Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots August 25, 2018 - A Boom, Roasted Post-Game Edition

Episode Date: August 25, 2018

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Hey there everybody, Mark Schofield here for a post-game edition of Locked On Patriots. Patriots wrap it up their third preseason game tonight in a somewhat, I don't want to say lackluster, but somewhat I'd say off performance from the New England Patriots. Before we dive into the good, the bad, say off performance from the New England Patriots before we dive into the good the bad and the questions from the dress rehearsal of the 2018 preseason reminder to follow me on twitter at Mark Schofield check out the work at places like insidethepylon.com where I'm one of the head writers Matthew Waldman's rookie scouting portfolio mattwaldmanrsp.com where I'm a contributor thescore.com where I'm a featured NFL columnist, Pro Football Weekly, Steelers Depot, Big Blue View.

If they're talking about football, chances are I'm ready to talk about it for them. Patriots, they go down to Charlotte, take on the Carolina Panthers in a matchup with one of the NFC South's premier teams, perhaps one of the premier teams in the NFC, a team coming off a postseason berth last season. And they fall to the Panthers 24-15. And like I said, a bit of an underwhelming performance. There were some good things which we'll get to.

There were a lot of bad things which we'll get to. There are still some lingering questions about this team and where they stand headed into. Basically now, you know, we've seen the starters now. We won't see them really again until week one of the NFL regular season against Houston so a lot of guys will be fighting for roster spots in week four and I'll have that all covered for you next week but let's dive into it some good things off the bat Jonathan Jones back as your starting slot corner he's got to see him early Keonta Davis also in the starting lineup for the defense and the I thought, at the start of this game, the first couple of drives,

bend but don't break type stuff. We'll get into that. I thought that was impressive. Stephon Gilmore on Carolina's open and drive. Carolina had a very long, lengthy open and drive. They get down into the red zone, but the Patriots were able to hold them to three, and partly because of a great play from Stephon Gilmore on that open and drive.'re trying to run a little under route where the receiver comes to the outside then cuts underneath over the middle from DJ Moore rookie wide receiver and Gilmore's in great position he's playing a very physical throw is slightly behind from Cam Newton but Gilmore is there to break that pass up forcing Carolina to settle for a field goal try, which they drilled. Then on Carolina's next offensive drive, you get some good plays early. Gilmore gets beaten to start that drive on a back shoulder throw,

which was executed perfectly by Devin Funchess and Cam Newton. Gilmore kind of turns the wrong way. Then Samuel gets open. You couldn't tell on that. I was watching the Carolina feed tonight, and they didn't really show a good enough replay, so I couldn't tell if the next play was a busted coverage or not. But then we get a nice pass break up from Rowe on a first and 10 play.

It's a post route. He's got perfect technique on Curtis Samuel. He's right in that sort of back hip, that back hip pocket. This is a play that could have gone for six, but Rowe times it perfectly, gets that right hand up, breaks that play up. So that was a fantastic play. And look, they get sort of that bend, but don't break stuff on the first two drives because they hold them to a field goal on the first one. The second drive, there's a critical third and 11. You get some pressure on Cam Newton between Kyle Van Nooy and Adrian Claiborne. They run a tackle and exchange type stunt up front.

They flush Newton and then Van Noy does a great job of chasing him down from behind, forcing the quarterback out of bounds. And this is a game that, look, it could have been 10-0. It could have been 14-0, but the defense does their job, holds them to 6-0. In many instances with the New England Patriots and their offense, that might be good enough.

You know, you hold teams to three. That old adage about when you play in the Patriots, field goals aren't going to beat Tom Brady. Well, tonight, they did. We'll get to some of the bad stuff in a bit. Some more good stuff, though. Run blocking at the start of New England's second drive. New England's first drive, it was a bit of a mixed bag.

Now, New England's second drive, run blocking better at the start of it, especially look to the left side. We're going to talk more about the run blocking when we get to the bad segment, but they had a run to the left side, Trent Brown and Joe Thune. They had some good blocking on that play. On the second three, the very next play,

you have 22 offensive personnel, so two backs, two tight ends in the game. It's a fullback lead, James Devlin with a huge block, giving Mike Sprint and Mike Gilleslie for a 14-yard gain. So I like the run block in there. Later in that drive, you get a smoke route to Julian Edelman, that quick little screen on a third and eight. It's a great job both by Edelman and by Adrian Warner from getting out,

