Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 16, 2018 - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Episode Date: December 17, 2018

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In the 2009 New England Patriots season they faced a difficult three-game stretch started in mid-november. On November 15th they had a Sunday night game against the then unbeaten Indianapolis Colts on the road. That game would be known for a decision that Bill Belichick made late in the game going forward on a fourth and two rather than pump the ball back to Peyton Manning in the explosive Colts offense. The Patriots failed to convert, the Colts scored, and the Patriots lost 35-34. The next week, the Patriots were able to sort of get back in the win column with a win over the New York Jets 31-14, a team that had struggled, although they had beaten the Patriots

back in week two. But then they faced another test against another undefeated team, the New Orleans Saints on Monday Night Football down in the bayou. And that was a game that the Patriots ended up losing 38-17. And as was pointed out by Haseefa Patel in the Lockdown Patriots Slack channel, there's a moment from that game that was caught by NFL films that made its way into a number of post-season highlight packages, as it were, and into the Bill Belichick of football life. And it's a moment with Bill Belichick and his quarterback Tom Brady standing next to each other on the sideline and Belichick lamenting that he just cannot get that team ready to play.

Watching the New England Patriots lose to the Pittsburgh Steelers the way they did today has me wondering if we will see a similar moment between Brady and Belichick when this season's story is finally told. I'm Mark Schofield, and welcome to yet another Melancholy in the infinite sadness installment of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield here with you on a melancholy

in the infinite sadness installment of the Lockdown Patriots podcast and switching the intro up a little bit just kind of felt right. Although, to be honest, not a lot feels right right now. New England Patriots, as you just heard, as you probably know by now, go down into Pittsburgh in a game which they needed to win to keep their playoff position alive, to keep their hopes for a first-round bye alive now that the Houston Texans had won on Saturday. And the Patriots fail to get it done.

And I don't know how you feel about this game. I can tell you from taking the temperature of the room over the Locked on Patriots failed to get it done. And I don't know how you feel about this game. I can tell you from taking the temperature of the room over the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, there's a thought that this might have been one of the more embarrassing losses of the New England Patriots in recent history. But it's not a good feeling right now. We're going to dive into the good, the bad, and the ugly

much more of the second to those last two categories than the good. But before we do that, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites. By now you probably know the places that I work for, but it's always good to remind you, especially for the new listeners to the show. I welcome you all in. Unfortunately, to a melancholy and the infinite sadness installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast.

And this was a game that it's hard to sort of describe how this one ended up shaking out because I think if you had told me just after Pittsburgh's opening drive, if you had told me, look, right now, put your money on the table. Pittsburgh goes down the field and scores on their opening drive. How do you think this one turns out? I would have told you, look, hands down, Patriots aren't winning this game. This was that road defense we've grown accustomed to this season that they go out they get punched in the mouth on their opening defensive drive it seems like they can't get it

together on the defensive side of the ball early in a game but then look patriots they go right down the field and score and they get a coverage bust they get two guys run three guys basically if you count the safety running with j Josh Gordon on a double fake inside run, fake the end around, Yankee-type concept. Chris Hogan is wide open. And you're thinking, man, they're going to go right down the field and score on these guys basically at will. If it's going to be this easy, I would have said, okay, look,

they're going to be fine. They're going to figure this one out. Then they get the pressure. They get a sack on Pittsburgh's next possession. You get a third and 16. You get pressure again, force the punt. And I'm thinking, look, they're going to go down the field and score. First play on that next possession, Brady under center,

play action, backside post route to Josh Gordon for 14 yards. And you're thinking, here we go. James Devlin. He gets a nice little hitch, catch and run, plus 12. Here we go, right? Then you get a Julian Edelman drop. And things change. Look, I'm going to talk about the good now,

but it almost felt like watching this game, when they were down by you know seven at the half it felt like they should have been down by more you know when they were down by four at the end of the third quarter

it felt like they should have been down by more when they were down by seven it felt like they should have been down by more you know I'm going to ding the defense a bit but the defense did a pretty good job at times in this game. They forced some turnovers.

