Jones & Keefe: Alex Van Pelt joins the show

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00:00We've talked a lot about the Patriots and the Jets on Sunday in Foxborough.

00:04Pat's looking to right the ship and for more on that, we're joined

00:07on Patriots Friday by Patriots Offensive Coordinator Alex Van Pelt.

00:11He's brought to you by RATE. Visit shant, S-H-A-N-T-W-E-E-I.com to learn more

00:17and by McFarland Energy, a Lenox Premier dealer. Alex Van Pelt, how are we doing this week?

00:23Good, how are you guys doing?

00:24Good, we're doing well. I want to circle back to week three,

00:27the last matchup, Patriots and Jets. You said you had some regrets coming out of that first game.

00:32I know you don't want to get into scheme and to in the weeds on that,

00:34but what are some of those regrets and how do you plan on addressing them?

00:39Yeah, I think the biggest two would be, you know, getting Jacoby hit on the first play and then

00:43later on the second quarter on the keepers. Those are not a good idea by me and I won't

00:47be seeing that again for a while. One of the big talking points this week,

00:51of course, was Coach Mayo calling the team soft on Sunday night and then the next day

00:56kind of changing. They're playing soft. Would you agree with Coach Mayo and his assessment?

01:02Hey, we got to just play better. I don't know what that means. You know, we got to play harder.

01:06We got to play longer and we have to play better and I don't know. That was Coach's comment,

01:11you know, but for us offensively, we need to be more physical. We need to play harder and longer

01:16than we have in the past year. So rallying cry for everybody. We got to get out there and,

01:21you know, get some action going in the run game. It wasn't very good last week at all.

01:25Very poor on our part. So whatever that means, we got to play harder, longer. I know that.

01:29You were a player in the league. You've been in the league for a long time.

01:32You ever called soft by a coach?

01:36I don't want to get into the softness. I mean, it is. The film never lies. So whatever that

01:40looks like, we weren't good enough. I don't know what you want to call it, but we have to be better

01:43offensively. You know, I look at it through that lens, you know, completely. We just need to be

01:48better. We need to play longer and play harder, like I said, but yeah, it is what it is and

01:53if it worked, if it rallies us, great, you know, it should, it should piss us off.

01:57Our play should piss us off. Our record should piss us off. So anything that gets us going,

02:02playing harder and longer will be great this week.

02:04Speaking of pissed off, it seems like the receivers every week on your team are pissed

02:09off and taken to social media to voice their displeasure or talking to a reporter in the

02:14locker room about their displeasure. How have you gone about handling that? It seems like every week

02:20it's one or two different guys saying something else.

02:23Yeah, I mean, receivers, they, you know, obviously they want the football and that's part of being a

02:27receiver. I wouldn't be happy to have guys on the team that didn't want to touch the ball. That's

02:31part of it. You know, we're progressing as an offense. We're growing, you know, in the past

02:35game. I think it's shown over the last two weeks we're getting better in that area. And again,

02:39a win heals a lot of ills, but our main focus is getting, you know, getting all of our attention

02:45focused on the Jets this week. It's a huge challenge for us offensively. It's very good

02:48defense over there. Didn't do well against them last time, so our focus should be centrally

02:54layered in on just getting ready for these Jets. And I mean, receivers for sure always want the

02:58ball. Is there a difference though in, you know, a guy like Randy Moss or Terrell Owens demanding

03:03the football versus some of these guys that are first year, second year, don't really have quite

03:09a track record that are still kind of saying a lot of the same things? Yeah, no, I think it's

03:14the competitive nature. Guys obviously want to contribute and help the team, and it feels like

03:19when we're not getting wins, they're not helping in the way they feel like they should. So again,

03:23I do think this is, again, a work in progress. I think we've improved over the last two weeks,

03:28especially in the past game. I think Drake's done a nice job of seeing the field and distributing

03:32the ball. You know, guys had made big plays for us. I thought Hunter did a great job last week

03:36in the past game. KJ came in and scored a touchdown late in the game. I mean, those balls will keep

03:42finding those guys. He's going to keep working hard. Alex Van Pelt, Patriots Offensive Coordinator

03:46here on Patriots Friday, Jones and Keefe on WEI. There was a team meeting this week. Why was it

03:51called? Well, always a team meeting just to address some of the things that we needed to get better

03:57at. You know, it's not out of the norm, nothing new. It happens every Wednesday we have a team

04:04meeting. So nothing was really new. It was just a refocusing effort to get everybody to look a

04:08little bit harder, a little bit longer. Was it purely on-field or was there off-field elements

04:14to it as well? I don't understand. It was a team meeting. We always have it at eight o'clock on

04:19Wednesday afternoons. Nothing was different than any other week. Okay, so I guess just we heard

04:23Kendrick Bourne discuss, and I know Gerard Mayo said maybe it was out of context. I'm not sure it

04:29was, but the idea that players need to focus more with their nutrition and their recovery and even

04:36going out before games. To be clear and put a point to it, was there any discipline doled out

04:41after the London trip for players? No, not that I'm aware of. I mean, obviously it would stay in

04:47house if it were, but I'm not aware of anything. I thought we were on point in London and guys

04:52were where they're supposed to be. I don't understand the question asked with you. I thought

04:57we had a good trip. We prepared well. Guys were ready to go. We just didn't get the win on Sunday,

05:02but there was nothing that I'm aware of. Whose decision is the active wide receivers, for

05:08example, on game day? It seems like every week there's been two guys inactive and the other four

05:14have been active, and then playing time obviously has varied. Does that come down to you? Do you get

05:19to pick which receivers are playing on Sunday? No, I don't. It's a collaborative. We talk through it.

05:25Ultimately, it's Coach Mayo's decision of who goes, and we're going to get the best guys out

05:29there that give us the best chance to win each week, and that may look different from week to

05:32week. Against Jacksonville, going back to that game in London again, you were down 15 and went

05:38for two. Whose call is that? I'm not going to discuss who makes those decisions. Ultimately,

05:46we had a chance to go for two there. Statistically, if you looked at it, if you really want to dive

05:52deep, the teams that go for two in that situation win at a higher percentage of the teams that go

05:57for two later in the game, quite honestly, statistically speaking. It's a decision you feel

06:01like you're going to need. You'll know what you need later in the game as opposed to having a

06:06two-point play come down in the last play. You'll know what you need. You need to score twice or

06:10once. Statistically, it's a 50-50, a little bit higher for going forward in the situation than we

06:15did. I understand the numbers are the numbers. Is there anything to you just scored, you can make

06:21it a one-possession game, put the pressure on Jacksonville, and maybe it's harder to quantify,

06:27but any element to that where you say, let's keep it a one-score game to keep the pressure

06:30on the other team for the first time since early in the game? Yeah, that's one way to look at it,

06:36for sure. We didn't do that in this situation. Again, statistically, it's supported. Which way

06:41you go, it's a 50-50 proposition. In hindsight, you can look back and say that. Had we scored,

06:47had we kept our feet and had a chance to score there, we're not having this conversation.

06:52You've talked about needing to run the ball better. The first two games of the season,

06:56Ramondre Stevenson had 46 carries. He's had 38 in the last four. Has that just been the way the

07:03game has gone? Is that something to do with the fumbles, a little bit of everything? What is that?

07:08Yeah, nothing to do with the fumbles. Have ultimate confidence, Ramondre.

07:12The situational, where you are in the game, are you playing with the lead? Are you playing behind?

07:17Are you two scores down? I'd love to hand the ball off 35 times to Ramondre in the game and let him

07:23go to work, but sometimes the game won't allow you to do that.

07:26Do you guys hear any of the outside noise? I know it's easy to say,

07:29tune out the noise, don't listen to it. Do you guys hear any of the outside noise?

07:34The good news is I absolutely do not. I've never listened to the radio. I never read a paper. When

07:38the news comes on, I turn the news off. That's just the way I've lived my life. I learned my

07:42lesson a long time ago. The people that matter, the people that are inside this building,

07:47those are the guys that I listen to. Quite honestly, if everybody took that approach

07:51from inside this building, it would probably help them all. They'd sleep a lot better at night.

07:55We know we're working. We know we're trying to get better and we're improving.

07:58We've improved over the last two weeks, especially in the past game. Keep your nose down. Again,

08:04handle the things you can handle inside. Everybody's going to have an opinion. That's

08:07the beauty of America. I just choose not to listen.

08:11So Bill was in that building for a long time, Bill Belichick, and he pushed back very strongly

08:16on the feeling on the team. That's not noise that you hear, even from someone like Bill.

08:22I get not listening to us, but even someone like Bill Belichick.

08:27I'm probably the oddball in this. My wife will say I heard something on the radio and I'll say,

08:31stop right there. I don't listen to anything. I truly don't. I don't have any social media. I

08:36don't even understand TikTok, Instagram, all those. I don't dabble in any of that. So it's

08:42really easy for me not to see anything. So I keep my binders on and focused on the work.

08:47What radio shows does your wife listen to?

08:48Yeah, I don't know, like 10 to 2 on WEI.

08:51I don't know. It's probably you guys.

08:54Something tells me maybe not.

08:56All right, we'll end on, my last one's a hard-hitting one. Do you have a favorite Halloween

09:00candy?

09:02Oh man, candy corns, I think. That's about the only time of the year I would eat them.

09:06Yeah.

09:07Wow. So you're a big Jones fan.

09:10I'm one of the few, I think, who like candy corn. So you and I, Alex.

09:13How about that?

09:14How about that?

09:14All right.

09:15Pretty good.

09:15All right. I like that. You got good taste.

09:20All right, Alex Van Pelt, part of our coordinator series on Fridays here on Jones & Keefe on WEI,

09:26Patriots Friday. Alex, we appreciate it. Best of luck this weekend against the Jets.

09:30I appreciate it. Thanks, guys.

09:31All right, thank you.

09:32Alex Van Pelt joining us here as all our guests on a Patriots Friday.

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