Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots January 17, 2018 - AFC Championship Crossover Extravaganza

Episode Date: January 17, 2018

Mark Schofield chats with Zach Goodall and Christopher Thornton, the hosts of Locked On Jaguars, about what to expect in the AFC Championship Game.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome everybody to a very special Locked On NFL Network event. This is Mark Schofield, host of Locked On Patriots. I am joined tonight by Zach Goodall and Christopher Thornton, the hosts of Locked on Jaguars. We're going to break down the AFC championship game between the Jacksonville Jaguars and the New England Patriots in a full-on Locked on Jaguars, Locked on Patriots crossover event for January 17, 2018. Gentlemen, how are we feeling tonight? We're doing good.

Down here representing Locked on at the east shrine game uh checking out a lot of different guys who could be going um mid-round picks we're really intrigued by a lot of guys down here uh but at the same time we are not letting us let that distract us from the fact that the jaguars are about to take on and beat the Patriots in the AFC championship. Fantastic, my friends. I'm glad you're coming out confident. I like that. I like the confidence there, guys. I got to say, I appreciate that. So let's dive into this matchup here. I'm going to fire some questions at you guys. I want to start when the Patriots have the football. And obviously, this is the

question that comes up every single week. How do you deal with number 87? From the way I see it, there are different things that the Jaguars can do, but I'll pose it to you guys. What's Jacksonville going to do with respect to Rob Gronkowski, especially when you consider that, look, as great as this Jacksonville pass defense is, they're 20th in DVOA when it comes to covering tight ends in the pass game. So what's Jacksonville's answer for Rob Gronkowski? So I think I speak for both Chris and myself here that it's got to be Jalen Ramsey that goes up against Rob Gronkowski. And it's going to be hard for him to shadow in line, even though he's gotten a little bit of time as a safety throughout the year and some coverages that they've run. It's not been

often, but they've been able to do it. Honestly, if he can shadow Gronkowski or even they have double coverage packages where maybe a guy like Miles Jack is working with Barry Church. But in terms of a pure coverage standpoint, I think it's gotta be Jalen Ramsey on him. You can play, uh, AJ boy across from Brandon cooks. They need to figure out what they're going to do in terms of spying a guy like Dion Lewis,

because they also have issues covering receiving backs. But look, is obviously that mismatch for literally any team that he goes against. So you got to put your most, um, physical corner, I'd think up against him. Chris, anything you want to chime in there on,

or you rolling with Zach there? Yeah, I'm rolling with Zach on the whole Ramsey on Gronk. I think he's your most physical corner and probably one of the best in the league. So why wouldn't you put your best defensive player against probably the Pats' best offensive player? Because Gronk is a big man, but he also has moves and speed. So I think you've got to put a guy like Ramsey on him to just kind of lock him down.

Plus, I feel like that would be really good mic'd up footage. They better have both those guys mic'd up if that's exactly what happens. Is there any concern from you guys that if you take Ramsey and put him on Grog then New England's going to find ways to get either Chris Hogan or Danny Amendola involved in the past game whoever you know isn't going to see Bouye across from them oh totally I came out with a false sense of confidence and as soon as you start asking me smart things then my confidence gets shot I do I do worry about that because I looked at the Steelers Jaguars game as a game where, yes, there's firepower on Pittsburgh's offense, but the

Jaguars matched up so well against it. Whereas there are factors to New England's passing game that it's almost like you can't match up against it because there's so many different varying options that they have, whether it's Gronkowski or Cooks or Hogan or Dion Lewis or Amendola. The bottom line is there's so many different things that they can do and they can scheme. And you guys obviously have the eighth wonder of the world in Bill Belichick and company. He can find a way to scheme against a team with literally no weaknesses and somehow expose a weakness. So I am worried about if they do put too much focus of Ramsey on Gronk that's suddenly eliminating one of your best players from being able to help other underlying factors. But at the same time, I don't know what else you can do. Now, in getting ready for this game, something I've been wondering is, Jacksonville, for the most part, is a cover three team.

