Patriots Postgame Show 9/7: Immediate Reaction to Patriots-Raiders Game

Patriots Postgame Show 9/7: Immediate Reaction to Patriots-Raiders Game

This episode of the Patriots Postgame Show is presented by DraftKings. This is the Patriots Postgame Show presented by DraftKings. First down to the end zone. Touchdown Patriots. Join the conversation by calling into the show at 855Z 500 or email us at podcastpatriots.com. Hand off to Stevenson. Lson left big hole across the 40. Cuts left in the 45 and steam rolls the defender there. Live from our studio inside Gillette Stadium, this is the Patriots Postgame Show presented by DraftKings. It’s the Patriots Postgame Show presented by DraftKings. The Patriots coming off a tough 20-13 loss to the Las Vegas Raiders and we’re here to break it down for you guys in the next couple hours. Boss man Fred Kerswick joining us. Lunas back again here in the post. I’m still here, guys. I’m still here. Paul Pillo, Mike Do. And uh guys, I guess to me the biggest takeaway is we heard a lot this week, watched fortune Fox, Mike Frabel talking a lot about second half and coming out in the second half. Reports that he would pause practice during team drills to simulate a halftime break to come out in the second half and it they just didn’t have it today in the second half. They couldn’t figure out Gino Smith. Lot of downfield passing. offense seemed like they came out, Paul, they started to put together a little bit again, pick up where they left off when they had had some good drives in the second quarter and then Drake threw that interception and that was all we wrote. That’s all it is. Yeah. What’ you think? Like you said, it was very hopeful at the beginning. It was a little frustrating to watch. Then like you said, the hope cate chipped in. I’m really impressed with the defense of course. Uh Harold Landry, I BC guy, good excuse to brag on that. But otherwise, like you said, there’s a lot of work in progress right now. But I still I think it’s hopeful. It’s not obviously the end of the world. That’s right. I threw it right to you after a loss. I feel like I put you on the spot. You need to you need to learn how we manage these ones a little bit. Do you feel like this is more up my alley? Is that what you’re trying to say? Show us tell us about the I think you make some good points. The first one is uh Vrabel did make a big deal out of the second half winning the second half and the Patriots were utterly dominated in the in the last 30 minutes of this game. So that’s a disappointing thing. I also feel like it’s sort of you came out the game plan I would say edge Raiders. The Raiders looked like the better team uh the first two drives they went right down the field and scored. They look like they were poised to go right down the field and score again. Tip pass. Nice play by Carlton Davis. Uh Jaylen Hawkins is there to sort of stem the tide. And from that point on, I thought the Patriots showed um some really good adjustments. They started to they shut down Genty after Genty got off to a little bit of a good start. Uh he was a non-factor on the ground. Uh and then the Patriots offense started cooking after an initial um you know, was it three and out the first drive? After initial three and out, I think they moved the ball the next three or four times they had it. So I was like, “Wow.” So whatever the Raiders were doing on at the outset caught New England by surprise. It took him a drive or two to adjust. They did and now they’re the better team. Then they went into halftime and the exact opposite happened. Only the adjustments never came in the second half. The Raiders just completely took the game over um from there. Yeah, that sums it up pretty well. Uh what do you say guys? Let’s get right into the good, the bad, and the injured. Now it’s time for the good. Pretty good. Pretty pretty good. The bad. Hey, what happened? And the injured. Ah. You are a gay. By the way, Larry David is my spirit animal. So, I really appreciated that. So, there you go. It’s pretty good. Not not a ton of pretty pretty good uh to talk about here today. But, uh there were there was some good and I’ll kick it off, guys. Uh you know, I thought Kaan Booty uh was really productive today. came through with some some big moments, uh some big catches, and really, you know, eight eight targets, six catches, 103 yards. Uh nice day for him. Usually last year, we saw him maybe make a couple big plays down the field and, you know, three catches for like 50 yards, something like that. But little bit more consistent out of Quesan Booty. Really solid summer for him. You’re starting to see just the confidence Drake May has in him going down the sideline, little comeback routes, number of those today. That one was a big uh big third and 10 right there uh in the first quarter when it really felt like the Patriots were kind of, you know, hanging by. Raiders came out, looked really good. This was a big conversion here uh to Kahan Booty. But nice day from him, really productive and and nice way to start the year off from him after another good year last year. Kahan Booty. Yeah, I would wholeheartedly agree with Booty. I had him on my list as well. I I thought he made some big plays and you’re right about that first one. And uh he it the game might have gone in a different direction earlier than it did uh had had they not made that big third down conversion. You got one you want to leave with? Signing off on booty as well, but I just wanted to say I’m not going to lie. Stamp of approval. All right. But also we talked about when you asked what were the small factors and kicking the kicking game was really important for Gallas. not perfect, but I think proving that he can hold up for the team and you know in a game like this where the weather was a little bit of a factor, it was good to see that he can hold up. Again, improvements needed, but really excited to see where that goes. That one miss though that Yeah, the one miss like do I give him the good, but I I will just because he’ll show up. He’ll show up later in the program. This is how it works though. Exactly. So, my first one um was I thought the past rushing general, but Harold Landry uh Quani mentioned her her Eagles go teammate, classmate. Um, two and a half sacks. I thought he and to a lesser extent Chaison did provide some edge pressure during the day. I thought they had a I was a little disappointed overall just because I thought they had to dial up some of the pressure that they did, but be that as it may, they were able to get around Gino Smith and I think that’s what allowed them to sort of take control of the game there in the second quarter. The big change was the Patriots defense started to to get after Gino Smith a little bit. Unfortunately, they didn’t sustain that in the second half, but Herold Landry two and a half sacks in his debut with the Patriots has to be on the good list. No, absolutely. Yeah, he’s on my good list. And not just because Absolutely on my good list. Um, but you know, I’m just I’m a little torn right now because Gino Smith went 24 of 34, 70% completion rate, 362 yards. I went back and looked at how he performed last year here against the Patriots. He was 33 of 44 for 327 yards um last year. So, you have two back-to-back performances here by Gino Smith that it felt to me a little bit like when they didn’t get pressure, he was pitching catch. He was pitching catch. And, you know, I’m sure there’s plenty to digest with the film and where the breakdowns were. Is Christian Gonzalez going to make the difference that they need? I mean, clearly there were just too many easy plays and you’re seeing a touchdown right there on third and 11 where it’s a chance to get a red zone stop. Um, I don’t mean to dip into the bads right here, but it just, yes, I like the pass rush when the pass rush was good, but I thought it was obvious when the pass rush wasn’t showing up. Gino Smith had some time and he was able to to make a number of throws. So, sorry, I don’t want to dabble there. Uh, I was going to say we’re going to end the good. Is this your This your first showame show? And so, the next one up though, I got sad. I’m a little torn on this. You don’t have any more goods. Is that what you’re telling me? I don’t really have any goods uh more. I I just was going to mention Jaylen Hawkins, but you had a great point in the in the press box, Paul. It was up and down for him. Couple big plays um that I just thought were, you know, kind of critical and that was enough um maybe to get him in, but you know, he had a sack off a blitz on the third uh possession there that the Raiders had and I thought that that was a big play. Johnny on the spot there with the with the interception that was tipped by Davis. Um so, two plays that were pretty good. I think he also had a had a run stop. Um so, not terrible, but there were also some plays that he probably wants to have back. Yeah, I you know, again, we’ll I’ll save the the other list. Um most of the stuff that I had like sort of things happened later in the game to sort of change it. Like I had Carlton Davis on my good list initially. Um I thought he made the play on the interception. I thought he showed some really tough coverage on Bowers early on. Um, by the way, kudos to us for sort of identifying that Carlton Davis would be involved with the coverage on on Bowowers at times, but then I thought he gave up too many too many completions. Um, you know, right down to the the third and 20 at the end of the game. He gets beat on a double move by Dante Thornton. So, a little bit of an uneven day for him, too. I I don’t have a lot of things like I had protection for the most part was good enough and then it kind of wasn’t good enough anymore in the second half. as the second half wore on, the more the pressure was getting there. Tyrie Wilson, uh, former first round pick for the Raiders started to show up a little bit. Malcolm Counsby was a problem all day. Um, so even some of the things that I had that were good eventually sort of were just like, well, they were okay. My list was how it goes. I mean, I I would I would not sum it up, but the Raiders were five of 13 on third down, 38%. I mean, that’s normally a pretty good number. It’s decent, but this is one where stats kind of lie. And they didn’t get him enough third downs. Is that right? So, I mean, I I I got to look at which drive it was. I mean, there was there was like they didn’t even get they got one second down there on on one of these drives here in the first quarter. I mean, 400 yards of offense. It could have been more if they were sort of trying to score sort of at the end of the game. You know, they just kind of running the clock out. Um, one thing I’ll put on the good list that we haven’t really talked about, uh, is the run defense, which was something that was a question mark. I for me anyway. I won’t speak for you guys. Um, I know they they came in with a little bit of a, you know, smaller, more aggressive, athletic group up front. Couple of nine yard runs for Genty. I think Genty had 22 yards on his first three carries of the game. Well, he only ended up with 38 for the game. 19 for 38. Three yard uh, two yards a carry. So, the run defense in this game was pretty stout, I thought, up front. Yeah. I mean, I would Yeah. Again, I mean, not to poo poo it, but you know, it’s like you have one rookie, one rookie running back and some of the yards that they did get were tough. That touchdown he had where you have him in the back field and he’s able to so couple short picked up and the one they didn’t pick up, he fell. They they made some adjustments early on which I liked and that felt like but at the same time it always felt like well when you want to just put Tonga in and get a little heavier you probably can stop it. They came out in sort of a nickel look with just Barour and Milt Williams inside which more up the field guys. So I I don’t know. We’ll see going forward how this run defense shakes out. But um I know Quan, you got any other goods you want to throw up on there? Let’s just get to the bad. Yeah, we’ll just get to the bad. Wow. So solid kickoff return by Antonio Gibson. There you go. There were some plays that that’s how we do it, you know, in recent years. Some individual plays. I thought Marcus Jones made a big play on a third down to to get Jacobe Myers just short of the sticks. Unfortunately, Genty easily converted the fourth down. They got it on fourth down. Uh well, just to pick up what we said off at the top, I’m just going to put the the second half on the bad list. That’s almost more of a coming out in the in the you know, having to make adjustments, looking for ways to it almost felt to me, Paul, and and again, you know, we’ll see once the reports come out of what did they do differently in the second half? They start sending more pressure because suddenly Drake didn’t look like he was trusting what he was seeing. He looked off. he wasn’t able to, you know, ever really adjust in that second half, he never found that stride after he threw that initial interception. So, I’m going to just say the second half overall coming out playing better football and it sounds like Mike Vrabel has been acutely aware of how important this is all week. We heard about it all week, all summer long. So, hopefully they’re able to find a way to to be better in the second half. Uh, who’s up? You want one point? Oh, yeah. Why not? So, I absolutely love the way you framed it. The good was definitely the first half. the bad definitely just the loss of momentum seeing how good they were doing in the beginning. The turnovers, you know, turnover swing for May just kind of changed the tone. But overall, just the slow start I think was scary to in the first half, the slow start I think kind of came back in the second half and that momentum wasn’t exciting either. Um, the offensive stalls just, you know, I I don’t know what was going on. like after seeing the first half, I’m genuinely curious what the second half adjustments were because it clearly was a step backwards unfortunately. No, I think that’s a good call out too because they, you know, they came out and it was like, geez, what’s going on? They didn’t look, they didn’t really look ready to play. The Raiders looked like they were and early on it looked like it was going to get away from them until that interception. Very nervous in the beginning. Trains has changed the complexion of the game a little bit, but I think that’s a that’s a good shout out, too. So, my first one, and I know that you had talked a little bit about um Hawkins already. Hawkins is is my my uh my focus on the bad list here, and it’s related to a lot of stuff. You know, they decided to go in a direction for whatever reason it was. Um away from Kyle Duggar and certainly away from Jabril Peppers, who’s no