Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Power and Glory: Patriots Run Past Bills 14-10 to Maintain top Spot in AFC, AFC East — 12/7/21

Episode Date: December 8, 2021

The New England Patriots improved to 9-4 on the 2021 season with an unorthodox, yet gritty Week Thirteen victory over the Buffalo Bills. Patriots quarterback Mac Jones would finish the night 2-of-3 for 19 yards. Still, the story on offense was all about the run. The Patriots rushed for 222 yards on 46 carries, paced by Damien Harris and rookie Rhamondre Stevenson. Cornerback Myles Bryant batted away Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen's last-gasp pass attempt near the goal line as the Patriots secured a 14-10 victory over the Bills on Monday at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York. With the victory, the Patriots remain in the top spot in both the AFC East, as well as the AFC overall. Joining host Mike D’Abate is Steve Balestrieri of PatsFans.com to break down the Pats victory.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKED15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnline AGThere is only 1 place that has you covered and 1 place we trust. Betonline.ag! Sign up today for a free account at betonline.ag and use that promocode: LOCKEDON for your 50% welcome bonus.StatHeroStatHero is the first of its kind Daily Fantasy Sports platform where it’s YOU vs. the HOUSE in head to head fantasy matchups - winner take all. Sign up for FREE - RIGHT NOW - at StatHero.com/LOCKEDON and use promo code LOCKEDON for a One Hundred Percent Deposit Match. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. You are now locked into the Lockdown Patriots podcast. It is Tuesday, December 7th, 2021. It is Victory Tuesday here on your daily home for news notes and analysis infused with the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. And thank you, Locked On listeners, for making Locked On Patriots

your first listen every day. Remember, Locked On Patriots is free and available on all platforms. Also, today's episode of Locked On Patriots is brought to you by On Location. On Location is the official hospitality partner of the NFL, and it's the only place to score a once-in-a-lifetime Super Bowl ticket and experience package. Visit onlocationexp.com slash SB56 for more information or search Super Bowl On Location. And greetings and salutations, Patriots Nation, and thank you for joining me here on this Tuesday

episode of the pod. My name is Mike DeBate, and I cover your New England Patriots Nation, and thank you for joining me here on this Tuesday episode of the pod. My name is Mike DeBate, and I cover your New England Patriots for Patriot Maven of Sports Illustrated. I'm also your host of the Locked On Patriots podcast, which, of course, is a proud part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. And that phrase, your team every day, not just the catchphrase. It means your questions, your comments, your feedback are always welcomed and very much encouraged. So share that feedback. Send it to the

internet by reaching out to me and following me on Twitter at MDABATENFL. And while you're out there doing some Tuesday traveling through the Twitterverse, please be sure to follow the Locked On Patriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. Pats fans, your New England Patriots are entering the bye week at a record of 9-4 after a 14-10

victory over the Buffalo Bills in Orchard Park, New York on Monday Night Football. The Patriots ran the ball effectively, 222 yards on the ground. Big night for Damian Harris. Bigger night for Ramondre Stevenson. But ultimately, it was the Patriots defense getting timely stops that helped the Pats to a 14-10 victory over their bitter divisional rival. As a result, the Patriots maintain their lead in the AFC East. They also maintain their top seeding in the AFC overall. And again, folks, after this team started 2-4, not many saw this coming. The New England Patriots are putting together an incredible run,

and they're doing it with a familiar formula. Smart, complimentary football on both sides of the ball and dynamic coaching. Can't ask for much more than that. Folks, we are going to break down all of the action from Monday night's game here today on Locked On Patriots, and joining me to do so is Locked On Patriots resident voice of reason, my good friend Steve Balistrieri of Patsfans.com will join me here on the hot seat in just a moment. We'll talk about this one from a Pats perspective, from a Bills perspective. Did the fact that Mac Jones only completed two of three passes for 19 yards indicate that maybe the team is losing confidence in his arm?

Baller dash. And we're going to explain exactly why that is not the take of the day and basically just a glorified attempt at finding attention. We're also going to discuss Steve's thoughts on the Patriots' performance on the offensive side of the ball and the defensive side of the ball. And we'll even take a dive into some interesting post-game comments from Bill's head coach, Sean McDermott. Folks, an action-packed agenda. Tons to get to on the pod today. So without much further ado, I welcome in my Patriots pison, my good friend, Steve Balistrieri, columnist extraordinaire for Patsfans.com, when this Victory Tuesday episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. Because with Boost, you get the power of a free 5G phone so you can listen to that latest episode and keep up with your favorite players and teams in any sport.

