Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Film Review: Drake Maye’s Second-Half Issues vs Buffalo Bills Revealed

Starting point is 00:00:00 We've watched the film and reveal what truly went wrong in the second half against Buffalo, including Drake May making some head-scratching decisions. This is Locked-on Patriots. You are Locked-on Patriots, your daily New England Patriots podcast, part of the Locked-on Podcasts Network, your team every day. What's happening in? I am your host, Nick Cattels, born, raised in New England, been covering the Pats for the past 16 years. Also the co-host of the Greg Bedard Patriots podcast with Nick Cattels and a sports radio veteran. Welcome to Lockdown

Starting point is 00:00:40 Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, now the number one sports podcast network, your team every day. On today's episode in the third segment, we'll tell you who was responsible for the special teams debacle on Sunday, including somebody who is no longer a Patriot. In our second segment, one of the Pat's biggest stars is struggling to make a consistent impact and that needs to change soon. But first, the good, the bad and the ugly from the offensive film. Today's episode is brought you by Fandul. If you want to be right in the middle of the action this season, visit Fandul.com and place your NFL live bets all season long. The first half against the bills, the offense, easy to explain. You ran the football down their throat. One hundred

Starting point is 00:01:26 77 rushing yards in that first half, including two Drake May touchdown runs, which was a great thing to witness. We've been wondering, how long would it take for Josh McDaniels to start to sprinkle in Drake May's ability with his legs when you get inside the 10, when you get inside the 5? Well, that question was answered on Sunday. It was Sunday. Drake May, his mobility, got you two touchdowns in the low red zone area, which, which has been a problem for the Patriots. You only have to go back to the Cincinnati game when you had five or six snaps to one yard line of Sinci

Starting point is 00:02:04 and could not get into the end zone. So that was great to see. Great to see. I also want to say this up front because I know people are getting ready with their pitchforks and torches to chase me down whenever I say something about Drake May that might not put him in the greatest light. As soon as I give maybe a little bit, a little bit,

Starting point is 00:02:26 of a criticism or I say he might have not played a great half or a quarter. Some people lose their minds. There's no need to lose your mind. This is what we do here. We give credit when credit is due. We criticize when somebody or the team deserves the criticism. May has been great on the balance of this year. And for what, 90% 95% of our coverage this season has been telling you about how great Drake May has been and how he would be the end. MVP if the season ended before this past weekend. And I'm not also going to sit here and tell you, oh, well, Drake May was the reason the Patriots lost against the bills.

Starting point is 00:03:05 I said that in a live post game show. But we've got to talk about it. We've got to talk about Drake May's performance. We've got to talk about what went wrong with the offense in the second half. And watching the film, I will tell you, Drake May was actually worse than I thought he was watching this game in real time. I did not think Drake May was good in the second half. I did not think he was good at all.

Starting point is 00:03:30 And I start with the decision making. Suspect decisions. I'll give you a few examples. Third and 25 end of the third quarter where he threw the quote unquote air punt as J.J. Watt called the two Mac Collins. We talked about this play a little bit in the live post game. Well, looking at the all 22, you look at what other options Drake May had during that play. And Buffalo, if you watch this back, they are giving Hunter Henry 10 to 15 yards of a cushion.

Starting point is 00:04:01 They are willing to give up 10, 15, maybe even 20 yards on this 3rd and 25. Ramandre Stevenson also on a crossing route, he wins and he is open. There's nobody within 5 to 8 yards of Hunter Henry. And he's a good 8 to 10 yards down the field. This would have been an easy pitch and catch. So Drake May has a couple of options here. You can either chuck and duck it to Mack Hollins and hope that Mack Hollins makes a play on the ball

Starting point is 00:04:31 against Tredavius White or you can hope for a defensive pass interference. That's an option. You could say third and 25, we have no chance of converting this. Let me just chuck it up. Or you can hit Hunter Henry and say, we're going to get that 10 to 15 yards. And maybe if Hunter Henry makes a guy miss,

Starting point is 00:04:52 Maybe he gets 20 yards. Maybe he gets 18 yards. But if you get 15 yards, 18 yards, I mean, you're looking right around field goal range. You can throw it to Ramandre Stevenson on the run with the crossing round. And maybe he turns a seven-yard gain into a 15, 20-yard gain. So that was the decision. And it felt like watching this on film, it was predetermined. that Drake May was just going to take a shot down field and live with the results. I'm not telling you it was a terrible decision.

