Locked On Patriots - Daily Podcast On The New England Patriots - Locked On Patriots January 6, 2019 - Tailgate Edition

Episode Date: January 6, 2019

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Hey there everybody, welcome on in to a special Sunday morning tailgate installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. Mark Schofield back in the big chair for today, Sunday, January 6th, 2019. If you've been keeping track, I have yet to mess up the year, so still pretty excited about that. Also excited to be here, going to do a couple of different things today. One, we're going to sort of break down what we saw yesterday as wildcard weekend got kicked off. We had two games yesterday, the Colts at the Texans, the Seahawks at the Cowboys. And a little

bit later, we're going to sort of reset where we stand headed into today's game. Obviously now, as you probably are aware, the winner of this Ravens-Chargers game will make the trip to Gillette. Why? Because the Colts went into Houston and pulled off the upset. But before we get into all of that, a reminder to follow me on Twitter at Mark Schofield. 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 as i've said if there's an outlet that is covering the game of football chances are i'm doing some work

for them let's dive into it though let's start with the game that kicked it all off that game saturday i mean yep saturday afternoon colts at texans and the story of this game in all reality can be told in the first couple of drives. Listeners to this show, fans of my work, know that I'm a huge fan of drives. I feel that you can often tell the story of a game sometimes in just a single drive. But at least in this game, the opening couple of possessions of this game really told the story. Why? Because by the end of the first quarter, it was 14-0 Indianapolis.

And Houston was forced to become somewhat of a one-dimensional team in the passing game. And they're a one-dimensional team to begin with when it comes to the passing game. Remember, we sort of talked about how their passing offense sort of runs through deandre hopkins but it was evident from the get-go that the colts were here and they were ready to play why they go right down the field and they score on the opening possession of this game and what was interesting about this drive is, look, the Texans had a couple of chances to get off the field.

I mean, first third down of the game. It's a third and 12th. They get a chance to, they get a stop on second down. J.J. Watt gets a tackle for a loss on a run game play. Crowd's going nuts. You get a chance, you get off the field on third down. You force a three and out on the opening drive. This game might look completely, completely different.

But instead, Andrew Luck hits T.Y. Hilton. Maybe a little bit of a questionable call here because I thought when Hilton sort of worked back to make that catch, he brought himself back in front of the yard to gain line. But they spotted it. They gave him the first down. Then a little bit later, there's another third down on this drive. It's a third and seven.

Mack runs inside. He gets stopped, but J.J. Watt jumps the snap. So that gives him a third and two. You get a throw to T.Y. Hilton on a sort of a scramble drill situation. They, for whatever reason, rush just three. They drop eight. First down. Then a little bit later, you get a deep shot to T.Y. Hilton.

Sets you up for a first and goal. And then your drive is capped off by simple slant flat. Eric Ebron out of the slot. Flat route. Touchdown. So it's 7-0. Next possession for the Texans. What do you see?

3-0. It's their first possession of the game. They go a deep shot to Hopkins. Yankee concept. Stop me if you've heard that one before from the Houston Texans. What do you see? 3-0. It's their first possession of the game. They go a deep shot to Hopkins. Yankee concept. Stop me if you've heard that one before from the Houston Texans. Then a throw to the middle of the field for Kiki Couttie,

who had a pretty decent game. But then on third and five, what we saw is a check down to Lamar Mill out of the backfield. And I thought that this was kind of the story of the game. Colts ran a ton of cover two, Tampa two in this game,

trying to take away deep stuff. A lot of two-man dedicated safety help over the top that would get you some doubles on Hopkins and they had a good game against him. Watson checked the ball down a ton. And so you have a third and five on your opening drive. You check it down and go fourth and one.

You punt. What happens? Colts, they go right down the field again. And this is where they started to get that ground game going with Marlon Mack you had a run to the left edge for 25 run to right guard for eight you know that sort of gets it going and then pass to Rodgers for 16 and then Marlon Mack for two more runs when I get a first and goal at the eight gain of six gain of two now it's 14 nothing Houston's feeling a little bit Wanted to get a first and goal at the 8. Gain of 6. Gain of 2. Now it's 14-0. Houston's feeling a little bit of pressure.

They get a 10-play drive going, but they get 4th and 4th. The Indianapolis 45, and we see the first mistake from Deshaun Watson. 4th and 4. They kind of open up. They spread it out a bit, and he stares down the tight end, Ryan Griffin.

