Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots December 9, 2018 - Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness

Episode Date: December 10, 2018

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I legitimately do not know where to even begin. How about this? This is Mark Schofield for a melancholy and the infinite sadness installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast. Let's start there. Let's also do this, which I think is a necessity, at least for me, to get through this melancholy and an infinite sadness installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. That's tasty. That, again, I've mentioned this before. Our great friends over at Spiked Seltzer, you can check them out, spikedseltzer.com, their Cape Cod Cranberry

makes for a rather tasty way to wash away the pain of witnessing what we witnessed today. And it's also very tasty because, let's face it, gluten-free, just five carbs, if you're going to be having about 15 of these to wash away what we need to wash away, it's a little bit okay on the waist. The New England Patriots lost a football game today. And while in the grand scheme of things, losing a football game is not the worst thing that can befall a team,

a fan, an organization, anything like that. This was more than just a missed opportunity. This was one of those gut punch losses. And normally on episodes like this, when the Patriots lose a football game, we talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly. But when I was trying to put together a script for tonight's show, I was reminded of something that David Locke,

who started and runs with some great people around him, the Locked On Podcast Network. I'm reminded of something he often tells the hosts is that you need to talk about what other fans are talking about right at the start of a show.

If you're not, you're doing a disservice to them. You need to, if people are talking about X, don't start a show talking about Y. So there is absolutely no reason for me to sit here right now and try to blow sunshine up your butts about what we saw. So let's begin where we need to begin in the final play of this game. This was not the reason the New England Patriots lost this game. The reasons that the Patriots lost this game fell much, much, much before this final play. But since people are going to talk about this, and since, as you can tell, my blood pressure is beginning to rise, I need to talk about this and since as you can tell my blood pressure is beginning to rise and I need to talk about this and also I need mmm it's just that crisp cranberry flavor gonna need a lot of crisp cranberry flavor to get through this

let's set the stage this way Patriots get a defensive stop with a two-point lead, 30-28. They get the defensive stop that they need to get the ball back and put together one of those four-minute drives you need to go out there and win yourselves a game, win yourselves a division. They get the ball back, first and 10 on their own 27, which becomes first and five thanks to too many men on the field penalty. They get a Sonny Michel run for three,

second and two in completion, huge third and two play. Brady hits Edelman for four yards to get yourself another fresh set of downs. Unfortunately, you get a holding penalty. It pushes you back. You get a huge run from James White. A throw to Gordon on second and nine.

Boom, you're at the two-minute warning. You're at the Miami 48. Miami's already burned one timeout. Now you start thinking clock here. First and ten run out of two-minute warning. No gain. Miami takes their second timeout. now you start thinking clock here. First to 10, run. Out of two-minute warning, no gain. Miami takes their second time out. Throw to Edelman, I mean, excuse me,

throw to Gordon, DPI. Get you a first and goal at the seven. Loved, loved, loved that call in that moment. I thought it was the perfect time to kind of take a shot here. You know, push the envelope a little bit. You got Brady under center. They're thinking run. You go play action. Brady deep ball. Drops it in there. Well, it can't be completed, but you get the DPI. Would have been great if Gordon caught it. It was a good throw, but pass interference prevented him from doing that. Held his right arm a little bit. Gordon gets up.

A little shaky. Going to be wondering about that. So now you get first and goal with a seven. You go inside run. Adrian Waddell comes in. White, one yard. You force him to take the final timeout with 1.47 left. You've now run, doing the math here,

almost three full minutes off the clock. But now you're under the two-minute warning. They're out of timeouts. I understand you want to work the clock here. But, you know, on second and six, you go with Michel to the left side when they're expecting run. Linebackers read it well. No gain.

You run some more clock. I understand. Third and six. You really want to grind the clock here. Brady under center again. Another run. More of a counter block play here. Devlin working left to right.

Now it's stopped. Fourth and goal at the four. The first question becomes this. Is there an argument to go for it here? This is actually a debate that we had in my living room during my daughter's birthday party at this situation. Yeah. And we kicked it around and we figured, look,

if you go for it and you get stopped, they only have to get to midfield to have a legitimate shot at a field goal. At least by kicking it, you force them to go touchdown. You force them to go down the field. They got to get the ball in the end zone and no timeouts. You can do some things. As long as they don't return the opening kickoff, you should be okay. So I'm okay with kicking the field goal. Hindsight makes it look awful, but I'm okay with it. So you kick the field goal. Now you kick off.