Starting point is 00:05:29 I am telling you that if you hit Hunter Henry there, nobody's within five to eight yards of him, and he gets you an extra eight to ten yards after the catch, you then have a decision on your hands on fourth down. You could be looking at fourth and less than ten, or you could be looking at a 55 to 58 yard field goal attempt by Andy Borogales. But you take the shot, you'll live with the result, The results, of course, not good for the Patriots. It's a pick by Traverius Wight.

Starting point is 00:05:57 I also said on the stream, right, on the live stream, post game. Drake May took a sack on second and five. When the Patriots were down 35, 31 in the fourth quarter, I said, I wanted to see, I wanted to watch this over again, the all 22, and figure out if Drake May had any options. Well, first of all, Drake May has at least three seconds, I think, even more in the pocket. It's a clean pocket. he's good to go and he actually has Kyle Williams open he doesn't throw it I don't know if he doesn't see it but Kyle Williams is open for a decent gain 10 to 15 yards easily and Drake

Starting point is 00:06:36 may does not find Kyle Williams he takes the sack tough decision final drive of the game for the offense two plays I have questions about again Drake may is looking at a second in five from the New England 22. Two minutes and 18 seconds left in the game. Drake May ends up taking a sack of 0.0 yards. Can't do it. You got to get rid of the football. You have to get rid of the football and, you know, he bailed way too early. The play was dead as soon as he decided to bail. The past protection was great. On the very next play, you got a third and five. Kishon Booty. Again, he wins on a crossing route he is open it's a third and five the play is there it's a first down and it's even more if you hit kishan booty on the run i don't know he might still be running

Starting point is 00:07:28 but again it looks like drake may has predetermined that he's going to chuck and duck to travion henderson on a wheel route that is not open and was never open it is covered khan booty is not covered drake may takes the shot down field to henderson and it's an incomplete it's a wasted play stuck at fourth and five, and then the game pretty much ends on that fourth and five. I also thought Drake May was inaccurate a few times in this game. Matt Collins, there was a play where Matt Collins had to reach back. I'm sure you remember it and snag a football. He was wide open, should not have been tough.

Starting point is 00:08:03 There was the second in 10 where Hunter Henry is open. He's going to get at least six, seven, eight yards on the catch, but Drake May airmails him, almost throws a pick. And if you look at the completion percentage over expected, according to Andrew Callahan, you know, Drake May did not have an inaccurate game until week 10. Since week 10, his accuracy has been up and down. When you look at that CPOE analytic, at Tampa Bay, it was negative 5.9. At the Jets, it was plus 13.5.

Starting point is 00:08:34 At CINC, it was negative 0.4. Giants plus 15.8 against Buffalo, it was minus 0.5. so a little up and down when it comes to the accuracy. And, you know, I did not have Drake May for one plus throw in this game. There wasn't one throw where you go, wow, that's a plus play by the quarterback. All of his pluses came in the run game. His decisions to keep it and run, getting down field and helping Trayvion Henderson on the touchdown run. That's where pretty much all of his pluses came from.

Starting point is 00:09:05 And he, again, this game is not on him, but he could not save the defense in the second half. He couldn't extend drives and give them a little bit of a break. There was no single big play that stood out that you needed from your quarterback. And you just say he's going to learn from it. He's still young. Meanwhile, I thought the offensive line was good, if not really good. In the first half, they pushed Buffalo's front seven all over the place. I mean, they pushed them around.

