Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - San Francisco Beat: Pats Fall to 49ers 33-6 - 10/26/2020

Episode Date: October 26, 2020

In an uncharacteristically sluggish performance, the New England Patriots were dominated on both sides of the ball in a 33-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Week Seven. Joining host Mike D’Abate to sift through the debris is fan-favorite Thomas ‘Murph’ Murphy. The pair discuss Cam Newton’s struggles, the inability of the defense to stop the Niners offensive attack, the virtual disappearances of both Julian Edelman and Chase Winovich, and Jakobi Meyers and Damien Harris providing the only bright spots in a dismal day on Sunday.Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! Rock AutoAmazing selection. Reliably low prices. All the parts your car will ever need. Visit RockAuto.com and tell them Locked On sent you.Built BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order.MyBookieINVEST IN YOUR INTUITION. USE PROMO CODE LOCKEDON AND DOUBLE YOUR FIRST DEPOSIT. NEW PLAYERS GET UP TO $1,000 IN FREE PLAY - DESIGNED TO ADD MORE EXCITEMENT TO THE SPORTS YOU LOVE AND THE GAMES YOU BET. YOUR WINNING SEASON BEGINS TODAY...ONLY AT MYBOOKIE!BuiltGoVisit BuiltGO.com and use promo code “LOCKED,” and you’ll get 20% off your next order. 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 in to the Locked On Patriots podcast. And today here on the pod, we will be sifting through the debris of a week seven game in which your New England Patriots were San Francisco beat by the 49ers 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. Locked On Patriots is presented today by Pepsi, made for football watching. This football season will be different, and Pepsi is here to get you ready for game day, no matter how you watch this season. Pepsi is the refreshment you need to power through game day and become a member of the League of Football Watchers. Because Pepsi isn't made for those who play the game, it's made for those who watch it. Pepsi, made for football watching. Patriots fans, I would wish you all a happy Monday today,

but quite frankly, there's just not a whole lot to smile about in Patriots Nation. Today is Monday, October 26, 2020, and your New England Patriots currently sit at 2-4 on the 2020 NFL season, and in third place in the AFC East. My name is Mike DeBate, your host of the Locked On Patriots currently sit at 2-4 on the 2020 NFL season and in third place in the AFC East. My name is Mike DeBate, 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 folks, because it's your team every day, that means your questions, your comments, your feedback are always welcomed and greatly appreciated.

Feel free to share that feedback anytime by reaching out to me and following me on Twitter at MDABATEFPC. And while you're out there doing some Monday self-muttering through the Twitterverse, please be sure to follow the Lockdown Patriots account as well at LO underscore Patriots. Pats fans, we thought things would get better with a full week of practice. We thought things would get better with a full week of practice. We thought things would get better with a healthy offensive line. Those two twists of fortunate fate would have brought the New England Patriots back into the win column and erased that Week 6 bad taste in our mouths after an 18-12 loss at

home to the Denver Broncos. Well, I hate to say this, Pats fans, but guess again. The Patriots had both a full week of practice and a relatively healthy offensive line, at least to start this game. But as Linkin Park once said, in the end, it didn't even matter. An uncharacteristically sluggish performance for the Patriots, and they were dominated on both sides of the ball in a 33-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers in Foxborough on Sunday. And the big story in this one is for the second straight week, Cam Newton continues to struggle. He completed only 9 of 15 passes for 98 yards, 3 interceptions. The game was well out of

hand when he would actually be replaced by Jarrett Stidham in the fourth quarter. Stidham fared no better than Cam Newton. He went 6 of 10, passing for 64 yards and an interception. And it's leading all of us here in Patriots Nation to wonder whether or not there is a quarterback problem. I've been a staunch proponent of Cam Newton in New England. I still believe the best is yet to come when it comes to his fit within this offense. But I don't think there's anyone that can deny that his play lately has been concerning. And I'm probably putting that mildly.

