Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots February 4, 2019 - THE GLORIOUS VICTORY EDITION

Episode Date: February 4, 2019

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Josie's on her vacation far away Curve around and talk it over So many things that I wanna say You know I like my girls a little bit older I just wanna use your love tonight I don't wanna lose your love tonight I ain't got any friends to talk to Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome on into the glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast.

That's right. You heard me right. This is not a glorious victory edition. This is not like some regular season win or some divisional round win or some even AFC championship game. This is the glorious victory edition. This is the show that you hope to hear when the season kicks off. This is the show that you hope to hear

when you start listening in around draft time, when you're thinking about what a season could grow into, what a season could become. And yes, the victories are nice along the way. The division around wins are great. The AFC Championship game is perhaps the best game the Patriots were in all year long. But what matters is this one. And the Patriots, they take care of business.

They knock off the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 and secure Super Bowl 53. Their second Super Bowl win in three years. Tom Brady gets his sixth ring, joins some teams, such as the Pittsburgh Steelers, with six Super Bowl titles. And there's a ton we can talk about. The postgame scrum is

still going on, but I wanted to sit here and get sort of my initial thoughts out. Forget the good, the great, the bad, the ugly, whatever you're thinking about. We are going to talk defense. We are going to talk offense. We're going to talk legacy. That is our roadmap for tonight. But before we do all of that, 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. I'll probably be writing about this game a lot and you can check out the work in places like that.

We're going to start with, I think, the main storyline, which is the defense. But before we do, I want to give a special shout-out to the Greek Football Oracle, to Georgia. I know this game means the world to her. I know she's excited, ecstatic, and celebrating right now. I want to give a shout out to a special listener. Enjoy it, Georgia. Thinking of you.

Enjoy this victory. Let's start with the defense. This was one of the best offenses in all of football. This was the offense that everybody wants to emulate. This was the offense that people just hope rubs off on them. The copycat league trying to emulate what Sean McVay has done with Jared Goff. And that offense was just held to three points.

Why? Because of what Brian Flores and Bill Belichick put together on the defensive side of the ball. And it even came with some injuries along the way. They lose Patrick Chun with an arm injury. He's watching on the sidelines as this game goes down the stretch. And this Patriots defense up against this incredible offense holds them to just 14 first downs, just 260 yards, 14.3 yards per play, 190 passing yards for Jared Goff, 62 rushing yards.

They never got into the red zone. They never got into the red zone. The job that this defense did, obviously it starts with Brian Flores, it starts with Bill Belichick and the game plan, and there will be all sorts of time to sort of break down schematically what they did. But it comes down to a couple of things,

and these were things that if you had been listening to the show throughout the week, you probably expected. You can talk about two plays in particular that probably turned this game you could talk about exploiting the hesitation and you could talk about pressure equal in production one of the biggest plays of this game was the miss that jared goff had to brandon cox deep in the middle of the end zone he He was open. And Goff just waited that half step too long to unload that throw.

And it gives Jason McCourty, think about that, not Devin, not the name you might expect, but Jason McCourty the opportunity to break towards the middle of the field, make a play on the ball, and prevent what could have been a very difficult touchdown at that moment in the game. Because look, let's face it. If the Rams take a 7-3 lead, you feel a lot differently about this game than you do when that game just gets tied at 3-3. And Goff made that one mistake, that one moment of hesitation. And it didn't result in a pick, but it resulted in perhaps what was worse at that moment in time for the Los Angeles Rams, a missed opportunity to put a touchdown in the

end zone. So there's that play. And then there was the interception that if you were following along in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, you know, and yes, I was clamoring for it since about right before halftime that Goff is going to throw one. Goff is going to throw one. It looked like he was going to throw that potential game changer type pick early on the first play of the second half to Hightower. Hightower drops it, but he did throw the one pick. Why? Pressure equal in production. We talked about it going into this game. When pressured, Jared Goff's astronomical type numbers that he was putting up this season dropped to Josh Rosen levels when he faced pressure. And what happened on the interception?

