Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots Beaten By Chicago Bears, Mac Jones, Bailey Zappe Struggle

Episode Date: October 26, 2022

The New England Patriots created additional questions surrounding their quarterback situation, as both Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe had their difficulties. Still, the Pats offensive struggles would be outweighed by a dismal defenisve effort, which surrendered 390 total yards to quarterback Justin Fields and the Chicago Bears offense. When the fog finally dissipated, the Patriots were on the wrong side of a 33-14 loss, which dropped them to 3-4. Joining host Mike D’Abate is Thomas ‘Murph’ Murphy of E2G Sports to discuss the Patriots loss and the growing concern over the quarterback position.Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-the-new-england/id1140512627 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriots And follow host Mike D’Abate on Twitter, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.On Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!PrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONSimpliSafeWith Fast Protect™️ Technology, exclusively from SimpliSafe, 24/7 monitoring agents capture evidence to accurately verify a threat for faster police response. There’s No Safe Like SimpliSafe. Visit SimpliSafe.com/LockedOnNFL to learn more.BirddogsTHE most comfortable shorts, pants, and sweatpants with built-in liners. Go to birddogs.com, use promo code “LOCKEDON” and boom, a free Birddogs Rope Hat with your pair of Birddogs.BlueNileMake your moment sparkle with Blue Nile. Go to BlueNile.com and use code lockedon to save fifty dollars on your purchase of five-hundred dollars or more.BetterHelpThis episode is brought to you by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at Betterhelp.com/LockedOn and get on your way to being your best self. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The quarterbacks are going to get the name, but was it really the defense that blew the game in the Patriots 33 to 14 loss to the Chicago Bears? We're breaking down the debacle that was week seven. Stay tuned. You're about to be locked into the Locked On Patriots podcast. 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, and thank you once again for making Locked On Patriots your first listen every day and also a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage.

Remember, Locked On Patriots is free and available on all platforms, including YouTube, so smash that subscribe button and download, subscribe to, and follow Lockeddown Patriots is free and available on all platforms, including YouTube. So smash that subscribe button and download, subscribe to and follow Lockdown Patriots wherever you get your podcasts. Remember, your team every day and a proud part of the Lockdown Podcast Network. I'm your host, Mike DeBate. I cover your New England Patriots for Patriots Country of Sports Illustrated. Let me know what's on your mind. And Foxborough faithful, I know there's a lot on your mind. You can do so by reaching out to me on Twitter at MDABATENFL.

While you're out there showing some love to that Twitterverse, please be sure to follow the Lockdown Patriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. As you can see, folks, there is so much to be monster mad about that there was only one opinion, only one set of wisdom and counsel that could adequately get us through the tumultuous Tuesday that is October 25th and trying to break down the debacle that happened in Foxborough last night in the Patriots 33-14 loss to the Chicago Bears, dropping your beloved Patriots to three and four on the season he is the count of Murphy Fisto himself the legendary Thomas Murphy of e2gsports.com Murph always my honor and always my privilege I thank you for coming to me in

friendship today Don Murph but uh this is not a great day no No. No. Look at this face. Do I look happy? No. Do I look like I have anything good to say about anyone right now? No, no. Let me preface that. Hello, Matthew Judon. Yeah.

Okay? The only player that came to play last night. Everybody else, I don't. I'm at a loss. I am at a complete loss from the top down. I am at a complete loss. If you put Matthew Judon at the top, whoever's after him, all the way down to Bailey, okay, and I'm not talking about Bailey Zappi, all right? No, we don't. I don't have a good thing to say about anyone associated with the New England Patriots this week and what I had to watch last night. It made me realize.

This is why New England couldn't host Monday Night Football for over a decade because people were so pissed leaving the stadium and in the parking lot that we were too much of a group of animals to actually say, yeah, let's put another Monday Night Football game. I never want to see another Monday Night Football game again for the rest of my life. I am that ticked off. I had to postpone one Patriots place today because of technical difficulties. So you folks get to have it all. I haven't even simmered down. We are fortunate to get it all

because that's exactly what we want. And listen, folks, I don't think anyone would begrudge Murph of the vitriol which he's feeling right now. It is a absolute dismal performance last night for the New England Patriots when you say that with the exception of Matthew Judon who really did play well by the way yeah um there really just isn't anything to like about what the Patriots did bad on offense bad on defense bad on special teams um the specialists were not good of course

you really can't blame Nick Folk I don don't think he attempted a field goal last night or anything to that effect. Nick gets a free pass. But bottom line, I mean, this team was so outcoached on a national standpoint, a national platform. I don't remember when I saw the New England Patriots this badly outcoached. And there have been moments where Bill Belichick's armor has had tarnishes on it, folks. We're not saying that you know in Bill we trust 24 hours a day seven days a week no job is too big no fee is too big

