Will the Patriots go down fighting? | Quick Slants

On the latest episode of Quick Slants, Andrew Callahan joins Tom E. Curran to discuss the loss to the Chiefs, how injuries have impacted the season and the Patriots’ newest QB, Nathan Rourke. Plus, Chris Berman stops by to discuss the future of Bill Belichick.

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Quick slance is presented by your local New England Honda Dealers what’s up ladies and gentlemen go down fighting well that’s what you would hope from the 2023 Patriots but are they doing that there have been Oodles of low points so far for this 2023 Patriots team but Sunday we kind of saw a new one I get the logic

Bill Bellic used in punting all those times in the fourth quarter but at this point I mean what do you got to lose meanwhile the game closes against Kansas city with Andy Reed and the Chiefs taking Mercy knees inside the five and giving the ball back to the Patriots to

Close close it out there’s an upside in April to losing now but the way some of these losses go down very tough to swallow almost leaves you feeling a little bit Grinchy here’s the game plan for today’s program too much pain injuries how much of a role have they

Played the waiting game if and when there’s a decision on Bill bich how long is it going to take Nathan For You Patriots have a new quarterback and Chris Boomer Burman will join us for the SE block all right uh first before we get to Quick fire let’s bring in Andrew

Call and Andrew what was your take on the way things closed on Sunday it was put to me like this it looked like the chiefs were finishing with a nice 4 foot putt uh and as far as the Patriots side goes it’s a little shocking and it still feels that way

Even though they’re 3 and 11 because for so long as you know this was a franchise of No Excuses this was the team that didn’t quit down 28 to3 or when Tom Brady gets hurt in week 1 of 2008 and they march on to 115 season but this was

A team that quit with four minutes left down two scores that’s enough time yeah you’re at the the one but what do you have to lose you take a safety you give up a touchdown you’re already down multiple scores go down fighting and they didn’t yeah it was eye opening in

So many ways um we’re going to get into that and we’re going to get into the injuries but time now for quickfire it’s presented by your local New England Honda dealers here’s bill bich when asked about Cole strange who the team lost in the second half yeah it’s tough to lose him it’s

Tough to lose Conor it’s tough to lose hunter um so you know kind of the end there we were not I say didn’t feel like we were able to you know do probably what we should have done that situation at the end of the game I’m talking about so there’s your explanation and

Are the Patriots too hurt to be good are injuries the root cause of the 3 and 11 season it’s interesting before we go to you Andrew I want I want to just make this point these Patriots as you point out have always been about being a next

Man up team and this is a a tweet from uh Man games lost excuse me and if you look at that you can see the New England Patriots that big bubble at the top they are the fifth most Man games lost from 2009 to 2022 obviously the most wins over the

Course of that time and the size of the bubble well that’s relative to the quality of the players lost so they lost the best players for the fifth most games and they still won the most Andrew is the root cause injuries no I mean let’s go back to the preseason you

And I were batting around hey there might be 8 n they could be 9 and8 you come in with 11- six and look like a crazy person because that’s just the roster Talent they had in addition to the hardest schedule in the league and even if you want to put this all on

Injuries that would be fair I would question you this though why is Bill bich still operating as he did in 2009 before we had Sports Science before you could measure how many miles guys are running in practice in the exact severity of these these injuries because

You look at the teams at the top in the AFC Kansas City Buffalo they give their veterans time off rest days from practice the Eagles do the same thing in the NFC I think they’ve just been stuck in certain ways and I’m not confront of the reality whether it’s the talent

Level on their roster or how they treat that talent that just compounds their issue some of it’s absolutely bad luck but in other areas you should have done better yeah and I mean when you look at a injury to Mike and wenu that he had a surgery on or Cole strange who happened

In training camp you can’t avoid that but taquon Thornton who’s slightly built or Riley Reef or a Calvin Anderson Riley Reef in particular who’s at the end and you’re counting on him to be the right tackle with Trent Brown on the other side both having injury and absence

