Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots February 8, 2019 - A Top 25 Countdown

Episode Date: February 8, 2019

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Hey there everybody, Mark Schofield here on a special Friday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast, slotted into the big chair on today, February 8th, 2019, and we're going to sort of put a bow on post-Super Bowl week. What have we done this week so far? Well, we had the glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. That dropped late Sunday night after the Patriots won Super Bowl 53, 13-3 over the Rams. Then we decided to hear from you. Tuesday's show was a Take Tuesday show where I heard from you, the listeners, the

Locked On Patriots. We went through some Brady facts, some Patriots facts, did some fun stuff on Tuesday. Wednesday we did a special crossover show with Baron Motter over at Locked On Rams, trying to recap this game from both points of view. I thought that was a very good show. Thursday we did our tape stuff. We looked at Kyle Van Nooy,

Dante Hightower, the 6-1, and of course, James Devlin, Dragonborn. But I think it's best to cap off this week, and this was an idea given to me by good friend and colleague Jeff Ferrer from Inside the Pylon and other places, to put together a list of the 25 top Super Bowl plays from the Patriots' six Super Bowl victories. And this was an exhaustive list, researched and voted upon by none other than yours truly. And so if you agree, if you disagree, if you hate some of the plays, don't like some of the plays, think the rankings are completely off, let me know. At Mark Schofield on Twitter, mark.schofield at insidethepylon.com, LockedOnPatriots Slack

channel. Have a field day with this one, friends. But before we dive in, a reminder to please follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Again, 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, as I've said. If there is an outlet that is covering the game of football, chances are I am doing some work for them. Let's dive into it now. Again, we're going to do 25.

We're going to break it up into 10. So you're going to get 25 through 16, then 15 through 6, and then the top five. And the assignment as given to me by Jeff was plays. But I did want to carve out a little something, something for what we can just kind of call a moment. A moment when perhaps you thought, thought oh this is different now and that was at the start of super bowl 36 when the new england patriots decided to take the field as a team so i've carved out number 26 and it's that moment the introductions when they came out as a team because that was one of those moments where you just knew

they were treating this differently. This is something special. This is something new and different. Because think about it. It's the pinnacle of your career perhaps. You might never see another Super Bowl. You get a chance to be introduced. You want to take the field, hear your name called, run out there,

give everybody the high five, run through that tunnel. They said, nah, we're going to be introduced as a team. And it sort of changed the way teams viewed it from then on. So that moment I thought was pretty impressive. But let's dive into it. And I'm going to go play 25. And again, maybe out of the gate, I'm just getting people angry because it's not even a real Patriots play.

Super Bowl 38, John Casey's kickoff at the end of regulation, the end of the fourth quarter that goes out of bounds. Am I cheating by having sort of a Panthers or an opponent screw up in there at the start? Maybe. But that was huge. It gave the Patriots great field position and the chance to go down and perhaps kick the game winner. So man, I'm causing some controversy out of the gate. Probably gets worse with play number 24, James White in his touchdown in overtime to beat Atlanta. Schofield, come on, you're killing me now, right? An overtime touchdown, first overtime in Super Bowl history to just play 24 on your shoddy countdown? Yeah. Look back at that drive.

You knew they were scoring. You knew. It was almost inevitable. And yes, it's a huge play, but there are other big plays in that game, other big plays throughout these six games for me. So does it make the list? Yeah. Is it high on the list? I don't think so.

So that's play 24, James White, the overtime winner against Atlanta. Play number 23, Rodney Harrison, his first interception of Donovan McNabb in Super Bowl 39. Kind of a tone setter. I'm going to have a couple of picks from that game. That's play 23. Play number 22, speaking of interceptions, this one has to be on there. Ty Law, his pick six of Kurt Warner in Super Bowl XXXVI. There's no other way to describe it other than the way that Bill Simmons did it. It was the Russian is cut moment. Because let's think about it.

This is the game. They were the huge underdogs. They were going to get blow out by this greatest offensive weapon ever. Then you have the tie law pick six. And I almost missed it. I was in the bathroom. I was sitting there thinking, man, they need a turnover. They need a pick six.

