Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots January 10, 2019 - Crossover with Locked On Chargers

Episode Date: January 10, 2019

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What is up everybody? Welcome to the Lockdown Chargers podcast with special guest Mark Schofield of Lockdown Patriots. We're here to do a playoff edition crossover for you guys. Get everything you need to know about the Chargers, everything you need to know about the Patriots going into this divisional round playoff. Man, it's going to be really interesting. Mark, how are you doing, first of all? David, I'm doing fantastic. Great to be with you. How are you, my friend? Hey, I'm doing great. I mean the chargers uh still have an opportunity to pursue their long time goal and of course that is to capture their elusive first super bowl

championship but obviously that road goes through new england as it has the last several years but on this show guys we're gonna go over uh chargers offense patriots defense and we're gonna flip it over and go patriots offense chargers defense and then in the final segment we are going to talk about some final notes and just give our predictions in this one so let's go ahead and just start things out uh with the uh patriots offense uh and i know we uh I know the Patriots offense has been pretty electric. I mean, you look at the stats for these two teams, Mark, and they're really eerily similar on the offensive side of the ball. They are pretty similar on the offensive side of the ball, David. I think, you know, where the Patriots are right now from an offensive perspective is kind of a team I'd

almost say in transition because they draft Isaiah Wynn in the first round they draft Sonny Michel in the first round and we've seen at times this offense sort of rely on the run game a ton they will do a lot with 21 offense personnel they use the fullback James Devlin a lot you know there have been some games down the stretch where they really sort of leaned heavily on the ground game week 16 against Buffalo for example now yes the Bills number one pass defense but they really sort of rode the ground game in that game really took the ball almost out of Tom Brady's hands in a sense and so it's been a different offense from week to week at times and then in week 17 against the Jets they're kind of throwing it all over the place

and Brady throws four touchdown passes so it's been different week to week I think the bye week is going to, from Patriots fans' perspective, really hopefully help this offense get a little bit better because one sort of missing element to this offense this year has been tight end Rob Gronkowski. He has seemed slow at times. He seemed to have lost a step. Perhaps the injuries and the hits and all the mileage on him have sort of worn him down a bit. But that sort of explosiveness from him has been missing, particularly in the past game. He's still very effective as a blocker. And so that's something I think Patriots fans are sort of hoping to see when these teams kick off on Sunday. Yeah, obviously Rob Gronkowski has been the stalwart of that offense for many years.

He's been the big play guy. But also the Patriots have done a lot of work with the running backs and usually the running backs are the you know extension in the past game you know Brady goes to those guys a lot so who are some of the guys uh at the running back position that the Chargers are going to have to put up with on Sunday yeah David I think this would probably be a heavy dose of James White type of game now I preface that with sort of the caveat that anytime you try to predict what the Patriots do from a personnel standpoint, a usage standpoint, even a game plan standpoint, you end up being wrong most of the time because Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels, they tend to do things a little bit differently than you might expect.

But that being said, I think if you look at how this Chargers defense is sort of constructed and the things that they can do so well, which I'm going to ask you about in a second and we can get into, you're going to want to get the ball out of Tom Brady's hands rather quickly. And I think that leads me to believe when they run the football, you see Sonny Michel. When they look to throw, you're going to see them perhaps spread the Chargers out a bit, use James White out of the backfield, or even align them outside like they do from time to time, and try to really get the ball out of Brady's hands quickly.

And David, the reason why I think we'll see that is because when you look at this Chargers defense, they're so good at getting after the quarterback with just four. And when you've watched this team this year how important has it been for these chargers to sort of get pressure with four as particularly now when you get bosa bosa back so you can put engerman bosa on the same side of the formation just get after guys and get one-on-one matchups for guys like nuosu and rochelle on the back side i mean it's it's commercially important because i mean when you can get hit home with just your four defensive linemen, that allows you to have more guys on the backend to cover, you know,

and cover those short routes, cover, you know, just cover up those zones and the chargers like to play a lot of DVs on the field. They don't really rush the, they don't really blitz that much Mark. They really try to get home. They do do some twists and stunts on the defensive line. But when Ingram and Bosa are on the same side and, you know, healthy and on the field at the same time, they can wreck a game. And, you know, they showed that in this last game against the Ravens,

