Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 11/19/16- Breaking Down the Patriots Offense vs. the 49ers Defense

Episode Date: November 19, 2016

Chris Simoneau breaks down the Patriots offense vs. the 49ers defense. #thiscouldgetugly #Patriots 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 morning. I'm Chris Simino, Patriots inside of a scout.com, and also your host of Locked On Patriots, your source for everything Patriots. Today is Saturday, November 19th, 2016. For those of you whose week was thrown off because I said that on Thursday, that it was actually Wednesday, my apologies. I had a brain cramp, which happens at times. Before we get into our news and notes and break down the 49ers defense versus the Patriots offense, I just want all my listeners to know

that I can be found on Twitter under the handle chris underscore simono that's c-h-r-i-s underscore s-i-m-o-n-e-a-u and if you have any questions for the show be it about the Patriots myself, Patriots Insider or advertising here on Locked On Patriots email me directly at

chrissimusc at yahoo.com again that's c-h-r-i-s-s-i-m-u-s-usc at yahoo.com. Again, that's C-H-R-I-S-S-I-M-U-S-C at yahoo.com. And you can also find me at Facebook under the profile name Chris Semino. Feel free to send me a message there, too. So let's get to some Patriots news and notes on this Saturday morning as we get ready for game day here tomorrow. Last night, Patriots defensive end Jabal Sheard was tweeting,

posted photos, having a grand old time while he was at the Celtics-Warriors game. But the problem is that game wasn't being played in Oakland, which is close to where the Patriots players were in San Francisco. Now, this game was at the TD Bank North Garden in Boston, which means one thing. Sheard didn't travel, and he will not be playing tomorrow afternoon. There's several reasons why this could have happened, but after only playing 16 snaps last week and not appearing to have an injury, this seems like a performance issue. Sheard has been struggling, and maybe deactivating him will wake him up. All I know is this. The Patriots had four legitimate playmakers

in their front seven last season. Chandler Jones, Jamie Collins, Dante Hightower, and Jabal Sheard. Jones and Collins have been traded and are long gone. Hightower leads the defense, so he's still here and he's doing his job. And Jabal Sheard seems like the next guy out the door. It's just amazing how fast things can go downhill, especially in contract years with the Patriots. This whole Jabal Sheehan situation actually reminds me of the Adelius Thomas situation years back. So there's definitely something going wrong here. My guess is Sheehan probably wants to be more of a pass rusher and not do what the Patriots are asking him to do.

Again, he's in a contract year. These guys that are pass rushers and want to get their sacks up in their contract years are going to be more trying to go that way instead of playing man up and doing what they want to do. It happened to Sheard in his final year at Cleveland. He had two sacks, and that's why the Patriots ended up getting him on the cheap, and I have a feeling that something like that's going to happen again. So it's unfortunate that this isn't working out in his second year with New England because they really need him.

This is strange. You've seen two players in the last three years, Brandon LaFell. I know he's in a totally different position, but he was excellent his first year. They won the Super Bowl. He was a big part of it. Second year, had some injuries, was never the same guy, gone. Jabal Sheard last year, excellent, one of the best pass rushers on the team, really stepped up.

They really needed him. He was huge for them. This year, same deal. He's been nonexistent. So it's been a little odd with these free agents the last couple years. Guys, you expected to really be big players for New England that just after their first season of almost greatness, they turn around and go right downhill. So, again, hopefully Sheard can get it together because the Patriots do need him.

But with Trey Flowers taking his position and looking as well as he has, I think we may be seeing the end of days for Jabal Shearer as a Patriot. So, on to Rob Gronkowski. So, Gronk is listed as out for today's game. So, he didn't travel with the team. And Patriots fans are going to get their first look at tight end Matt Lengel. Lengel's a young player. He took an interesting path to get to Foxborough.

He's actually not that young, and we'll get into that in a second. He was undrafted as a free agent out of Eastern Kentucky. He spent the entire 2015 season on the Bengals practice squad. He was in the midst of his second year on the squad before the Patriots came swooping in and signed him to their active roster. They got him after they released Clay Harbour and then they traded A.J. Derby out to the Broncos. This isn't L'Engle's first rodeo in New England though. Although this will be his first time suiting up with a team in New England. It's finally going to come to fruition for him.

L'Engle originally enrolled at Northeastern back in 2009, and he was redshirted as a freshman. But the school surprisingly, and I'll say sadly since I live in the area and I know how sad people were about it, they ended their program after the 2009 season. So Langeau was worried. He said that he wondered, quote, am I ever going to play football again? I had just been redshirted and only had one full ride coming out of college,

so who's going to want me now? I thought I'd be off the radar for everybody. Well, that doesn't really work out when it comes to Division I athletes. These guys, they think, and I understand why they think that way, that once they lose their shot, they're done. But these Division I athletes are hard to find, and fortunately for L'Engle, he caught the eye of many schools, and he ended up choosing Eastern Kentucky.

So he was there for five seasons. He tore his ACL in 2012 and 2013, so he was able to get a medical waiver and spend an additional season there. So he spent a total of six seasons in college. But everything's worked out because now Lengel is here. He's stuck with it, and he's a Patriot. I'm willing to bet that Lengel never expected his first snap in a Massachusetts team's base uniform would be with the Patriots

and not with the Huskies. But things have a way of working themselves out, and he's here, and hopefully tomorrow he'll make some plays and help out the Patriots' offense because he's the second tight end. He's going to play. There's no getting around it. He he's the second tight end. He's going to play. There's no getting around it. He's going to be active and he's going to play. Mattel has been, and obviously is huge to have now with Gronk not there.

It's almost like there's no drop-off, but there is a drop-off at the second tight end, so hopefully Lingo can depth to handle those losses. But if they weren't playing the 49ers this week, they would be in a much worse position. Expect to see Dion Lewis activated to add more options to the Patriots' offense. We may see packages with James White split out or in the slot, or even Lewis maybe split out or in the slot, or in the backfield

or vice versa, depending on how they want to line him up. Injuries initiate creativity. It is what it is. I've been in that position myself as a coach and there is nobody more creative than Belichick, so I'm sure they'll be able to come up with something. Tomorrow's another thing, too, that we'll get to see. LeGarrette Blount, who was once a highly touted running back for Chip Kelly at Oregon, in the season that he was supposed to be this star back, it all went to hell with one punch. Back in 2009, Blount, he connected all right. He punched a guy right to the jaw, hit from Boise State by the name of Byron Hout. Hout

was taunting Blount after the Broncos had won, and Blount didn't know how to react to it, and he just turned around and cold-cocked him. It was Kelly's first season with the Ducks, so he kind of had to set a precedent. He didn't have much of a choice, so he suspended Blount for the entire season. In November of that season, Blount had been doing excellent academically. He wrote a letter to the school, you know, in their newspaper apologizing for what he had done, and he really, really did what he had to do to earn his way back onto the Oregon roster, so Kelly reinstated him and allowed him to finish the season, and he did a good job. Kelly said he developed a deep respect for Blount after the incident,

saying that, quote, I developed a great amount of respect for him in terms of what he went through and how he handled himself in a really bad situation that he knows he put himself in. But the way he was willing to stick with it, it could have been easy for him to say, all right, I'm going to quit and get ready for the NFL. But he stuck it through, practiced with us,

not knowing if he was ever going to get to play another game. I think there were a lot of things that he had to do to get himself back in position to play, and he did it. So I think it tells you a little bit about LeGarrette in terms of his perseverance and attitude and his understanding that he was very remorseful for what he did, understood that he made a mistake, but stayed around to help correct that mistake in terms of what he asked him

to do as a student and as a member of our team to give himself an opportunity to play again. That right there, that quote shows me that Blount's a smart kid. Guy. He's not a kid anymore. He's 30 years old. But that says everything I need to know about Blount.

Yes, he occasionally makes mistakes, and he gets mad, and he'll flip out and kind of does things that he regrets after that. You know, same thing happened when he was with Pittsburgh. But it's good for Blount that, and good for the Patriots because they stuck with him after that brain cramp with Pittsburgh. You know, it's good for him that and good for the Patriots because they stuck with him after that brain cramp with Pittsburgh. It's good for him that he can make a mistake and obviously it depends on how bad it is and how they react. He's able to fix it, as in he's able to redeem himself.

Blount has proven more than once that he realizes when he makes a mistake, he learns from it. And I'm willing to assume that he's on the one strike rule with the Patriots because of what happened with Pittsburgh, but he's a good guy. And when he made a mistake as a kid, that happens. You punch somebody, younger guys do stupid things.

As an adult, walking off the field against Pittsburgh, that was more of an adult reaction that you would see to, I'm not going to take this anymore. And the Patriots listened to what he had to say, realized that he wasn't a quitter, and that's why he's here. So Chip Kelly obviously is a big part of why LeGarrette Blount is with the Patriots because I guarantee you when New England was looking at making a trade for him,

Bill Belichick made a call to Chip Kelly first because Chip Kelly first. Chip Kelly and Greg Sciano, two of his better friends in football, and Chip had him at Oregon and Sciano had him at Tampa. So they had a good background with him before he came here, and it all is working out, working out very well. Working out so well that the 49ers may not be too happy to be facing him this week because I have a feeling when Garrett's going to go for about 150 in three touchdowns. It's going to be facing him this week because I have a feeling when Garrett's going to go for about 150 and three touchdowns. It's going to be fun to watch. More on the injury front, just to get you guys up to date on the actual injury report.

So, as we told you, Gronk is out. Chris Hogan is out. Julian Edelman is still listed as questionable with his foot problem, and Martellus Bennett is also still listed with his ankle, but both are expected to play in good news very good news actually defensive tackle alan branch who was nursing a back injury last week he has been removed from the injury report that's always a beautiful thing to see especially for a six foot five i think he is 330 pound beast of a d tackle you know you get those back injuries with guys like that and typically they don't just go away, but in this case it did. He must just

have some kind of sciatica or something like that. So good for him that he's able to get back and Patriots need him because the one thing that San Francisco's offense can do is run the ball a little bit. Alan Branch, welcome back. Congratulations on being off the injury report. Let's take a minute to tell you about one of our sponsors. Patriots Insider on Scout.com provides daily news, video from NFL.com, ridiculous amounts of fantasy football updates and games, and you name it, we're the kings of fantasy football.

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and get some Sports Illustrated for free. It's a great deal. So today, one of the things I wanted to do, honestly I wanted to do it yesterday, but it just wasn't in the cards. We had to wait until today to do the show. We went the Patriots offense versus the 49ers defense. Now I know when you first look at this, and anybody who's looked at the 49ers defense this year knows what I'm talking about. This is a mismatch of epic proportions.

The Patriots offense averages 26.8 points per game, which is 6th in the league. 49ers defense allows 31.4 points allowed per game, which is 32nd in the league. Patriots pick up 381 yards per game, which is 9th. 49ers give up 430 a game, which is 32nd in the league. Patriots pick up 381 yards per game, which is 9th. 49ers give up 430 a game, which is 32nd. Patriots throw for 268 yards a game, which is 8th. 49ers, well, this is their one good spot. They only allow 249.2 yards per game, passing 14th. So it's not like they're in the top 5 or anything like that. They're still ranked 14th. Patriots run for 112 yards a game, which is 12th. 49 is allowed, 180.4 yards rushing per game,

which is, again, 32nd in the league, and that is disgusting. That's a lot of yards to give up. So this matchup has the makings of a blowout. But with Chris Hogan and Rob Gronkowski both out this week, things could be a little bit harder for the offense, but I think they're going to be okay. It's not going to be enough to stop New England, though considering that they do have the depth of weapons.

With the 49ers allowing 180.4 yards rushing per game, we're going to see a steady diet of LeGarrette Blount, most likely Deion Lewis, and James White tomorrow afternoon. I know Bill Belichick had talked about how hard it's going to be for Deion Lewis to steal reps from James White, but the bottom line is this. James White is an absolutely terrible runner. He's a great receiver out of the backfield, but James White is a terrible NFL running back. He gets touched and he's down. He's on the ground. He is a great receiver out of the backfield, but James White is a terrible NFL running back. He gets touched, and he's down. He's on the ground.

He is a one-hit-and-down guy. He is awesome in the passing game. He's a good pass blocker, too. He does a good job of that. But when it comes to just being a flat-out running back, James White is not the guy you want to give the ball to. Deion Lewis is. Deion Lewis can run.

Deion Lewis is a good cutter. He breaks through contact, first contact especially. He's just got more quickness and more agility than White does, especially when it comes to the running game. So I would expect to see Blount and Lewis get more carries and see James White be a little bit more split out and trying to alleviate some of the pain of not having Chris Hogan and Gronkowski out there. So that's what I would expect to see. The Niners have been decent against the pass, again, allowing just the 268 yards per game.

But the reason for the lesser passing yards is because teams are just running roughshod on them instead of throwing the ball. Running is the safest path to victory, so if you're giving up 180 yards per game, just run on them. And that's what New England can do. New England can run and throw. So this could be a nightmare scenario for the 49ers. I know, again, they've got the two injuries,

but when you have a guy like Martellus Bennett that can come in and replace Gronkowski, you're not going to see a huge drop-off at all. In fact, you might not see any drop-off, period. I know Bennett is nursing his ankle injury a little bit, so that could be a little bit of a problem, but I think he'll be okay, and I think they'll make it work. Expect to see him get a heavy dose of targets tomorrow night, too. Julian Edelman is going to be a heavy part of the game plan, because he'll have to be. Danny Amendola is also going to be a heavy part

of the game plan. I think Malcolm Mitchell will be the receiver they use to kind of stretch the defense a little bit and see if he can make a play. Mitchell's actually been pretty good. I know he's had his moments of struggling, but he is a rookie wide receiver. And I think if he continues to earn Brady's trust, don't be surprised if the Patriots take a shot down field with him tomorrow afternoon. So again, they do have the weapons that they need. Even if Matthew Slater is a guy that they've got to throw in there, I know a lot of times they'll put Slater in and do the same thing with him that they may do with Mitchell.

They'll send him down the field on a deep route, and if he's open, go deep to him and see if he can make a catch. Against the 49ers, there's a good chance that he will because they can't stop a nosebleed. So, again, this matchup does not have the makings of anything close. I just don't see the 49ers being able to stop the Patriots offense. Regardless of the injuries, I just don't see it happening. The Patriots offensive line is starting to play better.

They're starting to get some continuity. They are a much better run-blocking team than they are pass-blocking. Again, a huge negative for the 49ers defense. You know, the Patriots are going to do what they do best against the teams that struggle against that. So, if, yeah, they're ranked 12th in rushing, they're a better passing team than they are a running team, but they are a very good running team. If you're facing the worst running team in the league and you know your offensive line is starting to get some continuity, it makes all the sense in the world to run the

ball as much as you can, work some play action in there, you know, and that way keep Brady clean, keep him off the ground, and go in there and whoop them and get out of there because that's mainly what the Patriots' goal is for this week. So instead of rambling on, because that's what I'll be doing because that's all this is, this is pretty much what I think is going to happen Like I said when I predicted I talked about the Patriots defense Versus the 49ers offense

I believe the 49ers are going to score between 18 and 20 points I'll say 20 I'll say the 49ers are going to score 20 But I don't think that they have any chance Of stopping the Patriots offense on any possession. I think the Patriots will continuously walk down the field methodically and they will score points all day long. I see the final score of this game being

45-20 New England. I think the Patriots offense will have the best day of the season, even without Gronkowski and Hogan. Again, guys are going to step up and replace them, and as long as number 12 is out there slinging it and he's getting protection, there's no way the 49ers have a chance in this game. So, again, my predicted final score is the New England Patriots 45, San Francisco 49ers 20. So I want to thank you guys all for coming on today

and listening to our breakdown. So my question for you guys, though, are you going to go to a game this year? If you are, I think the best way to do it is to order your tickets through SeatGeek. It's the smartest and easiest way to find tickets for football games, even basketball games or baseball games. But right now, we're in the heart of the football season. So if you're going to go watch a pro sports game, that's the one to go watch and you should order your tickets through SeatGeek. What you could do is do the same thing I did.

Download the app on your phone. It's pretty easy to do. Just go into apps and download it. And then you could shop for your tickets right on your phone. You can be anywhere. In just a few taps, you can instantly find the seats you need for this weekend and this game. So with SeatGeek, you're going to get the best deal on every ticket.

They do price comparing, and they search multiple ticket sites, so they make sure that they have the lowest prices. Prices can vary depending on where you shop, but again, SeatGeek's always going to find you the lowest available price. SeatGeek wants to help you get the most bang for your buck. Every ticket you buy on SeatGeek is given a grade based on value. You'll immediately see any underpriced seats and you can go out and buy them and get the best deals that fit your budget. If you've got a family of four

and you just can't afford to go and buy the tickets at face value to go to a Patriots game, you're not in a boat that most people are. They're expensive. I get it. A lot of people get it. Go to SeatGeek. Go on there. Find some seats that people may call the nosebleeds, but they're really

not. There's still great seats up in the 300s, things like that. Get a good ticket package that fits your budget and take your family to the game and don't get gouged in prices. That's what SeatGeek's all about. Plus, every ticket you buy on SeatGeek is backed by their 100% guarantee,

so you can shop on their site with confidence. So my listeners, this is the best thing of all. You get a $20 rebate off their first SeatGeek purchases. So to get your $20 rebate on tickets, what you want to do is download the SeatGeek app, the one I was talking about. Go to the Settings tab and click add a promo code. Enter promo code LOPATRIOTS.

That's L-O-P-A-T-R-I-O-T-S. And SeatGeek will send you $20 after you've made your first ticket purchase. Again, download the SeatGeek app and enter promo code LOPATRIOTS today. It's L-O-P-A-T-R-I-O-T-S today. Go check it out, people. You go to games and you want to save some money?

Seeky is where it's at. Go check it out. So again, thank you all for joining us this Saturday morning edition of Locked On Patriots, and be sure to go to iTunes and subscribe to our show today, like this morning, as in right now, and go tell your friends to do the same thing.

Again, I'm Chris Simino, your host of Locked On Patriots. Make sure you tune in tomorrow for our pregame show, and have a great night, all you Patriots fans. 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. Surveys show Americans place less trust in institutions like the media and business. Others contend America has faced far more challenging periods and emerged strong. Leading policymakers, Bush Institute experts, and respected

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