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Pull out your phone, and in just a few taps, say goodbye to all those unfinished home projects, and say hello to caring for your home the easier way. Download thumbtack and start a project today. Well, well, well. A more interesting affair we have indeed. Instead of making our way into the 2024 New England Patriots home opener, wondering if this would be but the single victory, they might be able to carve, scratch, and fight for in the opening month gauntlet of their 2024 season. Now we're wondering, hey, is there any chance the Patriots may exit this game? Their home opener tied for the lead in the AFC East at 2 and 0? Listen, if they're able to take this mindset into the game coming up this Sunday at Gillette, I'm gonna give him a chance. That's right. We welcome you to the latest edition of take him to the Hill, the podcast formerly known as six rings and football things. Now we still call it six rings because corporate would give us a lot of shit if we had told them they had to change the title and the logo and everything. But that's the mentality. That's the way we are going about this week's preview with your old pals, Andy Hart. He's at Jumbo Hart, the co-host of the WEI afternoon show. And you know, you'll always find me somewhere in the heart of Pat's nation or at the bottom of a pint glass, your old pal Nick Fitzy Stevens here on six rings. Andy, and I got to tell you from our usual pulpit of surveying social media to see what the Pat's peoples and the Foxboro faithful are saying to what we're hearing on the local and national level and beyond. There's a little juice on this one Sunday. There's a renewed interest. There's more than just like, well, it's the home opener and it should be fun. There should be some telling tales told of a game between two teams that believe it or not are way more similar than I think people would give them credit for just upon looking at it from the surface or the old 10,000 foot view. Tremendously similar. Young, defensive-minded head coaches coming off week one victories, guys that are replacing Hall of Fame legends. And it's funny, the Patriots, it just hit me. Have you ever seen that meme? I'm also spitballing like a segment or a portion of my afternoon show in my head. But meme Mondays, where we do a thing on social media and fans pick a meme to describe the Patriots after they watched Sunday's game. And my meme Monday this week would have been, you know, the blonde who she's like, something tastes terrible. And she's like, and then the next picture, it's a second picture of the same blonde. And they're like, oh, oh, that's not bad. That's the Patriots. Because I think everybody thought it was going to taste terrible. And then they were like, they don't they don't taste quite that bad. And oh, we have the Seahawks, a winnable game in week two. Are you telling me? Oh, and 17 just turned into two and oh. And I think the Patriots have been utterly disrespected this week. Now, I may or may not be picking them to win. Did I just hold on? Like, if we had a larger production crew, or if I had a sound board right now, I would probably play the either the sound of a car crash or the record scratch like error it. Wait a second. Did I just hear Andy Hart say the New England Patriots have been utterly disrespected this week? They played the game on their terms. They played a good solid football game the way they want to play. And their opponent did the same thing. But their opponent is flying across the country has a questionable coach has a quarterback who I guess is the best case scenario version of your quarterback. Like, I just think there's so many similarities here. And yet, using the old school rules that I don't know are truly accurate anymore. But the whole you get three points for being at home. So you're telling me that the Seahawks are a six and a half point favorite over the Patriots, if they were playing this on a on their field, like a neutral field, like it wasn't doing here. If this game were in Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, the cornfield where they play. Yeah, Seahawks are a hunt round better. Go go bleep. Now you could tell me that the Patriots should could still be a home underdog. Coming into the season, the Seahawks were a seven and a half win over under team. So people generally believe they're a better team, better franchise heading into 2024. And that's fine. I'm more talented roster for sure. Sure. Okay. Talented rosters don't win football games. Wait, what do you say? Actually, they do, Andy, more often than not, I think that was a large part of what we talked about. Absolutely. All off season long. And by the way, just want to tell everybody because I'm so fired up for Sunday's game, I forgot to set the table like an appropriate podcast host should. We're streaming this live on Thursday for anyone who wants to who wants to partake in it on the WEI and Fitsy GFY socials. But of course, this is the six rings in football things podcast. This is our mega preview episode for week two, the Patriots home opener as they host the Seattle Seahawks. First up here on the podcast today, it's me and Hart. We are previewing the game will offer our predictions. Then next we will move on. I'll be joined by Dan Vians. He is the host of Seahawks forever. He will give us the behind enemy lines Seahawks perspective on what we should look forward to from the Hawks, as well as what they're saying about the Patriots. Then we'll wrap up with a fun new edition here to the podcast last season. Andy would often be at the stadium and he would give us our on the beat chat with someone else from the quote, Patriots media cartel, who's on the coverage. Instead now our pal, mega, who is joining us with a call every six rings post game show now. I had a chance to chat with Nicole Yang from the Boston Globe about what's going on with Patriots nation and how coverage has quickly shifted from oh boy, I guess it's just going to be a four month long funeral to hey, we may have some stories to tell about this team. So three like pod, get you guys as pumped and primed as you need to be for Sunday. And obviously, Hart and I can't wait because we'll be live with you on the six rings post game show following the conclusion of Hawks at Pat's now back to what you were saying handsome. Yeah, so I think this game is closer than the Seahawks being a three and a half point road favorite. I would have been okay with something in the, you know, one and a half point favorite for the Seahawks. You can still convince me that, you know, the game is not going to play out perfectly for the Patriots, but I would also argue Kenneth Walker banged up. He's the key to their running game. He's a big reason they won. They beat the Broncos, not a great team. You have the more impressive victory in my opinion. And that was a little bit of a weird game where Broncos, I think, went one of four or one of five in the red zone. So they had opportunities to win that football game. There was a couple safeties mixed in there weirdly. You don't see too many games in the NFL with multiple safeties. Oh, Nick's, sadly, the best of the rookie quarterbacks in week one because everyone else kind of stunk out loud. Yeah, like didn't do much. So you beat a rookie quarterback. We beat Joe Barrow. I'm saying we, I'm, I'm saying, I'm joining you people for this segment only. Just this segment. Did anyone else make room in the car for Andy? I didn't know that we had actually been taking along our little favorite passenger from the south coast. And I'm sure there's some of you people that are like, hot, we don't want you. You're always wrong. Stay off our side of the road. And I could be wrong. But this is a team. You just played it. They're feeling themselves a little bit. Now that can go one of two ways. They can be overconfident. And I think handling success as part of their story, or they can say, why don't we just do it again? Now the Seahawks are a weird team. I think they have a much better defensive front than they're given credit for, but you can run. They were a terrible run defense last year. You could run all over them last year, last year. This is a different year as we're seeing with the Patriots. Different year, different coach Mike McDonald, former defensive coordinator, only a year younger, rather, excuse me, then Gerard Mayo got 30 and 37 as I'll put this up again for everyone to see. Jimmy Jensen points out. These teams went from having the two oldest coaches in the league to having the two youngest coaches in the league. That is a fun dynamic alteration to the backdrop. I like the defense aspect. Everybody's got modern offensive coaches, young offensive coaches. But I don't think there's going to be that many young defensive coach matchup. 