Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - End Game: Pats/Titans Recap with Murph - 1/6/2020

Episode Date: January 6, 2020

The New England Patriots season came to an abrupt end on Saturday following a 20-13 loss to the Tennessee Titans in the Wild Card round of the 2019 NFL Playoffs. And so begins an offseason with a great deal of uncertainty. Thomas Murphy joins host Mike D’Abate to recap Saturday’s season finale and take a look ahead to the future.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello to all you Foxborough faithful, and welcome to your Don't Dream It's Over 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, 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 and follow me on Twitter at MDABATEFPC, and be sure to follow Locked On Patriots on Twitter at LO underscore Patriots.

Novelist Graham Greene was once quoted as saying, a story has no beginning or an end. Arbitrarily, one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. And folks, that might be the best way I can describe what happened on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium in Foxborough. For the first time since 2011, your New England Patriots will not be present in the AFC Championship game. For the first time in four years, they will not be in the Super Bowl. The Tennessee Titans, led by running back Derrick Henry, who rushed for 182 yards and a touchdown, kept New England's offense from mustering more than 13 points, and they came away with a 20-13 wildcard victory on Saturday night at Gillette Stadium.

With the victory, the Titans move on to face the Baltimore Ravens, and the Patriots find themselves done playing football in early January for the first time in nearly a decade. But how did this happen? Was Tennessee really that good? Was the Pats offense really that bad? And Tom Brady, will he be back? Along with a long list of free agents.

I know, folks, it's a lot to handle. But fear not. I brought in the monster gun for one more recap. He's insightful. He's candid. And he is my great friend, Thomas Murphy. And Murph never holds back. He will help, he's candid, and he is my great friend Thomas Murphy. And Murph never holds back. He will help me answer those questions and more

as we recap the final tilt of the 2019 regular season for your New England Patriots. So sit tight, folks, and I hope that we help to calm your anger and sorrow here today on Locked On Patriots. However, before I proceed with that, we at Locked On are proud to say that this episode is sponsored by Blue Chew. Guys, now you can increase your performance and get that extra confidence. Listen up. BlueChew.com.

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Just pay $5 shipping. Again, that's B-L-U-E-C-H-E-Chew.com promo code LOCKEDON to try it for free. Blue Chew is the better, cheaper, faster choice, and we thank them for sponsoring today's podcast. There is a ton of news surrounding the future of the New England Patriots and the eagerness of so many who are consumed with envy

to declare the demise of the Patriots' dynasty. But we start here today with the action on the field from Saturday night, and the game's first three possessions wound up as three long scoring drives. The first was a scoring drive by the Patriots. It was capped by a 29-yard screen pass from Tom Brady to James White, and it set up Nick Folk's 36-yard field goal. That put New England on top 3-0.

But Tennessee would answer with a 75-yard march built around Derrick Henry. The touchdown, however, came on Ryan Tannehill's pass to a Havid man. Top three to nothing. But Tennessee would answer with a 75-yard march built around Derrick Henry. The touchdown, however, came on Ryan Tannehill's pass to a Havid man. Tight end Anthony Ferkser found his way into the back of the end zone and made the catch. That made it 7-3. Ferkser, interestingly enough, is the first player from Harvard University to ever score a playoff touchdown. How about that, folks? But New England counterpunched with its own 75-yard drive,

taking temporary control of the game by victimizing Tennessee's defense on the outside. The Titans looked slow trying to protect the flanks, and Sonny Michel broke off for a 25-yard run, and James White had a 14-yarder. Julian Edelman finished it off with his first rushing touchdown of his 11 pro seasons. Edelman scored on a 5-yard dash to the unprotected left side of the Tennessee defense, and just like that, the Pats were back on top 10-7. At that point, the Patriots continued to play with momentum. They stopped the Titans twice and were building momentum following a 24-yard punt return by Mohamed Sanu to the Tennessee 47-yard line.

