Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Don’t Panic: Patriots-Texans Recap - 12/2/19

Episode Date: December 2, 2019

The New England Patriots are 10-2 and hold one of the best records in the NFL. However, that has not stopped fans and media alike from declaring the sky to be falling above Foxboro, Massachusetts. Our host, Mike D’Abate breaks down the action from the Pats 28-22 loss to the Houston Texans on Sunday. He also reveals why it is not panic time in Patriots Nation, just yet. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello to all you Foxborough faithful and welcome to your No Need to Panic Manic Monday episode of Locked On 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 Locked On Patriots, which of course is a part of the Locked On 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, it started, and you knew it would.

The victory lap being taken by the egomaniacal hot take machine that is sports morning shows on cable TV, while they're lining up to sing Ding Dong the Witch is Dead. The Patriots have suffered a regular season loss in December, and as a result, especially if you listen to the cynical, unsilent majority out there, the Patriots absolutely cannot win a Super Bowl if they lose a game in December, right? I mean, that's what everyone's saying on TV.

It has to be true, doesn't it? Or does it? Because unlike some of the idiotic narrative dribble you're going to hear, I give you December 16th, 2018. Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and a late-season matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers. The Patriots lost that game 17-10, and as the Joker would say, everyone lost their minds. Tom Brady's stat line made him ready for the glue factory in the eyes of most people. 25-36, 279 yards, a touchdown, and an interception. After that game, the Pats were done.

But you know what, folks? They weren't done, because the Patriots would not go on to lose another game. They won their next five straight, the last two of the regular season, and three in the playoffs, including Super Bowl 53. So once again, as they have numerous times in the past, the Patriots went from being done to Super Bowl champions. But there's another narrative out there right now, especially because right now the Patriots sit at the number two seed in the playoffs.

There are so many out there that'll tell you that the Patriots cannot possibly win in the playoffs unless they have home field throughout at Gillette Stadium. They can't win on the road. You can already hear it being said, and it'll only continue as the week goes on. According to this quote-unquote analysis, I guess analysis is the proper word that I'll use here, but that analysis would have you believe that a good young quarterback and a high-powered offense will destroy this team in the postseason, especially if they're not at home, because after all, the Patriots can never win a Super Bowl when they've

had to play away from Gillette Stadium in the playoffs. That's right, folks, that was actually said this morning on Hot Take TV. Well, all it takes is a memory that can handle more than two thoughts at a time, even when one of those thoughts is, duh, to remember that the Patriots went into Arrowhead Stadium last year, faced an insurmountable offense, and a young quarterback that had been canonized in the national media, and they won 37-31 in overtime against the Kansas City Chiefs, again, away from Gillette Stadium.

Now, will that happen this year? No one knows yet. against the Kansas City Chiefs, again, away from Gillette Stadium. Now, will that happen this year? No one knows yet. After all, comparing two seasons is never a like for like. And for the record, I believe that the Baltimore Ravens are a better team this year than the Kansas City Chiefs were last year. So New England does have its hands full. And make no mistake about it, that means that a playoff faceplant could be in the works if the Patriots don't improve their performance.

But Pats fans, this team is not exactly sailing on the Titanic here. As much as people would like to believe it is, it was a loss. There are a lot of areas to criticize, but this team is far from being ready for burial. You still have a defense that will be better when it's fully healthy. And again, that flu bug that affected this team is not an excuse, folks. It's a fact. And they do have an offense that's not as abysmal as some will have you believe. There is a lot of football still to be played, and there is enough time for the Patriots to get back on track. Look, folks, I assure you that I'm not looking at last night's loss through rose-colored glasses. There is reason to criticize, but not to panic. Not just yet.

And I will discuss why a little bit later in the show today. But first, let's take a look at last night's action from NRG Stadium in Houston. Now, the Patriots entered this game needing a win to be the first AFC team to clinch a playoff spot, and that was made possible by Oakland's loss to Kansas City earlier in the day. But the Houston Texans gave their best Sonny Corleone impression and said, not this time, Consigliere. And while most people seemingly want to draw and quarter the Patriots for playing poor football last night, maybe we should be giving some credit to the Houston Texans, who had a very good game plan last night and some pretty good execution.

