Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 10/17/16- Who Stood Out In The Patriots 35-17 Win?

Episode Date: October 17, 2016

Chris Simoneau discusses the Patriots/Bengals game from yesterday. #bradyisunstoppable #soisgronk #suspendburfict Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. Good afternoon, I'm Chris Simino, your host of Locked On Patriots, your source for everything Patriots. Today is Monday, October 17th, 2016, and as we do every day after a game, we'll review what went right and what went wrong in yesterday's 35-17 win over the inconsistent and disappointing Cincinnati Bengals. We have a lot to get to and not a lot of time to do it, so let's get down to business. Today in Patriots news, after yesterday's game, the NFL will be investigating Bengals linebacker Vontaze Burrcht for his cheap shot on Martellus Bennett,

a play that did not go unnoticed by Bennett's Patriots teammates, and ultimately led to the game getting very chippy towards the end. Everyone knows Burfecht is a bit of a moron, and he does play over the line. Actually cost him being drafted. That's why he ended up with the Bengals, because he was so out of control in college that nobody would take a chance on him except for, of course, the Bengals. And in this case, his low blow may warrant a one-game suspension. Ian Rappaport of NFL.com says to expect a large fine and not a suspension. But I think for a guy who's been in trouble for stuff like this before, a suspension is the only thing that may deter him in the future.

If you get suspended for supposedly taking air out of footballs, you should also be suspended for trying to take a player's knee out. Maybe someday Marvin Lewis will figure out that team discipline goes a long way towards a team winning, especially winning a playoff game at some point. It's not just about talent. It's a classist operation that they're running there in Cincinnati. Nothing's really changed.

They have a ton of talent, but you can have Jimmies and Joes, but if they have no clue, you're not going to get wins out of them. So as much as they may look good and they have the good games, and in fact the first half they essentially dominated, the Patriots just ran away with it because they can't keep their heads on straight. Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger tore his meniscus versus the Dolphins yesterday. The reason I bring that up

is because next week, the Patriots will be going down to Pittsburgh to face the Steelers. Roethlisberger had surgery today on the meniscus. They say no timetable on his return. It's Ben Roethlisberger. If it's six weeks, then it's probably going to be back in two.

I'm saying to expect him to miss two to four weeks. Backup Landry Jones will most likely get the start next week versus the Patriots. The reason I say most likely is sometimes Ben has those recoveries that are very quick. We've seen it in the past. We saw it with his shoulder. We've seen it in the past. We saw it with his shoulder. We've seen it many times. Even Tom Brady said this morning in an interview, until he sees number seven not lining up on the center, he's never going to assume that he misses the game

considering how tough of a player he is. Again, he's gone through a ton of injuries. Roethlisberger takes a beating. He had an awful offensive line for about five years in a row, and he would just get smashed, and he kept coming back. So again, yes, it's a torn meniscus. I understand he had surgery today, but he's not above being one of those type of guys

to throw a very, very strong brace on and attempt to come out and play the game. So never count him out, but most likely Roethlisberger will not be playing on Sunday versus the Patriots, which gives them a huge advantage. But this time, at least Pittsburgh will have Valerio and Bell, which they didn't have the last time the two teams met.

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So, after a game like yesterday, or after any game, we have our three studs and three duds segment. And yesterday was an interesting day because the first half, the Patriots looked terrible. Let's just put it out there. They didn't play good at all. They had a lead going into the half, which was nice. They ended up putting up a score there at the end of the first half,

and you could see the offense really come to life. It came to life when the protection was there. At times, the protection wasn't there, basically the entire first half. But when Brady was given time, he went off. So let's take a look at the three studs first first and foremost I just said his name and I can't not talk about him Tom Brady good god is he an unbelievable quarterback once again at least when he had protection he tore apart the opposing defense this time victimizing another Ohio based team in in the Bengals. Brady finished the game 29-35, which is incredible.

And he also had three touchdowns with no interceptions, and he didn't fumble either, which is impressive because he was sacked three times, and he did have a ton of pressure on him in the first half. He had pressure on him in the second half too, but it wasn't quite as bad, and he's able to basically what we call move around in a phone booth. A few younger guys, you're not going to even probably know what a phone booth is unless

you're watching a movie, but he knows how to move around and take subtle steps left and right to avoid the pass rush, and he's done a better job as his career has gone on in getting out of harm's way. So that's the reason why he was only sacked three times and not eight. But because of that awful play from the offensive line in the first half, it took him a while to get rolling. So we're going to get into that soon. The offensive line was not impressive at all yesterday.

