Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 12/22/16- Crossover Show with John Butchko of "Locked On Jets"

Episode Date: December 23, 2016

Chris Simoneau of Scout.com and Locked on Patriots discusses the state of the Jets with John Butchko of "Locked on Jets". #patriots #jets Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. This is John from Locked On Jets. This is Chris Semino from Locked On Patriots. And we're doing a little crossover show today to preview the Week 16 game between the Jets and the Patriots. Chris, how are you? I'm doing okay, John. How are you doing? I'm doing better than the Jets are this season. I'll say that.

Yeah, I can definitely agree with you on that one. It's been a tough one for them just watching from my end of it here. They're a division opponent, so I'm always watching them with two eyes. Four and ten, what's going on? You know, I feel like these teams are at their traditional spots in the standings with the Patriots on top, gearing up, attempting on the road to potentially another Super Bowl run, and the Jets at the bottom of the standings. You know, I think as we discuss, as we go deeper into the game, you ask me questions about the Jets. I think one theme you'll hear is that player or that

position group is playing very poorly. It's not the type of thing where you can just pinpoint one problem. Now, obviously, the quarterback position with the Jets has been a big issue. Jets brought back Ryan Fitzpatrick on a one-year deal. It has not worked out at all. Briefly went to Geno Smith. He got hurt in his first start, so not really a lot you can say about him. They've made the move to Bryce Petty after they were eliminated. Petty actually started a game in place of an injured Fitzpatrick before the Jets were eliminated. And he looks every bit the number three quarterback, raw second year player from a spread system that you would expect. You know, on the other side of the ball, the defense has really been a major disappointment. I think heading into this season, you understood that there was a pretty good chance that Ryan Fitzpatrick was not going to put up the numbers he put up in 2015.

That's just kind of the way it goes when you have a guy who's kind of a mediocre journeyman through his whole career. And then he, out of the blue in his 30s, puts up a season that's nothing like the rest of his career. You understand that guy may regress. The defense has been a big surprise. Defensive line is really underachieved. career you understand that guy may regress the defense has been a big surprise defensive line is really underachieved they have three first round picks who have all played at star level at a star level at some point during their careers but Muhammad Wilkerson and Sheldon Richardson are really having bad seasons Leonard Williams is having a good year in his second year

out of USC but the defensive line is underachieved. The secondary has been just a disaster all season. They've started the season with a breakdown after breakdown all over the field. Darrell Rivas may be the, may be the least effective corner in football this year. And a lot was based on his ability to take a, you know, be able to eliminate a receiver playing man coverage.

And he's just been, it's been pretty much you want to pretty much you want a completion on them, you can get it. So it's kind of difficult to pinpoint one thing. The Jets have just been a mess on both sides of the ball. Yeah, honestly, I'm not going to lie to you. I actually expected them to be 10-6 or 9-7 with what they had coming back. Obviously, when Decker went down, I thought that was a big, big blow to their offense, but I thought their defense was just going to be lights out,

especially up front with that defensive line, so I'm not going to lie to you. I'm very surprised at where the Jets have ended up this season. I think Todd Bowles is a good coach. They were good last year. They were very competitive, I thought. I'm surprised. I thought they'd be much better.

I think the Rivas situation is kind of sad. It's a bit unprofessional on his part, I think. I was always a fan of Rivas' game. Obviously, when he came to New England, it was fun to watch him. He did a good job. He missed practices in New England, too, and there were some things you could see that he was kind of maybe slowing down slightly. And now I see why New England didn't want to sign him to a big contract,

and it definitely makes sense. Do you get the feeling that the Jets are going to release him in the offseason? You know, I don't think they really have a choice. He's just eating up so much cap space, And they'll save a bunch by letting him go. Heading into this season, I thought there was a pretty good chance that the decision would be much tougher because I was expecting that if there was a decline, it would be more gradual. And you'd be at a point where, yeah, he may not deserve the money he was making, but it would be difficult to replace it. You know, it'd be one of those situations where it would be, you'd be overpaying him by bringing him back, but not egregiously so. So you'd kind of be in no man's land, but he's just been so, his play has just fallen off so much that the Jets really can't justify, there's really no way you can justify bringing him back um i think one of the disappointing things from a jet's perspective is he is just he'd always been a guy who hasn't been afraid to compete he's he's

always been a willing tackler and that's just gone away this year he's not been willing to mix it up tackling he hasn't been willing to play press coverage i think you know some of his coverage is i don't know if lazy is the right word, but he's just not challenging receivers this year. It almost looks like he's, I don't know whether he's lost confidence. I don't know what it is, but to the untrained eye, it just kind of looks like he's going through the motions. Now, he's a competitor. I'm sure he's going out there playing hard.

