Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots August 17, 2018 - Semi-Glorious Victory Edition

Episode Date: August 17, 2018

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Hello everybody, welcome on into a semi-glorious victory edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back in the big chair on this Friday, August 17th. Patriots with their second win of the preseason, 2-for-2 so far, with a 37-20 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles in a rematch of Super Bowl LII. Reminder to follow me, Mark Schofield, on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work over at places like InsideThePylon.com, where I'm one of the head writers. You can follow me also, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, mattwaldmanrsp.com. The Score, where I've been doing some features work over there, Pro Football Weekly, a host

of places. As I've said before, if they're writing about it, chances are I'm writing about Football Forum. Locked and loaded show for you today. We're going to talk the good, the bad, and the questions in the wake of New England's 37-20 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles. But before we do, a couple of things off the top. First, massive shout out to the listeners.

You guys have been crushing it over the past couple of weeks. Numbers are just skyrocketing, which I'm tremendously happy to see the growth. But what that means is we've probably got some new listeners in the mix. Some listeners that have been joining along for the ride here as we get into the 2018 season. I want to thank the new listeners as well. As always, you can feel free to hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield. If there's anything you want to see talked about, anything you want to hear, any guests you'd like to see come on the show, let me know. But thank you to listeners, new and old. It's truly an honor to be here each and every day, you know, hosting your favorite Daily

Patriots podcast. Another reminder, the Locked On Patriots phone hotline is up and running. That number, again, for you, it is 240-670-6016. Again, 240-670-6016. Send in your texts, your voicemails, whatever it is you want to talk about, whatever you want to discuss, whether it's this game, the upcoming season, anything, positional battles, let me know. I'd love to hear from you guys that have to have some of that stuff for Monday's show.

Well, let's dive into the good stuff that we saw, and there was a lot of good stuff coming out of this game. Very impressive performance from the Patriots on both sides of the ball we're gonna start though with TB12 Tom Brady and we're gonna start with helmet watch he wore the new helmet I'm irrationally excited about this he wore the new helmet Scott Zolik was talking about it on the broadcast how he's wearing the new helmet looks good in the new helmet too gotta say've got to say, I always thought, dare I say, that Tom Brady looked younger in the new helmet. But whatever the reason, Brady looked good on the field. Brady, a very, very workmanlike 19 of 26, 73% completion rate for 172 yards,

two touchdowns, no interceptions, played virtually the entire first half, and they got off to a tremendous start. They're open and driving the game. Seven plays right down the field. Touchdown, we saw some nice running, some receiving from James White. Good to see him back in the mix. They capped it off with a four-yard touchdown pass from Brady to Chris Hogan. And stop me if you've heard this before. Brady's movement in the pocket, just so crisp on that play and others, but it was fantastic on this play. He had a play later in the game where just so crisp on that play and others, but it was fantastic on this play. He had a play later in the game where he found Will Tye along the right sideline

where he was flushed, he was pressured, started running towards the line of scrimmage, and then at the last minute spotted Tye with a touch pass over a defender's head. Brady's pocket movement was great. His timing was great. If you listened to the show yesterday, you knew that was something I was going to be watching for. His timing with his receivers seemed to be on point. So good to see that from Tom Brady. So that was one of the good things.

Open and drive from the defense I thought was fantastic as well. And we're going to talk a lot about the defense tonight because I feel like if there was one major takeaway, it was the defense looked really, really good at times. There were some mistakes, particularly when we got into the twos and the threes, but I thought the defense played fairly well. That open and drive. Did you notice who was starting the linebacker?

Juwan Bentley. That guy has made this team. We'll talk more about him in a bit, but first and ten play, Philadelphia motions the running back. They go empty. They get Bentley in a one-on-one situation where he has to cover a vertical route downfield, and he basically stays step-for-step with the receiver on that play. Foles' throw was a little bit off target. Second down is a toss play

to the right. Second defensive play of the game. Running back fumbles it a bit, but it's a great play by Keon Crossan, who had an up-and-down night. We'll talk about him some more, and Kyle Van Nooye to stop that for a six-yard loss. Then it's a third and long play. They get off the field on this down. And what was interesting about that third and long play, we've talked a lot in this show about how teams have their pass rush packages for third and long.

