Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Grading the New England Patriots Week Four Performance vs. the Tampa Bay Buccaneers — 10/5/2021

Episode Date: October 6, 2021

Though the New England Patriots 19-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night dropped them to 1-3 on the 2021 Season, the Pats still had some positive takeaways from their performance. Joining host Mike D’Abate is Steve Balestrieri of PatsFans.com. The duo provide their grades for both the Pats offense and defense, and begin to look ahead to their Week Five matchup with the Houston Texans.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful. You are now locked in to the Lockdown Patriots podcast. It is Tuesday, October 5th, 2021, and it's time for a visit from our resident voice of reason here on your daily home for news notes and analysis infused with the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. And once again, folks, thank you for making Locked On Patriots your first listen every day.

Always remember, we are free and available on all platforms. And today's episode is brought to you by RockAuto.com. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com today and tell them Locked On sent you. Greetings and salutations, Patriots Nation, and thank you for joining me here on this Tuesday episode of the pod. My name is Mike DeBate, your host of the Locked On Patriots podcast, which, of course, is a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And, folks, because it's your team every day,

that means your questions, comments, and feedback are always welcomed and very much encouraged. So share that feedback. Send it to the Internet by reaching out to me and following me on Twitter at MDABATENFL. And while you're out there doing some Tuesday traveling through the Twitterverse, please be sure to follow the Locked On Patriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. Pats fans, as we continue here in New England to pick up the pieces from the Pats 19-17 loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday night, we continue to try to take the positives

from an overwhelmingly negative situation. The Patriots are currently 1-3, and right now their odds of trying to contend for a playoff spot down the line don't look so great. But if you look at how the Patriots performed on the field, they definitely do not look like a team that's going to be an easy out. In fact, just the opposite. The defense starting to round into form, hopefully just in time for the return of Stephon Gilmore to the lineup. Offensively, the Pats continue to have some difficulties in run and pass protection, but the wide receivers are starting to become a factor, the tight ends are starting to be

utilized properly, and quarterback Mac Jones continues to impress all of us with his poise, his maturity, and his overall skill on the field. So, in my humble opinion, the Patriots are a team that no team should take lightly. But don't take my word for it. We want the opinion of someone with a level-headed, reasonable approach when it comes to evaluating our New England Patriots. And folks, who better to join us today on the pod than our resident voice of reason himself? It's Tuesday, which means that it's time for a visit from my Patriots Paisan, Steve Balistrieri of Patsfans.com. And Steve and I will get into the business of grading the New England Patriots. Who got the highest grades on offense? Who got a slip from Bill Belichick and Josh McDaniels saying, see me after class? We'll ask the same question on the defensive side of

the football. And last but certainly not least, as we continue to wave goodbye to Brady week, we will take a look ahead to Week 5 and the Patriots matchup in Houston against the Texans. Folks, an action-packed agenda, lots to talk about today on the pod, so without much further ado, I will welcome in my good friend Steve Balistrieri of Patsfans.com here to the hot seat when this Tuesday episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. Locked On listeners, we're back and better than ever. All eyes are on the gridiron as teams are back to start another football season.

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of all the amazing offers available for the 2021 season. Bet online, the fastest and easiest way to bet all of your favorite sports. Bet online, your online sportsbook experts. Patriots fans, we continue to break down the Pats' week four loss

to the defending Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, 19-17 in what's being called the Goat Bowl, the Brady Bowl. We've heard them all, and it's an emotional time for Patriots fans, especially last week leading right up to the game. So when emotions run high, we need a little wisdom and counsel and reason to bring us back down to appropriate levels of fandom and enthusiasm. And luckily for us, it's our day for our resident voice of reason right here on Locked On Patriots.

Always one of the best, most knowledgeable columnists that you will find anywhere in Patriots media. You know his great work from Patsfans.com, as well as being the co-host of not one, but two amazing podcasts, Patriots 4th and 2, and of course, One Patriots Place with our good friend Murph and the Countess herself, Ms. Claire Cooper. He is my Patriots paisan, and despite what he'll tell you, worthy of all the praise he gets and then some. Steve Balistrieri joins me here today on the pod. Welcome back to Locked on Patriots, bud. Hey, Mike.

