Zolak and Bertrand start Monday's shows by sharing their thoughts about the Patriots' season-opener loss.
Thumbnail photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
#nfl #football #patriots
Thumbnail photo courtesy of USA Today Sports.
#nfl #football #patriots
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00:00That was a disappointing day, wasn't it?
00:01I mean, reality, I think, hit third quarter and then into the fourth.
00:06The third quarter was bad for me.
00:08And I was good at halftime because I thought, you know,
00:11they're making some plays in the first half.
00:12You know, starting to see the mixes that they're going to go with,
00:15some of the substitution patterns, some of the style groupings.
00:18You get the flow of it.
00:19Now coaches kind of settle in.
00:20We talk about it.
00:21And I said, ha-ha, this is where they're going to be so much better
00:25than they were a year ago, right here,
00:28because you get to go in at halftime.
00:30Throw out the bad stuff.
00:31Get into good stuff.
00:32You only got 12 minutes to do it and go in there.
00:35And it was a dud.
00:37It was a complete freaking dud.
00:39And that's a bummer.
00:40That's the bad part of it.
00:42That's a game they could have had.
00:44It is.
00:44As bad as they played.
00:45What's the biggest story for you coming out of this game?
00:47What's the one thing you're looking at for not only this week and next,
00:51but big picture?
00:53Drake May.
00:53Yeah.
00:54Without a doubt.
00:56Yeah.
00:57To quote Drake May.
00:58Yeah.
00:59He's the problem.
01:00He was the problem yesterday, the biggest of their problems.
01:03And that's scary.
01:05That's scary to think, because if this team is going to be good,
01:08whether that is seven wins good or nine wins good or just good in general,
01:12they need to have Drake May have a second-year leap.
01:18And I know second-year leap has a lot of different variations, right?
01:22You could turn into a complete stud and a guy who's ascending to being one of the best quarterbacks in the sport.
01:30Or you could just have a guy who's really good and keeps your team in games and makes accurate throws
01:36and is managing the game in a much better fashion than he did a year ago.
01:39So the Patriots got none of that yesterday from Drake May.
01:44No.
01:45And we've heard a lot about the early jitters in games from Drake May.
01:50Is that going to be a thing we now have to worry about every single game with Drake May?
01:55Is that how this works?
01:57It shouldn't.
01:58It really shouldn't.
01:59I was kind of stunned when he came out and airmailed that one over Pop Douglas.
02:02Oh.
02:03His right foot was going forward.
02:05That was just a mechanical thing.
02:07His feet got kind of tied up.
02:09Right foot's going forward instead of left.
02:10Ball's up here.
02:11He gets released at a different angle.
02:14You know, and then Stephon Diggs was down inside the red area, down in tight, like at the two.
02:20He's running a return route, slips and falls on the goal line.
02:23But, oh, my God, Pop Douglas behind him, dragging right to left in the back end line.
02:28Wide ass open.
02:29Missed him by about four feet.
02:31But he came back and hit him again for the touchdown after it.
02:34So he at least got the touchdown there.
02:37Had a couple nice throws to Hunter Henry.
02:40And Kayshawn Booty, man.
02:42Here we are.
02:43Kayshawn Booty's your best receiver.
02:45That's not a bad thing.
02:48Told you that guy was ready to go all along.
02:51He's a good player.
02:51The inaccuracies smack you right in the face.
02:55I mean, everybody can see those.
02:57They're so obvious.
02:59How do you feel like Drake may have dealt with pressure in this game?
03:05I thought he was okay.
03:08I'm just going to say okay.
03:10Because I thought the line pass protected better than what people thought.
03:14Because when he gets it, give you a good one count, two count.
03:17And then, all of a sudden, he starts sliding out.
03:19See people like, oh, there comes some pressure.
03:21No, that's coverage.
03:23Now we move on to run the football.
03:25You know, when you're sitting there, 1,001, 1,002, you're looking.
03:28You got nobody open.
03:29Yeah, you start moving.
03:31That's a coverage sack.
03:33If you want to call it a sack.
03:34But I thought the protection was pretty good for him.
03:39Now he gets back around a little bit, but you're going to have that football.
03:42Max Crosby is going to eventually get his.
03:45I thought Will Campbell hung in there pretty good.
03:48I don't know if the offensive line came off the ball and blocked for one running play at all.
03:57I didn't see that offensive line move.
03:58I didn't see a surge.