What I love to see there, they went with a nice 3-2-6 look, three down linemen, two linebackers, six defensive backs. But what they do, they had Dietrich Wise, Butler, and then Dante Hightower on the edge in that three-man front. And then they go with a pass rushing package where they've got Kyle Van Nooy as one of the quote-unquote linebackers in that 3-2-6 kind of look. And then the other quote-unquote linebacker,

they really just have him rushing inside sort of like he's coming up the A-gap, is Derek Rivers. So it's basically a pass rushing type package where you've got three dedicated pass rushers, and Wise, Rivers, and Dante Hightower, and then Van Nooy with some athleticism while on the second level. I'd love to see in that sort of three two six pass rushing package and third and long would love to see them use a lot more of that the pass rush do we have a pass rush finally eight sacks on the night some tremendous tremendous tremendous work from the guys up front you know derrick rivers you know he had a sack. Adrian Claiborne had some incredible, incredible pressure plays throughout this night. There is on Philadelphia's third drive of the game.

It's a first and 10. He gets immediate pressure on an inside move. Pressure's Nick Foles to throw on a crossing route is high. On the third down, a third and 10 that ended Philadelphia's drive, he gets initial pressure. Butler then cleans it up. Great pass rush, great rush lane integrity on that play, and discipline from Keontae Davis as well,

sort of containing their rush lanes, containing Foles in the pocket, getting pressure on the quarterback. Later in this game, we get a strip slack from Adrian Claiborne. On a second and eight play, we get a scoop and score from Juwan Bentley. And on that play, we hope he's okay. Nick Foles was taken to the injury tent.

Early indication that it's a shoulder injury, so we hope Nick Foles is okay. But again, this pass rush really looked good tonight. Not just with, you know, the later guys. You know, Keontae Davis had a number of sacks, included one to sort of close out the game against the guys late. But guys like Vince Valentine, Genio Grissom, Claiborne, Derek Rivers, these guys were getting after it. And what was even better, although they did give up a touchdown

on a blitz-type play, which we'll talk about, I really like what we're seeing from Brian Flores so far as a defensive play caller. It seems like he's not afraid to use pressure. He's not afraid to sort of attack the opposite quarterback, the opposing quarterback. Not afraid to attack the pocket. So I really think

we might have a pass rush. As they were talking on the broadcast at the end of this game, Rob Nekovic, Scott Sollight, they were saying, look, we'll get a much better barometer of this pass rush next week going up against a guy like Cam Newton. You're going to see the starters and the ones probably into the third quarter.

You're not going to get a lot of late-game-type sacks against the threes and the fours, guys that might be selling insurance next week in two weeks. But this pass rush so far does seem to be very very very solid other highlights from this Hollister on that little Haas seam route in in the second quarter takes a shot on that play he looks like he might be tight end too I think we could probably go down that road uh the drive before half the before halftime, touchdown drive there was absolutely surgical. They go with a run.

Then that Hoss route to Hollister we just talked about. A quick out route with a face mask call on a face mask against Chris Hogan. So we get an extra 15 yards on that. And then the quick screen play to James White for a touchdown, just right down the field. Very impressive drive there at the end of the half. Christian Sam, he gets on the board with interception. And what was interesting about this play was, you know, this is in the second half. It's one of those rub route type concepts.

The outside receiver runs a slant, creates some traffic for the running back on a wheel route out of the backfield. Sam's going to cover that running back on the wheel. He gets some traffic in his way on that slant route, but he doesn't give up on the play. Tries to chase it down. Running back bobbles the ball a bit on the pass. It's thrown to him. Sam is able to recover, make the interception. I like to see in that.

Some other good stuff. Cordell Patterson. He can move. He can move. He had two impressive plays, both coming on little short screens. One a little tunnel-type screen where it looked like he busted off a big one, but he stepped out of bounds. He can move. He had two impressive plays, both coming on little short screens, one a little tunnel-type screen where it looked like he busted off a big one, but he stepped out of bounds.

And then he did have a touchdown, which was a play that's his game, right? Quick smoke screen, put a move on a defender, then get yourself moving upfield vertically. Quick touchdown. Zolak was asked about this from somebody who was watching the game on Twitter if he could develop into the third wide receiver for this team that might be a tough ask but maybe

if not he might be wide receiver 4 and again remember back to say May and June and we're wondering oh he's probably a gadget player more for special teams and things like that

he might be the answer wide receiver after the guys like Edelman and Hogan, and that's really impressive to see. So definitely keep an eye on him. Some other good stuff. Jordan Richard, he ended up in down night, but he did a very, very nice pass breakup at Dallas Goddard in the end zone on the second and ten of the third quarter. Textbook technique, raking the arm at the catch point,

raking the ball away from the talented tight end the talented rookie tight end very good play there punt coverage in the third quarter Christian Sam AJ Moore they pin Philadelphia deep at the at their own one yard line the returner there didn't quite help himself trying to reverse field a couple of times Sam missed him initially but then Moore and then Sam came in in the end to sort of finish him off. Very good coverage. Again, lane integrity, rush lane discipline, coverage lane discipline. Very good job there from the punt coverage team on that play.