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Patriots fans, your New England Patriots sit today heading into week 14, incidentally the bye week for the Pats, at 9-4 atop the AFC, atop the AFC East, riding the good feeling of a 14-10 victory over their bitter division rival Buffalo Bills at Highmark Stadium in Orchard Park, New York on Monday night. It wasn't aesthetically pretty. It wasn't even orthodox. But the New England Patriots were able to find a way to win using an unconventional strategy. But in my opinion, a very familiar, straightforward approach. We're going to do what we want to do, which is run the football, and we're going to dare you to stop it. Bottom line, the New England Patriots did it and the Buffalo Bills did not. And that

is the difference between these two teams right now as we sit evaluating the Pats' big week 13 win as they sit at 9-4 on the regular season. Joining us here today to break down all the action that we saw from Orchard Park last night is our resident voice of reason here on Locked On Patriots. One of the best, one of the most knowledgeable columnists that you'll find anywhere in Patriots media. You know his great work from patsfans.com, as well as being the co-host of two amazing podcasts, Patriots 4th and 2, and One Patriots Place.

He is my Patriots bison, and deserving of all the praise he gets, and then some. My good friend Steve Balistrieri joins me here today. Welcome back to Locked On Patriots, my friend, for this Victory Tuesday episode of the pod. I know it's getting to be a habit now, seven weeks in a row. And, you know, what a crazy game last night. I was sitting there the last night after the game was over. I was putting some observations

together and I was like, you know, somewhere George Hallis and Vince Lombardi are smiling because this was one of those throwback games where it was like, hey, three yards, four yards and a cloud of dust and day to stop it.

Absolutely. That's exactly what it was. I mean, long time since the new england patriots have been an underdog in a division in a conference race uh but we saw that last year obviously with the patriots coming back down to earth a little bit steve this year all of a sudden they're not sneaking up on teams the way they did 20 years ago. And I'm not making that analogy. I've seen that made several times. And that really is not accurate because the Patriots are on the map. But this is a team that is overachieving in the eyes of an awful lot of national analysts. Very few people thought that the Patriots would be in this position.

A lot of people thought they'd be better than they were last year, maybe even in contention for a division title, maybe even knocking on the door at a wild card spot. But very few people thought that they would be atop the AFC this late in the season heading into the playoffs. But they're doing it with a familiar formula, a stifling defense, one that's solid in all three levels. They're able to get up front, stop the run, set the edge. The linebackers get into position. They're able to rush the passer along with the edge rushers and stout play in the secondary. On the offensive side of the ball, utilizing that short passing game, that timing-based,

accurate passes where only the quarterback can connect with the receiver and the receiver can get it and do something with it, that opens up play action. And obviously it all starts with the run game. And to me, that's exactly where this game should start, where our evaluation of this game should start. And that's the running game. The England Patriots running for 222 yards on the ground last night. And just again, I mean, this was very much straightforward. The Bills came into this game absolutely knowing that the Patriots were going to try to run early and run often I think everybody that analyzed this game yourself included myself and my pregame notebook all said that this was going to be the Patriots opportunity to run the football the Pats knew what they wanted to do the Bills knew what

they wanted to do but they could not stop it What was the difference maker in terms of these two teams, especially when it comes to the running game with the New England Patriots? And why did they find the success that they found last night? Well, I think, you know, when you look at it, the Patriots dominated in the trenches in the last year when the Bills swept them. The Bills dominated in the trenches. And, you know, I was looking at it after the football game. I mean, the Bills, as you said just a moment ago, the Bills knew they were going to try to run the football. And they put eight, nine, even a couple of times, ten guys up in the box. And running against stacked boxes last night, the Patriots offensive line,

you know, opened holes for the running backs, carried 26 times for 141 yards and a touchdown. And that's against stacked boxes. To me, that offensive line deserves huge marks of that last night. And you have to give credit to the wide receivers blocked very well, the tight ends as well, and, of course, Yacob Johnson. But that was the key. I think the Patriots, you know, they owned the line of scrimmage last night. Yeah, without any question.

