INSTANT REACTION: Patriots ‘OVERWHELM’ Panthers in huge 42-13 bounce-back win in Week 4 😤

INSTANT REACTION: Patriots ‘OVERWHELM’ Panthers in huge 42-13 bounce-back win in Week 4 😤

Patriots overwhelmed the Carolina Panthers 42-13. It was close maybe for a drive. A drive and then the Patriots ran away with it. They were up 28-6 at halftime. They win it 42-13. They’re now 2-2. And we will tell you what it all means with this August panel. We’ve got Phil Perry been covering the Patriots since 2011. Tommy Curran been covering the Patriots since 1997. Threetime Super Bowl champion from the backer hood. Ted Johnson. I’m Michael Holly. So the question is this more about the Panthers and their ineptitude and some of their headscratching decisions, Phil. Or is this about the Patriots kind of saying, “Hey, we’re here. We’re a real legitimate team.” Can it be both? Why not both? It’s both. It’s both. The Patriots did what they should have done today against a team that is not as talented as them. How often do we ever say that that the Patriots actually had more talent on their roster than the other guys? That was true today. It was very clear. Big time plays in the special teams phase. And that really Tom is what sparked them. But efficient across the board and I thought smart dumb teams get a lead and give it away to other dumb teams and other bad teams. is the Patriots got that lead and played well and clean. They played a cleanly football game the rest of the way. A bad team, which the Patriots have been trying to get to mediocre, needs to show separation from their fellow bad teams. This was a perfect instance where they were able to do that. Now, over four games, they’ve shot themselves in the foot and lost against the Raiders. They’ve shot themselves in the foot, but found a dumber team in Miami and won. and they shot themselves in the foot and they lost to a team that’s probably on their par in Pittsburgh. This is a worse team than them, two and two. It was uh this just what the doctor ordered you guys. I mean, after the deflating loss last week in a game they they should have won, they bounce back and have and have a terrific game and and Michael, I think it’s a little bit of a little bit of both. The Carolina Panthers are not a good football team, but uh the Patriots played really well today. You talk about an efficient game, the quarterback, zero turnovers. Raandre Stevenson, zero turnovers. And the the two of them combined, both Drake May and Raandre Stevenson going back to last year entering this game, they both of them combined for two turnovers a game on average. And both of them had clean sheets. Uh the defense after giving up that long touchdown drive to start the game, they really settled down and looked uh and looked awesome. And and the fact that Marcus Jones up to through the first three games had only had two punt returns that he were able to return. So, he had three punt returns where he averaged almost 55 yards a return and a touchdown. Those hidden yards uh were huge. So, uh just a very clean, very uh very uh well-rounded uh total kind of team win and the Patriots got to be feeling pretty good about themselves. Ted, I’m going to come back to you on this because we said uh in pregame, this is a program validation kind of game. The team that wins this game says, “Okay, we buy in. We’re two and two. We’re in pretty good shape.” And the team that loses, in this case, Carolina 1 and three, and you could hear it on the broadcast, they’re going on and on. Hey, is Bryce Young the guy? Uh Dave Canales, he’s their seventh coach in the last seven years, which is just incredible that a franchise has had something like that. But we don’t care about that. We care about more of the Patriots and what what’s going on with them. Ted, is this one of those things where Patriots players say, “We haven’t been two and two in four years. We win this game overwhelmingly. Yes, we will follow what where Mike Greybel is leading. It’s that’s the that’s definitely what you hope. I mean, that’s kind of you hope that a win like this sparks something that it kind of gets you get you going. I mean, it was I mean, we were all kind of talking about it all week. Can you imagine if this team goes one and three after, you know, and and lose this game to the team that’s really on paper inferior to you, that would just be the world would become falling apart. But the Patriots were able to to handle their business and get through the first month uh two and two which I think a lot of people I mean I add them at three and one but two and two okay going to Buffalo it’s going to be difficult but a game like this you guys it just gives you so much confidence it validates what the coaches are coaching um and to go out there and have a performance like this it should propel them positively going into this next game against Buffalo Tom and that’s the thing too though you look at a Carolina team that wins 30 to nothing last week and they come and get their faces caved in. The Patriots, it’s temporary as you know better than me. How you play against Buffalo, how you prepare against Buffalo, how you deal with the success of this week, relative success of this week matters. And and I think next week becomes this is good validation for today. All right, we’re better than them. Now, are