Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - 2018 Revisited: Week 3 - Locked On Patriots May 22, 2019

Episode Date: May 22, 2019

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Florida makes the stop. Third and one. Going big, going heavy. They bring in two tights. You got Devlin coming in the game. Obvious running situation. Boy, if you don't control the line of scrimmage here, you're in for a long, long night. You're 3 of 29 right now on third down this season. 3 of 29. That's 28%.

Out of the eye. Devlin the fullback for Michel. Sony takes the handoff penetration. Right up, Thrown down. Hey, Sean Robinson. Along with Ricky Jean Francois, the former Patriots. Take the running game. Stuff it in a blue bag behind the bench. Send it to the plane. Because you

can't run the ball. Throw it out. It's not your identity. Nobody comes off the line of scrimmage. None of these backs can run hard downhill. Put it on the plane and let's air the thing out. Put it into 12's hands and let's go empty. I'm tired of it. Ricky Jean-Francois pushed Shaq Mason about two yards back into the backfield.

Now, Allen's punt left to right. I'm Mark Schofield and welcome to the third installment of 2018 Revisited, the off-season series here at Locked On Patriots where we go week by week breaking down how the New England Patriots 2018 campaign unfolded like we were living it again in real time. What you just heard there was Bob Sochi and Scott Zolak from 98.5, the sports hub in Boston. Obviously, the week three contest at Detroit, a Sunday night game that saw the Patriots lose their second straight road game to fall to one and two on the season.

That was a third and one try, the Patriots' third offensive possession of the game. It would be their third three and out of the contest. We're going to go through the game as it unfolded. We're going to talk the pivotal plays and what we learned here in today's episode, breaking down the Week 3 loss to the Detroit Lions. But before we do that, your usual reminders too. Follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com,

Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, and yes, that trio of SB Nation websites included. Big Blue View, Bleeding Green Nation, and of course, Pat's Pulpit. Also, do not forget, please, you can get locked on Patriots on the brand new Poston app,

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Hotels.com don't hate like your friend's vacation make one of your own Hot've got to check out Hotels.com. Don't hate like your friend's vacation. Make one of your own. Hotels.com. Also, Untuckit.com and Grip6. Let's talk week three. The Patriots looking to rebound from what was a very disappointing week two loss to the Jacksonville Jaguars, and things did not get on track anytime soon. The Patriots go, as I said, three and out on their first offensive possession. The Detroit Lions, they then rip off a 12-play, 65-yard drive that takes up a whopping seven minutes and 37 seconds. They are forced to settle for a field goal and take a 3-0 lead.

New England then, three plays, minus one yard, and a punt. That would get the Detroit Lions the ball back. They would take over possession on their own 40-yard line. Ryan Allen's 36-yard punt just makes it out to the Detroit 40-yard line. And the Lions rip off another nine-play drive that carries 60 yards. And as you will hear in a second from Zolak and Sochi, the frustration was beginning to mount. With Galladay, the receiver left to give to Johnson.

Runs up the middle, finds a hole, breaks an ankle tackle, and cuts it right across the 25. Driven down and a gain of 11-plus to the 24. Bring Cyrus Jones in. Put him in as the mic. Eventually with a tackle after Harmon missed on an ankle try. Go to Dine. Go to Dine. bring Cyrus in, put him as the mic. Get these two backers out right now.

I mean, they're just, he's just jump cutting right in front of them. They're there and it's just jumping out of tackles. Here, I'll make you miss, you miss, this guy missed, that guy missed. Final today, he's had an impact save for that run. Second down and from the 24 comes across her three to the left one to the Right and now short motion from the left by Gallaudet Johnson in the back to join Stafford from the gun Stafford looks left now scans the middle slight roll right and he throws underneath the catch is made and angling up field is Marvin Jones Across the 15 to the right hash of the 10 and he's tackled by Bentley at the nine. First and goal to go for Detroit. Wow. Jason McCourty is guessing right now. And this is his guy.

He comes across the formation. McCourty, for some reason, leaves him there and runs back another six or seven yards to the safety position. And then he still comes in and misses the tackle. The Lions have a 3-0 lead. They're threatening for more. We head to the second quarter in Detroit. As you could hear there from Sochi and an exasperated Scott Solak, the Detroit Lions were having a very successful possession,

kind of having their way with the New England Patriots' defense, running the ball almost at will, getting defensive backs guessing on crossing routes. And as the first quarter drew to a close, the Detroit Lions had that slim 3-0 lead, but they were knocking on the door. And they would break open that door in just a few more plays

on a throw that initially looked like it was going to be ruled down by contact, but instead, upon further review, it would be a touchdown. After this game from missed tackles. And now a second goal to go from the four ball on the near hash to the left hash with two receivers stacked to the right. Jones along with Tate.