04:00Saw a lot of standing around at times.
04:03Well, I think the big thing here out of this game is certainly Drake May.
04:07That's a question.
04:08That's a huge question mark for this team.
04:10But I think there's so much more to this game than just Drake May.
04:12But I think he deserves to dominate the conversation.
04:16Because if they don't get better quarterback play, they're sunk.
04:20They're not a team that can afford half a dozen misses in a game.
04:25They just aren't.
04:26They're not good enough.
04:27They're not talented enough.
04:28They need the quarterback to elevate the talent around him.
04:31They cannot afford, certainly, to have the quarterback be a problem for them.
04:35They're cooked if that's going to happen.
04:37And, again, a real bad, in terms of the timing, the pick that happened in the game flipped the game.
04:48That was a killer.
04:50Both turnovers, with the interceptions, converted the points to the other team.
04:54And that's flow of game.
04:56And the biggest thing was, you know, I'm going into this game.
04:59We did the rankings with Geno Smith.
05:01And where's Geno Smith at?
05:03Is he a top 10 guy?
05:04Is he a top 15 guy?
05:06He's a top 15 guy.
05:07He played well.
05:09He played well in this game.
05:10He hit the big throws you didn't hit.
05:14Geno Smith hit big plays.
05:16You hit no big plays.
05:18He hit the touchdown early.
05:21And, damn it, at the end, right by Davis.
05:23Your $20 million corner.
05:25The rookie.
05:26Four yards behind him.
05:27Ball game.
05:32There were issues on defense, for sure.
05:34And we can get into some of that.
05:36But they gave him 20 points.
05:38Offensively, you should be able to deal with that.
05:40Yeah, I'm with you.
05:41I don't think the defense.
05:42I mean, yeah, you're right.
05:43I mean, they made mistakes.
05:44They did.
05:45They made some mistakes early.
05:46They made some mistakes late.
05:47But I, that's not really where I would focus.
05:51You scored 10 points at home in your opener?
05:54Not good enough.
05:55What did you do all offseason?
05:57What did you do to prepare for this game?
06:00Why did you not get more reps for Drake May in preseason?
06:05He clearly looks like a guy who needs it.
06:07Because all the things he was doing wrong in the preseason games, like taking a delay
06:11a game penalty, because you can't get things straight, because Josh is throwing too much
06:15on his plate.
06:16Again, you couldn't, they didn't work that out in the preseason.
06:20They took another bad delay a game penalty.
06:23Yeah.
06:24You, you didn't work out the missed throws from the preseason.
06:28You didn't work out the don't turn the ball over in the way of a fumble, like he did late
06:33in this game.
06:34They were covered.
06:35Like, you didn't work out any of his issues.
06:37None of it.
06:40So, you can tell me all about the joint practices in Minnesota.
06:43The guy wasn't playing well when we saw him in the regular, in the preseason, and now
06:47it's carried over to the regular season.
06:48And so, they should have identified that.
06:51They should have found these issues, where these things existed, and why.
06:55And they haven't.
06:57And so, the toughest part about yesterday is that the quarterback didn't look good.
07:02And in year two of Drake May, with a new head coach and new offensive coordinator, they
07:09look like the exact same team.
07:12And so, if we're going to talk about winners and losers of yesterday, I have to say,
07:18some of the winners, some of the people that look good, Gerard Mayo probably enjoyed yesterday's
07:26game.
07:27Alex Van Pelt probably enjoyed yesterday's game.
07:30And probably sat there and said, see, you thought it was all about us?
07:36No.
07:37No, their talent's not there.
07:39And the quarterback still needs time to develop.
07:41And it's just not ready.
07:43Those guys probably had a good day.
07:45Meanwhile, I think Vrabel and McDaniels come out of this one looking bad.
07:49They are not what they promised us what they would be.
07:53Did they operate with urgency in that game yesterday?
07:55No.
07:56Did Mike Vrabel, when he decided to punt late in the game, strike you as a guy who really
08:00wants to just go forward and be aggressive?
08:03How many times are you going to use aggressive and violence and blah, blah, blah, right?
08:07It's like, you guys are going to punt on the game.
08:09What is that?
08:10What message is that sending?
08:12That weighs the white flag.
08:14That weighs the white flag.
08:15And I thought after that game, he's going to not walk it back, but talk about it today
08:19and say, man, I wish I had that one back.
08:21So, no, I made a decision there.
08:24So, it was fourth and five.