Issues over the course of their career it’s tough to bet on those guys but we do have voices who say that bill bellich head coach he more than still has it meanwhile Will Greer was signed away from the Patriots and the Patriots in turn have now signed Nathan RoR welcome

Mr RoR what has he done well in the Canadian Football League he was outstanding in 2022 look at those numbers 3349 25 and 10 he can scoot a little bit not big but he now becomes the sixth quarterback is that eight eight oh boy eight eighth quarterback on

The roster since the beginning of the off season Andrew this uh player that we would actually have to learn the name of and pay attention to going forward perhaps no uh Nathan RoR also tell me if I’m wrong sounds like a failed presidential candidate from the 1800s like this guy

Could have been in any black and white head shot maybe on a dollar bill had he actually won but no I mean if you go back to the beginning of the Season Tom and I’m telling you hey you know week 15 week 16 we’re talking about Nathan Ro

Here for the Patriots how did we get here you would have said M Jones got kidnapped Bailey zappy went missing that’s the only way you explain Nathan War being in New England and someone who’s the topic of a show in the first eight minutes because that’s how bad

It’s been and what’s actually happened is probably worse with how broken ma Jones has been bil he’s Happ he’s been fine he’s a backup but like this is I mean come on yeah it’s going to be interesting to see if anything does befall bayy zappy at some point in

Effectiveness or injury is M Jones the guy back in you’d almost have to bet on that can’t put Nathan Mor in there he just got here meanwhile speaking of quarterbacks here’s Tom Brady talking about the Garder muu throw that resulted in a suspension for the rest of the season for the Pittsburgh Steels

Defenders nobody likes seeing players get hurt but hard hits happen quarterback should not be throwing the ball in areas where they are exposing their own teammates to these types of hits it goes on Andrew I used to ask Tom Brady about this because he had receivers especially Wes Welker who were

Being put In Harm’s Way on a regular basis the seam throw a grunk dangerous throw and he would always talk about the responsibility lying with him to protect them what are your thoughts on Brady first of all he got crusty so fast I these are comments that should be from a

5767 year old quarterback not one who just just got out of the league but I think the larger point is I’m glad he’s being open and honest about this because he’s about to make the amount of money that is in the GDP of a small world

Country for the next 13 years being a commentator from Fox in order to keep that job you need to say interesting things insightful things not whitewashed sanitized team approved PR statements Tom was a best quarterback of all time one of the worst at the podium that’s

Fine it’s how he did his business but now that you’re in the media business it’s time to start talking like this he was not one of the worst at the podium oh my Tom Tom come on it was the only thing he was bad at are you kidding all

Right we’ll go over that more on the Break um time now for from the stands because we want to hear from you guys our poll results are presented by Shaw perfecting the art of fresh I asked a simple question how much did injuries enter into the evaluation of this disastrous

Season what that 85% of people saying either no excuse for it or a little but not much here’s the comments streaming in starting with our guy Dan aler they were one and three with a healthy junon and Gonzalez they would have been 0 and4 if Rogers hadn’t torn his Achilles good

Point by you Danny the injuries haven’t helped but this team was going to be bad even with perfect health I do disagree a little bit Paul meski the legend my guy isn’t it BB that always says we got to play the guys we have promoting how much

Depth he has on the roster you can’t have it both ways Bill next up Dan Woods injuries ruin the season offensive line early he not inaccurate then the defense defense has been fine Joe though uh and the Patriots lost eight of 11 by one score most of it was one

Play rag who was hurt when they got destroyed by Dallas in New Orleans excellent point excellent question because those guys were on the field you know to me it does trace back to the Cole strange injury and the Mike and wenu surgery that’s where it started because the offensive line was not five

Fingers in a glove and that prevented the meager wide receiver group and the tight ends from flourishing yeah here’s the thing though the issue was the best offensive tackle they signed was Riley reef and Riley Reef got moved after three practices and none of them were

