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00:00seeds if you will and i will say our our current guest is very high ranking
00:06mike giardi of the boston sports journal so mike i'm going to turn my back to bulldog and tell you
00:11that he's in here for the last five minutes blasting wilson contraris to me uh i i don't
00:17know i'm i'm a little bit weary from the last five minutes mike did you notice the play last night
00:24mike boston sports journal so i know we're here to talk patriots but early innings story makes like
00:30a diving play corrals the ball from his knees throws to first and contraris isn't there like
00:38he's running to the bag and catches the ball he gets to reach out to catch the ball he's not
00:43at
00:43first base and the game was still scoreless and i thought it was a really weird play that warranted
00:49some analysis from the broadcast crew and all he said was he wasn't there and i'm like well why
00:54what was he doing what what is happening oh this is happening again so so you know what that was
01:01that was uh contraris who was dealing with a hand injury also apparently had his head
01:06in his anal cavity okay that was part of it too great that was not on the injury report yeah
01:12i guess
01:13no no they they they tried to hide that so did he it was yeah right i guess so all
01:20right fair point
01:20interesting we can we can move on it just i thought it was a really it more than the mistake
01:25made it
01:26didn't result in anything the next player grounded out the inning was over and then we just went out
01:30with our lives but in the moment i'm like why wasn't he there and tim mccarver would still be
01:36talking about it right now if that had happened like how in the world are these people not addressing
01:40that the first baseman just decided not to cover first base bulldog there are only four of them in
01:45the booth i mean really yeah seriously can we have more people involved in the broadcast we we continue
01:51to think we need more people on these games no less is better less is more for sure uh well
01:58thank
01:58you for today mike mike giardi boston sports journal um i know we started with baseball can can you guys
02:04i i i don't want to be the guy that says they should change the format every year but is
02:11two
02:11out of three not impossibly short after a 162 game season they don't want to play into the snow you
02:17know the snowfall two out of three like 162 games for what houston boston cubs cubs like those were
02:26good the red sox had a historically good season with a 15 game winning streak and everything and then
02:33okay bye that's it so i don't know what you do to fix it i don't want to be changing
02:37it all the
02:38time but just seems impossibly short two out of three mike what do you think you have a thought
02:41on that well i would say that i'd say the smart thing to do would be to reduce the regular
02:45season
02:45by a handful of games and then you know because i kind of think it's sort of under the guise
02:50of a
02:50the weather issue that you you run into in october especially in the northeast but also you know
02:56quote unquote player safety don't want to blow guys out but yet you know they'll play 162 in the
03:01regular season because home dates mean money mean tv contracts etc so you know that's that's pro
03:09sports i think at its finest right there that's right the cubs and red sox that last series we
03:14were talking in here about they have to whatever they have to do to split up that double header they
03:19will do it i mean they wanted to move everything up but they had to make sure they could empty
03:23the
03:23stadium and refill it for the extra yeah the gate well mike i mean it was okay for it was
03:28okay for
03:29the yankees to have their last game scrub again this would not have changed the result don't get
03:32the yankees are a vastly superior team but like then the yankees get their last game scrub because
03:38of the weather in the northeast because that game didn't have any bearing in the playoffs and it's
03:41like oh so you made the red sox and cubs travel from boston to which the series got moved up
03:47to play
03:48a double header then fly to tampa bay at 11 o'clock at night and do that whole thing and
03:53the yankees get
03:53to sit there and put their feet up because well we're already in position so yes no change here
03:58we we get the rest of next day and the cubs and red sox both go winless you know from
04:03there as it
04:04happens well i mean hey mike uh they added hockey games this year too two extra hockey just what
04:10everybody wanted was more regular season hockey games so we have that up to 84 unbelievable right
04:16when the bruins uh faced off the other night i was like uh it's too early it's still september yeah
04:23it feels like we're yeah it feels like we're still a week and a half away from this yeah you
04:27know you've got it nailed down when the season starts too early and it ends too late that's
04:31really when you know you have it yes like that's a sweet spot so mike what is up with the
04:37patriots
04:38i mean i think a lot of people predicted regression but so far it seems to most it looks worse
