Patriots Catch-22 9/24: Injury Updates, Jaguars Preview, Key Matchups

0:00This is the Patriots Catch 22 podcast with Evan Lazar and Alex Barth. Comment Lazar and Zorven Lazar and Lazar. Hello everybody, I'm Elden. Join us always by our foreign capital. Here is Evan Lazar and Alex Barth. So it's not uncommon for a guy who routines that has one of these breakouts to have some of the weaknesses brought to the fore. And so I expect it a little bit of that naturally coming into this season. Okay, here are some stuff Drake may struggle with last year. The cover six is one of them. I see teams using that that must rush more against him now. Close the pocket around him. Don't let him run away and just knock him off his spot a little bit and that'll frustrate him. I think that's kind of the book on Drake May. It was at times last year. You just can see team do it as much. That was a good open to pick because I want to talk a little bit about this. It's almost like becoming Baltimore around here to mention cover six.

1:03You know, like you just you don't want to say it. Oh, cover six. I do want to talk a little bit about that because the Patriots, Alex and Alex, it's Evan, it's Ace behind the glass are playing the Jaguars this week. And guess what? Another quarters base, Vic Fangio inspired cover six defense. So we'll talk all about that here in a second. We're going to talk injuries because there's unfortunately a lot of those for the Patriots as well off the top of the show. I want to get your take Salos on how they're going to replace all these injured guys that we think are not going to play in this game on Sunday. I said no grab ass at the top of the show because we don't have time for it. But real quick, I pulled a U yesterday. I forgot to eat lunch. Is that a me? Yeah, yeah, that's a you thing. I don't necessarily forgot to you lunch. And I ate lunch at like I normally lunch around noon. Yeah, and my body's too early very scheduled. I usually lunch around noon. And I ate lunch yesterday at like 230 because I forgot.

2:04Okay. And I have felt like crap ever since like I've like I've literally am nauseous and don't feel great. So like I felt like you I was you told me all the time that you forget to eat. That that's a you thing. I'm putting on a lunch. I usually lunch like to it. I'm more of a late eater lunch around like to a more dinner like eight o'clock person. That's way too late. No, tonight. No, but especially this time. I'm almost in bed by eight o'clock. I'm old. If I if I can time it right, you know, make start making dinner around like seven forty five eight o'clock. And I'm sitting down on the TV. Nice fresh made dinner as soon as that game kicks off. That's crazy. I get to eat dinner watch the game. And I think that's what I like to do. I would say around eight in Monday. I would say around eight thirty. Just and I start to get a little antsy on the couch by nine o'clock. We're in bed. We are in bed. I'm on the couch nine at nine p.m. I'm on the couch through probably eleven.

3:06I would say nine p.m. in the bed. Maybe watch a little bit more TV in the bed. Scroll on the phone ten ten p.m. So we got TV in bed. Oh, we got. Yeah. We got a. Come on. We got we got TVs everywhere. We have a dinner. I don't want to eat in bed. I want to eat in bed. Well, yeah, because we eat at a normal time. Like six six thirty like normal people. Whatever. Anyways. I said I said we weren't going to eat. Right. Let's just keep going. But we're going to do this. All right. We're going to do. Well, unfortunately off the top of the show here, we'll just do the latest injuries. News. We both of us were out at practice yesterday, at least for the media access part of practice. And it's really becoming. Do you use like laundry list or CVS receipt? I like CVS receipt. Especially when we're talking in. Yeah. So this has really become like a CVS receipt. So I'm just going to rattle it off. And I want to talk about a few of them individually that are a little bit more severe.

4:06It sounds like then others. So there are two players that are going to injured reserve or have gone to injured reserve. And so that's not great. On Wednesday, you had three players that did not participate. Craig Woodson, what the shoulder, which we kind of knew about, Dre Mod Jones, what the shoulder, which we also knew about. And he was a few Hutchins, which we didn't know about injured his knees. So maybe that happened late in the game last week. And so they didn't get to the injury destination with him in game. So now you were down Dre Mod Jones and Quintavia's Hutchins, which means that the only ed rushers on the roster right now are Elijah Ponder, gay back is in the yesterday they signed Jose Ramirez to the 53 man roster who profiles a lot like you Hutchins like a seed pressure play on special teams.

5:08That sort of thing. So those two guys, I would say, or I guess you can put two Hutchins in this list as well. But it does sound murky right now for Craig Woodson and Dre Mod Jones. So before I get to all the limited guys, I just want to start there with those four on when you pet us Woodson Jones. Because I think the three out of four of them are starters and Delpedes has been a guy that they've used in multiple phase is a starter if Woodson is hurt. So starting with on when you, I don't think you need to over complicate this one for now. I think Greg Van Routen goes in at right guard. If he plays well, it's his job to keep for the rest of the season. If he doesn't play well, we can talk about contingency plans. Do you think there's any chance that they move Greg Van Routen left and Veritok are to write? I don't see the need for that. I think Van Routen's played plenty of right in his life. Actually, I think he's probably played more right than left. I'm remembering correctly off the top of my head. So I think that he's probably more comfortable at right.

6:10I think that that's the best way to go. The only contingency plan that I can think of, well, obviously you could try Ben Brown and give him an audition too if it doesn't go well with Van Routen. But then it would be getting a little bit crazy and flipping Veritok and maybe putting Caleb Lomo in at left guard to play there. Did you catch it yesterday, Vrable gave one other name that could be in the mix? Walter Rouse. Yeah. So I don't really understand that one. So I think he said Rouse and not Lomo. Right. Maybe they're just, maybe he's just throwing names out there. I doubt when I can't really see happening. But as of right now, I don't think you need to over complicate it. Like I just said, I would give Van Routen a little bit of leash and see if he plays well the next couple of weeks. I thought in the game last week he struggled out of the gate, which isn't surprising. Right. I thought he kind of settled down a little bit as the game wore on. He's a veteran. He started a ton of games recently over the last three years.

