Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots February 7, 2019 - Tape Thursday

Episode Date: February 7, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a special tape Thursday installment of the Lockdown Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield slotted into the big chair for today, Thursday, February 7th, 2019. As I said, we zagged when everybody zagged. Usually I do tape shows on Tuesday. We break down the previous game, and then we get into the upcoming opponent. But the upcoming opponent is all 31 teams in the NFL draft, and we get a lot of time to get into that coverage.

And so with everybody else on Monday afternoon when the All-22 came out, breaking down Super Bowl 53 from every conceivable angle, I figured you guys were inundated with that on your Twitter timelines, and we could wait to do it and kind of do it our way a little bit later in the week. So we did a little Take Tuesday. We talked about some stuff, some Brady stats. Yesterday we had a little crossover show. Today we're going to do some odes.

I figure that's the most appropriate way to end the season. Some odes to some guys and some concepts and some things we saw that I saw in the Super Bowl that I thought were pretty cool. Maybe you think they're cool. Maybe you won't. Eh, it's the last tape show for a while, basically. Before we get into the scouting stuff, again, as I announced yesterday, we're going to be doing some communal scouting. Scouting together in the Locked On Patriots

Slack channel. I put together the watch list, the early, the preliminary watch list of tight ends. I figure what we can do is we can watch some prospects together, get together in the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, talk about them, go through some tapes, some clips, what we like, what we don't like, whether they'll fit in New England, learn something along the way.

I don't know. Could be fun. I think it will be. Maybe not. It's something new to try. We're all about trying new things. But before we dive in, though, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at places like InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites, as I've said. If they are covering football, chances are that outlet has been doing some work for them. Let's kick off this Tape Thursday show with an ode to two linebackers. Initially, after watching that game, I thought, look, I get why Julian Edelman won MVP.

I understand it. Offensive players typically do. It takes a truly standout defensive performance for a defensive player to win MVP. But then upon re-watching this game, as I did Wednesday, I want to revisit that idea. I think we did get a standout defensive performance, and it came from Dante Hightower, who I think was just unbelievable throughout this game. Even in the plays where he wasn't even involved in making a tackle, he was fantastic. And Kyle Van Nooy, too.

The two of them were just incredible in this game. I'm going to highlight a couple of plays here kind of quickly because a lot of these plays, again, you've seen these on the timeline already. But the first play I want to talk about comes to us from the second quarter. This is a second and seven play at the 847 mark of the second quarter. And I'm going to put together kind of a Twitter thread of these clips for Thursday so people can sort of follow along all the plays we're going to talk about and stuff. This is that Danny Shelton tackle of C.J. Anderson that went for minus three.

And Shelton is lined up in the A-gap between the center and the left guard. And he just has a very quick sort of move off the line of scrimmage. The center is trying to sort of seal him. You know, it looks to be sort of a trap play to the right side. The center is trying to get out to him and sort of reach block him. But Shelton cuts inside, away from that center's move, and it gets into the backfield and chops Anderson down for a loss of three. But Hightower on this play,

aligned as the sole off-ball linebacker, more on that in a minute, he takes on Tyler Higby, the tight end, who tries to crack block him. And he just unloads on him. He just pummels him into the ground. And if Shelton isn't there to make the tackle in the backfield, Hightower fights through this block, and he's going to be there to erase Anderson at the line of scrimmage. And I know people have probably seen this play, but just a tremendous individual effort from Dante Hightower.

I mean, again, Shelton makes a fantastic play as well. But still. The Kyle Van Noysack. This comes at 456 of the second quarter. It's a third and two. Patriots are kind of expected run. Rams are just inside Patriots' field position. But instead of running the football, they use a couple of motion things.

