Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 19, 2017 - Tape Tuesday

Episode Date: December 19, 2017

On this Tape Tuesday episode of Locked On Patriots, Mark Schofield looks at two critical plays from Sunday evening. Plus, we take a look at other action around the NFL during Week 15 and look ahead to some Week 16 playoff scenarios.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good morning and welcome into Locked on Patriots for Tuesday, December 19th. Mark Schofield here with you in the big chair as always. You can follow my work on Twitter at Mark Schofield. You can follow my work over at InsideThePylon, InsideThePylon.com. We are getting ramped up for our draft guide, which you should all be excited about. You can follow my work over at Bleacher Report. I am the quarterback scout for the NFL 1000 Project. Quarterback rankings up today.

How high will Tom Brady be? You'll have to click and find out. Also, later this week, we will have our bottom five players at every position. I'm going to get a chance to write about the bottom five quarterbacks in the NFL right now. So be on the lookout for that. What we're going to do today is usually our Tape Tuesday show. We're going to get to some tape stuff later in the show. First we're going to talk a little wraparound action.

Some of the other Week 15 action. Taking a look at some games with some implications for the playoffs, some implications for the Patriots, as well as some other stuff that I noticed while I was making my usual Monday tour around the NFL. Also, we're going to talk playoff scenarios ahead for Week 16. As we look ahead to Week 16, what do Patriots fans want to look for, root for, and some of the other stuff that's going to go down this weekend? And then finally, as I said, your Tape Tuesday show, looking at some of the critical plays on both offense and defense

from New England's improbable 27-24 victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers. First, we'll start in the AFC. I want to start with that Saturday night tilt between Kansas City Chiefs Los Angeles Chargers this was basically for the AFC West title Chiefs able to come away with the win in that game pull out the victory 30-13 what was notable to me

Chiefs able to get the ground game going a bit. Ground game had struggled for them in recent weeks. They get it going with Kareem Hunt. 24 carries for 155 yards and a touchdown. Probably shouldn't have been that much of a surprise though. Coming into this game, the Chargers basically a bottom

6, bottom 7 unit in terms of defending the run over football outsiders. Their run defense, their DVOA against the run 26th in the league. Perhaps it's not a surprise that the Chiefs were able to get the ground game going. Maybe it's a situation where that tells us more about where the Chargers are against the run as a defense more than can the Chiefs really get that ground game going. But that win basically gives the Chiefs really the inside track now to that AFC West title. They've got an 8-6 record right now.

Chargers sit in at 7-7. They have tiebreakers over both the Chargers and the Raiders who lost on Sunday night basically eliminating their chances at the AFC West. So it looks like barring some sort of epic collapse, the Chiefs are going to get in. So a big win for the Kansas City Chiefs. Another game to look at from an AFC perspective, obviously that AFC East tilt between the Dolphins and the Bills. Dolphins coming off their Monday night surprising victory over the New England Patriots going up and the Bills. Dolphins coming off their Monday night surprising victory

over the New England Patriots going up against the Bills. Bills keeping their playoff hopes alive with a 24-16 win at home against the Dolphins. This was a game that obviously kind of a must-win type game for both teams. Tyrod Taylor, another sort of quiet, unassuming performance at the quarterback spot. 17 of 29 for 224 yards. One touchdown.

He also had a touchdown run on the football as well. LaShawn McCoy, you know, one touchdown run on the football, another touchdown as a receiver. You know, this sort of sets the stage for a really interesting matchup, which we're going to get to, that Patriots-Bills tilt coming up this weekend. But for the Dolphins, a tough loss for them. Cutler throws three interceptions. His struggles continue.

Makes you kind of wonder about last Monday night and what he was able to do against the Patriots. But big win for Buffalo. Certainly keeps them alive. Right now they are in. With teams like Baltimore on the outside. Baltimore and Buffalo both have 8-6 records. Buffalo holds a tiebreaker right now. That might not continue depending on how the rest of the game shake out. There's a tiebreaker right now. That might not continue depending on how the rest of the game shake out.

