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Did Mike Vrabel out-coach Jim Harbaugh? NFL legend Boomer Esiason joins! Patriots sack Justin Herbert 6 times. Who was the player of the game on defense? Thoughts on Vrabel, Zak Kuhr and the Patriots coaching?
Did Patriots "validate" their success this season with the WC win against Chargers?
Does this victory end the "schedule" talk?
Did Patriots "validate" their success this season with the WC win against Chargers?
Does this victory end the "schedule" talk?
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SportsTranscript
00:00hey boomer hey good morning another victory monday man we're not talking about drake may
00:04we're really talking about that defense what a smothering performance well they came to play
00:09and certainly there it was not a uh a brilliant offensive display on either side but uh the
00:17result is great and what a turnaround for this new england patriots team from last season
00:22well this is where we go this is how we start validating uh what we did all year long and we
00:27stopped screaming and yelling about strength of schedule and quite frankly you know from both
00:32quarterbacks perspective i will tell you that was uh an incredibly difficult game for both guys
00:39uh especially for justin herbert he had nobody open downfield uh the pass rush was uh intense and
00:46you know what i liked about what the patriots did towards the end of the game actually the second
00:50half is they were blitzing more uh they knew they could get home they knew that the offense for the
00:55uh for the chargers had no uh answer for their their um their blitzing i could i mean either keep
01:02seven guys in or have hot receivers or do something and it never seemed like the uh the chargers ever
01:08adjust adjusted to what the patriots are doing on defense so fair to say mike vrabel outcoached harbaugh
01:16yeah i mean i i think that uh the chargers offense is severely um uh i guess i must say declined only
01:25simply because they lost three-fifths that are offensive line and there's no question that mike
01:30vrabel's defense took advantage of that i mean it was like and chris kept pointing it out last night
01:35the twists and the stunts internally they were having a hell of a time handling and you know a good
01:41offensive line a top 10 offensive line handles those twists and stunts because they played
01:47together for so long and they got they got the right length of arms they got the good feet they
01:52got they know how to play against or with each other next to each other but again as they kept
01:57pointing out over and over and over again the chargers offensive line really really struggled when
02:03those situations started to unveil themselves and then you add a third rusher in there it makes it even
02:09more confusing for them and that's one of the reasons i think why justin herbert was the most
02:13hit quarterback this season by far boomer one of the things that uh really stood out for me is that
02:19drake may really kept his head even though at times you know he was holding the ball in the pocket and
02:24had a couple uh errors back there what's it mean for a quarterback to pick up that first win
02:30in the postseason at such a young age what's the next step in his maturity process as he goes on into the
02:36divisional round you know i thought we saw a maturity process take place last night during the game
02:42you know one of the things that he did and he has done it all season but last night it was a little
02:46bit more evident he ran with the ball and he was more decisive running with the ball and i think
02:51when you watch uh most of the games this weekend you saw quarterbacks extending plays or taking off
02:56running with the ball especially jacksonville and buffalo watching those two guys but i i would just
03:02say that you know for him he's just got to be a little quicker uh processing and you know he just
03:07gets a little bit i i think he gets uh like a false sense of security because the offensive line has
03:14done such a good job for him but you know when you got when you got uh mac out there and he's going
03:19against a rookie and the rookie while will campbell's had a you know sensational year before he got hurt
03:25now he's back in and he's still probably not 100 that that's a tough matchup for anybody and i i think
03:32that matchup caused a lot of problems for them offensively last night but it's the same guys over
03:38and over making key plays at key times and i can't say enough about the running back tandem that they
03:44have and how good they are and what they mean to the success of the patriot offense boomer when you hear
03:49robert spillane after the game yesterday say that the chargers there was a player on the chargers that
03:53came up to him and said that they didn't know what the defense was going to be able to do in this one
03:58what does that tell you about this chargers uh coaching staff that they have a player out there
04:02talking to robert spillane after saying they weren't really prepared yeah that's a little bit
04:07of an indictment i didn't hear it personally i'm just hearing of that right now if if that was
04:13as accurate as you just put it courtney i would just say that is an indictment on the coaching staff
04:18of the chargers there's no question about that but you know the one thing that the patriots have
04:22always had especially when they won especially when mike variable was there as a player was that
04:28they were always buttoned up that they knew what the you know what they were doing they they
04:32communicated well on defense uh same thing on offense and i thought last night was like a vintage
04:37patriots defensive kind of running performance like this is how they won a lot of their games
04:43when tom brady was there you know drake may is going to have his exciting moments here
04:47if it's not this year it's going to be the next 10 years at some point but uh this was a this was
04:53a standout defensive performance i mean that's how good it was and there was never really any danger
04:59whatsoever of the chargers uh scoring a touchdown even when they got into the tight red zone they had
05:06no answers which was incredible to me boomer it's like the early 2000s all over again i feel like
05:13i'm 38 years old i mean it's unbelievable really you know what i'm glad somebody feels younger than
05:19they are that's for sure this morning after that game i feel 100 uh the but boomer the for me you
05:25were just talking about variable the the second player the second and goal from the five or so
05:31right after the drake may interception and the start of the game and they run a misdirection run
05:36and i just they were so prepared for it there were two guys that kept contained made it beyond no gain or
05:41gain of the yard and the way drake performed it it feels like the team even if they shouldn't
05:47is incredibly confident in a game as big as last night yeah which is great because again you know
05:52as i was saying last week it's time to validate the strength of schedule they they did validate last
05:57night for sure i mean that was a i mean that was a dominating performance by their defense that that's
06:03and that was the best defensive performance thus far of this wild card weekend we'll see what happens
06:09with the texans and the the steelers tonight but man i i certainly didn't expect that i i thought i
06:15thought this was going to be like a 24 20 game and all i can say is that first of all i it's okay for
06:21coaches to punt in this league and it's also okay for coaches to take field goals in this league
06:26uh it seems like they've completely gone away from that all due to to analytics and last night was a
06:32little bit more i felt like a little bit more of a traditional game with the exception of the
06:36chargers when they got down in the red zone you're you're on the road instead of calling a run play
06:41with your quarterback uh you know why why not why not kick a field goal at that point why not get some
06:47points and feel good about yourself and i just i just never thought like the the chargers ever got
06:53any traction whatsoever well i'm guessing in about three or four hours cam newton will tell you he knew
06:59they were legit man just let it go man it's just one guy's opinion i can't doesn't matter i mean
07:08steven a smith has been killing people for you know for a lifetime yeah it just doesn't matter i
07:13understand i understand um you brought up tonight does it matter to you that does this team match up
07:19the patriots team match up better with either of those potential opponents i mean if i had my druthers
07:25uh i'd rather see them play pittsburgh um i still think the texans are the team to beat in the afc i
07:31mean their defense is better than the charger defense believe it or not i mean they have pass
07:36rushers all over the place they have speed at all three levels of their defense they have a shutdown
07:41corner much like the patriots do and hopefully christian and uh gonzalez is going to be okay and
07:46he's going to be able to play next week the one thing i will say is that you know their offense is a
07:51little wonky down in houston and cj stroud will turn the ball over but i expect them to win tonight
07:57so this is the one team that josh allen has got to stay away from they have josh allen's number for
08:03whatever reason and i feel like if josh allen had to go back into new england for an afc championship
08:09game he probably feels like that's a game he could win um you know he's going to have his hands full
08:14going to denver next week i mean that's not going to be easy either so if i had my druthers i'd rather
08:19see aaron rogers in pittsburgh in new england as opposed to houston but uh they can hang with houston
08:25especially with the way that they played defense last night boomer when you looked at last night's
08:30game the only thing that not really a major concern for me but you brought it up the defense did do a
08:35great job but they did bring a lot of pressure when they wanted or they did bring some blitzes when
08:40they wanted to create pressure i'd like to see them be able to create with their front four is that
08:45something that might concern you moving forward here is that you have to bring a lot of pressure
08:50and it exposes you a little bit in the back end if you don't get there you know what i think you
08:53know what i think about this i think that um last night they did something that they don't normally do
08:58they don't normally play that aggressively like it was playoff football they changed their game plan
09:04they tended to blitz a little bit more at least the way i felt i haven't seen the statistics but you
09:10i could see that the duress that justin herbert was under may have been because uh you know the
09:16patriots won went against some of their tendencies that they've shown on tape so uh that's another
09:22part of the coaching aspect of what's going on and then the other thing too i do know is that if a team
09:28is blitzing during the game and they are getting home they're not going to stop until you have an answer
09:34for it and san diego of san diego the chargers never had an answer for it they just never seem
09:40to be able to either get the ball off quick throw it to the open guy and it looked like justin herbert
09:46was out of that pocket within about two seconds and that just that's just not you can't play
09:51offense like that in the nfl against the quality defense and another offense that's moving the ball
09:56on your defense and all i can tell you guys that defense last night by uh by um the chargers
10:02they're one of the best in the league so drake may was exposed to a great defense and he'll be
10:08exposed to another great defense next week no matter who they play does green bay make a change when it
10:14comes to matt lafleur you know i i don't see how they do this i i mean this would be like idiotic to
10:19me and you know you hear about all the connections with john harbaugh and his agent being you know a
10:25harlan and a harlan you know obviously bob harlan was the guy who was famously at the helm of the of the
10:31uh packers you know that expanded that whole title town packer world that just like they did down
10:36there in foxborough they have up there by lambo so um and they you know that agent you know obviously
10:42knows that john harbaugh would probably love to coach the packers but how do you how do you get
10:48rid of a coach that has won as many games as matt lafleur has won i i have no idea how that's
10:54even comprehensible now you could say well they did it to john harbaugh in baltimore then i would
11:00say well that was 18 years that's a little bit different he's still in the infant stages of his
11:05coaching career in in green bay i think they have to give him a contract extension maybe three years
11:11like 12 to 15 million but if they decide to move on from him he's going to move to the top of the list
11:17because that would mean that most likely i guess john harbaugh would end up in green bay
11:21and john harbaugh being fired over the phone is dirty business boomer after 18 years do it in
11:29person wow something was going on there man something was going on there and i think it's
11:34about three weeks ago four weeks ago we talked about that leak that was in the baltimore sun about
11:39lamar jackson sleeping in meetings and that's to me where the whole dam broke and if they didn't win
11:47against pittsburgh something was going to go down and you know sometimes 18 years just like bill
11:52belichick felt after 20 years in new england sometimes those owners decide you know what
11:58enough of this you know this guy's been around here for a long time i've paid him a lot of money
12:01and we're not getting to where we want to get to and that is the super bowl so it's time to move on
12:06get fresh eyes in here get a different personality in here and that's probably exactly what happened with
12:11john harbaugh question of the week for boomer is presented by mcfarland energy the region's most
12:16dependable provider of home heating oil delivery and expert hvac services at mcfarlandenergy.com when
12:24you look around at those job openings what is the best one from your perspective the best one i would
12:30go the giants the falcons the dolphins now if the if the green bay packers uh show up that that's a team
12:39that could win also so that would probably be like one or one a the reason i say the giants is
12:44because tiffany team it's a legacy team they got a great young quarterback they do have some really
12:49good young pieces but most likely you're going to have to accept the gm that's still there
12:53miami i i still feel like that guy is so desperate down there that he's going to spend so much money and
12:59there is a connection between their new gm and john harbaugh as well i could see a blank check being
13:05written down there like seven years eight years 20 million a year 20 million to be able to spend on
13:10your assistant coaches and i i could see that happen too and then you know for me i you know
13:16atlanta's got a lot of really good players uh and they're in a much better division than we give that
13:21division credit for but i i think that would probably be the third unless of course green bay does come
13:26open boomer what was your take on the ben johnson post game antics on the field and then in the locker
13:32room man don't worry this this this league will come back and bite them right in the ass
13:37i mean this this is not a very friendly league and people don't forget people have long memories
13:42and it's just like aaron roger saying you know he owned the bears when he played for the packers
13:47uh it will come back and get them somewhere along the line it's going to bite them in the ass i mean
13:52it's great for the bears that's exactly what they needed i'm not saying that what he's doing
13:57uh isn't a great thing for a tiffany franchise legacy franchise as well
14:02but you know winning with a little bit of uh you know understanding and sportsmanship is not a bad
14:09thing but i guess he's got a bunch of young guys in that locker room that he's got all revved up and
14:13he wants to make sure that they stay on edge boomer after the weekend does it doesn't it just show you
14:18how wide open things are because i i really thought the rams were going to be able to walk into carolina
14:23and basically blow doors but isn't this nfl postseason wide open for whoever wants to be world champs
14:30100 percent wigs but i gotta tell you man just win and move on it doesn't matter i got i was
14:35thinking about the same thing about the rams because i did pick them to go to the super bowl
14:39out of the uh the nfc and i'm thinking to myself man just win the game just win the game get in and
14:45get over it and i and i think you know the the fact that they have another matchup with seattle is
14:52amazing to me uh that's going to be an amazing football game i think that's going to be another one
14:57of those barn burners where it's going to come down to the end but uh yeah i just it's win and
15:01move on it doesn't matter how it looks you put it the rearview mirror and you worry about the next
15:06four quarters you got to play and the next team you got to play and i still think that they have
15:10a championship dna so i still think they're going to get there i just want to see sam darnold win a
15:15game of this magnitude now divisional weekend that's good that that's going to be the the pressure
15:20point of the weekend will be sam darnold and the seahawks boomer always great having you on
15:26especially on a victory monday and we'll cross our fingers and hope we get to do it again next week
15:31all righty sounds good guys have a great week enjoy
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