Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - 2018 Revisited: Week 15 @ Steelers (Loss) - Locked On Patriots June 12, 2019

Episode Date: June 12, 2019

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Patterson is now in there to the left. White shifts to the left of Brady. Edelman now motions in the left slot. Balls on the near hash, the right hash from the 21. Four down linemen for the Steelers. Everybody else is back. Shotgun snap to Brady. Dancing in the pocket. Throw into the end zone for Edelman. Ball's tipped and it lands incomplete with 14 seconds to go. Brady in a seated position. Knocked down after the throw. Will be helped to his feet. To walk to the far side.

And then to head back home in the wake of another loss on the road. And the Patriots about to fall to 9-5. And the Steelers with, in essence, a must-win victory. They came in on a three-game losing skid. The Ravens bearing down on them in the AFC North. Worst part about it, two gross losses in the month of December as you're closing out a year with two layups left at the end of the year. Seven seconds away last week. Less than a half minute away from a tie this week.

And now Roethlisberger to an E in victory formation. Hey there, everybody. Welcome on into the latest installment of 2018 Revisited, the off-season series here at Locked On Patriots, where we are going week by week through the 2018 campaign for your New England Patriots. Now, we have reached Week 15, and I'm Mark Schofield, and I'm happy to be here in the big chair to bring this installment to you. Now, a bit of good news, bad news today.

The bad news is we have to talk about another loss. The good news is this is the last loss that we have to talk about as we get through this offseason series. Before we dive into the Week 15 loss at Pittsburgh to the Pittsburgh Steelers, a 17-10 game, your usual reminders. Please follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at a variety of places, including InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, and that holy trinity of SB Nation websites, Big Blue View, Bleeding Green Nation, where I co-host the QB Scope Show with the venerable, the honorable Michael J. Kist.

And of course, Pat's Pulpit, where just released yesterday was my second installment in the offseason series, How It Happened, breaking down Tom Brady's week four touchdown pass to James White. Also, check out our great friends and sponsors, the great new podcast app, Himalaya, where you can have your own playlist curated for you by their podcast experts. Also, Untuck It, Grip6Belts, Hotels.com, and of course, our great friends over at Playbook Products. Now let's dive into this game. And yet again, we have to start this show with a brief reminder of what was in front of the New England Patriots in this Week 15 contest. They had a chance, yet again, to clinch a playoff spot, to perhaps even clinch the AFC East. This game was on Sunday. The previous night, the Kansas City Chiefs had lost a game to the Los Angeles

Chargers, so there was a chance to make some ground up in the AFC overall standards. But unfortunately, the Patriots would suffer their second straight loss and yet another road loss, a loss which would guarantee that the New England Patriots would have a losing record on the road. Something that had not happened in a while. Now, you just heard the final call from Bob Sochi, Scott Zolak, over at 98.5 The Sports Hub. But let's sort of go through this game. And it was a game where both teams got off to a very good start offensively.

This game began with the Pittsburgh Steelers getting on the board first. How did that happen? Well, let's take you through that. The Pittsburgh Steelers would receive the first half kickoff and they would go right down the field, eventually facing a third and goal from the five yard line when Ben Roethlisberger would find

his tight end, Vance McDonald, for the game's opening point. They don't end up going against Jackson. I mean, there's so many things there, but it happens. Empty formation again. We're going right. Y'all got this. Here's the third and goal.

Roethlisberger. Caught for the touchdown. Vance McDonald. Vance McDonald. A fantastic job by McDonald. But the offensive line gives Roethlisberger time and patience. Watch the pocket in front of him right here. He's going to throw it now.

Oh, I have time. And that allows McDonald to go to go out stop come back under that's a long developing tony robo and jim nance they're on the call for cbs and what the steelers did they flexed vance mcdonald out wide matched up one-on-one against patrick chun he runs basically a whip or under route where he breaks to the outside, shows an out route, then cuts back underneath, gets separation from Patrick Shun. Offensive line buys a lot of time for Roethlisberger, and he's able to hit his tight end for the game's first points.

But the Patriots would strike back almost immediately. They would have a quick score and drive that was capped off on a play-action throw from Tom Brady to Chris Hogan that covered 63 yards and a touchdown. This came on a Yankee concept. Deep over route over the top from Josh Gordon. Chris Hogan working from left to right on the underneath crosser. He gets lost in coverage. Nobody covers him.

