Will the AFC run through New England? | The NFL Today

Will the AFC run through New England? | The NFL Today

and welcome to the NFL today on YouTube. And this is the segment that the professors, all three get to elaborate to show you how much they know to share with you. Let’s talk about the New England Patriots sitting with a mark of 8-2, tied with the best record in the league. Bill Cowell, what in the world are the Patriots doing? Uh, they don’t beat themselves. I think you look at the New England Patriots, the one thing I’ll say is they they you know they they play complimentary football and I say from this standpoint, you got a defensive head coach whose biggest thing is making sure that you don’t beat yourself and give up big plays. They play very good in the red zone and they got an offensive coach and Josh uh um Josh McDaniel who who has been outstanding with Drake May. They can run the football. They they don’t get a lot of big plays down the field. They got a couple today, but Drake May also takes care of the football. You know, they have a lot of sacks. He had a interception today. But this football team, when you look at where they are, and then you look at their schedule, they are probably the best team right now in football. When you talk about the standpoint of what they have ahead of them, um, this is November. Can they sustain this? I think they can only because of the style of play with which they have. I love the backs from Andre Stevenson. Then you got Henderson that came up today with over 100 yards. So you have a good running game. You play solid defense. You don’t beat yourself. That is sustainable. Well, you talked about what’s in front of them. You know, they sit here at 8 and two. They’ve got the Jets coming up next week. Cincinnati, then the Giants, then a week 14 buy. And I actually think the week 14 buy, that looks like a long way off at the beginning of the season when you’re starting there and you’ve got 13 games prior to that buy. But it comes at a pretty good time for them. I think one of the things you have to be concerned with is injuries for this football team moving forward. Booty was out today. Uh Raandjer Stevenson out today as well. They overcame it. But you get that opportunity late in the season. And in all all honesty, I mean, they they should be sitting there at 11-2 going into their by-week with the chance after that to see Buffalo, Baltimore, the Jets, and Miami. It’s very realistic this team wins 13 or 14 games if they play the way they have up until this point. The thing I love is what you said though, coach. It’s the complimentary football today. Drake May had an uncharacteristic mistake for the way he’s played this season. The red zone interception there. Probably just throw the football away, take the points, have an idea of what you’re doing. But he’s played very, very well. And he pushes the ball down the field. This throw right here, somebody barreling down into your chest, finds a way to keep that football in front on the crossing route to another rookie right there in Kyle Williams. Beautifully done. The touch right here to Stefon Diggs in the tight red zone over the top. And then, you know, another one just firing this ball down the field finds F. Yeah. Finds M. Hollands on the deep ball. The explosive plays that they’re creating make up for some of their shortcomings. They lose the turnover battle today. Time of possession. They lost today. They get, you know, 24 first downs for Tampa Bay, only 164 New England. Doesn’t matter. They create the explosive plays. They find ways. But I was gonna say the defense steps up after Drake May throws that interception. That’s a critical point in that game and they come up with a big stop to kind of thwart any momentum that Tampa had going. You know, I love this squad because week one they lose to the Raiders by seven. Couple weeks later they lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers by seven. And I know oftent times coaches say certain things like bend but don’t break. And it just sounds like coach speak, but this is that defense truly. And and you can you can only bend but don’t break if you are disciplined like you’re saying. So shout out to Rabel. Um and I can only imagine I love to get into the psychology of these coaches because when we spend time together when we’re flying on for our road shows I often talk to you about the psychology of the game because that’s the most fascinating part. What is Rabel saying to these guys? I can only imagine he’s walking in and saying this is our division. Yeah. As long as I can remember it’s always been our division. I don’t I don’t think he’s saying that. I think the one thing that you you’ve you don’t think he’s telling you you got Rabbel is telling these guys that this is their because it is right now it is and they’ve they’ve won seven straight games and it’s so easy to get complacent. You can’t get comfortable. I don’t want to hear about that because you still have Denver and Indianapolis have the same record as us. Okay, we could easily and we know who’s sitting out there right now. Buffalo’s one game behind. I know they didn’t play very well today. Kansas City’s right there and oh yeah, there’s a team down in Baltimore that’s all of a sudden they’ve won three in a row. It is in the middle of the season. That narrative right now in November is we have created a great opportunity, but we haven’t done crap yet. So balance. What’s the balance though as a coach? You have an organization or a group of players that have not been there before. No, you’ve got a young group. So, how do you balance reinstilling confidence and belief with not getting complacent and keeping it urgent? I’m going to let you follow up. So, I want to take you back. This is 2004. Mike Ty is our coach for the Minnesota Vikings. We are cooking. Dante Co Pepper is going off. Three out of the first five games. He had five touchdowns passing. I mean, we felt