longer on the team. Now, Duggar actually ended up starting the game for a play. Then, we didn’t see him for a while. Then, he was sporadically in the game. I don’t think he played a tremendous amount of snaps uh in the game, but you go with Hawkins and Woodson. Now, the rookie Woodson, I didn’t really notice him u in any negative spot. So, that to me is a good sign for, you know, a young safety. Um made a couple of tackles, looked like a sure tackler. Uh Hawkins I noticed a lot. Um and sometimes you mentioned good. Uh he had nice blitz that you that you talked about and you know he was Johnny on the spot for the interception. And I give that play to Carlton Davis more than Hawkins. But uh wow. Wow. What a rough day for Hawkins in coverage. And another cheap penalty. This is the kind of stuff that we saw last minute. I said to you like two weeks ago in one of my rants about Peppers. All I ever noticed Jaylen Hawkins is diving on piles with his head and he was standing up this time. He took the dive out and just headbutted the guy uh to give a free 15 yards. Um got torched on the third and uh third and long play for the first touchdown of the game to Trey Tucker. Was it Trey Tucker that caught that one? Trey Tucker, I think. Yeah. 26 yard touchdown on a on a third and long. Um kind of a questionable defensive call there, too. Looked like they had kind of like a zero zero blitz and you just you’re locking up Jaylen Hawkins on a on a wide receiver, a fast one at that. So, I thought he lost Bowers earlier in the game um on that drive for a key key pickup. So, not not good enough. This is what you decide to do with your safety. So, you’re going to be under scrutiny with how those guys play. And I don’t think the safeties were very good today. Yeah. Well, the boss man, Fred Kersh, joins the Patriots postgame show presented by DraftKings. Fred, we’re on the the down list already. It was a very short stay. I had it already. I had a half a pumpkin donut. I’m disappointed. I was expecting the donut. Well, you know, we didn’t win. You’re not So, you only had half a donut. Yeah, that’s that makes sense. But everybody loves a donut. A donut. Correct. What do you got, Fred? What What are your thoughts from the game? I it’s just listen I you know you know so I don’t know if you know Quani but during the game I’m doing a blog with people from all over the world knows and uh yeah everybody’s talking about it so obviously it’s they’re not happy out there but like I said to them I know this is a continuation so far of what we’ve seen over the last four years but I refuse to make conclusions about this team based on one week a great point but But in this game, they were easy to defend. There was too many things that we’ve seen the last three years. In this game, they were too easy to defend. U there just wasn’t a threat from the Patriots to stop the Raiders from crowding the line of scrimmage, from from playing tight. We we didn’t burn them over that. Um and we certainly didn’t have a ground game to counteract that. So, you know, in this game, we were easy to defend. And on defense, just really mental errors, uh, you know, dumb mistakes. Paul mentioned, you know, the, uh, unnecessary roughness, uh, penalty on Hawkins. He he was burned a couple times. Uh, so, you know, at least two other times on big plays. uh one where Bowers just got freed up over the middle where he he just didn’t cover him and then another one that ended up being a touchdown where I don’t know if he thought he had help but again the guy just ran right by him. So these are these are mental errors uh that just can’t happen um when you’re a team like the Patriots. They’re going to be every game even if they win it, it’s going to be a close game. Yeah. So you you just can’t afford you can’t afford missing a 44 yard field goal or 40 yard field goal early. Um so it it’s disappointing but again I’m just not going to make conclusions about this team based on this game. You know good good point by Freddy about the conclusions off of one week. I mean that’s nowhere do you draw more conclusions off you know wild conclusions off of week one last week week one in the NFL last week one last year right celebrating bad time to make conclusions right over the reactions were made for week one of the NFL season that’s right I’d just say that I I understand though fans being a little weary after last two season a lot of the elements that you saw some of the sloppiness with the penalties the inability to produce points on the you know there’s and I mean look bad football is bad football teams like you know you there’s only really, you know, a couple ways to lose football games and when you’re not good enough, this is how it kind of looks. So, but I agree, you know, I I hope that they’re um that they’re able to build off of this and start to build some momentum. I did see some, you know, some fight back and a little bit there, but you know, continuing to bat, I would just kind of piggyback off what you said, Fred, and just say the penalties and it wasn’t, they both had nine penalties. It it’s kind of matches what you would think in the first game of a season. If we were doing the Raiders postgame show, that would be on my bad list for the Raiders, too. Yeah. But some of the timeliness of them, especially at the end when you’re hanging by a thread and you’re false starting and a lot of those drives in the second half felt like they were getting penalties right out of the game. Delay a game when you’re down, you know, in field goal range there. You know, that’s bad bad time scoring. What bothers the offense is the offense right now. It’s, you know, I don’t know if you guys talked about May. He didn’t have a good game. Let’s put it that way. We actually haven’t really he had a bad game, but I’m more right now concerned about the defense because, you know, I know Gonzo wasn’t in there, but I’m not seeing any complimentary. It’s not like we can say, well, you know, they got pressure, but they had trouble covering. They didn’t get either. The only time they really had pressure is when they sent like a safety blitz or something like that. I did make that comment. I thought Landry was good, but I thought they schemed up, but even then, like not off four men, you know, not like bar. Oh, now we’ve got Barour, we’ve got Milton Williams, and we got Landry coming off and Chaissson, I didn’t see that type of just fourman pressure. Uh, and then when they didn’t get there, you like the coverage just wasn’t there. You know, Meyers just, you know, torturing us. Uh, and you know, we came into the game say, you know, they really don’t have a lot of good receivers. Well, they didn’t really need a lot of good receivers. So, to to your point, you know, on Myyers, he had 10 targets, eight catches. the the two that he didn’t catch were drops. Yeah. Yeah. He was open every other time. And I can think of the two plays that he had in his hands that he didn’t catch, you know, eight eight for 97. And for a guy, you know, we saw Jacobe Myers for four years, right? Yeah. Not a lot of yak. Today, he looked like one of the more elusive guys in the league. And we and and it’s not like he was open like we were bouncing off of him. There was some bad tackling. It was it was week one football and but it was more so for us than the Raiders. Yeah. Now they they’re a four team team going 4-1 team going into this season, too. So, you look at the schedule. Oh, the Raiders are a win, but this is what happens. We were, you know, you can’t do that. You can’t do that. And how knows how who knows how much better they’re going to be this year with now Pete Carol as their head coach. And well, I made the comment just like there the game looked like like in early in the fourth quarter. I was like, this looks like two bad teams playing that are improved from last year. They both won four games last year and at times they looked more than competent today. The Raiders started the game really well. The Patriots about halfway late in the first quarter caught fire and then dominated the second quarter. You know, there were periods of time where both teams looked really good, but they’re both bad teams still trying to figure out their way and they made a lot of mistakes, a lot of self-inflicted wounds. I I I I just got the feeling that at halftime Carol said and or you know maybe the defensive coordinator as well. We’re giving this guy this team too much respect. Yeah. Go get him. Like like go get him. I do want to say something that I said to Fred off air. No, you wouldn’t get this cuz this is a Patriots unfiltered thing. Hats off to Freddy. He said if I were P Carol I would forget about what I normally do and I would test this secondary without Gonzo. And they certainly did. And Gino Smith lit him up again. 400 yards. I mean, Brock Bowers is 362. Okay. But is it too simple to just say that they had the better quarterback today? Because, you know, Brock Bowers certainly made a couple plays that you were like, “Wow, receivers.” On your show this week, they thought they were going to put you under the under the fire and they said, “For this game, Yeah. who would you take, Gino or Drake?” And you didn’t think that was ridiculous that they said he’s a veteran quarterback. He’s been around now. People think he’s wash or something asked me in week 10. And I said, I go, “What you would hope is by the middle of October or the start of November, people are saying, “No, no, Drake May has made that rise. He’s now better than the midling quarterbacks in the NFL.” And that’s where I would put Gino Smith. I wouldn’t put him in the top 10, but I would put him in the bottom, you know, the bottom 12. He’s a 15 or so quarterback. Um, and today he was he was much more uh accurate than than Drake. Yeah, it was the May Sprays too, the pop up right from the getgo. could have had several interceptions on the balls that went off of his receivers’s hands, which were almost all bad throws, and only one of them ended up getting picked off, the one he got hit as he threw, but he had a couple of tip passes that fell harmlessly. I thought in the second half, especially when they stuttered coming out of the gate, or sputtered, I should say, uh I thought that if there was a time to maybe start, you know, rolling out the uh design runs for Drake, Yeah. that they might do that just to get the Raiders off balance, but other than one like little option piece, they had one read that he had. Well, he had a run that he kept sour, but like they really didn’t do that. Um, and you know, maybe it’s too early for that. I don’t know, but or maybe it’s not in the I will say in, you know, in terms of maturation, he had a couple of early scrambles that he slid. I made a joke with Evan and Mike. I I Drake has had had more slides in this game than he did all last year, which I like to see. you know, get get a couple of yards, get out of bat, get out of negative plays, but then get down. We’re not, you know, if it if the game is on the line, that’s different. Yeah. You know, if that’s like you’re down seven at the end of the game and you’re sliding before the sticks, that’s not good. You got to try to make a play. But early in the game today, first game of the season, couple of early scrambles, get down. Yeah. Well, it was wet. He he wanted to slide a little bit. Little slip and slide out there. So, was he officially on the the bad list? Did anyone officially I think Fred I think Fred really was I think Fred was good with that. All right. You know, we’ll let the boss man take the heat. The quarterback on the uh on the bad list. You know, it’s funny. That was another one like when he when he got going late in the first quarter and into the second, I had Drake on my good list. He’s ripping it right now. I wrote he’s doing until until he wasn’t. You know, Mike had it was second half pick. Yeah. Punt punt. Punt. Well, you had the you had the three drives where they had a 12 play seven the second drive 12 play 77. Uh that ended, you know, they came off of the interception, scored a touchdown. Great. 11play 67 drive and then a nine play 45 44 yder uh which you know should have produced at least 16 points with the missed field goal. But you know that little stretch there from the late first into the second it felt like they were finding a stride and then the drives are three plays, six plays, three three six five and the last drive with 10. But you know not not enough. Uh I know we mentioned tackling that was also on my list. Fred Fred kind of brought that home. I mentioned penalties. Um, just the pass defense consistently, just there was so much room, so many open receivers, easy pitch and catch throws. The only guy I saw that was reasonably tight to was man was Alex Austin. Maybe we should have put him put him individually on he had two two or three nice plays. He had a good great deep coverage early in the game. He was right on the hip of Thornton, I think, on a deep ball. Uh, nice uh pass defense. I thought for the most part he was where he was supposed to be. It wasn’t perfect for him either, but you know, these guys, you’re not going to pitch shut out. You know, I’m not the ball now knowhere that uh No, we’ll we’ll wait till Tuesday. I I I’d like to ask him, what defense were the Patriots in in coverage? Like, was it mostly zone? Because it looked like it was zone that they weren’t playing well. You know what I’m saying? It’s not like the Raiders were catching contested catches. They were catching passes like wide open. Yeah. Run through. And so like it was it seemed to me a lot of you know there was some bad tackling but there were just a lot of mental errors on defense I thought in the back end. I think so too. That’s I just think there’s a lot to unpack there of what did they do going into the second half? How did they get Drake off? And you know was there were there things there then that Drake just wasn’t seeing or were they taking everything away too? Uh what else? Anybody else got any other downs? corner you do you uh you think I got through all my bad list I have a few things got a couple little little ones two things that bug me as you guys know the coaching stuff um they went for a fourth and one from around midfield in the second quarter which I wholeheartedly agreed with the decision we’re going to take a shot which I don’t mind but you got to have something else they got away with it so they got Mollins they’re trying to leak out he’s really tightly covered and Drake May really didn’t look I mean I’ I’d like to see it again maybe he had something underneath that he he passed up, but it looked like it was a one-man route to to Matt Holland. So, I didn’t like the play call itself. They got bailed out with a very tickytack pass interference that even Fred thought was a bad call, which was stunning in itself. Um, but more so than that, that’s