Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots January 31, 2018 - Nora Princiotti Live from Minneapolis

Episode Date: January 31, 2018

Boston Globe beat reporter Nora Princiotti does a tremendous job covering the Patriots. Mark Schofield chatted with her about covering her second-straight Super Bowl and expectations for Sunday.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello and welcome on into a special episode of Locked On Patriots, dropping the second show of the day for Wednesday, January 31st, 2018, because I got a great guest lined up live from Minneapolis, Nora Princiotti, beat reporter for the Boston Globe, covering the New England Patriots. She's been on the show before. A fantastic guest. One of my favorites. She's going to stop by, get a chance to talk to her about the Super Bowl, what it's like covering the Super Bowl, our expectations for Sunday on both sides of the football.

Just a great conversation. Definitely follow her on Twitter at Nora Princeotti. Also, reminder, check out LockedOnPatriots.com. Scheme stuff going up all the time this week. Got pieces up there right now about deciphering Doug Peterson, studying Jim Schwartz, what the Patriots can do in both the run and the pass game, including a two-part pass and preview. I'm going to do some stuff later in the week about what to expect when the Eagles have the football. Can Nick Foles go out and win this game? Also, reminder, this phone number, 240-670-6016.

Again, that's 240-670-6016. Leave a message. Text that number. Your thoughts, your expectations, anything you want, actually, for the Super Bowl or any other topic, because I'm putting together a special Saturday show all about the listeners to this great podcast, because you guys have been great to me this entire year. I came on the show right before the season started. Some of you people probably had no idea, Maybe still have no idea actually who I am.

But you guys have given me just an incredible welcome. Numbers this week for the podcast have been incredible. I'm just so overwhelmed with the support for the show, for the work. It means the world to me. So I'm giving you guys the mic. Again, drop messages, texts, whatever you want. Happy to get it into the show. Also, quick little spiel for a second here.

Today on Twitter, the hashtag Bell Let's Talk, all about mental health, mental health awareness. I've shared my story before on many shows. I've actually got a Twitter thread on it right now. You can check out on my Twitter timeline at Mark Schofield. I haven't been shy about talking about my own struggles and my own sort of inner demons years ago before I made the switch from a decade long or more career practice in law to walk away from it at the age of 38

because of what it was doing to me mentally to try to start over and write about football in an industry that I was wholly unprepared for and came in completely unaware of just how great this industry was in so many ways and how many great writers, how many men and women are just doing such a great job every single day covering this sport. But I bet on myself, and that's kind of my message to any of you that are listening to this show and that might be struggling with similar issues. Always bet on yourself. Brighter days are ahead.

My Twitter DMs are always open if you need somebody to talk to, if you're struggling in your own way. I'm always here to listen. I'm always here to try to help. If there's anything I can do in this second career, it's to help somebody else that's been in my shoes, that's been where I was.

Because so many people along my new path, so many people along my new journey gave me that hand, gave me that ear, gave me that shot that the least I can do is try to repay that debt. And so my DMs are always open. Please, please, please, please, please reach out if you're struggling in any way. Up ahead, my conversation with Nora Princiotti, live from Minneapolis. That's next with me, Mark Schofield, and Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you for a special Wednesday episode of the Locked on Patriots podcast. Lucky enough to be joined by one of my favorite guests. She's back here.

She's covering the Patriots for the Boston Globe, beat reporter for the Boston Globe. She's out at the Super Bowl. Nora Princiotti back to the show. Nora, how are you doing today? I'm doing well, Mark. Thanks for having me. It's not too cold here.

I know. I've been seeing the tweets where it's like two degrees out there and i just can't imagine although i've gotten soft being down here in dc it's maybe a little soft yeah well i got called out because i i tweeted a photo of just the weather app on my phone and it was something like two degrees and the wind chill was below zero but i tweeted it from inside the mall of america my colleague chris gasper was sitting next to me and quote tweeted it was like you are in a mall right now stop whining tough tough start to the week tough start to the week but you know it's a long week i'm sure you'll bounce back yeah yeah thanks for your support that's what i'm here for so nora your second straight super bowl

okay and now you've gotten to experience the the wonder for two years in a row that is media night or opening night, as I guess they're calling it. Just how crazy is that atmosphere? Because from the outside look at it, it just seems like it's just unworldly. It's so bizarre. It's so weird. It's like part of it is nice as a beat writer because you go from you know instead of being sort of the the people who come into the locker room for the most boring and like buttoned up 45 minutes of all of the players day you go to