For a lot of the day, Cam just seemed to be out of sync. He was making poor reads. He was making uncharacteristically bad throws. Wasn't getting a whole lot of help from his supporting cast of receivers and tight ends. But by the time this one was in the books, Newton and New England's offense were out gained 467 yards gained by Jimmy Garoppolo in the 49ers offense, compared to just 241 in total yards for Cam and the Patriots offense. Ouch, folks. On the opposite side of things, Jimmy Garoppolo was actually pretty successful on Sunday. His performance on the stat sheet won't wow you, but Jimmy was successful in spreading

out the Patriots defense. 49ers as a whole were very effective in utilizing passes behind the line of scrimmage, those jet sweeps to get the ball in the hands of guys like Debo Samuel, Jeff Wilson Jr., who had an amazing game at running back, and even tight end George Kittle got a few carries. As for Jimmy, he'd end up finishing this game going 20 of 25 passing for 277 yards, did throw two interceptions. Neither one of those interceptions ended up being a factor.

Rookie receiver Brandon Ayuk out of Arizona State had six catches for 115 yards, and Debo Samuel ended up having five catches for 65 yards. And if I'm being honest in my assessment of this game, folks, this one was really over very shortly after it started. So without further ado, let's get to the action on the field. And the Niners wasted little time in getting that scoreboard lit at Gillette. It took just over five minutes and nine plays for them to get downfield 75 yards, and they took an early 7-0 lead on a three-yard run by Jeff Wilson Jr. That opening drive touchdown

by the Niners was the first time that the Patriots have allowed a touchdown on an opponent's opening drive at home since week four of the 2016 season against the Buffalo Bills. This one would stay 7-0 San Fran throughout the first quarter. The Patriots would actually strike first in the second on a 40-yard field goal by Nick Falk. 49ers would come right back, put three back on the board after a 41-yard field goal by Robbie Gould. And then this is when San Francisco started to open this one up. Cam Newton attempting an ill-timed pass to Jacoby Myers was picked off by Niners linebacker Fred Warner. Five plays later, the Niners capitalized on a four-yard touchdown run by fullback Kyle Vucek.

That would make the game 16-3 after Gould would miss the extra point, but it wouldn't really matter as this one as the Niners would put the final points of the first half on the board. A 16-yard touchdown run by Wilson, and the Niners would take a 23-3 lead into the half. And I know a lot of you out there in Patriots Nation were hoping for some of that Shanahan fizzle. We've seen it before. 28-3 anyone. Shanahan was the offensive coordinator on that Falcons team, but not this time. The second half would be more of a formality than an

opportunity. Following Folk's second field goal of the day for New England, Wilson then capped a six-play 79-yard drive by finding the end zone following his third touchdown. Definite concern for the Niners at the end of this game. Wilson's leg got twisted as he was tackled. He stayed down on the field before being able to walk off under his own power. Niners fans will definitely want to continue to monitor that one, because Jeff Wilson Jr. was brilliant in this game. The one-time undrafted free agent would finish the day having rushed for 112 yards,

and ultimately ultimately for the Patriots folks, this would mark their third straight loss and drop them to 2-4 on the 2020 NFL season. And one of the phrases I hate the most in sports media is uncharted territory. I use it a lot more than I'd like to myself, and in this situation, I wouldn't quite say uncharted, but it's definitely unfamiliar territory. This loss had a lot of dubious distinctions. First of all, starting with the fact that the Patriots' 27-point loss was their largest at home under Bill Belichick. New England had gone 286 games without a three-game losing streak. That was the longest span between three-game slides in NFL history.

Mentioned before that the Patriots have fallen to 2-4. That's the first time they've done so since Bill Belichick's first season in 2000. The Patriots went 5-11 that year. Of course, that was the last full season in New England before the Brady-Belichick era began just one year later. And finally, a stat that was shared early Monday morning by Mike Giardi of the NFL Network, a statistic I found staggering. The Patriots have scored fewer than 13 points in three straight games for the first time in the Bill Belichick era since staggering. The Patriots have scored fewer than 13 points in three straight games for the first time in the Bill Belichick era since 2000. The last such Patriot streak that happened like this

was week 17 of 1995 through week 2 of 1996. Yikes. Not a lot of ways to sugarcoat this one here, folks. This loss was a complete disaster. Really on both sides of the ball. The offense is going to get the lion both sides of the ball. The offense is going to get the lion's share of the criticism, and it deserves it. The defense was equally as futile in trying to stop the 49ers' offensive attack. This one leaves us scratching our heads