There's a tiebreaker that might flip based on strength of schedule, I think, between those two teams. But a big win for the Bills. That keeps them in the mix. We will have a crossover show later in the week with Kevin Massari again from Locked On Bills getting ready for that tilt between the Patriots

and the Buffalo Bills. Ravens-Browns, another win for the Baltimore Ravens, yet another loss for the Cleveland Browns. Deshaun Kizer still struggling. I want this kid to do well. It just seems like it's still not clicking for him yet. 20-37 for 146, two interceptions, struggled at times. On the other side of the ball, Joe Flacco, 26 of 42 for 288,

and a touchdown to tight end Ben Watson on a deep post route. Flacco even chipped in a touchdown run of the ball on a quarterback draw, which you don't usually see from Joe Flacco. As for the Browns, the situation just doesn't seem to be working right now. Rumors that Hugh Jackson wants out, might be leaving for Cincinnati. Cincinnati's Marvin Lewis might be headed to Cleveland. Who knows what's going on there? Maybe we'll see a coach trade.

But the Browns are struggling. The Ravens, you know, Flacco is still on par, on track here. For close to, if not a truly historically bad season as a passer. You know, right now entering week 16 in terms of adjusted net yards per attempt. A stat I've talked about a lot, he's got a mark of 4.63. That's behind Jay Cutler. That's behind Brian Hoyer. That's behind Mitchell Trubisky.

That's behind Jacoby Brissett. That's behind Marcus Mariota. You know, of the 35 qualified passers for this statistic right now, he is 30th. Only C.J. Beathard, Tom Savage, Trevor Simeon, Brett Hundley, and the aforementioned Kaiser are worse. That is not good company. But the Ravens keep winning due to having a top defense in the league, number one, number two.

Them and Jacksonville have been going back and forth, at least in terms of DVOA on that. But the Ravens keep winning. Right now they're on the outside looking in. They might still get in. It sets up a situation where you might see those top two defenses, Baltimore and Jacksonville, squaring off in the wildcard route. That would be an interesting game to watch.

So the Ravens stay in the win column, keeping their playoff hopes alive. Another big game from an AFC perspective, those Jaguars. 45-7 over the Houston Texans. And is it time to believe in Blake Bortles? Bortles obviously was a big question mark for this team coming into the season. And Doug Marone seemed to indicate that. They draft Leonard Ford at number four overall. Marone has the comments in the preseason that,

look, we don't want to even throw the ball. We'd rather run the ball all the time. We rely on the ground game and the defense. But is it time to believe in Bortles? I mean, looking at his game log this year, looking at his 2017 season, obviously it's not finished yet, but he hasn't thrown an interception

since their game against Arizona in Week 12. He hasn't thrown an interception to a divisional opponent since Tennessee in week two when he threw two interceptions. That was back in week two. This is a team that has won seven of eight here down the stretch. Their defense is playing incredibly well. Now, they do have two road games left. They have to make a trip west to face Jimmy Garoppolo

and the resurgent San Francisco 49ers. 49ers, a lot of fun to watch right now. And I tweeted this out on Monday morning. If back in August you had that the marquee matchup of Week 16 was going to be the Jimmy Garoppolo-led San Francisco 49ers off of three straight wins against the playoff-bound Jacksonville Jaguars

with the league's top-ranked or one of the two top defenses in the league, if you had that back in August, step forward and take a bow. Because who could have seen that come? And if you did have that, please let me low some lottery numbers. But that looks to be a fantastic game to watch. But yeah, Jacksonville ends it with two road games.

They go out to San Francisco, one of those biorhythm games going west. And then they go to Tennessee in a game that will have some playoff implications in all likelihood. But is it time to believe in Blake Bortles? Because with that defense, with that run game, if they can get even average to above average quarterback play from Bortles, that's the team you don't want to play in the playoffs. Which brings us back to sort of the importance of the Patriots and their win over Pittsburgh because that win it kept them in line

for the number one overall seed and if they're at one Pittsburgh is at two Jacksonville's three Kansas City four then you're looking at if top seeds win Kansas City going to Foxborough to take on the Patriots

and Pittsburgh having to deal with that defense in the divisional round. And that's the situation where, look, let those two teams knock each other around. Hopefully you get past Kansas City. And then the survivor of that game between Jacksonville and Pittsburgh, they have to come to Foxborough

to get to the Super Bowl. That's kind of a whip around look at the AFC. We're going to look at the NFC, some of the key games from the NFC side, then do some week 16 playoff scenarios. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield in Locked On Patriots. Alright, let's take a few minutes here and look at some of the NFC action, some important games, some critical games in terms of

playoff seeding, playoff likelihood played out on Sunday afternoon. Even on Saturday night, Detroit Lions keep their playoff hopes alive. 20-10 victory at home over the Chicago Bears. And say what you want about Matthew Stafford. And I know there was a massive debate on Twitter and elsewhere last week.

