Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - PATRIOTS POSTCAST: Tua and the Dolphins DESTROY Patriots...Tank for Travis Hunter Time?

Episode Date: November 24, 2024

The Patriots' Orange Bowl Curse is back, but with a twist: the Dolphins play in a new stadium and the Pats can't beat them anywhere. Sunday's loss is as hapless as the Patriots have looked all season, and that is saying something. At 3-9, New England is already tanking without trying, but is it time to just mail it in for the no. 1 overall pick? Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Skylight Frame Get $20 off a Skylight Frame when you go to SkylightFrame.com/NFL. Hillsdale College All of Hillsdale’s courses are self-paced so that you can start whenever, and tune in wherever. Plus, you can go deeper with readings, quizzes, discussions - or just enjoy the lectures. Go right now to hillsdale.edu/lockedon to enroll. There’s no cost, and it’s easy to get started. PrizePicks Download the app and use code lockedonnfl to win $50 instantly when you play $5. You don't even need to win to receive your $50 bonus, it's guaranteed! Prizepicks. Run Your Game. Click Here: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/LOCKEDONNFL Gametime Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code LOCKEDONNFL for $20 off your first purchase. Terms Apply. Download Gametime today. What time is it? Gametime. FanDuel You can start the season with a big return on FanDuel. New customers can place a FIVE DOLLAR bet and you’ll get started with ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY DOLLARS in BONUS BETS - if you win your first FIVE DOLLAR BET ! Visit FANDUEL.COM to get started. FANDUEL DISCLAIMER: 21+ in select states. First online real money wager only. Bonus issued as nonwithdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Gambling Problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit FanDuel.com/RG (CO, IA, MD, MI, NJ, PA, IL, VA, WV), 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 (AZ), 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org/chat (CT), 1-800-9-WITH-IT (IN), 1-800-522-4700 (WY, KS) or visit ksgamblinghelp.com (KS), 1-877-770-STOP (LA), 1-877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), TN REDLINE 1-800-889-9789 (TN)

Don't let the final score fool you. That was pretty much as bad as the Patriots could have possibly played in Miami. This is the Locked On Sports Boston Patriots Postcast. You are Locked On Patriots Postcast. Part of Locked On Sports Boston. On the Locked On Podcast Network. Your team every day. Yep, that really sucked.

Patriots lose 34-15 in Miami. They have not beaten the Dolphins since Antonio Brown was on the team. Anyway, it's the Locked On Sports Boston Patriots Postcast. I'm your host, Kim Stewart. It's part of the Locked On Podcast Network, where it's your team every day. We're bringing you the breakdown of every Patriots game this season. And of course, I want you to stick around during the week for Mike DeBate, who will do Locked On Patriots, give a more measured breakdown of this,

look ahead at your next opponents. But I'm here to break it down for you today. And it's wild that a 19-point game feels like such a misleading score. It feels like it flatters the Patriots because they weren't even that close today. Again, this is – you see the first bullet point if you're watching on YouTube. There were points in this game where I thought this was like the worst performance from the Patriots that I've seen in this century. And there's plenty to choose from the last season and a half, two years specifically. You can pick some from the Cam Newton year. You could pick some from the first year of the century,

Belichick's first year in the year 2000. But the first, I don't know, 48 minutes of this game felt like this performance was up there. And obviously you have hope for the future with Drake May. but if you're watching this team on a day like today, it feels like there is no hope. What I mean by that is obviously there is hope with the way Drake May plays, but you already knew that. You knew that a couple weeks ago the exciting part about having a quarterback you know really progressing in year one and showing you flashes of what could be is that it will get better and other facets of the team will will get better and they've gotten worse like that performance today that was way worse

than they played last week and they won a game two weeks ago. This team, this performance you saw today, that couldn't beat anybody. That couldn't beat anybody in the National Football League. And it just so happens that you went against a team that's playing well right now, that's got their full allotment back. And it's a team that I think just lives to beat the piss out of you at this point.

