Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 4, 2018 - Tape Tuesday

Episode Date: December 4, 2018

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into a Tape Tuesday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for Tuesday, December 4th, 2018. We've got a little bit of history today at the Locked On Patriots podcast, more on that in a second, but it is our Tape Tuesday show. We're going to break down some stuff on the offensive side of the ball as well as the defensive side of the ball, as voted on by you, the listeners to the Locked On Patriots podcast.

Before we dive in, though, 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's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites. Friends, if they're covering football, chances are I'm doing some work about the game we all love for them.

And as I alluded to at the outset, some history today at the Locked On Patriots podcast, because early in the season, I had been kind of decided on my own what I was going to talk about, what I was going to break down. And it dawned on me that, look, you know, again, if it's truly your show, I need to be letting you guys in on what we're going to be talking about. And so I've been turning these into a poll. Every Monday, I'll put it out. What do people want to hear from me? And I have a poll, a couple of choices from the offensive side of the ball, from the defensive side of the ball. And I let people sort of chime in. We actually had a tie. 588 people voted on the defensive poll and Trey Flowers and JC Jackson tied with 33% of the vote

each. Now, technically Flowers had a couple of more votes. But I don't want to put this into a recount-type situation. We don't want this to linger on. We want to move on to Dolphins week. And so I'm going to break down both of those guys a little bit later in the show. But first, the winner on the offensive side of the ball was the offensive line. And I'm going to tweak this a little bit because, listen, Oliver Phalam at Maryland84 on Twitter asked if I could take a look at Gronk's blocking performance. So we're going to fold Gronk in there to talk about the offensive line,

the guys up front. Just at the start, we've got to say, these guys did a fantastic job. Looking at this tape again, checking out the coach's tape when it came out on Monday night, very impressed with the guys up front, including Gronk, including Adrian Waddell, who I saw sometimes as an extra blocker as well. Let's jump into it now. First play we're going to break down is from the Patriots' opening drive of the game. This comes to us at the 11-22 mark of the first quarter.

Again, this is New England's opening drive. Great game script going right down the field and scoring. And this is a perfect example of how pass blocking has to work in concert with the quarterback because this is that throw to Burkhead along the right side for a gain of 15 down to the Minnesota 16-yard line. And the Patriots have Brady in the shotgun. He's got one running back to his right in James White. Burkhead comes into the backfield late as well, standing to Brady's left. And they actually fake a handoff to Burkhead going to the right side. And they pull

Joe Thune, the left guard, in front of this as well to sort of sell the run fake. Because remember, linebackers, they're not really reading the action in the backfield. They're reading the guys up front for their keys, run versus pass. And when you see an offensive lineman pull, you're going to think run. And so Thune pulls around, but Daniil Hunter comes off the right side because right tackle Marcus Cannon slides inside the block, the defensive tackle. Hunter comes inside. Thune's responsible. Hunter comes off the edge.

Thune's responsible to pick him up, and what Hunter does is kick inside. So he basically tries to come to the inside to around and inside of Thune's left shoulder. That's going right for Tom Brady. Thune's only job here now is to just wall him off and hope that Brady moves around him and that's what exactly what Brady does. Brady sort of slides around to the right, creates enough space to make the throw to Burkhead and the Patriots pick up 15 yards. Let's skip ahead to the second quarter. This is a play that comes to us at the 14-01 mark. This is a drive starter, first and 10 New England ball at their own 31-yard line. This was a great play on the right side by

Gronk and Marcus Cannon. Again, we're going to be kind of talking about Gronk a little bit here. This is a power run to the right. Vikings have a defensive end aligned on the inside shoulder of Gronkowski. So they have to work Cannon and Gronk, a combination block here, to get this block before Cannon can get to the second level. And they do it perfectly. Basically, Gronk gets into him, starts driving the defensive end weatherly. Cannon just basically shoves Gronk in the back a little bit to get a little more momentum on him. And then Cannon gets up to the second level.

Really great combination block here. These two guys working their one-two up to the second level. Next play, 13-29 mark of the second quarter. This is the very next play. And this is that loss of four yards by Burkhead. And I think this is on Gronkowski. And if you want to have a reason to worry, maybe this is a play that might cause you a little bit of agita about Gronkowski. It's an inside zone run and play. And Gronk, again, got Weatherly on his inside left shoulder. Gronk needs to get inside of him, get that inside leverage established. And his first step with his left foot is forward, not laterally. If you watch this play, you see everybody is working laterally to one side or the other because it's an inside zone blocking play. Even Julian Edelman, his first movement is laterally to his left

so he can sort of get inside of the safety that's down into the box. But Gronk's first step is sort of forward, and that allows Weatherly to get the inside leverage on him. Gronk then tries to get a block on him, but he whiffs on it. It's too late because his first step was forward and not lateral. It gives Weatherly the advantage. He gets inside and basically meets Burkhead at the handoff spot. I mean, the Patriots are lucky here that this wasn't a turnover because Burkhead at the handoff spot. I mean, the Patriots are lucky here that this wasn't a turnover because Burkhead takes the handoff and is hit immediately. So that one, you need a better

first initial step. That first step from Gronk needs to be a little crisper. Next play. 214 mark of the second quarter. This was that post-Zimmer challenge on the throw to Gronkowski, that 31 where they went direct snap to James White.

And the Vikings do a great job here of changing the numbers in the box because they have a defensive back lined outside over Chris Hogan. And at the very last second before the snap, he kicks inside, gets himself across from Gronkowski who's in a tight slot and right next to Daniel Hunter the defensive end now Gronk is responsible for blocking Hunter but now he's got a defensive back in front of him so he gives him a quick little shove which isn't enough to block him and worse yet it prevents him from getting started up to Hunter so Gronk's now got lost the

leverage battle on his assignment because Hunter now has outside leverage on him Julian Edelman is cracking inside as well but Hunter is able to split the now double team from Gronkowski and Edelman and that gets him into the backfield stops James James White for no gain. So that was just a creative job by the Minnesota Vikings to change the numbers on this play. Next play we're going to talk about early third quarter. This is a play that comes to us from the 12-37 mark. And just talk about this one quickly. This is just an example. One of many where the Patriots who had used a real sort of

quick passing game early in this game, they started to dial things up a notch a little bit in the third quarter. This is that long throw to Patterson. And really just what I wanted to highlight was just a fantastic pocket from the Patriots. Brady working off play action. And you've just got the guys from left to right, Trent Brown, Joe Thune, David Andrews, Shaq Mason, Marcus Cannon, just doing a fantastic job. It's just a three-man rush. They get them. It's a first and 15 situation, but just a pitcher-esque

pocket. So I did want to highlight that play. Next play comes to us from the 2-20 mark of the third quarter. So late third quarter now. I love the job here. The exchange between Mason and Cannon on the right side. Vikings bring a late blitz on this play off the edge from the outside from the slot.

This is that long throw to Gordon that started that touchdown drive that ended with a touchdown throw to Gordon. And the Vikings, like I said, they bring a late blitz off the right side. So initially, Cannon and Shaq Mason are blocking the same player the defensive end who's trying to split the gap between them I'd probably because he's hoping to occupy both these guys and free up that path for the blitzer but cannon sees it and comes off late and peels off and handles that blitzer and the balls already out but still they don't know it and so that's just a great job.

Great exchange there by those two players. 119 mark, same drive. This is an outside zone run to the left. Great job on this play by Trent Brown. This is much better footwork from everybody involved, including Rob Gronkowski. You see him on this play working laterally this time, getting himself to the outside of the defender on the backside.

But play side, it's all about Trent Brown because he handles the defensive end, drives him backwards into the path of Harrison Smith, basically taking out two defenders on one block. Not the only time Trent Brown did that on this game. This was another example of that. And then on the touchdown to Gordon, again, quarterbacks, offensive tackles working

in concert. Both Trent Brown and Marcus Cannon get a speed rush to the outside. They ride their defenders back behind the pocket. Brady sees what's happening, steps up, climbs the pocket. Perfect throw on the crossing route from left to right. Touchdown against zone coverage, just making it look easy. I'll briefly revisit the interception. Took a look at that again, and it was exactly what we thought we saw from the live action. Seems to be sort of a bust here up front. Brown sort of kicks inside. Everybody else is going to one way. Everybody else is fanning out to the left, to the outside. He fans inside, takes on the defensive end,

leaves Harrison Smith, the Blitzer, untouched. So got to clean that up. Finally, last real play we're talking about here on the offensive side. This is a second and four situation, right? Coming out of the two-minute warning, you get this run to the left side, and you get a lot of manpower on the left side with Robert Gronkowski and Trent Brown

working their double team up to the second level here. Just a lot of manpower on the left side with Robert Gronkowski and Trent Brown working their double team up to the second level here. Just a lot of humanity moving the pile there on the edge. So there you go. That's sort of our look at the offensive line and Robert Gronkowski from Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings. To the Gronkowski point, I'll talk about the offensive line for a second here. I thought it was a great job overall by the offensive line. You had the one miss from Trent Brown, but I thought it was a very solid game,

very solid performance from this group up front. There's a reason why Shaq Mason is the number one graded guard by pro football focus so far this year, and you're seeing great play from all of these guys. As to the question from Maryland84 and Gronkowski, in his question, he referenced the fact that Gronk maybe looked stiff at times running routes. I think that might be the issue. The power is still there. But as we saw on that one play where he let the defender get sort of inside of him, you're seeing the quickness, that first step, that lateral movement may not be what it used to be. And so he's got to be more technically sound when executing some of these blocks, particularly play side on zone plays, you know, backside on zone plays, things like that,

when the footwork is such a big aspect of executing those blocks and getting outside or reaching those guys or whatever the case calls for. So maybe that's the thing to watch for from Rob Gronkowski. Up next, we're going to talk some JC Jackson. A little bit later, we're going to be talking about Trey Flowers, and there might be a Rounders reference. But before that, look, we're getting into the holiday season. Hanukkah is upon us.

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which might have been a little bit surprising to some, myself included, but as I went back through this tape after seeing what he did live, I was very impressed with what we saw from the rookie cornerback. And let's start with the very first play of the game. This is a designed swing route to Dalvin Cook along the right side. And that's where JC Jackson finds himself aligned from Laquan Treadwell on the very first play of the game. Now this is an incompletion. Cousins misses this throw. But what I love from JC Jackson on this play is he basically pancakes Treadwell. Treadwell is trying to block him.

He fights through the block, drives him backwards onto his back, onto his backside as the pass falls incomplete. He was not going to lose that rep, and he showed it. The tenacity early on this play that he showed early in the game, it's a consistent theme throughout this game. Let's a consistent theme throughout this game. Let's go to the 535 marker of the first quarter. This is one where he misses. He's lined up against Robinson, who had a pretty decent game for the Vikings.

Probably might expect that given how they really tried to take away Thielen and Diggs. And now J.C. Jackson is aligned in press alignment across from him. Robinson is the outside receiver to the right. J jackson has aligned and press alignment across from him robinson is the outside receiver to the right jc jackson in press alignment robinson is going to run a slant route working to the middle of the field and he uses a little stutter step move and he gets inside of him and you know jc jackson doesn't get anything on him doesn't get a fingertip a hand can't get a jam on him robinson gets immediate inside leverage. Now, there's a bit of pressure.

Kyle Van Nooy plants Cousins. And so Cousins doesn't get a chance to get a good throw off on this play. If he has some time, though, he's got Robinson breaking deep behind the safeties when Cousins has to let this pass go. So that was one where he kind of missed. Second quarter now. First play of the second quarter. This was a great design by the Vikings to try to isolate him in a one-on-one situation. Because what they do is they put Ham, the fullback, to the outside.

And then what they do is they try to get him one-on-one. The fullback goes outside. And then he comes back to the outside. And then what they do is they try to get him one-on-one. The fullback goes outside and then he comes back to the inside. So Thielen is now isolated in a one-on-one situation with J.C. Jackson. Because again, the play begins with the fullback aligned outside. J.C. Jackson goes outside to cover him. Fullback comes into the backfield. So everybody slides, leaving J.C. Jackson now across from Thielen. Thielen runs sort of a deep out route, and it's a cover three type coverage. So he has no safety help. J.C. Jackson has no safety help over the top, but it doesn't matter.

Does a very good job with his hips, staying right on top of this route. And Cousins is forced to check it down. Next play we're going to talk about here. 458 mark of the second quarter. This is a cover two-man coverage. Patriots played a lot of different coverage schemes in this game, and they do a great job here, the defense, including J.C. Jackson, of really switching up their responsibilities on this one because so many plays in the offensive game plan for every team right now

are designed to sort of pick at your switching responsibilities your switch rules your coverage responsibility rules and what the you know vikings do here they've got a tight end wide receiver who's aligned to the bottom of the numbers jc jackson across from and the running back so three receivers to this side of the formation and what they run here is sort of a little switch concept where you've got a spot concept outside receiver comes in on that little spot slash slant route tight end runs a corner route and you get the runner back into the flat and what you're hoping as a defense in you know if it's covered two men that you're going to get that defensive back in this case jc jackson trying to

cover that stop route that spot route inside he's going to collide on a natural rub with one of the linebackers you're going to free up that running back in the flat but the patriots do a great job switching this up they see the route concept come together and you can see the defenders actually pointing it out so jc jackson peels off this spot route comes to the running back in the flat. Cousins throws there because it looks open, passes a little bit off target. It allows J.C. Jackson to rally to the football and prevent this from being a bigger gain. It goes for a gain of three, but this could have been eight, 10, 12 yards or more. Great job switching it up, and then a great tackle. Speaking of great tackles, on Minnesota's touchdown drive before halftime,

there was a second and five play at the 37-second mark. 37 seconds left in the first half. Patriots go zero blitz. Middle of the field open, zero blitz situation. They have all their defensive backs who are in coverage, basically seven yards off the ball. They're basically saying if this blitz gets home, great. If not, don't get beat deep.

Let it get caught in front of you. Rally and make the tackle. And so this is a quick slant to Robinson. And JC Jackson has to make this tackle. If he doesn't, it's six. And he makes a perfect form tackle. Gets his helmet in front of the receiver. Gets his helmet around his thighs.

Prevents him from getting upfield. Chops him down. Prevents what could have been a touchdown. Perfect execution of that zero coverage situation. Now let's go to the third quarter. This is a play at the 12-57 mark of the third quarter. He's going to face Robinson. Again, Robinson's going to run that deep comeback route.

Now this is a play that goes to Adam Thielen. It's that deep shot on a third and 5 situation that he gets behind two defenders, but Cousins overthrows him. What you don't see on the broadcast angle, but you see it on the coach's tape, Robinson runs a pretty good comeback route. Breaks it off at about 15 yards or so, past the first down marker, but JC Jackson in his pocket the entire time. Then you get the plays we've already talked about.

Those two nine routes on the 318 mark and then the 228 mark of the third quarter. He was in very good position on the first one. That was the route to Thielen. On the second one to Robinson, he loses him for a step because both Robinson and Jackson look back for the football. They expect the ball to have been out already. It's not. Robinson starts up again. Jackson's a step late in staying with him, but he never truly loses him. So he's still in pretty good position. And then finally, the interception. We started this little segment about Jackson talking about

that competitive fire, that competitive toughness. You see it on this play because he gets beaten. It's a cover zero look, but it rotates to cover three. Again, no safety help. You have no safety help either way. He gets beaten on the vertical route, but doesn't give up. Fights through the catch point, tips the football, Harmon with the interception. It's just a fantastic play. So that's some of the stuff I saw from JC Jackson. I was very impressed with him overall. Very impressed with a lot of things he did when he was targeted. A lot of things he did when he wasn't targeted, when he was away from the football. So an impressive game from the rookie. There's a

reason the Patriots are high on him. That will do it for this portion. Up next, we're going to talk Trey Flowers. That's ahead to close out this tape Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots. Pay him. Pay that man his money. Mark Schofield back with you now

on this tape Tuesday installment of Locked On Patriots. And this is not Locked On movies or Locked On film or Locked On Teddy KGB. But what you did hear there was John Malkovich as the aforementioned Teddy KGB from the film Rounders

from that climactic scene where Matt Damon's character goes back into Fenway, basically like Buckner going back into Fenway, that great line from that movie, and beats Teddy KGB head up. And I play that clip because we're going to talk about Trey Flowers, and I think we're going to have to pay that man his money. At the outset, something that I did notice, he wasn't on the field all the time. He played just 48 defensive snaps against Minnesota,

which was just 78.7% of the Patriots' defensive snaps. First time he was under 80% of their snaps since Week 5, and it does seem like there's a bit more of a defensive line rotation sort of coming into view. You look at, you know, for example, guys like Adrian Claiborne. You know, we had talked about his usage perhaps dipping a bit. You know, he only saw 23% of the snaps against Green Bay down to 13 against Tennessee. I mentioned maybe, you know, he's on a pitch count type situation. 45 against the Jets, 39% of the snaps.

I mean, 45% of the snaps against the Jets, 39% of the snaps against the Vikings. You look at a guy like John Simon, again, new to the team. I had 33% of the snaps against Tennessee, 29% of the snaps against the Jets, just 12% against Minnesota, but still playing a fair amount from what you'd expect from picking somebody basically up off the street. And Dietrich Weiss, you know, another player, he was down to about 12% of the defensive snaps against the Bears, while it was 39% of the defensive snaps

against the Jets, 27.9, 28% of the snaps against the Vikings. So it does seem like there's a rotation going into it. Let's talk about some of the film here for a second. Pass rush with a plan. If you listen to people that know pass rushers, that really study edge guys like John Ledger, Brandon Thorne, Kyle Krabs, Joe Marino, Nick Filato. These guys that study pass rushers always say that you have to have a plan of attack.

First play, we're going to talk about 620 mark of the first quarter. This is a great example of pass rushing with a plan, and it's a great example of a defensive end edge defender using his hands, which we're also going to talk about. He's aligned sort of wide to the outside of right tackle Brian O'Neal. And remember when we talked to Andy Carlson about the bull rush. That was something we were going to look for in this matchup. Flowers wins initially at the point of contact. Gets his hands into him. Starts pushing him backwards.

And O'Neal tries to recover, but he goes from the bull rush quickly into the rip. He dips that right arm and just rips it under and into the armpit of O'Neal and works himself around him and really sort of pressures Cousins, forces him to climb the pocket right into the arms of Butler for the sack. Again, pass rush with a plan.

That's exactly what you want to do. Next play we're going to talk about this is the play that i actually tweeted out this clip again saying pay that man his money this is one of those radar moments where he's aligned head up on the center and you want to talk about pass rushing with a plan perfect push pull move because he instantly off the snap gets his hands violently right into the center pat elfinfin gets him, grabs him, and then yanks him towards him. It's that push first, grab him, and then pull him towards you. And you get this guy, this massive center, this massive human being.

You get his upper body moving forwards away from his quarterback. That gets the center sort of helmet over in front of his ankles, and he's just beaten. Flowers then just attacks the pocket. Cousins is flushed, forced to make a poor throw. Pass rush with a plan. Next play we're going to talk about. This is a play that comes up the 32-second mark,

32 seconds left of the second quarter of the first half. And this is a throw that goes to Dalvin Cook for no gain. This is another one of those radar alignments. And what's interesting about this play is Flowers doesn't get home, but he impacts the pocket. He basically occupies the three interior defenders at one point or another. First, it's the center and the right guard. And then as he tries to slide a little bit, he gets the left guard involved as well. So you got one guy basically occupying at one point in the pass and play. Three interior blockers. We talked this week about, you know, last week in the Take Thursday show,

excuse me, we talked about the idea of the Patriots lacking a guy that can push the pocket on the inside. Something that was brought up by Dave Archibald in the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. Here, you're seeing Trey Flowers do that, being the guy that can move the pocket from the interior. Gets all three of those interior guys involved in one point or another. Just a fantastic play.

Even though he doesn't get home, he forces a quick throw. It goes to the running back, another check down. Part of these check downs that we saw from Kirk Cousins, they were a result of pressure, and often it was Trey Flowers. Let's go to that fourth quarter. We talked about the stunt and the sack that he had to start the fourth quarter, the first play of that fourth quarter we we talked about the stunt um and then the sack that he had to start the fourth quarter the first play of the fourth quarter and again seeing it on tape exactly like we thought fantastic job setting this up you see flowers start sort of off the edge

starts outside then when he starts to come inside it's too. O'Neal can't get into him, and the two guys on the inside have done such a great job. Butler and Kyle Van Noy sort of occupying the center, the right guard and the right tackle. Great loop around from Flowers. Cousins never sees it. Perfect, perfect stunt there. That Mike for Santu. Great execution. Last player we're going to talk about.

744 left in the game. In completion to Thielen. This is after the blow up with Thielen and Brady in Belichick, I believe. And this is the drop from Thielen. Looking at it live, you thought, oh, this is just a drop. Nothing really to see here. But the pass is a little bit behind Thielen. Why? Again, you get Trey Flowers aligned on the inside, this time in the A gap between the left guard and the center. Comes inside to the center and just drives him

back into the lap of Cousins. So Cousins' throw is just a bit behind Thielen. Thielen can't catch it. Drop. Just, again, that interior push driving the center back into Kirk Cousins' lap. You've seen that from Trey Flowers. So there you go. There's a look at some of the great stuff from Trey Flowers. And again, more than anything else, pay that man his money.

That will do it for today's Tape Tuesday show. Again, loaded week. Tomorrow Travis Winfield from Locked on Dolphins. We're going to do some crossover stuff. Feel free to shoot me some questions. If there's something you want me to ask, hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield or mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com via the email machine. Also, get your questions in for Take Thursday. Need some of your questions.

Want to know what you guys are seeing, what you girls are seeing out there? Let me know, again, on Twitter at mark.schofield or via the email machine, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. That would do it for today. I will be back tomorrow for Crossover Wednesday. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.