Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 5, 2018 - Crossover Wednesday

Episode Date: December 5, 2018

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Hey there everybody, Mark Schofield here for a Wednesday installment of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. And it is, as it is every Wednesday, a crossover Wednesday. A little bit later we're going to have my conversation with Travis Winfield, who is the host of Lockdown Dolphins, where we dive into everything we need to know to get ready for this Sunday till down at Rahavarock Stadium down in Miami. First, though, we're going to talk about elephants. But before we do that, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield.

You can 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 know and love for that outlet. As I said, Travis Winfield in a moment, but first we're going to talk about all offense. And entering this season, there were a lot of what you might want to call Olyphants in the room surrounding the 2018 New England Patriots. And two of those arguably were the two most integral players on this roster, quarterback Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski. And sort of the questions and the concerns and the wonder about those guys,

how much more they had in the tank, how much longer they were going to play, sort of have reached, I don't want to say a crescendo, particularly with respect to Tom Brady, although maybe after that Tennessee game it did. But this week, and in sort of reading around the internet and going on different shows, for example, I was on One Patriot's Place with the great Steve Osterian, Mr. Murphy himself, the Murph Dog, just yesterday.

And the conversation of Rob Gronkowski came up. And so I thought it was important to sort of take a step here today and sort of reconnect ourselves with these two players. And we'll start with Tom Brady. And with Brady, obviously in the wake of that game against Tennessee, you had Mike Tenier, who was so kind enough to come on the show, talk about the article that he had wrote, basically saying that the decline was here.

There has been that cottage industry, for example, that has been declaring the death of Tom Brady over and over and over again after every bad performance dating back to 2010 or so. And so it's a situation with Brady that whenever you see a mistake, whenever you see a missed throw, or you see a poor performance, there's this rush to judgment that takes place with Tom Brady because people want to be first. This is a first generation. The people that are consuming media right now, the people that are creating content right now, there is this rush to be first rather than being right. And you see it all the time. For example, in the draft evaluation world, people want to be first on the next great player,

the next big find, the next diamond in the rough, the next Tom Brady, the next Dak Prescott, the next Darius Leonard, whatever. And so when it gets to be May 1st, you're going to see people digging through all the tape they can find to try to find the next guy in the next draft class and the ones beyond that. And so every time with Brady that there's a game like he had against Tennessee, there's this sort of rush to proclaim the decline here, to proclaim the cliff upon us. And I think what we saw over the past two games against the Jets and against the Vikings was again the realization that the cliff's not here yet.

And if there is anything, it's a slope. It's not a cliff. There's not going to be this precipitous sort of fall off the edge of the earth with Tom Brady. Tom Brady's decline might be this gradual land and slope that takes him from the upper echelon of quarterbacks to the tier below it, or maybe the bottom of the tier below it. And that, given what we've seen from the rest of this team, whether it's on the defensive side of the ball, whether it's in the run game, should be enough for this team to be successful.

And so with Tom Brady, particularly when he threw, and I know it sounds silly, but that little flat route to James White in that game against the Vikings, I felt a sense of relief that, okay, the cliff is not here. So that's Brady. But I think the bigger elephant right now is the Gronkowski question. And I think we saw it in the question for yesterday's show, for the Tape Tuesday show from Maryland84, asking about Gronkowski. Murph and Steve over at One Patriot's Place, they seem to be feeling that same way.

Doug Kayed, he also tweeted out something similar about Gronkowski, saying he had tried to put it out of his mind. He had tried not to believe it, but it does certainly seem like this is Robert Gronkowski, football player now. This is not Gronk. Gronk, as we know it, is not on the field right now, whether it's a new sort of lingering injury we saw him get up limping at one point against the vikings whether it's just the wear and tear of him playing the

position with reckless abandon to steal a phrase from my boy murph on one patriot's place that he used or whether it's just the natural progression of things he seems to have lost a step or two. And that means that his usage is going to be different. When you see him struggle to get off the line of scrimmage, it raises some concerns. It leads to a four-yard loss. It raises some concerns. And something that dawned on me today,

the false start penalties. know he had i believe two last week he had won the week before i think he's had a number this season no i take that back i just looked it up he's got two first false start penalties this season one against indianapolis one against minnesota And you also had two hold-in penalties against Minnesota as well. And with the false start penalties, the one against Indy, that was on a third-and-four situation. The one against Minnesota, that was on first offensive play of the game. But when you're a player who's perhaps lost a step

and you're not feeling as quick off the football, it gets into your head that you've got to get off the ball faster, which leads to some false starts. And so we've seen two of those, one just this past week on their first offensive play when you know what the play is and you've obviously practiced it a couple of times during the game plan install periods during the week. And then the holding penalties, I think this crew was a little heavy with the flag when it comes to holding penalties. So I'm not really reading too much into those. It's more the fall

starts. But I think when you put all of this together, it leads us to the conclusion that he's lost a step or two. And whether it's permanent or it's just a factor of something that's happened this season we don't know but I think in terms of these two players and the two sort of all of into the room type situations there's one that I'm not worried about anymore and that's Tom Brady not concerned about it but there is one you know in Gronkowski that is a growing concern now is it is it a fatal concern for this team? Absolutely not. You know, I think with the emergence of Sonny Michel, the emergence of Josh Gordon, the inclusion of Rex Burkhead back into the fold as another matchup nightmare type player, which this offense

is built upon, this offense is still good enough to win, even not getting Gronk, even if they just get Robert Gronkowski, professional football player. But I am going to be very curious over the next couple of weeks to watch how he is handled. Can they get Dwayne Allen back? And if so, are they going to put Gronkowski on an Amendola-esque type pitch count? Is that going to be the sort of way they handle him going forward? So that's the elephant. Those are the elephants in the room. Those are how I feel about those

two things. And that's something I'm going to be watching with Gronkowski going forward. Up next, my conversation with Travis Winfield from Locked On Dolphins. But first, look, we all know watching football is fun, but it's more entertaining when you have some action on the games. Guys, girls, you've heard me talking about this for weeks, and some of you are still on the sidelines sitting this one out. Look, you've been listening to the show, so you're probably an expert, but whether you're an expert or a rookie, you should still be betting on my bookie. If you're the kind of person that likes to bet a little and win a lot, like playing the numbers on roulette, you can create a big parlor. Pick three teams to win,

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network, but across the entirety of the football media world is our next guest. He is the host of Locked On Dolphins, Travis Winfield. You can please, please, please follow him on Twitter at Winfield W-I-N-G-F-I-E-L-D-N-F-L. He is down in Miami for this one. Very excited to get his take on maybe a little bit of Miami cuisine, but of course the Miami Dolphins.

Travis, buddy, welcome to the show. How you doing, man? Could not be better. The weather, the food, the aesthetics, so to speak, and the football games. I mean, it's just been, it's been a fun week so far and I can't wait for the rest of the week to get here speak, and the football games. I mean, it's just been a fun week so far, and I can't wait for the rest of the week to get here. That's fantastic, man. So happy that you're down there and having a good time.

And it's been a while since we chatted. Obviously, things have changed a little bit since we spoke last. When we spoke last, Miami, the Dolphins, they were in position to take a potentially commanded lead in the AFC East, but the fortunes seem to have changed for these two franchises. So I wanted to throw this out there. Can you just give me sort of the state of Dolphins nation right now? Volatile. It's not good just because the wins they've been accumulating have not been impressive wins. It's like the old saying, a win's a win, even if it's ugly, but they've kind of all been ugly wins.

You know, 29th in total offense, 29th in total defense, and yet here we are 6-6. So it's been a really strange season for the Dolphins this year. Several injuries, but, you know, it's kind of one of those things where I tend to pull back on the excuse thing when it comes to injuries. And they're out there, you know. Obviously Albert Wilson was a big one and Josh Sitton a big one as well. But they got Tannehill back now. They've found a way to get a little bit more functional on offense, I suppose.

But still, fans are kind of bracing themselves for the offseason already. You know, let's start there with Tannehill. And we've got some questions from listeners via the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. Jim R. wants to know, and I know where you're going to go with this, Travis, because I know where your thoughts are on Tannehill. But I'll ask it since Jim wants to know, is this the year the Ryan Tannehill experiment ends and the Dolphins move forward with a new quarterback? I tend to think they do. And I think the reason for that isn't what most people would assume based on the performances. And I think it has

to do with the fact that he's no longer a reliable option in terms of being available on Sundays. This is a guy that started every game for the first five years of his career before he takes that knee injury. And now it's something like 25 missed games in the last two and a half years. So I think Adam Gaze is done counting on him, done relying on him. And the only option I think that would bring him back to Miami is if they strike out on the open market, because as you know, Mark, the free agent market is just completely barren and the draft class. I mean, I think Dwayne Haskins is declared today. But other than that, it's pretty barren behind him as well. So Tannehill possibly by necessity.

But if they get a chance to get like a Teddy Bridgewater or maybe even a Dwayne Haskins, I think they'd probably explore that option too. About Tannehill, because when we talked, Tannehill was playing extremely well. The numbers were great. The production was great. And then you had the game against the Patriots, the injury that follows that. We talked. Tannehill was playing extremely well. The numbers were great. The production was great. And then you had the game against the Patriots, the injury that follows that. Now he's back in the lineup.

What have you seen from him since his return from the injury? It's been a struggle for him because I think there's two things that really set Ryan Tannehill aside from a physical standpoint. And the reason that he has had success in the NFL is, one, the big arm, the ability to rip that seam shot, that nice fastball to throw the far hash, you know, the field side comeback route or the deep out to that side of the field. And then the athleticism, the ability to get outside the pocket, make some plays with his legs, also run some play action boot looks. But you have the two injuries that basically took out the knee. So it took out the athleticism. Then you take out the shoulder and he's throwing the ball down the field early in

games with success, or at least the ball looks good coming out the shoulder, and he's throwing the ball down the field early in games with success, or at least the ball looks good coming out of his hand. But as the game progresses, I think that shoulder injury is kind of wearing on him because he looks sore and the ball is fluttering and doesn't have the same pop he usually does. Travis, you do such a great job sort of in the days after a game, breaking stuff down. That's why your Twitter account is must-follow,

not just for Dolphins fans, but football fans. And you've got some breakdowns on both sides of the ball. And to Tannehill, you highlighted some good stuff that he did, but also some processing stuff that he missed. There was like, you know, a play-action boot where you had Kenyon Drake alone on the left sideline, and he didn't see it, some processing speed stuff. Is that sort of where your concerns with Tannehill lay right now as well,

sort of the processing side of the game? Yeah, I would lay right now as well, sort of the process inside of the game? Yeah, I would say my concerns as well as most of the fan base because the idea was that Adam Gaze was going to come here and give him the first kind of stable coaching staff in terms of a quarterback whisperer, so to speak, with Mike Sherman and Joe Philbin and Bill Lazor, all the guys before Adam Gaze got here. And we saw some of that kind of advance in 2016,

and then the thought from there was that even with the year off, he progressed another step, and that just hasn't happened. So a lot of stuff that they throw at him zone-wise will confuse him. He's not quick to anticipate. There's a lot of wheel routes, like wheel rub concepts they'll run, where the running back draws a linebacker, and it's dead even, and he waits until they're well past the linebacker to throw the football. So just the mental processing, the anticipation, it just never has caught up,

and it's kind of starting to wear thin on a lot of Dolphins fans. When you look at this Dolphins offense, when we looked at them earlier in the year, they had success with some short game stuff, some crossing stuff. Albert Wilson was having some big games. Now with the Wilson injury, obviously the offensive production in the past game has waned a little bit. Yes, the Tannehill injury as well. What about the receivers for this team?

What have you seen in the past couple of weeks from this group? And I'll include the tight end position in that as well. Yeah, pretty interesting because they've had to elevate some guys from the practice squad or sign a street free agent. So Bryce Butler got some pretty good run on Sunday against the Bills. Isaiah Ford, his first professional game off the practice squad, he got like 12 reps. And then the tight end position has been an abject failure this year. Mike Kosicki is just, it's a redshirt year for him, but he's still getting snaps. He's playing like 20 to 30 snaps a game and he's getting chucked two or three times a game. He's falling down in his routes. It's just

not pretty for him. And then Durham Smythe, the fourth round rookie, he's had some issues as well, but he's starting to get more run. I think part of that is because of Kosicki for him. And then Durham Smythe, the fourth-round rookie, he's had some issues as well, but he's starting to get more run. I think part of that is because of Gusecki's failures. And then Nick O'Leary was signed here as well on a one-year contract, and he's come in and kind of solidified the position. As far as giving them that H-back slash full-back role, it does a lot of work in the running game. He does a lot of dig-out stuff on the split-zone action

and does some good stuff in outside zone too. So tight ends have been not good. Receivers are two best guys in my opinion. Kenny Stills is probably in that group still, but I think Albert Wilson and Jakeem Grant are the two best, and they're both out for the year. So it's been tough. You know, there's this old sort of joke sort of in the music world

that, you know, when the nuclear bombs go off, what's going to be left are going to be cockroaches and the guys from Aerosmith. But you might want to sort of work Frank Gore into that mix because here he is at his advanced age for the NFL and for the running back position in particular, still chugging along over 600 yards. He's also got 100 yards received

and averaging nine yards per reception as well. Just still getting it done. What has he sort of meant to an offense that has struggled in the past game at times, has had to play with a backup quarterback at times? What has Frank Gore meant to this offense i think it's a bit of a double-edged sword because like you mentioned he has been good he's a good player and i feel bad for kind of talking negatively about him because he does a lot of things to get them into manageable down and distances later in the down count and that's something that adam gaze he's too comfortable with

and it almost he's comfortable to the point to where he doesn't trust Kenyon Drake or even the rookie Kalen Balazs, who, in my opinion, shows more explosiveness than Frank Gore at this age in his career. So Gaze hasn't really put the ball in Kenyon Drake's hands enough, despite the fact that every 19 touches, he averages a 30-plus yard play. He has eight touchdowns on the year, and still he's been kind of a secondary role. And Frank Gore, like I mentioned, kind of that crutch to get into third and manageable. It just seems like that's what Adam Gase has gone towards.

And like I said, Gore, he's really found – he's done a good job of finding holes when they really aren't there. And that's kind of the Miami running game in a nutshell is the holes aren't that huge, but he finds a way to wiggle through and get four to five a carry. So he's a good drive starter, but i wish they would use him less is there something you're seeing from this offense from a schematic standpoint i know you're an x's and o's guy that you'd like to see more of whether it's a route concept a run design or just something you wish that you know if you could pull adam gaze aside you could say look you're doing these guys are executing this design well do more of this, please.

Absolutely. 12 personnel sets. And part of that goes away with Wilson and Grant, because when you had those two guys in 12 personnel, you obviously offer the option to run the football with success, but also puts a lot of speed on the perimeter, which stresses the defense like to no end, as I'm sure you will know, Mark. And they, there's so many things they do on offense that has success.

And then they go away from it and never come back to it you go back to week three against the raiders they ran two of those little tap passes on the jet suite motion and they both scored almost 75 yards almost like 20 yards and i haven't seen it since then so they always they develop good stuff and then don't come back to it so the 12 personnel package and just repeating plays that had success. Mark Schofield, Travis Winfield doing a little crossover action here on this Wednesday installment of Locked on Patriots. And, you know, Travis, we're going to switch gears and talk about the Dolphins' defense in a second.

But I did want to ask this question from listener Alex A from the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. And we were just talking about Adam Gase a little bit. He wants to know how Dolphins fans sort of feel about the head coach he was supposed to be this offensive mind when he was hired do you think that there's been a plateau here do you think there's been a problem with sort of personality hasn't just gotten the right guys to run what he wants to do where are people's heads out on Adam Gase I think it's really kind of turning more towards the disapproval rating so to speak and I understand why because you I posted an article back on monday i think it was saying that the old adage that you

are what your record says you are is not really that true because here we are six and six 29th offense 29th defense you go back and they're just some really odd stats like the dolphins over the last two years have missed three field goals that's really really good and the opponent has missed 14 that's insane to me. And they constantly win the special teams battles. They find ways to win games close, which I suppose is a learned trait in the NFL, especially when most games are that close.

But there's just so many things that have been lucky for them to get back to 8-8 or 6-10. Whatever it is, it seems like they're lucky to get there, not really earning those wins. So I would say the fan base has kind of lost support on Adam Gaze, and I'm kind of right behind them in terms of, all right, it's time to start showing some progress, at least on offense, because that's what he was brought here to do,

and he's finished 17th, 25th, and now 29th in offensive rank. You know, Travis, now looking at this Dolphins defense, and when we talked back in week four or whatever it was, part of the conversation focused on the linebackers and some of the inexperience but athleticism there and similarly with the secondary, Minkah Fitzpatrick. What have you seen from the defense in the past couple of weeks that Patriots fans should know about headed into Sunday?

Sure. So I think that the Dolphins have a cornerback tandem now, and I actually got a chance to speak to Minkah Fitzpatrick postgame after the win over the Bills on Sunday. And he mentioned to me that he started off the year playing safety, slot corner, some outside corner. He was playing multiple positions. But the last three or four weeks, he's been strictly a perimeter corner,

and he's been fantastic out there. And I think that between him and Xavier Howard, who you guys should know all too well, those guys are going to make up, if not the best, one of the best cornerback tandems in the nfl if not like you know now like next season at the latest in my opinion you know when you look at this defense at least statistically on paper you see you know you reference you know was a 26 29th and total defense on the ground they're giving up 144 yards per game is this a situation where the talent is there and the pieces some of the pieces are there but it hasn't just kind of fit together yet perfectly

i think they've had a lot of struggles with their run fits i think most of that kind of goes to kiko alonzo who for whatever he is whatever you want to say about kiko i don't think a you know a cerebral player is how you would define him and then you flank him with two rookie linebackers so it's kind of a you know damned if you if you do, damned if you don't, in terms of getting those run fits corrected. Plus the wide nine alignment has really created some wide open gaps and chances for teams to double both guys at the point of attack. And then it's a running back against Kiko Alonso in the open hole,

and that's usually a loss for the Dolphins. So alignment, run fits, the linebacker play, and also losing Vincent Taylor, who was quietly having a very good year, a possibly Pro Bowl season at defensive tackle. He gets injured, and things kind of went to hell from that point. You know, when these teams met, Brady did have an interception where McClain made that great play, sort of peeling off that dagger concept, something Brady even admitted that, look, I didn't see in my years of playing football,

I didn't see any my years of playing football i didn't see any but defender do something like that you know are there things that this miami dolphins defense can do sort of schematically to sort of replicate plays like that but i mean because when you're talking about tom brady seeing something for the first time that's pretty sort of i don't want to say monumental but that's pretty impressive is there some stuff that this team can do defensively from a schematic standpoint that you think could have an impact on Sunday. Yeah, that was something. I think that was probably the best play of Bobby's career by far, if not anybody on this entire Dolphins defense that I've ever seen.

I mean, obviously if it fools Tom Brady, that's good enough for me. So they are a gambling bunch, so to speak, and it bites them a lot of times when they try to pass off zone coverage and guys get left wide open. But it also allows them to funnel guys into certain bait quarterbacks into throws. And Rashad Jones loves playing that robber position, and they've kind of alternated TJ McDonald doing that,

Minka Fitzpatrick at times. But they love to rob, and they love to kind of jump into the hook zones and make those plays. So I think that they can lull teams into a sense of security, easy for me to say. And then some of the hybrid zone man coverages can do that and get some get some interception opportunities for them which they've taken advantage of because they're second in the league in picks this year you know travis a lot

of patriots fans that i'll put myself into this category as well are looking at this game sunday with a bit of fear and apprehension because you you know, Patriots fans, and I'm sure Dolphins fans feel the same way, you know, that December game down in Miami has seemed to have been like a house of horrors for the Patriots and for Brady. I mean, last year, for example, there was that Monday night game where the Patriots sort of had a chance to put things away from a player perspective and they go out and they lay an egg. And they've seemed to struggle down in Miami. Is there a feeling this could be another one of these games where for whatever

reason the dolphins just have new england's number when it comes to those january those december you know late season games down in miami so you mentioned that i'm down here for the week and i'm from the pacific northwest where right now the weather's not great and i came down here i went for a jog and i made it about a mile before I'd turn around and come back because it was brutal it's brutal down here so I understand how the Patriots run into that but I think as far as the fan base goes I think that inherently it's kind of there but as someone that tries to approach it logically it just seems like you know even though the Patriots might not be there at their peak this year the Dolphins I don't think they're anywhere near that six and six mark so I just feel like if the Patriots come down here and lose it probably says a lot more

about them than it does Miami now of course we've won four in the last five three of those were in December so that's obviously hanging over their head but I mean you guys really would only have yourselves to blame if you've lost a game in Miami you know Travis you're down there and I'm going to put you into this sort of situation. You watch the game. Dolphins pull out a win on Sunday. You get a chance to go into the locker room. And when you picture yourself in that moment,

what do you think would have to happen? What kind of questions would you be asking? What kind of answers would you be getting if the Miami Dolphins go out and win on Sunday? What would kind of have to happen in your mind to see them come out with a win? I think they're definitely going to take the football away from Brady the way they've done it pretty much every time he's come down here. And that's their MO on defense.

They give up a lot of yards, bend but don't break, kind of the 2018 model of a defense, but they just haven't really been consistent in that regard week in and week out. And then also protect the football on their own right, but they're going to have to run the ball because their passing offense has been super limited. It's pretty much non-existent vertically right now and they've they've cooked up some pretty good schemes as far as running the ball goes because the run blocking is not great but they do a good job of kind of showing one look and complementing it with another look and

then the obviously versatility of frank gore and kenyan drake helps out with that too so take the ball away play solid defense and get some of those big gaps in the running game because as we know, the Patriots defense, the longer they're out there, the better chance the Dolphins have of kind of wearing them down and salting the game away. Fantastic stuff, Travis. As always, please let everybody know where they can check you out and your work and what you've got going over at Locked On Dolphins.

Yeah, you mentioned the Twitter timeline at WingfulNFL and then of course LockedOnDolphins.com, the number one blog in the Locked On Network and Locked On Dolphins podcast. Fantastic stuff, Travis, as always. Folks, that will do it for today. I will be back tomorrow for Take Thursday.

Remember, get your questions in. You can do it via Twitter at Mark Schofield. Email mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com. Or if you're a member over at the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, get your questions in there as well. Can't wait to hear from all of you. I will be back Thursday. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.