They ran it a lot more last year, obviously, now with the addition of Bouye. They've been doing some more man coverage. But last I checked, it was around 40% their cover three team. But during Brady's sort of five-game stretch this year, when he was throwing an interception in five straight games, part of the reason was he was seeing more man coverage. Do you expect Jacksonville to come out and play more man against them on Sunday given that or do you think they'll stick with kind of what got them here? Yeah, I think they will play more man. I think they're going to try

being really physical and I think the biggest thing the secondary is going to need to do is be able to lock down those wide receivers just long enough for the pass rush to get to Tom because the one the one weakness in Tom's game is if you can get if you can pressure him enough then you can make him falter a little bit so I think they're going to really stay tight and not let Brady get those easy dump offs now friends this is not one of those quote, this actually is one of those, excuse me, quote unquote clown shows

that takes this game very seriously, unlike some scribes up in the Boston area that kind of aren't taking this game seriously. So please, for the listeners of the Locked On Patriots podcast, tell them why the Patriots should take every sort of outside run and play, east-west type run and play that's in the playbook,

and just rip it out and not even bother bringing it to the game plan for Sunday. I think that was one of the Steelers' biggest downfalls this past week. And that's just where you can shake your head. It's not about the players. It's about, like, what the hell was that coaching? What was Todd Haley thinking on a fourth-and-one, fourth-and-short situation to throw a toss? what the hell was that coaching? What was Todd Haley thinking on a fourth and one, fourth and short situation to throw a toss? Let alone, it seemed like an oddly designed toss. You were giving Le'Veon that space to be able to, where he takes so much time stuttering to

make his decision. He's normally so successful with it. But if you're giving the Jaguar a space to work with, not only is their defensive line so good, obviously, from a pass rushing standpoint, and it's not nearly as good of a front fort against the run it is against the pass, but Miles Jack and Telvin Smith are so good at reading and reacting to plays, especially in space, and then shooting their gap. Telvin Smith, especially, you saw him make those plays against Le'Veon. And that's something that especially if it's in big-time situations, whether they're going for it on a fourth and short or a third and short, that's something that Josh McDaniels needs to know.

You don't go anywhere near that part of the playbook because that's one of the things where not only will the Jaguars shut that down, but that gives their defense that momentum that they feed off of. If there's anything that the Jaguars' defense feeds off of, it's their own confidence. So if you can let them build that, it's going to be hard. You know, and this next question kind of gets into some of what we've been talking about already, but, you know, obviously we know Gronkowski is kind of a weapon, but, you know, I sort of look at this game, and I think, at least when the Patriots have the football,

the matchup is really going to be Amendola, Deion Lewis, and or James White against Barry Church, Telvin Smith, Miles Jack. That's kind of where this game is going to be won. Do you guys agree, or do you think that's kind of where this game is going to be won, given how great your corners are and what we expect to see between potentially Ramsey and Gronk? I do. I'll let Chris answer this as well. Chris has always been more of an Aaron Colvin fan than I have. And that's not to say I don't like Aaron Colvin. People have talked about him throughout the year as a guy where they want to resign him. And I automatically think this dude's playing so well. And so in, you know, they play about 60

to 70% nickel. His role is still limited as a strict nickel corner. He doesn't get to play outside. And that's always been something that there've been rumors he wants to do. I think he's going to want cornerback number two money, in which case I don't really want to pay him that when you can draft and replace relatively easily. But at the same time, I do think that this is going to be one of the more important matchups of his career. And it's not only for him as obviously a guy that might cover the slot, whether you have Amendola or playing Cooks in the slot or whatever you're doing with your receivers there.

I think you're going to try and avoid putting him on Gronk because Gronk is like three times his size. But at the same time, whether he's setting the edge even as a run defending corner because they use him like that so much, running so much heavy nickel, or you've got him in man coverage, I think this is going to be a huge test for him. I'll throw the mic to Chris to see what he thinks, but I think not only the guys you mentioned, but Colvin, this will be huge. One of my bold predictions for this game is I actually have Colvin playing outside for a little, not probably a little bit, probably for a lot, because if Ramsey shadowing Gronk and Gronk is on the inside, I could see Ramsey being on the inside and then they're shifting colvin outside

because he has played outside a little bit this year uh when guys have gotten hurt but i think it's going to primarily be uh yeah who can who can cover those other guys the secondhand thought kind of guys deon lewis is definitely going to be a big x factor. If they can get him going, then it might be the end of the Jaguar season as we know it. All right, here we go. We've got Mark Schofield, Zach Goodall, Christopher Thornton doing some crossover action here, getting you guys ready for the AFC Championship game.

