Patriots Linebacker Jahlani Tavai Joins the Show!

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Patriots Linebacker Jahlani Tavai Joins the Show! How is he and this defense preparing for the Seahawks?

Transcript

00:00Hey Jelani. How are you guys doing? We're doing great. What what a what a shock for the football

00:07world last week. I know you guys are on on to Seattle and on to this week but um what a what

00:14an effort for you guys last week. How great was it to win that first game for your new head coach?

00:20Oh it was great. It was a big milestone for for Maryland for us as an organization and

00:26hopefully we can build on that uh this upcoming week. Jelani one of the things you talked about

00:32before the game is the defense and how you guys wanted you go into it with the mindset you're

00:36going to carry this team uh every single week. You guys had another amazing job creating turnovers,

00:43making Joe Burrow uncomfortable back there. Um how do you continue to build off of that going

00:50against the Seattle team and where you know they like to run the football and Geno Smith is a solid

00:56quarterback when it comes to you know trying to make the right decisions. Um well the it starts

01:02with our preparation. You know it starts on on Wednesday um on our early downs and and carries

01:08on each and every day that we go uh into this week but that mindset never never changes for us. You

01:14know our our biggest thing is always to be tough for ballplayers to to know that if a team wants

01:20to run the ball we better be able to stop it and make them one-dimensional and and you know

01:26put their quarterback in situations where they're questioning what what coverage we're running or

01:31you know give them different looks so that uh you know they might make that mistake of throwing it

01:36into a trap corner or whatever it is. You know so um it's on us to you know see what they're doing

01:43on offense that way we can make an adjustment and uh and capitalize on any mistakes that they make

01:48in the game. Jelani when it comes to preparing for week two, Kenneth Walker was a star for Seattle

01:55in week one. He hasn't practiced back-to-back days the last two days. I'm sure you're preparing

02:00as if he is going to be playing this week but there is a chance that he's not. So how much

02:04does that change uh the way in which you guys see Seattle in week two? Um it doesn't like you said

02:12we're practicing as if he is playing and if he doesn't then he doesn't but for the time being

02:17we're going to make sure that um we're we're dialed in and focused on making sure that we

02:23we stop uh we stop him this week because like you said he is a big threat and he's a big part of

02:29the their offense and um so um it's just another opportunity and challenge that we're really excited

02:36for um and if he does get to play wonderful if he doesn't wonderful like uh nothing changes for

02:44how we're going to approach the game so like I said we're just going to be excited and ready for

02:50Sunday. Jelani one of the things that Gerard Mayo talked to us about is he said that you know

02:56guys are going to hear the noise outside of the locker room whether it's you know us in the media

03:01predicting how many wins you're going to get how good your football team's going to be

03:06um you guys hear that how much does that fuel you when you hear the negativity about you know what

03:15you know some of us might view the expectations of this team what what does that do for you guys

03:21inside that locker room as far as fueling you to maybe prove a lot of us wrong?

03:27Um one I I didn't even know about how uh everyone had uh Cincinnati over us so I didn't really have

03:35a reaction on that until after the game when everybody started telling me that and then two

03:41um I don't know it's we we all we all have that underdog mindset you know where we we

03:47we're we're okay with being the underdogs uh because you know we're we're we're going to be

03:53the same team every like week in week out and make sure and we're going to make sure that

03:58every team understands and feels you know our our um aggression and our our um our tough football so

04:07um for the younger guys who are listening to the noise I hope that they

04:11can lean to above that and um you know not look at those distractions and just focus on their play

04:18and perfecting their craft and for the older guys um I think I think we've been in this organization

04:24long enough to know that we we don't need to hear or listen to any of other people's

04:29opinions other than our teammates our coaches and ourselves so um I think I think we have

04:35really good guys in here to make sure that we don't listen to the noise.

04:39Well we've all heard that some of your teammates during the fourth quarter of that game Sunday

04:44started chanting take them to the hill on the sidelines that's one of those things that

04:49you know at some point maybe week eight nine ten whatever could be a little corny but I

04:54is that Gerard Mayo said yesterday that the that was an attempt during training camp to create

05:01adversity for the team and is is that kind of the way you guys feel about that from uh?

05:08Yeah 100% 100% yeah yeah 100% but it also just goes back back to you know tough football you

05:16know a lot of teams don't condition a lot of teams don't do this and that whatever and I feel like a

05:20lot of teams aren't practicing the way we do over here in New England so when we when we you know

05:26quote-unquote take them to the hill we're we're we want to make sure that like we want to show

05:32them like our tough football and our condition we are even even if it's late in the game so

05:37um yeah he said it perfectly at the end. Jelani the the end of that game it seemed like the players

05:46took personal the questioning over the new head coach and Gerard Mayo what what did that Gatorade

05:53bath and what did that win mean for you guys and playing for him? No it was it was everything you

06:00know um getting the first one as a new head coach is always a tough there's one of the toughest

06:05things so it was good that it was it was awesome to you know get him that first win especially

06:11especially coming from uh his linebacker room I know it was a special moment um you know it's our

06:18job as players is make make him look good so we're going to do our best to continue that uh

06:24continue that each and every week. I don't know if you saw the game last night and what happened to

06:29Tua but um is there from a player perspective um when you're some when you see somebody who has

06:38uh suffered the way he has concussion wise you see what happened last night again

06:43um is there is there a concern player wise when it comes to these Thursday night games and and

06:50short rest? I mean it is what it is you can't it's going to be hard to you know coming into

06:59NFL to change those kind of primetime things so I mean it's just uh the game we play but

07:05in Tua's case I just hope that you know he recovers and and I just I pray that he's okay

07:11because he's a really good guy and um definitely got to uh bond with him and over the past off

07:16season so um I got nothing but love and respect for that guy just hopefully you know you know

07:22things uh turn out better for him but yeah I don't really care what day we play I just

07:28it's just another day for me to get get into the office and have fun. If you had gone through what

07:32he went through uh before and and last night would you keep playing?

07:40Uh you know that's just a decision I gotta sit down and have with my like with myself and my

07:44family um it's hard it's hard to walk away from the game that you've been playing your whole life

07:49you know so um I don't know it's hard to put myself in that spot right now. Yeah,

07:55Jelani last one for me I know you're a west coast guy um I'm guessing it seems like you're a big

08:01student of the game and you love the football game our resident PFF Shyam here Chris Shyam

08:06said that a guy like Joe Montana could not play in today's era of football and we have the

08:12discussion could guys play and you know the older era and some of those guys play in this era. Yeah,

08:19I believe he went so far as to say that you Jelani Tavai were tougher than Brian Erlach. Yes,

08:24no to correct the record I said he could hit harder. Hit harder than Brian Erlach. I've been

08:29hit by Brian Erlach. Shy my guy here. That'd be me. Yeah, I've hit oh I thought you said Joe

08:35Montana said that I said what no I've been hit by Brian Erlach and never you and I do not want

08:40to get hit by you. How do you feel when when you hear people compare some of the older players

08:46could they play in today's era or some of you guys could you play and you know the older era

08:52do you think that there are guys who could and can't play in either era? Um you know it's hard

08:59uh if we had the same rules back in the day um I would probably say no but um I think I think if

09:06you talk to an offensive player they would say yes I could play in this time if you talk to

09:12a defensive player they'll probably say I don't want to play in this era uh because of the rules

09:16but I don't I don't know it's a little different all right well we'll let you get to work and

09:24start getting ready for sunday and an opportunity opportunity to be back at home

09:30and I'm sure you're looking forward to seeing the fans on on sunday oh 100 percent yeah yeah

09:36have a good one all right

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