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Felger and Mazz on 985, the Sports Hub.

All right, final hour of Felger and As here.

We open up the program talking about and spent the first hour or so talking about the Jaguars game this week. Interesting spot. I think, well, more interesting for the Jaguars. Wouldn't you say, Maz? Absolutely. I mean, it's a massive game from actually when you really weigh it out. You're going to come in here last year, get to the AFC championship game, almost beat the Patriots, and you have a young defense, like an upstart team. Now the game's in your building. It's your home opener, all of the above. And you're going to come in and lose to the Patriots again? Like, I just think it's a credibility game for that organization. This is where we find out, or at least in their minds anyway, whether Jacksonville's

to be taken seriously or not. I think it's a massive game for the Jags, and it sounds ridiculous

saying it in week two, but in terms of the evolution of their franchise, where they're going,

huge. What's that mean for the Patriots? So to me, if you're the Patriots, like, if the Patriots lose this game, I don't think that their credibility is at stake or, you know, I don't think any of that, but I think it's the kind of game that could propel Jacksonville. That's all. If the Patriots win the game, I mean, I think there's some stakes for the Patriots, but honestly, I don't think the Patriots are like, you know, treating it as an all or nothing. We have to have a kind of game.

Well, I don't think the Patriots are like, you know, treating it as an all or nothing. We have to have a kind of game. Well, I'm just curious about that because I think in ordinary circumstances, and I'll define what that means in a second, but in ordinary circumstances, I think this is a game where they would say, let these guys celebrate their championship in September. You know, the pages are the ultimate long-haul sort of slow-build team. We see it every year. September is an extension of training camp, and they're going to have a few hiccups early on in the year, and they're going to improve through November and be playing their best in December, and we'll see you in January. And that's just the kind of team that they are, and we'll take a lump here along the way as part of the, you know,

the longer arc.

So that's what I think they would do in most normal circumstances.

And I think if this were a normal circumstance year, they would say, you know, I mean,

we're going to try and win, but we're not going to empty the playbook.

We're not going to expose players who health-wise are on the bubble.

We're not going to expose gronk, who is obviously, you know, he's got target on his back down there. And so we're going to, you know, do our best to protect him and we'll see what happens. Maybe we win, maybe we don't, but we're not going to empty the bucket here. I think normally that's how they would treat this week. I wonder if it's different this year

because of all the stuff that's been going on internally and I felt they needed to get off to a good start because if they get off to a bad start, then all that internal stuff can fester and become worse. So get back to playing football, get back to winning, get back to establishing who you are and all that other stuff takes care of itself. If they start out one and two, you know, like, wow. They start out 0 and two, like some people have predicted, it would have been a, you know, would have been a disaster zone. So wonder. I wonder. And to me, the real litmus test is Grankowski. You got to main, you know, you got to, there's a maintenance thing on him. You've got to be careful with him. You can't expose him to too many hits. He's not going to hold up. And they, eight targets last week, all those passes down the seam, double coverage, all of that. Full load for him. Do you do that this week with Jalen Ramsey waiting for you and all those linebackers and safeties and that hard hitting defense down there?

You run them down the scene four times a game? I mean, if they're planning for the long haul, no. No. But as I said to you earlier, I don't know, maybe we're looking at this wrong. Like you look at this game and you say at Jacksonville, like this is going to be a challenge. I mean, that Jacksonville is legit. Murray, you were right about them last year.

I felt like last year they were a smoke show, right?

Total smoke and mirrors. And then they came in and it's like, that defense is legit. And they did it on the road, too, like all of it. Yeah, a lot of speed. There's a ton of playmakers there. So one of the other things, too, typically at this point, the first month of the season, and defenses are usually ahead of the the offense so it's a tough spot in terms of when they're playing the jaguars they are getting the home opener they won their first week they want to try to make a statement after the a fc championship game so i think this is bigger for the jaggs i'm with maz on that and most for the most part i agree with you mike like they do treat the first month as an extension of the preseason the patriots but i don't know i think ever since the jaguars talked back i think the patriots might be looking at this is you know we want to go down there and actually put them over a barrel now because there's too much chirp in cover from this team that really hasn't accomplished anything the whole bill bell of that check thing yesterday you know i thought that was so telling We all know what time the game starts. We'll see what happens. That's him kind of engaging. So is that a tell that Bill is going to try and match Jacksonville and, you know, empty some barrels here in September, which is rare for them. They usually don't do that. So the other variable, and I said this earlier, I just called it up again. You know, after this week, the Patriots have pretty much a cupcake schedule for a while.

It's at Detroit, Miami at home, India at home, then Kansas City comes in.

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