Why Mike Reiss Says His Confidence in the Patriots Is "Shaken"

Beasley Digital

Mike Reiss said Drake Maye needs to make simpler throws to spark the Patriots’ offense, which lacked rhythm in their 20-13 loss to the Raiders. He thought rookie Will Campbell held up, but the defense gave up too many big plays and little pass rush. The run game managed just 60 yards, and Reiss wondered why Treveon Henderson wasn’t used more. He expects improvement, but admitted his confidence in the Patriots’ ceiling is shaken.  Image courtesy of USA TODAY NETWORK

Transcript

00:00all right let's go over the game uh let's start with drake may uh kind of review his performance

00:05how you thought he was yesterday fred hosting through the pain much respect uh for me for

00:11the jordan game yep thank you that's it uh so so um i i came out of the game fred and we have to

00:18answer a um like a big question for espn.com out of every game and my big question was what can

00:25drake may do more of to elevate the offense i i felt like they needed more from him in the game

00:33um so to your question you know my thoughts on his performance i i think there's throws that that

00:40are higher percentage throws that seem like he's not maybe making well not maybe he's not making

00:45those throws and i think it's making it harder on himself and i think that's one one thing that

00:51stands out and and they need more from him okay uh and just another big question oh well he wasn't

00:58a big question mark but a big question mark coming into the season was will campbell how did you feel

01:03he held up yesterday i i didn't think that he was um if we were making a list of the top issues that

01:13they had i i wouldn't put them near the top of the list i was listening to mike rabel on his uh radio

01:19interview this morning and i think he felt the same way when he was asked that question he said

01:24that between him and jared wilson the fellow rookie on the left side that that they hung in there um

01:29was it perfect obviously not um false start penalty late there that made the fourth and five go to fourth

01:37and ten and then rabel elects to punt when he would have went for it that's one thing that stands out

01:43maybe a few blocking um miscues but i i don't i didn't think it was that bad brett i didn't think

01:49it was that bad from will camp i thought uh something definitely that he can build off of and

01:53not that bad okay uh defensively we were we were talking about you know the secondary earlier and

02:01there were obviously some issues jalen hawkins uh got beat early but came back got the interception the

02:07the play toward the end of the game when carlton davis uh got beat on on the third and 20 um

02:13just starting there and well i guess we'll work our way forward because i think i think things got

02:18better how do you think the defense played and we'll start on the back end there party they gave up

02:23nine plays of 20 yards or more nine plays of 20 yards or more uh gonna be hard to win games

02:32when you do that um i would say i i go offense first would be and drake would be at the top of

02:40my list of of areas that led to the result that that happened and that would be the second point

02:45like too many big plays given up and on that specific play you're you're mentioning third and

02:5020 they brought pressure and i think carlton davis um i heard mike rabel say this morning just probably

02:57needs to play off there and and don't give up the deep ball more keep everything in front of you

03:03rally in front of you and tackle so that was a that was a miscue ultimately these two things go hand

03:10in hand i know hardy wanted to work our way forward here but the lack of a pass rush with only four guys

03:16contributed to some of that there was a there were blown coverages too i remember brock bowers catch and

03:21run for a big gain on a slant over the middle but it just seemed like if rabel didn't dial up a blitz

03:28and you saw a lot of that as the game went on the patriots weren't getting home and that contributed to

03:32a lot of big plays i think that's right on john and it's the same old story um you know you got to

03:38sync up the coverage in the rush and at times if you're gonna send extra rushers like you mentioned

03:44the brock bowers catch and run for 38 yards they they sent six rushers so just five back in the

03:51secondary and if you don't get close to geno smith you're in a vulnerable spot right there so i think

03:56that's it you send four well you might be relying on your coverage to hang in longer because you got

04:02more numbers back there but when you send more rushers on the blitz and that's terrell williams

04:07a defensive coordinator um you know you're relying on that pressure getting there because no one even

04:12if christian gonzalez was playing can cover that long for some of those longer developing plays

04:18so how do you fix it how do you fix it that's not his job john no no i mean that's a good question

04:28i john let me come back to you on that because that's like an x's and o's thing and i i i mean

04:33make make more plays i don't know i mean let me let me come back to you on that so i have a better

04:38answer yeah let him come back to you safe to say well we'll go back the offense because i mean that's

04:44obviously but you know where more that more of the questions were before the start of the season

04:50safe to say that we're all looking for a little bit more out of the run game