Thanks for having me on the air this afternoon. I'm coming to you remote from the marina in Fort Lauderdale this morning. So life is tough. Yeah, it sounds it i'm coming to you remote from foxborough just a little outside foxborough and it's rainy and dismal and uh you know just kind of i shouldn't say too rainy but i mean it's just kind of a dismal dreary all day here in new england and very appropriate for how patriots fans are feeling right now, because there's mostly cloud cover. It's really not a whole lot of bright weather outside, but the sun is trying to peek its way through,

leading you to believe that maybe some better weather and some sunnier days are on the horizon. You like how I was able to tie that together, but I'm very impressed by that. I actually am. I'm going to toot my own horn for a moment and take that. I took a metaphor and was able to apply it to Patriots fandom. And I know a lot of our listeners are rolling their eyes right now. So I'm sorry,

folks. Thank you for my self-indulgent moment there. But don't worry. Our voice of reason is here to bring us back to all levels of appropriate fandom. And Bud, you know, it's hard to say that at one in three, that a New England Patriots team can have some confidence heading into the future, that they can take away some positives from the field of battle that they fought on Sunday. And look, when you hold the defending Super Bowl champions with a dynamic type offense to 19 points and have it come down to a missed 56- yard field goal to win the game or potentially win the game. I love how a lot of Patriots fans think that would have immediately clinched it. Don't forget, you're still leaving time on the clock for Tom Brady and you never really want to do that.

So when you look at this game, Bud, we'll start, you know what, we'll start on the defensive side of the ball. We always usually start on offense, but your specialty is defending in a lot of ways. And we'll start on the defensive side of the ball. Holding Tom Brady in check is never easy. We know that from personal experience. We've watched it up here in New England for 20 years. There are not a lot of weaknesses in Tom's game. And one of the ways in which you can try to do that is exactly what the Patriots attempted to do more often than not on Sunday.

You want to try to apply pressure, especially from the left side, get the defensive backs on the field, flood the field with defensive backs, go in heavy nickel and dime packages, try to take away Brady's passing lanes and also force them to run the ball. The problem on Sunday is that they did run the ball effectively. I'm not going to say they ran it great, but they ran it effectively, especially Leonard Fournette, 91 yards on the ground. Ronald Jones had the one rushing touchdown. Steve, when you look at this game, what would you say would be your lowest graded area of the defense for the Patriots and where they really could have maybe done a little bit better of a job in trying to contain Tom Brady in the Bucs offense? Yeah, it's really tough, Mike, because I thought the defense overall played an outstanding football game. I mean, they held Tom Brady without a touchdown pass.

Tampa was one for four in the red zone. I mean, 19 points total. I think that when you're looking at the grand scheme of things, if we had talked about that on Friday and said, this is what you're going to get out of your defense, I think we all would have jumped on that. If anything, I know we all would have jumped on that. If anything, I know a lot of people were complaining about the yards on the ground.

I think that was more by design this week than anything. I mean, you know, they were going very light in the secondary because they wanted to take away those passing lanes. If anything, I'll say, and I don't think they deserve low marks, but maybe the defensive line could have done a little bit better. But, you know, again, they were going really light there. I thought, you know, a lot of those yards on the ground were there by design rather than the patriots being out muscled great point i'm so glad that you said that and look folks we don't want to start this

off on a poor note and the reason why i asked steve to get the negatives out of the way first is because i know we're going to wax poetically a lot about the positives that we saw on the defense because there were a lot of them you hit the nail on the head though and going light on the defense bec them. You hit the nail on light on the defensive li lineman and their snap to they were on the field. C the field for 55% alongsi or defensive lineman, inte they led the way. And of

being more of a situational was on the field for 69% as well, but they went light in that area because you want to get versatile linebackers that can move back into coverage, that can move up into coverage, and they can be effective in not only rushing the passer, but also give you some assistance in stopping the run. The Patriots wanted to take away Brady's passing lanes, and they really did that very effectively for the most part on Sunday. And I think that's why they had so many or so much, I should say, success in the way that they

were able to defend him. And of course, Bill Belichick alluded to this after the game. And Tom Brady knows this as well as anyone. If there's anyone that knows Tom Brady's tendencies after watching him for 20 years in practice, in games, it's Bill Belichick. And I think they put together a nice game plan in order to try to be able to do that. Of course, on the other side, Brady's seen it all and done it all as well. And when the moments needed to be made, you saw Tom Brady be able to do it. So a great defensive effort for the New England Patriots. And I agree with you, if they were going to try to stop the run a little bit more,

