In this clip, Matt and James talk about what we've seen from the Patriots offense through two weeks and what they can do to spice it up a bit more.
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He's spent a lot of years now in Cleveland. And I think a lot of what they've done in New England so far has been very sound. I think they, from a conceptual standpoint, they've been what you want, you know. They want to run, especially in today's game right now, right, where I think you have to be tough, you have to be physical. They play like a tough physical team, especially in the run game. I think everybody who, you know, kind of took shots on their offensive line in preseason has to eat about 50% of Crow right now. And what I mean by that is that their offensive line in the run game, I think has been great, I think. Yeah. Dude, they're mauling guys. Antonio Gibson is getting yards on the edge. I have my eye on him Thursday night against the Jets defense that already was struggling to defend outside runs, runs on the perimeter, outside zone stuff. And then they lost Jermaine Johnson to a torn Achilles. So keep an eye on Antonio Gibson on Thursday night's game tonight's game. But I say they have to 50% of Crow because I still think from a past protection standpoint, that's where I kind of have the shrug emoji because I don't know how much they're going to be able to improve over the course of the season because the past protection has still been a pretty significant issue to me. I mean, Jacobi reset has been under pressure on 44.3% of his dropbacks, according to pro football focus and, you know, 4.7 yards per attempt when he's under pressure, they're not going to be able to run a functional pass game. If they're under pressure on almost 50% of their snaps, they have a statue quarterback in Jacobi percent. No, he's not total statue. You know, he's got something he's actually he actually made a pretty decent play under pressure and with his legs in week one, but still that's not the strength of his game. And you're averaging under five yards per attempt when you're under pressure. That's not a good mix for offense success. When you look at what Jacobi percent does well versus how this team is constructed, I see a real oil and water problem when we're talking about the past catchers versus the actual thrower of the football, right? But Jacobi percent does well is to be statuesque in that pocket, eat some hits and just fire deep shots down the field. That is where he excels, right? But when you take a look at how this team is constructed, I just don't think they've got those guys, first of all, I don't think they've got the past catchers, a, but to your point, they also just don't have the offensive line that can hold up for more than two and a half seconds, right? So you're going to get your two and a half. Can you get 2.7 will be tough? Can you get three? That's going to be real tough. And when we start talking about deep passing, Matt, you got to get three seconds. And I just don't know if this new England offensive line can give him that time. But I do want to talk about the talent level in regards to the wide receivers because man, you take a look here. Let me just read off who is leading this team in receiving yards. It's Hunter Henry one. He's got 127. That's based off of just one game, right? Austin Hooper is number two. He's got 36 yards received, yeah, 36, 36, KJ Osborne is number three with 28 yards receiving. The guy that they drafted out of Washington in Jalen Polk, man, he's got 18 yards total on just three catches. He's got to be a way, Matt, to activate Jalen Polk a little bit more than they have. I mean, dude, I watched the Seahawks Patriots game one. I watched it live. And then I watched it back on film, but watching it live for you, that's okay. I could not watch that game. It was so bad. Yeah. Number one, let me be clear about two things one. There were 10 games on, you know, in the one o'clock Easter window on Sunday. What are we doing out here? And also I'm a, I'm a sick freak about the Seahawks passing offense right now. We'll talk about them a little bit later. So when I say that I watched it live, I was mostly there for the Seahawks. And definitely when I watched it back on film, I was only watching the Seahawks out, but I did not, didn't really take like, let me get a deep dial on what's going on in England right now. But I say that to say that the second thing when I was watching it live, it's insane that Hunter Henry had 109 yards on Sunday in week two, Jalen Polk was the second leading receiver with 12. That's 12 was 18. And then the rest, Stevenson, nine Gibson, seven, KJ Osborne, seven, Austin, super five. I mean, he's got over said 149 yards, 109 of them went to hunt Hunter Henry. And the Seahawks did a great job shutting Hunter Henry down later in the game. And I think Mike McDonald has done a great job so far as the defensive play calling head coach there in Seattle, like they just stuck Julian love kind of on Hunter Henry's like, all right, this is the only guy who's hurting us. We're going to take him out of the game. And then New England really didn't have an answer later on in this contest. So yeah, I'm with you. Jalen Polk is definitely somebody to keep an eye on here too. And I love your point about it being oil and water here because, you know, you've got tomorrow Douglas is their second leading receiver in terms of routes run, 46 behind Hunter Henry's 53. And you know, tomorrow Douglas, I've talked about him for a reception perception. He's kind of an odd player because he's a man beating slot receiver. He is definitely not a downfield threat. And he's not really a threat in the intermediate area of the field. He's kind of like a slant flat merchant. And because of that, you know, he has a 3.0 average depth of target this year. I'm with you that in this offense, you want to go over set under center. You've got a good run game. This run game's been awesome this year. We want to take play action shots totally, yes, we are not doing that with tomorrow Douglas as our leading receiver here. So Tyquan Thornton's the deep threat with 7.7 average at the target. And he's no disrespect, but he's Tyquan Thornton. So it's just like, I'm with you that I think more Jalen Polk is the answer. I know this is sort of the cop out, but I just want to I just want to see Drake May at this point. I I like to cover set. I think he's a good quarterback and he's a good caretaker. He's probably like the best backup quarterback, maybe one of the better bridge quarterbacks in the league. But if we're going to get big plays off of play action, dude, if we're going to boot a quarterback out of the pocket, it's going to be drink that. So I think I think we need to see a what was last time we seen Jacobi Rousseau with the naked boot. Yeah. I can't even remember, golly. I feel okay saying this because Gerard Mayo said it, but did you hear what he said after week one when he said, yeah, he made it paraphrasing again, but Gerard Mayo said Jacober said, yeah, he made a pretty good play on the move, which is surprising because he's one of the least mobile black quarterbacks in the league. Like that's that's the guy that's your starting quarterback right now. He is not a mobile threat like no, he's not going to read it out as well as Jacober said. He's not going to get to the right answers as much as Jacober said he's going to make a lot more mistakes than than Jacobi is at this point, but he's going to activate that downfield play action game. He's going to activate the boot level boot game. And I think that will be interesting because I do think this Patriots team is a little bit better than people expected. It's not a fun watch. I mean, not just not a fun watch. It's just the offense doesn't look all that functional outside of the run game. Yeah. I'm looking at it right now. He's set on play action, he number one has a 5.4 average depth of target and he has a 3.6 time to throw that is this. Yeah, it's not bad, but you just want more deep throws to be available. And I mean, the reality is with this receiver room, it's just they don't got that guy. They don't got that guy. Yeah. I mean, I'm trying to find like a nicer way to say it, but you're right. They don't have that guy right now. If you're top two wide outs in terms of routes run, being Demario Douglas and Tyquan Thornton, you do not have that guy. I think it's time to get more Jalen Polk on the field. I think Polk was a good prospect. I think he is picture perfect for this scheme that wants to take shots in the intermediate area off play action. So more Jalen Polk. And I do think eventually we're just going to get to a point where when we want to get that boot game activated, it's just going to be Drake made time. I mean, again, I know I'm in the bag here, but I mean, can we get a little? Can we actually see Jovan Baker on the football field? I knew. I was like, when is James Ko going to get to the fact that Jovan Baker has run one route this year? It doesn't play, dude. Like, oh, man. Okay. Look, I get it. Like he had a couple drops, bro. Like it's all good. You and I have talked about whether, you know, some of these should even be considered drops. It's fine. Whatever. But let's say he had those drops, you know, can we, can we at least complete that sentence by saying he had drops, why? Because he is open. Yeah. And if you're getting open, that's 50% of the equation here. Okay. I don't. Downfield, too. Open downfield. I don't see dudes in a New England Patriots uniform getting open downfield. I mean, this, this whole idea that the, the, the beat reporters are feeding us of Taekwong Thornton. Like, you know, come on, guys. We've seen him play. We've seen him play. Stop it. You know, like I know the coaching staff is telling you this and I, you know, maybe he's, maybe he's had a good couple practices or whatever scrimmages in shorts, but come on. When the lights turn on, we've seen Taekwong Thornton play, man. We're good. We're good with Taekwong Thornton, bro. Like, I, I, and again, I think you can even drop some place for him if you want to. That's all good. But every down, come on, can we get you Von Baker and then just see what you got. Just see what you got. New England. Uh, that's what I would like to see. A lot to prepare for game day as a dedicated fan and preparing the perfect tailgate meal might be the most important of all. That's why best foods real mayonnaise is the MVP. 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