Padded they knew they had bad Goods in him and Calvin Anderson’s injury was bad luck but if Riley Reef comes back and you know hey he’s not Riley Reef he’s Mike mcglinchy there’s no kind of we need to mix and match and move Mike on

Weno over it’s just Mike mcin is back he plays right tackle and all the dominoes fall into line to the left of him and they have at least a defense decent offensive line but the talent wasn’t good that’s still the biggest issue never mind the jacobe Meyers and perhaps

Even the DeAndre Hopkins conversation on the wound Tom I know I know coming back after the break uh we’re not going to make it that much Rosier stay tuned growth potential brought to you by Dr Matthew the pressy look younger feel younger get your hair back with Leonard hair transplant Associates here’s Ian

Raport NFL media speaking about what will happen at the end of the year with Bill bich he says that while the expectation is that a decision on his future will play out over the next month sources also say it could take longer than that either way expect the

Period of evaluation when the regular season ends with no immediate conclusion on Bill Bill bich coming okay it’s time for my SL ladies and gentlemen out um here’s the issue with that as I reported last week a decision’s been made and to come off of the decision the Patriots

Have made they would need some resounding results from bill bich over the final four weeks they have not gotten them beginning with the Kansas City Chiefs I’m not sure how much more digging bill bellich can do to extract himself how many allowances can he make to perhaps

Return if he decides that he’s wants to have less GM opportunity or GM responsibilities we’ll see but the bottom line is when the season ends if the Patriots are going to stand on Bill bich and make a bidding war emerge that’s not going to help the team very

Much you know say they end up extracting a second round pick from the Los Angeles Chargers in exchange for Bill bich but it takes three weeks for that to happen that’s three weeks less that the new head coach has to prepare the team three weeks less that there is a Personnel

Department with a clearly defined vision for 2024 there’s the third most cap space in the NFL in the Patriots back pocket coming up this offseason there are oodles of expiring contracts among valuable players that they have to decide whether or not they’re going to bring them back or not and yeah there’s

A top two pick the Patriots are going to have to start scouting and making decisions on foot dragging for compensation it’s not the way to go it is not the way to go Andrew Callahan jump in here how wet am I behind the years on this yeah look I’m on your TV

Show I backed your reporting last week of my own podcast so I’m not going to go against you here but not for anything that Ian has said because I would believe him Ian’s done a lot more reporting than probably I will ever do and has talked to people in the building

For over a decade but I think of bich che’s tenure at the end like this you go to college for four years right okay you need to get your GPA up a certain level in order to graduate and here we are at the end of year four and you say hey

I’ll nail a couple of quizzes right at the end but how much is that going to do to sway your GPA which for bich to review is a below 500 record since Tom Brady left zero playoff wins one playoff appearance and that goes back over a 5year stretch like if we accept that

These results are going to be meaningful over the end and these quizzes can actually turn around his GPA I would say okay well the first quiz was bad because that was a 27 to7 game that if the Chiefs just didn’t kneel out okay could have been much worse or if Patrick

Mahomes doesn’t throw to cadarius Tony who’s the most giving receiver in the league tossing pick Sixers around like anybody else this is a much worse result for the Patriots and I I I just don’t I just don’t see it yeah and to me what’s alarming is the possible foot dragging

At the end of the year because if they do that and it gets messy or it gets difficult then you’re in a situation where it’s starting to make one really bad season perhaps leak into two your thoughts on that yeah and as far as that

Goes I just look at this again and go how much more do you need to see I mean I think you can make a decision whatever the GPA is is not getting changed at this late stage whatever the season is whatever this roster is is not going to

Be changed so you might as well start looking at candidates behind the scenes and back channeling if you’re the crafts and if you’re bellich looking at other options through your agent to say hey what’s uh what’s going on in Washington how much might the Chargers pay me those

