- 11 minutes ago
WEEI Reporter Justin Turpin joined the show to talk about the win against the Pittsburgh Steelers, Drake Maye’s issues, the dominant defense, and more.
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00:00We're talking to a top-tier Terp who's here in studio.
00:02Justin Turpin from WEI.com.
00:04What's up, guys?
00:05Victory Monday.
00:05Victory Monday.
00:06That's right.
00:08Bayard's going to be a fan favorite.
00:10As soon as he starts making more plays, absolutely.
00:12Yeah.
00:12He already is in the locker room.
00:14He had four tackles.
00:15He had four tackles.
00:15I think there was a lot of intrigue around him when they landed him,
00:18obviously, led the league in interceptions last year.
00:20He was a first-team All-Pro.
00:22He's been very consistent throughout his career.
00:24Still just hasn't made enough plays yet for the fans to really fall in love
00:27with this guy.
00:28But when he starts, too, I really think he's going to be a fan favorite.
00:30There's no question.
00:31Okay.
00:31Let's start with a general question because we're going to get to all the
00:35devils in details, especially regarding Drake May.
00:38What's your takeaway from yesterday's win?
00:40It was ugly.
00:41It was very ugly.
00:42But you take those, especially early in the year.
00:44Everyone knew these first four games were going to be difficult.
00:47And I think that was the one that people looked at and said,
00:49this should be the easiest out of the first four.
00:51Obviously, you're facing four playoff teams from last year,
00:54including three divisional opponents, three division winners, rather.
00:57We've been talking about that since the schedule came out.
00:59So I think the biggest takeaway would be Drake May, obviously.
01:03And I think that's rightfully so.
01:04And that's building off the playoffs from last year,
01:06where the only reason the jury is still out on Drake May is because of his
01:10performance against these upper echelon defenses,
01:13these top defenses that he struggled with in the postseason.
01:16And that has now carried into the early parts of the regular season.
01:19And this is a guy that could be making $70 million a year next year.
01:22So, yeah, that's why these concerns are very valid.
01:25It's weird, Justin, because I went back to last year's...
01:28Ooh, Justin, get serious.
01:29Real serious.
01:30Jay Terp, I guess I could call it.
01:32But I went back to last year's regular season, where, of course,
01:37Drake May made a name for himself, where he ended up getting enough stats
01:40and enough numbers to be second in the running for MVP.
01:44And I took a look at the defenses that he played, and they aren't good.
01:48Like, the stat that I looked it up by was just points allowed.
01:52And there was no one in the top 10.
01:54No one.
01:55As a matter of fact, the Bills, I think, were the highest at, like, 12th.
01:58And I think on average, it was, like, what, 21st or something like that,
02:02if you put them all together?
02:03And it kind of skewed my vision of what Drake May was.
02:07And I'm trying to figure out, is this who he is, or is that who he is,
02:11or is it somewhere in between, or is there someone else to blame?
02:13I think that there's a little somewhere in between.
02:15Maybe he is that quarterback that we saw last year.
02:19And obviously, I think when you're playing that well,
02:21I don't think the consistency really comes with that.
02:23And I think as much as people were bored to depth about the schedule talk
02:27and all that, like, it is a real thing, to your point,
02:29with the defenses they saw.
02:30And then you factor in, like we were just talking about,
02:32with the postseason and early into this year, it's absolutely a real thing.
02:35And I don't know how you could watch these first two games
02:38and not be at least a little bit concerned.
02:40And there's no reason to panic after two games.
02:42But this is a continuing trend against top defenses
02:45where he struggles a little bit.
02:46This is the first time in his professional or collegiate career
02:49where he's had a two-game span with four interceptions.
02:52Now, Terp did mention, after hearing our interview, our chat with him,
02:55you're feeling a little bit better about his mindset, his vibe.
02:58Very much so.
02:59He's very tough on himself.
03:00And I think that's why Mike Vrabel has kind of eased off the criticism
03:03a little bit, where in the past, like last year,
03:06he was willing to kind of call him out a little bit more
03:07than he has been this year.
03:08But I think that's because Drake May has clearly been hard on himself.
03:12I mean, I posted the video on the EI Instagram yesterday.
03:14He was out on the field like two and a half hours before the game
03:16just sitting on the white bench, like taking in a moment.
03:19So I think he's been hard on himself.
03:20He's not really taking this too lightly.
03:23And now, you know, hearing him saying, like, this is who I am.
03:26This is the type of player I am.
03:28You can't really change that.
03:29I like that answer from him with you guys.
03:31I can't tell how much I should start looking at Josh McDaniels in this.
03:36And Ted had a really interesting thing this morning,
03:39or this earlier in the show with us, is that last week I said,
03:42how many bad games in a row does Drake have to have
03:45until you think that this is who he is and not the guy he was
03:48in the regular season?
03:49And he said, eight.