I'm sure he's doing his best, but it's just been kind of disheartening to see how much he's struggled to simply compete this season. So, you know, the Jets, look, this was a guy who was aging. And even that, he was tremendous in New England two years ago. And in my opinion, when I watched the Patriots, I don't think they win the Super Bowl two years ago without him. But even then, you could see he was not the player he was back in his prime during the Rex Ryan Jets days.

But he was still, you know, a top flight corner. And even last year, he had some rough games. He had a rough one against DeAndre Hopkins. He had a rough one against Sammy Watkins Week 17. But for 75% to 80% of the year, he was Darrell Rivas. So I think it's just kind of stunning how far he's fallen off. Yeah, it actually kind of reminds me a little bit of Namdi Asamoah when he just kind of fell off the face of the earth when he went to Philadelphia

after he signed that large contract. At that point, he was one of the top corners in the game, too. No, I don't think he's anywhere near the level Revis was. I think Revis is just a Hall of Fame player in my mind. But, you know, you're right. It's just amazing how fast the drop-off has happened. It doesn't seem like he's in shape. It's just from the outside looking in, it just doesn't seem

the shape he needs to be in to be the type of corner that he can be at this age because he's not getting any younger. At the same time, he should be good enough to be able to not get burned on a consistent basis. Like you said, he's playing off of everybody. It's just been

strange to watch. I know the Patriots got him a couple times. The first time said, too, he's playing off of everybody. It's just been strange to watch. I know the Patriots got him a couple times the first time they played Malcolm Mitchell, a rookie, got him. That was just surprising to watch. So this week should be interesting. What do you think? Coming up here to Foxborough, do you think the Jets are going to come up here ready to go, or is it just going to be a fold up the tents and let's call this the season?

Do you think they're going to be ready to compete? It's difficult to be a fold up the tents and let's call this a season. What do you think they're going to be ready to compete? It's difficult to say at this point, the Jets have been kind of blown out two of the last three games, the really ugly Monday night game where they were never in it against the Colts. And then last week against the Dolphins, they played a very spirited first half, but they really play the second half. They played every bit as badly as they did in that game against the Colts. I could kind of see this going one of the two ways where the jets just decide

this is a disappointing season, but we're going to have one big game against, you know, against our rival, you know, against the team that could be going to the Superbowl. And I, you know,

I played the way they did in that first meeting back. I think it was the weekend after Thanksgiving. I could see them giving a game, maybe, you know, the aforementioned Wilkerson and Richardson go out and try and at least salvage something of a lost season by having a big game.

Maybe the offense can string together enough and make this a competitive game. Or I could just see them kind of coming out. Maybe the Patriots get on a roll early to get a couple touchdowns, and it's a long day. I could see it going one of two ways. I think it's either going to be a really tight one-score game that comes down to the last play, or it's going to be the type of game

where the Patriots will be playing their backups through most of the fourth quarter. At this point, I don't really have a great read on this Jets team because they kind of alternate between looking like a really competitive team and looking like a team that is just on its way to the off season uh even the game they won two weeks ago against san francisco they got off to a horrible start and it almost looked like this was going to be a long day and suddenly they kind of caught fire in the fourth quarter and you could see you could kind of see it was kind of palpable the the the

the the fire that that that they were playing with when they kind of sensed the victory. So I think with any bad team, the early going may kind of tell the story where I'm not saying guys check out necessarily, but you see it a lot in the NFL where a team's out of it. Maybe if they get off to a good start, these guys maybe gain confidence. They feel like, okay, we could win. And if they don't get off to a good start, maybe things start to snowball from there.