30 something head coaches that are defensive experts, hardos. I like that. You're seeing that hardo nature permeate the Patriots a little bit. I love the clip. I love a little bit. I love it. You know, you know what it reminded me of? What's that? Quick aside, which I don't love this, but I'm going to tell the story anyway. Apparently my son's football team had a goal to go play last week where the offensive line walked up against their rival Bishop Stang and said, Hey, we're running the ball right here. And just so you know, it's a touchdown. And that's where they ran the football. And it was a touchdown. And when an offensive line is feeling itself like that, I think it can elevate a football team to new levels. And I don't all the talk of this offensive line blowing and sucking. Can't say that. What are we stumbling to Shannon Sharp's Instagram? Topical and NSFW. You know, they they got something to prove. And I don't know if they can do it because quite honestly, they were overrated last week, but they're feeling themselves. They're building confidence and confidence can make people dangerous. I would love to see them come out and run the football again and control the clock and take care of the football. That said, I think the the defensive challenges is bigger. Witherspoon is a guy that is one of the interesting young players in the game as a nickel back. He'll hit you. He'll run with you. He'll tackle you. He'll pick you off kind of player. They have young talent on that defense. And that's a challenge that Jacobi Bressette and really Alex van Pelt need to meet. My point is just I think this game is a is a rock fight. I think this game is a bad team versus a slightly better team. And yet the slightly better team is the what I think is a significant when you're more than three, when you get that hook, you're a relatively significant road favorite, in my opinion. And three and a half points on the road. Like they're picking the Seahawks as if they're talk the Seahawks that have actually finished the season 10 and seven. Like I imagine they will and possibly be a wild card candidate. Right now at this particular point, they survived their first week there. They're not feeling themselves maybe as much as the Patriots, which I believe makes this such a fascinating test. If the Seahawks are as good as maybe some people on the outsider saying, then they should be able to take the cross continental flight. They should be able to come in as a three and a half point favorite, potentially cover, but at least get a win against a team that wants to have this be the gridiron equivalent of the 20 minute fight between Keith David and Roddy Piper and they live inarguably the greatest fight in American movie history. For the New England Patriots, can they take that surprising week one win and all the momentum and the lack of national confidence in them, turn that into the disrespect card, play it and play their asses off again on Sunday at home where regional expectations may have been altered given what a badass effort they put forth last week against a Bengals team that I heard earlier this morning on wake up its football or whatever has kind of an outdated scheme and put forth a very man effort. So hey, Pat's, can you guys respond to the challenge and the call? I did want to also share this Andy. You said the Patriots were being disrespected nationally this week. NFL.com released all 10 NFL network prognosticators, analysts and experts picks all 10 once again selected the Seahawks, not to cover. Actually, most of them to cover and to win outright. And I would like to shout out our pal Taylor Kyle's from CLNS who always does a great analytical approach to things while being a damn good human. No team per PFF missed less than 10% of their tackles on defense last week, except for one who only missed 5% of their tackles. The New England Patriots. Boring as football shit like that is what's getting it done for them so far. I feel like it just a lot. How do you keep swearing? She's fun. It's also healthy in the sign of an evolved mind. Oh, something go fuck yourself. I just wanted to show how smart I am. Do you expect that you have an F bomb on the WEI YouTube channel now? Do you do you expect Gino Smith to have a 34 yard touchdown run this week? Because I don't. I don't think this defense. Now, I have concerns about the defense and one of them is Jabril peppers. I'm a little worried about this hip thing. The dude couldn't walk as of like getting to the hotel, then played a full football game and I appreciate him for that. But I am a little concerned as to what the next week brings for Jabril peppers and some of these injuries and we'll see how these injuries play out as the week goes on. Hips don't, hips don't lie, but they also don't heal in a week. Yeah, I don't love that. That concerns me against this team and just the pure matchups in the back end. You know, we were excited about Christian Gonzalez week one. Okay. Well, now you get a very good week. Now it's week two. Well, you got DK. So Locket is questionable. So he's a little dinged up and Smith and any of those in. Since we didn't we learn with Christian McCaffrey that those injury reports aren't worth the paper they're written on. Don't worry about demonetized was the original title of this podcast, but thank you Burley Sullivan for watching live. Here's a good. Okay, let's let's just bring it back to reality here. TD who's watching live right now a regular six rings guest. Fitzy the Seattle defense is going to get ARP Jacoby killed. You may see the kid or Bazooka Joe by end of the game. The offensive line almost got per set killed versus since he. And now we are sort of like glossing over because the offensive line did a good job of opening up holes in the run game and Ramon Dre was a beast with 118 of his 120 yards coming after first contact. Not the alien movie, but rather just the physical game that he played. Jacoby percent was pressured on over 40% of his drawbacks. Yeah, that's a problem. And when you're dealing with Jonathan Hankins, Leonard Williams, and one of the top 10 pass rushers according to 33rd team last week, boy, Mafé. Oh, yeah. And good and good corners with Tariq Wilen. And like you said, Devin Witherspoon, like, and a good some more. Yeah. And aggressive defensive minded young coach. Oh, this could get ugly. I don't I don't think it's gonna get ugly. No, it could. Like, I'm posing possibilities. There is every possibility that this gets ugly. There's also every possibility that the Patriots prevent it from getting ugly. Like I'm just these teams are both very much bottom third unknowns to me in the NFL. So week to week, they need to prove themselves. Like even Seattle was a bit of an unknown last year. They finished with a winning record nine and eight. They have wins over the Browns, the Lions, the Eagles. Those are relatively good wins in the National Football League in 2023. And yet they fire their coach, they turn things over. I don't know how much I respect their quarterback. Like they have plenty of questions and plenty of answers. I guess that's how I would deem Seattle. And I think they could be a week-to-week nightmare if you're prognosticating prognosticating their games. Because I think they very easily could have and should have maybe lost on opening day. But they got the win. And I think they'll be weeks where they look really good where Kenneth Walker is rolling. And Gino is making the good plays and doing what he can do as a good quarterback, I guess, whatever you want to refer to them. Well, will they have written back by this Sunday? Will the Patriots make them right back? Like Patriots make them right back because they ain't wrote back. Can I, can I, you want to throw out guys for Seattle? Can I throw out key on white? Can I throw out Christian Gonzalez? Can I throw out Gabriel Peppers and Kyle Duggar? If those guys get their hands on the football, if they deflect footballs, if they pick off footballs, if they get turnovers on special teams. And I know these are big ifs, but there's ifs for both sides. And that's my point. I think these teams are closer than maybe the spread for a road team would indicate. I have questions because I don't trust the Patriots. I didn't really see the Patriots string together consecutive practices that I thought were really good in the summer. Never mind string together Sundays where I go, yeah, that's two Sundays in a row. They put together a good competitive, consistent performance. So I don't trust the Patriots at all, but I don't really trust the Seahawks either. Sneak preview Sunday. I'll be on site probably by 9 a.m. I'm going to try to whip together a quick social media IG video for the E.E.I. and my socials as well. Kind