Week 9 Pod - IM BACK!!!

The speaker talks about two recent Patriots games. In the first game against the Bills, the Patriots won but the speaker wasn't impressed with Buffalo's performance. They note that Josh Allen was inconsistent and the Patriots offense looked good. In the second game against the Dolphins, the Patriots lost and the speaker feels that the team was overmatched. They criticize Mack Jones for making a bad interception and highlight the team's overall mistakes. The speaker also mentions injuries to key players. Hello boys! I'm back! Alright, back from my couple week hiatus here. I've been following the Patriots around, and got to see, really, some of the highs and lows, I think, of how this season's gone. To start out, went to the Bills game. Not sure who this game ended up saying more about, but the Patriots end up taking it 29-25. You know, I gotta say, Buffalo, pretty underwhelming performance from them overall. It really didn't get going until the last two drives, where, trust me, Kendrick Bourne fumbled. Patriots did everything they could to give this game back to the Bills. But, you know, late game drive by Mack, which we'll talk about in a second. But, overall, you know, really wasn't very impressed with what I saw from Buffalo. You know, Stephon Diggs is still very, very good at football. Josh Allen, pretty inconsistent, to be totally honest. He, again, turned it up crazy in the fourth quarter, and almost brought the whole team back. But, you know, running backs-wise, you know, Cook, he's really, in person, not overly impressive. I wasn't too impressed with, really, any of the runs I think he was able to rip off. And then, other than Diggs, the receiving core is pretty underwhelming. The Patriots did a really good job keeping them in check. You know, and then J.C. in this game, which, again, we'll talk about him in this Miami game. But, in this game, he was able to continue to play well, having come back to the New England Patriots system. But, you know, the Patriots finally showed some life on offense. They, really, from the jump, looked good. They got out to the lead early in this game, which I really think led to the success for the Patriots, kind of, overall. You know, they jump out to the 10-0 lead. And Mack did a great job just managing the game. You know, really, all that we've asked for him this whole season is he really, he didn't fuck up at all. You know, he made good throws. He made the good reads. Offensive line, so good in this game. Like, he really wasn't under pressure too much. And then, obviously, the big thing that happened in this game, finally, Mack Jones gets his game-winning drive. Jones swings it. Touchdown, Gostinke! Patriots go in front. Not gonna lie, I was kind of underwhelmed by that call when I heard it for the first time. But, insane environment to be in with them catching that touchdown late. I know, as Patriots fans, we have been pretty negative, rightly so, this season. But you could tell that there was such a want to win a game there by everyone in that stadium, no matter how much in the parking lot we were saying, basically, we didn't want to win. Every person in that stadium was so fired up for that win. I mean, there's people suddenly convinced that Mack Jones was going to be a guy that we were ready to go. I think what they didn't realize is that I just brought my grandpa to the game, and he's the luckiest dude alive, and the Patriots would never lose with him in the stadium, debating, telling Kraft that he may need to fly him around for all these games. But, no, like, insane, insane environment. Crazy game to be at. You know, always good to beat Buffalo. And, at this point, you're feeling like, hey, is this the momentum the Patriots need to, you know, propel the season, to save the season? You know, maybe we don't need to be sellers at the trade deadline. Finally, Kendrick Bourne looks good. They actually used Pop Douglas in this game. The Zeke-Ramondre combo seems to be actually working fairly well. You know, Jalen Rager, I hardly knew he was on the team. Suddenly, he comes in. He's looking pretty good. It's like, has this offense suddenly found a pulse? You know, J.C. Jackson looks good. The defensive line, Keon White, far more than a beast in these games. Suddenly, you're like, hey, I could start to sell myself on this team a little bit. And then I made the trip down to Miami. And, right off the bat, Miami's really, really fast. And it comes across the second you see these guys run. Like, watching Waddle and Tyreek Hill live is insane how much faster they were than everybody on the Patriots. Like, Jonathan Jones is the only guy that could remotely almost keep up. I actually think I saw that he had pretty good stats in this game. But, you know, they're running backs. Mostert is crazy fast. He scored a touchdown. I mean, obviously, Tyreek catches the deep ball. Their defense is pretty good. You know, Tua made the early interception. But, you know, from the Patriots' perspective, it was a lot of the same stuff we've been seeing all year. You know, they actually got out to an okay start for, again, like they did in the Bills game. Kendrick Bourne, touchdown, right out of the gate. And I'm not going to lie, I'm feeling good. I was feeling cocky at this point because I'm like, Patriots offense is back. Mac Jones looks good again. We're going to get going. This is going to be great. And then pretty much from that drive on, everything was pretty negative, to say the least. You know, that Tyreek Hill touchdown was just an absolute horrible, horrible coverage from J.C. Jackson. I mean, you could see it coming from a mile away. The second I saw Jon Jones nowhere near Tyreek Hill, I was like, well, this is going to be pretty bad. You know, overall on defense, they didn't have a horrible day. But, you know, whenever you let up, what was it, 31 points, it's not obviously a great day. Now, a lot of people are going to jump and say the officiating was suspect. Absolutely no doubt. The officiating in this game was suspect, to say the least. There was a lot of bad calls. The one on J.C. Jackson, the back of the end zone where they called him for pass interference. I have absolutely no clue what he could have done differently to not get that called on him. But really, the bigger takeaway I had in this game, Patriots just aren't a good football team compared to a team like Miami. You know, they were overmatched across the board and, you know, Mac reverted back to the things that have just been getting him in trouble all year. Miami. Mac Jones, just feel his confidence level rise. He's three or four on this drive alone. They've converted four first downs on this possession alone. But can they punch it in here? They'll try to tie this game. Pompey, Jones, Jones, Nielsen. The field that pass intercepted, Jalen Ramsey. Ramsey's got a lead blocker. Ramsey out of bounds. He's got his first pick in his Dolphins debut. Not gonna lie, I didn't realize in that clip, he's literally said Mac Jones is gaining confidence. And then Mac throws an absolutely horrendous pick that his partner literally goes, oh, about like that. That throw, every single person in the stadium, I swear, knew exactly what was about to happen. It was a screen pass, designed screen. Devante Parker shot up the side and I'm not kidding. There were two Dolphins that could have picked that ball off. It was just a horrible decision. I mean, Ramsey probably should have taken that back for six. I mean, I think McDaniel said in the post game, he's kind of disappointed by Ramsey because he told him he was going to have a pick six in the game. But just another case of Mac Jones making a really, really dumb decision, you know, that we just can't have him doing that and hope to be competitive in these games. If you don't do that, and let's say the Patriots at that point were driving, go get three points. This is a totally different football game. But every game you can point to something like this. And even in the Bills one, you could have almost said that Kendrick Bourne one could have cost him the game. If you actually thought about Mac's historical record coming back in games, you actually would have thought that Kendrick Bourne would have cost him the game. So it's just been a theme really, since Brady left that the Patriots just make stupid mistakes down the stretch, which is so weird, because for years, we were preached how well coached the Bill Belichick team is and how disciplined they are and how they don't make mistakes. And it's just for the past three years, every single game, you could point to something where something goes wrong. And it just sucks because every single little bit of momentum that they built in that Bills game, completely went out the door and you could see it on the players faces, they knew that they were completely a mismatch for that Miami team. Yeah, like the defense, defensive line played okay, every other position, you know, really, like they just don't have the speed to keep up with these guys. And again, like, I still don't really think two is a very good QB. But other than that one Duggar interception, he really tore up the defense fairly easily. And as crazy as it is, he goes to six and oh against Bill Belichick in his career. I mean, I think debatably, he's probably like the best QB against Bill Belichick like there ever has been. But no, there's just there's a lot, a lot of issues with the Patriots, Zeke, he kind of looks better than Mondre honestly, even in the Bills game that I was at. Like, Zeke just has a little more pop to him right now than Mondre. And I don't know what happened to Ramondre Stevenson. He was so good. And now it's suddenly, like he's just totally lost the step. I don't know, like he's honestly been one of my most disappointed players for this year. And trust me, there's been a lot of them. But you know, tough. And then of course, tough end to the game. Kendrick Bourne tears his ACL. Really, it's crazy to look at this season right now, thinking about the fact that we had Christian Gonzalez, who comes out as an unbelievable start to his rookie campaign. He goes out for the year. Judon, sounding like now at this point, don't expect to see him back at all this year. And now KB, who's really been the bright spot on offense, if we're being totally honest, it definitely seemed like getting to Bill O'Brien's offense got him kind of back to where he was a couple years ago. And now you lose all that momentum. And so, you know, and again, that end of the game, like, oh, great, Juju caught a touchdown finally. He is the slowest wide receiver you will ever watch in person. Like that dude can't get off the ball. He was just lucky that it was a good play design that he got an easy touchdown catch. Parker, same way like these, these old guys. And oh, trust me, I got a lot of thoughts on what the Patriots did this past week at the trade deadline. These old guys are killing us. Like we need an injection of youth on this team so bad. Like we cannot continue with these veterans and really expect to be competitive in these games. Like again, NFL really right now is being dominated by speed. Like every team has guys that are fast and the Patriots for some reason, it went the complete opposite direction with that with guys that are like possession receivers and jump ball specialists. That's just not how the NFL is anymore. And yeah, it's tough because I do feel for Mac from that perspective. But at this point, he's fucked up way too many times for me to be really confident as him being our QB moving forward. But let's talk trade deadline quick. Hey, Bill, what do you think we should do? I have nothing. Wait, sorry, what was that? I have nothing. Wait, sorry, one more time. I have nothing. Oh, yeah, that's right. The Patriots did nothing at the trade deadline. That's insane to me. Like I, we have so many expiring contracts, we have so many old guys, we have so many people that are not going to be in the three year plan for this team, which let's face it, we need to kind of think about this in a three year window, not, oh, let's reload for next year, which is, God, I'm nervous we're thinking about right now. But to me, this was just an inexcusable trade deadline from the Patriots. I mean, it sounds like all they did was call on Chase Young. And I don't know why we would want to bring in Chase Young to this team right now when we have a ton of depth there. And not to mention, the guy you absolutely should have traded, Josh Uche, in an expiring deal, no chance he's resigning with this team. And you just let him just stay on the team. I mean, he hasn't even been active. I know he's been quote unquote hurt. But the Patriots are just not building a good team right now. Like, I don't know how they didn't, I mean, I would have taken like pennies for Juju or Devontae Parker. I don't care, get them off the team, get me a six round draft pick. Look at the two guys who got in the six round this year, Udi and Pop Douglas. Like those are two guys that hopefully will turn into pretty productive players. Pop already clearly being the best receiver on the team now that KB is gone. I mean, Miami is literally double covering Pop Douglas. He even said after the game, he's like, I would never have expected to already be here in my NFL career. But is that how good Pop Douglas is or how bad the Patriots receivers are? We can debate that all day. But you know, I look at a team like the Commanders. I like what they did, getting rid of Sweat and Chase Young. I think that's just smart moves for a team that knows, you know, they've realized that they're not going to be a Super Bowl contender anytime soon. You know, they know that they don't have a great quarterback. They know that they're lacking a lot of pieces. Now they got some decent weapons there, but you know, I think it was smart to move on from guys that you just don't see in your three-year plan, right? Again, like teams that aren't like the Chiefs, the Bengals, you know, the Eagles, the 49ers, who, by the way, bravo, going to get Chase Young. That defensive line is absolutely horrifying. But teams not like that, they should be looking to say, hey, who are guys that I don't have signed next year? Go and trade them to contenders. Again, it's not going to make a difference for you at the end of the day. You know, we're a 2-6 football team. We're not competitive. That's just how it is, you know. And then, you know, I think about, you know, I honestly, the team that I've been most impressed with that's been building for a little bit now, and it's really just been this year, but I feel like the Texans are doing an unbelievable job. And it's like, it's crazy to me because the Texans have so much of a Patriots presence there. And again, Patriots presence there. And again, maybe that's kind of moved out. Maybe that's what's helping them. But yeah, they got a good young QB in C.J. Stroud. You know, he's showing some promise. Maybe didn't look as good last week, but, you know, a guy that looks like he's going to be a legitimate NFL quarterback. You know, they got Tank Dell, Nikko Collins, both young receivers that they're bringing up with him. And then they bring in a guy like Robert Woods, who's kind of been his safety blanket, like savvy veteran that knows how to just sit down on third down. And then you look at the way the Patriots are doing, and it's just bringing in these old veterans on really not good contracts. And again, my fear is that we couldn't trade anyone because these contracts are so bad that people won't take them. Because eventually we're going to have to find a way to move these guys, because you're not, Juju is not going to be on this team in three years. There's just no way. And I don't see how Devontae Parker is either based on the production that they're giving right now. So, yeah, I don't know why we didn't try to trade the old guys. That really didn't make any sense to me or the guys on expiring deals. Yeah, I did see some rumors of, hey, what if they traded Mac Jones during the deadline? I don't really think that makes sense. I know we like to bring up Malik Cunningham, but the Patriots have invested nothing in getting him ready to be an NFL quarterback. I mean, they play him that receiver at practice, and then sometimes I think they let him be like the scout team quarterback. It wouldn't be fair to him for his first NFL film to get out there would be, oh, hey, we're just throwing him into the fire with no real practice. And yeah, best of luck, kid, go run around and throw the ball. Just not how the Patriots operate. And to me, it's become very clear that Will Greer isn't really a guy that they're going to end up being too high on because at this point, I don't know how he hasn't beaten out Zappi, a guy that they cut for the backup job. To me, it's like if you're willing to cut Zappi and now Greer's not beating him out for the job, both those guys are just irrelevant in this conversation. So I'm not surprised that they would hang on to Mac, to be totally honest with you. And I saw some people saying like, how crazy is it that Jacoby Brissett got calls, but Mac Jones didn't. Do you know the price difference there between Mac Jones and Jacobi Brissett? Jacobi Brissett, maybe you get like a fifth back for like Mac Jones would have to actually get like a second and like a fourth. I know as Patriots fans right now, we may not believe that, but the dude is a first round quarterback, been starting in the NFL, you know, had some success his rookie year, like he would still garner some decent return. But yeah, just overall for, you know, how I felt about that trade deadline, it's inexcusable that it's just more of the same crap that's just made this team a two and six football team. And if something doesn't change with the way that they're thinking about things, I don't really know how they're not going to continue to do this moving forward, unless they luck into like the next Patrick Mahomes by getting a high draft pick. But again, I, I don't know, we'll talk about this upcoming game in a second, but I am getting nervous that we're going to end up winning a couple games here because we're not thinking about losing correctly. The only other quick trade deadline thing I wanted to touch on was, you know, Josh McDaniels and Ziegler, both former Patriots guys, both fired by the Raiders, I think at like 1am Eastern time or something like that is when like Schefter tweeted that. Uh, crazy, you know, crazy to think that in his two 10 years with football teams, Josh McDaniels has lasted something like a maximum of like 20 something games. And then the craziest thing is that his Broncos stint actually was somehow longer than his Raiders stint. So clearly he's a terrible head coach. It doesn't make me feel great that we lost to that team a couple weeks ago, given the fact that obviously there's a lot of inner turmoil there. I mean, this is another team that did nothing at the trade deadline and probably should have, you know, I mean, poor Devontae Adams, get the poor guy out of there. He's just dying there. But yeah, I mean, do I expect to see Josh McDaniels back on the staff? Um, let's see. So he's getting paid by the Raiders for the next three years. Uh, yes, I do expect that Josh McDaniels will be back in some capacity. Sure, Mack Jones will be excited about that if they can convince him to come back this year. But at the same time, Josh could also just go and hang out and relax for a little bit. And yeah, I mean, he signed a massive deal. He's still getting paid. He doesn't have to go work if he doesn't want to. But yeah, we'll see on that one. I, I would take him back. But again, I don't really think, I don't really understand what difference that would make bringing him back in because obviously this is Bill O'Brien's offense. It's not like you bring Josh in and he'd immediately take over and start calling different plays. So again, maybe he comes back as like an offensive assistant type can help with the game planning and everything. But yeah, I just, I don't, I don't really think it, I don't think it would matter just to be completely honest. But all right, now for the last kind of topic, we'll get into this commander's game. So we just talked about them. They obviously dealt their two best defensive ends. So I'm sure the Patriots O-line was throwing a party when they got to see that they didn't have to deal with a Chase Young this weekend. But yeah, I've, I'm worried about this game because I'm very worried the Patriots could win this game. I'm not gonna lie, before I honestly, as far as talent, the commanders actually do have decent talent. They got like Scary Terry, Samuel Robinson, who's been awesome. But yeah, I mean, I think Howell's more of just kind of like a bridge QB at this point, obviously based on the way that they're managing their team. But I, I'm worried that this is a team that has accepted their fate. And I'm worried that the Patriots are not a team that's accepted their fate. And that's really the only way I see the Patriots winning this game. Now the Patriots are going to be down receivers pretty significantly in this, I think. I mean, DeMonte Parker got popped in that game. So I don't know if we'll see him. And then, you know, obviously KB's out for the year. So good chance of, you know, Booty will get back on the field for the first time since he got up benched for his week one, not getting his foot down. But yeah, I, I'm worried that this is going to be a game that the Patriots can go out, be good enough offensively to win a game. And then the commanders maybe don't, you know, I mean, I think it's just a mental thing, right? If you're a team that just traded some of your star players, I think even one of the commanders, defensive backs, was tweeting just like horrified emojis, watching all these trades. Like that does take a toll on a team mentally. Then they got to travel up here to play. It's going to be a horrible game. It's not going to be very fun to watch. I think the Patriots are going to win 21-14. And I hate that I'm saying that because I think they're going to try and I think the commanders aren't going to try. And that's really going to be the difference in this game. And yeah, I mean, I don't want to win anymore. Me personally, if we could lose every single game moving forward, that would be great. But a lot of the teams that are on our schedule that are also thinking about tanking, they made moves. We did not. And that concerns me that the Patriots for some reason still have in their head that they can be a competitive football team when there at this point is no reason to do that. So my hope is we'll see a lot of the young guys get some opportunities this week. You know, I hope Booty and Pop both get to basically play the whole game. I doubt that happens. I'm sure you'll see Juju and Devontae Parker out there a lot. But yeah, sad to say I do think the Patriots are going to win this game despite the fact that they should just lay down and call it a day. So yeah, that's this is my depressed voice. If anyone was concerned. But yeah, so let's let's hop into some fantasy football. It's been a little bit. So I mean, who could be on top of the rankings right now? Let's find out. But first, great call by Sean. Very memeable show. We got a classic coming up here for meme week. Ah, such a good theme song. But yeah, I mean, I definitely think there will be some pretty good memes this week, which I'm excited to see. But taking a look at last week. Oh, God, this is this is not what we want to see here. Jarn took down Bo 135 to 123. Bo, I'm not gonna lie. I wanted you to get that one. And I'm a little sad that you didn't. But I guess moving on here, Pat. Hey, there you go, Pat. Big one for him here. 140 to 103 over Sean. Sean. No, no, hold on. Dan beat Jimmy 146 142. That's a very, very close matchup right there. So body. Oh, so body. Lowest score of the league this week. 102.58. So, I mean, 0.08 away from Sean. So you guys are pretty much in the same spot. But he lost. Jesus Christ, Tom. 173 to 103 basically. And then what I would describe as the toilet bowl. I barely squeaked by Ben 106 to 104. I'm gonna be honest with you guys. My team has absolutely no right to be where I am in the standings right now. But all that being said, taking a look at the standings, it officially has happened. Tell me that's not exactly how Utah State song is supposed to sound. But James Arnold, first place. If the season ended today and we went by rankings, I would be on my way to Utah. We are in a very real James Arnold wins this league scenario. And it's just terrifying. He's officially in sole possession of first place. And once again, there's no chance he's ever heard this podcast. Bo holding it down two weeks in a row, though, for Bo or a couple weeks in a row. Now we've had a couple losses here for Bo, but he's remained six and two. I'm the worst five and three team of all time. I was looking at points for Tom's well above me. And I think even Pat, Pat's had a rough year with points for and points against. I will say that, but we then have a host of four and four teams here. So we got Tom. You guys really need to stop changing your names. He's you're screwing with me. We got Jimmy. Oh, he did admit he's a Michigan man. That's good. And then we got Sean kind of is our four and four group. Ben now actually comfortably in seventh place. There you go. We got a body whose team has been struggling a little bit of late at three and five. And then we got a Pat and remaining in our bottom place. Unfortunately, Dan Allen remains in last. So still plenty of season left, boys. But that's kind of where we're at as far as who's looking like they're going to win the league and who's looking like they're not going to come in first here. So let's go ahead and pick out our game of the week. And for the game of the week, we're going to go with Pat Barrett versus Tom Driscoll, two teams that if you actually looked at the standings and filtered by points for would both actually be in the top four for the teams. However, Tom's ranked fourth and Pat's ranked ninth. Could this be the week that we see Pat Barrett start to turn the season around, start to put together some wins and get out of the hole of being in ninth place? Stay tuned. But that'll do it for the show today, guys. Happy to be back broadcasting to the group. Let's go out with some classic Michael Scott. Love you all. Bye. Oh, my God. OK, wait, wait, wait, wait. Michael, do you need me to call an ambulance? No, I want you to pick me up. OK, wait a sec. I thought you said that you were hurt. I am hurt. I hurt my foot. I want to come to work, but I need you to come and pick me up. No, God. Hey, whoa, Michael. OK, Jim, just say again really loudly what happened. OK, I burned my foot very badly on my foreman grill and I now need someone to come and bring me into work. You burned your foot on a foreman grill. I enjoy having breakfast in bed. I like waking up to the smell of bacon. Sue me. And since I don't have a butler, I have to do it myself. So most nights before I go to bed, I will lay six strips of bacon out on my George Foreman grill. Then I go to sleep. When I wake up, I plug in the grill. I go back to sleep again. Then I wake up to the smell of crackling bacon. It is delicious. It's good for me. It's a perfect way to start the day. Today, I got up. I stepped onto the grill and I clamped down on my foot. That's it. I don't see what's so hard to believe about that.