08:25It's a manageable one.
08:27You're going to go for it.
08:27Will Campbell, false starts, steps back, fourth and ten, we're going to punt.
08:33Send a punt team out.
08:34How much time is left?
08:36How many timeouts we don't have?
08:38How many possessions we're going to get?
08:40You know?
08:41And then they hit a long ball.
08:42That's a ball game.
08:44That game got away.
08:46Second half.
08:48Felt just like that damn game from a year ago.
08:50It's deja vu.
08:51Except a year ago, Drodmeo won his opener.
08:53Right?
08:54I mean, they worked like crazy in camp.
08:58They put in all that work and all that conditioning, which definitely showed up.
09:01Get to the hill.
09:02In the early weeks, you can, you know, outwork another team that's better than you.
09:07Because you're just better and more ready to go.
09:10This team wasn't ready to go.
09:12And so, do I believe they could be a lot better in a month?
09:14I do.
09:14I do believe it's only one week and it's week one.
09:17And Drake May could be a lot better.
09:19And the coaching will be a lot better.
09:21But this is what we know.
09:22They were not ready to play yesterday.
09:24They weren't ready to begin their season and it showed up in a lot of different ways.
09:28And the most alarming thing is the quarterback is missing easy throws.
09:34That is alarming.
09:37He's got to come out and get in rhythm.
09:38And I'm not telling him to come out and be Tom Brady.
09:41Like, you know, Josh's offense is all predicated on what?
09:44Get the ball.
09:45Get the ball.
09:45And why does it look like, okay, when he's in there and he's got protection,
09:50people are like, why does he run?
09:52Why don't they call the run?
09:52They want him to be a passer first.
09:56So, he's going to sit, wait, and look.
09:57That's what Mike wants him to do.
09:59Because they don't want him to get hurt.
10:01They don't want him to get knocked out.
10:02There's nothing wrong with calling a run or two, though.
10:04There's not one little run around left end.
10:06They incorporated that yesterday.
10:08They're the same team of a year ago right now.
10:10That's how it feels.
10:11Okay, right now.
10:12It's only September 8th.
10:14Right now, they're the same team of a year ago when we were promised a different experience.
10:18That's what we were promised.
10:19We did not get it yesterday.
10:21You've had so much about Mike Vrabel over the last eight months.
10:26You've been pounded over the head with how much better things would be with Mike Vrabel.
10:31You had him on the big screen yesterday running out with the team.
10:34They featured him at every stop along the way.
10:37Here's the program.
10:38I got it in my hand from yesterday.
10:40You walk into the stadium.
10:41You buy your program.
10:42Who's on the program?
10:43Not the quarterback.
10:45Not the star corner.
10:46Not any players because they don't have enough stars on the team to begin with.
10:49No, they've got to put the coach on the damn thing again.
10:52It's deja vu.
10:53Oh, it's going to be better because we've got the right coach now.
10:57Well, guess what?
10:57It's not better.
10:59It's the same.
11:00It's the same old story.
11:01And that is scary, even after one game.
11:04It's going to get better.
11:04I think it's going to get better.
11:05But yesterday sucked in a nutshell.
11:11The coach is not going to fix all the problems.
11:14Having a decent coach is not going to fix everything here.
11:17The quarterback needs to be better.
11:19And we have a million other thoughts from yesterday's game.
11:22But the big one is the quarterback needs to be better.
11:24I agree.
11:24Can't have that.
11:26How do you feel Josh McDaniel's day was yesterday?
11:29Leader of the Patriots offense.
11:33You guys are the big Josh McDaniel's fans these days.
11:36I historically have been a fan.
11:38But I think the Patriots this offseason just hired an old friend
11:42and didn't really do a good search for an O.C.
11:44And I saw one O.C. yesterday that was lured by the Raiders for $6 million.
11:50I can't believe this.
11:51And Chip Kelly.
11:51Nope.
11:52And let the record reflect that on this very program,
11:55I was making a case for the Patriots to call Chip Kelly.
11:59You did.
12:00You did.
12:00I'm glad you remember that.
12:02That I was saying they should inquire with Chip Kelly
12:04about being their offensive coordinator.
12:07Josh McDaniels instead was the hire.
12:10How do we feel he showed up in yesterday's game?
12:12I think he showed up in yesterday's game
12:14in that he has put so much on his quarterback's plate
12:17that mentally he is not all there.
12:20That mentally he is fried and overloaded already.
