Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 10/18/16- Who Stood Out On The All-22?

Episode Date: October 19, 2016

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That's for my crazy day. My packed commute. All those unread emails in my inbox. But I'm getting stronger, faster, and pushing myself further every day. I don't care if I'm not like everyone else. This punching bag is the best way to end my day. Fearless is knowing yoga isn't your style. That's the power of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Federal Employee Program.

Learn more about our healthy benefits at fepblue.org slash getmore. Good evening. I'm Chris Simino, your host of Locked On Patriots, your source for everything Patriots. Today is Tuesday, October 18, 2016. Once again, we have a lot going on at Patriots Nation. I want to give you all the news and analysis you need to be the most in-the-know Patriots fan. Okay, enough small talk. Let's get down to business. In Patriots news and notes, another busy day for the Patriots practice squad.

They added two old friends back to the 10-man group. Tyler Gaffney, who was cut at the end of the preseason, he's been added back to the practice squad, as has fullback Glenn Gronkowski. It's not really a surprise to see Gronkowski back on the practice squad. I've watched a lot of film, and James Devlin has struggled a lot this season. So getting a guy like Gronkowski to be there as an insurance policy

for a team that likes to use the fullback is important, and hopefully Devlin can get himself together, because I know he's a fan favorite and he's a pretty good player. But he is struggling right now, and they need him because they want to run the ball, so Devil needs to wake up. And Tyler Gaffney, it's good to have a back just in case something happens with Blount.

Blount has been nursing a hip injury for the last couple weeks, and hip injuries aren't really something you want to mess with. If that thing gets worse, it's good to know that they at least have Gaffney or Bishop Sankey, another running back that they have in their practice squad, someone they can go to if something is to happen. They can also talk about trade. I'm going to get to that a little bit later because I heard something today from a very trusted, well-trusted source that really stood out to me and I think he'd be a great player, but we'll get to that later. After the win

on Sunday, Robert Kraft presented Bill Belichick with a game ball, celebrating his 250th career win last week in Cleveland. It was rare to see, but Belichick actually got emotional, and as he always does, he deflected the attention off himself and gave all the credit to the players. His quote was, you guys know this, I've said it many times, and it's the truth. Coaches don't win games, they lose them, and players win them. I'm lucky. I've coached a lot of great players. Let's get ready to go to work.

Let's get ready to go to work this week on the Pittsburgh. Typical Belichick. He's showing thanks, but always thinking about the upcoming opponent. By the way, he's only the fourth coach in NFL history to win 250-plus games. It's an incredible achievement for an incredible coach. He is just amazing. And the thing is, he is far from done. He looks like he wants to keep going

for a while so he's probably going to reach 300 i'd like to see him break the record but i don't know if he's going to be able to get there um the other thing too we've spoken in depth the last two weeks about how excellent tom brady has looked and today we took a look at this from a history standpoint brady has thrown for 762 yards, six touchdowns, and zero interceptions. That makes him the first player in NFL history to reach those marks in a player's first two games of the season. Again, let me repeat that. The first player in history to do that over his first two games of the season.

That's insane. If he stays healthy, because that's always a question in football he looks like he's going to have maybe his best year at the age of 39 that's just it's pretty incredible brady also moved up the charts for the career marks too he became the fourth player in history to have 5 000 career completions and it was fitting it was a 38 yard completion of rob gronkowski grog's been such a vital part part of Brady's success since he came into the league. In fact, I personally think that Gronkowski is a big part of extending Brady's career because Brady wants to play with this kid because he's that special,

and Brady's a special player himself, so when he's got someone to push him and to keep him going, I think Gronkowski's a big part of that. So it was nice to see that he was the one who made the catch for the 5,000th completion. That's just an amazing number to think of, 5,000 career completions. Insane. Brady also improved to 49-1 at Gillette Stadium against AFC teams since 2007. And the only loss, it came against Buffalo in the 2014 season finale slash debacle, which he played less than half the game. Didn't matter.

The game had no meaning to the Patriots whatsoever. He needs just five more wins and he'll become the NFL's all-time leader. So we should see that this year. And it seems like he is far from done. If you get a chance today go to twitter go to the patriots account and play the tribute video that the patriots put together to fire up the crowd on sunday it's it's really good it's excellent it's a must watch for all patriots fans

uh the song i'm coming home is featured in and it's you know just a really good video i would recommend going to patriots website to check that out so where do you get your tickets for patriots games well i know that a lot of my friends and myself we go through seat geek seat geek is the smartest easiest way to find tickets for football games you want to see up close and in person this season even if it's regular season or playoffs there's nothing like being in the stadium for the biggest games of the year. And with SeatGeek, it's never been easier to get the seats that you want for a good value, too. I have the app. I use it on my phone because I love the Celtics.