They need something. And I come out just as that play gets snapped. Tie law, that pick six, Obviously a huge play in that moment. Play number 21 on this countdown here. Another interception. We've gone three picks in a row. Teddy Bruschi, his pick of Donovan McNabb

in Super Bowl 39. Sort of another tone setter type play. McNabb was bad at times in that game and the Patriots took advantage. They stopped some drives. Bruschi picks them. So there you go. Play 21. Play 20.

Malcolm Butler. No, no, no, not the Malcolm Butler play that you're thinking of, though. But let's not forget, before all the chaos that ensued at the end of Super Bowl XLIX, you had a moment where you probably thought, it's Tyree, it's all of this all over again. And what was that moment? It was that ridiculous circus type play along the sidelines where it looks like the pass goes incomplete. You probably heard the moment at the end when I teed up the Super Bowl tailgate show where that throw to curse, where Al Michaels says, oh, and his pass

falls incomplete incomplete but it falls into his lap and curse gets up and butler after thinking he had broken up the throw has the presence of mind to still shove him out of bounds if curse gets up and walks into the end zone there well the stage isn't set for everything else that happens. So that was a huge play. Great presence of mind there. So that's play number 20. Play number 19. This is one of those, I wasn't expecting to put this on the list at all. When I started trying to put these together, one of the things I did was I went to Pro Football Reference and I looked up the expected points added for all of these games. And initially I was like, oh, I'll just add the ones that added the most points added for all of these games and initially i was like oh i'll just add

the ones that added the most points and then duh i would have had a list of nothing but touchdowns because expected points added touchdown plays i had seven points but i came across this play and it was one that was basically erased from my mind but because of the expected points added i looked at it again and i was like this was a pretty big play at this moment. Super Bowl 39, early fourth quarter, Patriots have a 21-14 lead. And Brady hits Deion Branch for a gate of 19. And you get tacked onto that, a rough in the passer penalty. And that basically put them deep into field goal range.

They settled for the field goal. Vinatieri hit it to make it 24-14, and that field goal would be the difference. And that added a lot in terms of expected points added. So I looked at that and I thought, we're going to make room for it on this list. So there it is at 19. Number 18, the first of three plays from Super Bowl 53. Everybody probably knows what those three plays are. Maybe I'll have them in the right order according to you. Maybe not. But I'm going to go with the Cooks pass breakup here.

Again, the other two plays from this game I think were more consequential. This one, they still had some work to do. So there was still a chance for the Rams to get in. It was earlier in the game. And so there's a chance., look, if they score here, maybe it doesn't matter because the Patriots go on and win anyway. But it was still a pretty big play and an incredible effort from Jason McCourty. So that checks in.

Jason McCourty's breakup of Brandon Cooks in the middle of the end zone, deep in the end zone. That's play 18. Play 17 on this countdown. One of just a handful of plays from these games that actually come from the first half. We get a lot of fourth quarter, third quarter, second half type stuff. Some Super Bowl 39, some of those picks were earlier.

But end of the second quarter, near the end of the second quarter of Super Bowl 38, Mike Vrabel's strip sack of Jake DeLong. This was a 0-0 game Vrabel gets the strip sack New England then scores on their ensuing possession make it 7-0 now it was tied at the half

because the Carolina Panthers then scored but Vrabel's strip sack was a huge play at that game helped break the scoreless tie so that's play 17 play 16 again speaking of breaking ties Corey Dillon's touchdown run, early fourth quarter of Super Bowl XXXIX.

It was just a short two-yard touchdown run, but it broke a 14-14 tie. That was one of those New England drives. They had the ball for a bit of time. Third quarter, carried over into the fourth. Again, it broke that scoreless tie. And, you know, they needed it at that point. Gave him a 21-14 lead, as we just talked about, a little bit later, Brady hits Branch on that play with the rough

and the passer. They get a chance to go up 24-14. Those would be their final points. So that Dillon touchdown run, huge play at that point in the game. Up next, we're going to go plays 15 through 6. Counting down our next 10 plays. On this Friday installment, counting down the top 25 plays of the Brady-Belichick Super Bowl era. Hey there, Pats fans.

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Go to LOKAI.com and use the promo code PATRIOTS25 to take advantage of this amazing offer. Mark Schofield back with you now, counting down the top 25 plays of the Brady-Belichick Super Bowl era from those six victories. We're not getting into Tyree and Manaham and Philly Special. Come on, friends. Again, as voted on by a star-studded panel consistent of me.

So if you don't like the list, you don't like the list, make your own, share it with me on Twitter and the Lockdown Patriots Slack channel, email it, call or text 240-670-6016. I would love to run a show later next week with some of your plays,

ranked top five, top 10, however you want to do it. Would love to hear from you. That will make for a great take Thursday show for next week. The top 10, 15, 20 plays as voted on by you let's dive in right now we've gone through our first 10 our next 10 starts to play

15 that comes to us from Super Bowl 49 against the Seattle Seahawks Danny Amendola's touchdown to cut their lead to 24 21 they had they went down you know was a 24-14 game. Brady had thrown the interception. Defense got on the ball back, but that was their biggest deficit in a Super Bowl at that point. And it was unfamiliar territory for Patriots fans. And it was unfamiliar territory for me. You thought you were seeing it slip away. Brady looked mortal. But they put together the drive. Amendola scores. They make it 24-21. You started feeling a little bit better again.

Now, you're still going to need to stop here or there and another touchdown to take the lead. But you felt a little bit better about everything. Life, love, everything after that touchdown. So that was a huge play. Play 14. This is one that, depending on what shakes out

over the next couple of weeks, might rise as people start to think about, you know, six Super Bowls and legacies and things like that. But Brady DeGronk, just a few days ago on that seam route,

the third straight Haas-Wye, you know, Duke play that was arguably, if not arguably, definitively the biggest offensive play of that game. Gets them down to the goal line. They score in the next play. Only one red zone play in that entire game, and they scored on it in the next play of the Sonny Michel run.

But they needed that drive, and they got it from Brady. They got the one big play from Gronk that Edwin was asking for in the huddle. And if that is the last time we see Gronk in a Patriots uniform or on an NFL field, that is quite the way to go out with that kind of play. And if it does play out that way, then it will rise. It might even get to the top 10, top five because it was that kind of moment. It'll be that kind of moment, that kind of indelible image of Robert Gronkowski,

tight end, arguably the best tight end ever, going out that way. And so it's 14 for me now. This is one that could rise as time goes on. Let's go 13, going back to Super Bowl XLIX. Edelman's touchdown on that little whip route, that little pivot route to take the lead 28-24 late in that fourth quarter.

Just a fantastic route. Maybe a little push off, but it didn't get called. Great route by Edelman. Such a great route runner, particularly in those short quick option whip type routes. Brady, great throw, great catch. It was something that they had missed earlier in the game. They came back to it.

That's why when you see that image of Brady pointing to the sidelines, he's pointing at McDaniel saying, yeah, you called it again. We hit it this time. Fantastic, fantastic play. Fantastic route. Great moment for New England. Still, lots of stuff were about to happen. Great moment right there.

Play number 12. Going to Super Bowl 51 against Atlanta. And maybe this gets glossed over by some. Maybe it doesn't. But Amendola's two-point conversion. Let's not forget. Yeah, they got in. They got it 28-26.

They still needed the two-point to set everything up. And they got it. On that little smoke screen, that shield screen, slant, whatever you want to call it, to Danny Amendola. Huge play at that moment. If they don't get that, you're talking onside kick, and things get a little wonky. So massive play at that moment, Amendola on the two-point conversion. That's play 12. Play number 11, we go back to Super Bowl 53

just a couple of days ago. The biggest play from that game on this list, I think for many, the Gilmore pick. You go zero blitz, you get the pressure on golf, you get the interception to sort of, not seal it, but that was one of those, you felt pretty good about where things were at that moment.

10-3. Yeah, you're kind of pinned in your own territory, but this was the closest they had come to score in a touchdown, but the defense comes through as they had all game long. So for me, that was the biggest of the three plays from this most recent Super Bowl. Maybe people would stack those differently. That's kind of how I see them. So that's play 11. Play 10 takes us to Super Bowl 36, where it began. And I'm a huge fan of setup plays. We're going to get another kind of setup play. But if you think about that final drive, the one big play that sticks out for everybody, is it 86, 96 max all in? Troy Brown on that crossing row because they would

still need one more play to get comfortably well within Vinatieri's range. But this is the one that when the play ended, Pat Summerall's up at the booth saying, now they're probably in Vinatieri's range. You get that crossing route. You saw some of that pocket movement from Brady slides, mirrors the route from Troy Brown. When I did the Super Bowl XXXVI revisited show with Matt Waldman and Rich Hill, Matt talked about how at that moment, on that throw, you saw some of what Brady would become. And let's face it, if I don't have a Troy Brown play on this list, my mom's going to get mad at me. It's her favorite Patriots player of all time. So there you go, little Troy Brown love. So list, my mom's going to get mad at me. It's our favorite Patriots player

of all time. So there you go. Little Troy Brown love. So that's play number 10. Play number nine, our final play from Super Bowl 39, Harrison's pick to seal it. It didn't feel like they were going to score, but you still weren't sure. And that also had the moment of Harrison with a pick to end it after he had gotten hurt the previous Super Bowl, wasn't on the field at the end of it. And so for a number of reasons, Harrison's pick at the end of Super Bowl 39 makes the list, pops it at number nine.

Number eight, Super Bowl 51 against Atlanta, Edelman's catch. And Edelman's catch, you'll remember that forever because it was just ludicrous. And what I will always remember, and partly because of doing all the Super Bowl Revisited shows, the call from Joe Buck when he asks if it's a catch, and then there's this long pause

as the replay is getting loaded up at the stadium, the replay is getting loaded up at the stadium, the replay is getting loaded up in the booth, and then just out of nowhere, like just the audio, you could hear it in your mind. I know you can hear it right now. You hear Joe Buck just say, oh, that's a catch.

And Aikman just start to chuckle and say, oh, that's incredible. You can hear that right now. And just that was one of those moments where as a Patriots fan, we had lived through Tyree. We had lived through Manahan. We survived curse. And I remember doing shows after that play and just telling people that was ours. That was our Tyree. That was our Manahan. that was our ridiculous catch moment now we've got one and believe me wherever you were at that moment you thought okay it's this is ours now now of course Julio Jones then almost tops it with his catch along the sideline we'll get to that sequence

of events a little bit later but that Edelman man, that's play number eight with an asterisk or an exclamation point or in bold or whatever, underline, massive catch because it sort of changed things. Next, we're going to go two plays from Super Bowl 38, sort of out of order, but you see where I'm going with this. Play number seven, Vittorio's kick to win it. Should it be higher? Maybe. But I think the bigger play from that one is the play we're going to talk about next. And that's another one of these setup plays. Brady to Givens on the last regular play from scrimmage in that game.

14 seconds left. Third and three. New England does have one timeout left, but you're at the Carolina 40. From there, it's 57. And Vinatieri, who had struggled and missed some kicks in that game, you're not sure he's hitting from 57. And so that's a situation where you got to get some yardage here. You just have the one timeout, so frankly the field is still open to you, but you've got to be smart with where you're going with the ball. If they don't get it, and it's a fourth and three at the 40,

you're probably going to see overtime. But Brady hits Branch for 17 yards, gets it down to the 23. Gets it into Vinatieri's range for a 41-yard field goal, and it's good. Huge play at that moment. So that's play six for me. We've got five more to talk about, five incredible plays. Are they the five you'd agree would be top five?

Maybe, maybe not. Again, let me know. That's ahead on this Friday installment, counting down the 25 biggest plays as ranked by me during the Brady-Belichick Super Bowl era. 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 doing everything you can to consume every little bit of information about the NFL playoffs,

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enclosedinlingerie.com with the code PATRIOTS for $35 off the best gift ever. Mark Schofield back with you now to sort of close out this Friday countdown show here at Locked on Patriots, counting down the top 25 plays of the six Super Bowl wins. We've gone through plays 25 through 6 as well as moment 26. Don't forget that. If you want to recap, hit the rewind button because we've got to re-rack this now. We're going to go through our top five here. We're running long as it is. I don't want to keep you.