that may be the weakest area area but that's a slippery slope because like you said that was by design they wanted to take away the passing lanes and force the Bucs to be able to run the football they've done that in I don't want to say mediocre but it's been so so with the running game with the Bucs this year uh Fournette did step, and he deserves a lot of credit for that, and of course, Jones with the rushing touchdown there as well. So Steve, that being said, now that we've talked about the fact that the defense, for the most part, really should earn pretty high grades for their performance on Sunday, what about this defense stood out to you in terms of not only what they did against Brady, but

what that's a sign of in things to come for this Patriots defense and how much prowess they can exhibit going forward. Well, I was really impressed with the secondary. As I talked to you last week, I wasn't convinced that the secondary was going to be able to match up with the Bucs. And I thought they did a fantastic job. Now, that being said, I mean, they got their yardage. Mike Evans got his yardage. But, you know, when you look at J.C. Jackson, he's at a big height disadvantage. Evans is a big dude. You know, he was targeted 12 times.

You know, he ended up with 73 yards. I'll take that. You know, they kept him out of the end zone. I thought that Jonathan Jones performed well against Antonio Brown, and he was hurting at the time. I think one of the unsung heroes of the day was Jalen Mills, who I thought did a great job on Chris Godwin. You know, he only caught three passes,

and that was because I thought Mills matched up well with him all game long. did a great job on Chris Godwin. You know, he only caught three passes, and that was because I thought Mills matched up well with him all game long. Oh, I agree with you. I think Jalen Mills deserves all the credit in the world. For someone like myself who's been very critical of the Patriots' depth at outside corner beyond J.C. Jackson, obviously at the number one spot waiting for Stephon Gilmore to return. You're waiting to see that player that's going to be able to step it up. Would it have been Jawan Williams? Was it going to be Jalen Mills? Could the new guy, Sean Wade,

the rookie that the Patriots traded for just prior to the season, come in and be able to make a statement? Mills has done a very good job. He's done very well in coverage. He shook off a lot of that shaky half and half, you know, being in position to make a play as opposed to being out of position to make the play that we saw in week one. Each week we see growth in Jalen Mills, and I think he deserves a lot of credit for that. And we knew he was going to be that type of versatile defensive back that the Patriots love to employ. You're seeing an awful lot of that. And I agree with you. I really think he did a great job. And I think the secondary overall did well. We saw JC Jackson settled down after the first series in

which he had some difficulty with Mike Evans. Evans was having his way with him in that first series. JC really, I think, took a deep breath, didn't let the moment get too big for him, and realized exactly how he needed to play the coverage for the remainder of the game, and really did, I think, a very good job as well. And the safeties, I thought, also contributed in that area as well. Kyle Duggar, Adrian Phillips, these guys are in on pretty much almost every play, and you see that a lot with the bats and the defense that they employ. They want to be able to do that because it's good for them to be able to have versatile players that can play multiple roles and um i think we'd be remiss if we didn't give another set of kudos even though murph and i sung his praises a lot yesterday uh to matt judon steve uh not to put you on the spot but um how

impressed do you continue to be with how well matt Judon has been able to fit into this offense, the defense? Yeah, it's funny you mention that. I was talking with Mark Schofield, a guy we all know and respect, on yesterday, actually. I was talking with Mark yesterday, and I mentioned to him, you know, it's hard to say he's already worth the contract he's got. But I think he's already worth the contract he's getting. I can't be more impressed with this guy.

He's all over the field. He's an absolute beast, you know, rushing the passer. He sets the edge in the running game. He's just everywhere, all over the field. You can't say enough good things about him. I think he's been the steel so far of free agency this year. running game. He's just everywhere all over the field. You can't say enough good things about him. I think he's been the steel so far of free agency this year. Without any question. And, you know, I admired Matt last week when the media spoke to him and he talked about going up against Tom and going up against, you know, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the defending Super Bowl champions.

