Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots January 29, 2019 - Tape Tuesday: The Rams' Defense

Episode Date: January 29, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on into a Tape Tuesday installment of the Lockdown Patriots Podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for today, Tuesday, January 29th, 2019. Happy to be here with you. Hope your Super Bowl 53 week is getting off to a good start. What we're going to do today, tape Tuesday for Super Bowl week, we're going to look at the Rams defense. Some Wade Phillips, some coverage stuff,

some ways to beat what they do in the secondary. Unfortunately, though, we have to start with Aaron Donald, destroyer of worlds. Before we get into that, though though a reminder to follow me on twitter at mark scofield 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 odds are I'm doing some more cover in this game we all love for them let's start with Aaron Donald and let's face it if there is a matchup to watch in this game it is going to be the matchup between the Patriots

offensive line and the job that they've done over the past couple of games against Aaron Donald and what this Rams defense, particularly Donald, can do. As a matter of fact, I'm going to talk in a few moments about a Twitter thread I put together on Monday that I'm basically going to work through. And my friend Shane Alexander of Inside the Pylon responded to one of the videos I posted. I posted a thread of about like 20 clips that the chess match between Dante Skarniecki and Wade Phillips is going to be the best chess match since the Cold War. And I told Shane straight up, I'm stealing that line because I think it's perfect. And I think it kind of outlines what we're going to see. But it starts with Aaron Donald. And as I said, I put together a Twitter

thread. I might make it into a Twitter moment. I'm probably going to turn it into an article. So probably by the time you hear this, you'll be able to walk through some of these plays I'm about to talk about. We know about the 23 and a half sacks and all that stuff. But when I sat down Monday and studied all of his sacks, a lot of his pressures, a lot of the other pass rushing moves, I came away blown away by the combination of pass rushing plans, pass rushing moves, change of direction ability, quickness, the ability to transition from power to speed or speed to power, the ability to sometimes run the arc as an interior defensive tackle, some of the ability he showed when he was stunting or looping from one side of the line

to the opposite A-gap or B-gap, it was just an array of terror for a former quarterback like myself. And we can start with one of the first examples is a play against Kirk Cousins of the Minnesota Vikings. And it's a simple little swim move that he uses. He's lined up between the left tackle and the left guard, and he just puts a vicious swim move starting towards the left shoulder of the left guard and then swims over him to the opposite side, gets right past him. Kirk Cousins doesn't even finish his drop and he's right on him. Later in that game,

similar move sort of against this left guard. He sent him up for this. So early in the game, he swims him to the inside. This time he sort of stays outside, sort of dips and rips around and looks more like a defensive end, an edge defender, you know, than an interior defensive tackle. Runs the arc, then he flattens. So he gets past the guard, but then he's going to sort of flatten himself. So the change of direction, the flexion in the lower body, the ankles to get to Kirk Cousins, and he just tosses him aside like he's a ragdoll. Just an unbelievable play. Next example is a play against the Seahawks. He's lined up again, outside shoulder to the left guard, and it's that similar move. Gets into him, gets his hands into him, then swim move to the inside. Russell Wilson doesn't have a chance. Next play is a play that broke down against the Denver

Broncos, and this is a bit of a coverage sack. Something we're going to talk about, sort of how to combat Donald. The Broncos do it here. They slide their protection towards Aaron Donald. We'll talk about this a little bit later. So he basically gets double teamed by the center and the guard. So what does he do? Rather than try to fight through it, he drops off a bit, gets into the throwing lane, starts mirroring Case Keenum. And when Keenum doesn't have anywhere to go with the football and rolls out to the left, that's when Donald chases him down. You got a large man chasing you down like that? Forget it. That's a turtle and cover situation. Next play I'll talk about, a play against the Packers. He's again lined up between the left guard and the left tackle. This time he's more inside shoulder of the left tackle. And the play is over before it begins.

Because what does he do? Gets off the line, just beats that left guard outside with speed, and then that ankle flexion to run the arc. He looks more like a defensive end than a defensive tackle. To beat him to the outside, flatten, and just then flatten Aaron Rodgers. It's a thing of beauty. And again, I'm saying this as a former quarterback. It's just incredible what Aaron Donald can do as a pass rusher.