Back to Keontae Davis. More pressure throughout the third quarter. He had a near strip sack at one point of Sudfeld. Nate Sudfeld had a very good game, by the way. Impressed by him. I've got to give a shout-out to the host of Locked on Browns, Jeff Lloyd, who really liked Sudfeld coming out of Indiana. But back to Keonta Davis with a near strip sack in the third quarter.

He had two sacks in the fourth quarter, one in the final play of the game. Sort of closed that one out. Fourth and five for Philadelphia. Patriots get pressure with four. And when we talk about the ability to get a pass rush, one of the things that it's great to see is when you can get pressure with three or four, and when you can drop eight, when you can drop seven, but still get pressure on the quarterback. That really plays to your hand as a defense and while it's great to see what Flores is doing from a pressure perspective it's nice when you get pressure with three or four they did that on a fourth and five in the fourth late third quarter

Grissom getting pressure they're forcing a poor throw Brandon Bolden got to give him a shout out had some nice runs in the fourth quarter Zolak was making the case for him guys that's been on the team for about seven years he had a couple of runs in that fourth quarter. Zolak was making the case for him. Guys that's been on the team for about seven years. He had a couple of runs in that fourth quarter which showed great vision, great change of direction ability. Maybe I'm more and more and more warming up to the idea that he is going to make this team. Shout out to my boy Murph.

Looking forward to talking to him early next week on their show, Patriots, you know, fourth and one. Keon Crossan. Up and down night, we're going to talk some more stuff about him later when we get to the bad from the night. Again, we'll go over some good stuff that he did. I want to talk about him more in the next segment. But Hemdy, Cleet, and Goddard.

I think it was Goddard on a quick throw to the flat. Didn't see that one coming. But that was the kind of hit that I really did not see coming, but it was impressive to see. But overall, some very good stuff from tonight. Not a lot of bad to really go to. There'll be some nitpicky stuff, but you guys that listen to the show, that have listened to the show for a while, you know I'm all about nerdy, nitpicky football stuff.

For those of you that knew, tremendous welcome to you all. But I will be doing some nerdy nitpicky football stuff when we get to the bad portion of the show. And that's up next with me, Mark Schofield and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you on this semi glorious victory edition

of Locked On Patriots. And we just ran through about 13 minutes of good stuff. Going to be a little bit quicker here with some of the bad stuff. But there's still some nitpicky stuff and some big picture stuff to talk about. Speaking of big picture, Isaiah Wynn carted off after what looked like an awkward, potentially non-contact type injury. He got sort of pushed back into the pocket, back almost into Tom Brady's lap on a play early in the first half or in the first half.

And hard to tell what happened. It happened really fast. And a note to young players out there, if you're listening, high school, college players, if you listen, here's a little tidbit. If you're hurt, go down. Because what happened in this instant was he sort of took himself off the field. Play clock's running. You know, they got to go. And so you've got to get somebody in there and on the field and run the next play. And this is something I learned from

personal experience. When I was a junior, we were playing a game at Amherst and our starting quarterback rolled his ankle yet again. You know, he had been having ankle problems all season. So I was in and out of the lineup and he just rolled his ankle yet again. You know, he had been having ankle problems all season, so I was in and out of the lineup. And he just rolled his ankle and took himself off the field. And we got play clock running, and I got to get out there and get my stuff ready to go. And so to you young players out there, if you're hurt, get down. You know, give your team a chance to, you know, get the next guy in.

But for when, he got carted to the locker room. No word yet. Our boy, Dr christopher gary was at the game haven't seen anything from him but dr chow formerly of the chargers who you know does some stuff on twitter sports medicine sports injury doctor he said according to him david chow said that on the video alone this looked like an Achilles tendon rupture, which would be a season ender. Now, he's just watching it on video. Obviously, he has not looked at Isaiah Wynn personally. He has not examined him or anything like that. So we're not going to totally jump to conclusions here.