04:43than they
04:43had expected is that true is that fair yeah how much time you got i mean we could like i
04:48could go on
04:49an epic uh rant that would probably go for 20 25 minutes here i know we can't do that we
04:54have that
04:54we have that if you have that we have that so obviously the big question you just look at drake
05:01may and there's been real regression you know the patriot fan will tell you well it's only three games
05:05but it's really been seven this has really started in the postseason last year the last good game he
05:10played from start to finish was the jets game the regular season finale and you know we you saw the
05:16jets team last year uh they stunk on wheat rye and pumpernickel that was a bad bad football team and
05:21the patriots treated them as such uh then they started playing playing the real teams
05:27and oh well they went through the top five defenses it was like a gauntlet that no one had ever
05:31seen
05:31before yeah that's great but he didn't play well then and you got exposed completely in the super
05:36bowl and now that's sort of carried over where uh some of the brain dead plays he's making
05:43uh just they're inexplainable you know like you just you look at him and go what what were you
05:47thinking and he can't even really tell you what he was thinking you know we've had people like are
05:53you practicing well is it the offense too simplistic you know it's just there's a million different
05:59things right now and i think he will bear the brunt of it because you're the quarterback and you
06:04nearly won the mvp last year but he's not the only one that's uh playing subpar football right now
06:10well we'll hopefully carve out some time here to get to everyone else but while we're on may
06:16mike what do you make of the there's two stories now that are sort of gaining momentum in the
06:23narrative world one is there's a shoulder problem uh that dates back to these playoffs you're
06:29referencing from last january uh in february and then there's the relationship between he and his
06:35head coach mike variable uh the shoulder story first because i know it's at least reached the
06:41point where mike variable is being asked about it at the podium um is it is that smoke is there
06:47something there how do you read that part of the story so the whole thing has been very interesting
06:52in the way it's evolved you know you mentioned the injury happened in the afc championship game
06:57against denver he needed to uh shoot up the shoulder to play in the super bowl although again i was
07:03told at
07:03the time and then told afterwards there was nothing structurally wrong with the shoulder now they
07:08could be bsing me and whatever he just was it was he was dealing with some pain and some stiffness
07:13and this was the best way to let him be uh what he had been for the better part of
07:17the year
07:18and then he had the entire off season we saw him never miss a day in the spring or summer
07:24he threw
07:25the ball very well this summer like this is the part of it i think i'm getting people like you
07:30guys
07:30told us he was ready to make the leap i'm like well if you watched him in the summer like
07:33we did
07:34every day you would have thought the same thing like he looked really good this summer not perfect
07:38but like more calm more confident delivering the ball with accuracy on time the whole thing right
07:44he's just like haven't couldn't have predicted this thing was going to happen and then now this week
07:49it's been the development like after the game is there something wrong with your shoulder a lot of
07:53words that he used to answer those questions didn't say yes he didn't say no next day on the radio
07:59same thing didn't say yes didn't say no yesterday we were in front of him and i said look this
08:05is a
08:05yes or no question i'm not trying to be a jerk but like can you is your shoulder affecting how
08:10you're
08:10throwing the ball and he said no he's and if you look at way i'm playing it's my decision making
08:17and
08:17that you know that had nothing to do with my shoulder but then joshy daniels the offense coordinator
08:22is like well i think he got dinged up in the game on sunday so you know like i don't
08:27know it's the
08:27first time he's been on the injury report uh this year but this came after people said he didn't
08:32think there was any issues and may said himself no definitively my shoulder is fine so i don't know
08:38i don't know if they're playing games i don't know if they're appeasing him because maybe he feels
08:42like he's on an island with this thing but whatever it is it is i can just tell you like
08:47even though
08:47he didn't play well against jacksonville he still ripped a handful of throws okay that if he had a
08:52shoulder problem he he couldn't do you know so that's the way i look at it okay and how about
08:57the relationship between the coach and the quarterback i saw the clip of vrabel with the
09:03weei guys seemingly begging them to ask him the right question so he could say it was a horrible
09:10decision or terrible or whatever whatever it was and i just thought yeah that's interesting i i i'm sure