Bill is someone that has shown difficulties he's shown his humanity several times but yeah this was one that I just it all the pieces were in place for this to become a stepping stone for the Patriots to get back over 500, head into a tough game that's coming up this weekend against the Jets, and they just completely laid an egg. I know you guys want to hear about the quarterbacks, and we're going to talk quarterbacks on this because it is a big part of the story. But, Murph, if I'm picking out a culprit here of why the Patriots were so –

I'm sorry to say it was so pathetic last night yeah if you allow 11 of 18 conversions on third down you do not win in this league it's unexcusable and it's something that can't be done not to mention you're doing it against a team that is not known for its third down prowess. They continue to have difficulty against mobile quarterbacks. Justin Fields looked like he was in another world last night. And this is not a kid that's put together a phenomenal season up until this point. I know the talent is there, but you've got to be better than that. I was really, I was very, very disappointed with the defensive effort on the New England Patriots last night, Murph. What do you have to say about that?

I'm in the same boat. I tweeted out last night the recipe for defeat is the number that you just threw out there for third down conversions, 11 of 18 allowing. I'm at a loss for the number. The Bears started – the average start for their drives was on, I think, the 37-yard line. The 37-yard line. Okay. Running the ball a grand total of 19 times. That is a recipe for defeat every single time, especially when you have to play from behind the way the Patriots did.

And they gave you a glimmer of hope when they made the switch. And we'll get into that in a little bit. I'm sure Mike has it down his, his, his list, but that, and the complete lack of preparedness. Okay. This team came into this game, treating it like a preseason game. All right. They were totally unprepared and they, they thought that that they had this in the bag before they left the locker room. And guess what?

The Chicago Bears had something else to say. They did. And they came to play last night. And bottom line, the New England Patriots did not. You're absolutely right. When you give a team like the Bears that do have capable offensive players, I mean, no one is questioning what Justin Fields is capable of. Mark Schofield joined me here on Friday and talked about the capabilities of this kid

and why he was so high on his depth chart coming out of school, coming out of Ohio State, and why he liked his game so much. Fields has not shown that type of prowess in the NFL, but the Patriots gave him every opportunity to do it and give Fields credit. He took that opportunity. But guys like David Montgomery getting second chance rushes um god you know i mean just going through this patriots defensive line like it was butter and yeah and it was it was tissue paper it was it was it was literally tissue paper i spelled out i spelled out exactly what this team was going to attempt to do and what you had to do

to stop it. An infant could have seen it. This is what they try to do. This is what they did against Washington. This is what they do. I said, do not let Justin Fields beat you with his legs, and that's exactly what they did. Every time there was a third down, everybody just took the playoff. We did. Let's just take the playoff. It was terrible. It really was. You're absolutely right.

And ultimately, I think the New England Patriots did miss Christian Barmore last night. I know I caught a little flack earlier on last week, later on last week, I should say, for my take on Barmore being a key part of this defensive line. And look, I understand the argument where people will tell you, well, he hasn't looked all that great this year. That's not entirely true. Right. Maybe he hasn't been illuminating the stat sheet. I give you that.

If you're looking at the game, the X's and O's, that's where Christian Barmore leaps off the table. Right. Because he's drawing double teams consistently on that opposing team's offensive line. And when he does that, that allows the pass rushers, that allows guys like Matthew Judon, who again did come to play last night, but someone like a Dietrich Weiss, who was very much stymied last night. Guys that tend to get after the quarterback and want to be a little bit more mobile, they have difficulty doing that.

And with Barmore in the lineup, it makes it so much easier to put pressure on the quarterback. You didn't see that last night. And again, Justin Fields kind of ran at will and basically did not have any resistance. Exposed. This line was exposed. Daniel Iquale is not Christian Barmore. Yes. Okay?