Galladay left. Tight end left, Toilolo. Single back is blunt from the four of New England. Galladay in motion from the left. Moves to the wing. Stafford drops back. Looks to the right. Side arms at the Galladay on a crossing route.

Spun down by Gilmore the ball is hurled out of bounds So tackle was made at the one And the ball eventually squirting across the far sideline We look like this is gonna be an easy touchdown They rule that the knee was down and the ball flies out after it's down. So he calls him down by contact. It's a good call. Number 79 is reporting eligible.

Wow, if they don't punch this in, they may only come out of here up to six zip. That's a massive win for this defense that does not look good here tonight. Lions have a 3-0 lead. Matt Patricia challenging. He's going to say, I think, that Galladay was able to break the play into the goal line after he made the catch. Looks like a touchdown to me. Red flag.

The red flag was thrown by Lions head coach Matt Patricia. And as you heard Scott Zolak say, it was ruled a touchdown. That score and strike from Matthew Stafford to Kenny Dalloway, Galladay, gave the Lions a 10-0 lead. Up next, we're going to talk about the remainder of this game, the Patriots' attempt at a comeback that fell again short. And a little bit later, we're going to break down the pivotal plays from this contest as well as what we learned.

In the New England Patriots' Week 3 loss, 26-10 to the Detroit Lions. Mark Schofield back with you now on this week three 2018 revisited installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. We are taking a look back at the New England Patriots week three loss to the Detroit Lions out in Detroit. And before we get back into this contest, talk about how the rest of the game rolled on. I want to remind everybody about our great sponsors over at Grip6.

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That's grip6.com. Back to the Week 3 contest. And the rest of the first half was a somewhat boring affair. As you just heard, the Lions punched it in to make it a 10-0 game. The Patriots would punt on their next possession, again, going three and out. The Lions would rip off a 14-play, 71-yard drive that took off another 7 minutes and 28 seconds. That would be a field goal. How that would drive would end.

So they would take a 13-0 league. New England would add a field goal right before the half, making it a 13-3 game at the halftime break. Now, the second half got off to a bit of a rather impressive start for New England and rookie linebacker Juwan Bentley. On the third play of the second half, Matthew Stafford dropped a throw in the direction of tight end Luke Wilson, and the rookie linebacker from Purdue made perhaps his first big play as a member of the New England Patriots. Lady! Lady! Stafford. Fires and it's intercepted at the 50-yard line. So a big turnover there.

Bentley with the takeaway for New England. A rookie out of Purdue. Jawan Bentley. Pretty special right here. You're going to get this post pattern, and I think if Stafford had thrown it up over the top, he might have had a touchdown. He tried to throw a line drive,

and that allowed Bentley to come underneath and make the play, but that is exactly, if you're a Lions fan, what you did not want to see happen in this first drive because somewhere in Atlanta, they're thinking no lead is safe. The interception from Bentley was a very impressive play from the rookie linebacker who if you remember back to when the Patriots drafted him was somewhat questioned for a potential lack of athleticism but throughout training camp and during his time early in the season Bentley showed that he did have the athleticism to cover running backs and tight ends in man coverage situations and on this play

he basically runs the post route with Wilson he maintains underneath leverage on him and yes as Collinsworth points out there in the audio if Stafford tries to put a little more touch on this throw perhaps perhaps the Detroit Lions have a big play but instead he puts this throw in on a line Bentley is there step for step, stride for stride underneath Wilson running the route with the tight end, and he makes a pivotal interception. That turnover gave the Patriots great field position, giving them a first and 10 on their own 48-yard line. Sonny Michel would start the drive with a 12-yard run down to the Detroit 40-yard line, and a few plays later, the Patriots would face a third and eight at the 10. They would need points trailing by 13 to 3.

Obviously, 3 would be nice, but 6 was what they wanted. And 6 was what they would get. Fogan is the motion man Brady in the pocket throwing and it will be caught by James White for a touchdown 52 yards 7 plays coming after the interception takes him 3 and a half minutes right back in it

anytime you double team Gronkowski you gotta've got to leave somebody else one-on-one, and that has always been how the Patriots win games, and they do it so many times with these backs out of the backfield. This time James White, really pretty nice coverage down the field that time by Quandre Diggs, but that is the one-on-one matchup, and nobody finds the one-on-ones better than Tom Brady. I'll say this, though. The number one option on every pass play they have is Rob Gronkowski. It takes two for them to get off of him.

