Patriots stun the Bengals with a week one win

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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.

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