Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 12, 2017 - Wait What?

Episode Date: December 12, 2017

Mark Schofield has his instant reaction to New England's poor showing against the Miami Dolphins on Monday Night Football.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome on into another glorious... Wait, what? No, no, no, no, no. I'm done. I'm not doing this. No, this isn't what I signed up for. I didn't sign up to talk about a team that lost to a 5-7 team on Monday Night Football with a chance to clinch a division. No, I'm done. Fine, we'll do it live.

Mark Schofield here with you for Tuesday, December 12th. Well, that happened. Patriots go down to Miami to Hard Rock Stadium to take on a divisional foe that entered the game with a 5-7 record a chance to clinch the AFC East a chance to keep pace with the Pittsburgh Steelers

and the Patriots lay an egg dropping a 27-20 game to the Miami Dolphins. It's been a while since we've done a post-game loss show. A little rusty. Perhaps that's why there was a little bit of a kerfuffle at the start of the show. We'll do some good, bad, and ugly in a second.

First, I want to give some shout-outs because let's face it. Look, it's after midnight here on the East Coast. That game just ended. The last thing I really want to do is talk about what we just saw. So I'm putting it off as long as I can. A little procrastination here. But I do want to shout-out some friends of the show. First, again, our friends over at Steak'Em, the

official sandwich beef of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Follow them on Twitter, at stake underscore UMM. Please, when you do follow them, if you do follow them, tweet at them. Tag me along in the tweet. Show them some love from the Locked On Patriots network. Again, a call to arms here.

Let's show Stake them some love. They're out there trying to get verified on Twitter. Let's see if we can help make that dream happen for them. Also, I want to mention at XVSO Sports. That's at X versus O Sports. They do something really cool. They sell t-shirts, paraphernalia with plays on them so you can go to xvsosports.myshopify.com

or you can check them out on Twitter you can see what they have they have plays like the Malcolm Butler interception drawn up X's and O's style so check them out follow them Twitter same thing

when you reach out to them tag me in tweets let them know that you're coming from the Locked On Patriots podcast listener family. Show them some love. They do have some cool stuff. They've got Celtics stuff. You have to check all the ball.

They've got Bruins stuff. They've got Oars flying goal. They've got some Red Sox stuff. Some Ortiz home runs on there from the ALCS from a couple years back. So definitely check them out. They've got some Red Sox stuff Some Ortiz home runs on there From the ALCS from a couple years back So definitely check them out They've got some cool stuff So I guess we need to talk about that game And look here's the thing

This just had the makings Of that sort of trap game You know everybody's Been pointing to that Pittsburgh New England game For weeks now. And you could even argue that the Steelers had a bit of a letdown last night against the Baltimore Ravens. Needed to come back in the last seconds at home to the Ravens to win that game, to win their division.

And in the grand scheme of things, this isn't that awful of a loss. Okay? Because the Patriots, they can still go into Pittsburgh. They win that game. They win out. They can still win the number one overall seed. They were missing a lot of players. Guys on the defensive side of the ball, Trey Flowers, Kyle Van Nooy, they were out.

Obviously, Rob Gronkowski's WWE move on the sideline against Buffalo last week loomed kind of large because the Patriots struggled on the offensive side of the ball. But it's still disappointing to see a team that has risen to the occasion in moments like that, that has bought into that next man up philosophy, just sort of lay an egg

for the first three plus quarters of this game. I'm supposed to do good, bad, and ugly here in a second. What good is there to really talk about? Nobody came out of that game with a severe injury. Knock on wood for Patrick Chun there. Maybe that's the best thing you can say about New England tonight. So let's do something different. I know this is the Locked On Patriots podcast.

How about the Miami Dolphins? Let's just tip the hat to them because this was a must-win, do-or-die type game for them. And they came out with a tremendous performance on both sides of the ball. And you can start with Jay Cutler. Say what you want about Jay Cutler. He doesn't seem to care.

He doesn't show emotion. Seemed to care tonight. Seemed to show emotion tonight. Comes out 25-38 for 263 and three touchdowns. And he could have had more. That throw to Grant, gutsy call late in the fourth quarter, that was as good a ball as you can throw. He could have had the dagger and his fourth touchdown pass of the night.

Kenyon Drake, you know, when he came out of Alabama, there were some people wondering if he was going to be more of a gadget-type player. You know, can he learn to run sort of between the tackles, run to the edges at the National Football League level? You know, there were some question marks about Drake coming out of Alabama. And whenever it gets to sort of scoutouting skill positions that aren't quarterbacks, I always turn to Matt Waldman, who's been on the show, who I trust. And when Drake was coming out of Alabama, Matt had reservations.

