Dom’s sports rambles 10-8-24

The Patriots lost their game against the Miami Dolphins with a score of 15-10. It was a low-scoring game with lots of turnovers and penalties. The Dolphins had Tyler Huntley as their quarterback and a strong running game. Despite the loss, Patriots' running back Romandre Stevenson had a good game after being benched for four consecutive games due to fumbling. However, the Patriots' offense struggled to make plays down the field and get their playmakers involved. The game also had some controversial calls and poor officiating. Good afternoon everyone, this is WPRI 88.3 radio, a Roger Williams student broadcast out of Bristol, Rhode Island. This is Dominic and you're listening to Dom's Sports Rambles. Alright everybody, it is October 8th, we are getting all settled into fall, it's starting to feel like fall, it's getting a little bit breezy out there. It is now week 6 of the NFL, we are getting closer to the halfway point. That means the trade deadline is also coming up soon and we actually have a lot to get into. If you missed this Patriots game last weekend, or this past weekend, or just a couple of days ago, don't worry because the Patriots were stuck playing some JV football down at Foxborough. You know, they lost this one 15-10, but you know, we've got a lot of information to get into today, so let's get started right up in this first segment. So to start, like I said, the game 15-10, it did not look like a beat down like the past two games, which is surprising, it was a low scoring game. You would probably think this was a defensive battle the whole way, and that is not what happened. I'm here to tell you that is not exactly what happened. A lot went wrong in this game and it honestly looked like a pre-season game. It was, and even worse than that, the amount of turnovers, penalties. I was thinking the Patriots were pretty close to dead bottom coming into this game, and I really thought they had a chance to beat Miami here, boy was I wrong. But Miami did prove that with the loss of Tua coming in with Tyler Huntley at quarterback, that they were definitely fit to be dead last in the NFL. So Tyler Huntley starting this game, he's been around the league, he's been in the Ravens, he's been on a few teams, he's never really had a starting role. I believe he played a little bit when Lamar Jackson went down a year or two ago. Nothing crazy, mediocre quarterback, he's meant to be a backup. And they got the running game to compliment it, they have A-Chain coming back from an injury from last year, they have Mostert, who I believe is 32, he's still producing very well. Their running back backfield, it's very good, it's good, they're quick, with a 32-year-old running back who can still potentially put up 100 yards and play a starting role for a team, that's pretty impressive. A-Chain we've seen later in the game, he ends up getting hurt, he tweaks something in his leg, but he was out for a bit there. We had, like I said, Mostert coming in, and then another running back, I believe he was a rookie, he came in and they were just running down the gut, every single play on the Patriots. To start early in the game, we've seen a good, I think it might have been a 3-0 for the Patriots, the Patriots didn't really do much in that first drive, Dolphins get the ball, and that's where the Dolphins started to backfire. A lot of their plays blew up in their face, and you've seen a lot of real bad mistakes, and I kind of have to feel for Mike McDaniel, you know, in this situation, losing your top tier quarterback to a Tiger-Valoa, and then having to watch this terrible performance. It was, a lot went wrong, missed field goals, bobbled snaps, interceptions, a lot. That's kind of what the Patriots did, and I believe it was their second offensive drive early in the first quarter, or midway to late in the first quarter, they had Tyree Kill running a slant route for the Dolphins, and Gonzalez was right on him, and he perfectly reads that route, I forget who said it, but he ran that route for Tyree Kill, and he snares one, he gets an interception, he brings it back a little bit, the Patriots are set up around the 30-yard line of Miami. This is looking good, and right then I was kind of thinking, with the way that went all season, with the way they were getting the turnovers, and not really capitalizing, not getting any points, not getting a field goal, not getting a touchdown, and I was kind of thinking this was trending more towards what we had seen all season, and wow, you know, this was a one-play, I was genuinely shocked, and this was actually a good run by Romandre Stevenson. So before the game, if you guys didn't know, Romandre Stevenson was benched due to his four games in a row of fumbling. That's what Jarrod Mayo came out and said. So he's benched, and coming into the game, it's Gibson. Gibson starts the first drive, and then that second drive, off the Gonzalez interception, I think it was two plays in, Romandre Stevenson runs to the right side of the field, it's a sweep, he gets by one of the defenders, and then he uses his shiftiness, he jukes by the other, and then at that point I'm like, okay, they're set up inside the 10-yard line, but no, Romandre breaks free yet again, and he gets into the end zone for about a 31-yard touchdown, and that was a good turning point for the Patriots. And then, at that point, Romandre, he's just confident, he's back above the roof, as he just got a really long run for a touchdown, after he got benched, you know, for the four games, and one positive no is he didn't fumble this game, and then at that point, after seeing that type of run, that type of confidence in Romandre Stevenson again, that's when they came out and they decided to play him, you know, in the starting position again. You know, Gibson did get a lot of carries still, but we've seen more increasing amounts of carries for Romandre Stevenson, it's like they disregarded benching him. If benching him meant not starting him in that first drive, that's exactly what they did. And I'm proud of Romandre Stevenson, that was good, he came out of the game with about 12 carries for 89 yards, that was a good game for him, a good redemption game, there were some things he could have done better, but, you know, in positions he was put in where they're running the ball, or throwing him a screen pass on a third and 15, that's on Alex Gentel, you can't expect him to do, you know, make a play out of nothing like that. I know you want playmakers like that, but that's what you've got your receiving core for. And that's what Jacob Rieber said did a lot this game, was he ended up throwing the screen passes, he was throwing dump-offs to Romandre Stevenson, to Antonio Gibson, and he is not going to be able to win football games like that. And that's what I'm here to tell you guys, he's not going to produce when he's not able to take shots, and yes, he did take a few shots this game, but this is where you've got to think of Drake May, and where he comes to play, and where he comes to take this part, what he's going to do better, is he going to make those throws down the field, is he going to involve his playmakers? You got your, I wouldn't say all pro, but you got one of your top receivers back from last year, in Kendrick Bourne, and I think maybe he got two or three targets in the game, maybe one. In the final statute, he had one catch. What are you doing? For a guy who came pretty close in his first year to getting a 1,000 yard season, with the Patriots, why aren't you throwing him the ball? Why aren't you setting him up for a long post down the field? Why aren't you just making a play that revolves around him? I don't know right now if he's your top guy. I know you're concerned about his injury, he just came back from a torn ACL. You're being conservative, which is great. I am all for that. But you've got to get your playmakers involved. They got Pop Douglas involved this game, DeMario Douglas. He had quite a few catches in the end of the game. He had some drive-saving catches. He was good. And then you turn the table to Jalen Polk, and he had one catch. Looking at that stat sheet, you're thinking one catch, you're thinking this guy's a bust. But if you've seen the targets that he didn't get, you'll think otherwise. It was about, I want to say, maybe the second quarter, no, no, no. There was one play where he had a ball thrown to him on the sideline. There's maybe two or three guys around him. And there was no way he was going to catch it. I don't know why for a set, throw a ball like that. It was out of bounds. Whatever. It was smart. Good decision. But near the end of the game with about a minute to go, the Patriots drive all the way down the field. At this point, they're down by five. They scored a touchdown on the other end with in gold their fullback. And they went for two. They didn't get it. So it's a five-point game. You're looking at 15-10. The Patriots drive all the way down the field, thanks to Pop Douglas. He's getting them down the field. And then it's about a second down or third down, and you have a ball thrown to the end zone. It's Jalen Polk there. He gets one foot in. The other foot, he gets the tip of his foot in. The back heel lands on the white and the back of the end zone. So I don't know about you guys, but if you've heard about the toe tap, if you've seen people getting that second toe dragged in, I don't care what happens to the rest of that foot. He got two feet in bounds. You have guys that are getting their forearm or their behind in the end zone. That's the only part that touches inside the end zone, and they will call that a touchdown. Or even a hand, elbow. But Jalen Polk gets two feet in, and they overrule it. It's not a touchdown. Now, in the press conference, Gerard Mayhew did agree with the call. Jalen Polk obviously had to fight for the E. He did not agree with this. As to all the Patriots fans, it's frustrating. I'd say this game was poorly officiated. Now, I'm not excusing the 12 penalties for 105 yards that the Patriots had. That was inexcusable. Not the ref's fault. Just poor offense, poor play calling, and then the offensive line struggles. But that Jalen Polk touchdown, that should have happened regardless. You shouldn't have been in that situation. Why are you down five to a Miami team that's hurting? They're without Tyler Hundley. I mean, excuse me, they're without Tua. They're a star quarterback. They're without A-Chain. They're a young running back, and he gets hurt early in the game at this point. And Tyree Taylor, excuse me, only had about four catches in this game for about 40 yards. He didn't have a monster game. The defense played very well, I think. There was a lot of miscues and a lot of mess-ups on the Dolphins' side. They had messed up quite a bit. But regardless, it was good defense. It was good special teams. Obviously, they had a fumbled snap on a field goal, the Dolphins. They had a fumbled snap regardless, which set them back way at a field goal range, which I think led to the fumbled snap on the field goal. So back-to-back bad plays for this Miami offense, and they're not really producing too well. Excuse me. But, yes, so they weren't really producing too well. There was a lot of mistakes. It was looking like a poor game for the team. But like I said, special teams, defense perfect. Offense needed a lot of work in that game, Percet. And I think Percet was kind of contributing to a lot of the offensive problems. A lot of check-downs, which was very, you know, it was hard to watch. It's hard to see your quarterback, who should be throwing a ball 15, 20 yards down the field to get the first down, who is ultimately throwing it to his running back, who is two yards behind the line of scrimmage, and you're asking him to fight for, I don't know, 10 yards. And I think it was Mark Sanchez on the broadcast of Fox, he ended up saying, I think they're fighting for the field goal, which it really made it seem like they were going just for the field goal. They were playing conservative football in a game where you don't need to play conservative. Why are you playing that conservative against a hurting Miami team? That was my one question about that. But anyways, you can't blame this on the officiating. The Pats fans, you cannot blame this on the jamming ball catch. Obviously, I wanted that to go our way, but there's so much we could have done better. Stevenson had a great game. He had 12 carries. But why didn't he have 20 carries in times where he should have? There was a drive at the end of the first half where we got the ball with about, maybe it was just under two minutes to go, and yes, we were pinned deep. It was about maybe the four-yard line in their own territory. They ran the ball first, so I was like, okay, they're playing conservative. They're just going to run this clock out. They're going to burn all of Miami's timeouts, and we're going to get the ball back at half. That's smart. But no, they run the ball in the first play. Second play, they pass. It's incomplete. Third play, they pass. It's incomplete. It's fourth down. You're at your four-yard line, about five-yard line, I believe. You just threw two incomplete passes. Not really catchable balls either. So at that point, it's fourth down. Miami has all their timeouts, at least two at that point, and they're going to get the ball back. And then you're expecting Behringer, he's a pretty good planner. He can really boot the ball. And you're expecting him to maybe get this pass midfield, maybe the 40-yard line of their own territory. That's the best scenario. And that's possible for him. He can bump the ball 60-something yards, and that's what we have him for. And he botches the punt. It goes near side, maybe to midfield, maybe like the 40-yard line of New England territory. And Braxton Berrios actually catches it. He doesn't even let it go out of bounds. He catches it on the left sideline, and he brings it back up for another 10, 15 yards. So you're looking at him at the 30-yard line. Miami has all their timeouts, two at that, and they're set up for at least a field goal with about a minute to go. The two overs in this offense, that's a guaranteed touchdown. I'm sorry, but that was one poor play on special teams, but an even more poor executed offensive drive to wrap up the first half for the Patriots. I don't understand why you decide to first run the ball, and then you decide to throw as if you're going to get very far when you're at the four-yard line. It was very questionable to me. I don't know why they were doing that. And then obviously all the plays, the offensive penalties hurting us throughout the game. There were some defensive penalties, but overall the defense had played some good football. Obviously it wasn't too hard to play against a hurting Miami offense, but they did what you asked them. I know they gave up a lot of plays inside, they gave up a lot of runs up the middle, and then near the end of the game they started getting tired. They were giving up throws inside the middle of the field, and Johnny Smith, the former Patriots tight end, after a couple years of departing with them, he got a few catches there and he was looking like the highlight of this Miami offense. And then you started getting Tyree Kill, who got a couple catches, not the most. He didn't really have a great game. Waddle had a few catches. It wasn't an amazing game for anybody in every season for Miami. That's what I'm trying to get across here. But we'll just have to see how this goes. I'm going to get more into that in just a moment. We're going to take a quick music break, we're going to let the PSA for today, and then we'll get back more into the stats, what exactly the Patriots did well, and a few things they did well, and then we'll hear from our PSA, and I will be back shortly. Thank you. I ain't low, I ain't true, I just ride where I want, I work late, but I sleep on my phone. And then I get tired, but you're worth it, son, I know, but who wants to live forever, baby? I've been catching my breath since the day, girl, I feel like I've seen the day. I've been down so hard, it doesn't feel right, no. But I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby. I can't get over you, just to see you, just to see you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, just to see you, just to see you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you, baby, I can't get over you. And we aren't playing good football. We have to look at every single unit and every single player and figure out how to use this roster to go out there and to win games. So, Gerrard at this point is completely shifting gears from what he thought before. Before, anytime anyone brought up anything about Brissette, Will May come in, will Brissette sit on the bench, you know, when will May come in? And his answer would always be, Brissette is my guy, Brissette is my quarterback. Now we're seeing some flashes hinting towards Drake May, which we had seen, if you're on Twitter, I've seen a few tweets that come out, and right when I went to my feed, it was all tweets of Adam Schechter saying, we could see Drake May. And, you know, when you see a source like that, someone from ESPN, someone from this, you're starting to think that this is becoming a reality. And the interview really backs it up. He didn't come out and say, I'm starting Drake May this weekend, but he couldn't have hinted at any better. In the first quote from the post game, he said, execution from the entire offense has to be better going forward. Going to yesterday's interview, he said, we have to look at every single unit, every single player, and figure out how to use this roster to go out there and win games. Using that roster correctly, starting Drake May. And that is what he's hinting towards. So let's look at another question that he was asked, and it was on Jacoby Brissette's performance. So the interviewer asked, Gerard, how would you evaluate Jacoby's performance yesterday? May replied with, it just wasn't good enough. I thought we played well enough defensively and on special teams to win the football game. Look, as the quarterback, and he understands this, he touches the ball on every single play. And we didn't win the game or score enough points to win the game. I think he would echo that same sentiment that it wasn't good enough. So at this point, he's throwing complete shades at Jacoby Brissette. He's completely coming out and saying, he knows he didn't play good enough. I know he didn't play good enough. Changes need to be made. And that is very, very, very shocking with how Mayo is thinking. I mean, we all knew that change needs to come. We didn't know when Mayo would make the change, when he would throw Drake May in there, throw him into the fire. But you don't want to waste his full first year of his rookie contract. Are you just going to let him sit out there on the bench? And just, you know, it's not like he's learning from a Tom Brady. He's not learning from an Aaron Rodgers. He's not learning from a great. He's just watching to see how it's happening. You have all these other quarterbacks coming in and starting week one, which is a questionable decision, but who are you going to have them sit under? Jacoby Brissette wasn't a good quarterback to sit under. Drake May just needed to see what his game plan was, what he did before the game, what he did during the game, his pre-game ritual after what he did. And that's all that Drake May is going to need. I know a lot of people didn't believe in this kid. They didn't think he was ready. I don't know why I'm calling him kid. I'm the same age as him. Anyways, nobody believed that he was ready to start. And you had Bill Belichick coming out, which I've never seen so much talk from Bill Belichick more in my life ever until right now. That's all he's been talking about is Patriots this, Patriots that. And he's not afraid to come out and say it because he's not a head coach. He's not going to get fired. There's no consequences now, really. He's coming out and he's saying all this. He basically criticized Elliott Wolfe and Drodd. Mayo's decision to draft Drake May. He said, I don't think he's ready to perform yet. I don't think he's ready to play. And that's taking a direct shot at the coaching staff and the general manager position, which Belichick once filled. So we've seen Belichick in the past. When the draft happened, he's seen him say he's not ready. ESPN and all these other sources are saying he's not ready. But I think it's time. It's week six in the NFL. He's ready. Now, like I said, these other quarterbacks started week one, Jaden Daniels, Bo Nix. I forget who else, but those two quarterbacks came out and Bo Nix had a slow start. He's starting to develop himself a bit. And then you had Jaden Daniels come in and he's really starting to make a name for himself. He got Pepsi Rookie of the Week just a couple of weeks ago in that game against the Bengals. And now he's playing his heart out, man. He's playing really, really well at football and not really sloppy on the offensive side. He's not really throwing any interceptions, which is not like four or five interceptions. I think he's throwing a couple maybe on the entire season. And one thing that we've seen Jaden Daniels do was running the football. And a lot of times recently this was kind of frowned upon because you've seen a lot of quarterbacks that were centered around running the football and they went downhill and they declined. You see it in NCAA, you see it in college football. They're running the ball, they're shaking the defenders, and that's something that doesn't really translate well into the NFL. That's something you see in Lamar Jackson. He had actually made a name for himself. We thought that he was going to kind of be like that. He was going to come into the NFL and he wasn't going to be able to do what he could do in college football. One example is not to take a shot at him since he's now with ESPN, but Robert Griffin III, when he played for the former team named Washington Redskins, now the Commanders, he had come in and he was running the football. He did what he was doing in college. And that worked in the first couple of weeks and then it just completely plummeted. It went all the way downhill. It didn't work for him and he wasn't really in the league anymore. He suffered a couple of injuries, but it was hard for a quarterback to keep what they were doing in college like that. I'm not saying that Drake May isn't going to translate his college football play into the NFL, but what I'm saying is a lot of quarterbacks, it's tough when they hit the NFL. It's not the same. You see Caleb Williams, he did a lot of good scrambling around the pocket, making extending plays in college, and he did a little bit of that in the NFL so far. Oh, that's the other quarterback that started, it was Caleb Williams. So you have Caleb Williams, Jaden Daniels, and then you have Bownicks, those three quarterbacks that started. And they all pretty much are doing pretty solid. They've all at least gotten a win for the team. They started Week 1. Caleb Williams, I believe he has three wins in the season, a couple of them coming from the defense helping out with him. But what I'm saying is it's time for Drake May. Those three quarterbacks show that they can prove themselves, Drake May being the third overall draft pick. I think he can get it done. And he's got it. I think he's ready. And no more debate, no more Jacoby is my guy, he's my quarterback. I think this is happening. And it's becoming a reality check now that it's actually going to happen. I'm still waiting on the interview from Gerard Mayo of him saying directly, yes, I am going forward with starting Drake May. Yes, there's a chance that he doesn't start him. He didn't completely come out and say yes. But if we do see him, I think that this is a good time to. Patriots are 1-4. I'm not expecting a playoff run. I'm not expecting them. But they could sneak into the wild card. This is something that's very achievable. You have a couple of winnable games coming up after, probably actually after the next two. Next you have the Texans. That's going to be a tough one. I don't know. We don't know what Drake May is going to be like. We don't know if he's going to have that college ability like he did. He's going to extend the play. We don't know if he's going to throw a deep, if he's just going to be a turnover machine. We don't know. But you do have the Texans and Jaguars. It's going to be tough ones. But then you have a winnable stretch after that. You have the Jets. Aaron Rodgers struggling. Actually, Robert Saleh, if I pronounced that right. Sorry if I didn't. But Jets head coach fired after the sting with Rodgers. Now, there were some talks about Devante Adams getting traded there, but that's for another story. But anyways, you have a hurting Jets team that are barely scraping by to get wins. Tough losses for this team. That's a winnable game. You have the Titans. That is a joke of a team. Even almost more of a joke than Miami. And then you have the Bears. Caleb Williams, young quarterback. This defense can get to him. You have the Rams. That's a winnable game. You have the Dolphins again. The Colts. The Cardinals. And then once we hit late December, you get the Bills, Chargers. It's going to be tough games after that. But there are so many winnable games that you could actually have a chance of sneaking into this wild card. This is why you need to start Drake Ray now. You're wasting talent on the bench. And this is not only a message for Gerard Mayo, but this is for Elliot Wolfe, Alex Van Pelt, this whole coaching staff. I think they need to start him soon. Sooner than later. If you sit him out for the whole season, what are you doing, tanking for a draft pick? Yes, that's nice. But they've shown they don't want an offensive tackle. They don't want to go out and get a tackle or a guard or whatever they need. This offensive line has been up and down. They've been switching positions. They've been all over the place with it. But you're not throwing him into the fire. You're trying to bring in a playmaker. And the point of bringing Jacoby Brissett in was to keep the turnovers away. He was supposed to play smart football, which he did in the first couple of weeks. He played smart football. But his goal was to have the veteran experience. He was supposed to come in, play smart football, no turnovers, no sloppy offense. He's not going to lose the ball. He's going to hold on to the ball. He's going to throw conservative passes. He's going to do what he can to get a win for this team. He's going to get wins. He's going to scrape by and somehow get the wins for this team. But I know he's dealing with an offensive line. But you cannot turn over the ball. Last game he had a fumble, which was recovered by the defense, and then he had an interception. That was a poorly, poorly thrown ball. And on top of that, he's afraid to take shots. So why not bring in Drake May, who's developing still? Third overall draft pick. He's got a great arm. He can get the ball downfield. He's probably going to get his playmakers involved, Kendrick Bourne, Demario Douglas, maybe a little bit of K.J. Osborne. He's tied in, Hunter Henry. Maybe he can go back to the run game, get some run game going, so Drake May doesn't have to heavily rely on his passing game. He's mobile. He can get around. He can extend the play. So why not go with turnovers with Drake May, which obviously he's probably going to throw a couple of interceptions, a few. Who knows? But why not go with that and go with someone who's 32 years old? Yes, he's a veteran. He's got experience. But someone who's probably at the end of his stick, he's not going to develop anymore. That's probably the last of his stint in the NFL as a starting quarterback. He's been around the league too much, yeah, and someone who's afraid to throw it downfield, someone who can barely escape the pocket. Yes, he has escaped the pocket. He's had good plays, but he's just not playing great football, and I think Drake May can play great football for this team. Why not develop him? Put him in the game. What's it going to do? We've seen NFL quarterbacks who are great today start their first year, and, yeah, they had a few years. We had Josh Allen. He started his whole first year, and I think maybe they scraped by and got four wins. The next season he makes the wild card. The next season I think he made the divisional, and then he climbed his way up. I don't think he ever made the AFC championship. He might have gotten close. I can't remember. But my thing is these quarterbacks came from nothing. Josh Allen came from a 4-12 season or 4-13 season, whatever the record was that year, and he developed in the game. Now, I'm sure he didn't have as bad of an offensive line as the Patriots did, but he developed in game, and that's what Drake May is going to do. I think he's going to develop better in game. He's not going to develop as well on the bench. You don't have a super whiz at quarterbacks. You don't have a crazy good offensive coordinator. Alex Van Pelt, who has shown to make some questionable calls, and the calls he made in this game were screen passes on third and 15 and designed runs on two passing plays in a row at the end of the first half. Alex Van Pelt isn't the greatest, but Drake May doesn't have the greatest company around him, but why not try to develop him? And maybe he'll get the ball to some of these guys who haven't gotten their name in yet. Maybe you'll see someone like Javon Baker get in the game. We've seen a lot of Keyshawn Booty out there. He's played pretty good. He's had a few crucial catches for the team, and maybe you'll see some names like that out there. Maybe you'll see a receiver with more than six catches in a game. That's something we haven't had. Yeah, we had Hunter Henry with 11. That's a tight end. I want to see him get all these receivers involved. I want to see a big shot down the field, a 35-yard pass. I want to see a 45-yard touchdown. It's going to be exciting to watch this kid. He's going to have bad plays. He's going to have a weird season, I bet, if he starts the rest of the way, seeing if he stays healthy. But he's going to throw turnovers. He's a rookie. He's got time to develop, even if he isn't fully developed by next year, even if he's not this super great quarterback going for 4,000 passing yards and 35 touchdowns. It doesn't matter as long as you've seen the developing in him. And that's what it's going to come down to is if Drake May does start this week, will he develop? Will he? Will he get all these guys involved? Will we see a spike up in the Patriots' offense, which I think we will. I think Jarod Mayo should go all in on this. He didn't go out and lose the whole season to get a quarterback just to sit him on a bench. Go all in this guy. Make him make his money. That's what it's going to come down to. All right, so we are getting near. We're going to take a quick music break, and then we are going to hit our new segment. And maybe we'll get into a little bit of Celtics later. The Celtics actually played a couple of preseason games. So we're going to take a quick music break so we can possibly come to the Celtics later. We'll hear from our new segment from me, and then I will be back shortly. We'll be right back. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ All right, that was Speedometer by Post Malone. So let's now get into our new segment, as we're getting close to the end of our time. All right, so this one coming from WCVB Boston, Channel 5. I don't know if you guys heard on the weekend, but we did have a couple of charges against Patriots captain Stacey Gibraltar-Peppers. So it was determined on Saturday that he was questionable to return into the game, and then they ruled him out on Sunday. Nobody really knew what happened with him, and then the reports started coming out yesterday. So I'm going to get into a little bit of that. I'm going to read a couple of quotes from the article, just breaking it down for you guys, letting you know what actually happened. So, New England Patriots captain and Stacey Gibraltar-Peppers faced several charges, including assault, strangulation, and possession of drugs, Monday after an altercation with a woman at a Braintree apartment. Now, I'm not going to get into all the details, as it's really, really severe, and it's pretty bad, but I'm going to get into some of the other details that the article says. So Peppers was charged with assault and battery on a family member, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, strangulation, and possession of a Class B substance believed to be cocaine. The victim was treated at the scene, officials said. The New England Patriots confirmed that they are aware of an incident involving Peppers. However, they released a few details. They said, this is a quote I believe from Mayo, but we informed the NFL, and we are still gathering information. I know the team put out a statement earlier today. I'm not sure how the league and how we are going to handle that going forward, but we should find out some more information over the next few days, New England Patriots coach Drod Mayo said. Peppers had been listed questionable for the Patriots game Sunday against the Dolphins with a shoulder injury and was downgraded out after his arrest. We knew about the situation the morning of, but once again, he was on the injury report throughout the week because he was dealing with an injury. Mayo said, Peppers who signed with the Patriots in 2022 and is one of the team captains was originally drafted by Cleveland in 2017 and spent two seasons with the Browns before playing for the New York Giants for three seasons from 2019 to 2021. A hearing in the case is scheduled for November 22nd. However, Peppers' presence was waived. So, Mayo is indeed right about that. We are going to have to wait for some more information to release about that as the days go on. Let's hope for the best and prayers out to whoever was injured or harmed in this conflict. I was going to take a music break, but we don't really have time for that, so let's get right into the final segment. We're just going to cover a little bit of information about the Celtics' preseason so far. As you know, they did play an Abu Dhabi international game. They swept the Nuggets in the first two games in the preseason. It was fun to watch. We've seen a lot of Tatum and Brown. They shot very well in the most recent game, actually, the one that just played. Tatum shot three for seven from deep in only 23 minutes. He looks more comfortable than he did in the Olympics. I'll say that. He didn't really get many minutes in the Olympics to really show off, and he looked kind of nervous in the Olympics, which was concerning. But now he's back on his team in an international game in the preseason, and he's playing good. It looks like he changed his jump shot a little bit, is what people were saying. Brown also had some good handles. He had a good play, actually, where he backed down Jamal Murray and then turned around, shot a fadeaway shot in his face, and he drained it. It was pretty good. That's pretty indicative on how his workouts went this past offseason. He didn't play in the Olympics, but he did get a lot of time to work out. He was posting a lot about it. He even came out with some music. I highly suggest you go listen to it. It was pretty good. But he's been working this offseason. He's been taking that time that Tatum was actually taking to go to the Olympics in Paris, and Tatum actually had a lot of stuff going on this summer. In June, late June, they win the finals. They went to Miami after with a trophy. They come back. They do the parade. And then Tatum has to go off to Paris for the Olympics in July. And then after that, he went to China for his debut of his new shoe, I think. And he played a little bit of basketball there. He flew back. And then around this time now, the preseason started, and he had to start practicing. So Tatum had a really busy summer. Jalen Brown stayed focused. He was staying in the gym, and he looks a lot bigger than last year. So it's good to see him working. It's good to see the players getting in their own time, celebrating. It was a late summer for them after winning the finals, but I'm sure they're not complaining. And Pritchard coming off the bench. Yet again, he performs in these two preseason games. He had over 35 points, I think, in the first two preseason games combined, 35. He looked good. Baylor Skyrman, the rookie that we drafted, he was kind of iffy in the first game. We didn't really hear much from him. His name wasn't called. Missing a lot of shots. Second game, he finally drains a three. He's getting more involved in his team. But the real question is, what is going to happen when we come into the regular season? So we have the Knicks in the first game, and what is going to happen? How is he going to fit into the rotation? Is he going to take Hauser's spot? Which probably not, although Hauser played some questionable basketball in the playoffs. Is he going to fit in right away, or is he going to be someone like Jordan Walsh or some of those guys who remain on the bench, play in the G League, and don't really get minutes unless this is an insane blowout? That's going to be the question. Is he going to play right away? Is he going to get some minutes? Is he going to get in in the first, second quarter, take it over? I don't know what's going to happen with him. It's going to be fun to see because he's a 6'6", 205-pound guy forward that's got a pretty good shot at the three-point mark. Another good three-point shooter, fits well into this offense. We'll just have to see if he can develop as we go on. We are coming closer, but I still want to cover one more thing. We had a huge trade. The Knicks, Pickles, and Hornets had a huge trade. This is concerning us because the first game is against the Knicks. We had the Knicks who received Carl Anthony Towns and draft rights to James Nijani. The Rules received Julius Randle, Dante DiVincenzo, Keita Bates-Stahop, and a future first-round pick, the Hornets, got the lower end of the trade. There's Charlie Brown, Daquan Jeffries, DeJuan Washington Jr., some draft picks, and some cash considerations. But Celtics opening night on banner night, they are going to face off against the Knicks, which now has Brunson. It has Carl Anthony Towns. It's going to be fun to see that one. I know in the regular season he didn't give us too much trouble, but it's going to be fun to see how they work together. If Carl Anthony Towns is willing to work with Brunson, get him the ball, or if he's going to try to go out for a 70.9 or whatever he had last regular season. We're going to see how these two play together. The Knicks did lose Randle and DiVincenzo. Randle was injured already, so Randle was not really in the picture for playoffs. But then we also had DiVincenzo, who ended up playing pretty good playoff basketball. So we're going to see when that comes at banner night. So if we have to wrap this up, guys, sorry for the little bit of a time crunch there. We'll get into more Celtics for next week. We'll cover more. We would have been another preseason game in by next week. We'll cover more of what the week one matchup, or the first game matchup. Sorry, my head's wrapped around this NFL. But we'll cover the game one matchup for the Knicks and the Celtics. But let's wrap this up. So it looks like we're out of time. Thank you guys so much for tuning in to DOM Sports Ramblers. We are on air every Tuesday from 1 to 2. This is Dominic, your host. And today I would like to promote Graveyard Jams with Casper Salder. She'll be on from 4 to 5 today. I highly recommend you guys check it out. She's changing the genre every week, covering indie pop to classic rock, metal, and country. Go check her out. She's on today, 4 to 5. This is WQRI 88.3, a Roger Williams student broadcast out of Bristol, Rhode Island. Thank you guys so much for tuning in, and enjoy the rest of your day. Take care.