Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Anger Management with Murph: Pats/Fins Recap - 12/30/19

Episode Date: December 30, 2019

The Miami Dolphins dropped the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots into the wild-card playoff round with a stunning 27-24 victory Sunday. Thomas Murphy joins host Mike D’Abate to recap the action and frustration from Gillette Stadium. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello to all you Foxborough faithful, and welcome to your Anger Management Monday episode of Lockdown Patriots, your daily home for news, notes, analysis, and the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions, the New England Patriots. My name is Mike DeBate, and I am your host of Lockdown Patriots, which of course is a part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Please feel free to reach out to me on Twitter at MDABATEFPC, and be sure to follow Locked On Patriots on Twitter at LO underscore Patriots. Well, folks, that was not what Patriots Nation expected.

The 4-11 Miami Dolphins dropped your defending Super Bowl champions into the wildcard playoff round when Dolphins quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick tossed a five-yard touchdown pass to tight end Mike Kosicki and topped off a stunning 27-24 victory for the Dolphins on Sunday in Foxborough. And few, if any, saw this coming, folks. A first-round bye almost seemed like a foregone conclusion, especially after the Patriots won their first eight games. But they would split their next eight, including two home losses, which is a very rare occurrence in Foxborough, and as a result, the Patriots finished the season 12-4, and there is no sugarcoating this, folks. It was a tough game to watch and a bad loss to take. They controlled their own destiny. With a win, they would have secured a first round bye, but they were unable

to capitalize on a lackluster effort on both sides of the ball. Tom Brady did not have his best day at all, folks. Brady finished 16 of 29 for 221 yards with two touchdowns and an interception, and that interception was costly. Returned for a pick six. We'll get into that in just a moment. Tom did reach a couple of nice milestones in this game, though.

He did go over 4,000 yards for the 11th time in his career. That ties him with Phillip Rivers for fourth on the all-time list. His start on Sunday also marked his 16th season, starting 16 games. That tied Peyton Manning for second all-time. Brett Favre still holds that record of 17 seasons with 16 starts. But that was about the extent of the good news in Foxborough on Sunday.

And folks, you're all angry. There's no question about it. And you need a little help with some anger management. And because of that, I've welcomed in my main green man and great friend of the program, Thomas Murphy, to lend some insight, wisdom, counsel, honesty, and maybe even a little venting mixed in as well. I know you always love to hear what Murph has to say, so stay tuned, folks. We'll be talking about all of this game's hot topics, including Tom Brady's throwing issues, Stephon Gilmore's difficulty covering Devontae Parker,

Bill Belichick's decision to run out the clock at the end of the first half, and of course, what we can expect to see from your New England Patriots on wildcard weekend in less than one week's time. But first, we start with a recap of Sunday's action from Foxborough, and the Dolphins struck first in this game. With time winding down in the first quarter, the Finns drove to the Patriots' 9-yard line before the 12-play 80-yard drive ended with a 27-yard field goal by Jason Sanders. That put Miami in front 3-0.

And the Dolphins continued to make it clear from the outset that they were not going to allow the Patriots to coast in this one. They took a 10-0 lead in the second quarter when former Patriot Eric Rowe stepped in front of a Tom Brady pass to Julian Edelman, returned it 35 yards for a touchdown. It was Brady's first pick six since 2017, and his first career pick six against the Dolphins. And at that point, you could hear a pin drop in Gillette Stadium, folks. It was actually the first time since the Dolphins had led the Patriots by double digits

since week eight of the 2013 season. New England, incidentally, won that game 27-17. But despite their struggles, the Patriots kept climbing their way back. With 5.51 left in the second quarter, Nick Falk hit a 25-yard field goal, which finally put the Patriots on the board and cut the lead to 10-3. Three minutes later, they would tie it by capping a five-play 82-yard drive with a four-yard touchdown run by Sonny Michel. Michel's touchdown was set up by a beautiful 50-yard pass from Tom Brady to Philip Dorsett along the sideline.

It was Dorsett's first catch since Week 13, and a beauty of a catch by Dorsett and a great throw by Tom Brady. And that appeared to swing the momentum back in favor of the hometown team. After the Patriots' defense forced a Miami punt, the Patriots' offense would get the ball back with a minute 40 left in the second quarter. But in a bit of a surprise and a move that will be second-guessed as much, if not more, than 4th and 2 against the Colts in 2009, the Patriots chose to sit on the ball from their own 25, didn't use one of their three remaining timeouts, and let the clock run down to the end of the half.