I know it's Friday. I know all you're thinking about right now is getting to happy hour or wherever else you want to be, getting on with your weekend. Remember, we're back to four shows a week next week. Now, there'll be no Sunday morning tailgate. We're not doing any tailgating for college basketball or anything like that. Let's get into it now. Locking it down with our top five here. And there's going to be two names in a row. Play number five, Dante Hightower, the strip sack of Matt Ryan in Super Bowl 51 when this defense needed a play he delivered and Hightower tends to do that we are going to get another Hightower

play in a moment we had also the big sack of him you know of him on Jared Goff in the past Super Bowl that could have made it into this mix you know had Zerline misses that field goal you're talking about a 13-0 shutout victory in the Super Bowl. Hightower's sack probably gets in. That was a huge play. The strip sack of Matt Ryan, obviously a huge play. The Patriots needed to get the ball in that moment, and they got it. Speaking of Dante Hightower,

the play that Patriots fans remember, perhaps the biggest play of them all, other than, you know, the one we all remember, his stop of beast mode of Marshawn Lynch on the goal line before the Butler pick, doing that with a torn labrum. Incredible. You can make the case that that play that we have here at four could be two, could be one, could be higher than this, but that high tower tackle of beast mode, just an unbelievable play. Also an unbelievable play. Trey Flowers, Super Bowl 51.

That sack of Matt Ryan, which pushed him out of what would have been game clinch and field goal range into, my God, Atlanta's really choking this away kind of range. We had just had the Julio catch. You're thinking he would go again. Look, we thought we had our catch, but no. Julio Jones goes and does that. Now we're going to be on the outside looking in, but Trey Flowers, that sack of Matt Ryan, just pushing them out of field goal range. They can't get back in. They're forced to punt. It sets the stage for the tie and drive, the two-point

conversion, and all of that set in motion by Trey Flowers. That leads us to play number two. We've got two left, right? Which one is it going to be? Well, play number two, Malcolm Butler. Three corners, Malcolm go, all of that, just the improbability of that all. An undrafted cornerback out of division two west alabama making that play in that moment that the patriots had prepared for just an unbelievable set of circumstances coming together win probability going from like zero to 99.9 in the blink of an eye the michaels call dumbfounded russell wil Wilson walking off the field. Pete Carroll wondering what's going on.

Beast Mode doesn't know why he's getting the ball handed to him or not getting the ball handed to him. Chris Collinsworth in the booth ripping it. Just everything. Brady jumping up and down like a boy. Incredible moment. But play number one is the one that set it all in motion. Play number one is the one that set it all in motion. Play number one is the one that started this all. You can sit down and make a case that revisionist history, butterfly effects, whatever.

If Adam Vinatieri, for whatever reason, doesn't split the uprights at the end of Super Bowl 36, none of the other stuff happens. Whether it's the tuck rule, they don't even get to that Super Bowl or they don't go for it and they decide to play for overtime like John Madden thought, and they end up losing, or Vinatieri misses this, and they end up losing. Things could have been different. Belichick might have said, let's roll with, let's come back to Bledsoe, or whatever. You can make the revisionist history case that if they don't win that Super Bowl, things are a lot different over the next 20 years or so in New England. But Vinatieri splits the uprights. Patriots win

Super Bowl 36. Then they win two out of the next three Super Bowls. And then they set themselves up for the second dynasty, winning Super Bowl 49 and 51 and 53. And get into a number of different Super Bowls in between and losing those. But still. But still. That kick. And think about what that kick meant to you. Because all these other plays, most of these other plays, they were the Patriots that you somehow had begun to believe in again.

But at that moment. At that moment, they weren't that team yet. And so that's why for me, Vinatieri's kick at the end of Super Bowl XXXVI is play number one. But that's my list. I would love to hear yours. Shoot me your top five, your top ten, your top fifteen, whatever. At Mark Schofield on Twitter. Mark.Schofield.

That's inside the pylon.com. Locked on Patriot Slack channel. I'm sure you guys will be talking about this. Would love to hear from you. Love to hear from all of you men women over there let me know your thoughts that will do it for today I will be back Monday

hopefully with a look at Greg Sciano get some clinic stuff I want to see from him some tape whatever hope to get a study on him to you some thoughts on the new defensive coordinator until next time have a great weekend and keep it locked to the home of the world champions me Mark Schofer and locked on

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