Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots Grade Report: Offense, Defense, Coaches Struggle in Week 15 Loss to Cardinals

Starting point is 00:00:00 The grades are in for your Week 15 New England Patriots, and let's just say, failed again by poor preparation and execution. Stick around, 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. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful. Thank you once again for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. I'm your host, Mike DeBate.

Starting point is 00:00:41 I cover your New England Patriots for Patriots Country. So reach out to me. Let me know what's on your mind on X at MDAB ATE NFL. You can also catch me where the skies are blue over on Blue Sky at MDAB ATE NFL dot BSky dot social.

Starting point is 00:00:56 And if you're looking to show some social media love to Lockdown Patriots, please do so via our X account at LO underscore Patriots. And Pats fans, today's episode is brought to you by our friends over at PrizePix. Go to prizepix.com slash LockedOnNFL and use the code all lowercase LockedOnNFL to win $50 instantly when you play $5. Patriots fans, thank you for joining me here today on LockedOn Patriots.

Starting point is 00:01:24 We have an informative show here on the docket. It's grade report time, folks. And the Patriots' performance in their 30-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday, yeah, is not getting rave reviews. It's not a secret. I think you know where we're headed in this one. And we're going to kick things off today by grading the offense. And those 17 points that the Patriots put on the board, we're headed in this one and we're going to kick things off today by grading the offense and those

Starting point is 00:01:45 17 points that the Patriots put on the board they really don't tell the story as to how much of a mismatch this one was from start to finish we're definitely not letting the defense off the hook either because we're going to be evaluating their subpar showing as well and last but certainly not least the coaches well they got an interesting grade this week, to say the least. We'll get back to that in just a moment. But it's not just a poor evaluation, a very blunt message that it's time to clean things up or else. They're also getting this week the best team in football. That's right.

Starting point is 00:02:18 The Buffalo Bills are next up on the schedule. How will they look to improve? Can they even show signs of life against this team? Well, if we're talking reasonable insight and grades, you know we can look no further than our guest today, our resident voice of reason, our Patriots professor, my Patriots bison, Steve Balistrieri of patsfans.com and Patriots 4th and 2. Steve, welcome back to Locked On Patriots. Thanks so much for joining me today, buddy. It's always a pleasure. I thought we would be

Starting point is 00:02:48 talking a little bit more silver lining up there, but no, it's thunderstorming over Patriot Place right now. There's not a whole lot of positivity going on up there,

Starting point is 00:03:03 and it was disappointing to say the least. Without question. The football gods were not smiling on the New England Patriots on Sunday. But that being said, the New England Patriots did very little, if nothing, to help themselves in the eyes of the football gods on Sunday. So Patriots have a lot of mea culpa. A lot of blame pie is going to be served up here today on Lockdown Patriots. Steve, I thought your grade report was one of the best reads in Patriots text media this week, as always.

Starting point is 00:03:33 But I thought you especially captured the true mood of Patriots Nation right now, which is a lot of frustration. After what we saw on the field on Sunday, it's hard to feel any type of optimism heading into the final three games of the season. I know the players, the coaches, everyone is going to try to do their best to put their best foot forward against the Bills on Sunday, but this was an opportunity for them to show signs of life, and they simply did not do it. You introduced this report card, this grade report this week so well i believe it deserves a good amount of credit and i'm going to give it that

Starting point is 00:04:09 today i'm going to use this as a primer to open up our grade report today steve wrote folks and i quote coming off of a buy you would expect the team to tighten up preventable mistakes that didn't happen coming off of a buy you'd expect to do a deep dive of your opponent and have their tendencies down pat well if they did they did a darn good job of hiding it and finally folks coming off of a buy you'd expect your offensive line to actually you know block people once again you'd be sadly mistaken ste Longfellow on his best day I don't think could have captured the essence of the New England Patriots on Sunday let's start on that offense because this offense was once again failed by the offensive line wasn't their worst showing

