Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 1/3/17- Studs and Duds From Sunday's Patriots/Dolphins Showdown

Episode Date: January 3, 2017

Chris Simoneau, Patriots Insider for Scout.com, gives you his "Studs and Duds" from Sunday's Patriots/Dolphins game in South Florida. #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 Cimino, Patriots Insider for Scout.com, and also your host of Locked On Patriots, your source for everything Patriots. Today is Tuesday, January 3rd, 2017. The Patriots dismantled the playoff-bound Dolphins on Sunday in Miami, Today is Tuesday, January 3rd, 2017. The Patriots dismantled the playoff-bound Dolphins on Sunday in Miami, 35-14. A rare excellent performance in South Florida. As we do after every game, we're going to give you our studs and duds for Sunday.

But 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 if you're looking to advertise here on Locked On Patriots, you can email me directly

at simono.christopher5 at gmail.com that's S-I-M-O-N-E-A-U dot C-H-R-I-S-T-O-P-H-E-R. TheNumber5 at gmail.com. If you're a member of Patriots Insider on Scout.com, you can contact me directly on the site via message. Okay, let's get down to the good stuff here. Enough of that type of stuff with the advertisements.

Let's talk about the studs from yesterday's game sorry sunday's game holidays kind of mess us up here a little bit so the studs the the most obvious one is the man who holds the ball in every play number 12 tom brady brady's statistics are what they always are 25 out of 33, 276 yards, three touchdowns, no picks, great stats. But if you want to know the true greatness of Tom Brady, the key to this day, to his day in my opinion, was the six yard run and slide for a first down in the opening series of the game. Brady, to be blunt, has sucked in Miami and he needed to get off to a good start in order to have a good game and he did just that. And the run settled him in and it discouraged the Dolphins' defense early. Brady's just been awesome all year, and it was fitting to see him cap off the regular

season with a dominating performance in his personal house of horrors. What an answer by Brady after serving that sham of a suspension. It would be so great to watch Goodell hand him the Super Bowl trophy, but we don't want to get ahead of ourselves here at Locked on Patriots, so we're going to go week to week. But again, that's got to be something that he wants more than anything in the world, and I'm sure Patriots fans want that more than anything in the world, and so do we here at Locked on Patriots, because that would just be a beautiful sight to see.

So first stud of the day goes to Tom Brady, deservedly so. Second stud of the day, and I'm pretty sure you Patriots fans are going to have no problems with this one, Michael Floyd. Floyd was a controversial pickup, don't get me wrong, but yesterday showed the reason that the Patriots scooped him up. And if he continues to pick up the offense like he has the first three weeks he's been here, he adds an element to their offense that simply wasn't here before he arrived. He's much stronger than Malcolm Mitchell, and he's also here, he adds an element to their offense that simply wasn't here before he arrived. He's much stronger than Malcolm Mitchell, and he's also more experienced too, and with

the devastating block he made yesterday to clear the way for Edelman's 77-yard touchdown, it's clear he's not afraid to sacrifice his body in order to help a teammate make a play or to help the team. Floyd finished the day with a modest three catches for 36 yards, but one of those catches was a hard-fought 14-yard touchdown. It was a play where he broke through three tacklers, and he really had no business scoring on it. It was just an impressive effort by a big, strong receiver

who's looking to prove himself, and I really think he's found a home here. I do think the Patriots will give him a contract that's, is, um, is just laden with incentives because he's talented. He made a huge mistake. He might have a drinking problem. I can't sit here and say the guy has a drinking problem. That's too, I'm not going to assume that. And any other media person who does, I think should probably get themselves checked because if you're going to assume that somebody has an issue and you don't know what they're about then that's just wrong and it's wrong to assume make an ass out of you and me you know how that goes well same goes for this michael floyd situation and i've heard a lot of media members question if he's an alcoholic because he's been caught multiple times well

let's just put it out there everyone has probably known someone in their life who's had a dui or had more than one sometimes Sometimes those things happen and people make mistakes. Sometimes people make multiple mistakes with the same situation. Let Michael Floyd work this out. Let him work it out for himself. It's nobody's business. I understand that he could have put people in danger and he did put people in danger, but you know what? It's over and done with he's going to pay the price of society he paid the price his professional career and now he's doing what he has to do to rehab himself personally and professionally and i think that people should

really think about you know maybe taking a look in the mirror when they sit there and judge a guy because he may have a bit of a drinking issue you know and i again i hence hence the word may because it's not a guarantee. So those of you that are sitting here slinging crap at Michael Floyd and saying the Patriots are wrong and this and that for picking him up and that's not the Patriots way, well, I got news for you. You're wrong. You're clueless because you don't understand what the Patriots way is. And I'm happy for Michael Floyd. The Patriots have picked up a player that's out to prove something, and I honestly do believe that they're going to be able to get him to come back