I really do believe they did own the line of scrimmage last night. And I wrote about this for Sports Illustrated earlier on Monday, where I believe that the game ball should have been doled out to the offensive line. And you mentioned that. I mean, you get 22, 222 yards on the ground. That's a tall task for any running back or in any situation. But when you consider the weather that they were playing through, it looks a little bit even more impressive. And look, the weather forced the Patriots to run it more than maybe they even thought they were going to heading into this game. The offensive line allowed them to continue to run the football effectively. Dominant performance, like you said, in the trenches, allowing the team to average 5.2 yards per carry.

And that's not accounting for the kneel down yardage losses, but they got the strong pushes up front. Michael Wainu lining up as the team's sixth lineman I thought was a good strategy. Really get those guys, the big guys up front. Jakob Johnson deserves some credit for the blocking that he did. Nikhil Harry does as well, but their ability to make the key blocks, allowing the edge to spring Damian Harris from Andre Stevenson for big yardage. The running backs were clearly impressive, and I'm not taking anything away from the way they ran the football last night. Great job by both, but the performance of the offensive line, I think, was New England's most important ingredient for the success that they had on Monday. So, great stuff from the New England Patriots' old line, and again, it really did help them to advance the football.

Steve, we're going to stay on the offensive side of the ball for just a moment because there is a little bit of chum floating around in the waters right now for the hot take sharks that can't wait to circle and be able to devour this juicy nugget that is out there right now that says that a two of three 19-yard passing stat line by Mac Jones is a clear indictment that the Patriots don't trust the rookie quarterback and that they have no confidence in his arm. He's a passenger. He's a weak-armed quarterback. We're hearing all this, obviously, from bitter Bills fans. They're leading the charge, as we knew they would. a weak armed quarterback uh we're hearing all this obviously from bitter bills fans they're leading the charge as we knew they would but you know i'm okay with that because i mean fans of

teams are going to be frustrated and you expect that and a fan look bottom line whether i agree with their opinion or not they have a right to cheer or boo whoever they'd like that's their given right but when you see these types of takes by colleagues, I guess that's the best way for me to put it, colleagues in the media that are trying to portray this into something that it's not. That's just my opinion that it is not. But I'll let you go ahead on this, Steve. I don't want to steal your thunder. What was your opinion of the way the Patriots utilized Mac Jones last night? And do you believe that this indicates any type of concern in his ability moving forward? Or did the Patriots just play to the conditions and strength they had on the field last night?

Well, I just thought that was the game plan, you know, with the weather and the wind, the way it was last night. I think, you know, they looked at it. It was like, the passing game, we can't rely on that. It's just going to be too difficult to throw the football. It's going to be very difficult to kick the football. So, you know, we're going to have to rely on our physical running game,

and we're just going to, hey, you know what? We're going to run the ball down your throat all game long. And, you know, you want to talk about arm strength. The guy on the other side of the field has an absolute cannon. And, you know, Josh Allen. And NextGenStats last night, you know, after the game said when Josh Allen was trying to throw the ball, more than 10 yards or more down the field,

they called that downfield passing. He was 3 of 13. Now, some of that you have to give credit to the Patriots' defense, which I thought the secondary played very well. But a lot of that had to do with the weather. And if a guy with an absolute cannon like Josh Allen's 3 of 13, then, you know, making up a storyline to criticize Mac Jones to me is ludicrous. Because Bill Belichick had a game plan. They stuck with it.

They stayed conservative. They controlled the clock. They controlled the tempo. They wore down their defense. And they played with the lead and gave themselves the wind in the fourth quarter, and it worked out perfectly for them. Absolutely. So glad that you said that.

I'm glad you mentioned next-gen stats as well. That's a good piece of information for our listeners, and I actually extracted a little nice piece of nugget from them as well last night. But look, bottom line, the Patriots definitely took a cautious approach with their passing game strategy on Monday. I think that's a fair assessment to say that you're dealing with a rookie quarterback. You're dealing with some uncertainty about playing in a hostile environment, playing in harsh weather conditions. And you want to make sure that when you unleash his abilities and allow him to be able to play his game, that he's going to be able to do it

and that nothing is going to shake that. I've seen a lot of feedback on Twitter and whatnot from fans and haters alike, I guess is the best way for me to put it. I hate using that term, but it's just the most accurate term I can think of right now, Steve. And, oh, well, isn't it better to have them fail and learn from their experience? Well, no, not when you are atop the division, not when you're atop the conference. You're playing to stay there.