they in a position in this week of preparation coming up to contend with a Bills team that is clearly one of the best in the NFL? And then after that, you have a nice runway of crap teams to roll over, but this is a great checkpoint these next six days to show whether the Patriots are separating from bad to mediocre. Yeah, this to me is a team that hasn’t really deserved to have expectations set upon itself for years because they just weren’t good enough. They hadn’t earned that level of respect. I think coming into this game was really the first time that I felt expectations for this team. You were going to be the more talented team. You had the better coaching staff. you had the better quarterback go out and as Tom so eloquently put it cave their faces in right what what an image first of all it’s a beautiful image it’s a beautiful image when you’re talking about this sport and so they did that and so now moving forward I think it’s safer to have expectations for them moving forward we should expect them to at least compete with the Bills next week compete be on the field run with them for a time even if you don’t compete with the Bills and then when you run into this soft portion of your schedule they should be expected to win many of those games. I think with what you have at quarterback in his second year, with what you have at the head coach and offensive coordinator, it’s okay to have expectations. We haven’t had him for a long time with this group, but right now we should. What was the separator? If you look at it in this game, Ted, what what was the separator? Was it the uh Marcus Jones inexplicably Carolina saying, “I’m going to kick it to that guy. He gives you a kickoff return for a touchdown.” Then they come back, they kick it to him again. Uh he just tripped up at like the 15 yd line. They kept kicking to him. Was were those the separators in this game or was it just the confidence uh the assurance that no matter what they do, we know we’re better? I I think it certainly Marcus Jones was uh the kind of impetus for being separating this this uh you know the Patriots from uh you know uh from from this team today. I mean they that was just those those two big runs. I mean two big punt returns uh averaging basically in the in the first half 74 yards per punt return and a touchdown is really what jump started it. But what also I thought what jump started this team today was the game plan from Josh McDaniels. This was an excellent game plan uh from Josh McDaniels. I love to see you know what Trayvon Henderson a lot of perimeter runs uh which was great. He’s better in space uh which you know so on some jet sweeps he was exc I love Phil the moving pockets from uh from Drake May. so many boots. Not only boots to the right, he’s doing a lot of boots to the right, but now he started doing boots to the left. He’s doing boots under center to the right, he’s doing boots under the center, to the left. He’s doing boots uh to the left in shotgun. So, just really mixing it up. Steph Diggs more prominent in in a slot role. You seeing Demario Douglas really not much of a of a factor. So, I thought the special teams and the offensive game plan in particular is kind of what set this team up today for for a big win. Yeah, I look at the way McDaniels is has done as much as he can in terms of gathering information about the guys that he has and the things that he does well that they do well. For instance, the Antonio Gibson um jet sweep that gains some um following that up with the Raandre Stevenson run that was pointed out in the broadcast as we went along. The nice checkown. See, that’s a really good check down to Hooper because Drake made didn’t freak out. He also had a nice throw later on to Henry. But Phil, I think that McDaniels is starting to find a way to complement a good running back staple with a tight end group. Um, to me, he’s doing a good job getting meeting Drake May halfway. Yeah, you’re you’re seeing the difference that he can make as a play caller and with the designs that he’s bringing to the table. You talk about the jet motion stuff. I mean, the jet motion sweep to Gibson, a couple plays later, jet motioning in one direction, handing it to Gibson in the other direction for a nice big game. The screen game has always been a huge part of what Josh McDaniels wants to wants to do. He has about 12 to 15 of them it feels like and he’ll depending on the matchup pick and choose which one he likes. And that’s maybe how they’re going to be able to create some explosive plays moving forward because they’re not doing with their athleticism, right? They’re they’re not going to kill you down the field with 15 20 yard gains through the air for the most part. I know Stefan Diggs had one today. Even he on that play that’s that’s awareness. That’s coordination. I’ll give him credit for that. It’s not speed. It’s it’s savvy. It’s guile. It’s understanding, okay, I haven’t beat my guy. This is probably going to be on the back shoulder. Having that chemistry with your quarterback and making that completion. I thought Josh McDaniels had a really nice game today. And you talk about athleticism. They might not have it in the skill position. They have it at the quarterback position though. I mean, you saw the athleticism. The So, so what you you saw