getting a cut block on that and this is something that if you listen to the show I did earlier today with Evan Lazar from CLNS he talked about how you know Trent Brown maybe not the most athletic guy at the left tackle spot we might see a lot of screen stuff to the right side and that's the thought was a perfect example of what Evan was talking about you throw that quick screen to the right side Edelman does great job after the catch, but Waddell does a great job getting out in front of it. Also on that drive, Cordell Patterson, quick shallow route. That's going to be his game over the middle because we know what he can do on smokes, we know what he can do on verticals, but that quick shallow route, what was great about that play, if he caught it, Captain Munderland underneath defender for the Panthers, he was in perfect position

to take that away, but Patterson's speed, he's just able to run around that. So some nice stuff from New England on their second offensive drive of the game. Now, do they get points on the drive? Yes, they do. They get a three. They get a field goal. We're going to talk about what they might have been able to come away with six on that drive in the next section of the show. Some more good stuff though. New England's third defensive drive of the game I thought was their best defensive drive of the game by far. First play, first and ten, you get a quick little out route to tight end Greg Olson. Jawan Bentley, we've been talking about him all preseason. He's in perfect position, makes an immediate tackle. Now at second

and five, you get a run-heavy look. You get multiple tight ends in the game from Carolina. You bring Patrick Chun in the box. He does a fantastic, fantastic job at setting the edge. The running back has to kind of try to cut it inside a little bit. And then who's there? Jawan Bentley. Fighting off

a block or fighting through traffic at the line of scrimmage. Gets off the block. Makes a tackle, holds it to a minimal gain. Now you get third and two, third and short. You get a Harmon pass breakup. But what I liked about this play, Ken Newton throws late over the middle and you get the breakup from Deron Harmon, which was great. Great pass breakup. But better was the action underneath. They run mesh type concept underneath crossers you get Christian McCaffrey running underneath it's a zone type look from New England what you sometimes see there are guys running with guys on that type of play the linebackers running with guys instead of

staying in their zone Nicholas Grigsby did a great job staying in his underneath hook zone on that play really took away that route that Newton wanted to throw, which was that crosser to Christian McCaffrey. He's forced to go late over the middle. Harmon's in their position to break it up. Carolina goes three and out. I thought by far that was New England's best defensive drive of the game. Some other stuff, some other good stuff.

Julian Edelwing, talk about Patriots getting mismatches all the time. They did a great job of it on the drive, their third drive of the game. You get a third and two situation, you go empty. Julian Edelman lines up as the inside receiver that forces, you know, of a three receiver set that forces the linebacker to take that number three guy, that third receiver. And that's Luke Kuechly on Julian Edelman. Luke Kuechly is a fantastic, fantastic linebacker, but Luke Kuechly on Julian Edelman is a Kuechly is a fantastic, fantastic linebacker, but Luke Kuechly on Julian Edelman is a mismatch, and the Patriots were able to take advantage there on a quick little end cut. Hitches versus soft coverage.

Patriots did this a couple of times tonight. They got it. Philip Dorsett against a soft cover three look to convert a fourth and three on New England's third drive of the game. They did it late in the game. Cordell Patterson had a hitch against that soft cover three type coverage when the defenders played off. Carolina, a cover three heavy team.

We talked about that a lot last year on this show. When you see that, just take it. Don't make the game harder than it has to be. The game is pretty hard, as we saw tonight. So when you get that soft coverage just take with the defense it gives you like seeing that um jason mccourty jason mccourty had a great play on a second and goal situation i had a great read a great tackle when there was a zone read type play with taylor haneke and the carolina panthers running back according to the great job staying

home staying with that making a safe secure tackle really like seeing that from him a Landon Roberts on a third and goal situation great coverage on a running back pivot or flat route staying in that hip pocket of the running back making sure he made the immediate tackle I liked that play as well so to get into the second half now Carolina's sixth drive of the game JC Jackson I thought did some really nice things tonight. And we've been wondering about cornerback death. It's still a question, I think, for this team. J.C. Jackson, I thought, had a very good night.

