Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Exclusive: Patriots-Falcons Headed In Different Directions Before Battle?

Starting point is 00:00:00 The paths look to continue their winning ways while Atlanta tries to bounce back from a rough loss against Miami. He's Aaron Freeman. I'm Nick Cattels. And this is a crossover edition of Lockdown Patriots and Lockdown Falcons. You are Locked on NFL crossover. Part of the Locked on Podcast Network. Your team every day. What's happening?

Starting point is 00:00:30 I am your host, Nick Cattels of Lockdown Patriots, of course. And today I'm joined by the host of Lockdown Falcons, Aaron Freeman, for the latest edition of our lockdown crossovers during this 2025 NFL season. And don't forget to give us that thumbs up, throw a comment in whether you love us or hate us. Don't forget to comment. And don't forget to us, subscribe to each of our channel's Lockdown Patriots and Lockdown Falcons. On today's crossover episode, we're going to give you three. keys that will decide the game on each side. Also, what are the matchups on Sunday that grab

Starting point is 00:01:03 Aaron and I's attention and could have a significant impact on how the game is played? But first, let's talk storylines. We appreciate joining the show, making us your first listen for being an everydayer. Don't forget again to like, comment, subscribe. Lockdown Patriots and Lockdown Falcons podcast. They're proud partners with Lockdown Podcast Network. Your team every day. And crossover Thursday is presented by Price Picks. Download the Price Picks at Today. Use code lockdown NFL to get $50 in lineups after you play your first $5 lineup. Aaron, I have been watching your stuff this week. And I don't know whether to give you condolences or just to feel bad for you because I keep hearing one word.

Starting point is 00:01:47 I keep hearing one word coming from your mouth during these pods. Apathetic. I'm apathetic. I'm apathetic. The vibes don't seem great right now down. in Atlanta, Aaron. Is that the biggest story, or is there another bigger story going on? No, that's pretty much it.

Starting point is 00:02:03 You know, going into the Dolphins game, the vibes were terrible in Miami, and they seemed to pass whatever bad mojo they had going on to the Atlanta Falcons with what was supposed to be kind of a bounce-back game for the Falcons coming off of that 49ers lost last week. The Falcons just got completely outmatched by a struggling Dolphins team, and now the Falcons are sort of the struggling team that is hoping that they can have a get-right game against New England.

Starting point is 00:02:34 Normally, the way it works in Atlanta is if you're the opposing team that's struggling, like we saw last week with Miami, like we saw the week before with San Francisco who hadn't had him a lot of success running the football, you can get right against the Atlanta Falcons, and now the Falcons, the shoe was on the other foot, and the Falcons need to have someone get right. Things seem to go pretty well for the Patriots, doesn't feel like they need to get right game at this point in time. But besides fixing the vibes, probably the big story is going to be whether or not Michael

Starting point is 00:03:03 Pinnock's is going to start this week. He did miss last week's game against Miami, which was a contributing factor to the struggles at the Falcons. Yeah. Offensively, he was dealing with a bone bruise last week. You know, Rahim Morris said at the beginning of last week, he felt good about Pinnock's playing and then about 24 hours before the game started, we found out that Kirk Cousins would be starting this week he says he feels good about Michael Pinnock's playing this weekend so I guess we'll wait till 24 hours before this game before we officially get word

Starting point is 00:03:31 on what his status is going to be but that's going to be the main thing that we keep an eye on as well as a couple of other injuries on the injury report Jesse Bates being another player that was limited Jalen Walker their rookie first round pick Billy Bowman their rookie fourth round nickel corner as well Drake London dealing with a hip injury Kyle Pitts being a new addition dealing with an ankle injury. So a lot of key players are a little nicked up. And so we'll keep an eye on some of those injuries as the week unfold. Yeah, my biggest storyline, I think, going into this game, Aaron, for the Patriots. And it ties in with their injury report now that came out today. And it's whether or not they've actually figured out the run game. You know,

Starting point is 00:04:09 you look at the last two weeks, 175 or more yards on the ground. And that all sounds great. But when you look at some of the other numbers, you kind of realize that a decent amount of that is Drake May and Drake May is getting 50 yards. He's getting 60 plus rushing yards. So that's good because you don't mind a quarterback that can pick up those yards as long as he's not getting croaked like, you know, Jaden Daniels or other guys, which has been an issue for Drake May a few times already early in his career. But you don't want to overlook that impact of Drake May that he has on the running game because you want to look at the running backs and say, are they doing doing enough. And last week, Trayvion Henderson, who was much heralded out of Ohio State,

Starting point is 00:04:51 top 40 pick in the draft this past April. You know, he had a tremendous camp, Aaron, a tremendous camp. And the expectations were really high for him right out of the gates. And he has struggled early. And last week, he finally showed some life at 75 yards on the ground. So I think the question is, you know, have they found some things that they can do, namely attack the perimeter with Trayvion Henderson, which they did a lot last weekend. Or was that just kind of a flash? Was that a flash in the pan one week? Good game rookie.

