Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots January 30, 2019 - Super Bowl Crossover

Episode Date: January 30, 2019

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Welcome everybody to a Locked Over podcast network crossover event for Wednesday, January 30th. My name is Mark Schofield. I am the host of Locked On Patriots, doing some crossover action. Proud to be joined by Brad Motter, the host of Locked On Rams. We are doing our second crossover episode, a game this big needs two crossovers. So we're happy to talk with Brad again. Brad, how are you, sir? Oh man, as we were just talking, it is Super Bowl week. We are no longer in our own respective cities. We're both in Atlanta. We had media day yesterday.

Things are really getting exciting. I couldn't be more ready for this game and ready to talk about this crossover with you. And, you know, Brad, before we sort of dive into the game itself, I think that's kind of a good way to do this show. We'll do some predictions later. But, look, just had media night, obviously, on Monday night. We always hear some of the stories coming out, some of the crazy questions, some of the circus-type atmosphere around media night obviously on Monday night we always hear some of the stories coming out some of the crazy questions some of the circus type atmosphere around media night but do you think that there will actually be any sort of takeaways that get carried into this game or is it just look it's a nice story for one and done maybe you know two days but once we get to kickoff time especially

it's just a game of football yeah I think it's definitely a one and done. You know, I talked about this yesterday on the podcast, but nothing really exciting came out. No one really slipped up and said, you know, guarantee we're going to win or that guy's a bum. Or, you know, even Nickel Robey Coleman, who had some comments about Tom Brady early in the week, definitely, you know, backed off that statement and said, I think it was misunderstood. I played him back in Buffalo. And the only thing different is his age, not that he's an old man, and things like that. So people took a lot of easy. I mean, you saw both teams represented on the stage and shaking hands, and Tom Brady and Jared Goff kind of whisper talking on the side and seemed like they were enjoying it. Probably the funniest moment was when Tom Brady said he wasn't giving any advice,

which I thought was kind of a silly question to kind of throw up there Adam in the Super Bowl you're gonna give your opponent a bunch of advice but other than that it was I think it's a one and done and you know there wasn't anything exciting there was no Marshawn Lynch I'm just here so I don't get fined I was hoping Marcus Peters would deliver something for us to talk about over the next couple days but I think this is just NFL kind of cracking open that bottle and getting everyone excited. And soon we just want to see some football. Speaking of football, let's get to this stuff on the field now.

We've had sort of a week to digest the respective championship games. Now we're both sort of looking ahead to what we're going to expect Sunday. And I kind of want to start with when the Rams have the football. And obviously a big focus of this Rams offense throughout the season has been Todd Gurley. Now we're seeing some more CJ Anderson what do you expect to be the focal point of this Rams rushing attack on Sunday is it going to be more Gurley more Anderson is it up in the air is it an injury thing what can you tell us about that Rams running game I mean I think that's one of the funner matchups to talk about I'm glad you started there because as Rams fans and covering

the team we don't really know either I mean and that's what makes it so difficult is my, I'm trying to understand how Bill Belichick is getting ready for this game is I don't think anyone really knows what they're going to, what to expect. Uh, the Rams have gone almost the whole season in 11 personnel. I think they were up in like 94% of their plays came out of 11 personnel since week 15. Uh, they have gone down to a 12 personnel and they're running that 21% of their plays came out of 11 personnel. Since week 15, they have gone down to a 12 personnel, and they're running that 21% of the time. So they've definitely switched the way that they've attacked teams lately, obviously with the addition of C.J. Anderson and Todd Gurley not being the MVP candidate.

We knew him through the first 11 weeks. But, you know, I mean, that is definitely an interesting one that we've debated all week. Who's going to get the ball more? I assume Todd Gurley is going to get more than four carries and will be a big part of this game. But I do find that extremely interesting in the ground game because we do now have a dual threat running back situation before where it was kind of Malcolm Brown came in to give Todd Gurley a breather

and occasionally was able to produce something. Now it's actually a guy that can go back there, and the Rams have really switched their personnel group. I mean, 12 personnel, 20% of the time. That was unheard of almost the whole season. So that is going to be a matchup to watch. And I'm really curious to see how, you know, Bill Belichick gets ready. I mean, they got to get ready for everything.