You're not trying to ruin the team's opportunity simply because you want to see what the quarterback can do. You're going to devise a circumstance and you're going to devise a game plan that's going to allow you to win. And if that means putting the quarterback on the shelf for a little bit, sparingly, that's exactly what they were going to do. Next-gen stats indicated last night, Steve, that Damian Harris and Ramondre Stevenson ran for 86 rushing yards, over-expected against the Bills on Monday night. When you're getting that type of production, great blocking from the offensive line, like you just talked about, and they're running with that patience, that strength that's going to prevent them from falling into negative plays.

Why would you abandon that? There's no reason to abandon that. And that's why Bill Belichick and the Patriots did not abandon that. It wasn't about aesthetics. It wasn't about pleasing the talking heads. It was about winning the football game. And maybe that's what rubs people the wrong way about Bill Belichick, is that he doesn't care about your morning shows on the four letter or three letter networks. He just does not care what you have to say.

He's going to look at the end of the day and say, I'm nine and four. We won the game. Go home and cry about it. I'm paraphrasing here, folks, but that's exactly what he's going to do. And, you know, not for anything, but a lot of people are saying, oh, well, you know, they didn't go to Mac. It proves that they didn't want to go to Mac. Well, I don't think the Bills did a very effective job of forcing the Patriots to go to Mac, forcing Mac to throw the football. They just never made the adjustments to be able to push

the Patriots into those obvious passing situations. If they were up against the wall or the Bills were able to put the ball in the end zone and capitalize on the miscues, maybe that's what Sean McDermott should have been crying about in the end of the game last night, rather than, you know, worry about what Bill Belichick's doing on the other sideline. And we'll get to that in a moment, folks. But that to me would have forced the Patriots into maybe utilizing the pass a little bit more. And Bill Belichick acknowledged that this morning on Greg Hill on WEI, saying that, you know, we were prepared to pass the ball more. If they had forced us to do it, we would have done it.

We didn't have to because they played with the lead all night and they had the confidence going through. So, yeah, the hot takes are going to be there. We're going to hear them for the next week and a half until preparations start to be made for Indianapolis in week 15. But folks, you heard Steve, you heard myself. I think it's a lot of much ado about nothing at this point and the criticism that Mac is going to get. I think the Patriots, again, like Steve said, had a game plan and that's what they stuck to. Before we flip this over in the defensive side of the ball, Bud, I wanted to spend a moment

just on coaching. And I think the tale between these two teams is very clear when you look at how the coaches handled this game. First of all, the weather in this contest was supposed to favor the home team. I thought the Patriots looked much better prepared in terms of how they were going to handle it and game planning for it uh the bills almost look defiant at times basically saying we're going to do what we always do and we're going to play through it kind of like that mentality of a captain that's going to sail through the uh the storm in the middle of the sea rather than try to circumvent around it or maybe pull back a little bit and take a cautious approach and get there in one piece um that to me was was one and then second post-game comments by uh by sean mcdermott

basically saying that he didn't want to give bill belichick as much credit uh as uh as much i i thought that was more of a shot at his own team than belichick himself but there's clearly something in sean mcdermott's head when it comes to bill belichick himself, but there's clearly something in Sean McDermott's head when it comes to Bill Belichick. Is it just the matter of Bill being that much more prepared, that much better than other teams, or is there an element of Belichick's aura arriving before a big game like this just enough to cause some coaches to, I don't want to say fall apart because I don't think Sean fell apart last night, but just basically go into the output that you saw last night.

How much of this should be on Bill Belichick's shoulders in terms of coaching? Well, I think, you know, when you look at the grand scheme of things, Bill's in a lot of these guys' heads. And I thought that showed it really clear last night. I mean, we saw glimpses of it in the past with McDermott and other coaches. I mean, we've seen this. And last night was a prime example. And, you know, Bill raised a few eyebrows last week, and I'm paraphrasing,

but he said something very similar to how you led into this. The Bills are kind of a do-what-they-do team. They're not a game plan specific team, and they kind of do what they do. And the Patriots last night looked at the elements and said, okay, you know, we need to adjust. We have to kind of throw out, you know, the game plan that we ran a week ago or two weeks ago or whatever, you know, how we wanted to approach this game offensively. And we're going to have to adjust as well as defensively and with special teams. And they cut down on their mistakes. They control the tempo. And, you know, they play with the lead the entire game.