just one play. So, I I no big and I have no problem with being aggressive on fourth and one there. What I really didn’t like after I spent the better part of a two weeks saying how much more button-down this operation would be and you’re not going to give away possessions. You’re not going to botch the clock. What did they do at the end of the first half? They gave away a possession and botched the clock. It really bugged me. Um the Patriots got the ball late in the second quarter with a 10 to7 lead, right? And I’m trying to look it up just to see exactly when they took over. Um, okay. So, there’s 125 left. Patriots first and 10 at their own 26 and they that was the player that they tried to do the drive starter with May with the designed run four yards. Then they kind of huddle, kind of not. They didn’t look like they were going to rush. I’m like, okay. You know, they were looking to see if they could catch that for, you know, quick 15, maybe get Drake out of bounds. And that’s the drive starter, right? Didn’t happen. Then they couldn’t decide whether or not they wanted to try to go for points. They slowed it down, but not really. They got out of the huddle quicker. Um, and then, you know, two plays later, it’s it’s third and now it’s third and one and you got to waste a play running the ball on third and one. You got to make sure you get the first down. Oh, until you don’t. And Stevenson gets stopped for nothing. And what happens? You give away a a possession. Uh, you compound that by Bryce Baringer, who had a tough day overall um with a 39yd punt. The Raiders take over at their own 26 with 39 seconds left and moved it into field goal range. Now, fortunately for the Patriots, Daniel Carlson missed the field goal, but you gave away a possession. That didn’t have to happen. All they had to do was stay in the huddle after the four-yd run by May and you’re going to get out of the half, right? With the with the possession, they almost make put it. So, it’s 10-10, which is exactly what happened the last time they saw Gino Smith in this stadium in that Seattle game last year. They just gave away a possession. So, I those kinds of things are disappointing. I didn’t expect to see that kind of stuff happen. They didn’t look like they knew what they wanted to do there. Yeah. Yeah. Situational football. Uh was that your only one, Paul, there to empty the end of yours? Uh yeah, I had Bearinger. I I I kind of got it all out in that one thing, but you know. Oh, and what was there? 5 minutes left in the game. Down 20 to 10. Fourth and 10 from midfield. Oh, are we punting there? Who’s in favor of punting there? You heard the Were you all the way on your way down? I was I was here when that happened. Did you hear the booze? Oh, did they? Oh, the fans were not happy. Freddy, they deserve to get booed. I I got a text from one Johnny Positive Brian my said, “What are we doing?” Yeah. Punting down two scorers here. I I totally agreed with them. Yeah, the booze were raining down. Oh my goodness. Well, to close out the good, bad, and the injured, uh Kan Booty went into the tent after taking a hard tackle. Looked like he came back though. Oh, he came back. Oh yeah, he caught several after that. Sorry, I knew that. I was the number one booty. So, here’s the thing about here’s the thing about that hit that helped him. When he got hit, he was airborne. So, it wasn’t the hit that hurt him. It was hitting. See, I was worried about his shoulder. Yeah. Yeah. I thought he got his shoulder driven into the ground, but the hit itself was a hard hit, but he was airborne. So, he he g you know, there was a lot of give there. It’s when he hit the ground that he got shaken up. Yeah. All right. All right. Well, the Patriots postgame show is sponsored by the Massachusetts 250 campaign commemorating a history a possibility. Plan your revolutionary weekend at massachus250.org. And Paul’s wearing his Brunt Workware, which is of course based right here in New England. Brunt Workware makes work boots and apparel that are built for the job site. Their gear is comfortable, durable, and named after the real workers in the trades that help design it. You can even try Brunt out on the job, and if it doesn’t blow you away, they let you send it back. Save $10 on your first order at bruntwworkwear.com/pats or with coupon code P A TS. Paul wearing his Brunt pullover. That’s right. Look good. Company guy. Quarter pullover. I thought it was a a Q pull. Quarter zip. A QZip. They call it a QZip. That’s the short name. That’s what might be what you call it. Time. Does it have aura? He’s got time. That’s an intangible, Fred. We’ll never know. I definitely have Riz when I wear it. Yeah. All right. Well, we want to hear from you guys. Give us a call. We’re going to jump over here to the phone lines and let’s start with Chris down in Orlando. Hey Chris, thanks for calling in. Lady and gentlemen, how we doing today? Better. All right, so I’ve called in before throughout the seasons. I’m going to try to call in weekly this season. Keep up with you guys. Um, make something out of it. Just some takeaways. I think the line was below average. Rookies were getting beat pre- snap penalties. Thought May was inaccurate. Um, I don’t know if the cover the Raiders coverage was great or the receivers couldn’t get open, but when Drake, you know, would scramble out of the pocket, couldn’t seem to find anything. I thought the secondary was exploited. Gonzo’s absence was really felt. Couldn’t establish the run. Coaching staff didn’t really have a game plan put together. I did think the defensive front played well. Got pressure, sacks, booty looked good. Um, I just don’t think that we can continue to, you know, 13 points isn’t going to win games for this football team. The defense isn’t good enough. And if you’re going to go ahead and cut Peppers and bench Duggar, but put out those two guys, and that’s what you, that’s what you, you know, go with. They can’t look like that. And, uh, just, you know, asking your guys’ pigs. Yeah. I mean, thanks, Chris. Chris’s second guess there is that’s that’s a worthwhile second guess. you decided to move on from your veteran safeties and you had a hard time covering on the back end and and especially again it was a lot of it was mental. It was mental error. Well, I thought Jaylen Hawkins just got beat time and time again because well that one time he was flatfooted and the guy just ran by him like I don’t know if he thought like what coverage he was in to me it seemed like a mental error zero I think they were in like a zero coverage you know blitz. Yeah. and he didn’t really feel like they would have that much time, but you can’t do that. It’s a mental error. Yeah. Not good. I I suppose I think you just can’t cover. But that’s me. Well, no one can cover if you just stand there. No, he he can’t. Yeah. I didn’t think Woodson was out of position all day. I didn’t notice. I mean, I didn’t notice. I shouldn’t say he wasn’t. I I didn’t really notice him being out of position all day. I thought Hawkins often was was chasing the guy he was supposed to cover. Only time I saw Woodson was making a tackle for making tackles. Yeah. Yeah. Not bad. All right. Here he is, folks. Christian from LA calling in with his postgame take. Hey, Christian. What’ you think? Oh, too bad. Next. Next caller. Three. And okay, Christian, call back. Uh, let’s go over to Paul in Houston. Hey, Paul. Hey, guys. How we doing today? Good. All right. All right. So, turn it up, man. I guess I’ll start with Can you guys hear me? Okay. Yeah. All right. So, I’ll start with my gripes. I believe that, you know, he was a usual suspect. I mean, we expected Brock Bowers to do what he did and feels like we didn’t have any any answers for him. Max Crosby, although he didn’t the stat sheet, I mean, he still was chasing May all day long, he had a tremendous impact on the on the passing game. Uh, I agree. M Crosby was a big part of that game. Oh, yeah. Even though he might not show it statistically, but he was very active in that game. He only had two tackles. He only had two tackles, one sack, but he was all over. He was all over. And let’s put it this way. Had a strip sack at the end of the game. Let’s put it this way. May was very aware of him. Right. Yeah. Right. But now my biggest my biggest thing is this. We threw the ball 46 times and rushed it 18. Those 18, four of which were scrambles by me. I’m wondering now, is that the approach? Do does Josh Santi has Tom Brady back there? No, we’ve got I believe three capable running backs and although the Raiders were stacking the box, they had, you know, seven, eight men in the box most of the game, I believe that we could have played a more balanced game. Um, throwing the ball 46 times to 14 rushes. Yeah, I just don’t think that’s Well, it’s funny that you say that because, you know, the score wasn’t out of hand where you had to throw it, but I thought I thought early on they realized we’re not going to be able to run it. I thought Campbell I thought they were pretty balanced until the I I’ll bet you they threw the ball in the last 20 plays of the game. Yeah. Well, so like that kind of skews the numbers. It does, but even I don’t think that they thought that they were going to get to the promised land running the ball today. I thought Campbell had a a he had a you know a tough start to his first game and he was he was slow out of his stance and I don’t know if that’s because of the ankle Freddy Freddy with the No, I was watching him like especially on on uh plays where they wanted him to pull. He was pretty slow out of his stance and I think they realized early on we’re not going to do much here cuz you notice like even when they did run there was only like one or two runs out wide. Henderson had one uh that he did pretty well. He had seven yards. U but yeah, they at least I I didn’t think that they were going to be effective running the ball from what I saw early. Yeah. I mean Henderson had a 14 yard gain. Otherwise it was 64 43. I mean just you know 2.1 average. You were remiss not putting running game on the bad list. Yeah. Seven carries for 15 yards for Raandre. Just nothing doing there. Um that was surprising to me though. I just we talked about it. we’ve seen. You don’t know exactly how it’s all going to look. I thought they’d at least get a little bit of some kind of room in the run game, but didn’t really seem like they were able to open up much. Here you go. Now, again, I’m not the ball knower, so Evan will probably correct me, but if you’re stacking the box, it’s going to be hard to run. And if you’re not afraid of the offense, you can stack the box. So, they ran they passed the ball on the last 16 plays of the game. Yeah. Oh, yeah. So, that’s But that’s how you get to 46 to 18, right? Sure. It’s not It was reasonably e it was probably 5545 or so before that. Yeah. But you’re down two scores in the fourth quarter. You’re throwing it on every down. Yeah. Looks like Christian is back. Hey Christian, thanks for calling back. What’ you think? Yeah. Hey, you know, you guys know what I thought. You know, you’ve heard it. No, I don’t. How do we know what you think? I haven’t thought about it yet. What did you think? Because unlike everybody else, right? It’s just not good enough. And it’s more of the same blah blah blah. But but here’s here’s something that I kind of found uh unique about this this loss is we didn’t look like we were mismanaged or didn’t know where we were supposed to be like we did last year. So the team looked more cohesive. I didn’t Okay. A lot of people said that in the first half because you know after the in the first half you walk downstairs and people pass and a lot of people said looks like you know they they’ve got things put together in the first half but not in the second half. They played well at times like I said they they caught fire halfway through the first quarter and played really well in the second quarter. Yeah. You know kind of like if you remember a season opener in the past against the Eagles when they fell behind 16 nothing and all of a sudden it was touchdown touchdown 1614. Wow. Look at this. We’re good now. And then the second half came. Like there’s been periods of time over the years. I mean, they won their opener last year. Anybody say that they look like they didn’t know what they were doing in the opener last year, right? No. I thought they looked like a regular team today. They just they’re not good enough yet. They’re not good enough yet to play 60 good minutes of football. They played I don’t know, maybe 20 good minutes of football today. Yeah. And they did. They looked really good in that stretch from halfway through the first quarter. I thought they done I actually looked at Fred Mike and I said if we were still good like we used to be in the old days I’d be calling this game. They were up 107. They had two three and outs in a row. They’re getting the ball back and you’re like here we go. They’re going to score at the end of the half. They’re going to double up in the and then they don’t. Then they go three and out cuz they’re still not quite good enough yet. Let’s keep the calls coming. Uh Jersey Shore Mike. Hey Mike. Hey guys. How you doing? Good. Good. Good. So you know You come out and you play a good, you know, that first half, you know, and you come out in the second half and all Vel was saying that he was prepared for the second half. That’s what he wanted this team, you know, to to be prepared for. And it was a total breakdown. And just coming off of that, I’m not sure if the these guys got it to what he wants them to do. And I understand this is the first game, but I was expecting a lot more out of this team. I wasn’t really expecting maybe not a win, but I was expecting a lot more from this team. And coaching, I don’t know. Uh I I I ne next week is going to be very surprising. Miami didn’t look good at all today. So, keep going. I know where you’re going. Mike already said this. Yeah. You’re going to get a desperate Dolphins team at home next week. Well, I think we should be desperate, too. So, and what happens when you have two? But Mike, you bring up something that’s really interesting about what Vrabel has said about the importance of second half football. We’re going to hear it a little later in Vrabel’s press conference, but the first question is from Karen, and she brought that up and he cut her off to agree with her. Like, he knew where she was going and he she didn’t even have to finish her question. He finished it for her and like answered it like how disappointed he was about the second half. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks, Mike. Oh, shoot. Cut him off there. That’s all right. That’s all right. Call back. We got the gist of it. Let’s keep it going. Jason and Cha, hello, Jason. Yo, what’s up? Hey. Look, it’s it’s probably not on the coaching staff, the the running disparity there. Yeah, but Evan was selling trying to sell us on the uh the power of the offensive line running the ball and I was pretty convinced that we couldn’t do it, you know, running up into the seven second half there. And it’s it’s disappointing to see that, right? Just coming off of a training camp where we thought that the running game was going to be the stronger suit of the uh the offensive line. Yeah. Yeah. No, it’s a good point. People said that they’re going to have some problems in pass protection with the young guys, but they’ve shown the ability to to run the ball and right not today. That’s a good point. I just feel like the run defense and the run offense, I don’t know. I don’t know. In training camp, I just never really have I hate I hate to beat a dead horse, but in the NFL, if you if you stack the box, pretty much any team can really, you know, have success stopping the run if they really want to, if they if they sell out for the run. I agree. And you know, um I think the Raiders weren’t afraid of the passing game for the Patriots. Yeah. The Patriots, and I said this in the blog, the Patriots are going to have to prove to defenses that they can beat them in the air. Yeah. Teams aren’t going to just give them that. They’re not going to give them that respect yet. They haven’t earned it. Yeah. No. No, they shouldn’t. Especially I mean, you know, Drake’s just been inconsistent at best. And so, put the pressure on him. I would expect more from Miami of what we saw from Patrick Graham in the second half here, especially if it’s a lot of blitzing. Along those lines, too, with Freddy’s whole, you know, easy to defend uh mantra. Booty I thought was really good in on the sideline running his guy off, turning to the sideline, easy pitches and catches. I don’t think they tried one sort of double move or just have him on a flat go route and see if you can do what he did last year against time for that. Um we’ll never know. They never tried. I it’s almost like and I you know I hate to say it but it’s almost like the next game they should say you know what we’re going to come out passing and we’re not going to stop passing we’re just going to pass cuz we need to establish the pass. You know how everyone says establish the run? We need to establish the pass. Preach it Freddy. You know my theory. Yeah. That’s how you have to that’s how you have to score points. You you you throw to score and Mike run to win. You run to win. Yeah. When you get the lead and you get everybody on their heels, that’s when you want to Yeah. You know, close it out with the ground game. So, McDaniels, go to his offense. Get ready. You’re going to be pass blocking today. Don’t let them touch him. Down in New Jersey. Four sacks today. I know. Yeah. Could have been more. Hey. Hey. How we doing guys? Um All right. Yeah. Just two just want to hit on hit on two points. One, the the coaching staff. I think they were outclassed especially the second half. Um, just seeing the aggression from Chip Kelly were just, you know, I just felt like they just they put us in a blender going those heavy stats and just rolling those play action passes and they’re just continuously starting to chunk us down. Terrell Williams and Rabel had no had no impact for that. And then even Josh McDaniels uh, you know, even was tired of, you know, was hesitant on him coming back, but you know, where’s the screen game at? At least those second half kind of get some cheap throws there for they they tried a good number of screens and they were all snuffed out. Sniffed out. Whatever. sniffed out. Yeah, there wasn’t a lot of good blocking up. They did. They They had a couple of pump fakes to to Henderson that I think they were trying to set something up. Thanks, Eric. Uh, you know what my number one thought was with the whole Henderson thing? And not that I I’m very high on Trevian Henderson. You guys know I think he’s the best weapon they have on offense. A little bit different when you’re playing against NFL players. You don’t have quite as much space as you did in the in the preseason. And it seemed to me like they kind of had a beat that they’re going to try to get this kid going, especially with the screen game. would have liked to seen maybe a little bit more attempt to get him in space, but he just never he never had a chance to really make a play in space. I agree. I was thinking one particular play where it was like another screen and they’re just closing in on him. He hesitates. There’s nowhere to go, though. So, they’re going to have to get a little bit more creative. I guess all the preseason hype on Trayvon Henderson gave the Raiders a little bit of a headup on that one. Go back out to California and Cody. Hey, Cody. He just he just trails off. I just want to make sure I’m not missing anything. I mean, I felt like I watched the game. I I heard a little bit what you guys had to say. I thought we ran fairly well in the beginning. Um, and to the Henderson point, I thought he was the most successful in the run game. So, I was really wondering why they went away from him as far as running the ball with him. They really didn’t run the ball effectively in this game. I mean, they like Mike said, I think there was one play that he had, what did you say he had? 14 yards. Yeah. And then every other run they had was marginal success 443. I mean yeah it just I mean they had six 18 carries for 60 yards. I mean 3.3. But I do think I agree with counts a 14y run which kind of skews it a little bit. I do think Henderson looks better than because Henderson’s running out of spreads in non-running situations. All right. Um they did not block it up very well. Let’s put it that way. All right. Let’s go here. Oh boy. Bryce Young. Oh, Bryce Young. Tough pick six there. That one o’clock game still going, Freddy. The Jacksonville Carolina game. Yeah. Yeah. You could have been in a pretty good lightning delay. Lightning. Really? Let’s go back out to California. But your your MVP pick is looking good, I think. Yeah. I almost I almost had the 2420 score right. I was in play for a long time in this game. Hey Brandon, what’s going on? The other team won. So, um, one of my big things I want to take away with Stevenson is that I just don’t feel that when he’s running that ball, like he could have got that second and I think it was second and six where he just like went out of bound. I get like we’re looking at the time, but like lower your shoulder. I just don’t feel that he has that it factor anymore. Yeah, but wasn’t it against the clock? Didn’t he have to get out of bounds at that point? Yeah, that was late. It was late in the half. What happened? He he didn’t get out of bound and he got third. Oh, he got out of bounds. He did get out of bounds. He got out of bounds to stop the play because I remember the play and that was the butchered offensive series that I talked about. If he had lowered his shoulder and turned inside, he definitely would have got it. But he the clock would have start kept running. So, it was tough. Yeah. I mean, I guess those are judgment. I just I don’t know. Overall, I just don’t feel that he’s like that same guy from like 2022, 23. Yeah. Where he’s picking up those extra yards where he’s like fighting for it. It just seems like he gets hit, he gets stuffed, and it’s just all right. That’s it. Yeah. I mean, psychologically, all the fumbles may have gotten to him, you know. Thanks, Brandon. Appreciate the call. I think we’re going to take a quick break right now. Uh, but first, football fans know that traditions matter. Turning moments together into something truly epic. They’re what inspire us to make our masa and Tostitos the traditional way. Starting with a whole corn kernels. No artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives. All to give you the perfect crunch. Discover your next tradition this football season. Head to the store, grab your Tostitos team bag, and scan the code for a chance to score an epic experience with the Patriots. Tostitos, tradition matters. We’ll be right back after this. The future with AI will twist and turn. Cisco is the critical infrastructure for the AI era. Clearing your path to wide open possibility. Cisco. It ain’t my dad’s razor, Dad. Hey, watch it. It’s from Gillette Labs. This green bar releases trapped hairs from my face. Game changer. While the flex, this contours to it so the five blades can get virtually every hair in one stroke for the ultimate Gillette shaving experience. The best the man can get is Gillette Labs. Boom boom boom to the baseline. I shake the broom like the baseline. I move like boom boom. The future with AI will twist and turn. Cisco is the critical infrastructure for the AI era. Clearing your path to wide open possibility. Cisco. It ain’t my dad’s razor, Dad. Hey, watch it. It’s from Gillette Labs. This green bar releases trapped hairs from my face. Game changer. While the flex this contours to it so the five blades can get virtually every hair in one stroke for the ultimate Gillette shaving experience. The best the man can get is Gillette Labs. Boom boom to the baseline. I shake the broom like the baseline. I move like the future with AI will twist and turn. Cisco is the critical infrastructure for the AI era. Clearing your path to wide open possibility. Cisco. It ain’t my dad’s razor, Dad. Hey, watch it. It’s from Gillette Labs. This green bar releases trapped hairs from my face. Game changer. While the flex this contours to it so the five blades can get virtually every hair in one stroke for the ultimate Gillette shaving experience. The best the man can get is Gillette Labs. Boom boom to the baseline. I shr like the baseline. I move like [Music] the future with AI will twist and turn. Cisco is the critical infrastructure for the AI era. Clearing your path to wide open possibility. Cisco, the future. We want to hear from you. So call the hotline at 855 PATZ500 or email the show at podcastpatriots.com. Now back to the Patriots Postgame Show presented by DraftKings. Welcome back to the Postgame Show presented by DraftKings. And we’re excited now to welcome Matt Smith. No socks to the program back. What’s up? In a sling. No socks in a sling. What happened? Little rotator cuff. Oh, it wasn’t it wasn’t in the the press conference. Tommy John. No. Um, they think by spring training maybe. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah. All right. So, Matt, you uh you took in the press conferences and you’re here to to shed some light on what was said. Yeah. And then I think what we’re trying to do here, Mike, is to bring you uh the fans the best of the press conferences. Um not exactly a fired up room there in the media room with the players and the coaches, but I think we boil down what we believe to be the best of Mike Rabel, which hitting on the theme that you guys have been talking about throughout the postgame show. Um and he’s asked directly about the disappointment uh Matt about starting off the second half is really so much flat. I think that’s where we kick it off. Matt, you know it’s frustrating. You know we have to um you know understand how sometimes these games are going to go and you know we we just didn’t do enough in the second half. You know give them credit and we certainly didn’t do enough. We were too many missed opportunities, too many penalties. um you know things you know the turnover and things that just you know again just didn’t take advantage of bad football and then were able to you know you know have bad football ourselves. I made a decision you know on fourth and 10 with you know close to five minutes to to punt and would like a better punt and we had them had them stopped and that was the plan and that that didn’t work and then they hit one and you know we just didn’t have enough time there at the end to uh to do anything. That was the decision, you know, that I thought was was best for us at the time, you know, but again, it’s a start, not the one that we wanted. And uh we got a long way to go and we’re going to be resolved to to get it fixed. And the people that are here are going to be committed uh to getting it fixed together. We can’t sit there and uh and and and hold on to it too long. We we got to go on the road and we got to play a division opponent and we got to embrace moving on. and and I think that’s that’s what we’re going to try to do. So, thank you. So, there’s a head coach. Uh I thought it was interesting there was an immediate member that asked him about the decision to that was my next question to punt um at that particular point in time. Mike brought that up himself. Pretty interesting. Well, he got booed roundly. So, I I I think that stung a little. Yeah. I think that’s interesting though that he just brought it up. I appreciate self awareness in the reflection though. I think that’s important from a a coach to be accountable to himself and to his team. So I it is surprising but I think refreshing. Was that all part of like the open? No. So sorry that was edited that was an edited together 1 minute 18 seconds of an 8 minute and 50 seconds. I could see it was edited together but it was different questions periodically throughout. Okay. Yeah. I think it’s very weird that he brought that decision to punt up without being asked. What was the question that led to that? I don’t remember, but I think he was more just opining about the second half. It’s interesting you brought up I mean he said when he was first hired one of the team that can take advantage of bad football and you know bad start but then you get the interception you go down and score a touchdown. There was a brief glimmer there for me of taking advantage of bad football and then as Mike said that was kind of it for the rest of the game. They weren’t able to do it and they were the ones then contributing. They played the bad football in the second half. Sure, right? You know, uh, you know, missing Hunter Henry on the first play of the the second drive, I think, that he goes high and off his hands and that sort of put you behind the stakes, you end up going three and out. That really allowed the Raiders to get their footing. That was right after the Raiders had scored to go ahead 14 to 10. Now the Raiders get the ball right back and they go right down the field, make it 17-10. Second half really wasn’t overly competitive. No. Do you think the interception played an outsized part in that or do I mean do you think that they came in with a good plan and then that mistake was what I do think just started it falling apart. No, because they got it right back after the interception. No, Raiders went right down and scored. Make it 14 to 10. Correct. That was the first Sorry. I’m thinking about when they missed the field goal, they got it right back. I’m sorry. Yeah. Right. And you know that