But Dr. Chow does tend to be in the ballpark when it comes to diagnoses just from video. So obviously, we're hoping for the best for Isaiah Wood. We hope it's not that severe an injury where the Patriots would lose him for the entire season, but that's definitely something to watch. Speaking of watching stuff, the Braxton Berrios watch might be coming to a quicker end than we think. He was not active tonight. He was out with an injury. Riley McCarron did get all of the punt return reps tonight. He did get a lot of run into that game. Did have a catch or two in that game as well. And so that's definitely something to watch.

You know, the Braxton Berrios, it might be ending soon than I'd like to think. Some other stuff to get into here. Get into the Keon Cross and stuff. There was a toss play that the Eagles had on a second and two in the first half. He loses contain. It was a situation where he, for whatever reason, takes a couple of steps inside. I don't know what it is that he saw.

I rewound it a couple of times. There wasn't a fake or anything like that, but he takes a couple of steps inside, and then it forces him to take a sort of inside-out angle to try to get back to the outside and set the edge, and he can't do that, loses contain. It ends up in a big run for the Eagles in that moment. So that was something to watch.

Then he got hit with a defensive pass interference in the second quarter where he actually had good positioning. It was a route sort of in the back of the end zone. He had good positioning. It was a route sort of in the back of the end zone. He had good positioning on the receiver, but he had his left arm, sort of his forearm, in the receiver's stomach basically the entire back end of the play while the ball was in the air. And that's something you just can't do. If he sort of keeps his arm down in that moment, he's in good position. He can still probably make a play on the ball. So the position was right. You're just going to be smarter with

that left arm. Try not to get too much of an advantage there because you're going to get flagged for it. The touchdown that they gave up, one of the touchdowns they gave up on a throw to Jason McCourty. I know later in the game when Bob Sochi and Scott Zolak were talking about sort of the potential roster cuts that they might have to make at the cornerback position, they brought up this play. But the issue on this play was that it was a zero blitz situation. What I mean by that is everybody who wasn't covered on receiver was blitzing.

And there's a sort of expression that I've heard before, and I've talked about it on the show, I believe, when you go zero blitz, if you don't get home, the band is going to play. Meaning if you don't get to the quarterback, somebody's going to make a play in the secondary because it's hard in those situations when it's man across the board with absolutely no safety help over the top. Guys are going to get beat. And on this play, a quick stutter move to the inside

and then receiver cuts to the outside. McCourty get beat on it. And it's hard in that situation without any safety help. McCourty get beat on it zero blitz doesn't get home and it gives up a touchdown and so I'm not putting that solely on McCourty I would like to see him have better coverage with better coverage from a defender not get sucked in on that inside move but you know it happens and so that's just my takeaway on that play. Another injury thing to watch, Patrick Chun came limping off the field after a punt late in the first half. That was after he got hit sort of in the man region at another point in the game.

He looked perhaps to get a little band up on the course of this night. Obviously, we'll be watching to see if there's anything on Patrick Chun's health and injury status. Defense, drive before halftime. Some good and some bad. Crossers and crossing. They were getting hit on crossers. Keon was getting beat on a couple of these as well. But he kind of got some redemption at the end of it.

There was a fourth and goal play. You get pressure on Sudfeld from a combination of Rivers and Claiborne. They flushed the quarterback. Sudfeld tries to flip it into the end zone at the end. Ed Cross is there with a near interception. So a little bit of redemption from him on what had been a tough drive for him. Demarius Travis, mentioned this guy again. He gets run over on a second and 10 run play early in the third quarter.

He gets beat on a touchdown on a corner route where he was sort of caught flat-footed. You know, it was a situation where you know this is your guy. You're over the top of him, but as he starts to get into his break and break to the outside, he sort of got himself flat for a second with his feet. Didn't stay on the balls of his feet, so he got beat off the break. Couldn't recover in time, so we wanted to see him be a little bit better there. Running game wasn't as effective for the Patriots as it was a week prior. Jeremy Hill had some runs sort of in the second half where they showed some of the promise that they had, but overall wasn't as good as it could have been.

Eric Decker, you wonder how he makes this team. At least one pass was thrown his way. The one I'm thinking of, a dig route from Brian Hoyer right to the spot I mean perfect perfect throw from Hoyer and it's right through his hands so you wonder about Eric Decker's roster availability at this point JC Jackson he gets beaten on a go route by number 18 late in the third quarter a great route I mean a great throw excuse me by Nate Seinfeld there. But he gets beat there.