And don't worry, folks, I'll be delving more into that subject with Thomas Murphy in just a moment. But the Patriots would have the ball to open the second half, and they opened the second half with a whimper. Miami, however, would not, and they returned with some of the fire they showed earlier in the game. Receiver Albert Wilson tossed a 20-yard pass to running back Patrick Laird, and just four plays later, Fitzpatrick ran it in from two yards to put Miami in front 17-10. But with the Pats trailing 17-10 in the third quarter, they went deep into the playbook

when Brady connected with linebacker and part-time fullback Alandon Roberts for a 38-yard touchdown, and you could hear it at Gillette. The minute that the Patriots' public address announcer announced that number 52, which is Roberts' number by the way, folks, was declared as eligible, the crowd could sense it, and that's exactly what they got. And just like that, Gillette Stadium was resurrected, and the score was now tied at 17. The Dolphins would answer, however. They drove inside the Patriots 20 early in the fourth quarter, but they settled for a 32-yard field goal by Jason Sanders. That gave them a 20-17 lead with 8.29 remaining. The Pats would keep volleying for momentum. Brandon Bolden gave the Patriots good field position,

taking the ensuing kickoff and returning it 38 yards to the New England 40. Rex Burkhead then rushed 14 yards on the first play 40. Rex Burke had then rushed 14 yards on the first play to get the Patriots across the 50. Brady would then complete a short pass to Benjamin Watson, followed by a 20-yard strike to Mohamed Sanu. Three plays later, the Pats would take their first lead of the game. Brady threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to James White, and that put the New England Patriots in front 24-20 with 3.53 left. But that was not enough, folks. Ryan Fitzpatrick was given chance after chance by the Patriots' defense,

and he took advantage of his good fortune. Give him credit, Fitzpatrick was great in this game. He led the Dolphins on a 13-play, 75-yard drive that included him recovering his own fumbled snap and completing a 24-yard pass to Devontae Parker. And Parker was another force in this game. He had eight receptions, 137 yards. Fitzpatrick finished 28-41 for 320 yards and a touchdown, which I stated when I opened the show was the five-yard touchdown pass to Mike Kosicki.

27-24 was your final in Foxborough on Sunday, the Miami Dolphins defeating the New England Patriots. And as a result, the Pats not only finish the season at 12-4, they will have to play on opening weekend of the postseason for the first time since 2009. Now, the Patriots have never made the Super Bowl while playing in the wildcard round. But you know what they say, folks? There's a first time for everything. And if there's one coach, one quarterback, and one franchise that has been proven to

be able to handle adversity against the toughest odds, it's Bill Belichick, one quarterback, and one franchise that has been proven to be able to handle adversity against the toughest odds? It's Bill Belichick, Tom Brady, and your New England Patriots. But how tough will this road be? Well, to take a deeper dive into the Foxborough fizzle that did happen yesterday, and to take a look at the immediate future of your New England Patriots, I will be welcoming in Murph in just a moment. But before I do so, I just wanted to take a moment to tell you all that I'm concerned about you.

Yes, all of you listening out there. After all, you invite me into your lives each and every day. The least I can do is make sure that you are taking good care of yourself, and that includes having a good meal. Maybe you're facing a very long day at work or a tough day at school. Well, treat yourself to the meal you deserve and have your favorite restaurants come to you with DoorDash. Ordering is easy. Open the DoorDash app, choose what you want to eat,

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DoorDash app and enter promo code LOCKEDON. That's $5 off your first order when you download the DoorDash app and enter promo code LOCKEDON. That's $5 off your first order when you download the DoorDash app from the App Store and enter promo code LOCKEDON. Don't forget, that's promo code LOCKEDON for $5 off your first order from DoorDash. Folks, based on what we saw yesterday at Gillette Stadium, there was only one man that could lend the type of insight and honesty that we are all looking for in Patriots Nation right now. Quite frankly, there's only one man I would share the microphone with today on what's usually a solo recap show for me on Mondays,

but a monster loss requires some monster analysis, and that's why he's here. He's a columnist extraordinaire for DieHardBostonSportsFans.com. Along with our mutual friend Steve Balistrieri, he compiles one half of the hosting tandem of the One Patriots Place podcast, which, next to Locked On Pats, is my favorite podcast. He is my main green man, Thomas Murphy. Murph, welcome back to Locked On Patriots.

Thank you, my friend. Thank you. It's always a joy to be here. And I need a little joy today. I really do. We truly do. I think we all do in Patriots Nation. And you know what, Murph? Let's just get right into what the hell happened in Foxborough on Sunday.