And he sat there, and he was – it was third and 17, and he whiffed on a tackle, and that kid Fields just took off and ended up with a first down on a third and 17 run. That's disgusting. Yeah. And, again, just the difficulties that the Patriots have had with mobile dual threat quarterbacks that have the ability to beat you in numerous ways. We saw it with Lamar Jackson. We saw it again last night with Justin Fields.

And I hate to break it to the New England Patriots, but they're going to continue to see that. It's the way of the future, and they need to make adjustments in order to be able to do that. Barmore's absence was a part of this last night, but it wasn't the only reason why the Patriots struggled, folks. There were struggles all the way around for the Pats, and ultimately giving up 33 points to a Bears team that had been pretty anemic on offense up until this point is not a good look for the New England Patriots. The Patriots are a get-right game right now. The Patriots are a get-right game if you are a team that has a dual-threat quarterback. 243 yards on the ground they gave up last night. It was just god-awful, god-awful.

And it starts with the preparedness. And I hope Bill takes a long look in the mirror because the entire game, I saw him sitting there thumbing through, making his notes. I didn't see him once, I don't know anybody else that can refute this, see him once over there talking with the defense or once over there talking with anybody on the offense. He left it all up to his assistant coaches. He didn't get in there.

We've heaped praise on him over the past three weeks that he's been doing this. He's been over there with the defense or with the offense talking with them while Matty Patricia's calling plays or while his son is calling plays. And that didn't happen last night. I want to know why. Yeah, I think we all't happen last night. I want to know why. Yeah, I think we all do. I think we all want to know why.

And that question continues to go on throughout Patriots Nation today. Why? Why did the New England Patriots look so ill-prepared for a game that many believed was kind of a mere formality? I don't want to slam dunk Murph, but I know most people were predicting that the Patriots would win this one and not only win it, but win it comfortably. 24 to 12.

That was, that was completely doable. It wasn't an outside the box. I didn't expect them to shut these, this, these, these bears out, but I expected them to show up period.

And it would, with little exception, it didn't happen. We were lucky enough to grab a pick. I thought some momentum was changing there in the second quarter. I mean, the second half of the first quarter, but it was the defense. And if you can't make stops and if you keep giving a team like this good field position to start from, this is what's going to happen. Absolutely. And credit the Chicago Bears. They took advantage of that field position.

And unfortunately, folks, that is something that the New England Patriots did not do. Only putting up 14 points in a very limited window and really a bookend offensive performance that just did not look good from start to finish, with the exception of a little bit of a bright spot in the middle. Murph and I are going to talk about the offense in just a minute. What went wrong and was there anything that did indeed go right? And don't forget, folks, we will wrap up today's discussion with some talk on the quarterback. So keep that right here as this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues in just a moment.

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slash locked on NFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Patriots fans, the legendary Thomas Murphy of E2GSports.com joins me here today, breaking down the night that was and the night that really I think a lot of Patriots fans would rather just forget at this point. The Pats 33-14 loss to the Chicago Bears, dropping them to 3-4 on the season. And Murph, bottom line, the defensive output or the defensive performance really was extremely dismal. We've gone into that and we've talked about the areas where the Patriots were deficient. But on the offensive side of the ball, they did not look much better. Mack Jones getting the start under center looks to be a ill-advised decision.

We're going to get into the quarterbacks in just a moment, but we will talk about his performance in this segment because it is relevant to the struggles that the Patriots had offensively. Spelled by Bailey Zappi, Bailey comes in two offensive series two touchdowns Patriots lead 14 to 10 starting to look like this team was invigorated all of a sudden the play calling issues stopped they looked a little bit more crisp they looked a little bit more engaged everything's sort of trending in the right direction and then a botched handout which I'm still trying to understand where that came from between Bailey Zappi and Jacoby Myers, just not something that really made a whole lot of sense

to me at that point. And then from that point on, it just started to snowball into what really was the first part of the game, which was just bad decision-making, bad play calling, and just poor execution. All the way around, the New England Patriots only muster 14 points against Chicago Bears defense that a lot of people felt they should have scored more on. But here's the thing about it, Murph. Everyone's going to get on the quarterbacks. This New England Patriots team hardly ran the ball to their capability. For three quarters, your leading rusher was Mack Jones with 24 yards. That can't happen against a porous defense or the defense we were told was porous for the Chicago Bears. This is going to be a laundry list, my friend,

but have at it. What went wrong on offense for this team from start to finish? The offensive line looked like they had been put into a blender before the game and then just poured out onto the field. I said last week that Isaiah Wynn would probably lose his starting job. I did not think for a second that he would be inactive this week. I want to know if that was an injury or a coach's decision as to whether or not he was there. I mean, huge shout out to Trent Brown for picking up the slack in the penalties department. Four penalties on Trent Brown.

