Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots Coaching Hot Seat Including Bill Belichick? Early Look at Arizona Cardinals

Episode Date: December 8, 2022

The New England Patriots coaching staff has been much-mailigned for the majority of the 2022 NFL season. However, could head coach Bill Belichick be on the hot seat? Host Mike D’Abate welcomes Clare ‘ClazzyClare’ Cooper of Pats Propaganda and FPC Patriots to discuss the Pats coaches and whether Belichick is truly on the hot seat. Lastly, Clare offers her ‘Clare-Voyance’ in taking an early look at the Arizona Cardinals.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.TuroForget boring rental cars and find your drive at Turo.com AudibleHead over to Locked On NFL for a sneak peak of Block Forever or catch the full series available anywhere you get your podcast. Available everywhere now! 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

Patriots fans, we know the coaching staff might be on the hot seat in New England, but could head coach Bill Belichick be on the hot seat? We'll be talking about that and much more today. Stay tuned. You're about to be locked in to 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. I think I can. including YouTube. So smash that subscribe button, download, subscribe to, and follow Locked On Patriots wherever you get your audio podcasts. And, of course, today's episode is brought to you by our good friends

at BetOnline. BetOnline has you covered this season with more props, more odds, and more lines than ever before. BetOnline, where the game starts. Pats fans, it is enthralled in week 14 right now the new england patriots are making their preparations for a monday night matchup with the arizona cardinals in glendale arizona at 8 15 p.m on monday night but before the patriots are able to move on to the cardinals they've got some sorting out to do in their own locker room and interesting tidbits coming from

the patriots camp this week regarding the coaching staff and we're going to talk about all this today got some sorting out to do in their own locker room and interesting tidbits coming from the Patriots camp this week regarding the coaching staff. And we're going to talk about all this today and more because here joining us on this Wednesday episode, as she does each and every midweek here on Locked On Patriots, is the calming voice that we all need during the midweek. She is a columnist extraordinaire for PatsPropaganda.com, as well as the host of her very own Patriots podcast on full press coverage, Patriots, A Claire Perspective, which, folks, if you haven't subscribed to it already,

please, I implore you to do so. You won't be disappointed. You will be well-informed, well-entertained, and just one of the best listens that you'll find anywhere out there. She is the illustrious Countess of Clas herself, Miss Clare, Clasie Clare Cooper. Clare, thanks so much for joining me today from across the pond. You're more than welcome, as always, Mike. I mean, as you said, it's Wednesday.

Where else would I be? Absolutely. Written in blood in the diary now. That's a bit drastic, actually. It's written in stone, shall we say. Yeah, exactly. We'll take it down a little notch here just to take the morbidity out of what you just said. I don't even know if morbidity is a word, but you know what, folks?

We're going on our own schedule. We're going on our own situation here today. All kidding aside, my friend, thank you very much for lending your wisdom and counsel on wednesdays each and every wednesday uh and we always love to absorb that here and folks if you're in the mood for a little clairvoyance don't worry we're going to get to that in just a moment but claire before we take our leave of the buffalo bills and move on to the arizona cardinals a lot of patriots fans still have a bitter taste in their mouth about what they saw last Thursday. Obviously, a subpar performance in all three phases, if you really

want to think about it. Sole bright spot. Well, I shouldn't say sole bright spot. Two bright spots that stood out to me. Marcus Jones, obviously, very good game. You know, the touchdown. Josh Uche on the defensive side of the ball really made some strides. But before we move on here, we know that you have done extensive work and looking in the background of what happened in this game and whatnot. What are your takeaways from Thursday night's loss to the Buffalo Bills, your reaction to it, and what you think it means moving forward for the Pats? I think for probably like a lot of fans,'m probably could speak for a lot of fans when I say that I was kind of gutted for the loss naturally but also not shocked because it's just