They bring a double safety blitz. Devin McCourty, Deron Harmon, they both come after him. You can't block everybody. It's a zero blitz situation. They get to golf. They force the throw under pressure. It's underthrown, and Gilmore makes the interception. Pressure equals production. It was a recipe for the New England Patriots down the stretch. Yeah, we might not get home. We might not get a ton of sacks on you, but we're going to pressure you, and two quarterbacks in particular that they faced this postseason.

That was the recipe. It was first Phillip Rivers. You force him off his spot. You force him to make some bad throws. He'll make some under throws. That's what led to some of his interceptions down the stretch. And then with Jared Goff, you get pressure on him. He will turn it to Josh Rosen.

You will get that interception. It didn't come for a while. It didn't come early. I kept clamoring for it. We all did. Everybody sitting there, every Patriots fan, whether it was at Mercedes-Benz Stadium or watching at home or at the bar or wherever you were, you were expecting that interception to come, and it finally, finally did.

And what a gutsy call to send that double safety blitz at that moment, after they had almost hit the shot. And you want to talk about Deron Harmon, the closer. Think about those two plays. First, he delivers the boom on the wheel route to Brandon Cooks to separate him from the football. It was a perfect throw from Goff on what should have been six, and then you're looking at a 10-10 game, and here we go. Tom Brady again in a tie game late against the Rams in the

Super Bowl, but he separates him from the ball with a legal hit. It wasn't flagged. They come back to that same route again, and it's Harmon now with the pressure, with the blitz that forces the underthrow and forces the interception. So two huge themes of this week that we talked about when the Rams had the football, they played a massive role in this game. But those weren't the only plays, obviously. There's so much to go around on the defensive side of the ball here. You could talk about Kyle Van Nooy in the job that he did. He had a huge sack early in this game. He did a tremendous job setting the edge at times, getting pressure at times, pressure in golf. Got to him a couple of times here and there to really get some pressure on him and, again,

get us to that pressure equals production type of situation so he had a huge game i mean you look at this defensive box score and up and down it you can highlight plays moments instances where these players made an impact jonathan jones led the patriots in tackles tonight. He had one sack. When he popped, he just unloaded on golf on that first and 20 play. And I thought that was one of those welcome to the Super Bowl type moments. Yeah, I came late in the game, but still. He had some big plays. Stephon Gilmore was all over the field.

Three passes broken up, and obviously he has the huge interception. Jason McCourty, we just talked about him. Dietrich Wise had a couple of huge plays. Patrick Chun before he was hurt. And that was a moment of severe, severe trepidation when Chun went down. Like who's going to make the calls on the defensive backfield? Who's going to sit there and step up and make those moments, make those calls, make those reads, make those adjustments? Next man up, right? Lawrence Guy had some pressures.

Obviously, Devin McCourty did what he did. You could look at Malcolm Brown with some interior pressure. Trey Flowers, he drew a holding penalty late in the game, but did some great things, obviously, coming off of the edge. Hightower had the near pick, sure, but he had a huge sack in this game, you know, that really almost put him out of field goal range, and that was after the play to Cooks that McCourty broke up. Danny Shelton, you know, that was one of the first things we were looking for. You know, was Danny Shelton going to be active? He was, and we can see why. They were worried about the interior run game.

They relied on C.J. Anderson a little bit more in the ground game than we might have expected, given their history. Gurley had more carries, 10 for 35, just 3.5 yards a paw. A lot of it was on the outside zone. He did have one inside zone cutback. That was something I was worried about. He did hit it for a big run. I believe that was his long of 16, but that was all they got going from him. Anderson, seven for 22, didn't get much going on the inside.

And so you saw the versatility, the need for having Danny Shelton active. When I saw that, that gave me the insight into Belichick's mind. And so the defense, and we're going to talk about the offense and the MVP in a second. I know we got to talk about that stuff. But if it were me, if I were a member of the assembled press with the ability to vote for a most valuable player, I guess I would have submitted the entire Patriots defense. If not, can I vote for the defensive coordinator or head coach, de facto defensive coordinator, Brian Flores? Because Brian Flores and what Bill Belichick, what the two of them did tonight, was fantastic.

They confused Jared Goff. They pressured him. They forced them to become a drop-back passing team because they stopped the run. They had to get away from play action. And here's also something we wondered about. It was something that came up on Take Thursday. Would Sean McVay be able to make the halftime adjustments?