7:10Mostly I think at right guard. So I would just let him roll with it and see what happens with Van Routen for now. Yeah. I think you start there for sure. And I think you start there and you kind of said it. Like you got to give him two or three games. Yeah. You know, it would have to be really, really bad to make that change in game. He's going to have a full week of practice. The other guys are going to have a full week of practice with him. You know, build that chemistry as well. So I, I'm expecting to see him on Sunday. Yeah. Me as well. And I, it's a drop off. I know, you know, we got an email or a comments or something like that about people kind of downplaying the on when you injury. Yeah. I don't think I'm not trying to downplay it at all. It's a, it's a big loss. It's a player that is probably their most consistent lineman. And also a guy that I think is an underrated leader in that offensive line room. I think the biggest thing though that changes with on when you either I, last year I would have said the one on one pass blocking assignments would need to change because he would get a lot of the one on ones because they were trying to help to the left side of the line.

8:18Now that Veriteckers playing left guard, I don't think that they need to slide protection that way as much as maybe they did last year with Jared Wilson and Will Campbell over there. So maybe not so much there, but I wouldn't say on when it was making a lot of like the downfield blocks that get the run game going. He's making a lot of like the base and down blocks on the line of scrimmage that avoid early penetration and kind of allow the play to develop. So you're like, if you look at the play on Sunday on Travegan Henderson's touchdown, it's him and Veritecker down blocking that allow Morgan Moses to wrap on the tackle bowl up to the second level. So those are the blocks like those base blocks, the double teams, the down blocks on the line of scrimmage that on when it was just able to be sturdy and anchor and kind of turn his guys out of gaps. Those blocks are because he's a big strong dude, you know, like that's not something that I necessarily think Van Roten is going to specialize in.

9:20So you kind of have to change, I think a little bit about how you're going to run the football, you know, maybe now your power side might actually be more on the other side. You know, we saw that on Sunday with Ramanda Stevenson's 24 yard run. That's a double team behind Veritecker and Campbell to get that run going. So that would be the biggest change schematically that I would see with that, not necessarily in past protection, but more so I would say in terms of how they run the football and where kind of the like strength of the offensive line is in the run game. Do you think there's a chance that we see more. They haven't really used that jumbo tight end. Maybe to comment say for that they haven't used it as much as I thought they would. I thought that low mood would get a lot of run in that jumbo tight end role. That's a game plan thing. I assume week to week or whether or not it's going to work against a certain opponent. I would especially say and we're going to get to the limited guys here in a second. If you I read and is not a full go, you know, maybe you see it a little bit more to get.

10:21Another true blocker on the field like his camera and Latu or Tanner arc and really that kind of player at you know in line type of player that's getting a block guys and turn guys out like that. Maybe not. So I think that that's maybe a place that they see the extra offensive lineman is getting him on the field to do that sort of thing. Let's skip over Delpede. I guess let's put the safety together. So Craig Woodson and Delpedes. I think this is more obviously Woodson is a tough loss if you can't play for a period of time. One of their they're up and coming kind of rising stars on the defense side of the ball. Mike I Jalen reads probably going to play. You know, it's probably going to be him next to Kevin Bired. I feel pretty okay about that tandem. You know, surviving Craig Woodson's injury. I think this is more because when you get it the rash of injuries at one position you start to have a domino effect of depth missing at safety.

11:26So my bigger question. They have played basically every snap so far and through two games in nickel. They have 10 base defense snaps the entire season so far. They have zero in dime. They basically been all nickel now within nickel. They've played a lot of three safety nickel. So are they going to have the depth and the ability to get to three safety nickel, which I think is kind of like their new base. And what they're going to match heavy personnel with the season or the plan was to match heavy personnel with this season. Do they have the ability to still get to three safety nickel, even though they don't have now two layers of depth of Woodson and pedace out at safety. I think I actually don't have the number on this. I'm like middle writing up my game preview. You might have it. In this specific game. I don't know if that's something that should be as much of an issue because I think the Jaguars are going to play. Jaguars play a ton of three wide receiver. They don't play a ton of three wide. They play a ton of 12. They're second in the league right now in 12 personnel usage. So they play a lot of.

12:33I didn't write Brian Thomas on the field lesson 15% of the time. Yeah, they play a lot of Britain strange and a board kicker, the rookie, the rookie. So then they are going to have to get into it. Yes. Yeah, that's going to be trade Buffalo the week after that. The same thing. Buffalo obviously is going to do a bunch. Yeah. Yeah. Um, this is this is going to be tricky for him. This is where you wonder if and look, he's been out there on the practice squad. They had the chance like a guy like John Saunders. If he could have been more in the mix and given them a deep safety. And maybe let by or play a little more in the box or something like that. But it, it, you know, you lose two guys into position where you usually only keep four or five. It's going to thin you out real quick. So they're going to have to find an answer for that. Yeah. That's my biggest concern with it. Not to like diminish Craig Woodson at all. But my, my biggest concern more is they don't, they seem like they don't really want to play true base defense. Right. So they don't have the linebacker. Yeah. Right. So if you don't have, if you don't feel like you have the linebackers to play true base. And now you don't have the safety depth to play three safety nickel. Then like what is your bigger package that you're putting on the field? Are you just going to put three corner nickel on the field? Right. And hope that against two teams that want to beef up on tight ends with the jaguar.

13:44And the bills that you're going to be able to stop the run out of a lighter. Performation. I don't know if that is really going to work to be honest with you. So I think that that's where where my concern goes with that. The next one here, the ed rushers, I think Elijah Ponder and gay back is there certainly just going to play a ton. Like I don't really have much else to add other than that. You know, I think the good news is is that it does seem like Dremont Jones avoided a serious injury. Yeah, it does. And that's another spot again where they're thin and guys are going to have to step up. You kind of said it. Gabe Ackis has had this nice start here. And I don't know that he's like a rookie, the year favorite right. But compared to what he looked like in the preseason, he's gotten off to good start. But now there's going to be more on him. This is what we talked about with him. It would be nice if they were in a spot where they could kind of ease him in. Had a little more veteran depth ahead of them and not put so much on his plate right away. He's going to play a lot. And I talked about I think I talked about this on Tuesday. Talk about another show like. Jose Ramirez is probably going to play. Yeah, he's the third guy. But they and game to game. It's it's obviously there might be more extremes.

14:52There were only three edge rushers last year that played more than 80% of their team snaps. There were only 13 that played more than 70% that is a rotational position. So you're asking Gabe Ackis to shoulder a lot of the load. And by the way, I know he's been good, but Elijah Ponder, who was a 20% player last year, pure pass rush guy. And you're also going to have to kind of lean on Jose Ramirez. Now I like Jose Ramirez is like a project player. I like them coming out of the draft, but we'll see he's played four NFL games and it's queer mostly on special teams. So that is going to be a really big test for really young unit. I don't know if it's a pro or it's a con in this game. The Jaguar's weakness of their interior of their offensive lines. Spoiler has been their interior. Right. So I don't know if you look at that as well. Okay, the Patriots weakness goes up against the Jaguar strength or well, bar more milled Williams will have a million chances. They don't need to lean on the rush as much. I guess that's glass half full glass F empty. But yeah, it's going to be interesting to see and they might I mean they might elevate savior homes too.

15:54You really kind of want four guys to get through. Yeah. So yeah, they're going to be there. They're already going deep, deep into the bag there at edge rusher. So Q Hutchins played 16 snaps on defense last week. As the third guy once Dremont Jones went down. So Dremont Jones didn't go down until what the second quarter or whatever it was in the game. So it wasn't immediate that they needed three him has the third guy. But just an idea like Jose Ramirez might need to play like 20 snaps on Sunday. You know, like that that might be where they're at with that. You mentioned, you know, practice squad elevations. I think home is makes a little bit of sense Mike Brown certainly it seems like a lot. Yeah. Yeah. We meant to bring that up with the safeties. You have him to his veteran. Those are probably your two, right? Yeah. I would think that they they have to be like just for depth per like you need to have eyes. If there's any real estate, they don't really need running back anymore. No. They shouldn't need a tight end who gets a tight end. They don't need the punter. Right. Unless they they feel like they need an extra offensive lineman. But yeah.

16:54I don't know. I think they'll be all right with with every place else. I look at. There's also I mean there's tight. That's a stands right now. They can make another roster move between now and Sunday. Sure. Last one here on the limited. I think the big one is obviously Eli Raridan with the thigh. The big thing to me here is that they need to be able to get teams to react to 12 personnel. Right. And he was able to get teams to react to 12 personnel in a way that I honestly they haven't had teams react to it in recent years. No, he was in for able to was it this week he talked about you. Rare it is like way ahead as a blocker. Yeah. In terms of where we thought he would be. Doesn't mean he's perfect. But he's been good. Yeah. And so that creates that conflict that you want that personnel package to create. And they to your point like Austin Hooper wasn't nobody was afraid of the run when Austin Hooper came on the field. Right. He said he more and they would be if it was through wide receiver. Right. Rare it was giving them that a little bit. So last week they threw six passes against the Steelers based defense.

17:54They gained 76 yards. That's 12.7 yards per attempt. It's pretty good. That's very good. So the Steelers played 19 snaps and base defense. Now the Patriots didn't run the ball well against base. They only averaged about two yards of carry against the Steelers based defense. But they got the Steelers to react to 12 personnel with base defense. They were able to throw the ball six times for 76 yards, which is really good. Really good. Really good efficiency almost 13 yards attempt. Had a big play to to rared in himself in this game against base defense. So how you know, Tanner Arkin, Cameron Latu might get teams to put base defense on the field. Right. But they're not pass catching threats. So like they're not getting that advantage of, okay, now we're in base. You're putting the safety on Hunter Henry. You're not getting a linebacker on a tight end that you like, which is the difference between rared in and these guys. So just I think that he's training in a positive direction.

18:55You know, he was limited. He did practice a little bit yesterday. It seemed like he practiced in the later portion of practice. Maybe when team drills were going on, when we weren't there because he wasn't there when we were taking attendance. So that tells me that he came late to practice. I would say that that's probably a good sign. You know, you don't really need him to do positional drills and stuff like that. If he's doing team, that means that they, they think he might have a chance to play. So hopefully that that's a positive. Do you think I don't want to get way to ahead of ourselves here. I know it's only been two games. If he can just show up as a blocker this week and that's all he can do. Do you think he's shown enough that it still has that effect and teams have to respect the jaguars would have to respect him as a receiver, even if he's not ultimately. A massive part of the passing game. It's a good question because the jaguars don't play a lot of base. The jaguars are another one of these C-hawksy type defenses that play all nickel and dime. We need to talk about what they do with their corners. Yeah, we will. They play a bunch of nickel and dime defense.

19:55So I don't think that they're going to blink regardless. But the point is is that if you have a guy that's a plus blocker, especially a plus in blocker against nickel and dime defense, well, now you should be able to run the ball. Like they know what's more important if rareridans back this week that he can contribute as a blocker, contribute as a receiver. Probably as a blocker. That's what I'm saying. Just because of the way Jacksonville plays. So if it's one of those things where he can just give you that for this week. I'm not just this week, right? Yeah. And then you go from there, but they would even if they can get him in that regard this week. That would be helpful. Okay. So those are all the the iffy or just flat out not playing guys will size H. Yeah. And but one sliver of positive news is that Carlton Davis was back at practice yesterday as a full participant. So it sounds like Carlton Davis is trending towards playing. They need because the Jaguars have a depth of weapons on offense. They do have three receivers. I thought Charles Woods did a nice job last week, given the, you know, that he's a the four.

20:58Yeah, that's it. Step up and competition this week. I would agree with that. I think it's a little bit. All right. So those are the injuries. I want to move on to our Jaguars preview right now. And I think we did key matchups of last season. But yeah, that's like our segment. That's a staple. We have been doing key matchups since since the clinestase since 2018, which was the last time that the Patriots played the Jaguars in Jacksonville. And that's that that game. It was my very first road trip as a credentialed reporter was Jacksonville 2018. I was week two or three of the season super early in the season. It was 110 degrees. It was so hot. Like it was I have not experienced heat like that very often. Doesn't this spot kind of feel like that spot now it's supposed to be 81 on Saturday and Jack. I don't think that's Saturday 84 on Sunday in Jackson. Thank goodness. College football brain. I think it was 110. I'm not even exaggerating. But it was triple digits.

21:58Humanity is 56%. Present. It does kind of feel like that spot, though. Same thing coming off the Super Bowl. I get both teams in the playoffs the year before Jaguars was something to prove. It was their Super Bowl. And I don't say that as like a spoiled Patriots fan. The Patriots had just beaten the Jaguars in the AFC championship game before. Miles Jack happens like there's some. Gilmore break up. There's some things that happened in that game that Jaguars fans think they got job out of the game. They were much more competitive in the game than anybody thought they were going to be by the way. That was Blake Bortles. You know, like that that team, you know, had talent. But it was kind of a out of nowhere. AFC championship game participant. And the Patriots won that game. I remember that that place was for was rocking like they did. It was a huge game down there in Jacksonville. And the Patriots got waxed like it was not competitive. Yeah, the score was only 31 20.

22:59It felt a lot wider than that because it was the Jags put up 480 totally yards of offense. The Patriots only had 302. It was not overly competitive. For a Brady Bellet check Patriot team was not overly competitive. I remember especially like the Jaguars offense for as the Patriots defense. Yeah. Brady kind of kept them in it a little bit. The Jags, I'm just I pulled up the boss course. I was curious. This is kind of eye popping. Yeah. The Jags were 10 of 14 on third down in that game. Yeah. That's our memory. It was just methodical. They killed them. They didn't come off the field on a hot day. Oh, let's see if I can find the temperature here. Uh, whatever it says add 10 degrees because the humidity in it says 97. Oh, God. It was in like 97 with 15 mile an hour wins. And I know this is going to sound like such a first world problem. But even in the press box, which is supposed to be air conditioned, it was still 100 degrees because it was so hot that even the AC in the stadium was having trouble keeping up with keeping the place cool. I have like I said, it started in the morning when I walked out of my hotel in the morning to go to the game to go to the stadium.

24:05And I saw an alligator in the parking lot. Okay. Literally like 10 feet in front of my Uber was an alligator just staring at me. And I actually walked by the front desk on the way out of the hotel and the front desk, uh, one of the people at the front desk, uh, Hey, like just an FYI, like there's an alligator in the parking lot. And I didn't think they were serious. And I was just like, Oh, okay. And they're like, yeah, just like don't get too close to like they, they leave you alone. Unless you like get into their, their airspace or whatever. And I was like, Okay, sure. And I walked out and sure enough there was just an alligator staring back at me. Just some Florida man stuff. Yeah. And it was 100 degrees. And there's freaking gators. It was crazy. And then the Patriots just got absolutely boat-raced by the Jaguars in that game. Anyways, enough memory lane. So go into the Jaguars. I want to have a discussion because I know that this has become a discourse has become a thing. You mentioned it in the clip that Ace played in the open cover six.

25:07Cover six has now become, like I said earlier, it's Baltimore of the Patriots football team right now. You don't want to talk about it. I want to give you the stats of Drake May against cover six with one caveat. And then I also want to discuss what it is. And then also some things in my mind that maybe could beat it. Right. The first thing I want to do is explain though, and why I'm talking about this so much. The Jaguars play the second highest cover six rate in the league since the start of 2025. 19.6% over the last two years. Yeah. The only team that plays more cover six defensively is the Eagles who Vic Fangio is the defensive coordinator. It's their thing. It's literally his coverage that he essentially coined, right? So they only play collar defensively that plays more cover six than Anthony Campanella is literally the Godfather of the coverage. Right. So that that's why we're talking about it again this week.

26:07And I want to put two interesting pieces of context in here. So the first one is looking at Drake May's volume of dropbacks against cover six. He only since the start of 2025. So both seasons. Yeah. He only has 54 total dropbacks against cover six. Okay. So that's like a shootout game, you know, like maybe a game in like six quarters of football, five quarters of football in a regular game in terms of dropbacks. So it's not a ton. It's not a huge sample size. The other thing that I would throw in there is that ironically. Cover six numbers get a little bit wonky because the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl Seattle just played cover six on every single snap in the in the fourth quarter of a blowout. And the Patriots got some garbage time points and touchdowns in the fourth quarter. So Drake May's cover six numbers. If you include the Super Bowl, actually go up, not down. Which is feels backwards, right?

27:08Like it feels like it shouldn't be the case. So here are his stats on against in the 54 dropbacks against cover six. He's 27 to 44. That's 61.4%. Against all other coverages. His completion percentage is over 70%. Yeah. He has two interceptions zero touchdowns, 5.9 yards per pass attempt. The big number his EPA per dropback against cover six. And so started 2025 is 30th at a 39 qualified quarterback. So bottom of the league. Yeah. And against all other coverages in the NFL, cover one, cover two, cover three quarters. He's number one in the league and he paid per dropbacks since the start of 2025. So he's literally the best quarter back in the league against every other coverage. And he's one of the worst quarterbacks in the league against specifically against cover six, which I think is kind of bizarre. But that's he's fine against cover two. And he's fine against quarters, cover four, but he's not fine against a combination of coverage.

28:11So is it because he sees cover six and assumes it's cover two and cover four and goes to the wrong side? That that has crossed my mind is because you know what the McDaniels, he's asking him to cover. Right. So like he's asking him to pick sides based off of what he thinks the coverage is. So I thought he actually asked him about it yesterday. And I thought he actually gave a really good explanation of what teams are trying to do against you. So just to simplify it and kind of give you an idea of the distribution of where all the defenders are. It's quarter quarter half, right? So one side of the field is quarters or cover four and one side of the field is cover two. So what they're doing typically, and this is what Drake may said, is they're trying to take away the one on ones on the outside. Right. Because everybody knows that Drake may want one on one match up and to throw the go ball to a run on one match. You don't want to play cover two against him because he's going to put it in the hole. But you don't want to play full cover four against him because then there's too much underneath. Right. And you're really one on one on the outside in quarters.

29:12Like there's really nothing. Right. So what they're doing is they're clouding the side of the field, which means they have a corner underneath the receiver and they have a safety over the top of the receiver. It's not a true double team, but it has the same concept of the double team. Right. And so the Patriots are big three by one formation team, three receivers to one side, one receiver to the other. And Drake may loves throwing the go ball to the backside receiver, the one solo side receiver. Right. So what they're doing a lot of the time is they're playing cover two to the solo side to the one receiver side so that they have that cloud over the top of the vertical. And then they're boxing the other side of the field. So they have four over three on the other side of the field. So they're basically numbers on both sides of the formation in this situation. They're four over three to the three receiver side and they're two over one on the one receiver side. So that's why this is giving the Patriots often so many problems is because it just kind of takes away their bread and butter.

30:13It takes away their three by one formation. It takes away the solo go ball to the backside, you know, go ball that Drake may likes to throw. And it kind of puts them in a murky spot. So how do you go about beating cover six? Well, really quickly, the one other thing that he said yesterday that I thought was really important was about the field safety being able to come up and run support. I think that that's a really underrated about part about quarters is that that freeze field safety is free to run the alley. So when he reads run to the passing strength, he can just come downhill on the run play quickly. So even though it is split safety, it becomes kind of single high safety real quick once you have the ball off. So you're thinking like, okay, well, run it. And then you're also probably thinking, well, run it to where you have the strength of the formation to, you know, what's called Drake may is right, you know, where the three receivers are. Well, if you run it to that side of the field where the field safety is, he's going to do what's called fast fill.

31:17He's just going to come downhill like a bad at hell. And now all of a sudden, there is another hat in the box that you have to account for. So he mentioned just that that you have to fit that safety. So now you have to make sure you have enough blockers that are going in that direction to fit that safety. So this is, this is like advanced level stuff. And I put most of the onus on kind of taking down this blueprint to on Josh McDaniels. Yeah. Because I think that they need to come up with changeups. They can't be three by one heavy. They have to find different passing concepts to open up cover sets. Because you can't really play cover six against two by two, right? Or it's a lot harder. You could they have different checks for it. But like I think what the difference would be is like you could, with two receivers to both sides of the formation. You can run quarters, beaters to one side and cover two beaters to the other. And then just kind of hope that you guess right to which side is their run. So is there.

32:17Because you you've dug very deep into this. So I'm going to ask some questions that might seem basic. That's fine. I think that this is important. Is is the cover to always on the backside? No. Now I would say the majority of the time it's on the backside because you don't want to be. So you know three over two on the other side. Right. So most of the time, but there are. You got to throw in the tendency breaker. And right. So there's modifications to it to allow them to cloud the other side. Which is basically cover eight, right? Yes. Okay. So good job. Thank you. Is there at some point we should do cover one through cover. I there's no cover nine, right? There is. Well in Fangia world there is. Okay. There's no cover ten, right? No. I know three. Is is there do you. And if you don't have the exact number, I don't expect you have the exact number. Okay. Is there a split for Drake May when the when they clapped the other side is on the backside versus the stack. And then the other split I would be curious about.

33:19And it maybe it's too early. You said there's only 54 snaps and maybe we don't even have the data size at this point. Yeah. The other split I would be curious about is just may throwing to the cover two side of cover six versus may throwing to the quarter side of cover six. It's a great point. I don't have that data handy, but I hope that they do. Like I hope that this is stuff that they're looking at. Well, so now you have homework for next week too. I do. And I've already watched all 54 drawbacks of cover six because I'm a nerd. And off the top of your head any sort of trends like that that's the best. I would say that the trend is that they usually play it to the one receiver side. So they're clouting the solo receiver side. They may have out may throwing to you said he likes to throw to the backside. He likes to throw the backside. But these miscues versus versus are usually coming on when he throws to the back. Yeah, to the three receiver side because he's coming off the backside knowing he doesn't have it. You know, right. And so he's coming to the three receiver side and then he's late to the three receiver side.

34:20Does he maybe think he's throwing in a cover two going to the quarter side? It's possible. But I feel like this is too much of a blueprint at this point for him to not understand the coverage. And he the explanation that he gave yesterday was was spot on. Like that's exactly what they're doing. So I think that he understands it now obviously doing it when it's live is a different thing than going up on the podium or the whiteboard and talking about it. That's why I have the virtual right. So the the interception to pop Douglas in the opener when he tries to split the safety is up the seam. That's cover six. And what they do with the safety, Seattle kind of clouded both sides of the field. It was a game plan to wrinkle for a third and pass. They clouded both sides of the field. Like that was tricky. You know, and these are these are good defensive schemes. Like this is why this scheme is becoming more and more popular is because it's good. It's working right against a lot of these offenses. Well, this was quarters for a while when every offense got super vertical. And then teams figured out how to beat quarters.

35:21Correct. I think what teams figured out with quarters and then we do have to take a quick break is that really quarters becomes man to man on the outside. Right. You know, because the safety is inside are kind of poaching. They're looking for like crossing routes and posts and things like that. So if you can get the verticals on the outside, then you're kind of running it one on one. I think they also figured out that there's less resources underneath. And you can kind of dink and dunk on the course. Right. So it's like the flats, you know, you throw the flats and you can throw the go ball or the deep post, the big post down the field on quarters. So this is like sort of a more exotic quarters is essentially what it is. And you know, it's given them problems. And I fully expect Campanella to know that he's, you know, a fan geoguy sort of a Mike McDonald tree kind of guy. I expect them to call plenty of it on Sunday. And we'll see how the patriots solve those problems. One more thing on the Jaguar's defense and then we got to take this break. I'm kind of hoping that the patriots take the training wheels off of Will Campbell a little bit in this game.

