Felger: “I’m Done (with the Patriots)”
Mike Felger and Tony Massarotti opened up Monday’s program talking about the Patriots 21-17 loss in Vegas to the Raider. With the Patriots dropping to 1-5 on the season, Felger joins Mazz and Big Jim Murray in admitting, he’s done, with the Patriots.
Felger: What did Zo say there at the very end? What was the last thing he just said?
Mazz: I quit.
Jim Murray: I’m out. I’m done.
Felger: I’m done. Me, too.
Jim Murray: Oh, wow. That’s it. They finally broke you?
Felger: That’s it. I hung on as long as I could. People. I did. I tried. I tried. I’m done, too. I’m done. That’s it. I’m done fighting it. I wanted a season. I don’t want tanking. I don’t want to talk about it. I. I tried. I tried. I did my best. I really did. And I’m done. I’m done. It is over. It is over, over. And it’s where we go from here. And so, listen, we have all week, all month, all season to talk about. Where do they go from here? That’s it. That’s all we have left is where they go from here. Except for today. And you guys can talk about whatever you want. You really can. And of course, we’ll. We’ll do some of it. We can’t not. But I would. I do have a list and I do want to get to. How bad they suck right now and how bad yesterday was and how bad it’s gotten. But before we move forward, I would like to flesh out where we are today. Good. Which has led me to raise the white flag. And that’s it. I’m done. I’m done fighting it. It’s over. It’s over. It’s over. And it’s so bad. I can’t believe I’ll just start by saying this. I can’t believe it’s gotten this bad. I never thought it would be a true bottom out situation. I thought at worst they’d float around the middle of the league and have tough decisions to make. If you’re eight, nine, nine and eight, you don’t fire coaches and blow things up. You don’t draft quarterbacks like I thought that’s as bad as it was going to get. I was adamant about that. I was sure about that. They were never going to truly suck. They had a flaw. They were just going to middle. And I saw. I can’t believe it’s this bad. Can you?
Mazz: Well, no, but I’ll tell you that I’m not as shocked as you are. I didn’t think it would get quite this bad either. But one of the takeaways for me from this game was given the way it went, because how many people do we have calling in or the last couple of weeks saying, take away the GM duties but keep him as coach? Are they well coached? Because I don’t think they are. Not even close. And I said this before yesterday. I’ve been saying this for weeks, in fact, really for the last couple of years, that when you look at them on the field, do you realize right now they have the worst turnover differential in the league? They are tied with Cleveland.
Felger: I did not realize that they are. They were one of the, you know, worst two or three, but now they’re tied for last. And actually, they were even yesterday. So, some other teams got better. They didn’t. So, they are tied with Cleveland for the worst turnover differential in the league. They are in the bottom ten. Well, let me rephrase. They are 10th in most penalties called against. So they’re in the bottom third of the league in terms of being able to discipline themselves on the field because they’ve committed the 10th most penalties in the league. And if we’re going to talk about pre-snap penalty. OK pre-snap or what I would call procedural mistakes, because there was one yesterday with the new illegal shift where they ran the play but effectively as a pre-snap penalty. Got it. Okay. So. Your fifth worst. There are only four teams in the league that have more pre-snap penalties in them Carolina, Indianapolis, Chicago, and Houston. Do you want to be one of those franchises? Because they were all basically in the top five in the draft last year.
Felger: I just think this is different than what we’ve seen in the last couple of years.
Mazz: No, no. The romance is going the romance that’s on Bill. Bill would be the first one to say we would be the first ones to say of any team that turned the ball over and committed those kinds of penalties. Bad coaching. The coaches got to go.
Jim Murray: Yeah, yesterday was the greatest example of look, I thought they were bad talent wise, but they’re bad stupid. You know, the leverage penalty on the first field goal attempt early. Now granted, you know, the Raiders ended up settling for yet another field goal but that one like, oh my God. Jelani to Tevi with the personal foul, throwing the guy out of bounds again, one they ultimately get away with because a few plays later it’s Tevi who gets an interception on that ridiculous hit from Peppers on Adams, which was awesome. But they’re not just bad talent wise. They’re bad, stupid and really stupid.
Mazz: Totally.
Felger: And there’s no turn around. Well, and what I mean by that is even with Cam Newton. Even under Patricia and Judge. They would suck and then they would get to a softer part of their schedule. And they would straighten out. Yeah. And they would. They would prove themselves still above those kind of teams. And not that it was every week you still lost to the Saints at home a couple of years ago. So, like I might tell you, like, this is 100%, but on balance, for the most part. When it came time to stop the bleeding against beatable opponents. Even after Brady. You stopped the bleeding after. Against beatable opponents. Yeah.
Jim Murray: There’d be get right games now there just get worse.
Felger: That’s how you again the record the last three years seven and nine, ten and seven, bad to worse as long as you were playing middling teams or less. Now they’re playing middling teams or less and getting their doors blown off. So the center is no longer holding the rope, the rope has been severed. The thing is done. It’s done. And I, i it’s. I watch them now and there’s just guys out there where you sit there and you say, Who is that guy? Where did he come from? Why is he there? Who is that? That right tackle Vederian Lowe?
