Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 10/9/16- Patriots Postgame Breakdown

Episode Date: October 10, 2016

Chris Simoneau discusses today's Patriots 33-13 win over the Cleveland Browns. #bradysreturn #gronkisback #bennettisatoughbeast #711hoganlivesuptohisnickname Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Switch to MetroPCS and get two free LG K20 Plus phones with 32 gigs when you switch two lines. MetroPCS. Wireless. Figured out. Coverage not available in some areas. Sales tax not included in phone price. Excludes numbers on the T-Mobile network. See store for details and terms and conditions. Hi, I'm Chris Seminole, your host of Locked On Patriots, your source for everything Patriots.

Welcome to our post-game podcast. Tonight is a good night in Patriots Nation after the Patriots went into Cleveland with their Hall of Fame quarterback back in the center. And it really felt like he never left. The Patriots rolled to a 33-13 win. And although it was a convincing victory where Brady threw for 406 yards and three touchdowns, one gets a feeling that a lot of yards and points were left on the field today.

And as the offense gets used to Brady being back at the helm, the average points per game could go through the roof. The Browns are overmatched from the moment they stepped on the field. They just don't have the same talent level as the Patriots. It's not even close. But they could lean on the fact that they had beaten up on New England in the last few years in the few meetings that they did have. Unfortunately, those were games when the Patriots were pretty much going into trap games. They just weren't ready for it. There was no way that Brady wasn't going to have this entire offense focus on what they needed to do to not only win, but to dominate offensively. New England, they got contributions from many different players on offense,

but Brady's big three today was Martellus Bennett, Rob Gronkowski, and Chris 7-11 Hogan. The trio combined for 15 catches, 272 yards, and three touchdowns. In fact, all three of those touchdowns were for Bennett. The two tight end set that they're deploying right now is just deadly. And the more experienced Brady, Gronkowski, and Bennett gain together, the better they're going to get, which is a pretty scary thought for NFL defensive coordinators.

On Bennett's long touchdown, Gronkowski was also wide open. He was standing there. He could have made a catch for a 25-yard gain and possibly run as long as Bennett did. So they're just impossible to defend. Cleveland's bad, but they are still an NFL team, and they simply had no answer for the gigantic duo. Now, the Patriots running game wasn't too good today, but they stuck with it.

They ran it 35 times for 98 yards and one touchdown. When Brady was out there, there was a focus on the run that they had to be, but they don't want to lose their balance. That's the biggest thing that concerns me. They obviously ran the ball today, and it looked like they had balance, but they didn't run it like they had the last three weeks. Getting defenses on their heels against Brady is terrifying because it will simply pick them apart using play action.

So it would behoove Josh McDaniels to continue to stay balanced at attack and also, you know, have some creativity with the personnel groupings. You know, throwing for 406 yards would make it seem like the run-throw percentage was way off, but, you know, they only threw it 41 times. They ran it 35. So, again, the balance was maintained, but they need to do a better job with their calls. Some of the stretch runs and things like that, they just don't work with a back like LeGarrette Blount.

So they need to get a little bit better in that respect. Let's take a minute to hear from our sponsor. Football's back, and SeatGeek is the smartest, easiest way to find tickets for the games you want to see up close and personal this season. There's nothing like being in the stadium for the biggest plays of the year, and with SeatGeek, it's never been easier to get the seats you want for a great value. SeatGeek has the best deal on tickets for every ticket in the house, anywhere you want to sit, either at the 50, club seats, or the upper level. I have the SeatGeek app on my phone, and it's by far the easiest way I've found a way to shop for tickets.

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Patriots super fan, big fan of the show. He was happy about the win, but he did have some serious concerns. He stated this early in the week, too, and it did come to fruition today. And the funny part is, a lot of the things that he had concerns about were mentioned in my live blog today on scout.com. That's nwedoutscout.com

if you want to go on and check out some of my articles. We also post our podcast on there, too. Here's what Kurt had to say. Here's my professional analysis for today's 33-13 blowout win against the Browns. When Brady was out for the first four games of the season, the Patriots were forced to become more balanced offensively. Sounds familiar. In my opinion, Josh McDaniels has never

called plays better than he did in the first three games. They were diverse, dynamic, creative, unpredictable, and most importantly, they were effective. Box score looks great for the Patriots today, but there are several things I saw watching the game I didn't like, and they've been plaguing this team since 2011. First thing is their second down play calling. On the Patriots' first drive of the game, they faced a second and eight. It was right near midfield, and McDaniels called for a fake handoff, fake reverse screen that nearly got Brady flattened and fell incomplete, and it brought them to third and eight.