where they both wrapped up Lamar Jackson. You know, Bosa got one sack. Melvin Ingram got two sacks in that one. So, I mean, these guys around the football field, they make everyone's job a lot easier. When you get a good pass rush mark, you don't have to cover as long on the back end. So that has definitely helped make this defense a lot more successful. You know, David, I got a question from one of the listeners via the Locked on Patriots Slack channel. Jim R. asks, you know, you might have already sort of answered this in a way,

but do you think that, you know, for example, last week, Anthony Lynn, Gus Bradley, they had sort of that seven defensive back package that they used a lot to try to slow down Baltimore. A bit of a, you know, wasn't what some people were expecting. Although if you've watched the Chargers, you've seen that they've had some injuries to the linebacker spots or the BUs and the safeties as linebackers but to that effect we've seen Tom Brady have success against zone coverage and when he has time in the pocket even if you drop seven

he can have some success as a result Jim wonders do you think they try to throw some blitzes in now this is a team like you said they don't they blitzed 30 most 31st most in the league you know near the bottom in terms of blitzing. But do you think they changed that up this week? No, I mean, I don't think you change up the formula that's worked. I mean, I think you're still going to reserve those blitzes for those key moments, those third and longs, you know, those second and long situations where you want to put them out of field position.

I mean, you're really not going to change the recipe that has worked up to this point just because you're going up against the Patriots. I think you stick to what has worked, and that means using the blitzes sparingly. You know, when you look at the sort of secondary, and again with the caveat that Rob Gronkowski hasn't been himself this year, you know, Cordell Patterson has a knee injury, so he might be a question mark coming into this game. Then you've got obviously Chris Hogan, Julian Edelman, Philip Dorsett. You know, do you think that there's a chance you're going to see

maybe somebody shadow somebody or anything like that? Or do you think, look, they played zone 58% of the time. They're going to do what they do. Again, no changes in the secondary either. Well, I mean, obviously, you know, Tom Brady is not going to really run away from anybody. He doesn't really like to escape the pocket, although I have watched a couple of games where he has done that. But it's just not something that you expect him to do. So I don't really think a spy is necessary for him as much as it is for the running backs. Because like I said, you know, a huge part of your guys' offense just throughout the years has been using those running backs as that safety net. So if there's going to be a spy, it's just going to be covering that running back. You know, when you look at what the Chargers have been able to do in terms of getting after

the, you know, the opposing quarterback and things like that. How beneficial has the return of Joey Bosa been? Because it seems like it gave you guys even a bigger boost in terms of getting after the passer. His first game back had two sacks of Josh Rosen. Having him back healthy for this playoff run, that's got to have been giving a huge boost to this defense. I mean, it can't be understated.

When you have one good pass rusher, then they can try to scheme to block him. They can double team him. They can get an extra tight end to chip. They can try to take him out and eliminate him. But when you have two premier blue chip pass rushers, you can't do that because someone's going to be left open. And when these two guys are put on the same side of the formation they are dynamic they're impossible to block so you know it's good to see that Joey

Bosa has continued to stay healthy after a very long and lengthy injury uh with his foot you know which that was such a nightmare they they thought he was going to be okay and he re-injured it and then nine games later you know we find out you know he's finally going to come back but yeah having him back on the football field when you can get pass rush it makes everyone's job easier you don't have to cover as long and you tend to create turnovers when you get pressure pressure makes everyone's job easier that's just the easiest way to put turnovers when you get pressure. Pressure makes everyone's job easier. That's just the easiest way to put it. And when you've got two great pass rushers like Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram,

that makes everyone's job easier. It's just, you know, that's – man, I want to cut that out. Anyway, I'll get it cut out. All right. Got another question from the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, David, for you. From Dave Archibald who wonders, how much of that seven defensive back package we saw against Baltimore was game-specific to Baltimore?

