Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - New England Patriots: Key Takeaways from Loss to Philadelphia Eagles, Mac Jones, Fourth-Down Decisions?

Starting point is 00:00:00 Mack Jones is blaming himself for the New England Patriots' season-opening loss to the Philadelphia Eagles, but was it really Mack's fault? We're going to talk about that and more today, so stay 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 and of course your first listen every day. Remember subscribe and follow to Lockdown Patriots

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Starting point is 00:01:24 it is Monday it is hashtag mailbag Monday and we will be getting to a mailbag question a little bit later in today's episode but it is hashtag locked on Murph Monday and that means a visit from the legendary man himself Thomas Murphy of e2gsports.com thank you for coming to me in friendship today it's on Murph pleasure to be here Michael pleasure to be here, Michael. Pleasure to be here. I wish it was a victory Monday. It should have been a victory Monday.

Starting point is 00:01:50 I'm not happy, people. I'm not happy. I'm not, I'm not, I don't feel morally fulfilled. And Murph, let's not waste any time. Let's get right into it. The New England Patriots dropping their season opener to the defending NFC champions 25 to 20. Again, if that sounds a little familiar, I predict a 24 to 20 Eagles victory here last week on the Locked On Crossover episode between ourselves and Locked On Eagles. Murph, this one

Starting point is 00:02:18 played out a lot how I anticipated, believe it or not. I thought the Patriots would have a puncher's chance, but I thought in the end it would be the Eagles either dominating a certain point of the game or just Patriots being unable to execute in certain moments to get the victory. And I think we saw that yesterday throughout. But you are the prognosticator of prognosticators, my friend, when it comes to predicting a Patriots victory and what it takes to get there. Evidenced by your weekly column column the monster keys to victory now Murph we all read the monster keys because as I've said here many times you read the keys you go to the top you don't read the keys

Starting point is 00:02:57 you're never heard from again the New England Patriots turned some of your monster keys yesterday but they did not turn them all what went right and what went wrong for the New England Patriots turned some of your monster keys yesterday, but they did not turn them all. What went right and what went wrong for the New England Patriots? And please tell us why, if they just listened to your keys to begin with, we'd probably be celebrating that Victory Monday right now. Well, I mean, every week I do what I call the weeklies. And two of the weeklies that were ignored over, over the weekend, because they're weekly. That's how important they are. People, you cut them every week was own third down and, uh, the Patriots did not own third down, did not own fourth down in any way, shape,

Starting point is 00:03:36 or form. There were five of 15 on third down and one of four on fourth down. We'll get, we'll get into that in a little bit later. And of course, you know, when they turned a key, they turned keys and then they turned them off. You know, they were hitting the soft underbelly of this Eagles defense is the middle of the field. And I called for Hunter Henry, Bourne, Juju, and Douglas to exploit the middle of the field. And I called for Hunter Henry, Bourne, Juju, and Douglas to exploit the middle of the field. Now, when this happened, they moved the ball. When they went away from that, they didn't. And we were forced to get rookies to get two feet down in bounds. And we all know how that turned out. it was it was it was pretty and yet it was not

Starting point is 00:04:27 pretty i i liked i liked the way that they turned the keys that they did turn you know they you know i keep mac upright and and looking pretty the line did a fantastic job i mean hats off to these kids for um you know coming together there were two rookies out there and, and they, they, they balled their asses off. So, you know, they, they did keep Mack upright and gave him time even later on when he had to take deeper shots down the field, the shots where, where they got into the end zone. They were a little further out. They were in the, the, the orange zone or the pink zone, you know, they weren't down in close, although they did get down in close at the end of the

Starting point is 00:05:10 game. And, uh, and Mac was able to, to find his targets and, uh, and things were looking good, but the, the key that I cut every week that has to be won every week for this team to win is the turnover battle. And that did not win. In the first five drives of this game, the first one started with a pick six. Second one was a fumble that led to another touchdown. And three consecutive three and outs.

Starting point is 00:05:44 Okay, so there the two the two Turner was right there. That puts you down 16 to nothing. And the Patriots could not dig out of that hole. So that's the number one key this week that they ignored is winning the turnover battle. Now the Patriots defense, uh, tried to get them back into, into that, that battle and at least, uh, come up even, you know, with a nice little punch out there at the end to give Mack and the boys, you know, one more shot to get this done.