it feels like the Bills right now um we're in a different league it's just you're looking at you're watching a different kind of you're almost watching a different type of game really when you watch the likes of the you know the Buffalo Bills Kansas Chiefs that sort of thing so it was always going to be that difficult if they were going to bring it out now when you know the Vikings game and stuff was close and things like this there was these elements these little sparks of they might be able to pull something out of the bag you know it's a home game they might just be able to push you know allen into some impatience you know can they really exploit any of the significant weaknesses in the bills because you know divisional matchup that kind of thing and i think i think i actually

written in my pre-game recap and the answer is no they couldn't really and they couldn't really answer for anything like you said on all three phases of the ball there was that little bit of element of sort of mid I think it was the towards the mid of the the first quarter when they when Marcus Jones scored the touchdown that you saw this element of oh maybe oh is it could they maybe they could pull it out maybe it could be a bit close uh hopes hopes were up and then hopes went down and they scored again and the bell scored again and it was good again and it was like it was unfortunate when i look back because obviously it was thursday night football so it feels like it was a long time ago that kind of thing when i looked back on some of the numbers

just to refresh my memory about sort of the misery that we had to suffer as Patriots fans. One thing I found really interesting, because the Patriots defence has been, to sort of quote you, the one bright spark on the Patriots. It has been the defence recently, but they didn't really kind of bring it to fruition against the Bills, unfortunately. But when you look at the numbers, now I know that we always say about the eyeball test over the numbers.

And, you know, I'm still all for that. To me, the numbers is sort of only one element of what you've got. It doesn't give you a full picture. But looking at the numbers, I was actually quite surprised when I kind of refreshed my memory today in regards to what the defense did actually do numbers wise because buffalo had 33 tackles which was 40 and they had 44 combined so that's what the buffalo defense brought to the table the patriots defense had 44 tackles and 71 combined and it's like when you look at those numbers you'd'd say, wow, you know, the Patriots defense really sort of outplayed the Buffalo defense. I mean, the eyeball test, not significantly. So that's why we always say you can't go on one thing alone.

You have to look at it as the full picture. But it is disappointing because the defense is who we sort of know are capable. And yeah, they had a not very good game against Buffalo and stuff like that and that's unfortunate and they need to pull their socks up with that but what we've seen through this season is we do have the sorry the Patriots do have good defensive players they do have a good defensive system and it can work well the unfortunate thing is it misfires sometimes and then because the offense is is quite weak and we know this way i'm not kind of being detrimental when i say this it's out there

we know that the offense has got some some severe weaknesses at the moment when the defense can't really bring it to its level just it just really highlights the lack that we've got on that the Patriots have got on the offense so because of that you can't really combine it to to be very significant at the moment and that's that's why the Bills completely shut us down shut them down sorry I'm too much of a fan I always say we and I know everybody hates it and I try not to, so I do apologise. But yeah, so long story short, yeah, gutted, not surprised, like everybody else. I still think there's some hope there because of the defence, because we know what the defence can do.

The fact that they didn't do it against Buffalo is really disappointing because it's a team that they needed to because it's a divisional matchup. They needed to really outplay the bills there and and although the stat sheet says that they did the oval test said that they didn't so it's it's quite disappointing to be at this stage and be past thanksgiving and this and the other that you know when football really starts so it's tricky being a patriots fan at the moment but you know there's still little tiny bits of hope maybe sort of kind of ish yeah I think you summed it up no I do I think you summed it up very well uh you know

usually at this time I'm usually writing my annual column about winter coming you know with uh you know using the Game of Thrones analogies and saying okay now it's time for Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots to make that leap. You don't get quite that vibe with this team this year. I mean, I think they're still trying to find their identity. And look, a lot of their deficiencies were exposed by the Buffalo Bills. And maybe I'm being a homer here. I know a lot of people may call me out for that. But I think a lot of what we saw from the Patriots was really more about the Bills' ability to counter whatever the Patriots were doing as opposed to the Patriots being a futile team. There is talent on both sides of the ball.