The Patriots moved the ball almost at will down to the Tennessee 1 where they had first and goal. But on three straight snaps, they ran Sonny Michel for a one-yard loss, Rex Burkhead for a one-yard gain, and then Michel for a one-yard loss again. Ultimately, they had to settle for a 21-yard Nick Folk field goal to take a 13-7 lead. That drive had marked the 13th time the Patriots had first and goal at the 1 in a playoff game in the Tom Brady era, but it was the first time they failed to get a touchdown on the drive, and it would loom large in this game. The Titans would answer with a seven-play, 75-yard drive that would see Derrick Henry amass all 75 yards on the play, including a one-yard touchdown run, to put the Titans ahead 14-13.

And until the tail end of the fourth quarter, the scoreboards would stay silent. Ryan Tannehill, who was largely held in check for the game, gave the Patriots an absolute gift to open the fourth quarter when he threw a weak pass off of his back foot, and Deron Harmon came out of nowhere to pick it off at the Patriots' 40. But like they had nearly all night, the Patriots failed to capitalize. Their best chance came in the fourth quarter when they got the ball back at their own 11-yard line. Following a 20-yard completion from Brady to James White, they had

the chance to move the ball with momentum. But Julian Edelman dropped an open pass on the left sideline, and the Patriots eventually punted. That gave the Titans the ball back with just over three minutes left. At that point, the Titans were able to collect a couple of first downs and eat some time off the clock. Brett Kern showed why Bill Belichick called him the best punter in the league earlier in the week. His 58-yard punt took 10 seconds off of the clock and rolled down to the New England one-yard line. Trying to dig the Patriots out of what was already an insurmountable hole, Tom Brady's pass popped away from Nikhil Harry and into the hands of Titans safety and former Patriot Logan Ryan, who would return at nine yards for the pick six,

and that would cement a 20-13 victory for the Tennessee Titans over the New England Patriots. And just like that, folks, the Patriots season had come to an end, and the speculation immediately began. Tom Brady hadn't even left the field, and articles were already being published to commemorate, quote-unquote, his final game in New England. And look, folks, the Patriots have a number of questions heading into this offseason, and Tom's playing whereabouts is definitely among them.

After the game, reporters asked the questions they had to ask, but they got little information in return. Bill Belichick essentially said that questions regarding the future would be answered in the future. Tom Brady was also asked directly about his future, and while he offered a little bit more information than Belichick, he essentially reiterated the point that this was not the time to discuss it. Brady's exact words were, quote, However, the reporters in the Patriots press room did not want to leave it at that, and followed up by asking Brady whether or not he would be returning to the Patriots in 2020.

To that, he responded, quote, I love the Patriots. It's the greatest organization. Playing for Mr. Kraft all these years and for Coach Belichick, there is nobody who has had a better career than me just being with them. I'm very blessed and I don't know what the future looks like and I'm not going to predict it. I'd wish we'd won tonight. I'd wish we'd done a lot of things better over the course of the season, but we just didn't get the job done, unquote. And so, folks, we're on to 2020, but not before one last visit in the 2019 season by our main green man. But before I welcome Murph in, remember that we're only six days into the new year, and you don't need to stress about going

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Go to Blinkist.com slash locked on to start your free 7-day trial and get 25% off a Blinkist Premium Membership. That's Blinkist, spelled B-L-I-N-K-I-S-T dot com slash locked on to get 25% off and a 7-day free trial. Again, that's Blinkist.com slash locked on. Once again, folks, the New England Patriots season has come to a close, much earlier than we anticipated. And with the loss will come the inevitable hot takes,

the armchair quarterbacking, and the viral speculation on the future of Tom Brady, Josh McDaniels, Devin McCourty, Kyle Vannoy, even Bill Belichick. But you have questions, especially questions regarding this game, and you need honest answers. That's exactly why I brought in the voice we all need to hear today. He is a columnist extraordinaire for DieHardBostonSportsFans.com. You know him very well. 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 Patriots is my favorite Patriots podcast. He is my main green man, and he joins me today for the final time to wrap up a game in the 2019 season. Thomas Murphy. Murph, welcome back, my friend. Thank you. It's always a pleasure to be here under any circumstances, but just getting back to One Patriot's Place,