Starting point is 00:06:11 And they just, they couldn't get it done. And that's what it comes down to. 16 points off of turnovers and, you know, a 16 point hole, you know, greatly off of turnovers that they couldn't dig out of yeah without any question and i'm glad that you mentioned the two rookie big round men that we love to talk about here because i show a lot of love to the offensive line uh in my postcast episode city so atonio mafi coming in and i think playing meaningful minutes uh and doing i think a very good job especially so yeah exactly working after

Starting point is 00:06:46 working out at right tackle all spring long and to just nope you're you're gonna be you're gonna be at the guard today we're gonna kick you back inside this kid has a really innate ability to drive his defenders backward he can handle the stunts he can handle the twists that come with playing the guard position to me i think that's going to make him a regular part of the rotation. A lot of ways, it's typically Patriot to bring a kid in that's so versatile that he can play all four spots on that line and really do it well if he's needed to do so. So very good when it comes to City. So Antonio Mafi, there was the questionable holding call.

Starting point is 00:07:21 I think a lot of people think that might have been a little... Yeah. Why is that only holding when the Patriots fall on somebody? Thank you very much. Yeah. I mean, I scream at my TV every week watching other games. Where's the flag? Where's the flag?

Starting point is 00:07:37 Where's the flag? Because it happens to other tackles. Other guards end up pinning a guy down to the ground, you know, just inadvertently falling on them. But every time a Patriot does it, that flag comes out. Right. Absolutely. I hate being that guy. Yeah. Again. Yeah. I mean, if you want to call his hand placement a little suspect or something that should keep an eye on, or at least be working on. Yeah. I think the Patriots are going to continue to work with him on that. But if anybody was worried about this guy's movement and balance combined at the same time, I think he showed a great amount of both yesterday and really proved that he's coming into not only his body type,

Starting point is 00:08:14 but also coming into playing these positions at a pro level. So great stuff from the offensive line and a lot of love to Adrian Clem. I think his fellow had this team very well prepared, especially for all the motions and the backfield activity that was going on yesterday. They did not look like they were surprised by what was going on around them. Completely different from what we saw last year from the England Patriots. Yeah, that goes to another key, limiting the laundry. That's another key that I have up every single week. And the Patriots ended up getting seven penalties on the day for 50 yards. And that's just a little

Starting point is 00:08:51 bit too much. Absolutely. Without question. It is just a little bit too much at that point. Murph, on the defensive side of the ball, the Patriots clearly tried to take Jalen Hurts out of this game. A Bill Belichick coach defense always loves to take away what you do best. I thought they did a very good job of containing Jalen yesterday. This is an explosive quarterback. Bottom line, that defensive effort is the reason why they were in this game the whole game through. You mentioned guys like Jabril Peppers getting into the ball and being able to knock it loose from Jalen Hurts late in the game, giving the Patriots that puncher's chance.

Starting point is 00:09:28 We hear so much about that front seven and how formidable they are, and they were yesterday. But how about this secondary getting in and getting strategic blitzes from the second and third level of the defense? That really impressed me yesterday. It really was. We saw Christian Gonzalez get in there for a corner blitz. Oh, my God. Corner blitz. Love it.

Starting point is 00:09:50 I lost my mind. And it was beautiful. What they did yesterday was fantastic. They bracketed their best players. They kept them from making big plays, which was something that plagued this Patriots defense last year. They would play a fantastic game and then get beat deep. And the Patriots didn't allow that. It was a fantastic game plan by Bill and Gerard Mayo

Starting point is 00:10:18 and everybody on that side of the ball. It was a beautiful thing to watch. They gave them a chance to do it. You keep talking about this C-team thing. I don't get that. I don't understand that. They were healthy and out there. If it wasn't for Brian Cox, Brian Cox is older than I am,

Starting point is 00:10:38 and going out there and making a couple of stops late, we might be having a different conversation here today. Yeah, I know. And to me, I think it belittles what the patriots were able to do now look does this automatically vault them into immediate contention no absolutely not i mean we've seen several times before when we go back to the old bill parcells ism you are what your record says you are right patriots are an o and one team right now but their ability to still hang into a game where a team could have very easily folded after a 16-0 deficit,

Starting point is 00:11:10 I think showed a lot of gumption. I mean, not for nothing. One of the things that stood out to me so much is the fact that this Eagles team, one of the best offensive teams in the NFL in 2022 and should be getting better as they go along, scored two touchdowns yesterday. One was a pick six and one was on a short field. You know, here's the ball. You know, so I don't want to hear it.