Deshaun Watson threw three touchdown passes, had the first touchdown reception of his career, and the Texans really frustrated Tom Brady in the Pats offense in a 28-22 victory over New England in Houston last night. Now, Watson did put in a good performance. He had 234 yards passing, did throw the three touchdown passes of 14, 13, and 35 yards respectively. That allowed Houston to build a 21-3 lead over New England's vaunted defense, and that set the Patriots back big time. As for Tom Brady, his stat line is really not as horrific as some people would have

you believe today. In fact, the Patriots did show some signs of being able to move the ball, especially in the final four minutes when Tom completed two of his three touchdown passes to pull within six. But for the majority of the game, the Patriots' offense struggled to sustain drives, and Brady often looked upset. He was 24-47 in completing passes, threw an interception, and was sacked three times. He was hit on 12 other occasions, and if you saw NBC's broadcast last night, he was seen yelling at his receivers on

the sideline after a drive in the first half with several incompletions, and you could see the frustration on Brady. Dropped passes and incomplete route running plagued the Patriots early and they just were not able to recover. He did finish with respectable numbers of 326 yards passing and also three touchdowns, but the stat line doesn't tell the full story here. And that started very early in this game. The Patriots did take an early lead in this one, 3-0 on a Kai Forbath field goal on their first drive. The Texans on the other hand had field goal on their first drive. The Texans, on the other hand, had to punt on their first drive and all looked to be going well, but they got the ball back just three plays later when Bradley Roby jumped a route and

intercepted Tom Brady. Roby also had a sack in this game and played very well, and I will get to him a little bit later in the show. But that interception put the ball back in the hands of the Houston offense, and they cashed in on the miscue when Deshaun Watson connected with running back Duke Johnson on a 14-yard touchdown pass, and that made it 7-3 late in the first quarter. That was Watson's fifth game this season with at least three touchdown passes, and that's tied for the most in the NFL. Shortly after, the Texans would add to that lead when they capped a 13-play, 88-yard drive with a 13-yard touchdown reception by Darren Fels.

That put the Pats in a 14-3 deficit, and they would carry that deficit into halftime. Even though the Patriots opened the second half with the ball, that score would remain 14-3 until about seven minutes left in the third quarter. Patriots went for it on what's being credited as fourth and one, but to me it looked like it was a little bit less than one. But regardless, the Patriots decided to go for it. And instead of employing a quarterback sneak or even attempting to run the ball, they decided to utilize play action.

And Tom Brady's pass intended for Mohamed Sanu was dropped amidst some good coverage by Texans cornerback Jonathan Joseph. Now, a lot of people are criticizing this decision today, and I can understand that. But keep this in mind. The play nearly worked. Sanu has to come up with that. I'm well aware that Joseph played him well in that situation,

and also that running the ball or a quarterback sneak would probably have been the more prudent play call. It wasn't an abysmal or unforgivable play call, and I've seen a lot of people calling it that. I think that might be a little bit harsh here. But ultimately, and a phrase we know very well here in Foxborough, it is what it is, and it proved to be costly. On the next drive, Houston would once again find the end zone.

Now, originally, Will Fuller had a touchdown reception. That was called back after review, and that was the correct call. Patriots cornerback Jonathan Jones made a great play on Fuller and knocked the ball loose. However, that pat on the back for Jones would be very short-lived because on the next play, Texan slot receiver Kenny Stills would have a 35-yard touchdown on a nearly identical route, and that pushed the Texans' lead to 21-3. So with their backs squarely against the wall, the Patriots were able to muster up at least

some ability to sustain a drive, and they did so late in the third quarter when James White, who was one of the Patriots' few bright spots on offense, had a 12-yard reception for the Patriots' first touchdown. They looked like they were about to go for two, and then they decided to take a delay of game penalty and elected to kick the point after try from the 20. Kai Forbath lined up and missed the extra point, and that left the Patriots down 21-9. Watson and the Texans' offense would strike next, and they would snag what would eventually be the game-winning points on a trick play.

Watson took the snap and handed it off to Duke Johnson, and he gave the ball to wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins on a reverse to the right. Hopkins then flipped the ball back to Watson on an option near the sideline, and the Texans quarterback dove into the end zone for a six-yard score, and that put the Texans up 28-9. But the Patriots were not done adding to their point total, as Tom Brady connected with James White again with about four minutes left. A touchdown pass to White made the score 28-15. New England would go for two but failed on the two-point conversion and at that point the score remained 28-15. The Patriots knew that time was running out for them to put points on the board so they attempted an onside kick which Houston recovered. But the Texans failed to move the ball

effectively and that gave the Patriots a chance to get the ball back. And they took advantage of it when Tom Brady threw a 20-yard touchdown pass to Julian Edelman, and that cut the lead to six with only 50 seconds left. And at that point, you had to wonder whether the Patriots had some NRG Stadium magic left in the tank. Don't forget, and the NBC telecast wouldn't let you forget even if you tried, the Patriots came back from a 28-3 deficit against the Atlanta Falcons in Super Bowl 51.