He's wide open, and Brady hits him in stride. Ferg is the sixth. The nose tackle who can also rush the quarterback. First down, New England. Going against a team that leads the league in sacks. But he still has it. Across the middle, wide open. He's got Hogan and an open field untouched.

Touchdown, New England. 63 yards. You want a good start on the road? You play action and get a guy open by 15 yards, and Tom Brady can hit. Hogan's going to be here. One of these two has to guard him. They're both caught looking in the backfield,

and nobody runs with them. And you'll see right there, you're not going to find a player more open in the national football league this was another example of the patriots hitting the steelers for a big play in the passing game off of play action as you heard tony romo sort of allude to in that quick segment the steelers at times had some trouble covering new england receivers particularly on these cross and route types of designs. You look back through the history of these teams in their recent meetings, they've struggled, the Pittsburgh Steelers, covering the Patriots when they went to these cross and route designs

for some miscommunication in the secondary, and you're able to capitalize as an offense. Now, the two teams would trade punts on their next possessions. The Steelers would take over after the Hogan touchdown, and they would struggle to move the ball. You would get two quick plays. Jesse James with a nine-yard reception on first down, and Jalen Samuels for a 10-yard run on second down. But then the Patriots got a sack of Roethlisberger by Kyle Van Nooy. They stopped Jalen Samuels on second and he was sacked again. Roethlisberger was on third and forcing a punt from Jordan Berry. The Patriots could not capitalize.

They would get into Pittsburgh territory after two strikes from Brady to Josh Gordon and then Brady to James Devlin. But their drive would slow on the Pittsburgh side of the 50-yard line and they would be forced to punt, giving the Steelers the ball near the end of the first quarter. When we pick up the action, we're going to talk about the final touchdown of this entire contest that came early in the second quarter, as well as some breaks that did not go New England's way. And yes, another poorly played moment from Tom Brady. That's all ahead on this Week 15 installment of 2018 Revisited. Mark Schofield back with you now on this week 15

installment of 2018 Revisited looking at New England's loss at Pittsburgh in week 15 of the 2018 season and a loss which would be their final loss of the entire campaign. We're picking up the action into the second quarter now. The Steelers started the possession at the end of the first quarter, and they capped it off a very long, impressive drive with the game's final touchdown. Believe it or not, this was a drive that was driven by the passing game. Ryan Switzer had a carry on their open and play, a first and 10 on their own eight-yard line,

but then it was all Roethlisberger with one two three four five six seven eight nine straight passes in the ninth a completion to Antonio Brown for 17 yards and the game's final touchdown you're allowed to feel the guy where he's at I mean that's by the way the only the fourth pass interference call against New England this year fewest in the league that's incredible fewest penalized team overall in the league the The Patriots. Back to the red zone for the Steelers. Roethlisberger middle of the field. And it's caught by Brown for the touchdown. But we'll check the marker.

Reiner to the pass. Holding. Defense. Number 24, decline. Touchdown. His 13th touchdown of the season. A.B. Antonio Brown. They were setting this up the whole game.

Look at the little squirt release there. That was fantastic. Do you see how they switch spots Roethlisberger holds the safety to the right throws a back shoulder seam route but he's been lined up in that tight end position the whole time and then all of a sudden this was a perfect play all around from the design to the call to the execution from both Roethlisberger and Brown as you heard Romo sort of describe there. The Steelers use a trips formation to the left, and they have Antonio Brown as the inside, the number three receiver, almost like a wing alignment. But he executes a switch vertical release

with the number two receiver. The number two receiver sort of works over the middle while Antonio Brown comes behind him and then releases up the seam. It's a little rub concept that creates some traffic. And then Roethlisberger basically back shoulders this throw after looking off the safety in the middle of the field. And he hits Brown for the touchdown. There was a flag on the play. Stephon Gilmore was flagged for defensive holding. That was waved off. Touchdown is good. And with

the extra point, the Steelers would have a lead in this contest of 14 to 7. Those would be the final points of the entire first half. Roethlisberger was intercepted by Daron Harmon but other than that the Patriots offense struggled to get going offensively and so these teams entered the halftime break with the Steelers clinging to a 14-7 lead. The Patriots, they would have a chance to at least tie the game when the second half got underway. They would receive the second half kickoff, and it got off that drive to a good start. Sonny Michel went up the middle for 13 yards on their first play, but then the drive immediately stalled.

Michel was stopped after gains of two yards and two yards on successive plays, and a Brady pass on 36 fell incomplete, intended for Josh Gordon. Now, Steelers, unfortunately, some recent history reared its ugly head as Chris Boswell, on their next possession, missed a 32-yard field goal, gave the Patriots a chance to, yet again, tie this game. A long drive that started at their own 22-yard line eventually stalled out inside the red zone. A fourth and one penalty, a false start on Ryan Allen forced the Patriots to settle for a field goal. Steven Koskowski splits the uprights from 33 yards out and as the third quarter came

to a close, the Steelers had the ball and a slim 14-10 lead. Now, the biggest sort of flip of this game comes early in the fourth quarter. The Steelers face a third and six on that opening position of the fourth quarter, right at midfield. Ben Roethlisberger is intercepted for the second time, again by Daron Harmon. And now the Patriots have a chance, just down by four, to cut into this lead once more. And they get down inside the red zone. They're facing a first and goal at the five. With 8.54 left in this game.

Sonny Michel goes up the middle for three yards. But there's a penalty. And it's an offensive holding call on Marcus Cannon. That backs the Patriots up to a first and goal at the 15. Tom Brady hits James White with a quick throw. but he's stopped for a one-yard loss. Burning up a second and 16. A second and goal from the 16. Patriots down by four.

Second down. 7.51 left in this contest. And here, Brady has, for the second week in a row, a bit of a meltdown in the red zone. Now the pressure. Brady heaves it. And is it intercepted? He came down with it. And a feet down for Hayden.

Intercepted. Ruling on the field, a feet were down. Brady under pressure and he never makes this type of mistake. Throws it down the sideline. Hayden comes off out. And a catch. Yes. Wow. Brady makes yet again a very strange decision in the red zone last week against Miami

it was the play before halftime they're out of timeouts, he can't take a sack he does it, here he gets pressured and either he's trying to throw it away or he's trying to take advantage of a two-on-one situation because they do have two receivers in the general vicinity of this throw. Rob Gronkowski underneath, Julian Edelman over the top. Now, either he's trying to throw it away and he fails to get it to the sideline

or he's trying to hit one of those receivers and he either overthrows Gronkowski or underthrows Edelman. But either way, it's Joe Hayden but either I mean under throws Edelman excuse me but either way it's Joe Hayden who comes down with it and rather than even just getting three to make it a one-point game or potentially taking the lead the Patriots turn the ball over in the red zone and they come away without points this was a pivotal sequence in this contest and of course on their ensuing possession Chris Boswell would hit a field goal. Now the defense steps up, keeps him out of the end zone.

They had a 1st and 10 at the New England 34-yard line, the Steelers did. But the defense stiffens a little bit. They burn some timeouts. They keep him out of the end zone. And so they are forced to settle for a 48-yard field goal, which is converted. It's 17-10. A huge play was the Roethlisberger pass on third and six from the 30 in the direction of Juju Smith-Schuster J.C. Jackson makes a great recovery

and breaks that up otherwise they would have had a first and goal situation now the Patriots they get one more chance to go downfield and they get themselves in pretty good position on a first and 15 play at their own 35 Tom Brady hits Julian Edelman for 34 yards getting position. On a first and 15 play at their own 35, Tom Brady hits Julian Edelman for 34 yards, getting the Patriots a first and 10 at the Steelers 31. Brady hits white for nine, white again for six, white again for five, and now the Patriots have a second and five at the Steelers 11-yard line. But then, another big flag. This time, Shaq Mason on that second and five gets flagged for holding. Forcing the Patriots into a second and 15 at the 21. Brady's next three attempts.

Incomplete to Rob Gronkowski. Incomplete to Rob Gronkowski. And yes, a final incompletion on fourth and 15 for Julian Edelman. And the Patriots fall on the road yet again. Up next, we're going to break down that pivotal end of game sequence and talk about not so much what we learned, but thanks to our good buddy Ian McDonough, we're going to do a little cold, freezing cold takes.