Slot defender jumps that route. The pick goes the other way. Team trades interception and punt. Then the Colts score again. So now it's 21-0. And Houston takes over with the 620 mark of the first quarter, of the first half, excuse me. And they get a chance to sort of at least make it a 21-7 game at the half.

And they're receiving the second half kickoff. And so this was a pivotal drive for them. What happens, they get fourth and one at the Indianapolis nine. They go empty again in sort of a fourth down, got to have it type situation. Watson has Hopkins on this play. It's another cover two, middle of the field. It's open.

He misses the throw, turnover on downs. I mean, I really think the game could be distilled down into those first two possessions for each team. You get two touchdowns from the Colts, a punt and an interception, a three and out and an interception from the Houston Texans. Houston, you know, they do get a touchdown in the second half, but it's a 16-play, 89-yard drive that started near the end of the third quarter and doesn't finish until the 10 57 mark of the fourth quarter so that took a lot of time and they only had one more possession it's another long lengthy drive lots of check downs and scrambles and watson runs that ends on a fourth and ten at the 24 and watson misses a throw to smith and so a fantastic job by the indian indian

apples calls i think of you know sort of dictating what they want to see from the Texans' offense. I think it's a bit of a frustrating game from the Texans and their offense. Not the kind of performance you might have expected from them, from Bill O'Brien and others. But hats off to the Colts. And if you thought that they were sort of the proverbial team that nobody wanted to play, that belief might have been dictated, might have been vindicated, excuse me, by what we saw Saturday afternoon down in Houston.

So now, Indianapolis, they go to Kansas City. They get the Chiefs. So it'll be interesting to watch that one. And look, if the Colts are that proverbial team that nobody wants to play, maybe they go into Kansas City and steal that one, setting up perhaps, perhaps an AFC championship game at Gillette Stadium. But obviously a lot of football left to be played, primarily that game tomorrow between

the Chargers and the Ravens. Up next, we'll talk about the NFC game last night, Dallas-Seattle. Sort of a slow start to that one that kind of picked up steam near the end of the first half going into the second half. Fascinating game that played out down there. More on that on this Sunday morning tailgate edition of Locked on Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now on this special Sunday morning tailgate installment of the Locked on Patriots podcast.

And let's talk about the night game. That saw the Seattle Seahawks going down into Dallas to take on the Dallas Cowboys. And, okay, so I'm 0-2. Let's just get that right out into the open. Whiffed on the first two picks. I apologize to my mom and dad because I think they rolled with me in their confidence playoff pool. And, oops.

This game literally might have turned on the fact that Sebastian Janikowski is about as in shape as I am and pulled his hamstring on a field goal try before halftime because he went down and it kind of changed what the Seahawks were able to do on offense. That's one thing you can point to. The other thing you can point to is Brian Schottenheimer needs to take that game plan and burn it, bury it, get rid of it, never let it see the light of day. Run, run, pass on third and long.

Run, run, pass on third and long. It was a bad game plan. And you saw what happened with Seattle in their offense when they put the ball into Russell Wilson's hands. They were a much better team. I thought the biggest play that game might have been the throw that he had to Doug Baldwin along the sideline on a third down and long.

Or maybe it was a fourth and six. Yeah, it was a fourth and six. They run sort of a smash divide concept where they have three receivers to the left. Outside receiver runs a hitch. Baldwin's in the middle. He runs the corner route. Inside receiver runs the post route. That's the divide part of it. Then divide smash, obviously that corner route with a hitch right on the outside. Throw, toe tap along the sideline. That was a huge, huge, huge play. Then they come back with a couple of different zone read keeps, get themselves in the end zone. But then, you know, Seattle couldn't really sort of take advantage of it. Cowboys respond. They get a short touchdown run from Ezekiel Elliott.

The big play on that drive was a throw from Dak Cooper, from Dak Prescott to Amari Cooper. Then they get sort of the three and out that they needed to put themselves in position to get the ball back. And Michael Dickinson, who's a fantastic punter, he kind of outkicks the coverage. Huge play at that point. So you're thinking they're going to get fantastic field position because they got you know austin has the big return so it sets them up for a drive that starts first and 10

of the seattle 38 get a big crossing route they went aggressive here that was a nice little difference between seattle and dallas lenehan goes aggressive on this play here we are in the start of the fourth quarter it's a 17 14 game14 game. You've got the lead. You've got the ball. They go aggressive. They go sort of a throwback concept to Cooper working right to left on a deep crosser. They complete that for a 27-yard game down to the 18, first and 10 at

the 11. Ezekiel up the middle for four yards down to the seven. But then Prescott makes a mistake. Throws a pass to Neil Brown. It's picked by K.J. Wright. Fantastic play by him. Seattle gets the ball back.