They run play action. Patriots drop into sort of a cover four look. They were kind of expecting them to go play action here. And Van Noy is just in an underneath curl hook zone over the middle of the field, mirroring Jared Goff. And when Goff gets pressured and flushes to the right, Van Noy does two things. First, he doesn't attack downhill immediately. The route concepts have kind of pulled some of the Patriots' defensive backs downfield, and there's a receiver in the flat who's still behind the line of scrimmage,

but Goff could have thrown to him. As Van Noy starts attacking downhill, he takes two steps towards the sideline, just enough so Goff doesn't throw to that receiver, and then continues his attack. By then, the rest of the coverage has sort of flowed to that defender, so everybody is covered. Goff has nowhere to go. And the way Van Noy sort of completes this play you could have seen a scenario where he goes and just decides i'm gonna light him up and he gets flagged for it but instead he turns his helmet away from him really just puts a shoulder into him and more than anything just kind of spins him down to the turf it kind of looked more awkward than it really was

and so from the athleticism to cover the ground there the heads up movement to step to the outside just a couple of steps to take away that throw the flat and then at the last minute that adjustment with his helmet a fantastic play speaking of fantastic, a little bit later in the second quarter, this comes at the 1-13 mark. The Patriots just got stopped on fourth and one. Rams take over with a minute 13 left. And the first play is a high tower sack. And the Patriots use a pair of stunts and twists up front. They've got Trey Flowers aligned well outside the right tackle, and Van Nooy in the big gap between the right guard and the right tackle,

and Adam Butler's kind of head up, maybe shaded to the right shoulder of the center. And then you've got Hightower backside in the big gap between the left tackle and the left guard, and Adrian Claiborne well outside Flowers and Claiborne twist to the inside and everybody else sort of slants outside and that's the sort of stunt pressure package they use Hightower is supposed to be creating space this is that tackle edge exchange stunt we've talked about a lot on this show. But he just beats the guard, gets around him, and gets to the feet of Goff for the sack.

That was a huge play because you could have seen a scenario where the Rams, they stop him on fourth and one. They go downfield, and even if they just get three, the Rams are in position to double dip because they're receiving the second half kickoff. Instead, that sack puts them behind the sticks. They end up punting on the drive, even though they get a play on second down for 14.

They get a stop on third down. But it's that sack to start that drive that really sort of set that in motion. Third quarter now, this is a second and five play at the 1354 mark. Rams try to go outside zone at Kyle Van Noy. Van Noy down sort of basically as a stand-up edge defender. We're going to talk about this alignment a little bit later in the show, but they run Gurley at him, that outside zone play, and Van Noy is able to sort of half-body the blocker in attempt here

from Tyler Higby. He stays in contact with him with that right arm, sort of stiff arms him. But he has that left arm free to do work. He steps to the outside, slips off of Higby to set the edge. Gurley just basically runs right into him. Just a fantastic individual play from Van Nooy. Both setting the edge using that long arm and then making the edge, Gurley just basically runs right into him. Just a fantastic individual play from Van Noy, both setting the edge using that long arm and then making the tackle, holding him to no gain. Speaking of long arm plays, at the 8.55 mark of the third quarter, it's a third and six,

and this is a play that comes with the Rams sort of backed up deep in their own territory. They're on their own six. Goff is put under pressure by Hightower, who uses that same long arm against the right tackle. Right tackle comes out to block him. Hightower's rushing off the edge. He gets into that right arm, into basically the right armpit of the right tackle, drives him backwards into the lap of Goff. And then with that left off arm, he's able to get pressure on Goff, get a hit on him. This is that cover shot

I think we've seen from Sports Illustrated, or at least that photo that mirrors the hit that was put on Kurt Warner in Super Bowl 36. He's basically right into Goff's face, forces the incompletion. Rams have to punt. Of course, Johnny Hecker sets a Super Bowl record

for the longest punt in Super Bowl history on the ensuing punt, but still, that was a big play at that moment. Biggest play from Hightower, I think, from the game, we can all probably agree on this, was the sack. That sack at the 2-56 mark of the third quarter. It's third and seven at the New England 26. Goffin missed on that throw to Cooks on the first play.