Andy Benoit has a piece over at MMQB talking about how he'd take Stafford over Russell Wilson. That got people all sorts of fired up. And while I come down on the Wilson over Stafford side of that debate, I can certainly see a case for Matthew Stafford. But watching him on Saturday night, something that really stood out, the ability to adjust arm angle, to adjust his arm slot when making throws, the ability to sort of make awkward throws from strange throwing platforms. Stafford has that and has it in a big way. And, you know, say what else you want about Matthew

Stafford, but he's had a really good year and he's in the upper tier of quarterbacks. Would I take him over Russell Wilson? Right now, no. But he's played himself into the upper echelon of quarterbacks. Other NFC games of note, Minnesota Vikings, they clinched the division with a 34-7 victory at home over the Bengals who looked lost. They looked lost in coverage at times. Look, Case Keedum's day started on a bad note. He tripped over his own feet in the pocket on their first offensive play, loss of nine yards.

But then all he did was go 20 of 23 for 236 and two touchdowns. And one of those incompletions was a drop by Adam Thielen. The other two were deeper routes, one of which could have been intercepted on a vertical route to Stephon Diggs. But a big day from Keenum. If you want to see an example of manipulation by a quarterback, watch Keenum's touchdown throw to Stephon Diggs. It's a red zone play. They run double Haas concept something we've talked about here because the Patriots like it. Outside receiver on each side runs a hitch. Inside receiver on each side runs a seam. They got a free safety in the middle of the field.

Diggs is on the right side. That's where Keenum wants to go with the ball, so he opens to the left. Now that free safety in the middle of the field, he's more worried about Stephon Diggs on that side of the field because there's a trips to that side. But by opening the way he does, Keenum gets that defender to move away from what he's supposed to do,

to not trust his instincts. That defender goes to the other way, just a couple of steps and that's all that Keenum needs to drill in that instincts. That defender goes to the other way, just a couple of steps, and that's all that Keenum needs to drill in that throw. Big win for the Vikings. They keep themselves in the mix for the number one spot in the NFC, but they're still behind the Eagles, who behind backup quarterback Nick Foles,

pull out a 34-29 victory on the road against the Giants. Giants were up 20-7 at one point but Foles has a big day, throws four touchdown passes, Doug Peterson said that they would stay aggressive after Carson Wentz goes down and they do just that Foles with the four touchdowns and if this is

Eli Manning's last game in the 2017 season for the New York Giants Art Stapleton in the New Jersey Ledger has posed the question, is it time to see what you've got in Davis Webb? I would tend to agree because you've got now a situation where you're going to have a new GM.

A new GM might want to address quarterback in this draft, but how quickly do you do that? If you like what you have in Davis Webb, maybe you don't go first round. You address other needs. If you don't like what you have in Davis Webb, maybe you don't go first round. You address other needs. If you don't like what you have in Davis Webb, maybe you do go early on a quarterback. But they need to figure that out.

And time's running out. They've only got two games left. So I think it's time to get Davis Webb on the field. But if it was Bannon's last game, he goes this season as the Giants quarterback. I firmly believe he'll be the starter to start 2018. But if it was his last game of the 2017 season, not a bad way to go out. 37 of 57 for 434, a season high in yardage,

three touchdowns, one interception. Washington and Arizona played a football game. All right, let's go to Carolina and Green Bay, the return of Aaron Rodgers. And there was some rust to be sure. Rodgers throws three touchdowns. But three interceptions. They were in position to win late.

Recovered an onside kick. But Geronimo Allison fumbles away. The football on a slant route that would have had Green Bay in position to tie that game. Cam Newton, arguably his best game this year. Newton throws four touchdown passes in the win. And if you haven't seen it, I included it in the quarterback write-up I did on Newton for the quarterback rankings piece this week over at Bleacher Report. There is a play early in the game on his first touchdown pass

where the Packers defense is calling out the wheel route. And Newton hears this, points to Clay Matthews and says, oh, you've been studying some film, huh? That's cool. Watch this. It's not a wheel route. It's a Texas route from running back Christian McCaffrey for the score. Another thing to look at, though, his relationship with Damier Byrd. this route from running back Christian McCaffrey for the score. Another thing to look at though,

his relationship with Damier Bird. Sort of a journeyman type wide receiver. He hit Bird for two touchdowns in this game. One on a nice post route on a run pass option concept. The other was a situation where they show play accident in the red zone. Newton opens to his right.

That's covered. He comes to Bird late over the middle. One of those don't throw it, don't throw it. Oh, nice throw type plays. Newton trusting Bird to go get the ball, and that's exactly what Bird does. Plus, they get Greg Olson back. And, you know, they're just in wild card contention right now. It looks like that division likely goes to the Saints. They're still technically tied with the Saints,

but Saints swept the season series, so they have that tiebreaker. But if Newton plays at a high level, he's such an offensive weapon. You get Olsen back. You get a receiver to compliment Funches a bit. McCaffrey's a nice little weapon. They're figuring out how to use him more. I hate to use the phrase, the proverbial team you don't want to play, but the Panthers

might be it. Staying in the NFC now here and Cowboys. Cowboys keep their slim playoff hopes alive. Three-point victory over the Oakland Raiders out west. Not a lot to really

dive into there. Dak Prescott two interceptions in the game. Did enough with his arm and his legs to keep Dallas in that game, keep their playoff hopes alive. And finally, the Rams, 42-7 on the road against Seattle. Jared Goff going back to the site of perhaps his toughest game last year as a rookie where he got knocked out on a Thursday night against Seattle. Seattle won those neon green uniforms

in that game. But Rams got ahead early and they never looked back. If you want a sense of how this game went, late in the first half, Rams have the football. It's a second and eight play

with under a minute to go in the half. And the Rams have a 27-0 lead, but they're looking for more. There's 50 seconds left. They're in Seattle territory. Goff is sacked and fumbles by Frank Clark. So he fumbles. Rob Havenstein, an offensive lineman, recovers it at the Rams' 43-yard

line. It's 3rd and 20 with just 28 seconds left. Rams just run a simple little handoff to Todd Gurley, looking to get to the locker room and take the 27-0 lead into the locker room. Gurley goes 57, houses it, touchdown. It's 34-0 at the break.

That tells you the story of that game. But the Rams, Sean McVay, and I talked a little bit about this with some people, Chris Wesselin over at the NFL Network, basically making the case for Sean McVay as coach of the year. I'm going to talk about that a little bit later this week. I think McVay has the strongest case, especially when you look at how he's been able to help

golf this year. So that's been kind of a wraparound look at everything that happened on week 15. Coming up, I'm going to take a look at some playoff scenarios as we start to look towards week 16. That's ahead with me, Mark Schofield in Locked on Patriots.

Okay, let's talk AFC playoff scenarios here for a brief second. Currently, as things stand right now, Patriots have the number one overall seed. They have clinched the division and clinched a playoff spot. Number two, the Steelers. They have clinched the division as well. Jacksonville Jaguars, they did clinch the division as well Jacksonville Jaguars

they did clinch a playoff spot they are currently your 3 seed and barring something happening they look to have really the inside track on that number 3 seed because they're at 10-4 Chiefs, Titans, Bills, Ravens,

they're all 8-6. So it looks like Jacksonville, Duval gets to host a playoff game. Finally, Kansas City Chiefs, they there currently in the four spot again looking like they'll stay there they're at 8-6 Chargers at 7-7 Chiefs do have the tiebreaker advantage there

so again it does look like you'll have Jacksonville and Kansas City hosting those wild card games just a matter of who's three who's four and it does look like Jacksonville sort Jacksonville and Kansas City hosting those wildcard games. Just a matter of who's three, who's four, and it does look like Jacksonville sort of has the inside track to that. Right now at five, you've got Tennessee. They did lose to Jimmy Garoppolo on the road. But they're still in playoff spots right now, as are the Buffalo Bills.

Ravens, Chargers, Raiders, and Dolphins are still technically in the hunt. Jets, Bengals, Broncos, Texans, Colts, and Browns have all been eliminated. You know, but it really sort of comes down to on the AFC side, the Bills and the Ravens for that last playoff spot. And if you look at the Bills,

obviously they have the Patriots this week. Patriots still have a lot to play for, could argue almost everything to play for still because they're in the driver's seat for that number one overall seed. Whereas Buffalo, they are fighting for their playoff lives, to be sure. But the Bills finished the season down at Miami. So this game obviously has huge playoff implications.

As for the Ravens, though, the path for the Ravens is a little bit easier. They've got two home games left, one against the Colts on Thursday night, and then the Bengals, who seemingly will have nothing to play for, and who knows who's going to be coaching them at that point. So the path to that playoff spot

looks a little bit easier for the Baltimore Ravens, I think. And then you look at that other wildcard spot right now. That's the one that's being locked down by the Tennessee Titans. And the Titans, two home games left. One against the Rams, one against the Jaguars. Those are some tough games. Maybe Jacksonville doesn't have much to play for in that week 17. We'll see.