Now they get it. Down three. First and 10 on their 20. You get a pass on first down for six yards. You get a pass, but that gets called back due to Holden. Yet a pass to Doug Baldwin, that gets kind of nullified because of an unnecessary reference after the play that's enforced at the 15. So now it's a second and 22, another throw for 12, third and 20. They go

another short pass. They get behind the six because of these penalties. Then the Cowboys get the chance and they kind of put the game away. And the biggest play on this drive, a third and 14, it was a curious decision. They had it second and 14 at the Seattle 17 with 240 left, and they try to throw a pass, which was curious because Seattle just had one timeout left. You figure you run it, make them force that, take that final timeout, that and third and 14. Maybe you run it again and get it down to the two-minute warning. You kick the field goal in that situation. Maybe you get yourselves to 20 to 14.

Maybe you're playing for that. You know they have to get a touchdown because you've now made it a six-point game. So on third and 14, they go draw. Quarterback draw with Dak Prescott. He goes up the middle, gets it down to the 1 again of 16 on 3rd and 14. That was pretty much the game. Now Seattle does get into the end zone. They go for 2 because again, they don't have Sebastian Janikowski. So they cut it to 24-22. So look, if you took Seattle, hey. But then there's the onside kick at the end,

which arguably might have been the worst onside kick attempt ever. I understand that Michael Dickinson maybe isn't used to kicking off of a tee or with a holder. He tries this drop kick, pooch, punt type thing for an onside kick. He would have been better served just putting the ball on the ground and just kicking it at somebody. Kicking a low ground ball. Because that was basically a fair catch by Cole Beasley. It was like right to him, and that was it.

So an interesting sort of game that unfolded, very curious. Another storyline from that game, the Alan Hearns injury. I don't want to dwell on that too much, but that looked awful. He looked to be in a severe amount of pain. Put on the stretcher, tears streamed down his face. That was an awful, awful scene as well. But I think the main storyline from this game, A, hats off to Dallas for getting it done. But B, Seattle needs to rethink this offensive philosophy here because you look at a number of their drives,

a number of their play call-in sequences, and you see it. It's a 10-6 game at the half. You've got a chance as Seattle to take control of this game, to start the second half, go out there, get a drive going, get into the end zone, make this, you know, maybe you fail for two, whether it's a 12 or 14-10 game, because you're obviously without a kicker, but still, you've got a chance to sort of change the momentum in this game. What do you do? You come out to start the second half, opening possession for both teams, inside run, inside run, third and six, incompletion, punt.

I mean, they did that so many times in this game where they sort of went run, run, pass, punt. They had a drive at the end of the first quarter. Carson left tackle for four. Carson left tackle for no gain. Pass on third and six, sacked, punt. This run-run pass doesn't quite work. And if you follow football stuff on Twitter, you probably know there is a large contingent of people, primarily in sort of the analytical realm, that believe that running backs don't matter and running the football doesn't matter. And it's probably not a surprise that a big bulk of them are Seahawks fans because they see this and they just, I can understand it after watching this game why they believe vehemently that running isn't as important

as old school NFL coaches make it out to be. So up next, we're going to sort of reset the table for today. Huge game, obviously, for Patriots fans. Because look, the winner of this Chargers-Ravens game, they're coming to Gillette Stadium next week. So we're going to have to keep our eyes on that one a little bit later. We got Eagles at Bears. Some fascinating football to play out today. So we're going to just sort of reset the stage up next

on this Sunday morning tailgate installment of Locked On Patriots. Mark Schofield back with you now to close out this Sunday morning tailgate installment of the Locked On Patriots podcast. And ever so briefly, we're just going to sort of reset what is at stake here as we get

ready for these games today. And sort of teased at the end of last segment, look, this Chargers-Ravens game, it's going to determine who's coming to Gillette. So obviously this is a massive, massive game. We know that the other AFC game is set that is going to be Colts at Chiefs. And judging by how the Colts played yesterday, look, you could say that Colts could go in there and steal this one.

