Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 10/31/16- Who Are The Studs and Duds From Yesterday?

Episode Date: October 31, 2016

Chris Simoneau discusses yesterday's win in Buffalo and also examines the trade market. #shouldhavedonetheshow20minuteslater #collinstradewillbecoveredtomorrow 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 31st, 2016. Happy Halloween, everyone. As we do after every game, we're going to go through our studs and duds from yesterday's game. The game was essentially dominated by the Patriots offense, but there were some players that stood out, good and bad.

So let's break it down for you. First, we're going to take a look at the studs, who really stood out yesterday. Again, there were a lot of players that did stand out, especially on offense, but we had to pick the best of the best. stood out yesterday. Again, there were a lot of plays that did stand out, especially on offense, but we had to pick the best of the best. First man up, not really a surprise, Tom Brady, our number one stud of the day. Brady, as he is every week, he was the best player on the field. Yesterday stands out, though, because he was masterful in the face of some serious pressure from a Bills defense that was determined to get to him. Brady was sacked five times and pressured a total of 23 times. That includes blitzes.

But he still finished the day 22-33 for 314 yards, four touchdown passes, and zero interceptions. Brady was very good when he wasn't blitzed also, which occurred on 27 of his dropbacks. He was 15 out of 23 when the Bills sat back, but he was still sacked three times on that. When he was blitzed, which they did 11 times, he was 7 out of 10. One of those he actually ran. It was a nice run for a first down.

He was 7 out of 10, though, for 120 yards and two touchdowns, and he was only sacked once on the 10 blitzes that he saw. Brady's going to tear you apart if you blitz him, and he showed that again yesterday against the Bills. When Brady faced no pressure whatsoever, he was 21 out of 25 for 296 yards, four touchdowns, zero interceptions, and his QB rating was 155.6. So yesterday was one of those days where no matter what you did to the future Hall of Famer, he was going to find a way to beat you.

So Brady has been incredible since his return from his suspension. And yesterday was, I would say, his best outing to date in 2016, which says a lot because he's been pretty incredible since he's been back. When it comes down to it, Brady tears apart the Buffalo Bills. It is tough on the Bills fans. It is tough on the Bills fans. It's tough on the Bills organization. It's just one of those situations where they've faced a player for 15 years that has killed them, similar to what Jim Kelly used to do to the Patriots.

So, Bills fans, I understand that it's been tough having to deal with Brady, but you guys had Jim Kelly and Thurman Thomas and the K-Gun offense and all that good stuff and won the AFC four straight times. So you had your time. The Patriots are having theirs now. So it'll end at some point, but for now you guys are just going to have to take it and deal with it. Our second stud of the game, also another easy selection.

In fact, he's been one of the studs of the game every week since Brady's return. Tight end Rob Gronkowski. Gronkowski once again tormented his hometown. He had five catches for 109 yards and a touchdown. His one touchdown that he did score was huge though. It was from 53 yards out, which is always nice to see a big rumbling tight end take one in from 53 yards out. But it was also his 69th of his career. Insert giggles there into the 69. I know that's been a big thing. In fact, I saw a Pittsburgh newspaper write that he should get fined, which I found comical. But, yep, it was his 69th touchdown of his career, and that's a big number in Patriots history.

It's the most for any Patriot pass catcher in the history of their franchise. He passed Stanley Morgan, the former great wide receiver who played for the Patriots during the 80s and the early 90s. Stanley Morgan was a great player, and he did that over the course of a long career. Gronkowski did it over the course of seven seasons, and he's only 27 years old. In fact, one of those seasons, he only played in seven games. So it's pretty incredible what Gronkowski's been able to do. I've stated it on this show multiple times, and I believe that Rob Gronkowski is the best football player in the NFL.

I still, every week he solidifies it for me. So he is the best player in the league. His numbers show it. His 69 touchdowns in seven years as a tight end is pretty significant. Again, I've said it also here that I don't think his career is going to last past the age of 30, but the next 3 years, you're going to see some great stuff and don't be surprised if this guy gets to 100 touchdowns before it's all said and done. Our third stud of the game goes to the other side of the ball. Dante Hightower. Another former stud of the game goes to the other side of the ball, Dante Hightower.