Starting point is 00:04:57 of the season but in my opinion it may have been their most disappointing effort um let's start with the offensive line, my friend. How do they grade out for this matchup? They graded out terribly. And for everyone who watched the game, it was apparent, right? It was plain to see. I mean, right off the bat, your left tackle. And this has happened so many times this year. But Darian Lowe starts off so many of these games like, you know,

Starting point is 00:05:29 he's still on the bus. And every week I, because I love listening to them, I watch the game on television, but I mute it. And I listen to the games with Bob Soce and Zoe, who do a fantastic job. Great tandem. Yes. And even though there's like a gap in the sound from when it's actually happening, I encourage all fans to forget about that and listen to them because Zoe is, I mean, perfect because he captures the essence of everything that's going on.

Starting point is 00:06:15 Now, he'll, I mean, talk bad about them when they're playing bad, and they were. But he'll also point out some of the the things that people are doing well so it's it's very balanced in in my opinion and uh you know he made the comment and i'm paraphrasing here but he he it was like on the first drive and he was like, how can your left tackle coming off a bye be missing blocks on your first drive? I mean, there's two he missed. And, you know, that was the essence of what he was saying. And I totally agreed with it. I mean, how can you come off of a bye and be missing assignments and missing blocks and, you know, have your timing all off. I mean, it should have been pristine.

Starting point is 00:07:09 And that offensive line was terrible. I mean, yeah, Drake May was 10 of 10, you know, in the first half. It's because they were throwing screens and, you know, they were throwing behind the line of scrimmage. That's why, you know, people ooh behind the line of scrimmage that's why you know people who and i are about two is completion percentage but if you watch miami 75 of his throws are behind the line of scrimmage you know but you know the patriots don't have the talent to catch those and make big chunk plays out of them. They got a couple of first downs, which I liked.

Starting point is 00:07:47 But, you know, the offensive line was terrible. It was terrible at the beginning in the running game, I thought, because there were so many missed assignments. You're watching the game and you're like, where is this all going? And, you know, in the entire first half um you know the offense gained virtually nothing and in the second half may kind of improvised a lot more and you know his yardage went up to over 200 but that offensive line i mean their play was offensive very good way to put it.

Starting point is 00:08:25 And, you know, you mentioned that all the way around and just mistake after mistake and miscue after miscue, it just keeps adding up, Steve. And it's a familiar refrain. We sing it each and every week here on the pod. And quite honestly, I think our listeners are tired of hearing it. We're tired of relaying it. But it is the reality of where the Patriots are right now.

Starting point is 00:08:46 You mentioned Darian Lowe. Darian Lowe is getting out of his stance extremely slowly. I don't know if this is injury related. He's had his injury problems this year. We've seen him pop up on injury reports. So there could be a situation where maybe it's taken him a little bit longer to get up out of his stance because of that. But it's clear and it's obvious that he is getting out of his stance far too slow to be an effective blocker for your young quarterback

Starting point is 00:09:09 layden robinson he had an up and down game on sunday you cannot commit a penalty in that situation i understand rookies are going to make mistakes but this is football fundamentals 101 folks you can't get called for holding in the red zone on your opening drive when you are trying to put points on the board and put the opponent who happens to be the home team on its heels not a good showing not a good look ben brown with two low snaps those were problems for the patriots so all the way around you're looking at an offensive line that continues to sputter and it only i think brought into sharp detail just how much work needs to be done on this line in the offseason so Patriots clearly have their work cut out for them

Starting point is 00:09:51 doesn't get any easier with a fearsome Buffalo front coming in to be their counterpart uh for the week uh when these two teams hook it up in Orchard Park but Steve let's move on to the skill position players uh obviously the wide receiver is not a very good game for them. Arguably an MIA game for them. They may be Daniel Simpson Day incomplete because there simply was not a whole lot to bite onto there. I thought the tight ends had a decent game, but again, they did not show enough in this one either. The running backs, I thought, played very well. There's not much to work with there and not many lanes to run through, but I think these guys did the best they could with that.