I take up more than half the show in size, but less than half the show in IQ points. Never mind. The IQ points are definitely there as well. And believe me, Steve sets the bar very high. There's no question about it. But you're right up there, my friend,

and that's the reason why we love having you on the show. That's the reason why I definitely wanted to share the microphone with you today to talk about probably one of the more painful losses that we've experienced in Pats Nation in the past few years. You know, Murph, we're just not used to having the month of January to evaluate other teams. I mean, we're usually ensconced in Patriots playoff football, but reality is that the Pat season is over, and it came to an abrupt end on Saturday, and this game definitely had its share of head scratchers, and you know, Murph, we'll dive right into it, my friend. The moment everyone

is going to point to in this game, 429 left in the second quarter, first and goal on the Tennessee one-yard line. The Patriots ran the same play, essentially, on three consecutive tries, the wide zone. Sonny Michel runs for a one-yard loss, Rex Burkhead runs for a one-yard gain, and then Michel for a one-yard loss again. Now, they had to settle for a Nick Folt field goal, which is certainly not what they were hoping when they saw first and goal at the Tennessee 1. The Titans and Mike Vrabel, they knew the play was coming. The Patriots still ran the wide zone three straight times. In fact, they even called timeout in between the second and third snaps, so it was obvious they weren't comfortable with how the Titans were lining up to stop the run. What puzzled me really wasn't the decision to run it, because the Patriots have actually had much more success running in that type of wide zone set than attempting a quick pass.

But what made me a little curious was why Josh McDaniels would run the same look for three straight plays when it seemed obvious that the Titans weren't fooled. What was your assessment of that, Murr? Yeah, I was exactly on the same page as you were, but I didn't understand. Each time they ran out, it was the same alignment. They were looking at the same alignment. They called timeout because they didn't like what they were seeing, and then they went back out in the same exact alignment that they had before.

Did they really think that they were screwing with somebody's head? I didn't get it. I didn't understand. I don't know why you're looking at something three straight times and you can't spread something out. And try, even in vain, to work something, and hopefully a play breaks down and something opens up, a lane opens up for even the aging Tom Brady to run three feet,

or dive forward into the end zone when you were on first down. It was dumbfounding. I couldn't believe it. It's some of the worst play calling that I've seen all year, and it really has to make you scratch your head. My son even came out and said, everybody out here knows who Butchie is, came out and said, was Josh checking the want ads

while they were down there on the one? Because he just did not understand what the hell was happening. Yeah, and I think Patriots Nation, I definitely share your curiosity. I think most of Pat's Nation does. It really just did not make any sense to me. And I know it sounds very elementary.

We're going back and forth on that. But again, you look at the formations. The only thing that would make any type of realistic sense to me in this situation is if a guy like, you know, a guy like Sonny Michel, who's had his issues running into coverage this year. I don't know if maybe Josh didn't have the faith in him necessarily to run forward, to be able to plow forward. Maybe he thought if he lined up a guy like Rex Burkhead back there that it would be too obvious. I don't know. I mean, I do try to make sense of it. You know, being a day removed now from it and being able to actually take an objective look at it, I've tried to look at it from a lot of different angles, but this one still is a head-scratcher.

And, you know, ultimately, I do think it was one of the moments that cost them the game in this one. I don't want to point to just one of them, but this is probably the biggest one. If we're talking, we love to talk blame pie and slicing it up. If we're talking, you know, the overall picture of what happened here, I think this play. Yeah, exactly. This play is one to me that really comes back to really bite the Patriots

and one that I think they're going to be looking at and really kind of be up a lot with this one because they're going to look back on that as a really missed opportunity. It was. It was a missed opportunity. It was a terrible, terrible decision. Josh, if he didn't like Sony there, he had other options.

We've all seen Mr. White get in the end zone time and again there. Absolutely. Sorry to beat the drum here, but nobody in the red zone has run the ball more effectively than Brandon Bolden all year long.