on both offense and on defense, and because it's Monday, folks, we need some monster wisdom and counsel to help break it all down. And as I am each and mostly every Monday here on the pod, I am proud to welcome in my good friend, the Green King of Sting himself, Thomas Murphy, where we will break down Cam Newton's offensive woes. What ailed the Patriots' defense? Where oh where were Julian Edelman and Chase Winovich on the field on Sunday? And in one of our toughest tasks yet, we try to pry away some positivity from Sunday's debacle in Foxborough. Also, throughout the week here on Locked on Patriots,

we will continue to monitor three Patriot injuries that occurred in yesterday's game. Probably the most concerning of those to wide receiver Nakheel Harry, who exited the game in the first half with a head injury. He was being treated in concussion protocol. He did not return to the game, and at present, we just don't know what his status for this Sunday against the Buffalo Bills might be. One area where the Patriots may have lucked out is the injury to guard Joe Tooney.

Tooney exited the game in the second half with an ankle injury. Initial reports following the game indicated that the ankle sprain was minor in nature. Still too early to tell whether or not Tooney will miss any time for this. However, it is good news to hear that it is a minor sprain and that Tooney should be okay even if he does have to miss a small amount of time lastly right tackle Justin Heron left with an ankle injury in the second half he'll continue to be monitored Patriots offensive line just continues to be bitten by the injury bug here folks one break that the Pats did catch defensive tackle lawrence guy went down with an injury looked like that could have been more serious went into the blue medical tent in gillette

came back out and ended up playing the rest of the game guy is as tough as they come and the patriots are definitely counting their blessings when it comes to that because quite frankly there's no one on the depth chart that would be able to fill in and do what lawrence guy does he's that important to their defense, and we'll continue to monitor whether or not he pops up on the injury report this week, but hopefully all will be okay with Lawrence Guy. So now that we've broken down the action on the field, it's time to take a deeper dive into the analysis,

and my good friend Thomas Murphy will join me here in just a moment to do just that when the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. But first, yesterday's game at Gillette may have you thinking, hey, you know what? I can go out there and help the Patriots right now. I can do better than a lot of those guys can. Yeah, I hate to burst your bubble, folks, but it's not easy to take the football field. Thanks to a lack of natural athleticism or commitment or overbearing sports parents, fewer than 1% of 1% of 1% of people will ever play professional football.

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That's Pepsi, made for football watching. Patriots fans, we continue to break down the Patriots loss to the San Francisco 49ers. And a loss like this always requires some green wisdom and counsel to help it become more palatable, if you can even imagine that. Luckily for us, that type of wisdom and counsel graces the airwaves each and every week here on Lockdown Patriots. That's right, everyone. It's that time again. Your favorite and mine, my benefactor in this business,

the Count of Murphy, Fisto himself, the legendary Thomas Murphy, is back for his weekly appearance here on Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for coming to me in friendship and for joining me today. Don Murphy. Always a pleasure to be here, Michael. Even under these dire days that hearken me back to my childhood. Oh, yeah. Way back in the 70s.

Myself as well. I was a teenager the last time to the Patriots maybe to a fault at times but two and four on October 26th the Patriots find themselves in very unfamiliar territory at least since the Brady Belichick era took over and there's a lot to break down in this one but where else we're going to start with the obvious Cam Newton struggled for a second. You can make the argument that maybe he didn't have his best game against the Raiders, but more positives than negatives in that one. But the last couple have not been good, and yesterday's was pretty abysmal. As I said to open the pod today, Cam made poor throws, bad decisions. It made me wonder a little bit about his health yesterday, but Cam said after the game he feels fine, that he's just pressing. That indicates that this may be more of a mental block than a physical restriction.