Going to shift gears now and sort of talk about our expectations when the Jaguars have the ball. And I think the place to start obviously is Blake Bortles the man himself what Blake Bortles are you guys expecting to see on this game during this game someday you can't ask me that anymore man it's been about four years of you have no idea what you're gonna get with him. I think if the Patriots are susceptible to allowing play action early, because that's what the Steelers bid on. The Steelers automatically thought after the Buffalo game

that they thought this was going to be a run, run, run, running game for Jacksonville, that they needed to try to stop that. And it was the second play of the game. And suddenly Blake was firing on play action where he's found his most success. He's easily and I don't know the exact numbers, I need to check them again. But throughout the year, he's been finding the majority of his sex success on play action. So if New England is susceptible to expecting the run and biting on that, and suddenly Blake can hit a crosser on a play action or a little dump off to a tight end, whether it even be like a four-yard throw where he can just move the ball consistently,

that's suddenly where Blake finds his confidence. And from there, that's when the run game starts to go. It'll really all depend on how the Patriots can read and react to that. Because if Blake can't establish himself as a play action thrower, then it's going to come down to the run game. And if the Patriots can stop the run game, suddenly the entire offense will be out of sync and the defense can only do so much for an offense that can't match how well that defense plays. Is there sort of any concern from you guys? You know, you mentioned the play-action stuff,

and they had three play-action plays on their open and drive against Pittsburgh. Obviously, there was the deep shot to Cole that came off of play-action, the touchdown to Bohannon laid off of play-action. Do you think the fact that they showed stuff like that, showed success with that, gives Belichick yet one more thing to game plan for and be ready for come Sunday? Oh, easily. And I think that's what a lot of teams have done throughout the year.

They see Blake finding success in play action and then suddenly the next week, it's the inconsistency thing. Like I said, we never know what we're going to get because sometimes coaches do have to plan on the play action and then suddenly the Jaguars fall onto the run game. They have to keep running the ball to the point where they just can't do it anymore. And if the Patriots game plan that well enough, I don't know if I see Blake ever finding his mojo during this game. New England's pass rush, it's kind of been a question mark for this organization for a while. It was a question mark early in this season, but it's becoming more of a strength for them. Had a franchise playoff record, eight sacks last week against the Titans. Now some of that attributed to the fact that Conklin went out with an injury.

But is that a concern for you guys coming into this game, whether when Bortles drops the throw he's going to have time, or is that not something you really worry about given the other focuses in this game? Well, the one thing I can say about Bortles is that he actually has a surprisingly good way of escaping pressure most of the time, and he can scramble if he needs to. But I mean, I think if you ever go against a D-line that's hot right now, and New England's defensive line is definitely hot right now, you always have the game plan for it. But the Jags O-line has been playing surprisingly

well this year compared to what I thought they would have done. I mean, they're... I don't know the number off the top of my head, but they only... I mean, they didn't... 24 sacks on the year, and how many did they let up against Los Angeles? Against Melvin Ingram and Joey Bosa? I think it was

like three, two or three. So, I mean, the pass rush is always a big thing. If you can get opposed, if you can get threat on the opposing quarterback, then you'll make his day miserable. But I'm not too awfully worried. But if the pressure does get there, then things are going to go badly for Blake. And that's where I worry about the interior offensive line. Because the Jaguars offensive line has gotten better. They've been great in pass protection. They are really hit or miss in run blocking.

I still very much think they need to upgrade at least one guard spot. But that's where I worry about a guy like Trey Flowers who finished the year with 6.5 sacks. And we know that New England fans love Trey Flowers. And it's seen all across the NFL of how good of a player that he is. And A.J. Kan is not very much of a pass protector. So if you can get him to be able to work a little bit outside of A.J.

