Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots January 21, 2019 - Glorious Victory Edition

Episode Date: January 21, 2019

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I don't wanna lose your love tonight Josie's on her vacation far away Come around and talk it over So many things that I wanna say You know I like my girls a little bit older I just wanna use your love tonight I don't wanna lose your love tonight I ain't got many friends to talk to

No answer, I'm in, I'm in trouble You know I'm going out of state for you Stay the night but keep it undercover I just wanna lose your love tonight This is Mark Schofield with what might be the biggest and most indescribable glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. The New England Patriots just punched their ticket to Super Bowl 53 with a win in overtime. 37-31 over the Kansas City Chiefs

in a game that was indescribable, a game that had it all, a game that was reminiscent of the early Rocky movies with Creed, with Balboa, just in the middle of the ring, just throwing haymakers and throwing technique out the window. Look, forget it. We just plain don't like each other, and we are going to just throw punch after punch after punch. And that's what the second half was like, ladies and gentlemen. These two teams just traded blows to the point where when New England scored to take the lead, you just knew 31-28 with 42

seconds left, this is not going to be enough. It wasn't going to be enough. Dave Archibald at Dave Archie on Twitter, the second they scored, it was like they left too much time. And what does Kansas City do? They go right down the field and score. But what I'm going to do at the outset here, I'm going to talk about history repeating itself. One part, some pretty recent history. One part, a little bit more distant.

First story I'm going to read late. And again, this game just ended, and I wish I could put together into words how to truly break this all down. There's time to do that. Which is more instant reaction that you're getting friends right now. The first is the more distant history. And I'm going to tell a story about Super Bowl 51. And that was the game. We'd all known the 28-3 game.

My son was sick. He had been vomiting. He was really excited to watch the Super Bowl, but couldn't really keep any food down. So we kind of basically put him to bed. But I recorded the game. I knew full well that, look, I was going to be sitting with him. I knew he was going to be home the next day,

so I figured I would record the game. He could rewatch it. And when that game ended, with it sitting on the DVR, I was like, you know what? I want to rewatch this game. I want to rewatch not just the game, the final drive, that drive in overtime. And as I was watching the drive, I had my phone,

and I was like, you know what? I'm going to record some of these clips and sort of put together a little tweet thread. And I did. I broke down that final drive on Twitter basically right after the trophy presentation. And I remember distinctly there was a throw that Tom Brady made on a cross and wrote, from right to left, to Julian Edelman. And when I sort of tweeted that out and rewatched it, I was like, I remember the tweet. I said, look, you want to play quarterback in the NFL?

Make this throw from this pocket on a crossing route into this window with a safety rotating down into a cover one robber type coverage on this stage with this velocity in placement. And I remember being blown away by that throw from Tom Brady. Just look at that moment in overtime to come out and make that, to rip that throw. And Brady had a number of throws on that drive. He had the deep out to the right to Amendola. He had the deep comeback to Hogan. And then this throw to Edelman where I was just like, look, say what you want about the guy. But that's an impressive, impressive throw. Now let's come to the game that just ended. The game that we just saw. A game coming in a season where many and at times myself included wondered look can tom brady go out and deliver in the playoffs deliver on the road during a game in which he had a brutal interception

in the red zone and he had a tipped interception on edelman he had missed some throws. It wasn't a flawless performance or anything like that. But you get the chance in overtime to deliver. You have a drive in overtime to win the game, and you convert not one, not two, but three third and lawns. And on the first third and lawn, a third and nine, a third and ten, my notes say third and nine, but it might have been a third and ten, you have a throw on a crossing route to Julian Edelman crossing from right to left against a man coverage scheme, and you have to put it into a shoebox just like you did

just about two years ago in the Super Bowl to beat Atlanta, and you deliver the same throw on the same route concept into the same small window with the same velocity and placement. And literally on that throw, I felt like Tom Brady was basically looking at everybody dead in the eye and saying, I am the same quarterback I was two years ago. Because I just made the same gosh darn throw into the same gosh darn window with the same gosh darn velocity and placement. Question me all you want. Say whatever about me you want. But go back and look. I am the same quarterback. So that's sort of revisiting some distant history a bit. But I

want to talk about something more recent. Obviously, it got a lot of attention last week with the Chargers and their pass rush. But this week, they're going up against a team that had the most sacks of the year. A team that had Justin Houston coming back. A team that everybody was thinking, look, man, they're going to get after Tom Brady. They're going to put some pressure on him. We're worried about that environment and the snap count and things like that. They hit Tom Brady,

I think once. And it was maybe a questionable rough in the passer penalty in there. But they barely got to Tom Brady. They barely got to him. Pat's Pulpit tweeted it out. The Kansas City Chiefs pass rush finished with just one quarterback hit. Just one.