Let me ask you about the Patriots. This is an interesting team from the standpoint that you're hearing a lot about the way they've kind of turned. I'm not sure I'd say they've turned into a power run team, but the power run game seems to have become more of a staple of their offense this season. No, absolutely. It did before Gronkowski got hurt too, which is the interesting part.

But if you look at the way that they've set the team up, Martellus Bennett, I know a lot of people think and they brought him in here because it's an Aaron Hernandez replacement and they want to run their two tight end sets and all that and throw the ball all over the place. But he's also one of the best run-blocking tight ends in football. So when you have Bennett and Gronkowski, it's like having two extra guards on the field, essentially.

You know, they're literally the two best blocking tight ends in football. So it made sense when they had them both in there, and Blount is a very underrated back. He seems to be in better shape this year. I don't know if I'm the only one who's noticed that, but he seems like he's a little bit quicker, came into camp ready to go. And they really hit the, you know, before they got Tino Lewis back over the last few weeks,

Blount was the only guy that they really had. James White, to be perfectly honest with you, as far as handing him the ball, he's not good. He's not a very good running back. He's a great receiver out of the backfield, but as far as running back, he doesn't do much. So Blount's having to take in the load. But, yeah, it's been really big for the Patriots this season.

They only rank seventh in the league, running for 117 yards a game. I was a little surprised to see he didn't make the Pro Bowl, but one of those guys will end up trying to check out, so I'm sure he'll end up being there. But, yeah, he's got 15 touchdowns. The offensive line, that's the strength of this offensive line. There's no question about it. They like to get out and run block.

Shaq Mason is a little bit undersized, but when it comes to the run game, he's lethal. Georgia Tech, when he was there, that's what they did. They ran the option nonstop, and that's all they did was get out and run block. So I think Scott Necke has done a good job with him. I think he's done a good job with Joe Tooney, a rookie guard who had some trouble last week against Denver. But let's be honest, who doesn't have trouble against Denver's defensive front?

I mean, they're ridiculous. He also had the highest grade for the Patriots offensive line in the run game too. Nate Solder has always been an excellent run blocker, and again, since Ganecki has come back, he's been excellent. Andrew is the center. He's a good run blocker too, so

they've just taken advantage of what they have and they've done a great job of it. Getting into the cold months here, the Patriots back when they were winning the Super Bowl back in the early, you know, 2001, 2003, 2004, they had a power running game back then. You know, think of Corey Dillon teams. And, you know, you think back to the games that they lost, the Super Bowl they lost against the Giants.

That's a game that they might have wanted to go to the run, and actually that was part of the game plan, but they scrapped it. They didn't, and they've cost themselves in the playoffs by not being able to run the ball and being able to just strictly throw. And look at the Jets. The Jets are a team in 2010 that knew that New England wasn't going to be able to run the ball, and they actually stopped them. So being able to run for them is huge and I think it also helps too because the defense I know they played well last week and I know their

points allowed is is pretty strong but they still give up a lot of yards they're still very susceptible to big deep passes I worry about them against the Steelers or even against the Ravens if the Ravens are able to sneak into the playoffs so having that running game, being able to work the ball down the field slowly and setting up play action for Brady, which is just lethal, and then keeping your defense rested, it's just been a recipe for success all year. So they just rode the train, and the rookie linemen love it. So I think it's going to continue.

I know the Jets have been pretty good at defending the run, but I remember writing up, because I write for scout.com too, I remember doing the write-up for the last game when the Jets were ranked. I believe it was in the top five and stopping in the run, and they dropped to 14th. So it could be interesting this week to see what the Patriots try to do. I know that they're not going to want to get great killed, so I want to see if they're going to try to run it on the Jets.

I think they will try. It should be interesting to watch. Yeah, I was actually about to say, you beat me to the punch because one of the things that's always impressed me about the Patriots is just the way their offense has kind of morphed through the years. They go from playing one style

to another, but in my opinion the best Super Bowl of the four that the patriots had was that oh four team when they had cory dylan you know they could kind of pound cory dylan and i was another thing that you mentioned that i was actually going to ask about is uh the return of the offensive line coach uh skarnecchia this year he was a pretty legendary position coach and when they brought him back i thought that that was maybe the biggest move any team made one of the biggest move any team

one of the biggest moves any team made this offseason you but it doesn't maybe in Boston it did but nationally bringing a position coach in doesn't get a ton of uh doesn't really get a ton of headlines do you speak to just the job he's done this season it's unbelievable the difference he's made yeah you're right it wasn't really on the national landscape at all. But, you know, position coach, when you're talking about, in my opinion, I think the offensive and defensive line, obviously, the game is won.

