Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots POSTCAST | Patriots ATTACK Joe Burrow, Upset Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wow. The most intriguing Patriots season in maybe three decades. And it's the Pats that pull off maybe the shocker of NFL week one. This is the Locked On Patriots Postcast. You are Locked On Patriots Postcast, part of Locked On Sports Boston on the Locked On Patriots Postcast, part of Locked On Sports Boston, on the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Welcome in to the first regular season edition of the Locked On Patriots Postcast brought to you by PrizePix and part of the Locked On Podcast Network, where it is your team every day.

Starting point is 00:00:46 I am your host, Cam Stewart of Locked On Baylor, as well as the Cam Show and Rogue Media Sports Network. The Patriots, man, the shocker of week one so far. No expectations, house money, worst offensive line in the league, no weapons, retread quarterback, head coach with no idea what he's doing. And all they do is go and march it into Cincinnati, take on a team that is a Super Bowl contender this year in the Bengals, hold them to one touchdown, and walk out of there 1-0. It wasn't the prettiest game you've ever seen.

Starting point is 00:01:26 It's not the most exciting high-scoring game you've ever seen, but the Patriots are going to take that. 16-10, they walk out after week one, and there are now talks of 17-0. There are talks of what kind of draft capital can you get in a Drake May trade if you extend Jacoby Brissett. The vibes are high coming out of this one. Pats win 1-0.

Starting point is 00:01:51 Very unexpected. I did not pick it on Locked On Patriots yesterday. Mike DeBate on Locked On Patriots, who's going to have a full breakdown later on tonight and then into tomorrow. He did not predict it. I don't think many people around the NFL predicted it. In fact, I'm in a four team survivor pool or a four player survivor pool. One of the guys is already out.

Starting point is 00:02:12 Just went to go pick against the Patriots every week, partially to piss me off. And he's the one who's out week one Patriots forced two turnovers, one by the defense, one by the special teams, and they get out of there with the victory. That's really the story to me is the Patriots defense in week one. We didn't expect much from the offense and at times it looked better than we thought it was going to be. We're going to talk about that in the second segment, but it's this Patriots defense that showed up to play. There were expectations that this was a top 10 defense, potentially even a top five defense. But you look at the way it went the last month with losing both Christian Barmore and Matthew Judon.

Starting point is 00:02:55 You might have had to temper expectations a little bit, especially with a bad offense. And that is a complimentary thing. Instead, the Patriots absolutely looked like a top five defense in this one. They hold Joe Burrow and the Bengals to just 224 total yards of offense. How about that? Actually got more yards per play than the Patriots did, but only 224 total yards. They hold them to four of 11 on third down. That was the big story for me.

Starting point is 00:03:23 An O of one on fourth down as well. They were just all over them. And the physicality of this defense is what jumped off the page. Man, I was getting a headache just watching it. That's what was so impressive. I made a note on it. The Bengals did not. They went three and out each of their first three drives.

Starting point is 00:03:43 And Joe Burrow had not thrown an incompletion yet. In fact, he hit his first five, five for five, for 28 yards. It was that fifth completion that got them their first first down 20 minutes into the game. And he's only averaging a little more than five yards of completion there. That's what was so impressive was they were completing passes, but the Patriots were right there. They were rallying to the ball. There was no yak.

Starting point is 00:04:11 It was pretty good coverage downfield, a lot of checkdowns on those completions, and the Patriots kept everything in front of them and played with an intense physicality that gives them what has to feel like their best win in a couple years. At least they're most meaningful. Last year, the fun win over Denver on Christmas Eve, but it was like, oh man, is that going to cost us a pick here? Is that going to cost us one of the quarterbacks? Maybe it did, but so far so good here in 2024. Again real, again, the real story, the defense on it, I didn't start auspiciously. There was an illegal formation before the opening kick of the season. And I was like,

Starting point is 00:04:53 oh God, here we go. Here we go. But this Patriots defense was as advertised. Keon White, who I thought was going to be getting too much attention without Judon, without Barmore in there. He was a monster in this game. He had a sack in there as well. And a lot of what he did, you didn't really see in the box score. But Keyon White was tremendous. Jawan Bentley made some big-time plays. Christian Gonzalez.

