- 4 weeks ago
The Boston Globe’s Chris Price joined Christian Arcand to preview the Patriots matchup against Las Vegas at Gillette Stadium this Sunday. They talked about the morale boost for the Pats coming off the big win against Buffalo, how the team will work around the injuries on Sunday, how the NFL is better when the Raiders are good, and more.
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00:00by our guy Chris Price at the Boston Globe,
00:02who joins us here on the Christian Arcand Show.
00:04Chris Price, did Tom Cochran have any other hits?
00:08No.
00:09No, he didn't.
00:10Just that one.
00:10When you write a song like that, though, man,
00:12you don't need to have any other hits.
00:14He probably licensed the thing to cars.
00:16There have been guys who have remade it.
00:18I mean, give me a break.
00:19The guy's not going to have to work another day in his life.
00:21Absolutely.
00:21That's the American dream, isn't it?
00:22Oh, it certainly is.
00:23No question.
00:23I'd like to do one good thing and get paid for it for the rest of my life.
00:26But I've got to do one good thing first, Chris.
00:28That's the difference.
00:29I hear you.
00:30I hear you.
00:30I'm way behind on that ledger.
00:33Great to have you on here, and great to be talking with you
00:35now that there's an actual season to talk about
00:37and this team started looking like a real football team.
00:40As you saw it here going into that Buffalo game,
00:44where was kind of morale in the locker room at that point,
00:47and how much of a boost did that win give to that room?
00:51I think morale was okay.
00:52I do think it was maybe teetering a little bit.
00:55I'll say that.
00:56But, yeah, after the Buffalo game, after being able to go on the road,
01:00win a divisional game against a team that you're probably going to be battling
01:04for divisional supremacy all year long, it's a great win on a number of levels.
01:09It not only restores the confidence in the locker room,
01:13it restores maybe a level of equanimity to the divisional race.
01:18If they lost, they were going to be three games behind here in mid-October,
01:23and so you never want to do that if your first and primary goal was to win the division.
01:28So, yeah, I think it papered over some of the deficiencies.
01:31I think there's still some questions with this team moving forward,
01:33primarily depth, and we can get into those in a bit.
01:36But, yeah, it was a good win for this team on a number of levels.
01:38Yeah, certainly.
01:39I thought that for Mike Vrabel in particular, a lot of the glory went to Drake May for that great
01:45drive
01:46and the defense for playing without a couple of key guys there who are also going to be out this
01:51week,
01:51it looks like, too, so we'll get to that.
01:52But I thought for Vrabel, just the aggressive decisions and sort of putting himself out there
01:58and having it work like that, he needed that just as much as anybody else, wouldn't you say?
02:03Yeah, I agree with you there.
02:05Look, it was getting, again, I don't want to say the morale was low,
02:09but this was a team and a coach that needed a win.
02:11It needed a big win on the road.
02:13They saw their opportunity.
02:14They went and they took it, and it's going to be interesting to see the way the rest of the
02:17season plays out in the division
02:20because, again, now you're only a game back of the Bills.
02:23You do have, at least right now in this moment, you have the tiebreaker on the Bills,
02:27and so you've kind of, you know, you're back on track here a little bit.
02:31But both the coach, the quarterback, and the rest of the roster, they're pointing in the right direction again.
02:35Now it's just a matter of stacking days and putting some wins together
02:38and kind of starting to feel even better about yourself.
02:40Good, and I hope that is exactly what we see here.
02:42I hope that the Raiders, a team that surprised a lot of people here, Chris,
02:46in the first three weeks, even had a good showing in that loss against the Chiefs,
02:51a team that for years and years now has really just been kind of a punchline.
02:55Do they have something going there, or was that just kind of a fluky first month?
03:00I think probably some of column A and some of column B.
03:03How about that for right in the fence here?
03:04I think that the takeaways, which they're really good at,
03:11I'm always a little dubious when, you know, you kind of build your house on that
03:15because a lot of it is fluke, a lot of it is luck, a lot of it is just kind
03:19of happenstance.
03:19So I think you start with that.
03:22That being said, they're getting the takeaways.
03:24They're getting big takeaways in big moments.
03:26And so I think in the short term, they were able to kind of put some wins together.
03:31And, you know, we talked about building confidence and talked about, you know,
03:34kind of gaining momentum.
03:36That's what the Raiders have done.
03:38And so you like what you've seen from them on both sides of the ball.
03:41They don't have a really deep, wide receiver room.
03:43And I think that's going to, you know, ultimately may be their downfall this week,
03:47even going up against a New England team that's going to be pulling guys out of the stands
03:50to play cornerback.
03:51But I think that they've done really well.
03:52I think that they've surpassed expectations and I'm fascinated to see how the development,
03:59the move, when it's going to happen, it's obviously, I don't think it's going to happen
04:02this week, but when they move to Mendoza, as opposed to Cousins, I think Cousins has done
04:06a very good job getting the ball in the hands of guys like Brock Bowers and kind of being
04:10very smart and very sensible when it comes to the offense.