This play, again, against the Packers, lined up in the big gap between the left guard, left tackle. He's able to show early in the game. We talked about in yesterday's show how Sean McVay can set up some things during the course of a game, during the course of a drive. Similar here with Donald because he just beat the Packers left guard by a speed move to the outside. Now what does he do?

He switches it up, gives him a little quick jab step to the outside, then cuts underneath him, rips up with that right arm. Aaron Rodgers is trying to finish his drop, doesn't get a chance. Donald is immediately on him. A stunt that he shows in their second game against the Seattle Seahawks. He's lined up on the outside shoulder of the right tackle. But what does he do? He loops into the opposite A gap. He and his Dominican

Sioux looping inside. Those two interior tackles run in the loop. He loops into the opposite A gap and then again has to then change direction, flatten his run, flatten his arc, and get to the quarterback. Just an incredible, incredible, incredible play. I could go on. There's like 15 more plays that I could talk about, but I do want to talk about this here at the end. While I was putting this thread together, I had some comments from some Patriots fans, some fans of other teams. Look, these are coming against bad offensive lines. And yeah, there were some sacks here against, for example, the Cardinals that were also terrifying that I don't even have time to get to and there

were you know people talking about how no sacks yet in the playoffs just a couple of quarterback hurries and pressures but there are still ways that he can influence the game even if he's not racking up sack numbers for example you look at a play against the Saints in the NFC championship game there's a play where he gets again double teamed between the left guard and the center but still manages to fight through it with power, with speed, gets a hit on Breeze and forces him to make a quick throw. There's one play later in the game. They don't double him. They don't slide the protection to him. They slide it away from him. That leaves him with a one-on-one against the guard. So what does he do? He just immediately goes right through the guard. And Breeze is lucky he's not strip sacked on this play

because Aaron Donald fights through the outside shoulder of the guard, then gets his left hand into the lap of Breeze. Somehow Breeze holds on to the football and makes the quick check down. That could have been a lot worse for the Saints. But speaking of worse, the interception in overtime that put the Rams in position to get to the Super Bowl. Yeah, there was an influence there from Aaron Donald as well. Wade Phillips puts Donald on the inside and Sue on the outside. Puts them on the same side of the defensive line. What do the Saints do in response? They slide their protection to the left.

Donald gets a double team. But that creates a pair of one versus ones on the backside with the guard facing the defensive tackle, the tackle facing the defensive end, and Dante Fowler. And Fowler is able to win his one-on-one to force the errant throw. So that brings us to the main point I want to make. This chess match betweenips and skarnecchia is going to be the thing to watch how much attention do they play to donald do they consistently slide their protection to him if so a can david andrews provide the kind of help that we've seen other centers fail to provide if so great but there's a follow-up to that if they're sliding protection say to the left the left to help Joe Thune

and away from Shaq Mason and Marcus Cannon, can Cannon and Mason win those one-on-one matchups? If so, fantastic. Then we'll see the kind of numbers that the Patriots put up the past couple of weeks where this offensive line has kept Tom Brady clean. But if not, and if the other guys, Fowler and company, start winning those one-on-ones versus Cannon, versus Shaq Mason, or if Andrews is sliding the other way and it's Trent Brown and Joe Thune who are left in those one-on-one situations, if those guys that are

left in the 1v1s don't win, it might be a long day for Tom Brady and he might have to get the ball out of his hands even quicker. What happens might have to get the ball out of his hands even quicker. What happens when Tom Brady gets the ball out of his hands? We're going to talk about that next when we dive into the Rams secondary. But first, Pats Nation, it's time to talk to you about our great friends over at Low-K-I. You need a little extra swag for game day? Low-K-I has got your back with their brand-new game day collection.

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As always, if you'd like an invite to the Locked On Patriots Slack channel, hit me up at Mark Schofield on Twitter, mark.schofield, that insidethepylon.com. Also, please start getting your questions in, your takes in for the Take Thursday show. You could do it via Twitter, via email, via the Locked On Patriots Slack channel or the Locked On Patriots phone line, 240-670-6016.

