Patriots Postgame Show 9/14: Immediate Reaction to Patriots-Dolphins Game

Patriots Postgame Show 9/14: Immediate Reaction to Patriots-Dolphins Game

This episode of the Patriots Postgame Show is presented by DraftKings. This is the Patriots Postgame Show presented by DraftKings. First down. Dive to the end zone. Touchdown Patriots. Join the conversation by calling into the show at 855 pats500 or email us at podcastpatriots.com. Hand off to Stevenson. Runs his left big hole across the 40, cuts left in the 45 and steamrolls the defender there. Live from our studio inside Gillette Stadium. This is the Patriots Postgame Show presented by DraftKings. Welcome into the Patriots Postgame Show presented by DraftKings. Paul Pillo deuce just finished writing right in the nick of time and I myself Quani Lunis thank you all for tuning in. The Patriots getting a win in Miami 3327. So just right off the top reactions. What just happened? What a roller coaster, guys. No, no, Mike. Let me do this. I told you about that. I don’t know what else could have happened in that game. I’ll say this. I don’t think either one of those teams played very good football today. No. But man, there was a lot of excitement in that game. Um, sort of the absolute antithesis of the opener, right? Yeah. Where nothing seemed to happen. This was unreal. I mean, just a very entertaining football game. Wasn’t, you know, exceedingly well played at times by either side, but really a lot of big plays and a lot of uh just a lot of entertainment. Absolutely. That’s it for me, Paul. I think this was the craziest game I I’ve watched since since we’ve been here. And you know, admittedly, we’ve been lulled to sleep a little bit over the last couple years with, you know, performances where at certain points in that game, it felt like, all right, here’s where here’s where it’s going to kind of go south. Here’s where the But I give a lot of credit to this Patriots team. Um, they continued to fight throughout this. There were certainly moments where it looked bleak. I think Paul’s right. I mean, both teams really sloppy, a lot of penalties. Um, but overall, you got to feel good for this Patriots team to get their first win for Mike Vrabel, to win down there in Miami, to beat Tua, yada yada yada. all the things that we said all week. Uh, you know, how much do those things really mean? Probably not all that much, but when you’re looking at just a new team trying to find an identity, these kind of things can mean a lot. And I think these this is something that they’ll definitely be able to win off of. Lots to correct for sure. Absolutely. Uh, but at the same time, just a great win, a feel-good win, and happy for for Mike Verble to get his first as Patriots coach. Absolutely. A big momentum winner, and I see a lot of calls coming in, but let’s start first with the good, the bad, and the injured. Now it’s time for the good. Pretty good. Pretty pretty pretty good. The bad. Hey, what happened? And the injured. All right. You are right. You got to wait for the right guy. I got to wait for I’m still learning the the opens right now. But let’s start with the good. Drake May off the top. You’re going to throw him up there. He looked good. Yeah. Very comfortable from the top. Got the offense going really early. He’s setting the one one thing that after game one, week one that we saw is that he needed to just slow down the game for himself. And I thought we were really able to see that today. A lot of good offensive plays, running in for the TD, getting the Pats up 21-20 later on in the game. Just really overall reading the offense, making good plays, and it showed today. Yeah, I I totally I mean, I agree. Like, you know, look, it’s not all going to be perfect yet for Drake May. uh and you know just to just to say you know look the second half I mean got a huge 56 yard which was a great throw but that’s a three-play drive there that they scored a touchdown on in the second half they got a kickoff return and then they weren’t able to do things in the field goal so you know the field goal at the end so if I’m coaching Drake May I’m saying hey great start you showed a lot of toughness but we got to still be better in the second half and that’s something I think to build off I would agree he’s on my good list today I thought he played uh really really well for the most part and I agree with Mike they did nothing offensively in the second half but I really, unlike last week, I wouldn’t put that on him. It just all of a sudden you come out and you you’re a little sloppy and you get behind the chains with the penalties, uh, you know, and the sacks. So, uh, yeah, I mean, I definitely had Drake May at or near the top of my good list today. Me, too. I mean, just to re, you know, 19 for 23, 23, two touchdowns. Uh, more importantly, I thought today running with some conviction. Um, pulling it down, getting first downs. Uh, Quani mentioned the touchdown run that put him ahead. 10 10 carries, 31 yards, and a touchdown. So, nice bounceback game for Drake May. Yeah, I don’t want to downplay that that throw too much with that he made there on the 38. I liked the little adjustment before he threw it. Even better. The whole thing. The whole thing. You know, place it out there. Nice touch. Uh, avoid some pressure. Step up in the pocket. I mean, here you’re seeing it right now. Yeah. I mean, that’s, you know, that’s the game, folks. That’s the game. Step up, make a throw, and that and especially there, you know, late in the game. You needed it desperately. It felt like the Dolphins were pulling away. You’re starting to feel like felt like if that pass is incomplete, that’s that’s the second three and 0 to the second half. Miami is going to take the two school lead that they take all the time down there in the second half and that would have been game set match. So, you can’t really understate that play. Yeah. Mike, you want to go next? I’d love to go next. Uh, I’m going to say Raandre Stevenson. Um, you know, you might remember in the pregame show on the field today. Remember in the pregame show when, you know, I picked him to go under 40 yards. Uh but to reiterate, you know, his stats, 11 for 54 on the ground, a 5.9 average with along a 21 that you maybe skewed those a tiny bit, but five catches on five targets, 88 yards that long being 55. So, uh you know, Raandre just a great I don’t want to call it a bounceback game. Um but I will call it a bounceback game in terms of where he was last year and the fumble issues and then he had a fumble, you know, in a in a stadium practice earlier this year. Uh, and so for him to come out and, you know, again, Paul, it’s And I don’t know. I again, I’m still processing the game, but it felt a little bit like the Colts last year. It didn’t last week. It didn’t feel like they were dominant on the ground, but they stuck to it. They had some key runs here and there for sure like the Colts did. Uh, but it wasn’t an overall dominant running game effort. It was just they stayed balanced. They stuck with it. They didn’t become one-dimensional. And when it came time to, you know, make some plays, I think down there near the end, he had a nine yard run. Yeah, the numbers weren’t great, but they but they were good enough. And like you said, and we talked about in the pregame, they stuck with it. Uh 29 carries as opposed to 18. Um you know, and some of that is May. May had 10 carries as opposed to whatever three or four last week. Um but you know, just I I thought Reandra Stevenson was the best player on the field today. Yep. Either team. Good. Good for him. It’s been a while since we’ve said that. You know, Brandon Aubrey just made like a million yard field goal to send the Cowboys and Giants to overtime. No lightning delays and no overtime. So, those are two other things on the up on the good list. So, I I had both May and Stevenson on my list. Um I I’m going to I’m going to go and just go back to the very beginning of the game, which now seems like three weeks ago. Um I I thought the um just the plan to start the game offensively, the mix of run and pass, um the you know, the decision to go for a fourth and three from the 43 yardd line um on the was it the first drive? first or second drive uh touchdown, you know, fourth down. Yeah. I just thought it was just, you know, the coaching at the start of the game again, I thought was the opposite of last week with conviction. You know, we’re going to do that. We’re going to we’re going to throw, we’re going to run. We’re going to stick with the run even if they stop a run and then we’re going to go for it on fourth down. Uh you know, I just I I really like the mix for Josh McDaniels and I’m going to give Mike Greyel. You know, the fourth down is obviously the head coach’s decision, but I love the mix with with Mike Greybel, the little touchdown to M. Collins. Nice little design on that play. Get him off uh nice easy throw, easy play. Um just really nice mix to start the game. Not enough consistency, but really like the the plan at the start of the game. Yeah, I I just just to piggyback, I had the fourth and three. I just like that aggressive coming out of the gate kind of feel feel like you hit that early in the game and it’s like how are we going to attack this game? And you know, here was the play right here to Diggs. The May was able to to find him. So, you know, just it’s plays like this that just that build confidence between those two guys, between Drake and and certainly with the coaches that they’re going to execute those plays when when they call them. Another add to the good list. I guess we’ll do honor bro mention Antonio Gibson that 90 yard kickoff return for a TD. Just Oh yeah, you don’t you don’t just get one. You get I’m learning the rules. You see the clip and Paul’s got like three more. You get as many as you want. Okay, I’ll keep going then. And absolutely Antonio Gibson, you you win the game. you get on the good list. Right. Exactly. That’s crazy though sequence though just to see I mean did not expect that. just as a fan like it just kind of brings me back to some of the old Patriots games when you know there wouldn’t be a lot of defensive stops like you know Tom Brady Pton Manning some of those games where it just was big play after big play and then to answer you know a punt return kickoff again a punt return for a touchdown again when it feels like you’re hanging on the ropes a little bit and then you come right through seconds later with this really just tough run I mean Antonio Gibson just pure desire accelerating out of the out of the pack there poor number Looks like me running in high school trying to catch somebody who actually has some speed. So, was that the run where Vapor was running down the sideline as well? Yeah. Had to go get my guy, right? Check on him. Um, I see what you did there, Jules. Yeah. Yeah. Um, what else you you up again, Paul? Or who’s up again? Am I up again? Uh, if you have one. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Uh, I’m going to put Harold Landry on there. I just, you know, and look, I two weeks in a row, I can say like I don’t have a lot of defensive players. No, for sure. I think that’s going to be in our bad conversation. Not even sure he played, but you know, we’re kind of in the play territory. Uh, and you know, for me that uh that third and seven uh we had to set up the fourth and nine at the end that where Mapu intercepted. I mean, I just I felt like that was a key moment in the game. Usually, I’d like to have a few checks next to a guy before I put him on the good list, but I felt like in crunch time, you come through with with a big play like that, you got the edge. Um, I’m going to give a little shout out to Harold Landry. I think you put them together. Mapu and also Milton Williams ending the game with that sack that kind of just solidified the game cuz we thought this was going into overtime. So I think the three of them Paul’s crazy prediction. I was waiting for the guy to I I thought Miami would score and miss the extra point just the way the game was was going. But yeah, I mean Miami just refused to score. I mean, let’s call it what it was. They can’t even line up and snap the ball. Like on the last two drives, they just went backwards. Yeah. You know, all on their own. Uh, I’m going to give the I don’t have anything good to say really about the defense except for this one thing that I put on my good list. They did something in like the middle of the third quarter, late in the third quarter into the fourth quarter where they made some sort of adjustment in run defense and they they started to create some second and nines instead of second and threes. Um I don’t know exact and I’m not Evan so I’m not gonna hit sit here and break it down and tell you exactly what they did differently but um they were able to bottle up Han a little bit. Um he ends up with 11 carries for 30 yards and he got off to a good start in in the game. So I think that they created some longer distance uh second downs and third downs and um mostly it didn’t work. they converted them anyway um until they started just committing the delay of games on the fall starts to go backwards. But I’m gonna put that run some kind of a late defensive adjustment I like that that stopped the run. Um and it was maybe like four or five plays but the last handful of runs that Miami tried whether it was Malik Washington or uh Achan they seemed to bottle up. Yeah. And something changed because all their runs were successful in the first half. I think that’s a great call out. But uh we’ll be sure when we grind the film to uh today. Yeah, I’ll leave that for you guys. You know, individual playwise, um you we didn’t really see him targeted at all all day except for the the one time, but great touchdown catch for Quan Booty. You know, you called upon once in a game, we need you to make a play. That’s a great play. Yeah, I thought it was interesting echoing the uh the call we had in the pregame show where the guys ask and you know I think we all just like I don’t know if he’s going to be that in and out but coming through clutch play but I would also call out the guy that called for the three receiver set with Holland instead of Douglas and I do think that they did use that a little bit get the offense which is what he said get him get him in the rhythm get him comfortable and I think it worked. Um I’m I’m I’m I’m done. Yeah, I’m done with the kids. Well, just one thing that you said during the game, Miami is getting in their own way. They’re unstoppable. Unstoppable and then inept. Like, it was just this perfect combination, which I think was obviously good for the Patriots, but obviously not great for Miami. Yeah. And I think this is one of those things where, you know, some of the calls were maybe a little ticky tack. Mike able to and I think both sides. So, it’s a little bit of those how is business being done? Uh, do we come out of this saying the Patriots are a sloppy team, the Dolphins are a sloppy team? Maybe a little bit, but Oh, yeah. You know, I I just there’s two bad teams today. They got to they have to improve that. I mean, they had nine penalties uh last week. I’m looking going to look right now exactly what the final numbers were. Uh today here, where is my Yeah, 12 for 75. Dolphins had 10 for 65. So, you know, I I I think the Dolphins center twice didn’t snap the ball while everybody else moved. and and twice. This is nobody on a good or bad or I guess it’s bad list for the Dolphins, but it just felt like when the Dolphins were in need to have it mode, that’s when they had they continue the last two drives, they were unstoppable all day. The last two drives when they needed to go down and kick a field goal and then get a touchdown, they’re not snapping the ball while the other 10 guys are moving. Exactly. They’re getting delayed games coming out of that. Yep. You know, because they can’t get the play in in time. That’s just uh that’s why they’re in the situation that they’re in. That’s why people are calling for the coach’s job. Mhm. Um, so that being said, going to the bad. Yeah, we better get the bad stuff before penalties is the first thing I wrote in all caps. It’s very obvious. Yeah, a lot of penalties on both sides. 