And we'll start with the main man. And we'll start with Tom Brady. In my opinion, Murph, when I look at this game, I saw Brady staying glued to Julian Edelman a lot. Edelman really struggled to get open. He was double-covered at times, and there were times where I was noticing, especially more in today's game than I've seen in the past, where with Julian being double-covered, it opened up some opportunities for other receivers. It just seemed like Tom was either apprehensive to throw to them

or he didn't see them. I know that there were probably some concerns of his with some dropped passes by some receivers early on, but it seemed like it really reared its ugly head a little bit more in this game. And Tom had his accuracy issues too, again, especially in the first half. The pick six, I think it was as bad of a throw as I've ever seen Brady throw.

And when he did find the right receiver, he often either overthrew them or underthrew them. And I point to Mohamed Sanu opening the end zone during a third down in the second quarter. Brady fired too high. The Patriots had to settle for a field goal. And as a result, Tom's been getting his share of criticism across Patriots social media right now. In your opinion, how much of the blame pie should be served to TB12

for this loss on Sunday? 40%. I'll give him 40%. That's how bad a game Tom had. As you mentioned, he missed Sanu completely there. The pick six was unforgivable. How could you not see that? You know, not only to throw a pick six, but to throw it there and to Eric Rowe.

You know, of all people, somebody that I made fun of last week, you know, just to stick it to me, you know, it was my fault. It's all karma coming back to get me because I'm like, yeah, we're really not worried about Eric Rowe. But, no, I'm going to give him a huge piece of the pie, at least half, if not more. Tom had a terrible game today. And part of that was the game plan. I didn't like the game plan from the get-go. They really laid out a perfect game plan, of course, in my keys to the Patriots' victory,

and I was ignored for a great deal of time. I think that they went away from the running game when it was working and tried to get in sync a passing game before the playoffs kicked off, and it just was not working. The run game was working. It was working to a T a week ago, and then the pass game, Tom looked better than he had all year long because they were setting up stuff with play-action passing, and they got away from that this week, and I thought it was terrible.

Yeah, I completely agree, as usual. And the reason why I agree is not to pander to the man, folks. It's because he's always accurate, and I think you hit the nail right on the head. There were times where the Patriots' offense looks like they were starting to figure things out a little bit. It almost looked like, you know, with opening up the play-action, getting the running game going, finding that rhythm a little bit. I thought Rex had a couple of nice rips. I thought Sony had a couple of nice rips. It seemed like they were trying to do that, but every time they took a step forward, I think they took two steps backwards. And yeah, I mean, it's tough for Patriots fans to sit here and admit that Tom Brady was a big reason why the team lost

the game, but you have to take a look at the evidence and you look at the game that he had, and he did have his accuracy issues. It wasn't all about not having time in the pocket. I actually thought the offensive line played pretty well in this game. I thought they gave him a little bit of time. I thought they held up pretty well against Miami's front seven, and we haven't given a whole lot of praise to the offensive line this year it hasn't always been warranted but i think this is one of those rare times where they did

play well enough to keep the patriots in the game so a lot of adjustments need to be made on the offensive side of the ball without question let's move to the defensive side of the ball for just a moment and i think to me the biggest surprise of the game in terms of matchups was Devontae Parker getting the better of Stephon Gilmore. That's something I did not expect. Parker finished with eight catches, 137 yards receiving, and he beat Stephon with a lot of crosses and a lot of fades. And I think in one of the most costly plays of the game, Parker won the battle on that jump ball for the 24 yards on the second and 12

on the Dolphins' final offensive drive. And we usually do not see Stephon get beat like that. He's been locked down all year long. When you look at this game and you take a retrospective look at this game now, do you think it was simply Parker's roots that really confused Stephon or gave him problems? Or was this just a situation where Stephon really was in decent position to do what he needed to do and he just had a bad game? I thought he was in decent position for most of the game,

but a big part of it was how they were playing defense against him. Man coverage was soft. It was a soft man coverage when they were in man coverage. You saw the guys playing well off the line of scrimmage. When you're playing somebody like Devontae Parker, a kid that's really come into his own this year, you have to get up on the line and body him. This is a problem that we have seen multiple times this year when Gilmore is going up against a fast, large receiver that is not a pushover.

He's somebody that plays a very finesse game, that he needs to be able to do his little wraparound move. He needs to be able to hug somebody's hip and get in there. And with some of the bigger wide receivers, not that Parker's the biggest man on the planet, don't get me wrong, that's not what I'm saying, but he's a bigger, stronger kid. And yes, it led to problems. And part of the problem was the fact that he was not getting help over the top. They didn't adjust to it at all.