Would love to hear from you, get your thoughts in for the Thursday show. I'm going to talk about the Rams' past defense right now. When they made the acquisitions, for example, of a Marcus Peters, a keep to lead, we thought this was going to be one of the better units in the league. It hasn't quite turned out that way. This Rams defense maybe never fully lived up to the preseason hype,

but it's still a talented unit. This is predominantly, and we'll get into this a little bit more in the final segment of the show show a single high coverage team a lot of cover three a lot of cover one some man versus zone according to my little birdies my little statistical birdies out there you know with um akib talib in the lineup they played more zone coverage without him they played more man coverage when they have both Peters and Tlaib again a little bit more zone a little bit more cover three maybe they sort of trust the guys in their eyes to make some praise plays into freelance a little bit I took a look at all 19 of their interceptions they had 18 in the regular season one the big one

in the postseason which was obviously influenced by pressure. And recency bias being what it is, I figured, look, with that secondary, with those guys up front, it's got to be a situation where most of those interceptions were influenced or caused by pressure. Well, I got to tell you, after spending Monday charting those plays, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, seven. That's it. Seven of the 19 were influenced by pressure. If there's anything I learned about this Rams secondary, it's this. Just don't make

mistakes. Don't do stupid things. Most of the interceptions I saw here, some you'll see were influenced by pressure as I'm about to talk about, but most of them were just the quarterback doing something dumb. There was really only sort of one play where I thought, look, man, the secondary got the better of the QB on that play and we'll talk about it. But for example, their opening game, that opening night, Monday night or the second one against the Oakland Raiders, Carr threw three picks in that game. The first, he was pressured.

It's a back foot throw. There's some route miscommunication, and it's intercepted. The second one, he has a clean pocket, and he just stares down the crossing route. Linebacker reads his eyes, steps in front of it. Easy pick. You just can't do that. You can't be lazy with your eyes.

The third one, clean pocket, red zone fade. He just underthrows it, and it's picked off. So don't do that. You can't be lazy with your eyes. The third one, clean pocket, red zone fade. He just under throws it and it's picked off. And so don't do stupid things. Case Keenum in week six, he's not pressured. It's a Tampa two, cover two look. He tries to split the safeties on a middle of the field throw, but the linebacker step for step with that seam route in the middle of the field. Doesn't get enough on it. Linebacker tips it in the air it's picked and intercepted don't do stupid things um 49ers you know nick mullins actually it's cj beth with this is the first game um this is the first he threw two picks in that game the first one he's forced to climb and reset around aaron donald throws a dig route in the middle of the field late. What's the common rule?

The basic rule of quarterbacks, you know, never start a land war in Asia. Don't go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line and don't throw late over the middle of the field. Well, that's what he does. And so it's picked. Mahomes, he threw three picks against them, two of which came late. Late game situation, you're down, he's pressured,

he's forced and stuff. Okay. The first one he threw, cover three look, and the defensive end on an RPO just sort of made a great play. Got into the throwing lane, gets his hand up there and picks it. So didn't learn a ton in that situation. Trubisky, he threw three picks in this game. The first throw was high and picked. Trubisky, missing a throw, missing it high, to his left. Stomp me if you've heard that one before. That was the same thing on the third throw he picked. But the middle one, he just stares at an out route. Simple out route, simple cover forward look.

Just looks right at it. Doesn't look anywhere else. Late getting the ball out. If you're going to be slow, late, and dumb, this Rams secondary is going to be slow late and dumb this ram secondary is going to take advantage of that the one play where they actually got them week 15 nick falls the eagles ran this sort of post and out route combination twice in this game when the outside receiver runs the post inside inside receiver runs the out.

Patriots call it pout. They got it late in the first half to Alshon Jeffrey on the deep out route. They come to it at the start of the fourth quarter. They're just outside the red zone. And Foles sees them running what looks to be cover three at the snap. But it is cover three. And he expects Aqib Tlaib, that outside corner, to maybe stick on that post route just a little bit, hand on it a little bit longer, which is going to create a window to throw the out route

to Zach Ertz, the tight end. Well, Tlaib dekes him. He shows him that he's going to stay on that post, but then he jumps the out, steps in front of it, and picks it off. That's literally the one time that I thought, man, quarterback got there. The other three sort of interceptions, week 17, these were three interceptions against Nick Mullins. The first two were pressured. One was an underthrow. The next one was sort of a matchup coverage in the red zone, cover one, cover three hybrid matchup zone. And he just forces under pressure a seam route to Kittle and it's picked. The final interception doesn't move the underneath defender that cover one whole linebacker with his eyes stares down on the inside route it's inside slant route and it's picked off we expect Tom Brady to be a little

bit better with his eyes then of course there's the interception and overtime in the NFC championship game we sort of talked about that that's a situation where Breeze is pressured. That gets us into more of a pass protection issue and not so much a coverage issue. But those are the ways that they generated interceptions. It's quarterbacks being sometimes young, sometimes slow, mostly dumb. Are those things we associate with Tom Brady?