for a good contract that will allow him to make money if he earns and produces the way that they think he can. So again, awesome job by Michael Floyd yesterday, sacrificing himself for Edelman's touchdown, sacrificing himself to get into the end zone for the Patriots to go up 14-0 in Miami, which is huge to get a big lead like that. Michael Floyd, congratulations. You are the number two stud of the day, and you 100% earned it. Don't listen to what a lot of these fools around here have to say, because the bottom

line is, you do you, and I'm sure that he's going to take care of himself. Third stud of the day, Julian Edelman. Edelman dropped a pass he did he dropped one and i know there's one thing that i'm seeing and i don't want to get negative when we're talking about the studs but i talked about earlier in the year how i thought edelman was kind of going down the welker path well i got some bad news for you all edelman is leading the lead in drops this year he's on the same path i I think the Patriots' slot-wide receivers over time start to get a little bit punch-drunk because they do get hammered.

Edelman I don't think is even close to done yet, but that's just something to keep in mind is that his drops are definitely progressing the same exact way that Welkers did as he progressively got older and started to take more hits. So I love Edelman. I love his game. I love him as a player. Seems like a funny kid, but this is definitely something to keep an eye on as far as the drops.

He did finish the game with eight catches, and he was against five different defenders in coverage too, which is impressive. That's according to Pro Football Focus. He had 151 yards and a touchdown too. And the 77-yard touchdown that I spoke of, that was aided by Michael Floyd's devastating block. Now, Edelman once again showed how important he is to the offense with 13 targets, and he also stepped up on special teams and went back and caught a

punt. He only had to catch one punt because it's just one of those situations where there just wasn't a lot of punting going on with Miami, but he did go back there, and he did what he had to do. As much as it pains me to see him back there, I've made you guys quite aware that I'm not a lot of punting going on with Miami, but he did go back there, and he did what he had to do. As much as it pains me to see him back there, I've made you guys quite aware that I'm not a fan of Edelman back returning punts, but they have to do what they have to do until they have health. Specifically, Danny Amendola, who was seen walking around the locker room without a boot today, which is great, but Edelman did have a good day on Sunday, and again, his drops are something to keep an eye on, and I'm very worried about that as far as his future. But as far as this season's concerned, the kid's still a great player,

and he's going to be a big reason why I think the Patriots will end up in the Super Bowl. Okay, so for our next stud of the game, I'm going off the rails a little bit. I'm mixing it up, okay? This is a tri-stud, trio. Marcus Cannon, Nate Solder, and David Andrews. So, according to Pro Football Focus, and this is pretty impressive, Solder, Cannon, and Andrews were each perfect

in pass protection on Sunday. Solder and Cannon also led the team with run-blocking grades of 84.5 and 86.7, respectively. Again, that's according to Pro Football Focus. New England ran the ball 29 times and threw 34 times. So that balance gives the offensive line an advantage because they can get out and be aggressive, which they did early, put their defenders on their heels, and then when they're in pass protection, they can remain aggressive,

but they're also strong in technique, and it throws the D lineman off a little bit too. It's a big part of the reason New England has only thrown two interceptions this year. The pocket is clean these days, mostly. I'd love to put the whole offensive line here, but Shaq Mason honestly was just average on Sunday, and we'll talk about the other guy later. I'm sure you guys can figure out what that means. That's usually not a good sign when we're going to talk about a guy later

in the studs and duds segment. So we did have one honorable mention for this week. We could have had more, but we're just going to stick to one because of how excellent he's been this year. Honorable mention goes to Trey Flowers. Flowers recorded four stops on just 11 snaps against the run and also added a pair of quarterback hits. Flowers earned above average grades for both his pass rushing

and run defense this season, but still Jabal Sheard leads all Patriots defensive linemen in overall pass rushing and grades. Again, that's all according to pro football focus. So great stuff once again from those guys, and they always keep us in the know as far as some of the obscure stats that sometimes people wouldn't really pay attention to, but when you

look at, you know, when you're only on the field for 11 snaps against the run, and you make four stops, well, maybe that means he should be on the field a little bit more against the run. Those are the things that football outsiders helps the common fan and people see, so it was good to read some of the statistics they put out this week,

and it was good to see the Flowers is really starting to get strong against the run. 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, incredible fantasy football information, updates to maybe teams you should, guys you should pick for your team. And they also have a site where you can actually put your own team together and play. And you can also get money back

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Our number one dud of the day goes to Joe Tooney. Tooney's struggling, plain and simple. And according to Pro Football Focus, he's earned below average overall grades in five of his past six games. Heading into the playoffs, Tooney needs to clean up his act and he needs to try to fix whatever technique problems he's struggling with because he was excellent for 10 games so you know it's there

the ability is there it's just a matter of getting himself fixed up you guys knew there had to be a reason I had three offensive linemen as studs so obviously I was singling someone out and I kind of made that clear at the very end well, here he is, Joe Tooney dud for yesterday and pretty much for the last six weeks.