Starting point is 00:10:29 Before we get to the youngster, the star of the day on offense, how would you grade the skill position players in this one? Yeah, the running backs, I thought, considering what they're looking at with the offensive line, I thought they did pretty well. I mean, Ramondre Stevenson, you know, he kind of got, you know, the motor going a little bit. He ended up with 69 yards on 13 carries. Works out to over five yards per carry. That's really good considering you're not getting a lot of help um the thing that's

Starting point is 00:11:07 frustrating to me and and you know i know we've talked about this before you know antonio gibson was not utilized enough he had two big chunk plays he um you know he had a 29-yard run, which was a really nice one, and he had a 20-yard pass reception from May. And, you know, I mean, how many times does this guy have to come through with a chunk play without the coaching staff saying, maybe we should get him involved before the fourth quarter, you know? You know, I mean, and I'm not taking anything away from Ramondre either. I mean, like we just said, considering what he was dealing with,

Starting point is 00:11:58 you know, with the offensive line, I thought he played very well. But, you know, I just, especially in the passing game, I want to see them utilize Gibson more. I mean, that was his bread and butter, was the passing game. And when they do throw to him, he invariably comes out with a good play, or two. But I thought they did well. The wide receivers, you know, they have these little splashes here and there, right? You know, somebody will make a nice play and you're like, oh, that's good.

Starting point is 00:12:39 But then there's that lull in between where they're invisible, you know. And, you know, the wide receivers I graded out as D. And I think that was deserved. I mean, they, you know, Kendrick Bourne had that 37-yard pass reception there in the fourth quarter, which was a beauty. Great throw, great reception. You know, he high-pointed the ball. Everything there looked fantastic. But for the rest of the game, he had two catches for seven yards.

Starting point is 00:13:16 You know, Demario Douglas only caught three passes for 11. One of them was a broken play where Drake may, you know, scrambled out of the pocket and made that really nice shovel pass for a touchdown. Right. So, I mean, he gets credit for that, for being, you know, on top of it, but no, you know, no consistent, you know, production out of these guys. Keyshawn Booty, for a guy who talks smack about his offensive coordinator

Starting point is 00:13:57 and for a guy that was saying it was disrespectful for the Cardinals to play man coverage on them right off the bat. He was targeted five times, two catches, one for 16, one for three. These guys aren't helping the offense. They're not helping their young quarterback. And frankly, you know, no teams are afraid of them as well they shouldn't be. Yeah, without question. I think right now in terms of weapons around Drake May, that arsenal, it's not just depleted.

Starting point is 00:14:32 It's pretty much barren right now of people that can consistently make plays. And that's a problem when you have a young quarterback whose skill set you're trying to maximize. And maybe one of the reasons why this coaching staff is hesitant to put the game in his hands because it's not necessarily that they don't have a lot of confidence in Drake it's the weapons around him that could potentially get him injured or could potentially derail some of the progress that he's made and that leads me quite nicely into my final question for you on the offensive side of the ball today Steve how would you grade Drake's performance this week yeah I, I thought Drake was good.

Starting point is 00:15:06 I thought the two best players on the roster on Sunday were Drake and Christian Gonzalez, and I know we'll get into him in a later segment. But, you know, again, you look at what Drake has to deal with. You know, a poor offensive line, poor wide receivers. I didn't mention the tight ends when we talked about skill position guys. I thought you mentioned, you know, you hit the nail on the head. They didn't have a great game on Sunday. But, again, you know, when drake targeted him they came through between the two of

Starting point is 00:15:50 them um they were targeted seven times made seven catches for i think it was 63 yards combined it wasn't their best day by far but you know i not, with all the myriad of problems the offense has, I'm not pointing no fingers at the tight ends. Oh, no, definitely not. No, they've been one of the very few bright spots in terms of positional groups this year, but as disappointing as the offensive output was on Sunday, the defensive effort may even be more disappointing. This was a unit last year, folks, that ranked ninth in overall DVOA. They're ranked 30th this season. What's the reason for the regression? And do we have clues into why this team is not playing up to the level we expected?