It was awful. But across the board, everybody on this team, on the offensive line, had a terrible game. They did. They got blown up. They got blown off. And the running game could never find its feet, for lack of a better term. And then they had to start chasing.

They were already down early. They started throwing the ball. They got away from play action pass because they couldn't establish the run. Because for one, Cannon, for all the problems Wynn has, he's still a road grader over there on the right-hand side. And you could see it in this run game. You could see Ramondre was not able to – there were no holes for him to hit and to allow him to get to that second level where he's able to do so much damage.

I think he had more air yards, more yards catching the ball than he did running the ball yesterday. And that's – you can't have that unless he's breaking something off for 80 yards and a touchdown. You can't have that unless he's breaking something off for 80 yards and a touchdown. You can't have that. Damian Harris was active for the game. You did not see much of Damian at all. This team has to be able to run the ball to win.

If they can't run the ball, they're not going to be able to win ballgames. And that goes directly to the performance that the quarterbacks had. You could see the rust on – I'm sorry, did you want to hold off on that for a moment, for the last segment or something? Well, no, no. I mean, because in the final segment, it's really going to be more about the future. What we want to do here is break down what went wrong for the offense. And you can't do that without talking about the quarterbacks.

And by all means, my friend, have at it. I thought it was very telling that Bill said that he pulled Mack when he did for injury reasons or injury concerns in his press conference. He was worried about that ankle. It just so happened to coincide with the great unwashed screaming for Bailey Zappi after just three series. In one way, it was another pregame, and they should have let Mack get his feet underneath him, and three series is not going to do that. He looked like he was moving really

well to me. I did not agree with the pulling of him. I did not think Bill would do it. I'm not sure what kind of point he was trying to make, but it wasn't that he was injured. When Zappi got in there,

you saw when he was under pressure, when he had to roll out of the pocket, he was not making those same great decisions that we were all talking about in the last two games. Yes, he did have the two great scoring drives, but after that, when he was under pressure and the Bears saw what the Patriots were going to do and they adjusted to it, that's when Zappi started having problems. And this is why I keep telling you, there's a huge difference from a man who played at Alabama and Bailey Zappi who played at Western Kentucky Fried Chicken. Well, regardless, I mean,

he came out with his pedigree out of college, and it has proven that he can do the job at the pro level. But at the same time, you look at – You can't do it without the pieces around you. You really can't. And you have to go back and look at the inactives list. It was huge. It was huge that Kendrick Bourne was not in

this game. I don't care what anybody says. Kendrick and Bailey have a really good relationship. Kendrick and both the quarterbacks have a really good relationship. It's how they've been. But without him there to give pause to the safeties and the corners as to what's going to happen over the middle. You can't do it with this tight end group because they're just not fast enough. They did not get the separation that Kendrick Bourne gets while he's out there. They did not give the defense a second thought when it came to where I need to be and who I need to double cover. Yeah, absolutely. Without any question. And look, I know there are a lot of fans that are pointing to two amazing throws, two very, very good throws by Bailey Zabin for big time. Yeah. I will say this.

That was a great catch, not a great throw. Thank you. The first 30-yard completion, the one that went for the score, Jacoby Myers deserves as much credit for that as Bailey Zappi, if not more. That was a phenomenal over-the-shoulder grab. I mean, you want to talk about athleticism, acrobatics, things that Jacoby is not necessarily lauded for. He showed off on that.

And really, I think, you know, really tremendously made that play. He adjusted, readjusted, and then lunged. And that's what got that touchdown. It wasn't a great throw by Bailey Zabby. Yeah, he made that in a situation where I think that really became a better play than the potential that it had. I give him all the credit in the world for the throw to Devontae Parker. Very good.