04:12Max Crosby, obviously on the other side of the ball is a tremendous ball player.
04:15So they've had some really good success early.
04:18And so, you know, I don't think it's necessarily going to translate to a playoff spot, but,
04:25you know, you got to walk before you run in the National Football League.
04:27And it appears that the Raiders have kind of started a little bit of a turnaround here.
04:31Yeah, certainly looks that way.
04:32And honestly, it's a good thing.
04:33You know, it's a Raiders team.
04:34That's a team with, it used to anyway, like, is it good for the NFL if the Raiders are good?
04:39I know there was a time where it definitely would have been, but they've moved around so much.
04:42Is there even, like, is there even that kind of a fan base for them anymore?
04:46Yes.
04:47The NFL is better when the Raiders are relevant.
04:50I'll put it that way.
04:51When the Raiders matter, the National Football League is better as a whole.
04:54And also, two men, how can you, and we got to talk about this.
04:58This is going to be the best uniform matchup of the year if you're a New England fan.
05:01You're getting the Reds, you're getting the Pat Patriots, you know, the Pat Patriot throwbacks
05:05with the Raiders in their classic AFL look.
05:08They're not doing throwbacks, but the Raiders have always had, like, a nice classic clean look.
05:11And so, yeah, ultimately, to answer your question, I know it's kind of a long-winded way to say it,
05:15the NFL is better when teams like the Raiders are relevant again.
05:19And the Raiders are relevant again, and I think that makes the league better as a whole.
05:22Certainly.
05:22The Patriots are better when they have their secondary playing, and this weekend they're not going to.
05:26They're going to have anybody.
05:27Gonzalez is out.
05:28Davis is out.
05:29Prunty's out.
05:30The backups, Channing Canada's out.
05:32You have Charles Woods, questionable.
05:34Who's going to play corner this week, other than Marcus Jones?
05:38It's going to be Marcus Jones, probably in the slot, maybe on the boundary.
05:42But you're going to see Woods.
05:43You're going to see Kendall Vildor, who's a really interesting guy.
05:46Honestly, I didn't know much about him before the start of the season.
05:49This is a guy who's been around for a while.
05:50He's played a lot of football.
05:52And he had a pretty good summer.
05:54Not a great summer, but a pretty good summer with the opportunities that he was given.
05:58And so you're going to have to turn to those guys.
06:00I do think that, again, the Vegas offense has, I think, surpassed expectations.
06:08But again, they're not really deep at the wide receiver position.
06:11And so I think that's going to kind of work in the Patriots' favor a little bit.
06:14You also have a couple of safeties who are really good when it comes to coverage work,
06:18and Craig Woodson and Kevin Byard.
06:20I think Byard's going to do the majority of the work against Brock Bowers.
06:23But I wouldn't be surprised to see maybe a little bit of a three-safety set coming into this game
06:28because Jalen Reid, I think, has played well so far.
06:30I think there's still room to progress within the New England system.
06:34But I can see a scenario where you're seeing a lot of Jalen Reid out there working in coverage.
06:38I can see, and Vrabel even talked about it today, the possibility of some big nickel work.
06:43And so you can lean on the safeties and their coverage skills a little bit more in this game
06:48than you would in a normal game when you had your full complemented defensive backs.
06:53Did that Buffalo game make you feel a little not good about the Hollins being out,
06:57but maybe a little bit better knowing that other guys are contributing
07:01and the Hollins isn't taking on the onus of that entire offense like he was for the first two, three
07:06weeks there?
07:07Yeah, man. It's the Efton Chisholm show, baby.
07:09This is, you know, buy all the Efton Chisholm stock.
07:12I wish you could have bought all the Efton Chisholm stock you could at the beginning of the year this
07:16year.
07:16I couldn't. Meggo bought it all up. There was none left for me.
07:19Meggo bought it all.
07:20There you go. Exactly. Exactly.
07:22So, yeah, I mean, this is, it is good to see guys, you know, emerge over the course of the
07:29year
07:30because you're going to need that.
07:31Look, they got really lucky last year with health.
07:33You know, we can talk about the schedule, but they got really lucky last year with health.
07:36You're never going to have a year like that really ever again.
07:39And I know they had guys go down, but so many of the core guys were able to play 12,
07:4413, 14, 15, 16, 17 games.
07:46And so I think that was the basis for a lot of their success.
07:50And so when you see Matt Collins go down, you're able to count on a performance like you had last
07:56week from Efton Chisholm.
07:57You're going to need to see the middle class of this roster continue to step up and assert itself as
08:03these injuries keep coming.
08:05Now, you win a game and you get through another week and, you know, you cross another day off the
08:09calendar and you get a little closer to A.G. Brown.
08:11And so, you know, you'd like to also think that, hey, maybe, you know, somewhere out there you can get,
08:16you know, Christian Gonzalez back.
08:17And so you need to just kind of figure a way at, you know, around these weeks where you don't
08:22have a full complement of stars on the roster.
08:24It's good, and we referenced this before, that you're not exactly playing, you know, the Chiefs.
08:30For lack of a better idea, you know, the Seahawks or something this week.
08:34You know, the scheduling kind of a little bit worked out in favor.
08:36But, yeah, I mean, this is going to be one of those weeks where you're going to need to see
08:40someone like Efton Chisholm assert himself again because of the injuries they've had across the board.
08:46May, with the turnovers, even in the wins, it's still a bit of an issue.
08:49Is that something that you see clearing up this year?
08:52Is that something that over time is going to get better?
08:55I mean, I think a lot of fans are concerned.
08:58Even in games where you look good, it still becomes a problem.
09:01And if you're going up against a better offense, then, you know, that could be a big mistake that ends
09:06up costing you.
09:06Is that something that I guess the team is still looking at with the same kind of intensity maybe that
09:13they were last week?
09:15Clip this one in the short term.
09:16If Drake May does not turn the ball over this week, the Patriots are going to win the game.
09:21So that's a short-term guarantee for you.
09:23Long-term.
09:24And if he does, they're going to lose?
09:25Is that the other part of that?
09:26No, no, no, no.
09:27I know.
09:28I'm not saying that.
09:29And I'll say this too, last week, and I brought this up with a couple other people.
09:33I know that turnovers are a thing, and as brilliant as he's been over the course of his short career,
09:38it's still an issue for him.
09:40Now, last week, those two turnovers, I don't put those on him, even though he was the guy who had
09:45the ball.
09:45You know, there was the fluky pass to Dobbs that was kind of tipped up in the air, and on
09:51the sack when he fumbled, I think it was the fault of the offensive line.
09:54So, look, we can argue, you know, semantics on these, but again, I do think turnovers have been a problem
10:00for him.
10:01He needs to be able to do a better job taking care of the football if the Patriots want to
10:05get to where they want to be, ultimately.
10:07I always come back to the same thing at the end of the day, Christian, and I talked about it
10:10this week on my podcast with Chris Hogan.
10:12It's tough to remember sometimes that he's 24.
10:15Yeah.
10:15He's one of the youngest starting quarterbacks in the national football.
10:18Again, I'm not making excuses for him, and I know he wouldn't want people to make excuses for him because
10:22that's just life in the big city.
10:24You know, you're the quarterback, you get too much of the credit, you get too much of the blame.
10:27But at the end of the day, he's going to, he's going to, I almost said the wrong thing here
10:34on terrestrial radio, so he's going to poop himself sometimes.
10:38You know, he's just, he's going to struggle.
10:41He's going to have games like that, and the question is, can he minimize that?
10:45Look, ultimately, if he's 34 and he's turning the ball over at the same rate, I would be much more
10:51concerned.
10:51But he's 24, he needs to figure it out, though.
10:55He needs to find a way to hold on to the football, he needs to do a better job, being
10:59more consistent, and not giving the ball away, putting his team in danger.
11:03Before we let you go here, Chris, were you on the beat in 0-1?
11:06I remember you back in that era, but I don't know if you go all the way back to 0
11:09-1, I couldn't remember.
11:10Yes, I was.
11:12You were.
11:12That was my first game.
11:13Christian, man, I'll say this, hand to God, I swear this to be true, the first game I covered was
11:19when Mo Lewis knocked through Bledsoe.
11:21Really?
11:22I was just in the right train station.
11:25When the right train came through, I was standing on the right platform, and I've been on that train for
11:29the last 25 years, man.
11:31Yeah, I was there.
11:31It was remarkable.
11:33It was an unbelievable season.
11:36I was in the room when Bill came in and said, look, you know, we're going with Tom the rest
11:40of the year.
11:41I was in the locker room after the Jets game.
11:43I was in the locker room after the Super Bowl.
11:45It was, and this is, you know, I know I'm going to make Drake mad.
11:50Drake may mad when I say this, but it was like being present for the moon landing when the Patriots
11:55won the Super Bowl.
11:56It really was, man.
11:57It was the most weird, surreal, unbelievable experience that I, as a reporter, had ever had.
12:04To be able to see what that team did that year to go from the 1-2 start and the
12:12uncertainty at quarterback and Brady's emergence and the way the defense played, it was unbelievable.
12:18It was an absolutely magical year.
12:20Every reporter should be lucky enough to cover a team like that over the course of their journalism career because
12:26it was such an amazing year with so many amazing stories, and it was so much fun to cover.
12:31Absolutely, and when you say it was like the moon landing, you mean it was like being on a Hollywood
12:34soundstage while Stanley Kubrick directed actors to pretend they were on the moon is what you mean by that, right?
12:39Yes, and then Stanley Kubrick says, cut, and all the astronauts take their helmets off and walk off and go
12:45to lunch.
12:45Go smoke a cigarette and just walk away.
12:47That's how I remember it, too.
12:49Chris Price, great stuff.
12:51Always good to talk with you, and we'll talk to you again soon, all right?
12:54I appreciate it, Christian.
12:55Take care.
12:55Talk soon.