There was a smoke route where they throw that quick little screen to him. Jackson does a great job fighting through the block. Gets a tackle for the loss. Later on that same drive, he did a great job in run support, coming up, making a tackle against the run he did that a couple of times in this game tonight jc jackson in run support it's an extra bonus it's an extra benefit when you see a cornerback that's willing to play aggressive play and run support jc jackson did that tonight this is interesting the only other time i think the patriots did a really

good job of setting the edge christian sam he did a really good job of setting the edge, Christian Sam. He did a great job on setting the edge on a drive. Carolina late in the third quarter, turned it back to the other side of the field, forced that back towards traffic. Now on the other end was Keon Crossan, and we're going to get to what Keon Crossan did

in the next segment of this show. But I thought Christian Sam did a great job setting the edge on that play. Patriots didn't really set the edge.. Mike Giardi, now the NFL Network, he had a tweet out, which I replied to. His tweet was basically saying, look, Patriots did not do a good job setting the edge tonight. And I agree with him. I think he was right. I think the Chun play we talked about earlier, Christian Sam on this play, that's it. That's the list. Other times they really didn't do a good job setting the edge which is something Patriots fans have been

talking about seemingly forever. Keon Crosser though, despite what we're going to talk about a little bit later, he had two great plays on slant routes. One was a pass breakup to start the fourth quarter and then there was another one, a late plan, another great play on a slant route later in the fourth quarter.

Eric Lee tips it, but on both of those plays, he's in perfect position, playing the receiver, mirroring him perfectly right on that upfield hip against the slant route, which is where you want to be. He's able to get that right hand in in front of the receiver and get his hand on the pass to break it up. On the second one, as I said, I was listening to the Carolina broadcast. They were looking for a defensive holder, perhaps DPI on that play, but neither one was called.

So great plays there from Keion Crossin, helping himself in an effort to make this team. Steven Kostowski, he was two for two tonight. So, hey, that's a good thing. JC Jackson, again, in run support. Carolina's eighth drive of the game. Looking for my that's a good thing. J.C. Jackson again in run support. Carolina's eighth drive of the game. Looking for my notes on that specific play. Just another good job of him coming

up, forcing the issue against the run. Not giving up ground. You'd love to see that from a corner who's willing to play with a little bit of a harder nose. I liked seeing J.C. Jackson in run support tonight. Finally, Riley McCarron did some good stuff tonight, had a couple of tough catches. He had a 21-yard gain on a smoke screen.

I ran that play back a couple of times because I thought, look, somebody, they pulled a lot of guys in front of him, but it was really a situation where before blockers could get onto defenders, Riley McCarron was running by them. So that was a great play from him. On the third and five of New England's basically their last drive of the game. Made a tough catch. Had to go up for it.

Takes a shot. Looked like he got the wind knocked out of him. But hung on. So I've given up on the Braxton Berrios ghost. I admit that. And it does look like Riley McCarron probably helped himself tonight. That was the good. Some stuff that we expected. some that we didn't.

Still some lingering questions, which we'll get to a little bit later. But up next, I'm going to have the bad. And there was a lot of it. And we're going to talk about that. Up next here with me, Mark Schofield and Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this post-game edition of Locked On Patriots. The Patriots falling down in Charlotte tonight to the Carolina Panthers. Final score in that game, 25-14.

Let's get to the bad. And there was some bad stuff to talk about tonight. As you might expect, a loss. I'm not going to go full on and call this a, you know, I forget what I called the losses last year. I forget. I didn't want to look back. So I'm not. We'll come up with a new name for losses. We're going to keep Wynn's Glorious Victory Editions. And eventually at some point I will tell the story behind that name. But

for now, searching for a name for the post-game loss editions, we'll come up with something. Let's start with the bad stuff though. Trent Brown's Open and Drive. That was not a good performance on the open and drive for New England. Second forward, it's a quick game play. He tries to cut block Mario Addison,

the defensive end. Can't get him to the ground. To his credit, Addison did a great job of using his hands. When you try to get, when somebody's trying to cut block you,

you use your hands, you get them to the ground, you force them down so they can't get into your legs and then you get your arms up. Addison did a great job of tipping this play, tipping the pass attempt from Tom Brady, which was intended for Rob Gronkowski. Good to see him back in action, but Trent Brown's got to get

that guy. He's got to do a better job of getting him to the ground. This gets us to the athleticism issue with him. Is that probably the best way to utilize him, trying to get guys cut to the ground? Probably not, but in this Patriots offense that relies on a lot of quick game stuff, that's kind of an issue. So that's something to watch. Then on the next play, Addison beats him again, just gets around him. Brady gets under duress, throw is high. James White catches it, but it's cut down, chopped down short.

Patriots are forced to punt. Adrian Waddell, personal foul after a first and goal play, shoved somebody after the whistle. That's a thing that instead of a second and goal down near the three, now you're facing second and goal back at the 20-yard line or so. Can't have things like that. I know it gets chippy out there, but you can't have penalties like that. Later in that drive, third and goal play.