was on from Las Vegas’s 29. I mean, a lot of these, you know, drives that they had were 66 yards, 55 yards, 71 yards, 52 yards, 66 yards. I mean, they were driving the ball and chunk plays from start to finish. From start to finish, 11 plays of 19 yards or more, I think, was that’s a lot. That’s huge. That’s a lot of 20 yard plays. Too many. That’s what I think is mental. It’s mental errors. I I do think not having Gonzalez is enormous. So, I’m going to try. My my point there on the zone is if if you have Gonzalez, are you playing more man-to-man mental errors don’t come into play as much. You’re either covering a lot of man. I thought they played a lot of man. Now, to your point, Fred, yeah, that’s great. You want to play a lot of man, but when your best man cover guy is not in the game, that makes it a little bit more difficult. And Gonzalez is that much better than everybody else. Oh, yeah. For the Patriots. Does this put pressure on Gonzalez to get back sooner? Or maybe he says, “Okay, then you see what it looks like without me.” Ah, too early. Keep my money. So, Matt, uh, one more trip. You got another trip. Yeah. Take us down memory lane with, uh, the quarterback who I think was trying to take some accountability today, which, um, think was a good move. And one of the captains, and I think there was a common theme amongst everybody that was talking that it’s one game, we got to stick together. And how would you characterize your overall comfort level in in Josh’s offense in a real game for the first time? Yeah, I thought I mean I feel pretty good out there. I thought I was seeing it well. Um got to make some better throws, but um kind of the first time, you know, kind of adjusting from a halftime and and coming in from there. Um yeah, just got to just got to be better on my part, I think. Um you know, down in the red zone and and little things with details, you know, seven versus three is huge in this league. And uh just make every possession count. And I know there’s times that, you know, we we have looks that that we like and um I can think of, you know, letting a couple rip that I should have, you know, right now. So, uh just taking advantage every every possession and uh just trying to, you know, build those guys and like I said, get the first first down. It’s a brand new team, brand new year. This is one game. We got a a big week ahead of us to bounce back for Miami. He was a little quiet. Splain. Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree. didn’t notice him really at all. I mean, other than chasing. Yeah. Now, that’s not his fault. He’s not He shouldn’t be He shouldn’t be involved in covering Brock Bowers. He was chasing his head. Yeah. But I didn’t really notice him around the ball making plays. Yeah. But I that’s Ellis made a couple plays though coming in some tackles but overall it’s just getting a sense of this new defense and how it’s supposed to look because we’ve been watching it this summer and they’ve been telling us they want to you know be very violent and be very aggressive and at times they were but not consistent enough and just not married the front. They always talk about the front end and the and the coverage being married together and that’s what just seemed out of sorts to me. And you said sometimes it felt like, you know, they’re rushing, they’re just not getting there in time. But Gino looked comfortable in the pocket. Even for the amount that they were getting there, it never really seemed to take him out of a flow. Whereas on our side of the ball, it seemed like Drake May after that interception, he I mean, he said he was seeing it. Maybe he was seeing it early. It didn’t feel like he was seeing it late when they, you know, had three straight three and outs. Yeah, he looked a little jittery. Yeah. And to that point about Spain, three tackles in the game, so he really wasn’t overly active. Um, and I do agree about the pressure. I thought the Patriots did a good job. I mean, they had four sacks. That’s a I mean, especially considering where they’re coming from. They were last in the league in sacks last year, so you’ll take four sacks. But I kind of agree with Mike. When they weren’t getting a sack, it didn’t seem like they were affecting Gino Smith very much. whereas the Raiders had four sacks, but I felt like they affected Drake May throughout the game. Even when the Patriots were playing well, I thought the ball was coming out quickly. You have the pressures. Uh I do not have that. I do. I have You have to get the ball nowhere for that. To me, that’s more telling. You know, how many pressures they claim? Do Do you feel that way like that the Raiders were forcing the ball out quickly even when they weren’t getting there? That’s Gino Smith looked like he had a fair amount of time to throw, but he got sacked the same amount of times. Yeah, that’s why I wanted to see the pressures because I’ll bet you that the Raiders won that that battle. I I think Mike made a good point about the marriage between the rush and the uh coverage and the game was pretty much in hand anyway. But on the third and 20 uh where they all out blitzed and Davis is left uh covering and bit on the uh on the double move like that’s just that I don’t think those are the things that they’re being coached you know and that that’s a tough one to give up on third and 20 to give up 30. says, “You know, I don’t know if I agree with all out blitz.” Like, listen, I don’t care what the call is, you still can’t let your guy run by it. Plus, Freddy to, you know, you know, if he if that if that’s incomplete, then it’s a good call. Correct. But if you if you’re looking at this, so Vable gave you the explanation as to why he decided to go for uh to punt on that fourth down. He’s looking Well, once you punt, you’re now forced like even the punt is not a great outcome. even if you force an incomplete pack, like you kind of got to make a play now. And I agree with going after him. They’re looking to force a turnover or, you know, a bad play, right? And take a chance. Yeah. You you got to try to force the issue there. Now, you have your best cover corner. Um, you know, on a rookie, you shouldn’t be getting beat on a double move on that. So, some of that’s got to be the responsibility of the players. And they’re lucky this throw was underthrown a little bit. That would have been a touchdown. Oh, Colton Davis frustrated on that one. Well, I gotta read an email from Jake Melbourne, Australia, spending this late, I guess probably early morning there for him now, if it’s not midday, by thought the aggressiveness on the defensive play calling was a lot for the game. Was a strange decision with Gonzalez out. Don’t think that was the way to go with the run defense holding up. It’s a fair second guess again. Yeah, I mean, Evan was kind of on that too in the, you know, I think it was the the big touchdown pass where they called zero blitz. same, you know, we’ve been talking about it plenty and he agrees with you regarding Hawkins penalty, but he thought Hawkins had his head down going in for a tackle before Myers threw his head down to create the contact. That’s not what he got called for a penalty for. He got called for a penalty for jumping and headbutting him at the end. Not his initial t. He didn’t get called on an the initial hit. It was after the It was after the guy was already on the basically on the ground. He jumped up and tried to headbutt. I actually thought Christian Ellis could have got called for a penalty on that play, too, for diving on the pile. There was a lot of there was a lot of chippiness on that play. Now it was kind of it’s the Raiders, you know, like Fred made a point. He goes, “Raiders going to Raider.” Like that was a really cheap hit. That number 58 there, Paul Sal Johnson, I think his name is. He got called for it on Jones. That was a really cheap hit uh on the sideline, you know, just nine penalty. Two bad teams. Nine penalties each. Turnovers. Um missed field goal for both teams. That’s, you know, you look and you say, “Well, how are those two teams like?” See, he didn’t get called for that. He gets called for what happened after this. He kind of jumps into the pile and he he just jumps up and I don’t even know if he connected, but he tried to um to toward the end. Um again, no no real reason for it. Um if you see how he comes in Well, we’re not going to see it. We don’t have the whole I think he’s trying to slow it down. No, it’s it’s after this area back and to the left. Okay, so Oh, all right. Oh, we had it. You were there. You had it. Yeah. I mean, unless I’m Maybe I didn’t see the replay properly, but I think right there he just sort of jumps. You can’t tell. But I don’t think that the hit the initial hit was what he got called for, but I could be wrong. Only the refs know what they called. Either way, it was unnecessary. Kobe Myers just keep You see that? You see how he jumps in and he throws his head in? That’s what I think he got called for because the the that flag, and this is something you might not know if you’re just watching TV, but we could see the flag. It was came, it came from right underneath us in the press box. Way after the guys on the ground, the the flag came flying into the pile, which leads me to believe it wasn’t the initial hit. Um, again, no reason for it. And that’s kind of that’s in character. He has a lot of those kinds of hits. Hawkins, it’s like your guy. Couple couple emails in here um which people expressing concern about Drake May, you know, feeling a little bit gunshy. Uh, this one though from Rob in San Diego via Connecticut. I’m sure there are many emails coming in expressing frustration over the loss. I’m feeling something different but potentially worse. It’s something Fred has talked about in the past. That is indifference. The game was another conservative, boring, mist mistakefilled effort that simply wasn’t entertaining. You can say it was only the first game, but it could have been the 18th from last season. Despite the huff and puff, it just looks the same. That might be a worse fate than simply losing. Do you guys agree with that? Well, it there’s a lot of could be and he’s right. It could be, but again, I’m I refuse to make a conclusion about this team based on one game. You know, I’m not going to do that. I Well, that was I mean I think that’s smart. I think I think you’re smart to do that and there will be a lot of overreaction in the coming week. What is it 20 is it 28 players? 28 new players something like that. I mean over 50%. Yeah, it’s over 50% of the roster. So, it’s not the same team. It’s almost an entirely new coaching staff and and more than half new personnel. So, I think you’re right to say like, can we see this team play a little bit before we decide, oh, it’s the same old Patriots. The second half certain I understand the the mentality. The second half looked very similar to what we’ve seen the last three or four years. Jump back to the phones here. We got Rhyno down in Durham, North Carolina. Hello, Rhyno. Hey, fellas. Thanks for taking my call. No problem. Uh I wanted to talk about uh Will Campbell and some concerns that a lot of pass fans had and obviously he had the the penalties there, but it seems like he’s so concerned on pass with getting depth that it’s creating some issues on the left side of the line. Good defensive coordinators are going to notice some of these problems. I thought it came up in the run game a little bit, which is why I think some people figured he’d be better at guard than tackle. Obviously, this a bit of an overreaction, but your thoughts? I I noticed that early in camp that he was his drop back, his set was so far back that sometimes he was too close to Dre from the get-go. I didn’t notice that today that much. Yeah, the Tyrie um Tyrie Wilson sack was one of those where the guy came up field and then he just planted and came right inside him. Now, I don’t know if that’s because he Campbell did a good job and stymied him on his initial rush. So, we decided to do something different or if he noticed what the Yeah. you know, the the caller is talking about I don’t think he had a terrible day. I don’t think he was terrible, but he wasn’t he wasn’t great either. He wasn’t great and um not as good in the run game as we thought he was, but again, he’s got that ankle and I I saw him when he got out of his stance on some pull plays that he was just slow. Yeah, he was slow. Didn’t didn’t have that speed that we saw. We did notice Fred and we didn’t have a show on Friday. You know, Mike and I did a little mission. You know, we were in the locker room. Paul was you were the mission part of it. had something on the left ankle and I wouldn’t call it necessarily a limp, but he was favoring it. You could see that there was some dis. Well, sometimes when you have an ankle like if you’re just walking straight ahead, it seems okay, but it’s when you go left, right, and you put that stress on it. When you’re trying to play an NFL game, it can be a little bit harder. Let’s uh let’s go down to Baltimore and be. Hey, B. What’s up? Hello. Hey. How you guys doing? All right. Good. that so the question I had with them in this off season bringing Josh McDaniel the offense is still mediocre it’s not creative enough for the days NFL it’s like it’s the same thing like nobody’s worried about it’s not giving the defense nothing to think about line up it’s not creative enough that’s why they should have bought somebody in with something different yeah well thanks it’s sometimes it’s hard to create if you don’t have the tools. Um, and I’m not saying that they don’t, but it doesn’t seem right now that they’ve got that one guy that is a difference maker that the other defense has to really focus on and it opens up things for other people. I’m hoping eventually that’s Diggs, but it wasn’t today for sure. Well, were you guys surprised about the usage of Diggs? I’m not sure what the final snap count was, but it seemed like they eased him in a little bit and they were rotating a lot of guys. I mean, everybody Kyle Williams got some snaps, but given that Stefon Diggs basically looked healthy this summer and was maybe a little bit limited, but were you surprised that he wasn’t out there more? He wasn’t wearing I was just surprised that he wasn’t on there. There was some third downs um early in the game that he wasn’t. But overall, I mean, seven targets, six catches. Um like like Fred said, no real plays. He had one late in garbage time for 16 yards, but you know, they try to try to get a screen to him that Chris just showed uh on the highlight package. This was sort of a broken play where Drake just made something out of nothing and that was a first and 15 play that ended up being a 10-y gain. That’s, you know, those are the kinds of plays. That was probably his best play of the game. Third and