36:26We talked about this on Tuesday. They're giving Will Campbell a lot of help. They're giving the offense of flying in general a lot of help. There's a lot of chips. There's a lot of moving pockets. There's a lot of seven man pass protection off play action. He's passed the test so far. It's been two really good games. I like Josh Heinz Allen. He's not Will Anderson or Nick Benito or TJ Watt or whoever. Like I think that will Campbell has kind of earned some trust here that he's playing at a pretty good level. If you can get five in the pattern against these zone coverage teams, that's always ideal. Well, I on what this might or might not be like it depends how they feel about Van Routen, right? Yeah. It might be no, we need to help the line more because there's backup in there. Maybe it's they needed said more help towards Van Routen. So that leaves Campbell on one more real quick on the Jaguar defense for you to break. As we keep saying, I know where we go to interesting trend. Maybe it's just two weeks. It means nothing, but I found this fast. And this is a very me stat. You're going to get annoyed by this. I love it. It's very we talked about this on Tuesday.

37:27The Patriots need to stay on schedule. They had all those big plays in last week, but then had all the miscues immediately after the Jaguars are one of the best third down defenses in football through two weeks. I know people are going to some people are going to say, oh, they played the Browns, whatever like the numbers are relatively. The Browns beat the Bucks and the numbers are relatively even against the Browns and the Broncos and all of this. One of the best third down defenses in the NFL. I think it's four of 19 is the number. But teams have only run 22 third downs against the Jaguars. Yeah. They're one of the worst defenses at getting to third. Against Jacksonville because on first and second down, they've been really bad. Second down, especially the Jaguars are allowing seven yards per play, which is the third highest in the league of the 40 defensive second downs. The Jaguars have had 17 have gone for first downs. You texted nearly half.

38:27This is such a poor stuff. Maybe statistical outlier through two weeks. How do they play like when it's like 80 and sunny on a Monday, you know, like, well, no, that's the, well, because this is the stuff. Analyze leaves out. Here's my point. This is this is a team that through two weeks has for the most part allowed offences to stay on schedule. Yeah, allowed offences to stay ahead of the six. They haven't been they haven't been great through two weeks defensively. They have a great scheme. So they've been great when they get to third down. Okay. They struggled to get teams are moving down the field first down second down, first down second down, second down, second down. That makes sense because he's got a great pressure package on third down. So the Patriots need to be on schedule. It's something Drake may talk about this week. It's something like Grable has talked about. This is an offense that are defense that you should be able to stay on schedule against, but they will kill you if you don't. And that is going to be a key to me to this game. All right, we're going to take a quick break and then we're going to do key matchups and fat shags.

39:28Come welcome on newest restaurant additions at Patriot Place. Estella brings a celebration of flavors with a modern fusion menu, exciting cocktails and brunch available daily beginning at 11 a.m. Enjoy freshly brewed coffee and Mediterranean inspired breakfast and lunch from angels cafe craving the classics. Chick-fil-A makes it easy to grab your favorite with mobile through carry out and dinon options. Download the Patriot Place Advantage app for special offers and to earn rewards every time you visit. Patriot Place Shop, Dine, Enjoy. The heaviest metal credit card of all time. Weilded at business dinners like a samurai sword. It's a classic corporate power move, but the real power move having end to invisibility on your most critical shipments. FedEx the new power move. Whether you're in the game or betting on the game, you'll need a game plan. Draft King Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of the New England Patriots, provides you with everything you need to build your personal betting game plan so you can get in on all the action while practicing safe bets.

40:29Visit DraftKings.com slash Responsible Dash Gaming to learn more about all the safe betting tools DraftKings has to offer. Hope is here, 800-327-5050, or gambling-helpline-ma.org, must be 21-plus. Play it smart from the start, game-sense-ma.com. Physically-president Massachusetts, see DraftKings.com slash Responsible Dash Gaming for details and state-specific, responsible gambling resources. There's enough needless nonsense in the world already. Your phone plan shouldn't add to it. Verizon's new simplicity plan cuts down on the nonsense in your life. Now there's just one plan, one price. $30 a line per month, even for a single line. And everyone gets our best 5G network. It's a phone plan designed to do exactly what a phone plan is supposed to do. Isn't that a lot simpler? Switch today at Verizon.com or at your nearest store. For new customers, $30 per line includes AutoPan Switch discount, additional taxes fees in terms of price. Unlimited data is restricted to on-device smartphone usage, domestic data roaming at 2G speeds. If you're gonna play the game board, you gotta learn to play it right.

41:32DraftKings is all about Responsible Gaming. It's more fun when it's for fun. So play responsibly. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling probably call 1-800-AMPLER, 21-plus-age and eligibility bears by jurisdiction. Welcome to the most powerful kind of cancer care. One team unites two of the nation's best hospitals. One team saves more lives every year. Our team. We're one against cancer. Mash General Brigham. Get a dutch to 1-2. Get a dutch to 1-2. Get a dutch to 1-2. Get a dutch to 1-2. Get a dutch to 1-2. Get a dutch to 1-2. Get a dutch to 1-2. All right, key matchups is brought to you by our friends at Legal Seafood. Legal Seafood is giving fans a true taste of boss in this season as the official seafood restaurant of the New England Patriots. Pre-game or post-game, get the seafood you love at your local restaurant today. All right, key matchups in Patriots Jaguars.

42:34We'll talk a little bit more about the Jaguars offense in this. I know we just did a lot on the Jaguars defense. I want to start with the matchups for the Patriots cornerbacks against this wide receiver trio. To me, that feels like the biggest thing they got going here. Parker Washington. Parker Washington is the engine of the Jaguar's offense. The only player in the league right now that has a higher target share. So percentage of his team targets than Parker Washington is Jackson Smith and Jigba. He is number two in the league in target share. This feels like a Marcus Jones matchup, Alex. But when you have a player that's that dominant in terms of volume, I do feel like Christian Gonzalez is lurking a little bit as well. Yeah, I mean, like you said, they have a really good corner, slot corner in Marcus Jones. You know, if they're in two receiver and Washington doesn't line up a ton outside though, even if it's like a 50-50 split because there are so many two receivers.

43:34So I maybe want to see receiver set when it's in three. I wouldn't because they got two good boundary receivers to like I keep Christian Gonzalez on the outside and Marcus Jones, Parker Washington, should be a really good matchup. It should be he runs across the field a lot. He's like a crosser type of receiver. He runs across around like 25% of his routes. So Marcus Jones keeping up with Parker Washington, Christian Gonzalez probably taking Brian Thomas Jr. or Jacobi Myers, whoever the outside receiver is. I think that makes the most sense. I just wonder if like key third downs. Do you put Gonzalez on Parker Washington? Maybe, yeah. Because that's Trevor Lawrence's guy. Yeah. Like that's clearly the guy he's feeding. So I do wonder if you do that. But I think Marcus Jones running across the field with Parker Washington makes the most sense. The other one that I had written down or a couple more that I had written down were actually Christian bar more Milton Williams against specifically their rookie left guard, a manual pregnant who had a tough game last week against Zach Allen gave up four pressures to Zach Allen.

44:40I feel like their interior offensive lines, the weak point. Yeah. They want to run the football. I think that those two guys in the middle, they got to do some some reckon. They got to release some havoc in there. Big, big week for them, especially as we talked about earlier with the lack of depth on the edge, I think that you really turned to now it's been mostly teams focusing on Milton Williams. So Christian bar more has gotten off to the strong or start. Obviously, had a great game last week. I will be interested to see this. If we start to see teams maybe pay some more attention to bar more and Milton Williams gets free. Yeah, I think that that's a big one. As we're Cleveland kind of struggled in that game to their right guard. Their center is pretty good, but I think those two guys can be had. The last one that I had here was Josh Heinz Allen against Wil Campbell and I'm like dying right here. I might need to go to the bathroom, but Josh Heinz Allen and just had the break. I know. Can we take another break real quick? Yeah, we got to take a break. I'm sorry. All right. Let's go.

46:06Patriot place shop. Dine enjoy the heaviest metal credit card of all time. We'll do that business dinners like a samurai sword. It's a classic corporate power move, but the real power move having end to invisibility on your most critical shipments. FedEx the new power move. Whether you're in the game or betting on the game, you'll need a game plan. Draft King Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of the New England Patriots, provides you with everything you need to build your personal betting game plan so you can get in on all the action while practicing safe bets. Visit draftkings.com slash responsible dash gaming to learn more about all the safe betting tools. Draftkings has to offer. Hope is here 800 327 50 50 or gambling help line MA dot org must be 21 plus. Play it smart from the start. GameSenseMA.com, physically president Massachusetts. See draftkings.com slash responsible dash gaming for details and state specific responsible gambling resources.

47:08There's enough needless nonsense in the world already. Your phone plan should not to it. Verizon's new simplicity plan cuts down on the nonsense in your life. Now there's just one plan, one price, $30 a line per month, even for a single line. And everyone gets our best five unit work. It's a phone plan designed to do exactly what a phone plan is supposed to do. Isn't that a lot simpler? Switch today at Verizon.com or at your nearest store. For new customers, $30 per line includes auto-p and switched discount additional taxes fees in terms of play. From limited data is restricted to on-device smartphone usage domestic data roaming at 2G speeds. If you're gonna play the game board, you gotta learn to play it right. Draftkings is all about responsible gaming. It's more fun when it's for fun. So play responsibly. Draftkings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem call 1-800-AMP, 21-plus-age and eligibility fares by jurisdiction. Welcome to the most powerful kind of cancer care. One team unites two of the nation's best hospitals. One team saves more lives every year. Our team. We're one against cancer. Mash General Brigham.

48:08Come welcome on newest restaurant additions at HRED Place. A stellar brings a celebration of flavors with a modern fusion menu, exciting cocktails and brunch available daily beginning at 11. Enjoy freshly brewed coffee and Mediterranean inspired breakfast and lunch from angels cafe. Craving the classics? Chick-fil-A makes it easy to grab your favorite with mobile through, carry out and dinin options. Download the Patriot Place Advantage app for special offers and to earn rewards every time you visit. Patriot Place. Shopping. Dine. Enjoy. The heaviest metal credit card of all time. Weilded at business dinners like a samurai sword. That's a classic corporate power move. But the real power move having end-to-end visibility on your most critical shipments. FedEx, the new power move. Whether you're in the game or betting on the game, you'll need a game plan. Draft King Sportsbook, the official sports betting partner of the New England Patriots, provides you with everything you need to build your personal betting game plan so you can get in on all the action while practicing safe bets.

49:10Visit DraftKings.com slash Responsible Dash Gaming to learn more about all the safe betting tools DraftKings has to offer. Hope is here, 800-327-5050 or gambling-helpline-ma.org must be 21 plus. Play it smart from the start. GameSense-ma.com. Physically present in Massachusetts. See DraftKings.com slash Responsible Dash Gaming for details and state-specific, responsible gambling resources. There's enough needless nonsense in the world already. Your phone plan shouldn't add to it. Verizon's new simplicity plan cuts down on the nonsense in your life. Now there's just one plan, one price. $30 a line per month, even for a single line. And everyone gets our best 5G network. It's a phone plan designed to do exactly what a phone plan is supposed to do. Isn't that a lot simpler? Switch today at Verizon.com or at your nearest store. For new customers, $30 per line includes auto-pain-switch discount additional taxes fees in terms of play and limited data is restricted to on-device smartphone usage. $30 a line per month.