They get Tom Brady the ball back in some situations. Special teams pins them a couple of times, but then the defense gives up long drives. It just feels like they failed to play a complete game. They failed to play a good enough game, a good enough complete game, to win against Pittsburgh. And we've seen this week in and week out with this team on the road. I'm supposed to be talking about some good stuff,

so I will mention some things in the good column. Look, if you had told me before this game started, Antonio Brown is going to get four catches for 49 yards and one touchdown. Juju Smith-Schuster is going to get four catches for 40 yards and get held out of the end zone. I would have been fine with that. I would have been absolutely fine with that. Guys like J.C. Jackson, guys like Stephon Gilmore,

I know Antonio Brown got a touchdown, but it wasn't against Gilmore in coverage. They were going to switch vertical concept on that touchdown. Those two guys balled out today. And for a lot of this, you had J.C. Jackson one-on-one with Juju Smith-Schuster a lot of times. The Patriots seem to trust that kid, and it certainly pays off. And he was tested early. First play of the game, they go nine ball to Smith-Schuster,

and J.C. Jackson is right there step for step with him. You get a play a little bit later in the game, the overthrow by Roethlisberger in the direction of Juju Smith-Schuster. Jackson's running step for step with him on that bender, that crosser row from right to left. He's in good position. Forces him to try to get it over him. Throws it over his head.

It's an interception. Pittsburgh at the end of their fifth offensive drive. It's a third and two situation. Juju Smith-Schuster on a little pivot type route along the left side. Juju and JC Jackson again in good coverage. This kid had a great game. The other interception. Harmon again with a tip at interception. It's Gilmore now fighting through Rodgers. They try a rub concept to get Antonio Brown open. Gilmore fights through it, gets his hand to the catch point, deflects it. Harmon's there for the interception. Fantastic play at that moment.

And then, absolutely pivotal play. Pittsburgh, third and seven on the plus 31 on the New England 31, their last offensive possession. They're up by four. They're obviously looking to get the ball into the end zone, and if they do, it's game over. You go zero blitz, leaving J.C. Jackson one-on-one. Fade ball to Smith-Schuster, and J.C. Jackson wins at the catch point.

And it's a textbook play. The way the coaches at New England teach it, I've talked about it before, rather than sort of raking down at the catch point, they fight up through the pocket. That's what they call it. That's how they term it. There's a great clinic presentation by Matt Patricia at Notre Dame showing clips of how they fight up through the pocket. He played it perfectly, breaks it up.

They're forced to settle for three. Now you give the ball back to TB12 and you get a chance to go out and tie the game. So I thought that was fantastic. I thought Ryan Allen had a good game. Had a couple of punts downed inside the 10-yard line. Obviously the one people remember was the punt that was tipped first by Jones, then to Burkhead, and then finally downed at the 1-2. Fantastic plays by those two guys.

Very impressive there. And we mentioned Harmon. The guys made some big plays for this team. Some clutch interceptions. Had the ones last year. You know, had the one in this very field, on this very stadium, against this very team. But it wasn't enough.

Some individual plays. We talked about the touchdown on their opening drive. We mentioned an Allen punt that was down. We mentioned the down there. Mentioned the overthrow interception. Mentioned that there's not a lot of other good stuff to talk about. New England's eighth drive of the game. This is when they were down 14-10.

This was the drive that ended up with the Brady interception, which we'll talk about. But they had a second and four play. And Dave Archibald over in the lockdown Patriots Slack Channel pointed this out. It looked like Brady and Edelman might have had something in mind that they might have waved off. Archibald, he posited that maybe they had a trick play call that they waved off because it seemed like Edelman sort of waved behind his back with his right arm like they had

something called. They waved it off. They go play action to Gronkowski for a gain of about 15 or so. One of the few times Gronk was able to sort of get involved. Another time that Gronk got involved was, look, later in that drive, a third and eight. They needed a big play. You get Gronkowski on a slant route over the middle. He gets hit short, but he's able to fight through contact and fight through the

safety. He gets there late. The reason why Edmonds gets there late, Roma wanted to say that the safety was sort of Edmonds. The rookie safety was playing a little bit too deep. If you watch that play, you watch Brady's eyes. He looks Edmonds off. Edmonds bails a little bit deep as a result. That little bit of eye manipulation from the quarterback creates enough space to make that throw. So good play there. That's it. That's going through this game over and over and over again, going through my notes.

