Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 11/30/16- Patriots/Jets All 22 Review

Episode Date: November 30, 2016

Chris Simoneau breaks down the Patriots/Jets game film from Sunday. #patriots Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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 afternoon. I'm Chris Simino, Patriots Inside of the Scout.com, and also your host of Locked on Patriots, your source for everything Patriots. Today is Wednesday, November 30th, 2016. We've been gone for two days. Had an illness and wasn't able to talk. But we are back at it today.

Ready to update you guys on all the latest news and notes that we thought was most important. And also we're going to pick our studs and duds from the All-22 tape. So for our listeners who listen to the show a lot, you should realize that's two segments rolled into one. We're getting pretty creative here over at Locked On Patriots. The Patriots had their hands full in New Jersey on Sunday, but they did get the job done with another victory, which was the 200th of Tom Brady's career, and also the Patriots' 9th of 2016 as they moved to 9-2. It wasn't pretty, and there appears to be some major issues on the defense that need to be addressed ASAP

if this team wants to win at all. But again, they're still 9-2, they control their own destiny, and they have a schedule that should allow them to go at least 13-3, if not 14-2, and also the teams that they battle against have some tough games that they still have to play down the stretch too. So home field advantage is still very much in control of the Patriots. But the way the defense does look, having home field is going to make all the difference in the world.

It's really important. So we're going to get a little ahead of ourselves here because there's so much to discuss. Once we wrap up the Jets game today, we are done with them. We're going to move on to the Rams, but we first need to do a breakdown of what we saw with the Jets game today, we are done with them. We're going to move on to the Rams, but we first need to do a breakdown of what we saw with the Jets on Sunday. Before we get started, I just want 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. If you have any questions for the show, be it about the Patriots, myself, Patriots Insider, or advertising here on Lockdown Patri Patriots, you can email me directly at chrissimusc at yahoo.com. That's C-H-R-I-S-S-I-M-U-S-C at yahoo.com. If you're a member of Patriots Insider on scout.com, you can contact me directly on the site via message. And that's about it.

All right, let's get down to the good stuff. So we brought it up to start the show, but I have to mention it again because it's such a tremendous feat. And, again, I know it's Wednesday. I know this happened on Sunday. But Tom Brady winning his 200th game and tying Peyton Manning, it's pretty impressive. And he did it in two less seasons than Manning.

That is tremendous in itself. Congratulations to Tom Brady. He seems far from done. 250 may seem like a stretch, but you never know with this guy. If he really does play another five years in the league, which he says he plans on doing, and he wins an average of 10 games a year, that's not

even close to out of the realm possibility. The guy usually wins 12 to 14 games a year, so there's a chance for Brady to get all the way up to 250 before this is all said and done, so congratulations to him. And again, I know you guys have probably heard a lot of this stuff, but I want to give my opinion on what I saw. Martellus Bennett in his awesome post-game comments

stating the reason the Patriots expect to move the ball is because we work expletive hard every expletive day. We work at that you know what, pretty colorful words from an absolute character, but he couldn't be more right in his assessment. Everyone wants to blame the Patriots for cheating

and finding ways to win that are outside the box, but the truth is what they do it's not outside the box at all. They just don outwork everyone. Think of all the players that have come here via trade or free agency and all they say all the time, you hear it all the time, it's just

different. And what they're saying is it's harder. Reggie Wayne, he talked last week, he talked about the Patriots ripping Brady sane with the footballs and the flaky and all that crap, which I still think is a playback at the Colts fans because he wants to stay on the good side at the signing with the Patriots. Well, he did sign here, but he couldn't hack it, and he asked for his release.

Neither could Torrey Holt. Neither could Chad Johnson. But then there's guys like Randy Moss, Marcellus Bennett, Alan Branch, guys that have had more personality than what the Patriots are accustomed to, but they've flourished because they love the atmosphere, being strictly about playing winning football. So next time you hear some clown like Marshall Falk or Kurt Warner complain that the Patriots cheat, just remember that their cheating is actually outworking everybody in the NFL, and that's been going on for almost two decades now.

It's not a secret. It's just hard work. So, which Bennett said eloquently in the press conference on Sunday night, that was great. Please let them resign this kid because he is as funny to listen to and his team is way more entertaining with him on. And not to mention, he's tough. That ankle injury he's playing through is no joke. And, you know, we see Gronkowski getting knocked out of games on a regular basis,

but Bennett just keeps on ticking. Just another reason to keep that guy around. He's honest and he's good. The Patriots did have some big names missing from practice today. Julian Edelman, Tom Brady, Rob Gronkowski all were out, as was Safey Jordan-Richards. They were missing from this morning session down in the lower fields. So Brady's still dealing with his knee-slash-quad injury,

whichever you want to believe. If the team says knee, he says quad. And Kronkowski, he left Sunday's game, as we all know, we just discussed, with a back injury. Edelman has been limited all season because of his foot, and Richards actually hurt his foot during Sunday's game but he was able to come back into the game my guess is they're probably just managing this just to make sure that he's all set

Mattel has been at good practice but he was on a stationary bike for about 15 minutes or so Matthew Slater returned to practice which is good because they do need him back one of the things that we've talked about here is how good the special teams is, and that's one of the reasons why the points have been set down. So hopefully he can come back this week and help out those coverage teams. DJ Foster was released also yesterday, but he did clear through waivers,

and he was added back to the practice squad and Glenn Gronkowski was released again. So Glenn Gronkowski, you are now the new Ray Ventrone, so welcome to that world. He's probably got a room down at the hotel across from Foxborough, and I'm not even kidding when I say that. He probably has a hotel room where he just stays with his brother, and actually that's probably exactly what he does he just stays with his brother and he just comes and goes and Patriots just tell him hey we won't we like you we're going to keep you around you know these guys that go back and forth on the practice squad like this I bet you people like oh that's just not right well it's a job they get paid a lot of money to do it and if they get

into the rhythm practicing with a certain team and they see, oh, wait a minute, if I keep doing this, I might be able to actually get my spot onto the roster and earn some reps. Well, why would you want to go someplace else when the team's telling you, wait it out, as soon as somebody's hurt, we're going to make a move, we'll pull a guy up from the practice squad, we might even just sign you to the active roster because you know what you're doing. So what they're doing with Glenn Gronkowski, some teams may look at him,

again, the Raven Troll, and there's been other guys like that too. Teams may look at that and fans look at that and they think that that's a problem. But I'm telling you right now, these guys, if they had a problem with it, they wouldn't be doing it. And the reason they do it is because it gives them an opportunity to stay in the NFL and do one of the best jobs in the world, and that's make money to play football. So Glenn Gronkowski back on the way of a wire, chilling at his brother's house again, just waiting for the Patriots to give him a call back because I'm sure he'll be re-signed within the next two weeks.

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just not good they're ugly Dion branch did make a nice play on third down to give them a first down and I get a set of downs. But it was just the whole thing was just not, they were disjointed is the word that comes to mind. They took a stupid timeout early after they had just made a play and it allowed the Jets to challenge. And because of that, they won the challenge. Ryan Allen was forced to come out to punt and just to go over. So just not very good.

And then defense, you know, here we go again. You know, when I was watching the game, it frustrated me to see those two first downs right off the bat on the two passes and just seeing how porous they looked. It was very frustrating to see. And once again, same exact thing. And, you know, they drove right down the field. And, yeah, I understand that they did force them into a field goal,

and Nick Folk drilled it, actually, from 51 yards out, which, you know, Patriots fans, we're not really used to seeing what we used to be, but kickers here are not doing so well lately, which we'll get into later on. But the Jets did strike first, took a quick lead, and the Patriots defense just looked again like, and they do this a lot, and I think they might do it on purpose, and when you watch the film it kind of looks like it. It's almost like they sit back in the soft zone just to kind of see what the game plan is, and it's not like they allow the score.

They definitely don't say, oh, we'll just let them score. But I think what they do is they say, all we we got to get an idea what they're trying to do here so if we do give up a couple third down conversions on the first drive and we happen to give up a field goal so be it at least we'll have an idea what they're doing we can shut them down um that may sound crazy but it's really not because that's how most football teams do it they feel each other out. Again, you always want to get the stop, but you're seeing their game plan. You're seeing the things that they're doing against your weaknesses,

so there's going to be plays made. So once you can adjust to those weaknesses like the Patriots try to do, which they did in the second half, I'll admit to that. We'll get to that shortly once we get past the second quarter. That's what they do. Again, they gave up that quick field goal, and I hate seeing them have that soft zone, but it is what it is. Offense comes back out on the field, and it was just ugly.

Another quick three and out, quick series of the Patriots. Jets offense got right back out there again. Jets offense moving the ball again. McCourty comes up, made a great play, forced it to fourth and inches. And it gave the Patriots strong field position for the first time that day. So it's starting to look like, all right, here they go. They're going to start getting it going, see if the line can protect a little bit better, get the passing game going,

put together a drive. And then it was the ugliest series i've seen um that was just disgusting so you know kept going back and forth here was just the ugliness and it's it's not like it was bad everything you know there was some solid blocking at some point and then the receivers weren't open and then there'd be no blocking and brady would have no time to throw and it's just that type of stuff you see when teams are starting to struggle a little bit offensively and even defensively when you're not covering as well as you want to. But then they started to get it going again.

Julian Ullman picked up a first down. But then again, they stalled, forced a punt, gave the ball back to the Jets, and the Jets didn't do anything with it again. It was an ugly first quarter of ineptness pretty much, but I firmly believe that the Jets completely outplayed New England in the first quarter. But because of the discrepancy in talent, and there really is a big discrepancy in talent between the two teams,

the Patriots are able to keep it somewhat close. You know, 3-0, that's nothing. But these 40-odd catches and throws, throw and catch, it's just not good to allow teams to do whatever they want between the 30s. And I know everyone always keeps saying, well, the points, the points, the points, and I get it. I understand that. But I can't stand

to point out this person and to cite him, but I have to because what he said was 100% right. Eight of the 10, actually it's nine of the 11 Patriots games, eight of the 11, I'm sorry, eight of the 11 Patriots games, they faced offenses that are ranked 17 and under. That's Ron Borges from the Boston Herald, and I cannot stand having to reference him because anybody who knows and reads my material or hears me on the podcast knows that I'm not the biggest fan of Ron because he has his own agenda. And this leads right into his agenda, but that stat is 100% correct.

So the points per game thing is a little bit misleading. And the yardage is very average. They're very middle of the pack. And they really are not good on third down. It's a problem. And they give up big, big chunk plays. Even on when they forced a turnover, which we're going to get to shortly, I'm sure, as we go through here in my notes and taking a look.

Even on that play, that was still a completed catch on second down. It was a 20-yard play, and then the receiver left the ball out, and it was a nice play by Butler. But still, that's the type of stuff that we're seeing from this defense this season that worries me as far as any opportunity to win the Super Bowl. And then you have Bilal Powell at the end of the first quarter starts ripping through the Patriots' defense like he was Gale Sayers. And, you know, that's the other thing, too.

Every once in a while, this run defense looks awful at the same time. So it's very hard to tell what they are defensively. You know, and you watch the film, too, and it's like, you know, some players, it's like, all right, that's good, stout defense. They do a good job of getting to the spot. Lyman get off their blocks, get into their gaps, do what they have to do. And then next play, they look like they're high school players playing against college kids, and they get dominated.

So I just don't know really what to make of that. I think that might be a coaching thing. But at the same time, if they know what they're supposed to be doing, then that's more on the players than it's on the coaches. So the Jets are facing a huge second and goal from the Patriots too. New York had been dominating the game. Patriots didn't look ready to play. And then, lo and behold, Brandon Marshall comes up at the catch from two yards out,

and the Jets extend their lead out to 10-0 in a game that they probably should have been up 17-20-0 at this point, but they weren't. And I even noted here, too, when I was watching the game, if the Patriots don't wake up soon, this is going to be a long day. But they did, and that's what happened. Rob Gronkowski, this is when he got hurt during the game. Just watching the play over again a few times, and it's hard to tell what he did. But he's a big guy, so a lot

of moving parts, anything could have happened. But on the first play of that series after Gronkowski got hurt, Bennett made a 12-yard catch, so it's almost, I said it going into this season that I thought the most important part of getting Martellus Bennett wasn't about having the two tight ends set, it's about having one tight end on the field that can play at all times. And when you don't have Gronkowski, which happens all the time, it's nice to have a guy like Bennett that you can go to when you need him, and that's what they have to do a lot because Gronkowski's just not reliable.

So with Gronkowski out of the game, Patriots had to get other guys involved. So Malcolm Mitchell makes a huge catch, nice play on third down. Hooked the Patriots up with a first down. He's really starting to turn heads. He was excellent on Sunday and we'll get into that a little bit more. And another seven yard catch by Hogan. Then Blount takes another four yards. Nice run. Good blocking. Really good execution here. And then the double pass I thought was a good design. I like that. Every once in a while you've got to throw those plays out there to keep defenses on their heels,

and it resulted in a pass interference too. So the Patriots got all the way down, the Jets 8. And then they run the draw on second down. I was okay with the first down play call. That was fine. But the draw on second down I thought was a poorly designed call. And then the poorly designed play I thought was actually a third down, and then the Patriots just forced to settle for a field goal,

which they connected on, but still. Get down near the red zone. I think the play calling has been a little bit questionable down near the season, and I think we saw that again on this drive. So the next series, again, the defense, you know, we talked about this a few minutes ago. Malcolm Butler got burned, gave up a 20-yard catch, but the receiver was foolish and kept the ball out,

and Butler, being smart, knowing that he had just got burned and trying to make up for it, did a great job getting back into the play, forced a fumble, and also recovered the ball too. So the Patriots set up at the 50. Edelman comes out, good execution again. Good blocking across the board. 15 yards down to the 35. Bennett picked up a 5-yard catch. Again, these are nice plays.

And then the Patriots scored. It was a great play design. I talk about the jet sweep, and the Patriots love to use it a lot. As I've talked to you guys before, I'm a high school coach, so jet sweep is something that I use and have used against me on a regular basis. It's pretty tough to defend, and it's one of the reasons why it works so well. These NFL teams, seeing that the game has gone more to speed, it makes sense that they would do that.

The jet sweep is a great weapon in the NFL, and the Patriots used. And they found Malcolm Mitchell in the back of the end zone for the score. Gaskowski actually hit the extra point and tied it up. So after a rough start, the Patriots got right back into it. Once again defense gets out there giving up way too many long third and long conversions. I mean this is ridiculous. Eventually Eric Rowe made a play with about two minutes to go, 2.05 I think it was to go, and they were able to wrap up and get out of that and get the ball back.

But they've got to stop giving up those plays. So they drive down the field. It was a herky-jerky type, we don't know if this is going to be what we want to do type drive that the Patriots like to do now, instead of put the foot on the gas and go. I notice it happens against teams that are in the division, the teams that they struggle with, so that does make sense.

But they were able to get down, and again, Gaskowski missed the 39-yard field goal. So they do put together the drive that they need, and Gaskowski misses the field goal. So he's starting to become very average, and I wouldn't be surprised with his $4 million price tag if the Patriots are to revisit his situation in the offseason and say, you know, it might be time to go find some competition and A, maybe get a guy who's more consistent, and B, maybe shave about $360, $340, $350 right around there off of your cap,

actually $3.5 million off your cap, and get a cheap kicker instead of paying that $4 million to miss. So that's just something they might want to think about doing. So again, third quarter, Patriots defense, they allowed the Jets to drive a little bit, but they did the job, got the ball back to the offense. So Patriots put together a strong drive midway through the third quarter. But again, they were forced to settle for another 29-yard field goal. Gostkowski did drill that one with confidence, so that's good to see.

It's not like he goes and misses and then misses like five in a row. I mean, he did drill that other one with confidence. It's just the body language after the misses that worry me. Patriots jumped ahead 13-10, but they weren't getting into the end zone, and that's a problem. So Patriots defense comes out back and forth. It was kind of ugly football. It wasn't the greatest thing to watch live, and it was not the greatest thing to watch on film,

but that's part of the job. So the Patriots defense let them get down about 30 yards, and they tightened up, forced the Jets to punt, but the Jets ran some time off the clock, got it down to about three minutes. So the Patriots thought they were going to be able to put together a drive there at the end of the third quarter, but unfortunately it didn't happen because to open the fourth, Brady missed Hogan on the third and five. Now Brady, I named him, I'm just going to let the cat out of the bag right now, I named him as one of the studs of the

game, and I did it because he deserves it, because of the fact that what he dealt with with his knee injury or quad injury or whatever the heck it is, nobody's saying, Patriots say knee, he says quad, so I'm not really sure which one's which. But the fact that he was able to play through that was impressive. And we're going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute. But the Jets, to open up the fourth quarter, started to drive with ease. Going right down the field, they had no problems. But then, again, I think that this defense needs some time to figure out what they are.

I know there's only four games left, five games left, but still at the same time, when you make a big trade like they did and you've had injuries and had all these other things happen, sometimes it takes all the way until week 16 to gel, week 17, week 16, right around that time. And that's what it's starting to look like here, and they do have decent adjustments. But Jets did drive down and got the score on the butt touchdown there. I thought that his elbow was out, but, you know, I guess I just don't have the best eyes anymore.

So Jets took the lead 17-13, and it's starting to look pretty scary for Patriots fans. And this is when Brady awoke. Driving down the field, he threw what should have been a touchdown pass to Malcolm Mitchell, and he dropped it, but you know, rookies make mistakes at times, so he made other great plays, so I let him off the hook, even though at the moment I wasn't too happy with him. Stephen Gaskowski came in, drilled the 41-yard field goal, cut it to 17-16 again.

Watching that, he looked confident, no issues, good follow-through, everything looked good. So, again, that's the thing with Kaskowski. His misses are strange because most of the time he does fine. It's just he's got the yips. So on the next drive again, Patriots struggling to defend that pass. They're giving up the run too, but the pass defense is just so much worse. It's tough to watch.

The last three games have been awful in multiple phases. Just watching that right there, you've got to be a little bit worried. But then they turn around and they step up. Eventually they'll force a 3-0, which they did eventually at the end of this game. But the thing is, I can't go back on it. The Patriots are in trouble if they don't get it together when it comes to their defense. In the last three games, like I said, they faced two terrible teams and one very good one.

It's not surprising that they lost to Seattle. They have a good quarterback, and they put up points on them. But the San Francisco and New York games are more alarming because they just can't seem to stop and end up the passing game. And watching Fitzpatrick tear them apart on Sunday and just watching it live is one thing, but seeing it on film, it makes it worse because you realize it's as bad as it actually was.

If they have to face a Joe Flacco in the playoffs, I'm very concerned about that. Flacco, Roethlisberger, some of these really good quarterbacks in the AFC, if they get to deal with one of those guys, they could be in trouble. But it is what it is. So the Patriots went ahead, they got the ball back, made a nice drive, a nice running catch, catch and run by Edelman, gets down to the 40, then Brady improvised and hit Lewis.

That was a nice play, actually. The protection was pretty good. He just, you know, these pass rushes, he'd get upfield, so the offensive line were going to kind of ride him out a little bit, and Brady does a good job of moving up in the pocket, moved up, slipped to his left, and found Lewis. That was a nice play. And then fourth and four, they didn't go for the field goal.

That was telling, but they went for it, and they got it, and that was big. So Patriots get it down went for it, and they got it, and that was big. So Patriots get it down to the 8, and then next thing you know, Malcolm Mitchell gets it done. Nice catch, really nice catch, actually. Put the Patriots back up. Went for 2. Great play design, great jet sweep on that.

James White, you've got to score on that play. You've got to get the ball into the hand that's closer to the pylon. Not rocket science on that one. That's not rocket science. That's pretty basic right there. If, God forbid, the ball gets knocked out, who cares if the ball gets knocked out? You need to have the ball in your right hand if you're running to the left side and you're trying to hit the left pylon so you can have the ball over the goal line

and not hanging outside the goal line while your feet go through that's football 101 mr white you're gonna get that fixed so what would have been a huge eight point touchdown for the patriots was still a huge six point touchdown but the jets had the opportunity to get back into it assuming that they could drive on the patriots which they've shown that they can so patriots took a 23-17 lead. Actually, 22-17 lead. Give the ball back to the Jets. Kick it off to them.

And Chris Long steps up. Great play. That was a really good play. It's funny. I read John Tomasi. He writes for the Boston Herald. Patriots don't like him. That's the way it is with the whole Spygate thing.

And to be honest, I'm not a huge fan either. He's a little bit of a... He's got a little Michael Felger to him, but it is what it is. Those guys, that's how they are. That's what they are, the contrarians, and it's just what they do. Chris Long with a nice forced fumble. He got there quick, made a great play. Tomasi said that it was more of a bad play by the Jets than it was a good play by the Patriots.

I mean, come on. That seems ridiculous. I know I'm Taking some digs over here at the defense, but that was a nice play and that was a good job by Chris long He seems to step up when they need him You know they get the recovery game wasn't over yet Garrett Blount came in and put the nail in the coffin awesome awesome blocking by the guys up front That was really impressive and they picked up that game put quenching first down, you blocking by the guys up front. That was really impressive, and they picked up that game-quenching first down. The Jets weren't quitting. There was no quit on that final series. I was watching. I rewound it over and over just to see if

there were any guys in the Jets' defense that just didn't look like they could be playing on that final drive there in the final minute 50, but they absolutely were because they knew their offense could, if they had the ball back one more time, could probably drive down and score. So that was a huge play by Chris Long, huge job by the Patriots offensive line, and a great job by LeGarrette Blount to pick up that yardage they needed to put the game away. So we are going to quickly go through our studs and duds. I know that's not as much content with the Studs and Duds this week as usual, but again, we kind of tied everything into one show from the last two days

before we head into our review of the Los Angeles Rams. It feels weird to say that, but as a 40-year-old football fan, I look at the Rams as Los Angeles, so it's actually kind of normal to see them back there again. It just feels weird saying it again. So first out of the game, Malcolm Mitchell. Yeah, Mitchell dropped a short touchdown. And like I said, I got on him for it. I was freaking out and saying, you know, you've got to make that play.

But other than that drop, he was huge again. And what I saw in the preseason is really starting to come to fruition. He has five catches, 42 yards, two touchdowns on Sunday. With the possible back injury that Gronkowski's facing, it's good that Mitchell seems to have a knack for making plays in the red zone because they're going to need that. They're going to need his playmaking ability. He's really long.

He's got soft hands. Looks like the Patriots got themselves a steal. So Malcolm Mitchell, first set of the game. Second set of the game, Tom Brady. Brady didn't have any overwhelming numbers. He was 30 out of 50 for 286, two touchdowns and zero picks, but he did that on an extremely banged up leg, and that's not easy for a 39-year-old to deal with. Recovery time's longer, and even though Brady said it was a hit on his lower thigh, the team said it was a knee injury. So I don't really know what to make there. So he was the second

start of the game. Third start of the game goes to LeGarrette Blount. Blount had 11 carries for 67 yards, and he put the game away at the end. Blount should have got the ball more, and the reason why I named him as one of the studs is because nobody on the defense deserved to be up there, and he just played really good at the end when they needed him. The duds of the game, Rob Gronkowski. Yeah, I know, he got hurt, and people are going to think, oh, you're insensitive. Well, you know what? It is a dud when your best player, besides Tom Brady, hurts his back without having

a catch. I think he was targeted twice is, I think, the number, and he's removed from the game and doesn't come back in. So, Rob Gronkowski, first dud of the game. Malcolm Butler, the number two dud, gave up two touchdown passes, and then we had the forced fumble and the fumble recovery, which was a nice play,

but it was right after he gave up a 20-yard game, which was terrible coverage. So, yes, it was making up for something bad. It was a good play, but the other two touchdowns were bad, too. So, Malcolm Butler was the second dud of the game and the third dud. I'm sure nobody's surprised by this one. I'm sorry, but

until you hit all your kicks in a game, Steven Gaskowski was the third dud of the'm sure nobody's surprised by this one. I'm sorry, but until you hit all your kicks in a game, Steven Gaskowski was the third dud of the game. I could have put an offensive lineman into the stud category, but too many of them played well, so I didn't want to single anyone out. But again, I'm still going to because that's what I like to do. Marcus Cannon, a new five-year contract, so I'll bring him up. He was excellent, and I understand why they want to lock him up at a price that makes sense.

He had a really good game on Sunday, but overall the offensive line did pretty good too. So let's put those guys into the honorable mention category. Dishonorable mention, I don't even have any this week. It was just disappointing across the board on the defense. Some guys did play okay, but the Duds, Gronkowski, Butler, and Gostkowski, they definitely were true duds, and they had a tough game. So they got the win, but again, it wasn't pretty.

But division wins usually aren't. But let's hope that the issues on third down, the issues in the pass rush, and the issues with Rob Gronkowski's injuries and Steven Gaskowski's missed field goals can all be fixed before we reach the point where it's the playoffs. So I want to thank you all for joining us on this Wednesday afternoon edition of Locked On Patriots. Be sure to go to iTunes and subscribe to our show today,

as in right now, and make sure to tell your friends about us. We're part of the fastest growing podcast network in the world. And the reason is simple. We get you the news and analysis that you can't get anywhere else. We like to look at ourselves as kind of a nuts and bolts type meat and potatoes show. You know, they're not going to give you all the bells and whistles and play all types of weird music and do all that crazy stuff. What we do here is we give you our opinion on things. We give you all the bells and whistles and play all types of weird music and do all that crazy stuff. What we do here is we give you our opinion on things. We give you the news. And we also give you a breakdown of how the Patriots play. You know, how they block, what they're looking to do, what they're looking to do in situations.

And we do it with a scout's eye, something that you're not going to be able to get everywhere. So, again, thanks for listening to the show. Continue to listen half an hour or less every day. Tune in, check us out, and I guarantee you'll want to come back again. Again, I'm Chris Simino, your host of Locked On Patriots, wishing you a great day. Have a good one, 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, Thank you.