Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - 2018 Revisited: Week 8 - Locked On Patriots June 3, 2019

Episode Date: June 3, 2019

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

New England, I'm happy for him, I know, absolutely. Guy carries a baseball around in his briefcase. Final 30 seconds, victory formation, and the snap is handled by the Patriots backup quarterback, Brian Hoyer. And now will slap hands with his teammates and their AFC East counterparts from Buffalo. Bills put up a fight defensively much of the night, but eventually the Patriots pull away to a 25-6 win.

And it's really the Patriots' defense that earns the collective players of the game honors, but we'll designate Trey Flowers this evening as the Mass General Cancer Center Everyday Amazing Player of the Game. Every day, every moment holds the opportunity for something amazing to happen. That's Mass General Cancer Center Everyday Amazing. Six tackles, pass broken up for Flowers. He really set the tone. Van Nooy had a couple of sacks. Forced fumble. Of course, McCourty had the pick six

with an 84-yard return, but it was Flowers who set the tone. It was, and I thought good defensive effort. I thought they squared things up after they got gashed a little bit to start the football game. A little wildcat thrown at them. I thought they settled down nicely on first down, but 29th win for your quarterback against

this franchise. That's a lot of wins against the Buffalo Bills for Tom Brady and company. And another win for the Patriots in October. It's an unbeaten October for the Pats. Now 4-0 this month, 5 in a row overall. 6-2 in a meeting in prime time again next weekend.

We'll be at it again. Another night game. Let's throw it to my man Beatle. He's had a long day. He and Jim Louth and company. Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady next weekend. We'll be at it again. Green Bay. Another night game. Let's throw it to my man, Beetle. He's had a long day. He and Jim Louth and company. Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady next Sunday. Now to two stars with equal luster, Mark Bertrand, Jim Murray, back in our studios in Dorchester.

Hey there, everybody. Welcome on in to the latest installment of 2018 Revisited, the off-season series here at Locked On Patriots, where we're going week by week through the 2018 season for your New England Patriots, a season that began with an opening day victory at home against the Houston Texans and ended with the Patriots raising up their sixth Lombardi trophy.

And as you probably surmised from the cold open, we're into week eight. That Monday night affair up in Buffalo. First Monday night game in Buffalo in a long time. This was a banged up but game franchise. Josh Allen was out for this game. Derek Anderson getting the start. And as you probably can surmise, not the best looking affair. But game franchise, Josh Allen was out for this game. Derek Anderson getting the start. And as you probably can surmise, not the best looking affair, but a win is a win. Before we dive into this show, this installment, your usual reminders.

Please do follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at a variety of places, including InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, one of the three SB Nation websites, in addition to Bleeding Green Nation, and of course, Pat's Pulpit. Also, do check out our great friends and sponsors, Hotels.com, Grip6Belts, and of course, Untuckit. Also, we got a great new sponsor that i'm excited to tell you about that's our new friends over at playbook products now let's talk about this game and this is now

the eighth part in this series and the previous seven installments have taken on somewhat of a familiar flavor for you by now we talk about some plays in particular, some highlights. I splice in some audio from either 98.5, the Sports Hub, and or CBS or Fox or whatever the case may be to break down some of the game's bigger plays. That takes up the first two segments of the show. Then in the third, we break down one or more plays in a more detailed fashion and then talk about what we learned. But let's face it. This was an ugly game.

Let me just run for you from the box score, the scoring from this game. 4.46 left in the first quarter. The Patriots get on the board first with a 25-yard field goal from Steven Gostowski, making it 3-0. 11.47 remaining in the second quarter. The Patriots get on the board again with a 40-yard field goal from Steven Gostowski making it 3-0. 1147 remaining in the second quarter. The Patriots get on the board again with a 40-yard field goal from Steven Gostowski. 542 remaining in the first half. The Patriots get on the board again with a 38-yard field goal from Steven Gostowski. 139 left in

the first half. The Bills get on the board finally. Stephen Hauschka with a 47-yard field goal. 7.39 left in the third quarter. The Bills tack on three more. A Stephen Hauschka 51-yard field goal, making it 9-6 New England. 2.03 left in the third quarter. The Patriots back on the scoreboard. A 25-yard field goal from Stephen Kostowski, making it 12-6. 9.58 remaining in the contest james white a one yard touchdown run the two-point conversion attempt failed the patriots with an 18 to 6 lead

and then finally 554 left in the game devon mccourty with an 84 yard interception return steven gostowski with the extra point giving you a final score of 25-6. Now, I could sit here and try to make something out of the first, shall we say, three-plus quarters of this game. But I don't think I can really make that interesting. So today's show is going to be a little bit different. We're going to have two segments. I'm going to talk about the game, and then we're going to break down some pivotal stuff in part two.

And I thought it would be interesting to sort of go back to that night. And so what you're about to hear is the opening portions, the first like three minutes or so, of the post-game glorious victory episode. And we'll talk about it on the side because it's kind of funny. Hello there everybody and welcome on into a, I guess we can call it a glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield slotted into the big chair just minutes after the New England Patriots finish off the Buffalo Bills 25-6

on Monday Night Football in a game that might have been the strangest 19-point victory I've ever seen in my life. We're going to have... We'll still do the great, the good, and the bad. It was a win. It just... I guess when I talked about this game over the weekend into Monday, you know, I said it was never going to really feel close,

but it was never going to really feel like a blowout, and that's kind of exactly what happened. You know, the Patriots, they have a 9-3 lead at the half. They've got a 12-3 lead into the fourth quarter. They get two fourth quarter touchdowns, one offensively, one defensively, to sort of pull away. But you never really got the sense that Buffalo was going to come out and take the lead or anything. Yeah, there were some sort of squeaky bum, as Sir Alex Ferguson would say, type of moments, but you never really get the felt that the game is truly in doubt. But the Patriots do just enough.

Divisional game, first Monday night game in Buffalo in 10 years. The environment was nutty. They're retiring Thurman Thomas' number at halftime. So it's a quality win. Divisional wins, even against a team that's 2-5, with an offense that's rather inept, are important. They're good to get. And so you like to get out of there with a win.

You get to 6-2. Now you've got a huge one Sunday night against the Green Bay Packers in a game which is already getting a ton of buzz. Obviously, NBC pulling out Michael Jordan to do the promo for that one. So that's going to be a fun one to look forward to. We're going to get going on that before you know it. Let's get into it. Start with the great from this 25-6 win.

And we'll go big picture first, as we have been doing. And I think you've got to start with the defense. It's hard to—look, on a night like this, when as an offense, you don't get 400 yards. You know, this Patriots offense ran 72 plays, gained 387 yards, just 5.4 yards per play. 311 of them coming via the pass, just 76, you know, rushing yards on 25 attempts for just a 3.0 average on the ground. Tonight was about the defense. This Patriots defense, I think, stepped it up. Obviously, you hold them to two field goals.

You don't let them get into the end zone. They came close on that throw to Kroon late in the game in the fourth quarter that was ruled upon further review and incompletion. Then you get the pick-sits, which, which of course we're going to talk about. I think this defense had the game plan that we expected. Stop the run. Stop Sean McCoy. Don't let him get going.

And make Derek Anderson go out there and beat you. And Derek Anderson goes 22 of 39 for 290 yards and a back break in pick six. So I think that was the game plan they wanted. It's interesting because, and this is a little bit of a window into how I operate. I never listen to my own shows, either this podcast or shows that I never go back and listen to them. Maybe I should. Maybe I should at least subscribe and listen to this show and boost the numbers a bit. But I don't do that.

And so it's rare for me to go back and hear an episode or even a portion of it. And listening to that opening, to that glorious victory episode recorded literally as the game ended. The game ends. I sit down. I collect my notes, my thoughts. I sketch out a brief outline, hit the record button, and we're off. One, I say you know a lot. And two, that sounded like a funeral. And granted, yes, I recorded it at the dining room table at around midnight. The rest of the family is asleep. I don't want to be too loud. But at the same time, the Patriots just won a game. And I could barely hit like a two on the excitement meter

let alone get close to a five or a six forget about a ten for this game it was an ugly win and I could barely generate any excitement to talk about the victory it was a defensive game that the Patriots won it was an ugly victory that the Patriots won and yes as I allude to as I talk about it was a divisional game that they won a road divisional game in front of a national tv audience any win is a good win but ask Bill Belichick and he will tell you divisional games are tough road divisional games are even tougher so even if it's a bad team even if it's a depleted offense even if they got derrick anderson out there to get a w is big but at the same time this victory coming off of what

we've seen the week prior when we weren't quite sure who the bears were and it they were a yard away from potentially losing that one two sort of uninspiring road performances kind of left you thinking just what is this team and yes i would go on that night and say this is a good defense they stop the run they don't break you get some red zone trips but you're forced to settle for field goals usually that's a recipe for losing but thanks to your own defense

and making some big plays and yes the huge pick six that we will break down it's an ugly win but you get a win and we weren't quite sure at this moment what this team really was. But as I'll talk about in a minute, perhaps this game was the ultimate example of what this team really is. Because think about the way this season ended think about super bowl 53 an ugly win but when you really want it up next we're going to break down that pick six and we're going to

talk about it a little bit more about what we learned about this team but as i mentioned just a moment ago if there's if you could imagine for a moment it's the absolute sort of dream gift for a guy like me an x's and o's guy a guy that loves breaking plays down that literally is now doing that for a profession breaking down x's and o's if you could draw up sort of in a laboratory somewhere the ideal gift for a guy like me who might be known to hoist an adult beverage or two at times. Imagine getting, say, coasters, slate coasters, with breakdowns of important historic plays on them. That's what you can get, thanks to our great friends over at Playbook Products.

Look, where were you when Butler picked off Russell Wilson in Super Bowl XLIX? I can tell you right where I was. I was in the living room that is about 60 feet away from where I'm sitting right now, sitting next to my wife. And in the moments leading up to it, I'm thinking it's Tyree all over again. But the game doesn't end that way. They flip the script. They get the pick.

They seal a Super Bowl victory. Now you can have that play memorialized on almost anything you want. You can get it, for example, on coffee mugs, posters, phone cases, drawstring bags, and, of course, these slate beer coasters. Thanks to our friends over at Playbook Products. Playbook Products commemorates the greatest plays in all major sports for over 150 teams. They even have college football and basketball. They have been featured in ESPN and on the Rainer.

And these are fantastic gifts for Father's Day, for your man cave, or just plain old sports fanatics. As I said, the Slate coasters, coffee mugs, posters, phone cases, drawstring bags, and more. These are perfect for Father's Day. My family has already been told that set of the most famous plays in Patriots history, that slate coasters set. I'm really hoping I get that for Father's Day. Again, perfect for Father's Day. You can get 15% off with the code LOCKEDON, L-O-C-K-E-D-O-N. Rest your pint on history. The greatest plays in sports, thanks to PlaybookProducts.com. Intercepted! intercepted Devin McCourty

in stride running past Lyman Anderson with a blocker in front can't get to him how about an 85 yard pick six 85 yard pick six The Patriots are so good when they get in the red zone area and Anderson, you know, they had a third and 15 You're gonna see in there. Here's the 40 he's gonna come across his read his eyes Go Belichick says he's a smart football player. It's covered to Anderson stared at it the entire way

He was thinking he had to get it all on that third down when really with the situation being in what it was It was four down territory the Patriots had gone 40 games 40 games without a defensive touchdown. That was the longest streak in the NFL. Devin McCourty just changed that. There's the ESPN Monday Night Crew in their call of the Devin McCourty pick six in the fourth quarter that put this game away. Joe Tessitore, Jason Witten there on the call. And that's the

play that we're going to break down. And it's important to remember that that came in an 18-6 game. And yes, it's hard to really picture that the Bills were going to come back and win this game. But there's 5.54 left. It's a 3rd-and-15 situation where the Bills have in the football obviously just outside the red zone. They're facing 3rd-and-15 at the Patriots' 30-yard line. If they come away with a touchdown there and, say, just kick the extra point, get 7,

it's 18-13 with 5 minutes to go. And given how well Buffalo's defense had kind of played in this game and stopped the run in this game, you could envision a scenario where the Patriots can't run out the clock. I mean, the Patriots' run game on this night, they ran the ball, let's see here, 25 times for 76 yards. Not exactly the most stellar rushing performance. And so you could make the case that if the Bills get seven here,

this is a different ball game and the Patriots defense would need to step up. But as it is, the Patriots defense does step up and they do on this play. And it's a very simple simple play and breakdown the Patriots just run as you heard Jason Witten say cover two that's it it's nothing new mother nurse shattering nothing Derek Anderson hasn't seen before and what are the bills run they basically run four verts out of a three by one formation. They've got one receiver to the left, three to the right. Charles Clay is the inside of the number three receiver as we term them. And when you're that person, when you're running four verticals out of a three by one look, that inside receiver

typically runs what we call the bender, which means he runs a vertical route, breaking and aiming across the formation, across the field, starting on one side, and your aiming point is usually the opposite hash mark. Get there on a diagonal and then get vertical. The tricky part here is that is often also termed a middle of the field open or closed read. Obviously, you will run that sort of path using that landmark if the middle of the field is what we call closed, meaning there's a free safety, say cover one, cover three, right in the middle of the field. That's where you want to get. You want to cross that player's face and then get vertical. It's different if the middle of the field is what we call open, say cover two. That means there's no safety in the middle of the field is what we called open, say cover two. That means there's no safety in the middle of the field.

There's too high. If you run sort of that landmark, you're just going to run right into the safety. And so typically there you would see that player sort of just try to split the safeties. Yeah, you're still going to kind of work towards the other side, but you don't want to go all that way because you're just going to run right into a guy. So you kind of split the safeties. The thing that happens on this play, though, is that you would need, in this case, that backside receiver, the one guy by himself, to really stress that safety, to make that safety think, look, I can't worry about that number three

guy crossing my face. I have to trust that the player underneath look, I can't worry about that number three guy crossing my face. I have to trust that the player underneath, because it's covered two men underneath, in this case Patrick Chun, is going to cover this guy because I have to help on this vertical route because our corner is threatened by it. Instead, it's Kelvin Benjamin

who's running that row. And he's not really stressing Stephon Gilmore too much. And so Devin McCourty now, he has Kelvin Benjamin to his right. Devin McCourty, Stephon Gilmore has basically got him locked down with a good cushion over the top of him so he doesn't have to worry about it. So now he can look back to see what's coming his way and what he sees coming his way is Patrick Chun running with Charles Clay on this route that's coming across the formation again it's four verticals he knows the other vertical from the

number two receiver he's got the other safety over the top of that the coverage is good this is now the only route he has to worry about so he can just do two things keep one eye sort of on that route and the other eye on Derek Anderson who for a veteran quarterback does absolutely nothing to look anywhere else doesn't even give Benjamin or any other receiver a cursory glance he just thinks I've got cover two I've got this route splitting it. I'm going to trust that it's going to be open. And Devin McCourty is just waiting to break on it. And he does. And he picks it off, steps in front of it.

Convoy of blockers in front of him. Gets Derek Anderson twisted around. Pick six. Ball game. Now, again, there wasn't a lot to take away from this game that's it but the bigger picture as i alluded to was this this patriots team is capable of winning an ugly contest this patriots game team was capable of on a night when perhaps their offense didn't have the best game, didn't have a complete performance.

Tom Brady, no touchdowns, no picks. Just an 85.8 quarterback rating. Nathan Peterman went 2-for-2 for 23 yards, and he had the best quarterback rating of anybody on the night. Not that quarterback rating means anything, but it's A-gauge. On a night when the offense didn't have their A game, the defense was able to keep the other team out of the end zone and enable them to win ugly. Does that sound like anything that happened, say, later in the season? I mean, this was a night when the offense got one

Russian touchdown, a short one-yard run for a touchdown, some field goals, and then the defense comes up huge. That was perhaps the ultimate recipe for this team in the season's ultimate game. And so while at the time, as you heard it in my voice, this was what felt like an underwhelming performance, maybe out of all the games we have talked about to date and all the games we have yet to talk about, maybe this Monday night was the ultimate sort of foreshadowing event for what would become of this team. The offense didn't have it, but they got enough. They got a short touchdown run.

They got some field goals, and the defense stepped up huge. Sounds a lot like Super Bowl 53 to me. So that would do it for today. Quick show. Not a lot to talk about. Next week, I mean, the next game we're going to talk about

and the next installment of this series is another Sunday night national TV game. This was a Monday night. This is now a Sunday night against a team in the Green Bay Packers that were coming to town that was entering it 3-3-1. Obviously, they didn't have the best record coming in, but it's still the Green Bay Packers.

Michael McCarthy seemed to be coaching for his life at this point. It's still Aaron Rodgers. They were ginning this one up, Brady versus Rodgers, so there was a ton of buzz about it. That was going to be a big game for them. And then they would get a bye. And so it was going to be a great little test for them. This game and then the bye and then what happened after.

Another odd little stretch and sequence to this season. And a season filled with them. But that will be on the next installment. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.