Another former stud of the game for us in the past, but once again, Hightower was the best Patriots defender on the field. Finished the day with five tackles, two were solo, three were assisted, and he also had a half sack and five pressures. His presence was felt on the field all day long, like it usually is. There was one play in particular that I wanted to highlight where the power of Hightower stood out. The Bills are trying to run through the D-gap, which is basically an outside run. It's not completely outside like a sweep, but it's outside the tight end. You're trying to get a play off there, and they were trying to run that way so as they try to run the lead blocker came out hightower squeezed down so hard he smashed the lead blocker into the

running back and blew up the play completely this isn't the first time i've seen him do this this is why i've highlighted i see him do it a lot last game or two games ago when he was just getting back from injury he tried it and he had the effect of basically a pillow because he didn't have the strength that he has now. But when you can tell when Hightower's back to full speed, when he's starting to smash blockers into running backs and quarterbacks, once he starts doing that stuff, he's at the top of his game and there's really no way to block him.

So that play was amazing. He blew the whole thing up. He's so strong and explosive that he can just blow up any play at any time. And his athleticism on top of that, too. He can run guys down that you wouldn't expect him to be able to run down with his size and his strength, but he makes it happen. They just can't afford to let him go in free agency. They have to find a way to get him signed.

Pro Football Focus, again, they do a great job. They graded Hightower at an 89.5 yesterday, so basically an A- grade, which he absolutely deserved. On a side note, Brady graded out at a 90, which was the highest on the day. So Hightower was just below that. We did have some honorable mentions, too. I couldn't go without mentioning these guys

because they did so well yesterday. Chris Hogan, good old 7'11", had a strong return to Buffalo. He finished the day with four catches for 91 yards, and he also had a 53-yard touchdown that was a thing of beauty. Hogan, as he usually is, hence the nickname, was open all day. Second honorable mention goes to second-year defensive end Trey Flowers Flowers added a dimension to the pass rush that we haven't seen all season Which is nice to see out of a team that has struggled to get pressure on the quarterback

Flowers finished the day with four solo tackles, one assisted And he also had one and a half sacks He split a sack with Dante Hartauer and then had one of his own He looked explosive and athletic Something that the Patriots absolutely need in their front seven. So Trey Flowers, great job yesterday. It's good to see you out and about there. Make some plays.

He wasn't really much in the rotation over the first half of the season, so his showing yesterday definitely is something that's going to get him more playing time going forward. Danny Amendola, a player we actually spoke of last week during our fan mailbag, wondering what's up with him. Well, Amendola only had three catches for 29 yards and a touchdown, but his work on special teams earned him an honorable mention. Amendola had a 25-yard return early,

which set the Patriots up in decent field position, and then he had a 73-yard return to open the second half and set the offense up for a short drive that they ended up converting into seven points. Amendola proved yesterday that, you know, in all three phases affect the game, and his work on the return game yesterday made the offense's job that much easier.

So good for Amendola. Like I said last week, one of our fans asked, I believe it was Chris from New York had asked, you know, what's the deal with Amendola? Is he a big part of this team anymore? Why are they using him like they used to? Well, there's your answer. He's still a major part of this team.

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out. SeatGeek.com, promo code LOPatriots. So, we always have to do it when there's the yin and the yang, the studs and the duds. So, the good part about yesterday's win is they really weren't a lot of duds that stood out as far as just the game. It's going to change when I take a look

at the All-22 tomorrow. I guarantee there's going to be some guys that stand out in a bad way, and there will also be some that stand out in a good way and we'll get to that when we when we come to that point but today from the naked eye from what i can see our number one dud of the day went to a player who i actually kind of like but unfortunately he did not have his finest moment yesterday cornerback eric rowe so rowe had three tack on the day, but he also allowed a 35-yard catch and was called for three pass interference penalties before he was benched in favor of former starter Logan Ryan,

who I believe is a much better player than Rowe, but I'm not Bill Belichick, so I'm not the one who gets to make that decision. Rowe is clearly feast or famine, and it seems like he's a better fit against taller receivers. The Bills receivers, besides Justin Hunter, are strong route runners with strong agility. They're not really a big lumbering type of wide receivers that you normally see.

Again, Justin Hunter's the only one that they have, but they also have guys like Marquise Goodwin, who didn't play yesterday, but also Robert Woods, who did play yesterday. I think Rowe is going to struggle with those type of receivers, and I think they should be using him strictly on Hunter and guys of that nature. But again, he just struggled overall against everybody yesterday. The Patriots may have to target a cornerback in the trade market before this 4 p.m. deadline tomorrow.

