Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Patriots Postcast: ROCK BOTTOM? Jaguars GASH Patriots Defense in London for 6th Straight Loss!

Starting point is 00:00:00 Oh, you think you've actually finally figured out your offense? Can I interest you in one of the worst defensive units in the entire league? On the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Welcome to the Locked On Sports Boston Patriots Postcast brought to you by FanDuel. I'm your host, Kim Stewart, at RealKimStewart on Twitter. This was arguably the most frustrating game of the season for me, to be totally honest with you. The Patriots lose to Jacksonville, 32-16. And this run defense is just horrific, horrifically bad. One of the skilled position players the Patriots drafted

Starting point is 00:00:57 in the first two rounds looks pretty good. The other looks completely awful. And I'm wondering if they totally trust the quarterback. I don't, I haven't seen any reason why they shouldn't, but if you look at the middle two quarters of that game, you would probably be wondering the same thing, all that and more coming up on the Patriots postcast. I mean, it starts no differently than with the defense again. This was supposed to be a top 10 unit in the NFL, and what you have right now is a bottom six or seven unit in the NFL. It's kind of unfair that they've had one more game than everyone else so far,

Starting point is 00:01:36 but they were supposed to be top 10 right now going into this game. They were 25th in total defense coming into the game. Awful, just terrible, And a bottom five running defense that got absolutely gashed today by a team with a backup running back in there. Travis Etienne was not in this game. You line up for the Jacksonville Jaguars offensive promo, bum quarterback, rookie receiver, backup running back. They all killed you. They all killed you today. And what really pissed me off about this one is that last real drive the Jags had where

Starting point is 00:02:18 they go for 19 straight runs at one point, and then they have to pass on third and eight. And they loft one to the sidelines. It's on the first read. And Lawrence is just nowhere close to his receiver. And you think, wow, if the Patriots are even a middle-of-the-pack defense against the run, they could have been eating this kid alive all day. But they can't because they're that freaking bad. They are that terrible against the run.

Starting point is 00:02:48 And Tank Bigsby, Tank Bigsby, just absolutely gashed them today. You want to look at Tank Bigsby's game log this year? He had a good game against Indianapolis a few weeks ago where he ran for 100 yards. Other than that, last week against Chicago, seven carries for 24. Against Houston, seven carries for 90, two carries for nine. Not a single touch in a game he dressed against Cleveland.

Starting point is 00:03:14 12 for 73 against Miami. Today? Today you want to see what he did? How about 26 for 118 and two touchdowns? Just bounded you into submission. They really had one running back out there, and you couldn't stop it. In a stretch from the third to the fourth quarter, they ran it 19 straight times. Because why would you pass against these guys?

Starting point is 00:03:39 Why even put the ball into danger? Just run it the whole game. In the whole first half, they were five yards to carry, nine yards to play. They end up at a pretty modest six yards per play the whole game and four and a half yards per rush because of the last few drives.

Starting point is 00:04:01 I mean, just awful. Just awful, awful, awful, awful, awful defense. And last week, the head coach, Gerard Mayo, goes out there and says, our defense let Drake May down today when Drake May throws for three touchdowns against Houston. Says our defense let him down. And I have to hear Boston Sports Talk Radio,

Starting point is 00:04:22 Greg Bedard, brain-dead Greg Bedard, on that Felger and Mazz show saying, oh, this is what we're going to do now. We're just going to cater to the rookie quarterback and say that he doesn't do anything wrong and say that our team let him down. They frigging did. They let up 41 points last week, and they were arguably worse this week. But they played a team that only had one win coming into it.

Starting point is 00:04:41 So that's why it wasn't another 41-point performance. Instead, it was only 32. Congrats. You let them down again because you suck defensively. You put the Patriot, you put Drake May into a position after the first quarter where you had to score every time down. How is that helping a rookie quarterback? You were in a position where you had to score every time you had the ball against Jacksonville. Jacksonville, who was ready to keep their coach in London last week, leave him on the frigging tarmac. You give him new life again. Boy, if Doug Peterson could coach every game against the New England Patriots, he'd be frigging Bill Belichick. That's how bad this team is.