And in his rookie scouting portfolio, he basically sort of concluded on Drake with saying the NFL is a different animal than the college game. And Drake will not offer anything more than undisciplined gadget play if he doesn't develop the mental side of his game. Well, you saw the mental side of Kenyon Drake's game develop tonight. Look at some of the moves he made in the backfield. You know, Patriots bring a run blitz with Patrick Chun. Chun's in the hole, has Kenya Drake dead to rights

in the backfield, but Drake hits him with a spin move, gets away from it, and then you see the mental side of the game because sometimes guys will hit the spin move there and just cut right up the middle away from it. But Drake knows where the blocking is setting up, spins away outside to the edge,

and cuts up field for a huge gain. You saw Drake in pass protection too. You saw Drake then split out against the Landon Robbins running the vertical route. Just a great all-around game from him. So you have to give him credit. And we talked about pass protection. We talked about

how the Dolphins knocked Tom Brady around the last time these teams played. Well, what'd they do to Tom Brady tonight? They sacked him twice for 10 yards. They hit him six times. They were flushing him around all the time. Defensive coordinator Matt Burke blitzed early and often in this game for some quick throws.

Brady didn't look settled all night. Even in the end when New England strung together a drive that eventually culminated in a field goal with some questionable decision making and play calling near the end, it wasn't like Brady looked comfortable at any point in that game. Matt Burke came in with a game plan

to sort of fluster Tom Brady to make him make quick decisions and they executed that game plan to perfection and finally Xavier Howard he came into this game dead last in PFF grade among cornerbacks dead last

two interceptions on the night. The first, early in the game, New England's open and drive. Brady's looking at Brandon Cooks. They isolate Cooks in a three-by-one formation. He's alone on the left side of the formation. Brady gets the look that he wants. It's a single high look. Cooks has a step on the corner route.

Brady underthrows him. How would the interception? How would play the route perfectly there? Then later in the game, you get Cooks on a step on the corner route. Brady underthrows him. Howard with the interception. Howard played the route perfectly there. Then later in the game, you get Cooks on a post route. Cooks has Howard beat. Brady underthrows it slightly. Howard with great recovery speed to close that gap and make the interception. So the good in this game, honestly, it's the Miami Dolphins.

And I don't know... You know, you could say that the Patriots' defense sort of in the fourth quarter, they did what they needed to do. You know, because this was a 27-10 game when the fourth quarter started. And that Patriots' defense,

they didn't let the Dolphins score again. And you sort of look at what the Dolphins did. Now, after they scored that touchdown to make it 27-10, here's what the Dolphins did. Four plays, five yards, punt. Three plays, four yards, punt. Five plays, 17 yards, punt. Three plays, two yards, punt. Five plays, 17 yards, punt. Three plays, two yards, punt. Five plays, 16 yards, punt.

Now the Dolphins had already hunted 27 on the Patriots defense. So it's not like you could say it was a good job all around. But down the stretch there, the Patriots defense did what they needed to do. I mean, how many times did they get the Patriots offense the ball back? One, two, three, four, five. Five times

down the stretch of that game. And what did the Patriots do on those five possessions? One touchdown, one field goal. It's hard to win games like that. Hard to win games like that. Now we get to talk about the bad and the ugly. That's ahead right here with me, Mark Schofield

in Locked on Patriots. Alright, let's talk about some of the bad stuff and really we'll stay focused on the defensive side of the ball in That first three quarters You know what they did or failed to do to allow Miami to hang 27 on New England and in the first three quarters of this game and it started early You know Dolphins go right down the field field. They score a field goal on their opening drive.

You know, and they strung together some big plays. You know, they put Jarvis Landry in the backfield during that drive. They threw a little swing around to him. Jonathan Jones, who I raved about the last time these two teams met about how he was making immediate tackles. Well, he misses on one. That turns into a big game. The defense eventually stiffens.

They force the field goal. Okay, you figure, fine. They go down the field. They have their scripted plays. You hold them to three. Tom Brady will get the ball back. They'll go down the field. It'll be 7-3 before you know it, and everybody can calm down.

Well, Brady throws a pick, and we're right back on the defensive side of the ball. Again, they hold them to three and you would think in a game where you see the New England Patriots Tom Brady throws an interception the other team gets two possessions and they only get six points out of it you figure you're gonna be in good shape. But this was not that kind of night. But staying with the defense, when Miami comes back and sort of answers the New England touchdown with a touchdown of their own, you see the vertical route.

Kenyon Drake had matched on a Landon Roberts. Now I know that had guys like Van Noy been in the lineup you probably wouldn't see a Landon Roberts matched up one-on-one outside isolated against Kenny Drake on a go route. That's probably a play that happened due in part to injuries.

