't expect him to stick around forever and be healthy for that many games.
00:40:42
Savage Boston
Yes.
00:40:46
Snooty
So you need a left guard. you really What you really need, what you truly need, is you need your three rookies that contributed the most on offense to take a second-year leap like Drake May did.
00:40:50
Bret
What you told
00:40:58
Snooty
You need your left guard, your left tackle, and your running back to to take that, Henderson, that is, to take like ah that second-year leap and really play well next year. That'll fix a lot of fucking problems if you have ah like ah an above-average to good, like left side of the line, and all of a sudden Henderson stops running it up his center's fucking asshole and decides to, i don't know, pick his head up and see where the ball's going, see where the blocks are leaving him.
00:41:22
Savage Boston
Yeah.
00:41:24
Snooty
That's how you get better.
00:41:25
Savage Boston
Well, I want to, um, I probably want to cut it off here on purpose because we're going to do pods throughout the year, which I know a lot of people shut it down. No shutdown here going, we're going full steam, full steam paths throughout the whole year.
00:41:41
Savage Boston
um and I think next week we're just going to, it'll be more like, where do we go from here? You know what i mean? And just like, where do where do we start? Where do we build? What do we do? Um, and I think,
00:41:53
Savage Boston
that's the That's the fun part, Maya. I love talking like roster construction. How do you improve it? By all means, this this team, way overachieved this year. They had a fantastic season.
00:42:06
Savage Boston
It was a brilliant ride. Way better than we ever imagined. And we know that they're probably going to better team next year and have a tougher time because the schedule is really difficult. And I think everyone knows that. So I'm going to cut off here.
00:42:21
Savage Boston
Uh, the Superbowl is rough. Sorry. It was obviously like a venting podcast. It was just like, ah was we know, it was really rough. So we're all kind of still pissed about it, but, um, lots to do moving forward. So, um, anyway, we'll catch you guys next time.
00:42:34
Savage Boston
Peace.
00:42:35
Snooty
Yep.
00:42:35
Bret
Peace.