09:15there's a method to that that vrabel i don't think he would just like half cock go off and you
09:20know
09:20verbally assault the quarterback like that on a radio show but that was kind of it was optically
09:26that was that was weird to me so i i say and they you know from all i can gather
09:32and from what i
09:32witnessed like he does like card coaching but this might be to the next level sort of hey you know
09:39i'm
09:39not protecting you here i mean you know and he said repeatedly like we got to coach it better the
09:44guys
09:44around i'm gonna do better like it's you know it's not just one guy but he's not exactly sugar
09:50coating the way the quarterback is playing and the decisions that he's making it's costing the
09:55team games i mean you if you watch the seattle game it wasn't a great game by the patriots offense
10:00but if he didn't implode in the final quarter they win the game and so now what kind of conversation
10:07are we having now if they go down to jacksonville and lose oh they're two and one and maybe the
10:11quarterback's not playing great but the two and one and they beat the defending champs who
10:15embarrassed them in the super bowl they beat them on their home field on the day that they brought up
10:19the banner you know so like it just i think the coach is really trying to hammer home brable is
10:24like our fate rides with your decision making you know like you can't you can't do some of the things
10:31you're doing we don't teach you to do these things and like you don't want to put the the guardrails
10:36on them and tell them you can't do some of the things that make him or made him last year
10:40i should
10:41say special but at the same time you guys probably you know not probably you went through this with josh
10:46like there's a certain element where you just got to let them play because that's what they are
10:49but you can't keep putting the fate of the football team and and ruining the fate of the football team
10:56early in the season with some of the choices that you're making because i mean some of them are
11:00inexplicable that's a good and the right point about how fickle it all is when you think about
11:05the seahawk game like that's the nfl right there is just i mean the the bills could have lost to
11:10houston easily they just got all the bounces turnover stuff and now it's two and one versus
11:15two and one if that happens and like it's just a different conversation um i was on with uh matt
11:21collard this morning purple insider on the vikings and we talked about may because they're coming here
11:26mike and he said you just can't make that throw that interception at the end of the game i said
11:32actually no quarterback makes that throw like i think i think you know that your whole life as a
11:38quarterback is to throw it away if under any duress even if you take a grounding penalty there
11:43so what i mean you're still you're going to kick that field goal and tie the game i mean it's
11:47easy
11:47to say from my couch but um yeah that was really surprising so in your one of the one of
11:54the yeah
11:54one of the things they keep saying they keep using the golf analogy and it wasn't just vrabel it's been
11:59mcdaniels as well it's like you know vrabel's point is he it's like he's almost squeezing the club
12:04too tightly and that's not you're not going to get better shots that way anybody who plays gone
12:08i'm a terrible golfer uh actually retired but like when i played like the more you want it
12:14is generally when it goes poorly you know like you just have to ease up a little bit and trust
12:19you're like he's aiming the ball more than he's throwing it you know there's these these things
12:24that sort of correlate there and um yeah it's just it's been it's been bad it's been bad and i
12:30would
12:31have said coming into this game because i don't all respect i don't necessarily love the bill's
12:36defense uh certainly not from a personnel standpoint as they sort of make this change to
12:40jim leonard but like i can't tell you that they're going to get right in this game the
12:45patriots are because i think the quarterback and the stuff around them just hasn't been good
12:49enough for me to think oh it's about to happen because it hasn't been about to happen yet
12:54mike bulldog shoots in the 70s i'll have you know 71 the other day 71 at the at the one
13:01of
13:01the easiest courses you could ever play in your life but i mean it's still whatever it's you know
13:05you're going to shoot your age someday i could do the 71 if i was playing like one of those
13:10short
13:12par threes okay you know i'd still be right yeah this isn't that maybe like on a good day maybe
13:16that's what it would have been you say you retired from golf oh yeah i just i you know i
13:22get to a
13:22point where if i can't figure out a way to get better at it it just became more frustrating
13:26than it was enjoyable so that that was that i can relate to that for sure uh mike giardi boston
13:32sports journal on the western hotline with us here bills and patriots on sunday at highmark