Like what else do the Dolphins do? They don't win the division. They don't win playoff games. They do dances and they kick the crap out of the Patriots every year. That's just what they do. They've not lost to New England since 2019 2019 Tua is 7-0 against the Patriots in his career and there really haven't been many tight games Mac Jones's debut I think that I think that game was tight I think Damian Harris fumbled in the in the final minute or two

and they lost by one other than that that was it this team works you just absolutely works you the Patriots might be keeping the Miami front office on their toes I'll bet they didn't blow it up with the Tua injury because they were like yeah but look how much we beat the Patriots every year in fact Tua might have come back even with potential brain damage just saying well there are two games if I stay in the AFC East there are two games every year. In fact, Tua might've come back even with potential brain damage, just saying, well, there are two games. If I stay in the AFC East, there are two games every year where I'm just not going to get hit. You know, I'm just going to throw for whatever, three, 400 yards against the Patriots every year. And that's, that takes out two games where I don't have to get hit

or, or face any kind of attrition. Tua in this game, 29 of 40 for 317 and four touchdowns. Eight of those 29 completions go to Jalen Waddell. Eight catches for 144 and a touchdown. I mean, talk about just guys that always kill you, just absolutely kill you every time they take the field against you. It's Tua, it's Jalen Waddell, and worst of all, worst of all of it is Jonu Smith. Nine receptions for 87 yards and a touchdown, 10 yards per completion. To Jonu Smith, they couldn't get anything out of this guy.

He wasn't worth a shit for the Patriots for two years, one touchdown in two seasons. And he's crushed you twice this season. Even in the first game, Snoop Huntley at quarterback, he had like six catches in the first half. He owns you. Are you kidding? that that's what that's what makes all of this worse like did you see you know Shaq Mason you gave up for no real

reason and Jonu Smith is now an NFL tight end again once he's outside of your locker room. Kyle Van Noy is still playing like amazingly. All these guys that go out the last few years under Belichick, they are still playing in the NFL, and some of them just are living to crush you.

That's what really sucks about this. Because yeah, of course there is hope with Drake May, and we should be really grateful for that. But the rest of this team just moves backwards. Vardarian Lowe, three false start penalties in the first half alone. They had eight penalties on offense in the first half on offense. And only seven of them were accepted because lest we forget, there was a play that

Austin Hooper lined up like in the, in the Dolphins secondary, he was so freaking off sides and they didn't call that penalty or they didn't accept that penalty because there was one that was even worse because they have a holding penalty on the same play. I'm telling you, you could put a traffic cone out there with a number 75 jersey on, and it's going to be more effective than DeMontre Jacobs. It is going to be a step up from what DeMontre Jacobs gives you.

And I'm going to sit and listen to Adam Archuleta tell me about how they're actually executing okay, this offensive line. They're just committing false start penalties every third play. First off, that's not good execution. Second off, there was no good execution. It gets to the point where I'm wondering if these Patriots players even watch football. Do they even watch the sport? Because at the end of the first quarter, Miami's got a third and three. The clock is running. They do not have to run another play.

Everyone and their dog watching on TV knows they're not going to snap the football just don't jump they're not going to snap it and infertile jennings jumps he goes offside it gives him a first and goal on a third and three like this is as brain dead as football gets at this level and that's not just the players. Like at some point, we got to hold coaches accountable too because they're pulling the same crap week after week after week and you are not building on the few good performances that you have. You played a really good defensive game against Chicago two weeks ago.

You held them to three points. You walk out of there with a two-score victory on the road. You make a bunch of brain-dead mistakes last week on defense to lose a game that you could have won against the Rams. And then you just make mistake after mistake in every facet of the game in this week. All three facets were burying you. I was taking a tally like I did last week of the points they left there out on the field.

And at some point I had to give up because it's just too many. It's just too many to track. And we'll tell you whose fault that is coming up next on the Locked On Sports Boston Patriots postcast. First, let's talk to you about PrizePix. It's the number one daily fantasy sports platform here in North America, which is really all that you guys care about. Because you can win up to 100 times your money on PrizePix with as little as four correct picks.