five, they really they really heated them up. This play’s just, you know, kind of garbage time. I didn’t really uh but the one on the third and five quick slant I think it was his hot receiver they were coming and they they got immediate pressure on him right there. That’s what you got diggs for. He uncovered immediately. Quick slant and that’s a that’s a huge first down on third and five was the last play of the third quarter. Um unfortunately they they weren’t able to do anything with that drive. And a good a good play by Drake, too. Stand, you know, I always I do that nonsense like, “Oh, that that looked like a Patriots play.” Yeah, right. That was a Patriots play right there. I saw Tom Brady do that a million times. Like, I know you’re coming. I’m going to get it out before you can get there. And I know my guy’s going to beat his guy before you can get there and we’re going to move the chains. And that’s that’s what that’s what you want to see. Just unfortunately didn’t get enough of that. I mean, the gentleman in Baltimore, I wonder if he was thinking the same thing in the first half because I did think in the second quarter there was uh the ball was one two out, one two out. They were they were in a little bit of a rhythm offensively where Drake was getting the ball out pretty quickly. Y you didn’t see that at all in the second half. No. And that’s Fred’s point like all of a sudden you try to do the same stuff, they they kind of take some of those things away. You can’t do the one two out thing. And I thought pick punt punt. To me, it felt like at halftime, Carol said to his team, “We’re giving them too much respect. Just go get them.” You know, enough. We’re going to play eight in the box. We’re going to crash down. We’re not going to worry about them going over the top cuz we’re going to get there, right? Yeah. Uh Lou from Philly writes in and he wanted said, “Can we please come on on how the whole stadium was Raider fans?” Is that true? I didn’t I didn’t The whole stadium, but there were a lot at the end. They were loud at the end. Yeah, they were louder. See, that’s stuff that you it’s hard to sort of notice on the press. After the after 5,000 Patriots fans leave, there’s 5,000 Raider fans and it seems like there’s a lot, you know. Yeah, there was some in the press box, too. Heard them cheering the whole Well, that’s that was media. Ah, I was on edge. They were sitting right in front. Really? Seriously, you didn’t hear the first level. You knew it right from the getgo. First play of the game was like nice, you know, then there’s like then there’s like a Stevenson run up the middle. Nothing. And I’m like, It’s like Napoleon. Oh, these are media people. I think it was. Yeah. Right in front of us. Raiders staff should report them to the PPF WPAP. No, they might not be in it. I just don’t have time for that nonsense. Brian my would have said something. Oh, he would have chastised. He would have finger wagged. Oh, yeah. Brad’s in Ohio. Hey, Brad. Thanks for calling in. What do you got? Hello, crew. How you doing today? All right. Great. Good. Um, just got a couple questions for you. Um, first is about Kyle Williams and Diggs and I just wondered how they they did in the game. Um, and then did it look like we had open receivers with McDaniel’s play calling that meshes well with Drake’s abilities? Kind of correlates with what the caller said. Um, did we and then how did the rookies do individually? And I take Fred’s plan very seriously. He’s right. Everything’s fixable from what I gather from what you’re all saying. There you go. What do you think about that? Thank you. Thanks, Brad. What do you think about those nine questions? So, there’s a lot of questions there. A lot of questions there. How did how First one was, how did Williams and Diggs do? I don’t think Williams would have played had Booty not gotten hurt, right? Um, he played a handful of snaps. He caught a pass late on the garbage time drive at the end. I thought Diggs was quiet, but you know, I think he got his feet wet. Yep. No big plays. And that’s what I was looking for is is I mean, you mentioned the we talked about the slant, but those are the plays that Stefan Diggs would repeatedly tear my heart out with the Bills. I loved that slant. That that’s a play I saw a million times with with Buffalo over the years. You kind of like were hoping that the way Meyers came out, Diggs would come out. Yeah. Like Meyers was hurting us. Oh, like Meyers again. That’s what you want for Diggs. You know, you want the other team to be like, “Digs again.” Yeah. That’s what Jacobe just keeps doing. He gets open, he catches the ball, you know, holds on to it. Yeah. I mean, it’s not dynamic. It’s not like, you know, but man, you’re right back though, like the team that had the team that just basically had Brock Bowers and Jacobe Myers. And it’s like, you know, Tucker two for 54 and a touchdown. Thornton two for 45, big play at the end of the game to sort of end it. Meer uh or Mayor, is it is it Michael Mayer? Mayor Mayor uh four for 38. So, kid from Notre Dame. They were much more than just powers in in uh That’s a decent tight end duo by the way. That’s a decent tight end. And we were talking in pregame um behind enemy lines with Vinnie Bonori. And he was mentioning how they really haven’t used him. Like he thinks they have this really potentially dynamic duo at tight end and he thinks they’re going to use more of of Mayor this year than they have. Um he thinks that that’s a a weapon for them and it was today and we talked about it during the week, you know, coaching matchup. Don’t underestimate the effect of Pete Carol. He’s a damn good NFL coach. He’s proven. And Chip Kellyip Chip Kelly had some success and everybody’s like, “Oh, it’s a gimmick offense.” Well, that was like 10 years ago when he was in the league, you know, right? They still remember him from Oregon. Maybe he’s adapted a little bit. You can’t do it Oregon. You know, they can’t do that in the NFL. He knows that. Uh, individually, I think Brad wanted to know about the rookies. I would say Craig Woodson I think looked like he played reasonably well. I didn’t notice him out of position. He had a handful of tackles. Um beyond wire to wire, didn’t he? Beyond that, I didn’t really like the rookies. Uh Wilson bad game, but struggled. Um I don’t think Henderson did much. Henderson got a bunch of touches, but really didn’t do much with him. Not that it was his fault, but they had him wrapped up. I think they had him scouted. Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. And the kicker and the kicker missed a chip shot. So that’s not good. The long snap seemed okay. Good, Mike. As far as I could tell. Good job, Julian Ashby. Uh, we’re going to Greece. Alex, thanks for calling in, man. What’s going on? How’s it going, guys? Can you hear me? Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Um, so I have a pretty brief question actually. Uh, I wanted to ask about the fourth and 10 punt because, uh, I couldn’t believe it when Vable punted it. It just felt like we were giving the game away. I I honestly just I don’t see why he would do it. And I know he talked about it in the press conference a bit, but um I just wanted to ask you guys to play some devil’s advocate. Like if you’re the coach, why would you punt it in that situation? Like what what advantage is there to doing that? Well, that’s all I got. I just wanted to guys take you’re looking to pin them deep inside their 10 um with the punt and you’re hoping to play field position. You get three, you know, three out because you’re probably going to get real conservative and run the ball three times. So, let’s say you you punt and they fair catch it at the seven. You stop genty three times. You use your timeout. You get the ball back right where you were on first down. And yeah, that that’s what I think you’re looking for. I wouldn’t have done it. I would have gone for it. Fourth and 10 is not a insurmountable, especially from midfield. Yeah. You know, it’s not insurmountable. It’s not like if you don’t get the fourth down, the game is over. You’re in the same spot. You need you need to stop except for field position is different. Take one more call here. Sean in Virginia. Hey Sean, thanks for calling in. What do you got? Hello guys. How you guys doing? All right. Uh, I just want to start by saying like I think we need to come to grits that uh that Drake may maybe Drake may actually may be the centerpiece of the destruction of this team because when you’re constantly missing bunny like little chippy shots across the field or whatever that’s those are momentum killers. So I mean that could be the difference between you actually putting the ball away perhaps probably getting three or better yet seven. So then the defensive snacks can actually change if your offense is actually sustaining drive because he’s missing easy shots and I’m wonder I’m starting to wonder if he’s actually capable of being a legit quarterback with those type of mishaps. That’s all I wanted to say. Thanks Sean. I mean this is uh didn’t expect less. I mean they lose the quarterback doesn’t look great. Quarterback gets the attention and going into the season this is what you wanted to know. Is this quarterback going to be the guy? Not a good start for the year for him. And think about it this way. Let’s say Drake’s a guy on another team and he wasn’t a first round pick. He was a late round pick who’s playing because their starter is hurt. What will we be thinking of that quarterback from this game? It’s inconsistent and like he’s a backup quarterback who’s never going to make it in the NFL. Now, we know better. We know better, but that’s the kind of game he had. like he had the moments, but for the most part he was overwhelmed, you know, like he just Well, he was erratic. I don’t erratic. I mean, you might you might be right that he was overwhelmed. I just I just think he’s he has Mike calls him the the may sprays and I think he’s right. I I think there’s times where he loses his accuracy a little bit and that’s my biggest concern about having Josh McDaniels as the offensive coordinator because it requires perfection. Yeah. And to my mind, there’s one guy who’s been able to do that. Yeah. Well, I don’t know. Like in this game, I don’t know if it was that same offense like Well, I just like when he throws it over Hunter Henry’s head like the Hunter Henry’s open. That’s not the offense. That’s what I’m saying. But it requires perfection. So when it requires an accurate pass, right? That’s not I’m not talking about every single one of them needs to be accurate. Most quarterbacks aren’t accurate with every one of their I don’t understand what you’re saying. Like if you’re in if you’re in that rhythm offense, I get it. But like that’s not what they were doing, you know? No, but my point is you can’t. The caller nails it. You can’t miss those throws. Well, no quarterback can miss those throws. Not just a Josh McDaniel. When you go five yards at a time, seven yards at a time, you can’t miss any of the throws or you’re behind the sticks. Yeah, because that’s the way the offense is. And May missed some of those throws today. And he’s right. I’m not saying they were easy throws, but they weren’t hard. Yeah, they’re throws that he should make. And today he missed a handful of them. Call them a half dozen. Sure. Yeah. You know that they’re behind or high, whatever they were. Uh he missed Pop Douglas uh you know, coming across in the end zone. Um the first time, you know, the first time before the touchdown, which the touch and then he follows the touchdown up with an incredible throw. That was a that was one of exactly where it has to be. One of the best throws of his career. I was texting with somebody. I said that’s one of the best throws of Drake May’s career. No, he can do it. We know he can do it. Right. But the other one that drives me wacky is at home a delay a game, you know? Like I just those those have to drive a coaching staff crazy. You can’t do that. No. I mean, this is an email from Ivan in California. Just a lot of what we’re getting. Uh honestly, I don’t think it’s unrealistic to be concerned about Drake May. He once again didn’t play a clean game and consistently throws high or can’t make simple throws. He’s got too much blood so in him. Sorry, Paul. Uh have sincere reservations on if he’s a long way to go to get to Bledo’s level. I’ll tell you that. But is this what you know is this what we’re are we jumping right into this right now with with Drake May and is you know is the pressure going to start to mount on him a little bit if this is how it continues to go? Well I I think each component of that offense when they have their meetings this week they have to be read the riot act. Yeah. You know uh like the offensive line has to be read the riot act. It’s just not good enough. in the wide receiver. Everybody everybody contributed to that second half. Yeah. I mean, nothing was good. Nothing was good in the second half. Mike had it right away. You know, Mike was in full-fledged pelt mode and like late in the third quarter. It was like pick, punt, punt, punt. It was like I was just reading down what happened, Paul. I know that was I was just reading the stats, but it wasn’t good. And and it was I it was it was kind of jarring after what you thought was, you know, that they had put together a nice drive to go down and and tie the game and then they put a nice nice drive together and Boragalis misses a chip shot and then they put another drive together and they get kind of bailed out with a penalty. Um you know, questionable call and then they still only get three even after that break and you’re kind of like, yeah, we’re kind of shooting ourselves in the foot here. We we should have more points on the board and it’s 10-7 instead of, you know, at the very minimum it should have been 13-7, probably even more. If if you break down that offense, if if one component of that offense had a stellar game, we would be and and the rest of the offense still played the way they played, we would be thinking a different tune right now. If Henderson had busted a few big runs, well, yeah, if the running backs or if the line played really well and Drake still missed a few passes, that would be a much different game. If Drake was able to take the team on his shoulders and despite, you know, the offensive line not playing that well, we’d be think singing a different tune. There’s no one right now that can really be a gamecher yet for the Patriots. So now they have to play solid team football and it was far from that today. So until they have Drake May being that guy that can win a game on his own or an offensive line that is just, you know, elite, they’re going to rely on everybody playing up to a certain level and that’s tough when you’re at a young team