Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Victory Monday: New England Patriots Defeat the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2

Episode Date: September 20, 2022

As the New England Patriots continue to savor their 17-14 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in Week 2, they already have their eye on Week 3 and the Baltimore Ravens. Still, New England has some evaluating to do. Joining host Mike D’Abate is Thomas ‘Murph’ Murphy of E2G Sports. The duo discuss the Pats’ standout performers and the areas still in need of improvement.Find and follow Locked On Patriots on your favorite podcast platforms:Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/locked-on-patriots-daily-podcast-on-the-new-england/id1140512627 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1c5ZxFmwg3WbfxAU3tR5Ve?si=k196wH-yRqifUcQQz8SjIQStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/show/locked-on-patriots And follow host Mike D’Abate on Twitter, where he’ll be sharing the latest news about the New England Patriots and talking with fans.On Twitter: @mdabateNFLSupport Us By Supporting Our Sponsors!NugenixNow get a complimentary bottle of Nugenix Total T when you text NFLto 231-231.Text now and get a bottle of Nugenix Thermo, their most powerful fat incinerator ever, with key ingredients to help you get back into shape fast.LinkedInLinkedIn Jobs helps you find the candidates you want to talk to, faster. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/LOCKEDONNFLBuilt BarBuilt Bar is a protein bar that tastes like a candy bar. Go to builtbar.com and use promo code “LOCKEDON15,” and you’ll get 15% off your next order.BetOnlineBetOnline.net has you covered this season with more props, odds and lines than ever before. BetOnline – Where The Game Starts!BriteCoThe guys at BriteCo Jewelry Insurance made buying insurance for your engagement ring, your watch, or whatever so easy you can get covered in 2 minutes on your cell phone. You won't find a better deal on coverage that's so affordable. Go to https://brite.co/lockedonPrizePicksFirst time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with promo code LOCKEDON. That’s PrizePicks.com – promo code; LOCKEDONTuroDitch boring rental cars and find your drive at Turo.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Amidst the positives in the Patriots 17-14 victory over the Steelers, there are still concerns about this team, and we're going to talk about those today as we continue to break it down. It is the first victory Monday of 2022. Stay tuned. You're about to be locked in to the Locked On Patriots podcast. You are Locked On Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast. Part of the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Hello to all of you, Foxborough faithful, and thank you once again for making Lockdown

Patriots your first listen every day, and also your part of a good day of New England Patriots coverage, and I always appreciate you for that. A little sleep deprived here on the pod, as you can tell, but we are ready to come at you on this inaugural Victory Monday of 2022. That's right, folks. The first time we've done a Victory Monday here in the calendar year. And Murph, it feels great. And as you can see, I am joined by the only man with his very own branded hashtag

here on Locked On Patriots. He is the legendary Connor Murphy Fisto himself. Thomas Murphy of E2GSports.com is going to hop in here in just a moment, folks. But remember that today's episode of Locked On Patriots is presented by PrizePix. PrizePix is a daily fantasy made easy. You can pick two to five players, and if they score more or less than their PrizePix projection, you can win up to 10 times your money on your entry. First-time users can receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100 with the promo code LOCKEDON.

That's prizepix.com, promo code LOCKEDON. Folks, you're excited as well as I, because my good friend Thomas Murphy joins me here today for hashtag LOCKEDONMURPHVICTORYMONDAY, folks. Yeah, it's a long hashtag, but you know what? It's been a while since we've celebrated a victory, bud, and we're going to continue to do that. As you can see, I am your host, Mike DeBate, cover your New England Patriots for Patriots Country of Sports Illustrated.

So if you want to let me know what's on your mind, do so on Twitter at MDABATENFL. And if you're watching on YouTube, drop a comment in the box below. Would love to hear your feedback, good, bad, or indifferent. Murph, it's been a while. I keep saying that, but it's been a while since the New England Patriots have experienced a victory Monday. Well, they've done so with a 17 to 14 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers in week two. Yesterday on the pod, very raw, very, you know, very unabashed after the show, I provided my thoughts on the Patriots

victory and I tried to stay as positive as I possibly could, mentioning that Mack looked more comfortable. I mentioned the offensive line doing a pretty good job. Also, some of the speed on the defense starting to show well. But you all have heard me drone on and on. And if you haven't, I encourage you to listen to last night's show. Definitely some good little tidbits there. But the hard-hitting, no-frills analysis is what we need this morning, my friend.

That's why you're here. That's why you're always here. Your gut reaction to yesterday's win for the New England Patriots, what stood out to you? What was basically your reaction to the victory? I was thrilled. It's been nine months since we've been able to do one of these. My instant reaction was a 180 by the offensive line yesterday afternoon as compared to week one, as compared to most of the summer. It was fantastic to see these guys.

Bill and Matt set them up to succeed by going with some of the inside gap type runs and get into a rhythm early. We didn't see any of the outside zone stuff. We saw a good share of inside zone stuff early, but mostly it was that power running downhill game. And Jesus Christ, this is everything that I saw in Cole Strange last year. Why you and I talked about him so often leading up to the draft. Neither of us thought that he would be their first round pick, but we both thought that he would be a fantastic fit here. And he showed it yesterday. The rookie had one hell of a day. The offensive line altogether had one hell of a day. They were passing off assignments to everybody correctly without missing a beat. You saw Cole

Strange at the end of the game, them really getting behind him in that last drive. The offensive line just gets an A-plus from me for yesterday. The second thing that I have to mention is the play of Nelson Aguilar. Aguilar just had a fabulous game. A week ago, we saw what happened at the end of the half when you give up a touchdown. Here we saw what happens when you score that touchdown just before the break and get the ball back to start the second half. It was beautiful. It really was.

It was a fun football game. And how often do you say that when your team scores 17 points? It's true. It really is. You look for the final score to be in the 40s and say, wow, that was a great offensive romp. That was really fun to watch offensively. But I'm glad that you mentioned that because those to me are the standouts I was very impressed by Colstrane yesterday I mean he this kid continues to prove and I said this yesterday

why he was a first round pick right you saw it before anybody else I continued to see it because of your insight yeah was there some question mark I'm not going to sit here because I know the tape can be played back and you know we can we can definitely question about whether or not a first rounder was something that the Patriots needed to secure his services. But bottom line, he wasn't going to be there. He wasn't. in LA about that pick as you know, the, the Rams brain trust thought that, that, you know, he was a fourth round pick, but the Patriots got them and the Rams sure as hell could have used them last week. That's real clear folks. Do you think that was a little bit, I don't know, maybe a little bit in there. Yeah, I think so. But no,

all kidding aside, folks, I'm not going to put Murph on the hot seat like that. I would never do that to one of my guests. Only we could do that to our pledges. But in any case, Cole Strange, I think, was phenomenal yesterday. He really was. Not only is he returning to that pulling type guard that the Patriots need for those gap runs that they executed very well yesterday. I thought he had a very good knack for picking up the pressure. I also thought he used his strength, his athleticism.

You saw him in the second level of the Pittsburgh defense for a long time yesterday. That, to me, shows a great understanding of what this team does. It's not easy for a rookie to come into this Patriots offensive line and do that. He's done it. And, folks, I think you're just scratching the surface when it comes to this as well. It was textbook offensive line play. All right. Every pull, gap lead, backer stuff. It was fantastic. You know, for a fat old center sitting here, I was just mesmerized by what this offensive line looked like yesterday as compared to a week ago. And I don't want to hear anything about the competition. All right?

I don't. Just don't come at me with it. The storyline in Pittsburgh all week long was that this team was going to put up, that the Steelers team was going to blow the Patriots out. They weren't going to be able to handle what they had to offer, and they did. They handled everything on both sides of the ball. Lots of keys were turned this week, and I was very happy about it. Yeah, lots of keys were turned, folks, and that is a definite positive for the New England Patriots.

And also, I know that you mentioned Nelson Aguilar. We're going to talk a little Trent Brown. We're going to talk standout performers in just a moment but before we take our leave from your reaction to this game murph a lot is always made out of the play calling and you know as well as i this continues to be a pre-game ritual for members of the media you know fellow colleagues of i guys that we respect coming out and saying that, well, this wide receiver now is questioning the play calling, and the Patriots don't know what they're doing, and quarterbacks who have never taken a snap in New England all of a sudden are experts on what Bill Belichick does that's best for his football team.

And, folks, I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. Go ahead and take a look, but I'm not going to mention any names, but you know that those are the narratives out there. We saw Matt Patricia, I think, call a fairly decent game yesterday. Is he starting to work his way out of the doghouse, or do we need to see more before we feel comfortable? We need to see more before we feel comfortable. Yesterday, not a lot of people would have noticed this, but, you know, Billy Yates spent the entire game down on the sidelines instead of up in the booth.

This took, you know, we made a big deal about how much is on Patricia's plate in coaching the offensive line and play calling. Billy Yates is the assistant offensive line coach, folks, if you didn't know it. So Billy was down there talking with the offensive line from the get-go. And I think that helped a lot. It helped Patricia concentrate on what he was going to do in the next drive. You also saw Bill Belichick with his back to the defense and talking to the offensive line, talking with Mac Jones,

sitting there with pictures with him. And I do think that helped. There's a ton on his plate. They just, you know, they took a little potatoes back. Okay. It's like when your son takes too many potatoes and puts them on a plate, you know, now let's scrape a little bit back there, you know, let's save some for your brother. And, uh, and I thought that was that, that, that really helped the offensive game plan. They, they came in with a great game plan. I think Patricia did a good job. Uh, um, a lot of the mistakes that I will talk about, you could probably put on Mac and, um, but other than that, I was happy. Yeah, I think so. I think overall a good mix of the gap runs. I'm glad that they incorporated that, went back to basics a little bit.

But they did use some of the outside as well. So I think that that blend of what the Patriots did really shows some hope for the future. I agree with you. I was happy as well. Yeah, like I said, they set things up. They danced with the one that brung them. And then, you know, they went over and they did. They saved a dance for the pretty girl. Absolutely.

They saved a dance for the pretty girl at the end of the end of the night. And, and that was, that was really fantastic. It was, it was a good game. It was, it was well planned out and I've got to give a shout out to the running backs right now. Not just what they were able to do with the ball, but the pass pro that they were able to come up with. That's what all the kids are saying now, folks, instead of pass protection, they say pass pro. So they I didn't see them miss a blitz pickup this entire game.

And you could you can talk about TJ Watt being out or whatever. I really don't think that that it would have made that much of a difference if he was there. Wow. That's a good statement. That is a very good statement. And based on how the Patriots played, it's hard to argue with it. I thought they held up well, and I thought they would have given any team a game yesterday, especially when it came to protection and what they needed to do up front.

So good stuff for the New England Patriots yesterday. Murph, you mentioned the beautiful people. You happen to be among them. But we're going to talk about who were the standout performers in yesterday's game for the New England Patriots on both sides of the ball. We'll do that when this episode of the Locked On Patriots podcast continues. But first, folks, I want to talk to you a little bit about our good friends over at PrizePix. Maximize your prognosticating prowess.

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up to $100 with promo code locked on if you deposit 100 they'll give you 100 if you deposit 50 they'll give you 50 don't forget to enter the promo code locked on at sign up for an instant deposit match up to 100 prizepicks.com patriots fans the legendary conor murphy fisto himself th himself Thomas Murphy of E2G Sports breaks it down for us today on Victory Monday it's also hashtag locked on Murph Monday here on the pod and Murph in the previous segment we kind of tipped our hand a little bit as to who were the standout performers for the New England Patriots but there were quite a few of them in their victory yesterday on offense and on defense. I know you mentioned Cole Strange.

We talked a little about him. You mentioned the running backs. Nelson Aguilar's name came up. I know we're going to talk a little bit about those guys, but who stood out to you yesterday when your sharp eye was fixated on the field at Accresure Stadium? Still doesn't sound right. No, it really doesn't. Pardon me.

The first standout, my first huge green thumbs up this week has to go to Damian Harris. Harris was just a bull out there yesterday. He had 15 carries for 71 yards and, of course, a touchdown. After that, we talked about Nelson Aguilar. He had a fantastic game. But Jacoby Myers has just proven, you know, to be that steady hand that's going to move the chains on second down, on third down. When you need it, go to Jacoby Myers, man.

Go to the law firm and keep a drive going. Other than that, you know, you have to go over to the defensive side of the ball. I thought Miles Bryant had a fantastic game. And here you go, people, Christian Barmore. There's not a lot that's going to show up in the stats this week for him, but he played a fantastic game. He ate up space in the middle. He had two tackles in a sack. And of course, Matthew Judon, he had four tackles and he got in there for a

sack. I think he had a pass deflection there. And he used his head at the end of the game. You love a player that uses his head at the end of the game you love a player that uses his head at the end of the game i love it i love it they're calling it the willie mays play uh on social media because he didn't turn around and look at the ball he just and i said this yesterday on the pod he just like right there i mean talk about instinct and to do it against a guy like naji harris who was a tremendous athlete you know really you can't say enough about matt judon yesterday four tackles one of which went for a loss to Sack, and that fourth quarter pass breakup, which had the chance to really change the complexity of that game.

So, yeah, if you think about it, he was all over the place. Everybody on the planet was screaming, turn around, turn around. He didn't, and he lifted his head right at the last minute, and the ball just freaking, you know, found the right spot. Found the right spot. You know, it was just coincidence. It's skill, skill. It's a skill set right there.

So those are my three, four ups. You would really have to look at the linebacker crew as an entire unit. They played a fantastic game. They did. They, you know, They showed real gap integrity. They got to the ball quickly when they needed to. They gave the Steelers nothing. The Steelers had no run game yesterday whatsoever. If you take away that Gunnar Osluski end around, which you can't really put on anybody up front at the line, this team averaged 3.3 yards a carry, I think.

It was under four yards a carry. That's a victory. That's a victory against a team that likes to establish the run, has running backs that can get out there and do things. That's a victory. So there are my ups. So glad that you mentioned the run defense yesterday because for the second straight week, Murph, Patriots run defense has looked pretty good against formidable rushing attacks.

Now, look at it from this perspective. You can always look at the New England Patriots in terms of stuff that they've done well, that they're going to get credit for stuff that they've done well. But one thing that they had difficulty with last year was stopping the run. Now, whether that's because they're setting the edge better or they're clogging the middle a little bit better, I think it's a little bit of both. And last week against Miami, formidable running back core.

You've got Raheem Mostert. You've got Chase Edmonds. These guys were brought in in order to be able to help Mike McDaniel's system succeed. Patriots walked away with a loss in that game, but it wasn't because the running backs ran wild all over the New England Patriots. Patriots held them to 2.8 yards per carry. That was a very, very good showing for them without any question. Then you come in now and you take a look at Pittsburgh with Najee Harris, who is one of the top backs in the league.

Maybe a little bit banged up. I understand the foot, but he was removed from the injury report. So you have to go under the assumption that he was as close to 100% as you can get in order to be able to give it a go. So because of that, now you're looking at two weeks in a row with this run defense. I don't think it's happenstance. I think this is exactly what New England set out to do in the offseason, and they're doing it well. And the linebackers also played well. I want to give a little love to Mack Wilson on that tip of, yeah, I mean, I guess I called Trubisky's pass ill-adess, field savvy. This is the type of intelligent football player that Bill Belichick praised when they traded for him.

They traded Chase Winovich for his services. And you can see why Belichick likes this kid. He knows where the ball is on the field at all times. Great athleticism and definitely a tip to the cap of Jalen Mills as well for being in the perfect position to be able to get that. So that's it. I mean, you look at great Patriots DBs that are still on the field like Devin McCourty, and it's always right place, right time. Playing this game in your head is so important. And Bill realizes that.

And that showed up there yesterday. It was just fantastic. And just talking about, you know, what the Dolphins were able to do yesterday. I mean, Mozart averaged 4.6 yards a carry. Edmonds averaged 6.6 yards a carry against the Ravens, who the Patriots are going up against next week. So I can really see the Pats continuing this power run game early in next week's contest. Absolutely.

And I think it was our good friend, Matt Chatham, who said after the game, all of a sudden holding that Dolphins offense to 13 points looks a whole lot more impressive. Looks a hell of a lot. Yeah, I know there were 20 points on the board, but seven of those should not have been on the board. Those weren't the defense's fault. So 13 points allowed to that explosive offense. And they looked every bit of explosive yesterday. All of a sudden looking a little bit better for the Northland Patriots.

It really makes the loss in week one harder, in my opinion, because once this team really gets going, it's going to be fun to watch. It will. It could be fun to watch. They've got a lot of weapons down there. Last week, the Patriots held them in check. I'm thinking because of the talent that the Patriots have on their side of the ball and defense more so than anything else

you want to say that the Dolphins did right yesterday. They did things right. There was just Patriots there to keep it from getting out of hand. And Matt's right. It was really impressive to only give up 13 points to that offensive crew. Absolutely. And, of course, before we take our leave from that, because we are going to talk about some not necessarily major but minor concerns for this team, a definite tip of the cap to the offensive line and the play in the final drive, that 13-play, 46-yard drive drained 6.33 off of the cap to the offensive line and the play in the final drive that 13 play 46 yard drive

drained 633 off of the clock four minute drive be damned the New England Patriots were going to control the narrative in this one and that's something they could not do last year they put their foot on the accelerator maybe to their detriment at times this team knows that they can grind out and hold the lead and that is old school New England Patriots football. And it really is old school New England Patriots football at its finest. And if you're complaining about the final score, people, I don't want to hear it. I don't want to hear why didn't the Patriots punch it in there? Why didn't they kick a field goal?

It wasn't needed. It really wasn't needed. Yeah, it wasn't. And, you know, you pick your spots at that point, Murph, and you go forward from there. But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows yesterday in Pittsburgh. Murph and I are going to discuss what still concerns us about this team, if anything, heading into week three and beyond. moment but first let me talk to you guys about Turo. Turo is the world's largest car sharing marketplace. With Turo you can book any car you want wherever you want it from a community of local hosts. Browse a huge selection of vehicles for just about any occasion or budget across the U.S., Canada and in the U.K. Book a spacious SUV or a minivan for a family road trip. Get a classic or luxury car for a special event, birthday, or holiday.

Or you can simply find affordable economy cars if you're on a budget and just need to get from A to B. Many Turo hosts can even deliver the car right to you. Every trip is backed by liability insurance and terms and conditions and exclusions apply. Find your drive at Turo.com. Patriots fans, the legendary Thomas Murphy, the green king of sting,

the monster master of disaster, that dancing destroyer, that counter Murphy Fisto himself joins us here today to celebrate victory Monday here on locked on Patriots. But most importantly, folks, it's hashtag locked on Murph Monday. We wouldn't do it any other way. And that's exactly why the man is here. And Murph, we've talked a lot about positivity. As a matter of fact, I guess you could call the last two, maybe the last four segments of LockedOnPatriots

counting last night's episode as sugar-coated, but we're about to take the bloom off the rose, folks. Or are we? The New England Patriots are 1-1. They beat the Pittsburgh Steelers 17-14, starting to show some signs of life, but you and I both know that yesterday's game was not perfect. No one would sit there and say it was. And there are still elements of the way the Patriots are playing that could cause some concern for the future.

Murph, in your estimation, when you look into that Belichickian Murphy and crystal ball that resides on your desk, what still worries you about this team? What tendencies did you see yesterday that leads you to believe that there still may be some problems on this team that need ironing out? Special teams, which is just confounding to me as to how important special teams play is to Bill Belichick. I'd like to take Cam Accord into, you know, special teams coach Cam Accord into a room and say, what the hell, dude? What the hell? You know, Miles Bryant almost muffed a punt into a safety for the Steelers. It ended up being a touchback.

And later on, I don't think the coverage was excellent. Although, you know, our Brendan Schooler, suck it Felger, was down there. And he picked up a nice little recovery there. But he wasn't covered. There was no one covering him. He should have been down there and he picked up a nice little recovery there, but he wasn't covered. There was no one covering him. He should have been down there and Gunnar muffed that and he was able to fall on it. But special teams, I give special teams a D for their play yesterday.

I really do. And a missed field goal. You can't really get too much on it. How far was that? 52. 52 yards. 52 yards. 52-yard missed field goal. You can't really get too much on it. How far was that? 52 yards. 52 yards. The 52-yard missed field goal. And Nick had made a 53-yarder in pregame warm-ups from that same distance, that same location as well. It was that same side of the field. That's a makeable kick for him. And whether it was a bad snap or a bad, I haven't watched the game a second time yet. So I'll have to go back and look at that. I'm not sure how the snap got down, how it was placed

down, but he shouldn't have missed that. There was three points that were left on the field. I'm giving the special teams a D on the day. Yeah, I think in a lot of ways, when I go back and I take a look at what the Patriots did yesterday, I'm right there with you in terms of special teams. Now, Brendan Schooler, I thought, showed a real heads-up move. Wisdom beyond his years. I love the way this kid attacks. And don't forget, folks, he's still a rookie, so he's still emerging. To see him make a play like that is impressive, so you want to give him his kudos. But let's be honest. I mean, Gunner really gifted that to the New England Patri patriots he made that man a gunner yesterday you used them you

used the gift file i used the gift file i loved it we put it out there and you know i didn't have to do it disingenuously i did it to earn uh you know the the good graces of the new england patriots fan base you would be surprised the amount of dms i got yesterday you better not show that gunner he's not your guy anymore i did i got a couple of people called me out in main chat too but uh yeah i got a chance to use it for a good reason sorry i digress yeah i i agree with you uh there are some coverage issues on this team uh you know you talk about the uh the muff punt at the beginning uh or not the muff punt but just the the bad placement really, I think, of being out of place and whatnot.

It really is, I think, just something that goes back to fundamentals. And, yeah, I mean, it surprises me a little bit that they're still there. You look like a triple-A center fielder out there. It was, you know, and I'm not going to bring up any names. Go play for the Red Sox. I'm sorry, the Woo Sox now. But, no, you can't do that. You can't have it.

I mean, that could have been a safety. For Christ's sake, it could have been a touchdown. Yeah, it really could have. That's just wrong. You can't go out there with that. My second downgrade, if we're moving on, I'm sorry. Sorry, Claire. It's the tight ends.

Henry only got one target on the day. I think Jono Smith got three and didn't haul in any of them. They blocked well. But you need to be more of a, a factor going forward. And the reason that they weren't a factor is that they, they weren't open. And my, my third downgrade will, will, will reflect into this, but it's, I need more out of these tight ends than blocking. Okay. We were in the Patriots ran 11 personnel almost exclusively the entire game,

and I was happy with that. Running this offense, it runs out of 11 personnel all the time, and I think that running out of 11 kept the Steelers on their heels because they really weren't sure what was happening. Last week, you got a lot of 12 personnel, so they really knew what was, you know, when you run this out of 12, you really know what's coming. And this week, running the run game out of 11 personnel kept them on their heels. They weren't really sure what was happening, whether it was one play,

whether it was a pass play. I thought, there we go, back to brilliance and good points. But, no, the tight ends did not have a good game. They just did not. No, they didn't. And I'm glad that you mentioned the 12-man personnel because Claire and I talked about that last week and how this might be the resurgence of the 12-man, the rebirth of it into this offense.

And I was all for it. I was very much, uh, you know, gung ho on it. And, and Claire was very level-headed. She was actually the more level-headed of the two of us when it comes to tight endage last week. And she made a great point. And she says a lot of what we saw in 12 personnel was blocking schemes. And that's exactly right.

And I also want to give credit and forgive me. I can't remember off the top of my head, but we have some amazing viewers here, listeners of Locked On Patriots, and primarily with the YouTube page, because you can comment in real time. And they made a good point about how when Patriots or any team lines up in 12-man personnel, like you just said, Murph, it tips your hand.

The defense is able to know exactly what you're going to run and how you're going to run it. It's one thing to know. It's one thing to stop it. Right now, the Patriots are not showing the prowess to be able to do it and say like Larry Bird would like I'm going to get the ball right at this spot and I'm going to go and I'm going to hit the three and we're going to get out of here and it's going to be all your fault Larry could do that he did it to Xavier McDaniel once and Xavier tells the story it's really a great one to watch folks google it get it on. If you love Larry Bird trash talk, it'll be great. But the New England Patriots'

swagger on the tight end side of things does not allow them to do that. Hunter Henry and John R. Smith not playing at the high enough level to do it. John R. Smith is not a joker. He's not. And that's what this offense needs, is that joker move tight end. And that'll bring me to my next point. Little Jordan Humphrey had a very nice game. He was on the field a bit. He was open. Mack Jones missed him up the seam, which was a perfect, you know, Haas wide juke type, you know, situation.

It wasn't that play, but he was wide open and Mack missed him. And but but that's that's that's what he brings to this offense is that move tight end, that joker type person, person that can come in here and and bust up a seam and make that a uh i don't want to say a focal point but another option that unfortunately mac missed and and that's that brings me to you know my last thumbs down and it's really hard after you know he had a solid c game mac j Jones, quarterback. He missed the coverage when he threw that interception. They had been in exclusively manned the entire time, and he missed Tampa 2. How do you miss Tampa 2? All right?

And then he nearly threw a pick when he threw the ball behind Hunter Henry. If he threw a perfect ball to Hunter Henry, maybe I wasn't getting down on the tight ends as much as I would, but he missed that one. So there was another near interception when he had that rollout, but that pass was dropped by the stealer. And that could have been a real game changer right there. then as i said he missed little jordan humphrey down the scene um you know he gave nelson agalor a good chance to come down with the ball early but there are just too many too many balls that are behind people and quite frankly i tweeted this out yesterday there's too much air under his balls.

He's throwing balls off his back leg. There's just too much air, and he's giving these guys too much time to react. That's an issue. That's a problem. He needs to figure out that sometimes there's a little too much touch on his passes. Still a solid C game. A C game. But if he had hit a B game, if it was a B, B-plus game,

maybe we're talking about 24, 27 to 10 in this game. So I don't know. Interceptions hurt, and you know how I feel about turnovers. Yeah. Turnovers and interceptions are still definitely a concern. If there's a thumbs down, the only blemish on the offensive line yesterday was a couple of penalties. Obviously, the Patriots need to clean those up. Those are fixable offenses. But I'm glad that you mentioned Mack because a lot of what we do is react in the moment. And Mack did look better.

He looked more comfortable yesterday. I thought the Patriots handled the second and third level blitz a little bit better. But there are still decision-making issues. And you hit the nail on the head with these missing guys. I think maybe overthinking things a little bit too much. And then mechanically, I do agree. The air under his throws is going to be something that's going to continue to haunt him. And one of the reasons why he may get easily picked from here. Yeah, exactly. You got to get that right. That's got to be on guys like Joe

Judge, Matt Patricia, Bill Belichick, Brian Hoyer. Work with Mac. Make sure that those things are being taken care of in practice because they're facing a Baltimore Ravens team this week that not only are they going to be some angry birds coming in here after blowing that lead, this is a team that knows how to take the ball away. They have a very good nose for turnovers and for getting after the football and the quarterback. So a lot to shore up, but you know what, Murph? It's still hashtag victory Monday.

It's still hashtag locked on Murph Monday. And we raise a glass to the New England Patriots for their victory in getting back in the win column. And, Bud, I always raise my glass to you. I thank you for joining me here today on the pod, bringing your wisdom and counsel the way only you can. Before I let you go, my friend, please let everyone know where they can find you, where they can absorb your great wisdom and counsel,

whether it be written or whether it be by voice. The floor is yours, my friend. Yeah, you can check me out at e2gsports.com, Red Sox coverage, Patriots coverage, plus whatever pops into my head. Nothing's been popping into my head the past week or so because we're right in the middle of a move here. I might be a little echoey because there's nothing on the floors and nothing on the walls yet.

Of course, tomorrow you can watch us on the E2G YouTube channel. Please subscribe for One Patriot's Place. Derek Havens is going to be our guest tomorrow. That's always fantastic. We'll be live at 11 o'clock tomorrow morning. So, you know, skip out on lunch a little early, sit back and enjoy that show. Absolutely, folks.

And again, like I always say, if Murph is putting pen to paper or he's putting voice to microphone, it's always appointment listening, appointment viewing, appointment reading. So do not miss any of it. And I always thank you for the wisdom and counsel that you lend here on Locked On Patriots. Always honored, always humbled by your presence, Dunmurf. And we look forward to next Monday's pod, which hopefully will be our second Victory

Monday pod in a row. But I don't say that lightly, folks. Baltimore Ravens are coming in. They pose a big-time threat to the New England Patriots. But in the meantime, please continue. Absolutely. But in the meantime, folks, please continue to download, subscribe to, and

follow Locked On Patriots wherever you get your podcasts. And of course, smash that subscribe button to YouTube as we continue our march to 1,000 subscribers. Folks, thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to visit Locked On Patriots today and make us a daily part of your New England Patriots coverage.

Until tomorrow, Foxborough faithful, stay safe, stay well, be the change that you wish to see in the world. Have a great day, everyone. Who made that man a gunner?