But two tough games for Tennessee. So who knows? It might be a situation where Buffalo and Baltimore somehow, they're the two that get in. We'll just have to see. Okay, let's get into what we usually do here on Locked On Patriots on Tuesdays and that's take a look at the tape from the previous game.

I just want to talk about two plays from New England's victory over the Pittsburgh Steelers, two fourth-quarter plays, one we've already talked about, one we haven't talked about that much. But both plays looked great live. They looked even better when I got a chance to look at the All-22. And the first is De'Ron Harmon's tackle on Juju Smith-Schuster on that third and four play with under three minutes to go in the game. And just to set the stage for this, remember, clock's running now. Steelers have the ball third and four on their own 25-yard line. Clock is running. New England has all three timeouts. But if the Steelers convert this,

the context of the game just shifts dramatically because then you're looking at the Steelers being able to force New England to take their timeouts. This game changes dramatically. This is a critical play. Steelers come out 11 offensive personnel, one running back, one tight end, three wide receivers. They put Smith-Schuster in a slot to the left. Darius

Hayward-Bey is outside of him. To the right, they have tight end Jesse James on the line of scrimmage, but staggered away from the right tackle with Eli Rogers sort of in a wing between the tackle and the tight end. Le'Veon Bell is in the backfield, shaded to the left side of the formation. Patriots, they come out with four linemen. They got Trey Flowers, Adam Butler, Dietrich Wise, and Eric Lee. Those are four guys all down on the line of scrimmage

in a three-point stance. Then they have seven defensive backs. They go with three corners. They've got Malcolm Butler, they've got Eric Rowe, and they've got Stephon Gilmore. And they go with four safeties, Patrick Chun, Jordan Richards. Chun is right on the line of scrimmage across from James, the tight end. Jordan Richards is down in a linebacker alignment across from Le'Veon Bell.

And they show two deep safeties with Harmon and Devin McCourty. Harmon is shaded towards the tight end Eli Rogers side of the field. Prior to the snap, Steelers bring Juju Smith-Schuster in motion from his position where he's in the slot to the left, and he lines up in a bunch to the right. He's on the outside of the tight end, Jesse James. Eric Rowe trails him across the formation. And if you've listened to this show, you know what that means. This is going to be man coverage, and that's exactly what the Patriots

run. They run cover two man, two deep safeties, man across the board. And it's important that you remember this. I'm going to paraphrase Charles Dickens here. It's important that you remember this. They're in two man. Harmon is shaded to now what's the bunch side of the formation. He's responsible for the deep outside half. He has to worry about vertical routes. Now it's third and four, but he has to worry about vertical routes and getting beaten deep.

It's important to remember that or nothing magical can come from what I'm about to talk about Steelers run A vertical passing concept On the back side we have Darius Hayward-Bey And Le'Veon Bell They both run vertical routes Bay on the outside Le'Veon Bell up the seam

Out of the bunch Jesse James the tight end He runs a vertical route. Eli Rogers runs an under route where he angles to the outside first and then cuts back on kind of like a deep slant. But this play is designed to go to Smith Schuster. He runs a shallow crossing route. All those vertical routes, everything else, just basically supposed to clear out for him underneath. This is designed for him to catch the ball And get yardage after the catch

But because of the formation And alignment It creates traffic As he works across the field At the snap of the ball Trey Flowers who's the defensive end On the edge there He jams one of the receivers

But the receiver he jams is the tight end Jesse James. So that slows James' release downfield. But what it also does is he widens a bit, which creates a natural path for Smith-Schuster on his crossing route. So as Smith-Schuster cuts underneath, you have Trey Flowers, you have the tight end,

you have Patrick Chun, you have Malcolm Butler, and then about six yards away is Eric Rowe, the defender who's responsible in man coverage for Smith-Schuster on this crossing road. Roethlisberger takes the snap. He peeks that vertical road on the other side to Darius Hayward-Bey, mainly to hold the safeties because you don't want the safeties breaking on this. And Devin McCourty sees that and he opens and looks right at Darius Hayward Bay on that vertical road. But then Roethlisberger comes right to that crossing road. Now we talk about Harmon because remember, Harmon is responsible For the deep outside half

And with the football on the left hash mark He's got a lot of ground that he's responsible for And he has to worry about vertical routes And there's a vertical route coming his way But Harmon Has studied the tape too He knows exactly what this play is designed to do He knows the situation as well

And he knows that Roethlisberger is going to come to Smith-Schuster on that cross and route. He knows that the route design, the formation, the concept has created all of this traffic to make it almost impossible for Eric Rowe to stay on this route. The route is open. As Smith-Schuster comes across, Eric Rowe is about five yards deeper than him because of all the traffic that's in his way, and there's no way he's going to get there. But Harmon breaks on it, and he almost beats the receiver to the football.

Smith-Schuster catches it, takes two quick steps upfield, and he's met immediately by Harmon. Now, Swiss Schuster's able to sort of wiggle free. Harmon doesn't make a clean tackle initially, but by that time, Eric Rowe has arrived, and he's able to clean this play up. And I talked about this in the Glorious Victory Edition episode, how it was a great play from Harmon.

I had no idea what his responsibility was on this play because you couldn't see him until he breaks downhill. But seeing that he's responsible for deep outside halves, seeing that he's a cover to safety here, seeing the recognition here when you get to see the all-22, it makes the play even more astounding in my eyes. Just an incredible play From Harmon

One of two that he makes in the fourth quarter Now I want to talk about Just one of the Gronkowski plays On the amazing Gronkowski drive where He's responsible for 69 yards On the drive which Perhaps you might view as fitting,

thinking that it's Rob Gronkowski. And the play I want to talk about is the first completion to him. This comes after the near interception by Sean Davis. It's a second-and-ten situation with two minutes and one second remaining in the game. And what we see here is another great job by Tom Brady of getting a defender to do something he shouldn't.

Patriots come out. They empty the backfield. Three receivers to the left, two to the right. Gronkowski is the inside receiver to the left. Brady's all alone in the shotgun. Nobody else in the backfield with him. Steelers, they show two high safeties at the snap. The other nine defenders are all on the line of scrimmage.

Tony Romo was screaming, oh, cover two man, all night long. This looks again like cover two man. Every other defender is in press alignment along that line of scrimmage looking straight at his receiver. But at the last second, they shift their coverage a little bit and they run something called cover one robber. And what that is, it's basically man across the board, but you have what's called a robber safety. And that's somebody who basically drops down from a safety spot

sort of into the middle of the field, and he's responsible to help on routes breaking over the middle. And wouldn't you know it, that's what Rob Gronkowski is going to run on this play. Player that does that is William Gay, reserve defensive back, reserve corner for the Pittsburgh Steelers. And he's over the football

at about a depth of 12 yards when the play begins. And what happens as the play develops is this. Even though he's dropped into that middle area, and he's supposed to take away a route to break into the middle of the field, Brady freezes him to start. He opens to the middle of the field. He looks right at him, confirms the coverage. Then, as Brady gets pressured off the edges,

he starts to climb the pocket. And as he does that, he looks to his right where there's a two receiver combination called a go flat. Slot receiver runs a quick out pattern. Outside receiver runs a go route. And as Brady starts to climb the pocket, he looks to that combination on the right side of the offensive formation. That gets Gay to leave the middle of the field, break to that side thinking Brady's going to throw the vertical route. He starts the play on the hash

mark. When Brady releases the ball, he's all the way to the numbers. And who's coming from the left right towards that area he vacated? But Rob Gronkowski, who's now wide open on a quick little post route. Brady's eyes,

Brady's field of vision, that's what draws Gay towards the right side of the field. That's what moves Gay to his left and away from Rob Gronkowski, who is running a route directly towards where Gay should be. But because Brady does such a good job with his eyes, because he convinces a defender to do what he shouldn't, Gronkowski ends up wide open.

Brady finishes the play with a perfect strike to the tight end, who gets tackled right before midfield. At the two minute warning now the Patriots have two timeouts. The football near midfield and a chance to go down and finish the game and that's exactly what they do.

But it starts with this play in Brady's eyes. That's been your Tuesday edition of Locked on Patriots. Wednesday's show is going to be prime listeners questions. I've been soliciting questions from all of you on Twitter. Please get some more in. Remember you can follow my work on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Also check out LockedOnPatriots.com.

That Harmon play that I just talked about. There's a piece up breaking it down in depth. If you want to check that out, please do so. I'm also going to break down Gronkowski's entire drive in a piece as well, so check that out. That should be up shortly. Putting stuff up there all the time. Also, broke down for Bleacher Report, as you heard earlier in the show, bottom five quarterbacks

of the year. You can check that piece out, BleacherReport.com. That will be up shortly as well. Hope you enjoyed the Tuesday episode. I will be back again tomorrow with prime listeners' questions, getting new questions. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.