Starting point is 00:16:37 Were those clues evident during Sunday's performance against the Cardinals? Steve is going to provide his grades on the defense when we return here on Locked On Patriots, a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team, every day. Locked On listeners, get ready to tackle NFL action with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Because right now, new customers can bet $5 and get $150 in bonus bets if you win.

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Starting point is 00:17:45 Locked on, listeners. It's that time of year. The college football playoff is back. And with the newly expanded 12-team format, it's guaranteed to be bigger and better than ever, bringing you all the hard-hitting and high-flying excitement that you love. TNT sports coverage of the college football playoff begins December 21st, starting with the college football playoff kickoff show presented by AT&T at 11 a.m. Eastern. That leads into our first matchup, the Southern Methodist University Mustangs

Starting point is 00:18:15 battling the Penn State Nittany Lions at noon. Then the Clemson Tigers look to upset the Texas Longhorns in a showdown at 4 p.m. Eastern. Don't miss a moment of the action. Watch the college football playoff presented by Allstate live on TNT, TruTV, TBS, and Max. Patriots fans, thank you once again for joining us here today on Locked on Patriots. And joining me is my Patriots bison, our Patriots professor, Steve Balistrieri

Starting point is 00:18:46 of batsfans.com, providing his weekly grade report here for your New England Patriots who suffered a 30-17 loss to the Arizona Cardinals on Sunday. Patriots now sit at 3-11 and as you can expect, it is not a pretty sight, folks. This is not a pretty report card to write, but I think Steve did a masterful job in trying to capture the very essence of Patriots Nation right now. Steve, we started off the pod today by talking about the offense and their shortcomings, but this defensive unit, Steve, has really regressed from the one that we saw last year. Now, I understand there's a turnover in head coach. There are circumstances surrounding this defense that would explain a regression. Christian Barmore was out for a number of games with blood clots. You

Starting point is 00:19:30 did not see that one coming. That clearly hurt the defensive front. The middle part of this defense is missing Juwan Bentley very much. He's their defensive captain, and for a good portion of the season, Jabril Peppers did not see action on the field due to off-field issues. So there are circumstances surrounding this club that do let you understand why there is a regression. But one thing that keeps standing out to me is guys like your guy, Anthony Jennings, guys like Jelani Tavai, Daniel Laquale, Kyle Duggar. These are all players that played at a high or optimal level last year, and they haven't shown that same type of prowess. So let's start with the defensive line in this game because they were gashed once again. Cardinals running for 163 yards on 32 carries.

Starting point is 00:20:16 How would you grade this defensive front? And I think a better question would be not to give anything away, but what went wrong on Sunday? Well, I, you know, I thought the Cardinals on the line of scrimmage offensively, um, they, they were getting those blocks and, you know, and it wasn't anything fancy or they weren't throwing a lot of wrinkles at them. I mean, they just ran the football right at the Patriots. And, you know, I thought that guys like Gottschall and Barmore didn't have a great day. I mean, they were rated out as a D. And because, you know, your opponent is running the ball for 163 yards on you, including a 53-yard run.

Starting point is 00:21:07 And from James Conner, who had a great game. You know, I thought the Patriots would be much, much better at that this week because, you know, there's not a ton of motion like we saw with the Rams and the Dolphins. They were just getting beat. The tackling was poor. Too many broken tackles, broken tackles, excuse me.