04:53oh my goodness hardy absolutely they had 60 yards rushing you go back to um that's the fewest yards

05:00rushing in a patriots opener since 1996 against the dolphins i think some of that is you get behind

05:09you know in the fourth quarter you're going to lean more towards the pass um but but i want to

05:14look more at the play time distribution of the running backs ramondre stevenson 46 snaps

05:21travion henderson i think it was 24 or 25 and antonio gibson just five i think that's an area to dive

05:30into and say what you know you get the second round pick who's got a lot of speed probably needs to be on

05:37the field more and maybe bring ramondre's numbers down a little bit what do you do you were talking

05:43about getting getting the rookie out there i'm wondering why they didn't throw a lot more short

05:49passes and screen passes to him i saw swing passes to get him out there but considering the raiders

05:54blitzed a ton in the second half why was the screen game not utilized more with him specifically

06:01yeah it's a good question john i mean i remember one time they did try it and maybe it was early in the

06:07game and the raiders were right on it and so i think probably that the answer to that would would

06:12be that the defensive coordinator patrick graham probably pretty dialed in that when henderson's in

06:17the game um be be alert for the screen and and john just to go back to the other question how to fix

06:24it on defense i think getting christian gonzalez back would obviously help right so better players um

06:31so that that's one part of it and then um that just came to my mind because i didn't want to

06:36leave you hanging on the answer to that well thank you did this change your kind of the way you think

06:43this season's gonna go this loss i know you weren't overly like optimistic you weren't going like 11

06:50wins with the people but do you does this change how you feel this season is going uh in any way

06:56um fred so i i don't don't overreact to the first game i'd use last year as an example um patriots won

07:05that game we saw what happened that being said i i will say i expected more yesterday so i i would say

07:11maybe confidence slightly shaken and and part of the reason for that is you know they talked for a week

07:19about the importance of the second half and mike rabel even like structured his practices last week

07:25to focus on the second half by putting a break in the practice and then having the players come

07:33back as if it was a simulated halftime and for them to come out and and play the way they did in the

07:38second half that that does shake the confidence a little bit but i again wouldn't overreact to one

07:44game but probably why i think i was saying seven to nine wins and then our friend mike giardi got on me

07:51said you can't say seven to nine wins you got to give a number and i think i settled on eight um you

07:56know as we i can't believe you did that you had between seven and nine to choose and you chose the

08:02one right there in the middle by the way did when vrabel took that break in the middle of practice did

08:07he practice making halftime adjustments i mean did he do his own practice there you're great hardy

08:13how about um you know come out of halftime you get a penalty on the kickoff return so you're already

08:18deep and then we're talking about will campbell on the left side but on the interception that

08:23drake may threw it was actually the right side of the line mike owenu and morgan moses it looked like

08:29they struggled a little bit with um one stunt there um and drake got hit and that turnover in my view i

08:36don't know if you guys view it the same way it changed the game it was the turning point of the

08:39game all right and this is this is just a kind of cosmetic thing that i want to ask you about

08:47this team has been really boring win or lose for a while this game was boring in a way do you think

08:56that that is going to change this season say they win eight games that's that's great and you're in

09:03the hunt you know still you're on that graphic in december and that's really what you should root for

09:10with this season is there a way that this gets a little more entertaining yeah i i would invest in

09:16that thought fred and and the reason why is i think we'll see more travion henderson he's an exciting

09:22player kyle williams their third round pick wide receiver he'll get mixed in there he's an exciting

09:28player i think stefan diggs i'd like to see him play a little more i i you know they were easing him

09:33into the mix i think he had 29 snaps i thought every ball that was thrown to him he he caught for

09:38the most part i think he's exciting so i i do think they'll get better fred like a mike rabel

09:45and this coaching staff i think they'll get this this team playing better a more exciting brand of

09:51football and one point rabel made there were 25 new players that were wearing the patriots uniform

09:57in this game and it does take some time to come together and how many of those players do you

10:03think are difference makers well should we go through them fred like how much time no no no but

10:10just my point is is that everyone you know went nuts about free agency and how much the talents

10:16improved and i just think that that might have been over and not because of this game just in general i

10:22think that might have been overstated a little bit yeah yeah i think a small handful of difference

10:27makers and clearly the roster still needs an influx of um and then of more players more talent right

10:34for all the latest from the sports hub download the app at 98.5 the sports hub.com

Category

Transcript

Be the first to comment

Recommended