unstoppable and we were undefeated up until a point and then we got punched in our mouth. And I remember Mike Ty coming in and he was upset because he thought we had an opportunity to go undefeated for much longer. And I never forget the words he said to us. He said, “I wish I would have told you guys how good you were because we didn’t think we were as good as we were.” Yeah, we’re confident and cocky. We were we were a young team, but he was telling us like, “I just wish I told you guys that this is your season. This is the season where I should have instilled in you that we have not just enough to win the division or win the conference, but win a damn Super Bowl.” So I like I don’t want to speak for Vable, but I feel like sometimes young teams need to hear how good they are. Coach, veteran teams, you might have to walk them back a little bit. We were 15-1 in 2004 with a young quarterback. It was his first year, but he won his first 14 games. And I just felt like as we kept going into that season, it was hard to sustain it because you kept thinking, we’ll find a way to come back. We’ll find a way to come back. But I do think at times it’s okay to get rebooted all of a sudden to have that one loss which kind of reboots you and sometimes you can say it all you want but to feel it to feel what it’s like to lose a game that’s right there and this is a team that can go on the road. That’s why I like this team. They’re five and0 on the road. They’re comfortable on the road. Yeah. And so they could go into a place if they have to do that. If they have to go into and it’s still get comfortable at home, huh? The way they’re playing might need to get comfortable at home. I know. and they may and they will be, but I just I I think it they are good. They’re doing a lot of great things and you don’t beat them down at no question. But you don’t want them to get like where they are. And this was a big test. You don’t want them to start feeling themselves. This was a big test for them because this is a game that you go down into to to Tampa Bay, a Tampa Bay team that felt really comfortable in the fourth quarter. They could win games for without a couple of your stars. Yeah. A couple a couple of your stars. And I know he didn’t have his Baker didn’t have his, but you made Baker uncomfortable. You want a game on the road against a team that’s coming off a buy. Good football. You know what? That’s a good football team. That’s a good win. Okay. Okay. So, I’m going to tell you how good you are on Monday. Okay. But you come back in here on Wednesday. Yeah. You better lock in. Remember how we got here. But to to Matt’s point about, you know, maybe they need to be comfortable being at home cuz this could be the location for the AFC Championship game. At what point do you start telling them that? At what point do you start saying, “All right, fellas. We’re playing We’re playing for home field advantage. I agree. I think it’s early. I think it’s early. But I also think I also think acknowledging the the environment that you’re playing in in the AFC right now of saying, you know, you might not tell your team how good they are or you might keep them on edge and you might keep that level of urgency there. But I think reminding this guy, reminding these guys, this is a wide open totally wide open AFC right now. This is not the AFC that we’re accustomed to seeing with Kansas City sitting on top, with Baltimore sitting on top, with the Bills just losing, with the Bills sitting behind you where you’re at. Now, those teams I believe are going to be there and I believe they have the ability to go on the road. Before Before we wrap this segment up, let me come back to the the psychology of this. Don’t you believe, and I’ve been around long enough to know that the media is probably telling them everything that you’re saying that they want to hear. That’s a good point. And then to your point about November, you continue to say, elaborate on this, control the narrative, which means stay in the now. Stay in the now. Just continue to take this one game at a time. The next opponent, take nothing for granted because you start looking at that at that schedule, the Jets, the Miami, Bengals, all like you lose sight of them. You you be careful right now. Yeah. Stay in the We got here and you watch watch around the league. We’re watching teams go down every week. We just watched the Buffalo Bills get hammered by the Miami Dolphins. I’d be pointing that out to them. I think there is an aha I think there is an aha moment though for every team in a season where you say we’ve got a chance. We’re for real. Oh yeah. We’ve got a chance. Yeah. And I think they’re not there yet. No. But if they continue on No, no, no, no. Eight and two. Eight and I’m Listen, I’ve been a part of teams that that have started that way. I’ve been a part of teams that were seven and five and then got rolling and got hot and made a run and and and made it to the Super Bowl. But what I’m saying is there comes a point in December or January. Yeah. Yeah. Where you’re looking around, you say, “We have enough. We’re not there yet. We’re not there yet.” I agree with that, but they’re getting close. The fact of the matter is the media swings hot and cold. I don’t mean to take any of our colleagues to task, but what did Bill Cow get irked about when people thought that it was over for Ravens? And his response was, “Just relax. We still got time. It’s a long season. Eb and flow. Eb and flow. He also gets irked when you say they’re must-win games. I think there were some must-win games that team want. That’s probably what it is. He get irked a lot about a lot of them. Be sure to join us 12 noon Eastern every Sunday right here on the NFL today. Nate, what did you say? He gets irked at anything.

Matt Ryan, Bill Cowher, and Nate Burleson talk about the Patriots after their big win over the Buccaneers in Week 10.

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