Starting point is 00:09:33 They played bully ball in the run game. Their past protection was fine. Vedarian Lowe was the only offensive lineman in this game for me and my grading system, that finished with an overall negative grade. And that's because he had four minus plays in the second half. It was a tough second half for Vardarian Lowe. But the offensive line, all in all, you would take this effort. They were good against the Buffalo bills.

Starting point is 00:09:58 And, you know, we got the Josh McDaniel stuff looking at the all 22. And you go over Josh McDaniel's second half with a fine tooth comb. And I'm even more annoyed by his approach and a band, the run. Second half, Pat's second possession. They're still up 24, 21. Pass to Ramandre Stevenson, 16 yards, past two Trayon-Henderson for six yards.

Starting point is 00:10:21 You're looking at a second and four. Perfect time to run the ball, get it established again. You throw, incomplete pass, nobody's open. Third and four, you find Stefan Diggs for 16 yards. Nice third down conversion. First and 10, it's a too high safety look there. You're playing too high defense if you're the Buffalo bill's perfect time to run it's a play action it looks like it might be an rPO but i'm not sure because

Starting point is 00:10:47 it also looks like you know all the receivers are out there and it looks like you're blocking for a pass but either way drake may decides we're going to throw the football here incomplete second and ten that's when drake may misses hunter henry who's open for a six to eight yard gain you miss him and you got the offensive line with two flags back to back and then you four force the ball downfield to Matt Collins. Next possession, Travion Henderson's 65-yard touchdown run. And then the next possession, the pads are down 35-31 with 6-43 left. First and 10.

Starting point is 00:11:25 Travion Henderson, five-yard run. So back-to-back positive runs, including the 65-yard touchdown run. Second and five, perfect time to run again. You don't. Drake may get sacked. Third and 12. Hunter Henry drops the pass. you have a three and out. I'd also question Josh McDaniels why there wasn't really any play

Starting point is 00:11:45 action in this game, especially in the second half. They ran for 177 yards in the first half and they did not go to play action much at all in the second half, which is kind of strange. Ramandre Stevenson had one single solitary touch in the second half after being really good in the first half. What's that about? One more note. Shout out to Hunter Henry and Austin Hooper, who I thought were both really good run blocking against the bills in this game. All right, without Milton Williams, the Pats are desperate for one guy to step up, and he's just not consistently doing that. That and more next, as we continue with today's Lockdown Patriots,

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Starting point is 00:13:38 take it up a level go ad free join the everydayer club today and get locked on patriots with no interruptions members only discord access and more all for just five dollars a month or 50 bucks for the year go to lockdown patriots dot supercast dot com or check the link in the show notes to learn more uh the everyday or club pretty cool you want to check it out also don't forget to give us that thumbs up if you're watching us on youtube give us that like helps us with the algorithm help a brother out help a pot out give us the like throw a comment and your thoughts on drake may's performance against the bills anything else that you're thinking of after that uh collapse on sunday and don't forget to subscribe inching closer to 8000 subs all right second half defensive film tough to watch

Starting point is 00:14:22 just tough to watch uh milton williams robert spillane those guys not on the field there's no doubt that hurts the defense okay some people are going to sit there and say next man up and be a hard O and say that you can't excuse certain things because of injuries, I disagree with that. When you're down two of your best defensive players and those two players are in your front seven and your run defense is not playing great, you look at those injuries. One of the questions we had about the Patriots when this season kicked off was their depth.

Starting point is 00:14:56 They don't have a ton of depth. So when you start to lose guys who are critical to the operation, you're darn right that's going to impact you negatively. It would be disingenuous if I sat here and told you, oh, Milton Williams and Robert Spillane were out, but that doesn't really matter. Of course it matters. Of course it matters.

Starting point is 00:15:15 But with that said, you still need more from the guys that are out there. And I start with Christian Barmore. Christian Barmore was not consistently impactful in the game on Sunday. He had a couple of plays in the first half, but in the second half, he was, for all intents and purposes, persona non-grata. And you can't have Christian Barmore pulling a Houdini in the second half of a game when you have a chance to win the division and your defense is hemorraging. You need Christian Barmore to step up in that situation, and he didn't.

Starting point is 00:15:53 I did not count a single plus play from Christian Barmore in the second half. Now, maybe I missed one, but you get the point. not nearly enough impact from a guy who you're paying a ton of money and somebody who you are relying on to make plays, especially when Milton Williams is not out there. And yes, Christian Barmore is getting doubled a decent amount, but you still have to beat those doubles every once in a while. And when you get a one-on-one block, you've got to eat if you are Christian Barmore.

Starting point is 00:16:23 And he's just not stepping up consistently enough. And I could say that about the entire interior defensive line. line. The difference is the expectations for Christian Barmore are much higher than a Corey Durden or a Joshua Farmer, both were down against the bills. In the second half, multiple times those guys got pushed off the line of scrimmage, one-on-one blocking, just getting taken out of the play. Surprisingly, Kyrie's Tonga also was not great in this game. I don't know. if it's because the chest problem is still bugging him. I have no idea.

Starting point is 00:17:04 But Kyrie's Tonga, this was not one of his best games. You know, a lot of games this year, you're watching. He's been one of my favorites. You know that. Kyri's Tonga's been excellent this year when he's been out there and ready to go. And it's like every game you watch, he has at least four or five plays that stand out. I didn't see that against the bills. And there was just an overall lack of penetration at the line of scrimmage from your

Starting point is 00:17:27 defensive line throughout the second half. getting pushed off the line of scrimmage. And your linebackers, especially Jack Gibbons, they weren't doing enough either. So that's the problem with the run game. Four-man pass rush wasn't good again. It's a broken record at this point. We should not expect a pass rush. I had said in the preview episode, getting ready for the Bill's Patriots game,

Starting point is 00:17:57 do not expect pass rush from the four-man rush. because A, the Pats have not been able to get that consistently for now, I don't know, a couple of months at least. B, the Buffalo Bills offensive line is really good and their pass protection is really good. So I'm not surprised you didn't have much pass rush. As I said, Jack Gibbons, yikes. I thought he was bad in this game. I thought he was bad against the run at times. I thought he was bad in coverage a few times.

Starting point is 00:18:28 And we talked about on the preview show as well, the Buffalo Bill's offense relies on yards after the catch and yards after contact, which means you have to tackle well. If you want to limit the bill's offense, you've got to be able to tackle. And there were way too many mistackles in this game. I'm sure you saw some of them in real time watching the film. There were even more mistackles that I think some might appreciate. in this game.

Starting point is 00:19:00 Andrew Callahan, as a matter of fact, posted that according to Pro Football Focus, the Patriots missed 10 tackles against the bills. That is the most tackles they've missed in a game since they had 12 missed tackles against Pittsburgh. So that's almost three months ago, September 21st. And I don't think it's a coincidence that you miss 10 tackles against the bills,

Starting point is 00:19:26 you lose the game, you miss 12 tackles against the Steelers. and you'll lose the game. Your last loss was against the Steelers, which was your worst tackling performance since that game until Sunday against the bills. And I thought Jack Gibbons missed tackles, as I said. I thought Jalen Hawkins missed a couple, Craig Woodson. More guys were victims of the mistackle game,

Starting point is 00:19:50 but just not good enough, especially against this particular offense. The final thing I'll say about the defense in the second half, Because in the first half, look, really good job against the run. I did not think the Buffalo Bills committed to the run for whatever reason in the first half. I think that was part of it. You did a much better job of keeping Josh Allen in the pocket. You were more disciplined. But in the second half, you had mistakes at critical times.

Starting point is 00:20:16 Craig Woodson, the holding penalty on third and five from the New England 13. I mean, you have the bills dead to rights there. Josh Allen has nobody to throw the football to. You are in a great spot. You're about to force a fourth and five, which would, I think, no doubt, cause Sean McDermott to kick a field goal there, but you get the defensive holding on Craig Woodson,

Starting point is 00:20:40 a new set of downs, eventually a touchdown out of it. It's a four-point difference. That's a game right there, right? You lost 35, 31. You don't get that hold. You hold them to a field goal. It's a whole new game. And then you have certain things like, you know,

Starting point is 00:20:56 coverage breakdown, whether it's Marte Mapu, not getting deep enough in the zone coverage. The safety's not, you know, getting tight enough on Dalton Kincaid as he comes down with a 24-yard catch on third and seven. You had the Buffalo Bills backed up pretty well in their own territory. So just mistakes at critical times. Things you'll learn from, things that you learn from. All right.

Starting point is 00:21:19 If two to three guys did their job on special teams, we're likely talking about an 11th straight win. We'll talk about that and much more coming up next. This is Lockdown Patriots, part of the Lockdown Podcast Network, your team every day. You ever feel like your money just disappears each month? It happens fast. A few subscriptions here, an impulse buy there and suddenly the numbers in your bank account don't match the numbers in your head. Rocket money helps you get clarity. Track every dollar and stay in control of your finances because managing your money should not feel like a second job. Rocket money does the heavy lifting for you so you can save more and stress less.

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Starting point is 00:22:42 subscribe. Help us out here at Lockdown Patriots as we continue to build this community. Lots of other nuggets and notes from the All-22. Let's start with special teams. What in the world went wrong on special teams? Well, the kickoff coverage. Craig Woodson. Two or three times just did not beat his block, did not do a good enough job. I thought he had a shaky day in kickoff coverage. Caleb Murphy was also on the scene, quote unquote, a couple of times. And I don't think this is a coincidence, but Caleb Murphy was waived on Monday. So not good on special teams on Sunday, waived on Monday.

Starting point is 00:23:22 If you're Caleb Murphy, you really have one job on this team, and that's special teams. Not good enough there. Mike Vrable cuts him on Monday. So he gone. Then you had Brennan Schuller. And look, Brennan Schuler is a great special teams player. He is literally an all pro special teams guy. He's going to have dumb penalties.

Starting point is 00:23:48 It happens what, it feels like at least a handful of times, every year. And you're going to take the lots of good with the occasional penalty flag on Brennan Schooler. And we had it. We had a big kickoff return for Buffalo. And then you tack on 50 yards because, you know, Brennan Schooler decides I'm going to grab a facemax. So here's the extra 15. Enjoy it. Just can't happen. In the second half, to start the third quarter, Jelani Tavai had a mistackle. Del Pettis took a questionable angle. Craig Woodson took a questionable angle.

Starting point is 00:24:26 Both guys missed the tackle after Jalani Tavai missed the tackle. And that springs free a huge kick return and gives Buffalo to start the third quarter a short field. And then in your return game, I mentioned this in live post game show, the return game wasn't good. you get a great return from Kyle Williams, and of course, that is called back because of a Marte Mapu hold. So Marte Mapu, who seemingly every couple of weeks,

Starting point is 00:24:54 makes a big mistake on defense, has an occasional flag, here he is again. So that's really what it came down to. You're talking about four or five guys that if they clean it up, it's not nearly as bad as it was on Sunday with the special teams, but they didn't clean it up. They made some crucial errors, and you lost the game in part because of that.

Starting point is 00:25:18 If you had better kickoff coverage and you could get anything from your return game, I think you could win that game on Sunday. It's a four-point division game. Like, you're right there is what it is. It crushes you. All right, let's talk about some guys who were good. I thought Carlton Davis was good against the Buffalo Bills.