Kan, then you might be able to gain that pressure from up the middle. And if guys from outside, like a Kyle Van Noy or anyone's able to try and push Bortles to step up into the pocket, he might be running right into Trey Flowers' arms. And in which case, although Blake is relatively good with this capability,

it might be hard for him to get away from like what Chris said, a hot pass rush. You know, building off of that question, Zach, I was going to ask away from, like what Chris said, a hot pass rush. You know, building off of that question, Zach, I was going to ask you about the interior offensive line next because in studying Jacksonville, particularly the run game, it seemed to me like when defenses were able to stop the run, one of the ways they were able to do it against Jacksonville was, you know, getting a guy like Cannon, just standing him up and forcing either Fournette

or Yeldon or whoever it was to make quick cuts in the backfield. So when you look at that offensive line, are the guard spots sort of the areas of weakness you guys think? I'd say right guard specifically. I feel like no one in the league knows who Patrick Omame is, and that's totally fine. He's been a fine starter. He's more of a guy that's kind of a spot starter uh he's left guard uh right guard being aj cam which i'll go back to in a second um with patrick omame he's been he's more of a spot starter but he's been the jaguar starter at left guard for going on about a year and a half now if you're to replace only one of them in the offseason, I say it's Kan, who's playing the right guard position. He's just, he can't get it done nearly as well in pass protection. And in run blocking, they're both meh, they're okay. Kan's definitely more comfortable as a power run blocker.

But that's where, like you said, with having to rely on Fournette making cuts, as big of a power back as he is, when he's fully healthy, he can do that. And we saw that starting to happen against Pittsburgh last week. He seemed so much more agile. Then the ankle injury came back when he got hit after that dump off pass to the left side and was hit by two Steelers. I can't remember who it was. And you can see there was immediate pain. Anytime you see that Leonard Fournette's in pain, you have to worry it's his ankle. As soon as you have to worry about his ankle,

you know that his cutting ability goes from 100% to at least below 50%. So if you guys are able to get that interior pressure and try to force Fournette to cut when we know right now he is not fully healthy on that ankle, that's going to be another way to limit this Jaguars offense. There's so many different ways to easily stop this Jaguars offense. If there's one weakness in their offense, it's suddenly the entire thing falls apart. All right, gentlemen.

So getting ready to close this thing out here, and as this is a clown show, tell the Patriots fans why they should be worried about sunday why they should definitely definitely definitely not overlook what jacksonville can come in and do on sunday and gillette like i said um coming in uh starting off the pod saying the jaguars were gonna win i don't actually believe that as of right now now if guys like dan shaughnessy and whoever the other boston media is. People calling you a clown show is the biggest fake news I've ever heard in my life. But those guys are much more fake news to me.

I've seen the talk of, sit Brady. This should be easy. It really is not going to be. And I think the Jaguars, they rarely send a fifth pass rusher they they don't blitz they really don't i think they need to start including a fifth pass rusher somehow and if that's televisionist shooting gaps that's great you then have to keep miles jack as a spy for a guy like deon lewis there's going to be matchup both a lot of fun matchups and matchup problems on both sides it'll just depend on personnel and who's out doing what all in all i expect a really really fun game and if the jaguars can be aggressive and rattle brady then suddenly this could potentially go

jaguars way with the jags the biggest thing for them is momentum. If they can build momentum, they can find a way to beat you. If the Patriots can stop them from building momentum, which this is New England, they can do that, they should win. And in that case, I do think the Patriots will end up winning. I think it'll be close. I was on a podcast actually earlier today with Pat's Propaganda, and I dropped a score there. It might change throughout the week, but right now I'm kind of sitting at Patriots 21, Jaguars 17. Christopher, my friend, prediction from you, buddy? Yeah, my score prediction is similar to him.

Malik Jackson deemed the Patriots as the gatekeeper to the Super Bowl, and I think that they're going to keep the gate closed for the Jags. I think it's going to be New England 24, Jags 13. Yeah, I mean, I'm with you guys. I look at this and I see it as a one-score game. I see it New England 24, Jacksonville 20. You know, if you are so inclined and you'd like to head over to mybookie.ag to, you know, perhaps make a wager on this game, I'd say take the points.