That Super Bowl was played in that exact same building, NRG Stadium. And it almost looked like it could happen again when Brandon Bolden got a hand on Jake Bailey's onside kick attempt, but the ball would bounce out of bounds, and you really can't blame Brandon for that. When you look at the replay, it looked like he thought he was going to get some help on that play and I think it was just beyond Bolden's reach at that point. So the Patriots could not recover the onside kick and Houston simply got the ball back and ran out the clock. That ended the hopes of another epic comeback and as a result the Patriots suffered only their second loss of the season. They currently hold the second seed in the AFC and that's because the Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday.

That gave the Patriots and the Ravens identical 10-2 records. However, the Ravens hold the tiebreaker as a result of the Patriots' 37-20 loss to Baltimore on November 3rd. But playoff implications were only part of the lessons to be learned in this loss. Head coach Bill Belichick said after the game that there really wasn't a whole lot to say. He credited the Texans for doing a good job across the board in every area and stating that the Texans were simply just a better team than the Patriots on Sunday night. Tom Brady did not look happy after the game, folks, and who could expect him to be?

When asked about his performance, he said, Execution. Just gotta do a better job. It's tough to get behind and come back. We put ourselves in a pretty deep hole, and you can't do that on the road. And Brady is absolutely correct. The Patriots need to be better in all three phases of the game if they hope to get a victory this coming Sunday

against the Kansas City Chiefs at home at Gillette Stadium. The Patriots coaching staff needs to be better. Brady needs to be better. The offensive skill players need to be better, and the defense has to be better. And I know, I'm making it sound so simple. I assure you folks, it's not. But one of the key components in a better effort this coming Sunday will be if the Patriots are able to return to health.

And look, it was very highly publicized that the New England Patriots suffered from a pretty bad flu bug this week, and that caused them to take two separate planes to Houston on Saturday, one for those that were feeling the effects of the flu and one for those that weren't. Ryan Izzo and Jermaine Illuminor couldn't even give it a go on Sunday as a result of this bug, and a whole host of others looked fatigued and still feeling the weakening effects of this. Dante Hightower, Kyle Van Noy, Jamie Collins, Stephon Gilmore, they were all listed on the injury report last week at some point with this illness.

And each of them looked like it had enough of an impact to slow their game down a bit. And even though they looked at times like they had that burst, there were a lot of others in which they looked like they needed some rest. So hopefully, this week will mean a return to health and a good riddance to whatever bug was sweeping through the locker room in Foxborough this past week. But the injury news wasn't all about the illness for the Patriots. Obviously, Jason McCourty was not active in this game. He continues to be hampered with a groin injury. The Patriots, I'm sure, would love to see him back for Sunday's game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

They'll need all hands on deck on defense to stop this high-flying Kansas City offense. The Chiefs haven't been quite as prolific as they were last year, but they can still get the job done, and their performance, a 40-6 victory over the Oakland Raiders on Sunday, proves that they're peaking at the right time. But the injury to really be watching for this week is to center Ted Karras. Karras suffered a knee injury in the third quarter of last night's game and did not return, and that is not good news for a team that has had its offensive line woes this year. Karras has been pretty good this year, filling in for David Andrews, who as we all know was

placed on injured reserve earlier this year with blood clots. Keep a sharp eye on the injury report this week, folks. Losing Karras would not be good at all for this offensive line. James Ferentz did come in last night and filled in for Karras, but Ted has been strong this year in that regard, and they will really need him to anchor this line going forward as they move toward the playoffs. But in the immediate future, the task doesn't get any easier. As previously stated, the Patriots will welcome the Kansas City Chiefs to Gillette Stadium on Sunday, and once again, they face a very tough test and will need a much better output

than what we saw last night. But there's still reason for optimism here, folks, and I'll be addressing that in just a moment. However, before I proceed with that, I wanted to take a minute to address all of you guys out there. And ladies, you'll appreciate this too. Now, this is a topic that is often taboo, but always commands your attention, and that is performance in the bedroom. Well, now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence. Listen up, bluechew.com. That's blue like the color blue. BlueChew brings you the first chewable with the same FDA-approved active ingredients as the well-known name brands, so you

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They were dejected and they were not happy with their performance. And a loss is a bitter and a tough pill to swallow. We all get it. But out of every negative, you can find something positive. And even though the Patriots dropped to 10-2, which, keep in mind, is still a very good record, folks, there were some positives to be taken from the negatives last night. And I'll begin on the offensive side of the ball. And a lot of the problems that we saw the Patriots experience offensively last night were due to a breakdown in fundamentals.

Now, what do I mean by that? Well, time and time again we saw the Patriots receivers and skill position players in the wrong spot, they were failing to finish their routes, they were cutting some routes short, and there were a lot of drops as well. Now Tom Brady is going to get a lion's share of the criticism for his performance last night. And look, he did not have his best game, folks. He has to shoulder some of that. And the biggest reason why Brady struggled last night is that old friend Romeo Cornell and the Texans defensive coaching staff were able to confuse him with pressure up front, and this caused Tom to make some errant throws. One of them was

the pass he was attempting to make to Nakheel Harry in the first quarter that was intercepted by Bradley Roby. Now, this was far from being one of Tom's best throws, but the fundamentals were not good on this either, and that's on Harry. There was a lot of criticism last night on why Brady would make that throw, but if you take a look at the replay, you can see exactly what he was thinking. Nikhil had a step to the inside on Roby, and he has to run that through. If Nikhil finished his route the way Brady expected him to, it could have been a completion, or at least put more of his body in the way to possibly make it an incomplete pass rather than an interception. And Nakiel is a rookie.

He's going to make rookie mistakes. And unfortunately, it looks like that play landed him in the proverbial timeout corner, and he got the silent treatment for the rest of the game. But that should provide a good teaching moment this week. And even though it was costly, and I'm not downplaying that, folks, the Patriots can learn from that. Nakiel can definitely learn from that. And so can Tom Brady. But even though some pressure up front caused problems for Tom last night,

one problem that he didn't have was getting time to throw the football. Tom had an average of 3.4 seconds to throw the ball last night. That's the first time he's had over three seconds all season long. And the offensive line was able to give him that additional time. Isaiah Wynn's return is a big key for that, folks. So then the question remains, if Brady was getting all this time, why wasn't he completing passes? Well, quite simply, folks, his receivers just weren't getting open.

The Texans focused a lot of their energy on defending Julian Edelman and James White, and White was a guy that, myself included, a lot of people expected to have a big game last night. But the Texans did a very smart thing by covering him with either a cornerback or a safety all night long. This made it really difficult for White to get open. And quite honestly, Houston just had no fear of the Patriots' tight ends or the wide receiver core, not named Julian Edelman, to be able to beat them in the field. As a result, they could spare a piece of their secondary and they could use him to be able to blanket White and prevent him from being an

effective receiver. But even though Edelman was the focal point of the Texans' defense, he still proved he can come up with big plays and a big game even when it looks like he has nowhere to go. And he did that by receiving for over 100 yards last night. The Texans' defense doubled him for the majority of the game. And most of the time, that made him ineffective. However, the Pats were able to see a way to antidote this type of defense. And even Chris Collinsworth pointed this out on the television broadcast last night.

On Edelman's 44-yard reception, which came in the third quarter, that was a first and 30 at the New England 31. Brady set from the shotgun, and the Texans played a cover three zone, which gave Edelman a little bit of room to run without two guys chasing him like he did for most of the night. The Patriots counteracted that. They flooded the weak side of the field with Philip Dorsett on a vertical, James White releasing into the flat, and that gave Edelman the ability to come across the field. This caused Houston to blow their coverage. As the third guy to that side of the field, it's on the Houston linebacker to track Edelman coming across.

He didn't do that. He doesn't see Edelman cross into his zone, and for the first time all night, Julian was wide open for a long completion. By flooding the weak side of the field and having Edelman come across, it gave the Patriots a way to get him some yardage and an open look. It takes some patience to read a defense that way, but luckily, Patriots have the best in the game at doing just that in Tom Brady. Now, this isn't going to work on every single play that Julian has double-teamed, but if we saw that, you can bet that Bill, Tom, and Josh McDaniels, they all saw it too, and they will be working to execute those types of plays with a bit more frequency.

With the extra time Tom is getting, he has to work on getting in sync with his pass catchers. They need to work on their fundamentals, but the good news is, folks, that's fixable. Practices this week in Foxborough are not going to be for the faint of heart, but the Patriots' veteran leadership, both on the sidelines and on the field, is battle-tested enough to be able to steer this ship in the right direction. The thing is, they have to do so quickly. Time is of the essence here. The Patriots' clouds and silver linings were not just limited to the offensive side of the football. The defense had its ups and downs, too. And they ran into some great offensive coaching by Houston.