12:24And it shows up in the way that he plays.
12:27That's sort of the stuff that I was talking about in Minnesota too, right?
12:31Feels like he's dealing with a lot.
12:33Not that he's nervous, but he's hesitating.
12:38I just feel like he's got a lot of pressure on him.
12:42It doesn't look like he's having fun.
12:45Does it look like he's having fun?
12:46No.
12:47No.
12:48No.
12:49Football's a fun game.
12:49I've been banging the drum saying that Josh McDaniels
12:55is a guy that puts his quarterbacks in positions
12:57to be successful and to play to their strengths.
12:59And that's what he did with Cam Newton.
13:01That's what he did with Mac Jones
13:02and got the most out of those guys.
13:04And so far, I don't think he's playing to Drake Mays' strengths.
13:08And the offense that you saw yesterday
13:10was not something that put his quarterback
13:12in a position to be successful.
13:13I'm not sure Drake Mays at a point yet where it's,
13:17hey, you know what?
13:17We're going to put together these extended drives.
13:20And we're going to dink and dunk our way down the field.
13:23He's just not accurate enough, right?
13:25And some of these missed throws,
13:26whether it was Hunter Henry in the second half,
13:28Pop Douglas in the first half, whatever it is,
13:30it still feels like you're not playing
13:32to Drake Mays' strengths right now,
13:33which is ad-libbing, getting out of the pocket,
13:37making big splash plays.
13:38And we haven't seen that.
13:40And I wonder if you're trying to put, again,
13:42a square peg into a round hole with your quarterback.
13:45And until you kind of play to his strengths,
13:47I wonder what the success is going to be right now.
13:50Because the pairing yesterday didn't look good.
13:51Do you think this offense has big play potential
13:54based on yesterday?
13:56It doesn't feel that way.
13:58No.
13:59It doesn't feel like they have that.
14:01Also, I question why it is they couldn't have gotten more
14:04out of Travion Henderson in this game.
14:06They ran him five times.
14:08One of the five times that he rushed
14:10was the trick tush-push play
14:12that he picked up 14 yards on.
14:15So you take that out of it
14:16because that's not even just lining up
14:17and running a play, right?
14:19That's a trick play they used to get the 14 yards.
14:22They managed to hand off to him four times for 12 yards.
14:26Does that feel like you're getting enough out of that player?
14:28No.
14:29Does that feel like he was highlighted enough?
14:31And I got to look at the snap count,
14:33but I can tell you Ramondre Stevenson was out there
14:35a lot more than I thought he should have been.
14:37Yeah.
14:38He wasn't seeing holes real well.
14:41The thing I saw with Henderson yesterday,
14:42it's like, okay, now this is regular season football.
14:45Much different than preseason where he really stood out.
14:48He had the burst.
14:50A lot more speed on defense.
14:51And that's not a great defense either.
14:53No.
14:53That's the problem.
14:55Phil Perry sat in there Friday
14:57and said it might be the worst defense in the league.
15:00It's the one guy you have on offense
15:02that you feel like defensive coordinators need to worry about.
15:06That's Henderson to me
15:07because Diggs doesn't look like the same player
15:10based on yesterday.
15:11Doesn't have that same explosiveness
15:12that we've seen in the past.
15:14So yeah, I think you need to get him the ball
15:15and get him out in space a little bit more
15:17than what you saw yesterday.
15:18Diggs was having a hard time getting open.
15:20That's how I felt.
15:21Agree? Disagree? Anyone?
15:23Agreed.
15:24Felt like he was a decoy out there at some time.
15:28He had that one big third down catch.
15:30And other than that, in the first half, he was invisible.
15:32Yeah, it doesn't feel like they were designing him
15:34or designing things to get him the ball.
15:38Like, you don't even have a slot.
15:39I said during the game yesterday, too.
15:40Where's the slot to one side, the old double post
15:43where you stick the middle one
15:45or you lay the other one on the shot play?
15:48Where's the old deep play fake where you take the X
15:50and run him on a 14-yard in?
15:53And you run the Z, one outside to the right,
15:56on a real deep post, you read the free safety,
15:58you throw it off him.
15:59There's two shot plays.
16:01Hunter Henry's your shot play.
16:04Up the scene.
16:04I know.
16:08It's frustrating.
16:1046-25.
16:1146 snaps for Stevenson, 25 for Henderson.
16:15That's out of whack.
16:17That's completely out of whack.
16:20If Stevenson wasn't playing on the contract he's playing on,
16:22I'm not sure that happens.
16:25That feels backwards to me.
16:28Third and short to Stevenson is my least favorite play of all time.
16:31I just, I can't remember when it's worked.
16:35Like third and short,
16:36why do you not have Henderson in there with the threat of,
16:39oh, by the way, he's sort of a dual threat guy.
16:41Why is he not in there in third and short?
16:44Why is he not on the field?
16:46It's crazy.
16:47But then again, I,
16:52I don't know that anything works unless your quarterback completes the pass.
16:57No, that's what it comes down to.
16:59Drake may needs to be better.
17:00You're debating Geno Smith and Drake may going into that game.
17:03Geno Smith was clearly the better quarterback yesterday.
17:06It wasn't even close.
17:07And if you're going to win eight, nine, 10, 11 games,
17:11he needs to be way better.
17:12And when does that come?
17:16Because right now, Geno Smith is better than him.
17:19And if this continues for year three, year four, year five,
17:23and he doesn't get better than Geno Smith,
17:27I don't know what we're doing, guys.
17:29He will.
17:31I have faith in he will.
17:33I'm better.
17:34I'm not convinced that Josh McDaniels is the right fit for Drake May.
17:38I never was.
17:38And after yesterday, that belief of mine is reinforced.
17:44This is not the right fit.
17:47And they've got to figure it out quickly,
17:49or else they'll be dead by the time they get to October.
17:52They will.
17:53They're in big trouble if they can't move the ball and score points, man.
17:56This defense, as aggressive and as physical and as violent as they want to be,
18:03does take some gambles and does take risk.
18:06And I think they're going to give up some points.
18:08I don't think they're going to be top five in points allowed,
18:13like some people have theorized.
18:14I don't think that's what they are.
18:18And so if you're going to give up nearly,
18:20what was the total yardage for the Raiders?
18:24How many yards of offense do they have?
18:26Way up there.
18:27It was over 400 yards of offense.
18:29It was.
18:30And that's the Raiders.
18:32Okay?
18:32That's not a great team.
18:33With Brock Bowers hurt for some of the second half as well?
18:37Yeah.
18:37Yeah.
18:38Yeah.
18:39Geno Smith had 362 yards in the game.
18:42And the team had another 56 rushing.
18:45So it was over 400 yards of offense.
18:47400 yards of offense.
18:49287.
18:4920 points at home to the Raiders.
18:52Yeah, I don't think that's a great defense.
18:54But what does it matter?
18:57I mean, after yesterday, you look at it and say, well, that's not horrible.
19:02You've got to score points.
19:04They still haven't figured out how to score points.
19:06They still don't have an answer for that.
19:09And it's the same team they were a year ago with Alex Van Pelt.
19:12If you're going to look like this, you might as well just keep Alex Van Pelt at this point.
19:19How's the Rams doing?
19:24What's his title there, though?
19:26Quarterback.
19:26Waterboy.
19:28No, I think it's quarterback.
19:29Yeah, it's just not like you can sort of give them the blame or credit there.
19:33Let's get some of your calls coming up next.
19:35617-779-0985.
19:39A bad start to the Mike Vrabel era.
19:42Mike Vrabel.
19:43Gerard Mayo.
19:45What's the diff right now?
19:47I know it's a serious question.
19:49What's the difference?
19:50That they're a little more buttoned up?
19:52That they're not as mistake prone?
19:54That what?
19:55Because they didn't do that taking advantage of bad football thing.
19:59Nope.
20:00They still had plenty of bad football.
20:01Where was the violence?
20:02Mismanishment of the first half.
20:05You want to get into that?
20:06We can do that coming up.
20:07Because I was looking at that.
20:08And I'm like, oh, this is going to be great.
20:10They deferred to the second half.
20:11The punt at the end.
20:14I mean, talk about, that's just being a quitter.
20:18Don't start telling me about how you thought you were going to get a quick three and out.
20:21You were going to get the ball back with that.
20:23Get lost with that.
20:24If you were at all engaged on how that game was playing out,
20:28you would know that that theory and that idea,
20:30that you had on your sheet as the thing to do
20:35was the wrong thing to do.
20:38That's not, that is not what you do there.
20:40That is waving the white flag.
20:41Punting at the end.
20:43A joke.
20:45Highly unimpressed after one game with this team.
20:47I think everybody is.
20:48That's just a good one.