Starting point is 00:21:47 Just bad positioning and just bad production. They didn't handle their gaps well. I thought they got pushed around far too much in this game. I'm glad you mentioned them being pushed around far too much in this game because the linebackers, in addition to the defensive line, did not help that cause. They certainly did not do their part to help this defensive line. Weren't able to set the edge. The Cardinals were 10 of 15 on third down as opposed to the Patriots being 0 for 6. So you want to talk about a contrast, folks, and the reason why Arizona was so successful

Starting point is 00:22:25 and New England was so futile on Sunday. Take a look at that stat. I think that might be the key to why this game unfolded the way it did at State Farm Stadium. But when you look at the linebackers' performance, obviously we talked about the edge. Poor linebacker play, I thought, was directly responsible for James Conner's touchdown after the interception. the edge uh linebacker poor linebacker play i thought was directly responsible uh for james

Starting point is 00:22:45 connor's touchdown after the interception um how do you feel about the linebackers in this game and uh again i sound like a broken record but what went wrong for this unit on sunday yeah again i think everything went wrong um you know uh anthony jennings is one of the best in the league at setting the edge. He had a horrible game on Sunday. You know, they did a really poor job of setting the edge, I thought, and run support. Again, so many missed tackles. And when your guys like Jennings, Tavai, Taki Taki,

Starting point is 00:23:26 are all getting gashed in there, I mean, you know, what are your answers? You know, you can't replace all of them because you just don't have the numbers. And it was just a horrible game for them. Not only did they fail to set the edge and support the running game, zero sacks, zero quarterback hits. Kyle Amari, I mean, yeah, they got a pressure on him a couple of times, but for the most part, he was far, far too comfortable in the pocket on Sunday. Now, Jennings got, you know, flags for roughing the quarterback,

Starting point is 00:24:06 which would have been an interception. That was a bad call. I mean, I just thought that wasn't roughing the passer. But you have to overcome that stuff, you know. That wasn't the reason they lost. I mean, it would have helped them getting that pick at that particular time. But, you know, good teams overcome stuff like that. And they didn't.

Starting point is 00:24:31 And I thought it was a really poor effort by the linebackers. We'd like to end on a high note. We ended the last segment on a high note. We'll end this one on a high note. I'm not giving the entire secondary glowing grades, but when you're Christian Gonzalez and you're called upon to take out a team's top receiver in this case rookie marvin harrison jr once again another bona fide strong performance from the kid uh he is clearly the real deal steve and i think probably one of the reasons why there was a little bit of life

Starting point is 00:25:03 in the curve when it came to the overall grade for the defense. Yeah. Well, the secondary rated a C because of Christian Gonzalez. Yeah. You know, he was fantastic. I thought he did a great job on Marvin Harrison Jr.

Starting point is 00:25:19 And I was really pleased to see that Kyla Murray recognized that too. After the game, he went up to Gonzalez, and he kept telling him, I'm a big fan, bro. I'm a big fan, big fella. Keep doing what you're doing. I mean, he could see it. That was not an area that he was able to work in. Obviously, he wanted to go to Harrison, you know, quite a bit.

Starting point is 00:25:48 He has all season, but they weren't able to do that very often on Sunday, and you have to tip your cap to, you know, Christian Gonzalez on that aspect for sure. Oh, without any question. I mean, Gonzalez is clearly showing, as I said on Monday here on Locked On Patriots, a wisdom and a poise beyond his years. Christian Gonzalez is the real deal and someone to be very excited about if you're the New England Patriots. So overall, Steve, a subpar day for the offense, a subpar day for the defense.

Starting point is 00:26:20 But I don't think we've reached the group that had the roughest day on Sunday yet. And that is the coaches. To use an academic term, Steve, the coaches have already been on probation pretty much all season long. You graded them as needing a timeout. In the immortal words of Dean Vernon Wormer, I'm going to take that a step further and say these coaches are now on double secret probation.

Starting point is 00:26:43 Can they get out of it? Not with the opponent they've got coming up on Sunday. Steve and I are going to talk about the coaching staff, how they grade out, and what could potentially be done to resurrect what was an awful day for the Patriots coaching staff when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast wraps up right here on the Locked On Podcast Network, your team, every day.