Wasn't a lot of good stuff to talk about. We're going to talk about the bad and a little bit later the ugly. But first, maybe you took a bath this weekend. Maybe you put some money on the New England Patriots to win this one. And maybe it didn't go right. And maybe you're thinking, look, I've got to get my bankroll back as we get into the holiday season. Because, look, watching football, it's fun, but it's more entertaining

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And I will start big picture. And I think it's important to sort of reset ourselves and our expectations with a look at sort of the real-world implications of this loss. And I started the show in the cold open talking about that 2009 Patriots team. And I think, you know, you sort of look back at that team. And I mentioned that Belichick moment, talking about he can't get that team ready to go. And you look at a team that lost their first road game of the season at the Jets. And that was a good Jets team that made it to the conference championship game.

You know, then they lose a late Sunday afternoon game at Denver. That was the Josh McDaniels era. You know, then they lose, you know, a game at Indianapolis like we talked about. They lose the game against New Orleans on the road. They lose the following week at the Miami Dolphins. They end their season with a loss at the Texans, and that was a game that perhaps bigger picture, the issue there was the loss of Welker in that,

but that was a team that sort of struggled on the road. And encapsulated in that moment between Brady and Belichick is the fact that Belichick's saying, he can't get this team ready to go. He can't get them ready for whatever reason. However he's tried to get through to them, he can't get them ready to go. And we're seeing some similarities now with this team,

with this year's New England Patriots team, because it's a team that has struggled on the road. And look, last week it was more an issue of the offense certainly had a good game, but the defense, they struggled early. It's a team that lost games down in Jacksonville, a game at Detroit, a game at Tennessee, last week against Miami, now at Pittsburgh. Thankfully, they get their final two games at Tennessee, last week against Miami, now at Pittsburgh. Thankfully, they get their final two games at home, which is a good thing against the Bills and the Jets,

two teams that are struggling through some lumps with some rookie quarterbacks. But looking at big picture right now, they're the three seed. They're the three seed, and remember how that panned out back in 2009 they host the baltimore ravens and when you were still sort of settling into your couch to watch that game ray rice was in the end zone ravens hunt 24 on new england in the first quarter and that game was never really in doubt from the start. And if the playoffs started next weekend, New England

Patriots would be hosting a playoff game in the first round and they would be hosting the sixth seed, as they did in 2009, who would again be the Baltimore Ravens. And you might trust the Patriots to sort of win that game and get to the division round.

Do you trust them winning two games on the road to get to the Super Bowl? Entering today, it was hard to trust them winning one game on the road. Now you might ask them to do it twice? And sure, if the playoffs ended right now and all the top-seeded teams advanced, yeah, they could go down to Houston. And yeah, sure, you could see them winning that game.

But then what? Do you see them then going into Arrowhead and winning? Maybe. The big picture implications of this are tough. Let's talk more micro here on the game itself. I'm going to ding Patrick Chun here at the outset, and maybe it's a bit unfair. He hasn't seemed like the same type of player. I know there were times this year when I talked about his ability

to play in the box and play and run support. And it seems like that element of his game is still there. But as a coverage defender, it seems like it's a bit lacking. Obviously, the first touchdown to Vance McDonald, he was beat on that. Roethlisberger had some time, which is, of course, another issue which we could spend an entire show talking about. But McDonald sort of pivots back inside, sort of an adjustment,

and Chun can't stay with him. Later in the game, there's a pivotal play where it's basically a Y-ISO design, and Chun can't get the job done in coverage. And as good as the guys like Gilmore and J.C. Jackson were against their top two guys, when you're going to be devoting a ton of attention and bracketing and cone coverage and things like that with a guy like Antonio Brown, as they did at times, they did some cover one robber and rat stuff where they bring the safety down to help on them, on A.B. specifically,

the other guys are going to have to do their job as well because you know that's what the quarterback is going to be forced to look with the football. And there are times when Chung couldn't get it down. The offensive mindset, and maybe this is evidence of a bigger problem. And I don't want to go too far down that road. But it seems like this game the minnesota game for example you know there were times when this when josh mcdaniel seemed to lack trust in something in the past game whether it was his tackles whether it was the ability of guys to get

