Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots February 4, 2018 - Inside the Sad Cafe

Episode Date: February 5, 2018

Mark Schofield has his Good, Bad and Ugly from New England's loss in Super Bowl 52. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Good evening and welcome on into a show that, let's be frank, I don't want to do. And you might not want to listen to either. And I would not blame you if you just stopped right now and came back tomorrow. This is Mark Schofield here for an endless March of Sadness edition of Locked on Patriots.

Welcome to the Sad Cafe. The New England Patriots fallen in Super Bowl 52 to the Philadelphia Eagles by a score of 41-33. And there's really no place you can start with this game. This was just one of those Patriots Super Bowls. We'll try to sort through it with some good, some bad, and some ugly. Obviously, at the outset here, massive hat tip and congratulations to the Philadelphia Eagles,

their front office, that organization, the coaching staff, and of course, Benjamin Solak and Michael Kist, the hosts of Locked on Eagles, who get to enjoy the, just experience the joy of covering a Super Bowl team in their first year as co-host of the

Locked On Eagles podcast. So kudos to them, obviously. Where to start? Well, I guess we'll start with the ugly. And unfortunately, it seems that we need to start

with Malcolm Butler. And it was strange when you saw the national anthem, and obviously, given all of the sort of attention that the national anthem has gotten this season, it was no surprise that NBC decided to really spend a lot of time going up and down each team line. Patriots standing next together, arm on each other's shoulders, looked like a cohesive unit.

But then you saw Malcolm Butler just bawling his eyes out, basically. And, you know, at the moment that it happened, you start to wonder, you know, I guess it's an emotional moment, but you've been here before. Why are you so overcome in this moment? And then you start to realize he's not on the field. And then you get the word coach's decision. That played a role in this game. You know, make no bones about it. You know, plays that Malcolm Butler could have helped on, crossing routes, things like that. You know, there

was a crossing route to Aguilar that Batamosi missed a tackle. That could have been where Malcolm Butler was on that play. Eric Rowe getting beat by Alshon Jeffrey. If Butler's on the field, the coverage is probably different. You probably see Gilmore shadowing Alshon Jeffrey earlier in the game. Or maybe Butler's there. Who knows? But whatever Malcolm Brown did must have been ugly for him to basically get a DNP coach's decision into the Super Bowl when we've been talking all week about how the matchup's going to be all Alshon in Gilmore.

You're going to get Rowan Aguilar in the slot, and matchup is going to be all Alshon and Gilmore. You're going to get Roe and Aguilar in the slot, and then you're going to get Malcolm Butler against Torrey Smith, Mack Hollins, and the kind of expectation was that Roe versus Aguilar might be the matchup because the other guys would basically be pushes, right? Not so much. So that was rough. Then the other thing we got to talk about in terms of the ugly. If you read the work this week over at LockedOnPatriots.com

and I'd invite you to go over to the website right now. I already got my post game, my gamer up on the website, so to speak. Welcome to the sad cafe. I talked all week long on this podcast, on the crossover episodes, on every radio hit I did, every other podcast I did. Anybody who would listen, strangers on the street, dogs in the neighborhood, my kids in the bath. I can't tell you how many times Owens and Simone looked at me wondering what I was talking about. What is Daddy Babylon about?

What was Daddy Babylon about all week long? Brandon Graham inside against the New England guards. Brandon Graham in those, you know, pin your ear back, past Russian situations against the New England guards. And on the pivotal play of Super Bowl 52, Brandon Graham beats Shaq Mason, knocks the ball out of Tom Brady's hand, and gets the Eagles the ball back with two minutes to go. Because when Brady took the field for that drive, down by five, over two minutes left,

did any of you listen and have any doubt in your mind that Tom Brady was going to go down the field and score? But then what do we get? We get that matchup which had been giving me heartburn all week long. The one thing I was really worried about was that. Graham makes the play. He beats Mason. He knocks the ball out of Brady's hand.

Eagles get the ball and kick the field goal to take the eight-point lead. Those were the two ugly things from this game to really take away from. And that's in a game where, I mean,

this defense We'll talk about that next. More with me, Mark Schofield, doing a Sad Cafe Endless March of Sadness edition of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you for an

Endless March of Sadness edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast again. New England Patriots fallen in Super Bowl 52, 41 to 33. And as you probably gleaned from the outset, some different intro music here to the show. That is, like I said, that is a track called The Endless March of Sadness from Unheard Music Concepts. I've used sadness from unheard music concepts i've used it before i think i've used some of their music before i know that i thought it was quite fitting

because look this is not the this is not the result any of us hope for at least those of you who are listening that are patriots fans i know that there are some out there who are not patriots fans who might even be e Eagles fans and again congratulations to you Just a tremendous season. I will say from the bottom of my heart Please take care of my middle child Carson now Please take care of him. I Lost my youngest and my middle child. I lost to Shawn. I lost Carson this year Please take care of Carson for me. Let's talk about the bad from this game.

And, well, the defense. You know, all week long, the buildup was, could the Patriots really stop those RPOs? Could they stop the RPOs? And I'd have to go back and sort of rewatch this game to really figure out how many of those plays that they ran tonight were RPOs? Could they stop the RPOs? And I'd have to go back and sort of re-watch this game to really figure out how many of those plays that they ran tonight were RPOs, but a lot of tonight was Nick Foles from the pocket.

Nick Foles making throws, making reads, going through progressions, getting to his third, fourth read in the play from the pocket. And part of that was due to the fact that there were times when New England was playing zoned coverage and it brings us back to the Malcolm Butler issue. If Malcolm Butler's on the field, are they playing a lot more cover one like I expected them to be, like I think a lot of

people expected them to be? You saw a lot more zone looks. I mean, you saw Mann and stuff, but there was a lot of zone coverage. There were some tight windows, but still it was zone looks. I mean, you saw Mann and stuff, but there was a lot of zone coverage. There were some tight windows, but still it was zone looks. Foles was making those throws and the defense could not really get off the field when they needed to. I mean, we didn't see a punt in this entire Super Bowl. I can't remember the last time that happened. But we didn't see a punt. That was amazing. And credit where it's due to Doug Peterson. Because Doug Peterson was aggressive all year long.

Teams take on the identity of their coaches at times. And Doug Peterson has been aggressive this entire season. Going forward on fourth downs. And he did it again tonight in pivotal moments. Obviously the touchdown, Trey Burton to Nick Foles, that's a play that's going to live on forever. But he made the right call to go for it there. And what was interesting was, and maybe this is just my view of it, but when he made that decision to go for it, Collinsworth is in the booth saying, oh, this is a crazy, gutsy call here to really go for it. Given the situation, I think it was the easy call to go for it.

You know, because say they kick the field goal. It's 34 seconds left. Say they kick the field goal. Then you give the Patriots the ball back at the 25 or so With 30 seconds left And New England's probably going to have decent field position Maybe they can get into field goal position themselves, right? New England's got one timeout left They can do something

As we saw tonight at a couple points Patriots could move the ball in those situations pretty well But if you go for it Worst case scenario You get stopped, right? On the Patriots' one-yard line. Are the Patriots really going to try anything at that point? So I think it was the easy call, especially when you've watched Doug Peters in all year long.

You see how aggressive he's been. I think going forward was an easy call. Now, dialing up, shifting your quarterback out to the wing, a direct snap to the running back, flipping it to the tight end who then throws to the quarterback, well, that's a different play call. That's a different story in terms of guts. But Peterson's been aggressive all year long.

That's what got him there, and he didn't alter from that a bit. I mean, we even saw it late in the game. On Philadelphia's touchdown drive. Fourth and one on their own, 35, with five minutes left, down by one. No hesitation, right? We're going to go. And they throw it. Peterson was aggressive. He put that game in Nick Foles' hands and Foles responded. Wins the MVP. Tremendous game from Nick Foles. I mean, he comes out 28 of 43 for 373, three touchdowns, one interception. And the interception

wasn't really on him. He put that basically on Alshon Jeffrey. Jeffrey couldn't make the reception. He gets tipped in the air and intercepted by Harmon. It was a huge play for New England at the time. Don't get me wrong. But you can't really put that pick on Foles. Foles played a tremendous game. And on the flip side, in the bad category, since we're here,

we'll talk about Tom Brady and his greatness yet again in the good section of this show. Brady might have had six on that throwback to him. And he doesn't make the catch. And I started my gamer. It's up on LockedOnPatriots.com right now with this simple point. In a game that featured so much, it might have come down to two moments.

Nick Foles made the catch and Tom Brady didn't. And the fact that that's kind of what we're talking about, Tom Brady trying to make a catch, kind of tells you about the flow of this game. You know, it... It's a shame. It's a tough, tough way to end a shame. It's a tough, tough way to end a season. But the defense got gashed by this offense.

You know, and again, it wasn't even the RPO stuff. It was foes making plays from the pocket, foes making throws. You want to talk about something that we talked about this week that hurt them? The slot fade. And, you know, Collinsworth was kind of saying that

they were trying to take away slant routes. I mean, it was really, that's what you do when you make it so the offense has to make the tougher throw. Tougher throw in that situation, you take the inside route, when you're manning coverage and a slot guy, make them throw the fade. They make the tougher throw. Tougher throw in that situation, you take the inside route, when you're man coverage and a slot guy, make them throw the fade. They were making the plays.

Philadelphia made the plays tonight. They made more plays than New England did on both sides of the football. It's a bitter pill to swallow, but that's just the fact of life. You know, the other bad thing I do want to talk about here is the loss of Brandon Cooks in that game. And that injury came at somewhat of an, you know,

not a pivotal moment in the game, but it sort of turned, you know, it turned around what New England could really do offensively. And it's weird to have spent some time talking in the buildup to this game about how, you know, Philadelphia's got good cornerback play on the outside and DVOA against number one and number two receivers is good from Philadelphia.

But Cooks was making some plays early. And then he, you know, makes a catch. He's kind of in space. He's turned around. He's looking to make another move. And he gets hit from a He's kind of in space. He's turned around. He's looking to make another move, and he gets hit from a hit he didn't see coming, and I'll admit that initially my reaction was, oh, that's a helmet-to-helmet hit,

but it's the right call because he's a runner at that point. He's not technically defenseless, and it was a shame to lose him because some of those double moves, they hit a double move to Hogan like we had called. They hit Haas concept on the touchdown to Hogan like we had called. Let me say this. I was in a DM chat with Ben Solak and Michael Kiss throughout the entire game,

and we were just amazed. Everything would happen. We were like, this is exactly what we talked about, right? The game played out in many ways like we expected, like we talked about this entire week. It's just not the way I would have wanted it to play out. And then probably

not the way you would have wanted it to play out as well. You know, so losing Cooks, I think, impacted what they could do offensively, took away some of the stuff they could do on the outside. You know, I guess Phil Dorsett had a great week of practice, sure, but we would have rather had Cooks in there for that game because let's check the numbers here. Dorsett one catch

for 19 yards, Cooks one catch for 23 yards, and he was only on the field for a quarter and a bit. So that's frustrating. Final thing we'll talk about in the bad section. There's already pieces up right now. I just had one forwarded to me that there were calls that cost the Patriots the game. And this piece that was just forwarded

to me mentioned three. First, the Ertz touchdown. Second, the Corey Clement touchdown. And third, apparently you can make the case that the Eagles didn't have enough men on the line of scrimmage on the Burton to Foles touchdown. Well, here's the thing. With over two minutes remaining, Tom

Brady had the football and a chance to go down and win the game, even with all those calls. So, if you're forcing me to make a determination on them, I think the Ertz call was the right one. Look, he was a runner. He was diving.

That's a touchdown. You know, I think if you call that an incompletion at that point, then what are we doing out here? You know, as I said during the Jesse James play, if it looks like a catch and it quacks like a catch and it walks like a catch, it's a catch. That was a catch and a touchdown. The Clement one, that was one that when it happened live, I was like, no, that's an incompletion. And I even tweeted it out.

They reviewed it, called stands, okay. I disagree with it, but it is what it is. And with the formation thing on the Foles touchdown again, well, as somebody that's lined up out there as a wide receiver, if you make sure you're on the line and you get the nod from the ref and they're not going to call it. So they didn't call it. Again, it doesn't really change the fact that Doug Peterson

deep-pantsed the Patriots on that play call. You know, whether a guy was on the line of scrimmage or off. Because you're really talking about the wide receiver in that situation, who, if you want to make the technical argument that he's a step or two off the line of scrimmage, doesn't change the play. That's some of the bad from this game. We'll get to the shards of good we can gleam from it on this Endless March of Sadness edition of Locked on Patriots.

Mark Schofield back with you inside the Sad Cafe. And if there's a small sliver of goodness we can pull from this game, well, there's a couple, I think. Tom Brady played one of the best games of football a quarterback will ever play, period, full stop. Yeah, there was the fumble, but you can't really put that on him. He was pressured pretty quickly.

Tom Brady completed 28 of 48 for 505 yards and three touchdown passes those 505 yards they weren't just the most in Super Bowl history they were the most in any NFL postseason game ever ever and in terms of yardage per game just in NFL history, 505 moves Brady in a tie for 16th in terms of passing yards, single game leaders. Tied with Y.A. Tittle

from a 1962 game, Giants against Redskins, and Drew Brees from a 2015 game, Saints against Giants. And every other game above him, they're all regular season games. He did it in a Super Bowl. It's just an amazing performance.

And leading up to this game, the expectations, you know, Jim Sports is going to get pressure. It was the first sack of the night when they finally got to Brady late in the fourth quarter. Brady had a tremendous game and he was pressured. He had to move in the pocket.

He missed some throws. Yeah. He threw for 505 yards and three touchdowns against one of the best defenses in the league, if not the best. One of the best. It was a great performance.

And I'm seeing people arguing, or at least making the case online on Twitter right now, that he could have gotten MVP. Yeah, well, no. I mean, you're not going to do that. Obviously, if the Patriots win, it would have been Brady. But Brady played a great game. And, you know, part of the reason why, I mean, there are levels to why

I'm not sort of devastated by this loss, although it stings. And part of it was the fact that, you know, the guy that I look to the most, Tom Brady, came out and played a great game. Part of the reason why at halftime of last year's Super Bowl, I was just not in a good place, was that it felt like Brady was going to go out and just lay an egg

and it was going to be easy to just say he's done. But I don't think you could look at this game at all and say, oh, Brady's done. No way. Absolutely no way. Now, unfortunately, we'll have to deal with sort of what's next for this team. The Malcolm Butler question is going to be lingering

and I'm sure we'll find an answer to that one over the next couple days believe me, I was trying during this game I was texting, calling, DMing anybody who might know something nobody knows maybe we'll find out in the next couple of hours maybe by the time you're listening to this show we'll know why Malcolm Butler

had his helmet stapled to the bench when the rest of the defense was on the field tonight. Who knows? Maybe we'll never know. But that's one of the unanswered questions. Obviously, there's going to be unanswered questions or questions that will need to be answered about this team going forward. Nate Solder, for example, Deion Lewis.

And, of course, deep in the back of everybody's mind Is the Belichick question The Brady question And there was even a tweet Although it was walked back Even a tweet by an ESPN reporter today Saying that there was talk floating around Minneapolis That Brady and Belichick were going to be done after tonight

It was walked back But So there will be questions in the days and the weeks and the months ahead, as well as that little thing called the draft. But fear not, friends and listeners, I will be here every step of the way. I'm not going anywhere. That's one question we can answer tonight. And so as the lights get turned on here inside the Sad Cafe and closing time starts to play through the speakers and I start shuffling everybody towards the doors

and the exits of the 2017-2018 football season, I want to leave you with this. And that is, regardless of how you felt about how this game turned out tonight, regardless of your team's rooted interest, we got to see a magical Super Bowl. It was an incredible game. And sometimes that's all you can ask for as a fan of this sport, as a fan of sports in general, but as a football fan. This was a fantastic game of football. And it's still a fantastic sport.

The one-on-one matchups, the chess matchups, everything that goes in to just get into a Super Bowl, let alone winning one. It's just amazing what has to happen for a team to be successful over the course of a 17 game regular season and then into

the playoffs. And if you're a Patriots fan, take a step back and realize that they've gotten here so many times. It's been an incredible run. And you never like seeing your team lose. But there are 30 teams, 30 fan bases out there right now

that would easily trade their season for what we just went through. Now if you're an Eagles fan, enjoy this one. The first one is incredible. And there might be more in your future.

But as for what the future holds for the New England Patriots, I will be here all offseason long, breaking it down, getting you ready for the draft, breaking down players. Because this team is, as they said over the past two weeks, and as they'll say into the offseason,

not done. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.