Mazz: I just knew you were talking about him go.
Felger: It’s so bad and it’s like, who is that guy? Why is he there and you can’t really blame injury because you didn’t have a right tackle going into the year so you you signed. A guy named Riley Reiff. And you know why YOU thought you the guy was cashed. Last year in Chicago. He got benched last year in Chicago. You picked him up and gave him a raise off of last year. And I will say parenthetically, do you know why you paid him? I finally figured it out. I don’t know why I didn’t think of this immediately. He shares Belichick’s agent, his agents, Neil Corner that’s Belichick’s longtime agent. Not that Bill admits to it or discloses that, but that’s Bill’s guy. So another inside job. Bill takes care of his agent’s client. Who’s cached. So you can’t say that. What’s his name? The dairy Lowe is out there because your starter got hurt. Your starter is a bag of bones who’s only here because of an inside connection. And it’s like Riley Reid, very low.
Jim Murray: But Mafi?
Felger: Whatever. The Mafi
Mazz: Bobby.
Felger: Mafi.
Jim Murray: They drafted him.
Mazz: Antonio Murphy Antonio.
Felger: Thank you. It’s like, who are these guys? Why are they out there? It’s just. So it has those sort of trappings now, too, and it’s just such the loser trappings all around. And they’ve been they’ve they’ve been. This isn’t the first week they’ve come up. You know, bums like that have been playing all season. And like the finger pointing has been going on all season. But I just it’s like in the past still, you would face bombing beatable opponents and you’d put it together enough. To have a respectable record, something approaching meaningful games in November and December. And it never at you never bottomed out. And I didn’t think you ever would. And you are. And so I but the finger pointing, I’m just talking about Devante Parker embarrassing loser.
Mazz: Now he that guy is a loser.
Felger: He’s a losing player. He’s a loser. He drops the ball at the end of the game and then afterwards can’t even account for it even close. And it’s like, So you got bummy loser players. You got all the sort of trappings and, you know, behind the scenes finger pointing that, you know, is going on, are starting to go on on loser teams. And it’s always been beneath the surface. But you’ve you know, that’s always been. Even in the last couple of years it’s been there. But then you face a horrible Raiders team or a middling Saints team at home or whatever, and you beat that team and you get to three and four or four and four and it’s like, okay, you’re never really bottoming out. And now they are and the wheels are off and the wheels are off. What do you want there? There’s now I even think the first couple of weeks Bill was fighting it, which is why he was such a freaking A-hole for a couple of weeks. And even I even feel like in the last 24 hours, his resignation. Yeah, he’s let go. He’s let it go. And he’s actually he actually had some actual answers to some legitimate questions today. And he wasn’t all defensive and paranoid and weird. He’s still you know, he’s still taking the NFL mike and shoving it. But I even think he’s it’s over. They’re all just playing out the string. We’re all just playing out the string. How did it get so bad? So bad?
Mazz: They’re inept.
Felger: They talk about a fresh start and they and they open up the game by allowing a eight minute drive where they can’t get off the field. And when they do get off the field, there’s the leverage penalty. Then on offense, they go penalty penalty drop for a near pick six punt. That’s how they start. The boatyard did a good job, so they talked Fresh start, fresh start, fresh start. Turn the page, Turn the page, Turn the page. They go down ten. Nothing for like something like the 10th time since last Thanksgiving, they’ve been down double digits to start a game. So at that point when they were down ten, nothing after the Jakobi Meyers remember him after the Jacoby Myers touchdown with anyone on him made it ten. Nothing looked pretty open to me just into the second quarter so over the first 17 throw of action so the first quarter and 2 minutes and 30 seconds. Here is what the scoreboard read points ten nothing yards, 148 to -2. I thought you were minus seven. I include the penalty yards. I guess they don’t in the official because you’re negative accounting of it. After 17 and a half minutes of play you were down ten nothing you were outgained 148 to -2. They had ten first times. You had none. They ran 28 plays. You had run six. They were five for seven on third down. You were all for two red zone trips, red three to nothing. Passing. They were ten of 15. Garoppolo was your offer to. That’s after spending all week saying we’re going to start over and get off to a fresh start. Like. Not even anything approaching a reset or approaching. You know, having the coach send a message and the players get them. It was like in the total opposite direction.
Mazz: No, it was building off the last disaster.
Felger: And like against a bad opponent, make no mistake, the Raiders blow. They have some individual good players, but they blow. They blow as a team. They’re stupid, bad team. And like that. That’s new. That is new. Mass. That is new.
Mazz: Oh, they’re right. Now, again, Mike, that. That first tribe. I’m glad you brought it up. 16 plays, 69 yards, two plays were negated by penalty. So they actually snapped it 18 times and 69. You know how hard that is to do.
Felger: And the Raiders still probably would have had a touchdown. The kid dropped the ball going across the middle.
Jim Murray: Right.
Felger: On third down. I can remember when it was. Yes. You know, they would have easily had another first down there, maybe a touchdown if was that 11 who who whatever. Doesn’t matter.
Mazz: A guy who cut the long pass later, I think.