Steelers, Patriots, Week 15 edition, including some thoughts from yours truly. That is all ahead on this latest installment of week of 2018 revisited looking at week 15 but before we do that friends listeners father's day right around the corner and if your dad or the loved one in your life is like me they would love something from our great friends over at Playbook Products. They have for over 150 teams, pro, football, college football, basketball, all sorts of stuff, hockey, X's and O's, diagrams of plays, of pivotal moments like Vinatieri's kick or Ortiz going yard in game four on coasters, on posters, on bags, all sorts of things that you would love to have either

on your man cave or just in your life. So go visit playbookproducts.com. Use the promo code LOCKEDON, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N, when you make a purchase for 15% off. Playbook Products, rest your pint on history. Mark Schofield back with you now. I'm going to close out this week 15 installment of 2018 Revisited

and I want to take a moment here to talk about that end of game sequence after the Patriots got flagged for that Holden penalty on Shaq Mason they start with a 2nd and 15 late and they basically you don't have a lot of options in this

situation let's face it because you need to get the ball into the end zone. I know there was a lot of sort of post-game consternation where Brady missed opportunities to hit white in the flat. On the second and 15 play, they have white in the backfield. Brady's in the shotgun, white to the left of the quarterback. Gronk is in a wing to the right, and then you've got slot to the left and then a receiver outside of Gronk is in a wing to the right, and then you've got Slott to the left, and then a receiver outside of Gronk. To the left side of this formation, they basically run two vertical routes. And then to the

right side, they go post from Chris Hogan and sort of an out and up from Gronkowski. White releases to the left flat. Steelers show a single high look, but they have a little creative rotation here where they rotate into a red two or Tampa two, red zone cover two-like look. Brady initially wants to go to his left and throw one of these vertical routes, but he comes off of it and there's a little bit of pressure that kind of flushes him just a bit to the right. Now, he could have probably checked this down. That might have been the moment to do it. But he doesn't. He forces the throw to Gronkowski, and it falls incomplete.

Of all the times when Brady sort of doesn't check it down to white, this is the one that I probably had the most trouble with. He might have had a chance to hit Hogan on that post route, as the safety who drops down opens away from Hogan's side of the field and towards the other side of the field and Edelman. But there's a slight window. Probably not the highest percentage throw. Third and 15.

Basically just four verticals. Another rotation look from Pittsburgh, but they rotate into that same sort of Tampa 2-like look. Brady gets flushed more so to the right this time. And once he gets moved to his right, he's probably not going to really check this down back to his left and to James White. Now, everybody is screaming when Brady throws this to throw it to White.

He's wide open. He's standing on the 20-yard line, the left side of the field, the left numbers, and there's nobody within 15 yards of him. So he probably, in this situation, could have gotten the ball, gut it down, and maybe stepped out of bounds, and you'd have a much more manageable fourth down situation. But I agree with Matt Chatham, who in the aftermath of this game pointed out that once Brady really gets flushed to his right, he's probably not then going to throw back across the field to his left to James White in sort of the left flat. That's one of those never throw late across your body type of moments. Now, also remember, Patriots were out of timeouts.

They had burned all three in the previous drive. So Brady is probably thinking here, you've got to get this into the end zone because with under 30 seconds left, if you run around a little bit, get a tackle inbounds, you might not have a chance to get the next play off. And this play came on third down, so it's not like you can clock it. So you're probably thinking he's got to go to the end zone. That's what Brady does. You put all those factors together. It's why he doesn't go to white. Now finally, fourth down, four verticals yet again. Not a lot of plays in the playbook for fourth and 21, which is basically the situation. He puts one into the end zone and it falls

incomplete. Now I had put back on December 17th. You can look it up. Maybe I'll retweet it if I feel like it. The hold and penalty might have really changed things here. You know, you do sort of wonder how differently these final plays look if Brady hits white and the flat on that second down play where they don't get the hold and penalty. You know, they could have had themselves a little better situation,

and maybe on that second down situation where that play comes, that second down comes with 33 seconds left, it's probably more time to at least get out of bounds. Or if not, you could clock it then and give yourself at least one more shot in a more manageable situation. But that endgame situation was probably the game's pivotal play aside from Brady's mistake on the Joe Hayden interception. Now, let's do a little freeze and cold takes because what did we learn in this game? We learned that people thought the sky was falling. Now, just a quick little perusal of the Google machine and you can see how many people thought this was a bad, bad loss. Patriots lose to Steelers, fall to third in AFC playoff standings. That's from Boston CBS Local. ESPN. Self-inflicted wounds hurt Patriots and loss to Steelers. And in this one, this is from Mike Reese, ESPN's coverage.

You know, last week's loss on the final play of the game on a 69-yard play was a gut punch to the New England Patriots as they had the game won and let it slip away in excruciating fashion. Sunday's 17-10 loss to the Steelers falls into a different category. The Patriots didn't deserve to win, maybe because of self-inflicted wounds. Surprisingly, the Patriots' offense is struggling to find what it does well consistently at a time on the football calendar when it usually has it all figured out. They were 3-10 on third down and the team as a whole had 14 accepted penalties for 806 yards.