the why you run boots uh is because of the athlete that Drake May is. It gives him a two-way go. He if he doesn’t like what he sees down the field, then he can run with the football. It cuts off half the field, so it makes his reads simpler. He uses his athleticism. And you could see that really uh that was an issue for uh you know, for them defending Drake May all all day. I love the boot in the red zone, too, because it gives you a two-way option. To me, uh using his athleticism and the quarterback position, we talk about this being a dynamic offense. It’s not there yet with the skill position. receivers might be there with Trevor Trayvon Henderson, but you got athleticism at the quarterback position and use it. All right, so let’s talk about the negatives here. The negatives are that you don’t necessarily have explosive players. Okay, those are the negatives, but here are the positives. Tell me if I’m crazy on this. You already mentioned Josh McDaniels kind of scheming some things up here, Tom. So, you’ve got Hunter Henry already has three touchdowns on the season. Uh, easy one today. You have M. Hollands who has a couple of touchdowns on the season. You have Steph Diggs who’s been uh an underneath merchant. Had a big game today. You got three backs. Two of those backs scored today. Am I crazy to say that they may have enough offensively? They’re not going to stretch the field, take the top off the defense, but they may have enough in the cupboard to move the ball. Absolut enough. Absolutely. For certain games against certain teams. I mean, 42. So, they scored 28 offensively today, which is terrific. Get to 24 with your offense. So, against certain teams, your Cleveland, Tennessee, New Orleans, the Jets, the Giants, all of whom are on the upcoming schedule, you have enough against those teams to get to 24 plus on a regular basis. Will they next week when they see a little bit more pressure exerted on Drake May who had a really efficient and responsible game? Responsible. You know, the only bad throw was just offt target was probably the first throw of the game, Phil, into some traffic and as his his mo first throw of the game, high and hot. Yeah, I thought he had some really nice throws thereafter. You know, digs over the field for a first down deep in the first half. Uh the obviously the one down the sideline on fourth down. I thought that was a great throw. I I wonder, Michael, if if we’re talking about them not having much in the way of talent at the skill positions, and yet they’re scoring 42 today. They should have scored much more than they did last week because of turnovers. It wasn’t because they couldn’t move the ball. They’re moving the ball. They move the ball and they win on the road in Miami. Is the quarterback already good enough that he’s elevating the talent around him or is it just that the scheme is elevating these guys? What is it that’s taking these lesser talented pieces and allowing them to be successful? I think it’s a combination of those two things. I think those moving pockets, that little dump off throw to Hunter Henry for a touchdown, Ted, that’s because you have a quarterback who can do that. You don’t you’re not getting that play. I think having those jet motions and those moving pocket calls, that’s a coordinator who knows what he’s working with and he’s getting the most out of these guys. These are not they’re not I don’t think we underestimated them in terms of their talent. I really don’t. I think we’ve been pretty spot on with what they have. I think they’re being elevated by the two most important people on that side of the ball, which is the quarterback and the quarterback. Yeah. And I think Tom’s had a great point. It’s it’s Josh is figuring out kind of what he has. Like Matt Collins last year for the Buffalo Bills, he only had 31 catches, but five of them uh were for TDs in the in the red zone. Matt Collins, go to Matt Collins in in the red zone. Big big body guy. Okay. Uh Trayvon Henderson, better at perimeter runs. you saw a lot of perimeter stuff uh to uh to Trayvon Henderson. Uh Steph Diggs in the slot. That’s really kind of what he is now. He’s not a deep threat. He’s more of a slot guy. Finding him in key situations uh in in the slot. So you see Josh kind of figuring out what he has, what he can do with his quarterback, what players he can use in certain situations. So you had six touchdowns from six different Patriots. I mean I that’s kind of ideal. Like so if you just had two or three one or two guys making all the plays, it’s easier to game plan for that. So if you can theoretically spread the ball around and and attack from different uh you know different ways that should be beneficial to your offense. Michael presented by Gem Plumbing and Heating. For an instant reaction to your heating, cooling, electrical, and plumbing needs visit ask.com.

Phil Perry, Tom E. Curran and Ted Johnson join Michael Holley to offer instant reaction and analysis to the Patriots’ 42-13 win over the Panthers. New England trailed 6-0 early, but then took control from there and never looked back, finishing with a punt return touchdown from Marcus Jones and three touchdowns from Drake Maye, two in the air and one on the ground, to improve to 2-2 on the season.

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