Absolutely. Sorry. I'm really sorry. No, you don't have to be sorry. I'm watching that, and I know everyone around me and whatnot, and we're all sitting there thinking, what is the problem with maybe lining up Bolden in a situation like that, especially when it was obvious that Sony had run for the loss,

Burkhead had got the yard back. Sony immediately misses the yard. So it was just a tough sequence and I think really set the table for a lot of what happened. And I think may lead me into my next question here, Murph, which is if we needed any evidence that Bill Belichick did not trust this offense, I think it showed in his decision-making on fourth down in the fourth quarter a couple of times. New England decided to punt to Tennessee from the Tennessee 47,

fourth and three, 12.52 remaining in the fourth quarter. They were down 14-13. We've seen Bill Belichick go for it in situations like that before, but I think it was a situation where he wanted to put the game in the hands of his defense. A lot of time on the clock, you can almost understand that. But then he called for the punt again from the New England 37, fourth and four, 317 remaining in the fourth, still down 14-13. And this one, to me, was an eye-opener. This really solidified to me and said,

Bill does not have the confidence he needs in this offense to be able to get points. He was willing to put it back in the hands of Tennessee, allow his defense to get a stop. And unfortunately, I mean, a lot of, you know, they were having difficulty doing so. But even with the difficulties that they were having, I didn't think the defense was quite as bad as some people were making it out to be. I thought they actually played a pretty formidable game.

But to me, in a situation like this, when you don't trust your offense like that, it can be a problem. My question to you is, was he right not to trust them? Or did the lack of trust leave the points on the board that you believe the offense might have been able to score? No, I think he was right not to trust them. And it's not – see, I'm going was right not to trust them. It's not... I'm going to come at this from a different angle than a lot of other people.

It was the fact that he trusts his defense more. He trusted his defense to get him the ball back and allow them to not work in a desperate way, in a desperate manner, and it worked. They did have time left on the clock. They had the opportunity to do what they needed to do, and once again, they did not. This defense has taken a beating, especially following this game,

that I really don't understand. Tennessee is the number one offense in the second half in the NFL, and they completely shut them down. They finally listened to what I had said in my keys to Patriots victory in funneling Henry to the middle and eliminating him as a real weapon. And it worked. It worked with great success. Really, I didn't have the problem that everybody else did there. I had a problem with a lot of the play calling on the offensive side of the ball. I didn't have a problem with trusting the defense to get Tom back the ball. And maybe the Patriots are able to put together another

drive like they had in the first half and get into the end zone. Yeah, and I think a lot of people are looking at that, again, objectively. The heat of the moment, you look at the punting, and you say, oh man, you've got to go for it in a situation like that. You're down, you need the points, but at this point, I think looking at it from an objective perspective, you look at it from an objective perspective you look at it and you say that that is that was the wise course of action because again in the second half the defense made the adjustments necessary to be able to shut uh henry down they

went he went from averaging 8.7 yards i believe in the first half down to 3.5 in the second half 3.5 significant yep that is a significant huge5. That's a pretty significant, yep, that is a significant drop off. Huge drop, especially for a runner of his ilk and of his style, what he can do. And one of the reasons that the Titans have had so much success is because of what he's been able to do in the second half when defenses get tired. After the game, people were talking about how old the defense looked and how terrible it looked. I didn't see any of that.

I'm sorry to throw his name out there. I don't know what Burt Breer was watching in the second half because he completely trashed this defense after the game on television, and it was completely unwarranted. They made the adjustments that they needed to make, and it worked. The problem was the offense. The offense did not get anything going. Yeah, absolutely. And, you know, we look at the offense, Murph, and we take a look at what this team was able to do. And, you know, you look at the stat sheet on Tom, and we're going to get into Tom in just a little bit here,

but there were some tough breaks that he had to deal with within this game without any question. You look at the stat sheet, his completion percentage below 55%. That ties a career high with six such games this season, and for the seventh time he averaged below six yards per pass attempt. So people are going to look at that. They're going to hop on that and automatically say, oh, there we are, there's the decline, there's the reason.

But you take a look. You use your eyes. You use your common sense. I thought several of his throws were actually, had great arm strength considering the injuries he's battling. I thought that the throw where he found Edelman in single coverage on the third down where he beat Logan Ryan, I thought that was his best throw of the night.

I thought Tom looked like the Tom Brady of a few years ago on that play and didn't show any signs of rust. I think overall he showed good signs of holding up well physically. He had a couple of nice passes to Sanu, to Watson. He had some tough breaks. The Shaq Mason ineligible receiver top of the field was definitely a tough break after a nice completion of Muhammad Sanu, excuse me, to Benjamin Watson. And, you know, I thought those moves really did, you know,

hamper this team a little bit. When you look at Tom's performance last night, and I know a lot is made of that, and we'll get into that in a little bit. I will ask you that question, but I'll refrain from doing it right now. When you look at Tom's performance last night, what did you see from him in terms of what this team brings to the table and what they might have been able to do differently to have a different result? Because I actually think he played well enough for them to win last night. They did, and he did. And the issue, again, is separation.

