Patriots stun the Bengals with a week one win
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00And I'm with you, Keith. I don't know the Patriots played an incredible game, but they
00:05played buttoned up, turnover-free. I was worried they were going to be completely undisciplined.
00:11The first kickoff of the year, first play of the game, first play of the Mayo era.
00:15Couldn't line up right.
00:16They can't line up. I'm like, here we go. This is going to be just a debacle.
00:20Yeah. Nope.
00:21And they were buttoned up.
00:22They were great.
00:23They were well-coached. They were largely disciplined. I think they were flagged for
00:27more penalties than Cincinnati. They didn't turn it over. They made a couple of huge plays
00:32defensively, fourth down stops, turnovers on top of it. Brissett was decent. He was
00:38even scrambling around a little bit, which even shocked Gerard Mayo.
00:40He could scoot.
00:41As I heard this morning.
00:42He was surprised.
00:43Ramondre Stevenson was awesome. The Bengals were bad. They looked like they're borderline
00:48boycotting and pissed about the contracts, but put that to the side. The offensive line
00:53was good. We're way, way, way better than any of us expected Nate for a week anyways,
00:58they deserve credit for that.
00:59I got something to say to both Gerard Mayo and Alex Van Pelt. What's that? I'm stupid.
01:04You're smart. I was wrong. You were right. You're the best. I'm the worst. You're very
01:12good looking. I'm not attractive.
01:15I didn't see this coming. And I know it's not like they lit up a scoreboard or anything,
01:18but I give Gerard Mayo specifically a ton of credit because he's not in charge of the
01:23roster. He inherited a bad roster. We can, we can quibble with the moves we liked and
01:28didn't like in the off season. Their most valuable asset was the number three overall
01:32pick and he didn't play in the game.
01:34Nope. We've talked quite a bit about that. Yes. So he didn't play in the game. So I mean,
01:37there's a second round pick barely played in the game. True. So, so Gerard Mayo took
01:42a four wind team from last year and brought them into Cincinnati week one. He knows they
01:49don't have a high scoring, high flying offense. And he and Alex Van Pelt kind of cooked it
01:53up. They, the offensive line looked so much better than anybody would have imagined based
01:57on preseason, the trade, the practice reports and everything else.
02:01Just the, just the names that were there. Like you don't even have all the guys that
02:05you want with city. So being out, so you're like, Oh, Brissette's going to get killed.
02:09No, he didn't. He picked up a bunch of first downs with his legs. They dominated just some
02:15of those long possessions that they had. They had a kicker who was drilling his kicks.
02:20And what really jumped out was how bill Belichick was always all about defense and special teams,
02:26right? Sometimes we'd almost pull our hair out. It was, he was so obsessed with defense
02:29and special teams. And yet over the last five or six years, the special teams was a mess.
02:35Remember how many penalty they were giving up kick return touchdowns. They were kind
02:38of a mess. And even the defense kind of feasted on bad quarterbacks and weren't very good
02:44against good quarterbacks. Well, they allowed 10 points to Joe burrow. Jamar chase played,
02:50right? We can, you can talk about whether he's pouting or not, but he played, he's one of the
02:54best receivers in the league. They allowed 10 points and they controlled that whole game. I,
02:59I, I did not see that one coming. Like they, the, the two sides worked so well together,
03:03meaning the offense kind of these long established drives where they just ran the ball.
03:07They told you they were going to run it and they did. But then the defense looks like a
03:10tough defense to play. And so stick with Mayo for a second, because even that offensive line,
03:15the plan was to play Chucks, a core for it. Left tackle coaches benched them. They benched
03:19them 12 snaps in or whatever it was. They went to the dairy and low, which I wouldn't have signed
03:23up for scary. If you told me that before the game that 12 snaps in, it's all the dairy and low at
03:28left tackle because the Chucks, a core of four experiment failed. I would say, well, they got
03:33blown out. They made a coaching adjustment and the offensive line was way better than anticipated.
03:40I think Brissett had to run for his life a little bit. He got hit a couple of times,
03:44yeah, but that is at bare minimum, an average offensive line based on that performance.
03:48And certainly a lot better than we expect. And they have a couple of good pass rushers
03:51on Cincinnati side. I think Hendrickson was a monster yesterday. Good. So they have a couple
03:55of guys going after him and yeah, the old line wasn't the biggest issue. Was it one sack in the
04:01entire game? Like that, that was pretty good. You know, I think I, what was the over under
04:06probably going into the game? Like four and a half. I was, I did a brag. I did TV on Friday
04:11night. The over, the over under for the season, Keith. Yeah. I was asked 48, three, three, a game
04:17was the over under. I think they gave up something close to that last year. 48, 40. I would say I
04:21would have taken the over ahead of time. Yeah. And uh, no, it was professional, but not only that,
04:26uh, they're there. You got to say they're good at run blocking because reminder Stevenson who
04:32monster game for him because the, his importance was on, it was showcased right out of the rip.
04:38And we were talking about how if Alex van Pelt is taking anything from his days in Cleveland,
04:43even though he wasn't calling the plays, but he was the offensive coordinator.
04:46We were like, well, they had Nick Chubb and they had a really good offensive line. It's like,
04:49all right, well, remandering Stevenson and Gerard Mayo on his Mayo Monday appearance this morning
04:54was really talking up remandering Stevenson's one of the best backs in the top 10 back. He did it
04:58yesterday after the game too. I mean, a game like yesterday would sort of point you in that
05:02direction. Wouldn't it? I mean, he, he looked as good as anybody. Some of it. Yeah. It was the
05:05block, but there are other times where he's just making guys miss or he, or he's like initiating
05:10the contact and picking up a few extra yards. He could be elusive. So it was a great all around
05:14game from remandering Stevenson. And this had to have been the, the game plan for them, but going
05:19in, even though, you know, idiots like me are like, no, no chance. They win. I'm sure Mayo
05:24Van Pelt, Demarcus Covington credit to him probably got together. We're like, all right,
05:28how are we going to win this game? And it's exactly what they did. No, no. And Mayo now a
05:32couple of times and they're paying him like he's a top 10 back. So he should be a top 10 back,
05:36but Mayo a couple of times after the game yesterday, this morning with the Greg Hill
05:40show. And if you missed any of it, check it out on the odyssey app, check it out on YouTube,
05:44subscribe to WEI it's there. It's available for you. I'm going to let you know, you're going to
05:48set aside like a half an hour to hear it, but I thought Mayo was great stuff. I thought he was,
05:51he was very interesting, very candid and obviously feeling good about the win, which he should.
05:57And so that's worth a listen on the odyssey app and on YouTube, if you didn't hear it this morning,
06:01but he also talked about how they're going to play defense. And I agree with you, Keith,
06:08they usually feasted on terrible quarterback play the last couple of years, feasted on bad teams,
06:12bad quarterbacks yesterday. I felt like they hit the crap out of Cincinnati. And to me,
06:17this is how they won the game yesterday. And we'll take all your thoughts on it. What was
06:21the key? How did they win? What was the biggest factor in the victory? Was it managing the
06:26football? Was it playing with an edge? Was it establishing the run? Was it Mayo's impact?
06:31Again, you can jump in at 6, 1, 7, 7, 7, 9, 7, 9, 3, 7. They set a tone on defense. The Bengals
06:37didn't have a first down till the second quarter. Yeah. Crazy hit the crap out of them. Duggar
06:42stripping Hudson. And that was Hudson reaching out at the end zone, going in Duggar stripping
06:47Jessica. I liked your tweet about stinks, about how you should get a flag. If you do the gritty,
06:52when you don't catch a touchdown, dropped it, he dropped it. He's horrible. And then you're like,
06:57you're like, Oh my God, you're like, you almost forgot that he was even on. I was like, man,
07:00where was this when you were on new England? And then they showed the replay and I'm like, right,
07:03there he is. That's the guy. That's the sickie. I knew man without T Higgins though. And again,
07:08I'm very positive on the Patriots today, but without T Higgins and with a sad sack Jamar
07:14chase, you're like, who's borrowed throwing to some dude I've never heard of to wash tight ends
07:20to not great running backs. Like, I think they're going to be fine. I think, I think it's a big
07:24check Mark win and a big, like, you know, uh, at the end of the season, you're like, well,
07:28they did beat the Bengals in Cincinnati. I think it's going to look good, but no T Higgins,
07:32there is a bit of a drop off there. Yeah, for sure. And so I think they hit the snot out of
07:36them and I give Mayo and Covington a lot of credit for that. Like I, I thought, and I did
07:43not think the world of bill last year. I want to bill out. I thought they would improve without
07:46bill. We'll see if that's actually the case through one week. It looks like they're going
07:49to, but we'll see. It's a long way to go. Yep. Um, but I always thought that defense was a little
07:54overrated and I even thought they'd come back to the pack a little bit. No Jude on no bar more.
07:59And it's like, how are they going to do that? Well, they, they did it yesterday with tone
08:04and edge. And I imagine that starts with Mayo. He's got the guys as Devon Godchild said late
08:09last week, ready to run through a wall for him. They tackled Jonathan Jones tackle on third down
08:14was insane. I was like, is that the same guy? It was like the play on Thursday night where,
08:19uh, Zay flowers got dropped against Kansas. He's exact same thing. They go forward on fourth down
08:24Jones smacks the crap out of them. And so I thought that was the key to the Bengals break
08:28a tackle yesterday. I don't think so. I don't remember it, but teams or defense, it seemed like
08:32they were, they were completely, uh, buttoned up. I mean, that was great. So I didn't see that
08:37coming. I thought offensively they would improve a little bit and they were nothing to write home
08:41about, but they were competent on offense. They were functional on offense, that defense to me,
08:45not dropping off and playing with more of an edge and setting a tone against Joe Burrow,
08:49even a shorthanded Joe Burrow. That to me is why they won. I did not expect that at all.