On a first and ten play, two plays previous. Second down, he throws to Anderson for plus three. So now it's third and seven at the New England 26. It's a three-nothing game. If they get a first down here, they can go ahead and score and take the lead 7-3. But instead, you get a high tower sack with a fantastic out and in move.

He's kind of aligned over the guard. Actually, he's more in the B gap between the right guard and the right tackle. He starts to the outside. Now remember, he gets to the outside of the other guard earlier in the game, so maybe this guard was also worried about it, but he starts that first step of his with the left foot into the B gap, causes that guard to open up wildly to his right to the outside, and then Hightower just cuts to the inside through the A gap.

The guard doesn't have a chance. The center is engaged, and Goff doesn't have a chance. That sack, a huge play at that moment. And yes, you know, Zerd line the leg. He drilled the ensuing 53-yarder. But this 9-yard sack made it a much tougher field goal, number 1 and number 2. It prevented them from getting into the end zone. Final play we'll talk about, 4th quarter. 5-33 mark. This is a 2nd-9

play. This play comes shortly after New England's touchdown. Rams on their first play on their ensuing possession. They get a one-yard gain on a girly run, but then you get Kyle Van Noy. He gets some pressure on Jared Goff. He sort of loops around into the A-gap, puts a huge hit on him. Goff's throw in the direction of Robert Woods is low, it is short and is incomplete the linebackers were tremendous high tower was tremendous these guys were amazing

in this game a little bit later we're going to have an ode to some old school stuff but these guys just fantastic fantastic on sunday against the rams up next an ode to a player we've done many an ode to before you probably know where I'm going with this. Maybe you don't. But if you do, it's a player that linebacker Corey Littleton is going to have some nightmares about. I'm sure he's had some nightmares about him already. He's probably having more nightmares about him,

about that number coming at him and just kind of swallowing him whole throughout Super Bowl 53. That's ahead on this tape Thursday installment of Locked on Patriots. Hey there, Pats fans. I'm excited to talk to you about our great friends over at Lo-Kai. You need a little extra swag for game day or the offseason or draft season or just to flash the fact that, look, you're a Patriots fan and they're against Super Bowl champions.

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Mark Schofield back with you now on this tape Thursday installment of Locked on Patriots. And yeah, as you just heard, please check out our great friends over at Loci. Get your hands on one of those game day bracelets. I love them. They're fantastic. Great little message there as well. They support some great causes.

So please, please, please show them some love. Use that promo code Patriots25 when you do. It's time for our, I guess you could say, second ode of the day. We had an ode to the linebackers, Dante Hightower and Kyle Van Nooy. Now it's an ode to a player that was one of the players that has been given an ode many times. You know, he's kind of the guy that you sing about in the mead halls at Jorvisker. A player in that old school mold. And that's fullback James Devlin.

And I'm always up for some fullback love here at the Lockdown Patriots podcast. And frankly, you should be too as a fan of a team with a fullback like James Devlin. A player that on the first play of Super Bowl 53, Joshua Dandridge is like, let's go fullback wham. Leave an Adamican Sioux unblocked and entrust James Devlin to execute a wham block on Sioux. Because that's what they did out of the gate. First offensive play, first play from scrimmage, Super Bowl 53. First and 10, the 14-55 mark. They leave Nadomik and Sue, who is on center Dave Andrews.

They leave him unblocked, and it's a fullback wham from James Devlin. That was literally one of those moments where you're like, all right, this is going to be that kind of game. A couple of plays later, 12-52 mark. This is a first and 10 at the Rams 37. Sort of Michelle gets a three-yard gain here to right guard. But this is the play that sort of set the tone for Corey Littleton's night. Because Michelle is going to be running, like I said,

to the right side. He's sort of going to be following James Devlin like he has all season long. Corey Littleton, the play side linebacker, steps forward to meet the threat and just gets swallowed whole. Just swallowed whole. I mean, Devlin basically ends up laying down on top of him. And it's just incredible. It reminded me so much of Super Bowl XVI, that Bengals 49ers game from the early 80s. And I remember watching the NFL Films video about how the 49ers were using so many pulling guard plays in that game. And Forrest Gray, the Bengals head coach, decided that, look,

our second half adjustment is we're going to have our defensive backs just give themselves up rather than wait and try to take those guys on and give them the big yardage on those plays. We're going to tell our defensive backs to just, you see that pulling guard, you give yourself up, you slam into them, don't let them get going downhill, and that will give us a better chance to rally to the football. So it reminded me of that because they showed footage of these poor defensive backs just getting destroyed by pulling guards. And it kind of worked.

But this is a fullback versus linebacker. And it's the same kind of thing. 58, Littleton comes downhill and just gets swallowed. So there's a fantastic play. A little bit later in the first quarter, 8-52 mark. This is a first and ten play. Brookhead's going to go right guard for five yards on this play. Mark Barron now, safety turn linebacker.

Now it's his turn in the barrel. James Devlin is going to be taking him on here. Just a straight shot at him. And Barron gets erased in the hole. Burkhead gets some traffic inside. But he's able to cut around the traffic. And then, of course, cut around the seal that he gets from James Devlin. And the hole ends up being massive.

But it starts with James Devlin. So a fantastic play there. Late first quarter. This is a play at the.352 mark. Devlin gets two blocks on this play. I'm going to give him credit for two blocks on this play. This is a play at the.325 mark. First is on Aaron Donald.

The Patriots run a little counter-tray here where both Sonny Michel and Jamesames devlin who are one behind the other and it's standard eye formation start to the left and then aim back to the right aaron donald is quick enough where he's lined up on the outside shoulder of joe thune he splits that gap that b gap trent brown is supposed to block out on him and donald is so quick that he gets in between them also dave andrews is supposed to get out to him that's a so quick that he gets in between them also Dave Andrews is supposed to get out to him that's a tough reach block for Andrews so it's a tough assignment Donald's alignment and his quickness makes it impossible for the backside of this play to get Donald blocked up but it doesn't matter because Devlin when he steps to the left and as

he starts angling back to the right side of the offense to make this block, gets in the way of Donald. So he prevents Aaron Donald from making the tackle in the backfield. So that's his first block. And then what does he do next? He erases Corey Litton. I'm telling you, Corey Litton is going to have nightmares about that blue 46 running at him. Now again, this just goes for a gain of four, but we're giving James Devlin credit for two blocks on that play. running at him. Now again, this just goes for a gain of four,

but we're giving James Devlin credit for two blocks on that play. Second quarter, 750 mark. This is a first and 10. Burkhead's going to go left guard for three yards. Ed, stop me if you've heard this before, but we're running this out of the eye. Lead blocker James Devlin, Corey Littleton, trying to meet him in the hole.

And Devlin wins. Again, just the racism. And Littleton, I give him credit for attacking downhill continually. But he just keeps getting run over by James Devlin. Third quarter. 12-58 mark. This is a first in 10 play Patriots football. Sonny Michel is going to go right tackle for four yards.

He's going to be running behind James Devlin in an offset eye. Devlin is going to lead the way. The linebacker that steps forward to meet the threat is Corey Littleton. And stop me if you've heard this before, but James Devlin just swallows him whole. Littleton doesn't have a chance here. Littleton attacks downhill. Littleton gets erased. James Devlin just block after block.

On my notes here, I literally wrote Littleton no mas because it reminded me of that. A couple minutes later, there's a play at the 836 mark. Burkhead's going to go right tackle behind James Devlin. Littleton actually gets credit for a tackle here, but mostly because after Devlin runs him over and Burkhead gets behind Littleton, Devlin knocks Littleton back so far that his momentum carries him downfield with Burkhead, and as he's sort of like falling backwards, he's able to sort of grab onto Burkhead. So it's almost like Devlin blocked him so violently, he blocked him into the ensuing

path of the running back. 40 seconds left in the third quarter. This is still a 3-3 game. 46 seconds left. Patriots first in 10, right at midfield, and they come back to the play they started the game with. Another fullback wham. They leave the

nose tackle unblocked. Offset eye formation from Devlin. This time it's number 95 who's left unblocked, and that player is, give me a second here and I will find it, that is Ethan Westbrooks. He is left unblocked. Another fullback wearing from that offset eye, James Devlin.

Huge block at the point of attack. And then finally, the touchdown. 7.43 left in the game. Mark Barron, he's the guy that gets erased by James Devlin. Devlin was just fantastic. And again, he is that throwback type player. I can't say enough about this guy and what he's meant to this Patriots running game this season. And in previous seasons as well.

He has his job. He does it so well. And let's not forget the touchdown drive. He was on the field for that entire drive because they were running out of 22 personnel. He was out there running hitch routes against Aqib Tlaib. So imagine that. Imagine having the kind of skill set

where at one moment in the game you could be executing an offset eye wham block on Ndamukong Su or you could be executing an offset eye wham block on Ndamukong Su. Or you could serve it as the lead blocker in a race in guys like Corey Littleton and Mark Barron. Or lined up out by the numbers and running hitch routes against Aqib Talib. You talk about sort of a Swiss Army knife type player. That's James Devlin. So next time you're at the Meade Hall,

raise a mug of Meade in his honor. Send his praises. James Devlin, Dragonborn. All right, let me talk to the guys for a second because I know what you've been doing since the playoffs started. You've been waking up, getting yourself ready for work, going to work, eating, going home, sleeping, and all those moments in between, you've been waking up, getting yourself ready for work, going to work, eating, going home, sleeping, and all those moments in between, you've been doing everything you can to consume every little bit of information about the NFL playoffs. Hopefully by listening to every episode of Locked on Patriots. But I also know what you haven't been doing. You haven't been getting ready for Valentine's Day. So let me help you out.

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something that you would never give your mother? That's EnclosedLingerie.com with the code PATRIOTS for $35 off the best gift ever. Mark Schofield back with you now on this tape Thursday installment of Locked on Patriots, and I know some news was made on Wednesday with the Patriots making an official Greg Sciano, their new defensive coordinator. I'm going to have some deeper thoughts on that for Monday's show when it's kind of take a dive a little bit into the playbook of Greg Sciano.

Give me some time over the weekend to sort of look at that. So I'll have some more informed thoughts on you for that. Also, a reminder, tomorrow we're going to be counting on the top 25 plays of the Patriots Super Bowl wins can't wait to do that I'm sure there's going to be lots and lots and lots of agreement let's close out this show with an ode of sorts to some throwback names that you might have you might most listeners probably all listeners, perhaps other than my parents, have never heard of. Guys like Dick Scanlon.

Guys like Joe Florio. Jim Falzone. Most of the listeners of the show probably have no idea who those people are. Those are three of my earliest football coaches back when I was playing Pop Warner. You know, back when I started to learn this game that I now spend my days talking about. And why do I bring them up? Because they're the guys that first taught me some stuff about this sport when they were coaching me,

especially on, you know, both the offensive side of the ball as a quarterback and the defensive side of the ball as a guy that wasn't allowed to play defense, except for a couple of plays here and there. They were afraid of the quarterback getting hurt but i remember my my b team season your seventh grade year i had to go in because of injury what did i do in the very first play i had a pick okay so maybe you boys should have played more that's all i'm saying but the defenses we ran we ran basically two defensive fronts. We ran what we called the 6-1, six down linemen, one linebacker, and a 5-2. Five down linemen, two linebackers. The 6-1, you basically had the center was uncovered.