I love the Red Sox. I watch all the teams around here, so I'm always looking to see if I can get good prices on the tickets. And it's the easiest way I've found to shop for tickets. I can be anywhere and just get on my phone, click on the tickets and it's the easiest way i found the shop for tickets i can be anywhere and just get on my phone click on the app and then right away you can instantly find seats for this weekend's game or any game this season for that matter uh with c geek you do get the best deal on every ticket what they do is they price match they go on they search multiple sites so whatever those sites have the lowest price you're going to get it prices can vary depending on where you shop but SeatGeek will always find the lowest available price

SeatGeek also wants to get you the most bang for your buck so every ticket at SeatGeek is given a grade based on value so you'll immediately see any underpriced seats and be able to find the best the best tickets to fit your budget and a lot of people can't afford to spend $200 on tickets. So SeatGeek's a great option where if you want to go in and maybe there's some seats that happen to go for sale for cheap, people are going to get rid of them fast, it's the last second, you can get them. And that's a great thing.

It's a great thing to take advantage of. It could be a game that's really not valued that high, and maybe it's a game that's a perfect fit for you, and it could turn out to be one of the best games of the year. Again, SeatGeek will fit any budget. Every ticket you buy on SeatGeek is backed by their 100% guarantee, so when you shop for tickets on SeatGeek, you can do it with confidence. So here's the best part.

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after you've made your first ticket purchase. So definitely do that. Again, go to the Settings tab, click Add Promo Code, enter promo code LOPatriots, and you'll get your $20 from SeatGeek. Download the SeatGeek app now, enter that promo code, get yourself started. Go check out a game. You might be able to get some great ticket prices too on it, so I'd highly recommend it.

So what I want to talk about now, and it is Tuesday, so this is that final day Final day of the opponent of the last opponent that's be the Bengals We go through you take a look at the tape We decipher what we saw during the game take a look at the film and again to see if there's anybody Who or maybe? we saw during the game take a look at the film and again to see if there's anybody who were maybe highlighted studs or duds we see we talked about yesterday the guys it's obvious but sometimes when you go on to the film you find some guys that really stood out that you didn't quite notice just because sometimes you're watching the ball that's the way that's just the way it is so you watch the film you go through the plays a few times,

you didn't get an idea who really stepped up. So I went quarter by quarter just to break it down a little bit for you guys to make it easier. And some of my observations were similar to what I've noticed with this team over the last couple of years. The Patriots obviously got the ball first. And the first series right away, you could tell. First down, nice run by LeGarrette Blount, picked up about 14 yards.

It was a great play, very well blocked. And that was good. That was a good sign. You know, they jumped right out. They looked like they were ready to go. But all of a sudden, they're facing a third nine. And the running game got shut down for a couple plays. It was nothing really happened in the passing game.

And then Brady makes a great play, steps up in the pocket, moves to his left a little bit and tosses one up to Gronk, who got open. Again, it was a great play by Brady, and it gave the Patriots their first scoring opportunity, which, thankfully, Gostkowski was able to knock through a 46-yard field goal, which is not a given in the slightest. But it just showed there was a microcosm of what the first half was for the Patriots, just very inconsistent, ugly football, and it just wasn't good.

So they took that early 3-0 lead. Again, Brady hit Gronkowski to set up the field goal, Blount did a good job in that first run, but that was it. They had showed flashes, but no consistency. But typically with this team it comes. So the Bengals got the ball back, they moved a little bit, they looked pretty good. I thought the Bengals, you know, when they first started moving the ball on the Patriots, they were trying to get everybody involved, and not having Tyler Rayford is huge for them.

I know that the Patriots would have struggled to defend him, especially with Jamie Collins being out. So that was a big, big loss for the Bengals. But they still, they moved it in the first drive, but they got to their own 49 and they got stalled out. And then they shanked the punt, typical Bengals behavior by shanking a punt, and the Patriots got the ball at the 20 and said again, and then maybe the 5. But it didn't really matter because they didn't move the ball. So, you know, the first quarter was just, it was really ugly.

You know, that first, like I said, the Patriots made two plays, but the Bengals defensively I thought were pretty dominant throughout the whole quarter. Their coverage was awesome. They did a great job in the secondary. I heard some of the TV telecasts, hearing them talking about how great the pass rush was in the first quarter. It wasn't the pass rush. It was the coverage.