Brady has been absolutely dominant, though, in his two games back. And if they can stop the block for him and get the protection issues under control, this offense is going to be legitimately unstoppable. I've been saying it during the preseason. I said it when they acquired Mattel as Bennett and Chris Hogan. They have so many weapons, and they all fit so well together because they all do different things. So, you know, Bennett didn't do much in the first half yesterday.

He was more used in the run-blocking game and also a bit of a decoy. But in the second half, he had, I believe, 41 yards receiving, all of it in the run blocking game and also a bit of a decoy but in the second half he had i believe 41 yards receiving all of it in the second half gronkowski had 160 yards so again they got 200 yards receiving out of their tight ends out of their tight ends they haven't even really thrown the ball to amandola much and even edelman has been kind of out of it so this offense again if the protection shows up i don't think anyone's going to be able to stop them, and that's going to make it very difficult for them to lose another game. Our second stud of the game is pretty obvious, Rob Gronkowski.

Gronk, along with Brady, has had his second straight excellent outing. He finished the day with seven catches, a career-high 162 yards, and he had one touchdown, A nice throw by Brady where you get a guy who's 6'6", and Brady throws it down at his knees, which they practice. You know, that's a known throw. But the fact that Gronk can go down and get that, that just goes to show how talented this guy is. I said it the other day, and I'll stick to it.

When Calvin Johnson retired, Rob Gronkowski became the most dangerous offensive weapon in football. And I'm not, I'm excluding quarterbacks because they don't count. I'm talking straight up weapons. Gronkowski is the man and he proved it again on Sunday. He was dominant run blocking as he usually is. And when he plays like this, the Patriots are pretty much impossible to stop. He had a foolish taunting penalty late in the fourth quarter that almost cost the Patriots three points because of Steven Gostkowski's yips,

which we're going to get to soon. But luckily the ball snuck inside the upright, and the Patriots were able to get back up by 11. Ultimately they scored another touchdown, so it didn't really matter. But Gronk's going to tone it down with the penalties there. They can't be going out and getting stupid penalties because an undisciplined team like the Bengals is taking cheap shots on Mattel's pennant.

That should have been a one-time deal. You let them know that that stuff's not going to happen, and then that's it. You can start getting into it with Pac-Man Jones and Vontaze Perfect. That just is a recipe for disaster, and hopefully Gronkowski got that message from his coaches yesterday. I'm sure he did. He has to keep his emotions in check, especially when other teams are trying to bait him.

He was one strike out, one striking out. That's what he did. He had one more chance yesterday. If he got another one of those penalties, he would have been out of the game. Our third stud of the game, can't go without saying this guy. He was awesome. Dante Hightower. Hightower continues to be the glue that holds the Patriots defense together.

I know Jamie Collins is the most talented defensive player. I've said it myself on this show. But Hightower makes it go. He's the glue. He has the smarts. He has the skill. And he has impeccable timing. The Patriots defense needed a play.

And again, for the second straight week Hightower came up with a safety which is a huge play when you consider not only does it get the Patriots two points it also gives them the ball and a huge momentum shift in the game Cincinnati had taken the lead 14 to 10 Patriots offense came out and stalled had to punt it back to Cincinnati at that point Cincinnati if they went on a long drive there and, say, scored a touchdown and made it 21-10, they're looking at a road upset. Instead, Dante Hightower comes out of nowhere through the A-gap.

Dalton admitted today they didn't even see him. Hammers him, doesn't allow him to get away from the tackle. Great tackler. He doesn't really miss him at all. Once he's got you, you're done. He picks up a huge, huge safety that changed this game completely. Patriots got the kickoff and went down and scored a touchdown. They didn't give up the lead for the rest of the timeout. So, again, that's two weeks in a row that Hightower is a safety.

Here's a stat for you. There's been nine safeties in the NFL this year. Two of those safeties have come from Dante Hightower. It's pretty amazing when you think about it. He also, statistically, was awesome. He had 13 tackles. Only three of them are solo, though, so that shows that he was just going after the ball. You know, he had 10 assisted tackles. That's a lot. He had one and a half sacks. He had two tackles for a loss. Again, he may battle injuries, but New England needs to

get him signed to a new deal as soon as possible. Alright, now Debbie down a time. It's time to talk about the three guys who kind of didn't do much to help the game yesterday. First guy, and I hate to put him on here just because of the fact that I know he's struggling with this mentally. It's not a physical thing, but Stephen Gaskowski.

Man, what is going on upstairs? Listen, Stephen Gaskowski was one of the most efficient kickers in NFL history leading up, even right now, he still is. But, after missing the extra point in the AFC Championship game last year versus Denver, which ultimately cost the Patriots that game because if they had kicked that extra point, wouldn't have been forced to go for two at the end, game would have gone to overtime. Who knows?