from being that to being like the familiar faces and not the people who are asking them to like rank their celebrity man crushes and stuff like that. So it's pretty fun. Um, it's also nice because you get to talk to everybody, like the assistant coaches who are not normally available to us on a, on a regular basis. They're, you know, just sitting around and, and if you have the time and don't have to be sort of on Brady watch the whole time, you can go and, you know, really have some time to sit down with people, which is cool, particularly as it seems like, you know, guys like Chad O'Shea, Brian Flores are potential coordinators in waiting. Those guys, you know, just hanging out is a pretty cool experience you know you you mentioned brady and was the double gloved tom brady the strangest then you saw it open tonight this year did something sort of top that

um that's probably up there he's there's so many the's, there's so many, the thing is, there are so many strange things that happen at media night. There's like people walking around in shark costumes, but Brady, the glove thing is cracking me up because it's gotta be the best like branding for Under Armour in recent memory. Oh,

it's amazing. It's, I mean, it's just, it's interesting. I was on sports radio in Philadelphia last night. And one of the first questions I was asked was, why is's wearing the glove because his hand is still bothering him he came off the injury report last week that doesn't mean he can't go back on it but it does seem like there's a little bit of a sequence of events where the timeline doesn't

match up perfectly and it's kind of like it you know is it still an issue or is it not um because right now particularly as you know brady looked fine against the jaguars and that was just days after this happened we're sort of approaching this as it's a novelty thing it's funny he's wearing the glove he's wearing the glove indoors he's holding his hand underneath the podium and in front of where he's speaking so that nobody can take pictures of it nobody can see in front of where he's speaking so that nobody can take pictures of it and nobody can see it. But then he's also sometimes like kind of being cheeky and waving and giving a thumbs up or whatever. But, you know,

I'm kind of in the back of my head is like, do we need to sort of flip back into Tom Brady has an injury to his throwing hand mode if he says that this is still bugging him. So I'll be curious to see the practice report, certainly from that perspective. Another storyline that seems to be emerging, at least from my reading of the tweets and everything, is that the Patriots are sort of trying to perhaps undercut this notion that the Eagles are underdogs. Brady had some comments to that effect as well. And I wondered if that's just, you know, the usual Patriots sort of,ots sort of playing up their opponent that we see every week regardless of who it is or if there's more to it than that.

Is that something you're sensing as well? You know, I think it's been a fun thing for Philly. But I think that pretty much any professional athlete or any group of professional athletes can convince themselves that nobody believes in them so easily like they are so mentally they are so good at that like i remember doing i did a story on james harrison um after he got here and i remember having a long conversation with him and i was almost laughing a couple times during it which is kind of scary because i was like oh god what, what if James Harrison thinks I'm laughing at him? This could end me.

But we were just going back and forth because basically from my perspective, I was like, you're James Harrison. You're this great, famous football player. You have won all these awards and Super Bowl ring and yada, yada, yada. So accomplished. And like everything he says back to me is basically nobody believes in me. Nobody likes me. Nobody like nobody's, you know, everybody just wants a piece of me, but nobody actually ever believed that I could do this. And so like those, you know, for a lot of guys, and it's, you know, it's not just James still feels like his time in philly is is something that

he has to prove himself because of and and these athletes are so so so so so good at getting themselves fired up over that stuff but i think their mindset is very much like both teams feel like they're underdogs even though that's sort of ridiculous from the Patriots' perspective. Let's get to a couple of injury notes before we start breaking the game down on the field. Rob Gronkowski, Malcolm Butler, Dietrich Wise, injury concerns with them, but is the general expectation that those three guys are going to go on Sunday? Yes. Again, we'll get the first practice report of the week here today,

but with Gronk and Wise, the fact that they were out on the field before leaving means that they are, they had to either be in step four or five of the concussion protocol, um, just to be doing football activities. And that's a five step process. So, you know, by definition, pretty near the end and most concussions, two weeks is enough.

Although you never want to speculate about that because every single one is different and guys can react to plenty of, to plenty of things. Um, like bright lights and hanging out in a mall for a week, which is on the docket for those guys. But yes, I would say that signs are pointing to all three being available. Let's get to some of the on-the-field stuff now. You started with what the Patriots have of the football,

and you watched this Eagles team this year, one of the best-run defenses in the league by almost any metric. So looking ahead to Sunday, is this a game that you expect to be put on number 12 shoulders and we see another 55 or so pass and attempts from Tom Brady? Yes, maybe. Well, I don't know. You never know, right? Right. That that's the thing you never know with these guys like try to predict tom brady bill belichick josh it's like crazy right yeah it's well so but