You get a decent return to the 31. But because you've done the job that you've done, you've run the clock off, they only really have time for the one play. They sort of get the swip kick, kick it in short. Balazs takes a little bit of time, runs to the cross field a bit. You get the tackle from

Hollister. So now, they have the ball on their own 31-yard line. So here's where things go off the rails to begin with. They have time for one throw. You've got to go 69 yards. So to get to the end zone from there,

you're looking at a 75-yard throw in the air from where Tannehill's going to drop from. That's going to take seven seconds. So you don't have to worry so much about stuff underneath. They're going deep here. They've got to get the ball into the end zone here. The point that I'm trying to make is, how are they going to get it there? Ryan Tannehill's not throwing this thing 75 yards.

I mean, he might. Maybe. That's pretty unlikely. I think the best way to sort of sum this up is a series of tweets from two Patriots players. First, Teddy Bruschi. Gronk was in because that is a, quote, last play close, quote, defense. The last play can be a Hail Mary pass. In a situation where chances of a Hail Mary are low, the jumper quote end quote parentheses Gronk end parentheses should be substituted for another safety or defensive back for tackling purposes. That was not done. Then there's Dante Stallworth who quotes a

video of this play. Why is Gronk on defense with the ball on the minus 30-yard line on the last play of the game? That's not hindsight either. This is not Hail Mary territory. The quarterback would have to throw the ball 75 yards just to reach the end zone. I don't understand why Gronk was in the game. And he continues. We would put Randy Moss back deep, but that was in actual Hail Mary situations.

I am really puzzled by this. I think this is one of the worst calls I've ever seen by Belichick. Not playing Butler in the Super Bowl was probably one, but at least we know Bill Belichick is human. And of course, the last line of defense, Robert Gronkowski, who we've talked about on this show and elsewhere.

Seriously, the crispness to this cranberry is just... As we've talked about on this show and elsewhere, he has been slow and stiff and like he's lost a step this season. So of course, when Kenyon Drake gets a full head of steam and he's got one man to beat and it's Robert Gronkowski, we saw how that ended. This was a two-fold gut punch.

Missed opportunities and poor situational awareness. And for a team that prides itself on situational awareness, it was not there today. Thankfully, thankfully, the Houston Texans lost and the Pittsburgh Steelers lost. So in the grand scheme of things, Patriots, this loss was not as huge of a gut punch as it should feel like. But this was a miss. Miss. Missed opportunity.

Especially when you see postgame. Ryan Tannehill. Gronk's on the field. We got this. Direct quote from Ryan Tannehill I saw Kenyon there I said to Parker pitch it, pitches it Kenyon came back inside then I saw him and Rob Gronkowski about 10 yards away

I said Gronk's on the field we got this so yeah it was pretty amazing now sort of in terms of The playoff picture The Patriots thanks to those losses today By the Texans and the Steelers Are still the number two seed

If the playoffs ended right now They're still the number two seed The problem becomes the Kansas City Chiefs Who clinched a playoff spot today Looks harder and harder right now that you're going to catch them. Yeah, you've got the tiebreaker, but you're back two

with three games to go. It's difficult, although it's not impossible, but it's difficult to see Kansas City losing two. And in addition, but it's difficult to see Kansas City losing to... And in addition, it's difficult right now, although this is because of the moment,

but it's difficult to assume that the Patriots are going to go and run the table. Now, granted, look, Chiefs have a short week, home game against the Chargers. So Thursday night home game probably in their favor. Then they go to Seattle. That's going to be a tough place to play. Seattle might, you know, still be fighting for a playoff spot there depending on how thin ShakeOut on Monday night and beyond.

But they could lose that game. And then, you know, maybe that Oakland game. You know, Oakland pulled off a win. Called that one kind of. So, I know, Oakland pulled off a win. Called that one, kind of. So, I mean, they might drop one. Hard to see them losing two or even three. So, now, looks like that number one seed is gone. So, now you've got to configure a life that involves going through Arrowhead.

But you've got to get there first. They still need to lock up the division. Haven't done that yet. Now you've got to get there first. They still need to lock up the division. Haven't done that yet. Now you get a play at Pittsburgh and like was pointed out recently in the past couple of minutes in the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, Heinz Field is going to be an angry, angry environment come Saturday afternoon, Saturday evening. But this

was a missed opportunity. And we can walk through the final play in terms of alignment, I was puzzled that they rushed four. Again, it gets into the mind of thinking that they're thinking that it's going to be a Hail Mary type situation. They want to force a quicker throw. They want to pressure him and not let him really get up a full head of steam.

He only throws it to the 48-yard line. And then you get a missed tackle off the bat by Jones. And then you get, I mean, to see Adam Butler trying to chase this thing down from behind, it's just put your guys in a position to succeed. Get 11 defensive backs on the field. Get every DB who is dressed onto the field. Go with just linebackers and defensive backs. Get your surest tacklers on the field.

Make sure you can get whoever ends up with the football to the ground. They just seemed unprepared for this play. We're going to have more on this game. We're going to talk. Again, we're throwing good, bad, and ugly out the window. We had to spend the entire opening segment on this play. We just had to. We'll talk about the offense next.

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That's code LOCKEDON only at DraftKings, the game inside the game. Minimum $5 deposit required. Eligibility restrictions apply. See DraftKings.com for details. Mark Schofield back with you now on this melancholy and the infinite sadness installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And let's talk about the offense here in this next segment. Talk about it for a few minutes because, look,

I went almost 17 minutes just on one play basically. So I know we're kind of going long here and it's not easy for me. I know it's not easy for you. It's not easy for me. This is not enjoyable. Oh, where's that crisp cranberry flavor I crave right now?

Okay, if you had told me Sunday let... If you had told me Sunday morning, if you had told me this morning that Patriots would have 28 points at halftime, I would have told you they're on their way for another 38-7 type route. If you...

You would assume that the offense has done a great job and will have a fantastic game if you hear that pregame. And the offense had a great first half. Tom Brady had a pretty good game, albeit with some hiccups that we're going to get to. But I think one of the ways to start is enter in this game. You look back at their first meeting.

You look back at what this Miami Dolphins defense has done over the past couple of weeks. And you think, look, they're going to come out. They're going to try to pound the ball. They're going to try to run the ball. And they tried. They certainly did. but the problem was the Dolphins seemed to be, after some big plays here and there, kind of up to the challenge in terms of stopping the run.

And in terms of, I don't want to say this was like a turning point type play, but there was a play near the end of the first quarter. This was a third and one with 4-0-4 left in the first quarter. The Patriots have their own 34. They've got a 7-6 lead after Kostowski missed the first extra point, first two kicks he missed, which kind of came back to bite you a bit. And they try to run the ball. Wexberg hit to the left side. And I don't know if it wasn't accounted for in the block,

and I can't imagine it wasn't. I don't know if it was just a failed assignment. I don't know why. But left tackle Trent Brown, he checks inside and then immediately starts working outside to his left. And I don't know if he was checking inside just to make sure that the D-tackle who was aligned across from him was going to be handled by Joe Thune or what. But nobody accounts for Kiko Alonso. When everybody else is engaged, you've got Chris Hogan, you've got Joe Thune, you've got Josh Gordon. They're all engaged or in the act of engaging a defender. Only Trent Brown,

when this play is over, is left looking for somebody to hit. And the person he was looking to hit is Kiko Alonso, who has knifed inside of him into the backfield, who has chopped down Rex Burkhead for a two-yard loss, and the Patriots have to punt. I mean, that was just one of a number of examples

where the Patriots clearly went into this game with a game plan that we're going to run the ball, and they just couldn't finish these plays. Another example, after the blocked punch at the end of the first quarter, Patriots have a fantastic, fantastic opportunity to right away capitalize, take advantage. Now, they did score a touchdown on this drive. But the very first play, after that blocked punt, you get a Sonny Michel run to right tackle.

And again, it's Kiko Alonso who is unaccounted for. Nobody blocks him. And he makes the tackle. And I don't know, on this play, watching it and re-watching it here, I don't know who's responsible for him. I don't know if it's Shaq Mason who's supposed to be getting out to that level.

Doesn't look like it because he's got a down block. I don't know if they're asking Devlin to get there. They just, nobody blocks him. And he chops it down for a one-yard gain. That's it. Now, again, they scored a touchdown on that drive. But the ground game wasn't there.

As much as we all thought it was going to be, it just wasn't there. The end of the half. Patriots, they score a touchdown. They take a 27-21 lead with just under four minutes remaining. And they get the 3-0. They stop Gore on first down. Great gets six on second down.

Third and 4, you get a sack with Jones and Van Noy, which we'll get to. Two-minute warning comes. Get the punt. You get the ball at your own 20. First and 10 at your own 20. 151 left. Run up the middle. Incompletion to White, check down to White for six, timeout

Miami, punt. That was a chance to do something good there. That was a chance to sort of get yourself some breathing room before halftime. Instead, it's this, I don't want to say it was ultra-conservative. I mean, I understand, look, in that moment, sometimes what teams like to do is they like to run that, they like to run the ball on first down, see if they can get sort of one of those cheap drive stars.

It's a little bit of a delay. You know, I kind of get that initial play call. Second down, you go gun. Coverage is there, so he's forced to check it down. Okay. Third down, you go gun again. Coverage is there. You check it down.

It's ultra-conservative. You punt. you go gun again, coverage is there, you check it down, it's ultra conservative, you punt. And then the defense, they get you the ball back again. Now, you're not expecting you know, much, but where you get it

is in field goal territory. You get it because of the deflection. You get a first and ten at the Miami 15. You've got one timeout left. You've got to know what's happening here. Brady on first down does a pretty good job of throwing it away. You get a pass over the middle down to the two. You got to take the time out.

You got a third and goal at the two with 14 seconds left. You've got to be sure that, look, if it's not there, you've got to make sure that there's time to kick the field goal. The worst thing you can do is take a sack. That's like job one. Brady had all the time in the world to throw this away. All the time in the world. Initially, it's tosser to the right. He's looking to Gronk. Then to Gordon, it's covered. At that moment, this ball needs to hit somebody in the face in the front row. He hangs in there too long on Gronk. It's not there.

It's a quick concept. If it's not there, you hit somebody in the front row in the face with the ball, and you see him after the game and give him a signed ball. But to take a sack there is a rookie play. Tom Brady can't do that. You got to know what you're doing situationally. Second half, what did they do in the second half? Six points. Two field goals in the second half. I think that pretty much speaks for itself. This was a game of missed

opportunities and poor situational awareness. And to see TB12 take a sack with no timeouts left at the end of the first half sums up this entire game perhaps more than that final play. Up next, I'll muster up what little strength I have next, mostly some liquid courage thanks to the crisp tantalizing flavors of Cape Cod Cranberry from Spike Seltzer. I'm stumbling on that one, that Cape Cod Cranberry. It's a tough thing to say, especially when you're working your way through 15 of these. We'll get through it together, friends. That's ahead on this Melancholy in the Infinite Sadness Edition of the Locked On Patriots Podcast.

Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this Melancholy in the Infinite Sadness Edition of the Locked On Patriots Podcast, which I may start renaming these as the Cape Cod Cranberry installments of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Again, look, friends, it's Mike Souser. It's about time. Shoot your boy up with a little bit of a promo buzz here, okay? I mean, I'm still going to drink these things by the bucket, especially after games like this, but I'm just saying. Help your boy out. I'm not doing game balls today because, frankly,

but I am going to do a take at the game, and it's pretty much the best way to sum up this defensive performance, and it's from our great friend Dave Archibald at DaveArchie on Twitter. Let's not forget, and this is from the Lockdown Patriots Slack channel, again, if you'd like to be an invite to a joyous bunch of people,

as we were on Sunday afternoon, hit me up at Mark Schofield on Twitter. Let's not forget, miserable first half defense. Or none of that other stuff would have mattered. You give up 35 to a not good offense. That stinks. And I mean, that was, again, summed up rather well. Road defense?

Ha, wouldn't risk that on a broken big toe. That's our great friend John LaMarocca talking about a potential trip to Arrowhead. Ian McDonald, I will still listen to the post-game episode, but I will not complain if it isn't instrumental. I thought about just going 25 minutes of Dark Knight soundtrack, but I suppose I'm getting paid to talk about this game. So I Will do that

Let's just spend a couple of minutes on the defense because through their credit this defense Asterisk only gave up 13 points in the second half. They gave up 21 in the first half thanks to some huge plays. You could start on their first touchdown drive. First and 10 at the Patriots 43. They had just gone zone read look

on a first and 10 to Anaheim to left end for about 13. They come back with basically the same thing to the other side. And the run fits are bad. The run fits are kind of lazy. The safety gets up slowly. It's Devin McCourty who usually does a better job,

but the run fit here is a little bit slow and lackadaisical. And Gore's off to 36. Next play, throw to Kenny Stills for a touchdown. Brandon Bolden. Brandon Bolden. I gotta say, I was following along with this game during my daughter's birthday party

and then my son's first flag football practice ever. And so in between bouncing around at Sky Zone and cheering my son on in his first flag football practice, I was checking my phone. And when I saw that Brandon Bolden had ripped off a run of 54 yards for a touchdown, I almost threw my phone across the gym. And then I had to, let's bear something in mind, friends.

All of you who watched this game happen can walk away from it. I had to sit down tonight and re-watch this thing so I could do this show. That's like... I'm trying to come up with a good analogy. That's like... I don't know. Going into a medical procedure

knowing that you're going to get your teeth ripped out but knowing full well that you're going to get your teeth ripped out but knowing full well that you're going to have to do it again. It's like knowing how the movie ends. It's like knowing an old yeller. Knowing how that ends but you've got to sit through it anyway.

This Brandon Bolden run. Does anybody know how to stack and shed? Anybody. Because I'm watching three trusted Patriots defenders, Donta Hightower, Landon Roberts, and Patrick Chun, just get swallowed up in unison. Patrick Chun losing a one-on-one in the hole to Kenny Stills makes me want to scream. It's dumbfounding. Are they putting something in

the water? Is that why this team struggles so badly down at Miami? But you watch this play over and over and over again, and you see two linemen and a wide receiver just overwhelm the second level at the point of attack. Landon Roberts couldn't get off this block to save his life. We spent 16 minutes talking about the play that ended this game. This game was over before that. You see this play, this one play, and it's just...

And just seeing Alandon Roberts take false steps and then get swallowed up like that, seeing Patrick Chun get swallowed up like that. They had an opportunity to win the division they choked that opportunity away situational awareness mistakes defensive mistakes offensive failures coaching mistakes poor execution this was the game that for myself and many other Patriots fans that was left on their schedule that made us the most concerned. It certainly seems like we were right to be worried about it.

Everything that seemed to have potentially could have gone wrong, went wrong. Now, in the grand scheme of things, yes, it didn't hurt them that much. Because it seems like they're still on track for a number two seed. Texans lost. Steelers lost. Do you trust this team right now to win a road game in the playoffs? Do you trust this defense? You still might, and that's fair.

Frankly, after I sleep off 1,500, 1,600, 1,300 spike seltzers, maybe I'll feel differently in the morning. But right now, in the wake of this performance, I don't trust this team on the road. I just don't. Maybe that will change with the light of day, but this was just a gut punch after gut punch of a game. And hopefully they bounce back.

But for the second year in a row, they had a chance to pretty much put their stamp on a playoff berth, and it just went south down in Miami. Thankfully, unless something disastrous happens, they won't have to play a playoff game at Miami.

But I'll just finish with this. Tom Brady, they showed this right before actually in the second quarter or so they showed this career in December road games all other games all other road games 25-2

926 winning percentages 63.2% completion 242.8 yards per game, 38-17 touchdown TDs. At the second quarter of this game, so obviously you've got the rest of this game to go, he was 1-5. Well, I'm like that now, 1-6. And at that point, he was 59.3 completion percentage, 23.9. 239 yards per game, 9 touchdowns, 10 interceptions. Now again, he threw some touchdowns,

so that TD-INT ratio is a little bit different. But the Miami House of Horrors, man, I don't have an explanation for it. Maybe it's like Chuck A pointed out in the Locked on Patriots Slack channel, it's the way the field is designed and built. The home team is in the shade. Maybe it's like Chuck A pointed out in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. It's the way the field is designed and built. The home team is in the shade. Maybe there's something to that. But for whatever reason, this team,

when the schedule comes out next year, they got to hope their first trip to Miami is in June. Put it in August. Whenever. Just don't put it in December. Just get that loss out of the way because it's coming again next year. That's it. August, whenever. Just don't put it in December. Just get that loss out of the way because it's coming again next year.

That's it. I'm done. I can't talk about this game anymore. I'll put together a poll for whatever you guys want to see. You know what? I'm going to put together two. I'm probably going to put together some Pittsburgh stuff. We might burn this game, put it behind us, and move on to Pittsburgh. As a matter of fact, that's what we're going to do.

We're going to talk about Pittsburgh. I'm done talking about this game. Hopefully, once you get done with this, maybe you won't even listen to this one. I wouldn't blame you if you didn't. If this is the worst rated episode of this show ever, it probably wouldn't be justified. I'll be back for Tape Tuesday.

We'll talk about the Steelers. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and locked on Patriots.