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Starting point is 00:29:20 Go to rocketmoney.com slash locked on today. That's rocketmoney.com slash LockedOn today. That's RocketMoney.com slash LockedOn. RocketMoney.com slash LockedOn. That's fans. Thank you once again for joining us here today on LockedOn Patriots and for making us your

Starting point is 00:29:40 first listen each and every day. A special tip of the cap to all of you everydayers that start your Patriots coverage every day with Locked On Patriots. Joining me here today is our good friend, my Patriots Paisan, Steve Balistrieri. He is our resident voice of reason. He is also our Patriots professor. And Steve, you have delivered, I think, a tour de force

Starting point is 00:30:00 when it comes to this Patriots grade report this week. Very honest, very candid, very accurate. One thing that struck my eye, though, was the grade that you gave the coaching staff. Steve graded the coaching staff not as an A through an F, not an incomplete, but you graded them as they need a timeout. Well, we're both Animal House fans. I think everybody that tunes in on Wednesday looks forward to at least one Animal House reference. I quote the great Dean Vernon Wormer, who said that in times of crisis, the dean has unlimited powers.

Starting point is 00:30:37 And the dean is taking these unlimited powers today to put this coaching staff on double secret probation. One slip up in this fraternity of theirs has had it in Foxborough. Steve, when you look at this coaching staff and you say that they need a timeout, first of all, what was your thought process in that? What did you mean by that? And what do you expect to come out of said timeout for this Patriots coaching staff. Well, it was funny because I was writing, I wrote this part because I wanted to do it fresh. I usually do my report card on Monday, but on Sunday night, I said,

Starting point is 00:31:19 this has to go in. I want to get my thoughts on the coaching staff because after Gerard Mayles press conference after the game, you know, he said what I thought was throwing his offensive coordinator under the bus. I mean, and I was like, if I was sitting there right now, I would feel so uncomfortable because you just don't see that. It's true. I mean, I'm not going to say it never happens, but it almost never happens when you see, you know, a head coach throw one of his coordinators under the bus. And I felt so cringy. Like I was like, I can't believe I just saw that.

Starting point is 00:32:11 And, you know, it turned out that after they had that awful sequence, third and one, fourth and one, and they failed to run the ball both times after the game, Phil Perry was the one that asked your rod. Did you think of running, you know, Drake may in there because he's, I mean,

Starting point is 00:32:32 he's got good size. He's 225 pounds. He's very athletic. I mean, we've all seen what he can do. And, and Mayo said, you said that I did.

Starting point is 00:32:43 And I was like, Oh Lord, no, no, no. We can you said that. I didn't. And I was like, oh, Lord, no, no, no. We can't have that. And then, you know, he tried to back. I think he caught himself. He was like, you know, he tried to backstroke a little on that one. But, I mean, the damage was done. A little bit.

Starting point is 00:33:06 Yeah, it was done. And it felt so cringy i mean yeah um and then you know he talked about the run defense and he said well if you toss out that 53 yard run you know we didn't do a bad job in the running game and i'm thinking to myself if your run defense is solid all year long and you have a game like this you can play that card and say yeah it was an outlier throw that one out and you know we we didn't have as bad a game as you know it looks on paper but your run defense has been gashed for 14 games, right? So well said. Yeah. And it's like you can't throw it out at this point.

Starting point is 00:33:51 It was just so bad. And I'm thinking, you know what? You guys need to take a day off and sit down with a coaching staff, and you need to get some stuff straight you know that was before i even heard that they did that do exactly that on monday i don't know if that was fruitful or not but i would imagine there was some raised voices in there on monday absolutely without any question and yes indeed the new england patriots were taking were taking Monday canceled media availability in the afternoon to kind of regroup, take a look inward, and then try to get back out on the field on Wednesday added distraction to a 3-11 football team is a detriment. It does a disservice to the players who are trying to move forward.