And, you know, Matt basically looked dead in the eye of most of the reporters that were in the room and said, it's just another day. And in a lot of ways, he was being very truthful when it came to that. As a Baltimore Raven, he's gone against Tom Brady several times. He's come into hostile environments in Gillette Stadium and all over the league. So he knows the value of being able to play in these big games and separate the emotion from what needs to be done on the field. And he did a tremendous job. One sack, two quarterback hits, two tackles for a loss. But again, you mentioned this.

He shows that prowess by impacting nearly every play he's in on. Keeps the runners from reaching the corner on early downs, the size, the speed, the strength when getting after the quarterback and getting, you know, the sack on Tom Brady puts himself in a position to get favorable matchups off the ball as well. Murph and I talked a little bit about this yesterday, again, paying dividends for that Patriots defense, just adding a level of versatility that the team didn't have in 2020. So I agree with you. I think he's more than earned his contract so far and he will continue to do so. Patriots are very fortunate to have Matt Judon on their side. And one of the big reasons why they were within an eyelash of beating the Super Bowl, the defending Super Bowl

champs, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. Steve, always a pleasure to talk some defensive football with you. The preventive side of the ball is truly one of your strengths, but you're equally as adept in being able to talk offense. And that means Mac Jones, the Patriots running game, and what is still going on on the offensive line. Steve and I will talk Patriots offense, high grades, low grades, when this Tuesday episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. Locked On listeners, when it comes to repairing or maintaining your vehicle,

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Make sure to put Locked On in their How Did You Hear About Us box so they know we sent you. Amazing selection, reliably low prices, all the parts your car will ever need. rockauto.com. Patriots fan Steve Balistrieri joins me here today on Tuesday. The regular visit from our resident voice of reason. And Steve, in the previous segment, we talked a lot about the Patriots' defensive prowess and how really that is a very positive takeaway for the New England Patriots moving forward. This defense continues to gel and I for one cannot wait to see what this unit looks like in its entirety when Stephon Gilmore gets back in the lineup and we'll talk about that more

probably within the coming days and weeks. But Steve, offensively the Patriots had some positives and some negatives. This was probably the side of the ball where the game was more lost than won when it came to Sunday's performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. We like to end on a high note, so we'll start with the lows. Obviously, when you finish the game with a negative rushing total on the day as a team, you're definitely doing something wrong. There's no question about it. And it goes beyond just the runners on the field. There's a lot of reasons why that happened.

I'm assuming the running game as a whole is probably going to get your lowest offensive grade of the night. But when you look at it objectively, how much is this on the runners? How much is it on the blocking in the O-line? How much is it on coaching? What went wrong on the ground for the Patriots on Sunday? Well, you know, I look at it as this is an offensive line problem.

It's not a running back problem. I thought, you know, when you look at the tape and you watch the game again, the running backs had nowhere to go. There was no seams. There was no holes for them to run into. They were running into a brick wall. They were frequently getting hit in the backfield. I mean, you can't blame them for that.

And the offensive line, you know, and again, we talked about this last week. This was supposed to be one of the strengths of the team. And right now, it's biggest weakness. You know, your running game is nonexistent two weeks in a row. And granted, Tampa Bay is very, very good against the run. But when you get negative yardage, that's unacceptable, no matter who you're going against. You supposedly have one of the best offensive lines in the NFL,

and you can't generate one positive yard? I think that's a definite, definite problem with the offensive line, and they really need to get it straight. Yeah, they definitely do. And look, a lot of that can be laid on the doorstep of Trent Brown missing the past three games. Really, if you want to think about it, really missing the entire first four games of the season. He was injured very early in week one and never really got a chance to show his prowess and his growth in terms of

run and pass protection. And he was very good at that. And his first tour of 2D here in New England, no one's arguing that point, but we saw so much growth in Trent over the course of the preseason and what he was able to do in terms of getting into position and really be able to add a lot to that right tackle position. So with his return, with his hopeful return, eventually, we hope to see that grow and we hope to see that get cultivated. And hopefully that'll solve some of the problems. But there are problems all over the line. It doesn't just lie within Trent Brown's injury.

