00:00There is a lot of this going on now, that Spillane was the reason that the defense fell apart.
00:07And it's like, okay, well, I could see Milton Williams or Barrymore.
00:13You can see Christian Gonzalez.
00:16How deep into the defense do you have to get until it stops being that guy?
00:22Does that make any sense to you?
00:23Like, at what point in the roster is it like, all right, a dude's injured.
00:27We have a 21-point lead.
00:29That's enough.
00:30Like, Spillane was a nice free agent pickup.
00:33He's not an all-pro.
00:34And you also have to remember, there were plenty of third down and five-plus.
00:38There was that fourth and two deep ball.
00:40What it came down to, Mike, is they had to make one play.
00:44No, no, but I want to stick on Spillane.
00:47Like, it's Spillane's that important to the defense, that they're in trouble if he doesn't play.
00:53Well, I'm not going to say they're in trouble.
00:54I'm going to say that they needed one stop.
00:56And I think Spillane might have helped them get one stop.
00:58He's been their leading tackler, their captain, their tone setter.
01:02So, look, I'm not going to say the reason the defense didn't play well is because Spillane wasn't there.
01:05I mean, you know, I thought, you know, John brought up the third and fourth team where they gave up a touchdown.
01:09I mean, they were out of sync.
01:10Brable said yesterday there was miscommunication on the stunts up front.
01:13So, you know, it's not just the personnel.
01:15There's miscommunication going on there as well.
01:18And when you don't have two of your most talented guys, this is what happens.
01:22I mean, you go back to 21, they had some talent on that defense too.
01:24It didn't matter. Josh Allen, you know, did not punt against them that time.
01:28So, look, their defense is still a work in progress.
01:31I don't think there's any question about that.
01:33They replaced a lot of pieces and a lot of those pieces are missing right now.
01:36But at the same time, I think there's a long way to go.
01:38And this game, to me, just illustrated that, you know, the Patriots aren't quite a top three team in the league just yet.
01:44They came a long way in one year.
01:45But, you know, this illustrates you need playmakers on defense to deal with an MVP quarterback.
01:50And, you know, they didn't have a couple of those guys.
01:53And the other guys that they did have out there didn't really play that way in that game.
01:56So, to me, this just, on the offense, Drake May, the defense, all of it, it just illustrated that there's still a ways to go for this Patriots team.
02:04But hopefully they take this lesson, build off of it, and finish strong with these last three games.
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