After the job that that unit did last week against bosa and ingram and no wo su and rochelle and all of the guys that we were worried about last week and yes they're going to have their hands full with dominicanukong Suh, with Aaron Donald, with everything that the Rams can do with Dante Fowler, but this offensive line deserves all the credit in the world for the job that they have done, not just the past two weeks, but this entire season. Now, there's all sorts of time to get into Rams, Patriots, Super Bowl 53. You know I'm going to have that covered,

you know, 10 ways to Sunday. But up next, we're going to talk a little bit more about this game a little bit later, give out some awards, some game balls, some takes of the game, all that good stuff. But friends, look, if you're like me, when you get a little bit of good news, maybe your team just won a massive game, you might start thinking, look, I want to plan for the next fun event. I know we've got a Super Bowl.

I'm going to be engrossed in Super Bowl coverage. But I want to tell you, if you're going to plan for that next fun event, it's probably Valentine's Day. And I'm going to help you get someed in Super Bowl coverage, but I want to tell you, if you're going to plan for that next fun event, it's probably Valentine's Day. I'm going to help you get some planning done right here, right now, because you're going to be listening to this show all the time for the next couple of weeks. I don't want you to forget, you got to get Valentine's Day plans locked down. You're going to make some reservations. You got to get some gifts, and that's where I'm going to come in for you. I'm talking about a luxury gift service that can celebrate that unique connection between you and the woman you love. It's a gift service called Enclosed that delivers designer lingerie to your

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Still I'm so free, they're all alone You can have the way I'm feeling As you leave the place once you close the door And don't forget what I told ya Just cause you're under the radar Another showed up to try to call Again, what I told you. Just consider that don't be no more. Another shoulder to cry upon. I just want to use your love tonight. Yeah.

I don't want to lose you. Mark Silver back with you now on this glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. We are rocking the Josie. We are rocking your love by the outfield. We'll be doing it all show long, maybe all week long. Maybe I'll just force the outfield to sue me. I don't care.

I honestly don't. Because look, again, just an unbelievable performance. And after I recorded that first segment, I took a pause. I grabbed myself another beverage. I'm working my way through my first. Truly spiked and sparkling. I got a new variety that I'm trying out. Sicilian blood orange. Nice little flavor here. And I was talking to my wife who watched that game with me,

and I was just like, I don't know what to say. I legitimately don't know how to describe what we just saw. I think I want to talk about the defense now. And I was feeling at halftime that if the Patriots went on to win this game, that the people at Canton would be calling for Belichick's defensive game plan, just like they did with Super Bowl XXV and stopping the K-gun offense. Now, obviously they can only contain Patrick Mahomes and Tyree Kill and Travis Kelsey for so long, but think about some of the stuff that we saw in this game. We saw J.C. Jackson, an undrafted rookie free agent cornerback,

on Travis Kelsey. And I want to give a shout-out to Brian Phillips over at Pat's Pulpit, who was one of perhaps a couple of other people who were saying that that's the matchup that they wanted to see. Brian called that one a tremendous call from him. Guest on this show, I'll just point that out. And you saw Jonathan Jones with safety help against Tyreek Hill. You saw Gilmore being moved around, whether it was Watkins or Robinson. You saw them try some different things.

You saw them go out and pressure Patrick Mahomes. You saw them say, no, we're not going to do this much rush to keep him. We're going to blitz this guy. We're going to force him to make some quick throws. We're going to pressure him. And they got some huge sacks. Kyle Van Nooy had a couple of sacks in this game. Trey Flowers had a massive sack that forced them out of field goal range.

A curious decision by them not to even try the field goal or go for it in that situation, but I digress. And yes, we saw Kansas City do what they did back in week six. They made some great halftime adjustments. They got the ball into the end zone a couple of times.

They turned this into a game where you thought, look, we're going uphill now. We are up against it. I am not sure that we're going to pull this out. They scored 24 in the fourth quarter. They scored 31 points in the second half. New England just scored 20. New England scored 23.