And you can't play off on him. You cannot let Parker get off the line unencumbered and untouched. There has to be that split second of

extra time that you're going to force the opposing quarterback, Fitzpatrick, to hold the ball. And that really came back to haunt the Patriots' defense. I thought it was a terrible defensive plan today. Yeah, I agree. I think, again, I think that the defensive plan to me just seemed like this team was not,

I don't want to say ill-prepared because I don't necessarily believe it was ill-preparedness. I just think that the game plan itself just wasn't conducive to shutting down what Miami does well. I mentioned here on Locked On Patriots on Friday in my pregame is that the passing game was the one area that the Patriots really needed to be concerned about with Miami. This passing game could catch fire. Fitzpatrick was capable of having the type of game we saw him have on Sunday. Parker was capable of giving Stephon Gilmore problems, despite Gilmore having really his number for the better part of the times that these two teams have faced off against each other.

So I think in a lot of ways what happened is exactly what was the Patriots' worst nightmare. And it surprised me that they weren't a little bit better equipped to be able to handle what Miami threw at them in this game. And credit Miami. They came to play without any question. They really did a great job of playing under Brian Flores. And you knew Brian was going to have this team ready, and you knew he was going to have this team primed for this game,

really surprised me at the lack of urgency that the Patriots showed. And we will get into that in just a moment. But, my friend, we're going to get into the whole white elephant in the room right now, and that's the final drive of the half. The Patriots get the ball back after forcing the Miami punt. They decide to sit on the ball. Other than just the smattering, fans were not happy with that. And the team went to the locker room tied 10-10.

They had all three of their timeouts. Now, after the game, Bill had said that the team would have used some of those timeouts if the team had moved the ball a little bit better at the beginning part of that drive. But to me, I think it seemed to me like Bill was more worried about quickly compiling those negative plays on offense, leaving Miami possibly with a chance to even get the ball back if he used timeouts, and a lot of time left on the clock. But this move is really being second-guessed by analysts and a ton of fans. You see it, I see it, it's all over the place. When you look at this, do you feel that this was inexcusable on Bill's part,

or was it just strategy that didn't work out the way you'd hoped? No, it's hard to call somebody who has as many rings as Bill does and anything that he chooses to do is inexcusable. He usually does make the right call, but it was a terrible call. I was wondering why they weren't calling timeouts sooner, before they had the ball, when they made the stop. I'm screaming at the TV, call timeout, call timeout. And then not to do it, just try to run up through the middle there.

Tommy Curran had said after the game that the Patriots normally will do that. They'll try to run a play, and if they get a big chunk play on first down, they'll call timeout and see what they can do, and it didn't happen. The first timeout should have been burned before that. It should have been burned at the time before the punt. It was really dumbfounding. I don't understand why, especially when you were having trouble putting points on the board. You were in a tie game.

You had a chance to at least get three there and move the ball down. There was enough time. I've seen Tom Brady win Super Bowls with less time on the clock than that. And there was something on the line here. And we all have to gear up and watch a game on Saturday instead of relaxing or taking our wives out to brunch or something. And that pisses me off a whole bunch. This team needed this week off.

They needed the rest. Yeah, they absolutely did. When you look at Tom's elbow and you look at the difficulties that he's had, we've all seen the reports. You and I both know that Mike Giardi of NFL Network is one of the most reliable sources in the NFL, especially when it comes to this team. So if it comes from Mike, I'm putting a great deal of stock in it. There's probably a lot going on with that elbow, and we'll probably know a lot more

after the season. I doubt we'll find out any more than what the Patriots or Tom want us to know beforehand. But also, we know the issues that Julian is having with his knee. You know, Jason McCourty, Jonathan Jones all have great injuries. Terrence Brooks wasn't there today with a groin injury. There are a lot of guys that are really struggling, and especially when you have a team this banged up, that bye week when it was within your grasp needs to happen.

Again, you mentioned urgency, and that is something that I wanted to discuss today with you as well, and I'm so glad we got into that topic because there was something on the line. And again, it's hard for guys like you and me to sit here and be armchair officials or armchair coaches and question what Bill Belichick does when he has the resume that he has. But this surprised me. Usually I'm a big in-Bill-we-trust guy. Anybody that reads my material or listens to this show knows that I put a great deal of stock

into what this man calls, and I give him the benefit of the doubt more often than not. This is one time that I really did shake my head and was wondering why. I know the arguments are going to be there, and I know there are some good ones in terms of why he may not have wanted to do that and why the strategy was good, but I, for one, just don't believe that this was one of his better decisions, and I think it did come back to bite them. And like you said, we are gearing up now for a wild card weekend game, which is not something we're used to here in New England, and it does lead me into my last question for you today, buddy, just nicely, and that is Mike Vrabel and the Tennessee Titans are coming to town next weekend, and the Patriots usually don't have a game on their hands during wild card weekend,

but this is going to be a tough one. It's not just going to be a game that they have to get through, move on, and then focus on the divisional round. This is going to be a tough game for the New England Patriots. Ryan Tannehill has injected life into this Titans offense. Derrick Henry is the type of back that has given the Pats problems consistently this year. On your big screen scale of 1-10, how worried should the Patriots be about these Tennessee Titans this coming weekend?