Jordan Richard had two back-to-back tough plays. First, a lead in with a helmet penalty, which I'm not so sure. I don't know about this rule, friends. It looked to be basically a textbook tackle, but he gets flagged for that. Then he gets flagged for the face mask on the next play. So those were two tough plays. Eddie Pleasant, touchdown late in the third quarter for Philadelphia. Looked to be a cover two type scheme.

The corner, Jamal Wiltz is expecting help. Pleasant is late with that help. I think Sudfeld did a good job sort of looking him off, but he's still late to get to the boundary to help on the vertical route, which he needs to sort of help squeeze towards the sideline. So he was late there. And that would do it kind of for the bad stuff. But overall, a pretty good performance from the New England Patriots.

Up next, we're going to close out the show with some question marks going forward. Some things I'm wondering about as we head into the weekend and we start getting ready for week three of the preseason slate of games. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back here to close out this Friday semi-glorious victory installment of Locked On Patriots. Reminder that Patriots Locked On Patriots phone line is open. 240-670-6016.

Send in some texts and voicemails, however you want to get in touch. Let me know your thoughts on this game, how the preseason is going, Brady's new helmet, Toto, whatever you want to talk about. I'm always here for Toto Takes. New listeners, you're going to get used to the Toto Takes. I promise you. But let's close this out with some lingering questions that I'm kicking around in what's left of my brain

as we get into here on you know late Thursday night almost early Friday morning first off lingering issue number one injuries we want to hear about Isaiah Wynn Patrick Chun any other guys that might potentially be banned up but the potential loss of Isaiah Wynn is a big one especially if they lose him for the season as Dr. David Chow you know made a hypothesis you know some of our educated guests on twitter based on the video so we're watching the injuries wide receiver room i continues to be a little bit of a question mark after guys like edelman and hogan patterson might be playing himself into the mix a little bit more wondering about dorsett his contributions

does mccarron now have an inside track on a gig here? After that, though, I mean, Decker doesn't seem to be doing much. I mean, Devin Lucien, he had a very good week one, didn't do as much tonight, so still wondering about this wide receiver group, who are going to be the contributors there. Running back, you know,

we saw a lot of Jeremy Hill in week one. Didn't see as much of him for week two, but as the guys, you know, Sochi and of Jeremy Hill week one didn't see as much of a week two but as the guys you know Sochi and Zolak were talking it does seem like Mike Gillisley is probably on the outside looking in um at least as we sit here right now you do wonder about Ralph Webb didn't have as much of a impact tonight as he did last week but maybe he's playing himself into the mix Brandon Bolden though I'm again starting really warm on him, earning that roster spot again. Dwayne Allen, either they're saving him,

either they're bringing him on slowly, or Jacob Hoster really has become tight end two on this roster, and I'm leading towards that. It does seem like they're letting him become sort of tight end two, the move type tight end. Now, that might mean that they still bring back Dwayne Allen to be your blocking tight end. You know, you figure Gronkowski is your do-it-all tight end,

T1, all-world T1 type guy. But then you can go, you could divide the labor between the other two guys. You know, Hollister is more your move type guy that you move around using the passing game. Allen's more your blocking type guy that you move around using the passing game. Allen's more your blocking type end that you see on short yardage situations, goal line situations, things like that. They might do it that way. Remains to be seen. Defense, a lot of guys look good tonight. A lot of guys look really good tonight. I think Bentley has played himself into not just making this team. He might be a starter on this team at this rate. Christian Sam had some nice plays. Keontae Davis had some nice plays.

It's going to lead to some tough decisions for this coaching staff when it comes around to final cut-down day. Playing into that, cornerback depth, safety depth. We saw some guys like Welts have some good and bad moments tonight. Keiron Crossan, up and down night from him. You know, at the safety spot, Eddie Pleasant, Demarius Travis, up and down night. Jordan Richards, up and down night for those guys as well. So into that secondary, I do wonder after the starters, the depth guys, you know, who are going to be the guys that sort of survive and make the cut. And that's really what we'll be watching, you know, into preseason game three and even preseason game four.

But that will do it for this show. That will do it for this week here at locked on Patriots. I hope you had a fantastic week. I hope you all have a fantastic weekend planned ahead. I do put the family can take a quick little family trip, but I will be back Monday morning. Hope to hear from you guys this week. Again,

two four zero six seven zero six zero one six. Is that locked on Patriots hotline? family trip, but I will be back Monday morning. Hope to hear from you guys this week. Again, 240-670-6016 is that Locked On Patriots hotline. Let me know your thoughts on this team, call or text. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked On Patriots. you