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to get 50 bucks instantly after you play your first $5 lineup. Download the app today. Use the code LOCKEDONNFL. That's 50 bucks instantly after your first $5 play. Prize picks run your game. I don't often feel bad for professional athletes outside of, you know, the normal, but they get paid millions of dollars. So often I just, I just don't really feel that bad. And I've said this a couple of times on the show. I don't want to sound like it's like too naive,

I guess, but I feel bad for Drake May. Like he's just in a completely unwinnable situation early on in the game. Adam Archuleta will bring up again. It's talking about how good Drake May has been this season. And he's like, you know, he has no offensive line. He has no weapons. And yet he's still out there making plays, putting up good numbers, turning a lot of heads in this league. And it really goes to show, you know, a lot of people these days think you need that playmaking receiver and, and the best offensive line in the league to go with a rookie quarterback. And he's proven to you that's not the case because I think he's proving exactly to you that, that, to you that that is the case. That is very much the case.

Because Drake May has played really well. But when you have nothing, and I mean nothing, around you, that's how you get to 3-9. Because lest we forget, they are 3-9. He's playing well, but this team is dog shit. It's terrible. And I saw someone, I think it was Kayed, posting during the game. He said, man, cornerback is a huge need for the Patriots this offseason. You think?

Because what position outside of quarterback is not a huge need? They have a huge need everywhere. And I was thinking during this game, because cornerback is a big need, obviously. They all are. And I'm thinking, do you just get Travis Hunter? Like with the whatever, number one or two or three pick. Do you just pick Travis Hunter? Like he's an incredible corner.

Do you just beef up on that because's an incredible corner um do you just do you just beef up on that because you have so much to to work out and then Madarian Lowe has three false start penalties in one half and I'm thinking good lord that is the best option they have at tight end may God have mercy on all of us this this is this is, this is so, so, so, so bad. And an, a miraculous touchdown to Austin Hooper and a scooped score from Christian Gonzalez makes it look better than it is. But in reality, the Patriots could have just as easily been shut out today. That would have shocked nobody.

Like it would, it was that bad. They played poorly enough to be shut out. And honestly, it deserved to be 45 to nothing. And instead it's 34 to 15. But back to Drake May having just absolutely nothing. On their best days, I think there are three guys on the offense that are like real NFL players. Drake May, Hunter Henry, Ramondre Stevenson. And some days it's two guys. Some days it's one guy. Today it looks like one guy.

Pop Douglas, is he? I don't know. I don't know because I like Pop Douglas. But how many times did we see the last two weeks, including that pick that Drake made through at the end of the game last week, where he's just not doing what the defense gives him. He's just not sitting on routes on zone defenses, like eight yards down the field. Nope. Like nobody's covering him. Just sit there, wait for the ball. Drake may knows that he knows

how to read that defense. And instead, he is running into traffic. He is running into potential turnover territory. Maybe that's why he's not getting the ball all that much. Maybe. But they just, they don't have NFL players out there. They don't. And I know Andrew in the comments really wants it to be Drake Mays' fault. He threw a bad pick, by the way.

That was a terrible pick when it was 31-15. But he has nobody out there. Like, it's, I mean, Demontre Jacobs and Michael Jordan and Vardarian Lowe and Ben Brown. Like, these guys are not NFL players. I'm sorry. They're not. Try their hand at Canada next year,

but they're not good enough to play in this league. And it's amazing that the Patriots just did not address those positions at all. Really? They brought in guys who should be working at Footlocker. I know franchise left tackles don't grow on trees. Those guys don't get to the free agent market. I know. But can you find some league average linemen out there? Because we're so far from that. Can we find some league average wide receivers? Because we're pretty far from that. Some league average corners? I don't know. It befuddles me that Alex Van Pelt didn't know who Marcus Jones was until last week because A, he's a player on

his team. I can't believe he didn't know that. And that really should be getting more headlines that a coach, a coordinator on this team did not know who the punt returner was on said team. But B, I don't know how he doesn't know who he is because there has to be coaches screaming at him every day in practice and every game day, just mother effing him left, right, and center because he gets burned every play.

Teams are picking on him every week. He can't cover. He can't cover. You have one guy on this team who can cover, and it's Christian Gonzalez. And now you've got teams figuring out how to get open against him. They just don't have anything. And Kyle Duggar, oh, good Lord, Kyle Duggar.

You should have traded him when you had a chance to, because no one's biting on that anymore. I mean, he is an absolute liability. You can't play him. You absolutely can't play him. And the one play where he absolutely reads it perfectly, makes a good NFL play he can't catch one that's right at his numbers you remember that before the half he totally

jumps around in the end zone right before the half and he just completely botches it and the announcers are talking about, oh, well, it wasn't going to make much of a difference anyway with, you know, whatever, 15 seconds left in the half. I'm like, really? It wouldn't have made much of a difference? Because A, you take points off the board no matter what, and B, if he makes it 10 yards, there's nobody that can catch him.

If he makes it 10 yards yards the whole field is open ahead of him that's a touchdown so what do you mean it makes no difference you gave him three points with that and you potentially took seven points off the board for yourself you just you can't play him. So yeah. Do you need, do you need some help at corner? Yup. You do. You also need help at linebacker, left tackle, right tackle, one of the guards, receiver, receiver one, receiver two, probably a little bit of youth at the tight end position. You need another running back. You need all of those things. Head coach? Probably.

So it's not just corner that you need help in. And this team, oh boy, this team can really do with getting out of this division and getting Miami on the schedule. Because I don't know if it gets any better anytime soon, even with, and by anytime soon, I mean the next season plus here, even with Drake Mayock quarterback. There's a huge conundrum that has to be keeping the Patriots up at night, the front office, the coaching staff, and fans like you and me up at night

when it comes to the short-term future of this team. I'll tell you what that is coming up after this word from FanDuel. FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers can bet $5 and get 150 in bonus bets if you win. FanDuel sportsbook app gives you everything you need to place live bets on the NFL all in one place. So when you get a hunch in the middle of the game thinking, I don't think the Patriots are going to win this game because they only win a quarter of those, you can check out the latest stats, you can view live play-by-play and so much more on the same page where you

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we'll have locked on Patriots for you, give you more measured breakdown and get you ready for the next game, which is going to be at one o'clock Eastern time on Sunday. I can tell you that I could tell you that much. Um, I, I grew up with stories of the, the orange bowl curse. I'm sure those of you of a certain age, remember it, or those of you who are around my age got to hear about it a lot growing up. Remember squish the fish 85. They won the AFC championship. There's the first time they'd won there. I think what 19 years, I believe is the, is the

number, which would have been the entire existence of the dolphins at that point. I think they came into the league in 67, uh, in the AFL. So it was, it was really tough sledding that, that curse might be back with a bit of a twist because it's not the orange bowl anymore. So the twist is it's a new stadium that you can't win in. And the other twist is it's not just limited to Miami, Miami, Foxborough, Prague, Zimbabwe, Mars, Melmac. They can't beat the Dolphins anywhere, anywhere. I'm telling you that this, this having the Patriots on the schedule two times a year has to fundamentally change how the Dolphins think about things.

Like tank mode, personnel, keeping the coach. If and when it comes down to those things, they say, you know what, we've got the Patriots twice a year. Those are automatic wins. And now they've got the Jets every year. Those are two automatic wins as well. So the Patriots are going to help the Dolphins run their franchise. And I think they might have already helped them this year

because they did not pack it in after the Tua injury in starting two and six. Because one of those wins is against the Patriots. They knew they had the Patriots another game on the schedule. And they knew they had the Jets in the division still. So the Patriots and the Jets certainly help how the Dolphins run that organization, which is fun, which is really fun. But I'll tell you what keeps me up at night all the time with this team. Like I think about it, it's in my sleep paralysis. I see it. And every week I come back to this well, Drake May is going to be a star in this league. I still have no doubt about that.

But when you look at this team, they are so, so far from competing and being a playoff team. Like, it's not even funny. They need a complete roster overhaul, complete overhaul. And the rest of this season is tanking without saying you're tanking because they suck that bad. But the rest of this season is tanking without saying you're tanking because they suck that bad. But the rest of this season is seeing, like, who of these guys can you even bring back?

Like, guys like Kendrick Bourne and Kyle Duggar and Godshaw and all these guys. It's like, is it worth even bringing them back? And most of those answers are no. But the concern I have for the short term and long term future of this team is you're going to need to do a complete overhaul you're going to have more cap space than just about anyone in the league the next two years so you can spend money like throw it around like candy but do you have the guys to make that worthwhile? Do you have the GM and head coach in place

to take all that money and make a playoff team while Drake May is still in his rookie contract? There is nothing more valuable in this league than having a good quarterback on a rookie contract. That's what you're going to have for the next three seasons after this and maybe a fifth or maybe a fourth or the fifth year option. And then that's it. Then you can still be competitive while paying a quarterback a lot of money, right? We see that with the elite quarterbacks in this league. You can still do that, but you are potentially about to miss out on a key window because you didn't even have a halfway decent team. You didn't even have a bad football team. You have a God awful football team. You have a team that has no position room that can feel

good about themselves. Not one, not even your punter who leads the league in touchbacks woo lead the league in the one thing you don't want your punter to do congrats great everything's going well so no position room is good you have to replace all of it with a first-time gm and a first-year head coach who can't get anything right i I'm sorry, man. If they fire Gerard Mayo after this year and go after Ben Johnson, best of luck. It's no hard feelings here. Love what Mayo did as a player. Seems like a nice guy.

Still has yet to prove to any of us that he can be a head football coach in the NFL. And the bar is really low for this team. And what I mean by that is like when you do get a rare win, it's like, okay, how about you play well next week? Maybe even get back-to-back wins. But no, you haven't done that in over two years now. Because every time they get a win, they look worse the next week, right? I mean, the Jets win, great story.

Jacoby Brissett comes in, leads the comeback. Then the week after, you lose to one of the only teams in the league that might actually be worse than you, although the Titans won in Houston today, so maybe they're not, but you blew that game. Then you play against Chicago. You have that win. Okay, but you blew that game. Then you play against Chicago. You have that win. Okay, let's build off this.

Nope. You'd make every kind of brain dead decision you can make defensively the next week. And two weeks after that win against Chicago, you look as bad as you could possibly look. So again, it's not a high bar to show that Gerard Mayo, hey, maybe we got something here. The quarterback is showing us that. Again, not a great game today, don't get me wrong, but he is showing you that like, okay, he's giving you something week after week

that you can build on. The coach has not. The coach has not. And it's the same old crap. Again, eight offensive penalties in the first half. At some point, that's coaching. Some point, nobody's correcting that. False starts. Like three false starts on one player in the same half, four for the team in the first half. Like that's a non-competitive penalty. That's an unforced penalty. Your offensive lineman not knowing the snap count,

your tight ends not knowing how to line up, that is coaching. There is nobody on the other side that is playing so well that it's forcing you to false start or line up offside. That is coaching. Or it's player development, or it's off-season player research. All of those suck, suck, S-U-C-K, suck for this franchise.

I don't know if you have the right GM. I don't know if you have the right coach to actually make the most out of this thing when you've got Drake May on a rookie contract. And I have a feeling it's going to really suck it's going to really suck to find out that whole process of finding out because each Sunday we give ourselves three hours of punishment by watching this team. It's like absolving us from our sins. We don't need to go to mass.

That's just an hour of punishment every Sunday, an hour of guilt and shame. This is three hours of guilt and shame and punishment every Sunday, an hour of guilt and shame. This is three hours of guilt and shame and punishment every Sunday. We'll catch you here next Sunday. Be sure to drop in the comments below what you felt about this performance and what this team can do going forward. Be sure to like and subscribe.

It really helps out the channel and follow along with Mike Debate on Locked On Patriots all season long. We will see you next Sunday afternoon, shortly after four o'clock Eastern time on the Locked on Sports Boston Patriots postcast.