A 7.5. A 7.5. If not greater. You hit the nail on the head, Mike. When you're talking about this Tennessee Titans team, this is the last team I wanted to see. I would have rather seen Buffalo for a third time. I would have rather have faced the Texans

again, which we'll probably end up having to do anyway. But I would have rather done it in the week in the next round after somebody else has been beaten up this coming Sunday and then they have to come back and face a rest of Tom Brady and a two-week game

plan instead of a one-week game plan. A lot of people have rightfully said that the Patriots have never won a Super Bowl when they've had to play on this team. There aren't many teams that have. We're talking about three or four teams in the history of this game that have been able to do that. There's been some more over the past year since they expanded it, but other than that, it's a really difficult road to steal a line from the Super Tramp

song. They're taking the long way home. That's not always a good thing. It really isn't, especially in football. I would be highly worried about this game because like you said, this running attack and this running back is somebody that has given them fits in the past, and I think they will again this Sunday.

And the entire team on the defensive side of the ball is going to have to come with a lot more than they did today. Yeah, they absolutely will, without any question. The routes need to be sharper. Tom Brady's accuracy needs to be better. I mean, we said this, and that's not something that usually is a problem for Tom. It's usually either, oh, he doesn't have time, or he made a tough decision, or there were things where he scrambled, he was out of the pocket.

But he had all the time in the world today. He had a lot of time in the world today, exactly, and that's something that makes you wonder about the condition of that elbow and the accuracy issues But he had all the time in the world today. He had a lot of time in the world today, exactly, and that's something that makes you wonder about the condition of that elbow and the accuracy issues that he had today, but hopefully, we live in hope here in New England. We're hoping that everything will be at least okay and they can give

it their best effort because they're going to need their best effort to take care of this Tennessee team. This is a much better team in the second half. I'd put them up there in the top echelon with the top teams in the league in terms of how they played the second half of the season. They really did, and credit Mike Vrabel, who's

a guy who knows how to coach against the Bill Belichick team. We saw the Tennessee Titans take it to the New England Patriots and beat them last year, albeit in Tennessee, but this is a game that in Foxborough now that the New England Patriots are going to need to play their best game of the year in order to move on. So as the week progresses here on lockdown, we'll continue to keep you updated.

But the wisdom and counsel of my main green man today is something that we were all in desperate need of, folks. And I'm so glad that I brought him in today. Again, Murph, I thank you so much for joining me today. Folks, you should already be doing this, but for any of our new listeners, please follow the man on Twitter at TeamMurph207. The columns, including the monster keys, a little piece of tidbit here. If you just follow the monster keys, Patriots would probably be like 15-1 right now. I'm just spitballing out there.

I'm trying to tell you the way it works and the way it is, but the columns, the monster keys each and every week must reads for game time and never miss an episode of one Patriots place with Murph and Steve Balistrieri. Once again, my friend, thank you, my good man. And enjoy the week and we'll definitely be seeing you again here on lockdown Patriots shortly. Mike, thank you very much. It's always a pleasure

to be here, buddy. And go Pats. Absolutely. Go Pats. And before we wrap up here today on Locked On Patriots, remember the Patriots are not the only ones that are looking for improved performance to kick off 2020. In fact, I bet you're going into 2020 thinking about what you didn't get around to in 2019 and your goals for the new year. So if you want to work towards being

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a Blinkist premium membership. That's Blinkist spelled B-L-I-N-K-I-S-T. Blinkist.com slash locked on to get 25% off and a seven-day free trial. Again, that's Blinkist.com to get 25% off and a 7 day free trial again that's Blinkist.com and as for me I will be back tomorrow with your questions as I open the Locked On Patriots mailbag for my third

installment of Takeaway Tuesday comments, quandaries, venting it's your feedback and your stage so stay tuned for that as always make sure to join me each and every day here on the Locked On Patriots podcast and subscribe to Locked On Patriots via your preferred podcast provider. Once again, I'm Mike DeBate. I thank Thomas Murphy for his time and insight and his appearance today,

but most of all, I thank you so much for listening and for staying locked in to Locked On Patriots. Keep the faith, Pats Nation, and have a great day, everybody.