The fact that these guys cannot get a step on anybody in a quick passing offense, the way that this offense needs to function and needs to move. Edelman is just so banged up, it's unreal. We're probably not going to see him for three months because of how banged up he is right now. It's really terrible. Ben Watson actually could have gone to high school with Tom Brady. That's how old Ben Watson is. This team was put together in a way that

was not conducive to Tom's needs, to Tom's style, and to what Josh likes to call. Another problem that not a lot of people are talking about was the injury to Landon Roberts. When Roberts was in there, they were running the ball really well. It set up play action really well. And I thought it was a terrible call to slam him up into the line like that, which is essentially almost ended his night for the Patriots. And after he left the game, after they lost their battering ram there, the run game shut down and in turn the play action game shut down and then it became a spread out game

except for down there at the end zone and it just doesn't work with this group. It doesn't and it has nothing to do with OTAs. It has nothing to do with personnel. The personnel that he needs to succeed is not there right now.

And some major changes are going to have to happen if we're going to see Tom Brady back in this uniform next year. Yeah, absolutely. And that does, you know, that will lead me into the final question that I'll ask you for the day in just a moment. But I do have one before we get to that, my friend, and that is, we did mention Derrick Henry, but you take a look at the impact he had on this game, and it's undeniable from a Titans perspective, he is the reason why they're moving on. There's no question about it.

204 scrimmage yards, that's a record against the Bill Belichick coach team in the playoffs, and the Pats could do little to stop him on Saturday in the first half. We made allusions to the fact that he was able to be at least contained a little bit in the second half. And you mentioned funneling him toward the middle, and I think that's exactly what worked for this team. But the Pats did play a few different fronts on him in the first half, mostly their 4-3 tilt, which our good friend Evan Lazar pointed out to me during the game last night.

That was their Super Bowl 53 game plan against Todd Gurley. And I think Henry just was able to power his way through a little bit. I think a healthier Henry, maybe a little bit of a banged-up Gurley last year, I think allowed them to be able to have a little bit more success. They did use the 5-2 base a little bit. But in both instances, the Titans attacked Dietrich Weiss. I think he got blown off the ball often, and in the second half, that's when the Patriots did funnel him toward the middle. Were you surprised that the Patriots had that much difficulty containing Henry in the first half, especially considering

that one of their drives was 75 total yards, and Henry had essentially gained them all. Did that surprise you that the Patriots were that ineffective at being able to stop him early on in this game? Surprised, no, because it comes completely down to scheme and how you go about it, and they went about it completely the wrong way, and it took them too long to adjust to it. And they ended up getting that second time.

And I'm sorry, he had 182 yards on the ground. That catch that he made, the only reason that he got the yardage on it is because they missed a clipping call. Yeah. I hate to complain about the officiating, but it has been. It's been terrible this postseason, as it has been all season. And I really don't want to be that guy, but Hightower got blocked in the back there. I will forever call it clipping.

And on the other side of the ball, N'Keal Harry was mugged on two plays, and one ended up going for a pick six, and no flags were called whatsoever. It was a very poorly designed game plan on the offensive side of the ball for the Patriots. I thought the defense did the job that they had to do. Nobody else in this league has been able to shut this team down in the second half the way they did. And I'm telling you right now, the Patriots showed the blueprint for stopping this team in the next round, and they're not going to get out of it.