The linebacker would align over him. And then everybody else was covered. Because you're basically seeing a lot of seven-man offensive lines. And then the 5-2 is kind of a little bit different. You have a nose tackle head up on the center. The guards are uncovered. Those are your two linebackers. And then everybody else is covered. Now what these really were, they were just simplified kid-friendly versions of the 4-3 and the 3-4. Because all the 6-1 really was the 4-3 with the outside linebackers now on the line of scrimmage as defensive ends. All the 5-2 was was the 3-4. But with your outside linebackers now on the line of scrimmage as defensive ends. All the 5-2 was was the 3-4.

But with your outside linebackers on the line of scrimmage as defensive ends. Why am I talking about Pop Warner? Because everything old is new again. And if you rewatch this Super Bowl or if you watched it, you probably noticed a lot of 6-1 from the New England Patriots. They ran that defensive front a ton against the Rams, a team that was primarily an 11-personnel team. And the Patriots, they had no fear in sort of using that.

12-06 mark of the first quarter, the Rams come out with 11 personnel. They've got Goff under center. It's a first-intent play. And the Patriots run a version of the 6-1 defense. They've got Kyle Van Nooy on the line of scrimmage as like a defensive end alignment. And he's aligned across from Robert Woods and Brandon Cooks, who are in a two-receiver stack. Think that one through for a second. And on the other side, the defensive end in this alignment is Patrick Chun.

They put him down over Tyler Higbee, the tight end. And so what this does is it gives you a chance to sort of erase the ability that McVay has as a play caller to get advantageous blocking angles. One of the reasons that they were so successful running the football this year, out of that 11 personnel group, was you get those light boxes, you get more of what we call bubbles,

sort of those uncovered areas in a defensive front, and then you can do some creative things to get some great blocking angles. And Belichick, old school guy, knows a ton about blocking angles. Ask him a question about running the wing T or the flex bone sometime, and you will get an answer longer than this podcast about blocking angles and the ability to get advantageous blocking angles for the guys up front.

Seriously, Google Bill Belichick blocking angles and have like a good hour set aside to read some of the stuff he says on it. But having that six-man front, it sort of erases your ability to get some of those angles. Is it a risky proposition? Yeah. You get through that six-man front. There's not a lot of second-level help. And you've also now got Patrick Chun playing a de facto defensive end.

But they made what is old new again and so for a guy like me seeing some of the stuff you ran in pop warner in the super bowl from bill belichick the greatest defensive mind i think of all time or if he's not the greatest he's up there was amazing i mean and they did it a ton you look at you know some of the plays we've already talked about. For example, one of the plays that we already talked about when we were talking about the linebackers was that outside zone play where Kyle Van Noy sets the edge and makes the tackle. They were in a six-man front there.

They were in that 6-1 look. Kyle Van Noy is just now, instead of an off-ball linebacker, he's basically a two-point stance defensive end. Set on the edge. Reminded me of John Farrick, who used to play defensive end. Mike Vare, defensive end guy. Reminded me of the guys I grew up playing the game with. And now you're seeing that on the sport's biggest stage. The 6-1, the 5-2. 5-2 Oki. 5-2 show Oki play Eagle.

I mean, these were the defensive calls I grew up watching and listening and learning. And now, Bill Belichick is rolling them out in Super Bowl 53. It was just an amazing performance. It was just, you know, there are tons of examples that I could put together of them showing that sort of six-man front look. But I thought it was brilliant upon further review. A lot of people were talking about that sort of six-man front look. But I thought it was brilliant upon further review. A lot of people were talking about that sort of six-man front look. Just one more fantastic aspect to this defensive game plan.

And so that will do it for today's Tape Thursday. Hope you enjoyed it. Hope you learned something. If not, I'll do it better tomorrow when we count down the top 25 plays of Patriots Super Bowl history. The wins. We're not going Philly special or anything like that, kids. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots.