INSTANT REACTION: Drake Maye puts on another MVP-level performance in Pats’ win over Browns

INSTANT REACTION: Drake Maye puts on another MVP-level performance in Pats’ win over Browns

All right, everybody. Welcome to Postgame Live. Drake May and Miles Garrett hugging it out after the Patriots 32-13 victory this afternoon over the hapless Cleveland Browns. The Patriots winning their fifth straight despite, get this, Miles Garrett’s five sacks. They have five sacks all by himself uh in the game. Wow. All right. Uh we got the whole crew here. We’re excited. Uh we got Phil Perry been covering the Patriots since 2011. Tommy Kern been covering the Patriots since 1997. Threetime Super Bowl champion Ted Johnson of the backerhood. That’s what they used to call it, the backer with the linebackers on Michael Holly. Lots to get into today. Let’s just go around the table and some thoughts on the fifth consecutive win by the Patriots. Phil, you start us off. Well, we came into this game understanding that the Browns have one of the best defenses in football and that this might be a sneaky competitive game for the New England Patriots. And it was a sneaky competitive first half. Patriots only scored nine points. However, lucky for them, they have a guy who is deserving of first half NFL MVP honors. He has pull him off that gone that good. And if they actually gave out that award, he would get it in my opinion because to me, value is clear when you talk about a guy who’s come to a team that didn’t have massive expectations coming into this season. Tom, walked into an offensive huddle that had a a lot. it looked like that was left to be desired. And he’s been among the best quarterbacks in football, if not the best and most efficient. And he’s doing it on a team that nobody thought would be this good this early. To me, he’s the most valuable, maybe not the best, but the most valuable player in the NFL right now. You’re going micro. I’m going to go macro. Let’s draw back a little bit and look at the Patriots in their totality. To be six and two, look, you looked at the schedule and said, “Well, maybe there’s some dogs in there and maybe they can get fat on those teams.” But the way in which they’re winning, 31-13 last week, 32-13, a 29point win over Carolina that wasn’t that close. A win that they, excuse me, a loss that they handed to the Steelers. They have every right in the world to think they could be seven and one. And you know, they had that orientation game that they could have won two against the Raiders. My god, they could be eight and0. And insane to look at this team and what it’s been where they won eight games in the previous two years combined, Teddy, and find its stride. And we could have all kinds of caveats about the strength of schedule and the way the NFL is right now, but it isn’t a team that’s sniffing around the Elites. It’s an elite team. Don’t don’t look now. Yeah. Yeah. It’s they are one of the better teams in the AFC for sure. And I think the biggest takeaway for me, you guys, is that the the the the slim margin for error that this team had to play with at least when it looked like the first few games is now no more. There’s plenty of room for error. When you look at at at today’s game, I mean, you look at the offense, uh, I mean, three for 11 on third down, two for six in the red zone. Uh, the defense gives up an opening drive again for for a touchdown. You you had three penalties, a shank punt, and a and and a onside kick that was recovered by the oppo the opponent today. And they still won by 20. Five sacks were allowed by the offensive line. And so that’s what a great quarterback does. That’s where this team is right now, you guys, is that they can make mistakes and still overcome it because of the quarterback of play right now. So, it’s amazing to think where we were at the beginning of the season. You know, I had uh you know, guys on Evens asking Drake May in his weekly interview if winning’s important to him after the first week and and now he’s in the MVP conversation. So, it’s amazing just how fast it’s happened and the margin for error is so much greater than it’s been around here since Tom Brady played. All right, so let me just summarize here. Ted Johnson says the margin for error is great. Tommy Curran says they’re an elite team. They’re an elite team. Phil Perry says Drake May is your MVP. So hey, join. Come on. Come on. We want you to join the conversation. Are the Patriots legit Super Bowl contenders? Absolutely or no? More to prove? Vote in our poll by scanning the QR code. You see it right there on the screen and scroll down to the poll. How good how good is this team? That is uh the question uh for for the the audience and and for you guys too. Like how good is it? How good is it? We we’ve seen teams start hot. I mean, what the hell? Think of Josh McDaniels when he was with the Denver Broncos in 2009. That team started hot. Within a year and a half, Josh was out of a job. I’m not even sure if it was that long. So, you do see teams start hot. But I don’t think that this is built on sand. I think that this is a a concrete foundation that’s built on young players who are pretty good, who they’ve either imported or now developed in a way that they hadn’t previously, free agent imports who’ve bought into the culture that the team and Mike Vrabel was espousing. And I come back to the coordinators and the sophistication or at least the maturity of the coaching staff. They know what they want. Whether it be Josh McDaniels or Doug Marone or or Zack Cerr and Terrell Williams and what they built over there and Mike Vrabel especially, they know what they want from their players. I’m sure we’ll delve into Christian Barour who was sat for the first quarter today for an apparent agitation of so um all of these things are the culture has been built, the team has been built and players are being developed. I I think that that’s a big part of this not being an apparition. Michael, you’re asking us if we think they’re Super Bowl contenders. Super Bowl contenders. Is that what you’re asking? Are they How good are they? Super Bowl contenders. Are the New England Patriots, Phil Perry, Super Bowl contenders? As much as I like the quarterback, as much as I think the head coach has done a great job, I’m not going there yet. I think to be a Super Bowl contender, you have to be one of three to five teams in the NFL that I think truly right now, as we stand here today, can win it. And I’m not there yet. I I need to see more. I’d love to see more wins like that. Buffalo Bills win where you have the ability to go against one of the best teams in football and they’ll have that ability in a couple weeks against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and beat them. You have to show me that multiple times before I’m willing to put you in that category. Right now for me it’s the Bills, it’s the Chiefs. It’s the Eagles. And I might stop there. I might maybe you put the Rams there because they’ve done it before, but the Patriots would be in that second tier for me. They’re not in that contending tier yet. Let me just push back for a second. The guy who picked him to go six and 11. All right. Hey. All right. All right. Come on. Come on. Come on. Uh, I’ll push back. You said you’re putting the Bills there. Are you putting the Bills there based on what the Bills have done in the past? Because this year, uh, the Bills beat up on the Panthers today. The Patriots have done they’ve done that already. They beat up on the Panthers, too. Uh, the Bills have have beaten the Jets. The Patriots haven’t played them. Uh, the Bills played the Patriots at the crib and lost. So, why are you saying the Bills are Super Bowl contenders when they haven’t been since the ‘9s? And the Patriots aren’t. They haven’t been, but they’ve been on the doorstep. They’ve been they’ve been much closer than the Patriots have these last few years. So, I I’ve seen the Bills be a play away from getting to that last game. And who knows when you get there. And that’s how highly I think of that quarterback. So, I’ve seen them compete with the best of the best and hold their own. And no, they haven’t made it yet, but I’m still putting them in a tier above the Patriots, at least for now. Can I define what I think a Super Bowl contender is? It’s not the one that I think is going to be standing there with Lombardi and confetti coming down. It’s one I think can get there. Okay. And if you get there, it’s one game. I I kind of have that’s why I have kind of a wider view of who is a Super Bowl contender. I Colts are a Super Bowl contender. I think the Rams, as you alluded to, the Lions, all those teams are Super Bowl contenders. So, I would have like six or seven teams who can get there. So, maybe I’m being a maybe I’m uh you know, splitting hairs over here. But that’s what I think. And Ted, what what would you know about Super Bowl contenders anyway? What do you know about Super Bowl team? I I know a little bit a a little bit. I’ve been four out of 10 years. So, I know something about the getting to the Super Bowl. And I I kind of tend to agree with Tom because I mean, was anybody I don’t know after week eight of the 2001 season thinking that we were uh Super Bowl contenders. So, uh, you know, and the the one thing that makes me gives me a little bit of pause is you look at the six and two and it’s almost like becomes, you know, uh, like we’re looking at a college, you know, kind of schedule where you have to try and well, the their big biggest signature win is against Buffalo and Buffalo. That’s a big one, but the other wins not so much. So, it kind of knocks it down a little bit, but but the the teams that they are beating, maybe not too good on paper, but they’re destroying them. And so, that factors in. I just to me I mean I’ve had I’ve had you know 2001 coming off of a five wins uh season and then following up by a Super Bowl appearance. Why not the Patriots? When you look at the rest of the AFC right now they look vulnerable. Um I just think I think they so far have played uh at to a level in which you should consider them Super Bowl contenders considering the quarterback play at this point which to me is elite elite. 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Tom E. Curran, Phil Perry, Ted Johnson and Michael Holley break down the Patriots’ 32-13 win over the Browns. They discuss Drake Maye’s impressive performance and whether we can really call this Patriots team Super Bowl contenders

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