I know a lot of fans don't see it right now. And believe me, I get it. I understand. It's tough to sit there and to watch a team that you love, you root for, you invest yourself in every single week, consistently make the same mistakes. It's frustrating. I do get it. But you have to take under account that when you see, oh, they couldn't get any pressure on Josh Allen. That's not entirely accurate. They did try to get pressure on Josh Allen. They used the fire zone blitz. They get that five-man rush where the other defenders are starting to creep

up into coverage. Normally that's the best way to control someone like Allen, who's very comfortable rolling out of the pocket, making things happen. You can make the argument he's better out of the pocket than he is in the pocket. But Josh did a really, really great job of understanding that the Patriots were going to use that five-man rush. And he threw to where he anticipated the coverage not being either a split second too early or a split second too late. And in that regard, it's a good thing that he was either early or late split second too late and in that regard it's a good

thing that he was either early or late because it hit his receivers in stride and it allowed him to neutralize it so that's one of the big reasons why folks josh allen had so much success against the new england patriots um on thursday night on the offensive side of the ball you hit the nail right on the head they continue to be futile in um in the uh the red zone and they continue to be futile on third down you talked about the anticipation hopes are rising everything's going along and all of a sudden it stops it stops because of the difficulty that mac jones is having finding his receivers in the red zone um he was pressured on 39.5 percent of his dropbacks that has to change um i know the Patriots have their problems along the offensive line, but if they expect their

quarterback to be able to make any type of headway, they need, absolutely need to give him better protection. And bottom line, they need to give him more than 3.15 seconds to make a throw. That's a little better than what we saw a couple of weeks ago, where he was almost down to 2%, almost, excuse me, two seconds to be able to make those throws. That's pathetic. But 3.15 is not all that much time either on average. So a lot was exposed with the New England Patriots.

And a lot of the fingers, Claire, are being pointed at the coaching staff. That's right, folks. The coaching staff coming under a lot of fire for the New England Patriots difficulties lately. We know Matt Patricia and Joe Judge are under a lot of fire for the New England Patriots difficulties lately. We know Matt Patricia and Joe Judge are getting a lot of dirt thrown their way. But how about head coach Bill Belichick? Well, one of the leading beat reporters in the nation right now seems to think that Bill Belichick could be in the crosshairs if things don't change quickly. Claire and I are going to discuss that in just a moment when this episode of the Locked

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Find your drive at Turo.com. Patriots fans, it's Wednesday, and that means a visit from the illustrious Countess of Clas herself, columnist extraordinaire, podcast host extraordinaire of Fats Propaganda and full press coverage Patriots, respectively.

The lovely Claire Klaasie Claire Cooper joins me here on this Wednesday episode. Claire, we talked a little bit about the Buffalo Bills and the difficulties that the New England Patriots had. I think we're ready to put that behind us finally and move on because the Patriots do have a game coming up this week on Monday night football against the Arizona Cardinals. Well, we're not quite ready to go there yet either because there's this middle area right now that the Patriots are stuck in. And that is, let's blame the coaches for everything that's going on in the world. Again, I understand the frustration and I'm not

blaming anybody for feeling the way they feel about the coaching staff right now. So let's get that right out there. But when you look at this team realistically and what they've had to go through, injuries, changing of the guard when it comes to some beloved coaches that are no longer here, Josh McDaniels, and you look at what has happened to the team as a result in terms of changing their offensive play style. Yeah, I'm zeroing in on the offensive coaching staff, folks, because the defense, for the most part, other than a sputter last week, has been pretty solid. So when you look at this offensive coaching staff right now, Claire, you've got Matt Patricia and Joe Judge clearly being, I don't want to say the punching bag, but they're getting an awful lot of vitriol throwing their way.