Starting point is 00:05:23 Oh God. And, yeah, it's more frustrating than the Miami game because you actually had a glimpse of hope last week, and you say, oh, man, Jacksonville next week? Whew, that's a real shot to win a game, not just look good. It's a team that couldn't get off the field against the Bears last week, ready to fire the coach. Jacksonville opens up at eight- a half point favorites on Monday,

Starting point is 00:05:47 and we're laughing at that. They covered that and almost double covered it. God, this team sucks so bad, so freaking bad. And if I have to hear one more brain-dead color commentator say, oh, this is very unpatriot-like, the stupid penalties and the mistakes on special teams they do three or four or five of those every game for the last five freaking years and every color commentator is like thinking it's 2016 oh that's weird bill belichick teams uh

Starting point is 00:06:18 and a bill belichick disciple they never do anything stupid on special teams except for every freaking week for the last half decade. Every week. Every week. 97 yard punt return. Give me a freaking break. It's bad enough you can't stop them on offense, but then you can't stop their special teams either. 97 yards. Most teams are telling their guys to not even catch it inside the 10. You let them catch it inside the five and score. Oh, this defense is atrocious. Absolutely atrocious. It was supposed to be a strong point. And I know no Barmore, no Judon.

Starting point is 00:07:04 I'm just, I'm not hearing that excuse against the Jacksonville freaking Jaguars. They were ready to fire their head coach and were like steps away from moving on from their $200 million quarterback that they drafted number one overall. Last week, you know what they did on the ground last week? They rushed for 68 yards against the Bears last week. 68. Today they rushed for 171. They brought in their backup.

Starting point is 00:07:35 They put Mac Jones in the game last week. I mean, Trevor Lawrence didn't even need to put his foot down. 15 to 20, 200 yards and a touchdown. He barely even tried. Last week, last week, a team that was picking inside the top 10 last year forced them to put their backup quarterback in. Oh, just so, so, so, so, so bad. So freaking bad.

Starting point is 00:08:04 But this is defensive head coach. Yeah. Yeah. This game really showed just how bad the Patriots coaching situation is. And I know it's year one, but this game really, really showed off all the worst parts about the front office, the coaching, and yes, the ownership of this franchise. And I will tell you exactly why coming up on the Patriots postcast.

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Starting point is 00:09:13 $200 in bonus bets guaranteed with your first $5 bet on FanDuel.com. Once again, that is FanDuel.com. FanDuel, America's number one sports book. So why did this expose how bad the Patriots coaching staff is? Well, I'll tell you, because you actually had some hope last week and it got even worse. In the middle two quarters, they just abandoned what worked on the first two drives. The first two drives, the Patriots go for 191 yards, two scores, touchdown and a field goal. And it was because they were passing on just about every down. Okay. And Drake May was looking downfield. They were drawing up plays for him downfield. The first five plays were dropbacks.

Starting point is 00:09:58 Nine of the first 11 on the opening drives were dropbacks. They went 5-5 on third down. Their first five went for third downs. They converted three on the first drive. In the first quarter, Drake May, 8 for 10, 87 yards and a touchdown. First two drives, 9 for 12, 90 yards, touchdown. And it's like they just totally went away from it. They start doing screen passes. They start running dives on first and second down, get you to third and eight there.

Starting point is 00:10:28 They completely abandoned a game plan that was working. Alex Van Pelt drew up the first 15 plays and then just took the rest of the week off, just went sightseeing around London. He said, ah, I'm good. We got our first 15 scripted plays. We'll be good after that. On the second drive where the

Starting point is 00:10:46 Patriots scored that field goal, the Jags went offside three times. I don't care at what point in the game that is. If there is a team that goes offsides three times on the same drive, that team should not be beating another NFL team. They just shouldn't. I'm sorry. Instead, they crushed the other team. They crushed them. And all this blitz happy defense and how strong they'll be against the run just gashed again. Awful defensive unit, just terrible, just absolutely terrible. And I talked about it in the open. You've got two skill position guys you drafted in the first two rounds. One of them looks pretty darn good. The other is Jalen Polk. How much worse can he get? I know it's year one. I'm not saying he's an absolute bust yet,

Starting point is 00:11:39 but how much worse is this going to get before it gets better? He comes into the game with 24 targets on the year and 10 catches. Today, he has three targets officially. All three hit his hands, no catches, completely shut out. They don't credit him for a target on the two-point conversion where he slipped. Because I mean, look how great Jalen Polk spent all year. When you have a crucial two-point play in the fourth quarter, you know who I want to go to? That guy. That guy. With three targets, gets a hand on all three, and he's just, he's playing freaking handball goalie. Just parrying them all away. No interest in catching the football. But oh, is he going to tell me again that he's got the best hands in the league? That's what he told me this week.