like like they are right now. Yeah. Mike and Woman in North Carolina, he’s um he’s got his crosshairs on. Will Campbell thought he looked awful in his debut. I understand rookie growing pains, but I for months that our old O line was going to be significantly better than last year and this seems like more of the same. Campbell looks way over his head and nowhere near what a fourth overall tackle should look like. Please tell me why I should be optimistic about him. I mean, did you guys That’s harsh. I mean, did you guys think we saw we saw a nonfunctional offensive line today? They gave up a little dramatic pressure over reaction for game one, but do you think that the pressure was what caused Drake May to unravel? You know, like I didn’t I saw last year nonfunctional. No, it wasn’t nonfunctional, but I I do agree with the you know, I have been told how much better the offensive line is going to be. And first of all, that’s an incredibly low bar. Yeah. But if you want to say significantly improved, I haven’t seen that in practice. I haven’t seen a significant improve. Are they better than they were last year? Yeah, they are. And they’re going to get better. They have two rookies playing their first NFL game today on the left side. They’ll get better, but it wasn’t good today. Not by any means. They couldn’t run it and they couldn’t protect. Was not the inability to not run it. Was that more surprising? And was that the bigger detriment today? Like I think we came in so concerned about Max Crosby and pass rush and getting Drake uncomfortable ultimately. Was it the fact that they couldn’t move the ball at all on the ground and kind of had to resort to the pass all the time? Is that I mean that’s kind of surprising that you didn’t think coming in oh gez we can’t run block that’s going to be the problem today. But it kind of seems like they have to do something that gives that challenges the defense. Think about the short yardage plays like they had the late one in the first half on the third and one misdirection and trickeration. Oh, earlier in that half they had a fourth and one and what do they do? You know, like they they went a third and one they got stuffed and on fourth and one they play action and took the shot to Holland that they got the interference call on. So, I think Mike makes a good point like you got to run the ball better than that and maybe make it a little bit easier for the pass protection to hold up. To your point, Freddy, when you’re quote easy to defend, they’re just teeing off. I don’t know if you guys listened to Mike at the end of the half uh when they were going into halftime, but the CBS reporter asked that. Mike made it a point to talk about how their short yardage situation was needed to was needed improvement. I mean, so it definitely caught his attention. We saw some Hunter Henry at fullback. We saw a lot of misdirection. I mean, it still seems like they’re kind of looking for it to be able to run what Josh truly wants to run. I mean, I think it’s Jack Westover had some snaps, but I don’t think he’s the fullback answer. So, it’s just also to me was highlighted that they don’t quite have the right personnel that they entirely need. We know that. It’s a work in progress. You know, it’s a work in progress as far as that. And hey, Ryan in Oceanside, he said, “Keep the faith alive. That was pretty disgusting disgusting opening to the season.” But hey, at least 16 and1 is still in play. Spoken like Fred. That’s true. You can’t argue with that. I don’t argue with you, Fred. I I’ve learned that. Head over to North Carolina. Justina. Hey, Justina. Thanks for calling in. What do you got? Hi. Um, I’m just a little disappointed that the um caller put Drake under the bus. Um, it’s like Drake is in the cause of the team. Everybody was having mistakes. You know, everybody, if you go, are you gonna Did she just say I put Drake under the bus? Oh, I think I think so. No, not the caller. Okay. I’m sorry. Rael Rabel under the bus because he did not um you know, he he kicked the ball off. you know, the game they had the Patriots number and I don’t think it’s good to just take away the confidence of the team because they played hard. They did. Everybody had issues that they could correct. It’s a learning experience. Don’t make him feel like he’s, you know, he’s the cause of them losing. You know, Drake is he tries his he’s very good. I’ve seen Drake come out and pull it pull it out before, you know, but but making him feel like and he takes responsibility for his actions, but making him feel like he’s the cause of the entire loss, you know, I don’t think that’s fair. Yeah. If caller did that, I I’m not No, what did you say, Matt? The uh number of 19 plus yard plays they allowed 11. 11. Yeah. That has much to do with losing the game as anything. Correct. Yeah, I will throw a little perspective in this here. I don’t know if it’s fitting or not, but a year ago at this time, what was the mood in this room? We’re back, baby. All depends on who we’re talking to. No, no, no. I’m back to the Bengals game. But I’m like, if you play that game 16 more times, you’re going one and 16. I know, but they did what they had to do to win the game. They won a game and they didn’t improve throughout the course of the year. I think I feel fairly confident in saying, forget about the record, they will that this team will improve through the course of the year. Got a question. I think they’re going to improve. I wish I could I wish I could share the enthusiasm. And I think the kids on the left side, you got to throw those guys in there. Campbell that I agree. Campbell and Wilson. And you know what? Let’s see how you guys do. I think they’ll be better. They’re going to be better. I think this is I want to direct this question to Paul. Um just going to jump in with Sam from Halifax. He just said if you only watch Patriots games, you’d think Gino Smith is the greatest QB of all time given his performance year last year and this year. Paul, I remember last year in the pregame show, you’re like, he stinks. He’s a stiff and now he’s seen two games. He’s unstoppable. That’s a little strong, but it’s not too It’s not too far off. He really opened my eyes in that game last year. I’m not I’m admit I was I was and you’ll be like that’s the guy I was sort of a journeyman, you know, average guy and against the Patriots that that email is Pete Carol goes to a brand new team and one of the first things he does is he brings Gino Smith with him. So like who knows him better than Pete Carol? So yeah, it’s it’s a good point. Very accurate thrower, Gino. I mean, and like just wide open receivers like we’re seeing right now, too. That that that that helps, too. I mean, he’s he’s good player. I just How’s the season progress for him? He had some really really good timing throws to the outside today where he just sort of delivered it right on time. This is, you know, obviously that was pitching. Anyone could do that one. Um but he had a throw to Bowers um on the sideline. and he had a throw I I want to say to Tucker. Maybe it wasn’t Tucker, maybe it was Thornton on the sideline, but he listen I I was critical. That email was dead on. I was critical of him going into that Seattle game last year and were wrong. That might have been his best ball of the day to uh Jacobe. No. And I just I continue seeing some of the highlights of Jacobe Myers. It just, you know, we saw him here as a rookie and he continues to do what he always does and it’s just I don’t feel like he gets a lot of respect, but he is consistently productive no matter who is throwing him the ball on whatever team he’s been on. Uh, we get it right in here from Nick from Phoenix. Um, looking for any optimism. I didn’t need to see a win today in order to feel good about the team this year, but I was really hoping to hang my hat on something in terms of improvement compared to last year. What did you all see that makes you think that this team has improved versus last year? I know it’s only one game, so I won’t declare them dead by any means, but there wasn’t anything that I can look at and say there was they were much improved on compared to last year. May was iffy at best. The O line wasn’t anything impressive, and the defense couldn’t get stops unless Vegas messed up. Well, if the game ended after 30 minutes, we’d be happy. So, can I just But what was better today was the question. What was better today than or did they scheme their pressure? I would say pressure was better today. Still inconsistent. I do think it was schemed but primarily but better in in spurts. the kid chasing I think that was one where he actually beat the guy in front of him that didn’t that was the one that didn’t look schemed but the rest of him kind of looked schemed but again like didn’t Kon White have like two and a half sacks in the first like game last year you know you saw a similar kind of like initial production and then it so somebody was asking for did you see any improvement you know they they did not get to the quarterback at all last year so they did they have four sacks today Paul they did but they but to Mike’s point they had sacks in the first game last year but I would just say I think I just liked how Chaon looked kind of productive but I just think he’s burst off the edge and Landry’s strong. I just I think they’ve got some juice off the edge they didn’t have last year after I would say even though I thought it was quiet today, I would say Diggs is an improvement over last year. Um and I think he’ll get better. Yeah, I think he’ll get more comfortable and he’ll develop. What were May’s final numbers? He was 30 for 46 for 287 with a touchdown and a pick, four sacks and a fumble. Okay. Not good. Could have never done that. Yeah. I mean, well, I think you could do I think you could absolutely do that. Who he’s capable of not he’s capable of not scoring points. Yes, that I think he can do that. What was better this year? And I think what he’s talking about, the email is talking about is May. He’s comparing it to May, not to Brassette, but I know you had your little line there. Um, what was better, a little line, what was what was better? Like what was better today than it was last year? And I think Matt’s point I I would agree with Matt. I think the the rush was better even though Mike Dusso is correct in pointing out that Keon White had two and a half sacks in the opener last year much like Harold Landry did. Well, I thought that the pressure was better. Yeah, here here’s what’s better in the end. It’s only one game so far. It was a whole season last year. So So we’re comparing the first game. No, I know. And and like basically the season, you know, is it indicative of what you’re going to get, right? And I think Mike Dusso was pointing out that if you made the sweeping generalization that well the pass rush looks good after the first week last year obviously until you got to that game that they had nine sacks against the Bears. You never really saw it again. Yeah. Or even just feeling great about But I think particular player I think Diggs gives the offense the passing game a better option than anything they had last year. Booty look better than he did last year. I think Booty was on par with what he was last year. Uh, I think Booty I think I don’t want to go as far to say he’s like criminally underrated or anything, but I never understood the whole premise that he need he was on the chopping block before the draft. Like they’re looking to move on from Kahan Booty. I have not seen anybody that’s any better than Kahan Booty in a Patriots uniform. And yet he always just seems to be the other guy. Yeah, probably because he’s not electric on the outside, but he’s consistent. I mean, he’s kind of a little bit like Jacobe to me in that way. Not exactly same players, but you know, just makes the catches he gets. He had the big one last year. Tough. Did you have over 100 yards today? I think he did. 103. Six for 103. I I think I think you can do you could do much worse than having him be like your third option. Yeah. No, the problem is they don’t have great first options, and that’s what we’re going to have to find. Would you say he’s a solid three? Would you say that? Would you say that Demario Douglas was good, bad, or indifferent today? Uh, I mean, I He had a touchdown. He also had a drop. You know, kind of like a lot of these guys. It was up and down, I think. But I would say overall a little had two touchdowns. He was He had a step on that other one. On that one. Um, seven Well, it would have been one touchdown cuz the next play wouldn’t happen, but seven targets, two catches. That’s how it works. You don’t get to do it again for minus two yards. Yeah. No, not not good enough. I mean, he had a really good summer two yards in a touchdown. Not easy to do. I’d say I still feel good about Trayvon Henderson, too. And I I think that they’ll be able to run the ball a little bit. I feel good about There’s probably a lot with Max Crosby going into the game trying to figure out how to handle him and what we have to do to make sure that he doesn’t destroy our game plan. You know, of course, next week you got Bradley Chug Chub and Jaylen Phillips who, you know, are still pretty good pass rushers themselves. But Robinson, as they start to get going a little bit, I think that they’ll find ways to get him going. And I’d love to see Reandre get going. I mean, that was what I really like about Henderson is Fred’s thing. I think Henderson was a guy that was a focal point of the Raiders defense today. I think he was a big part of the Raiders defense’s um game plan and they were ready for him. Now, I’m not saying that’s great that he didn’t really do much, but it’s good to have some players that the other team has to account for. Yeah. That’s another thing I was surprised about is just, and I’ve said this a lot in the shows leading up to it, like M. Collins was always involved in joint practices, preseason, like you just always saw Drake looking for him. There was one moment where I’m like it’s like a first down from like the 30. I’m like here comes a fade to Matt Collins. Didn’t happen. I just was interested cuz going in I said in the show I’m like I’m curious once we get into the games if this if he continues to be like this and today he disappeared. I mean he had the one marginal at best pass interference draw that other target that he had. I thought he I always call lobster lobster arm. I know it’s alligator arm, but uh I I lost the best. I I thought he uh I thought he heard some footsteps on that play a little bit. Yeah. Just a little bit. I wonder if there was some sort of they weren’t on the same page like maybe thought he was and he you know and he said and he swooshed. That happens to the best of us. Uh but I have to say I am surprised overall. I mean, the emails continue