Isaiah Wynn continues to have difficulty. And we saw him pop up on the injury report last week. So maybe that's one of the reasons why he's having so much difficulty pushing off into his stance. I talked about this and wrote about this several times last week that he looks like he's hesitating a little bit in pushing off of his stance to get after the passer and, or I said, I should say to, uh, to protect the pass. If that's the case, that would explain why, because he's normally a very aggressive pass protector. He's that strike first mentality. We haven't seen that from Isaiah. And that continued into Sunday night. So hopefully we'll be able to get some clarity on exactly what any type of injury may

be having an impact. And if that continues to be an issue moving forward, Michael Wainu was pulled. You mentioned that, you know, you you having two holding calls go against you. That's going to be a very easy way for you to earn the disdain of Bill Belichick and the offensive coaching staff. So there's problems there. There's no question about it. But I agree with you. And in second, third and fourth viewings of the game from from Sunday night, I'm looking at it now with a little bit of a different lens. I was a little overcritical of the runners on Sunday,

but they really had nowhere to go. There just really wasn't a whole lot of room for them to maneuver. So hopefully the Patriots straighten the ship, right the path, and they'll be able to move forward from there. But we'll end the day with a high note, my friend, and we'll talk offensive positives. And obviously, Mac Jones is getting a lot of praise. Murph and I saying his praises yesterday here on the pod.

I continue to do so in my opening today. And of course, nationally, he's getting an awful lot of love from pundits that are looking at this and saying Mac really took a huge step toward becoming an NFL quarterback on the biggest stage he didn't let the moment get too big for him performed well and showed a lot of poise in a few key drives for the Patriots letting people believe that they have indeed found their quarterback of the future Steve did Mack earn your highest offensive grade for the night if not please let us know and what other uh options or what other aspects of the

offense i should say earned your high praise uh when it comes to the patriots now moving into week five yeah i think it's obvious mac jones gets the high grade this week i mean you you look at the big scheme of things he had no running game with negative yardage. His pass protection was terrible. You know, he was sacked four times. He was hit 12 more times. And yet he was still able to complete more than 75% of his passes for 275 yards and two touchdowns.

You know, the way he handled himself, the way he had poise in the pocket, the way he slid in the pocket was able to deliver the ball. I was very, very impressed with him overall. I thought he had a really impressive game when you're looking at that. I mean, even if you're a veteran quarterback, if you have no running game and no pass protection, it's really hard to get anything going offensively. and I thought he did a great job of that. If there's another player that, you know, that's right up there,

I think you have to look at Jacoby Myers. He led the team in reception and yardage, and then he threw two passes for 45 yards. That second one was a beautiful dime right to Nelson Aguilar on that double pass. I thought that was tremendous. Those are the two guys that stood out to me the highest, but it was also very nice to see the two tight ends getting targeted in the red zone and able to score a touchdown. And with that, folks, somewhere Claire Cooper

is listening to this and smiling and going yes tight endage uh yeah absolutely claire i we know we know you were excited to see hunter henry find the end zone we all were as was john and smith and you know i really that's one thing that i'm taking away from this is the patriots ability to utilize that tight end tandem especially in the red zone you know they can do it. You know they're capable. And they're going to continue to do it and continue to do it at a high clip. And I think that that's something that Patriots fans can really get excited about because we're starting to see the seedlings of that 12-man, 22 personnel that the Patriots want

to employ. You want to see those tight ends get their looks, and you want to see them do it on the greatest stage. And this was a big game for the Patriots. There's no question about it. Everyone wanted to see how they were going to be able to move the ball and keep score for score or match Tom Brady in that department. Mack, again, showing tremendous poise, tremendous leadership, and also a lot of maturity in the way he handled this game. Some people question his maturity or his ability to be able to lead the Patriots in big moments after a somewhat

disappointing performance against the Saints in week three. I think a lot of his problems stem from the pass protection. But the one thing that I really took away from this, and Murph and I talked about this a little bit yesterday, Steve, and one thing that really continued to give me hope for the future is that even when the pass protection broke down, Mack still showed the ability to buy himself more time. I thought he did a great job of picking up the blitz. He made his defenders miss. And when you can do that as a quarterback and still be able to perform when that pass protection breaks down and when the running game is not clicking on all cylinders says a lot about your poise and your

NFL readiness and he didn't look like a rookie in those situations and that's something that the Patriots saw in him and hopefully will continue to see a lot more of in the coming weeks speaking of the coming weeks I lied my friend I'm going to ask you one more question. We're starting to take our sharp eye off of Tom Brady, and we're starting to move on from the loss to the Buccaneers. And the Patriots match up with the Houston Texans, who obviously just don't look very good at this point. And I think a lot of people thought that moving into the season. But this is a win that the Patriots should have.

