Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 23, 2018 - Sunday Morning Tailgate

Episode Date: December 23, 2018

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey there everybody, welcome on into a Sunday morning tailgate edition of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield here, Sunday, December 23rd, 2018. Just a couple of days until Christmas. And week 16 of the NFL season is upon us. It is a huge week for a number of different reasons. Obviously, playoff implications, huge games league-wide. Big game last night between the Chargers and the Ravens.

We're going to get to that a little bit later in the show. This might be fantasy football championship weekend for some of you. For me, I'm in a championship game in one game, in one league, excuse me. I'm in a third place game in another league, my two big money leagues. So fingers crossed for that. Although, as we're going to talk about here in a few minutes, I'm going to be cutting this thing down to the wire because both of those teams have Julio Jones in my lineups right now. As we're going to see, he is a game-time decision.

So we're going to get to that. We're going to do some DFS stuff. We've been pushing the DraftKings stuff over here at LockedOn. I've got two contests out there. I've tweeted those out this morning. Might even create a couple more. So easy to do with the app. I kid you not.

It makes it so easy. I'm going to basically be telling you my DraftKings lineups, why I picked those guys. That's what we're going to do in our DFS segment. Also, a little bit later, we're going to talk about the two NFL games that were yesterday, as well as some of the College Bowl action. But before we do all of that, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Swilfield. 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, friends.

I've long said that if there is an outlet that is covering the game of football, the chances are they've got me covering it for them. Let's get into some of the news that we need to talk about to get you ready for today. First of all, for the New England Patriots, things as far as the injury front goes could not be better right now. Look, we got a little bit of a scare at the end of the week. Rob Gronkowski was added to the injury report. He was limited in Thursday's practice with an ankle and a back injury. And Cardo Harrison was absent from practice due to an illness. But both of those players were removed from the Week 16 injury report. Patriots had perfect health down the stretch of this week of practice. They are basically as healthy as you could get.

Obviously, with the Josh Gordon news, that's a little different, but the Patriots are as healthy as could be right now. As for the Buffalo Bills, who they will be squaring off against today. Chris Ivory is questionable for Week 16. He sat out last week with a bummed shoulder. Expectations are he will be back. He was a full participant in practice on both Thursday and Friday. LaShawn McCoy is ready to go.

He's going to go today as well. Coach Sean McDermott said that LaShawn McCoy was ready to go. So they will have both of their running backs. We talked to Kevin Messary this week. They were down to basically a fourth-string running back. That's no longer an issue. They're going to have their absolute core, stable group of running backs good to go. So both teams, for the most part, getting healthy.

Obviously, the Bills have had some issues. Marcus Murphy out. So they've been dinged up, but they're getting McCoy and they're getting Ivory back. As far as league-wide stuff you need to know about, two names that you do need to be considered. If, like me, you've had teams built around these guys, Julio Jones is a game-time decision, last we heard. And, you know, when you look at what Atlanta is trying to get done here, obviously they're not really playing for much, but they're playing for pride and they would love nothing more than to sort of like pretty much put a death knell into Carolina's

playoff hopes. Julio Jones did return to practice on Friday. He was out Wednesday. He was out Thursday. Coming back at this point, it's a positive sign, but if you're like me and you've had Julio on your roster and you're counting on him, please, please, please have a plan B. I wish I could be on air up until kickoff time. I will try if I see something on Twitter that says that Jones is going one way or the other so you can have a backup plan ready to go. I picked up Foster, the kid on Buffalo, as a sort of last-ditch plan F kind of situation, given the fact that I'm pretty thin at wide receiver as it is in both of my leagues. So, fingers crossed there for Julio Jones. Another player in a similar vote that people might have counted on to get them, who might have propelled them to championship games, such as they might be in today, but now

they've got their fingers crossed. Rams coach Sean McVay has said that Todd Gurley, questionable with a knee, will also be a game-time decision for Week 16 against Arizona. He did not practice all week while battling knee inflammation. He was going to go through pregame warm-ups to determine his status for Sunday's game in Arizona. I hope you picked up C.J. Anderson as Justin Davis. He is questionable for Week 16 against Arizona. And the thing with this game is, with it being a late start, there is a question that you are going to have to make a decision on him before you know for sure. Unless you've got somebody that's going in one of the nighttime games or on Monday night,

you might have to decide, you know, am I going to roll the dice and hope he goes and start him in my lineups? Or am I going to make the call and say, if I've got a running back that I know is going to go in one of the one o'clock games, I'm going to start him. If I were you, I'd either have gotten handcuffed with Gurley, gone with somebody in one of the other games. I'm not sure you can trust him given that start time. So those are two big names, obviously, that people are sort of keeping an eye on as we get closer and closer here to game time. Some other sort of names that you might want to know about around the league,

guys that can go, guys that can't go. Looking around at some of the other teams, some of the other injuries. For the Houston Texans, they obviously a little bit thin going into Philadelphia. Lamar Miller ruled out for Week 16, so that's going to be a thing that hurts them. Kiki Kuti, he is also out for Week 16. Deshaun Hopkins, he is listed as questionable for Week 16. He hasn't practiced much all week. He was limited.

But given how thin they're already going to be, you've got to think that he goes. So, I mean, excuse me, DeSean, DeAndre Hopkins. I knew that didn't sound right. You've got to think Hopkins goes, though. Some other names around the league. Ted Ginn, he's expected to be back and in play this week against the Pittsburgh Steelers. That's something interesting to watch because Drew Brees, the New Orleans Saints, they've been a little shaky

the past couple of weeks on offense. They've struggled a bit. I was on with Matt Waldman doing a podcast. We did a two-part podcast. Part of it was released on Friday or maybe even on Thursday. It came out late this week. We talked a little bit about Drew Brees and how the Saints have struggled recently.

I talked about Seth Galina. He was at Seth, G-A-L-I-N-A, on Twitter. He does great sort of post-game breakdowns. He's an offensive-minded guy. He's a quarterback or offensive coordinator up in Canada. He had highlighted a couple of plays from Drew Brees recently that shows how he sort of struggled in man-covered situations. Having Ginn back will probably help them.

Vontaze Berfic, he is questionable with a concussion for Week 16 against the Browns. Russell Shepard, he has been ruled out for the Giants in their Week 16 game, as well as Odell Beckham, who is out. If you've got Shepard, expect them to see heavy target shares. Cortland Sutton, wide receiver for the Broncos. He was left off the Week 16 injury report. Jeff Swain, tight end for the Cowboys. He has been placed on injury

reserve. Juju Smith-Schuster. He expects to go with his groin injury against the Saints. He put out a tweet on Twitter basically saying, look, if you've counted on me to get to this point in your fantasy season, I'm not going to let you down. I am ride or die for this game.

So that's good for him, I guess. Good for him knowing the fantasy fans are counting on him. K.J. Wright, Pete Carroll confirmed, the Seahawks linebacker, will play in Week 16 against the Chiefs. He wasn't even listed on the final injury report, so probably not much of a surprise there. As well as Rashad Penny. He's a game-time decision, according to Picaro,

for Week 16 against the Chiefs. Finally, some sort of off-season news looking ahead. A couple of things broke. Le'Veon Bell, according to Ralph Vaccaino from SNY, he wants to sign with the Colts this offseason, which is kind of interesting. John Harbaugh, he's apparently in – the team has released a statement, the Baltimore Ravens, that confirmed that Harbaugh will be back next year, and they're working on a sort of extension for him as well.

So that's some interesting news. A lot of teams probably would have pounced if Harbaugh and the Ravens parted ways. Dawson Knox, tight end from Ole Miss, declared for the NFL draft. 6'4", 257. He could really rise. This tight end class that looked to be good just got a little bit better. So there you go. There's some sort of news and notes.

Again, if you've got Jones, if you've got Gurley, stay glued to Twitter and elsewhere. I will pass on any news as soon as I get it. Up next, we do a little DFS stuff. Do it a little bit differently given what we've got going on over with DraftKings. That's ahead on this Sunday morning tailgate

installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this Sunday morning tailgate installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And if you've been listening to the show the past couple of weeks or so, you know that we've been doing some great stuff over with our fans over at DraftKings. We've got, you know, a Locked On Listener League going on. We've been tweeting out contests, creating contests. And look, if you get locked out sort of of your fantasy playoffs, you know,

maybe your team, you know, for example, Browns fans, you guys were listening to the show. I know a lot of you Browns fans listen to the show, but unfortunately, the Browns were bounced from playoffs from playoff contention with the Tennessee Titans winning on Saturday afternoon, which we're going to get to. Now, just because maybe your team got bounced from the playoffs or your fantasy season is over doesn't mean that you can't find a way to enjoy all of the action. It doesn't mean that you can't find a way to get hyped for all of the games because DraftKings, they're still delivering for you.

Every single game matters for you this week if you're playing over at DraftKings. Single game fantasy football, it's the newest way to play one day fantasy at DraftKings. The leader in one day fantasy football. All you got to do, go to DraftKings.com, download the app, use code LOCKEDON to enter a single game contest for free this week with your first deposit. And compete for your share of over $1 million in total prizes. That's code LOCKEDON only at DraftKings, the game inside the game. A minimum $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply.

See DraftKings.com for details. And I've got two leagues up there right now. If I get bored while I'm watching the Pats game this afternoon, I might set up a couple more. So watch my Twitter feed at Mark Schofield. That's a tweet these out. And look, here's the entry that I've put in. I've put this into a couple of different contests already. A quarterback, I'm riding with Baker Mayfield. Call me crazy,

6,100 or over on DraftKings right now, but going up against that Bengals defense, 24th lowest ranked defense against quarterbacks. So I'm riding with him. Marlon Mack against the Giants, just 5,500. He's getting you 15.9 points per game over on DraftKings. That Giants defense, 29th against running backs this year, so I like that. Christian McCaffrey, I'm riding with him. He's my big blue chip pick this week at the running back spot.

Why? Number one, Falcons over on DraftKings are the worst run defense in the league. So that's issue one. Issue number two, they're starting Taylor Heineke. I get all magic. Christian McCaffrey is going to see like 67 or some crazy amount of touches in this game. So you know he's going to get opportunities. Wide receiver one, Amari Cooper.

Why? Going against the Bucs. We've streamed quarterbacks against the Bucs. We've stream Why? Going against the Bucs. We've streamed quarterbacks against the Bucs. We've streamed wide receivers against the Bucs. I'm not going to stop now. Yeah, they've risen all the way to 27th best pass defense in the league right now. 27th against wide receivers on DraftKings this year. I'm cool with the Cooper.

Goal, Jarvis Landry at another wide receiver spot, 6,200 over at DraftKings. Again, 28th against wide receivers. That's that Bengals defense. Jarvis, Baker, they seem to have got a good thing going here. I'm going to ride with that. At the wide receiver, Allen Robinson. 49ers are 23rd this year against wide receivers over on DraftKings.com. He's 5,400.

When they get into a situation where they need to move the change, and also when the Bears get into situations where they need to go sort of RPO heavy to get Mitchell Trubisky into a rhythm, they go RPO with backside stuff to Allen Robinson. If you watch that game against the Rams when they needed that drive after the strip sack safety of Goff. You know, they got a short field that's like, look, we can really sort of put our foot on their throat right now and take control of this game. They went RPO backside to Robinson, RPO slant to Robinson, RPO backside out to Robinson for a touchdown.

Three plays on that drive, all to Allen Robinson. They use him to get Trubisky back into the groove. Look for him to get some touches. Ted Enspot, I've done it before, I'm doing it again. I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm giving them the dream shot. Should have been flying a cargo plane full of rubber doggy doodle out of Hong Kong. But instead, David Njoku.

Yes, I just made a Top Gun reference. David Njoku, riding with him yet again. Bengals, they struggle against tight ends. 28th this year against tight ends over on DraftKings. We're going with him, just 3,800 over at DK. Equimanius St. Brown is my flex. I kind of had to get just 3,100 because, again, I was running out of salary cap space. Roll the dice there.

Again, that's a Jets defense that has struggled against wide receivers. And we'll roll with the Bears, even though Nick Mullins is hot, but we'll roll with them as a defense this week. So that's my DraftKings lineup for today. Again, look for the Twitter account, at Mark Schofield. I'll be tweeting some stuff out. Get involved, the game within the game, all that good stuff, over at DraftKings.com.

Use that promo code LOCKEDON when you do. Up next, we're going to talk some bowl action as well as two games in the NFL. We had Redskinsins Titans in the afternoon. We had a huge one of the AFC Chargers Ravens Saturday night. 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 the Locked On Patriots podcast. And let's quickly go through some of the college bowl action we saw on Saturday. We had a couple of bowl games.

Early game, we saw Memphis Wake Forest taking a square off in the Jared Birmingham Bowl. Okay. Jamie Newman, quarterback for Wake Forest, 22 of 43, 28, and a touchdown. Wasn't good enough, though. Memphis misses a field goal late, which seals the game. Excuse me, that was good enough. I screwed that part up. That was good enough.

As Memphis misses a field goal late, Wake Forest wins 37-34. Patrick Taylor, running back for Memphis, though, 30 carries, 110 yards, and a touchdown. The big one, which maybe we should have seen this coming. What was interesting was this was talking about a sort of contrast in styles. You've got Army, the offense they run, Houston, the offense they run. Army comes out, Haynes, 70. 70 on Houston. 70-14. Kelvin Hopkins, Jr., for Army, 11 carries, their quarterback, 170 yards, five touchdowns. I mean, talk about a career-type day.

And what a season for Army if you look at it. By the way, Hopkins, in terms of passing, three for three for 70 yards and a quarterback rating, a QBR of 100. Not bad for an Army quarterback. But you look at Army season, though. They had two losses. They lose at Duke. Okay, so they lose to an ACC school.

And they lose at Oklahoma in overtime. They took Oklahoma in Norman to OT. Those were their two losses. That's a pretty impressive season from the Army Black Knights. And, of course, they would tell you that Army, they were 1-0. They beat Navy. That was the only thing. Some other bowl game action, you had Buffalo in action against Troy.

Late night you had Hawaii and Louisiana Tech in action. NFL stuff, of course. Washington, Tennessee. Tennessee keeps their playoff hopes alive thanks to none other than quarterback Blaine Gabbert. Marcus Mariota leaves due to injury. Titans are forced to turn to Blaine Gabbert. Leads a little bit of a comeback as the Titans get back into this game. This was a game that fourth quarter they were training.

This was a 13-9 game in the fourth quarter. The Titans score 16 in the fourth quarter. They score 6 on the final play of the game, which as Al Michaels would say, had some interesting parties watching that pick six by Malcolm Butler, which was a pointless pick six. But still, 25-16, win for the Titans, keeps their playoff hopes alive, and sort of the postseason hopes for some teams,

especially the Cleveland Browns, who now they've got to play off the strength of pride. But still, the fact that coming into this week, the Browns were still technically alive in the playoffs. Huge, huge, huge credit to them. I mean, for what they were able to do. Some post-game hijinks. Let's put it that way. First, you had Taylor LeJuan, Josh Norman kind of getting into a little bit of an altercation on the Redskins sideline.

Apparently, Taylor LeJuan came over. He saw Josh Norman sitting on the bench, basically bit of an altercation on the Redskins sideline. Apparently Taylor LeJuan came over. He saw Josh Norman sitting on the bench, basically told him to get out of the stadium and then walked in with Josh Norman's own bow and arrow celebration, gave it right back to him. Norman lost his mind, threw a helmet, had to get separated by a coach. Then in the locker room, you had D.J. Squaringer losing his mind, basically saying that they needed to play more zone coverage, saying that a kindergartner could pick apart man coverage, rip in the defensive coordinator. So, testing times in Washington right now.

As for the nightcap, just when you thought, look, and I've said this a couple of times, a lot of people have said this, this was the year we were going to buy in on Chargers, and they get a chance to really sort of put some serious pressure on the Kansas City Chiefs who have to go, as we know, to Seattle today, tonight actually. So all they have to do is they beat Baltimore. They get themselves coming off the win last week over the Kansas City Chiefs. They take care of business against Baltimore, they get themselves, you know, coming off the win last week over the Kansas City Chiefs. They take care of business against Baltimore. And then you're talking about they're really in position maybe to take over in the AFC West.

And that was what some people thought would happen. This was the year you're buying in the Chargers. They fall down to Baltimore 16-10, but they get a chance. They get a good field position after they force a punt late in the game. Phillip Rivers faces it on first and 20 just inside Baltimore territory. Catch and run to Antonio Gates. He gets stripped, returned for a touchdown. Baltimore goes in to L.A.

They knock off the Chargers. Now the Chargers, basically those dreams of the first overall seed, those are gone. For all intents and purposes, that AFC West title is gone. They're probably looking now at the five. As for Baltimore, I mean, huge win for them. Huge win for them. And that defense is legit. And they are, look, you could say this about Lamar Jackson. He has made some strides as a passer, sure. They're winning with him in defense

and running and all this kind of stuff. It's not the same as the Dilfer team, I'd say, but they're a team that's going to get by with the run game in defense and what they can get out of Lamar Jackson. They are one ridiculous Patrick Mahomes throw away from being 5-0 under Lamar Jackson with wins at the Chargers and at the Chiefs. And for those of us like myself who were very high on Lamar Jackson's prospects as a quarterback, kind of excited to see this.

So fascinating, fascinating evening, you know, seeing that game, seeing what the Ravens were able to do with that defense able to do. Again, it makes the prospects of potentially New England as the three hosting those Ravens in the first round. Athletic mobile quarterback, a defense that looks legit and that can create points and turnovers. Patriots need to take care of business tonight. Today, that's what we need more than anything else. We need a Patriots win, get a little bit of help, at least from the Eagles. Fly, Eagles, fly, I guess.

Get New England back into the two, get to that bye. Take care of business. That's what we need. No matter what happens, though, I will be back later tonight breaking it all down. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Skroy and lock down patrons. Thanks for watching!