The Patriots did a pretty decent job getting it back into a manageable third and goal situation. I'm looking through my notes right now. They get it. A first and goal after the penalty. It's now second and goal at the 19. They get a screen to Brandon Bolden out of a two-running back set. Bolden in the game early. Something to watch.

Looks like he's solidifying his roster spot. Hat tip, my boy Murph. So they get that screen game. Then third and goal at the 13. Defense jumps off sides. Now you've got it back to third and goal at the eight, which is a much more manageable situation. Patriots go with a two-running back set again when, you know, Jeremy Hill and James Devlin. Coverage is good. Brady throws it late to James Devlin who gets popped by Luke Kuechly. Can't hang on. Patriots forced to try for the field goal. It's rare that I want to ding Tom Brady.

And I'm not quite sure it's fair here again without seeing the all 22, the proverbial all 22 view. But it looked like he might have had Gronk open late. Patriots had Gronkowski and Edelman to the right. Panthers bracket coverage Gronkowski. They've basically had Gronkowski and Edelman to the right. Panthers bracket coverage Gronkowski. They've basically got three over two to that side of the field. But as Brady starts to work through his progressions and look towards the left side of the field, Gronk mirrors his eyes

and breaks open over the middle. And it looks like there was a window where Brady could have hit Gronkowski. He doesn't find him. He comes to Devlin late. Pass gets broken up thanks to a big hit from Lou Keekly. Patriots forced to settle for a field goal. Rare to deem Tom Brady, but I think if he gave that another moment, he might have had them. That's from looking at the broadcast view. All 22 might tell me something different. Run blocking. Definitely struggled at times tonight. There were times when plays were getting blown up. Times when guys were getting beat. David Andrews got beat a couple times. Shaq Mason failed to get to a linebacker, Shaq Thompson at the second level at times. But let's be honest, that Panthers front seven is incredibly good. That is a stout group. Guys like Short, you know, obviously Luke Kuechly and Shaq Thompson. I mean,

that's a group that can play. And, you know And I'll talk about it a bit in the final segment when we talk about questions about the Patriots going forward now. But you look at that defensive front with Kwon Short, Dontari Poe, obviously, guys like Kyle Love, Mario Addison, those second-level defenders like Shaq Thompson, Luke Kikwi, Thomas Davis. That's a front seven that can win games for a team. And so Patriots did struggle with them at times. Fourth down situation, Patriots dial up later in that game with Tom Brady still in. A Y-ISO

tight end isolated in a three-by-one formation by himself. He's the one guy on one side of the field. A vertical go route to will tie. If you had the over-under on the times Tom Brady was throwing a vertical go route in a Y iso formation to will tie at one and you took the under, you're currently sweating things because it's probably more than we expected.

And I wouldn't expect to see that in the regular season anytime soon. That's probably a situation where that's designed for Gronkowski. Gronk, for whatever reason, wasn't in the game at that point.

So he throws it to Will Tye. It's kind of like an eclipse. See it while you can because you might not get a chance to see it again. Mobile quarterbacks. I talked about this in the pregame, game day edition show. Newton did a good job breaking contain,

and there were times when the Patriots couldn't respond. You either get the second level defenders breaking forward and that gives Cam Newton a chance to make a play in a scramble to a situation, or they were giving him room to run. That's going to be something to watch. Remember how many athletic mobile quarterbacks the Patriots are going to play this regular season, including Deshaun Watson in week one. That continues to be an issue. Eric Decker, my man, false start at the wide receiver position on third and seven. You can't do that. You're watching the ball. That's one of those situations you just don't know what to say. You can't jump off sides when you're looking at the ball.

It's like a nose tackle jumping off sides when the ball is right in front of your face. You can't have that. And then on the next play, look, to his credit, Derek Decker, I don't know if it was a blown coverage or what, but he gets wide open on a go route, and Brian Hoyer, whose ball placement was off all night, floats the pass out of bounds. So there was that.