Conversations should be had by other people who are not directly involved so that when this end of the season meeting happens between craft and bich they can hit the ground running because like you said that they can’t waste any time this is going to be a full teror down in Fox

Bro and and the notion I think that is starting to seep forth is that people are surprised Robert Craft has been saber rattling for three years meanwhile some of the coordinators spoke today Bill O’Brien among them Bill talking about any chance M Jones reemerges I think everybody’s got to be

Ready to play especially in the situation that we’re in I really do I I think that everybody has to be ready to go um you know anybody that’s on the 53 man roster uh really has to go out on the practice field and practice well and and

Earn earn earn a shot to play and that’s whether you’re a quarterback wide receiver tight end running back or offensive lineman so I I definitely and you know I know that you’ve heard that from Bill but that that’s the truth like you you have to be ready to go because

If you practice really well you’re you’re you’re going to have a real shot to play so as always Tom uh the conversation about M Jones is really about Bailey zappy because what BR O’Brien is saying right there is that bile zapp’s not played well enough where

We can’t bench him so stay ready because Mack you could be back right after we’re done coming up at 6:30 tuned in for our Bella Early Edition with try try Casey we’ll have much more on where the Patriots stand after their L to the Chiefs time now for a little Chris

Burman conversation Vis the Patriots how jarring is it to see the difficulties this team is having this year under Bill well I mean just as a fan let alone someone that that knows all the particular well not all the particulars but that that follows the Patriots like

We all do very jarring because well how do you allow a team 10 points last series the middle of the season and lose all the games so it’s not like okay nothing is working it’s not like the old oh we they have good defense I agree I wouldn’t eight and n n

And eight I mean we all were in the same boat right Tom so going into the season it’s jarring because he’s won what’s the number 332 games like he didn’t forget you know he he he forgot more football than all of us combined we’ll ever know so it’s painful

From anyone that watches the game who respects what he and his teams have accomplished and what he stands for really he would never want your pity boom right he never and he would say look this is this is the life we chose boom yeah no that’s a good point Tom

He he doesn’t go into any season saying okay we should 13 and four or whatever the number is I mean he might quietly like these are games we could I mean in those days so I don’t think he’s saying uh oh we should be nine and8 and

What’s happened and this and I don’t know how to feel for him I guess that’s three minutes of stumbling in the answer I I don’t I’m almost as shocked as he is I want to ask you this conceptually are Patriots fans who look at the record and want

Change or are the crafts who look at the record and have been demanding Improvement are they ungrateful for wanting change for moving toward replacing the greatest coach of all time while he still got plenty of heartbeat I don’t think they’re ungrateful that’s a good question but they want to see a

Winner but does that mean okay let’s give it three more years of this because Bill will never be like this again it’s it’s more the Pan question and the craft question is different one yeah sometimes fresh air I’m not implying that this should happen but sometimes it happens even

Against our will or our desires and frare ends up being a good thing I mean it happened and he went the Chiefs I he didn’t have momes there when he went there uh so it’s not like you drop in and you have one of your best quarterbacks of all time waiting for

You I think here’s what I would say I would think Bill would want to finish here whenever that that year is I mean whether it’s after catching Don schula or I I would think he would want to I would think the crafts would want to in a perfect world but maybe

There’s fresh air is good for both but ungrateful no way no way fans we’re all impatient we want to be in the playoffs right no matter if you’re fans of the Carolina Panthers come on you know maybe maybe you know they won they won last week so onward

And upward so hell there’re only one one behind the Patriots so no doubt which is that that actually hurt that you say that I I fans I think it’s more not just this year it’s it’s a few years of what are we really seeing where are

We moving towards can take a minute I mean it’s hope hope we’ll have much more of that later this week on the Patriot stock podcast Meanwhile we’re going to keep plowing forward Patriots Broncos in Denver Christmas Eve they’ll be flying home next to Santa sleigh will they be

Happy as they look out the window and wave to the cringle I don’t know see you later