I've been saying pass rusher pass rusher pass rusher and i also had mentioned last week that they might take a look at demarco murray well i think you can scratch demarco murray off the list because he is dealing with a foot injury now and i don't think the patriots want to trade for a guy who is a running back the man of a foot injury who's got a history of problems with injuries and i don't think that they're going to go after a pass rusher because i do believe that they can fix that from the inside you know with guys like trey flowers maybe some more line stunts more blitzing mixing it up a little bit i think that pressure can be created with the talent that they have on the roster the issues that i'm concerned about though are two areas

and the second area we're going to get to in a minute but if you don't have corners that can play man and you want to play man you have a problem so if logan ryan doesn't fit what they want to do and they don't think he's the best man-to-man corner which i totally disagree with then it's time to go out there and get someone. And they have the trade fuel to go do it. So, you know, there's a lot of teams out there that are struggling, that have good players on their team. The problem is there's a lot of teams out there that aren't good, that aren't quite out of it yet. So they look at it and say, well, why are we going to trade away a guy when we have a chance at a wild card spot?

Well, some of those teams, unfortunately, in Week 12 are going to be looking up saying, man, I wish we had made that trade for a third-round pick when we had the opportunity. Hopefully Bill Belichick can find one of those teams, convince him that they're done, and trade for a corner that can come in here and help out. I just think that that's a major issue. Secondly, for duds of the day, and we'll get into the trade stuff on this one too, the offensive line. For the second time in two meetings, the defensive line of the Buffalo Bills

completely and utterly abused the Patriots' offensive line. The line allowed five sacks, 14 total hits, and like I said earlier, 23 overall pressures. That's just too much. It's way too much. It's way too many times that Brady's going to have to run around in the pocket. And yes, he made plays on most of those. You know, he only got sacked five times. When you consider he was pressured over 23 times, that's pretty good.

The 14 hits, that's a lot. You know, 14 hits on a quarterback, takes a big big big toll on him especially a guy at the age of 39 he's one hit away you know guys are one hit away when they're 25 never mind 39 so they need to find a way to fix that you know the 14 total hits and five sacks is inexcusable the run blocking has been better all season than the pass blocking but yesterday they got rocked in the running game too so it wasn't like they did good anyway they just overall sucked yesterday up front i hate to be so blunt but it's the truth they were terrible yesterday up front the good thing is there's only two duds

for week eight the bad thing is i haven't had a chance to check that all 22 yet so again like i mentioned earlier this that's probably going to change tomorrow. Now, back to the trade, or the possible trade. It's time to go out and look at some offensive linemen. If you're giving up that many hits on your quarterback against a team that's probably not even going to make the playoffs, Buffalo's going to be battling for that wildcard spot. Who knows if they get it? I say they probably don't because Rex Ryan's teams don't have enough discipline to be able to do that, but you never know. If they end up having to face Buffalo in the playoffs, I think they should be worried. You know, I know they scored all those points yesterday, but they also did it against a team

that didn't have LaShawn McCoy and Marquise Goodwin and Aaron Williams. Aaron Williams may not be back, but those other two are going to be back, and that's going to make that Buffalo offense even more dangerous. That Buffalo offense could have stayed on the field a little bit more yesterday. Patriots offense probably doesn't score as many points. That's going to be an issue. So the offensive line needs to be better against teams that have a defensive line like a Buffalo or any of these other strong teams that can get a pass rush going. Right now, they don't have it.

So I know Marcus Cannon had had some good grades on Pro Football Focus, and you look today, Shaq Mason graded out with a decent day. But the eye test doesn't lie, and when you watch these games and you see the offensive line giving up tons of hits and tons of sacks and Brady running for his life, there is a major problem there that they need to fix. So again, going into tomorrow's trade deadline at 4 p.m., the two areas that need to be addressed the most, I would say the first problem is the offensive line.

Any type of upgrade they can get anywhere, they'd be willing, if it's a willing, if you have a willing trade partner and you have a trade that's not out of control obviously not giving up a first or a second rounder unless you're going out and getting a guy um that's an absolute stud then do it get it done solidify this line make sure you have somebody in here that can actually block and can protect brady because if not this is going to be one of those seasons we look back at and we're pretty disappointed because they had clearly the best team in football but their two Achilles heels could be two areas that really caused them to not win the championship in the end so my question for you fans today are you wearing Mack Weldon clothing right now well if you're not

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Go have a great online shopping experience today. I want to thank you all for joining us today on the fastest growing podcast network in the world. Again, I'm Chris Semino for Locked On Patriots. Please join us again tomorrow as we dissect the All-22 and provide you all with all the Patriots information Please join us again tomorrow as we dissect the all 22 and provide you all with the Patriots, all the Patriots information you need. Happy Halloween, Patriots fans. Be careful out there tonight. Have a good time. Is democracy in danger or decline? Condoleezza Rice, William Galston, and Carlos Gutierrez and others take on this question in the fall edition of The Catalyst, a journal of ideas from the Bush Institute.

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