Generally not. So I feel okay about the protection situation. I feel much better about Brady, if given time, having some success against this secondary. In the next segment, I'm going to talk about some specific route designs. I'm going to be looking for some stuff that worked against this team this year. But first, guys, listen. You know I'm all about helping you. This show is premised on making

the people that listen to the show the smartest people in the room. But I'm going to talk to my fellow boys here for a second because I'm like you. I've said it before. I started doing this show and writing about football with the guys in mind that were going to the office and things like that. And I know what you've been doing the past couple of weeks, consuming nothing but football. I get it. But don't wake up on Valentine's Day scrambling for a backup plan. I want to be here and help you get ready. This Valentine's Day season, how about giving your wife or your girlfriend something totally different, something romantic that celebrates the unique connection between you and her? I'm talking about a luxury gift service called Enclosed that delivers designer lingerie to

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Going to quickly close out this tape Tuesday installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Remember the week ahead, Wednesday, tomorrow, we get our crossover show with Brad Maher over from Locked On Rams, the second of the two crossover shows that we've done for this Super Bowl 53. Thursday, your take Thursday show. Going to need the takes in from you again at Mark Schofield on Twitter, mark.schofield, that insidethepylon.com. You can get them in

via the Locked on Patriots Slack channel or the Locked on Patriots phone line, 240-670-6016. Call, text, leave a message. Let me know your thoughts. Friday, your game day edition. The final things I'll be looking for my prediction which if you listen to me on the radio and elsewhere you know what my prediction is by now but maybe don't maybe don't listen to that stuff

maybe save it you don't want to spoil it I will though of course be on with my boys Sat and John at Sportsnet 650 my weekly spot out in Vancouver

that will be at 1 in the afternoon on Thursday I will try to let you guys know of some other hits I know I'm going to be on down in Louisiana and some other places as well. So definitely I will keep you posted on all of that. Let's talk, though, a topic we've talked before, so I won't beat it to death, but single high beaters, cover one, cover three,

the route concepts I expect to see the New England Patriots run against this team. And if you want another primer on it, listen to some of the pregame talk from last year's Super Bowl. Again, Eagles, another cover one, cover three, single high type team. So a lot of this is going to be repetitive for some. Maybe the newer listeners, you want to get a little primer on it. You can always listen to the older shows and perk the ears up right now. Cover one, cover three, single high coverage. You've got a safety in the middle of the field. And then if it's cover three, you've got the ears up right now um cover one cover three single high coverage you've got a safety in the middle of the field and then if it's cover three you've got the corners

on the outside everybody responsible for a deep third of the field it's cover one everybody's playing man coverage except that free safety in the middle of the field let's talk cover one for a second here we spent some time talking about this against the kansas city chiefs the key there is going to be the eyes of Tom Brady, his ability to manipulate those middle-of-the-field defenders with his eyes. Against cover one, you typically have two middle-of-the-field defenders that are going to be reading you. There's the free safety in the middle of the field, kind of self-explanatory.

Cover one, man free, however you want to term it. But then there's that underneath hole defender, usually a linebacker who doesn't have a coverage responsibility his job is to help on quick break-in routes to the inside say for example a slant does a slant route sound like something the patriots throw a lot of yes it does because they do but the quarterback needs to move whether it's a deep route down the field that free safety or one of those quick slant routes that underneath hole defender move, move him with his eyes. So there you go. You see cover one, moving defenders with your eyes, manipulating defenders out of position and making strong, accurate throws into the tighter windows you will see against man coverage. If we see cover three,