They had him covered down the field. I went to the All-22 to verify, and there's no question about it. The coverage was excellent. And because the coverage was good, then they were able to get a little bit of pressure on Brady because he had no choice. He can only block for four to five seconds before the guy's going to break free, and this is the NFL. You're talking about pro athlete pass rushers here. So the Bengals were pretty impressive in the first quarter, and the way that they played, it looked like they were going to maybe come in and pull off the upset.

But again, they're the Bengals, so we know how that goes. Second quarter, right away, Bengals got it, and they decided to put together that drive. They were looking good. Once again, we saw Alan Branch, who is just ridiculous. He flashes on film every time I'm watching the All-22. I see that big monster blow up a double team and just tear somebody down to the ground he is an absolute beast and he's fun to watch

but after he makes that play and on first and 15 the Patriots give him 16 right back playing defense past defense it just wasn't it was you know sag back playing in the zone that I just I'm not a huge fan and when they do that it just doesn't make a lot of sense and then Dalton started picking him apart a little bit you know he hits Bernard but now it takes down to the Patriots six you know the only person who really was playing any good in the first half defensively was a Landon Roberts he's actually been quite defined for the patriots alandon roberts is a stunning um linebacker that they didn't think was going to be anything you know they liked him and he was a good player in college but

he looks like a guy who could be a starter in the nfl for the next few years and that's that's impressive to see you know the patriots always find these guys late rounds and free agents, and they found another one with a little bit of a rub, so good for them. So then the defense, they let the Cincinnati Bengals drive right down the field, and they just looked terrible. They were getting stood up, no pass rush at all. They did get some pressures eventually, but it certainly wasn't in the first and second quarter.

So the Bengals drive all the way down the field, and Marvin Lewis, to my surprise, he went for it. But it didn't work out. Patriots get the goal line to stand. Huge for their confidence, and that's it. The Patriots keep the 3-0 lead. They get out of the shadow of their end zone with Blount. He makes a nice play. Again, excellent blocking on the play.

It blows my mind with Shaq Mason, who ended up being one of the duds for the game. The kid can run block. There's no question about it. He did it at Georgia Tech. That was all they did was run, so he's really good at it. But he really is an excellent run blocker. So if he can ever figure it out as far as pass blocking, which I think he needs to get stronger um he's going to be good so it was good to see that with uh with blunt getting them out

of shadow their own end shadow their own end zone but let's not forget that the defense allowed the bangles to drive down the field eight minutes off the clock which is, which is almost as good as a score because it kept Brady off the field. So, again, the Patriots, they get a third and 12. They get, you know, it's not looking good. And they run a draw play. You know, I know fans, that's going to drive you crazy. You know, myself, again, as I've said before, I'm not just an analyst. I'm not just a scout. I actually coached the game too.

So I can understand to a degree if you know that your offense is really struggling. But you have Tom Brady in his third and 12. And I just don't understand having a giveaway down like that. They should have put him in gun, throw the ball, do something, run a screen. But a draw, I don't know. I just don't see it happening. Not against a Cincinnati defense that's pretty fast and was playing with confidence at that time.

You know, it was third and 12, not third and 30. You know, run a screen. I just don't understand that. So then, next thing you know, Bengals get the ball back. They drive right down the field. And Andy Dalton, you know, makes the run, an option run, which is pretty interesting. I thought that was pretty cool.

Obviously, I wasn't too happy to see the Bengals score, but I did like the design of that play. It was really neat how they did. It was kind of a college-type play. I think they might have taken a little bit of the Patriots playbook when they ran the option with Jacoby Brissett against Houston a few weeks back. Cincinnati drives down, takes the lead. They looked really good.

That was a good drive for them. They had good protection. Dalton looked excellent. When Dalton's got confidence, he can play. There's no getting around it. The Red Rocket can throw it. And when they took away, I've said it all last week, him losing Sanu and losing Marvin Jones was a killer.

But he stepped up in the first half against the Patriots and did a good job. So, you know, the Patriots, they get the ball back with a minute 40 to go, and all of a sudden, they look like the Patriots again. They just boom, boom, boom, right down the field. You know, Edelman makes the first catch, then Chris Hogan picks up 39 yards on a catch and run. Next thing you know, they're atogan picks up 39 yards on a catch and run. Next thing you know, they're at the 15-yard line, and then they score.