When the Bills, on the other hand, they just kind of, you know, hey, we're going to do what we do, and we're going to make you beat us. Well, they made more mistakes. The elements played a huge role in beating them. And I think it goes to coaching. It does. I mean, the Patriots, you know, we've heard this for years and years, you know, they, they changed their identity from week to week, depending on the opponent and the situation. And, you know, we saw that.

I mean, obviously they've been running the football really And, you know, we saw that. I mean, obviously they've been running the football really strong, you know, for the entire year. But last night, I mean, they only threw the ball three times. And I think, you know, the coaching staff deserves a lot of credit for adjusting to the situation the way it was. And I think builds in Sean McDermott's head. Listening to him after the game, I was like, wow. I mean, he's just obsessed with them.

But I think McDermott knows they lost a huge opportunity last night because they were at home. All of a sudden, the Patriots aren't way back in the rearview mirror like they were a year ago. Now, all of a sudden, this is a dogfight. And I think they kind of thought they were going to own this division for several years. And now that's not happening. This is going to be a rock fight every year for the year for the next few years to come.

Yeah, good point. I mean, you know, whether they're resting on their laurels or whether the Bills maybe took this opponent a little bit too lightly, that's something that only the Bills, their coaching staff in that locker room can really answer for sure. They said the right things after the game. I'm talking to players. I'm not talking McDermott. Now, folks, I'm talking to players, you know, saying that that wasn't surprising. They knew the Patriots were a tough team, you know, and they went into that detail. But at the same time, you have to wonder if there is that sense of,

oh man, we just let one slip through our fingers here. Divisional rivals come into our house in a very adverse weather condition game. And we let them escape with a four point victory when their quarterback only threw the ball two times. It really three times, excuse me, and completed two passes. It really is disheartening for a team if you think about it.

And I'm sure that level of frustration contributed to all of that negativity after the game, including the comments about McDermott. But I think you make a good point on Bill. And I think he has this effect on a lot of coaches. A while back, Steve, you and I are both big movie buffs. We have been for years. I was reading an article on Orson Welles and Orson, somewhere out there, there's this audio tape. Those of you that are listening to this, you may find Christian Bale's rant on a stagehand or one of the set workers, a little bit more contemporary. But

Orson absolutely just really like ringed out a sound editor one time. I mean, it was really something that just is legendary to this day. And Wells was often asked about it by people that would hire him to either do voice work or to come on and do cameo shots or work with him. And Wells often said, you know, I like that reputation. It intimidates people before I arrive. And I think a lot of that is Bill Belichick. And I think Bill Belichick likes that. I think he likes having that type of effect on coaches, knowing that he's one of the elder statesmen in this league. A lot of these coaches that are, you know, getting into the game right now kind of grew up watching Bill Belichick and maybe idolizing or emulating what he does. It's a factor. I mean, people can downplay it all

they want to and roll their eyes and go, oh, you know, it's just fluff. It really isn't fluff. If someone is in your head and they're causing you difficulty to do your job then that's an advantage and that's the advantage that bill belichick has that and the fact that he just seems to prepare his team better than anybody uh in the game especially in the game today uh but really that i've seen in the last 20 years bill does it better than anybody that's one of the reasons why the new england patriots are 9-4 atop both the conference and the division. Steve, we've had a lot of you talking about that. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt you,

but that you mentioned the Orson Welles thing, because yesterday afternoon I was flipping through the dial and I was trying to get some relaxation time, and a film came on. And at the very end of the film, there was a quote. And I know you and I usually quote Godfather quotes. But this was a different film, although it was a gangster movie. And it was from the film The Gentleman.

