Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 10/24/16- Who were Sunday's "Studs and Duds"?

Episode Date: October 25, 2016

Chris Simoneau discusses the Patriots/Steelers game from yesterday and gives you his "Studs and Duds" for the game. #uglyday #toomanydudstochoosefrom Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Good evening. I'm Chris Simino, your host of Locked On Patriots, your source for everything Patriots. Today is Monday, October 24th, 2016. As we do every Monday following a game, assuming the Patriots are playing on Sunday. We will examine yesterday's win over the Pittsburgh Steelers. We'll tell you who our studs and duds were for the day and any other opinions that pop up during the course of the show because they always do. All right, so we've got a busy show, so let's not waste any more time.

Yesterday was an up-and-down day for the Patriots. They made more good plays than bad, but they made a lot of bad plays, which is very odd. It's not something you normally see out of the Patriots, especially against a team that was on demand. But like they typically do, they figured it out in the second half, and they came out and took care of business. That's the reason why they won by 11 points.

They're more talented than Pittsburgh, more talented than everybody. And even when they have a bad day, they can figure it out, and that's what they did yesterday. There were some players that stood out, players that did stand out, be it good or bad. So we're going to talk about our studs and duds. That's what we talk about on Mondays, and let's get down to it. So best player of the day yesterday, number one stud, LeGarrette Blount.

So after the last two games, you know, it coincided with the return of Brady, so it wasn't really that huge of a surprise, but he didn't do much at all. So it's good to see LeGarrette Blount return back to the form that made him the leading rusher in the NFL over the course of the first month of the season. Blount carried the ball 24 times for 127 yards and two touchdowns, and he set the tone for the Patriots offense, and he also showed the rest of the NFL that when they're focused on running the ball and maintaining balance, they can do it, and that's pretty scary when you have a Brady back there too. There were a lot of drops yesterday, which we're pretty scary when you have a Brady back there too. There were a lot of drops yesterday, which we're going to get into, but Brady only threw for 222 yards.

If you add the drops in there that should have been catches, he would have had close to 300 yards on top of Blount's 127. That's good stuff. So it's good to see them maintaining balance. They showed that over the first, I think they've done it basically the first half of the season here. Obviously the last two games like I said, not the best games for Blount. They didn't really run as much as they did the first four when Brady was out. But they got back to it yesterday against a team that they've historically not been able to run against. Nobody from the Patriots has run really well against Pittsburgh in a long time.

So it's good to see Blount do that. Also, with what happened last year or a couple years ago when he walked off the field when he wasn't playing and got released, it was a stupid move on his part, but the Patriots gave him a second chance, gave him a clean slate, and he's done a good job since then. So I'm happy for him to see him go into the place where he had his worst moment as a professional and deliver on that stage. He wasn't a jerk about it either. He wasn't humping up doing stupid things.

I think he celebrated a little bit after the touchdowns, but who doesn't? You score a touchdown in the NFL, you're going to be a happy guy. But when the interview was after the game, he didn't get into anything. He didn't get into anything before the game either so that it was good to see him take the high road which he should have because it was a mistake on his part a couple years ago and I think he realizes that but he

ended up with where he belongs he ended up with the Patriots the team he belongs with so it all worked out in the end and good for Blount he's the number one stud of the day yesterday number two is a guy who's starting to take a regular place on this list is Rob Garkowski. He is ridiculous. He is such a good player.

It doesn't matter if he's catching the ball or blocking. He is an absolute beast, and he does everything right. His numbers are good again, like they always are against the Steelers. He finished the day with four catches for 93 yards and a touchdown. A really nice 37-yard touchdown right down the seam. Beautiful throw by Brady. He was absolutely dominant in the run game. His one play, it's early in the game, but it just really stood out to me. He goes in motion and it's a shuffle motion right, so he shuffles to the middle

of the formation you know right behind the center pretty much right now actually behind the guard after the ball snapped and Blount runs right up behind them and Gronk kicks out a linebacker and he just it was a perfect seal and it's just the way that he blocked him it was about a 12 yard run I believe for Blount you know Gronkowski does that stuff in the running game, and he makes perfect blocks. He's their best run blocker. He's the best run blocker on their team,

and he's the best offensive weapon in the passing game, maybe in all of football. The guy is unbelievable. I just hope he can stay healthy for a long time, because I'm telling you, we are watching maybe one of the top 30 football players. I'm not talking about just tight ends. I'm talking overall football players that have ever played the game. He is that good.

There aren't many tight ends that can block like he does. In fact, there's only two in the league that really can, and both of them are on the Patriots roster. A healthy Gronk equals a multidimensional, unstoppable Patriots offense, even when they're having an off day like they did yesterday. He still made a play, and he still ended up with 93 yards. He's amazing. Third, start of the day.

Don't really talk too much about this guy, and he needs to get some attention because he's been playing really well. Patrick Chung. When Chung first joined the Patriots, I used to call him Eugene. Some of you old Patriots fans will appreciate that. It's an honor to form a Patriots guy, Eugene Chung, who I believe is an assistant coach for the Chiefs these days. I think he's a line coach. He was a first-round bust, though, for the Patriots back in the early 90s. I'm willing to bet that if Chung was drafted onto a team

that wasn't the early 90s Patriots, he probably could have been a good player. But he wasn't. So Patrick Chung seemed to be going down the same career path that Eugene did. So he was a first pick of the 2008 second round. This is the pick they traded Matt Castle for with Kansas City. Vrabel was in that trade, too. But Chung was not good in his first tour of duty here with New England. Then he got signed with the Jets, no, with the Eagles,

and that didn't last long. He had a one-year visit with the Eagles, and after that, the Patriots picked him back up, and now he's one of the best members of their secondary, coming up huge against the run and the that, Patriots picked him back up, and now he's one of the best members of their secondary, coming up huge against the run and the pass, which is something he really didn't do his first portion of his career. That's why the Patriots didn't resign him. Yesterday, he finished with 11 total tackles.

Seven of the tackles were solo, and he also had two huge pass breakups, one of them in the end zone. In the fourth quarter, too, that's a big play. So good for Chung. He turned his career around in his second tour of duty with the Patriots. You know, after being here and not getting a new contract and being as high of a pick as he was,

and he always was good in the run game. There's no question about that. His first time here, he was definitely good at defending the run. He's never had an issue with that. That's his strength. But he couldn't cover. Went to Philly, had a terrible season. He obviously stopped the run there too, but he was in coverage.

He was even worse. Then he comes back again and just taking the coaching, sticking with it, and he's turned into a good coverage guy. So good for Patrick. He has officially lost the nickname of Eugene. So that's it, Patrick. I has officially lost the nickname of Eugene. So that's it, Patrick. I will never call you Eugene again.

You are on the studs list, and you are on it a lot because you make plays constantly. So good for you, Patrick Chung. Welcome to being what you were as a pick. You've become a good player. We got some honorable mention guys, too. One guy who was a tough choice between him and Chung, but I had to go with Chung just because overall he's such a clean player these days. But Malcolm Butler, he was all over the place.

He had a good day. Huge interception in the end zone after the Chris Hogan fumble to set up a steal as deep in the Patriots' territory. Butler, he's covering Antonio Brown. That's no small task. And he stayed with him. He played really well. And that interception was huge. He finished the day with six total tackles, three solo.

He also defended three passes. Also, the aforementioned interception. That interception, that's really big. If you give up a turnover and, you know, something happens on special teams, things like that, your defense steps up and helps you out and makes a play for you. That picks up everybody on the team, gets everybody on the same page, and everybody fired up.

So, you know, that's great that Butler was able to do that, and that was a big part of the Patriots winning this game. You know, there's no shame in giving up a few catches to Antonio Brown. He caught one down the sidelines, and he ended up with over 100 yards like he always does. But he didn't get in the end zone, and when he did, Butler picked him off, and he almost got two.

He almost had another interception in the end zone too. So, Malcolm Butler, you are an honorable mention stud of the day. Good job. You know, you didn't allow Antonio Brown to score. That's doing your job. Tom Brady, again, he didn't have overwhelming numbers, finishing 19 out of 26 for 222 yards and two touchdowns. But when you consider that four of the balls were dropped

and Brady still finished with a 93 QB rating, he had an impressive day. Not that this is all Brady's doing, but the Patriots are only the third team in NFL history to throw zero interceptions in their first seven games. That's a pretty impressive stat. And there's a good chance they're continuing with Brady at the helm. One question for you guys. Do you love football?

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It could be a lot longer than three players because it's ugly. First and foremost, the kicking game. Steven Gaskowski officially has the yips. It's bad news. He's got the yips. He missed another the yips. He missed another extra point yesterday, and it's pretty safe to assume that this issue,

it's not physical, it's all mental. I'm just praying to God that we're not seeing the Chuck Knobloch of football right now with a guy who was the most consistent kicker in history up until the AFC Championship last year, and since he missed that extra point, which ended up costing the Patriots a chance to go to the Super Bowl, he has been a different person, and it's not good. He needs to go see a sports psychiatrist and clear his mind.

Our friend Kurt from Fitchburg had a few suggestions too, but we're going to keep it PG-13 here on Lockdown Patriots, so you guys can just use your imagination. Kurt had all types of ideas. Ryan Allen had also his first bad game of the season. Punted five times for 203 yards, which if you just look at the stats, it was not that bad. If you watch the game, you have a totally different understanding of how it went.

He averaged just over 40 yards a punt, which is not good for him. He also had a 57-yard punt, which was just, it was a great punt. Would have pinned the Steelers back if it wasn't for our second threat of the game. We'll get into that in a second. But he had two horrible shanks. One in the second quarter, that was for 25 yards,

it put Pittsburgh in position to move the ball down the field. And then in the fourth quarter, he had a 26-yard punt with just over three minutes to go. Also putting the Steelers in good field position. He hasn't done it all year, but that's a big game. So that's telling to me.

You go into Pittsburgh and you choke like that, Ryan Allen needs to get it together. Can't be doing that stuff. And Steven Gaskowski, I'm very concerned. I've been saying it on this podcast since I've been on it. I've been writing about this. I've been writing about Gostkowski for a while, my concerns with him, because the guys never really hit a big field goal in a game.

And now with the yips as far as the extra points, and on short field goals too, I'm really concerned about him. I think that Gostkowski might be a player that, you know, who knows? You just never know. He makes $4 million a year. The Patriots aren't going to sit here and let a kicker who averages $4 million a year miss extra points. I know Belichick loves him, and I know the franchise loves him,

and I know the ownership loves him, but I don't know. I'm very concerned about Gostkowski, and I think fans should be too, so that's a situation to really keep an eye on. Our second dud of the game was an easy selection. It goes to Brandon Bolden. I'll be honest, I'm not a Bolden fan as a player I think he's a great guy but that doesn't keep you in the NFL I think there's a lot of great guys that have been in the league that have gotten cut what's kept him in the league is his ability on special teams and his receiving ability out of the backfield well both of those strengths turned to weaknesses yesterday as he dropped multiple wide open passes, one on a third down where he had about 20 yards in front of him to go, which would have been a nice play, a long

drive, it was right on his hands and he just dropped it. Then he boots the ball into the end zone on that great 57-yard punt by Ryan Allen, so instead of covering it at the 7 to end the first half, he ends up booting it into the end zone. Steelers get the ball at the 25, and they end up kicking a field goal. It's little things like that. You just can't let that stuff happen, especially when you're a guy like Brandon Bolden. He's not exactly Tom Brady.

I understand he has rust because he has missed a couple weeks, but he was really bad yesterday, and he needs to clean it up. Considering he doesn't add much to the roster as a true running back, he better clean it up, or we may see Bishop Sankey getting the call soon. Belichick does love the guy, so it's going to take a few weeks of bad football to force a roster move, but Bill doesn't mess around when it comes to underperforming fringe players. So, Brandon, come on, get it together.

The third guy, people might be a little bit surprised because sometimes people just look at the stats and they don't look into it a little bit, but watch the game, watch the film, and remember that special teams is a big part of the game. Julian Edelman. You can't put the ball on the ground. Let me repeat, you cannot put the ball on the ground.

Edelman had a fumble on a punt return, and he also dropped what would have been a huge first down that would have extended a Patriots drive at the end of the second quarter. The ball was on his hands. It was a perfect throw. He's a good receiver. He's an NFL receiver. You've got to make that catch. As far as the punt return, you know, I knew he was due. I talked about it last week.

You guys go check out the radio. Go check out my podcast from last week. I knew Edelman was going to fumble soon. He's trying to do too much because there's something up with his foot still. He doesn't have the same explosion in the punt returns now. He used to be the best punt returner in football. Of course he knows that. He's not the same guy anymore.

I think at this point you need to get Cyrus Jones up to speed or find somebody else to be a punt returner because Edelman is either going to get hurt or he's going to put the ball on the ground again like he did yesterday against Pittsburgh. But I would get him out of there because it's going to take away from him as a receiver. And again, he had a huge drop yesterday Edelman's the guy to keep an eye on

because I was the first guy you know, you can again go back and check out my articles and people hated me for this but Wes Walker was not number one on my list of guys that the Patriots needed to keep I never looked at him as, oh we we've got to keep him, we've got to keep him. Yes, he's a good player. No question about it.

Wes Welker was good. And Julian Edelman is essentially him. He's essentially the same guy. Edelman's a little bit faster. He's stronger, better athlete. But he is, you know, Wes Welker 2.0. And if these injuries stop piling up, you know, with the foot, the foot takes away from you quickness, and that's Edelman's game.

You know, and he's already the punt return thing. I just don't see it. I don't think it's going to continue. I think they're going to replace him eventually. But they need to because they need to preserve him to see if he can last a few more years in the NFL. Next time his contract comes up, people are going to be expecting him to get paid a ton,

but I just don't see it. He's not a fit for a lot of NFL teams. He's a fit for the Patriots system. I'm just a little bit concerned about Edelman. It's not just yesterday. It's just overall. Since he's had the foot injury, he hasn't looked the same. He looked terrible in the playoffs last year.

He has looked quicker, and he's gotten a little bit better each game, but that foot is still not right, and it's been a while now. So Edelman is a guy to keep an eye on, and eventually when his contract situation comes up, we're going to have a long talk about that on a podcast someday don't worry about someday we'll be during the offseason but we'll have a conversation about it um edelman's a guy to keep an eye on because i just don't think he's long for the nfl with the way he plays and his size and i think we're looking at west welker 2.0 so this is something to keep an eye on. Dishonorable mention. These guys were the guys that were bad,

but not quite bad enough to get onto the dud list, but they were duds. The defensive line, I mean, come on. I understand the plan is to play a soft zone and to make Landry Jones beat you, but you just can't play a zone defense like that and expect to have any chance to beat a good team. You know, Pittsburgh, yeah, they didn't have Roethlisberger, but they still have guys.

They still have Antonio Brown. They still have the speedster on the outside there. I can't remember his name. Darius Hayward-Bey. And they have the best running back in the NFL in Le'Veon Bell. So, you know, they're still loaded. You need to play more aggressive, maybe a little bit of man, a little bit more man.

They did end up playing more in the second half, but they need to play the entire game and get a pass rush. I don't care if you do it through blitzing backers. I don't care if you blitz a safety. I don't care if you do it through blitzing backers. I don't care if you blitz a safety. I don't care what you do. You've got to get more pressure because there is no pressure going on with this team. And people look at it, like I said, in all wills because they played Landry Jones and they wanted to flood the zones.

I get that. But they didn't do a very good job of flooding the zones either because Landry Jones got the ball out and was making plays. If anything, Pittsburgh did a better job of flooding the zones against the Patriots because Brady wasn't really hitting them too bad. So, I don't know. I was very disappointed, though, after watching it and how bad the defensive line was.

You have to create pressure. You have to make moves. Get out. Don't get blocked. And they do. They get blocked, and they get blocked easily. They do a pretty good job in the run game, the defensive line, but as far as overall pass rushes, I wasn't a big Chandler Jones guy,

but the loss is definitely felt. Jabal Sheard was kept in check yesterday. They're going to have to start blitzing some backers and start doing some more creative stuff to create pressure. They're letting the quarterbacks sit in the back of the pocket. Anyone is going to burn you. Any NFL quarterback that gets to sit in the pocket like that, like the Patriots are letting them do, is going to burn you,

and they're playing with fire right now. They are not going to be able to win in the playoffs playing the type of defense and that style. It's not going to work. They've already proven they've lost two Super Bowls trying to play that style. They won in 2014 playing the aggressive man. Bill, be smart. Get back to the aggressive man.

It's worth getting beat a couple times in order to make plays on defense, and right now they're not making plays, so they've got to clean it up. Oh, and on a side note, dishonorable mention to the refs. There was a call yesterday, and it was early. It was on Dante Hightower. They called an unsportsmanlike conduct for a late hit. Le'Veon Bell is tearing through the Patriots' defense like a madman, because that's what he does.

He's the best running back in football, and he's making plays. Jamie Collins goes to tackle him. Bell's not going down. Hightower comes up to assist, hits him. As he hits him, the whistle blows, and immediately a flag comes out at the same time, pretty much simultaneously with the whistle, the hit, and then a flag. What are they throwing a flag for on that?

You just blew the whistle as the guy is making contact. How is he supposed to stop himself? How is that man who has all this momentum to go make a tackle supposed to just stop himself from making that play? It's unbelievable. That's one of the things in the NFL and football in general. These refs, come on, guys. You've got to be better.

You've got to be better than that. You've got to understand that these guys, when you're at a running start and you're going up to tackle somebody and you're on them and you're making your football move, if you blow your whistle, it doesn't matter if you blow your whistle. People aren't robots. they can't just stop terrible terrible call that extended a drive that pittsburgh scored a touchdown on so that was disgusting i was very very disappointed in that call in general that that call alone gets the refs onto the dishonorable mention list do better guys do better at your job speaking of people that do good at their jobs That call alone gets the refs onto the dishonorable mention list. Do better, guys.

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So I want to thank everybody again for joining us tonight on the fastest-growing podcast network in the world. That's right, the fastest-growing podcast network in the world. You listen as a part of something big. It's growing fast. Tell your friends because we're not going anywhere. Every day, we have Patriots news and notes and great stories. And when it gets close to

game day, we start reviewing the teams. We give you all the information you're going to need here at Locked On Patriots. So be sure to tune in every single day and you'll love what you hear. And we love you coming to listen to us. So thank you so much. Be sure to tune in tomorrow when we take a deep dive into the All-22

and we catch up with our friend Kurt from Fitchburg. I'm sure all you guys are interested to hear what he has to say this week. Have a great night, Patriots fans. Whatcha doing? Running out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. By singing dog. By goal. Bye, goal. Bye, wedding ceremony.

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