So again, like I said, he's got two weeks to get with Dante Skarnackia, get into a film room, figure out what's going on with his technique, figure out what the problem is, and fix it. Because if a guy is playing great for ten weeks and then he struggles for six as a rookie, it means he either A a hit the rookie wall or b something's been noticed on tape that his opponents are taking advantage of he needs to figure out what he's doing wrong or the Patriots need to figure out how to get him past this rookie wall

that is a real thing for a lot of players especially a lineman that's used to used to playing at most 13 games in a college season. Well, we're already on to week 16 for the Patriots, 16 games, and they're about to play the 17th in two weeks. So he's already past the point he's ever played, the most games he's ever played in his life, so that might be part of his problem too. Either way, he's got a great coach and a great coaching staff

and a great group of veterans around him. You've got two weeks, Tony. Get it fixed. Our second dud of the day goes to Kyle Van Noy. Van Noy played only 19 snaps on Sunday, and when he was in there, he struggled. He overran his coverage on a simple man-to-man pickup, which resulted in a 16-yard gain the first down, but he did have two solo tackles in his 19th play, so it wasn't all bad. Van Nooy is what he is, but on a day when pretty much everyone plays well, Van Nooy was one of the few that struggled, and it was obvious, so he gets to end his season, regular season, on the dub list. Sorry, Kyle.

Don't overrun your coverages, and make sure that you're not getting burnt by guys over the middle going to the end zone for a basically buck naked touchdown. That guy was uncovered, and that was Van Noy's responsibility on that one too. So he just had a really tough day. I do think that he can clean that stuff up. Those are things where it could have been communication. Maybe he wasn't given a heads up by the safety as to who he was supposed to pick up. Those are the little things that we don't find out

until we actually sit down and talk to the player, something we'll be doing a lot during the offseason. So we'll eventually talk to Kyle about that play here on Locked On Patriots. But for now, it looks like a mistake on his part. And as a coach and looking at the coverage, I'm pretty sure that that was his guy to pick up because they were in man. So Van Noy, tough day, two blown coverages, one resulted in a touchdown, the other resulted in a big first down,

and he wasn't really too active in the run game too. So Kyle Van Noy, get it together for the playoffs, buddy, because this isn't Detroit. Our third dud, and people are not going to like this one. I know they're not going to, but I don't care. Josh McDaniels. I know, I know, it was a dominating performance, and it looked like there was a lot of balance. I get it, yada, yada, yada.

And I may be nitpicking, but I just don't like them getting away from the run in the third quarter. They got pass happy, and that was part of the reason the game got a little bit close for a short amount of time. The Patriots are completely dominating this game with the run. Miami could not stop them. But McDaniels, he has this tendency to stop running the ball, and at times he has to be reined in.

I wish it happened on Sunday because New England could have run even more than the 29 times that they did. There is no shame in running the ball more times than you pass it, especially when the defense can't stop you, which was the case on Sunday. So, you know, McDaniels, yeah, he called a good game to a degree. He called a good game. But think of the offense that he's working with these guys are loaded they're loaded they're facing a team that gives up 140 yards rushing a game and the Patriots look like they were on their way to a 200 yard rushing day granted they ran for 129 yards not bad you

know the average four yards carried they ran it 29 times for 129 yards, but at the same time, I would rather see it run it 40 times for 165 yards and then maybe take some of the even more pressure off of Tom Brady and wear down these Dolphins a little bit more and not even let them get any points at all. That's just the way I look at things. I think this Patriots team is dominant, and I still think there's more room for improvement, which is crazy to think how good they've been, but there's still room for improvement, which is crazy to think how good they've been, but there's still room for improvement. And I think Josh McDaniels' consistency in calling runs is a big part of it.

So McDaniels gets the third dud of the day yesterday. I know a lot of you guys aren't going to like it. You're not going to agree with me, and that's okay. You're not going to agree with everything I have to say, but hopefully you'll listen to it. So that's all we've got to say about that. Josh McDaniels, third dud of the day. So that's all we got to say about that. Josh McDaniel's third dud of the day. So it's time for the NFL playoffs.

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It's a great site. So I want to thank you all for joining us on this Tuesday edition of Locked On Patriots. This is the Tuesday. It's basically Tuesday re-entry day. Everyone's back to work. The schools are back. The buses are back. It's chaos outside.

But that's how we like it here on Locked on Patriots. So what we want you to do is go to iTunes, subscribe to our show today, as in right now, this second. Don't wait. And tell your friends about us too because we're not going anywhere. Here at Locked on Patriots, we are all about getting Patriots fans the most info you need to be the most in-the-know Patriots fan. And that's what we're going to do. So again, I'm your host, Chris Simino.

Thanks again for joining us, Patriots fans. We appreciate it. And we will see you guys tomorrow. What you doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff. Bye, singing dog. Bye, goal. Bye, wedding ceremony.

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