Bedard: Does Kraft's GameDay appearance mean anything? Nickel package, defensive breakdown

A little buffet here putting a bow on the week/weekend buttoning up the Steelers game, the news out of Army-Navy at Gillette Stadium, Sunday's NFL action, breaking down the defense against the Steelers with 3 up/3 down and a few other lingering items...

NICKEL PACKAGE

1. Not sure I've seen a handshake broken down this closely since a Ronald Reagan-Mikhail Gorbachev summit, but this is the state of the Patriots at 3-10 and officially eliminated from postseason competition. 

Robert Kraft was a guest on College GameDay before Army-Navy and the pertinent clip was here:

Pat McAfee: “I’ve got massive respect. The greatest dynasty in the history of professional sports is in the building that you own. You should be incredibly proud of that. You’ve been kicking a lot of [expletive] in the NFL, Robert Kraft.”

Kraft: “We’d like to win. So, we want to do everything we can to get our team back so we can be winning again.”

McAfee: “I don’t envy your position, what’s about to happen. We all know. We don’t have to ask today.”

McAfee extended his hand as Kraft smiled, Kraft shook his hand.

Interesting ESPN cut the clip on its youtube channel after "winning again."

Patriots.com has the full interview.

I'll leave that for the conspiracy theorists.

As far as the handshake, I don't read anything into it. McAfee extended his hand. Kraft isn't just going to leave it there on national TV. And the smiling, silent handshake is Kraft's standard MO when you ask a pointed comment and he doesn't want to answer.

Kraft saying "get our team back so we can be winning again" could be read a few ways. Did he just misspeak and just meant "we need to get our team back to winning"? Or was there meaning in "get our team back" ... from Belichick? I'm going with the former. He is 82. I'm nearly 50 and I say stuff I don't mean on radio all the time.

As for McAfee's comment, yeah, that does raise eyebrows. McAfee is sitting next to Kirk Herbstreit, who just did the Patriots' game, was in production meetings with Belichick. Herbstreit also sits next to Al Michaels, who tossed out his own interesting tidbit on Thursday night about Belichick and possible TV work. Michaels knows a lot of people.

And, McAfee had been in town for a few days as he did his radio show from the parking lot on Friday. I'm sure a few conversations had occurred behind the scenes.

McAfee seemed pretty confident in basically saying that Kraft was going to be parting ways with Belichick. Interesting, for sure. 

2. How great was Belichick on GameDay? 

He could do TV if he wanted to, but I'm sure he would want to be relegated to telling old stories and doing film breakdowns of great plays/players, instead of giving us the dirt on other players/coaches. But it would still be great and informative.

3. Andy Reid said the offsides call on Kadarius Toney was "a bit embarrassing in the National Football League for that to take place.''

I would have been fine if he said that last week when Marquez Valdes-Scantling got mauled against the Packers. But this? Toney was clearly offside. He never checked with the line judge. That's on him.

What is it with Chiefs and lining up onsides? If Dee Ford knew where to line up, Tom Brady and Belichick would have one less ring and Patrick Mahomes would have three. 

That's on the coaching. If anyone should be embarrassed, it should be Reid, Mahomes and the Chiefs for the way they carried on after Sunday's game.

By the way, the Chiefs miss Eric Bieniemy.

4. Speaking of missing coordinators ... the Eagles have some get-right games coming up, but this little slide against the 49ers and Cowboys was going to happen. We should have known after the first game of the season against the Patriots when they didn't play well. They haven't played well the entire season. It's just their overwhelming talent usually won out at some point. They haven't been the same since both coordinators — Jonathan Gannon (defense) and Shane Steichen (offense) — got head jobs in Arizona and Indianapolis, respectively. There's always an adjustment period. 

5. Now that only two Monday night games are left on the schedule, Bailey Zappe's completion percentage over expected of 4.1 against the Steelers is third in the league for Week 14 behind ... Zach Wilson (8.6) and Derek Carr (7.8). Didn't expect that from those two.

Still four more QBs to go. Mac Jones had six finishes as good, and Zappe had one of his own.

Here are the positional ratings against the Steelers:

DEFENSE

Defensive line (4 out of 5)

Really good against the run for the most part, but there were a few gap and edge issues (Keion White had one of each). ... Deatrich Wise mastered the edge on a reverse after White failed at his. ... Anferee Jennings was outstanding on the edge, but poor choice by Steelers (one of many with their offense) to use a rookie TE out there. Jennings also did a great job snuffing out a screen that almost turned into an INT. ... Christian Barmore just continues to put up pass rush stats. He struggled on a couple short-yardage plays, including a TD. Not a huge concern, but not great. ... PFF gave Josh Uche a positive pass rush grade and one hurry. I didn't note anything from him. ... Again, not enough real pressure from this group. It's going to hurt at some point.

Linebackers (4 out of 5)

Ja'Whaun Bentley was all over the place again rushing the QB and doing a nice job on two key passes that ended drives. ... Jahlani Tavai had 14 tackles but not many were all that impactful. I did love one rep where he trucked the guard and took down the ball carrier. ... As we've mentioned previously, Mack Wilson is coming on. Instead of being counted on to make mistakes, he's making plays every game.

Secondary (2.5 out of 5)

Another case where they were fortunate (last week it was drops, this week it was Mitch Trubisky, who is just awful). ... I would give Kyle Dugger an A grade within 5 yards of the line of scrimmage, and D+ away from it. Not only in this game, but his career. JUST KEEP HIM IN THE BOX AND TURN HIM LOOSE. ... Strong games from Myles Bryant and Jonathan Jones. ... JC Jackson was back to being wretched. Two penalties, allowed a touchdown that was only close due to a horrible Trubisky throw, missed tackle, two other poor pass coverages. It should also be noted that Steve Belichick's decision to call an all-out blitz on Diontae Johnson's touchdown against Jackson was foolish. It was 21-3, Trubisky was horrible and it was 2nd and 5. Just play coverage and give up the field goal. Bad call. ... A lot of confusion on the successful two-point conversion. It looked like Jabrill Peppers (INT on a nifty pre/post-snap read change by Steve Belichick) just should have taken TE Pat Freiermuth. But a few guys turned around and glared at Dugger after the play, including Peppers. 

THREE UP

Anfernee Jennings: Straight-up owned the edge.

Christian Barmore: Ho-hum, another 5.5 QB pressures.

Mack Wilson: Good impact with 20 snaps.

TWO DOWN

JC Jackson: The guy is such a wild-card. I miss Christian Gonzalez.

Keion White: Young fella was a little undisciplined in this one. Nothing terrible but needs to be better.