12 for 75 is just inexcusable. Morgan Moses, three false starts. It’s just all over the place. Everyone had just there’s off sides, there’s false starts. Um there, you know, um holds, you know, it’s just it’s a poperri of penalties. Trayvon Henderson had three. Trayvon Henderson had three freaking penalties. Like that to me was like two holds and then a penalty on special teams. So it’s and at first I wanted to get mad because Will Campbell, we know rookie at first when I started writing my notes I was like all right that false start another false start. What’s going on? But now you realize you can’t even blame a rookie because veterans and rookies alike were just not Yeah, we’re still in the grace period. Will Campbell Sure. Exactly. I didn’t want to throw him under the bus, but yeah. No, no, no question. And I think some other rookies maybe not quite in the grace period as much. um because I’m going to, you know, throw Bor Galis on there. As much as I, you know, appreciated that hitting that field goal at the end, he was on my list, too. That was a big big part of it. But, you know, to miss two extra points in the first quarter, uh that just is unacceptable. And, you know, I said I said to Paul, we watched these guys all training camp. You know, our our friend Alex Bar is tracking every kick and you know, John Parker Roma was neck andneck with him and mo I think most people would tell you that he probably had the edge. So, uh, Boralis missed a field goal last week, missed these two kicks this week, uh, then had the kickoff at the end, which, you know, almost worse than the two missed extra points, although those those cost you points, so it’s hard to say that, but I know what you mean. Like, you’re given really good field position um to start a drive that the other team needs a touchdown, you know. Um, it it’s a tough day. I mean, good for him for showing some resolve and and and making a 53 yard, but that that this isn’t, you know, this isn’t high school and college where you’re like, “Oh, he made but he made that one.” Like, you got to make them all. You have to make them all, you know, within reason. And, you know, that’s three miss kicks, three chip shot miss kicks in in the first two weeks of the season. No, that’s not that’s not good. No, he needs a he needs to be like a quiet start. I mean, I seem to remember Steven Gassowski when he first came here in 2006, having to replace Adam Benitary, you know, just kind of made his kicks and and and got maybe a little less pressure on, I don’t know, but had Tom Brady in that that offense back then, but not good enough from Boralas. He’s he’s got to be better or they’re going to you’re going to see kickers start coming in tomorrow. And as a broadcast made sure to know he played in Miami, so he the weather was no excuse. This is your own stadium. Get out of here. Absolutely. Yeah. Any other bads? Yeah, I have a lot. Um defense a lot of bads. could probably individually go to all 11 guys on defense, but I won’t do that. Um, let’s go with the special teams, uh, just in general. Mike mentioned the kicks missing, which I don’t necessarily count as special teams, even though it is. Um, you get penalties again, uh, multiple penalties on special teams. You allow a 70 whatever yard punt return um, to fall behind in the second half and the fourth quarter. Um, now I know that again, they bounce back. This isn’t high school again. It’s not like, well, they did okay. No, no, you can’t allow punt returns for touchdowns. Yeah. Um they got, you know, earlier in the game you get just a ridiculous uh holding call on a punt where, you know, you ended up having, you know, to rekick it and and you got fortunate that you got a really good rekick. But that’s that’s a dangerous situation down in Miami in that heat to have to cover two punts in a row. They were lucky it only cost them three yards cuz it they would have had it at the 41. and they ended up with the 44 only because Baringer really got a nice bomb off the second time around. But just too much sloppiness I think overall in the kicking game. That’s that needs to be better. I ask you a question just a second. You can ask any question you want, Mike. Do you think with these new kickoff rules we’re seeing a little bit more of what the NFL might want and people missing the zone, kicks getting returned? I mean, you know, no, the kickoff returns. Yeah. Like it’s getting a little more hairy with these kickoffs now. You mentioned that. I I just would wonder, you know, at what point does do these teams just decide why are we overthinking this? It’s at the 35 yd line as opposed to the 30 last year. Just kick it in the end zone, right? Give them the 35. We’re worrying about finding the landing zone, then we miss it and it’s out to the 40. You know, just like if if if this is that this much of a problem, you know, Gibson had a situation where he really had a hard time um he had a hard time handling one at the end of the half, which I thought there was like 35 seconds left in the half after Miami scored the touchdown um to get within 154. I thought they had a chance to maybe get a two-minute drive going and Gibson mishandles that and end up starting at their own four. So, they have to take the knee. Yeah. But I I think you make a good point, Mike. I think they might be overthinking a little bit. Just like kick it in into the end zone and let them decide if they want to return it or not. But the the special teams have been sloppy in the in the first couple of weeks is they’ve made some good plays, too. You know, like Antonio Gibson won a game for you today. Exactly. And then Boragalis, like I said, good for him for responding and making a 53 yard, but this can’t be a couple of good, couple of bad. That’s not good special teams. That’s inconsistent special teams. No. What else do you have? Uh, end of first half. Uh, I said it to Paul when they got the ball back. It was just before the two-minute warning. And, you know, just situational football has been something that’s, uh, haunted me over the last couple years. It just feels like there’s too much time. And I wish I could say I was surprised. Um, but I was surprised it only took six plays to go 77 yards. Um, just that was a continuation of the first drive that they scored, 883, then 677. I mean, you know, Miami, other than the two punts that they had, uh, they had extended drives, eight plays, six plays, seven plays, nine plays, nine plays, seven plays, you know, they were they were stringing it all together. But that end of half situation, I just, you know, we got to find a way for this team to be able to close things out and get into the locker room without giving up a late score. And, you know, really, I think the arrow points more directly to the defense as a whole. Uh, just not, you know, great day for them to was was tough. again. I mean, this is this is what he does to these Patriots teams, but but the half especially give up points people going in the locker room. Yeah, that the tackling overall defensively has been really shoddy. Um, you know, they’re very fortunate that Han steps out of bounds by a half a width of a foot really on his own. It’s not like he was forced out of bounds. He was making a cut and he just lost track of where he was or that, you know, the Patriots are going to be trailing with a minute left in the game. Um, so I thought Christian Ellis his tackling was was tough. Robert Spelain’s tackling was really bad. Um, and Alex Austin, I think, really struggled today. Uh, coverage. I thought he lost Wadd. Uh, he lost Tyreek Hill and was fortunate that the pass was so underthrown that Hill had to come back to get it. Um, but the defense today was just not good. And they had really almost no pressure until the desperation times at the end of the game again that were created by the Dolphins. Yeah. Yeah, the false starts and the delay of games at the end of the game set up Milton Williams and Harold Landry’s success. Yeah, that that this play that play that they just showed there, the bomb to to Hill, that’s when I really thought things were going bad. Open all day and even like after one of the I I think the the false start delay a game on the second to last drive. Um yeah, I mean you see how far behind Austin he is on that play and he had to come back and get it. But even um there there was a throw that he makes to Tyreek Hill on second and 20 or first and 20 after the combination platter of the false start and delay a game the first time around. He has him wide open just throws it over his head. Yeah. So I just I know that without Christian Gonzalez. I said this last week. He’s your best player. You’re missing him. It should look better theoretically if he’s in there. But what what is in there hasn’t looked very good to me. I mean, I know they this is another day they probably only allowed 20 points. Everybody’s going to hang their hat on that, but I mean, geez, they forced six incomplete passes the whole day. Another guy throws for 300 yards on you. That’s that’s what I found myself thinking as I’m watching this is I’m like, is is Gonzalez enough? Is this enough of a boost? Because they they just they were they were behind it a lot today. So, and they didn’t even have the ball in the first half. The Patriots controlled the ball for what 22 minutes of the first half and they still allowed 14 points. Yep. Yep. So, one thing we didn’t get to mention in the fir the pregame show is Terrell Williams being out the defensive coordinator. What role do you think that played, especially as we lament over the frustration of watching these this defense today? Yeah, I mean, if they had played better last week defensively, I would say that was a big factor, but I I I don’t know. I mean, it’s certainly not ideal to not have your defensive coordinator. Um, they spent a good chunk of the offseason um under the same um guidelines they had today with Zack Core running the show. Um, I thought, um, to Mike’s point about Harold Landry and Milton Williams at the end, I mean, they they did something. They adjusted in some way, um, with the game on the line to to come up with enough plays. So, I I’ll give them credit for that, but I I don’t know how much of a difference it would have been with Terrell Williams to quantify. And just to, you know, just to point out, Terrell Williams calling plays for the first time in his career last week. And then Zack Cor is calling plays for the first time in his career. You know, I I don’t know. It it looked like Tua to me. That’s what he usually looks like. We were at the point where anytime he threw the ball in rhythm, I’m like, “Yep, that’s going to be complete.” Like, you just tell. And even today, I mean, and Nate did a good job of pointing this out. As many times as I can remember with Tua, he was patting the ball, looking around, and still finding guys. Usually, that’s not his strength. Usually, it’s the the guy I want to go to first is there, and the throw the throw is quick, and Mike and I just looking, well, that’s going to get complete. the but today it’s like he’s looking left, he’s looking right, he’s coming back, he’s dumping it off, and he saw the field pretty well today. He just unfortunately at the end of the game they couldn’t make one more play. But yeah, um you know, and I I want to throw in uh Kavon Chase on too very early in the game, first third down of the game, you come up with a pick and he lines up offside. Yeah. To negate that end up being offsetting penalties. Um, but I mean just you can’t do that. You know, it’s not like, you know, an illegal hand to the face. Oh, your hand got caught up high, you know, was inadvertent. It happens. You know, like you lined up in the neutral zone twice he did it. But that play was was really big because it cost them a turnover early in the game. Yeah. Well, I don’t know. Uh, just not good defense. Yeah, I think I think I think you’ve uh I think you’ve nailed it. I don’t know if I have anybody more specific, but I would echo e echo those, you know, general sentiments, especially of just the penalties, the sloppiness, the untimeliness of some of those penalties, and just overall, you know, better fundamentals on defense, the tackling and uh, you know, and just the linebackers, too. Need more out of those guys, hoping for more today. And and they got picked on just like our big slow linebackers got picked on with these guys. All right. Well, the good the silver lining, I guess, is the fact that they did break that streak from two a seven and0 now. matters. So, they don’t have to I mean, at least if nothing else, they don’t have to hear about that. Exactly. It’s just a random stat that someone I’d have felt a lot better if it looked different than this, but I don’t care. They needed a win. They needed They were desperate. The franchise was desperate. And it was an extremely entertaining game. It really was. It like I couldn’t wrap my head around it. It was just back. It was emotional. Usually the little write up I do for the game isn’t that long. It’s like a novel today cuz it was just back and forth and scoring and scoring and scoring and you know I feel like sometimes aside from the mistakes, this is the kind of game the NFL wants. You know, you got special team scores and you got it coming right down to the end. It’s it’s exciting. Make sure you go read that write up by the way. Yeah, rabbit recap should already be up there. He was working hard. Let me know if there’s any typos. Um so just uh for injured um I had uh Craig Woodson got looked at, came back. Yeah. Carl Davis got looked at, came back and Christian Bar came back. Did I hear you say Marty Mapoo? Marty Mu, but he came back. He came back too, I think. Um, and then Chop Robinson went to the 10, but I think he came back out for Miami as well. I was giving both. You could do the other team on your own. Um, but I I definitely felt like it was a typical Miami game. The heat was was a factor. You could see the defense on the sideline there at one point. Um, there was a lot of fans going over there. So, I think they got worn down a little bit. Um it listen there was just a lot of twists and turns in that game. Um hats off for the Patriots, you know, sort of staying the course and sticking with it. Mhm. Um I think there was times in this game in years past I always said they’re going to lose this game and it probably you can’t ever do this but it probably comes down to that one third third and whatever four or five um where May just buys a split second of time to find Stevenson on that pass down the sideline. If that’s an incomplete pass I’m here to tell you I think the Patriots lose this game and I don’t think it’s close. I think Miami takes over up 20 to 15. They probably make it 2715 and here we go. You you know exactly what’s in my head, Paul. I’m looking exact looking at that thing. I’m like, “Oh, boy.” Cuz I felt at that point Miami had taken control of the game. Yeah, it did seem like for sure. How could you not? I mean, that’s you know, you go you come out out of the locker or not out of the locker room, but you go three and out in your first possession for the Patriots. You know, they they needed that one. Third and three. If that’s incomplete, you’re punting from deep in your own end. Dolphins have probably taken over around their 30, you know, 35, you know, decent field position coming back the other way and they hadn’t really been stopped. Yeah. Feel good for too though. I kind of said it already, but just, you know, the guy best player in the field getting beaten up a lot. And I mean, I I I don’t have it off the top of my head, but you’d probably have to go back pretty good into last year, if not the year before when you found him being as productive as he was in this game. And this to me looked like that’s a great throw, too, for I mean, I know it’s a great catch, too. It’s not an easy catch for a running back, especially up there. And right when he throw it, I I was wondering if he was going to be able to get it over. I felt really good for him because there was a lot of we need to flip-flop the roles. It’s got to be Henderson. It’s got to be Henderson. No disrespect to Henderson, but I didn’t see anything that Raandre Stevenson did wrong last week to get the amount of criticism that he got during the course of this week. And I’ll obviously I feel really good for Drake May because early in his career, you know, last year was the honeymoon when he had a, you know, a second half like he did last week. Last last year it was like ah he’s he’s a rookie. All of a sudden he’s one game out of his rookie year and it’s like well we need results now you know and I’m not making fun of anybody. We were all doing it too. I’m not this is not like my normal you know crap all over the media for me. We like their rationale because we were all doing it too. So, it was this is a nice bounceback game for for both of those guys. I thought May and Stevenson. Yeah. I I just this is a place that if Drake May is going to be the guy, he’s going to have to play there a lot. He’s going to have to win there. So, to get one under his belt, it’s a place, you know, Tom Brady, remember famous 2003, that overtime win that he had there. This wasn’t the win that JJ McCarthy had last week when you could all point to him and everyone in the locker room was like, “This is the guy.” But, you know, just to get that box kind of checked and say, “Hey, you know, you’ve won one in Miami.” uh let’s go do it again because he’s going to have to go there every year and and play these kind of games. And let’s face it, whether it’s Tua or Damarino or whoever, this is how it kind of looks. These games are crazy. Mark and Cheddar sent us an email talking about Drake May. He said, “Just to check in, was this officially May’s first fourth quarter comeback in a game where he literally had zero to do with coming back from behind in the fourth?” An example of why I hate that stat. And also adding in, I’m assuming the CBS broadcast is on the bad list for the It is actually not. The Patriots were leading heading into the fourth quarter. There we go. There you go. Stupid kickoff return. Was that what did I don’t know but yeah, you know that’s like where you get Yeah. But fourth quarter comebacks are tabulated by who’s leading going into the fourth quarter. The official stat now if they went seven plays for 75 yards while down 2723 instead of I I would say no no no that counts as a comeback in this one though. Yeah. I I can’t go with a kickoff return. We don’t have to get too carried away. A win a win’s a win and this and the more important thing is your quarterback played a good game today. Yeah, he did. You know, and I know that Mark is not saying, oh, like it’s all about the comeback, but the quart they needed to see him and he I think he needed to to see, you know, the basketball analogy of the ball going through the hoop. He he was good today. I mean, 19 for 23, 230 yards. He he did a good job today. Um, the only play I would put on him at all, which I didn’t like, and I liked I didn’t mind the play call, but second down on the last drive after the Mapu interception, you need a first down. I love throwing the ball. You know this, Mike. I’m always like like to be very aggressive in those situations. That play needs to be a play action and a guy’s wide open. And if he’s not wide open, I want him either to um find a way to run or just drop down and take the sack because the more important thing there is to keep the clock running. Mhm. Um that was thrown first of all with a guy too close to M. Holland for my liking. Um and the incomplete pass hurt you. Yeah. You can’t take the incomplete like that’s like he’s undercut. I think that’s Jack Jones too. Um don’t throw out on him. He’s sort of undercutting there looking for you to make a bad play. That’s the only play that I would have a problem with Drake May’s decision making at all today. Yeah, I the only one. I agree. That was the one. Thought he had a really clean slate today. Missing a chance. But yeah, like I didn’t see anything close to an interception or a turnover. No. And even uh taking sacks like sometimes, you know, it’s like I’ll just I’ll take the sack. Cover the ball up, take the sack, live to fight another try to do too much. So maybe some growth there from from Young Drake and uh you know, validation, which just important. Yeah. We’re going to hear from Antonio Gibson in just a second. We’re going to have a conversation with him. But while we wait, let’s talk to Steve, who’s actually down in Miami right now. See what he has to say. Hi, Steve. Oh, Steve. Steve is partying away. Are you still there, Steve? Oh, no. All right. Nate in Connecticut. How are you doing, Steve? Are we good? Yes, we hear you. Hey, Nate. All right. Uh, brace you guys. Uh, brace yourselves, but let’s go. You know, we won. That was our game today. Let’s go. Uh, you know, we we did have some slobiness with like the kicks and, you know, the defense, but that that of course is fixable. Um, I do have one critique. I feel like we could have used uh Kan Booty a little more. Uh, did he leave? We lost them. We lost them. Um, yeah. All right. I’m not here for that. We got He had four incomplete passes in the game. I don’t I don’t mind who they threw to. All right. So, Antonio Gibbs is calling in right now. Welcome to the show. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Antonio. Uh, congratulations on the win. Just, uh, gota ask you about the kickoff return though. What did you see there and and how were you able to break away and deliver that big score? Um, the guys was talking on the sideline. Um, Jack was telling me, his guy kept going outside and the forward my read was telling me he he was just staying head up. Gibby was telling me he was staying head up. So, I said I was just going to trust it. Run straight. I ran straight. ran into the back of him, end up breaking out. Man, that the rest was was that Antonio, did you realize you needed to also outrun Mike Vrael down the sideline on on the play? I keep I keep hearing that. I need to run faster if he was close to me. No, he looked like he was going to run you down. I’m not going to lie. He still looks like he can play. I need to speed up. Antonio, just what are your thoughts on this new kickoff this year where they tweaked the rules a little bit because it seems like we’re seeing a lot more, you know, balls not landing in the kick zone or getting returned. It just it seems like this play is now being what the NFL wants it to be and and actually being impactful in the game. Yeah. Um I think this is what they tried to do last year. They wanted more returns, but I I feel like they set it up nice this year. Um so if they do kick it in the zone, it’s a it’s a big penalty. So um you see a lot of more kids being taken out and I’m pretty sure you’ll see a lot more plays being made this year. And Tony, there are a lot of ups and downs in this game. I’m sure obviously being on the field is a different perspective than we had, but how do you stay in the game in a game like this where you know your opponent is just as hungry for a win like that? Uh man, just the preparation. Um it’s not easy to win in this league. Um it’s not not a lot of games where you’re going to get a lot of blowouts. So, uh you just got to know that to come from experience. Um all week, man. Braves was telling us we was going to be in a fight and that’s exactly what it was and we came out on the on the win. What was it like to be in a game like this though where it’s just so crazy back and forth? I mean, is it fun for you guys? Like, I just And and what can this game do for a young team looking for an identity like you guys right now? Um, just to see what type of teammates you got, man. Um, a lot of people can either fold or or you can or you can rise to the top and man, you can fight like like he preached all week and um that’s exactly what we did, man. Uh, everybody was tired, but we put our we put it to the side and um we we fought to the end and that’s exactly what you need throughout the season. Antonio, offensively you guys obviously got off to a tremendous start, but you know what was the biggest difference in in the amount of uh production you guys were able to generate today as opposed to the opener. Um just moving on to the next play, man. Today wasn’t perfect at all, but um you know, when when guys names were called, um we made a play. Um you know, shout out to Mandre. I feel like that catch right there was probably like the a big momentum changer in the game and um he got us going. Um we just kept rolling from there, man. And um I feel like that’s all it takes. Ray talked about that too. Um it just takes one play and um I feel like he made that for us and then um you know they made a play and then you got to respond in uh in the game and then I made one. So you know things like that man and the defense you know even though they gave up some they made a play, they stopped the drive and um they got us on the field. Well, Antonio, thank you so much for checking in with us and congrats on the win. All right. Thank you so much. Congrats Antonio. Yeah, I mean I I think he’s with us on on the key play of the game. He’s with us. He’s with us. He’s one of us. He’s he’s with us now. No, it’s good. I, you know, I really like him. Uh, just I think he’s, you know, he’s not a superstar, but like he gets out there and he delivers. You know, had a couple big runs, delivers on special teams. You know, didn’t play much last week, but but is still ready to go. Uh, and that’s, I think, a sign of, you know, good team having a stable of backs that, you know, guy might be down one week, but he’s back up the next week delivering plays, helping the team win. Uh, here’s my quirky stat of the day. You know, the Patriots had two receivers today make one catch that both went for touchdowns. It’s I mean, the bizarness of this this game, I just I I can’t quite wrap my head around it entirely. I think you’ll have to process it overnight. You’re just going back and forth. And, you know, we’re also prisoners of like what’s happened in recent years. So, you’re kind of, you know, you don’t expect the best. I’m sure like back in the day when Paul was sitting here in the mid 2000s, he’s like, “When are we gonna win?” Like, you know, I’m kind of like, “All right, where’s the interception going?” you know, but but this team played a different Yeah, I just felt like I don’t know why I felt a little different during the course of this game. Now, I certainly changed as the game went on, but I felt very good about the game itself, the way the Patriots offense was playing. I didn’t think Miami had any answers defensively at all. Um, and then, you know, credit Miami, they, you know, everybody said if they fall behind, you know, they’ll tuck tail and run, and they didn’t. Yeah, they got up off the mat. they took the lead and I think were really on the verge of taking control of the game and then hats off to to Drake May and Reandre Stevenson for changing that tide and then Antonio Gibson who we just spoke to about it um you know turns in the play of the game with the kick return just I like I liked how Mike McDaniel pointed that out too. It seemed like he was like and I just liked him Ryan we we didn’t give up they’re still fighting for me. Uh curious what the fallout will be like in Miami this week though because I mean that offense obviously looked way better than they looked last week against the Colts but not good enough and you know mistake filled game weird game you know do you are you still feeling like we got to blow it all up or do they still start to feel like well maybe it’s kind of their style because they’re probably going to get waxed on Thursday night and be 0 and three and then it’ll be you know see how they respond with Buffalo. Oh, they had the fans today. The fans that paid for the banner overhead. Like the fans are already fed up. So to your point, I don’t Well, he’s not going to be the coach next year. It’s just