Starting point is 00:05:23 And then you kind of go back to, oh, boy, he's not seeing things as clearly as we hoped he would. And there's some hesitation to his game. And tied into that, as we just found out today, you know, Romandre Stevenson did not practice on Wednesday. It is a toe issue. Not sure if it's having to do with the Ramandre injury or they just felt like, The Patriots just felt like they wanted to add another running back to the practice squad, but they did sign De Ernest Johnson, who got released by the Cardinals in the last 24 hours or so. So now you've got Ramandre Stevenson, who's been the Belcow for all intents and purpose,

Starting point is 00:06:00 is not practicing with the toe. You've got Trayvon Henderson coming off of his best week, but was that a one week thing? And if they can't run the ball, then this offense is not as dynamic as it can be. A lot of it has been Drake May. So I think that's the bigger storyline for me is the run game that we've seen the past couple of weeks an aberration or is it legit? Do you have something else that kind of sticks out to you about the Falcons before we get to Sunday? Well, I'll say, you know, we're going to talk some of the key matchups. But if you want to run the football, you will absolutely be able to run the football against the Atlanta Falcons.

Starting point is 00:06:34 So they have not been able to stop anybody all season long. So, you know, if that is the one element that you're hoping the Patriots do get right this week. And, you know, you played the Browns last week, right? Yeah. Who had a very good run defense. And if you were able to get something going against them, I imagine, you know, going from one of the best run defenses in the NFL to one of the worst

Starting point is 00:06:55 run defenses in the UFO is exactly the boost that you're looking for. And, you know, I've been keeping an eye on Trayvion. He's on one of my fantasy teams this year. So I'm well aware of the preseason hype and being like, yes, I'm definitely drafting this guy. And then the regular season disappointment. So I'm slightly torn. on how I want him to perform this upcoming week

Starting point is 00:07:16 because it feels like an investment made in August is going to pay off potentially this week but at the same time much to the detriment of the Locked Offens podcast. Yeah, there was a lot of excitement about Trayvion, a lot of excitement. I mean, this first preseason touch, he takes it to the house on a kick return against Washington.

Starting point is 00:07:34 It's like, oh, boy, here we go, light it up. And then as a fantasy football owner, not much going on until last week. So maybe he turned the corner last week. All right. In an AFC, NFC game, we get matchups that we don't really see often. So we'll discuss some of the marquee matchups on Sunday next. It's a lockdown Patriots and Falcons crossover. And we are part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day.

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Starting point is 00:10:05 If you don't know, now you know. and if you want to help out a couple of guys like comment subscribe if you're watching on youtube that'll help us out it's that algorithm stuff that we always talk about yeah that will help like comment and subscribe all right marquee matchups aaron as we get ready for sunday i mentioned this in the little tease you know a fc nfc matchup you don't have this very often falcons don't play the patriots very often so we have some uh i think interesting matchups coming up on sunday where would you start yeah i'm going to start with the strength of the Falcons so far. It hasn't looked quite as strong the last couple of weeks,

Starting point is 00:10:40 but that's the defense. And one of the things that you saw if you watched the Falcons Dolphins game was Jalen Waddle really gave them a lot of troubles in that game, really took advantage of Mike Hughes. And one of the things I talked about in Lockdown Falcons yesterday was now that we have the clarity of hindsight, probably would have been a smart call to put the Falcons top corner, AJ Terrell, on the Dolphins top wide receiver, Jalen Waddle, and maybe that would have helped prevent him from going off in that game. And I'm hoping the Falcons learn their lesson and look at Stefan Diggs and say, let's not make that mistake this week.