And at the end, I'm like, this is so fitting for tonight's game. Because at the end, Matthew McConaughey plays a guy named Michael Pearson. And he said, if you wish to be the king of the jungle, it's not enough to act like the king. You must be the king. And there can be no doubt, because doubt causes chaos and causes one's own demise. And that fits the Bills last night. They were chirping after every play,

and they kind of sensed that the Patriots were taking over that game and out-physicaling them. And you could see it with McDermott on the sideline. He was incensed the entire game. Yeah, he truly was. And, again, when you have that type of an impact and that type of an influence on a psyche of a team, whether it be from the coaching staff, the top down, it all starts there. And if your coach is coming unglued by these matters, what makes you think the players are not going to come unglued as a result of it? So excellent. I love the quote from the gentleman. I love that dynamite drop in. And, you know, once again, we were able to find pop culture references within the New England Patriots because at nine and four, it's the era of good feelings up here in New England. And we haven't even scratched the surface yet, folks, because Steve and I have yet to mention

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Visit BeachBound.com today. Patriots fans, the great Steve Balistrieri joins me here today on Victory Tuesday on Locked On Patriots, breaking down the Pats 14-10 victory over their divisional rival Buffalo Bills. And Steve, we touched upon this a little bit earlier when we talked about how the Patriots took their approach to this game. You knew that if they were going to win a game in which the weather conditions were going to be adverse, it was going to be through running the football on offense and timely stops on defense.

And the Patriots did both. They were able to contain Josh Allen for the most part. You mentioned it a little bit earlier. His difficulty throwing the ball down the field proves that it's not just a Mac Jones thing, folks, about throwing the ball. Even the rifle-armed Josh Allen had difficulty moving the ball through that Buffalo air last night, or the Western New York air, I should say. Technically, it's Orchard Park. But Allen finishes 15 of 30, 145 yards. The Buffalo Bills running backs were only able to get 60 running yards on the ground. 39 of their rushing yards came from Allen's legs himself. So the Patriots were able to be solid in

all three levels. I was most impressed by last night from what I saw with the interior of the defensive line, Steve. Having given up 270 rushing yards on the ground of the Tennessee Titans, they had nowhere to go but up, but I thought they were very impressive last night, particularly Devon Godshaw. I thought he was really strong in terms of being able to clog that middle, allow guys like Lawrence guy to get into position far more, you know, you know, Davis, these guys were all in on the interior of the defensive line.

And I think it facilitated a lot of what the linebackers did. How much credit do they deserve for keeping the Buffalo running game in check and I know Buffalo's running game is not overly impressive but Devin Singletary, Zach Moss, Matt Breda those guys can run the football if you give them the opportunity to Patriots didn't do that last night how much credit do they deserve for the victory? Oh, yeah. And again, like we mentioned earlier, I mean, Patriots on the line of scrimmage. They took away Buffalo's running game. You mentioned their backs only accounted for 60 yards on 19 carries.

You take that away. You make them one-dimensional. Josh Allen did scramble for some yardage, which he's always going to do, but I thought they did a fairly good job of that as well. And then with the weather, you cut those routes off because you know he's not going to be able to throw the ball accurately down the field, and you have to play tight, good coverage. And I thought they did a fantastic job of that.

I'm glad you mentioned Godshaw, because I thought he had his best game as a Patriot. Last night, I thought he was immense out there. Adrian Phillips, I know who's a fan favorite of yourself. I thought he had a fantastic game. Miles Bryant came up with a really big stop at the end. I thought the secondary, you know, we had some concerns there, but I thought at least in this game, secondary played exceptionally well. Yeah, the secondary did play exceptionally well. And you look at the problems that everyone

anticipated the secondary having going into this game down Kyle Duggar, the Patriots were able to find a way to weather through it. And I wrote about this again earlier for Sports Illustrated and that life found a way for the New England Patriots to be able to still utilize that three safety set and got great contributions from Miles Bryan, especially from Adrian Phillips stepping up. He was big on Dawson Knox. And you look at the difference between what the Patriots did in their secondary, as opposed to what the Bills did in their secondary. And again, one of the big reasons why I think we didn't see a whole lot of Mac Jones is that the Bills in their defensive set, their primary nickel defensive team, that run approach was the best way for them to neutralize

and take Buffalo out of their comfort zone. Basically take it out of it there for the entire game. New England is built to do that. Buffalo is really not built on the other side to be able to play through it. On the other side, on the defensive side of the ball for the Pats and offensively for the Bills, the Patriots were designed to be able to take that run away, bring, you know, you know, Josh Allen out of his comfort zone. And, and I think it was, it was very, you know, very well schemed and very well executed by the Patriots defensive coaching staff. And of course the players themselves, and you mentioned Adrian Phillips, you mentioned, you know, his prowess. It was great to see him be able to get in there. One miscue on the missed tackle on Singletary. That's something you don't see Phillips do often, but really more than a tone for it.