Starting point is 00:11:39 You know, for the rest of the time, this Patriots defense did exactly what it does best, did exactly what it's best did exactly what it's done best for 20 years of this dynasty where you force it flip the field there's there's another one fantastic job by our punter yesterday and force this team to march down the field until they try they made a mistake and and they they you know they're all right I'm at a loss and see that's the goal here, folks. We wanted to get them a little green today, and we already have done that. And heading into our next segment, folks, it's going to get even more green.

Starting point is 00:12:11 But you're absolutely right. When you take a look at the tail of the tape, folks, the Wingland Patriots gained 382 total yards on offense. Philadelphia, 251 in total yards. Now the Patriots offensively out gaining their Philadelphia counterparts but more impressive the defense able to hold that Philadelphia offense potentially explosive offense to under 300 total yards on the day that's a win no matter how you slice it so you look at the positives and a lot of people are still feeling pretty good about this loss even

Starting point is 00:12:43 though it's a loss the Patriots took it to the defending NFC champions people are still feeling pretty good about this loss, even though it's a loss. The Patriots took it to the defending NFC champions, and they're feeling pretty good about themselves, all except for one guy, and that is your quarterback, Mack Jones, who stood at the podium last night and looked very angry and despondent at himself at times, saying, quote, unquote, the defense gave me the ball a couple of times and I couldn't get it done. That's not exactly something you really want to hear from your quarterback. How much of the blame deserves to be placed on Mac Jones' shoulders?

Starting point is 00:13:12 Is it deserved? And is it a concern that the quarterback seems so intent on taking so much of the blame on himself? Murph and I are going to answer all of those questions and more when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues right here on the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Locked On listeners, these days every new potential hire can feel like a high-stakes wager for your small business. You want to be 100% certain that you have access to the best qualified candidates available. That's why you have to check out LinkedIn Jobs. LinkedIn Jobs helps find the right people for your team faster and for free.

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Starting point is 00:14:22 That's linkedin. slash LockedOnNFL to post your job for free. Terms and conditions apply. Patriots fans, thank you once again for making LockedOnPatriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage and hopefully your first listen every day. If the postcast got you

Starting point is 00:14:41 started here on Monday, you are definitely bringing the first day of the week into full circle with our friend Murph. Thomas Murphy of E2G Sports joining me on hashtag LockedOnMurphMonday. And don't worry, folks. We're going to get to Mailbag Monday in just a moment. The overwhelming

Starting point is 00:14:58 majority question from the mailbag is going to be answered in this next segment. So please stay locked in to Locked On Patriots. But Murph, in the previous segment, we talked about your monster keys, which were turned, which weren't. Protection of the football, third down efficiency, as much as we like to point the finger and to slice up blame pie.

Starting point is 00:15:18 There was enough of that going on yesterday. We'll read it where we in the media, we fans, did not really have the opportunity to do so. After the game, Mac Jones got up on the media, we fans, did not really have the opportunity to do so. After the game, Mac Jones got up on the podium, spoke to members of the media in the bowels of Gillette Stadium, and basically took 100% of the blame for this loss on his shoulders. A couple of times saying, the defense gave me the opportunity to get it done, and I didn't get it done.

Starting point is 00:15:41 Now, it sounds like he's trying to take a lot of the blame on himself and deflect it from his teammates, essentially shield them from having to explain why they either didn't take care of the football well enough, or maybe didn't make a play here and there, or made a bad penalty. There was a lot that deserved to be placed on Mac Jones' shoulders, but I also thought he showed a lot of promise and a lot of growth from what we saw in the previous year. Murph, when you look at the situation, first of all, how much of the blame pie do you think deserves to be put on Mac Jones's plate? And is his willingness or his stubbornness, which is what a lot of people are calling

Starting point is 00:16:19 it, to take that much of the blame on himself a cause for concern heading into week two and beyond? No, I don't consider it a cause for concern. I consider it fantastic leadership. Okay. He went out, he made mistakes. It wasn't a perfect game, but this is what you want from a leader. You know, he had an opportunity to get the job done himself and it didn't happen. Uh, he deflected, um, you know, blame from, you know, young guys like Keishon Butte, who, who just did not get that second foot down. He, uh, he deflected blame from his coaching staff, um, that did not make the right decisions in my opinion. Um, he, he deflected blame from, uh, his, his new running back who, you know, didn't put the ball on the ground all last year.