03:50I need eight straight games.
03:51And not starting last year.
03:52He said, you know, like after week eight here, then he would know.
03:56And I was like, that's quite a lot.
03:58He changed that today.
03:59We had him on.
04:00I was like, do you still feel that way?
04:01And he goes, no, because I think after eight games,
04:04that's going to tell me more about Josh McDaniels than it is about Drake May.
04:09He thinks Drake May is being misused, not using enough in the pocket.
04:16How much of this do you believe is on Josh McDaniels?
04:18I think he deserves some blame for it, obviously.
04:21Like this was a year that they were supposed to take a step forward.
04:24And Drake May, talking to you guys a couple weeks ago,
04:26was saying how excited he was for that continuity with Josh McDaniels.
04:29He hasn't had the same offensive coordinator in consecutive seasons
04:32in four years since he was a sophomore in North Carolina.
04:34So you're expecting him to kind of look more comfortable,
04:37take a step forward.
04:38And obviously the A.J. Brown injury complicates us.
04:41We talked about it after week one,
04:42where the offense looked completely different without A.J. Brown.
04:44That carried into this week against the Steelers.
04:47But the offense did have some positive plays yesterday afternoon.
04:52Week one, their longest play was 19 yards.
04:54It was a pass to Matt Collins in the fourth quarter.
04:56They had six plays of at least 24 yards yesterday.
04:58But immediately after having those explosive plays,
05:02they went backwards, whether that was a turnover.
05:04The Ramondre fumble came off one of those explosive plays.
05:06Drake May, right after he hits Dobbs, throws the interception,
05:10which was a very questionable decision.
05:12They had two penalties after it.
05:13So every time they had one of those explosive plays,
05:16they went backwards.
05:17So I think there were things the offense did well yesterday.
05:20They just couldn't capitalize on the momentum.
05:22More than just Drake, I mean, he had the delay of game.
05:25I guess that's on him.
05:25But Vrabel took full blame for the double timeout situation.
05:29They could have had a shutout.
05:30Yeah.
05:31They really could.
05:31The defense could have had a shutout if not for that.
05:34It moved a 61, what would have been a 61-yard attempt to 56.
05:38And Boswell only has one make over 60 yards in his career.
05:41So very well could have been a shutout for the defense.
05:44Vrabel's been a little bit off.
05:45I just feel like the first two games,
05:46he's usually so good at the finer points of football.
05:49He's just had a few of these things pop up where you're like,
05:51wait a minute, are you really on your screws here, Vrabel?
05:54What's going on?
05:54Yeah, in the end, it was no harm, no foul with that,
05:57unless you're counting the potential shutout.
05:59But that did, in the moment, kind of leave the door open a little bit
06:03because they capitalized, they scored before the half,
06:05and at that time it was only a one possession game.
06:07So that very well could have been looked at differently.
06:10And I'm with you.
06:11I think there was a questionable decision at the end of the first half
06:13against Seattle as well, where that's twice now
06:15where you're questioning game management in these situations.
06:18All right, this is the explanation that Mike Vrabel had
06:21for the double timeout.
06:22Can you explain what happened on the back-to-back timeout?
06:26Yeah, I blew it.
06:28Yeah, I blew it.
06:29Injury timeout, I thought they should be,
06:31I was all caught up on the fact that, you know,
06:34they should have been winding that play,
06:38which, again, I don't understand why they weren't.
06:41Clearly, his shin came down in bounds.
06:43And so, in my haste to, you know, try to correct the officials,
06:48the injury timeout under two goes on us,
06:50and then we were going to see what they were in,
06:52and I called timeout.
06:53So, yep, I blew it, and I was hoping to try to convince the official
06:58to run the clock, and then the injury stopped the clock.
07:02See?
07:02Get off Drake's back.
07:04Vrabel's screwing up, too.
07:05Yes.
07:05I mean, listen, it's sloppy.
07:06You're right.
07:07You said it's a sloppy win.
07:08This has been a sloppy team for the last couple games.
07:10Yeah, it has, and you would expect them to be a little bit more buttoned up.
07:13You know, coming off the run that they had last year,
07:16you were bringing in most of the entire staff almost,
07:19so you felt they would be a little bit more buttoned up than this,
07:22and that hasn't been the case in the first two weeks here.
07:23It's funny.
07:24Tommy Curran, when he was on with us last week,
07:26he got very passionate about one thing other than the band Squeeze,
07:29which he likes inexplicably for some reason,
07:31but Tommy Curran.
07:32He's tempted by the fruit of another.
07:33He is tempted by the truth to discover.
07:35So Tommy Curran said that Drake just cannot stop himself
07:39from drifting to the right.
07:41He did it yesterday.
07:41Yes.
07:42He walked right into a T.J. Watsack.
07:44That should not have happened.
07:46He just drifts to the right, and you know what?