to come in and um it just that people are already so quickly ready to just be like, “Nope, Jake’s not the guy.” I don’t know why. I don’t know why he’s surprised these people. This is what we do. This is uh this is Jacob in Rochester. We pro propose a name change to the team to the no endzone punts. Looks like they have a lot of work to do just to beat another team that only won four games last year. Not a lot of positivity in the emails and the callers aren’t coming in. How about you, Fred? How many games the Patriots win last year? It’s one game. Yeah. So, so yeah, Quani, I mean, let’s let’s hear from you. I mean, first game, um, you know, you’ve got a whole season ahead of you. What’s your outlook? What what you I like the positivity. I I understand the frustration and they’re all warranted, but I don’t I think that’s it’s a learning curve. It’s a very young team. I think people are forgetting also a lot of rookies on this team and they they’re gonna Yeah, they’re going to need to figure out what NFL reps look like. they’re still used to college ball and I don’t count preseason because it’s not the same kind of rep. So, just give them time. I think the thing that’s hard too is that, you know, a lot of these games are coin flips and and I mean it was it’s still a winnable game today. I mean, I know it didn’t really look like it down the stretch and they weren’t going to win the game, but still looking back on this as a game probably at the end of the season, you’re like, well, if you play better and you know, you might have had you might have had more of a chance in it. So each one of these games that slips away, you know, these are the ones you’re going to be lamenting if you’re lucky enough to get into the playoff conversation, which, you know, we’ll see if they’re eventually able to get to that point. The point that that Fred and I make all the time, it’s like, you know, oh, we have the Raiders and then we have the Dolphins and we have the Browns and the Titans and everybody’s like, win, you’re probably gonna have 12 of those and if things go well, you probably go six and six in those games. Yeah. Like you can’t expect a four- win team to just take every team that’s like them and say they’re going to win. You know, my boy Felger loves to say they’re favored in 11 games. Well, are you picking them to win all 11 of those games? You think they’re going 11 and0 in the games that they’re favored in? Cuz I don’t, right? How that works. And that’s already 0 and1 in games that you’re favored in. It’s It’s just hard. Like there’s not that much difference between most of the teams in the league. There are the Baltimore and the Buffaloos and you know the Philadelphiaas and then there’s kind of everybody else that’s in a you know if it’s a good day for you can win today and if it’s a bad day like it was in the second half today you’re probably going to lose with a September trip to Miami on tap. I mean talk about two bad teams. Miami get blistered today. They weren’t I mean they were nowhere near as competitive as the Patriots were. And you made a good point. Usually Miami comes out fast on offense. Yeah. So, what does it say about if McDaniel doesn’t have something up his sleeve to start the season? He’s not going to find it, right? He usually doesn’t find it. Here’s a interesting stat via friend Alex Bar. Uh, today was the Patriots 24th home loss since the start of the 2021 season, the most in the NFL in that span. Uh, that’s surprising. That stings. I believe there’s I believe they’re 16 and 27 at home since Brady left. Something along the line. That stings. Why? I just don’t I mean there’s one thing to have great player but just to be that bad at home it’s a lot. Um there was one more that that Bar had as well. Shoot. I’m looking for it. I guess he’s already Oh, here it is. Um was also the 15th one possession loss since the start of the 2023 season. Well, that does that feel like did today feel like a one possession game? I was going to jump in on that earlier. It was not. If you look at most games are one possession games possession games. There were one possession games and there were that right that was one of them. But the Patriots do have the most such losses in in that span over the last season plus. So historical. Thank you Alex Bar for a little bit of of context and I mean but Paul that was your thing. You thought that the home field was going to make a difference today. I thought that would push him over the top. Now that can go the other way too and you know you’re listening to the the emailers and the callers and they’re all saying like it’s what is different? It’s the same stuff. We’ve been watching the same stuff. That attitude is probably permeating from the crowd, too. When stuff starts to go wrong, it’s almost like, you know, we always say the Knicks. The Knicks in a big game, that crowd can be electric both ways. It can help the Knicks when the Knicks are playing well. When they don’t, it can become a real hindrance. And I wonder if the Gillette Stadium crowd right now is sort of waiting for something bad to happen. Well, they should be. They’ve lost more games here than anybody in the last four years, but I hear you. But that’s like an what you wanted, Mike. Congratulations. That was, you know, that’s He was tired of 12 and four every year. That’s right. You got what you want. You know, guys, I’m tired of four. I’m trying to caught the car. Now, what are you going to do? Can we go back to that? I’m tired of four and 12. I want to go back to the 124. That was You mean Brady might have been kind of good? Yeah. I’m not ready. I’m not ready to say that just yet, Fred. I mean, he does own the Raiders. Was he here today, by the way, calling a game? No, he was calling a game. Giants Commanders Giants. That’s what I thought. Um, so he was so it was being facitious pregame very gullible. So guys, we have about seven minutes left. Uh, just want to say what’s what’s next for this Patriots team here? What do you do? Miami House of Horrors. We know that. What do the meeting rooms look like? No. Like if what does a varable post loss week look like? I think they’re going to be pissed. Yeah, I think they’re going to be pissed because I think that there’s an opportunity here today. Uh, and you it’s not that they squandered the opportunity, but I think it was a missed opportunity. You know, Raiders played all right, you know, but they were definitely there to be taken in the first half and they came out and they didn’t show in the second half. And that’s got to be terri and you heard it from Mike. I think that was terribly frustrating. To your question then, then who gets to blame in those meetings? I don’t think it’s going to be like one blame. I think it’s just going to be room accountability 100%. every room is going to like like I said, I think each room needs to really have some come to Jesus this week and and take accountability cuz you really can’t say in this game, well, the line played well or you know, the receivers played well or you know, Drake played well or you know, like it was all around it like so. And that’s the way you have to treat it. We all need to get better. Yeah. You know, agreed. And don’t you think that that will be the message? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, usually it I mean, this isn’t any different than a Bichc team or anything else. You know, we lo win and lose as a team. Um, it wasn’t anyone play. It was a series of just, you know, poor plays at at critical times. And that’s the difference in the NFL. What do you think needs to change next week? What needs to change? Like I said, like I almost tempted to say, Josh, just have a game plan where you just say from the get-go, we’re going to pass the hell out of the ball. That’s how we’re going to win this game, we need to get better passing the ball because until we do that, no one’s going to respect our run. Mhm. You know, they’re going to just they just they need to get I agree with you, your larger thought, but they just need to get better at everything offensively. They do, but they need to run the ball better. They need to pass protect better. They need to throw it better. But I just I just feel like if they try to if they try to even it out, they’re not going to string enough plays together where, you know, you’re going to get that rhythm. So like just keep trying the pass. Keep trying the pass until you start having success and then you put the run in and now that now the defense is on their heels. Right now they’re on their toes and they’re going forward. They’re they’re crashing because they don’t have to worry about what’s behind them. That would be my one thing. I agree with Fred. Like, shoot Matt Collins down the field. Shoot Kan Booty down the field. See if he can make it. So, you have a three and out, then you tell your defense, “We need you.” I’d rather I’d rather have a three and out by missing on a bomb than have a three and 0 out because they’re squatting on a on an out route on Kahan Booty in the in the third quarter where the guy’s running the route for him, number 36, knocking the pass away, you know? Try something different. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, how do you feel about Miami overall though? I mean, this is Tua Tongo Valoa. Patriots have not beat that can go one of two ways for Miami. I mean, that’s a beatd down today by a you know, you talk about a team. I mean, I know people think the Colts stink. They It shows you that just in the league like I think they won seven last year. I think they went seven and 10. Um they’re not very good, but they looked like they were pretty good today. I mean, they manhandled the defense. 33 to8. Gonzo back next week. Any any uh I don’t have a lot of confidence in that. That would be It’s not like he started practicing toward the end of the week. He still hasn’t practiced. So, you need a you need him to get back out there and then we’ll have a questionable week where maybe he plays but probably not. And then maybe But it’s tough for him. See, this is the dilemma of being a coach. So, your best player hasn’t played. Meanwhile, I got a game to get ready. I can’t spend a week getting you ready for a game two weeks from now. Yeah, the the reps have to go to the guys that are going to play, you know. Yeah, I’m not saying that he won’t play cuz he could play, but I’m with Fred. I mean, I don’t feel great about it in light of the fact that he hasn’t practiced in 6 weeks. Well, at the very least, he’s got to be out there Wednesday, right? Like that’s is that heat and humidity good for uh soft tissue injuries? It should be loosens unless you’re dehydrated. But, you know, I’m just looking at, you know, and obviously they had a disaster. I mean, two are through for 114 yards in that game today with two picks. Um, but four catches for Tyreek Hill, four catches for Jaylen Wadd. So, you want to talk about how what are you doing in the meeting rooms? What you know, Mike McDaniel’s got to look at that and say we need to get the ball in the hands of our playmakers. And I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s the focal point. And if Christian Gonzalez isn’t fully healthy and he’s chasing one of those guys around, that could be a problem. Yeah. I I I don’t know. I I don’t think he’s going to play. I don’t I I’m not counting on him. Let’s put it that way. He’s not on my mental radar. I think he probably will play, but I’m not counting on him. Yeah, he’s not on my mental radar for this game. How do you approach Wadd Hill if you don’t have him? That’s a lot of lot of bracket zones, but that’s what Tua Tua kind of likes that. I don’t know. I look at what happened today with the Colts and say, what did they do? Yeah. Do you think it’s I mean Mike Vrabel’s played plenty of games in Miami and I think anybody who knows this organization knows what that means going down to Miami to play. Do you think that that could be a positive thing for them to kind of circle the wagons a little bit, get out of dodge, go on a road trip, and have to play somewhere where all week everyone’s going to be telling them about, well, Miami, you can’t beat Tua and you haven’t, you know, you’ve won in Miami three times in the last 20 years or whatever it is, you know? Is that Do you think that that’s a favorable situation? I don’t know about the matchup itself, but just the situation. What do you think a win in Miami would do for this fan base? I mean, it would reinvigorate them, I imagine. Of course it would. Yeah, it’ be it’s the uh medicine that you need right now. And also, it’s just very telling that Daniel Jones like I don’t know. I was just shocked that that was the And she’s a Giants fan. So, 22 22 for 29 272 and a touchdown and he ran for two touchdowns. Sometimes it doesn’t always work in the first time. Anything’s possible. We’ve heard that before. Yeah. All right. Well, guys, wish I could say it was more fun, but it was fun. It’ll be more fun next week. Yeah. You’re going to be in the host chair next week. So, thanks for coming. Yeah, thanks for having me. Thanks for coming in, everybody. And I quickly need you better next week. Yeah, heal up. Yeah, we need that right. We’re working on it. Okay. Well, hey Pat fans, game day is almost here. Next week it’ll be here almost here. So, stock up now. Grab a refreshing Pepsi Zero Sugar 12-pack now because tailgating deserves Pepsi. That’s going to do it for the Patriots postgame show presented by DraftKings. And we’ll be right back here next week with the pregame show. again. New start time 11:45. You’ll be in the host chair and I’ll be back here. So, we’ll see if the Patriots can bounce back next week in Miami and pick up their first win of the season. Hey, this is Evan. Thanks for tuning in to the show. If you really want to help us, make sure to like us on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast. Also, make sure to follow on the New England Patriots YouTube channel to see this show and everything else we do here at The Patriots. Thanks a lot.

Watch as Mike Dussault and Paul Perillo recap the Patriots-Raiders game. Plus, we replay postgame press conferences from HC Mike Vrabel and QB Drake Maye.

Send your questions to be answered on air to podcasts@patriots.com or call us at 508-298-0398 or toll free at 855-PATS-500.

Subscribe to the New England Patriots YouTube channel: http://bit.ly/2IOD2e9
For More Patriots NFL Action: https://bit.ly/2Y1e9zz

#NewEnglandPatriots #Patriots #NFL

For more Patriots content: https://www.patriots.com/
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/newenglandpatriots/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/patriots
Follow us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/patriots
Follow us on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@patriots
Get the app: https://apple.co/2vvd8mU