Starting point is 00:34:52 It does a disservice to all of the coaches, Gerard Mayo himself included, trying to move forward and show that they are making progress and you can build on things moving into 2025. There's a lot to unpack here, not to mention the GM and the job that he's done and how you want to approach going into year two under Elliott Wolfe. These are all questions that need to be addressed, and I think in a lot of ways that timeout was desperately needed. So we'll see if that double secret probation helped or it hindered. Time will tell, and the product on the field will be the ultimate telltale sign. But Steve, that product on the field can't be expected to be too robust this week because

Starting point is 00:35:30 Buffalo seems poised for a deep run into the playoffs. They're playing at an optimal level. The Patriots, how shall we say, are not. I know the coaching staff needs to show something to its fan base, needs to show something to its players that they are moving in the right direction. But is it even possible or feasible to think that we're going to see that type of improvement this week against a very formidable opponent in the Buffalo Bills? Well, if I'm Gerard Mayo and the staff, I'd be calling up the meteorological guys in Buffalo and say, please tell me there's going to be a blizzard with like five feet of snow on

Starting point is 00:36:10 Sunday, because that's the only way they're going to keep this game close. I mean, let's face it Buffalo right now. When, when I watched them shred Detroit, I was like, and granted right now,

Starting point is 00:36:24 Detroit is, you know, they're pretty banged up defensively. But, I mean, you put up 48 points on the Lions, and I'm like, and I'm watching that, and I'm thinking to myself, this looks really bad for the Patriots next week because they're going to Buffalo. And, you know, right now they're clicking on all cylinders. They just look fantastic.

Starting point is 00:36:49 Josh Allen is playing lights out right now. And, I mean, if the weather is really good, I think, I hate to say it, but he'll put a 50-burger up on the Patriots. I think it's a possibility. And with the way Josh is playing right now, all bets are off when it comes to whether or not the Patriots. I think it's a possibility. And with the way Josh is playing right now, all bets are off when it comes to whether or not the Patriots are going to show any signs of life. Obviously, I don't think there's too many,

Starting point is 00:37:12 if anyone out there, that's predicting the Patriots even have a shot to win this, let alone actually go out and do it. But the one thing that I am looking for, and this is something that any team can do, whether they're being demoralized on the field or not, is not hang your head. Play solid and play through every single play.

Starting point is 00:37:29 If you're getting beat from pillar to post because your opponent has more talent, no one can fault you for that. You can't be faulted if you're the coaches. You can't be faulted if you're the players. You can only maximize the talent you have on the field. But if this team continues to beat itself, make unnecessary penalties in key situations,

Starting point is 00:37:48 if they're losing the turnover battle, they've been better lately, folks, but not quite where they need to be, that's going to be better. And of course, if these guys are not playing hard, they're taking plays off, or they're starting to look like they're planning their winter vacation rather than actually get the job done on the field that's

Starting point is 00:38:05 going to be a dark mark on the coaching staff and unfortunately then these questions surrounding them right now are going to get louder and louder and louder and the cries for a new regime to come in are going to get very very palpable here in New England so let's hope that Steve's time out that he prescribed for the New England Patriots yields some positive results on the field. And folks, with that, here on Locked On Patriots, we are now ready to turn our attention to the Buffalo Bills. And don't miss tomorrow's show because we are crossing the streams with our good friend Joe Marino, one of our favorite crossovers of the year. It's been so long since Joe and I have shared the microphone, and we got a lot to say. So keep it right here and locked in to Locked On Patriots for tomorrow's crossover between Locked On Patriots and Locked On Bills.

Starting point is 00:38:51 But in the meantime, I want to give a major tip of the cap and heartfelt thanks to my good friend Steve Balistrieri, who is always there for the handoff whenever I need him, folks. Comes through with spot-on analysis and level-headed wisdom and counsel that only he can provide. I do want to give a major tip of the cap and a major thank you I need him, folks, comes through with spot-on analysis and level-headed wisdom and counsel that only he can provide. I do want to give a major tip of the cap and a major thank you to all of you everydayers out there in Lockdown Patriots land that continue to make us a part of your daily Patriots coverage.

Starting point is 00:39:16 I'm Mike DeBate, and I remind all of you to stay safe, to stay well, to be the change you wish to see in the world. On behalf of my good friend, Steve Malastrieri, have a great day, folks. And we'll see you back here again tomorrow on Locked on Patriots.

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