07:48I didn't even really notice how much he did it
07:51until Tommy Curran said it on Thursday, and he did it yesterday.
07:55That makes no sense to me why he's been doing this,
07:57because you didn't see that really last year.
07:59I didn't remember.
08:00As I said, it wasn't until he said it that I started noticing it.
08:03I don't think it was really a thing last year.
08:05I think that speaks to how comfortable he is in the pocket.
08:08He doesn't really look too comfortable,
08:10and I don't know what the result of that is.
08:11Maybe it's the postseason last year,
08:13where obviously he was under a ton of pressure.
08:15Is it not trusting the offensive line?
08:17I'm really not sure what's up with that,
08:18because there's been, even going back to week one,
08:21there were clean pockets that he's bailing out of,
08:23and I don't quite understand why.
08:25Okay, so we got to see, obviously, the offense didn't do so hot.
08:30I'm trying to figure out whether or not this defense is really as good
08:33as they've looked over the past couple of weeks,
08:35because, you know, once again,
08:36they went against a backup quarterback in Seattle,
08:39and Aaron Rodgers, who I keep saying,
08:41just didn't even look like he wanted to be there.
08:42Why is he still playing?
08:43I don't know.
08:44But I'm going to give him,
08:46I'm going to give that Steelers offense a little bit of credit,
08:49because, you know,
08:51he's smart enough to be able to get out of certain situations.
08:54You would think that he would, you know,
08:56be able to have the brain to play at least smart,
08:59not stupid football,
09:00and he had a couple stupid moves,
09:02but are you giving them the credit?
09:04Like, should we be praising them for what they've been able to do,
09:08or was it just that the offenses weren't as great as they're going to be coming up?
09:12I think both things can be true,
09:13and Mike Frabel admitted that pretty point blank this morning on the Greg Hill show,
09:19when he said, you know,
09:19this offense isn't the best we're going to see this year,
09:21but I also think they deserve a ton of credit,
09:23and particularly with their ability to pressure the quarterback.
09:26That was a big talking point throughout the summer,
09:29and even dating back to the spring,
09:30is where are you going to get your pressure
09:32when you're trying to get after the quarterback?
09:34They have six sacks through the first two games,
09:36six different players,
09:37and they've done that by blitzing.
09:38So the formula is there.
09:39They've figured out a way to blitz,
09:41and yesterday doing against, again,
09:43the Steelers offense, not very good,
09:44but you're doing it without Carlton Davis,
09:46because when you're a blitzing team like that,
09:48you kind of need to rely on your cornerbacks
09:50and your coverage team,
09:51and Christian Gonzalez obviously completely erased
09:53D.K. Metcalf from that game yesterday.
09:55So I think they deserve a ton of credit
09:57for how they've been able to figure out
09:59how to apply this pressure
10:01for a team that had so many question marks going into the year.
10:03Yeah, no question.
10:04And it's funny,
10:05we were talking about how
10:06it wasn't that the Patriots were maligned,
10:08their defense.
10:09It's just no one was really talking about them,
10:11because there wasn't a lot,
10:12other than Christian Gonzalez,
10:13no one was talking about the defense
10:15because there wasn't really much to talk about on paper.
10:17It was a lot about what's behind the starters,
10:19and if any of the starters get hurt.
10:21And that happened yesterday,
10:22where you look at Craig Woodson leaves the game.
10:24You know, you go down the line,
10:26Carlton Davis didn't even play.
10:28You go down the line of starters on the defense
10:30that weren't out there,
10:31and they were still able to do what they did
10:33against that Steelers offense.
10:34They deserve a ton of credit for it.
10:35Number one in football right now,
10:36eight points per game through two weeks.
10:38Here we go.
10:39Number one defense in the league.
10:40There you go.
10:40Not bad.
10:41Not bad.
10:42I honestly think,
10:43I mean, I was legitimately impressed yesterday.
10:45Like, that was awesome.
10:46I mean, listen,
10:47when you're,
10:48they're not going to be able to win games like that,
10:50especially against teams like the Bills.
10:51You're just not.
10:52I mean, your offense is going to have to start scoring some points.
10:54But that was such a,
10:58against Aaron Rodgers,
10:59it was such a wonderful way to watch them win.
11:01And this is,
11:01we talk about Drake May and his struggles
11:03in the postseason last year.
11:04This is carry over from what we saw
11:06in the defense in the postseason last year,
11:08where they were lights out for most of the playoffs.
11:10Great point.
11:11And they've carried that over now.
11:12And I give Zach Corrett's ton of credit.
11:14Obviously,
11:14was the DC for most of the season last year,
11:17took over in September for Terrell Williams.
11:19But the way that he has called this defense
11:21dating back to when he took over,
11:22I mean,
11:23I don't think it's talked about enough
11:24what he's been able to do for this team.
11:26That's a great part.
11:27Zach Corp.
11:27Zach Corp.
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