Starting point is 00:05:26 How about Christian Gonzalez? I think he got flagged for a penalty early, a pass interference call early. But other than that, he was outstanding. And Jamar Chase goes six receptions for just 62 yards. You're going to take that, man. He only got six targets in the game. If you're holding Jamar Chase to six targets for this Bengals team, you're going to win a lot of those matchups. And at least two of those big plays he had,

Starting point is 00:05:54 including the biggest play, he had the 28 yard completion. It was zone coverage and it was not Christian Gonzalez aside. So they, they worked the Bengals had to work to get him out of there, to get him away from Christian Gonzalez, who I'm, I'm one that's, I don't know what to expect from Gonzalez this year. It looked really good last year, but this is game number five for him in his career. He's still a rookie essentially. And so far he's done a heck of a job against AJ Brown against Tyreek Hill and now

Starting point is 00:06:26 against Jamar Chase. The kid certainly looks real to me. I mean, that was outstanding. Um, he on white two and a half sacks on the day, give half to Jawan Bentley as well, uh, for the three sacks that the Patriots put together there this afternoon, just an incredible performance. I thought, from White, who, again, I was concerned about going into this game and going into this season because you like him going up against tackles when Matthew Judon's on the other side and Christian Barmore's taking up two guys in the middle.

Starting point is 00:07:01 You didn't have that luxury. He still has a big game. I mean, the best game of his young career, 12 tackles for Jawan Bentley, seven of them solo. That's a game right there. And I think the coverage downfield was just tremendous. How many of those sacks were covered sacks? Probably all of them, even for a defense that's blitzing a lot. Okay. So Gonzalez, Jonathan Jones, I thought had a great game. Marcus Jones had a big pass breakup within there. Kyle Duggar was tremendous in coverage.

Starting point is 00:07:36 So it was every level of this Patriots defense was stepping up. That's how you hold a Super Bowl contender to 10 points on their home field. That's how you do it. And that's how the Patriots are going to win games this season. They're not going to win games 34-31. And I still don't know how many wins there are going to be on there, but that's not how they're going to do it. They're going to do it 16-10. All right. 17-13. 20-14. That's how they're going to do it. It's this defense. It starts and ends with this defense. And so far, so good. And you look at this and say, man, it feels like last year

Starting point is 00:08:12 with 16 points on the board for this offense, I think it looked a lot better, especially in that first half, than most of what we saw last season. And I will have to give some credit to Alex Van Pelt, which I didn't give a lot to. Didn't give a lot of credit to him in the preseason, but AVP deserves some love. And so does this quarterback that's coming up next on the Locked On Patriots

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Starting point is 00:09:59 Run your game. Defense is the story. That's what's going to lead the Patriots to whatever victories they're getting this season. But the offense showed me some things, man. It showed me some things. And I got to say, in that first half, credit to Alex Van Pelt, man. He was calling a game. I thought they got very conservative in the second half and might've left

Starting point is 00:10:26 some points on the board. And I worried about that, especially, you know, looking at that last drive of the first half that they had, they picked up the special teams fumble. They get inside the red zone. They only end up with a field goal instead of a touchdown.

Starting point is 00:10:40 And then they go three and out on the first drive of the second half. And I'm like, ah, man, you're putting Cincinnati right back in this game. And I did think they the first drive in the second half, and I'm like, ah, man, you're putting Cincinnati right back in this game. And I did think they were pretty conservative in that second half, but I thought they did some really nice things in the first half, and I got to credit to Jacoby Brissett.

Starting point is 00:10:55 I really do. I know that there's benefits of bringing in a veteran quarterback who's not going to get flustered, who's been there before, but we didn't see any of that in the preseason, any of it. And he showed it very early in this game. I'm talking about picking up blitzes, dump off plays to your running back. He found his tight ends, which I think the Patriots have had a good tight end stable the last few years. And Mac Jones wasn't able to utilize them

Starting point is 00:11:25 as much as they probably should have. Um, and what I was really surprised by with Brissette is getting out of the pocket a little bit. Okay. I mean, he's not a running quarterback, right? He's not at all, but you get him into some space. He's, he's not, he's not Brady slow. Okay. He can get there. And you saw that on a couple of third downs, third and mediums, third and shorts in this game. He was able to find some space. Am I saying that all is well with this Patriots offense? No.