But it was no secret that that's what Miami was probably going to do. It's no secret what Kenny and Drake could do in that kind of situation. So I'm surprised that they sort of let that to happen. But they go down the field then after that play. They score on the next play. Holden penalty takes the touchdown off the board. But then we get to a third and seven situation. And if you're going to get off the field as a defense on third down,

on third and seven, you get a shot to make a play to get off the field. You've got to make that play. Jordan Richards, blindside blitz against Jay Cutler. Has a free shot at the quarterback. Cutler sees it at the last second. Is able to spin away. You've got to get Cutler to the ground there. Period.

Full stop. End of story. Roberts whiffs. Cutler evades. Cutler evades it rolls out hits a receiver first down first down and goal then on that first down and goal play they run if they fake the toss Cutler boots to the right Eric, who we were raving about last week, he loses contain, loses the edge, allows Cutler to get outside of him.

Landry's in a flat touchdown. Those are two plays that just can't happen. If you're Jordan Richards, you've got to get Cutler to the ground. You can't let him spin away from that. That has to become a fourth down. So, fine. It's first and goal now.

You're Eric Lee. You can't lose the edge like that. So, it was 7-6. Dolphins go right down the field, score their first touchdown of the game. Now it's 13-7. 13-10 game at halftime. Defense then Patriots throw a pick on their opening drive.

Defense comes back on the field and what happens? They go right down the field. Dol. Defense comes back on the field. And what happens? They go right down the field. Dolphins go right down the field. Five plays, 46 yards, and a touchdown. And what did we see on that drive? Swing to Landry out of the backfield. Third and fourth situation.

Cutler has all day back there. There's no pass rush. He's able to find Kenny Stills. Next play, Flowers loses contain. Devin McCourty has to make a great play. Sideline to sideline type play. Holds it to a run to a gain of four, but then vertical route to Grant.

He beats Butler. It's a 50-50 ball. Butler's kind of out of position. Grant wins at the catch point. Touchdown. Now it's 20-10. And on their next drive,

Miami's next drive, after the Patriots go 3-0, you face a 3-1 situation. Jones with a defensive pass interference penalty. Interferes with Landry trying to make a catch. Instead of a punt, it's now 1st and 10.

Patriots force another 3rd down, a 3rd and 4 play. They run a crossing route with Devontae Parker. Marquis Flowers, he's the underneath hole defender there, does nothing to reroute him, does nothing to slow him up, which is, again, something we talked about the last time these two teams played, those crossing routes. Broke down a piece, put a piece on LockedOnPatriots.com, breaking this all down.

Where they gave Jonathan Jones some help on those crossing routes, rerouting Jarvis Landry. Well, this time Flowers is the underneath hole defender. He's got to see that crossing route, get a shoulder, get an arm, get something on him to give Gilmore some help. He doesn't. Parker just runs that crosser away from Gilmore. First down.

And then the next play is the run by Drake where Chun whiffs in the backfield. That sets him up with a first and goal at the four. Cutler's forced to throw it away on first down, but on the second down down there's a zone coverage look and Landon Roberts and Eric Lee just just they just lose Landry on just a sit route over the middle and he's wide open for a touchdown and it's 27 to 10 from there the defense But, no, you gave up 27 points. Now, sometimes Tom Brady can do enough to sort of overcome that,

but not tonight, and we'll get to that next when we talk about the ugly from this game, and there was a lot of it. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Okay, let's start with the ugly from this game. And as I said, there was a lot of ugly to go around. And there's probably no better place to start than this. 0 for 11. Patriots were 0 for 11 on third downs in this game. I don't see how you can win. I don't see how he can win.

I don't see how any team could win when they go 0-4-11 on third down. Last time they went without a third down conversion in a game, you probably heard this during the broadcast, 1991. I was starting high school. 0-4-11 on third downs. How'd they start this game?

3 plays, end with an interception 3 plays, end with a punt 6 plays, 2 yards 1 interception and I believe 1 minute and 48 seconds time of possession in the first quarter I probably had more of a sweat just watching the game eight seconds time of possession in the first quarter. I probably had more of a sweat just watching the game than Tom Brady did playing in the first quarter.

Just a horrific offensive night. You know, numbers-wise, Brady 24-43, 233, one touchdown, two picks. It's hard to win like that. And Brady looked off all night. His first throw of the game, they're trying to set up a screen. Lawrence Timmons blitzes off the edge. Brady is forced to turf it. The second throw of the game was the pick to Cooks.