Obviously, they get the big six in overtime. I thought that the defensive front did a fantastic job getting pressure on Mahomes. The coverage, for the most most part was good downfield, although that drive that they had at the end of regulation to force overtime, that looked too easy. Yes, there were some calls that went against New England. J.C. Jackson got flagged for pass interference, what I thought was kind of a 50-50 call. It looked like Watkins kind of armbarred him at the same time.

But I think the defense got the stops that they needed to. Going into this game, I thought, look, if you get two or three stops, you keep Patrick Mahomes on the sideline. You make him a spectator. That's going to be what you kind of want to do. And they got those stops. It just so happened that like we saw in week six, they got the majority of those stops early in the game. But in a game like this,

when you force them to come away empty-handed from a possession or two, it doesn't matter if it's early in the game or late. It adds up a bit. And they just had to sort of hold on and survive. You know, a play that I thought was kind of emblematic of the way this game went, and perhaps even the way this season went, was on Kansas City's eighth drive of the game. It's 17-14 New England.

This is a drive where Kansas City takes over after New England went for it on fourth and one and ran it with Rex Burkhead on a call that I did not like. And look, I could sit here and ban away at Josh McDaniels for running Rex Burkhead on fourth and one, but it seemed like maybe Michelle was worn down a bit. Maybe White had gotten banged up a little bit. I'm not going to din Rex Burkhead after what we saw at the end of that game. I'm not going to din Rex Burkhead after what we saw at the end of that game. I'm not going to din Josh McDaniels for what we saw at the end of that game.

But they turn it over on downs. You've got a three-point lead and everybody was assuming, look, Chiefs are going to go right down the field and score. They're going to at least tie this game. If not, they're going to take the lead outright. They run Williams inside for a gain of two. You get an incompletion on a seam

route thanks to some pressure up front on Mahomes. And then on third and eight, he's got Tyreek Hill, but it's influenced again a little bit by pressure and he overthrows him and they go three and out. This was a defense that was the weak link of this team coming into this season. We spent, myself included, so much time, so much energy, so much effort, so much angst wondering, are they going to be athletic enough? Can they cover RPOs? Can they hang with the athletic offenses that they're going to face? Can they contain mobile quarterbacks like the Deshaun Watsons of the world

and the Blake Bortles of the world? And, yeah, they're going to face this Mahomes guy in week six, but who knows what he's going to end up being? Well, we saw what he's going to end up being. Can they cover the crossing routes? Remember all the time and energy we spent worried about crossing routes this year? Well, this defense, and it sounds weird to say in a game where they gave up 31 points, this defense stepped up over the course of the season.

And they got some stops when they needed to. And yes, the next five plays after that three and out kind of were a little haywire because you had the punt muff by Edelman that was overturned and then the tip through Edelman's hands that he clearly touched and got intercepted. And yes, my Twitter timeline was filled with those jokes and the ball don't lie comments, and I get it. And I wanted to throw my phone through the television at that moment, just like you probably did too.

But let's not forget that when this defense needed to make some stops this year, they made them. And that three and out, even though in the grand scheme of things, maybe it didn't matter. Well, maybe it did. Maybe it did. And yes, there are some things that maybe they should have done, some plays that they could have made.

Jonathan Jones, perhaps he could have iced it if he makes that interception in the end zone on the throw to Tyree Kill. But, you know, they won. The offense that couldn't be stopped was slowed enough. And the weapons that they had that we were all so worried about, they were contained enough. Enough.

If I would have told you before this game started that Tyreek Hill would get one catch on three targets and not catch a touchdown, we would have all taken that in a heartbeat. If I would have told you that Travis Kelsey would get three catches on five targets for 23 yards and yes, a touchdown, we would have taken that in a heartbeat.

This game came together about as well as Patriots fans could have asked for, and yet it still left us on the edge of our seats. It still left us with nothing left of our fingernails. I'm going to need band-aids for the picking job I've done on my fingers over the past three hours. But this is why we're fans. This is why we watch. And this was one of those games where, yes, I sat there with my notepad. I charted everything. But this is one of those sported events that even when you're trying to be a professional and do a job, you cast it aside and you get caught up in the moment. Because this was great theater. And as I said, it was like theater in the sense that you had two incredible teams,

two smart coaching staffs just go after each other, make adjustment to adjustments to adjustments. I mean, give the Kansas City Chiefs defense some credit. The Patriots were running all over them in the first half. They stopped the running game for the most part until near the end of that game when they got the ground game going again and I will say this how fitting was it how fitting was it that on this night in this game with with this team, perhaps one of the biggest individual plays was made by James Devlin on the Burkhead touchdown run.

