Patriots’ Biggest Weakness Exposed? Mike Reiss Sounds Off

Patriots’ Biggest Weakness Exposed? Mike Reiss Sounds Off

Mike, look, here we are. Uh, this is a very good team. Um, they, uh, Denver are keeping pace, but Denver’s schedule gets very difficult from what I Oh, no. Indie schedule gets very difficult. Denver keeps again, is there any advantage? I heard Felgger and Matt talking about how teams with easy schedules win Super Bowls like it doesn’t really matter. But do you think there’s any advanty? I can’t stand the Patriots. Everyone gets so pissy. Yes, they beat Tampa in Buffalo. I’m just trying to make conversation with Mike. So the not you, Mike. You are a reasonable human being. I’m talking into the audience. Their schedule’s not been very difficult. They’ve beat the teams they’ve had to beat. I’m not and they’ve beat them handily. Average at 10 and a half points. It’s all great. It’s all gravy. But is do you think there’s any disadvantage going into the playoffs not being challenged as much as some other teams because you see some of these teams like just for instance the Lions in Philadelphia like their schedules are brutal especially the Lions is there any advantage to that or dis I’m going to decisively say zero. I I don’t think that I I believe when we get to the end of this season after you play Buffalo at first of all, you got to take care of business the next two weeks, assuming they do that at Cincinnati home against the Giants, then you have your buy. And if you’re going to go if you end up beating Buffalo at home December 14th, if I have the date right off the top of my head, and then Baltimore on the road the next week, you’ve been tested. So we can just put in my view, we can just put that whole talk off to the side. Excellent. Uh Milton Williams is on IR. Alex Bar, I heard him uh I believe yesterday and he said no big whoop. He said if you were going to lose anyone at any positional group, that would be the positional group to lose someone. What? And I’m He’s going to go you’re misquing me, but because that’s how he talks. But uh I I I don’t think I am necessarily. What is Milton Wills Williams a huge a huge loss here because he will miss those Bills and Ravens games if it’s a minimum of four games? Well, Alex is awesome. We know that. Um, so I I don’t want to like put myself in conflict with them, but I I would say I think Williams has been their best defensive player, so I think it’s a significant loss. My guess is what Alex meant is they’re actually pretty deep there. Like if you can now Christian Barour becomes more critical because he probably goes to the Milton Williams role. Then you have Kyus Tongo who’s played very well for him steps in alongside him as a starter. And then you have three other players that have contributed and done pretty well. Cory Duran, Joshua Farmer, and now Eric Gregory to just bump up one spot. And honestly, Fred, I would say like every team goes through it. Denver just beat Kansas City without their best cornerback, Patrick Certan. So, the Patriots will see how they handle it, but I don’t think it I don’t think it is a crusher in the sense of it’s going to def defeat them, but they got to show that they can overcome a significant loss. You just mentioned something happening in with another team in the league. What was that? Denver. Denver. Denver without Siran won yesterday. Oh. Oh, yeah. So, you probably wouldn’t want to play him in the playoffs, right, Mike? Oh Jesus. Denver. I I would I think Denver I’d play him. I would I don’t know if I’d like to play him in Denver though. That’s why I think if we get close to the end of the year and they’re talking about seedings, home field obviously would be great. So we talked about the absence of Milton Williams. Um what is the injury? What are you hearing about Booty coming back uh right now? Good. Good. Uh I I think Booty Stevenson uh both of them uh very close. Mike Rael this morning I think mentioned they’re going to get out on the practice field today and I I believe and I don’t want to misquote them. I think he expected them to at least get out there to to just sort of see where they’re at. Um but but what I have heard outside of that Fred is that they and Hooper coming back from Austin Hooper coming back from the concussion that um it was trending in the right direction that that potentially not definitely but potentially all three of those would be available this week. Uh when you’re you know you’re with ESPN, I don’t know how much you’re around other people, but you’re at all the games and there’s reporters from around the country. Uh, is Drake May a lot of people’s clear MVP here? It’s Is it Stafford? What are you hearing? Oh, good question. So, I’m not When we’re in the press box at games, I would say that doesn’t come up as much. So, I’m influenced probably more by what I when I turn on the TV, Fred, and and listen to the conversation. It feels like Well, Drake is, first of all, he’s the favorite right now based on the ESPN odds. Stafford’s right there. Um, so I think it’s between those two right now. I think Jonathan Taylor gets a lot of love as well, the Colts running back. It’s just that generally it goes to a quarterback. So he sort of maybe is a little bit behind those two. And so that’s where we are right now with quite a few more games to play. So I think this thing can keep shifting. But Drake is getting a lot of love. Now Drake May has been great. Do you think the defense though is getting enough credit? I do. And and I think part of it, and I’m glad you mentioned it, Fred, because I think defensively, like the way they’re starting games, I I think may maybe is part of the whole not why they’re not getting the credit, but maybe why it’s a little less um like amplified what they’re doing. You know, they’ve given up six opening drive touchdowns this season, which is tied for the most in the NFL, and they do a great job settling down after that. But that is one thing that I would put on the list. Like if we want to talk about areas that could potentially come back and get him and bite him in in a playoff game or where in a game where the margin for error is a little thinner. That’s one area that I think is still on the list to look at. In this last game, um well, I don’t read too much into Thursday games. um blown, you know, multiple edges sort of blown where the quarterback runs outside and um shaky coverage on third down on one play by Carlton Davis would be if you’re asking like why what happened this last game. Those were a couple that stood out. No, I wasn’t asking at all what happened last game because No, I wasn’t asking that at all. As a matter of fact, I was just saying this defense is so No, I know what happened. Justin Fields played quarterback