The Patriots did get away with it, because on the next play, of course, Brady made a beautiful throw to Gronkowski that took him up the field for a huge gain and did set them up for a score, but that's because they got away with it because of Brady's talent. You know, they are so talented and so well coached that when they're healthy and they're in the regular season against crappy teams like the Browns, it doesn't matter what they call. In January, when they're facing a quality opponent, it will.

This goes back to what I was saying last week about how they get pass happy with Brady at quarterback. Kurt did say that. That second and eighth play should be a running play or a quick spot pass to bring up a manageable third down. I'm in 100% agreement again. On anything less than third and

five with Brady on the center, the Patriots can do anything they want. They get away with it in week five against Cleveland, but in the AFC Championship against Pittsburgh or Denver, that's going to come back to bite them. The second thing that really bothered him is he feels that their formations and personnel groupings were creating predictability with their play calling, and I would agree.

He doesn't watch game film. I do, and I will watch it on Tuesday as soon as it comes out on the Patriots. But, you know, he says it too. You can see it on the television broadcast. You know, fans know what the Patriots are going to do most of the time when Brady's on the center. If fans know what they're going to do, obviously defensive coordinators know what they're going to do. You they face a team, again, like a Denver, with an unbelievable defense, what they did today would have got shut down, and they would not have scored more than 20 points.

When they had Garoppolo playing, particularly against Arizona, Kurt was saying that he noticed the Patriots used many two-back sets, both to run and pass out of another Brady's back. Whenever the Patriots went to that 12-21 personnel, it seemed that they went to the running game and never the passing game, which, again, negates play actions, it allows the pass rushers to get

better jumps, and it makes it hard to run the ball. It's funny, Kurt, I actually noted the, like when they went off tackle on fourth and goal and got stuffed. That was not a good play call. And they also had another one too where it was a third and one and they went to Blount and they called the stretch play.

The play made famous by Edger and James when he played for the Colts. Garrett Blount is not Edger and James, so I don't understand why they're trying to run that play because he just does not have that type of ability. He is a B, C gap runner. I just don't like when they try to get him outside like that. It just doesn't work. Kurt also says this is another situation where the Patriots' offensive talent, Brady in particular, bails him out of predictable play calling.

Cleveland does not have a good run defense, and Blount, who is one of the lead leaders in rushing average, had below three yards per carry and a blowout win. The best bet to keep number 12 off his backside, and the best way to do is to diversify the play calling and the personnel grouping so the opposing defenses can't come back and pin their ears back and try to kill him. There was another point in the game where he, Kurt, also questioned the play calling for McDaniels.

In the third quarter when the Patriots were up big, they ran a questionable reverse to Chris Hogan, who has been their best wide receiver so far this year, and it nearly got him knocked out of the game and worse. Kurt was saying he was surprised that he came back into the game, and as was I. This is a situation where it looked like McDaniels was trying to get the running game going, but if you're going to try to get the running game going, why don't you just hand it off to Blount or James White or D.J. Foster or an actual running back? Running jet and things like that is great when you're trying to pick up a first down and keeping defenses on their heels, but in order to get the running game going,

you need to go forward, and your linemen need to get engaged, and that's just not what they were doing. That's one of the reasons why they averaged less than three yards a carry today. So they do need to get more diversity in their personal groupings and play calling, as Kurt said, and I 100% agree. Defensively, Kurt thought the Patriots looked very strong. They seemed to have no problem taking away Cleveland's number one rushing attack. They dominated that, actually, and they did tackle considerably better

than they did last week against Buffalo. I'm sure the coaching staff got after them in the film room, and they had some good practices to clean all that stuff up. Kurt was also saying something that has continued to concern him in that phase of the game is their coverage, particularly from their cornerbacks, and that includes their linebackers and safeties. It just seems like their conservative pass-defense operation

from the pass rush and getting up on their receivers, just everything seems soft, and they're playing very passive, and he just doesn't like what he sees. It seems that if teams wanted to, they can run 12-yard comebacks and deep outs on the Patriots all the way down the field, and the Patriots really wouldn't tighten up until they got into the red zone. This is similar to what we saw back from, like, 2009, 2010, right around that time, and nobody wants to go back to that again.