Starting point is 00:11:57 Their leading receiver had three catches, is K.J. Osborne and Ramondre Stevenson. K.J. Osborne, three catches for 21 yards. Your leading yardage receiver was Austin Hooper with two catches for 31 yards. You didn't have a receiver with more than 31 yards receiving and you won the football game on the road against a real contender. That just doesn't make any sense, man. Per sec goes 15 to 24 for one1, no touchdowns, no picks,

Starting point is 00:12:27 five yards of completion. But he was sacked only one time. And if you had told me after the end of that Washington game to cap off the preseason, you're going to get out of Cincinnati with just one sack allowed, I would take it. I wouldn't have expected a win, but I would have taken it 11 times out of 10. And that's what the Patriots went out there and got. Offensively, the story was not Jacoby Brissett as dependable as he was in this game. It was Ramond Ray Stevenson.

Starting point is 00:12:57 He gets the nickname franchise. He gets franchise running back kind of money these days, nine for 36. And he showed you something today. Disappointing year last year, obviously didn't play every game, only played 12, 600 yards. You needed more than that. If the Patriots were going to win a couple of games this year, you got that today. 25 carries for 120, just under five yards to carry.

Starting point is 00:13:23 With this offensive line, that's fantastic. Doesn't do anything crazy. 17 yards was his long. Does get in for your only offensive touchdown. And look, I'm not going to wax poetic too much about a three-yard touchdown run. But man, it's been a while since we've seen that well executed a run play on the goal line for the Patriots or any short yardage play. But it's more impressive on the goal line. Three yards and he was untouched in there, had a perfect seam to get into the end zone between the tackles.

Starting point is 00:13:58 I love that. That was one of my plays of the game, truly. In fact, in the next segment, we're going to go off of what is more or less the play of the game, not necessarily the play that won the game, but one that certainly flipped things into the Patriots' favor. But if Ramondre Stevenson can give you games like that and become, dare I say, a thousand-yard rusher, which he's absolutely capable of being, that could help the Patriots win some games that they, that they did not win last year.

Starting point is 00:14:30 Again, how many games did they have last year where you said, man, if they just scored two touchdowns, they would have won the game. And they didn't. Remondre Stevenson can be a big part of that. And when you're getting that franchise kind of money and you've got the lack of weapons that the Patriots have, you're going to have to have a running back who can make some things happen. And you saw it not only in that touchdown, but really it was the end of the game. It was that last drive that impressed me so much with Ramond Ray Stevenson, because you look at that last time the Patriots had the ball, the Bengals essentially had four timeouts remaining. Okay. Three timeouts

Starting point is 00:15:12 and the two minute warning Patriots needed a couple first downs to, to put this thing on ice. You're going to run Cincinnati knows you're going to run. Everyone in the stadium knows you're going to run. And this team got it done. This offensive line and this running back, these tight ends, they got it done. I was not expecting that. In fact, I made a note here where they were up two scores. It was 16-7 with just under nine minutes left right before the Bengals kicked that field goal. And I was thinking, do they have the guys to shorten this game?

Starting point is 00:15:50 Can they get these big first downs and run down the clock? I was really skeptical of that. They did that. There was a big Ramondre Stevenson play right after the two-minute warning where he shook about three guys out of their shoes by himself, got a first down, kept that clock running. All he did two plays later was do it again, shook some guys out of their shoes, took them out of the play, got the first down himself, basically sealed the victory himself. That's the Ramondre Stevenson you're paying right there. So if it's less, it's whatever, four and a half yards of play,

Starting point is 00:16:29 and you're getting a victory, and you're getting 120 from your running back, that's what this Patriots team's going to be. That's what they need to be if they want to win some football games this year. Because look, I mean, it wasn't that impressive in terms of guys getting open, which is what you're going to expect. Tyquan Thornton had a couple of catches early

Starting point is 00:16:49 shut out in the second half. Austin Hooper made some big plays and big being relative. He had 31 yards, right? Hunter Henry was a safety blanket a few times. Like we've seen in the last few years, pop Douglas, only two catches on three targets. In fact, I thought he made a bad play on third down where he could have fallen forward, maybe set them up for a fourth and short. Instead, tried to cut it back to get that first down and put him to about a fourth and four, fourth and five, which they were just not going to go for. Jalen Polk, nothing today. One target, one catch, but one target. Javon Baker, a late scratch in this one, probably disciplinary.