And you can understand why fans are frustrated there. But Peter King of NBC Sports, who is one of the more renowned sports writers in the country, recently reported that he felt that the Patriots head coach, Bill Belichick, might be on the hot seat at the close of this season into 2023 if things don't change or turn around very quickly or if they choose not to make any changes on the coaching staff and there's a little bit of a standoff between he and team owner Robert Kraft again this is speculation Peter is not reporting this verbatim he's saying this is his opinion and how he feels and what he's reading into the situation. But it raises an interesting question. If the Patriots finish with, dare we say, a losing record,

and it's possible at 6-6, if they're not able to win a couple of games here and keep things respectable, this could get ugly in a hurry. And especially for the fan base, you're talking two losing seasons in three years since Tom Brady's departure. That's going to get the fan base, you're talking two losing seasons in three years since Tom Brady's departure. That's going to get the fan base restless, but it's going to get the ownership restless, too, who do not like to lose. I can tell you that right now. And covering this team now for the past six years, the Crafts do not like coming in second, third, or fourth place. They want to be on top. They want to be where they are for a reason. So when you look at this situation, Claire,

do you read any credence into the rumors that are circulating right now that Bill Belichick could be on the hot seat? Well, firstly, like you said, it's rumor, it's speculation, it's hearsay. So that's one thing to sort of take into consideration. The second thing is, really, my answer is no. Bill Belichick, he's got this, what he has behind him, that kind of thing, it feels like it's too much. Now, the one point is, I mean, we never really know what is going on inside you know behind the scenes I mean information wise take for example I know we're talking patriots but take for example the Titans

at the moment they have just fired their GM John Robinson now it's it's I've heard sort of bits and pieces in podcasts and and in regards to the fan base that this is all a great puzzlement he had a contract extension that kind of thing now i know there's a lot in regard to the wide receiver in aj brown kind of being released that sort of thing so but there's nothing really significant there for them to kind of hold on to sort of understand why this guy has been fired he has got a winning record during his tenure now switch over to the patriots we can never really be certain what is going on behind the scenes what is being said between craft and belichick the the time thing itself actually made me sort of think about how in regards to the bill belichick situation with him being gm and being coach and how i know that there's a lot of flack from fans in regards to

that that they they think gm you know, isn't so great, and Coach Bill, the conflict and things. The one thing that this Titans thing popping up really made me think about is how I think it's quite clever that he's done it that way. Although I know that the success has been questioned in regards to him being a GM, but there's always this big, there seems to be, should I say, such a conflict between the GM and the coach that it gets in the way of like team stuff. And when you've got the same guy doing those two jobs, he's only got to fight with himself in regards to that.

So that coming up, I know this is slightly going off on a tangent, but that coming up made me sort of think about how Bill being that football smart that he is, sort of denying the need for that extra body and that extra conflict that it could create. Now, flipping it over to sort of what is going on now in regards to Patricia and that kind of thing. The one thing that Bill has made difficult for himself is he has restricted the well from which he can take these individuals

in regards to coaching because he likes his guys as people like to say he's sort of very much keeping it in the individuals that know the Patriots way and I know that we talked about this yesterday on um one Patriots place with Seaford Australia and as you were kindly guesting over there I know that we talked about and I mentioned that this conspiracy theory of thinking that maybe utilizing Patricia was because of the trust factor that Bill has there with him. And maybe they're looking at nursing the team through this season because they've got their sights on maybe, for example,

as we chatted about Bill O'Brien for the future. The one thing that I sort of thought about when you were kind of talking about this is people are blaming or are ready to blame Bill are ready to put him on the hot seat don't forget he's outwardly said to everyone the book stops with me I am the guy making the decisions I'm the one responsible so it it's obvious that people are going to be pointing the finger at him and saying you know he's in the hot seat because he's taken the responsibility on himself which a good leader is going to do so that just makes it just makes me give him that little bit more respect now yeah there's the side of me that is the Patriots fan that is so frustrated

of this weird defensive kind of being your offensive guy and he's got he's got dual um responsibilities and you've got Joe judging there so quite what's he doing and Matt Patricia seems to be doing everything it just looks a mess and it's unfortunate that as Patriots fans we haven't really been in this situation where we can look into the the coaching situation and it looks such a mess now we know that there's always been this issue where he doesn't like to name coordinators and this that the other and we're used to that that doesn't matter yeah that was just gonna say that's nothing no yeah titles giving someone a total doesn't necessarily make them successful in a position if you give them the right title so as long as these guys feel the respect which i'm pretty sure

they would do um else they'd all walk anyway i don't think that really makes that much of a difference i know it frustrates fans because you just kind of, well, you just want to know what's going on sort of thing. And there's always that element of Bill wanting to play chess or the others are playing checkers or vice versa, that kind of thing. And I guess fans are probably getting a little bit fed up of it right now because it's not working.