You know, again, Kurt was saying, in the AFC title game, when you're going against guys like Emmanuel Sanders and Demarius Thomas, or if you're against a Pittsburgh and you've got to deal with, God forbid, Antonio Brown, you can't play defense like this or you're going to get killed. Maybe the coaching staff is not worried about that yet because they know that they have a good pass defense and they're just trying to keep it a little bit vanilla as the season goes on

so they can just unleash things on teams when the starts to get time to try to clinch home field. But right now it's just not looking good. Kurt was saying here, in a day and age when everything is predicated around getting to the quarterback to force bad decisions and errant throws, the Patriots seem to be playing defense in 2003. Call me crazy, but I'm starting to worry.

He's also starting to worry that Malcolm Butler is regressing, and I would have to say I see it. In fact, Chris from New York asked a question the other night saying that Malcolm Butler doesn't cover, he recovers, and that seemed to be what we saw again today. So Malcolm Butler maybe was a little too concerned about his contract and maybe should have been doing a little more time working on his game because he has not looked that great this season. One last observation from Kurt, Although it is not yet a

problem, the kicker is starting to worry me. I'm starting to think that Kurt might have read my live blog today because I'm getting a little concerned myself. Maybe it is the missed PAT in Denver from last year. I think it is. I think he's got the yips. Maybe it's the pooched kickoffs messing with his form, but i don't think that's the issue i think he just what he does is takes a little bit off of it so i don't think that's an issue um you know maybe it's just a regression back to the mean that's actually a great point by kurt too you know averages are there for a reason uh statistics they are what

they are they're correct. They're correct. And the thing about Koskowski is he's been one of the all-time great kickers percentage-wise, and it was only a matter of time until he started missing a few, and maybe they're all starting to come now. Chris says, stand by for more on this because right now it's not a problem, although I think it is. But if it continues, we could start seeing kickers in for workouts at Foxborough. He gets paid $4.5 million a year.

The Patriots aren't going to sit by and wait for him to get his things together because they have a Super Bowl roster. And if he can't be knocking through field goals, he may be on the unemployment line sooner than you think. Let's take another minute to hear from our sponsor. The first month of the NFL season is officially in the books. How'd your fantasy football

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L-O-P-A-T-R-I-O-T-S. Void where prohibited. Well, as you guys noticed, Kurt had plenty to say after the win in his email. But one of the reasons we read the email in full is because we agree with his assessment and he has a very good opinion on the game. So, again, we'll continue to read his stuff when he sends it in to us

and pretty soon he's going to be a regular on this show. So we're looking forward to that. Personally, I was not impressed with the defense today. That's one of the situations where I, one of the opinions I vary with Kurt. Although they did clean it up on the tackling, and Kurt did note that, I'm still troubled, really troubled by the lack of a pass rush, and I'm starting to wonder if Belichick might be forced to go target a pass rusher before the trade deadline.

I know the NFL has the least amount of trades, but nobody makes more trades than Belichick. We've seen it with Tlaib. Even under the radar, guys like Jonathan Casillas and Akeem Ayers, guys like that that they've gone and picked up that have really helped out in areas of need that have got them to either the AFC championship at the league or in the Super Bowl with the Ayers and Casillas and they both went on to get paid pretty big bucks by other teams so it really did work out for them and for

the Patriots it wouldn't require a high round pick most likely especially if they do what they've done in the past and go find a guy that has fallen out of favor with the team that he's currently with. So, again, the pass rush is just non-existent, and they need to do something. I was hoping with the return of Ninkovich today that, you know, he'd get a little bit of a shot in the arm, but it just didn't. It was nothing. You know, they had all day to throw. If Cleveland had an actual NFL quarterback,

they would have been scoring points today, and this would have been a close game. Patriots fans should be a little bit concerned about the pass rush, and personally I'm very concerned about it. Just as an observer, there's not much going on there. Either they need to blitz or maybe change up the personnel groups, do anything to improve this pathetic pass rush before they start to look like the 2009 Patriots and start to get blown out.

You know, Kurt had said that he was worried about the secondary, and, you know, the secondary is going to look average when they have to cover for 10 seconds. That's just the way it works. If there was an actual normal pass rush like most NFL teams have, I think the Patriots' secondary would look excellent because they wouldn't have to cover for as long as they do. Yes, again, like we said before, we believe that Butler is struggling a little bit and he may be regressing.

That's from not only myself, but that's from some of our fans that have emailed us and asked us questions. But again, if there was a pass rush, Butler would not be covering as long and he probably wouldn't look as bad. So again, look for Belichick to possibly make a trade before the deadline. And if he doesn't, maybe you start to see

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