So I'm sure there's, you know, defenses in for that. And they're going to try to plan for C.J. Anderson just as much as Todd Gurley. But Sean McVay has been given two weeks to kind of get creative, throw them in together, move them in and out of the huddle. So that is definitely a matchup that we're excited to watch coming into this game. You know, Brad, one of the interesting things is that, like you said, for basically the first 15 weeks of the season, this was, like you said, an 11-person L team that ran outside zone as a way to sort of set up

what they do in the passing game. They ran outside zone 280 times, got over 1,500 yards on that most of the NFL, 84 first downs, 16 to 14 touchdowns, just great numbers on that. Now they're more of an inside zone team. How do you think that's going to sort of perhaps change what they do in the passing game. Yeah. And, and, you know, CJ Anderson talked about it yesterday and, you know, he has embraced being what he calls the fat back, no longer the scat back. He is the fat back. And he talked about it, you know, I, you know, we're running inside because I'm tough to tackle, even as a professional athlete, you know, he falls forward and, you know, he can wear down a defense. So I think they're trying to take what's best of CJ and start to work it inside. And we saw, you know, them running out of shotgun, which is something they didn't do all season and

trying to take advantage of those linebackers, you know, fooling it with play action, because that's something Jared Goff does extremely well. In fact, he did it 72% in the regular season. Sorry, he did it 35% in the regular season. It was the most in the NFL. So I think they're trying to play off of that. But running up the middle, again, if me and you are talking about this, Bill Belichick is something that he is trying to game plan for that defense to try to shut down the middle. But the Rams' offensive line has been huge. And as of recent, I think they're going to lean on that.

But going back to your question and how's that going to affect Jared Goff, it just strengthens what we just talked about 35 on play action um you know even looking deeper into the numbers uh you know he's 72 in the postseason on second down a big play action down obviously if they start running on first down or even come out with a direct pass on first you start to think okay maybe they're going to start to mix in that run. So I think it's big for him to get the ground game up and running because, you know, one of the things as we talked about, he does best is play action. So if there's no run game, I think we saw the Bears shut that down. We saw the Eagles shut that down in our two losses and Jared Goff in that play action. It's tough to run a play action if you're not running the ball. I think Todd Gurley

had something like 10 or 12 carries against the Bears, and there was no run game. And so, in fact, there was no play action game. So where those linebackers set up for Jared Goff, we can get them to step up a couple steps and be able to go down the field to Brandon Cooks and Robert Woods. We saw a lot of that in the Saints game. If you go back and watch the film, they'd run up 15 yards,

come back three, and kind of sit down in a pocket in the middle of the field right over those linebackers and Jared Goff is really good at that throw getting it in there over the linebackers and in front of the safety so you know it starts with the ground game I think on both sides of the ball but Jared Goff being able to deliver those big throws down the field I think is going to be key as well let's go to Jared Goff because a lot of Patriots fans, they sort of look at this matchup between the third year quarterback, obviously with Sean McVay, you know, at the helm call on the plays against Bill Belichick. And there's a level of confidence in that.

Look, Bill Belichick is going to have some, you know, some designs to maybe confuse Goff for some mistake or two. What Rams fans want to see from Goff, say, early in this game that will give you guys sort of the confidence that, look, yeah, maybe it's Bill Belichick over there, but Goff's going to have some answers for him on this night? Yeah, I think it's decisive decision making in the back, quickly trying to figure out what I need to do here. You know, we've seen Jared Goff throughout the season take a couple silly fumbles where he was getting sacked and he tried to make something happen, so not doing too much.

The safe throw, even if he rolls out and just chucks out of bounds, I would love to see that under pressure instead of trying to force something in the Super Bowl. And then as we kind of said at the beginning of that, really just kind of that quick decision-making, using those outlets. I think that's why Higby and Everett and even Todd Gurley out of the backfield are going to be big for him in this game. If he gets pressure, we saw it at the end of that Saints game

to really put us in position to kick that field goal was really quick decisions, getting the ball out and getting just even if it's two or three yards, moving the football forward and being productive on first downs, I think is going to be key for him as well. So they're not in these third and longs. A lot of his mistakes have come in those third and long situation when he tries to do a little bit too much so I think if we just see him start out nice calm and comfortable doing a couple short passes to kind of get his flow and rhythm going but again we got here by throwing the football

down the field we've got Brandon Cooks who you guys know very well but can get down the field so we've got to be able to stretch the field. That opens up that play-action pass I talked about early on as far as in the middle of the field. So I really think it's just a confidence thing that we want to see out of Jared Goff, really confident throws and not coming out there looking rattled, use the run game to kind of help him out. But, you know, we talked about it throughout the week and even earlier with you. He's not a very emotional guy, so we don't expect him to think this moment is too big.

Obviously, he's going to be a little nervous and excited at the beginning. It's new to him. But, you know, when they've had multiple big wins or big plays, the most you're going to get from him is a big fist pump. And, you know, maybe he's going to even hug the interviewer after the game like he did with Chris Myers. But, you know, I'm expecting him to stay pretty level-headed in this game. Brad, what's the one thing that sort of worries Rams fans the most about facing this Patriots defense?

Man, I think it's just, it's not even this defense in a sense of just it's Patriots in the Super Bowl. You know, they're never out of it. You know, even if we get up and we saw the Atlanta game a few years ago, even if we get up big early, it's one of those teams that you just feel like they've been here so many times. I know we've talked about the experience and inexperience, but that's kind of the thing is they, you know, we're talking about how this won't be a big game.

And I think with the Patriots coming in, they've already established that years ago. They understand how to, you know, what this game is like. So for us, I think it's not getting behind early and allowing that defense who has you know really played great as of late and getting a lot of pressures on the quarterback and you know being able to get four guys you know and put pressure so I think it's really just you know not being scared and coming out and playing these guys like we would play them in you know week 10 or anything that. It's just more of the Patriots' aura of them in this game and what they can do. We're going to talk a little bit more about this matchup, focus on what the Patriots might

do when they have the football. But for more insight on Super Bowl 53, you need to be listening to Locked On NFL with the great Matt Williamson. He does a great job breaking down the NFL with some tremendous guests. Both Brad and I have been lucky enough to go on that show with Matt. So please check out Locked on NFL with Matt Williamson. All right, let me talk to the guys for a second because I know what you've been doing since the playoffs started. You've been waking up, getting yourself ready for work, going to work, eating, going home, sleeping, and all those moments in between, you've been doing everything

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And for my money, I've been telling anybody that will listen, family members, friends, strangers on the street, when the Patriots have the football, don't watch Brady. Watch the matchup between that Rams defensive line and this Patriots offensive line, because I think whoever wins that matchup wins this Super Bowl. Do you share that belief? Yeah, I definitely do. As I talked about, even on the other side of the ball, that ground game and what both offenses can do to get, you know,

their line, their O-line moving the pile and getting this thing moving in the right direction. And that really allows Tom Brady to have everything in the playbook, right? You know, if you guys can get the ground game and especially coming from our side of it, we're averaging 49 yards on the ground in the post season that that D

line has given up. It's something that they took personal coming into this post season. Everyone said, you know, the Rams defense is, you know, in big trouble in the playoffs and that's going to be their big weakness. I think they took that to heart,

and Dominick and Sue's playing out of his mind right now. So, yeah, I think that O-line who, you know, hasn't allowed, you know, many sacks to Brady, none in the postseason, I think only five sacks since, like, week 12 or something like that. So they have been lights out up front protecting Brady, and that's the one thing that's scary, because when Brady gets time, he's going to find find somebody julian edelman good luck guarding him for

more than five seconds down the field so uh yeah that is definitely a big thing coming into this week is the o-line versus the d-line the rams in the offseason lots of hype about going all in quote unquote all in you know giving aaron donald the massive bucks going and paying and domic and stew for one year at about 12 million dollars brockers is you know long time staple this defense so uh they've got their work cut out for them because i know that the patriots o-line has heard a lot about that in the past two weeks and they're sitting here going hey we're the new england patriots and we got tom brady behind us we got three running backs that can do some damage so i'm sure they're coming into this game so yeah i love I love that matchup. We've been talking about a lot on our show as well. And you know,

could be the deciding factor in this game. You know, Brad, speaking of scary, I put together a thread on Twitter on Monday with 19 videos of Aaron Donald from this season. And I didn't sleep a wink Monday night because the man is, as I described on this show and elsewhere, a pure destroyer of worlds. And even into the postseason, he doesn't have a sack in the postseason. I think one quarterback hit three hurries, but he's still impacting the game. And you mentioned it earlier, the interception sort of at the end of overtime, it was the protection getting shifted to him that allowed some one-on-one matchups on the opposite side. Can Aaron Donald, he's good enough to influence this game

even if he doesn't get a sack, right? Yeah, I think that's what's the exciting thing about Aaron Donald. And by the way, that thread was amazing. I felt like you made it for me. I was just like, oh, that was so nice of you. I was thinking of you when I put it together, Brad. I gave you some content. Yeah, it was awesome.