Starting point is 00:11:16 And let's see if we can get A.J. matched up against Diggs as much as possible. I believe the last time they went toe to toe was when Diggs was still in Buffalo in 2021. And Terell did a really good job against Diggs on that particular Sunday. He also, I recall, I think his role. year. I want to say, no, no, that was, Diggs was in Buffalo then. But yeah, I was thinking they were played in Vikings, but that was Justin Jefferson. Anyway, but, you know, just light work for A.J. Terrell locking down Justin Jefferson. But, you know, because of how well AJ Terrell has played this year, I do feel like that's going to be a key matchup. You know, one of

Starting point is 00:11:58 the concerns, though, is if you're going to have A.J. Terrell shadow, Stefan Diggs, that means you're going to have to play a lot of man coverage. And that can be a problem. because, as you mentioned earlier, with Drake May's scrambling ability, that he has no problem. Basically, when he realizes that the defenders have their back to the defense, he'll just take off and run. And a couple of weeks ago, that probably wouldn't have been something that stopped the Falcons from doing that

Starting point is 00:12:22 because they were able to keep Josh Allen scrambling in check against the bills, but they had Divine Diablo, their linebacker there, who was a really good athlete and could essentially spy a player like Josh Allen and theoretically would be able to spy a player like Drake May as well, but Diablo's on IR with a broken forearm, and his replacement in J.D. Bertrand is, let's just say, the polar opposite of him from an athleticism standpoint. So it's going to be a challenge for the Falcons to figure out

Starting point is 00:12:51 if they're going to play that style and try to man up these Patriots receivers. You know, is that going to make them more vulnerable to the QB run game, and they don't really have a good answer currently on their roster? if they're going to try to keep Drake May scrambling in check at this point in time, especially if Jalen Walker, who's probably their best answer if he doesn't come back. He's missed the last two games. He's dealing with that growing injury. And so they really need him to come back this week if they're going to have at least a decent shot of keeping Drake May in check.

Starting point is 00:13:23 Yeah, I mean, I was watching the squad show from you guys. And my goodness, I started to feel bad for J.D. Bertrand. I'm a Notre Dame fan, right? So I'll just put that on the table. So I know about J.D. Bertrand. I saw him play college an awful lot. So certainly interesting to go from Diablo to Bertrand for sure. The other part of what you mentioned as far as Stefan Diggs,

Starting point is 00:13:46 you know, it's an interesting thing where one of the positives about Drake May season so far is he hasn't necessarily forced the issue with Stefan Diggs. Now, I thought last week he did try to force a throw to Diggs and it ended up being a pick, you know, a nice play by Cleveland's defense. I believe it was Carson Schwessinger, who got the pick, a really nice play from him, but it was because Drake kind of forced it or was trying to force it to Stefan Diggs. He's really been good. Drake's really been good about, you know, the old, you know, who's your favorite receiver,

Starting point is 00:14:18 the open receiver crap. He's actually done pretty well with that. So we'll see if he continues. Matt Collins, for example, last week had a big week for the Pat's offense. So we'll see if he continues to go down that road. For me, I mean, this is kind of low-hanging fruit, but I've got to start here, and that's just Bijon Robinson in the front seven. And, you know, gathering from what you guys have talked about and gals on the squad show and locked on Falcons, it feels like, hey, if you can do a good job on Bejan Robinson, then you can do a good job, you know, going against this Atlanta offense. So Patriots, as you know, I've heard you talk about it this week, Aaron, you know, one of the best run defenses in football so far.

Starting point is 00:15:00 and that really hasn't been because they played a bunch of weak teams. I mean, they shut down RICO Dowdell, who's been one of the better backs in football, especially the last few weeks. They shut down James Cook. So they've shown the ability to slow down some of the best running backs in football. Bejohn is a different kind of cat. No, he wasn't great last weekend,

Starting point is 00:15:19 but I think you'll walk into Sunday thinking you can't let that dude cook because if he cooks, that can change the game. So you got to make sure the front seven does the job. swarm, tackle, wrap up, and just try to hold on for dear life and make sure Bijan doesn't run for a buck 50. What's another marquee matchup you're looking at? Well, I think you nailed it with the Bijon one because with all the other question marks the Falcons have

Starting point is 00:15:44 with Drake London, now Pitts, Panics, et cetera, Bijan already was the best player in team. And right now, you're trying to figure out, okay, who's going to be the second best player on the team? And right now you're sort of questioning that, particularly on the offensive side of the ball. So the Falcons really need Bejohn to have a sort of big week. But when it comes to the matchups that are also going to facilitate that,