Not that they had a huge chance against this Baltimore team, but now it's just completely gone. Yeah, and I think that as nice as the Titans story has been, and it was a beautiful turnaround for the team, I know that the fans are excited and they're happy to be moving on, but they're going to face a very, very difficult Baltimore team, a team that is so stout on offense and a defense that just keeps improving week after week with all of the injured players they have returning. It's meant the difference in that,

and I think that that is going to be an extremely tough matchup for the Tennessee Titans. But we are all about the New England Patriots here, Murph, and it's unbelievable that the season is indeed over this early in January. Again, I opened our segment here by saying that. It's only happened three times. I know, absolutely. Three straight Super Bowl appearances were definitely, definitely spoiled up here in New England. a while here by saying that only happened three times i know absolutely three straight super bowl

appearances were definitely definitely spoiled up here in new england but this has the potential to be an off season like we haven't seen in quite some time a lot of free agents a lot of big names a lot of possible turnover uh if you can gaze into your foxborough crystal ball i usually like to say belichickian crystal ball but we don't know if Bill Belichick is going to be back here next year. It's unbelievable that we have these conversations. But in your opinion, when you take a look at Tom Brady, when you take a look at Bill Belichick, you look at Josh McDaniels, keeping the other free agents, I mean, Devin McCourty,

I guess you could probably throw in there with his indelible imprint on this team. When you take a look at the core Patriots that still remain on this roster, and I include the coaching staff in this, how do you see this team taking the field in 2020? Who out of that group that I just mentioned do you not see here in Foxborough come training camp? Or is it a possibility that we see all of them back and that they make one more run at it? Because it looked to me like there's a lot of unfinished business left on the field in Foxborough last night. It had a final feel to it, but it didn't have a final feel to it, to me anyway. Right. I do believe that Tom Brady will be back. I can't see him playing in another uniform,

and I can't see Bob Kraft letting that happen. I don't think Philip Dorsett will be back next year. I do believe that Matthew Slater will be back. Ben Watson is retiring, so we will not see him. Marshall Newhouse will not be back. I will throw that out there. Joe Tooney is the first phone call that should be made tomorrow. And this team needs Joe Tooney back.

It really does. Ted Karras is somebody else that is going to need to be tied up because we saw this season what happens when you do not have depth on that offensive line. Danny Shelton is somebody that I think is going to get paid a bit too much, and Bill will look elsewhere to fill that role. Danny came back late in this year and played really, really well. He's earned himself a big contract somewhere.

Adam Butler will probably not be back. Kyle Vannoy will not be back. Jamie Collins, I think, will be back. Landon Roberts, I believe, will be back. And, yeah, Devin McCourty does not want to play, does not want to retire, I don't think. It's going to take a week or two. He's going to realize that he still wants to play football and he wants to play football with the New England Patriots.

Ebner is a free agent and he will more than likely be back and you could probably say goodbye to Nick Fole. Yeah, I would say so. I think a lot of people will probably agree with that assessment, with Steven Gostowski likely to be back. Hopefully he'll be able to give it a go, and his physicality will be up to the challenge. We definitely saw the value of a guy like SG3 this year

and some of the difficulties that the Patriots had in the kicking game. I thought Fultz came in and did an admirable job. I don't want to walk all over him. I think Gostkowski will be healthy and he will be back next year. They've seen the errors of their ways. I think Patriots Nation has seen the error of its ways when they keep wondering why you keep paying this kicker so well and why he misses three field goals a year.

You've now seen what happens when you don't have that kicker that misses three field goals and a couple of extra points a year. He will return, and thank you, Nick Folk, for everything that you did here, especially, you know, after your appendectomy. Yeah, exactly. Getting back on the field. Yeah, being back and being back strong. And ultimately the wild card in all this is the

coaching staff. And I do believe, I mean, a lot of people raise their eyebrow and say, oh, well, I know there's stories being put out there right now about Bill Belichick and what he's going to do. Look, in Bill Belichick's Sunday morning press conference, when he was asked directly about his status and the status of Tom Brady, he says, look, all questions are remaining in the future. You knew Bill Belichick was not going to answer that question. He was going to answer it the way that he did. But what opened my eye is when Tom Curran followed up with a question about the game planning and about what's going on with this season and how to attack the offseason, what

type of extra time does to give you that edge? Bill Belichick really embraced that question and he delved into it. To me, that doesn't sound like a guy that's ready to move on. So I believe he will be back here next year as well. I don't think there's any other spot in the NFL that allows him the freedom to do what he wants to do like he does here or the ability to win like he does when he's here. And ultimately, I think that's what brings Tom back. I don't think that there's any other situation or circumstance in the NFL that gives him as good of a chance to win as what he's going to find here in New England. So ultimately, Murph, we'll see what happens. It's always a wait and see.