How much is just the best use of the personnel? And do you expect to see more of that this weekend? I absolutely do expect to see more of it this weekend. And it is kind of just a a marriage of all those things that you mentioned obviously the the linebackers have been an issue and they've been very hurt for the chargers they're you know first stringer denzel perriman out for the year then you got another linebacker jatavis brown out for the year so i think you know they just want to get their best athletes on the football field,

and that includes getting Rayshawn Jenkins, getting Jalil Adai in the box only. He's a huge liability in pass coverage. And then Derwin James in the box as well. I think you just want to get your best athletes on the field, and that requires going to that 7-DB package. It's a crossover Wednesday here at the Locked On Podcast Network, and we're going to get into what to expect when the Patriots' defense is on the field against this Chargers offense. But before we do that,

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That's promo code LOCKEDON. At MyBookie, you play, you win, you get paid. Crossover Wednesday here at the Locked On Podcast Network. And we're doing a little Chargers-Patriots crossover here. And David, let's switch gears now. We'll talk about the Chargers offense against the Patriots defense. Question from Locked On Podcast listener Ian McDonald via the Locked On Patriots Slack channel. He's wondering, how do you guys anticipate the matchup with Stephon Gilmore?

Stephon Gilmore, obviously the best corner on the Patriots, making plays the highest graded corner according to Pro Football Focus, just a sliver ahead of Chargers defensive back Desmond King. I think obviously you're going to probably see a lot of Stephon Gilmore covering Keenan Allen. I mean, although I don't know, maybe you can answer this. Does Stephon Gilmore travel? Yeah, he does travel times, so you might see him. I would anticipate,

and that's going to be sort of my next question, but I would anticipate, I'm there with you, that Allen versus Gilmore matchup. So how do you see that playing out? Man, I mean, Stephon Gilmore is a very physical corner, a big guy. And Keenan Allen really is not the fastest guy, but he wins with quickness and expert route running. So I think, you know,

Stephon Gilmore is probably going to have the advantage when you go on those longer routes. But I think Keenan Allen makes the most of his money doing those slants and those quick routes and those option routes. That's where Keenan Allen is most effective. So it's going to be a chess match and a really fun one to watch on Sunday.

Now sort of building off that, what the Patriots and Bill Belichick like to do, they play a lot of man coverage and what they've done when they get good receivers to go up against what they've done in the past and they haven't done this much this year with gilmore because they really trust them but at times we've seen them take their best cover corner put them on wide receiver number two and just leave them alone in man coverage and then get another corner with dedicated safety help over the other receiver so if you patriots do something

like that who might be that guy that they would put on over, you know, put Gilmore over who might be that other guy across from Keenan Allen that could cause the Patriots and problems. So the other guy that, you know, they would probably trail if they employ that technique is Mike Williams. Mike Williams is the second year, first-round pick from last year.

Had a pretty bad off year. Was nagged by injuries. Was never himself, but he is back with a vengeance this year. Over 10 touchdowns receiving. He's a big physical wide receiver who is very successful With those contested catches And in the red zone on third downs

He's just a guy that Has big strong hands and can go Up and get the ball so That's probably a matchup that you would see If they're covering the Chargers number two Because I deem the number two at this point To be Mike Williams You know one aspect of this game That I think Patriots fans have been watching Chargers number two because I deem the number two at this point to be Mike Williams you know

one aspect of this game that I think Patriots fans have been watching is sort of the weather and so we can sort of get into that if we want to but you know if it does get to be sloppy if it does turn into a snow game we might see more of a reliance on the running game from both teams and you know the question I want to ask now is Melvin Gordon we saw him get banged up a little bit but come back in that Baltimore game. How is that knee, and does he look to be pretty much as good as he's going to go on Sunday? Well, Melvin Gordon is the type of player that thrives for these moments. So there's no way on this planet Earth that he is not going to be playing in Foxborough on Sunday.

And if it does snow and if it does get ugly, you're right. It's going to be a lot heavier reliance on that run game, but there's another guy that has come back, has been activated that Patriots fans should be wary of. And that is Hunter Henry, the Chargers star tight end is expected to play in this one. He was activated earlier this week, is going to practice, and they expect him to play. So getting Hunter Henry back at this stage in the playoffs is like a gift from God. So have you guys heard anything about Hunter Henry, and are you concerned about Hunter Henry? Yeah, I mean, it's a fascinating thing to think about

because when I was watching the Chargers over the past couple of weeks, I was kind of fascinated again. Antonio Gates, you know, similar to Rob Gronkowski, you've got the age, you've got the mileage, but still finds a way to get open on some of those option routes. I'm thinking of one in particular, that Week 15 game against the Chiefs where he's working against Ron Parker and he just runs basically a simple out route,

and it's almost as if he's lumbering off the line of scrimmage but still dusts them with a quick sort of in-and-out step move, break into the outside and gets wide open. And so I was literally on my show at another show today, David, talking about Antonio Gates and how he worded. Now when you bring Hunter Henry back into the mix, so obviously younger, more athletic tight end at this point in his career.

He could be a bit of a matchup problem in the sense that you can do some things with him where you might flex him outside. You might go Y ISO. And then you ask the Wigglin, okay, who are you going to put out here? Are you going to leave a corner out here? Are you going to walk a linebacker out? Are you going to take a safety and put them out there? He's got the potential to be sort of an X factor.

Like you said, get it back at this point in the season gives the patriots i mean the chargers a bit of a match up weapon that they can use to get some advantageous perhaps one-on-ones in the passing game against a team that likes to use a ton of man coverage like we've said yeah absolutely i'm looking forward to to seeing what a hunter henry can bring to the table and what thing what makes hunter henry a lot more dynamic than most tight ends is he is equally versed as a blocker as he is as a pass catcher. So you're not going to see anything tipped when he's in the game. It's not a guarantee that it's a pass.

But on your point about Antonio Gates, it is crazy to see what he's able to do at 38 years old, still giving linebackers and safeties some trouble. And he's not the fastest guy anymore, but you've mentioned his quickness. He's still very, very slick out there, runs great routes, and just has that innate feeling

on how to get into the soft spots of the defense. He's been doing it for 15-plus years, and this year, honestly defense he's been doing it for 15 plus years and it's and this year honestly he's looked better than i've seen him look in the last couple of years i don't know what it's been but he has definitely been productive you know what's been amazing about it is you know the relationship between him and rivers is such that when they get into sort of that third and fourth third and five type of situation they look to throw he will will still find Gates in those situations, even though everybody probably knows that's where he's going to look to go with the football. Yeah, it doesn't matter.

I mean, they just, those two guys, I mean, no other quarterback in tight end have found the end zone more times than Phillip Rivers and Antonio Gates. At this point, I think they can do it blindfolded, blind in the dark. It doesn't matter. They just got that connection that has been, you know, padded and molded over many, many years. And I think right now, the reason why Antonio Gates came back is because he saw the talent on this team and felt like hey if i'm going to get a championship this is probably the best chance for me to do it you know one sort of thing i did want to ask you about as we saw in this wild card game between the ravens and the chargers the ravens were able to

get some pressure on rivers but they didn't really sort of get home they just sacked rivers once in that game rivers did a pretty good job sort of, you know, evading pressure here and there, making some throwaways, making some quick throws. And I've been reading some pieces in the Boston area basically saying that that's going to set the, you know, Chargers up well going up against New England because New England, similarly, they get pressure. They're one of the teams that generates the most pressure on opposing passes,

but they don't get home, don't have a ton of sack numbers. Do you think that sort of dichotomy sets up well for the chargers offense as we head into this game well philip rivers during the season was one of the best quarterbacks against the blitz so he's always been able to read that uh he's just been you know he's very dynamic at the line of scrimmage he normally waits till the last few seconds after surveying the defense, and usually when he's blitzed, he can find his hot receiver. He's a veteran quarterback. He can identify those type of things.

And no disrespect to the Patriots, but the Baltimore Ravens have the best defense in the NFL, and the game plan against them was to kind of try to keep it ball control, try to do those short, quick passes to try to keep possession because you just needed points in that one. In this game, you can't just get points. You've got to get touchdowns. So I think, you know, Phillip Rivers,

if he sees those blitzes, I think the Patriots might want to scale that down a little bit because, like I said, Phillip Rivers is very adept at identifying it and exploiting those blitzes when they come it's arguably the best weekend of the NFL season divisional round weekend doing some crossover action here

locked on Patriots locked on Chargers up next some predictions and stuff like that but for fans of 24 other teams you are full into draft season and that's the result you've got to be listening to two shows here in the Locked On Podcast Network. We've got Draft Dudes with Kyle Krabs, Joe Marino, as well as Locked On NFL Draft with Trevor Sycamore, John Ledger. Those guys from the Draft Network do fantastic work.

And you've got to be listening to that show to get you ready for draft season. All right. We are back here after going over the Patriots offense, Chargers defense, and, of course, the Patriots offense and the Chargers defense and the Patriots defense and the Chargers offense. My bad. And then now we're going to go ahead and get into some predictions. Now it's time to put your money where your mouth is, Mark,

and we'll see how you're feeling about this one. And tell me who's going to win and what the score is going to be. You know, what's interesting, David, when the numbers first came out, you know, after those wildcard games wrapped up and you saw that out of all the games that Vegas put the odds down for, this was the closest one, New England minus four. That gave you an indication of how, you know, Vegas and I think the football world views these two teams right now.

I mean, if you think New England, the home team, you get three points, you give three points as a home team. They're basically saying this is almost, if it weren't for home field, this is a pick-em type game. And I think that's kind of how a lot of Patriots fans feel about this. There's been sort of this general feeling of unease around the Patriots this year. Started with how they lost that Super Bowl and rumors about Gronkowski retiring or getting traded and Brady and you know he's struggled at times and even though his numbers

were just a bit off of his MVP season last year in a league in a year where you saw such great passing numbers from guys like Patrick Mahomes and Phillip Rivers you know that seems like even a bigger setback so there's uncertainty headed into this game, and there is still uncertainty. And until I think Patriots fans see this team win a playoff game, they're still going to be concerned about it. And so I think there's a recipe here for the Chargers to come in and win this game. We talked about what they can do in terms of pressure.

I wrote about it over at InsideThePylon.com today and breaking down sort of their sack numbers and how they get after people before. There's a scenario where this game goes south for New England. That being said, look, I'm a Patriots guy, so I'm going to pick them, but I think it's going to be really close, and I'm looking at a 23-20 type of game. Yeah, I agree in the sense that it is definitely going to be a close game,

but I think in Chargers history, the biggest demon that needs to be exercised is the New England Patriots and if you want to get anything done as far as aspirations for a Super Bowl this is the team and organization that you have to go through and that you have to be so I think after many tries uh the Philip Rivers is 0-7 against Tom Brady in his career. I think that's going to change, at least in the playoffs. I think that's going to change this Sunday. I think the Chargers are finally going to get that monkey off their back.

They are going to win this game. They're going to beat the Patriots with a score of 28-21. I love it, David. Fantastic stuff. Before we we go please that all the Locked On Patriots fans that just heard your voice for the first time let them know where they can find you what you guys are doing over at Locked On Chargers yeah I know

here at Locked On Chargers you can definitely follow us on Twitter at Locked On LAC we love interacting with our fans and you know just talking football we'll do that anytime also you can find us on Facebook at Locked OnChargers there. We also have our own Facebook live show we do once a week.

It's called Chargers Domination Live. That's a little bit of a longer show, so if you want to get a little bit more insight, that's when we go a little bit more in-depth with it. But, hey, just want to say thank you to the LockedOn Podcast Network for giving us this opportunity. This has been our first season with the LockedOn Chargers Podcast and the Locked On Podcast Network for giving us this opportunity. This has been our first season with the Locked On Chargers Podcast and the Locked On Podcast Network, and it has been a blast so far, Mark.

Fantastic stuff, David. Everybody, please check them out. Check out their work at LockedOnLAC on Twitter and everywhere else they're doing fantastic stuff. Fantastic first year for you guys getting to the division round and maybe beyond, who knows? So Fantastic first year for you guys getting to the division round and maybe beyond. Who knows? So that's great for you guys.

Locked on Patriots listeners, as always, you can find me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. Check out the work at InsideThePylon.com, Pro Football Weekly, The Score, Matt Waldman's Rookie Scouting Portfolio, Big Blue View, part of the SB Nation family of websites. That will do it for today's show. We will both be back tomorrow, back on our home turf. But until then, keep it locked right here to Locked On Patriots and Locked On Chargers.