Credit Bill O'Brien and his staff for really doing a good job in devising a scheme that was able to neutralize what the Patriots did well on the defensive side of the football. But you also have to give credit to Deshaun Watson and his skill position players. They did an amazing job of executing. And the blend between the two was really on display early on in this game when the Texans recognized that the Patriots were dropping back into zone coverage. They were really trying to respect the speed that the Texans have at wide receiver and also respect Watson's ability to move around in the pocket. When the Patriots did that, the Texans coaching staff recognized it right away and Watson went on the attack. He immediately started hitting on those passes easily in the sweet spot toward the middle

of the field. Or, if that got taken away, they would start to isolate the linebackers in coverage. Most of the night, they were isolating Kyle Vannoy or Dante Hightower. Duke Johnson was often the beneficiary of that type of coverage, and he made the Patriots pay the piper on a couple of those, including the first touchdown of the game. And when the zone didn't work, it's not like the Patriots didn't try to adjust. They did switch to man coverage at times, and specifically to that cover-zero blitz technique, but when they did that, the Texans went deep.

They utilized their speed and their depth. DeAndre Hopkins, Will Fuller, and Kenny Stills were able to burn them from deep plays. And nobody in Patriots Nation is going to ignore the blatant hold on Kyle Van Nooy in the Stills touchdown pass play, but it was still an amazing display of speed. And quite honestly, folks, one that I think the Patriots would have been able to defend a little bit better had most of their marquee players on defense not have been battling a flu-like bug that really almost sidelined a good portion of the defense this week. But again, credit to Watson for being able to get the ball out so quickly.

As a result, the pass rush wasn't as much of a factor as the Patriots would have wanted it to be. And when they did get some pressure on Watson, he was able to make great plays. I go back to the John Simon would-be sack in the first half. Watson escaped. He put a great move, showed a lot of strength on staying on his feet. I even tweeted out during the game at one point that I was amazed he didn't go down, but that gave the Texans drive new life, and they would eventually punch it in for a touchdown. Don't forget, if

Simon wraps him up and takes him down, the Texans would have needed 25 yards at that point to get the first down, as opposed to only needing 10 because Watson was able to scramble away and get an incompletion. Even though the Patriots have been very good at tackling this season, they needed to do a better job of it in this game, and I think that's something the Pats defensive coaching staff will have them working on in practice this week. But other than a return to good health, the Patriots did have a defensive silver lining this week as well, and that was a vast improvement in their run defense. Leading up to this game, you heard so many talk about the Patriots' inability to defend

the run. A lot of people, myself included, compared Deshaun Watson to Lamar Jackson, in that he would be able to hurt you with his arm and extend plays with his legs. But the Patriots' run defense really stepped it up this week, and I want to credit Evan Lazar of CLNS Media for giving a much-deserved shout-out and kudos to Lawrence Guy, who I agree with Evan, had a tremendous game in this one. He helped limit the Texans' rushing attack to 2.3 yards per rush on 23 carries. And as Evan pointed out, Guy is nearly impossible to move with one blocker in the running game. He has excellent play strength.

He combines that with great technique. He routinely creates coaching tape on how to play with proper pad level, leverage, and upper body technique to two-gap at the point of attack. In short, folks, what that means is that Guy is very good at being able to use his body to stop one or even two offensive linemen. That helps other members of the Patriots' defensive front, notably Danny Shelton and Adam Butler, to go heavy on the attack and stifle their opponent's run game. The Patriots did that last night, and as a result, their run defense was much better.

Believe it or not, they were worse against the pass last night. And yes, no one's arguing. Some of the fundamentals need to be worked on. But health and conditioning was a key factor in last night's performance. And as guys like Hightower, Van Noy, Gilmore, healthier, they'll be much better equipped to handle a high-flying passing attack, much like the one that's going to be visiting Foxborough on Sunday in the Kansas City Chiefs. The Patriots do have a good amount to learn and a short time to learn it in,

but we are talking about a franchise that has already trademarked the phrase do your job. They will do it. The question is, will it be enough? And in an attempt to answer that question, I will be back tomorrow to bring you the latest news, notes, analysis in Patriots Nation, and I'll start to take a look ahead to the Patriots' upcoming matchup with the Kansas City Chiefs on Sunday. It should be a great week, and I hope that you enjoy what we have in store for you here on Locked on Patriots. As always, please be 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 you so much for listening today and staying locked into Locked On Patriots. Best wishes, stay calm, and have a great day, everyone.