James White takes it in from 10 yards out, and it's just a ridiculous drive by the offense. It looked like they hadn't had any problems the entire game. The protection was strong. They had an illegal contact. Of course, the Bengals got called for an illegal contact because that's what they do, but the Patriots do what they do, took full advantage, had a 10-7 lead. So, you know, they were able to go into the half with that 10-7 lead, and they just didn't look good, you know.

Like I said, there were some players I noticed on film that did stand out that I didn't have on the studs and duds, one of them being Alan Branch. But other than that, it was pretty much what I thought it was. It was an ugly, ugly first half of offense. They just couldn't really get anything going for that final two minutes. And defensively, I know they only gave up a touchdown, but they just weren't doing a good job of getting off the field. They were just making stupid plays and stupid penalties,

and it was kind of hard to watch. So in the second half, the Bengals came right out, and they got a touchdown. You know, old friend Brandon LaFell with a five-yard touchdown catch. And let me tell you, I watched that route on television. I watched that route on just the regular game film because we watched it through NFL.com, and they didn't have the actual coach's tape yet. Then I watched the coach's tape and every single time I got a little sick to my stomach. That was a disgusting route. It was just gross. It looked like a bad high school route and

he caught a touchdown. That doesn't say much for the Patriots defense. So, you know, Brandon LaFell, man, you got to clean up those routes because that was ugly but the Patriots did take the lead I mean excuse me the Bengals took the lead to make it 14-10 so again the Patriots get the ball back next thing you know it's third and 17 line doesn't protect the Patriots forced upon again just ugly it just was just disgusting so we're at the 705 mark in the third quarter and you know things aren't good Patriots are now 14 to 10 granted they got the Bengals pinned back a little bit the Bengals are at their own three and a half yard line but they had all the momentum going and lo and behold one of the studs of the game, Dante Hightower, comes flying through the A-gap and makes a sack.

And Andy Dalton didn't see it coming. He didn't even see him. I watched that play on film about 15 times in slow motion because it's a great play to watch because the way Hightower timed it, that's why Dalton didn't see him. But, man, that was just a beautiful play. And that's two weeks in a row for Hightower getting the safety, too. So that really changed the momentum of the game big time.

Patriots went down by two. Next thing you know, they get the ball back. Mattel is getting involved with the 24-yard catch, which was nice to see because they really didn't use him at all in the first half. All he did was run block, which he is excellent at. Then Gronkowski gets a huge catch and run. Next thing you know, the Patriots are at the Bengals' full yard line, and Gronk goes in again, and that throw from Brady to Gronk,

I just got to watch it again, and wow. Rob Gronkowski, 6'6", 6'7", he's a big guy. Brady throws that ball purposely down at his feet. Gronkowski knows exactly what he's trying to do. It's either you're going to catch it or nobody else. He goes down and makes a catch. It's just plays like that. They strengthen my opinion of him being the most dominant offensive weapon in the game today.

It's just what an amazing catch that was. So Dante Hightower goes and changes the momentum completely. And then the offense takes and goes right down the field to score a touchdown um unfortunately um you know they had some issues later on in the game they're kicking game but it was nice to see them get that score making 19 to 14 so then the defense after the safety of course started to get into a groove um bangles offense they they got forced off the field quick and you could see it coming. This is the same thing the Bengals have been doing all year.

They start to fade out. They move the ball a little bit from the 20 to the 20, but they don't put the ball in the end zone as much as they used to last year. Maybe the 13 touchdowns that are on the sidelines of Tyler Eifert might help a little bit when they get him back. But, yep, Patriots stopped him, and Edelman picked up a nice punt return. Edelman, just watching him on film and watching him in the game the other day,

he still doesn't have that burst. And it's not even just the burst, it's the quickness and the cutting ability. I'm not seeing it from him yet, especially the punt return is when you can see it the most. He tried hard the other day to break one. You could see him trying to do it but the thing with edelman back when he was the best punt returner for paul because it was a period for

about three years but he was the best in the game it was effortless and he just made his plays and now it seems like he's kind of pushing a little bit i think edelman when cyrus jones comes back hopefully with his head removed from his butt i'm'm hoping that Cyrus Jones can take over the punt return duties and the kick return duties and just keep Edelman out of there. Let Edelman be a receiver. He's evolved to that point. He's not a punt returner anymore. I wish he was.

I wish he didn't have the foot problems that he has, but he does. It's time to move Edelman away from the punt return position, make him a full-time receiver, and get the Cyrus Jones kids up to speed. And if Jones can't do it, find someone else. Edelman is not the guy. I'd even put Amendola back there instead because Amendola isn't really getting the ball that much. But that's not my decision.

I'm not on the coaching staff, so that's up to them. So then the next C&O, defense comes out again, gets another stop. Gronk gets another 38-yard catch. Patriots are right back in the red zone again. And then once again, James White takes it in from four yards out. James White is a good player. You see him, and yes, he goes down on first contact a lot, and he's not really the best running back.

He's kind of a straight-ahead type of guy when you hand the ball off to him. But when you throw to him, it's like he's a different person. He has a great cutting ability. He's very good at just one cut and getting to where he needs to get to. But when he hits the angles, he knows exactly where he's going. He does a good job of getting in the end zone. So, again, he caught a touchdown, takes it in again, and Gostkowski goes and misses the extra point.

That's why he made the dead list. Not good. Not good, Steven. Got to fix that up. And it wasn't even close. Watching again, his follow-through is terrible and you could tell just by the way that his body language before,

he's not right. I hope they can get him fixed up because not having an effective kicker is not a good thing to have for a Super Bowl contender. And the Patriots are not just a Super Bowl contender, they're a Super Bowl favorite. So they need to get the kicking game cleaned up. Eric Rowe. So Eric Rowe did not make the stud list because he only played a half, really, of football.

But I am adding him as an honorable mention to the stud list because he was great. He played a man coverage on A.J. Green, and he held his own. He did a really good job against him. Last year, Rowe, he got beat up a little bit in one game against Calvin Johnson, but he said today, it was funny that I saw this today after I'd seen the tape and watched some of this earlier this morning. He said, you know, I made a play on Calvin last year when I was covering him.

Even though he beat me a bunch of times, he gave me the confidence to know I could cover these great players. He did the same thing to A.J. Green. He shut him down. So he made great plays, and then the red zone ended up helping the Patriots hold Cincinnati to a huge field goal instead of scoring a touchdown. Made the score 25-17 because of Skowski's extra point miss, but Eric Rowe put himself on the map on that play, and he definitely was added as an honorable mention to my stud

list because I liked Rowan College, but I did not expect that. That was a good job. So, Patriots come in, defense does it again, gets another stop. They're playing, stepping up, doing their their job Bengals are stuck at 17 Amendola comes in makes a nice catch so the Patriots set up the 50 and then Pac-Man Jones gets called for a hold it's just just typical Bengals you know Patriots go down and they you know just kept moving the ball slowly but surely. And then Gronkowski. That was such a stupid penalty. I understand he's looking out for his teammate.

I understand that Martellus Bennett got cheap-shotted, but you just can't do that stuff. You know, watching it again, I got to see, and it was Mike Reese from ESPN who does a great job. I really, really like Mike's work. He noticed it. He's the one who tweeted it out. The cheap shot hit

by Burfecht on LeGarrette Blount when he stomped his hand. We didn't even see that during the game. We had to wait until the All-22 came over that. But I understand you're protecting your teammate and that's what happened in this situation.

But when you get a field goal kicker who's struggling that bad, you can't be doing that type of stuff. So Gronkowski, you can't do that. Don't be stupid. He knows, and I'm sure he heard it plenty, and I heard what he said today that that's not going to happen again. Again, all in all, the second half, the Patriots completely dominated. It wasn't even remotely close.

After the safety, things really just, the tide completely turned. So Dante Hightower, you know, I know Jamie Collins wasn't playing, but Hightower's the glue, and he showed it again, and he just keeps making plays. So that's pretty much what I picked up from the tape. You know, I know I just did a little review of what we saw first through fourth quarter. But, you know, it's good for you fans to get an idea of what we get to see here on the All-22

and having that trained eye. There's some things that I noticed that, you know, may not notice during the game. But what we saw during the game is pretty much what we saw on the film. And, again, Eric Rowe, sorry that I kept you off the stud list to begin with. You belong there. You played great. And he absolutely belonged to be on that list.

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So, I want to thank you all for joining us today. Be sure to tune in every day to get your daily news and also hear the most in-depth Patriots coverage around. We always take a deep dive into what the Patriots are doing, past games, future games, because that's what fans want to do.

They want to understand the game. And we're available on demand, so you can listen whenever you have free time. So what you want to do, be sure to tune in and listen to the Fastest Growing Podcast Network on iTunes and tell your friends too. Tomorrow, we're going to start talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers. Thanks again and have a great day, Patriots fans. Is democracy in danger or decline? Condoleezza Rice, William Galston, and Carlos Gutierrez and others take on

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