open downfield whatever reason whether it was the quarterback, it seemed like there was this conservative approach. And you go third and four down near the red zone. It's the drive that ended in the Stephen Gostowski field goal to make it a 14-10 game. And you go tunnel to Julian Edelman. And maybe it's you're concerned about the pass rush. Maybe you're concerned about the coverage, whatever reason. But calls like that, when you're basically saying to Tom Brady,

we're going to run an extended handoff here, it's that kind of offensive mindset that has me scratching my head at times. And we've seen it time and time again this year. Now, maybe it was a schematic thing. Maybe they saw something with those looks against Pittsburgh, but it hasn't just been the Steelers game they've done this. And they did this a couple of times and they didn't really make some headway with it. You know, they had before the Brady interception, you know, they had a first and goal at the five. You know, they actually first and goal at the 15.

They run sort of that fake end around the throwback screen to white and it gets blown up. Great play call, but the Steelers were ready for it. And then the next play is the interception, which we'll get to right now because that was the first time Tom Brady had been picked in the red zone since 2016, which is a feat in and of itself. And it speaks to Brady's greatness over this back half of his career here that he's still been so great down in the red zone. When I scout quarterbacks, you know, a lot of the sort of production metrics I look at

how they do in red zone, how they do on third and fourth down, how they do in the fourth quarter. Sort of those money-down moments. That's when you want your quarterback to be at his best. And so the fact that Brady threw his first interception in the red zone since 2016, it speaks to his longevity and his greatness. Sure, this was a bad pick. And yes, he was pressured. I drummed up at the booth and said he was trying to throw it away.

I'm not so sure about that. I think he saw Grant get an open and thought, Hayden was going to have to carry Edelman vertically, and I've got a shot here to get this in, and he never really expected Hayden to be able to get back to the ball. It was a bad throw. And it was the second sort of curious, down-in-the-red-zone type decisions

that Brady has made in two weeks. Last week, it was taking the sack when he thought he had a timeout. And again, a quarterback throwing his first interception in the red zone since 2016. You expect him to be good down there, and 99 times out of 100, he is. But in the last two weeks, he wasn't. And it cost him. Finally, last thing I'll mention here in the bad before we talk about a couple of plays,

and then we'll go to the ugly. The long drives. You know, Pittsburgh, on their third possession of the game, they get pinned at the eight, thanks to an Allen punt that was covered well by Slater. They get a holding penalty on first down, so it's really first and 14 at the four. to an allen punt that was covered well by slater they get a holding penalty on first down so it's really first and 14 at the four and what do they do they go down the

field and score a touchdown you know jim nance up in the booth was calling it you know a 92 yard drive technically first and 14 at the four they went 96 yards on you and then after that incredible punt that was down at the one, you get the interception, but they ripped off. Look at what Pittsburgh did to start that drive. They got a run from Ridley. Stephon Ridley, of all people, goes for 12 on first down.

Roethlisberger climbs, hits Antonio Brown for a gain of 24. Samuel left side, gain of 12. First down, first down, first down. Roethlisberger play strength avoids climbs the pocket

gets at least throws it away but they ripped off three straight first downs didn't even get to a second down until they were in midfield until they were basically

in New England territory the defense had two opportunities really pin them deep switch field position on them and they didn't do it and so that's tough to swallow and so putting that all together that's a whole lot of bad to talk about and we haven't started started talking about some specific plays you know we mentioned the chun fans mcdonald touchdown no reason to sort of belabor that one a little bit. I mentioned this, the touchdown drive.

Again, that was just bad. The touchdown drive they had when they started basically on their own four-yard line. Let them go 96 yards on you like that. As a defense, you can't do that. You've got to at least get off the field at some point. I mentioned the third and four tunnel to Edelman. I don't understand that play call. We mentioned the Brady pick.

I guess I've kind of run through a lot of this stuff. It was cavalcade of bad right there. And we haven't even gotten to the ugly, which we're about to talk about next on this melancholy in the infinite sadness installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back on this melancholy in the infinite sadness installment of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back on this melancholy in the infinite sadness installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. We're going to get to the ugly, of which there was lots,

from the New England Patriots loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers down at Hydesfield 17-10. Before I do, though, I want to thank everybody who participated in the little Locked on Patriots challenge we had over at DraftKings. Thanks for all who came out. I guess the one good thing about this game is I won a whopping $1.18 or something like that because I came in second. My incredibly stacked lineup of basically all Patriots players because I was like,

look, you know, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right here, okay? I'm going to do it right. I'm going to have, you know, my boys here, my peeps, the guys that I trusted, the guys that got me here, right? So I had a stacked lineup of the following players. Tom Brady, Robert Ronkowski, Josh Gordon, James White, Sonny Michel, and the player that scored the most points for me, Jalen Samuels. And the only reason why I had the Pittsburgh Steelers running back

is because you're forced to pick at least one player from each team in these sort of one-game matches over at DraftKings. And I was like, look, you know, I get to stay under the cap. I really wanted one of the other receivers, but I'll go with Jalen Samuels because why not? If he has a good game, well, then maybe the Patriots game played off letting him beat you has, you know, come to fruition. They've held Juju Smith-Schuster and Antonio Brown to, well then, maybe the Patriots game played of letting them beat you has come to fruition. They've held Juju Smith-Schuster and Antonio Brown

to just eight catches between the two of them. So you've got to like your chances there, right? Right? You may also have noticed that as opposed to last week's episode which was sponsored by our great friends over at Spite Seltzer

and their Kip Cod Cranberry, which is ever so crisp and refreshing. I'm shying away from the hard stuff tonight because it's going to be a hard stuff type night after this game. And I could have a clear head, clear heart, full heart to do this show. So I'll be climbing into a bottle of Tito's when we get done here. But first, the bad. And the penalties. I think it's sort of the easy thing to sort of say. And it's not that, oh my God, the officiating in this game was bad.

There were maybe a couple of calls here and there that I disagreed with. But these were pre-snap penalties. The penalties killed them. They were flagged 14 times for 106 yards, as opposed to 4 for 40 for Pittsburgh. But pre-snap penalties with a bunch. I mean, I think they had either 8 or 9, maybe 10. No, maybe 10 pre-snap penalties.

Because let's see, they did have a false start on the final drive. And then see. I know they had, there was at one point where they set it. Seven to pre-snap penalties, so seven. So I guess they had eight. Eight pre-snap penalties. That's false starts. And I get that it's loud there and it's a crazy environment, but you're just shooting yourself in the foot. And of course, the hold and penalty on Shaq Mason,

which was a hold, can't ignore that one. That's something from a second and five, you know, down near the goal line, back to a, you know, down at the 11, to a second and 15 at the 21. And that drive, that just killed that last drive. You know, because the Patriots, they were moving the ball pretty well. And the play that it occurred on was an incompletion to Gronkowski where Brady sort of missed him. But after then, you know, Steelers were able to just basically drop seven, drop eight,

and just say, look, you're not going to throw it. You can't do it now. So that really just killed them. The penalties were just critically, critically bad mistakes. Athleticism. And this was a huge topic of discussion entering the last offseason. They had to get more athletic. And it was a huge topic of discussion,

sort of entering the post-game analysis aspect of the discussion over the lockdown Patriots' slack channel. A lot of discussion by everybody over how unathletic this team looked, basically on both sides of the ball. You know, just guys that don't get a ton of separation, guys that can't get off blocks or can't stay with the receivers. And, you know, maybe it's unfair to John Simon to point him out at this moment.

But if, say, last April, somebody would have told you that in week 15 of the 2018 season, with perhaps their playoff life on the line, or at least their postseason first-round buy on the line, the Patriots would have their defense on the field,

a critical third and nine against Ben Roethlisberger, and you would have John Simon in the flat, covering a running back out of the backfield, but putting a bond with Ben Roethlisberger, and you would have John Simon in the flat covering a running back out of the backfield, but putting a bind with Ben Roethlisberger, escaping the pocket towards him. And now it's John Simon putting that bind. It's a tough spot, but that's where you'd like a little bit of athleticism where he could potentially stay a little bit with Samuel and that if Roethlisberger does decide to take off with it,

you can at least get him down before he picks up nine yards and rumbles and tumbles forward for a first down. They seem unathletic at a number of spots on both sides of the ball. And it's a problem. It's a problem when you are unathletic in a sport that requires athleticism at most, if not every single position on the field. It's a problem. Backside run defense, backside contain, backside run fits.