Starting point is 00:17:29 That's probably the head coach saying, I need to wake my guys up a little bit. I can't have Instagram Live videos at Logan Airport, trashing the cops and not taking some action here, whether it was right or wrong. So no Javon Baker today, but all that to say, I don't know how much better your weapon arsenal is going to be. Your arsenal is going to be out there on the outside. Javon Baker is a nice player, but he and Keyshawn Booty are going to be

Starting point is 00:17:57 battling for who's going to dress that day. And so you don't get anything from your pass catchers and you still win a football game on the road man that is impressive for this young patriot squad um and for one that is saying they're not tanking but i mean tanking is purposefully losing i i don't know that they will need to you know purposefully do any kind of tanking. That might just happen themselves. Coming up, we are going to talk about the plays that made this game, the turntables, and how it turned towards the Patriots in this one. I was thinking most weeks it was going to be how did things go wrong.

Starting point is 00:18:36 This week, it is how things went right. And something that I thought was kind of a bad look for the Patriots, even though they eventually came out with a victory. That is coming up on the Locked On Patriots postcast. But first, I got to tell you about game time. It's the only place I go to buy my tickets, okay? Whenever I'm back home, I want to go up to Gillette, see this young, exciting Patriots team,

Starting point is 00:19:03 and this defense for football guys. The only place I go is game time. In fact, when I go to see them in Chicago this year, that's exactly where I'll be going as well. I go to game time because I don't like the hassle of buying tickets. Okay. I like buying tickets without that. All right. I go into the game time app. I can see the view from my seats right away and I can see the price I'm going to pay right away. Nobody else really does that. I get my all in pricing, no hidden fees on there. I've got the lowest price guarantee or game time is going to credit me 110% of the difference. And my purchase is covered with the most flexible customer service policy in the ticketing industry. So take the guesswork out of

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Starting point is 00:20:10 This is the Locked On Patriots Postcast. I'm your host Cam Stewart and this is what we will be calling the turntables and how the tables turned within each game that we're doing here on the Postcast. Again, I said I thought it was going to be where did things go wrong.

Starting point is 00:20:25 Instead, it was where did things go right. And honestly, this came early in the football game. This came in the second quarter. Okay, a bit lucky, but a really also fortuitous to play stretch for the Patriots defensively as the Bengals are going in to score their first touchdown of the game. They look like they have it with Mike Gusecki, former Patriot. Why can't we get guys like that? Mike Gusecki makes a nice play in the back of the end zone. They did the

Starting point is 00:20:56 celebration. He did the gritty, all for it to be taken off the board. It was an incomplete pass. He did not survive the ground making the catch. And Kyle Duggar, who was in coverage, was right on it. He said right away, incomplete, incomplete. We looked at the replay, same thing. So it's taken off the board. Next play, it looks like they're going in again. They hit the tight end, who was walking into the end zone, it looks like, but then Kyle Duggar comes in, strips it. Marcus Jones recovers the fumble. Patriots keep the Bengals off the board. They win by six and they take possibly seven points off the board right there. That is the turntables play. It's early in the football game, but those points become the difference in the football game. And that goes back to this kind of attitude that this

Starting point is 00:21:46 Patriots defense has under DeMarcus Covington, but also one that they've had the last few years. They are a hard hitting physical bunch. They were all over the place today in the best possible way and something the Patriots have been good at institutionally on their defense for the last 10 to 15 years here, like exceptional at more than most teams in the NFL is punching the ball out. They are so, so good at that. They never let a play die without going after the football. That's the most important part of this game. And that's what they did on that goal.

Starting point is 00:22:24 I mean, essentially it's goal line stand, not a goal to go situation. They're not running the play from the one yard line, but it's a goal line stand. And that to me was a big difference in this game that, and Ramond Ray Stevenson getting a couple of first downs by himself on that final drive. That's big time. And one big play as well that I have not mentioned yet in the third quarter, because it becomes more perplexing a little bit later on the Bengals were in Patriots territory. I think they were inside the 35, because if I'm not mistaken, it would have been a 52 yard field goal. They go for it on fourth and a long two, maybe a short three. They complete a

Starting point is 00:23:06 pass and don't get there. They complete it to the kid with the tough name that I can't pronounce who is a track star and the Patriots are rallied to the ball. They get the hit right away and keep him short of the sticks. No points on the board. And I mentioned that specifically because later on in the game, Evan McPherson to make it 16 to 10 hit a 51 yard field goal. And they didn't trust him the quarter before with a 52 yarder. And that could have changed a lot of things. Again, the Patriots end up winning by six. So I guess they would have only won by three, but it might've changed how aggressive you got offensively towards the end of that game. That's where defense can win you a football game right there, man.

Starting point is 00:23:53 Offensive line credit to them. They were good enough today. Absolutely. They were, I thought it was going to be a complete disaster. Uh, I think one procedural penalty on the day i don't know if they had a holding call all game trey hendrickson does not really factor into this game at least on the stat sheet i know there were a couple times early in that game where they couldn't they couldn't block him um but they were keeping him away from the play hendrickson only gets two tackles does get a couple qb hits but no sacks and right there that's a win in fact i believe they only had one sack on the day the bengals did right i mentioned that earlier they the patriots offensive line only allows one sack complimentary football that's what belichick preached for years it's not always always sexy. It's not always fun. And that was definitely

Starting point is 00:24:47 the case today, but it was complimentary. And I am very complimentary of this team win today. Now the Gatorade bath, that was a little much for me. That was a little much. This team used to celebrate Superbowls and now they are, they're giving a Gatorade bath to their coach after week one. I get it. I think these guys really like their coach. Former player probably relates to them pretty well. And they, I mean, they heard this. They heard this all through the off season. They knew they were terrible last year.

Starting point is 00:25:13 They heard everyone saying how bad they were going to be again, and rightfully so. And they wanted to celebrate the small victories, as we heard with Belichick for years, and didn't really take into account because it seems so easy. It's not easy winning in the NFL, but I could have done without the Gatorade shower. I thought that was a little embarrassing, but they might not,

Starting point is 00:25:37 there might not be a lot of wins on the board this season, but I will say this, this does change my outlook just a little bit because we see the blueprint. Like they can go out there and win games. In the preseason and with the personnel that we saw in this roster, I couldn't see ways to win games a couple weeks ago, especially with Jacoby Brissett at quarterback. But I think you see the blueprint there.

Starting point is 00:25:59 It's not something that you can go out there and do every week necessarily. You're not going to hold teams to 10 points, even if you're one of the best teams in the league. Defensively, you're not going to hold teams to 10 points every game, but you can see a blueprint. It's not easy, but they can get there. I want to know what you guys think about this stunning victory in Cincinnati. Drop that down in the comment section below

Starting point is 00:26:22 or tweet at me if you're listening wherever you get your podcast at Real Cam Stewart or the Locked On Patriots podcast with Mike DeBate. I know he'll have some more on this later as well as a full breakdown tomorrow. So be sure to check him out on socials and on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast for that. Be sure to like and subscribe. Get involved in the comment section, get involved on Twitter and ring that notification bell to get notified. Every time we are going live after every Patriots game this season, you could find us on YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. So far, one for one in the regular season, the Cam Stewart postcast era.

Starting point is 00:27:01 Long may it continue. Patriots win this one pretty surprisingly 16-10 over the Bengals. We will see you next week after the game versus Seattle which will be an afternoon one later afternoon one. We'll see in the early evening next Sunday on the

Starting point is 00:27:18 Locked On Patriots Postcast.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots POSTCAST | Patriots ATTACK Joe Burrow, Upset Cincinnati Bengals in Week 1!

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