I think Devontae made a great catch on that as well. Yeah, he did too. But a very good throw into a tight window. So you give credit for that. And that's when you, me, the entire stadium got swept up into that moment. And it just seemed like the team was balling out in, into that moment. And, um, it just seemed like, like the team was balling out for, for Bailey Zappy in a way that they hadn't in the past for, you know,

this season for Matt Jones. And, and I did, I got swept up in the moment too. You know, you, you're down 10 to nothing. And the next thing you know, you're up 14, 10. And, and it was, it was, it was a great little, you know, five to seven-minute stretch in that game. The problem was that was the only great stretch to that game for the New England Patriots. Yeah, as our good friend Kyrie Thompson of WEI said during the game, he said the fever broke pretty quickly. It kind of did, folks.

I'm sorry to say it kind of did. But, you know, Murph, we're not done talking about the quarterback position just yet because Bill Belichick has not exactly done a whole lot to keep us from talking about it, leaving a lot out on the table, a lot of speculation to be had. What does this mean for the New England Patriots quarterbacks? And who does my man Murph think is going to be under center when the Patriots take on the Jets this weekend? We'll do so when we wrap up this tumultuous Tuesday here

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$50. Don't forget to enter the promo code LOCKEDON at signup for an instant deposit match up to $100. That's prizepix.com. Patriots fans, the legendary Thomas Murphy of E2G Sports is here today. Back-to-back days, my friend, but we could only hope that the green wisdom and counsel could be a little bit outweighed by the monster mad that this man is, and the wisdom and counsel has prevailed so far because

Murph has given us amazing insight into the offensive and defensive woes but Murph I don't think we'd be doing our job if we didn't at least address the big problem in New England right now or at least what we're being told should be the big problem in New England right now and that is the manner in which the quarterback situation has been handled. Murph, we've pretty much seen it all and done it all in this business. We've seen the Antonio Brown fiasco. We've seen Tom Brady walk away from the only franchise he had played for for two decades, go down to Tampa, win a Super Bowl down there.

We've seen Spygate. We've seen Deflategate. We've seen all of these scandals engulfed in the New England Patriots. But the one common thread that happened with all of them is it always looked like the moves that they were making were at least logical. I hate to say this, Murph, but for the first time in a long while, I'm not seeing a whole lot of logic in how the Patriots have handled this quarterback situation recently. Bill Belichick comes out, says that they're taking it day by day. Mac Jones continues to do that. He's rehabbing. He's getting his treatment. As long as he's able to go, we're hearing that's exactly what's going to happen.

According to what we had heard, that's exactly what happened last night. Mac was 85 to 90%. Got green light from the medical staff. He goes in there. Has two dismal series, throws an interception, a bad throw, just a bad decision. That's terrible. Hell of a play by Brisker though. I think we need to

give some credit there as well. This wasn't all completely 100% on Mac. He deserves a lot of blame for that. There's a little payback there for spikes up high slide there. Exactly. Don't tell me that didn't feel good for the kid. But a great play, nonetheless. I mean, he really did make a good play on the ball. But Mack is lifted. Like you said, Zappi comes in. The chance of raining down. He goes into Bailey fever for

Zappi fever for a couple of, Zappy fever for, you know, a couple of series and then things just start to peter out. Zappy remains in the game. And then after the game, we're hearing all of this. All of a sudden, Bill Belichick says, well, it was the plan all along to keep, you know, to have both of these quarterbacks play. Players like Jacoby Myers are coming out and saying, well, we haven't heard anything about that.

Thank you, Mark Daniels. Yeah, exactly. And then Bill Belichick is now coming are coming out and saying, well, we haven't heard anything about that. Thank you, Mark Daniels. Yeah, exactly. And then Bill Belichick is now coming down the pike and saying, well, you know, it's a hypothetical question. If, you know, who's going to be the quarterback at the end of the day and really at the end of the week, because that's what we're all looking for. Who's going to take the snaps under center when the Patriots take on the Jets this weekend. A long way to get to where we are, Murph, when you take a look at this in your infinite green wisdom and counsel, help us, help me help you. Help us make sense of this, my friend, because again, you see things us mere mortals just don't see. For me, there's one choice and there's

only one choice it's been my choice since you know Mac went down that if he's healthy enough to play he goes out there and he plays okay if he was at 80% last night and you dressed him he should have played that

entire game if for no no other reason than to shake off the ring rust before a game that is now so important to the Patriots season that they may be thinking about punting and trading before the trade deadline to restock for next year. And that's a really difficult thing for me to say after seven weeks of football. But if they can't right this ship and go into East Rutherford and take this win, making the playoffs is probably a pipe dream because this team, as it's constituted now, as it's playing right now,

