Rob0729

Mike Lombardi was on 98.5 with Ted Sarandis today and Lombardi feels the young players on this defense are talent and he feels that this defense will be a good defense the second half of the year. He really think Mayo will emerge this year too. He thinks that the only thing this defense really needs to be good is experience.

On a side note, I forgot how bad Ted Sarandis really is. The guy barely knows the Pats' players. He constantly referred to the official unofficial Pats depth chart to name the starters. Unfortunately for him, that depth chart is majorly wrong with Sanders and Guyton starting over Chung and Spikes. Apparently Sarandis didn't realize it. He also kept referring to Revis' deal as seven years, $46 million (really a four year, $46 million with a three year option). He was so adament that the Jets were clearly better than the Pats and the best the Pats would do is 9-7 (which I have no problem with him predicting), he ruined the interview with Lombardi because he so tried to get Lombardi to back up his position by stearing the questions that way and Lombardi is high on the Pats (at least for the division) and think the Jets are way overhyped and may be somewhere around 8-8. Lombardi is a Belichick butt boy so I take his predictions with a grain of salt.

Off The Grid

I agree with Lombardi on BOTH points:

1 ~ Mayo ~ despite what many say ~ is poised for an HUGE year.

2 ~ The Patriots Defense should finish the year VERY strongly, after a shaky start.

BradyFTW!

If you want to see Lombardi with a better platform for giving what sounds like the same points, he was on Bill Simmons' podcast pretty recently, and while Simmons also thinks the Pats are mediocre, he did at least give Lombardi room to make his points.

Rob0729

The sad thing is you could almost hear Sarandis pouting that Lombardi didn't agree with him. It just made for a bad interview. At one point, Lombardi said that he thought he was on a NY radio station after the way Sarandis talked about the Jets. You don't build up a guest as a brilliant NFL analyst and when he doesn't agree with your opinion, you don't try to manipulate what they say to agree with you.

Deus Irae

Well, hopefully Lombardi will turn out to have been prescient.

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Rob0729

BTW, Lombardi gushed about the Jarrad Page. He thinks he will be huge for the Pats in the red zone. Lombardi says he is a very smart player who doesn't bite on QB fakes like Meriweather can from time to time (that is what he said).

jefmblrd

We are in for some bumps in the road as far as the defense goes, but the more experience they can get together out the year, the better they'll be. I think the second half of the year prediction is a good one.

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everlong

With any ILB in a 3-4 their having a monster year is based on how good the defensive front plays. After Vince there's a whole lot of unproven on that line right now When Mayo is allowed to range free to the ball he does a great job but when a guard gets out on him he still hasn't figured it out and doesn't hold his ground. I don't think he'll ever be a Ted Johnson squaring up a guard but Tedy was a master at mixing it up on them by sometimes taking on the blocks and sometimes swimming around them. It kept the OL honest. Granted Tedy wasn't doing those things in his first two years either. It's a long learning process.

I hope he has a monster year but I'm cautiously optimistic.

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eagle eye

Sounds from your comments that he is saying something positive but Mike Lombardi is about the worst analyst I've even come across.

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cmasspatsfan

What do you expect from 98.5, I had it on for 5 minutes when I ran to the store today and it was 5 minutes of Felger going over every draft mistake that the Pats have made since 06. Balanced talk is one thing but these guys are way over the top trying to be contrarian.
On a side not I hit myself in the head with a baseball bat for leaving that station on for the whole ride to the store.