The touchdown strike from Tom Brady that James White was yet another example of the Gronkowski effect. We talked about this on an earlier show from week one. When the Patriots were able to get Gronkowski in a wide iso alignment, he would often draw double teams. And by putting James White to the same side of the formation, that would create a one-on-one matchup for the runnerback, a tremendous route runner. On this play, White gets matched up in a one-on-one situation versus Quandary Diggs. And while Diggs has pretty good coverage, he's expecting White to break to the outside, to the flat, which the Patriots often use that route with their running backs. But instead, White fakes that little out route to the flat, but then breaks vertically, and he gets just enough separation for Brady to drop in a perfect throw,

and the touchdown would cut Detroit's lead 13 to 10. However, the very next possession. What do you often see so many times in a football game? The offense finally gets a touchdown to cut it to a one score game. The defense needs to get that pivotal three and out. If they do, momentum will be all on that sideline. However, the offense comes through with a huge play. That's exactly what happened next. The Patriots had a chance to get off the field on a third and long situation, a third and nine, but instead, Matthew Stafford stepped up and made the throw of the night. 26 yard line. Jack 54. Jack 54, 6-2. Big play. 20 lines.

He gets the momentum back. Snatch it. Throws. And there's the momentum back. As Galladay makes the catch on the third and nine. He gets free along the sideline. Gain of 16. Okay, this is as good a throw as you're going to see.

Jonathan Jones is going to be right underneath this throw that's coming out like this. And Stafford has to lob it up over the top of him. And yet inside the boundary, that was something special by Matthew Stafford. The throw was indeed special as Matthew Stafford fouled his receiver on that deep out route over the underneath cornerback in front of the rotating safety down towards the sideline. The perfect combination of touch, velocity, and trajectory. A perfect throw at a huge moment and the Detroit Lions badly needed that. What they needed even more though was another touchdown to extend their lead and get it back to a two-score game and that's exactly what they got just a few plays later those are big people

playing on that d-line have a good technically from the 33-yard line on a roll snapper deep got. Got a man. Touchdown. Marvin Jones. Talking about having to take shots. Having to connect. And there it is. 75 yards, 10 plays.

A big early third down conversion. Al, I'm really surprised on the coverage on this one. The Patriots all the time, when you go across the formation, that guy goes there and the corner just falls back to center field. They did not do it on this one. I don't know why. You look like Gilmore was almost expecting it. And the speed of Marvin Jones made him pay. You probably recognize right there where Collinsworth is referred to. He was referring to the cut concept where as we talked about a few shows ago in the

week one game against the Houston Texans if you get that deep crossing route the corner lets it go he fills in the middle of the field and the safety comes down to cover that. On this play, Marvin Jones is running this deep crossing route from left to right. Gilmore has him initially in coverage and he slows up for a second because he expects Harmon to cut that route to pick it up and he would fill back in the middle of the field. But Harmon instead goes the other way. Gilmore tries to recover the distance, but by then it is too late and Stafford hits the speedy wide receiver for a big touchdown. That would extend Detroit's lead back to 10 points, back to a 20-10 contest. The Patriots would still have a chance, though, to get back into this game after that touchdown

from Jones, excuse me, to Jones from Stafford. The Patriots have a possession, but unfortunately, they would go five plays, 16 yards, and punt. The Lions would tack on a field goal to make it a 23-10 game. The Patriots, they would punt three plays minus one yard on their next possession. But their defense would step up, forcing a punt, and getting the Patriots the ball back with 9-18 left in the fourth quarter at their own 26-yard line, trailing by 13. Like we had seen the week prior, the Patriots had a chance to cut this to a one-score game.

However, there would be yet another turnover. In week two, it was a fumble on a strip sack. Here in week three, it was an interception. You get into the games and you get into these situations, and it's easy. A lot of teams, you know, want to stay healthy, not practice that hard. That's not what these two teams are all about right now. Second and eight. Brady going deep downfield into double coverage, and it's intercepted.

Intended for Dorsett, but Starius big play slay with a very big play and a flag on the run back. And another one comes in at the end of the play. The interception effectively ended any chance of a Patriots comeback. Quarterback Tom Brady forces it in a deep post route to Phillip Dorsett. Into double coverage as you heard there from Al Michaels. And Darius Slay comes down with the interception. The Lions would tack on a field goal. Giving the game the final score of 26-10 and dropping the New England Patriots to a rather scary 1-2 record.

And as we'll talk about in tomorrow's show, before we break down the Week 4 game against the Miami Dolphins, if you remember back to the aftermath of this game, the Patriots were now 1-2, looking at potentially going 1-3 and dropping three games behind the Miami Dolphins, who were coming in at 3-0. It was a rather tenuous time in New England. Up next, we're going to talk about the pivotal plays of this game, as well as what we learned

about the New England Patriots in this Week 3 loss to the Detroit Lions. That's ahead on this Week 3 2018 Revisited Installment of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now. Let's quickly close out this 2018 Week 3 Revisited Installment of Locked on Patriots podcast. We're going to talk about two plays. First, the interception. Second, the Jones touchdown. Those were probably the two big plays.

You could talk about the 3rd and 9 conversion from Stafford to Galladay, but in reality, there's not really much to break down there. Matthew Stafford just made the perfect throw and the perfect time to get the momentum back for his team and for his offense. Now, the Jones touchdown. It's interesting that the season began in week one with Stephon Gilmore making the right read and decision on one of those cut play moments because we saw him in week one against the Houston Texans against that cross and route on that Yankee concept rotating towards the middle of the field letting the safety come down and then Gilmore was able to fill in the back half of the field rotate over and make a pivotal interception

that ended a Houston Texans scoring threat. Now here at Week 3, he's expecting the same thing, but instead, Deron Harmon goes in an entirely different direction. We don't know if it was a simple missed coverage call in the huddle or if it was just a momentary lapse of reason. A little Pink Floyd shout-out there from Deron Harmon. But either way it opened up a huge opportunity for the detroit lions to really capitalize on the momentum that

they had seized on that third and nine conversion because let's face it you heard the audio chris collinsworth on the bentley interception started to reference the 28 to 3 super bowl comeback and then when the patriots go down and score to make it a 13-10 game, you sitting on the couch, me sitting on my couch, we all thought Patriots were getting back into this game. They were going to find a way to pull this out. Yeah, it was an ugly start, but they're down three. They got a chance. You get the defense on the field. It's a third and nine, third and long. You get the stop here. You're thinking Tom Brady's going to go down the field. They're going to score. And suddenly, this is going to be a 17-13 game. And New England's going to seize this contest. But instead, you get the

big throw from Stafford. And then you get the fail on the cut call. Missed opportunity by the defense to get off the field on third down. Break down to the secondary on a huge pass play. And Detroit extends their lead again back to 20-10. And then the interception, really, I think this was just an opportunity of Tom Brady where he forces one into double coverage. And we see that every time, every now and again from Tom Brady. He'll get a chance to take a deep shot. He'll just force one into coverage. He came at a bad moment, but I don't think it's an example of a bad read or anything. The throw was off target. Yes, it was somewhat behind Philip Dorsett. It was just a forced throw at a very

inopportune moment. And that sequence of plays really sort of spelled doom for the Patriots. But let's not forget, this game started with three straight three and outs. We heard Scott Zolak at the intro sort of talking about how they couldn't run the ball. And in the aftermath of this game, that was one of the concerns that I and others had. It didn't seem like they could run the ball. It didn't seem like Sonny Michel was identifying holes and hitting them quickly enough. This week really touched off the Sonny Michel was a bust conversation. Of course, as we'll see in tomorrow's show, he was able to overcome that. Had a big game against the Miami Dolphins. But in terms of what we learned about this team, it was a frightful time.

And it was perhaps summed up by this sort of end of the game sequence, as we'll hear from Scott Zolak here in a moment. And it seemed like perhaps maybe this team wasn't quite as good as we thought they were white caught touchdown pass to pull the pats within 13 10 look at cordell patterson walking back to the line of scrimmage patterson walking back to the line as the final seconds will elapse here in detroit brady's trying to call a play and he's walking back to the line of scrimmage that says it all now the patriots are going to fly back to new england and right now the lions are riding high with the first win under head coach math patricia really dominating the patriots in every phase this evening as you could hear there from socia and golak it looks pathetic at the end and yes the game was out of hand they were not going to win that

game the die had been cast but it seemed like the patriots as so she said were dominated in every phase as golak said it was pathetic there at the end and the patriots had some soul searching to do perhaps what we learned most about this team didn't really come during week three it was the aftermath because as we'll see in the ensuing shows, the Patriots rebounded from this performance. Every once in a while as an athlete or as a team, sometimes you need to kind of get punched in the mouth to wake up and to realize that maybe you're not as good as you thought you were. And it was time to really put in the work, to step up, to get better, and to do the things week in and week out, practice in, practice out,

to get yourself to where you want to be. This week three contest, while it looked bad at the time and it looks bad on paper and it looks awful looking back at it right now, perhaps it was the kick to the face that the Patriots needed to get their season on track. And as we'll see in tomorrow's show, that season did get on track the following week

against the Miami Dolphins. We'll have that for you tomorrow here at Locked on Patriots. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.