00:00I do want to ask you guys, and I shared this with Beatles,
00:02so McCone and Zoe, just follow me along with this logic.
00:06Mike Frabel has told us before when he's not expecting Christian Gonzalez
00:09to play or to practice.
00:11He's been pretty open.
00:12I wouldn't expect to see him out there.
00:13Probably not going to see him, guys.
00:15Sorry, don't have anything else for the story.
00:16But he's engaged.
00:17He's asking the right questions.
00:19So if the plan was, let's just get Christian a handful of practices this week,
00:23then not play him on Sunday.
00:26There are a few reasons why he might do that, right?
00:30And not tell us about it.
00:31There's gamesmanship involved.
00:32Maybe he wants the Steelers to prepare for the guy when he knows all along
00:35that he's not really going to play.
00:38But he's been pretty honest with us at the podium.
00:40And so I look at it and say, if he's saying, sure,
00:42the door's open for him to play on Sunday,
00:44I'm thinking the door's open for him to play on Sunday.
00:47Because if the plan at the beginning of the week was,
00:49let's just get him a few practices, not play him Sunday,
00:52get him more practice next week, and then have his first game be against Carolina,
00:56you know, not again, that he would go chapter and verse
00:58and tell us every little detail.
00:59But I think we might know, whereas right now it feels a little uncertain.
01:02He did a little bit more from what we could tell.
01:05He's still limited in practice yesterday,
01:06but it looked like he did a little bit more than he did the day before.
01:09I was told yesterday that in terms of his response,
01:12his initial response to Wednesday's practice
01:14and how the hamstring felt that it responded well.
01:17Now, I was also told he didn't do a ton in the way of competitive 11-on-11 reps
01:21against the scout team, but maybe that picked up yesterday.
01:24My understanding was Wednesday's practice was a little lighter.
01:28Thursday's was expected to be a little bit more intense.
01:31So, all that being said, I know you felt earlier in the week
01:35there was no shot he would play Sunday.
01:36How do you feel now?
01:38I still don't think he plays.
01:41But do you think it's no shot?
01:43No, I don't think it's no.
01:44I don't think anything can happen.
01:45Like, you can dress him out just to let them think that he's going to play
01:49and put him out there and maybe put him in zone.
01:51I don't think you put him in, man, right?
01:54You can't have him run around out there.
01:55Might be a little tough.
01:56I did just finish writing.
01:57It'll be on NBCSportsBoston.com soon, our preview for this week.
02:00I said, kind of tongue-in-cheek,
02:04might not be the worst matchup in the world for a corner with a bad hamstring
02:07because Aaron Rodgers refuses to throw the ball deep.
02:12Refuses.
02:13Why?
02:13Like, just, like, won't do it.
02:15I don't know.
02:16But you can look at the percentages.
02:17He did in Green Bay.
02:17And it's kind of wild.
02:19I mean, he did in Green Bay,
02:20but only 6.2% of his attempts so far this year travel 20 yards
02:24or more beyond the line of scrimmage.
02:25That's second to last in the league.
02:27His average depth of target is lowest in the league right now
02:29among qualifying quarterbacks.
02:30It's less than six yards per attempt.
02:32So he's just throwing it short and letting guys run after the catch.
02:36And DK Metcalf is a big, strong, physical dude.
02:39He can be pretty good after the catch.
02:40But if you're Christian Gonzalez and you know everything's going to be thrown
02:43within, you know, it's almost 75% of his passes,
02:46because Rodgers' passes go, I think it's actually slightly over 75%.
02:50They don't even get to 10 yards beyond the line of scrimmage.
02:53So if you know everything's going to be right there in front of you,
02:55you know, you're not necessarily running a 40 on every snap down the field.
02:59So it's a predictable offense.
03:01They're predictable on defense, too.
03:03This is one of the other reasons why I like the Patriots in this matchup.
03:06If you've got a good coaching staff, which I think the Patriots do,
03:09against a team that is this predictable,
03:10they play a ton of single high safety coverage on defense, on offense.
03:15They've got a ton of two tight end sets.
03:16They're in the shotgun almost all the time,
03:18and they almost always throw short.
03:20Like, can you come up with a game plan to defeat that stuff?
03:23Because if you can, you probably win the game.