The Patriots must have in a lot of ways. If you drop to the Houston Texans and move to one and four on the season, you're pretty much on the outside looking in when it comes to playoff contention, that's going to be an insurmountable hole while not impossible. It's going to be very, very difficult. Steve, when you look at the Texans game, what leads you to believe that the Patriots are in prime position to get back on track and hopefully return to the wing column? Well, I took, you know, this game on Sunday, you know, in the manner that, hey, they really seemed to gel.

They came together. I thought they played their best 60 minutes of football in quite some time. You know, I'm looking at the game, and I compared it a little bit to 2001, that game against the Rams. The Rams is the greatest show on turf, and, you know, the Patriots had been scuffling along, and they lost in Foxborough to the Rams. But they came together because they realized, hey, we're better than we thought we were. You know, we can put something together. I'm not saying this is a Super Bowl team, not at all.

However, you know, I think this performance on Sunday is going to give them the kind of, you know, confidence that they can move forward and play with anybody. And I think that's a big thing moving forward. Absolutely. So well said. And that's actually a point that I made this morning in one of my evaluation columns for Sports Illustrated, is that when you have the ability to walk off the field knowing that you went toe-to-toe with the defending champions and were, again, within an eyelash, within a made field goal, away from maybe taking a win away from the field,

you have to feel confident. And that's going to give you a lot of confidence moving forward into the season, especially a team that's struggling like the Houston Texans. Patriots are going to have their hands full without any question because you know that the Texans are playing with not a whole lot to lose. They're also playing with a very, very heavy burden of erasing what was a debacle on Sunday. So they're going to come in and they're going to be ready to play as well. Of course, a road game is always challenging in its own right.

So the Patriots can't overlook this. They can't look past the Texans. I don't think Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots brain trust will allow them to do that. And I think as a result, this could be a game that the Patriots should be able to return to some type of semblance of organization where they're not looking at another loss and another heartbreak and just asking questions about what went wrong. So even though a loss is a loss, I think this does put them in a good position to be able to move forward. And, you know, hopefully we'll get a better result this Sunday than we got last week. Steve, always my honor, always my pleasure to have you join me here on the microphone, especially on Tuesdays, your regular day here as our resident voice of reason. Before I let you go, my friend, please let everyone know, especially our new listeners know where they can find you on social media,

where they can interact with you, find your great work and what you have coming in the, what you have on the horizon in the coming days and weeks from the great fan and the great voice of Steve Balistrieri. Hey, thanks again for having me, Mike. Always a pleasure. You can find me on Twitter at SteveB7SFG, at PatsFans.com, and then the two podcasts which you mentioned at the outset. This week we're looking at the Texans.

Even though they're not playing very well, we're going to look at the Texans and see how the Patriots match up and where they might look to take advantage. I think the Texans, although they were hammered last week, they have a pretty tough defense. So we expect them to come after Mac Jones like everybody else has been doing. So it should be a great matchup. Look forward to writing about it.

Absolutely. And we look forward to reading and we look forward to absorbing it. And that's a good point that you made is that the Texans still have a pretty formidable defense. And don't forget, folks, a lot of former Patriots in that organization on that field. So a lot of intel going to be shared back and forth this week. And you can bet that that will make for some interesting storylines heading into this one. And Steve will continue to break them down. And we look forward to breaking it all down in the aftermath next week on Tuesday here on Locked On Patriots. In the meantime, Bud, continue to stay safe, continue to stay well. And thank you again for joining me here today. My pleasure. Just like that, Patriots fans, we are almost halfway through your work week already.

And there is still plenty of Pat's coverage to come. So to ensure that you do not miss a single second of the action, download, subscribe to, and follow the Locked On Patriots podcast on platforms such as Spotify, the Odyssey app, Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts. Just make sure that you are staying locked in to Locked On Patriots. Remember, folks, we are free and available on all platforms. Once again, my name is Mike DeBate.

I thank my good friend Steve Balistrieri for his time, his insight, and his appearance on today's pod. But most of all, I thank you so much for listening and for continuing to make Locked On Patriots your first listen of the day and a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. Until tomorrow, Foxborough faithful, stay safe, stay well, be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone.