HR2 - How repeatable is the Patriots formula for winning?

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1:00Now I'm your Jones and Keith. On WWEEI, download The Odyssey app and listen on demand anytime. They come back and put up a strong performance here to take this game 20-3. They absolutely did, they needed it, they had a long layoff, plenty of time to think about it. And now in their home opener, they get things back righted. Mike Vrayball against the team he played for and coaching the team he played for, finding a way to get it done. But Pittsburgh Steelers have to find a way to get something going. Offense currently not looking good enough to get it done. Spurrow, New England 20 and Pittsburgh 3. Our two Jones and Keith, WWEEI, you can dial us up on a Patriots Monday, 617-779-7937. We'll go around the NFL coming up at 1130 with what happened? What happened? Everything that went down in a week two of the NFL was, even some of the games that didn't have a lot of points.

2:04It was like wild that they didn't, some of the results, some of the injuries, stuff that happened week one did not happen again in week two. So yeah, pretty interesting week in the league. So Keith starting late last year, the Patriots defense really started to, well I would say, turn around. They had the game against the Giants on Monday Night Football where Christian Ellis knocked out Jackson Dart. We're going to talk to Ellis later on. Yes. And he had a big hit on Rodgers yesterday. He sure did. They then went against Baltimore Buffaloes to get offence and they gave up some points. Then they limited the Jets and Dolphins to 10 each the final two weeks of the year. Yeah. In the postseason they gave up three to the chargers, then 16 to CJ Stroud and the Texans with a bunch of turnovers in that game. Only seven to the Broncos before the Super Bowl against Seattle where I would argue, despite losing 29 to 13, the defense kept them in that game for a large portion of that game. Yeah. Now that too is our guy Milton Williams missed a bunch of games. As soon as back for the finale and then obviously he was there for the playoff run. They now gave up 13 last week to Drew Lock and three yesterday to Aaron Rodgers.

3:08So on the one hand, I want to say the offense is going to be better. Jake May is going to be better on the other. You do look at it over all these games where May has struggled. The defense has over the last whatever six, seven, eight games. Yeah. It really has turned a corner with core and Vrable. And I wonder if that if that's how Vrable wants to win. I wonder if that's how he thinks they can win. I wonder if that's how he wants to win. I'm sure he's okay with winning that way. I wonder if that's what he wants. Yeah. I mean, my guess would be as a defensive guy and then with a defensive coach and then a defensive coordinator that, yeah, that probably would be more of what he would want to do. I think, right? But again, I think he just wants to win and maybe he's looking at the team that he has right now. And you might have thought it was going to be more based off of Drake May, but now you're like, wait a minute. Like we have a top corner. We have a really good defensive front. The pass rush, oh by the way, is way better than I would have guessed it to be. For sure.

4:08Those guys are playing well. The seconder is really good. And so yeah, he's got to feel good about that. I just think that the defense is right now probably good enough to keep your same expectations for the regular season. I think it could get you into the playoffs, but you're going to need a better combination. You're going to need the offense to score some points. The Seattle defense was great, but they also needed to score points throughout their playoff run to win a Super Bowl. Oh, yeah. And I think, you know, I'm sure he wants the offense to not turn it over into execute and put more points on the board. But I think part of the reason they've rained in Drake May and I think they've rained him in. It was clear in the Seattle game. And what's unclear is how much of that had to do with the Darnold injury early in the game and then it's true lock as a backup. Yeah. But I think it was clear in the Seattle game. They rained him in because they don't want him to lose games. They don't think they necessarily need him to do much, but to win games. And I, I think that's a mistake, but it worked yesterday. All right. So maybe we'll never really know the answer to this, but Drake May throws the ball 22 times yesterday.

5:08Do you think that number would have been the same if AJ Brown was healthy? I feel like you don't get AJ Brown. I think just want to have this like, I think that's fair. Keep your hands at 10 and two type of offense. I think you're willing to put the ball down the field a little bit more. It takes some chances. We won't know the answer, but for a while, it was a pretty 10 and two offense with AJ Brown and the limited snapshot. You don't have to opt for a half against Seattle. No doubt. I think I'll take a chance down the field. He did catch a couple of balls short. And so I feel like at the very least, AJ Brown was probably going to get like on average 10 targets the game. It's so if he's getting 10 and you're only throwing 20, I feel like the number would be up a little bit more. But they also did have some success. I mean, they had some big long runs yesterday, too. So you can see why it wasn't like the game last week was even more frustrating because they weren't getting those big runs. You know, they made a point on the broadcast yesterday to point out was it on the rared and big catch. They were like, they didn't have a 30 yard play last week. They didn't have a 20 yard play last week. They didn't know big plays against their X plays. Thank you.

6:08Thank you. Yeah. Use the proper. No, they don't have any X plays. The media. So Ravel said it so much. The media started to ask him about X. I think Rochi gave the good X play as question after the game. Well, it's good enough. It's used and using the variable terminology now. Speaking of Mike Ravel, these are his comments after the game talking about. Well, the right way, the blueprint, if you will, for the Patriots to win football games. Second game in a row, a very strong defensive effort. Today, the turnovers and constant harassment of Rogers. I'm guessing is what you were looking for. Well, that has to be the formula. You have to affect the quarterback each and every week. We have to do a better job and continue to do a good job of helping our quarterback be efficient. He has a large part in that. But we know that that's the formula. I'm proud of our defense. I'm proud of everybody. And then we'll have a lot of guys stepped up with a lot of injuries. And we played a lot of guys that some of these guys hadn't been here for, you know, probably around two weeks or so. And, you know, they play for us. So that's, that's a great thing that they were ready to go.

7:12But we have to get healthy and figure out who's available next week for a huge challenge. So I know he's talking about that's our formula on defense. I want to pressure the quarterback and that's what we got to do. And they did. And I think for the second week in a row, it was more scheme than like pure pass rush. They lost frame on Jones early on in this one. I wonder if he thinks that's the formula to win games. That's how they want. That's how they won in the playoffs. It is how they won in the playoffs. I just wonder. That's his championships. People say that. That is true. People say that there are examples of it. I think to me. Some of the defenses, even as the defenses that they played in the playoffs last year. In fact, all three of those are great examples of Houston Denver and the chargers probably thought we can win on defense. Yeah. Until you can't until your offense isn't able to score enough points. And then how do we all view? I don't know if it was an even nicks. But I think you could probably swap in nicks, Herbert, playoff Herbert and CJ Stroud. We all sort of view them the same way. I look at Drake May as better than those guys.

8:13But if he ends up being the same or even worse than those guys, you can have the great defense like all these teams do, but what are you going to do with it? Yeah. So not against Ferrer. I mean, the Broncos probably thought they could win a championship on defense. And the Texans probably thought they could win a championship on defense. Well, their defense has not been great to start the year. No, it hasn't. They got, I mean, they had to face Alan and Barrow these first couple of weeks. But that does not look like the same defense to start. Connor is in Virginia. Hello, Connor. Hello. Hi. How are you doing? Happy Patriots Monday, guys. Yes. Thank you. Same to you. Just want to talk about this, first of all, you know, great win against a top Pittsburgh defense. And I'm here in a lot of negativity about the offense. And Drake May, and I get those some questions about it. But you guys were just talking about the winning formula. All these great teams have to have great defense. And I want to put it out there that I think our defense is probably a top five defense in the NFL.

9:16Okay. What's the ceiling for this defense? The only negativity that's in this town sucks. It is top five. Yeah. See, I don't. Sealing top five, sure. I thought there'd be top 10 anyway. Yeah. I'm still not sure about that. Now, the pass rush is way better. I thought the pass rush might be non-existent. And I've already seen more good plays from Gabe, Ackis and Ponder and like these guys that I ever would have thought. That's fair. They've been way better than I thought. Yeah. And I think again, that's the core scheme. And I think we saw that in the postseason. Now, you're talking points for game. Are your points allowed? Is that the metric you use? I mean, take whatever metric you want. I don't think they're our top five. So last year in this, you know, Cam Newton and those would say, well, it's because of the schedule. But last year they were a top four defense. And so I feel like if you want to say you're playing better quarterbacks this year, you have the ranks in front of them. I just have theirs. Okay. They were fourth. Dale scale. I forgot about the Dale scale. They were second offense, fourth in defense. And so on the one here, they play easy teams. It's also 17 games. Everybody plays 17 games like at the decent sample size.

10:18So I thought even if you wanted to say competition goes up, that number goes down. I didn't think it was going to go down outside the top 10. So even if you double that ranking from your, you're going to your eighth. I think there are top quarter of the league defense. I think that's fair. Okay. So the pad, the defenses in front of the past last year, Seattle, Houston, Denver, then the past. They were in front of the events. Yes. They were in front of the chiefs, the Vikings, further down, chargers, rams, etc. And those defenses all certainly made the playoffs. And in the case of the Patres and the CX were the teams in the sewer. I mean, look, if you're asking me to sit here and take the Vikings defense or the Patriots defense, Eagles defense, even the rams. And I know they don't have Garrett right now. Yeah. But a year ago, I'd say I'd take all those defenses, but numbers of numbers. Yeah. That's a better number year ago. So look, if they're on the top five points allowed, I'll give it to you. I would not expect that. Currently number one. Currently number one. It's pretty good. They played Drew Locke. I still, by the way, she drew Locke yesterday. He's, he's looking around. Drew Locke was slinging. He's got more touchdown passes than Drake May. He is. Cardinals like touchdowns.

11:18Passes the most. Cardinals might work. Covered J.S. Ed. I would put a guy in there. Pretty loose on a couple of those. I'll put two three guys on him. Probably the way to do that. But no, I, I still think the fact that they held Rogers and the Steelers offense to what they did. I think they should have held Locke to fewer, but good point. In fact, yes, if it wasn't for Mike Vrable, they wouldn't have a shutout. Mike Vrable. Yeah. Game of five yards. That was so stupid. That was really dumb. And I usually give Vrable credit. Remember Vrable would have a chest match. Yeah, with Bell check and you're laughing Bell check and you like these little like hidden rule book. No, Vrable. Vrable's been bad going in half time. Two short weeks. Screwed that up. Big time. Obviously didn't come back to bite them. They won 20 to three. But that was five extra yards for, and then they ended up taking two more plays. They picked up four more. It's a nighttime about nine more yards to make it a 56 yarder. Yeah. Boswell already missed the field goal before. And he just what? Lost track of his timeouts? Well, no, he's trying to call back to back. Back to back timeouts. That was a nice one. That's a nice one. He can't call us. He tried to take two in a row. They forced him to take one. So he just shouldn't have called that out. So bad situation awareness from Vrable the week before he did not have them punt to Marcus Jones.

12:20Which did you see Marcus Jones return to Ponce yesterday? He's a good pun return. Now I know he didn't return one of the house, but you should have given yourself a chance. That's two weeks in a row right before halftime. Vrable has fumbled it. I agree with you. He's like already checked out. He's like already ready for his halftime speech. I guess six one seven seven seven nine seven ninety three seven. You can jump in here on Jones and keep more on the defense. You can jump in here on Vrable if you want to get to it and in just two minutes. Let's get to some questions in the Patriots backfield. Stevenson fumbles again. Henderson ripped off a long touchdown. Run. What are the Patriots do there? We'll get to it two minutes here on WEEI. This is the sound of captivity. This is the sound of rescue. And this is the sound of freedom. Give Armenia's captive bears a second chance by supporting international animal rescue. Call 508-826-1083 or search the Great Bear Rescue to learn more.

13:21On Reddit true crime doesn't come from journalists. It comes from the victims, the witnesses, and sometimes the suspects themselves. Every Tuesday on Crimes of Reddit we read these posts out loud. I'm Sabrina Deanna Roga and I'm Alexis Linkletter. One of us brings the story, the other goes in blind, reacting in real time just like you. New episodes dropped every Tuesday. Listen to and follow Crimes of Reddit available now wherever you get your podcasts. This is Jones and Keith. Until you E.E.I. Save us as a favorite on the Odyssey app. And take Boston Sports Original everywhere you go. There's Edison, and there's Edison and goes into the secondary and he is gone. 39 yards for Traveon Henderson. Well, Jim, we said he was a home run threat and he decided to go Barry Bonds early.

14:26Just some great blocking up front. You got Morgan Moses pulling around to take out Peyton Wilson. And then it's just vision, agility, and speed from Traveon Henderson all the way to Peyton. Traveon Henderson, 39 yard touchdown. Yesterday, really all the offense for the Pats. That was it. That is Keith, his fifth 30 plus yard touchdown run since the start of last year which leads the NFL. For a guy who had 1100 scrimmage yards a year ago, almost a thousand rushing at splitting time with Ramondra Stevenson. You know me, I've been pretty bullish on wanting him more involved in the offense. I think he unlocks another gear. That said, he didn't do much with his other opportunities. No, he only got the opportunity because Ramondra fumbled again. So what are the Patriots doing the backfield? I think they continue to split and I know Ramondra had the fumble and that is brutal deja vu, especially against Pittsburgh. But and it was funny because JJ Watt was like, oh yeah, Ramondra is not in this series.

15:27He fumbled and like, that's what Rable does. Like, no, it's not. No, he didn't. That's actually not at all what he does him, nor Mayo. No, no, anybody really since Ramondra has gotten your other the bill or really honest word. Now I do Ramondra play sooner after than he was getting carries again. And they also flashed up the graphics of the combined yardage and touchdown between the two. And it's like equivalent of a really, really good stud back. And I think neither one is a featured back. They both can drive you nuts. You know, Ramondra Stevenson with the fumbles and Trigion Henderson with running into the guard. Three straight plays before he rips off a 40 yard touchdown run. So it's almost like the guy in your lineup that goes one for five four strikeouts in a home run. You're like, I do like the home run. Like I kind of need that in the lineup still. Well, I would say after two weeks, Patriots run blocking his dog crap because Stevenson had about two good runs yesterday. They were on back to back place and they get touched at the line of scrimmage or behind the line of scrimmage more often than that. He had a 24 yarder and a nine yarder. I think back to back. And he also had a fun when he was out there.

16:27Stevenson had the 39 yarder, which they were further back could have been 80 yards. No one was getting no no. And to the twitch chats point, some great blocking on that Morgan Moses was a road grader. Pop Douglas with the great block at the second level. So, you know, he needed help with the blocking. But I'd say in general, the run blocking spore and knowing that knowing the run blocking spores. Bad without traviant Henderson week one against Seattle. And it was bad again yesterday. Knowing all that. I want the home run header. If every 10th play, Ramandre Stevens, uh, traviant Henderson rather has taken one 30 40 yards. Well, then fine. I'll take that tradeoff. It's a bunch of two yarders in between. I'll take the electric play. Because guess what? Without that electric play yesterday. There you go. Score it off. You don't score. You don't do anything on offense yesterday. Without one big play from traviant Henderson. So great. Ramandre Stevens and might get four where traviant Henderson gets two. Ramandre Stevens is not getting the 40 and he's not getting the long touchdown. And I would like to see over the course of the year. I don't think it happens next week against Jacksonville.

17:29I would like to see that transition to a more traviant Henderson based backfield. Because there's also not the downside of killer fumbles. That could have been a killer fumble from Ramandre Stevens. Oh, that was the moralizing because they're moving the ball down the field. And then you're like, oh, no. Like is this going to happen again? And then it's like, what do you do with them? Because then do you just bench him or do you put him back out there? And then if he does it again, now that looks dumb on your part if you're able. And so yeah, that could have been a complete nightmare. I still look at Henderson though. Like how many touches can he have in a game? He never had 20 carries. He approached it last year in some of those games. And Ramandre even missed I think three games in the right of those seasons. So there were times where it was really just Henderson. And still I feel like you're kind of pushing it with 20 carries, meaning his frame. Yeah. Yeah, I just I don't know if that's something that he can do and whatever. I mean, the philosophy on running back to the most part is kind of burn him out while they're on the rookie deals anyway. And you don't have to worry about the long term. Basically the same size as Gibbs, right? And Gibbs is now getting like 30 times the game with the Lions.

18:29They might run him into the trail. Oh, that's true. But I would argue the games that Ramandre missed last year where Trivia and Henderson really had the backfield. Were like by far his most productive because it wasn't just eight to 10 touches a game. It was it was we got to keep giving it to him over and over and over again. And the more you give it to him, I mean, the Tampa behind the high of the likelihood. He's going to pop one like that last year against Tampa. You had 14 carries for 147. And then the lost the Buffalo. We had 14 for 1448. So I mean, there's definitely some upside there. But then at the very end of the regular season and the playoffs, it was like he kind of disappeared. Well, two of those games are Ramandre. He had under four yards of carry and then the one of them he had 10 and a half. So I think he disappeared in the playoffs because they fell in love with Ramandre. And some of that might have to do with pass blocking and all these other things, which the book on Henderson was that he was great at. He was a pretty good receiver in college too. And you don't see any of that. It's pretty playoff carries for 76 yards. I think they made a mistake of, yeah, it's not a lot. No, I know. I know it's a seven or eight touches the game. I mean, that's seven and a half a game.

19:29So that to me, they felt too in love with Ramandre is the year went along last year when he came back. And I think that's part of the reason the offense does look more pedestrian. When you have a guy who could take it 50 yards to the house any time he touches the ball, that's another gear to this offense. And they don't have that one, Ramandre. Do you think they can duplicate the totals that they had last year combined? The two of them? Yeah, probably. I feel like that's probably the best way to get the most out of both backs. And obviously the fumbles is a big issue. But then again, if they ran away from Ramandre last year after the Pittsburgh game, which you and I are both advocate for, I was like, I didn't say condom. But I was like, you can't play him in the next game. I think I was cutting him in pop out. Yeah, probably last year. Yeah, I don't know. Pop whatever. But with Ramandre is like, I think you need him back. But I would have maybe sent a message and sat him out. But then he ended up being really valuable to the team later on in the year. So I don't know. I feel like it's probably going to be more of the same between those guys. 617-779-793-7, Mike Vrable did discuss after the game.

20:30The long touchdown run for Travion Henderson is some of the blocking that set him up. Here's Vrable. Mike, how big was the X-play by Henderson in the first quarter? We get you going. Well, again, that's what you need. We talked about to create X-play offensively. You need great execution and extra efforts. And I think we had good execution. And then pop provided the extra effort to spring the block there that got Travion into the end zone. So I mean, look, the blocking is something that you know Vrable loves to see further downfield. So that happened there. So what do you do in the backfield with the Patriots? Should it be more Travion Henderson than they have the right balance? Should it be more Stevenson? Are you worried about the fumbles? You can get to all of that here. A lot of Patriots Monday with Jones and Keith. Barry's a new Bedford, waiting patiently. Hello, Barry. Hey, guys. Let's not jump all high upon the defense here. The lead coin, you had a backup quarterback. This week you had a retired quarterback. And then you had a new coach. You just adopted the CFL rules and put the ball in third down. That's how bad that was.

21:31You played probably the most mute offense in the NFL. Now, going forward, I think they're going to be pretty good. But they're starting to get injuries now. People don't realize Craig Woodson got hurt too. So you're going to have to start having to get this use on both sides of the ball quickly on May. And I got to tell you watching May yesterday and even last week. You are seeing regression in that kid. And a lot of it to me is Josh McDaniels. And this kid, if you watch towards the end of last year and this year, once you get past the scripted place, that's when this kid starts to make mistakes. Teams of Josh, you start seeing blitzes and you start yesterday. And by the way, he almost fumbled in that game yesterday. Oh, he did. He had the ball in one hand going to the ground. It could have been a fumble for sure. So look, I'm just not going to blame Josh McDaniels for May's progression. I go with them all last season. I think it's way too conservative. And I will criticize the Patriots play calling for Abel and McDaniels for that. I hated the F-tanchism play on third down.

22:32So like there are things I'll criticize. Sure, there's bad plays. But now it's Drake May's job to play better than he has. And I'm going to put that on Drake. And I'm now saying I hope you will. Last week I was saying I think you will. I'm now saying I hope you will. Yeah, I know. Or he will wind up doing that. But yeah, I don't really care about the play collar there. If you're that good of a player and you're as talented of a quarterback as we think, you should be able to overcome some poor play calls. And you should be able to go beyond the scripted play calls. That's on you. 617779. 7937. We got your feedback here. We get to Christian Gonzalez big day out of him. Later on this hour plus on the way next. Everything that happened in week two with what happened here on Jones and Keith. Tell your smart speaker to play 93 7 W E E I. This is Jones and Keith on W E E I. Couldn't sit on the couch all day. Well, we've got you covered with what happened on Jones and Keith.

23:33Oh, doctor Jones. What a week it was week two nearly in the books. We got one more game tonight. Giants and Rams. But let's get you the non Patriots games around the league. Let's start with the New York football jets taken on the Green Bay Packers. Hey, what happened? Leave it or not. This one went to overtime. Three points and the win. Packers have over time. Packers have over time. There you go. 20 to 17. Your final. But signs of life from the New York Jets course one last week. But with the loss here, they fall to one and one. Green Bay improves to one and one. I was I was rooting for the Jets believe it or not. Really? The end of that game. Yeah, I was just like I was I was rooting for them. It was not a guy. Not a great end of game sequence for Aaron Glen who basically let the clock run out regulation. Then won the toss and overtime and took ball to start. Which I don't think you typically want to do it overtime with the rules these days. So not a great stretch for Aaron Glen. Yes today. Well, can you score the touchdown on the game? No, not anymore. Oh, they changed.

24:33All that. All that. Yeah, even with the touchdown. Yeah, I guess. I guess not. So not a great outing for Aaron Glen yesterday. Jets could have been two and oh, should have been two and oh. Yeah. And now they're, you know, probably back to circle in the drain. All right. Also in the division, you had the Miami Dolphins taking on the San Francisco 49ers. What happened? Rob, I will tell you exactly what happens. First and goal at the one. The referee leaping in for the touchdown. Christian McCaffer with the touchdown there. Brock Purdy had a couple of touchdown passes. One to George Kiddell, 49ers blow out the Dolphins 35-13. This was the biggest spread on the board in week two. And the Niners covered easily. It was also me, Billion Bryant survivor picks. So we're all on the week three. You guys all survived. We all survived. Now it is not a lot of trouble when you're all on the same game. But Chris hasn't only won. You're allowed to do it. You're just a winner. I think it was the Eagles this week. Oh, it was. Even though about barely got there. Barely.

25:33Barely. Mine was the books. Probably about again. Nick would have been over. All right. Fair enough. No, honestly, my big takeaway from this. Yeah. Kiddell looks back. I mean, that's a guy who. Kiddell might be back. Last year had a gruesome injury late. Look out. The old tight ends are back. Wow. Good point. We'll get to that other guy. Yeah, good point. I get points for sure back. But Niners are 2-0. The Dolphins trash. No surprise. Oh, and 2. I thought they might be better than the Jets. But that's not the case. Next week's opponent, the Jacksonville Jaguars. Taking on the Denver Broncos. What happened? Okay. Hey, corner. Can't get to it. Pull it. Takes an edge for the touchdown. The rookie. The go ahead score proved to be the game winning score. Broncos beat the Jaguars 20 to 13 in Denver. Big bounce back week for Jalen Waddle. If you saw that Denver game in week one. They barely even threw to him. He didn't do anything this week. Eight catches for his new team. 138 yards.

26:33Real slow start for Bo Nixon Denver. But they scored two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. And beat the Jaguars. So both Jacksonville and Denver are now one and one. Yeah. Pretty uninspiring effort at a Jacksonville Broncos defense bounce back. In a big way. You mentioned Waddle 8 for 138. That's after having one catch for two yards the week before. Yeah, he was not involved. Also, get ready for Parker Washington this weekend. From the Jaguars. He was really peppered in the first half of that game. 98 yards on 12 targets. Yes, sure. I got a guy you could put on him. I got a guy I could shut him right down. I think no problem last Sunday night football. You had the Kansas City Chiefs and the Indianapolis Colts. Wow. Wow. This one also went to overtime. Oh, play a Sunday number two in the season. But good. 40 for the win. Kansas City. Two and a. Winning it over time. Chiefs are back. Two and a. Two and a. Winning it over time. Chiefs are back. Two and a. Both games at home. Patrick Mahomes. 382 yards passing three touchdowns. Kenneth Walker.

27:33117 yards on the ground. And Travis Kelsey. Nine catches 101 yards in a touchdown. And he just looked shifty. Like he looked like that was back. So they were talking about on the broadcast. They were saying that he's faster this year. And Kelsey, I guess, told them during the production. Production meetings. He's just in better shape than he was in last year. AKA he was out of shape last year. That's right. He was on the party circuit. The award show circuit. And a. Yeah, he looks. And shape podcasters. Trust me. Oh, no, it's true. So he looks rededicated. Mahomes week one. Was not testing downfield at all last night. He was hucking it downfield quite a bit. Wild play in that OT. That you thought maybe was going to go the Chiefs way. The rest reviewed it. They wound up going with the Colts. Shane Steichen was going to go for the first round. The Colts. Shane Steichen was going to go for it on fourth down decided. Not to. One of cost them a game. Chiefs to know, as I said, Colts fall to O and. They've lost nine in a row. Going back to last year. Is Alex Pierce done for the season? Oh, maybe he.

28:33He looked like a card. Yeah, he did get carded off last night. And big injury day yesterday throughout the league. Ursays daughter. There are on the sidelines again. Taking notes. I don't know what it says in those notes. But. I don't know record. No, she was taking notes. They showed her. Clearly like reading at one of her press conferences, which I didn't realize. So yeah, the shine has come off a bit that decision. Remember how Camdus was like hyping her up and like she cares so much. Yeah, this is so good. Look at the guy. They got something going on. Another the Colts were a mess now back to being a mess. Another couple of AFC teams. The Cincinnati Bengals were on the road against the Houston Texans. 32 Houston. Burrow deep for chase. And he caught it. Third in for touchdown. Who's everyone? Everyone's able to stay at bounds on that. It was pretty crazy on the sideline. That was a believable catch. Yeah, he had two touchdowns in the game. Seven for 75 and two touchdowns. You can definitely make the case. He's the best receiver in football. I still think it's JSN.

29:33You can make case for maybe a couple of other guys. T Higgins had nearly a hundred yards. Burrow 207. So really most of it just to those two guys. No surprise. Two touchdowns. No picks. CJ Stroud. Through for three 53. Yeah, he threw it 55 times. Oh, the Houston offense did not score a touchdown. Nope, nope, nope. And so the Texans are 0 and 2. The Bengals. Quietly 2 and 0. They are. And I would say again, it was Alan who carved him up. Week one. And now Burrow. So they faced arguably two of the top five quarterbacks in the league. Yep. But that Texans defense doesn't quite look the same. So file that away. I don't know if you think the Texans are the most shooketh or perhaps this next team. The LA Chargers. We're home. Taking on the Las Vegas Raiders. It's what happened. Yeah, the Raiders. To the end zone. Wide open touchdown. Cody White's. His second of the day. Go look now. Kirk Cousins through three touchdowns.

30:34And the Raiders are 2 and 0. Justin Herbert, Jim Harbaugh and the Chargers. Are 0 and 2. And if you want to play the schedule game, it shouldn't really matter because you just lost the Arizona and Vegas. So you could lose to anybody. There are next five games. At Buffalo. Loss. At Seattle. Loss. Home to Denver. Loss. At Kansas City. At the Rams. They're going to be 0 and 7. Home to Houston. Maybe a lot. At Baltimore. Wow. Oh, 9. Then they got the jets. That's a win. Patriots. Oh. And then from there, I think there might be some wins. Okay. Let's go and Kansas City again. So not only anybody. I think I had them as a wild card team. Anybody that has them in the playoffs, I would say that's not going to happen. And their record could be real bad. And anybody expecting Mike McDaniel, who's like still. Still beloved by the media. Yeah. Anybody who's still. Buying into what he does on offense or anything.

31:34It's not working with Herbert. By the way, yes. So the Pats get Jacksonville next. Then Buffalo. They could have had Vegas in New York, which we thought were the two easy games. They're better. If the jets just held on to their 10 point lead in the fourth quarter, those teams will be two and o looming after Jacksonville. Yeah. And Buffalo. So, okay, maybe those games are harder. We thought the league is upside down. It is. It is. All right. What about the Philadelphia Eagles on the road against the Tennessee Titans? What happened? This one came down to the final minute, final second. Yeah, some of us in the game. In survivor pools, we swept it out. You're sweating this out. Yeah. But the Eagles had the ball late down by three. Here's Hertz. All in the right. Floats it back in the end zone. It is caught. Derrius Cooper. The biggest catch of his life. Like, right call. He does exciting as hell. Yeah. For like a non-hometown call. I'm just trying to think if Derrius Cooper has any bigger catches. Not his life. I've never heard of that. I'm not a corner of that guy. Hopefully he has a bigger one that over the Titans. Well, listen, it was like a game winner. It gets left to go in the game as you drop God.

32:35Yeah. Eagles are 2-0. They've had a couple of really, they've won by a total of six points. But they're 2-0. Titans are 0-2. Hertz had two touchdown passes. You heard that one. The other was the defonte Smith who had 10 catches in the game for almost seven-lein yards. Every catch looked like it was like a toe tap on the side by. They were all unbelievable catches for him yesterday. I got another team like the chargers that I could be shooketh. Oh, that'd be my guy Baker may feel the Tampa Bay box. They were home to the Cleveland Browns. What happened? Well, Cleveland had the ball late in the game trailing by three. Off the plate thing. Watson to his left passes complete. He's got Whitehark to tie down into the end zone. Touchdown, Cleveland and the Browns have taken the lead. 17 yards from the Sean Watson. What in the world? The Sean Watson 24-30 for 238 yards, two touchdowns, including what ended up being that game winner. 23-19, you're fine. All the Browns are one in one.

33:35The Tampa Bay box fall to 0-2. This game also had like a ridiculously long delay. I don't even know what it ended up being. It was about half hours to come up with a two minute drive. They couldn't do it. Two hours and 12-long passes. Two hours to come. Too much time to think about it. By the way, I know if he's out there in leagues. Might be worth that in Denzel Boston if he's available in the league. 95 in a touchdown. Please wave wires tomorrow, Jones. So say that maybe. Saints and the Ravens. I'll tell you what happened. This is what the Ravens were kind of cruising right along until Tyler Shock. Shock again on the keeper. Did he get the push? Touchdown. You got it there. You got it in there. I don't need it. He got in the play before. Maybe. That might be true. But on that point, he didn't get in. First two weeks of the season, Tyler Shock starts off ice cold. To the point where they don't do anything. And then second half, he's like the old Blake Portals. He's this year's Caleb Williams. Caleb Williams did this all the time. Into anything for three quarters last year. And then he lighted up in the fourth quarter. So the Saints go into Baltimore, get a win.

34:36New Orleans is one and one and looking pretty feisty, I would say. Maybe even on a frisky tier. Raven drops to one end. Shine comes off a little bit with that loss. Yeah. All right. A chance to be one of the highest scoring games because it's the team that could be the highest scoring team in NFL football. That would be the Chicago Bears. Fresh off a 59 point performance taking on division rival the Minnesota Vikings. What happened? All right. Lower scoring turns out it was lower scoring. Caleb Williams got knocked out with an apparent hamstring injury. But the Bears had the ball down by six late in the game. Here we go. Last breath for Chicago and Dallas Carter finishes the job. The Vikings escape with a 9-3 win. That's right. 9-3. Not a touchdown to be found. Vikings are 2-0. Bears fall to one and one. So after scoring 59 points to week one. They settle for three in week two.

35:36That is going to impact down. I think if they're going to it's getting hard to set that record. I think it's the second biggest swing in NFL history. I think there was a Falcons team that started with 62 points and they got shut out the next week. Wow. Pretty great. Colson leveling on that play by the way. Just got put in air quotes. He was blocking on that play. He got blocked right into Tyson Baygeon. Which lost him the game. But yeah, it was awful weather there and only three points out of the Ben Johnson offense. She's bigger club do though. Cheeseburger club. I have all the bears. I feel a lot worse. I'm up big actually. I'm Billy, but Billy's got Stafford and the Rams kicker tonight. So we TBD still. Not done yet. I had a certain other receiver which we will get to momentarily, which we'll tell you why I was able to turn my fate around. It's the Caleb Williams though does go down. Not the only quarterback that go down. Not the only quarterback from that draft class as well as the Washington Commanders. We're taking on the Dallas Cowboys. What happened? First on the field. The Dallas Express Cup. Go and D for CDLAM.

36:36Up. Lamb. Got him. Touchdown. Dallas. Hot start to the season for CDLAM. Touchdown last week. This week he had eight catches for 153 yards and two touchdowns. Two of the four that Dac Prescott threw. So the Cowboys improved to one and one. Meanwhile, Jaden Daniels. Dislocated is left elbow. I'm a nasty injury there. So Williams and Daniels get hurt in the same afternoon. Commanders also fall to 0 and 2. Brain dead, Blade by Dan Quinn. So last play of the half. You're going to just take in a field goal. Instead he got his quarterback hurt, stepped on and then hurt. Brady Kirst. When he heard it. Dac Prescott by the way. Now the all time touchdown pass leader in Cowboys history. How do you like that? All right. Pass from the. Paths. A part of the last week. The Seahawks taken on the Cardinals. Hey, what happened? No Sam Dornel. So it's Drew Lock in there. But they got a certain receiver who might be quarterback proof. Snap. For the unzoned luck. It's another touchdown.

37:36He's got three today. Add Jackson Smith and Jigbaugh. Has another one. He does. These are the best receivers in the league. Nine catches, one 55 and three. Drew Lock threw for 235. One 55 was to JSN. And the Seahawks blow out the Cardinals. 31 to 7. Seattle 2 and 0. Arizona after their week one win drops to one and one. So you now think JSN is the best receiver in the league. I thought going into this year that he was. That last year. I thought you were a little Jefferson guy. OK, so you're JSN. Oh, I like Jefferson a lot. But no, I would say JSN. Is that? Then maybe Jefferson then Chase. I would argue Chase. But JSN doing what he's doing with Darnel the now lock. Yeah, he's insane. That pushes the argument maybe in his favor. He's insane. Only of the game we haven't gotten to. So we might as well. I'm a completionist if nothing else, Jones. So let's get you a highlight from the Panthers and Falcons game. What happened? Huh? Bryce is really feeling it now. There's another strike. Touchdown, Wallach. OK.

38:36Panthers where they blow out win over the Falcons. Bryce Young, that was one of his three touchdown passes. 34, 3 year final, Carolina 1 and 1. Atlanta falls to 0 and 2. They look dreadful. Cooper rush through two picks. Then they brought in Jack Strand, who also threw a pick. Don't look now. Oh, that and the Jack Strand pick was horrible. Don't look now. Bryce Young threw two weeks. 648, 6 touchdowns. Another one on the ground. Ooh, boy. 113 quarterback rating. You might get some Heisman votes. Maybe. But they've also played that Bears defense and the Falcons. Yeah. So we pump the brakes on that. That's all right, though. Guys, we're going to get somebody to go. There's your week two and of course tonight. Rams, Giants, Rams, six and a half point favorites at home. OK. That is what happened week two of the NFL season. It's brought to you by Avalino's restaurant. If you're planning a corporate meeting or private party, book their beautiful and spacious function room for up to 100 guests.

39:38Go Avalino.com. Let's get to Christian Gonzalez. You mentioned that Parker Washington matchup. He ace the DK Meckkath matchup yesterday. We'll get to that next. This is the sound of captivity. This is the sound of rescue. And this is the sound of freedom. Give Armenia's captive bears a second chance by supporting international animal rescue. Call 508-826-1083 or search the Great Bear Rescue to learn more. It was a gruesome discovery off a dirt road in Georgia. Hunters had found a body. Was it immediately clear to you that this woman had been murdered? Yes. But who was this mystery woman in the woods? That looks like Mindy. I'm Erin Moriarty. And from 48 hours, this is the woman in the woods.

40:39I've never wanted to be wrong like this in my whole entire life. Follow and listen to the woman in the woods wherever you get your podcasts. Tonight, socks and rays. The Mass Neutral Pre-Game Show starts at 610. First pitch, 710. On the Shars and Star Market, red socks, radio network. This is Jones and Keith on WEEI and streaming everywhere on the Odyssey app. Christian, obviously the Passage did its job here today. And in the back end, you saw a lot of DK. I'm curious when you knew this week you were going to see as much of him in kind of a shadow as you did today. I think you know as soon as I see the schedule. Yeah. I like that answer from Christian Gonzalez yesterday. Hey, when did you know you were going to get matched up on DK's? Like, you know, the answer when the schedule came out. Now, I believe that. Like, do you think the Patriots were always going to stick him on Metcalf?

41:40Or do you think the Pittman injury factored into that? No, I think they probably would have put him on Metcalf. That's sort of my guess. But then again, how much? We talked about it with JSN. Like, yeah, he had that matchup. But was it the whole game? Was he following around the whole game? No, the coverage snap numbers week one were like, I feel like he was on Metcalf much more this week than he was JSN. So what? The war was like 10 out of 20 something throws from mock the week before. It's funny. And I probably should have done a better job just in general. I should have done a better job talking to Zach Khor last week, the defense coordinator, we were talking to him. So I was asking about the balance between putting Gonzo on and on receiver all game versus like giving him different looks. And he's kind of like, well, you can't do it all game. I should have responded. Why not? Yeah. Why not? Is him Gonzalez? What we did follow up with. Well, yeah, maybe not all game, but how about the fourth? Oh, we did say that. Yeah, yeah. And he's like, oh, we know everybody's going to be better. Yeah, but why not? That'd be a good question. Because then he got into his answer went down like, you know, if you're chasing guys around all the time and it wasn't like he was saying conditioning, but it was almost like you got to sort of like.

42:45Let him play zone a little bit to sort of give him a breather. That's how I almost read it. But I was like, I think Gonzalez up to the challenge need to and DK Metcalf is another great example of a player that it might be the one play. It might be like Travian Henderson, where you're like, nothing, nothing, nothing 60 yard touchdown. So I kind of now want to just look at the rest of the schedule and be like, God, so you're on that guy. Take that guy out. Because I think you're going to take that guy out. I do think bigger body receivers are a better match for him. Yeah, I guess. And we have to know Jay, Jay sends a little more slippery. I don't I do not think Parker Washington's an easy match for him. I don't know. And that's my chance. That's more of a snow. He should definitely get his reps. So I'm just saying. Metcalf and like a receiver receiver like that CD lamb versus like pickens, like pickens would be a better match for him than lamb. Yeah. Okay. Like a big like a bigger more outside than like a quick or slop guy. Sometimes I guess you can like pick and be like, alright, one in this game. This guy can kind of actually worked out in the Patriots favor.

43:47I think it's like, hey, you don't have Carlton Davis. They don't have Michael Pittman. So kind of go on. It's now one on one versus three on three and four and four and things like that. But no, that was sort of my takeaway as he was just frustrating DK Metcalf all game long to the point where even the drop that Metcalf had. I give credit to Gonzo for that. I think he was so frustrated all game not being able to get open, not being able to do anything. Finally, the ball hits him in the hands and he like, he's like, wait a minute. Mentally, he was like, I'm just so mad about how the game is going. And then he dropped that one and he came up with another catch later on. But Gonzo absolutely dominated that match up to the point where that's what I would do every week. Well, and through two weeks worth every penny, which makes you wonder what they were dragging their feet on. They get credit for it. They did it and they they pony it up. He's not the highest paid in all categories across the board, but they pony it up for him. It took forever and they did it. But this is why all off season were like, what are you waiting for? Like get this guy out there, get him on the field. He has been worth every penny through two weeks to this point. And specifically yesterday, he's been great through two weeks.

44:49And I like that answer from Christian Gonzalez. Let's get us some phone calls here. 617-7797-937. Sam is in Bridgewater. Hello, Sam. Hello, hello, hello. I'm here. I want to just go back briefly to your conversation about the running game. Okay. And it's a question I've had for a few years. And I have to start out by saying that I'm an old guy. And I remember when there used to be two and three backs in the back field all the time. Wishbone. And it's. Yeah, yeah. And it frustrates me when the Pats and actually other teams as well. You line up one running back. It's first and 10. And everybody in the world knows that they're going to hand the ball off and go straight into the line. And you know, once in a while you get a lucky run like Henderson had you break through. But why is there no deception anymore in football or having an extra blocking back or someone you can fake to and then hand off to? Yeah, I think I would argue that having the full back back in the back field, I would argue that having the full back back there actually does make you more tips and tips your hand more.

45:52I'd say there's probably more deception in today's offense than there were in the 60s. I think he likes an option offense. Yeah. We run a split back or you'd be like, remember the Titans. We were on six plays. Yeah. Three to the left, three to the right. We run them perfectly. It's not bad. Not so bad. If you have all the way to do that. Yeah. Yeah. No, but I would say if you don't think there's more deception, a pre snap in days that fell down the six. I just I don't know what to tell you. What do you think of the Maryland eye back field? Do you like that? The Maryland eye? Maryland eye. Yeah. What's that? Is it three of them? Yes. Directly behind the quarterback. Three backs right in a row. You go full back. Who's getting a back? You don't know. Yeah. There's a lot of the same. Yeah. You go pitch left pitch right. They're all running around different ways. A gap, B gap. You name it. I'm all I'm for it. More deception. Yeah. More smoking mirrors. Okay. Next time we talk to Josh, we can bring it up. I think they did that partly because there was no forward pass then. It's so they kind of had to hand the ball off and they were like just put all the players in the backfield.

46:54Yeah. Whereas now you kind of spread them out a little bit more. Yeah. I think the deception. Yeah. You kind of had six, one, seven, seven, seven, nine, seven, ninety, three, seven. You could jump in here on Jones and cave paths. When ugly, which means in spite of their quarterback, let's get back into that in just two minutes. You're on Jones and Keith. This is the sound of captivity. This is the sound of rescue. And this is the sound of freedom. Give Armenia's captive bears a second chance by supporting international animal rescue. Call 508-826-1083 or search the Great Bear Rescue to learn more. Why does it feel like nobody really gives us the inside scoop? Join us on the Powers That Be, the podcast where insiders from Pock break down who has influence how they use it and what it actually means for you. New episodes every weekday. Listen to the Powers That Be wherever you get your podcasts.