then we're going to see sort of some of those, you know, cover three type beaters that we've talked about. Cover one beaters, look, you get option routes, you get slant routes, you know, cover three type beaters that we've talked about. Cover one beaters, look, you get option routes, you get slant routes, quick routes, and then vertical routes along the boundary. Might we see some Patterson against Tlaib. You watch that week 15 game, Philadelphia, LA, they took some deep shots with Alshon Jeffrey against Tlaib. So that's something to keep in mind. But as we get into cover three, then we get into some of the cover three beater concepts we've talked about. For example, Haas route, route outside hitch route inside seam route patriots love that concept they'd like to do it mirrored where you get those inside seam routes one on each side of the field bracket in that free

safety in the middle of the field working up the seam which is a soft spot of that cover three and then on the outside those hitch routes they'll get some space working against those corners who don't have any safety help deep over the top of their heads so they have to respect vertical threats so we expect some hoss route i'm expecting the patriots to work in you know dino double post the patriots call it topper you know the outside receiver runs a max split so he's at the bottom of the numbers running that deep post route. Inside receiver runs a shorter post route, but it's still a post route. And he's got a read to make. If it's middle of the field open, meaning two safeties, you sort of stay towards the middle of the field.

If it's middle of the field closed, as you would see cover one, cover three, that free safety type in the middle of the field, you're taught to cross his face to occupy him, to get him to bite on you, which creates that one-on-one matchup on the outside deep. You might see sort of a situation where Edelman's running that inside post, get the free safety to bite on him, and maybe you see a Patterson or a Dorsett or even a Hogan deep shot, say, over the top.

I'm expecting to see a lot from the Patriots' wheel series. You look at the Patriots' playbook, and for example, they have a number of route concepts where they're looking to get that inside receiver to do one thing, and then that outside receiver to run that wheel route. For example, they like reel, R-E-E-L, where that outside receiver runs what they call a return or pivot route where he starts inside and then breaks back towards the sideline. For example, think of the route Julian Edelman ran to win Super Bowl XLIX. That's a real route, a return route. But then the inside receiver runs the wheel. So you've got that little quick return.

You can look at that, peek that wheel route, throw the one you want. Whirl route, that's a curl in a wheel route. So the outside receiver runs a curl, inside receiver runs a wheel. Why do we like these sort of concepts? It's one of those sort of flood the zone type situations where if you're a cover three corner that outside guy runs that curl route maybe you guys get caught on that you miss the wheel coming out nobody's there to cover it Patriots like goalie outside receiver runs a go that's going to run off that cornerback and

then you run a wheel route that's one of those sort of exit and enter concepts or a follow concept where you run the defender off in the zone and you bring somebody back in behind him. Another one is peel. Sort of similar. You get the post route and a wheel route. So the outside receiver runs post. Inside receiver runs that wheel. You expect that outside corner to maybe stay on that post route a little bit. Make sure he can pass it off to the corner. You don't want to leave it wide open between the corner and the safety. So he vacates a bit, throw that wheel route in behind it. There's a bunch of them that they have in the series. Steel, for example, which is slant wheel, outside slant, inside wheel. I'm expecting to see a lot of those types of

concepts. And so there's things you can do from route concepts, but there are also some one-on-one things you can do. Double moves. We talked about it last year against the Eagles, this year against the Rams. Again, if they're going to stay in that cover three, those corners don't have safety help, but sometimes they can bite. You show them a little pump and go

on whether it's a hitch and go, an out and up, something like that. Maybe get one of those deep shots. Patriots hit one against Amendola, you knowola in that first half of Super Bowl 52. So those are some things that I think the Patriots will have in the game plan. Obviously in the game day edition on Friday, I'll talk some more about what I'm going to be looking for, some other things. But that's sort of a primer on when the Patriots have the football.

I know I didn't even talk run game. I'm saving that for Friday, more of the game day stuff. I wanted to focus on Aaron Donald, pass protection, route concepts, their secondary, things like that. But I just threw a ton at you. Tape Tuesday. You know how we roll here at Locked on Patriots. Look for tomorrow.

Crossover show again with Brad. Crossover show number two. Please check out our great sponsors, Low-KI, The Enclosed. Show them some love. They're showing me some love doing some shows this week, sponsoring some shows this week, which means the world to me. If they're going to help me out, please help them help me. Show them some love. Check them out. Use the promo codes PATRIOTS25 at Low-KI, PATRIOTS over at The Enclosed. Guys, I'm trying to help you out this

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That will do it for today. I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Patreon. Thank you.