Starting point is 00:16:07 it's going to be about the battle in the trenches. He Morris has unfortunately used the name of the city, Atlanta, as a verb in each of the last two weeks to talk about being the more physical team. And he said two weeks ago, the 49ers out Atlanta, the Falcons. meaning that they were the more physical team. He said it this past week against the Miami Dolphid. No one's in the history of at least the Mike McDaniel era has ever considered the Miami Dolphid to be a physical football team,

Starting point is 00:16:39 but he used it to say that they out physicaled the Falcons this past week. And so essentially, the running joke is that you're, you know, I don't think that word means what you think it means, Rahim, based off of how the Falcons have been playing. So Atlanta does not mean being the more physical team. it means being the less physical team. But we'll give Rahim the benefit of doubt, you know, third times a charm that the Falcons are going to have to

Starting point is 00:17:04 out Atlanta, the New England Patriots, or maybe out New England, the Patriots this week. And that means getting more physical in the trenches. And so their offensive line has to play better. They have been pushed around the last few weeks. And, you know, as you mentioned with this Patriots front, it's not necessarily because of like one sort of superstars. sort of guy that you're like, well, we got to block that guy to keep him in check.

Starting point is 00:17:30 But it's just a group effort of just good football players playing good football, Milton Williams, Christian Barmore, among others, Harold Landry, et cetera. And that's going to be the challenge for this Falcons offensive line. So that's another key matchup, not sort of one guy. Oh, we got to block this guy. It's just like you got to block everybody because all of those guys are capable of making plays. You know, part of the trench talk is also part of my marquee matchups. This might be a little bit odd to you because I know right tackle has been a sore spot for Atlanta this year.

Starting point is 00:18:03 But I'm actually looking at K. Levan Chase-on against Jake Matthews. Chase-on has been really good. He's looked like the first round talent that Jacksonville drafted years ago. He has been a disruptor of passing games. He is not great to put it lightly against the run at times. And teams have tried to focus on Caleb-on-Chison in the run game. But the reason why I look at Kalevon Chason versus Jake Matthews is, you know, Matthews is ranked third by pro football focus as far as the best, you know, third best tackle in past protection and pass blocking. So my thought is if Matthews handles Chase on one on one, that will allow Atlanta to help the right tackle situation.

Starting point is 00:18:50 But if Caleb on Chase-on can cause some trouble and disrupt against Jake Matthews, now Atlanta starts to run out of options as far as protecting some of their offensive line issues that they've had. So I think if Chase-on can play well enough, that can cause some trouble for the Falcons. And I would also say, you know, obviously like your O-Line, Atlanta's O-Line, Patriots O-Line will also have a challenge against Atlanta's defensive line and their pass rush. even though it might not have been awesome against Miami. So the trench, the trench warfare, so to speak, is absolutely on the table. Anything else you want to add as far as marquee matchups here? No, you know, there's no, or there is one thing I'll add, but I'll say to piggyback on your last point,

Starting point is 00:19:37 you know, there is no Miles Garrett on this team that you have to basically stop from getting five sacks. But the goal for the Falcons is it's sort of more of an amoeba group of guys where anybody can win up front. And so it's kind of that sort of style. So it's not about blocking one guy. It's about blocking five, six, seven, eight guys with the Falcons deep rotation. So we'll see if the defensive line can step up. They were able to take advantage of some offensive line injuries early in the season. They have kind of come back down a little bit to earth these last couple of weeks.

Starting point is 00:20:10 And most of their success rushing the quarterback has been via the Blitz. I went through and watched a bunch of Drake May against the Blitz earlier today. and he seems to have no problem dealing with that. So that's going to be a challenge unless the Falcons can win with a more standard rush this week. All right. Three keys to victory next as we continue today's crossover episode of Lockdown Patriots and Lockdown Falcons, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. Let's talk about Mazda.

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Starting point is 00:22:11 He can text me if he doesn't like this. But I don't like giving predictions too early. I like waiting until the Friday episode. So no predictions here. But Aaron and I will give you three keys to victory, what we think each team needs to do to get the dub on Sunday. Again, you can check out Friday's episode for our official predictions. But Aaron, what is your first key for Atlanta? Well, it goes back to, you know, that verb, Atlanta.

Starting point is 00:22:38 It's about you've got to match physicality, right? Yeah. And with a Mike Rable coach team, Rarely are you ever going to question the toughness of his football teams? Well, you can question the toughness of the Atlanta Falcons all day, every day, at this stage. And so the Falcons are going to have to close that gap first and foremost, because pretty much everything they want to do offensively and defensively is predicated off of that. For me, my second key, it's a cliche for a reason, but it really fits for the Atlanta Falcons. It's about winning the turnover battle.