Bottom line, my friend, are the New England Patriots in trouble at the quarterback position? Let me put it this way. Bad language, smoking grass, poor caddying. they are they are in so much trouble it's unreal cam looks completely lost um for a man that spends entire flights with his head in the uh in the patriots playbook he certainly doesn't seem to be grasping it at this point in time uh he's continuously staring down his his his target um his progressions are slow. He cannot throw to the right side of the field. And it's bad, Mike. It's really, really bad. Yeah. I mean, it really surprised me to completely see the last couple of weeks how he's ignored the right side of the field without any questions. He can't throw. I said it before he was signed.

He can't throw to the right side of the field. It's over. He hasn't been yeah i said it before he was signed he can't throw to the right side of the field it's it's over he hasn't been able to do it and he still can't do it and um all the mechanic works in in uh in the world are not going to fix this it's terrible yeah i mean there that's the sentiment being shared around new england uh pretty well uh you know throughout the entire fan base. I think, you know, some are a little more optimistic on Cam than others. I still believe there's some talent there. And I'm really I'm pulling for the guy to pull out of this.

But staying on that subject for just a moment, the Patriots can't likely be very impressed by what they saw to Jarrett Stidham either. He came in, looked erratic at times. Jarrett has thrown four interceptions in 27 career pass attempts from 2019 through this year in 2020, according to Pro Football Reference. That doesn't instill a whole lot of confidence in saying, well, okay, if Cam has lost it, or if there's a reason why he was on the shelf for so long and now

we're seeing it, we can always give the ball to Jarrett. This is not looking like there's a whole lot of answers in that locker room right now. Is this a timing issue with the Patriots being able to find open receivers? Is it a little more of less maybe the playbook or are they simply being exposed without the decision-making ability and the savvy on the field of one Tom Brady who looks pretty damn good down in Tampa Bay right now. Yeah, it's quite obvious that Tom Brady was the system.

I've been saying this for years, and that's it. What's happening with Stidham right now is head-scratching. This is a man who eight months ago was considered the heir apparent. We didn't go out and bring in anybody early in free agency. There are a lot of reasons for that. They didn't draft another quarterback, and that was a mistake maybe along the lines of – but it gave you hope that they saw something in him. I'm not seeing anything in him right now.

From what we saw last year in practice situations and in preseason, a lot of people were very, very happy with what was going on. Some of this has to come down to the fact that over the last three weeks, you've got to consider that Stidham hasn't probably had as many even playing field opportunities. And the fact that when he's coming in, defenses are already set up to know that they've got to sling the ball, and that's not helping at all, though. No, it really isn't. And for lack of a better term, Bill Belichick took to the podium or the virtual podium via Zoom last night post-game

and said that Cam is still very much the starter. You know, Jarrett was inserted to get him some playing time. I don't know if there were a lot of people that felt that was going to be the case, although we did see it pop up a lot on social media last night. Is the era over? Are they going to go to Jared Stidham now? It's been a long time since we've had to worry about the quarterback position in New England, and apparently you've confirmed a lot of what we believe, and what I believe as well is maybe the problems at this position are a little more magnified than any of us wanted to believe. Murph, I do want to get back to the offense in just a moment but I also wanted to address the defense

which for all of the lumps that the offense is taking the defense had probably I think their worst performance of uh of the 2020 season so far yesterday as well uh the Pats front seven might be well built to stop that high-powered passing attack like we saw with the Kansas City Chiefs. I thought they defended them quite nicely, but they will struggle against an offense like the 49ers, one that likes to play with either a fullback or an extra tight end and are overpowering at the point of attack. If there's a silver lining in all this, the Niners are one of the few teams in the league that employ that type of overpowering at the point of attack. Do you believe that now the Niners may have laid the blueprint for being able to move

the ball effectively on the Patriots, in other words, neutralize their defense and be able to lessen the impact that the secondary can have? Or is this a situation where they just ran into the wrong type of team on the wrong day? No, no, they've been exposed that this team cannot stop the run the way it's constituted right now. You can go back to two years ago against the Chargers in the playoffs, and everybody was all excited and up in arms about the new Chargers D, and look at all the D-backs that are on the field,

and what are you going to do against it? Well, you're going to run the goddamn ball the same way the Patriots did that day. And right now the Patriots defense is constituted to the point where there aren't a lot of run stuffers up front. It's very thin there. The linebacking core is, is, you know, has, has defensive backs in it. And the teams are going to punch you in the face and run the ball. If you want to be a ground control team, if you want to win football games that way, and that's the way Bill thinks he's going to win football games, then you have to be able to stop the run, and this team cannot do it with the personnel that they have right now.

Yeah, without question, and it was a scary moment for the Patriots yesterday when Lawrence Guy went down. You're looking at the depth of that interior of the defensive line, and all of a sudden you're thinking there's no backup. There's no equal on this team that can do what Lawrence Guy does. That could have been decimating. It was good to see him get back out on the field. But sooner rather than later, they need to get Bo Allen in there. I think this team lacks that true nose tackle, especially the way they're defending this year. He's going to help a little bit, but there are problems and there are holes.

Like you said, all of the defensive backs on the field and whatnot is not going to help you when you can't stop the run. I think it also weakened the Patriots' passing game yesterday. I should say their pass defense, not their passing game, but their pass defense. Jimmy Garoppolo threw for 277 yards on Sunday. That was higher than I expected. Most of Jimmy's passes were short passes behind the line of scrimmage. But when he did throw down the field, there were some costly mental errors by the Patriots secondary as well. I think they were caught off guard on a number of occasions because they were so run-anticipant that I think it threw them off a little little bit. So Murph had just a bad day yesterday. I mean, no question about it. And

folks, we've only scratched the surface on what's ailing the Patriots this week. This one is going to be discussed throughout New England, especially on the local airwaves up here. And whether these discussions are productive, constructive or emotionally defective, they're going to continue all week long. But folks, fear not, because Murph and I will continue by playing a game of Now You See Him, Now You Don't in honor of Halloween week coming up. Which Patriots are missing in action? And can we possibly end on a high note in this tumultuous week in Foxborough? Find out when the Lockdown Patriots podcast continues. Patriots podcast continues. Only the best can provide the best. And when it comes to protein bars, the only ones who could provide the best healthy, low-calorie, and delicious treats you know and love are the ones who provided the best in the first place.

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order. Don't delay. Do it today. Use promo code LOCKEDON for 20% off at BuiltBar.com. Fans, Thomas Murphy is here for his weekly appearance on Locked On Patriots, a hashtag Locked On Murph Monday on the pod. And we continue to break down the Patriots' 33-6 steamrolling at the hands of the San Francisco 49ers, buddy. And, you know, the Invisible Man is a great Halloween costume, if you can pull it off correctly. But it's not what you want on a football field by any stretch of the imagination.

And, Murph, to me, two Patriots in particular were practically invisible yesterday. Julian Edelman on offense and Chase Winovich on defense. Edelman saw three targets despite running 21 pass routes against the Niners. As for Winovich, he was on the field for only 13 snaps on Sunday. Conventional wisdom would tell you that these two players should be key contributors at their respective positions, but they continue to remain footnotes in the game plan. Murph, in your opinion, why are we not seeing more of Edelman on offense and Winovich on defense? Well, first of all, Edelman is banged up. He is working with a quarterback that is not a throw-a-guy-open quarterback right now. At least

that's the way it looks to me. Julian has a step on somebody, and Cam doesn't trust himself to get the ball there in time before defenders close, and that's why you're not seeing him. It's the indecisiveness of the quarterback that is keeping Julian Edelman out of the stat sheet in a more productive way. As we go with Chase, I have no idea what is going on in this situation. I don't know if Bill is pissed off at his interviews, at his fact that he believes in the Chupacabra, or picking up stupid penalties early in a game

to help San Francisco move the chains, which was just a great flop by Garoppolo there. But it really ticked Bill off to no end because there was absolutely nothing going on with the play, and he gave Garoppolo an opportunity to do it. And you didn't see much of Mr. Win That Bitch after that. It was quite perplexing as the fact that, as we stated earlier, there aren't a lot of playmakers on this defense right now. Most of them have opted out or moved on to richer pastures, being overpaid by the likes of Miami and Detroit.

I'm scratching my head here, bud. I don't know what it is. I don't know what Chase has done. Did Bill tell him to go get a haircut, and he said, nah, yeah, screw you? I don't think so. But something is happening right here, and I can't put my finger on it because Chase Winovich is a baller.

Chase Winovich is a player. Chase Winovich is somebody that we all want to see out there. And I want answers as to why he's not there. I don't know about you. I mean, I do know about you. You asked me for answers. I just don't have them. Well, I hate to tell you this, buddy, but I think a lot of us are searching for answers.

And like Daniel Caffey and a few good men, we want answers and we think we're entitled to them and bill belichick is probably sitting there like nathan jessup going i don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to look um chase winovich uh yeah there's no question about it undisciplined football we saw the knock into jimmy garoppolo yesterday and it was a dumb penalty i mean there's no question about it i can imagine chase being upset that garoppolo flopped that was a pretty good acting job on Jimmy's part but I can imagine Bill Belichick looking back at him and telling you yeah you know what you gave him the opportunity to flop so you're just as much responsible for that as he is so I can understand maybe the doghouse for a little bit yesterday but keeping him off the

field definitely weakens the pass rush I think that that's obvious. And Evan Lazar of CLNS Media, our good mutual friend, pointed out shortly after the game something that really I've been trying to look at more. And when I get a chance to search the All-22, I'll definitely be a little more in tune to this. He's saying that Winovich's main issues are coming against the run. He's getting bullied off the ball at times because he's playing too high in his stance, and that's leading him to play undisciplined a little bit more. So maybe there's something to that, but I agree with you. I mean, you need to have someone with Chase's energy, his motor, really kind of motivate this defense to get back into rushing the passer

and creating difficulties for your opponent's offense. That's really something that could inject life. So maybe we'll see that return this week. I don't know. If you continue to see Chase's snaps limited, that could be a problem. Getting back to Edelman for a second, I do agree with you. He just doesn't look right. The knee definitely is bothering him.

But there are other factors involved in there as well, and I think you hit the nail right on the head when you said he's struggling with the relationship with a new quarterback. Look, Edelman is very predicated on option routes. We've seen him do that. It takes years of repetition to build that up. And we've seen Edelman move late a lot of times. He did that with Tom Brady.

But these two knew each other so well that Brady could anticipate where Edelman was going to be even before Julian knew where he was going to be. He doesn't have that relationship with Cam right now. I mean, you can't expect to build that in the short time that they've had to get to know each other. So a lot of the plays that maybe, you know, Tom would have targeted Julian with before are not being targeted by Cam because Cam is worried about throwing a pick. I think we saw that yesterday. Julian looked like he was breaking a little bit late. By the time Cam threw the ball, Julian wasn't in the spot where Cam thought he was going to be. So a lot to think about.

I know the Patriots could definitely use him on the field, but Newton's timing, his anticipation, they need to be better in order for Julian to succeed. And he has to compensate for what Cam is doing. These two need to get on the same page. And I think that may be an underlying reason, along with Julian's health, why you're not seeing him in the lineup. Buddy, this was not an easy game to end on a high note. But you know what? We try to do it every week. We're going to try to do it again today. Two players who I thought could be considered a bright spot in this one. Damian Harris at the running back position, Kobe Myers at the wide receiver position. I thought he was

the Patriots' best receiver on Sunday, maybe even their best skill position player. I know that's not a very, it's kind of a dubious distinction, but, you know, he finished the day four receptions, 60 yards, did link up with both quarterbacks. There were times where he caught a couple of nice passes, one from Newton, one from Stidham. He never has been a flashy receiver. We know that. He's got some footwork issues without question, but he moved the chains a little bit yesterday, and I'm thinking we might see more of him in this Patriots offense moving forward. Harris, I thought, could have been their most effective offensive player had the Patriots not been playing from such a large deficit. Murph, can this be something on which Patriots fans can be optimistic as they head into week eight and then beyond into the NFL season? Yeah, it's going to have to be right now. I'm sorry to force feed it to you folks, but

yeah, Harris is the real deal. He is. They hit on this pick. There's no way around it. Nobody can explain it away. Even with this 49ers defense selling out to stop it, it didn't happen. He had a fantastic game. And as for Myers, he's a good complementary piece, which is unfortunately what all the receivers are

in this offense right now. I like the guy. I trust him. If you need to move the sticks, he's the man that I would go to right now. And I think that if Bill is smart, and he is a smart individual, because remember, folks, there have been nine trips to the Super Bowl here in New England, and he has made all of them. So it's, you know, I'm sorry, I'm losing it today. But he's the man that can do it. He's going to see that this is going to be a better option going forward. We aren't sure this morning about Nikhil Harry.