They probably still could have lost the game, but I'm just saying that ultimately did lose them the game because they didn't get the two. He has not been the same since. He never really struck me as a clutch kicker to begin with, mainly because I just think back to the almost undefeated season when they didn't use him. I know he was a rookie, but it doesn't matter. They could have attempted a 47-yard field goal

that ultimately would have won them the game. They never went for it. And since then, I've always kind of had my stomach turns a little bit when I see him getting ready to kick a big field goal. And now that he's got the yips, I'm really concerned about him. You know, after the Gronkowski penalty yesterday when the Patriots were up 25-17 and they really needed a score, Gronkowski almost missed a 32-yard field goal. He wrapped it around the pole.

After missing an extra point earlier in the game, it's like, you know, that's 32 yards. That's the same distance as the extra point. So something's going on there. You know, last week I'd read somebody maybe alluding to because he's changing up the way he's doing his kickoffs. That's not it. That definitely isn't it. These guys are professional kickers.

They know how to take it off, put it up in the air a little bit, take some of it off. It's mental. There's something going on mentally because I'm assuming that in practice, which from what I've seen at the practices I've been to, that he's been fine. But there's something definitely going on with him mentally. And I know those guys hate to even possibly hear this,

but he may need to see a sports psychiatrist and get his issue figured out before Belichick starts bringing guys in for tryouts. And next thing you know, Gostkowski's not getting paid $4.5 million anymore because he's on a different roster. So Guskowski was definitely one of the duds from yesterday and I don't want to say that about him because I'd love to see him get it back together again, but I am deeply concerned. Our number two dud for yesterday is guard Shaq Mason. Shaq Mason in pass protection is awful. Period. That's pretty much all I can say. He can run block. Don't get me wrong. He's definitely a decent run blocker. But as far as his pass protection is concerned, he just gets blown back. He's not, I don't know if he's not big enough. He is a bit smallish. But I'm just concerned that he just looks so bad in pass protection. I remember there was one sack he gave up to Brady and went over and helped Brady up,

but Brady must be thinking the same thing. You know, guy, give me three seconds and the ball comes out. You don't have to give Brady a ton of time. You just got to give him three seconds and he's going to find somebody open. And I know that the Bengals did a good job in coverage yesterday in the first half, and that might have had something to do with it. But there were plays when Mason got bull-rushed and he just got dominated. So, Shaq Mason, passing

protection, get your stuff together, okay? Because, you know, your run blocking is terrific, but your pass blocking stinks. And you need to be, in the NFL, if you're going to continue to be an NFL lineman, you can't not be able to pass block and be able to survive in the game. What ends up becoming your career is you'll become a backup.

So Shaq Mason, one of the duds from yesterday, not because of his run blocking, but because of his pass blocking. He needs to get it together or he's probably going to lose his job. Our third dud of the game yesterday didn't even get on the field. He didn't play yesterday. He was what they call a healthy scratch. Now, I don't look at it as a healthy scratch. I look at it as a suspension.

Cyrus Jones, second-round pick out of Alabama, a guy the Patriots expected to contribute this year, was inactive for the game yesterday. And it has everything to do with what happened the week before. Now, I said it on Scout.com on my live blog. I said it on this radio show here on Locked On Patriots. It was a cheap shot when the guy went after Cyrus Jones' legs. No question about it.

When the player from the Browns, I'm not sure who it was, when he attacked him, he went after his legs. But you can't punch a guy. You can't stop punching a guy because you're going to get tossed. And if you get thrown out of a game when you're struggling with the Patriots, you're going to pay the price. And he paid the price by being inactive yesterday. I do believe he'll be back for the Pittsburgh game next week.

I know Roethlisberger's probably not going to play, but Pittsburgh still has athletes, and they've got really good receivers, so they're going to need Cyrus Jones out there. But to be a healthy scratch because of the stupidity from the week before automatically puts him into the duds category. I was going to put the entire offensive line there, but that just wouldn't be fair to them because they weren't all that bad. Shaq Mason was, so he stood out.

But Cyrus Jones being a healthy scratch for going off, hauling off, and punching someone last week versus the Browns definitely warrants a dud of the week. So Cyrus, come on. Come on, man. Don't be doing that type of stuff. And Shaq Mason, come on. Get that pass blocking going.

That's something that you get to just work on. As a player, when it comes to pass protection, that just comes to working on your craft. I've been around the game my whole life. I coach the game, I scout the game, I write about the game, I talk about the game. If you can't pass block, that means you're not working hard enough on it. So Mason needs to work harder.

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