Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 4, 2017 - Glorious Victory Edition

Episode Date: December 4, 2017

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Good evening and welcome to another glorious victory edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield here in the big chair for Sunday night, Call it Monday morning. December 4th, Patriots win their eighth straight, 23-3 over the Buffalo Bills in a, we'll just call it an AFC East tilt. How about that? And if I sound a little, shall we say off, a little discombobulated perhaps, and maybe even a little down,

look, what we usually do in these glorious victory shows, we have our great, we have our good, we have our bad. We skip over the ugly part. But we've got to bring the ugly part back for this show. Because there are some ugly moments that we've got to talk about. And we're going to start off with that. And I guess we've got to start off with the Tredavious White interception, the Rob Gronkowski chaos that ensued after that play. You get flags everywhere.

You get Jerry Hughes' flag. You get Danny Amendola's flag. You get flags all over the place. But you get Rob Gronkowski taking a shot at Tredavious White as he laid on the ground. White having to go into concussion protocol as a result of it and now Rob Gronkowski sure he apologized after the game

he said he was frustrated and yeah White was holding him there was some contact it wasn't flagged White was holding him on the play holding him near the top of the route Gronk gets beat up on routes

sure I get that but to have the reaction that Rob Gronkowski did beat up on routes. Sure, I get that. But to have the reaction that Rob Gronkowski did, to sort of load up and then drive into white as he laid on the turf, look, Rob Gronkowski is going to be lucky if he gets out of this

with just a fine. Rodney Harrison on Sunday Night Football tonight in the pregame show basically said he should get suspended for at least a game and I sort of tend to agree with that. It's one thing if in the moment Grock sort of launches into him but this was late.

He loaded up for it. You could see it. I come from a legal background. I am a quote retired lawyer I guess you can almost see some premeditation to that it was an ugly play Sean McDermott called out Belichick when they shook hands in the middle of the field basically brought it up

there's a video of that I saw it on Twitter Belichick apologized used some sort of colorful language to describe it. And since this is a family-friendly show, I'm not going to get to it. But, you know, if the league doesn't take action, it wouldn't even surprise me to see Belichick take some action of his own. Because it was a dumb play. It was an ugly play.

And, you know, it kind of leaves a bad taste in your mouth after this win. You know, we should be able to bad taste in your mouth after this win. You know, we should be able to focus on Patriots getting to 10-2, eight straight wins, win a divisional game, defense playing great, overcome a Tom Brady mistake. And we're going to talk about Tom Brady too, because there's some stuff we're going to talk about there. It's just, I don't know.

Some of the other glorious victory shows, you're nice, you're happy, you're excited. Got a lot of good stuff to talk about. I can't fit it all in, all the great things that I see in the game. This one, a win's a win. Great. Ugly first half too. Patriots offense struggles in the first half. Yeah, they get the lead at the half. Yeah, they had a nice little drive before halftime

to get another field goal, take a 9-3 lead into the half. But again, you miss out on some red zone trips. Eh, I don't know. I don't know, guys. I... Okay, let's just move on from the ugly stuff. Let's get to the bad stuff.

And I know this is locked on Patriots, but I do want to talk just for a minute here about Tyrod Taylor. Because he got hurt. You could see him hobbled on the first play of the game. He escapes the pocket to the left, gets chased down from behind by David Harris, gets up limping. Then later in the game, there's a play where he sort of gets twisted. He's got defenders at his legs. He eventually comes out, taken off on the game, there's a play where he sort of gets twisted. He's got defenders at his legs.

He eventually comes out, taken off on the cart. Towel over the head looked pretty bad. And, you know, this might be sort of the end of the Tyrod Taylor experiment or experience is the better word for it because I don't think it was an experiment. It was an experience. And he's a guy that I've defended at times, a guy that I liked watching him this year, liked some of the stuff he did at the quarterback squad for Buffalo. And while I sort of understood when they decided that they needed to see

what they had in Peterman, I thought it came a little bit early. It didn't seem to make sense when they made that move. I understood it in theory. You know, it was just sort of disheartening, I'd say, to see him carted off under that circumstance. Again, I don't know. I'm getting emotional with you guys here, but it was just tough to see. You know, I hope he's okay.

I haven't heard anything out of Buffalo so far with, you know, any test results or x-rays, MRIs, or anything like that. But if that is sort of the end of Tyrod Taylor's time in Buffalo, it's painful to see it happen that way. When Peterman came in, he made some nice throws. You could see the offense sort of click a little bit in time and anticipation. Peterman's better at that, I think, than Tyrod Taylor. But I think in an offense tailored to his skill set, Tyrod Taylor can be a very successful quarterback. I think if you run an offense sort of like what the Seattle Seahawks do with Russell Wilson, you can have a very successful offense with Tyrod Taylor. So that was bad. Another bad thing we're going to talk about, Tom Brady losing his mind.

I don't want to spend too much time on it because I do want to get to this stuff that you know, so that was bad. Another bad thing we're going to talk about, Tom Brady losing his mind. You know, and I don't want to spend too much time on it because I do want to get to this stuff that actually happened on the field. You know,

what Brady, third and 11 play, they have a Mills concept, something we've talked a little bit about here. A locked on Patriots, you get a post route from Ron Gronkowski

in the middle of the field, sort of takes the top off the defense. You get Diggs on an in cut. Brady's a bit late of the field. Sort of takes the top off the defense. You get Diggs on an in-cut. Brady's a bit late making the throw. He had to move around in the pocket a little bit, and he missed it. It was open, and he missed it. And that's what Josh McDaniels was telling him.

He was wide open. And I think more than anything, Tom Brady was just mad at himself in the moment and sort of took out his frustrations with himself on Josh McDaniels a bit. But you see Gronkowski taking a shot at White. You see Brady Lewis in his mind on the sidelines and yelling at an assistant coach. I don't know. Maybe that's, again, part of the reason why I'm a little down right now when we're doing this glorious victory show.

And a win is a win, and it's great. Or maybe it's the fact that I... I don't know. Let's move on. On the other side here in a second, we're going to talk about the good and the great stuff. Because there was some good stuff to get to. That's coming up next here with me, Mark Schofield, at Locked on Patriots.

Alright, let's talk about some good stuff. And if you'll allow me to take a victory lap for a moment. I'm going to do that. And I'm going to do that on the Pats run game. Because I talked a lot this week. Wrote a piece about it. Said Deion Lewis was going to have that on the Pats run game because I talked a lot this week wrote a piece about it said Deion Lewis was going to have a big game he did

said the running game was going to have a big day they did this was a great effort from the ground game great effort on the ground against the Bills a defense that people pointed to what they did last week.

Oh, they shut down the Kansas City Chiefs who are spiraling out of control right now. But that's for another time. Lewis, 15 carries, 92 yards. Burkhead, 12 carries, 78 yards. A pair of touchdowns. Offense. 191

yards on the ground against this Buffalo Bills defense. And what else did I say? I said a lot of it was going to come sort of on power blocking schemes. And we saw that come to fruition. And what's another thing we've talked about a lot this year, perhaps almost ad nauseam, you might even be sick of hearing about it,

the ability to run the ball on first down. Well, we saw that again. Going through the box score, getting ready to do the show. Their first play of the game, James White on a power blocking scheme for six yards. You know, you get another power blocking scheme later in the game from Deion Lewis for five yards. Deion Lewis's 44-yard game,

that was a lead zone where you get the fullback in front. Sort of looks like a power issue because there's a lead component to it, but it's technically a zone blocking scheme. That goes for 44. Burkhead goes for 31. That was an interesting

play call, too. That's coming out of a two-minute warning timeout. Trying to get down the field to score. Defense is thinking pass. You come out, you run it. That's coming out of a two minute warning timeout. Trying to get down the field to score. Defense is thinking pass. You come out, you run it. That was a zone blocking scheme again, but you get a down block from the right tackle. It allows Shaq Mason to pull.

He sort of sets the edge, seals the edge. Throws a great block on the outside. Burke hit for 31. Lewis, 15 yard gain on another power play. Again with Shaq Mason pulling. Burkhead had a 9-yard run on a first down.

Again, lead zone play. Burkhead's touchdown run in the second half. Power blocking scheme. So we saw the power blocking scheme. So we saw the power blocking schemes. We saw the Patriots extremely effective run on the football. 191 yards on the ground.

And we saw them, again, effective run of the ball on first down. 21 Russian attempts on first down. That's excluding kneel downs. 139 yards. Run of the ball on first down. 21 rushing attempts on first down. That's excluded kneel downs. 139 yards running the ball on first down. And of course, it helps when you pop off a 44-yard run

and a 31-yard run, but still they averaged 6.62 yards running the ball on first down against the Bills on Sunday. Again, it helps with a 44-yard gain. It helps to have a 31-yard gain coming on first down. But New England's ability to run the ball on first down, to have this kind of success,

when you're facing second and four, second and five, you keep the entire playbook open. It's a recipe to have success as a football team, as an offense. It's been impressive to watch this year. You know what? Another good thing, sort of spinning off of that, we talked about

the ugly first half from the offense. Well, they opened the second first half from the offense. Well, they opened the second half with two touchdown drives. And for sort of the question marks about the offense after the first half, the way things were looking, it wasn't looking great.

Yeah, you had the lead, but are you really happy with how things look? They get a field goal late in the first half to take the 9-3 lead. The Bills have two plays. Not a lot they can really do with it. Patriots receive the second half kickoff. They go 10 plays, 70 yards, and a touchdown. Bills eventually punt on that next drive.

Patriots go nine plays, 78 yards, and a touchdown. So in the blink of an eye, it goes from a 9-3 game to a 23-3 game. And so kudos to the offense for their ability to run the ball. Kudos to the offense for getting it done early in the second half to get them to that 23-3 lead. Those were good things to see. Up next, we're going to talk about

the great stuff I saw. And then I'm going to hand out two game balls today. That's ahead right here with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked On Patriots. All right, let's talk about the great stuff and hand out some game balls. The New England Patriots defense,

it's hard to really look anywhere else. I mean, you could say Rob Gronkowski had a great day, put up some big numbers. You know, Gronk checks in with a nice and healthy nine receptions, 147 yards. It's hard to say Gronk had a great day given how it ended, but the New England Patriots defense had a great day. They shut down the Bills passing game.

You know, Taylor was 9 of 18 for 65 yards, had an interception. Peterman, he came on a relief 6 of 15 for 50 yards. They tried some stuff, wildcat type stuff with Joe Webb. That didn't really have a ton of success. Bills trying a lot of different things offensively. None of it really seemed to work. Patriots stiffened in the red zone. Bills had two red zone opportunities. One, they throw an interception. Eric Lee with a great play, which we're going to talk about in a bit. Then you hold them to a field goal.

Very opportunistic defense today. Late in the game, they get another red zone try. They go after Gilmore twice with red zone fades. Gilmore locked in sort of a battle with Zay Jones throughout the game. Jones had a great catch earlier in the fourth quarter on a slant route where Gilmore was in perfect position. Broke the play up.

Got his hand on the football. Somehow tipped it in the air but Jones still able to make the catch but the Patriots defense had another big day Lee with a tip on a pass that's the play where Tyra Jones

really sort of hurt his knee at the end where he got twisted down so a great effort from this Patriots defense his knee at the end where he got twisted down. So a great, great effort from this Patriots defense. We've seen this now in a number of straight weeks here where the Patriots defense has

had now, I think, four really, really good games coming out of the bye. Now again, they've done it against Trevor Simeon. They've done it against Derek Carr. They did it against Matt Moore. And now they did it against a Simeon. They've done it against Derek Carr. They did it against Matt Moore. And now they did it against a mix of Tyrod Taylor and Nathan Peterman. And they get to see either Moore or Cutler next week before Ben Roethlisberger. And so, yeah, there's a question of are they getting good against some soft competition.

But you play who's on the schedule. And the Patriots defense looks like they're figuring it out so again great job from the Patriots defense now let's hand out some game balls and I'm going to start with Eric Lee look a practice squad guy comes onto the active roster thanks to some injuries. What does he do?

He goes out there and has a pretty solid game for himself. Four tackles, two solo, one and a half sacks, one tackle for a loss, and an interception, which was a big interception early. And this was a tremendous play from Eric Lee. He's lined up on the line of scrimmage. He shows blitz. He drops into an underneath zone late in the play.

Tyrod Taylor doesn't see him. They run tosser, a double slant concept. Taylor misses him, tries to throw that outside slant pattern. Lee's right there, makes the interception. Good sort of defensive stand in the's right there. Makes the interception. Good sort of defensive stand in the red zone there. One of his sacks, he's sort of on the back side when they run

that boot action, which I talked about a little bit. Maybe they're setting that wide throwback design. You get Tyra Taylor, athletic quarterback on the edge. He does a great job sort of chasing him down. Doesn't lose contain on him. Makes the play on the edge. Those does a great job sort of chasing him down. Doesn't lose contain on him. Makes the play on the edge. Those are the types of plays you have to make against Tyrod Taylor.

You have to sort of limit his ability to get outside, to get to the edges, to do what he does very well, which is use his legs to make plays. Lee with a huge play there. So first game ball, Eric Lee. Just a tremendous game from him. Really liked what I saw from him. Then we're going to go with Shaq Mason. I mentioned him a little bit.

I think Mason had a great game from that right guard spot. The two run plays we talked about. Get into the outside. The play with Deion Lewis where he, no, the Burkhead run is the one I'm thinking of first where he pulls to the outside, helps set the edge outside. You know, he had another pull on a Lewis run for 15 yards, pulling from right to left.

You know, great game from him as well. So I'm giving those two game balls out. Eric Lee, Shaq Mason, great work from those guys. So that would do it for our quick little snap reaction show. Patriots, they get to 10-2. It's great to see. Yeah, I mean, like we talked at the outset, some ugly stuff that we had to get through.

This is one of those wins that maybe doesn't leave the best taste in your mouth, but a win is a win. And speaking of taste in wins, Joe Flacco with a somewhat demonstrative press conference where he actually tasted the win. Taking a shot at Jameis Winston a bit. That was

strange to see. But onward we go. Look, we're going to start getting ready for the Dolphins again. Another huge week ahead here at LockedOnPatriots. Don't forget, check out LockedOnPatriots.com. If you had read the site last week and listened to the show, you would have known Pats were going to run the ball. You would have known to give the nine points.

At least we hit on that. Didn't hit on that over-under. Can't win them all. Also, huge thanks to those that joined the Draft.com draft I set up on that. Didn't hit on that over under. Can't win them all. Also, huge thanks to those that joined the draft.com draft I set up on Friday. That filled pretty quickly.

I was glad to see that. I'll do a couple more of those maybe this week. Those were fun. Hope you enjoyed all the games this weekend. There's a big one going on right now

with Seattle and Philadelphia. Going to produce up this bad boy and then sit back and watch that one. Good luck in the week ahead, everybody. I'll be back Tuesday for your Tape Tuesday show. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. you