Starting point is 00:12:29 Is he going to tell me again this next week he's got the best hands in the league? Oh, he's not worried about it? I'm all for confidence, but how about some goddamn accountability? The kid stinks right now, absolutely stinks. He is Nikhil Harry 2.0. No separation, rock hands. That's Nikhil Harry out there wearing number one once again for the New England Patriots. That should be a connection. Drake May, Jalen Polk, first two guys off the board for your draft board,

Starting point is 00:13:03 both skilled position guys. That should be the connection. Instead, Drake May is not only spreading the ball out to everyone else, he's actually making a connection with a guy you just about gave up on in training camp, in Keyshawn Boutte. 33-yard catch to him again. I don't know what happens with Pop Douglas. Apparently there was an illness in there, but it sure as heck looked like he dropped the play, dropped the ball on the first drive, and then they benched him.

Starting point is 00:13:30 Which, I'm all for discipline, but the reason why Bill Belichick's discipline was so great was because he did it to everyone. No one was excused from that, from that kind of discipline and being benched when you make a bad play. But it sure looked like Pop Douglas was benched for at least the rest of the first half, and Jalen Polk is out there dropping every freaking target he gets. Does he get benched? No, we just go to him every drive. Every drive they go to him. And I'm sorry. I just, it's so funny to me that we're all sitting here worrying fans, front office, coaching staff, ownership. We're all worrying that if you put Drake May in there too early in the season,

Starting point is 00:14:18 is his confidence going to get shot and he's going to be ruined. And they're like literally working the whole season around that. But the other young guy they have at skilled position, Jalen Polk, they don't mind throwing it to him every time down and he's not going to catch it. They're not worried about working him into the system and making sure his confidence isn't shot. How can he have any confidence?

Starting point is 00:14:39 He stinks. Ten catches on 27 targets this year. Every three balls you throw at Jalen Polk, he's going to catch one. Every time he's open enough to get a target, every three times he's going to catch one and he's going to get his hands on every one of them. That is horrifically bad, but that fits right into Patriots wide receiver bad. He has adapted to the team culture right away. He said, I'm a second round pick, receiver, New England Patriots.

Starting point is 00:15:14 Oh, I have to suck at football. He nailed it. He got it down. I'll give him that. It feels like such a waste right now. It's halfway through season one. I know. I'm not ready to call him a bust.

Starting point is 00:15:31 But it's got to get better. I'll say this about him versus Dakil Harry. He's on the field, and that's probably out of necessity because the rest of the unit is so terrible. But he's on the field. He gets open just enough to get these targets. And he gets his hands on him. He just doesn't bring him in. First play of the game, he's dropping a pass where he's got both hands on it.

Starting point is 00:15:56 And I just couldn't believe the play drop on two-point conversion. I mean, it's a good enough play design, but there's really one route that Drake Mays is looking for there. And the one guy you're keying on is Jalen Polk. He can't catch the football. And in this case, he can't even get up off his knees to get close to the football. Why is that your only option on the two-point play? Oh, it's just disgusting. It's disgusting to watch. And you got me up at 830 in the morning to do this. Every week now, the good folks at Locked On whom I love,

Starting point is 00:16:35 I love working for Locked On, love doing Locked On Bay, or love doing this postcast most of the time. I love the people I work for and work with. But every week I get onto this postcast and I'm like, are they paying me enough to, for me to watch every snap of the Patriot season? Are they paying me enough to get up at eight 30 in the morning central time and watch this freaking team?

Starting point is 00:16:55 I can't even like, I get the Patriots suck. Trust me. I watch every snap. I understand that. I understand that expectations should be low, but this was another one in five team that got laughed off the field last week by a team that's going to finish 500.

Starting point is 00:17:11 The Jags were ready, so ready to get rid of Doug Peterson. And again, the Patriots just save him. You want an NFL career, Doug? Don't worry. We got you. We'll work it out for you again. It's amazing this guy has a Super Bowl. He he outcoached bill belichick in a super bowl they're they're giving him an absolute new lease on life getting outcoached by doug peterson should

Starting point is 00:17:38 be grounds for immediate firing i don't care if you're halfway through season number one and again i'll just come back to it week after week after week after week. Boy, it would have been real nice if they at least interviewed somebody. Interviewed somebody for the job. Every loss, I know there's six Super Bowls for this ownership group. I know. Trust me. I lived through it all.

Starting point is 00:18:03 And that's a lot of leeway, a lot of slack. But every loss, every stupid coaching decision has to somehow come back to them. It has to. They didn't interview anybody else. It's not like they had five candidates in there from around the league. They said, nope, this is our guy because five years ago, he impressed me on a trip to Israel. They didn't even interview somebody else. Incredible. There was at least a competent above 500 NFL coach out there who had won a couple playoff games, who was a Patriots legend.

Starting point is 00:18:44 And you just said, no, we're good, Mike Vrabel. We are good with Gerard Mayo. And we are okay with this absolute dog product every week. We're okay with that. And under the false guise of, well, we're just going to make progress. They're going to ruin this quarterback. They're going to ruin them. And anything they do this season that's positive is in spite of their coaching, because Drake May clearly showed you

Starting point is 00:19:11 he can get you some wins if your defense is even just sucks a little bit. Instead, they suck really, really hard right now. But this quarterback is showing you something, and I will go over that coming up next on the Patriots postcast. First, I got to tell you about game time. If you're looking to get out to a Patriots game this year, boy, is it going to be cheap? Boy, are you going to find a good deal? And the best place to find that is through game time, because where you go, what you do is you go in the app, you toggle the all-in pricing. So those $10 tickets that you're going to see, that's actually the price you're going to pay. You're not going

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Starting point is 00:20:30 What time is it? GameTime. Oh boy, Liverpool's going to lose too. Not a great weekend for you guys. But we're talking Patriots. Drake May, did he look good today? Yes, he did. Once again.

Starting point is 00:20:46 And it just stinks that this is the team that's around him. It really does. 26-37, 276, two touchdowns, no picks. And spread the ball around. I mean, receptions for... Oh, no, not Jalen Polk. Nine! Nine different pass catchers. Did you even know that the Patriots had nine guys on the team

Starting point is 00:21:07 that could catch a pass? Drake may unlock that. And again, the first two drives, he was on it, man. They had a game plan for him. First 15 plays. And then Alex Van Pelt got tired earlier in the week. He needed to catch up on his jet lag. He just said, ah, 15, that'll be enough. Play in Jacksonville. Nope. Nope. Got your ass kicked. And that's what makes this so infuriating is Drake May clearly, clearly gives you hope here. And yet the rest of the team is so awful and their coaching staff so terrible that it's not going to matter. And maybe this is a good loss for the Patriots. I talked with some friends about this this week. Was this a good game for the Patriots to lose? Probably because Jacksonville is going to be right there for a top five pick too. Trust me.

Starting point is 00:21:56 And now you've got the tiebreaker. Now you've got the tiebreaker. But I don't, obviously don't think the Patriots are going to win very many games this year. But you don't even need them to get the number one pick. You don't need them to. They're not picking a quarterback. They're picking a left tackle. Which last year, Joe Ault went what, fifth? Sixth?

Starting point is 00:22:20 They don't go off the board one or two anymore. You don't need that. And so the Patriots can afford to win a few games, but now they have got the tiebreaker over Jacksonville. By the way, Liverpool go 2-1. It's just so infuriating to see how good one player is on this team and how much more involved he gets the rest of the offense, which they didn't have for five weeks.

Starting point is 00:22:44 And yet they still can't get out of their own way. They're losing by two touchdowns to one of the worst, which they didn't have for five weeks. And yet they still can't get out of their own way. They're losing. They're losing by two touchdowns to one of the worst teams in the league. Like that's, that's embarrassing. That is so embarrassing. But Hunter Henry, eight catches to Michael hasty, five catches Hooper with four KJ Osborne got involved. That's the Drake may effect, man. the kid looked really good today. But when you abandon the game plan in the middle of the game and your defense is so terrible that you need to score every time down, what chance does he have? And by the way, looked much better against pressure today. Much better. We do the turntables every week. What was the play or the sequence that sunk the Patriots,

Starting point is 00:23:26 usually, because that's six straight losses, what sunk the Patriots in this game? And it goes without saying. So, I mean, it's the second quarter. It's the second quarter in which the Jags scored 22 points. It was 7-0 at the end of the first for the Patriots and 10-0 a couple plays into the second. And then Jacksonville wakes up, second drive.

Starting point is 00:23:52 They scored two touchdowns in a row after falling down 10-0. And in their first three drives, 50 rushing yards, five yards per carry, nine yards per play. And then you punt it to them inside the five yard line. They take it 97 yards for a touchdown. And then you go offside on a freaking extra point and they go for two. And a two minute drill before the half, one and a half minute drill before the half in which the Patriots are not getting the ball to start the second half. They're running the ball and they go three and out. That's where it turned the 97 yard touchdown. I mean, look no further than that. Um, it's terrible. I didn't even have

Starting point is 00:24:36 any notes. I didn't have any notes in the fourth quarter. Really. It was so terrible. Um, but yeah, once again, that's a team that rushed for 68 yards last week. 171 this week. No big deal. No big deal at all. At least you got the tiebreaker on them now. So there's that. And you've kept Doug Peterson in the league another week. Did that too. Six straight losses for the Patriots, most since 93, before Kraft bought the team. It is the worst Patriots team I've ever seen, which beats out last year's team for now. There's still opportunity with this quarterback for it to get better, opportunity that was not there last year.

Starting point is 00:25:15 But it's just a shame how far this Patriots defense has fallen. I can't believe if you had told me two weeks ago after the Miami game, you're going to be bitching up, up, down, left, right, and center after the Jacksonville game, but it's actually going to be about the defense and not the offense. I would have laughed you off the field, man. If you had told me actually your offense is in a pretty good spot for the personnel that you have, it's in a pretty good spot right now,

Starting point is 00:25:39 but it's your defense that's so god-awful, I would have had you committed. But here we are, two weeks after that, and that is exactly the case. Is the Patriots' offense flawless? No, but compared to two, three, four weeks ago, it's another world. It's awesome. And if you had a competent play caller in there,

Starting point is 00:25:59 it would be that much better. But you don't. You don't. You're just relying on your rookie quarterback to do absolutely everything. Shout out to you, Drake May. You're the only hope this franchise has. And the only real sliver of hope. There's really no other person to even put on the poster at this point.

Starting point is 00:26:20 Patriots lose by 16. Thanks for those of you who tuned in live. For those of you who are following afterwards, get down involved in the comment section. Let me know what you thought about this game. Anything I missed, anything that was worse than this rush defense, where the hope is from here. Do you want them to win a couple of games?

Starting point is 00:26:36 Let me know down in the comment section below. Be sure to like and subscribe and tune in tomorrow. Mike debate locked on Patriots going to have a little bit more level-headed, less shouting than I had. And he will break this thing down for, for what it's worth and what to look forward to going throughout this season. And, uh, he will keep you briefed through the rest of the week ahead of next Sunday's dude matchup, um, and get you ready for that one. Do who are they playing? Don't even know at this point. Don't even know kind of had it in thes basket, and we're done with that. Thank you for making

Starting point is 00:27:05 the Locked On Podcast Network your first listen today and every day. Be sure to keep up with Mike on Locked On Patriots the rest of the week, and we will be back next Sunday after the Patriots game,

Starting point is 00:27:15 right after that thing hits zero and the Patriots lose for the Locked On Sports Boston Patriots postcast.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Patriots Postcast: ROCK BOTTOM? Jaguars GASH Patriots Defense in London for 6th Straight Loss!

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