i'll i'll answer that in a more legitimate way yeah i think that i think that they actually the the area of the defense where the patriots match up best is that I do think that Brady can take advantage of the Eagles cornerbacks so I do think that you you know you might see another big game for Brandon Cooks um and you know I think he can take advantage of the fact that their corners may leave a bit of a cushion. And so you might see, yeah, you might see a lot of Hogan, you might see another big game for Cooks. And then I also think that, you know, this could end up being kind of a high scoring game, I think, for a Super Bowl where you go in looking at least at one team as having a really good defense, I still think that you could end up seeing some pretty high point totals because the Patriots defense just isn't that great. And I do think Brady's going to be able to take advantage of those corners. And I think the Patriots are going to ask, you know, try to force Foles to execute sustained, you know,

eight, nine, ten play drives from being pinned back deep. So because I think that the Eagles have so many weapons that they're going to be able to score, but I just think that they're going to ask them to do it on a, on a sustained basis. So you could end up seeing, seeing some, some high point totals, I think. You mentioned the Eagles and how they sort of play that off coverage, give that pre-snap cushion, which is such a great point. Do you think this game might come down to whether, you know, Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby can tackle Hogan, can tackle Cooks on those quick throws and prevent them from getting yardage after the catcher? Whether, you know, Cooks and Hogan can break tackles in those situations? Well, yeah. I mean, it always comes, not to sound like Bill, but it always does come down

to tackling. And I think that'll be, that'll be really significant. And I do think it'll be interesting to see if, you know, the Eagles just continue to do what they do, or if maybe they do try to play particularly on Cooks a little bit more physically because he, I mean, you know, AJ Boy boye is is a better corner than anyone the eagles are putting out there i think and cooks was great on him when he had a little bit of space right i keep wanting to say last week but two weeks ago or almost two weeks ago at this point so you know do they try to play a little bit more physically with him because he has struggled with that at times this year i don't know i i'm i'm a big proponent of you shouldn't you know don't stop doing what got you here and i think we've seen teams trip up significantly against the

patriots because they try to you know reinvent the wheel but i do think that that's that's a pretty that's probably the best matchup in my eyes that that the patriots have so yeah i mean tackling's huge and and limiting all that yakety yak yeah i can't believe i just said that. But that'll be a big one. I wanted to mention here the recent piece you did on Danny Amendola, which I loved, suggested to all the listeners here that they should definitely check it out. Plus you get Mike Leach quotes, which are always amusing. But with respect to Amendola, do you think his recent success,

particularly in the last two games, is due to how he was used in part this season? They kind of slow played him at times maybe trying to keep him fresh for the postseason yeah well it's interesting because i do think that that was while that was very much the plan they had so many injuries at receiver that he actually ended up playing about double the snaps this year that he did last season but when you know when you're talking about an older receiver amadil is 32 now last season matters too you know like he in this later part of his patriots career he's developed this role where they keep him on a pitch count and then let him go do his thing in the bigger games.

And, yeah, I mean, I do think that it helps a lot. It helps a lot with wear and tear on the body. You know, he's a guy that's struggled with injuries, but he played 15 games this season, which is pretty good. And I don't think it's just this year. I think it's the cumulative effect of multiple seasons where, you know, he's occasionally coming close to, but he's, he's never getting a hundred targets. Like, like he did a couple of times in, in St. Louis and he has that time and, and they just slow down

the wear and tear process. And I think it's been really good for him. Let's sort of flip the field now, talk about expectations for when the Eagles have the football and Nora you mentioned that the defensive game plan is probably going to be make Nick Foles carry out those eight nine ten play drives and so can he do that can he go out and win this game oh the billion dollar question, right? I know. You know, I think he has that game in him, if that makes sense. You know, we saw that in the NFC Championship game. But he did score in that game. There were a couple, you know, short fields. Some of those drives where I don't have the exact numbers in front of me but

they weren't those long gotta march and all the way down the field drives and i do think that like i think field position is going to be huge in this game and i think you know you're going to like watch what belichick watch the decisions belichick makes there because i do think that a big part of the game plan is going to be giving Foles, you know, forcing him to work down a long field. It'll be interesting to see if they can get, you know, like if Jeffrey can get going and get some of those chunk plays because that goes such a long way if you know you're playing with a backup quarterback or if maybe it's not fair to call Fultz a backup quarterback because he's had sort of a unique unique career so far but if he can get 30 yards here and there those big plays that changes just the feel of those long drives so you know i think stefan gilmore is going to be

really important in this matchup because he's been very very very good recently obviously he had the huge play against the jaguars but after a rough start he's really shown that that his ceiling is is just so high he's so sticky he's so athletic so you know i'll be curious to see if he can really really be that shut down guy and deal with a bigger body trying to get those chunk plays because i think if if if they're not coming if the eagles you know have to get everything in inbs and drabs, I don't see Foles being able to keep pace with Brady in any situation. It also seems in terms of matchups that Eric Rowe in the slot against Nelson Aguilar is another big one that people are focusing on. Is that also the sense you're getting out there?

If so, how do you think that matchup plays out yeah you know it's funny because Adler's had a he's been kind of a a revelation in the slot at least relative to how he played before um but Rowe you know Rowe's been been good in this this later part of the season where he's been getting more playing time and has sort of cemented himself as the slot corner. That'll be an interesting one to watch because I think that's fairly evenly matched to me. I think whichever one of those guys is having a better day,

I don't see either one you know necessarily just 100 percent shutting the other shutting the other down or going off on the other um so yeah that'll be an interesting one to watch and agalor is like he's curious to me because he sort of it's almost like foals like there's just not there's not a lot of consistency so you kind of don't know what you're going to get at times in the AFC Championship game, Patriots struggle with some of those RPO plays. Obviously, that's part of what the Eagles do. How do you think the Patriots look to sort of contain those types of plays?

And do you think that the lessons they learned from the AFC Championship game, how they adjusted to those at halftime, will help them in the Super Bowl? Oof, yeah. I mean, that's the key right i they've had trouble at times with you know just dealing with it's not just the rpos either it's it's everything that they do it's the quick passes it's it's the things that you know are kind of it's not a crutch for foals that's mean that's not what i'm that's that's not the right way to put it. But just the things that take some pressure off of Foles

and give him some easy, quick plays. I sort of have a feeling that the Patriots are going to be prepared for this game because when it comes to that stuff, it's mental, right? It's understanding what you're dealing with. prepared for this game because when it comes to that stuff it's it's it's mental right it's it's understanding what you're dealing with and the patriots definitely you know they had their fair share of communication issues particularly earlier in the season but i do think that you know they're going to be forcing foals into he's going to have to go to his second or third read in a lot of situations. And I just ultimately don't think that, like, I just don't, I don't see a world in which

the Eagles win the Super Bowl and we come out of it going, you know, they couldn't handle the RPOs. They just weren't, you know, they weren't mentally the RPOs. They just weren't, you know, they, they weren't mentally in it enough. They weren't focused. They didn't, they didn't understand what was going on. The Patriots weren't prepared. Matt Patricia and Bill Belichick didn't, didn't figure out how to take that stuff away at least a little bit. And also I think I'm sort of rambling here,

but Patrick Chung is going to be really helpful when it comes to that because they can move him around. You know, he's so versatile that there's a lot of looks that the Eagles might try to get into that they can, you know, they can switch formations without having to sub personnel. So I just don't think that that's going to be the thing that does it. I just have a hard time envisioning that, that they won't be ready for it.'t think that that's going to be the thing that does it. I just have a hard time envisioning that, that they won't be ready for it. I think that makes sense. Nora, fantastic

stuff. We will get you out of here on this. And this is perhaps the biggest question of the week. Who was the guy using the woman's bathroom yesterday with the stall door open? Oh my God. Do you have an ad so we can track him down on Twitter and do our thing on Twitter? I just, I don't even, I don't really want to know is the thing. I think that's fair. Because I'll tell you. It was like I – for a split second, I'm going, oh my god. Am I in the men's bathroom?

Right. And I'm like, no. Also, close the door. But yeah, that was an unfortunate – unfortunate and this correct me if i'm wrong if this took place like maybe during the day early evening it's not like you know midnight or something right yeah oh my gosh no it was in the middle of the day super bowl week nothing like it she is nora princiotti beat reporter for the boston, please, please check out her work on the Boston Globe. She's crushing it out there for the second straight year.

Follow her on Twitter at Nora, N-O-R-A, Princiotti, P-R-I-N-C-I-O-T-T-I. Nora, thank you so much for the time. Enjoy the rest of Super Bowl week and the Super Bowl itself. Absolutely. So there you have it, everybody. Again, please follow Nora on Twitter at Nora Princiotti. She does fantastic work. Absolutely. 1016. That's the phone number for the week. Call, leave messages, text. I want to get as many listeners as I can onto a special Super Bowl Saturday edition of Locked On Patriots.

Tomorrow, we'll be back with a part two of the crossover show with the guys over at Locked On Eagles, Benjamin Solak, Michael Kist. We'll talk about our expectations when the Eagles have the football. Then on Friday, your Super Bowl game day edition of Locked on Patriots.

Again, going all out this week. Don't forget, hit me up on Twitter at Mark Schofield if you've got any thoughts. Hit those DMs again, as I said at the outset. If you've got some things you're struggling with, I'm here to help that way as well. Until next time, keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield, in Locked on Patriots.