50:10$30 a line per month. $30 a line per month. $30 a line per month. $30 a line per month. $30 a line per month. I swear to God, I just died too. I just died. The YouTube chat thinks you fell in. I don't know what happened. But since yesterday, my stomach has just been a wreck. I'm sure this is what the people want to hear about. I mean, I got to explain myself. I just ran off the set. I got to tell people what happened. Anyways, Will Campbell who can squash hands down, hopefully Will Campbell stomach feels better than mine. Like I said, I would like to see them take the training wheels off of Will Campbell a little bit. I think he's kind of earned it. I think he looks great. He looks healthy. Let's see what he's like one on one pass pro against a good rusher. It's not a great rusher though. It's a good rusher. What are they saying about me in the chat? Yeah, they fell in. I didn't fall in. I just, I have digestive issues. You know this.

51:13Yeah, I don't think people want to hear about him. Just talk before. I mean, I'm sorry. I'm just saying tell of what happened. Anyways, I would like to see them trust Will Campbell a little bit more in this game. Last week, Garrett Bulls shut Josh Heinz out. Zero pressures in the game last week. Now Garrett Bulls all pro first team all pro left tackle. So he's a great player. But I just look at it and say I think that Campbell can control this matchup or at least draw even in this matchup. And maybe without all of the sort of schematic emphasis that they're putting on the offensive line, you know, making sure the offensive line is taken care of. If we take the training wheels off a little bit, maybe they can get the ball, the passing game going a little bit more by running some more creative route combinations down the field with four or five guys releasing down the field into the pattern. On the other side, it's usually a Trayvon Walker going up against Morgan Moses.

52:13That's another one that you could certainly circle. Trayvon Walker is kind of in my opinion. I don't know if he's ever lived up to truly being the number one overall pick in a draft, but he's a freak athlete, really good player against the run in pass. I think both those guys, I'm not as worried about the interior guys in this game. Like I kind of was the last two weeks. Now I'm looking at those edge guys is like those are the game records. I would say in this Jaguar's defense. Yeah, those are the guys that will really give you some trouble. Like you said, the production hasn't been there, but there's talent. And you don't want to be the team that lets that talent get going. Yeah, we got any more of those or what any more key matchups are that I go through them all. I think just a cornerback position on the other side is an interesting one to me, not really a matchup, but so the Jaguars don't play any of their corners truly full time. Yeah, they have four guys that play basically between 50 and 75% of the snaps. Travis Hunter kind of towards the bottom of that at 58.4.

53:13So you mentioned Will Campbell interesting storyline here to the top picks from that draft, but you know, that's somewhere where maybe the Patriots and Taylor Kyle is credit him at the staff. Jaguar's been one of the worst deep past defenses in the NFL through two weeks. Yeah, get those guys running. Get those guys running. Get him with gas. Don't let him get in rhythm. Maybe some of those quick hitters. Maybe this is where we see some of that tempo and even some no huddle to get those keep those corners on the field. Yeah, where they're used to playing a little less. So that I mean, there's good players like Travis Hunter's a good player. Jordan Lewis is a good player. I couldn't nickel. Yeah. Yeah, like for what he does. I don't really know why you why they rotate like this. I haven't seen a good explanation for it. I haven't either and it's very like package specific. Right. Like what they want to run certain things and like if I'm the Patriots and I'm Josh McDaniels, I'm trying to figure out if there's a pattern. Right. Is there a tell? Does it make them predictable? Like are they running certain coverages with these players? Are they, you know, are these players playing in certain situations that they don't want them in these other situations.

54:16Like you mentioned no huddle. Well, if they don't, I'm just using as an example. I don't know this. If they only want Jordan Lewis to play on passing situations, what can you hit a first down? Keep Jordan Lewis on the field and start running the ball and start running the ball. You know, because I'm right out of me plays in the slide. Right. And obviously they feel like he's he I'm not saying he is. I'm just saying hypothetically that that player is a is a detriment to their run defense. Right. So if you can get him caught or their past defense, you know, vice versa. Yeah. Those are the things that I agree with. I we don't have a ton of time left, but I did want to because you know of my issue. I did want to talk about Travis Hunter. And what's going on there? I'll be the first one to say it. Like I was a Travis Hunter guy. I really was high on him as a prospect. I thought he was a tremendous player in college. This has been a weird go of it in 60 seconds of what exactly we don't know what Travis Hunter. We said this at the time. Travis Hunter was a good prospect, but he was not an easy development. He was not a player that was going to be easy to develop. Yeah. The high level player, but it didn't mean he was plug and play. Yeah. And you're seeing that the Jaguars last year he plays two ways. Now he's playing corner, but still a little receiver.

55:23You got to keep healthy. And it's yeah, they've got to figure it out. And they haven't figured out the formula yet. I have one other note on the Jaguar C. We're not really key matchup, but if this becomes a field position battle, Cam little Jaguars from field go range as soon as they get over midfield. Lyria is like he had a 67 yard. Yeah, he's got that's midfield. He could be a factor in this game. Yeah. So a really good Jaguars team. I mean, this is kind of an underrated Jaguars team. It sort of mirrors the Patriots in a lot of ways the last two years. They weren't quite as successful last year, obviously, but I think the Patriots are 15 and four in their last, you know, 19 regular season games. The Jaguars are like 14 and five, you know, and so it's pretty close. Okay, give me one more. What are the what are the comments saying? I got a text from another media. Oh, that that was watching us. Yeah. Thank you for watching. Yeah. It happens. She already says those are crapping themselves should be the topic for the segment. It almost happened, but I didn't. I'm glad you got out of here in time. We have to sign up.

56:27We have to hold the other two hours show to do now. Yes. So we'll see how that goes. We got to get out of here now, though. Patriots unfiltered will be on at 11. We'll be back on catch 22 on Tuesday to break down Patriots Jaguars. And then next week it's our week, baby. It's been a week. Oh, yeah. Looking forward to that. We'll see you guys then. Bye. Hey, this is Duce. Thanks for tuning into the show. If you really want to help us, make sure you like us wherever you get your podcasts like Apple podcasts or Spotify. Also, make sure you follow us on the new England Patriots YouTube channel to see this show and everything else that we do here at the Patriots. Thanks a lot.