of like I did during the preseason where I walked around at the first preseason game and asked as many fans as I could in an hour's time. What are your expectations for this season? Coming off of the first game, which I think opened a lot of eyes and turned a lot of heads for the right reasons and knowing that there's not another home game until October, I'm going to want to find a way to get in touch with as many Pat's fans as I can as quickly as possible before I get a jump on the old Jumbotron joke around in the stadium. Did the first week change your expectations for the season? I just want to know do like I don't put the cat before the proverbial football Haas. And don't say yeah, I'll see you at the Super Bowl. But have your expectations chained today. You need some water? Because the people have been eating my pet sandy. I know there are some incredible videos on Twitter, by the way, of people taking the Trump's words and then putting beats and rap songs to the Internet as they say remains undefeated. Oh my God, every day, just when I think I've had enough of it and I'm done with it, somebody comes along and puts an electronic trombone to Trump's words. I don't care who the F you're voting for. Don't make this political. It's just funny people. Let it be what it is. Anyway, I just want to know, have people's expectations changed for the Patriots in the season to come? So that'll be this Sunday. And I want to know what you guys have to say as well. Hey, nice to have you watching from the UK. Well done. Thank you very much. Will the Pats be eating dogs or will the Seahawks fly in and eat their cats on Sunday? Let's find out Andy. All right, time to wrap this up before we make our way into our next portion of the podcast, which of course, we'll be chatting with Dan Vans from Seahawks forever. Let's offer up our predictions for what should be a really fun game. I think it's going to be like you call it a rock fight. I say street fight any which way there should be a rumble at the razor on Sunday. How do you see it playing out? First of all, your guests should have the Twitter handle moi the ends. That's what I would have if I were him. That'd be a good Twitter handle. Anyway, now let's get to the game prediction. I know I feel easy to mute you. So I know I fluffed up the Seahawks a little bit here and more just the disrespect of the Patriots coming out of week one. It is week two where there's often corrections. Sometimes the expectations heading into the season are validated in week two. Maybe that'll come. I don't think so. I have altered my expectations a little bit from train wreck city for Gerard Mayo and his coaching staff to let's see how this goes. They'll be highs, they'll be lows, they'll be ups, they'll be downs, but maybe the train they'll avoid the train wrecks. And that was my takeaway from week one. So I am going to go Patriots run the ball a little bit. Patriots make some plays on defense because I think those two things are going to be relative consistency throughout the year. They probably make more mistakes than they made in week one. I'm not sure they can play quite as clean a game. I'm going to go to the Seahawks 20 to 17 threading the needle here. I will be taking those three and a half points. I'll take the old captain hook to win Patriots cover, but I think the Patriots will be in this game. I'm going to be really surprised if the Patriots aren't in this game in the second half. And again, maybe they're due for a stinker because we saw stinkers on the practice field and maybe they can't put together two weeks of game action that is relatively clean in a row. But with six strings and football things, I know I'm negative Andy and I know I mock you people. But if I think there's a chance they are in the game, well, then hell, I'm going to predict that there's a chance that they're in the game. All right, very well. So Seahawks 20 path 17 that would not be a Seahawks cover that would be an under though, because it's coming in at Hawks three and a half and 37 and a half for your over under. All right, I'm going to go out in a limb. Originally, I had told you that I thought the Patriots would lose week two and I thought it would be a hard fought game. They would lose by a field goal as well. However, I'm not just going to ride with the same score. I'll put myself out on that limb. Either I'll fall off of it. I don't know if John Bon Jovi's going to step in and save me. If I do fall off that limb hashtag topical reference, however, I'm going to just I'm going to support the guys because it's way more fun to be back in the fanboy lane. Now going into last week, I was content being the guy on unpopular take island one versus everyone. No one else picked the Patriots. A few more people are giving the pads a shot this week that said I'm doing it because I liked I like the sly guy. I'm going to give him a shot and Seattle's offensive line is no great shake either. And maybe this is the week like we said someone writes back to Geno. So in a great affair with a long field goal with less than three minutes remaining, give me Joey sly guy, boosting the Patriots to a 23 to 20 victory over the Seattle Seahawks. Maybe Andy's right. Maybe I'm right. Call into the show on Sunday as soon as it wraps up from the razor and let us know how you feel and who made the right call. All right, Andy, any final thoughts before we make our way into our chat with our pal Dan V ends from Seahawks forever. Yeah, you people, you people need to show up. You people need to be loud and proud at Gillette state. And we talked a little bit about it post game. The days of presuming victories and having high expectations of blow out wins. Those are all gone. And as a fan, this should be the most energy you bring to Gillette stadium. Maybe all season. It's the home opener. They're one and oh, it's a game people think you have a chance to win be a positive factor. I have questioned the Gillette stadium crowd over the years for the ebbs and flows of its impact on games and maybe some early booing. There can be no early booing. I don't want to hear your GD Drake may chance. I want to see him play too, but stick those in your bum bum for this game and support your starting quarterback support your head coach. I really believe the fans can have a positive impact on this game Seattle is a team that they are used to a home field advantage. That quest or whatever the hell. Now it's like called lumen field. Okay, lumen field is a great home field advantage for them. They're used to a home field advantage. Patriots fans, you people get lubed up and go support your football team. Ah, and we'll end on this inappropriate comment from one of our favorites here on six rings, Jordan Watson, who's taking it in live on Facebook this morning. Are the Patriots good enough to slow down Miami or should they hire the Seattle? You meant to say Seattle. Are they good enough to slow down Miami or should they hire the Miami police? That's too soon. It's highly inappropriate and made me laugh out loud. Love it. All right, this should be a good one, Andy. I'm really excited about the post game. I'm excited about all this. And every week you guys, we will do our best to give you as many different angles, analysts coverage insights and whatever else we can possibly provide. Yes, coming from me TD, the fan boy Fitzy with a smiley face. I look at the season just got like the outlook changed drastically last week. No one's calling for winning records. I can't tell you when Drake may is going to play. All I know is the take him to the Hill boys are going to get out there Sunday and give you the best effort possible. And I'm with Andy, either be loud and show him that you care or blow it out your old dairy air on Sunday. Let's go. Let's make some noise. And the old fan boy is going to be there to help lead the charge on the jumbo tribe. All right, Andy, great job as always. That'll wrap up this portion of six rings and football things. And now to give you some insight as to what they're saying on the other side, if you're watching live, that'll be the wrap on the live stream. Stay tuned on the podcast for our next segment with Seahawks forever hosts Dan Vians here on six rings and football thing pet emergencies can happen at any time. That's why veg ER for pets is open 24 hours a day, including weekends and holidays. Veg has revolutionized the ER experience for pets and their owners. Not only do you see an emergency veterinarian right away, but there's no more waiting and worrying in a lobby. You get to stay with your pet the entire time. Veg treats all kinds of pets, dogs, cats, reptiles and exotics. Go to veg.com to find the veg ER for pets nearest you. That's veg.com. My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big row as man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friends still laughing me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B. But with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com/results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/results. Terms and conditions apply linkedin. The place to be to be. Who will have the more tenacious D? Which run based offense will make the fewer mistakes? Which of the young coaches replacing legends of the NFL will come out victorious? And who's gonna take who to the hill this Sunday at the razor? We will soon find out when the Seahawks fly all the way across America to take on the surprising one and oh New England Patriots. It's Mike McDonald versus Gerard Mayo. It's their seafood versus our seafood. It's a rematch of Super Bowl 49 and spoiler alert. It is actually Super Bowl 49 reunion weekend as well at Gillette Stadium. Seems like a great a troll job if you ask me. But what do I know? I'm just the Joker on the Jumbo Tron, your old pal Nick Fitzy Stevens from the six rings podcast and the six rings post game show on WEI and I am pleased now to be joined for our behind enemy line segment by the host of Seahawks forever. Mr. Dan Beans joins the show for our behind enemy line segment in anticipation of Patriots versus Seahawks. What's going on Dan? I like how you grease the skids got me all excited about it with the tenacious D reference before dropping Super Bowl 49 on me. So you know, let's go. It's a pleasure to join you this morning and it morning here. Just want to make sure yes everyone knows that this is early for me. So so this podcast is going to drop Thursday evening in New England. Wherever you happen to get it, whether it's on apple pod, Spotify, the Odyssey app, wherever you can find awesome football talk. But we are streaming live early Thursday afternoon East Coast time. It's Thursday morning. M-O-R-N-I-N-G where Dan is coming at us right now. Who will be an M-O-U-R-N-I-N-G come Sunday around four o'clock Eastern time. We will soon figure out. So Dan, both teams, I think this isn't a let's not say it's one of those Spiderman meme games. But to me in a lot of ways, this game features two teams that are way more alike than we realize. They both have veteran quarterbacks who can move if need be reasonably strongish arm. A lot of people didn't even think they may be starting at this point. They play behind shoddy ish or patch workish, if you will, offensive lines. There's some skill players to be had for sure. Running is the main course on offense. And then on defense, just being tough and nasty is the way they want to win ball games. And we've got a 38 year old head coach first year replacing a legend. Mayo over bell check. And you guys have another defensive minded young coach, 37 year old Mike McDonald, formerly the Ravens. Now taken over for the great Pete Carroll. I'm expecting, I'm expecting like 15 rounds on Sunday from one to four straight up. No, it's fascinating. You know, it's they say week one tells the most lies and week two, we find out a little bit more about who teams really are. And it's remarkable. All of the things that they have in common that you pointed out. And you didn't even mention that they both have young backup quarterbacks who are from the University of North Carolina and very, very good friends in Drake Hall as well. So the Drake may Sam Howell effect side note, by the way, if Gino Smith at any point this season is unfortunately injured or if he's inefficient, I'm a card-carrying member of the Sam Howell fan club. I think I have no idea why after just giving him a garbage offensive line. Yes, he holds on to the ball too long. And I think he believes his arm and his legs can get him out of just about any disastrous scenario. But I think Washington bailed on him way too early. And if given a chance, he may just succeed in the NFL. Yeah, I'm bullish on Sam Howell. You know, he got off to a rough start in training camp. It really showed in the preseason games what he's built, what he's built like. And and I think I think the Seahawks got him out of Washington before PTSD and kind of the Mac Jones, Zach Wilson effect really kicked in. And I think there's a lot to work with there. But for now, there's quite a bit of gap between between Gino and Sam. Oh, yeah, for sure. For sure. So Sunday we come into the game. This was part of the gauntlet that many believed was an impossible schedule for the New England Patriots in their September run. Most people obviously had them ticketed for a loss against the Bengals. They win 16 to 10. They open up some eyes. They play 60 minutes of rock fight football. Seahawks come in Sunday. There were three and a half point favorite over under 37 and a half points. And then the Pats have the Jet Propolitans, as we like to call them at Death Life Stadium on Thursday. And then they go out to one of everyone's least favorite places to play. The big bell bottom, as Berman calls it, in San Francisco. They finish up the month against the 49ers. People thought around here at least that if there was going to be one game that was winnable for the Pats in September, it would be the Seahawks. I thought originally, and I was right at least about the Bengals portion, that that would be the more winnable game since he's always off to a slow start. Herro still has question marks. Jamar Chase gave a half ass effort at best. And the Patriots played pissed off like everyone did spend six months saying you guys stink. And so they came in hard and they won the game. Seahawks, I feel like I don't think you guys have tapped into what you may eventually be just yet because there is a lot of talent on offense. And there's a whole boatload of talent on defense. Squeaker. Yeah. Last week at the what do you guys call Lumen now? It is Lumen Field. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It was it was the clank. And then it was last time the Patriots played here. It was central link. Yeah, in 2020. And now and now it's and now it's Lumen tighter game than anticipated 26 20 over Denver. What did you see from a Seahawks before we get into what you guys think about the Patriots in this matchup? What did you see that you liked and what did you see from the Seahawks last week that opened your eyes maybe the wrong way? Yeah, it's I think when you look at the two sides of the ball, I expected there to be some growing pains in the offense. It's an offensive line that has been notoriously problematic over the last four or five years and one that most people expected to be. So again this year, you know, all the national pundits were were dinging the Seahawks for that. And that was, you know, claiming that is one of the biggest reasons that they were, you know, kind of in the 20s, upper 20s and most of the power rankings you see at the beginning of the season. As much as I think they've turned their eyes towards that and really thrown some assets at the offensive line, they haven't played together. And you know how important continuity is up front. I know New England struggling with that right now as well. There's some injuries involved there. I knew there were going to be some struggles there. Didn't know it was going to look as bad as it did coming out of the gate. The first two plays of the game, sacked for Geno Smith and an interception caused by pressure, got a little better as the game went along. But I knew that, you know, Ryan Grubb, first time in the NFL as an offensive play caller and trying to piece all these things together, I figured that would take some time. On defense, I wasn't quite sure. Anytime we saw the ones in preseason, they were dominant, but, you know, preseason is what it is. And it was a very small sample size. What I saw, if I have one takeaway from the game on Sunday against the Broncos, it's as much as, you know, we talked a little bit before we went on the air about how I think Sean Payton did us some favors with his, with his game plan and how he had to go Nix and facing Nix in his first start on the road at Lumen Field was an advantage for the Seahawks, certainly. But going back and watching the game, I've rewatched it five times now, a couple of times from the broadcast angle, a couple of times on all 22, it's remarkable how much better this defense is from an execution standpoint, from a schematic standpoint, from a communication standpoint than it was at the end of last season. And you can see now really what cost ultimately Pete Carroll his job, a guy who was known as a defensive guru, right, built his reputation on that. End of last season, Seahawks just seemed lost on defense. They were missing assignments, they weren't playing hard. There was even some effort issues at the end of the season, which was something we'd never seen under Pete Carroll. How just watching the spacing, the communication with all 11 on Sunday, how guys rallied to the ball, how well they tackled in the open field, how well they got pressure upfront on almost every snap, one of the top five teams in the league and pass rush win rate over the weekend, how the how the back end played and rallied to the football, knocked balls away. I mean, Nix through two interceptions that could have easily been five was much better than I expected coming out of the gate. Remember, when Mike McDonald came back to Baltimore from the one year he spent at Michigan, it took about a half a season for that defense to come together. And it really wasn't until the trade deadline they brought in Roquan Smith that things really, really clicked. I expected there to be more big plays, more explosive plays from the Broncos saw none of that. And we saw plenty of that the last couple of years. Just guys running wide open, broken plays, broken coverages on defense. So that was the most encouraging thing because if it does continue to take the offense a little while to really click, you know, as well as I do, you saw it on Sunday. The defense is the one concept that can keep you in games. Yeah, I think the Seahawks defense, it is funny. It is funny how two coaches that were known for certain hallmark attributes, Pete Carroll was a defense guy, Bill Belichick, obviously a defense guy. His defense never fell off. As a matter of fact, they stayed top 10 last year, which I believe is what led them to sign a lot of their, I call them blue collard, utilitarian middle class defenders, Anthony Jennings, Josh Uche, Jelani Tavai, and my favorite, Gabriel Peppers. And then of course, they re-signed Kyle Dugger. He's the only blue chip player they had according to ESPN finishing number eight out of the top 10 safeties across all positional groupings in the NFL. So a deficit of talent certainly presents itself on offense and in the eyes of many on defense as well. Bill Belichick's problem was the roster building. Like he just like a lot of his bad draft picks and a lot of the frustrations he had over Mac Jones and clashes with the ownership in front office led for his dismissal or the conscious on coupling, mutual separation, whatever the hell they chose to call it. And I was surprised by Pete Carroll as well, but it is so nice, I think, from both of our perspectives to go watch those first games and go, no S word. This is what it is supposed to look like. Huh, it's funny. Without Pete Carroll and Belichick around, they didn't fall apart, casting no shadows or smurching in any way, shape or form, no shade thrown at either legend who will be first ballot Hall of Famers and wings of buildings, game plans and classrooms and programs need to be renamed after. But sometimes you just need a change. You need a fresh youthful voice in a different way of going about things. And we saw two teams that came out prepared to fight week one. And I think that's the way both of them are going to play. I just think you have a few more or rather the Seahawks. Your your team has a few more assets on offense that's going to allow you to grow a little bit more hanging a few more games over the year, whereas the Patriots are going to need most games to go like they did last week. A lot of yards after contact, no turnovers and be opportunistic A F when the other team falls asleep at the wheel or makes a mistake. Yeah. And you guys ran the football so well week one, you know, I'm already kicking myself for all the times in fantasy leagues. I had Ramundary Stevenson on the on the board when I was on the clock and didn't take him. I think I got caught up in, you know, just the historical hesitants to take running backs in New England because they've never really featured one guy. Is that that's got to be the game plan moving forward, right? I mean, the Seahawks run defense was effective on Sunday, but I'm not so sure that Denver really stuck with it really approached it in the right way. They were they were intent on giving bow nicks a lot of volume and really, you know, starting off his development with a dynamic game plan that that worked in his favor. And they just didn't. Yeah, they just, well, in the sense of they let him throw it 40 times in his debut on the road against the defense was expected to be good. It's it was crazy to me because I do think they had a couple of moments where they were in the football occasionally on the McLaughlin average over five yards of carry. I just if there's anything that that I wouldn't say worry worries me, but gives me pause is, you know, I like our defensive front, certainly like the way our inside linebackers rallied to the ball. They were a question mark, both new to the team through free agency this year. Mike McDonald has talked extensively about wanting to build that run wall as a as a foundation of his defense. But until you face a guy like Stevenson, you just don't know. Yeah, I think it was last week. Is it both both a maye? Is that how you pronounce his name? Boy a boy? Oh, you had the one I have a right here on my prep boy a mafia. Yeah, he was a top 10 Pat, both of my hey, you want one my a or you want both of them? I'll sign a guy. Do I need to breaking news? Hold on. Yeah, so boy a mafia had a great game last week for you guys as well. And on our side, Kion White, who fills in for Matt Judon and this guy, I love in the draft for the series. What a what an absolute behemoth Goliath, Boliath girl, he meth, whatever you want to call him. Dude, just a mess in a game record as well. You guys have a solid line, you get Hankins, Leonard Williams, good corners too. Tariq Willan and Devin Witherspoon, good tacklers, Patriots last week per PFF only team that missed on less than 10% of all their tackles. Like again, we are looking at very aggressive, tough as nails, like minded mirrors of each other on Sunday. Yeah, three of the top three of the top four graded corners in this game. Yep. According to PFF and Marcus Jones, I think they had eighth. And Christian Gonzalez, they had 72nd, but he shadowed Chase and held him to six catches. And yeah, I don't know. Sometimes I use PFF grades. I do think it's it gives you a marker, right? Right. But sometimes I just don't know. I don't know if we're just going to live by stats and there's no reason to actually play the games. We may as well just let a lot of ones and zeros or AI, sim it out for us and tell us what the numbers would have dictated. Like people make mistakes. Things change throughout the course of the game, you know, both of these coaches are going to have to like deal with something that could factor in on Sunday. It's going to be a beautiful day to let's dating like a like an absolute perfect early fall LL Bean catalog type of day. So that won't factor into it. Yeah, good. Aside from, you know, you guys having to travel across country, though, I did hear from our friend Mike recent ESPN that over their last 35 one o'clock games, this was pretty interesting to me. The Seahawks are 24 and 11. So I say, you take the haul out of Seahawks are going to be tired. They're going to have tired. Like I throw that right out the window. I don't care about that in the least. Yeah, that was a huge, it was a huge issue under the Mike Holngren era. They were we were just terrible. Excuse me, as most teams are, you know, you look across the league historically traveling from the west to the east, Holngren teams are terrible. They literally would look like they're sleepwalking through the first half. Carol tapped into something, started practicing at 10 AM, started, you know, to acclimate them to that started keeping them on that schedule as they traveled going back east a day earlier than they had in the past. And it worked. And so, you know, there is some trepidation here about whether or not that can continue. I will say this, we did just find out yesterday from Mike McDonald that he has, he has kept all of those parameters in place and decided, hey, he wasn't, he wasn't so egotistical that he wasn't able to look back over things that worked for Pete Carol. And and indeed, that was one of the things. And so he's kept all of those routines in place. They will be heading back a day early. They'll be flying back tomorrow and they are doing the 10 AM thing. So we'll see. We'll see if it translates. That's very smart. That's smart too. Just like Gerard Mayo kept a lot of the things, the hallmarks and tenants of Bella Chicky and football from a quarter century as well, but changed a few things up as well. Yeah, like, keep what that's okay. This we learned from our experience and mistakes. This is what worked for Bill. I'm going to sign these players. I liked a lot of these guys. I'm going to promote our former defensive line