Starting point is 00:17:10 And his first opportunity to do something, he put the ball on the ground and gave the Eagles a short field. This is leadership. This is not stubbornness, okay? Everything that Mac Jones said is uh yesterday afternoon i applaud i think in a lot of ways you make a lot of good points um obviously as a quarterback as a team leader you don't want to see quarterbacks get up there and blame everyone else for losses no how many times have we seen that in other organizations i'm not going to mention any names but we've seen it happen to very highly touted quarterbacks.

Starting point is 00:17:47 How you doing, Peyton? I've never said that, not me. But bottom line, we have seen it before, and we've seen it with very highly touted Hall of Fame caliber or Hall of Fame quarterbacks that have done this. You very seldom, you never saw it come from Tom Brady. You don't see it come from people within this patriots organization it's just ingrained in the brady belichick craft triumvirate way of doing

Starting point is 00:18:12 things that it's just not done here um and mac jones takes that month on himself so him getting up there and trying to deflect all of the blame from his teammates and put it on his shoulders is a sign of good leadership where it concerned me a little bit and maybe you can help talk me off less here because i'm not trying to be negative or come at mac or anything i was very impressed by what i saw from mac jones on the field yesterday including leading the turnaround completing 12 consecutive passes during those two touchdown drives that really got this team not only back in the game but rejuvenated stadium exactly and bottom line folks i mean you have to be impressed by what you saw so in no way am i trying to

Starting point is 00:18:52 nitpick a negative from mac but you also don't want to hear things like i couldn't get it done at the podium um do you think that this might be messing with his confidence at all or do you think this is simply a situation where he's just trying to move forward? He's just trying to move forward. That's it. I don't think, I think that was a, a, a misstep on his part. I didn't get it done. I don't, I don't want to, you know, couldn't is probably a bad word that that's going to

Starting point is 00:19:19 follow him around a little bit. And I think he'd like to take that word back. I, I, Mac Jones knows that he could have got it done. If I told you, if I told you on, on Sunday morning that Mac Jones was going to throw for 306 yards and three touchdowns, you would have been feeling pretty good about Mac Jones. And you probably wouldn't laugh your ass off at me. You really would. Everybody out there would have just like, what are you nuts Murph? If If he if he throws 225 yards and gets gets one score, that that'd be amazing. But no, he went for 300.

Starting point is 00:19:52 One of the one of the things in this is a letdown from for me. One of the keys that I had was to get Ramondre Stevenson going early. And that didn't happen. You know, the Patriots struggled on the ground, but they adapted. They immediately adapted and they started to go to the air and Matt slung it. It's going to happen. You know, it's really difficult to win a football game. Go look it up folks. Uh, when you, when your quarterback throws the ball 50 times. Okay. I'm pretty sure. I'm pretty sure the only person in the, in NFL history that has a winning record when they've thrown a ball 50 times is Thomas Brady. Exactly. And our good friend Matt Chatham said last night via Twitter, and I believe he reiterated it again on Monday,

Starting point is 00:20:39 54 attempts to get to 300-plus yards is not what anybody wants. Least of all, Matt Jones, you don't want to have to throw the ball that many times to get to a 300 yard game a lot of good things that came from that obviously much more effective in the red zone than they were a year ago i mean they really had nowhere to go but up this is a team ranked 32nd yeah this is a team that ranked 32nd in the league last year in that department so clearly the o'brien having a major impact on the way the patriots approach the red zone inside 20 but where you want to see the improvement from mac jones folks is those got to have it situations the third down and the fourth down conversions that's where you want to see growth that's where you want to see that next level be taken mac is showing that

Starting point is 00:21:21 i believe he can do it with better execution right a little more practice, a little more comfort. He's going to get there to that level. They're still not where they need to be, but I think they took major strides into getting there in their performance on Sunday. And I think Mac Jones is a huge reason why they did. That's it. And I said early during the game yesterday, I tweeted out, you guys can go find it and take me to task for it. If you want that, you know, the, the early struggles that they had in the first quarter were definitely due to these guys, not getting enough time together in the preseason. We did not see it. Um, the, uh, the offensive line configured, that was the first time these guys had played together. It was the first

Starting point is 00:22:01 time they lined up next to, to one another and actually hit the people in front of them. This was the first time that, you know, in game action that there was any chance for these guys to get into any rhythm. Now, it worked out and we saw that in the second quarter and then people got cute and decided to go away from what I told them to do. And, you know, things got a little bit hectic there at the end. And, of course, you know, there's the coaching decisions, which I know Michael is going to bring up in a moment. Absolutely.