a matter of whether or not he’s going to make it through this year. Exactly. All right. Steve is in Miami one more time. Stop partying, Steve. Okay. Can you hear me? Yeah, we hear you now. Okay. First of all, great show. Second of all, even better show with a victory. Um, I I’m happy that somebody brought up the badge with Robert Spellain. Two straight uh plays in the fourth quarter. He missed tackles. He bumped a guy instead of tackling him. Uh, but I also want to ask you what you think will happen with Bergas. I know that they’re going to give him a chance and all that, but yes, he made the 53 footer uh yard, I should say, but he could have easily been the reason why the Patriots lost today. So, do they I think Romo is just on a uh practice squad. Do they bring him back just to sign him as a possibility or what do you think is going to happen with the kicking game? And and I hope he does well because my urologist is a relative for Galia. So, I don’t want him to get upset at me next time visit him. Thanks, Steve. Thanks, Steve. Great question. Uh I well I I do think Romo got elevated u by the Falcons. So if he does well today, I I don’t know. I I I said at the end of camp that I would have held on to him just as some insurance. And like I said, I don’t think it’s out of the question that maybe they have a kicker or two in tomorrow for tryyous. Maybe they sign one to the practice squad just to give him a little bit of competition to remind him, yeah, that this is the NFL and and that you, you know, you’re you’re only a couple kicks away from your last kick with a team, especially when you are missing key points and and things like on the extra points. Uh so big. [Music] So I don’t think I don’t think it’s anything drastic. I don’t think they’re going to cut Boralis or anything like that, but I would not be surprised maybe to see a little bit of competition this week uh and give another kicker for the coaches to take a look at and compare some of these kicks to. The real question is, are you going to try out? I can’t kick. I have really tight hamstrings. I will not be kicking anything. All right. No deuce kicking. All right. Christian is back in LA. Hi, Christian. Hey, you guys. What a victory. I think it’s been what, eight years since we won. So, so let’s let’s count it. Or let me ask you guys, does this count as us getting the monkey off our back? Getting this victory. Does it have to be a certain kind of victory or is it any victory down there means the monkeyy’s off our back? No, they won. Win is a win. Yeah. I mean, a win’s a win. What’s What? Like he’s That’s a win. I know. I know that heel turn thing that he’s trying for, but like what are we doing? They won in Miami. We’re happy they did. But but I think it’s the first time they won since 2019 in Miami. Like what what are they going to say? No asterisk. It’s it’s not really a win. Of course it’s a win. No, it’s it’s it’s great for this season. I think this will continue to be a difficult place to play and you’ll continue to have major challenges every time you go down there. But for the 2025 season, uh you pulled off a win in Miami and that’s uh great great for Drake May, great for Mike Frabel and uh we’ll see how they build off of it. Yeah. I mean I would love to sit here and tell you that they’ll never lose again. No, I I would love to tell you that like that that was a near perfect performance today by the Patriots on in all aspects of the game and they went down to Miami and and they beat a really good Miami team. I don’t think any of those things are true other than the fact that they won the game. Yep. And that’s the only thing that matters. They’re 1-1 instead of 0 and2. You’re playing a game next week um in against Pittsburgh. Usually we get to the second half of the show before we start looking ahead. But uh Pittsburgh looked thoroughly uh average in a bad loss at home today um to a good not great Seattle team, but I made a comment uh I think in the pregame that Aaron Rogers had four touchdowns last week against the Jets, but I don’t think he played all that well when I went back and watched some of the the replays of stuff and he struggled today. So that’s a game that I think a lot of people said, “Well, that’s a loss.” I don’t think it’s a loss. I think these are all toss-up games. And what do I always tell you, Mike? When you have 8, 10, 12 toss-up games, you’re going to win half of them. 55th of throw. Yeah. Yeah. If you’re if you’re okay, I mean, if you’re a really good team, you win, you know, you have 12 tossup games and you’re a really good team, you’re going 11 and one in those games. But if you’re just sort of one of the one of the teams, you you’re going to you want to go six and six. Yeah. Yeah. Right now, they’re one and one in toss-up games. Yeah. 50-50. Yeah. The way it goes, uh, you know, it echoes just some of the thoughts because, you know, uh, kind of gravitate towards the defensive side of the ball. Uh just I’ve been disappointed these first couple weeks. Um you know I thought Chaon had a really good camp. I think he’s been you know he’s had some plays but but mostly been invisible. Um you know Splain had 150 tackles in the last each of the last two seasons in in Vegas. Haven’t really seen that you know. Um so I just I I’m a little disappointed overall. I feel like they would have been better on defense and I think you know when you look at all the the rankings and all that kind of stuff that they’re going to be near the bottom of the league with with a lot of this stuff because they just they haven’t been able to get stops. They’ve been giving up big plays. I mean, Miami only had the ball for 26 minutes today and they had 358 yards of offense. Yeah. So, it’s uh you know, I think some of the players are making plays at times. Mil Williams makes a play at a time. Christian Bar makes a play at a time. But that that might be the best that might be what you can have to hope for. You know, can you come up with a play when when you have to? Can you figure out a way to get a stop? You know, you mentioned Williams on the last fourth down. Um the previous uh third downer was Landry to set up the fourth down where Tua just has to throw it up for grabs and Mapu picks it off. So not great defense, but when they had to have a play, you know, the Patriots had a fourth and three early in the game. Miami couldn’t stop anything all day. They weren’t able to make a play on fourth and three. Yeah. You know, so maybe that’s the that’s what you’re hoping for. I know a lot of people thought this defense was going to be, you know, leading to 17 13 wins. I never saw that kind of a defense. But again, I want to hold out final judgment until I see what it looks like when Gonzalez is playing. For sure. And I mean, again, that’s my whole like what is it? How much of a difference does he make? Does his presence help boost things? Does the trickle down effect help things in matchups? Um, but I’d say on the flip side of that coin, second straight game where I didn’t feel like pass protection was an absolute disaster. They got some pressure at times. They got some sacks, but you know, I think there’s a pocket and I think Drake May is the difference there. I think just the little bit of experience that he has like that play that we keep harping on because it was such a big play immediate pressure. No one no like no one stopped him but he’s there and he recognizes it. I’m okay. I’m all right. I’m all right. I know a lot of people were saying that he was he seemed to be reacting to the pressure. I didn’t see that last week as much as people were were making out to be. I think he does a nice job of sort of navigating the pocket. And I I’d wonder too with the McDaniels offense where it’s kind of on the quarterback to set protections and do those things if maybe he has a growing comfort in understanding those concepts a little bit better putting himself in position to be successful and you know just being more in control than whereas last year when the center’s calling out protections and all that. Maybe he didn’t quite understand it. I’m just speculating right now. But um you know just to me I thought it’s especially considering you know two rookies we’ve had some issues at center. Bad snap. I mean, that probably could have made the list, too. Oh, yeah. Um, but, you know, but overall, I think I think the pass protection and just the overall functionality of the offense has been a little bit better than I might have expected. And the defense has maybe been a little bit worse, which is surprising because Mike Vrabel defense, you figure he’s got his guys. He knows what he wants. He changed everything. He brought a lot of guys in. But I think the message from last week was they got a ways to go on defense personnel wise and and I think that was again the case here today. That being said, how do the Pats adjust their defense accordingly? That’s what’s going to keep me up tonight. I know. Will we please write us? Write some more for us. No. And and and look, you know, Paul and I joke a lot because we just, you know, it’s offense that matters and scoring points and being if you can move the ball and score points and you feel good about your offense, I’ll kind of take what comes on defense. And you know, like today was a good example of it wasn’t great, but when you needed a couple plays and crunch time, those guys made the play. So, you can live with that. But, uh, you know, I I I don’t know what the answer is. It’s it’s really quite interesting to to kind of follow because it’s a different kind of defense to week two than we’ve really followed before and you know those old defenses under Bill Belch and Gerard Mayo were always like game plan defenses and we’re going to switch it up and so on one hand you never really knew what to expect week to week and maybe that was good maybe it was bad but you at least knew that they were going to change it up whereas with this defense it feels like they are what they are and and they definitely do some different things but it just hasn’t quite been consistent enough and you know giving up the big plays especially in in key moment moments. They got to nip that stuff in the Well, and I and I would have thought today you can’t get much more support from your offense than they got in the first half today. Yeah. And they were still powerless. Yeah. You know, they they opened the game with a three and out and then the next two drives were as easy touchdown drives as you’re going to get that that they came up with. So, I think if you have a reasonably competent quarterback, this team’s going to have a hard time stopping you. I just don’t see I don’t I don’t see a lot of a lot of playmakers. Yeah. No, I think that’s a great way to put it. They just and that and that was what was going on. Even the broadcasters were saying it during the game where New England just needs somebody to make a play, you know, and that kind of goes into Christian Nales. He’s the kind of player that that makes plays and, you know, going forward that’s what you got to look at on the defensive side of the ball. You’re gonna have to put players on there who can make plays and figure out that identity. All right. Alex is in Greece. Hello, Alex. What time is it in Greece? You can ask. What time is it in Greece, Alex? It’s close uh it’s it’s close to grease. Uh close to midnight, actually. You’re a real one. Respect. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. No, I’ve gotten used to it, you know. I uh it’s definitely late games. Absolutely. So my question is, uh, so you guys just talked about May like right before I called, so you kind of answered like a lot of my questions and how he played, but um, are you guys still a bit let down that he kind of missed that last pass? I know it’s just one moment. It’s not like defining the whole game, but not at all. He was covered like a blanket. I didn’t want him trying to force that in. There was good coverage on that last pass. Do you think that maybe Do you think it’s a throw that he should have made though, even though it was I would have liked to have seen him take the sack to keep the clock running? That’s the only decision I would I would question. But no, that trying to jam that in there is running a risk of a pick. Jack Jones was underneath Matt Collins. I was going to say it’s like he floated it in there. I didn’t say he jammed it like it was like when I saw the velocity he threw that ball with, I’m like, that’s a pick. I didn’t want to see him try to jam that in there. No. Yeah. So, do you guys like the play call then? I like the play call, but if it’s not there, you have to take the sack. Keep the clock running. Okay. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. Like if if you run, that play to me is designed. We know they’re selling out for the run. We’re going to go play action here and it’s going to fool them and we’re going to slip a tight end or in this case it’s M. Collins who’s kind of like a tight end out into the flat. No one’s going to be covering them and we’re going to have an easy pitching catch. It ain’t there. They didn’t they didn’t fall for it. Jack Jones was on him. So I want to either say Drake, try to make a play with your legs or just slide down. Just slide down and and and take the sack. So my last question is in that case, do you think maybe they should have done like play action where they ran May to the side or something? I was hoping that maybe they’d do some deception, but can we can we get the play up? Maybe Chris, if we could get that last that that play in the last drive up again. Maybe I’m forgetting the play. Thanks for taking my call. Second down incompletion. The second down incompletion on the second on the last possession for the Patriots. Am I unless I’m No, that’s that’s that should be it I think. Okay. Because then, yeah, I mean, I don’t know. I’m trying to remember now. I um I could have done with maybe a couple more uh May designed runs perhaps in some of those situations. Yeah, they didn’t have any designed runs today for him. Uh also say maybe maybe that would have been a call. Here you go. That would have been a call. I missed it. Yeah. See, I if he’s jamming that in there, that runs the risk. See, that’s a play action. That is a play action play, but it’s not it’s not a good throw. But I I wonder if he’s looking he sees Jack Jones is like, “Oh god, we got to throw this away.” Mhm. Um Yeah. I I don’t hate the call. I like throwing for that first down. I don’t like saying we’re going to run it three times and punt and play it on defense. I don’t like that. But it wasn’t there. So I think there needs to be something better for May to do other than, you know, throw an incomplete pass. That kind of that hurts. The incomplete pass there hurts. No. And I think your your comment on taking the sack there. That’s I mean it’s not quite graduate level quarterbacking, but I think that that’s, you know, that’s an experience kind of thing where if it’s not there, take the sack, you know, or like remember Brady on the sidelines like if it’s not there, take a delay game, take a delay game, you know, like those are the kind of things you don’t really necessarily always think through. So yeah, I was trying to remember because I knew that was second down. I was trying to remember what happened on third down. He threw a pass short of the sticks to Diggs on third down. Um, yeah. I mean, it’s certainly worth a second guess. I know what Alex is saying. Um, you know, you if if you’re going to do that. I just don’t think the pass was the play was there. I think No, Jack Jones was not fooled. No. On the play, Matt. Collins thought he held. Oh, maybe. Okay, so maybe there maybe that’s why he wasn’t fooled. Maybe he was fooled and he reached out and held and he got away with it. Matt Matt Collins came up with the I didn’t see it on the replay, but that’s what he said. Yeah. So, maybe maybe that’s why Jack Jones was in such good position. Maybe he he cheated like they did in every other play in that game. Both teams, by the way. Right. I mean, 22 penalties. That doesn’t even count the ones that were declined. Exactly. That was a long game. All right, let’s take it to CJ in Kansas City or KC where Kansas City. It’s probably Hello. Yeah. Hello. Uh yeah, so my my thoughts are um you know, all the talk uh before the season began was talking talking up the defense quite a lot and saying like could there be a top 15, top 10? And uh I know that when Christian Gonzalez comes back, it’s going to be better, but do you guys actually see maybe since you know we saw the offense actually putting some some points together today, too. Do you do you think that perhaps the offense could actually rank ahead of the defense by the end of the year? Yeah, absolutely. Given how they’ve started off. Yeah. And that’s what I mean it’s exactly what I said coming in. I was surprised that’s kind of I don’t see that. Um but not because I think they I just don’t believe in this offense yet. Yeah. I don’t I mean we’ll see. Maybe they have more days like today in them, but I I’m I’m skeptical. I think this was a good a good day for the offense. A really good day for the offense. I don’t see this happening consistently. I guess where I live is that defense has a lot of veterans and I don’t know if we’re going to suddenly see something new out of them. Whereas there’s still some element unknown to me to the offense. May I didn’t say I was expecting anything about the defense. I said I think this was an outlier for the offense. But he asked could the offense or the offense be better and I don’t think so. Could it be that it’s 27? No, I joke. We CJ, thanks. All right, John is in South Beach. Are you like actually on South Beach? It’s Johnny South Beach. Johnny South Beach. It’s a character on the show. Nice to meet you, Johnny. Um, howdy. Lovely to meet you as well. Uh, excellent work on the uh the pre and postgame show so far. Thank you. I just have to say my heart is broken because this is the first uh Patriots visit to Miami since 2022 that I haven’t been in the stadium and I yeah I miss a a victory that was probably really fun to be a part of in the crowd. Anyway, two things that I’ll that I’ll just point out. Um, I thought Drake May showed a lot of promising play today. Like agreed that that throw to Raandre, that throw to Kahan Booty, I just continue to be proven wrong about Kahan Booty. I even at the beginning of this year I was like all hype, you know, whatever. But looks fantastic. The only negative in my opinion. The media pumps Roberts Lane tires a lot in this off season and he just hasn’t looked very good to me. But, you know, maybe I don’t know what I’m looking at and I don’t know what I’m talking about, but would like to hear you guys talk a little bit more about that, too. Yeah. I mean, it breaks my heart to say I really I mean, I I love the guy’s personality. I love the intensity that he brings to the team. I like the leadership, the tone that he sets in the locker room. I don’t think he’s been great, though. He just hasn’t been productive. He hasn’t. And you’ve seen him missing a lot of tackles. And I said it in the pregame show. I was curious last week. week. I think Mike Reese, you know, speculated, explained, big film study guy, didn’t know what to really key off of on that Raiders offense. Maybe it would be better this week against McDaniel’s offense that he’s seen before and it wasn’t any better. And you know, him and Ellis, those are the guys that that need to make the plays. So, uh, it’s in coverage, too. I think that’s an area where you thought, I mean, how many Patriot fans are like, we got to draft a linebacker with speed. We got we can’t have these slow guys anymore. And you have that speed right now, but I think you’re seeing that that there needs to be some instincts, too. And uh I don’t know, maybe it’ll start to translate, but you know, going back to the other point, he’s been in this defense before. So, you know, what are we what are we waiting for? I’m not sure. Um but I think that’s a that’s a fair fair criticism. I think that those guys have to be better. And if they do, maybe that’s a big part of, you know, kind of turning this defense’s poor start around. Uh but again, you know, they live to fight another day, made some plays down the stretch. So, uh we’ll see how it how it how it unfolds from here with him. But I agree agree with the point. We’re getting calls, we’re getting emails. I’m like, where do I go? Let me look at some emails cuz put the calls on hold for a second. We have a headline, ugly win from Brendan in Connecticut. Is it just me or was this one of the ugliest wins in recent memory? The defense is extremely concerning. Limited pressure, bad linebacker coverage, soft coverage, sloppy tackling, and bad penalties. The offense, I think, looked much better than last week, of course, and better and show improvement with while the defense, as we all agree, is not good. So, I don’t know. I watched that that game up in Buffalo a couple years ago and that was that was about the bottom of the barrel for Ugly Wins. So, uh I’ll put scoring over 30 points a little bit higher than that. No question there were a lot of mistakes in this game and and certainly on the defensive side of the ball, there were a lot of things to fix. Uh, but anytime you’re able to score some points like that to put up points on special teams, uh, you know, I I don’t I’m not going to really look the look at a victory in Miami in the mouth, so to speak with Yeah, it was a sloppy game and all that stuff, but I mean, one of the one of the sloppiest wins in recent It was one of the wins in recent memory. Like, what like what do we do when you put it that way? No, I mean I I love it. No one is snarkier than I am, right? Like I I’ll I’ll look the other way on on virtually anything. Well, you can’t count it. Like, I don’t care today. I’m not going to worry today about how it all looked. They needed to find a way to win a game. Um, they, yes, they got help from the other team. There’s no question. Um, but, you know, you’re you’re losing a game in the fourth quarter and your special teams found a way to make a play for you and you won the game. And then you found a way to close it out. Even though the other team gave you immense help in closing it out, you closed it out. you made the plays on third and fourth down to make sure that Miami didn’t score to to take the lead. So, I I don’t really know if you’re a Patriots fan right now coming off a back-to-back four- win seasons, why you would be at all upset about this win, unless you’re just still thinking that this team can win 10 or 12 games and and go to the, you know, the AFC Championship. If you think like that, then I’d be all by all means be upset because this isn’t going to be good enough to do that. They just got to find expectations. They got to find a way to win some games and get something going today. They did that. That’s the whole thing for me. Get something going. And talked this week about Drake May and what does he need to do? Is he the guy? And do we need to be patient? And these are the kind of wins, mistakes in all and and maybe even in some regards because of the mistakes, because of the things you can hi highlight to him and say, should have taken the sack here or, you know, not not the best throw here or those kind of things. Uh these are the wins that can start to build some momentum for Drake May and start to have him believe in himself and the team believe in him. And that’s the thing, you’re never going to have a perfect victory regardless. And and I’m sure there are some, you know, Buffalo victories currently going on or, you know, they were like, “Wow, that was, you know, amazing and we didn’t get stopped once.” But, you know, for a team trying to dig themselves out of the four- win basement, this is a really good step for this franchise today and great learning opportunities like you said. All right. Well, we have SP in Fresno. He sent in an email to podcastpatriots.com. He said, “Can we please put boss man Kersh on the good list as his feel for the league led him to correctly guaranteeing a win today? # selfsquishing fish.” That’s right. I forgot Freddy Freddy guaranteed the win though. He did guarantee the win. Forgot about that. Remember the I guaranteed pretty much everything. So I’m take I’m taking my victory lap. Positive Paul. I mean, I had like I never has has a prediction of I have absolutely no idea what’s going to happen in this game. True. You should go play Powerball. I’m not saying I didn’t know what was going on during the game when it was unfolding in front of me. I still have no idea what is going on in this game. Like how it’s just one of those ones where they’re scoring, we’re scoring back and forth and there’s, you know, there just the little mistakes at the end or what what’s going to decide it. And you know, today the Patriots were the team that made a couple extra plays and a couple less mistakes and that’s why they won. I agree. It was fun watching you two try to predict because none of the predict I thought the game was pretty close to being over in the first quarter. I thought Miami had done what we had all talked about all week and then all of a sudden they decided well let’s see if we could get a drive together. They got a drive together and they were like okay they’re the same old Patriots. We can move the ball at will against them and they did well and all of a sudden it was game on. What was haunting me Paul was we talked about you know how the game might unfold and I think I said something to the effect of you know if like mate leads them on a drive or they go up late and then you go and then I’m like so I’m looking at 34 33 and being like oh here it comes by one but you know like obviously you feel a lot better with winning but let’s just say a chance stays in bounds and they end up Miami ends up winning the game I I think I would come away saying hey yeah they lost and it sucks and and we’re going to be pissed off for a while but you had an offense at least that showed up this week as opposed to last week your quarterback was sharp today as opposed to last week now it would be small consolation you know thankfully a and stepped out of bounds and the Patriots were able to hold on. I think that my my anger at the defense had he stayed in bounds would have been like the the fury of like a white hot sun. Like it’s still I’m still pretty disappointed, but the defense is the same. Yeah, I know. The defense is the same. It’s not like they pushed him out of bounds. I know. But perception is everything. You know, that’s what it is. But yeah, I think Sean in Ireland, he emailed as well. He kind of summed it up perfectly. Hopefully this can be used as a base to move forward. Like positive Pillo here. Drake May didn’t sky his first few passes. Look confident throughout. We scored more than 30 points and took advantage of bad football. Yep. It would be good to see if this team can grow from this result, unlike last year at Cincinnati where everything stagnated from there on. Thank you, Sean and Ireland for that. I like it. All right, let’s get back out to the phone lines. 1855 Pats 500. We have Walter in Teas. That’s my Spanish. I like that. Thank you. Bibliotech. Hi guys. Thanks for taking my call. Of course. Hi Walter. Um I just had a quick question. I maybe you guys talked about it earlier, but the kicking game was a little shaky from last week and the beginning of this week and also the penalties. Seems like we at one point were were playing against ourselves and the other team. Um it looked like we kind of gave them a lot. I also feel like they gave us a lot as well. Um do we think there’s going to be a lot of sloppy games throughout the the season? on us what we’ve had the last two. Do you think this is something this coaching staff’s going to address quickly or is it something that we can probably look forward to looking and seeing? I hope not. But you have to hope that they can, you know, at least clean up some of the penalties and you know, but you nailed it. I mean, it was it was a slopfest. No question. A lot of mistakes on both sides. It was I just I it’s hard to imagine it can stay that sloppy all year with, you know, nine 10 penalties every game. Fingers crossed, knock on wood. Don’t do that. You know, but I think that’s again like last week coming out of that game, we said for the offense like, you know, just kind of establish the run, like stay balanced, get a get a little bit of run game going, maybe that’ll help the offense and and I felt like that was part of the part of the plan today, all sides of the ball. I think, you know, let’s let’s let’s shooting ourselves in the foot. Penalties are going to happen to some extent, but at the same time, there’s a line that they get excessive, and they’ve been excessive the first two weeks. Yeah. All right, let’s take it out to Donnie in Phoenix. Donnie, how’s it going? What’s going on? Hey, Donnie. How we doing today? We’re good. I’m all right. How are you, dude? Bro, cannot feel better. We finally, first and first and foremost, first time listener, long time caller. Um, uh, I am so pumped for today, man. Like, we finally get a win over Miami in Miami. No turnovers. Drake is the second coming of Tom Brady. crowning him right now from Andre Stevenson back to his 2021 2022 form. We are back. We are ready for the Steelers next week. We are still ready. I’m on my way to get Dunkin Donuts to get fueled up for next week. We are so back. 10 and seven is still on the board. Let’s go take it off here. I love you guys. All right, Donnie. He has enthusiasm. I mean, 16 and one’s still on the board. 161’s on actually. Where the where the seven? Oh my goodness. All right. So now, hey, Patriots fans, they’ve they had a rough go of it. Um, so they’re happy right now. So Eli in Wait, is his name Eli or Oh, L. Sorry. L in Wisconsin. The He did. Fred got mad. Fred got mad at L. Why? What did he do? I don’t I forget what the issue was. Well, he went direct to camera. Fred went You know, when Fred goes direct to camera, you know, he needs Where’s my one? No, I’d be scared, too. Step back. Well, he’s saying that this defense reminds him of the 2012 team defense was awful. And then Brady had to score almost every drive to win games. This plays perfectly off the call we just get since he’s the coming of Tom Brady. What he says in the email, since he’s Brady, he did. We can’t ask that of May. The defense needs to be better. Period. Yes. Absolutely. I would say it reminds me and and this actually will be stupid for if you statistically look at it, but the 2009 defense, I think statistically they were okay. Um, but I think they were flawed. Um, you had guys like Derek Burgess rushing off the edge. You know, it was just they needed an infusion of some fresh talent which they, you know, ended up getting a couple years later. Uh, well, next year they added McCordi and, you know, they found Ninkovich and then they drafted Chandler Jones and they got Dante Hightowwer and, etc., etc. But, you know, it just it felt like that defense was kind of in between the old dynasty defense when all those guys retired and you were, you know, kind of treading water with some guys. Jarvis Green, you know, goes like it’s just not to get into too much detail, but I do think statistically that was a good defense, but you know, you saw in the playoffs they got in and and they had no answers for the Baltimore Ravens. So, I hope it’s better than that, especially down the end. But, you know, just it it thinks it it seems like it’s a work in progress and and whereas on the offensive side of the ball, I think you’ve got a few pieces on the defensive side of the ball without Gonzalez right now, you’re you see you’re missing some stuff. All right, we have another email. Good day, postgame showboats. A win against the Dolphins in Miami. But it’s not so much woohoo as it is aoo like a sigh of relief. Tried to verbalize that. Patriots did their best to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. There were two teams doing their best to lose this game and ultimately the Patriots did a worse job of losing it than Miami. Cheers from Dan in Virginia in Michigan. Hope you’re having a good trip, Dan. He’s right. He’s very right. The teams kept taking turns trying to hand the game to the other. They were too polite. That’s what it was. And ultimately, uh, special teams, we can do that. Miami gave the last one up and and they ended up costing them the game, but Again, I just don’t there’s going to be plenty of time to like dwell on that kind of stuff. I don’t just right now I think the Patriots need to find a way to win the game. And I don’t I kind of saw this coming like the whole know Miami is a mess and you know that it wasn’t so much about what the Patriots did as it was with Miami did. And I’m not arguing with you that Miami is a mess, but I don’t it’s just not really high on my priority list right now because to me this is more about what the Patriots offense did. he took some strides forward. Uh I’m not going to get lost in the 30 points. It was really like 24. Um you know, the last touchdown, um you know, was obviously special teams and then the the field goal that they got was because Miami had to go for it on the fourth down and gave them a field goal. Um but why are we nitpicking? Why are we going to go through this with I I can do that and believe me I can go through detail oriented and with a fine tooth comb and tell you all the reasons why like you know leave that to Felgrren Mass tell you all the reasons why you shouldn’t feel happy about this win today. I I just don’t think it’s the time. This is a team that’s won eight games the last two years. They found a way in the fourth quarter to make a play on special teams to steal a game. Yeah. You know, and it’s a game they had every right to win. It’s not like a game they had no business winning. you know, for large stretches of the first half, they were dominant, even though they were only up by a point. So, I give them a lot of credit. I do I give the Patriots a lot of credit for sticking with it today. I know Vable said, “We were willing to get into a street fight and we didn’t quit.” And I think that sums it up perfectly. Does thing I’ve learned from those last two four win four win seasons was like each season, every time they lose, no matter what it looked like, it just gets worse. like everybody, you know, just the attitudes and just just you could just feel the negative energy continue to build with each loss, you know, no matter if they lost a heartbreaker in the last second and kind of played well or they got blown off the field. And it’s the same thing on this side of the ball where you have a young team, you have a new head coach trying to get guys to buy into what he’s selling. And so regardless of what the actual style of it all look like at this point, you just need to get that W and check that box and earn some validation from what you’re preaching. And you know, I think next week we’ll get a Patriots team that maybe a little bit more locked in, a little bit more buy in and say, “Look, we won the game and we played like crap in these areas.” So, if we clean up some of this stuff, maybe we can start to get to not just be a team that looks to take advantage of bad football, which is, let’s face it, that’s what they did today into a team that can. That’s another good point. They they put themselves in position to take advantage of the bad football. the other team wants to commit a false start and back it up with a delay a game not once but twice in the last two drives. Make sure you don’t allow them to convert the first and 20 and they didn’t. They took advantage of bad football. It’s a good way to sum it up. I don’t think this team would have been able to do that last year. Do you guys think they wouldn’t have done it last week? Yeah. Well, yes, absolutely. But definitely a turnaround when you think about it. What would you say the two of you say are some tangible takeaways for the Patriots to going into the Pittsburgh game? I know we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves, but uh I would say I just need continued um you know, progress from the offenses. I think that’s just something that happens naturally because you’ve got some experience. You’ve got another I mean, how many offensive plays did they run today? I mean, Josh had to be at the bottom of his card by the end of the game. So, but I think that’s a really good thing because you’re getting a lot of tape of Not as many as you think. No, really. 55 52. 55. Okay. That’s about average. So, yeah. Yeah. I guess they they got off to a great start and then it tapered off. had it the whole first half, but then the Dolphins were able to to rebound from that. Yeah, I think Mike is right though. The the balance that they showed, you know, not just like running the ball and passing the ball. I’m just talking about sort of sequencing plays and I thought the beginning of this game, every play they ran seemed to be not what Miami was expecting. Like they were able to get guys open. They were able to run at the right times. They’re going for it on fourth down. going to get an easy pitching catch with Stefan Diggs sitting in the soft zone in the middle. That I think is a tangible thing you can take forward. I’m thousand% with Mike. Okay, I’m sorry. This next email confused me because I saw Zack Kerr from Michael in North Carolina. First, I thought Zack Kerr emailed us, which is not the case. Gez, I hope not. I’m curious to see how you two react to this. So, a win is a win, but let’s tip our hats to the fill-in defensive coordinator, Zack Kerr. I thought him and his staff came up with a decent game plan. He deserves a lot of credit. Plus, the defensive line of the Patriots played really well, shutting down the run, only 61 yards rushing. That’s Michael in North Carolina. Yeah, I mean, I’d just point to what Paul said. I thought they they made some adjustments and shut down each hand, but you know, really, they didn’t have a lot of answers for they only ran the ball 15 times. Um, you know, that that that continues to be a problem. And um, you know, we’ll see next time we we face I did not like I did not like the plan today. I know you didn’t. I I don’t think they got after the passer much. I don’t think they covered anybody. Um it’s not like Tua was jamming into, you know, small windows. I I thought he had jumping up in the air. I mean, again, you know, we said that Drake only threw four incompletions. Tua only threw six, you know. So, yeah, I didn’t like the Brady Manning. I didn’t I didn’t like the uh I didn’t like the defensive performance today really. I I give them credit for coming up with just enough plays to find a way to win the game, but I didn’t like the plan. 100% agree. All right. I wanted to get after Tua and see if I could force some mistakes and they really never did that. That didn’t happen. All right. We’re going back to the kicker competition that you just mentioned. Deuce from Mike and the OC. So happy we got the win especially with the next two games against quality playoff contending teams which obviously will be the true test. I wanted to get Carolina sorry Pittsburgh and Carolina the next two games. Right. Oh yeah. Right. Yeah. Well, I guess they’re This is a very soft spot of the schedule to open up. That’s a good point. Actually, you’re opening up with four three out of the first four at home and and all four of them really Carolina’s like already underwater and all four and all four of them are very winnable. Yeah, I shouldn’t have read that blindly. I wanted to get the panel’s thoughts on our rookie kicker. We know Boralis. We just talked about him. Yeah. Hit the big 50 yarders but missed those two extra points last week. Also not the great momentum. I thought John Parker Romo actually kicked better than Boralis in the preseason like you said. Are you watching the show, sir? But that’s Mike in the OC. Yeah, we get that a lot. I mean, I just I think it’s an overall interesting debate because we have we talk about kickers all the time and you know, some people don’t want to draft kickers and sometimes you find a guy like Nick Folk who’s like 40 years old and comes in and like can’t miss and you know, or even a guy like Joey Sly last year who, you know, kicked around for a little while and then did an okay job. He’s got a big leg and you know, do you invest extra time in guys that get off to a slow start? I mean, you’re seeing Chad Ryland is it seems like he found a stride outside of New England and I don’t think it’s that crazy to see kickers start to kick well other places. It’s, you know, just because it doesn’t work out like Steven Gustski who came in to replace one of the greatest kickers of all time and and did it, you know, with no problem. I mean, did it for gez what, a decade plus? Like, so it doesn’t always happen that way. I’m caught in the world of like you can’t lose games because of this, but it also feels kind of rash to just discard a very good college kicker who, let’s face it, if he continues to kick in the league and continues to get opportunities, there’s probably a pretty good chance that he’s going to find some consistency. Um, but it’s just a question of are you willing to put up with misses and Yeah. and do you give him enough time to do that essentially? Yeah. are are you are you able to because when you’re missing extra points and it’s taking points off the scoreboard and you know had you lost today by one or two points uh that’s what everybody’s talking about even more then they’re already going to be talking about it. So, I just I’m I’m It’s one of those things in the game of football that like there’s just a lot of different examples that point in different directions and you know, you invested a draft pick in this kid. So, I feel like it would be okay to give him a chance, but at the same time, the clock is ticking and this team needs to win games and they can’t afford to keep having him miss kicks every every game. 100% agree. All right, we’re going to take a quick break, but before we do that, here on the Patriots pregame show, we are sponsored by the Massachusetts 250 campaign commemorating a history of possibility. You can plan your revolutionary weekend at massachus250.org. And also 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 trade that helped design it. You can even try Brunt out right on the job. And if it doesn’t blow you away, they’ll actually let you send it back. You can save $10 on your first order at bruntwork.com/pats or with the coupon code PTS. We’ll be right back here on the Patriots Postgame Show presented by DraftKings. Without good blocking, your team’s not going anywhere. Cisco blocks cyber attacks for customers around the world, including the entire Fortune 100 and the NFL. Because when the game is on the line, and it’s always on the line, the NFL relies on 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 a man can get is Gillette Labs. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Without good blocking, your team’s not going anywhere. Cisco blocks cyber attacks for customers around the world, including the entire Fortune 100 and the NFL. Because when the game is on the line, and it’s always on the line. The NFL relies on 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. [Music] [Applause] Without [Music] good blocking, your team’s not going anywhere. Cisco blocks cyber attacks for customers around the world, including the entire Fortune 100 and the NFL. Because when the game is on the line, and it’s always on the line. The NFL relies on 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 a man can get is Gillette Labs. [Music] [Applause] [Music] Without good blocking, your team’s not going anywhere. Cisco blocks cyber attacks for customers around the world, including the entire Fortune 100 and the NFL. Because when the game is on the line, and it’s always on the line. The NFL relies on 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. [Music] [Applause] [Music] without. We want to hear from you. So call the hotline at 85500 or email the show at podcastpatriots.com. Now back to the Patriots Postgame show presented by DraftKings. Welcome back into the Patriots postgame show presented by DraftKings, Paul Pillo, Quani Lunis, Deuce, and the producer. Mattie is here with some ice. No. No. No. Still no socks. Yeah. How’s How’s the mood in here today, boys and girls? Uh, can you tell we’re very cheery? A little bit brighter than last. Yeah. Yeah. I like it. I like it. And I would say this that um professional but upbeat was the mood post game today. loud um as they were coming off the field. Loud in the locker room which Paul as you know Deuce, have you been in that locker room Miami? Like the locker room is right next door to the interview room. No. No. It was a little bit loud in going in and I think um I think there was smiles all around. Let’s start by listening to the coach Mike Rael. I’m just excited for these guys. I’m really excited that they could uh, you know, fight and compete, come on the road, you know, be in a game, get off to a good start, not be front runners, everything that we talked about. You know, we tried to get the drive stopped sometimes. We ended the drives with scores, with touchdowns. We much better in the red zone. Offensively, the only thing that stopped us today was us. Uh, so there was a lot of really good keys there. Got to have a lot of confidence in him. And I do have a lot of confidence. I didn’t waver. was going to go for the fourth and five to try to, you know, get it there. And then when we got backed up, I immediately just, you know, kicked the field goal. And I’m happy for Andy. Uh that’s why he’s here. And um thought after the first two, really settled down and and that’s what we’ll have to have. Well, again, I I appreciate the character. Certainly don’t have to put it to the test all the time with mistakes and, you know, silly penalties or being off sides and having an interception. I mean, there’s a lot of things out there that you know, we have to do better. But we didn’t we didn’t pout. We didn’t drop our head. We went on to the next play and we kept competing. And I I appreciate that. We have to learn how to compete and and believe um that we can come down here and win football games. And I think they did. Again, that uh that we’re now front runners. And that’s a big thing in this league because, you know, when you play in the National Football League, you you have to be willing to take some punches and and that’s okay. But you got to give more than you take. um because that’s the nature of this business. Haven’t been in a long time. There’s there’s pros on the other side, there’s good players on the other side, there’s good coaches. So, uh just again, I’m proud of my our team and it would always be about the players now and forever. I go back to January when he was hired and he talked about um there’s going to be adversity that comes along at some point in time. How do you respond when adversity comes along? 12 nothing lead that should have been more and it was eaten away pretty quickly. I thought that that was some decent adversity that they fought their way through and I thought that’s a good way to at least get their first win. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I thought the adversity was like a roller coaster, you know? It wasn’t just one dose of it. I didn’t really understand the front runner. That’s exactly what they they jumped that we know this is how they play. We got to get off to a good start. We got to get the lead and we got to make them chase and then we’re going to be okay. Whereas the other thing when they fall behind by two touchdowns, look out. We’ll see. But I think Mike’s point about the taking advantage of bad football. The defense couldn’t stop a nosebleleed all day. But when the other team went backwards, they didn’t allow that to get out of that hole. They didn’t they didn’t allow Miami to get up off the mat. Those last two drives, they took advantage of those false starts and delay games and they came up with the plays to close it out. That’s to me progress. That’s taking advantage of bad football. And that’s a great mentality to have if you’re going to move forward in this league. You might not be the best team on paper, but if you can snap back with that, it’ll help. And there’s a lot of bad teams out there. And like Mike just said, you know, the only thing that stopped us today was was ourselves. I wholeheartedly same for Miami. Correct. Right. And you were able to make fewer mistakes than Miami did. And that’s was the difference in the game. And there’s no style points when you’re when you’re eight wins in two years and you’re on the road in a place you haven’t won in five years. You have to find a way to get a win. And you’re not going to sit there and say, “Well, that doesn’t really count.” Christian in LA. Do we really get the monkey off of it? Yes, it does. Yes. You no longer have a zero in the column uh in the win column against Tua. Now you have a one. So that’s not a thing anymore. Even though Tua lit you up, that’s not a thing anymore. You beat him. So now you know you can beat him. Six years, but who’s counting? Um, all right. That was Mike Rabel. Now let’s listen to the players and their reaction to the win. And we start with Drake May. How big was that win for you? That feels good. That feels good. It took everybody. I think that’s the biggest thing. It took It took everybody special teams, offense, defense, trainers, everybody who helps us out. Um, that one felt good and I’m just, you know, proud of our guys for just sticking with it. So many ups and flows of the game, es just proud of the guys. That that one feels good. From your perspective coming off the week you had, how proud are you performance today? Oh, shoot. I’m proud of this team, these guys around me. Um, you know, my job is to try to get them the football and lead scoring drives and um, you know, defense and, you know, they play their their butts off. So, just proud of the guys around me and um, you know, great team win. Players look up at the scoreboard, they can see somebody’s about to catch him. Rabel’s running down the sideline. Are you just uh, I caught myself trying to look back at the defender. I was like, man, you tripping. Just run. After that, I had my eyes on the end zone and that was that. Did y’all see Coach Greyel out of He was keeping up with me. I need to run faster. I heard he almost caught me though. We made a call to run a run a uh run a game and shoot. I just got off the ball and um shoot executed when it when when it need to be executed um back end held up, made him hold the ball and shoot. That’s all I’m asking for. Make them one time and shoot. I’m trying my best to get back there and figure the game. Uh it was a dog fight. We went in knowing it was going to be. So, uh, you know, us just being relentless, playing four quarters and coming out with the dub is huge for us. I love that Gibbs was so in the zone. He didn’t see Rabel running beside him. That’s funny. Any concerns that Fabes would uh pop a hammy or anything like that that he was going I thought he was going to run Gibson down. I was wondering if Gibson was going to make it. I’ve seen Fable get in fights. I’ve seen him like running sprints. He’s like in the middle of scrums. Like I just I Yeah, I’m praying for his health every time. But I’m getting used to it because he’s clearly always in the mix. And it wasn’t Steve Burton that was chasing him or running up and down, right? It was Raymond. Just checking on that. And one last thing, just a little big marketease for Patriot fans out there. Big market from No. Big marketetees for Patriot fans out there. When the locker room celebration is posted on patriots.com and all the Patriots uh social channels. Make sure you take a look at it. They could be highly entertained. That’s a big market tease for sure. I’m I’m teased. I’m going just keep refreshing my Instagram right here. Let’s go social. Get it up now. No, no socks. When should the fans expect that? There’s an approval process, Paul. We got to get it. I know that the video team is working tirelessly to get that approved. Okay. But I saw a little sneak peek of it. It might be an oldtimer. Could I could I ask a question? You don’t have to give it away, but uh have we resurrected the how do we feel? Yeah, maybe. Or I think you’re going to have to wait and see. He really is keeping on your toes with this one. How do we feel about a no socks teaser? Oh, yeah. Miss here. Miss here. No, Mike. Matt, in all seriousness, you know, we had um for the most part people like, you know, the offense huge step forward, a little disappointed in the defense. Um but bottom line is you find a way to win. And I I think that’s a building block for everybody, right? And I think that’s been sort of the message in the the bulk of the show for the most part. When the schedule came out in May and you looked at the first two games, we said one and one, they probably the two tossups. They could go either way, right? And that’s kind of how the games Yeah. Now, I think that you have a lot of games like that. Yeah. The next two were toss ups as well, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I saw Aaron Rogers numbers, huh? Not not too not too hot there. No. Rogers, but at home today, right, Pittsburgh? Yeah. He’s got a good antidote next week based on the first two weeks. 203 yards. uh one touchdown, two interceptions, 58 quarterback. Yeah, he didn’t throw for that many yards last week. He threw for four touchdowns and I think that’s what caught all the highlights. Paul was on that on the pregame show talking about the fact that Aaron Rogers didn’t think he played that. I didn’t think he moved well in the pocket. I didn’t think he fel felt the pressure very well. You know, we’ll see. I’m not telling you that you can’t come in here and throw for 350 next week because everybody else is doing it. But like we also said, the numbers may have been skewed a little higher. playing against your former team, you know, maybe adds a little Yeah. fire to the game. We’ll see how much juice he’s got left. But I mean, I gotta think, you know, it’s just hard for a team like Pittsburgh and like what’s the hope that they somehow gut out seven or eight wins and pick 16th overall and don’t get any quarterback again this year. It’s like, you know, sometimes you just have to stink in a in a good quarterback year to to really make it out of the basement. But we’ll see. One of the takeaways I wanted to ask you guys about was the conviction in postgame by coach Rabel towards his field goal kicker and sticking with them and deciding to go with that kick to give them the lead. Bust on the decision. I thought it was a little ballsy. I mean I I know we weren’t here being like you can’t ask him to kick this one. I mean it was a it was a far kick. I didn’t really have confidence. I think when they were setting it up I’m like there’s no way. Um yeah I think there’s less pressure on those than you know when you’re quote unquote not supposed to make it like an extra point. know, like you see all these 50 plus yotters. Um, I didn’t like the decision to go for the field goal. Not because I didn’t think he was going to make it. I just didn’t I I like to weigh the pluses and minuses, you know, like if he makes it, the game situation really hasn’t changed dramatically. I still lose if the other team scores. Now, I understand the difference between three and six, so I don’t need a math lesson from the nerds, okay? I understand that it’s harder to score a touchdown. Paul, that’s six points. Ultimately, the way the game unfolded, Miami kicks a field goal to tie the game had he missed the field goal. So, I’m not the fact that he made it, I’m not, it’s not lost on me. I don’t need, again, I don’t need an analytics lesson. I don’t think it dramatically increased your chances of winning the game if he makes the field goal. I would have gone for it and tried to end the game right there. Or I would have thought about punting and see if I can pin him inside the 10 and make Miami go 60 65 yards to kick a field goal which I think is not easy as it was. It really backfires when the kicker then follows up his big make by not making the landing zone and giving the ball at the 40 yardd line. It took Miami all of three plays to get the to the end zone. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I mean, only because Han stepped out of bounds, you end up winning the game. And again, not forced out of bounds, stepped out of bounds on his own. Right. One of the things that Mike said after the game that didn’t make it in our little montage there, but is a good point nonetheless, in my opinion, is he talked about he’ll enjoy some of these teaching and coaching moments as there were plenty of them during the game. Absolutely. It’s a lot better to do that with a win under your belt as opposed to when you’re losing the game. And that was the point that I think Mike and I Sorry. Um, that was the point that I Mike and I were trying to make and it wasn’t a lot. There was like one or two calls that were like sort of really nitpicky and I’m, you know me, Matt, I’m here for the nitpicking all day twice on Sunday. Today ain’t the day for that. No. No. Today’s the day to say for once you went down to your house of horrors and the weird play went your way. You responded to the punt return with a kick return and then the other team stepped out of bounds and you found a way to win. That’s the bottom line. And I don’t know how you can not feel good about that if you’re a Patriot today. Now, there are a million things that you can you’re going to look back on this week and you’re going to say, “We got to do this better, that better. We can’t get 12 penalties again next week. We can’t snap a ball back, you know, uh and and expect Raandre Stevenson to break four tackles on a screen pass and convert that first down.” Anyway, you can’t do that. You can’t do those things. But today, they were able to win the game. And that to me has got to be the bottom line. And going back to your question, from a coaching perspective, I understand the conviction to want to keep Boralis in for the sake of the mental the mental aspect of the game, right? You don’t want to ice your own kicker moving forward. So, I could understand it to your point about the the coaching moments, the teachable moments of not wanting to pull him because now you’ve bruised his ego potentially and now he won’t perform in theory the way you would want him to. Yeah, I like that. I mean, give him another chance. um you know, you just wish that the kickoff then hadn’t, you know, like the kickoff% for the record then it would have been like, okay, you know, this is a solid end and uh you know, put those two missed extra points behind you. So, uh