I look at that nine and I think, you know, Jackson a wager on this game i'd say take the points i look at that nine and i think yeah jacksonville he's gonna keep this closed i think the defense is gonna do some things to sort of keep this a one score game at halftime and it's gonna sort of stay there so yeah i think this is 24 20 that's just me you guys get anything from me anything at all you want to know about rob gronkowski are you guys good to to roll for Sunday? I know too much about Rob Gronkowski. My Twitter mentions if there's anything not related to the Shrine game right now, it's who's going to cover Rob on Sunday. And I've given pretty much the same answer.

I think we've got a solid idea that this is potentially – this is the game that makes me think the most that this is the end of the road for the Jaguars for this season, which is 100% okay because who would have seen what happened to them this year? Who could have seen this coming? Well, since you guys are down at the Shrine game, quick little one or two sentences from each of you guys on what you've seen down there so far, who's stood out,

maybe somebody that both Jaguars fans or Patriots fans should keep an eye on come draft time. JT Barrett has been the best quarterback between both teams, so take that for what it's worth. I've liked a couple of the running backs and tight ends. Chase Edmonds got hurt today out of Fordham, but he is a fun back. Justin Jackson, I think is an intriguing prospect as a day three back that maybe the Jaguars could take a look at as a spell back to four net and also being able to keep yelled in, but they both can do work in, um, past protection, which is a big thing for the Jaguars' number two back. There's a sleeper defensive end out there, and I know the Patriots, even with Derek Rivers, who I love, being hurt for this year,

but he was their first third-round pick, but still their first pick taken last year. I really liked him. If they're still looking for pass rushers, a guy to remember, Joe Ostman from Central Michigan. He's kind of short for an edge rusher at 6'2", 250, but that dude is good. So just remember that for me.

I'll throw this over to Chris to finish it off for us. If you kind of want to go into the trenches, I have a few guys that I've been paying attention to. Right guard Kyle Bosch from West Virginia. He's really grown on me. He's been mauling guys in practices. And then right tackle from Oklahoma State, Zachary Crabtree. That dude is a big dude and he is a baller. Zach was actually at one of the practices today while I was sitting in the car, slowly dying, that Zachary, what exactly did he do? He tackled the guy?

So he pancaked an edge defender coming at him, and this is Mason Rudolph's right tackle at OK State. He pancaked a dude, came coming at him, teabagged the dude, and then the offensive line coach said, What the hell are you doing? What the hell are you doing? What the hell are you doing? You're doing a hell of a job out there is what you're doing. And I think that was my moment of the day.

That's a great highlight right there. And then a name that everybody should pay attention to because I think he's going to be very good in this league is Penn State linebacker Jason Cabinda, who I fell in love with when me and Zach went on our trip to Pennsylvania to see Penn State and Nebraska. Cabinda is good. I remember when I saw him against – when I was up there just watching Penn State-Indiana. And, yeah, man, he's really, really good. He is. He really is.

He's a guy that I think could fit as a 3-4 inside guy. He's also a guy that you can kind of throw around in a 4-3. He's a guy that I think could fit as a 3-4 inside guy. He's also a guy that you can kind of throw around in a 4-3. He's versatile. His run fits have been fantastic. And I mean, take playing the run in practice for what it's worth, but at the same time, his fits have looked stellar. He just seems to be doing them flawlessly throughout the week. I like him a lot.

Well, fantastic stuff, gentlemen. These are the hosts of Locked on Jaguars. You can follow Locked on. These are the hosts of Locked on Jaguars. You can follow Locked on Jaguars on Twitter at Locked on Jaguars. You can follow Zach on Twitter, Zach, Z-A-C-H underscore good all G-O-O-D-A-L-L. Follow Christopher on Twitter as well. He is at Misto Christofo, M-I-S-T-O-C-H-R-I-S-T-O-P-H-O. Check out Locked on Jagaguars.com as well. They just brought on a new addition to the site too

to do some work over there. The site is up and running and kicking some butt, so you should definitely check that out. I'm Mark Schofield from Locked On Patriots. This has been a crossover show. Hope you enjoyed it. Check out these guys and their work over on Twitter, Locked On Jaguars.

Check out LockedOnPatriots.com as well. I will be back tomorrow with more Locked On Pats. They'll be back with more and locked on Jaguars. Check out locked on patriots.com as well. I will be back tomorrow with more locked on pads. They'll be back with more locked on Jaguars over there until then. Keep it locked to both shows, locked on Jaguars and locked on.