Starting point is 00:22:34 And, folks, yeah, I think that leads us quite nicely into how we're going to wrap up today's show in talking about a couple of controversial coaching decisions that Bill Belichick himself was asked about, not just in the post-game remarks he made to the media on Sunday, but once again on Monday morning. Folks, we're going to talk about those controversial decisions, 4th and 3, and 4th and 17, when this episode of the Locked On Patriots Podcast wraps up right here on the Locked On Podcast

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Starting point is 00:23:50 a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. Don't forget, coverage continues here on the Locked On Patriots podcast. Still going to continue to break down all the ins and outs, ups and downs of the Patriots' week one loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. How is it going to set them up to be able to rebound from a tough Miami Dolphins team that's going to come in here on Sunday night?

Starting point is 00:24:12 We're going to start getting ready for those Dolphins in a little bit, but not before we take our leave of the Eagles. And we're not quite ready to do that just yet. Here to help us wade through the mailbag, Patriots fans don't forget today is still hashtag mailbag Monday here on Lockdown Patriots is our good friend Thomas Murphy of E2G Sports. So Murph, Lockdown Murph Monday is a staple here on the Lockdown Patriots podcast, but so is Mailbag Monday. So we're going to combine those efforts now and we're going to dive into the mailbag. And folks, the overwhelming majority of you that submitted late-night questions

Starting point is 00:24:48 want to understand a little bit why the New England Patriots were not on the winning end of what ended up being a very tight game in Foxborough yesterday. Why didn't Bill Belichick kick the field goal on 4th and 3? Why did he go for it on 4th and 17 and not punt the ball away? Well, Murph, these were questions that Bill Belichick was asked, both on Sunday night and again on Monday morning. Bill Belichick doubling down on his decision on fourth and three to not kick the field goal and go for it,

Starting point is 00:25:20 but did say that maybe in hindsight that fourth and 17 might have been better as a punt. Murph, when you look at these situations, you always do so with a clear head, with a level head, but you also do so with an aggression that Patriots fans admire. So we want to hear the monster opinion. We want to hear what you feel should have been done, could have been done, and was done by Bill Belichick. Please help our mailbag submitters feel a little bit better about these decisions, my friend. No, I'm not going to make them feel better because I know

Starting point is 00:25:49 they feel the same way that I do. Take the points. You always take the points. Okay. Until you have no other choice in the matter, you take the points. All right. I applaud the going for two there and the garbage holding call that went along with it. But when you're trailing there and you still have as much time on the clock as Bill Belichick has, and you have a defense that has been as stout as that defense has been all day, I don't think that this... There was a constant rotation in defense last night, a constant rotation. It was kind of like Little League.

Starting point is 00:26:27 Everybody gets to play, you know, even the rookies. Every rookie that they drafted dressed and played yesterday, with the exception of Mr. Bolden, who's on IR. But, no, you take the points, and you had that much time left on the clock. You punt the ball away and you dance with the one who brung you. And that's this defense. Bill screwed up. I don't want to hear anything else. 70%. We talked earlier. I give 30% to Mac Davis, I mean, Mac Davis, to Mac Jones. And hey, that's the first time in three years that I made that, that mistake, uh, to, to Mac Jones and 60% of it is going to go on, um, is going to go on this, this, these two

Starting point is 00:27:15 decisions to, to go forward on fourth and not to punt the ball away. Uh, I, I don't understand it. I never will. Uh, when you have points sitting in front of you and you don't take them, you sit there. The only time that you go for it on fourth down, in my opinion, I know I'm an old man, is when you have no choice and you're chasing and the clock is winding down.

Starting point is 00:27:36 The only time that you turn your back on three gimme points, which is what they are, I could have gone out there and kicked that field goal with my right or my left foot. And, uh, and you know, when the final drive happens, you're only looking to get in the field goal distance, not, uh, not have to score a touchdown. Yeah, without question. I, and you look at both of these situations and fourth quarter toots one four from the eagles 48 talking about the fourth and 17 now penalty backs you up you're back up against the wall that defense has been getting it done all game long and they had the eagles on the ropes our good friends over at espn analytics did a few numbers crunching exercises with regard to these

Starting point is 00:28:23 and credit to mike reese who always finds these tweets out and lends a thicket of intellectual reason to everybody's and mike is the greatest and this is why he's the greatest according to espn analytics the win probability by punting in that situation is 12.7 percent by going for it which bill delachek did 11.4 percent so the analytics back it up not by much folks we're not talking overwhelming differences but it was a better move for the patriots to punt in that situation and belichick did really i think come clean with that on monday morning when they asked him on the greg hill show on weei he said i don't have any regrets on the fourth and three and we're going to get to that in just a second, folks. But fourth and 17, looking back on it,

Starting point is 00:29:09 quoting Belichick directly here, we had three timeouts. I might have punted that one. I don't know how much field position we could have gained, but fourth and 17 after the delay, that was tough. I think Bill Belichick acknowledged in that moment, he probably backed the wrong horse in a hasty decision that he felt he needed to make in that moment he probably backed the wrong horse in a hasty decision uh that he felt he needed to make in that moment so folks no one's infallible but Belichick doubling down actually tripling down on the fourth and three call to me this was a little bit more interesting uh because the strategy that you're talking about in terms of trying to get points when you're trailing 22 to 14 and you have 939 remaining on the clock there's still an awful lot of time you want to compile as many points and that you

Starting point is 00:29:52 possibly have or you want to try to compile as many points on the scoreboard that you can and you touched on this brilliantly murph you always take the points patriots did not do that is this belichick playing the percentages or is there a situation underlying where maybe you don't want to risk Chad Ryland in that situation? I don't think it's the latter. I don't think this is a kick that he couldn't make. Um, I, I, I not, not, not so much talking about that play. So, yeah, I agree. But I'm not sure that he wanted to put that kind of pressure on Ryland at that point in time. Fair point.

Starting point is 00:30:32 He's a rookie. He's got a huge leg. Yeah, he does. But not going for it when you were down there. I mean going for it when you're down there. Instead of kicking the field goal and taking that three points, I thought was a huge mistake.

Starting point is 00:30:49 And I do. I think it's because he didn't trust his fourth round pick. Yeah, and if that is indeed the case, folks, I mean, that's something to monitor because Patriots kickers tend to have the ice water running through the veins that seems to be a staple of the way this team

Starting point is 00:31:06 does business started with adam benetary under bill belichick uh then you know you go into stephen gustowski a couple of little hiccups along the way there and then the patriots settling on nick fulkin say what you will about nick always always had a nice day yesterday yeah i had a very nice day yesterday including a 50 yarder right down the bike right um yeah he's he's and no one is surprised by uh you know nick's success in tennessee or anywhere he would be uh they call them big kick nick for a reason and he is someone that does not shy away from the moment the moment never gets too big for him ryland i think at this point is a rookie and i do see your point. You don't want to ruin

Starting point is 00:31:45 the kid. And I talked a little bit about this last night during the postcast. There also is something to be said about the fact that they let go of a very competent, very clutch kicker in order to secure his services and anoint him the new star on this team. So he's got to step it up and he's going to be able to make these kicks. The Patriots have to put some sort of faith in him at some point and make him make these under pressure in inclement weather because these were the things we were told when the patriots traded up to draft chad rylan in the fourth round number 122 overall is that this kid clicks and whether what you need to do he could kick in the clutch he could perform well in inclement weather. And last night, two things that he was called upon to do, Patriots chose not to employ him in a single field goal attempt, folks.

Starting point is 00:32:31 Made both of his extra points, but not a single field goal attempt. So that's going to have to change. Who knows? Maybe it'll be a more calm night air experience when he kicks against the Dolphins this week. Field goals won this game for Philadelphia. They did. They did. And they have one of the best in the business in L.A. Field goals won this game for Philadelphia. They did. They did. And they have one of the best in the business in L.A.

Starting point is 00:32:47 doing that for them without any question. The Patriots still, I think, trying to find their footing with Chad Ryland. But ultimately, yeah, I think this one was a little bit more intriguing. Yeah, I had people bring up to me the fact that, you know, maybe Bill was going for it because Tom Brady was in the building and he felt a little added pressure. No. No, folks. He did what he thought was best for the team and he was wrong. He was wrong. Take the points.

Starting point is 00:33:20 Yeah. Bill Belichick is not coaching this game with any type of extra outside motivation all of that's been laid to rest now if tom were quarterbacking the eagles maybe you might be able to make a little bit of a point on that and you want to be able to stick it to your opponent especially when that opponent is someone you've played against for a long time we saw the cat and mouse game when the buccaneers came up here a couple of years ago but now there's no way that tom brady being honored in the building was factoring into bill belichick's decision whatsoever but uh i bet you bill saw him up there on the tower ringing the bell that was pretty good in the lighthouse um patriots doing a great job

Starting point is 00:33:58 honoring tom brady lighthouse i've ever seen though yeah but it is the biggest build a roof it's the biggest yeah it could be well if you. What the heck? Yeah. But it is the biggest. Can we build a roof? It's the biggest, yeah. It could be. Well, if you build a roof, it'll be even bigger. So that's good. You know what? Bigger lighthouses, bigger video screens. That's what we're all about here in New England.

Starting point is 00:34:13 It's just going to get bigger and bigger at Gillette Stadium. But hopefully, the Patriots will experience swelling in the wind column as opposed to in and around their surrounding playing area. But, Murph, what can I say? I appreciate you stopping by as you always do on Monday. Folks, thank you for overwhelmingly submitting the fourth and three and fourth and 17 questions for our Monday mailbag episode because you got Murph green and we love it.

Starting point is 00:34:40 So many people sent that question and we couldn't give credit to any one person. Yeah, exactly. They all came from Narnia or something. Somebody opened it, and boom, boom, boom. There they were. Everybody wanted to have a sit down. Absolutely. And it is the biggest question right now.

Starting point is 00:34:58 Everybody was lined up outside the Don's door waiting to get to see him, folks. And it's not even the day of his daughter's wedding. He's just here lending his wisdom and counsel because he is the Don of Locked On Patriots. And you always will be, my friend. So tip of the cap, nod to the gods to all of you submitters out there, but mostly to Don Murph over here for his wisdom and his counsel. Bud, it's always fun.

Starting point is 00:35:21 Mondays fly by here on Locked On Patriots. But don't worry, folks. I got a very sneaking suspicion Murph's going to be back to turn his keys later in the week. So keep a sharp eye out for that right here on Locked On Patriots. But in the meantime, Bud, please enlighten us as to what you've got cooking in Murph's kitchen, whether it comes to Pats coverage, Sox coverage, whatever you're going to be doing this week. The floor is yours, my friend. Have at it.

Starting point is 00:35:43 Let us know where we can find you. I got some So sock stuff coming up. I'm working on a piece right now about the Rookie of the Year race. And the Rookie of the Year race. So you're not going to want to miss that. Anything else that tickles my fancy, you know, I might do a nice little rookie contribution piece that Mike and I both called for. Mike was right.

Starting point is 00:36:06 It was a fantastic rookie contribution that Keon White gave. It didn't show up in the box score, but it certainly showed up on the field. But other than that, whatever might happen. Maybe I'll post a sweet and sour meatballs recipe. Folks, how much can you go wrong? You get good insight and you get good food. Murph delivers no matter what, folks. Just make sure you shove in all your sausage and your meatballs and a little bit of wine, a little bit of sugar, and that's Murph's trick.

Starting point is 00:36:41 Kudos to people that can pick up on that. And I know we're going to have a lot of listeners that will. Put it in the comments section below, folks, if you recognize those lines. There you go. Bottom line, we appreciate each and every one of you taking time out of your busy schedule to join us here on Locked On Patriots.

Starting point is 00:36:56 Whether it be win, lose, draw, no matter the outcome, Murph and I are going to be here each and every Monday breaking it all down for you. And if it's the day after a game day that doesn't happen to be a Sunday, we'll be here on Tuesday or on Sunday or on Saturday, whenever we have to be here to break down the Patriots' most recent showing on the field. Murph and I will be here with you all season long. So continue to stay locked in to Locked On Patriots.

Starting point is 00:37:21 In the meantime, I am your host, Mike DeBate. And on behalf of my good friend, Thomas Murphy of E2GSports.com, I remind you to stay safe and to stay well and to be the change that you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone, and we'll see you back here again tomorrow on Locked On Patriots.

Starting point is 00:37:40 Come on in. You never know when you're going to have to cook for 50 guys. Come on in, kid. when you're going to have to cook for 50 guys come on in kid sit down finish my dinner

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