Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 23, 2018 - Glorious Victory Edition

Episode Date: December 24, 2018

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Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a glorious victory edition of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair on this Sunday night, December 23rd, 2018. We are hours away from Christmas. We are hours away from Christmas Eve. And as we're about to talk about in a second, looking like a much brighter Christmas Eve, as predicted, or at least as alluded to, or as at least as potentially foretold on this here show. Before we get into what happened today on the field, a reminder, 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, as I've said. If they're covering the game of football that we all know and love, chances are they've got me doing some work about the game for them.

Now, glorious victory shows typically take on the great, the good, and the bad. Going to do it a little differently today. We're going to talk big picture here in this first segment. Then we're going to talk the good. Then we're going to talk the bad that we saw on the field. But I wanted to take you through the big picture here. The New England Patriots, they won their 10th straight AFC East, their 10th straight divisional title,

thanks to their victory over the Buffalo Bills at home at Gillette, the win that they needed, 24-12, got themselves the AFC East division title, 10th straight AFC East division title, little hat and T-shirt game. And they also accomplished something that is fascinating. In the past 16 seasons, their 16th straight double-digit win season. Two absolutely tremendous accomplishments in this salary cap era. With all the player movement, the salary cap, all the ways the players can move around,

all the things that can go wrong for a team. The Patriots have just been this measure of consistency that perhaps has spoiled us as fans. And so a tremendous accomplishment and one that at the outset, we should acknowledge and this team should be proud of it. We as fans, Patriots fans should be proud of what this team put together on the field to, you know, go through the ups and the downs that went through this season to, again, AFC East title, done. Now, remember late last week I talked about, look, look at what those teams they're chasing have in front of them right now. Look at what the Texans have to do this week.

Look at what the Chiefs are up against this week. We could be waking up Christmas Eve morning looking like things have really flipped back in our favor. And while the Chiefs-Seahawks game is underway, we don't know, or at least I don't know right now how that one's going to turn around, Patriots did get some help as they were finishing up their game against the Buffalo Bills. Nick Foles and company did what they had to do.

They stayed alive as well. They get a field goal at the gun, 32-30 over the Houston Texans. So now, yes, the Chiefs game is pending, but the Patriots right now, they slide into that two spot. And if they get a little help from the Chiefs, or excuse me, more accurately, if they get a little help from the Seattle Seahawks, the Patriots could be back in the mix for the first overall seed by the time you're listening to the show. Maybe not.

Again, don't know how that Chiefs game is going to turn out. I didn't want to wait and record this show to see how that was going to pan out because you guys want to talk Pats, and I understand that. But again, one of the two teams they needed to lose lost. And so now they're back in the two, and that's a good thing. Now, the reason why I wanted to do things a little bit differently today is this. Judging by some of the interaction I've had with listeners via the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, Twitter, Twitter DMs, interactions with two of the biggest fans of the show, my mom and dad.

Just by reading the Twitter timeline in general, it seems like there is, shall we say, a level of apprehension that is still present around this team right now. I posed the question sort of when it was 14-3, or maybe 14-6 in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. Say this team goes out and wins this game 21-6. How are you feeling about this team? And the general consensus I get back was a win is a win. Division title is a division title. They took care of business.

But fears about this team seem to be confirmed. Watching this team today, we saw this run game stand out at times. Pretty much through the bulk of this game. A very strong effort on the ground. This run-blocking unit up front, tremendous job by them. And when you look at what the Patriots were able to do on the ground today, an impressive performance from the Patriots' ground attack. You look at this defense, and yes, they're going up against a rookie quarterback. We

know Patriots tend to do well against rookie quarterbacks, and so there's that aspect to it. You look at how they're kind of banged up at the running back spot. Yeah, they got Shady McCoy back, but they didn't do enough to get him involved. The wide receiver group is banged up. They're relying on guys like Zay Jones, Robert Foster, Isaiah McKenzie, Deontay Thompson, guys they weren't expecting to rely on those guys when the season started. But the defense still played well. The emergence of J.C. Jackson continues to be a thing to watch. He is growing into the stud corner that they might need across Stephon Gilmore.