It's going to be curious to see how the Chiefs come out because we've seen this from the Kansas City Chiefs before. They have a fantastic season. They have their first playoff game, and they just sort of fall flat. We kind of saw it last year where they had a fantastic season. They host the Titans in the first round, and they sort of don't live up to expectations. This is a different year. This is a different quarterback. This seems to be a different team. So that probably doesn't happen, but it's not

outside the realm of possibility. So AFC is kind of a little clear right now. We know that, look, Indy at Kansas City next Saturday, 435. Now, on the NFC, it's a little bit sort of unsettled. You know, next Saturday night, the Rams are going to be hosting the highest seed remaining. Now, right now, that is the Dallas Cowboys. They're the four. They just knocked out Seattle. But obviously, it's this afternoon's game, Philly the six at Chicago the three.

If Chicago wins that, well, then you're seeing Chicago at LA next Saturday night, and then Dallas goes to New Orleans next Sunday afternoon at 440, and that's a rematch of a game that Dallas won a couple of weeks ago, and so that's sort of how things reset right now. I want to remind everybody what I'm going to sort of be watching in this Ravens-Chargers game. Main thing is that scrape exchange stuff. Can they sort of stop Lamar Jackson from getting going in the run game? If they slow that run game down, Gus Edwards, Lamar Jackson, that north-south read option zone read type stuff,

they can turn the Ravens into a sort of a one-dimensional team. Now on the flip side, the pressure. Will the Ravens be able to sort of get the kind of pressure on Phillip Rivers that actually has an impact on him as a passer? He's been so good this year against the Blitz, against pressure, QB1 or QB2 against pressure this year, at least in terms of quarterback rating. So that's what I'm going to be watching there. I'm going to be watching those two things. Basically, how the quarterbacks handle what they do best or how the defenses attack what these quarterbacks do best. With Jackson, it's sort of his ability as an athlete, as a runner. With Rivers, it's ability against pressure.

Then in that afternoon game between the Eagles and the Bears, the first thing I want to watch is I want to see how the Bears play in the first, say, 10 minutes of this game, maybe the first couple of possessions in the first quarter. This has the makings of potentially a game like we saw last year when the Rams look to have that great season going, but they have a home game in the first round against a team with some playoff and Super Bowl experience in the Atlanta Falcons, and they don't seem to be ready for the moment. I want to see if the Bears are ready for this moment, because if they are, I think the Bears can do what they need to do to win this game. They can pressure Foles.

They can force him to make some mistakes. They can get a couple of short fields for Mitchell Trubisky. If they seem a little bit tight, if they seem a little bit unready, uncertain of themselves and uncertain of the moment, a playoff-tested team, a veteran team like the Eagles could pull off this game. And there's something that I've pointed out before about Matt Nagy, the first-year head coach for the Chicago Bears. If you look at his play call sheet, if you look at the call sheet he has

with all of their offensive stuff on it, in the bottom right corner of one of the sides, there's a two-word phrase, be you. And that's going to be his message to the team before this game. Be yourselves. Be the players that got us to this point. But it also has to be on Matt Nagy himself to stay aggressive. Don't be conservative. He's been very good this year about sort of staying aggressive, keeping that gas pedal to the floor. They'll get away from the run game at times because this is who they are as a team.

I want to see how they handle the first couple of minutes of this game because if they seem to be the aggressive team that we've seen from all year long on both sides of the football, they should pull out this game. But if not, watch out. That will do it for today. I will be back later tonight sort of breaking down what we saw and giving sort of a sneak peek at this division run game. Whomever will be coming to Juliet. Set the stage for the rest of this week. That will be the show for sort of a sneak peek at this division-around game. Whomever will be coming to Gillette.

Set the stage for the rest of this week. That will be the show for sort of Sunday night into Monday. Tuesday, we're going to have two taped Tuesday shows this week. On Tuesday, we are going to look at the offense. Whomever is coming to Gillette. On Wednesday, we're going to look at the defense. Thursday, we'll take Thursday. Friday will be a game-day edition, getting you ready for the New England Patriots

in the divisional round. That is the week ahead. But until then, enjoy the games today everybody and keep it locked right here to me, Mark Schofield and Locked on Patriots. Thank you. Thanks for watching!