I retweeted that thing, and I was like, all Rams fans need to go check this out because it basically was a yearly highlight package for our man. And it's crazy because I obviously watched every single one of those games. I've watched tons of Aaron Donald film. But even as you watch it again, and you did a great job of getting those clips and highlighting him and showing the moves and everything like that. But, man, you just kind of catch yourself in awe.

I mean, the clips were maybe eight seconds long, and you'd find yourself watching them 100 times because you're just like, how does he – is he off sides? How does he get back there so fast? So love that thread, by the way. And Aaron Donald, that's, I think, his biggest attribute is not only what he can do personally. My favorite thing about him as well is in the fourth quarter

because he's one of those guys that if you watched his offseason training he's just a different beast he put up a picture yesterday flexing and he's got his eight pack and they asked him about it at media day and he's like hey man i've been a fat kid my whole life so once i got six packs i want to show the world about it so uh he is you know this just crazy human specimen and he's crazy fast and he's tiny he's tough to block i love everything about it but like you said even if he's not the one in the backfield uh being able to give fowler one-on-one matchups or if sue gets that opportunity of brockers it really opens up them to go make the play uh you totally mentioned it with that saints game uh fowler had a one-on-one he kind of drove

inside and spin back outside that ended up being right up the middle of the field uh breezeze is probably thinking, oh, my gosh, Aaron Donald, when's he coming? And all of a sudden it's someone else in his face. So definitely need everyone else to really step up in this game because, you know, I think Aaron Donald is one of the highest defensive MVP candidates as far as, you know, my bookie goes. But I don't think it's going to be him because I think they're going to say anybody but you beat us. And so we're going to need the rest of the line to really get in there. But that is the magic Aaron Donald. He doesn't even have to make the play to be effective on the play.

You know, Brad, you mentioned the Patriots and they have that stable of three running backs, James White, Rex Burkhead, Sonny Michel. They use them all interchangeably. You know, maybe there's a little bit of sort of, you know, tipping of the hand, so to speak, because they like to run more with Michelle, throw more with the other two. But in that potential matchup between those running backs, maybe against those linebackers in the pass game, who do you think has the advantage there? Yeah, you know, White out of the backfield as a pass catcher is going to be a tricky one for us, right? We're going to have to really keep an eye on.

Mark Barron is one that, you know, as Rams fans, people are kind of, you know, we're looking even into next year as you start to get into free agency and who are we going to move and how are we going to afford everybody and what's our next move? And people have kind of said, well, maybe we're ready to get rid of Mark Barron, but he's been playing lights out as well. He had an amazing game against the Saints in the run D, but yeah, they're going to have to go make tackles. And, you know, that's the biggest thing for James White coming out of the backfield. He's a mismatch for almost any linebacker, especially on our team. So you're going to have to make sure, one, you get there, multiple people get there,

and no two-yard pass that gets nine yards. I think that's something they're going to have to find a way to eliminate, whether that is, you know, going man-on-man when he comes in the game or even trying to shift over a little bit and and you know not bite into that run as much which is you know way easier said than done but that matchup is big littleton is gonna have to have a big game over the middle we talked about him on the show with matt williamson maybe even being a sneaky dark horse for an mvp if you're trying to get bang for your buck he's gonna rack up a bunch of tackles if he can make a play at the end of the game

uh you know that has an impact on the game i think that's why I kind of say that there. But yeah, the matchup versus the linebackers with White out of the backfield. And then he talked about Sonny Michel in the regular season. The Patriots ran 83% of the time when Sonny Michel was in the game. I don't know if they're going to be that nice to us in the Super Bowl to kind of play into that stat, but you got to really recognize who's back there. And then also in the Super Bowl to kind of play into that stat. But you've got to really recognize who's back there. And then also in the Super Bowl, you can't be kind of leaning all in on those tendencies. Obviously, you've got to go make a play. But, yeah, that whole three-headed monster back there for you guys with Burkhart really stepping up lately as well.