And I thought he was brilliant on Dawson Knox for the entire night, getting a couple of big knockaways and just always in the right place at the right time. Again, folks, not by happenstance. That's by design. Adrian knows where he needs to be on the field and he was deployed there, you know, very, very well. Steve, finally, when you look at this team now moving forward and you look at this, you know, Patriots defense, especially, there are a lot of guys that are nursing some injuries, especially in the linebacker core. We saw Adrian Phillips for one go down last night,

and hopefully he'll be okay moving forward. Matt Judon apparently got the wind knocked out of him. It looked like that was a little more serious on the television broadcast than it actually was in person. Apparently he should be okay, but these guys are going to be nursing some injuries trying to move forward. As they head into the bye week, what type of preparations can this defense make to maintain that level of hot play that they've seemed to have really all season long? I don't think this team's really let up that much in their approach. What can they do to maintain that as they now look forward to a severe threat in terms of the running game and Jonathan Taylor and the Indianapolis Colts? Yeah, I think the main thing is get some rest,

get some of the guys who are dinged up a little healthier. You know, it seemed like Adrian Phillips dodged the bullet with his comments after the game. Judon went down, but he came back. So that was a good thing to see and like you said you know the the list during uh you know the injury list during the week for practice is awfully long every week so this will be a good time they have 11 days to get ready for the colts because that's going to be a very physical football game. And I think the main thing is they have to, you know,

commit themselves to stopping the run because that's going to be the key to that football game is you have to take them out of, you know, easy third down situations and force them to throw the football. Yeah, without any question. I think that's a great point. And it will be interesting to see if that Patriots injury list heading into week 15 against the Indianapolis Colts gets a little less extensive with some of the rest time that these guys have had to kind of get back and get back to where they need to. And I don't mean to just make generalizations, folks.

I know there are plenty of Patriots on the offensive side of the ball that are banged up as well. A late bye week for the New England Patriots this year, folks, but definitely good that they'll have that week's worth of rest heading into the home stretch and the final four games of the 2021 NFL season. And it just, it's amazing how time has evaporated, Steve. It's amazing that we're here. And in late December, the next time the Patriots take the field, but here we are and they'll continue to play at the highest level possible. But what can I say? Thank you so much for taking the time out to join me here on this Victory Tuesday episode

of Locked On Patriots. Folks, it might be the bye week next week, but bear not, because Steve will be joining us on Tuesday again as we look forward to the second part of the Patriots' run for the playoffs. And also we'll talk a little bit about the recap of the first half of the season. I know it's not the half, but it feels like it when there's a bye week, so that's how we'll refer to it here. Buddy, in the meantime, before I let you go, please let our listeners know where they can find you, interact with you, and what they can look forward to from the great Penn and the great voice of Steve Balistrieri in the coming days and weeks. Well, thanks again for having me. As always, I always look forward to our chats about football and gangster movies. So, you know, that's always a pleasure. But, you know, this week, you know, normally I take a look at, you know, during the bye week of where they're at. But I think this week we're going to focus on, you know,

their last four games of the season because we're 13 games in by the time the Patriots get a bye. So, you know, we're going to focus on what they're looking at the final four weeks. They have a couple of tough games coming up with Indianapolis and then right back again with the Bills. Miami's playing better football now. So there's no cakewalk for them down the stretch.

And you can find me on Twitter, at SteveB7SFG. I'm also on Facebook, Instagram, and all that other fun stuff. But that's what we'll be looking at. And, you know, it's shaping up to be a great run down the stretch. Absolutely. It is shaping up to be a great run down the stretch. And ultimately, the New England Patriots will continue to do what they've done right along, and that is continue to win with a familiar formula.

Strong defense, strong performance on offense, efficient on offense, and exemplary coaching. And they've done that pretty much all season long since starting two and four, and hopefully they'll continue that momentum heading into the stretch run as they march toward the playoffs. In the meantime, Bud, continue, please. Stay safe, stay well. Thank you very much for joining me here today, and we look forward to talking ball with you again here next week on Locked on Patriots.