Who was it paving the way? It was James Devlin. I admit, I don't say I fully teared up, but seeing James Devlin catch a wheel route out of the backfield got a little dusty. This was an incredible effort, an incredible job, top to bottom of this organization. I mean, you could even point to Keon Cross, and maybe he should have been on the field for some of these defensive plays where he was on the field.

Set of the tone with an early kickoff hit. You know, some of the jobs that the coverage team did on Tyreek Hill where he was losing yardage and losing ground on a punt return. I mean, there will be hours spent by myself and others sort of breaking down this entire game. I haven't even really talked about Sonny Michel, 29 for 113 and two touchdowns.

That this was just one of those wins where you feel like after all we've been through watching this team this year, the highs and the lows, and every fan goes through the highs and the lows of a season. But to see them put together this effort in this environment, to go into that stadium and pull out this win. It just tells you what this team is made of. And, you know, I said in coming into this game

that this game might come down to Brady's eyes versus Mahomes and his arm. And Brady's eyes were as good as they've been. I mean, you want a good example of what Brady can do? You look at that touchdown run by Sorda Michelle, and Romo pointed out his ability to get his team into the best position, his ability to win in that pre-snap phase. Yes, there was some of that manipulation, like I thought, but Brady's ability to diagnose what a defense is doing

and win in that pre-snap phase. He sees what you're doing. He diagnoses it before the ball is snapped, and he gets his team into the right play call. He did that a number of times in this game. And they won. And I will keep coming back to that overtime drive. You convert three-third in lawns.

And it did look to me like the Tom Brady from Super Bowl 51. And he even had Gronk with a big catch. Gronk, say what you want about him. You know, I just described him as maybe a sixth offensive lineman who's a little bit more athletic because he's been relied on as a blocker. But six for 79 on 11 targets with a 25-yard long, I mean, that's probably about as good

as we might get out of him right now. And there were some big catches. So this was just an amazing team effort. Could not be prouder of this group watching them, the effort they put out tonight. Up next, we're going to give out some awards, talk some game ball stuff, set up the stage for the week. That's all ahead on this glorious victory edition

of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this glorious victory edition of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And I'm going to put out a call to the listeners here. Ask for a little help because I know, I know, I know, I know, in the bottom of my heart that at the start of this year, I made the prediction on here, Pats, Rams, Super Bowl XXXVI rematch. I'm trying to find that clip because, yes, I want to use it to dunk on the rest of the internet, okay? Look, I had a great friend, Ben Albright, who I'm going to see in a couple of days down in Mobile. He's long told me,

look, man, this back ain't going to pat itself. You know, you got to toot your own horn from time to time. And I know I made the call. I've been trying to find, going through my notes and stuff, where I made that call. I need that clip. So if you out there, dear listener to the show, want to do your boy a solid here and dig up that clip, I know I said it.

I need it because it's going to get me, it's probably going to get me a couple of rounds of drinks down on Mobile, and I'd like to cash in. Speaking of Mobile, going to set the stage again for this week. We've got time to get into the Patriots and the Rams, and we'll do that all next week. I'm going to be down at the Senior Bowl. I'm going to do a preview show Tuesday for all the quarterbacks, and I can get some shows, some reactions, some reaction from other people that are down there, get some audio from players. Maybe I'll start asking some players who they're going to get some shows, some reactions, some reaction from other people that are down there, get some audio from players. Maybe I'll start asking some players who they're going to pick in the Super Bowl.