They're not a success. There's a lot to sort of complain about. Looking back on the last few years there has been so much that has had to change within the system and a lot of it has been out of his hands to a degree I mean you lost the greatest of all time quarterback you had a COVID season you had a guy come in to help you sign individuals that wasn't going to be the starter you had a rookie that you drafted 15th overall and there's so much that's had to happen during that short space of time to make a season like this still inevitable a rebuild isn't going to take one season there's

too many different factors that go into this whole thing to really be able to do that. And don't forget he's Bill's kind of suffering under the, well, the greatest of all time quarterback left the system. Okay. Some people want to want to blame Bill. I'm a bit on the fence on that one,

but every each to their own. Then he lost coaching staff that you can't make stay if they don't want to stay i mean josh wanted a head coaching job and he wasn't going to get one in new england at least in the near future so he left so there was no way of really preventing that yes the argument is well where was the backup plan and who knows maybe bill was arrogant enough to think he wouldn't need a backup plan you never really know when it comes to these sorts of things and that takes me back to the point that I said at the very beginning is you just don't really know what's going on it's very easy to judge situations

by the small amounts of information that we are privy to so I'm just kind of not in the situation as of yet to believe that someone as successful and as great football minded as Bill Belichick who's obviously got a good relationship with Kraft to have been stayed that long to suddenly have a couple of bad seasons and be gone if it was anywhere else would it really look at that when you look at the history people don't want to take into consideration the history. Some people do, some people don't, but you can't wipe that out. Also, it can't really reflect on what the future is.

So I don't know. I don't personally, me, a clear perspective, doesn't believe he's in the hot seat. I mean, yeah, people say, well, what do you know? You're not a beat reporter. Of course I'm not. But yeah, from my opinion, I think there's just too much there to just fully

drop all the blame at bill's door and say that's it we're writing it off we're done kind of thing there's too many things that have changed over the last couple of years in his control and out of his control to really say that he should he should be gone already yeah i think you're absolutely making uh 100 percent uh the point that that i plan on Yeah, I think you're absolutely making 100% the point that I planned on making. And I think you're also right on the money when it comes to where the finger is on the pulse of the Patriots and what they need to do with their coaching staff. Look, the one thing I can definitely understand is the frustration with how the assistant coaches have run the offense this year. Maybe a little bit in terms of the general manager and talent evaluation,

things of that nature. It hasn't been smooth sailing since Tom Brady left here. And there's no question about that. But the one thing that I don't understand from the fire bill camp, and there are people out there that believe that he should be gone because it's the game has passed him by. He's, you know, he's, he's not doing what, you know, a younger, you in-tune coach is going to do, coming in and being able to revamp this team.

Well, my question to you is, who do you want to replace him? Who is going to come in to this situation and know more football than Bill Belichick, the guy who forgot more football in his sleep than most of us, myself included, will ever know in their lifetime. And to simply dismiss that and to say, okay, well, two years of subpar performance or whatever, when you take under account the first year being the Cam Newton situation, and I think Cam did the best job he could.

I'm not putting that on his shoulders, but there was COVID. There was Tom Brady walking out. The fact that that team finished seven and nine to me is remarkable. I think that is a feather in the cap for Bill Belichick rather than a detriment to him. This season, yeah, there's criticism that is there. He is not infallible, folks. He is not above criticism. He is not above questioning.