That run game, as we talked about, O-line versus D-line, it's all kind of coming back through that. But the matchup through the air is going to be something to watch with our linebackers can they step up and something that they've been criticized throughout the year about not getting on those guys coming out of the backfield this is the biggest game of the year so they're going to have to figure it out but i like the way that they're playing lately and i think that's kind of when you get to this point in the game you start looking at yearly stats and how they've done early in the year defending those type of things uh this is one game. Wade Phillips is going to understand that. So hopefully his whole motto is putting his players in the best position to succeed. So hopefully

he's lining them up correctly and having them understand who's in the game and how to defend that. Brad, speaking of the game through the air, let's look now maybe at these Patriots wide receivers going up against the secondary. You have the big additions with Aqib Tlaib and Marcus Peters preseason. It looks like this is going to be a great secondary. Maybe didn't pan out at least at the start of the season, but it seems like this group is playing a little bit better. How do you see that matchup playing out with that secondary against these receivers? And of course, the mind of Tom Brady. Yeah, I mean, the mind of Tom Brady is really the one you circle right there. You're going, what is going on up there? And how are you planning on attacking us? And again, get him

pressure so he has to make those decisions quickly. But yeah, it's crazy because, you know, Julian Edelman, I talked about this earlier, definitely scares me. But the real person that scares me is Julian Edelman in the fourth quarter. I mean, those guys just seem like they're like, hey, let's hang out and get some yards here and do what we do. But in the fourth quarter, we know it's going to be you and me, and then we'll throw Gronk in there. So I think that's what scares me most is those guys in the fourth quarter because there's something that clicks over the years that you can see.

They just turn it up and really get going. And you talked about those linebackers, not only white out of the backfield, but Julian Edelman over the middle. He is constantly running over the middle and making plays that way, so they have to be aware of him. Gronk's just a mismatched nightmare for anybody. I'm really curious to see how they're going to attack him and who they throw at him.

The Chargers were able to handle him. I think he only had one catch in that game but then when he went to the chiefs uh he kind of had one of his better seat and one of the better games in the last you know handful of games for him so uh it's gonna be kind of a match-up nightmare throughout um you know the game but one thing that we love as rams fans is talib being back we have really seen i think our passer rating has dropped about 40% since then and really gotten better in that direction. So, you know, Marcus Peters is going to have to play a big game and, you know, really have some impactful plays.

Nikkel Robey-Coleman coming off a big game, obviously the big no-call. But I think he's hyped up to prove something. John Johnson, our secondary, I think he's going to have to help come up and help on Gronkowski as well. So it's going to be a team effort back there, but I love the way that they're playing. Again, I can't say it enough. 299 total yards that they've given up in the postseason

compared to about 360 in the regular season. So this team has really tightened it up with Aqib Tlaib back kind of taking that ownership in the secondary. There's going to be some matchup nightmares, and you're not going to hold Julian Edelman to two catches it's just not going to happen you just have to you know if he gets eight or nine catches just hope that it's for 89 yards right nothing big no big plays no miscommunications as you saw with the Chiefs where they two guys went one way and and left Julian Edelman wide open on third down right up the middle so I think those type of things go into it as well. We're going to get into some predictions here in a moment that Rams fans and Patriots fans

are sure to want to hear. But for the fans of the other 30 teams in the league, the predictions that matter right now are those mock drafts you've been refreshing all week long, perhaps for the past couple of weeks. To learn more about these players that your team might be calling on draft night, you need to be listening to two of the great shows here in the Locked On Podcast Network. We've got Draft Dudes with Kyle Krebs, Joe Marino from the Draft Network, as well as Locked On NFL Draft with Trevor Sikama and John Ledyard,

also of the Draft Network. Those four do such great work. They just got back from Mobile, Alabama in the Senior Bowl. So you need to be listening to those shows so you know about the players that might help your team get to the next Super Bowl. All right, Pats Nation, now I'm excited to talk to you about our great partners over at Low-KI. You need a little extra swag for Super Bowl Sunday. Low-KI has got your back with their brand new game day collection. If you haven't heard about them before, well, you haven't been listening to the show, but now you have. This

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And Brad, it's now money time. It's time to put our money where our mouths are. And I will let you choose. Do you want to go first with your Super Bowl 53 prediction or do you want to put me on the spot first? I'm happy to go either way. I'll defer the choice to you. You know what? It's a youth versus experience in this game.

So I will let experience go first. Let me hear it. What do you got for me? Very well, very well. First of all, let me just say before we get in, before we say anything to the mic, not necessarily offend the other person, but look, obviously I think we know which teams we're each going to pick. It's been an honor doing these shows with you. We've done two great, great, great crossovers.

