Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 2, 2018 - Sunday Morning Tailgate

Episode Date: December 2, 2018

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May I stand like a shotgun Amid a Mr. Crash of the world Did I hear a thunder? It's Sunday everybody, welcome on into a Sunday morning tailgate installment of the Lockdown Patriots Podcast. Mark Schofield in the big chair here for Sunday, December 2nd, 2018. First night of Hanukkah, a happy Hanukkah to those of you who are observant. And do not adjust your audio. A little bit of new music to kick us off here. That is, believe it or not,

Unshaken from D'Angelo off of, of all places, the Red Dead Redemption 2 soundtrack. I finished that game late Saturday, well, late Friday night, early Saturday morning. And that song and another song came up sort of in the final third of that game. I've kind of been haunted me over the past couple of hours here. And so I'm going to play a little D'Angelo, a little Unshaken.

I'm a big fan of that song and another song in that game. But I'm not going to give away any spoilers. So I'll just say the music is almost as good as how great that game is. Still struggling with Fallout 67, but this is not locked on video gaming. This is locked on Patriots, our usual Sunday morning tailgate fair. Going to have some injury news and notes here to update you with as you're filling out your lineups.

Hopefully, if you're in fantasy football, it's playoff time. You're locking down a playoff spot this week. I've got two big leagues, and I'm hoping to get myself into a first-round buy here, but I need some wins today, so fingers crossed there. Going to do some DFS stuff, recap last week's picks, which were not great. Hopefully have a better slate here. And recap some of the college conference championship games that we saw yesterday. But before all 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, Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites, and a myriad of other places. Let's get into it now, talking about some of the news, some of the notes. Let's start with the Jets. Free safety Marcus May placed on shoulder injury reserve for the shoulder injury. Ends his season who played in just six games. He was a top 10 safety as according to Pro Football Focus is graded, but he's probably going to be headed to surgery to go under the knife for this sort of injury.

Not a lock to be ready for the offseason program. Packers got some things that they're dealing with. Trevor Davis placed on injury reserve. Mike Daniels placed on injury reserve. So that team that needs some help is a little bit banged up not helping their situation. Staying in the NFC, the Redskins obviously made some news signing ruben foster we've got some good news and some bad news chris thompson with his rib injury he was removed from the week 13 injury report but two players a big part of that passing attack they're now questionable

jordan reed he is questionable for the game against philadelphia he was limited in practice this week after some back issues resurfaced. As well as Jamison Crowder, who's dealing with an ankle injury. He's also questionable for this game against Philly, which if you look at things for Washington right now, they need this game. Luckily, though, they are going to have a healthy Adrian Peterson. He's been dealing with a shoulder injury that got dint up on Thanksgiving. He was removed from the Week 13 injury report,

so he's going to be able to go against the Eagles, who they're dealing with some injuries in the backfield. Darren Sproles, he is questionable with a hamstring injury. He's expected to play after a limited week of practice, but he hasn't played since the season opener. But Josh Adams, he's questionable with a hip injury. He was injured Saturday after practice and fully the last two days, so that's something to watch.

Another team dealing with some injuries in the offensive backfield are the Baltimore Ravens. Gus Edward hobbled with an ankle. Alex Collins put on injury reserve with a foot injury. Ravens activated running back Kenneth Dixon from injury reserve. They're going to look to Dixon to perhaps get some reps alongside Ty Montgomery. Some other injury stuff that we are looking at here on Sunday morning. For the Buccaneers, Levante David, he is questionable against Carolina. David has been sidelined since suffering a knee injury in week 10. He probably will come back. That defense

still struggling. Although they played better last week against San Francisco. That really sort of stunned us for our DFS picks as we're going to get to. Ronald Jones, he will be active week 13 against those same Carolina Panthers. That's according to Tampa Bay head coach, Derek Carter. So that's some good news for Tampa Bay. Eric Swope, he is questionable, the tight end for the Indianapolis Colts. He is questionable for today against the Jaguars. He's been sidelined since week 7 with a knee injury. Got in two limited practices.