Again, Howard played it well, but the route was still open. Brady throws a better ball there, gets it over Xavier Howard's head. That's a big game, but he underthrows it. Their second drive, his next two throws, first and ten, he has white in the flat, underthrows it, incomplete.

Third and eight deep, come back to Hogan. Pass was broken up by Veneer. And it easily could have been intercepted. I mean, that's just a bad start to the game. It didn't really get better, and he never settled into this game. There were moments when he made some good throws, but from start to finish of this game,

Tom Brady just looked off. Protection was a problem too. They got home to Brady twice, but he was pressured a lot throughout this game. Matt Burke did some stuff with blitzes. They did some stuff to get to Brady. Joe Thune. I highlighted Shaq Mason's game on LockedOnPatriots.com last week.

And I mentioned that in pass protection, he was going up against some guys that did have sacks in the game. But it wasn't against him. They were always against Joe Thune. Thune got beat a couple of times on this night. He's going to need to do a better job going forward. Period. Full stop. But the offense was

just off all night long. Run game. I've been talking up this run game for so long now. Deion Lewis, five carries for 17 yards. now. Dion Lewis, five carries for 17 yards. Rex Burkhead, five carries for eight yards. Ten carries for 25 yards. I mean, I'm almost embarrassed having talked up this run game for so many weeks now,

and they come out and they lay up that kind of performance. Now, part of it's game script. I mean, you get down 17, obviously the run game kind of goes out the window. Yeah, but that's, you know, that you can't have. Penalties, penalties, some stupid penalties in this game. James White, okay. You get first and goal in the closing minutes

of the one-inch line. You go empty, you bring James White in motion. You run a sprint out pass with Tom Brady. Incredulous play call to begin with, but okay. James White, you can't start up field. So first and goal of the one-inch line turns into first and goal of the six. Then you get a holding penalty on Nate Solder who's getting beat off the edge. And suddenly you're almost out of the red zone.

And so that was stupid. I mean, I should have just renamed this good, bad, and stupid. That was probably the better way to break this game down. Good, bad, and stupid because there was a lot of stupid. And finally, that onside kick attempt. Long-time friend of mine, Jason Burke. At Jay Burke, Jay Burke on Twitter. Compared it to a drag bunt from one of our Little League teammates.

And I think that's unfair to our Little League teammate. Because our Little League teammate that we was talking about was a good bunter. That onside kick, my cat could have done a better job. So this was just an ugly game in all three phases, at least

in spots, if not for the entire night. The past couple of weeks, I've given out game balls. I'm going to do it again. Here's a game ball to you, the listener, for sticking through this podcast as I vent for 25 minutes, or for those of you that stayed with this game, unless you would just hate watching it because you are happy to see the Patriots lose. But that was just... It's not often you see the Patriots just come out and fall flat

in a hat and t-shirt game. And we saw that. And I'm sure that there will be speculation that this team was just looking ahead. And I find it hard to believe that a Bill Belichick coach team would be caught looking ahead in a trap game type situation

but maybe that's what we saw. But they need to take this game tape dump it over the Atlantic before they head home and just move on to Pittsburgh and that's what we're going to do for the rest of this week.

We're not even going to tape Tuesday's show is out Wednesday whatever it's out the window it's canceled I don't care. We're going to do for the rest of this week. We're not even going to... Tape Tuesday show is out. Wednesday, whatever. It's out the window. It's canceled. I don't care. We're going to start right into the Steelers for the next show.

I'm going to be talking to Alex Cazor, a good friend of mine, who writes for Steelers Depot. Then we'll do our crossover show with John Ledyard. We're on to Pittsburgh. Forget this. This game is over. It's done with.

I had a chance to rant about it for 25 minutes. Thank you for listening to that. But we're moving on. Don't forget to check out our friends who I mentioned at the beginning of the show. Please give Stakem a follow. I'm trying to show Stakem some love and get them verified. Also, X versus O Sports, XVSOSports on Twitter, XVSOSports.myshopify.com. Check out their stuff. It's really, really cool. I think some of you will like it. You can probably get some stuff in before Christmas,

this holiday season. You can buy some gifts for the sports fan in your life. I know Hanukkah is about to start. Probably some time to get some stuff there for the sports fan in your life. Check know Hanukkah is about to start. Probably some time to get some stuff there for the sports fan in your life. Check that out. Let them know that I sent you, either when you reach out to them on Twitter

or if you do buy something, let them know that you heard about their stuff from me from the Locked On Patriots podcast. Patriots drop one tonight. We're on to Pittsburgh. Hope you'll stay there with me until we talk again everybody keep it locked right here to me Mark Schofield

in Locked on Patriots