I'm sure he's going to be in the concussion program. This week I saw it as, you know, when he got hit, I'm like, oh, there's a concussion right there. And until he gets back, we're going to have to see a lot more of Jacoby Myers. And even when he does come back, it would be smart to get Myers on the field as much as possible because we just need the option. You need the option to be there. Yeah, absolutely.

And you might wonder if the Patriots might look to elevate somebody from the practice squad this week, a receiver, maybe like a guy named Isaiah guy named Isaiah Zuber for a possible, have to check the eligibility on that one. Folks, a little more, a little more gunner out there. Yeah, definitely. Maybe a little more gunner out there at the receiver position. Who knows, maybe this is the week where the Patriots actually look to bring somebody in and try to get them acclimated.

Not sure if they would be eligible to play this week, depending on the player and the protocols. But, you know, it might be a situation where you might see them dip into that. I do agree with you on Harris. 5.8 yards per carry yesterday. They were successful on 47% of their running plays. And they had an early down success rate that was pretty high as well. The score took the ball out of his hands.

But I agree. Harris should be a focal point of what this team does offensively moving forward. He has been one of the lone bright spots, but without any question. At least I got one thing right today. You get a lot right. You get a lot right, my friend, because you lend your wisdom and counsel like no other. That's why I say it every week. Your family here on Locked On Patriots, and I can't thank you enough for taking time out of your week

to join me here each and every week. Folks, you should already be doing so, but for any of our new listeners, please follow my good friend, that Count of Murphy Fisto, Thomas Murphy himself, on Twitter at TeamMurph207. Do not miss Murph's Monster Keys. If you miss them, you'll be lost. If you read them, you'll be more educated and

ready to watch the game because this guy is more often right than not. They're point-click learn material and of course they're always proudly found on DieHardBostonSportsFans.com and of course never miss an opportunity to download and listen to One

Patriot's Place with Mirf and our great mutual friend Steve Balistrieri. And now, of course, Two Patriot's Place on Fridays with Murph, Steve Balistrieri, and another good friend of ours here on the pod, Clazzie Clare herself, Clare L. Cooper. Thanks again, my good man. Honored and humbled, as always, by your presence. No, it's fantastic. It's always a joy to be here no matter what happened the day before. I really look forward to these Monday sit-downs with you and the Locked On audience. It is. It's one of my favorite hours of the week.

Oh, and likewise. We love having you here. I always love talking ball with you. One of these days we'll break down a win again, Murph. It will come, folks. It will happen. It will be able to have some positives. But right now, probably a lean week in New England

and probably a difficult one looking at the division leader, Buffalo Bills, at the end of the week. But for now, we'll continue to sift through the rubble that was Sunday's loss to the San Francisco 49ers. But, Murph, again, thank you so much for joining me today. Stay safe, stay well. We look forward to talking ball with you again next week right here on Locked On Patriots. I'll be here.

And so, Patriots fans, as we put a lid on this melancholy Monday episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast, we will continue to analyze the Patriots' 33-6 loss to the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, and in pretty short order, we'll turn our attention to the Buffalo Bills, the AFC East leading Buffalo Bills, and the Patriots' matchup with Buffalo coming up on Sunday from Orchard Park.

So to ensure that you do not miss a single moment of the action this week, please be sure to download Locked On Patriots wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe and follow us on platforms such as Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your

podcasts. Just make sure you're staying locked in to Locked On Patriots. Once again, my name is Mike DeBate. I thank my good friend Thomas Murphy for his time, his insight, and his appearance on today's pod. But most of all, I thank you so much for listening and for making Locked On Patriots a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage. Until tomorrow, stay safe, stay well, keep the faith, Patriots Nation, and do so by always

continuing to be the change you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone.