Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 12/8/16- Breaking Down the Patriots Defense vs. the Ravens Offense

Episode Date: December 8, 2016

Chris Simoneau of Scout.com discusses the Patriots injury situation and also breaks down the Patriots defense vs. the Ravens offense. #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 afternoon. I'm Chris Simino, Patriots Insider for Scout.com, and also your host of Locked On Patriots, your source for everything Patriots. Today is Thursday, December 8, 2016. We are officially moving on to the Baltimore Ravens, which is the Patriots' toughest opponent since the Seattle game about three weeks ago. This game is considerably more important than the Seattle game, though,

because it involves an AFC opponent. This game can go a long way towards deciding who's going to have home field. This game could go a big way towards deciding who wins the AFC North, too. That division's tight right now. So today we're going to start to break down the Ravens' offense versus the Patriots' defense. New England has always struggled with the Ravens, as Patriots fans will know, and Joe Flacco tends to be confident when he faces New England.

So this could be a very interesting game on Monday night. We'll also be going through Patriots news and notes. Mainly we're going to take a look at the injury front. This time of year every player is dealing with something, but it is part of the game. But it's something that we need to update you guys on because, of course, we want to make you guys in the know as to who's going to be out there on Monday night

and who possibly won't be out there on Monday night. But before we get to all that, 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. And if you have any questions for the show, be it about the Patriots, myself, Patriots Insider, or if you want to advertise

here on Locked On 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 already are a member of Patriots Insider on scout.com, you can contact me directly on the site via message, or you can also just reach out to those other things that I talked about before that. Okay, let's get to the good stuff here. Patriots news and notes

first and foremost because that's how we roll. So there's a lot of injuries right now at the Patriots. A lot of them are minor things though. But they are dealing with a lot of injuries right now so it is what it is. I figure this is where we should probably jump right into to start the show. Tight end Martellus Bennett, he was out of practice today, still dealing with that ankle injury that he sustained in week five. So it just goes to show these things don't go away right away. Sometimes they hang with you for the whole season.

As he's dealt with his injury, he has been given days off to continue his recovery. So this is probably one of those days. Tom Brady was a full participant for the first practice of the week. Just remember that the Patriots usually have their first practice on Wednesday. This week it was on Thursday because they don't play until Monday. So that's just how it works. But Brady was a full participant today. That is a good sign.

And word is that his quad slash knee injury is healed significantly, and he is healthy and good to go. It is good that he's healthy leading up to the Ravens week because they'll bring the heat, and he'll need his newfound mobility that I don't know where he got it from. He must be hanging out with Chuck Norris or something because that guy, he's moving better than he's ever moved in his career. But he's going to need that because the Ravens are going to try to get that interior pass rush going, but we're going to get into that in a minute, so don't let me go too far.

So also, absent from practice, wide receiver Danny Amendola. We knew that was going to happen. He's got the high ankle sprain. He's going to be out until the divisional round. Matthew Slater still dealing with his foot injury. Slater was pretty much a game-time decision last week, so I wouldn't be surprised if he actually played on Monday. And safety Jordan Richards, also dealing with his knee injury.

I don't know what his deal is. Amendola, as we said, he's out for the year. Slater might be there. Richards, we'll let you know. I really don't know. We'll keep you guys updated. Cornerback Eric Rowe, he injured his hamstring against the Rams, which is unfortunate because he was actually starting to get into a groove and he stayed in as much um he was a limited participant

and i'm talking really limited basically what he did he came out on the field he stretched and then he turned around and went back inside so that's as limited as it gets my guess is they probably just had him come out there you know stay in rhythm with the team as far as you're stretching and then back to get looked at and get your rehab going. There is no official injury report being released today. This is not what the Patriots have to do. They don't have to do it yet, so they're not going to. They pretty much stick to the letter of the law.

But I do expect to see that tomorrow, and when we do get that tomorrow, I am going to update you guys on every single player, injury, and what their status may be. Sometimes we get a status report on a player, and next thing you know, come Sunday, they're playing or not playing. So we'll give you guys the best information we possibly can. All right, let's take a minute to tell you about one of our sponsors, Patriots Insider on scout.com.

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People are starting to realize how good of a deal this is. Go check it out. Patriots inside of a scout.com. You get great content and you get great discounts. Again, nwe.scout.com sign up today okay so we got the patriots defense against the ravens offense so this isn't like last week and i'm not going to lie to you guys it was pretty tough to to drum up some excitement for the los angeles ramps they're Rams. That was terrible.

Their offense was putrid, like I expected it to be. And the Patriots did what they should have done against a terrible team. So this week against the Ravens, once again, if you just look at it on paper, it totally looks like it's advantage Patriots. But this isn't as black and white as it may appear to be. For whatever reason, the Ravens have always had success when they're playing the Patriots, especially when they travel to Foxborough. In fact, there's no team that plays the Patriots better at Gillette than Baltimore.

So for those that think this is going to be a cakewalk or maybe a crab cakewalk, yeah, sorry, that was a dumb joke, but whatever. I have some bad news for you guys. This game is probably going to be pretty close, probably going to come down to a field goal, and it's going to be one of those what I call a heart attack game. As we've discussed week after week, the Patriots, they don't give up a lot of points, but that average is skewed by a lack of quality offenses that they have faced.

Baltimore, if you just look at their numbers, they're not a very good offense. But when your quarterback is 100% confident that he can make big plays versus a specific opponent, it doesn't matter what he's done leading up to that game. This is just one game, a game that Joe Flacco and the Ravens offense will be very, very confident in. Patriots secondary is going to be tested. They've got to deal with a rejuvenated Mike Wallace,

and they still have to deal with the crazy but still effective Steve Smith. The guy's a lunatic, but I would love to have him on my team any day of the week. Steve Smith, any day of the week I would take on my football team, even if he may punch a teammate in the face once in a while. But that duo is good, and the Patriots secondary is going to be really tested this week. I expect to see the Patriots in man with Malcolm Butler lined up on Wallace with over the top help. I know the Patriots don't typically do that, matching a guy up just one-on-one. They did it a lot with Revis when he was here, but that's what Revis did

at the time, hence the word did. But with Butler emerging as one of the top corners in the league, it makes sense to use him on a player that could change his game on one play. Devin McCourty, he's going to help Butler out. He's going to get some of that over-the-top coverage to make sure that Wallace doesn't make any huge plays. And I think Logan Ryan will be matched up with Steve Smith. And that's a great matchup because they're both really physical.

Logan Ryan's a really good man-to-man. I know Smith has definitely lost a step or two from a quickness perspective, but he's wily. So Ryan, you know, he should be able to hold his own against the veteran, but he better get on that game film and be prepared because, you know, veteran wide receivers, especially very talented ones like Steve Smith, they always have a few tricks up their sleeve. And, you know, the last thing we want to do is see Ryan get burnt and cost the Patriots, you know, possibly the game because he didn't notice something on film. I get the feeling that Ryan is going to be fully prepared to cover the crazy one.

So I think the only area that really hurts the Ravens is they don't really have much of a running game. That allows New England to focus more on stopping the pass. So the Patriots can play straight up and stop the Ravens from running the ball. And they can also blitz Falco, Shane Falco, Joe Flacco more, so he can't just stand there and throw rockets all over the field, because he does. He'll chuck it. That's the one thing about Flacco.

Say what you want about him and say, you know, you hear the whole, oh, is he a lead? Is he not a lead? I don't know if he's a lead or not, but I know one thing. The guy can chuck the ball around the field, and he throws a great deep ball, and the last thing you want to do is let him stand back there on a spot and just chuck it. So they're going to have to get after him a little bit. You know, Baltimore's only averaging 21.3 points per game. Big reason for that is because they haven't been able to run.

The Patriots allow 94 yards rushing per game, and the Ravens are running for 89 per game. Big reason for that is because they haven't been able to run. The Patriots allow 94 yards rushing per game and the Ravens are running for 89 per game. So I don't expect to see Baltimore breaking the 100 yard mark on Monday night. I just don't think it's going to happen. I think the Patriots will shut down the run and go from there. I predict that the Ravens will have some success in the passing game, but they won't be able to find the balance they need to keep the Patriots' defense on their heels, and eventually the pass rush is going to get to them.

Flacco's going to get hit up eventually. Last week was the first time this season that the Patriots played up to their ability on defense, but that was against the Rams. If they can do that against a Baltimore team that they've always struggled against, well, that's going to give them a lot of confidence heading into this stretch run. Again, the Ravens are going to make some plays, but I don't see them scoring a ton of points. So, as we do every week, predicted points for the Baltimore Ravens, 19.

So, I'm not going to tell you guys the score yet. We know you guys know how I roll. We're going to go into that tomorrow. I want to thank you guys all for joining us for this Thursday edition of Locked On Patriots. Be sure to go to iTunes and subscribe to our show today, as in right now, and tell your friends about us too. Here at Locked On Patriots, we're going to get you all the info that you need

to be the most in-the-know Patriots fan, and we're going to it to you quick you know we're not here to take an hour out of your day you're going to be here for 15 to 30 minutes you're going to get the information you're going to hear our breakdown you're going to get a lot of good stuff and then next thing you know you're going to be done and then it's going to be you're going to be going to be Jones in the here the next show you'll be like I want to hear more. Well, guess what? You'll get more tomorrow when you tune back in again when we discuss the Patriots' offense versus the Ravens' defense. A matchup that's going to be really fun to watch

because that Ravens' defense is starting to look pretty good. So, again, I'm Chris Simino. I'm your host of Locked On Patriots. Thank you guys all for joining me today, and have a great night. Catch you all tomorrow.