And it seemed like, other than perhaps that play action off of jet motion throwback type smoke screen to cooks which was a nice little design they ran what they ran they ran levels they ran sail they ran flood they tried to do play action stuff the patriots were ready for it for the most part and so if you want to talk about game plans that should go into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, this defensive game plan should properly follow Belichick's Super Bowl XXV game plan into the Hall of Fame. Just a tremendous, tremendous job on the defensive side of the ball. We're going to talk offense. We're going to talk Super Bowl MVP next, a little bit later, Legacy. But listen, guys, I'm looking.

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for $35 off the best gift ever. Mark Schofield back with you now on the glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. That's right. We're doing it. We're doing it with Josie. And yes, that's right.

Cracking the first of what I imagine will be more than a couple of the Cape Cod cranberries from our friends over at Spike Seltzer. Guys, girls, hit me up. I know you just switched to Bonne and Viv. You even saw they were one of the first Super Bowl commercials. We get time to talk Super Bowl commercials maybe later this week, but Spike Seltzer, Bonne and Viv, a Super Bowl commercial ad. I couldn't believe it. Let's talk offense. And I think what was interesting, I've got in front of me the sort of notes from the game day show and the four things I was wondering about, four things I was going to be looking for. What kind of personnel team was this going to be? And we saw a lot of

21. We saw a lot of 11. And down the stretch, they became a 12 personnel team. They decided that they were going to mix it up a bit. and we're going to talk about the biggest moment of the game, the biggest drive of the game, the one that kind of gave everybody that chance to catch their breath and think maybe they can pull this one out. They were a 12-person L team, which was interesting to see. So interesting there, personnel packages. That matchup between the D-line and the offensive line, yes, it was the chess match we were all expecting it to be. Aaron Donald got pressures, Fowler got pressures, Brady was hit, knocked around. That D-line is, as advertised, a tremendous, tremendous, tremendous unit. But when it came right down to it, Tom Brady had the time he needed. They went tempo. They went adjustments. They went into that 12 personnel package that sparked that one touchdown. We'll talk a little bit about that in a minute.

But the Patriots' O-line, they stepped up when they needed to. They had the big blocks when they needed to. And yes, Brady got knocked around a little bit. When you look at Brady's numbers, 21 of 35 for 262, no touchdowns, the pick on his first throw of the game, one sack, but he was hurried a ton. When you look at the Rams' defensive numbers, he had four QB hits, five passes defensed. The Rams' Wade Phillips deserves a ton of credit for what he did. Brady was guessing a lot. He was trying to figure things out. The Rams secondary did a great job sort of disguising what they were doing in the secondary. And it makes sense, right? We talk so much on this show and everywhere else, Romo, anybody else that

watches the Patriots, they talk about how they use motion to give Tom Brady that extra little bit of information pre-snap. Well, the Rams figured it out. And so when they would see those short motion looks, those looks where they bring in motion and they move Edelman around or anybody else to sort of get Brady that pre-snap indicator, they didn't give him that indicator. They slid things around. They confused Brady. They made it difficult for him to get that sort of pre-snap cue. And then it made it tougher. It made it tougher.

They disguised a lot. The interception was a disguised look. He thought it was one coverage. He thought it was man. They rotated it to zone. And he forced a throw. And so they did a very good job. The defensive line did a good job.

But the Patriots, they had that one answer. That one answer. That one drive that everybody in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, hats off to everybody in there. Just a tremendous, tremendously fun time tonight. Helped to calm the nerves. Believe me, it truly did for me. I hope you all enjoyed it.

That one drive, that one drive they put together that culminated with the Sonny Michelle touchdown, what was the play they went to out of 12 personnel? Haas-Wai-Juke? Haas-Wyjuke. Haas-Wyjuke, baby. I wrote about it. I put up a feature part of the Twitter thread I did on Brady's 2018 season, saying highlight a play.

Haas-Wyjuke against Chicago. I said, look, they are going to come to this. They are going to run it. You are going to see it often. And on the one big drive, the only scoring touchdown drive of the game, they came to it three straight times. Now, the most creative play out of all of those on that drive was the opener. They come out, Brady under center, 21 personnel. They go play action. Gronk is basically why I saw to the right

as the inline tight end. Nobody outside of him. Heronk is basically why I show to the right as the inline tight end. Nobody outside of him. He blocks for a second, releases on the wheel. But then they go a little bit of tempo and it's Haas wide juke out of this 12 personnel package that they sort of shift to. You've got Edelman on the juke route on inside on the first time. The second time they go to the hitch with Burkhead and then they come back with Gronk on the seam. Three straight plays out of that 12 personnel package, Haas-Wyjuke, right down the field when they needed it most. We said it would be coming. We were waiting for it. They ran it a couple of times earlier in the game, but I'm looking at a tweet from Mike Reese right now on the key strategy shift to go big personnel on offense,

Josh McDaniels tells me they finally found something that worked as the key was getting the Rams into a base defense. So throwing with big personnel on the field against base defense was the change that sparked the lone touchdown. So there you go. Haas by Duke. Now your Super Bowl MVP, like I said, I would have gone someplace else.

I would have gone on the defensive side of the ball. But when you look at what this man did, 12 targets, 10 receptions, 141 yards, no touchdowns, a lot of 27, but 14.1 per reception, over 10 catches, just a tremendous, tremendous effort from Julian Edelman. Can't say enough about what this guy did. They were doubling him.

They were tripling him at times. And he would still be open. I remember a couple of years ago when I was studying wide receivers for Bleacher Report's ill-fated NFL 1000 project. And then we were down at Mobile. I was sitting with a group of people, and the topic of top 10 receivers came up. And I said, look, he's probably not there for most people.

You probably need to carve out a separate category for slot receivers. But Julian Edelman is always, always open. He's the opposite of the post office. You know, he's 7'11". He's the true 7'11". He's always, always open. And he had a tremendous, tremendous night. And I think, you know, 10 for 141 in a Super Bowl with a lawn of 27 on 12 targets, that usually gets you, you know, a Super Bowl MVP. I of 27 on 12 targets, that usually gets you a Super Bowl MVP. I do think that the defense deserved a nod, but hard to quibble with that.

And so there will be time to sort of break down what we saw. Obviously, we're going to do a Tape Tuesday show on this. But some of the other things, can they run? Can they run the football? Well, the running game, I don't think, added up to what we were hoping for. But in the end, they ran it sort of when they needed to. When they needed to salt that game away, you had the run of 26 from Burkhead. You had a big run of 26 from Michelle.

Michelle chips in the touchdown. And look, Michelle, 18 of 94, 18 carries for 94 yards on a touchdown, average of 5.2. Burkhead, 7 for 43, average of 6.1. I mean, it wasn't the sort of run game, run dominance that we saw, but it was there. And we can't talk offense without, you know, again, offensive line did what they could.

Shaq Mason, Joe Thune, everybody, they had some great blocks at the moment. James Devlin. You know I wasn't going to leave this segment without bringing up James Devlin. You know I wasn't going to leave this segment without bringing up James Devlin. He opened the game with a wham block from a wide offset eye alignment on a Dominican Sioux that kind of, I thought, set the tone for, all right, this is going to be that kind of game. Now, it didn't shape up that way, but a tremendous block. And then behind Devlin, Michelle punches in the slow touchdown of the game with James Devlin paving the road. I would have made a case for James Devlin MVP, but you know me,

I love fullbacks. That's the offensive portion of the show. I'll mention Ghost. He missed the early one, drilled the later one. Great. Matthew Slater, Keon Crossan, Ryan Allen. You could have made a case for those guys being MVPs. And so tremendous job foron Crosson Ryan Allen you could have made a kiss for those guys being MVPs and so you know tremendous job for those guys Ryan Allen did a fantastic fantastic job when you sort of look at the numbers that he put on the board five punts for 215 yards you know an average of 43.0 three of those five downed inside the 20 and I believe all of those maybe one was just inside the 20, but two of them, I think all three,

I'll have to double check that, but he did it. Johnny Hecker too did great, but you know, both of these punters did great, but Allen had a fantastic job, obviously with Slater and Keon Cross at the times

in some coverage. So that's the offensive portion. Next, I think we're going to talk sort of big picture and legacy and where we go from here. That's ahead on the glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. All right, Pats Nation. Now I'm excited to talk to you about our great partners over at Low-K-I.

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Still I'm so free, they're all alone Looking out the way I'm feeling As you leave your place, watch your close the door And don't forget what I told you Just cause you're under the main road Another shoulder to cry upon Mark Schofield back with you now to close out the glorious victory edition

of the Locked On Patriots podcast. As yes, the New England Patriots secure their sixth Super Bowl title. Tom Brady, Belichick getting their sixth reign, second in three years. Julian Edelman, your MVP as the New England Patriots knock off the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in Super Bowl 53. And it's time to do something I don't often do on this show. It's time to sort of talk big picture. It's time to sort of talk legacy.

And in many ways, this was a legacy-defining year for the New England Patriots, for Bill Belichick, for Tom Brady. Because we've seen over the years the teams that lose Super Bowls often struggle in their attempt to get back. You know, it's always tough to repeat, and everybody knows that. But the teams that lose a Super Bowl, they often really struggle. I mean, you look at the Panthers a couple of years ago. I don't even think they made the playoffs the following year.

After the Falcons lost to the patriots they got to the playoffs but you know they didn't advance too far they ended up losing to the eagles the eventual super bowl champion it's tough to get back because there's that sort of super bowl losing hangover effect and then when you factor in everything else that was around this team a year ago basically tonight when rob grronkowski first sort of mentioned the R-word, and then there were rumors of trades, and perhaps Brady vetoing a trade, and all the other things that were swirling around this team. Could the defense be athletic enough? Could they make the additions they needed to make? Could they grab the kind of talent that they needed to on the defensive side of the ball to get better and then think about how you felt about

this team over the course of say the early stretch when they started one and two that late stretch when they dropped games against miami and against pittsburgh yes they were on the road all the doubt that you had about this defense on the road all all the doubt you had about Tom Brady at times, that Week 16 game where, yeah, they beat the Bills, but it was the number one pass defense. And I sat here and told you guys, I don't know if Tom Brady could deliver the kind of passing game they might need him to deliver to get to another Super Bowl,

let alone win it. And he goes out there and does it in the AFC Championship game against Patrick Mahomes, who might be the next great gunslinger in the NFL. Think about all the highs and lows that you've experienced with this team. Tonight basically was their season in a nutshell in many senses. The offense did good at times, but never seemed to be able to get over that hump. Brady seemed off at times. He missed some throws. That interception early, some throws late in the first half. But when he needed to deliver, he did. There were a couple of great throws tonight,

and Goff had probably more than Brady. But the best throw of the night, the biggest throw of the night, the biggest throw of the night, was the seam to Gronk to get them down to the one-yard line and then Michelle punches it in. When Tom Brady needed to deliver, he did. And I'm seeing some people saying,

oh, Brady just won his Super Bowl 50 like Manny did. I don't think he had a bad game. this was a tremendous defense he was going up against you know two of the best interior pass rushers in the game right now in sue and donald and we talked about aaron donald wrecker of worlds wade phillips had a tremendous game plan is this the tom Brady of days past? Maybe not. But this is Super Bowl winning for the sixth time Tom Brady. And when it mattered, when he needed to step up, when he needed to sort of answer the bell,

as it was discussed in the lockdown Patriots Slack Channel, he did just that. And if you had any doubt about Tom Brady being the greatest quarterback of all time, I'm going to tell you, it's time to put those conversations to bed. Six is six. And you could say he was lucky along the way, like I know some people will. You could say this was a bad performance, like some people are already doing. But it's a big picture time to look at it now. It's a legacy moment. Sometimes in the world of politics, when a president gets into his or her second term,

they talk about sort of the legacy speeches, the legacy moment, but they're going to leave behind. This might be the performance that Tom Brady leaves behind. It might be emblematic of him, again, coming full circle. Was it a huge night? No. Was it the best Super Bowl he's ever played?