against them. That’s what happened. if you must know, but but I’m just talking about they’re so good against the run. Can you kind of what are you seeing about their ability to stop the run so well and that just no one’s been able to break through? So, I think before the last two games, Fred, I would be right there with you like that. No one can run on them. I actually feel like they started to spring a few um leaks in the Tampa game. um it wasn’t catastrophic obviously and then this last game I didn’t think they were that great against the run and now with Milton Williams not there um it is something that I want to watch for uh going forward I don’t know if these next two teams the Bengals and Giants can hurt them on the ground but um I actually I would say I’m a little bit um putting that on my list of things to say um can they get back to what I thought they were earlier in the season than the last two games. You don’t have any like crazy conspiracies as to why uh teams are scoring on their opening drives as we saw again last week, as we’ve seen so many times this season. I mean, the the the craziest and the one that you automatically dismiss is that they’re, you know, somehow allowing teams to march down the field to get a really good look at their offense so that they can better plan for the rest of the game. But is there something like dynamically different about the way they’re approaching things defensively on these opening drives that would help explain it? So, I think there’s a couple things, Hardy. This last game, um I I almost put that off to the side because I look at like those Thursday games. I actually didn’t think they got off blocks as well as they usually do on the opening drive and I’m like to me that might be it’s Thursday, you know, those are tough turnarounds. But each game, if we went through each opening drive, I actually think it’s a little something different. And it’s like one play, a third down play. In one game, Marte Mapu, the linebacker, allows himself to get picked off on a play that if he doesn’t, they make it and they’re off the field. This last game, Carlton Davis, who I think is a pretty good corner. It’s third down, um, mid maybe third and five, third and six. It’s a simple, um, incut or not an inut, a simple slant, and his technique just wasn’t where it needed to be. So, I think I look at it like it’s more just tightening up those details on some of those plays and they get off the field and we’re having a different conversation. All right. I I I would like to think it’s something that’s easily fixable. And it’s just I feel like it’s a matter of time before one of these one of these opening drive scores from the opposing team is going to come back to bite you in the ass. you’re not going to you’re not going to be able to find either uh the means to stop them after that or if your offense stalls, that’s what’s going to be your undoing. Maybe obviously not right away, but third quarter rolls around and you haven’t been able to make up that deficit because you allowed a a touchdown score on your on the team’s first drive, then that’s what’s going to come back to bite you in the ass. Yeah. And I and I think they’ve they’ve done like Mike Rabel made the point this morning, they’ve given up a lot of opening drive touchdowns and then they settle down and then if we go back a couple games ago, I think they actually got off the field on their first drive and then and maybe even their second drive and then they sort of didn’t play great the rest of the game. So Vable sort of like, you know, if I had to pick one or the other, I’d rather give up a touchdown early and play well the rest of the way than do better on the opening drive and then maybe not play that well. So that’s one thing I think. Also, uh, they’ve only forced one turnover over the last three games. That’s something they got to start turning the ball over more. And red zone offense, you know, can they can they be a little better scoring touchdowns? Those would be my three areas if you’re looking to nitpick like where can they uh get better to keep this thing going in the right direction. All right. Well, I want to keep you on the line for just a second more. Not through break, but just because I don’t want you cheating and getting involved on this and getting an unfair heads up. Caller number 10 to the contest line. 6179310985 will score a pair of tickets in the fifth row to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra, the G of Christmas Eve, the best of TSO and mall at the DCU Center on November 29th. Tickets are now available at ticketmaster.com. So now that that call is out there, you can’t get the tickets in this way. You, Mike, you’ll have to ask Rick for them and that will require a long conversation. Good luck. Yeah. Um, can I I know I don’t want to run you into break. I just have to mention I messed one thing up last week with John when we were talking about the end of the Tampa game with Trayvon Henderson. And I just wanted to clean it up really fast. I mentioned we were talking about did they manage it right with the timeouts that Tampa had left. And I talked to a couple game management people around the league and they said if Tayvon went down inside the 10 yard line that they probably could have run the clock down almost to zero. It wasn’t like 100% clean. Um but what I missed what I messed up on is if Trayvon went down Tampa would have had to take a timeout right there and then they would have only had one timeout left right with at first down. So, it wasn’t like 100% clean like the Patriots maybe would have had to on fourth down have Drake roll out and throw it into the stands and hope that the you know your one, two, three seconds there, but I just wanted to clean that up because I felt uh I wasn’t on my game on that. Yeah, we were getting a ton of push back on that. I’m glad that you cleared that up. Thank you, Mike. All right, you guys are the best. All right, Mike Ree, uh you’re the best. Thank you so much. Uh listen to him, read them, everything on ESPN. We appreciate it, sir. All right. Always great being with you. See you, Mike. Nice to talk to you as always. For all the latest from the Sports Hub, download the app at 985thesportsub.com.

Fred and Mike Reiss break down whether the Patriots’ soft schedule actually matters, with Mike saying it won’t mean anything once they hit tougher games against Buffalo and Baltimore. They also hit on Milton Williams’ injury, key players working back from injury, and Drake May’s growing MVP buzz. Mike flags a few real concerns—like opening-drive touchdowns and a dip in run defense—but overall thinks the team is in a strong spot heading into the stretch run.

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