I don't think they can beat Buffalo at home, never mind in Buffalo, unless there's another snowstorm that Bill can dial up. And even then, I'm not sure with the additions that Buffalo has made this year that they're going to be able to do that. So, no, thank you very much, Bailey Zappi. I told you, you folks wanted it. This is what happens, okay? When a guy is coming from a smaller school and needs to sit and learn. And before you take the training wheels off, Bill took the training wheels off far too soon on this kid. And,

and I understand that there was no other choice the past two weeks. There was a choice this week. And if for no other reason than to, than to get Mac back in the right mind frame, he should have played the entire game yesterday. And also, you know, I will take full responsibility for Isaiah Wynn being sat this week. Because the Patriots sure could have used him. Because this line was a complete and total mess.

And Matt Patricia had better do something to fix it. Yeah, absolutely. I think that really is the unspoken problem right now in New England. Well, a lot of people are speaking about it. I don't want to say unspoken, but I think that's the under the radar bottom line through all of this is protection along the offensive line. If they don't get that, no matter who's under center, whether it's Mack or whether it is Bailey, neither one of them are going to have the opportunity to play their game and play at the level that they're capable of playing if they're not getting the protection that they need from their O-line up front.

And, you know, I am glad that you mentioned, you know, the situation with, you know, Mack and with Bailey and then making that switch from, you know, from one to another and, you know, going up on the line. It was high school. It was high school. It was a high school switch. It was terrible. and making that switch from one to another and going- It was high school. It was high school. It was a high school switch. It was terrible.

You let the crowd determine what you did, and I don't want to hear anything different. Yeah. There was something about it at the time, and I fumble for words, folks, because there was just something about it at the time that didn't feel right. And even almost 24 hours removed from it now recording this, it doesn't really still feel all that much better. Our good mutual friend, Tommy Curran, joined a number of different media outlets today to give his take on the matter.

And Tom is usually pretty well dialed in. He's usually pretty well on the money as well. And I happen to agree with the assessment. Exactly. And I happen to agree with the assessment. Exactly. And I happen to agree with the assessment that he has out there. Mac Jones essentially came to Bill Belichick, came to the Patriots at 85% to 90%. He's good enough to get the start. He's good enough to get out there.

But not necessarily maybe good enough to play as capable as he's playing. I think Belichick saw that and worried about getting him back out there. When this happened where Matt kind of maybe, I don't know, I don't want to say forced his way because nobody really forces Bill to do anything, but really told Bill, I can do it. I can get out there and I can do the job that I need to do. I think Belichick always had this in the back of his head. Well, I'm going to have a platoon always at the ready just in case because I don't want to see this kid go down. At the point where the game got out of't want to see this kid go down at the point where the game got out of control jones just didn't go back in now i'm not saying i agree with that approach but i think that makes the most logical sense in terms of what bill was thinking

and if that is the case that's a bad mismanagement by bill but at least you can make sense of that it's a it's a terrible yeah yeah and the rest of the stuff out there just does not make any sense that Bill was deliberately trying to sabotage my. Yeah. No, no. Yeah. I mean, please, folks, please do not buy into any of that garbage because that's exactly what it is.

You know, if Bill if Bill wanted if Bill wanted to go with Bailey, he would want either go with Bailey or he would be showcasing Mac Jones so he can trade him and then go with Bailey. Exactly. All right. That's it. If he thinks Bailey is the guy, then he is going to showcase Mac Jones so he can trade him at a point in time where he is going to get the most back for him. I can agree with the fact that this was his plan going in because of, you know, the exact thing that Tommy Curran said, but I don't agree with it. It's terrible. If you have two quarterbacks, you don't have one. I am not the first person to say this. I won't be the last person to say this. Make up your mind and ride the man that you want to ride. Yeah, absolutely.