We saw Cyrus Jones, with the unicorn back in uniform tonight one of his first defensive plays he's put right in the hole against a run makes this flat-footed tackle attempt and just gets beaten just whiffs on it can't have that a couple plays later keon crossing he gets burned on a crossing route. This was when I was starting to think, do I get to do an episode tonight? Really? It's Friday night. I'd rather be doing anything else than watching guys like Cyrus Jones

whiff on a tackle attempt when you're put right into the hole. It reminds me of a play when I was playing junior varsity football as a sophomore. And this was back when, before I was starting quarterback for the varsity team, I was just a kid trying to play, and I was playing safety. And coach calls a run blitz with me blitzing to the strength of the formation,

and the blitz put me right in the hole, and I just completely whiffed on the tackle attempt. And our coach took a timeout so he could scream at me in the middle of the field basically saying my blitz put you right into the hole and you couldn't make the play that was Cyrus Jones at that moment he was right there to make a play and just got caught flat-footed and just looked bad that was a bad play run blocking again it became an issue. A third-and-one play in the third quarter. The right side of the offensive line, Ted Karras, Ulrich John, just gets blown up. I tweeted this out.

I don't know the directional position of Bank of America Field, so I just said this. They get pushed all the way back to New England. They just get blown up. Run gets stopped short. Patriots forced to punt. New England's fifth drive of the game. For some reason, I just wrote down whelp. And that probably says it all, but let's go in.

Oh, no, just whelp. It was just bad. Whatever it was, it was just bad. Let's just leave it at that. Actually, let's try to look it up because now I'm very, very, very curious. Let's see here. All right, handy little thing. Three plays, nine yards.

Oh, that was the drive that ended with the play where they got pushed back to Siberia, the right side of the offensive line. That was bad. All of it, which is bad. That right side of the line, boom, roasted, okay? Grigsby,? Grigsby. Nicholas Grigsby. He did have the one play we talked about earlier,

but later in the game he gets, you know, he overruns a pass play, overruns the running back on a quick little sit route, allows him to pick up a big gain after yardage. And, frankly, that's about the point where I was just like, look, you know what? This team has struggled tonight. This team struggled tonight. Brian Hoyer struggled when he was in the game.

And it just, it was not a good performance. It just wasn't a good performance. I'm, you know, you can look at the stats and say, okay, Brady was what? 12 of 18 for 102 yards. Okay. You know, averaging 5.7 yards an attempt. Okay.

Brian Hoyer was 16 of 24 for 109 yards. Okay. 4.5 yards an attempt, okay. Brian Hoyer was 16 of 24 for 109 yards, okay. 4.5 yards an attempt, but he missed a ton of throws. The run game struggled. 19 carries as a team for 60 yards, an average of 3.2. Mike Gilleslie did get into the end zone late. Your leading receiver for yardage, Riley McCarron, four catches for 49 yards. Cordell Patterson had five catches for 37 yards. RIDER'S CARD DRAFT got a whole second another page of notes okay let's get into it more because there's more bad stuff to talk about believe it or not adam butler low hit on taylor heineke gets flagged for it adam

butler boom roasted cyrus jones gets beaten on a skiddy post by demi or bird in the third quarter bird can fly i know he's fast but a better throw there is six cyrus jones boom roasted henry poji you get a nice catch and run you fumble it at the end you can see the moment where the guy just realized i just missed this team henry poji bad fumble it at the end. You can see the moment where the guy just realized, I just missed this team. Henry Poche, bad fumble. Boom, roasted. Keon Crossan, bad angle on the cutback run. That Christian Sam play where Christian Sam actually set the edge,

bounces the run back to the other side, expecting the Calvary to come and help. Keon Crossan takes him, has the edge, has the angle to it, just gets beaten. Can't make the tackle. Boom, roasted. Cyrus Jones in the slot. Off coverage versus an out route.

It's a third down situation. Defensive back starts with separation and extends the separation on the break. If you're playing off coverage, you see that route happen. You break on it. Jones does it. Gives up the easy catch. Panthers move the chain. Cyrus Jones.

Boom. Roasted. Into the third quarter. At some point in the third quarter, Patriots had just nine first downs, 167 total yards. Patriots offense, boom, roasted. Ryan Lewis, he made a nice tackle on one play. On the very next play, he just gets dusted,

just dusted on an angle slash band-aid post route. You know, receiver does a good job of getting some width and then cutting over the middle. Lyon Lewis dusted for a touchdown. Boom, roasted. Patriots offense. They have a slant flat route dialed up on a third and two in the fourth quarter. Eric Decker is on the flat route on a third and two.

Doesn't even get close to the sticks. Hoyer throws it to him, but Decker can't get the first down. Decker, got to get past the six there. Boom, roasted. Pass rush. Where was the pass rush all night? I mean, we'll talk about it in a minute, but the pass rush just failed to get home time after time after time.

This pass rush that we thought was a strength didn't look good tonight. Pass rush, got to do better. Boom, roasted. McCarron did have a drop on a corner route, but I'm not going to kill him because, look, perhaps the sole bright spot? I don't know. Hoyer, we talked about him. Pl off he missed decker earlier he missed patterson on a blown coverage late

brian horrid ball placement roasted boom roasted eric decker he had a drop on a post route late cornell to get a hand in there but i think decker could have pulled it in again boom roasted i don't i'm trying not to get overworked here over a preseason game, but if this was the dress rehearsal, not a good one. This is one of those dress rehearsals where the producers are wondering, should we say somebody's sick and delay the opening? Just not too pleased about it. But life goes on.

Anyway, up next, some questions. Some lingering questions in the wake of the Patriots' somewhat lackluster performance here on dress rehearsal night of the 2018 preseason. Mark Schofield, back with you now. I haven't boom-roasted what seems like the majority of the New England Patriots' 2018 roster. And some quick lingering questions going forward.

Start wide receiver room. Edelman, Hogan, Dorsett, then what? Decker hasn't really flashed. Patterson can do some things. Maybe McCarron locked down a spot tonight, but we might really be looking at this team going multiple tight ends, 12 personnel more often than not, or multiple running backs, just really playing with that core group of three when Edelman gets back.

We didn't see Jacob Hollister tonight. He wasn't playing tonight, so we didn't get the chance to see how that might look, that 12-person package might look with Gronk. Maybe that's something they're saving for week one. I don't know, but wide receiver, targets, that issue still lingers on. Cornerback depth, J.C. Jackson, he did some nice things tonight. Keon Crossan had some up-and-down moments again. Ryan Lewis got beat for a touchdown.

Jamal Wiltz played late. It was good to see Jason McCourty in the mix. It was good to see Jonathan Jones back. Those are probably your top four, I think, after that continues to be a question mark. Run game versus physical front sevens. We saw what the Carolina Panthers were able to do against the run early in this game when it was ones versus ones. That's going to be something to watch.

Not so much right away, but just keep that in the back of your mind. When this team goes up against some stouter, physical front sevens, are they going to be able to push the pile? Didn't seem like it tonight. Hopefully it was just a one-off and not a sign of things to come. Pass rush. Well, we were talking about it a lot last week, but kind of underwhelming tonight. Kind of underwhelming tonight. Now, the Panthers, to that credit, did a good job of

picking up some stuff. Christian McCaffrey looked pretty good picking up blitzes at times. So, maybe this is just one of those nights where you tip your hat to the other guys and say, call them my daddy, like Pedro did back in the day. But the pass rush, more of a question than we thought it was going to be headed into tonight. On the injury front, Jeremy Hill did have an awkward tackle when he got horse-collared from behind. Looked like he was in severe pain, but then he was seen later sort of joking and laughing it off.

So it looks like we dodged a bullet there. Riley McCarron did take that big hit, went down for a minute. Might have been just a loss of breath. You know, get the wind knocked out of him type of situation. So, it does seem like the Patriots got out of this injury-free, which, you know, all things considered, might be the most important thing. And at least we can say that that looks to be the most positive thing, that they did get out of this, perhaps, injury-free.

But not the most inspiring of performances not the thing that i'm really psyched to be talking about right now at now 11 o'clock on a friday night but that's the gig and look it's just the preseason i mean i'm whenever whenever people overhype preseason i remember that steve spurrier washington year where the redskins came out and they were the oh you were 4-0 in the preseason and just dunking on everybody and people were like, man, this Spurrier thing is actually going to work. Well, obviously

it didn't. So the preseason, let's not get overly excited. We still want to see execution. We still want to see improvement in guys. These are the things that I look for. Maybe we didn't see enough of that tonight, but remember, it's not just a one game and done type thing. It's over the course of the preseason.

So guys are going to be fighting for spots. Obviously it's a big week for them. The next couple of days here. Headed into the final preseason game against the Giants. And then we get into it. Tonight. Not the best effort. But.

Life goes on. The sun will come up tomorrow. And I'll have my pancake breakfast. But I hope. I hope the little boom roasted edition. Locked on Patriots was a little bit entertaining for you. Whether you listen to it as you go to bed Friday night. Or whether you listen to it when you're making your pancake breakfast on Saturday morning. Or whenever you listen to it.

I hope it brought you a little bit of insight. A little bit of humor and joy or something. Or maybe it's just something you listen to when you're vacuuming in the house. I don't know. I hope it brings you joy in some way. I will be back Monday. It's been a long week. It's now late on Friday night.

I'm going to go probably make a fool of myself playing PUBG. I will be back Monday. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. you