But with Jack Doyle on injury reserve and Mo Molly Cox sidelined by a calf injury, if Swopes can go, he's going to see a lot of snaps, probably a lot of targets as well. Spencer Ware is going to start week 13 against the Oakland Raiders for the Kansas City Chiefs. Ware is Kansas City's lead back now. Kareem Hunt was placed on the commissioner exempt list. He's got a great matchup in front of him.

Raiders have allowed the most rushing yards in the league and he's probably going to be the starter down the rest of the way given the fact that Kareem Hunt is no longer a member of the Kansas City Chiefs. So that's something to watch as well. Finally, look, this is Locked On Patriots, so we might as well talk some

Patriots, some Vikings stuff here. Get you ready for this afternoon's big clash between the visiting Minnesota Vikings and your New England Patriots. some Vikings stuff here. Get you ready for this afternoon's big clash between the visiting Minnesota Vikings and your New England Patriots. For the Vikings, one of the big names to watch is going to be Stephon Diggs. Ben Gesslin of the Minneapolis Star Tribune, he reported on Saturday afternoon,

excuse me, actually on Friday afternoon, that Diggs is going to play. And that was probably the assumption that he was going to go, but it looks like Diggs is going to go. Another name to probably the assumption that he was going to go, but it looks like Diggs is going to go. Another name to watch, Xavier Rhodes, according to Courtney Cronin, covers the Vikings. He is questionable, but he's also fully expected to play.

Adam Thielen with his calf injury. He was not listed on the final injury report for Week 13. So from the Minnesota perspective, it looks like they're getting some of those big guys ready to go for Sunday. As for the Patriots, Rob Gronkowski with his ankle on his back was not listed on the final injury report for Week 13. Same goes for Tom Brady with that knee injury. He was not listed on New England's final injury report for Week 13 against Minnesota. So that's a huge boost.

Julian Edelman had a foot injury, but he's back practicing full. So the Patriots should be pretty good to go. And, of course, Rex Burkett activated off injured reserve, eligible to play today against Minnesota. We're going to be curious to see if he's going to be active. So there you go. Patriots, Vikings seem to be pretty healthy as we look forward to this afternoon's game between the Vikings and the New England Patriots.

Up next, some DFS stuff, some thoughts from last week, some recommendations, some value picks, some blue chip picks for this week and a little bit later, a recap of the College Football Championship weekend. That's all ahead on this Sunday morning tailgate installment of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Sunday morning tailgate installment of Locked on Patriots.

And again, you heard at the beginning, a little unshaken from D'Angelo. One of the more amazing things about video games these days is how the soundtracks have become an even must-listen type things. I mean, must-listen type content. I mean, Battlefield 1, you know, it's purely mostly instrumental. I was playing that for a long time in my car. I can tell you this Red Dead 2 is going to be something I'm going to be playing. Even Fallout 76. You know, they got a version of Take Me Home Country Roads on there.

And their weird little old school type music which has a lot of hidden messages in it. But anyway, this is not Locked On Gaming. It's Locked On Patriots. What are we going to do now? Our DFS stuff. Last week, well, look, there's a reason why I don't do a ton of DFS work.

It probably shows. Bit of an up and down week. We had three really good picks, which I'm proud of. First was quarterback, our blue chip pick. Russell Wilson was QB8 last week against Carolina. Happy about that one. The value pick. I spent so much time hyping the two

guys, the two value picks at quarterback and running back. Both of them did not live up to the hype. Nick Mullins was QB 24 last week in PPR leagues. And Gus Edwards, who was our value pick, the running back for Baltimore, he was running back 21 in PPR leagues. Nick Chubb, however, our blue chip running back,

I was wary about him. I had gone with the Browns a couple of times. They let me down. I'm back on the Nick Chubb train, and it paid off. Running back three last week. So if you followed that pick, there you go. Odell, that didn't pan out. He was wide receiver 32 at the value spot at the wide receiver point.

I initially had Golden Tate in there. I crossed him out. We went with Tyler Lockett. Thankfully, we did because he was wide receiver five last week. Finally, the tight end was just a complete whiff. George Kittle, he was our blue chip pick, tight end 15. Nick Vanette, he was our value

pick, tight end 27. So just take the tight end things and just throw them in the trash. As for this week, again, always an interesting week when you sort of sit down and take a look at things from a global perspective. At the quarterback spot,

with the Kareem Hunt news, we're going to go heavy on the Chiefs at non- running back positions. I know you could probably make a case for Spencer Ware being a value pick given that Oakland has given up the most rushing yards this season, but we're going to go Patrick Mahomes at Oakland. That Oakland

defense has been okay against opposing passers, but I think coming off the bye without Kareem Hunt, they're going to be pass heavy. The only consideration there might be a game script thing if this game gets out of hand early, but if it doesn't, I think Mahomes puts up big numbers. He's 9,500 over at FanDuel, most expensive quarterback. I think it's going to be worth it this week. If you want to stay cheap, Case Keenum against the Cincinnati Bengals. The Cincinnati Bengals might be the new Tampa Bay Buccaneers. You know how we were trying to stream quarterbacks against Tampa Bay? That crashed in our faces last week.

And what it meant was Cincinnati is now the team giving up the most fantasy points per game, at least on FanDuel, on DraftKings, and in standard formats. And so if those teams are flipped, if it's now Cincinnati to stream against, Case Keenum an option there, just 6,900 over on FanDuel. Again, you might have a game script consideration. If this turns into a blowout, they might run the ball more as we get into the second half. But if it turns into a blowout, Keenum's probably put up some good numbers, so that might be enough.

Switching gears to the running back position, we're going to go with Aaron Jones against the Arizona Cardinals. And, you know, the Packers are a team in a weird spot right now. You're wondering about Mike McCarthy's future. You're wondering about Aaron Rogers to a certain extent. The Arizona Cardinals,

good pass defense, suspect run defense. You're giving up 29.1 points per game to running backs on FanDuel. Aaron Jones, 7,600 on FanDuel. Might be a good play, but if you want to go cheap, Sean McCoy, when's the last time you saw him for 5,700 over on FanDuel? He's pretty cheap this week. Against Miami, Miami Dolphins giving up the fifth most points per game

to running backs on FanDuel, 26.2 points per game. And what's interesting about this, McCoy's production dipped last week with Josh Allen back in the lineup. It was better under Matt Barkley, but still with a suspect run defense in Miami, a run defense that's given up nine rushing touchdowns, three receiving touchdowns to running back. They've given up fantasy points in bunches to the running back position. I think LaShawn McCoy might be a smart play.

At wide receiver, again, with the Hunt news and the Hunt situation, we're going Tyree Kill here. I think he's in line for a big game against the Oakland Raiders. I think they're going to be pass heavy. I'm not sure how much you want to put on Spencer Ware right now. So we're going to go with Tyree Kill. Again, he's pretty expensive, $8,400 over on FanDuel. But when you look at the Oakland Raiders, pass defense is okay. They've been pretty good against opposing wide receivers giving up just 29.1 points

per game to wide receivers. Part of that might be a graying script situation. If you're worried about scripts, if you're worried about them getting out ahead and turning into a running team, the Kansas City Chiefs, Corey Davis, just 5,900 over on FanDuel. The Jets, they're a team that struggles from a pass defense perspective, giving up 33.5 points per game to opposing wide receivers.

So Corey Davis might be a good play. If you're really bold, the Titans are giving up 34 points per game to wide receivers. Is there a Jets wide receiver you like? If so, maybe go that route. That's also something to keep in mind. Finally, the tight ends. Tight ends have been such a fascinating position to watch this year from a DFS perspective. We'll go Travis Kelsey as our

blue chip pick. 7,800 over on FanDuel. I think that would make some sense. But another pick that makes sense, and I know this is locked on Patriots, so it might make some people upset, but Kyle Rudolph makes some sense. You look at the New England Patriots and what they've

done against tight ends this year, they're giving up a decent amount of points to tight ends. They're giving up 12.9 points per game to opposing tight ends on Fandle. That is fifth most in the league. Only the Bucs, the Chiefs, the Panthers, and the Bengals give up more per game.

And if you think about what Bill Belichick is going to want to do, he's going to want to take away the two receivers, Thielen and Diggs, right? Those are the guys that probably scare you the most. That might mean some advantageous matchups for Kyle Rudolph in the pass game, so he might be a pretty good value play. Plus, you know, if things go

south for you and you're a Patriots fan, at least you'll have something of a root and interest to be a little bit happy for and make it a little bit more of a bittersweet day than just a melancholy and infinite sadness type of night. I'm just saying. There you go. There's our DFS slate for this week. Up next, we're going to recap some of the college football

action from Saturday and Saturday night. A fantastic slate of games, a tremendous comeback from UCF, which we're going to talk about and so much more that's ahead on this Sunday morning tailgate installment of Locked On Patriots Mark Schofield back

with you now to close out this Sunday morning tailgate installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast and we had some conference championship games we had some big ones early on Saturday we had one on Friday night which We had some big ones early on Saturday. We had one on Friday night, which I'm not even going to talk about.

I mean, there were 20,000 people there. I mean, I think it was Seth Mandel who wrote a piece over for The Athletic talking about how bad this Pac-12 championship game was. No offensive touchdowns. Friday evening, it's just, they need to rework this Pac-12 championship game. I know they kind of like having it as an island game. It's on its own on Friday night.

You're afraid it might get swept up in everything else. I'm not sure this Friday night thing makes a whole lot of sense. Let's get into the Saturday games, though. Obviously, Red River shootout redux. Kyler Murray, 25 of 34, 379, three touchdowns, helps to propel Oklahoma 39-27 over Texas in the Big 12 championship game. Oklahoma, could they get some help? Well, they were tuned to the televisions for the rest of the day to figure out if they could. But big game for Oklahoma, big game for Kyler Murray, big game for Trey Sermon, 18 carries, 65 yards, and a touchdown.

Another game which was fascinating to watch, that Memphis UCF game. Darrell Mack stepping in in place of Mackenzie Milton. He goes 19-27, 348, and two touchdowns. This was a game, look, behind Henderson in that rushing attack. Memphis got out to a big lead. It was 24-7 at the end of the first quarter. It was 38-21 at halftime.

And then Memphis gets outscored in the second half, 35-3. UCF just turns it into a second gear in the second half, and they come out with a victory, 56-41. Huge win for UCF. You have to feel for that program. Losing McKenzie Milton the way they did, his mom actually put out a statement before the game on Saturday saying that he's got a long road ahead of him,

but he recorded a video for the team that was played for the team before the game. So you hope that he gets back because he's such a fantastic player, such an exciting player to watch. You do want to see him get back, but a great, great moment for UCF with that comeback victory here in the AAC championship game. Then you had the SEC championship game, which was just a phenomenal football game. You had Georgia, you had Alabama. And early in this game, it looks like Alabama is on the ropes here.

You know, Georgia gets out to the early lead. They're up 21-14 at the half. It's 28-21 at the end of the third quarter. But Alabama gets two fourth quarter touchdowns. And the player that stepped up, Jalen Hurts. And talk about sort of a storybook ending coming full circle. Because you remember back to last year in the national championship game, it's Tua that comes in off the bench after Hurts is ineffective against Georgia. He throws the game one and touchdown.

Those two players then battle it out for the starting job this year. And it's Tua that goes on to win that job. He's having a Heisman type of season. But then what happens? He gets his ankle stepped on by one of his own linemen. He has to get helped off the field. In comes Jalen, and all Jalen does is go 7-9 for 82 yards in the game. Tie-in touchdown. Then after an incredulous decision where Georgia, for whatever reason,

decides to fake a punt on 4th and 11, and they put Justin Fields, their backup quarterback and quarterback of the future, in the game telling basically everybody on the field, hey, we might be faking this punt. Even with Alabama, with their safe punt defense on the field, that's basically when you keep your defense in the game and expect a fake. They run the fake. They get stuffed. Jalen then comes back, leads a touchdown drive,

runs it in on a quarterback draw. Georgia has a last-minute Hail Mary that falls incomplete, and Albao survives 35-28. And again, they come in full circle with Jalen Hurts, who was last year's starter, replaced in the national championship game when he was ineffective. Tua comes in, leads them to a win. He loses a job.

Other guys might have transferred. But Jalen stays there and comes up for his team when they needed him the most. And I will say, maybe it's the holiday season. I tend to be more of a sentimental guy. But seeing that certainly warmed my heart, and I'm sure it warmed the hearts of many football fans, particularly Alabama fans. But Alabama, they get the win 35-20.

Now Georgia has to wonder if they're going to get some help. With Oklahoma winning, now do they sneak in? Does the committee even take Georgia, a team that lost in their conference championship game over a team in Oklahoma that has just the one loss that they get in? Does Oklahoma get in thanks to winning their conference championship game? You look at Georgia and their resume. I mean, their two biggest games of the year were their game a couple weeks ago, or more than a couple weeks ago, at LSU.

And then this SEC championship game, what do they do? They go to LSU and they lose by 20. And then here they have a fourth quarter type meltdown situation, second year in a row where they can't hold off Alabama and finish the job against Alabama. So going into the nighttime slate of games, you had to think that Oklahoma was probably feeling pretty good. Now let's close it out quickly talking about the night games.

Clemson-Pitt, that was never really much of a game. Clemson got on top early. They were up early in that game. They were up often in that game. And pretty much cruised to an ACC championship win. So you figure Clemson is in at one. Obviously Alabama in at two. Got to expect Notreama in at two got to expect notre dame in at three and then

you know the teams that were sort of wondering about you know what the georgia losing if they get a shot you get oklahoma we talked about them we'll get to ohio state and northwestern in the championship game for the big 10 in a minute but the game i was watching was the one on the blue turf fresno state at boise state for the mountain west obviously my eyes were on brett ripping you didn't see too much of the blue turf because it was snow. It was rain. It was ice. Pretty bad conditions.

And Fresno State pulls it out in overtime, 19-16. And what was interesting to me about this game, obviously, I was watching it with an eye towards Brett Rippon. It seemed like he had his moments, but there are also some throws you know he would have liked back. The touchdown that he threw, he rose 15 of 31 from 125 in a touchdown. The touchdown he threw should have been intercepted, but he did have a throw later in that game in the first half

that should have been a touchdown, but that could drop. He was moving to his left, made a throw on fourth down. Conditions were tough. They went for it on a lot of fourth downs. They had a chance at the end of regulation to take the lead, and they got the ball back with about a minute, under two minutes to go. They played very conservative.

They played for overtime. Their first possession, they settled for three. Fresno State punches it in on a third and goal from about the one on a speed option play to the right. So I thought this was, I got to say, an underwhelming performance from Brett Rippin. I know the conditions were tough. He still made some impressive throws. But if you were like me and sort of holding out hope for him to have a big night

and really sort of punch a ticket to the Senior Bowl, this might not have been the performance you'd want to see a sort of regular season end on. Obviously, he'll have a bowl game in front of him. But interesting performance you know i like i said i'm a big brett rippin fan but tonight probably wasn't his best game and then of course you got the big 10 championship game you know i'll give credit to northwestern they hunt in there for a while um this was a 14-7 game at the end of the first half i mean at the end of the first quarter. Ohio State 10 unanswered in the second quarter,

so they had a 24-7 lead at halftime. We thought it might get away from them, but Northwestern climbed back into this, made it a 24-21 game at one period, at one point, but Dwayne Haskins really sort of came on in this game and has come on for the last half of the season. Five touchdown passes against Northwestern and a fantastic game from him. Just under 500 yards passing in this one. And you look at the last half of the season that he's had,

the win over Michigan, obviously handing a bunch of touchdowns on them. Five touchdowns in a Big Ten championship game. And you have to wonder, what does he do, particularly if Justin Herbert doesn't come out? But that's a discussion for another time. Maybe he got himself into the Heisman race with his play over the past couple of weeks. But more importantly, Ohio State, huge win against Michigan, huge win in the Big Ten championship game. Do they have a case? Does Oklahoma have a case?

Does Georgia somehow find their way in? We'll find that one out tomorrow. What we'll also find out tomorrow is how good our New England Patriots can be, particularly when we get into December, which we talked about all week. They have a huge game against Minnesota. Very excited to watch that, and even more excited to break it all

down for all of you. That will do it for today's Sunday Morning Tailgate show. I will be back later tonight, hopefully with a glorious victory installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast, but either show. I will be back later tonight, hopefully with a glorious victory installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. But either way, I will be here. I hope you are as well. I hope you had a fantastic weekend.

Enjoy the games and keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield in Locked On Patriots.