but I like you know, look at this point with a young player and again it’s just I don’t know how to manage kickers. Like it’s just it seems like one of the hardest things to do in the NFL and and at the ultimate at the end of the day like sometimes it feels like you can just grab a guy off the scrap heap and he’ll come in and all of a sudden he’s like an elite kicker. I just I don’t know how it works. Interesting. You know, so like this is just like a little sequence of plays that you know how Mike likes to say, you know, it’s the good, the bad, and the stuff that get you beat. This is the stuff that’ll get you beat. So they’re they’re protecting a 23-20 lead in the fourth quarter on they get a penalty on Morgan Moses for a false start from their own 13. Sets up first and 15. They get an eight- yard pass. Then they lose six yards when they try a little swing pass to Stevenson. and gets killed by Willie Gay, right? Telegraphed screen pass. So you end up and it went down as a running play, but that was a pass. Um, so now it’s third and 13 from your own 10 and Stevenson breaks several tackles. Um, no, I’m sorry, this is uh, yes, break several tackles and getting 14 yards on a screen pass. Um, so you end up getting first down. Like that’s huge. You follow that up two plays later when Bradberry lets the ball out of his hand and you go right back down around your 10 yardd line inside your 10 yardd line and it’s third and 26 and you end up just throwing like a short little pass and you end up having a punt. What happened on the punt? Anybody remember what happened on that punt? A touchdown. Was that the return? Guy returned it for a touchdown. You know, like that’s the crap that’ll get you beat. That’s what Mike is talking about. Self-inflicted wounds, false start, aborted snap, screen pass for minus six. That’s the stuff that’ll get you beat. And then you overcome some of that with a really good individual effort by Stevenson and you give it right back. Like again, during the course of the week when Mike is going over this stuff, it’s going to feel a lot better for them to hear all these things that they did wrong when there’s a W in the column. But that’s the stuff that you got to avoid. Sorry for hijacking the show. No, we’re listening. Love the passion. Yeah, it’s the second hour, Paul. You know, usually time to energized. All right. All jacked up on my Do we want to take some more calls? I see Patty and Agawan. Patty. He’s got to be in a good condition. Hey, Patty. Hey, everyone. Hello. Oh, you sound calm. Are you not happy, Patty? Are you not drunk? No, I’m just I had I had my greens today, Paul. Oh, okay. I mean, it’s for it’s 5:45. You’d be certainly within your uh your element to be drunk at this point. Sunday, funday. I just wanted to say just wanted to say one thing and end with a question. Um up until like that punt return, when that punt return happened, I was like, geez. I mean, if he’s been doing it all game, is May gonna have to bail us out again? Because up to that point, I mean, the way the defense played, all the friaking penalties, the guy bailed us out and then Antonio Gibson came and bailed us out. And my question is, did Drake did Drake May play his best NFL game today? And I’ll take it off there, guys. Thanks, buddy. Love the question. Without giving it any thought, I would say yes. Yeah, me too. Well, doesn’t it also help that they won, by the way? Like it’s great to throw for 450, but if you lose the game, but if I thought he I thought if he like I don’t remember him having games with no mistakes, right? That’s why I would say today like if they had lost the game 27 to 23, I would say today was his best game even though they lost. Um but I don’t remember him Mike and I I mean he he goes 19 for 23. He only had four incomplete passes the whole game. Do you remember anything resembling a turnover? No, there wasn’t. There was nothing resembling a turnover, but you said I’m here for the pit next earlier, didn’t you? Sure. Y and the telegraph lateral screen pass. He was going to Raandre Stevenson the entire screen passes. That’s the play. Yeah, but I mean the defense sat there and watched the entire thing like that was an easy one to sniff out Paul. That’s all I’m saying. Like I think he’s got there was a another play earlier in the game where he’s rolling out. He’s looking in the middle of the field. He looks off and then he gets Hunter uh Henry along the sideline for an eight or nine. was a great job of amusing his eyes, I thought, on that one play. Yeah, I just think a screen pass you got to I mean, you got to call the play. I mean, I know he just he telegraphed that and I think that, you know, when he knows that the defender’s all over him, throw it to his ankles, you know, unless you think that that was a lateral. No. Well, that’s what they called it a lateral, right? Um to which I would say I don’t like the design of the play if it’s supposed to go backwards, but I would just say um but that’s a fair nitpick based on quarterback ranking. Drake May had a 137.3 today. That is his highest right his best game that the second highest from last year 109.7 against Jacksonville he was 26 to 37 for 276 yards two touchdowns he was largely garb see that’s an example he was garbage in that game and the Rams uh the Rams was the second one uh where he was 29 of 39 two touchdowns an interception 1006 those are only three times in his career he’s been over the Jacksonville game if you recall they were getting absolutely boat raced and he put together a couple of cold cream on the makeup uh touchdown drives in the fourth quarter which makes that 100 passer rating. He did not play well in that game. Did you say put a little cold cream on that makeup? Makeup calls. Tom, did you say four incompletions? Four incompletions. He was 19 that I think it was in the second half. Who did he have sort of in the middle of the field? Uh Diggs. And he he patted himself. Yes. But I think and they talked about it on the broadcast. I think it’s on he wanted him to sit down. Yeah, I think he threw it exactly where he wanted to and based on where the defense was, I think he’s right. Right. But that’s a good I like that he take ownership, especially with Digs, right? Smart move. Don’t worry. No, you’re No, you’re fine. You never Steph, baby. Bubba, I got you. I’m trying to keep you out of harm’s way, bro. Thousand yards. You, me, we’re going there, baby. Only if it’s a 28 game season. All right, let’s hear what Russ in Westfield has to say. Rusty. Yeah. Hi. Hi, everybody. Yeah, Paul took a little bit of my thunder. So, here’s the one play I’m thinking about. We mentioned four fourth and two late in the game. It looks like they lined up and they’re going to try to fake them off sides and then settle for the field goal. I don’t know if that’s happened. You can just clear on that one. But they should have went for it and I’ll tell you why. Paul nailed it, too. They get the first down. It’s over. Game’s over. That’s the nail. Good. They don’t get it. You’re still up by three. You lose by a field a touchdown. Okay. You kick the field goal. You still lose by a touchdown. You see where I’m coming from? I would have went for it. So, I want every one of your opinions and I was watching it in the moment. I’m not like after and I’m so happy they won. But the bottom line is, man, fourth and two nail and I would have punted Paul. That would have I think they’re on the 30 yard line. Yeah, but the fourth and two they ended up jumping offside to make it fourth and seven. That’s when they kicked the field goal. But I would have gone for it. I agree with you. Everything you said, I agree with. Absolutely. Yeah. And how well everybody on your panel, they all think they should have went for it because that ends the game. That ends the game right there. And if you don’t get it, well, you can’t lose on a field goal. Goes to overtime. I would have punted. You can lose on a touchdown. I said it I said in the moment I would have punted it and I would have made him drive it down and kick the field goal. Mike. Yeah, you can’t punt if you’re I I struggle with these. I mean, I like Russ. He’s He’s like me. He’s obsessed with the minutia. No, he sounds great. They come down and get a field goal. It’s overtime. Well, okay. But you you get that first down, it’s over. Forget the punt. Forget anything else. You win it on that play. Fourth and two yards. I would have gone for fourth and they first of all we’re going to keep they were going for it on fourth and two Morgan Moses went offside and made it fourth and seven. Yeah. And much like Bellich he made it a fourth and 10. It was fourth and seven. There’s a difference. Like Bellich used to do that all the time. I’m going to lie on the margins to make myself look better. Um but you know it was fourth and two. They were going for it from the 30. They were going for it. They absolutely were going for it. Now, maybe Russ is right and they would the goal was to try to jump throw draw him offside and wouldn’t that have been the perfect way to end that mess of a game. Yeah, cuz the the Dolphins jumping off sides, right? Unfortunately, Morgan Moses jumped offside. No, I like it. I think I was just in the moment. Um, you know, there there’s certain appeal of make them have to go the length of the field for a touchdown with one timeout. That was what was in my head. But I can’t be hypocritical because I really complimented them for going for it in fourth down early in the game. So if you’re going to say, “Oh, I’m good with it early game.” Like you wanted that aggression. The only And there was another fourth down um that maybe had some discussion. I know that CBS discussed it a little bit with uh J-Mack and and Charles Davis. They had a fourth and goal from the four that they kicked the little chip shot field goal. I think that was a no-brainer. I would have kicked the field goal there. Yeah. Um, I I don’t see any reason to give up points. You know, your offense was drive, touchdown, drive, touchdown, drive. Let’s get points. Let’s not give Miami any reason to feel good about itself when they haven’t stopped us all day yet. Uh, I would have kicked that field goal on fourth and goal from the four like they did. All right, we have some more emails. Uh, let’s see, who is this? Mike in Bingington, New York. He said, “I was wondering what you guys thought about Mapoo’s performance. We didn’t talk about him just a little bit. It seemed like I didn’t see him in the first half and then noticed him quite a bit in the second. Also, I saw an ex that Morgan Moses was in a walking boot in the locker room. What did you see out of Marcus Bryan in the summer because I think he’s a backup tackle on the right side. Yeah, Mike said that he would be the guy that would start. And Moses was on the injury list. He’s questionable with the foot. So, that makes sense that he might be doing something after because he did he go wire to wire? I think I believe he did. Yeah, I believe he did. Yeah. Uh to be honest, I didn’t really even clock Mapu until he got the interception. So, um that’s how it goes sometimes, but I think that’s a good piece to go back and look at when you’re trying to think of like, you know, potential things to change up or potential things to go to. I don’t know if we’re at that point just yet, but Marty Mapu is new to this position. It’s been a lot of talk over the couple years he’s been here that as a linebacker and now it’s he’s finally getting a chance as that. Um I did see him a lot as you know, the upback on the punt team. So, he’s the personal protector on the punt team. That’s an important job, too. I don’t know how he did on that uh with the punt return touchdown, but somebody to look at. But the coach the coach was uh glowing in his praise for Mapu because of his mentality as the personal protector on the punt team. And he u made it a point to say he’s engaged. He’s really into the meetings. He takes it seriously. So, a guy in his third year, Mike, who you’re saying, what’s his position? And all of a sudden, somebody’s telling him, “We need you to be the personal protector.” You can go a couple different ways with that. Yeah, you know, you might get down and out and say, “Really, this is what I want to do.” He’s taken the opposite, at least according to Mike, and Mike appreciates that. And I thought that was interesting that he made it a point to call him out for that and say, “This is the way to handle it.” Loves the way he’s engaged with it and taken on the position. It’s great stuff. I love when you know somebody that you didn’t really clock during the game that you you can go back look at a little bit to see if you know there’s some potential there because there’s not a lot of depth right now. And so, if a young player is blossoming and potentially has some potential, that’d be a great thing. and having that mentality to just step in wherever you’re needed. And that’s so him too. He’s such a He’s one of those SFG serious football guys. Like he just he does not he’s not here to have fun in games. He’s here to study his playbook and talk ball and and play. All right. All right. Well, wow. Are we hitting the end of the show? That’s it. That time flies when you’re having fun and it’s a good show. They’re giving us the Oscar music. I know. Playing us all. Any final words tonight, Paul? Final words for the final time. Uh, no. No. Nice win for the organization, for Mike Varel, for Drake May. Uh, but you got to build off of it. You got to be better than this. You got to clean up some of the mistakes, but in terms of a week two, uh, hard to remember last time they had a big win like this that that you feel good about. So, uh, great win for them and and on to Pittsburgh. On to Pittsburgh. All right, before we go, football fans, you know that traditions matter. Turning moments together into truly something epic. They’re what inspire us to make our masa in Tostitos the traditional way. Starting with whole corn kernels. No artificial flavors, colors, or preservatives, all to give you that perfect crunch. Discover your next tradition this football season. Just head to the store, grab your Tostitos team bag, and scan that code for a chance to score an epic experience with the Patriots. Tostitos traditions matter. And finally, Pats fans, game day is still here, so stock up now. Grab a refreshing Pepsi Zero Sugar 12-pack right now because tailgating deserves Pepsi. That does it for our Patriots postgame show presented by DraftKings for Paul Pillo and Deuce and Matty No Socks. I still need to figure out what that means. I’m Quani Lunis. Thank you all for tuning in. We’ll be back next week. 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.

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