Maybe I will. Maybe I won't mention that I'm the host of the Locked on Patriots podcast. It would pain you if you're like, man, I hope the Patriots draft, say, Daniel Jones. And I ask him, hey, Dan, who do you want to win the Super Bowl? He's like, man, I love the Rams. I hate the Patriots. I'd be like, oh, oi, do we want to draft him to replace Tom Brady now? I don't know. Anyway, so that's what the week ahead is going to look like. In terms of some game balls,

you know, this is an easy one to say. Game balls for everybody. Everybody did fantastic. Let's make everybody happy. See you all Wednesday. I do want to acknowledge one player or a handful of players in particular. I think you could have mentioned Tom Brady. And yes, he threw two picks. One was a deflection. One was a throw, which I'm sure if you sat Tom Brady down right now

and said, look, man, do you want that throw that got picked off by Ragman back? I'm sure he'd say, yes, I do. What would I have liked to have seen Tom Brady do in that situation? You find the fattest, ugliest dude in the fifth row, and you hit him in the face with the ball. That sounds mean, but look, you can't throw that. If the linebackers aren't sucked up on that play action, you've got to find the guy in the stands that looks at you funny and hit him in the face with it. Hey, you paid that much for the seat. You might get hit in the face with the ball.

But he didn't do that. He forced the throw. That was a bad pick at the time. But still, to convert three third-in-lawns in overtime to win the game, to make some of the throws he made from that pocket, one of the throws he made to white to convert a third-down situation, to step up in the pocket the way he did, it was a Tom Brady-like performance. And I think Tom Brady would be within all of his rights to sit down with somebody from Fox

and say, hey, Rob Parker, Max Kellerman, hey, how do you like me now? I'm going back to the Super Bowl, and you said I'd be going to get my AARP card last week. Are we having fun yet? So we'll have a game ball for Tom Brady. Offensive line from left to right. Just another fantastic job from those guys. I went through the

numbers. Trent Bowne, Joe Toney, Dave Andrews, Shaq Mason, Marcus Cannon. These guys are as solid as it gets. And they're going to need one more performance if they're going to bring home a Lombardi trophy. But I certainly think they're capable of it. Yes, everybody else gets a game ball.

They were all fantastic. I love them. Just a tremendous, tremendous, tremendous team effort. But I wanted to highlight those guys. Our take of the game for the Locked on Patriots podcast. And there were a number I could choose from. The Locked on Patriots Slack channel was hopping tonight. Highs, lows, a little bit of everything.

I'm telling everybody, you want to be a part of this, hit me up for an invite at Mark Schofield on Twitter, mark.schofield, that's insidethepylon.com. We've got a great cast of characters in there, including my mom, I'll say that. But we've got some optimists, we've got some pessimists, we've got people on every sort of level of confidence. It's always fun seeing the reaction to things live in time.

This one goes out to Mr. Pink, who at times can be one of the, say, more negative people. But the take was this. Guys, guys, I bleepinep and love you that says it all that's what sports is all about watching these games the camaraderie of being part of a group whether it's a team or a group of fans following a team you know when I got out of practice in law and got into writing about this game that has given so much to me, the person that I wanted to do stuff for was me.

Because I was that person that, you know, I still remember the run to the Super Bowl when they lost to the Giants the last time. And, you know, that was when I was still practicing law and I dreaded getting up in the morning each day. But I would have, say, that walk to work of about, you know, 15 minutes and I would listen to 98.5 on that walk. I would stream 98.5 and i would listen to boston sports radio because it would give me that 15 minutes where i was just being a fan and work the stress of the day everything that awaited me at the end of that walk didn't matter because i had that kinship with other fans of this team and i felt like being a part of it. And so when I started doing the show and started

writing about, that's kind of who I was speaking to the people that are going to go into the office tomorrow morning or Tuesday morning, maybe they're off for the holiday and they're going to need something to listen to, something to distract them, to get them through the day, because that used to be me. And so doing this show and the Locked On Patreon Slack channel and all of this stuff, I'm trying to tap into that to give you guys and girls out there that are going about your day part of that you know something to listen to something to learn from something to feel a part of a way to sort of be part of the inner community i guess and that take from Mr. Pink I loved seeing it that sort of

right there seeing that made me just so glad that I decided to create the Locked on Pat Slack channel just one more way to interact with all of you because as I've said from the day I started the show it is your show

I'm just the guy yapping for 25 minutes or so in your ear, and I can't thank you enough for letting me in. I'm going to stop talking right now because let's face it, I need to have a couple more adult beverages to sort of enjoy and try to decompress after living through that. Next time you will hear from me, I will probably be wheels up en route to Mobile, but you will have a tape Tuesday quarterback preview, and then I will be live from Mobile.

I will start talking about Pat's Rams when we get there, but for now, let's just enjoy it. The Outfit. Play us on. I don't wanna lose your lovin' tonight You're not alone Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh, I don't want to go home tonight