Starting point is 00:23:13 Yeah. Being track of this since Rahimor. is taken over as the Falcons I coach. When the Falcons are positive on turnover margin, meaning that they have more takeaways than giveaways, there are 8-0 under Rahimors. When they're behind a negative turnover margin, they're 1 in 9.

Starting point is 00:23:29 Miami being the 9th loss this past week. And when it's an even turnover margin, they're 2 and 4. So basically, if they don't steal a series away from a team with a positive turnover margin, they're dead in the water. And then my last one is also sort of piggybacking on a similar point with looking at their records. They need a fast start, right?

Starting point is 00:23:51 Their offense has gotten off to slow starts these last couple of weeks. It's been a trend of theirs on the road. But you look at this season so far, they're three and one in games where they score on their opening drive. They're 0 and 3 in games when they don't score on their opening drive. So if this team wants to have some success on the road, it's going to have to get going early this week. in New England. It's interesting. I want to hit on that opening drive bit for a second.

Starting point is 00:24:20 That's one of the things. If you look at the Patriots all year long that they have struggled with, Aaron, is opening drives of the opposing offense. The defense has had a ton of issues dealing with the script from pretty much every team. As a matter of fact, teams have scored touchdowns on their opening drives in six of the eight games so far of the Patriots. So I would would say to you, if you want a fast start from your offense, maybe the magic elixir could be this Patriots defense. So I said earlier this week that I'm almost at the point where I just put seven points up on the board. Don't even snap the football. Just start 70, start with a deficit because this defense is an abomination, the first tribe of the game. Now, fortunately, they've gotten

Starting point is 00:25:06 much better as the game has gone on, but that has been an issue. So you might actually see that play out the way that Atlanta needs it to play out on Sunday. The turnover thing, those numbers are crazy. It wasn't necessarily my first key to victory, but I did have turnovers listed, and it's just forced turnovers. Forced turnovers,

Starting point is 00:25:26 the Patriots are tied for the fourth most takeaways in the NFL so far through the first eight weeks. And of course, that creates short fields. It gives you extra possessions. They've really taken advantage of turnovers since the awful game against Pittsburgh, where

Starting point is 00:25:42 They turned the ball over five times and lost that game at Gillette. So forced turnovers. Another key to victory, I would say, is that the Patriots, they have to win in the red zone. And that's on both sides of the ball. You know, looking up some things about Atlanta, doing some of the homework, they are atrocious in the red zone. They're bottom five on both sides of the football. Patriots need to take advantage of that. And I especially bring that up because, you know, last week, look, great win.

Starting point is 00:26:10 they did a lot of things well, but offensively they were two for six in the red zone against Cleveland last weekend. So it has been an issue from time to time, this red zone offense, especially in the low red zone area where they just can't finish. They can't get their run game going inside the five-yard line consistently enough. So they've got to be able to finish drives in the red zone, and they've got to be able to make sure if Atlanta gets inside that 20,

Starting point is 00:26:38 force them to get three. And the final thing I would say is, and this might just kind of be a generic thing to say, but it's just sustain your level of play. It hasn't been perfect, but you've won five in a row if you're the Patriots. Sustain your level of play. You have the better quarterback. You're at home. If you can sustain that level of play, you should be able to win on Sunday, right?

Starting point is 00:27:02 It's kind of a pretty simple, break it all down to its simplest form and just keep that level of play where it's been. And if you do that, take care of the football and your quarterback plays the way you hope he plays, you should come out with the win. So we'll be an interesting, will be a very, very interesting game coming up on Sunday for sure between the Falcons who need it. After that, Miami loss, I thought Miami was dead in the water. Somehow, some way, they made Atlanta look like they were dead in the water. So Atlanta needs to have a revival and show up on Sunday at Gillette, Patriots need to keep doing what they've been doing. That wraps up this crossover edition of Lockdown Patriots and, of course, Lockdown Falcons.

Starting point is 00:27:45 Thank you for making us your first listen and for being an everydayer. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel, hit that like button and subscribe. And for your second listen, get a double dose of the Lockdown NFL podcast with Tyler the Madman Roland and Tony Wiggins, a fine lockdown NFL on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Have a great day. and for Aaron Freeman of Lockdown Falcons,

Starting point is 00:28:08 I will say, Nick Cattels here, Lockdown Patriots, we will see you tomorrow with our predictions.

Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Exclusive: Patriots-Falcons Headed In Different Directions Before Battle?

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