And I completely agree with that assessment. I mean, whatever decision that you make, whether you want to go with the hot hand and go with the rookie, or you want to go with the guy that got you there last year, it's a decision that has to be made, but you have to make it. And if you're on the fence or worried at all, to me that speaks as much about the confidence level that you have in either one of these guys as it does in actually pulling the trigger and making the switch you didn't hear this stuff with brady and bledsoe

back in the day because i know the fan base really wants to will brady bledsoe 2.0 back into a reality this is not the same situation folks it's not even close so not even not even close and i really want to know what the hell is wrong with Jake Brown. I mean, Jake Bailey. Yeah, I think that is absolutely on the radar as well. This man just signed a new three-year contract. I've got people asking me, are we going to go for a punter in the draft? That's a long ways away, people. Right now, we have to figure out what's wrong with Jake Bailey.

If he's injured, bring somebody else in here because we cannot live with 30 yard punts I have 11 year olds down the street playing pop warner football that kicked the ball further than 30 yards yeah yeah this is it's not good it really isn't and for all of the praise that we've heaped on Jake Bailey here yeah this is a guy that had booming punts I mean Steve and I used to watch this guy as a rookie in training camp kick some of these that we joke hadn't landed yet. Well, he's not doing that this year, folks, and it's surprising. And this is a trend that we saw pop up a little bit last year. So it is an ongoing concern for the New England Patriots.

And once again, just one of the many lists, add that to the list of one of the many things. I've seen Jake Bailey kick a ball 70 yards into a trash can. Into a trash can. Into a trash can. And this was a man who couldn't get his leg up above his shoulder last night. Yeah, something is just not right here. Something's wrong. And, yeah, and unfortunately it just keeps adding up to the problems

for the New England Patriots. And what a difference a week makes. We were talking about the era of good feelings here last week, and now all of a sudden all of those issues that the New England Patriots. And what a difference a week makes. We were talking about the era of good feelings here last week. And now all of a sudden, all of those issues that the New England Patriots saw before. Four gimmies. Once again, rearing their ugly head. And we're definitely hoping for a big-time turnaround. Because they have a very tough matchup coming up with those J-E-T-S jets, jets, jets.

I can't believe I'm saying it, Murph. But it's the truth. They look like the better team right now. And for the Patriots' sake, better hope that it's not, because if they drop to 3-5 after losing to the Jets, yeah, then all of a sudden that chatter is going to get a lot louder, especially with the trade deadline. There's nobody, nobody on the planet I hate losing to more than the Jets.

Yeah, absolutely. Ditto, my friend. And on that note, folks, we will take our leave, hopefully, of this game, but we'll still have a few more items to break down because the resident voice of reason is going to be joining us tomorrow here on Locked On Patriots. That's right. Our good mutual friend, Steve Balistrieri, joins me to help make sense of some of what we saw on the field. But Murph, in the meantime, my friend, I thank you for lending the wisdom,

the counsel, the monster madness that you always give to our show. And the way you do it is just second to none. No one else can match that. And I appreciate it. Before I let you go, my friend, please let everyone know where they can find you, what you have coming up in the coming days

leading up to that Jets game on Sunday. Well, of course, you know, you can follow me on the Bird app, as our good friend Mark Schofield dubbed it, at TeamERF207. I've got a new piece out there. I write about baseball, people. About Kyle Schwarber and the fantastic NLCS that he just had and whether or not he can carry that over into the World Series.

There'll be some more World Series pieces coming up throughout the week. First game is Friday night. Of course, the Monster Keys will be out there. And hopefully we will get a one Patriots place in tomorrow with Antoine Staley of the New York Daily News. Awesome, awesome stuff, folks. Antoine is one of the best in the business. And the man knows his jets. He knows his football. Right. And that's a must listen.

So definitely, definitely tune into that one. And really anything that the man does here, whether it be pencil to paper, whether it be fingers to keyboard or voice to microphone, Murph is always top notch. So, Don Murph, thank you so much. No, thanks for letting me come on and vent. Absolutely. That's what we're here for, my friend. That is what we're here for. But we are here for all of each and every one of you who take time out of your busy schedules to make Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. We appreciate you and we definitely thank you. Folks, please continue to stay safe and stay well. Be the change that you wish to see in the world.

On behalf of my good friend, the legendary Thomas Murphy, I'm Mike DeBate. Have a great day, everyone, and we'll see you tomorrow right here on Locked on Patriots. Gerard, read the keys. They're there. Anytime. Just read them.