That is extremely impressive. So you look at the defense and what they did. You look at the ground game, Sonny Michel, 116 on the ground. Cordell Patterson, 66 on the ground, using him in the fly sweep stuff. James White, 41 and a touch as well. You know, impressive from that group. But for many Patriots fans sort of watching this team, there was this overwhelming sense that, look,

yes, it's the number one pass defense that they're going up against, but Tom Brady struggled at times. Neither interception, I believe, was his fault. The first, Burkett either ran the wrong route and or there should have been a defensive hold and defensive pass interference penalty on Alexander. Instead, it goes for a pick. The other pick to open the second half goes right through Gronkowski's hands.

But Tom Brady seemed unsettled today. He seemed skittish at times in the pocket. He didn't seem to be himself. This leads us into the is it an injury discussion or what? So there's a Brady issue that people are still unsettled about. There's a Gronkowski issue that people are still unsettled about. Robert Gronkowski was basically a non-factor. One catch, I mean, excuse me, no catches on three targets,

and the interception went right through his hands. There's this feeling that those two guys continue to struggle, and it's going to be a problem at some point. They don't look like themselves right now. And when I ask that sort of question about how would you feel this team ended up winning 21-6 or whatever it was, and, again, get the sense back from everybody that the fears were confirmed about this team. I made this comment. The Patriots right now look like a Big Ten team in an SEC world.

They look like they're a step slower than the competition. Other teams just look faster than them at times. And frankly, were it not for an incredible effort play from Julian Edelman, this passing game would have done next to nothing. You know, Edelman makes the catch, gets spun down but never touches, scampers into the end zone for a 32-yard touchdown. If it wasn't for that, I don't think Brady gets over 100 yards passing. His QBR of 38.4, not great. His quarterback rating

of 48.3 was lower than Josh Allen's who also threw for a touchdown and two interceptions. 5.3 yards per attempt. And yes, they relied on the ground game. I get that. They were going up against the number one pass defense, so they focus on the ground. I get that. But as you start to look ahead, you start to wonder down the road, what are they going to have to do to, we hope, get back to a Super Bowl. They're going to need a Brady-like performance at some point. I mean, chances are, whether it's at Arrowhead or by some set of circumstances, they're hosting a divisional game

and or an AFC championship game. They might need a Brady-like performance. And in years past sitting here at this point, we might say, look, the Brady-like performance could still come. And it still might. It still might. But more than anything else, we're sitting here right now. This team seems slow. It seems like, like I said, a Big Ten team in an SEC world. More

than anything else, they need that bye week. The best thing that can happen for this team right now is to get that bye, use it to get everybody back to where they need to be for making this stretch run. And I know this probably sounds to a lot of people like, you know, a melancholy in the infinite sadness episode because look, as I said at the outset, 10 straight divisional titles, 16 10-win seasons. They're going back to the dance they've at least punched their ticket the things broke

so far that they needed to have break in their favor so now they're back as the 2C controlling their own destiny for that spot and the Chiefs could still fall tonight the Seahawks could still help us out by the time you listen to this, maybe that has happened.

And the sky is really opening up and bright for us on this Christmas Eve when you listen to this. Having said all of that, how do you feel about this team? And I'm judging based on the comments that I've heard from people, based on what people have been telling me, based on what I've been reading myself, is people still feel unsettled. Tom Curran describing the past game as ass on Twitter. Pat's pulpit basically saying it was a perfectly imperfect win. The unease and that wall of unease is still around us. And it might just take a Super Bowl run from this team to break that down.

Up next, I'm going to break down the good and then a little bit later the bad from New England's 24-12 win. A win, a W, a division title, and yet the questions linger on. Mark Philfield back with you now on this glorious victory edition of the locked on Patriots podcast. And we're going to talk about the good. And then a little bit later, the bad that we saw from doing it's 24, 12 victory over the Buffalo bills,

a win, which clinches their 10th straight AFC East title, puts them back into the number two, overall seed position in the AFC. And look, as we're recording this, the Seattle Seahawks just took a 7-0 lead. Maybe Christmas Eve looks even brighter once we wake up tomorrow morning or once that game goes final.

Who knows? Things have broken New England's way so far. Again, obviously that Chiefs-Seahawks game has a long way to go. And if it seems like I'm too negative right now, I do apologize. I'm just trying to put into words what I think a lot of us are feeling right now. That's my job. That's what I get paid to do is to put into words what I think the Patriots fans are feeling right now. And a lot of Patriots fans still feel unease. Before we get to what we're going to do here I do want to sort of set the stage and set the expectations for the rest of this week. It is obviously Christmas week. There will be a tape

Tuesday show that comes out on Christmas day. I have already gotten some requests as to what's going on with the passing game, what's going on with Gronkowski. So I will take some time Christmas Eve. Whenever the film comes out, take a look at it. It might not be an entire 25, 30-minute episode. It might be quick and abbreviated, but I do want to get some thoughts out to you guys on the Patriots passing game. So that will come out on Christmas Day. The one after that, so the Wednesday episode, that's probably a little bit more up in the air right now.

It depends how my schedule goes down on Christmas itself. Maybe I find some time Christmas night to put some thoughts down. If there is an episode that's going to be missed this week, it will be that one. Then we'll get back into it for Thursday and Friday. But the Wednesday show is probably the one that's most in the air right now, but I'm going to do everything I can to get you guys the full slate of shows. Let's talk about the good now. And again, there is a lot of good in this game. This was one of those old school Patriots from back in 2001, 2002, 2003 type games where they win it with a run game.

They win it with the defense. They get just enough from Tom Brady in the pass game. And maybe we should have expected that. Maybe part of the reason why I'm down right now is because I started Tom Brady in a fantasy league championship game, and I'm probably just tilting. And you would be right about that. Kind of tilting over it. Probably should have known better. Number one pass defense, seeing the way this offense has done recently. But I just thought, look, I'm going to ride with my boy one time. Nobody wants to hear about my fantasy team, though. So let's talk about the good things we saw for the New England Patriots.

And they wore a ton. Let's start with the offense. Look, they roll out 273 yards on the ground, one of their best rushing performances in a long time. You look at Tony Michel, fourth 100-yard rushing game this season, 18 carries for 116 yards, averaging 6.4 a carry. That's really good. Patterson, four carries for 66 yards, 16.5 a pop.

That's extremely good. If you could sign me up right now for four for 66 for every single one of New England's remaining games, I would take that in a heartbeat. James White, eight for 41, 5.1 a pop. Fantastic stuff. Burkhead, we can talk about him a little bit later. But again, he chips in with 13 for 39. Even Dorsett gets in on it for two carries for 13 yards as he sort of takes over for Patterson, which we'll talk about in a bit.

But the New England Patriots ground game was fantastic today. And we can't say enough about the guys up front. All across the line. Trent Ballum, Joe Thune, Dave Andrews, Shaq Mason, Marcus Cannon, James Devlin. Of course, James Devlin. They were fantastic today. And they needed to be, and they stepped up in a massive way. So the Patriots ground game, obviously a massive part of what they did.

The Patriots defensively were fantastic as well. And yes, we talked about it in the opener. They've gone up against Josh Allen, who has struggled at times, who's a rookie. We know what rookie quarterbacks do against Bill Belichick. We know what rookie quarterbacks do in New England against this defense. But Josh Allen is still a talented player. The thing that was probably most impressive about what the Patriots did with respect to Josh Allen was he only had five carries for 30 yards.

The Patriots did a pretty good job sort of containing him, limiting the damage that he could do with his legs. They forced him to make mistakes, two interceptions. We'll talk about those plays. But the Patriots' defense did a very good job today as well. And so, basically, if you look at football, the three phases of the game, offense, defense, special teams, we take offense, you break it down to pass offense, run offense. You take defense, you break it on the run D, pass D.

Out of those four offensive and defensive phases, they were extremely good, if not excellent, in three of the four. But it's the fourth, the one that contains TB12 and RG87, that has people, myself included, a little bit on tilt right now. Let's go through some of the other good stuff here. Buffalo's second driver of the game. They go tunnel on a first and 10. Kyle Vannoy, great job, flowing to the outside. Second down, Danny Shelton, who got the start.

He was active. Pushes the pocket. Flowers, misses on a sack. But then when Josh Allen scrambles, a land in Robbites. Great open field tackle to hold that to just a five-yard gain. They get a drop on third down. Of course, another punt. Patriots take advantage of decent field position on their own 44 to start. They go down the field and score. It's largely in due to the ground game. You get Sonny Michel on a 5-yard run. Patterson on a sweep. Michel

again with a great cutback. Runs to the arm tackle backside from the linebacker there. Great job. You get a crack from Edelman. You don't block corners. Nobody blocks corners. You block down on safeties. Great crack from Edelman.

First and 10, you get Michel for a 13-yard game. That's a fullback trap, fullback wham. We get Devlin cracking on the nose tackle. And then they get down into the goal line. Michel, two straight runs, powers in eventually for the touchdown. That encapsulates the entire game right there, that drive. The ground game led the way. Ensuing Patriots possession.

Again, Kamalu, the recent practice squad signing, you bring him up, he gets great penetration on the backside, chops down with Sean McCoy for a loss of four on first down. Foster loses one on the sun. Thank goodness for the sun. Give a little game ball to the sun, I guess. Patriots could have given up six there, but break went their way. Third down, you get a scramble.

Allen again. Chum tackles him for a six-yard gain, but it's a third-and-long situation, so they're forced to punt. New England is still in possession. One that does not end in points, but you had a run from Patterson out of the backfield on a crack toss. Again, Gronkowski, Allen, they're cracking down, Trent Brown pulling around, fantastic design and execution. You get the turnover,

defense needs to step up, hold them to three. What do they do? They hold them to a field goal try, and it's a doink shot. Big play on do? They hold them to a field goal try, and it's a doink shot. Big play on that one. Patrick Chun on a second-five situation to throw to LaShawn McCoy in the flat. He holds it to no gain. Then on third and five, they try and out and up to Kroon. Miscommunication. Allen throws the out.

Kroon goes vertically. Incompletion. Field goal. Doink shot. You keep it. That's 7-3 game. Getting into the second quarter now. The Bills, they actually get forced to punt again.

New England takes over. Get the James White touchdown run. Big play on that. Another sort of end around to Patterson for a gain of about 17 on a second and four. And then James White, fantastic job getting to the pylon on that run. Get the 14-0 lead. Defense, what do you do? You go out and force a turnover, right?

That's exactly what they do. First and 10, very first play in the next offensive series. Patriots go a little cover three Mabel. It's a cover three match. You got Gilmore one-on-one backside. Meg coverage, we call it. Man, everywhere he goes, M-E-G. Jonathan Jones is sort of pattern matching.

Deontay Thompson is the number three receiver. He's running deep to the corner. JC Jackson, he's sort of in the flat. He's reading the number two receiver to the guy across from him, the number one. He's trying to sort of read what they're doing, sees where Josh Allen's eyes are, reads the play perfectly, gets under, makes a leap at interception. That's a veteran-level play from an undrafted rookie defensive back.

Can't do it better than that. One of the better plays I've seen from a Patriots defender this year. The Patriots got a dude in J.C. Jackson. Patriots, unfortunately, don't do anything with the football. The bet's okay. Look, Patriots defense steps up again. What I loved about the next defensive possession the Patriots had, on a third and one, the Bills went sort of zone read.

Josh Allen keeps it it moves the change with a three-yard run a little bit later in the drive it's a third and five patriots learn from that they go a little looked like to be off to double check this on the film but it looks like they went a little scrape up chain scrape exchange excuse me where they sort of play it where they force the quarterback to keep it and then they scrape that linebacker around they flush it out forces it for just a two-yard gain on a third and five when josh allen tries to keep it, and then they scrape that linebacker around. They flush it out, forces it for just a two-yard gain on a third and five when Josh Allen tries to keep it yet again. On the fourth down try, they went for it.

Allen forces a nine ball in the general direction of Stephon Gamow, who breaks it up. So fantastic play from there. Patriots, however, they don't take advantage. They get a big run. This is sort of at the end of the half. They get a huge run into Buffalo Territory from Patterson on another end of the round for a game of about 27. They get into a third and fourth situation.

Brady's pressured, low throw, doesn't have a chance. We know how the second half started. Other good stuff in the second half, though. The touchdown to Edelman, you know, that was fourth and four. You love to see it in that moment because, again, this is when you're feeling a little bit iffy about the pass game. Good throw by Brady. Better play by Edelman to sort of stay upright and not touch the ground.

Just an effort touchdown from him. Last great play I want to talk about, the strip of Kroon. He's fighting for yardage. You respect the effort, but great job by Dante Hightower standing him up. Jason McCourty ripping it out, and Malcolm Brown, who had a pretty good game, getting back and recovering it. So there you go. That's some of the good stuff. Up next, a few words about the bad stuff, some of the bad plays, maybe some more thoughts on Brady. I don't know how much more I want to talk about that, given that I'm going to do it again on Christmas Eve for you all, Christmas Day. My days are all screwed up.

I don't know when it's coming out. Just stay with me now as we close out this glorious victory edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now. I'm going to close out this glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast and talk ever so briefly about some of the bad things we saw today. And they weren't all Brady-Pastgate related. Most of them were. Not all of them.

But I think as far as the big picture goes, you know exactly what I'm going to say right now. This passing game struggle today, they're going to need the pass game a couple more times before this season is said and done. They might need this pass game to step up this coming week ahead. I mean, while this game was going down, the New England Patriots, they get the Jets next week. What did the Jets do today? They got taken to overtime, and they lost to the Green Bay Packers, yes, but they hunt 38 on Green Bay. You know, you want to talk about Sam Donald and what we've seen from him.

Sam Donald, 24 of 35 for 341 and three touchdowns for a quarterback rating of 128.4. He basically played better than Aaron Rodgers. Rodgers and the Packers just scored more points because they scored in overtime after Donald and company forced OT. That was largely due to a long kick return that put them in good position, and the Packers scored a touchdown on the opening drive, and that was it in overtime. But when you look at a team that just hung 38 on the board, the pass game might need to do something a little bit more than Tom Brady and what he did today, which was barely scrape over 100 yards passing. And so, again, it might seem like I'm fixated on this, but I think we're all sort of fixated on it right now.

Again, people were wondering about Brady and his injury. If he's injured, there was actually a pregame video. Phil Perry usually films the Brady address coming out to Jay-Z, and he didn't make it all the way down to the opposite end zone. And people were wondering, I can't remember seeing Brady ever do something like that. Now, when I saw the video, I did see, look, the Bills look to be warming up in the opposite end zone.

Usually Brady still goes down there anyway. It just doesn't seem right right now. And we saw it on a lot of these plays. Anytime Brady was pressured and he was forced to sort of try to back foot something, it just wasn't even getting there. I mean, there was a throw to Patterson. There was a throw to White. There was a wide ice of Ogronkowski in the second half

where it's just two hopper, three hopper type things. And that's why, look, making sure they get this last W and getting that week off is going to be critical for this team and their success, I feel. Beyond the whole, this team struggles on the road, now I want 87-12 to get the extra week off. But again, we'll have more on the pass game. Some other bad stuff we saw. We saw the Burkhead fumble, the Burkhead usage, the Burkhead stuff.

I know Patriots fans are a little frustrated with it. You had one fumble and also an interception thrown in his direction. Josh McDaniel seems to like Burkhead and what he can do. He can run between the tackles. He can run to the edges. He can give you stuff in the pass game. He's a multifaceted weapon as a running back. He's kind of the combination of what White can do and what Michelle can do,

and I get it. But Patriots fans seem to be a little antsy. I almost get the feeling, look, if they saw him take the field one more time, they're going to run out there and tackle him themselves. So the Burkett thing, you know, the fumble, probably a situation where it was second to 15, get what you can and sort of get down, fighting for extra yards. We saw it burn the bills.

Burns Burkett. The pick, you know, again, we were just talking about with Burkett. That should have been a – it did look like Lorenzo Alexander hooked him and turned him, but it also does seem like he was breaking outside, Brady threw it inside, so there was some route miscommunication there as well. The pick to Gronkowski, that just went right through his hands. I mean, simple stick route, stick concept. Gronk wasn't pressured, wasn't getting a hit.

He had separation. It just went right through his hands. Patterson looked like he'd get hurt on a kickoff return. Evan Lazar from CLNS Media basically said he was limping noticeably. So that's going to be something to watch. After that kickoff return, the Patriots had a third and seven, and Brady was pressured. Throws a check down to white and was short. I mean, that's kind of what we were seeing all game long.

Brady was pressured, tried to make these sort of back foot throws under pressure, under duress, and they were short. And he missed some other stuff, too. I mean, I remember in particular a throw to white, cross from left to right, left to right, excuse me, and he just left it behind him. Bills score a field goal on their next possession, so it's 14-6 now. Patterson out, so when he was shell-in, he returned the kickoff. He drops it, fumbles it forward. He's forced to take it out. Patriots are, again, stuck in bad field positions.

That was a bad play on that drive. They get a third-and-four situation. The play before the touchdown to Edelman, Brady's blitzed. No chance. Just doesn't have a chance. And the pass game wasn't great. I just don't know how else to put it. We get the final field goal of the day. Patriots get great field position thanks to Julian Edelman's return of a short punt. You get a run by White for four.

You get Dorsett on an end around for another four. Pick up the first down. You're now down in first and goal situation, you get White for a gain of two, White for a gain of one, third and goal, they just run a simple toss play. And I wrote, look, it was almost like they just gave up, they were just like, here you go, look, we're not gonna do anything, we're not even gonna try to be aggressive, we'll just run a toss play, if we get it, great, if not, whatever, we'll kick the field goal. This just felt like a give-up play to me.

And that play right there is where I want to end. That play told me all we needed to know, I think, about what the Patriots felt about their past game today. Maybe it was just today. Maybe it was, look, with everything that happened this week, you're losing Josh Gordon. You know, you lose Josh Gordon when you do, maybe the bulk of the game plan is in. So now you've got to sort of reinvent things on the fly a bit.

Maybe you don't like the matchup against that pass defense, which again, number one pass defensive league. I get it. Let me ask you this. Let's end on this question. And I'll end it where I sort of started. You know, I started with talking about how in the law I'm painted slack. I said, look, they win this game 21-6. How do you feel?

They won the game 24-12. Again, how do you feel? How do you feel as a Patriots fan about this team right now? And maybe this was just a situation that, look, this was the game plan that they had to do. Bel Belichick said after the game, the pass game is going to get better. Do you feel as confident as possible about this team right now? And maybe you do, and that's fine.

And look, things have broken their way. Seattle is still winning right now. Houston lost. Everything's coming up Milhouse. But it's just knowing how this league is, knowing how it's a passing league, knowing how games tend to break come the playoffs. They might need a Tom Brady TP-12 performance or a couple of them to get to where they want to be. We didn't see one today.

Hopefully we can still see a couple of them before this season is over. That will do it for today. I will be back, like I said, I will be back tomorrow. I'll be doing something on tape. It may not be the longest show in the world, but I don't want to have you guys all over the river and through the woods to grab ourselves without something to listen to, so I'll get you guys something for Christmas Day.

Until then, Merry Christmas to everybody. It's probably going to be Christmas Eve when you're listening to this. I wish you and all of your families out there the happiest, most joyous holiday season possible. I will be back, like I said, on Christmas Day. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.