Starting point is 00:25:38 I think you could argue that Carlton Davis was really good on Sunday against the bills he had sticky coverage he had a great third down stop on a tie Johnson swing pass fantastic work from him the play that everybody talks about the keon Coleman play where he has the jersey again I don't think he impeded keon Coleman I would not have thrown a flag on that I would not have called that defensive pass interference but I will say before the grab of the jersey Carlton Davis slipped and fell So I don't know if he grabs the back of the jersey If he doesn't slip and fall

Starting point is 00:26:16 If he keeps his feet, he probably has coverage He's right there I mean, I would think he'd be right there Because he was right there And he did not grab the jersey And keep Keon Coleman from, you know, again, trying to make that play. But he did slip and fall,

Starting point is 00:26:31 Which put him in a position where he might have felt like he had to grab that jersey. But Carlton Davis overall, I think he's been on a role lately. He has been playing his best. best football the past three or four games. He is playing his best football when you need him to play his best. Christian Ellis was better than I thought he was at the second level. Again, Jack Gibbons was not.

Starting point is 00:26:54 I didn't think Jalani Tavai was great. I did not think Marte Mapu was good. But Christian Ellis, I thought he played better than I was watching in real time. The running backs were very good. They were even better than you thought they were. The vision was really good. the yards after the contact, I thought was good from both guys, especially obviously the Trayvion Henderson touchdown run in the second half, which was the only offense

Starting point is 00:27:19 you had in the entire half. I do say, though, you know, the pass protection, Ramadre Stevenson lost late on a blitz in past protection, and Trayvion Henderson also missed a block in past protection and got kind of blown out and it resulted in a negative play. So, you know, Ramadre Stevenson has been really good against the blitz and in past protection this year, he did have the one negative on Sunday. Travion Henderson has been, we've talked about it all year, a little bit more up and down. He once again missed a block on a blitz on Sunday.

Starting point is 00:28:00 So they've got to continue to be better in that category, especially Trayvion Henderson. But he has, I mean, look, he's been fantastic over the past. know what how many games six seven games i mean he's just been really good since the first half of the season finished up looks like a guy where the game has slowed down and he's been tremendously productive one final note christian gonzalez i thought was fine you know this is why i think i might have to react less on twitter in real time watching these games on tv because you just don't really know what's going on it looked like christian gonzalez on the first drive for the bills got beat twice.

Starting point is 00:28:40 You know, the first play was a deep ball to Brandon Cooks from Josh Allen. And Christian Gonzalez was, you know, trailing on the play. He was behind Brandon Cooks. However, when you look at the all 22, there's a reason why Christian Gonzalez is a step, step and a half behind Brandon Cooks. And it's because Joshua Palmer, wide receiver for the Buffalo Bills, ends up picking Christian Gonzalez well down the field. They're 15 to 20 yards down the field.

Starting point is 00:29:07 and Josh Palmer literally changes his route direction and makes contact with Christian Gonzalez and that's the rub which allows Brandon Cooks to get open. It should have been an offensive pass interference. The refs missed it. Now, fortunately, Brandon Cooks bobbles the football. It doesn't end up hurting you. Then you had a third downplay where I think it was Dalton Kincaid gets open

Starting point is 00:29:35 and Josh Allen misses him. He overshoots him. Again, it was Christian Gonzalez on the coverage. What happened on that play was there was a bunch formation on the left side. I think it was that whole diamond thing where you have, you know, three receivers and then the running back behind those three receivers on the same side of the line of scrimmage. And Christian Gonzalez got lost in traffic. He's got to do a better job on that play.

Starting point is 00:29:59 But overall, I thought Christian Gonzalez was fine. I didn't sit there and go, oh, he was spectacular. But I thought he was fine. I thought he was good. I thought he was good. I thought Marcus Jones mixed bag had some plays he wants back in the second half. And, you know, I thought Jalen Hawkins was okay. I thought Craig Woodson had a couple plays that he wants back,

Starting point is 00:30:19 including the holding we brought up earlier. All right, that wraps up this edition of Lockdown Patriots. Thank you for making us your first listen and for being an everydayer. Reach out to me on Twitter at Nick C Radio. Don't forget to throw a comment in on the YouTube channel. Hit that like button and subscribe. Also, did Lockdown Patriots make your Spotify wrap? Prove it on social media to secure a free month of our brand new

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Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Film Review: Drake Maye’s Second-Half Issues vs Buffalo Bills Revealed

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