We'll keep two sharp eyes on it like we always do. But at the end of the day, I think we're like-minded in this situation. But the one thing we can guarantee is that we're going to keep going here on Locked On Patriots, and my guest today will definitely be back for the ride. You know the off-season doesn't stop us here at Locked On, and Murph, I value your wisdom and counsel as much, if not more, than anybody else in this business, my friend. I thank you for joining me today. Folks, you are already following him.

I know you are, but I'll reiterate it just in case we have a couple of newbies on the bandwagon today. Definitely follow Murph at TeamMurph207. His columns, his insight, always spot on. It'll be a while before we see the Monster Keys again, unfortunately, but during the season there is no finer analysis, I assure you. Definitely follow those and keep a sharp eye

out for draft coverage, OTA coverage, free agency, the man knows it and he keeps doing it. So, my friend, thank you so much for always joining me and being available to come on here to Locked On Patriots. Our listeners love it. I love it.

And I could not be more appreciative of you, your friendship, and your assistance. So thank you from the bottom of my heart, my friend. Truly humbled to even be asked on this show with all of the fine guests that you have on week after week. It is by far my favorite podcast. Well, see, listening to myself. Well, see, we are definitely like-minded. I do not like listening to myself as well.

So I definitely give my full endorsement to One Patriot's Place. Murph and Steve Balistrieri are two of the finest guys in the business, two of the finest guys away from the business, two great friends of mine. But that being aside, I'm a true fan, and I would be listening to these guys whether I knew them or not. So definitely check that out. And we look forward to having you back on here, my friend. Hopefully we'll be talking some positional battles

and maybe even some free agency the next time we have you on. No doubt. All right. Thank you, my friend. You have a great day and a great week. And so the New England Patriots 2019 regular season came to an end on Saturday night in Foxborough. And before I wrap up today, I just wanted to add this closing thought.

Many are so eager to write the obituary for the most dominant sports franchise in the past two decades. Like I've said numerous times before, the success achieved by the New England Patriots is something that we'll likely never see again in any professional sport. That type of success breeds a lot of envy and jealousy, and as Patriots fans, I know you're seeing a lot of it, especially on social media. Some of it might get ugly, nasty, and even personal. I implore you to be a bigger person. They're taking their victory lap, it's true. But keep in mind, the team that you root for is the reason why they're so negative.

They can irrationally justify it by calling the Patriots cheaters and saying that they're getting what they deserve, but the bottom line is, folks, is that the Patriots' success over the last 20 years is something they wish they had. So moving forward, try to focus on the positive and don't let them take you down to a nasty level that's beneath you and a great fan base here in New England. As for your New England Patriots, they do face a great deal of uncertainty. The speculation will seem to have no end. It's part of my job, folks. I will speculate as well. However, the truth is that no one really knows what the future may bring in Foxborough in 2020.

With regard to Tom Brady, having had the privilege of covering him for the past two-plus seasons, I could say without reservation that he is the greatest quarterback of all time. Nine Super Bowl appearances, six Super Bowl championships, four Super Bowl MVPs, three regular season MVPs, unprecedented comebacks in Super Bowls against the Seahawks and the Falcons, no one will ever see another quarterback with this resume. If this is indeed the end of Tom in New England, and I firmly believe it's not, but if it is, it's been an amazing ride. But my takeaway from all this, folks, is that there's still unfinished business in Foxborough. This will truly be an interesting offseason in Foxborough, and as the saying goes, folks, keep a sharp eye. And on a personal note, I just wanted to say that

it has been an honor to share the 2019 Patriots season with all of you. I am and will always be thankful for all of your support. It's my honor to work for such a great organization like Locked On in this capacity, and I look forward to continuing to be a part of your Patriots coverage choices throughout the offseason and beyond, and of course into 2020. That's right, folks. No days off here on Locked On. I will continue to bring you the latest news, notes, analysis, and the occasional opinion on your six-time Super Bowl champions each and every day right here on Locked On Patriots.

Please subscribe and download via your preferred podcast provider. Once again, I'm Mike DeBate. I thank Thomas Murphy for his time, insight, and appearance today. But most of all, I thank you so much for listening. And please continue to stay locked in to Locked On Patriots.

Join me again tomorrow right here, folks. Until then, have a great day, everyone.