13:37stadium in orchard park how about josh mcdaniels's role in all of this there's there's some that i'm
13:43reading and hearing about excuse me that are getting after his inability to change from the first half to
13:51the second half and then it's maybe become a little predictable i don't know is there is there
13:56a leg to stand on on that point so they're definitely more simplistic than you would like
14:04them to be or that you're accustomed to uh a josh mcdaniels offense being however like i said it
14:12there's a whole number of things that are going into this right now not the least of which is like
14:16their protection's been really bad they were almost at 60 pressure rate uh against jacksonville
14:22and like i like jacksonville's defense they might actually end up being like a top seven top eight
14:26defense but that pressure rate is unsustainable and there's a lot of like quick stuff too so
14:32you know when you're quarterback when you're right guard which was a massive problem for them
14:36and you know there'll be a new right this week um when they're giving up quick pressures three or
14:42four times the second into the snap the whole play goes to you know what like i don't you know
14:46there's
14:47there's no formula for that that's not what the play was designed to do but that's what's happening
14:51right tackle was a disaster against jacksonville but the week prior was the center against
14:56against pittsburgh the week against seattle it was the left guard so it's it's always something
15:01different and so i asked josh today i'm just like hey is there you feel handcuffed almost because you
15:08really don't know where the leak is going to spring next it's like you can't really coach that way it's
15:13not fair to the guys but you know i think it was pretty clear like there's some things we can't
15:17do
15:18right now because we're just not getting good execution across the board it never gets enough
15:23play this point in in football discourse but it's so true look at the packers right now like yeah they
15:31just can't their quarterback is good he just can't get the ball off uh we had the chargers last week
15:37mike and this is kind of their story and i don't know is justin herbert bad all of a sudden
15:42or is
15:43it just that the pressure physically mentally psychologically just all sort of compounds and
15:49you know you become a player that looks like you just have never played before like it just it
15:54becomes so discombobulated so it's so it's so true i would just like go back to me quickly like
16:00he's hesitating more in the pocket than i remember him even doing as a rookie and you remember that team
16:07was awful and it was poorly coached and the whole nine yards but like he he doesn't trust what he's
16:13seeing defensively but he also doesn't trust that my protection is going to hold up or that my wide
16:19receivers are going to read in the right place and you know that just compounds sort of the i gotta
16:24see
16:24it now before i throw it and you know if you try to see it before you throw it for
16:28too long in this
16:28league that's when you make mistakes because the other guys see it too they step in front of the pass
16:33and
16:33well there you go mike you said you made a comment about the bills defense i'm not sure we disagree
16:38with you about that like okay they haven't been they haven't been strong uh last week was better
16:44but really right not the first two games they got they got big plays at important moments like sacks
16:51that help them get stops and get off the field but and detroit can do that to anybody but houston
16:56maybe not and so yeah it's it's a work in progress for sure i just wonder if may it's only
17:02a few
17:02games but i mean thinking of last year he won here and then the game in foxborough the bills came
17:08back
17:08but it was the game in the 30s is there maybe in your mind some or has he said it
17:13is there some
17:14element which is kind of like counterintuitive when it comes to playing the bills for a lot a lot of
17:19teams but maybe it's a sort of a to put it one way kind of a happy place for him
17:24and the matchup
17:25isn't so bad and the spread seems to think new england is very live in this game i mean it
17:31came down
17:31under seven today so um it's not like this is expected to be a blowout or anything yeah i'm just
17:39at the point with them but like i said i gotta i gotta see it now before i believe it
17:42rabel's big
17:43thing last year with the team you know kept saying to them like do you got to trust me believe
17:50it
17:50before we see it but you'll venture obviously they did see it uh they won in buffalo to win on
17:56win 16 of 17 games i'm trying you try to take that sort of approach but i'm just watching them
18:03i mean it's 20 three games again good defenses but 29 points in three games and no touchdowns last week
18:11you know 13 points against the steelers whose offense was putrid in that game uh and you had
18:16multiple on that we just i i think nope mike if you can hear me we're having a tough time
18:28with
18:28your connection so um unless we can sort of grab you back really fast we'll probably have to wrap
18:33uh but always a great conversation with him indeed yeah we didn't talk about the spread yet but it
18:39did tick down oh yeah six and a half i think zach's efforting to get him back i at least
18:44wanted to ask
18:44him what the status of the stat of the status of the defense is like i like that i've seen
18:49some
18:49numbers that it's been pretty good but i mean they did give up 35 points last week to jacksonville so
18:54um i don't know how good it certainly wasn't good last week i would assume um but we'll see i
19:00think
19:00maybe we'll be able to get him back here or i don't know maybe not it's always fun watching your
19:06producers see if they're talking to the person on the phone that's a sign that like this is gonna
19:12come back together here um and i'm out of things to say so what's your gut feeling about this game
19:20um i'm i'm mike is back um i'll ask you again later then yeah or we can we can talk
19:26about it in a
19:27second mike in the time we've got left what what's going on defensively i've seen some you know
19:32reasonably encouraging things but 35 points last week obviously not not so great i mean they just got
19:40out schemed uh by liam cohen red zone stuff you know that five trips to the red zone five touchdowns
19:45and one of them obviously was on a super short field after made through the interception um
19:50gonzalez has played well he's here's maybe this is going to be a question mark he didn't practice
19:55again or at least wasn't practicing uh again today for the second straight day he hurt his shoulder
20:00early in the game against jacksonville but stayed in the game um so that's a little bit of a concern
20:05the you know they have a ton of money invested in the interior in milton williams and christian
20:10barmore barmore is a spotty player you know sometimes he's great sometimes he's not williams
20:15has was awesome last year for them williams is getting double teamed a ton now so he's sort of
20:20graduated to that level where he's getting treated like jeffrey simmons or chris jones or aaron donald
20:25and he hasn't yet figured out how to win first that and like i said barmore uh some of the
20:33other
20:33guys in the interior are just getting pushed around and that's that's a problem when you've
20:37invested that many resources and that was a generally a real strength to you last year
20:42are you guessing that both christians play sunday or maybe not what do you think
20:49um yeah it's a good question he told us uh after the game that he was fine but obviously that's
20:54not
20:54the case um my guess is just based on his familiarity with the system and his overall importance to what
21:01they do he still might end up being a game time okay um you know i think they understand yeah
21:09i
21:09think they understand the the importance of the game it's a must win but you know you don't want
21:16to be one and three and dig yourself a deeper hole in the division as well right thank you mike
21:21always a pleasure uh are you coming up sunday i'm guessing yes i unfortunately know when my boss
21:27are alternating this year so i am sad that i do not get to see the new stadium this season
21:31i'll
21:31have to make sure next year that i do but i was in jacksonville and let me tell you something
21:36after how that trip went uh coming back to get home i'm not all that sad i don't have to
21:42get on a
21:42plane this weekend uh-oh all right well little planes trains and automobiles for you last weekend
21:48yeah all right too bad thank you mike talk again soon bye-bye yeah mike giardi boston sports journal
21:55i feel very much the way i felt last week about a team in a damaged state coming in and
22:04going into
22:05the year i certainly expected new england to be more of a threat than even the chargers so you know
22:11i feel a little somewhat cautious but my overriding feeling i think i said this right away on monday as
22:18we started talking about this game i can't let i can't let this team get well against me like the
22:24if it had happened with the chargers okay conference wise tiebreaker whatever this is the team that took
22:31the division from you last year and they are damaged coming in here if not physically with these injuries
22:38that we just talked about on defense but mentally emotionally it seems like a very fragile
22:43situation and i just i need the bills to find a way to keep their foot on they haven't done
22:49anything
22:49to the patriots yet but it feels like they've got their their foot on their necks and i can't let
22:54them
22:54up i can't let them get well against me the stakes are very big like the one seed the division
23:01all of it
23:02is a huge step forward if the bills keep them you know at bay if they let them back through
23:09the door
23:09i i think you know we'll be having a race all season maybe six interceptions against one touchdown pass
23:16for may through three games we'll have more on bills patriots with sal capaccio at five the sabers
23:22season starts tonight travis yost in just over an hour we'll talk more about their season to come
23:29and their opener in columbus as we continue 803 05 50 for us mike show up in the bulldog wgr