The Steelers did such a great job with that toss-counter design where they would get in the gun, they would toss it to Samuel going right, and then he'd come back to the left. It's a counter, it's a designed cutback. So well executed. Pittsburgh hats off to them. They must have seen something on tape. But look, New England is going to do,

what do we always stress on this show and elsewhere? Set the edge. Set the edge. So they do such a good job. They work so hard to sort of get into the edge. Sometimes the backside fits aren't there. Guys good job. They work so hard to sort of get into the edge. Sometimes the backside fits aren't there. Guys are over-pursuing whatever, so you play to that. You run this toss counter. Samuel must have gotten 40 yards on that design alone of his over 100 yards, I will add.

So that was bad. And the drops. Edelman had two big ones. Gordon had one where he was trying to catch it with his elbow. He looked like a T-Rex. I get it. Edelman has had some drops at times. Gordon was going to get popped if he caught that.

That's the job. That's the gig. And they stun. They all stun. And as far as some other specific stuff, look, I just mentioned the Edelman drop on a first and ten on their second drive of the game. That was bad. It was similar

to a drop that he had. It was in Minnesota a couple weeks ago. You can't have that. The drop, the Gordon drop, that came on, I believe, as their first possession of the second half. And look, that got off to a good start. So, on a Michelle, on a counter, plus 14.

Yay. First and 10. Another counter, basically the same play. Just get one. Okay, now it's in second and nine. Then they come out with this sort of pistol diamond formation where you've got Brady with Michelle behind him. You've got Cordell Patterson, and you've got Burkhead.

And you're basically running power with Cordell Patterson, and you've got Burkhead, and you're basically running power with Cordell Patterson as your lead blocker. Take that play. Take that page out of the playbook. Light it on fire. I never want to see it again. And then the next play is the Gordon drop. I get that maybe you're trying to show them

a nice little different look. It's second and nine. Show them that look on first and ten, not on second and nine. We mentioned the cutback designs, the Simon play in the flat, the hold them by Mason, whatever. I'm going to take these notes and burn them now. So here we are, friends, two games left to go. And the ultimate question that you have to ask yourselves right now, whether you're on the train to work, whether you're turning over and over in bed still on Sunday night because you can't sleep after seeing that, whether you're just at the office trying to get through your day, driving your delivery wherever you are. First,

thanks for listening. Hey, kudos for that. And staying here to the end. But the ultimate question you have to ask yourself is right now, right now with two games to go, how much do you trust this team? They say that you are as good as your record, right? This is a 9-5 team with a 3-5 record on the road. With losses at Jacksonville, at Detroit, at Tennessee, at Miami, and at Pittsburgh. Of those, five. One, two, three, four, five road losses.

Maybe two of those teams are getting it. Maybe. You could say that three are at least in the picture, technically. The Titans right now would be the eighth seed. The Dolphins would be the ninth. The Steelers are in right now. So you might have, when all is said and done,

five road losses to one, a combined one playoff team. And as it stands right now, do you trust a team with that record winning two games on the road just to get to a Super Bowl. I'm not so sure you can say that

you're going to trust that team. And maybe things can change. Things do change in the NFL. Things can change fast. But I keep coming to that Brady Belichick moment from 2009 with Belichick lamenting that he can't get this team ready to go. And I just think that when this story is told about this 2018 Patriots season, we're going to see a similar clip where Brady or Belichick just saying, I just, I can't

get them to where they need to be. I will be back on Tuesday for a Tape Tuesday show. I still, this one's raw, so I don't know if I'm going to do a recap or we're going to look ahead to Buffalo again, or maybe we're going to break down Pitbull's interesting attempt at covering Africa by Toto. I don't know what I'm going to do on Tape Tuesday.

I'll put out a poll for it sometime on Twitter on Monday. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofieldofford and locked on patriots