You can definitely be upset and be you know demand that this team be better and everybody has difficult years and difficult seasons and i think you're seeing that for bill this year but to sit there and say that the team would be better off without him uh i'm i'm not at that level yet and quite frankly claire i don't think i will be at that level anytime soon simply because i don't think there's any adequate replacement out there that would be able to come into new england and do a better job than what bill belichick has done with this team this year that being said 50 plus million in available cap space is expected for our good friend miguel benzon um they need to put that to good use uh the patriots need to continue

continue to evaluate the draft over the course of the last couple of years the way they had and pick out guys that fit their scheme very well moving forward the bill can't draft crowd has had a couple of tough years they've got some guys now that have come in and made a pretty strong impact and these younger players are rounding into form so they need to continue that and lastly there have to be changes made on the offensive side of the ball when it comes to the coaching staff and i do believe you will see those i think you're very much on to something with maybe not overplaying their hand and trying to see what they could do with a makeshift coaching staff this year and maybe make some of those sweeping moves that they want to make next year simply because 2022

didn't allow them the opportunity to do that i will say this there is some criticism that should be launched there because you're doing it at the expense of a young quarterback that statistically had one of the best rookie seasons from a young single caller that we've ever seen in the nfl to say that that regression has hurt him a little bit is where mac jones comes in and i think that's something where they need to take accountability for it and be a little bit more mindful of what that has done. Hopefully they'll be able to move forward and make the right decisions. But again, Claire, I do appreciate your insight on that because I think you made some excellent points when it comes to Bill

and points that I think the fan base is definitely better for hearing. It's always good to hear multiple sides of the story and not just, Phil sucks, he can't do this, that's it. The team sucks, they blow it or whatever, whatever you want to hear on terrestrial radio, that's kind of what you're going to get. I think it's always good to have both perspectives. So thank you for your Claire perspective. I appreciate it, Callis.

You are more than welcome. You are more than welcome. You are more than welcome. That's fans. We are not done just yet because we are going to experience some clairvoyance in just a moment because our good friend, the countess of class is going to read the tea leaves and tell us her first impressions on the Arizona Cardinals, the Patriots Monday night opponent in Week 14

coming up this Monday night in Glendale, Arizona. We're going to wrap things up here on Locked on Patriots in just a moment when we continue. But, of course, today's show, folks, is brought to you by our friends over at betonline.net, your number one source for betting football. Find all of the latest player developments, team matchups, news, podcasts podcasts in-depth

analysis on every game you name it they've got it and as always bet online remains your continued source for all of your sports wagering information with live betting and up to the minute scores for every sport out there the fastest the easiest way to check in on all your favorite games and events including mma boxing and golf is to head to the website today, betonline.net, or use your mobile device to learn more. BetOnline, where the game starts. Patriots fans, the illustrious Claire Klazik, Claire Cooper of Pat's Propaganda and Full Press Coverage Patriots, joins me here today to bring us to the midway point in the week. And we've taken our leave of the Buffalo Bills, Claire, at least for the time being.

We've put to rest some of those Bill Belichick hot seat rumors, but it wouldn't be a visit from the Countess unless we read a little tea leaves. So that's what we're going to do here now. The clairvoyance is ready. Ready to permeate because we have the all-knowing, all-omniscient, all-powerful sage.

She's ready to open up the tea leaves, which by the way, folks, have been hermetically sealed in a tea kettle. They're on the shelf over in Lockdown Patriots headquarters. They've been there since last Friday morning. They're ready to be read. And this is what the Countess does here better than anyone.

So, oh, great one. When you read the tea leaves this week, the Patriots opponent coming up, the Arizona Cardinals, kind of a disappointing season for them in a very tough division, by the way, with, you know, obviously the San Francisco 49ers, Seattle Seahawks playing well, Los Angeles Rams, well, we'll get into the Rams. But there's a couple of tough teams in that division, and Arizona's kind of been up and down,

but still a dangerous team on both sides of the ball. What do the tea leaves say about the Arizona Cardinals? Please give us a little clairvoyance on the Cardinals, Claire. Okay, let me just get into Sage character here with my Star Wars-like Patriot's Hood hoodie. Yes. Let's go over to the dark side. Okay.

This is good. Come on, you had that set up perfectly. That was great. I expected Palpatine to pop out from behind you. That would have been really good. Some animation going on. Good. But seriously, as you like to say,

I mean, the Cardinals aren't necessarily a team that the Patriots see very often. So there's always that element of the research book being a little bit thin on these sorts of teams. However, they have, or they are, the NFL's worst red zone defense. Unfortunately, the Patriots aren't necessarily a very good red zone offense at the moment. So that might not make any difference at all. And I'm laughing because it's not funny, but it is funny.

Because if you don't laugh, you'd cry, wouldn't you, folks? No, but I mean, yeah, you said Cardinals dual threat. Kyler Murray, he makes plays with his arms and his legs because he's kind of so quick. Such a scuttlebug with that. Nursing an injury, possibly. Being out with an injury, I suppose I should say, rather than nursing.

But he still had 14 touchdowns this season. So he's definitely a force that they need to be concerned with see what I did there for yeah they've got good as people like to say weapons in DeAndre Hopkins I mean he's such he's such a versatile player he's so good and I mean he's I think he's rocked it let me just just check, yeah, 574 yards, receiving yards, despite missing games earlier this season. So, you know, the guy's putting up numbers, even not playing the whole season so far. So, significant there. And their running back, James Connor, you know, definitely got some strength there.

So, the Patriots have got plenty that they need to be concerned about when it comes to the Cardinals. Like you said, bit of an up and down team. Could this be one of those games that we go into it thinking, well, they're not, you know, they're not looking so bad. And the Patriots are coming off, you know, a rough loss to the Bills, not really expecting much. And then they blow them out the way that they did against like Detroit and stuff like this. So the Patriots are definitely a team at the moment that it's difficult to pin anything on either way,

just because we know that they've got weaknesses, but we know that they've got strengths. That's why it's so difficult to really call it at the moment. You know, they've got the, they do have good players on offense. So if they could pull it together, they've got the capability they've got

those weapons there to to scheme something up but it's execution and that's where the coaching comes in as we've already talked about so it's difficult this season to really see where the Patriots are going and when you've got a matchup of another team that's kind of a little bit up and down it's kind of your guess is as good as mine where's this all going to go so you know we could have a low scoring slog fest we could have a massive different differential between the score you know one team could really pull it out the bag one key team could really fall flat on their face and at the minute which team would do that it's it's difficult to really pin what's more likely on either side um so yeah this is an interesting matchup that i don't think people are going to be able to call very well prior to that but saying that i'm going

to keep my fingers crossed and sort of believe in my team and think that maybe the patriots can kind of knit something together just enough to pull out a win so i've got a 1914 win for the patriots excellent and i think a lot of fans would be happy with that and I think they'll take it at this point look you make a great point about the New England Patriots they are predictably unpredictable and I think that's maybe the best way to put it and I did steal that from my good friend Alex Barth of 98 by the sports hub who used that to describe Bill Belichick and I think it's a perfect term to do that but i really think that it fits this new england patriots team because just when you think they're going to zig this year they zag you'd look for them to struggle and have difficulties

and they've come up big or they've come up in moments where you think they will um obviously the predictable moment came on thursday night against the bills most people thought they would have difficulty on both sides of the ball, and they did. This Cardinals team is difficult to read. I'm glad that you mentioned Murray. All indications are that the injury that he had earlier this year should be relatively healed by now. I don't look for that to hamper him too much, but at the same time, it's worth mentioning,

and I'm glad that you did because for someone like kyler who loves to utilize his speed his you know his agility if you get a hamstring injury that's going to be a difficult situation to work through so definitely want to keep an eye on there james connor breaking out i thought you made a good point there on him 125 yards rushing like you said against the chargers and two weeks ago that's huge uh the Patriots, who have been fairly good at stopping the run. But, you know, there's always that moment that could always come back to get them. And without Christian Barmore on the lineup, guys like Devon Godchow and, of course, Lawrence Guy have come up big in that situation. They're going to need to continue that as well.

But I'm glad that you mentioned red zone futility, because now we're looking at a matchup between two tortoises, basically going back and forth. The Patriots can't get into the red zone. The Cardinals can't stop it. Which one is going to win out? If there is an opportunity for the Patriots to cure their red zone woes and maybe have a get right game in that regard, this might be it.

I don't think it's a full get right game for the Patriots because I don't think right now the Patriots are at the level where they're ready to get right. I think they're still looking for identity. And that's a problem in week 14 of the season. But conversation for another day. If they're going to get right in the red zone, I think this is the game to do it. So Countess, once again, your clairvoyance has illuminated the Lockdown Patriots audience, and we appreciate it.

We always love hearing your wisdom and counsel. And I thank you. Yeah, I kind of like the Palpatine thing that got going there. That's pretty good. That is pretty good. See, Claire's got the before Palpatine. I'm like the after shriveled Palpatine. I'm going to go ahead myself.

So that'll be good. And we'll be able to have that compare and contrast. But bottom line line i do appreciate you taking the time out as you always do each and every wednesday to join me here on locked on patriots before i let you go claire please let everyone know where they can find you interact with you and what great work you have coming from both platforms who you make look all that much better oh oh thank you so much mike yeah as usual game recap patspropaganda.com i always try and spin a little bit of positivity to keep everybody kind of not really down in the it's very difficult lately when they've had such kind of bad losses to to kind of keep that spark going but i do really try so um i'd be realistic but i do try and keep

it a little bit positive as well highlight the positives so please do go over to patspropaganda.com you'll find my game recaps and obviously tom shulmel as he's back now off and being on tour so the game the the reviews the pats prop reviews he will take back control of so please do go over there and check those out for him uh before the game and obviously myself after. A clear perspective, Patriots podcast, as Mike mentioned, for Press Coverage Patriots. Pretty much every week at the moment, fingers crossed. So there should be one hitting your airwaves, as they like to say,

pretty soon. So do keep your sharp eye out for that. So there should be a new episode coming in the next couple of days. So please do keep, as I said, sharp eye out for that. We're heading to the 50th episode, folks. It's really pretty pretty it's pretty darn scary actually to think about but yeah heading over to 50 and there'll be a christmas special as well so please keep an eye on twitter of the at classy claire as you can see below or at c l a z z y c l a i so keep an eye on my twitter because i'll fill you in with my christmas special information and stuff like that so it's always best to check

out the bird app for me and and don't forget, I'm there for you each and every week with the lovely Steve Ballesteri and Thomas Murphy at E2GSports.com for One Patriot's Place. So if you fancy a little bit, I'm here, there, and everywhere, folks. Absolutely. And anytime Claire puts voice to microphone, pen to paper, check it out, folks. It's always top-notch material.

Big-time congrats on nearly hitting 50. We'll definitely do a little something here on Locked On Patriots to commemorate that. But I say that with big time pride as well. Your show is truly one of the great listens. I do not exaggerate when I say, folks, that it is one of my favorite listens anywhere in podcasting media, not just sports. It really is a fun listen and an informative listen. So be sure to check that out and always be sure to check out locked on

Patriots, wherever you get your podcasts as well. You can download, subscribe to us, follow us on any platform that has audio podcasts, including the Odyssey app, Spotify, Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts, make sure you stay locked into locked on Patriots. And of course smash that subscribe button to YouTube. podcasts wherever you get your podcasts make sure you stay locked into locked on patriots and of course smash that subscribe button to youtube and don't forget when you do make locked on patriots

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classy Claire Cooper of Pats Propaganda and Full Press Coverage Patriots, I'm Mike DeBate. Continue to stay safe, stay well, be the change you wish to see in the world have a great day everyone