coach to D coordinator who and I'm going to keep one of the bell check guys as safety coach. There's a lot about this team that should remind people of the last quarter century just minus the stars on the outside and the greatest quarterback of all time under center. And then the man who held the media and even some of his fans at times in great disdain on the sideline. But that's okay, because now you can find Bill Belichick on the cooking channel on CNN on Fox news on the other channels. Oh my God, he's even a he's on Insta face underdog. We could be heading into just like it's pumpkin sat, pumpkin spice saturation season. We may be in bell check saturation season as well. Wednesday hosting SNL. That's the next that's the next that you from your mouth to God's ears. If SNL were to reach out to Belichick, if Bill Belichick hosts SNL this year, I can die a very happy man, though I do want to see my team at least get back to the playoffs and continue raising my two ridiculously wonderful kids. All right, so I hear from you like maybe not the Patriots pass in game, but obviously they're tough defense. Good kicker. Romandre Stevenson in the running game as well. So before we get to our predictions, I'm kind of getting a feel for exactly how you feel about the Seahawks like there. This is going to be a tight one. Give me maybe one or two players on defense and one or two guys on offense that we may not have heard about or spoken too much of that we need to keep our good eye on Sunday. Yeah, I think the guy on defense that and maybe I'm maybe I'm behind on this. I was going to say Rachel and Jenkins, he had an outstanding job, had an outstanding game or strong safety signed in the off season. But Julian Love is a guy that is really making a name for himself, came over as a free agent from the Giants last year, had coming off a good year. He was a he was a reserve his first three years in the league and then and then took on a bigger role with the Giants, came over on a small two year deal last year, had an uneven season. Some fans thought he was bad in the first half and then he finished strong enough to actually get a Pro Bowl nod. Signed a big extension in the off season that caught quite a few of a soft guard just because we didn't think it was, I thought it was early, didn't didn't know if it was necessary, wanted to see him. We did in McDonald's defense before we went and handed him $36 million. He was absolutely outstanding. I think he was PFFs top-graded top-graded safety in week one. He was everywhere and coverage had an interception near the goal line on on Bowniks was flying around in the run game. He's the guy that kind of makes that defense click. He played strong safety last year, but this year he's basically playing what the role that quandary digs has played in the last couple of years, sort of the quarterback of the defense. So he's a guy to keep an eye on number 20. On offense, I'll give you a boring one because everybody wants to talk about skill position players, right? And if Kenneth Walker can't go this week, then certainly keep your eyes at Charbonay. He's a guy that would probably start for a lot of teams in this league. I'm field and in fantasy as well because Charbonay, if I remember correctly, was pretty smooth last year catching the ball out of the backfield. He's got good hands. Yeah, for a guy that size, really, really good out of the backfield had a long touchdown on Sunday actually, touchdown pass from Geno Smith as well. I'm going to say to me, I'm watching, keep talking about the offensive line. I want to see week two from Connor Williams. You know, this is a guy that should have never been available. We were fortunate that he was an all pro level center, one of the top five centers in the league. As far as, again, PFF goes the last two years coming off the ACL injury. So we get him late right before camp. He only practices for two weeks. Only nine months removed from tearing his ACL. He goes out there and plays every snap on Sunday. And by all accounts was to my eye was good, but rusty. I think there's a lot of consternation here about the two guards and their play, especially in pass protection and that being the weak link on the offensive line and even right tackle if you want to get really doomsday about it. But to me, if you, if you have a good pivot, if you have a guy that's playing at a high level in the middle, he can make up for some of that. He can, he can help those guys out. And, and I think I'm, I'm still in a little bit of a, I'll believe it when I see it mode, but now that he's gotten comfortable and he's, and he's practiced at a high level and, and played a full game, uh, keep an eye on Connor Williams because I think if, if they can protect Gino Smith, then they've got a shot against anyone, but especially this week, I think, especially up the gut as well where the Patriots defense has its strength in guys like Keyon White. Oftentimes we'll shift into create a mismatch or pressure the pocket as well. Maybe see if Gino can throw him one and I'm sure the same thing will be said or possibly game planned for Jacobi Brissette, who is not exactly fleet of foot as well and is going to be under duress for most of the game as well. Uh, one, one, somebody who was watching live on YouTube, Jeff Stenberg, how's Christian Haynes look for you guys? Like to see a Yukon kid do well. So the big question around here is not if, but when is he going to be inserted into the starting lineup? Um, he's, he had a fantastic preseason, but he never ran with the ones. It was Lake and Tomlinson at left guard and it was Anthony Bradford at right guard and Mike McDonald pushed that right guard competition all the way up to training camp, you know, tried to keep the Broncos guessing. It ended up being Bradford. Both of those guards got better as the game went along. We're good in the run game, but struggled in past protection at times. And so again, the question here isn't when he's going to play. It's if and where. I mean, which guy I'm actually doing a show later today with some cutups, some all 22 stuff trying to determine should he replace Tomlinson or Bradford. And it's not, it's not clear right now. Maybe we'll get more evidence after Sunday. Um, he's clearly more talented than those two. Um, and, and will once he, once he gets on the field, I don't think he's leaving. Uh, he's, he's terrific. He's better to the second level. He's quicker out of his stance than those guys. He's more stout, uh, against, against bull rushes and, and, and, and power. Um, but he can handle quickness better as well. Honestly, it's the one of all the, the really good personnel decisions. I think the Seahawks have made this off season, him not being on the field. I feel like it's a miss right now. And it's only a matter of time before he's out there. Yeah. Patriots. One of the things I liked most that Elliott Wolf did this off season was basically not being beholden to any person that was on the roster, any recent draft pick of Bill Belichick. As we've seen last year, Pat's burn a fourth rounder, uh, on a place kicker out of Maryland, Adios Chad Ryland. Here comes the veteran, Joey Sly, who looks like he either just won a strong man competition, an arm wrestling competition, or is like a boutique bartender and barber in Brooklyn. Jacked up long beard, isn't afraid of the big kick. And that's great to see. That happened before. Roar Waser failed. They brought in Nick Full. Now Chad Ryland fails. In comes Joey Sly. Did the same thing on the offensive line as well. And the offensive line has been a mess for years and they need to get that settled, would not be surprised to see the Seahawks try to stress the left side of the offensive line, where Nick Lebert could be filling in for City. So and City. So is only so, so at best. And then you have the combination of the dairy and low and chucks a core for it left tackle. The right side looks good with veteran center David Andrews, rookie laden Robinson, who's come in, outgo all the retreads there in common, this mauler from A and M and big Michael Wenu from Michigan as well. So it's going to be power right. And you mentioned earlier before we wrap out and get your prediction, you mentioned earlier, like seems like the Patriots aren't hesitant to let people know that they're going to be a run first team. Offensive coordinator Alex van Pelt said as much six months ago in what my co host called his prisoner hostage video released on Patriots.com. Gerard Mayo said they're going to be as much earlier in preseason. And then Monday on W E I he said, look, we're not afraid to tell people we're going to be a running based team. And I'm, I don't think there's any shame in telling people every week. This is what we're going to do. We think we can do it well enough and better than you can defend it. So game on. I love it when people say my strength versus your strength. Let's see who's the strongest. All right, Dan. Let's see, what is the official Seahawks forever? Hoxett Patriots, one o'clock prediction, beautiful weather. Hopefully the fans are charged up, lubed up and ready to rock making you guys almost feel like in an environment minus our beloved 12 that our 11, not bloods or Edelman, but our 11 on the field and the 65,000 strong at the stadium with the lighthouse can make you feel at home, but maybe not make it so home sweet home. Yeah, this wasn't as easy as some of your fans might think it was. I do think the Seahawks have the advantage here because I think that that defense is playing at a high level to start the season. And I think, especially with all the issues you just mentioned up front for the Patriots and some of their some the muddy situation kind of with their skill position guys and waiting for guys to step up there. You know, I think it's going to be an ugly game at times. I could come down to a turnover. I don't think we're going to see. We're going to see a lot of you know, explosive plays down the field. It could be even though you said it's going to be a beautiful day. It could be kind of a mud type game, right? Kind of a mutter type game. I'm going to go Seahawks 1713. And I don't think this game is going to be decided one way or the other until maybe the last drive or two. So I feel good ish about it. You just adjacent. As I mentioned at the top, you just don't know from week to one to week two. We see so many swings. And you know, it's tell the truth in week two, right? And the Seahawks are going to struggle. I've been telling people this for a while. It's going to take a while. It's still a new staff. It's still, you know, a significant portion of the roster is new. There are going to be games that they win, that people don't expect them to win. They're going to be games that they lose, that they don't think they're going to lose. And this would certainly qualify as having the potential to be one of those. Well, all offseason long, I told people I thought the Patriots would win the first week. Nobody believed me. They won. I got my mini victory lap, but I am not resting on that as we move into week two as well. I did say that I thought the Seahawks would win this game by a field goal that the Patriots and Hawks were ultimately similar, but I've kind of changed my prediction just so I can't help it. I'm a card-carrying member. I'm a fan just because I work for the team. I have passed 23 Hawks 20, although I'm inclined to think that Seahawks by three Seahawks by four and the under may be a smart bet. One of our regular viewers wants to know any Seahawks props you're leaning towards. I'm trying to buy a jet ski. At least we know what you'd use it for. That's good, Dan. I was going to say the under, but full disclosure for reasons you just kind of touched on. I don't bet. I'm terrible at it. So don't take my getting advice ever. All right. Well, listen, he is Dan Vines from Seahawks Forever. You can give him a follow on the socials at Seahawks Forever, and I trust we can find the podcast on Spotify, Apple Pods, and wherever awesome football talk has distributed, my friend. Yep. Indeed. Yep. And the YouTube channel, of course. Yeah. Yep. He runs on YouTube. Lots of cut-ups as well. Good breakdowns of Seahawks action, NFC West action, and all things NFL. All right. That'll do for this portion of six rings and football things. Dan, we thank you very much for your time as well, looking forward to a great game on Sunday. I wish you well so long as well means you enjoy the game right up to when the Patriots kick the winning field goal. I'm not just for the record. I'm not going to tune in until about two or three minutes into the game because I'm going to let them show the end of Super Bowl 49 as they're, you know, want to do and get I just can't watch it. So, you know, if I send you a selfie of me and Malcolm Butler, is that too much? That's too much. Yeah, that might end our friendship before a real chance to begin. And here I thought it was the start of a beautiful friendship. I know. All right. Hey, Dan, thanks so much for your time, Dan. It's fun. Thanks, man. Yeah. Thank you. Time is Luxury, which is why Polestar spent so much time designing and refining every aspect of Polestar 3, their Luxury Electric Performance SUV. So, you can drive with up to 315 miles of range. So, you can listen in 3D with up to 25 speakers and bowers and welcome surround sound and you can seamlessly stay connected with Google built in the entire time you're driving, all to make the time you spend behind the wheel of Polestar 3, the best time of your day. Book your test drive at Polestar.com. America's favorite place to watch football is stadium swim located at Circa Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Catch all the biggest games and a viewing experience built for sports fans. Chill in one of their six pools on three different levels for a perfect view of their massive screen. Plenty of seating options from cozy day beds to private temperature controlled cabanas. Stadium swim. Book your spot today at Circa Los Vegas.com. This is Megan Onalini with six rings and football things down at Gillette Stadium. And today I'm joined by Nicole Yang of the Boston Globe. When I first met Nicole, she was working for Boston.com and we were both doing some Celtics games in addition to Patriots, but she's been on Patriots for a long time now. So, Nicole, I guess the question that we had to start off with is, are you very surprised by the outcome on Sunday or has it got closer? And we found out who was going to be out with T Higgins and the question marks around to Mar Chase. Did it feel more and more like, okay, this is at least going to be a close loss? Yeah, I would say that the latter is probably true. I think it would be a lie to say that I'm not surprised at all. But I think as kickoff near and you think about Zach Taylor, I want to say is one in nine in weeks one and two. Joe Burroughs, one in three. The Bengals get off to a slow start historically. T Higgins isn't playing. Jamar Chase is on a limited snap count. You could kind of see how the Patriots could pull off the upset. But even as the game was going down, like they were never like far and away ahead. So you think, okay, like they're going to turn it on. Like they're going to, they're going to like kind of collapse might be a little dramatic. But the fact that they held on, I think everyone was like surprised. How much do you think from their offense is going to be able to be applied to what they're seeing with the Seahawks? These are two teams, when you look at them, just on a surface level, they both want to run the ball and they're both counting their running backs as being super underrated either by the Madden ratings or fantasy onlookers or anyone else? Yeah, I think Sunday was the blueprint for the Patriots that they want to be a run heavy team. And I think Ramondre showed that that is executable. But I think it's also important to note that of Ramondre's 120 rushing yards, 118 were after contact. And the Patriots also surrendered like the highest pressure rate. So I think Ramondre and Jacoby per set sort of masked the offensive line issues that still remain. So if Seattle can attack that, I would be interested to see how effective their strategy is. Yeah, can you put that into more context? Because that's something that I know is being thrown around a lot. So the 118 yards after contact. Why is that important for fans who are going, yeah, but he had 120 rushing yards. That's the best he's had since 2022. Why is that an important note? Yeah. So I mean, basically he only rushed for two yards before getting touched. So all of the bulk of his yards came from him like fighting through contact from breaking tackles. I think he was second tied for second in the league and forced missed tackles on Sunday. So a lot of that is just from Ramondre's agility and physicality. And depending on how Seattle responds to that, like if they, the Patriots themselves were one of the better tackling teams on Sunday. So if Seattle responds in that same way, then maybe his effectiveness will be a little bit more limited. So something that jumped out to me when Demargis Covington was talking in the coordinators availability yesterday, he said that Christian Gonzalez had four or five interceptions in the week of practice leading up to that Bengals game. So it was no surprise that he was as solid as he was on Demar Chase. Do you feel like as somebody who was down here every day for training camp, are you kind of surprised that he had that great a week of practice leading up to the game? There was a lot in the second half of training camp in preseason. There were a lot of day-to-day reports coming out saying he's a little more up and down than people maybe expected for how good he was last year, all along roundabout way to ask like, can we expect this kind of performance from him week to week? Or what do you think is the sophomore year for Gonzalez going to look like? Yeah. So that's a question that I've had. I should say that I wasn't here for every training camp practice because I was away. Well, you were at the Olympics. So you were working every day. Yes. So I did miss some of it, but I think that was a valid concern. I was a little bit nervous that we had anointed Gonzalez as this like defensive player the year after three and a half games last year. Like that's just a little early, but in in practice, he showed that he was vulnerable and like could be exposed at points. So I think Sunday will be a good test. DK Metcalf is obviously a barely talented, very physical, big-bodied receiver. And Jamar Chase, I don't think, was at 100% both physically and just like chemistry wise with the rest of the Bengals offense. So I think each week is like a test and a data point for Gonzalez because again, like now we only have four and a half games. Like that's still not a huge sample size. And I think that position for the Patriots is particularly weak depth wise. So I think his performance is like very important to like the strength of the defense. I would not describe you and I as film girlies. I don't think, I mean, I don't think we do our individual film breakdowns on Mondays, maybe in the future. But I was kind of interested to hear Gerard Mayo say that in doing their film review of the Cincinnati game, there were a lot of receivers that he noted were open. And so he's like, hey, there are opportunities there. We left some plays on the field. Who do you think really needs to emerge more from what you saw in the game yesterday, or sorry, Sunday, because thought it was interesting how much percent spread the ball around. Personally, I was expecting more to Mario Douglas as kind of a security blanket, but it kind of looked like he was going to Osborne a lot, and then spreading it completely around. Yeah, I was expecting more tomorrow Douglas as well. And even in the few passes that he did catch, you could kind of see his like dynamic ability on the field. But I actually think that the fact that the Patriots don't necessarily have a number one wide receiver, like their strength is in their collective. So I wouldn't be surprised if Jacobi does just continue to spread the ball around and just find the open man. Like I don't know if necessarily there's going to be a consistent receiver each week that they're that's at like the top of the statistical charts. Because I think he targeted seven or eight guys, obviously Austin Hooper and Hunter Henry are big parts of the offense too. So I feel like their strength is in numbers and just finding the open man. So I don't know if there's necessarily a player that I would say that has to step up. But I think if there is going to be a go-to guy agree it's tomorrow. So one thing that jumped out to me in a great win on Sunday was how slim that margin of error is for not just the offense the team overall because you look at the final score at 16-10. The defense does a tremendous job overall and the offense does what it has to do but you walked away with one touchdown. Do you think that how long can the Patriots ride out that kind of margin of error against the better teams that they're going to be seeing? We all saw the 49ers Jets game and that's terrifying to think that that's going to be here or that they're going to be out there against them week four. What can they do to I guess increase that margin of error other than put Drake May on the field at some point? Yeah that's a good question. I mean I think they just have to like stay disciplined something that stood out to me was that they didn't get flagged for like a whole number of a whole lot of consequential penalties and that was obviously an issue in the last preseason game. And they just were a disciplined team obviously Jacobi only taking one sack for a loss of one yard is huge and I just think they're not going to be an explosive team. I don't think there was one play for over 20 yards. I think they're longest play both in the air and on the ground of 17 yards. So they just need to like move the chains and like be consistent. Like they just need to stick to their identity. I don't think they all of a sudden need to start like pushing the ball down field. Obviously it's nice to have that as a threat to open up other things in the offense but also that's just like not their strength right now. So we're not buying the Taekwan Thornton. Yeah it's fixing everything. It's nice to like they should obviously do it and if he's open and he's shown actually that like that might be a possibility this year but like they just don't have the the weapons to make that like a core part of their offense. So I think if they just like stick to their identity and play like disciplined sound football like it puts them in a position they just don't want to like shoot themselves in the foot I think by turning the ball over penalties things like that. Final question with J-Von Baker being a scratch on Sunday. Did you ask Mayo whether this was a disciplinary might have been Sophie Weller. I can't remember it was Sophie Weller who he from the backstory in case anyone didn't see it he got pulled over and basically went on some kind of live stream about being pulled over and the Patriots were clearly not pleased with that and putting it out there but he had really been falling down that depth chart at the end of the pre-season. Do you think that there's maybe something brewing here with him or is it just a matter of getting the rookies on the same page and particularly this rookie and understanding like hey you're in the pros now and the expectations may be a little different both on the field and off the field. Yeah I mean I think what's concerning is that the problems on the field were just like dropped passes and things like that those were an issue in college too so it's not necessarily something that's like cropping up as a part of the adjustment like no this is a tendency he also had in college and same with the live stream like he after he didn't get drafted I think as high as he maybe thought he should have gone he also went on Instagram live and was like going on sort of a profane rant so the problem I think is is the fact that these are like repeated issues it's not necessarily something that's just popping up now as he's making the adjustment um so I wouldn't necessarily think that the benching or the healthy scratch on Sunday was a disciplinary measure because he wasn't ready to play anyway like even if the traffic incident hadn't happened but as Gerard said like it's their job to develop the players they draft him for a reason they clearly think that there's potential and that they can do something but he's clearly not in a place where the team feels as though like he's ready to contribute okay that's Nicole Yang from the Boston Globe Nicole where can everyone find your incredible coverage of the Patriots uh bostongoeb.com or in the physical copy if anybody still goes and gets those and on twitter I'm not very active but you can find it Nicole C. Yang. What's better than watching your team win winning money while you do it I'm Jim Costa and I cash the ticket Mike Veletti and I give you the edge to make every game playable at college football NFL we're breaking it all down game by game your podcast feed is going to be filled and you're going to love it you can click on the games you care about we do it all with our analysis we're fighting games that other people aren't talking about we're turning every Saturday and every Sunday in the days where you got a chance to win don't just sit on the sidelines Cash the ticket with us. Follow Cash the ticket in the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts.
Real football is BACK in Foxborough! Fitzy and Hart preview this Sunday’s home opener against the Seahawks, covering all the action and explaining why the Patriots are being disrespected.
Then, Fitzy ventures behind enemy lines to chat with Dan Vien, host of the Seahawks Forever Podcast, covering the Seattle Seahawks. Together, they preview the upcoming game, offering insights and contrasting the strengths of both teams.
Finally, WEEI’s Meghan Ottolini sits down with Nicole Yang of The Boston Globe to discuss what we learned from Week 1, pinpoint areas for the Patriots to improve, and preview Sunday’s home opener against Seattle.
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