Absolutely not. He's been better in losses. He was better in last year's game. But right now, even with this version of Tom Brady, that one big throw, that one big moment, that one big drive, he delivered. And people who follow my work, who know me, you know I love drives. Putting together plays, calling plays in the right moment,

a team stepping up, whether it's the offensive or the defensive side of the ball, in that one moment. And I think about it so many times when I think about drives and I analyze drives, Tom Brady walking into the huddle and talking about how we need a championship drive they needed one tonight and what did they do they put it into TB12's hands and he went four for four right down the field and they got the knockout touchdown that they desperately needed and so if tonight was a night of legacies Tom Brady cemented his atop that rush more of quarterbacks. And you can't tell me anything to change my mind on that.

You could say he threw a pick. Okay. You could say that he didn't throw a touchdown. Okay. Would you have wanted anybody else on that field for you as your quarterback in that drive for that moment those plays, than TB12? I don't think so. And that, more than anything else, is his legacy.

That guy. That bad man that you need in that moment. That's how I will always view him. He already said that he's going to be back and he's going to play for another five years. He's cemented his legacy tonight. And Bill Belichick cemented his as well.

Who cemented his legacy yet again as, okay, going up against another great offense, an offense that supposedly has the answers for everything. Well, here's my answer for that supposedly has the answers for everything. Well, here's my answer for that, and it's three points. Thank you. See you in the summer. Such a high-scoring offense, high-powered offense. What did they do? They confused them. They pressured them. They exploited the hesitation, the things we talked about, and Bill Belichick probably has another game plan on in route to Canton, Ohio. And finally, if this is the last

time, if this is the last time that we see Brian Flores in a Patriots pullover or a Patriots long-sleeve t-shirt, sir, I salute you. I salute you wholeheartedly, and I have to say I wish you all the luck in the world at Miami. I hope you guys go 14-2, and the Patriots go 16-0. Because what you did for this team, for this region, is nothing short of remarkable. Because if you think back to where you were, Patriots fans,

one night ago tonight, when I had to do the hardest show of my life, not that my life is hard, but come on, to come on the air and explain away what we saw in Super Bowl 52. And if you think about the aftermath of that game and the questions that lingered about the defense, could they be athletic enough? Could they get after quarterbacks? Could they get off the field on third down?

We just saw a defensive performance for the ages. For the ages. And yes, Bill Belichick's fingerprints were all over it. But this defense went from a bottom five defense. A bottom five defense. To the best defense left in the playoffs. And to a defense that went out, and when the offense was struggling,

they went out and they stepped up. How many times did we talk about it on the Locked On Patriots Slack channel tonight? This defense needs, this offense needs to do something because this defense has done everything they can. Every time the Rams seem to get something going, they answered. And yes, they answered.

And yes, they were helped by some moments that Jared Goff would like to have back. But Brian Flores deserves so much credit, so much credit for the job he did with this defense this year and tonight. And his biggest moment of the year, the moment that we may all remember him for was that loss to Miami when he took ownership of it and said that it was my fault. It was my mistake. I addressed it with my team and it won't happen again. That is a leader of men. And I sincerely wish him all the best down in Miami because from everything we've seen from him this year and everything we've read about him, he just seems like a class, a human being, let alone defensive coach,

and we wish him the best. Folks, I don't know what else to say. Part of me wants to say that, hey, guess what? I'm done. I'm walking away. I'm dropping the mic. Forget all the other guys worrying about retirement. I'm leaving on a high note. But no, because after all, what did we learn from this team this year? They're still here. And so will I be for the weeks and the months and hopefully the years to come because I love doing the show. I've loved each and every moment, each and every episode, each and every interaction with all of you.

I want to be here for the end. I want to be here for the new era. I want to be here as we usher in the Brett Rippon era of New England Patriots football because we're on to the draft, baby. We'll do some post-game coverage. We'll cover it, and then we are full on into draft season because it never ends because it's time for number seven. Number six was good. We'll savor it. We'll enjoy it. We'll live in that moment. And then it's on to number seven. It's been a blast this year. I love each and every one of you.

To the Football Oracle Georgia, thank you for all that you did. To all of you, thank you so much. It has been a blast. The outfield. Play us out the stage on the glorious victory edition of Locked on Pitchers. Tonight I just wanna use your love

Tonight I don't wanna lose your love Tonight guitar solo We are the night We are the night We are the night We are the night We are the night We are the night We are the night I'm a woman's man, you're a woman's man I'm a woman's man, you're a woman's man