It all sparks questions as to how deep of a postseason run they might ultimately be able to make. If you look at Patriots Wire USA Today, two stats that show the Patriots aren't what they used to be.

This is this piece. The Patriots now have five losses, which is a water high mark for the franchise this decade and will snap a strain of eight straight 12 win seasons. That was a tweet from Albert Breer. The Patriots have lost consecutive games in December for the first time since week 15 to 16, 2002. And 2002 was the only season Tom Brady has missed the postseason. So there was certainly some sky is fallen type sentiments floated around the football media world in the aftermath of this loss. Also from Patriots Wire, Twitter reacts to the Patriots 17-10 loss to the Steelers in week 15. Now these are just some random tweets, okay? These aren't people covering the team. But here's just a sample of what the Twitter machine had to tell us. Time for Bob Kraft and Belichick to go away. Need young blood. The same old way does not work anymore. This season is over. This is the second week in

a row that the Patriots have failed me. This is what I get for picking them to win, even though my hatred for them runs deep. Patriots, Brady, they fall in Pittsburgh. That was a tweet from Dan Roche, WBZ, a response to that. Bill Belichick was right. We should have cut bait on 87. Another tweet.

I suggest everybody burn their New England Patriots jersey. Another tweet here. Very well-deserved loss England Patriots jersey. Another tweet here. Very well-deserved loss. Patriots, the interception, and the entire last drive was on Brady. Why did he fall down in the last row? This team has been playing like a dumpster fire all year. Another tweet.

Really? Really? First time as a fan. I've been embarrassed to be your fan. And this final tweet from this piece over at Patriots Wire. Hey, Patriots, drop Trent Brown, please. Thank you. Now, it wouldn't be complete throwing out some instant takes if I didn't include my own. So here you go. Here's how I opened the melancholy and the infinite sadness edition of Locked on Patriots in the aftermath of this week 15 loss. In the 2009 New England Patriots season,

they faced a difficult three-game stretch started in mid-November. On November 15th, they had a Sunday night game against the then-unbeaten Indianapolis Colts on the road. That game would be known for a decision that Bill Belichick made late in the game, going forward on a fourth and two rather than punt the ball back to Peyton Manning in the explosive Colts offense. The Patriots failed to convert, the Colts scored, and the Patriots lost 35-34.

The next week, the Patriots were able to sort of get back in the win column with a win over the New York Jets 31-14, a team that had struggled, although they had beaten the Patriots back in week two. But then they faced another test against another undefeated team, the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football down in the bayou. And that was a game that the Patriots ended up losing 38-17. And as was pointed out by Haseefa Patel in the Lockdown Patriots Slack channel, there's a moment from that game that was caught by NFL films that made its way into a number of postseason highlight packages, as it were,

and into the Bill Belichick of football life. And it's a moment where Bill Belichick and his quarterback Tom Brady stand next to each other on the sideline, and Belichick lamenting that he just cannot get that team ready to play. Watching the New England Patriots lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers the way they did today has me wondering if we will see a similar moment between Brady and Belichick when this season's story is finally told. I'm Mark Schofield, and welcome to yet another melancholy in the infinite sadness installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast.

As you can hear, that was a cold open. I was making as others were, but I was full out there making it. This was like that 2009 team that would lose in the opening round in wildcard weekend to the Baltimore Ravens that would just get punched off the field basically from the game's first offensive play from the Ravens that's where my head was at that's how I felt about this team after this loss after two straight losses I was almost ready to throw in the towel thankfully I was wrong and I'm mad enough to admit it but in the wake of this loss,

I think you'd be lying if you thought and felt any way confident in this team's ability to win a playoff game. Losing what record on the road, seemed like they couldn't play against and beat good teams. It was a confusing season. But as I said at the start of this show,

there was good news and bad news to this loss. The bad news was it was a bad loss and they had another missed opportunity with a chance sitting in front of them to at least clinch a playoff spot, let alone make some headway against the Chiefs who had lost earlier that weekend. But the good news,

it's the last time we had a melancholy and the infinite sadness installment of locked on Patriots. That will do it for today. I'll be back tomorrow talking week 16. As you heard Zolak say at the cold open of this show, Patriots had That will do it for today. I'll be back tomorrow talking Week 16. As you heard Zolak say at the cold open of this show, Patriots had two layups

left on the schedule and thankfully they converted those. So we'll break down that show, that next game, in the next installment of 2018 Revisited here at Locked On Patriots. Thank you.