It's been a blast. I'm excited for this Super Bowl. I think it's going to be a great matchup. Two fantastic teams. As we've talked about in two shows, a tremendous amount of storylines and matchups and all the things that go into making for great Super Bowls. And I think we're in for another one. For me, I think we've talked about these matchups, the things that are going to matter. As I've said, I'm very curious to see that matchup up front between the Patriots offensive line, which has done such a great job over the past number of weeks, especially in the postseason, going up against the Chargers,

going up against the Chiefs. Brady sacked once, hit one other time. Just a tremendous job from those guys. But now you get Aaron Dottel, as I said, destroyer of worlds. And you're going to have to probably slide protection to him, which creates, like we've said, those one-on-one matchups.ups very excited to see that the chess game between Belichick and Flores and McVay that's going to be fascinating for me I think it's going to be a close game spoiler alert Patriots don't play a lot of blowout Super Bowls in the Brady Belichick era so it will be a one

score game and I can't get Brad out of my mind the idea of it coming sort of full circle again, another 20-17 game with the Patriots pulling out another squeaker. Yeah, and wow, how crazy that would be in 17 years, kind of come back and have something so close. It would make for some great stories. Yeah, exactly, exactly. All the sports writers would be loving that one. But I'm with you, man. First, to kind of break this open, it's been awesome talking to you over the last two weeks i'm excited for

you know even when we get into the off season and us can reconnect and talk about the super bowl again and talk about you know drafting at the end of the rounds in the first round and what we're going to do moving forward so i really want to say thanks for that and you know good luck in the game i i'm right i'm right there with you i think this is going to be a one score game i think it's going to be really close you talked about the patriots over the years in the super bowl always keeping really close games and the rams really haven't seen a big blowout on their side all year they've been able to fight back into it and keep things close so i think that's going to be the case i think we're going to see a little bit more offense in this game compared to your prediction, so I would crank it up a little bit.

But again, it comes down to being able to stop Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowski in the fourth quarter. We talked about that O-line versus the D-line. If we can shut down the run, which I think is something that's very important to the Rams right now, make Tom Brady basically become one-dimensional, at that point I think we can start to put some pressure on him, whether that's finally doing some blitzes, which you haven't seen a lot from

Wade this year, creating pressure from the four guys up front and getting to Tom Brady and hopefully creating a turnover or two. I think that's going to be a big part in this game as well, is can Jared Goff and that offense take care of the ball? And can the defense create a couple matchups and win that turnover battle? Could go a long way. So I see some points in this one. And I think that fourth quarter, you know, looking back at some of the Rams games and even some of the Super Bowls have passed, I think the fourth quarter, we're going to see, you know, 14 to 21 points in the fourth quarter.

I think it's really going to turn up in that last little bit as defenses start to kind of loosen up a little bit and offenses start going for it. So I've got it as a 32-28 Rams victory. I think, again, it's going to be close. I really hope, and this is kind of, I said this when we talked about facing Drew Brees, but I really hope that the Patriots come down. You know, maybe they put in a touchdown to get close, you know, and there's four minutes left. They've got some timeouts, so they kick the ball deep,

and it's Jared Goff in our offense that has a four-minute offense to go out there. There's no drama field goal to win this one. I think it's Jared Goff taking a knee after we get a first down to win the game. That would be my dream scenario. Don't even let Tom Brady touch the ball again. We gave Drew Brees a chance in overtime, and thankfully we're able to shake that one and move on. But I don't want to see that that again so i say 32 28 and just to kind of cap it off i don't know

if you saw this but uh the madden game has predicted uh the rams to win 30 to 27 uh they're they've gone 10 of 15 in their predictions they've in the last four years they've hit and missed and hit and missed last year they missed so on if you're looking at any of that this could be a uh a hit year for them for the prediction uh just want to throw that in there so you know kind of take a two out of three here i'm going to take madden on my team as well so there you go rams fans you've got either 32 28 with jared goff taking a knee and you guys can start celebrating a little bit early. Or 3027, thanks to Madden. Either way, cling to those predictions. Enjoy them for the rest of the week up until game time.

Pats fans, I'm sure you're all going to be clinging to 2017 from me. Either way, what we're all expecting, even Madden, a very close game that's going to be seemingly thrilling to the end. No matter what happens, Brad and I, we will be back on our respective shows sometime after this Super Bowl ends to break it down for you. One of us will be happy. One of us will be sad. Either way, we'll be doing that

because that's what we do here at the Locked On Podcast Network, your team every day. Our shows will be back tomorrow. Continue to break this all down for you. Until next time, keep listening, please to Brad over at Locked on Rams and me, Mark Schofield, at Locked on Patriots.