But it really starts with the offensive line, because if you can't score at all, you're never going to win. So, New England's always concentrated on Naskanek. He's obviously been part of the Patriots forever. I think he took his little one-year hiatus over in Indianapolis and then came back. But since he's been back, I know 2014 he wasn't around,

and honestly his name escapes me right now. Was it Dave Deguglielmo? Yeah, that's who he is. Former Jets offensive line coach. I struggle with his name a little bit, but they liked him, and he ended up, they struggled at first, and they were able to recover. But 2015, it was just a nightmare.

So, you know, Skarnackia coming back has been absolutely huge. The thing with him, too, is they had so many young players. Like I was talking with so many young draft picks that, young draft picks that they expected to play, they needed to have him back to get those guys ready to go. And he kind of helped Solder a little bit. Solder was struggling the last two seasons. And Solder's situation, you know, you look at it and you hear people say,

well, he's not even great. Well, in 2014, going into the season, he battled testicular cancer. And then last season, his son had cancer. So he's a human. He's going to be distracted a little bit. And I think that plays a part in why he struggled the last two years. But this year he's been great. He really has been. He's, in fact, I believe pro football, pro football focus had him rated as the sixth tackle going into this week. So that's pretty good, you know, considering where he was the last two seasons.

So, Sold has been great, and the biggest development has been Cannon. Marcus Cannon, the right tackle, that's, he's a surprise. You know, when they first signed him to a, renegotiated with back in 2014 with him, I was surprised then. Now, I'm not because they gave him a good-sized

contract going forward. Sebastian Vollman's not getting any younger, so they have to move on. And Cannon's another one who's flourishing under Skynackia. So I can't say enough about the guy. He's been awesome. You know, he's getting all these guys up to speed. And even when they have somebody go down, it just seems like the next guy up,

and he'll have them coached up and ready to go. And they haven't had that the last two seasons, and to see it back again is nice. I think going into the playoffs again, like I said, this running game has been dangerous. When they have a running game and Brady's got time, play action and do whatever he wants to do, it's going to be really tough to stop them.

Scott Necke is the reason why. Could you give us a little overview of the Patriots' defense, scheme, key players to watch? Yeah, it's interesting. What they've done over the last, I'd say, four to five weeks, they only rush four guys. It's really interesting to watch. But every single time, it's four different players.

It could be a safety, linebacker, corner, D-line, and they're dropping seven in coverage depending on what they're going to be doing, but they're only rushing four, and it looks like they're blitzing because of the way that they're coming at it. So with the veterans that they have, Chris Long and some of the other guys that they've been able to pick up, Kyle Van Noy has been actually – I'm shocked at how good he's been, but he's been really good since they picked him up too.

Some of these guys have just been serviceable enough since the trade of Jamie Collins to really get this thing going, and they're smart enough to be able to play the type of defense the Patriots want to do, which is basically try to confuse the quarterback. Again, like I said, not know who's coming, not know where the pressure's going to be coming from, and make it look like it's a blitz at times. A couple weeks ago when they had four sacks, I believe it was,

you heard all the analysis after the game on the Patriots, blitzing all game and going crazy. I went back and I looked at the tape. They actually blitzed six times throughout the course of the game. So, you know, they don't blitz as much as people think they do. As far as the top players, Dante Hightower is, I believe, the glue of the defense. He's a little dinged up this week.

He's always battling something, but he is on the injured report, but he's expected to play. Malcolm Butler has been really good this year. I wasn't sold on Butler going into this season. Everybody was talking him up like he should be getting paid like a top corner. I wasn't 100% sold, but

over the course of this season, he's really sold me. I think he's definitely one of the top corners in the league. He's one of their top guys, too. He's got some really good for them, too, against the run this year from Patrick Chung. I know everyone thinks Devin McCord is the guy in the secondary, and he

is, because he's the brains back there. But Chung's been really good this season. He was good last season, too. So those are the guys that I look at as far as trying to shut down the Jets' run. That's one thing they're going to have to try to do to win, I believe. So they're going to

have to keep an eye on them. Alan Branch has been really good on the D-line. Honestly, I don't think teams can run the Alan Branch's side. He's been that dominant at times. And the second-year player, Malcolm Brown, has been good too. So they have pieces. Jabal Sheard has started to play better. Trey Flowers, oh, my God, that guy. He came out, I wouldn't say he came out of nowhere

because when he was coming out of college, we all knew who he was. He was a good pass rusher. But over the last five weeks, he's been one of the top defensive players in football, and he's one of the best interior pass rushers in the league, and he's making plays for the Patriots every single week. So they do have guys now compared to what they had, you know, six weeks ago.

But I'm still concerned because they give up chunk plays on third down a lot. You know, they'll limit teams that don't have good quarterbacks. So if the Jets struggle this week, if Petty's not on his game and say Fitzpatrick has to come in, and if they're not on their game, I think the Patriots will definitely make some plays on them. But the last time they faced Fitzpatrick, when he got in there, he killed the Patriots. It's hard to tell with their

secondary. Their third cornerback is a problem. They don't know what they're going to do there. Eric Rowe has been good. He's been bad. He's been very inconsistent. He just can't have that. I'm sure you know of the carnival known as Cyrus Jones and his fumbles

and the mess that he's been having this year, so he's been inactive. And the guy that I actually think is going to emerge is Jonathan Jones, the undrafted free agent that they picked up from Auburn. So the defense is improving. They're getting better as far as the amount of yards that they allow,

but I still think that they're susceptible to deep passes, they're susceptible on third down, especially third and long, and they're just kind of a boring defense, but they confuse quarterbacks and they tend to make plays now. That's a funny thing, too. Four weeks ago they were ranked 29th in the league in plus-minus, and now they're ranked in the top five. So they've definitely been making some plays.

But once again, I'm not sold, and I'm not going to be sold until they get into the playoffs and shut a team down there. Well, you know, if they're throwing some unique looks, that could be trouble for the Jets. Bryce Petty threw an interception last week on his own blitz when Cameron Wake dropped into coverage and that's it's it's an issue with petty came out of a system in baylor where they didn't have a playbook he really wasn't making many reads and you can just tell he's a very raw project right now he from what i've i've watched him on film and he's a guy who

really if his first read isn't there, he's in a lot of trouble. And against San Francisco and a couple of weeks ago, he showed a real tendency to just, if, if his first guy wasn't open, he would double clutch and just start to scramble and run around the backfield, kind of trying to play schoolyard football.

So I think, you know, this Patriots defense might not be the best matchup for him I think from a Jets perspective what they're going to want to do is they're going to want to try and get Bilal Powell involved and Powell entered this season as the number two back behind Matt Forte and it's when one of the one of the more puzzling aspects of this Jets season has been why Powell hasn't gotten more carries than he has because he looks more explosive he's looked more explosive than Forte has all year and then a couple weeks

ago against the 49ers um Forte got hurt Powell came and had a monster game so Powell got the lion's share of the touches last week from the running back position and had had a pretty pretty good game against Miami so I think the Jets are going to want to try and simplify things for Petty as much as they can and try and get Powell involved. That makes sense. I think Powell's a good player. He's definitely had some success against the Patriots in the past, too. Forte, is he going to be active this week or not?

I know last week it was a surprise that he was active, and I didn't have a chance to take a look at that. Is there a chance that he'll be playing, too? You know, he was active last week, but he didn't play a whole lot. Powell was kind of the lead guy, so even if Forte does play this week, I don't think you're going to see a whole lot of him. My guess is Powell is the guy you'll see primarily. And now, like I said, with Hightower being a little dinged up, if he is a no-go, which is a possibility because, you know,

sitting at 12-2, I don't think they would risk Hightower's health for possibly losing the bye. I really don't think they would. He's that good for them. He's that important to their defense. If he wasn't in there, I do think the Patriots would have some trouble stopping the bye. I really don't think they would. He's that good. So then he's that important to their defense. If he wasn't in there, I do think the Patriots would have some trouble stopping the run. So Powell could definitely be a difference maker

if the Jets are going to have a chance in this game. I think he could be a big difference. But, yeah, you're right. Petty is going to struggle. I watched him a lot at Baylor, too. He's going to struggle with these looks that he's going to get from the Patriots. It's going to be interesting to see. I really wouldn't

be surprised if he didn't finish the game. I think he's going to end up getting pulled. That worries me because when guys come off the bench against the Patriots, they tend to do very well. I'm not sure if you've noticed that, but it's kind of a trend. They still find a way to win the game, but it definitely becomes interesting when veteran

quarterbacks are able to come in and figure out what they're doing. So how about special teams? I can tell you the Jets' special teams have not been that great this season. Nick Folk had a rough week one against Cincinnati, missed an extra point, had a short field goal block. Other than that, he's been pretty good, though. But outside of that, the Jets' special teams have been nothing to write home about.

The rookie Edwards, Lachlan Edwards, has really struggled as the season's going on. The Jets haven't really had a great return game. How do the Pats look on special teams? Well, the kicking game is improved. Gaskowski had the yips a little bit. After he missed the extra point against Denver in the AFC Championship last year,

which essentially kind of cost him the game there, he was pretty messed up. He was missing extra points, missing field goals, missing short ones. But over the last month, he's really started to get it going. People are saying, though, it's because he's trying to kick it short and get good field position, things like that. That had absolutely nothing to do with it. It was just a confidence issue, and he seems to be on point now. The punt return team for the Patriots is a complete non-entity.

Cyrus Jones has four fumbles on the punt return team, and now they're putting Julian Edelman back there, which scares Patriots fans, and it should, because if something was to happen to him, this offense would be in deep trouble without him. Danny Amendola's out, too, so they haven't been able to use him. So the Patriots' return game has been pretty pathetic. The kick return game has been bad.

The punt return has been bad. They do have a very strong kickoff unit. They do a great job on kickoff coverage. They're actually one of the top three teams in the league. And their punt coverage has also been excellent all season with Slater and Ebner. Slater got the nod to the Pro Bowl, but the truth is Ebner should have been the guy.

He's just completely dominant on special teams. Keep an eye on him this week. You'll be impressed with some of the things he can do. He's just so strong and he's so fast. But they have good special teams coverage guys across the board. They just don't have any returners. Sarah Jones is supposed to be that guy. They drafted him in the second round, not just to be a nickel corner,

but they really had in mind to get Julian Edelman off a punt return, get him and Dola off of it too, and go with this kid, and it just has not worked out at all. He was inactive last week, thank God, and I believe he'll be inactive again this week because the kid's confidence is completely shot. They can't put him on the field at this point. Unless they're up by 35 points,

you can't even put him back there anymore because he's going to fumble. So this special teams has been pretty much, I call it even-steven. They've got good coverage, but no returnability whatsoever, and the kick game has improved a lot throughout the season. So they don't give games away, and I do think because their coverage is so good,

that's one of the reasons why their points per game is down. That's had a lot to do with it because they do give up a ton of yardage. But if teams are only driving from the 15 to, say, the 40 or the 50, those yards are going to add up, but they're not going to get points out of it. And I think that's a big reason why the Patriots have been successful this season. Yeah, and I think Jets fans can sympathize with return guys struggling. They had a guy at the start of the year, Jalen Marshall, who was an undrafted rookie out of Ohio State. There was a lot of buzz about him in training camp, and

he actually was getting some work on the first team offense and was the primary return guy at the start of the season, but just could not stop fumbling. Even on offense, he had a big fumble against the Bills week two, which was a big play in that game. The Gentiles eventually overcame it and won the game, but Marshall was a guy who it and won the game back to win the game. But Marshall was a guy who just couldn't stop putting the ball on the ground. They eventually had to take him off the return team. Yeah, it's tough to watch when that happens.

These guys lose their confidence, and that's just the end of it. So do we have any predictions? Are you going to give me a predicted score for this week? I'll give one if you'll give one. What did... Was it Clubber Lang in the Rocky movie who said prediction pain? I think that sums it up from the Jets' perspective. I definitely think that could be right.

The thing about this week that I would be concerned about if I was a Jets fan is the fact that New England is coming in here angry off of what happened last season by really blowing their opportunity to get home field. They almost did it again this season too, but they were able to recover and now they're at the

point where they can get it done. They're coming into Foxboro against a team that's hungry and knows what's at stake here. If you look at the AFC, the playoff race, many of these teams having to come through Foxborough, I don't think have a chance. I just don't.

I know Pittsburgh's dangerous on offense, but I don't think they can come here and win. I don't think that any of these teams, I don't think Oakland or any of them. So that's why this game is going to be so big for New England. They're going to be driven, but again, like I said, the division game, Hightower might not play, so anything can happen, but I'm going to say, I'll throw a score out there, I'll say Patriots 26, Jets 14.

I don't think it's going to be a complete blowout or anything like that, but I do think it'll be a two-score game. If I have to pick, I think it's going to be a complete blowout or anything like that, but I do think it'll be a two-score game. If I have to pick, I think it's going to be a total blowout. I see this as a 31-14, 31-10 kind of game. Based on what I've seen from the Jets over the last few weeks, I just have a tough time seeing this being a ball game. Like I said, I could see a scenario where maybe the Jets come out inspired and in a lost season,

they at least want to show some pride and play well against their rivals. So I could see the Jets making this a game, but I think most likely this is going to be the type of game where you kind of feel like it's over by halftime. There's definitely, I think there's definitely a good possibility of that,

but I'm trying to be optimistic for you guys. I'm sure it's been tough this season, and watching from not too far away here, I'm up in the New England area myself, it just seems like every time the Jets have a chance and they got talent, it just doesn't seem to work out. And now I'm hearing rumors that Todd Bowles might be on the block, on the chopping block.

That's crazy. They shouldn't fire him. They should keep him. You've got to have some continuity within your franchise, and hopefully they don't make that mistake of letting go of a guy who seems like he's a pretty good head coach. That's my opinion from the outside looking in. I don't know how you feel about that,

but hopefully Bowles is retained and this team can get some continuity going for them. I've had a lot of issues with some of the things Bowles has done this year. I mentioned the way the backs were handled. And, you know, another one that comes to mind is Sheldon Richardson. They've kind of treated him as a movable chess piece. And I think Richardson is responsible for most of his troubles, but they haven't done him any favors

because I don't think they've maximized his ability. I think there have been some issues with his game management, but I agree with you. I just can't make another. The Jets, at some point, you got... The way I view it is you hired this guy because you thought he had potential. He's never been a coach before.

You knew there were going to be growing pains. You're seeing him this year, and I just think if you weren't... if you're going to fire a guy the first time he shows struggles what was the point of hiring a guy who was a first-time head coach because almost all of them eventually have a rough year where they do some things wrong and part of you look at some of the great coaches in this league they have not had great records of their first two seasons uh belichick checks an example you know he really struggled early in cleveland um it's one of the it's it's a funny thing how impatient you know sometimes people are very

impatient but if you look at the coaches who have won championships lately they kind of got off to a rough start early in their career and they eventually it's a head coach is the type of job where you learn how to do it so i'd like to see the jets give chance to give bowls a chance to kind of learn grow into this job and because i i think he has potential i think last year he did a very good job and i just i hate the idea of getting rid of a coach because of one bad season yeah agreed i definitely i totally agree and football is a sport where it takes time to build of getting rid of a coach because of one bad season. Yeah, agreed. I definitely, I totally agree. And football is a sport where it takes time to build a program.

So I just, I hope that they hold on to them. John, I think we're past our time here. I think we better wrap it up or we might lose some of our fans for going so long. All right. Well, Chris, it was a pleasure speaking with you. I hope you, here's to a good game on Saturday with no injuries. Yep.

And same to you guys. Like I said, I know the Jets are the biggest rival of the Patriots in this and that, but I know their fans are long-suffering, and I hope you guys can maybe get it together next season and get back up and compete with the Patriots again because it's more fun when the rivalry is that way. That's the way I see it. Absolutely.

All right. Merry Christmas to you and happy holidays. And I appreciate you having me come on your show. Same to you. And thanks, everybody, for listening. Is democracy in danger or decline? Condoleezza Rice, William Galston, and Carlos Gutierrez and others take on this question in the fall edition of The Catalyst, a journal of ideas from the Bush Institute. Surveys show Americans place less trust in

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