Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - LOCKED ON PATRIOTS- 2/5/17- Patriots/Falcons Injury Updates, Projected Inactives, Prediction

Episode Date: February 5, 2017

Chris Simoneau of Patriots Insider for Scout.com unleashed nine minutes of fury, going through injuries, possible inactives, and provides his prediction for those who missed it. #patriots Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Minimum purchase required, U.S. only. Good afternoon, I'm Chris Simino, PatriotsInsideOfAScout.com, and also your host of Locked On Patriots, your source for everything Patriots. Today is Sunday, February 5th, 2017. Why does that date sound so familiar? Because it's Super Bowl Sunday. That's why. And we're less than three hours away from kickoff, and this should be one heck of a game. We're going to update you guys on the injuries, take a stab at who the inactives might be, and then we're going to remind

you of our predictions for who will bring home the Lombardi trophy to finish off the 2016 season. Before we get started, just want my listeners to know that I can be found on Twitter under the handle Chris underscore Seminole. If you have any questions for the show, be it about the Patriots, myself, Patriots Insider, or advertising here on Lockdown Patriots, you can email me directly at simoneau.christopher5 at gmail.com. Again, that's simoneau.christopher5 at gmail.com.

If you're a member of Patriots Insider, you can contact me directly on the site via message. All right, enough of that stuff. Let's get down to business here because we've got a game to get ready for. So the last Patriots injury report they released, nobody was listed out as far as practice. Nobody was doubtful. Questionable. Tight end Martellus Bennett continuing to battle that knee.

He's had two weeks to go. He's ready to go. He'll be good. He'll be out there. Defensive tackle Alan Branch has been dealing with a toe. He was limited to participation in the last practice. Branch is also so crucial to this game that it would take a lot more. He would have to have no toe at all to not play this game,

so I fully expect to see Branch out there. Hopefully it doesn't affect his effectiveness, basically. Defensive back Nate Ebner has been dealing with a concussion. Again, having the two weeks is huge for him. He's one of their best coverage guys, and they need him against Eric Williams and the Falcons return team. So Ebner should be good to go, but that's something to keep an eye on. Dante Hightower is also listed with a shoulder injury,

something he's been dealing with all season. Not going to matter. Hightower, if he didn't get the thing shot up in the first half, he'll get it shot up in the second half. So if he plays, happens to be down from him and he's not quite with it, that could be the reason why, but he'll play. Chris Hogan has a thigh issue. Also is a limited participant in practice, but he'll be good to go.

Malcolm Mitchell also dealing with that knee. That one bears watching because of the fact that they have Michael Floyd too. They might go with Floyd if he's looked better and he's healthy, and Mitchell could be that banged up. So that's one to keep an eye on. And defensive tackle Vincent Valentine is dealing with his back issues still. That's one to keep an eye on too, and the Patriots really could need him. So Valentine and Mitchell, I think of the two,

that there's a possibility that we don't see them play, especially Mitchell. I think Mitchell's the one that has the most opportunity to actually end up on the inactive report, but we'll get to that in a minute. For the Falcons, they had limited participants with defensive end Dwayne Freeney with a calf. I think that's more of a management thing. He'll be good to go. Wide receiver Julio Jones, he had a toe, but he was listed as 100% today.

He's listed. He's ready to go. And center Alex Mack has a broken, actually has a, not broken, but fractured. So it is broken technically. Fibula, he's going to play. He's six to eight weeks typically and anybody else would be out, but apparently this guy's going to play with a broken fibula because he's a maniac. So Alex Mack, good center, good player. I don't know if his effectiveness

is going to be what it should be considering that he's going to be playing with a broken fibula, but expect to see the Patriots go after that and see if there's a possible way to take advantage of it. It's the Super Bowl. I don't mean to be a savage. It just is what it is. As far as full participation, they didn't have anybody listed there, so they really only had three guys to look at, and two of them are huge, important players,

and Freeney's pretty good too, but again, Freeney's more of a wrestling, so he should be good to go. So both teams relatively healthy. Patriots have a few more guys that they've got to keep an eye on, but going into this, these teams are what they are. Nothing really happened in the NFC or the AFC championship that would change what this matchup could be as far as injury is concerned, so it should be a good one. So let's take a minute to tell you about one of our sponsors.

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We like to project and see if we're on the money, and typically we're pretty close. We like our percentages over here at Lockdown Patriots. For the Patriots inactives, I have projected tackle Adrian Waddell will continue to stay on that list, quarterback Jacoby Brissett, running back D.J. Foster, cornerback Justin Coleman, safety Darrell Richards, wide receiver Michael Floyd, and again,

that could change based on the health of other players, namely Malcolm Mitchell. And lastly, I had a little bit of a surprise. Some people I think would have projected Cyrus Jones to be there, but I'm going to say linebacker Barkevious Mingo will actually be inactive this week in order for the Patriots to add Jones and have that extra defensive back. I think he's going to beat out Coleman for that other spot for today's game. I just think they're going to need another corner out there with speed to deal with this Falcons offense.

I know Mingo has speed, but he can't cover like Jones can. I know Jones has struggled this year, but he's a thousand times better in coverage than Barquevious Mingo. So that's what I'm projecting is Mingo is inactive and Cyrus Jones is actually active for the Super Bowl. For the Falcons, I'm just going to go base off of last week because I'm not a Falcons. I watch them and I've studied them, but, you know,

it's not the easiest thing to project the bottom of their depth chart since I don't actually cover their team. We'll see wide receiver Nick Williams, running back Teron Hurd, cornerback Bleedy Ray Wilson, free safety Deshaun Goldson, who has been kind of a disappointment since he left San Francisco, linebacker Josh Keyes, guard Wes Scheitzer, and defensive end D.J. Tiavia. Now, some of those guys might have had injuries, but I do know that Goldson has been just not what they expected,

and a few of these other guys have been on here all year. So those are the guys that I would expect to not see on the field for Sunday night's showdown. So, again, I also wanted to reiterate what we predicted. Like we said yesterday, I think the Patriots are the better overall team, and although they will give up more points than they're accustomed to allowing, the Falcons are not going to score as many points as they're accustomed to scoring. And I think the Patriots are going to find a way to win this game by about two scores, maybe 10 to 14 points, but I'm going to say 10.

My final score for tonight's game predicted is the Patriots 34, the Falcons 24, and the Patriots capturing their fifth Super Bowl title. So, like I said, we're going to keep this short and sweet today. We just wanted to give you guys some updates on the injuries, give you guys our possible projections on who's going to be inactive, and a reminder of who we think is going to win the game and why. I want to thank you all for joining us for the Super Bowl Sunday 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 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 fans. Be sure to join us tomorrow. We're going to recap the Super Bowl, provides our last studs and duds for this segment for the season, and hopefully get to bask in the glory of a fifth Super Bowl title for the Patriots. Patriots fans, hopefully you get to bask in the glory of a fifth Super Bowl title for the Patriots. Patriots fans, hopefully you get to witness history today. Enjoy the game. We're rooting for you. Whatcha doing? Ran out of space on my phone, so I'm deleting some stuff.

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